Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plot bunny that's been attacking me for days.
Visitation
The light inside is soft and pale yellow. It reminds me of the evenings when Mother and Father would dance in our ballroom, their faces glowing in the candlelight and the assumption that they were alone.
I hear two kinds of laughter from within. The recent rains have thankfully dried up from the grass already, so my feet make no sound as I move closer.
I don't look inside yet, contenting myself with just the sounds coming from inside the house. I've been doing this in attacks recently. The others are all about urgency, and most of the time I am too, but sometimes I like to challenge myself by using only my hearing to figure out when my prey is at its happiest and most oblivious, and then striking. I like to hear the laughing turn to screams before he gets what he deserves.
There is a scratching sound, a crackle, and a whirr of a disc before I hear tentative notes coming from a piano somewhere inside. The laughing stops. There is a shuffling of feet on carpet. I lean against the brick of the exterior of the house and clutch at my belly, warmed by the thought of the future inside it.
"She kicked," says a woman's voice from inside the house. My stomach clenches.
"Really?" replies a man's voice.
I hear nothing after. I strain myself to keep from looking, but do so anyway.
Andromeda stands in the middle of the room. Her hair flows past her shoulders and a smile pulls at her lips. The Mudblood is kneeling on the floor, pressing his ear and hands to her belly, which is as huge as mine would be in seven months.
They look happy. I can't look away.
The Mudblood stands up and smiles at her. "I reckon she'll be coming really soon," he says.
Andromeda laughs. "In that case, you should be ready to get me out of here any minute now."
"I've even packed her clothes," he answers. "And her bottles. And those small dolls you bought eight months ago."
"I love you," Andromeda tells him, and I briefly wonder what that means.
The Mudblood heads out of the room to attend to something, leaving Andromeda standing alone. Her wrinkled eyebrows tell me that she's either listening very intently or thinking of what she has to do tomorrow. I hope it's not the former.
"There you are, Bella."
I turn around to see Rodolphus.
"What are you planning to do?" he asks quietly, drawing his wand in excited anticipation.
"Nothing," I say in the tone that gets me in charge.
He looks like he wants to ask why but ends up not saying anything. Instead, he draws me roughly to him and crushes my mouth with his. I could feel warmth and restrained power pulsing in every caress of his lips and in his hands stroking my back and my belly and our child inside, and I don't care what love is anymore because this is what I want. I let him lead me away from the house.
Andromeda thinks she could make out a familiar couple kissing outside in the darkness, and before she even worries for her family's safety, she thinks it's ironic that this was the sister who didn't believe in love.