Word Count: 378


"How can you be upset with me?" Rabastan demands. "I am standing for something, Andi!"

She shakes her head and tries not to laugh. Really, there's nothing actually fun about the situation; she is just so flabbergasted that he can't see how stupid he's being.

They had a future together once. Now, all she can see is the skull and serpent that marks his forearm. He's made a terrible choice, no doubt following Rodolphus without a second thought.

"Andi?"

"You're a Death Eater," she hisses.

"Yeah. Just like your sister."

Andromeda bristles at the reminder. Bellatrix had been a hopeless cause. Of course she would join the Dark Lord. No one could talk her out of it.

But Rabastan is nothing like Bellatrix. He is good and kind, and he could have taken any other road.

"You thought I could just stand by and watch you do this?" she asks, hurt saturating each word. "You don't know me at all, do you?"

Rabastan recoils as though she's physically struck him. His smile fades, and he looks so much like a lost puppy that Andromeda almost reconsiders.

But she can't. This isn't some minor difference like discovering he has to have the bedroom door open when he sleeps. She isn't bound to marry him the way her parents had been; though their union had been in the works since they were thirteen, she's always had a choice. Until now, however, she could never see a future with anyone else but him.

Now, that's all falling apart around them. She could forgive him for anything else, but not this. Andromeda is nothing like her family. She no longer sees Muggleborns as dangerous, inferior creatures. How could she ever marry someone who does?

"I thought love would be enough," Rabastan tells her.

She smiles sadly and reaches out, gently caressing his cheek. "I'm sorry, Rabastan. I do love you, but I could never turn a blind eye to this."

As she walks away, her heart feels as though it's being ripped to shreds. She had wanted so badly for it to work out and to have her perfect life with him.

The Dark Lord has taken her sister from her, and now Rabastan. Andromeda silently vows to make an impact somehow.