A Million Reasons

Chapter twenty three

The first move Harry and Draco made was to owl Severus who was so relieved to hear from them that he rushed right over to see them without first thinking about the consequences.

Harry and Draco were so relieved to see him that they didn't think about it either. Nathan and Natalie stood watching bemused as their parents embraced this older man who was really getting on in years.

Severus, after greeting Harry and Draco, turned to take in the twins, he was so overcome with emotion at the sight of them that he couldn't help but cry, these two children were his godchildren and he couldn't have asked for more perfect children.

"They are a credit to you both." Severus said to Harry and Draco who nodded in agreement. They knew all too well how lucky they were to be in the position they were in with Nathan and Natalie. "However I have news for you both that maybe they should not hear."

"Nathan, Natalie, please go to your rooms." Harry said and at once their was uproar from the twins who wanted to hear what this strange man had to say. Since learning of their true heritage they had been fascinated by it and their thirst for knowledge was unquenchable.

"Do as you're told!" Draco said to them sternly.

"But that isn't fair" Nathan said.

"You can't keep it from us forever" Natalie added.

"Just please do as you're told, we need to talk privately to Severus for a while, anything that we think that you should know we will tell you later. For the moment however there are things that we don't know." Harry tried to explain.

Nathan and Natalie, admitting defeat stormed off to their respective bedrooms and slammed the doors shut behind them to show their irritation that things were being hidden from them.

"I cannot believe that they are the two babies that I saw with you, it does not feel that long since I last saw you." Severus said.

"Yes, it is hard to believe, though we're going to have to get a firm grip on reality soon enough. What's been happening since we've been gone?" Harry asked.

"A lot has changed. To begin with Dumbledore died, I think three years ago, of old age. Something that I am sure you will be glad about. Minerva is the headmistress of Hogwarts now and I am the deputy."

"What about the Prophecy?" Draco asked.

"There has not been much said about it. However I knew that the time was coming when Nathan and Natalie would be returning to the wizarding world and I started to do a bit of research. Also registered to be coming to Hogwarts are William and Charlotte. They were born on the 12th of April and by all means they fit the Prophecy. What's more their surname is registered as Lestrange."

"As in Bellatrix?" Harry queried and Severus nodded. "Merlin help us!"

"So the deatheater's found their prophecy children after all. What has to be done?" Draco asked knowing that they couldn't just stand by and let it happen.

"Nothing for the moment, as it stands we are just assuming, until we know for certain nothing can be done I'm afraid. However you need to think about coming back into the wizarding world, there was a state of absolute panic when you left and there has been a section of the Ministry dedicated to finding you, you must have put a very powerful spell on this house for it to be hidden so effectively."

"We were going to talk to you about that, we weren't sure the best way to go about doing that, we want to keep the twins as safe as possible of course. Is our house still in a liveable condition?"

"I should think so." Severus said, "I have had a house elf there the entire eleven years to keep it in a decent state."

"Good because I think we'll be moving back there, I want to keep this place as a safe haven. If we really are going to go back then I want somewhere that I feel safe. I can't believe that we left so that the Prophecy wouldn't come true and now it seems like it has anyway."

"Avoiding the Prophecy wasn't the only reason that we left Har though it was one of the main reasons though right now it looks like we're going to be going back just to fight in yet another war." Draco said and he really didn't sound very happy about it.

"We don't know that there will be another war yet Draco." Severus said trying to keep things calm. "All we know is that there is a set of twins that fit the Prophecy that have been registered to attend Hogwarts under the name of Lestrange. I'm working on finding out the history behind them so that we can be sure."

"Have you had any luck with that?" Harry asked.

"Not so far, I haven't even managed to track down any birth records for them, it is extremely odd that there would be no record of their birth. It makes me wonder whether the ministry was ever aware of their birth at all, which means that the disappearance of two babies could have gone unnoticed."

"But the murder of two adults surely wouldn't have done." Harry said, "Assuming of course that they murdered them."

"There is that, I have known Lucius and Bellatrix for a long while and I know neither of them can perform a memory charm to save their lives so I would have to say that they would probably have chosen murder, something that I will have to look into." Severus said.

"How will you go about it?" Harry queried.

"It should not be too difficult to achieve. The ministry has an open archive of all the previous copies of the Daily Prophet. If there is anything that fits what we're looking for we'll pick it up."

"Harry, please don't tell me you're thinking about getting involved in this ordeal?" Draco asked as Harry opened his mouth to ask yet another question, as Draco spoke however he didn't dare go on.

"You're right Dray, I won't get involved, at least not yet, not until we know something more." Harry said however he sounded as if he was a little resilient to this idea.

