1.9.1966 / Andromeda
Narcissa had gotten brand new shoes from Diagon Alley. Their polished red leather and goblin-made, stone-decorated buckles, shone under the bright autumn sun. The platinum blonde hair of the small girl was tied up in a high ponytail with matching red silk ribbon. She was wearing a pretty white dress whose hem fluttered in the air, as the girl ran through the busy King's Cross station.
"Cissy! Narcissa! Come back now!" a tall woman dressed in dark blue dress, hissed, but it was too late. The girl had already ran towards the barrier dividing platforms nine and ten and disappeared.
A few curious muggles stared at the woman and her strange looking family, but turned away when they faced Druella's poisonous gaze.
"She'll face the consequences, don't worry." Cygnus, a proud-looking man in his early middle-ages, said. He pushed their loading cart with his other hand and quickly tapped his wife's shoulder with the other.
"Alright. I'll go first with Bella, and you two will come after us", he said.
Third grader Andromeda's face lost color for only a brief moment, but for her misfortune Bellatrix noticed it immediately.
"Meda.. You aren't scared, are you?" she grinned. She had become a woman during the summer, her thick and curly dark hair framed her famously beautiful, playful face. Andromeda, her sister's miniature version, bridled and rolled her eyes.
Cygnus gave his hand to Bellatrix and they walked through the barrier. Soon Andromeda (whose heart was beating it's way up in her throat) and Druella stood in the smoke-filled platform 9 3/4.
Narcissa ran lightly towards them, but stopped as she saw her parents' resented faces.
"You shouldn't run around like that, Narcissa Black. Do you not know how to behave?" Cygnus said, dangerously and quietly, so that the people rushing through the station wouldn't hear but the message would get through to the now fidgety little girl. She didn't answer, and Cygnus gave her a small but painful fillip to the back of her blonde head.
Somewhere a little further a whistle blew as the sign of a nearing departure. The family said goodbyes, and Druella made Bellatrix promise to write if her sisters were not behaving. Then the three girls boarded the train and left London with all of it's shops and high societies behind.
"Bellatrix seemed to exchange some glances with the Lestrange boy", Cygnus said with a hint of approval in his voice as the two were left standing on the emptying platform. Druella smirked. "It makes our.. arrangement.. a little easier, doesn't it?"
Andromeda had always been proud to be friends with the older students. In fact, she never had made actual friends with her classmates, although many of them seemed to adore her.
This year did not seem like an exception. She sat in the Hogwarts carriages together with Bellatrix and her fellow fifth graders, Cassandra Greengrass, Rodophus Lestrange and Byzantino Yaxley. Narcissa had disappeared to the flock of first graders heading to the lake.
The dusk of Hogsmeade and Hogwarts' castle's lights illuminated the lumpy road and the dark forest around them as the carriages started climbing the hill. Andromeda could smell the fading summer and something sweet in the air, probably some new flower was planted next to the castle's walls, Dumbledore liked to change them every year.
"Bella, your sister is sorted tonight, right?" Byzantino asked politely after they finished exchanging news. Behind the question could be heard another: What if? What if Narcissa would not be a Slytherin?"
Andromeda wouldn't care, as long as her little sister wouldn't be a Gryffindor. But for Bellatrix this was her everything, and Andromeda knew that.
Andromeda glanced to the other's faces and the realization crossed her mind; this was not the first time this issue had been discussed between Bellatrix's friends. Narcissa was not ambitious at all, although she was absolutely pure blood.
"Yes", Bellatrix said tensely and Byzantino shut his mouth as his cheeks turned red. For a moment it was quiet.
Then Rodolphus threw in: "Well, at least she's not a Gryffindor! I bet a galleon that little miss Black won't dare even.." The sentence was left unfinished. Bellatrix had pushed the boy playfully to his left side and the two were now wrestling so that the carriages swung side to side.
Cassandra and Andromeda grinned awkwardly.
"Get a room!" Byzantino snorted.
Stars twinkled in the bright sky of the Great Hall. All the tables were already full of babbling students. Headmaster Dumbledore measured the view from behind his half moon-shaped glasses, and for a passing moment, his grey eyes met Andromeda's auburn eyes, as she entered the hall behind her sister. Andromeda turned her head away in fear and pretended to fix her green tie.
There was something in Dumbledore's eyes that made Andromeda feel herself vulnerable, as if all of her secrets were read at the same time. Was she just imagining or had there been a hint of sadness in his look? Only the thought of it made Andromeda sick.
The end of the Slytherin table, which was nearest to the teacher's platform and the Sorting Stool, was jammed. That apparently was not okay with Bellatrix, who wanted to see her little sister's sorting at close range.
