Harry Potter Ongoing Story
Title: A Family history
Rating: PG
Summary: A series of vignettes between Andromeda and her grandchild.
Disclaimer: I live in a closet and own nothing, Harry, Andromeda, and Teddy all belong to the corporate monolith that JKR became.
Part One
“Grandma?” The small boy stood at the door biting his lip and twisting his fingers together. The older woman looked up from her book, glasses perched on her thin nose, “Yes dear? Did you need something?”
The boy shook his head turned back towards the door, hesitated and than turned back to his grandmother. “Grandma, I was talking to Harry today, and um he um he said that you hated my dad.”
The older woman slowly put her book down on the table and folded her glasses on top, “Is that so?”
The boy nodded, looking down his lip tugging in and out between his teeth, “Is it true?”
“Harry often jumps to conclusions based on little evidence from unreliable sources.” The child looked up at her his eyebrows creasing together in a painfully familiar way. “That means no.”
“Than why did he say you did?”
“Come here,” the older woman patted the spot next to her on the couch and put her arm around the young boys shoulders holding him close.
“I didn't like your father sometimes, that's true. But I had my own reasons for that. Now I want you to listen to me very carefully, just because I didn't always like him doesn't mean I thought poorly of him.”
“I don't understand, why didn't you like him? Was he bad?”
“No, no my dear he wasn't. I can promise you he was a very very good man, better than most.”
“But why didn’t you like him?” The child stared up at the woman.
“My reasons are my own, they do not mean anything about him.” She evaded.
“Is it because he was a werewolf? That’s what Harry said.” The child pressed on.
“You really can’t believe everything Harry says.”
“So it’s not?”
“No, that’s not the reason.”
“Then what is!” the child demanded.
“It’s hard to explain.”
“I don’t care. Tell me!”
“Alright,” the woman closed her eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. “One of my reason is that a long time ago, when your mother wasn’t any older than you, your father and I had a friend who we were very close to. One day he, the friend, did something terrible and hurt us both very badly. And we were very angry, but he wasn’t around for us to be angry at. So instead we were angry at each other and we said really mean things. And it was very wrong of both of us, but once something has been said it can’t be taken back so we ended up hurting each other quite badly as well.”
“Why didn’t you make up? You always tell me to make-up.”
“I tell you to make up so you don’t make the same mistake as me.”
“Oh, I see.” The child nodded his curiosity appeased for the moment
“Good, now back to bed?”
“OK,” the child grinned and jumped of the couch to run back through the door way and into his room. The older woman followed behind smiling as she watched her grandchild climb into bed.
“Goodnight dear one,”
“Goodnight Grandma,” And with that she turned off the lights and shut the door.
Part Two
“What are you doing?” The young boy asked peering over the edge of the table.
“I’m making a natal chart.” An older woman replied marking the degree of Jupiter.
“Why?”
“It’s my job.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m good at it.”
“Why?”
“Well I suppose because I’m from the Black family.”
“Like Sirius?”
“Like Sirius.”
“Was he your brother?”
“No, he was my cousin.”
“Oh,” the child looked down at the floor disappointed before remember his next question. “Why are Blacks good?”
The woman smiled and putting down her pen lifted the young boy into her lap. “Because once we
were the most famous astrologers in England.”
“Really?” The child eyes widened.
“Yes, our family was sought out by kings and queens to tell their fortunes. That’s why in
those days we were all named after the stars, so everyone would know where to go for the best diviners.” The woman picked up her pen again to continue her work.
“I’m not named after a star.”
She smiled sadly, “No your not.”
“Why not?”
She paused, her hand hovering over the chart for a moment before marking Gemini’s position. “My daughter did not see much use in the traditions from my side of the family.”
“I want a star name.” The boy crossed his arms and stuck out his lower lip. The older woman smiled indulgently and lay her pen down. “Alright, what would you like to be named?”
The young boy bit his lip looked over to one side, thinking hard. “I don’t know.” He stared at his grandmother with wide eyes that were slowly filling with water.
“It’s alright,” She said kissing his forehead, “we’ll pick it together.” She closed the large book on the table and laid her hand over the cover, “Theodore Remus Lupin” she said and opened the book again, this time to new map of the stars, “This is the night you were born,” she explained, “Now point to the star or stars you like best.”
