Once Was Lost

Disclaimer: I am in no way associated with J.K. Rowling, Bloomsbury, Warner Bros., or the Christopher Little Literary Agency. In addition, I am in no way associated with Hanson, their respective families, 3CG Records, or 10th Street Entertainment. I am merely borrowing the world that this story is set in, and I promise to be careful. I will clear up my mess and put everything away when I am finished.

Author's notes: I hope that everyone had a wonderful Christmas/Hannukah/whatever you celebrate, and that 2008 is working out well for you all thus far (even though we are less than a week into the new year). Shout-outs can be found in the ending author's notes. :)

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Chapter 2

Taylor

"Daddy!"

The voice of a little girl sliced through the hum of chatter that filled the main ballroom of Malfoy Manor. It was nearly a quarter to eleven, and the Bonding reception had been in full swing for at least two-and-a-half hours already. Looking in the direction of the voice, I saw a pint-sized bubblegum-pink blur pelting toward Natalie, myself and Grant, Sarah's adopted brother, whom Natalie and I had been talking to for the majority of the reception. As soon as the blur coalesced into the recognisable form of my eldest daughter, blonde pigtails and all, I bent down and, in a manner of speaking, swept her off her feet.

"Hey kiddo!" I said as Ava latched on, hooking her arms around my neck. "Are you being a good girl for Auntie Cissy?"

'Auntie Cissy' was my sister Sarah's new mother-in-law, Narcissa Malfoy. While on the flight to London from New York, Natalie and I had explained to the girls that even though Sarah sounded different, and her maiden name was different to mine, that didn't stop her being family. Narcissa was, therefore, our children's great-aunt.

In answer to my question, Ava nodded. "I showed her my fire," she replied, lisping slightly.

"Can you show us your fire?" Natalie asked, and Ava nodded. "Good girl. Though how about you let go of Daddy first?"

Ava did as she was asked, and as I kept a firm grip on her she frowned hard, before clapping her hands together, producing a tiny flame on the tip of each finger and thumb.

{Our daughter is a pyromaniac,} I telepathed to Natalie with a small mental sigh as Ava extinguished her flames.

{I believe we already established that on her birthday,} Natalie reminded me gently.

It was usual for elemental children to display their abilities from the age of six onward. For a child to manifest significantly later than this was usually a result of a traumatic event taking place early in that child's life - the death of a parent, for instance. It was almost unheard of for an elemental to manifest any earlier than their sixth birthday, and yet that was exactly what Ava had done. It had been extremely disconcerting and something of shock to Natalie and I when we had woken early on Ava's fourth birthday back in April to find our bedroom full of thick smoke. Hearing screams of sheer terror coming from the girls' room was even more frightening, though when we realised it had been Ava who had caused the fire we had calmed down slightly. That little incident had made Natalie and I realise that once our daughter came of age and into her full abilities, she was going to truly be a force to be reckoned with.

We had been talking to Grant for a further ten minutes when I felt a massive force slam into my telepathic shields. Shielding my thoughts from telepathic intrusion was something I had got into the habit of during my senior year at Amargosa College, after I had found myself in a dormitory with someone who was rather nosy. Generally, the only other telepath I tended to bypass my shields was Natalie. Most people backed off when they encountered them, but 'most people' didn't include either of my triplet sisters. I quickly let my shields down so I could receive the transmission.

{You and Natalie had better get your arses over here right now,} came the mental equivalent of Sarah's voice. Even her telepathic transmissions had an English accent. {I've been trying to get hold of you for the past ten minutes!} The transmission snapped off, and I slammed my shields back into place almost immediately.

"Sarah wants to talk to us," I said as I rubbed my temples.

"What about?" Grant asked.

"She didn't say," I replied. "One thing's for sure, she needs talking to about her transmissions - they're very forceful. I'm going to have a massive headache in the morning."

"Excuse us, Grant," Natalie said with a smile, and we began to make our way over to where Sarah was seated. She and Miriam had planted themselves near the grand piano, each nursing a flute of magical champagne. The both of them looked up as we approached and drew up a chair each. I released Ava before seating myself, and she scampered off through the crowd.

