TSB 10 06/08/2014

The week leading up to the term break had been one of the most tense week's in Hogwarts history. Hermione nor Andromeda attended their classes, Minerva was watching each and every person at Hogwarts more closely than she had ever before, the professor's excluding Professor's Potter and Weasley were grim and it seemed like all the Black's in the castle were on a war path with no enemy in particular. It was safe to say that all the student's and most of the staff were looking forward to going home for two weeks.

It was a week before Hermione gained consciousness for more than twenty minutes and was coherent. During that week Andromeda hadn't left her side, not even for a moment. When anyone tried to make her leave, they found themselves on the receiving end of a particularly bad stinging hex. Andromeda was looking worse for wear with deep, dark circles underneath her eyes, tangled hair and at least four kilo's lighter than she was at the beginning of the week, when Hermione awoke properly for the first time

"A-Andy?" Andromeda heard a rough voice croak out

"Hermione?" Andromeda whispered before calling out for Madame Pomfrey. Madame Pomfrey used a diagnostic spell and checked all of her wounds and bandages the muggle way before leaving

"How are you feeling, love?" Andromeda whispered quietly, stroking Hermione's hair

"Like I've been hit by a bus three times over" Hermione said, chuckling at Andromeda's confused face "It's a muggle thing. How long have I been asleep for?"
"Well, you've woke up a few times but you weren't lucid, I don't think. So not counting those times, one week."

"Oh, I am so sorry Andy." Hermione said sincerely
"You have no reason to be sorry. Who did this?" Andromeda asked, trying to keep her voice steady and calm

"I.. Can we do this later, Andy?" Hermione pleaded and looking at Hermione's face, Andromeda knew she had no choice but to agree.

Hermione continued to put off telling Andromeda who it was for an entire week until she was finally let out of the hospital wing. During that week, her parents had been a constant at her side, her mother with tears in her eyes whenever she looked at Hermione and her father who had his hands and jaw clenched the entire time. Hermione could tell that everybody's frustrations were only growing with time but she didn't want to believe that Ron would do that to her. Hermione took to waking up with the sun and running around the Black Lake to get her frustrations out as well as going to the Room of Requirement to practice her duelling, spell work and wand work as well as going as the sun went down. The evening before the students were due back to the castle, Hermione arrived at her chambers to find all three Black Sisters, Sirius and her parents waiting for her
"Bugger" She whispered

"You're going to tell us what happened" Alaric said with a stern voice
"But-"

"No. You're telling us." Her father interrupted any arguments she had. And so, Hermione told them everything that happened from start to end. She had to stop several time's due to Bellatrix, Alaric and Sirius swearing and hexing multiple things in her chambers. By the time she finished, she as well as the other girls, excluding Bellatrix, had tears streaming down their faces while Bellatrix and the men tried to rush to the door before being restrained
"Let me go! I'll fucking kill him for setting his filthy hands on you" Alaric snarled with his teeth beared as he strained against the invisible restraints holding him in place, Hermione could see the veins in his neck and his muscle's clearly through his suit because of the amount of power her was exerting trying to get free of the restraints.

"Alaric, enough. We need to think about this, we can't rush head first." Ástrider said, placing her hands on his chest. Alaric stared at her with hard eyes for a minute before relenting and slumping against her when she released the restraints

"What's wrong, Andy?" Hermione asked after everyone left
"Nothing" was the stiff reply, causing Hermione to laugh
"Okay and I'm a Crumple-Horned Snorkack." Hermione sat on Andromeda's lap "Talk to me"
"A what? Is that a muggle thing?"
"No, it's a Luna Lovegood thing. Don't try to change the topic, love"
"I couldn't protect you" Andromeda said, clenching her jaw and looking away causing Hermione to sigh

"No you couldn't, neither could my parents or Sirius or McGonagall or myself. What happened, was no one's fault but Ronalds. But, you will be able to get him back. I promise. Andy, look at me." Hermione said when Andromeda kept looking away "Andromeda"
"Yes?" Andromeda snapped and looked at her
"What he done, it was inexcusable and I can't and won't protect him anymore. When the war begins, and we know it will, you can do whatever you want to him. You can delve into the Dark Arts as much as you want, only if you teach me as well."

