Love Among Muggles

Andromeda Black was in a bad mood. Even Marlene McKinnon, the bookish seventh-year Ravenclaw prefect, noticed this. She assumed Andromeda had only managed an 'A' for an essay, but resolved to keep an eye on her. Marlene took her job as prefect seriously and cared for all the pupils in her house.

Andromeda's real distress was caused by the fact that she hadn't heard from Ted in the fortnight since Margaret Packham's trial and conviction, and there was no-one she could discuss it with in public. She took to hanging round with Opal Carstairs, for if there was any gossip worth hearing, Opal would know it. The only Muggleborn she had anything to say anything about was Margaret Packham, however. Opal had plenty to say about ungrateful inferiors abusing any privileges they'd been given.

She didn't like to raise the matter with Claire Culpeper, who'd been in a complete state since Maggie had been given the Dementor's Kiss, but in the end she had to. Walking back from her final lesson one day, Andromeda had overheard one Hufflepuff ask another where Claire was; Andromeda had guessed that Claire was spending all her available time in the Room of Requirement. That made her uneasy - it would be all too easy for someone looking for Claire to discover the room full of Muggle things.

She finally caught up with Claire on a Monday night. Her friend's Hogwarts robes were thrown carelessly into one corner of the Room of Requirement, and her wand had rolled unnoticed under a chair.

"Hi Claire," Andromeda swallowed.

"Hullo," Claire mumbled, nose-deep in a Muggle novel, Modesty Blaise.

Andromeda sat down, and tried to squint at the lurid pink cover of the book. It looked like a spy novel. It had to be a Muggle book; wizards didn't have paperback books and they definitely didn't read tales of espionage. Andromeda had grown to enjoy reading James Bond novels and Leslie Charteris' 'Saint' stories. She'd see if she could find a copy of this one later. "You'll lose your wand if you're not careful... Have you heard from Ted?"

Claire slammed down her book. "I don't care if I do lose my wand! There's more to life than magic, you know. Maybe you haven't heard from Ted because he's written a normal letter and the ordinary bloody postman can't find this place, because he can't do magic and is therefore deemed beneath us all!"

"Hey! No need to bite my head off." Andromeda's voice quavered. "I'm just really worried, and I haven't heard from him since he sent us the letters about Maggie. He must be upset too..."

"I'm sorry," Claire said, trying to keep calm. "You don't know what it's like, though. Everyone thinks she was guilty. Alexander Macmillan, the pig, told me she had to be guilty because otherwise she'd never have been convicted."

Looks like it's all over with Alexander, thought Andromeda. "Even when everyone around you is telling you someone you care for is bad, you have to trust your instincts," Andromeda said.

Claire smiled slightly. "Very wise - and as true for you as it is for me, I suppose. It's not just Maggie, though. One of my housemate made a joke about telling me a secret, but only if I don't sell it to anyone. Some rotten cow in Slytherin started banging on about how untrustworthy Muggleborns are right in front of me. I've had enough of it here. I want to go to a Muggle school and do A levels."

"A-levels?" Alexandra was bemused. "You can't go to a Muggle school, you're a witch." Why would anyone want to go to a Muggle school? She thought. I mean, I don't think that there's anything wrong with Muggles, but a Muggle school - it can't be anywhere near as good as a magical one, can it?

"No I'm not. I'm a Muggle with a wand. I think like a Muggle. I like Muggle clothes. Muggle music is far better than the racket most wizards listen to. Even when I thought I belonged here, there were people who thought I didn't. Now I agree with them. If only Maggie had realised that sooner."

Andromeda moved towards Claire and knelt beside her chair and held her hands. She hated to see her friend put herself down. "You told me yourself, Maggie loved being a witch. She knew she belonged among witches and wizards, and you do too. You've seen hippogriffs, Claire - could you really go back to a world where there are only horses?"

Claire shook her head. "I'm not sure any more. Sometimes, I think I'd welcome the peace of a plain old horse."

"Maybe that's what Ted is doing," Andromeda decided. "He's gone off somewhere to be quiet, just for a little while."

"I'll write to his boss," Claire decided. "Mr. Bentley's all right, and he won't think there's anything odd in one Muggleborn asking after another."

They looked at Claire's discarded wand. "Oh, okay," Claire said, relenting. "Give it here. I'll be a witch a little longer. I swear I'd go mad without you and Molly, though."

"Accio wand!" Claire's wand flew to Andromeda's empty left hand. Claire took it reluctantly, but it looked secure in her grasp.

***

Jack Bentley had been so worried about Ted Tonks that he'd sent the young man to stay with Geraldine Cooper, another Muggle Liaison agent, in Wales. He thought some time in the fresh air watching sheep might be just the thing the lad needed, and it kept Ted from being the target of any rumours. Geraldine's neighbours were already used to Ted, so there was no need to think up a new cover story for him.

Geraldine didn't mind having Ted around, and young Gladys, a hippie from the commune just down the hill, was pleased to see him. During the two weeks he'd been in Wales Ted would go for long walks in the hills, and sometimes Gladys, who called herself Sky, would tag along, regardless of whether he wanted her to accompany him. He found her chatter soothing. No matter what she dreamed of being, Gladys was just an ordinary human who knew what The Archers was and who The Who were. Gladys didn't just know where Vietnam was; she knew there was a war there. What she didn't know was that creatures capable of sucking the soul from a person's body really existed. She didn't realise that there were people who despised her for simply being incapable of casting a spell.

Ted wished he knew as little as Gladys.

During his third week there, she surprised him. They were sitting on a hilltop, admiring the view of the valley below. A scattering of stone cottages at the bottom looked like a child's building blocks. Ted wished the day would never end. They got so few dry, bright days like this at this time of year in Wales. "It's lovely here," Gladys commented. "If you're running away, it's a good place to run to."

