Dora was giggling as she raced down the hall ahead of her sister, calling, "You can't catch me, Athena!" She burst into the study, as the two were racing to see who could get to their father first. She stopped short, catching herself before she fell over as she realised her father wasn't even in the study.
Rodolphus and Bellatrix stood on the other side of the old desk, the witch looking up at her husband with an intense, pleading look even though there were angry tears in her eyes. They turned and glared at the children because of their disturbance, Rodolphus wrapping his arms around his wife firmly. "Go away," he ordered Nymphadora, though she didn't move.
"Bella?" Dora said softly, her eyes full of concern.
Athena burst into the room, stopping short as well, though Dora immediately turned to her. "Dad's not here. Go get him yourself."
"That's not fair!" Athena burst out before storming away.
"Go away, Nymphadora," Rodolphus said, his eyes narrowing at her.
"No," Dora snapped at him, her eyes returning to the black-haired witch.
Bellatrix sighed, pulling away from her husband as she regarded the child. "What do you want, Nymphadora?"
Dora approached the woman carefully, keeping her distance from Rodolphus. "May I talk to you?" she asked.
Rodolphus rolled his eyes at the little girl. "For this you interrupted an important conversation?"
"Leave her alone," Bellatrix hissed at him. "She'd probably be far more understanding than you!"
"Without him," Dora added, making her aunt grin and motion Rodolphus to leave them.
With a growl of frustration, Rodolphus stormed out of the room, leaving the two witches alone. "Now then," Bellatrix smirked, turning back to her niece, "what was so important that you risked the wrath of your uncle?"
Dora stood in front of her aunt, biting her lip nervously as she didn't know how to say what she wanted to ask. "Are you going to find the Dark Lord?" she finally blurted out.
Bellatrix stared at the seven-year-old in shock, then scowled. "Rodolphus doesn't think it's a good idea," she snapped. "I was just telling him we should—sorry, dear, don't be frightened; he's just a very frustrating man—but he won't listen!"
"Oh." Dora seemed to consider this for a moment, then said, "You could go anyway, and he would follow you. Mum says you can make him do anything—and that you never listen to him anyway."
"Andy says that, does she?" Bellatrix laughed, shaking her head. "Are you sure that was meant for your ears, child?"
Nymphadora blushed, but stood her ground. "I think you should go find him, if you care about him so much," she told her aunt honestly. "You don't—don't seem to care about anything else." She nervously tugged on a lock of her now-black hair as she watched her aunt's unsettled expression.
Bellatrix finally looked down at the little girl, a smirk spreading slowly across her features. "I think you're right," she said, then reached out and wrapped the girl in a fierce hug so that Nymphadora squeaked in surprise, though she almost immediately returned the embrace. "You're a smart girl," she told the girl, then released her and rushed out of the room.
Dora turned, watching the door slam behind her, and wondered what her aunt was going to do now. Well, Dora thought to herself as she let herself out of the study, it couldn't be anything worse than what her dad had described to her before about Death Eaters. It would help Aunt Bella to settle down a bit if she was out looking for the Dark Lord, right? Dora smirked as she walked back toward her room. Ofcourse it would.
Andromeda grinned at her son, proud of him for putting together the magical puzzle he'd received for his birthday by himself for the first time. "Very good, Verne!" she praised him, thrilled at his laughter as she kissed the top of his curly-haired head.
He looked up at her happily, then returned to the puzzle, wanting to do it again. Andromeda watched him proudly, though as he was nearly halfway through, she heard several doors slam down the hall and voices raised as people seemed to talk to each other.
Laverne looked up, frowning, his concentration gone, and Andromeda sighed, getting to her feet to go see what was going on. She hadn't even got to the door when it opened, Rabastan looking into the room.
"Dromeda," he murmured, going to her and taking her into his arms, firmly kissing and embracing her. "We're going out together tonight. Stay home, and keep the children safe if anything happens, okay?"
"Rabastan?" Andromeda breathed, suddenly frightened.
"It's going to be okay," he murmured, hugging her tightly. He kissed her head, then let her go, hearing his son's voice.
"Father?" the three year old asked. "Where are you going?"
"I'm going out with Rod and Bella," Rabastan answered, kneeling down to look into his son's eyes. "Keep Mum safe while I'm gone, okay?"
Laverne Lestrange nodded solemnly. "Yes, Father," he answered.
Rabastan got to his feet and turned back to Andromeda. "Where are the girls?"
"I think they're in the grounds," Andromeda answered, biting her lip as Laverne hurried to her side, concerned at his parents' attitudes.
"Thanks," Rabastan murmured, looking at his wife. There was a very long three seconds, and then he had pulled Andromeda into his arms again, kissing her passionately, caressing her, loving her until she cried softly, "Rabastan!"
