CHAPTER TWO:

Reunion

Bellatrix couldn't believe how easy it was to break the wards around her sister's house. Surely with her husband and daughter both marked for death, she would have had the Ministry help to make sure…

Oh, that's right. The Ministry was under the Dark Lord's control now. In spite of her predicament, Bellatrix smiled. Then it occurred to her: what if Nympadora or Ted Tonks was inside the house? What would she do? She certainly couldn't let them live. The Dark Lord would be most disappointed in her if she did. But if she killed them, Andromeda would be even less likely to willingly share information with her.

Ah, well. She'd have to take that chance.

Breaking down the last of the apparition wards, she closed her eyes, and a moment later appeared in her younger sister's kitchen.

"Merlin's beard!" cried Andromeda, jumping up and spilling her tea in the process. "It's you!" She drew her wand. Bellatrix already had hers out. They were both at the ready, prepared to kill in order to live if that was necessary.

"I did not come to hurt you," said Bellatrix. "Besides, if I wanted it, you'd be dead already."

"You overestimate your abilities, Bella," said Andromeda. "You always have."

"I do not think this is the best time for you to be starting a game of 'who does it better,' do you?"

"I think it's time to tell me why you're in my home. My husband isn't here, as if you're unaware. He's on the run from Snatchers, as is my son-in-law. My daughter could be killed any day, and with her my unborn grandchild, thanks to your fellow Death Eaters. So as you can probably imagine, you're not welcome here."

"Your…" Bellatrix shook her head. She'd forgotten that her younger sister would soon become a grandmother, news delivered recently to the Dark Lord by none other than Severus Snape, the "faithful servant" whose loyalty Bellatrix never stopped doubting.

A grandmother.

It was difficult to fathom. Surely they weren't that old, not yet.

"Your grandchild?" said Bellatrix. Andromeda sneered.

"Yes. My future grandbaby, whose life is in danger every moment of every day simply because his parents are…"

"Blood traitors?"

"A metamorph and a werewolf."

"No, they're in danger because they're blood traitors. The Dark Lord would be pleased to have more werewolves fighting beside us. We have Fenrir Greyback…"

"Hardly a ringing endorsement for your side…"

"There are others, too. But your werewolf is a blood traitor, as is your daughter, as are you. Do you know what the Dark Lord could do with a metamorph? How useful she could be to us? Is your loyalty to your Muggle-born husband worth the life of your grandchild?"

"Is that why you've broken into my home? To inquire about the safety of my unborn grandchild?" Andromeda sat back in her chair, still keeping her wand trained on Bellatrix. "How thoughtful of you, dear sister. I had no idea you cared. Why didn't you bring Narcissa along? We could've had such a lovely reunion. Look, I made tea."

"Save it."

"Get out."

"Not yet!" Bellatrix twirled her own wand around her forefinger. "I need you… I need information from you, and I don't care if I have to torture you to get it."

"Well, there's the Bellatrix Black I've always known and loved, truly Mother's daughter, eh? Willing to do what it takes to get what you want. Torture away. You know as well as anyone that I can handle myself under at least two of the Unforgivable Curses and I daresay should you attempt the third, if I fail to shield myself from it, you won't be getting much information out of me afterward anyway."

A cat-like smile spread across Bellatrix's face as she circled closer to her prey. "Oh, little sister? You want me to try an Unforgivable on you? Hm? Is that what you're saying? You know I'd love to. Nothing would give me more pleasure than to see you writhing in pain. The Cruciatus is my strength, which I'd love to share with my favorite blood-traitor blood relation." As she spoke, she made her way closer to Andromeda, who was still seated, until she was hovering over her. "Tell me, have you ever been tortured before, Muggle-lover? Would you like to be?" Bellatrix ran the tip of her wand down Andromeda's arm, her eyes open so wide she almost looked innocent. "Yes? You want to see what it's like?"

"Are you trying to scare me or pick me up in a pub?" asked Andromeda, who was the only person who knew how Bellatrix and Voldemort met. "You know, darling, I've never been one for this casual flirtation you and Narcissa seem to have perfected at an early age. Tell me, do you still give others the impression you're 'more than kin and less than kind' or have you managed to rein it in for the sake of appearance?"

