Trapped in time

Chapter 25

"Mon petit chou!" James embraced the blonde haired girl.
"I thought you were American?" James gave Lily a shocked look that came out very harsh. "Sorry I didn't mean it to sound so blunt and intrusive just feeling a little nauseous from the portkey."
"No worries it's a very uncomfortable means of travel I opt for flying when I transport the children it's longer but a lot more comfortable." The girl smiled softly "and Yes I am American but growing up I spent many summers in France with James and our mothers anyway you must be Lily. James hasn't shut up about you since he was 11." The blonde pulled Lily into a tight hug. "I'm Cynthia Kowalski James' cousin, It's so nice to meet you."
"Nice to me you too." Lily gave an awkward smile and patted her back awkwardly.
"Are you ready?" Cynthia lead her to open the door of the building.
"Isn't this meant to be a safe house it's not very safe if we know the location?"
"Actually the amount of wards we have up is incredibly secure we also change locations every few days so we schedule your appointment of the day we change location." 

They walked in the house and there was a grand foyer two kids were huddled together on the steps reading a book.
"Lily, James, this is Fiona and John they were actually the first two kids we took in."
"Hi." The little girl smiled.
"How old are you two?" Lily asked
"10."
"Oh so you start school next year."
"No." Fiona closed the book looking down at her feet as she fiddled with the edge of the book. John put his arm around the girl.
"Why not?" James questioned "are you squibs?"
"No we're capable of magic but we're can't practice it due to the trace it would give away our location and put the whole home at risk and we can't attend school until it's safe." John explained.
"But maybe one day we'll get the chance to go Hogwarts, ain't that right Thia?" A little girl about 6 added as she bounced down the stairs and plopped down next to John and Fiona.
"Stop dreaming Mary its never gonna happen." Another girl added appearing from the door frame behind Cynthia.
"Wars don't last forever." Fiona reminded the girl.
"How after being stuck in this place for 6 years do you still have hope that'll it be over?" The little pessimistic girl asked.
"Because our parents told us to never give up hope we'll see them again." Fiona explained standing up.
"Jane go do your homework, please. Fiona John will you go check how dinner is coming along."
"What about me?" Mary stood at the bottom of the stairs as the other kids went their respected ways.
"Go play." The little girl nodded and skipped away.
"I'm sorry some of the kids especially the older ones struggle with everything."
"We understand. We're out there with more freedom than these kids and it's hard on us." James added as Lily looked at all the photos on the wall, there was about 50 photos of children many with adults but some without.
"But it'll all be over soon." A blue haired woman smiled as she entered the room.
"That's the plan." Lily's eyes went back to the women.
"Lily James this is my partner, Talulah."
"Are these all the kids you look after?" Lily asked bluntly.
"All 80 of them most are sent to us by their families so we take a photo of them together the day we take them into our care, others loose their families and come to us as orphans and they either have a photo up of them with their family at some point or we take one a little later on after they've been in our care a little. But they end up on the wall eventually."
"You have 80 kids here are you not over run."
"We have 1 adult to every 10 kids it's hard but we manage we'll introduce you to the team soon but yes it's chaotic but we try not to let any of the children fall under the radar."

They were lead around the ground floor where they found the dining room that was incredibly wide as it fit eight long tables and a large kitchen with a few house elves.
"You have house elves?" Lily asked.
"We ensure all our elves are well taken care of and Many of our children who come from wealthier house holds are sent with a House elf at the parents request."

They were lead upstairs. "Now this floor has our class rooms and library."
"So you have a school?"
"We do, we teach none practical magic lessons actually some of our older kids should be in lesson now?" They were lead to a class room it had a man stood in front of a chalk board teaching a group of 5 children about magical creatures.
"Those kids are about our age?" Lily gasped.
"Yes the eldest child here is 16 and the youngest at the moment is 8 months old." A door at the end of the corridor slammed closed as a little girl about five stood arms crossed face as red as a strawberry and her hair was like fire.
"Are you ok?" Lily asked squatting down in front of the child.
"No." The girl pouted.
"What happened?"
"Mrs Kowalski called me Nymphadora I don't like that name."
"Tonks we've been through this that's your name and I'm sure Mrs Kowalski had a reason to call it you what have you done?"
"Julie was sad it's her brother's birthday so I was cheering her up by doing different faces and she called me it."
"Tonks?" James thought where had he heard that name before. Then it clicked.
"Your Sirius' cousin, I remember him telling me his aunt had a little girl who was a Metamorphmagus."
"My mummy and Daddy sent me here cause my mummy's family are bad people and might try and hurt me."
"Not all of them are bad people have you met any of them?" Tonks shook her head.
"Here." James pulled out his wallet and took out a photo.
"What's this?" Tonks asked frowning at the photo it had four boys at a lake.
"You see that boy." James pointed at Sirius who was swinging and jumping off into the lake from the tire swing. "That's your cousin Sirius he's one of the good ones."
"Who's that?" She pointed to Remus who was wading through the shallow edge.
"That's Remus lupin."
"He's very pretty." The little girls face faded from red to a light pink.
"Why don't you keep this photo?" James looked back at Cynthia to check it was ok to which she nodded.
"Tonks let's say thank you and you can spend the rest of the lesson in your room and calm down then later after dinner we'll have a one on one to go over what you missed today." Cynthia suggested to the girl.
"Ok Thank you." She hugged Lily and James and ran off.

They finished the rest of the tour without many interruptions. Dinner was nearly ready as kids were running around relaxing until then.

"Like I said we're a small team. My mother, Queenie and father, Jacob, work here, then there's Tullulah and her sisters, Debby, Prudence and Peggy and prudence's husband Denny. So how it works is each off us has no more than 15 kids in our charge at a time as of current Tullulah has 10, mother and father as 13 each
Peggy 10 I believe both Debby and prudence had 12 and both Denny and I have 5. You actually met all 5 of them. Mary, Jane, Tonks, John and Fiona. You can elect any of us as a guardian for the girls if you send them here."
"Thank you I think we're going to move forward with the placement."
"Wait!" Tonks called sliding down the banister to them. "Here." She thrusted a pile of folded paper into James' hands.
"What is this?" James looked at the messy scribble on the front.
"Letters, one for my mummy and daddy, one for Sirius, one for Remus and on for my mummy's family."
"Tonks it's not safe for us to give these to people the less people that no you were sent away the better." Lily explained to the young girl.
"You can give my parents theirs, and you can make it seem like I sent Remus and Sirius there's from home and same with mummy's family. Please." Tonks gave herself puppy eyes as she pleaded
"Ok we will as long as you do us a favour?"
"What?"
"We have three daughters who are gonna be staying here will you keep an eye on them for us."
"What are their names?"
"Tonks that's enough questions please say goodbye."
"Ok bye." The girl ran off waving.
"If you do send the girls here it might be best due to their situation to give them a fake name."
"Really?" Lily didn't seem so sure.
"Lil we know how this story goes everyone's gonna know our names and the girls will never get to be normal cause they'll be used for their magic." James whispered to Lily.
"MY girls! There my children that your stripping of a family, of a home, of their mother, of there magic and you want to strip them of their name as well" Lily snapped storming out of the house.
"I'm so sorry we'll be in touch." James apologised.