Chapter 9: Questions and Answers
Autumn term passed much faster than the other term had aided in part by the heaps of homework that pressed in on them from all sides. One late December day, during a Transfiguration lesson, Professor Spinnet sent around a sign-up list for those students who would be staying at Hogwarts over the holidays. Most first-years signed the list, except for three: Cora Potter, Olivia Abdiknot, and Andrew MacDounagh.
Olivia was going “home”, to Islington and the mysterious story that awaited her. Drew had been offered and accepted a week-long apprenticeship in the central offices of The Quibbler. Essentially, this entailed sitting at his kitchen table and thinking up clues for the monthly crossword, but he was glad to be going home nonetheless. Cora, on the other hand, was dreading her return home and would have given anything to be staying at school, but according to her mother that wasn’t her choice to make, so she grudgingly packed her trunk and reluctantly bid Hogwarts farewell.
With only a week to go until Christmas the trio boarded the Hogwarts Express, excited - or, in Cora’s case, apprehensive - about the adventures that awaited them at home.
Platform Nine and Three-Quarters was filled with parents cheerfully welcoming their children and wishing their friends a Happy Christmas. Olivia wandered through the crowd searching”though she wasn’t quite sure what she was looking for.
“Olivia!” Someone shouted from across the crowded platform.
She turned and spotted the familiar figure of her mother standing next to a tall, wrought iron archway and walked slowly in her direction. Once she had closed the considerable gap between them she realized that it wasn’t her mother standing there, waiting nervously to greet her. Nymphadora Tonks’ hair was shorter than Olivia remembered, and her eyes held less laughter, but there was no mistaking her in close proximity. Olivia approached her, feeling extremely awkward and shook the hand that the other woman had proffered.
Feeling compelled to introduce herself she said, “I’m Olivia.”
“Tonks,” replied the other, “but you can call me whatever you like including liar, fake or any other foul word you can think of.”
“Tonks works for me,” said Olivia, who didn’t want to make things unnecessarily difficult.
There was a pause. Then”
“Look, Tonks, I know you’ve got a story to tell, and I want to hear it, and ask questions and everything, but right now could we please just go home?”
Tonks smiled. “I thought you’d never ask.”
And together, Tonks and Olivia turned around and strode through the archway, back into the Muggle world.
Drew had forgotten how hectic the central offices of The Quibbler could be. Sure, he remembered the Howlers, and the crazed witches who randomly Apparated on their doorstep, and Eliza, the Squib who served as babysitter to the staff’s children and who knew far more than could be healthy about the Eiffel Tower…but he had forgotten all about the inter-departmental messages that were composed entirely of cut-out letters from previous issues, the mock-ups made of alphabet soup, or how his little sister would sometimes wander into his ‘office’, stare at the ceiling for precisely thirty-nine seconds, and wander out again.
No doubt about it, The Quibbler was bizarre. Maybe the reason Drew continued to write the crossword puzzle, month after month, was because”and he was the first to admit it”he was a little weird as well.
He was also completely out of ideas. After working very hard for several hours, Drew’s list of clues read
ACROSS
1. Conspiracy theory involving gum disease
2. Innocent singing sensation
But that was as far as he had gotten. Annoyed, Drew decided to give it up for the time being and went off to convince his sister, Stephanie, to tell him why she kept staring at his ceiling.
Cora hated cars. They were stuffy and impersonal, and so slow. When given the choice between traveling on a Comet Two Eighty or in her mother’s Aston-Martin, Cora took the broomstick every time.
Unfortunately, she hadn’t been given the choice. According to her mother, broomsticks were risky and impractical. They couldn’t travel by Floo Powder either, because their fireplace had been disconnected for privacy reasons, so the Potter family was driving to the Burrow for Christmas.
Cora was bored out of her mind.
“Matt! Turn on the radio!”
“We don’t get the WWN in the car, though!”
“So what? I’m bored!”
“Well, dear,” put in Cora’s mother, who was driving, “you could always tell us about your term. You’ve been home a week and we haven’t gotten a word out of you.”
Cora had nothing better to do, as staring at guardrails was growing increasingly monotonous, so she decided to oblige. Sort of.
“Classes are interesting, I guess.”
