Discovery

97.

Staying with the Tonks family was much better than staying with Muriel. For starters, I was no longer required to spend hours cleaning. Instead, we ate lunches together and listened to the radio podcasts that Lee Jordan created. I even heard Fred in a few of them, which only worsened my mood.

I had tried sending him a message with my ring two days after I arrived at Tonks', but had gotten no response. There was no doubt about it— I was being ignored. I tried to not let that hurt me so much, but it wasn't easy.

The weather turned from cold to colder, and the leaves began falling from the trees. I hoped my parents were staying warm and dry, wherever they were.

Tonks encouraged me to keep practicing defensive spells— something Sirius had suggested before everything went to hell. I agreed, and so I began practicing with her every evening before dinner, and I was beginning to get quite good.

However, as Tonks became more pregnant, Remus took over for her, in fear that she would get hurt. Remus was much stricter, and had higher expectations for me.

"You can do better," he would tell me. "Let's try again."

"Remus, give her a break, why don't you?" Tonks called from the doorway.

"Get back inside, it's cold." Remus said, ignoring her other comments. "Again."

And so we practiced. For hours and hours, we practiced. In snow and in rain, we practiced. It didn't matter how tired I was, or how cold my hands were. If Remus wasn't satisfied with my progress, we kept going.

"He just wants you to be safe," Tonks had told me as she made some hot chocolate for me one night. "Sirius can't be around to protect you, so he feels like it's his responsibility."

"At least you know he'll make a good father." I told her, sipping on the warm beverage.

"You'd better tell him that," she chuckled.

***

One cold winter night, I was restless. Sleep evaded me, and I couldn't bear to lay in bed any longer. Quietly, I tiptoed downstairs to grab a bite to eat.

"What's got you up?"

I jumped at the voice coming from the sitting room. It was Andromeda, knitting in the armchair. She motioned for me to come and sit across from her.

"I'm just worried about my parents." I told her. "It's been months now. What if they're..."

I couldn't bring myself to say the word.

"When I was around your age, I married my husband." she said, not making eye contact with me. "I knew from the beginning that I was trading one life for another."

She continued knitting, and I wondered if she heard what I said.

"When I told my parents, they kicked me out. My sisters didn't utter a single word to me. I didn't speak to them for thirteen years." she put down her yarn, finally making eye contact with me. "I wondered every day if they were okay. If they missed me. If my absence was even noticed."

"What made them speak to you again?" I asked hesitantly.

"I wrote a letter to Narcissa. I knew Bellatrix would be far from forgiving. But I had hope for my younger sister. I hoped that she was as compassionate and kind as she once was."

"So she forgave you?"

"I hope so." she said quietly. "She never truly told me. But she replied to my letter, and invited me to meet my niece and nephew. She also asked to meet Nymphadora."

"Niece?" I questioned.

"We visited each other occasionally, mostly for the children's sake. We never spoke too much, just polite small talk." she continued as if I had never spoken. "But Lucius found out and put a stop to it."

"I thought—"

"My point is," she cut me off once more, "that my sisters were doing what they thought was right. So was Lucius. And so are your parents. They're protecting you the only way they know how. Give them time, and they'll come for you."

Before I could reply, she rose from the chair and headed toward the staircase.

"Oh," she stopped short of the stairs. "I find that knitting is a nice pastime when one can't sleep. Ted introduced me to it. I have some yarn if you'd like to give it a try."

And so I spent the rest of my sleepless night reading a knitting book and struggling to make a single stitch.

***

Andromeda turned out to be right; knitting was a great pastime. Doing it the Muggle way was very time consuming, which kept me occupied during my extensive periods of boredom.

The more I knitted with Andromeda, the more I heard about her life. She told me all about her wedding, Tonks' childhood, and her own childhood as a Black.

The only thing she wouldn't speak of was the "niece" she mentioned. However, I was too curious to drop the subject. One evening, I decided to pry harder for information.

"Aunt Dromeda," I said quietly as we sat in the sitting room. "I thought Malfoy was an only child." 

"Lucius? Yes, he is." she replied shortly.

I groaned internally, dreading to have to use Malfoy's first name. To humanize him was almost sinful.

"No...Draco." There was a hint of disgust in my response.

"Why that tone?" she questioned.

"Why?" I repeated. "He's a foul git, that's why!"

She took a moment to reply, as if she was thinking carefully about her words.

"Just because we do bad things, does not mean we are bad people." she said at last. "We move in and out of darkness all our lives. Perhaps Draco has experienced more darkness."

I couldn't believe what I was hearing.

"Malfoy has done nothing but torment my friends and I!" I said, my voice rising. "He's a prejudiced prick! He's a Death Eater for Godric's sake!"

"No person is so bad as to be beyond redemption."

***

I didn't go down for dinner that evening. I was too wrapped up in my thoughts to even consider eating.

I couldn't understand why Andromeda was so determined to believe that Malfoy was a good person.

Sure, he had warned me to go into hiding. And sure, he brought me here. But he was still the same Malfoy. The same horrible, awful Malfoy that hexed me and teased me for fun. The same Malfoy that bullied Muggleborns relentlessly for something they couldn't even control.

There was no good in him...right?

A knock on the door brought me out of my spiral.

"Ella?" Tonks pushed open the door looking ecstatic. "I think you'll want to come downstairs."

Confused, I followed her down the staircase. As I reached the bottom, my heart skipped a beat.

My parents were standing in the sitting room.