A mother's will
"I thought Lucius was your one and only, darling." The dark haired woman said, motherly to her middle daughter.
"He was, but I have experienced true bliss… joy that you probably haven't experienced because you were in an arranged marriage." Andromeda sneered slightly.
"Your father and I learned to love each other over the years…"
"After you were forced to," Andromeda countered.
A silence.
"OUT! You must be out of the house in 2 hours. You have been officially disowned."
Druella glared, but whispered something into her husband's ear.
"Of course, Druella."
She scurried out of the room. Andromeda looked at her mother's retreating figure in sorrow.
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A father's love for his daughter
After his wife was out of earshot, Cygnus gazed at his favourite daughter wonderingly. He sighed.
"You and Lucius can make this work. You know you can. You don't-"
She sighed exasperatedly. "Father, I've told you this a few billion times. I need to go. I love him. I-"
"You've told me that a few billion times also."
A long silence.
He shook his head with a slight smirk on his face, as if knowing that he couldn't do anything more to prevent these circumstances from happening.
"I'll suppose that nothing will stop you from marrying him?"
His daughter shook her head determinedly.
"Would you write to me from time-to-time? A father does want to know what his daughter gets up to, you know. But nothing too inappropriate."
Andromeda smiled slightly, knowing that although her father was not particularly pleased with her choice of husband, he wouldn't disown her… but officially she would be. If that made sense, that is.
"Now scoot!" He whispered urgently, gesturing wildly.
"You have been disowned! You have disappointed your ancestors, girl!" He shouted. Andromeda glanced back at him, confused.
Didn't he say that already?
But the smirking expression on his face told her it was an act.
Father, I'll miss you and your dramatics.
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A last, but feeble effort by the mother
Meanwhile, as father and daughter had their conversation, mother went to the Floo. She threw some of the Blacks' special Floo powder that was not available outside to buy, and shouted a name. A specific name that involved her soon-to-be ex-daughter's fiancé's assistance.
He would help. Wouldn't he?
A head appeared in the green fireplace.
"I want you to stop my daughter from leaving to marry that mudblood. She has been out of the sorts lately…"
His mind had stopped functioning when Druella said 'leaving'.
"Andromeda's leaving?" He asked, sounding surprised.
"Come, quickly!" Druella said urgently and desperately.
"Of course, Mrs. Black. I shall come immediately."
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The eldest sister's unexpected visit
A brunette girl stood at the door, her belongings limited to only 3 small satchels – they were her precious little things of sentimental value. Although she was not particularly materialistic, her family was, and they would serve as memories of them… despite her current situation.
Suddenly, there was a crash.
"WHERE IS SHE?" A familiar, feminine screamed.
Andromeda and Narcissa sighed at the same time.
Oh, Bellatrix and her tantrums…
"Hello, Andromeda."
A pause, for her sister had always been dramatic, even when she tortured people.
"I have heard from mother and father that you are leaving?"
"Yes, Bella." Andromeda replied, sighing. Suddenly, Bellatrix's wand was at her throat.
"Do not call me that. You are not my sister anymore. No sister of mine will ever marry a mudblood." She said the last word with distaste.
"I had expected that." Andromeda said sarcastically. Narcissa slipped out of the room, unnoticed.
"You will taint your blood with him." She hissed.
"And so why are you here, when you've told me it so many times? Is there really a point anymore?" Andromeda said bluntly.
A silence. Bella opened and closed her mouth several times, at a loss for words.
Andromeda rolled her eyes, her stance beginning to pivot towards the door. "I really must be going."
"What, the mudblood is waiting for you?" Bellatrix laughed cruelly.
Andromeda spun around, angered.
"Look, Bellatrix. If you want to say something to me, SAY IT!"
Bella's eyes widened at her sister's anger. I should be the one angry with her for leaving… but I'm not.
Bella's expression had completely changed since her arrival. From rage, to speechless, to surprise… to this foreign and unknown expression.
For the first time, her sister looked defeated and had a faint hint of a crestfallen expression.
"Please, Andy. Don't go. Don't marry him."
Andromeda glanced up in surprise from the ground. "I love him."
"You love him more than us?"
Andromeda looked away sorrowfully.
It was unexpected when she felt a pair of arms wrap around her, and loud sobbing filled the foyer. Her sister was crying – showing emotion was not her sister's forte.
"Please don't go, Andy. I love you… so much. I'm sorry for everything bad that I've said and done to you. Please don't go."
Andromeda's eyes widened, evidently in shock as Bella's sobs subsided, her face with an expression of understanding.
Bella said quietly. "I know you want to go. And I won't stop you from your happiness. But we will have contact with each other, right?"
Andromeda smiled and nodded.
It was a compromise with the difficult one.
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Cissy's turn
"I have to go, Cissy. I can't survive here. I'll suffocate!"
The blonde girl's lips quivered. "Andy... why?"
"Cissy, darling. We've been through this many, many times. I love him, so very much."
"You love him more than your family… more than me, your sister?"
Andromeda Black opened her mouth to retort, but Narcissa cut her to it.
"A pathetic mudblood compared to me, your sister, Andy."
Andromeda's eyes widened with cold fury as her sister insulted her future husband, Narcissa's future brother-in-law. She turned her back, veiling her sadness from her sister, for the Blacks were taught to never show weakness.
"If that's the way you want this to end, Narcissa, I shall leave." Andromeda's voice held no emotion, with the exception of the slight rage she was about to unleash if she didn't leave, now.
Narcissa's eyes widened, as she did not know of the depth of her to-be ex-sister's love for her fiancé, with his lowly blood status…
But he was intelligent… for a mud- I mean- muggleborn. Forgive my mistake, Andy. Narcissa thought feebly.
