All that I want you to know is that Remus and Tonks are alive in this story (I will explain everything in my other story, Strawberry Fields and Fools on the Hills when it comes to that). Still, Andromeda has lost Ted.

Song: Eleanor Rigbly, The Beatles

Andromeda Tonks couldn't be more grateful that her daughter and son-in-law were alive. She wouldn't even dare to imagine how her life would be if Nymphadora had died. Her life then would be a mess, a nightmare, a complete horror. She was grateful. She really was. But that didn't mean she was excited all the time…

It wasn't like the war had left Andromeda completely unharmed. In fact, the war had harmed her deeply. The sorrow of losing your husband, especially when you've loved him more than anything in your life, when you've said no to everything else because he had always been your world, is always massive. For Andromeda Tonks, the pain was unbearable. She had managed well to hide it from her daughter, but especially when she moved back to her home, completely alone, she fell into despair.

Ah, look at all the lonely people
Ah, look at all the lonely people

Andromeda had lost people in her life, firstly by decision, and then she lost them again, by death. Being parted by death is a strange thing. Sometimes death is like water, cleaning and healing all the open, infected wounds. Andromeda had not only disagreed with Bellatrix. She had hated her. She had despised her sister deeply, she was sure that she would never want to see her again, she was convinced that she could easily kill her if she ever had the chance. But now Bellatrix was dead too, and that's what death does: it makes you think more. Or think less, sometimes. Things are blurry anyway, in death. Now that Bellatrix was dead, Andromeda kept walking around with the same lump on her throat. Was it guilt, that she never brought herself to cry for her sister's loss? Was it surprise that the most 'immortal' person she had ever known was now buried in the ground, far more powerless and helpless than everybody else? Was it unfulfillment, that she never got to say to Bellatrix everything she wanted, that she never got to tell her how she hated what she did, what she believed? Andromeda couldn't give a name to her feelings. All she knew was that Bellatrix had once been a sister, and now she was gone forever, nothing could be done for that, so maybe a goodbye wouldn't harm. Everyone deserved forgiveness.

Eleanor Rigby picks up the rice in the church where a wedding has been,
Lives in a dream
Waits at the window, wearing the face that she keeps in a jar by the door
Who is it for?

When she stood before her sister's grave, the lump on Andromeda's throat was finally transformed to tears that filled her eyes. She wasn't crying because she missed Bellatrix. She was crying because of everything Bellatrix had done. Look at all the good people… Bellatrix killed, tortured and destroyed thousands, still, she was buried. They had forgiven her enough to bury her. Images of arrogant teenage Bellatrix filled her mind, and then images of a younger Bellatrix, still a child, still uncertain, still strange, but a child, and Andromeda cried even harder. What made people bad? Were they born that way, or was it something else? Could Bellatrix have been saved? Didn't she ever have any love inside her? Why? How? What had gone wrong? Everyone has the same insignificant amount of power in the end. Everyone will end up in the same place where Bellatrix was at that moment.

All the lonely people
Where do they all come from?
All the lonely people
Where do they all belong?

Andromeda Tonks heard steps behind her and shivered. It was not the most pleasant thing to hear steps in a graveyard at night, even for a sensible, mature adult. She shivered and pulled her cape tighter around her, though it was summer. She realized that the person behind her was coming to the same grave that she was standing before, and she reached for her wand. Who would it be? A horrible Death Eater who had arrived to pay his respects to his idol?

Andromeda felt her blood freezing. It was a female figure, walking elegantly in contrast with her dirty dark green robes. Her long, silk blond hair had lost its previous shine, and the roots were already white, despite the young of her age. Her looks portrayed the decadence of her previous glory.

Father McKenzie writing the words of a sermon that no one will hear
No one comes near.
Look at him working, darning his socks in the night when there's nobody there
What does he care?

"I thought I'd find you here." Narcissa spoke quietly when she reached her sister, her eyes fixed on the ground.

