Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It took a week to notice the chimney smoke.

Not that Molly realized it at the time; one day, she thought her family was alone in their stretch of countryside, and the next, the woman was outside checking the garden for hibernating gnomes when she noticed a faint plume rising over the bare trees.

“Did you realize we have new neighbors?” She asked her husband that evening, just the two of them in the kitchen cleaning up after dinner.

Arthur blinked, pausing with a handful of dried plates in hand. “No?”

“I hadn’t either,” Molly fretted. “Not until today, at least. I feel dreadfully rude, not popping down right away with a pie at the very least-”

“We’ve got six children in the house, love,” her husband reminded gently, and oh, didn’t that number sound so odd with Bill off at his first year in Hogwarts, “I daresay you’re allowed a little leeway.”

“Still.”

“Well, how about you pay them a visit tomorrow, then? I’ll be home, I can manage whoever you don’t want to take with you. Introduce yourself and ask what sort of treat they’d like best, hm?”

She took the opportunity to kiss him, before they returned to putting away clean dishes.

Mid-morning the very next day, Molly filled a small basket with jam preserves, and left off with Ginny bundled in a sling and Percy trotting at her side, Arthur handling little Ron and the twins with Charlie’s help at home.

A small and very new looking cottage occupied a small plot of land down the way, across from where their lane intersected the path leading up to the Lovegood home. So new, in fact, that Molly spotted a rather tattered tent set up behind it, clearly being used as habitation during the construction process. Still, when she and Percy reached the property line, they headed up to the front door to knock, rather than going around back. A tingle of warmth spread across Molly’s skin as they got close - clearly the builder’s efforts had first gone into a powerful set of wards, rather than physical walls.

Considering the magical community hadn’t yet reached a full six months since the War’s end, she could hardly blame them.

“Alright, sweetheart,” the woman said when they reached the door, unpainted but very sturdy in its frame. “Would you like to knock for us?” Percy nodded, his whole face screwed up with determination as he lifted a little fist. Tap, tap.

The wards flickered. Inside the cottage, something heavy went thump-crash, and Molly barely held back a wince.

It took a few moments, but soon enough the door opened, revealing a young man wearing heavily plaster-spattered clothes and a battered pair of glasses. He blinked at them, eyebrows rising high enough to be hidden by his truly unruly mess of hair. “Um- hello?”

“Good morning! I’m Molly Weasley, from the house up the hill - this is my son, Percy.” She offered a bright smile, and held out the basket of preserves. “I’m sorry we didn’t pop round to say hello sooner, but I only just noticed you’d moved in yesterday!”

“Oh. No, that- that’s fine, we haven’t been here very long,” the young man said, awkwardly accepting the basket and just... staring at it in his hand. After a pause, he cleared his throat, looking back up to meet her expectant gaze. “I’m- Jorey. Jorey Hatter. Would you like to come in?”

A small pair of eyes peered around Jorey’s knees, and Molly let her smile soften. “We’d love to. Is there anything I could help with?”

In very little time at all, Molly managed to learn quite a bit about the Hatter family. Jorey, only twenty years old, was new to the area, and hoping to establish a decent home life for his ‘band of misfits’, as he called them. Delphi, age four and quite shy, refused to ever let go of his trousers. A distant cousin, with Death Eater parents in Azkaban and no one else willing to take her in, poor dear. Teddy, a year younger and a Metamorphmagus of all things, was Jorey’s godson. Already an orphan, sadly, one who’d recently lost the grandmother looking after him as well. And then Junior, barely eighteen months old, who looked so much like Jorey that Molly thought he was the man’s actual offspring before he said ‘nephew’.

“None of them are mine by blood,” he told her, something very hurt and haunted in his green eyes. “But I’m all they’ve got now. And I need to do right by them, no matter what.”

Her heart swelled. If Molly hadn’t only just met the man, she would have pulled him into a hug then and there.

She did let loose a few tuts, however, when he gave her the brief tour of a home still very much in the process of being properly outfitted. A bare-bones kitchen and larder, three small bedrooms hardly worth the title, a den furnished only with a pile of blankets and pillows heaped before the fireplace, and what would become the loo once Jorey figured out how to set up his indoor plumbing. Thankfully they had an enchanted outhouse to use in the meantime, along with the much better equipped traveling tent set up in the future garden.

By the end of their looking around, Percy’s eyes had grown rather wide, and he tugged on Molly’s hand until she bent down and he asked in a too-loud whisper if they could help the Hatters get their house in order.

Jorey looked entirely too hopeful when Molly turned back to him.

They wound up returning the next day, and with reinforcements: a river of redheads flowing down the lane and through Jorey’s impressive wards to fill his decidedly less-impressive cottage.

Arthur cheerfully started with the plumbing, Ginny’s sling situated on his chest for the time being. Molly set about establishing a much better kitchen, Ron and Junior placed within a playpen under her supervision. Charlie eagerly accepted the task of scouting the small property’s boundary and taking note of anything in need of repair, Fred and George and Teddy gleefully romping through the snow in his wake. And Percy seized the position of ‘assisting’ Jorey as he set up proper furniture in the bedrooms, along with minding the still-quiet Delphi. Not that she needed much minding, compared to the younger children, but it made the lad feel important nonetheless.