The child looked over the map carefully tracing the constellations he knew and sometimes making up new ones before finally pointing to a bright star in the center of Leo. The woman lay her finger down next to his stroking the star gently, “I’m sorry my dear, that star belongs to some else. How about this one?” She directed the boys gaze up to the star a little to the right, “This star is Rasalas. It’s a very good name and a very good star, with it you will be a brave and strong leader.”
“Who does this belong to?” The boy pointed back at the brighter star.
“That belongs to a young man named Regulus. He died many years ago.”
“Was he brave too?”
“Yes, he was very brave.”
“Why can’t I share his star?”
The woman placed a soft kiss on the side of the child’s head, “Because you carry the names of too many dead men already.”
“Is that bad? But I like being named after Grandpa!”
“It’s not bad, but it’s a very large burden and you already have to carry two.”
“It’s ok, I can handle it, I promise.”
“I’m sorry,” The woman sighed tucking a stray piece of grey-blue hair behind the boys ear, “but I can’t let you have that name.”
“…Can I be Leo than? That’s the constellation right?”
“Yes it is, very good. Leo is just fine, and a wonderful name.”
The child grinned widely “I’m going to go tell Vicky about my new name, I’ll bet she’s gonna be really jealous.”
“You do that,” The woman ruffled the child’s bright green hair and followed him to the fireplace, “Now remember to be good, and come home in time for dinner.”
“I promise.” The child nodded hastily quickly combing his hair back into place and jumped into the green flames calling “Shell Cottage.”
The older woman waited by the fireplace a few moments before returning to her table and closing the book of stars.
Part Three
“Are you all ready for bed?” The woman asked of the young boy sitting on his twin bed with the brightly colored comforter. The boy nodded several times with a big grin on his face. “You’ve brushed your teeth and washed your face?” The boy’s smile grew and he nodded again. “Excellent, under the covers you go.” The woman smiled as well as she walked into the room, placing her glasses on her nose, “and what story would you like to hear tonight?”
“Tell me how my parent’s fell in love,” the child asked immediately and noticing the pause in his grandmother’s step he continued, “please?”
“Of course,” the older woman smiled and sat down next to the child’s bed, “Lie down,” she said waving her wand and dimming the lights. “Your Father first met your mother-“
“In the Order of the Phoenix!” The child burst in, excited.
“Who’s telling this story?” The woman ruffled the boy’s pink hair.
“Sorry,” the boy bit his lip sheepishly.
“As I was saying, your father first met your mother 2 days after she was born.”
“For real!”
“Yes, my uncle showed up at my room in St. Mungo’s the first weekend after my beautiful daughter, your mother, was born. He brought with him my little sister, my cousins, Regulus and Sirius, and Sirius’ friend, Remus.”
“Why did Sirius bring a friend?”
“I imagine that he just happened to be there when Uncle Alphard showed up to collect the family. But that was the first time your parents met. A few years later Sirius and Remus graduated and joined the Order of the Phoenix. Sirius and I were very close in those days and it seemed wherever Sirius went his tall blonde shadow followed.”
“Is that my dad?”
“Yes. I could never complain though, even when she was just a baby my Nymphadora loved Remus most. She was almost three at the time and when she heard them coming into the house she would drop whatever she was doing to run to him and hug his leg demanding he pick her up.”
“Did he?”
“Every time. Nymphadora was quite a trouble-maker, but in Remus’ arms she was the most well-behaved I’d ever seen her.”
“Did he help you raise her, like Harry helps with me?”
“No, though I’m sure he would have liked to. Unfortunately, just a year later we would be betrayed, at the time we thought it was Sirius.”
“But it wasn’t!”
“I know, but back then we didn’t. Sirius was sent away and neither of us could go ask him about what had happened. We were left with only the facts we knew, and they were very incriminating. We fought that night, your father and I, blaming each other for something that wasn’t either of our faults. We said very very cruel things and in the end he left and Nymphadora and I did not see him again for almost twenty years.”
“Why so long?”
