Answers to Reviews: Is this what happens before Disorder of the Phoenix? It is the same Harry but no America and no pre-set Ginny.
Andromeda and Harry has support!? Cartwheels. This is why I love fanfiction. It is about a twenty year age gap which shouldn't be an issue, however, my major concern with this pairing is Andromeda's mental condition. Any romance between her and Harry will be done over the course of years because Andromeda isn't herself and I hate stories where people are healed from trauma only to be built around a romantic interest. Also, this is a T rated fic because M content fics get hidden so this will remain PG-14, by which I mean there is no rush to get to the romance as you are not going to be seeing anything but kisses anyway.
Chapter 2 - Goblins and Muggles
A few weeks after the war:
They would not let him into the bank. Harry was near blinded by the flashes going off in his face as he turned to walk down the steps of Gringotts. As Teddy Lupin's godfather, Harry had been given two galleons and eight knuts for his trouble in trying to reason with goblins.
Not that Harry was too surprised, he had imperioed a Goblin, successfully robbed their bank, and to top it all off, he stole their dragon. But still, he had done it to save the wizarding world, a point that goblins seemed to turn on its head.
"We aren't wizards, why should it matter to us, what you do to each other?"
So Harry Potter had lost his inheritance, the entire Potter and Black fortune, gone, poof.
Wouldn't Ron be pleased, Harry thought bitterly as marched into Diagon Alley. The two galleons had been the remainder of Nymphadora's last paycheck, the eight knuts was what remained of Remus's vault. Even the deeds of his properties, which had been stored in the Bank were gone. Not that the house in Godric's hollow was fit to live in, and Grimmauld Place was not a place Harry had wanted to return to. Potter Manor had been a bit of a loss, not that Harry had even known about the place five minutes ago.
Harry was fuming as weaved his way through people, ignoring anyone who tried to talk to him.
He reached the apothecary relatively unhindered.
"Potter," a depressingly familiar voice drawled.
Harry looked up from the shelves to see Draco Malfoy and Theodore Nott, both their fathers had been sent to prison. Not that Azkaban was as bad as it used to be. No one trusted Dementors anymore and the government or -that is to say, Kingsley Shacklebolt had sent a team to chase them to the Bermuda Triangle.
"I heard you're poor, Potter," Theodore sneered at Harry.
Harry couldn't help the grin that stole over his face.
"You think being poor is amusing, you always were a bit thick in the head," Draco said coolly.
Harry shook his head, "Just amused at the speed of rumours is all. The news beat me to the door." He began to search the shelves again. Andromeda and Ted Tonks had a great library on healing potions. Harry wanted to brew some for Teddy, who was an incredibly healthy child, but Harry wanted to be prepared for when that didn't hold true.
"Are you laughing at us?" Theodore threated.
Harry looked up to meet the other wizard's gaze, surprised, "Why on Earth would I be laughing at you?"
"We lost the war and our fathers got sent to prison."
"I am aware of that, but forgive me if I fail to see the hilarity in separating families."
"Are you having a go at me?"
Harry rolled his eyes, "Grow up, Nott. I never wanted to fight in the war, I am certainly not going to pick a fight in Diagon Alley." He found the needed mushroom spores and arugula pickled in horklump juice.
"That's a lie," Draco snapped. "You were always eager to pick fights."
Harry didn't bother responding as he mentally tallied up what he had left to buy and what he had left to spend. He thought he would just have enough.
"Are you even listening to me?" Draco demanded as Harry placed his items on the counter.
With one eye on the clerk and the other the two Slytherins, Harry asked, "How's your mum?"
Draco seemed floored by this question, "Why do you care?"
"Because she saved my life and whatever the differences are between our families, she at least, is a good person, at heart."
Draco stiffened but answered Harry's cordial tone civilly, "She is well, all things considered. I think she is too angry at my father to admit to missing him."
