9th June, 1977:
"Anne?"
Andromeda Tonks noticed the grim tone of her husband's voice immediately. Her eyes flashed to the clock above the kitchen doorway – half past ten. She left her cleaning and rushed to the hall.
Just inside the front door, stood Ted Tonks, coat still on and briefcase still in hand. But what was different about this familiar image tonight, apart from the lateness of Ted's return, was the small boy peeking out from behind his left leg, looking as wide-eyed and agitated as a hare about to bolt. Both of them were wet through from the night's heavy rain.
Beyond confused, Andromeda was the first to speak.
"Ted… What's happened?"
Hearing the tension in her voice, Ted put down his briefcase and rushed over to take her in his arms, throwing his coat to the ground on the way. He calmed her with a hug before replying.
"Anne, my dear, something terrible has happened. You know Milton, Milton Sturgess..."
She nodded quickly. Of course she knew him; Milton was Ted's best muggle friend.
"... I still can't believe it... I-I don't how, or why, but… but he's dead, and Clara too."
He could only stare into her eyes, shaking his head, lost.
When he spoke next, he lowered his voice so only she could hear.
"The whole house was destroyed. Obliterated, Anne. Nothing left but charred ground, rubble and wood."
Andromeda's hand flew to her mouth and her eyes went wide. It took a moment for her to recover. She gestured at the boy, who was still waiting on the door mat, looking rather sheepish.
"This is never Carlisle? Their Carlisle? How is he...?"
"He was playing in the garden when it happened. Muggle police found him crying under a bush."
She stared at the little boy for a moment before rushing over and sweeping him up in her arms, ignoring the fact that the boy was still drenched from the rain.
"Oh, you poor thing! Poor Carlisle… Do you like Carlisle or do you have a nickname?"
He shook his head, whether it was true or the boy was just being shy, Anne couldn't tell.
"And how old are you, Carlisle?"
It was Ted who answered.
"Four, and his birthday is the fifteenth of January, 1973."
"So you're the same age as Nymphadora then, oh, and you'll be starting school at the same time, yes, that'll be good for you both..."
While Anne continued to coo to the small boy, a look of panic crossed Ted's face.
"Anne, shouldn't we talk about this another time? This is all a lot to take in, and it'll take some time to think over."
"Why, dear, think it rather simple don't you? – It's up to us to look after him now an-"
She seemed to remember something, apparently urgent, that she had completely forgotten about until now, and drew her wand from her jumper while putting Carlisle back down on the floor beside Ted.
"Deprimo!"
The spell conjured up a strong wind that batted at Ted and Carlisle from all sides, swiping, pulling, pushing. A second later, the wind stopped. Ted and Carlisle stood there, slightly ruffled, but bone dry.
Ted looked at Anne as if to say:
"Right then, really?"
Meanwhile, little Carlisle just looked downright shocked. Anne ignored both of them as she spoke again.
"Right, where was I? Ah yes, It's up to us to look after him now, Ted, that's the only thing for it; you're his godfather!"
Ted re-focused himself on the matter at hand with equal charisma.
"Yes, but have you thought about how Nymphadora might feel? And would it really be right to condemn him to the exact same style of life as a 'Squib?'"
Anne looked as if she were about to cut in, but Ted carried on speaking before she could.
"Might a better alternative be to speak to someone, the muggle social services perhaps, and get him back into a normal family and way of life as soon as possible?"
He was almost worried at how Andromeda might react to this, but right now, she just looked horrified. She slowly bent down to pick up Carlisle again, and stared daggers at Ted.
"Theodore Tonks, how dare you? Milton Sturgess offered you the honour of being this boy's godfather four years ago, which you very well gladly accepted, and now you would just send him onto a family of strangers with a few coins from your pocket and a rare phone call?"
"I'm just looking at the long-term implications of this, Andromeda. With our support and that of a good muggle family, he could have a very bright future, just like his father! If he stayed with us, how much would his future hold for him then?"
