A/N: This chapter has a large part of Sirius and Regulus not being treated well and the consequences of that. So, there is a TW// child abuse, please don't read if that triggers you.

...

"And I tried to hold these secrets inside me
My mind's like a deadly disease"

Laughter was the best medicine, or so they say. Ted happened to believe in it, no matter what Jack told him about modern medicines. The thing was, Ted had seen people sick, and they only seemed to get better if they were laughing. So, to him, it made perfect sense.

Also, he's a guy who laughs a whole lot, and his arm healed fast, which can only mean one thing. His laughter did the trick. Of course, when he told his mother this, she rolled her eyes, and insisted he still refrain from carrying heavy items around the house.
She banned him from quidditch too for now, even when he and Jack pleaded their case.

The Tonks' household was peaceful other than that. Their family had always gotten along—something Ted had become increasingly grateful for over the years—but Ted noticed that their relationship as a whole had changed.

He had anticipated the dynamic to change once he went to Hogwarts, and it had. The change had come with him learning about things his parents had no idea about, while he was still expected to keep up with the muggle world. They had adapted eventually. By the time he made it to the summer before his seventh year, there was an understanding between them where there wasn't before.

His favorite days were the first few of summer when he got to give everyone a recollection of his entire year. The Tonks' were avid listeners, and Ted was a willing storyteller.

Humming to himself, he pulls his toast from the toaster, sliding over the jam his mother had made just for him. It had freshly grown strawberries from their friends down the road who lived on a farm. Ted would have to thank them personally for such a contribution to society.

Before he ever sees her, he hears giggling come from behind a wall. Ted stops what he's doing—telling himself he can always come back to his toast—and watches as Bobbie pops out from behind the wall. He laughs with her.

Bobbie, being a full eleven years younger than Ted, was only born a short time before he went to Hogwarts. It was difficult for him to leave home, knowing that he was missing time with not only her, but also his younger brother, who was only a year older than her.

At first, it had been hard to make a connection with Bobbie and Alfie, but then Bobbie got sick. It wasn't that her getting sick was the reason for their closeness, but it sure brought the whole family together. He would miss school for periods of time in order to be there for some of Bobbie's treatments, and the bond they formed over that time didn't go away just because Ted had to go back to school.

She still wasn't in perfect health, and had had a few relapses, but Ted tried to ignore that as best as he could. Despite her health, she was his little sister and he'd love her just as much anyway.

"Ted!" She squealed, still overjoyed he was home.

He had gotten home days ago, but Bobbie and Alfie didn't seem to care. From the moment they woke to when they went to bed, they trotted behind him like they were his ducklings.

His mum had countless pictures of Alfie holding onto one of his hands with Bobbie doing the same on the other side. It was truly adorable.

"Bob!" He replied with the same amount of enthusiasm.

She giggled at the nickname as she skipped into the kitchen to see what he was doing. Due to her treatments, Bobbie was smaller than a lot of kids around her age, so she had trouble peering over the counter that stopped at Ted's waist. Often times, Bobbie was found being given a piggyback ride from Ted, and if it was because Bobbie's body was tired from the illness, nobody brought it up.

They simply attempted to get her to laugh again. Another reason Ted might think laughter is the best medicine.

He swiped some jam from the container onto his finger, causing another giggle to escape from Bobbie. Neither had realized their mother had watched him do that with an unamused expression.

"Really, Ted? What're you teaching your sister?" She asked over her steaming mug of tea.

Hayden Tonks, once Hayden Carter, had a young, kind soul—something she aspired to pass down to her children. Her honey blonde hair and light brown eyes weren't features you'd find in Ted or Bobbie, as they often got compared to her husband. They had most definitely inherited her grin though, which was scarily similar in their family photos.

Ted turned as he was caught, laughing as Bobbie put her hands up innocently.

"Who her coolest sibling is, obviously," Ted answers.

Hayden shakes her head at him as Bobbie runs out of the kitchen, apparently tired of conversation. Ted follows Hayden to the kitchen table with his toast, attempting to steal a sip of her tea. He failed miserably at that and only ended up with a burnt tongue.

