Narcissa held back a groan when she heard Elara's voice calling for her. She had kept Teddy and Elara in her room since their mother had been busy the previous evening. She lay still in her bed a minute or two longer before turning onto her back and sitting up slightly. "What is it?" she asked the child sleepily.

"I want Dad," Elara sniffed, crawling up to her great aunt and wrapping her arms around the witch. She looked up at the blonde witch pleadingly with sad blue eyes.

"After a little while," Narcissa said softly, then yawned, unable to help it. The children had kept her up late, Elara because she wanted her father, and Teddy because he was worried about his mother. Narcissa held back a wince at the thought of Teddy realising so young what was happening to his mother. Rodolphus had never come back to Elara, even though he had promised, and Elara had cried and screamed in protest when Narcissa had tried to put her to bed. It hadn't been easy.

"I want Daddy!" Elara cried, her hair a limp brown. "Please!" This was the word that always got her most of what she wanted.

Narcissa closed her eyes for a moment, trying to think of some way to communicate to the child why she couldn't have her father. "Elara," she said, "you remember when you tried to run to him last time? The ward kept you in? Well, I can't leave through the ward either. Only your mum or grandmum could take you to him."

"Take me to Mum, then," the child demanded, glaring up at her.

"I...can't," Narcissa sighed as the child wriggled away from her. "Elara, your mother is hurt."

"Mum's hurt?" Elara said in alarm.

"Your dad hurts her." Teddy sat up and looked at his sister, his hair mousey brown just like his mother's. "I saw him."

Elara looked at her brother in confusion. "No!"

Narcissa turned to Teddy, horrified. "You've seen him?"

Teddy nodded, a look of slight anger coming to his face. "He hit her," the boy reported. "Mum almost fell, too. Didn't his grandmum teach him not to hit girls?"

Amusement, relief, and horror were mixed in the sound Narcissa made before drawing Elara back into her arms. "Daddy," whimpered the little girl, clinging to her great aunt. "He won't hurt Mum, right, Cissa?"

Biting her lip, Narcissa responded after a moment of careful thought. "Your mother will be fine, Elara. He won't really hurt her." She swallowed her slight guilt over her obvious lie and embraced the child gently. "You'll be able to see your mum and dad later today, probably."

"Okay," the child sniffed, curling into the front of her aunt's nightdress. Neither child spoke for a little while, and Narcissa was glad for the end of that conversation.


Elara was happy, nearly three hours later, when her father came back to the ward and immediately found her in the sitting room with Narcissa, Draco, and Teddy. "Daddy!" she shrieked happily, running into his arms immediately.

"Hello, beautiful," he murmured, a strangely human smile on his face as he lifted the child into his arms and placed a kiss on her cheek.

"Daddy," she grinned, wrapping her arms around his neck and leaning her head against his shoulder as her expression became serious. "You said you'd come back!" she accused him.

"I'm sorry," he sighed, unable to keep a small smirk from the corners of his mouth. "Sometimes I'm called away, Elara. I wouldn't leave you if I could help it."

"Good," Elara said firmly. "Stay with me."

Rodolphus Lestrange grinned playfully. "I thought you might want to go out with me," he said to her. "What do you think?"

Elara looked up at him curiously, and he turned, summoning her bag with a raised hand, and carried her from the room, walking toward the edge of the ward. "No!" she cried, hiding her face in his shoulder as she recognised the hall, her hair shooting white. "It'll hurt me!"

"Not if you're with me," he said softly into her ear, carrying her straight through the ward without stopping. "Look, darling." She chanced a glance over his shoulder, then looked around, seeming amazed at his accomplishment.

"Oh," she said, her hair shooting pink as she grinned up at him, then hugged him tightly. "Love you," she told him, leaning her head against his shoulder with a sigh. She didn't know what her Aunt Cissa and her brother meant about her father being mean and all: he was nothing like that at all.

Rodolphus smirked proudly as he carried his daughter out to the doors of the manor and disapparated with her. Rabastan had promised to meet them at Lestrange Manor: it was time Elara visited the family home.


