In the dark, shadowy new-moon night, it was pitch black. The only light in the midnight hour was the light that came from two lit wands, two wands that appeared to be dancing in the darkness while their two owners rushed down the hill towards Hogsmeade to save Cissy from wherever the hell she was going. The air was rather chilly for a mid-spring evening, Andromeda could see her breath fly past the dim light of her wand as she panted, barely able to keep up with Bella.

"Oh for the love of Merlin, hurry UP!" Bella whined. Andromeda grunted. Bella had been acting a LOT more aggressive and bitchy since the day Severus Snape performed the abortion spell on her. She wondered if it was Bella falling victim to the side-effects of the spell…

"I'm COMING! I'm COMING!" Andromeda panted. "Maybe we should get Ted or Remus to come with us in case—Oof!" Andromeda screamed as she tripped over something and began tumbling down the stepper side of the hill. She just couldn't stop herself as she fell over, and over and…over. "Be-LAAAAA!!!!" Andromeda screamed, breaking the silence of the night. Bella rolled her eyes and stopped to look behind her, only to have Andromeda roll right at her ankles, causing Bella to fall over backward and begin tumbling right after Andromeda.

"I'll….KIILLLL-ILLL-ILLL YOU, ANDROOOO--!" Bella managed to scream out as the two girls fell quicker and quicker down the hill. Andromeda felt herself go limp like a ragdoll, deciding that it would hurt worse to fight the hill.

Finally, as the girls hit the bottom of the hill, Bella came to a stop first, only to have Andromeda tumble right over onto Bella and use her as a stopper. Bella moaned and sat up quickly, flinging a barely conscious Andromeda about 4 feet away.

"THAT'S the least of what I'm going to do to you if I feel this in the morning, you clumsy troll!" Bella hissed.

"Shut up," Andromeda moaned. "Did we fall near Hogsmeade, or do we have to go around?"

Bella re-lit her wand and looked around. "Oh shit, we're going to have to go around for about a half a kilometer," she said. "Nice going, you oaf," she muttered.

"Come ON!" Andromeda said, yanking Bella to her feet. "We have to get Cissy! Merlin knows what trouble she's getting in!" Andromeda muttered to her wand, relighting the path in front of her.

The girls wandered almost aimlessly for about ten minutes until Andromeda heard a rustling in the bushes. Both girls stopped dead in their tracks.

"What's that?" asked Andromeda.

"Oh honestly, it's probably just a snake or a nightcrawler of some kind, don't be such an infant!" said Bella. "I've been here seven years and I know these grounds more than anyone in my year!"

"Yeah, because you've slept with half the seventh years in every possible place on the grounds!" Andromeda added, speaking low enough so Bella wouldn't hear.

The rustling got louder. Andromeda rolled her eyes, trying to keep up with Bella (her legs were skinnier and longer, and therefore Bella was a lot swifter in the tall grass, whereas poor Andromeda nearly needed a machete to make a clear pathway for herself). Suddenly, Bella shrieked. Andromeda rushed to catch up to Bella. When she saw what stood in front of Bellatrix, making her scream, Andromeda bit her lip. A huge Centaur stood right in front of her.

A centaur? Why? Centaurs never left the Forbidden Forest from what Andromeda knew. The centaur ignored her and stared at Bella with huge eyes and a malicious look. Suddenly, it occurred to Andromeda…it was a boggart. Ha! Bellatrix' boggart was a centaur?

Andromeda let her wand go out and she pointed it at the boggart. She had never been taught the spell, but Remus had showed it to her last year (in case she needed it). Andromeda got a funny image in her head and said 'Riddikulus!" Bella gave her an odd look, but the centaur quickly turned pink and it's hair became lined with lacy white bows. The centaur looked extremely confused and began shaking. Andromeda shouted he incantation again, and the boggart grew swan wings and ribbons became intertwined between its legs, tripping it.

"Laugh, Bella! Laugh!" Andromeda said, forcing herself to laugh a loud belly laugh.

Bella, still afraid, uttered a rather pathetic kind of laugh, but nonetheless, the boggart scampered away before anything else could be done to it. Andromeda relit her wand and touched Bella shoulder.

"Are you okay?" she asked. Bella gave Andromeda an odd look.

"Get your hand off me," Bella hissed, pushing herself through more tall grass. Andromeda growled. Bella was such a bitch! She'd potentially just saved her sisters life!

Well, she did have some consolation…she could tell the whole school that Bella's worst fear was a rather benign form of a centaur.

