Be Careful
83: What Question You Ask
By Anne B. Walsh
A lie-in was putting it mildly—it was well past noon when Ginny finally awakened. Tonks put a finger to her lips as Ginny came down the stairs, pointing at the floor in front of the couch where she was sitting with Teddy. Ginny peered around the corner and had to stifle a laugh; Ron, Harry, and Hermione were all still asleep on the cushions, Harry with his face resting against Hermione’s shoulder and Ron sprawled out below their feet.
"Remus says they haven’t moved a bit since he came to bed last night," Tonks said with a grin. "He’s in the kitchen getting lunch together. Mum’s out somewhere with Luna, as soon as they come back we’ll put a Fidelius Charm over this place. I hadn’t had a chance to ask you, how’ve you been? Where’ve you been? Those reports on Potterwatch, the ones by that Reflection kid, were they any good?"
"They were, but we never knew how." Ginny sat down beside Tonks and stroked Teddy’s hair, which was striped bubblegum pink and ultramarine at the moment. "It was nothing to do with us, at least I don’t think it was, we never talked to anyone unless we were disguised…" One thought led to another. "Harry’s not going to be happy about being here," she said. "He didn’t even want me along. He only let Ron and Hermione come in the first place because he knew there wasn’t any way he could stop them."
Tonks sighed. "Because the war’s all his fault and he should take everything on himself, right? Never let anyone else share the danger? He’s a great chap, but sometimes I just want to smack him upside the head, you know?"
"You’re telling me," Ginny said dryly, and this time Tonks had to hold back her laugh. "He finally agreed I could stay with them after I pointed out I hadn’t exactly been safe at Hogwarts and I’d probably murder Mum if I had to go home and stay there. And it worked." She scowled. "Right until I did magic and set off the damn Trace."
"Did you do it on purpose?"
"No—well, sort of, Harry was about to say You-Know-Who’s name, I wanted to stop him, and I did but it was accidental magic, wandless—"
"Quit blaming yourself." Tonks tugged on a hank of Ginny’s hair. "Accidental magic. You hear what I hear in there? Ac-cid-en-tal? As in, you didn’t mean to?"
"It doesn’t matter that I didn’t mean to, Hermione’s still hurt! She’s lost her wand hand!"
"She can learn to use the other one. Trust me, I’ve seen it done." Tonks’ voice was low and evenly paced, and Ginny found herself calming down almost against her will. "This is a war, Ginny. Means people get hurt, even die. Hermione knew what she was getting into, she could have gone away with her parents, and she didn’t. She took the risk. She’s still alive, she has her mind and her magic, and she has you and Harry and Ron to help her when she starts working with her left hand to get it good enough to fight with. Right?"
Ginny let out a reluctant sigh. "Right," she agreed. "How did you get so smart?"
"Some of it, they train you for in Auror apprenticeship." Tonks shifted Teddy to her other arm as he stirred. "Some of it I had to learn being married to Remus. I swear, that man knows every possible variation on blaming himself for things I’ve ever heard of, and a few I haven’t…"
"Talking about me?" said Lupin, coming into the living room with a tray levitating at the end of his wand.
"Of course," Tonks said with a smile, pulling out her own wand and conjuring a small table for the tray to land on, then handing Teddy to his father. "What better subject is there?"
Ginny’s giggle at Lupin’s blush, or possibly the smell of the food on the tray, roused Ron, and before long two Weasleys and two Lupins were eating in companionable silence. Harry stirred a few times but did not wake, and Hermione remained as still as a statue save for the rise and fall of her chest with her breathing.
"Mum got a potion into both of them last night," Tonks said when Ron started to look at the sleepers with concern. "They won’t starve. But you—" She pointed sternly at Ron with the hand not holding her sandwich. "—haven’t been taking care of them right."
"Wha?" Ron said through a mouthful of crisps.
"Don’t give me that. You know what I’m talking about." Tonks’ hair darkened with every word, as did her scowl. "As a fellow member of the Fraternity of Fun-Lovers, I say you have been derelict in your duty, sir! It was your job to keep them from taking themselves too seriously, and you’ve failed miserably!"
Ron stared at her open-mouthed for a second. Fortunately for Ginny’s stomach, he’d swallowed first. "Have you ever tried distracting Harry when he’s got his teeth into something?" he asked finally. "Or, Merlin forbid, Hermione? They’re like Hufflepuffs! You can’t shake them off! Mind you, it’s been better with Ginny around," he added. "She can do more with Harry than I can. And I’m learning how to deal with Hermione. But what do you think I ought to have done?"
"I don’t know about ‘ought to,’" said Lupin, settling Teddy more firmly into the crook of his arm. "But if this is better for Harry, I’d hate to have seen worse. None of you look particularly well, I have to say. Too much worry and only yourselves to turn to."
