Chapter 33 - Family

A/N: If you don't remember the bit about Sirius' Uncle Alphard, it was at the start of Chapter 25! Content warnings for this chapter: death, funerals.

Sirius wasn't overly interested in muggle politics. Really, he wasn't especially over the moon about wizarding politics, so listening to his muggle studies professor ramble on about why she found it so shocking that only 9% of pureblood wizards voted in muggle elections wasn't exactly thrilling him.

He was busy chewing on the edge of his quill and staring at the graffiti on the back of the chair of the student in front of him when there was a knock at the door.

He turned around eagerly, always glad for an interesting interruption to a boring lesson. When McGonagall opened the door, he grew even more pleased, wondering if she were about to call someone out or announce some sort of emergency.

"Sorry to interrupt, Professor," she said sincerely, scanning the classroom. Her eyes fell on Sirius after a few seconds, and he felt a strange sense of dread as she pursed her lips and said, "I'm afraid I'm going to need Sirius to come with me."

Two things immediately struck Sirius as strange about her statement. Firstly, he was almost certain that he hadn't done anything wrong. No pranks had been played in a week, and there'd been no explosions in the dormitory for at least three. Secondly, she'd called him Sirius. After almost seven years, Sirius was fairly confident that he knew McGonagall well enough to know her habits, and rarely did she ever call a student by their first name in front of a class.

He stood up tentatively, abandoning his quill and parchment, but before he could get more than a step towards the door, she shook her head minutely and said, "You'll need to bring your things with you."

Now he was really worried.

McGonagall's office was on the same floor as the Muggle Studies classroom, but despite the short walk, Sirius' mind determinedly informed him of a half dozen reasons why he might be in trouble and a good deal more terrible scenarios that might have befallen his friends, brother or the Potters since breakfast. Eventually, just as they were about to reach the office, he turned to McGonagall and, feeling quite helpless, asked, "Has something happened?"

McGonagall looked at him with an expression that could only be described as pity, and the knot that had been twisting in Sirius' stomach since leaving class tightened so much that it was physically painful.

"I'm sorry, Sirius," McGonagall sighed, "but she wants to tell you herself."

She opened the office door and Sirius stepped inside.

There, sitting at McGonagall's desk, was a face that Sirius hadn't seen since he was seven years old. He might not have recognised her at all, had it not been for her stunning resemblance to her older sister. Andromeda Tonks looked both much older and paler than Sirius ever remembered seeing her, and her eyes were rimmed red and puffy.

"What's going on?" Sirius demanded, shocked and scared enough that taking another step into the room felt impossible.

"Why don't you sit down?" McGonagall suggested, putting a hand on his shoulder.

Sirius shrugged it off immediately, shaking his head. "Just tell me."

"You were only a child the last time I saw you," Andromeda said, standing up and coming towards him. "I'm sorry I never got in contact with you after you left. I didn't know what to say."

"It's fine," Sirius shrugged. From what he remembered, Andromeda had been perfectly pleasant to him when they'd known one another, but his strongest memory of her was her leaving, and the only warmth he felt from her presence was knowing that they were in the same situation in terms of their family.

"I'm afraid I have some bad news," Andromeda told him solemnly, as if Sirius hadn't already gathered that much for himself. She took a deep, shaky breath, then with some effort said, "It's our Uncle Alphard. It was quite unexpected but... Sirius, he..."

"Don't."

She'd taken hold of his arm and Sirius wanted to rip it away from her, but he couldn't seem to move. Because he knew what was coming.

Alphard was the last member of his family that had shown him any kind of support. Other than Andromeda, who was here after ten years, trying to hold his hand while she gave him terrible news.

"Sirius, he died last night."

Sirius stayed silent.

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be," Sirius snapped. He hated feeling this way – the rush of messy emotions – not knowing if he wanted to hit something or run away or break down.

"I barely knew him." It was true, but it didn't stop the sickening rise of bile at the back of his throat.

He sat down on one of the chairs in front of McGonagall's desk, feeling ill and dizzy.

He was looking at the floor rather than at Andromeda's face, but her voice was strained when she said, "The funeral is a week from now. I know Alphard was hoping that he'd get to spend more time with you, and that it would have meant a lot to him if you could be there."

Again, he didn't reply, and eventually he saw his cousin and McGonagall step outside. They had a brief, whispered conversation before McGonagall returned alone, closing the office door behind her.

