In a surprise to both Cissy and Andromeda, no letters came the next day or the day after that, though they paid careful attention to the owl post swooping in over breakfast each morning. If Sirius received any, he hadn't shared them with his cousins. In fact, they hadn't seen him at all outside of the Great Hall, which made Andromeda's job of keeping an eye on him, quite a bit harder.
"He's sitting with that boy again. They've got parchment and a quill out." Cissy said during breakfast on Friday morning. They had taken checking on Sirius during meals from afar, though neither of them wanted to be doing it.
"And?" Andromeda pressed, buttering her toast. She had her back to the Gryffindor table, Cissy across from her.
"He's writing. What else do you do with a quill?" Cissy's upturned nose was reaching new heights as she craned her neck to watch Sirius. "Homework, do you think?"
"He's slacking off already."
"Or he just has a lot of it. Maybe it's Transfiguration. I have a yard long essay due today, and we've only had one lesson."
"Really?" said Andromeda. Transfiguration was a grueling complex magic that she had dropped as soon as she could.
"McGonagall was in a foul mood. I think Wigton's playing at home."
"Ugh, don't make me think about McGonagall's cycle while I'm eating." Andromeda pulled a face. And maybe her dislike for the Gryffindor Head of House hadn't made her keen to continue on with the subject either. "What does it look like he's writing?"
"Unfortunately, I didn't bring omnioculars to breakfast." Cissy sniped, and Andromeda glowered at her.
She turned around, looking over the Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws to find Sirius and the bespectacled boy from the train (who was also in Gryffindor and had sat next to Sirius at every meal) amidst the sea of black robes and pointy hats.
She spotted a head of familiar golden blond hair first. Ted Tonks was sitting beside Frank Longbottom at the Gryffindor table. He was eating a piece of toast, just like she was. His had jam on it. And he must have found whatever nonsense Frank was saying funny because he started laughing, his eyes crinkling up in delight. Ted brandished his toast at Frank like a wand, jam splattering his robes. Ted's eyes grew in horror, and Andromeda bit her lip to keep from laughing.
"What do you think?"
Andromeda, startled, spun back around. She hoped her cheeks had not turned as pink as she thought they had. "I think it's probably just homework."
Cissy accepted it readily and went back to her scrambled eggs.
They ate the rest of their breakfast, as Moira Goyle, one of the girls in Andromeda's year, passed around photographs of her Italian holiday. Andromeda had heard so much about Rome in the past few days, it was as if she had gone herself, except without any of the fun bits. Just as Moira was showing her a photo of the gelato place across the street from her family's hotel, the post arrived.
Hundreds of owls entered the Great Hall. Andromeda tried to pick out something familiar among the flock, the family's tawny owl or Auntie Wally's eagle-owl maybe. However, the one she recognized was completely unexpected.
It was Bellatrix's Banded Black owl that descended and perched herself on the edge of the table beside Cissy, a letter tied tightly to her leg.
"Is it from Mummy?" Andromeda asked, though Bella rarely allowed anyone to use her owl.
"I don't think so," Cissy untied the letter, looking as confused as Andromeda felt. Their names were written on the front of the envelope in Bella's looping ornamental script. Bella was the last person she had expected to weigh in on Sirius's sorting.
Cissy opened the envelope and began to read to herself. The letter seemed short, little more than a note. Cissy was frowning.
"Here," She handed the letter to Andromeda.
Dear Drommy and Cissy,
I wanted so badly for it to be a surprise, but Mummy says I must write and tell you because it would be absolutely wretched of me to not. Thus I am compromising and being only predominantly wretched.
I'm writing to tell you to remember to read the Sunday Prophet.
Love,
Bella
P.S. Sirius is in Gryffindor? What a laugh! Auntie Wally's taken to her bed!
"What is she on about?" asked Andromeda, looking up at Cissy.
"I haven't the foggiest idea," said Cissy dramatically. "I hate her."
"What's wrong?" Ramona Greengrass and Moira Goyle both leaned over, and Andromeda passed the paper to them. They read quickly, and when they were done, Ramona looked confused, and Moira intrigued.
"She likes to be vexing," Andromeda said in explanation.
"What do you think it's about?" Moira asked.
