The brutality with which Andromeda was presented was unexpected to say the least, reeking of a familiarity that her subconscious recognized but her waking mind dared not consider. It was a full count of ten before the witch could step over the shattered remains of her front door to enter the destroyed dwelling she called her own, picking out and avoiding those points where the damage was the greatest with an ease born from war. The seemingly careless slashes that stretched over the once beautifully papered walls and up across painted ceilings blended with scorch marks where mere cutting did not seem to satisfy the aggressive and likely enraged perpetrator; they were amongst the simpler signs of destruction that Andromeda could identify from sight alone.
"You understand that this is a highly irregular situation, I hope." From beside Andromeda came the dragging tone, irritation clear despite the forced evenness of each word. The witch ignored her companion for the moment, instead working through the damaged remnants of the life she had built.
"What in Merlin's name could have been the purpose of causing this sort of damage?" Andromeda asked the empty air as she found a pile of ash that looked to have once been the photographs that had filled a tall dark wood set of shelves if she were to judge from the cracked pieces of frames and glass that studded the gray. Not a scrap of enchanted photo paper was spared.
"That's classified", 3977 responded as he hovered near the front entrance, taking in the full view of what had been done to the Tonks' household.
"Like your identity?" the witch retorted quickly, shooting a glare towards the hooded man. "I am as yet fully capable of revealing to the world that you still live. The fact that you have allowed me access to my own home changes next to nothing." Unmoved by her threat on the outside, the man nonetheless felt the turmoil raging within. To Obliviate the witch now would be to forgo a potentially valuable ally, but to allow her knowledge such as what she currently possessed was more foolhardy than the man cared to be.
"If you wish to keep your memory, and your life, I would advise silence on that particular matter." An empty threat, but Andromeda need not know that. As it was, the witch appeared to take it into consideration and store the information for later, turning back to her ruined home. Putting the man out of her mind for a short moment, Andromeda took the stairs to the second floor.
Any thought at all of anything not concerning what had happened her home vanished as she entered her own bedroom. Blood had clearly been spilled here and the witch's mind went instantly to her husband and grandchild before jumping to the one who had spared her of this apparent grisly fate. While there was no reason that Andromeda could find that would have brought Narcissa to this place directly after warning her sister away, the witch was uneasy. Each step further brought new discoveries, the rags that remained of her bed dressings and ever more blood. The pungent scent that greeted her when she neared the bed was unmistakably that of sex, the crimson fading to a rusty pink in some places where Andromeda could only think one liquid had diluted the other.
Nausea overwhelmed as the knowledge reared that someone had been ravaged in her bed, and the amount of blood that had been left behind did not speak of a willing participant.
"I see." 3977's voice startled the witch. "We must retreat. I have reason to believe the perpetrator will return."
"And that reason would be..?" Andromeda swallowed the threatening sensation of bile crawling up her throat to fix the man with a glare not unlike that she had worn downstairs. She was swiftly losing her patience with the lack of information, made obvious in the hard line of her mouth.
"Classified", the man replied as he swooped from the doorway and towards the stairs. Again Andromeda thought bitterly of her lack of a wand as she followed, a shout leaping from her lips, "I'm not going anywhere without some answers!"
A scoff formed on the man's lips this time, followed by a sneer. "As I have already informed you, you really have no choice in the matter. I am not required to tell you anything. Furthermore, I've already violated at least 11 rules of contact with the outside and 4 rules of conduct which alone could force…" he paused, "..a release from my position."
"Release?" Andromeda echoed, questioning.
"Yes", the man answered with tension ridging his tone. "But before you have any thoughts of blackmail in return for your silence concerning my personal conduct, I would be remiss if I did not inform you of your own fate after the carrying out of my own."
Andromeda made to press for further answers, but was interrupted as the man lifted a hand, indicating he required silence. Battle instincts set in instantly, Andromeda's senses on alert to find whatever it was that had drawn her companion's attention.
"I knew you'd be back sooner or later!" The glee with which the words were crowed up the stairs could not come close to drowning out the madness in the newcomer's tone. Bellatrix's voice must have been the product of a still grieving mind, Andromeda told herself. Her sister was dead, and the damage to her own home merely brought up old memories of the chaos that constantly trailed after the witch. "Come out, come out, wherever you are!" Sing-songing the words, there was no mistaking that the witch who spoke them was more than a delusion.
Brushing past the hooded man in the doorway, Andromeda took the steps two at a time only to freeze when she reached the bottom. There, standing amidst the ruins of the Tonks' family room stood Bellatrix in all of her dark glory. The first thing that Andromeda could say was, "Is that your blood?" The question was met with a surprised laugh. Bellatrix held out a hand, displaying her stained palm like a trophy before pulling back to her face and giving it a long, languid lick.
