Andromeda cocked her head to one side and then sighed, setting down her cup of tea.
"Nymphadora," she called quietly.
"Hmm?"
Tonks looked up from her own cup of tea. Not that she'd been doing much drinking from it, more fiddling with the handle. Had even managed to get her fingers trapped in it temporarily as she twisted her fingers through it absentmindedly.
Her mum raised her eyebrows at her and Tonks didn't know why. It wasn't like she had been doing anything at all, never mind anything inappropriate. For a change.
"Are you okay?"
She shrugged. "Sure. Why?"
"Because I called you by your proper name and you didn't even roll your eyes at me."
Tonks frowned. She hadn't realised that. Huh. Merlin, she really was out of it.
"And," her mother continued. "You haven't been acting yourself at all."
"I'm fine."
That didn't sound convincing even to her ears. But maybe it was enough for her to be left alone.
Ha. Fat chance.
"Nymphadora..."
"You know I'm aware that you're calling me by my full name now, right?"
"Dora," Ted chided.
She sighed heavily. They knew that she couldn't win when they ganged up on her like that.
"I was thinking about Sirius," she said, looking away. "He's. Well, he's come up a lot."
If by a lot you meant that he was on every single newspaper. And people were still talking. And talking. And talking. And the looks she got. Let's not forget about those.
They looked at each other and exchanged these weird, meaningful looks that they always seemed to be able to. Like they could read each other's minds. Communicate without talking. It was both sweet and sickening to her. Catch her ever doing something like that. No thank you.
"We didn't think that you were going to talk about it," Ted said finally.
She shrugged. "Well, I am now."
Because she was sick and tired of the elephant in the room, as the muggles would say, every time she came home these days. It was like they were tiptoeing around something, holding their breath. Because they were. None of them had wanted to bring up Sirius. She wasn't sure why her parents didn't but she didn't because she didn't want to make them sad or angry. When she was younger Tonks could remember her mum being both those things whenever Sirius was brought up. She had never wanted to be the cause of that.
"He was Harry's godson," her mother said softly. "He would have never done anything to hurt that boy."
She got this whimsical look on her face. Tonks didn't think she's ever seen this look. It was weird. But a lot of things were weird and this wasn't even the weirdest.
"Isn't there like a ceremony that purebloods do around godparents?" Ted asked. "There's an actual oath involved, isn't there?"
Andromeda nodded. "I believe halfbloods now do it as well but it is a well-established tradition."
"What does the oath entail?" Tonks asked curiously.
She knew that she didn't have godparents. In the magical sense anyway. It wasn't like her parents exactly had many people (almost no one) on their side when they got married and they had her. That tended to happen to bloodtraiters. So, there had been no one they trusted. Or could get a hold of. Sirius had been thirteen, in school, still fully under the (much hated) control of his parents. And none of her mother's friends would dare go against the Black family, even if they did approve of her parent's marriage. Which very, very few did. None of her dad's friends wanted to openly support them either.
"Swearing to protect the child, be there for it and step in when the parents are unable to," Andromeda said promptly.
"Which means he couldn't have hurt Harry," Ted pointed out. "The oath prevents that."
"It does."
They fell silent as they were all left to their own thoughts. There was a lot of thinking to do.
"What do you think, Nymphadora?" Andromeda asked gently.
"He's innocent," she said defensively, eyes flashing. "Of course, he is. He would never kill Lily and James."
Merlin, even as a small child she knew that. That was when she had realised that adults could seriously be stupid and idiotic. Because why couldn't they see what she and her family blatantly knew?
"Thank Merlin," Andromeda let put a sigh of relief.
"You thought I *didn't*?"
"I didn't know how school would influence you."
Tonks cross her arms. "Well, it didn't."
"That I'm glad of."
She didn't know whether she should be insulted or not. But sulking wouldn't help anything.
"But we're definitely missing something, aren't we?" She asked desperately, looking between her parents. "Something that links everything together that would help prove his innocence?"
Because there had to be something. There had to be!
Andromeda nodded slowly. "I believe so."
"But," Ted said heavily, looking thoroughly annoyed as he rubbed at his head. "There's nothing we can do about it."
Andromeda looked around and got this strange determined look on her face. The one which Ted and Tonks always teased her as being her "Solicitor Face". It was kind of intense and she used it when she was thinking of had just realised something that was going to help her win her case. Tonks wasn't sure what she was thinking now because it wasn't like they were trying to fix anything. They couldn't.
Before either she or her dad could ask what, she was thinking, her mum stood up abruptly and swiftly walked into the kitchen. There was the sound of the fridge door opening, some chinking noises and then the door was slammed shut? Her mother never slammed anything. Tonks exchanged an alarmed look with Ted. Was her mum, okay?
Andromeda returned triumphantly holding a bottle and three glasses.
"Firewhiskey, Annie, really?" Ted asked with a raised eyebrow.
"I feel like it is appropriate."
"At," he checked the clock, "half one in the afternoon?"
"I'm not complaining," Tonks piped up but got it need by both of them.
"Yes." Andromeda said simply, handing them each a glass.
Ted looked at her and then sighed, holding out his hand.
"Let me do the pouring then. None of us need to be drunk before two."
Tonks couldn't help but giggle at the thought. She had never seen her mother even a bit tipsy before but now she kind of wanted to. What would she be like?
"It wouldn't be the first time."
"Oh, hush, Ted."
Okay, now she was really curious. But her mum was now giving her that scary warning look of hers and Tonks didn't want her to take her drink away so she kept quiet.
Sure, she was an adult. Had been for nearly three years now. She was twenty. So, yes, of course she had drunk alcohol. Drank plenty of it when she was in a bar or a club too. Her tolerance was pretty good, of she said so herself. But, you know, she never really drank around her parents. Not really. Sure, she rang in the new year with a glass of bubbly. Had a birthday drink. But never drank anything like Firewhiskey with them.
Well, she looked down at her drink. There was a first for everything, wasn't there? And she knocked it back.