Andromeda stared at the ceiling as she lay in bed the night of her sixteenth birthday. Hot tears spilled from her eyes and slid down her face, wetting her hair and stinging the still pink skin of her cheek—a painful reminder of the forceful slap her mother had given her earlier that evening. She took a deep, shuddering breath to stymie the tears, but in the next moment they came back faster and stronger. A small sob escaped her, and she turned over in her bed, curling into a fetal position.
This was definitely turning out to be the worst summer holiday ever. Not that they were ever very pleasant, but today's events had been particularly horrific.
Despite the fact that it was her birthday, Andromeda had been in a grim mood that day. Her mother had invited Rodolphus Lestrange to dinner again; she kept parading him in front of her, as though proximity would lead to marriage and another fortuitous connection for the family. Andromeda had managed to bear his company so far by reflecting on Ted's most recent letter and silently composing her reply. Andromeda didn't really blame her mother for trying to force her daughters into marrying well; she was under a lot of pressure from her own mother because she had only produced daughters. To her mortification, her younger sister-in-law, Walburga, had two sons, Sirius and Regulus. And despite the fact that they were still toddling around everyone was expecting them to proudly carry on the Black family name.
As the doorbell rang, Andromeda slowly made her way down the stairs, not complaining when a full head of fly-away black hair overtook her. Bellatrix had seemed to take enough of a liking to Rodolphus for the both of them, and she hastily finished pinning back a strand of hair before she answered the door.
"Oh, hello Aunt Walburga, and you've brought the boys." Bellatrix couldn't have sounded more disappointed as she greeted their aunt. Their nine-year old sister, Narcissa, caught up with Andromeda and they dutifully joined their aunt, sister and cousins by the door.
"Andy!" Sirius called as she came into view. He attempted to break free from his mother's grasp, but she only held his hand tighter and mumbled something about behavior befitting the noble house of Black. For Merlin's sake, Andromeda thought, he's only three.
The toddler settled on a small, sad wave to his elder cousin that little Regulus mimicked.
Andromeda smiled down at the two boys. "Hello, Sirius. Hello, Regulus," she greeted before turning to her aunt, "Auntie, its good to see you."
"And you, Andromeda, my dear," Walburga replied with austere formality. Andromeda was supremely relieved that her mother appeared at that moment, and they were all able to retire to the front sitting room of their country manor. Druella proceeded to tell Walburga all about her plans for Andromeda to marry into the Lestrange family. This was a topic of conversation that she was having an increasingly difficult ability to ignore, especially since Bellatrix was shooting increasingly nasty looks in her direction. Andromeda sighed inwardly, and focused her attention on Sirius. Not allowed to play and expected to behave himself, the young boy had stationed himself at the foot of Andromeda's armchair and was staring despondently out the window. Wondering what he was looking at, she followed his gaze with her own. Nothing of interest seemed to be present itself—just the same gardens that had always been there—but Andromeda understood why Sirius looked out the window all the same because out there was not in here with this wretched family and their ridiculous rules.
Finally, Andromeda was able to excuse herself from the room, and hurried outdoors to the little stone building where the family kept their owls. Upon her arrival, Carina, her owl, flew towards Andromeda and obediently held out her leg.
"Hello, Carina. You know where this is going, don't you?" Andromeda cooed as she pulled her letter to Ted out of her pocket.
But in the next second, Carina gave a startled hoot of indignation as the letter was snatched from Andromeda's hand. She turned and gasped as she saw Bella holding the letter, gaping at the address.
"Ted Tonks!" Bellatrix exclaimed, her eyes lighting up with a maniacal fury, "the Mudblood!"
"Bella, please." Andromeda whispered.
"I knew you were up to something," her sister spat back at her. Andromeda lunged for the letter, but Bella was faster and took off towards the house. Andromeda pealed after her, but a sinking feeling in her stomach knew she would be too late.
Sure enough, by the time Andromeda has barged into the sitting room after her sister, her mother was already standing, waving the letter in her face. "Andromeda, what is this?"
"Just Bella making up her stories again," she lied quickly.
Bella hissed at her from across the room, but Andromeda barely had time to register the noise before a sharp pain erupted from her head. With a screech of rage, her Aunt Walburga had moved forward and painfully clutched Andromeda by the hair. "Don't lie to your mother, ungrateful brat!"
Andromeda bit back her whimper of fear and pain. Her aunt was shorter than she was, and so she was forced to bend over sideways as Walburga continued to clutch her hair. Her mother, however, did not seem to notice her eldest daughter's predicament, or did not care. She was carefully reading the letter.
Her mother finally tore her eyes away from the letter and straightened her robes. "Where are the other letters, Andromeda?"
Panic flickered through her system. "Other letters?" She asked innocently. Walburga tightened her grip on Andromeda's hair, causing her long nails to dig painfully into her scalp. Andromeda gave a little shout of pain, and out of the corner of her eye she saw Sirius and Regulus hiding beside the sofa that Narcissa sat upon, frozen like a porcelain doll. Bellatrix giggled from the corner she stood in. Andromeda still refused to answer her mother's question.
"No matter," she finally spoke. "Accio Ted Tonk's letters." And with an awful whooshing noise, Andromeda saw the bundle of letters fly into the sitting room, still stacked together and tied up with one of her hair ribbons. Her mother caught them easily, and with a sneer she threw them into the fire that had magically sprung to life in the fireplace.
Andromeda was silent, though she desperately wanted to reach into the flames and rescue Ted's precious words of comfort and love. Tears began to stream freely down her cheeks.
She watched dejectedly as her mother strode up to her. "I would have never have believed that my daughter would grow up to be a blood-traitor. A Mud-blood's slut."
"Mother" Andromeda sobbed out against her will. Druella turned back around to face her daughter. Before Andromeda knew what happened, before she could blink, her mother's hand made contact with her daughter's cheek, forcing her head to the side. It stung, in more ways than one.
Walburga finally released her hair and strode out of the room with her sister-in-law, picking up Regulus on the way out. Narcissa and Bellatrix, with a jubilant look on her face, followed them. Sirius lingered by the sofa, however, and continued to watch his cousin sob in the middle of the sitting room.
"Sirius," Walburga called from the hallway, a warning tone in her voice. Reluctantly, the child obeyed his mother's order and left Andromeda alone in the room with only her broken heart for company.