Sarcasm snuck into his voice then:
"A truly fulfilling career as a groundskeeper at Hogwarts or a shop assistant at Flourish & Blotts?"
Carlisle, who had remained silent in Andromeda's arms with that sheepish look on his face again throughout the exchange, brightened considerably at the mention of the book shop and his voice was riddled with excitement.
"I like Flourish & Blotts! Daddy always gets the best bedtime stories there!"
Andromeda's head recoiled away from the boy in shock, eyes wide, and almost dropped him. Ted, also wide-eyed, recovered first, and stared more thoughtfully at this four-year-old than he ever had at anything in his entire life, except, perhaps, for when he had unboxed their first, top-of-the-range, muggle dishwasher.
"Carlisle, could you tell me where Flourish & Blotts is?"
Andromeda also recovered herself then and shot Ted a questioning glance.
"Yeah! It's in-… Oh, what's it called? Uh… Oh, 'Dragon Alley' or something?"
Andromeda gave Carlisle that look of exaggerated appraisal usually found being given by parents to their children for spelling their own name correctly.
"That's it! Clever boy! But, I think we'll need to ask you a few more questions, Carlisle, so shall we go and sit in the lounge? Yes?"
She led the way into the cream-coloured lounge, where there were a few of the usual things you would expect to find in a wizarding family's home, and also a few particularly muggle items; being in such close proximity with muggles for the best part of his career had peaked Ted's interest on occasion, which explained the forty-inch LED television in the corner of the room and a copy of the Guardian newspaper on the settee.
Andromeda sat down on another settee opposite the first, a small coffee table separating the two, with Carlisle at her side, her arm wrapped around his shoulders protectively.
Moving the newspaper, Ted took his seat on the first settee, bending over with his arms on his knees and his hands clasped together, gazing at Carlisle over the top of his glasses.
"Now, remember this, Carlisle, you're not in any trouble, and we're not going to be mad with you or anything like that, but we do need to get to the bottom of this, and we do need you to help us do that, okay?"
Carlisle looked a little uneasy in his seat, still not entirely trusting his new surroundings. Ted sighed and spoke again.
"Look, Carlisle, we know that your mum and dad might've had secrets they kept from other people, and we know that they would have told you to keep them from other people as well, but, we are here for you now, and you're the only one who knows those secrets."
It took an endearing smile from Andromeda to stir Carlisle to action, but not in a way either of them had expected.
Carlisle leaned forward slightly and reached a chubby hand into his pocket. He rummaged in the pocket for a second before bringing his hand out again, fist clenched, and stretching it out in front of him so Ted could also see what he was about to unveil. He unfurled his fingers.
In his little, magical palm, sat two pin-badges, both made of steel and of a circular shape fronted with an intricately patterned star. But it was the four letters, written in a regal blue and arranged in a square formation stamped over the star, that made Ted and Anne freeze;
'D M L E.'
After a few seconds, the pair just looked at each other, mirroring one another's expression of sheer bewilderment.
Carlisle's parents had worked for the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. But how?! Ted had known Milton to be a simple muggle, who had held a supervisory job at the BBC. Then again, Ted had always kept up his own muggle charade while working at the BBC. But, his being there had a perfectly reasonable explanation: it was his job. He was a Muggle Liaison Officer for the Ministry and it was his job to oversee the information being broadcast back and forth across the Muggle world, should any information sensitive to the wizarding world ever be broadcast and a couple of intricate memory charms be needed.
It hit Ted then. What if it had been Milton's job to remain undercover as well? What if, like him, he too had been placed there by the Ministry to do some kind of job, perhaps to oversee a few certain things, just as Ted was? But the difference was that Milton had been placed there under DMLE instruction… Then it hit him again. What if it had been Milton's job to 'watch' for something, something specific to the interests of the DMLE?
While Andromeda was still lost in her thoughts, Ted was the one to break dragging silence.