Bellatrix laughed. She slid her wand up the sleeve of her dress hoping Andromeda would do the same, but she didn't. "I don't flirt with our sister."

"Don't you? I've heard rumors…"

"That's sick," said Bellatrix. "We're related."

"Half our family is related. That is to say, half our family married other people in our family to whom they were already related. It's sheer luck that we're not all walking around hunched over with extra noses and no ability to properly chew. That's what'll happen to you blood-obsessed types, you know. You can only intermarry for so many generations before hemophilia poisons your blood worse than mixing with Muggles ever could."

Bellatrix's smile dissipated. "I don't flirt with Narcissa."

"Only her husband?"

"I haven't fucked her husband in almost twenty years."

"I'm sure she's very appreciative of that."

"When I did, it was for a reason."

"Ah, well that makes it alright, eh? That said, would you mind not fucking mine? I can't think of any reason such a coupling would be appropriate."

Bellatrix glared at Andromeda. "I would not lie down with that Muggle filth even if the Dark Lord himself demanded it."

"Of course you would, darling sister. You would lie down with anyone if the Dark Lord demanded it: wizard, witch, mud-blood or Muggle. I know you would. Admit it."

By now, the tea had soaked well into the wooden kitchen table. Andromeda, no longer feeling the need to keep her wand trained on her sister, used it to clean up the mess and repair her broken tea cup. "This mess!"

"Sorry to have interrupted your afternoon," said Bellatrix sarcastically.

Andromeda waved her hand dismissively, checking to be sure it hadn't dripped onto the floor. "Tea?" she asked, summoning a second cup from the counter for Bellatrix. "It seems you intend to stay awhile."

"I suppose." With a sigh, Bellatrix sat across the table from Andromeda. She sipped the tea, added sugar, and sipped it again. "I need information from you," she said finally.

"Sorry, big sister. I'm not going to tell you where they're hiding. For one, I don't know, and even if I did, I wouldn't…"

"I don't give a damn where they are."

"Then why are you here? What information could I possibly have for you?"

Bellatrix didn't answer. She sipped her tea. Andromeda sipped hers. If anyone had peaked in the window, they would assume all was well – just two sisters enjoying the afternoon together. It would be clear, even to total strangers, that the two were related. Unlike Narcissa, with her pinker cheeks and (no-longer-naturally) blonde hair, Bellatrix and Andromeda had always looked alike at first glance, despite the latter's lighter hair. When they were little, they were sometimes even mistaken for twins, which Andromeda, being younger, loved, and Bellatrix, being almost as obsessed with her own individuality as she later was with Voldemort, hated.

"Do you remember when we were little girls?" asked Andromeda, twirling a strand of long brown hair around her finger. "Before Father died? Mother put us in matching dresses, all three of us, all the time."

"You loved that shit. You'd twirl around and fall over like a giraffe in a tutu and say, "'Wook, Bewwa! I'm just wike you! I wook just wike you!' You loved me, you little idiot, with your silly twirls and your speech impediment."

"I did love you and you loved me and we both loved Narcissa… Though to be honest, I loved her a bit less."

"Well, Narcissa was always so busy being in love with herself I highly doubt she noticed."

Andromeda laughed. If she could set aside the fact that her sister wanted nearly everyone in her immediate family dead, she could almost enjoy chatting with Bellatrix. They hadn't always been enemies. Until Bella's last year at Hogwarts, back when her interest in blood purity ran no deeper than that of any of their other relatives, and before Andromeda fell for Ted and started questioning all she'd been raised to believe, they'd actually been quite close.

"Narcissa tries to mother me on occasion but it doesn't suit her."

"She's not a good mother?"

Bellatrix rolled her eyes. "I wouldn't know a good mother if I'd been born to and raised by one."

"I was under the impression she spoils him," said Andromeda. "Babies him, dotes on him, wouldn't let him attend Durmstrang because it's too far away."

Bellatrix raised both eyebrows in surprise. Andromeda shrugged.

