Chapter 118

"It's only because I trust you so much, Andy," Harry replied with a great grin.

Andromeda Tonks huffed a second time before turning to shut the door.

"Well, come on, then," she said, setting off for the kitchen. "I'll make us a cup of tea and tell you all about the votes that I've cast in your name recently, since we're on the topic; might as well get the boring stuff out of the way before we settle in for a proper catch-up."

Dutifully, Harry nodded and followed her down the portrait-lined hallway. Unlike most magical homes, these portraits weren't imbued with magic, being simple non-magical photographs. Harry found himself pausing to stare at and lightly touch quite a number of them: Ted Tonks; Just-Call-Me-Tonks Tonks; Remus; and a multitude of Teddy as he grew from baby to toddler to child to teen.

A simple tap of Andy's wand on the kettle had it floating across to the sink to fill itself before it landed atop the stove. A wave had the stovetop lit and the kettle beginning to heat as the two sat.

"It hasn't been easy of late," Andy began. "Most of the momentum from after the war seems to have dried up."

"What do you mean?" Harry asked.

"You know that the Wizengamot from before the war had been decimated of most of its pureblood base allowing the muggle-born laws to all be repealed," she said, to which Harry nodded. "Well, a lot of those seats have now been filled by the next generation and they're slowly pushing back towards laws that favour the pureblood once more."

"What?" a startled Harry asked – Hermione hadn't mentioned anything like that.

"Oh, it's nothing much at the moment, but it has the potential to be a real pain in the future, thus why myself and those I'm aligned closely with are doing all that we can to ensure that there remains a balance," Andy explained. "The downside is that all of those creature laws that we want either replaced or overhauled are taking so much longer than we thought they would."

Harry cocked her head at her. "I thought they were all overturned years ago."

"The harshest ones were," Andy confirmed, "but others, the ones that have been in place for centuries were never going to be changed in a hurry – the ones like only witches and wizards can sit in the Wizengamot, no creatures or those of other species, like goblins, centaurs, mer-people or dwarves. The house elf laws have stalled completely, even if all we were aiming for was a basic code of how to treat them."

Harry shook his head at the bigotry that he was hearing. While yes, it existed in the non-magical world, it was getting better as time passed – men and women were able to vote and colour of skin mattered little, at least for the most part in the western world.

"We could really use someone with some political clout and a name that everyone respects and looks up to, to champion the cause," Andy stated.

"Oh no you don't," Harry protested instantly, waving his hands in emphasis. "I'd be pants at sitting around a chamber of old people talking out of their asses all day just to hear themselves and to make sure the status quo remains in place. I'd probably last a day before I started hexing everyone in there. That's why I made you my proxy."

"Can't help me from trying," Andy shrugged, and Harry breathed a sigh of relief knowing that Andy was well aware of his stance. "You will, one day, have to come up with an alternative; I'm not getting any younger, you know."

"I know, Andy, and maybe one day I'll be ready to settle down to that sort of life, but it's just not now," Harry replied. "For now, I'm happy to simply read the monthly reports that you send me."

"Oh, so you do read them! I did wonder, considering you never respond to what I put in them," she admonished.

"If I don't respond, it simply means that I agree with everything you've voted on," Harry replied quickly. "Now, tell me how Teddy's been doing."

Andy gave him a nonplussed look that screamed that she knew that he was changing the topic.

"Teddy's been good," Andy said. "Although there's times that he nearly gives me heart attacks. I caught him last summer standing at the top of the stairs with that horrid pink hair that Nym used to favour. He'd morphed her face as well; could have sworn that it was her standing there, especially when he stumbled and only just caught himself before he fell down the stairs, just like his mother used to. It wasn't until he laughed at himself and I recognised his voice that I realised that it was Teddy and not Nymphadora."

Harry laid a hand on her arm in sympathy. Even after all this time, he missed Tonks and Remus as well.

"I'm just glad that he takes after his father as well," Andy continued. "I cherish the days where he curls up with a book and just reads the day away, it's nice to have a break every now and again. Mind you, I do miss him when he's away at Hogwarts."

"So, you won't mind if Teddy comes over to visit me during the summer holidays for few weeks then?" Harry asked.

"Oh, Merlin, no," Andy smiled. "It'll be good for him to spend some time with you and I'm sure that he'd enjoy it."

ooo00ooo

The party was already in full swing by the time that Harry and Hermione walked through the doors.

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