Ghosts
Disclaimer: I don't own HP. I also used a quote "Sweetheart, you're the picture of loneliness." by Oskar Schindler, in Schindler's List (the movie). I give credit for that quote and I loved it. Inspiration was immediate.
A/N: This is for the Academy Awards competition. Enjoy and please R and R!
Dark chocolate wavy hair danced in the air as the woman stood, rigid and with a mask that left her looking cold and distant. Of course, how else could one look like when staring at four graves? She wondered how the third, her sister almost a twin image of her (cracked and broken, insane image), would feel being buried with her half blood niece and her werewolf nephew-in-law. She would curse the fates no doubt. But she was Bellatrix, the Dark Lord's Most Faithful, and who wanted a murderer and a convict buried beside them? Not any of the aristocratic "do no wrong" society members Bella fought for. So Bella wasn't buried in the Black family plot but rather in Andromeda's rag tag family plot.
She lost the most in the war; she lost her sister, her husband, her daughter, and her son-in-law. She wondered with a fleeting thought if this is what he was talking about. When he said that she would only receive happiness for a short time before she would be left crashing in pain for not following her heart.
But how could she have followed her heart when she wanted freedom? She wanted to breathe without pureblood restrictions. She didn't want to be locked away in a monstrosity of a house her entire life. She would do everything over again. She had no regrets; she was a free and maybe even rebellious soul. She was no housewife, bound to entertain and gossip.
She would have married Ted all over again. She didn't love him but purebloods never married for love. They married to gain what they wanted. It was as simple as that.
Did she really not regret leaving the love of her life and throwing him to the lions? Well, they weren't lions. They were Death Eaters.
She remembered his ghost of a touch on her skin, the kisses he gently gave her like she was breakable, like she was something to be cherished. She could hear his voice after two decades whispering for her not to leave. He needed her.
A warm feeling ran down her bare and slightly cold cheeks. Liquid filled with the bitterness of her past plummeted to the ground after leaving their burning paths on her porcelain skin.
She hadn't cried since the day she left him and told him it was foolish to follow a simple organ. She wanted to fight for what was her right: free will and she was better than him.
But she was so wrong. She watched his face twist in pain that stabbed her more fiercely than anything in her entire life. She could still see his betrayed face in the back of her mind.
She hadn't listened and now she was alone. Would Cissy talk to her and could she meet her nephew finally?
Who was she kidding? She didn't belong with them. She belonged with the people before her before Cissy and Draco.
Teddy.
Her grandson, only a year old, and he was an orphan. Besides Harry she was the only family he had. She could be strong for him right?
But he was only a baby and how could he know the burden strangling her? She really was alone.
Her cheeks were numb and her mouth was colder than ice, her lips frozen, she felt almost like a corpse. She was sure her already pale skin was deathly pale, coated in frost, but who cared? No one would miss her. The only man who might is mostly likely dead and gone or one of those two.
She missed the happy times even if she didn't deserve them. She wanted them back but they were just past her fingertips.
"Sweetheart, you're the picture of loneliness." A rough and almost familiar voice called out. She felt a chill run down her spine. Rabastan?
She turned around, shock contorting her face, but she took a relieved breath. She stared into blue eyes framed with gray hair.
"I figured," She laughed.
The groundskeeper walked with a cane in shabby clothes, stabbing small circles in the ground, as he made his way beside her.
"Pardon me if I am intruding or saying something to offend you but dear, you need to get away from the dead. You are alive and you need to live. If you stay with them long enough you'll be wasting their sacrifice." He spoke wiping snow off the graves. Andromeda hadn't noticed the snow until now.
"Maybe, but I don't have anywhere to go." She confessed.
"Then find a new road or a new place and explore. After that then go and find who you need." The man watched the snow flutter along in the currents. The wind was the puppeteer of the snow it seemed.
"What makes you think I am looking for someone?" She asked shocked at his statement. Was she that pathetic?
"Your eyes, little one, they speak volumes of sorrow." He walked closer to her, patted her shoulder, and walked away.
Was it that easy to start over? It hadn't been easy leaving what she knew behind and being Ted's wife yet she had done just that.
She gathered herself, wiped the snow off her jacket and decided to give his statement a go. Then she would look for Rabastan and she would tie her loose ends together. She didn't want to be this cold, this frozen in one place, anymore. She treaded through the snow and when she reached the iron gates she Apparated.
Andromeda hoped she could be found, not lost to the ghosts of her past.