One Black Sheep

1000 HITS ZOMFG! As a reward, er…. you all have my undying gratitude. How about 1000 reviews? (lol, ok. how about 30?)

Updates! Sorry, it's been a while. I've written a lot of oneshots, but four chapters is often where I hit a block on these serial fics. This is (by far, and rather surprisingly) my most popular story on Fanfic net, huzzah! That means you can expect it to gain some priority, although 'Loved and Lost' is still my favourite. And of course, though rather sadly, school takes priority even over that. Stupid school. Unfortunately I have not yet come up with a way to combine fanfiction and architecture – if anyone comes up with one, I'd be glad to hear it.

Disclaimer: Potterverse is JK Rowling's. JK Rowling is not me, although I shouldn't have to tell you that.

Chapter the fourth: In which Andromeda considers family values, and Ted writes a Christmas card.

A few days later and it was time for the Christmas break. She hadn't spoken to Ted since, and she thought that he was probably avoiding her. Although this had been what she'd wanted, she couldn't help but feel uneasy. She hoped that he knew that she had only been protecting him from Bella. Surely it had been obvious?

The three Black sisters boarded the train and took a compartment with a few others from Slytherin – Rodolphus and Rabastan Lestrange, Nadhezda Wilkes (a girlfriend of Bella's) and, because they couldn't think of a reason to keep him out, Severus Snape. The sallow-skinned, hook-nosed boy was in Narcissa's year – a constant prey of Sirius and James's pranks, and not very popular even in his own house. Andromeda surveyed him calculatingly as he pored over a thick Defence against the Dark Arts textbook. She didn't trust him. If Sirius didn't like him, that was enough reason for her to keep a wary eye.

Bella treated him with disdain, when she acknowledged him at all, and Narcissa mostly pretended that he didn't exist. Rabastan tolerated him, and was the one who allowed him to tag along.

Bella was discussing an article in the newspaper with Rodolphus and Nadhezda in very serious, hushed voices. Narcissa was bickering good-naturedly with Rabastan about the merits of quidditch as a sport (as opposed to shopping, which in Narcissa's opinion far outclassed it), and Andromeda, in between watching Snape out of narrowed eyes, was working on some extra credit Arithmancy problems.

She was having trouble concentrating, even on sending disapproving glances in the second-year's direction. The restless, uneasy feeling that she was forgetting something, the feeling that she'd had ever since … the Tonks incident … was only getting worse as the train sped away from school. She sighed inwardly. She couldn't help but think that maybe, just maybe, she hadn't done the right thing after all.

'Andy!' Narcissa prodded her in the ribs and she jumped.

'What did you do that for?' Andromeda demanded.

'You looked about a million miles away,' Narcissa replied with a grin. 'I'm sick of these boys, Andy.' Here she turned and stuck out her tongue at Rabastan, who responded in kind before going back to the conversation he was attempting to start up with Snape. 'Do you want to go for a walk along the train?'

Andromeda closed her textbook and put it to one side.

'Sure, Cissy. Let's go.'

The two sisters headed out into the corridor and headed along the length of the train. Narcissa was in a good mood and was bouncing along happily, gossiping about something one of her girlfriends had done with some fourth-year the other week, when someone hurtled out of a compartment to her right and pulled her to the ground.

She screamed, and faces began to appear at compartment doors all along the corridor.

'Sirius Black! Get off!'

Andromeda giggled as she watched her cousin disentangle himself from Narcissa and straighten up with a grin.

'Sorry, Narcissa. Didn't see you there. Hey Andy.'

'Hello, Sirius. Getting yourself into more trouble, are you?'

Sirius shook his head as James Potter poked his head out of the compartment he had just been thrown from.

'I told you I'd been practising!' he said triumphantly.

Narcissa pulled herself to her feet with a disapproving 'Hrumph!' noise.

Sirius grinned more widely still at the appearance of his best friend. Seeing that the situation was just a case of second-year high spirits, most people disappeared back into their respective compartments.

'Good one, James! You'll teach me that, right?'

James laughed. 'Not a chance, mate. It's been a long time since I had you on the floor. Hey Andy, Narcissa,' he added to the girls. 'Get tired of that Slytherin lot, did you?'

Narcissa stuck her nose into the air, an expression Andromeda had caught her practising in the mirror on more than one occasion.

'They're much better company than you delinquents,' she said sniffily. Sirius laughed again; a short, sharp sound.

