The bedroom that Bellatrix, Narcissa and Andromeda shared was quite frankly not large enough for three girls who all liked time alone. That wasn't to say that the room was small, exactly, but the quarters were close enough to make it difficult to hide emotions.

"What's wrong with you two?" Narcissa demanded.

Andromeda and Bellatrix both looked at her. Bellatrix had been sitting on her bed, knees drawn up to her chest, and her hands clasped at her throat, and Andromeda was at the window seat, staring unseeingly across the grounds of Black Manor.

"What do you mean?" asked Bellatrix.

Narcissa sighed impatiently, and swiveled on the stool she was sitting on to see herself in the mirror. "You're all moody, and Andromeda's been staring out that window as if there's something out there she can't bear to take her eyes off, and it's really dreadfully boring when you two are just sitting around and sighing every few minutes."

"I haven't been sighing," Bellatrix protested.

"Well, Andromeda has!"

"Hmm?" Andromeda dragged her eyes off the grounds, and blinked, rather surprised that Narcissa had noticed her at all.

"You've been sitting there and sighing for hours now," accused Narcissa. "What's so fascinating out there that you can't look away from it?"

"There's nothing interesting out there," Bellatrix said impatiently. "Andromeda's just up in space. Isn't that right, Andi?"

Andromeda shrugged. "I was just thinking…"

"You're always thinking," said Narcissa. "You ought to get your head out of the clouds, Mother says."

Andromeda heaved an overdramatic sigh, taking vague pleasure in the expressions of annoyance on her sisters' faces when she did so. "I don't know. I like the clouds. I like thinking about being somewhere else, sometimes. Don't you ever wish you were somewhere else?"

"No," Bellatrix and Narcissa said at the same time.

Andromeda looked between her sisters, rather helplessly.

"Never?" she asked. "You never feel like getting out? You never feel like there might be something better out there?"

"Merlin, no!" exclaimed Bellatrix. "What could possibly be better than being a Black?"

"I don't know," Andromeda admitted. "But there has to be something better, don't you think?"

"I most certainly do not think so," Bellatrix said firmly. "If you want to, I suppose that's your prerogative. We all need something to believe in after all. But you better not be planning on doing anything stupid."

"What do you mean, stupid?"

"Like running away," Narcissa put in. "You'd better not run away, Andi!"

Andromeda's eyebrows shot up. "Why would you think I'd do that?"

"Largely because you never shut up about how much more interesting life would be out there." Bellatrix jabbed a finger in the direction of the window.

"I wouldn't do that," Andromeda said. She hesitated.

"Even if I did, though," she said slowly, "you'd still love me, wouldn't you?"

"That's a moot point, as you're never going to do it," Bellatrix snapped, but there was a thoughtful frown hovering around Narcissa's face.

"Why would you ask something like that?" she asked softly.

Andromeda chewed on her bottom lip, debating what to say.

"If I thought," she said slowly, "that I could do something, something that would make a difference in the world, if I just got out into it, you wouldn't be angry if I left, would you?"

"Do you think there's anything you can do to make a difference in the world that requires you to leave the Blacks," Bellatrix demanded.

"No, of course not! That was just a hypothetical question… you know, needing to set someone free for them to return and all that…"

"You aren't making any sense, Andi," said Narcissa.

"Or, what if, say, I fell in love with… with someone who our parents didn't approve of?"

"You mean like a Mudblood?" Bellatrix leapt off her bed and advanced on Andromeda. "You haven't been talking to Mudbloods, have you?"

Andromeda swallowed against the tightness in her throat. "Well… for example. Say it was a Mudblood. Would you still love me?"

"Don't be stupid, Andi, everyone knows Mudbloods don't fall in love," Narcissa told her. "Especially not with Purebloods."

"Why can't they fall in love, though?" Andromeda asked. She knew the stories as well as anyone, but she didn't understand them.

"Because they're unnatural," Bellatrix told her, "and God doesn't waste love on unnatural creatures."

"I don't think that's true," Andromeda said softly. "I think anyone can fall in love."

"No they can't. Mudbloods can lust, but they can't love. Especially not Purebloods."

"Isn't true love blind, though?" asked Andromeda. "If true love is blind, how can it tell whether it's between a Pureblood and a Mudblood?"

"Because it just can!" Bellatrix lost all semblance of patience. "Andromeda Black, if I find out you've been talking to Mudbloods, and you've gotten to know one well enough that you think you're falling in love with it, I swear I'll tell Father!"

"Don't you dare tell Father anything, ever!" Andromeda leapt to her feet, spurred into action by her elder sister's threat. "Father doesn't know anything about love! And if you tell him anything I say to you, all it proves, Bella, is that you don't know anything about love either! Or loyalty!"

Bellatrix blanched. Andromeda stared at her, surprised by the reaction she had caused. She didn't fight with her sisters often – more regularly, she was the one moderating fights between them – and she understood that her vehemence had surprised Bellatrix. But Bellatrix seemed more than surprised, she seemed genuinely shaken.

The two girls stared at each other for a long time, while Narcissa looked on in apprehensive silence.

"Sorry," Bellatrix said at last. "I wouldn't tell Father, of course I wouldn't. I just don't want you ruining your life by running off with some Mudblood, Andi."

"I know," said Andromeda, not meeting Bellatrix's eyes.

"We love you, Andi, you do know that, don't you?" Narcissa stood up from her seat at the mirror, and reached out tentatively to touch her sister's arm. "You don't have to throw away your life to prove that you're worthy, we love you just the way you are."

"And we need you," Bellatrix added. "This family wouldn't last two days without you."

"I'm sorry," whispered Andromeda. "I didn't mean to get upset… or to upset you. I would never take a chance like running away."

Narcissa wrapped her arms around Andromeda's neck, and Bellatrix held both her younger sisters tight, clutching them as if she'd never let go.

"Please, never leave, never take a chance like that," she whispered into Andromeda's ear.

"Of course not," Andromeda said. Then, an order more for herself than her sisters, "Believe me."