"Oh for goodness sake, Cissy, you really ought to eat something. Look, you could have some of this toast, I cannot finish all of it."
Cissy, dressed only in her boyfriend's festive knitted sweater, which fit more like a dress than a jumper on her, sighed heavily and briefly took her eyes away from her copy of The Daily Prophet to look down at the breakfast assortment that Rudy had provided them, before rolling her eyes at Andromeda.
"You saw me try on my gown yesterday, Drom. I am afraid that breakfast is a sacrifice that I will have to make if I am going to fit into it at Slugorn's Christmas party. It will just be a black coffee for me this morning."
Andromeda tutted at her little sister, who paid her no notice as she took another gulp of the Gabonese blend, which Rudy had brewed with no sugar or milk, just as Cissy liked it.
There was still several pieces of toast left over, as well as a fair few crumpets and small chocolate croissants, the latter of which had been Cissy's absolute favourite breakfast option until she discovered boys and became more conscious of her body.
Andromeda took one of the remaining chocolate croissants, it would be a shame to waste it after all. At least one tangible upside of not being able to take Ted to Slughorn's party was that she didn't have to concern herself with such frivolous endeavours as watching her weight.
They were completely alone in the eating area of the Slytherin Girls dormitory. The vast majority of the other girls in their year went down to the Great Hall for their meals, but then again the vast majority of the other girls in their year didn't have their own personal family House-elf at their back and call.
Andromeda and Cissy generally took their meals away from the hustle and bustle and great noise of the Great Hall, with Rudy, the family Elf, on hand to provide them with whatever food took their fancy. It did make Andromeda feel rather spoiled at times, but she justified it by reasoning that if she stopped now then Rudy would be mortally offended, or worse, her Mother would think he had lost his touch in his old age and punish him, or worse, have him decommissioned.
"Breakfast is the most important meal of the day," she began to lecture Cissy in a bossy tone. "You should not skip-
"Oh would you please give it a rest, Drom? Damn it, you sound just like Mother!" Cissy hissed angrily, before turning over to the next page of the newspaper.
A shadow suddenly appeared in the far corner of the room, which flickered intermittently, given the room was primarily lit by the bright, hot fire-place not that far from their table.
Somebody was walking through.
"Andromeda! Narcissa! Good morning girls!"
She would recognize that voice anywhere.
It was Olivia Burke.
The dark skined, dark haired Prefect, accompanied by the giggling laughs of Danielle Avery and Amara Greengrass, walked through the room as if she owned the place. She went out of her way to smile directly at both Andromeda and Cissy, which caused her two companions to smirk.
As they walked out of the dormitory and towards the exit of the Common Room, Cissy shot Andromeda a fairly disgusted look.
"Who does that bitch think that she is?" Cissy hissed violently.
"I believe that becoming Prefect and Malfoy's flavour of the month again has given her ideas above her station," Andromeda replied to her little sister through gritted teeth.
"You can say that again," Cissy spat. "She is nothing more than the filthy whore daughter of a common shopkeeper – and not even a rich one at that."
Andromeda laughed at her sister's mean comment. Cissy could get very spiteful when she was angry, especially if it was on her sister's behalf.
"Perhaps we should let her have this moment in the sun," Andromeda pondered. "After all, Malfoy will never marry her."
Cissy smirked.
"Drom, she could consider herself lucky if she managed to marry one of Crabbe or Goyle."
"Christ," Andromeda muttered. "Can you imagine?"
Cissy laughed a little, but seemed to eye her up a bit strangely following that comment.
Damn, she thought.
She had used 'Christ', which was very much a muggle phrase.
All that time around Ted must have been wearing off on her.
She dreaded to think what her Mother or Father might say if she had said that within ear-shot of them.
"Have you seen this?" Cissy asked, changing the subject and showing Andromeda the article that she was reading.
"Another accident involving one of those muggle death-traps. A drunken old wizard, as of yet unnamed, was run over as he was leaving The Leaky Cauldron and walked into the road without looking…oh, how dreadful. Those muggles really ought to be more careful in those things!"
"It sounds to me like he was the one who ought to have been more careful," Andromeda replied in a fairly bemused sounding manner.
"Perhaps," Cissy mused. "Well I for one am glad that we do not live in a muggle-populated area, so we are safe from such accidents and reckless driving. Unlike poor Sirius and Regulus… can you imagine having to live at Grimmauld Place? There must be cars everywhere!"
"They are quite safe, you know," Andromeda replied, as Cissy eyed her with cautious suspicion. "With the right person driving, of course. Ted is rather good at it actually."
Cissy almost spat out her coffee.
"You have been driven in one of those muggle death traps?!" she cried in amazement, part shocked, part horrified.
"Cissy!" Andromeda hissed back.
One of these days they were going to get overheard by the wrong person. Cissy was really quite awful at keeping quiet.
"Sorry, Drom," she whispered meekly.
"Well, go on then, what was it like?!"
Just as soon as her sister's shock and horror had first arose, now her curiosity and nosiness had seemingly taken over. For the first time that morning Cissy looked at Andromeda with genuine interest, she hung on Andromeda's every word for several minutes as she explained to her sister about the journeys her and Ted had taken in his car that summer.
"And all of this happened months ago… and I am only finding out now?" Cissy suddenly said as Andromeda's story reached its conclusion.
