The foul stench of warm beer engulfed Andromeda as she made her way into the dingy lit pub. It was awfully humid at the best of times, but in the July heat it was unbearable. The Leaky Cauldron was more or less empty, save for a few middle-aged wizards who she expected scarcely left the place. The barkeep nodded in acknowledgement at her.
"What can I get ya?" he asked, as he smiled Andromeda noticed that more than a few of his teeth were missing.
"Oh. Sorry. I am just meeting a friend-
"JUST MEETING A FRIEND?!"
Ted's booming voice gave her a shock. She hadn't noticed him at all when she'd walked in. Andromeda absent-mindedly reached to sort out her hair, but then she stopped herself when she noticed what she was doing.
"Sorry Quincy, won't be stopping for a drink today," Ted said to the landlord. "Make sure you save some of that Weizenbier though. I'll be back in with Dirk next week no doubt!"
"Look forward to seeing you, Ted. Can't promise I'll still have any left tho', popular stuff that, them Bavarian goblins sure know how to brew a beer!"
"That they do," Ted quipped, as he reached out for Andromeda's hand.
"Come on, 'Dromeda, not got all day," he said as he guided her towards the exit that faced into the muggle street.
"I am still not sure that I approve of that nickname," Andromeda noted to him.
"Well I'm not sure that I approve of that purple cloak you've got on!" he cracked back at her. "You can't go prancing around Southend in that in the dead of summer!"
Andromeda's heart stopped.
"But you said…you promised that you would bring me a muggle dress to wear, Ted!"
She couldn't believe it. She was going to look like an absolute idiot. The muggles would all be staring at her.
"Oh bugger! I did, didn't I?" Ted said as a very serious and guilty look swamped his face.
Andromeda was crestfallen. It was the first time she was going to meet Ted's parents and she was so very desperate to make a good first impression.
"I will look like such a fool, Ted."
"You would indeed… it's just as well I didn't forget to bring you a dress then, isn't it?" he chortled, before laughing loudly at her.
Andromeda felt her blood boiling. She hit him playfully on the arm over his denim jacket.
"Ted Tonks! You are such a... such a…
"Devilishly good looking quick-witted chap?" he quipped, before grabbing her gently by the waist as she went to hit him again. She saw his green eyes smiling at her, before he closed them and kissed her softly on the lips like he'd done on many occasions over the last few months.
"I was going to say scoundrel," she said at the end of their brief embrace.
"Scoundrel's good too," Ted replied with a grin on his face, before he began crossing the road.
"Where are you… that sign over there says the nearest train station is that way. I thought you said that we were going to get there the muggle way?" Andromeda asked, pointing in the complete opposite way to where Ted had begun walking.
Ted smirked.
"We are getting there the muggle way. No trains though!" he said, as he continued to stroll down the street, before stopping abruptly in-front of a red car. He slapped his hand on the bonnet. "What'd you reckon then, Drom? Nice motor, ain't it?"
Andromeda felt a lump in her throat. "You. You cannot mean that… that
"Ford Cortina Mark II. Finest piece of totty to ever come out ah' Dagenham. Brand new. Or so me old man said. Surprise present for me 17th birthday. I told him not to of course. Soon enough be able to apparate everywhere anyway, but he insisted on getting me a car. Could hardly turn him down could I?"
Ted reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a pair of keys, then put them into the door on the left hand side and opened it, indicating for her to get in.
"Come on, 'Dromeda. I told Mum and Dad we'd be there at one!"
"But Ted. Travelling by train is one thing, but in a… in a car?"
"You're not scared are ya?!" he asked incredulously. She was. She was very scared indeed.
She had read all about the muggle contraptions which were widely considered death-traps with wheels. The Daily Prophet was always reporting on new stories of witches and wizards narrowly avoiding getting run over and such forth. Muggles were awful at driving them, far worse than even the clumsiest of broom riders or carpet flyers – and there was a flying carpet crash or incident at least once a fortnight. In some circles there were even murmurs that the Ministry should put an outright ban on them.
"You're welcome to get the train if you want, love. Good luck getting there without me though!"
