I am SO SOS SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SORRY FOR HOW LONG THIS TOOK, I will never forgive myself for this wait. Everything is fine and,things have just be hectic. There may be mistakes in the chapter I will fix them but i'm desperate to get this chapter out. I have another chapter to come out monday and if I stick to my plan the whole of fourth year for Atria will be out by the end of February, but who knows I plan the year to go for about 11 or 12 chapters, with 2 chapter coming out every week, I will try but I cannot promise not to fail. I will not make you wait a moment longer. So without further adue.
Atria smoothed her hand over her hair as she stared at herself in the mirror. It was nice to see her skin all cleared up, no longer scared, she felt a little bit better.
"Nervous?" a voice asked from behind her.
"Of course, I'm nervous," she said turning to face Remus, putting her hands on her hips, "Do I look nervous?"
He nodded, "Yes you do."
"Oh well now I'm just more nervous."
"You don't need to be," he said coming down and placing his hands on her shoulder. She nodded but it was a nod of acceptance more then truth.
"Well come on," he said moving to the door and opening it for her," Let's go."
She stood now in front of the small house, a rather small house. A single-story brick home with a plain wooden front door, it wasn't impoverished but rather quaint. "Ready?" Remus asked as Atria stared ahead of her.
She gave a small nod in response and he nodded back before he walked in front of her and began his way up the small path that led to the front door. He knocked once and it wasn't long before the door creaked open, she caught the sight of grey eyes, much like her own but with more of a bluish hue to them.
The lady in front of her was beautiful, with a shade of light brown hair and kind eyes.
"Remus," the women said cheerily as if meeting an old friend.
"Hello Andi," Remus greeted.
The lady peered beyond Remus to the young girl who stood just behind him, "Is that her?" she asked, her accent was pristine enough to give her aunt a run for her money.
Remus nodded, "yes this is Atria," Remus said slowly placing his hand behind Atria's back.
"Hello Atria," she said.
"Hi," Atria said nervously as she held her hands together, pulling anxiously at her fingers.
Andromeda nodded softly before she turned back to Remus, "So you'll be back in an hour?" Andromeda asked Remus.
Atria snapped her head to Remus, she hadn't known he would be leaving.
Remus bowed his head, knowing he had been caught, "yes I will."
"You're leaving?" Atria asked domineeringly.
"Yes, but I'll be back soon," Remus said.
"But-" Atria tried to reason
"No buts", Remus said placing his hands on her shoulders, "you'll be fine," he said before letting go of her and turning around.
Atria watched as he walked down the path they had come up, well he could have told her sooner but then again he probably knew that if he told her she never would have agreed to come. She turned back to Andromeda.
"Would you like to come in?" She asked polity," I'll start some tea if you like?" she said smiling kindly as she eyed Atria, and Atria had to admit it did not make her nervous.
Atria sat down at the table in the kitchen. How odd, the kitchen and the dining room conjoined in one room, she had to say she found it bizarre. She knew Andromeda's husband was muggle-born, and while she had been in Harry's Aunt's home she had not really had the chance to take a good look at it. It was far from the likes of the home she had grown up in, but a feeling of peace and safety still seemed to surround it much more than Malfoy manor ever had. She watched as she moved through the kitchen putting kettle on and removing the sugar from the shelf it sat on. There was a tranquility about her, a distinctive feeling about her that calmed even Atria.
"Remus has told me a lot about you," Andromeda said as she poured the tea.
"Really?" Atria asked, "because he's told me almost nothing about you," she hadn't meant it to sound rude but she could see but the way Andromeda's eyebrow rose it obviously had come across that way.
"How do you take your tea?" she asked.
"No milk with three sugars please."
She watched as Andromeda smiled to herself, "That's how my little sister takes hers."
"Yes, I know," Atria replied.
"It was a dreadful habit," Andromeda went on to explain as she walked the tea over to Atria, "she always had absolutely loved sugar, my mother started to have to hide it because she caught Narcissa eating it by the spoonful when she was six."
Atria's mind ran amuck as she conjured up the image of her aunt sitting innocently at a young age gobbling up sugar, "really," she said, A small humorous smile growing at the picture.
