chapter thirty four
“We continued to play the part of love-stricken teenagers, chasing each other through the busy streets of London, surviving off coffee, cigarettes, and bread. It was bohemian, our romance, we had no idea what the future would hold, so we took every opportunity we had to dance to old music. I all but moved into his little flat above the shop, making love on every surface in that cramped space day in and day out till I had to leave.” Marigold whipped a tear that the memory of Henry had conjured.
“What did your parents say?” Tonks piqued.
“My mother called me a tramp for doing so, and my father hardly looked me in the eye if we were ever home at the same time,”
“Your grandparents were much better parents to you anyhow,” Molly tutted.
“Yai Yai would’ve forbidden me from spending the nights,” Marigold laughed lightly. “Maybe then I wouldn’t have ended up pregnant for my final semester at school, but I’m so glad I did, otherwise I wouldn’t have those incredible girls.”
“You got pregnant that early?” Tonks gaped.
“By the time our second week of classes had started again, I had my suspicions. I’d missed my period, and Sybil Trelawny kept giving me odd glances…I think she knew as soon as she saw me. One day she cornered me and Lily in a hallway, and asked why I had more than one soul within my aura.” Marigold recalled.
“What did Lily say?” Molly asked.
“Oh the girls were incredible to me, we did our best to hide my baby bump as spring came along, and they brewed me teas to help with any inflictions, they were so supportive and doting.”
“Did you tell anyone else?” Tonks questioned further.
“I wrote Henry at once, of course, I was so worried he wouldn’t reply. I thought by the time I graduated he’d have closed up the shop and moved away so I couldn’t find him…Instead, he wrote immediately and asked me to go steady. Then I told McGonagall and Madam Rhubarb, it was most sensible to do so.”
“It was one February night in the infirmary that I found out I was having twins, Dorcas and Marlene were each holding one of my hands, and Lily sat next to me on the bed, playing with my hair to comfort me. Madam Rhubarb scanned my small forming bump and deducted that there were two fetuses in my womb, and Trewlany confirmed it. I asked them not to tell me the genders, I wanted Henry there for that at least.”
“Were you scared?” Tonks gasped.
“More than anything, I was seventeen and sick as a dog most of the time.”
“Knock knock,” Sirius called as he pushed the door open slightly. “I’m sorry to interrupt girl time, but I need to apologize,”
“Oh, do you now?” Tonks raised her brows.
“Actually Remus is here too,” Sirius nodded shyly, opening the door more so his best friend could also peer in.
“Pity Arthur had to go to work,” Marigold shook her head.
“Well come in then, the both of you, Marigold is telling stories!” Tonks invited.
“About Henry?” Remus was tattered on his feet, clearly still somewhat embarrassed from the earlier events in the kitchen.
“Some, yeah,” Marigold shrugged coyly, scooting closer to Molly when Sirius sat down on the bed.
“Let Sirius say what we discussed, then get right back into it,” Remus nodded, tentatively sitting next to Tonks, who looked overjoyed at his choice.
“Right, erm, I’m really sorry for teasing and just being a twat of a cousin in general,” Sirius smiled sheepishly at his younger relative.
“You’re a proper git sometimes, Sirius, but I love you.” She returned earnestly.
“Right, now where were you in the story of the strapping young Henry?” Molly urged, still intrigued by the story even though she'd heard it before.
“Oh yes, so there I was, seventh year at school and trying to hide a second-trimester pregnancy with twins right before graduation. Did you boys know back then?”
“There were some nasty rumors spread by Bellatrix and Malfoy, but we jinxed them both plenty,” Sirius nodded.
“Jinxed them? Sirius heard them say one thing in a corridor once and every time he saw them after that I practically had to hold him back from strangling them!” Remus chuckled.
“It’s not that I wished they were wrong, but god I was petrified for you, and I had no idea if they were right, I’m not even sure Lily had confessed it to James!”
“He’s not kidding, I had to force him to rip his worried puppy dog eyes off you every time we were in the same room. He couldn’t even eat in the dining hall!”
Marigold glanced to her right at Sirius, she didn’t know those details. He was already gazing back at her, a pure but unreadable expression written all over him.
“They didn’t know about Henry,” Marigold added.
