Disclaimer: Don't own, not making money off this.

Well... that's that done. French and History/Geography exams behind me.

Chapter 36

6th February, 1999

Blood of Mine

Since her first visit, Narcissa always came unannounced and uninvited. At first this had irritated her, had sent her heart leaping in her throat every time there was an unexpected knock at the door, but she had become used to it over time, learning to trust her sister again. Nowadays Narcissa was no longer greeted at wand-point, and they had lapsed into almost comfortable conversations. She had even agreed to meet Draco, probably over the summer, and if he met her seal of approval then he could see Teddy, too. "Please, Andromeda... He's my son too, not just Lucius'."

Narcissa liked Teddy, loved him really. The tender expression that came over her whenever she looked at the toddler woke an answering softness in Andromeda and reminded her of her childhood. She regretted having missed Narcissa becoming a mother; whatever Draco had turned into, she was certain Narcissa had given him as much love as it was possible to give. Narcissa was like a second mother – or grandmother – to Teddy when she saw him, hugging him eagerly, changing him without batting an eyelid, and laughing when he spat out food she was trying to feed him. She was infinitely more patient, infinitely more gentle than her sister. It mystified Andromeda, that someone who had flirted with the Dark Side for so long could seem so inherently good. Looking at her sister now, Andromeda could never guess whom she had married and what she'd spent the past years doing.

When their conversations weren't futile, they were focused on memories of their childhood. "Do you remember the time when –? Do you remember this? Do you remember, do you remember?" Memories that seemed to glide over Bellatrix with ease, saying "we" instead of "she" and "us" to avoid mentioning "her". Sometimes she was omitted entirely, disappearing from a scene where she had played a pivotal role. Andromeda tended to push Bellatrix out of her mind entirely. Her memories of her should have blurred over the years, because she never called them up, but they hadn't. Sometimes a bright, sharp memory would come back to her, and she would have all the trouble in the world pushing it away.

Then one day, today, Narcissa said, "Do you remember the Christmas of Bella's first year?"

"Very clearly," Andromeda said stiffly. "The first of a string of bad holidays –"

"Not true," Narcissa said. "It was wonderful. Bella brought us back sweets she'd paid an older student to buy from Honeydukes, two great packets of Chocolate Frogs, Bertie Bott's... even Blood Lollies."

"Oh," Andromeda said, feeling a smile creep onto her lips despite herself. "I remember that. She gave them to us and swore us to secrecy. She ought to have given them to Mother and Father and they would have dosed them out day by day, but she didn't."

"And she told us to be reasonable and you ate at least fifty chocolates in an hour and were sick all night," Cissy remembered. "And when she found you in the toilet at two a.m. she didn't even yell at you, she held you in her arms all night. And when you weren't feeling well the next morning, she covered for you and lied to Father and Mother. She said she thought she might have brought back the flu which was going around Hogwarts at the time."

"I remember," Andromeda said softly. "I... remember."

"You were her favourite," Narcissa said, a touch of envy – except it couldn't really be envy – in her voice. "She loved us both, but you were her favourite."

"I wasn't," she protested. "She couldn't stand me."

"In the end," Narcissa agreed. "But she used to love us both, you more than me. I was too complacent, too eager to please. She liked having you around because you were always in trouble with Father. She liked protecting you. We were happy, back, then, weren't we?"

Andromeda couldn't say, but Narcissa's voice was bringing the memories back. All of them.

Mother brushing their hair. "My three lovely girls... Two peas in a pod and my little fairy princess." Bella and Andy, who were so alike, and Cissy's blond beauty.

Playing hide-and-seek in their house. "Andy, I know you're in there!" Bella shrieks.

Eight years old and at a pure-blood reception. "Oh, how dull," Bella says, laughing. "I almost wish Mother had had a son, so we wouldn't have to go to these things."

Bella going to Hogwarts. "I'll miss you, Andy-Pandy. Don't cry, it'll be your turn soon enough, you'll see. Be nice while I'm gone, all right? Don't give your sister and parents a bad time. You're the eldest sister now."

Her Sorting. "Now we'll always be together," Bella says. "Lucius, this is my sister Andromeda."

Narcissa's Sorting. "I am so proud of you both."

Memories of Ted, then. Sparkling brown eyes, a lovely smile that sends butterflies fluttering in her stomach, and blood as muddy as a pig sty. "I think I love you," he says one day. She runs.

Bella: "What's wrong, Andy? You don't seem like yourself lately."

Ted again. "Just forget them, Andromeda." (He's the only person she knows who will call her by her real first name.) "I love you." This time, she doesn't run. She lets him wrap his arms around her and knows she's a goner.

Their secret wasn't a secret for long. Bella knows. She is beside herself with fury. Fear. Disgust. "Filthy blood, he's nothing but a Mudblood, Andy... Andy, they'll kill you – Andy, why? Why did you do it? How could you, Andy?" Bella is crying.

