This scene is set between HBP and DH. In this fic, it happens between Ch35 Ted Talks: Part Three and the first section of Ch27 #JustBlackThings. I hope you enjoy it.
Adumbration of Forthcoming Union
Was it appropriate to play poker five days after Albus Dumbledore had died? Andromeda and her poker club had ummed and ahhed about it for a few days, sending owls back and forth to each other, until Roger decided that it was best to carry on life as normally as possible. After all, everybody was still going to work and the bank and the shops, and the weekend's Quidditch matches hadn't been cancelled. Poker, Roger had decided, was just as important as Quidditch, therefore this week's club should go ahead. Predictably, Dumbledore's death had been the main topic of conversation, and Andromeda had to pretend, like she'd done at work all week, that she knew as little as everybody else. In reality, Nymphadora had flooed home briefly the day after Dumbledore died, claiming that the headmaster had been murdered by Severus Snape. Nymphadora hadn't witnessed it though she'd been close by, and there had been a skirmish on the Astronomy Tower. Andromeda and Ted had been shocked by the news, though Nymphadora was so busy that she hadn't had time to stay and answer their questions. She told them that she barely knew the answers either, and that she'd come home only to prove she was safe. She'd rushed back to Hogsmeade before she even finished her coffee.
Discussion of Dumbledore's death had taken up so much time at poker club that the game had started late, so it was getting dark by the time Andromeda flooed home. Remaining silent and blank-faced while pretending she knew less than she did about Dumbledore's death was proving tiring after a few days, so Andromeda was looking forward to coming home to Ted where they could discuss it properly. But when she stepped out of the fireplace, it wasn't Ted sitting on the sofa opposite, but Nymphadora, wearing her Auror robes and, bafflingly, with short pink hair. Her hair had turned lank and brown a year before- no, over a year now- when Sirius was kiled. She hadn't been able to change it back since. She'd lost weight and had been looking peaky and drawn for months.
"Hi, Mum," Nymphadora chirped before Andromeda had climbed out of the fireplace.
"What's happened?" Andromeda demanded, "I thought you had to stay at Hogwarts?"
Surely she couldn't have more bad news? Why was her hair pink again? Albus Dumbledore had just been murdered, for goodness sake.
"Dromeda," began Ted, who was sitting in the armchair by the window, "Dora has-"
"I need to tell you something, Mum," Nymphadora interjected.
"What? Are you alright?" barked Andromeda. She clambered over the grate and into the living room.
"I'm fantastic. I'm happier than I've been in ages," Nymphadora trilled, "I've got news, and I need you not to over-react. It's good news, I promise,"
"Good news? Now?"
"I know it'll be a shock-" began Ted.
Nymphadora cut him off again and blurted, "Mum, I'm engaged,"
"I beg your pardon?"
"We're gonna get married soon. Probably next week," her daughter beamed.
"Don't be ridiculous," Andromeda scoffed. She glanced at Ted, "Do you two suppose this is funny?"
Ted and Nymphadora often liked to trick her like this. Andromeda dealt in sarcastic wordplay, whereas her husband and daughter played practical jokes and acted silly. Their pair of them often made Andromeda laugh, though now was not the time. Coming from Nymphadora, who'd almost witnessed Dumbledore's murder, it was downright disrespectful.
"Dromeda," said Ted softly, "It's true,"
Andromeda stared at him. She knew every expression on Ted's face, and the one he wore now was not the expression he used when teasing her. It was the expression Ted wore when he was deadly serious.
Andromeda's head snapped back to Nymphadora. She was getting married?
"To who?"
"His name's Remus Lupin,"
Andromeda recognised the name. "Sirius' friend?"
"Yeah,"
Andromeda could picture Lupin. He'd come to visit with Sirius a handful times during the first war. Remus had been gawky and sickly-looking. He was articulate and his manners were impeccable. He was clearly an intelligent boy, though in a different way to Sirius. Sirius who, Andromeda remembered, kept ruffling Remus' hair and ribbing him about his accent. They were clearly very close, to the extent that Andromeda had wondered if they were something other than good friends. Then the war had ended and Sirius went to prison, making everything was so much better and so much worse. Sirius' apparent betrayal of the Potters and Peter Pettigrew had been so blindsiding and horrific that Andromeda hadn't given much though to Remus Lupin.
