Marauder's Daughter (Eventual Tom Riddle X OC)

Chapter 6: Times of Peace

As soon as Voldemort died, the war ended almost entirely overnight. The Order had already caught the biggest and worst Death Eaters while Voldemort was at the Potter's, and the Auror's went and collected several more over the weeks following his demise. A bunch of Death Eaters all tried to claim they were Imperiused or forced in some way to do the evil acts they performed during the war, and are going through trials to determine innocence. Many of the dark creatures like Dementors or werewolves made some type of deals with the Ministry to not make trouble anymore. The werewolves left the country and the Dementors returned to Azkaban to be guards.

I ended up becoming famous too. I wasn't expecting it, but apparently since I'm the only witness of the fall of the Dark Lord, I became instantly recognizable. It was very annoying, and reminded me of the paparazzi in my last life, only a lot more aggressively nice. Everyone just kept coming over and giving me condolences and pity when Dad took me out, and it made both of us mad. Often times, we were just trying to walk down the road to the store and we would get stopped multiple times. The public's reactions to me was just a final straw on our current housing situation.

Remus didn't have anywhere to go anymore. He couldn't get work because of what he was, so James had been supporting him and either paying for a small place for him or letting him crash at his Manor. But, now that James was gone, Remus didn't have anywhere to go. He, of course, was too proud to ask for help, but Dad didn't give him room to argue. Remus has been crashing on our couch the last few weeks since the attack happened and his place kicked him out. So now, we have three people living in a one bedroom flat. Dad finally saw the need to get a bigger place, and thankfully still had plenty of the funds his uncle had left for him before he died. 

So with that, Dad found a nice sized four bedroom cottage with a basement set into the woods just a short walk to the beach. It fit all our needs, enough room for us all and Harry for later. Dad and Remus converted the basement into a safe room me to be in during the full moon while they are out in the woods. There was a small muggle village not far away, but that was in the other direction, away from the woods. The beach wasn't a huge one, so it didn't draw tourists at all, but it was nice to be near. 

And best of all, we could go to a store in peace and not be stopped by every witch or wizard who recognized me since we were far away from the closest magical settlement. I know that will go away in time, but for now, it's annoying as all get out. It actually made me miss being a street rat like I was in my last life, where I could just run into an alleyway and disappear into the shadows and hide away from everyone.

Dad was decent enough at potions to make Remus's Wolfsbane, and we started to grow some of the herbs ourselves for it in the forest by the house, like the dittany and the hornbeam. The others, like the wolfsbane itself and the powdered moonstone, were very expensive to obtain, but Dad had enough funds to get by on purchasing them for now. 

A few months after we moved though, Dad realized he needed to get an actual job. So, he went to the Ministry and easily got a job as an Auror. He was already well known amongst all of them thanks to his years in the Order, and he passed all the tests easily. Remus then became my primary caretaker and tutor for when he wasn't working his odd jobs he could get. That, in turn, led to him finally figuring me out.

"Do as many of these questions as you can, and then we can see what we need to review." Uncle Remus says to me one day. 

I'm four now, and he's been teaching me basic reading, writing, and math for the last few months. It's all very boring to me since I already know it. So today, since it's approaching summer now and I'd rather be outside in the forest, I simply did the questions quickly and efficiently and turned in the form to him, not even realizing that he just gave me high school level questions he hasn't even come close to teaching me yet.