Tuesday's Child

Well, after a year's break from writing HP fic, I have returned. :) I do want to note before getting into things that this story and any posted from now on, aside from the whole elemental subplot, are completely unrelated to all of my others. It is likely that those of my stories that are unfinished will remain that way, as I want to focus on writing Tuesday's Child and any future stories. Thank you for understanding, and happy reading. :)

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Tuesday's Child

Prologue

Family Matters

The Australian Ministry of Magic's Adoptions and Guardianships Division was in complete turmoil.

Never before in the magical or Muggle history of Australia had there been a massacre of this magnitude. In just one day at the end of April 1996, the historic town of Port Arthur had seen the murders of thirty-five innocent people, with twenty-one others injured to various degrees, at the hand of one reportedly very disturbed man.

Though unsurprisingly, the reported death toll didn't take into account the twenty or so witches and wizards who had been unlucky enough to be caught up in the middle, being as it was Muggle government policy to leave the magical community to look after their own. All but a scant few of the deceased witches and wizards had left behind children of varying ages, many of whom had been left as orphans. Much to the displeasure of the employees of the AGD, they had been left to work on the case files of those children.

"Someone please tell me that this is the last one," Catalina Drummond groaned when yet another file landed on her desk, slightly more than one week after the massacre. "I didn't go to Muggle university for four bloody years just to be stuck working the files of kids."

"You might as well get used to it, Cat," her co-worker Glenn Ormiston said as he sat down across from her. "We don't usually have this much work piled on us, but it's our division that handles these files on a routine basis. And we do quite a good job of it, to be honest." He pretended to polish his nails on his robes. "Let me take a look at that one." Catalina passed the file over to Glenn without speaking, and he began to thumb through it. "Let's see now...oh, I remember this one. Both her parents were killed in the massacre - they found her hiding under a table in the Broad Arrow Café."

"Poor kid," Catalina murmured.

"Yeah." Glenn kept reading through the file, stopping again after a few moments. "Oh my."

"What is it?" Catalina asked.

"Do you see this?" Glenn showed her a four-pointed star in a diamond, with a rendering of the zodiac sign for Taurus quilled beneath. "Our current subject is the child of two elementals. She's far too young to be exhibiting her abilities, and it's possible that she may not have any at all - that won't be known until she's old enough to manifest. We need to bring an expert into this to give us a hand." He closed the file and put it back down on the desk. "I think I need to call the boss in for this one. She'll know what to do." He rose from his seat and went across to the doorway. "Tamar, we need you in here!" he called out.

"I'll be just a moment!"

Moments later a tall witch entered the office, trailed by a small scarlet-haired girl wearing a Muggle dress and clutching a stuffed kneazle. "You hollered, Glenn?"

"Who might this be, Tamar?" Glenn asked as he picked up the file and handed it to Tamar.

"This is Antonia Tucker," Tamar replied. "She's the one they found under the table." She shook her head in seeming dismay. "Such a waste. Well, let's get to it." The file was reopened, and she began leafing through. "Oh, I suspected as much. No wonder you called me in. Earth elemental, I take it?"

"It's unknown at this point, as she's too young to have manifested," Glenn replied, "but she's the child of elemental parents. It's entirely possible that she is. First one we've had in years."

"Pardon my ignorance, but why is this girl the first elemental you've needed to place for years?" Catalina asked.

"Because the elemental community tends to take care of their own," Tamar replied as she continued reading. "About the only contact the Ministry has with them, outside of the legal system at least, is when the Department of Magical Education administers and owls out the results of the Year 10 and Year 12 exams. They have their own schools and enclaves, and they generally keep to themselves. For the most part, they handle adoptions themselves - usually there's a relative or two that will take any orphaned children in. We don't place elemental children with straight magic or with Muggle families for a very good reason - most magicals don't understand the mechanics of elemental magic, and Muggles certainly don't. Elemental children expend a great deal more accidental and spontaneous magic than their non-elemental counterparts. The fire elementals in particular need to have their magic closely monitored. Antonia doesn't have the potential to become a fire elemental, but all the same someone will need to keep a very close watch on her magic should she manifest any destructive abilities." Tamar closed the file. "Luckily for Miss Tucker, she does have family that can take her in - we won't need to look into other options. I'll need to get someone to look over her parents' wills to make sure that it's in accordance with their wishes, but she should be on her way to her new home soon enough." She nodded to the office fireplace. "May I use your fire? I'd like to make the initial contact with Miss Tucker's new family."

"Yes, of course," Catalina replied. "Glenn and I will give you a little privacy." She bent down and lifted Antonia up into her arms. "We'll look after Antonia, and see if we can get her parents' wills examined as quickly as possible."

"Thank you, Ms. Drummond."

Once the office door had snicked quietly closed, Tamar stepped up to the large fireplace that took up half the wall opposite the door, drew her red cedar and thylacine claw wand, and aimed it at the hearth. One Cushioning Charm later, she was on her knees and drawing from a deep pocket in her robes a small corked terracotta jar that she kept filled with Floo powder. Making contact with the extended families of orphans, in Tamar's experience, had a tendency to be a long and somewhat arduous process, and it was easier when she didn't have to kneel on a hard surface.

