Saying Yes, chapter 4
SAYING YES chapter 4
Summary: At 17, Andromeda Black thought being in love was everything. At 57, Andromeda Tonks knew better. Yet the first time Kingsley Shacklebolt asked her out, she surprised herself by saying yes.
Characters: Andromeda Tonks, Kingsley Shacklebolt, Teddy Lupin and ensemble (Harry! Ginny! Molly! Kingsley's kids! All the Potters and Weasleys!)
Warnings: None
Chapters: 15
Story:
CHAPTER FOUR
"How's the group this year? Has it worked out with Emmeline joining?" Andromeda asked Molly one day that autumn. It was early evening, and the two women were in the garden at the Burrow, enjoying one of the last truly warm days of the season.
"Oh, Emmeline is lovely," Molly sighed. "Mind you, she's a real daydreamer and half the time I doubt she's listening to anything I say, but she never causes trouble. She's nothing like her namesake, of course."
"That's right," Andromeda said. "Of course you knew Emmeline Vance, from the Order?"
Molly gazed into the distance. "I didn't know her well, she kept very much to herself, but we all respected her. She was an incredible witch."
"I've never asked Kingsley about that," Andromeda said. She'd certainly wondered about his daughter's name, but hadn't wanted to pry into Kingsley's reasons for it. "I know he was close to Alastor Moody, but I don't really know about Emmeline."
Molly nodded. "I think they were even sweethearts at one point, but very far back, when they were still at Hogwarts."
Molly's gaze was still far away, so she didn't see Andromeda's look of surprise.
"But they stayed good friends," Molly continued. "I imagine Kingsley was one of the few people who really knew her. It must have been hard, losing her and Mad-Eye both in the space of a year."
"That's terrible," Andromeda said. "I didn't realise."
Molly pulled her gaze back from the trees and her voice turned practical again. "I was so glad for Kingsley, you know, when he met that woman from the American Ministry of Magic, or whatever it's called over there. We've so rarely seen him take a real interest in a woman, and he's such a good man. He just has terribly high standards, I suppose, but it would be nice to see him settle down. Well, settle down again."
Andromeda smiled. "Molly, you can't match-make for everyone."
Molly sighed and, as Andromeda had known she would, began to deliberate over whether Charlie, her last holdout child, would ever marry.
Andromeda hadn't meant even to mention the conversation to Kingsley, but one day she found herself saying, "You know, Molly thinks you have 'terribly high standards'. She seems to think you'll never manage to find a woman who fulfils them."
Kingsley chuckled and turned from his cooking to look at her.
They spent the days together sometimes, when the Wizengamot wasn't in session and Emmeline was at the Burrow, and Kingsley often insisted on cooking for Andromeda. He generally refused to let her help, but Andromeda didn't mind simply leaning against the worktop and watching him. There was really nothing like the sight of a powerfully built man who felt at home in a kitchen and an apron.
"And how exactly did my high standards come up with Molly?" Kingsley asked, eyes twinkling.
"She was bemoaning your hopeless bachelor status, of course. And wishing you would settle down, again."
Kingsley twirled his wand over the pan and said, "Molly must be losing her touch. I've always thought of her as so observant about people."
"What do you mean?"
"I was sure by now she must have noticed the way I look at you."
He turned again, then, and fixed the full force of his warm gaze on Andromeda. "Yes," she murmured. "That's fairly noticeable."
"Hmm," Kingsley agreed, smiling and turning back to his saucepan.
- - - - -
The next to turn a conversation in a surprising direction was Ginny.
"Would you ever think about writing again?" she asked one evening when Andromeda was visiting. "You used to write for the Daily Prophet, didn't you? Back before it became a load of Doxy droppings, I mean?"
"Yes, I did," Andromeda said. "But that was a very long time ago. Before Nymphadora even started at Hogwarts. Why do you ask?"
"They've been talking at the paper - at the Mirror, I mean - about finding someone to do a new opinion column on legal and historical topics, commentary on current events, stuff like that. I thought of you from the moment my editor mentioned it."
"Goodness," Andromeda said. "I'm not sure what to say."