"Maybe those friends of hers have done something terrible," Andromeda said. Daddy hated Bella's friends, always saying they were a waste of good breeding. Andromeda hated them too, though she wasn't sure she agreed with his reasoning. She looked down the table to where Melinda McKinnon was sitting by herself. She could easily imagine Bella's friends doing something like Melinda's father had done.
"I don't think so," Cissy pulled a face.
"Just because you want to go to one of their parties—"
"It's not that," Cissy snapped. "I just think Mummy would have written if it were something terrible."
"And Bella sounds rather excited about whatever it is," Ramona interjected. She was always trying to be helpful.
"She does. It might be something good to do with her friends. Lucius might know." Before Andromeda could object, Cissy had snatched up the letter and walked down the table to where Lucius and his friends were sitting.
She returned a minute later, smiling but with no information about the letter. Andromeda had expected as much. Bella didn't want to tell them about whatever this was. She wasn't going to tell Lucius Malfoy.
With Moira and Ramona's help, the sisters spent the rest of breakfast trying to figure out what it could be, throwing out one improbable scenario after another. While Ramona suggested an award from the Minister for Magic, which supposedly someone in her family had received once, they couldn't think of a serious reason Bella would get one, though Cissy had suggested, with something of a smirk, that it could be for throwing a very good party. The best they could come up with was that maybe she had made a philanthropic donation but Bella didn't have any money of her own, and they couldn't think of a reason she'd write such a letter about it. Of course, by the time they reached this theory, Cissy had to hurry off to Charms class and Moira, Ramona, and Andromeda, all in N.E.W.T.-level Potions, headed off down to the dungeons.
"It might be St. Mungo's, though Bella doesn't really have an affinity for healing," said Andromeda. Her older sister's inclinations were very much the opposite.
"You don't have to be interested in healing. You just have to have a lot of money." Moira said in a lofty almost dismissive voice. "You know, I just can't stand the art here. All of it is so terribly English. "
"Is that so?" said Ramona in an offhand way. Moira, who before her trip to Rome, had only cared about her hair and Quidditch, now seemed to be an expert in Renaissance art and other subjects could only hold her interest for short periods. Ramona spent most of her week with Moira, having shaped their N.E.W.T.s schedules around each other, and had probably heard this already.
Andromeda did not know how the two of them were friends. They were opposites in looks and in personality. Moira was short and curvy, with perfectly coiffed light brown curls while Ramona was tall and thin with straw blonde hair she wore in a simple plait every day. Ramona if not for her height and pretty face would have gone unnoticed by most people without complaint. Moira was the type to make sure she wasn't ignored. Yet, they'd always been inseparable. It was Andromeda, who on most counts was more like both of them than they were like each other—being of medium height and neither chatty nor overly quiet, and only caring moderately about her hair—that hung around the edges of their tight friendship.
"There's this painter Rodrigo di Siena. Everything he paints is so—so moving, so animated. The muggles are very concerned with this fellow called Michelantonio, but he hasn't got a thing on di Siena. He just captures something so authentic about the subject. I wish we had something of di Siena's here."
"Some of our paintings are nice."
"But you haven't been to Rome. All you know are English paintings."
"We have that one of Salazar Slytherin in the common room. It's very good." Ramona persisted, for some reason. Andromeda was much too concerned with Bella's letter to care about Moira's impression of Professor Binns. She supposed that whatever it was that Bella was on about, it was the reason no one else in the family had written about Sirius. They were all too preoccupied with Bella, as per usual.
"But that wasn't painted until Slytherin was dead, so he's not genuine," Moira was explaining as if Ramona was a particularly slow first year. "The magic's different. I learned all about it in Rome."
"Buongiorno, Signore." Professor Slughorn greeted them at the door to the Potions classroom.
"Buongiorno, sir," Moira said with a grin. "That means 'good morning, ladies.'"
"Excellent, Miss Goyle," Slughorn said jollily. "Your grandfather told me all about your trip, but I look forward to hearing about it from you."
"Of course, Sir."
"I want to hear about both of your holidays as well," Slughorn nodded at both Andromeda and Ramona, gesturing them forward into the classroom.
It was already quite full. Slughorn was a particularly attentive teacher to students he liked, especially Slytherins. Most of their housemates had made it to N.E.W.T.-level Potions, even Andromeda, whose O.W.L. scores were mediocre and N.E.W.T.s schedule turned out rather higgledy-piggledy. She was only taking three classes, one less than the standard four. The other two—Divination and History of Magic—were considered rather soft subjects.
