It happened just after Christmas Eve dinner at Grimmauld Place, with all of the aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents present. It was during gatherings like this that it was reiterated, albeit with no words, to the "children," the girls especially, the following three things: That each of them had their role. And that they were never to forget what their role was, lest they suffer the wrath of the universe, or so they believed.
Sirius and Regulus were, by virtue of their youth and gender, largely excused from the weight of so many expectations and responsibilities, though the constant reminder that they were the last chances to pass on the family name seemed to be weight enough on its own. Mostly, they were just expected to be well-mannered and well-behaved, and to one day marry beautiful pure-blooded witches, though Sirius was expected to be a mentor to his younger brother.
As for the girls, all of them sisters born before the boys, there was Bellatrix, the eldest, the "perfect" one. The one who looked the most like a member of the Black family, with her dark, heavily-lidded eyes and dark hair. She was supposed to set an example for her younger sisters, and was generally considered to be the one who could get whatever she wanted simply by mentioning it in passing.
Narcissa was the "different" one. Different from her sisters in many respects, mostly in appearance, with her fair hair, fairer skin, and blue eyes. She was simply supposed to meet every expectation placed upon her, and with her poor health, that wasn't many. Mostly, she was to be pulled out of the shadows at social and family events, to be cooed over and whispered about while she was just barely out of earshot.
The middle sister, Andromeda, was, for a while, considered to be the "spare" to Bellatrix's "heir." She was the one to look the most like Bellatrix, though her hair was a lighter brown, her eyes were wider, and she had a kinder-looking face with slightly more color in the cheeks than her elder sister and far more color than her younger one. She generally shared but one "duty" with her sisters, and that was to marry a respectable, pure-blooded wizard, and to marry him while she was still young enough to have a litter of pure-blooded children.
She'd always been more rebellious than the other girls, and got along much better with her cousin Sirius than with her sisters. So, really, it should never have come as a surprise that she be the one to make an announcement that her family did not like.
The evening had been going exactly according to plan. The family was sitting in the drawing room together, many of the women cooing over Narcissa as per tradition, but for her involvement with Lucius Malfoy, rather than for her health, while the young suitor himself was having a rather serious conversation with her father, Cygnus, in the corner of the room. Andromeda and Sirius, having been sitting together on one sofa, were trying so very, very hard not to talk to their family members, and so far, it had worked.
But then, the question was asked. "Andromeda, dear, you're out of school now, aren't you? Surely you've started seeing a nice young man?"
Walburga had been side-eyeing her second-eldest niece all evening, and Andromeda supposed it was because she was waiting for the perfect time to ambush her with that question. As her father's sister, she was normally the first to know anything about any of the girls.
Andromeda exchanged a glance with her favorite cousin. She'd told Sirius alone the secret she'd been keeping for three years now, and the one which she'd been only keeping for several months. His eyes popped open wide as he attempted to communicate with her through them, flicking his eyes between her and his mother, trying to tell her not to tell the truth. She shook her head apologetically, then looked back at her aunt. "... Yes, Aunt Walburga."
"Oh, isn't that lovely! What's his name, dear?"
"... his name is Ted Tonks."
"... rather tasteless name for a pureblood. And I've never heard of the Tonks family."
"You wouldn't have. He isn't pure-blood."
That hushed the room, and all eyes turned to the trio near the couch by the fire, many of them dark, two sets of them light. Quiet whispers rippled through the room, spiteful comments falling from the lips of the aunts into the ears of their husbands. Walburga's smile faltered, but then her own lips stretched into a frighteningly false grin. "... oh? A half-blood, then...?"
"... not... exactly..."
Sirius's expression was pain-filled and defeated as his mother advanced, finding herself knocked aside by Druella, who'd crossed the room in less than a blink, grabbing her daughter by the shoulders. "Andromeda Cassiopeia Black, you aren't saying-"
"His parents are Muggles, Mother."
The color drained from both Druella's and Walburga's faces until they were both as pale as Andromeda's youngest sister, who had gone completely white and started to shake, as she often did just before a fainting spell. Everyone in the room was completely silent.
"His given name is Edward, but that isn't what he likes to be called. He asked me to marry him months ago, and I accepted, on the condition that I tell my family before we married, because I refuse to marry in secret like a coward afraid of what my mother and father will say."
Druella began to laugh nervously, digging her fingernails into her middle daughter's upper arms before letting go of her and patting her head in a condescending way. "Ha! My daughter, the comedian! Joking with us, as usual! You can stop now, dear."
"I'm not joking, Mother."
"Andromeda, dear, not everyone understands your... unique!... sense of humor..."
"Ted Tonks is Muggle-born." Her face was set in a defiant mask as she stared down the woman she called her mother. "And we are engaged."
There was a small commotion from in front of the family tapestry as Narcissa dropped in a dead faint, her male companion rushing to her side. Druella and Walburga took no notice of this, however, as they, along with everyone else in the immediate area of the sofa, were staring incredulously at Andromeda. Bellatrix had crossed the room in a few short strides, her eyes alight with a mad fury that would, later in her life, become their default expression.