"Even though I have no desire to interact with either of you, I hear things. I know things. For example, I know that you attacked my daughter and killed Sirius in the Department of Mysteries last year. How was that? Did it feel good, sending your own cousin through that veil?"

Bellatrix didn't take the bait, choosing instead to answer the 'good mother' question. "You're right that Narcissa didn't want Draco to go to Durmstrang because it was too far away. She also didn't want him to do a particular task for the Dark Lord because it might be dangerous. She doesn't only spoil him, she babies him. You should've seen what she got Severus Snape into last year in an attempt to protect him. If I had a son…"

"Thank heavens you don't…"

"I would be proud to see the Dark Lord put him to good use." Having caught her sister's interjection, she added "Bitch," before continuing her thought. "Not Cissy. She begged the Dark Lord to give the task to someone else – actually begged Him! As if she's worthy enough to ask anything of Him. Pathetic. But for all her affection, she still lacks… something. There's a decidedly un-maternal element to her. Did you know they had a servant breastfeed him from birth until age two? A poor girl, a squib. She lived with them and did everything from changing his nappies to waking with him in the middle of the night. I called her 'the human house-elf.' It was disgusting."

Andromeda continued twirling her hair, a habit their mother had tried to break her from since toddlerhood, to no avail. "They had nannies when he was in primary school, too. I would see them together once in awhile, the boy being carried around when he was old enough to walk, bought whatever he asked for. Draco, isn't it? He looks like his father."

Bellatrix laughed derisively. "Draco, yes. For all of her affection toward him, apparently she couldn't be bothered to care for him full-time. Last year Lucius said he wanted more children but Narcissa insisted she wasn't willing to go through 'all that' again. I asked her, 'all what? All the trouble of paying a dirty squib to let him suckle off her until he learns to eat solid food?' She said 'you're not a mother, you'll never understand.' She's right, I don't understand. What's the point in bringing home a little brat if you plan to pass him off for someone else to nurse and raise?"

Andromeda nodded, smiling slightly, giving into the catty part of her they'd all inherited from their mother. "Honestly, I'm shocked she even carried him inside her own body. Could she have outsourced that, she surely would have. You know we hadn't spoken in years when she was pregnant, but I did see her around Diagon Alley from time to time and I rather enjoyed knowing how fat she got. Merlin's beard, was she fat! And – this you wouldn't know because you were locked up – it took her a good five years to lose it all. I rather enjoyed that, too."

"Do you always?"

"Do I always what?"

"Get fat?"

"I'll have you know, I've never been fat a day in my life."

Bellatrix rolled her eyes. "I mean pregnant women. Do pregnant women always get fat?"

"I gained exactly seventeen pounds when I was carrying Nymphadora and lost them all before she was six months old. I breastfed her myself. That takes the pounds off."

"But most women, they get fat?"

Andromeda sat back in her chair, studying her sister. "Why do you care?"

Bellatrix averted Andromeda's gaze. "I don't." She sipped her tea.

Andromeda's heavy-lidded eyes widened. "Merlin's beard."

"Stop it," Bellatrix snapped. "I hate that phrase and you use it all the time, you've always used it, even when you were a little girl, even though Mother hated it too."

"Merlin's beard, Merlin's beard!" Andromeda placed one hand dramatically over her chest, wickedly cheered by what she perceived as her sister's misfortune. "That's why you're here, Bellatrix Black Lestrange. You're pregnant."

"I'm not pregnant."

"You are pregnant! You're nearly fifty and you're pregnant."

"I'm hardly forty."

"Who do you think you're fooling? You're closer to fifty than forty." She clapped her hands together delightedly. "Merlin's beard, you even look pregnant. Your skin glows."

"It does not. Narcissa told me just this morning I look pale and sick."

"You're pale and sick because you're pregnant and you came to me for advice."

"Go to hell."

"Then why are you here?" Andromeda laughed, the cruel sort of laugh that made Bellatrix's skin crawl. Andromeda laughed just like Mother. "You're pregnant, Bella. I'm about to be a grandmother and my big sissy's pregnant!" Andromeda laughed harder, so hard she had to wipe away actual tears from her eyes. "Oh, it's beautiful!"

