Family Love
Bellatrix Lestrange's favorite kind weather was the kind that reminded her of the Slytherin Common Room that she hadn't seen in over a decade. It was dark, dreary, and cold, yet beautiful. She missed Hogwarts. She and her friends had pretty much owned the school. Her best friend was her sister. They had shared so many amazing times together before Andromeda left home for the Muggle. Bellatrix loved her sister in a way she knew she wasn't supposed to, and Andromeda loved her too. However, Andromeda was far less twisted than Bellatrix. She didn't feel right about their secret after a bit. And she met that Ted. It broke her sister's heart. Bellatrix had half a mind to blow the ugly, powerless toad to bits before they could leave together. He couldn't understand their sisterly relationship. Pureblood families are tighter than anything. They never leave each other. Bellatrix blamed Andromeda's escape from the family entirely on Ted Tonks. Andromeda had been expected to join some respected pure-blood family, like Bella, who married into the Lestrange line. Bellatrix didn't care about her husband. He was a Death Eater, but cowardly and weak. Bellatrix was far stronger than he. Between her husband's Death Eater ties, her broken heart, and her inherent darkness, she grew far more twisted and deadly year-by-year under the Dark Lord's personal instruction. She secretly still missed Andromeda, though they would never see each other, aside from on the battlefield. Thinking back on their brief time together, Bellatrix thought of the Slytherin Common Room. Their relationship was as beautiful as it was, and maybe as dark, too. One time…
"Andromeda, love, you've been working on that essay for hours. Just give it to a first year. We have to go meet Lucius at dinner!" Bellatrix Black impatiently tugged on Andromeda's arm.
"No, no… Just wait a second," Andromeda muttered, then looking over at her sister she winked and smiled, "I have a plan, just hold up."
Bellatrix sat down in a green upholstered chair beside her sister. She was in 7th year and Andromeda was in 5th year. They had been very close sisters until a few weeks earlier when they stole a kiss while exploring the Shrieking Shack during a Hogsmeade visit. Now they were exploring a whole new area of their sisterhood.
After half an hour, the common room was empty. Everyone else had gone to the Great Hall for dinner. As the last third year left and the wall closed behind him, Andromeda put down her quill and turned to Bellatrix with an impish smirk.
Bellatrix stood and took her sister's hands pulling her to her feet as well. Then, their dark eyes met, they leaned in, and they kissed slowly but deeply. As they wrapped their arms around each other, their kisses grew faster and faster until they broke apart slowly and stared into each other's beautiful and cold eyes. Andromeda put her head on her sister's shoulder and they stood like that for some time, caressing each other gently.
"I love you," Bellatrix told her sister, her expression softer than most people would ever see it.
"I love you too, Bella," Andromeda replied into her Bellatrix's neck.
Then a fellow Slytherin walked through the door and the Black sisters coolly broke apart and smiled.
"There's a Hogsmeade trip next weekend, right?" Bellatrix asked her sister.
"Pretty sure, yeah. You wanna do something together?" Andromeda replied with a mischievous smile.
They giggled and they went to dinner together.
Sitting next to Lucius Malfoy, 6th year, Bellatrix grabbed a meat pie and a bowl of peas, then passing them to her sister.
"Where've you been?" Lucius asked.
"Just waiting for 'Dromeda to finish some essay or something," Bellatrix replied.
"My parents wrote me. They're still trying to establish a marriage agreement for you and me with your parents."
"Okay." Bellatrix didn't want to talk about it, and she would never let that happen.
Lucius turned to face the older Black sister with a stern expression.
"You know you don't have any say, right?"
Bellatrix nodded, picking up her goblet and taking a sip of pumpkin juice.
"Then you might as well give in to being my friend at very least…" Lucius looked at her with a smirk.
Bellatrix gave him an icy stare, locking eyes with him for several seconds. His smirk faded and he looked slightly nervous, before Bellatrix stood up and left, dinner half-eaten.
Andromeda looked at Lucius sheepishly and shrugged.
"I don't think it's all personal, you know," she said quietly. "I'm spoken for, but maybe you could see about our other sister. We've all got equal claim to the inheritance. You don't have to pretend you actually care about her. It'll only make it more difficult for her to face the fact that she will have to marry," Andromeda suggested nervously.
Lucius gave her a look. "I adore Bellatrix. She's beautiful. Narcissa is 10. We don't know if she'll grow up to be as entirely alluring as her big sister and I'm supposed to marry well before I'm 30."
Andromeda shrugged and left Lucius at the table by himself.
Back in the girls' dormitory, Andromeda found her sister. Bellatrix had tears in her dark, angry eyes and looked murderous.
Andromeda sat next to her on the bed and put an arm around her, "I love you, Bella."
Bellatrix held Andromeda's head in her hands and kissed her desperately. The younger sister ran a hand through Bellatrix's black curls. They needed each other, more than anyone else in the world. Neither wanted to have to leave with some man and raise a perfect, loveless pure-blood family.
"Someone's going to find us, Bella," Andromeda muttered sadly.
Bellatrix broke apart from Andromeda with tears running down her cheeks, smearing her makeup. She looked down.
"I'll never love anyone like I love you, Andromeda. You will move on. You're better at adapting than I am. I don't know what I'll do if I'm stuck with some stranger in a cold manor for my whole life. That's not what I was born to do. I know that," Bellatrix said quietly.
"It won't be Lucius. I heard Mother and Father discussing Narcissa and him over the summer," Bellatrix added.
Andromeda looked at her sister. She, too, had tears in her eyes.
"You're wrong. I won't move on. I love you. Neither of us was raised to be a typical, boring housewife. We were raised to be fighters and that's what we'll do. You feel it, too, I'm sure. There's a divide in the wizarding world and things will explode someday. We'll fight for what we want. Fighting over our marriages is menial. There are bigger issues," Andromeda told her.
"Like mudbloods," Bellatrix said along with Andromeda who said, "Like blood purity."
Andromeda looked away uncomfortably.
"A day will come when you'll understand, love," Bellatrix told her sister.
"It doesn't matter. We love each other and it will stay that way as long as it can," Andromeda said softly.
The sisters looked at each other and smiled. They knew it would end, but right then, they planned to love each other and treasure each second they had.
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