Work Text:
After the war, Andromeda dove into anything that both kept her busy and made her feel useful. While she had not planned to raise an infant at this stage of her life, life had proven unpredictable and drastically unfair. Not only had she lost her beloved Ted, but her precious Nymphadora and her son-in-law Remus. Harry and Hermione helped with Teddy, but she insisted on being his primary care-giver. Even as an infant and then a toddler, he reminded her so much of her lost family while growing into his own, which was as it should be.
Andy had been working with the Department of Mysteries and Hermione on studying the Death Chamber. She had explicitly volunteered because the last person through the Veil had been her cousin Sirius, and she was his last living relative that anyone would say he'd been on good terms. The idea was that perhaps she could communicate because the Veil had been very active. Not just a wispy, unmoving curtain with whispers. Instead, it was a white curtain that swayed in an intangible breeze.
While communication was the goal, Andy and Hermione held deep in their hearts the secret hope that perhaps Sirius could be returned to them since he had been alive when he went through. Records on the use of the Veil showed both living and dead persons being sent through. Dead, disposed of criminals that radiated such dark magic even after death that entombing them could be dangerous and tempting for those obsessed with obtaining power. Those that were alive were given the most extreme form of exile possible since no one had ever returned from the other side of the Veil and were allowed their wands and a pack of food. The idea being, that they would at least have a chance to start over in a new life, assuming they arrived alive on the other side.
Andromeda could not leave her precocious charge with his usual babysitters, as Harry and Hermione were waiting for them at the Ministry. She wasn't thrilled with the idea of bringing the 3-year-old into the dreaded Death Chamber, but Harry had sworn to keep him away from the dais and upon the top layer of seats by the exit, in case anything went awry. Hermione would be front and centre performing the ritual she had invested so much work.
Andy approached the dais where Hermione set up the last parts of the most complicated rune circle anyone in the DoM had ever seen. The older witch had just visited Gringotts and gathered Sirius's wand and all those held from past Black family members, numbering more than 20. Not knowing what would happen, she'd figured it was better to be safe than sorry. Hermione had conveniently put an Undetectable Extension Charm on her favourite purse, which she kept well stocked for anything.
Hermione began the ritual, while Andromeda chanted her portion and added drops of blood to specific runes, and then a splash of blood at the Veil itself, which was thrashing like it was in a storm. Harry was so engrossed and watching so closely that the small metamorphmagus changed into the miniature version of one of the Unspeakables standing guard. The Veil had everyone's attention fixed, not the short Unspeakable crawling onto the dais.
Little Teddy had inherited his mum and da's sense of mischievousness, which made him a handful even on his most well-behaved days. Lately, he was interested in animals after a trip to the London Zoo with his uncle Harry. He'd particularly liked the mountain goats and found it hilarious when they headbutted each other. And at the age of three, he was very much in a stage of "monkey see, monkey do."
Climbing up the dais was a challenge for the short boy, so he logically made himself taller. He was desperately bored, and tugging on his grandma's skirt didn't get her attention. Everyone was either chanting or staring at the weird arch and its spooky curtain. There wasn't a breeze, but it was blowing like their curtains did at home when the window was open during a summer storm.
Teddy wanted his Nana's attention. Frustrated, he backed up to the edge of the dais and ran as fast as he could, with his head down, and rammed his head into his Nana's backside. He knew he'd get in trouble because she hated him headbutting her, but she wasn't listening to or seeing him!
Andromeda was intensely focused and could almost make out someone who sounded an awful lot like Sirius, but he was talking to someone else, and she couldn't be sure. She felt a tug on her skirts but dismissed it, focus centring even more. That focus was thrown out the proverbial window, though, as something rammed into from behind. Unprepared for the sudden change of momentum from the little body to hers, she was knocked forward. Trying to get her feet back under her, she was too close to the thrashing Veil. Her cry of alarm was mixed with many others as she fell into the unknown.
Pandemonium broke out in the Death Chamber, Hermione scooping up her Godson while waving her wand and shouting spells furiously, to no avail. Andromeda was gone.
Andromeda landed hard on her hands and knees, and she could faintly hear Teddy calling out to her. However, when she stood up, she was shocked and terrified to see that she was on top of a very tall hill; the arch behind her had no curtain at all. The cries were fading on the wind, and two people sat cross-legged, hovering a meter above the ground and looking at her curiously.
Reality crashed like a wave over the older witch, and she dropped back down to her knees. She refused to sob in front of strangers but couldn't hold her tears from streaming down her face. She was on the other side of the Veil. Alive but unable to return.
