“Remember that time I made good stew?” I asked sleepily.
“Yeah,” Harry nodded. “That one time you cooked good.”
“It’ll never happen again,” I yawned.
“That’s why I’m here,” Sirius said, grinning. He placed a massive pot of soup on the table. “Bon Appétit!”
“Where did you learn to cook, anyway?” Harry asked, serving me up some of the chicken soup. “I thought Kreacher would have done it all.”
Sirius served himself and sat down.
“Did you both know I ran away from home at sixteen?” Harry nodded but I shook my head. “It was awful there, Willow. Just awful. And I moved in with James and your grandparents...” He stared at nothing for a moment. “They basically adopted me as one of their own. Your grandparents were good people, the best. They ... Your grandmother was ...” he sighed and looked at us both. “Your grandmother was the best cook – on par with Mrs. Weasley. And she asked me to mix some cake batter for her – it was a blueberry and vanilla cake – and I accidentally called her ‘mum’.” It took all my self control to not say ‘aww’. “I just about died when I realised what I’d said. And your father came over, and stuck his fingers in the mix and knocked it out of my hands. The batter went everywhere ...” He smiled at the memory. “Your grandmother just looked at us and said ‘What messy sons I have.’ I was adopted by the Potters that day... Your grandmother taught me to cook.”
“That’s the cutest thing I ever did hear.” I nodded.
“Potters are cool.” Harry said, staring at his spoonful of soup. “Like, Sirius Black became a Potter. Willow Malfoy became a Potter. We’re all Potter’s here.”
“Technically, Willow Potter became a Malfoy and then a Potter.” Sirius smirked.
“Well, actually, Willow Potter doesn’t exist, she is a paradoxical element that the world decided to keep. I am a blob of nothingness.” I ate (drank?) some more soup to hide from the weird looks I was being given.
“Potters are cool.” Harry said again. “Like Sirius Black became a Potter. Blob of Willow became a Potter. We’re all Potter’s here.”
I smiled. It was true. I was a Potter.
***
“Okay, it’s official. Babies are like 300% more cute when you don’t have to look after them all the time.” I announced to Lupin, as I cradled the six-month-old Lucy in my arms. Her hair was ketchup-coloured-red, like it had been when I knew her, and her eyes were bright and fierce, but they seemed full of innocence and love, rather than coldness and sadness of the Lucy I’d known. She was cute as fuck, and really happy.
He smiled back at me, “She’s such a sweet kid. Teddy, Dora and I adore her.”
“You mean to say – Tonks aDoras her.”
Lupin clamped his hands to his ears, “NO PUNS IN PROXIMITY TO THE BABY!”
I laughed and lowered her to the floor, where she crawled away to Teddy to play.
“She is a little angel though... I owe my life to Alternate Universe Lucy.”
“And this universe Lucy owes her life to you. No one had any idea Bellatrix Lestrange was pregnant – to Voldemort of all people.”
“Do you think we should tell her?”
“Tell her what?”
“You know ‘your parents were evil as shit’. Because I’ve been dwelling on it –“
“Don’t dwell Willow, it’s bad for you.”
“I don’t choose to dwell. Dwell chooses to me.”
“What?”
“I’ve just been thinking like... If we tell her, she might decide it’s her fate to go all evil. But if we don’t, she’ll work it out and go all evil. Or maybe she’ll –“
“Willow,” Lupin said, and he took one step and hugged me tight. “She’s a baby. She’s had more months of a happy, normal life than you ever got. Let her be a kid. We’ll give her the childhood that you never got because of her father. That Neville never got because of her mother. Look at Sirius and his family – blood isn’t important. It’s love. That’s what will keep us all good, Willow. Love.”
I was crying, but I wasn’t sure why, or when I started or whether it was happy or sad tears.
“I love you,” I sniffed. I was nearing my seventeenth birthday, and I was still a lost little girl. It was okay though. No one pressured me to pull myself together. No one demanded I do this or that. They and I knew I’d get my life on track eventually, but it had to be on my terms. When I wanted to do it, I would. I’d lived every day of my life by other people’s rules and deadlines and for once, I was free.
“I love you too, Willow. I love you too.”
____________
Yo holla. I’m really meant to be writing a Philosophy Essay right now. But Willow seemed more important :P
Right.
So.
Don’t forget I’m doing a Q&A thing at the end of September. Either send messages into my ask.fm page (which is linked on my profile) or just comment a question. It can be about literally anything. Nothing is off limits. I’m just bored and need something to look forward to.
I’ll be making the video later this month, and I’ll post it on Youtube, and link it via the next upload of this book that I do.
<3
Peace out.
-Lucy