However, his name had resurfaced in the Prophet a couple of years ago, after a scandal at Hogwarts. The school's Defence teacher had been sacked yet again, though this time the reason was new, unexpected and alarming: Remus Lupin was a werewolf.
Andromeda knew all this instantly. "What?" she barked.
"Dromeda-" said Ted.
"He's a werewolf!"
"No, he's got lycanthropy," Nymphadora corrected, "It's an illness. He was attacked, and-"
"You're- what? You've been- consorting…Sirius didn't…he's a werewolf!"
"He is going to be my husband,"
Andromeda felt shaken. Her heart was trembling. This was ludicrous. This had to be a lie.
She stared at Ted. "Is this true?"
Andromeda was pleading with him: Tell me this isn't true. Tell me you're both pulling my leg. A werewolf? No. No.
Ted nodded. And Andromeda realised what had happened: Nymphadora had been attacked by the werewolf. She'd been bitten and was now a werewolf herself. No. No, please, not this, not this. I'll do anything.
Andromeda felt sick, she couldn't look at her daughter. She couldn't speak. She could barely breathe. Not this. Not this.
She swallowed, and managed to croak out a question: "You've been bitten, haven't you?"
"No! Why would you think that?"
"Merlin, he's bitten you and now you're-" Andromeda spluttered. She wanted to panic and weep- and then she realised that she didn't actually want to do either of those: "I'll kill him. I'll rip him apart,"
She wouldn't need her wand. She'd tear the werewolf to pieces with her bare hands.
"I haven't been bitten! By Remus or by anybody else!" Nymphadora yelled.
"Oh my God, he's hurt you,"
"Mum! Will you listen? I haven't been bitten. Remus wouldn't do anything to hurt me, ever,"
Andromeda yanked Nymphadora's arm over to her. There weren't any scars on it, so Andromeda twisted it over to examine the other side.
"It's fine," Nymphadora insisted, holding out her other arm, "Look,"
She pulled her Auror robes down from her neck to show her throat, which didn't have marks on either. Andromeda didn't feel any relief. Nymphadora could have been bitten anywhere and even if she hadn't, the werewolf could have attacked her in another way. They were dangerous all the time, not just at full moon.
"I forbid you to have anything further to do with this werewolf," she ordered.
Nymphadora laughed cruelly. "Forbid me?"
"Dromeda, I've spoken to Mad-Eye," interjected Ted, "He says that we can trust this man, that he's not what you'd think, that he's a nice man,"
Andromeda wanted to retort that Ted should stop being callow. Ted trusted people more easily than she did. It was sweet and made him more sociable and likeable than Andromeda, though it also meant he was naïve. What did he mean, "a nice man"? A werewolf hardly counted as a man at all.
"He's a werewolf!" Andromeda repeated, "He'll attack her,"
"He won't! He won't!" Nymphdaodra shouted, "He's the kindest person I've never met. He was a professor, and he-"
"That's hardly a surprise considering he likes women half his age," Andromeda snarled, "He's taking advantage of you, and before you know it he'll bite you and make you like him,"
Sirius was nearly fifteen years older than Nymphadora. This werewolf must be in his late thirties, not much younger than Andromeda herself. Nymphadora was twenty-four. That was proof that he was a lech and a pervert. What had he done to her? He didn't want to marry her. How could Nymphadora let herself get involved with him?
"Will you listen to me? He's not dangerous, he's ill. D'you think he wanted to be bitten?"
Andromeda gawped at her. She felt disappointment well up in her chest, surpassing the feelings of fury and terror. Nymphadora had disappointed her. Andromeda realised that she had never done that before. Over the years, Andromeda's daughter had befuddled, enraged, exasperated, and drained her. But she had never let her down.
"I never thought I would raise a child so stupid," Andromeda spat. She wanted to slap her daughter, and she wanted to cry, and she wanted to hug her and hold her and keep her away this terrible, savage man who only wanted to hurt her.
Nymphadora stared back at her. A tear trickled down from her eye. Andromeda couldn't allow herself to cry, and she couldn't slap her, and she didn't have time to waste getting sentimental. Being sentimental had got Nymphadora into this fiasco in the first place.