Harry handed over what was left of his finances to the clerk and grabbed his bag of ingredients. "Do you think he will get out early?"
Draco shrugged, "The government is in tatters, Potter, hard to know what will come of it."
Harry nodded, "Best of luck then, to the both of you."
"Best of luck?" Theodore seethed, "You and your little army ruined us!"
Harry met Theodore's angry brown eyes with his own tired emerald ones, "We were all a bunch of snot nosed kids, Nott, our parents and our parents' parents were the ones to screw us over. I am starting to believe we don't have as many choices about our futures as we were all led to believe."
"What the hell is that even supposed to mean!?" Theodore roared.
"It means I don't give a damn whose side you're on so long as you leave my friends and family alone!" Harry shouted back. Spinning on his heel Harry stepped out of the apothecary and disapparated away.
Harry had made it his mission to keep the house clean, Andromeda seemed to make it her mission to destroy the place.
When Harry got back to the Tonks little home in their little muggle town, there were flashing red and blue lights out front.
Harry felt his heart drop and ran to the house, pushing by the police officers who tried to stop him. He was yelling before he thought to form the words. "Teddy! Mrs. Tonks!? Teddy!?"
Crying.
"Teddy!" Harry breathed, having just enough semblance of mind not to draw his wand in front of the muggles.
They were in the kitchen, Andromeda, dead eyed, and hollow expression as ever was clutching a crying Teddy as strangers tried to interrogate the widow.
Harry grabbed the officer that was almost breathing in Andromeda's face and yanked him backward, sending him stumbling back several steps.
He pulled and pointed a stun gun at Harry, "Who the bloody hell are you!?"
What was it with people shouting at me today?
Harry slid his bag of potion ingredients under the kitchen table -still serving as a changing table and snatched Teddy away from Andromeda before the witch could protest. Her arms fell limply to her sides and she watched Harry check over Teddy. Teddy stopped crying when Harry started swaying in place. In the relative quiet, aside from the squawk of police radios, Harry spoke, "I am the baby's -who you have thoroughly terrified by the way, godfather. Now tell me what the bloody hell you are doing in my home harnessing the lady of the house?"
The officer in question was shorter than Harry, had broad shoulders and had a pale complexion, had the good grace to look abashed. "I'm sorry, sir, the neighbors heard loud banging and a baby crying, we were called in. Ms.-"
"Mrs. Tonks," Harry corrected.
"Er- yes, Mrs. Tonks, has not been able to answer any of our questions."
"Any of your questions about what?" Harry asked.
A female officer with red hair spoke up then, "Our questions about why it looks like a tornado went off on the second floor?"
Harry closed his eyes, for the love of… he took in a steadying breath, helped by Teddy's fresh baby smell. He shot a glance at Andromeda. Harry wasn't sure she had blinked since he had arrived. Turning back to the officers he said, "We all handle grief in our own way."
"Grief?" the female asked, the outrage clear in her voice, "a new mother should have nothing to grieve about."
Harry shot another glance at Andromeda, but she made no visible reaction to the officers' words. "Mrs. Tonks is Teddy Lupin's grandmother. Her husband, Mr. Tonks and her daughter, Nymphadora Lupin as well as her son-in-law, Remus Lupin, died in a horrific accident not two months ago. I would say there is plenty to grieve."
The two officers in the kitchen and the three in the outer living room looked stunned. The officer Harry had almost thrown into a wall said, "I suppose that answers why a godfather such as yourself is… what was your name?"
"Mr. Potter," Harry said, realizing that 'such as yourself' meant 'why is a teenage boy taking care of the baby?'
"Mr. Potter, if you wouldn't mind answering just a few more questions, we will get out of your hair."
"We can't just leave!" the female officer spluttered.
"Yeah," Harry said the adrenaline crash finally hitting him. He wanted to sit down or collapse on the floor -he wasn't picky, either would do at this point. He hadn't been getting much sleep lately. "You can, if you look, the door is right there. Also, I would like reimbursement for damages caused, because it looks like someone broke through a window or two." They must have opened the door after coming in through the window. He would need to have to ward this place properly.
