The Midwinter Sioreé
The group spun around the portkey as they rushed to their destination, it wasn't too long, and in a few seconds, they crashed back into the ground. However, this landing was different, as they hit the ground, they seemed to slow down, and as they got their bearings, realized they were waist-deep in a pit of sand.
A voice from behind them spoke up, "Please exit the sandpit as quickly as possible to clear it for other arrivals." There was a man in a fur winter coat and a tall tophat standing to the side of the pit. He reached down to assist the group to climb out. As they got out, the sand that was still on their clothes glowed red and drifted back into the pit.
All four of them watched the process in amazement, and Brandt started to ask, "I've never seen an arrival point like that…"
The man who greeted him interrupted him by pointing at a sign next to him, that said:
The Abbot family wishes to extend their sincere thanks to Lady Alessandra Zabini for her generous contribution of the sandpit that is being used as the portkey arrival point for this evening.
It is truly a unique piece of magic that allows for a less jarring entrance, without getting your beautiful outfits dirty or wet.
If you have further questions on how this artifact functions, please seek out Miss Zabini during the function this evening.
"The Black Widow?" said Tonks distrustfully.
"Even if it is true," Brandt remarked casually, "please do not address her as such tonight. Harry and Lyra are friends with her son."
Harry was looking around, trying to remember everything about the house that he could from when he came with his relatives. He could see the big round manor house in front of them. He recognized where his uncle had parked their car the last time, though now it was filled with older classic cars and a few horse-drawn carriages. A few of the creatures attached to the carriages looked similar to horses, though others were clearly not. One was being pulled by a large orange bear wearing a brown hat and a polka-dot bow tie and another was driven by a pair of what looked to be some kind of strange yellow ostriches with green stars on their chests.
Brandt led them towards the entrance where a red carpet lined the pathway towards the door. As he stepped on the beginning of the carpet, he turned to the group, "Harry, Lyra, the two of you are the invited guests of the evening," he said as he passed them both the invitation that had been given to them at Dumbledore's party. "The two of you need to enter first, I will walk with Lyra, and Tonks will walk with Harry. Once we are inside, the two of us will switch off periodically through the night."
Harry pulled Lyra forward to walk with him towards the gate, with Whispers walking between them. When they were almost to the front door, Brandt added, "Lyra, please put your hood down."
She did and they continued to approach the front door, which opened on its own to reveal a man in the same fur coat as the one at the arrival point, who greeted them with, "Welcome to Abbot Manor. Your invitations, please."
Harry elbowed Lyra and she passed her invitation to the man, he examined it and cast some kind of spell on it so it glowed blue, then handed it back. "What is the name of your escort?"
Lyra hesitated, so Brandt stepped up and said, "Steward Brandt, of House Black."
The man nodded to Harry and his eyes widened as he looked at the boy properly then glanced at his scar, "Y-your invitation, Mr. Potter, p-please," he stammered. Harry passed it up and the man performed the same spell on this one then asked "And the name of your escort?"
"Tonks," replied Harry simply, getting an eyebrow from the greeter.
Brandt stepped up again, "Please introduce her as Nym…"
"Auror Tonks," she interrupted.
"This is a formal party," Brandt said seriously. "You may be introduced as Auror with your full name."
Tonks and Brandt engaged in a long staring contest as the man who took their invitations stood there helplessly.
After nearly a minute, Tonks backed down to Brandt's unrelenting gaze, saying, "You're the boss, but after we're through the door, it's Tonks again." Turning back to the man, "Auror Nymphadora Tonks."
"And Whispers!" Lyra added on, gesturing to the demiguise between them in the felt hat.
The man looked a bit conflicted on how to handle that, but turned around and marched towards the inner doors. Another man in a fur coat stepped into the entrance hall to wait for the next guests.
The inner doors opened to a large room that Harry swore was at least three times the size it was when he was last there. Remembering that magic existed, it probably was larger this time around. There was a large dancing floor on the far side of the room, with a small orchestra playing light music next to the doors to the inner courtyard. Around the edges of the dancefloor, there were high tables for people to stand next to, and further away were tables to sit and eat at. They were standing at the top of a small set of stairs leading down to the main floor area.