Andromeda huffed and puffed, but eventually relented and got in the passenger side. The inside of the car was one of the most confusing things she had ever encountered. There must have been almost a dozen different nobbles in the car, with numerous symbols and numbers that made absolutely no sense to her whatsoever.
Ted got in on the driver's side and after a brief look at a map he revved the engine, thus beginning her first of many forays in muggle vehicles.
Andromeda was starting to regret her decision not to just get changed in the back of Ted's car – he had promised to get out and not to look and it wasn't that she didn't trust him, but she felt embarrassed getting undressed in the back seat of a car.
The smell of fried meat and pancakes wafted in from the Little Chef restaurant and flooded the humid cubicle. It was one of those moments where you questioned everything that had happened in your life to lead up to that moment. She was getting changed into a loud muggle dress in a dingy toilet cubicle in a muggle service station, which was a weird sort of complex of petrol stations, toilets and restaurants which were strategically stationed at various parts of the muggle motorways.
It seemed quite sad that such was the struggle of transportation for muggles - that whole businesses operated around them having to stop for food or toilet breaks in the middle of travelling somewhere. You didn't need to stop for a toilet break when getting a port key or using the Floo network – that's for sure!
Andromeda opened the door after squeezing into the dress and stared at herself in the mirror by the sinks. It was almost like an out of body experience. She was certain that the person looking back at her was herself, but at the same time she knew that it simply couldn't be. The muggle dress that Ted had picked out for her to wear made her look, well, like a muggle.
The dress, which Ted had quipped was "Slytherin green" was in-fact a much brighter green than Salazar's favoured dark emerald. It was a very bright green, like the zest of a lime, with a bright white trim around the collar and the bottom of the sleeves – it almost made her feel like a key-lime pie. It was a far brighter shade of fabric than Andromeda would ever willingly wear, but perhaps what was the most disconcerting was how short a cut the dress was. It fell a few inches above her knee, which, especially given her lack of tights, by her Mother's strict standards was nothing short of scandalous.
She stared into the mirror expecting, or maybe just hoping that eventually she would feel a bit better about herself, when suddenly a stranger tapped her on the shoulder.
"Oh my god I love your dress, hun! You look rocking, girl! Where did you get it?" said the muggle woman, who Andromeda guessed was roughly her own age, if not a few years older. She had fair skin, with even fairer hair and was wearing the wackiest dress Andromeda had ever seen. It was purple, but it was also orange and red and yellow – it was enough to give you a headache just looking at it.
"Sorry I err… it was a present, from a friend, you see," Andromeda said nervously, wondering what her Mother would think if she knew she was talking to not just a muggle-born wizard, but a proper full-on muggle girl.
"Ah, well you tell that friend they have great taste! Say, sorry if I'm wrong, but you look fairly liberal with a dress that short. Here, take a flyer!"
Andromeda took the leaflet, mumbled a slight thanks and looked down and it as the stranger scurried away.
OUR BODY – OUR CHOICE!
On the 27th October our elected politicians will make a decision on whether WE have the right to legal abortion.
We're marching in London on SUNDAY JULY 30TH
Will you be there? Remember – WE SPOKE out about the right to contraception and THEY HAD to listen!
Make sure YOUR VOICE IS HEARD!
Andromeda really wasn't sure on what the general consensus of contraception and abortions was in muggle quarters.
Contraception was easy enough – it was a simple spell that was readily available and easy to learn for any teenage wizard worth his salt. It had been around for centuries and whilst it was a little controversial – the vast majority of the pureblood men and politicians who opposed it were all likely using it and cheating on their wives anyway.
Abortion though, well, it was fair to say that certainly was a bit of a taboo subject in the Wizarding world, especially among pureblood families.
It was quite difficult for a lot of pure-bloods to get pregnant in the first place these days, which her mother put down to inbreeding – and in years gone by she had never missed an opportunity to make snide remarks about her sister-in-law, their Aunt Walburga, who had married her cousin, Uncle Orion.
In the more recent history however, her Mother liked to keep a low profile at Black family gatherings. It was one thing to have married your cousin, but it was another thing altogether to have the shame of your firstborn daughter having an abortion at 16.
It was never publicly revealed which Slytherin boy had impregnated her sister, but Andromeda certainly had a few candidates in mind. It was probably Yaxley – that was certainly the most popular rumour, but there was no guarantee that it wasn't Lucius or even Thorfinn Rowle.