"You rang?" I quipped, earning a quiet chuckle from Miriam. Sarah raised an eyebrow before speaking.

"Do you remember how, during our first Easter break together, the three of us had discussed trying to access our records?" she asked.

I nodded, remembering. "But we couldn't," I recalled. "We weren't old enough by Muggle law."

"Well..." And here Sarah bit her bottom lip. "I, uh...I went to the Hall of Records at the Ministry a couple of weeks after I finished my seventh year at Hogwarts, and I got copies of my birth certificate and my adoption papers." She indicated Miriam. "Miriam got hers a couple of years ago."

My sister's revelation nearly floored me. "Do you mean to say," I started, my voice dangerously quiet, "that the two of you have known all this time who our family is, and you never told me? I thought we were family!"

"Fletch, please don't start this right now," Miriam said in an effort to head off an explosion. "Of course we're family - we always have been. But sometimes, Sarah and I forget that we do have a blood brother out there. We've only known each other for less than a decade - it's not automatic yet."

"You could have owled me," I reminded Miriam, feeling somewhat hurt.

"I know, but I wasn't thinking straight at the time."

There came a soft 'tapping' at my shields, and I heard Natalie's quiet mental voice. {They mean well,} she told me. {Don't shut them out just because they made a small error in judgment.}

Natalie was right, and so I pushed my hurt and my anger deep down inside. "So what do we do now?" I asked.

"You need to get copies of your birth certificate and your adoption records," Miriam said. "I have no idea how long it'll take for them to be owled here, but I think we should wait until Sarah and Draco return from their honeymoon before we do any cross-checking."

"I'll owl the Congress tomorrow, then," I decided.

I was as good as my word.

The next evening, after a day out in Muggle London and after we had got the kids off to sleep, I sat down at the writing desk in our hotel room. We had chosen to hole ourselves up in a hotel that catered to both Muggle and magical guests, rather than in a wholly-Muggle hotel or a wizarding inn. In one hand was my eagle-feather quill, and in front of me was an unmarked sheet of parchment. A small bottle of black ink and my wand were close at hand. As I wrote the letter that had the potential to alter the course of my life thus far, I felt a series of gentle tugs that meant Natalie had taken it upon herself to replait my rat-tail, a legacy from my teen years.

"This is so degrading," I muttered as I neared the end of my letter.

"What is?"

"The fact that I have to ask permission just to have my records unsealed. I'm twenty-four years old, and yet the Congress sees it as their prerogative to treat me, as well as every other American elemental, like a child."

"Well, run for office if you want to change it so badly."

I snorted softly. "Right. As if they'd elect someone like me. Besides, I don't know the first thing about politics."

"Well, Mme. Rothschild didn't, and look where she is now. Ruling the American magical community from the lofty heights of Philadelphia."

Ah, yes. Madame Karasi Rothschild, the first African-American witch - though not the first witch by any means - to be elected to the position of President of the United States Magical Congress. Of course, nobody ever bothered to mention that the votes that had got her so far had come solely from the non-elemental population - no self-respecting elemental supported our esteemed president, due to her perpetuation of the archaic laws governing the ways in which elementals lived their lives.

"Mme. Rothschild can kiss my ass."

"Temper, temper..." I felt one last tug on my rat-tail, and I knew Natalie was done. "Let me see the letter."

"Hold on, let me finish..." I dipped my quill one final time, and moved it on my parchment in the familiar loops and swirls of my signature. A quick, whispered Drying Charm blotted the ink. Before I handed it back over my shoulder, I read it through one last time to ensure I had the wording right.

8 July 2007

Dear Ms. Hayfield,

I am writing to request access to my adoption records, sealed on the twenty-eighth of March in the year 1983. I understand that my name at birth was 'Jordan Taylor Lawyer' - I was born on the fourteenth of March 1983.

As I am currently not within the continental United States, I will be unable to collect my records in person; therefore, I request that they be sent via registered owl post to the following address:

Mrs. S. Malfoy

Malfoy Manor

via Salisbury, Wiltshire

England

I thank you for your time, and I look forward to your prompt reply.

Yours faithfully,

Taylor F. Chambers

"Bit over the top, don't you think?" Natalie asked when she had finished reading. I took the parchment back and began folding it up - first in half, then into thirds.

