Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters, events and/or places that are recognized as being written and created by J.K. Rowling. J.K. Rowling owns all the characters and places from the Harry Potter books including the ones used in this story.
A/N: I hope EVERYONE had a great holiday!!!!! Thank you for your reviews and wants for me to update!! You're all lovely!!!! I hope you all have a very happy New Year, too!! :D
In this update, I basically wrote Ted and Andromeda the way I imagined them to be, since there really isn't much about them in the books.
And I find it completely odd that my christmas and new years chapters coincided with the real holiday. Completely unplanned, I swear!! Anyways, enjoy!
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"Come in, come in!" Andromeda gripped her hand around Clea's arm, and sent her practically flying into the front hall of her house.
Clea skidded on her heels and wobbled, trying to stop herself from smacking into the wall ahead. She spun around, and threw her hands over her face when she saw her two suitcases airborne and streaming at full speed towards her nose.
A loud thump, which shook the candelabrum above her head, notified Clea that it was safe to uncover her face. Clea looked down, and saw the two suitcases perfectly lined up at her feet. Andromeda came bounding away from the door, settling her wand back in the little pocket of her skirt.
Andromeda and Clea shared a few like Black family traits. Andromeda, like Clea, had thick, straight hair that fell perfectly around her face, but much longer than Clea's bob, and also a lighter shade of dark brown. She had the same pale skin, but unlike Clea, Andromeda had striking grey eyes; like Sirius.
"Ted!" Andromeda screamed towards the staircase behind Clea, cupping one hand around her mouth. "Ted! Come get Cleopatra's things!" Andromeda reached and grabbed Clea's hand.
Feeling happiness spread throughout her body, Clea pulled her cousin into another rocking hug. "It is so good to see you, Andromeda! It really is," Clea squealed.
"It's good to see you too, Cleopatra," Andromeda said in return, in the same high-pitched giddy voice. "I can not believe I've gone years without speaking face to face with my lovely second favorite cousin!"
Clea pulled away from Andromeda, and the two started laughing uncontrollably. Clea never knew how much she really missed her cousin until this very moment. The simple fact that even after everything that has happened, that Andromeda still refers to her as her "second favorite cousin", makes Clea feel overjoyed to be talking to her.
Growing up, Sirius was Andromeda's favorite cousin. Clea never tried to refute that fact. Sirius was funny, and charming; he was Clea's favorite person, so it made sense for him to be Andromeda's too. Andromeda always playfully referred to Clea as her second favorite. Now, as adults, as their ideal of Sirius lays shattered in their minds, they've made an unspoken agreement to honor his position still as "the favorite".
"Wait until you see Nymphadora," Andromeda said. "She is so grown up!"
"She was only a little girl when I last saw her," Clea said, her facing lighting up.
Andromeda nodded, as her eyes drifted above and past Clea, towards the staircase. "Ted," she sighed, letting go of Clea's hands, and placing her own on her hips. "Hurry up!"
"Hello Ted," Clea said cheerfully, as Ted appeared next to her.
"Hello Clea, how are you?" Ted was the opposite of the outspoken, put together Andromeda. He had a much more quiet demeanor, but with a playful spring in his voice. Andromeda, however, obviously wore the pants in the relationship; Ted passively, and hilariously, obeyed her every word.
"I'm great, Ted," Clea answered.
Ted drew his wand out and levitated Clea's suitcases. "How does it feel to be back at ol' Hogwarts?" he asked, a lively glimmer swimming across his face.
"Oh yes!" Andromeda squealed, the same sparkle in her own eyes. "You must tell us all about working at Hogwarts!"
"Where do you want these?" Ted asked his wife.
"The spare bedroom, of course, darling; go on." Andromeda shooed Ted up the stairs, and motioned for Clea to follow her, as she walked further down the hallway. "Are you hungry, Clea? Thirsty?"
"Well," Clea said, following Andromeda into her kitchen; "I could definitely go for a Christmas drink?"
"Do you mean Egg Nog?"
Clea nodded her head vigorously. "Is there any other Christmas drink worth mentioning?" she asked, sarcastically.
Andromeda frowned. "I don't have any," she said, quietly.
Clea laughed at the look on her cousin's face. "That's ok, Andromeda," Clea giggled.
"We can make some," Andromeda squealed, clasping her hands together.
"We can…make…some…?" Clea asked.
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"Ted! Be careful with those eggs! If you drop one, I'll have to go to the store and just buy Egg Nog; and what's the fun in that?"
Clea and Andromeda laughed, as they sat perched like Queens on two stools at the island in Andromeda's kitchen.
The pair did attempt to make the Egg Nog themselves, but after their first batch, which resulted in the mixture burning a hole threw Clea's glass, they decided to call in the big guns. In other words, Andromeda gave up and ordered Ted to make it.