“Because we were too proud and too hurt to ask forgiveness. But don’t feel sad, if he hadn’t left for so long, I imagine he and ‘Dora would not have fallen in love, for you see, the next time he would see Nymphadora she had grown up into the most beautiful young woman.”
“With pink hair!”
“That’s right. Not only was she beautiful, but she was smart and strong too. She was member of the new Order and sometimes looking at the three of them, it seemed as though no time had passed. We were at war again and my cousin and his friend still spent much of their free time entertaining the whims of my precious little girl. But she wasn’t a little a girl anymore and though to Sirius she would always be the three year old he had played with, to Remus she had grown up and become a woman. But Remus was a man who would never see himself as worthy of the kind of happiness she offered. He would not have noticed her feelings for him nor would he have been able to answer them if his life did not suffer one more tragedy.”
“Was my father’s life tragic?”
“Most of the time, yes. When he died, your father had outlived everyone who mattered to him except his son.”
“Me?”
“You. The death of Sirius was probably the hardest for him to bear. I think it very well might have killed him if your mother hadn’t been there. She was able catch him before he fell off the edge of the world. You see, after Sirius’ supposed betrayal all those years ago loving was very hard for your father. He had lost so much in his life he thought it not wise to open his heart again. But your mother was nothing if not persistent. She loved your father so openly and completely, he couldn’t help himself. Against his better judgment and despite all his fears, he found himself falling in love with her in return.
When they were together all of his fears evaporated. She seemed to have a magic ability to make him smile…. They used to dance in the middle of the night, outside in the garden. Ted’s old records would be playing and his arms were around her waist, and her smile, she looked so happy, and when they--” the woman brought a hand up to her mouth as her voice caught, “I’m sorry, I’m going off topic. In any case, your father fell in love without meaning to.”
“And then they go married?”
“And then they got married and had a beautiful baby boy.”
“Me.”
“You.”
“Were they happy?”
“Yes, most of the time they were. And when they had you, it was the happiest moment in their life. Now close your eyes and sleep.”
The boy obeyed a small smile on his lips as the woman pulled the covers over his shoulders. She closed the door and leaned against it, her hand covering her mouth to stifle the soft sounds trying to push out of her throat.
Rating: PG
Summary: A series of vignettes between Andromeda and her grandchild.
Disclaimer: I live in a closet and own nothing, Harry, Andromeda, and Teddy all belong to the corporate monolith that JKR became.
Part One
“Grandma?” The small boy stood at the door biting his lip and twisting his fingers together. The older woman looked up from her book, glasses perched on her thin nose, “Yes dear? Did you need something?”
The boy shook his head turned back towards the door, hesitated and than turned back to his grandmother. “Grandma, I was talking to Harry today, and um he um he said that you hated my dad.”
The older woman slowly put her book down on the table and folded her glasses on top, “Is that so?”
The boy nodded, looking down his lip tugging in and out between his teeth, “Is it true?”
“Harry often jumps to conclusions based on little evidence from unreliable sources.” The child looked up at her his eyebrows creasing together in a painfully familiar way. “That means no.”
“Than why did he say you did?”
“Come here,” the older woman patted the spot next to her on the couch and put her arm around the young boys shoulders holding him close.
“I didn't like your father sometimes, that's true. But I had my own reasons for that. Now I want you to listen to me very carefully, just because I didn't always like him doesn't mean I thought poorly of him.”
“I don't understand, why didn't you like him? Was he bad?”
“No, no my dear he wasn't. I can promise you he was a very very good man, better than most.”
“But why didn’t you like him?” The child stared up at the woman.
“My reasons are my own, they do not mean anything about him.” She evaded.
“Is it because he was a werewolf? That’s what Harry said.” The child pressed on.
“You really can’t believe everything Harry says.”
“So it’s not?”
“No, that’s not the reason.”
“Then what is!” the child demanded.
“It’s hard to explain.”
“I don’t care. Tell me!”
“Alright,” the woman closed her eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. “One of my reason is that a long time ago, when your mother wasn’t any older than you, your father and I had a friend who we were very close to. One day he, the friend, did something terrible and hurt us both very badly. And we were very angry, but he wasn’t around for us to be angry at. So instead we were angry at each other and we said really mean things. And it was very wrong of both of us, but once something has been said it can’t be taken back so we ended up hurting each other quite badly as well.”
