I do not own Harry Potter.

Thank you, reviewers, again! True, Cam, TRF-Chan . . .

The next morning, chaos broke out. Kreacher had been the first to discover Sirius's absence. He went into his bedroom to dig around as he always did during the night, doing who knows what, and found that his Young Master was gone without a trace.

Mummy was alerted at once. She accosted me, and I told her I hadn't heard anything, but I had noticed Sirius's trunk was gone. Father woke and alerted our cousins via Floo, probably hoping, no doubt, that he had gone off for an early visit with Andromeda.

"Oh, when I find that boy, he is going catch it," Father muttered to himself after drawing his head out of the fire. I felt myself tremble slightly. I was, after all, an accomplice.

Uncle Alphard, Aunt Elladora, Andromeda, and Narcissa soon emerged in our drawing room. "He's gone?" Aunt Elladora gasped. "But why?" Andromeda and Narcissa watched me curiously.

"There was an issue last evening," Father said slightly. "Alphard, do you think he might have gone off with one of his bloodtraitor friends?"

Uncle Alphard turned around calmly. "To tell you the truth, I don't think you should even bother looking." The women gasped. He went on cooly, "Sirius left for a reason. You said there was an issue, brother, and I think I suspect what that might be. I now point out to you that perhaps that is a legitimate reason for flight."

"He's the bloody heir! He can't just walk out! He's part of this family!"

Uncle Alphard sighed. "If you love your son, you should be happy he's found his own happiness. If you love your bloodline, you should be happy he's gone and unable to shame it. Either way, it's a win-win situation. You know you didn't trust Sirius to carry on the line. That's why you were always so hard on him, and that's exactly why he left." He pointed to me, "Now Regulus is left, and, admit it, you've always thought of him as more the favorite."

Mummy put her hand gently on my shoulder but did not look at me. "Regulus has always been more the model child, yes, certainly. But it is Sirius's birthright he should be the heir. Some things are foreordained in blood. It's the same natural order that deems the superiority of pure blood." I felt my stomach fall slightly. They still wanted the real heir.

"Exactly," piped up Andromeda. "And both of those have flaws from time to time."

"Hush!" Aunt Elladora shook Andromeda's shoulder.

Uncle Alphard sighed and shrugged wearily. "All I'm saying is that if you force the unwilling boy to carry on your family, it will never be as gloriously cared for as you have hoped. Perhaps it is a blessing in disguise that Regulus now takes the helm."

Everyone's eyes all landed simultaneously on me, including Uncle Alphard's. They all carried various degrees of expectation and doubt. Still, the compliment filled me. I was the heir, the firstborn, the leader, the favorite.

Mummy drew in a ragged breath. "I had always hoped Sirius would fall into line. And Alphard, the shame . . . it's not as if he's dead. The others will know."

He shrugged. "They've known for years he's a Gryffindor, and they've seen how he acts. Their children go to school with him. It will come as no surprise to them. You're saving yourself shame in the future, when he leads the family, the enemy of all the other heirs. Regulus is in quite well with them."

Father shifted so that he stood squarely in front of me. I regarded him respectfully. "Well, Regulus," he said sternly, "Are you prepared for this?"

"It's . . . it's an honor," I stammered out.

Mummy squeezed my shoulders consolingly. "Regulus will need less teaching than his brother. The foul boy was scum, thicker than lead, thoroughly wrong in the mind. It's as if he had corrupted blood from the very beginning." Her words were so acerbic I knew they were in defense. My heart fell further.

Kreacher, who had been lingering around Mummy's feet the entire time, tugged at her skirt and offerred consolingly, "Young Master-- The Blood Traitor," he corrected, "-- is not fit to wipe slime from Mistress's boots."

"Well, that settles that," sighed Uncle Alphard, looking as tired and weary as Sirius's friend Remus. He went back into the fire, followed by his family.

Mummy was still not satisfied. She went straight into the room with the giant sprawling family tree, upon which lay every Black relation. I sensed the weight of this moment and froze in the doorway. Without asking permission from Father or even announcing her intent, she pointed her wand at the bottom of the tree. A small, charred mark appeared, smoking slightly, and she laughed coldly.

"Gone. Good riddance. Blood traitor, abomination, shame of my flesh!"

The rest of the summer was thoroughly enjoyable. Nobody greeted my newfound birthright with more enthusiasm than Bellatrix, who first pointed out it was the Dark Lord's prophecy and then added that it was perfect that our line was now headed by one of the purest of mind. I enjoyed her compliment, yet there was still a lingering shame; if I was so pure, why did I still feel such devotion to a brother who had proven himself the lowest of the low?

