Remember Who You Are

Susan had chosen the Hog’s Head to meet Alice for many reasons. Unlike Neville she was going to go at this a different way. He sugarcoated the facts, she wouldn’t. Her kids are what they are because she held nothing back. She had told them the real story of both wars ever since they were little kids. She had raised them neither to live in fear nor to be obvious to the ‘real’ world.

The Hog’s Head had so many memories. The good and the bad but all of them were precious to Susan. So many of her friends had died, this is where she goes to remember them. She remembers them freely here. It also didn’t seem like she was spying on her kids, she never did that but who knows what people think.

“Do you want anything?” asked a gruff male voice. “No I’m good for now,” Susan said knowing she shouldn’t drink right now. She had to be sober to handle Alice in a manner that will mean anything to her. She didn’t know how she let Hannah and Neville talk her into this.

Alice had no idea how she could allow herself to get dragged into this. As if her meeting with the headmaster and her parents wasn't bad enough, now she had to survive another one. This one would probably be worse in fact, since it was with Susan. Her dad might take it easy on her and have a blind spot for Alice just because she was his daughter. But Susan wasn't like that at all. She was tough in every way and that was exactly how she expected this meeting would be.

Avoiding it sounded wonderful, but this was the only way she could get her parents off her back. Even if it was just for a few moments. She promised, so now she had no other choice. Walking into the Hog's Head, she noticed Susan immediately. Flashing her the most polite smile she could make, she walked towards her. "Hi Susan" she said taking a seat next to her.

She felt a few weird in front of her, ashamed even. After endangering her daughter it was no surprise. Taking a deep, she prepared herself for a very awkward conversation. "So my dad said you wanted to meet me?" she asked.

“Good day Alice. Sit down I’m not going to bite. And quite with that face you’re making Amelia has a mind of her own and knew what she was doing conscious or not. She’s fine now, actually that knock to the head actually helped her a bit,” said Susan not looking at Alice. She wouldn’t look at her until they were equals. She knew that Neville and Hannah asked her to do something that they couldn’t and knew she could. She had to do this same thing with her eldest, it knocked sense into Edgar and she never had to worry about him again.

“You better be ready to talk like an adult otherwise you’re going to be here until you do even if that lasts days,” she said sternly. She would send a letter to Kingsley if that happened because she stuck to her word. Kingsley had enough threatening letters to her after Amelia’s experience in Potions.

At least Susan's words had put some ease into her head. She didn't judge her or blame her for what happened with Amelia. Alice still thought she should. It was her idea after all and she had dragged her into that situation. Although thankfully nothing terrible happened and everyone is fine now. That is what mattered the most to her. "Thank you for saying that, although I can't help but feel that I am responsible. You don't need to let me off the hook, I'm fine with taking the responsibility I deserve" said Alice.

Her next words made her nervous. She knew this was the next part of their little talk, and by the sound of Susan's voice she was quite serious about it. She played with her black snake necklace as she always did when she was nervous. "I'm fine with talking about whatever you want to. Although I don't see the point really, I really did that with my parents and my father. I know he is the one who sent you here, probably to talk some sense into me or something. Well you don't have to do that you see. I'm quite fine. I already apologized and we should just get over it" she said.

She was getting quite sick of talking about this all the time and with so many people. They made it seem like she killed someone or has a serious problem. It was true that Alice still didn't feel quite like herself for a while now. The anger would build up inside of her easily and for no reasons at all. But for now she could control it at lot better than before. So there was no problem to solve.

“Only your parents can punish you for it and to be honest they let off too easily. You wouldn’t have liked it if it had been up to me,” Susan said briefly. She knew what Alice was going to say before she did. She had heard those lines before not just from Edgar but Hannah herself back in the day.

“No, they didn’t ask me to talk sense into you but to talk to you. I talk sense into my kids but that’s not my job to do that’s something your parents need to figure out its part of having rebellious teens. Don’t even start with that speech; you’re not fine. Your entire personality changing and blowing up at your parents isn’t fine. It’s not in your nature,” she said firmly. She was not going to change her mind on that. She had clues of what was going on but it would take time to figure that out even months and hopefully before it is too late.