There were empty seats dotted in ones and twos at tables around the room.
"Moira!" Ian Crabbe was waving from a table at the front of the room. Lucius Malfoy was sitting next to him with his eyes on Andromeda. She frowned.
Moira hurried off happily to the seat opposite Crabbe. Ramona looked furtively to Andromeda, probably thinking that she would want the open seat.
"Erm—"
"Go sit with them, I don't mind," Andromeda said, trying to make it seem like a kindness and not like Malfoy was the last person she wanted to sit with through a double Potions lesson.
Ramona smiled appreciatively before following Moira over, and Andromeda saw Malfoy frowning at Ramona. She walked back to the second, then third rows of tables, looking for a seat. The rest of the Slytherin girls were at full tables. Yvonne Crespo, Andromeda's roommate, was sitting with the Pritchard twins and Emily Peasegood. Penelope Knolls was with her Ravenclaw boyfriend and his friends. She hardly knew most of the students from other houses.
At a table in the fourth row, Ted Tonks was sitting with Sonia and Frank.
"'Morning, Dromeda," Ted greeted. There was an empty seat beside him.
"'Morning," She smiled. "Is Gwen late? That's not like her."
All three of them exchanged surprised looks.
"She's not taking Potions this year," Ted said. "Dropped a class for extra study time. She thought she'd need it, being team Captain and all."
"Oh," Andromeda frowned. She and Gwen weren't the best of friends, but she was surprised she hadn't mentioned it at all. They had written to each other over the summer once or twice.
"You can take her seat, if you'd like."
"Er, well. Are you sure you're not waiting for someone else?"
"Nope."
Andromeda glanced back toward the front of the classroom. None of the Slytherins were paying her any mind. She'd been stupid enough to stare at him during breakfast, and Cissy hadn't noticed. Who was going to care who she sat with in class?
"Any particular reason you don't want to sit with us, Black?" Frank said innocuously enough, but Andromeda knew what he meant.
"No," Andromeda snapped, more forcefully than she should have, then added in a softer tone. "Of course not."
"It just seems like you'd much rather be sitting with your friends."
"We are her friends," Ted said so emphatically that Andromeda found herself pulling out the seat beside him.
"Well, at least Ted and I are," Sonia said sardonically. She and Andromeda were not friends, but she took jabs at Frank frequently enough that Andromeda had grown to like her.
Ted laughed just as Slughorn entered the room and called their attention to the front.
"Now then," Slughorn was saying, projecting his voice to even those of them in the fourth row of tables. "Everyone got your supplies out? Potion kits? Scales? I know, I know it's early, Mr McManus... Books? Right, Right. Good on you, Lucius, my boy... Are you all in pairs this morning? Four to a table if you can manage it... No, Mr Prewett with Mr MacMillan and the other Mr Prewett with... Mr Pilliwickle, isn't it?... Oh, Mr Pinkstone, yes, of course... Eve, won't you come sit with Mr Proudfoot? And Gordon, move to the seat behind you? Good, good."
There was a considerable amount of shifting until everyone had someone sitting beside them.
"Now then, now then, now then, with all of that settled, I'd like to welcome you all, my very best and brightest, back to your final year. We've mastered much in our time together... We've studied Shrinking Solutions, learned the Draught of Living Death, conquered Calming Draughts... Yes, you've all become quite accomplished potioneers, but we're coming to an end here. N.E.W.T.s are only nine months away, and hopefully, each and every one of you will pass with an Outstanding. If that is to be the case, however, we must not waste a moment!
"So we will be beginning this year with something of a refresher. That is why you've been made to pair up... Potions often seem a very solitary form of magic. Still, I am sure you've learned from years in this class that it is as cooperative as any other. We are constantly learning and building on each other's knowledge. As an example of that, today you'll be working in pairs, one of you brewing any potion we have learned in this class and the other the antidote. The best pair of potions, best attuned to each other, will, of course, be awarded a fair sum of house points." Slughorn smiled, under his bushy mustache, clasping his hands behind his back, and observing them with an amused air. Slughorn had some sort of game or prize for them on the first day every year. First year, thirty house points had been enough to leave them wide-eyed and gleeful. But last year's first Potions lesson had ended in Frank Longbottom pocketing a bottle of liquid luck and Lucius Malfoy fuming all through lunch. House points seemed a meager reward.
