A/n: It's been a month, as you may know since I last updated. Am v. sorry. Here it finally is. This song actually has some relevance (sorry about the last one). Hmmmm that seems to be all I need to say. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I'm not a multimillionaire so clearly I don't own Harry Potter. The song lyrics belong to Tori Amos.

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From in the shadow she calls
and in the shadows she finds a way
and in the shadow she crawls
Clutching her faded photograph, my image under her thumb
Yes with a message for my heart
Yes with a message for my heart

She's been everybody else's girl, maybe one day she'll be her own
Everybody else's girl, maybe one day she'll be her own

And in the doorway they stay
and laugh as violins fill with water
Screams from the bluebells can't make them go away
Well I'm not seventeen but I've cuts on my knees
Falling down as the winter takes one more cherry tree

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After spending a day and a half there, Dora decided that the Burrow was her favorite place on Earth. The Burrow was a hodgepodge of a building: messy, chaotic, and loving. A little over loving at times. As soon a she stepped over the threshold, Dora had been pushed into well cushioned and blanketed armchair by a very forceful Mrs. Weasley. She had sat in the chair for the first entire day she had spent at the Weasley home, entertained by a never ending stream of herbal tea and Weasley children. After a good night's sleep in a spare bed set up in Ginny's room, Dora decided that she was quite fit enough and that she did not require another day of 'armchair rest'. She spent the day indoors pursuing 'quiet activities' because Mrs. Weasley was still not convinced that her son's friend had recovered entirely. Although she refused to admit it, even to Charlie (who stayed with her all day even when she tried to persuade him to join the snowball fight the twins had started by dumping a bucket of snow out of their window onto Percy's head when he went out to feed the chickens), she still felt slightly nauseous when she stood up too long.

Around noon on the twenty-ninth, Dora's second day with the Weasleys, Millie and Rusty showed up to spend the rest of the day and that night at the Burrow.

After dinner, Mrs. Weasley sent the younger children to bed so that only the two adults, Bill, Dora, Charlie, Rusty, and Millie remained. Dora guessed that there was a serious talk coming. She was quite correct.

"Dora, I'd like to clarify a few parts of your…er…" Mr. Weasley began, rather unsuccessfully. He tried again, "What I mean to say is that I'm curious about your relations to Narcissa Malfoy and the man you called 'Uncle Moony.' I was under that impression that your family consisted of yourself and your parents."

Dora pursed her lips. She should have known this was coming. "My mother was raised in a pureblood household where Muggles, Muggle-borns, and anyone who sympathized with them were treated like dirt. Mum agreed with them more or less. She went to Hogwarts, was sorted into Slytherin, made rude remarks about Muggle-borns, flirted with all the pureblood boys, did it all by the book, for awhile. In her fifth or sixth year she started questioning the beliefs that she had always taken for granted. She might have changed her mind then, but she kept up appearances for a bit. She was never very brave, at least not brave enough to stand up to her family. Then she met Ted Tonks, a Muggle-born Hufflepuff in her year, and he fell madly in love with her. Ted was two things to Andromeda; he was a good guy who wasn't like the ones her parents threw at her and he was a way to escape from a family that she no longer liked. She realized that if she didn't marry him she would end up staying in her parents' Gods forsaken house until her mother found her a suitable marriage with some pureblood third cousin. She loved Ted too, I'm not saying she didn't, it's just that she might not have married him if her circumstances had been different. Anyway, when she got off the train at the end of her seventh year, she went with him- Ted I mean. Then, she did the unforgivable: she married him. She was burned off the family tapestry – disowned. I doubt it was anything less than treasonous to mention her name under a Black roof after that," Dora looked around at her audience, some watched her, some stared off elsewhere, she couldn't read their expressions.