There were further balls that year, and this time it was I who received attention from the eligible ladies, though I was still only fourteen. I knew them by face, but none had revealed themselves in person to me until now-- it was as if I had experienced a coming-out. Narcissa helped me, informing me who the best girls were, which had the nasty habits like snoring and nail-biting, and which had already given themselves to boys, secretly. I hadn't known that within the sex-separate dormitories of Slytherin there was some intermingling of that nature. I made a vow I would not tolerate a wife who indulged in a behavior obviously encouraged by the permissive society created by Muggle-borns.

I returned to school more popular but with a sobriety brought about by the burden of knowing my secret crime of collusion with Sirius. I was amazed to see Sirius in the best health since before he had started school. He was chatting with his friends as if all were right in the world-- which, in his world, it must have been. I should have known his friends would help him out. It was the Gryffindor way.

For the first time I started paying attention to what Andromeda was up to. If she did not associate with the family favorites as Bellatrix, Narcissa, and I did, who were her companions? Her mother had allowed her to have her best friend, Emmaline Vance, over a few times, so I had met her and knew the bright redhead was a pureblood, but Sirius's friends had been pureblood and they still caused such a scene. Andromeda was in a House that allowed her to contact Muggle-borns. I was curiously to know: Did she spurn them, or did she accept them?

I did not know the name and background of all of the students in the school, but I knew that all of Andromeda's potential friends could never be perfectly accepted by our family. Sirius, however, was defensive of her right to choose, defending her against her own family of which he was once part of.

He caught me one day as I watched Andromeda from one of the stairwells. She had crossed the hall and taken the hand of a plain-looking boy with brown hair, leaning her own brown-haired head against his shoulder. It was a rather drab-looking relationship, plain, so different from the glamor and covert but ever-present sexiness of Slytherin relationships.

Yet I felt a thrill when I turned to find Sirius standing over me, his wand up so that it brushed under my chin as I turned. I sucked in a gasp of breath. I met him with open regard, but his face did not melt. He had cast me off in the way I, the insensitive Slytherin, was meant to-- not the other way around. He was a Gryffindor who regarded me in the same way as every other Slytherin, as scum.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"I was just--"

"You leave Andromeda alone, understand?"

I pursed my lips in indignation, feeling the curiosity well up in me. His defense could only mean negativity. Andromeda was up to something. "Why, what is she up to?"

He pressed his wand up further into my throat. I stifled a gasp. "It's none of your business." I knew he could very easily hex me as he had earlier, this time without the reserve of the fear of the punishment from Father. "And if I catch you spying on her again . . . " he pressed the wand still further into my flesh, making me to gag.

"You have no power over me anymore, blood traitor," I choked, defensive myself.

I felt a sudden burning sensation spreading from the tip of Sirius's wand across the underside of my chin. I drew back, scratching the flesh but avoiding the wand. I put my hand to the wound; he had performed a Stinging Hex on the sensitive part of my neck.

He smirked. "I've gotten good at that; I don't even have to say the incantation anymore," he taunted. "I think it's because of all those times Father did them when you told on me." He smiled, mocking me, purely blissful at this revenge. "And this time, I can't get in trouble at all, can I?"

"Black!"

Both of us turned to see the Gryffindor Head of House, the severe woman with the thin glasses, coming towards us. She addressed the elder Black. "Detention. I don't care if he's your--" she caught herself, "--ex-brother, you're not to hex students in the corridors. Particularly younger students."

Sirius flipped back his hair, oozing charm as well as Bellatrix, though in a more masculine style. "Aw, Professor, Regulus isn't stupid. He could have easily blocked a Stinging Hex."

"Oh, is that what it was? There was no incantation. I daren't ask why you've done that hex so often you needn't say aloud anymore. My office, 8:00 tonight."

Sirius rolled his eyes, but was soon on his way, flanked by his three friends, laughing as petulantly and cheekily as ever.

Spiteful, and having no way to retaliate on Sirius, I attacked the defenseless one. It was Sirius's mistake for having treated me cruelly in response to my kindness to him.

Dear Mummy,

Andromeda has been associating with a boy for some time. I don't know who he is, or what his bloodline may be. She seems to be getting rather serious, and the relationship comes off as romantic. I thought you might want to know.

-Regulus, 4th Year Slytherin

I told Narcissa about my observation, and she began to watch, too. One day at dinner, side-by-side and whispering in a fashion we had never executed before, usually surrounded by our own crowd of friends, she confided in me the worst suspicion:

"The boy's name is Theodore Tonks," she whispered to me at dinner one day. "I asked Avery; he's in their Herbology class. He's Muggle-born."

Her words fell bluntly on my ears. "Muggle-born? Is Andromeda crazy?"

