CHAPTER 8
Tonks's Mistake

'I don't understand,' said Narcissa. 'Why would he attack Andy of all people? She can be insufferable but she has never actually hurt anyone, unlike you.'

'I don't know,' Bellatrix replied with a shrug. 'Ask Andy.'

Both turned to Andromeda expectantly and Andromeda sighed.

'Dearborn thought I was Bellatrix,' she admitted, passing a hand in her hair. 'He said Bella was hanging out with criminals, hurting squibs and muggleborns.'

Silence echoed in the dormitory as Bellatrix stiffened, opening wide, angry eyes, and Narcissa looked between her sisters with a confounded expression.

'You did not tell me that when I asked you what had happened, earlier,' she hissed, her voice dangerously low.

Andromeda refused to cower. 'I didn't think it was important.'

'What did he say exactly?'

'That you were hanging out with criminals.'

'What does he know?'

'You mean it's true?' exclaimed Narcissa, wide-eyed.

'Shh, Cissy!' warned Andromeda angrily.

The three sisters looked around but there was no one besides them in the dormitory. Bellatrix had ordered Narcissa's dormmates to leave so that they could have privacy.

Narcissa turned back to Bellatrix and repeated, 'Is it true?'

Bellatrix looked briefly between the both of them before tutting, seemingly annoyed.

'Of course not. I just want to know what makes him think he's right.'

All eyes turned to Andromeda.

'He said his father worked at the ministry,' she said simply.

Narcissa frowned. 'So, what? It's not like Bella's going to Azkaban,' she said. Her eyes widened slightly. 'Or is it?'

Bella groaned. 'Of course not. This boy is just making things up. Disgusting half-blood…'

Andromeda nodded fervently. 'That's what I told him. That he was just trying to make himself feel important by insulting us even though we had done nothing wrong.'

Bella smiled for the first time since they had come back from Hogsmeade. 'That's right. Well said, Andy. You always have the right words for everything.'

Andromeda beamed. Narcissa, however, was not quite satisfied.

'So what? He was jealous of us so he went ahead and tried to pick a fight with one of the single most important people in this entire school?'

Andromeda and Bellatrix exchanged a look. 'I suppose so,' said Andromeda.

'He had quite a crew behind him,' added Bellatrix. 'He must have felt confident.'

'But that is ridiculously daft!' exclaimed Narcissa, outraged.

'Well, you know…' sighed Andromeda.

'Gryffindors...' groaned Bellatrix.

'What happened afterwards?' asked Narcissa.

'He said Bella was a monster. I took out my wand and told him not to talk that way about us ever again. Then Bella showed up, with Bertram, Finn, and Rodolphus Lestrange. I had to stop them from destroying the Dearborn and the others, and we departed calmly and peacefully without committing murder.'

Narcissa nodded thoughtfully. 'Okay, so where was Bella and why was she not with Sophie and Lucius —'

'Lucius?'

'Malfoy?'

'— instead of Gibbon and Rowle? And is Rodolphus Lestrange that guy you said you met at Liantris's party where I wasn't invited?'

Andromeda and Bellatrix exchanged a playful smirk.

'Lucius?' teased Andromeda.

'Do I usually stay with Lucius Malfoy?' snarled Bellatrix.

Narcissa rolled her eyes. 'He told me he would be staying with the older students, this weekend,' she said.

Bellatrix raised an eyebrow. 'Well I certainly did not notice him then.'

'Then again, Bella, you weren't with the group, were you?' Andromeda pointed out.

Bella tsked. 'I was. At the beginning.'

'Hmm…'

'In any case, Cissy, yes, Rodolphus is the guy from the party. We've been exchanging letters and we were supposed to meet at Hogsmeade. He's friends with Berty and Finn, they're the same age. That's why I was with them.'

Cissy scrunched her nose for a few seconds, thinking. 'Fine. But you said Dearborn attacked you outside the village.'

'Not outside the village per say,' corrected Andromeda. 'Just near the edge of the woods.'

'What were you doing there?'

'Merlin, Cissy, why on earth do you care? We had just gone for a walk!' grunted Bellatrix.

Andromeda did not know what Bella had been doing there either. She had been given the same answer as Narcissa when she had asked, but Andromeda was not convinced.

'Why were you alone, Andy?' reprised Narcissa.

'I needed some air.'

'I thought you had gone with your friends?'