"If you're going to be ignorant about this, I'll have to take charge," Andromeda decided, "I'll be writing to Mad-Eye, and to Dumbledore-"
She caught herself, and stopped. Silence thudded for a tense moment.
"Dumbledore gave Remus a job," Nymphadora seethed, "Dumbledore wanted him in the Order both times. Dumbledore knew he isn't vicious. He trusted him,"
"And see where Dumbledore's trust led him," Andromeda deadpanned. In other circumstances she would have been proud of this line, though now she only felt frightened and constricted, as another silence thrummed around the room.
Nymphadora scrubbed the tear off her cheek and said through gritted teeth, "I've loved him for a long time and I am going to love him forever. We're getting married next week. If you don't like it, you don't need to see me ever again,"
Then she looked up at Andromeda, smirked smugly, and said, "Boot's on the other foot now, isn't it?"
Now Andromeda felt as if she was the one who'd been slapped.
"Dora, that's enough," said Ted.
"Can't you hear what she's saying about him? She doesn't know any-"
"And you're hardly likely to win your mother over with that attitude, are you," snapped Ted, as if Nymphadora was fourteen and begging to get her lip pierced. And after lip it was eyebrow, or tongue, or navel or nipples or something else ridiculous, and suddenly Andromeda saw that this was all about.
"I understand," she hissed, "This isn't about a werewolf. This is about you, showing off as usual. You don't want to get married. You want to do something outrageous so everybody will look at you,"
"Dromeda," warned Ted, and she rounded on him.
"That's what it is, isn't it, Ted? Merlin knows we've talked about this enough already. If it isn't her hair, it's her clothes, or tattoos, or piercings or some other such nonsense. Always showing off, and all the better if she can spite me while you're doing it. You've found your ace card now, haven't you?" she accused, turning to her daughter, "Desperate to do something else to boast about. None of the girls at schools will believe what I've done, my mother's going to be ever so cross when she finds out I'm running off with a werewo-"
"Shut! Up!" Nymphadora screeched, "God, you sound pathetic. I fall in love to piss you off? What do you think I am, nine?"
"You're acting like a child," said Andromeda.
"You're treating me like one! It's nothing to do with you. It's nothing to do with anybody apart from me and him. It's nothing to do with anything apart from me and Remus loving each other and wanting to be together,"
Andromeda couldn't help but echo Nymphadora's cruel laugh back at her: "That's what he's told you, is it?"
"I was going to introduce him to you tomorrow night, but I don't want to anymore. You don't deserve to meet him. Merlin knows what I've done to deserve-"
"Deserve him? Here's what you've done to deserve him: be young and gullible,"
Nymphadora jumped to her feet and stepped towards Andromeda.
"If you say one more world about Remus, I will walk out of here and never come back," she seethed, "You know I will, don't you?"
And Andromeda did. Because she and her daughter were too alike. It would have been easy for Andromeda claim that her bubbly, jokey, multicolured daughter with a Manchester accent and olive skin and gaudy clothes, was nothing like her at all. But she was. Wilfulness, wrath, conviction, competitiveness, daring- these were all Andromeda's qualities. Her obsession with becoming an Auror and the single-mindedness with which she went after it came from Andromeda. The Hufflepuff work ethic came from Ted, but the blind ambition and hyperfocus was all Andromeda. She hadn't been satisfied with being an Auror, she'd wanted to join the Order of the Phoenix too, fighting on two fronts. She wanted to do everything, fight everything, be the best and do the most. That was Andromeda's doing. Andromeda knew that their similarities were the reason they clashed, and she was sure that Nymphadora knew it too. The scariest part was that the only person who had more in common with Andromeda than Nymphadora was Bellatrix.
Every trait which had enabled Andromeda to pack her bags, write a note, and leave her parents' house all those years ago, she now saw in her daughter. Nymphadora could and would disappear from Andromeda's life, and she would do it to be with a werewolf.
Andromeda's composure crumbled. Tears began dribbling from her eye and down her cheek. She reached out to touch Nymphadora who, to Andromeda's surprise, did not not flinch away from the contact. Andromeda put her hand to the back of Nymphadora's head and stroked her hair. It was so short that it prickled. Of course it did.
"He'll hurt you," she whimpered.
