War is Over

23.

"No, James, I don't give a fuck!" Lily yelled as we entered their house. I looked to Reg, he just shrugged.

"Where's Harry?" He asked. I blinked hard trying to remember.

"Uh, mum and dads, they offered to watch him this weekend." I recalled with a nod.

"Lily, it's not like we have a choice!" James yelled back.

"We always have a choice, you just blindly follow!" She stormed into the living room and spotted us. She wiped her tears with the heel of her hand. "Get your brother." I nodded.

"Take care of her." I told Reg. He nodded and followed her up the stairs. James sat at the kitchen table with his head in his hands. He looked up.

"What the fuck was that?" I asked him as I pulled out a chair. He grabbed his glasses off the table and put them back on.

"I, uh well, I talked to Dumbledore today and he told me apparently there's some prophecy including Harry." I felt a pit in my stomach. I was brought back to the day he called me in his office.

"What is it?" James stared at the ceiling. "Jamie, what is it?"

"He's gonna have to fight him."

"No."

"Yeah."

"No, James," I stood up and began to pace. "no. We handled that. We took care of it. That was the war, we're done." James just shook his head.

"Apparently we're not."

"We have to be." James grabbed my wrist to stop me from pacing.

"Nova, we did it once, we can do it again."

"I don't want to do it again. We shouldn't have to do it again. James, this is so fucked up! We risked our lives once, we lost friends, how are we ever going to be able to do that again?" He shrugged.

"We'll do it for Harry, and Luna, and Elenora. Just like last time." I sat back down.

"You can change a prophecy. What if we don't let them go to Hogwarts? Or we change their names?" He shook his head.

"Nova, me and Lily were supposed to die that night. We've changed the prophecy, but we can't change the outcome."

"Why does it have to be your son? What makes him the chosen one?" James shrugged again.

"Guess I'm just that good." I shoved him while he chuckled.

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"Hi mumma." I said as I kissed her cheek. She smiled.

"How are they?" She asked. I shrugged. "Jamie called me after he left asking us to get Harry early so he could talk to Lily."

"You know, Lil. She's trying to find a way around it." Reg said ask he entered, she hugged him tight.

"And James is blindly following the word of a man he hardly knows." Mum gave me a look. I shrugged. "He is."

"A man who saved our lives." She corrected.

"A man who could have done a hell of a lot more." I replied. She sighed.

"Are you going to hate him forever for making Regulus and Remus spies?" I nodded.

"He risked people's lives to save his own, at least they made it out. Cas didn't." Reg placed a hand on my shoulder. Mum nodded.

"You're too hard headed, Nova Minerva." Nova Minerva. A name I only got when I reminded mum of Minnie. I smiled.

"She'd agree with me." Mum laughed lightly.

"She'd say he raised you all to be child soldiers under her nose." I laughed.

"At least we can all agree on that." Mum nodded.

"You don't like that he'll be doing that to Harry." I shook my head.

"To be fair, Mia, he'll do it to our daughter too." Reg added. She took a deep breath.

"And Luna, and Dora, and any of these kids in that generation. Mum, it's scary."

"It's terrifying my darlings. I hated thinking I could have lost any of you, I don't want to live to see my grandchildren have to go through it." I just nodded.

"I just thought it was over." She sighed.

"We all did." Reg wrapped an arm around me. Mum shook her head. "Set the table, please dearest. Everyone will be here soon."

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"It's absurd, right?" Lily asked as she smoked one of Sirius' cigarettes. I hadn't seen her smoke since sixth year, it didn't happen often. Only when things got really bad. I nodded.

"It's not fair." I replied. She sighed.

"My son. My fucking son."

"What did we do to end up here?" She flicked the end of the cigarette.

"I miss the days before I knew about magic. I miss playing and being a kid."

"I always knew about magic." I replied as I stared at the moon. Lily laid down and patted for me to do the same.

"What a double edged sword."

"What do you mean?"

"We're special, we're gifted, but with that comes so much pain. I can't imagine never knowing life without magic." I shrugged.

"It wasn't too bad. Things were quicker. We had a leg up at school." Lily snorted.

"Remember when you taught me Accio?" I laughed.

"Godrick, you were terrible." She laughed as she got up and dusted off her pants. I followed. She wrapped an arm around me as we began to walk back to the house.

"We're gonna be okay, right?" She asked. I placed my hand on the doorknob.

"Only Merlin knows, but I'd rather die fighting with you lot than give in to evil." She nodded. I pulled the door open and she went over to the boys on the couch. Regulus waved me over. I held up a finger and made my way to the kitchen.

"Mum?" I asked. She looked up from wiping down the table.

"Yes, love?" I sighed.

"I'm sorry about snapping earlier."

"It's alright, dear."

"It's just," I took a deep breath as we both sat down at the table. "it's just that he took everyone I loved and put them on the front lines. He knew what was coming with that stupid prophecy and Minnie was the one to help us. Minnie protected us. Minnie fought with us. Dumbledore did nothing other than put Regulus behind enemy lines and Remus in danger. If Sirius hadn't burned bridges so badly he would have done the same to him. If I wasn't so publicly your daughter, he would have done the same to me. I mean, Cas died for him. I don't believe he didn't know about Peter and I will never trust him. I trust you, though. I trust your judgement more than anything, mum." She leaned over and kissed my head.

"And I trust yours, Nova Minerva."