AN: Thanks for reading and an extra special thank you to 'Son of Whitebeard' for reviewing several chapters.

Chapter Twenty-Four: Visiting Andromeda

I still couldn't get over the shock of what had happened to Bellatrix. It was so unfair. Even after a few days in the hospital, Orion was tiny and weak and kept getting ill, while poor Regulus was gone forever. My eyes watered and I tried not to think about it. I swore that if I ever got a job in the medical profession I'd be researching into better neonatal care for babies.

I'd just visited her with Sirius and now we were going to visit our other cousin, Andromeda. Seeing little Orion had given me the urge to see Nymphadora too and it was much easier to schedule in a visit this way because Mother already knew we were out visiting our cousin. The last time I'd seen Nymphadora, she's been a happy, healthy baby with changing-coloured hair and I hoped she wold still be the same.

Sirius would've had to come with me, even if he weren't in on the plan, because my parents were still being overprotective of me, worried that I might get lost or hurt. They'd always been like that, but ever since they'd caught me lying about going to Becky's place, they'd been more careful. I wasn't sure how sending Sirius with me was going to keep me out of trouble, but I let them think that it would. Perhaps they couldn't bear the fact that I was just as rebellious as Sirius was and so it hurt them less to think that Sirius was corrupted me.

We reached the bus route that would take us to Andromeda's house. It was a different bus stop to before, because we were going from a different place and luckily it had a glass shelter for us to sit in so that we didn't have to stand in the drizzle. I sat on a tilted seat with Sirius and showed him the muggle money.

"I've seen it before, Regulus," said Sirius. "James is doing muggle studies."

"Go on then, which is the fifty pence piece?" I asked. A sign in the bus shelter stated that the bus fare was still only fifty pence.

I smirked when Sirius didn't know which coin it was and showed him the heptagonal silver piece.

"Who's that on it?" Sirius asked me.

"The Queen," I said. All the muggle coins had their Queen on them.

"With a trident?" asked Sirius. "Are you sure?"

He handed me back the coin. On the opposite side to the English monarch was a warrior queen with a trident and a lion at her feet. "Perhaps she's just posing like that," I said. I didn't want to admit that I didn't have a clue who the lady was.

Luckily, the bus arrived before Sirius could mention it again.

…..

There were fewer people on the bus compared to last time, but all of them carried bags of shopping with bags that said 'sale' on them. The journey didn't take long.

Andromeda greeted us with Nymphadora on one arm. Today, the baby's hair and eyes were dark brown like her mother's and they lit up when she saw us.

"Come on in, you look cold," Andromeda said, welcoming us into the kitchen where Ted stood boiling a kettle and setting out four blue tea cups. "Ted still likes to do things the muggle way," she said, "despite having magic." She gestured to the sink and draining board, which contained three plates and a fifth teacup.

"Is there anywhere for us to put our cloaks?" I asked. It was rather warm and I didn't really need my slightly-damp cloak on anymore.

"Of course, Regulus," she said, and then turned to Ted. "Will you take Nymphadora?"

After handing the baby to her husband, Andromeda showed us the cupboard under the stairs, which she'd turned into a cloakroom slash cleaning store slash broom cupboard. On one side there were pegs for cloaks and outdoor wear. On the other there was a mop and bucket, some cleaning cloths and random tools. A vacuum cleaner just like the one Stephannie's mother had took up a considerable amount of floor space. I wondered why Ted would have bought one of those. Andromeda certainly wouldn't have. With its red face and staring eyes it was a poor substitute for a House Elf. It didn't even clean independently, making it quite a useless though fascinating machine.

"That was a moving in present from Ted's aunt," Andromeda said when she saw me looking at it. "And yes, it's the same model that she's got."

Then I spotted something else. Towards the back behind the mop and cleaning brooms was one of the most elegant racing brooms I'd ever seen – it was even nicer than Evan's! It had a beautiful polished handle with silver runes embossed onto it, and birch twigs cut into a perfect streamlined tail. Sirius could barely tear his eyes away from it.

"Wow, look at the detailing on that," Sirius said.

"I know. It's the new Comet model and a very fancy one too," I said. The broom, released in October, could outrun the Hogwarts Express twice over and was designed for long distance flight and quick turning in the air. It didn't have the ease of handling that the Nimbus series had, which made them so good for Quidditch, but it was definitely the broom you would want if you were racing or being pursued. That was fairly impressive but the company offered all kinds of add-ons if you had the money for it – like protective charms and patterns. You could even add seats to them, though it was clear that this broom didn't have that feature. However, it still looked like it had cost a lot of money, and more than Andromeda could afford.

