Disclaimer: J. K. Rowling owns the world of Harry Potter. I don't. Doesn't take a genius to figure that out, now, does it?
Things changed, that September. The unity that could be called love was struck a harsh blow, and it never truly recovered.
September second — a letter from Andie, as she had promised. Narcissa, feeling important, read it aloud to the others. "Hello to my family. It is the morning of my first day at Hogwarts and, like I promised, I'm writing to you. I have some news and I hope it will not startle you too badly." Cissa's eyes went wide, lofty expression dropping from her face to be replaced by a slack-jawed picture of disbelief. After a moment, the letter fluttered to the tabletop from her hands.
Bella, impatient, snatched it up. Unlike Cissa's, her eyes narrowed as she found the offending line. "Andie's not a Slytherin," she hissed. "She's a Ravenclaw."
This proclamation was followed by a silence. After a seemingly infinite pause, Sirius piped up. "What's wrong with Ravenclaw?"
Andie was always the one to answer Sirius's endless stream of questions, and it took her sisters a moment to remember that she wasn'there this time. Cissa, shaking free of her shock, answered, "Well, Sirius, it's just that our family is always in Slytherin. Slytherin has higher standards than the rest of the houses — it doesn't admit mudblood riffraff. It's the only house where you can really feel sure that you're in refined company. I suppose that if she couldn't be in Slytherin, Ravenclaw's not that bad — I mean — they are supposed to be intelligent, aren't they?" She looked hopefully at her younger sister.
Bella was looking unusually upset. "I guess," she said grudgingly. "But — Andie's supposed to be in Slytherin! How could things go wrong like that?"
Cissa was scanning the letter again. "She says she thinks Ravenclaw is a good house for her and she likes the people there. There's one mudblood in her dorm but she doesn't seem too vulgar. And she wants us to please not make a big fuss over it."
"How can we not make a big fuss?" Bella exploded. "She's our sister! She's betrayed the family! And she wants us to just be all right with that?"
Cissa watched helplessly as Bella burst into tears. Andie had always been the one who comforted people and made everything work smoothly. How could she take her older sister's place?
To make matters worse, a noisy sob suddenly broke out from Regulus. "Why di' Andie hafta go away?" he wailed, face reddening. Cissa stared helplessly at her sobbing sister and cousin, while Sirius watched quietly from the corner, a slightly puzzled expression on his face. The facade was falling apart — the Blacks were showing emotion. The way things used to be had suddenly become meaningless, and this loss of direction had the Black children thrown into the confusion, with nowhere to turn.
The world had suddenly become a two-way street.
A/N: I'm sorry for the delay in updating; I was suspended for a week — see "Studying (Revised)" (I should have it up soon) if you want the details. Please review; it makes me very happy. Oh, some responses to reviewers (I love doing these!): I've already responded to Emily (aka Fortecat aka You'llKnowIfYouReadIt) through email. To Elven — so long as you mean it, I don't mind repetitive comments! And you will be seeing more soon… As I'm typing this, I'm looking up at my computer clock and saying "Three more hours until suspension is over… three more hours…" And in three hours, I will be posting not only this, but three other stories! That's what you get for suspending me for a week in which I stay home sick for a day. And to flamepheonix — Thank you so much for your praise! A word of explanation about my reviews of your story — I've been a very confused person and keeping getting my author alerts mixed up and thinking you've posted more chapters than you have. It makes me sad when I discover that there are fewer new chapters than I'd thought. Please write more soon! Oh, and to Sara-who-reviewed "Dying Together, Dying Alone" — You said "loving all your stories" (which made me feel very very happy), so I'm hoping that you're reading this infernally long author's note. Thank you so much for reviewing, and I hope you do it again, because it makes me happy. I'm going to go check out Robin. (That's my English teacher's name. What a coincidence.)
Anyway, sorry for the long A/N, and please review!