Author's Note
There's more about Sirius in this chapter, after all, he's finally free! So as you know, if I decide to continue on with this story, the plot would once again be different from canon because Sirius is free now! I already have a pretty good idea of how to write my next story so bear with me and thank you for the support. And too bad I can't fit in a scene about Sirius egging Snape's house or choking the Minister or something like that. It wouldn't fit the story no matter how fun it'd be to read or write. Anyways, thank you so much for reading, reviewing, favoriting, alerting, and supporting! Oh and a happy/merry Christmas to everyone! 3 Hope you have lots of love, fun, beautiful memories, and warmth this Christmas. xD
Chapter 23 – Recovering the Forgotten Years
For the past twenty-four hours, he'd been on a roller coaster ride of emotions. Everything had happened so fast, and before he knew it, he was a free man again. Sirius Black was a free man. He'd never thought this day would come. Sirius remembered when he was still in Azkaban the farthest he ever hoped for was simply to get out. He never thought he'd see his cousins or friend again. He never thought he'd find forgiveness and help. He never thought his godson would happily accept him. And he never, ever thought he'd get his innocence back. And after twelve years rotting in a cell of cement and charmed metal bars, Sirius Black never thought he'd be able to lie down in a cozy bed in a place he could call home again.
Andromeda's house was a small but cozy little home in Kent, no different than any of the other ones along the street. The garden was well kempt and the house was neat and tidy with a welcoming and homely feel. Often Sirius would spot a cloth rose either made of silk or velvet that Andromeda had folded herself, serving as decorations all over the house. Sirius remembered those roses. It had been the one thing still remaining from their childhood—the childhood before war tore them apart and brought every innocent mind into the trap of insanity. The love and bond from their past may have vanished, but those cloth roses still remain. Sirius sighed whenever he saw them. Like him, Andromeda hadn't completely been able to let go of the past either.
He'd slept in this room before—the room with cloth roses decorating the wall. Whenever he wanted to escape from his ridiculous house, he'd come here and hide out at Andromeda's, all throughout his childhood. Before she gave birth, that room was saved for him whenever he was over. Soon it became Tonks' room, and he watched her grow. He'd slept in the same bed while watching the little girl while Andromeda and Ted were out. Then Alexis came and lived with them, and Tonks and Alexis happily shared a bed on the other side of the room, while leaving that one for him. He then watched both girls grow. And now, many years later, he was back in that little room, lying on the same bed with the colorful quilt cover, facing the large slanted window adorned with silk and velvet roses Andromeda carefully folded, on the top floor of Andromeda's house in Kent. There he was, at home.
Sirius laid back, crossing his arms behind his head as he rested on the fluffy pillow. The bed was larger than he imagined, but still cozy all the same. The room hadn't changed much. But it was expected since he knew Alexis and Tonks probably wouldn't take all their baby stuff with them when they moved to a new flat. Sirius smiled softly. The ceiling was still white while the four walls were a clash of black and white and splattered rainbow. That was Alexis and Tonks trying to live together. He chuckled softly. Many features of the room were still the same, like the lopsided curtains or the bookshelf with the broken leg. But there were many changed features as well, such as the small crack in the window or the broken door that wouldn't close entirely.
The room was the same and different. After twelve years, Sirius knew that there would be changes. Though the changes may seem subtle in a small room, he wondered how subtle they would still be once he stepped foot out into the world.
"Sirius are you asleep?" a soft voice asked him and he turned to see Tonks enter quietly.
"No, I'm still waiting for dinner," he grinned. "Is it done?"
"Not yet," Tonks replied and came in, sitting down at the foot of his bed.
He raised an eyebrow. "Then shouldn't you be downstairs helping?"
She let out a dramatic sigh. "I've been banished from the kitchen after breaking three plates and dropping a frying pan on Lexi's foot," she told him.
He probably shouldn't laugh, but he couldn't help it. Sirius let out a barking laugh and Tonks scowled at him, playfully pushing him. "Nymphie, you are hopeless," he laughed.
"Oh would you stop calling me Nymphie? I'm twenty-one for god's sake!"
"It's a habit, Lexi still calls you Tonksie," he continued to laugh.
"And she always gets yelled at for that. Tonksie and Nymphie are so embarrassing!"
"Well how about we call you Nymphadora then? That's classy and formal," he teased.
She scowled at him but the upward curve of her lips took away all her threat. "You've got to be fucking serious," she groaned and rolled her eyes at him.
"I am Sirius, but I'm not fucking myself," Sirius laughed.
