Andromeda Tonks
Andromeda Tonks relationship with the Malfoy family was a new one. Recently rectified after being disowned from the Black Family after marrying a muggleborn. It surprisingly was not her sister, Narcissa, who had got in contact with her, but her husband Lucius Malfoy. It was even more surprising when she read the letter and saw it was inviting her to come round for afternoon tea one day to meet her Godson. Whom she did not know she had.
Andromeda had never been told about Hadrian, the Malfoy family had only chosen the Godparents when Hadrian was nine months old and were planning to tell them, well Andromeda and Ted Tonks, after his first birthday and that clearly did not happen. Andy, as she liked to be called, assumed that the godchild she was being introduced to was a baby, recently born into the family, so imagine her surprise when she was introduced to the cutest little six year old she had ever seen, snuggling into his Daddy’s arms causing the Potion Master to actually look human for the first time she had ever seen him.
She had been very surprised when she had seen the announcement in the paper about Severus Snape marrying her sister and sister’s husband. It was probably the first time she had ever seen a slight smile on his face. The man she knew did not seem like the kind of man to get married and have kids, but the man in front of her was no longer then man she knew. He looked human, fatherhood had done him a world of good. Which made her so angry when she found out the story of Hadrian’s life so far. This man, who was clearly made to be a father had had the opportunity ripped from him.
She had found it odd why they had never told her about Hadrian but now it made sense. And it was by complete coincidence that she witnessed one of Hadrian’s tantrums when it was only Narcissa and her in the room. The tension had already been sharp, with her and Narcissa not being on good terms already. Narcissa had been her favourite sister, and had been the one encouraging her to be with Ted instead of being loyal to the Black family, but the moment she was disowned Narcissa failed to speak to her again. Narcissa didn’t even tell her when Draco was born, she found out through Phineas Black, who was the only member of the Black family who maintained contact with her and he was dead so it wasn’t saying much.
But the tension was quickly cut when Hadrian began his screaming. Andy was shocked that such a cute little boy but quickly became confused when Narcissa did absolutely nothing to help her son. Didn’t offer any comforting words, didn’t tell him off for having a tantrum, just sat there and stared at the China mug that held her tea. So Andromeda did what any mother would have done in this situation, she walked over and picked the boy up. She had been warned previously that he wasn’t too keen on women, but he stopped screaming when he was being held by her and once she had sat back down for about fifteen minutes his sobs had decreased into sniffles and not long after his sniffles decreased into slow breathing indicating that the small boy had fallen asleep.
“Narcissa?” She spoke quietly as to not wake the little bundle in her arms. Her question was a silent one but Narcissa didn’t acknowledge that she had heard it, so she tried again. “Narcissa, why didn’t you comfort your child?”
Narcissa scoffed. “I can’t comfort a child who wont let me bloody near him!”
Andromeda stared at her. “What do you mean?”
“The runt screams every time Sev, Luc or Draco leaves the room. He cannot stand to be near me, I do not know why. I birthed him and yet his connection is with the others. I don’t think I have spent a single day alone with him since we brought him home, nor the rest of my family” Despite finishing her speech there, she did whisper another thing under her breath which Andromeda caught. “Some days I wish he had never come home.”
Andromeda watched as Narcissa left the room, not even bothering to check if her youngest child was okay. She knew why now, but she still could not believe that this was her sister. Securing the young child on her hip, she set of trying to find one of the boy’s other parents. It took her a total of twenty minutes to find the potions lab having never been to Malfoy Manor before and she was glad that both Severus and Lucius were in there.
“Hello Andy, what can we do for you?” Lucius asked, taking Hadrian out of her arms to cuddle him. Severus would have taken him himself but he was currently in the middle of a potion that he did not want to put into stasis if he really didn’t have to.
“Narcissa,” she stated. Severus immediately put a stasis charm over his cauldron before leading the two of them through to his office to sit in front of the fire.
“Ah. I suppose we should sit down then.”
“I don’t entirely understand the situation, what exactly is –“ She cut off not exactly knowing how to explain herself.
“Ever since we have brought Haddy home with us Narcissa has been distant and Hadrian just will not be in the same room as her, will not be held by her, will not be comforted by her and most definitely cannot be left alone with her. At first, we did wonder if he had been treated badly by a woman but seeing as you held him it can’t be that. He’s also been okay with the Mother’s of Draco’s friends, so we aren’t too sure whats going on.”
“Who did Hadrian have a connection to first?” Andromeda’s husband was a psychologist in the muggle world, so she had a slight inkling as to what was going on.
“Well, me first.” Severus replied. “Then probably Lucius and in the last few weeks or so he has been fine being left alone with Draco.”
“I don’t think that he has been able to make a connection with Narcissa. If I remember correctly he called her mama once when we first brought him home but I haven’t heard him call her it again, in fact he doesn’t really call her anything these days. I think the first time the screaming happened she had gone to wake him up one morning as he had slept quite late, and we were flooed by Draco who was crying that Haddy wouldn’t stop screaming and when we reached his bedroom Narcissa was just stood in the door way and Hadrian was curled up in the corner of the bed very clearly distraught.
This is when we first thought that maybe he had been abused by a women and that’s why he screams but now after seeing him interact with other women it just does not make sense. Haddy certainly won’t tell us, he clams up when asked about her. I just wonder what went wrong. We wanted him home so he was safe, but if he doesn’t feel safe how can we ever say that he is.”
“Then there is the situation of what to do with him in September. It’s coming up fast and we have no solution yet. He can’t be left alone in the Manor with her, he would never heal.” Severus added.
“Well I would suggest that I take him, but wouldn’t it be better for you to take him with you Severus? I know that you, Lucius, would want to see him but from what I gathered right this second is that his connection is mainly with Severus at the moment and it is far too delicate to be broken. Is there a way for you both to be at Hogwarts?” Andromeda asked, she understood that the situation was a delicate one and as much as she would love to take the young boy and help them she knew they were right, he wouldn’t heal properly without them.
“You mean get a job at Hogwarts? The headmaster would never allow it!”
“He doesn’t have to allow it. A staff member can be brought in by the Governors appointing the position. After all, how many teachers has Albus Dumbledore hired without the say so of the school board. He may be headmaster but we, Lucius, have the higher power. I’m sure you could rally the lot of them onto your side, if you mention that you want to be close to your son who you have just got back I’m sure they will sympathise.” Andromeda continued.
“That is a good plan,” Severus intervened. “I’m sure Draco would appreciate you being there too Lucius. We can both keep an eye on Hadrian that way and I am sure Poppy would love to look after him in the day if we are not available. If we take it to the Governors too, Albus wont be able to try and take Haddy off us. He would assume that any movement he made to take him away would cause him to lose his job because we would tell everyone what he did.”
The three of them sat discussing their plan of action for a little while, Severus jotted down any good idea that they had. They were brought out of their plotting by little whimpers coming from the boy who was the cause of all their worries. He was not squirming in Lucius’ arms however, just whimpering. Lucius tried calming him down but for some reason it did not help so he looked over to Severus desperately. Andromeda just watched, wanting to see how it would play out.
Severus stood out of his chair and took the boy so that his little arms and legs were wrapped around his daddy like a monkey. He then began rocking in a sort of slow dance way in the small area they were in, all while stroking the boys hair and whispering something into his ear that his company were not able to hear. It took about five minutes but eventually they saw the beginning of a sleepy little boy waking up, fisting the sleep out of his eyes, who at first beamed when he saw he was in his Daddy’s arms but then it looked like something had dawned on him and he began to cry.