the serpent constellation
by palepinklipstick
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
For the Ship Name Competition on the HPFC Forum.
He feels protective of Andromeda Black.
He feels as though, he must be. As a well-groomed, pureblood gentleman, it is his duty to defend the honor of pureblood ladies and Andromeda Black seems to attract mudbloods like flies to raw meat. She is practically family-what with Bellatrix being his sister-in-law-and he feels obligated to look out for her, in the old way. She is lovely, intelligent, too polite and too kind. She does not seem to care much, whether she speaks to mudbloods or halfbloods or her own kind. It's dangerous, he can't help but think, observing her from across classrooms, common rooms, hallways.
He threatens the riff raff that approach her. She laughs him off, indifferent to his concerns. It frustrates and enchants him.
He likes her, he realizes one day, when they are patrolling the halls as Slytherin prefects. She is quite beautiful, soft-spoken, intelligent. He wonders if she would pull away if he held her hand. He could see himself marrying Andromeda Black. Though she'd once confided in him about her fears of marriage, her fears that she would be locked in some frivolous mansion, whiling away her days with drink and idleness, like her mother. Andromeda is incredibly clever and she feels stifled by the life that had been chosen for her.
He would never do that, he thinks to himself, peering at her from the corner of his eye during Astronomy. He would never lock her away. He'd even let her pursue a career and he'd silence anyone who tried to shame her back to her home. He'd hire the best nanny money could buy and he'd make sure her slightest whim would be accommodated.
One clear evening, after patrol, she pulls him up the Astronomy tower, points out the Rastaban constellation that looks like a snakehead, directs his attention to Andromeda, lovely and bright like the girl next to him.
He goes so far to make the suggestion to his father, who is strangely cautious. "I hear strange rumors, Rabastan," he warns, a darkness falling over his countenance. Rabastan is outraged at the slight against her honor, even more furiously overprotective.
When she elopes, at the end of their seventh year, his fury reaches a breaking point. Mudbloods and blood traitors would pay.
(when he dies in Azkaban, so many years later, he misses the girl with constellations in her eyes.)
A/N: This challenge is quite interesting and I enjoyed this immensely! Reviews would be lovely!