A/N: I don't own any of these characters, they're all J.K Rowling's lovely creations. I'm just playing with them.

Chapter One

Andromeda sighed, letting her breath out in a slow whoosh of air that misted in the cold atmosphere. Her caramel colored eyes rested uneasily on the dark entrance to Knockturn Alley, where her sister's form had just disappeared into the shadows, clutching a tightly wrapped parcel. She could just make out the wild black curls flicking around the corner. Twirling one of her own dark chestnut curls around her finger, just a few shades lighter than her sister's and neatly combed, Andromeda chided herself inwardly. It was stupid to think that a shopping trip would change anything, that it even meant anything. Really, she should have expected this of Bellatrix; the only thing Bellatrix hated more than shopping was Diagon Alley, so it had come as a shock to everyone when she had suggested that she take Andromeda and Narcissa out for their school supplies. Their parents, however, were quick to agree, eager perhaps to avoid the muggle scum who could be found in the busy alley, or perhaps just to avoid shopping with Narcissa – always a draining task.

Either way, Andromeda had also jumped at the idea, secretly hoping that this was Bella beginning to take an interest in her again, like when they were younger, before Hogwarts, when all three girls would chase each other around the yard, shrieking and giggling, hiding from house elves and relatives alike. The sisters had been inseparable then, and even through Bella's first few years at Hogwarts the bond remained strong. Slowly, though, Andromeda had watched as her older sister became more secretive, huddling in front of the Slytherin common room fire many a late night with Rodolphus Lestrange and his cronies, whispering about the rise of a new society, and a master without a name. She watched, too, as Narcissa grew into herself and discovered makeup and boys, and she also moved away from Andromeda, preferring to twirl her hair and bat her eyelashes – though only at respectable pure-blooded males – than to curl up on the couch in the common room with her, as they'd done Narcissa's first year. A sharp tug on her sleeve caused Andromeda to start and pulled her abruptly from her thoughts

"Andy, look there!" Narcissa, standing at her side, hissed more loudly than necessary, nodding her head towards Amanuensis Quills, where a tall, blonde haired boy was just opening the door and stepping inside. "Do you see him? That's Lucius there! I think I need a new quill – oh, isn't he gorgeous - be a right shame if I didn't have a spare and mine broke. Are you coming?"

Mentally rolling her eyes, Andromeda smiled patronizingly down at her sister, though her condescending attitude went straight over the younger girl's head. "No, you go on ahead. Wouldn't want to get in your way. Anyways I think I need to get-" Not even finished with her sentence, and Narcissa was hurrying off in the direction of the quill shop, moving as quickly as she could without actually running, leaving Andromeda alone on the side of the cobblestone road. Another sigh escaped Andromeda's pursed lips as she tugged a hand through her neatly curled hair – a nervous habit of hers that drove her mother crazy. It was ironic, really. Here she was, in the busiest wizarding street in London, and feeling more alone than ever. Blinking a few times, she gave a quick shake of her head. Snap out of it, Andy. You have things to do, she reminded herself. Reaching into the pocket of her impeccable robes, she grasped the piece of parchment there, pulling it out and carefully unfolding it. Taking a hasty glance around to make sure that no one was nearby, Andromeda began mumbling to herself as she scanned over the list that had arrived in the mail the week before. "Okay… books, of course, a new cauldron – Merlin, Longbottom, could you be any more clumsy – owl feed, ink, parch-"

For the second time in the past ten minutes, she was cut off, this time by furious shouting across the road. "YOU! You have some nerve! Coming here after what you did!" Irritated at being interrupted, Andromeda flicked her gaze up from the parchment, intent on giving the unknown speaker a piece of her mind, only to find a tall, lanky boy striding towards her. Momentarily losing her carefully kept composure, Andromeda's perfectly shaped eyebrows pulled together in a small frown, crinkling up her forehead. Was he talking to her?

"After what I did?" she inquired coolly, quickly smoothing her face of the flicker of emotion. "And pray, please inform me of this dreadful thing I've done."

