Challenge #34
Traditions: We all know about the traditions that J.K's told us about – like giving a wizard a watch on his seventeenth birthday, but there must be hundreds more, right? And what about the Muggleborns? Wouldn't they bring Muggle traditions to Hogwarts. The challenge for this fortnight is to write a story of more or less a multiple of 1oo words involving one or more characters and a tradition. Enjoy!J
Broken Traditions
She mourned that day. Every year. It was like a tradition. Not like the traditions of her old life. No grandeur or ceremony. Just her. Alone in her little house. With her husband taking their daughter out for the day so she wouldn't see her Mummy cry.
She knew Augusta Longbottom must mourn it too. She must. But Andromeda knew their mourning was not even remotely similar. Proud Augusta would mourn the day her hero son fell with dignity, accepting condolences with a grave silence that was fitting for the two silent souls lying in their beds at St Mungos. Worse than dead.
Andromeda would wail and scream and throw things at the wall in desperation. There would be no condolences for her. But it was equally fitting.
Somewhere in the cold waters of the North Sea her sister was wailing and screaming too.
She wondered why she screamed. What memories did the dementors force Bellatrix Lestrange to revisit?
Did she dare to hope?… fear?…Was she in them?
Perhaps those who knew Bella, would sigh into their glasses that day, or pause for a second and reflect. Perhaps the few who really knew her would think of Narcissa, the poor little flower whom Bella had protected, cared for, loved. And perhaps, just perhaps, those who truly knew her (There must be one or two!) would spare a thought for the middle sister. The bitch who could not be named. The blood traitor whore. The girl who was once the Pureblood Princess, reduced to gnashing her teeth in agony, in her pokey little house, for a sister who hated her.
And the rest of the world celebrated.
They celebrated that Andromeda's big sister had been locked away.
So it continued. Every year Ted and Nymphadora would leave her alone for a few hours. But then…
Suddenly there was no Ted. And then there was no Nymphadora.
There was only Andromeda.
And it was all Bellatrix's fault.
But there was no Bellatrix either.
The tradition had to be broken. What Mother could mourn her daughter's killer? She couldn't mourn that day.
She went about her business. She let Harry invite her and Teddy to dinner, she smiled, she made polite conversation. She pretended it was just a normal day. She pretended she was fine. She was very good at pretending.
But at night… In her lonely bed… there was no one to pretend to.
And the tradition refused to be completely broken.
Every time you review you save a kitten from drowning
*Shakes bag of kittens*