A/N: A new one. The mysterious and dark Black family has been poking at the back of my brain since finishing Phoenix, and so I did the only reasonable thing and wrote a fic. It's going to be in three parts, one for each Black sister, starting with Andromeda. I've screwed around a bit with ages and such, since I really had no idea who was what age. It's going to be darker than the rest of my fics, and I'm sure many of you won't like it. There will be some allusions to Narcissa/Bellatrix, although it won't be blatant, and it's more control-driven than anything else. I think it's one of the best I've written so far. Hopefully you'll agree.

Andromeda's section is only going to be one chapter. Bellatrix and Narcissa's will be significantly longer, due solely to their relative importance compared with their sister. Let's face it: besides being Tonks' mother, who really cares about Andromeda? I honestly don't know how long this will be, but so far it's 12000 words, and it's nowhere near winding down yet. So settle in, it's going to be a long ride.

I hope you enjoy it… it's so much fun to write this family. They're so… Black.

Have fun!

-N

Disclaimer: NOT MINE! JESUS!

Here Be Monsters

Part 1- Andromeda

I was the first in my family to break free. Before me, all of the members of the noble and most ancient house of Black, whether willingly or unwillingly, knew that their role was to support the darker side, and to keep any objections they might have quiet. And then there was me.

I was the first child to be born of my mother, the formidable Elladora Black, and, as far as I'm concerned, should have been the last. My sisters' lives should have been stilled before ever leaving the womb. Their births were a curse, though I was too young then to know it. A curse on the world, and on me.

I never got along well with Bellatrix. A child is too young to recognize distrust, but when I was older I came to realize that I could not trust my sister, and that I had never been able to. I was two years old at the time of her birth, and from the moment she was born she caused me nothing but misery. My mother dismissed my childhood dislike of my younger sister as jealousy, as sibling rivalry. She remarked to my father that I was too selfish, and would need to adjust to having to share things with other people. My father, as was the norm with the men of the Black family, ignored her, my sister and me completely. Bellatrix and I were like opposites, and yet we were expected to fit into the same mold; that of the loyal, subservient women that the Black family had been churning out for centuries. Women who were cunning to an almost lethal degree, but who knew their place around their husbands. Women with cold, unfeeling hearts, who would get married at a ridiculously young age to a second or, sometimes, a first cousin in order to keep the family "clean". Incest was common amongst the members of the noble and most ancient house of Black, although we had other names for it and rarely discussed the possible flaws in our sick little system. But as it turned out, Bellatrix would be the only one of the two of us to fit this mold. I would be the one to break it.

Narcissa was born five years after Bellatrix, the result of an accident brought upon my mother by my father's unruly temper and his fondness for the drink. My mother did not dote upon Narcissa as she had Bellatrix, and I felt sorry for my younger sister. Narcissa became my baby. When my mother wasn't around, which by this point in our lives was quite often, I became her mother. I loved the little waif of a girl as if it were my own undeveloped womb that had produced her. I loved Narcissa so dearly, perhaps, because she was the opposite of Bella; where Bella was dark, Narcissa was light, where Bella's laugh was hard and cruel, Narcissa's was young and fresh and innocent. Narcissa was Pure. Not in the way that our family valued so deeply, but really, truly pure. She was my child. And then Bellatrix stole her away from me.

I had always known of Bella's jealously over my relationship with Narcissa. There were three of us, and although she fit in perfectly with the rest of the family, between the three of us Bellatrix was the outcast. I was bringing Narcissa up the way I saw fit, and Bellatrix did not like it at all. In fact, she hated it. Which only made me more determined to shield Narcissa from her. In the end, this was my downfall.

We, as human beings, are often fascinated by the things that we are kept separate from. I stowed Narcissa away from Bellatrix so thoroughly that, as time went by, she developed a strange fascination with her other sister. She didn't know Bellatrix as I did; a cold, unfeeling, manipulative little girl who knew far too much about how to destroy beautiful things for someone her age. Narcissa saw only a frighteningly lovely and mysterious slip of a woman, and it mesmerized her. Bellatrix knew this, and deliberately paid no attention to it, which only incited more curiosity in my impressionable youngest sister. Bella aroused Narcissa's curiosity so greatly that I had to watch them both non-stop in order to keep them from each other.