"I love you," he choked, then released her, stepping back and disapparating into the grounds of the manor.
A few minutes later, Rabastan rushed into the Entrance Hall where Rod, Bella, and Barty were now waiting for him. "Sorry," he muttered at the looks they were giving him.
"We'll be back," Rod sighed. "There's no need to be sentimental, Rabastan."
"Aw," Barty grinned, seeing Rabastan just turn away from his brother. "You'd think we were marching to our deaths. Come on, Rab; it'll be fun!"
"Fine!" Rabastansnapped, and disapparated before all of them.
Rabastan's hands were shaking as he clutched his wand and ran from the fiery scene, unable to think of what he and the others had just done. He needed to go home: he had to warn his wife of what was going to happen.
He disapparated, panicked as he half ran down the corridors in his home. He heard his son call out to him, saw the boy start toward him, but he raised his wand and shouted, "All of you, go to your rooms! Now!"
Athena took one look at her father and yelled in fright, slamming the door of her room. A locking spell hit the outside of her door, and she burst into terrified tears, wondering what could have made her father so angry.
Andromeda came running down the hall as Rabastan placed a protective ward and charms on his son's door. "Rabastan, what is happening?!" she cried, feeling Rod and Bella arrive at the house.
"We've tortured two Order members to insanity," Rabastan groaned, rubbing his hand across his face. "And they know it was us. They're coming for us, Andromeda."
"No!" Andromeda breathed in horror.
"Get to our room," Rabastan ordered her, grasping her arm and turning her around. "I'll ward you in."
Andromeda stopped where she was. "I will fight with you!"
Rabastan's grip tightened, the man forcing her to walk toward her room as they heard Nymphadora pounding on the door of her room, demanding to know why she'd been locked up since she'd behaved perfectly fine the whole day. "You will do as I say, Andromeda," he told her, his voice deathly quiet.
"They can't take you!" Andromeda said in a panic. "Rab—the children!"
"You must stay!" Rabastan hissed, throwing open the door to their room. "Without you here, they have no one to protect them! The children need you, Andromeda. I—I'll have to pay for my deeds, I suppose. Get in there."
"Rabastan!" Andromeda reached out and clung to him frantically. "Don't leave me! Please don't go! I can't raise them without you!"
Rabastan's eyes closed and re-opened, full of pain as he looked at her. "I'm sorry," he said hoarsely.
She wrapped her arms around his neck, hugging him so tightly that she thought she might hurt him. "I love you," she whispered, struggling to hold back the storm of terror that was threatening to take her over. "I love you, my husband."
"I love you so much," Rabastan breathed, kissing her firmly before he finally pushed her away. "Get inside, now."
Tears began to stream down her face as he shut the door on her, and she saw a shudder go through him before he was gone from her view. Rabastan locked their room as well before trying to calm himself before turning and running back to help Bella and Rod.
Andromeda's tears dried quickly as she listened through her door for sounds. She could hear Bellatrix screaming in rage and Rod shouting as spells flew fast. The only time she heard her husband was when he yelled out in pain. "Rab!" she cried desperately, her face pressed against the door. "Rabastan!"
"Leave her alone!" Rabastan shouted, his voice full of anger.
More yells and spells filled the air, and Andromeda listened only to hear Nymphadora screech, "Leave my father alone! Leave him—!"
Andromeda's lips parted slightly as she heard the girl's cry, wondering how the girl could have got free. "Dora!" she cried, panicked that her daughter would be injured.
To her shock, the door to her room opened, and she nearly fell onto the floor. Andromeda looked up to see Meira staring at her. "What is happening?" Meira asked, standing there in her nightdress.
"The Aurors are here for Bella and the boys," Andromeda wept, suddenly jumping to her feet. "Go back to Desmond until it's safe. I've got to make sure Dora hasn't got in the way."
Andromeda drew her wand and ran off toward the sounds of fighting. "There's another!" someone shouted, a spell flying toward her.
She blocked the spell, and Rabastan yelled out, "She's innocent! Leave her alone!"
Looking around, Andromeda barely had time to take in the scene before Nymphadora crashed into her, terrified. They had fallen. Andromeda saw her husband, her sister, and Rodolphus all bound by the Aurors, Bella and Rab badly injured.
The Aurors, all of them, were on guard against Andromeda as Dora cried, "Mum, they can't take them!"
Andromeda hugged her daughter close and said to the Aurors, "Why are you here?"
"Why are we—?" one of them said in astonishment. "Your husband—your whole Merlin-forsaken family are Death Eaters. These three are wanted especially for their recent cruel torture of Frank and Alice Longbottom!"
"She knows," another of them growled. "Go on: get those three out of here. I'll talk to her."
