Title: Stars in the Black Night-sky
Book: Post Deathly Hallows, Pre Epilogue.
Spoilers: Up to and including the Battle of Hogwarts, basically all of everything.
Warnings: Discussion of death.
Rating: T/PG-13. Slight adult-ish theme.
Category: Hurt, death, family.
Summary: Visiting the grave of a loved one, she was outraged to find the last person she ever wanted to see again crouching over the grave with flowers in her hand.
Disclaimer: All characters and the universe they exist in belong to J.K Rowling and her publishers. This piece of fan-fiction was created solely for entertainment purposes and no money was exchanged. No copyright infringement was intended and the original characters, situations and plots are property of the author. This piece of fan-fiction must not be archived without the author's consent.
Author's Notes: This kind of came out of nowhere and is very different for me! Let me know what you think as it's breaking my norm!
Stars in the Black Night Sky
She walked through the graveyard slowly, glancing at all of the headstones. It pained her to think that a lot of them were new, the names etched upon them still standing out brightly to be read. There was little weathering on them and they were all similar. Death was either in 1997 or 1998 at the hands of 'evil forces'. They were all a beloved mother or father or child or brother or sister. Everyone was loved by many and they were all rotting in the ground. She paused, flowers in her hand and pointed towards the ground as she took in the view of the entire graveyard. It was early in the morning and the sun had not risen yet. If she looked westerly, the sky was still as black as night with the bright stars already starting to fade. On the opposite, the easterly sky was light blue with slight pinkish red hues at the horizon. She scanned her head all around her, facing the sky and admired the changing colour chart: Black to navy blue, to royal blue and to steel blue, to sky blue to azure blue which was almost white in appearance. It was a truly wonderful dawn and the only opportunity she had to escape to this place.
The grass at her feet was freshly cut and the flowers at all of the graves were still in bloom and alive, wilting slightly from the evening's lack of sun. The grave keeper performed his job of maintaining everything for all of the many visitors who walked on the grass on a daily basis very well. The pain of all of these deaths was still fresh in many minds and she knew that later there would be a constant influx of mourners. She did not want to be surrounded when she came to pay her respects. She held up the flowers in her hand and smelled their scent briefly, smiling in sorrow at the fresh, sweet smell that they had. The pretty flowers scattered on the newer graves and in her hands were the complete opposite to the death that lived in this place. She had once thought it odd that mourners brought flowers to a grave. Something renowned for such beauty should not be given to a place filled with sorrow, death, tears and pain, but then she had realised exactly why flowers were the perfect symbol to be at the headstones of those who had perished. In life, flowers are considered pretty, but as soon as they are picked they are effectively dead or dying. Flowers can only last for a few days in a vase with water or feed and after then they are dead, fit only for rotting down in a compost heap. Those people buried here were also beautiful in life, but now dead all they could do was rot down into worm-food just as the flowers sitting six feet above them would do. It amazed her sometimes that the grass on which everyone walked managed to remain alive.
She continued walking, knowing that once the sun had fully risen others would start to visit and she had to be gone before then. She could have simply Apparated here from her home without anyone seeing her, but she found it disrespectful to simply pop into a graveyard and then pop out again. If she were here to visit her own loved ones then she had to pass by the others first. In the distance she could see the family tombs where generations of one family were housed for eternity. Not all of the great Wizarding families' tombs were located here, but hers was. She knew that other people visited these graves every day, the pain of their losses still so fresh in their hearts that they needed to be close to their loved ones. She wished that she could visit those she had lost every day, but the thought of entering the place where she would one day be housed forever, rotting into the ground and becoming food for something far lower on the food chain made her skin crawl.
She paused when she saw some lilies on the ground nearby and she felt instantly attracted toward those graves. There were two headstones next to each other, each bearing lilies on top of the lush green grass. She read the names on the graves and gasped. She was not shocked that the two individuals were dead; she had been aware they had both died. She had not gasped in shock that they were here, near her family's tomb. She had gasped in shock of simply seeing them as something of reality hit her. She had been so consumed with her own grief that it had never occurred to her that others that she knew and had once loved were also grieving, that the War had affected a great deal more lives than just her own. She began to bend down to touch the gravestone in front of her when she heard a noise behind her, followed by a voice.
