Andromeda was very glad when Elsie had grown enough to sit and play with the others, although between Tommy's complaining and the younger twins' teasing, Elsie did some yelling of her own now. Percy didn't often join in to play with the younger ones, but tried to make sure that Silas and Regis weren't mean to the others and that Tommy didn't whine so much.
A couple of months had gone by, and Andromeda had observed Percy becoming more and more frustrated with his younger siblings. So one day, she asked Will to make sure the younger ones didn't hurt each other, then asked Percy to talk with her as she put in some laundry.
"What?" Percy asked her, looking up at her. "I didn't do anything wrong, did I?"
"No," Andromeda smiled at the boy, "but I did want to discuss something with you."
"Oh...okay," said Percy nervously.
"You're getting frustrated with your younger brothers and sisters, and I thought we could talk about it a little bit," Andromeda said simply. "Anything you want to say first?"
Percy immediately scowled at the mention of the others. "They never listen!" he told his mother, sounding pained. "And they don't behave, and they're so loud!"
"They are," Andromeda agreed. "But they do behave sometimes. Tommy and Elsie are very young still, and they all have a lot to learn."
"I hate it," Percy said flatly.
"I know," his mother said. "It bothers you: I've noticed. I need to ask a favour from you though, Percy." The boy hesitated, then nodded, and she continued, "I need to ask you to let them be children."
Percy looked confused for all of a few seconds, then huffed. "Mother, even children ought to know better! We don't set the house on fire, and we don't do things to make Tommy scream, because he does it enough already!"
Andromeda acknowledged this, and continued, "You will only become more upset if you try to control them, Percy. They're not likely to listen to you—children don't like when one of their brothers or sisters always repeats what the parents say. Your father and I appreciate that you take our words so seriously, but we need to be the ones who tell the younger ones all the rules."
"But you're busy all the time," protested Percy. "I just try to help!"
"And I love you for that," Andromeda told him, setting the laundry aside and facing her son with a gentle smile. "I never thought I would have a child that wanted nothing but to follow the rules. I don't want you to constantly be telling the others how to behave and have them not like you because they think you're trying to be their dad or something."
"I—I wouldn't!" Percy said, his cheeks colouring furiously.
"I know," she said softly. "I appreciate you trying to help, Percy, but I must ask you to leave it to me and your father to enforce the rules. You need to be a child while you're a child, too. We can't always control everything that goes on around us, and we've got to learn to live with the things that we can't change."
"But—I can't stand to see the twins annoy Tommy," Percy groaned. "Mum, it drives me crazy!"
Andromeda hesitated, then said, "You know, Percy, it annoys me too." He looked shocked, and she continued, "Your father and I have been talking about what to do about it, and we've decided that we're going to try a few different things, but I need you to take a step back and let us work."
Percy frowned. "Do you want me to come to you when they're being bad?" he asked.
"No, dear, because do you know what will happen if you do that?" she asked him. He shook his head, and she gave him an understanding look. "Kids don't like when someone goes and tells on them all the time. They'll be upset with you, and call you names."
"They already do," Percy sighed dejectedly.
"Percy," Andromeda sighed, his expression hurting her heart. "Ignore them, okay? If you need to, go outside. Or, if you want, I'll make you a little place in your room that you can go when you need to get away. I'd like you to work on ignoring their behaviour so that you can do whatever you need to in spite of whatever the people around you are doing. It will help you in the future: I know you always say you want to work at the Ministry. You'll need to be able to work above noise, and those annoyances that won't go away."
Percy looked down at the basket of laundry, and his mother felt the sadness and frustration in her fourth child. "I don't know if I can," he whispered.
Andromeda knelt down to his level and took him by the shoulders. "In my family, we have a certain…tradition," she told him. "We never say 'I can't.' We can do anything we want to, no matter how hard, and no matter how painful. I am your mother, Percy; I understand how you feel, and I will help you."
He flung himself into her arms, which was a great rarity, and she hugged him tightly, whispering, "You can do it. I believe in you."
"Thanks," he mumbled, his face hidden in her hair. "May I go now?"
"Yes," she said, kissing his head before letting him go. "I love you, Percy."
"Love you too," he answered, then made his escape.
Andromeda watched him go, knowing exactly how he felt, trying to corral his mischievous brothers and sisters. It was never easy to be that one child that did their best to follow the rules.
