metanoia

Chapter Twenty-six

The Potters were happily waiting at Kings Cross Station when the 6 Gryffindors exited the train and came on the platform.

Happy to see his parents, James was eagerly wrapped into a tight embrace by his mother. Euphemia eerily resembling Alex's late mother: having long honey blonde hair and kind, hazel eyes. The girls shared a look of disbelief, both having mistaken her for Alex's mom when first seeing her.

Sirius greets Mr. Potter as though he were his own father, clapping him loudly on the shoulder as they quickly hug.  Out of the corner of his eye, Sirius saw that his little brother and two cousins were happily being greeted by his parents. When Regulus looked over, locking eyes with him, Sirius darkened his stare as he held his house plant tighter to his chest.

Remus and Peter both awkwardly bid their friends farewell, promising to arrive at the Potter residence later in the week before seeking out their own families within the masses of Hogwarts students and families. Watching the familial greetings and embraces Alex and Letti stood there uncomfortably, quietly waiting to be introduced.

James pulled apart from his mother, smiling at his clearly uncomfortable friends as they were onlookers onto what seemed like an intimate greeting, "Mum, Dad this is Alex Worth and Letti Lightwood. Alex, Letti, these are my parents Euphemia and Fleamont Potter."

Mr. Potter politely extends his hand, firmly shaking their hands, while his wife stares at the blonde dumbfounded. Even though she had never met this young woman before, she looked very familiar. Euphemia plasters on a motherly smile, pulling each of the girls into a tight hug as she shook the distant thought of who Alex resembled out of her mind.

Sirius watched his surrogate mother embrace the girls, embarrassed when he saw the uncomfortable look Alex had, "Mom, you can't just hug people without their permission. I'm sorry guys."

"No, it's fine Sirius, don't listen to him Mrs. Potter. And thank you again, Mr. and Mrs. Potter, for opening up your home to us for the Holidays. I do hope that we're not of any inconvenience to you," Alex politely thanks them, in such a way that her mother would be proud.

Her mother was a very proper woman, something she made sure to continue while raising her twins. She came from a very proper, wealthy family but was ultimately disowned when she married Alex's father, someone who wasn't her family's idea of someone worthy of someone of their status.

"Oh no not at all dear. You two are most definitely not an inconvenience. You are always welcome at our home," Mrs. Potter assures them, smiling down at the significantly shorter teenager. And with that the four teenagers each took an arm of the Potter parents as they Apparate to the Potter Mansion.

Their home was beautiful and elaborate, incomparably bigger than all of the houses on the street the Worths and Lightwoods grew up on. The home had several floors, all lavishly furnished and decorated. Sirius watched the girls gawk at the home, finding their awestruck wonder endearing having grown up in this kind of environment his entire life.

Alex mindlessly walked around the ground floor, finding herself directly in front of their fireplace, adorned with pictures resting on the mantle. Picture after picture was of James and his family, a handful of the moving pictures had a smiling Sirius in them, two were of the four Marauders. But one, on the very end of the mantle, was of a very pregnant Euphemia Potter and a blonde woman holding two little babies in her arms. Alex definitely recognized the woman, getting a scary sense of deja vu as she ignored the camera and smiled down at the giggling babies in her arms, but she decided against saying anything. The two boys dragged Letti upstairs to James and Sirius' room leaving Alex downstairs to stare at the picture.

Mr. Potter loudly clapped as the house elves took their belongings upstairs to their rooms, "Well kids, dinner will be ready soon so make yourselves at home."

"Seems like you've found something that caught your eye. That's me and my sister, Dorothy, when I was pregnant with James, " Mrs. Potter smiled standing next to the girl, looking fondly at the picture Alex had been staring at.

"Y-Your sister?" She chokes out, realizing that she wasn't wrong and that the woman in the picture was indeed her mother.

Mrs. Potter lightly chuckled, stiffly nodding at her, "It's the last picture I have of her. She always hated pictures she said that it never fully-"

"Captured the moment the way your memories do..." Alex finished in awe, her eyes filling with tears.

She took the picture off the mantle, removed it from the frame and handed Alex the picture. The back of the picture had something written in perfect handwriting, it read: EUPHEMIA & DOROTHY WITH THE TWINS, ALEXANDRA AURORA AND NOAH PETER- 01/05/1960

Euphemia tucks a loose curl behind Alex's ear, watching the girl lightly trace her brother's name with her index finger before watching her mother coo at her and her brother as babies. A few tears slid down Alex's cheek but she quickly wiped them away before looking at her Aunt, "How is this even possible? I thought- I thought I was a Muggleborn, I mean she never told us about you or the Wizarding World."

Euphemia slowly exhales, remembering the fight she and her sister had almost immediately after that picture was taken like it were yesterday and not sixteen years ago, "Your mother is- was very, very dear to me. We were so close as children, best friends, but when she married your father, our family disowned her. When she had you two, she came to visit me and I tried to convince her to stay but she wouldn't leave your father and swore that she'd raise her children without magic."

"And she did. But when we got our letters, she did everything she could to help prepare Letti, Noah and I. I don't know if anyone told you but she and Noah died in an automobile accident when we came home for Summer holiday in 1st year," Alex adds sadly.

"No, no one told me. I had no idea that anything happened to them. I'm so sorry to hear about what happened to your mother and brother," Euphemia apologized, gently resting her hand on her niece's small shoulder.

The trio upstairs sprinted down the stairs like they were being chased, practically falling over their own feet before stopping right in front of the two women. Sirius panted, "Lex, you have to come see this. We just found a picture of a woman who looks exactly like you in the wedding photo and Letti is convinced that she's your mum."

"She's right. Aunt Euphemia just told me that she's my mom's sister," she chuckles, shocking the boys.

"Wait! You're my cousin? Brilliant!" James cheered, pulling Alex into a bear hug, forgetting that she doesn't like to be touched.

She initially stiffened up at his touch, still not quite ready for people to touch her unannounced, causing James to quickly remember and loosen the girl. But Alex eased into it, realizing that she actually trusts him and hugged the boy back.

"Can we eat now? I'm hungry," Alex asks muffled by the hug that she's been pulled into by her cousin, earning multiple sets of laughter.