"And Ted," Clea said, stretching her neck to look into the mixing bowl that Ted was working with. "Don't be cheap with that Nog!"
"Wouldn't think of it, Clea," Ted said, with a mischievous smile.
"Ok, Cleopatra," Andromeda said, placing her hands on top of Clea's. "Let's get this out of the way. Sirius…?"
Clea sighed, snapping her head back, to push her hair away from her face. "He's somewhere near Hogwarts. Hiding in the forest, I believe; but I'm not sure. It's all too scary, Andromeda. I still don't understand any of it."
"Me either," Andromeda whispered. "Just having to believe it, is hard."
Clea nodded her head. "I'm glad you think that too, Andromeda," Clea said, smiling with relief that someone else found it hard to think of Sirius as evil. "So," Clea continued, changing the subject; "how are those wicked sisters of yours? I know Bellatrix is calling Azkaban home..."
"Yes," Andromeda nodded, with no emotion. "And Narcissa? I talk to her once in a while. She calls me whenever she's feeling lonely and wants to brag about her rich and powerful husband."
Clea rolled her eyes. "If rich and powerful mean arrogant and creepy," she said, shuttering slightly.
Andromeda laughed lightly. "And Lucius Malfoy is nothing compared to my Ted," she said, batting her eyelashes towards her husband.
Ted winked at his wife, and then stretched his arms up, yawning; revealing a lumpy stomach hanging slightly over the waist band of his trousers.
"Lucius…Lucius might be a little bit better looking," Clea mumbled.
"What?" Ted said, looking down at his stomach.
"Now Clea," Andromeda laughed, while motioning for Ted to get back to work. "You can't very well insult my husband, without me having someone to insult in retaliation. So, come on, give me the name and description of your boyfriend!" Andromeda pointed her finger sternly at Clea's face.
Shaking her head, and silently laughing, Clea pushed Andromeda's finger away. "I don't have a boyfriend; I mean, not officially."
"Not officially, huh? You can't say 'not officially' and expect me to not want to hear the entire story. Ted, stir that more."
"Well," Clea said, running her fingers through her hair.
"Is it someone at Hogwarts?" Ted asked, as he measured some nutmeg.
"Yes. Its-"
"Whatever happened to that Remus bloke?" Andromeda cut in.
"He's-"
"Oh yes," Ted agreed with his wife. "You two were pretty close I remember."
"Um, yes, and now-"
"I still can't believe he broke up with you."
"He had a good reason, Andromeda."
"Of course you'd take his side, Ted. And that is way too much nutmeg."
"No it isn't; and-"
"Remus is at Hogwarts," Clea shouted, grabbing Andromeda's sleeve. "He's teaching there now…with me."
Andromeda's eyes widened and she straightened up in her seat; nodding her head towards Clea, silently telling her to carry on.
Clea giggled, and cleared her throat. "Remus is at Hogwarts, and…yeah, that's about it."
"Uh," Andromeda laughed; "I don't think so. Do you still love him?"
"Oh yes," Clea sighed dreamily.
"And he loves you?" Ted spoke up, and then wincing as Andromeda shot him a look that said 'don't take my lines'.
"Yes he does."
"Then what's the problem? Oh wait…he's a werewolf."
"That is a problem," Ted said, raising his eyebrows.
"No, that's not the problem! He's just unsure about the future. So we keep playing these games and getting no where." Clea looked away from Andromeda and bit her lip.
Andromeda let out a silky, low laugh. "I know that look!" Clea dropped her head to the side, trying to look innocent and confused. "You mean that you keep playing games."
Clea opened her mouth in shock and then closed it. There was no way she'd be able to lie to Andromeda. "I love Remus, but…I can't keep my mind off of someone else."
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"I don't even remember Severus Snape really. He was in Slytherin?"
Clea nodded and dipped the bottom of her biscotti in the steaming hot mug of coffee in front of her.
Christmas came and went, and Clea could not remember having more fun in so long. It was a relief to be with Andromeda, opening presents and sharing stories.
During the week after Christmas, Clea spent time just relaxing and talking with her cousins. Occasionally she started a letter to Remus, but would chicken out of sending it. The vacation would be over soon, anyhow; she would see him then.
Sitting at a small café, after a full day of shopping, Andromeda and Tonks, who succumbed to spending at least one day with her mother, are desperately attempting to get Clea to open up.
"It's odd that you were in Slytherin, Clea," Tonks said, grabbing a cookie and putting it on her plate. "I mean, you're really nice."
Clea shrugged and reached across the table, grabbing the cookie off of Tonks plate and putting the whole thing in her mouth.
"Hey!"
"I wanted the pink one, Nymphadora," Clea whined, after swallowing her mouthful.
"I take that back about you being nice; and call me Tonks."
"No," Clea said, trying not to laugh.
"Anyways," Andromeda snapped, shooting a look at Tonks. "Who was Snape?"
