The Order

Except for OCs, the characters here and the world they inhabit are the creation of JK Rowling and her assigns.

Andromeda's second child was born when his older sister was a two and a half years old. Ted's delight was boundless. Things had quieted down a bit. The Death Eaters caused occasional incidents to remind the Ministry of their existence, but were hiding their presence for the most part. The pregnancy had gone without incident, and the delivery of the child was no more difficult than most women face.

On the day the child was born, Ted looked at him for hours. Andromeda was happy to have given him a son. Ted would never admit it, and he was firmly wrapped around his daughter's finger, but she knew men liked to have a son. Hadn't Aunt Walburga twitted Mother about it for Andromeda's whole life?

Ted looked up at one point. "He makes me think of my Dad. Can we call him Timothy?"

She smiled fondly. The name seemed to fit the boy, somehow. "Yes, I think it suits him."

"Timothy Alphard?"

Andromeda smiled brighter. "Yes, I think that's perfect."

She looked at the man and little boy she loved best in the world and remembered how the previous summer they had sat on a blanket as was becoming their habit on the night of the Perseid meteors. Ted had been so incredibly himself, sitting there, pointing out the shooting stars so she would see them and glancing her way. His smiles had made her stomach swim. She could never define what happened on such occasions, but it had come upon her that she had to be with him in the most intimate of ways right then.

She had sat up behind him and kissed his ear as she unfastened his robe. He had sucked in his breath, and she continued to undress him. It hadn't taken much effort from there to convince him to participate. They had stayed together under the stars and shared their love until the meteors faded from view. Afterwards, they had walked into the house and prepared for the day with a smile that made the witch's uncle smile in satisfaction.

A persistent stomach upset a month and a half later had caused Andromeda to seek the assistance of a Healer in a rare instance of her leaving the cottage. The Healer had confirmed what she already suspected: She was in the second month of pregnancy. They had met this news with as much joy as they had when little Dora, as her father called her, was announced.

Ted brought her back to the present by smiling as he looked at her. "Dromeda, you're still the prettiest witch I've ever seen."

"Nonsense. I'm all worn out from having a baby. My skin is blotchy and my hair is all over..."

She was silenced by a kiss that was altogether more passionate than the situation warranted, given that passion was on a list of things that would be in short supply for a month or so. "I see all those things, but I also see you, that I love so much, and that's always been so pretty to me."

"Oh, Ted," she said, bursting into tears, "you should know better than to say something like that to me on a day like today when my feelings are all over the place. I love you, too."

Poppy had come from Hogwarts again to deliver the baby, and Sirius had come with her. The young wizard spent several minutes telling his little cousin that he must sort to Gryffindor, and that together they would show those Slytherins what was what. Andromeda watched the two boys and hoped with all her heart that the world would adjust and the family rifts could be healed.

Orion and Walburga allowed Sirius to visit Alphard's house during the following summer, even though they suspected Alphard was somehow helping their niece in her scandalous behavior. Sirius had a great deal of fun talking with his uncle and playing with his young cousin. He watched her try to copy his black hair and the shape of his face and laughed loud and long. It was a good week, and Andromeda enjoyed having someone different in the house as much as Sirius enjoyed being away from his parents and brother.

The night before he was to return to his parents' house, Sirius watched Andromeda playing with his toddler cousin and asked about something that had troubled him that week. "He seems a bit... flat... like he's missing a spark. Is there something wrong with him?"

Andromeda shook her head. "No, he's fine. We think he might be a Squib."

"A Squib? How can you stand it?"

She smiled. "He's a member of the family."

"But still..."

"His father and I love each other very much, and our children are part of that love. I couldn't not love this child, Sirius. If he's not magical, we will find a way to have him educated in the Muggle world, to go to university and to live as normally that way as he can. Maybe he'll be better off away from the troubles you and I have faced with our family."

"Hm, you might be right about that," said the young wizard, who was still a boy. "He could hardly be worse off than you are."

"Thanks," said Andromeda, giving her cousin a bump with her shoulder. He bumped her back, and they went downstairs together for Sirius's last evening in the cottage.

