Disclaimer - The world of Harry Potter is owned by J.K. Rowling and various publishers. I make no claim of ownership except for the story that I've created from using this world as well as characters that I've made.


Chapter 2.

Andromeda flipped the pancakes, slid them onto two plates and placed them on the table while her husband paid for that morning's edition of the Daily Prophet. It was another beautiful day, just like the one before where almost every witch and wizard felt that they could release the stale breath that had been smothering them since the beginning of You-Know-Who's terrorising reign. After hearing the news, Andromeda had felt as if a load had been lifted off her shoulders as the thought of being persecuted by Death Eaters for being, what her fanatical sisters like to call, a 'blood traitor' ebbed away along with the predawn autumn chill. She began to eat her breakfast with a smile – she had not felt so relieved in months.

"Merlin's beard! Sirius was the culprit of yesterday's explosion!"

The sound of a fork clattering against the plate resonated in her ears as Edward rushed to her side and showed her the front page. She had heard from yesterday's evening news that there had been a large explosion in a city street which killed several Muggles and that the culprit had not yet been revealed by the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, but she had never thought that her cousin, Sirius, would have anything to do with it. The majority of the page was covered with a black and white picture of her cousin in chains violently resisting the Aurors' attempts to restrain him while the fat black letters of the headline blared:

MASS MURDERER CONVICTED

M-mass murderer? That couldn't possibly be right – Sirius would never kill anyone. Andromeda snatched the paper from her husband's hands and scanned through the article.

Sirius Black, cousin of known Death Eater Bellatrix Lestrange, has been convicted of the murder of Peter Pettigrew and twelve Muggles from yesterday's explosion in a busy city street. Black has also been convicted for giving the information of the Potter's whereabouts which had led to the deaths of Lily and James Potter and being of service to He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.

The mass murder occurred yesterday during the mid-morning hours where Junior Minister of the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophe, Cornelius Fudge, witnessed the event.

"He was laughing maniacally I tell you! He was insane!" the Junior Minister commented. (ctd. Page 2, column 5)

Andromeda shakily turned to the second page, but could not continue reading after a couple of paragraphs. This was not the Sirius she knew. This was not the Sirius who had dropped off his goddaughter at her house the previous morning. Death Eater? Murder? It was implausible! Yet there was a chance that it could've been possible. He had been rather abrupt and agitated when she saw him and had appeared at her house without warning before leaving just as quickly. The odd behaviour must have been caused by Peter Pettigrew. After all they had been friends since they were young children. Maybe Peter knew about Sirius' true loyalty to You-Know-Who and Sirius had gone off that morning to silence him. After all the whole Black family was crawling with Death Eaters – Bellatrix and her husband, Regulus, but why leave the daughter of the Potters alive? Why not kill her as well? He certainly had the chance to. Andromeda rested her head against her husband and closed her eyes. But it seemed so out of character for him to join the dark side. He was always fiercely loyal to his friends and had always been so supportive of her marriage – what happened?

She snapped out of her thoughts when she heard the stairs creak and out appeared a small girl with mousy brown hair.

"U-Uhh… Nymphadora, dear, is Christine awake?" she asked, giving an uneasy upward glance at her husband.

"Nope, not yet."

Nymphadora gave her parents a weird expression as she watched them clamber upstairs discussing something in hushed tones, but dismissed their strange behaviour with a shrug and went on preparing her Pixie Puffs.

"What are we going to do, Edward? What's going to happen to Christine now that Sirius is in Azkaban?"

"Calm down, Dromeda," Edward consoled as he squeezed her arm gently. "We'll sort this out, you know we will."

"I'm just worried about her, Ted, now with Lily, James and Sirius gone. I can't bear the idea of her ending up in some Muggle orphanage. Imagine how alone she would feel! How sad she would be!"

Andromeda stared into the room. What was she going to do?

"We could adopt her." Dromeda looked up into her husband's eyes, shocked. Never has he expressed the desire to have another child.

"A-are you sure, Ted?"

"Only if you want to," he replied, stroking her brown hair. "I can see that you care about her very much and I love that about you; your compassion."

Andromeda wrapped her arms around him and rested her head on his shoulder, smiling. She was so right to have followed her heart and married him, even if he was muggleborn. But honestly, she didn't even care what his blood status was – none of it mattered because if she had 'married respectably' she doubted that she would've ended up with someone who would've loved her as much as she loved him.

"I should be getting to work now, but owl Dumbledore for tea this evening – he'll definitely want to know!"

They kissed each other goodbye and Andromeda watched as her husband disappeared down the stairs before stepping inside Dora's room. Across from her daughter's bed was a crib where Christine was sleeping. Another daughter. The thought bounced around her mind like a quaffle being thrown back and forth between two chasers. She certainly wouldn't mind having another daughter. But could they afford having another child in the house? Ted's job at the Ministry may not pay as handsomely as some of the others, but they were getting along well enough. Besides his co-worker, Arthur, was definitely doing alright and he has seven children! Surely, she and Ted could handle one more!

