The morning after the ball, I came downstairs to find a stony silence at the breakfast table. My mother and Bella were positioned at opposite ends of the table, glaring into untouched bowls of porridge. Cissy sat in the middle, looking as though she wished desperately to be elsewhere. All three looked up immediately when I came in, and mother launched into a tirade about Bella.

"Andromeda," she said, before I had even sat down. "What time do you think your sister came home last night?" I could tell it wasn't her first outburst that morning.

"Um… I don't know," I said.

"Three o'clock in the morning, that's when!" She paused, seemingly waiting for me to take her side against my sister, then repeated, "Three o'clock in the morning!"

I snuck a sideways glance at Bellatrix, who was glaring at her porridge so furiously I wondered that it didn't spontaneously combust. "Oh," I said noncommittally. I felt trapped. I didn't want to end up in Bella's bad books- but then, I didn't want to annoy mother, either. They could both make my life very unpleasant for the remainder of the summer.

"She didn't even think to worry how I felt. Oh no, she had far more important things on her mind. Things she doesn't feel need to be shared with the rest of us."
"Mother, I'm twenty-one now," Bella said, finally looking up from her porridge. "I don't need to notify you of my whereabouts every second of the day anymore, surely?"
Mother's nostrils flared. "Don't you take that tone with me! You'll answer to your parents for as long as you're living with them, girl- and I don't see much hope of you getting married in the near future, with the way you behaved last night!"

"The way I behaved last night?" Bellatrix snapped. "You just said that you had no idea what I was doing! How can you pass judgement on my behaviour?"

"Don't be smart with me, girl!" Mother snapped. "I certainly didn't notice you dancing!"

"Maybe there are some things more important than husbands!" Bella snapped back. "I know that you three can't see anything beyond the next dance, but I do. If everyone behaved the way you do, there wouldn't be any men of pure blood left to marry!"

"Don't you speak to me like that!" Mother's wand was in her hand, a snarl on her face as she began to get to her feet.

Bellatrix was already up and rushing for the door. "I can see the mess the wizarding race is in, and I intend to do something about it!" The front door slammed.

Mother sat down again. "Well, of all the insolent-" she began, furiously, and then transferred her anger to us. "Cissy, don't gape so! You look like a fish- it's most unladylike. And Andromeda, did you bother to brush your hair this morning? Or are you hoping that Lucius aspires to a wife who resembles an overworked bowtruckle?"

We both murmured apologies and started eating in silence. A few minutes later mother got up and stormed away from the table. Cissy and I exchanged looks, listening to her storming up the stairs. Cissy and I exchanged glances as we heard her steps in the hallway above our heads. A door slammed.

"I think it might be a good idea to keep out of her way for a few hours," I said in a low voice. "Shall we see if we can go to Diagon Alley this morning?"

Cissy looked relieved. "Good idea. I want to pick up a few things before we go back to school anyway. But you can be the one to ask mother."

I glanced at the ceiling. At that moment, there was another muffled thud. "On second thoughts, maybe that wasn't such a good idea…"
"Go on, Meda. She loves you at the moment, now you're engaged."

I raised my eyebrows slightly. "Cissy, She just compared me to an overworked bowtruckle."

"Please, Meda? You'll be fine. And we can go to Fortescue's after we've shopped- this might be our last chance this summer for one of his sundaes…"

Now that was a temptation that I couldn't refuse. Florean Fortescue's sundaes were the best in the world- well worth risking mother's wrath for. "Fine. But if she kills me, I want them to play Debussy at my funeral, alright?"

Cissy grinned with relief. "You'll be fine. Just think of the ice cream."

I stood up and walked towards the door, then paused briefly, "If I don't come back, take care of Celandine." Celandine was my owl.

"Don't be so melodramatic, Meda. See you in a minute."

I sighed melodramatically and left the room, following mother upstairs. Unlike mother, however, my footsteps were silent: completely absorbed in the thick carpet.

"Mother?" I called softly, reaching the top of the stairs. There was no response, so I called again- a little louder this time. "Mother?" I padded down the hallway a little.

"You'll have to call a bit louder than that- a cat couldn't hear you," a portrait of one of our great aunts remarked sarcastically. "She's in Bellatrix's room, however. I suggest you knock- audibly this time."

"Thanks," I said. I went down the hall to Bellatrix's room, took a deep breath and knocked. "Mother?"

"Is that you, Andromeda?"

"Yes," I said. I took another deep breath, steeling myself, and pushed open the door.

Mother was sat in a chair at Bellatrix's desk, going through her drawers. "You wouldn't believe the disarray your sister keeps her things in. Honestly, you'd think she was a common mudblood."

I didn't dare ask what she was looking for. "Yes," I said, thinking it best to agree with whatever she said. "Er- Cissy and I were thinking we would go to Diagon Alley this morning," I said in a rush. "I mean, just as long as you aren't averse to the idea. We both need a few things before we go back to school."

Mother narrowed her eyes at me. "I took you both shopping last week for school things."