One day after Dora finished talking to her cousin, she ventured outside into the orchard. She simply wanted to be alone with her thoughts and not have to hear the youngest two Weasleys making noise. She found Percy already outside and gave him an understanding nod. The boy had been ignoring his younger siblings almost as much as she had in the last couple weeks, and she figured he was trying something else to get them to behave.
"Still fighting?" Percy asked knowingly.
Dora nodded. "I hate them," she mumbled. "They're the worst."
Percy didn't comment, and the two of them sat in silence for a while, just listening to the tree leaves rustling and the birds chirping around them. They were just about to go back to the house for a snack when Dora saw someone coming and froze, staring at the figure. "Ronan?" she breathed.
"Dora," the boy grinned, walking toward her and Percy.
Percy's mouth fell open. "No," he said sternly. "You aren't allowed to be here."
Dora just continued to stare. She had just been talking to him, and now he was here at her house? It couldn't be. There was no one that would bring him to the Burrow, and she well knew that there wasn't any way he could get there himself. "How did you get here?" she asked him in French, and the moment she saw the confused look on his face, she knew what was going on.
"How dare you?" she screamed at the image of her cousin, and Percy was shocked, stepping back from them. "How dare you pretend—" And she raised both hands and threw a rugged spell at him.
"Hey!" the boy protested, and Dora drowned him out by screeching at him in her anger as he dodged her first attempt to hurt him. "Stop! Stop!" someone was shouting, but Dora took aim again and let her spell fly, hitting the boy directly in the chest. He yelled when it hit him, then fell to the ground, motionless.
"Silas!" came a terrified cry from nearby, and Regis ran out from behind a tree. "Silas! Mum!" The second twin ran for the house as fast as he could, and Dora turned from the unconscious boy who was now in his natural form.
"You're going to be in so much trouble," Percy gasped, and Dora, still shaking with anger, snapped that she didn't care.
Barely a minute later, Andromeda came hurrying out of the house with Regis after her, and found them in the orchard. The woman didn't say anything to Percy or Dora, but knelt next to Silas and began doing her best to help him.
Regis looked terrified. "Mum, is he going to be okay?" he kept asking her over and over.
"He's going to be sick for a few days," Andromeda told the other twin after her examination of the unconscious boy. "He might hurt for a while, though, so you'll have to be quiet and gentle when he wakes up. Come on. I'll move him to his bed."
"Aren't you getting Dora in trouble?" Regis asked, shooting a glare at the girl that had harmed his twin.
Dora glared right back at him, unwilling to back down from what she had down, even if her mother decided to curse her, too. Andromeda merely answered, "That is between me and Dora. Let's take care of Silas."
When the twins disappeared into the house with their mother, Percy glanced at Dora and said, "This is why I've tried to make them stop playing tricks on everyone. They do not listen."
"Ronan is my best friend!" Dora snapped, though she wasn't angry at Percy. "They can't just pretend—he's not here! And he would never come here! They're too stupid to be like Ronan." And she sat down on the ground and tried not to cry, though it was a losing battle as tears trickled down her face.
"Do you want me to stay?" Percy asked her.
"I don't care," Dora cried. "I don't care about anything."
"Well, I think Mum will either send me away or have you go inside the house with her, so I think I'll just go," said the boy carefully. "I'm really sorry, Dora. I hope they learn a lesson from this."
"I hope he dies!" Dora cried, wrapping her arms around her knees and hugging them tightly to her chest. She didn't move from the spot, didn't even get to her feet when her mother came back alone and looked down at her.
Andromeda knelt down in front of the girl, who scrambled backwards to keep a distance from her and gave her an angry, scared, and trapped look. "I'm sorry for what they did," Andromeda said without attempting to approach again. "They don't quite understand how much Ronan means to you."
"I hate them," Dora snarled, though the effect was ruined as tears streamed down her cheeks.
Andromeda took a deep breath, seeming to try to gather as much patience as possible, and said, "I think you know our rule about using magic against each other."
Dora did not answer, did not even acknowledge her mother's question, and the woman said, "I also think we might need to change that rule a little bit." Dora looked up at her mother in defiance, waiting for the curse that she knew would be coming, her heart pounding as she wondered how bad her mother's curse would be.