The boy was in front of her now, breathing heavily, though from anger or his hasty walk she couldn't tell. He looked vaguely familiar, a face she knew but hadn't deigned to remember. Shaggy blond hair in desperate need of a haircut fell into his face, and he stared at her out of intense blue eyes. Giving him a quick once over, she noted his scruffy, blue and white striped t-shirt, un-tucked of course, and worn out jeans, obvious muggle attire. Muggleborn. That would explain why she didn't remember him. He was speaking again though, and despite herself she was curious to know what she was accusing her of. Had she snubbed him in one of their classes, or called his best friend a mudblood, perhaps? Andromeda couldn't recall any recent conversations with anyone outside her house. "Oh, don't give me that innocent crap. Everyone knows it was you, even though the Aurors might not have been able to directly pin it on you."

Now she was really confused. She certainly hadn't done anything worthy of Ministry attention, not even something as mundane as underage magic. "I really don't know what you're referring to, perhaps you've been having hallucinations. I've heard they're fairly common among muggleborns. Something about them not being able to control the magic correctly. Really, they shouldn't be allowed out in public." Unlike him, she could have been talking about the weather, so disinterested was her tone.

In a sudden movement she wasn't anticipating, he roughly grabbed her arm and she bit back a yelp, instinctively trying to take a step back, but was held in place by his tight grip. His fingers would leave bruises on her upper arm, she knew, and she'd have a hard time explaining to Narcissa why she refused to wear short sleeves indoors. Better that than explain the markings, though. "What kind of person would murder a child? A bloody child! She was barely eight!" he demanded harshly, his grip tightening even further. She felt a flash of fear, and quickly concealed it. Blacks were afraid of nothing. Not even of strange muggleborns towering nearly four inches over them, glaring down at them with those vivid eyes.

She met his stare head on, her gaze not wavering once, though her eyes may have been a bit wider than usual. "Like I said, hallucinations. You really should get those checked out." Andromeda spoke slowly, clearly annunciating each word as if she were talking to a particularly contrary young child who didn't understand why he had to go to sleep. It wouldn't due to let this boy get any emotion out of her; she had to keep the detached air that had been her safety net for so many years now.

"Ted, Ted, stop!" a new voice cut in, panting with exertion, and she broke eye contact only to see whom it belonged to. Red hair, infinite freckles, tattered robes – this figure was one she clearly recognized: Arthur Weasley.

"How lovely. First a mudblood, now a blood traitor. This really must be my day," she sneered, wrinkling up her nose to show her obvious distaste. The slur had slipped out unintentionally, a reversion to years of hearing it flung around the house with ease. The boy's – Ted's – fingers were still biting into her upper arm, and she had to struggle not to wince in pain. No weakness.

Arthur didn't even glance her way, ignoring her insult and instead focusing all his attention on Ted. "Ted, you have to stop. Let go, Ted," he insisted, breath still coming fast. Clearly he'd had to run over here to get the blonde boy's attention. Great, now she'd had a Weasley for her knight in shining armor. Oh, Narcissa would have a ball if she heard about this.

Those steely blue eyes moved from her face to look over at Arthur, and she inwardly breathed a sigh of relief. Something about his eyes made it seem as if he could stare into her soul, though certainly a muggleborn wasn't capable of legilimency. "Why? Give me one reason why I shouldn't just shake a confession out of her. You saw what she did! It was all over the bloody Daily Prophet!" The words reeked of fury; spilling out and filling the air with a violent aura that made the hairs on her arms stand on end beneath the cover of her sleeves.

Arthur had grabbed Ted's shoulder now, and was pulling him back, away from Andromeda. She yanked her arm backwards, wrenching out of Ted's grip. Her other hand raised up to rest on the swollen skin, a layer of comfort and protection through her robes and the first sign of pain she'd shown, be it a subtle one. "Because you've got the wrong person! Calm down, man! Look at her, this isn't Bellatrix!"

