A/N: Here’s the next chapter. There are quite a few flashbacks in this chapter so most of the drama doesn’t happen until the next. I hope you enjoy it anyway. Voldemort’s plan had worked perfectly. He knew the Order would save the girl, but he had to make her fall to strike an element of fear into their hearts. He might have lost this particular battle but nothing was a greater weapon than knowing how to create fear. This was something he knew best.
He had no doubt that Alice would be safe where she was for now. She needed her to remain with the werewolf, before returning to Hogwarts to avoid even more suspicion anyway. He just hoped she had enough brain to think up a cover story for what had just happened. He just hoped that the stress wouldn’t affect his heir in anyway... he needed that baby born perfect.
~*~
“What do you mean she just fell from the sky?” Harry asked, unable to not be suspicious. “Doesn’t this spell out the words something is wrong to you?”
Arthur sighed, “Harry you really need to stop being suspicious over the girl. Just because she dated...” his words were stopped however by Harry cutting across.
“Exactly. Dated. How do we know she isn’t still dating him? How do we know that she hasn’t spent the last few days sitting with him and his Death Eater pals over at Malfoy Manor?”
It was Remus’ turn this time to get angry and he shot Harry a furious glare. “Do you honestly believe that my daughter would do such a thing?” he spat, furiously. “Do you think that for a moment she would consider being stupid enough to risk everything for him?”
“She said she was in love with him.” Harry said, glaring at Remus, refusing to back down even know he knew he couldn’t win this argument. “How do we know she wouldn’t go that far?”
Remus opened his mouth to shout a furious retort back, when Tonks cut across him. “Remus dear, Harry’s just upset... he knows Alice wouldn’t really...” She gave Harry a glare of his own, which soon gave him the message.
An awkward silence fell upon the room. The tension however was heightened when Alice stirred, before opening her eyes.
“What happened?” she murmured, rubbing her eyes. The last thing she could remember was Voldemort pulling her away from Yaxley above the Burrow... Wait... Why was she in the Burrow?
“Dad?” she asked, suddenly realising Remus was standing there. The response however, wasn’t the warm one she had imagined. Every wand in the room was pointing at her. She looked down and saw a glimmer of silver on the floor. As she leant down to pick it up, she realised it was Yaxley’s mask but her hand was knocked out of the way by Remus.
“What happened that day I took you to the zoo when you were three?” he spat, pointing his wand, directly at her heard.
That question meant one thing... they thought she was a Death Eater. They had a good reason to. She was in Death Eater robes after all. As for the occasion he was discussing however, she remembered it well.
Alice was skipping through the zoo holding Remus’ hand tightly, gazing into the various enclosures housing the many different animals.
“Daddy?” she asked excitedly, “When do we get to go and see the wolfies?”
Remus stopped. He hadn’t decided yet whether he was actually going to allow her to see them. Of course he didn’t want to deny her the chance to see more of her own kind... it was just he was worried. How would he explain their sudden unnatural behaviour in the presence of his daughter? Or how his daughter had suddenly developed wolf like features?
“Sweetie...” he began. “We discussed this earlier.”
“But daddy!” she whined, “I promised you I wouldn’t do anything! I just want to see them...”
She had stuck out her bottom lip, in that adorable way that just made his heart melt every single time. A daughter should not be able to have this much power over her father... but Remus couldn’t help but give in.
“Alright.” He sighed, picking her up gently and balancing her on his hip.
She giggled excitedly and clapped her hands as he carried her over to the wolf enclosure. They were sleeping.
“Daddy why are they sleeping?” she asked confused, “I’m awake? They should be too!”
“Wolves tend to be more nocturnal sweetie.” He told her, “They sleep during the day and come out more at night. You know...” he whispered into her ear, “Like daddy does sometimes.”
She nodded seriously. She knew how Remus had to disappear to go all wolf like sometimes but that was only ever at night, whereas Alice could become a wolf whenever she wanted to. She didn’t really understand why his transformations were so different to hers.
The Alpha male then sat up, the rest of his pack slowly copying him.
“Look daddy!” Alice said excitedly, “They’re awake!”
Remus froze. It was exactly as he had feared; Alice was having an effect on them. He was rooted to the spot as the wolves slowly made their way towards the mesh that kept them from escaping their enclosure. The Alpha male managed to stand on his hind legs, paws against the mesh to support himself, in order to get a good look at the girl in Remus’ arms.
The suspicious keeper then made his way towards the father and daughter. “What’s going on?” he asked, looking between his Alpha male and Alice, who was staring at the animal who was acting so out of character.
“I’m sorry...” Remus apologised, blushing ever so slightly. “Maybe they can smell our dog?” He knew the keeper knew this was a lie, and felt stupid saying it, but he couldn’t think up of a better explanation. He then muttered his apologies again, before turning away and carrying Alice back towards another enclosure.
As they left the very confused keeper however, Alice waved goodbye to the Alpha male... who he swore raised a paw to wave back.
“You took me to the wolf enclosure...” she began, wiping away her tears from the memory. It had been one of the many father, daughter moments that Alice had shared with Remus throughout the years. These had ended of course with her starting Hogwarts... and she doubted things would ever be able to be that way again. “The Alpha male reacted very strangely to me being there... so you lied and said he could smell our dog on me. You didn’t want us to go there in the first place but had given in due to my insistence...”
Remus paused to think, before asking a final question, just to ensure this really was his daughter. “What did I buy you that day?”
Remus carried his daughter into the gift shop before setting her down onto the floor. Of course, being only three years old, her mind was immediately occupied with thoughts about teddy bears, so she ran towards the shelves full of them and began to pull a giant wolf down.
