Note: Huge Meet the Marauders reference towards the beginning of this chapter! If nobody has a clue what Remus and Dora are on about, and hasn't read Meet the Marauders, feel free to PM me and I can fill you in! Out of laziness I have split this chapter in half, so the action won't really start until next time, I'm afraid. Meanwhile we have this rather boring chapter full of conversations...sorry about that! I hope somebody out there likes it anyway, I know this isn't turning into the most riveting of stories so far! In the next chapter you can expect a lot of fluff and something...really rather shocking! ;-) So hang in there, dear readers!
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.
7: An Unexpected Guest
As time went on it seemed to Pandora that Jeff's enthusiasm for running SEWS seemed distinctly tarnished. He seemed much quieter, less full of energy, and he spent many meetings sat alone in a corner, pouring over books and studying scraps of parchment. When approached he would smile as he had always done, offer some cheerful talk and encouragement, but there seemed something undeniably sad about him.
It made Pandora sad, too.
She'd been wary of him for a little while after his outburst upon the day of the parade. But seeing him so altered, so out of sorts, Pandora had been feeling increasingly pained on his behalf. Indeed she had, on occasion, gone as far as to suspect that Rovena deserved it. Because she was never good to Jeff, after all.
Despite this it seemed that Rovena and Jeff remained an item. Rovena still turned up at SEWS every so often to visit Jeff, and Pandora continued to dislike her. Pandora herself attended SEWS almost every other evening, so keen was she on spending time with Jeff and her new friends, to the point where Jeff would joke that he saw almost more of her there than he saw Rochelle. She spent the majority of her time there sitting with Jeff, chattering away as cheerily as she could in an attempt to lift his spirits, but he seemed quite engrossed with his books and papers, the nature of which she was never entirely sure about. She had asked a couple of times if perhaps he was studying for exams himself, just as she was, and he had simply decided: It is a test of sorts, I suppose.
"It's his girlfriend, I'm sure of it!" Pandora had informed her grandparents one evening as she lay stretched out upon the rug before the fireplace in their little sitting room, gazing thoughtfully up at the ceiling. "She's quite horrible to him! She makes fun of him all the time! She's making him miserable!"
"Yes...so you say, love..." Nana Dora had mumbled a little wearily from where she sat penning a letter at the writing desk in the corner. "Now how's that history essay of yours coming, hm? You're supposed to hand it in tomorrow, aren't you?"
"Do you think they might split up, Nana?" Pandora asked, imagination racing at the mere thought, and as Dora reached to fold the letter she had just finished writing neatly in half the witch sighed heavily.
"Come and make yourself useful, for Merlin's sake!" the former Auror instructed, slipping the letter into a carefully addressed envelope. "Honestly, sitting down there all afternoon daydreaming, Pan! Come on, come here!"
Pandora reached to push herself reluctantly up into a sitting position, and she groaned when her grandmother told her:
"Go and send Helga off with this, won't you? And since you're so determined to shun your homework you can go and make grandad a cup of tea whilst you're at it!"
Crossing the room to retrieve the letter, Pandora squinted down at it as she headed towards the kitchen.
"The Albanian Auror Department?" she observed, frowning deeply. "What on earth d'you want with the Alb..."
"Don't be so bloody nosy!" Dora interjected with a snigger as she rose to her feet and went to sit at her husband's side upon the sofa. "Honestly...!"
"I'm only saying, Nana!" Pandora called as she disappeared into the kitchen where she found Helga sat snoozing in her cage. "Just because you've run out of complaints to make about our own Ministry, doesn't mean you have to start picking on foreign countries too..."
"Cheek!" Dora exclaimed as Remus raised an eyebrow, gaze fixed upon the GCSE practice paper that Pandora had abandoned some hours earlier.
"Does it make any sense to you?" the witch murmured, leaning towards him until her lips were almost brushing his ear, and the wizard frowned deeply and admitted:
"I've never heard of...Brigham Young in my entire life..."
"Who?"
"Precisely..."
Dora gave a distinctly resigned sigh, only for Remus to chuckle and assure her:
"Don't worry. I shall insist on Pandora educating me. Lala! We'll have tea at the table, shall we? I want you to tell me all about this essay, it sounds utterly fascinating..."
"Gran-dad! No it doesn't! You said we could play chess!"
"We certainly can. After you've finished your homework..."