"He won't. I promise he won't, he'd never. He isn't like that," whispered Nymphadora.
"They're all like that," Andromeda promised. She didn't know what had happened to her child, but she knew that this freak would always be a threat to her. There was no such thing as a tame werewolf.
"He's different. I know how this sounds, but I swear he isn't dangerous. Please believe me,"
"I can't," Andromeda explained, and her tears were making her voice tremble, "I love you, so I can't,"
She brushed a tear of Nymphadora's face and kissed her forehead.
"Don't do this," Andromeda begged, "Why don't you come back home? With everything that's going on now, you don't want to be in that grotty flat,"
Nymphadora hadn't spent more than a few weeks at home since she was eleven, and she'd wanted to have her own place as soon as she left school. Andromeda had mostly forgotten what the house was like when she was around all the time- probably loud and messy and argumentative. But that was nothing to bear when it would get Nymphadora away from this man, this monster.
"Stop. Just stop, Mum," grimaced Nymphadora.
"I won't stop. I have one job, and that's to protect you," Andromeda intoned.
Nymphadora jolted, lurched away from her, and shouted, "For fuck's sake, get off your high horse!"
Andromeda felt anger flare back up. She didn't know what to say anymore, and why hadn't her husband said anything? Why was Ted sitting there so bloody quietly?
"Ted! Ted, why aren't you talking sense into her?" Andromeda demanded. He was better at handling their daughter.
Andromeda watched Ted rub his hands uneasily on the side of the armchair. He always fidgetted like that when he was uneasy. He exhaled thoughtfully, then said, "Our job's to let her be happy. He makes her happy, you can see that,"
He gestured at Nymphadora's hair, and realisation dawned for Andromeda.
"This is what it's all been about the last year's been about, hasn't it?" she barked, "I thought you were upset about Sirius, but turns out you've been gallivanting with werewolves!"
Sirius' reappearance had not been easy to handle, nor had the surly, morose version of him whom Andromeda had met the handful of times she'd been allowed to visit him. His death had been difficult to cope with: the fact that he had died, the fact that Bella had killed him, the fact that Nymphadora had been there and was seriously injured herself, the fact that Narcissa's husband was also involved. Part of Andromeda wished that she had been the Department of Mysteries herself. Most of her family had been. The day after the battle, Andromeda and Ted had visited Nymphadora in hospital, where she'd sobbed that she should have protected Sirius. Part of Andromeda had, guiltily, wondered if she could have done it better herself. She knew both Bella and Sirius better than her daughter did. But Andromeda hadn't been there, and Sirius had been murdered by Bellatrix. Andromeda had grieved for Sirius when he was sent to prison, though this time was different because he wasn't guilty and he was, definitely, dead. It was unlike loss she had experienced before. It was strange and jarring. There were so many parts of it, so many aspects of Sirius' death to deal with. Andromeda hadn't much discussed what had happened with Nymphadora, though Nymphadora's misery and suddenly lank hair had, at first, left Andromeda touched. It showed that Nymphadora too was unmoored and upset by Sirius' death. As the months had gone on and the brown hair remained, however, Andromeda had started to worry about her daughter. Nymphadora been at Hogwarts and visited home less, though her miserable demeanor remained, and had made Andromeda increasingly concerned. Though now it turned out to be nothing to do with Sirius' death, and everything to do with an insane infatuation with a dark creature.
"I was upset about Sirius! I still am!" shouted Nymphadora.
"Upset enough to shack up with a werewolf. Look how upset he made you, for a year. And you say he'd never hurt you,"
"I'm leaving," Nymphadora declared, "I can't stay and listen to you tell lies about my husband,"
Andromeda wanted to retort that the werewolf wasn't her husband yet and he never would be. Then she realised that Nymphadora would be leaving to go home to him. The werewolf would be waiting for her. In her mind's eye, Andromeda saw the wolf prowling round the kitchen in Nymphadora's flat, fur matted, claws dirty and uneven, hungry for blood while he waited for her daughter to come home.
"I won't-"
"Let her go," said Ted, "We all need space to calm down,"
"Calm down? He. Is. A. Werewolf,"
Why was Ted acting so coolly? Didn't he understand what the monster would do to her? The news about the Montgomery boy flashed into Andromeda's head, tears spilled out of her eyes again.
