Dromeda walks into her mother crying quietly in her parents' room. She didn't mean to interrupt, she just wanted to play around for a bit with her mother's wand, and she'd meant to put it back when Cissy and Bella let her join their game.
But there was her mother, sitting in her chair, weeping silently. Of course she wanted to know what was wrong. Maybe it was Gruppy the houself again, she never seemed to do things right. Or maybe it was the mean old Muggle woman in number 11, the one who called them 'witches' like it was bad thing. Or maybe it was Father. She shuddered at the last possibility.
'What's the matter, Mummy?' she asks tenderly, wrapping her mother in a half hug like she did with Dromeda.
'Oh, darling. I'm sorry you have to see me like this.' She says, hugging her back into a full hug. She winces. Andromeda looks up and spots the dark tips of the skin on her shoulder. Her nose runs a deep violet and her forehead is split.
She is only nine but she knows what happened to her mother isn't right. 'Oh, mummy. Why don't you leave Father like Uncle Evan left his wife?' she is crying on Mummy's shoulder now. They sit there together, exchanging hugs and kisses, and Mummy teaches her healing spells that are bound to make Bella jealous.
'You know what, Andy?' only Mummy ever calls her Andy, 'Blood is a powerful thing.'
And that day on Andy decided she doesn't care about the power of blood.
R&R!