(A/N: This is part two of the Stars and Stones series. I still don't own Harry Potter.)

Our share of night to bear,

Our share of morning,

Our blank is bliss to fill,

Our blank is scorning.

Here a star, there a star,

Some lose their way.

Here a mist, there a mist,

Afterwards-day!

-Emily Dickenson

Black and Red

Chapter 1-Mothers

In the sunlight, the woman's blonde hair appeared almost white. She was not a young women, but she was still lovely despite her age. She had the appearance of a women who had been raised to be a lady, there was something almost aristocratic in her features, but she was not dressed elegantly, as one of her class might be expected to. Instead she wore a plain blue dress that was cut simply and tied with a belt at the waist.

The women sat on a bench in the garden outside of a large country estate. It was summer and the air was sweet and warm. It was easy, here in France, removed from everything, for her to forget about the war.

"Onyx, qu'est-ce que tu fait au chat?" The women asked, turning to see the dark haired girl poking the little Siamese kitten with a long stick.

"Rien." The girl said, dropping the stick and smiling sweetly at her grandmother.

"Viens-ici." The older women said, and the little girl came and sat beside her on the bench. "Thank Slytherin you don't have a wand." She smiled.

"When is mama coming?" The little girl asked, speaking in perfect English now.

"For aunt Cissy's wedding." She replied, smoothing the little girls black hair, "Soon." She added when the girl looked unconvinced.

"I wish she would come now." Onyx said, looking up at her grandmother with those black eyes that were so much like her father's had once been.

"Your mother is very busy." Her Grandmother attempted to explain.

"I know." Onyx replied, frowning, "She's fighting a war."

The woman look surprised, "Who told you that?"

Onyx shrugged, "Je ne sais pas." She smiled at her grandmother and slid off the bench, going to find the cat again.

The man lay on the floor, his face bloody and his robes torn. "Please..." He moaned, "I don't know anything about Dumbledore. He never told me anything!"

A woman's laugh filled the room at these words, "I find that hard to believe, minister, that Dumbledore never told you anything." She flicked her wand at the man, "Crucio!" The curse hit the man and he screamed.

"I doubt he'll be of much use when you've tortured him to insanity, Bella." A man with long blonde hair said sarcastically.

The women ran her tongue along her lips, "Really Lucius?" She said, breaking the curse so that the man's screaming stopped as suddenly as it began, "I wonder, if the Dark Lord didn't trust my ability to retrieve information from prisoners." She paused and smiled at Lucius, "Why he would put me in charge?"

Lucius scowled at her but she ignored him. "Now minister." She said, looking back to the bleeding man on the floor. "Should we try that again, or are you ready to talk?"

"Who are you, you crazy bitch!" The man said bravely, lifting his head up to look at her, "You-know-who's whore? Is that who you are?" And he spat at her.

Bellatrix continued to smile, "Not ready to talk? Well then..." She raised her wand.

Andromeda Tonks sat on her bed in the small flat where she lived with her husband, Ted. She was staring at the light blue wallpaper and trying very hard not to cry. How could she have let this happen, in the middle of a war? She touched her flat stomach with a shaking hand, how could she bring a child into the world in a time like this?

For the first time in a long time, Andromeda wished she could talk to her mother. But she knew she could not. She was as good as dead to her entire family. She hadn't talked to them for more than two years.

Dumbledore was losing the war. Everyone knew it. How could she bring a child into a world that would soon be controlled by Voldemort? She let out a small sob and burried her face in her hands. If the wizarding world fell into his power, she knew that there would be no hope left for herself and her husband and their... child. Bellatrix would want her dead. Not just her, but Ted and the baby.

Andromeda, the brave one, the Griffindor, the one who had defied her family and run away with a muggleborn, had never been so afraid in her life.