'I have. It was nice, but then I needed some air, so I left.' The look Bellatrix and Narcissa gave her mixed mild worry and disbelief. Andromeda thought she even noticed a pinch of pity in her younger sister's. 'What? Does it never happen to you to have a good time with someone but just – want a break?' she asked sincerely.

'No,' replied Narcissa.

Bellatrix said nothing but continued to stare at her. Andromeda shrugged and stood up with a sigh. She knew a lost cause when she saw one.

'Whatever,' she said. 'I'm going to bed.'

'Are you upset?' exclaimed Narcissa, sounding much more outraged than worried.

'No, I'm tired. I've just been aggressed, remember?'

Narcissa opened her mouth, closed it. 'Right. Good night, then.'

Bellatrix yawned and announced she, too, was going to sleep.

Andromeda went to bed immediately, careful not to waken her five roommates. After she had come back to the Three Broomsticks with Bella and her friends, she had gone to Joy and her other classmates to inform them that she would be staying with her sister. They had been surprised and she had sworn to tell them everything later. She had kept her promise when they had been back inside the castle. Joy had been scandalised by the agressors' behaviour. After a few minutes of her voicing loudly her opinion, Andromeda had left the dormitory, claiming she had forgotten something in the Common Room and stumbled into Narcissa who had ordered her to give her all the details.

Andromeda had been nearly irreproachable in her telling of the day; she had simply omitted a few details, a few precisions about her feelings at the time. She had not, for one, told anybody about how scared she had been at the implications regarding her sister. She had not told how worried she had been when she had had to stand between Bellatrix's drawn wand and a half-blood. She had not told how disappointed she had been in Ted Tonks.

Ted Tonks.

She had looked at him and she had seen him look back. She had looked at him, knowing that though they had barely exchanged a few words, he must have known that she was not a criminal, and that if she was not a criminal, there was no reason to think her sister was. She remembered smiling to him in the owlery. She remembered smiling to him in the kitchens. She remembered being polite, being correct with him, even when she had no obligation to be, even when no one would have expected her to be. Yet he, when his friend had insulted her and her family, had remained still and silent. He, when she had taken out her wand and threatened Dearborn before his eyes, had watched wordlessly.

Had she expected him to intervene? Not necessarily. But she had wanted him to. Not that she thought everybody was good and someone with whom she had talked a couple of times only was bound to express great loyalty, but she certainly believed that the extraordinary civility which she had shown him deserved more recognition than, well, nothing.

Of course, she should not have been surprised. Muggle-borns were muggle-borns. They could not be trusted like wizards – true wizards – could. Her father had said, once, that muggle-borns still held in them their parents' hatred for magic. It was only natural after all. Andromeda did not hate muggle-borns like some did. But she did think it obvious that they could not be on the same level, neither in terms of magic nor ethic, as true-born witches and wizards. She would not hate them for it. Hate led to war and violence and the last war, Grindelwald's war, had been catastrophic for all sides, though only the dark wizard's supporters were sent to Azkaban. But behaviours like Tonks's made it very hard for her not to give credit to Bellatrix's occasional remarks.

And so she went to sleep, praying to never cross paths with him ever again. Naturally, her prayers were not answered, because the very next day, Tonks did something very, very, stupid.

oooOOOooo

On a cloudy Sunday evening, during dinner, Ted Tonks attempted to talk to her at the Slytherin table.

Andromeda was eating calmly, surrounded by her classmates, her sisters, her sisters' classmates, other people desperate to breathe the same air as them… Slytherins. She was laughing with Michaela about an incident that had happened in Transfiguration earlier during the day and thus distracted, was one of the last people to take notice of his presence. The silence was what tipped her off. Michaela's wide eyes focused somewhere behind her shoulder was what made her turn around to see.

And she saw. Ted Tonks. He was never particularly tall, probably her height, but in this moment, he looked surprisingly short with his curved back, raised shoulders, neck tucked in and eyes looking down. He looked miserably uncomfortable and the red glow on his cheeks only added to his pitiful aspect. At the sight of him, Andromeda felt a knot in her throat and like a tuck in her stomach: he was going to be eaten alive if he stayed a second longer.

He stayed a second longer. He stayed more than a second longer. He approached Andromeda timidly and stopped only a few feet from her.

'Andromeda —' he started, his honey voice lower than she had ever heard. At least he was looking her in the eyes.