"Alright, so, give me the run down," Hayden prompted him, but she didn't have to.

After all, his favorite days of the year are the first few of summer where he gets to share his whole year from top to bottom. Of course, he shares the immediate things over his holiday breaks, but there's something about having a complete year to share that's different.

He started with how he handled his prefect duties along with the things he had to do as the quidditch captain. This led into his classes, and of course, he talked about how much he loved astronomy with Dromeda.

"How is she?" Hayden asked, sipping her tea and watching her son carefully.

"Who?" He replied absentmindedly, thinking about how he needed to send a letter to Dromeda.

"Andromeda," his mother said like it was obvious.

"Oh! Well, you know, she's Dromeda," Ted stumbled, ducking his head as he felt a blush grow on his cheeks.

His mum smirked.

"What does that mean exactly?" She attempted to ask for more details.

"She's always struggled with her family, but I think it's been a little better recently," Ted swallowed thickly, thinking about how she said she still couldn't leave. "She's definitely a lot happier now than she was when I first met her."

Ted had kept his mother posted throughout his friendship with Dromeda. He had used her as someone to confide in when he was especially worried about his friend, and he wanted to make sure an adult knew about the situation. It gave him more peace of mind.

"Good, that's good," she concluded. "When will I meet her?"

If Ted had started eating his toast, then he surely would've choked on it. He'd be lying if he said he hadn't imagined Andromeda in his kitchen interacting with his family, but it wasn't something he had the guts to arrange himself. Not yet, at least.

"I-"

He was saved from answering when Bobbie entered the kitchen again and swiftly kidnapped his toast. She giggled as she ran away with it, Ted immediately chasing after her.

"Bob!"

...

The breeze softly brushed their shoulders as they laughed and circled the neighborhood again. Henri and Jack had met up to bike hours ago, and still found themselves laughing as they pedaled around, near the time of sunset.

It was only the two of them. Ted and Andy had been invited, of course, but while Ted responded saying he had to watch his siblings that day, Andy hadn't replied at all—which might've been more concerning had Henri not come accustomed to her quietness over summer.

Henri had to reassure Jack that she was probably fine. Sometimes Andy simply couldn't reply, and it didn't help to make a big deal of it. They would only sound the alarms of panic if it had been weeks since they heard from their friend because Andy didn't like to keep anyone worried.

As it had only been a few days since they got off the Hogwarts Express, they really had no reason to worry.

The day had been full of laughter and cheeky replies, even if it was only the two of them. At one point, Jack was laughing so hard that he hadn't realized he was steering himself right into a mailbox.

"What's gonna happen after Hogwarts?" Jack mused, him and Henri biking much slower now.

"What do you mean?" Henri asked back, creasing her brows. "We'll all still be friends, of course."

"Well, obviously," Jack replied, sighing. "I just mean like what do you think is gonna happen?"

"I think I'll probably go home for a little," Henri responded, picturing herself in the future. "Ted and Andy'll get married-"

"Woah! What?" Jack asked, startled.

He skidded to a halt.

"You think they'll get married?" He said, his eyes wide.

"Yeah," Henri replied like it was obvious. "They're in love, Jack."

She stopped her bike next to his. They watched as the sun set in front of them. Only being a few houses down from Henri's, they could easily just walk the rest of the way.

"Even with her family?" Jack asked, genuinely unsure.

"I don't think she's going to let them stop her," Henri said. "She's wanted to leave her family for a while now anyway."

Jack exhaled deeply and shook his head. How Andromeda put up with her family for so long would never make any sense to Jack.

"What're you gonna do after Hogwarts?" Henri asked after a moment of quiet.

They started to walk back to her house. It was getting darker by the second, and neither of them fancied stumbling through the dark in order to get back to her house.

"I'd like to play quidditch," Jack laughed quietly. "How'd Andy manage to befriend all the quidditch maniacs?"