"Say you'll think about it," Ginny urged. "You know so much, Andromeda. I can't think of anyone better."
Honestly, Andromeda had thought at times about putting some of her reflections into writing, but she'd never thought about it very seriously.
"What do you think?" she asked Kingsley, when she told him about Ginny's suggestion.
"I think you'd be brilliant at it," he answered, and just like that Andromeda found herself agreeing to a meeting with Ginny's editor at the Magical Mirror, the paper that had started after the Daily Prophet had collapsed after the war under the weight of its own poor journalism standards.
Ultimately, she and the editors settled on a column that would appear twice monthly, covering topics of wizarding culture and society, wizarding-Muggle relations, history and law. The editor-in-chief had wanted to run it under the name "Andromeda Black Tonks," presumably to emphasise the way Andromeda's own life entwined the extremes of pure-blood and Muggle-born society, but Andromeda had never in her life used that name and saw no reason to start now.
For her inaugural piece, Andromeda wanted to start with something engaging but not too polarising - there would be time enough later to take up touchier subjects such as Muggle relations, still a delicate topic - and hit upon the idea of examining legal attitudes toward dangerous Beasts over the centuries, with a few sly references to the times when wizarding law had been determined rather less by logic and more by the fact that everyone involved was too terrified to approach the Beast in question.
Andromeda had a great deal of help on the subject from Hermione, who still remembered much of what she'd researched back as a girl at Hogwarts for the Hippogriff case Sirius had got himself involved in. Actually, Andromeda suspected Hermione had kept her notes from the case, but was too embarrassed to admit to saving all her school papers.
Hermione had lit up when Andromeda asked if they could meet for lunch to discuss a few ideas, and Andromeda thought perhaps there was some truth to Kingsley's suggestion that the younger woman saw her as something of a role model.
The first column, titled "Fantastic Beasts and When to Try Them Before a Court of Law," ran in late winter. Later the same day, Andromeda looked up to see Teddy's dun-coloured barn owl, Junior Junior (the name was a long story), tapping at the window.
The note clutched in Junior Junior's talons looked as though it might have begun as Teddy's serviette from breakfast - there was a juice stain on one corner - and his hasty scrawl read,
Gran! Just read your column and it's brilliant. Why didn't you tell me you were such a great writer??? Now I can't wait to read all the next ones. Not to mention when you write your first book. Love,
T
That was a note Andromeda tucked away in her top drawer for safekeeping.
- - - - -
Emmeline had taken to Molly's home lessons like a Bowtruckle to a tree, becoming friends with Bill's middle child, Dominique, who would also be starting Hogwarts in the autumn.
The two girls frequently begged to be allowed sleepovers together at Shell Cottage, and one unintended result was many more evenings and nights that Kingsley and Andromeda were left free to spend together. It began to feel normal to fall asleep next to Kingsley, to wake up next to him, to share her small bathroom as they both got ready for work.
In fact, she was growing rather fond of all those things.
One night as Andromeda was half dozing, happy to have Kingsley's arm around her and his weight beside her in the bed, his voice rumbled out of the dark. "Can I ask you something?"
"Of course." Andromeda reached for her wand and cast a soft Lumos, so she could see him.
"I've just been wondering," Kingsley said. "Is there a particular reason I'm keeping my relationship with you a secret? Or is it just a habit we've fallen into?"
It wasn't something they'd ever properly talked about. Andromeda herself had always tended toward circumspection, and besides, the wizarding community was small and prone to gossip. But no, there was no good reason for it, and she said as much.
"I'm not pushing you to do anything you don't want to do," Kingsley hastened to add. "I'm happy to have secret trysts with you until the end of our days, if you prefer."
Until the end of our days.
Kingsley reached over to touch a finger to her cheek. "I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable."
"No, no, not at all," Andromeda assured him. "But now I'm wondering at myself. All those times Molly has sighed over your bachelorhood, or itched to set me up with some nice gentleman she's met, I suppose I really could have mentioned this to her."
"And put her out of her misery," Kingsley agreed. "Just think how many sleepless nights we must have caused poor Molly by now, between the two of us."