Sirius didn't mean to let something slip, but somehow he must have. Rumor flooded the Black family about Andromeda's Squib child, and Alphard was called to discuss it. He returned several hours after he left, quite ill. Andromeda helped him to bed and tried various healing methods and potions.

"They poisoned me, but it won't be possible for you to prove it."

"What can we do?"

"There's nothing you can do, dear. It's not a bad time for me to go where Evie is. You and Ted are doing so well, the kids are wonderful, and I can leave. I know you'll help Sirius when he needs help. "Listen, I have left you the cottage and it's contents. Since you have that trust fund, I'm leaving the rest of my estate to Sirius. I've locked it all up tight so that the family can't do anything about it. I think they were hoping that the cottage would revert to Walburga and you would finally be exposed, but it's not going to happen. Don't pay any attention to any letters you might receive."

Andromeda spent the evening caring for her uncle. Bennie took care of the children until Ted came home from work. Uncle Alphard opened his eyes one last time and said, "I love you, child," and then he was gone. Bennie came into the room several minutes later.

"Mistress, Bennie has to leave."

She sat there, her uncle's hand still in her own, and tears running down her face. She didn't understand what the elf was saying.

"Bennie has to leave and to take Master Alphard with him."

"Oh." It hadn't occurred to Andromeda that the house wouldn't include the elf, but it made perfect sense. The elf had belonged to the Grimmauld Place house and only left when Uncle Alphard did. Once he died, the elf would go back to the house.

"I shouldn't keep you, then, Bennie. You've been a very good elf, and I'm sorry that you have to leave."

"Bennie thanks Mistress. But, Mistress, I takes Master Alphard with me."

"Yes, of course." He would be buried from the home of his ancestors. He was still on the tapestry, after all. It was the first time in many months that Andromeda had thought about it, and she really didn't care, but at that moment it caused her to wince.

Ted took a bereavement day and watched the children as Andromeda wore a concealing cloak that left her face in shadow. She didn't go to the funeral, but did attend the service at the place where all Blacks in good standing were buried.

"It's your fault you know."

Andromeda turned and saw her older sister. She looked much older than when she had last seen her, and there was a new and strange light in her eyes.

"I didn't create the world that caused this."

"No, but you made things worse by marrying the Mudblood and having his children."

"I love my husband, and I love my children."

Bellatrix hissed, "They don't matter. My lord will destroy them all, and then you will join him as I have in order to help him rule the world."

Andromeda looked at her sister's face. Her eyes were shining but none of it quite fit. "What have you been doing with him?"

Trixie's chin lifted a bit. "It's none of your business. He and I are on a different plane than the rest of you."

"I think I'm content to be a mere mortal."

"Maybe you should leave and let us mourn poor Uncle Alphard."

Andromeda snorted. "Let you mourn poor Uncle Alphard? That's a bit rich in this family. Were you in on the plot to poison him?"

Her sister's eyes narrowed. "What do you know about that?"

"Do you honestly think he didn't know what happened once it was done? Who do you think sat by his side and held his hand the whole time? Who do you suppose turned him over to the house-elf? Where's Bennie, anyway?"

Bellatrix shrugged. "I heard the elf was resisting his retraining. Aunt Walburga did the only thing she could."

Andromeda resisted the urge to raise her voice. "She...she didn't."

Her sister smiled. "Oh, but she did."

"To kill Uncle was one thing, but the house-elf... he wasn't part of this..."

Andromeda started to back away but Bellatrix reached out and grabbed her arm. "Not so fast, Little Sister..."

"Is it true?" The girls looked up to find that they had been joined by Sirius.

His elder cousin shrugged. "All you need to do is look at the hallway when you get home, Sirius."

He shook his head and hissed angrily. "No, about Uncle Alphard."

"I have no idea what you're talking about," the witch said with an attempt at a demure look on her face that she could no longer achieve. "Of course, if the Mudblood's whore, here, is pushed out into the open by his death... it's a good thing, don't you think?"

Sirius's face turned dark red and he turned on his heel to find his parents. Trixie looked up, a gleam in her eyes at the idea of a scene, and Andromeda took advantage of the opportunity to place a Stinging Jinx on the hand that held her arm. Once free, she didn't waste a second in escaping to her own back garden, hers now that Uncle had willed it to her.