"Pretty sure we befriended her first," Henri answered, laughing as well. "She got stuck with us."

"You're right, she had no choice in the matter," Jack shook his head again. "How'd you meet her anyway?"

Henri hummed in delight. She loved thinking about how she met Andromeda because it was completely on accident.

"I had recently ditched my dorm mates because they were shit mates, and so, I was looking for new ones," Henri started, not allowing Jack to interrupt when he wanted to since they'd never finish the story that way. "This was fourth year, by the way."

Jack nodded at her to continue.

"I found her in the back of the train alone," Henri said, as they stopped to sit on the curb outside her house. "And then I decided we could be alone together."

She smiled as Jack frowned.

"That's actually kind of sad, Henri," Jack said and she laughed again, shrugging. "What happened with your dorm mates?"

"Oh, I got a crush on one of them and they all found out," Henri spoke casually, but Jack could tell she hadn't ever really forgiven them for it. "And then they hated me for it."

"I-uh, am sorry to hear that," Jack stumbled over his words. "Did they like out you or-"

He would assume that if they had outed her, then he'd of heard about it because of the infamous rumor mill, but Ted claims that Jack sometimes has his head in the sand, so he thought he'd double check.

"No, thankfully not," Henri sighed, looking up at the stars for Andromeda's constellation. "Although, that was only because the girl I had had a crush on was embarrassed by the whole ordeal, and she didn't want anyone to know."

"Well, I think she should've been grateful that the Henri Moreau, had a crush on her," Jack said, knocking shoulders with Henri as she laughed.

"Thanks," Henri said, still laughing.

"You want to know about my first crush on a boy?" Jack asked, happy to take the pressure from Henri.

"Sure," she replied simply, not expecting his answer.

"It was Ted," Jack said, causing Henri to sputter into a coughing fit. "Yeesh, didn't mean to kill you."

"No fucking way," Henri exclaimed, completely shocked. "Like Ted Ted? Our Ted?"

"Yeah, you know, Edward Tonks," Jack said, laughing at her reaction. "The guy with the annoying crush on that girl called Andromeda Black. You remember them, right?"

"I don't believe it," Henri muttered.

"Well, you should, because it's not a lie to say little Jack Johnson was besotted with little Ted Tonks the moment he laid eyes on him." Jack spoke grandly as Henri worked to keep up with the story. "I think it was like second year when I realized it was not normal to fantasize about my best mate the way I was."

"How'd you get over it?" Henri asked, and a moment after she realized he might not have ever gotten over it. A look of horror washed across her face. "Wait, you're not still in love with Ted, right? Oh my Merlin-"

"No!" Jack nearly yelled. "Calm your jets, Moreau! I'm not secretly in love with our dear friend Edward. What a plot twist that would've been though."

She waited a beat before asking anymore questions. Honestly, she never really knew what Jack was going to say, which is one of the best parts of being his friend. It sure made for interesting conversations though.

"I told him," Jack replied like it was a simple concept.

"You what?" Henri blinked a few times to make sure she wasn't just being delusional. She also debated pinching herself.

"I sat him down in our dorm and told him, dude I think I like you," Jack said, watching as Henri's jaw dropped.

Once again, he laughed at her reaction. It was better than he ever imagined it to be.

"And what did he do?" She asked, on the edge of her seat now.

"He was confused initially, saying, yeah, of course you do, we're friends," Jack shook his head at the memory and laughed with Henri. "I had to then clarify that I meant that I liked him more than best mates do. You wanna know what he said?"

"What?"

"He asked if it was like how his parents liked each other," Jack revealed, and Henri clutched her heart at that.

"So, he's always been that wholesome then," Henri remarked, huffing out a deep breath. "What'd you say after that?"

"Told him it was probably less than how much his parents liked each other," Jack said, recalling the conversation as if it were yesterday. "And then he said, oh okay, and it was over."

"That's it?" Henri asked, not even that shocked that's how easy it was to communicate that for those two.

