Written for Lady Eleanor Boleyn's "Birthdays" challenge on xoxLewrahxox's Bellatrix Lestrange: The Dark Lord's Most Faithful forum
900 words exactly
Reviews are love :)
Last Year
"Happy Birthday to you,
Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday dear Andromeda,
Happy birthday to you."
Andromeda smiled as the small group of her friends gathered in the tiny lounge gave three cheers, and her new husband, Ted, placed a large cake in front of her. Andromeda leaned forward over her swollen, pregnant stomach and admired the twenty tiny little flames topping the cake, which Ted had charmed to flash all the colours of the rainbow. Taking a deep breath, she blew them all out in one go, to a chorus of cheers.
She hadn't had the chance to blow out her candles last year. Her cheeky, twelve-year-old cousin Sirius had popped up in front of her and done it before she had the chance.
Andromeda cut the cake and passed it around to the chattering, laughing guests. Her husband sat down next to her on the sofa, slinging an arm around her shoulders. She smiled and nestled into him revelling in her new life where she could just be herself.
Last year, the little family gathering for her nineteenth had been much the same as every event held by the Black family; cold, stiff and overly formal. At least, it had been once Sirius had been sent from the room. Andromeda had made her way around the gathering of her relatives, giving meek, reserved smiles as they wished her many happy returns of the day and making polite small talk.
Finally, she had managed to escape a particularly excruciating conversation with her Aunt Walburga about 'eligible young men' and made her way over to where Cissy was standing by the window. Her younger sister had returned home from Hogwarts for the Easter holidays just the day before, and brought with her an uncharacteristic air of longing that Andromeda recognised all too well.
"So, who is he, then?" Andromeda asked the back of her sister's head, causing Narcissa to jump.
"I have no idea what you're talking about," Narcissa said quickly, spinning around, a slight blush forming on her pale cheeks.
Andromeda chuckled at the lack of her sister's usual dignified, carefully controlled facade and pondered how to further embarrass the lovesick Narcissa, until she heard her mother's voice from behind them.
"Girls," Druella hissed, "don't just stand here gossiping, go and talk to- oh there she is!"
Andromeda peered over her mother's shoulder as she stormed away from the two girls. She was heading towards the door, through which her eldest sister Bella had just tried unsuccessfully to sneak into the party over an hour late, without incurring her mother's wrath. Bella had made rather a lot of disappearances recently, and Dromeda wondered what it was that she was hiding. She hadn't asked though. Bella hadn't asked questions when she had seen Andromeda sneaking in late at night, after secretly meeting Ted, and it was an unspoken agreement between the two that Andromeda would do the same.
She and Cissy watched with vindictive pleasure as their mother scolded Bella like a small child, despite the fact that she was now twenty-one and a good six inches taller than Druella in the heeled boots she was currently wearing. Once she finally escaped her mother's clutches, Bella stalked over to her sisters and leant on the windowsill, looking bored.
"So splendid for you to have joined us, Bellatrix," Andromeda said sarcastically, in an exaggerated impression of their mother playing the hostess.
Bella rolled her eyes, but the corners of her mouth twitched upwards slightly. Spotting something Bella hadn't and knowing it was futile to even attempt to get an apology out of her sister for being so late to her birthday party, Andromeda decided instead to get even.
"Come on, Cissy," she said grabbing her sister's arm and leading her away from the window.
"Where are you-" Bella began, before she was accosted by the approaching Aunt Walburga.
Andromeda turned and flashed her sister an angelic smile, to which Bella responded with a murderous glare. Narcissa giggled and the two girls wandered to the other side of the room to strike up a far less painful conversation with their Uncle Alphard.
Andromeda suddenly felt very strange. Excusing herself to go to the bathroom, she squeezed her way through the crowded room and went to pace around the cramped kitchen. True, she had thought about her family constantly over the past few months, but never like this. She had always pictured Narcissa's cold fury, not her calm conversation and sweet giggling. She had seen only the anger and hatred in Bellatrix's eyes, forgetting their bickering and yet undeniable closeness. She had thought of her mother as a monster for disowning her when really she had just nagged and scolded. She'd had visions of Aunt Walburga blasting her from the family tree, not seen her as the vaguely irritating woman who had been the butt of so many of her sisters' jokes.
It was as if she had been unable to remember anything before the day she had announced she was leaving, until this very moment. For the first time since she had eloped, Andromeda wondered if she had done the right thing.
But then Ted walked in to see if she was okay, placing a hand lovingly on her swollen stomach.
And Andromeda remembered that no matter how much she had left behind, it was worth it, just for moments like this.