Chapter 51
Chapter 51
Nymphadora Tonks considered herself spectacularly unlucky.
“I only hit that scum a little too hard during the arrest. Did they really have to sentence me to office work?”
“I don’t even know where I threw the Auror Enforcement Manual.”
“Only a ghost would want to memorise that thing again. It’s thicker than Hogwarts: A History.”
“It’s Christmas! I want a drink too. Those old foxes left me here while they went off to enjoy themselves.”
“Hm. Decided. When my shift ends, I’ll go to Tom’s for a proper drink before going home.”
“Perhaps I’ll even meet a Dark wizard on the way.”
She muttered from her chair, three legs suspended in the air while the fourth supported her weight. It creaked as she rocked back and forth.
“Ahem, ahem.”
A sudden cough came from beyond the cubicle.
Tonks moved with extraordinary speed, yanking her feet from the desk.
She forgot what happened when a long-maintained balance was abruptly broken.
Clatter!
Crash!
“Ow!”
A satisfied smile appeared on Suer’s face. He snickered and hurried after Amelia.
Hearing the commotion in the cubicle behind them, Amelia glanced back in confusion but did not stop.
They retraced their route to the open area before the fountain.
“The fireplace there has been disconnected for a long time. I’ll take you by Apparition.” Amelia stopped and looked at him. “It will be unpleasant. Can you manage?”
Suer nodded silently.
Nothing could be worse than the Knight roller coaster.
He was far too naïve.
“Ugh…”
“Are you all right, child?” Amelia asked with concern.
Suer waved her off. The nausea surged again, and he bent over.
“Ugh…”
He had just experienced the sensation of pressure from every direction forcing his body into a pipe, pushing his eyeballs into his brain and his eardrums deep into his skull.
“Most witches and wizards vomit the first time they Apparate. It is entirely normal. A few more journeys will cure you.”
Amelia conjured a cup and summoned water from the air.
“Drink. It will help.”
Suer accepted the cup with trembling hands and emptied it. The cold travelled down his throat and spread through his body, clearing his head.
“Thank you.”
The water helped. Suer straightened and looked around.
An inexplicable familiarity rose within him.
He vaguely remembered this place.
Amelia had Apparated directly into the centre of a small village.
Thick snow covered the central monument. Suer could not distinguish the statues’ faces, but he saw a wizard and a witch, the witch holding a baby.
“That is James Potter, and the other is his wife, Lily Potter.”
Suer studied the witch, whose untidy hair was visible despite the snow.
Oh.
Professor Snape’s “first love.”
“Who is the baby?”
“Harry Potter. The child of prophecy, born at the end of July.” Amelia sighed as she stood beside Suer and looked up.
“Come. We are not here for them.”
Snow crunched beneath their feet. Amelia led Suer along the village road, past a small pub hung with Christmas decorations, and stopped before a house enclosed by a stone fence.
Someone had clearly maintained the grounds. Everything was orderly, and deep snow covered the lawn.
“I repaired the house after they were gone,” Amelia said.
She led Suer around a path beside the building.
A white mound and a stone monument half covered in snow stood prominently in the back garden.
“By custom, residents of the village should be buried in the church graveyard.”
Amelia traced a circle in the air. A fierce wind swept snow from the garden and revealed black earth.
After piling an enormous snowball in one corner, she looked at the exposed monument. Grief filled her eyes.
“But I believed they would want to remain at home.”
“So that one day, when their child returned, they would be the first to see him.”
Suer stared.
“This is why I brought you, child. I wanted them to see that their son is well and growing up healthy.”
Suer’s soul came from another world. He had expected the place to mean little to him. He had never seen his birth parents, and the Ellisons had raised him with love.
Yet grief rose from somewhere deep inside his body, and tears covered his face before he knew it.
Was it him?
The tiny child who had never grown?
Suer did not know. But the sorrow was real.
No snow fell that day, though strong wind swept through the valley.
The adult and child stood silently before the monument for a long time.
“Come. I’ll show you the house.” Amelia touched Suer’s head. “It no longer looks as it once did.”
…
Wind rattled the windows, but the house was not cold. Amelia moved with practised ease around the kitchen.
Suer sat on an old-fashioned cloth sofa, still unable to free himself from the sadness.
“Here. Drink some hot water. I rarely visit, so there is nothing else.”
Amelia handed him a steaming cup.
“Whenever I come here, I remember my brother.”
Suer held the cup in silence. White vapour drifted before his eyes and dissolved into the air.
“Who killed them?”
It was the first thing he had said since arriving.
“A group of Death Eaters,” Amelia answered. “But I sent every one of them to Azkaban.”
“Ten years have passed. I doubt many remain alive. Survival is not easy in that place.”
“Their crimes were too great for me to let them die quickly.”
“The guards there will treat them properly.”
After another long silence, Suer gave a quiet sound of acknowledgement.
“Enough. You are still young. Do not think about revenge. You only need to grow up safely.” Amelia exhaled. “Today is Christmas.”
“Your present.”
She handed him a tiny bottle containing brilliant golden liquid and a ring-shaped brass key.
“Felix Felicis. At certain moments, it will make everything go your way.”
“And the key to this house. It is time I returned it to its owner.”
“Merry Christmas.”