"Where have you girls been?" Cygnus asked when Bellatrix and Andromeda staggered inside at last, both breathless from their playing. Cygnus was sitting in one of the tall, hard chairs that graced the foyer of Black Manor, and he was quite an imposing – almost ominous – presence.
The two girls exchanged slightly nervous glances. Bellatrix had cleaned herself and her sister off carefully before they had come inside, but there was an air about them – an aura of freedom and vitality that never came from Black Manor or the grounds. Andromeda could have sworn she had grown three inches since that morning, and she felt like dancing, like spinning and singing and dancing until she could not breathe and fell to the ground in a heap.
It was far too much to ask that that go unnoticed by their father.
"Have you girls been outside?" he demanded.
Andromeda swallowed hard, shrinking back a little from her father's interrogation. She tried not to show how afraid she could be of her father when he was angry, but she hated – hated – it, and the last thing she wanted was the mood of her time outside to be spoiled by a punishment.
Bellatrix was unruffled, all innocence. "Yes, we were playing in the grounds–"
"You know what I mean! Were you out… on the… on the…" Cygnus gestured towards the window, and dropped her voice to a furious, disgusted hiss. "On the moors?"
"No," Bellatrix said immediately, her eyes going almost comically wide as though in shock. "We'd never go out there, Father! We were just on the grounds."
Cygnus squinted at is two daughters, then leaned in close. "I'm only going to say this once. No daughter of mine is ever going to be found out on those moors. They are dangerous. Do you understand me?"
"Of course, Father," said Bellatrix, all but batting her eyelashes as Andromeda stayed silent beside her.
"Good," he said, then straightened up. "And don't be getting your dresses dirty playing out on the grounds either!" he added sharply. "I won't be spending the whole Black fortune on buying new dresses for careless girls who get mud on their skirts."
"Of course we won't, Father," Bellatrix told him. "We were very, very careful about our clothing, weren't we, Andromeda?" Andromeda nodded.
When Cygnus had retired to his study, apparently having had enough interaction with his two older daughters for the time being, and the girls were alone once more, Bellatrix turned to Andromeda, beaming.
"You see?" she said, her voice quivering with excitement. "You see how easy that was? It was like… it was wonderful, wasn't it? Lying straight to his face…"
"I didn't lie," Andromeda pointed out. "You did."
"But you could have! He would have believed you!"
Andromeda could not deny that. Neither could she deny how… intoxicating the whole experience had been. Going out onto the moors had been spectacular enough by itself, but almost being caught, and getting away from punishment right under their father's nose… she had never experienced anything so thrilling.
That night, Andromeda could not sleep. She was wild with excitement, and kept tossing and turning in her bed. She wanted to leave the room, she wanted to leave the manor and the manor grounds and go out onto the moors again. She wanted Bellatrix by her side and she wanted to play games with her and she wanted to dance over the swells in the ground, feeling air whip around her and lift her right out of her mundane, stiff little world.
She did not go.
She crawled out of her bed, and she knelt on the window seat, pressing her nose against the glass. Squinting out into the darkness, Andromeda fancied she saw movement out on the moors, though whether she was seeing people or just the grass blowing in the wind or if it was just a concoction of her imagination, she did not know.
"What are you looking at?"
Andromeda started. Bellatrix was sitting up in bed, propped up on her hands, watching her sister.
"Nothing," Andromeda said, shrugging and swivelling on the window seat, drawing her knees up to her chest and resting her chin on them. "Just… at the moors. They're pretty at night."
"Someday I'll take you out onto them at night," Bellatrix promised, suppressing a yawn. "Now go back to bed. Mother and Father will be livid if they think you're up at this hour of the night."
"Narcissa's up all night long," Andromeda grumbled.
"Narcissa's a baby. You're old enough and smart enough to know to get sleep. Come on." Bellatrix pulled back the blanket to her bed. "You can sleep with me."
Andromeda smiled. She slid off the window seat and padded over to Bellatrix's bed, slipping beneath the soft feather cover. The silk sheets felt nice against her skin. The bedding was all comfortably warm from Bellatrix's body heat, and Andromeda let out a contented little sigh and relaxed at her big sister's side.
Bellatrix smiled and cuddled Andromeda against her chest.
"Promise you won't go out onto the moors without me, Bella," Andromeda whispered in her big sister's ear. She didn't want to ever miss an opportunity to go out onto those beautiful moors with Bellatrix. If she could have, she would have happily given her whole life to spending outside with her. "Please promise not to go without me…"
"I promise," Bellatrix whispered back, not hesitating a second. "Promise you won't go without me?"
"I promise," Andromeda said, shutting her eyes and laying her head to rest on Bellatrix's pillow.
Bellatrix sighed contentedly as well, and she stroked Andromeda's hair gently. The two girls curled next to each other, warm and safe and together under Bellatrix's blankets. And though she knew such a feeling was illogical – and a small part of her was beginning to think it was wrong, Andromeda felt perfectly protected when she was in her the bed with her sister.
She felt like nothing bad could ever happen, as long as Bella's arms were around her.