Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. All characters belong to J.K. Rowling, Warner Bros., Bloomsbury, and Scholastic, respectively. All original characters are products of the author, as is the premise and plot. Copyright infringement is not intended and I make no money from posting this story.
I hate dresses. Especially the ones my wretched hag of a Mother buys for me for all of the dances and dinners we attend throughout the summer. I must give her credit though; this was probably the worst one yet. It was light green with dark green lace around the hem and the unbelievably low neckline which she had probably chosen in order for me to get shipped off to some rich pureblood like she had done when she was sixteen. Luckily for me though, I was only fifteen so I had a year left of sanity before my Mother began playing weddings with whoever's Mother I was to be matched up with.
"Dominica Avery Cassiopeia Hawthorn, you get yourself down this staircase this instant!" screamed my Mother from the bottom of the marble staircase as I made my way down one of the many corridors within our large house. Father owned his own company selling expensive brooms which were currently at the top of the market hence the reason we lived in a large house. My older brother, Marcel who was 21 loved the fact that he would be inheriting all the money from my Father as soon as both he and my Mother died. I just liked the fact that I got top of the range broomsticks for free and Father let me ride them round the house when Mother had gone shopping.
"I'm here" I told her, attempting to cover up my trainers as I hopped down the many marble stairs. I couldn't physically wear heels due to my lack of coordination and the incapability of standing upright in four inches of hell.
"Dom, I can see your shoes from a mile off" smirked Marc. Damn idiot, trying to get me in trouble with Mother like usual.
"Dominica you will go and change your shoes immediately. We are late as it is" Mother snapped causing me to hurtle up the stairs before she hexed me, into my bedroom grabbing my horrible dark green heels, slipped them on and attempted to walk in a straight line back to where Marc and Mother were standing. I'd love to hex that smirk right off of his smug little face, the little son of a bitch.
"That is much better but heaven's sake will you please walk in a straight line, Dominica!" she screeched. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you my wonderful, loving and always kind Mother. I'm kidding of course, she's a stuck up old hag.
"Are Sirius and Andromeda going to be there this evening?" I asked my voice full of hope. They were usually at the same dinners that we were, being fancy purebloods and all.
"Sirius will be but that blood traitor will not be attending. Marrying a Mudblood! She had disgraced her family, no wonder they disowned her. I sure as hell would have done if it were you marrying filth" she replied, her voice laced with venom as she grabbed my arm and we apparated to the Rosier's mansion. It was a large house crowded with purebloods that were all deep in conversation when we arrived. Mother pushed me in Sirius' direction as she made her way over to my godmother, Walburga and Marc went to speak to some work colleagues.
"Minnie! Thank Merlin you're here, I swear all I keep on hearing is 'ooh Walburga isn't he a good looking boy now' and 'Orion, my friend, will Sirius be joining your business after Hogwarts?' I'm just glad my dearest Mother told me you were coming or I would have had to put up with that all night" Sirius cried when he saw me, pulling me into a hug that ended up with him twirling me round and my shoe flying off. It hit a house elf in the head, much to the amusement of the house elf hunters in the room.
"That's lovely but I'm going to have to say this now. If that woman who calls herself my Mother has a go at me one more time that's it, I'm leaving" I said angrily, my knuckles turning white as I clenched the drink that Sirius had placed into my hand.
"I know what you mean, my Mother has been shouting at me for the majority of the day" Sirius told me, pulling me over to a small sofa in the next room. I rested my legs on his lap and my head on his chest like we usually did during a chat not that anybody though any different of it seeing as we were best friends practically since birth seeing as our parents went to school together.
"At least all she did was shouting" I mumbled, taking a sip of the drink realising that it was Firewhiskey. Sirius must have sneaked in a bottle the crafty sod.
"What do you mean?" he asked taking a few strands of my hair and beginning to plait them together.
"Do you not remember how much my Mother loves the Cruciatus curse? And as for Marc well that little twat needs to stop talking to Severus Snape no matter how good he is at creating painful hexes" I growled, my fists clenching against Sirius' silk shirt. Trust him to have a silk shirt, the posh fucker.
