Don't own anything, you know the drill, HP belongs to JKR
Adromeda walked into the great hall, she hadn't been here since she was seventeen. She remembered the last time she had been there.
It was the final feast of the year, her last year; her heart was beating, many feeling coursing through her. She was deeply upset that her two sisters refused to talk to her (though still worried sick for their safety), anxious for what her parents would say when they picked her up for the station, if they turned up at all, excited to start her life out of Hogwarts but sad to leave the place she called home, deeply in love with Ted whose eye she kept catching from where he sat at the Gryffindor table but scared as to what her parents would say when they heard about him which they no doubt would if they hadn't already. The sky had been sparkling with stars and Gryffindor had won the house cup, she still remembered the look of pure joy that had been plastered over Ted's face but even more vividly she remembered her look her younger sister gave her from the other end of the table when she caught her looking.
Adromeda shook her head to pull herself out of her recollections. She was here to check on Dora and Remus. She hadn't heard from them yet and she knew the battle was over, she knew Voldemort was dead. The Prophet had wasted no time in telling the world this. So Adromeda had hurriedly dressed her grandson Teddy, bundled him up and apparated to Hogsmeade before she could worry that apparition might not be so good for a small baby.
She had trudged up to the school, Teddy weighing her down but not as much as the fear. What if they were dead? They couldn't be. They couldn't leave Teddy. They couldn't leave her. Dora couldn't be dead.
The house tables had been put back into the hall but people were everywhere and no one was sitting according to house, or the Slytherin table would have been empty bar three people who Adromeda had learnt not to think about. Through the middle of the hall there was a row of bodies at least sixty people, some sporting injuries, others looking like they were merely sleeping. Then she saw something that made her heart stop.
There was someone lying near the staff table as if sleeping next to a man who appeared to have bled to death. A woman with bubblegum pink hair.
Adromeda broke into a sprint baby Teddy still clutched in her arms. She didn't care, she just had to get to Dora, no it wasn't her it couldn't be her daughter, and her daughter could not be dead!
And yet there she was on the floor in front of her. Part of the row of the dead. Her daughter, Dora.
Adromeda barely noticed her son in law; she sunk to the floor and began to sob. She had no one. The death eaters had taken her husband and now her daughter. Her grandson had no parents. Placing Teddy on the ground next to his father's lifeless head, she flung her arms around her daughter and sobbed into her chest.
Adromeda felt as if her admittedly already broken heart had well and truly broken. At that moment she hated the death eaters if she ever saw one of them she would curse them into oblivion. She hated them for killing her only family. She hated them for estranging her once family from her. She hated them for leaving her grandson an orphan. She hated them for causing this terrible pain that was making her cry out and weep all over the place in front of hundreds of people.
It was unfortunate then that the person who got to her first to comfort her was in fact a death eater.
Narcissi Malfoy saw her sister walk in. She watched her look around the hall taking everything in. Narcissa saw the look of absolute fear appear on her sister's face just before she began sprinting up the hall. She saw her fling herself across her daughter's lifeless body. Without thinking Narcissa had leapt to her feet and started running towards her sister that she had cut out of her life for so long, pushing away Lucius when he tried to stop her.
Narcissa slowed to a walk as she got closer to Adromeda, what was she supposed to say? Eventually Narcissa reached her sister and wrapped her arm around her shoulder.
Adromeda turned to look at her sister and for a minute looked very confused as if she did not recognize her but then a look of pure hatred spread across her face that reminded Narcissa so completely of her mother Druella that she backed away quickly. Adromeda pulled out her wand and shot a stunning spell at Narcissa, who ducked narrowly avoiding the curse.
"Expelliarmus" smirked Lucius who had come up being Narcissa unnoticed by Adromeda in her fury.
Adromeda's wand flew out of her hand and was caught by Lucius who pocketed it smugly.
"I hate you, I hate you both! Look what you've done Narcissa! Look what you have become!" shrieked Adromeda who was crying freely now.
"I have no one now, no family at all, thanks to you and your lot! Are you happy now? My daughter is dead – "at this Adromeda's voice cracked and she looked around desperately trying to not look at her sister and her daughter's body at the same time.
"Adromeda, my sister, I'm sorry about your daughter, I'm sorry about . . . everything" said Narcissa in barely over a whisper
Adromeda gave a mad cackle that sounded so like her dead sisters that Narcissa took another step backwards. "What, you're sorry the niece you never cared to see is dead? You're sorry the daughter of the sister that you cut out of your life because she married someone she loved is dead? You're sorry for killing innocent people? You're sorry for not sticking up for me, when mother blasted me off the family tree? You're sorry for pretending you had only one sister? You're sorry all these people are dead? You're sorry that you're a Death Eater? I don't believe you." With that Adromeda spared one last scornful look at her sister before once more sinking to the floor beside her daughter and dissolving into tears.
Narcissa who had flinched at the words her older sister had shrieked at her just stood there for several minutes. She took calming breaths and tried to arrange her mind into some kind of order that would allow her to think straight. All those emotions she had compartmentalised came flooding out. Her husband tried to lead her away and put a comforting arm around her waist but she pushed him away.
"Narcissa, you vowed long ago, to cut this, this bloodtraitor out of your life, why do you care now? Leave her to her freak daughter and half breed son in law. She is no family member of ours" hissed Lucius trying to tug his wife away. They were attracting too much attention.
Narcissa ignored him, not even dragging her eyes away from her eyes away from her sister to look at him.
"Give me my sister's wand" said Narcissa rounding on her husband.
"No" replied Lucius coldly.
"Why not?" returned an outraged Narcissa.
"She is not you sister" said Lucius coolly.
"Yes she is" stated Narcissa. Adromeda had turned around by now and was watching this confrontation witch a bemused and almost touched expression.
"We were wrong Lucius! Don't you see?" burst out Narcissa suddenly and very loudly " We were brought up and brainwashed to believe the wrong ideas and the wrong morals and we have brought Draco up the same way. Now look where it's landed us? Our families were wrong. My sister is the only one to have seen that and we wouldn't listen, we cut her out but she was right and yet she has lost everything. Everything because of us" with that Narcissa reached into her husband's robe pocket and pulled out her sister's wand and walked over to Adromeda.
Adromeda had watched this with an air of bemusement and she saw actual remorse in her sister's eyes. Did Narcissa finally understand? She might not be ready to fully forgive Narcissa, look what she had done but that was not entirely her fault, she was never as strong as Adromeda and Bellatrix. It was just unfortunate that Narcissa had chosen to follow Bellatrix and the rest of her family into the darkness rather than Adromeda into the light.
Narcissa placed Andromeda's wand beside her and said in a voice constricted with emotion. "I truly am sorry Adromeda, I was wrong and I know it, I see it now. Can you find it in your heart to forgive me? I will understand if you cannot because even I do not like the woman I have become".
Adromeda turned to her sister and gave her a quick hug and a curt nod then returned to the watching of her daughter and her husband.
Narcissa was happy with that for now. She returned to her husband who was fuming and her son who was standing dejectedly to one side and they walked away. Leaving Adromeda to her grief and Narcissa to who her guilt.
Their relationship like the wizarding world would have to be recovered and rebuilt.
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