The Last Interview
All the way home on the train the next day, Tess and Morwena sat together and schemed, planning for Tess’ confrontation with her mother, Olivia. “You need to lull her,” Morwena urged. “Let her think that Devon’s letter arrived in time, and that Kaufmann was able to push us off the track.
“You absolutely cannot make a scene in front of the little ones. You want to be taken seriously, as an adult rather than a child. Nor do you want Aylie or Max interrupting and asking silly questions. Wait ‘til they go to bed before you go on the offensive.
“And,” urged Morwena, forcefully, “you must act completely normal around Whorley Covenshire.”
“I can’t not think of him as Daddy,” said Tess.
“Then, call him ‘Daddy.’ It’s the best way to make them think they’re in the clear, that you haven’t yet learned the truth.”
So, at the station, Tess rushed to Whorley and hugged him tight. She pressed her face into his coast and breathed in his brisk cologne. “Oh Daddy,” she gushed, “I missed you!” There was no deception, here, for she had missed him. He had been on her mind for weeks.
Whorley ran his hand along her back. “I missed you, too, my princess.”
Tess gave a quick hug to her mother, then greeted her siblings. Olivia had bundled her younger children in coats and hats. (The London weather was predictably dreadful.) Aylie, her face splashed with freckles, a loose bang of white blond hair flying free from the rim of her wool cap, gazed avidly up at Tess. Max was looking sleepy and sullen. He likely had fallen asleep on the car ride into London.
On the ride home to Godric’s Hollow, Tess chatted animatedly about the end of the term – the exams she had taken, the study sessions, the meals. She sprinkled in the names of her friends, but, for the moment, left out Pauline. I’ll bring her up later, Tess figured, after Mum and I have our little chat.
Aylie peppered Tess with questions. "Have you been to the Forbidden Forest?"
"No! It's forbidden. That means, we can't go there."
“How’s the food? Is it as good as Mummy’s?”
“The food is wonderful,” said Tess. “Every night is a feast. I don’t know how I didn’t come back here as round as a balloon.”
“How are the beds? Are there boys in your room?”
“The beds are fine,” answered Tess, with a laugh. “And, no, the boys have a separate room. They have separate bathrooms, too.”
“That’s good. Max gets his toothpaste over everything.”
Tess looked around Aylie at her younger brother. Max was curled up against the door of the car, back asleep.
Aylie took the opportunity to ramble on to Tess about her school assignments, and the little things that had happened in their Godric’s Hollow neighborhood since Tess had left for Hogwarts.
The Covenshires lived in a sprawling, two-story house in a gated community on the outskirts of Godric's Hollow. The house was darkened, but the stone walkway was lit with little fairy lights. Whorley brought in Tess' trunk, while Tess took Aylie's hand and Olivia took Max's. Aylie was old enough to walk without falling over herself, but she missed Tess, and enjoyed being with her again.
In the family room was a tall, bushy pine, trimmed with glowing balls and flickering, spinning lights. There were already wrapped presents in fallen stacks at the base.
In her room, Tess unpacked her trunk, and made a big pile of clothes to wash. One more thing I’ve been looking forward to – wearing something other than a white blouse and plaid skirt.
Amongst her clothes was the silver picture frame, the group photo of the Esoteric Club. She stashed it amongst her nightgowns in the bottom drawer of her dresser.
Aylie gave her only a little respite before she was back in Tess' room. "Tessy, let's play Hogwarts! You be the teacher and I'll be the student."
"Oh all right," said Tess, with feigned irritation. "Let's get some parchment, and you can practice your letters."
Tess made Aylie practice her handwriting, and then the two sisters drew pictures together. Aylie wanted to draw a hippogriff. Tess had to fetch a book from Whorley's library so they could copy from the illustration.
The resulting drawing looked nothing like the beautiful drawing in the book. "We'll have to have Cousin Rhiannon come around," said Tess, "perhaps tomorrow or the next day. I bet she can draw a fine hippogriff for us."
"Are you friends now?" asked Aylie. "You didn't used to be friends."
"Yes, we're good friends now."
After dinner, the two little ones had their baths. Tess helped read the bedtime stories. By eight o'clock, both Aylie and Max were tucked in their beds. Tess and Olivia checked on each child. Then, Tess followed her mother down stairs to the main living room.
Whorley was sitting in his favourite armchair, reading a book. Olivia sat down at the sofa beside him. She looked warily at her daughter.