It was with great relief that Narcissa left Teddy to Draco's care and went to check on Andromeda. She knew that the older witch had been awake for a little while, but Narcissa had been too busy with the children to go to her. She stepped into her sister's room, finding the witch curled up against her pillows, her eyes closed. "Andromeda?" she asked hesitantly.

"I can't do anything without pain," Andromeda breathed. "Nothing. It's going to take a long time for me to get back to normal."

"I'll help you change clothes...?" Narcissa questioned, and her sister sighed, agreeing. They didn't say anything else until the task was complete, Andromeda sitting on the edge of the bed with Narcissa standing at her side.

"Thank you," the witch murmured, then hesitated before asking, "Do you think everyone would hate if I went out to the sitting room?" She looked up at Narcissa with a small amount of hurt in her eyes.

Narcissa reached out and very gently took one of her sister's hands. "I know they blamed you," she whispered. "And I'm sure you know the truth, even though you lied for them. If nothing else, they should be grateful for that. I won't let them disturb you. At least, not until you can fully deal with them."

Andromeda waited for a minute or two, then got to her feet, walking from the room with Narcissa's help. Teddy gave them a careful look as they entered the room, then went to his grandmother, looking into her face. "Are you okay?" he asked her in concern.

The witch gave him a weak smile. "I'm getting better, Teddy," she told him.

The boy sighed. "I don't like them," he said plainly.

"Shh," Andromeda sighed softly, reaching out to tilt the child's face up toward hers. "You must not say things like that about them, Teddy. I did some bad things, and that's why they hurt me."

"Is that why Elara's dad hurts Mum?" Teddy asked innocently.

Andromeda looked over at Narcissa in shock, and the blonde witch sighed, giving her a helpless look. "No, Teddy," Andromeda said finally. "He hates her: that's why he hurts her."

Teddy frowned. "Hate?" he said, the word sounding strange to him. "How can you hate Mum?"

Both witches smiled sympathetically at the child. "He's just a bad man." Draco looked up at Teddy as he spoke the words.

"Yeah," Teddy nodded in agreement, going back to his toys. "He's just bad."

"Oh," Andromeda said suddenly, looking around. "Where's Elara?"

Narcissa hesitated before answering, "Rodolphus has her."

Andromeda raised an eyebrow at this, and Draco added, "They're gone from the Manor, as well."

Teddy looked around at his family. "Elara's gone?"

"He'll bring her back," Narcissa reassured him. "He needs Dora to take care of her, after all."

The door burst open, Andromeda holding back a smirk at the sight of her wild-looking, frantic daughter. "Where's Elara?" Dora gasped, her hair white as she stared around at them all. "She's not in the ward! Has Rodolphus got her? Where has he gone?"

Teddy stared at his mother in shock, and Narcissa said quietly, "He's taken her out, Dora. Out of the Manor."

Nymphadora's fists clenched, the roots of her hair turning red. Andromeda had not seen the girl look quite so insane since her friend had been betrayed to the Death Eaters. "I've got to get her back," Nymphadora whispered, her gaze falling away from her family. "He'll hurt her..."

"Mumma." Teddy shuffled forward, cautiously wrapping his arms around his mother.

She leaned down to her son, pulling him close as a tear trickled down her cheek. "Teddy," she sniffed.

"I think he took her to Lestrange Manor," Draco told them. "I think that's where the signature points, but I could be wrong."

"She's not safe there!" Dora snapped, looking up at her cousin. "She's a halfblood, for Merlin's sake!"

"He knows that," Andromeda said scornfully. "But he is the heir of the House of Lestrange, and there should be nothing in their home that he cannot remedy. Rodolphus will not allow his precious daughter to be hurt."

Nymphadora looked at her mother, saying distantly, "Well, you wouldn't understand. You're too far removed from remembering how to protect your daughter."

Andromeda watched her for a moment, then said, "My daughter didn't appreciate being protected. She wanted to prove she could handle her life on her own, and look where that's got her."

