Symphony | Andromeda Black

Sleepover

Andromeda went to Glenda's house for her birthday party and for the added bonus of a sleepover, which she'd never been on before. She'd been sure she wouldn't be allowed to go, but Druella was distracted these days. That also meant that there was no card or birthday present for Glenda, and Andromeda had had to ask Cygnus for money instead, though Glenda was gracious. She also had news. She sat primly beside Lacrimosa and Andromeda and told them she had a crush on a boy from school.

Andromeda was largely uninterested. Music was on in the background, but she wasn't concentrating on it. She didn't know how to tell Lacrimosa her sister had killed her father. She didn't know if she should. After telling Andromeda, Bellatrix had locked herself away and refused to talk to anyone.

"His name is Lucius," Glenda continued. "He's going to start fifth year."

"Fifth year!" Lacrimosa scoffed. "You're a kid compared to him."

"I am not. I'm thirteen now, and that's only two years," she said loftily.

"Is this Lucius Malfoy?" Andromeda asked suspiciously, and Glenda turned a little pink. She knew him from dinner parties, and she wasn't at all sure how anybody could like him.

"He's a snobbish prig."

"He is not! He's ever so posh and polite, and he has this hair so pale it's nearly white, and it looks so soft."

"He probably bleaches it," said Lacrimosa. "He loves himself so much he probably even uses a special conditioner for it."

Glenda tossed her hair. "Well, if you're going to make fun I won't tell you what he said to me."

"He spoke to you?" Andromeda said in surprise, not sure why somebody as stuck up their own arse as Lucius Malfoy would associate with a family who were....well, there was no other word for it – slight blood traitors.

"I said have a good summer, and he said, see you around."

This obviously did not have the effect she thought it would. Andromeda was still only half listening. Lacrimosa blinked.

"Well," she said, annoyed. "I'll marry him, you just wait and see."

Andromeda tried very hard not to meet Lacrimosa's eye in case she laughed.

It was very strange sleeping in Glenda's bedroom. They talked long into the night, Glenda mostly about Lucius, at least until Andromeda threw a pillow at her and told her to shut up about him. Then the door opened, Glenda's dad poking his head in. She saw Lacrimosa tense, but relax as he smiled. "Settle down now girls. Night night then, sweetheart."

"Dad," Glenda moaned, and he laughed and closed the door again.

"My dad's so embarrassing," Glenda hissed.

"I think he's great," Andromeda said wistfully. She knew Cygnus had never wished her goodnight, or called her by a pet name.

Lacrimosa was silent, but then she said, "Be glad you still have a dad."

The horrible churning guilt started up again, roaring so loud she could barely hear Glenda's reply. "I'm sorry, Lacrimosa, I'm so tactless. Are you missing your dad?"

"I miss him every day," Lacrimosa said, and she sniffed. Andromeda felt awkward in her little camp bed. Crying wasn't exactly welcomed in her family. When she had cried at her Black grandmother's funeral, her grandfather had slapped the back of her head and told her to stop shaming the family. She knew she shouldn't have been, but she was secretly quite glad that Grandfather Black had died, even if he had looked very creepy and pale in his coffin.

But Glenda was apparently experienced in this kind of thing. She gave Lacrimosa a hug.

"He's terrible," she said fiercely. "I wish somebody would just kill Voldemort."

Lacrimosa gasped, and Andromeda jumped so violently that the little bed creaked loudly.

"You can't say his name, Glenda!"

"Why not?" She said, puzzled. "Dumbledore does. He says fear of the name increases fear of the thing itself."

"Well.....nobody else does," Lacrimosa said, rather limply. "Not even the Death Eaters. My father was one. He didn't want to be. I bet Mother made him."

"So's my father," Andromeda whispered. "And....and my sister, now."

"Bellatrix?" Glenda said in surprise. "But – but she's a girl! And she's only what, sixteen?"

"I know," Andromeda said miserably. "He's got inside her head. He says she's special."

There was a silence. All three girls were quiet, at least until Lacrimosa said hesitantly, "Has she got the tattoo?"

"Yes. I've seen it."

It was very quiet. Andromeda was sure her friends could hear her heart thump.

"Are all your family Death Eaters?" Glenda asked at long last.

"Most of them," she said, and swallowed. "The men, anyway, all of my uncles on both sides, my Rosier grandfather. The Dark Lord likes Blacks. Bellatrix says he thinks we have a spark."

"Is that what they call him? The Dark Lord?"

It seemed impossible to Andromeda that Glenda would not know this when it was all she had been taught since she had been young.

"Yes. I....oh Glendy, I think I hate him, I really do," the words came out in a rush, but Lacrimosa answered fiercely, "So do I."

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Andromeda was clever enough by now not to say a thing about the oddities in Glenda's house when she got home. It was only by the skin of her teeth that she had been allowed to go, but her parents were preoccupied with Bellatrix these days. She loved Glenda's parents and siblings, loved the food and the fun. At one point, Milton said something to his father that would have gotten Andromeda caned for disrespect, but Mr Viljoen just laughed. When she came home, the house seemed very silent and very cold. Bellatrix was still in her room.

"She hasn't come out in days," Narcissa told her. "The house elves bring her food. What's up with her, Andy? Did she tell you? Nobody tells me anything."

Andromeda twisted the ring Glenda had given her around her finger. "Cissy....you can't tell anyone."

"I won't, you know I won't. What is it?"

"Bellatrix....she's a Death Eater now."

Narcissa blinked. "But – she's too young!"

"He made an exception," Andromeda felt drained. "She's got the Mark, I saw it."

She bit the nail of her little finger. "I wish the Dark Lord would just leave our family alone."

Narcissa looked at her in surprise. "But he's good. He's going to bring us into the future."

"I know," she said glumly.