"I can do it when I get home!"
"That would be a terribly shame. I looking forward to learning all about..." Remus trailed off, squinting at the papers, reading: "The Timbre Culture Act of 1872..."
"1873, Grandad!"
"Pardon?"
"It's the Timbre Culture Act of 1873!"
"Yes, indeed...I was testing you!" Remus reached to rub a tired hand across his eyes as Dora promptly dissolved into silent laughter beside him. As he eased himself up onto his feet with a slight wince, the werewolf suggested: "I'll sit with her until it's finished, shall I? You've never had any patience with paperwork, after all"
As Pandora reappeared in the kitchen doorway, waiting for the kettle to boil, she watched her grandmother reach to swat Remus on the arm.
"Oh be quiet!" the former Auror snapped, though she was grinning.
"When it comes to ink and parchment you have the attention span of a troll, darling."
"Don't you be all condescending with me, Remus Lupin!"
"Why ever not? It does you good, look! Put's the colour in your cheeks..."
"Now I know who taught Pan to be so bloody cheeky!" Dora muttered as Remus went to sit at the little table by the window. "I could hex your grandfather sometimes, did you know that, Pan?!"
Pandora eyed the two of them in contemplation for a long moment, musing that as Dora lounged back upon the sofa and Remus shifted stiffly in his chair to get comfortable, they suddenly seemed worlds apart.
They were an odd match, Pandora's grandparents. He was quietly spoken and bookish and really rather frail, just like the sort of grandfather Pandora thought normal. She was persistently restless and frequently noisy and, despite the odd ache and pain and bouts of somewhat grumpy wisdom, not at all like the old woman Pandora envisaged as the average grandmother. The differences in their ages seemed suddenly apparent, as did the unlikeliness of the pair of them to begin with. Pandora found herself wondering how their marriage had gone on for so long, how they seemed only to tease each other and never truly disagree or argue about anything...
She wondered how many times she had heard Dora threaten to hex Remus over the years and found herself wondering if it had ever truly happened, if their great differences had ever led to more than teasing or a sharp word or two...
If something so alien could ever really happen to two so different people who believed they were in love.
Like Jeff and Rovena, Pandora recalled, the memory still making her feel a little uneasy. Could such differences in personality or opinion really drive somebody to such a thing if they were so sure they were in love?
"Nana?" the girl found herself musing as her grandmother yawned widely, reaching to press a hand to her mouth.
"Pan."
"Have you ever actually done it?"
"Done what, love?"
"Hexed Grandad. Have you ever actually done it?"
And at such a question Remus merely raised an eyebrow and Dora laughed, shaking her head as she exclaimed:
"Oh Pandora! What a question!"
"Yes, but have you?" Pandora pressed, folding her arms firmly across her chest. "I mean...have you ever just...just felt so angry with him that you've just...just...!"
Dora's looked as if she thought the question distasteful, though she admitted:
"Domestic violence isn't really my forte, Sweetheart..."
"So you've never hexed Grandad? Not ever?" Pandora confirmed, and her grandmother gave a huff.
"Of course I bloody haven't!" the witch exclaimed, only for her husband to snigger and mutter:
"Well that's not technically true..."
"That was different!" Dora exclaimed, sounding utterly appalled at the accusation, and Pandora's eyes promptly snapped over to look at her grandfather.
"What d'you mean, Grandad?!"
"I was once on the end of one of your grandmother's more carefully aimed hexes...she blinded me for near on an hour..."
As Pandora's eyes widened in shock at such a notion, Dora promptly snapped:
"Yeah?! Well you were going to hex me first!"
"You were running away from me."
"You weren't supposed to even be there in the first place! You were in the way!"
"You didn't have to blind me for it, though..."
"I gave you your wand back afterwards! What more could you want?!"
As the squabbling became increasingly heated, Pandora felt as if this were somehow all some kind of joke, only to feel yet more bemused when Dora pointed out:
"It wasn't my fault, anyway! If Carrie hadn't broken that bloody time turner you wouldn't have been snogging a bloody Death Eater and I wouldn't have had to have gone back in time to do something about it!"
A distinctly stunned pause descended upon the sitting room as Pandora looked from Remus to Dora and then back at Remus again, before the werewolf pointed out:
"We agreed never to speak of that, Dora. Not ever..."