Andromeda looked at her, disgusted. "If I had thought the same thing I wouldn't have come here in the first place!"

"I came for you." Whispered the blonde witch. She raised her face. Her expression was tired and prematurely grown. "It's the first time I'm visiting this place, I've never come for her before."

"Really? Didn't you come to talk to her grave, to plan new murders, to spend some quality time together, like you've always done? Didn't you come to talk about good old times, how sad is it now that the Dark Lord's gone, Narcissa?"

"I'm sorry." She just answered.

"Oh no, you aren't. The hell you aren't."

"If you just let me explain…"

"You can't just explain all that you have done."

"You don't know… You don't know how powerful…" she took a deep breath, "the Dark Lord was. Power overwhelms some people, it takes their mind."

"That doesn't happen to all the people though, you know." Andromeda replied calmly. "There were others that weren't overwhelmed. There were others, thousands ofothers that preferred to die, to sacrifice themselves in order to stand against him. Ted being one of them." The tone of her voice was raised again when she finished her sentence.

There was silence for a while. Andromeda wrapped her cape around her and turned to leave. "I'm sorry for your loss." She suddenly heard her sister's quiet voice behind her.

All the lonely people
Where do they all come from?
All the lonely people
Where do they all belong?

Andromeda froze in her place. She had been calm until then, but now she felt her blood boiling, making its way to her head. The words that escaped her mouth were full of hatred, not only for her sisters, but for everyone. "You," she emphasized on every word, "aren't sorry. You have NO IDEA of what it feels like to be sorry. You", she spat, "have not LOST YOUR HUSBAND."

The only thing she could hear was her own breath, rugged and heavy. She was furious. How dared Narcissa even talk to her?

"I have lost my husband, Andromeda." She heard her whisper. "Lucius is in Azkaban."

Andromeda quickly turned to face her sister, looking completely out of control. "So Lucius is in Azkaban!" she shouted. "How sad I am, indeed! How deeply depressed! Do you know what Lucius is not? He is not dead. Not like Ted! I'm sure you think your perfect husband shouldn't be in Azkaban! I'm sure you're proud of what he did! Because THAT'S WHAT YOU ARE LIKE, NARCISSA! You are one of them. You have always been."

Tears had appeared on Narcissa's face. "I had lost Lucius long before he was sent in Azkaban. I have lost Lucius for years now."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I had no choice. I know you don't believe me but that's the truth. My son entered this game just like my husband did before him. I had to continue playing to save Draco. I had to be with them to help my child. You'd do the same for your daughter. I never really cared for world domination, I never killed anybody, I even stopped caring about blood purity, even though that happened very recently. I stopped loving Lucius long ago, Andromeda. I stopped loving him when he stopped too. In fact, Lucius never loved me. There were other things he loved. He only loved what he feared."

Andromeda didn't answer. She was still breathing heavily.

"But I loved him once", Narcissa continued. "You know how love is." Her voice grew more tender, softer. "You know how it becomes possible to leave your family behind for the man you love. You've done it before."

"I have", Andromeda's voice broke as new tears filled her eyes, "and I don't regret it."

"It's the same thing, to push your beliefs and principles away for the man you love. That was Lucius, and I was young and foolish, and I wanted to stay rich and pureblood and I wanted to help him rule the world, no matter how many he'd have to kill. Because I loved him. Not the Dark Lord, like she did. I just loved Lucius. Not anymore."

"You are wrong, Narcissa." Whispered Andromeda. "You are terribly mistaken. I could easily leave my family for the man I loved, but I would never leave my beliefs and principles for him."

"In fact, I believe that you are wrong." Andromeda's eyes opened widely in surprise that her sister dared to say such a thing, but her heart almost stopped at what she said next. "I could easily sacrifice my beliefs and principles, but I would never sacrifice my family."