"I cannot leave here in good conscience thinking that," she pointed to Andromeda, "-shell of a woman is fit to look after a child."
Harry was about to speak when Andromeda finally snapped to life.
"Get out of my home," she commanded.
The female officer opened her mouth to protest.
Andromeda shrieked, "Get out of my house!"
For a moment all Harry could see was Bellatrix Lestrange and for a moment he considered pulling his wand and taking her out. But it was only a moment.
Teddy started wailing at the top of his lungs.
The first officer said to Harry, "We would like to follow up at a later date, Mr. Potter," before scurrying out of the house like rest of the officers who had already fled.
"So much for a conscience," Harry muttered, as he rocked back and forth on his feet. Bringing Teddy to his shoulder, he began to rub and lightly pat the baby's back. Incidentally, this led to Teddy burping up half a bottle of formula and baby throw up all over himself and Harry's shoulder.
Andromeda -for her part after chasing off the law enforcement, had slid down to the floor, her back against the cabinets. She put her head on her knees but did not cry, she didn't move at all really, aside from breathing that is.
Teddy had just calmed enough for Harry to switch shoulders and attempt to clean up the mess on the both of them when there was a loud crash of something falling on the second floor. Which started Teddy crying again, interrupted only when the baby boy threw up on Harry's other shoulder.
Harry sighed, he never could catch a break.
Harry made it up to the second floor in about four hours. Having read that babies could get burned by too hot tap water. So he'd made do with a lukewarm handle towel on the changing table. After getting Teddy fed, burped, and to bed in his crib, Harry had to take care of Andromeda who got caught in her dress, a dress that had more hooks and hidden zippers than seemed practical to him. When he finally got her into the shower and had a breather to change out his own clothes, Andromeda was back out the shower, wrapped in Ted's robe.
Her hair was a menace. Realizing that Andromeda was more likely to hack off her hair than take care of it, he went in search of a comb. Harry directed her towards the couch and it took over an hour to brush through her dark curls. Well, the damp tangles turned into soft curls after Harry had worked through it all. It was so long that it hung to her waist. He really hoped she wouldn't cut it.
Harry made up the sofa with spare sheet pillow and throw blanket he had found in the closet. He was never sure if she ever slept completely, but she laid down obediently and closed her eyes, her breathing even.
He was barely able to get to the second floor, debris littered the steps. Tornado was sort of an understatement for the state of the rooms. The walls had been stripped, the furniture exploded, and the light fixtures had been torn to the ground. It looked like an attic that had been used as a dumpster.
Harry summoned the photographs, careful to focus on paper images, not the broken frames they inhabited. He was able to rescue about thirty photos and three photo albums. As for the rest, well transfiguration had never been Harry's strongest subject. Charms and DADA, even Potions, he was more suited to. He would need help to clean this up.
He went back downstairs, putting the photos in the empty cabinet above the fridge. He found a spare piece of parchment in a drawl and wrote a letter to Professor McGonagall. It was only after finishing the letter that he realized that he had no owl to send it by.
Hedwig was dead.
Pain lanced Harry's heart. His familiar's death was one among many, but Hedwig had been his first friend and she had always been there for him even when they were far from the magic of Hogwarts.
Teddy woke with a cry that wasn't sad or angry just 'hey I'm awake, feed me.' Harry took care of him.
With a freshly changed and fed Teddy in his arms Harry went to the living room and threw the letter into the fireplace. Andromeda was awake and in a simple black muggle dress. Harry sat down beside her and she reached for her grandson. Andromeda stood and pulled her wand.
Harry was too tired to so much as flinch when she waved her wand at him, devesting him of his shirt, shoes, and socks. Getting her message, he stretched out on the couch. The sheet blanket cocooning around him, exhaustion pulled him under into a dreamless sleep.