Anger flashed across Nymphadora's face, and Teddy drew away from her as Narcissa got to her feet and took the child from the room, concerned for his safety in the storm to come. "Mother, you've been an awful person since the moment you decided to try to help me," Dora snapped at the witch as Draco cautiously glanced from the two witches to the door. "Nothing you've done has improved our situation any! What were you thinking?"

"I don't know, honestly," Andromeda said coldly. "You never wanted, nor accepted my help. And now you've ruined any chance of my ever being able to actually protect you from within the Death Eater ranks. I can never build back the trust that you so callously threw away."

"Trust, ha!" Dora spat. "They never trusted me!"

"I meant Bellatrix trusted me," Andromeda hissed, raising her voice angrily. "She gave me more freedom than I have had here! You ruined that all because of your little ginger friend. You think it's amusing that you blamed everything on me, do you?"

"You ruined it yourself!" Dora yelled at her mother, her hair bright red in her rage. "I told you to leave her alone, to let her stay free. What do you not understand about what we've been through? You should not want to bring others into this mess just to make yourself look better! They know I won't submit!"

"You don't have to!" Andromeda said, looking at her daughter as she tried to force herself to calm down. "I wanted you to go boldly into your place here and show that you can be a strong young woman. You have proven yourself to be just the opposite."

Nymphadora stormed forward, her mother simply glancing up at her. "Just because I refuse to allow myself to become a wicked, twisted bitch like Bellatrix does not mean I am weak!" she hissed. "You may easily turn out like her, but I think one is enough! I'm not a bit sorry that they blamed you for the escape. You deserve every Curse inflicted on you, every cruel word they said, and every disparaging word and look from the Inner Circle."

Rage flooded through Andromeda, and she got to her feet carefully, drawing herself to her full height and glaring at her daughter. "I lied for you! I could have turned you in! I still could!"

"Why don't you?" Dora shrieked with laughter. "Rodolphus already knows, and he said Bella does too! There's no need, Andromeda."

"Don't call me Andromeda!" the woman snapped. "I'm your mother!"

"You're no mother of mine!" Dora yelled, staggering backward with a cry as the other witch slapped her straight across the mouth.

Andromeda, who had cried out in pain herself, stared at the young woman. "I can't save you," she whispered, seeing her daughter's bloody lip. "I never wanted to say...it is my fault that everyone looks down on you anyway." She swallowed hard and said, "I wouldn't do anything differently, though."

"What would Dad say if he were here?" Dora asked thoughtfully, tilting her head to look at the woman. "What if he had seen you turn in a poor innocent young girl? What would he think of your desperate need to be heavily trained in the Dark Arts? You are nothing like the woman he knew, Andromeda."

"He knew enough of my past to understand why I've done what I have," Andromeda murmured. "And he would be dead if he were here. Your father knew that I had a Dark side he could never touch. He loved me through it all. I supposed it's my influence on you that keeps you from doing the same."

Nymphadora almost choked on her anger. "How can you just talk like that?" she demanded. "How can you say he would still love you?"

"The same way Remus would still love you if he knew what you've been going through," Andromeda said coldly.

Nymphadora blanched, turning away from her mother at the thought of her husband knowing about Rodolphus and Elara. "He would," Dora mumbled. "But it was nothing I wanted to do. You chose your path. You chose to go Dark because you were afraid of suffering, but it hasn't worked out too well, has it?"

Andromeda almost sneered at her daughter. "Better than stubborn opposition," she retorted. "I would rather follow proudly than bow in shame, Nymphadora."

The Metamorphmagus whirled around to scream at the older witch, "I will never understand you! Why don't you have pride enough to hold to your beliefs?"

"I think you mean to ask why I don't hold to your beliefs," Andromeda retorted. "I hold to my own just fine. I make the best of situations, and I do what I need to do in order to survive, even excel at whatever task I am given. I regret that I have not installed that same determination in you."

