Written For:

- Day 4 of 366 Days of Writing challenge: Enchant

- The 2016 Monthly Prompt List Challenge (January): [word] Family

- Chocolate Frog Card Club: Gulliver Pokeby (Bronze) - Write about, or include, a pet in your story.

- Gringotts Prompt Bank/Genre: (word) Gloom

- Gringotts Prompt Bank/Karl Pilkington: (quote) "Apparently you're not allowed to lick a toad's back."

- Gringotts Prompt Bank/Emotions & Feelings: Delighted, Ecstatic, Kind

Pairing/Characters: Narcissa, Andromeda

Word Count: 746


Pussycat Blues

Happiness hit her like a train on a track, coming towards her, stuck still no turning back.

oOo

"It's not fair!" Andromeda heard her little sister chirp, before stomping her feet loudly and storming out of the drawing room, where she had been conversing with their mother. Druella sighed loudly, and closed the door behind Narcissa.

As Narcissa charged up the stairs, her cascade of white-blonde hair whipping behind her, Andromeda resisted the urge to roll her eyes, but she followed after her nonetheless. Narcissa had slammed her bedroom door shut quickly, but Andromeda was bigger and stronger than her, and she managed to push through into the bedroom easily.

"Go away, Andy!" sulked Narcissa. She was sitting on her bed with her knees pulled up against her chest, and a gloomy look upon her face. "I don't want to talk to you!"

"Were you asking Mum for a cat again?" Andromeda asked, feeling the corners of her mouth twitch upwards. It wasn't the first time that seven-year-old Narcissa had begged their mother for a kitten, ever since she had first fallen in love with a giant white kneazle at Magical Menagerie.

A few months before now, Narcissa had come rushing home, delighted about finding an abandoned old tomcat in the back garden. It had a collar on and a name tag, proving that it probably belonged to one of the Muggle neighbours, but Narcissa didn't care. She had begged their eldest sister, Bellatrix, to enchant the cat so that it was invisible, but Bellatrix had simply cackled, and proceeded to promptly tell their parents what Narcissa had brought home.

"It's not fair. You have your owl," Narcissa grumbled, referencing to Andromeda's grey-white owl, a gift from their uncle. It was irrelevant, however, as the owl remained outside in the barn unless someone needed to use it, and Andromeda hardly counted it as a pet. "Bellatrix has her..." she shuddered. "That mean old spider. Why won't Mum let me have a cat?"

Andromeda sighed. "You know that Mum doesn't like furry animals, Cissy," she said kindly. "That's why Bella has the tarantula. Can't you...can't you ask Mum for a toad, or something?"

Narcissa gave Andromeda a stoic glare. "Apparently, you're not allowed to lick a toad's back."

Andromeda couldn't hide her smile this time, and she burst into a sudden peal of laughter, causing Narcissa to fold her arms angrily and pout. "I'm sorry, Cis," spluttered Andromeda through giggles. "What are you talking about?"

"I don't want a toad, okay?!" snapped Narcissa, and she turned to face the window at the side of her bed. "Just leave me alone! You're just like Mum."


A couple of days later, Andromeda was stood outside Grimmauld Place with her favourite cousin, Sirius. "Thanks for sneaking out to Diagon Alley with me, Sirius," she whispered to him, knowing that Aunt Walburga would be twitching the curtains.

"No problem. Lets go give Narcissa her present." They both walked into the house together, hurriedly rushing up the stairs before Walburga could catch them and demand to know where they had been. Narcissa was sitting upstairs in the children's lounge, playing with a set of dolls.

"Cissy, we've got you a present!" Andromeda exclaimed, closing the door behind her. She set the box down that she had been holding, and sat against the door, preventing anyone from coming in. Narcissa spun around from her position on the rug, eyeing the box with suspicion. She looked from Sirius to Andromeda doubtfully.

"What is it?"

"Open it, and find out."

Narcissa crawled over to Andromeda, and sat in front of the box. She carefully peeled back the tape that secured the box, and sqeualed ecstatically. "Andy!" she cried, a grin spreading across her face. Andromeda put a finger to her lips, nodding towards the door, but she was smiling too.

A tiny kitten crawled out of the box—only it wasn't like any cat that any of them had seen before. It was pale pink and hairless, with wide, bulbous green eyes and a podgy little belly.

It wasn't as cute as the kneazle that Narcissa had grown attached to, or to the moggy she had brought in from the street. But Andromeda knew that Narcissa would still love it.

As the little hairless cat settled in Narcissa's arms, the youngest sister looked up at Andromeda, her eyes filling with tears. "Thank you, Andy. You're the best sister ever."

"That's what family is for."