"I trust Dora. I trust Mad-Eye," said Ted.
"What do you mean, Mad-Eye? When did you speak to Mad-Eye?"
"I…err…a while ago. I had the same concerns you did, and I knew Mad-Eye would be the best person to talk to,"
Andromeda was reeling. Ted knew about this. Ted had known all along, and he hadn't told her. He'd let their daughter become twisted into this madness. He'd let the werewolf manipulate Nymphadora into believing that they should marry. He hadn't talked her out of it, or kept her away from the werewolf, or done anything to put a stop to this dreadful, desperate situation they'd now found themselves in. This conversation had revealed one betrayal after another, and this one hurt the most. Nymphadora was a loose canon, but Ted had always been the most reliable, honest, dependable husband. He never lied to her. As Andromeda stared from him to Nymphadora and back again, there was only one thing she could think: I don't know who you are. The man and this young woman in front of her were not who Andromeda had believed them to be. It stung, and what stung more was the fact that Andromeda had experienced this before. In a different house with a different version of her family, Andromeda had looked from her parents to her sisters and thought the exact same thing. She had thought she'd never have to feel that horror again.
"You still want to meet him, don't you, Dad?" Nymphadora was asking.
"Yes," Ted answered without looking at Andromeda, who felt another part of her heart crumble. She had fought hard for this life and this family, and now the darkness was coming for her again. Andromeda had long suspected that it was herself who was a danger to Ted and Nymphadora. Her family, her blood, her sisters. As infuriating and bewildering as Nymphadora was, Andromeda had always felt grateful that she was not like a Black. She was like Andromeda but not like Andromeda's family. She made herself not look like them. She used her father's surname, instead of the long, Black-like first name which Andromeda had, for reasons she hadn't entirely understood herself, insisted on giving her. She was hopeless at French and at piano and all the other refined pursuits with Blacks prided themselves on excelling at. Andromeda had been relieved that Nymphadora had appeared to escape the darkness and danger which being a Black brought. But now the darkness had come for her. The danger had not even been Bella's hysteria and sadism. It had come from Nymphadra's own soft-heartedness
"Remus and I will be over for tea tomorrow night," Nymphadora said, then added icily, "Mum, you don't have to be here. And if you're going to lie about him and bully him then I don't want you to be,"
Andromeda felt too overwhelmed to respond. She had failed this family. She had believed that it was her connection to Bellatrix that was the threat. How foolish. Last year had proved that Bellatrix's focus had been on Sirius, Dumbledore and Harry Potter, not Andromeda and her family. It was therefore not the Black bloodline which endangered Andromeda's family, but Andromeda herself. Would her daughter have joined the Order if not for Andromeda? Nymphadora was a product of an ancient, vicious family and a woman who had vanished from that family without a trace, leaving no explanation and exacting no revenge. Joining the Order had, for Nymphadora, been about atonement as much as activism. And it was through the Order that she'd met this werewolf. Andromeda and Ted's attempt to raise their child without blood prejudice had somehow convinced their daughter that it was acceptable to marry dark creatures. Nymphadora had deluded herself that falling in love with him would be as dramatic a story as Andromeda and Ted's Hogwarts relationship had been. Except Nymphadora didn't understand how frightened and unhappy Andromeda had been back them. And a werewolf was not a Muggle-born. A werewolf was a monster. And it was from Andromeda that Nymphadora had inherited her conviction to abandon her family if they disapproved of her choice of husband. Bellatrix was not the danger, the Malfoys were not the danger. Andromeda herself had brought this on her daughter.
Andromeda put her head in her hands. She wasn't sure if she was sobbing, or developing a migraine, or quaking with guilt and fury.
"Bye," she heard Nymphadora murmur.
Andromeda did not look up. She couldn't bear to look at Ted or Nymphadora, the two people she loved more than anything and had let down so badly. She had brought the evil into this family. She was the reason Nymphadora was going home to a werewolf who had convinced her that he loved her. This catastrophe was at Andromeda's own door.
Andromeda kept her head in her hands long after she heard her daughter leave.
Thanks for reading. Over lockdown, I've been busy working on some other fics. Mostly standalone one-shots, and a series which is in progress. Please check them out. Thank you.