Andromeda and Ted were sitting over coffee in the kitchen, discussing the funeral and their own thoughts about what had happened, when the Floo sprang to life.

"What is it now?" asked Ted as he jumped up and pulled out his wand. As ever, he tried to stand in front of his wife, but she pulled out her own wand and aimed, a spell ready at her lips. They watched the figure spinning into the room and relaxed when it turned out to be Sirius. Soot from the fireplace stuck to the tear-tracks on his face.

"It's true," he said, "all of it, Andie. Uncle Alphard," he swallowed hard, "and poor Bennie, too. They didn't admit it, but they didn't deny it, either. Mother looked positively pleased with herself. How can she call herself his sister?

"I left. I packed everything I could fit into my school trunk and went to James Potters's house. His parents want me and practically treat me like James. They'll help me get on my feet. I'll find a job after I'm done at Hogwarts, and then I'll have a place of my own."

"Oh, Sirius..." she sat him down and offered him something to eat.

"No, it's ok," he said. "Mrs. Potter is fixing supper right now. They said I might come to you and let you know what happened. Well, if it's just a little..." He sat when she put her hands on his shoulders. His mouth was half full of biscuits when he finally thought to ask, "Wha' will you do whe' th' house goes t' Moth'r?"

"It won't."

Sirius gulped his mouthful down and said, "What do you mean?"

"Uncle told me that night, when he realized what had happened. He said that long ago he changed his will. He left me this cottage and you the rest of his estate."

The boy sat and thought for a while. "He knew them really well, didn't he?"

"He did grow up between them."

"It's hard to picture them as children. Can you imagine my mother that way?"

Andromeda giggled. "Hardly."

"Me, either. I feel like you and I are the only ones who truly knew him. We're the ones who should have a funeral for him."

Andromeda Summoned a piece of parchment and a quill from the kitchen counter. "Who should be there?"

The next evening, a small group of people including Molly and Arthur Weasley, the Prewett brothers, Kingsley Shacklebolt, Alastor Moody, and Albus Dumbledore sat in the sitting room of what was now Andromeda Tonks's cottage. Sirius had brought his friend, James.

Dumbledore stood before them as Ted handed out glasses of firewhisky. "I want to remember as good a fighter as we ever had. Our small group has been much enriched by Alphard's activities. He's been a good spy for our side within the bosom of Voldemort's followers. It will be much harder, now, to anticipate what they might do.

"Besides that, he's been a loving and kind member of his family. Few of you were alive when Evie was taken from him, and I never saw a man mourn harder. We can hope, for his sake, that he's been reunited with the witch he never stopped loving. Since that time, he's taken care of his sister and brother's children as needed, making up for what these two never had at home. Alphard Black, wherever you are, may it be someplace where you can rest on a job well done.

"To Alphard Black!" He raised his cup and everyone in the room did the same.

Stories were passed, then, including some funny ones told by Alastor Moody, who had known Alphard when both were students at Hogwarts. There had been more interaction between Slytherin House and the other houses in those days, and the two had gotten into a couple of escapades together over the years.

The evening was long from over when Dumbledore stood again. "I must ask your patience, friends, for a few more minutes."

Everyone's eye looked up at the Headmaster of Hogwarts. "We've had a loose organization of sorts, but we're fighting against a strong enemy whose organization has a name and a plan. The Death Eaters are more determined and have been using Unforgivable Curses for several years now. It's a long time since this stopped being a lark. The time has come to take more definitive action.

"I have chosen to let our group be controlled by the preferences of the Ministry. Unfortunately, Cornelius Fudge has concerns that will not allow him to realize what is happening within some of our first families..."

"Too busy counting the campaign contributions," injected Moody under his breath. "He doesn't want to sacrifice his influence with the pureblood families."

Dumbledore cleared his throat. "For whatever reason, he has chosen not to take this seriously. I therefore believe that we must act, within the confines of the law as much as possible. Our organization will take on a more definitive structure. I would like to propose that we call ourselves," he paused to wave his right arm. There was a flash of light and a bright fire-red bird flew into the room and settled on his arm. "I propose we call ourselves the Order of the Phoenix."

Thank you to Trickie Woo for beta reading.

Thank you also to the staff here who selected this as a Featured Story. I'm quite honored!