"Severus was in Slytherin with me; a year ahead though. We were…friends, but he had a thing for me." Clea picked up her mug, and swished the contents around. "And now his thing is growing."
"Oh, his thing is growing?" Andromeda asked, practically bursting with laughter.
"Ok, I have to leave now," Tonks stated, standing up.
"Sit," Andromeda demanded, pulling her daughter down.
Clea was still chocking loudly on the cookie crumbs she inhaled when she laughed at Andromeda's question. "He likes me again, is what I meant," she said, pausing to gasp for more oxygen; "Even more than before."
"And, you like him?"
Clea shrugged one shoulder and looked out the window. "I guess I never really thought about that."
It was the truth. Clea never really did sit down and sort through her feelings about Snape; why she liked flirting with him, and why she liked him flirting back.
"Clea, here's how you decide," Tonks said bluntly, waving a cookie as she spoke. "Which one is hotter?"
"Nymphadora!" Clea exclaimed. "I'm not going to pick which one I like based on looks. Other wise neither would win."
"What?" Tonks laughed.
"Well," Clea giggled back. "Remus is handsome, not hot; there's a difference. And Severus…"
"Cleopatra, don't listen to my daughter. She doesn't really have that great of a record with men." Tonks's mouth dropped, and she narrowed her eyes at her mother. Andromeda reached over to Tonks and pushed her chin up, closing her mouth. "Prove me wrong, baby. Cleopatra, you don't like Snape."
"I…don't?"
"No!" Andromeda shouted, causing everyone in the small café to turn their attention to her. "You like the bantering, and the flirting; and those things cause that built up lust you're feeling."
Clea was about to say something, but instead she pursed her mouth in thought. She strengthened her grip on her mug, and downed its contents.
Andromeda instinctively poured Clea more coffee. "You like the fact that someone likes you. But, that's just it Cleopatra you like it; you don't love it. You love the way Remus likes you. Maybe he doesn't play games with you, and gets your blood pumping, but then again, he doesn't need to."
Clea stared at Andromeda, her chest rising and falling in a slow, steady pattern. A throbbing pain started to knead its way through Clea's brain. She just sat there, taking in the echoes of Andromeda's words.
That's what Snape had. Snape had little flirty games, and an icy, sarcastic voice. Remus had everything else, and didn't need to prove it.
"I wish you were my Mother, Andromeda," Clea whispered and then laughed. "You just….you're absolutely right!"
Andromeda beamed and looked around the room, like she was searching for some other lost soul that needed her wisdom.
"Please, Clea, please," Tonks begged, reaching across the table and grabbing Clea's hand. "Don't encourage her, or she'll start-"
"Did I ever tell you Cleopatra about the time I convinced Nymphadora to become an Auror?"
"Bragging about things that never occurred!"
Clea laughed heartily, and began mopping up the drips of coffee that splattered onto her plate; as Andromeda and Tonks argued over who insisted to come to this café.
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"Ok, now make your nose bigger. Bigger. Still bigger. Ok, there, that's what his nose looks like. And his hair is about shoulder length and just lathered with grease; all right, go!"
"Ah, I remember him now. Snivellus, right?"
"Yes!"
Clea and Andromeda bent over in their seats on the couch in Andromeda's living room, shaking with gasps of laughter. Tonks scrunched her face up, and turned back into her normal heart-shaped face and violet hair.
"Can I go now?" she whined, stomping her feet.
Before they new it, New Years Eve had descended upon them, and Clea and Andromeda had big plans; get fall-over drunk on the Egg Nog they forgot to drink last week.
Clea looked up at Tonks and moaned when she no longer saw the face of Severus Snape staring back. "You're no fun," Clea moped. She felt sick and lightheaded, mostly due to the turning of the eggs in her drink.
Ted came out of the kitchen, red party hat strapped over his hair, and carrying a new bowl of Egg Nog.
"That might be a big mistake, Dad," Tonks said, eyeing the bowl.
"Nymphadora, mimic my hair and then turn around," Clea said, kneeling on the couch and turning around in a circle to give Tonks the full view of her hair.
"No, Clea. I have to go."
"Nymphadora! Listen to your Mother!" Andromeda poked herself in the chest with her finger.
Tonks sighed, and closed her eyes. She spun around, shiny black hair attached to her head.
"Beautiful," Clea sang. "I knew it!"
Tonks changed her hair back, to the chorus of Andromeda and Clea yelling at her to keep it. "I. Have. To. Go," Tonks said slowly, making sure every word was pronounced correctly.
"Where are you going?" Andromeda asked.
"I'm going to take my shoes off," Clea shouted. Clea laid on her part of the couch and stuck her feet in the air. She stretched her hands up, trying desperately to reach them. When that didn't work she took her wand out and undid the clasps. Then she used the tip of her wand to prod her shoes off of her feet, allowing them to fall to the floor, inches away from crashing onto the coffee table and into the Egg Nog.