The man in a fur coat approached a small gong, which Harry remembered being in the children's room before, and struck it. Most of the people attending didn't bother to look up as the man bellowed, "Introducing Lyra Cassiopeia Black, Harry James Potter, and Whispers. Escorted by Steward Brandt of House Black and Auror Nymphadora Tonks!" He struck the gong again, and this time nearly everyone in the room was looking toward them. Harry looked down to see that Whispers had vanished, though his top hat was still visible and floating between him and Lyra.
The man in the fur coat guided them down the steps, through the throng of witches and wizards staring at them, towards a large table in the center where Harry could see Hannah, Cynthia, and Gerald Abbot as they rose from their places at the table. Gerald stepped forward to handle the introductions.
"Mr. Potter, I'm glad to welcome you back to our home after all these years. Miss Black, Steward Brandt, Miss Tonks, and I assume Mr. Whispers under that hat. I am Gerald Abbot, welcome to my home. I wish to introduce or reintroduce my wife, Cynthia, and our daughter, Hannah."
Gerald was wearing a fairly simple but elegant black robe with silver accents along the bottom and a blue tie peeking out the top. Hannah and her mother were in matching mustard-colored winter dresses and both were wearing their hair with large ringlets on the front. Harry smiled at them and gestured to their hair, they both grinned back.
Brandt stepped forward and bowed slightly, then responded, "Thank you, Lord Abbot, for your hospitality, we look forward to the evening." He then pulled a bouquet of multicolored flowers from somewhere inside his jacket, saying, "Madam Abbot, your home looks beautiful, I hope these flowers can be added to it. They have been enchanted so they may be replanted anytime in the next four days and will occasionally give off a puff of gold or silver sparkles."
She accepted the bouquet and thanked him. Harry wanted to say hello to Hannah, but the man in the fur coat that took them there began to guide their group to the side. He ended up leading them toward another table that had a stand with the Black Family coat of arms in the center. Harry, Lyra, Whispers, and Tonks sat down and started surveying the room.
Brandt started scribbling some runes on a napkin, then charged them with his wand and tore a corner, and ripped it in half. With the remainder, he stuck it under the stand with the coat of arms.
He passed one of the pieces to Tonks, and said to everyone, "This may be our table, but I imagine we won't be spending a lot of time here tonight. It may not look like it, but everyone is on the hunt for Lyra for her connections to Arcturus and Harry for being The Boy-Who-Lived. If we stay still, it will give people an easier time getting to both of them. So we will try to always be on the move."
"Sounds like something Moody would say," grumbled Tonks.
"Additionally, this is the Abbots' party, it would be a serious breach of etiquette if it appeared like we were holding court in their home. Try to keep your interactions in one spot to under ten minutes, even if there are multiple people you are speaking with. Finally, if anyone is feeling overwhelmed, this table is the home base. If anyone comes to sit here, Miss Tonks or I will know."
Lyra looked to Whispers who had turned visible but was staring at everyone at the party over the back of his chair. She quickly signed to him, [Here, Home][Danger, Come Home].
The group prepped to leave, Tonks and Lyra put their coats on their chairs with strong sticking charms to keep them there. As they set out, they were immediately stopped by a tall, but otherwise, completely unremarkable man.
"Mr. Potter, how wonderful it is to meet you," he began. "My name is Henderson Drake, Undersecretary of the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes."
Harry shook the man's hand, "It's a pleasure to meet you, sir. May I introduce you to my sister, Lyra Black, our brother Whispers, Steward Brandt of House Black, and Auror Tonks."
Introductions and handshakes were made all around, Whispers was feeling a bit anxious so he didn't shake the man's hand or try to say his name.
"I almost feel like I know you already, Mr. Potter. My last position was leading the Accidental Magic Reversal Squad for the Greater London area." Harry didn't understand, but Brandt made the connection before the man explained it. "You see, I got to see all the various tricks you pulled growing up, even had to send out squads to fix a few of your bigger bouts of accidental magic."
So there were people that knew what had been going on. Harry started to feel a bit angry. How many other people knew about his childhood? Who did they report to? The man continued to talk about when he got the post owl from Mrs. Davis to come and fix her blue hair, but Harry wasn't listening at this point. Tonks shivered for a second and Brandt started to feel the hair on his arms rising.
Brandt grabbed Harry by the shoulder, snapping him out of his dark concentration, and said, "I'm sorry Mr. Drake, but Harry and I need to meet with someone right now, maybe we will see you later on." Then she whispered something to Tonks and led Harry off.