"I'm not going to punish you," Andromeda said quietly, and Dora gave her a look of hopeful disbelief. "I believe if the twins insist on pranking everyone as they have been doing, you have every right to prank them in return. However, Dora, I must ask that in future, you only use spells that do not injure them. I can get you a book on jinxes, if you want."
"I want them to leave me alone," Dora sobbed. "I want Ronan back, and I don't want to be here! I don't like Tommy and Elsie, and I don't belong here!"
"You do belong here," Andromeda said in a pained voice. "You're my daughter, Nymphadora, and I love you."
"I'm not like you," Dora cried, shaking from head to toe. "I'm more like Bella! Why couldn't she have just stayed home so I didn't get sent away?"
Andromeda ached for the girl, and said after a moment, "You know, Dora, I named you after her. Your name is actually Bellatrix Nymphadora, but we called you Dora because Bella didn't like the idea at first."
Dora stopped mid-sob and looked at her mother. "Really?" she choked.
Her mother nodded. "When I was pregnant with you and Charlie, we all nearly died because of the powers you have. You were already trying to do magic, way back then, and you morphed my insides until I had to go to St Mungo's and have them help me. So I named you after my sister because you almost killed us all."
Dora let out an uncertain giggle and continued to sniff back her tears. "That's weird."
"This, more than anything, means that you definitely have my family blood and temper," Andromeda said with a small smile. "I've always known, from that moment, that you would be a very strong witch, and when you were younger, I used to have to run after you and repair things because you loved to make explosions. You used to be the one running around and experimenting with magic, and it was adorable, but exhausting. I do hope that the younger twins mature into pranks and things that aren't hurtful like they did today, though."
"They wouldn't be doing that if they'd been raised by Bella," Dora huffed.
"No, they would probably actually hurt people with their pranks if that were the case," Andromeda answered with a sigh. "It takes time for children to develop sympathy and understanding, and your father and I still have work to do with all of you."
"Why do you like being a mother?"
Andromeda gave Dora a look of surprise. "Why wouldn't I?" she said. "All of you were once a part of me. It's my duty, and my honour, to teach you and raise you to become decent adult wizards that can support yourselves and have a good life in the future. I like teaching Elsie new words, and I loved teaching you older ones spells in preparation for Hogwarts. I also love to see the ideas you all come up with, and the way you see the world around you. Some parts of being a mum isn't fun, but it's all worth it in the end."
"Bella said you didn't want to have any children when you first married Dad," Dora sniffed. "Why did you have so many?"
"I was scared," Andromeda said truthfully. "You see, my dad abandoned me, and left me at your Grandfather Weasley's house. I was never allowed to be around Weasleys when I was a little girl."
"Why not?" Dora frowned.
"Well, see," Andromeda sighed, "Weasleys are bloodtraitors, Dora."
"I'm not," huffed Dora. "I don't like Mudbloods."
Andromeda raised an eyebrow. "Do not let your father or your brothers hear you say 'Mudblood.' Anyway, I didn't want to be here either."
Dora was surprised. "Really?"
"Yes, really," Andromeda answered. "I thought Weasleys were stupid, and that they didn't understand the way the world should work. I thought that they might be mean and terrible, but you know what? Your father is the most kind, and the sweetest man I have ever met, and his parents were absolutely lovely. Anyway, when I got pregnant with Will, I was terrified because I wasn't even sure I wanted to be here, and I didn't know if I could raise a child here, but when he was born, I loved him the moment I saw him, and right after that, I started wanting to have a little girl too. Then I just kept having babies because I realised it wasn't so bad after all."
"Wait," Dora said slowly, "you don't love Dad? You didn't want to be here or have a family?"
"At first," Andromeda answered. "I have grown to love and understand your father even though I never thought I'd be able to. He's a good man, in spite of his weird ideas about Muggles." She smiled slightly. "Now I'm going to go back in and make sure the others behave. I love you, Dora."
"Thanks," Dora whispered.
Andromeda got to her feet and left Dora alone, the girl curling up again, though she merely sat there thinking of all that her mother had told her. Dora decided that her mother was like Bella in some ways, but Aunt Bellatrix had never gotten used to her husband, it seemed. And Bella didn't like children—not even her own son all that much. Dora frowned as she considered her mother and her aunts; they were all very different, but very similar, she thought. And she was most like Aunt Bella. How convenient.