"It's not my fault you have a poor taste in women!" Dora sniggered, and as he turned his back meaningfully upon his wife, the werewolf muttered:
"Indeed, there's no surprise I married you..."
As they trailed off into silence, Dora seemingly realised that Pandora was still in the room, and at the confusion upon the girl's face the witch suggested:
"I should ask your mother, love."
"Right..." Pandora mumbled, utterly bemused, and her grandfather concluded:
"Your Nana has never hexed, jinxed or so much as prodded me with that wand of hers, Pan, for as long as I've known her."
"But you just said..." Pandora began, only for the werewolf to insist:
"I didn't know her, then."
"This is a ridiculous conversation." Dora pointed out, suddenly unamused. "Honestly, Pan, to ask me that...!"
"Sorry, Nana..."
"People snap sometimes, that much is true..."
"Good people?"
"Perhaps, but to...to hex somebody you love like that...! People lose their tempers, Pan, they...they lose all reason sometimes but...but to resort to magic! No..."
"But without magic?" Pandora wondered, recalling Jeff and Rovena, and Dora sighed, reaching to rub a weary hand across her eyes.
"Pandora...!" the witch moaned, face contorting at the question, and Remus suggested:
"Enough, Pan. Come and sit and do this homework."
Reluctantly Pan wandered over to sit down at the table as Dora disappeared into the kitchen to finish making tea, and once Pandora had started to scribble an essay plan upon a spare sheet of paper, Remus reached to gather up an abandoned plate or two from the table, rising back onto his feet to return them to the kitchen.
With her grandfather briefly out of sight, Pandora found her concentration waning, and, hearing her grandparents bustling around in the kitchen, found herself wondering:
"Can I have a slice of cake, Nana?"
When Dora failed to reply, Pandora abandoned her pen and made a beeline for the kitchen door, only to pause when she heard her grandmother wonder:
"What d'you suppose she'd think of me, if I told her?"
"Probably much the same as me, Dora." Remus mused, sounding somewhat unconcerned by the question, and as Pandora peered around the half-open door she found her grandmother pouring the tea, the werewolf beside her stacking plates in the sink.
"I doubt it. Nobody would...would think of it like you do, Remus. You're...you're not normal, you never have been, certainly wasn't normal back then! Besides, you weren't going to tell her, were you?"
"Of course I wasn't..."
"Exactly!"
"Because it's private, Dora. Between you and I. It's none of Pandora's business, or anybody else's, what goes on in our marriage. And I don't see the point of bringing it up, especially not now! I'm an old man, for Merlin's sake! Anything that went on back when we first married is practically ancient history! It was all so minor in my mind, back then, it wouldn't even make it into an ancient history book to begin with!" And with that Remus reached to bump an elbow against his wife arm, adding: "And I like to think I got away with it lightly. Left without warning in the middle of a war with a baby on the way? I'd have beaten the stuffing out of me when I came back if I were you!"
"Mm..." Dora mumbled, frowning in distinct disapproval. "But perhaps I ought have taken the ring off first."
"Surely not, darling." Remus chuckled as he reached to wipe his hands dry with a tea towel. "There's something beautifully symbolic about being struck in the face by the symbol of marriage as punishment for making such a mockery of one's marital vows to begin with."
"Well it wasn't very beautiful the following morning when half the Order wanted to know which Death Eater was responsible for the state of you now, was it?!"
"I took it as a compliment that my wife could imitate a hex with no more than a well aimed backhand, actually...how's that essay plan coming along, Lala?"
Pandora jumped a little to be spotted, and she hastily swept into the kitchen, asking:
"Can I have some cake, Nana?"
"Knock yourself out, love." Dora mumbled, her glance sideways at the girl distinctly uneasy, and Pandora made a hasty beeline for the bread bin.
Pandora later wondered what Dora would really think of her feelings of what she had heard.
Because surely a feeling of relief was not what the witch would have been expecting. But nevertheless relief was what Pandora felt.
It was a relief to think that even the most normal of people could snap.
It was a relief to think that if Dora could snap, then Jeff might to.
That Jeff was probably still normal, that there was nothing to worry about, nothing being hidden.
It made trips to SEWS from then on far easier, Pandora felt, despite Jeff's distinct lack of cheer, and as the months went on she was more and more keen to go there. As her final GCSE exams approached, Pandora's parents became increasingly keen for her to stay at home and study, but she still managed to persuade them to take her to London on a regular basis, though she often had to take her homework and revision books with her. She saw little if nothing of Claire and Libby because she couldn't seem to help but pick SEWS over a trip out with them in a heartbeat.
