Written for the Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition Season 8 Round 3
Position: Chaser 1
Prompts: (object) Book, (action) arguing, (relationship) sisters
Lyric: 'You'll be back, soon you'll see'
Word Count: 1,135
Sisterly Love
"Andy, wait!"
"Go away, Cissy, I can do what I want!"
Rain thundered down onto the two sisters, lightning flashed over the House of Black behind them, but no amount of rain could tarnish Narcissa's determination.
"Please don't do this, Andy," Narcissa pleaded.
Andromeda finally turned to face her sister, the trunk slipping from her hands, falling into the mud. Her possessions spilled out of the trunk. Andromeda bent down to retrieve them.
"I don't care about Toujours Pur anymore!" Andromeda yelled through the thunder. She turned and walked away from Narcissa.
Narcissa ran to catch up with Andromeda. Mud splashed about her feet, but she didn't care.
"Andy! Don't run off with that mudblood, Mother always said-"
Andromeda whirled around again, furious.
"Don't call Ted a mudblood!"
"But that's what he is"
Andromeda looked at Narcissa, disgust evident on her face. A fork of lightning slashed through the air, making Andromeda's chestnut brown hair seem lighter than it really was, making it seem like it was crackling with electricity.
"I don't get why you can't just leave me alone. The rest of the Blacks did," she said angrily.
Narcissa looked down at her feet, tears prickling in her eyes.
"Because you're family. And father always said...he always said...no family gets left behind."
For a moment Andromeda looked sad, but that was gone with a boom of thunder, to be replaced by a look of annoyance.
"Not family anymore, am I? Aunt Walburga would've blasted me off that wretched family tree," Andromeda snarled.
She stormed away.
Narcissa looked at Andromeda's outline, walking through the shower of rain. She shook the water out of her long, blonde hair.
She wasn't going to give up.
Narcissa ran to catch up with her again. Andromeda glared at her.
"Narcissa!"
"Andy, if you just apologised to Mother and Father..."
"But I don't want to apologise! I've done nothing wrong! And don't call me Andy anymore, it's Andromeda to you," she added.
Narcissa started to become impatient. "Andromeda! Why don't you just cut off communication with the mudblood! Do something with a pureblood instead!"
Andromeda looked at her sister again, eyes full of a burning fire that Narcissa had never seen before in her normally-calm sister.
"I want to do more with my life than marry a respectful pureblood. I'm being who I am!"
"But that's not what we're supposed to do! Be the best—and the best is pureblood!"
"I told you that I didn't care about the Black family's stupid rules anymore! I can do what I want!"
"But Blacks are always pure!"
"Then I'm not a Black anymore!" Andromeda said to her sister, her expression defiant. "If being a Black means that I have to marry some stupid pureblood, then I'm not going to be one anymore!"
There was a moment when the two sisters both stared at each other, Andromeda looking angry and Narcissa's disapproving, the tension so thick that you could cut it with a knife.
"Narcissa," Andromeda said calmly, though the fire in her eyes was not gone. "Narcissa, I think it'll be best if you leave me alone. We don't want our dear mother to find out that you've been talking to me, a filthy little blood traitor."
And with those words, Andromeda turned and walked away through the mud and rain, and this time Narcissa didn't go after her.
"You'll be back, soon you'll see," she whispered and made her way back to the House of Black. As she trudged through the sludge, Narcissa noticed a small, black, shabby, rain-sodden book lying in a puddle.
Narcissa picked it up. Upon further examination, she realized that it was one of Andromeda's possessions that had fallen out of her trunk in her haste to leave. Narcissa let the book fall open. She peeled the damp pages apart. Silence fell. All of Narcissa's surroundings—the House of Black, the mud, the rain falling with heavy thuds into overfilling puddles—they all melted away from Narcissa's world, until all that was left was the book. It was a photo album.
There, in the picture, was Andromeda, Bellatrix, and herself, playing in the sunshine, without a care in the world. They were so, so young. Narcissa flipped through pages full of giggles, pictures of sisterly love. Tears threatened to spill from her blue eyes.
Narcissa clutched the book to her chest. She would keep this, and no one would know. Least of all Andromeda. The little picture book would be for her eyes only.
She thrust open the ancient gates to the House of Black. Narcissa wiped her feet on the ornate rug so that her mother, Druella, wouldn't complain, or even notice that she had been outside.
As she climbed the elaborate staircase, the photo album dropped out of the jumper she had wrapped it in.
Another photo (moving of course, not those pesky muggle types) fluttered out of the soggy pages. Narcissa picked it up.
It was of Narcissa and Andromeda sneaking into the kitchen, tiptoeing, with an air of mischief. Narcissa watched the 4-year-old Andromeda clap a hand over her younger self, stifling her giggles. A bowl of melted Honeydukes chocolate sat on the countertop. Both girls dipped their fingers into the chocolate, licking it off happily. Bellatrix and her mother walked into the room. Narcissa assumed that her father was taking the picture. Bellatrix put her hands on her hips playfully and their mother told them off, though Narcissa could see her containing her amused smile.
Narcissa smiled sadly and tucked the happy photo back into the book.
She missed the good old days, when the fights were non-existent, before the Black's strict rules were taught to the sisters. When they were innocent, when they were young, when they loved each other.
Narcissa continued her climb up the staircase. What she needed now was to go up to her bedroom and have a good rest.
Once she got to her bedroom, Narcissa looked out of the window. She remembered moments, times and things she and her sister did together.
And so many miles away, Andromeda looked out of her window and thought the same.
And that's the end of my story! Thanks to my fab Tornadoes Team for beta'ing this, Kudos to you!
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