"What? Don't you think that's enough?" Slughorn looked at them with faux astonishment. "I suppose I do have some Felix Felicis leftover from our sixth year friends, enough for two of you, if you all think that is a fair enough prize?"
There was an excited twitter throughout the classroom, and Slughorn grinned. "You all remember the stipulations, of course..." Slughorn explained them despite everyone nodding vigorously, ready to begin.
Lucius Malfoy was discreetly setting up his work station already, while Penelope Knolls's boyfriend had his Potions book open in his lap, hurriedly flipping through it.
"Now, off to the races!" Slughorn pronounced.
Andromeda and Ted looked at each other. Frank and Sonia were pulling their cauldrons toward themselves, as was everyone around them.
"What potion do you want to do?" Ted asked, as he copied them and scraped both of their cauldrons across the table.
"A Hair Growth Potion?" Andromeda suggested.
"That's only a fifth year potion," Ted shook his head.
"You're right. What about Shrinking Solution?"
"Third year."
She pulled her book out of her cauldron and began to flip through it, feeling Ted's eyes on her. She was only really middling at Potions. The E on her O.W.L.s had been some sort of magic itself.
"Only something spectacular will win," Ted was leaning over her shoulder, standing very close.
"Amortentia?" She suggested showing him the page depicting a cartoon swooning woman and her infatuated beau.
Ted made an intrigued hmmm.
"Takes a fortnight to brew, and you have to start the base while Venus is in retrograde," Sonia interjected, already cutting up a Chinese Chomping Cabbage, carefully keeping her fingers out of the way of its jaws.
"And I'm guessing it's not?" Ted asked sarcastically, and Sonia raised an elegantly-arched dark eyebrow at him. Andromeda set her book down. He looked at her with a small smile. "We haven't got a chance in hell, have we?"
"To win the liquid luck, I'd need to drink some in the first place," Andromeda agreed.
"Not even a drop left for us, mate?" Ted put out a palm toward Frank to which he only smirked. "Hair Growth Potion it is."
And they set to work, Ted on the potion and Andromeda on the antidote, observing the steps Ted took. Their potions were coming along swimmingly as they should have, considering they were only O.W.L.-level.
Frank and Sonia's set were far ahead of their own, already bubbling nicely over their burners. Frank was stirring his clockwise while Sonia was going anti-clockwise. Professor Slughorn was making his rounds.
"What do we have here? Amnesirum and a finely tuned Recollection Draught. Very good. Very good. Going for that liquid luck once again, Mr Longbottom? You and Miss Crickerly are certainly in the running." He smiled enthusiastically at Frank and Sonia's cauldrons. "What are you working on, Miss Black?"
"It's Hair Growth Potion, Sir."
"Very good." He said joylessly, giving a perfunctory smile. Andromeda noticed that Ted's mouth twitched into a frown for just a moment as Slughorn walked away.
Slughorn could be quite short with people who he found unimpressive. Though he'd always been pleasant enough to Andromeda, despite her lack of skill.
Gwen was very good at Potions, and perhaps Ted wished that she could have been his partner. It was a ridiculous thought to have, and Andromeda's stomach twisted uncomfortably. Quickly she pushed it away.
"Frank, don't be greedy about it," Gordon Spencer-Moon said. The table diagonal to them was full of Ravenclaws. "Give one of us a chance! You've already tried it."
"I haven't," Sonia said sharply. "And I'm not losing when you can't master a Calming Draught, Gordon."
"It's not fair for Frank to win it twice!"
"It's fair if we brew the best potions," Frank said matter-of-factly, though he was grinning.
"What's it feel like?" Jimmy Boot, another Ravenclaw, asked.
"Feels blissful, mate. Like you can reach out and touch the moon."
The Ravenclaws returned to their own potions as Slughorn reached their table.
"More like touched by the moon," Ted said, mostly to Andromeda. "At least that's how he acted. He flew his broom out the window of Gryffindor tower."
"I was just trying to get to Ravenclaw."
"I thought you were going to smack into my window like an owl," Sonia commented.
"I made it in, though." He smiled cheekily. Andromeda felt her own face heat at the implication in his tone and turned her attention to shaving toad warts.
"Pretty hypocritical of you since you grassed on those first years trying to do the same thing the other night," said Ted.
"I'm Head Boy, and they were two firsties trying to sneak a school broom into the dormitory."