He’d apparently appreciated Delphi’s deferment to his seniority the day before so much that the boy brought along his pet rat to show off - something Molly didn’t realize until well after their arrival, when Jorey slipped into the kitchen rather grim-faced, Scabbers in hand.

“Mrs. Weasley,” because he’d yet to accept her insistence on ‘just Molly’, “I don’t want to alarm you, but this is an Animagus.”

...oh dear.

His fireplace had yet to be connected to the Floo Network, so they ended up shifting Ginny from one parent to the other, and then Arthur Disapparated off to the Ministry with a Stunned rat in hand. Jorey remained quite adamant he didn’t want Delphi upset by Aurors arriving to interview anyone, so shortly afterward, Molly gathered up all her children and set off for home.

Well. All but Ron - he seemed quite delighted with a playmate practically his own size, and put up a mighty fuss over being removed from Junior, so Jorey promised it was no trouble to mind the toddler for a while longer.

It proved to be a smart decision, as Molly was able to turn the twins loose with Charlie again at the Burrow, and put Ginny down in her crib before focusing solely on the tearful Percy when two Aurors came to talk to him about his former pet. They ended up checking the entire house over from top to bottom, a process that left Molly at her wit’s end by its conclusion. She huffed a farewell to the pair when they left, comforted Percy a touch more, and eventually began fixing dinner just to work off some of the bubbling anxiety.

Arthur came home in the early evening, clearly worn out. “They’ve given me the week off,” he informed his wife in a quiet tone, away from the children. “Not sure if that’s a good sign or not.”

Because it wasn’t just some random Animagus who’d chosen to hide in their home.

No, Scabbers was in fact Peter Pettigrew, and quite a few people were loudly asking questions about his unregistered status, and why he’d been in hiding, and most especially why he wasn’t dead. Arthur recounted being questioned by Aurors and Ministry officials and Albus Dumbledore himself before finally receiving permission to return to his family, and their one spot of good fortune was that none of those same people felt the need to go pester the Hatters.

Once her husband and present children were all tucked into bed, Molly hurried back down to the in-progress cottage to fetch her final son, and did give a startled Jorey the hug she’d been wanting to for two days. He stiffened, at first, before melting into the embrace as she sniffled against his shoulder.

PETER PETTIGREW ALIVE, the Daily Prophet screamed the next morning, along with ILLEGAL RAT ANIMAGUS and SIRIUS BLACK FRAMED? Thankfully the Weasley name was left out of things, or else Molly might have fretted even further.

Still. By lunchtime, she left the boys under Arthur’s supervision, visiting the Hatters again with Ginny tucked in the crook of one arm and a freshly baked treacle tart in the other.

A week later, Sirius Black was released from Azkaban.

And a day after that, the Prophet began screeching over his discovery of Harry Potter’s disappearance.

Delivered to his muggle relatives, people exclaimed, and handed off to the first wizard to show up at their door! A disgrace, an outrage, and of course speculation ran rampant. Black only made a single statement to the press, begging anyone with information that might lead to his godson’s retrieval to come forward, before vanishing into parts unknown with a friend from his school days. A handful of pictures cycled through with the headlines, including one of the last photos taken of James Potter and Lily Evans before they went into hiding during the War.

Molly stared at that particular newspaper for an awful long time, the morning it came. And each morning afterward, until the weekend arrived once more, and she was able to let Arthur manage the household for an hour.

Down the lane, the Hatter Cottage had come an awful long way since her first visit. A proper picket fence lined their front boundary, a low stone wall encircling the rest. The tent no longer occupied the back garden, a clearly marked path led up from the lane, and even their front door had received a coat of bright blue paint.

Molly knocked upon that door, despite the standing invitation she’d been given to come in any time, and held up the paper as soon as Jorey answered.

His green eyes promptly slid shut in an expression of pain. Without that difference, his resemblance to James Potter looked even more uncanny. “Did you Charm your hair?” Molly couldn’t help but ask, because it was a mess, yes, but a dark reddish-brown one rather than pure black.

“Muggle dye,” Jorey answered. “...do you want to come in?”

“I think I’d better.”

Junior was in fact Harry Potter, as Molly suspected.

And so was Jorey, which she hadn’t.

“But I thought-”

“Yeah. I know ‘James secretly survived’ sounds a lot more likely than ‘a grown-up Harry came back in time’, but that’s the truth.” Even with his hair color changed, Jorey’s green eyes still matched little Harry’s perfectly - eyes inherited from Lily Evans, apparently. “I thought I could come back far enough to save them. Didn’t quite make it.”

“...I’m so sorry, Harry.”

His lips twitched into a wry smile. “Might as well keep calling me Jorey; I’ve started to get used to it.”

“Jorey, then. I’m still sorry.”

“Thank you,” he said quietly. “I- I don’t know what’s going to happen, with Sirius out of prison. I’d like him to be involved in little Harry’s life, but if Dumbledore finds us, there’s going to be a row about him going back to our muggle relatives.”