“Why didn’t you make up? You always tell me to make-up.”
“I tell you to make up so you don’t make the same mistake as me.”
“Oh, I see.” The child nodded his curiosity appeased for the moment
“Good, now back to bed?”
“OK,” the child grinned and jumped of the couch to run back through the door way and into his room. The older woman followed behind smiling as she watched her grandchild climb into bed.
“Goodnight dear one,”
“Goodnight Grandma,” And with that she turned off the lights and shut the door.
Part Two
“What are you doing?” The young boy asked peering over the edge of the table.
“I’m making a natal chart.” An older woman replied marking the degree of Jupiter.
“Why?”
“It’s my job.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m good at it.”
“Why?”
“Well I suppose because I’m from the Black family.”
“Like Sirius?”
“Like Sirius.”
“Was he your brother?”
“No, he was my cousin.”
“Oh,” the child looked down at the floor disappointed before remember his next question. “Why are Blacks good?”
The woman smiled and putting down her pen lifted the young boy into her lap. “Because once we
were the most famous astrologers in England.”
“Really?” The child eyes widened.
“Yes, our family was sought out by kings and queens to tell their fortunes. That’s why in
those days we were all named after the stars, so everyone would know where to go for the best diviners.” The woman picked up her pen again to continue her work.
“I’m not named after a star.”
She smiled sadly, “No your not.”
“Why not?”
She paused, her hand hovering over the chart for a moment before marking Gemini’s position. “My daughter did not see much use in the traditions from my side of the family.”
“I want a star name.” The boy crossed his arms and stuck out his lower lip. The older woman smiled indulgently and lay her pen down. “Alright, what would you like to be named?”
The young boy bit his lip looked over to one side, thinking hard. “I don’t know.” He stared at his grandmother with wide eyes that were slowly filling with water.
“It’s alright,” She said kissing his forehead, “we’ll pick it together.” She closed the large book on the table and laid her hand over the cover, “Theodore Remus Lupin” she said and opened the book again, this time to new map of the stars, “This is the night you were born,” she explained, “Now point to the star or stars you like best.”
The child looked over the map carefully tracing the constellations he knew and sometimes making up new ones before finally pointing to a bright star in the center of Leo. The woman lay her finger down next to his stroking the star gently, “I’m sorry my dear, that star belongs to some else. How about this one?” She directed the boys gaze up to the star a little to the right, “This star is Rasalas. It’s a very good name and a very good star, with it you will be a brave and strong leader.”
“Who does this belong to?” The boy pointed back at the brighter star.
“That belongs to a young man named Regulus. He died many years ago.”
“Was he brave too?”
“Yes, he was very brave.”
“Why can’t I share his star?”
The woman placed a soft kiss on the side of the child’s head, “Because you carry the names of too many dead men already.”
“Is that bad? But I like being named after Grandpa!”
“It’s not bad, but it’s a very large burden and you already have to carry two.”
“It’s ok, I can handle it, I promise.”
“I’m sorry,” The woman sighed tucking a stray piece of grey-blue hair behind the boys ear, “but I can’t let you have that name.”
“…Can I be Leo than? That’s the constellation right?”
“Yes it is, very good. Leo is just fine, and a wonderful name.”
The child grinned widely “I’m going to go tell Vicky about my new name, I’ll bet she’s gonna be really jealous.”
“You do that,” The woman ruffled the child’s bright green hair and followed him to the fireplace, “Now remember to be good, and come home in time for dinner.”
“I promise.” The child nodded hastily quickly combing his hair back into place and jumped into the green flames calling “Shell Cottage.”
The older woman waited by the fireplace a few moments before returning to her table and closing the book of stars.
Part Three
“Are you all ready for bed?” The woman asked of the young boy sitting on his twin bed with the brightly colored comforter. The boy nodded several times with a big grin on his face. “You’ve brushed your teeth and washed your face?” The boy’s smile grew and he nodded again. “Excellent, under the covers you go.” The woman smiled as well as she walked into the room, placing her glasses on her nose, “and what story would you like to hear tonight?”