Rather than seize her sister, as she looked as if she was about to do, she took her mother's arm and pulled her away from the seated girl. Her shock-induced trance broken, Druella in turn pulled her sister-in-law away. Everyone else in the immediate vicinity backed away as well, until the family was lining the walls around the drawing room, with the exception of Sirius, who remained by his cousin's side.
Andromeda looked around at them all, her face still expressionless. She slowly stood up, clenching her fists before she started to speak. "Don't you see how stupid it is, batting your eyelashes and hiding your smiles coyly behind your hands, waiting for some pure-blooded wizard to show up and want to marry you? There aren't many of us left. Bella's going to be lucky to find one, and even if she does, who's to say that she'll care enough about him to produce children? That's what you all want, isn't it? For us girls to pass on the blood, if we can't pass on the name?"
She pointed an accusing finger at her younger sister, who'd regained consciousness and was sitting safely in a chair in front of the family tapestry, still shaky and pale. "Cissy's the lucky one because she's found a pureblood that she cares for. That's practically unheard-of for this family. All of you married to keep your blood pure, and half of you don't even like each other. I don't much fancy marrying Sirius or Regulus just to keep my children's blood pure. Unlike some people in this family, I don't care to marry my own cousins because I'm trying so desperately to hold on to my bloodline's purity.
"I don't want to be like you. I don't want to be a dainty little snob who silences people with just a mention of her name, and shuffles my children across the street whenever we cross anyone who you always taught me was inferior because of some invisible, arbitrary trait that doesn't even really matter in the end. I don't want a life of laughing at Muggles and Muggle-borns, calling them the sorts of filthy things you all do and pretending that it doesn't sicken me. I don't want any of it. I want to love my husband, pure-blood or no. Is that really such a crime?"
When no one made a move to respond, she straightened her back and squared her shoulders, locking eyes with her mother. "I am engaged to a man that I love. And for that, I will not apologize. None of you can see that the pure-bloods are a dying breed. Soon, there won't be any of us left at all."
"Oh, no, no," Walburga said quietly, eyeing her niece as if she were a house-elf who'd just broken a dish. The same way a wolf eyed a deer before moving in for the kill. "No, there will always be too many of you."
"What are you on about now, you pompous hag?" Andromeda spat, folding her arms.
"There will always be too many of your kind, as long as there is Wizard blood, and those who turn their back on lineage. Blood traitors." Her voice was rising in pitch and volume as she advanced on her niece. "There's one in every batch, they always said, one in every batch of children in this family. I always knew it would be you. They feared that it would be your sister, but I always knew. They said that 'May-born witches marry Muggles,' but it seems that March-born witches marry Mudbloods!"
Sirius stood up suddenly, clenching his fists as the insults continued to fly at Andromeda from his mother's mouth. He advanced on his mother, but his cousin waved him away from them both. "No, Sirius. Best that you step away. I won't have you caught in the crossfire when she starts hexing me."
"Andromeda-"
"I said step away, Sirius."
The boy bit down on the inside of his cheek, but crossed silently to stand beside his brother, who'd taken refuge in the armchair vacated by their uncle. Their mother raised her hand, her wand noticeably absent from her spindly fingers, and pointed squarely at Andromeda's face.
"Mudwallower! Scumsucker! Mudblood-lover!" she screamed. "You have betrayed this family!"
"This isn't a family!" Andromeda yelled back. "It's a cult! The lot of you, you're obsessed with the purity of what flows through your veins when in the end, it's all magical blood! It doesn't matter where it came from!"
"Filth! Blood traitor! How dare you defile this house by stepping foot inside of it!"
"How dare I? How dare I?! How dare you!"
"You are no kin to us!" A jet of orange flame shot from the end of Walburga's wand, singeing the floor at Andromeda's feet. "Out with you, and do not ever return!"
"Gladly!" Andromeda turned on her heel, striding out of the room.
Sirius darted out from behind the armchair in the corner, running after her. "Andromeda, wait!"
Walburga Black's wand was raised once more, and the orange flame erupted from the tip of it again, blasting a hole in the family tapestry inches from her younger niece's head before the girl was pulled to safety by the young man beside her. When the light vanished, several family members looked to the tapestry. A smoldering hole, smoking at the edges, had appeared between Bellatrix and Narcissa's names.
No one said a word. In the hallway, Sirius could be heard speaking, it sounded as if he were pleading with Andromeda. The family never heard her reply, however. What they heard was the sound of the front door slamming shut, and Sirius running up the main staircase, likely to his bedroom.
Walburga put her wand away, and crossed the room to sit beside her husband, picking up her conversation with her brother Alphard. Druella sat down in the chair that her youngest daughter had been rescued from, her eldest returning to the platter of small desserts still held aloft by one of the old house-elves. It was just as if nothing had happened.
The expected reaction to the disownment of a traitor.