"You're kidding right? Sirius that joke is ages old," she sighed.
"I can't help it. Twelve years may have passed to everyone else but for me, it's like Azkaban had frozen time for me. Now looking at you, I still see you as that loud-mouthed little girl who can't ever decide on which color to put her hair."
Tonks' expression suddenly turned serious as she looked at her cousin. She let out a soft sigh much like her mother would in the same situation. "I'm sorry."
"You shouldn't apologize. Besides, I never got a chance to thank you properly for helping me. Without you and Lexi, I'd probably still be in that tunnel under Hogwarts, trying to get the help of a cat at catching Peter."
She nodded then patted his hand. "Twelve years isn't the end of the world. We'll help you recover them and get updated with the time. It'll be like you never left."
He smiled and nodded. "So you mind telling me what's changed in these twelve years?"
"Where should I start?" Tonks mumbled, partly to Sirius, partly to herself.
"Well you could tell me why there's a crack in the window."
"Oh, funny, I guess mum and dad never got that fixed," Tonks spoke as Sirius pointed her attention to the small crack in the middle of the large window on the other side of the room. "That crack got there because when I was fourteen, Lexi snuck out at night to hang out with her friends. I was supposed to wait till she got home and open the door for her so that mum and dad wouldn't yell at her. But I fell asleep and Lexi threw a rock at the window. She threw it a bit too hard and it broke through, hitting me on the head," Tonks chuckled.
"Hmm, this gives me the impression that you and Lexi weren't very good little girls when you were in school." Tonks raised an eyebrow. "Good, the rebellious blood runs on!" he grinned. "Now what about that door?" he asked. "It wouldn't close properly."
"Mum broke it with her foot when she was angry at me and I was hiding up in my room."
"Andromeda kicked the door down? What'd you do?" Sirius wondered.
"Lexi and I pulled the prank the Marauders never succeeded in. Remember when you told us you, Prongs, and Moony who is Remus, tried to blow up the entire Hogwarts library with dungbombs but it didn't work because only one went off when you pulled a book out?"
"Yes! None of us could figure it out! We ended up giving up," Sirius replied.
"Well Lexi and I figured it out by tying a bunch of strings and charming them to stay connected and invisible. We set it just like you tried to, pull one book out and set the trap. Minerva McGonagall triggered it and the entire library exploded," she laughed. "But then she wrote letters home to mum and dad, and when we got home that summer…oh hell broke loose."
"Hell hath no fury like a Black woman angered," Sirius laughed.
"Sirius, some things may be different, but a lot of things are the same as well."
"Really? I'd like to know what changed and what hasn't," he sighed, still smiling.
"Not much has changed," Tonks told him, thinking of only the positive, not the negative, such as how some of them were only a shell of what they used to be. "For starters, we've all gotten older. I'm an auror now and believe it or not, I've matured from when I was seven or eight. Lexi's older too, and she spends a lot more time thinking than she does before. She'd also grown up to be quite a heartbreaker. Bet you never expected that. Voldemort is no longer a threat. There are more laws and regulations but it's bearable. See, not a lot has changed," Tonks spoke, being unable to list many positive things that had changed when she knew the negatives were so many. "A lot of things are still the same though. I'm still clumsy as ever and still a metamorphmagus. Lexi's still lazy and rebellious. Mum's still scary when mad. She never sees eye-to-eye with me. Dad's always the one calming her down when she gets furious by us. Remus is still your best friend," she smiled. "I bet he's still good ol' bookworm Moony. And we all are still a family. There's so much more."
Sirius smiled, looking at her, looking around the small room. The door suddenly opened again and they saw Lexi's head peek in. "Oh good you're awake," she smiled. "Andromeda said dinner's ready and she told Tonks to just throw her clumsy arse out the window for dropping a bloody frying pan on my foot," she smiled pleasantly.
He found himself laughing while Tonks stood up and chased after Lexi screaming, "I'll throw you out the window you tosspot! I'll hex you into next week!"
Being around family again, Sirius didn't feel alone as before. He wondered how they all really were. Sometimes Sirius thought Alexis looked like she desperately needed some sleep. Tonks looked tired, like she has a lot on her mind. And Andromeda seemed faltering to her dreadful past. He sighed. It was going to take some time until he finally saw everything, and until then, he might as well enjoy life as it is.