“You guess?” Mrs. Potter hadn’t taken her eyes off the road, but Cora could tell from her tone of voice that she had better start talking, or that her mother would do everything in her power to make the rest of the ride far more boring.
Reluctantly, Cora began again. Sure, she hated talking to crowds, but her mother and brother”that she could handle. By the time she had finished voicing her many and varied opinions on how pointless Defense Against the Dark Arts was, how awesome Olivia and Drew were, and how hopelessly arrogant that Josh Dartman acted, they were pulling into the long driveway of the Burrow.
Olivia wanted answers. Sure, she had asked to go home, but she had been there a week already! While she had definitely enjoyed her holiday, she had only returned to Islington to get the facts, something that was not happening at all. Frustrated, Olivia decided to take action, and brought up the topic during dinner on Christmas Eve.
“Tonks? Why are we here?”
“Because I can’t afford rent in London. Pass the potatoes.”
“No, Tonks, that’s not what I mean,” said Olivia, as she handed over the potatoes. “I need to know the whole story, not about rent, but about Lord Voldemort and Harry Potter and my parents, whoever they are, and”oh”this is so awkward, but I need you to tell me. Please.”
Tonks sighed, put down her fork, and looked at Olivia. “All right. Mind you, I can only tell you what I know, which I very much doubt is the whole story, but I’ll try my best.
“A long, long time ago, there was this orphan boy named Tom Riddle. He was brought up in the orphanage he was born in. The Ministry of Magic knew he was magical, but they didn’t do anything about him. Plenty of wizards were Muggleborn, why should Tom be brought up any differently? So Tom turned eleven and got sent off to Hogwarts where, to make a long story short, he turned into Lord Voldemort. D’you follow me so far?”
Olivia nodded. “So that was the first time the Ministry screwed up?”
“Exactly,” agreed Tonks. “When another powerful orphan surfaced, they wanted to make sure nothing horrible happened, seeing as the first one turned out so evil.”
“I can see the logic in that,” said Olivia, “but didn’t Voldemort kind of bring about what happened next?”
“Right again,” replied Tonks. “Voldemort killed Harry Potter’s parents, tried to kill him, and simultaneously vanished. The Ministry didn’t have a clue what to do with Harry, though, so they let Dumbledore”you do know who he is”decide his fate, and Dumbledore decided to leave Harry with his Muggle aunt and uncle.
“Now, it turns out that there was a lot more involved in that decision than most people thought, and it really was the best possible scenario. But the Ministry is never eager to repeat its mistakes, and, what with the war between Harry and Voldemort, they decided that the next orphan should be given as much magical influence as possible, but still lead the life of a Muggleborn.”
“Me?” asked Olivia.
“You,” confirmed Tonks. “They decided to leave you with a magical guardian”preferably a talented witch who could be easily disguised. I happened to fit that description.”
“So the Ministry assigned you to…me,” concluded Olivia, finally understanding everything.
Well, almost everything. One fact was still bothering Olivia, so she brought it up when they had retired to the sitting room to listen to the WWN Christmas broadcast.
“Tonks? How come the Ministry picked you?”
Tonks sighed, reached over, and turned off the radio before answering. “Because I had nothing better to do.”
This put Olivia back to square one in the comprehension department. “But”you were an Auror! Surely they could have found””
Tonks cut her off. “Oh, there were plenty of jobs! This was right after the war, there was loads to be done!”
“They why””
“Because no one wanted me to work for them. My…er…fiancée was killed during the war, if you must know. We were both huge advocates for the Order of the Phoenix, and I guess Remus just got too close to the front line.
“I was never the same after that. Kind of fell apart, emotionally, and the Ministry didn’t think I was fit to work. So, when you were discovered, they seemed to think I was perfect for the job. Put me on extended leave and send me a check for my services every month, but that’s about it.”
Comprehension was finally dawning on Olivia, and she didn’t like it one bit. “Oh, Tonks,” she breathed, “I’m so sorry.”
Tonks shrugged. “It was a long time ago. D’you want some hot chocolate before bed?”
Olivia nodded, and followed Tonks back into the kitchen, enjoying the scuffing sounds her slippers made on the warn linoleum floor.
“Hey, Tonks?”
“Hmm?”
“Can I call you ‘Mum’ again?”
Tonks looked up, surprised. “If you want to, certainly…”
Olivia grinned. “Happy Christmas, Mum!”