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Chapter 3- New Secrets

Bella never said any more about that night before we went home, but the next day she was her old self, embracing Narcissa on the platform with such exuberant joy that Mother told her to restrain herself. I had adjusted to Hogwarts, felt happy and at home there, but I had managed to push aside how much I missed Narcissa. Being back home, as cold and strict as home could be, I was whole again. Narcissa seemed the same as she threw her arms around me on the platform and gasped "Oh Andy, I missed you!" but in some ways she seemed older than when we had left only four months before. She had grown up in her solitude. It occurred to me then that I was the luckiest of the three of us. Bella had gone off to Hogwarts alone, Narcissa had spent a year at home alone. I never had to be without both of them. The world never felt quite right when it wasn't all three of us together.

If there is one thing the pureblood families did well, it was the parties. Holiday galas and masked balls and summer house parties. It was an opportunity to show off your wealth, to show off your status in the wizarding elite. By the time we arrived home for the holidays, the season was in full swing, our parents gone every night in their most elegant robes.

Our parents didn't officially recognize such a "muggle" holiday as Christmas, but the time between the winter solstice and the New Year was one of seemingly constant celebration. We received presents, the finest robes and cloaks from our parents, sweets and little trinkets from friends and family. There were seemingly endless family meals, but they were worth sitting through for after they ended we were allowed into the sitting room, with its dark paneled walls and the lingering masculine smells of smoke and whisky, while we drank hot chocolate and Uncle Alphard gathered us around and told us stories of the exotic places he traveled. We played in the snow that fell over the grounds and ice skated on the lake, and then rushed inside to curl up in front of the fire wrapped in quilts. The house seemed a little bit warmer filled with the smells of the pine branches that lined the banisters and the elaborate meals the house elves prepared.

Our parents' formal dress ball fell on the winter solstice, and traditionally thirteen was the age when we were allowed to start attending. Since Bella would not turn thirteen until the spring, we were not allowed to go, but it was the same every year, we would escape the house elves (Bella had perfected petrificus totalus) and sneak out. We sat in a row in the upper landing, looking over the room with its blazing lights, the men in their traditional black robes and the ladies in their bright colors and jewels. The sounds of music and laughter and the intoxicating scents of perfume and liquor floated up to us.

Suddenly Sirius leapt up and dragged me to my feet as the sounds of an old-fashioned waltz reached us. He gave me a low, gentlemanly bow.

"May I have this dance, fair lady Andromeda?"

I curtsied as well as I could in a nightgown and bare feet. "It would be my pleasure, good Sir."

Bella laughed out loud as neither of us were very good dancers, but then caught up poor Regulus into a wild sort of twirling dance. When he cried "Gah Bella, let me go!" she released him and instead seized Narcissa, who laughed as Bella spun her around dizzily and Sirius dipped me so low I almost ended up on the floor.

Our revels were interrupted by the sounds of footsteps coming up the great staircase, and it was only Regulus who was not too distracted by the fun to alert us. Not wanting to be caught out of bed, as there could be no greater sin than to embarrass our parents by being children, we raced down the hall and around a corner as Father and several of the men he called "business associates" reached the top of the stairs. Our father, dark and handsome as all the men in our family were, Abraxas Malfoy, a golden playboy who radiated wealth and good breeding, and Dimitri Dolohov, tall and gaunt but moving with a leonine fluidity. They were all highly-respected, pillars of the community, received in the highest levels of the Ministry, and yet I remember thinking in their black formal robes and the dim torchlight of the upper hallway, they looked sinister, an omen of things to come.

They disappeared into Father's study halfway down the hall from where we peeked around the corner. A few moments later they were followed by Frederick Nott and a man in everyday robes, who must not have been at the party. The door shut behind them with a decisive click and we heard the sound of a bolt sliding into place.

I was about to say that we should go back to our rooms before someone else came up and caught us, but Bella had already slipped away, creeping on silent bare feet down the hallway.

"Where are you going?" Sirius hissed after her, but she waved him off.

"I want to know what they're talking about!" she replied, coming up to the heavy closed door and pressing her ear against it. They must not have imperturbed the door, because we could see her face screwed up in concentration as she tried to make out what she was hearing.