"Yeah, that was it," Jack confirmed, smiling as Henri laughed of disbelief.

...

Escaping their house was always on the days to-do list, but going to the Grimmauld Place was not. Sirius and Regulus were lucky their cousins loved them.

Andromeda thought about making the trip by herself, taking full responsibility for what would happen if Orion and Walburga found out. She quickly realized, however, that it would've been a shit plan since they don't like her as much as they like Narcissa—which, to be fair, Andy didn't blame them. She didn't necessarily live to please them, let alone those she once called her parents.

This meant she showed Regulus's letter to Narcissa the minute they got a moment alone on the train home. In hesitant agreement, Narcissa plotted with Andromeda in a plan to take the boys to lunch, with the intention of getting to the bottom of what was going on with them while they were home.

Knocking on the door to the Grimmauld Place was no easy task. Many shared, annoyed looks later, Narcissa huffed out a breath and knocked, quickly plastering a smile onto her face as Andromeda did the same.

Here, there could be no slip-up's. They weren't allowed to be the people they were with Ted, Jack, Henri, or Davina for Narcissa. They couldn't afford to let their secrets seep into the personas they needed to smother their real selves with. In other words, it was do or die.

Their dresses went straight to their ankles, plain colors with no design. They didn't wish to stand out, aiming to look prim and proper. Both Andromeda and Narcissa helped each other with their hair, taking extra time that morning to be sure not a hair was out of place.

Finally, the door was opened by their Aunt Walburga. She too was dressed in a plain dress that went to her ankles, her hair in a tight bun with no flyaways. It looked like it would hurt to smile, and knowing her, it probably would.

"Andromeda, Narcissa," she spoke unfeelingly. "Lovely to see you."

It did not seem like it was really that lovely to see them based upon her expression, but no smile was better than a scowl.

"Of course! We couldn't pass up seeing our favorite aunt," Narcissa said, taking the lead.

Andromeda decided to stand still for the moment and look pretty. Her sister seemed to be handling things just fine as they were invited in.

Their aunt quickly told—or more like ordered—their house elf, Kreacher, to make them tea. She also explained to them that their Uncle Orion was busy with a meeting. Andromeda internally celebrated—her uncle made her feel uncomfortable.

They speak warmly of their time at Hogwarts for the past year, praising Slytherin since they knew that's what she would want to hear. Soon enough, they were able to butter her up enough to allow them to take the boys to lunch.

"Somewhere respectable, I presume," Walburga said in regards to the lunch establishment.

"Of course, nothing less," Andromeda spoke up at once, trying her best to reassure her.

A few moments later, four purebloods walked along the sidewalk. Regulus hand in hand with Narcissa, Sirius just walking closely beside Andromeda.

Andromeda, desperately trying to break the tension, fake throws up. She puts on quite the show, causing actual worry from Narcissa for a second before the realization hits.

"Well, putting on that act never gets any easier," Andy finally says.

She grins in triumph as Sirius laughs and Regulus cracks a smile. Narcissa just rolls her eyes at her sister.

Their walk was short, and peaceful for the rest of the time. They chatted idly about topics no one really cared too much about, saving the brunt of everything for lunch.

With their arrival at The Leaky Cauldron, Narcissa guided the boys away from the regulars and into a booth style table. The two sets of siblings stared across at each other.

After a brief scolding from Narcissa—Andromeda had allowed Sirius order butterbeer—Andy rolled her eyes and turned her attention to the boys. They both shifted in their seats, knowing what was to come.

"Alright, Sirius," Andy begins, watching as Sirius attempts to avoid eye contact. "Let's get a look at that arm of yours."

He groans and makes no moves to move his arm from where it rested on the table.

"It's really not that big of a deal," he told them earnestly.

Regulus really wasn't having any of it because his next move was to smack Sirius's arm, just to show them that it was, in fact, a bigger deal than Sirius was letting on. Sirius whined and glared at Regulus.

