A/N: A quiet chapter for you. Call it the calm before the storm… ;)
13: Family Ties - Part One
Home.
With a sigh, Rey quietly pulled the front door closed behind him, glancing around the small, cosy hall of the little two storey thatched cottage that had been home to him ever since his marriage to Diana. Winter Hollow, it was called - it had belonged to his wife’s mother, built by her parents, a Muggle family of artists called the Winters, who had found the delightful secret Welsh valley in which the cottage now nestled, with its floral meadow and tinkling stream, whilst on an expedition and quickly chose to settle there. It had been the gift of Diana’s parents on their wedding day and Rey couldn’t have thought of a better one.
For adaptation into a wizarding home it couldn’t have been more suitable “ hidden away high in the hills, shrouded by trees and surrounded by forested mountain, not to mention a good mile from the Muggle road in the larger valley below, it was unlikely to draw attention from passers by and therefore perfect for a Ministry Exterminator with an unusual penchant for keeping his victims and a Potions Mistress who insisted the strange clouds of pink and orange smoke that she shoed out of the window of their kitchen were entirely intentional. The large stone fireplace that dominated one end of the kitchen proved perfect for Diana’s vast selection of cauldrons, the little meat hooks in the roof ideal for hanging herbs. True, it gave the narrow stone-floored room an interesting aroma at times, especially given his wife’s tendency to experiment, but as Diana had testily pointed out, if he could keep his malodorous rabble of creatures in the lean-to behind the house for the fun of it, she was damned well going to use the kitchen for real work.
And use it she did “ even after gaining the position at Hogwarts. It was not unheard of for married teachers to commute after all, and with well-publicised “office hours” three evenings a week, the remaining two nights plus weekends allowed her to walk back and forth from the Three Broomsticks and floo into the less cauldron-cluttered fireplace in their lounge. After an incident involving the temporary misplacement of her left elbow, Diana had never been a keen apparator.
But now of course, with Remus in their lives, Diana was once again working from home and Rey felt the happier for it. He was aware that she had loved her job at Hogwarts, but he couldn’t help but feel a selfish pleasure now that her less demanding schedule allowed him to see more of her. And seeing the look of joy on her face whenever she held their son, he did not believe that she was particularly upset by the change in lifestyle either.
The house was hushed in the thinning dark of morning “ despite the breaking of dawn at the Derbyshire farmhouse, the taller mountains that hemmed in their more westerly home had delayed the sunrise here. Unwilling to waste time lamp lighting, Rey removed his cloak and hung it on one of the little hallway hooks by the wintery light creeping into the kitchen windows through the open door to his left. Ahead, the wooden staircase ascended into darkness but Rey knew every step of it by heart “ he did not need to see where he was going to know the floorboard on step three would creak and that it was steps six and eight that wobbled. He moved forward with the confidence of familiarity and made his way upstairs.
Once on the landing, he hesitated, his eyes drawn to the slightly ajar door to his left. On impulse, he touched his fingers to the door and pushed it back, entering on silent feet as he glanced around at the scatter of toys and games that belonged to an occupant who had not yet learned to be tidy. Little hippogriffs danced in playful circles silhouetted against the light that filtered through their curtain playground, making faces at the man who invaded this child’s domain. A glimmer of light caught his gaze “ the sparkling little glass orb filled with bright golden shimmers that doubled as a nightlight and alert system that awoke its counterpart on his wife’s bedside table should their son awake in the night.
The subject of this attention was dwarfed, almost lost, in the sturdy and rather too big for him bed that rested its head against the far wall as it jutted out into the room. Curled up against his pillow and wrapped up tight against the cold in his oversized quilt, all that could be seen of the youngest member of the household was a smudge of light brown hair and a small hand, firmly grasped around the toy sheepdog his Grandpa John had given him for his birthday. Rey grinned in spite of himself. Out like a light as usual. He had never known a sounder sleeper than Remus.
Carefully picking his way through the labyrinth of fallen toys and scattered books, Rey moved to his son’s bedside. From this angle, the little face of his barely-three-year-old boy could be seen peaking out from beneath the quilt, half buried against his new toy collie with a hint of a smile on his face. Gently Rey reached down, stroking the soft hair tenderly for a moment, unable to keep his own smile from spreading. His son. His son. There had been a time when he had given up on ever having a moment like this, a child of his own, their miracle. And he knew that he would tear down the eaves of the world to keep him safe.