Unfortunately, he would never have the chance to express what he had come for.

'What on earth do you think you're doing?' asked Carlisle rather sourly.

'You're that mudblood git!' exclaimed Curtis.

'Hufflepuff table is on the other side of the Hall, loser,' chimed in Rita Skeeter.

Tonks had not even emitted a sound. His hazel eyes wandered around frantically for a few seconds, overwhelmed, before soon returning to Andromeda. As soon as their stares connected, she rid herself of the last of her confusion and put on her usual mask; here more than anywhere, she must not look friendly with a muggle-born, for both their sakes. So the look she gave him contained a drop of contempt and disdain.

Tonks frowned. He opened his mouth in a new attempt to talk but was interrupted once more when Bellatrix stood up.

'What do you want?' she asked threateningly. Tonks looked up at her, briefly, then back at Andromeda, then Bellatrix again… 'I said, what do you want, mudblood?' she repeated between clenched teeth so as not to be heard by the teachers throwing them suspicious glances from across the Hall.

Surprisingly, Tonks did not look half as shy now as he did when he had first come. He straightened his back and held Bella's stare. He did shiver and blink more than necessary for the average human, but despite that and his frantic gulping, he did not admit defeat.

'I just –' he started.

'You're not welcome here,' interrupted Curtis, rising on his feet as well. 'Blood like yours… It smells,' he added with a smirk. Carlisle laughed. So did Valentine who was sitting nearby.

'Get out of my sight before I curse you to hell,' warned Bellatrix icily, taking no notice of the other boys. Tonks's eyes wavered. He glanced at Andromeda once more. Andromeda frowned and turned away, focusing on her plate instead. Bellatrix clenched her teeth. 'And stay away from my sister you freak!' she exclaimed.

Tonks looked up, surprised. 'I didn't – '

'Disgusting mudblood…'

'Who does he think he is…'

And in the midst of the harsh words, some glimpses of sanity:

'Stop it people, the poor bloke has barely said a word.'

'Again with the m-word? Really?'

Andromeda felt her ears buzzing with all the noise. She did not like this situation. She did not like being the centre of attention in a situation whose creation was completely out of her hands. She did not like that rumours would probably spread after this incident. She did not like that some Slytherins seemed on the brink of fighting over this. She did not like that she was not in control. So she decided maybe she should be.

Her spoon dropped from her hand and onto the plate with a loud clatter. Probably because she was Andromeda Black, certainly because she was a main character in this entire drama, everyone became silent and turned to look at her. Slowly, she shifted from her plate to Tonks. Her eyes filled with boredom and disdain, she curled her upper lip and looked him up and down.

'Go away,' she ordered like it was the most obvious course of action and he should already have taken it a few moments ago.

Tonks froze for what seemed like ages and stared back at her. She refused to look away. She would not. So she locked eyes with him and with each passing second accentuated the scorn on her face. She did not realise she was holding her breath until he nodded, suddenly, curtly, and turned on his heel to leave.

'Yeah, that's right!'

'Never come back, scum!'

'Find yourself a map or something, you know, to not get lost, you know, because he couldn't –'

'We got it Bulstrode.'

'I can't believe he dared – '

'Yeah, I don't know what went over him…'

'Talking to Andromeda Black? What even did he want?'

'Do you think they've talked before?'

'But he's a – '

Andromeda coughed loudly enough to bring silence back to her surroundings. She raised her eyes slowly. Severe glares met Curtis, then Carlisle, then Valentine, then the rest of their merry band of bright bullies.

'He's gone, isn't he? Forget about it. That scum.'

Some people nodded, others hummed. Within a few minutes, nobody was talking about Ted Tonks anymore. Andromeda barely dared look up for the rest of the meal, too afraid to meet anyone's eyes. Real fear only hit her, and brutally so, when she accidentally shared a glance with her sister Narcissa. Bellatrix had already forgotten, it seemed, as she partook in some passionate conversation with Sophie, but Narcissa was staring at her so intensely Andromeda felt naked. Old reflexes kicked in and she started building an Occlumency wall inside her head. It was fast and flawless. Narcissa frowned, as though she could have felt it, and turned away. She had always been extraordinarily observant when she deigned focus on something other than her own reflection.

oooOOOooo

Andromeda was not further addressed during dinner. When she lay on the sofa near the fireplace, back at their Common Room, and when no one had come to bother her after her classmates had left for the dorms, she sincerely thought the story was already forgotten. She was wrong, of course. She knew it as soon as she saw the look on Narcissa's face when she sat across from her.