Hesitantly, Sirius accepted his fate and held his arm out to Andy. She carefully pulled back his sleeve and unwrapped the makeshift t-shirt wrap. She recognized the muggle band t-shirt she had given him some time ago, and sighed quietly under her breath.

Eventually, his arm was unveiled to be bruised and swollen. The sisters grimaced in sync.

"What happened?" Cissa asked softly, watching as Andy turned his wrist over to assess all angles.

Sirius didn't open his mouth to answer, choosing instead to sit there miserably.

"I'll tell them if you don't," Regulus announced, ignoring the way Sirius's shoulders dropped.

"Reggie."

"Sirius."

In a stalemate, Sirius admitted defeat and took his arm back into his lap. Rather uncomfortably, he began to tell his tale.

"I was running away from Dad," Sirius swallowed thickly.

His eyes didn't leave the table in front of him as he spoke, choosing instead for them to glaze over. The recollection of the event didn't seem to be helpful for Sirius in any way, and Andromeda wished that she could just tell him to stop talking about it if it were that painful to remember, but she needed to know what happened. She had to get to the bottom of it all in order to decide whether she should take him to St. Mungo's.

"I corner myself in my room, so I tried to climb out the window, and then, I fell," he explained, not continuing any further.

Andromeda blinked a few times, looking over at Regulus, who had put his hand on Sirius's shoulder.

"You fell out of your window?" Andromeda asked, trying to clarify.

"Yep," Sirius confirmed, looking up to see a neutral expression on Narcissa's face and a contemplative one on Andromeda's.

"And he fell on his arm," Regukus added, causing Sirius fo groan again.

"Well, obviously, or it wouldn't look like this," Sirius said, clearly annoyed.

Regulus appeared affronted.

"You didn't say, so I had to make sure they knew," Regulus crossed his arms.

"They're not stupid, Reg-"

"None of that," Andromeda interrupted lightly, pursing her lips.

During the meal, it was decided that Narcissa would take Regulus to the shops in London, while Andromeda and Sirius would go to St. Mungo's. This, of course, did not please Sirius at all.

He had called both sisters a few choice words, earning a thorough scolding from Narcissa before she left with Regulus. This didn't seem to change his mind, and Andy wasn't sure how she would get him to leave the booth until she realized she didn't need to take him to Mungo's. All he needed was a healer.

"It's time to leave, Sirius," Andromeda said, with as much authority in her voice as she could muster.

He crossed his arms and looked out the window.

"I'm not going to Mungo's, Meda," he said with finality.

"Fine," Meda responded, shrugging.

This took Sirius by surprise. He narrowed his eyes in suspicion, not completely convinced she wasn't lying.

"Where will we go then?" He asked, not budging as Andy got up from the booth.

"I'll take you to my friend's house," she said, gathering her things.

She placed her hands on her hips as a spark of interest lit itself in Sirius's eyes and betrayed him.

"Your friend's house? Who's your friend?" He asked rapidly, jumping up from his seat.

Andromeda laughed at the quick change of pace. They left the Leaky Cauldron, opting to the left to find an alley to apparate from.

"Her name is Henri," Andromeda answered, smiling at the thought of seeing her friend.

"Is she nice? What's she like?" He asked curiously, grabbing onto Andromeda's hand for side-along apparition.

"I guess you'll just have to find out."

...

In hindsight, Andromeda probably should have owled ahead to Henri's house, just to inform her of the situation at hand. Although, she had told Andy once that if she ever needed a place to go, then she was welcome there.

So, maybe it was alright she just decided to apparate over.

Trying to reassure herself of that fact, she hesitated in front of the door, one hand in the air ready to knock and the other being clutched by Sirius. He looked at her expectantly as she still paused.

"I thought you said this girl was your friend?" Sirius asked, raising his brows as he grew impatient.

Andromeda nearly rolled her eyes, but just settled on giving him a soft glare instead. He smiled cheekily up at her.

"The things I do for you," Andy muttered, finally knocking on the door.

Behind the scenes, Henri was abruptly interrupted from her newest binge read, some new muggle romance that her mother insisted she read. She curiously went to answer the door, not expecting anyone that afternoon.