Draco let the matter drop at that moment but he was unhappy with the answer that he had managed to get from Harry. They had been together for eleven years and it seemed that the arguments between them had only stopped when they had no memory of their past and where they had come from.

This thought troubled him more than he would have liked. The fact that only hours after the potion had worn off they were fighting again. Draco couldn't understand why Harry felt as if he had to get involved and probably fight as well if it came down to it. He may have been destined to be the hero of the wizarding world once and forced into it the first time but to volunteer for it the second time was in Draco's eyes just plain stupid.

He realised that Dumbledore had done a wonderful job raising Harry to do his dirty work but now Harry was twenty eight years old and Dumbledore was dead. However it seemed that the old mans influence extended beyond the grave, Draco would never have thought that possible and yet here they were.

The three of them made a plan of how Harry, Draco, Nathan and Natalie would be reintroduced to the wizarding world. It would first involve them going shopping in Diagon Alley to begin with, Severus would ensure that the reporters from the Daily Prophet were tipped off to this appearance and he would be accompanying them for their safety.

Severus could predict that there would be excitement and up roar at the return of Harry Potter and with two eleven year old children in tow. He wasn't quite sure how the wizarding world would react to this and he wasn't going to be taking any chances.

Once Severus had finished catching them up on everything that had happened in the wizarding world while they were living the dream life Harry and Draco called their children downstairs so that they could tell them a few selected bits of information that they had learnt from Severus. Also they wanted Nathan and Natalie to get used to the idea that Severus was going to be around a lot more, especially since he was their Godfather and all.

Both Nathan and Natalie seemed excited about the prospect of exploring the wizarding world and didn't listen to the warnings that Severus, Harry and Draco all told them about how dangerous it could be, especially for them. The problem was they had believed that they were nothing special for so long and now that they knew that they were just regular people and that they had magical powers their heads were spinning with possibilities.

They wanted to get out there and try it out, they wanted to buy their wands and start practicing, they had a thirst for knowledge that wouldn't wait till September to be satisfied. They had a desire to learn all about the world where they had originated from and had been hidden from for all these years. They wanted to know about their heritage and what had made their dad famous in the first place.

That night once Severus had gone and everyone had gone to bed Natalie crept into Nathan's bedroom so that they could talk. It was often that one of them would do this once their parents had gone to bed.

The twins were very close for siblings, they hadn't found making friends very easy growing up and had pretty much stuck together and got each other through Primary school. They didn't have long left at the school they attended currently, come September they would be going off to Hogwarts however for the twins that just wasn't soon enough.

"I can't wait until we go to Diagon Ally" Natalie said, "It sounds amazing." The twins had settled on Natalie's bed, they kept their voices low so that they wouldn't be heard and told to go back to bed.

"It really does sound as if it'll be fun," Nathan said. "How powerful do you think we are?"

"From what Dad has said I wouldn't know where to begin." Natalie said with a smile on her face at the thought of having so much power at her fingertips.

"Do you think that our Dad's will ever let us go enough for us to achieve our potential?" There was something else swirling in Nathan's mind and it wasn't something that would do either of them any good.

"I doubt it, he's already hiding so much from us. I want to know more about this Voldemort guy." Natalie said, "The one the Dad killed."

"So what are we going to do? Dad won't let us know all this stuff."

"We could wait until we go to Hogwarts, then he wouldn't be able to stop us."

"But that's five months away." Nathan said.

"Do you really think that Dad is going to let us out of his sight when we go to Diagon Alley? There isn't any chance that we'll be able to slip away and besides where will we go?" Natalie asked.

"I don't know but we're never going to learn anything by hanging around with our Dad's, they won't let us."

"But until we go to Hogwarts we won't be away from them. We're going to have to wait." Natalie said trying to talk some sense into her brother who was by far the more impulsive one.

"I don't want to have to wait Nat, we have so much power and we have no idea how to control it or to use it and I want to know how, we deserve to know."

"There was a reason daddy didn't want us to know Nate, we do have amazing power and we will no doubt learn to control that power but we are only eleven." She said.

Nathan pondered this for a moment and nodded to show that he at least agreed with that. He so wanted to learn all about the power that he had. The fact that he had never had the opportunity to learn before now really bothered the young boy.

Natalie on the other hand even though she thought it a great shame that it had been hidden from them knew that it had been for good reason and would embrace the knowledge when she was given it, she was a lot less power hungry than her brother and although she craved the knowledge just as much as he did she was a lot more patient.

What Harry and Draco didn't realise was that when it came to their children they hadn't done the right thing by running away from the wizarding world and removing their memories because by doing so they had unleashed a few of the less desirable personality traits that could have been avoided had he known about his own heritage.

However what had been done had been done and now whatever was to come would come no matter what. The choices that had been made had made a ripple effect through their lives as all choices did.