Andromeda stared out the window of her room, staring moodily at the rain pelting the glass. The dark violet bridesmaid dress lay on the bed behind her, purposely ignored as she sat on the window seat rather than getting dressed.

We have plenty of time, she mused as she stared at the droplets of water streaming down. The wedding isn't for, like, three hours. Must we get ready this early?

Her mother Druella always liked to be early. Perfectly punctual, crisply clean, and habitually haughty, that was her mother. Andromeda's two sisters, one older, one younger, took after her in this fashion.

Well Narcissa did, anyway. Bellatrix had the haughty part down pat, but she wasn't a neat freak like Druella, and she was only punctual when she absolutely had to be. A slight smile came to Andromeda's face when she thought of how Bellatrix had to be shaken awake on the day of her own wedding.

Bellatrix didn't like getting up early.

Andromeda was fond of her sisters, but sometimes she didn't understand them. Didn't they ever want to defy tradition, disregard the strict rules and ordinances their parents laid down for them? Andromeda hadn't really thought about it until last year, when she turned fourteen. She wasn't a rebel child, but she did wonder sometimes if everything her parents said was absolutely true...

Of course, she was being a bit rebellious in her choice of dating Ted. But no one in the family needed to know that. Andromeda didn't consider it rebellion as much as, well, following her heart. It wasn't fun to disobey her mother's and father's orders, but this was a situation where it had to be done.

The door flew open, snapping the young woman out of her thoughts.

It was Narcissa, her thirteen year old sister. Andromeda sighed a bit at the sight of her little sister, blonde and slight and gorgeous for her age. The dark violet dress made her even more beautiful. Andromeda was nice-looking, but her beauty paled before her little sister's and she knew it.

It would be untrue to say that Andromeda was not jealous of Narcissa. After all, she was the beauty of the family, though all the Black sisters were pretty. Andromeda and Bellatrix shared a darker beauty inherited from their mother, the dark eyes and curls, the strong jawline and the toned yet slim build. Narcissa was like their father, though, pure blue eyes and blonde waves, a delicate oval face and a little lithe body. She was the family angel. The favorite by a mile.

But Andromeda was not jealous to the point of meanness. She was usually kind, if distant from her little sister. She knew that Narcissa had no more control over her looks, or how much her parents liked her, than Andromeda or Bellatrix had. She also knew how tiresome Narcissa grew of being the baby, the angel whose cheeks they pinched, the delicate little thing they never let have any fun.

"Hey Cis, need something?" Andromeda asked.

"I need an opinion. Should I wear amethyst jewelry with this dress, or is that too much purple?" Narcissa asked. She was excited for this wedding: it showed in the way her blue eyes sparkled and she bounced a little on her heels. Then she noticed that her sister wasn't dressed. "You better get in that dress or Mum's gonna be in here after you." she said.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm on it."

Andromeda rose from the window seat and held the dress up in front of the mirror. It was very pretty, kind of billowy and silky. She slipped out of her casual robes and put on the dress. Narcissa zipped it up for her, adjusting it over Andromeda's shoulders. It was meant to go low on the shoulders, sitting on the upper arms, but it wasn't low cut.

The color was good on Andromeda. Purple had been her favorite color as a child, and her mother had favored it too. Druella used to dress her in it a lot, saying it was too dark for Bellatrix but went perfectly with Andromeda's brunette locks. (Bellatrix hadn't minded, declaring she didn't want to wear girly purple anyway. She'd been such a tomboy). Ted liked her in purple. It highlighted her brown eyes.

Narcissa smiled. "You look lovely, 'Dromeda."

"You look prettier in it, just ask Mum," Andromeda snickered.

"Oh god, don't ask Mum please. She can be so critical sometimes, I have no idea why she's so fond of me and not you or Bella. You don't take her seriously, do you?" Narcissa asked, a slight frown clouding her face.

