Author's note: So I started writing this chapter immediately after yesterday's update and it took me all day to get it the way I wanted it to be. There were some things that played on my mind throughout the previous chapter as well as Nemesis as a whole and although we didn't see Andromeda during the last chapter, it was her I was thinking off. I wanted to show something that finally displayed the torment she has endured and throughout the conversation in the first part of the chapter I hope to bring across exactly how much she has changed. It is like a reflection on some of the events in Serpent Spell and the way Andromeda perceives some of the choices she had made and the reasons she made them. Consider it another way in which I am answering some questions. Now as for the second part of this chapter….. Hold off your questions for a little while. The answers will come, believe me. ~Cissy

Chapter 15

The Beast Within

The next morning Andromeda woke to find the world covered in snow. Frost covered the windows of the cottage and the bedroom was cold. She was roused from a light and dreamless sleep she had succumbed to at some point the night before. Her body ached and her head was throbbing. For a moment or two she considered not leaving the comfort of the bed but then the memories of the previous night returned to her. They had fought in Hogsmeade and they had taken Narcissa. The memory of her sister tied to a chair downstairs lured Andromeda out of bed and her feet made contact with the cold, wooden floor. She aimed her wand at the small fireplace in the corner of the room and the orange flames began dancing around the logs of wood, filling the open space with much needed warmth.

She got dressed in the robes she had worn the day before after removing the stains of mud and sand and cleaning them with a simple spell. She brushed her hair and looked into the mirror, finding her tired reflection staring back at her. Her skin was pale and bore the tell-tale signs of lack of sleep. The dark rings around her eyes were prominent, her lips were dry and chapped in places and an unsightly bruise spread across her right cheek. With a simple flick of her wand she applied a simple Beauty Charm, erasing the stains of war from her face.

On the landing she ran into the Tonks, who had also gotten dressed in the clothes she wore the day before although hers were still dirty. The young Auror looked up when she heard her mother and her eyes narrowed. "You allright?"

"Didn't sleep very well," Andromeda said softly. "Couldn't quite get over the fact that my sister's in the room below mine."

"You and me both then," Tonks answered. "I kept thinking I heard something, that maybe Bellatrix and Hermione had figured out where we were and they'd come to rescue her."

Andromeda's eyes darted to the stairs. She felt a little hesitant going down. "I know."

"Are you going to talk to her?" Tonks said and leant against the bannister. On the other side of the landing Rosmerta emerged from her room, her hair still damp. When she saw Andromeda and Tonks she joined them. The tormented night sleep had left visible marks on her face too.

"At some point I'm going to have to," Andromeda replied. "But after what happened last night I doubt she's going to tell us anything useful."

"We can always keep her here as bait until Bellatrix and Hermione come to get her," Rosmerta suggested.

Tonks swallowed. "Or we could kill her."

Andromeda's eyes snapped up and a cold chill travelled down her spine when she saw the cold, heartless look in Tonks' eyes. Was this what it had come to? Would they continue to go back to the thought of death? Her shock got the better off her and she stared at her daughter. "Nymphadora!"

"What? It's not like they wouldn't do exactly the same thing if the roles were reversed. They'd throw us in the dungeon, torture us within an inch of our lives and then kill us," Tonks said. The venom in her words was obvious and her face slowly evolved into a mask of resentment and anger. "Remember what they did to Ginny? That's exactly what they would do to us."

"I'll talk to her," Andromeda said and fixed her daughter with her gaze. Tonks was about to follow her down the stairs. "Alone."

Reluctantly Tonks and Rosmerta watched as Andromeda made her way down to the floor below and hesitated outside the living room door. She slowly pushed against it and stepped into the other room. The sun light was streaming through the open curtains and Andromeda's eyes slowly searched the room before coming to a rest on the lone figure tied to the chair, their head resting on their chest. Narcissa looked like she was sleeping.

Andromeda walked towards the window, keeping her back turned on Narcissa. Her senses were on high alert and she picked up the small movement behind her betraying that her sister was awake. She recognised the sound of the ropes rubbing against the wood of the chair. Her skin tingled as she felt Narcissa's eyes burn into her back.