The others obeyed, though Rabastan's gaze barely flickered to Andromeda before his eyes rolled back in his head, the man unconscious. "Daddy!" Nymphadora shrieked, and her mother held her back as she began to cry heartbrokenly.
"Madame Lestrange," the Head Auror said quietly, "I assume you are not a Death Eater? If your husband is telling the truth, that is?"
"I am a pureblood wife and mother," Andromeda snapped over the sounds of Dora's grief. "I have no time for such things. Now get out of my house!"
"Sorry to disturb you, Ma'am," said the man, turning and leaving the house.
"Mummy," Nymphadora sobbed, "they can't!"
Andromeda wrapped her arms around her daughter, tears trickling down her cheeks too. "I'm sorry, baby," she said to the girl, sniffing back her tears to make herself understood. "The Ministry believes them to be evil, Dora. It doesn't care about their families."
Footsteps came down the hall, and Andromeda glanced up to see her father and mother-in-law before she buried her face in her daughter's hair. "They are taken, then?" Meira said quietly.
Dora just cried, but Andromeda sniffed back her tears and whispered, "Yes. There's no way they won't be convicted, Mother."
Meira stepped forward and placed a careful hand on the younger woman's shoulder. "I've been afraid this would happen," she murmured, "but know that you are not alone with my husband and I here, Andromeda."
"Grandmum," Dora cried, looking up at the witch, "they hurt Dad. And he was unconscious when they took him!"
"He'll be okay," Meira told her gently. "He's a strong man, Dora. Trust your father."
Tears ran down Andromeda's face even faster, and she breathed, "I've got to check on the other children."
Desmond nodded simply. "We'll come with you."
Dora looked up, her small chest heaving as she tried to calm herself. "Mum," she said, "Mum, we can't go in there like this—we'll upset them."
The two weeping ones took a few minutes to try to calm down, Desmond placing his hand on Dora's shoulder, and Meira wrapping her arm around Andromeda as they walked to Athena's room. Andromeda carefully broke the ward over the room, then opened the door, stepping inside.
Athena lay curled up on her bed, tears trickling down her cheeks. "Mum," she wept. "Mum, why was Dad angry? I didn't do anything!"
"Athena," Dora sniffed, "Dad wasn't mad at us. He wanted to protect us—from the awful Ministry people."
"He scared me," Athena whimpered, throwing herself into her mother's arms.
"He scared me too, baby," Andromeda murmured, then pulled back from her daughter slightly to look into the girl's blue eyes. "Athena," she said quietly, "those Ministry people were here. That's why your dad locked you and your brother and sister in your rooms, so you wouldn't get hurt."
Athena's eyes widened, and Nymphadora's hair shot red in anger. "They took Dad!" she hissed. "And Rod and Bella! Just because they think they're evil!"
The younger girl looked up at her mother. "They took Dad?" she said in confusion.
"Yes," Andromeda whispered, struggling to hold back her tears again. "And...he's not coming back until the Dark Lord returns, Athena."
"Oh..." Athena wrapped her arms around her mother's neck, snuggling against the woman. "He'll come back then, Mum. Aunt Bella says the Dark Lord will return. He'll bring Dad back to us."
Tears flowed down Andromeda's cheeks at her younger daughter's words. "They took Bellatrix and Rodolphus too," she whispered, unable to stop from crying this time.
Athena looked around at them all, then said quietly, "It's okay, Mum."
Andromeda just cried, and her two daughters wrapped their arms around her, hugging her tightly. "I'll take care of Laverne," Desmond said, and left the room.
"Mumma," Dora sniffed, "I love you. I'm sorry."
"I'm sorry too," Athena sighed.
"You shouldn't have to be sorry," Andromeda cried. "Your father should be here to protect you and raise you!"
Dora squeezed her mother carefully. "We'll be okay," she promised her mother.
"I love you, Mum," Athena whispered in her mother's ear, and Dora echoed her.
"I love you too," Andromeda wept, curling up on the bed and letting her daughters curl into her, holding them both close. She did not know how she was going to survive if her husband was permanently taken from her.
Andromeda sat alone in her room a couple days later, tears streaming down her face as she couldn't even read the Ministry notice anymore. Her family was to be put on trial the very next week—the day after Dora's eighth birthday. She wrapped her arms around herself, feeling crushed with the pain of her loss, and heard a knock on her door even as she bowed beneath her pain, sobbing in horror.
"Andromeda?" It was the voice of Narcissa Malfoy.
The sobbing witch barely had the will to wave the door open, unable to move even as her sister hurried into the room, breathing her name with a sigh. "Oh, Andromeda," Narcissa murmured, "I'm so sorry. News just got to us, and I came right over—Andromeda…."
The blonde woman climbed right onto the large bed and pulled her older sister close. "It's awful," she whispered as her sister clung to her desperately, her body shaking with sobs. "I guess Bella just went too far this time, and got everyone in trouble."
