Narcissa stared anxiously out of the window, fiddling agitatedly with a small packet of sugar that the waitress had handed to her upon bringing the tea.

Was she going to come? Did she dare? It was a great risk for her to be seen with someone considered tainted, a betrayer, even, and even worse for Andromeda. If Bella got word of their meeting she would murder them both.

So of course she was nervous. She hadn't seen her elder sister in seven years. Seven years was a long time for someone to change...

"Cissy?"

There was a woman standing by the table – she was tall, with pale skin and flyaway chocolate-brown hair.

"Andromeda!" Narcissa gasped, jumping up and embracing her sister at once. She noticed that the returned hug, although warm, was rather hesitant.

"Narcissa, we must be careful," Andromeda's eyes darted around as she sat down. "Are you sure Bellatrix is preoccupied?"

"She, Rodolphus and Rastaban are up visiting Lestrange relatives in the north for the day. And Lucius is entertaining guests. I told him I was going to buy myself a new dress for the ball coming up. He wanted to come, but I told him I was quite good at spending his money by now."

Andromeda laughed and Cissy noticed some of the familiar spark returning to her dark eyes.

"So why did you call me to this coffee shop, eh?" Andromeda was smiling now, more relaxed, head in her hands, "Do you want to gossip or did you just miss me? It's been – what – five years? "

"Seven," Cissy corrected her, "We last met up just before Nymphadora was born. How is she?"

"Heh," Andromeda chuckled, "She's gorgeous, but she is probably the clumsiest child ever. She trips over everything, even her own feet! I can't think where she got it from..."

A smile crept over Narcissa's face.

"I have a feeling it's me. Don't you remember, when we were children, I kept ripping my dresses? You and Bella used to tease me and say that it was my only fault."

"Ahh," Andromeda laughed and nodded, "I remember that. Bella and I used to..." Then her face dropped. Narcissa could not mistake the sorrow and bitterness in her sister's eyes.

"Andromeda, Bella's made a will."

"A will?" Andromeda frowned, "Is she terminally ill or something?"

Narcissa chose her words carefully

"Well, it seems that if there is...a clash of sides...any time soon...Bella wishes to be in the thick of it. So she made a will. I wasn't supposed to but – you're in it, Andromeda. She remembered you."

I walked down the lane as casually as I could, the instructions of how to get there ringing in my mind:

St Alban's Street, take a left, then a right, then it's straight down that road, number sixteen.

I worried my cuff. And I thought I was nervous last time I met Andy – that was only with a seven year interval. It had been eighteen years since I saw her in that coffee shop, with naught so much as a Christmas card. Back then the war was in its early stages; no fighting, just utmost secrecy and plenty of planning. Back when it was just a game.

Now I have come to see her, in her own house, without invitation. She could slam the door in my face for all I know. I just needed to talk to her.

After the war, our house seemed so...empty. Even though they were manipulating us and causing us great pain, there were always people in our house. Yaxley. Dolohov. Rastaban...

Rodolphus. I hadn't seen him since the battle. He'd fought beside Bella the whole way. According to Rastaban, he was sliced down the middle by an Auror and, ironically, died in the Slytherin common room. Rast was not a compassionate man, but he saw the pain in Bella's face as her husband fell. She'd avadad the Auror and dropped to her knees beside him, but the ceiling was collapsing, and Rastaban had dragged her away, kicking and screaming.

The house was so huge now. Like a shell of something that had once been great, and we, the moths that inhabited it, flittered around miserably inside, not knowing what to do to occupy ourselves.

Lucius had plenty of paperwork to do after the war; the extensive damage he and the rest of the Death Eaters caused and the terms that came because of that were enough to keep him busy for days on end. He would frequently visit the ministry, kept under a strict watch.

But he had changed. The war had broken him and stolen his pride, and even his money had been taken from him. We still had plenty, yes, but Lucius now had to work his way back up to his aristocratic status.

And Draco, he too had been deeply affected by those long nights spent cooped up in Malfoy Manor during the holidays. He had always shown surpassing talent in the area of spellwork, but he just couldn't seem to cast unforgiveables. This made Bella even more frustrated with him, often using the same spells to punish him.

I tried to prevent it – honestly, I did; I screamed at her to stop, even trying to step in the way of her, but it was to no use.

Now he was quiet, thoughtful even. He lost so much weight that his face looked like a skull, dark eyes staring blankly out. After the battle, he'd stayed in his room all day every day for a whole week.