"Okay, Carlisle, these badges tell us where your mum and dad worked, but can you tell us, or even remember, exactly what their job was?"
Ted was almost on the edge of his seat, his mind racing with anticipation.
"They used to say we had to keep it a secret from anyone who wasn't magic. But they said they worked for the 'Mystery' or something like that..."
Carlisle had begun tentatively, but now he paused, perhaps waiting for a response.
"It was good of you to tell us, Carlisle, but the badges already tell us that. The Ministry is a place where wizards and witches go to work, and the..." He gestured to the badges, "... DMLE is a part of the Ministry. But there are still lots of jobs someone can do in the DMLE - do you have any idea which your dad did?"
The boy tried to hold back a laugh as if at some inside joke.
"Yeah, I remember! I always laughed at him because he said he was a Watcher, and I thought he just watched telly all day."
Carlisle giggled to himself again, blissfully oblivious of the shockwaves his announcement had sent resonating again and again through Ted's and Andromeda's heads.
But Ted needed to be two-hundred per cent sure.
"Carlisle..."
This was the moment.
"… Was your father a 'Witch Watcher' perhaps?"
Recognition lit the boy's face.
"That's it! And don't forget about Mummy! She was a Witch Watcher too, just like Daddy. But she just worked at home every day."
Despite yet another in this whirlwind of revelations, Ted still managed to hold onto his focus. Carlisle was doing brilliantly and Ted still needed answers.
"So Carlisle, did your mum and dad ever have any visitors from the Ministry?"
"Oh, yes! All the time! But they always talked about work, and it was nearly always someone different."
"Right..."
"They didn't have a lot of friends, but they used to talk about you two a lot, and it always made them happy when you came round."
This struck the chink in Ted's mental armour and he choked up for his lost friend, so Andromeda broke her silence and spoke instead.
"So how come your mum and dad decided to keep who they really were a secret from us, Carlisle? Did they keep it a secret from their other friends as well?"
"No, they didn't. But they only kept it all secret from you because they thought you weren't magic. I was going to keep it secret as well, but then I saw that you were magic as well."
Ted stepped back in at this point.
"And thank you, Carlisle, for trusting us and sharing your secret with us, you've been very helpful to what we're trying to get to the bottom of, but, before Anne shows you to your new bedroom, can you remember anything else about today? How it started? Anyone who was there besides your parents?"
Carlisle shook his head fervently at this, and Ted could see that while he may not have had a problem talking about his parents, of course he was going to have a problem talking about their deaths – the boy was strong, but not that strong! Ted gave him a kind smile.
"Alright, my boy, it's alright, we might find out more in the future, but right now you need to get some rest, it's been a long day for you."
Ted again smiled adoringly at the little boy to help him feel better, as, after Anne's earlier words, he was now glad of being able to take the boy into his care and provision.
Anne rose from her seat and offered a hand to Carlisle.
"Come along then, Carlisle, the best thing for you now is a good rest in a comfy bed. You could go and see Nymphadora but she will have been fast asleep for hours now - you can see her in the morning and you'll have the day to yourselves then."
As she said this, Anne helped Carlisle down from his seat and began to lead him from the lounge.
As they went past his sofa, Ted stopped the pair with a gesture. While Anne threw him a questioning look, he simply put out his hand and ruffled Carlisle's hair with another smile on his tired face.
"Welcome to the Tonks family, Carlisle… You can decide for yourself if you'd like to take our name or keep yours, but you're still both our son and Nymphadora's brother now. I really hope you'll be happy with us."
From under his hand, Carlisle smiled an adorable smile straight back at Ted.
"I hope you'll be happy with me."
Before the moment got away with her, Anne quickly ushered Carlisle out of the room and up the stairs. When they were out of earshot, Ted looked skyward.
"And I hope you'll be happy with me, my friend… I won't let you down."
Sitting back and getting comfortable, Ted lost himself in his mind as he began thinking out the practicalities of his new, larger family before Anne rejoined him, because this next discussion was going to take a while…