Dora closed her eyes, gathering her thoughts, and continued the story, "There was one other Black of my mother's generation who rebelled. When I was three or four my mother's favorite cousin, Sirius, ran away from home and was disowned. He was sixteen at the time. Andie was thrilled. She hadn't seen him much since she got married; he had to sneak out to visit us. After he ran he would come see us during holidays and stuff. His friends came to sometimes and they became my surrogate family. They each had a nickname that the others called them. I called them all uncle and used their nicknames: Sirius was 'Uncle Padfoot', his best friend, James Potter, was 'Uncle Prongs', and Remus Lupin was 'Uncle Moony'. There was another one too, Peter Pettigrew (I called him 'Uncle Wormtail'), but I didn't see him as much as the others.

"When they graduated from school they would come over for dinner, or baby-sit me, sometimes all of them, sometimes one or two. Anyway, I hero-worshiped all of them, except maybe Peter. I only met him two or three times, now that I think about it. Then, Uncle Prongs got married and I adored Aunt Lily too, and in spite of Andromeda's crazy relatives and the fact that Ted doesn't have any, everything seemed okay.

"Then Sirius went all wrong. Lily, James, and Peter were murdered and Sirius went to jail, charged for their deaths and those of eleven other people. It was all over within twenty-four hours," she looked up again, her story over. "Does that cover it?" she asked. "Narcissa is not legally my aunt, anymore than Uncle Moony is legally my uncle, the only difference is that one is biologically family and the other I consider family."

The other occupants of the room nodded collectively and Mr. Weasley opened his mouth one more time to ask, "Why did you leave home?"

Dora shrugged, "Mum and I got in a fight." She had just told several of her closest friends, as well as three near strangers, some of the most personal secrets of her life--secrets she had never felt the need to share with anyone. It had been easy to spill once she had gotten started but, now she felt a bit uncomfortable with them knowing her entire history.

Mr. Weasley seemed to take her hint. "Well then, I think we should all head to bed." The statement was met with a general consensus, but when the adults had settled in for the night, Millie and Dora slipped out of Ginny's room, and Charlie and Rusty left Bill and Charlie's. Their meeting in the kitchen was completely spontaneous and unplanned, but all four of them were there. Of course, it could have been because Charlie saw Dora and Millie leave (they had only planned on getting something to eat) and he and Rusty had followed.

The boys arrived just in time to see Dora open the window to let in the owl that had been pecking at the window. It was really very strange. Not the actual presence of an owl at the Burrow, which was common, but the fact that it had showed up at midnight. The owl refused the dry cereal Charlie offered it and swooped away as soon as it had dropped its package into Dora's unexpecting arms. She frowned at it.

"What's wrong?" asked Millie.

Dora shook her head and began to tear off the paper, "I don't recognize the handwriting that's all," she answered as she picked up a note that had fallen out.

Dear Dora, it read,

I found this in my vault, which I visited after I left you. I thought you might want it back. You've grown up so much since I last saw you. Lily and James would be proud. I suppose Sirius would be, too. Happy belated Christmas. We'll see each other again, I'm sure of it, but good-bye for now.

-Uncle M.

Dora read the twice before turning her attention to the box that had come with it. Slowly, she picked it up, opened it, and gently lifted out the object inside. It was a teddy bear, an old one, worn and tattered, clearly well loved by the child who had once owned it.

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"I remember that bear!" said Sirius jubilantly.

Tonks raised an eyebrow, "You do?" she asked, incredulous. Her cousin nodded. "After twelve years in prison and two on the run you still remember the teddy bear you bought twenty-two years ago for your cousin's daughter?"

"Yeah, I remember buying it too. We were at Hogsmeade at the end of my third year, James, Remus, Peter, and I…"

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The Marauders walked down the main street of Hogsmeade arguing about where to go first.

"Let's go to Zonko's, I need some more fireworks," said James.

"But James," whined Peter, "I thought we were going to Honeydukes, I'm starved!"

