Familiar Stranger

"Familiar Stranger"

"Look at us, old married folk," Ted Tonks teased his wife. They sat outside Florean Floresque's ice cream parlour enjoying the day much as they had when they were young. Ted held Andromeda's hand and grinned over at a scandalized pair of Hogwarts students. Teenagers inevitably considered anyone over age twenty-five to be old and decrepit and Ted enjoying tormenting them with Andromeda as his co-conspirator. Their daughter often rolled her eyes - whatever colour they might be on that occasion - and proclaimed them a profound embarrassment.

Andromeda no longer bothered to suppress her unladylike giggles. Ted showed her that the key to true success in life was love and laughter. There had not been much laughter in her childhood; the sheer weight of heritage seemed to stifle mirth. Andromeda had long ago divested herself of most of her family's rulebook. Her own mother would never have ventured to Diagon Alley for ice cream. It was so undignified. It was so very fun.

"Old indeed," Andromeda waggled her spoon at him. "We're not even fifty."

"We have an almost grown daughter," he reminded her. "Besides the old can get away with so much."

Andromeda was about to reply with a witty remark when a flash of silvery blonde hair caught her attention. An almost forgotten instinct drew her gaze to a blonde witch exiting a shop with a young boy. She immediately sobered.

Ted followed his wife's gaze and winced as he recognized the pair. He put his arm around Andromeda's shoulders; instinctively knowing she would need reminders of the people who continued to love her. Poor Andy, he thought. His family regarded him with love and always welcomed his wife and daughter at holidays and gatherings. To the Tonks family there was no question that Andromeda and Nymphadora belonged among them. His wife's family had not spoken to her in well over a decade.

As if drawn by some invisible cord, Narcissa Malfoy halted and spun around to stare in unflattering disbelief at the couple. Andromeda allowed a brief flicker of pride at knowing that her baby sister now looked more the elder. Arrogance chipped away at the face as well as the soul.

Andromeda's blue eyes bore into those of her sister. It was almost as if she siphoned strength from Narcissa and threw it back at her like a punch using their slender sisterly bond. Unspoken words cut across the space between them like a poisonous dart. No, dear sister, I haven't crawled into a gutter to die. I'm alive and unlike Bellatrix, I'm free and happy.

The young boy with her noticed his mother's absorption and surveyed the couple with minimal interest. His attention lingered for a moment upon Andromeda's face but there was no flash of recognition, only a dim awareness that there was something familiar about the witch. Andromeda was surprised to realize her nephew's obliviousness saddened her.

Narcissa collected herself and threw her sister a look of mingled sorrow, discomfort, and venom before stalking off, her son in tow. They quickly disappeared from view.

"The boy doesn't know who I am," Andromeda whispered. It was one thing to be told your family pretended you never existed and quite another to see the evidence.

They abandoned the ice cream and went for a walk. Ted held her hand and Andromeda allowed herself to consider the gold band he wore, identical to her own. A perfect, unbroken circle. What love was supposed to be and sometimes was not.

Did Narcissa love her? Had her now-dead parents? Andromeda would not fathom denying Nymphadora's existence as her own mother had. If they had loved her once and shut off or locked away that place in their souls labelled Andromeda, then it had not been true. If nothing else, by marrying Ted, she had learned what a family really ought to be. It only made the imperfections in her clan turn from slight discolorations to gaping chasms.