Time's a-Changing

Chapter One

Good News Travels Fast

The sun was rising when Gavin Bleeker came stumbling into the room that his two children shared on the second storey of their small cottage in France. He was carrying a wireless and there seemed to be a lot of shouts and cheers coming out of it. He stopped dead in the middle of the room, and looked down at his children's sleeping forms. Even though Anthony was twenty-five and an adult in all senses of the word, and Trish had just left Hogwarts the year before, Gavin had never stopped thinking of them as kids; he was sure that no parent saw their children for more than just that: children. More so during times of war. The very possibility of losing their children made every parent want to protect them even more and this was the case for Gavin and Marie Bleeker.

Gavin had been working in the Ministry of Magic when the war had broken out. He had already seen it coming, and like many of his colleagues, he wasn't sure how safe he was at the Ministry. He had been just a few years out of Hogwarts when the first war began. He remembered going into hiding and the horrible things he had heard on the wireless. Witches and wizards going missing. Children dying. There had been chaos everywhere in the wizarding world. But then along had come this little one-year-old who had put a stop to all the bloodshed: Harry Potter.

There was not a single child in the wizarding world that did not know that name. Gavin himself had told his two children all about Harry Potter as they grew up. And this was especially important for him because Gavin was Muggleborn. If it hadn't been for Harry Potter, he would probably have cut himself out from the wizarding world entirely and his children would have never been born and therefore would never have had the chance of going to Hogwarts.

Looking down at the slow breathing of his two children, he breathed a sigh of relief. Just moments ago, when he was listening to the wireless over breakfast with Marie, he had heard the announcer report that there had been a battle at Hogwarts and it was being reported that Harry Potter had, once again, saved them all and finally destroyed the Dark Lord.

Hardly able to believe it, Marie turned up the volume of the wireless and listened more closely to the reporter, who was saying, "Yes, yes. We have just received word from our source in the school that it's over. The war is over! He Who Must Not Be Named has finally been destroyed forever!" There was a pause in the transmission as the wireless emitted a buzzing sound and when the announcer came back on there was cheering in the background. "There's no need to clean your ears out, friends. It's over. It's really over." The announcer gave a soft sniff and continued, "We will be right back with more news from Hogwarts."

Gavin stared at his wife for a moment before jumping to his feet and pulling her into a tight hug. Behind them, a soft popping sound came from the fireplace and his sister-in-law's head appeared out of the fire. "Did you hear, Mer?" Marie released herself from her husband's arms and ran over to the fireplace. "Yes! Do you -" She broke off, her voice catching in her throat. "Do you think it's true?"

"Well, I'd think so. That station I was listening to had been taking You Know Who's side all along. They wouldn't just come out with a story like that if they didn't think it wouldn't come back and bite them."

Gavin stood behind his wife and looked down at his sister-in-law's head. "If it is true, we'll finally be able to get out of this dodgy little cottage. I'm sure the kids will love that." And then he remembered. The kids.

As he made for the stairs, he grabbed the wireless on the kitchen table and turned the volume down just a bit. Now, standing in front of his two children, tears rolled down his face. If it was true... We're safe. They're safe. And as he brushed a loose strand of hair out of his daughter's face, he smiled and whispered softly, "We can finally go home."