“We knew she had met someone over break, James told us one night while we were drunk that the reason she was glowing again was that she was going steady with a London boy,” Sirius said.
“After graduation, I only saw Henry once. It was that horrible night on the boat. I never met him alive, but god I wish I had…I’m really sorry Marigold.”
“I never got to meet him, I was too late when I heard the news of the attack. I also didn’t get to meet the twins, back at the Potters’-“ Sirius continued.
“Wait, back up, the boat?” Tonks asked.
“I rode the Hogwarts Express back to London at the end of school, and Henry picked me up. I told him I couldn’t go home to my parents, we decided to run away to Greece and live with my grandparents till we could get on our feet.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever told anyone this, but I tried to say goodbye to you before you left the train. I came by the compartment with you and the girls, but Dorcas glared at me and Marlene told me to leave. You were crying on Lily, and I saw your stomach in those muggle clothes. You didn’t see me.” Sirius spoke up once again.
“I’m sorry Siri, I left the train immediately, I didn’t want any of our classmates to notice, robes hid it well but I really didn’t want to wear maternity clothes as a teenager.” Marigold offered him a small smile of apology, another detail she hadn’t been informed of.
“What did your grandparents say?” Tonks whispered.
“Well, I had to tell Henry I was a witch, give him full disclosure before he signed his life away to taking care of me. I walked with him back to his flat. It was crazy, how much things had changed around us.
The war had begun, I was swollen like a blimp, the record shop had closed and Henry had packed his few belongings in anticipation of my return. That’s when I showed him my belly for the first time, and my wand.”
“Was he scared?” Molly pressed her lips.
“Not as much as I had expected, part of me thought he’d scream and run away, or call me crazy and kick me to the curb. But he was fascinated. He adored Dandelion, that old evil owl, and more than anything he just wanted to know more.”
“Did you appellate to Greece like normal or travel some long bohemian journey across Europe?” Remus mused.
“We didn’t have the money to buy a train ticket or a flight or rent a car. Maybe we would’ve enjoyed backpacking and hitching rides down, but I was far too pregnant. We used the Floo powder, and imagine my grandpa’s surprise when a random man fell out the fireplace, laughing with delight and clapping his hands like a child,”
“But my grandmother was more surprised when I followed, very evidently pregnant. My grandfather and Henry went for a walk, and she and I discussed things in the living room.”
“Did she yell at you for having premarital sex like she did when we came around?” Sirius joked.
“No, she cried for me instead. I think it was her worst fear I wouldn’t have my adolescence the full term. But on their walk, Henry asked my grandfather if he could propose to me. They came home, my grandfather fished out the ornate vintage thing he had used to propose some decades earlier,”
“How did he ask?” Molly swooned.
“I was teaching him to sail, just the two of us on the deck of The Cressida. He pretended to drop in the ocean, that goofball.” Marigold shook her head giggling at the memory.
“And you said yes of course?” Tonks urged.
“I did, next thing I know, we’re hiking to a little chapel in town and getting hitched! I wore a white sundress instead of a gown, it was much too hot out for that nonsense!”
“Remind me, who was invited?” Remus inquired.
“Lily and James of course, Peter and Marlene, Dorcas and Mary, William and Alexander, and my parents. They were happy to see stop tramping around I’m sure because they were on their best behavior.”
“I can’t believe that filthy rat was there,” Sirius shook his head.
“That’s one of the injustices of the world, the fact that we'd all been friends for years, then he and Marlene get in one quarrel, and he not only rats out her family’s whereabouts but mine and Lily’s too.”
“Were you happy before that?” Molly squeezed her friend's hand.
“Oh unbelievably so, I gave birth a month early, but my mother saved the girls with some healing remedies and spells. I wish I told her how much I loved her, she was a part of the order way back then and died on a mission. Alexander and William died together, in battle defending my father.”
“If I could go back I would change so many things.” Sirius took Marigold’s free hand, comforting her.
“Me too, Siri, I know. But I thank the universe every day my girls were spared, their infancy was such a joy to me. I taught them to swim in the waves, Henry wrote them songs before bed every night in their crib at the foot of our bed. They laughed and danced and had this secret baby language that only the other could speak.”