"Don't tell me you're leaving?"

Andromeda gave the contents of her magically-deepened bag a vicious shove.

"Yep."

Bellatrix snorted, "What, you're leaving us for a muggle-born?"

Andromeda didn't even look up, concentrating only on emptying her wardrobe.

"Yep."

Bella stiffed slightly. "You're dishonouring the family, bringing shame to our own name. I'll never speak to you again, I won't even write!" she punctuated each word with venomous spite, lips pursed angrily.

Andromeda said nothing, but continued to pack with a somewhat pained look on her face.

Bellatrix, furious that she was being ignored, grabbed her sister's wrist.

"We're not coming to the wedding. I won't come to visit you, I won't! You're destroying our perfect family with your dirty mudblood lover!" she hissed. Andromeda narrowed her eyes and wrenched her hand from her sister's grasp, turning to pack again.

"Even Cissy hates you, don't you Cissy?" Bella turned to petition the youngest sister.

Narcissa looked alarmed at her opinion being asked. She stared between her two sisters, at a loss of whose side to take. Her lip began to quiver.

"Don't leave Dromeda..." she whispered. The other two girl's faces both creased; Bella's with disgust, Andromeda's in pain.

The middle sister turned away, sweeping chestnut tresses from her thin face and opening the doors of her wardrobe. The eldest snarled angrily.

"Blood traitor bitch!" She roared, "Say something!"

Andromeda's fingers tightened on the wardrobe door: for a moment it seemed as if she might slam it. But the moment of anger disappeared, her shoulders drooped, and she turned to her sisters.

"Are you quite finished, or if I leave now, will I interrupt your rant?"

Bellatrix's eyes widened in fury. She huffed and stomped over to the bedroom door. She flung it open, fists curling. She turned back, wild mane of curly jet hair swinging about her shoulders.

"I will hunt you down, Andromeda. You will pay for destroying our family."

Andromeda equalled her black gaze, "Bring it on, sister."

Bellatrix hissed, "You are no sister of mine."

And then she was gone.

Andromeda's shoulders slumped. Shaking slightly, she turned back to her packing and began to try and zip up her case.

Narcissa approached, fingers pressed nervously to her rosebud mouth.

"You're not leaving, are you Andy? You'll come back?" she whimpered.

Andromeda let out a bitter chuckle, blowing her chocolate ringlets from her face, "Not if you paid me, Cissy. I'm never coming back."

Narcissa's eyes widened; she bit her lip, fingers entwining themselves in her long locks of white-blonde hair, as they always did when she was upset.

"Andy...Andy, please-"

"Don't call me Andy, Cissy, you know I hate it."

"Andromeda. You can't go, please...Bella didn't mean what she said. She doesn't really hate you, she's just jealous that you've got a husband before her...please..."

Andromeda dropped the zip and gazed at her sister: taking in her thin pale face and silver orbs for what she hoped was not the last time.

"I don't belong here, Cissy. You and Bella..." she paused, "Bella belongs here. She's a true Black and I daresay she'll never change." She sighed sadly, "But me, Cissy, I'm different. I'm not a Black – not anymore now that father has disowned me – I don't agree with their morals and beliefs. This house is my prison for as long as I stay here."

Narcissa's eyes filled with tears and Andromeda had to fight her own. She squeezed her hands.

"I need to leave, sis. If I stay here any longer I'll go insane. If Bella doesn't kill me first." She grinned wanly.

"And me?" Narcissa asked softly. Andromeda shrugged.

"S'up to you now, Cissy. Position of family troublemaker is now open, if you want it. But you're a better daughter than me so I suppose father'll find you a nice rich husband. But don't let him control you. You have your own beliefs and you stick to them. Don't let Bella bully you."

Andromeda heaved the case from the bed and carried it over to the doors.

"Dromeda – Dromeda, please, wait." Cissy raced over to her, opal eyes brimming with tears. "What if father makes me marry someone I don't like? What if Bella's mean to me? I need you here – I'm not strong like you and Bella. She's strong with anger, and you're strong with passion. I'm not strong. I need you. Please don't go."

Andromeda paused at the doors. It seemed she was really considering her sister's point, but when she turned back, her eyes shone with sadness.

"I have to go, Cissy, you understand, don't you?"

Narcissa's head dropped to her chest and she nodded. Andromeda smiled and cupped the younger girl's cheek.

"Walk me to the gates?"

The two girls walked silently through the house, the case levitating behind them. They didn't meet any other members of the family, deliberately choosing to avoid the places where parents and sister might be. Or perhaps parents and sister just avoided them.

At the doors to the manor, Andromeda bid farewell to the footmen, who in turn wished her luck. Then the two sisters made their way through the extensive gardens.

"Be careful. Perhaps you should cast a protego," Andromeda squinted up at the manor windows, "Father never had very good aim."

Narcissa knew her sister was only joking, but Bellatrix's threat was still ringing in her mind, and the comment made her blanch. Andromeda noticed and decided to refrain from stupid jokes. Cissy never understood sarcasm, and one more stupid joke might give the poor girl a heart attack.

After about ten minutes, what could have been a lifetime to the two girls, they reached the garden limits. Before them were two giant iron-wrought gates, with the words Famillia Black inscribed along the top and the motto, Toujourspur just beneath.

They both stood and stared up at the writing for a few seconds.

"I guess this is it." Andromeda said, breaking the silence. She turned to her sister and placed a hand on her shoulder, smiling as encouragingly as she could, "Tell Bella..." she gulped, biting her lip, "Tell Bella I love her, no matter what she thinks of me. Oh, and tell her that if Puddlemere beat the Harpies this season..." she grinned, "I'll send the galleons by post."

Narcissa tried to smile, but it dissolved into a sob and suddenly they were hugging each other tightly.

"I'll miss you." She mumbled into her sister's shoulder.

They pulled away. Andromeda wiped her face.

"You'll write?"

"As often as I can, father won't catch me."

Andromeda composed her face into a delighted grin. She whipped her wand from her jacket pocket and tapped it on the gates, and they swept open to reveal a long road winding into the distance through the countryside.

Narcissa heard her murmur, "Hello freedom," before she stepped out and disapperated.

The youngest sister stared at the spot on the gravel where Andromeda's leather high-heeled boots had been for a long time, before she turned away.