RP: All the world's a stage, and all the men and women players on it
Date: 18 February 2005
Characters: Arabella Figg
Location: Wisteria Walk, Little Whinging, Surrey
Status: Private
Summary: Arabella reflects on her life and looks to the future.
Completion: Complete
It wasn’t easy being a Squib. Arabella Figg learned this as the only non-magical child in her household. When her older brothers, Reginald and Alfred Brownleigh, went off to Hogwarts, she went through the barrier at Platform 93/4 and watched them, year after year, wave to their family from the Hogwarts Express. She never got on the train, of course, because she never received a letter. Instead she went to secondary school in Reading. It was a good school as council schools went. Still, while Arabella learned algebra and British history, her brothers learned how to turn a tadpole into a teapot and how to light fires with the tips of their wands. She really couldn’t help being jealous.
Fortunately, Arabella was a very amiable child. She watched her brothers go off to Hogwarts, then went to the Muggle secondary school and pretended to be just like the other girls. As she never really socialized with young wizards other than her brothers, it was natural that when she came of age, she would simply continue to spend time with Muggles. That was how she eventually met Geoffrey Figg. He came from a town called Little Whinging, in Surrey. When Arabella finished school at sixteen, she went to work in one of the local factories in Reading. The Second World War had just ended and a great many women were working in factories then. Geoffrey drove a delivery truck for the brewery where Arabella worked as a clerk. One thing led to another and shortly after her nineteenth birthday, she found herself married to Geoffrey and living in Little Whinging.
For more than twenty years Arabella and Geoffrey lived a fairly quiet life. They had no children, but they shared a love of football, though she continued to cheer for Reading’s team while Geoffrey favored Tottenham Hotspur. It was only when He Who Must Not Be Named began to gain power in the 1960s that Arabella found herself drawn back into the wizarding world. Her brothers had introduced her to Dedalus Diggle, a fellow member of Hufflepuff House who belonged to a secret society called the Order of the Phoenix. When the Order’s leader, Albus Dumbledore, brought the infant Harry Potter to live in Little Whinging, he called on Arabella to help keep an eye on The Boy Who Lived.
“You were not able to attend Hogwarts, it is true,” he told her. “You've never been trained in magic. But this is something you can do, and I shall be forever in your debt.”
Geoffrey, bless him, had died in a roadway accident two years earlier. Arabella believed that everyone had a contribution to make. Alone and childless, she needed to be needed. How could she possibly say no?
Thus began the strangest part of Arabella Doreen Brownleigh Figg's life -- the years of pretending to know nothing of the wizarding world while keeping a watchful eye on Harry Potter as Dumbledore's surrogate.
Arabella learned the comings and goings of the Dursleys, Harry's unwilling guardians. She ingratiated herself with Petunia Dursley by trading innocuous gossip with her at the local food market. Thus she became a motherly confidant to the young mother who'd somehow found herself stuck with her sister's child. Poor you, Arabella empathised, whenever Petunia complained about the boy. He was strange, Petunia said. All sorts of weird things happened to him and around him. Petunia often looked frightened when speaking of little Harry. She must really despise magic, Arabella thought, swallowing her distaste so she could continue playing her part. What had Shakespeare written? All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players on it...
For Harry's sake, Arabella played her part, and brilliantly (if she said so herself) for almost 14 years, taking him in for a day or more whenever the Dursleys wanted to go somewhere without him, which was several times each year. Harry never seemed very happy when he visited her, but that didn't surprise Arabella; the poor boy had to be miserable living with those awful people. It never occurred to her that perhaps Harry didn't like her or her house; after all, who wouldn't love Tufty, or Mr Paws, or Snowy, or Tibbles? As far as Harry knew, Mrs Figg was simply a dotty old woman who was forced to care for him occasionally. It wasn't until those Dementor creatures invaded Little Whinging in August 1995 that Harry found out just who and what Arabella Figg was.
That was the essentially the end of her involvement in Harry's life. Now, almost ten years later, Arabella was still in Little Whinging but, she hoped, not for long. She'd just received a letter from Caradoc Dearborn, an Order colleague who had emigrated to the United States more than 20 years earlier. She wanted to learn everything he knew about Stoatshead Hill, the new wizarding village. With the war over, there was not much left for Arabella in Little Whinging.
Most 75-year-old Britons were living out the end of their lives. Arabella was hoping for a new beginning to hers. Perhaps she would find it in Stoatshead Hill.
