an: this chapter is a bit of a departure from the rest of the story.
disclaimer: yeah, the world and familiar characters are JKR's the new stuff is mine.
Chapter 23
From The Sunday Prophet, October 27, 2011
My Afternoon With the Dragon Witch by Dean Thomas
I met Glinda Goode in her office during lunch on a friday afternoon. My first impression of the woman was that she looked more like a Veela than a dragon, with her amazingly long silver white hair, fair skin and a generously proportioned and very well toned body, I'd have to have been dead not to notice her beauty. We were introduced by her fellow staff member and my former housemate Professor Neville Longbottom. Professor Goode struck me as above all, an intelligent witch, who happens to be very passionate about life. As we chatted over fish and chips (her favorite, she informed me) prepared by Hogwarts' "wonderful house elves", as she referred to them with her distinctive American accent, and bottles of the American muggle drink called Coca Cola.
DT(Thomas): So, Professor, how about we start with some vital statistics?
GG(Professor Goode): My full name is Glinda Leanna Goode. I was born on February 14, 1969.
DT: Valentine's day?
GG: Yes, I was born in Quantico, Virginia.
DT: We'd been led to believe you were from Boston?
GG: My father was from Boston, and I spent most of my childhood there. My father was Lieutenant Albert Goode, US Marine Corp. I was born at Quantico Marine Base. My mother was Leanna Tereneveau, she was a pastry chef in New Orleans when they met. They married in 1967. Two years later I came along.
DT: You're muggleborn? (she nods) Where are your parents now?
GG: My mom was killed by a drunk driver when I was a year and a half. My father died during the fall of Siagon in Viet Nam. I was six. I was sent to live with my father's sister and her husband. I guess I had as normal a childhood as possible considering the circumstances. I stayed with them until I discovered my magic at age ten. My aunt and uncle were very conservative, and somewhat puritanical, they didn't want to expose my younger cousins to any of my "demonic taint". I stayed in a youth home till Salem Junior School discovered me. For the next seven years, I stayed in the dorm during the school year, and went to summer camp.
DT: Are there a lot of differences between British and American schools?
GG: Quite a few, actually, we don't have Houses, dorm mates are pretty much chosen at random. Muggle studies isn't optional for us, we have to study it. Wizards and Witches interact more with muggles in America than they do in any European Country. After I finished at Salem Senior, I enrolled in a muggle university, I went to college in Rhode Island.
DT: What was your course of study?
GG: My mother was a pastry chef. To honor her I studied culinary arts.
DT: How did you go from cooking, to becoming an international Auror?
GG: I thought about getting a job as a chef, but I was approached by International Aurors. They offered me a chance to do something truly meaningful with my life. My first year was basic training, my second year was an administrative internship. By year three I was in the field as an apprentice auror.
DT: What was your training like?
GG: Very physical, lots of investigative study, combat and defensive magic. I imagine it was very similar to what you Brits get, with a very different zip code.
DT: (laughs) Is there anything you can tell me about your years as an active agent?
GG: Because I'm muggleborn they originally wanted me to go undercover in muggle Europe. It didn't work out that way. I was sent to the island on my second official mission, it was late november of 1994. I wasn't even supposed to go on the mission, there was a last minute change when the guy they assigned first developed dragon pox.
DT: Dragon pox?! You must be joking.
GG: (shakes head) Nope, no joke. I'd been on vacation in Hawaii, last day of my vacation, I get an owl, telling me to report to HQ in Tokyo. Next thing I new, I was taking a portkey to the island.
DT: I know that your island experience has been well documented, and I'm sure you don't want to relive it, again. Can you talk about your adventures as an active auror?
GG: I spent most of my time tracking down dark wizards. My physical appearance made it difficult for me to go undercover, so I spent a lot of time doing investigative work. In 2006, I took a position as an instructor. I officially retired this past spring.
DT: Why did you come out of retirement to teach at Hogwarts?
GG: I wanted to do something new. I spent ten years actively fighting against predator wizards and witches, those are the human monsters that use dark magic to prey on particularly vulnerable victims, children for the most part. I've witnessed the stuff of nightmares, I came to Hogwarts to teach kids how to protect themselves, how to fight dark magic. Oh yeah, and to help them pass their OWLs and NEWTs. (laughs)
DT: So, here's what many of my readers are most likely wondering. Tell us about your relationship with Charlie Weasley.
GG: Urgh. Yes, we're together. And no, he didn't create me out of a dragon, and neither did his sister-in-law. I haven't even met Hermione, yet. Now if you'll excuse me, it's one o'clock, my third years are waiting.
The headmistress allowed me to observe Professor Goode with her third year students. She is a brilliant teacher, who obviously cares, and whose students respond to her. I had the pleasure of watching her lecture on banshees while sitting next to a young Gryffinor, enraptured by his teacher. I'll have to admit, she'd have been my favorite teacher here, too.
To my readers: We've reprinted an older article written from a magizoological journal written six months after Professor Goode's experience on that unnamed pacific island, see page ten for details.