When he got downstairs, Alexis and Tonks were fighting over the chair nearest to the window and furthest away from Andromeda. Alexis won, and Tonks ended up receiving a glare from her mother, but she still happily sat down beside the woman anyways. Sirius smiled. He saw Ted at the dinner table as well, and he wondered how he should greet the man. Ted was how Sirius remembered him, a fair-haired, big-bellied man with a pleasant and mellow voice.
"Sirius!" Ted Tonks smiled pleasantly. "Glad to see you're up and smiling. Come…sit before Dora eats all the food." Sirius' smile widened. Ted greeted him with normality. There was no special I miss you or I haven't see you in years. It was a simple greeting, and it made Sirius feel as if he'd never left. It was just like Ted, simple and easy, calm and casual, good ol' Ted Tonks. Looking at the table of four that had an empty chair waiting for him Sirius grinned and silently thanked them all. They were his family and he wouldn't trade them for the world.
Sleeping had never been such a blissful thing to do. When he was in Azkaban, Sirius Black could never get a good night's sleep, not with the insane screaming prisoners less than ten feet away from him who actually had committed a crime worthy of Azkaban, and not with the dementors looming overhead, waiting to suck out any happy memories he could muster. That night, Sirius laid comfortably in the old bed with the colorful quilt. He tossed and turned a bit, but soon he'd fallen fast asleep, under the quiet lullaby of the night that sounded from an open window. In the middle of the night, he'd faintly hear the soft tune of a woman, humming. He smiled as he slept. Sirius recognized that tune, it was Andromeda. She always hummed that song, a familiar childhood song that they all knew, everyone in their family…even the mental ones. It was a song that had once held them all together, and Sirius could remember its exact lyrics. As Andromeda's soft voice hummed the tune, he sang the lyrics in his head.
Little child, be not afraid
The rain pounds harsh against the glass
Like an unwanted stranger
There is no danger
I am here tonight
Little child, be not afraid
Though thunder explodes
And lightning flash
Illuminates your tearstained face
I am here tonight
And someday you'll know
That nature is so
This same rain that draws you near me
Falls on rivers and land
And forests and sand
Makes the beautiful world that you see
In the morning
And before he knew it, the morning sun was shining gently on his pale skinned face. He was waking up to a brand new day, a day out of Azkaban, a day inside his home. Sirius rubbed his eyes gently and sat up, yawning and slowly adjusting to the soft golden sunlight that scattered through the window, casting a golden light that illuminated the lightless room. Though it was winter, it was warm, much warmer than the cell he used to see each day. Sirius got up out of bed, feeling renewed, better than before. He walked over to the window and looked out to the land outside. Andromeda and Ted were leaving the house, going to work perhaps, Andromeda with her elegant cloak around her shoulders while Ted kissed her goodbye and disapparated with his black leather briefcase. A soft layer of snow covered the ground, and the winter scenery never looked more beautiful. It was his first warm winter in twelve years.
Sirius sighed and stretched his limbs in his fresh new cotton pajamas that were so warm and comfortable, a solid navy blue color. He had a small smile on his face that seemed permanent. After a few minutes, Sirius exited the room and headed downstairs, his stomach hungry again, yearning for great food he hadn't had for so long.
When he got downstairs, he saw Tonks in the kitchen, her pink hair up in a messy bun as she wore shorts that showed too much of her leg and a shirt a few sizes too big, revealing her shoulder. Sirius shook his head. The little girl he knew was gone and in her place stood a grown woman who only had small traces of the little girl inside. Sirius suddenly felt like a grown up as he suddenly wanted to scold her for wearing so little in the middle of winter. He felt old. Luckily his Marauder self dismissed that, remaining as young as ever and Sirius came over to the kitchen table and sat down, grinning.
"Good morning Nymph…"
"Finish that and I'll rip your tongue out," Tonks snapped rather pleasantly.
Sirius simply laughed. "What did Andy make for breakfast?" he asked, knowing he could call Andromeda the childhood nickname she hated since she's out of the house.
"Mum didn't make anything. She said Lexi and I are old enough to take care of ourselves and you," Tonks groaned as she scratched her jaw, looking at what seemed like a cookbook with a very odd expression on her face. "What the bloody hell does it mean by this?" she mumbled.
He watched his cousin warily as she held a frying pan with eggs in it over an open stove and a spatula in her other hand. Her wand was used to hold up her messy bun of brilliant pink hair while her face was twisted into a very odd expression while Nymphadora Tonks was trying to make sense of the instructions in a cookbook. Then it occurred to Sirius. Tonks couldn't cook. She never could before, and that was probably one of the things that hadn't changed.
