word count: 459
"Where are you going, Andi?" Bellatrix appears from the shadows, and some paranoid part of Andromeda is worried that her sister has been there this whole time,
Has her luck finally run out? Has Bellatrix managed to see through her and worked it all out?
Andromeda swallows down the guilt, telling herself how ridiculous she's being. She shrugs. "I wanted to walk."
Bellatrix lifts a brow. "It's nearly midnight," she says. "Mother and Father would murder you if they knew you were breaking curfew."
She suspects her mother and father have bigger things to worry about. Something as silly and insignificant as breaking curfew pales in comparison to the things her father has to deal with at the Ministry. Still, Andromeda doesn't argue. Bellatrix has never been happy with people who argue with her, and Andromeda has learned to bite her tongue over the years. It makes everything much more pleasant.
"I am sure Mother and Father will never know, as long as you don't tell them," Andromeda reasons.
Bellatrix lifts a brow, pushing her hand through her wild black curls. "Or you get caught," she counters, shaking her head. "You're hardly the type to sneak around."
There's that stab of guilt again, a faint pain in Andromeda's chest. What would Bellatrix do if she saw the real Andromeda? If she knew that not only has Andromeda been sneaking out off and on for the past half year, but she's been sneaking out to see a Muggleborn (a Muggleborn who she's fallen hopelessly in love with)?
Once upon a time, Andromeda prided herself on being honest to a fault. Now… It feels like her life is made of nothing but deception and lies.
Part of her wants to tell Bellatrix the truth, but that's a very foolish, needlessly hopeful part. She already knows what Bellatrix would do. Even now, Andromeda is painfully aware of the wand in her sister's hand, like Bellatrix is waiting for her to make even one tiny mistake.
"What teenager doesn't sneak out and break curfew from time to time?"
"I never have."
Andromeda's lips quirk into a hint of a smile. "Well, aren't you a good girl?" she teases.
That seems to be all it takes. Bellatrix visibly relaxes, lips twisting into a scowl at Andromeda's jab. "Shut it, you," she warns, but there's the faintest hint of playfulness in her tone as she slaps her palm against Andromeda's shoulder. "If you get caught, that's on you."
Andromeda offers her older sister a mock salute. "Aye aye!"
And with that, she turns on her heel, letting out a relieved sigh. If she could fool Bellatrix, maybe she's a better liar than she had originally thought.
Truthfully, Andromeda doesn't know how that makes her feel.
