Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I'll only write it once. Honestly, if I owned Harry Potter or any of it's characters, do you really think I'd write fanfiction for it?

Narcissa Malfoy walked quickly up the front steps in the Muggle neighborhood. She knew she was defying everything her husband and her family had ever taught her, but she no longer cared. All that had ever done was make trouble and she had in a way lost both her sisters due to that insanity. Narcissa hoped it might not be too late to get one of those sisters back. She needed an answer to a question she had been asking herself for several years.

Narcissa knocked on the door of Andromeda Tonks' house. It took a moment for the door to open. Narcissa held her breath as it did. She gazed upon her older sister for the first time in many years.

Andromeda was shocked to say the least. She had seen her younger sister once since she had been disowned, a few days after the first war ended. What could Narcissa possibly want now?

"Meda," Narcissa said cautiously.

"Why are you here Cissy?"

"I just wanted to talk to you, if that's alright."

Andromeda hesitated, then opened the door a little wider. Narcissa stepped inside and looked around. The house was very quiet and tidy. Andromeda led Narcissa into the kitchen and they stared uncomfortably at each other for a minute.

"Would you like some tea?" Andromeda asked.

"That would be lovely." Narcissa responded, relieved that she hadn't been turned away immediately. Andromeda started heating water, when suddenly an infant's cry pierced the silence.

"That's Teddy. I'll be right back." Andromeda left Narcissa in the kitchen. While she was gone, Narcissa looked around. While it was certainly a wizard kitchen, there were traces of Muggle living, like the electric light switch, although Narcissa couldn't really tell if that was used or not. She was rather surprised at herself because she was not disgusted by the presence of some Muggle objects. She simply didn't care about it anymore.

Andromeda came back into the kitchen with an infant in her arms.

'Teddy, her grandson.' Narcissa reminded herself. When she remembered exactly why Andromeda would be raising the baby instead of her daughter, Narcissa felt a twinge of regret for the question she needed to ask. Hopefully, Andromeda would be open to discussing it.

"He's hungry, this will just take a minute." Andromeda quickly warmed up a bottle of milk and started feeding the small boy, who quieted instantly. After he was burped, he fell asleep, and Andromeda put him down for his nap.

"So, Narcissa, what did you want to talk to me about. It seems rather odd for you to choose now after so many years."

"I've spent the past few weeks mulling over the past, trying to figure out where it all began…"

"Cissy, it began thousands of years before we were born…"

"No, I mean with just us, especially, well, especially Bella."

Andromeda's eyes darkened at the name of her older sister and she turned away from Narcissa for a moment.

"Meda, I know she's probably the last person you want to talk about right now, but..."

"Cissy, she killed my daughter, and I wouldn't be surprised if she's the one who killed my husband so you're right Cissy, I don't want to discuss her."

"What Bella did was unforgivable, I know that. I realize that everything she has done was unforgivable. I've just been trying to figure out when it all happened. When she became so bad. You must remember the times before the war, before she started wanting to destroy everyone."

Andromeda's eyes softened, but she looked more sad than angry now.

"Yes, I remember."

"The three of us were always together, we all loved each other. When did that stop? Why would she have become so…evil? I've been trying to figure it out for almost a year now, but I can't."

Andromeda looks at her sister, her eyes starting to fill.

"You know why Cissy, I know you do. You're hoping it's another reason, but there's not. Bella went evil for the same reason I ran off and defied everything he ever stood for, and for the same reason during your adolescence you became quite…"

"Slutty." Narcissa finished for Andromeda.

"Well, I was going to use a nicer word, but yes. Cissy, it was because of Dad, and how he treated us when we were young girls."

Narcissa also started softly crying, as they both remembered the horrors that their father had put them through, and their individual reactions to it as teenagers.