Tonks rounded on the man, angrily, "Mr. Drake, in the future, please do not discuss the records of a minor in such a public setting, or I will report you to the head of the department." Then she took Lyra and Whispers and led them away in another direction.
"What just happened?" Lyra asked. "Where did Brandt take Harry?"
Tonks crouched down a bit to talk to Lyra face to face, "I'm not exactly sure myself, just that the man we were talking to knew something about Harry's childhood and it made Harry upset. Do you know what was going on?"
Lyra's eyes widened and then turned angry, a couple of red and orange sparks flew from her hair before Tonks got her attention back by snapping her fingers.
"Yes, I know," Lyra glowered. "What was that man's name again?"
"Henderson Drake, and whatever you're thinking, you need to stop it now. You're too young for those kinds of thoughts."
"Then people should be nicer to my family," Lyra snapped back, then grabbed Whispers by the hand and started to walk away, leaving Tonks to follow after.
Brandt brought Harry to a small washroom to calm down. Harry sat down to process everything that man had said.
Brandt looked down at him and said, "You know, you did it again just now. You flexed your magic so that everyone could feel it."
Harry looked up, "I did?" he said with surprise. "All I felt was fury, my vision was getting dark."
"A lot of magic is tied to your emotions, Harry," Brandt explained. "Some of the more destructive magic takes a violent mindset, the same as physical actions. I assume you weren't thinking about puppies and rainbows when you stabbed Draco."
Harry nodded at the logic, "So what do we do now?"
"Now, I'm going to switch off with Miss Tonks and introduce Lyra around. You are going to go find some friends and cheer yourself up."
"Lyra can't come with me?"
"She needs to know more people in her family and political circles, but we will join you later. Let's go now." Brandt helped Harry to stand up and they walked out of the room.
They left the room and saw Tonks speaking with a man her age, with Lyra and Whispers standing next to her.
Lyra saw Harry coming and ran over to hug him. Brandt walked over to Tonks and introduced himself to her friend, then exchanged a quiet word with her and returned to Harry and Lyra with Tonks.
Harry gave Lyra a look that told his sister that he was ok, and left with Tonks to find someone he knew. He looked back to see Tonks following him at a reasonable distance but her right hand was extended in a gesture he recognized from Alastor, which meant that she would draw her wand on anyone who approached. He smiled and reminded himself to tell the old Auror that she was learning well. A few people would start to approach Harry but then back off when they got a look from Tonks.
Finally, after searching for about five minutes, Harry spotted Blaise talking with an older girl he didn't recognize and made his way over. Blaise had his back to Harry and the girl he was with motioned with her head to him that he was being approached.
Blaise turned around to see him and gave a small smile, "Good evening Mr. Potter," he said with formality. Turning to his friend, "May I introduce you to my cousin, and escort for the evening, Gisella Daza."
"Thank you, Mr. Zabini," Harry said with a nod, then turned to Blaise's cousin, "A pleasure to meet you, Miss Daza."
Gisella was taller than Blaise by at least a head and had a very lithe body. Her complexion was lighter than her cousin's and had short brown hair that went down just below her ears. She wore a thin-strapped blue dress with matching blue gloves that went up to her elbows. She extended her hand for a more feminine handshake.
Harry had been taught by Brandt how to kiss a woman's hand, but he never felt comfortable doing that, so instead, he just raised it slightly and smiled.
Blaise stepped to the side with Harry and whispered to him, "What's going on? You look like you want to punch someone. Gisella seems to like it though."
Harry was a bit confused by that last part, so he just told a partial truth, "I do, I just met a man who knew something about my private life and decided to talk about it publicly. I'm not sure what I would have done if Brandt hadn't stopped me."
"Well, I'm sure Hannah has better entertainment for the evening than Harry Potter stabbing one of her guests. You've got your wand with you?" Harry nodded. "Let's go find somewhere for you to blow off some steam. I'll go grab Hannah, wait here." He ran off, leaving Harry with Giselle.
The two of them just kind of stood there for a moment before Harry felt a slight sting in his side. Looking to the side he saw Tonks standing there, the tip of her wand slipping back into the furry cuff on her sleeve. She tilted her head towards the girl and nodded.
Harry turned to Blaise's cousin and asked, "Do you go to Hogwarts?"
"No, I do not, I am in my fifth year at Beauxbatons," she said a bit stiffly.
"What's that like? Do you also have a castle?"