Tess pulled in a breath and said the words that she had rehearsed with Morwena on the train. "I need to talk to you about Scott Highcross."
Olivia and Whorley exchanged a quick glance. Whorley closed his book and eased himself up out of his chair. "That's my cue, I think. It's time you had this mother-daughter chat. If you need anything, I'll be in my study."
He gave Tess a brief hug as he passed her, and she smiled up at him. As soon as he left the room, silence fell. Tess sat down in the chair Whorley had just vacated. Mother and daughter stared coolly at one another.
Start her off with a question she's not expecting, Morwena had urged. She's been anticipating this confrontation, and she has her defenses lined up. Go the way she expects, and she will block you off. Surprise her, dart around those defenses, and she will tell you everything.
So, as casually as she could, Tess said, "You were a Prog in school?"
Tess watched in satisfaction as her mother's face darkened. Olivia tried to match Tess' offhand tone. "I was young. I was trying on new ideas. It was exciting."
"And, it was a way to be with Scott."
Olivia's blush deepened. "Yes."
"Was he your first boyfriend?"
"Oh, there were a few boys before him. I did Favours for a while. But, with Scott, things were quite serious."
"When did you start sleeping together?" Here, the girls had had a long debate. Which phrase should Tess use? Pauline had suggested "Making Love." Rhiannon argued for the blunt, "Having Sex." Morwena pushed for the most innocuous of the euphemisms. Don't be crass. Don't imply too much.
But the question came as a blow to Olivia. She crumpled down into the sofa. If she had harbored any illusion that some part of this mystery had eluded her daughter, it was now dashed. "You don't understand what it was like," she said finally.
"What was it like?"
"This was the Year of the Basilisk. That thing was haunting the hallways, hunting Muggleborns. Scott was in mortal danger. He was a Prefect, responsible for keeping the younger students safe. He had to make regular patrols. And, being Fifth Years, there was plenty of course work we were responsible for, too. Yet, we found time to be alone together.
"Then, Dumbledore was temporarily removed from the school, and everything seemed to go to hell. The staff held the school together, but morale collapsed. Everyone felt defeated. I thought for sure the basilisk was going to kill us both. So, we threw caution to the wind. I'm sure that's when it happened."
“Not it,” said Tess. “Me. That’s when I happened.”
“Yes,” said Olivia.”
"What did you tell Grand-Mum?"
"Well, I didn't know, at first. My periods were sometimes erratic. But, by mid-summer, I was pretty sure. Scott and I wrote each other every day, but of course, I hadn't said anything to him about it, and I hadn't told your grandparents that I was writing to a Muggleborn boy.
"There came a day when I couldn't keep it in any longer. I had to tell them. I started with Mother, but before I got too far, I started to cry. She had to pull it out of me.
"But my tears and anguish were enough to put her on the track. She knew, whatever it was, that it was bad. And, I was a teenage girl in love. What else could it be?
"As it turned out, Grand-Mum already knew about Scott. She knew he was my boyfriend and she knew he was Muggleborn from Pagford. She was a Slytherin, after all. Her network had kept her informed.
"That isn't to say that she wasn't angry. She was furious with me! But it was a cold, silent fury. I think a tantrum would have been easier to endure. First, she took me to the Healers and had them confirm my suspicions. Then, she fired off an owl to Dumbledore, and made me inform Scott of the new development.
"We had a meeting. Dumbledore came to us, to the old house where Delia lives now, and he brought Scott with him. Dumbledore said there was no reason why I couldn't continue my schoolwork at Hogwarts. They could make arrangements, adjust my schedule, so that I could care for you and still take classes.
"Mother wouldn't hear of it. I would stay with her. I had brought enough shame on the family. I didn't need to be parading myself around as an unwed, teenage mother."
She sighed, and a spasm of pain crossed her face. "Scott offered to marry me right then and there. He wanted to do the right thing. Dumbledore said he, too, could stay in school and finish his studies. Mother, however, said that if he was serious about being a father, then he should get a job and start supporting his family."
"That's why he dropped out of school!" said Tess, excitedly. "That's why he needed a letter of recommendation. To get a job!"
Olivia gazed at her daughter. "How ever did you learn that? Did Sonya tell you?"
“Who?”
“Sonya Meadows, your instructor.”
“Oh, yes. We talked to her. But we learned more from Scott’s academic records. McGonagall gave them to us. To me, actually. We didn't think she would hand it over to us, but we thought we should try. And, she gave it to me! Because, she knew, didn't she?"