Andromeda smiled at that. "I do wonder a bit what Teddy would think, and what your children would think."
Kingsley shrugged. "Stor and Em like you. And they and Teddy get on very well."
"It's all very well to like a person casually, but things get more complicated when families combine," Andromeda told him.
"Is that the voice of experience speaking?"
Well, Andromeda had resolved to try to share more of herself and her past with Kingsley, though he never demanded she do so.
"I suppose so," she agreed. "You can certainly imagine what my family thought of Ted, though that's hardly a normal example," she said. "But take Remus...I liked him very much as a man, and terribly well as a friend to Sirius, probably the best influence Sirius ever had. But I admit, I struggled when Nymphadora became serious about him. An older man with no job prospects and an incurable disease was not exactly what I had hoped for my daughter."
"And any parent would understand you," Kingsley agreed. "But Remus was a great man."
"Of course he was," Andromeda said. "And I came to see that."
"And Stor and Em will absolutely accept you. I really don't think they'll find it strange."
"I truly don't mind if others know about us," Andromeda assured him. "I suppose I just didn't mind either that they didn't know."
"One person does know already," Kingsley admitted, sounding contrite. "I did tell Bill."
"Bill Weasley?" Andromeda asked blankly, momentarily at a loss as to why her relationship with Kingsley should matter in the least to Molly's eldest son.
"When Em started sleeping over at their place so often, I wanted them to know where to reach me in an emergency," Kingsley explained. "So I told Bill in confidence that I could most likely be found here. I'm quite sure, though, that he's never told anyone else."
Andromeda leaned over to still his rationalisations with a kiss. "Kingsley, when I say I don't mind, I really don't mind. I'm not embarrassed about us. Just a bit…private by nature."
"Mysterious," Kingsley agreed with a grin. "Enigmatic, you could say."
"Yes, whatever you choose to call it."
"Secretive?" he offered. "Arcane. Unfathomable. Opaque."
"Yes, yes, we all know you have a learned and extensive vocabulary, Mr Minister."
"Impudent," Kingsley concluded happily, pulling Andromeda in for another kiss.
- - - - -
( continue to CHAPTER 5)
Summary: At 17, Andromeda Black thought being in love was everything. At 57, Andromeda Tonks knew better. Yet the first time Kingsley Shacklebolt asked her out, she surprised herself by saying yes.
Characters: Andromeda Tonks, Kingsley Shacklebolt, Teddy Lupin and ensemble (Harry! Ginny! Molly! Kingsley's kids! All the Potters and Weasleys!)
Warnings: None
Chapters: 15
Story:
CHAPTER FOUR
"How's the group this year? Has it worked out with Emmeline joining?" Andromeda asked Molly one day that autumn. It was early evening, and the two women were in the garden at the Burrow, enjoying one of the last truly warm days of the season.
"Oh, Emmeline is lovely," Molly sighed. "Mind you, she's a real daydreamer and half the time I doubt she's listening to anything I say, but she never causes trouble. She's nothing like her namesake, of course."
"That's right," Andromeda said. "Of course you knew Emmeline Vance, from the Order?"
Molly gazed into the distance. "I didn't know her well, she kept very much to herself, but we all respected her. She was an incredible witch."
"I've never asked Kingsley about that," Andromeda said. She'd certainly wondered about his daughter's name, but hadn't wanted to pry into Kingsley's reasons for it. "I know he was close to Alastor Moody, but I don't really know about Emmeline."
Molly nodded. "I think they were even sweethearts at one point, but very far back, when they were still at Hogwarts."
Molly's gaze was still far away, so she didn't see Andromeda's look of surprise.
"But they stayed good friends," Molly continued. "I imagine Kingsley was one of the few people who really knew her. It must have been hard, losing her and Mad-Eye both in the space of a year."
"That's terrible," Andromeda said. "I didn't realise."
Molly pulled her gaze back from the trees and her voice turned practical again. "I was so glad for Kingsley, you know, when he met that woman from the American Ministry of Magic, or whatever it's called over there. We've so rarely seen him take a real interest in a woman, and he's such a good man. He just has terribly high standards, I suppose, but it would be nice to see him settle down. Well, settle down again."