"You are ashamed of me," Nymphadora growled through gritted teeth. "You made me a halfblood. I have the full extent of the powers that you sometimes display! It's not my fault I'm like this! I'm a product of all your terrible decisions!"

"I raised you the best I could!" Andromeda finally yelled at her, unable to hold back her rage. "You don't know how difficult it is to have no one that understands you, no one who can relate to you. You don't understand why I went to so much trouble to keep you away from my family, to save you from this mess. But no. You had to become an Auror. You had to run off and join the Order. You did every single thing I didn't want you to!"

"But I'm not a Dark witch!" Nymphadora yelled back. "Or did you want that and I missed it?"

Tears sprang to the eyes of the older witch. "You turned out fine," she cried. "But you're going about this the wrong way! I didn't raise you to be like this!" Dora merely looked at her coldly, and Andromeda sniffed, "You weren't an accident, Dora. I wanted a child, and Ted and I were very happy with you. But I don't know how to be a proper mother to someone like you; I can't even speak to you anymore."

Dora glared at her. "Just remember: this is all your fault," she snapped, and took a breath to continue.

The door flew open, Rodolphus stomping into the room and glaring at the two of them. "Both of you are making entirely too much noise," he snapped, storming to Dora's side and grabbing her by the arm, his wand in her ribs. "Elara was asleep until she heard the two of you screaming. I won't have it, Nymphadora. And you, Andromeda...the girl is right. Most everything is your fault. Now stay quiet until I've got Elara sorted out."

Rodolphus dragged the girl from the room, Dora fighting him until he had pulled her into the children's room. She saw Elara curled up in her bed, hugging a small stuffed cat as she fought back tears. "Mum," she said upon seeing her, immediately holding out her arms to her.

Dora went to her little girl, taking the child into her arms and cradling her close. "Elara," she whispered against the child's hair, fighting back her own tears. "Mumma's here."

"You were yelling," Elara whimpered, wrapping her arms around her mother's neck. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, baby," Nymphadora whispered into the child's ear. "Mum's sorry she woke you. I didn't mean to be so loud."

Rodolphus was frowning at the woman, though he smiled proudly at his daughter. "Elara had fun today," he said. "Didn't you, beautiful?"

Elara looked up with a sleepy smile. "Yeah," she grinned, yawning as she lay her head on her mother's shoulder. "Rab's silly, Mum."

Nymphadora didn't know how to respond to this, especially when Rodolphus laughed genuinely, the sound making her chill slightly. "Shh," Dora finally just shushed the girl, rocking her gently.

No more words were spoken until Elara had lain down for her nap of the day, Rodolphus warding her bed carefully before turning to his child's mother. "Andromeda seems to be out of sorts," he said with a smirk.

"She usually is," Nymphadora said dully, turning away from her daughter.

"Nymphie," Rodolphus sighed, slipping his arm around her waist and leaning his head against her shoulder. "If I catch you arguing like that again, especially if Elara's near, I will not be pleased."

"I wanted to scream at her," Dora hissed. "She needs to know that I am not happy with the way she has acted!"

"And yet we both know it was your fault that the Weasley girl escaped," Rodolphus whispered against her neck. "I don't need you to admit it. I know you, Nymphie. You merely used your mother, set her up. I'm sure you wanted to scream at her for how she's been such a perfect Death Eater that you could never dream of becoming."

Nymphadora hissed angrily, but Rodolphus simply led her down the hall to her own room. "Make sure to ward the room if you're going to scream, Nymphie," he lectured her, waving his wand and casually adding his usual ward. "We wouldn't want Teddy to hear you."

She stepped back from him, but he caught her wrist and slammed her against the wall, a Crucio jolting into her as she gasped, writhing in pain. "I hate you," she breathed, and he smiled. He was well acquainted with what his victim thought of him, but it would make no difference. He would break her into submission one way or another: Nymphadora could not be allowed to misbehave.


Re-reading this chapter before posting made me miss writing Rodolphus xD We're far enough ahead in our two stories that I haven't written him in a long time. I miss him XD

Dora