She felt as if she simply belonged there.
In fact she picked SEWS over family outings on an increasingly regular basis, too. She had even skipped dinner at her grandparents' house three times in a row, and it was just days after her final GCSE exam that her mother finally decided to put her foot down.
"I'm going over to Nana and Grandad's this afternoon, Pan." Carrie had informed her daughter one morning, poking her head around the teenager's bedroom door as Pandora groggily opened her eyes, having only just awoken. "You'll come, won't you?"
"Rochelle's having a barbecue." Pandora had announced with a yawn. "It's to celebrate the end of term or...something..."
"A barbecue?"
"Yes."
"Well that's the first I've heard of it!"
Pandora's face instantly contorted in annoyance.
"M-um...!"
"Grandad and Nana have been waiting for you to visit for the past three weeks, Pandora!"
"Well they could floo or apparate over if they were really that keen..." Pandora pointed out nonchalantly, only to flinch when Carrie promptly flung the bedroom door open, expression utterly livid.
"Pandora Lupin!" the muggle snapped, eyes widening quite madly as she strode into the room, reaching to yank the duvet away from the girl so that she could more easily glower at her. "Would you just listen to yourself?! If your Grandad and Nana want you to pop over one day for tea, so they can make a fuss, stuff you full of cake and chocolate and Merlin knows what else, and give you a card and a present they picked out over a month ago to congratulate you on finishing your exams, then so help me, you WILL go and visit them!"
"They've...bought me a present?" Pandora attempted to clarify, blinking the sleep from her eyes, only for Carrie to moan:
"Teenagers! You're all so ridiculously shallow!"
"I'm not being shallow...I just don't really see why I'm getting a present or...or fussed over..."
"Well they did the same for Imogen, didn't they?! When she finished Hogwarts?! They held a big family dinner, covered half the cottage in balloons and banners and gave her the enchanted charm bracelet they bought back from Ireland!"
"Well yes," Pandora agreed, very much frowning. "I know about all of that. But that was when Imogen was eighteen, Mum. I'm sixteen, I haven't done my A-Levels yet."
"Muggles...and...and Squibs finish compulsory education at the age of sixteen, Pan. And as far as your grandparents are aware, you've never shown much interest in school or doing A Levels...let alone going to University..."
Pandora felt utterly bemused. It had never occurred to her that she wouldn't go and take A Levels after her GCSEs. Of course she hated going to school and she had no doubt she'd hate college equally as much, but she had always assumed she would go anyway. Despite their apparent lack of faith in her her parents had put her name down to attend Goodwin College next September. Surely her grandparents knew that?
"Do they think I'm too stupid?" she wondered, because quite frankly she didn't know what else could have factored into her grandparents' assumptions, only for Carrie to give a huff of laughter.
"Oh no, love. They know as well as I do that you'll be off to Goodwin in September. But they know you don't like school. I suppose they feel that, if you've hated it so much and yet got this far anyway, you might deserve at least a shred of recognition for it!" When Pandora merely stared at her, the muggle sighed heavily, exclaiming: "They're proud of you, love!"
"Oh..." Pandora mumbled, feeling an odd swell of warmth in her chest at the thought, and her mother suggested:
"I'll owl and let them know we're coming, shall I? We'll ask Immy to come with us and I'll leave Dad a note at work, see if he can't slip away for a little at lunchtime."
Imogen had some month earlier reluctantly acquired part-time work as a cleaner and occasional barmaid at the Leaky Cauldron, thanks to Remus making an unannounced trip to Hogwarts for a word with Professor Neville Longbottom, who in turn had suggested to his wife Hannah, the pub's landlady, that she might find Remus' eldest granddaughter a job. Having recalled from his time teaching her at Hogwarts that Imogen had a particular flair for potions, Neville had secured Imogen a job mixing the establishment's supply of various cleaning solutions, which Hannah claimed were just as good as those she usually bought ready made, but cost a fraction of the price when made from scratch using Neville's extensive collection of plants and ingredients grown in little greenhouses in one of the pub's back courtyards. Since this alone was not a full job in itself, however, Imogen spent the majority of her time cleaning the guest rooms upstairs and scrubbing dishes clean in the kitchen. Though glad to be earning some money again at last, Imogen was not terribly fond of the job. She liked Hannah and the other staff well enough, and enjoyed the solitary aspects of her work. But since she worked just a fraction of the hours she had in her previous job, her wages were low, the work of little interest to her, and when required to work behind the bar she was often not quite as smiley and cheerful as a barmaid ought be, as Hannah would persistently point out. She was a good girl, Hannah had reported to Teddy and Carrie some week previously when they had popped into the Leaky for a drink or two one evening, she could charm customers if she put her mind to it, was very bright and often witty, knew how to work hard, but overall seemed quite lost, directionless, as if she might rather be somewhere else but had no idea where that place might be.