"I wondered if you were going to come back."

"What, you thought I'd just leave you here to starve to death?" Andromeda replied without turning around. "Don't give me any ideas, Narcissa."

"Why haven't you kill me yet?"

"Who says I'm not going to?" Andromeda answered. She still did not turn around to look at her sister. Instead she gazed out of the small living room window. Outside the weak winter sun reflected of the crystal white snow. The world looked strangely serene covered in the white powder, momentarily erasing the terror that still held it in its grip.

"You had your chance, more than once," Narcissa taunted. She tried to free her hands from the magical ropes that bound her to the chair but could not move. By now her skin had been burnt red raw by her ties. Faint drops of blood clung to her pale coloured skin and she knew that unless Andromeda released her she was not going to get out of this.

"I can ask you the same thing," Andromeda said slowly and turned away from the glass. "When we stood in the ruins of Hogwarts Bellatrix claimed I was of no value to you. You knew she was lying and yet you did what she told you. I stood before you many times since that night and you failed to kill me. We both know that this will never end unless something, or someone, dies so why have we failed to kill each other?"

Narcissa's blue eyes suddenly snapped up to meet her sister's brown. "Because something stands between us."

"Or someone."

Narcissa scoffed. "It all comes back to Hermione, doesn't it?"

"It's how it started. It is how it will end."

"Have you not yet given up on her?"

Andromeda cocked her head. "Giving up on Hermione would mean giving up on life. Neither is something I ever intend to do. As long as I draw breath I will fight."

"You sacrificed the boy," Narcissa remembered and the painful memory of Harry's death brought a sudden chill to Andromeda's chest. Narcissa sensed the change in her demeanour. "The night the Dark Lord fell you scarified the boy. Hermione killed Potter and vanquished the Dark Lord." Curious eyes searched her sister's face, looking for the answers in her eyes. "Why did you choose to let him die when you could have tried to kill us instead?"

"You don't understand, do you?" Andromeda whispered and tears glistened in her eyes. "You don't understand what Harry was, what it meant to be a Horcrux and what impact it had on everything? That night I had to choose between Voldemort and Hermione and I chose her. I believed that at that moment in time she was the lesser of two evils. I was wrong."

"Once the Dark Lord was down you had the chance and you walked away."

"I saw you lying in the ruins!" Andromeda set her jaw and the hints of anger flashed behind her eyes. "I could have killed you."

"But you didn't. You're nothing but a coward!"

Andromeda's hand slapped across Narcissa's face with such intensity that her sister's face jolted backwards. Almost immediately Andromeda staggered backwards and shook her head. "Not a coward, Cissy, but a fool. I learnt something that night. Something that has driven me to continue on this journey regardless of what comes next. I could have killed you and Bellatrix that night but it wouldn't have changed the one thing that needs to change."

Narcissa's eyes narrowed and the pieces of the puzzle began to fall together. "You want Hermione to come back of her own accord?" She burst out into a high pitched cackle which reminded Andromeda of Bellatrix. "Do you really think she is going to come back to you after what we've given her?"

"I'm not like you," Andromeda whispered. "Forcing her to come back isn't going to reunite us. She needs to leave freely, out of her own choice." She remembered what Gregorovitch had said about the wand feeding its hatred directly back inside Hermione, like a circle that continued to repeat itself. "I would have broken the bond between you but not what lies inside of her."

Narcissa leant as far forward as her restraints allowed her to. "You are more like us than you know."

"I am nothing like you," Andromeda hissed.

"You feel it too. I know you do," Narcissa smiled deviously. "You hide behind your noble resistance but we both know that what you really fight for has nothing to do with what the resistance wants." Andromeda's face paled as her sister's words sank in. "We both know you couldn't kill Bellatrix because you love her, don't you?"

The words went straight through her, piercing her heart and her soul. They destroyed something inside of her and Andromeda felt the pain spread through her body. She walked further away from Narcissa, back towards the window and the purity of the snow outside. Fear had filled her eyes. "No."

"It is why she didn't kill you the night you came to Black Manor. She looked at you and saw what she had once loved more than anything else in this world," Narcissa spat. "She wanted to hurt you, she wanted you to hurt like you hurt her but she knew she could never kill you."