Molly frowned at that. “Even with his godfather a free man again?”

“Yeah. There’s a protective enchantment our mum managed to cast, some kind of blood magic, but it only works as long as he lives with a relation on her side of the family. I figure I count. But the fewer people who know how, the better.”

Slowly, she nodded. “And that means, not letting many people know about you at all, doesn’t it?”

He returned the nod, gaze going distant as he looked at his younger self playing with Teddy and Delphi in front of the fireplace. “It was- a risk, coming here. Buying this place, when I found the advert. But I thought- if I- I couldn’t save his parents, so... I’d at least give him longer with Ron, and all of you.”

Oh.

Molly hadn’t even considered that.

At her astonished glance, Jorey’s expression turned bittersweet. “We first met outside Platform Nine and Three Quarters, ages ago. I was alone; didn’t have a clue how to get through- must have looked a right pitiful sight. And you- you didn’t hesitate, when I heard you mention Hogwarts and came over. Told me exactly how to cross the barrier, made me watch Percy and the twins go first so I’d be less nervous. I slipped away, on the other side, figuring that was that - but Ron told me, years later, you stuffed an extra pair of sandwiches into his pocket and sent him off to sit with me, so I wouldn’t be alone my first time.” A pair of tears slipped free from his eyes. “We stayed best mates for years. Had some up and downs, ‘course, but I always trusted Ron. And when it- when it came down to it, he watched my back. All- all the way ‘til- until-”

Molly sniffed, unsurprised to find herself crying. When Jorey’s face wobbled, she reached over and hauled him into a hug, tucking the younger man’s face against her shoulder just as the first sob tore through him.

Mister Black,

Your godson is perfectly alright. Better, actually, than he was even two months ago, thanks to a young man who saw how poorly things were going in the Dursley household and intervened. It’s also entirely due to this man that my son’s pet rat was outed as an Animagus, which led to Peter Pettigrew’s arrest and your own release from Azkaban.

He’s expressed to me a reluctance over reaching out to you himself, in fear of how closely Professor Dumbledore is monitoring your recovery. From what he told me only recently, it’s entirely likely the headmaster would insist on your godson returning to his aunt’s keeping, regardless of you or anyone else being willing to take him instead.

The reason for this is due to a last act of protection on Lily Potter’s part, a spell that only works as long as Harry lives with a blood relation of hers. As far as we know, there are three people who fit that bill: Mrs. Dursley, her infant son, and my neighbor, who is currently looking after him along with two other small children he’s adopted.

Any more than that, I don’t dare put in writing.

Please, consider this an open invitation to you to visit the Burrow any time, and we’ll arrange an introduction for you.

Best wishes,

Molly Weasley

P.S. My neighbor insisted I include in this letter the phrase ‘I solemnly swear I am up to no good’. He said you would recognize it, even if I don’t.

Chapter Text

Not three hours after Molly sent her brief letter to Sirius Black, the fireplace flared green.

Fully anticipating it, the woman set aside her knitting and tapped her wand, granting permission for the Floo Call to come through. A head promptly emerged from the burning logs, and even partially distorted by the movement of the flames, one could easily see the pinched expression, politeness only barely holding back emotion.

“Mrs. Weasley?” The stranger asked.

“Call me Molly, please,” she answered, coming forward to kneel in front of the hearth. “You must be Mister Black’s friend?”

“Remus Lupin, yes,” her caller said. “Sirius and I received your note- Harry’s really alright?”

“Perfectly fine, I’ve seen him four days this week.” She would have gone on, with reassurances that the baby was clean and well fed and being doted upon by his new elder siblings, but the flames rippled with a disturbance. Lupin grumbled something under his breath, then yelped, his head pulled out of view. Another replaced it, one which didn’t bear any sign of politeness.

“Where is he?” Black demanded, leaning far enough forward his neck and shoulders were fully visible. “Who took him? What did bloody Tuney do?”

“Mister Black,” Molly tutted, adopting an expression she only used to quiet multiple screaming boys who knew better than to race indoors half-covered in mud.

Whether it did any good or not, she couldn’t say, because another exchange took place within the fireplace. “I’m so sorry,” Lupin apologized, once he’d forced his way back in. “Sirius has never possessed much patience, and these last few months- please don’t take offense, Mrs. Weasley-”

“Molly,” she reminded him, “And I understand, don’t worry. Why don’t you both step on through, and I’ll take you down to see Harry?”

It took a few more moments of pushing and shoving on the other end, but then both young men emerged from the Floo, one hissing admonishments and the other growling over not waiting another damn minute, Moony!

Molly felt quite grateful again that she’d sent all the children out with Arthur to check how their orchard trees were doing with the frost. “Warming Charms,” she firmly stated, pulling on her own coat and picking up a cloth-covered casserole - which promptly went into Black’s hands. He sputtered, nearly fumbling it, and blinked in bafflement. “You’ll make a much better first impression with food,” Molly told him.

Lupin very obviously bit back a laugh. At least until presented with his own item to carry, a basket of freshly baked bread.

