Title: Pretty Hair

Disclaimer: Don't own anything you recognize.

Universe: Canon.

Time: MWPP; between fifth and sixth year

Characters: Andromeda Tonks, Ted Tonks, Nymphadora Tonks, Sirius Black, James Potter, mentions of "Evans"

Ships: Established Andromeda/Ted, hinted James/Lily, joking James/Dora

Genre: Family and small children

Summary: James goes along with Sirius to see his cousin Andromeda for the first time after Sirius leaves the family.

James Potter was afraid of being hexed.

Normally, of course, he was as all right with being hexed as anyone could be. He gave back as many hexes, curses, and jinxes as he got back so in the end he figured it was part of the price. But this was an entirely different case. He could not hex the person in front of him back; that wasn't why they were here and would likely only make things worse. "What are you doing here?" she demanded, her eyes looking furious and, James realized, frightened. She was scared of him and Sirius. Perhaps they ought to have attempted an owl but Sirius had wanted to stop by as soon as possible. James had never imagined himself as frightening to anyone, though there were a few times he would have liked to be frightening, but whenever he'd wanted to be, it hadn't been to someone innocently opening her front door.

"That's a lovely way to greet your cousin," Sirius joked back. The woman continued to glare, to be scared. James was debating whether or not to say something. His chivalrous side was starting to win; he didn't like seeing anyone so frightened, much less a woman who by logical estimation probably didn't have all that much in combative spells education, despite James's initial fear of being hexed.

"What are you doing here?" she repeated before James fully decided to talk. Sirius sighed.

"I left," he replied. "Last Tuesday. I couldn't take it anymore, couldn't take them anymore." Her wand lowered until it was at her side, though still gripped tightly in her right hand, and her gaze softened somewhat, but she still looked suspicious. "I wanted to see you," Sirius said, his voice casual. "I haven't since I was what, ten? I figured I might as well stop by. This is James Potter by the way. I'm staying at his house." James lifted his hand in a sort-of wave but then pulled his hand back down. The air at the moment was more awkward than the time Remus caught James and Peter singing a duet in the shower (separate stalls of course). Sirius's cousin Andromeda stared at him a bit more and then stepped cautiously back.

"You can come in," she proclaimed, her voice somewhat soft, letting them into the front room. There were stairs right to her side and an open floor that held both the sitting room and the kitchen.

"Dromeda?" someone called. James looked up as Sirius shut the front door and saw the back door opening. There was a fair haired man coming through who apparently hadn't looked toward the front door. He was now rummaging through a box in the kitchen. "Have you seen my packet of tomato seeds?" There was a little girl following behind him though James had no idea how old she was. He was horrible at estimating children's ages. She was younger than eleven. "Drom-" the man suddenly stopped talking as he noticed the two boys in the house. Andromeda turned and looked at him, pointedly. James recognized it as a less severe version of the 'you're an idiot' look he often got from Evans (and sometimes her girl friends, many prefects, most of the teachers, his mother, Remus, and on a couple of odd occasions Sirius and Peter).

"Hello," Sirius spoke up, breaking the air. "I'm Sirius."

"I assumed as much," the man answered. "Ted Tonks. Dora," he added, indicating the little girl who was now looking at James and Sirius while keeping one hand on her father's leg.

"You really do have a daughter," Sirius commented, looking at Andromeda.

"Hmm, I did realize," she answered. James shifted a little where he stood, feeling like he really didn't belong in this awkward reunion. Sirius had asked him to come along and James had said yes, of course. Sirius had wanted to find someone in his family who wasn't a 'completely mad Death Eating idiot'; he wanted to find Andromeda who had left the family before James had ever met Sirius Black.

"Never know what to believe," Sirius replied. James noticed the man gesture with his head at James, giving him an escape to join the little girl and her father instead of the two cousins. He took the opportunity and slipped away from Sirius's side. He felt his moral support would be better given from a different spot in the room.

"James Potter," he introduced himself, sticking out a hand. Ted nodded and shook James's hand back as James became very aware that the little girl was studying him intently.

"Ted Tonks. Think I already said that. I'm Dromeda's husband. Dora's our daughter."

"Nymphadora," Andromeda corrected. James saw the little girl wrinkled her nose causing her father to smile like he was holding back a laugh

"That's quite a name, Annie," Sirius snorted. "Who were you referring to? Great Aunt Elladora? Dorea?"

"Her father," Andromeda replied snidely. "Theodore," she said, stressing the 'dore'.

"And the nymph?"

"Daddy, I want to tell you something," the little girl spoke up, tugging on her father's arm. He bent down closer to her level and she began whispering in his ear. James saw the man fidget a little and he began to assume it tickled to her a secret from a small child. Suddenly, Ted really looked as if he were about to laugh.

"Why don't you tell him that, Dora?" he suggested, looking at his daughter. She glanced at her father and then looked up at James.

"I like your hair," she proclaimed, staring up at him with dark grey eyes.

"Thank you," he replied, uncertain for the first time about a compliment. Was it a good thing or not to be complimented by a child that small? Sirius was beginning to chuckle and Dora's father obviously found it amusing. Dora was looking at the two of them and didn't look very happy about being laughed at.

"It's fluffy like a kitty's fur!" she protested sharply. Sirius no longer managed to control his laughs as chuckles. It had turned into his regular barks.

"Going to tell Evans that line, are you?" Sirius asked. Dora stamped her foot, apparently really not enjoying being laughed at.

"It is!" she insisted, scrunching up her face as if in pain from Sirius's laughter, her hair turning to be the same as James's only longer and girlier. James decided that he rather liked his hair longer at about the same time Sirius sharply stopped laughing. James realized that a little girl had just purposefully controlled her magic to change her hair about the same time Sirius began to laugh even harder than before.