After another few minutes of wandering around the hill, Bella finally saw a very very sparse lights coming from the Three Broomstick pub in Hosgmeade. Bella turned to Andromeda and began instructing her like a general would his infantry.

"We're searching the pub first…I don't see any other—"

"BELLA!" Andromeda screamed, pointing over Bella's shoulder. Someone was sneaking up behind her.

"AH!" Bella couldn't scream very long, as whoever had just grabbed her (a hooded man in a mask).

"What are two little girls such as yourselves doing out of bed at this hour?" asked the scary hooded man. On his robes was an odd and scary mark…a snake slithering and sliding out of the mouth of a skull.

"LET MY SISTER GO!" demanded Andromeda. "We're just looking for—"

"IMPERIO!" shouted the man, his wand pointed at Andromeda. Andromeda felt no change in her body, other than the fact that she no longer could speak, and she felt the odd sensation that she was attached to puppet strings. "I think a little visit with the others will do you good…maybe they can decide whether or not you were spying on us…"

"We're NOT!" Bella screamed, fighting. The hooded man was still too much for Bella, and he silenced her by doing a silencing charm on her.

The hooded man smiled, his crooked and dirty smile chilling Andromeda. "Come along now, girls!" he said. Andromeda felt herself move unwillingly as she was guided by the Imperius Curse upon her to the Three Broomsticks, Bella and the hooded man right behind her…

"Now, stay in here until the others will see you!" said the hooded man, hurling Andromeda and Bella into a closet in the downstairs section of the Three Broomsticks. The man held out a hand and muttered "Accio, wands!" Bella's and Andromeda's wands were taken from them as the man slammed the door and locked it. Andromeda ran to the door and banged on it.

"DAMNIT!" Andromeda cried.

"Don't waste your energy, we don't have our wands," Bella said. "No chance."

"Says who?" Andromeda panted, trying to break down. "Aren't you going to fight?! They are probably the ones who have Cissy!!"

"So?" Bella asked without emotion.

"SO?! That man, whoever he was, performed Imperio on me! He could've killed Cissy if she crossed his path! And who are these 'others'?! MORE OF THEM? Bella, our lives, not to mention the life of our baby sister is in danger! HELP ME!"

"What could we POSSIBLY do?" asked Bella.

"Apparate!" Andromeda said. "Apparate us back to Hogwarts, and we can tell Dumbledore! I'm a prefect…we won't get in trouble, I swear!" Andromeda said, holding out her hand.

"No," said Bella.

"I…I can't believe it!" said Andromeda. "How DARE you not even TRY to save your sister?" she asked, her voice raised.

Bella bit her lip. There was a reason Bella didn't bother putting up a fight. She knew who the hooded man was. She could identify him immediately. It was Yaxley, a friend of Rodolphus'. Once Rodolphus (who was no doubt with Yaxley upstairs) knew who she was, she'd be released, and Cissy could be released to her care. But as for Andromeda, who'd actually betrayed Lucius Malfoy out of a wedding and inheritance, maybe the Death Eaters (which is what they called their gang) wouldn't be so easy on her.

But then again, it was every girl for themselves in a world like this one of rich pureblood wizarding families. If Andromeda couldn't look out for herself, it was a wonder she hadn't been either disposed of or disinherited already.

But Andromeda still struggled to open that damn door. An hour at the very least must have passed before Yaxley opened the door again. "We're ready for you both…"

Bella and Andromeda each had their hands tied behind their backs. Bella was serene and went quietly, but Yaxley had to put a silencing spell over Andromeda before he even brought them out of the closet into the pub and began guiding them up the stairs.

Once at the stop of the stairs, Yaxley opened the door. Behind it was the sight Bella had expected. The Death Eater men were seated around a table. Cissy, unbound and seemingly unworried, was sitting on the table, listening dreamily as Lucius talked with her. Andromeda had ceased her struggle…

"Oh Cissy, you are quite witty for a teenager!" Lucius said, a genuine smile (very rare) spreading across his face. Cissy giggled and blushed. Bella wanted to barf. No one saw them enter, and Yaxley kept he and his captives hidden in the shadows to await a lull in the conversation.

"Well, I am quite the charming aficionado, you know, a natural Black trait!" Cissy said. Lucius laughed again.

Andromeda blinked. Aficionado?

But her eyes were elsewhere. Rodolphus Lestrange wasn't at the table of strange men. He was guarding two young captives of his own. Young men. Andromeda could see almost instantly that they were Remus Lupin and Ted Tonks.