The young girl dropped to the ground and raced over to the crying woman. Rey had no idea what was going on, but this woman was obviously in pain. Her meditation with Luke could wait. Luke was still floating but gaping. Nothing had come through the arch in, well, ages.
It was recorded in the tomes on the island of strange people coming through, along with the occasional body dripping with dark energy from the Dark Side of the Force. Those had been unceremoniously dropped into the Pit that held the Dark Side of the Force, beneath the island, consumed and never seen again. The survivors had learned from the Jedi inhabiting the island temple and become Force users themselves, but typically Greyer than either the strictest of Light Jedi or the Dark sided Sith. But no one had been recorded as coming through in hundreds of years.
Andromeda composed herself quickly. This young girl, whom she didn't even know, had her in a tight embrace, which helped to ground her. Maybe not all was lost. As she leaned back and got a good look at her, she paled. The young girl looked so much like her Nymphadora had as a young teen, in her natural state. Andy looked over at the man, who was coming to a standing position and almost fainted. He was a dead-ringer for her lost Ted. More frown lines and a bit greyer hair, but if he'd been smiling and laughing, this man could have been her dead husband. 'What kind of world is this? Am I in hell? Purgatory? Certainly not Heaven,' she thought to herself, taking stock of the semi-large flat top to the tallest hill on what was a rocky and large island.
"Are you okay? Where did you come from?" Rey asked. The woman had stopped crying, but she went a scary shade of pale as she looked at Rey and Luke.
Shaking her head, Andy answered, "I'll be alright, thank you, dear. My name is Andromeda Tonks, and I'm from Earth. This wouldn't happen to be Earth, would it?" At the shaking heads of denial, she sighed. "Of course not. We had no idea where the Veil went, but a different planet, realm, whatever, seems as likely as anything else."
"I've studied star maps of the entire galaxy during my earlier Jedi training, and I've never heard of a planet called Earth," Luke finally spoke.
"Oh my, you wouldn't happen to know about other galaxies, would you?" the witch asked, a spark of hope in her eyes dimming as her husband's doppelganger shook his head.
"No, no one has ever travelled out of the galaxy, to my knowledge. We know of them and can observe them, of course, but the voids between are too vast to cross, even in hyperspeed," Luke trailed off as the strange woman looked confused at the term.
"Well then," Andy said, standing up with Rey's help. "It would seem that my naughty little grandson has quite literally headbutted me into a ridiculous situation. I'm sorry, that's rude. It just seems ridiculous to me because you both look like closely related loved ones who died in the war."
"What war? The Resistance and Empire?" Rey questioned, not quite understanding.
"No, no. This was a war on my world, Earth, which would seem to be in a galaxy far far away. It was a magical war that was a continuation of the one nearly twenty years previously. We won, but at a great cost. My husband and daughter, along with my son-in-law, perished. And you two could pass for Nymphadora and Edward." The names triggered a deep seed in both Jedi, but they did not understand it.
"What do you mean, magic?" Luke questioned. He sensed a strong presence of the Force coming from the woman.
"On my planet, there are ordinary people with no magic. We call them Muggles. Then we have magical people, witches and wizards. I'm a witch." With a flourish, she gave Rey a small bouquet and then levitated a nearby boulder a meter high and brought it back down."
Luke and Rey were stunned. While levitating rocks was something they could do themselves, the lovely smelling flowers in Rey's hands defied any explanation they had of what could be done using the Force. Luke examined them closely to determine they were indeed real.
Rey took the older woman's hand and guided her to the stone huts, explaining about the Force, Jedi, and who she and Luke were along the way. Andromeda, in-kind explained about magic and some of its numerous uses, the wars she had been through, and wondering aloud if the Force and Magic were the same things.
Rey was currently reading through the small library that Andromeda had had in her bag, which was luckily hanging securely at her waist during her literal trip. Oh, if she ever saw Teddy again, she planned to smother him with hugs and kisses and then erase all knowledge from his little head about headbutting and goats.
Speaking of goats, Luke had proved to be as stubborn as an old Billy Goat.
In contrast, Rey was happy to experiment with magic when they had found that Force wielders used a wandless form of magic. Luke and Rey were both amazed at wands and how much more they could do with them. Wandless conjuring was next to impossible without intense concentration that most people couldn't manage, a solid magical core, clear thought and intent, and more practice than Rey had reasonable time for. She was expected to rejoin the Fleet in around a week and was cramming in as much as she could learn from both of her mentors.