She pointed her wand at the bare grate. "Incendio," she incanted, waiting until a good-sized fire was burning before tossing a handful of Floo powder into the flames, which turned bright green. "Haven Commune," she said loudly and clearly, before leaning forward and sticking her head into the flames.

* * *

Compared with the organised chaos that usually reigned at the Ministry, on the average day the homestead that stood on the grounds of Haven Commune was a madhouse. Home to three generations of the Tucker family, the commune was well-known in both the Muggle and magical worlds. The residents of Nimbin, and by extension the wider Northern Rivers region, benefited from the fruit, vegetables and eggs that the commune's gardens, orchard and chickens produced, and that were supplied to the supermarket in the village. The Ministry, on the other hand, had in their possession a rather thick and extensive file on the Tuckers that documented every instance of magic that their wanded members had performed in the presence of Nimbin's Muggles. Luckily for the Tuckers, because of Nimbin's reputation as the marijuana capital of Australia and the tendency for many of the village's residents to walk around in a drug-induced haze, leading them to dismiss magic as just 'the drugs talking', they usually got off with a warning each time.

A bell rang in the homestead kitchen, alerting Abigail to a Floo call over the fireplace in the main study. The fire had been blazing on and off all week, ever since the massacre, with friends and various members of the extended family calling to pay their respects. For the Tucker family had lost a son in Port Arthur, along with a daughter-in-law. Listed in dark ink with the names of the deceased witches and wizards in the Oceanic Oracle were Craig Daniel Tucker and Leanne Marie (Torrens) Tucker. The couple's daughter remained unaccounted for.

"Hold your hippogriffs, I'm coming!" Abigail shouted as she flicked her wand at the kitchen sink. It immediately plugged itself and began filling with hot, soapy water. She stowed her wand in a pocket and hurried through into the study. Sitting in the fireplace was an unfamiliar face that was framed with dark curls. "Can I help you?"

"Mrs. Abigail Tucker?"

"Yes, that's me," Abigail replied.

"My name is Tamar Burton - I represent the Adoptions and Guardianships Division of the Australian Ministry of Magic. I have news of your granddaughter, Mrs. Tucker. May I come through?"

"Oh, yes, of course." Abigail stepped back to allow the Ministry representative to enter the study. "Is Antonia all right?"

"Antonia is perfectly all right," Tamar assured her. "And I apologise for not coming to see you sooner, but until today we didn't know who she was. Not much of a talker, it seems."

"Well, she's barely two," Abigail said.

Tamar nodded. "Yes, I realise that. The purpose for my visit today, however, is to ascertain your family's willingness to be Antonia's guardians until she is of age."

"Yes, of course we're willing," Abigail replied. "She would have been living here in any case. May I ask what you would have done with her if none of us had taken over her care?"

"We would have sought out another elemental family to take her in," Tamar replied. "In the event of no suitable family being available, she would have gone to Rookwood."

Abigail frowned. "I see." She made to move toward the door. "Could you wait here, please? I think my husband needs to be a part of this conversation." Tamar nodded her assent, and Abigail left the study. She returned a few minutes later with a tall man Tamar had to assume was Antonia's grandfather.

"Gregory Tucker," he introduced himself with an outstretched hand. "You have news of my granddaughter?"

Tamar nodded. "Antonia is safe and well, and being looked after at the Ministry by two of my colleagues. Right now our current task is deciding where she will live from here on in. Your wife has assured me that your family is willing to take over her care - are you in agreement with her on this?"

Gregory nodded. "Completely. You should find that Craig and Leanne's wills stipulate that Antonia was to live here in the event of their untimely demise."

Almost as if on cue, one of Tamar's many pockets vibrated, and she started hunting around in her robes. Her search unearthed a small mirror. She tapped one corner with a thumbnail, and Catalina's face swam into view. "Yes?"

"We've located the Tuckers' wills," Catalina replied. "They do indeed state that their daughter was to be taken into the care of her grandparents, being Gregory and Abigail Tucker."

"In that case, I'll come back through and collect her, if you're done mothering her."

"Me, mothering?" Catalina replied, sounding almost scandalised - something Tamar knew was a complete act. "Whatever would give you that idea?"

Tamar raised her gaze to the ceiling briefly. "Circe, give me strength," she muttered. "I'll see you in half a minute," she informed Catalina, before tapping the mirror again.

Less than five minutes after her return to the Ministry, Tamar returned with a rather clingy Antonia, who was quickly transferred into the waiting arms of her grandparents. "Thank you," Abigail whispered gratefully.

"It was my pleasure," Tamar replied with a slight smile. "I wish you all the best of luck in the future."

Though she didn't voice it aloud, she fervently hoped that they wouldn't need it.

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The launching point for this story, as it were, is a real event - the Port Arthur massacre on April 28 1996, in Port Arthur, Tasmania. Martin Bryant, the gunman, is serving 35 life sentences in prison along with an additional 1,035 years for crimes in relation to the massacre. The magistrate presiding over the case ordered that he is never to be released. It remains Australia's deadliest killing spree. It is also one of the deadliest of the twentieth century, second only to 1982's Uiryeong massacre in South Korea, and was the impetus for the tightening of firearms laws nationwide.