"oh yes," Andromeda said pulling out the chair and sitting next to Atria, "our mother strictly controlled our diets and when you are denied things as a child you crave them as you grow older. I imagine Narcissa eats about every sugary snack she can get her hand's on now."
She was right her aunt had always had a favour for sweet cakes and pastries, "well you're not wrong," Atria said in agreement.
Andromeda smiled at Atria before leaning back in her chair, "So, what would you like to know about me."
Atria followed suit as she nodded shyly, keeping her hand around the warm cup for comfort, she bowed her head before bashfully asking What did she want to know? here was a women who had left the Black family, not just left but walked out without almost a second glance back. "Why did you leave your family?" she found herself asking.
Andromeda looked at her, with eyes that for once seemed understanding rather than confused or lost, "I imagine our childhoods were a lot different, but in some ways the same. I was born in 1955, the middle child of three girls, I was, not to brag, my father's favourite, I got almost everything I wanted."
Atria's face melted into confusion.
"Now I can see what your thinking, where is the problem in that?" Andromeda asked taking a sip of her tea and placing it down on the table. "When I was sixteen I met my husband, he was some boy I'd known since I started Hogwarts, a Hufflepuff as well," She said as if proud of the fact before shaking her head reminiscing, "and I hated him, but not for normal reasons. I hated him because in every way he shattered everything I had believed for so long, the beliefs I had had. The way I had lived my life, I had been sheltered for so long and then he came and ruined it all, and then he obliterated it by making me fall in love with him."
"The muggle-born?" Atria asked
Andromeda nodded, "so you do know something."
"Yes but only because my grandmother used to call you..." Atria stopped herself before taking a nervous sip of her tea, "nevermind."
"The mudblood's whore," Andromeda said.
Atria eyes widened in shock at her bluntness but Andromeda seemed not to care at all about the name, instead going on to explain," Yes I know about my nickname, now and then I get a letter from Narcissa where she has had to much drink, addressed to the mud-blood's whore."
"What happened after our family found out?" Atria asked.
"My father tried to keep as tight a hold on me as possible," Andromeda shrugged, "I was engaged at the time you see, and for a while, I loved the man I was going to marry, he had been everything my parents ever wanted for me, everything I had wanted since I was young enough to dream, I would have had everything a young girl in my position had ever wanted, but after Teddy, there was no one else I could ever dream of being with."
"So," Andromeda whispered as if telling a secret, "I planned to get pregnant."
"You planned to get pregnant?" Atria exclaimed to the shocking idea, thinking on it now Atria never thought herself desperate enough to get pregnant, but then again she wasn't in love.
Andromeda nodded, "I was seventeen, they wouldn't want me if I was pregnant with some muggle borns child and it worked, they let me go. My family disowned me and now here I am." Andromeda said looking around her home as if there was no place she would rather be, but still, Atria felt herself having to ask. "Do you regret it?"
She knew the answer before Andromeda had the chance to say anything, her eyes glowed with life and years of happiness and atria wanted that too. but Andromeda didn't get the chance to reply. the sound of the door opening had both women turning their heads.
"Andi are you home?" a man's voice called.
"In here darling," Andromeda called out before standing up.
A man in a brown suit with dark blond hair and glasses walked into the room holding a briefcase.
"Hello, darling," he said giving Andromeda a kiss on the cheek.
"We have a guest," Andromeda said before turning back to Atria.
"ahh," the man said before walked up to Atria. So this was Edward Tonks, the man so many in her family detested and claimed to be a monster for stealing away a member of the Black family, the dreaded mudblood himself.
He held his hand out for Atria as if meaning to shake her hand, the gesture shocked Atria a little but she took his hand before he gave it a light shake.
"And you must be Atria?" he asked giving her a comforting smile.
"Hello?" she said softly.
"Nice to meet you," He said.
Atria nodded, "you too."
"Well I'll be damned," another voice spoke from the doorway.
"Mind your language Nymphadora," Andromeda said in a tone that resembled a way Narcissa would talk to Atria.
Atria stood now feeling a bit awkward sitting while they all stood. She now could see the girl who had spoken, it was a young women, twenty or close to that, she had bright pink hair and was wearing odd clothes, to say the least.
"You probably don't remember me," she said walking closer to Atria, "but I remember when you where this big," she said holding her finger up so maybe an inch was between them.