Molly led the way out of her house and down the road, waving to her husband when he briefly appeared through the trees. Arthur waved back, then vanished with a shout, and the peals of several children laughing rang out through the winter air.

“How many are you up to? If you don’t mind me asking,” Lupin quickly added, long stride bringing him even with her.

“Seven,” Molly answered proudly. “Ginny’s my youngest, born last August.”

“Congratulations,” he smiled. “I think it was- three? With another on the way, last I’d heard.”

She stayed silent for a moment. “From my brothers?”

“...yes.”

A nod. “I was still pregnant with the twins when Fabian and Gideon died. They brought us up to five.”

“They were good blokes,” Black muttered, still a few steps behind her and Remus. “Fab and Gid.”

Molly swallowed past a lump in her throat. “That they were. Despite the pranks. I rather think something of them must have been passed along to my boys - Fred and George smile just the same way when I catch them at something they know they shouldn’t be doing.”

The conversation faded, until they reached the bottom of the hill, and Molly led both men through the gate of the Hatter property. She caught the way Lupin and Black each stiffened when they crossed the additional boundary of Jorey’s wards, how their gazes both snapped up to the door.

Humming lightly, Molly paused to knock, then turned the handle and stepped inside. “Jorey? I’ve got that company we discussed.” A quick clatter from the kitchen, and then the time traveler himself appeared, an anxious expression on his face.

Molly realized too late that she’d neglected to warn about the strong resemblance.

Behind her, there came a startled gasp, and a low keen of distress. Jorey visibly winced. “I’m not him,” he said quickly. “I’m not James. Sorry.”

“Bloody hell,” Black wheezed. Molly turned to look, and nearly winced herself at the ashen pallor he’d gained. Lupin hardly looked any better, both men pressed against each other as they stared. “Who- who are you?”

“Call me Jorey. Jorey Hatter.” Green eyes flickered towards Molly, and he took a moment to clear his throat. “Harry’s taking a nap, in the back bedroom. He’s fine, I promise.” The fabric of Jorey’s trouser leg shifted, pulled tighter by something out of view, and then little Delphi cautiously leaned around him to peer at the newcomers. “Uh. Tea?”

“Tea,” Molly agreed firmly. She took hold of the arm Lupin wasn’t using to hold onto his friend, and steered the pair towards the new-used settee in front of the den’s fireplace. “Why don’t you fetch both your little lads, Jorey, and I’ll handle tea and biscuits for all of us?”

“Right.” He didn’t waste any time in disappearing down the short hallway leading to the bedrooms, Delphi in tow, and Molly bustled her way into the kitchen after taking the bread and casserole from unresistant hands. Her wand set to work right away, whisking out the kettle, cups, plates, and a tray to put them all on. As the water heated, a new addition above the sink caught her eye: a child’s scribble drawing, of one tall figure with three smaller ones, positioned beside a lopsided square and triangle that rather looked like the newly painted Hatter cottage. No clouds or sun, but the background featured a tall green hill with eight red ovals of various sizes, and down in the corner were the very wobbly initials D.H.

Molly beamed, adding a few extra of Delphi’s favored biscuits to the tea tray.

By the time she returned to the den, Jorey was back, with all three of his misfits. Delphi and Teddy both held onto his trousers - Harry had already been passed over to his godfather, giggling as Black peppered quick kisses all over the baby’s head. His expression was pure relief; Lupin on the other hand, looked perplexed, glancing back and forth between little Harry and Jorey even as Molly walked up.

“They do look alike,” she couldn’t help but say, drawing those amber eyes in her direction. “And it’s quite the story why. Jorey, can I do anything else while you tell it?” She lifted her eyebrows a bit, head tipped downwards.

“Yeah, um- could you take Del and Ted up to the Burrow, maybe?” Delphi promptly wrapped both arms around Jorey’s knee, making him smile softly and rest a hand on her wild curls. “Just for an hour or so.”

Molly hummed, slanting a sideways glance at the two seated men. “Only if you’re quite sure nothing will be broken by the time we come back.”

“‘Course not,” Black agreed, still busy reacquainting himself with his godson. “We can fix anything that breaks, can’t we Prongslet?”

The baby giggled. Jorey gave a full-body twitch, and Lupin frowned, but they both offered assurances to Molly as well. Accepting their promises, she reached down to sweep both small children up onto her hips. “Alright then, loves, let’s give this bunch their chance to chat. Want to go join my lot in our orchard? I reckon they must be making snowmen by now!”

“Sow’m!” Teddy cheered. Delphi kept on staring at her guardian, though, until Jorey made a particular flutter with his fingers, and she relaxed in Molly’s hold.

It ended up being closer to two hours, by the time a beautiful snowy owl patronus came and found Molly in the Burrow’s kitchen. “Should I bother with fixing dinner down here,” it asked in Jorey’s voice, “Or are we all dining at the Weasley Hilltop Tavern tonight?”

