Written for Writer's Month 2022. Prompt #29: Bond.
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Blood is thicker than water - people just love saying that. Usually they want to express their opinion that the ties that bind family members are too strong to be broken in the same way the relationships with other people can be ruined. At the same time, people often use it to say how your very nature is tied to your family – you can't just turn your back on that. In any way, the meaning of the saying is usually associated with the bonds of nature, the kinship between family members. However, not everyone had the same experience.
The Black family had always been notorious for the rocky relationships of its members. It was rare for a generation to pass without someone being disowned or even killed over a betrayal of the family tradition and values. Those who lost their place in the Most Ancient and Noble House of Black weren't considered part of the family anymore – they couldn't be heirs, they weren't under the protection of the Head of the House, and they lost the privilege of having the Black family name on their side in any political or business negotiations. All in all, they lost everything that the name of Black brought with it.
At the same, though, the scar of the severed connection to the family remained, on both sides. As much as everyone wanted to pretend the disowned member of the family had died, or had never even existed, it wasn't possible – they were constantly reminded, at least subconsciously, of the one who had went against the family. Likewise, the one who had been a part of the family and had lost their position in it could never forget their origins – the gaping hole of what once had been theirs was an eternal ache in their hearts.
The consequences of such trauma, of this unnatural tearing of the family ties, could leave its mark on subsequent generations as well, the pain and bitterness carrying on to the descendants of those who had been party to the break. The ruin of familial ties brought with it the forging of other bonds, the bonds of pain and betrayal, bitterness and derision.
Such was the bond between Bellatrix Lestrange and Nymphadora Tonks. The two of them had never been family – Bella's sister, Andromeda, had been disowned before Dora had even been born. However, the tearing apart of the family produced shockwaves which affected them as well, despite it never having been about them at all. The two were bound together through a bond of hate.
Bellatrix had been present when her sister, Andromeda, lost her status of a Black family member. She had been able to see first-hand the moment her sister came home and announced her wish to marry a Mudblood, proclaiming her love for him and his love for her. She had been there when their father spit on the ground in front of her siser, and when her mother blasted the traitorous girl off the family tree. She had seen their family fall apart, all because of her sister's foolish thinking and that Mudblood's interference.
Nymphadora was the embodiment of all the things which caused their family to break. She was a Halfblood, the proof of the sacred Black family line being polluted by Muggle blood. She was the product of the union between her sister and the Mudblood who made her go against their family. Her existence was the fruit of the seed which had been sown by the breaking of their family, the ruin of their bonds. For all those reasons, Bellatrix hated Nymphadora even before she saw her for the first time.
Nymphadora had been raised by her parents, growing without any contact with the Black family. She had learned early on not to expect anyone from her mother's side of the family to reach out to her in any way – her father's side of the family were the only relatives they talked to. As she grew older she began to understand the truth about the Blacks.
She first found out about the existence of her aunt Bellatrix when she was twelve. Her mother had been looking at some pictures from her childhood, and on one of those there were three girls. One of them was pale, with wispy blond hair framing her gentle face. The other two were the exact opposite – their faces were livelier, more spirited, and their heads were covered with dense, black curls. When she asked her mother about the girls, her mother told her it was her and her sisters, back when they were children. The pale one was Narcissa, Lucius Malfoy's wife; and the other two were her mother and her sister Bellatrix.
Her mother was obviously sad to be thinking about her sisters. Nymphadora knew it had been years since she last spoke with anyone from her family, and as horrible as they had been to her, she still missed them. Not wanting to cause her mother any more pain, she refrained from asking too many questions.
As the years went by she learned more about her aunt Bellatrix. She found out the woman had been in Azkaban for many years, ever since Nymphadora had been a small child, way before she even started Hogwarts. She never saw her in person; however, everything she knew about her and her family caused her to develop a strong hatred for her.
The woman was a symbol of so many things which hurt Nymphadora, it was impossible not to hate her. She was her mother's sister, the person who was supposed to be there for her mother at all times, yet she caused her mother so much pain, acting as if Andromeda were the lowliest scum of the earth. She was one of the Blacks, the not-disowned ones – the ones who considered people like her father to be as worthless as animals. She was one of the people who had hurt her mother so badly that she still cried from time to time, thinking about the family she no longer had.
Bellatrix and Nymphadora didn't meet for a long time – the Tonks family never initiated contact with any of the members of the Black family, and Bellatrix, even after leaving Azkaban, never even acknowledged the existence of her niece. However, since one of them was a Death Eater, and the other an Auror, they were bound to meet sooner or later.
When Harry Potter and a couple of his friends went to the Department of Mysteries, lured into a trap by Voldemort himself, Nymphadora had went with the rest of the Order to help rescue them. As luck would have it, she had the "pleasure" of meeting her aunt for the very first time right there and then.
The two of them fought and, to those standing aside, their duel seemed to be a regular fight between a Death Eater and an Auror/member of the Order of the Phoenix. However, if one looked a bit more closely, one could see the unusual fervor with which they cast their spells. The fight between them wasn't just a regular confrontation caused by opposing views – it was a lot more personal.
When Bellatrix looked at her opponent, she saw the offspring of her sister who betrayed their family. She saw the girl who went by "Tonks", flaunting her dirty blood. On the other hand, when Nymphadora looked at the woman she dueled, she saw the family who turned their back on their own just because of Pureblood prejudice. She saw the reason people flinched when they saw her mother, mistaking her for the sister she closely resembled in appearance, the mad criminal who ruined dozens of lives. The fight between the two of them was not a fight of two people who had nothing in common – it was the dance of two people bound by a bond of hate, born from the ruined ties of a broken family.
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