Lady Tonks, Lord Potter

A mere formality

1996

The sun began creeping through the blinds, slits of light that slowly ran at an angle to the striped duvet. She could feel the light behind her closed eyelids as sleep began to fade. Her breath became deeper and she closed her eyes tighter, hoping against hope that it would be just a dream and she could sleep longer, hold the day at bay for as long as possible, but it was not to be. The light steadily became brighter, an affront to her mood. It should be a dark, gloomy day. That would have been appropriate for the reading of Sirius' will, a dark, rainy, depressing day to match her mood.

With a noise of irritation she kicked the covers towards the end of the bed and slowly made her way into the loo. As she sat there and tried to wake up fully the thoughts of what she had to do that day made her stomach turn. If I had only been quick enough to take out Bellatrix he'd still be alive...Shaking her head to clear those thoughts she took care of business, peeled out of her pajamas and started the shower. As the water began warming she glanced over in the mirror. Damn it, it's the same as Mum's today. With a slight twitch her hair straightened, turned a muted deep blue and fell down about her shoulders. For a moment she thought about shortening it but let it stay long. As long as it didn't look like Black hair it would work.

Once the shower was finished she wrapped a towel about her torso, went over to the vanity and rummaged through the assorted empty Muggle beer cans and takeaway containers until she found her wand. She'd been slightly pissed when she tossed it over there last night, but needed it to dry her hair. The air began coming out of the end of the wand with quite a bit of force, so after a few calming breaths she tried the spell again; the second time it worked as intended. As the wand did it's work she stepped over a pair of trainers and some dirty clothes and went to her closet, opening the door with her free hand. It took a bit to find what she was looking for, but eventually like the wand it was located. It was stuck at the back of the closet, wadded up and shoved behind a pair of jeans she had forgotten she'd purchased, as the tags from the Muggle secondhand store were still fastened to the belt loops. The formal robe looked...wrong. It was wrong to her, to dress up for Sirius' will reading but her mum had given her strict instructions. Even though her Mum was no longer a 'real' Black there were some things that ol' Andromeda couldn't let go. When she'd shaken out the robe she stopped drying her hair and focused on the robe, casting a slight levitation charm on it and then began a series of cleansing, freshening and ironing charms. It wasn't fashionable in the least, a dark gray robe with no coloured lining or embroidery, but it was well made and from very rich fabric. She knew her mum expected her to wear something appropriate underneath the robe, but she saw a piece of clothing from the corner of her eye, tucked into the back of the closet above a pair of heels she'd bought and worn exactly once. Leaving the robe still levitating she knelt down and pulled out a t-shirt, shook it out and laid it on the bed. It looked just like an ordinary, black t-shirt with nothing displayed on the front but with a quick tap of her wand an image began to spread across, an image of red lips, parted, teeth visible above a tongue that stuck out luridly. With a laugh she dropped the towel, reached down and pulled on the t-shirt. Sirius, you may be gone but you're not forgotten.

-ooo-

He stood outside of Gringotts, ready to go in and get it over with, just one more reminder that Sirius was gone. They had all been kind to him, of course, especially Molly. She still hovered near him, protectively, and even though part of him wanted to scream at her to leave him the hell alone another part of him just wanted her there. He knew that Molly had insisted with Dumbledore that he be able to stay with them before the reading of Sirius' will, he'd overheard that Floo conversation.

It was while thinking of that inadvertent eavesdropping that they were ushered into Gringotts, the Weasley's a protective cordon around him, as if good intentions and red hair made harmful spells ineffective. Well, they were almost all red-headed, as Hermione's bushy hair bobbed alongside Ginny. They'd all been sent Gringotts letters, they had all arrived at the same time, a separate owl for each letter per Gringotts directive. He'd been playing wizard's chess with Ron when the owls arrived and deposited their letters; Hermione was the first to open hers and as soon as she said 'Sirius' everyone knew what it was, what the letters meant.