"What are you doing here?" The older woman's question was more accusatory than curious.
The younger woman stood up, turning to face the new guest in the graveyard. Years had passed since they had last set eyes upon each other and both looked far older than their years. "Visiting," was her short reply.
"Get away from that grave!" the older woman demanded, obviously trying to maintain her anger and temper in the sanctity of the graveyard. She too carried flowers in her hands.
"I meant no disrespect," she apologised understanding the older woman's anger. She did not want to anger her further and yet she made no move to leave. Like the grass beneath her feet, she had rooted to the spot.
"And yet your mere presence in this place does nothing but disrespect their memories. Get away!"
"As you wish," the younger woman said before turning to leave the graveyard. She no longer wanted to visit the graveyard and lay her flowers down. The older woman had more reason to be in mourning and she did not want to cause further problems or conflicts.
"Wait," the older woman commanded and the younger stopped two steps away. "You said that you were visiting. Who were you visiting?" There was a long silence as both women looked at each other before the elder's eyes wandered around the graveyard, falling on the line of family tombs. "Surely not here..."
The younger woman felt like she needed to explain herself. "I was passing this grave. I intended to visit-"
"How dare you desecrate my family?" the older woman interjected. The anger was seeping from her voice as she hissed her demand. Neither of them wanted a confrontation on holy land, but the older woman was having trouble seeing anything but the deep redness of anger. "She killed her; you know that, don't you?"
"Yes, but-"
The older woman cut her off again. "No 'but's, Cissy. Your beloved Bella killed my only daughter. Do you understand that?"
"Andromeda-" Narcissa Malfoy tried to object with a hint of a pleading tone.
Andromeda Tonks shook her head. "You desecrate her memory pausing by her grave, even looking at her final resting place."
"It is within my rights," Narcissa argued, "to visit my sister's grave."
"Yet will you ever visit mine?" Andromeda asked and continued without allowing her younger sister to answer. "I'm the eldest now. I am the head of the Black family. Maybe I will empty out the family tomb and reinstate Sirius and Nymphadora to their birth-right."
"You wouldn't dare!" Both sisters knew that Andromeda would not do that. For Narcissa it was the thought of her pure blood relatives being disturbed in their eternal slumber and for Andromeda it was putting her respected relatives in a tomb where pure blood tyrants slept.
"Yes, I would dare," the older sister hissed. "But I won't because I do not want my family anywhere near your family." She spoke with a hatred and meaning that Narcissa could not escape.
"We were once the same," Narcissa offered quietly. She hoped to diffuse the situation and to highlight their commonalities.
"No, Narcissa," Andromeda argued, calling the youngest sister by her full name. "We were never the same. You and Bella always bought into mother and father's pure blood beliefs whereas I never did."
"Is that why you married that Muggle-born and allowed your child to marry a half-breed?" Narcissa had never understood her sister's reasons for abandoning the family.
"Why did you marry your pure-blood?" Andromeda used the same speech patterns as Narcissa had, showing her disgust at the terms used.
"I love him," Narcissa replied simply.
"And I love Ted and Nymphadora," Andromeda replied, her voice quivering with sadness. "But I no longer have either of them. Yet you still have yours."
"I almost lost them," Narcissa whispered. Despite their differences, Narcissa knew that each of them cared for their loved ones to equal extents. Their love for their families was the major similarity between two long lost sisters.
"I know," Andromeda replied sympathetically. "I know how you lied, how you defected all for your son." The sympathy vanished from her voice and eyes. "You disowned me and stood by as slurs and curses were flung all around you before rescuing yourself at the end of it all." Andromeda paused before spitefully adding, "Did you know that your precious Lord was only a half-blood? That because of that half-blood, my family was murdered?"
Narcissa knew what her sister said was true, but being reminded of how blinded she and her husband had been only served to fuel her anger. Narcissa was well aware that for their Lord, her husband had been imprisoned, had his wand stolen, had their house hijacked and had their son at just 16 years of age given an impossible mission. She did not need to be reminded of the indiscretions. "You still have your half-breed grandson!" she screamed.