"Now who sounds like Mother?" Andromeda shot back at her.
Cissy scoffed.
"Next you will be telling me that you have been sleeping together," she added, which almost caused Andromeda to spit out her cup of Earl Grey.
"Cissy!"
"Oh calm down," Cissy said, laughing slightly at Andromeda's outrage at such a suggestion. "I was only kidding. Although, Bellatrix was already sleeping with boys at your age, so I suppose-
"So you suppose, what exactly?" Andromeda asked, glaring at her little sister. "And how exactly did that work out for our sweet sister, Cissy? Not too well I would suggest?"
Cissy frowned slightly.
"No… I suppose not," she replied glumly. "That was when she changed… she was always quick to anger and a bit aloof… but after she started hanging round with Rowle, Yaxley and Avery… well, she became-
"Mad? Deranged? A lunatic?" Andromeda offered, as her sister struggled to find the right words to describe their eldest sister's descent to the darkness.
"Drom… she is still our sister for goodness sake," Cissy whispered in a crass tone. "She is not that bad. And besides, Mother thinks that marriage and motherhood will calm her down. I am sure she is right. I cannot wait to be an Auntie… what do you hope they have first, a boy or a girl?"
The thought of Bellatrix and her newly betrothed, Rodolphus Lestrange, having a child together truly was revolting enough of a thought to put the nail in the coffin of Andromeda's appetite for any remaining remnants of Rudy's breakfast.
"I shall leave that decision in the safe hands of fate," Andromeda said softly, before seeing off the last of her tea. "And on that note, I am afraid I must head off to Divination."
"Oh, lucky," Cissy said, with a tone of jealously in her voice. "I have Transfiguration with Dumbledore this morning. You know, I think he ought to be teaching Divination really, he always talks in poxy riddles. He is a silly man, I hope there is no truth to the rumours that he will be promoted to Headmaster when Dippet retires this summer."
"Well," Andromeda said, as she stood up and readied herself for the first lesson of the day. "I am sure that Father and several others on the Board of Governors will have something to say about that, should he be so inclined as to apply for the role."
Cissy smiled.
"Yes, you are right Drom, Father will never let the school be ruled by such a self-righteous do-gooder like him. Have a good day Sis, I shall see you at dinner!"
"You too Cissy, see you later," Andromeda replied. "And do make sure you have some of that toast!" she added before leaving, much to her little sister's dismay.
Cissy really did worry her sometimes. She was not quite sure what made her think that Fabian Prewett would go off of her if she did not fit perfectly into the elaborate black evening gown that she had bought for the Christmas party.
Well, she had not bought it, not really, she had purchased it, but in reality it had been bought with her Mother's money, not Cissy's.
But the Gryffindor chaser could barely take his eyes off her whenever he was in her company. Andromeda did not think that her sister had anything to worry about. He seemed a good young man, brave, honourable and noble, the stereotypical Gryffindor of old really.
She could see why Fabian with his long, flowing red hair and fashionable moustache could appeal to her sister, but at the same time he should still consider himself quite lucky to be dating a girl from the noble House of Black. He was a pure-blood too, so he knew what that meant, he was not likely to throw that away because Cissy refused to starve herself of breakfast.
No, she doubted that Fabian would reel her Cissy in and then throw her away by cheating on her with, as her sister had so elegantly described, the whore daughter of some common shopkeeper like Lucius Malfoy had done to Andromeda.
What Lucius had done to her was disgraceful.
He had wanted to rush into things with her.
It had still been quite early on in their fledging relationship that she had told him she was not ready to get as intimate with him as he had wanted to get with her.
He had told her this was fine, but evidently it was not.
The Malfoy heir had tried on several occasions to take their kissing sessions a lot further than she would have liked, before Andromeda had grown tired of batting away his wandering hands and told him she needed some space.
She had not wanted to break up with him.
Andromeda had loved him, or she had thought she had, maybe it was just the idea of him that she had been in loved with.
The captain of the Quidditch team, the beautiful heir to the noble House of Black, courted by the modern pure-blood juggernaut of the House of Malfoy, it was written in the stars, or so she thought.
Then, one cold winter's evening, Andromeda had fancied taking a nice hot bath.
She had access to the Prefect's Bathroom, not that she was a prefect of course, but a perk of being a Black was that none of the prefects would have the audacity to question her being in there.
However, when she had entered the bathroom she had found the bath was already occupied – by Lucius, and that horrible harlot Olivia Burke.
Lucius, flustered, had tried desperately to come up with some kind of excuse, but despite being the undisputed King of waffle, lies and bluster, even he was found wanting to explain himself being naked in a bath fondling another girl.
The worst part about it was the shame.
She could not cast Lucius down too aggressively in public or to her family, as this would be admitting that Malfoy had cast her aside for the shopkeeper's daughter. It would be even more humiliating than it already was.
It wasn't as if Lucius would face any great repercussions if she did go crying to her Mother and Father anyway, they would likely have the attitude that "boys will be boys" and that she was just making a scene over nothing.
As Andromeda exited the Slytherin Common Room and headed off to her Divination class, she was caught off guard and taken out of her thoughts, as the tall and imposing Head Boy, Kingsley Shacklebolt, suddenly appeared in her peripheral vision.