Andromeda Lestrange


Her dream life went crashing around her like a quidditch player in a tailspin heading for the ground below them. Not only had she been made to write her dear Ted and tell him things would not work between them, but to never write her again - lest he wanted to die. This was only compounded when her father received Rabastan Lestrange as a caller and Andromeda was brought to his study.

There, she was told her old schoolmate had asked for her hand and her father wished to know if it was agreeable to her.

She'd said yes, of course. Bellatrix had made it more than clear what would be her Ted's fate if she refused to heed her sister's course of action. Her father had looked at her oddly when she agreed, but Andromeda knew Cygnus Black was far too aware how excellent a match this was. He might feel that this was out of character for Andromeda and, perhaps, for Rabastan as well, but he would not question her answer's certainty.

It was improper to do so.

Even if he did think something was off, the last thing he would want to do was ask Andromeda why she was agreeing to marry Rabastan. Especially right in front of Rabastan. The insinuation that he was not good enough for Andromeda would come out loud and clear, even if that was not her father's intention with his questions. The shame he would bring to their family would be too tremendous for him to ever recover from. In addition, Andromeda feared for what would happen if the whole truth came out. In the aftermath of the revelation, Andromeda knew there would be no chance of fixing anything between her, Bellatrix, and the rest of the family. Everything would be in absolute ruins. Her Ted might even end up dead, and that was the last thing Andromeda wanted to happen to him.

For all of them, it really was best that he linked his hands together and nodded at both of them. "Then you will marry her," he said to Rabastan. "What sort of dowery do you and your family expect from wedding Andromeda?" he asked.

Fighting back the urge to blush out of embarrassment or rage, Andromeda wondered how her father could talk about such things when she was right in front of him. Right beside her soon-to-be husband. At the very least, couldn't he have dismissed her while he figured out what would have to be sold for Andromeda's marriage?

She would have preferred it to having to sit here like a - a dumb animal!

Listening to them talk about property, inheritances, and businesses, Andromeda realized this was how people talked about livestock. What did one want to barter for a pig? What was equal in value to a half dozen chickens?

Holding back a hot flood of tears, Andromeda swore to herself her daughter would never experience this. She would not.

She'd die to ensure it.

When the discussion was finished, Rabastan gave her a pretty gold ring that had a well-sized emerald embedded in it.

"It looks nice on your hand," he remarked as he held her fingers in his hairy hands.

Nodding, she didn't look away from the glinting jewel as she told him, "This is the most beautiful engagement ring I've ever seen, Rabastan. Thank you."

"You're welcome," he replied after an awkward pause.

Getting up, Andromeda said to her father and fiancé, "I think I shall go show Mother and Narcissa; they are having tea together, I believe."

"Yes, do so," her father replied .

Relieved he was giving her the chance to escape, Andromeda shot him a wobbly, grateful smile and all but ran from his study. Hurrying to her rooms, Andromeda warded them against company and threw herself down on her girlhood bed to sob. She was to marry Rabastan Lestrange, there was no escape.

v-v-v-v-v

His hairy knuckles steepled in his lap, he stared just past her.

Andromeda, for her part, kept glancing between the face of the room's clock and that of her fiancé's. Honestly, she didn't understand why her mother had insisted Rabastan stay for a visit after finishing up the final paperwork with Father. While they had gone to Hogwarts together, neither ever really spoke to one another beyond asking the other to "Please pass the Pumpkin Juice."

While she understood getting to know each other was important, since she would be spending the rest of her life with Rabastan, Andromeda did not want to do so in her mother's company. Given Rabastan's silence, Andromeda was lead to believe he was uncomfortable talking to her in front of Mother as well.

At least they were sharing that, she supposed.

Looking up from her needle point, Andromeda's mother sighed. Turning back to her task, she did another stitch, possibly two, before she put it aside and said, "I have to visit the powder room, I trust you two will fair alright while I'm gone?"

"Yes, Mother."

"Of course, Missis Black."

"Excellent!" Getting up from her chair, she cast a wink Andromeda's way. Andromeda rolled her eyes. Whatever her mother thought might happen while she was gone would be the last thing to happen, she was sure.

Finally, once her mother had been gone for several minutes, Rabastan said to her with a half-smile, "You look quite lovely today, Andromeda."

"Thank you, Rabastan," she replied. "You look well today also."

He nodded.