"Oh, Cissa," Andromeda wept, "This can't be happening! I've lost my husband again!"
"Oh." Narcissa made a very quiet sound that Andromeda didn't hear, then said, "He won't be gone forever, Dromeda. The Dark Lord isn't gone forever."
"But he's gone now!" Andromeda wept. "I want Rabastan! I never thought I would love him, and now—he's been taken from me!"
Narcissa hugged the bereaved witch firmly. "Well, I won't leave you, Andromeda," she promised. "We're sisters, and I'll stand by you."
Andromeda looked up at her, even though tears still blurred her vision. "Even at the trial?" she whispered. "Please?"
"If Lucius allows it," Narcissa replied. "And I can persuade him."
"Thank you," Andromeda cried, and her sister sighed, wrapping her arms around the distraught witch more firmly. "I don't know if I can bear attending the trial," Andromeda wept.
Narcissa sighed softly, letting her sister cry into her dress as she tried to work out what to say to her. They were still lying there quietly when the door opened and Dora entered the room, Narcissa sitting up slightly. "Dora, you shouldn't walk into your mother's room without knocking," Cissa said gently.
Dora just looked at the woman. "I know Mum's upset; she's always crying since Dad left," she told the woman. "She's allowed to be sad, Aunt Cissa: she loves him."
Andromeda sat up, and Dora came to her side quickly, taking her mother's hand in hers. "Mum, Laverne's upset," she sighed. "And Athena and I tried to help, and now she's crying too."
"Okay," the brown-haired witch sniffed, and Dora squeezed her hand. "Give me a minute, and we'll go to them." Andromeda waited until she could dry her tears and clean her face before she got to her feet, leading her daughter and sister from the room. "Are they in the playroom?" she asked Dora.
"They're in his room," the girl answered with a sigh as they walked down the hall.
Andromeda took a deep breath before she opened the door to her son's room. She could hear her and Rabastan's two children crying together as she quickly walked toward them. "Mummy!" Laverne cried, reaching out to her. "Mum, I want Daddy back!"
She took him into her arms as Athena spotted Narcissa and got to her feet, running to the blonde woman. "Auntie," Athena sniffed, her tearful blue eyes looking into Narcissa's compassionate blue eyes as the woman picked her up. "Dad's gone."
"I know, baby," Narcissa murmured, kissing the child's black curls. "But Mum's here, and your brother and sister too. And your grandparents. It's going to be okay, Athena."
"Shh," Andromeda shushed her son, gently rocking him in her arms as she kissed his dark curls. "You must be brave, little one. Daddy would want you to be strong."
"I am strong!" the three year old protested even as tears ran down his face.
"She means not cry," Dora said, rolling her eyes. "At least, not that much."
Laverne's face clouded. "No!" he said loudly, turning and burying his face in his mother's shoulder. "Mum, tell her to go away!"
Andromeda sighed, cuddling the child for a moment. Dora looked at her defiantly, then turned to Narcissa when she was satisfied she wasn't about to be sent away. Athena calmed first, though still held onto her aunt as they all looked over at her little brother. The little boy clung to his mother, silent as tears trickled down his cheeks, a look of fright and hurt on his face.
Andromeda kept her son close for the rest of the day, and even as the night drew near, he didn't seem to want to leave her. He absolutely refused to let go of her after she had dressed him and was trying to put him to bed. "Verne," she said gently, but he interrupted her, clinging to her tightly.
"No!" he said, his eyes wide with fear. "No! I want you! Please, Mum!"
"Laverne," she began, but she saw his lip tremble and couldn't refuse the poor child. "Okay," she said, pulling him close again. He clung to her as she walked down the hall to tell her daughters good night. To her surprise, she found Athena in her sister's room, the girls snuggled together in the bed.
"Goodnight, Mum," Dora said, giving her mother a tired smile. "I love you."
"I love you too," Andromeda answered, leaning down and kissing her daughters goodnight as she made sure they were tucked in properly. "And I'll be keeping your brother in my room for the night," she added. "So come to my room if you need something. I love you both very much."
Athena hugged her mother once again, and then Andromeda left the two sisters together. She quickly took her son to her room, gently placing him on her bed as she murmured, "Mum has to get ready for bed. Just give me a minute or two to put on a nightgown."
Laverne was very quiet as his mother changed clothes, and Andromeda soon turned down the lights, slipping into her bed. She wrapped her arms around her little boy as he reached out for her. "I love you," she whispered, kissing his head gently.
The boy didn't answer, burying his face in her dress as he clung to her silently. Andromeda stayed still as she held him, drifting off to sleep only to dream of her husband, who was imprisoned far away from her.
Poor Andromeda and her children.
Trixie Black Lestrange