"Um…Tonks…maybe we should let Lexi cook," Sirius suggested, knowing he wasn't much better than her at cooking. He couldn't even make toast without somehow setting it on fire.
"No I got this," Tonks told him, turning back to look at the pan. "Why's it taking so long?" she asked, wondering why the egg wasn't beginning to cook yet. "Oh perhaps I should turn the fire on higher," she mumbled and then reached for the knob that changed the setting.
Sirius didn't know why, perhaps it was a sixth sense, or perhaps he just knew his cousin too well, but he braced himself. "Oh shite, Nymphadora Tonks in the kitchen," he mumbled.
"Bloody hell!" Tonks suddenly yelled when she turned the knob and the stove ignited once, setting the frying pan in her hand on fire. "Do something!" she told him while trying to put the fire out with a wet cloth.
"What am I supposed to do?" Sirius replied, standing up and turning on the sink as Tonks brought the pan over in a hurry, the flame rising quite high. "God you're useless!"
"Hey! I don't need that!" Tonks told him while tossing the now burning cloth into the sink as well. "Oh wait, we have magic!" she suddenly spoke as if it wasn't the most obvious thing in the world. Tonks pulled her wand out of her hair and pointed at the fire in the sink. "Aguamenti," Tonks spoke as she put out the fire with a little bit of water from her wand.
When the fire was out, Sirius sighed and turned to look at his pink haired cousin who grinned and put her hair back up in a messy bun with her wand. "You're unbelievable."
"Maybe next time you should cook then," she retorted.
"I can't cook," Sirius told her. "That's why I'm counting on you lot. Now what am I supposed to do if I'm stuck living with you? I'll starve for Merlin's sake," Sirius teased.
Tonks was about to counter when she suddenly saw a disheveled looking Alexis Black rise sleepily from the couch. Tonks grinned at Alexis while she walked over to them, rubbing her eyes and yawning. Sirius realized that Alexis and Tonks had probably slept on the sofa last night, seeing that they still haven't cleaned up the pillows and blankets. Alexis didn't dress any better than Tonks did in his opinion. She was wearing shorts way too short and tight they almost looked like underwear, and her bright red tank top rose revealing too much of her chest. Sirius sighed.
"What's with all the screaming?" Alexis yawned.
"Our brilliant cousin Tonks here just burned the frying pan," Sirius announced.
"Again, why don't you try cooking?" Tonks retorted and stuck her tongue out at him.
"Really Tonksie? Again?" Alexis asked as she picked her wand up from the sofa.
"Lexi sleeps with her wand? Paranoid much. I'm guessing Tonks does too," Sirius thought to himself as Alexis walked over to them. He turned over to see Tonks playing with the wand holding her hair up. She never parts with her wand.
Alexis walked over and with a wave of her wand the burned tray suddenly lifted and cleaned itself, floating back into the cabinet where it came from. The burned cloth jumped into the trashcan and the ashes from the fire were cleaned up. Sirius was glad to know at least he lived with Alexis too and wasn't a ticking time-bomb in the kitchen. Lexi cleaned up Tonks' mess with no problem at all and she wasn't even surprised with Tonks.
"Honestly Tonksie, how many tries and how many frying pans will it take you to get eggs right?" Alexis complained. "It's just eggs cuz, nothing complicated." Lexi was looking around the kitchen, still yawning and stretching her limbs.
"I'm not completely terrible, I can make toast, coffee and tea," Tonks announced.
"So can a three year old," Sirius scoffed.
"No they can't," Tonks countered. "Three year olds can't reach the counter."
"Oh hush up both of you. How about we go to the Three Broomsticks? There's no food left since Tonks burned all the eggs," Lexi said, pointing to the dozen egg shells in the trashcan.
"Blimey Tonks how much egg did you put in the pan?" Sirius laughed.
"I thought it'd be faster! And why Three Broomsticks? Why not The Leaky Cauldron?"
"One, because it's close to Hogwarts and we have to go there and pack up our things," Alexis told her and Tonks nodded, suddenly remembering that she still had some of her clothes there. "Two, we've got to make sure Madam Rosemerta spreads the right story of Sirius."
"What?" Sirius and Tonks both asked at the same time.
"God," Alexis groaned and rolled her eyes. "Look at the paper," she spoke, wandlessly summoning The Daily Prophet over to them from the sofa. "Sirius made the front page."
SIRIUS BLACK: AN INNOCENT MAN?
