Far From Forgiven

Sirius mentioned his brother once and when he did, she pictured that small boy with that big smile. He was eleven when she last saw him- eleven and excited and enthusiastic. He was pure-hearted, naïve and happy. He was young and innocent and a child. Perhaps that's why she found the glint in Sirius' eyes unnerving, and the way he hissed his brother's name like a searing burn unsettling.

Regulus was eighteen now. She scoffed as she put on her cloak. Eighteen? She clasped the buttons and did the ribbon. Sirius had called him a 'perfect pureblood prince' but Andromeda couldn't match that to the image she had in mind. Sirius had called him a 'soft idiot' but Andromeda could only hear his childish laughter. Sirius said he was 'tainted' but Andromeda could only see him sliding down the banisters of Grimmauld Place.

"Come on, Mummy!" Dora yanked at her sleeve.

"I'm coming, I'm coming…" she shook her head at the mismatched socks on her daughter's feet then at the tuft of blue hair on her little head. "Coat on, Dora."

It was a small shop in Diagon Alley. She needed a new cloak- hers was getting frayed- and Ted would meet them for lunch in one of the small cafes in the corner of the bustling street. But Dora was too energetic, too excited and too eager. She was flitting from side to side in utter enthusiasm, tugging at Andromeda's sleeve as if she had never been out of the house. Had Ted been like this at seven-because she certainly wasn't.

"Mummy! I want to see the owls- please, let me see the owls! Daddy said that if you bow to them, they'll grow and make you ride on their backs! I want to try-" Andromeda could only listen to the nonsense. "Can you buy that ink that changes colours for Daddy? I can share it with him because the colours change like my hair! Mummy, can we go for ice-cream later, after lunch? I really want ice-cream-"

"Let Mummy get some new robes first-"

"But you have lots of robes, why do you want more? Mummy, can I get a Tornadoes shirt? Because Daddy said they're the best team and if I wear the shirt then he'll take me to the game and I really want to see a real Quidditch game because I can't see them if it's only on the radio-"

"Dora, don't let go of my hand!"

"But your hand makes my hand all sweaty and I don't like it. I want to hold my own hand."

If she had the nerve to speak to her own mother at that age it would be a direct slap on the hand. Her parents rarely raised their hands on them, but when they did, it was in the extremities or propriety. Narcissa was too pretty to be lectured and Bellatrix was too bold to be lectured. It was only at the end, when Andromeda announced her marriage, did she feel the skin of her cheek sting. Her mother had been too shocked to move. Her father didn't look her in the eye as he resigned to his study. Narcissa wailed. Bellatrix screamed.

"Mummy?"

She blinked and found Dora's hair now in a fine shade of pink, blinking up at her with pure concern.

"I'm ok," she nodded and pressed a smile. "Come on. Mummy's got robes to buy."

Dora had a habit of walking away from their table and roaming around. She'd usually stand by the cakes and look at the different treats concentration so intense it was comical, before walking over and announcing her decision like the Minister of Magic somberly declaring war. Wanted posters littered the inside of café- Andromeda ignored the sneer on Evan Rosier, whom she remembered giving chocolates to during a spring luncheon, and the scowl on Nolan Wilkes, whose liberal mother was the only woman Andromeda could stand listening to during dinner parties- and veered any of Dora's questions they first walked in.

"Caught him in a bad day, didn't they?"

"Shush, Reg- not so loud."

"What? Look at the state of his hair! Merlin, if Evan actually saw this- think I should pocket the poster and owl it to him?"

"Regulus, enough."

"A bit too harsh, you're right."

"And you're being a bit too reckless."

"Don't know what you're so worked up about, Cissy. It's not like it's my face plastered over the walls."

Andromeda turned slightly. She could hear smatterings of their voices. Ted stopped fiddling with the napkin-which he was trying to make into a floppy boat- and looked at her questioningly. She touched his hand slightly, a motion for him to keep quiet, while she craned her ears, her eyes rapidly scanning the half-empty tables in the half-empty café.

"I think…" she heard them. She knew she did. And she saw them. By the corner, easily missed by a passing eye. Narcissa had her back to her, but her long blonde hair trickled down the back of her silky blue robes. Regulus sat opposite her. Had Andromeda not heard the name, she would have never known him.

He certainly wasn't eleven anymore.

