Saying Yes, chapter 6
SAYING YES chapter 6
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 SIX
With more free time again, Andromeda began turning her column for the Magical Mirror to tougher topics - the origins of house-elf servitude, the complex history of legal contracts between humans and goblins, Muggle-wizard relations through the centuries.
And for the first time, Andromeda began to receive hate mail by owl, from witches and wizards who disagreed with her views in a wider variety of ways than she would have imagined possible.
"Should I be worried?" Kingsley asked, getting that hard Auror look in his eyes that Andromeda only rarely saw, when she spread out the letters on her kitchen table to show him.
Andromeda shook her head. "The people who are worth worrying about don't waste their time writing letters." Then she sighed. "Is it wrong to be glad, just occasionally, that one's entire family is dead, aside from one aggravating but not particularly dangerous sister?"
Kingsley just looked at her for a moment, and Andromeda thought perhaps this time she'd spoken of her family too candidly.
Then, to her surprise, he came and wrapped his arms around her. "No, it's not wrong," he said. "And I think it's very brave of you to put your name to your views in public this way."
"It's no different from what you did for ten years," Andromeda said.
"The difference is that ministers have security details," Kingsley replied darkly. Still, he released her from his embrace and squeezed her hand. "All right, I'll trust you to know if you're in mortal danger, and if so, maybe to give me a bit of advance warning."
"That's a deal," she agreed.
That year seemed to fly by. Kingsley stayed at her house much of the time, and Molly invited them over to dinner at the Burrow often. Kingsley and his children came to the Weasleys' for Christmas that year, and Andromeda remembered the last time both she and Kingsley had been at the Burrow at Christmas: It had been the first winter after the end of the war, fifteen years ago now. Teddy had been just a baby, Kingsley newly the Minister for Magic and not yet even married. Andromeda had been preoccupied then with her own losses; perhaps they all were. In many ways, that seemed a different world from the one in which she lived today.
After all she'd lost, Andromeda found herself surprised and grateful to have ended up where she was now.
All seemed to be well, in fact, until one day not long after the Easter holidays, when Junior Junior swooped in with a letter, in which Teddy wrote that he'd recently had his careers counselling with his Head of House, and was thinking of becoming an Auror.
Andromeda stood in her kitchen and stared at the letter in her hand, something cold running down her spine. Part of her thoughts were taken up with a small echo of Nymphadora's voice ("Mum, look, top marks on the entrance exam!") but a much larger part simply saw Teddy himself, Teddy with his irrepressible smile, and Andromeda's whole heart rebelled at the thought of ever losing that. Losing him.
She thought about all the possible responses to this letter, weighed them against each other, and decided for the time being not to answer that part of Teddy's letter at all. Perhaps it was no more than a passing fancy.
But after two more letters with mentions of the topic ("Professor Wiggentree says my Potions marks are finally up to where they need to be if I want to do Auror training, that's the only one I was worried about this year" and "Maybe Mr Shacklebolt can give me some tips this summer, you know, about what I need to practise if I want to make it into Training. I wrote Harry a couple times too") Andromeda was definitely worried.
She would have to talk to Teddy about it. It wasn't a conversation she looked forward to.
When she shared her concerns with Kingsley, she was relieved that he nodded and said he understood.
"I thought you wouldn't," she admitted. "As a former Auror yourself."
"Of course I do," he said. "You think I didn't terrify my mother every single day?"
"Exactly," Andromeda said. "I can't do that again."
Kingsley looked pensive, then said, "Just remember…if he's really got his heart set on this, you may not be able dissuade him. You can tell him how you feel, you can even try to forbid him from doing it, but you can't change what he wants."
Andromeda shook her head. "Teddy's not like that. If I sit him down and explain, he'll listen."
Yet even after Teddy came home for the summer, Andromeda found herself putting off the conversation. She kept seeing Nymphadora in her mind's eye, the way her daughter had glowed when she'd been accepted into Auror training, and again when she'd passed the exams and qualified as a full Auror. Nymphadora had wanted that so badly and been so proud when she'd succeeded.