It couldn’t wait. He would speak to Diana this morning.
Pausing for a moment longer, Rey bent down and pressed a kiss to his son’s forehead, watching briefly as the little smile flickered unconsciously in response to this affection. Then, stepping carefully once more, Rey edged his way out of his son’s bedroom and made his way down the landing to the room he shared with his wife.
There was no avoiding the fact that Remus’ penchant for sound sleeping had been inherited from his mother. Diana was a mass of dark brown curls against her pillow, flat out and fast asleep, a generous lump beneath the blankets. Rey smiled to himself. Whilst he would never in a thousand years have dared to call her plump, there was no denying that Diana was not exactly a vision of willow-slender elegance. Many jokes, mostly of their own devising, had been made about tall, wiry light-haired Reynard and the contrast with his small, dark curled, slightly ample wife. Opposites did indeed attract.
He considered waking her there and then, would have done in fact if he had not spotted the little curl of paper resting serenely on his pillow. Moving with a quietness born of years of creature stalking and marriage, Reynard slipped around the bed and retrieved the note, carrying it to the window where he angled it to catch the pale light that filtered through the crack in the curtains.
Next time you’re bored, please take up a new hobby or something - I stayed up well past midnight worrying about you. I hope you realise that if you’re not still alive to read this, I’m going to have to kill you.
Rey grinned in spite of himself. He loved his wife.
By the sound of it though, she hadn’t got much more sleep than he had. Perhaps he would not wake her after all “ there would be plenty of time to speak to her before she and Remus left for Hogwarts just before midday and he could certainly drop their things at the Griffith farm near Aberystwyth whilst she was in Scotland and explain the situation, as far as he could, to her parents. His wife and son could stay the night at Hogwarts or in Hogsmeade and nip back by floo for Diana’s broom and its child harness to make the trip from their home over the mountains to the farm the next morning. Yes, that was probably best.
He would just have to stay awake “ just for an hour or two, until Diana came round. He considered going down to his study or the lounge to read for a while, but reading made him sleepy and he was tired enough as it was from his long night. No, his best bet was simply to get into bed; with the kind of drama Diana always made out of getting up of a morning, she was bound to wake him even if he did happen to drop off.
Quickly he stripped off, pulling on his pyjamas and slipping into the bed beside his wife. He snuggled down carefully, dropping his head to the pillow as he tried to focus his thoughts. This would be a good time to plan his mission report. So… the mission leaders convened at the abandoned farm house near Buxton following information obtained by aerial surveillance and…
Surely it wouldn’t hurt to plan the mission report with his eyes closed.
Abandoned farm house near Buxton… aerial surveillance…he had spoken with Alastor Moody and Rudolf B…Rudolf… what’s-his-name… and they had… they had… What had they?
Lost in a welter of confused and shifting thoughts, it completely escaped Rey’s notice that he had begun to snore.
* * *
Light burned against his eyelids. Rey groaned.
Mission report. He had been planning… wait. Had it been this light before?
His eyes snapped open. The curtains were wide open, the low arc of autumn sunshine beaming directly onto his pillow. And he was alone in the bed.
Rey bolted upright instantly. “Diana!”
There was no response. He strained his ears for the clatter of pans or cauldrons in the kitchen, for the familiar morning sound of his wife’s melodious voice and his son’s laughter. He heard nothing but silence.
Kane’s face hovered against his half-drowsy mind. The feral was laughing.
Danger. His family was in danger.
Damn! Where are they?
Half-conscious and clumsy with drowsiness as he was, he hurtled out of bed at once, almost tumbling over the quilt as it tangled itself around his feet. Kicking it off, he bolted across the landing to his son’s room “ one look around the door told him it was empty. He rushed helter-skelter down the stairs, still in his pyjamas, stumbling in the hall as he darted into the kitchen. Empty. Across the hall he hurried, grasping the doorframe of the lounge as his eyes roamed from broad window, to sofa, to tidy fireplace and shelf of books, but no wife and no son. In desperation, he even bolted down the passage alongside the stairs to the study he shared with his wife, taking it in turns to write their papers from the books that lined the wall. Nothing.