"Maybe I should have gone to Flitwick when I found you on my window ledge. Or maybe my brother?"
"Very funny. You would never." Frank said, amused. "Actually, one of them was Black's cousin."
"Sirius?" Andromeda looked up in the middle of measuring out her shavings.
"Yeah, he and the Potter kid."
"What were they trying to do? Fly to Ravenclaw too?" Andromeda asked. They had only started school three days ago.
"Don't know," Frank said. "I turned them and the broom over to McGonagall. She dealt with them. Probably just gave them detention."
Andromeda dumped her measuring cup's worth of toad warts into her cauldron, with the harsh clang of steel on pewter. "I was meant to keep an eye on him, but..."
"Bit harder to do that when he's in Gryffindor, yeah?" Frank asked. Andromeda did not answer. Her instructions said to turn up the heat on her burner, which she did. "A Black in Gryffindor. I'm not sure he hasn't been sent as a spy to cause havoc."
"Don't you lot do that enough on your own? He sounds pretty Gryffindor already to me." Ted said, and there was a chuckle from Sonia. "But at least in Slytherin, he wouldn't have a fifteen-story window to fly a shoddy broom out of."
Andromeda did not say it, but even in Slytherin, Sirius would probably have found a way to cause mischief. He was terribly like Bella in that way. She imagined the dungeons flooded full of lake water, taking gillyweed tea with the mermaids and sharing a dormitory with the Giant Squid.
"You're forgetting that I did stop them."
"This time," Andromeda said, following instructions and beginning to stir. "It's one less incident I have to explain to my aunt. So thank you for that."
She hoped that would be the end of the conversation.
"I'm sure Frank will keep an eye on him for you if you'd like," Ted said. Andromeda looked up at him and then at Frank, who was looking at Ted. "It's already your job to look out for younger students. You just need to make sure you pay extra attention to Sirius, so he doesn't try to jump out of any more windows. At least, until he's had flying lessons."
"Yeah, alright. I don't mind if Black doesn't?" Frank shrugged.
"I don't, but if he turns out to be too much trouble, you don't have to," Andromeda said, unsure of how she felt about the idea. It was thoughtful of Ted, but Andromeda didn't want to be beholden to Frank Longbottom. It would feel weird. And she could only imagine what Cissy would say. Probably not much, but she would give her the most infuriating look, like this was some sort of sign of Frank's secret abiding love for her.
Still, it was probably better to have someone keeping an eye on Sirius, and she would prefer it wasn't her.
The rest of Potions passed rather quickly, and the classroom was soon filled with an assaulting amount of smells from all of the different concoctions and even a few sounds. One of the Hufflepuff girls in front of them had created something that let out a constant hissing, like air being let out of a balloon. Whether it was intentional or not, Andromeda did not know.
With twenty minutes left in class, Slughorn called time and started winding his way through the tables. The room was full of nervous energy, their table excluded. Frank and Sonia were confident they were going to win, and Andromeda and Ted knew they wouldn't. The two them worked well off of one another, and their potions looked almost exactly like their book illustrations. Andromeda's was a brackish greenish color while Ted's was a soft buttery yellow. Slughorn, when he finally reached them, gave both of their potions a light sniff and an approving if unimpressed nod.
Frank and Sonia's potions were, of course, perfect. He said nothing positive or negative, but the delight was evident on his face as he inspected their set. Andromeda could not quite describe Frank's. The precise look and smell alluded her, leaving her with just a hazy feeling of recognition while the scent of Sonia's shimmery coral potion recalled lilac bushes, like the ones that had once bloomed in the back garden of Starly Cottage when she was little.
"Now then!" Slughorn finally returned to the front of the classroom and called their attention. "You have all done an admirable job. Many of you have made most creative choices, while others have ridged dedication to the form. But we can only have two winners today! And there is a clear choice!" He grinned from under his mustache. "Mr Longbottom, Miss Crickerly, will you come up and collect your prizes, please!"
The reaction was mixed. There was some clapping, mostly from the few Gryffindors in the class and some of Sonia's friends. The Prewett twins, one a Ravenclaw and the other a Gryffindor, were whooping in delight. Sonia had such a haughty expression on her face as Slughorn handed her a tiny vial of liquid gold. Everything about Frank rang of smugness, even more than usual. Still, Andromeda couldn't entirely begrudge them for it. Gordon Spencer-Moon did, though, judging from his deep frown, and Lucius Malfoy was already cleaning up his workspace, with a furious look on his face.