"In a manner of speaking, it is not like the castle at Hogwarts. Hogwarts was built to be a fortress, while Beauxbatons was built to be a school and as a chance for local architects and artisans to design something beautiful."
"Does it have secret passages and hidden rooms?" Harry asked hopefully.
"The castle itself does not, a school should not need such things. However, the grounds around the school are massive and filled with many secret gardens, hedge mazes, and hidden grottos. Students often take it upon themselves to add something of their own out in the countryside that surrounds the school before they graduate."
Harry smiled, that sounded like a nice thing to do, though just as he was about to comment, Blaise came back with Hannah.
"Hannah's got a dueling room we can go to, let's grab some more people and head over."
Giselle and Harry followed after Blaise and Hannah as they gathered a few random young people from around the hall, some of them he recognized from Hogwarts, others he didn't know. When they were about ten children, Hannah led them out of the main hall. Three parents also decided to tag along for supervision in addition to Tonks. They arrived at a large door that Hannah opened to reveal a long room with various glass cases on the walls that contained weapons and photographs.
Tonks stepped up, "If all of you are planning on casting spells, there will be no cutting, burning, or anything that causes bruises, blood, or ruins clothing. I will stop anything that goes too far. Have fun!" she said cheerfully and stepped back with the three other adults.
Blaise took over from there, "Who wants to go first? Harry, do you want a quick duel?"
Harry smiled, he needed this and took off his shoulder harness, placing it on a chair near the door. The rest of the children all gathered where the parents were standing. Blaise and Harry stood in designated circles on the far ends of the room while Tonks and one of the other adults set up shields around the spectators.
"How do we start?" Harry asked.
"Like this!" Blaise called out, drawing his wand and casting, "Flipendo!"
A pale yellow light shot straight at Harry. It seemed to almost float towards him, so he just stepped to the side as he drew his wand. Blaise fired two more of that spell toward him before incanting "Stupefy!"
Harry was able to sidestep the two yellow spells again, but the last one was a deeper red, and had a larger mass to it, so he summoned his shield to absorb it. The red spell just splashed into nothingness as it hit, though Harry did feel a small vibration. He had only cast spells at Augustus Stevens before, so he was a bit hesitant to do so against his friend, but seeing as though he did want to get rid of some of his anger, he threw two pulses of magic at Blaise.
His friend squinted at the shimmering balls that Harry had pointcasted at him, non-verbally, and dove to the side, though one of them hit him in the legs as he jumped, causing him to spin in the air and drop his wand.
Harry ran over to him as the other children also ran out from behind the shield toward Blaise.
"Are you ok?" Harry asked as he reached his fallen friend. Blaise had just started to get up while groaning a bit. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you."
Blaise sat up, "I'm fine, just didn't expect that." The others started to gather around. "What was that spell?"
"Augustus Stevens told me it was like a punch of magic," Harry explained. Then he added, "I tried to make it lighter than normal."
"That was lighter?" Blaise asked with wide eyes.
At the same time, one of the older children, whom Harry didn't recognize from Hogwarts, exclaimed, "Augustus Stevens is teaching you to duel?"
A lot of the children started pestering Harry for details on his tutoring from the dueling champion, but he was feeling a bit overwhelmed and a bit cornered by the barrage of questions.
Luckily Tonks stepped in, "I think regular dueling is a bit much." She leaned over to pull Blaise back to his feet. "Do any of you know what a bounce duel is?"
Everyone except Harry shook their heads. He, on the other hand, had a huge smile on his face.
"Does anyone know the advanced form of the softening charm?" Tonks asked, and two of the older children raised their hands. Go ahead and cast it on everything you can in this room, and come back here. They started to cast the charm everywhere as Tonks did the same and walked around to check their work. When they got to enchanting the floor, the auror made sure to double the number of charms cast there. Some of the children had taken to jumping on the bouncy floor before Tonks gathered them back up.
"Now I'm going to cast a very specific shield charm on each of you which will absorb impacts from the Flipendo charm and similar knockback spells like what Harry does." She turned to Harry and performed a complicated wand movement before casting a spell that put a violet shield around him.
Addressing the others, "This shield will still allow you to get knocked back but won't get you hurt." She turned back to Harry, "I'm going to knock you across the room, it's not going to hurt, ok?"
Harry was hesitant but nodded. Tonks stepped back and performed what looked like a cricket pitch with her wand and yelled out, "Flipendo!"
