Chapter Six. Fair warning, this one is particularly emotional.
I own nothing of the Harry Potter franchise, I swear. Or trust me, it would be smuttier.
And of course, a thank you to my darling beta, The-Missing-Paige :3
Rodolphus took the fall for most of my crimes,and after a few memory charms and the occasional Imperious Curse, I have faded into relative obscurity while the world picks up what's left of its scattered remains.
I am back at the Black manor again. Because as much as I hate this place, it is where I've felt the most. I believe I am losing the most humane parts of me and I'm not making an honest effort to hold on to them.
Earlier today I kicked the house elf, Podie, down the grand staircase.
I don't know why.
And I do not care.
And I have taken to burning myself with the tip of my wand more and more often… I think it reminds me of her. Linked in pain…she and I will be forever linked in pain. The black sisters… the black and blue sisters… the blood red sisters.
The dead sisters.
It has crossed my mind before…as an adolescent. Cissy and I could have escaped our home, and our parents, and our fates with one action. Maybe even one spell. Or we could have gone like muggles and turned on a gas oven or anything really. Then there would be no Lucius, and subsequently no Draco. And no Rodolphus, and no trying to figure out why I feel absolutely nothing for the lives I've claimed.
"M-misses Lestrange, there's a man at the d-door for you," Podie stammers as she trips into the parlor. There was once a time where I found her mildly comical. I think that's why I chose her, of all house elves, to accompany me. Now however, her stutter just sends a flood of anger through me.
"Well, are you going to bloody well tell me who is it?" I question, grabbing my wand. My life is still constantly in imminent danger, even after the Dark Lord's destruction. Strangely enough though, sometimes I feel as though the constant threat of death is all that keeps me going.
"He s-says his name is A-Artemis L-La-"
"Stop stuttering you damned oaf!" I yell as I exit the room. As I turn to head down the steps, I hear her yelps of pain and from the corner of my eye I see her aggressively stab her foot with the fireplace poker again and again.
I swear my lips curl into a smile on their very own.
As I near the grand entrance I see my company. Two olive skinned, rather tall men. They are dressed identically in dark green robes and are both bespectacled. As I walk closer, I see that one is older, although his face youthful. The only indication to his true age is the graying of his thick curls and slightly rounder middle than the other. The other one's hair appeared to be changing colors on the spot, from a brown to a blonde in a matter of seconds.
I knew the older one.
"Artemis Lasko. Might I ask what you're doing here? Or more importantly, who told you where to find me?" I ask with my wand lowered but in hand nonetheless.
"Is your first instinct always to interrogate an old family friend?" he asks me with the hint of a smile on his face. "I guess you've become skeptical through the years…shame, really."
I eye him suspiciously, not clear on what he's playing at.
"Really Bellatrix, cut the dramatics. Have your recent… activitiesmade you a cynic,dear? I have no ulterior motives. My darling Arabelle died several months ago, and my son Alec and I are parting ways with this murky lakeside and trekking forth to Wales like Arabelle always dreamed."
I roll my eyes impatiently. I don't give so much as half a damn where he and his four-eyed kin are going.
"And we wanted to say good bye to the only neighbor we've ever known, although for most of Alec's life this place has housed nothing but cobwebs." He chuckled.
I feel myself losing patience with his senseless chatter until something he says catches my attention.
"And also, few years ago, your sister…not the weakly little one. The other one...oh dear, her name escapes me. Andrea, was it? Well, she Apparated right to my front door, with a letter and a photograph. Told me to give it to Druella, but by the time I remembered to stop by, both Cygnus and Druella were dead." Artemis pauses for a second, reaching into his robe.
"I feel it's only right to give it to you. The eldest of the Black children. I could never open the damn thing myself, must've put a charm on it or something."
I extend my arm, only half listening. I had written Andromeda off many years ago. She shacked up with some Mudblood, and had a freak child, and never looked back at the Black manor again. Druella would never speak her name after she left. Nor would my father, Cygnus. One night I heard Cissy crying softly in Andromeda's old room. And I found it easiest to pretend she never existed.
I killed many like her. Blood traitors. Defiling the pure-blood status for something they called love. I killed them without as much as a second thought.
But Andromeda was safe.
Well, at least from me.
I never targeted her, though I could have. She was a passionate woman, and I'm sure she would have defended herself and her family well. However, there is nothing in the world that can stop me if my mind is on the kill. Animalistic, the way I behave.
Barely human at all.
But I never targeted her out of respect for what was once our family… Andromeda, as strange as it seems to me now, was once my sister. So due to some rare, instinctive morality, I have left Andromeda to her own devices while her kind have been killed by both my peers and I.
I take the worn envelope from Artemis's hand.
"You seem a bit pale, Bellatrix. Are you alright dear?" He asks me, with an almost mockingly concerned voice.
I roll my eyes again.
"I'm fine,Artemis. But, I advise you,be on your way. I fear I am in no mood forcompany."
Artemis nods and turns around, linking arms with his son Alec. And right before they Apparate, my eyes meet Alec's eyes and his hair is changing from blonde to black. Right before they disappear from my sight, he drops a small card. Walking over to it, I see that it is a wizarding photograph. It shows younger version of Andromeda, she is maybe is maybe 11 and chubby with wild hair. Artemis is also in the picture, he's handsome and youthful. His hair is short and sophisticated upon his head and he's about 25 or so. In the photograph Andromeda is atop Artemis's lap in a manner that might have been appropriate if she was a little younger. An actual child, maybe. Not a girl entering adolescence, with small breasts already peeking from behind her blouse. In the picture, Artemis is smiling close to Andromeda's cheek, as though he just finished whispering to her. And Andromeda is smiling as well, but only in the sense that her teeth are visible and her cheeks higher. Her eyes are not smiling though. They are terrified.