She sat down not at the opposite side of her desk but in the chair directly beside Sirius.

"Sirius?"

He looked up briefly but couldn't quite bring himself to meet her gaze for too long, not when she was looking at him with such sickening concern.

"I know this must be incredibly hard for you," she said gently. "If you don't want to talk about it, I understand. If you do, you know that my door is always open."

Sirius nodded stiffly, trying not to let her words of kindness get to him. It still confused him on a very personal level, made him nervous almost, when adults he knew actually showed they cared.

"Take as long as you need. I could call the Potters to come and get you, if you like? Or get James?"

"James," he replied hoarsely. He didn't want to make the Potters worry about him more than they already did.

But James.

James would know what to do.

Sirius and James, dressed in their best black robes, walked until they were outside the boundary of the Hogwarts ground, before apparating to a small church in the village a few miles from his Uncle Alphard's house in Yorkshire. There were a few people already gathered outside the church talking softly, but they were all about his uncle's age and he didn't recognise any of them.

"Do we just... wait?" Sirius asked James, lingering on the pavement instead of walking up to the building. "Should I talk to people? I've never been to a funeral before."

"I'm sure it won't be long until it starts. Everyone's here for your uncle, they're not going to be paying attention to you."

Sirius doubted this as a couple of them had looked at him curiously and he thought he'd seen a woman's mouth form the word "Black", but he appreciated James saying it anyway.

"It just feels weird," he said. "Uncle Alphard was great but I only stayed with him for a couple of weeks and barely even knew him until I got disowned. I feel like I'm intruding or something. I bet everyone knows I'm his family and they have to know he was cut off."

"Mate, he left half his money to you – he obviously cared about you. I'm sure it meant a lot to him that you were in his life when almost all of his relatives were less than friendly towards him."

"Yeah, I guess." This made him feel a little better, though there was still an empty pit in his stomach that hadn't gone away since he found out about his uncle' death a week ago. "Thanks, Prongs. You didn't have to come, you know."

"As if I would let you go to this alone," James scoffed.

"Oh, there's Andromeda and Ted, I'd better say hi."

The two of them had appeared a few metres away, and after taking a moment to collect themselves, Andromeda spotted Sirius. They smiled at each other awkwardly and sadly as Andromeda hesitantly pulled him into a hug.

"I'm glad you came," she said as she let him go. "How are you?"

"Alright, I guess," Sirius said, shrugging. "This is James, by the way."

She smiled at him. "Potter, isn't it? Your parents took Sirius in?"

"Yeah," James said. "He was like my brother already, so it made sense."

Andromeda squeezed his shoulder. "I'm glad to hear it."

Everyone turned towards the sound of a carriage's wheels on the cobbled streets. There were no horses carrying it, just a man sitting at the front with his wand in his hand.

"Doesn't this look a bit weird to the muggles?" Sirius asked. "And with us all in robes."

"It's a predominantly wizarding village," Andromeda said. "I expect the muggles who live here are used to things being a bit strange."

The church doors opened of their own volition and everyone began to shuffle inside. Sirius tried to sit near the back but Andromeda gestured for him and James to sit with them at the front. Once everyone was seated, an organ began to play itself and a coffin floated through the doors, the man from the carriage guiding it with his wand.

Sirius couldn't keep his eyes from following the coffin, thinking about the last time he'd seen his uncle and how different he must look now. He wondered whether his laugh lines and the creases around his eyes were still noticeable. He couldn't help but wish he'd had longer with his uncle, and it made him furious to think that he'd been kept away from the few decent people in his family: he'd only known him for six months and hadn't seen Andromeda for a decade until now.

James gently nudged him in the elbow; Sirius hadn't been listening to what the wizard delivering the funeral was saying. "You okay?" James mouthed. Sirius nodded, drawing himself out of his thoughts as Andromeda got up to speak.

After the funeral, there was no wake due to Alphard having very few relatives whom he was still in contact with. James and Sirius had been planning to go straight back to Hogwarts, but Andromeda invited them over for lunch and James accepted before Sirius had the chance to back out. James knew Sirius felt awkward around Andromeda and Ted, partially because of the age difference between them and partially because they were both very aware of the family they'd come from when they were around each other. But Sirius was distinctly lacking in loving family, James' parents excluded, so James had pressed him into spending more time with the few relatives he still had.