“Cheeky devil,” Molly muttered, grinning in spite of herself. Jorey possessed quite the sarcastic streak, when one prodded him enough for it to wake. She didn’t send a return message, but rather, opened the back door and stuck her wand outside, casting a burst of bright red and orange sparks up into the sky. They’d used that signal twice before, summoning the Hatters to join the Weasleys for dinner in the past week.

Sure enough, not ten minutes later there came a knock at the door, followed by Jorey’s voice inside. “Molly?”

“Come along now, don’t stand in the cold on our doorstep,” she called, sending several hovering platters to the dining table. “How did it go?”

“I don’t think we’re finished,” Jorey admitted, sidling into view and skirting the table to join her at the sink. “But it was either find a place to pause or carry on straight through the night.”

Considering he’d yet to tell even her the full story of his old life and how he’d come to be living nearly twenty years back in time, that sounded better than Molly’d hoped for. “And how are they taking it?”

Jorey sighed, glancing at the open doorway back towards the living room. “Well, Sirius has only slipped up twice and called me James, but Remus stopped talking almost a full hour ago. We only got him to take his head out of his hands for the walk up here.”

“Hm.”

“...they believe me, at least. I figured it would take this long just to convince them I’m not barmy, so. That’s something. Right?”

“Of course it is,” Molly said firmly. “Now here, I finally got Arthur to put together two extra high seats for your lads so we don’t need to transfigure some every time; you set these up at the table, then get our guests to wash up and sit down. I’ve got to go ‘round up the miscreants having a snowball fight in my orchard!”

“Yes ma’am.” Jorey’s grin flickered at her as Molly moved past, and she absently patted him on the shoulder. The thin feel of his shirt put her in mind of Fabian and Gideon’s old wardrobes, the belongings she’d saved after they died. Quite a bit waited in trunks upstairs for when her sons got old enough for the hand-me-downs, but- that would be years off, yet. Maybe Jorey could be convinced to take an armful of clothes in the meantime.

Black and Lupin at least seemed to come alive again, surrounded by small children who didn’t care a wit for who they were or why they’d come to visit. Well- Charlie did recognize the name ‘Sirius Black’, but a single wide-eyed glance at his parents and two reassuring nods in return were all he needed to jump into asking Lupin about his scars, and did they come from fighting anything interesting- like, dragons, possibly?

A one-track mind, that boy. Molly hoped he would open up to more interests at Hogwarts.

Teddy and the twins nearly started a three-way battle flinging their mushy peas back and forth, but Jorey intervened handily and distracted them with a story of him and some friends learning to cast Riddikulus at a boggart. The bit about a lad putting skates on a spider even made Molly laugh out loud.

Arthur mostly managed Ron’s messy dinner and talking Black through the same with little Harry, something the younger man approached with clear trepidation. At one point, though, Molly did hear them murmuring something about the Ministry and Aurors, but then Ginny started to put up a fuss and distracted her.

All in all, a rather pleasant meal without any sudden catastrophes. And that held up all through clean-up afterward, and the various preparations for bed, and actually getting all of her children into said beds. Truth be told, Molly spent most of that period anxiously listening for any arguments starting up downstairs, half-certain there would be protest over who precisely little Harry needed to go home with.

It came as a pleasant surprise to instead descend the stairs and find Lupin and Black helping Jorey get the last three children bundled up to go outdoors. Harry and Teddy had long since fallen dead asleep, but Delphi was just aware enough to put up a fuss against her outer cloak going on.

“Seems like the only time she ever really says ‘no’ is when she isn’t fully awake,” Jorey said ruefully, when he managed to get the last buttons done up.

“That’ll change,” Black promised, gazing at the little girl with an odd look in his eyes. “If she’s the slightest bit like her mother, you’ll be hearing all sorts of protests by age ten.”

“...is that supposed to be encouragement, or a warning?”

Lupin snorted. “Knowing Padfoot’s family? Both.”

“Ah.”

“Gentlemen,” Molly whispered, “Everything settled for tonight?”

“It is,” Jorey murmured, adjusting Delphi in his arms to tuck her head against his shoulder. “Remus and Sirius are going to help me get the kids home, and then we’ll talk some more. With an alarm set for midnight, so they can take off and I can get some sleep before dawn.”

Humming, Molly squinted at him. “Now why do I get the feeling you’re more likely to work through the night than actually sleep?”

“Erm.”

“Don’t worry, Mrs. Weasley,” Black cheerfully said, “We’ll knock him over the head on our way out, if necessary!”

“Oh, thanks,” Jorey rolled his eyes. “That’s all I need, a concussion with these three to mind.”

“Would it help if we brought breakfast when we come back in the morning?” Jorey... paused, in a very careful manner, at Lupin’s words. The sandy-haired man smiled sadly at him. “We might still need some time to adjust to things, Harry, but we aren’t vanishing after tonight. Not either of us.”

“Damn straight,” Black chimed in, voice going a bit strained. “And not just because you’re providing a safe home for this lot, either. If there are two Harry Potters existing at the same time, then I’m bloody well going to help look after both of you.”

Jorey made a stifled noise, blinking rapidly behind his glasses. “If- if I- I can’t-” He stopped to let out a ragged breath. “If I start crying, it’ll wake the kids.”

