Summary: Following the war and the trials that came after, the survivors have finally begun to move on. Harry, a trainee auror, knows he has one last person to thank, but little does he know that a well meaning social call will turn lives upside down as Harry begins to understand the strange world of his old enemies. Family, legal, drama.

HARRY (cont.)

"I almost thought you weren't coming." Mrs Tonks said upon answering the door.

"Sorry, I got held up. Is he asleep?" Harry asked with disappointment. Mrs Tonks shook her head, and signalled for him to step into the house.

Mrs Tonks home was very quiet, save for the sound of the baby giggling in the living room and playing with his toys, which sounded very out of place. It was a modest home, neither very large nor very small, but it was immaculately tidy and well cared for.

Mrs Tonks was also immaculately tidy from her dark brown hair, streaked with grey, rolled back into an old fashioned chignon, to her simple black robes that emphasised her tall and slender proportions. Her face was bare and her eyes were shadowy as always.

"His naps are a little less frequent now, he's getting into a new routine." She said serenely as they watched the baby as he gurgled with fascination at the little broomstick that whirled around his head.

"He seems to be growing more each time I see him."

"His hair needs cutting. He keeps growing it out whenever I do give it a trim, just like, well…as these Metamorphmagi do." She sighed, and as if on cue, the boy's hair turned a shocking violet and he shrieked with joy.

To be perfectly honest, Harry found visiting Teddy and Mrs Tonks an awkward experience. He didn't know much about children, and always felt self conscious when he tried to play with him. Mrs Tonks would sit back in one of the arm chairs and would stare at them silently. Occasionally, she would ask Harry a question about mutual acquaintances, or how he was getting on with his auror training, but she never joined in with playing with Teddy, nor did she ever smile. Harry had never actually seen Mrs Tonks smile.

She was still in mourning. Others had lost people, but eventually they found themselves laughing and had realised moving on was difficult but not altogether impossible. Teddy was happy, healthy, well fed and well cared for, so clearly Mrs Tonks had pulled herself together enough to get on with responsibilities, just not frivolities. Harry was not actually sure he liked her very much, she was cold and her resemblance to her late sister, Bellatrix still unnerved him. Then all of a sudden, he remembered. Narcissa Malfoy was also her sister. They looked nothing like each other, except for their cold countenances.

"I do believe it is time for his nap now." Mrs Tonks said, "I'm sorry, but do stay for some tea. Molly sent me some more of that rhubab crumble, it's rather huge and I can't finish it alone." She explained, as she lifted the boy into her arms and carried him from the room. With a cheeky smile the boy's eyes lingered on Harry's.

Harry sighed and absent mindedly cleared the toys away, then while he waited he wandered around Mrs Tonks' living room, paying heed to her photographs.

There were of course the expected pictures of Nymphadora Tonks, at various ages, one in particular was pulled to the front, showed six year old Nymphadora, sporting bright green hair sitting on her father's lap. They had the same smiley, cheeky face that Teddy had also inherited. Other photos were of Nymphadora and Remus Lupin's small wedding ceremony; Nymphadora's last day at Hogwarts; a photo of newborn Teddy Lupin and a faded one of a young Mrs Tonks and her husband on their own wedding day. There were only a few guests (most looking distinctly muggle) hovering around the couple. Mrs Tonks was smiling there, shielding herself from waves of over enthusiastic, enchanted confetti in the most dignified way she could, while her husband laughed animatedly and tried to shield her from it under his arms.

"Ah." A voice said behind him. Mrs Tonks had stepped in, a tray of rhubarb crumble and tea hovered beside her.

"Sorry I was just…"

"No…please, go ahead and look all you like." Mrs Tonks said, guiding the rhubarb crumble to a side table that slid out gracefully. The silence had become significantly awkward, and Harry found he had long since run out of questions to ask about Teddy. With some deliberation, he brought up Mrs Malfoy. It would either make the conversation more interesting, or even more awkward.

"I uh…saw your sister today." He said as casually as he could between mouthfuls of crumble. Mrs Tonks raised her eyebrows.

"My...I see." She responded. Harry gulped and mumbled an apology. "No need for that, Harry." She said waving her hand. "I'm an old woman now, I can speak about the past. How was Narcissa?"

"Oh…um…fine…pretty much the same as always."

"Where was she? I didn't think she was very welcome in the Ministry."

"No I went to visit her…at the Malfoy Manor."

Mrs Tonks stared at him curiously.

"Did you" She said simply. Harry sighed, he reluctant to admit that he had been considering awarding an Order of Merlin award to the woman who had disowned her, so he mumbled it out vaguely. However, Mrs Tonks only sighed..

"Of course. It was business."

"What do you mean?"

"I feel a fool to say it, but for a moment I suppose I wondered if…oh Merlin it sounds pathetic to say it out loud, I thought she might have invited you to ask something of myself."