Andromeda even suspected that such was Bellatix's promiscuity that perhaps even she herself did not know who it had been. But what she had known was fury like nothing she had seen before. Their mother had been incredulous – and their father, well, Andromeda had never before seen him so disgusted at someone who wasn't a muggle or a blood traitor.
"Wow! Look at you! Barely even recognized you and what's that, have you grown legs? Consider me impressed," said Ted, as he smirked. He hid it well, but Andromeda did not fail to notice his eyes lingering on her legs for longer than a momentary glance.
"I shall take that as a compliment," Andromeda said, biting her lip as she got back into the car.
"Imagine what your family would say if they could see you right now! Where did you tell them you were going today?" Ted asked as he drank from his bottle of Tizer.
"I told Mother I was meeting a friend, not a lie by any means. I told Cissy where I was really going and who I was really meeting though of course."
"You're gonna be in the right shit if you ever fall out with her! The stuff she's got on you…"
"Why would we ever fall out? She is my little sister! We tell each other everything Ted, we always have done. You know what Bellatrix is like. Cissy and I always had to stick together! I am not sure that she entirely approves of our err… courting… but she would never tell Mother, Father or Bellatrix about it. Besides, like I said, she tells me everything too. I know all about her little love affair with Fabian Prewett."
"Well, if you're sure you can trust her," Ted said nonchalantly as he turned on the car radio and flickered around with it a bit.
A slow, brooding guitar melody got under way, before the thundering sound of crashing upbeat drums kicked in.
"Well that's ironic. Fitting song for us, I reckon," Ted remarked.
I SEE A RED DOOR AND I WANT IT PAINTED BLACK
NO COLOURS ANYMORE I WANT THEM TO TURN BLACK
I SEE THE GIRLS WALK BY DRESSED IN THEIR SUMMER CLOTHES
I HAVE TO TURN MY HEAD UNTIL MY DARKNESS GOES
"Cracking band, The Stones," he said, strumming one hand on the dashboard. "Got nicked on drugs charges the other week too, helluva story that. Imagine that. Laying in ya' cell and Keith Richards and Mick bloody Jagger walk in. Christ."
"Drugs charges?" Andromeda asked. "I do not understand."
"Drugs are illegal substances. You can get arrested for buying or selling them on. Not too sure I can think of a wizarding equivalent."
"What do these drugs do exactly if they are illegal?"
"Well, some of them are a bit like alcohol I s'pose. Bring you up, take you down. You know liquid luck, right?"
"Well, I have read about it, yes."
"Yeah, exactly, read about it. Incredibly rare. Incredibly expensive stuff. Even a posh young witch like you's nevva come by any…"
Andromeda flushed slightly at being called a "posh" witch.
"Right so with these drugs though, you can get a similar experience to Liquid Luck for what the average man earns in a few hours work. A lot of people just do them casually for a bit of fun now and then, but some people get proper addicted to some of them. End up ruining their lives over 'em."
"Oh. That sounds awful," sighed Andromeda.
"Yeah," agreed Ted. "But the old bill only went and busted Keith's gaff didn't they? They turned up at the house and found everyone high as a kite! Caught Jagger with a bit of speed, not that bad really. Charged Keith for letting people smoke cannabis in his house, what a load of nonsense. Harmless stuff that is" he said, shaking his head and looking annoyed, then he started laughing. "That's not the best bit though! You know how the plod reckon they know they were all high? Well, they reckon that Jagger's missus was wearing nothing but a fur rug when they turned up. A fur rug, ha-ha can you imagine them walking in and finding that?"
"That does sound like quite the shock. That poor girl,"
"They've got to be careful though, they have. Newspaper reckons that one of the other guys there, not in the band, just some random toff, well they reckon this bloke had a load of heroin on him. That's proper dodgy stuff that is."
"It is?" Andromeda asked curiously. "What is it?"
"Proper nasty stuff. One of the most addictive drugs out there. You ever see a homeless person off their rocker, they're probably on smack. Ruins lives that stuff does. You get someone hooked on that – they'll do just about anything for you to get another hit of it."