James and Sirius rolled their eyes and ignored their friend. The group continued to walk along the street until Sirius stopped abruptly, causing Peter to smash into him, causing them both to fall, causing Remus to trip over them, causing James to laugh at them, causing him to trip over a loose stone and fall into his fellow Marauders. When all four boys had righted themselves with considerable effort and much swearing, Remus turned, exasperated, to Sirius. "What the hell was that about?"

"I need to go in there," replied Sirius, pointing to Pandora's Toybox: Precocious Playthings, a small shop by the post office.

"Uh, Sirius, that's a toy store," Remus said.

"So?" asked Sirius, walking toward the shop.

"So toy stores sell fluffy stuffed animals and dress up clothes, which weren't things you were interested in, last time I checked," said James, eyeing his best friend strangely.

"I'm not looking for something for me," said Sirius as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, which it might have been to anyone who didn't know Sirius Black.

The other Marauders stared at Sirius; "Sirius, is there something we should know, mate?" asked James.

"Like what?"

"Like who the mother is."

"Andromeda," announced Sirius cheerfully.

Once again the Marauders were left speechless. "Andromeda's your cousin," Remus finally managed to choke out.

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Tonks cracked up. "That's brilliant, bloody brilliant," she gasped between peals of laughter.

"Yes, well, I can assure you, my dear cousin, I'm not your father," said Sirius with a grin.

His surrogate niece grinned back and said sarcastically, "Thank you Uncle Padfoot, darling, I was getting worried."

Sirius chuckled, "After my oh-so-trusting friends and I had cleared up that point, we went into the shop to buy you a gift. Your mother was due in about a month I think…"

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"Padfoot," James whined, "how dare you not tell us we're gonna be uncles."

"You're not," Sirius pointed out. "I am."

"Actually, none of us are," Remus joined the argument, "Andromeda is Sirius's cousin not his sister so that makes—" He was cut off by the scarf shoved into his mouth by Sirius.

While Remus simultaneously tried to pull the scarf from his mouth and beat Sirius over the head, James continued the conversation, talking to no one in particular. "But since Andie's sisters are both vindictive little bitches and Sirius is the only family member who speaks to her, that makes him the kid's uncle."

Remus stopped hitting Sirius at that point to roll his eyes and say: "No it doesn't. It makes him its first cousin once removed, you prat!"

"If I don't uncle the kid who will?" asked Sirius.

"'Uncle the kid'? Sirius, 'uncle' is a noun not a verb," said James.

"Hey, I thought you were on my side!" cried Sirius in fury.

"That was before you started using poor grammar," James teased.

Sirius sighed dramatically, "Anyway, every kid needs a cool uncle who can, you know, spoil it, feed it ice cream for breakfast, that kind of thing, and since Ted's an only child and Andie doesn't have any decent siblings, I'm it."

"Exactly," said James, "and since we're…you know cool…and everything we can be uncles, too"

"No you can't!" said Remus and Sirius in unison.

After a long argument that earned them several strange looks from passersby, Sirius and James came to the agreement that they would both be 'foster uncles' to 'the kid,' Remus washed his hands of the whole matter (figuratively speaking), and Peter wondered what they were arguing about. And so, in relative contentment, the Marauders walked into Pandora's Toybox: Precocious Playthings and headed toward the stuffed animal section because, as Sirius put it: "a kid can never have too many plushies." (This statement caused him much grief in the future, as the Marauders never forgave him for the use of the word 'plushies'). Once they reached the rather extensive selection of 'plushies,' a rather heated argument sprang up over whether to buy a dog (Sirius's choice, even before he became an animagus, he had been partial to dogs), a manticore (Peter's preference), a moose (James's idea), or a puffskein (Remus thought the kid might like something magical but not bloodthirsty). They finally settled on a teddy bear although, afterward, no one knew how they came up with that compromise.

And so, the four friends left the shop having split the cost of the bear somewhat evenly and feeling quite satisfied with themselves.

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Tonks grinned as Sirius's story concluded, "Well that about proves it," she said. "You lot really were mad."

Sirius nodded. "Quite," he agreed. "Now, what I want to know is how that teddy bear ended up with Remus."