James had been expecting a mirror image of Sirius' parents' house, which he had been to a couple of times during summer holidays before Sirius decided it was best to keep his friends and family apart. But Andromeda and Ted's house was much smaller and more cheerful, with brightly painted walls, furniture crammed into every corner of the small space, and a mixture of magical and muggle items cluttering the surfaces. Unlike the house Sirius had grown up in, this one felt to James like a home.

Ted went into the kitchen to make them some lunch and James and Sirius stood around awkwardly until Andromeda told them to sit. When Ted returned with sandwiches, he asked the two of them about the classes they were taking at Hogwarts and if they had any plans for after they finished their final year. It was pleasant enough conversation, but it felt like they were avoiding what they should really be talking about.

Finally, Andromeda began telling them about how she knew Alphard.

"I only vaguely knew him when I was a child. He was already disowned then so I'd only met him once or twice, but when I left the family to marry Ted" - she took his hand - "Alphard approached me. I remember him telling me that I didn't have to be without a family and that he was there for me if I needed him. He said that I'd made the right choice." She wiped away a tear as it formed at the corner of her eye. "He came to our wedding," she continued, "I think he was in the photographs, I'll show you."

She got up to find a photo album. James felt like he was intruding on a family moment so he caught Ted's eye and asked, "Hey, do you reckon you could show me that Cleansweep you were telling me about, the one you had in school? It'd be interesting to see how the models have changed."

"Of course," Ted said, seeming just as eager to leave Sirius and Andromeda alone. "Come on, it's in the shed."

James slapped Sirius on the arm as he got up and Sirius nodded to him as Andromeda sat down beside him and opened up the photo album.

Looking at the photos, Sirius thought that Andromeda's resemblance to her sisters was less noticeable, largely due to the fact that she was so clearly happy. He'd been to Bellatrix's wedding, and the loving grin that passed between Andromeda and Ted in these photos was nothing like any expression he'd ever seen on either of her sisters. Alphard was there, as she'd mentioned; Ted was surrounded by relatives, but Andromeda only had Ted. He was smiling towards them and raising his glass of Champaign in congratulations. Sirius couldn't help but smile at the photo.

They looked through a few more, some left over from when Andromeda had been young and still considered herself part of the family, and others from after she had left with Ted: the two of them on holiday in a wizarding village in Greece, pictures from their honeymoon and pages of a little girl with ever-changing hair. Just as Sirius was looking at a particular picture of Nymphadora holding a toy broom, there was a knock at the front door, quickly followed by someone pushing it open and calling out a friendly "hello?"

"Ah," Andromeda said, closing the photo album and smiling at Sirius, "that'll be Ted's parents bringing Dora back now, I'll just go and thank them."

She got up and disappeared into the hallway, where Sirius could hear her greet her in-laws. He fiddled absently with the wand in the pocket of his robe, wondering how long it would be polite to stay for. He looked up when he heard footsteps, but instead of Andromeda, a little girl stood in the doorframe, looking at him curiously. "Hello," she said uncertainly, taking a step into the room. "I'm Dora, who are you?"

"Er, Sirius," Sirius replied. "I'm your mum's cousin."

Dora seemed to accept this, as she stepped further into the room and tucked her – currently pale blue – hair behind her ears.

"I like your boots," she told him, pointing to the black biker books that Sirius was wearing. They were decorated with a number of silver studs and Sirius had worried about wearing them to the funeral, but he was comfy in them, and James had insisted that no one would be able to see them under his robes anyway.

"Oh, thanks." Sirius said, looking down at his own shoes. "I got them from a muggle shop in London."

"I got shoes from a muggle shop," Dora told him excitedly. "Well, Dad got them for me. But they're not normal shoes - they're roller skates! Do you want to see?"

"Ah, this is where you've gotten to," Andromeda said, re-entering the room and smiling fondly at her daughter. "I don't think Sirius wants to see your skates just now sweetheart, why don't you go and play with daddy in the other room?"

"Aww," Dora complained, "but I LIKE Sirius."

Sirius thought this was rather an odd thing to say, considering they'd only met a few minutes ago. But there was something endearing about the little girl – he didn't for a second regret defending her to his family.

"Actually," he said, "I wouldn't mind seeing them."

"Yes!" Dora exclaimed, darting around her mother and out of the room. Her footsteps were loud as she rushed up the stairs to find them.

"She'll talk your ear off if you give her a chance," Andromeda warned. But Sirius just smiled.

Andromeda's family weren't entirely what he expected, but they were, he thought, people he could get used to spending time with.