As if by instinct, Andromeda turned around and hugged her sister, tightly.
"I know you don't want to accept this, but I'm really happy when I'm with him. He has become my world, and I don't want to be surrounded by all this pureblood superiority and blood status rubbish…" she whispered rapidly to her sister, rushing towards the door.
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The fiancé's gallant attempt
She was interrupted by another set of footsteps from one of the Blacks' intimate rooms and a chuckle.
She knew immediately who it was. She hastily untwisted herself from her teary embrace with her beloved sister and briskly got to the door, her hand already on the brass doorknob and she opened it slightly…
"All this pureblood superiority and blood status rubbish…? Now, now, Andromeda. You've been brought up, all your life… you don't know anything else apart from our pureblood supremacy, so why in the name of Merlin do you want to go all the way with a mudblood?"
"Lucius," Andromeda smiled her polite 'Bellatrix' smile, her teeth grinding inside. "I will be blunt. What the hell are you doing here?"
Lucius chuckled his irritating chuckle, his long blonde locks breezing under the gentle gust of the wind that came through the little gap of the door.
"Oh, Andy. You've always been the one to be blunt."
Andromeda's eyes narrowed into slits, clearly irritated. "You have not answered my question, Lucius. What the hell are you doing here?"
It was at this moment when Lucius seemed to realise that she was serious. His light expression sobered to a more solemn one and he said, "To stop you from leaving."
Andromeda sneered. "Of course, Mother sent you here to stop me. Well, you won't prevent me from leaving."
As if just noticing that Narcissa was still standing behind them, looking slightly wary and surprised at Andromeda's bluntness to Lucius, he excused his fiancée and himself and dragged them outside, where the clouds concealed the happy sunshine.
There was a pregnant pause.
The silence was so deafening that Lucius felt compelled to say something, for he knew that Andromeda was stubborn and would not say anything. She was only there out of politeness, for it was rude to walk off without ending a conversation.
Though she knew that something would happen, but would just allow it to unravel, like thread wrapped tightly to its cardboard roll.
"Where are you going, then?" Lucius asked mildly.
"Ted Tonks' place. We are to be married, if you must know." She replied curtly, still avoiding his eyes and taking a small step forward, her feet shuffling further away from her former fiancé, until she heard Lucius's annoying chuckle again.
She stopped. Exasperated, she turned around. "Is it really that amusing, Lucius?"
As if he was a young child being reprimanded by his mother, he stopped chuckling, his eyes widening.
"You can't be serious. He's a mudblood. Someone of your blood status doesn't mix with someone of his blood status. You deserve someone higher, wealthier and more handsome, of course."
"And who might that be?" She retorted sarcastically. "What, you?"
Lucius looked a bit surprised at her blunt retort. But who was he kidding? Andromeda was always sarcastic and blunt, though she was mellower than Bellatrix.
"I cannot believe that I am wasting my time talking to you here. Goodbye Lucius."
She got ready to Disapparate, but not before Lucius grabbed her hand, almost desperately.
"What is your problem, Lucius? Spit it out already."
"You're really serious about him…" He seemed pensive, until his eyes brightened slightly.
It seemed as though he had 'pieced the puzzle' together. "So that's why you haven't been replying to my owls of late. You've been seeing him, haven't you?"
Andromeda looked slightly bored as she looked at his forehead, to make it seem like she was paying attention to him.
He paused dramatically, for effect, just as Andromeda rolled her eyes. "But you're engaged to me. You really need to get over this fling. Or is this merely some wedding jitters and nerves? You know, we could always postpone it for a little longer."
"This is not a fling," She paused, thinking carefully of what to say next. She would try bluntness.
"Lucius, you really need to drill this piece of information through your thick skull. Can't you see that we have been over for how long, since you joined a certain group of evil?"
Lucius's eyes darkened.
"You'll be disowned if you leave."
"So what?" She stuck her nose in the air, like the typical snobby pureblood girl.
His eyes narrowed, and she could hear the inside of his mind, its wheels whirring, calculating the number of moves until he would win.
But she knew he couldn't.
She was too stubborn.
A trait that has indeed, become helpful to me in this situation.
She glanced up at him. His eyes were weary and tired, probably as a result of You-Know-Who's orders to kill and torture people. But she noticed something in his eyes… it was so unfamiliar, and as she looked closer… her eyes blinked in disbelief.
No. It can't be.
Was that unfamiliar emotion… of heartbreak?
"Andromeda… I… love you. Please… don't leave me…"
She had never ever witnessed the Lucius Malfoy begging… let alone pleading… it was as though after this unveiling of the fact that Lucius Malfoy was capable of feeling such an emotion, she was drawn to him, like she was once upon a time. It seemed that she was in love with him again. It was as if she would run into his arms, like in one of those sappy romantic wizarding movies and books that she read…
She had never seen him like this.
No.
She couldn't. She had gone this far already. She knew what she wanted, and it was not with You-Know-Who or agreeing with pureblood superiority…
Eternity seemed to pass by as Lucius and Andromeda stood there, outside the Black home, like the typical characters of a romantic novel.
"I can't. I love Ted."
With these words, she immediately whipped out her wand and Disapparated, tears cascading down her cheeks like a violent rainfall, not glancing back at what there could have been with Lucius, being on the side of You-Know-Who, staying with her sisters, who would have married Rastaban Lestrange… or Evan Rosier… or someone else pureblooded.
It had never been possible. He was thoroughly intertwined with the Dark and although she still had feelings for Lucius, she was in love with someone in the Light.
What could they do?
All of this was in Fate's command, after all. It was never to be.