"Hermione knows she can never kill me."

"Just like you know you can never kill her?"

"You can't love without suffering," Andromeda answered. "I am suffering because of the choices I have made and that is a consequence that I will have to live with for the rest of my life. "

"Love turns us all into cowards."

"Maybe it's about time I change that," Andromeda said slowly and drew her wand from her sleeve. "The others want me to kill you. I'm sure that if I don't, someone out there will volunteer to take my place." She slowly strolled back towards her sister, circling the chair. The tip of her wand ghosted across Narcissa's shoulder, through her hair and under her throat. She yanked the wand backwards and forced Narcissa's head to tilt. Their gazes locked and she stared down at her from above. "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't."

"Because she is never going to come back if you do," Narcissa lisped. "She is going to hate you for the rest of her life for taking this away from her." Blue eyes darkened. "You haven't got my wand, Andy. You can kill the witch but the wand still lives."

"It can only be passed on to another if it is won in battle," Andromeda whispered and brought her lips closer to her sister's ear. "Hermione took your wand, Cissy. Two of the three wands now belong to the same witch. You have lost your part in the trinity. You destroyed it from the inside out."

She stepped away from Narcissa and started for the door. When she walked into the hallway she found Tonks waiting for her. Her daughter's eyes reflected disappointment and Andromeda averted her gaze. "I tried."

"What really happened that night at Hogwarts when you sent me away?" Tonks asked softly and her eyes found her mother's again. She could see how tired she was, how close to being broken. She didn't know how much more she could take. This war had taken the best of her. It had turned them all into empty shells, void of even the tiniest shred of happiness and hope. They fought because it was the only way they would survive.

"I left them alive though I didn't know it at the time," Andromeda sat softly and reached for the bannister of the staircase for support. "I was confused and hurt about Harry and Hermione and I made a mistake. I should have killed them, or one of them at least, but I chose to walk away and leave them alive."

"Why?"

"Because I fucking well didn't think straight, that's why!" Andromeda snapped and suddenly the angry tears were lashing against her cheeks. The cracks in her strong persona were finally starting to show and the torment she had been feeling inside for weeks started to seep into the world around her. "Have you got any idea what I could have stopped that night, Nymphadora? It would have changed everything! I could have saved lives but I didn't because I chose to just walk away." She shook her head. "Hell, I don't even know what I was thinking anymore."

"You were upset about Harry, upset about Hermione and about what she had done," Tonks attempted to comfort her mother. "You knew you had to go back home and face us. You knew we'd be angry and probably didn't want to see you but you had to make sure we understood what you did. You had to explain to us that there was only one way to kill Voldemort and that was to kill Harry. Neither can live whilst the other survives."

"I should have extended that prophecy to Hermione and the others," Andromeda sighed. "I spoke to Hermione just before I abandoned the castle. When I left I didn't know if she'd survive the extent of her injuries, considering she had already suffered once at the hands of Voldemort. I never turned to look at Bellatrix and Narcissa. I just assumed that it was almost impossible for them to have survived."

"Why?"

"Voldemort cut Bellatrix's chest. I saw the blood. I knew there and then that there was no chance she could have made it. Part of me believed she was dead before she even hit the ground. Narcissa smashed her skull against a large piece of concrete. The blood around her…" Andromeda covered her face in her hands. "I just assumed they were dead."

"So you made a mistake," Tonks said. She wanted to comfort her mother, wrap an arm around her and take some of the burden away but she knew that Andromeda would never let her. This was something she would carry alone for the rest of her life. "Maybe you should have checked but there is no point dwelling on it now, mum."

"I told her that I couldn't let him win," Andromeda whispered and brushed the tears from her cheek. "I helped her because I wanted Voldemort to die, at whatever cost, and I wanted her to have a chance to live."

"So when Narcissa said you couldn't kill Hermione…"

"She was right." Andromeda shook her head. "I can't count the amount of chances I've had. The ones you know about and the ones you don't." She couldn't look at her daughter anymore. The betrayal had extended too far into her life. She had been a shadow of herself. Tonks stared at her mother in surprise. "I have let Hermione in time and time again and I never really fought her when I knew I had to. Whenever she came to me she never tried to hurt me. She never tried to kill me. We were just one, in those stolen moments, but I always had to let her go." She stood up. "I can't do this anymore."