Christine's eyes fluttered open and began searching the ceiling for something. She rolled onto her stomach and looked up to find the jar perched on the drawers behind her. Andromeda picked her up and inspected the flame flickering inside the jar. Sirius had never told her what this was other than that Christine liked it. Oh Sirius. She still wasn't completely swayed by the article she had read earlier – the Sirius she knew was not the Sirius described in the article. But what's done is done, and there was not much that she could do about it now.

Dora dragged the Daily Prophet to her side of the table to continue her morning ritual of waking up at seven thirty, going downstairs to eat Pixie Puffs, reading the Kids Corner in the Daily Prophet and then attempting to complete the puzzles on the same page. However the large black and white picture on the front page caught her eye. The man seemed familiar; she had seen him here before. She heard the stairs creak and took another spoonful of Pixie Puffs.

"Mummy, why is Uncle Sirius in the paper?"

Her mother looked at her slightly shocked but the expression was soon replaced with one of concentration. Dora knew that face; it was one where her mother was going to try to form an answer that wouldn't tell her the full story. Dora hated it when her parents did that; she preferred them to tell her the whole truth no matter how bad it was. After preparing some baby food, Andromeda transfigured one of the chairs into a highchair and sat Christine in it ignoring her daughter's stare.

"Sirius has done a very bad thing, dearie, so now he's in Azkaban."

Azkaban? The wizard prison where bad people go? Dora looked at the picture once more. He did look rather scary and a lot of scary people were in Azkaban. Dora pursed her lips. Children had to live with their parents and if Sirius was living in Azkaban did that mean…

"Is she going to Azkaban as well?" she asked, tilting her head towards Christine who was being fed some creamy mush.

Andromeda felt the corners of her mouth curl up in amusement. Oh the innocent minds of young children!

"No, no, silly, she's not going to Azkaban," she replied with a gentle laugh.

"Is she staying here then?" Dora's eyes lit up while her hair turned into a shade of bubblegum pink.

"Maybe, Dora, maybe."


Andromeda hurried around the house flicking her wand at the dishes which began to wash themselves in the sink and the sponge which wiped down the dining table and kitchen counters. Once the house was all tidy again, she put the kettle on and searched through the cupboards for some gingerbread biscuits. Christine and Nymphadora's animated squeals and laughter could be heard all over the house. The pair were playing with some blocks that Ted had bought on a whim. The game involved Dora building several structures before encouraging Christine to knock them down. By the time the kettle shrilly whistled, a knock came from the door. Ted and his wife looked at each other. Dumbledore had arrived. Andromeda poured the steaming water into a teapot and set it on the tray on the coffee table in the living room while Ted went to answer the door.

"C'mon now, Dora, time to go upstairs – mummy and daddy's got some business to do."

She gathered Christine in her arms while Dora picked up the colourful blocks off the ground and the three went upstairs. Noticing that it wasn't yet bedtime and that Nymphadora would complain, she warned her to keep quiet if she wanted to play with Christine.

Once outside the door, Andromeda wrung her fingers and took two deep breaths before heading back downstairs where her husband and a tall thin man in red robes were talking.

"Ahh! Andromeda! This tea is definitely what I needed on a cold night like this! It's so nicely paired with the spices in these gingerbread biscuits."

"Thank you, Dumbledore."

She sat on the sofa next to Ted who wrapped his arm around her. It had been years since she had last seen Dumbledore and she couldn't help but feel slightly intimidated in his presence. Nervously she cupped her tea, allowing it's heat to soothe her nerves. However the thoughts that plagued her mind all day didn't appear to be disappearing anytime soon.

"You should give me the recipe some time, Andromeda," Dumbledore said before he took another bite and slowly chewed, savouring the spices. "I would love to bake some of these."

He placed it back down on his saucer and reached into a pocket of his robes. Andromeda could not help but stare at the small golden bell Dumbledore had tied around his long silvery beard. It was a rather odd accessory but it fitted nicely with his outfit.

"Would you two like a sherbet lemon? They're a kind of Muggle sweet I'm rather fond of."

"I guess one couldn't hurt," Ted conceded, smiling. "Merlin's beard! I haven't had one of these since I was a little boy! Are they as sour as I remember them to be?"

"Well, Ted, you and I aren't the same person so what might be sweet for me might be sour to you."

The pair laughed and Ted plopped the yellow sweet into his mouth and settled in his seat. Andromeda nudged her husband determined for the meeting to go straight to business – she could not handle the torture her mind was giving her.

Ted cleared his throat.

"I guess you're wondering why we called you here tonight, Dumbledore," Ted started with his familiar jovial tone.

He squeezed Dromeda's hand, obviously receiving her message. It was another thing she loved about him – his ability to understand her. Dumbledore smiled with a playful twinkle in his eye.

"Yes, I am. If I may guess, you've invited me here for something more than tea and biscuits – a fireworks display, perhaps?"