"No, you can't, Sirius. Even if it was mine, you wouldn't be riding on that in the muggle neighbourhood," said my cousin.

"What're you doing with someone else's broom?" I asked.

"I'm just looking after it for a friend," said Andromeda. From the way her eyes shifted downward, I could tell she was lying, but I didn't press her. Perhaps it was a present for someone, though why she would still have it after Christmas was beyond me – it clearly wasn't for either of us. She led us back into the kitchen and motioned for us to all sit down and drink the tea that Ted had prepared.

"So what's been going on?" Andromeda asked. "I know there's been some drama with the Rosiers, but you haven't written to me since you broke up for Christmas. I got your present though. Thank you, it was really thoughtful of you."

I told her the whole story about Bellatrix and about Regulus and Orion. Andromeda looked as upset about it as I did and shocked too. She kept looking at little Nymphadora, who was now sitting up on her husband's lap. Compared to Orion, who wasn't even a foot long, Nymphadora looked huge.

"We've just come from there today," I added. "Bellatrix's given him some of her blood, which the healers think will make him stronger. And she's calmed down a bit now. She didn't yell at us once today did she, Sirius?"

"No," said Sirius, "although she told us to get lost yesterday and called the Healer a mudblood again today."

"I'm not surprised she's aggressive. She has every right to be angry. While 'mudblood' might not be the right word, the Healers evidently aren't doing their job very well if they're letting babies die," said Andromeda. "I wish I could go to her."

"I don't think that would be a good idea," I said. Bellatrix had actually gone on a rant earlier about how much she hated Andromeda and Nymphadora and how nothing was fair. We continued to discuss Orion's health. I really did think that he was getting better now.

"I think it's quite amazing that either of them survived at all," said Ted. "Muggle babies born that small wouldn't have survived for more than a few hours."

"Yes, but muggle healers do more harm than good, especially the ones in charge of babies," I said. Ted looked offended but I didn't care. I remembered seeing an appeal in the Daily Prophet about a girl my own age who'd suffered because her mother had taken muggle medicine whilst pregnant*. She'd ended up with no arms.

"Actually, muggle medicine has advanced a lot in the last few years," said Ted.

"How so, you've just admitted that it's useless. Doesn't it take them three months to fix a broken leg? Oh wait, they just bandage it up and leave it to heal on its own." Even though I was friends with some muggleborns and tolerated muggles, there were some things that Wizards were superior on. Healthcare was one of them. It also made me mad when muggles insisted that their way of doing things was better than ours.

"We have technology that allows a mother to see the baby growing inside," said Ted.

"So have we," I stated, "since 1926!"

"Let's not argue about this," said Andromeda. "Why don't you tell us what else has been going on, Sirius?"

"Well I guess you know Rosier ran away from home?" Sirius said. Andromeda nodded. I wondered who'd told her. "Did you know Damien got kicked out too?"

"No, how did that happen?" Andromeda asked. The news had been a shock to almost everyone and I wasn't surprised she hadn't seen it coming. Mr Rosier usually avoided punishing his children, however bad they'd been, though he did reward them generously the rest of the time.

"I guess it was the last straw. I don't know how he put up with the prick for so long, though," said Sirius.

"No, I think he realised that the only way to get Tristan to come back was to get rid of Damien," I said. "He's currently sharing a flat with Rabastan."

"I don't really care where Damien is. Where's Tristan?" my cousin asked. After all this talk of Rosiers, Nymphadora's hair had turned golden, the same shade as Evans'.

"No one knows," said Sirius, giving Nymphadora's new hair choice a puzzled look.

"Yeah, Evan told me he wrote a letter saying that he was safe but that he couldn't tell us where he was," I said. Andromeda looked strangely relieved at this. I hadn't realised that she'd care.

"And how is Cissy?"

"She's fine, I think. She was upset over everything with you and Bella, but other than that she's ok. And she's befriended Snape of all people," I said.

"The same Snape that you fight with all the time, Sirius?" she asked.

"Yes, unfortunately," said Sirius. "There's no doubt she hates me even more now."

"I doubt anything Snape says would change her opinion of you," I said. "It was in depths of Tartarus as it was."

"You can talk, she hasn't spoken a decent word to you since September," said Sirius, laughing at me.

"Ok, point taken," I laughed, though deep down I wished to patch things up with my youngest cousin. "At least she's still talking to Bellatrix."

"How is that a good thing?" asked Sirius.

By now I'd finished my cup of tea. I was tempted to turn it upside down like I normally did at tea parties with my cousins, but I didn't. I really didn't want to predict the future right now – not when it felt like everything was wrong with the world.