Narcissa's dark eyes were wide with fear, and she swept a stray curl of fair hair away from her light pink cheeks. "We have to tell her to stop, right away, or we're going to have to take care of Tonks somehow."

"Do you think he could be controlling her? What if he's using a love potion?" I cried hysterically. "He's corrupting our line!"

Narcissa licked her lips. "Andromeda's always believed in true love; she's always loved fairy tales like that. She's a hopeless romantic. She probably thinks she's fallen for him."

"So she is under some sort of spell!"

"Love can be like Imperius, I've heard," Narcissa said wisely. "Either way, we must remedy her of this, before Mother finds out."

I felt my heart give a painful jerk. "I already told my mummy . . . " I said slowly.

Narcissa breathed out. "Oh . . . Regulus . . . you didn't . . . "

I didn't reply, but only kept looking at her.

She shook her head. "It's her own fault, allowing herself to consort with that boy. She can exercise more self-control than that." She looked up at me painfully. "As Bellatrix would say, we're weeding out the bad blood."

As it turns out, we were too late anyway. Narcissa met me in similar circumstances in mid-November. She had noticed that her sister's belly was bulging.

Andromeda was pregnant.

I dreaded going home for Christmas holiday and discovering the repercussions of my letters home. As it was, Narcissa had written home about the second circumstance-- for her it finalized that Andromeda was beyond salvation.

Andromeda was cheery as Uncle Alphard picked us up from the station-- I remembered the last time he had been delegated for the task-- chatting about how she could have Apparated but preferred to walk, as it was her last time coming home for Christmas. She meant it as in the context of school, but it was so ironic how true it was.

Narcissa and I scampered in the door first, trying to get in before Andromeda was seen. We made it, but did not even have time to take our scarves off as the girl came in. Uncle Alphard, who had been silent the entire walk, took a place beside her in the foyer, waiting, watching, all in quiet sympathy.

Mummy, Father, and Aunt Elladora charged in. Andromeda smiled at all of them. She was remarkably pretty and charming when standing on her own, the simplicity of her straight brown hair, warm brown eyes, and kind smile always overshadowed by her sisters.

Her warm smile, however, faded into wide-eyed and hysterical shock as Aunt Elladora seized her shoulders and pushed her further in, where Mummy tossed aside her Ravenclaw scarf, pulled open her black coat, seized the front of her Hogwarts uniform shirt, and yanked it upward. Andromeda was in shock and went to cover herself, but her mother's hands slid down her arms and held them fast to her. Her bare belly was revealed, a healthy peach-fleshed bulge just below her plain white bra, the bottom of which was visible.

Andromeda knew exactly what they were looking at. "It's fat! I'm getting fat! I've been overeating because of the pressure of NEWTs! I confess it! I'm sorry! I know it looks bad!" she cried, desperately lying as best she could. Yet the bulge of her belly was too spherical and firm to be fat.

"Hush!" Father shouted, the only useful thing he could do from the few feet he stood behind Mummy. His eyes were focused unblinkingly at Andromeda's middle.

"Stop it! Stop looking it me!" Andromeda cried, tears leaking out between her eyelids. She turned her pallid face towards Narcissa and I and opened her mouth in a primal cry of desperation. She still could not move, but still struggled. Mummy pulled her shirt open, so that even when the tails were dropped her belly was visible. Andromeda groaned and tried to lean away, to no avail. As far as she was concerned she was being raped, her clothing torn apart by her aunt and her body ravaged by her relations. "Why are you doing this?" she moaned, the tears now streaming down her pretty face. I heard Uncle Alphard's throat constrict behind me.

Mummy held no pity in her eyes. "You don't like this?" she asked scathingly. "You don't mind filthy Mudbloods doing it to you, though, do you?" In reiteration she pulled her shirt the rest of the way open, popping two buttons off. Andromeda screamed, her bra and pregant belly now fully visible to everyone in the hall. I felt a guilty flush run through me; it was my fault this was happening. Yet Andromeda deserved it; she dared to stand before us with the child of a Muggle-born inside her. I kept repeating it to myself in my head, though it was so hard with my cousin screaming piteously in my ears.

Mummy seized Andromeda's shoulders from the front and hurled her towards the wall. Narcissa and I slid further down it, avoiding the encounter. She held her fast against it, pressing her nails into her flesh. Andromeda cried out, squirming.

"You let that filthy boy plant his seed in you!" Mummy shouted right into Andromeda's face, her eyes boring right where Andromeda's would be if they were open. "You were not raped; you let him! You filthy girl!" Her hand flew up from Andromeda's arm and smashed her across her face. Andromeda still did not dare open her eyes, but recoiled, shivering under Mummy's grasp. "You allowed your blood corrupted, you shamed the family with your relations before marriage! Have you no girlish shame? Have you no sense of your bloodline? You shameful, disgusting, repulsive harlot! Tramp, slut, abomination!" Another slap followed, and this time I averted my eyes.