Andromeda smiled. "Molly, you can't match-make for everyone."
Molly sighed and, as Andromeda had known she would, began to deliberate over whether Charlie, her last holdout child, would ever marry.
Andromeda hadn't meant even to mention the conversation to Kingsley, but one day she found herself saying, "You know, Molly thinks you have 'terribly high standards'. She seems to think you'll never manage to find a woman who fulfils them."
Kingsley chuckled and turned from his cooking to look at her.
They spent the days together sometimes, when the Wizengamot wasn't in session and Emmeline was at the Burrow, and Kingsley often insisted on cooking for Andromeda. He generally refused to let her help, but Andromeda didn't mind simply leaning against the worktop and watching him. There was really nothing like the sight of a powerfully built man who felt at home in a kitchen and an apron.
"And how exactly did my high standards come up with Molly?" Kingsley asked, eyes twinkling.
"She was bemoaning your hopeless bachelor status, of course. And wishing you would settle down, again."
Kingsley twirled his wand over the pan and said, "Molly must be losing her touch. I've always thought of her as so observant about people."
"What do you mean?"
"I was sure by now she must have noticed the way I look at you."
He turned again, then, and fixed the full force of his warm gaze on Andromeda. "Yes," she murmured. "That's fairly noticeable."
"Hmm," Kingsley agreed, smiling and turning back to his saucepan.
- - - - -
The next to turn a conversation in a surprising direction was Ginny.
"Would you ever think about writing again?" she asked one evening when Andromeda was visiting. "You used to write for the Daily Prophet, didn't you? Back before it became a load of Doxy droppings, I mean?"
"Yes, I did," Andromeda said. "But that was a very long time ago. Before Nymphadora even started at Hogwarts. Why do you ask?"
"They've been talking at the paper - at the Mirror, I mean - about finding someone to do a new opinion column on legal and historical topics, commentary on current events, stuff like that. I thought of you from the moment my editor mentioned it."
"Goodness," Andromeda said. "I'm not sure what to say."
"Say you'll think about it," Ginny urged. "You know so much, Andromeda. I can't think of anyone better."
Honestly, Andromeda had thought at times about putting some of her reflections into writing, but she'd never thought about it very seriously.
"What do you think?" she asked Kingsley, when she told him about Ginny's suggestion.
"I think you'd be brilliant at it," he answered, and just like that Andromeda found herself agreeing to a meeting with Ginny's editor at the Magical Mirror, the paper that had started after the Daily Prophet had collapsed after the war under the weight of its own poor journalism standards.
Ultimately, she and the editors settled on a column that would appear twice monthly, covering topics of wizarding culture and society, wizarding-Muggle relations, history and law. The editor-in-chief had wanted to run it under the name "Andromeda Black Tonks," presumably to emphasise the way Andromeda's own life entwined the extremes of pure-blood and Muggle-born society, but Andromeda had never in her life used that name and saw no reason to start now.
For her inaugural piece, Andromeda wanted to start with something engaging but not too polarising - there would be time enough later to take up touchier subjects such as Muggle relations, still a delicate topic - and hit upon the idea of examining legal attitudes toward dangerous Beasts over the centuries, with a few sly references to the times when wizarding law had been determined rather less by logic and more by the fact that everyone involved was too terrified to approach the Beast in question.
Andromeda had a great deal of help on the subject from Hermione, who still remembered much of what she'd researched back as a girl at Hogwarts for the Hippogriff case Sirius had got himself involved in. Actually, Andromeda suspected Hermione had kept her notes from the case, but was too embarrassed to admit to saving all her school papers.
Hermione had lit up when Andromeda asked if they could meet for lunch to discuss a few ideas, and Andromeda thought perhaps there was some truth to Kingsley's suggestion that the younger woman saw her as something of a role model.
The first column, titled "Fantastic Beasts and When to Try Them Before a Court of Law," ran in late winter. Later the same day, Andromeda looked up to see Teddy's dun-coloured barn owl, Junior Junior (the name was a long story), tapping at the window.