“Best get them home, then,” Molly smiled. She opened the door for them, and stayed in it, watching until all three young men and their precious cargo disappeared down the hill.

When she slipped into her own bed a while later, Arthur promptly snuggled up with her, and whispered in the darkness, “Everything alright?”

“I think it is, dear,” Molly replied, closing her eyes with a smile. “I think everything is going to be just fine.”

Chapter Text

Ten Years Later

“Come on, come on! We’ve only got five minutes until we’re officially running late!” Molly cast a stern eye across her field of battle, picking out the usual problem-causers with the skill that only comes of many years practice. “Sirius, don’t you dare give anything else to Teddy and the twins, they’ll get into plenty of trouble all on their own!” The grown man smiled sheepishly, but did pocket the bundle he’d been about to pass into George’s expectant hands. He and Fred and Teddy, though, all turned the most awful, heart-wrenching woe-begotten expressions in Molly’s direction.

She didn’t so much as blink. “Have you got everything else packed? Brooms, books, rats-?”

“Yes, Mum!” “Honestly, Aunt Molly-” “-it’s like you don’t trust us at all!”

“Don’t even start,” the woman sniffed, waving for the three of them to get their trunks loaded. “Percy! Percy, where is-”

“Right here, mother,” her fifteen year old huffed, striding past with Ernetta’s cage in both hands. Errol remained, as ever, the Burrow’s owl, but his younger counterpart made the trip to Hogwarts every year for the children to send letters home with. “And I’ve got Scabson, before you ask.”

Several pet rats also made the annual journey, one for each of Molly’s children - birthday gifts from Jorey, over the years. He handled pets, Sirius tended to go for Quidditch gear, and Remus provided more practical items. Usually. Molly still strongly suspected he’d been the one to give Ginny a box of itching powder two years before.

Speaking of her daughter...

“But I could go,” Ginny whined, trailing after Ron and Harry as they dragged their own luggage over. “I’m small! I could fit inside a trunk, easy!”

“And then what?” Ron asked, rolling his eyes. “We smuggle you into Gryffindor Tower too? Without getting Sorted?”

She stamped her foot, and the little grey rat perched on her shoulder squeaked unhappily. “You don’t even know that you’ll be in Gryffindor!”

“Uncle Jorey says we probably will,” Harry offered, completely ignoring the entire argument. “And he’s almost always right when he says stuff like that.”

“But-”

“Ah ah!” Molly intervened, swooping in to get the boys moving again. “Load everything up now, you can keep talking once we’re on the drive to London!” That didn’t actually stop her two youngest from grumbling at each other, or Harry from trying to play peacemaker, but at least they got their luggage loaded and clambered into the van. When she next turned around, it was to find Delphi standing behind her with a small smile and- oh, thank Merlin, a steaming travel mug of tea.

“Just so you know,” the fourteen year old said quietly, as Molly took a deep, bracing gulp, “Uncle Remus sabotaged all the clocks last night. We’re half an hour ahead of schedule.”

Of course. Once she finished swallowing, Molly sighed. “I swear I don’t know whether to hug or hit that man.”

“Both?”

“Both.”

Calmer, armed with tea and the knowledge they weren’t quite in the red just yet concerning time, Molly finished herding eight children and one grown child-at-heart into Jorey’s enchanted muggle van. The man himself remained sitting in the driver’s seat the whole time, frowning pensively at something only he could see out the windshield. Only when Molly plonked herself into the spot beside him did he blink, and come back to himself.

“Alright?” She asked, frowning.

“Yeah,” Jorey replied, putting on an easy smile. “We’re alright. Now! Who’s ready for Hogwarts?” Several young voices cheered from the rows of seats behind him as Jorey started the engine. “Let’s get to it, then!”

They turned smoothly out the Burrow’s gate, and picked up speed rolling down the road towards Hatter Cottage. Just before reaching the bottom of the hill, though, Jorey twisted a knob in the middle of the dashboard, and up- they- went-!

Sirius whooped from the very last row, and all the children followed suit as they soared clear over the cottage, and picked up altitude across the hills beyond it. Jorey grinned as he flipped a switch, activating the camouflage that would make them look like a cloud of birds to anyone else’s eyes.

“I still can’t believe you managed to get a permit for this ridiculous contraption,” Molly said, very carefully not getting close to the window.

“Well, that is entirely your husband’s doing, you know.”

“Hmph, don’t remind me.”

King’s Cross Stations wasn’t any less chaotic, sadly, but at least Jorey helped keep their group together, even if that was mainly by way of preventing Sirius from wandering off with Ginny riding on his back. Soon enough, though, they made it to the barrier between Platforms Nine and Ten, and Percy ran through without any prompting.

“You next, Fred,” Molly ordered.

The boy she’d gestured to made a face. “I’m not Fred-”

“Sorry, George-”

“-and I’m not him, either!”

“Teddy,” she groaned, prompting snickers from all three identical boys. “Come on, you lot, we haven’t got all day!”