He frequently leaves the house, trying to escape from the terrible memories. He often visits Parkinson Manor – he told me he goes there to share memories with Pansy, although I highly doubt that's the only thing that they are doing. Draco tried to convince me that their relationship was platonic, but I am not stupid. Neither is he, because if it ever got out, what he and Pansy were up to, especially to a certain Mr and Mrs Greengrass, it would be pure scandal.

Draco knew that he was supposed to be betrothed to the youngest Greengrass, but Astoria was in her second year for heavens' sake; he deserved a little freedom.

So after Lucius hurried off to the Ministry, Draco had slipped off to Pansy's and I was alone. I acquired the directions from Lucius's wonderfully helpful talking map, and set off at once to visit Andromeda.

It was a beautiful little lane set out in the country. I assumed this was to detour unwanted visitors, as Andromeda wasn't exactly popular with our family after she married Ted. I stopped outside the house, my mouth suddenly dry.

I fingered my cuff once more, suddenly regretting wearing such finery to visit my sister. It was an important occasion so I had unconsciously picked out my best clothes. Somehow I doubted Andromeda would appreciate it.

Slowly, I made my way down the path, listening to the gravel crunch beneath my feet and admiring the white sash windows. It was not as large as Malfoy Manor by any means, but it was comfortable enough - Uncle Alphard had left a sizable amount of gold to both Andy and Sirius, they being the only rebels in the family, which he greatly approved of.

I stared at the doorknocker for a few minutes, silently rehearsing my little speech.

"Hello Andy..."

No, no, she hated being called Andy...

"Hello Andromeda. Can I come in?"

Too forward. Best to let her make the first move...

Sighing, I ran a hand through my hair – a nervous habit I had inherited from father, perhaps one of the only things that we shared – and raised my hand to knock.

I waited a few seconds with baited breath, until the door opened.

"Hello, can I-"

The first thing that struck me about her was how tired she looked. Her face was peaky with bags beneath the eyes. Her chocolate-coloured hair was long and curled in natural ringlets but lacked its normal lustre which I had always been jealous of.

She stopped talking the moment she saw me. Her eyes widened in surprise – then narrowed in suspicion. I lump rose in my throat, and I supposed that she had a right to be careful, as Bella had murdered her daughter and son-in-law. For all she knew I could be here to finish off little Teddy.

"Hi Andy," I whispered.

She stared at me, before swallowing hard.

"Why are you here, Narcissa?" she hissed. Her voice was cold and emotionless.

"I..." I looked down, "I want to help, Andy. Money, time," I smiled weakly, "Night shifts."

Her gaze was like a ton of bricks on my shoulders.

"I haven't so much as talked to you in eighteen years, Narcissa. Give me one good reason why I should let you in."

I met her gaze unfalteringly, "Because Bella's dead."

At these words, something inside of Andromeda broke. I could see it, just below the surface of her resolute facade, a secret pain inside of her at learning of her sister's death. Tears welled in her eyes, but I knew they were not for Bellatrix.

"She killed her, Cissy," Andromeda's shoulders were shaking, "She killed Dora, and Remus and Ted and it's my fault!"

"Andy," I touched her gently on the shoulder, aware that she'd obviously been holding this inside of her a long time. We Blacks were very good at bottling ourselves up. She turned to me, dark eyes wide and beseeching.

"She was right there, all tied up and I could have – I should have killed her, there and then! But I couldn't – I couldn't kill her, not Bella, not my own sister...and now...and now...!"

Gently but firmly, I ushered her inside. Glancing around, I found the sitting room and sat her down on a sofa.

"I'm going to get some tea. Don't move." I told her in my best no-nonsense tone. How I had missed being bossy!

She sniffed and quickly scrubbed at her eyes, "Oh, Cissy, don't, I'll-"

I frowned disapprovingly at her, hands on hips. "Don't move," I repeated, "If we're losing our house elves soon I might as well get some practise in."

I managed to fix the tea easily. It surprised me at first how I instinctively knew where everything was, then it hit me with a pang of nostalgia; the kitchen was arranged exactly like the old one at Black Mansion. How many times the three of us had snuck down in the middle of the night to fix ourselves a snack I couldn't recall.

I returned to the living room triumphantly carrying a tray with teapot and teacups. Andromeda had composed herself and was watching me with a secretly amused air. I set the try on the coffee table and poured her a cup, before making my own and settling down on an armchair opposite her.