Andromeda kept delaying, which it was easy to do because Teddy was out of the house so much of the time anyway, meeting his friends from Ravenclaw or visiting the Potters or the Burrow.
Then over breakfast one morning in mid-July, as Teddy absentmindedly made his arm longer so he could reach the honey on the other side of the table - Andromeda was certain Nymphadora had never morphed her limbs that way and it still gave her a shock when Teddy did it - they both looked up to a sharp tap at the kitchen window. A keen-eyed eagle owl waited there on patiently beating wings, an official-looking letter clutched in its talons.
"O.W.L. results!" Teddy cried, suddenly wide awake, and flung himself at the window to let the Hogwarts owl in. He took the letter gently from its talons, then clutched the envelope as the owl sipped from a saucer of water Andromeda set on the table.
"Go on, open it," Andromeda said, as the owl took flight once more and she closed the window behind it. "Waiting won't make what's inside any better or worse."
Teddy carefully slit the envelope open and scanned the parchment he unfolded from within, then heaved an enormous sigh. "Everything okay. I was worried about Potions, 'cause it's been a lot harder this year, but I got an E after all. Here." He held the parchment out to Andromeda and she read,
EDWARD REMUS LUPIN HAS ACHIEVED:
Arithmancy: E
Astronomy: A
Care of Magical Creatures: O
Charms: E
Defence Against the Dark Arts: O
Herbology: O
History of Magic: E
Potions: E
Transfiguration: O
"Oh, Teddy," she said. "Nine O.W.L.s." She debated briefly whether or not she could still hug this grown-up, tall, self-assured, 16-year-old Teddy, and decided she could.
"Aw, Gran," he said, blushing, and disentangled himself again as soon as it was polite to do so.
"This calls for a celebration," she told him. "Tell me who you'd like to invite over, and we'll have a big dinner. But Teddy…first, there's something I needed to talk to you about."
Teddy, who'd dropped back into his chair and was once again contentedly perusing his letter, looked up in surprise. "Okay….?"
Andromeda took her own seat across from him again, both their breakfasts now forgotten.
"You mentioned in a few of your letters that you'd been thinking of becoming an Auror," she began. "Is that still something you're considering?"
"Yeah."
"When did this start?"
Teddy looked at her uncomprehendingly. "I've always wanted to be an Auror."
This was news. "I see. How did you reach that decision?"
"I dunno, I just always thought that's what I'd like to do."
"I have to ask you to please reconsider."
"What! Why?"
"What happened to becoming a Healer?"
She could see him just barely suppressing an eye roll. "I never wanted to be a Healer, Gran. That was your idea."
"But it's such important work," she said. And almost certain never to get you killed, she didn't add. "You've always been good at the necessary subjects - Charms, Potions, Herbology…"
"Yeah, but I don't want to be a Healer. And anyway, most of those are subjects I need for Auror training too. Plus Transfig, which everyone always says I'm ace at, and Defence, and I'm good at that too."
"Something else in the Ministry, then - you could work in other aspects of Magical Law Enforcement. Or even become a teacher like your father."
He was staring at her, baffled. "Why don't you want me to be an Auror?"
"Teddy, you honestly can't imagine any reason I might not want you to make hunting criminal wizards your daily work?"
"Yeah, it's a bit dangerous, but -"
"A bit dangerous!"
"Okay, yeah it's dangerous, but the whole point is that you train really, really hard, so that you know how to do things right and how not put yourself in situations you can't get out of. I've read all about it, I know what it's like. And it's what I want to do."
"All I'm asking is that you consider other careers. You have plenty of time before you have to decide on something."
Teddy glared mutinously. "I know what this is really about. And I'm not my mum."
As soon as he said it, he looked as if he wished he could take his words back.
"I know you're not," Andromeda said softly. "But your mother was extremely good at her job and we still lost her."
"But there's no war now," Teddy insisted.
"No, but there will always be Dark wizards."
"Yeah, which is why there have to be Aurors!"