It was Sunday morning.
Andromeda was sitting in the mostly empty Slytherin common room with the Sports Section of the Sunday Prophet, scanning the page for her older sister's name. She doubted she would find it there. Bella hated Quidditch unless Slytherin was playing. She liked dueling, but she wasn't in any of the leagues. She made fun of kids in Duelling Club at school. The Hogwarts Duelling Club and most of the leagues had strict rules, and Bella wasn't terribly interested in following those. But they were checking the whole paper.
Cissy was sitting beside her on the sofa. Two of her friends were in two Queen Anne chairs across the rug, and Moira and Ramona were seated back to back on an ottoman. All of them had sections of the Prophet in their hands.
They had all gone down to breakfast early that morning and eaten so that by the time the Sunday Prophet arrived, they could hurry back to the common room to read it. Bella's letter was all that Cissy and Andromeda had spoken about together since Friday morning. (This had thankfully saved Andromeda from mentioning her agreement with Frank Longbottom.) Moira and Ramona were less devoted to the cause but were intrigued enough to help with their plan.
A half-hour in, they had found nothing, and Andromeda was tempted to think that her sister had sent the letter on a lark to tease them but that did not explain why they hadn't received any other letters yet about Sirius.
She had just begun an article about an amateur ten-pin bowling tournament in Hogsmeade when she heard Ramona squeak.
"Merlin's pants!"
Andromeda looked up. Ramona hardly ever used any sort of harsh language.
"I've found it," Her voice was higher than usual. Moira had turned around to look over her shoulder.
"Fuck!"
"What is it?" Cissy was the first one off the sofa, snatching the paper out of Ramona's hand. Andromeda jumped up, crowding next to Cissy to see.
"It's nothing bad!" Ramona said in a rush.
She had been reading the Announcements. Births, Marriages, Deaths titled the page. Realisation dawned on Andromeda, like the slow cold cascade of a Disillusionment Charm.
Right there, the first under Forthcoming Marriages read:
MR R.O. LESTRANGE and MISS B.C. BLACK
The engagement is announced between Rodolphus, eldest son of Mr and Mrs Gaius Lestrange of Bawlby Manor, Bawlby, Norfolk, and Bellatrix, eldest daughter of Mr and Mrs Cygnus Black, of Starly Cottage, Dorset.
"Married! She's getting married?" Andromeda shrieked incredulously.
"Did you know she was seeing—" Cissy squeaked.
"No, no, I had no idea! I don't think she's ever even mentioned him!" Andromeda shook her head.
"That horrid bitch!" Cissy screeched. She was grinning ear-to-ear. Andromeda realised she was too. "Does anyone have Floo Powder? We've got to talk to her!"
"I bet Slughorn has some," Ramona suggested. The four other girls had crowded around them to get a look at the paper.
"Do you think he's left for breakfast yet?" Andromeda asked.
"You know he always sleeps in on the weekend," Moira said, "It's nearly 10. If you hurry, I bet you can catch him!"
Slughorn's office was just down the corridor. Cissy knocked vigorously at the door, and they waited for what felt like ages but was probably no more than a moment before Slughorn answered, wearing his emerald dressing gown over melon-coloured pyjamas.
"Narcissa, Andromeda, to what do I owe this pleasure so early in the morning?" He regarded them uncharitably with bleary eyes.
"We're so sorry if we woke you, sir, but we've just had some wonderful news," Cissy said sweetly, hiding the page of the Prophet she was still carrying behind her back, crumpling it up. "And you have to be one of the first to know." Andromeda looked at her sister in bewilderment. "Our sister, Bellatrix, is engaged to Rodolphus Lestrange."
Slughorn shrugged off some of his sleepiness listening, Cissy's flattery was working.
"Oh, how wonderful!" Slughorn smiled. "When is the wedding?"
"Well, we aren't sure, sir. Bella seems to have left that out of her letter. We were wondering, actually, if we might use your fire to give her a call? We have so many questions!"
"I don't usually let students use my fire, but I will allow it just this once. This is a special occasion." Slughorn said. "Perhaps later this afternoon?"
