Symphony | Andromeda Black

A Surprise In The Night

The arguments between Bellatrix and Druella had always been about different things, but now there was only one main topic – Bellatrix's wedding.

"You must finish school," Druella said in annoyance. "How many times have I told you?"

"Father said I could have it in the summer, just a small wedding."

"Your father's dead, Bellatrix," she said, making both Bellatrix and Andromeda wince. "And I say wait a year. You're too young."

"Excuse me?" She spluttered. "I'm the same age you were!"

"Exactly," she snapped. "Is it too much to hope that you won't make the same stupid mistakes?"

"Mistakes?" Bellatrix hissed. "Glad to know I'm a mistake, Mother. You don't even care about Father, do you, you never did –"

"Be quiet!" Druella snapped, colour high in her cheeks. "You have no idea what you're talking about, you silly girl, no idea."

She was hissing now, her voice low and poisonous, like a snake. "You're content to waste your life away on false promises? Well so be it, Bellatrix."

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Things were very quiet for the rest of the week. They didn't talk about Cygnus. Druella mostly kept to herself, Bellatrix stayed in her room, and Narcissa was silent. Andromeda spent her time drawing, and once snuck out the gap in the fence, but there was nobody in the playground except for an old man and his grand daughter. He pushed her on the swings, and the little girl laughed in delight as she went higher and higher, and Andromeda suddenly got the sickening realisation that Cygnus would never be a grandfather. Of course, he had never been the kind of man that would push children on swings, or indeed spend much time with them at all, but tears still sprung in her eyes and she wiped them away with her sleeve as she went home.

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Andromeda threw her things into her trunk the night before they went back. She wouldn't admit it, but there was a small part of her that had been hoping Narcissa would talk to her, that they would become close again. But it was gone, and though she lay awake at night, there was no footsteps outside her door, and no whisper.

Glenda and Lacrimosa had written. She could see the small stack of letters on her nightstand in the dim light, and twisted the opal ring on her finger. Everything seemed to be getting so complicated. She wished she could go back to first year, back when she only wanted to come home. Things had been so much simpler back then.

When they got back to school, it felt odd, like returning to normality when everything had changed. Andromeda had not noticed just how feared her sister had become. When she walked with Andromeda and Narcissa down the halls, students ducked their heads, avoided her gaze. One group of second years were so desperate to get out of her way that they tripped.

"Bellatrix," Narcissa whispered. "Why are they all so scared of you?"

Bellatrix didn't answer, and Andromeda coughed. She knew, of course, of her sister's reputation. In the last year or so, she'd become known as "Bellatrix Black's sister," and even the toughest boys in her year left her alone these days. Students talked about Bellatrix in the hallways, and even some teachers seemed afraid to offend her. She barely even had to lift a finger. The Mark on her forearm did it all for her.

They split up to go to their respective classes, where Glenda and Lacrimosa sat either side of her. Glenda gave her a hug. "Oh you poor thing," she whispered. "I'm so sorry, Andy."

"I'm sorry too," Lacrimosa whispered. "It's awful."

Andromeda nodded awkwardly, half wishing that it would just be like normal. She didn't want this fuss, but she got it anyway. When Professor Chambers came in, she nodded her head to her, and all of the other students were so unusually nice and polite that it made her uncomfortable. She wished it would just go back to normal, but she supposed things would never be normal again, especially when people like Ted Tonks came up to her to offer sympathies. The three girls stared at him, Andromeda bright red in the face, and when he had left Glenda whirled to her. "Do you have a boyfriend, Andy?"

"Of course not," she said, face burning. "He – he's just this boy I know."

"He's cute," Lacrimosa said unexpectedly. "He seems nice, too. And he obviously likes you."

"I'll say!" Glenda chimed in. "He was practically tripping over himself."

Andromeda shrugged uncomfortably.

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She found it difficult to sleep in the coming nights, dreaming about her father's stiff pale body and icy cold skin, and one night in the dormitory, she couldn't stand just lying there and thinking anymore, so got up and went up to the common room with her sketchbook. It was dark, and she'd left her wand behind on her bedside table. She felt her way towards the fire, which glowed in the darkness, and then she heard something moving and her blood ran cold. Andromeda wasn't afraid of ghosts, but as somebody who had spent every night since her father's death dreaming about him, she jumped out of her skin as she saw something pale standing in front of her.

And then a sharp hiss came in the dark. "Andy?"

Narcissa. Relief swamped her as her sister lit her wand and her face was illuminated, her pale hair falling around her shoulders. She was wearing her long white nightgown and no slippers, just her bare feet.

"You little idiot," Andromeda hissed, trying not to look like she'd been frightened. "What are you doing creeping around in the dark?"

"I was looking for Tom. What are you doing?"

"I couldn't sleep," she said, and her big sister bossiness took over. "Where are your slippers, you'll catch your death."

She felt her hands, which were freezing cold, just like a corpse's. "You're freezing."

They sat by the fire and warmed themselves, and Narcissa pulled something furry out from under a mound of cushions. "There you are," she said, and her cat gave a sleepy purr as she scratched his ears. It had to be said that Tom slept a lot. He spent probably twenty hours a day asleep by the fire. In fact, Julia Mitchell's cat had had kittens, and he had been a suspect until everyone agreed that he wouldn't have been awake long enough to father them. He settled into Narcissa's lap and fell asleep again.

"Have you talked to Bellatrix recently?" Andromeda warmed her hands over the fire.

Narcissa shook her head. "She won't even talk to her friends anymore. All the girls in her dormitory are scared of her now."

There was a long silence until she asked, "Andy?"

"Mm?"

"Do you think....do you think Father's gone to Heaven?"

Andromeda hesitated. She wasn't sure she believed in Heaven, and judging by what Miss Travers had told them about it, she was even less sure if their father was a candidate for it.

"Maybe," she said, but she knew she didn't sound convincing.