"And I'm grateful there are, but Merlin forgive me, I can't lose anyone else to their cause!"
Teddy lifted his chin in a way that was so very much Nymphadora. "Are you going to forbid me?"
"No, Teddy. But I'm going to ask you, please, to think very hard about this before you take a decision. Give serious consideration to the many other options you have. You're a bright boy - you could do anything you set your mind to."
"All right," he mumbled.
"Do I have your word?"
"On what, exactly?"
"That you'll give just as serious consideration to other careers. And that we'll talk again before you decide anything."
"Yeah, okay."
Andromeda sighed. "Good. Then we have a celebratory dinner to plan."
- - - - -
"Was I wrong to dissuade him?" Andromeda wondered to Molly, near the end of that summer. It was a rare afternoon in which Molly wasn't looking after even one of her grandchildren, and the two women were sitting together in the garden at the Burrow.
"From wanting to be an Auror, you mean?"
"Yes. Is it selfish of me to ask him to choose something else?"
Molly sighed. "You do realise, don't you, that you're talking to a woman who not only has one son who's an Auror, but another who interacts with goblins for a living, and one who works with dragons and one who regularly invents things that explode… Not to mention a daughter who decided to play Quidditch instead of doing something safe and sensible."
"In other words…?"
"In other words, I suppose, they have a way of breaking your heart sometimes without even meaning to," Molly murmured. Then she gave herself a small shake and said, "What I mean is, if I could have dissuaded any of them from choosing the paths they did, I probably would have. But they're happy, all of them, and that's a wonderful thing to see."
"So you think I'm in the wrong with Teddy."
"Not necessarily," Molly said. "You're right to tell him how you feel."
"I suppose so," Andromeda murmured. "Yes, I suppose so."
- - - - -
Small note here: I try to write so that each story stands alone, but if you want to read my stories as existing in the same universe...then Andromeda's recollection of "the last time both she and Kingsley had been at the Burrow at Christmas," 15 years before, took place in " Chambers"!
- - - - -
( continue to chapter 7)
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 SIX
With more free time again, Andromeda began turning her column for the Magical Mirror to tougher topics - the origins of house-elf servitude, the complex history of legal contracts between humans and goblins, Muggle-wizard relations through the centuries.
And for the first time, Andromeda began to receive hate mail by owl, from witches and wizards who disagreed with her views in a wider variety of ways than she would have imagined possible.
"Should I be worried?" Kingsley asked, getting that hard Auror look in his eyes that Andromeda only rarely saw, when she spread out the letters on her kitchen table to show him.
Andromeda shook her head. "The people who are worth worrying about don't waste their time writing letters." Then she sighed. "Is it wrong to be glad, just occasionally, that one's entire family is dead, aside from one aggravating but not particularly dangerous sister?"
Kingsley just looked at her for a moment, and Andromeda thought perhaps this time she'd spoken of her family too candidly.
Then, to her surprise, he came and wrapped his arms around her. "No, it's not wrong," he said. "And I think it's very brave of you to put your name to your views in public this way."
"It's no different from what you did for ten years," Andromeda said.
"The difference is that ministers have security details," Kingsley replied darkly. Still, he released her from his embrace and squeezed her hand. "All right, I'll trust you to know if you're in mortal danger, and if so, maybe to give me a bit of advance warning."
"That's a deal," she agreed.
That year seemed to fly by. Kingsley stayed at her house much of the time, and Molly invited them over to dinner at the Burrow often. Kingsley and his children came to the Weasleys' for Christmas that year, and Andromeda remembered the last time both she and Kingsley had been at the Burrow at Christmas: It had been the first winter after the end of the war, fifteen years ago now. Teddy had been just a baby, Kingsley newly the Minister for Magic and not yet even married. Andromeda had been preoccupied then with her own losses; perhaps they all were. In many ways, that seemed a different world from the one in which she lived today.
After all she'd lost, Andromeda found herself surprised and grateful to have ended up where she was now.