Tonks flicked a crisp at him. "As if you had any room to talk about that. Look, what’s done is done, and we can’t change it," she said to Ron and Ginny. "But—notice I’m not asking for details, just an overview—whatever it is you’re up to, you’re getting close to the end, right? Whatever you’re looking for at Hogwarts, that’ll be the last of it?"
Ron gave a reluctant nod.
"Then you’ve got to get yourselves ready to do it right." Tonks aimed her wand over her shoulder, and a scroll of parchment and a quill soared into her grasp. "Which means resting up and calming down. No, don’t try and tell me you’re calm already," she cut Ron off as he started to speak. "You lot look unhappier than Snape in the shower."
"How do you know what that looks like?" Ginny asked, as Ron seemed temporarily unable to speak.
Tonks pointed at Lupin, who gave Ginny a faint smirk. "I’m not necessarily proud of everything we got up to in school," he said. "But I can’t deny some of it has remained quite amusing through the years, if mentally scarring."
"As I was saying, you’re all wound up too tight." Tonks mimed turning a key. "Harry, especially, looked like he was just about at breaking point last night. You need one place and time where you don’t have to think about the war or You-Know-Who or anything like that. Simply put, you need a party. And I know just the reason." She smiled tenderly at Lupin, who returned the expression. "If a baby isn’t a decent excuse to whoop it up, what is? And you’re in charge," she said, turning to Ron.
"Why me?" Ron said, frowning.
Tonks snorted. "I went to school with Bill and Charlie. Unless you’re going to tell me they never taught you anything about organizing a boozer…"
"I don’t think you should be drinking yet, dear," Lupin objected.
"I never said I’d be drinking," Tonks retorted. "But unless you can think of a better way to get them all relaxed for one night—"
Lupin sighed. "I had a feeling I wouldn’t survive this war," he said. "If a Death Eater doesn’t kill me, Molly will, for allowing this. But all right."
"We’ll protect you from Mum," Ginny promised, waving her hand to encompass herself and her friends and brother. "Death Eaters…if we can."
"Thank you," Lupin said gravely. "I feel better already."
"When were you thinking?" Ron said, leaning back against an armchair. "Tonight, tomorrow, whenever Hermione wakes up? Parties aren’t her thing, she wouldn’t mind if we did the drinking without her. Harry won’t want to miss it, though."
"What?" Harry mumbled, lifting his head from Hermione’s shoulder.
"You won’t want to miss the party for Teddy," said Ginny, slipping down to the floor to sit beside her boyfriend. "Will you?"
"Party sounds good." Harry extracted his glasses from his front pocket and put them on, blinking muzzily behind them. "Morning," he said to the group as a whole. "Do I smell food?"
"Sandwiches," said Tonks, levitating the plate down to the floor where Harry could reach it. "Sooner the better, Ron. Tonight sounds fine."
"In that case, I’d better get moving." Ginny stood up. "That’s if you’re going to want food."
"Oh, Mum can cook—"
"But if you’re offering, thank you and we accept," Lupin interrupted his wife’s airy dismissal. "She might not care to have it sprung on her," he murmured, before standing up and handing his son back to Tonks. "I’ll show you what we have in the kitchen, Ginny, and if there’s anything we need more of, I can pop out for it before we do the Fidelius."
"What’s holding it up?" Harry asked, swallowing his first bite of sandwich. "I mean, not to be rude, but it’s no secret we’re connected with you. They’ll look here at some point."
"Mrs. Tonks took Luna out for something," said Ron. "We need to wait until they get back. Did they say how long they’d be?"
"Middle of the afternoon." Tonks undid a flap on her robes one-handed as Teddy began to fuss. "So another hour or two. If they haven’t got at us yet, I doubt they’ll manage it in that amount of time. Bill helped us with our wards, used a couple of the curses he found in those Egyptian pyramids…"
Ginny snickered. "Do you think having two heads will make the Death Eaters any smarter?"
"They’ve got no brains to start with," said Ron. "Two times nothing is still nothing."
Harry grinned at this, looking more relaxed than Ginny had seen him—
Since the day I showed up. Since that one moment he let himself forget about the war and just be glad to see me again.
Tonks was right. He needs this desperately. We all do. Time to put aside our fears for one night and be friends all together, celebrating a new life.
But even as she followed Lupin into the kitchen to see what party foods she could create, Ginny found herself wondering where Andromeda Tonks had gone with Luna, and if it had anything to do with the mysterious Reflection.
Draco jabbed his quill into its holder and massaged his writing hand for a moment, leaning back to watch the lake water swirl outside the common room windows. Necessary this chore might be, but great fun it was not.
But imagining people’s faces when this all comes out…oh, that’s fun if there ever was. Glad I’m going to be able to see the reality.
