All in the Family

Chapter 97: A Peck of Owls

Two today, half an apology for this fic being gone so long, half because it's Valentine's Day!

To Stitches: Loyalty is earned, and then takes quite a bit to break, something I hope you've enjoyed being portrayed over multiple characters over the course of this series. Who will and will not have the loyalties they started by the end is the journey.

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There was a whole whirlwind of activity upon this landing, many shrieks from more than just the eight of them and so much movement that after their long solidarity it was frightening. His heart was fluttering in his chest in anticipation for a fight once more as he tried to see past his swirling vision, but then his eyes were only further obscured by some thick, milky substance and he cursed in further shock.

"Frank?" He heard Alice's voice not too far off, and she didn't sound particularly distressed, but his agitation still rose further when he continued swiping at his eyes and unwilling to cast the mess off with magic for fear of what it was.

"Here," definitely not Alice's voice spoke much closer at hand, but only after he'd softly uttered the spell and Frank finally cracked his eyes open did he recognize it as Lupin. He fought hard against the instinctive urge to cringe away, didn't entirely manage it, but did get out a sincere, "thanks."

Lupin gave him a small smile back, already several more feet away than he would have been while casting the spell, but waited patiently until Frank actually got his feet under him and was clearly fine now before leaving him to investigate the place, or more accurately, the owls. He recognized this place as Eeylops Owl Emporium. His face scrunched up in further disgust, he was glad Lupin had left now, as the expression had nothing to do with the werewolf but everything to do with the understanding of what had been on his face.

There were 225 different species of owls, and all of them seemed to be on display in some variation around this shop all in a variety of colors, not to mention the sign hanging in the back promising even more creatures could be requested, including bats for overnight deliveries, flamingos for an extra love-letter flair, and hippogriffs if you 'really wanted to deliver that message.'

There were still some up in the rafters rather than on their perches, feathers fluttering in a colorful tornado just settling on the ground from their abrupt departure at their unexpected arrival. He finally spotted Alice and Lily cooing affectionately over a rack of tiny little scoop owls, one was even albino like a miniature Hedwig. He heard Regulus's voice off in the distance and swallowed a laugh at the universes' sense of humor, landing them here while the chapter title A Peck of Owls echoed around them.

It was a quiet, diminished group that listened to Harry hauling back his nearly unconscious cousin back to their house while having his questions ignored by the suddenly intriguing Mrs. Figg, and even more sporadically a new guy named Mundungus Fletcher. Then the Dursleys of course were of no better company, the ungrateful people they were accusing rather than thanking Harry for Dudley's circumstances.

Then the heat of it all really came down, Harry had in fact done underage magic, something that really hadn't occurred to any of them during the circumstances, considering he'd been in a life or death situation and it was a miracle in itself he even got himself out of it. The Ministry didn't seem to agree, as they actually tried to expel him over it? Then the barrage of other letters from a multitude of people came giving him all sorts of contradictory advice, and honestly by the end of it all they felt like collapsing from exhaustion just hearing about it, let alone poor Harry living through it.

Frank was beside himself with confusion by the end of it all, even hearing the first-hand account he didn't know how Harry was taking it all so calmly, having a conversation with those Dursleys on top of this turmoil. He watched Lily mostly through the majority of the exchange, the Ministry's steep response to this was catching him off guard, he had no idea how a Muggleborn would be reacting to all this, but instead she kept pursing her lips up and flashing her eyes in disgust every time Petunia opened her mouth. Not unusual, but it distracted him for a moment as he wondered if perhaps she'd gotten a few letters, perhaps not as disastrous as this one, but something from the Ministry herself forewarning her of these consequences.

There was audible relief all around when the final letter came and Harry was not going to be expelled until some hearing, at least giving some semblance of sanity back to the world, which was erased once more as that wasn't in fact the last letter, but Petunia was sent an incomprehensible howler. Lily had to fight the urge to go find Regulus just to make sure he wasn't making this up for some reason, but his voice stuttering in surprise was audible for all to hear. Clearly, even in the Muggle world, this future was on its last stretches of sanity.