A/N: POV will change from chapter to chapter, in order from Bellatrix to Regulus. There'll be 25 chapters so they'll have 5 each. Please leave a review.

WC: 1,004

She hates the way everyone calls her Meda. It's not like Cissy, who hates her nickname because it makes her feel like a child. No. She just thinks it is ugly. She has a full name, and it is Andromeda.

Andromeda, shining galaxy in the sky they studied thoroughly in their second year of Astronomy, when she blushed every time her name was mentioned, and she was ridiculously proud of having such a beautiful name. Andromeda, poor sacrificed daughter to be eaten by sea monsters, only just to be saved by Perseus.

Ted calls her Andromeda. All four beautiful syllables. Or when it is just the two of them, alone, no one around, no mass of students, no prying friends, no pesky sisters, he calls her Ana. And it is just Ana and Teddy, the two of them. It is lovely

Bella came to the station and brought both Cissy and her home, calling her Meda all the way, making her cringe. She almost hesitated to correct her, but changed her mind. She had seen the look in Bella's eye when she commented the fact that they couldn't always trust her. So she shut her mouth and occasionally added to whatever Cissy was going on about.

She is wary of Bella. Something about her has changed. It was very gradual, but Andromeda is exceptionally perceptive. It started during her last year at Hogwarts and it has been creeping through her since then, like a poisonous weed. But when she came, she had seen that the weed had lodged itself in her heart and was growing slowly, into a beautiful, but dangerous flower. So, Andromeda was wary.

It's not that she doesn't love her sister. No, she loves both of them dearly. But sometimes, it is so hard to see further than the hate in their voice, the prejudice in the way they speak, and look at their uncorrupted souls.

Mother and Father greet them in the Drawing Room and they are ushered to dinner quickly. Mother is delighted to see Cissy again, and eagerly replies to her chatter. She is her favourite after all. Father turns to Bella and they started to talk in low voices. Andromeda feels slightly left out, but only slightly.

"What about you, Meda," Mother says . "How was your term?"

Father and Bella stop talking and turned to her. The silence that has suddenly appeared, out of nowhere, makes her uncomfortable, but she brushes it off.

"Got your eye on anybody?" Cissy asks. "I here Adrian Fawcett thinks you're pretty."

Father nods. "Adrian Fawcett. He would be a good match for you, Meda."

"Aww, look! She's blushing," Bella taunts.

"Leave your sister alone, Bella," Mother scolds, and Bella rolls her eyes.

"Mother, I'm not a child any more."

"That doesn't mean you have to pester her."

It's funny how they're all talking about her and she hasn't spoken a sentence. She puts her fork down, and rearranges her knife. Silver both of them. Pure silver. Toujours Pure. Even the silverware.

"Meda has a crush on Adrian Fawcett!" Bella repeats gleefully. "Tell us more."

"My love life is none of your concern" – they don't know how true that is – "but I hear Rodolphus Lestrange is going to propose. Do tell," Andromeda deflects, and now the attention is on her sister.

Bella gives her a slightly annoyed look. Andromeda can read her perfectly. Years of sending each other silent messages at the dinner table, when Mother and Father were angry, when Cissy was too young to speak, taught them how to communicate. Bella is saying what are you up to.

Andromeda doesn't respond. Bella huffs but answers her question. Their exchange has gone unnoticed by all. Mother, Father and Cissy are oblivious. They always are when Bella and Andromeda slip into their eye exchanges.

"Oh no, he's not going to propose, trust me," Bella tells them.

"He's not going to propose?" Mother echoes.

"Why, no."

"But you're living together," Mother continues.

"And?"

"And you love each other," Cissy adds.

Bella snorts. "Oh, there is no love, trust me."

"Then what is there?" Cissy asks.

"Oh, a lot of things Cissy darling," Bella says gleefully. "Respect, power, money, lust-"

"Bella!" Mother exclaims.

Bella just smiles at her. Andromeda is forgotten, she just watches the whole exchange, silent. Bella says she doesn't love him, and it's true. She's not sure Bella understands what love, the love Ted and Andromeda share, is.

But then again, neither do her parents. Neither does most of the society around her, Purebloods. Hypocrites, all of them. Mother for scolding Bella when she married Father for the exact same reasons. Bella's just a bit more daring because she won't do the 'walking down the aisle' part.

"Oh, he'll be proposing," Father says gruffly. "He's asked me for your hand."

"What!" Bella shrieks. "He's proposing!"

"Darling!" Mother says, "You've ruined the surprise."

"A surprise!" she demands. "That's all it is to you?"

"Why, it's absolutely marvellous news, isn't it, Bella," Mother says.

"No, it bloody isn't!" Mother gasps. "I don't want to get married, and Rodolphus knows that very well."

"Bellatrix," Father intervenes, "You are living together and of a marriageable age, it's only natural. And it will be good for the family."

Bella shakes her head, and strands of hair come lose from her bun, framing her face. She's got a wild, angry glint in her eye. "You set him up for this," she spits out, venom injected in her voice."

"It's the way it must be," Father repeats, more stern, more cold, on the verge of ager himself.

Bella storms out of the room.

Cissy looks at the whole scene with wide worried eyes. Andromeda folds in on herself. In the silence, left by Bella's gaping absence, she excuses herself. She walks up the stairs to her room one by one. She can hear Bella swearing, rather loudly from next door. Andromeda ignores her, and steps into her room. She's got a letter to write.