Tonks walked over and looked into the mirror, shifting her clothes around so that they were straight. "I have a date, Mum" she said, smiling to herself; "with a boy from work, before you ask."
"Is he a werewolf, too?" Clea asked quickly, before her hand brought her newly filled glass of Nog up to her mouth, preventing her from talking.
Andromeda half laughed, and half looked scared at her daughter. "If he is, have him meet Clea," she managed to choke out.
"Every witch should date a werewolf once," Clea announced, her voice echoing off the ceiling. "They're a lot of fun right before the full moon. If you know what I mean." Clea put her hand over her mouth and laughed, scrunching herself up into a ball.
"What do you mean?" Andromeda asked her, fixing her with a serious look of confusion.
Clea crawled across the couch and pulled Andromeda down slightly, whispering something that sounded like gibberish into her ear.
Andromeda shot up straight, clasping her hand over her chest and looking appalled. Seconds after holding that pose, she burst into a fury of laughs. "I knew what you meant…I pretended not to!" Andromeda threw her head back, cackling.
"Why?" Clea mouthed, through her own laughter.
"Happy New Year Mum, Clea…if you two even remember me saying it," Tonks said, laughing. She walked over to Ted, who was sitting in an arm chair reading a book, and kissed his forehead, poking her eye with the top of his party hat.
"Watch this Andromeda," Clea said, snapping her finger in front of Andromeda's face. Clea clasped her eyes shut and re-opened them moments later. "Is my hair orange?"
Andromeda grabbed Clea's head and brought it right up to her eyes. "I should get my glasses," she mumbled. "It looks black to me."
Clea frowned. "I miss Sirius."
"Oh, Cleopatra," Andromeda moaned, putting her arm around Clea. "Its ok, everything will be ok, ok?"
"Ok," Clea said. "Do you remember Witchy Woman?"
Andromeda's face burst into a wide smile. "That was your song!" she exclaimed.
Clea laughed and literally bounced across the edge of the couch and back to her little corner. "Do you have a song?"
"I want it to be She's a Super Freak," Andromeda giggled. "Should that be my song, Teddy-kins, my love, my sweet?"
"That sounds about right," Ted said, not looking up from his book.
Andromeda started singing at the top of her lungs and Clea danced along, downing her Egg Nog and proceeding to drink some more right from the ladle in the bowl.
The two girls jumped and huddled together when a loud bell rang through the house. "Ted, get the door," Andromeda shouted to Ted's empty seat.
Ted was all ready at the front door, peering through the small peep hole in the middle of the wood.
"Andromeda?" He whispered, tip toeing back into the room. "There is a tall man, with scars, outside." Ted shook a little, and glanced over his shoulder at the locked door.
Clea squealed, and leapt out of her seat.
"That girl loves a man with scars," Andromeda laughed, attempting to follow Clea, but giving up when she couldn't figure out how to stand.
Clea sprinted to the door and threw it open. A large smile spread across her face.
"Hello, Clea," Remus said, softly.He looked slightly tired, but in better health than usual. A break from teaching, allowed him to rest his body and mind.
Clea grabbed his hand and dragged him into the house. "Eee," was all she managed to say to him.
"Hello," Ted said timidly, standing behind Andromeda, who made it off the couch.
"Ted, Andromeda, this is the love of my life," Clea sighed, resting her head on Remus shoulders.
"It's nice to meet you, Severus," Andromeda said loudly, walking forward to shake Remus's hand. She stopped halfway and dropped to the floor in a heap of choking laughter; followed immediately by Clea.
"That…was….so….evil," Clea said, through her laughter.
Ted bent down and picked his wife up. "Come on, Andromeda," he said, struggling slightly under her weight. "They drank too much," he whispered to Remus.
Remus raised his eyebrows and nodded, suppressing his own laughter.
Ted turned and led Andromeda out of the room. Andromeda was trying to mimic a howl, but couldn't with Ted's hand over her mouth.
Clea turned around and wrapped her arms around Remus's waist. Remus chuckled and ran his fingers through the back of Clea's hair.
"I drank too much," Clea said. Remus nodded. "And I-"
Remus pressed his lips gently against Clea's. He let his tongue slip into her mouth for a moment, before he softly kissed her one more time, and pulled away.
"Remus, I want you to know, that I'm done playing games and lusting after Severus," Clea paused, and Remus bit his lips to stop himself from either gagging or laughing.
"And," Clea continued. "I don't care how long it takes for you to want to be official again. I love you, and Severus will just have to deal with that, and Sirius better not ruin my life again, and the room is spinning."
Strengthining his hold on Clea, Remus kissed her forehead. "Happy New Year, Clea."
"Happy New Year, Remus."
