Unwelcome Visitor
Chapter 1- Unwelcome Visitor
Things had settled in nicely over the past week more or less. The country home felt lived in again, and Winnie was beyond thrilled to have her family back to care for. Maya was even beginning to feel physically a little better as well. The ability to slowly work out her old injuries while having a comfortable resting place did wonders. Baby Mattie seemed to be settling in quite happily to his new home and country as well.
Currently, he was laying on a blanket on the floor surrounded by pillows to keep him from rolling over. Mattie stared wondrously at the small magical quaffle, bludgers, and snitch zooming around his head in an intricate dance. It was a gift from Winnie. She said that she scrounged it up from some of Matthew and Maya’s old baby stuff. It shocked the woman to hear that her parents were sentimental enough to have stored that stuff away.
Maya currently nursed a tall glass of water while applying ice to her heavily scarred and throbbing knee. Some injuries never go away even with the existence and assistance of magic. She was never lucky enough it seemed when it came to physical and mental injuries. Having lived amongst muggles for a long while taught her a few of their tricks and they had been indeed most helpful. Was she ever glad to have listened and paid attention to her muggle-born friends.
Winnie contentedly looked through a new cookbook that she had found with some of the money Maya insisted on paying her for sticking around all those years. It was a perfectly peaceful moment, and Maya happily basked in the glory of it. It was rare for her to not have nagging dark thoughts penetrate her mind.
That was until the stillness and happiness of the moment was ruined by a knock on the front door. Instantly, Maya stiffened in her seat and Winnie looked up from her book, her large eyes widened further. Mattie gurgled from his spot on the floor. No witch, wizard, or creature had knocked on the door of this particular house in ages. No one but a few knew of the existence of this house, and those that did— they did not know that anyone was indeed home anymore.
Despite the held breath of those inside besides the baby, another knock was applied to the door. The frozen suspense was broken as Winnie got to her feet immediately, book all but forgotten. A life time of servitude and manners could not be drummed out of any good house-elf.
“Winnie…” Maya warned, not feeling up or welcome to any company unexpected or not. Another knock sounded.
“They are not going away Mistress. I’ll get the door; Mistress Maya is in no shape to do so.” Winnie said glancing worriedly at her charge’s sore and pale form. Before Maya could try and stop her; Winnie disappeared to the front door. Maya let out a shaky breath of air as the tension started to build back up again in her body.
No one that she was prepared to see could possibly be at that door. When she left almost nine years ago, she did not give her friends and associates that survived much chance to stop her from disappearing. So, any reunion that might happen in moments would not be a pleasant one. Maya heard muffled voices from the entry way before the sound of the door closing.
Unfortunately, that was soon followed by the progressing steps of someone much larger than Winnie. The elf in question appeared in the room looking rather hesitant. “Mr. Albus Dumbledore to see you Mistress Maya.” She squeaked. Maya wasn’t sure who she was more afraid of upsetting, her or the extremely famous and powerful wizard that had entered the room behind the elf. Maya’s jaw tensed as she took in her old headmaster.
His beard was as long as ever and the pearly blue robes that he’d dressed in matched those of her memory of him possessing. She glanced at his piercing blue eyes for a second before scoffing. “Of course, it would be you.” Maya said dismissively. Regrettably, it only made her old headmaster’s eyes twinkle more.
“It is good to see you as well Maya.” Albus Dumbledore said taking a seat in a chair next to Winnie. She had nervously gone back to her cookbook. Maya watched shrewdly as Albus turned his gaze to Mattie laying on the floor still fascinated by his Quidditch balls.
“I see that congratulations are in order Maya. I was shocked to say the least when Mateo’s name showed up in the Hogwarts’ register.” Dumbledore commented smiling down at her son.
“Of course, that’s how you found me.” She muttered. Nosy old codger couldn’t keep to himself. Albus snapped his gaze back up to her. Maya knew that he was a skilled legilimens, so she made sure to lower her mental shields long enough to let that thought go through.
“I understand your hostility Maya, despite how regrettable it is. You lost much in the war, more than most, but not all.” He stated. She bristled at the subtle accusation.
“We all lost Albus, but some were lost unnecessarily so. You know that as well as I do. Look where it got all of us.” Maya bit back.
“We are alive and Voldemort is not in power any longer. That is what we succeeded in getting.” He defended. With a glare she shoved the icepack off of her disfigured knee and stood. Maya felt Dumbledore’s gaze on her injuries, but she ignored him and limped over to Mattie to pick him up. “I know that you do not want to hear this Maya, but the danger has not passed. I know that you can feel it.”
She bounced Mattie slightly in her arms, and he rewarded her with a gummy smile. His small brown curls were wild. “You may as well come into the kitchen Albus, my mother would have been rolling in her grave if she knew that I didn’t offer you a cuppa.” Maya said, making her way out of the sitting room and into the kitchen.
She retrieved her wand from its holster and with a flick of her wrist the flames on the stove lit and a kettle filled with water. Her old headmaster followed behind her and took a seat across from her at the kitchen table. She steeled herself before letting her eyes meet his gaze again.