The note clutched in Junior Junior's talons looked as though it might have begun as Teddy's serviette from breakfast - there was a juice stain on one corner - and his hasty scrawl read,
Gran! Just read your column and it's brilliant. Why didn't you tell me you were such a great writer??? Now I can't wait to read all the next ones. Not to mention when you write your first book. Love,
T
That was a note Andromeda tucked away in her top drawer for safekeeping.
- - - - -
Emmeline had taken to Molly's home lessons like a Bowtruckle to a tree, becoming friends with Bill's middle child, Dominique, who would also be starting Hogwarts in the autumn.
The two girls frequently begged to be allowed sleepovers together at Shell Cottage, and one unintended result was many more evenings and nights that Kingsley and Andromeda were left free to spend together. It began to feel normal to fall asleep next to Kingsley, to wake up next to him, to share her small bathroom as they both got ready for work.
In fact, she was growing rather fond of all those things.
One night as Andromeda was half dozing, happy to have Kingsley's arm around her and his weight beside her in the bed, his voice rumbled out of the dark. "Can I ask you something?"
"Of course." Andromeda reached for her wand and cast a soft Lumos, so she could see him.
"I've just been wondering," Kingsley said. "Is there a particular reason I'm keeping my relationship with you a secret? Or is it just a habit we've fallen into?"
It wasn't something they'd ever properly talked about. Andromeda herself had always tended toward circumspection, and besides, the wizarding community was small and prone to gossip. But no, there was no good reason for it, and she said as much.
"I'm not pushing you to do anything you don't want to do," Kingsley hastened to add. "I'm happy to have secret trysts with you until the end of our days, if you prefer."
Until the end of our days.
Kingsley reached over to touch a finger to her cheek. "I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable."
"No, no, not at all," Andromeda assured him. "But now I'm wondering at myself. All those times Molly has sighed over your bachelorhood, or itched to set me up with some nice gentleman she's met, I suppose I really could have mentioned this to her."
"And put her out of her misery," Kingsley agreed. "Just think how many sleepless nights we must have caused poor Molly by now, between the two of us."
Andromeda smiled at that. "I do wonder a bit what Teddy would think, and what your children would think."
Kingsley shrugged. "Stor and Em like you. And they and Teddy get on very well."
"It's all very well to like a person casually, but things get more complicated when families combine," Andromeda told him.
"Is that the voice of experience speaking?"
Well, Andromeda had resolved to try to share more of herself and her past with Kingsley, though he never demanded she do so.
"I suppose so," she agreed. "You can certainly imagine what my family thought of Ted, though that's hardly a normal example," she said. "But take Remus...I liked him very much as a man, and terribly well as a friend to Sirius, probably the best influence Sirius ever had. But I admit, I struggled when Nymphadora became serious about him. An older man with no job prospects and an incurable disease was not exactly what I had hoped for my daughter."
"And any parent would understand you," Kingsley agreed. "But Remus was a great man."
"Of course he was," Andromeda said. "And I came to see that."
"And Stor and Em will absolutely accept you. I really don't think they'll find it strange."
"I truly don't mind if others know about us," Andromeda assured him. "I suppose I just didn't mind either that they didn't know."
"One person does know already," Kingsley admitted, sounding contrite. "I did tell Bill."
"Bill Weasley?" Andromeda asked blankly, momentarily at a loss as to why her relationship with Kingsley should matter in the least to Molly's eldest son.
"When Em started sleeping over at their place so often, I wanted them to know where to reach me in an emergency," Kingsley explained. "So I told Bill in confidence that I could most likely be found here. I'm quite sure, though, that he's never told anyone else."
Andromeda leaned over to still his rationalisations with a kiss. "Kingsley, when I say I don't mind, I really don't mind. I'm not embarrassed about us. Just a bit…private by nature."
"Mysterious," Kingsley agreed with a grin. "Enigmatic, you could say."
"Yes, whatever you choose to call it."
"Secretive?" he offered. "Arcane. Unfathomable. Opaque."
"Yes, yes, we all know you have a learned and extensive vocabulary, Mr Minister."
"Impudent," Kingsley concluded happily, pulling Andromeda in for another kiss.
- - - - -
( continue to CHAPTER 5)