Ted turned back to Andromeda, and warily she took a step back, not risking being within arm's reach of him again. He stared intently at her face, for so long that she felt color rising to her cheeks. All she wanted to do was melt away, fade into the crowds and never be seen again. "Oh," he said at last, dropping his gaze to his scuffed up trainers, his shoulders sagging as all the fight left his body. "Oh. I thought… they have the same face." Raising his eyes to her again, he opened his mouth to speak. "Look, I-"

This time it was Andromeda's turn to interrupt. She couldn't have a muggleborn apologizing to her. Merlin, she was in such trouble as it was; someone surely had seen the altercation, and word would reach her mother by the time she got home. Gossip traveled quickly in pure-blood circles. "Think twice before accusing me, or any of my family, of such actions again. You don't want to raise anymore trouble for yourself," she hissed at the blond boy, a hint of threat in her words. That threat was the first true emotion she'd shown, and evidence of just how shaken she was from the encounter. Then, before either boy could reply, or notice the tears that had started to well up in the corners of her eyes, she swiftly spun on her heel, her midnight black robes swishing around her ankles as she marched off in the opposite direction.

For once, she was grateful for the crowds of people traversing across the alley, muggleborns or not. The day before term started meant that nearly all Hogwarts students and their families were out doing last minute shopping – a forgotten necessity, perhaps a lost book or an overlooked potion ingredient. Either way, the hoards of witches and wizards milling about allowed her to easily blend in with the other shoppers. She needed that anonymity to give her time to compose herself before she ran into anyone she knew, and especially before she met up with her sisters again. Andromeda drew in a few shaky breaths, releasing her bruised arm as she gathered her bearings once more. Using the cuff of her sleeve, she dabbed delicately at her eyes, avoiding smudging her dark mascara. It's only because I was scared of getting hurt, she told herself, but she knew that it was a blatant lie. It hadn't been the boy's anger that had gotten to her the most, though he had certainly frightened her, but rather the horrid accusations he had thrown at her while thinking she was Bellatrix. Andromeda knew that Bellatrix had gotten involved with some shady business, business that Andromeda wanted to stay as far away from as possible. It was that damned Rodolphus, she knew. Bella hadn't been so dark before she began hanging around him. But how dark had she become? Murder?

No, it simply wasn't possible. Deep down, Bella was still the same person who had wrapped Andy up in her arms when she came running to her older sister's room after a particularly awful nightmare, the same person who had held her hand all the way to the Slytherin common room on Andromeda's first day at Hogwarts, who had risked being late to show Andy the way to her classes. Despite what she'd been doing recently, Bellatrix couldn't be a murderer. Andromeda just wished she had the conviction to believe herself.

"Andromeda!" a deep voice called from behind her, and she turned about suspiciously, this time slipping her hand into her pocket to wrap her fingers around the handle of her wand. She wasn't going to be left helpless this time. However, the figure threading his way through the crowds was a friendly one. The dark haired boy grinned widely at her, the smile flashing white teeth in his handsome face.

Letting her wand slide back down into her pocket, she did her best to offer up a genuine smile of her own, though smiling was the last thing she felt like doing at the moment. "Evan," she greeted him with a nod of acknowledgement. He reached out to place his hand on her shoulder, beginning to guide her towards the side of the road, out of the paths of the hurried passerby, and she found herself struggling not to flinch away from his touch. This was Evan, Evan Rosier who she'd known practically her whole life, not some muggleborn who had the nerve to attack her.

"I swear, Andromeda, you get prettier every time I see you," he teased her, once they were out of earshot of the crowds. "I'm surprised I didn't find you in the bookshop." Lifting a hand, he tucked one of the curls hanging loose in her face behind her ear and let his hand remain on her cheek for a moment more, his face still lit up with a smile.