"Are you kidding me? The more I butter them up, the better it is for me, and the better chance I have of seeing my records before we have to go home." I Transfigured a second sheet of parchment into an envelope, and quilled an address on the front.

Ms. J. Hayfield

Adoptions Office

Division of Magical Family and Community Affairs

United States Magical Congress

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

USA

"I'll post it tomorrow," I decided as I slipped the letter into the envelope and sealed it, before slipping it into a pocket of the robes I'd draped over the back of my chair. "I remember we promised Ava we could go to Diagon Alley in the morning, so I'll duck into the post office while we're there." I just hope I haven't screwed up my life any more than what it already is, I thought as I turned on the TV and settled down to watch.

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Natalie

The loud hooting of an owl outside the parlour window made the four of us look up from our musings. Sarah was taking a break from unpacking her belongings, having moved into Malfoy Manor the previous evening, and we were currently discussing ways to talk Draco, who was currently at work tying up 'a few loose ends' as Sarah put it, into having a supply of electricity hooked up to the Manor - Sarah was quite accustomed by now to the life of a Muggle, and was lamenting the fact that she had been unable to check her email for a few days. The happy couple had returned from their honeymoon in Greece only a week earlier.

"I'll get it," Sarah volunteered as she rose from her seat, the hem of her robes swirling around her ankles, and walked to the window. She raised the sash and extended her right arm, allowing the tawny owl to hop through the window and onto the makeshift perch. The owl had a miniature envelope bound to its left leg with twine.

"I think it's for one of you," she said as she tried to take the letter the owl carried, and was rewarded with an angry hoot. "I can't tell who, though; the envelope's too small."

"Let me try," Miriam said. She stood up, crossed over to the window and reached out to make an attempt at untying the envelope, and was rewarded with a pecked finger for her troubles. "Stupid fucking bird," she muttered as she resumed her seat and stuck her bleeding finger in her mouth. "Fletch, you give it a shot," she mumbled around her finger.

Taylor shrugged and got up from his seat, repeating the actions of Sarah and Miriam; to our collective surprise, the owl allowed him to untie the envelope. "Looks like it's mine," he said. He pulled his wand from his sleeve, touched its tip to the envelope and enlarged it, before unsealing it and pulling out a sheaf of parchment, which he quickly leafed through.

"What's it say?" Miriam asked.

"Can I have a look at all your records?" Taylor asked without looking up. Miriam and Sarah exchanged looks, before gathering up the bundles of parchment they had each brought with them and placing them on the large circular table in the middle of the parlour.

"Come on, we should give him a little privacy," Sarah said to Miriam and I, and the three of us exited the parlour, heading for the kitchen.

"What does he need privacy for?" I asked as Sarah started hunting through the kitchen cupboards and pantry.

"You should tell her, Miriam," Sarah replied as she emerged from the pantry, a metal tin in hand. "Natalie, do you like mint tea?"

"I've never had it," I replied truthfully. "I usually drink coffee. But I'll give it a try."

"I promise you'll like it." Sarah gave me a smile, before giving Miriam a very meaningful look.

"He isn't going to like what he finds out, let's just put it that way," Miriam replied as she hoisted herself up onto the kitchen bench. "To put it bluntly, the three of us shouldn't even be elementals. In terms of genetics, we don't have the correct parentage."

"What, you mean...?" I asked, and both Sarah and Miriam nodded. "Oh no."

"Exactly," Sarah said grimly. "I'm surprised Draco Bonded with me, to be perfectly honest - he wasn't pleased when I admitted it to him. I suppose it's proof that love really does conquer all. If Lucius was still around, I daresay he would have forbidden Draco from going ahead with the Bonding. But fortunately for us, Narcissa is somewhat more accommodating."

The tea had just finished brewing when Taylor came into the kitchen, holding a rolled-up sheet of parchment loosely in his left hand. "So did you find out anything?" Miriam asked as Sarah poured the tea into china cups.

Taylor nodded mutely as he sat down at the kitchen table. He looked up at me, and I saw the barest hint of shadow in his eyes. Without opening his mouth to speak, he dropped the roll of parchment on the table and dropped his head into his hands.