"Are you trying to say that Aunt Evangeline and Marcel have been using curses on you?" Sirius whispered, stroking my hair down so it began tickling my arms. Damn sleeveless dresses. Oh. Shit. I forgot I hadn't told him about that.
I nodded and a few seconds later I found myself thrown onto the floor. Thanks for that Sirius, much appreciated.
"Sirius, you can't say anything unless you want them to hurt me even more!" I pleaded with the raven-haired wizard who was currently making his way towards the door. He stopped and turned around, making his way towards me and wrapping me in a hug. I liked his hugs; they reminded me of my Uncle Jacobson's hugs. It was a shame that Uncle Jacobson died from a severe case of Spattergroit; he was the only member in my estranged family that I actually liked.
"You can't stay there, Minnie. No matter how afraid you are of leaving, let me have a word with my cousin Andy, she'll let you stay with her for a while until you're up on your feet just promise me you won't go back" he pleaded whilst nestling his nose into my hair and lazily turning us around in circles.
"I have to go back for my stuff though" I told him, fiddling with the hem of his shirt.
"Tell your Mother that you're going home because you're tired. I'll meet you there and send a note to Andromeda asking for permission for you to stay and we'll take your stuff and then you'll leave whilst your Mother is still here with Marc yeah?" he said, my hair muffling his speech and with that, he led me into the ballroom where we approached my Mother who was stood deep in conversation with Sirius' Mother, Walburga.
"Mother, would it be possible for me to go home only I'm feeling unwell" I asked quietly, clutching my stomach to make it more believable. Let's just hope she falls for it.
"Of course my dear, your brother and I will be back in a few hours. Ask Gertie to make you some soup, that will make you feel better" Mother smiled. It was so unreal that I'm surprised that Aunt Walburga actually fell for it.
"Sirius, my son, why don't you escort Dominica here to her home as I'm sure Evangeline will not want her sick daughter to be travelling alone in her state" Walburga asked Sirius. He nodded with a smile and placed a hand on the small of my back, ushering me out of the room and into the one we had previously been in which a fireplace that was connected to the Floo network was in there. I heard both Walburga and my Mother squeal excitedly as Sirius' hand on my waist before exploding into a hushed conversation. They were probably planning our wedding for the seventeenth time.
I grabbed a handful of Floo powder with a mischievous grin before shouting 'Hawthorn Mansion!' and was pulled into the fireplace, ending up falling into the parlour of our house. I noticed Gertie dusting the bookcase as I entered the room but she dropped the feather duster and came rushing over to me.
"Gertie did not expect Mistress Dominica to be home so soon, is Mistress alright?" she fretted, brushing the soot off my dress.
"Just feeling a bit sick, Gertie, is it okay if you got me a bowl of chicken soup?" I asked as I stepped out of the way of the fire, letting Sirius tumble into the desk with a loud thump. Hehe, I had to physically restrain myself from laughing as Sirius groaned at the pain.
"Master Sirius is here as well! Oh Gertie is happy, Gertie likes Mistress Dominica and Master Sirius the most but Mistress and Master must not tell the others though or Gertie will be up in the trophy room with her Mother, Ellie. Gertie will go get Mistress' soup now" Gertie said hurriedly before skipping happily out of the room and down the staircase leading to the kitchens.
"Sirius, what are you doing?" I asked him, glancing over at where he was tying a note to my owl, Athena.
"Take this to Andromeda yeah?" he told the owl before turning to face me. "I sent the note, she should reply within half an hour so I'd get your stuff if I were you"
Gertie came back into the room after five minutes with a bowl of chicken soup with two slices of bread on the side. I loved Hogwarts' food don't get me wrong but nothing surpassed Gertie's cooking. I once sat in the kitchens all day with Gertie as she cooked and kept on stealing different foods because they smelt so nice. They tasted nice as well from what I remember.