"Yes, but I've- broken my favourite quill since. And Mrs Carrow recommended a book about ettiquette that I'd really like to try and read before my engagement goes any further," I said in a rush. As I'd hoped, her resistance disappeared as soon as I mentioned my engagement.

"I suppose so," she said, frowning. "But don't let your sister get into trouble or buy anything too frivolous. You know what that girl's like."

"I won't, mother," I said. "Thank you."

I backed out of the room and into the hallway again, shutting the door behind me with relief. I walked faster going back down the hallway, briefly stopping in my room to grab my purse, and then almost ran down the stairs. The atmosphere in the house suddenly seemed unbearably oppressive. "Ready?" I asked Cissy.

"Yep," she said cheerfully, handing me the pot of Floo Powder which was kept in the cupboard by the fireplace. "You go first." I took a big handful of it and threw it into the flames, which immediately turned a deep emerald green. I stepped into them and said clearly, "Diagon Alley!" I kept my eyes open as the familiar spinning feeling took hold of me, savouring the chance to peek into other people's lives. A family eating breakfast, a man writing a letter and a couple embracing against the oven spun past me- and then the fire spat me out into Flourish and Blott's.

The shop was crowded, mostly with harassed-looking parents clutching Hogwart's book lists and trying to keep overexcited children under control. Seconds later, the flames behind me flared up again as Cissy arrived. "Can we go to Madame Primpernelle's first?"

"Definitely!" I agreed. I wasn't usually interested in beauty products, but I could never pass up a visit to Madame Primpernelle's shop. It was always full of delicious smelling perfumes and brightly coloured beautifying products- not to mention the customers, slender and glamorous women who glimmered in expensive clothes and left trails of exotic scents behind them. If I'd been on my own I would have been happy to linger in the bookstore first, but Cissy wasn't much of a reader and today the shop was too hot and crowded to encourage casual browsing.

The two of us spent ages in Madame Primpernelle's, playing with the perfume samples, covering our nails in Coruscating Charms and excitedly browsing the potions. Next we moved on to Madame Malkins and to Twilflit and Tattings, where we drooled over gorgeous sets of robes that neither of us really had the confidence or the occasion to wear. I dragged Cissy into the Magical Menagerie, where we both bought bags of owl treats and cooed over an adorable yellow kitten in a basket by the door, and she made me come with her to several more beauty product boutiques. Finally, exhausted, we headed for Florean Fortescue's.

We pushed open the door and stepped into the delightfully cool and shady interior of the small café. It was busy, but I could see a single table empty by the window. I had just begun to walk towards it when I heard someone greet Cissy behind me.

"Oh, hi!" she replied, in a high pitched voice. I turned and saw a blush spreading across her pale cheeks as she looked down at a boy with a pale face and dark hair sitting with two friends. I recognised him from the Slytherin Common Room, although he was a few years younger than me.

"How was your summer?" he asked.

"Great, thanks," Cissy said. "Yours?"

"Good, yeah." He pointed out an empty chair at their table. "Care to join us?"
Cissy glanced at me slightly.

"Go ahead. I'll be fine," I said, meaning it. Cissy obviously liked this boy, and I was more than happy with my own company.

"You're sure?" she asked uncertainly.

"We can fit in a chair for you too, if you like," the boy said, although he didn't look particularly enthused by the idea.

"No, don't worry about it," I said.

"You don't mind?"

"Not at all."

Cissy hesitated some more. "Really?"

"Really."

"Really really?" she asked.

I rolled my eyes and couldn't help smiling. "Go ahead." She nervously took the seat at their table. As I continued to push my way towards the empty table by the window, I heard him asking what he could get her and Cissy resisting his offer, before their words were lost in the buzz of chatter filling the café.

I pulled out the rickety wooden chair to find that someone had left a book on it. I sat down and excitedly studied my find, after glancing around as if wondering whether the actual owner was going to step up and claim it. The cover said "Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen". I curiously opened it onto the first page and began to read. By the time the waitress came to take my order (a chocolate and raspberry sundae whirl, with extra sauce), I was engrossed. I quicly lost myself in yhe world of the book: a world I quickly came to realise was a world of muggles- and yet, it was so very close to the world I knew that I couldn't help but be amused. I glanced up once to see Cissy stick her tongue out at the boy and steal a spoonful of his sundae (despite the huge sundae of her own sitting in front of her). The rest of the morning passed quickly. We finally left as the café became even more crowded with the late lunchtime rush. I hid the book in my bag, and Cissy seemed not to have noticed that I'd been reading. She was more excited the boy she'd met, and full of the fact that he'd paid for her ice cream and promised to buy her one at his favourite place in Hogsmeade as soon as he could ("he says that the sundaes aren't quite as good as Fortescue's, but they do the best sticky buns in the world!"). I couldn't help but smile as Cissy chattered on- at least one of us seemed to be happy in love.

As soon as I could, I slipped upstairs to continue to reading. By the time I came down for breakfast the next morning, I'd finished the book and was ready to flip back to the start and read it again.