“Get comfortable I’m going to tell you a story and not the way your parents sugarcoated it. It will be everything you want to know and more,” she said. She remembered terrorizing Claire this is story when she was a little girl. Amelia was quite a different story but then again Amelia wasn’t your normal girl even when she was little.

"I'm not going through a rebellious teenage phase" said Alice rolling her eyes. Why did everyone think that? Anything bad that happens they just say it's because she's in her teenage years. To her that meant the same as saying someone is in their thirties, absolutely nothing. And she wasn't being rebellious. She was just having some fun.

"Well maybe it is in my nature? It's quite normal isn't it, to get upset and to blow up. Taking one trip to the woods doesn't really make me a nominee for the worst daughter award. Everyone is just blowing this out of proportion. If my parents would just relax they would see it's not such a big deal" said Alice. She was determined that what she did shouldn't cause such a chaos in her family. I mean for Merlin's sake, what if she had done something actually dangerous. They would probably hang her on a tree or something.

Her parents did sugarcoat things and for some reason she was glad Susan was going to be honest about whatever she was going to say. It was a dreadful feeling being treated like a child all the time. "Go ahead then" she said curiously.

“Oh just shut up and listen,” Susan growled she wasn’t in the mood to listen to Alice disagree with her, the silly girl doesn’t know that it is impossible to win an argument with ever even when the other person is right. She had always been like that even as a toddler, easier said her parents always had trouble with her doing stuff. It would be random things that made no sense to anyone.

“Back when your parents and I were toddlers we lived in a world where people were kidnapped, tortured and killed. My own uncle and his entire family including even his son that was only a few months old were brutally killed. They still didn’t find all of my uncle’s body. Their house is still boarded up stained in blood. Nothing has changed in there as nothing has really changed in the world. Most of our childhood was safe and there was no reason to be scared that was until our fourth year. I still remember the day Cedric Diggory was killed clear as day and swore form that day forth I would fight against the dark arts and I did believe Voldermort was back the second Cedric was brought back and Harry claimed Voldermort had killed him. Fifth year was the start of Dumbledore’s Army; our very first meeting was here in the backroom over there,” said Susan taking time out to point out the very room. She swears when she goes in there she can sit in her seat that day and recall everything that had been said and what everyone had looked like.

“Our sixth year changed everything. That year sucked so much. That summer right before our sixth year was my Aunt Amelia brutally killed by Voldermort himself. Let’s say her flat was very bloody afterwards and I still lived in it after cleaning it up, I moved out when I got married otherwise I would still live there. If she had lived I think the war would have been very different. A few months later was your grandmother was killed just for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, I strongly disagree with that the Ministry hide something about her death but I don’t tell your mother the truth though but I may as well tell you. Your grandmother was targeted because she knew as more about witches and wizards then even we know, I don’t think she was an normal muggle possibly had an squib parent or something. Your mother dropped out that year and stopped talking to everyone. I visited her on Christmas break and spent most of it just sitting there in front of the door. When she finally opened the door she had lost thirty pounds and her hair was slowly falling out, she hadn’t eaten barely anything. For a while there I was worried she wouldn’t make it since she was in a muggle hospital shortly afterwards since she collapsed from lack of nutrients. She was never the same after that, I still think her father was abusive or something but I have no proof and your mother will never say if it was true or not. Then came our seven year, the year from hell, how I hated the Carrows. The Carrows were the worst teachers ever torture kids randomly in class especially first years. I personally had been tortured by time she said reveling a large scare on her forearm that she typically kept hidden with certain salves that hide it the scar as it got older. Your mother has even a worst scar near her shoulder and upper forearm from them; she would have honestly died that night from the scares if your father hadn’t saved her. Believe it or not I saw your father use the Cruciatus Curse on them that night. I also was with him for part of the Battle of Hogwarts and saw him kill people all for the sake of hoping we would win though the odds were against us,” she said taking a moment to order an alcoholic drink, she couldn’t take about this stuff completely sober.

