good things fall apart • sirius black

20th January 1975

Dear Ellie,

I've heard about what has happened and I wanted to write to send my condolences. I do hope that you and your whole family is okay.

The last time I wrote to Sirius, I told him to let you know that you are welcome to write to me anytime. I enjoyed our conversations when I was still at Hogwarts and I am not too proud to admit that I miss your humour greatly. So please do write, if you want to of course. I shall not be offended if you do not wish too. And I invited you to visit with Sirius when he does in the summer too - I doubt he passes on any of this information.

The last time I heard from my cousin, he mentioned that things were tense between you two, something to do with Regulus. I do not want to pry, but if you want to speak about how brash Sirius can be, don't hesitate to share the burden. Sometimes I feel I am the only one that takes responsibility for that boy.

Once more, I am very sorry for your loss.

Sending love,
Andromeda Tonks

•••

Dear Andromeda,

Thank you for your letter, it seems like a very long time since we last spoke, but I have missed it greatly.

Your kindness never goes unrecognised, and I feel very honoured to say that you are my friend, for despite our lack of contact you have still been thoughtful enough to write, and that means a lot more than words can express.

As regards your offer of inviting me to visit you with Sirius in the summer - please do not think I am ungrateful, because I would love to see you again, but I'm not sure circumstance will allow me to do so. Whether I'll be ready to face the world again by then is something that is still yet to be determined.

And even though me and Sirius managed to reconcile over the matter you spoke of, we are once again on bad terms. Or at least I haven't spoken to him since we have argued over Regulus again. I do wish that we could bury the issue once and for all, because I can't understand why he won't accept that I want to be friends with both of them, but your cousin is being as immoveable as usual. He decided it was clever to make me chose between him and Regulus, refusing to acknowledge that I am still trying to patch things up with his brother - at the time, I had to pick Regulus, for our friendship is as important to me as any other of my friendships.

But I fear that has lost me Sirius for good.

Initially, I wasn't ready to forgive him at all, I wanted him to reassess how he tackles conflict and potentially take a step back from our friendship. But things have changed now, and I need him. At this point, I would even taking him winding me up.

If you have any advice on how to handle your cousin, please do share, because I am finding myself tearing my hair out with him, and right now I have other things on my mind too.

Let me know how you are, how Ted is, and how Nymphadora is too - I don't doubt she is nearly fully grown by now.

A grateful friend,
Ellie Gryffin