Much Ado about Nothing

Chapter 2

Iris Potter was bored. Ever since the trial, she had spent her days stripping down Grimmauld Place, with Kreacher's help, so that it looked more habitable, rather than a grim old place. The elf heads had been moved to one of the abandoned rooms in the rear wing of the house (on the explicit request of Kreacher that the house be not stripped of any of its sinister embellishments), and Mrs. Black's portrait permanently silenced, so that she could no longer disturb the tranquillity of the house with her screams. She had renovated almost the entire house, so that it actually looked a bit like the pureblood manor it must have been in better days, but now that this was over, she felt herself missing the days they had spent in the forest, scouring for food, Horcruxes and struggling to stay alive. Rest doesn't suit a Gryffindor like me, and a Potter to boot, she thought with a chuckle as she headed towards her bedroom.
She chanced a look at her desk, in the bedroom that had once belonged to Bellatrix, before being passed on to Narcissa, the last Heiress Black, and her eyes fell on the unopened letter on her desk that she had received a few days ago.
She sighed as she opened the all-too-familiar letter with the Hogwarts Seal, and her address in green ink. A pang of almost physical pain shot through her as she noticed the name of the Headmistress, and was reminded of the illustrious name with a litany of titles, that should have been there.
She flipped over the familiar letter, and found the booklist. Grateful for this distraction from inactivity, she rushed downstairs and was fastening her cloak, when Kreacher called out,
"Will you be out today, Mistress?"
"Yeah, I'll be back for lunch. Oh, and Kreacher, we might be having guests in the evening."
"Kreacher will keep everything ready, Mistress."
Iris nodded at the elf and walked out into the sunny July morning.

"It's going to take a lot of work to undo the damage done by Greyback, but for starters, we have begun maintaining the Werewolf Registry a bit more stringently." Remus said, over dinner. "And I'll have to resign soon as I'll see you at Hogwarts as the Transfiguration professor, and I look forward to teaching you, assuming you'll be returning."
"Oh, that's great really, and yes I've got to isn't it? Don't really fancy getting lectured by Hermione", Iris said with a grimace. "So Snape's the DADA professor then?" She asked.
"Yeah, as Horace plans to continue as the Potions professor."
"Snape was shocked when informed of his acquittal, therefore I take it that he didn't have any information regarding you testifying for him?" Tonks asked Iris.
"Not really, I never got the chance to speak to him, seeing as he was at St. Mungo's for the best part of May and June, and I'm not exactly on friendly terms with him to be writing to him. So yeah, he didn't." Iris replied.
"Ah that reminds me, Narcissa wrote to me. She asked me if I'd like to meet up for coffee and such." Andromeda said, handing over a black-haired, green eyed Teddy to Iris.
"Well, have you taken her up on the offer?" Iris asked, after a pause.
"I don't know, I mean I know of her contribution to the winning side," Andromeda said, and Iris winced, "but I still don't know if I am ready yet".
"It's your decision, of course, but if it helps, you've both lost a sister too." Iris said.

"It's your decision, of course, but if it helps, you've both lost a sister too."
Andromeda stared at Iris, shocked, but she had already turned away to play with her godson.
She didn't quite know when she had walked out of the room, it was almost as if she was in a daze, but she was startled to find herself in the ballroom. She had been anxious about visiting Iris at Grimmauld Place, fearing an onslaught of memories that didn't quite feel like hers anymore, two wars and 25 years later, but it had been Iris's comment and not her return to the house that had never quite felt like home ironically, that had triggered the memories. She twirled around once, remembering the silly way in which she and Bella would mimic wooing each other, like the silly boys at the balls, much to Cissy's amusement, who would then clap her hands in glee at her elder sisters' antics, and Mother's chagrin, scandalized that all the pureblood propriety had gone down the drain with the girls' raucous laughter.
She had never referred to either Bella or Cissy as her sisters (funny, how the heart remembers what the head yearns to forget), not since the summer of 1973, when she had eloped with Ted. She remembered each of the five children whose laughter had once resonated through these gloomy hallways- all of them of the Black blood, yet so different from each other. Cissy had the best of the Rosier and the Black bloodlines- fair and blonde, the model daughter and a proud pureblood; while she and Bella had been classical Blacks- with their high cheekbones and dark hair that could rival the midnight sky, though hers were of a lighter shade than Bella's, and the signature Black stubbornness and insanity (intensified by years of inbreeding). Her cousin, Sirius had it worse (the most insane and most suicidal in her opinion), while Regulus, bless his kind heart, was their parents' favourite among all of them- kind, noble, yet easily manipulated (it was Reg's death that made her hate her family and she blamed Bella, for it was she who had given a young boy of seventeen false notions of "being honoured to be Marked by the Dark Lord").
It never occurred to her to mourn her sister's death- she had felt hollow, quite incapable of feeling any emotion, as Dora gave her the news that Bella had met her end at the hands of Molly Weasley. It was almost as if she had no idea if she was to be relieved, or mourn the end of a familial bond, at the demise of her sister, elder to her by a year (and so alike that one was often mistaken for the other, yet so different), and her best friend till she married that wretched Lestrange.
She held no grudges against Cissy- always the proud daughter of one of the most noble wizarding houses, she had brought honour to her family, even if that meant cutting off all contacts with her own flesh and blood. She had done what was expected of her, always, except at the Final Battle, when those she held close had been threatened.
She was broken out of her recollections as she reached the hall and saw the portraits of all the illustrious Blacks lined up- Aunt Walburga, Mother, Father, Bella, Reg, Sirius, but she didn't remove the curtains that separated the departed from the living- she liked the silence, moreover she wasn't sure of her reception- the blood traitor responsible for the worst scandal in a hundred years (after Isla had run off with a filthy muggle) that had dragged the Black name through mud.
Contrary to popular belief, she was a proud Black- what she disagreed and loathed was the Dark Lord's propaganda of Wizarding superiority and Muggle extermination.
Her attention was drawn to the Black family tapestry, restored to former glory (no doubt by the new Heiress) and purged of the ugly burn marks that had once indicated the disowned and disgraced family members, and she found her decision made for her, as she traced the gold lines that joined Bellatrix, Andromeda and Narcissa- sisters of The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black.