As it happened, Imogen was not due into work until six o'clock in the evening, Pandora discovered when she had joined her sister at the breakfast table. Hannah had switched Imogen's shift from an afternoon of cleaning to an evening of bar-tending instead, for they were to be short a barman whilst the man in question was away on holiday. With a well-publicised Quidditch match due to take place that afternoon, Imogen was quite dreading the prospect of hours spent serving a bunch of rowdy fans of a sport she had once loved, but now loathed to hear mentioned even in passing. Lunch at her grandparents house, however, seemed to be a slightly cheering notion and she agreed to tag along. With Teddy managing to slip away from Auror Headquarters at just gone noon, the entire family was able to apparate over to the little cottage, taking a stroll down the leafy lane to the front door in the early afternoon sunshine. As it often was, they found the front door unlocked, and so Teddy reached to push open the front door. As they all stepped across the threshold and into the little sitting room, the wizard called:
"Alright, Mum? Alright, Dad?"
"Alright, Teddy love?" Dora's voice called cheerfully from the kitchen as Remus too called a greeting from a similar direction, and Pandora and Imogen were about to call too when in front of them Carrie and Teddy both came to such an abrupt halt that their daughters very nearly walked straight into the back of them.
A sudden silence descended upon the sitting room as Teddy and Carrie both stared over towards the sofa, and Pandora rose up onto her tip toes to peer over her mother's shoulder...
Sat in the middle the little sofa, causing the chair to sag down towards the floor, was a huge, hulking woman with short cropped brown hair and a distinctly square jaw. She was dressed in a set of rather expensive looking robes of khaki green trimmed with gold, which, worn by a woman so disproportionately big to the average person, looked distinctly like a disused tent. She was clutching hold of a large mug of tea which seemed to be utterly dwarfed by her shovel-like hands.
Pandora had never set eyes upon the stranger in her life.
The stranger offered the family in the doorway a toothy grin.
"Good afternoon!" she greeted as Carrie very nearly stepped on Pandora's toes shuffling backwards a step. She had a thick accent that Pandora couldn't place, but the penny dropped a moment later when Teddy found his voice to murmur:
"Ms...Ms Luga! What a...what a pleasant surprise!"
Former National Duelling Champion Valbona Luga gave a deep, booming laugh as she exclaimed:
"You surprise me too, yes! Look! You all older! Look at Imogen, she was so little when I see her before! She look like Dora now, yes? Ha!"
"Ha..." Teddy agreed as Carrie's gaze darted somewhat wildly towards the kitchen door.
"And this must be Pandora, yes?" Luga went on, eyes coming to rest upon the squib peering curiously at her over her mother's shoulder.
"That's right!" Teddy said brightly, at last over the shock of discovering his mother's once-arch nemesis sitting casually in Dora's sitting room. "Say hello, Pan!"
"Hello..." Pandora mumbled uncertainly, causing the half-giant to grin widely again, leaning forward in her seat, making the sofa groan.
"You finish your Squib exams, yes?" she said, instantly making Carrie scowl. "Your grandmother, she has bought you a cake!"
"Has she really?" Carrie said, reaching to seize Pandora by the elbow. "Let's go and look, shall we?" And with that she made a beeline for the kitchen, half-dragging her daughter after her.
Once inside the kitchen Carrie turned to close the door firmly behind them, before rounding on the couple who were busy making tea and sandwiches.
"Dora!" the muggle hissed, causing the witch in question to look up from buttering a mound of sliced bread.
"Hello Carrie love!" Dora greeted, abandoning the task in order to sweep across the room to envelope Pandora in a hug, mumbling a similar greeting.