"Hermione, you know what the Dark Arts could do to you. I won't let you do that" Andromeda said, making Hermione smile and wrap her arms around Andromeda's neck
"In the war that is coming, we won't be fighting for the world. We won't be fighting against unknown enemies. We won't have the majority of our world backing us secretly. We won't get help. We will be fighting for the lost ways. We will be fighting people that were once our closest friends that know our strategies and limitations. We will be receiving hate from everyone who doesn't know what the old ways were about. We have to fight to win because if we don't win, we don't survive. I won't lose you Andromeda, if it means I have to give myself, body, mind and soul to the dark I will"
Andromeda took a little over a minute to respond and when she did, it was only one word that would change the out come of the war entirely
"Okay"

"Alaric, stop pacing" Astrider groaned as Alaric passed her for the millionth time in two minutes "Come sit and tell me what's on your mind"
"How are you so calm about this? That, that boy, touched our daughter. He hurt our daughter, he nearly killed her, Astrider" Alaric all but yelled
"You think I'm not as angry as you are? I want to flay the boy alive. I want him to watch while one of our men do exactly to everybody he loves as he did to Hermione. But, we have to be rational and consider every side. There will be a war because of this, maybe there was one coming before that. We have a small army, yes, but Weasley has Potter and with Potter, he has a majority of our world. We need to manipulate as many witches and wizards as we can, we need to recruite magical creatures. We need to find new ways to fight." Astrider said, inspecting her long nails for any imperfections that weren't there "Oh and Alaric, if you ever imply that I don't love our daughter as much as you do, I will cut your cock off my love"
"I- You're right. I'm sorry, darling" Alaric said, dropping to his knees in front of Astrider who smiled at him
"I was reading about muggles earlier, to see what kind of barbarics Hermione had to live with and I found, in their wars they fought much like us. Except instead of wands, they used swords and shields. If we found a way to fuse a sword and wand together, I think that would be quite effective and if we carve protective and strengthing runes into the shields, it should offer quite a bit of protection" Astrider said, running her fingers through Alaric's blonde hair
"I love you" Alaric grinned

"I'm going to kill the bloodtraitor, Cissy" Bellatrix hissed as soon as Narcissa had finished warding the room

"No, you're not. Andromeda is or her parents" Narcissa said, sitting at her desk and getting a quill and parchment out
"What are you doing?" Bellatrix said, looking over her shoulder

"Writing to Lucius. I need to know what the status report is of the recruitments, I have a feeling that we're going to need them sooner than we thought." As Narcissa finished talking, she pressed a wax seal over the letter to seal it before turning around to look at Bellatrix
"What?"
"Promise me that when this is all over, we can go home together."
"Of course, Cissy. When this all over, we can retire to a beautiful house with gardens you try to keep perfect but I manage to mess up anyway. I'll try to make you breakfast every morning until I get mad and ask the elves to do it and you'll reprimand me for being mean. We will probably have kids because I know how much you love them and Draco will be the best big brother and maybe I'll be a bit useless with them at the start but you'll teach me how to be a good mum. We'll be happy, Cissy." Bellatrix smiled at her. Just as Narcissa opened her mouth to reply, there was a tapping sound at the window, Bellatrix opened it an owl white as paper with eyes black as night swooped in and landed on Narcissa's shoulder
"Draco wrote" Narcissa quickly scanned over the letter a smile "All the purebloods and some halfbloods in Draco's department have joined the cause. That's about fifty more witches and wizards fighting with us. He said one of his mates is a werewolf and he's going to speak to the pack leader about it"

"So the little Dragon is more Black than White, it seems" Bellatrix said

"I'll reply to him in the morning. Come to bed and tell me all about this life we're going to have when this is all over" and with that, the two Black sisters stayed up until the sun shined through the Black Lake and lit up their chambers talking about how things will be if they survive what was to come.