Written for the Houses Competition

House: Ravenclaw

Position: Astronomy (Stand-in)

Drabble

Prompt: [Must Include] A letter

Word Count: 654 (Google Docs)

Beta: Sapphire402, Theoretical-Optimist

Love or Family: It's Your Choice

Andromeda's hand trembled as she picked up her quill. She spread a parchment on the desk, dipped her quill into ink, and began to write.

Dear Cissa, she wrote. Andromeda paused. Was that what people usually write at the beginning of a farewell letter?

Tears threatened to spill from her eyes, but she blinked them back.

For what seemed like the hundredth time, Andromeda wondered if she was making the right decision.

Ted or her family.

It was not an easy choice. She loved Ted, but she also loved her family. Ever since she fell in love with Ted, she knew that she could only choose one: Ted, or her family.

For a long time, Andromeda chose neither.

She dated Ted in secret, which upset him very much, but he could understand that she wanted to have him and have her family at the same time for as long as possible. When she was with her family, Andromeda didn't mention him.

But then the Blacks had started associating with the so-called Dark Lord, Voldemort. Everyone knew, or at least suspected, but they were too afraid of the Black family to go against them publicly. When Andromeda walked the halls of Hogwarts, people stared at her suspiciously and whispered to each other. When she went to the bathroom, the girls there would squeak and flee at the sight of her.

Bellatrix hadn't helped. Andromeda's older sister was known to be obsessed with the Dark Arts. People expected Andromeda to be the same as Bellatrix, but she wasn't.

Andromeda had never really bought into that blood purity nonsense. She cared about purity of magic, not purity of blood. She cared about the pureness of magic. She knew that magic was a gift and not a tool.

Ted Tonks's magic was pure. He only used it if he really needed to. He didn't use magic for simple things like getting a quill or finding a library book. Perhaps it was because he was a Muggleborn, and magic was still relatively new to him.

Andromeda had been fascinated by him. Later, that fascination had turned into love and affection.

I am sorry, Andromeda wrote.

She'd always thought that she could put off that decision — the decision between Ted and her family — for a long time. But yesterday, her parents had announced that she was betrothed.

Andromeda wasn't beautiful like Narcissa, nor was she first in line to get her parents' fortune like Bellatrix. She was the middle child. She was intelligent and cared for her studies, but in pure-blood society, that didn't matter.

Being betrothed was something that she'd never really worried about. She hadn't thought that it would get in the way of her relationship with Ted.

Her wedding to Evan Rosier was set for a week after graduation.

When Druella Rosier Black, Andromeda's mother, proudly announced that Andromeda was going to marry Evan, Andromeda had known that she had to make a choice.

Her choice was...Ted.

It was painful, knowing that she was willingly breaking away from her family. She loved them, she really did. But Andromeda knew that it was necessary, if she didn't want to get tangled up in Voldemort's web.

Dear Cissa,

I am sorry.

You might not understand, but I had to get away. I did not want to leave you.

Please, Cissa, listen to me just one more time.

Do not willingly associate with Voldemort, or the Dark Lord. Do not even meet with him, unless you are forced to.

It pains me to write this, as Bella is my sister too, but be careful of her. She has immersed herself in the Dark Arts so deeply that we cannot be as free with her as we once were.

Please, Cissa. Listen to me.

You are my sister, my best friend.

And you always shall be, even if you refuse to acknowledge me anymore.

Love,

Your sister,

Andromeda