"Oh…no…sorry she didn't."

"Of course,"

"No, I mean. I wasn't there very long though…I sort of insulted her and got kicked out." He said sheepishly, hoping that Mrs Tonks would accept the excuse of his interrupted visit as the reason for Mrs Malfoy's continuing denial of her sister's existence. Mrs Tonks shook her head, and suddenly let out a slight laugh and the first smile he had ever seen on her.

"Thank you for your diplomacy, Harry. It is much appreciated, believe me. I wonder though, not that I have any wish to see her mind you, but I do wonder about her from time to time. We were very close once."

Harry was surprised to hear it, of course, Mrs Tonks and Mrs Malfoy were sisters, so it made sense that they liked each other at some point but since Sirius had hated his family so much (with the one exception of Mrs Tonks) he had assumed it would have been the same for her.

"Sirius always said you were his favourite cousin?" Harry explained. Actually Sirius had only mentioned it once, but Harry improvised, hoping it would keep Mrs Tonks up in her good mood. It seemed to work, because Mrs Tonks laughed.

"Did he really? Well Sirius came to respect me in hindsight for my actions…I was the first rebel, I suppose, the original patent." She smirked. "Growing up, I reckon, he thought we were all rather annoying. Bella was wild, but in a way Sirius disliked, and Cissy was a goody-two-shoes…perhaps I was the best out of bad bunch? It was kind of him to say so though, he was the only one I kept in touch with, until his arrest, of course."

Harry was always eager to hear more stories about Sirius.

"Was Sirius always different to the rest of the rest of the Black family?"

Mrs Tonks leant back and looked up thoughtfully into her memories before she recounted.

"He was always naughty…absolutely and irrevocably so, although I can't say that was an uncommon trait in the children. Sirius though, he did everything to gain attention! He stole things, he tormented the portraits, he tormented the house elf, he cut up his mother's clothes, hung baby brother, Regulus out of a window by a rope, not to mention the time he tried to set Reggie on fire."

Harry, was beginning to feel the same way he did when he first found out the truth about his father being a school bully; embarrassed and despondent. Mrs Tonks did not seem to notice and continued gently.

"However, if you are asking if he was born a "blood traitor" then no…we tend to be bred rather than born." She poured herself more tea. "It might be difficult to imagine, Harry, but we were all once the same as my dear sister, we cursed muggleborns for most of the world's problems, avoided muggle areas, shunned anything that was associated with their world. Sirius too, although, when he found out that befriending muggles upset his mother, he began on a journey of enlightenment fairly quickly."

"I can't imagine either you or him being like…you know, one of them..."

"Well it was a different world from what you know. We were very private and very separate…it is difficult for anyone to understand." She explained. "I was not as unhappy as Sirius though, if I hadn't met my husband, I may have stayed with them and put up with it…but who knows how things may or may not have been." She added to Harry's shocked expression.

"Mrs Malfoy said the same thing today…about it being a different world, and that I wouldn't understand." He explained. "You see, she turned down the Order of Merlin, despite doing what she did in the war. She doesn't like the fact that she helped our side one bit."

"She turned it down, did she?" Mrs Tonks asked coldly

"She said she performed no act of bravery, but that saving me was the best hope for her family."

"Well… she was always very pragmatic, no one can take that away from her. Were you surprised Narcissa turned down her award?"

"Sort of…she was quite private about her trial, she didn't want much getting out to the press; it makes sense if she doesn't want the world to think she's a blood traitor."

Mrs Tonks shook her head, regretfully.

"All those worries just so her descendants don't remember her as Narcissa Malfoy the blood traitor."

"That never bothered you then?"

"No! I had the Ted's love that was all that mattered. Tell me…who do you think Narcissa loves?"

"Her husband? Her son, definitely." Harry answered, easily.

"Exactly! She'll do whatever is best for them, because she loves them, she doesn't care much what the world thinks, as long as she has their approval and keeps them safe. I suppose it's easier for her to be apolitical while Lucius is in prison and her son is being watched, she'll do what she can to keep up appearances but won't want to shock her family by going too far over to the other side. You won't find her suddenly embracing muggles and blood traitors. Everyone knows what her views on it are."

"So that's it? There's no hope for all the pureblood supremacists, they can't all be changed like you and Sirius did?"

Mrs Tonks shrugged.

"Narcissa has no reason to love muggles, she has no reason to love Death Eaters either. She probably wants to pretend none of it happened and can live wrapped up in her little world with her boy and pretend everything is perfect. People don't just change their opinions because they are right or wrong, Harry, they change their opinions because something has convinced them too. I met my husband; Sirius found his friends. Narcissa, and all the others, have never found a reason good enough or experienced anything strong enough to change their views." She explained. "By this point, I think we can agree that nothing else is likely to change that."

AN: Thanks for Reading

PBW