Coral

**SPOILERS POSSIBLE**


-Eloise-

Tale as old as time
True as it can be
Barely even friends
Then somebody bends
Unexpectedly
Just a little change
Small to say the least
Both a little scared
Neither one prepared
Beauty and the Beast

Ever just the same
Ever a surprise
Ever as before
Ever just as sure
As the sun will rise

Tale as old as time
Tune as old as song
Bittersweet and strange
Finding you can change
Learning you were wrong
Certain as the sun
Rising in the east
Tale as old as time
Song as old as rhyme
Beauty and the Beast

Tale as old as time
Song as old as rhyme
Beauty and the Beast---

1988

Estella Rookwood-Garrett was rather old fashioned when it came to methods of transportation. Twenty years ago, ( or even fifteen years ago), she would have simply Apparated herself to England. Over the years, living as a Muggle, she had grown out of practice.

Two weeks ago, her husband of nearly twenty-five years, Princeton Garrett, had passed away due to failure of his heart. He had left her with a considerable amount of debt, and she had been just able to satiate the more carnivorous of their bill collectors by wringing dry her own savings account.

There had been just enough left, after they had sold the most superfluous of their possessions, to have Princeton discreetly cremated, and placed in a small wooden box.
Their house, with it's newly remodeled bath, expensive wallpaper and bloodcurdling third mortgage, she had gladly deeded over to Princeton's brother, Hugh, in return for passage for two on the next vessel audacious enough to call itself a watercraft.

Hugh Garrett, the third of the Garret sons, had weighed the price of two tickets against the burden of supporting his brother's family; and had come to the gracious decision to grant Estella's wish.

He would be free of his British sister-in-law and her slightly strange, orange-haired daughter. Best of all, he would be able to call himself master of the last remaining piece of the Garret family ' plantation' ; a slightly marshy ten acres and a slightly sideways colonial style house.

Estella, though she would rue the loss of the home she and Princeton had worked so hard to keep together, was ecstatic about the prospect of a journey.
She was returning to England. To her home. To the Wizarding world she had so impetuously left as a teenager, and to her maiden name. Rookwood. A name well respected in the same world where a person was at liberties to use charms for household work, and brooms for travel.

In her company, would be her daughter; the only child of a long and passionate marriage to Princeton, the red-haired Muggle from Louisiana.

" The Greatest of Two Evils" that was what Aunt Eloise had called him. ( she eventually warmed to him...or at least, she did send him a fruitcake once.)

This daughter, the memorial of her parent's elopement, was christened Mary Amanda Garret.
They called her Amanda, or even Amy, when she was sweet. She was born without magic, which had been both a relief, and a disappointment to Estella. She thanked the stars everyday of Amanda's childhood, that the girl didn't have anything to hide, and could live and behave like a normal girl.

The Garrets were traditional people, and thought a daughter of their line should follow plantation rules, though that plantation had long ago, through ruthless whittling and divvying, been reduced to no more than a few small hobby farms, the smallest of which was gifted to Princeton and his British bride.

Amanda had been given riding lessons, french lessons, and dancing lessons. She had been to finishing school, and had private tutors for math. She had spent long tedious hours at the piano, and been made to learn entire poems by heart.

Her grandmother Garrett had personally seen to it that Amanda was taught to sew, cook, manage a household and garden, and develop a well rounded appreciation for art, literature, poetry, and the collecting of antiques.

Estella was sure that it would have been very difficult for Amanda to hide '' the Gift'' away all these years from Grandmother Garret. And if Grandmother Garret had learned of it...well, she would have probably swooned.

Now that they were going back to England though, Estella fretted. Her own mother, Winter Rookwood, knew about Amanda's shortcoming, from one of Estella's many missives.
But Eloise...oh what would Aunt Eloise say?

Estella could well imagine what Eloise would say. She saw her salty aunt, Winter's eldest sister, with her eccentric gown of purple, and her soft grey hair coiled precariously over her ears.

" Stella..." she would say. " Oh Stella, oh Stella." She would tsk. Actually tsk at her!
And Eloise had every right to tsk, because she was the eldest of the Rookwood sisters, of which there had once been seven.

Now only Eloise and Winter remained, and Eloise held the family fortune. Several family fortunes, actually, as she had been married three times, and through sheer determination had managed to survive all three men, including Priam, who had been seventeen years her junior.

Through successful widowhood, and general good management, she had succeeded over the years into coaxing several small sums into an impressive amount of wealth, though she would still have to stand on tiptoe and stretch to reach the level that constituted rich, in the Wizarding world. She considered herself to be 'comfortable '.

Eloise was growing older though. Even though Witches and Wizards could easily live to be three hundred, ( her own mother lived to be 180!), she thought it would be in the best interest of her peace of mind if she promoted one of her relatives to position of ' heir'.

A close examination of her nearest and dearest was a depressing endeavor, and she was despairing of ever trusting one of them with her grocery list, let alone her money, when Winter had received news of Estella's new widowhood.

So Princeton had passed on, had he? Well, that was a shame. But life was full of shames, and whereas some were unavoidable, there were many others that could be prevented. Eloise happened to believe that the fact she had to eventually die and hand over her hard won, earthly treasures was a Great Shame.

The possibility that those earthly treasures could fall into the Wrong Hands, was an even Greater Shame, but one that as far as she could see, was Preventable.
And she was seeing Estella's daughter Amanda as just the means of preventing that horrible shame.

But first, she had to meet the girl. What was she like? One was always hearing tales about Americans, especially Muggle Americans...but one could never place too much store in mere tales. One had to see for one's self; and therefore, she wasted not a single minute, but sat right down at her ebony writing desk, and wrote a two page letter on her trademark blue vellum, with it's gold stamped monogram in the corner.

Her words were straight-forward, her letters formed in bold strokes of blue ink, right down to the determined dot over her signature. Anyone who read a letter penned by Eloise, knew that she was woman to be reckoned with. She was smart, courageous, and accustomed to arranging the world to suit her own needs and ideals.

" Dearest Stella,

She wrote, as easily as though she wrote to her niece daily.

'' Let me begin by saying I want to offer my condolences to yourself and your daughter Amanda, during this, your time of grief. I won't elaborate on the subject though, because I have been there before, and no mortal words could possibly ease the suffering.

I'll get straight to business however, so that your mother cannot accuse me of being devious, which she will anyway, as soon as she learns about this letter.
I want you and your daughter Amanda to return to England..."

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Tale as Old as Time-lyrics Howard Ashman