“Actually,” not-Fred-not-George-but-Teddy beamed, “You had it right the first time!” And off he went with a cackle, leaving his twin and the actual Teddy to dodge Molly’s swatting hands before taking their own turns. Delphi slipped through next without any trouble, followed by Sirius with Ginny. And that brought them down to four.

“Ready?” Jorey asked the pair of brand new first years. Ron and Harry exchanged glances, anticipation clear on their little faces.

Merlin, it felt like just yesterday Molly had been cleaning off their sauce-smeared cheeks at dinner. She pulled out a handkerchief to dab at her eyes, trying not to make a scene. Ron still noticed, of course, and with an exasperated “Mum,” off he went.

Harry took a deep breath after his best mate vanished through the bricks. He aimed one last look up at Jorey, who nodded, then braced his hands on the cart carrying his trunk and Hedwig’s cage, and started forward. The barrier let him through just like everyone else, but Molly still found herself breathing a sigh of relief - one echoed by Jorey, who abruptly sagged where he stood.

“Well,” she said. “Shall we make certain they actually get on the Express?”

“We’d better,” he replied ruefully.

Side by side, Molly and Jorey approached the barrier themselves, and stepped through its welcoming magic to Platform Nine and Three Quarters.

Dear Uncle Jorey,

You were right! Me and Ron and Neville all got into Gryffindor together!

You were also a huge tosser, not letting on that Moony got the job as Defense professor! Is this what Padfoot meant when he said we’d better get used to sharing his attention? I thought that was about the werewolf book finally getting published...

Anyway. Gryffindor Tower is just as good as you described, and the other blokes Sorted with us aren’t half bad. Also- remember that girl we met last year when you drove us all down to London and the Natural History museum? Hermione Granger? She’s here! She’s a muggleborn witch, and a Gryffindor too, now! Did you know that was going to happen? When you said it wouldn’t hurt to be nice to her at the museum?

Ron’s telling me to stop writing and go to sleep already. I’ll give this letter to Hedwig in the morning. Love,

Harry

To Mister Jorey Hatter,

It hasn’t been a full two days of class yet, and already your godson has earned himself a detention, along with his usual partners in mischief. There’s no call for your intervention, yet, but I feel the strong need to follow-through on my threat from last year, and make quite certain both you and Mr. and Mrs. Weasley are aware of every incident of rule-breaking or bending.

If they earn at least two more detentions by the end of next week, I will be calling another parent-professor conference. Your admonishments at the last one proved wonderfully effective at curbing their more dramatic tendencies.

Sincere Regards,

Deputy Headmistress Minerva McGonagall

P.S. Please give Sirius a slap upside the head for me, lad, I know he’s the one who slipped them the explosives.

Uncle-

You might need to intervene with Professor Snape again. Teddy hasn’t annoyed him too much, yet, but he’s being nastier than usual in Harry’s class.

Also. I met Draco. Can’t say I like him very much.

-Delphi

Molly was just taking her kettle off the hob when she heard the Floo, and a long-suffering groan afterward indicated who’d just come through. “Put your feet up, dear, I’ll be right out!”

Sure enough, when she headed for the living room with teacups and a biscuit tray hovering after, it was to find Jorey all but collapsed on his usual chair, staring despairingly up at the ceiling. “I should have found a way to replace Snape ten years ago,” he said, when she settled onto the settee.

“That would have taken some doing,” Molly hummed, “Considering you were still dealing with setting up house, and establishing new identities, and changing dirty nappies as well.”

“Hn.”

“Perhaps it could have been done during the renovations to add that second floor suite for Sirius and Remus? Or after, when the three of you started that mad campaign to gather up those cursed things with You-Know-Who’s soul pieces and destroy them?”

“Still not done with that,” Jorey grumbled. “Need Delphi to find us a way into Malfoy Manor. Before the ruddy diary disappears.”

“And I’m sure she’ll manage, lad, but in the meantime you need to let that girl enjoy herself while she still is a girl.” Sometimes, Molly wondered if Jorey ever realized just how young his charges were. Nevermind that Delphi always managed to seem more mature than she should have, thanks to a stronger memory of her earliest years, before coming back in time. She’d been such a solemn little girl; Molly recalled practically jumping out of her skin the first time she ever heard the child speak, almost a full six months after her family settled into Hatter Cottage.

“I know,” Jorey eventually replied, looking away towards the window. “I know. I just- I can’t let him come back again. I can’t let him get at anyone else.”

“And you won’t,” Molly insisted. “You’re the fiercest man I know, Jorey Hatter, and there isn’t a chance in the world you won’t do everything in your power to keep that monster away from our children. Now- are you going to sit out here and mope about one of the few things you couldn’t change, or will you join me in the kitchen?”

“...what are we making?”

“Pandora sent along some fruit scone recipes with Luna on her last visit, I’m giving them a try today. You can help taste-test, after, and we’ll see if they pass muster to mail a batch up to Hogwarts next week.”

Smiling, Jorey stood and followed her towards the kitchen, some of the tension in his shoulders already falling away. “Oh? Who are we sending them to?”

“Minerva, of course, Merlin knows that woman needs all the fortification she can get!”

