Nearly 11 years had passed since the Malfoys' deaths, and in a house in the country, a family slept. As the sun rose, it glinted off the pond in the garden, its rays sneaking into the house, warming the plants on the windowsills. It was a family home, and from the outside, it looked like any normal house. But inside, there were little hints that this house was different. The pictures on the walls held moving, laughing images. Here a family of three – a beautiful woman with dark brown hair and smiling grey eyes, a big bellied man with sandy hair, and a little girl who's own locks seemed to be shifting through colours – pink, red, black blonde. In later pictures, the girl grew up, became more confident, and was accompanied in many of the photos by a young boy with white blonde hair and quicksilver eyes. In the largest, which hung in pride of place over the mantelpiece, upon which there was a large earthenware jar labled Floo Powder, the four inhabitants of the house posed happily, the older girl occasionally ruffling the hair of the younger boy much to his indignation.
As the sun rose higher, the sounds of life began to filter through the house. A wireless shattered the previously peaceful morning as strains of 'This is Night' by the Weird Sisters drifted out, accompanied by the clanking of cutlery and the sizzling of a cooked breakfast. The smell drifted up to the currently sleeping inhabitant of the attic, but it wasn't until his aunt's shout that he started into wakefulness.
"Draco Malfoy! If you don't get down here right now, there won't be any breakfast!"
He grinned as he sat up, stretching before grabbing a clean t-shirt from the pile by his bed. There was no way aunt 'Dromeda would really live up to her threat.
"Are you up yet?" his aunt demanded, sounding like she was actually below the loft door.
"Nearly!" said Draco as he attempted to find a matching pair of socks, before shrugging and going for odd ones. His aunt's smile matched his as he lifted the attic door open and slid the ladder down.
"There you are! Come on, before Ted and Dora eat all the bacon." she said, tutting as she flattened his bed head. Draco started to protest before wondering why on earth Dora was there, when she had her own flat now...
They entered the kitchen and his uncle and cousin abruptly stopped their conversation. Draco frowned, a look of hurt and confusion on his face. There was a place set for aunt 'Dromeda, and Dora and Ted had their own plates piled high with bacon, scrambled eggs mushrooms and toast, but there wasn't anything on his plate. They hadn't actually eaten his breakfast had they? Then Dora snickered, and the plate shimmered, revealing a full untouched meal. But it wasn't the only thing that appeared, as at the end of the table, a small pile of presents was rapidly appearing. Draco groaned.
How could he have forgotten his own birthday? Well, he hadn't really, but he was only half awake, and of course that was why Dora was here...
"Happy birthday sprout." Dora was saying as he took his place at the table, heartily tucking into his birthday breakfast. "You should have seen your face! Still this gets you back for waking me up at 4 in the morning last Christmas." she grinned mischievously, eyes twinkling under the fringe she turned blonde in honour of the occasion.
"Yeah, thanks a lot Nymphadora. Because hiding someone's breakfast and presents is a totally normal response to being woken up at Christmas, when you're supposed to!"
Kissing her husband as she sat down, Andromeda Tonks smiled fondly at her daughter and nephew. True, they might be bickering now, but in five minutes or so, all would be forgiven – especially once Draco saw the ridiculous amount of Honeyduke's and Zonko's merchandise Dora had got him. Her smile grew distant as she thought back to the day that Draco had appeared, quite literally in their lives and turned them upside down.
It was a Thursday, and she had finally persuaded Dora to go to sleep on pain of a week of chores, when the whip crack of Apparition had resounded though the house. She and Ted had clutched at each other, fearing that somehow the Death Eaters had broken through their wards, here to punish them for Andromeda's 'betrayal'. Instead, the creature that awaited them in their kitchen was house elf, cowering at their drawn wands.
"Please do not be hurting Dobby, Mistress!" he had begged. "Mistress Narcissa is telling Dobby to come here, telling him to bring the little master. She is saying that Master Draco is being safe here." The large green eyes filled with tears as the little elf trembled, holding up his bundle. Two large blue eyes stared solemnly up At Andromeda as she took the baby, dumbfounded.
"My sister..." she managed to ask as she rocked back and forth gently, the instints of a mother coming back to here. Dobby cringed.
"He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named Mistress. He came for little Master Draco, but Mistress Narcissa stood up to him!" A detached part of Andromeda noted she hadn't actually thought it possible for House elves' eye to actually go that wide. Then realised the implications of Dobby's sentence and it was all she could do not to break down there and then. "Mistress Narcissa gave Dobby a letter for Mistress Andromeda, if Mistress is wanting to read it..."
In a daze, Andromeda handed the baby over to Ted, and took the letter that Dobby was proferring.
My Dear sister,
I know it is many years since we last spoke, other than to hurl accusations at one another, but I must put aside any animosity I harbour, any pride, and beg you for help. Very soon, the Dark Lord will be here. Lucius tells me that he wants to use Draco in some unhallowed ritual to prolong the Dark Lord's life. A ritual so dark even our ancestors quailed at using it. I will not see my son twisted into some weapon, some thing that the dark Lord is that bit more unkillable. Yes, you may doubt me, but family always comes first. That is what we were always taught, is not? Dromeda, I beg of you now, remember those words. I know you have a daughter, and I wish now that I could have seen her before. Before. I beg of you, to take my son, raise him as if he were your own – yes, your own Dromeda, let him live and love freely, and not as we were forced to. You may tell him we were monsters if you wish, or tell him nothing of us at all. But please, for his sake, keep him safe.
