ESCAPES
Whenever Andromeda went home for Christmas, she found the garden as a sort of escape from her family.
It was freezing cold outside, and the others being up-tight as they were, thought it ridiculous to even think about going into the garden at this time of year.
They saw the garden as a place for House Elves in the winter.
Andromeda loved the cold air. It cleared her head. She would sit on the bench at the end of the garden and just think.
Think about Ted. Think about a future with him. Think about leaving this family forever.
She would glance inside the house and see her them inside in their formal robes, laughing over something that was probably demeaning to Muggles and Muggle-borns.
When the whole family was over, she would stay inside for half an hour and then slip away without a word and find herself in the garden.
She'd close her eyes and count to one hundred.
Nine times out of ten, she would hear the door open and her younger cousin Sirius would appear, and sit beside her on the bench.
She knew that he felt the same way about their family.
The garden and the cold air was his escape.
He would smile at her, and she would smile back.
No words would be exchanged between them; this was their quiet time to think.
They'd sit there for a while until someone finally came looking for them. When they were called back inside, they would stick together in the house.
They were one in the same.
White sheep in a family of Black.
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