In a way, that realization ached. She hadn't seen him for more than seven years. Though time flew and seven seemed a small number, it carried a great magnitude of a life she was forced to depart. He looked similar to Sirius, but with a thinner face and shorter, mussed hair. But his eyes were as large and as pale as she could remember, as hooded as Sirius' and as heavy-lidded as Bella's and as droopy as Cissy's. But when he smiled, there wasn't a trace of his innocence. Instead, there was a tinge of cruelty and a tint of arrogance. In a way, that scared her.

"What is it?" Ted looked at her. He almost turned back, to catch her line of sight, before he pressed his hand. "What's wrong?"

"My sister," she didn't know why she felt heavy. "And my cousin."

Ted stared at her, soaking in her expression, "who cares about them? Ignore them."

Before Andromeda could register the encouragement in Ted's voice and before she could respond to the fierce warmth in his eyes, she could only watch numbly as Dora bobbed her way from a table of a laughing old couple to her icy sister and shadowed cousin.

"Dora's going to them."

Ted blinked. "What?"

"Dora… is going to them?"

This time he did turn and he froze. They wouldn't know her, Andromeda thought as Dora began babbling. She hadn't spoken to Narcissa for seven years and Regulus probably forgot who she was, so there was no way they recognized Dora. But she feared their prejudice. Her family was hostile, her family was merciless and her family was cold while Dora had been carefully reared in nothing but an enclosed warmth that pushed away any of the darkness that crept over their divided world. She could hear Sirius' voice pummel against her ears- perfect pureblood prince- a tainted fool- he's as bigoted as the rest of them- before she felt raw fear pulse. She didn't want her daughter's smile cracked by the cruelty of narrow-minded chauvinism.

Ted was saying something but she didn't hear it. Andromeda's eyes were on her babbling daughter, who beamed at the two strangers who stared at her complete surprise. Her chair clambered against the cobblestone-

Regulus smiled at her.

There was no cruelty. There was no arrogance. There was simplicity. He looked familiar now. He looked slightly eleven. He ruffled Dora's hair, which blushed red under his touch, and said something that made her laugh. Narcissa, on the other hand, didn't entertain the child as much as her cousin did, but offered the girl a small smile. Dora looked in awe at the pretty blonde witch, her hair curling up into the same platinum shade as Narcissa's, falling down her shoulders in an exact replica.

"Talented little thing, isn't she, Cissy?" laughed Regulus. It was a warm sound- like standing next to a warm fire in a warm, embracing room. "Do you think you can pull off my hair?"

But Dora was already a flushed red form being bombarded with a complement from two very pretty people. Dora turned towards Andromeda, her cheeks brilliantly glowing, unknowingly leading the two strangers down her line of sight. Narcissa's lips parted in silent surprise, running between her dark-haired sister and her muggleborn husband, while Regulus looked oddly blank.

"Dora?"

Andomeda's voice shook. She hated herself for it.

"Dora, come here."

She extended her hand. Her simple marriage band gleamed in the dim light.

"I have to go to my Mum," explained Dora, her long blonde hair bouncing as she teetered to the side. "She's going to lecture me on talking to strangers. But you're nice strangers and you don't look like evil, but she'll still lecture me anyway because my Mum just really likes talking…"

Narcissa was stiffly looking down at her hands. Regulus, absently nodding, stared straight at Andromeda's face.

The moment she felt Dora's fingers between her own did a flush of relief engulf her. She pulled her daughter close, trying to hide the tremble of her lower lip and the fear in her midst of her eyes, and helped her sit back by the table. Ted tried to act as though nothing had happened, asking Dora if there were any cakes she liked, but Dora seemed too enraptured by the pretty blonde witch with the pretty blonde hair and the pretty wizard who was really, really nice.

"Can I go talk to them again?"

"Certainly not," snapped Andromeda.

Dora looked startled. Ted gently touched his wife's hand.

Andromeda cleared her throat. She took a sip of water. Her throat was painfully tight.

"We don't want to bother them."

"But they didn't seem bothered when I went to them!"

They were talking together in hushed tones, her sister and her cousin. Where they talking about her? Were they badmouthing her husband? Her daughter? Andromeda tensed. She felt something flare inside her- Anger? Irritation? Disappointment?- making her heart thrum in her chest, preparing her for fight.