When Blaise cast the spell, it was a light and translucent yellow energy. When Tonks did it, it was solid in color and zipped straight at him before he could even react. As it hit him, he felt his feet leave the ground and he rocketed backward until he fell to the ground and bounced, head over heels, to land on his back again. Regaining his orientation, he got back up and shook off his dizziness.
As he walked back across the bouncy floor, Tonks was already casting the shield among the other children. When they were all purple, Tonks instructed them, "Only cast at the others who have a deep purple color shield. If you notice your shield is getting lighter in color, come to me to have it recast."
Everyone just kind of looked around before one of the older kids blasted another across the room, making him bounce off the wall. They all watched the kid get back up, apparently unhurt. Then wands were drawn and it was a free-for-all.
Tonks walked back slowly to the other adults, casually deflecting a few of the spells that came at her.
When she got back, the only woman there remarked, "You're very good with the children, are you a teacher?"
Hiding her annoyance, Tonks pulled her badge out of her cuff, "I'm an Auror, actually."
"Well, I bet you'll be a very good mother, someday," she responded.
The older of the two men asked her, "So who is your partner on the squad?"
"I am still finishing my training," she responded. "Under Senior Auror Alastor Moody."
That got their attention. Eyes bulged for a moment on the other adults, and the older man recovered quickest and said, "So, then you're working the cauldron case?"
"How did you know about that?" she asked suspiciously.
"The case originated from my department. My name is Ackley Buttonwood, International Magical Trading Standards Body." They quickly shook hands. "I understand this isn't the most desirable of cases, but the number of accidents every year that comes from weak cauldrons is something that plagues the halls of St. Mungos and the smaller clinics around the country."
"I can understand that," Tonks replied, "but what I don't understand is why shops even sell them when it is simple to determine the thickness when they buy them from suppliers."
They both ducked as a child flew over their head and bounced off the wall above them, then got back up to join the fray.
"Well, the real reason that there is a problem comes from the overseas manufacturers. Different regions have different standard potions, and they might be sufficient for local potion ingredients, but it is different for brewing in the British Isles."
"So they would work for some potions, but not the more volatile ones?" Tonks asked. "At Hogwarts, we always get our equipment lists with the thickest of each alloy."
"Because Hogwarts students are students. You're bound to make mistakes and need your tools to last a whole year. Most homebrewers will buy based on their needs and budget without knowing if the thickness will stand up to what they're making and how long it will last from repeated use."
"So the problem is just that people aren't informed if the cauldrons they get from outside the isles will stand up to their potions, is that what you're saying?"
"Yes…" he replied slowly.
"Could the solution be to create a guide from the Ministry that tells homebrewers the type of cauldron and the thickness they need for each potion? Then instead of banning foreign imports, you could just tax them instead and they will be used for specific brewing, rather than banning them entirely."
Ackley looked thoughtful for a moment before shaking his head, "No, that wouldn't work."
Tonks was about to respond when Hannah and another boy ran over to get their shields re-applied.
When she turned back to Ackley, he explained, "While your idea is sound, the costs of testing so many cauldrons and so many potions would be too expensive. We don't have the supplies or manpower to pull it off."
Of course, the issue was money. Tonks frowned, a 'boring' department like his wouldn't be able to entice the minister into increasing their budget. So she just nodded in commiseration to the man and went back to watching the children blast each other around the room. Ten minutes later, she noticed that the charms were wearing off on one patch of the floor, so she fired a cannon blast in the air to get everyone's attention.
"The softening charms are wearing off, and we should all get back to the party," she called to the children.
Most of them were panting and the physical exertion, though Harry seemed to just be smiling with even more energy. The three adults and Tonks applied freshening charms on all the kids as they made their way back to the main hall. As they re-entered the room, they all dispersed except for Harry, Blaise, and Giselle.
Harry turned to his friend, "Thanks, I really needed that."
"No problem, I was expecting you to go a little easier on me in the first duel though."
"That's the only dueling spell I know," Harry shrugged. "Other than the fire spell, but I'm not that good with it yet. Lyra could have burned the entire room down though."
Blaise grimaced at the thought, "Well, I'm looking forward to more practice next term when you work with Farley."
"Sounds good," Harry said and the two of them shook hands.
Giselle stepped up to him and said, "Well, it was good to meet you, Mr. Potter, you are certainly different than you are in your books." They exchanged a smile as she turned to her cousin, "Let's go see if your mother has found a new suitor yet." The two of them walked off.