All seemed to be well, in fact, until one day not long after the Easter holidays, when Junior Junior swooped in with a letter, in which Teddy wrote that he'd recently had his careers counselling with his Head of House, and was thinking of becoming an Auror.
Andromeda stood in her kitchen and stared at the letter in her hand, something cold running down her spine. Part of her thoughts were taken up with a small echo of Nymphadora's voice ("Mum, look, top marks on the entrance exam!") but a much larger part simply saw Teddy himself, Teddy with his irrepressible smile, and Andromeda's whole heart rebelled at the thought of ever losing that. Losing him.
She thought about all the possible responses to this letter, weighed them against each other, and decided for the time being not to answer that part of Teddy's letter at all. Perhaps it was no more than a passing fancy.
But after two more letters with mentions of the topic ("Professor Wiggentree says my Potions marks are finally up to where they need to be if I want to do Auror training, that's the only one I was worried about this year" and "Maybe Mr Shacklebolt can give me some tips this summer, you know, about what I need to practise if I want to make it into Training. I wrote Harry a couple times too") Andromeda was definitely worried.
She would have to talk to Teddy about it. It wasn't a conversation she looked forward to.
When she shared her concerns with Kingsley, she was relieved that he nodded and said he understood.
"I thought you wouldn't," she admitted. "As a former Auror yourself."
"Of course I do," he said. "You think I didn't terrify my mother every single day?"
"Exactly," Andromeda said. "I can't do that again."
Kingsley looked pensive, then said, "Just remember…if he's really got his heart set on this, you may not be able dissuade him. You can tell him how you feel, you can even try to forbid him from doing it, but you can't change what he wants."
Andromeda shook her head. "Teddy's not like that. If I sit him down and explain, he'll listen."
Yet even after Teddy came home for the summer, Andromeda found herself putting off the conversation. She kept seeing Nymphadora in her mind's eye, the way her daughter had glowed when she'd been accepted into Auror training, and again when she'd passed the exams and qualified as a full Auror. Nymphadora had wanted that so badly and been so proud when she'd succeeded.
Andromeda kept delaying, which it was easy to do because Teddy was out of the house so much of the time anyway, meeting his friends from Ravenclaw or visiting the Potters or the Burrow.
Then over breakfast one morning in mid-July, as Teddy absentmindedly made his arm longer so he could reach the honey on the other side of the table - Andromeda was certain Nymphadora had never morphed her limbs that way and it still gave her a shock when Teddy did it - they both looked up to a sharp tap at the kitchen window. A keen-eyed eagle owl waited there on patiently beating wings, an official-looking letter clutched in its talons.
"O.W.L. results!" Teddy cried, suddenly wide awake, and flung himself at the window to let the Hogwarts owl in. He took the letter gently from its talons, then clutched the envelope as the owl sipped from a saucer of water Andromeda set on the table.
"Go on, open it," Andromeda said, as the owl took flight once more and she closed the window behind it. "Waiting won't make what's inside any better or worse."
Teddy carefully slit the envelope open and scanned the parchment he unfolded from within, then heaved an enormous sigh. "Everything okay. I was worried about Potions, 'cause it's been a lot harder this year, but I got an E after all. Here." He held the parchment out to Andromeda and she read,
EDWARD REMUS LUPIN HAS ACHIEVED:
Arithmancy: E
Astronomy: A
Care of Magical Creatures: O
Charms: E
Defence Against the Dark Arts: O
Herbology: O
History of Magic: E
Potions: E
Transfiguration: O
"Oh, Teddy," she said. "Nine O.W.L.s." She debated briefly whether or not she could still hug this grown-up, tall, self-assured, 16-year-old Teddy, and decided she could.
"Aw, Gran," he said, blushing, and disentangled himself again as soon as it was polite to do so.
"This calls for a celebration," she told him. "Tell me who you'd like to invite over, and we'll have a big dinner. But Teddy…first, there's something I needed to talk to you about."
Teddy, who'd dropped back into his chair and was once again contentedly perusing his letter, looked up in surprise. "Okay….?"