"Oh, but we were so hoping to call her right now," Cissy persisted. "We want to tell her how happy we are for her! I'm sure she would be happy to get your congratulations too. You were always Bella's favourite teacher."
Slughorn seemed to waver.
"Rodolphus's too," Andromeda added, though, she didn't know if Rodolphus Lestrange had even attended Hogwarts.
"Well, I suppose if you ladies don't take too long," Slughorn opened the doorway a bit wider.
"Of course not, sir."
They both thanked him and slipped right through. The fire was already burning, and Slughorn retrieved the small ornate mother-of-pearl box he kept his Floo powder in for them. Andromeda threw a pinch into the fire. Both Andromeda and Cissy thrust their heads into the resulting burst of green flames and said together "Bellatrix's Room, Starly Cottage."
They were both familiar with the discomfort of the Floo, which doubled with another person and were able to keep from knocking heads despite the sickening swirling feeling. When it stopped, they were staring out at Bella's bedroom with its floral papered walls and enormous oak four-poster, enshrouded in blue and green drapery and mountains of bedding. She was the only one of the sisters with a Floo connection in their bedroom, an allowance made by their father sometime after she graduated.
"Bella!" Cissy called.
The plush duvet was flung off the side of the bed.
"So you got the paper! Are you absolutely infuriated with me?" Bella cackled, sliding out of the unmade bed, and pulling on her silvery silk dressing gown. "Whose fire are you using?"
"Slughorn's," Andromeda said impatiently.
"That old mandrake! I'm glad I never have to see him again!" Bella said derisively, coming to sit in front of the fire. "Do you want to see the ring Rod gave me? Goblin-made. It belonged to his great aunt or great grandmother or something. I don't remember." She flashed the ring in front of them, two large emeralds bracketed clasping golden hands, with diamonds spiraling around them.
"Why didn't you tell us you were seeing him?" Cissy demanded. "When did this happen?"
"I wasn't, not really," Bella ran a hand through her messy hair. "Rod's been in love with me for ages. Asked me to marry him twice already. He asked me again last Sunday. I finally took pity on him. His father pulled some strings to get it in the paper so soon."
Andromeda did not know what to make of this. "And Mummy and Daddy agreed to this?"
"Are you joking? Rod and I came to dinner on Wednesday night to tell them. Mummy had a fit. She thinks I'm too young, as if she wasn't already married at my age. And Daddy's upset Rod didn't come to ask him first. But what are they going to do about it?"
"They could've disowned you! They still could!" Cissy said. It was not unheard of in their family.
"They won't. Rod's family is nearly as old as ours, and they're much richer. Mummy's already coming around, and she'll convince Daddy. If not, I have my ways," Bella grinned. "We're planning for the first week in July. You'll both be bridesmaids, of course."
"Of course," Andromeda said, still unsure. Those diamonds on Bella's ring were meant to be the silver stars from a wedding ceremony. They were not just for show. They were part of the magic of the Marriage Vows, deep, ancient, and hard to break. It wasn't something to rush into.
"Yes," Cissy added. "But I'm not wearing anything in pastels. They look terrible on me."
"Really? Because I was thinking of a pastel pink," Bella said.
"You're not," Cissy said indignantly.
"Oh, yes, I saw it in Witch Weekly just the other day, pastel pink with a great big purple bow around the middle. What do you think, Drommy?"
Though she could not see Cissy's face, Andromeda knew she was pouting. She had always been so dramatic and always cried so easily. In childhood, Andromeda was often torn between placating Cissy and going along with Bella. But Teasing Cissy had always been the most alluring of illicit games.
"It sounds lovely," Andromeda said. "I think another matching bow for the hair would make it."
"But it would have to be just as big as the one at your waist. Otherwise, it would be unbalanced." Bella held her hands above her head in the shape of an outrageously large bow.
"Yes, I like that! But then you can't have small sleeves!" Andromeda laughed. Bella was smirking.
"I hate you both," Cissy huffed. This was one of their lighter taunts at her expense. "Are you asking anyone else?"
"I have to. I'm leaving most of it up to Mummy. I can already tell I'm not going to like the planning. I want it to all be over." Said Bella. "Then I can move to London. The Lestranges have a house. Rod lives there with his brother."
"They have a house in Norfolk too, don't they?" Asked Andromeda, remembering the engagement announcement.
"Yes, Rod gets it when his father dies. It's huge."
"Oh, you'll have a Manor House!" Cissy exclaimed.
