"Bella, be careful!" Andromeda hissed as her sister ran up the ladder steps, but the little witch paid no attention to her. She skipped over the two top steps, planting her feet firmly on the dusty floors of the attic.
"Hurry up, you two! Do you want to get caught?" Bellatrix barked. Andromeda sighed.
"We'll most certainly get caught if you don't lower you voice!" she whispered fervently as she reached the top step. Bellatrix simply rolled her eyes and turned to face the attic's opening.
"Dromeda, Bella, wait for me!" a small, shrill voice called from the bottom of the attic stairs. Narcissa trudged up the steps, trying her best to keep up with her siblings. Andromeda turned and took her little sister's hand, helping her reach the top. Narcissa looked up at the attic and immediately frowned.
"This is what we came up here for? Dromeda, you said it would be fun! It's just a bunch of dust," she whined. Bellatrix shot her a glare.
"Then go back down, if you're so bored. You're not needed, anyway," she taunted.
"Bella!"
"Well, she's not! All she does is complain, anyway. Go on, Cissy, go back to your dolls," Bellatrix continued. The small girl's lip began to quiver, which caused Andromeda to narrow her eyes.
"You don't have to be so cruel, Bella. You know how hard she takes it," she murmured to her sister, but the words fell on deaf ears.
"Can we actually look around up here? Unless you two aren't done scolding me, that is," Bellatrix replied, picking at her fingernails. Greeted with silence, she continued.
"There's bound to be something of interest here. Why else would mother forbid us from coming up?"
"Perhaps because there are boggarts or poltergeists," Narcissa whispered, fear crossing her large, blue eyes. Bellatrix sighed exasperatedly, flexing her fingers in frustration. Andromeda knelt in front of Narcissa, pushing some of her hair behind her ear.
"Now, Cissy, think about what you are saying. If there were a poltergeist here, we certainly would have heard him, don't you think?" Andromeda cooed. Her little sister nodded hesitantly.
"And boggarts only live in tight, cramped spaces like closets. Do you see any closets here?" Andromeda continued. Narcissa shook her head.
"Then there can't be any boggarts here, can there?" Andromeda asked. Narcissa smiled contently and shook her head. Andromeda replied with a grin.
"Ahem," said a slightly older, but most definitely more annoyed, voice. The two witches turned to look at their eldest sister.
"Really, my eleventh birthday will have come and gone by the time you two are done tending to your wounds. I'll be off to Hogwarts, and then you'll never get see what is up here," Bellatrix mocked. Andromeda smiled down at Narcissa, clasped her hand, and led her into the attic. The three girls then ran across the attic, their boots kicking up swirls of dust from the floor.
Bellatrix ran to some boxes in the corner, tore off their lids, and started rummaging through their contents. Narcissa was content enough to look through an old jewelry box, grouping the necklaces based on loveliness. Andromeda looked around the attic; there was so much history there, so much to see. She settled on a stack of photographs sitting on an end table. She sorted through the stack, looking at each moving picture before placing it to the side. Some of the photos were of people that she did not recognize, though she knew them to be family members due to the smug expression that had become a Black family trait. Andromeda flipped through several photographs before coming upon one that immediately stood out.
The woman in the photograph smiled and laughed, her dark hair bouncing in curls around her face. Her eyes were the color of midnight, but they were not menacing. In fact, there was almost a spark to them, a spark that Andromeda could recall seeing only once before, when she was much younger. Narcissa had just learned how to walk, and she and Bellatrix were leading her across the front yard into the arms of a woman. The woman was not smiling, but there was something in her eyes, something that said "I love you" and "I won't ever leave you". Andromeda looked back down at the moving picture in her hand. The photo was of her mother.
"What do you have there, Dromeda?" Bellatrix sneered, rushing over to her sister and snatching the photograph out of her hand. She stopped in her tracks once her gaze fell upon the moving image. Bellatrix then looked back down at Andromeda, her eyes sharing more than she ever would be capable of. Neither one moved.
"What is it? I want to see!" Narcissa pried her way in between her sisters, her face scrunching up in a way that made her look very much less sweet than she usually appeared.