Desperately, Andromeda tried to find something else to say. But what, though? She didn't know this man at all! Not like she'd known her Ted, anyway. She could try and talk of Hogwarts, or about something she'd read in The Daily Prophet, but would that lead to anything?

Andromeda doubted it. In all likelihood, she'd probably just bore him.

Clearing his throat, Rabastan, remarked, "Your mother is very good at needle point. Do you…?"

"No," she answered. Then, she bit her tongue and cursed herself for not telling him what she did like. It could have opened the door to a real conversation between them.

He gave a sheepish smile. "Oh, well, that's fine. Not every lady has to."

She frowned. Not every lady has to? What was that supposed to mean? Was he the kind of male chauvinist pig who believed all woman should have homely little pastimes and wait on their husband's or father's every hand and foot? And here Andromeda had been thinking that would be her last problem with Rabastan!

What, with the way Rodolphus let Bellatrix do all the talking for their coupling in public.

Seeming to have realized his error, Rabastan opened his mouth to apologize when Andromeda's mother returned.

"Hello, dears," she greeted as she took back her seat. "How about I call one of the elves for tea, hm?"

Andromeda felt her body sag in relief. "That's an excellent idea, Mother," she complimented.

Smiling at her, her mother wasted no time in following through on her plan.

Looking one last time to her fiancé, Andromeda hoped that they'd managed another meeting between them before their marriage next month. And hopefully, that one would be more successful than this shamble of a discussion.

(Though, despite her hopes, the realist in her doubted their next meeting would be any better).

v-v-v-v-v

Once again in front of her vanity, Andromeda can see the heartbreak in her gaze as her sisters and mother chatter about the proceedings outside her girlhood bedroom.

"And Rabastan! Didn't he look so handsome in his dress-cloak when he was talking to Wilkes?" Narcissa tittered with all the gushing excitement of a fifteen year old girl.

"Oh, most definitely!" Andromeda's mother agreed as she continued fixing the veil to Andromeda's bun.

Waltzing over to her side, Bellatrix crouched down beside Andromeda. Grinning, she hooked her arm around Andromeda's shoulder and pressed their cheeks together. Andromeda hated the similarity she saw in their features as they both gazed into the mirror. Putting on that mean smile again, the curly-haired woman remarked, "Isn't it a shame there's not a third Lestrange for our little 'Cissy?"

Andromeda didn't know how she managed, but, somehow, around the sob that'd been clogging her throat all morning. "A real shame," she croaked.

Pulling away, Bellatrix stood up and pressed a kiss to her temple. "I'm so pleased you weren't so far astray I could not bring you home, Andy-baby."

Mocking pet names aside, Andromeda almost felt that her sister's affectionate words were a sign of true, sisterly love. In an electric moment of hope, relief coursed through her like a lighting bolt through a metal rod.

Andromeda felt she could do this.

She could marry Rabastan. She could pretend to be in love. She could pretend to be a happy wife. She could-

"Just remember, if you get cold feet and try to run, I won't just send Father to find you and your mudblood lover. The shame you would bring on me and our families would be too great to be excused. In fact, if you disappear even for a moment before you are wed, I might just kill the pest myself!" Bellatrix concluded in a fierce hiss only meant for Andromeda. And then, with a loud cackle, she wrapped both arms around Andromeda and squeezed her in a crushing embrace that could surely put a boa's constricting hug to shame. "Oh, I'm just so happy you're going to settle down with a good man, Andy-baby!"

"Hear, hear," her mother praised as she bustled off to get something or other that was to be worn by Andromeda.

Standing back up, Bellatrix went for the door to Andromeda's room and said, "I'll check in with the guests, Mother!"

"Thank you, dear," Druella muttered as she began to latch a ponderous necklace around Andromeda's neck.

The weight was noticeable, but it barely registered over Andromeda's heavy heart. Her sister did not love her - Bellatrix only cared about their family's name and none of this was done for her good, but for the sake of pureblood values.

(How did she convince herself it was ever otherwise?)

v-v-v-v-v

Head bowed as her father lead her down the emerald green path of grass leading to her husband, Andromeda blinked back tears and lifted her head. Guests from both sides watched with hungry eyes - a few were dewy as well and the young woman wondered why that was. Undoubtedly they were the emotional sort, but what were they feeling?