Playfully, Andromeda smacked his hand gently away from her face, poking her tongue out at him in a rare childish display. "Oh, shush, Evan. Your flattery doesn't work on me, you know that. I know you far too well to fall for your horrid flirtations. Go try your luck with that Skeeter bird. And I'll ignore that comment on the bookstore; someone has to challenge you for top of the class," she scoffed good-naturedly.

"But Skeeter has nothing on you, Andromeda. Have you even seen her? She reminds me of a bug. I couldn't be seen out in public with that," Evan retorted haughtily, giving an exaggerated shudder for Andromeda's sake.

Crinkling up her nose at his absurdity, Andromeda gave his shoulder a light shove. "Oh, drop it, Rosier. She's not that bad. Do you always have to be so foolish?" Despite herself, she found the corners of her lips twitching up with a true smile.

Evan slung his arm around her shoulders, pulling her tightly against his side. "If it cheers you up, then yes, I do." Suddenly serious, he glanced down at her, concern evident in his dark eyes. "What's wrong Andy? You can't fool me with that false cheeriness. Besides, you're nearly eight shops down from Flourish and Blotts. If that's not an indicator that something's up, I don't know what is."

Wryly, Andromeda shook her head. Of course Evan would immediately see through her faux visage. "Oh, Evan…" A thousand responses floated through her head, all of which would be laughable to voice. I think my sister's a killer. My parents are ashamed of me because I'm neither obedient like Narcissa nor daring like Bellatrix. I've just been assaulted by a mudblood. I don't want the life of a housewife. Those kinds of thoughts would only earn her wrathful indignation."I suppose I'm just lonely," she finished lamely. At least it was partially true; Evan would be able to see through a lie as easily as he saw through her carefully masked emotions, but perhaps an almost truth would satisfy him. She was lonely, after all, now that Bella and Narcissa, her two closest friends, had gone their separate ways.

"Lonely, eh?" Evan winked suggestively at her, waggling his eyebrows comically. "Well, you know, I could always help with that, you know."

Rolling her eyes at his crude flirtations, Andromeda shrugged his arm off her shoulders and turned to leave, slightly hurt that he'd laugh off her confession so easily. "Don't be ridiculous. I have shopping to do, Rosier," she retorted, voice turned to the cool tone she used to protect herself.

Before she could get barely a step away, Evan had grabbed her hand, pulling her back around to face him. "I'm serious, Andy. We're a perfect match. Don't you see it? Your parents would be delighted, and mine wouldn't be disappointed either. We could continue the reign of blood supremacy, do our parts," he spoke zealously, his face showing a dark dedication, one she wasn't sure she'd seen before, and it frightened her. Raised in a respectable pure-blooded family, Evan had been her friend since before Hogwarts, ever since he'd helped her nab the raspberry tarts from the kitchen while their mothers had been having tea. Since losing her sisters, he'd become her last friend. He always had an air of carelessness about him; one that Andromeda was simultaneously drawn to and terribly jealous of. Now, seeing him without that nonchalance, she felt something missing, and the feeling she had in the pit of her stomach that everything was changing, that she was teetering on the center of a seesaw and was about to fall one way or the other, grew.

"Evan, that's crazy. We're still in school, we're far too young to be thinking of marriage and the like." She was making excuses; plenty of pure-bloods their age and even younger had marriages arranged for the future. "I… I have to go. I've got to get my school stuff. I'll just… I'll see you on the train tomorrow, right?" she questioned, desperate for reassurance that she was not losing her best friend in that moment, not losing him like she had lost Bella.

"Definitely, Andy." And just like that, he was back to the casual quipster she was used to seeing. "I'll see you in the prefects' compartment. Someone has to make the Heads' job difficult." That contagious grin was back, and he winked lightheartedly at her.

Hiding her relief at his transformation, Andromeda groaned loudly, "Always up to us Slytherin prefects to do that. Why can't someone else take up the job?" She sighed melodramatically before flouncing back into the rush of shoppers, this time to actually get her purchasing done. She was set to meet Bella and Cissy in less than two hours and she'd yet to get anything on her list.