Dora spooned her bowl of ice-cream, babbling on about anything and everything that crossed her mind. Ted would indulge her and talk incessantly about all sorts of rubbish, while Andromeda kept her eyes on her fingers- her marriage band- and her unfinished cup of coffee. There was a screech from a chair and the shuffling of robes. Andromeda watched a waiter walk away with some silver sickles before she noticed her sister standing, blonde hair rippling down her pale blue robes, and her cousin following suit.

But Narcissa remained standing, arms crossed, staring stonily as Regulus made his way towards them.

Andromeda swallowed. Instinctively, she gripped her daughter's little hand.

"Andy?"

The last time he had called her that was during her last Christmas with her family. She had been reading a letter Ted sent her one night and her only interruption was her eleven-year-old cousin, book in hand, who wanted a story. Now, he was eighteen and his expression was carefully hidden behind an expressionless mask.

She stood up. Her chair stumbled from the shock. She kept her eyes a barrier to her soul and waited.

Regulus broke into a smile, "I almost didn't recognize you! But, when I saw the expression on Cissy's face, I knew I couldn't be wrong."

Narcissa, who definitely heard him, made her way towards them. Her blue robes rippled down her slim body like water, making her more ethereal and more regal than usual. She slipped a ringed hand by Regulus' arm before throwing him a very annoyed look. They looked like a very haughty couple. Intimidating. Had she looked like that once, Andromeda thought? Untouchable and cold and scary.

It was a few seconds of tensed silence. Narcissa, terse and Regulus, waiting. She didn't know what to say. She didn't know what to do. She didn't know these people anymore. So, she turned to her comfort.

"Ted, this is my cousin, Regulus."

Ted looked slightly surprised but quickly covered it up. Open face and an open smile, he extended his arm. Andromeda didn't miss the trepidation in her husband's eyes and didn't miss the flinch on her sister's collected face. But Regulus' smile widened and, with ease, he gave Ted's hand a good shake followed by a sharp pat on the shoulder. Just like Sirius did.

"My sister, Narcissa."

Narcissa gave him nothing but a curt nod.

"Just thought I'd say hello," said Regulus. He noticed Dora staring up at him, her hair still blonde. "And you have a pretty girl," he kneeled down to meet her eyes, "the next time I see you, your hair had better be as good as mine."

"It's a deal!"

The exclamation was followed by Dora throwing her hands in the air. Of course, knowing Dora, she had her ice-cream spoon in a very loose grip. Of course, knowing their luck, the ice-cream spoon was flung into the air and latched itself onto the chandelier above them.

"It's good to see you, Andy."

His smile was dampened. His eyes were clouded. She couldn't tell if it was genuine or not but, she pursed her lips to stop her lips from trembling, and nodded.

"It's good to see you too." She looked at Narcissa, who looked at anything bar her sister's face, "both you of."

His arm was around her waist. She didn't notice it before, but Andromeda definitely noticed it now. Regulus' thin, crooked fingers- just like Aunt Walburga- tightened slightly, pulling Cissy closer. It made her look at Ted, and Andromeda could see her distaste. She looked at Dora, and Andromeda could see disappointment. Finally, she looked at Andromeda herself- spoilt, droopy blue eyes- and there, deep inside, was hurt.

She opened her mouth to speak. Good to see you too? Take care? Stay safe? It's been a long time? Goodbye? But turned to Regulus, saying "let's go," in a whispered breath so quiet, Andromeda could barely hear it.

Clearly, she was far from being forgiven.

AN: it's been AGES since my last HP fanfic and, since this was lying around, I thought I'd fix it up and post it! Plus, everyone needs to see a lighter Regulus from time to time. As for Cissy, I always had a feeling that she's cold to Andromeda because she hasn't forgiven her for running away- she didn't forgive her for choosing Ted Tonks over her family (including Cissy). It parallels Regulus in away, who probably wouldn't have forgiven Sirius- or blamed Sirius- for running away and replacing him with James Potter. But that's all Headcannons that keep me occupied and make me really happy! :D

Plus, this gives me an excuse to advertise something all HP fans should be aware of.

The Gathering Storm.

It's a Fan Film based on the Marauder's Sixth Year and it is going to be EPIC. Take a minute or two to wander around their tumblr or look at their campaign video on Indiegogo. The link is on my profile page but it's easily googled if you type in (Marauders: Gathering Storm).

As always: read, enjoy and review!