That left Harry alone with Tonks, who asked him, "What was that spell you used anyways? Was it something that Stevens taught you?"
"No, I learned it with my staff before Hogwarts," Harry answered. "Then I started doing it with my wand as well since they are made of the same animal"
"Wait a tick," Tonks squinted her face in thought, "This is the same spell from The Kirkland Incident?"
"Um…" Harry started to say, but remembered that that was a Class 1 Fish Tale, and said, "No, that was a thestral protecting her foals. It was chaos because most people couldn't even see what was going on."
Tonks laughed, "Don't worry, Moody told me that you blasted her out of your room… good fish tale though. I'll tell him you kept up on operational security."
They started walking and Harry retold the story of their first morning in the Leaky Cauldron. As they wandered the room, Harry saw Lyra chatting with Tracey while Daphne was feeding grapes to Whispers at a random table. He ran over to them quickly.
"Hey! When did you two get here?" Harry exclaimed as he arrived.
"Just about twenty minutes ago," Daphne answered. "Where have you been? We looked for you."
Lyra looked at Harry and complained, "Brandt was dragging me around to meet so many boring people. He's over there talking to some old guy now," she pointed to where Brandt was standing in his burgundy jacket. Tonks recognized the man he was standing with as the one she had just met, Ackley Buttonwood.
"Tonks let us do a bounce duel with some of the other kids!" Lyra didn't seem to remember what that was, and Daphne and Tracey didn't know either, so Harry launched into an explanation.
Lyra looked at her brother with puppy dog eyes, "I want to do that!"
"We need to learn some dueling spells first, I could only do it because I have my magic punch spell. The other kids were using real incantations… no fire allowed."
Lyra was still frowning, so Tracey told her, "When we get back to school, Daphne and I can teach you the knockback spell." That seemed to make her feel a little better.
"So what were you talking about before I got here?" Harry asked.
"Well, I was explaining about how Snape is a monster," Tracey explained, "and your sister was defending him."
"There's nothing wrong with him!" Lyra exclaimed. "He just likes being scary!"
"But what about all the detentions? He's got to have something better to do than watch students scrub cauldrons with his evenings."
"Well, then just don't get detention!" Lyra argued back.
Tonks had been listening to everything and had an idea, "Harry, Lyra, I'm going to talk to Brandt, stay here for a moment." She walked away as Tracey and Lyra continued to argue about Snape.
The two men saw her approach and cut off their conversation quickly. "Mr. Buttonwood," Tonks addressed the man, "I see you've met Steward Brandt of the Very Old and Incredible House of Black."
"Indeed I have, Miss Tonks. We were just discussing the import of various foreign goods."
She gave an overt look back towards Whispers and Brandt nodded his head.
"I wanted to return to the conversation we had earlier," Tonks told him. "I thought of a possible solution to your budget and manpower issue."
"Really? Do tell," the man said with interest as Brandt observed.
"Would you have the budget to employ a single potions master who had access to hundreds of potential unpaid workers to complete the project we were speaking of?" Tonks asked with an air of mystery.
"I believe our budget could allow for such an endeavor, I assume you have someone in mind."
"I just overheard a Hogwarts student complaining about scrubbing cauldrons for detention in Professor Severus Snape's class. She said specifically, 'He's got to have something better to do than watch students scrub cauldrons with his evenings.' When I was a student, nearly as many students served detention with him as with the caretaker, Filch. You could pay him to run your tests on the various potions to determine the proper material and thickness for each recipe, then he could give his students to brew the potions for detentions. Students will get a better education than scrubbing cauldrons, you save a lot of money, enact proper safety guidelines for the British Isles, and fewer people end up in St. Mungos. It's a win-win-win." She smiled triumphantly at the end.
Ackley's acceptance grew on his face throughout the explanation. Brandt also was admiring Tonks's intuition on the matter as she laid out the plan.
Ackley was about to respond, but then he frowned again, "One other problem, we would still need to purchase the sub-standard cauldrons being imported now to run the tests."
Tonks thought for a moment before responding, "Use the illegal imports we've confiscated. You said yourself that there's nothing wrong with them, just that they are of a different standard. Currently, they're just sitting in a locker and will be melted down when the current case is over. We might even acquire more before the case is over. Talk to Madam Bones about acquiring them when the case has been closed. There should be more than enough to start the project, and you may be able to get a budget boost to complete it once they see it is going well."