"Thank you Gertie, you can go take a nap or something if you want. Mother won't be returning for a good two hours or so and I highly doubt Marcel will be returning at all tonight judging on how he was coming onto this girl at the ball" I told the small house elf, giving her a hug in which she gladly returned before skipping out of the room for the second time that night, humming a song that sounded remarkably like You Charmed The Heart Right Out Of Me by Celestina Warbeck. I must say, the elf may have excellent cooking skills but she has terrible taste in music or maybe it's because Celestina Warbeck hates me after I set her robes on fire at my Mother's birthday ball. What can I say, the woman deserved it.
I devoured the chicken soup, making sure I gave Sirius a piece of bread when Athena's beak began tapping against the glass window. Sirius took the letter from her, gave her some owl treats and read the letter from his cousin before handing it to me.
Dear Sirius and Dom if you're reading this,
Make sure that crazy girl gets to my house as soon as possible! How dare her disgusting hag of a mother do that to her and Marcel as well? I thought he was better than that! I'll be apparating to Dom's bedroom in ten minutes so make sure she's ready. I hope she doesn't mind but Dora's being restless during the evenings at the moment and may keep her up for a few hours during the night. I must inform you (check me out being all posh and pureblood, Mother would be proud) that nobody can know about where Dom is staying due to the fact that I don't want to be murdered by a bunch of purebloods. I highly doubt that Ted does either so if you wouldn't mind. See you in a few minutes!
Lots and lots of love
Andromeda xx
I shoved the note in my pocket quickly and ran up to my bedroom with Sirius, packing everything that I could into my Hogwarts trunk including my wand and posters. I wasn't going to leave my signed Tornado's poster for anything, not even my Mother.
CRACK
Andromeda landed on the floor with a thump as she apparated into the room. She's always so graceful, our Andromeda. I chuckled, holding a hand out to the clumsy young witch. She resembled her sister, Bellatrix a lot with her skin tone and bone structure but instead of black hair she had soft brown waves that fell in her face and where Bellatrix's eyes were a dark brown, Andy's were a chocolate brown filled with kindness and love unlike her bitch of a sister. She pulled me into a strong hug, almost making me fall over when she let go.
"Are you ready to go?" She asked and I nodded, gesturing to my trunk and broom that were currently situated at the end of my bed.
"Let's get you out of this shithole then" Sirius grinned, receiving a slap around the back of his head from his cousin for inappropriate language. She grabbed both our arms, and next thing I knew I was being squeezed through a tight tube, landing in Andromeda's living room where Ted was bouncing a green haired Nymphadora on his knee.
"Hello Dom" he called, waving slightly causing his daughter to turn around to face me. She was a spitting image of Ted with the exception of the green hair and Andromeda's pale skin but that may have been her Metamorphmagus ability and she was simply copying her mother's skin tone. I don't really know and you can't really ask a one year old that sort of thing can you? She wouldn't reply for a start.
Andromeda waved her wand, causing my stuff to disappear before she pulled both Sirius and I into the kitchen but not before giving her husband and daughter a kiss first.
"Do you have any scars at all?" she asked, waving her wand again so my dress changed into my Tornado's t-shirt and a pair of Muggle football shorts. My charmed tights disappeared, revealing the scars on my legs that I had been successfully hiding for the majority of the evening.
"Holy-"Sirius began and Andromeda finished with "-Shit." I looked down at my legs noticing how bad they actually looked. There were countless white scratches all over them but the obviously didn't compare to the fresh cuts on my stomach which I could feel that they were beginning to pour with blood again as my stomach began trickling liquid and I began feeling dizzy.
"Pull her shirt up, Andy! She's bleeding!" Sirius yelled, his cousin obeying his order and pulled my shirt up slightly as I grasped the handle of the Muggle oven so that I was able to stay upright. How come they had suddenly began bleeding again?
The last thing I heard was "We need to get her to Mungo's now!" from Sirius before I slumped to the floor, my vision and hearing blacking out.