“Tell me how my parent’s fell in love,” the child asked immediately and noticing the pause in his grandmother’s step he continued, “please?”
“Of course,” the older woman smiled and sat down next to the child’s bed, “Lie down,” she said waving her wand and dimming the lights. “Your Father first met your mother-“
“In the Order of the Phoenix!” The child burst in, excited.
“Who’s telling this story?” The woman ruffled the boy’s pink hair.
“Sorry,” the boy bit his lip sheepishly.
“As I was saying, your father first met your mother 2 days after she was born.”
“For real!”
“Yes, my uncle showed up at my room in St. Mungo’s the first weekend after my beautiful daughter, your mother, was born. He brought with him my little sister, my cousins, Regulus and Sirius, and Sirius’ friend, Remus.”
“Why did Sirius bring a friend?”
“I imagine that he just happened to be there when Uncle Alphard showed up to collect the family. But that was the first time your parents met. A few years later Sirius and Remus graduated and joined the Order of the Phoenix. Sirius and I were very close in those days and it seemed wherever Sirius went his tall blonde shadow followed.”
“Is that my dad?”
“Yes. I could never complain though, even when she was just a baby my Nymphadora loved Remus most. She was almost three at the time and when she heard them coming into the house she would drop whatever she was doing to run to him and hug his leg demanding he pick her up.”
“Did he?”
“Every time. Nymphadora was quite a trouble-maker, but in Remus’ arms she was the most well-behaved I’d ever seen her.”
“Did he help you raise her, like Harry helps with me?”
“No, though I’m sure he would have liked to. Unfortunately, just a year later we would be betrayed, at the time we thought it was Sirius.”
“But it wasn’t!”
“I know, but back then we didn’t. Sirius was sent away and neither of us could go ask him about what had happened. We were left with only the facts we knew, and they were very incriminating. We fought that night, your father and I, blaming each other for something that wasn’t either of our faults. We said very very cruel things and in the end he left and Nymphadora and I did not see him again for almost twenty years.”
“Why so long?”
“Because we were too proud and too hurt to ask forgiveness. But don’t feel sad, if he hadn’t left for so long, I imagine he and ‘Dora would not have fallen in love, for you see, the next time he would see Nymphadora she had grown up into the most beautiful young woman.”
“With pink hair!”
“That’s right. Not only was she beautiful, but she was smart and strong too. She was member of the new Order and sometimes looking at the three of them, it seemed as though no time had passed. We were at war again and my cousin and his friend still spent much of their free time entertaining the whims of my precious little girl. But she wasn’t a little a girl anymore and though to Sirius she would always be the three year old he had played with, to Remus she had grown up and become a woman. But Remus was a man who would never see himself as worthy of the kind of happiness she offered. He would not have noticed her feelings for him nor would he have been able to answer them if his life did not suffer one more tragedy.”
“Was my father’s life tragic?”
“Most of the time, yes. When he died, your father had outlived everyone who mattered to him except his son.”
“Me?”
“You. The death of Sirius was probably the hardest for him to bear. I think it very well might have killed him if your mother hadn’t been there. She was able catch him before he fell off the edge of the world. You see, after Sirius’ supposed betrayal all those years ago loving was very hard for your father. He had lost so much in his life he thought it not wise to open his heart again. But your mother was nothing if not persistent. She loved your father so openly and completely, he couldn’t help himself. Against his better judgment and despite all his fears, he found himself falling in love with her in return.
When they were together all of his fears evaporated. She seemed to have a magic ability to make him smile…. They used to dance in the middle of the night, outside in the garden. Ted’s old records would be playing and his arms were around her waist, and her smile, she looked so happy, and when they--” the woman brought a hand up to her mouth as her voice caught, “I’m sorry, I’m going off topic. In any case, your father fell in love without meaning to.”
“And then they go married?”
“And then they got married and had a beautiful baby boy.”
“Me.”
“You.”
“Were they happy?”
“Yes, most of the time they were. And when they had you, it was the happiest moment in their life. Now close your eyes and sleep.”
The boy obeyed a small smile on his lips as the woman pulled the covers over his shoulders. She closed the door and leaned against it, her hand covering her mouth to stifle the soft sounds trying to push out of her throat.