Andromeda took her own seat across from him again, both their breakfasts now forgotten.
"You mentioned in a few of your letters that you'd been thinking of becoming an Auror," she began. "Is that still something you're considering?"
"Yeah."
"When did this start?"
Teddy looked at her uncomprehendingly. "I've always wanted to be an Auror."
This was news. "I see. How did you reach that decision?"
"I dunno, I just always thought that's what I'd like to do."
"I have to ask you to please reconsider."
"What! Why?"
"What happened to becoming a Healer?"
She could see him just barely suppressing an eye roll. "I never wanted to be a Healer, Gran. That was your idea."
"But it's such important work," she said. And almost certain never to get you killed, she didn't add. "You've always been good at the necessary subjects - Charms, Potions, Herbology…"
"Yeah, but I don't want to be a Healer. And anyway, most of those are subjects I need for Auror training too. Plus Transfig, which everyone always says I'm ace at, and Defence, and I'm good at that too."
"Something else in the Ministry, then - you could work in other aspects of Magical Law Enforcement. Or even become a teacher like your father."
He was staring at her, baffled. "Why don't you want me to be an Auror?"
"Teddy, you honestly can't imagine any reason I might not want you to make hunting criminal wizards your daily work?"
"Yeah, it's a bit dangerous, but -"
"A bit dangerous!"
"Okay, yeah it's dangerous, but the whole point is that you train really, really hard, so that you know how to do things right and how not put yourself in situations you can't get out of. I've read all about it, I know what it's like. And it's what I want to do."
"All I'm asking is that you consider other careers. You have plenty of time before you have to decide on something."
Teddy glared mutinously. "I know what this is really about. And I'm not my mum."
As soon as he said it, he looked as if he wished he could take his words back.
"I know you're not," Andromeda said softly. "But your mother was extremely good at her job and we still lost her."
"But there's no war now," Teddy insisted.
"No, but there will always be Dark wizards."
"Yeah, which is why there have to be Aurors!"
"And I'm grateful there are, but Merlin forgive me, I can't lose anyone else to their cause!"
Teddy lifted his chin in a way that was so very much Nymphadora. "Are you going to forbid me?"
"No, Teddy. But I'm going to ask you, please, to think very hard about this before you take a decision. Give serious consideration to the many other options you have. You're a bright boy - you could do anything you set your mind to."
"All right," he mumbled.
"Do I have your word?"
"On what, exactly?"
"That you'll give just as serious consideration to other careers. And that we'll talk again before you decide anything."
"Yeah, okay."
Andromeda sighed. "Good. Then we have a celebratory dinner to plan."
- - - - -
"Was I wrong to dissuade him?" Andromeda wondered to Molly, near the end of that summer. It was a rare afternoon in which Molly wasn't looking after even one of her grandchildren, and the two women were sitting together in the garden at the Burrow.
"From wanting to be an Auror, you mean?"
"Yes. Is it selfish of me to ask him to choose something else?"
Molly sighed. "You do realise, don't you, that you're talking to a woman who not only has one son who's an Auror, but another who interacts with goblins for a living, and one who works with dragons and one who regularly invents things that explode… Not to mention a daughter who decided to play Quidditch instead of doing something safe and sensible."
"In other words…?"
"In other words, I suppose, they have a way of breaking your heart sometimes without even meaning to," Molly murmured. Then she gave herself a small shake and said, "What I mean is, if I could have dissuaded any of them from choosing the paths they did, I probably would have. But they're happy, all of them, and that's a wonderful thing to see."
"So you think I'm in the wrong with Teddy."
"Not necessarily," Molly said. "You're right to tell him how you feel."
"I suppose so," Andromeda murmured. "Yes, I suppose so."
- - - - -
Small note here: I try to write so that each story stands alone, but if you want to read my stories as existing in the same universe...then Andromeda's recollection of "the last time both she and Kingsley had been at the Burrow at Christmas," 15 years before, took place in " Chambers"!
- - - - -
( continue to chapter 7)