Fresh Starts
The Leaky Cauldron, 1st January 2001
“Zabini?”
“Yes?”
“Umm, firstly, I’d like you to know that you’re not in trouble. I’m on duty currently, but… that’s not… I mean, I just…. Do you have a moment?”
“Yes?”
“Just, do you know Luna Lovegood?”
“Yes?”
“Did she ever tell you that I was going to contact you some time?”
“Yes?”
I huff. Here I am, garbed in my Auror uniform, and I’ve got to actively prevent myself from squirming before the civilian seated at one of the corner tables at the Leaky.
But then again, this civilian is so… blasé, and stingy with words, and not distracted by any other thing, and rates high in Luna’s regard, and seems so openly perceptive. I can deal with angry, uncaring, professional, sulky, disapproving and even tearful, but not… this.
And they know it.
All right, Potter. “Did she tell you why I was supposed to contact you?”
“No.”
Oh. Great. Nice of you, Luna.
“She wanted me to ‘reconnect’ with you.” The air-quotes emphasise the point, I hope.
But the answer is… just…, “Yes?”
I’m beginning to despise this prat.
“Are you free this weekend?” What I do for you, Luna….
“Yes.”
“Let’s meet up, then. Where’s a good place for you?”
“Nowhere.”
Damn you, prat. “Wait in front of Grimmauld Place number eleven, then. It’s in Islington, London. I’ll pick you up at ten Saturday morning.”
And they smile approvingly at me. Git.
British Auror Office, 28th July 2001
“Hey, Harry, why’d you look so glum? Cheer up, mate! No more being bossed round by everybody! We’re full Aurors today!”
“No mind, Ron. M’fine. Go on. Look, Robards wants to talk to you. I need to go home quick. Want to make sure everything’s set before I move in. Talk to you and Nev in the flat this evening?”
“Well, all right. See you, then.”
I slump into my seat as soon as Ron wanders out of my newly assigned Auror cubical.
Three years of flash training, and now I’m a full Auror, alongside Ron, Neville, Susan and fifty others. I feel no sense of accomplishment, though. I feel… surreal, more than anything.
It doesn’t help that Andy has never approved of me being an Auror, citing that it’s far too risky yet commonplace for one of her remaining family members and Lord Black to boot. Teddy pulled out his worst tantrum yet, too, on being told that I was going to move into a shared flat with Ron and Neville after we’ve received our Auror badges. And they are my family.
Only, if I didn’t train to become an Auror, I would disappoint Ron and the late Professor McGonagall, and I wouldn’t be able to accompany Neville who was equally reluctant to be an Auror, too. I would get hounded by the wizarding world even more than before, as the bonus, since I’m supposed to be their hero and protector.
As for the shared flat, Ron wants to get out of the Burrow and strike out on his own, but he doesn’t have a ready home to move into, unlike Neville and I. And both of us knows very well how touchy Ron is about being a “charity case,” should one of us offer any of our properties to him to stay in. So this sharing is actually for him.
If this doesn’t work, though….
Well, I’ll cross that bridge if I must. Just like before.
Black Sanctuary, 1st September 2001
I look round the main house, which has been turned into a school by the residents under my official permission as Lord Black, in time for the first batch of Muggleborn students for this academic year. I feel a little bit… lost.
I never thought that I would ever own a school, although just semi-officially. I never thought that I would ever induct more Muggleborn children into this community, at that, although my way is superficially different from that of Andromeda Black-Potter’s. My only stipulations to the residents are that they never actively try to induct the students into their ranks under threat of closing the school forever, that they only say that the school is sponsored by “Lord Black” without ever pointing the students at me, and that they keep both themselves and the students safe in any way that they can devise. But those don’t seem enough, somehow. Only, we do need a quality education for magical children, especially the Muggleborn, so I can’t delay opening the school any further.
Hogwarts have never truly recovered from the battle all those years ago. After that, with most of the money funnelled towards rebuilding the wards and sections that Hogwarts herself plus her army of house-elves couldn’t repair, those who are schooled there are mostly Pureblood and Halfblood, as there are too few teachers to educate them, let alone supervise them outside of the classrooms. Year by year, the few Muggleborn who went there dropped out, too, because of the lingering prejudices from the year Voldemort ruled the greater British wizarding world. So, in this new school – simply named the Andromeda School of Magics – the population of Muggleborn students from eleven to seventeen will study, commuting to school and back by way of Portkey whenever possible or getting adopted by a resident here if their family situations are genuinely bad.
I can only hope that the whole place won’t be a target for some displeased blood purists, down the way.
Black Sanctuary, 25th December 2001
“Oh! Nice! Different from Hogwarts, for certain, but I think I can like it. Maybe I could teach Herbology here someday?”
“Me too. If Tom decides not to sell the Leaky to me, I can help round here. Maybe as a cook? You do have some boarders here, right? Or do you have house-elves for that, like Hogwarts?”
“Umm, no, actually, Hannah. Most of the children go to school daily. Those from bad families got adopted by the locals. They bring their own lunch, and we encourage them to share with each other. We needn’t worry much about allergies, after all, since magicals are mostly immune to them.”
“Allergies?”
“Umm. Bad reaction to something, like specific foodstuffs or weathers or something else like pollen. Huff. I got to read so much about those and other things before Andy would let me sign for the opening of this school….”
“Umm, what about if, and I’m just talking about worst-case what-ifs here, Harry, but what if somebody Polyjuiced himself or herself as a student and sneaks in with some dark item or even… poison?”
“Erh….”
“I think it is why we are here, partially, Susan Bones. We can help Harry make his school safer for everyone.”
“Call me Susan, Luna. For the last time….”
“You always say ‘for the last time’. And then you say that again.”
I can’t help it. I burst out laughing, after spying the innocent look on Lunas face and the exasperated one on Susan’s.
“’For the last time’, Luna, it’s not my school but the Residents’.” I quirk a smile at Susan and a broad wink at Luna… and then hastily vacate the porch of the house-turned-school, as Susan mock chases me with fists raised.
It’s a very interesting chase… especially since my other guests soon run after me… followed by a determined Teddy… followed by the students who celebrate Christmas here because of one reason or another.
Fun, though.