"No.. Don't you worry, sister dear. I'm far from hurt. In fact," Bellatrix stretched her arms out to the sides as if presenting herself, "I'm better than ever!"
"Drop your wand, Bella. Now." From just behind Andromeda approached her hooded companion, wand drawn and trained on Bellatrix without wavering. "I won't tell you twice." Bellatrix's expression contorted for a minute in irritation.
"Bringing uninvited guests to our little reunion? How rude." 3977 flung a wordless hex at Bellatrix, which she blocked with a flourish of her own wand, but the man was stopped from repeating the move by Andromeda shoving his arm to the side.
"Stop! Don't kill her!"
The panic in Andromeda's voice came as a shock to Bellatrix, the surprise evident by her lifted brows and twisting grin. "Worried for big sister now, are we?" Andromeda cringed as Bella's awful smile created all sorts of conflicting emotions within her, dredging up a wealth of feeling she had thought she put to rest ages ago.
"Hardly", Andromeda responded with an increasingly stronger voice, nearly convincing herself that she meant it. "I want to find out if it's really you he'd be killing. Or just some pathetic pretender trying to wear the face of someone far more demented than they." Bellatrix let loose a growl and shouted, "I am the one and only! And if your weak little hooded friend thinks that he could actually manage to kill me, he's crazier than they claim that I am!"
"Really, Bella. Shouting to an audience of two does not speak very well to your sanity. And while I am ever so entertained by these proceedings, I have more important things to attend to." 3977 prodded at the witch's pride, seeking a rise from her. Andromeda might not realize the purpose behind his actions, but there was one. One that he dearly wished he could follow through with without an innocent witch present.
"Where is Narcissa?!" Andromeda shouted, worrying bubbling up. Bella had always had an unhealthy relationship with their youngest sister, and Andromeda would have to have been stupid not to assume that had not changed. Growling as she flung out what might have been another destructive spell had 3977 not blocked it, Bellatrix answered with her own shout, "She's none of your concern!" His block brought Bella thirsting for more from her well of rage. "And you're unnecessary!" A short but desperate bout of magical sparring broke out between the two, during which Bella screamed obscenities, ending when the edge of a stray spell caught the edge of 3977's hood. His swift turn prevented his face from being seen, but also provided Bellatrix the moment she needed to dissolve and appear beside Andromeda in a split second apparition. In that selfsame second the two women were gone, leaving the hooded man alone.
Narcissa woke, heat from too many blankets having been heaped upon her forcing her into consciousness. Confusion was her first reaction, disgust the second when the blankets were shoved aside to reveal her unwashed body. Blood and other bodily fluids clung to her skin in a manner she could only label appalling, though she supposed the sticky liquids were all that kept the scraps of she had once called clothing from slipping off of her entirely. A shudder traveled down her frame as she made for the bathroom to scrub herself raw, memories coming slowly.
The mirror greeted her with an apparition, a woman who looked to have been through some sort of perverse war. Twisting down the center of her torso was a knobby scar. Narcissa's pride faltered before the anger flared. Bellatrix. It was all her. Bellatrix who had been the focus of the months following the war. Bellatrix who was the cause of this obsession. Bellatrix who had stored a part of her own soul within Narcissa's body and Bellatrix who had cut open her body to retrieve this horrifying item without so much as a warning. Anger was too calm of a sensation to describe what Narcissa was feeling as she bathed, scraping away at the grime that Bellatrix had left behind. Would it have been too much to ask for the woman to at least clean her? With every swipe of her cloth Narcissa saw the events that led to her disastrous appearance, leaving her freshly enraged. Perhaps it was the absence of the horcrux that allowed to see Bellatrix through new eyes, eyes unclouded and able to see through her love and straight to her anger.
Oh yes, there was definitely anger. Thumping and shouting had Narcissa jumping from the bath, though she was only half clean. She snatched a bathrobe from the door as she dashed down the stairs, ignoring the complaints of her body. In the foyer, that was where the noise had come from, and Narcissa entered to find two witches in a flurry of movement, one clearly winning out. Narcissa recognized Andromeda as Bellatrix pinned her, her wand pressed firmly enough into her throat that there would definitely be a bruise. Panting, Andromeda drew herself up and spat into Bellatrix's face, infuriating the dark witch who shouted, "Crucio!" Andromeda dissolved into screams, at which point Narcissa found her voice and her legs, dashing forward and tackling Bellatrix. Hard.
