Dabbling With The Dark

Chapter 32

Seven Years Later

Rematerializing in front of the quaint cottage that was the retirement home of Albus Dumbledore, he stayed where he was for a moment with his hands in the pockets of his robe just looking at the place. It was a lovely cottage, of course, with trees and flowers in abundance all around, but there was something else there that caught his attention: wards, and a lot of them designed to conceal what magic was being performed inside the property's boundary lines. That didn't surprise him. Dumbledore always was one to hide what he was up to. He knew because he'd learned how to do the same thing from the old man. Well, Dumbledore and a few other people.

Walking inside the cottage almost everyone he expected to be in the sitting room was. Diggle and Doge were there along with Dumbledore's brother, Aberforth, the three men standing by a side bar quietly talking. All three nodded at him in greeting and he returned the nod before looking away at Hestia Jones and Emmeline Vance, both women sitting on the sofa chatting, too. Sturgis Podmore was there as well, the man standing back and just looking around the room as though assessing each one. That was fine, though. There was no threat to any of them in a roomful of former 'Order' members.

Looking around the room, he was surprised that Hagrid, Remus, and Tonks hadn't come back for this moment. It was just as well. He'd been more than happy to help all three of them settle into new lives well away from all the conflict they'd lived with for so long. With the half-giant, his only true completely loyal friend since the time he'd met the man, he'd helped Hagrid find love and happiness with Olympe and get him moved to and settled in with her in France at Beaubaton's.

It was the same with Lupin and Tonks. Within a few months of the war being over the former Minister Rufus Scrimgeour had started losing his mind and decided that trying to exile every person with dark wizard or dark creature ties was the best way to ensure that the British wizarding world never again faced what it had over the previous few years. He'd pulled his resources to get Lupin and Tonks out of the United Kingdom altogether. They were living in northern Canada now where scars like Remus had on his face was just considered someone who'd had an unfortunate run-in with a wild animal. That worked out well living in a nice large cabin in the woods on the outskirts of a small town since their first son wasn't born with the werewolf gene, but their second had been. Both couples were happy with their new lives far away from the drama that was the British wizarding scene. He was well and truly happy for all of them and prayed they stayed away from England for the rest of their lives. You never knew what evil was lurking around the corner in England.

There were other members of the Order that would be there if they could and still others missing that could be if they were inclined to. McGonagall, Kingsley, Moody, and Molly Weasley were those that couldn't be, the war having ended their lives a decade ago. It was Voldemort that ended Moody's life, and with so many curses flying that night no one was quite sure whose wand ended McGonagall's, but Molly's death had been at Dolohov's hand. Though it meant little, Arthur Weasley had returned the favor to his wife's murderer. And Arthur Weasley started the list of people who weren't inclined to be there and were better off not.

After Molly's funeral, poor Arthur had just completely shut down. He quit his position with the Ministry, packed a bag, and lived in the Muggle world for nearly three months before Bill found him. Absolutely refusing to return to the Burrow where the memories were too haunting, it finally took Charlie coming back to England and inviting Arthur to come live with him and his fiancé to bring the man back to the wizarding world. Romania having no painful memories of Molly, Arthur had accepted and hadn't been back to England since. The rest of their children rarely saw their father, preferring to communicate with him by owl aside from their once a year visit to Romania, the degrading of their father's mental state too painful a reminder of their mother's tragic passing.