"Oh, no. I know I'm not as pretty as either you or Bella, and Mum cares about me, just she doesn't always think before she talks. You get some of her criticisms too, and so does Bella."

"Not as much as you. It isn't fair, you know."

Andromeda smiled. "Don't worry about it. I know how to handle her."

"Well, in any case, she won't find anything today. You look wonderful."

Andromeda grinned. Narcissa had good fashion sense, and Andromeda could tell the compliment was sincere. She held on to it, knowing Druella would criticize some aspect of her appearance later, and she wanted to feel beautiful today. Her mother's comments about her looks did indeed hurt her feelings, but she had grown generally immune to them. And she knew her mother loved her, despite her devotion to appearances and sharp tongue.

When Andromeda was a child, Druella used to say that Andromeda looked like a washed-out, smaller version of Bellatrix. This had always hurt her feelings, but Bellatrix had fiercely denied their resemblance, both to assert her independence and to console her little sister. It sort of helped, but Andromeda knew Bellatrix had been fighting a losing battle from the beginning: for many years they could have passed for twins. Maybe that was why those two were closer, while Narcissa was left out.

"Thanks Cissy. You too," Andromeda said. "And yeah, don't wear amethysts. Too much purple. Let's wear pearls, shall we?"

Andromeda didn't really get along with her little sister. It was Bellatrix who was her favorite, the one she trusted. Narcissa had always been too flighty and airy for Andromeda to befriend. But she could be pleasant sometimes, and was generally trustworthy. The baby of the family had never understood her parents' favoritism because she had always seen herself as equal with her sisters. Andromeda had always liked her for this. Bellatrix had never thought anything of it, assuming her parents liked her better because she was better.

Andromeda had thought for many years that she was inferior to her sisters. She did not remember a time before she suffered from low self-esteem. It was only when she went to Hogwarts that she grew more confidant. She met new friends who were surprised by her mental image of ugliness and foolishness. For indeed, Andromeda Black was a pretty and smart girl. She just hadn't known it for so long.

Equality is such a rare thing in the pureblood society. It's all about position and who's above whom. Maybe Narcissa was just naive, but it seemed to Andromeda that maybe everyone in her family could learn a lesson from Narcissa.

Narcissa seemed to look up to the middle sister more than she did the eldest. Perhaps Bellatrix is too wild for our gentle Cissy, thought Andromeda.

"Mum won't stop bugging me," said Narcissa darkly. "She picked out my shoes and wanted to do my hair too, but I told her I could do it without help. It's Bella who needed help with her hair. She slept on it wrong and it's all over the place."

"Isn't it always?" chuckled Andromeda as she thought of her older sister's tangled locks. Bellatrix generally had quite a time getting it to behave. It was curly as a bedspring and had been the exasperation of Druella Black for many years. When Andromeda was seven and Bellatrix nine, her mother had told them both that though Bellatrix was the prettier child, her hair was nowhere as nice as Andromeda's, which was more mildly curly and softer to the touch. Andromeda had been flattered but worried about her sister's feelings, remembering her own desolation when Druella has compared her daughters' looks in favor of the elder one.

She needn't have worried. Bellatrix hadn't been sad. She'd simply decided her mother was right, that it was too much of a hassle, and had chopped it off so short she looked like a boy. Druella had been furious, had yelled for what seemed like hours, but their father Cygnus had laughed until he cried, and the two girls had too. Bellatrix loved her hair that short, for it had been out of her way and easy to keep untangled. She'd managed to keep it that way for a whole summer before her mother magically made it grow back. Druella had never commented on Bellatrix's hair again, much to everyone's relief. Bellatrix sure had been a funny child...

The two Black girls stared at themselves in the mirror, smiling. They didn't really look anything alike, but they matched in the dark purple. Andromeda felt a strong fondness for her baby sis.

They retrieved the pearl chokers from a small jewelry box on Andromeda's dresser, put them on, and walked out into the hall to check up on their older sister.