Mummy let go and Andromeda crumpled to the floor. Mummy stood over her and whipped out her wand. Aunt Elladora was breathing heavily behind her, backing her but passively. I could hear Uncle Alphard's raspy breathing intermingled with Narcissa's shallow respiration. Father stood coldly by the wall, watching. This was women's business.

The wand traced down to Andromeda's face, at ready. Andromeda, however, turned her face up just in time, revealing from within her coat her own wand. Her eyes set cooly on Mummy's.

Mummy started to say an incantation, but Andromeda shrieked "Protego!" and whatever it was came back. Mummy screamed and whipped her wand backwards again. However, by the time she had recovered, Andromeda had gotten to her feet, her wand aimed between her aunt's eyes, her own eyes bright though she quaked with fear.

"Don't touch me," she commanded, trembling. "Keep away from me . . . you . . . "

"The harlot defends her actions," Mummy observed, staring hard at her. "She feels no remorse. She is proud!"

Aunt Elladora bit her lip and turned her eyes away from her daughter.

"No corruption shall stand under the name of Black," Mummy said firmly. "Stains on the family must be cleaned. Scourgify!"

She held her wand in the direction of Andromeda's mouth, not relenting and lifting upward as was usual with the wand motion. Soap suds kept pouring out between my cousin's lips, choking her as long as the wand was held. She raised her wandless hand to try to scrape it away, to keep from gagging. She coughed and spat, spluttering and thoroughly unable to retaliate.

She fell to her knees again, but, when the soap was gone, raised her face and wand, and started to curse my mother back-- but Mummy was too fast. "Impedimentia!" she cried. Andromeda collapsed again.

Mummy observed her coldly for a moment, Andromeda's eyes staring up at her in fear. "Bring her," she commanded. She turned for the stairs, but Aunt Elladora and Uncle Alphard rushed forward and each took an arm of their daughter, lifting her after Mummy.

Narcissa and I followed as if in a trance. We were still coated and scarved, but there was no question.

Andromeda was dragged into the grand tapestry room. Mummy marched right up the giant family tree, where the mark of Sirius was still newly charred black. She scanned the bottom of the tree, and I could see as clearly as she that Narcissa's name had been shifted over a bit to make room for the name "Theodore Tonks," connected by a double dotted line to "Andromeda Black"-- and already there was a perpendicular sprout beneath, leading to an unnamed child.

"I should have noticed," Mummy spat. "No name such as that shall dirty our family."

She pointed her wand towards Andromeda's name. The curse had worn off on Andromeda, and she moaned, struggling against her father, who had wrapped his arms completely around her, holding her back. His face was in deep pain that his squirming daughter could not see-- though her kicks and elbowings did not appear to affect him.

A brief flash of green light shot out of Mummy's wand, and Andromeda's name burned black, smoking for a moment. Instantly, "Theodore Tonks" and all connections were vanished.

Andromeda screamed one last time, but then shrunk back, collapsing against her father, panting. She turned around and pressed her face into his winter coat. Uncle Alphard stroked her hair.

"Comfort or pity not that wretched creature!" Mummy strode over and ripped Andromeda away from him. Andromeda turned back on her, wand raised.

"Andromeda, don't!" her father warned fearfully.

"I will!" she shouted, her eyes still on Mummy. "You hateful woman! I love him! I love the child! You have no understanding of that, do you? I love him, and I'll go to him, and we'll be happier without you, and you can all just suffer and be miserable and--"

"Proud of your fate?" Mummy's eyes popped further. "So be it. Out. Out of this house. No corruption of wizard blood will live to infect our line. No longer a Black are you!" She pointed to the door. When Andromeda only stared at her, exposed chest rising and falling quickly, she seized the girl by the scruff of her neck and dragged her.

Once again, we all followed, back to the foyer. Mummy yanked open the door and flung Andromeda out. It was all the girl could do to remain on her own two feet. She stood there in the cold, blowing snow, her face-- particuarly her nose-- red, her hair tousled, one of her eyes blackened, and her shirt ripped open, tie flapping and pregnant belly quivering in the chilled December breeze. She was a piteable figure. Then, just as Mummy went to slam the door before her, Andromeda disappeared with a pop.

"Apparated to that scum of a wizard's house, no doubt," Mummy spat. "May she be miserable with him. That is all she is doomed for."

Aunt Elladora sucked in a deep breath. Uncle Alphard was perfectly still. I realized for the first time that the two of them had had absolutely no say in the fate of their daughter. Even Father, the true patriarch, had stood by. It was all Mummy's doing-- just as it had been with Sirius's disowning.