Southend High Street was in many ways much like Diagon Alley. There was a vast array of smells, sounds and sights to ensnare one's senses, with an endless stream of adults and children alike bustling around all of the shops. Whilst it was alike in that sort of sense – it was also in just as many ways completely different, it was almost like being on another planet, such was the contrast.
"There ya go!" Ted said, as he thrust a strange, yellow ice cream which had what looked almost like a little brown stick pointing out of the middle into her hand.
"Thank you, but err, what is it may I ask?" she enquired.
"That is the finest ice cream you'll get in the country, love. Lemon ice. It's sort of like a mixture between ice cream and sorbet. Rossi's finest! With a chocolate flake, Cadbury's of course! No idea why they call it a 99 though, they're only a half crown each. Could buy like 8 of them for a pound."
Andromeda took a slight lick, then a nibble and she did have to admit it was very nice indeed, although in the summer heat she found it was melting rather rapidly.
"I will never understand muggle money," she sighed.
"Probably for the best anyway. Rumour is they're getting rid of half crowns soon anyway! Mental if you ask me," he snorted indignantly.
"Right well," he pondered whilst looking out into the crowd of people ahead of them, whilst intermittently slurping big chunks of his own lemon ice. "Dad said they'd meet us outside Keddies at 1 o clock. Now by my watch that should be just about…
"Wotcher!"
Andromeda jumped slightly as Ted's father popped out from out of nowhere and slapped his hand on Ted's shoulder. He was slightly shorter than his son, as well as slightly rounder, but there was certainly a strong resemblance there. At a guess she would have said he was about 40.
"Alright, Dad!" Ted hollered, as he embraced his father warmly, being careful not to spill any of his ice cream on his father's shirt. Andromeda had now spotted a slightly younger and slightly slender looking women, with dark brown hair standing alongside Ted's father, who she assumed was Ted's mother.
"Mum, Dad, meet Andromeda…"
"Wotcher," his Dad said to Andromeda, as he pulled out his big hand and gave hers a firm shake. Andomeda offered a faint hello in reply. "Robert Tonks. But everyone calls me Bobby. This is my wife, Agata…"
"It is pleasure to meet you, Andromeda," she said, in a vaguely Eastern European accent that Andromeda could not quite pick out. "Teddy has told us so much about you. You are even more beautiful than he said you were."
Andromeda flushed slightly at the thought of him telling his parents that he thought she was beautiful. She had to think fast to deflect away from it.
"Teddy?" Andromeda asked sarcastically at Ted. She had never heard of him being used by that name before. He blushed slightly. Ted's father ushered them to start walking north and they continued their conversation as they trekked through the high-street.
"I call him Teddy ever since he was little boy. He was Mummy's little teddy bear," Agata teased gently. Ted shot her a hideous look filled with embarrassment.
"Oh don't you worry, Andromeda. I'm sure there's plenty more he's kept quiet from you. We'll fill you in on all of the secrets!" Robert said, winking once at Andromeda and then at Ted, who shot him a look that was halfway between anger and fear. "I hope that ice cream's all you've eaten, Ted. Corr. Me and your mother taking you out for lunch with your missus and you're on the ice creams already! What are ya like ehh, son?"
"You know what they say, Dad. Like father, like son!" Ted shot back.
"You calling your old man fat?" Robert scoffed incredulously.
"I'm not callin' you skinny!" Ted joked.
"Bloody cheek! 'Ere Andromeda he's only showing off cause you're here. Bet your parents don't let you talk back to them like that, ehh?" Robert said, sneering at his son.
"Well… err no. Not quite," she replied. Ted and his father seemed to be exchanging in good natured banter, not uncommon to see between fellow pureblood students, but the idea of a parent and son or daughter talking to each other like that was a very alien concept to her. The Black family were all about respect, well, when Bellatrix wasn't involved she supposed.
"Do you like seafood, Andromeda?" Agata asked her.
"Yes, I do quite like fish I suppose," Andromeda replied politely.
"Well that is perfect. We will take you to the best seafood restaurant in all of Southend," Ted's mother said proudly, as they finally reached the end of the high-street and caught a glimpse of the sea-front. The tide was in and the crisp, blue waves were shining in the distance.