Characters: Arabella Figg
Location: Wisteria Walk, Little Whinging, Surrey
Status: Private
Summary: Arabella reflects on her life and looks to the future.
Completion: Complete
It wasn’t easy being a Squib. Arabella Figg learned this as the only non-magical child in her household. When her older brothers, Reginald and Alfred Brownleigh, went off to Hogwarts, she went through the barrier at Platform 93/4 and watched them, year after year, wave to their family from the Hogwarts Express. She never got on the train, of course, because she never received a letter. Instead she went to secondary school in Reading. It was a good school as council schools went. Still, while Arabella learned algebra and British history, her brothers learned how to turn a tadpole into a teapot and how to light fires with the tips of their wands. She really couldn’t help being jealous.
Fortunately, Arabella was a very amiable child. She watched her brothers go off to Hogwarts, then went to the Muggle secondary school and pretended to be just like the other girls. As she never really socialized with young wizards other than her brothers, it was natural that when she came of age, she would simply continue to spend time with Muggles. That was how she eventually met Geoffrey Figg. He came from a town called Little Whinging, in Surrey. When Arabella finished school at sixteen, she went to work in one of the local factories in Reading. The Second World War had just ended and a great many women were working in factories then. Geoffrey drove a delivery truck for the brewery where Arabella worked as a clerk. One thing led to another and shortly after her nineteenth birthday, she found herself married to Geoffrey and living in Little Whinging.
For more than twenty years Arabella and Geoffrey lived a fairly quiet life. They had no children, but they shared a love of football, though she continued to cheer for Reading’s team while Geoffrey favored Tottenham Hotspur. It was only when He Who Must Not Be Named began to gain power in the 1960s that Arabella found herself drawn back into the wizarding world. Her brothers had introduced her to Dedalus Diggle, a fellow member of Hufflepuff House who belonged to a secret society called the Order of the Phoenix. When the Order’s leader, Albus Dumbledore, brought the infant Harry Potter to live in Little Whinging, he called on Arabella to help keep an eye on The Boy Who Lived.
“You were not able to attend Hogwarts, it is true,” he told her. “You've never been trained in magic. But this is something you can do, and I shall be forever in your debt.”
Geoffrey, bless him, had died in a roadway accident two years earlier. Arabella believed that everyone had a contribution to make. Alone and childless, she needed to be needed. How could she possibly say no?
Thus began the strangest part of Arabella Doreen Brownleigh Figg's life -- the years of pretending to know nothing of the wizarding world while keeping a watchful eye on Harry Potter as Dumbledore's surrogate.
Arabella learned the comings and goings of the Dursleys, Harry's unwilling guardians. She ingratiated herself with Petunia Dursley by trading innocuous gossip with her at the local food market. Thus she became a motherly confidant to the young mother who'd somehow found herself stuck with her sister's child. Poor you, Arabella empathised, whenever Petunia complained about the boy. He was strange, Petunia said. All sorts of weird things happened to him and around him. Petunia often looked frightened when speaking of little Harry. She must really despise magic, Arabella thought, swallowing her distaste so she could continue playing her part. What had Shakespeare written? All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players on it...
For Harry's sake, Arabella played her part, and brilliantly (if she said so herself) for almost 14 years, taking him in for a day or more whenever the Dursleys wanted to go somewhere without him, which was several times each year. Harry never seemed very happy when he visited her, but that didn't surprise Arabella; the poor boy had to be miserable living with those awful people. It never occurred to her that perhaps Harry didn't like her or her house; after all, who wouldn't love Tufty, or Mr Paws, or Snowy, or Tibbles? As far as Harry knew, Mrs Figg was simply a dotty old woman who was forced to care for him occasionally. It wasn't until those Dementor creatures invaded Little Whinging in August 1995 that Harry found out just who and what Arabella Figg was.
That was the essentially the end of her involvement in Harry's life. Now, almost ten years later, Arabella was still in Little Whinging but, she hoped, not for long. She'd just received a letter from Caradoc Dearborn, an Order colleague who had emigrated to the United States more than 20 years earlier. She wanted to learn everything he knew about Stoatshead Hill, the new wizarding village. With the war over, there was not much left for Arabella in Little Whinging.
Most 75-year-old Britons were living out the end of their lives. Arabella was hoping for a new beginning to hers. Perhaps she would find it in Stoatshead Hill.