I remember the day when I knew I'd lost Narcissa with far too much clarity for my own liking. I was seventeen years old, and in my final year at Beauxbatons (my parents had sent both Bellatrix and myself to France for our schooling, I've never been sure why). It was the Christmas holidays, and we had all gone to my aunt and uncle's house at 12 Grimmauld place. My cousin Sirius, who'd always been a special favorite of mine, was in his fourth year at Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and in Gryffindor house, much to the entire family's chagrin. His parents had given him nothing but grief since he'd been sorted into the house in his first year, and he was finally at the breaking point, so sick was he of our family's stifling closed-mindedness. I took it upon myself to comfort him.

"I don't think it's so bad," I said as I rubbed his back in circles. I could tell that my little cousin was trying very hard not to cry. Poor Sirius. I knew what it was like to be the black sheep of the family (so to speak), and he never had been as good at hiding his feelings as I was.

"It's not fair," He said sullenly. "I've finally found a place where I feel like I belong, and they have to go and ruin it." I shook my head, angry at my family for making things so difficult. I tried my best to smile down at my little cousin, now almost as big as me. He really was turning into a fine young man, regardless of what he'd had to suffer through with our family constantly badgering him. It gave me some hope, at least, for Narcissa and myself.

"Hey," I said, lifting his chin with my index finger. "Nobody can ruin this for you if you don't let them. Just don't listen." Sirius tilted his head to the side.

"I can't help it, 'Meda, they're always talking about it. I didn't even do anything wrong." I put my arm around my cousin, frowning and turning my face away so he wouldn't see me getting upset. I'd made a decision a while before the holidays had started, and this had only strengthened my resolve. I had to leave. I had to. I couldn't stand this family anymore. Couldn't stand seeing innocent children get hurt, couldn't stand being a part of it. I would take Narcissa and run away, go somewhere where nobody would find us, where no one cared about the Black family name or purebloods or Dark Lords. I was of age now… I could do it.

"Don't worry, Siri," I said, trying my best to keep my voice from shaking. "I'm on your side, at least. And that's a start. It'll only be a few years until you're old enough to look after yourself. It gets easier." I was lying through my teeth. It hadn't gotten easier for me. In fact, it had gotten harder. But there was no sense in worrying my little cousin about that now.

After I'd managed to make Sirius feel a little better, I went for a walk around the house. It was only a few minutes before I realized that I hadn't seen Narcissa for hours. Come to think of it, Bellatrix was also missing. I felt the pit of my stomach drop away. At the end of the hall, one of my aunt and uncle's house elves was staring lovingly at a portrait of my aunt. I struggled to remember the elf's name, and when I had it, I called out to him. "Kreacher!"

The elf whipped around to face me, a guilty expression on his face. "Miss Andromeda has frightened Kreacher," He said in a high-pitched voice. I rolled my eyes.

"Never mind that," I said, adopting the cold Black air that I had learned through observation. "Where are my sisters?"

"Kreacher saw them in the living room," the elf replied, and I felt a chill run through me at the almost defiant expression on his face. He knows something I don't, I thought suddenly, and without another word I turned and ran in the direction of the living room.

I froze in the doorway, the sight in front of me chilling every ounce of blood in my veins. Bellatrix was sitting on the sofa, her back to me, and Narcissa was seating on the ground in front of her. Bellatrix had her hands twisted in our younger sister's hair, and was twisting the white-blond curls up on top of the little girl's head. "We have to make ourselves as beautiful as we possibly can, Narcissa," Bellatrix was whispering. "With beauty like yours, there really isn't anything you can't do. A beautiful woman is more powerful than any man. And you and I, Narcissa, we're beautiful women." Bellatrix pinned another curl into place.

"Andromeda's beautiful too," Narcissa said sweetly. I saw Bellatrix's back stiffen at my name, but then she relaxed again.

"Yes," She replied slowly. 'Yes, she is, I suppose. But not like us." And then came the part I remember with the most clarity. Bellatrix turned her head and looked over her shoulder at me, the ghost of a malevolent smile on her face. For a moment I stared at her, and then I turned on my heel and ran from the doorway, a sudden, inexplicable fear pounding through every part of me. Bellatrix not only made me uneasy now; she frightened me. I was terrified of my sister.

I left that night.

Alone.