Were they so happy for her they could cry? Did they think what was happening was a thing of beauty? Like a mountain sunrise or the birth of a child? Or...did some of them know the truth? Maybe they were tears of empathy. Maybe they knew exactly what it was she was going through. Andromeda rather liked that thought, it was more comforting then her mother's promise that she'd learn to love Rabastan as a wife ought to.

Her arm released at the arch of red and pink roses, Andromeda glanced to her father's countenance. His eyes were steady as he gave a slight dip of his chin, telling her to take her spot beneath the arbor. She wanted to plead with him, whine, "Please Daddy, please, let me be free a little while longer..." She couldn't, though. Andromeda was too old for whining and this was too far along for her to back out of on her own.

So, without further hesitation, she stepped into place. Taking a breath and pleading with all the powers that be for her eyes not to well with tears upon meeting Rabastan's gaze instead of her Ted's, Andromeda's gaze caught Rabastan's. Much to her luck, instead of tears, Andromeda's curiosity was stirred by the grief she saw within his grey-blue gaze. Was he losing something just as she was? Was that possible? It wasn't he who was about to be turned into nothing more than a bird trapped within a cage.

The officiant began to speak.

Startled, Andromeda looked to her feet and pondered no more as she waited for her moment. When it came, she prayed no one caught the sound of her breath hitching when she said, "I do."

v-v-v-v-v

After the wedding, they spent only a few hours at their own reception before Rabastan had leaned in very close to her while they were dancing and whispered, "Want to cut out early? Everyone's already a drink shy of pissed. I'm sure nobody would care if we left for our honeymoon a bit early…"

Just as eager to leave, Andromeda had favored her new husband with a smile and nodded. "Let us go."

And together, they left her parent's ballroom and headed for the gardens where they used the portkey Rabastan had to get to their destination.

Before she knew it, Andromeda and Rabastan were holed up together in a Lestrange summer cottage somewhere on the coast of Spain. For the first afternoon of their honeymoon, they kept a foot distance from one another at all times and conversed in stilted words. When the evening approached, they both became more and more restless. Each flitting from room to room with excuses to get away from the other, but always returning thanks to their guilt.

Neither may have wanted the marriage, Andromeda realized, but nor did they want to make the other feel badly about the situation they were now in. That was quite comforting to her, actually. Andromeda clung to the fact as they passed through a silent dinner together. If not for the scraping of forks on plates, and the clack of glasses on the table's marble surface, she would have thought they'd gone deaf upon eating. In some ways, she wished they would have. At least, then, they would have an excuse for not speaking to one another.

Darkness closing in as they came to situate themselves in the cottage's bohemian sitting area, Rabastan admitted, "I don't know about you, Andromeda, but I don't - I'm not - I hardly know you."

"That's alright," Andromeda said with a tentative smile. "I was going to go along with it if you wanted to, but I much prefer getting to know one another first." And to prove it, she took up his hairy hand and lead him to the room's settee to sit together. Smoothing out her skirt, she turned her gaze on his long face and asked pleasantly, "What's your favorite wine, Rabastan?"

The man considered her with a level stare before answering, "Pinot Noir."

"Truly?" Andromeda questioned with a bit of surprise. "That's my favorite as well."

He smiled back at her. "Tuffy!" he called.

A grayish female house-elf popped into existence and inquired, "Whats it be you need, Master Lestrange?"

"A bottle of Pinot Noir," he demanded with all the superiority of a true pureblood man.

The elf nodded and disappeared for a moment before showing up again with a bottle and two wine glasses. "That be alls, sir?" Tuffy questioned.

"Yes," Rabastan answered as he went to work pouring him and Andromeda glasses.

Feeling she ought to give the elf some sort of impression of her, Andromeda favored the elf with a small smile and said, "Thank you, Tuffy, you may leave."

The house-elf gave a deep bow."Yous is welcome, Missus Lestrange," Tuffy said before popping away one last time.

Rabastan handed her one of the glasses and declared, "Cheers, my wife."

"Cheers," Andromeda echoed as she took her first sip.

And for the rest of their first night as a married couple, Andromeda and Rabastan got to know one another over their mutual taste for Pinot Noir.


How do you guys feel about this chapter and how it played out? Was it interesting? Does it need any work?

Thank you all very much for the reviews last chapter, KodeV, Moka-Girl, and NightmarePrince!

Thanks for reading everybody and please review!

EDITED: 1/12/16