“I’ve… heard murmurings in my travels. I left to get away from everything that happened, and for the most part it worked, but… those murmurings are growing in strength.” Maya said letting the seriousness of the situation settle between them. For his part Dumbledore did not look surprised, if anything he looked worn and weary.
“It would seem Albus, that our best efforts only prolonged another confrontation.” Maya finished. She watched as the greatest wizard to exist past Merlin closed his eyes and let out a long breath.
“So, this is why you have returned.”
“Amongst other things yes.”
The two of them sat there staring at each other as the kettle whistled. She quickly got the tea steeping and saucers prepared with another intricate flick. They sat in silence as the cups came flying over to them followed by milk and sugar in case they were needed. It wasn’t until they’d both had their first sip and she’d slipped Mattie a pacifier that he spoke again.
“Have you seen anyone else yet?” The question was innocent enough in utterance, but held greater meaning. Had she seen anyone else from the order? Had she subjected herself to their judgmental stares?
“I think that you know the answer to that already Albus.” Maya replied calmly, adjusting Mattie in her arms as he starts to fuss. Her response seemed to trigger something deeply sad in him, if his face was anything to go by.
“I believe that you may find that time has changed all those who we once knew. Wisdom and understanding grows as time and distance attempt to heal.” With that the old wizard pushed to his feet. She rose out of custom as well. “I have taken enough of your time today with my unannounced arrival Maya, I will be off then. Do send an owl when you are finally in the mood for some more company.”
She trailed her old headmaster to the door and with a fond smile he apparated off the front step of her home.
It wasn’t until a little while later when she was giving Mattie his feeding that she found the unexpected gift on her kitchen table from her unexpected guest. Maya honestly would have appreciated a bottle of fire whiskey more, but she shook her head out of that thought as she now steered clear of those substances as much as possible.
Winnie looked up from her new recipe for ratatouille to watch her internal struggle. “What did Master Dumbledore leave behind Mistress Maya?” She questioned. Maya bit the inside of her cheek, unable to tear her gaze away from the photo in front of her. Maya could remember the day that it was taken like it was yesterday.
They all weren’t exactly happy, but they were hopeful— all of them united for a cause, the greater good. So many of those faces staring up at her somberly and somewhat pridefully were dead. Some of those faces she couldn’t bear to see again for the fear of rejection and the dredging of painful memories.
Her eye couldn’t help but track to herself in the front of the group. She looked so young and less jaded than now. Her hair was longer and one of her hands was clasped firmly in the hand of the young woman next to her. Even though the photo was in black and white Maya could still picture her curly auburn hair and warm hazel eyes.
She had to physically close her eyes to block the sudden swarm of memories that rose up at the mere sight of the woman standing so entwined with her in the photo. When Maya managed to open her eyes again, she caught the movement of the young man standing in the photo next to her. In the photo he bumps her shoulder with his, and the pair of them share a look before looking back forward.
The man had unruly black hair and round rimmed glasses. His hand is tucked in the hand of a young woman with long flowing hair next to him, and it’s honestly a shame that color photography was not a thing at the time.
“It has been a while since Winnie has seen a picture of Master James.” The elf’s voice broke through the past that she had been stuck in.
“Well, it’s not like grandma Celeste was very keen on acknowledging that ‘dirty’ secret of the family.” Maya replied, still staring at one of the few pictures that she still possessed of this man.
“Mistress Celeste was never kind to you Mistress Maya, she never let Master James come over, and she always denied that he was your brother.” Winnie spat vehemently and with a scowl on her face. And there it was, the shameful secret that grandma Celeste always found so distasteful.
Maya had two brothers Matthew Sutcliffe and James Potter. The reason for this was because her mother had a fling with Fleamont ‘Fleabag’ Potter, and he proceeded to treat her like dirt beneath his shoe, even after she found out that she was pregnant. He had his own wife and expecting child to take care of not a bastard like her.
Luckily for her mother and subsequently Maya, she met her father, Henry Sutcliffe and he did not care that Maya was not his daughter by blood. She was his and that was all that mattered to him. He went against his own mother and gave her his name and his love. Which was one of the hundreds of reasons why her father was better than her sperm donor.
She and James found out that they were related in their fourth year of school together when the story of the whole sordid affair hit the Daily Profit curtesy of an overzealous journalist. There was no real sense in denying it. Maya’s mum and dad said that it was nothing to be ashamed of, and there was more fallout for the fleabag than her mum. James didn’t believe it at first. Maya had always been able to tell that he had idolized his father, but when no believable explanation came, he was forced to succumb to the truth that he had a sibling— a sister.
Things did not go easy for the pair of them, for one they were in different houses, and had not gotten along swimmingly at first. It wasn’t until Maya had saved him and his pal Sirius from the angry school caretaker, Filch, that he even seemed open to getting to know her. But, from that moment on she officially had a second brother.
The world was just too cruel to rip both of them away from her within weeks of each other. Thinking of James led to thinking of Lily, which inevitably led her to thinking about Harry, her nephew who she had only gotten to see three times before that fateful and horrible night. Before the world changed and before Maya changed to an unbearable degree.
“Winnie… where is Harry Potter now?”