"That was what I was about to explain to my friends when you interrupted."

Sirius gave a mock bow from his seat, "So sorry. Please continue."

She did.

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Rusty frowned, "He gave you a teddy bear. You're sixteen! Merlin, that guy's got a deranged sense of age appropriate gifts."

"It was mine when I was little. They gave it to me when I was born, Sirius and his friends."

"How'd your uncle get it?" asked Millie.

Dora sighed, more story telling. "On October 31, 1981, Remus Lupin came to our house. It was a little after 9:30 and I was in bed…"

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It was 9:33 and eight-year-old Nymphadora Tonks was pretending to be asleep. In reality she was impatiently awaiting a visit from Uncle Padfoot. He was very late. At 9:34, Nymphie heard the knock on the front door, followed by the sound of several locks and spells being undone, and then the creak of the door swinging open. Grinning from ear to ear, Nymphie jumped out of bed and ran out of her room. She had thought of the perfect excuse to get out of bed when Sirius came. She had accidentally-on-purpose left her teddy bear in the living room when her mother sent her to bed. Now she would retrieve it and Sirius would insist that she stay up with the adults for a little while.

Nymphie was halfway down the stairs when she peered through the railing and realized that it wasn't Uncle Padfoot who was talking to her mother, but Uncle Moony. Nymphie stopped. She needed to rethink her plan, Uncle Moony was slightly more rule abiding than her other uncles and chances were he would listen if her mother told her to go to bed and Sirius wasn't there. So she sat down to wait. And listen, of course.

"What's the matter?" It was her mother's voice.

Nymphie couldn't hear her uncle's response--he spoke in a hushed, rough voice; "Lily and James…betrayed…Harry…You-Know-Who…gone…but they're dead." The eight-year-old on the steps tried hard to understand the jumbled words that reached her ears. 'They' were dead, but who were 'they,' and who was gone, and who was betrayed. She leaned forward so she could see her mother and her uncle. She heard her mother mutter something disbelieving, then she heard Uncle Moony's response; "Sirius is a spy, Andromeda. He'll go to Azkaban and I'm glad of it."

Nymphie stared at her uncle. Uncle Padfoot a spy? She couldn't believe it and apparently neither could her mother. Nymphie listened in horror as her mother began to howl and shout, going on and on about Lily and James and Sirius. The little girl watched as tears ran down Uncle Moony's face. He reached out to Andie but she pulled away with a cry and picked up her daughter's teddy bear from where it sat on the couch, flinging it at him. "GET OUT!" she screeched. "GET OUT YOU CRAZED BASTARD! I DON'T BELIEVE YOU! GET OUT, I HATE YOU, DON'T YOU EVER COME NEAR ME AGAIN YOU, YOU WEREWOLF!"

Moony stared at her for a moment. Nymphie had never seen so much hurt in someone's face. Then he reached down, picked up the teddy bear, and walked out.

Nymphie stood and had started to run down the stairs when she tripped and toppled the rest of the way, she stood and continued to run, past her mother who was crumpled on the ground. How could Andromeda kick him out like that? Nymphie loved her uncle. She ran out the door. "Uncle Moony!" she shouted. "Uncle Moony come back!" But he didn't come back, and suddenly, it dawned on her: he wouldn't come back and neither would Uncle Padfoot. It all made awful, irrational sense. Uncle Padfoot was a spy and he was going to prison. Uncle Moony's lost, hurt eyes would take him far away. Uncle Prongs and Aunt Lily…They're dead. She didn't know how she knew she just did. And her mother…Nymphie could tell that Andromeda, beautiful, lively, steady Andromeda, would never be the same again.

Nothing would ever be the same again.

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A/n: SO there it is. Please, please, please tell me what you think, I know y'all are busy but it take like 5 secs, I like to know you guys are there, it's v comforting. I don't really need to be telling you guys this, I love you guys, I've gotten far more reviews that I expected so rock on!