"Who is that?" she asked curiously before adding enthusiastically, "Is that a Muggle? I've never seen one before!"
Bellatrix immediately broke eye contact with Andromeda and violently grabbed Narcissa's chin, wrenching her face upward.
"Don't you ever say that word in this house! Do you understand? Not ever!" she yelled harshly, and for a fleeting moment, Andromeda thought that she was crying. But then Bellatrix turned her sister lose, and stalked over to the large, arched windows at the front of the attic. Andromeda looked down at Narcissa, who stood silently while tears ran down her cheeks. Andromeda opened her arms, and her little sister rushed into them.
"Cissy, you know that we don't speak of Muggles, even if we think we've seen one," Andromeda said softly. She felt Narcissa nod in her arms.
"Then who is that in the picture?" she asked, her voice muffled. Andromeda smiled sadly.
"Why, that's Mother, when she was much younger of course," she replied. Narcissa stopped sobbing and shot her head up.
"Mother? But she never smiles, and she never laughs," Narcissa mused. Andromeda closed her eyes and sighed, but then regained her composure.
"Well, like I said, that was taken many years ago, and time has an awful habit of changing things," she said. Narcissa nodded and, after a few moments spoke again.
"Why do we hate them so much?" she asked. Andromeda opened her mouth to answer, but Bellatrix beat her to it.
"Because they are the lowest and most impure of species! Why some witches and wizards associate with then is something that I'll never understand," she scoffed while crossing her arms, though her arrogance did not reach her eyes. They were distinctly darker, holding something much more menacing than pompousness. Andromeda felt chills go down her spine, but sent the feeling away.
"Yes, that's the general idea, anyway," she said, attempting to placate Narcissa. There was a moment of silence before the youngest spoke.
"Why doesn't Mother laugh or smile anymore?" she asked quietly. Bellatrix uncrossed her arms, the look on her face suddenly much less hateful. Andromeda decided to take the initiative, something that she had grown quite used to. She took hold of her sisters' hands, and led them to the arched windows. They each took a spot in one of the ledges and looked out over their sprawling lawn and flowery gardens. They stayed there, simply surveying all that was theirs, all that they had ever known.
"Bella, will you miss us when you go to Hogwarts?" Narcissa asked quietly. Bellatrix snorted.
"Not bloody likely," she said under her breath. The blonde witch dropped her head, and Andromeda shot her older sister an exasperated look. For once, Bellatrix appeased her.
"Of course I will, Cissy. But you'll be there soon enough, so I won't have much time to miss you, anyway," she said somewhat flatly. Andromeda smirked to herself. That was the best that she was going to get out of Bella.
"Will you two promise to always smile and laugh with me?" Narcissa asked suddenly. Andromeda looked down at her from the other ledge. Her head was dropped, her shimmering blonde hair covering her lovely face. 'You won't want to laugh and smile with us for much longer. You'll be too busy with boys,' Andromeda said to herself, and the thought made her sad. For even though Bellatrix was awful most of the time, and even though Narcissa was spoiled and threw tantrums when she was displeased, they were her family. These were the only sisters that she would ever have, and even if Andromeda knew that her life wouldn't always be this nice, she also knew that she would never have another one. So, she did what she did so often in times like these, and smiled.
"Of course we promise, Cissy. Bella, you promise, right?" Andromeda asked, her voice becoming slightly stern. Bellatrix rolled her eyes, but agreed.
"Yes, yes, laughter all around," she responded sarcastically, though her eyes were bright. Narcissa looked up at them both, the excitement in having a promise between the three of them apparent. The three girls turned to look back out over their land. Bellatrix thought of how silly her youngest sister was, and plotted different ways to get back at her for coercing them into promising something so dumb. Narcissa thought about how glad she was that Bella and Dromeda actually agreed to an idea of hers, and she wondered if Mother and Father would bring her a new dress from Diagon Alley. Andromeda simply wondered how much longer they would have together, for she knew that most good things didn't last forever. But, she swore to herself that she would remember the little pieces of time that they did share together. Someday, that may be all she had.
And that was a promise.