Sirius dropped by that evening to join them for dinner, and joined Molly for the washing up after Arthur headed to his work shed while Ginny dragged Jorey off to demand more stories about centaurs and thestrals and hippogriffs.

“Almost finished up with the renovations to Grimmauld Place,” he opened.

“Oh, that’s good to hear.”

“Mmhm. Andy’s doing a great job, coordinating with the goblin crew we hired. Kreacher’s finally stopped insulting her, too, which is a ruddy miracle in its own right.” Sirius fell silent for a moment. “She tried talking to me about the matter of inheritance, yesterday.”

A generally touchy subject for most extended families, let alone one as shattered as the Blacks. “Nymphadora’s still demanding to be kept out of things, I would assume.”

That earned a snort. “Right on the money. The day Dora accepts being named an heir to anything is the day she ambushes me with hair shears. Anyway, I- I’m thinking of passing the title on to Delphi, actually. Officially recognize her as Bella’s daughter.”

(Not as dangerous a move as it might have been, once. A few years prior, an unknown spell crossed the width and breadth of the United Kingdom, causing every person with a Dark Mark tattooed on their arm to drop dead in an instant. Half of Azkaban’s population stopped breathing in their cells; Ministry employees on every level of government keeled over at desks or in hallways. Not even the best wards money could buy kept out the spell, several of the ‘Sacred Twenty-Eight’ pureblood lines losing their Heads and other family members.

The Daily Prophet went wild for weeks.)

Molly only hummed, and went on swishing her wand to run soapy water over dirty plates.

“Would give me an opportunity to reach out to Narcissa, anyway,” Sirius added. “Maybe let me onto the Malfoy estate, so I could go looking for that diary Jorey’s worried about instead of the kid.”

“That would be a relief.”

“Yeah,” Sirius sighed. He cast a quick look over his shoulder, before leaning down closer to her ear. “The nightmares are back. Found him at the kitchen table early one morning, looking like death warmed over.”

Her turn to sigh. “I was worried about that. He’s put so much of himself into looking after those children, and now all three of them are elsewhere...”

“Remus and I are working on it. But in the meantime- can you keep an eye on him? Closer than usual?”

“Of course I can, dear.”

‘Working on it’ in years past generally would have meant arranging for the Hatter children to stay elsewhere for a night, then Sirius and Remus getting Jorey drunk on firewhiskey just so the man would talk, and give them a better idea of where his head was, and how they could help.

This time, it apparently meant securing funds to establish a new paid position at Hogwarts.

“Grief Counselor,” Jorey said flatly, when Sirius finally put the idea to him in the Burrow’s back yard a week later. “Me?”

“You,” the other man agreed, nodding rapidly. “Bloody hell, mate, you’ve handled more grief than anyone else I know, and kept on doing good deeds instead of drowning, like- well. Like I would’ve.”

“Padfoot, you know Dumbledore doesn’t trust me.”

“To be fair,” Arthur piped up, from where he was otherwise occupied fiddling with a muggle cycle-bike, “You elected not to trust him first.”

“Still.”

“Jorey,” Molly said, cutting in before either Sirius or her husband could say anything else, “Harry. Whether there’s trust or not, it sounds like he’s willing to try. I think you could do a lot of good, in a position like that.”

“I guarantee it’s only so he can keep me under observation like Snape,” Jorey huffed.

“Even so - it’s an opportunity to watch over the children, and reach out to some of the others you’ve wanted to help.” Arranging to ‘encounter’ a muggleborn girl at a London museum was one thing, but Molly knew there were more children Jorey worried about, ones he couldn’t come up with plausible excuses to just run into and strike up conversations with. Even just being on the faculty at Hogwarts would provide a great deal more opportunities.

And Jorey knew it.

He heaved a great big sigh, shoulders slumping. “Fine. Fine. How do we go about this farce, then?”

“You have an appointment next Saturday with Professor Sprout,” Sirius beamed. “She’s been pushing for something like this for a while; Remus helped get Minnie on board, and the three of them brought Dumbledore around. If all goes well with Sprout, she’ll invite you back Sunday to talk things over with the Board, and they could get you instated as early as Halloween.”

“Do I need to bring paperwork? Records?”

“Already provided by Remus. After he got them through me and that forgery bloke from Knockturn.”

Jorey sighed again, but at least one corner of his mouth turned up in a slight smile. “Grief Counselor.”

“Look at it this way,” Sirius countered, gesturing airily at the goal posts visible further down the hill. “You’ll be in the perfect position to organize unofficial Quidditch games to cheer people up!”

Partway through October, Molly was down at the Hatter Cottage for tea when an owl arrived.

To Mister Jorey P. Hatter, the envelope read, with his address below and the Hogwarts crest on the seal. Molly waited with baited breath as Jorey slowly opened it up, unfolded the thick parchment inside, and read the message with a blank expression on his face.

Only when he finished and glanced at her did a faint gleam of mischief appear in the man’s green eyes. “Want to hear it?”

“Yes!”

“Mister Hatter,” Jorey began again out loud, properly grinning at Molly’s indignant response, “We are pleased to accept your application of employment at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry...”