She wrapped her hand violently around Andromeda's wrist, who was already about to sit with all the others and took her with her to some seventh graders. Some of them looked slightly familiar, but Andromeda figured from Bellatrix's disdainful voice that they were not from the noblest of families.
"Could you move, please? Our sister is going to be sorted." Bellatrix asked.
"What's in it for me, Black?" a boy with untidy dark hair and malicious look in his eyes asked.
"You'll get a curse in your back, Goyle."
The boy, who Bellatrix called Goyle, lost his colour immediately and stood up, as well as the rest of his group and walked ten meters further.
"Tease", Andromeda heard the boy murmur. "I heard what you said, you half blood filth!" Bellatrix threw at his back. A few sparks of anger flew out of her wand.
"Are you asking for trouble already, Bella?" Andromeda asked with amusement and sat on the emptied seats.
"I wouldn't be nice to that twit even if my life hung about it", Bellatrix stated firmly but she had a smile on her face. "How long is it going to take before the sorting begins? I'm hungry."
At that moment Dumbledore stood up and raised his hands so that he seemed to embrace the whole hall. Everyone went silent except for a few whispering younger students. The giant doors of the Great Hall opened and over a hundred nervous first graders marched in. They were led by a young, black haired and strict-looking Transfiguration professor Minerva McGonagall.
Andromeda tried to find her sister's blonde head, but the Ravenclaws sitting in front of them blocked her view. Students started babbling again.
"Silence!" McGonagall raised her voice as she stepped on the teacher's platform. She placed the old Sorting Hat on the just as old Sorting Stool. The Hat started moving as if it had just woken up, opened it's leathery mouth and started singing:
"Are you a true friend
does your heart seek for glory,
is brave written in your soul,
or do you wish to expand your
knowledge inventory?
I can find that out,
what your heart wants to shout,
so none is left with doubt."
McGonagall gave the directions to the first graders and began to list names. Andromeda knew that Narcissa wouldn't be a Gryffindor, she was sure about it. Or at least she wanted to be sure about it. Cissy was way too girly. But in the other hand.. Andromeda shook the thought off.
"Narcissa Black", McGonagall announced. Andromeda glanced at Bellatrix, who stared strictly at where a girl smaller and more fragile than her age walked towards the stool. Narcissa was wearing her new Hogwarts robe whose sleeves she tried to use to cover up her shaking hands.
Andromeda thought she wasn't that nervous when she was sorted, although later she found out she probably should've been. She had always been a bit too confident, acting a bit more mature than her age. When she two years ago had taken those same steps she had been so sure about being a Slytherin that she had only thought would the Sorting Hat have time to touch her head..
The Hat was placed on Andromeda's curly maroon hair. For a while, nothing happened. Andromeda rolled her eyes nervously to Bellatrix and faced her sister's concentrated face. Then the Sorting Hat started speaking, but the voice was coming inside Andromeda's head and she knew no one else would hear it.
"Andromeda Black, you have ambition, you have power and you have the pride of a pure blood witch. But you have an other side, you're not afraid to think for yourself and you're not afraid to stand for what you think is right, you're almost too brave. You are red on green."
As the Sorting Hat said "red", Andromeda panicked. She tried to concentrate all her thoughts on Slytherin, and she really hoped the Sorting Hat would understand. She simply could not be a Gryffindor, she didn't want to go to the same house with mudbloods and blood-traitors.
"Alright, alright. But this is, little girl, for others' best, not for yours", the Hat said and shouted for all to hear: "Slytherin!"
Andromeda felt relief as she had never felt before. She went to sit next to Bellatrix.
"What took it so long?" her sister asked persistently. "It.. it thought between Slytherin and Ravenclaw, it said I'm wise.." Andromeda said quietly and tried to avoid her sister's stare. "You? Wise?" Bellatrix laughed it off and ruffled her hair.
The big hat fell on Narcissa's eyes. Andromeda held her breath and counted seconds. One, two, three, four.. "Slytherin!" the Sorting Hat shouted.
Slytherin's table cheered and Narcissa ran to her sisters. She seemed sour.
"What's wrong? This is truly splendid, Cissy! We're all in Slytherin!" Andromeda laughed and hugged her sister. "It said I'm greedy." Narcissa said offended as Bellatrix clenched her and sat on her place.
Relief and happiness flew through both Andromeda and Bellatrix. Better be greedy and noble than humble and mudblood, Andromeda thought.
Slytherin cheered again, as some other fair girl, probably one of the Malfoy siblings, was sorted in Slytherin.