Minister for Magic, the supposedly noble and self-righteous Cornelius Oswald Fudge, blamed for wrongfully sentencing innocent man to 12-years of Azkaban. Ministry said to have gone 'batty' by the public. No word yet on how Sirius Black is adjusting to life outside of Azkaban after 12 long years wrongfully taken away.
And sure enough, there on the front page of The Daily Prophet was his name, his headline, in big bolded letters, in black ink. There was a picture of him as he was leaving the Atrium just the day before, looking so much different from the man on the wanted posters. Sirius skimmed over the first paragraph and grinned. The article was written by Rita Skeeter and oddly, it was bad for Fudge but benefiting for Sirius. He wondered if Alexis and Tonks really hadn't been joking when they brought up Skeeter's name in the argument against Fudge. His two cousins really did live up to their threats.
"I wish I could see Fudge's face reading this article," Tonks grinned. Inside her head, she was imagining a very red, maybe even purple Cornelius Fudge, choking up his morning tea as his expression twisted into a very odd mix between contempt, shock, fear, worry, and a whole mess of other things. She shook her head. It was a shame she couldn't see it.
"Oh I bet he probably choked on his tea," Lexi laughed.
"At least they got the right story," Sirius smiled.
"Yeah but what we need to know what the public think, and what better place to find out than the root of the grapevine, The Three Broomsticks," Alexis replied.
"Alright let's go there," Sirius smiled as Alexis began cleaning up the messy sofa she and Tonks had occupied the night before. "At least the food is better than Tonks' cooking. Yet again, any kind of food is better-ow!" Sirius spoke as Tonks slapped him in the back of the head, sticking her tongue out at him while going over to clean up her own mess on the sofa.
The soft bell on top of the door dinged when they opened it. Three people, two women and a man walked in, cloaked and hooded from the snow. They were brushing the soft white snow off their shoulders and making their way into the back of the restaurant, weaving around the small crowds of people at the Three Broomsticks. Tonks tripped once, falling into Alexis' back and earning herself a snicker from Sirius and an eye roll from Lexi. Finally they got to the empty table in the back of the restaurant and sat down, their hoods still covering their faces.
Of all the times she'd been there, Tonks knew that the Three Broomsticks usually didn't get busy until lunch or dinner time. But looking at the clock, it was only nine in the morning, and yet the place was filled and there were many words of rumors going back and forth. Apparently everyone had read the paper that morning, and they were just realizing what great story had taken place just yesterday at the Ministry of Magic.
"Two butterbeers and a glass of firewhiskey please," Lexi ordered and the waiter left.
"Lexi, drinking firewhiskey in the morning isn't a healthy habit," Sirius smiled.
"Oh sod off," Lexi replied and stuck her tongue out at him.
"Wow Lexi, you're right. This place is packed with gossip," Tonks commented after overhearing an old woman theorizing how Sirius Black probably won his freedom back by bribing the Minister with a sack of bungbees. Tonks wondered, "What the hell is a bungbee?"
"And we'd know everything once we talked to Madam Rosemerta," Lexi smirked as she took off her hood. "Oh speak of the devil," she smiled when Madam Rosemerta danced over to them with a bright smile on her face at all the business she was getting.
"Alexis my dear!" she smiled. "I didn't expect to see you this early in the morning. Came to add some more details to the news?"
"So I'm guessing you've heard about Sirius Black being an innocent man?" Tonks asked her, pulling her hood off as well while Sirius kept his covered, sitting quietly beside them.
Madam Rosemerta grinned at Tonks. Ever since they came to Hogwarts, she always loved seeing Alexis Black and Nymphadora Tonks at her restaurant. She knew they were related of course. Who could breeze by someone with the surname of Black without a second glance? But like most others who've known Alexis and Tonks, they usually didn't make relations from the girls to their insane relatives. "Oh of course, everyone's heard even if they haven't read the paper. Now, you two work in the Ministry, is it true? Is Sirius Black really innocent like the paper says?"
"Of course it's true, the entire story," Tonks answered before Lexi could open her mouth.
"It was Peter Pettigrew who committed all those crimes," Lexi told her.
"Peter Pettigrew?" Rosemerta asked, surprised. "But he was their friend!"
"And that was what caused the entire story," Alexis sighed, nodding her head side to side. "Sirius Black didn't kill Peter Pettigrew, Pettigrew betrayed the Potters to You-Know-Who, and then faked his own death, blaming the whole thing on Black."
"How evil," Rosemerta gasped. "That poor boy Sirius, I've seen him grow up, all those years sneaking out of Hogwarts to come here and trying to get a drink from me even if he's underage," she spoke. "I knew he wouldn't do such a thing."
