Written for the Houses Competition, Year 3 Round 3, and for Monthly Challenges for All.
MC4A (Not Commonwealth, By Any Other Name, Fem Power Challenge):
Fill Number: 01
Representation(s): Andromeda Black/Tonks, Bellatrix Black/Lestrange, Overcoming the odds
Bonus Challenge(s): Not A Lamp (FPC), Misshapen Pods (NC)
Word Count: 1614
Warnings: References to murder
The Houses Competition:
House: Hufflepuff
Position: Prefect
Category: Short
Prompt: [Character] Andromeda Tonks/Black
Additional Requirement: Overcoming the odds
Word count: 1614
Beta: Magi
Andromeda stood on the shore of the river, watching the clear water rush past her and continue down the stream to wherever it ended, reflecting the sunlight onto her face. She picked up another pebble and bounced the smooth stone from hand to hand before tossing it into the water, watching it sink, never to be seen again.
She stared at the gleaming river for a moment longer before departing the bank. She brushed off her dress, just in case any dirt got on it. She knew her mother would not be very happy if she came in with dirty clothes. She made her way back to the forest, which she knew would lead her home.
The sun shone through the trees and onto her face, making her hair glisten. Her hair was always fair and shiny, compared to her older sister, Bella, who looked a lot like Andromeda herself, but whose hair was greasy and messy. She may have had the nicest hair out of her and Bella, but out of the whole family, Cissa, her littlest sister, had the finest. It was enough to make her, Dromeda, jealous. She liked to pay attention to these sort of things. She was a very observant girl.
"Andi, where have you been?" A thirteen-year-old Bella came from the house up to her eleven-year-old sister
"I was just by the stream," She said simply. Bella sighed and grabbed her sister by the arm.
"Come on, we've been looking for you for the past ten minutes," Bella said. Andromeda sighed sadly, looking back on the river as she followed her sister to their huge manor that made her feel lost and lonely whenever she was inside, even when surrounded by her family.
She knew she wasn't like them. Bella craved power and always spoke highly of a man that she called the Dark Lord. Her parents desired wealth the most, after blood purity. Cissa may have been only nine and the quietest out of the three, but Dromeda knew that she was just like Bella inside of her, maybe less lustful for power.
She, on the other hand, didn't understand why her family hated Muggles and Muggle-borns so much. They were just like them, except the fact that Muggles don't have magic. She didn't think that that was a reason to despise them so much. She didn't see why people had to value money over anything else. She felt like they should treat Muggles and Muggle-borns as if they were equal to purebloods.
She made the mistake of telling Bella this once. Bella had laughed at her, before putting her arm around Andromeda and looking her in the eye before saying, "Andi, come on, don't let those thoughts pollute your brain. You'll soon see that Muggles and Mudbloods are disgusting scum, and if you can't see that now, the Dark Lord will soon open your eyes to the truth." Andromeda just looked ahead, trying not to gain eye contact with her sister.
"Andi, listen to me! If you live your life believing that Mudbloods are just like us, the odds are that you probably won't survive. The Dark Lord, when he rises to power, won't hesitate to murder you if you choose to become a blood traitor and help the Mudbloods! You need to stop these thoughts, and realize that you aren't one of them, and you won't be killed. It's life or death here! Start believing in the Dark Lord, and don't mention this again, or I will tell Mother and Father," Bella snapped, before turning and walking out of the room.
In that conversation, it may have sounded that Bella was actually expressing genuine concern for her sister's life, but Andromeda knew that she was just afraid of the shame that a blood traitor would bring on their family and saying that this so-called Dark Lord would kill her if she were to have different beliefs than her sister.
But the more she had thought about it since then, the more she was afraid of possibly getting killed. She knew that if the Dark Lord were to rise to power, he would cause a war, as she had heard Bella talking about so many times before, always with excitement, and if Andromeda were to have different beliefs, the odds were that either the Dark Lord, one of his other followers, or even possibly Bella would murder her.