Later, so much later. Bella has lost her sanity, but Andromeda can still see herself reflected in those bright, cruel, gleaming eyes. "I hate you," her sister spits. "You selfish traitor!"

"Andy?" Narcissa sounded alarmed; she had slipped back to using the childhood nickname, which only made the memories more vivid. "Andromeda – are you all right?"

She realised she was crying.

Andromeda knew that Bella had loved her, more than she had loved Narcissa. Maybe she had loved her too much. If she had chosen Narcissa instead – gentle, faithful Narcissa – she would never have been disappointed. Maybe she would never have become the way she did.

"Andromeda," said Narcissa then, "would you like to visit Bella's resting place?"

The tears were still rolling down her cheeks, unchecked, but she felt a cold fury grip her at Narcissa's words. Resting place? She had always known Narcissa was no coward. She was timid and admired their sister and parents very much, but she could be firm if she wanted to. She was capable of many things, but Andromeda had never suspected she could say a thing like this. "Would you like to visit Bella's resting place?" Did Narcissa think that because she was forgiven, Bella, by extension, could be? Had she forgotten who had killed Nymphadora? What could have possessed her to ask that question?

"I had her buried at Malfoy Manor," Narcissa said.

"Why?" she asked, surprised by the hardness of her own tone.

"Because," Narcissa said, equally harshly, "she was my sister. She was yours, too – once upon a time. Remember?"

"When I'm older, I want to be just like you," a wide-eyed, six-year-old Andy tells her sister. "I don't want that," says Bella. "I want you to stay like this forever. I want to be your older sister forever."

"I remember," Andromeda heard herself say.

It didn't even feel like so long ago that Bella had held her in her arms and said, "I love you, sis'."

"She's buried in the gardens behind the house itself," Narcissa said quietly. "Right beside the entire Malfoy family, and damn those who have anything to say about it."

"Your husband."

Narcissa bowed her head. "Lucius was against it, but I insisted. He saw my side of things, eventually. Will you come with me?"

"Now?"

"Now would be a good time, but the offer extends to... whenever, really."

"Yes," Andromeda said. "I'll come."

They took Teddy with them, using Side-Along Apparition. He was bawling when they Apparated in front of the gate to Malfoy Manor, screaming his distaste for this method of transportation. Narcissa took him from Andromeda and hushed him soothingly; he quieted. Andromeda felt a stab of jealousy. Her sister ran her hand along the iron gate gently.

"Narcissa Malfoy. I bring two guests of my own blood. Let us pass."

The gate swung open without a word, and Narcissa swooped in, her cloak flapping in the air behind her. Andromeda followed silently, walking more slowly and taking in every detail – the hedge, the perfectly trimmed grass, the white peacocks. She had never been here before. The gardens were every bit like what she had imagined: expensive and overdone. The Manor itself was different. Old, respectable and imposing, it was beautiful in the way old medieval castles are beautiful. Narcissa led her around it, taking small, perfectly trodden path after path after path. Andromeda felt almost as though she were in a labyrinth.

They reached the cemetery eventually; it was far enough from the house that its morbidity didn't spread to the entire grounds. It was large, sprawling. You could see the remains of a stone wall that had once attempted to enclose it but had been knocked down when the number of dead grew too high. Stone after stone of black marble, arranged in well-organised, perfectly parallel lines rose up from the ground, conferring an austere aura to the place. They were all of the same size, a little higher than Andromeda's knee and square-shaped. None seemed to bear the marks of age and the words on every single one, written in gold, shone as brightly as the day they had been written. The place seemed ancient, like an eternal, never-changing place of rest; the only sign of change were the flowers which rested on three gravestones, two on the front and most recent line, and another a little behind and to the side. This last looked so out of place among this organised cemetery that Andromeda knew at once it was Bella's. She headed straight for it and knelt before it. The flowers were bright yellow narcissus, matching the gold on the grave. Andromeda mouthed the words silently as she read them, thinking they echoed the wails of her own heart.

The past is forgiven. I hold dear my memories of you. Sleep well, my beloved sister, forever.

She wasn't sure who she was crying for. Her lost daughter, her lost sister, or herself?

She cried.

I think you can tell... that I am very interested in the (dysfunctional) Black family.

The other day, I was brainstorming for ideas for a Dramione fic I've been writing on and off for a couple weeks, and I was struck by another idea, so very far from any era I've ever written it that I had to go for it. :) Now that school's out, I can really focus on writing. I had forgotten how liberating it is!

Next chapter is some Draco, some Theo (please tell me you're not sick of him just yet!) and is scheduled for Monday.

This fic has is now on over 50 alert lists. It makes me very happy to know there are that many readers out there. Oo