'Aw, cousin dear, we're not so bad,' he said, batting his dark eyelashes at her. Andromeda watched as her younger sister fought the urge to laugh.

'Yeah,' James agreed with a wicked grin. 'We're a lot better company than old Snivellus, at any rate.'

'Sniv-'

'It's their name for Snape,' Narcissa explained loftily before Andromeda could even voice the question. 'Thoroughly immature, don't you agree?'

James and Sirius subsided into laughter, as though Narcissa had said something terribly funny. She frowned at them, trying to work out if they were laughing at her.

'Yes, terribly,' Andromeda agreed through barely suppressed giggles.

'Excuse me, what's going on here?' asked an officious voice. The little group turned to meet Marlene McKinnon, a tall, thin girl from Andromeda's house and year. They shared a dormitory but did not often speak to each other – the McKinnons had been blasted off the pureblood records several generations back for being a big bunch of blood-traitors in much the same way as the Prewetts had. She vaguely recalled that Marlene was a prefect.

Sirius stepped forward. 'We were just practising a bit of duelling –'

'No magic on the train,' Marlene snapped with a glare. 'Black, isn't it? That'll be a point from Slytherin.'

Sirius appeared affronted.

'I'm a Gryffindor,' he said with a sneer, and James stepped forward to be at his right hand.

'That's right he is,' he said. 'If we're going to be losing any points, it'll be from Gryffindor; if you don't mind.'

'Two points from Gryffindor, then!' Marlene spat. Andromeda attempted a smile at the girl.

'Oh come on, Marlene, they didn't hurt anyone – just a bit of high spirits –'

'Don't you try to talk me out of it, Andromeda Black,' she said testily. 'You're lucky I don't take points from you as well – especially after what you said to poor Ted.'

She turned with a flick of her long brown hair and stalked off down the train. Narcissa poked her tongue out at the prefect's retreating back, not noticing the look of absolute shock on her sister's face.

'Ug, what an absolute cow. Andy, to be a prefect in Ravenclaw is it required to be a perfect idiot?'

Andromeda's expression at Marlene's parting comment did not go unnoticed by James and Sirius, however.

'What did you do to Ted Tonks?' James asked suspiciously. Andromeda blinked.

'I –'

'She told him to stay away from her, of course,' Narcissa supplied in a high-and-mighty voice. 'Stupid little mudblood –'

James made a noise of pure outrage and Sirius held out a hand to stop him from doing anything rash.

'Easy, mate,' he warned, before turning to Narcissa with a glare. 'You know, that's a really ugly word.'

Narcissa's laugh was airy and high-pitched.

'Well, that's what he is,' she said. 'Andy even told him so.'

The boys turned to Andromeda with looks of absolute horror on their faces.

'You didn't!' James exclaimed. 'No wonder that McKinnon girl doesn't like you – I thought you said she was the nice one?' he added to Sirius.

'Come on, James,' Sirius muttered, pushing his friend back into the compartment, as he sent Andromeda a disappointed look. Andromeda sighed – she didn't like it when Sirius looked at her like that, as though he thought she'd done something terribly stupid …

But she hadn't, had she? Had it really been so bad?

Sirius was only twelve. Why did it bother her so much when he looked at her like that? Granted, she had always been his special favourite, his secret confidante – Bella had taken little Regulus under her wing but Andromeda and Sirius had always been the closest.

She didn't like to think that she had somehow let him down, even if she wasn't sure how it had happened.

It really hadn't been that bad … had it? She tried to think of a time she had heard Sirius say the word 'mudblood', but couldn't recall any instances. How strange.

But Ted Tonks would be fine, wouldn't he?

After all, he'd said himself that it was just a word.

Narcissa rolled her eyes as the door to the boys' compartment slid shut with a bang. 'That Potter boy is a nasty little blood-traitor,' she said matter-of-factly. 'I'm surprised that Auntie Walburga lets Sirius hang out with him – he's a bad influence.'

Andromeda frowned at her sister. 'I like James,' she said quietly – so quietly, indeed, that Narcissa appeared not to hear her.

'Come on, Andy. Some of my friends are in a compartment just down the way, we'll go visit …' She pulled at Andromeda's hand and the older girl reluctantly followed, although all she really wanted to do was go and talk to Sirius and James about what had happened with Ted, and find a way to justify her actions.

Later, she promised herself. For now she followed Narcissa meekly, wondering vaguely how Marlene McKinnon had even found out about the entire mess.