Bellatrix crossed her arms over her chest, pouting. "I've never liked you."

"Shut it, I know you used to, before Ted, before You-Know-Who. I know you liked me, you loved me, and now you've come to me, me, of all people, for advice because you're pregnant and you don't know what to do, or what to expect, and you think I can help you! That I'd be willing to help you! Oh! This is rich. So, who's the lucky man? Certainly not your mess of a husband, his family's inbred so far back I'd be surprised if he can get it up."

"He's not inbred."

"He's one of the Sacred 28, isn't he?"

The Sacred 28 was a name given to the 28 remaining families to be able to call themselves pure-blood as of the 1930s. The Blacks, Lestranges, Weasleys, Prewitts, and Malfoys had all made the list.

"Of course," said Bellatrix, disgusted at the notion he'd be anything but. "I wouldn't have married him if he were mixed, you know that."

"That means he's inbred. Is he the baby's father? I can't believe it. I always assumed your marriage was one of convenience or to enhance your image. Has it ever been consummated?"

Bellatrix took in a sharp breath, her teeth grinding as heat radiated from her hands. She was getting angry and struggling to control it.

"No," said Andromeda, who didn't need occlumency to read her older sister. "No, you've slept with him, but you're not pregnant by him. I'm certain of it. Oh, dear, it's not Lucius, is it? That could make Christmas and Easter rather awkward… Merlin's beard, is it Lucius? If so, can I be the one to tell Narcissa? I'd risk death to do it. It would be my pleasure."

"It's not Lucius. I told you, I haven't…

"Fucked him in years," finished Andromeda. "I know, I remember you said it, I just figured you're lying. So if not him, then…?"

"Fine, yes, you win. I'm pregnant, it's not my husband's, I want to know what to expect, and I can't tell anyone about it, alright? Not Rodolphus, not Narcissa… I need to keep it from everyone. Everyone. Including you."

"What are you going to do, pick my brain then obliviate me?" Andromeda laughed again. "You know I wouldn't let you. You'd have to kill me, darling, and honestly, I'm not sure you have it in you. Not considering what's in you! They change you, Bella. From the inside out. They make you weak. Emotional. They make you fat. A baby will turn you into a baby. What will your darling Dark Lord think of you now? Fat and emotional and weak? What use will you be to him? What reason would he have to keep you around? Poor dear, he won't even want you anymore. Nobody will. How's it feel, Bellatrix? How's it feel to be vulnerable? Afraid? How's it feel to know you might soon lose everything?" Andromeda was teasing her, taunting her the way Bellatrix had done to Neville in the Department of Mysteries. The irony was not lost on the Bellatrix, who bit her lip until she tasted the metallic bitterness of blood. She could kill Andromeda. She could kill her and walk away and never feel an ounce of remorse.

She could, but she wouldn't.

"Oh, Bella, Bella, Bella. Weak, frightened Bella. Whatever do you want from me?"

"I've cried, Meda."

That halted Andromeda's laughter. Not only had she never known her sister to cry, but it had been over twenty-five years since either of her sisters had used her childhood nickname, and that time, the last time, it was when they sat her down and tried in vain to convince her not to marry Ted Tonks.

"He's a Muggle! You cannot damage our family name in this manner! Call off this ridiculous childhood romance and move on. Find a suitable husband. Your attempts to rebel are made only to hurt Mother and while we'd all like to make her pay for certain past actions, this is not the way. End it!" Bellatrix had demanded, certain "Muggle-loving" was a phase.

Narcissa had a different approach. "Please, Andromeda. If you marry him, Mother will cut you off forever. You won't be a Black anymore. You won't be our sister. We've been together our whole lives, your blood is our blood, and that blood is pure! Please, for all that it means to be a Black, please, don't marry him! Don't we matter to you at all?"

"I'm marrying him," Andromeda had said. "He's asked and I've said yes."

"You're making a mistake, Meda," Bellatrix had said. "You'll live to regret it."

"It will be no life if I live it without him," said Andromeda. "I love him. He loves me. If you can't love me knowing that I love him, than we have nothing further to say to each other."

So they didn't. Not for twenty-five years.

Not until today.