"Yes, McGonagall knew. She knew everything.”
"Then what happened? Where did Scott go to work?"
“Dumbledore got him a job as a low-level clerk in Scrimgeour’s office. This was before Scrimgeour replaced Fudge as Minister of Magic. Scott lived with his parents for a while, to save money. Later, he found a small flat in London, close to Ministry.
“I lived at home and raised you. We saw Scott on the weekends. After he got his flat, I would take you there on Fridays and stay until Sunday. For a few months, we played house. It was quite fun. But we began to hear rumours. The Soulbridges and the Ashfelds are both very well connected. We knew things that others did not.
“We began to hear whispers. ‘They are back. He is back.’ The Ministry, the public as a whole, really, was in denial. They refused to acknowledge that the Dark Lord had returned. Meanwhile, the Dark Lord was working quietly to increase his numbers. He was assessing who would resist him, and who would just go along.
“The Dark Lord expected Scrimgeour to fight. And Scott was Scrimgeour’s man. He was Dumbledore’s man. The family was sure that Scott would be targeted. It was ’92 all over again, except this time, we had a baby. Scott went bravely on, as he had under the threat of the Basilisk. And I went along too, because I was in love, because I desperately wanted to be with him.
“And then, one night, he didn’t come home. It was a Friday in January. You weren’t quite two yet. I fed you, but I couldn’t eat. As the hours ticked away, I got more and more fearful.
“Finally, there was a knock at the door. It was Richard Ashfeld, your friend Rhiannon’s uncle. I can still see his wide eyes and pale face. ‘Grab your child and go!’ he said. He wouldn’t tell me what was going on, but there was so much fear and urgency in his voice, I had to do what he said. I took you in my arms and apparated home.
“He followed a few minutes later. He had cleared the apartment of any trace of me or you. Our clothes, my toiletries, even your baby food. Only then did he tell me that Scott had been killed, shot in the back, with a gun, as he left Ministry.
“The Muggle Police thought it was a robbery, but we knew what had happened. That year, the Death Eaters were still working in stealth. Later, they were bolder, torturing and killing even Pure Blood Wizards – the Bendrixes, and that poor Harkenborough girl, for instance.
“But you must know, the only reason they didn’t come and kill us both that night, is that they had other priorities.
“The Dark Lord’s power grew until he was controlling the Ministry itself. Our community was assured, Pure Blood Wizards had nothing to fear from the Dark Lord.
“But we had reason to be afraid. There were Tribunals. Anyone with mixed blood was being arrested and imprisoned. Gangs of thugs roamed the towns, egged on by the Death Eaters, attacking whom they pleased. We were living in fear. What would happen if They found out you were Scott’s child?
“Mother sent out discreet inquiries, and learned of Whorley. He was the friend of a friend, a recent widow. His wife had died of cancer, of all things. He needed a mother for Devon. And I needed a Pure Blood father for you.
“We had a few dinners together. He was keen to help us. I wasn’t in love with him – I was still grieving for Scott – but there was nothing else I could do. We were wed in a brief ceremony. I became Olivia Covenshire.
“The Family took the extraordinary step of altering your birth certificate. We made Whorley the father and changed your last name to Covenshire. We even changed your first name to the more traditional, wizarding name, Tesserach.”
“They changed the school records, too! They erased you from your class lists! When we started poking around, we found the lists, and Morwena figured out they had been modified!”
Olivia shook her head in wonder. “You girls really were thorough. Richard Ashfeld did that. He knew the Dark Lord’s men were planning to use the school’s lists to purge people with impurities. He wanted to make people forget I had been Scott’s girlfriend.”
“He severed the two of you,” said Tess. “That’s how Devon’s friend, Robert Kaufmann, described it. He was helping us, pointing us in the right directions. And, he gave us all extra credit in History!”
“I heard about Kaufmann,” said Olivia. “I made Devon write him, but of course, he procrastinated, and then it was too late.”
“By the time Robert got the letter, I already knew the password to the secret door. It hadn’t changed in all that time!”
“How did you learn the password! Sonya couldn’t have told it to you!”
Tess shook her head. “It wasn’t Professor Meadows. It was Scott! His picture would talk to me. He called me Esther!”
Tess rolled forward the balls of her feet, so that she was perched on the very edge of the chair. Her arms waved animatedly as she relayed this part of the story.