"Dora!" Carrie hissed again, eyes widening quite madly, raising a hand to point at the door behind her. "Valbona Luga is in your sitting room! Sitting on your sofa and...and DRINKING TEA!"
Dora gasped, a hand flying to her mouth.
"What?!" she exclaimed, voice so dripping with sarcasm that over by the kettle Remus struggled not to laugh, instead beckoning Pandora with outstretched arms. "Really?! Sweet Merlin, how did that happen?!" When Carrie merely scowled, the witch turned to ask her husband: "Did you know about this, Remus?!"
"This isn't funny!" Carrie snapped, reaching to rake a hand through her hair as Remus and Pandora exchanged a tight hug. "What's she doing here?!"
"Well I invited her, obviously." Dora pointed out, sounding quite exasperated.
"What?!"
"I invited her, Carrie. She's come to stay for a little while..."
"What do you mean she's...she's come to stay?!"
"She's staying with Remus and I for a few weeks, that's all."
"That's all?! The woman's a maniac, Dora!"
Dora's expression grew instantly offended.
"She's a dear friend, actually."
"She tried to hospitalise you!"
"What's your point? I did hospitalise her..."
"But you hate her!"
"Don't be silly, Carrie. We've been exchanging letters for years. She's quite nice when you get to know her, actually..."
An uncomprehending silence descended upon the kitchen and, finding Dora entirely unreasonable, Carrie was forced to look to Remus to demand:
"Well?! Aren't you...aren't you going to say something?!"
"Oh grow up, Carrie!" Dora snapped before Remus could so much as draw breath to speak. "Valbona and I didn't get on when we were younger, we were in competition with one another and it got rather heated and we both had our reasons for it! Now we're older, wiser and we get on perfectly well! That's all there is to it! There's no point holding a grudge, is there? Let's not have some silly argument about it, eh?"
"It's Pan's day, after all!" Remus pointed out, giving his granddaughter's shoulder a squeeze, and Carrie simply stared around the kitchen in confusion for a long moment, before mumbling:
"Fine! Fine...alright...let's just...fine..."
"Open the door, Carrie." Remus suggested with a smile. "I'll bring the tray of tea in."
The atmosphere over tea and cake that afternoon, Pandora felt, was ever so slightly uncomfortable, for neither of her parents seemed to quite manage to relax around Remus and Dora's new houseguest. Though not terribly adept at polite conversation, however, Valbona Luga seemed to Pandora to be a world away from all the horror stories the girl had heard over the years. Her English was not perfect, she laughed too loudly and had a rather blunt manner. But Pandora didn't all together dislike her, indeed she seemed to have a surprisingly kind heart. She insisted they all call her by her first name, she spoke very fondly of her hosts and their hospitality and even enthusiastically congratulated Pandora on finishing her exams.
"What brings you back to Britain?" Teddy had asked some while after Dora had presented Pandora with a large chocolate cake and the rest of the family had spent some time babbling cheerfully about just how pleased they were with how she had done at school and how they were sure her exam results would be brilliant.
"I come to Britain," Luga said through a mouthful of chocolate cake, "because Dora write to me. She say she hear news of my little niece. My little Rovena!"
"Pan knows Rovena Luga, don't you Pan?" Imogen recalled as she took a sip of her tea, and Pandora felt her cheeks flush a little pink when Luga's gaze snapped round to look at her, face instantly lighting up.
"You know my Rovena?!"
"Yes...we've met..."
"Is she well? What...what does she...how is she?!"
"Oh she's very well, I think. She um...she's dating a friend of mine..."
"She has a boy?"
"Yes...a very nice boy, actually."
Luga positively swelled with pride at the mere thought, turning to offer Dora beside her a broad grin.
"My Rovena was a lovely little girl." she said, eyes shining at the mere memory. "She the only one left, you know, in my family, who love me. She my brother Valon's little girl. She loved her Aunt Valbona back in Albania, she did! But I not see her now. She left for Britain with her mother and grandmother. I beg them not to go, I tell them they break my heart! But they do not care about my heart. They do not care for me at all! I am...what you say? Dark sheep!"
"Black sheep." Dora suggested over the rim of her teacup, and Luga nodded her head vigorously.