We drank in companionable silence. My eyes explored the room; it was small and cosy, a large window behind Andromeda with a mirror and fireplace on the wall opposite the door. There was an archway that lead into what I assumed was the dining room, a long room with a large table. Against the fireplace wall were several bookcases overflowing with books, files and board games, which also littered the floor around the bottom of them. My eyes fell on a newspaper sitting on a large pile of thick tomes on the floor beside the sofa. It was open on the puzzle page, the crossword half-completed in smudged print.

Andromeda saw me looking and smiled sadly.

"He was working on it that evening, you know," she said softly, "He liked to lie on the sofa with Teddy on his chest and read the newspaper. He was half way through the crossword when Kingsley came to tell us about the battle." She shook her head, inhaling sharply against tears. "He kissed Teddy on the head, handed him to Dora, telling her not to worry, he'd be back soon, and – and – that she should stay at home and look after the baby..."

Andromeda was sobbing again, and I immediately went to comfort her, but she waved me away.

"H-he knew she wouldn't stay. She couldn't stay. She couldn't stand not knowing. Not being there if he..." she closed her eyes and gulped, "She waited twenty minutes before she followed. She couldn't stand being away from Remus, even if it meant leaving Teddy; she had to be with him. She hugged me tightly and told me to take good care of her baby...but when she handed him to me, she couldn't stop crying and I tried to convince her not to go, just like she'd tried to convince him but I knew..."

She was sobbing so hard now that I couldn't understand what she was saying, but I sat beside her and held her tightly. Andy had comforted me so many times in the past, and it was my chance to redeem myself. I found myself crying too, crying for Andy, and her little family that had been torn apart by war, and crying for my family too, crying for the tragedy that could have so easily befallen us. Crying in selfish relief that it hadn't. And crying for Bella; she may have been twisted and insane, but she was still my big sister, and I still loved her.

I lost track of time, but the tears slowly dried up and we sat together in each other's embrace, using up the Kleenex and enjoying the release that came with uncorking our grief.

"How did she die?"

I knew at once who Andromeda was talking about and opened my mouth to speak, only finding that I could not. This was the first time I'd properly acknowledged what had happened and it was desperately hard.

"Molly Weasley."

Andromeda's mouth twitched up into a smile. I understood how she felt; it was strangely ironic that the malevolent woman that killed children was defeated by a mother of seven who fought for all that was comforting and loving in the world. It fitted, somehow, in a strange way.

"I still loved her, even though she was doing all those terrible things." Andromeda whispered. I nodded.

"Me too, right to the end."

"Right to the end." Andromeda agreed, smiling weakly at me. Then she gazed out of the window. "Is it wrong to miss the woman that murdered your family?"

I bit my lip. On those evenings, when Lucius had been out with the Death Eaters on some terrible mission, I had wondered the same thing myself. Draco was gaunt, a creature I barely recognised from my cheeky, snarky little boy. My husband had torn our family apart, so why did I still long, every night, for him to return home at least physically whole?

And Bellatrix; she'd tortured Draco, attempted to kill Andromeda and murdered my niece and nephew-in-law, and yet there was still a part of me wishing that she'd opened up to me so I could understand why she did what she did.

I shook my head.

"I don't know, Andy. I don't know."

We sat in silence for a few seconds, before a piercing cry broke the air. A baby's cry. How I'd missed the sound of life. I'd almost forgotten poor Teddy.

Andromeda jumped up immediately. I got the feeling that she was trying to make up for what had happened; his parents had left him, so she never would.

"I'll be back down in a second," she explained, rushing upstairs.

I sat for a few moments, listening to the screams reach a deafening crescendo before they stopped abruptly and erupted into delighted giggles.

I gazed about the room, and my eyes caught a glinting silver photo frame on the mantel. I stood and went to inspect it. What I saw made me choke.

Three girls sat in the photograph, beautiful and prim, arms interlocked and smiling serenely. One dark, one brunette, one blonde.

I wiped the dust carefully away with my fingertips, longing to revisit those days where all that mattered was dolls, dresses and garden parties. How simple things were back then.

I heard Andromeda coming down the stairs and the excited burbling of a small child.

"Teddy, meet Aunty Cissy."

I stole one last glance at the photograph, watching as we blinked and giggled simultaneously, trying to capture some of that carelessness for myself. It was hard to turn away.