Hestia Remembers

Nymphadora Tonks was fuming as she walked into the sitting room of 12 Grimmauld Place. Once again, her ideas about taking the war to Voldemort, rather than reacting to his moves, were shot down. Snape had actually laughed. Kingsley and Molly just looked at her pityingly. Even Moody, who always had her back, told her some crap line about "let Albus handle things on his own time."

Tonks half-stomped her way to the chaise, defiantly laid back and put her boots up on the 100-year-old velvet upholstery. Following behind her was Hestia Jones, who watched Tonks's antics, chuckling to herself.

"Pretty rough in there, huh?" she asked.

"Merlin's arse, they just won't stop. If Molly treats me like one of her kids one more time, I'm going to hit her with a jelly-legs jinx. She wants to see a kid? I'll show her kid."

"Budge over, kid," Hestia said with a grin. "You've got it easy compared to what I went through the first time around?"

"Wait – you were in the Order during the war?" Tonks asked. "Were you twelve?"

"No, seventeen, nearly eighteen. Days out of Hogwarts," Hestia said, pushing Tonks's legs out of the way and sitting down. "You have to understand, dear; it was 1981. He-Who-Should-Not-Be Named had been terrorizing the country for over a decade. No one knew which neighbor, or Auror or Minister was siding with the Death Eaters, no one knew where the Death Eaters would target next, no one knew, well, anything. People were dying; lots of people. It was a very frightening time."

"But you were a Gryffindor," Tonks said through a chuckle.

"I suppose I was," answered Hestia. "Seventeen years old, and no more sense in my head than young Weasley upstairs. But I was going to save the world and become an Auror. Top of my class in Defense Against the Dark Arts, Outstandings in Charms and Transfiguration."

"Potions, right?" Tonks asked.

"Actually, no. That was the year before this greasy Dark Lord in training took over as Potions master, so the Auror department was actually still getting recruits."

Severus Snape looked over at the chaise, quietly, but dramatically, stood up and left the sitting room, to the accompaniment of unconcealed snickers from the two witches.

"No," Hestia continued. "It was Herbology. Never could bring myself to care about those bloody plants and whatever it is they're supposed to be good for. Sprout did what she could, but it just wasn't to be. She was kind enough to let me into the NEWT-level classes, but that test, Tonks. That test. I don't know how it was in your year, but back in '81 there was no guessing at all. You either knew your stuff or you didn't. And I didn't. Three days before the exam, Albus approached me…"

"Miss Jones, please, have a seat," the Headmaster said warmly. "I understand it is your desire to be an Auror."

"Yes, sir, it is. I want to make a difference. I'm good with a wand, I am. Top of my class in –"

Albus cut her off. "Yes, of course, Miss Jones. I am well aware of your academic and practical prowess. Alas, it seems as though despite your best efforts, your marks in Herbology will prevent you from achieving this admirable goal."

Hestia hung her head, burying her face in her hands. She had been studying nearly around the clock since classes had stopped for Fifth and Seventh Year students, and she was no closer to being able to successfully recall the various uses of fluxweed upon demand than she had been in November. She was exhausted, and the rules of decorum for one sitting in front of the Headmaster were, at that moment, also beyond recall.

"That's pretty much it, sir," she replied, looking up, with tears rolling gently out of each eye.

"There, there, my dear," Albus said, kindly, conjuring a handkerchief. "There's no need for all that. We all have our Achilles heels, Miss Jones. Mine, I'll have you know, was Arithmancy. For the life of me, I simply could not grasp the difference between that and Divination. One uses numbers, the other, props, and they're both meant to aid the practitioner in predicting the future."

"Begging your pardon, sir, but isn't Divination rather a hoax?"

"Alas, prophecies are quite real, Miss Jones." Hestia slumped a little in her chair as Albus continued. "Now then, while it seems you shan't be able to become an Auror, I have a proposition for you that will allow you to lend a hand against Voldemort. What I am about to say is top-secret. If you wish not to hear it at all, I will allow you to leave now. If you wish to hear my proposal, I will lock the door. After I am done, I will ask you whether or not you accept. I will need your answer immediately. If you accept, I will give you further instructions. If you do not accept, I will –"

"Obliviate you, so that you have no recollection of this conversation having ever taken place," Tonks cut in, mimicking Albus's voice. "Yeah, he said the exact same thing to me when I was being recruited."

"Right. So, naturally I accepted. After the school year finished, I took the Express back to London, but the following day I was right back in Hogsmeade. Back then, you see, the Order was housed at what's now the Hog's Head. Well, not exactly. There are rooms underneath the, er, inn, I guess you could call it. Aberforth's cook would make us supper – nice girl, thankless job. Anyway, these rooms were about what you'd expect from the cellar of a place like that. But at the time, I thought it was all brilliant – real cloak-and-dagger stuff. There was a room with a giant map of Britain on a table, and we'd hold meetings there. And there was another room where we'd relax – a couple of dingy couches, and if you weren't able to get a spot on a couch, you sat on the floor. I remember walking down to the basement for that first meeting though. I was so excited. I'd taken my oath in the Headmaster's office the day before, and I'd be doing my part to help bring down, er, that person."