I close the door behind me, walk to the steps, and open the envelope intended for Druella. It opens with ease, as if it has been waiting impatiently to do so.
It reads:
Dear mother,
Because of what this letter entails, I did not trust an owl that could be intercepted. And, I admit I was terrified of the rejection I would face if I went back to the manor to face you directly, so I did what seemed most logical and I willingly faced Artemis Lasko one more time. Only you know of his wrong-doing towards me, and so only you would know how serious this letter must be if I have confronted him on my own…
You know, he still looks at me the same. As though he is hungry. And before I continue, I just want you to know that I left because your way of life was not one I wanted for my daughter. And Ted saved me from Artemis when neither you nor father would. I have forgiven him, and I have forgiven you. But it is because I choose to. With my husband and daughter I have started anew. I will no longer be the Black child. The liar. The unhappy. The angry. The abuser. The abused.
I have let it all go in hopes that you will at least see the horrors you inflicted upon me, or that justice be brought down upon you and father, and Artemis, and the whole damn lot of you people. I have given up my status and money, but I have gained happiness. And that is something I fear you may never know.
However, I digress.
I write because I am worried about Bella and Cissy. Neither of them are quite right, and there are rumours of something dangerous afoot. Both Rodolphus Lestrange and Lucius Malfoy have been connected with these horrors and both men are connected to my sisters. They have followed in your footsteps in every conceivable way. You are contagious mother. Even I am guilty of falling into your footsteps. But you are the worst of all, Mother. You are the cause of all of our wrongdoing. We have inherited your life, Mother.
Your pain.
So I beg you, please find it in your heart to stop it before your eldest and your youngest succumb to evil. Narcissa has so much potential, Mother. A real shot at life. She could be so influential in the Ministry. She can be helped. Even Bella. The darkest of us all. Mother, I am pleading with you. Save my sisters.
They are not you.
They do not have to be…
The last night Artemis took me down to the lake, I was much older. Back home right after my last year at Hogwarts. He asked you if I could accompany him down the lake and you smiled, as you always did for company. And let him. Knowingly mother, knowingly. He took my wrist as firmly as he could without seeming aggressive and we walked down to the water. He put up protective charms around the perimeter and told me I was beautiful. He told me I shouldn't grow up. That he wished I was that little girl he knew all those years ago. He told me he fancied me more than Bellatrix because she was too mean, already knowledgeable of the world and jaded. He said he didn't like Narcissa because she was weak, and reminded him of a doll. And he, a man, did not play with dolls. But I was like a combination of the two. Even with a womanly body, I was really just as soft as I was at 10 years old. Eternally beautiful, he said.
And then he did what you allowed him to do when you let him take me down to the lake alone. While Bellatrix and Narcissa happily fucked around in their room. While father sat in the parlor, oblivious and uncaring. While all was right in our forever demented world. While you basked in the dysfunction you nurtured…
Sometimes, Mother, I wonder how you live with the demons you've created…
But again, I digress.
A few nights later, I was sneaking off with Ted. He was so brilliant and passionate, and I was broken. Ted promised me a life without a pain, then and there while I was so obviously hurting. And without a second thought, I took it.
We made love, he and I. And I realized that this was not what you did to us. Or what Bellatrix, Narcissa and I did to each other. This was something else. Something beautiful. But still, after it was all said and done, I was still damaged. I cried, Mother. I sobbed until I was sure I would drown in my own sorrow.
And then I told Ted about Artemis.
Every single thing about Artemis.
And Bella, and Cissy.
And Ted cried with me, until our bodies shook and the whole world vibrated with revelations.
Next his eyes were angry. He took my hand and we Apparated to the Lasko residence. He and Artemis had it out. Not with wands, but the muggle way. Ted fought with his fists for me.
And Artemis laid there, an older man, but not quite so old yet. Weak. Useless.
And I was no longer afraid of him. Nor you, nor father, nor Bella.
I was afraid of no one.
And then some time went by. And I was sick quite often, and then I gained some weight and I could no longer deny I was pregnant.
Neither Ted nor I bothered to state the obvious. The baby could be either his or Artemis's.
Then she was born, a beautiful brown haired baby.
But in a matter of minutes her hair was black, then pink, blue, green and every other imaginable color. She was a metamorphmagus. And Ted, being muggle born, had no idea if this was a trait on his side. And I had never heard of it on neither yours nor father's.
Eventually we got word that Artemis had a son. A metamorphmagus as well.
But Ted is still here. And Nymphadora is still his child, despite the ugly undeniable truth. I tell you this to confirm what I know as fact. What we had was not a family. Mother, it was a dangerous, disgusting series of lies.
What I have now is a family. What I have now, is love. And both Bella and Cissy can have it too.
They are meddling in dangerous things mother.
If you want to end this horrid cycle, if you want to right the wrongs, please, save my sisters.
-Andromeda Tonks (née Black)
I place the letter down slowly on the steps, next to where I sit. And look now at the picture she sent with it, instead of the one Alec dropped. In it, is a pudgy baby who's hair in the wizarding photo, is going from green to pink to red to purple. On the back is Andromeda's bold cursive again.
Nymphadora Druella Tonks, your first granddaughter.