“Your father was gone for a few years after but then met up with your mother and then a while later came Frank then you. For a while your father was an Auror but he quit after one night when your house was broken into and Frank nearly got kidnapped but your mother nearly killed the person who had broken,” she added leaving out who it was because she didn’t know nor wanted to know. “Any questions?” she asked pretty sure she could answer any question about the past.

((Sorry it is so long))

Alice had once heard this story before from her father, but never in such detail. In fact when she heard Susan's story, she had realized that he had missed out the most important parts. She had never heard of a boy named Cedric Diggory or about her grandmother. She had heard something about the Carrows ruling Hogwarts during her father's 7th year, but again never that they were tortured so much. Including her own mother. She could barely even imagine it. Her father was strong, he could handle it much better than Hannah. Even know she was a lot weaker than her dad, and probably that was the case when she was younger as well. She shook her head to get the thoughts of out her mind. She couldn't keep seeing those pictures anymore, both of her parents side by side each other and both begin tortured. It was like her own nightmare coming true.

"What about the Order? Are my parents still members? Are you? Is it still active" she asked. All she heard about when talking about her past was death, torturing, war, sacrifice. She knew that sooner or later that will happen again. History will repeat itself, she was more than sure of it now. It made her sick to listen to it even, but she was glad she found out everything. It was as if a large chapter had finally closed in her life and she had managed to come over it now. After knowing all of this however, she couldn't just stand around and wait to become a target as well. She promised herself she would practice more with Andrei and take her job with Wright more seriously. Being as naive and clumsy as she was, she could never survive even a day. And being dependent on her family was not something she wanted.

"Thank you for telling me Susan. It means a lot" said Alice nodding her head. This information made her even more determent than before about the change ahead. "
Well this was not exactly the way I imagined our talk will go. I expected a lot of shouting and lecturing" she admitted honestly. Although that didn't mean Susan didn't have that on the agenda for the day as well.

“Hold your hippogriffs kid. I shouldn’t tell you this but since Amelia already knows and it is only a matter of time before everyone else knows. The Order is still active but it isn’t what it used to be sadly. I think your mother still is she hasn’t said she isn’t, she hasn’t gone to any meetings since you were born. Neville is going to be furious for this but what the heck you should know. Your father is still very active in the Order as am I,” Susan answered. There was no reason to hide it anymore. She was nearly certain that they were on verge of another war but it may just be that she is suspicious of everything these days. There was no point of protecting kids from the past when the past may become the present on a second notice.

“Again that isn’t my job to lecture and yell at you. That is what your parents do. Actually, you know what I have an idea. Fallow me,” she said reaching over the bar taking a set of keys giving the bartender a nod, he was used to her doing this. She got up and walked to the backroom and unlocked it opening the door. “Don’t just stand there come on,” she said holding the door open.

"I though he was" said Alice with a small grin. Her dad did seem like the type who couldn't just stand behind the line and watch others take action. No he was more the one who takes the action in the first place type. The last time they talked about the Order he had mentioned some things. But she remembered his hint or more likely a threat that she could never join the Order herself as obviously it was too dangerous for her. Alice wasn't planning on something like that just yet, since she was so young. But just the idea of being part of any organization active like that excited her. And that was what she truly needed in her life now, excitement and thrill. She was done with being boring and average. She didn't wanted to be know just as a Longbottom and not as Alice.

She stood up and followed Susan at her words into a back door. "Is this where you used to hold your meetings?" she asked curiously thinking this would be the place since she just told her about it. "I just don't understand. I mean, what is the point of all of this? Why are you telling this to me know?" she asked. She couldn't figure out what was Susan trying to achieve. She must have had a plan for this meeting or an agenda. She wanted Alice to do something or change in some way, Alice just didn't know how as her methods weren't so conservative as her parents.