Andromeda did not pause in her retaliation, slapping the youngest Black sister around the face. Coupled with Narcissa's scream, the dawn peace was splintered and birds could be heard fleeing from their trees, forced from their slumber before dawn was ready. "One last time," Andromeda demanded through gritted teeth, "Narcissa, leave this graveyard and never return."
"But Bella-" Narcissa tried to object.
"Was a worthless, puritanical murderer who married for purity's sake and loved her half-blood master more than you. She would have betrayed you, your husband and your son to her Lord in a heartbeat and she would be disgusted with the three of you now. She would call you blood traitors and that's what you are. Why do you insist on honouring her?"
"Because she is our sister."
Andromeda laughed. "I ask you again: Would you visit me in my grave?"
Narcissa paused, squirming slightly under Andromeda's questioning gaze. "I never wanted things to turn out this way."
"Like what?" Andromeda demanded. "A war? Hundreds dead? Wriggling out of prison once more? Becoming an only child?" Narcissa's shocked eyes met Andromeda's. "How many people were killed in your house? In front of your very eyes? How many innocent teenagers did you watch being tortured, willingly handing them over to Bellatrix or Voldemort? Did you witness your dear sister driving the Longbottoms insane?"
Narcissa shook her head at all of the images her sister conjured within her mind. "If it were not for me," she argued back, "then Harry Potter would have been killed by Voldemort and the Victors of the war would not be you."
"What do you want from me?" Andromeda demanded. Both sisters seemed to have forgotten where they stood arguing, each of them desecrating the land upon which they stood. "My thanks, my gratitude? Maybe permission for redemption?"
"No, I have lost my sister," Narcissa whispered. "I feared I lost my son-" She was not allowed to finish her explanation as Andromeda cut her off.
"I have lost my husband and my child, whilst you have only lost a sister who deserved to have her life ended by Molly Weasley. Teddy has lost his parents, now he's an orphan just like Harry."
Narcissa remained silent. She knew that her older sister had finished as tears ran down her cheeks. The child within her wanted to go to her older sister, to wipe the tears from her cheeks and hold her as only a sister could. The adult that she was knew that there was too much water under the bridge for that to ever happen. Narcissa knew that she could not change what she had done, neither could she bring Bellatrix back to help ease her heart, but she did desire to bury the hatchet with her only remaining sister. "Andromeda, I'm sorry," she apologised. "I saw her grave and I... I... just..." She had no idea what the correct words were. She knew that Andromeda would never forgive her for all of her misdeeds just as she knew, deep down, that she could never forgive Andromeda for breaking the blood purity their family revered so much.
"Don't, Cissy," Andromeda pleaded. "I haven't been your sister since I 'betrayed' you and I'm glad because I don't want you as my sister. I'm ashamed to share your blood, to look like her." Andromeda paused as she fought the urge to sob and Narcissa fought the urge to go to her aid. "The Black family is dead."
"No," Narcissa shook her head, "no it isn't." She took a step closer to her sister who in turn took a hesitant step backwards. "There's you and I, Andromeda, and our families. There's Draco and Teddy and we all have to exist in this world. Together." Narcissa knew that there had been too much pain and heartbreak in their lives over the years and that Andromeda still had Black blood coursing through her veins.
"Teddy's family is me, Harry and the Weasleys. Not the Malfoys. They exist in daylight, sister, not in the night-time the Blacks died in."
"Andromeda, I am trying to make peace."
"There can be no peace between us. I am glad that you and your family survived and that you finally chose to put those people before blood purity and your sister, but the Black family cannot be rebuilt." Andromeda paused and looked easterly towards the dawning sun. She looked back to Narcissa in the west. "The day has dawned and the sun has risen." Narcissa turned to look at the sky which earlier had been the darkest blue. "The night is over." Keeping her back to Andromeda, Narcissa continued looking at the blue sky above her where not a single star shone. A tear rolled down her cheek, but she kept her back to her ex-sister until it had dried. She heard nothing apart from bird song and a faint pop noise and turned around to see no one standing there. There were no fresh flowers on her never-before-seen niece's grave and Andromeda had vanished. Narcissa considered for a moment leaving her own flowers for her niece, but remembered Andromeda's disgust. She no longer wanted to visit Bellatrix in the tomb and instead walked out of the graveyard in the ever increasing sunshine.
X X X X X
The End.