The five of us went into the sitting room: Sirius and I sat on the sofa, Ted and Andromeda sat in the chairs, and Nymphadora sat on the play mat, her hair changing pink again to match it. I was amazed at how much she'd changed since I last saw her in August. She could now sit up on her own and reach for her toys. I nudged Sirius and we both crawled over to sit with her.

It was the first time Sirius had interacted with her and I could tell how special this was to him. Nymphadora looked at me as if she could understand more than she could say, and then picked up Sirius II which was lying on the mat. Then she held it out to Sirius.

"I think she knows your secret," I whispered to Sirius.

We played with her for a while. There were a few new toys around her including small fluffy versions of the Hogwarts house animals. Sirius made the toy lion attack the green snake that kept slithering across the mat. I grabbed the eagle and made it peck at the lion. Then the baby dropped a not-to-scale badger down on all three and we burst out laughing.

"It reminds me of the time poor Andrew failed to break up you and Mulciber," I laughed. He'd had to be saved by Professor Sprout on that occasion, making it even more like the scene we'd played out.

Soon Nymphadora grew sleepy, so Andromeda took her upstairs to bed. Sirius and I followed, interested to see the rest of the house, and Ted came too so that he wouldn't be bored. There were three bedrooms: the one Andromeda and Ted shared; Nymphadora's and a guest bedroom.

Nymphadora's bedroom was one of the two at the back, with a window facing the back garden. The walls were mostly white with a pink border and the cot matched, with pink, painted railings and pink and white blankets. A mobile hung above the bed with paper animals handing from string. There were unicorns, hippogriffs, griffins, dragons, and other creatures, all beautifully drawn and flying around in circles. It looked hand made. I must have been staring at it a lot because Andromeda explained:

"I used an animation charm on the drawings to bring them to life, and then attached them to the mobile."

"I didn't know you could draw that well," said Sirius, eyeing the dragon.

Andromeda shrugged. "Regulus isn't the only one in the family that can draw."

…..

I looked outside as Andromeda changed her daughter into a clean nappy and pyjamas. The garden was long and thin, with wooden fences separating it from gardens belonging to other houses. Earlier, rain had washed away the snow so that the ground was a patchy green and white, and the flower beds lay full of frozen soil. On the lawn next door two boys were playing with a fist-sized yellow ball and two peculiar round bats.

"That game looks dull," Sirius said. While I knew that muggles had invented a few ball games, this was the first I'd seen with only two players. The boys, who were wearing the most ridiculous hats I'd ever seen (with what looked like Puffskeins on top), were passing the ball over a piece of string tied between two posts. It was surprising what muggles found fun.

"It's called Tennis and is normally played in summer," said Ted. "It's normally faster and more fun to watch. Those two aren't really very experienced." He chuckled to himself as if he'd just told a joke, though I didn't know what it was. Perhaps there was a running joke that the boys were bad at it. As if to prove my theory, the boy facing us missed the ball. After running to fetch it, he batted the ball at such an angle that it looked impossible for the other boy to hit it – yet he did anyway, hitting the ball so forcefully that it went into Andromeda's garden. I would have watched a bit longer, but now Andromeda had finished with the nappy and had mostly dressed her daughter.

She placed Nymphadora into the cot and the baby fell asleep after only a few lines of lullaby. We tip-toed out.

Andromeda showed us the rest of the house.

The other back bedroom was the guest room, which looked not only ready to use, but as if it had been decorated to suit either of us, which was difficult since Sirius and I had very different styles. The bed was tidy with a bedspread covered in little broomsticks and snitches with a bookshelf above containing fiction and non-fiction texts. The small table beside it had a clean, empty glass and a couple of books. One of these was called Discovering Your Inner Fire Demon and had an illustration of what looked like Fiendfyre on the front (when asked, Andromeda told me that it was a present from Bellatrix); the other was underneath it and had nothing written on the spine. There was nothing to suggest loyalty to any house – even the green cushion on the desk chair had the Holyhead Harpies claw on it, suggesting that it was merely Quidditch memorabilia from Andromeda's favourite team. The poster of their Team Captain also appealed to Sirius's new obsession with pictures of fit women.

Next, there was the bathroom, which just looked like an ordinary bathroom. Ted had installed a yellow, rubber duck and a toy hippocampus lay on the side of the bath.

After looking at Andromeda's room, we went back downstairs to talk more before going home. We then had an hour on the bus to think up suitable excuses for Mother, should she ask why we took so long.

…..

AN: So what do you think? Too much detail? Or is Regulus being far too slow to realise what's going on around him?

*Regulus's parents showed him the article when he was younger to convince him that muggles were inferior and bad people. The child attends the disability school that Regulus's father mentioned in chapter 22. The drug is thalidomide.