"And house-elves," Bella added. "The Lestranges have a bloody herd of them. Thank God."
"You'll never have to lift a wand," Cissy sounded delighted.
She would undoubtedly need house-elves unless she had been privately practicing cleaning charms. The summer after Bella graduated from school, she had waged a campaign to move to London. Her tactic was making life hell for everyone else at Starly Cottage as much as she could. Daddy stayed resolute through many silent meals and twice as many that turned into screaming matches. It was only when Bella went room to room setting the curtains alight for a week, that he relented.
He made inquiries and found her a bedsitter in a pleasant street off of Diagon Alley, which Bella got to furnish and decorate however she chose. She moved in the last week of July. Mummy even took Andromeda and Cissy to visit the first week. Andromeda had fallen in love with the neat little room, with the shiny pots and pans hanging in the tiny kitchenette, with the way the light shone through the new white lace curtains, with the seafoam velvet loveseat the perfect size to curl up with a book. Bella did not seem to love it, as Andromeda did. She returned to Starly Cottage before September 1st, complaining of dirty laundry and cleaning charms and the woes of cooking. Daddy was triumphant, and Andromeda, privately, incensed that her oh, so independent sister would let a little thing like housework get in the way of her freedom.
Andromeda didn't really still hold it against her sister, but she doubted her father would go to all the trouble a second time, even if she could get herself to set fire to the curtains.
"Let's hope Mr Lestrange goes quickly," Bella said with a wicked grin.
"Bella!" Cissy cried.
"He's nearly a hundred, and he doesn't like me very much."
"I can't imagine why," Andromeda said sarcastically.
Bella rolled her eyes. "I don't want to talk about this anymore. Tell me about Sirius. Has he befriended any little Mudbloods yet?"
"Not as far as we know," Andromeda said brusquely, because discussing Sirius might lead to discussing Frank Longbottom. If there were things she did not want to talk about with Cissy, she wanted to tell Bella about them far less.
"At least that's something. Maybe he's still got his head on right." Bella said. "I thought I was going to have this year's biggest family scandal. Apparently not."
"You said Auntie Wally's taken to her bed over it?" Cissy said.
"Yes, and Daddy said she's had the healer come to see her, but she refuses to tell anyone about Sirius. We only found out about it because Uncle Orion wrote to Daddy asking for advice." Bella rolled her eyes. "I almost wrote to tell her I was engaged to a half-blood just to see if it would kill her!"
"Bella, you wouldn't!" Cissy shrieked with more outrage than she had when Bella called for Mr Lestrange's quick demise.
"I couldn't. The very thought made me sick to my stomach."
"Good, you don't want something like that getting around. Even if it's just a rumor." Cissy said.
Just then, Andromeda felt a hand tapping her shoulder back in Slughorn's office and she was almost thankful for it. She excused herself and pulled her head from the fire. Slughorn was looking down at her.
"Yes, professor?"
"Miss Black, I'm sorry for interrupting your conversation, truly, but I'd like to make it down to breakfast before they start serving lunch." He was straining to maintain his usual politeness.
Andromeda nodded dutifully. She stuck her head back in the fire.
"I told Lucius—" Cissy was saying when she returned. Bella hardly looked interested.
"What did Sluggy want?" Bella cut her off.
"To go to breakfast," Andromeda said.
Bella rolled her eyes. "He could stand to skip a meal or two."
But they said their goodbyes. Bella told them Mummy would write with more wedding details.
Slughorn was waiting, standing over them when they emerged. "How is your sister, ladies? Excited, I imagine?"
"Oh, yes, sir," Cissy's voice regained the artificial sweetness it had had before. Andromeda wondered if this is how she spoke to all of her teachers. It was not unlike the simpering tone she used with boys. "Bella was so grateful you let us call her. She said how much she misses you."
"I miss her too. She was always whip-smart in class." Slughorn smiled. He helped them both off of the floor and ushered them quickly out the door.
"I can't believe she didn't tell us sooner, but this is exciting, isn't it, Drommy?" Said Cissy, as they headed back to the common room. She had a grin on her face, that Andromeda couldn't match.
"I suppose it is." Andromeda wasn't naive. She knew people got married for all sorts of reasons besides love. Yet, there was still something about the engagement, the way Bella talked about, or didn't want to talk about it, that didn't sit right with her.