Still, Andromeda decided to try her luck.

'You're not going to bed?' she asked.

Narcissa's face was marble. 'Who was he?'

'Who?'

Her sister was not amused. 'The Hufflepuff boy that tried to talk to you during dinner.'

Andromeda shrugged and shifted her eyes back to the fire. 'How would I know?' she said, sounding bored.

'Why would he come and talk to you?'

'I don't know.'

'You didn't look surprised.'

'I didn't have time to look surprised. Everyone was already at his throat.'

'You don't know him?'

Andromeda let out a deep sigh and spared another long glance at her sister. Many had told Andromeda that she appeared emotionless. Bellatrix had praised her once for containing her thoughts so well. Yet Andromeda knew that her little sister was a hundred times better at this than she would ever be. Narcissa was utterly unreadable. She looked like a porcelain doll in this instant, upright as she was, her pale face devoid of feeling, her words empty of tone. She was still beautiful in her stillness, pretty as she always was. Andromeda wondered if others felt the tinge of fear she did when her sister was like that, when she became a mystery.

Maybe it was because she was scared that she decided not to pretend too much. Lying and hiding some truths were, Andromeda believed, two very different things. Both had to be used carefully and contextually for maximum efficiency.

'I just know he's a Hufflepuff in my year. I'm fairly certain his name is Ted Tonks. I bumped into him at the beginning of the year and that's the only time we've interacted.'

Narcissa's eyes twitched, the first semblance of expression on her face since she had appeared. 'Ted Tonks? The one who broke his arm last year and cannot play Quidditch anymore?'

'I suppose.'

'What did he want with you?'

Andromeda shrugged. 'I told you already; no idea.'

Narcissa's jaw clenched. 'That's not possible. No one would do something so ridiculous without feeling legitimate in his action.'

'Narcissa,' started Andromeda, sitting back up and staring her sister right in the eyes. 'What do you want exactly? Why are you here, playing Auror with me?'

For once, the youngest sister did not reply right away. She seemed to hesitate and her lips quivered slightly. A few moments later, Andromeda sighed.

'Look, I remember he was one of the Hufflepuffs at Hogsmeade,' she admitted finally. 'Maybe, I don't know, he felt bad and came to apologise. Or maybe he wanted to tell me something about a prefects meeting; I always see him hanging out with the Hufflepuff prefect.'

She had thought for a long time about those two possibilities, actually. She had had a hard time imagining the boy, who stood there and did nothing when his friends ganged up on her, come to ask for an apology in front of the entire Slytherin House, but she could not simply discard the idea. That he would come to her instead of Wispbelly seemed even less likely, but she had a hard time finding out better reasons. At least she was being fairly honest with Cissy.

Her little sister seemed to feel that there was no catch as her face thawed back into that of the charming young girl with a pale face and rosy cheeks that everybody could not help but fall head-over-heels for. Throwing her magnificent blond curls behind one shoulder she allowed herself a shy smile. It did not look shy so much as adorable.

'That makes sense,' she said in an almost-whisper. Her voice was clear, high and melodic as always. 'I'm sorry I started sounding suspicious. It's just so weird. Those Hufflepuffs suddenly popping into your life… it feels… wrong somehow, you know?'

Andromeda stayed very still for half a second. Wrong? She nodded.

'Yes. I don't know why this is suddenly happening. I just hope they stay away from now on.'

Narcissa looked at her pensively for a few seconds before swiftly moving to sit beside her. Like the cat that she was, she curled up against Andromeda and encircled her waist with her arms.

'Can I ask you something?' she whispered.

Andromeda smiled tenderly. Whenever it was just the sisters together, with or without Bella, and Narcissa needed comforting, she would always ask that question before pouring her heart out. Softly, Andromeda passed her fingers between the blonde's soft curls and nodded.

Narcissa lost her gaze in the fire. 'Do you feel like Bellatrix's being distant these days?' she asked.

Ah, thought Andromeda. So that's what it's about.

'What do you want to know?'

Narcissa hesitated. 'Is she getting herself into trouble?'