The curse broke as Bellatrix tumbled to the floor under a mass of righteous blonde fury, Andromeda scrambling to get out of the reach of either witch. "Don't you dare, Bellatrix! Don't you fucking dare!" Narcissa shouted directly into Bellatrix's face, startling the older witch into momentary stillness. But it didn't last long, Bellatrix wrestling with Narcissa and winning. Narcissa struggled mightily, screaming in outrage as Bellatrix sat on her, her arms held to her sides with her thighs, just as she had before cutting the blonde open. The memory fueled Narcissa's struggles, but it was useless. "Will you just calm down for one bloody second! Merlin, Cissy! I'm just taking care of the trash!"
Both Bellatrix and Narcissa looked to Andromeda, who had gotten to her feet and frantically searched for her wand for a futile second before remembering it was still in 3977's possession. As her eyes met with her sisters', she screamed, "Just stay the hell away from me!" Narcissa was hurt, she had just saved her damned life, but Bellatrix cackled madly and pointed her wand.
"I'll get to you in a minute!" Returning her attention to the squirming witch beneath her, Bellatrix scowled. "You couldn't have bothered to clean yourself up a little for me?" Narcissa screamed with frustration, thrashing about in her cage of flesh.
"I was bloody trying to bathe until you came in trying to kill our sister!" At this Bellatrix's scowl deepened.
"She's not our sister, Cissy! She stopped being our sister when she chose her disgusting lifestyle! If you'd just let me finish what I started, we can forget all about her!" Narcissa's eyes moved to Andromeda's in a panic, only to find her gone. Relief flooded her senses sending tiny white lights twinkling at the edges of her vision. She was free in an instant as Bellatrix rose with a curse, dashing to look out the now open front door and finding nothing. "Fuck!" she swore, turning to Narcissa with the fires of absolute-pissed-offness in her eyes. "What the hell did you go and do that for?"
"You'll not be killing anyone in my house!" Narcissa asserted, trembling as she pushed herself up to her feet.
"Fine", agreed Bellatrix with a nonchalant shrug followed by a malicious grin. "I'll just have to go kill her somewhere else then."
"No!" Narcissa barked harshly, eyes narrowing as she closed in on her sister. "You're going to settle the hell down and let me bathe without worrying that you're out getting yourself seen and destroyed!" Bellatrix bristled at the command, actually growling at the fact that her little sister had the gall to oppose her.
"And what do you think she's going to do now? Just prance off home and forget that I'm bloody alive?" Narcissa swallowed, her stomach sinking. She hadn't considered that, so preoccupied had she been with the fact that one of her sisters was attempting to murder the other. What would Andromeda do? She had to know that Bellatrix wasn't back through normal magical means, and she could only assume then that Narcissa had been the one to use the incredibly dark magic it took to bring someone back to life. If Andromeda was to tell anyone that Bellatrix was back, the consequences would be dire. "So now will you let me kill her?" Bellatrix asked, her tone agitated, for once seeming to understand that the real world had consequences. However, she also seemed to be listening to Narcissa's command not to kill her, for the moment, and it was a small blessing that the blonde chose to treasure.
"Just… bring her back here", Narcissa conceded. "Then maybe we can talk to her."
"Oh, I'll talk to her alright", Bellatrix chuckled, eyes flashing.
"With a minimum of damage caused, Bella", Narcissa demanded firmly, taking whatever control she could and holding on firmly. "If you hurt her beyond repair, there's no doubt that she'll talk the moment that she can. If you bring her here, there's a chance we can reason with her." Bellatrix snorted, arms crossing as her bloodlust cooled slightly into disgust for Narcissa's apparent naivety.
"Don't be stupid. Whether I hurt her or not, she's going to talk the moment she can." Narcissa felt her heart speed up, she feared the same thing.
"We won't know if we don't try", she insisted stubbornly. "Bring her back." With a roll of her eyes, Bella was then gone, leaving Narcissa alone. Shoulders slumping, Narcissa returned up the stairs to the bathroom. Her bathwater was cooling, but a tap of her wand and a simple spoken charm had it pleasantly warm again. However, the temporary comfort she had found amongst the bubble and her anger was gone. She scrubbed herself clean, counting the seconds and straining her ears so she would know the second that Bella returned with their sister.
Honestly, she didn't care what Bellatrix said, Andromeda was still their sister and she always would be. She might be a foolish muggle-lover, but she was their sister nonetheless, and the small amount of loyalty that Narcissa felt for her bloodline kept her from wishing that Bella had killed the witch before she was able to stop her. Andromeda would be a problem, but not one that Narcissa wanted to solve by killing her.