Back to the kitchen. The windows that looked out over their slightly wild garden revealed nothing but almost leafless trees and autumnal grass, the merry little stream and his wife’s small kitchen herb garden, mostly at rest for the winter. The cellar door was half-ajar “ but peering down revealed nothing but the rough pile of boxes that Diana had stored down there containing her more volatile ingredients.
Rey stood motionless for a moment, breathing hard and trying to gather his scattered and panicky thoughts.
Where were his family?
They couldn’t have gone. They couldn’t have gone. They couldn’t.
But they had.
Images of bloodstained bodies danced across his mind. He would have heard. If they had been taken or hurt, surely he would have heard…
He glanced at the clock. It had just gone noon. On the calendar beside it, a large red circle outlined that day’s date. And in Diana’s writing, two letters.
HW.
And then as his sleepy, shocked brain struggled back into working order, the truth hit him with a rush and a distinct sense of stupidity filled him from crown to sole.
Hogwarts. Of course.
It was the day of Diana and Remus’ visit to the school. His mind had been so full of reports, of danger, that he had managed to suffer a ridiculous lapse in memory. But for a moment, he’d remembered only Kane and been so sure…
Bloody hell, Rey. Getting senile in your old age.
There was no sign of a struggle. Nothing broken and nothing missing. They must have simply set out that morning as planned; his wife had told him she had intended to leave around late morning and midday had come and gone in his slumber. But why on earth had Diana not woken him? Told him she was going? Could she not have at least left a…
A note. Sitting on the kitchen table.
Rey snatched the neatly folded piece of paper from the tabletop and voraciously devoured its contents.
This marriage by note is becoming a habit. It’s nice to see you are alive, even if you don’t act much like it “ if it hadn’t been for the snoring I might have been worried. And you call me a sound sleeper! I didn’t like to wake you so I left breakfast (or more likely lunch) in the little cauldron on the counter “ don’t mix it up with the one by the fire, I don’t fancy talking my gibbering husband down off the ceiling when I get home. Remus and I have gone to Hogwarts and we’ll be back late this afternoon or early this evening. I’m sure Remus would be very grateful if his daddy would get us something to eat for when we get back, since we’re pretty sure that by the state of him he won’t be doing much else today. See you later, my love. Diana.
Intense relief waged war with violent disappointment. Relief at this final confirmation that his family were not lying dead in a ditch somewhere but disappointment that there was a chance they still could be. His plans to get them to safety that day had evaporated “ by the time they got home, Remus would be far too tired to make the necessary journey by broom to the Muggle farm of his grandfather or even to go back to Hogsmeade by floo; his son was no more keen on floo powder than his mother was about apparating and two journeys in one day would be more than enough for him. He fought to take deep calming breaths to prevent himself hurtling into the lounge and flooing to the Three Broomsticks in his pyjamas.
He was being irrational. Kane was on the run. His partner was dead and half the magical community was out to kill him. And just because, for some strange reason, he happened to know Rey’s name that did not mean he necessarily knew where he lived. Very few did; Moody and Bevan, his two most frequent Auror partners, had dropped round once or twice after missions to write their reports in comfort “ Orestes Bevan had even brought his wife Elise and their kids three months before to play with Remus. Ares Rowen had come by to offer his condolences after his father had died and Rolphe and his wife had visited once, just after Remus had been born. None of these were people who were likely to inform a raging feral of his whereabouts. Moody and Bevan at least would sooner die.
It was one night. He was overreacting. They would be safe enough until morning.
Still grasping the note in one hand, Rey made his way to the small cauldron on the counter, investigating its contents. A warm porridge-y aroma wafted across the kitchen as he lifted the lid “ bless Diana and her long-lasting warming spells. Sliding the note carefully under a nearby sugar pot, Rey helped himself to his breakfast/lunch and settled at the table to eat. It was one night. It would be fine. They would be safe and gone tomorrow and Kane none the wiser.
If he said it often enough, Rey wondered if he might even believe it.
A/N: As the title may have made you realise, this is yet another of my split chapters, hence the reason why very little actually happens “ it was supposed to be a simple lead in to the events of what is now part two. But guess what? Yep. I wrote too much. ;) Normally under these circumstances, I would have given either part one or part two a different chapter name to cover my conciseness ineptitude. But the name Family Ties is so integral to both parts that for once, I have allowed it to stand. :)