"What are you saying?"

"Have you ever thought about giving up?"

"WHAT?!"

"I can't hide from my family, Nymphadora. They're a part of me. They're inside of me."

Tonks stared at her mother in disbelief. "Are you actually saying that you think you're like them?"

"The blood in my veins is the same as theirs. I can't deny what I am." She looked down at her hands. "Have you ever thought about what the world would look like if we managed to destroy the Cores? We can't bring back the dead, Nymphadora. There is hardly anyone left. What are we going to do with a world that is so destroyed that maybe it can never be rebuilt?" Andromeda said softly and closed the distance between the stairs and the front door. Her hand reached for the door handle but her daughter caught her arm, forcing her to turn back around. "Maybe it is time we realise where we stand."

"If we find the Elder Wand we still stand a chance. We have Narcissa which means that the Core trinity is broken. They cannot use the wands at the same time if they are not complete," Tonks countered. "We have to find that wand, mum. It is the only chance we have and I'll be damned if I am going to let you walk away now. We've come this far!"

"Have we?" Andromeda asked.

Suddenly Tonks could see how tired her mother was. She saw the beyond the Beauty Charm. What she saw were the hollow eyes of a woman who had lost everything around her, who still fought for something of which she didn't know wanted to be found. "We have, mum. I know we've suffered but there is still a chance we can do this. I know there is."

Andromeda's eyes narrowed and she studied her daughter's face, suddenly the interpreting her devotion in a completely different way. "Nymphadora, is there something you need to tell me?"

"Not here," Tonks whispered and pointed at the door. She then glanced to the top of the stairs. Rosmerta had been watching them and she now beckoned for the other woman to join them. "We need to go back to Hogsmeade."

"Why? Everything was destroyed."

"Not everything," Tonks said knowingly. "We'll take Narcissa with us."

"Are you sure that's wise?" Rosmerta questioned. "She is a liability."

"Consider her a price," Tonks said and wrapped both her arms around her mother's waist before planting a kiss on her hair. "Believe me when I say that we need to go back to Hogsmeade. There is something I need to show you. Something you need to know."

"How do we make sure she doesn't find out whatever it is you've got?" Rosmerta asked and Tonks stepped towards the living room door. Her lips curled up into a playful smile whilst her fingers closed around the door handle.

"I'll see to it that she won't be able to see or hear a thing."

~()~

Tonks insisted that they travelled as a group so Andromeda and Rosmerta had each taken one of Narcissa's hand into their own before Andromeda's hand linked with her daughter's and they Dissapparated away from the cottage. All that betrayed their presence here were the footprints in the snow.

When Andromeda reopened her eyes she was standing on a snow covered hill surrounded by barren trees. The air was crisp and fresh and the cold wind robbed her of her breath. She turned to look at Rosmerta and the blonde haired witch met her gaze. They were not standing in Hogsmeade like they had expected.

"Where are we?" Andromeda asked. "Nymphadora, I thought you were taking us back to the village."

"Not quite in the village," Tonks said and pointed at something at the top of the hill. The building looked like it was about to fall apart. Its roof was covered with a thick pack of snow and the construction seemed barely strong enough to support the weight. "Near the village."

"Is that the Shrieking Shack?" Andromeda asked as she dragged Narcissa's body along with her. Her sister had been hexed by Tonks, putting her in a deep sleep in which she heard or saw nothing but it made her body heavy and awkward to manoeuvre. "Why did you bring us here?"

"I'll show you when we get there," Tonks said and started climbing the remainder of the hill.

Rosmerta and Andromeda followed behind her, levitating Narcissa's body a few inches above the ground. When they reached the top of the hill Andromeda got to see the small building up close. The Shrieking Shack was decades old, dating back to her own time at Hogwarts. It was rumoured to be haunted and no student had ever dared to go near it. She had looked at it from a distance, usually when on her trips to Hogsmeade with her sisters. At night Bellatrix would tell ghost stories about the building and frighten her and Narcissa so much they didn't sleep at all.