Andromeda glanced at her husband, unsure if she wanted to break the cheery atmosphere.

"No, no we just wanted to discuss about Christine Potter," said Andromeda.

"Ahh, yes, Christine." Dumbledore's eyes grew a little distant and void of its twinkle. "It is tragic how so much misfortune has happened to the little girl. Yet it appears that she too has disappeared." He paused for a moment to brush the crumbs off his long silvery beard, the bell tinkling as he did. "Though it is a wee bit strange for you two to bring her up. Is there something you wish to tell me?"

Dumbledore looked at the Tonks with his blue eyes as if he were sifting through their minds. Andromeda shifted uncomfortably in her seat, noticing how the atmosphere had suddenly turned very grave. It was obvious that Dumbledore had had a close relationship with the Potters and that he had been deeply affected by the tragedy, even though he was quite well at concealing it prior to the mentioning of Christine's name. He was an extremely strong person, Andromeda thought. Extremely resilient. She imagined that he had experienced several tragedies throughout his lifetime but still managed to pick himself up wiser and stronger than before.

"Yes, Sirius dropped her off here yesterday morning."

"Did he?" Dumbledore placed down his tea and looked at Andromeda with surprise. "Does anyone else know?"

"Only us. Sirius intended to come back for her, but due to recent events, we called you here tonight to discuss where Christine will be staying."

Dumbledore gazed out the window deep in thought.

"Christine does have relatives from her mother's side," he started, "but something tells me that they currently have their hands full. It would make sense for you to be her guardians – after all you are Sirius' cousin and his favourite one at that." He turned to the Tonks, looking very grave. "Though I will warn you, if you go ahead with this there will be a high level of secrecy and caution involved."

The Tonks looked at each other confused but shuffled closer to the man eager to hear what he had to say.

"How so?"

"If what the Daily Prophet is claiming to be true – that Sirius Black is indeed a Death Eater, Christine may still be in danger."

"I don't understand – isn't You-Know-Who dead?"

"Personally, I don't believe so. Voldemort–" The Tonks winced. "–will never be truly gone when there are still people willing to serve him." Dumbledore leaned closer to the Tonks as if he was planning to diverge his deepest secrets. "Very few people know of Christine's existence," he continued in a grim tone, "It would be prudent if Christine's identity be unknown to her and concealed from the world until there is a time when it is truly safe or necessary for it to be revealed. Were she to grow up under your roof, she must take up your surname and become your daughter."

Dumbledore leaned back and sipped his tea. He quietly watched the couple as they slowly digested the terms and conditions. They had never thought that there would be so much caution involved with taking in Christine, but with the dark era having just recently ended only a fool would completely let their guard down. Ted frowned.

"If Christine was to take up our last name and all of that, what about the documents that state her identity and the Trace? Surely someone at the Ministry would find out."

A moment of silence spread between the three. Dumbledore finished chewing on the gingerbread biscuit and looked thoughtfully at the Tonks over the top of his half-moon spectacles.

"At this current point in time, Ted, the Ministry is assuming that Christine has been murdered by Sirius after she was put into his custody upon Lily and James' death. However since it is obvious that she is alive, her name is still on the list of students who will attend Hogwarts in the future, but being Headmaster, I can easily alter it so that it will show your surname instead. As for the Trace, due to the uncontrollable nature of a child's magic prior to their schooling at Hogwarts, the Ministry tend to ignore these notifications. However, once she is in Hogwarts I advise you to be strict about her use of magic outside of school as we do not want to alert the Ministry of a supposedly deceased Christine Rose Potter performing underage magic in the countryside."

Seemingly answering all of the Tonks' questions, the meeting became cheerful again. As the minutes passed, Andromeda became less and less intimidated by Dumbledore and joined in on the conversations about the celebrations that had taken place the night before.

After finishing his third biscuit, Dumbledore thanked the Tonks for their hospitality before asking to see Christine. The pair obliged and led him up the stairs where they found the two little girls fast asleep on the floor. The three adults chuckled softly and Dumbledore asked if he could hold the younger of the two girls. As Andromeda and her husband carried Dora to her bed and tucked her in, Dumbledore carried Christine to a nearby window and looked out, his eyes twinkling like the stars.

"Let the night's light shine upon you and purge the darkness that has so far consumed a life ignorant to you," he murmured. "You're in safe hands now, Christine."

Once the two girls were in bed, Dumbledore bade Andromeda and her husband good luck and goodnight. As they watched the wizard disappear into the night, Andromeda kissed her husband on the cheek, overjoyed that Christine would grow up in a happy loving home.

All they needed to do was figure out how to tell Nymphadora.


A/N: Thank you to those who favourited, followed and/or reviewed the first chapter! I greatly appreciate it, especially the reviews which were all either insightful, encouraging and/or critically constructive. I had not been expecting any at all so thanks again! ^.^

Dumbledore was so hard to write for in this one. .

Have a nice day everyone!

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