--

Ted groaned as he pulled himself out of bed. It was the first day of the holidays, after all – he felt he was overdue for a bit of a lie-in. Most of the students had left that morning on the train. Ted normally went home to his family – especially at Christmas – but this year his parents had decided to go away to America and take his younger sister Genevieve, so he had decided to stay at Hogwarts and Nathaniel, his older brother, was staying at his University. Fabian had stayed behind too; because, as he put it:

'It'll just be Molly and Arthur being lovey-dovey and Gideon being the world's biggest git, so I think I'll pass.'

But Ted knew that Fabian had really stuck around to keep him company, because he really did love being with his older brother and sister. They'd both been in Gryffindor – Gideon three years ahead and Molly four. Fabian was one of the only people in his family to ever have been sorted into a different house.

Molly was engaged to be married at the end of the year to Arthur Weasley, a young man who had seemed nice enough from what Ted had known of him at Hogwarts. From what Fabian had said, he had a strange fascination with muggles, but Ted thought that this was probably a better thing to be interested in than some of the obsessions a pureblood wizard could have.

Now, if only he could manage to get Andromeda Black to see the appeal of Muggle Studies …

He cringed and slumped on the edge of his bed, cradling his head in his hands. He couldn't understand why he kept thinking about Andromeda Black. He always seemed to catch himself at it wherever he was, whatever he was doing – it was killing him, because eventually he would remember her words in the Great Hall and he would feel like a complete idiot. Fabian kept asking what the point was in fantasising about a girl who looked at him like he was something unpleasant on the bottom of her shoe, and even Ted had to agree that it was completely daft. What had possessed him to even talk to her in the first place?

As if he didn't know the answer to that already.

She was … intriguing. Ted had always been naturally curious about things that were bound to get him into trouble. Of course, he never realised just how much trouble until he was well and truly up to his neck in it.

He was in trouble now, by God.

He couldn't get her out of his head. He'd tried – he'd tried, because Fabian was right, because it was completely stupid, because he knew it would never end well. He'd tried – but no matter what, she was stuck in there. She was this grand enigma that he just had to get to the bottom of, no matter what. He needed to know everything about her. He couldn't rest unless he did. He had to get her to laugh. Just once.

Fabian sat up in his bed, stretching and yawning.

'Mornin,' he said thickly, still half asleep.

'It's nearly noon,' Ted replied, his thoughts still far away.

'So 'tis,' Fabian murmured, checking the watch on his bedside table. 'What we got planned for the afternoon, then?'

Ted shrugged. 'Dunno. I still have to write out some Christmas cards.'

'Boring,' Fabian groaned, falling back into bed. 'Wake me up if anything exciting happens, will you?'

Ted rolled his eyes and grinned at his friend.

'You're a git, that's what you are,' he declared, throwing a pillow at Fabian's reclining form. An arm was raised sleepily to bat it away.

'At least I'm not boring,' came the reply, muffled by the blankets he was pulling up over his head.

Ted laughed. 'Well, I'm going to get dressed and be boring somewhere other than the dormitory.' He picked up a pair of jeans and tugged them on. 'At least I'm not going to stay in bed all day.'

All that could be heard from Fabian's bed was a barely perceptible grunt. Ted laughed again and resumed his search for his other sock.

--

Number twelve Grimmauld Place, the ancient Black family homestead, was dark and forbidding. Andromeda didn't much care for it at all. She couldn't imagine what it must be like to live there all the time, but somehow Sirius and Regulus managed.

Of course, it didn't stop the heir to the line complaining about it at every opportunity.

'I tell you, when I come into my inheritance this whole place is going to be knocked to the ground,' muttered Sirius as he idly tore off a loose strip of wallpaper. They were in the boys' bedroom – Narcissa, Andromeda, Regulus and Sirius – sitting about and chatting while their mothers and took tea. Bella was downstairs too – at sixteen, she was considered old enough to join in on adult business.

'You would never, Sirius,' Narcissa laughed. 'This house has been in the family for hundreds of years – Uncle Alphard told us so. You can't just tear it down!'

Sirius raised an eyebrow at her.

'It'll be my house, and I'll do what I damn well please,' he said archly. Andromeda flicked her eyes up from the textbook she'd been flicking through as Regulus began to snigger.

'Language, Sirius,' Andromeda scolded. He shot her a scowl.

'You're a fine one to talk, cousin,' he said testily. She frowned.