Tonks opened the weak looking door. It creaked horribly and looked like it was about to fall off its hinges. It was dark inside and it reeked of mould and staleness. The door closed with a loud bang behind them, making Rosmerta jump. Tonks flicked her wand and candles appeared in mid-air, floating towards tables and chairs and landed before igniting. The weak light cut through the darkness and illuminated their faces.

Andromeda looked around and frowned she saw the large frame leaning against the wall furthest away from her. The memory was faint but she recognised the painting. Curious eyes darted to her daughter. "Is this who I think it is?"

"Archibald Bartholomew Price the Fourth," Tonks replied and smiled. "The very same."

"He was the portrait outside the room we used in the abandoned butchers when we first started the resistance," Andromeda whispered and slowly walked towards the frame. The old wizard was asleep, his head resting against the wooden frame. "We had to give him our password to enter." She looked back at her daughter. "How did he end up here?"

"Ginny brought him from London to Hogsmeade at the height of the resistance, not long before she was captured. She believed he would be of better use here and she wasn't wrong," Tonks said and joined her mother in front of the painting. "You see, dear old Archibald here has another painting and it is hanging somewhere inside Hogwarts."

Andromeda covered her mouth with her hand. "Even now?"

"Well, what's left of it anyway," Tonks shrugged. "Admittedly Hermione and the others did do a good number on it the last time they were there but it has been mostly rebuilt. Nothing like the way we remembered it of course. Only has a handful of students, mostly the children of warriors and Keepers."

"How did he end up in here?"

"I took him out of the Three Broomsticks two nights ago," Tonks said. "I had a bad feeling about things and decided that I needed to keep him safe. It's what Ginny would have wanted me to do."

"Ginny?" Andromeda asked.

Tonks nodded. "Before Hermione took her she used this portrait to gain insight information on the warriors and Keepers. Archibald here was one of the reasons Ginny managed to stay ahead of the resistance for long. Someone somewhere was helping her out."

"Someone inside the castle?" Rosmerta whispered.

"Ginny didn't tell me who it was. She didn't have to. The person helping her revealed themselves to me last night, in the battle. They must have watched it unfold from the castle. There wasn't much time. All they told me was to come back here tonight and they would explain everything."

Tonks softly tapped the picture and the wizard inside the frame slowly woke up. He rubbed his eyes a few times before realising there were three people watching him. He only glanced at Andromeda and Rosmerta but he cracked a smile when he recognised Tonks. "I see you finally decided to bring me some company. Have you got any idea how lonely this place gets? Not to mention dusty!"

"Give it a rest, Archie," Tonks grinned. If he was disgruntled about her calling him Archie, he didn't show it. "I told you I'd be back and I always keep my word. You know what I need you to do. Go to your other portrait and tell our friend that the time is now."

Archibald nodded obediently and walked out of his portrait.

"Are you sure we can trust him?" Andromeda asked and glanced over her shoulder at Narcissa. She lay in the corner of the room, on her side, asleep. She wore a blindfold, just in case she managed to wake up from her magical sleep. "There aren't many people left we can trust, Nymphadora. What makes you so certain that all of this is safe?"

"I trusted Ginny," Tonks said. "Therefore I trust what she did."

They didn't have to wait long before Archibald returned to his portrait. He looked at Tonks and smiled. "Your friend is on his way. He told me to tell you to remove the lock." He pointed at something on the floor and Andromeda only now realised they were standing on top of a hatch. A large bolt kept it locked and Tonks knelt down to remove it. It scraped across the wooden floor boards and she slowly lifted it up, revealing the dark tunnel underneath. In the distance Andromeda could hear the sound of hurried footsteps.

Her hand hovered over her wand, stored safely up her sleeve, when the footsteps came nearer and her heart pounded in her chest as from the darkness the figure of a man appeared. Clad in black and wearing a simple dark travelling cloak, his face was obscured until he stepped into the room and reached to remove his hood. The weak candle light accented his pale face and dark eyes.

"Good evening, my friends."

Severus Snape had arrived in the Shrieking Shack.