Rose and Leo arrived at the Potter home in Godric's Hollow, surprised to find the house empty. Almost immediately, however, James Potter and Sirius Black arrived, alerted by the wards set by James to notify him should anyone come to the house.
"Rose!" James barked, as relief, anger and fear warred for possession of his face. "Where in Merlin's bloody name have you been?"
"That's a long story," Rose replied with a deep sigh, holding her breath before quietly asking, "Is Mum okay?"
"Your mother and Mrs. Weasley will be all right," James replied with evident gratitude as relief won the fight for his facial expressions. "Are you and Leo all right?" he asked, noting Rose's injured face for the first time.
"Yes," Rose replied, lowering her chin to hide her wounds from her father's eyes.
"How did your face get injured?" James asked softly.
Leo took Rose's hand. "We were at Malfoy Manor setting off explosions, and she got too close to one of them."
"You were there?" Sirius exclaimed, astonished by the apparently outrageous size of Leo and Rose's foolish prank.
Rose nodded. "We helped carry out the rescue operation."
James and Sirius looked at one another and sighed, simultaneously saying, "Marauders." After a pause, Sirius asked, "How were you able to sneak in and get the portkey to Lily and Molly?"
James held up his hand to stop the conversation. "Let's get back to the Order before we have them tell the story." With that, James and Sirius side-along apparated their respective children to the house in Hogsmeade where several members of the Order remained, even though the safe return of Lily and Molly had obviated the rescue operation.
"Where did the portkey take Mum?" Rose asked as the two fathers and two teenagers made their way up the front walk.
"St. Mungo's," James said tersely. "The hospital staff provided some basic care, but your mother wanted to speak with Professor Dumbledore as soon as possible, so she and Molly made their way here."
"It was quite the surprise," Sirius chimed in, disbelief apparent in his voice. "We were waiting for more information about the situation before we could launch our own rescue."
"What did Mum say?" Rose asked guiltily as they walked into the house.
James shrugged. "You two showed up at home and tripped the wards before we could get the story."
The group entered the house to find a meeting of only the Order's most central members: Professors Dumbledore, McGonagall and Flitwick, Arthur and Molly Weasley, Lily Potter, Alastor Moody, Frank and Alice Longbottom, Remus Lupin, and a few others Rose failed to recognize.
"It was them, all right," James announced.
"Excellent," Professor Dumbledore said pleasantly, "I should like to hear their story."
Rose cringed at this, and then hugged her mother tightly before exchanging greetings with the meeting's attendants. Although Sidra and John were there, Rose approached neither of her siblings. Sidra seemed clearly uneager for a reunion with Rose, in any case.
"Their story may actually be more interesting than you would think," James told everyone gathered. "Apparently, they were involved in the rescue."
This caused quite a stir, and it took a little bit before everyone calmed down enough for Dumbledore to regain control of the meeting. "This is a very interesting turn of events," he mused. "Perhaps we can allow Lily and Molly the chance to tell their story first, and then we'll hear from you two."
There was another interruption when the Weasley twins entered the house with Ginny Weasley in tow. "She just came home," Fred and George announced.
This caused another flurry of reactions, before Moody stepped up. "All right, everyone, settle down! Lily and Molly are going to tell us everything they know, the children will fill in the blanks, and then we will ask questions as we see fit. Got it?"
Intimidated by Moody, all those present silenced themselves.
Briefly, Molly Weasley recounted how they had gone to search for Rose, Leo, and Ginny before being ambushed by Death Eaters at 12 Grimmauld Place. Slightly tearful, she recounted her and Lily's interrogation by the Death Eaters, before Lily launched into her story about the apparent appearance of the ghost of Harry Ashworth before someone miraculously portkeyed her and Molly away.
"Thank you, Lily and Molly," Dumbledore said, "To recall that experience must have been very difficult." He then turned to the three teens who appeared deeply chagrined. Looking over the top of his half-moon spectacles and directly into Rose's bright green eyes he said, "We'd like you to shed light on anything you can."
"Right," Rose said nervously. Taking a deep breath and nodding to Ginny and Leo as she spoke for the trio, Rose offered an edited version of their communications and rendezvous with Lady Black late at night in Grimmauld Place, expurgating all references to the Dark Lord's diary. She knew that Leo in particular would be uncomfortable with this, but hoped that he wouldn't call her out on it, since she preferred to speak to Dumbledore about the diary in private, rather than reveal its existence in front of everyone from the Order.
"Basically," Rose summarized, "we were hoping to learn more about this Lady Black who was Kreacher's mistress and were hoping that she would tell us about Lord Black. Unfortunately, while we were meeting with her in the house, Mum and Mrs. Weasley showed up at about the same time a bunch of Death Eaters did, though thankfully, we ourselves were hidden from the Death Eaters. We would have done something at that point, but the Death Eaters had erected anti-apparation wards, and we were badly outnumbered, so our hands were tied. Lady Black then agreed to lead a rescue. Since we knew no one in the Order would allow us to help save our mothers-even though they'd been taken while looking for us-we arranged for Lady Black to send a patronus to Professor Dumbledore."
"The raven," Professor Dumbledore said, nodding. "Now, who is this Lady Black?"
"It was Bellatrix," Lily interrupted keenly, "wasn't it?"
Startled, and robbed of momentum by Lily's pronouncement, Rose admitted simply, "Yes."
"So," said Moody, his voice tinged with astonishment and eagerness, "Harry Ashworth and Bellatrix Black are alive after all."
Dumbledore frowned. "It would seem that Miss Black is alive, but what about Mr. Ashworth?"
Rose sighed. "Bellatrix made us swear magical oaths not to discuss without her permission anything about Harry Ashworth, or anything we may or may not have seen, learned, or come to know about Harry Ashworth before, during, and after the rescue."
"You should never have sworn magical oaths like that," James said sternly.
Rose shrugged. "She had the upper hand. Besides, without Bellatrix's cooperation, I doubt that any of us could have successfully breached the wards around Malfoy Manor in time to pull off a rescue. Bellatrix was able to breach them easily."
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