Ackley gave a roguish grin, "That is the most perfect solution to the problem. Nothing beats the price of free. Madam Bones is here tonight, so I'll find a moment to mention this to her. I will be sure you receive some kind of commendation for this as well, should it go through." He turned back to Brandt, who had been watching in silence. "Miss Tonks is part of your entourage with Miss Black and Mr. Potter, correct?" he nodded, "Consider our negotiations settled." Then he turned and walked off, leaving Brandt with wide eyes, and Tonks a bit confused.
"What was that?" She asked him.
"Don't worry about it," he responded quickly. "Though I want to thank you for that. Without realizing it, you just smoothed over a very difficult, and possibly expensive situation. Is there anything you would like as repayment?"
She thought hard about something she wanted as repayment for this mysterious favor, "I can think of two things I would like." Brandt simply raised his eyebrows. "The first thing is I would like to be able to use Elmswood Lodge at different times in the future, possibly for a party."
Brand nodded without giving anything away, "I can see that as a strong possibility. I would need to receive approval from Lord Black in regard to a party. What about the second thing?"
This was probably going to be the best time for bluntness, so she just came out and asked, "I want to know what you and Lord Black are planning regarding my presence here."
"I was waiting for that," he responded with a neutral face. "I had even thought you would have asked sooner. Lord Black and I actually had a wager on when it would be and we both lost." He chuckled a bit at her stunned expression. "Lord Black bet that it would be your mother who would simply barge into the manor and demand what we were plotting, and I thought that you would confront me about it before we left for the party."
Recovering quickly, "Ok, so if you were expecting this, I assume you have a response?"
"Well, there are two answers. There's what I suspect from Lord Black, and there are my personal reasons for involving you. Now with Lord Black, ever since Lyra returned, he has been focused on two primary things; removing Lucius Malfoy's influence from Black dealings and bringing the remnants of the Black family together. He has already disowned your mother for breaking her betrothal, so he cannot bring her back into the family. I suspect, but I can't be sure, that he is attempting to entice you into taking up the Black name."
Tonks just stared at the man in front of her incredulously, before laughing loudly and hard. A few people even looked over at them with embarrassed looks on their faces at her outburst. When she was done, she asked Brandt, "Tell me, was my aunt or uncle disowned for their involvement in the war? I don't think I'd want to be a part of a family that disowned my mother for following her heart, but won't remove the stain of such vile people as those two." She stared hard at Brandt before asking, "What was your personal reason for involving me?"
"Mine is a lot more straightforward. I am a man… don't look at me like that, wait for me to finish," he said, as she looked like she was about to slap him, with her hand even growing a bit for a harder hit. "I am a man, not a father, not a healer. I have no experience dealing with children other than the ones I went to school with, and particularly not with the issues that surround the development of a young lady." He let that sink in.
"Lyra is nearly twelve years old. She will need someone to explain to her things about her personal development as soon as possible. I am not comfortable or knowledgeable enough to help her with these things. I have another contact I have made with an older, widowed woman, who is employed to work with young, orphaned, or motherless witches to help them through their… women's issues… So, if you are not interested in helping with Lyra, I will engage her services instead. Lyra is not interested in reconnecting with her mother, so I thought that you would be a welcomed companion, being close in blood and age."
Tonks continued to stare darkly at Brandt, before saying, "I could tell that you were making allowances for my attitude and decisions with Lyra so far. Would you be ok with me continuing to do so in the future?"
"To a point, yes. She is still a Black, and there are traditions to be upheld," Brandt said firmly.
"I will need to speak to my mother about this," Tonks said with some consideration.
Brandt pulled a small key out of his pocket, "This will allow you access to Elmswood Lodge for the next twenty-eight days. Do with it what you would like, but no parties. There are enough pancake ingredients in the storeroom for you to have a tall stack, three meals a day until the key vanishes. Your mother and father are even welcome to join you while you are there but Opal will not follow their orders, or pay them attention without instruction."
Tonks examined the key, and he continued, "I am accompanying Lyra and Harry over the winter break. When I return, I will send you an owl to meet. I will expect your decision at that time. Please look after the children now, I have some more business to attend to and Lyra seems intent on acting like a child when I try to introduce her to important people."
With that, he turned and walked off into the crowd.