'If you're talking about that Tonks boy again –'

'Just forget it,' he muttered. 'Grab the cards, Reggie. We'll play some Exploding Snap.'

Regulus jumped up immediately – Andromeda knew he was excited because Sirius didn't often want to play with him anymore. He began to deal the cards and Sirius watched despondently. Narcissa leaned back into the headboard of Regulus' bed, where she was sitting.

'You act as though Andy did something wrong, Sirius,' she said, rolling her eyes at her older sister to show how silly she thought their cousin was being. 'I've heard you call Severus Snape worse names than 'mudblood'.'

'Cissy, don't start …' Andromeda sighed.

But Sirius was already rising to her bait.

'Snape's a slimy git who deserves everything coming to him,' he growled. 'You can't even begin to compare him with Ted Tonks.'

Narcissa laughed girlishly.

'He's just some stupid muggleborn. Why do you care so much, Sirius?'

Sirius scowled at her.

'You've got no idea what you're saying, do you? Ted Tonks is a wizard, and a human being. He's got just as much right not to be called horrid names as you do. More right, if you're going to be so stupid about things like this.'

Narcissa frowned. It looked as though she was at a loss for words.

'It's your turn, Sirius,' Regulus piped up timidly.

'Forget it. I'm out of here.' Sirius threw his cards down on the floor and stalked out of the room. Narcissa glared at the door he had slammed shut in his wake.

'Why does he say things like that?' she wondered sniffily. 'He sounds like a regular blood-traitor sometimes.'

Regulus gasped. Andromeda looked sharply at her sister.

'That's a terrible thing to say about Sirius,' she admonished.

'Well, he does,' Narcissa pouted. 'It's that Potter boy putting odd ideas in his head. And that Lily Evans mudblood in his house. I heard mother say so to Bella.'

Andromeda rolled her eyes. 'You know, Cissy – that actually is an ugly word.'

'You used it!'

'Yes, but I plan to apologise as soon as we get back to school,' Andromeda promised herself. Some of the things Sirius had said actually made a lot of sense. If she had time to think about it, she would wonder how a twelve-year-old could explain a concept that adults three times his age had failed to make clear.

Narcissa's lip curled.

'You sound just like he does!' she accused. 'What do you care if you hurt that mudblood's feelings?'

'Narcissa Black,' Andromeda said sternly, bringing out the 'mother' voice that never failed to get on Narcissa's nerves. 'If you can't keep a civil tongue in your head then I shall have to ask you to leave.'

Narcissa wrinkled her nose.

'I don't get you, Andy,' she declared, before sliding from the bed and imitating Sirius's earlier exit. Andromeda cringed along with Regulus as the door slammed shut for the second time.

There was a pause as the dust of the argument began to settle.

'Andy?' Regulus said meekly. Andromeda turned her attention to her youngest cousin, still sitting surrounded by the discarded playing cards.

'Yeah, Reggie?'

'Did Narcissa mean it when she said Sirius is a blood-traitor?'

'Oh, no – of course not.' Andromeda moved from the bed to embrace the tiny form of the six-year-old. He was sniffling a little – Reggie had always been the most sensitive of the children, probably because he had always been the baby of the family. Andromeda also knew how much he worshipped Sirius.

'She didn't mean it – she's just being silly,' she assured him.

'I don't want my big brother to be a blood traitor,' Reggie hiccoughed.

'He's not, Reggie – I promise he isn't. He cares too much about his family – about you. Narcissa doesn't know what she's talking about.'

'What about Bella?'

Andromeda paused.

'Bella too. They don't know Sirius like you and me.'

Regulus stared up at her with his big, dark eyes.

'Is 'mudblood' really a bad word, Andy? I hear mother and father use it all the time.'

Andromeda thought about this for a while.

'It's certainly not a nice thing to say to someone's face – even if they are muggleborn,' she said finally. 'It's like – well, we all know that Narcissa's absolutely hopeless at charms, but it's not very nice to point it out to her, because she can't help it.'

Regulus smiled.

'I'm good at charms. Sirius taught me.'

Andromeda laughed. 'Yes, I'm sure you are. But you wouldn't want to make Narcissa feel bad by rubbing it in her face that you can do something she can't, would you?'

Regulus shook his head.

'No. I wouldn't want to hurt her feelings. That would be mean.'

'Exactly. So calling someone a name just because they're muggleborn isn't nice either, because they can't help it.'

Regulus appeared to consider this for a moment.

'But Narcissa said that you called a boy at Hogwarts that name,' he pointed out. Andromeda sighed.