“There’s a picture of Scott in the Slytherin Common Room. This whole thing started because Scott was calling me Esther, and nobody knew why. Robert didn’t have time to look into it, but he offered us extra credit in History to do the research.” Tess gave a little shudder. "I never liked Tesserach. It never sounded right to me. My real name is Esther. I’m named after Scott’s mother!”
“What picture are you talking about?”
‘The one of him holding the Snitch, after the Beauxbatons game.”
"I remember that match!" said Olivia. "Scott was so proud of catching the Snitch and winning the game.”
“My friends and I, we couldn’t believe he’d never flown for the Snakes! But I guess Malfoy . . ..”
“Oh yes,” said Olivia, “Scott was quite bitter over that, for a long while.”
Tess settled back into the cushions. “Did you ever call me Esther?”
"We always called you 'Tess.' But, yes, your original name was Esther.” Olivia’s gaze was now warm with affection. “You were three years old when I married Whorley. Do you remember any part of your life before him?"
Tess shook her head. "I remember living at Grandmum's house, but just little bits. Whorley is the only daddy I remember."
"It may seem silly to you, now, but those were very frightening times. It seemed the Dark Lord's power over the country was absolute. There was very little resistance, and that was brutally stamped out. Then, just a few months after we were married, the Dark Lord fell at the Battle of Hogwarts. He was gone, this time for good.
"I could have left Whorley, then. The danger to you was much less, with Progressives like Shaklebolt in power. But he had been so kind, and we had worked so hard to create this little family unit, I decided to stay on and make a life of it with him."
A faint blush lit up Olivia's cheeks. "Still, it was another year or so before I was fully done grieving for Scott, before I could truly be a married person with Whorley."
Don't let her dance around you with euphemisms, Morwena had warned. Be direct. Tess restated her mother's last sentence. "Before you were ready to have a baby with him."
Olivia's blush deepened. "Yes."
"So, I grew up as Tess Covenshire, and everybody just kept it a big secret."
"Yes, the Family was very obliging. I had been a proper and demur wife for Whorley. There was no need to keep bringing up the scandal."
How is this different from what Rhiannon went through? Tess wondered. The Ashfelds never forgave her family at all. She was tempted to bring it up, but she didn't want to get off track. "Everything was fine until I went off to Hogwarts."
"Yes. I was quite anxious about that. There are people on campus who would remember Scott, and who would know you were his daughter. Edward had tutored Scott in Potions, and they had remained in touch until Scott was killed." Olivia added bitterly, "And then, there was Sonya. I hadn't forgotten her sad, lapdog looks. How she fawned over Scott!"
"We did talk to DeVere, but he was quite cagey with us. We only got information out of Meadows because we caught her off guard."
Olivia gave a thin, tight smile. " I wrote both of them over the summer, and I sent a note to Gregor and McGonagall as well. For all the good it did me. All I did was stir up old memories."
"You were the one writing the letters!" said Tess, excitedly. "We heard a couple mentions of them, but no one would tell us who had sent them."
"Sonia told you all of this, but she didn't tell you I had written her?"
Tess shook her head. "Meadows hardly told us anything at all. She said I reminded her of someone she used to know named Scott Highcross. A boy she used to have a crush on. I didn't know why I made her think of him. I thought it was odd, that's all.”
"What really got us going was the picture of Scott. He would light up when he saw me. When he called me Esther, I thought he was mistaking me for someone else. He started telling me things, mouthing out the password to the hideout and showing me the room number with his fingers.
"Then, we found the hideout, and there was the other picture, and . . . I knew right away. Everything fell into place."
"You found another picture?" asked Olivia. “A picture of Scott and I together?”
"The group picture! Do you remember?” Olivia shook her head no. “Let me run and get it!” Tess ran to her room, grabbed the frame, and brought it back to her mother.
Olivia gazed at it carefully. "I don't even remember taking this picture," she said. She ran her finger over each face. "It would have been Foxchapel who took it. That's him on the end. He was a Ravenclaw in our year, from good wizarding stock. He was completely obsessed with Muggle things. This was in the Hideout?"
"Yes. On the mantle, across from the sofa."
"That old scratchy sofa? It was still there?"
"Yes!" said Tess, with laugh. "You can't see it in the picture, but there's a tartan blanket laid over the back."
"Our soft, cozy tartan blanket! Even that?" For a moment, Olivia was lost in a silent reverie. A tear welled up in her eye, and she said softly, "Oh, Scott!"