Luke, however, refused to study magic aside from briefly trying a wand and being shocked at the ease of using the Force through it. He felt it was an insult to the intense and long hours all Jedi spent training for hundreds of years.
Andy had been pleased to meet the islands resident caretakers and Chewie. The porgs, however, while adorable, had become somewhat of a nuisance for the witch. "Stop following me! You blasted would be penguins," she was commonly heard shouting at them. The porgs, however, ignored her admonishments, and she went from having one following her to easily a few dozen now. Unknown to Luke and a surprise to Rey, the porgs turned out to be magical creatures. They loved to imitate the witch as she taught Rey everything that might be useful in her fight against the Dark Side. Picking up and wielding small twigs specifically harvested from the tree that also held the Jedi tomes, some of the porgs had found the ability to cast spells while waving said twigs! It was a complete shock to all the island's inhabitants, even the caretakers.
Jokingly, Rey had absconded with a porg one night and fashioned miniature Jedi robes for it. Immensely pleased with her creation, she cast her newly mastered Gemini charm, along with another, to make the duplicates permanent. By the next afternoon, Andy had a congregation of robed, twig wielding porgs following her around like their newly found Messiah.
"Oh, for Merlin's sake! I am not some, god! Stop following me you penguin pests!"
Luke found it hilarious, as long as the witch was not pestering him about learning magic. Frankly, wielding a wand felt wrong to him, yet so easy. He had long debates with his former Master, Yoda, and even Obi Wan's Force ghosts. Andy had observed these debates, and could clearly see the ghosts, who had even spent some time getting to know the witch, curious about her origins and magic. She also found it hilarious that her husband-ganger was so stubborn, and the ghosts who advised him even insisted he give magic a try. She took to referring to him as a grumpy curmudgeon when alone, or well with her congregation, she never actually found time alone, and while training Rey.
When Rey found herself in the Pit filled with the Dark Side of the Force, she was curious, and terrified. Not knowing where her protégé had went, Andy soon enough found her, and held the girl while she was trembling and scared, and dried her eyes. "This isn't a necessarily evil place. It is infested with the largest concentration of Boggarts I've ever seen, however. And when fed enough fear and darkness, such a large horde of Boggarts can birth a Dementor. But that is not something you need to worry about right now. It's explained in your books, with lots of notes from Hermione. Now, let's work on the Riddikulus charm. You've seen your worst fears, now, you need to make them humorous!"
"How am I supposed to do that?"
"While you were able to conquer the creatures through sheer will, which is incredible, the charm will make it easier. Your fear was based on acceptance and your parents, correct?" Rey nodded. "Well, then make yourself look silly, something you can laugh at because laughter defeats a Boggart."
She then left Rey to work on her own. Boggarts and banishing them, at least at first, was highly personal.
One night when she heard Rey talking to someone in her hut, she Disillusioned herself and snuck in. Dropping the charm as she gasped in shock, Andy started shouting, "Sirius Black! It's your blasted fault I'm on this ridiculous island with this lovely girl and the curmudgeon. Don't think I don't see you trying to sway her to the Dark Side and seducing her! Ugh! Walburga would be proud!"
At that, Kylo went deathly pale. "No! Andy! You don't understand! When I went through the Veil, I found myself as a young boy again. I was, or am, the son of Leia and Han Solo." At his father's name, he dusked his head in shame and wiped away a quick tear. "Luke tried to kill me, and I just found myself on the Dark Side! Andy, it's so much easier, and I'm accepted!"
Furious at her re-born cousin. "Hogwash! If you want to be involved with my reincarnated daughter, you clean up your act or so help me; I will find a way to summon Molly's wooden spoon and tan your hide until you can't sit for a year!"
At that point, Luke entered the hut, and furious, destroyed it.
The next day saw Rey parting from Andy tearfully, with an armful of books on magic, and the Jedi tomes secreted onto the ship. Luke refused to say goodbye.
Later, as Luke was in deep meditation, Andy could feel his strength with the Force, and the frog ghost whispered to her that he was going to use up his life force to save Rey and the Resistance and was currently battling Kylo-Sirius as a distraction.
Nodding, Andy found herself back in front of the Veil, surrounded by her congregation. There was once again a furiously whipping intangible white curtain, and she knew, if she stepped forward, she could return. Sighing in resignation, she opened her purse, and all of her followers hopped in without question. She then stepped back through the Veil with eyes closed as she sensed Luke's passing, and the next thing she was aware of was being tackled around the knees by a loudly sobbing child and on both sides by her crying family. She was home and had the most ridiculous story to share.