"And what does the public think?" Tonks asked, gesturing to the crowd around them.
"Frankly, I think they feel the same way I do, pitying Black, but most, or nearly all of them are still quite wary and skeptical of him," Rosemerta replied, giving them the straight out truth, unaware that Sirius was listening aptly in.
"He's an innocent man, why are they still so skeptical of him?" Tonks questioned.
"Because he's a Black," Alexis answered her dryly. "And he'd spent twelve years in Azkaban. Honestly Tonks, the whole public believes that Azkaban is a mental asylum and no one comes out of there completely sane and themselves," she told them, glancing a brief look at Sirius who continued to quietly hide under his hooded cloak.
"Exactly," Rosemerta replied as she stood up and took the tray from the waiter, giving them all their drinks, knowing to place the glass of firewhiskey on Alexis' side of the table. "It will be a rough ride for that man, at least for a while," she sighed and bade them a smile before turning to attend to the many other customers.
"Don't worry Sirius," Tonks sighed and patted Sirius' hand as he took his butterbeer.
"You've still got us," Lexi added and gave him a wan smile.
Sirius slowly took his hood off, unveiling his face to the crowd inside the restaurant. They slowly grew quiet, all eyes staring at him. Obviously he wasn't what they expected. He wasn't mad, and he was still sane enough to recognize his family and to still laugh with them. Sirius sighed inwardly. If the world was going to give him that skeptical look, he might as well rebelliously bask in it. After all, all Blacks these days get that look, because the public thinks since they were a Black, they were prone to lose their mind sooner or later. He turned to look at Lexi. She'd grown up with those looks from all around, and she hadn't lost her mind yet. He knew he wouldn't either, and with Alexis, Tonks, Andromeda, Remus, and even Harry there for him, he was sure he wasn't going to lose his mind any time soon, at least not lose all of it.
"It's fine," Sirius smiled, a charming, darkly handsome smile of his that hadn't appeared in over twelve years. "I've got my family and friends," he told them happily, surprising the public with his glee. Sirius didn't care about people who to him didn't matter.
Tonks and Alexis smiled and nodded as well. They could clearly see the skeptical looks and glances being shot at them like daggers. Many were targeted towards Sirius, being the man from Azkaban who were allowed back outside, basking in his newfound freedom. Many were for them, being the ones accompanying him and being related to him in some way, no matter how tenuous the connection seemed to be. Normally their temper would be gone and they'd be cursing at the crowd already. But somehow at that moment, they were able to contain it in for Sirius. When she noticed the lack of anger and desire to scream, Tonks realized she and her cousin have come a long way in just a few months.
"What do you say we finish our drinks and then go mooch breakfast off Remus and the kids at Hogwarts?" Sirius suggested while grinning just to show those people he was happy.
Lexi took a long gulp, draining her glass of whiskey down to only half. "And we still have to pack our bags and bid our farewells to everyone."
"It's a Wednesday, how are we going to see the kids?" Sirius wondered, ignoring the still quiet and skeptical glances all around them.
"We could always pull them out of class," Tonks shrugged and took a small sip from her glass of butterbeer. "Or we could wait until their free period."
"Right, but first we have to speak with Albus Dumbledore," Sirius nodded.
"What for?" Tonks wondered.
"Well one, it's rude to not say goodbye to him," Alexis told her cousin in an as-a-matter-of-factly tone. "And two, Sirius probably wants to see if Harry can come live with us, seeing that he is his godfather and is perfectly capable of protecting him. Besides, surely we can treat the kid better than his muggle relatives."
"Right, so now we go to Hogwarts," Tonks nodded.
She suddenly sighed inwardly when she realized she should probably bid Remus farewell. With him being a professor at Hogwarts, she would see him as often as she'd be able to see the kids, only during holidays and vacation. Tonks remembered they still hadn't spoken about that kiss, and she wanted to know what he thought. She wanted to know if it mattered to him as much as it did to her, or if it meant absolutely nothing to him, nothing at all. She wanted to know for sure how he felt towards her, and she wanted to know so badly. They hadn't gotten a chance to speak the last time they saw each other at the Ministry. And it was now or never for her. Tonks sighed again, that time physically, earning herself a questioning look from each of her cousin. She ignored them while wondering what she should say and what the right words would be to get the true and honest answer out of Remus. She wondered where the bold and downright uncaring Nymphadora Tonks of her Hogwarts years went. She'd asked guys out before and the situation was the same, was it not? So why was she so nervous?