'Bellatrix is smart, Cissy,' was Andromeda's answer. Honestly, she shared her little sister's doubts, but Bellatrix was… Bellatrix. Andromeda would not incriminate her in front of anyone, not even Narcissa. 'Don't trouble yourself with all these questions. Bella is very busy, this is her last year at Hogwarts, she's probably crawling under homework and she doesn't show it. You should focus on yourself, okay?'

"Focus on yourself" was an argument that usually worked with Narcissa. It proved effective once more when the young girl nodded once and, her lids heavy from fatigue, left for her dorm. Andromeda thought she ought to do the same but she found her mind was too troubled for sleep. Ted Tonks… Hufflepuffs… war… would there be war?

"Which side will you be on?"

"Hopefully, the same as yours, Meda…"

But which side was that, Maggie? Would it be the same as Bellatrix's? Bellatrix, who had appeared out of nowhere in Hogsmeade, flanked by three boys who looked all too ready to cast spells at younger students? Bellatrix who had admitted being ready to curse those students without hesitation or guilt had Andromeda not stopped her? Bellatrix who had, since that excursion at Hogsmeade, been more distant and distracted than ever?

Was Maggie's side Ted Tonks's side? The muggle-born who had, at dinner, been reminded again of just how insignificant and powerless he was within the wizarding community? Should she care, Andromeda, that he had not even been able to utter more than two words? And what had he come to her for anyway?

'Do you ever sleep?'

Andromeda jumped and swirled around.

'Liantris?'

Liantris smiled, amused. 'Eyesight, check!' he laughed.

'What are you doing here?'

'Have I never told you?' he replied as he took a seat on the armchair across from her. 'I am insomniac. I like to hang out around the Common Room when the House sleeps.'

Andromeda looked at him carefully. He sounded surprisingly serious, he who usually never showed much more than amusement. He was incredibly handsome in the firelight.

'You never did…' she whispered back. Not even when we dated, she thought.

'Tell, Meda, why didn't you let Bellatrix harm those Hufflepuffs?' he asked suddenly.

Andromeda frowned. 'I did not want any trouble,' she replied carefully.

Liantris turned to look at the fire. 'But what if there had been no consequences?'

'What do you mean?'

'Imagine if we were in a world were hurting muggleborns was not seen as a crime. Would you have let Bella hurt them, then? For insulting you and your family?'

Vein pulsing in her neck, Andromeda struggled not to clench her fist. 'Why do you ask?' Liantris locked eyes with her and waited. 'I don't know,' Andromeda said truthfully and frankly, surprising herself by doing so.

But then, she realised that she did not know what she should have answered. Liantris… They had known each other since they were children and had dated for a few months when she was in fourth year, but thinking back on it, how much did she truly know him? Liantris was fun, Liantris was smart and Liantris was kind to his friends. But what did Liantris believe? Should she have said "yes" or "no"? Should she say "mudblood" or "muggle-born" in his presence? Should she have reiterated her loyalty to her family, insulted the Hufflepuff House, incriminated her sister…? He was one of the very few people she could not read, could not understand. The scary part was, she had never really minded before…

She felt a hint of anxiousness when she saw him smile ever so slightly, eyes still on her. It was one of those smiles he carried with him everywhere he went. It was a familiar smile. For the first time she realised that it did not carry over to his eyes.

'You're too tense, love,' he said in an amused tone that did not ring genuine to her anymore. 'I talked to Maggie earlier. I thought you'd go to Hogsmeade with her…'

'She refused,' she replied defensively.

Liantris chuckled. 'I know, I know… I'm not blaming you or anything. She said she had a great time.' He paused. Silence. He continued, 'I took my brother Aster with me. You know him, right? He's in second year. You should have seen him on the way back, he was reciting all the flower names he knew so that he could carry over the family tradition when he would have kids of his own… Kids… What a foreign idea am I right? I mean, besides the fact that he is twelve years old, you'd think he…'

'What are you here to tell me, Liantris?' snapped Andromeda.

Liantris stopped abruptly. For one very long second, he remained completely still, completely motionless. Finally, he released a long, tired sigh.

'Two things,' he said in a low voice. 'One, I trust you Andromeda Black. Two, I want you to know that you can trust me too.'

He rose from the sofa in one swift motion and left, glancing at her once as he did so. She let him go wordlessly and remained gazing absent-mindedly at the fireplace for a long time.

This night, she went to sleep as confused as ever but too tired to torment herself with an endless stream of questions. Nothing made sense. Maybe it was time for her to stop trying to find any.