HEATHER BLACK AGREED TO DO THE THING THAT NOBODY ELSE COULD TO DO.
Use her animagus form, and protect Harry Potter for fifteen years.
As an owl.
As Hedwig.
***
Travis McKinnon wanted nothing more than to do something useful.
So he used his animagus...
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"H-HEATHER?" MOLLY EXCLAIMED, her eyes widening in disbelief.
The room fell silent as they all saw her, right beside Sirius. There were the Weasley children sitting at the table, along with Remus, who was staring in pure shock, and Tonks, who had always looked up to Heather as a little girl. Heather felt a rush of nostalgia as she noted that her niece still had her bright pink hair, and remembered the times when the little girl would change her appearance to match Heather's, and the two would giggle and laugh together for hours.
Now, though, Tonks was at least ten years older than Heather, and it was strange for both of them as Heather met her niece's eyes and quickly looked away, turning back to Molly.
"Molly," Heather said with a smile, "May I join you all for dinner?"
"W-what—," Molly stuttered, dropping the fork she held in her hand, "How are you here? I thought you died!"
She seemed to suddenly realise what she'd said and quickly rushed to add, "I just, well, I was told that you vanished on a mission and I didn't know you—,"
"It's alright, Molly," Heather responded with a little smile, "Trav and I...well, we weren't killed. There was dark magic...and I don't really remember much, but we didn't die. We never did. We were always around."
"That—you scared us all!" She burst into tears, "I—we all thought you were gone and Andromeda and Marlene cried for so many days..." She wiped her tears away frantically, "But I'm so glad you're okay, dear. Where's Travis, then?"
"I think he's on his way back from Hogwarts right now."
"Hogwarts?" Molly's eyes darted immediately to her children, and Harry and Hermione, "You and Travis attended Hogwarts? For how long? How did I never know about this?"
"Only a few days," Heather shook her head, "I don't remember how I got there, but I woke up in the Forbidden Forest one night and Trav and I found our way to the castle, and Dumbledore helped us."
It felt terrible to lie. The guilt was creeping up, and she suddenly couldn't meet Molly's eyes as she averted her gaze to stare at her feet.
There was a long silence, and Sirius said, after a moment, "Well, let Heather take a seat, alright? She's hungry, too. Let's eat together."
Molly quickly picked up her fork and waved her wand, summoning another set of cutlery and a plate, and a spare chair.
"Of course, of course," She said hastily, "Sit, Heather."
Heather sat down in the seat that Molly had summoned and positioned between Harry and Fred Weasley, and began to eat.
"Did Dumbledore let you leave school early, too, then?" Harry asked quietly, as the adults began their own conversation at the other end of the table.
"Yeah," She replied, "He did." She gave him an uncertain smile, "Is Mr. Weasley alright?"
The mention of Mr. Weasley almost immediately brought Harry's mood down, as his expression dropped and he slumped slightly. Heather noticed, and she quickly tried to change the topic.
"Hey, I—,"
But Harry beat her to it. "It's alright, Heather. Mr. Weasley will be okay."
"T-that's good to hear, then," Heather responded, with an unsure half-smile, "Harry, don't worry about it. I'm sure it wasn't your fault."
Harry didn't reply, instead, he just shook his head and returned to eating his dinner, and Heather decided it best not to push it.
***
WHEN NEVILLE WAS UPSTAIRS, Travis couldn't deal with the knowing glances that Augusta was sending him anymore.
In fact, even Neville was starting to suspect something was wrong, with the amount of looks that his grandmother was sending his toad as they ate dinner.
"I...is something wrong?" Neville had asked Augusta as the woman had started to smile widely at Trevor, who sat in the glass container Neville had placed him in as he ate dinner, to make sure the toad didn't get lost.
"Oh, nothing, Neville," Augusta said with a laugh, though her eyes had not left the toad, "It's alright. Everything is normal."
That statement only seemed to confuse Neville enough, until the boy excused himself from the table after finishing his dinner, leaving Trevor behind.
The moment Travis heard the quiet click that meant Neville had shut the door to his room, Augusta reached her hand into the container, and, in toad form, Travis jumped onto the woman's hand.
The moment she put him on the ground, he turned into his human form—and ran a hand through his dishevelled blonde hair.
"Well, you were being a bit obvious, Mrs. Longbottom—,"
Augusta didn't let him finish before she'd pulled him into a hug, looking on the verge of tears as she muttered, "Oh, Travis, I haven't seen you in such a long time! We all missed you—everybody did."
Travis laughed lightly, "Well, you see me every day—just not in this body."
"I couldn't very well hug you when you were in your toad form—especially not in front of Neville," Augusta scoffed, "You were a very good friend for Frank and Alice. I...well, I thought you'd like to go to Grimmauld Place to find Heather, first, but after, perhaps you'd like to go and see Frank and Alice? I'm sure they missed you."
"Thank you, Mrs. Longbottom," Travis said solemnly, as his thoughts went to his old friends—who had been tortured to insanity by Bellatrix Lestrange.
And then that led his thoughts to his sister, and his parents—who had not survived through the First Wizarding War.
It seemed almost unfair, how Travis had survived, when Marlene had been so much braver than he had ever been. And the others, too—James and Lily deserved time, and they didn't get much of it at all.
As if reading his thoughts, Augusta squeezed his hand and murmured, "You should slip away right now, and I'll pretend I didn't notice you were gone and tell Neville that you got lost."
"Won't he get suspicious? You weren't being very subtle, Mrs. Longbottom." Travis furrowed his brows.
Augusta laughed, "It happens often enough that he won't suspect a thing. Now, go on, Travis. You can go through the fireplace."
Though the thought of leaving Augusta and making her lie to Neville made him feel guilty, Travis couldn't dull the sense of pure excitement as he grabbed a pinch of Floo powder from the pot that sat on the mantel, stepped into the fireplace, and yelled just loud enough for the magic to work but not so loud that Neville would hear it.
"12 Grimmauld Place!"
Author's Note:
Sorry for the SUPER long wait...
But here's the chapter! Thanks so much for reading!