Remus ran over and helped her get it down, before handing it to her. He could have seen a major accident happening otherwise.
“Daddy can I have the wolfie?” she asked with wide eyes, cuddling the oversized wolf close to her. That wolf was almost as big as she was. Luckily Remus had foreseen this, and he had promised her that she could have a teddy as her early birthday present and had brought enough muggle money along with him to be able to stick with this promise.
“Yes darling.” He smiled, glad he could give his daughter what she wanted, he couldn’t always be so giving.
“A giant wolf... I named him Mr Wolfie... and he’s sitting next to my bed at home... I still have him.”
This answer seemed to relieve Remus, and he lunged forwards and pulled his daughter into a huge hug, glad it was her and so glad she was safe.
The tension in the room disappeared, and it was replaced by relief. “What happened?” Arthur asked, asking the question that everyone wanted answering.
“I don’t know... my mind is blank in places...” Alice lied. Well part of it was the truth, she couldn’t remember exactly how she had ended up in the Burrow, but she knew all the events leading up to it.
She then paled, suddenly feeling queasy again, and she put a hand to her mouth, letting go of Remus.
This concerned him, “What’s wrong?” he asked.
Molly chose this time to interject however, which came as a relief to Alice. These questions were slowly becoming more difficult to answer and she had no intention to tell Remus the source of her sickness. “I think Alice may need to rest.” She said, wanting to move things on so that she could get back to attending to George. “Remus she can stay in Ginny’s room.”
As Remus gently lifted his daughter off the sofa, she reached down and hastily stuffed Yaxley’s mask under her robes. It was his original; she didn’t want it taken away from her. If it was left there the Order would destroy it.
He then carried her to Ginny’s room where she climbed into bed once he had gone, refusing to take off Yaxley’s robes for now. Although technically they were hers, she needed a reminder of things back there. Even though Draco had admitted to no longer loving her... he was still her husband. Yaxley was still a closer friend to her than anyone here other than her adoptive parents. She needed reminders of them close by.
~*~
The days passed with nothing majorly eventful happening. Alice remained in Ginny’s room with the excuse that she just needed rest from the recent ordeal. However as Harry’s birthday came, she found herself being summoned downstairs by Remus.
She climbed out of bed and changed into a simple pair of jeans and a cute t-shirt, it made a nice change from the heavy robes she had been wearing, even if they had belonged to Yaxley.
She headed downstairs and into the Weasley’s small kitchen, where she found both her adoptive parents awaiting her. Tonks was sitting down at the table, beaming at her and Remus was standing by the window, with his back to the both of them.
She couldn’t help but find this scene a little odd. Plus there was something that was making her wolf senses kick in... it was only when her stomach lurched that she realised what it was. Tonks was pregnant... she could sense it. Within some species of animals, the females have a fantastic motherly sense of being able to tell when another of their kind is with child.
Although Remus’ stance was concerning her, she couldn’t help but grin. This was brilliant; she was effectively getting a baby brother.
“You’re pregnant?” she squealed, not even bothering to believe for a moment this might not be true.
Tonks was stunned, “How do you...” she began, but then she grinned, before glancing up at her husband who had turned round. “Of course... the wolf thing.
At the mention of the word wolf, Remus stormed out of the room. Alice watched him go rather shocked, “What’s gotten into him?” she asked, looking back at Tonks.
Tonks looked at the floor and sighed, “He didn’t take the news too well...”
This got Alice thinking. Recently she had been aware of major mood swings with Remus. So much so you’d wonder as to whether actually he was the one whom was pregnant. He had anger that at times could rival Voldemort’s just bubbling up inside him and he’d been letting it out a lot more frequently. Closer to the full moon he always got like this, but just recently it was becoming far more frequent, and both the women in his life had noticed this.
The fact that he had reacted badly to his wife having a baby... didn’t set much in store for when Alice eventually got round to telling him of her own child growing inside her. She had to be glad however that she wouldn’t start growing noticeably until she got to Hogwarts. This way, she could possibly avoid having to tell him all together. Gryffindor’s were supposed to be brave yes... but you ‘d have to be a fool to tell an emotional werewolf that their daughter was pregnant.
She reached across and gently took Tonk’s hand. “I’m here for you.” She smiled, “Any time you need to talk, or cry or just take out all your pregnant frustration out on someone then write to me. That’s what daughters are for.” She adored Tonks. Having grown up in a predominantly male society, Alice wasn’t entirely sure how she would take Remus’ future bride if he had ever married. However Tonks had just fitted in perfectly, she wished she could have spent more time with her.
“Are you still seeing Draco?” she then asked.
Alice sighed, but Tonks then spoke again, “You don’t have to answer of course but I just figured it might be nicer if I asked... rather than Harry for example.”
She had a point there. Alice really couldn’t deal with the drama that Harry would no doubt force upon her if she didn’t answer this. “No I’m not.” She lied. Well, technically, it wasn’t a complete lie. She wasn’t “seeing” Draco as such... she’d married him.
She looked down at her left hand automatically and then froze, eyes wide in fear.
Tonks leant forward, suddenly concerned.
“What’s wrong she asked?”
“Nothing...” Alice said suddenly, but nothing was far from it.
Her wedding ring was missing.
A/N: There I hope you liked it. Also I apologise for the fact I now put an A/N at the start and the end of my chapters... I just decided it was nicer. As I usually have something to say at the end. This chapter was quite difficult to write, as I had planned more drama for the next chapter... so really it was just to fill in the gaps. Anyway next chapter is up as soon as it validates.
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