"Well, would you look who it is, Jamie," Sirius said, as Hestia meekly entered the Order's lounge. "Little Hestia Jones, all grown up. I heard you'd made a bit of a name for yourself in school, love, but here you are. Hey James, remember when we found this one going up and down those stairs, trying to figure out how they moved?"

"Yes, you two were very helpful that day, Sirius," Hestia replied. "I never had a problem with those stairs again after that."

"Oh, now I remember," James said. "Right. Lils kind of took you under her wing after that, didn't she? So, Albus is taking schoolgirls now, is he? Things must be getting bad."

"Is Lily here, then?" Hestia asked, hopefully. "Um, I mean, is she part of the Order?"

"Sorry, love, but no," James replied. "She's home with little Harry. We've had a bit of a baby boom around here of late, and that's got Lily and Alice Longbottom both out of commission."

"I don't think I know Alice."

"Oh, right. Of course. She was a Seventh Year when you were a firstie, and Frank was two years ahead of her. And obviously she wasn't going by Longbottom in those days."

"More of a tight, round bottom, if I recall," Sirius interjected, pantomiming cupping a rear end with his hands. "If only she'd married a man named Firmbottom instead. That'd've been a bit more accurate."

"Don't mind him," James said, shaking his head. "Our friend Sirius here only ever has one thing on his mind. So, any idea what Dumbledore's going to be having you do?"

"Well, I assume I'm here to take down Death Eaters," Hestia replied, mustering as much confidence as she could. James and Sirius began laughing, causing her shoulders to slump and her face to fall.

"Of course you are," Sirius said through his laughter. "I mean, sure, Whatsisname's faced down a half-dozen Aurors at a time, but if he runs into a Seventh-Year, he'll probably just crumble, wouldn't you say, Jamie?"

"Definitely. Seven years of Rictumsempra would turn anyone into a Dark Lord slayer."

"Ouch," Tonks said. "So, after you trussed them up in a couple of body-binds, and left them hanging by their toes from the ceiling…"

"No, that didn't happen," Hestia replied. "Those were different times, and I was a different girl. I put up with a lot of shite I don't anymore. But, to Dumbledore's credit, he didn't have me sitting around as his steno girl."

"His what?" Tonks asked. Hestia laughed.

"His secretary. He actually had me go on missions with the other Order members. Sometimes, when I went with Marlene and Dorcas, I was part of it. We'd see a group of Muggles being attacked, and we'd bind the Death Eaters up and banish them straight to the Ministry. Other times I was stuck in a corner. The Prewett brothers were the worst with that.

"Right," Gideon said. "This lot looks bad. Hessie, why don't you let Fab and I head in there, and you guard the door, just in case they have any back-up."

"Please stop calling me that, Gideon," Hestia replied. "And sure, I'll guard the door if you want; you're in charge. But there are six of them in there, and two of you. And if they do send back-up there's a crew of them and only one of me. We'll be slaughtered."

"No, we won't be," Gideon replied, severely. "They never send back-up. Wait here."

"And wouldn't you know it, that time there was back-up. Two of 'em. Now I'd suspected for a bit that there was a Death Eater spy at DMLE –"

"But of course, no one would listen to you," Tonks interrupted.

"Pretty much. Dumbledore said he'd look into that, but you know how he is with doing things. But none of the others took that seriously, not even Marlene. So I took matters into my own hands. After I trussed those bastards like a Christmas goose, I knocked 'em out and sliced an X behind their left ear. You see, the, er – the enemy wore these masks that only, er… that only the one who put them on could take off, so we had no idea who we were fighting at any time. I just couldn't believe that, well, that he had recruited so many. Sure as shit, two weeks later we take down two Death Eaters that had my little Xs behind their ears. Turns out that the son of a whore who was supposed to be receiving the prisoners was sending 'em straight back to where they came. I think Crouch had him put down on November 1st. Anyway, Dumbledore still told me I couldn't do that anymore. He said if we stooped to their brutality, then we'd lose sight of the real reason we're fighting. I nearly quit right there."

Tonks shook her head. "Why didn't you? That's a load of hippogriff shite right there. You weren't torturing them; you'd even knocked them out first."

"You know that photograph Moody put on the mantle? We took that at Harry's christening at the Potter's ancestral home in Staffordshire, right by the River Trent. It was the first time the whole gang had been together since the boys were born. As I'd been the least time in the Order, I reckoned it'd be good of me to take it, so that's why I'm not in the picture. But it was right after that that he started going after us, rather than the other way around. He wouldn't go after us while we were on patrol or nothing, just send his Death Eaters to our houses at night to murder us in our sleep. Marlene went first. Then Dorcas. Then Benjy and Edgar and so on. The killing didn't stop after Lily and James, either. Caradoc didn't disappear until the following March. By the beginning of October, the Marauders, Emme, Caradoc and I were the only ones under 40 in the whole Order. And when the killings started, that's when it stopped being fun. That's when they started trusting me, because they had to."

Tonks looked at Hestia, mutely. Her eyes were fourteen years in the past, and a little misty.

"So if they're still laughing at you, love, at least they're still laughing."