"Yes, I black sheep of family. I always have been. Father and Mother were never married, his parents would not want anything to do with a mother like mine! So he marry a nice pure-blood witch and forget all about my mother. But then I am left on their doorstep and Father vow to look after me. My stepmother, she never like me, but her son, my half brother Valon, he did not care that I am different. He was a nice brother, very good to me. Only Father and Valon love me, so I think to myself I want the others in my family to be proud that I am with them! So I study very hard at school, I get good grades, pass all my exams. But they did not care. So I joined Albanian Auror Department, everyone wants an Auror in the family, yes? You proud of them, yes? My family, they were proud of Valon when he joined the Aurors. But not me. They not care about me. Then my father die and I have only Valon left who love me. We were Aurors together, until he lose his job. Valon married nice pure-blood witch, just like Father. She hate me, just like my stepmother, but Valon let me stay in the big house with them that he inherited from Father. When Rovena was born Valon let me spend time with her, even though his wife not approve. I still try to make my family proud. I join Albanian Duelling Team but...but I got disqualified and the family were ashamed! So, so ashamed! They say it was embarrassing for them! So I try again and become National Duelling Champion...but Dora beat me, so my family are not impressed. I win again twice, I beat every dueller I face! But they do not care, they cannot be proud of me! And then my dear brother Valon, he get sick and he dies. I am heart-broken, I have only my little Rovena left! But my stepmother and Rovena's mother hate me, Valon had left the big house in his will to me, not them! He was angry, yes? He is angry they never accepted me! I tell them they can stay in the house, I not mind, I want them there, I want to see my Rovena! But they not want to stay with me! They take my Rovena and...and they...they leave Albania to live in Britain! They take my Rovena away and...and leave me all on my own!"
"That's terrible!" Carrie whispered, eyes widening in horror at the notion, and Pandora felt somewhat taken aback to see the Albanian's eyes looking distinctly watery.
"I did not give up." she said, shaking her head vigorously. "No, I did not! I write to Mr. Potter, Head of British Auror Department, I ask him for a job so that I may move to Britain also! He...he not get my letters, perhaps..."
Teddy coughed rather loudly into his hand and Pandora glanced at her shoes at the memory that if Carrie was not fond of Valbona Luga, Harry Potter positively hated the woman. Pandora had no doubt that Harry had ignored every single letter, indeed he had probably tossed them on the fire without bothering to open them.
"I write five times over the course of two months." Luga recalled, suddenly smiling as she recalled: "And one day I receive letter, not from Mr. Potter, but from Dora! She say no vacancies at this time, but I write back and ask her to please help me, I tell her I must be with my family, with my Rovena!"
"I had a word with Harry about it." Dora recalled, frowning deeply. "But he laughed me out of his office." When Luga looked somewhat offended to hear this she decided: "He felt after all that had happened in the Duelling Championships over the years the other British Aurors would...would have a hard time accepting you, I suppose..."
"I too good for them!" Luga exclaimed, slapping a hand upon one enormous knee as she gave a booming laugh, and Dora laughed somewhat uneasily and agreed:
"Oh, there's no doubt! I retired soon afterwards, anyway, but Valbona and I kept on writing to one another."
"Yes, we good friends now."
"That's right, we are."
"What will people say to that?!" Luga laughed again, reaching to clamp a hand down upon Dora's shoulder, the movement making the rest of the family wince.
"They'll be perfectly shocked, I'm sure." Remus said, gaze coming to rest meaningfully upon Carrie, who gave a distinctly mechanical laugh.
"And then Dora hear of my Rovena, and next thing I know there is terrible, terrible news. Rovena's mother and my stepmother get in trouble with British Ministry of Magic for possessing Dark artefacts or...or something, I not know quite what..." Luga glanced questioningly in Teddy's direction, noting his scarlet Auror robes, but the Auror merely shook his head.
"Not quite my department, I'm afraid." he admitted, only for Luga to wave a dismissing hand, very nearly hitting Imogen in the face with it.
"They have not been good, whatever it is. And the British Ministry of Magic threaten to deport them back to Albania! My little Rovena, she will be all on her own, so I come to Britain to ask her if she will come back to Albania and live in Luga ancestral home with her Aunt Valbona!" Luga finished, sounding somewhat triumphant, grinning in a distinctly excited manner at the plan.
"She'll be off home the evening of our wedding anniversary." Dora concluded with a smile, and Luga nodded, adding:
"Hopefully Rovena comes with me!"
Pandora rather hoped that Rovena would, too...