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XenoLongbottom · 01-13-2012, 09:02 PM

Okay, I wamt all the world to know that this is a one-shot! I am not changing my mind! But I hope you enjoy, because thsi idea has been in my head for a very long time, and I want to share it with you. You ready?

Disclaimer: All characters, ideas, etc. belong to teh wonderful and magical J. K. Rowling.

Making Amends

I’m going to do it, she told herself as she glided up the front steps to a Muggle home. This time, I really am going to do it.

She’d been on this doorstep a million times, but she had always lost her courage before she could do anything. I’m the last of her family. The Dark Lord is dead. I can do this. She repeated this one more time in her head and bravely knocked on the door.

Oh wait! No, I can’t do this! But it was too late. Before she knew it, her big sister had opened the door with a shocked look on her face. “Narcissa,” she muttered under her breath. “What are you doing here?"

Narcissa smiled uncertainly. “Hello Drommy.” She had just used her sister’s nickname. How years had it been since she said it?

Andromeda Tonks allowed her sister in, and Narcissa quickly obliged.

Narcissa looked inside the quaint Muggle home. “It’s very… lovely,” Narcissa commented to her sister.

Andromeda smiled shyly, “My mother-in-law helped me design it.”

Silence.
Finally, Andromeda said, “Would you like a cup of tea?”

Narcissa nodded, walked into the small kitchen, and watched her sister work her way around her work place. Narcissa noticed a little high chair at the edge of the kitchen table, and within it was a baby boy. “Who’s this?” Narcissa asked, using a baby voice.

“Teddy,” Andromeda answered. “My grandson.”

Narcissa could’ve slapped herself on the forehead. She had nearly forgotten that her niece had married that werewolf, Remus Lupin. And why didn’t she realize that they probably haad children in the ten months they were married? “He’s very handsome,” Narcissa told her sister as he smiled and giggled up at her.

“Yes,” Andromeda said with a wry smile as she waited for the water to boil. “But he’ll change his looks in about five seconds, so be prepared.”

Confused, Narcissa peered at the infant, and before she knew it, his hair had gone from a light brown to teal. She gasped, and Andromeda smirked. “Just like his mother.”

With that, Andromeda put the two cups of tea on the table and sat down herself. Her dark eyes were lined with wrinkles, and she seemed to have a look that seemed that she would forever be tired. “So, Narcissa,” she said very business like. “How are you?”

“I’m doing alright. What about you Andromeda?”

“I’m doing alright. Thank you for asking.”

What was the point of this seriousness in between them? What had ever happened to the times when they could laugh together about absolutely nothing? They went along with Andromeda, Narcissa reminded herself, sipping her tea.

After a long awkward pause, Andromeda broke the silence. “Does Lucius know you’re here?”

Narcissa shook her head.

“Draco?”

Once again, Narcissa shook her head. “Nobody knows I’m here. And I want to keep it that way.”

Andromeda nodded. “Of course.”

Not thinking of anything else to say, Narcissa blurted out, “I’m sorry for your losses.” Teddy’s giggles grew silent.

Andromeda smiled weakly, and replied, “And I’m sorry for yours.”

Narcissa looked at her confused. “You know, the Dark Lord and then our sister.”

The pale sister sighed; those losses. “Oh yes, but those losses weren’t as strenuous as yours.”

At that moment, Narcissa realized she had said the wrong thing. Andromeda burst into tears, wiping her dark eyes with her sleeve. “I’m sorry,” she was able to say through her tears. “It’s just… with Ted… and Dora… and Sirius… and even Remus being gone, I really have absolutely no one! I have Teddy, but he can’t even talk! And here I am taking care of a baby all by myself! And I’m scared Narcissa, I really am.”

And what else could Narcissa do? She hugged her sister with both arms and whispered. “That’s why I’m here. Drommy, I am so sorry for everything. Kicking you out of the family, your own family gone, and my neglectfulness to you, my favorite sister. I want to forget all of that, okay? I want to go back to the old days when we would just laugh nonstop. Do you remember that one time when Regulus fell into the pond chasing that gnome? Do remember how hard we laughed? I want that back Andromeda. I want that back.”

Andromeda stopped sobbing on Narcissa’s shoulders, and Narcissa was terrified she’d kick her out of the house, call her a liar, or even spit in her face.

But new tears were forming in Andromeda’s eyes as she looked up at her sister. “I’ve waited years to hear those words from you Narcissa, and I’m so glad I could just stop the dreaming because they are now a reality.”

With that, she hugged her long lost sister, and they remade their bonds.

And even as Narcissa walked out of the Tonks’ household, waving good-bye to Andromeda and little Teddy in the window, she knew she would be coming about again. For she and her sister had started to get along again. They had finally made amends.