This OS is written for the Snake and Ladder Challenge (Andromeda Tonks), the 'Your Favorite House Bootcamp (emptiness) and the Most Ancient and Noble House of Black Competition (Cygnus Black III). All these can be found on the HPFC.
Pieces of Our Lives: A Daughter's Treason
Cygnus felt empty for the first time in his life. This wasn't supposed to happen like that; their sweet little Andy wasn't supposed to leave them that way, only leaving hate and despair behind her instead of joy and laughs like she usually did.
Andromeda had always been the most open-hearted of their three daughters. Ever since she was young, she wasn't afraid to say what she thought and to fight for what she wanted, something she had inherited from her grandmother, Irma Black born Crabbe who had been a proud Ravenclaw. That trait was so strong in the little black-haired girl that for a while Cygnus and his wife, Druella, had been afraid she would end up in Gryffindor. And everybody in the Black family knew what being Sorted in that House meant.
For the Blacks, red and gold equaled banishment. Cygnus, though he didn't show it often – after all he was a Pureblood and had to be dignified by all times – loved his children. No matter how they behaved, he loved them. He liked to think that he wouldn't have cared had his daughter been Sorted in Gryffindor, but he thanked the gods every day for not having to find out.
Andromeda, like her two sisters, had been Sorted into the Slytherin House and though she settled quickly into her House, everybody knew she hadn't let go of her ideals. Andromeda, the only child they had named after a constellation, had always been a dreamer. She believed in peace and equality. Her sister, Bellatrix loved bloodshed but Andromeda hated it. The strange thing was that the two sisters could probably easily pass as twins should they try it.
They used to play with this likeness, back when they were young and still talked to each other.
Cygnus probably would never know when it started, this… romance with a Muggle-born. Until she told them herself, he would never have guessed. Though she often argued with her aunt Walburga about Muggle-born's rights to have magic, he would never had thought that she actually spent time with one.
He should have known, though. Bellatrix had been telling them just that for the past year but he – no, they – had thought it a farce, a petty revenge between sisters. When Andromeda had denied, they had believed her and left it at that. Now he wished he had spent more time with his little girl.
Maybe if he had been more attentive, had shown more love she would have stayed with them, with her family instead of running away like she did.
She only had the courtesy to send a letter. And what letter!
Dear Father and Mother,
If I write this to you it is to tell you we probably won't see each other ever again. As you know, I have finished Hogwarts. Well, I won't be coming back. Kreacher already sent me everything I needed, and my husband will provide us a home. I wish you could meet him, but I know you won't.
Goodbye,
Your daughter, Andromeda.
He had crumpled the paper and then smoothed it a hundred times, but each time he did, the words looked at him with the same harshness. His daughter's nice, curly letters only pictured resolution and he knew she wouldn't come back on her word – though he desperately hopped that she lied.
It was a false hope. He knew that. Andromeda never lied, and the scream his wife had had when she saw the updated Family Tree was a proof of this fact.
The name Andromeda Black was tied to the one of Ted Tonks. But the worst part was that the young man didn't have any relatives showing up on the Tree like usual. Of course he didn't, he was a Muggle-born.
As he stared at the –too rapidly – consuming fire, he knew he had never felt such emptiness in his life.
A piece was broken, gone, and she would never come back. And selfishly, or maybe without knowing it, Andromeda had damaged the whole puzzle that day.