Atria smiled but the obvious look of confusion didn't leave her.
"I was also at the castle to find your father," she went on to say "I'm an Auror," she went on to explain, also holding her hand out to the Atria.
"oh," Atria said taking her hand," Nymphadora?"
Andromeda and Nymphadora both replied at the same time,
"Yes."
"No."
The girl turned to her mother with a bit of contempt before turning back to Atria,"just Tonks."
What an odd thing to want to be called, "Nice to meet you, Tonks," Atria said before releasing her hand.
Tonks nodded before tuning back to her mother, "See I told you, looks more like you then I do."
Andromeda shook her head before looking back at Atria who seemed to have all eyes on her at this moment, "Atria, would you like to come outside, I'll show you around the garden," Andromeda said before moving towards the back door.
Atria nodded, "Alright."
"Oh I love walks in the garden," Tonks said before going to follow her mother out, but her father stopped her.
"I have a feeling your mother meant just Atria," he said subtly hoping his daughter understood.
"Oh," Dora said before turning to look at Andromeda and Atria, "okay, well I guess I'll see you both when you come back inside," she said before turning and leaving the room.
The door to the garden hadn't even closed before Atria let loose, "will you help me?" she asked desperately.
Andromeda finished closing the door and turning to atria with a sad look in her eyes, "Lucius hasn't been kind to you has he?"
"that's an understatement," Atria said shaking her head before following by Andromeda's side in the small lovely garden they had at the back of the house.
"Yes, I imagine it is," Andromeda said softly, shaking her head, why was it that if she looked closly enough it was almost like andromeda knew exactly what was going on.
"You can't even imagine the things I have been through," Atria said.
Andromeda stopped walking and looked Atria dead in the eyes, "oh yes I can."
Atria stopped in her tracks.
"Parents can be funny," Andromeda went on to explain.
"He is not my father," Atria snapped.
"Interrupting isn't polite you know," Andromeda said and Atria who recognised the authoritative tone in her voice immediately.
"Fathers can be funny," she went on, "My father loved me and my mother's favourite was obviously pretty little Cissy."
Atria had a sense she knew where Andromeda was going, there had been three sisters, not two.
"Bella was the oldest, and while my father never held it against me or Narcissa, it was always Bella's fault she was not a boy." Andromeda looked up at Atria, and she could see the hurt behind the older women's eyes as she said,"I loved my sister, and even with all that she has become, I could never blame her as much as I blame my father for what he made her."
Atria could feel herself begin to sweat as Andromeda had almost seemed to avoid answering the question, "Will you help me?" Atria asked her eyes growing wet.
Andromeda took her hand gently before moving her hand, taking Atria's cheek in her palm and Atria found herself falling into the hold of her warm hand," Of course I will," Andromeda said soflty.
Atria nodded, as Andromeda pulled her hand away from Atria's cheek only to take her other hand, "Was it hard to leave your life behind?" Atria asked.
Andromeda nodded, "Of course it was, I wonder about it sometimes what would have happened if I never met Teddy, If I had ever married.." she shook her head as if shaking the thought away.
"What happened to him?" Atria asked, "The man you were engaged to?"
Andromeda smiled sadly before shaking her head, "It doesn't matter."
The ministry of magic stood before her now, more intimidating than ever, Andromeda stood by her side as the prepared for what may be one of the hardest moments of her life.
"Atria trust me," Andromeda said,"I can handle Lucius."
Atria nodded, "I trust you," she said, because for some reason she trusted Andromeda almost like a reflex reaction.
Andromeda nodded before she seemed to remember and her hand dove into her pocket, "by the way, Remus told me to give you this."
It was letter she was holding out in her hand, with neat writing on the envelope that spelt out her name, she opened it slowly.
To my Atria.
I'm alright for now.
I've found a safe place where I'm sure I won't be found by any searching aurur
and it may be hard for me to write for a while but I hope this letter finds you.
Remus has left me rather uniformed about most of the things going
on in your life and says he feels it's better if you tell me yourself.
I hope soon we will be able to talk so I can know everything a father should know.
What ever may be happing right now just remember your mother and I stand by you every step of the way.
Stay safe Atty.
Love Dad.
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