Harry woke at noon, the house was quiet, sunlight streamed in through the windows, they were further north than Surry so the heat wasn't as bad.
It was too quiet. Harry bolted off the sofa and ran for the kitchen.
Andromeda had Teddy cradled to her chest, she had propped open the back door and was watching white clouds drift in the blue sky.
Harry let out a breath of relief and went to the fridge to make something for them to eat. There was nothing in the fridge, but there was a bag of rice in the pantry, which reminded Harry to grab his potions supplies from under the table.
As Harry cooked, Andromeda watched the world pass by.
Harry ate his plate of spiced rice first. He stood and rubbed Andromeda's upper arm, she didn't acknowledge him.
"Come on, Mrs. Tonks, you can't starve yourself, Teddy needs you," Harry said softly.
She moved, passing the baby to Harry. They had managed a rhythm in the last few weeks, primarily nonverbal, they kept each other alive, granted Harry did most of the work, but without an extra pair of hands, he would not have been able to care for Teddy on his own. Besides, however disjointed their rhythm might seem to outsiders, Teddy did not wake when he was passed between his grandmother and his godfather.
When she had finished eating, Harry said, "We need money. The goblins locked down my accounts, as well as Lupin's."
Andromeda said nothing.
"Mrs. Tonks, I don't have any money, I don't know how to take care of Teddy and you without money to pay the bills and for food."
Andromeda stood in a graceful movement, she reached under the table to grab a to go baby bag that he hadn't even known existed. Throwing it over her shoulder, she went to the front door- Harry swiftly pulling his wand and fixing the windows before she could step barefoot on the glass, and put on her shoes.
Harry flicked his wand at the back door, shutting and locking it. With Teddy still bundled in his arms, he grabbed his shoes and shirt in the same hand as his wand as he followed Andromeda out the front door.
She took the sleeping baby and strapped him into a car seat in the backseat of a nicely normal muggle car.
Harry pulled his shirt on and put his shoes on in the car, as Andromeda turned the engine and pulled out of the lot.
"Where are we going?" Harry asked.
No response.
Harry sighed, but with the window rolled down it was hard not to enjoy the beautiful day as a warm wind blew on his face. It was nice to be out of the house, he had been there for a month and his trip to the supermarket and Diagon Alley had been his only two excursions. He wondered how everyone was doing. He hadn't heard from them, but then he hadn't told anyone where he was going. Hermione had gone to Australia to find her parents. Harry wondered if Hermione had any way to bring back their memories.
They pulled in behind of a small rundown building. Andromeda turned off the car and still without a word to Harry, she undid the baby's straps and handed the still -amazingly enough, sleeping child to Harry.
Following Harry, they went into a garage, whose outside was beaten up and spray painted yet whose insides were sleek and shiny. There was a cheery sign above the reception desk that read, 'Welcome to the Black Market!'
"Um?" Harry asked.
Andromeda grabbed a clipboard from a stand and sat down to fill it out half the boxes before passing it to Harry, taking Teddy back with her.
Harry realized quickly what they were doing and filled out his personal information and faked the answers he didn't know. For instance, Harry knew when he had been born but not where.
A bubble gum popping, brown haired boy who was only a few years younger than Harry, had him stand in front of a camera. Twenty minutes later, Andromeda was paying the kid, and Harry had a muggle birth certificate and a driver's license.
Their next stop was a bank, where Andromeda made quick work adding Harry as a signer to the Tonks bank account. When Harry saw the balance, he relaxed. Did he feel guilty about spending other people's money, of course, but then who's to say that Mrs. Tonks would have even made it through the last month without Harry there to help with the baby and keep her fed.
AN: Another "maudlin" chapter and I can't promise the rest of this fic will be more cheerful, though it will pick up the pace as more people will be involved and Andromeda will get her spunk you, thank you, reviewers! I love you all!