He had spent the remainder of the previous day discussing with Moony and Danger the practicalities of his final journey to the otherworld, such as when he should undertake it. They both felt, and Draco reluctantly concurred, that it was too dangerous for him to simply come now and wait there for Harry to get around to killing the Dark Lord.
What if I fell asleep at the wrong moment and got stuck over here? Or what if it turns out Harry actually needs my help with something—like that last Horcrux? No, I have to stay involved if I want this to come out well. Besides, Luna’d never leave her friends, and I’m not about to leave her.
Thoughts of Luna produced a wave of longing, which he shoved back as best he could. He had seen her yesterday by the calendar, and even by his personal time they’d only been apart for one full day. There was no reason he should feel this lost and disoriented without her, no reason he should want to see her and hear her voice so badly…
The fire in the fireplace flared green, and Snape’s voice echoed out of it. "Malfoy?"
"Yes, sir," Draco answered quickly, standing up.
"Get your cloak and come to my office."
"On my way, sir." Draco pulled his wand and Summoned his outdoor cloak from his dorm, fastened it under his chin, and stepped into the flames, holding the fabric in both hands to keep it from catching so much ash that it pulled him out at a different grate than the one he intended.
Where’s he going to take me—or send me?
A few seconds later, he stepped clear of the Headmaster’s fireplace, shaking ashes out of his hair. Snape and a brunette witch were waiting for him; Draco’s eyes widened as he saw her.
"Draco, I don’t believe you know—" Snape began.
"Aunt Andromeda," Draco cut him off, bowing.
"Nephew," his aunt answered formally. She looked older than Aunt Andy, Draco noticed, probably because her life had been harder, especially over the last year. "I hope you are well."
"Tolerably so." No acting was required for the tremble in Draco’s voice, nor for the need to look away from the eyes surprisingly like his mother’s.
"I beg your pardon," Snape said. "I was not aware you’d met."
"We haven’t," said Draco, looking up at the Headmaster. "Call it…a lucky guess."
Aunt Andromeda chuckled. "I’ve come to see if you would care to spend an hour or two in Hogsmeade with me," she said. "It is Saturday, and the middle of your Easter holidays, so I cannot imagine you have much to do. And I think we might find a few topics of conversation we would both enjoy."
"I have no objection," said Snape. "Though obviously you must return by sundown."
"Of course." Draco inclined his head to his former Potions professor. "Thank you, sir."
Here’s hoping I can pay you back sometime.
The walk towards Hogwarts’ gates was silent. Aunt Andromeda broke it first. "Please believe I share your sorrow, Draco. Whatever our differences of opinion, I loved your mother dearly."
"I know." Draco pulled his hood up against the whipping wind. "She never mentioned you, but I think that was because she missed you too much to talk about it."
"A generous interpretation. I thank you." Another moment of silence. "I have good news of my own, though I hesitate to bring it up at such a time."
"No, please, don’t. I could do with some good news for once."
Aunt Andromeda smiled warmly. "Then I will tell you that you have a new cousin. My grandson was born last night."
"Congratulations!" Draco returned her smile, thinking fondly of Aurora Black, now sitting up on her own and learning to crawl (as yet she could only go backwards, which frustrated her immensely), and Jenny Beauvoi, grabbing at anything that offered itself and laughing with abandon if it flinched back or yelled. "What has he been named?"
"Teddy." Aunt Andromeda’s voice went soft. "For my husband."
Draco shut his eyes, momentarily transported back to a snow-filled clearing and a hand gone limp in his grasp. "May he grow to be as good a man as his namesake," he said, and realized a second too late he might have given himself away. She wasn’t supposed to know…it was meant to stay a secret…
But Aunt Andromeda’s smile changed not one whit, and she steered the conversation deftly into the myriad perfections of the new baby as they walked down the lane to Hogsmeade and into the barroom of the Hog’s Head. The barman nodded towards the stairs, and Draco climbed them, his aunt behind him. Both of them had fallen silent as they approached the building.
Why are we here?
"This one," Aunt Andromeda said quietly, pointing to the closed door of room seven. "Go right in and stay there until I return." Her lips quirked for a moment. "I doubt you will have trouble finding occupation."
And she turned and went back down the stairs, leaving Draco staring alternately at her and the door. After a few seconds, he shook himself out of his bemusement and turned the doorknob.
Here goes nothing…
The room beyond was dimly lit. One person sat on the bed, wearing a hooded cloak like Draco’s own. Hands went to the hood and lowered it.
"Close the door," murmured the voice he’d been wanting most to hear. "And then come here."
Numbly, Draco obeyed, and Luna drew him close and held him as he began once again to cry. How and why, where and when, could be addressed later. For now, he had who and what he needed, and he was, in a strange way, content.
Author Notes:
Wow, I didn’t know if I could write at my parents’, but it seems I can. More as soon as I can find the time to get it down on paper—we’re rolling now, all the way to the big ending! Keep encouraging me and I’ll keep going!