She was so intent on what she was hearing that she didn't hear the sound of another person coming up the stairs, or see our frantic waves as we tried to alert her. She didn't move an inch until a hand suddenly came down on her shoulder and she jumped a foot, with a little gasp and a quickly muffled shriek, and looked up at our Uncle Alphard. The rest of us, hidden from sight, breathed a sigh of relief. Of all the people who might have caught her eavesdropping, he wouldn't deal out a punishment too severe. He was considered "eccentric" by the family, for his love of travel and exploration, and because he seemed to have no desire for the power and wealth that motivated our father and other Uncle. Now he looked down at Bella with a mix of amusement, concern, and understanding.

"Let me guess, you couldn't sleep and you were just...going for a walk, when you tripped and fell against the door on your ear?"

She smiled. "Exactly, Uncle Alphard."

"Naturally. Well, I'd advise you that should you have trouble sleeping again, try counting sheep. I don't want you to hear anything...well, anything you'd rather not. And I don't expect you'd like the result if your father had opened the door and you fell in on your ear, hm?"

Although I suspected she wasn't a bit sorry, she managed to look properly contrite. "No, Sir."

"Good girl." He raised his voice slightly. "And on the off chance that anyone else might be around, I'd advise them to scamper off to bed and untie the house elves, as the party is winding down and people will be expecting someone to get their cloaks." He winked at Bella, and I heard him put an imperturbable charm on the door before going back downstairs.

"What were they talking about?" Sirius asked her after we were back in our room and had un-petrified the house elves, who had rushed off to help with the guests, not seeming to resent their imprisonment at the wand of "Miss Bellatrix."

She shrugged. "I couldn't hear that much. Something about the Ministry being wrong, and something about a riddle."

Sirius frowned and then shrugged. "Probably just boring politics stuff," he decided.

"I don't think it's boring," Bella retorted, throwing a glance at the door, as if she wanted to go back and listen. "I think it's important."

Sirius shrugged again, clearly not too interested in pursuing the topic.

Regulus fell asleep as we lay on the floor in our room looking out the skylight, picking out the stars we were named after (although Narcissa resented this activity a bit, not being able to participate), and finally Sirius, with heavy eyelids himself, dragged him back to the guest room where they slept. We heard the sounds below of people leaving, although the party went on for the younger guests, who would keep dancing and drinking until dawn, and then the adults coming up. I should have been tired, Narcissa was already asleep, curled up in a little ball with her breathing slow and regular, but I couldn't sleep. It must have been after two when I felt Bella slip out of bed, and heard the door open. Opening one eye, I watched her slip out of the door and close it softly behind her, followed by muffled voices in the hall.

Narcissa mumbled a sleepy protest and tried to kick me as I stepped on her climbing out of bed, and cracked the door barely an inch, just enough to see into the hallway. Bella was shivering in her nightgown, but arguing passionately, albeit quietly, with Rudolphus Lestrange.

"I want to come!"

"You're much too young," he told her dismissively. She did look very young in comparison to him, and to Lucius Malfoy who was waiting impatiently at the end of the hall.

"I'm thirteen, and that's only three yours younger than you!"

"You're twelve, and that's a lifetime at your age." He finished fastening a black cloak around his shoulders and looked down at her, and his voice softened slightly. "Listen kiddo, you've got the right idea, but no one's going to take you seriously yet. You're way too young to be involved in any of this now. Your time will come, count on it."

She scowled, but he only patted her on the head in a manner that he meant to be patronizing, and turned away in response to Malfoy's "Come on, we don't have time for kids." They walked away, although Rudolphus did glance back at her with a thoughtful look.

"Crucio, crucio!" she muttered after their retreating backs. Of course nothing happened, she was too young, and too innocent, and her power too unfocused to actually perform the spell, but hearing the words on her lips was enough to frighten me.

I let the door close again and jumped back into bed, and moments later she returned, shaking with cold, and I pretended to be asleep. As she curled up close to us for warmth, I could feel her heart racing, and for the first time in my life, I was almost afraid to speak to her.

I woke the next morning feeling tired, having tossed and turned most of the night haunted by strange, vivid dreams that I couldn't really remember. It was freezing in the room and I immediately saw it was because Bella had the window open, frigid winter air streaming in along with the sunlight. She turned to look at me with a stunning smile and I forgot all my apprehension of the previous night. Sometimes I wonder, how much I would forgive if Bella smiled at me like that today.

She beckoned me over and whispered "Andy, look!"

It had snowed during the night, not the patchy snow of the previous few weeks, where we could barely scrape enough together for a snowman, but a smooth white blanket covering the grounds.

"Cissy, wake up! Come look!"