Alarm bells went off in her head as soon as she saw it was Andromeda with a bored looking boy at her side. They bore similar features, so she concluded that it was probably one of her younger cousins she always went on about. She threw open the door urgently, scared something horrible had happened.

"Andy!" Henri greeted, attempting to keep the strain from her voice but not succeeding at banishing the wild from her eyes.

"Henri," Andy said in turn, quite calmly. Henri forgot how soothing her best friend's voice was. "This is Sirius, my cousin."

Sirius blinked owlishly at her as she smiled softly. Not wanting to scare him, and not knowing his situation, she refrained from any further greeting—other than an awkward wave, which he returned with a smirk—and ushered them inside.

They went into the their kitchen, Sirius plopping himself down onto the stool. He assessed his surroundings, taking in all the foreign things to him as Andy explained what had happened to Henri.

While Henri went to get her mum, who conveniently had the day off and was gardening, Andy sat down next to Sirius on the stool.

"Is Henri in your dorm with you?" Sirius asked, clearing his throat.

She shook her head no, but thought of what it would be like to have someone she loved in the dorm with her. She silently wished that Sirius would have someone like that for him when he went to Hogwarts.

"No, she's a Gryffindor," Andy explained, not knowing this would cause Sirius's head to explode.

"A Gryffindor?" He asked flabbergasted. "No way."

Andromeda laughed at the way his jaw dropped.

"Yes way," she said, quickly thinking of more things Sirius would find cool about Henri. "She plays on the quidditch team too."

His eyes just about bugged out of his head.

"She plays quidditch!" He repeated, his voice getting high.

"Yeah, she's the captain," Andy grinned, getting a kick out of the game they were playing.

"The captain!" Sirius nearly yelled as Henri and her mum returned.

Sirius immediately shrunk down into himself with the presence of an adult. Andy placed a hand on his shoulder, reminding him that he was okay and that she was there.

"Hello, Sirius," Henri's mum started as Sirius darted his eyes to Andy. She gave him an encouraging smile. "I work as a healer at St. Mungo's, and I heard you've been having some wrist troubles?"

Sirius sighed as he held out his wrist for her to hold.

"Yeah, I fell and landed on it," Sirius clarified, watching as the woman waved her wand.

A part of his wrist lit up, causing everyone's eyes to draw straight to it. Marlowe—Henri's mum—nodded and chewed her lip, going into the cabinet behind them. Fully stocked with potions, she grabbed two and walked back over to them.

"Alright, so, it looks like you've got a small break in your wrist, dear," Marlowe spoke, unaware of how the motherly kindness would affect Sirius. "Don't fret, these potions'll have you fixed good as new by midnight."

"Okay," Sirius murmured.

Andromeda smiled gratefully at them, mouthing 'thank you' while Sirius grimaced through the potions. He choked them down, and turned to Andy with a displeased expression.

"This is the worst outing you've ever taken me on," he declared, causing everyone to laugh.

He got a kick out of that, clearly, because his grin widened after hearing everyone's reaction. Andy smiled, happy to see him bounce back.

"I'll make up for it, I promise," Andy announced, unaware that she definitely would in the coming of weeks.

...

Song: Control
By: Halsey

This act is due to be longer than the last with sixteen chapters planned! (Including this one!) Thank you for sticking around this long, it means so much to me!!

This chapter was looong, which I originally did not plan, but alls well that ends well I suppose.

Perspectives happening without Meda around? That's new! I wanted to try something a little different for this chapter, and I think it ended up pretty well.

One thing about Ted is that he is a family man, which makes Andy not having a good home life even sadder to him. Him and his siblings are my favorite and I'll protect them with my life. Also, Ted is a total momma's boy, but not in a freudian way don't worry, in a James and Euphemia Potter way.

Henri and Jack discussing their first queer crushes! So true, you go. Jack's being Ted! How real of him honestly.

Lmao anyways thanks for reading
-teddy xx