With all my heart
Cissy
Clutching the letter to her chest, Andromeda had begun to weep. For the sister she had lost, the girl she had once loved so dearly before another love had torn them apart. She showed it to Ted, unable to speak, and he had read it, sandy brows furrowing deeper with every line.
"Dromeda. She can't be serious? Surely they'll come looking, we have Dora to worry about, she can't expect us to-"
"She can't do anything Ted. She can't do anything ever again." A little voice from the doorway distracted them, and Andromeda did her best to wipe the tear tracks from her face.
"Why's there a baby mummy? He's cute... can we keep him?" The baby looked around with solemn grey eyes, and suddenly realising the comforting presence of his mother was nowhere to be found, screwed his face up and began to cry. The infant wails were replaced by coos of wonder as Dora, peering into the bundle her father held in his hands, matched her hair to his, bubblegum pink being replaced by soft falls of silver blonde hair.
After that, things had happened ridiculously fast. Andromeda had contacted her cousin Sirius, with Dobby's help, remembering a rumour she'd heard about an organisation at work, something he apparently had something to do with. And after all, as Narcissa had said, family should always come first. And so Sirius had shown up, for once not laughing and joking, if a bit taken aback to meet is second cousins. With the help of the mousy young man with an oddly scarred face, who had accompanied him, and after some intense conversation, the 'Order of the Phoenix' had agreed to help. They had set up wards and other discouragements that should, with luck, hold to protect the suddenly expanded household.
Of course, only a year or so after that, You-Know-Who had fallen, Sirius betrayed everyone he loved, and Harry Potter had become the saviour of the Wizarding World. But life had gone on in the Tonks household, arguments raised and settled, and when Draco was 7, after two summers of squabbling when Dora returned home, Draco's belongings had been transferred into to a newly created bedroom in the Attic space. This was after a fight that had almost come to hexes, over Draco 'leaving all his stuff everywhere Mum, can't you do something?'. But the four of them had become a tightly knit family, loyal and loving to a fault.
"Mum?" Dora's voice drew Andromeda out of her reverie, and as she looked at the expectant faces of her husband, daughter and nephew, realised she been asked a question.
"Sorry, I was miles away. What was that dear?"
"'Mal' asked when Ron and the rest that lot were coming." Dora rolled her eyes. "As if you actually went and changed your name."
"If you can be 'Tonks', I can be 'Mal'" Draco responded, with surprising dignity for a newly turned 11 year old. Which was promptly ruined by him shoving an entire bacon rasher in his mouth in one go, but still.
Ignoring her daughter's disgusted scoff at 'Mal's' antics, Andromeda responded to the question.
"They'll be coming straight after school, I think, Draco. So make sure your room is tidy before you leave." seeing him open his mouth, she forestalled the question she knew was coming. "And no, you may not ask Dobby, I don't care if it's your birthday." Smiling wryly at his aggrieved expression, she glanced at the clock and gasped. "Ted, Dora, you need two get going, you're going to be late!"
Hastily downing her coffee with after a muttered 'Merlin's pants', Dora gave her cousin a clumsy hug, before heading to the fireplace in the lounge. Ted ruffled Draco's hair, finishing his mug of tea and putting it down on the side table in the hall before going out the back to Apparate to work. Following him out to retrieve it, she came back in to find Draco's nose currently buried in the latest issue of Loony Nonby vs Cornish Pixie. Rolling her eyes fondly, she tugged it out of his hands, knowing that if left, he would be there until the last possible second before they had to leave.
"Aunt 'Drom!" he pleaded, attempting puppy-dog eyes.
"No, Draco, I know you. Come on, you're going to be late for school, and we wouldn't wouldn't want you to miss being overdosed on contraband sweets now would we?" Andromeda said wryly. Draco grinned sheepishly, and after a thwarted attempt to sneak his comic upstairs, he set to getting ready for the day. Setting the dishes to wash themselves, Andromeda listened to the thumps of her nephew presumably prying his shoes out from wherever he thrown them the night before.
Why did he have to follow in Ted and Dora's footsteps, she mused, exasperated but amused. A few moments later, Draco appeared in the doorway again, flushed with exertion and fine hair, once again in disarray.
"Ready!" he announced.
"Have you got your book bag?" Andromeda inquired, and he grinned sheepishly, before haring back upstairs. Collecting her things and heading out to the hall, she waited for the herd of elephants to come back downstairs.
"Now I'm ready." Draco corrected, and with that they set off. It was only a short walk to Draco's school, a Muggle primary, that he attended at Ted's insistence. It was the same one Dora had gone to, Ted being of the impression that while magic was obviously a key part of their family's life, it might be a good idea if Draco could at least learn to write and at least understand the basic principles of science and geography, areas in which Andromeda had to admits were rather lacking in magical education. And as she had realised when meeting Ted's parents, not even knowing what electricity was did tend to rather make you stand out in Muggle company.
She just worried sometimes, what effect it would have on Draco when he left for Hogwarts – it was always something Ted and Dora had had trouble with.
But still, for now Draco was happy, and she let his excited chatter brighten her day, silently marvelling at the funny, confident and occasionally mischievous boy her sister's son had become.
I hope you're proud of him, Cissy, wherever you are...
A/N Something really weird happened to this chapter... weird. Anyway, I can't tell you how chuffed I am with the response to the first chapter! 5 reviews, 12 follows and 2 favourites in less than 24 hours...you guys are awesome! There was slight edit made to the prologues, as I realised I hadn't made it clear which sister Narcissa was talking about. Oops. As always, reviews are most welcome :)