And as I watched him, a lone tear leaked out of the corner of his left eye and trickled down his cheek.

Sarah raised an eyebrow at me as she placed a silver tea tray, laden with the china teapot and four matching cups, a sugar bowl, a jug of milk and four teaspoons, onto the kitchen table. Miriam followed close behind, levitating a plate of what looked like cinnamon rolls before her as she walked. {What happened?} Miriam telepathed to me, one eyebrow raised questioningly.

{I don't know,} I replied.

I moved down a seat so that Sarah and Miriam could sit flanking their brother, and reached for the roll of parchment and a teacup. I unrolled the parchment, conjured up four paperweights and set them at each corner of the scroll, and scanned the writing on the parchment as I sipped my tea. It was the first part of his adoption record.

UNITED STATES MAGICAL CONGRESS

Division of Magical Family and Community Affairs

Adoptions Office

Birth Name: LAWYER, Jordan Taylor

Gender: Male

Date of Birth: 14 March 1983

Place of Birth: St. Michael's Hospital, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Parentage: Halfblood

Mother's Name: LAWYER, Diana Catherine

Father's Name: Unknown Muggle

Date of Adoption: 28 March 1983

Witnesses: Prof. Albus P.W.B. Dumbledore; Prof. Minerva M. McGonagall; Lt. Verity J. Stanhope; Mr. Amaethon T. West; Ms. Diana C. Lawyer; Mrs. Clio R. Taylor; Ms. Isis A. Lawyer

Adopting Mother: CHAMBERS, Susan Louise

Adopting Father: CHAMBERS, Wayne Fletcher

Adoption Filed: 2 April 1983

Authorising Party: Mrs. Olivia M. Winchester

I frowned as I shifted the paperweights aside and rolled the parchment up again. There wasn't anything on the parchment that could suggest why Taylor was so upset, aside from the remarks about his parentage and the seeming non-existence of his father, so what was it that had gotten him so worked up?

I placed my hand tentatively on his shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze. He looked up again, his eyes now red-rimmed and filled with unshed tears; he hadn't cried so much since Ava had graced the world with her presence four years earlier. "Are you all right?" I asked quietly.

He shook his head. "Why didn't she want me?" he asked in a quavering voice.

"I don't know, Fletch," Miriam said quietly. "I really don't know."

It wasn't until we had said our farewells to Miriam and Sarah, collected Fletcher and the girls from Sarah's mother's house, and returned to the hotel so that we could pack in preparation for our return to New York, that I remembered something I had read about elemental genetics a couple of years ago, particularly in reference to halfblooded witches and wizards.

There had never, in documented history, been a halfblooded elemental. Indeed, there had never been a Muggle-born elemental for that matter. The basic prerequisite for the possession of elemental powers was that the elemental was a pureblood witch or wizard, with at least one elemental parent. Sarah, Miriam and Taylor were all of halfblood parentage.

Which begged one important question.

How could the three of them be elementals when their father was a Muggle?

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Shout-outs:

I would like to thank Pennilyn Novus for their review/early Christmas present - and believe me, I know how you feel! :D It's always lovely to discover other Hanson fans who are also into Harry Potter - I consider it conclusive proof that we have impeccable taste in literature. ;) Thank you for reading Trinity as well - I'm most pleased that you enjoyed it enough to want to follow my characters on their future adventures.

The name 'Karasi' is African, and means 'life and wisdom' - thus, it is a name I felt to be particularly appropriate for a witch who is elected to the highest office in the American magical community.

In reference to the triplets' status as halfblood elementals - with this form of magic, halfblooded witches and wizards (that is, those with one magical parent and one Muggle parent) do not normally become elementals. Nor do Muggle-borns. However, as you will all see later, Sarah, Taylor and Miriam are not your average witches and wizard. There is a reason for it, trust me - I have not given them their abilities for no particular reason at all. You'll see no Mary-Sues here - I abhor them and have been careful to make Miriam and Sarah as anti-Sue as I possibly can. :)

Next chapter: The season final of the American Powerball League is played, a certain character has a major health scare, and Taylor and Natalie pay a visit to Philadelphia.