"Squibs, they tell us Annie? Breeding with 'mudbloods' and muggles will produce squibs? And you go and have a metamorphagus for a daughter?" Sirius swore with delight. "That's the way to show them! Props to you Dora. And I suppose you too," he added, glancing at Ted who was far less amused than Sirius but still genuinely smiling.

"Do you want to head outside with us?" Ted asked quietly, glancing forward at his wife and Sirius.

"Thanks," James replied. The man nodded and then scooped up his daughter, leading James toward the back door. Outside was a small garden with dirt all around. It looked as if every inch of land had been recently turned inside out.

"We moved here about a week ago," Ted explained. "I'm still getting around to planting what I like. Dora's been helping me."

"Took a while for Sirius to find you," James told him. "Luckily, my mother knows the Longbottoms. Apparently you're friends with them?" he asked, trying to find something to say. He really didn't know much about the man he was speaking to at all. Sirius had told him that his cousin Andromeda had left and married a muggle-born named Ted Tonks and they possibly had a daughter and that was the extent of James's prior information; it had more than doubled since James's arrival but it still wasn't very much information.

"Hmm," he said. "They were more Dromeda's friends at school. Actually Faye was her friend. Eventually got to know the parents and Frank and Alice."

"Alice and Frank are Aurors," Dora informed him. "They fight the bad people."

"They're pretty cool," James agreed. Dora beamed. Apparently that was the right thing to say. Her hair was still in the girl version of his.

"Are you an Auror?" she asked. He shook his head.

"I'm still at Hogwarts." Her eyes widened.

"I'm gonna get to go there," she told him seeming even more excited about this prospect. "Right Daddy?" she asked. "Right, right?"

"Yes Dora," he agreed. "Why don't you be a big help and go water the beans for me, please?" he asked. She nodded eagerly and bounced off toward a section of the garden, her father looking after her, grinning before turning his attention back to James.

"She goes a mile a minute until she'll suddenly crash," Ted informed him. James grinned. "But for the most part she's a good kid. At least, I think so," he added with a shrug.

"How old is she?" James asked, glad for a topic to seize on.

"She's four," Ted informed him. "Four years old with the balance of a two-year-old and occasionally the wisdom of a forty-year-old." James glanced at the girl who was literally bouncing around. "It's rare," Ted added, "but it happens. Don't realize how much she's picking up of Dromeda and me talking about the war until she starts reciting it back." Skip, skip, bounce, crash, blink, bounce up, jump, jump: James's eyes followed the little girl's movements. Her hair had turned bright pink though it was still messy like his. She was lugging a watering can that seemed half her size around with her.

"Are you in Sirius's year?" Ted asked him. "Headed into sixth year, right?"

"Yes," James answered and almost returned, "You?" but managed to refrain. "We're both in Gryffindor. Sirius is, by the way not Slytherin."

"Words gets around," Ted replied. "Dromeda keeps her ear out for information about her family still. Both for our safety and because she wants to know," he admitted. "She's known for a while. She still worries about him and Regulus from time to time."

"Regulus is in Slytherin and he's not in any trouble, at least not the kind that Sirius was in. Sirius says he acts as a perfect pureblood," James said, hoping that Ted would repeat the statement to Andromeda and she wouldn't worry. Tonks gave him a slightly forced smile.

"Then he's in more danger than Sirius. Death Eaters are dangerous to everyone, including their own kind. No one knows that better than Dromeda."

"Bean, beans drink water, water, water, beans drink water, grow into beans with water," Nymphadora started singing. James frowned.

"You're not around kids much are you?" Ted asked him with a grin. James shook his head as the back door opened and Andromeda and Sirius came out in time to catch more of Nymphadora's musical creation. Apparently she had quite forgotten her initial shyness around James and Sirius or perhaps she had simply forgotten they were there. James watched as Andromeda leaned her head against her husband's shoulder and then glanced back as James's hair-type twin fell into a patch of mud and then giggled.

"Nymphadora," Andromeda sighed and then walked forward towards her daughter. "Now you need a bath."

"It's only a little mud," Ted returned.

"Bath!" Nymphadora said excitedly, dropping the watering can.

"Go inside then."

"We'll get going then," Sirius said, glancing nervously at James. "Can I write?"

"Please do," Andromeda replied. "It's nice not to be the only one." Sirius nodded in return.

James jumped as something came back and hugged his legs. He glanced down to see Nymphadora clinging to them. "Bye pretty hair boy," she told him. James laughed and looked down at her.

"Bye Nymphadora." She glared at him very seriously.

"My name's Dora." James apologized and then left with Sirius.

"Good-bye Dora," he corrected, leaning down to her level. She smiled and then leaned forward quickly and left a sloppy kiss on his cheek before bouncing inside. Her mother rolled her eyes and followed. Sirius started to laugh.

"So I see you've got a girlfriend now Prongs. Evans will be pleased you've finally given up on her."

"At least she's cuter than your last girl," James retorted. Ted Tonks grinned and then went back to what he was doing.

"You're only saying that because she had your hair," Sirius replied as they headed towards the side of the house to get back to the front, waving at Ted as they left. The man was smiling as they waved.

"Why not? My hair is pretty," James bragged. Sirius reached over before James had a chance to react and tugged on a strand of James's hair. "Ow!"

Though I don't think they were ever as close as they could have been, I do think Sirius probably went to see what happened to Andromeda and I can see him not entirely sure he wanted to go alone. So James came along. As for the rest, well, small children make life interesting…