"Andi, what's the hold up?" Bella asked, snapping Andromeda out of her trance. She looked at Bella and tensed up because of the thoughts she was having, of her sister killing her, as if Bella would pull out her wand at that moment and cast the Killing Curse. She continued following her sister to the manor, trying not to think of what might happen if she were to defy the opinions in which she was raised to believe.
Andromeda held onto Ted as if her life depended on it. She had just done the most daring thing in her life, that definitely increased the odds of her getting killed: she had married a Muggle-born.
Since the thoughts of her rebelling her family began, she started believing in them fully, but always in secret. She would always act like she agreed with He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, as they called him these days, and his views on Muggles, earning a proud look from Bellatrix every time she spoke highly of him. Inside of her, however, she told herself that it was all a ploy to decrease the chance of being murdered.
The thoughts of this led her to Ted Tonks, a Hufflepuff Muggle-born in her year at Hogwarts. The two started meeting each other in secret, to avoid her cover being blown by being spotted with Ted by her sisters, and eventually fell in love. She felt like he understood her, something that she never felt before. She poured her heart out to her of all her worries, her secrets, and her thoughts. He listened to her like no one had ever before, and they decided to marry in secret, but she knew that her family would find out about her marriage. The family tree on the walls of the manor would magically engrave Ted's name next to hers.
"Dromeda, it's okay. Things will be fine. I'll make sure they won't find you. I'm sure you're the least of their concerns right now," he told her reassuringly.
"Ted, Bellatrix is a Death Eater, and once she finds out, she will stop at nothing to hunt me down, to trim the family tree of diseased leaves," she said simply.
"Stop worrying, we'll be fine," he said, stroking her hair lovingly. Her hair had changed to be more like her sister's, but from the pictures Andromeda had seen of Bellatrix recently, hers was still much finer and definitely much less tangled.
"I hope you're right," she said, nuzzling into the chest of her new husband. She sighed in content as she was happy for the first time in years and savored the moment, because tomorrow would be a different story.
Andromeda sighed in relief.
She did it, she survived. She was almost certain that after Bellatrix broke out of Azkaban, she was, for sure, doomed. But, thanks to her daughter's career being that of an Auror, she was somewhat safer than ever before. She and Ted just sat in their house, curled up together, worried about each other's lives, their daughter's life, and their new son-in-law's.
Ted soon went on the run after they heard word of the new Muggle-born Registration Commission instituted by the Ministry of Magic, now under the control of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. They didn't know much about it, just that they were after Muggle-borns. She knew it would be safer for the both of them if he were to run from the Ministry.
She remembered holding onto him tighter than she had ever held onto him before he set out, both of them knowing well that they might not ever see each other anymore. She cried as she watched him depart, trying not to think about the fact that it might be the last time she saw him alive.
And her thoughts became reality when she received word of his death. Killed by Snatchers, people working for He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named for money, spending their days looking for Muggle-borns on the run.
She lost half of her world, half of her heart that day. Ted and Nymphadora were the only reasons why she kept going on, she kept avoiding her almost guaranteed death.
The other half was taken from her after the Battle of Hogwarts, the final battle, where He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named was defeated for once and for all. She was set free, yet she was beaten. Bellatrix was killed. Narcissa and her husband and son defected from the dark side. She didn't need to live in fear no more.
Her daughter, her pride and joy, was murdered by her own sister. She herself defied the odds and survived, yet Bellatrix knew that she would do more damage if she took away the last of the only two people she had ever loved.
And yet, she wasn't left alone. She smiled as happily as she could manage in her time of grieving down towards her sleeping grandson cradled in her arms. Teddy was the sweetest little thing she could ever dream of. He was a Metamorphmagus just like his mother, which brought tears to her eyes not only because of her own loss, but because this child would grow up without his parents. She wasn't sure if she was able to raise a child again, especially at her age.
Guess it was time to overcome the odds again.