"You sacrificed me." Andromeda laughed bitterly, in an insane way that reminded of Bellatrix' crazy laughter. "You didn't mind sacrificing me, not for love, but because I married a mudblood, as you used to call him."

"It wasn't me who left you, Narcissa. You left us."

"You never asked me back."

"I was blinded by hate then, that's true. But that didn't last forever. And do you know what they say? If you truly love someone and they don't want you in their lives, you simply stay away from them. And I've never stopped loving you, Drom, even if you and I had thought otherwise."

Ah, look at all the lonely people
Ah, look at all the lonely people

"You disgust me, Cissy." Whispered Andromeda slowly. "That's what you do. You disgust me."

"I know that I've been wrong. I'm just asking you to forgive me. I am your sister."

"No, you are no sister of mine. You never wanted me to be your sister. You were ashamed of me."

"I know. And I'm sorry."

"In fact, you don't deserve to be anyone's sister. How could I forgive you, when you were horrible even to her? Bellatrix had always been your favorite, your mentor, and how did you treat her in the end? You didn't even visit her grave. I did and you didn't. You said that yourself. I always liked the color green, and Bellatrix had always been the most sinister one, but you, Narcissa were the truest Slytherin of us all. Because you are a snake!"

There was silence for a while. Then, Narcissa's tiny voice was heard. "Do you know why I never visited her? It was because I could never forgive her for the last thing she did before she died. She harmed her family."

Andromeda laughed bitterly. "Bellatrix had never harmed her family. Bellatrix made the Blacks proud! The only person in her family that she harmed was when she killed Sirius, but he wasn't considered her family anyway."

"No. Bellatrix harmed a sister. We three were different. Can't you remember? We were always different but we had promised we would never harm each other?"

Andromeda remembered.

Narcissa continued, in the same tiny voice. "What she did that made me unable to ever forgive her, was that she killed –well, tried to kill- your daughter."

Andromeda's heart almost stopped.

"What did you just say?"

"Bellatrix had always wanted to kill your daughter, and she did that just before she died, even though she didn't exactly succeed."

"It was Bellatrix who did that?"

It was like Andromeda's whole world was collapsing again, and again, and again… She had never known that, nobody had told her, not Nymphadora, not Remus, maybe they didn't want her to know… She had come to visit Bellatrix, and Bellatrix had tried to kill her daughter. How could she ever consider forgiving her? Her daughter could have been dead because of her own sister.

"I wasn't going to tell you, but you asked me. That's why I hated her." Narcissa was now crying. "Don't you remember, Drom? Don't you remember? We were little and we were playing together and you two had meant the world for me. How I'd wished all that had never happened… Family had always been important. I'd never hurt a sister. But she did. I came at you when we'd thought… that Nymphadora was dead." Already shocked Andromeda flinched at the sound of her daughter's name being pronounced by her sister for the first time. "I never cared for her, that's true, she was always the mudblood's daughter for me, but I cared about you. When she woke up I left you, I walked away. I was happy when I learned she and the werewolf… I mean your son-in-law, survived. I was very happy. It was better that way. I have a son, whom I'll always love. I know how it is. I have felt love, Dromeda. I'm not like them. I know what love is."

She stopped talking, as now Andromeda had thrown her arms around her, stroking her soft hair, sobbing insanely, her face buried on her shoulder. They stood there, in the dark graveyard, crying, crying for all the lost years, for all the lost people, crying from regret, crying from love.

Eleanor Rigby died in the church and was buried along with her name
Nobody came
Father Mckenzie wiping the dirt from his hands as he walks from the grave
No one was saved

"I'm alone." Sobbed Narcissa. "I have nothing left. But I don't care anymore, now that you know."

"You're not alone. I have a house. I have a family. Accept them and they're yours too, Cissy. That's all you have to do… You have me."

All the lonely people (ah, look at all the lonely people)
Where do they all come from?
All the lonely people (ah, look at all the lonely people)
Where do they all belong?