"What do you mean, running away?"

She flapped a hand impatiently. "Isn't that why you're here? You've been here over a fortnight and you barely talk. You just stare at things without seeing them. We've had people come to the commune like you, you know. I... I suppose I was like it. I wanted to get away, once upon a time."

"A friend of mine died recently," Ted said. It was as close as he could come to the truth. "She shouldn't have, and the people who could have stopped it didn't. If I'd stayed where I was, I'd probably have found someone to blame and got myself into trouble. I'm here so I can't do any damage."

"I came here after they took my baby away," Gladys said simply, looking down into the valley.

"I didn't know you were married, Sky," Ted replied. The look on her face told him she hadn't been. "I'm sorry, that was thoughtless." He felt that Gladys probably had a similar background to him, and had been made acutely aware of how she'd let her family and herself down when she got pregnant. His parents loved his sisters dearly, but if one of them ever got 'in the family way', his mother would slap her into the middle of next week for shaming them all, and his mother was fairly liberal on the subject. Most girls would be packed off to have their child in private and have it adopted, as Gladys clearly had been.

"They said I'd be better off without him, but I missed him so much, and everyone was so awful at home when I went back. All the neighbours knew what had happened, they just didn't mention it. I came here, thinking it would be different, but it's not, not really."

"They wouldn't have minded you having a baby," Ted pointed out.

"People just find other things to disapprove of. That's the thing with running away: people don't change much. At least here I've got a nice setting."

"Where do you run to after you've run away?" Ted mused. "Do you go back?"

"No," Gladys said. "Well, I'm not. There really isn't anything for me to go back to. Besides, I think Aneurin's moving some new people in, probably a girl among them. He went away to some event with Sunflower and a couple of others, and he's been rotten to the poor kid ever since."

Ted wanted to laugh. Gladys wasn't much more than a schoolgirl herself, and had been dumped for Sunflower, but she was prepared to pick the other girl up and take care of her. "You're going to stay and be mother hen?"

She nodded, and smiled. "They need me, you know. It's nice to be wanted. Aneurin won't look after them properly, but if we're to make this work - to grow our own food and make things and not be dependent on anyone - we're all going to have to put some effort in. Sunflower, bless her, she's just so middle-class. The first time she had to help with the laundry she couldn't believe it."

This time Ted did laugh. Gladys was a dreamer, but she was doing her very best to make her dream come true. Gladys rubbed her hands. "Geraldine's taught me how to make a cream with marigold in. No more laundry hands for me! I reckon I could sell a few jars and make some money for the commune, maybe buy some essentials."

"I thought you said Aneurin kept the money for everyone."

Gladys looked troubled, and pulled at the daisies growing round her feet. "He does. I'll sell the cream, and buy some things we all need, and give him the change."

She doesn't trust Aneurin with the money, Ted thought. "Aneurin..."

"Aneurin's up to something," she said. "I don't know what, but he's been really happy these past few days. He hasn't snapped at anyone, demanded better food or anything."

"What do you think it is?"

"Magic," Gladys said. "Sunflower let it slip while we were cleaning. I mean, I know people have abilities - you're psychic, after all, so magic's not that far-fetched."

Ted wished he'd never used Accio without checking for Muggles first. However, Gladys had given him a clue that something of interest to his department might be about to take place. Hopefully it would just be Aneurin reading from some book of trashy rituals his department occasionally produced to satisfy the gullible and to make magic look as far-fetched as Martians. He lay back on the grass, no longer caring about the view of the valley or the feel of the sunshine. "I'd love to see some proper magic," he said casually. "Is there any chance you could get me in to see it?"

"Aneurin says we've missed the right time of year for it. Samhain's gone. He says it's best to do it on one of the Celtic festivals. The winter solstice is next."

It's early November, thought Ted. That gives me about seven weeks. Should I call in the Magical Law Enforcement Squad? This might be a matter for the Aurors, if this guy's really strong.

Then Ted's Gryffindor side showed itself. Nuts, he thought, I'm not letting the MLE grab all the exciting jobs for themselves. I'm going to take this rogue wizard down by myself.

**

Later that day, Ted felt cheered enough to write some letters. The first was to his friend Michael Osborne, checking that everything was all right. Gerontius Mulciber, the new Minister for Magic, was no friend to Muggleborns, and as Michael worked with money he was in an important, and therefore vulnerable, position. He also wrote to Andromeda, feeling guilty as he did so.

Dear, dear Annie,

It's been too long since I've written to you, and I'm sorry. It's odd, but I don't feel like we've been far from each other even so. I'm in the field right now - quite literally, as I'm on a farm in Wales. Jack, my boss, wanted me out of the way to calm down, I think. It's lucky for him, as something's come up. Enough of work, though. I do miss you, and I probably haven't made that clear. It's as though thoughts of Maggie have been blotting out everything else. I still can't stop thinking about what they did to her, and I don't know that I'll ever stop wondering who set her up, but I realise that I've got to carry on with my life. I'll find out who planted those papers. It doesn't have to be now. It could be in a decade. I know I'll do it. It's not going to keep me away from the job, though, or those I love. No matter what, Annie, I'll always come back to you. Remember that. Even when I'm far away, or can't get in contact, remember I love you and I will return. We'll be together for always.

All my love,

Ted

Ted used Geraldine's barn owl, which lived in the roof above the stored hay and ate the wild rats that nested there, to carry his letters. That was one advantage of being on a farm, he decided. Owls attracted no attention at all.

Out by the hedge, the tramp Ted had befriended stretched his legs and watched the large, pale bird soar away. He often noticed the owl flying around at night. It seemed to be flying far, far away this time, though. With a grunt he scratched his nose and settled down to go to sleep. He saw owls all the time...