"...don't wanna...shut up Bella..." she mumbled in response, scooting down until the blankets covered her head. She was always the slowest to wake up. We finally dragged her up, and dressed in our warmest cloaks and gloves and scarves, ventured out into the bright cold day.

We spent the day outside, sledding and having snowballs fights, until our shouts and laughter must have alerted Mother to our "unladylike" behavior. She appeared in the doorway as Bella was holding Sirius down and trying to shove snow down the collar of his shirt.

"Bellatrix! Andromeda! Narcissa! That's enough of this childishness! Get upstairs this instant and put on decent robes. We are having guests for tea and I expect you all to behave in a manner befitting how you were raised."

She either didn't hear or ignored Sirius's derisive snort as we all trudged back inside. I finished changing first, into very grown-up dark blue robes, and came out to find Regulus proudly bearing a red envelope.

"You got a letter! One of the house elves said I should bring it to you."

"Let me see."

I made to reach for it but he sprang back out of my grasp.

"Who's it from?"

"I don't know until you give it to me," I said, reaching for it again, but he danced away. We didn't often see the mischievous side of Reg, he was usually overshadowed by his brother's antics, but he had his own streak of trouble.

"Is it from your boyfriend?" he teased.

"Don't be stupid, give it to me!"

"Andy has a boyfriend, Andy has a boyfriend!" he sang, still dodging me, making kissing sounds.

"You're such a baby Reggie, you don't know anything."

"Andy has a- Ow!"

He gave a yelp as I caught him and twisted his arm around his back to grab the letter. Unfortunately, Mother chose that moment to come around the corner and caught us scuffling.

"Oh honestly Andromeda, can't you act like a lady for five minutes! What's going on here?"

I straightened up and released Reg, quickly concealing the envelope behind my back. "Nothing, Mother," I replied politely.

"Nothing, Auntie," Reg echoed. He might tease me, but we had solidarity when facing adults.

Any other parent might have known we were lying but Mother didn't know me well enough to tell or didn't care. She just gave an irritated sigh.

"Where are your sisters? Mrs. Avery and Mrs. Malfoy will be here any moment."

"I'll go get them," I offered, seizing the chance to escape, with her "Walk, Andromeda" following me down the hall, I hurried back to my room. I knew Bella and Narcissa were not there, but I wanted to get away from her to open the strange letter. A shower of red and green glitter spilled out of the envelope when I opened it, and I found a card with a glittery pine tree sprinkled in red on it.

Dear Andy,

I know you said your family "doesn't celebrate" Christmas because it's "for muggles", but I thought you should get at least one Christmas card anyway. Not your fault your family isn't any fun. I hope you're studying over the hols, you're going to need it.

Sincerely,
Ted

I stared. Small gifts had been exchanged among friends in the Slytherin common room, but it was a bizarre and unheard of thing to get a card from someone in another house. I heard Bella calling for me, and in a panic, I shoved the card into my school bag, which I had abandoned for the holidays, between the pages of my potions book.

"Andy?" She pushed open the door. "Mother's having a stroke, we better get downstairs. Why is there glitter all over you?"

"I...uh..." I was saved having to come up with an explanation, because she wasn't really listening, just brushing off my robes while she hustled me downstairs.

"…with the way things are going at the Ministry…well, my husband is naturally re-thinking that summer internship for Lucius."

"It is dreadful," agreed Mrs. Avery. "And young Lucius is such a charming, handsome boy, well-suited for politics."

"Naturally, but things at the Ministry going the way they are, we are encouraging him to consider…other avenues."

They all shook their heads ruefully and sipped their tea. I wasn't too worried about whatever Ministry crisis they were currently worrying over. It was standard for my mother and her friends to have to complain about something, so it appeared today it was the Ministry. Bella had tried to ask what the "situation" at the Ministry was and Mother had told her that ladies did not interrupt, so she was contenting herself with making faces when Mother wasn't looking, trying to make Narcissa laugh, while she struggled to keep a straight face.

I was barely listening at all, my mind occupied with the foreign idea of a mudblood boy sending me a Christmas Card. The more I thought about it, the angrier I got. He was far too bold for a mudblood, assuming that he could send me letters whenever he liked, and how had he gotten my address anyway? The muggle postman would certainly never have gotten anywhere near our house, so it must have been something sneaky. Competing with me at school was one thing, but sneaking into my head over the holidays, into the strictly pureblood world of my family, was going too far. He had no right to take me off-guard like that and upset my equilibrium. And yet I knew then I would not tell Bella and Narcissa about it. It was the first time I intentionally kept a secret from them.