Symphony | Andromeda Black

Double Date

Lacrimosa was officially taken off her family tree near the end of June. She sent Andromeda and Glenda a letter about it, but Andromeda had already heard. Her mother had told her that she could never see or talk to her again, and began checking her letters once more. This new, alert Druella was worrying, but she knew why she was suddenly so attentive. The Dark Lord was doubting her loyalty. From then on, Andromeda sent her letters through Glenda.

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In July, Glenda persuaded her to go on a double date with her, a boy she liked and his friend. Andromeda was very reluctant, given that she had never gone on a date before, but neither had Glenda, she told her, and besides, it was just after her fifteenth birthday, and she could count it as a birthday present. Glenda told her that she'd been seeing this boy, David, since school had ended. Andromeda was surprised when she heard that, and a little hurt that Glenda hadn't told her. Her friend was boy crazy anyway, but she would have liked to have known. They would be going to something called the cinema.

Druella knew nothing about it. Andromeda had told her she was going to visit Theodora Yaxley, even going so far as faking the invitation to Theodora's house and knowing that her mother would be happy to think she was friends with the pureblood girl. She felt horribly guilty but pushed the feeling away - her need to escape the house was far bigger than her guilt. She had never thought four walls could be as oppressive as their house had become to her. She had loved their house growing up - how could she not when they had barely left it? - but now all she wanted was to escape.

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The cinema was interesting, though the film was confusing. Andromeda grew bored of the novelty quickly. She felt immensely uncomfortable in a social situation with muggles. The room was mostly empty, save for a few others, but she was tense, thinking of what her father would have said, her grandparents, what her mother would say. Glenda had told her to wear "your most mugglish clothes" but for Andromeda, the nearest thing she had was an old dress. It didn't matter anyway, as the cinema was dark other than the screen.

Her date, Luke,  was crunching in her ear. He had a bag of chocolate coated peanuts and all through the movie she could hear him going crunch crunch crunch, and inwardly cringed, not wanting to say anything. She was not in the least attracted to him. She supposed he was friendly enough, but she couldn't see him as anything more than a mildly irritating halfblood. She did not think she had ever met a halfblood before. Mongrels, her father had called them. A mix of what may as well be two different species. 

At one point she looked over to Glenda to exchange a suffering glance, but her friend wasn't looking at her. She was focused on the film, and Andromeda saw a strange sight on the armrest of her seat. She and David were holding hands. This made Andromeda feel inexplicably awful, and she hunched up in her seat, blinking fast. She wished she hadn't come now. It was clear that she and Luke were in the way. She wondered if he'd make some sort of move, and tensed when he leaned forward, but all he said was, all the while shoving his peanuts into his mouth, "This is a good bit, this, I saw it last week with me brother. That bloke there, right, he's just about to throw the other bloke off the balcony."

"Isn't that dangerous?" Andromeda asked.

"Nah, it's wicked!" He said enthusiastically, and she sighed.

At one point, he awkwardly tried to put his arm around her, but she moved as far away from him as she could, and saw him blush in the dim light. She felt guilty, but she didn't like him, not like that. At this point she just wanted to go home.

When the film finished, the boys walked off together, David gave Glenda a quick peck on the cheek goodbye. She flushed and smiled madly, and waved until they were around the corner.

"You never told me you were going out with him," Andromeda said, somewhat sourly.

"Well, it wasn't proper until today," Glenda said primly. She was wearing some makeup up, and her hair was loose, all of her little braids around her face. Andromeda was surprised by how old she looked. Her face had lost some of its babyish roundness, and she wore a raspberry coloured jumper that clung to her chest, along with a skirt Andromeda would have been embarrassed to wear. Not because it was short, necessarily - Andromeda had seen shorter in muggle magazines - but because it was so obviously muggle, so alien to the long dresses and robes the women in her family wore.

"We just met once or twice since school."

Andromeda was curious, but looked away from her friend as she asked casually, "Did you kiss?"

Glenda blushed. "We did sort of snog once," she giggled, and Andromeda's eyes were like plates.

"Well? What was it like?"

She thought for a second. "Wet!" She said eventually, and they both laughed. "I didn't really know what to do, and I don't think he did either. It wasn't for very long."

They joined arms, and Andromeda said, "I'm sorry if I was a bit rude."

"You should apologise to poor Luke," Glenda said, as they turned the corner. "He really liked you. I thought you'd be a good couple."

"Oh dear," Andromeda said guiltily. "Well. Mother wouldn't let me have a boyfriend anyway. Especially not....."

A halfblood, she wanted to say, but ended up saying, "Since she came out of hospital. She's not the same."

Glenda knew about Druella, though they'd never explicitly talked about her much. She squeezed Andromeda's arm. "Never mind," she said. "He's a bit....odd anyway."

"I could hear him crunching those peanuts all the way through the film," Andromeda said. "Like a horse or something."

They laughed, a little guiltily, and then stopped by the station. Glenda was getting the train home. Andromeda looked to all the muggles waiting, and shivered.

Glenda brushed her hair out of her face. "We've got to meet up together sometime this summer, all of us. I haven't seen Lacrimosa since school ended."

"She says she's doing okay," Andromeda said quietly. "Living with her uncle's family. She likes his cats, anyway."

"She would," Glenda said, and she smiled. "Maybe I could ask Mum if she could stay for a while before school starts again. Ugh, I'm not looking forward to fifth year at all."

"Me neither," Andromeda said, but exams were the last thing she was worried about. "Goodbye, Glenda.

"See you," Glenda replied, and the last she saw of her was the evening sun shining on her as she turned into the station.

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Andromeda didn't see Glenda and Lacrimosa that summer. Druella wouldn't let her out of the house again, and she wandered it, restless. She couldn't even write a letter to Lacrimosa. It wasn't fair. Glenda wrote (under the guise of a letter from Theodora) to tell her that Lacrimosa was staying with her for the last two weeks in August, and when they met up at school again, Andromeda made Narcissa promise not tell their mother she was still friends with Lacrimosa. The other purebloods all avoided her now, and she was worried it would get back to Druella though them, so Andromeda didn't sit with Lacrimosa and Glenda on the train, though she wanted to. She knew there was a new gap between she and Lacrimosa, but she didn't know how to bridge it. Little did she know that worse was to come in the coming months, as Britain prepared for war.