'I did,' she admitted. 'And it was a mean thing to do, and I feel terribly, and I'm going to tell him that I'm sorry. Just because he's muggleborn, it doesn't mean I can't be civil to him.'

'I can't believe that you would do something wrong, Andy. You're always so good.'

Andromeda smiled at him. 'We all make mistakes, Reggie. Sirius, Narcissa, Bella – even me.'

Regulus nodded solemnly.

'You're smart, Andy,' he decided. 'Maybe I'll go find Sirius and see if he wants to play now.'

'Okay, Reggie.'

Regulus picked up the cards and headed for the door.

'Wait!' Andromeda called. 'Tell Sirius … tell Sirius that I'm sorry.'

'For what?'

'For acting like Bella,' she said. 'Tell him I'm going to put it right.'

Regulus nodded and disappeared from the room. Andromeda settled back onto the bed thoughtfully.

Poor little Reggie, she thought. It was hard enough for her to work out how her family worked – she couldn't imagine how a six-year-old could ever hope to manage it. With time, he would understand. He would understand that there were certain expectations that came with being a Black. He would understand that the traditions of the family were unchangeable and ever-looming in the lives of those born under the 'toujours pur' banner.

And he would struggle with how to apply those traditions in a modern world where being a pureblood and upholding the ideals of the old families put you in a definite minority.

Yes, there were those who grew up in their world who never questioned the old values. Bella was like that. And Narcissa was headed that way too. But Andromeda liked to think that Regulus, who above all else wanted to be just like his big brother Sirius, would ask those questions.

Andromeda wondered if Sirius was so different because he had been sorted into Gryffindor with James Potter. In Slytherin, if you wanted to be different, you had to be so in secret. Being accepted was everything in Slytherin – although Andromeda was not a member of that house, she hung out with her sisters and their friends enough to know this. You had to make the right connections, and to do that you had to say the right things.

Purity of blood. That was important, yes.

Andromeda could accept that. That's what they'd always been taught, after all. And past that certain point, she had never questioned it. Family values ran deep.

Until a certain boy had caught her eye for the briefest of moments across the library that autumn afternoon.

Sirius had James Potter to show him that right and wrong was a matter of perspective. And now, Andromeda had Ted Tonks to make her question everything that she thought she'd always know.

She felt a bit like Reggie, really – whatever she did, she didn't want to let Sirius down. She wanted to show him that even though he was the Gryffindor, he wasn't the only Black brave enough to ask the right questions. They would figure this out together, she decided – in their own way but at the same time, and at the end of it all they would be able to show the family how old traditions could be translated into a modern world.

--

Ted Tonks tapped his quill on the page in front of him, making little puddles of ink over the parchment. It was three days until Christmas.

He'd sent an owl to his parents and sister, and another to his big brother. He'd sent a card to his fellow prefect Marlene McKinnon, who was a nice girl if a little bossy at times, and one to Fabian's family since they had had him to stay over the summer. He'd also sent messages to the other boys who shared the dorm with him and Fabian, and a couple of friends from other houses like Frank Longbottom, the Hufflepuff.

Basically, he'd sent a seasonal greeting to everyone he spoke to on a regular basis. And yet …

And yet here he was still sitting at a table in the common room, a piece of parchment in front of him, wondering if this was just a phase like Fabian said or if he really was going mad.

To Andromeda Black.

It was as far as he'd been able to get. Even those words had taken five minutes to settle on. He sighed and put the tip of the quill to the page again.

Merry Christmas.

Well, that was a given. Not too difficult.

Hope you have been enjoying the break.

It was probably best to keep it generic, in any case. Keep it friendly. Keep it free of anything that actually meant anything.

Which might actually prove easier said than done, he thought ruefully

Hogwarts is fun with not many students about. I'm kind of glad that Mum and Dad went off to America for this trip and gave me this Christmas here.

Hope you're well and that your Christmas turns out fine.

With best wishes for the season,

Ted Tonks.

He studied it critically. Yeah, that seemed all right. A bit boring, though.

There should be some way to show that he thought the whole incident had just been some sort of grand joke. Laugh it off; that was the way. If you could laugh at yourself, people didn't quite know what to do next.

He thought for a moment, and then added a postscript.

P.S: Don't think I've forgotten about your Muggle Studies education. You've just proven to me that you need it more than I could ever have imagined. Merry Christmas, and I'll see you in the New Year!

He grinned. That should do it.