So thank you so so much for all of your follows, favourites and reviews! It amazes me to see all of the reviews come through and all of the lovely comments and I'm so so glad people are enjoying this. It really does inspire me to keep going, which is why you've ended up with this long chapter only a few days after the last one was loaded haha
Anyway, please do read, enjoy and review if you have a moment!
The Purple Black
"Andromeda?" Ted Tonks voice sounded distant the witch, still staring up at the doorway Nymphadora had left through. "Andromeda . . ." the woman jumped slightly as Ted placed a hand on her shoulder, shaking her head slightly as she turned to look at the man. "You're crying." Ted frowned in concern.
"I—" Andromeda shook her head again, lifting her hand up to wipe away the few tears that had fallen from her dark eyes.
"It's okay." Ted sighed, pulling the woman into his arms.
It was a moment before the witch let out a deep breath, bringing her arms up to embrace her husband as she rested her head on his shoulder. "I slapped our daughter."
"You did." Ted said, silently cursing himself as he wished he had some profound and comforting thing to say.
"I'm a monster." Andromeda sniffed.
"No." Ted spoke firmly this time, pulling back from his wife as he looked her straight in the eyes. "Nymphadora was out of order."
"I shouldn't have slapped her." Andromeda winced, "I swore I would never act that way with her."
Ted paused for a moment before he spoke again, as if almost hesitant to speak what he thought "She used it . . . right?" He winced as Andromeda gave a small nod, not looking at her husband as the disturbing thought went through her mind. "Who do you think taught her it?" Ted practically whispered.
"I don't know . . ." Andromeda sighed, moving to sit on the sofa as she ran her hands through her hair in thought. "Bellatrix . . . she learned it through books—the basic parts of it through books—but she'd had it used on her a few times by father before." Ted nodded, sitting next to his wife, "She said you needed to understand how it felt, to know what pain you were putting your enemies through."
"You think someone used it on Dora?" Ted's eyes went wide at the thought.
"I don't know . . ." Andromeda said, "You can't learn it through just books, that much is true, you could possibly teach yourself. But to know it well enough at sixteen to be able to send a girl shivering to the hospital wing . . . someone helped her learn it. I'm sure of it."
"She'll tell us if she wants to." Ted sighed, "For now all that matters is that she used it . . . It isn't like our Dora to do something like that."
"She's changed." Andromeda said matter-of-factly.
"She used to be such a sweet child . . . Every Summer she comes back a little more . . . More . . ."
"More like a Black." Andromeda winced, "I don't know if it's being in Slytherin, maybe falling into the wrong crowd—or trying to fit into the wrong crowd. She's acting like Bellatrix. She was harmless enough before she got to school—then she discovered the wrong crowd . . . She became the wrong crowd."
"I never remember your sister being anything like Nymphadora, Andromeda." Ted frowned.
"You only saw the cold, masked, representation of Bellatrix—the one she put on in front of everyone." Andromeda wrung her hands in her lap, leaning into her husband's side as he wrapped his arms around her. "She was different at home, different around Narcissa and I . . ."
"Nymphadora isn't Bellatrix." Ted assured his wife, pressing his lips to her light brown locks.
"No . . ." Andromeda agreed. "Maybe I should go apologise for slapping her . . . I didn't mean to, Ted."
"I know you didn't." Ted smiled sadly. "Though right now she's an angry sixteen-year-old who has just been sent to her bedroom when she should be in the Slytherin dormitory until the summer. Maybe leave her 'til morning?"
Andromeda hesitated for a moment before she nodded, making herself more comfortable in her husband's arms as she closed her eyes and tried not to think of her only daughter breaking the law and all that that could mean.
"And so your only real punishment was starting your Christmas break a little early?" Bellatrix asked with a hint of amusement in her voice.
"Pretty much." Dora couldn't help but smirk slightly as she adjusted herself on her bed, propping her two-way mirror up on her pillows as she rested her head in her arms.
"Well, Dumbledore seems to be doing well with his punishments." Bellatrix spoke sarcastically.
"It was Mum's fault." Dora hissed, "If she hadn't opened her big mouth I'd be getting ready to spend Christmas with you and Uncle Rod."
"Yes I know," Bellatrix rolled her eyes, "Your mother can be infuriating at times."
"All the time." Dora corrected.
"Yes." Bellatrix laughed.
"I'm not going to be able to see you for ages now." Dora groaned.
"Well, I can meet you in Hogsmeade on your first trip back." Bellatrix mused, "Though it isn't as favourable as having you here, I must admit. Perhaps this reinforces my little lesson about not using Unforgivable Curses at Hogwarts, hmm?"
"Sorry." Dora mumbled before scowling "Though she was lucky, I could have killed the bitch."
"Yes, well, that would have been much harder to explain." Bellatrix yawned, the witch was sat in her husband's study still dressed in her nightgown. Apparently, whatever affair her Aunt and Uncle had attended last night hadn't finished until the early hours of the morning. Rodolphus was still asleep when Dora called for her Aunt at ten o clock and it looked as if Bellatrix had only just that moment woken up herself.
"I could have hidden it." Dora shrugged.
"Like you hid the fact that you used the Cruciatus?" raised an eyebrow at the girl.
"I said I was sorry." Dora said, "How many times did you use that spell at school?"
"The Cruciatus?" Bellatrix smiled wistfully, "I lost count. Though I wasn't alone most of the time and clearly better at hiding it."
"Mum said you got caught."
"She said that?" Bellatrix asked.
"Well, she said she'd seen Dumbledore not want a student expelled over a Cruciatus before—so I put two and two together. It was you, right?"
"Perhaps." Bellatrix smirked, "Though—"
Both witches eyes darted to the direction of the bedroom door at the sound of the handle being touched. The next moment the door opened and as Nymphadora grabbed her mirror and shoved it under her pillow she watched her Aunt disappear from the glass.
"Have you not heard of knocking? You can't just barge in here!" Dora demanded of her mother as she stood up to face her. "Get out!"
"Well, it seems we're both doing things we 'can't' do at the moment, Nymphadora." Andromeda said as she looked around the room, drawing her wand. "Who were you talking to?"
"No-one! Get out!" Dora snapped.
"I heard you talking."
"So now you're spying on me as well as throwing accusations at me?" Dora's eyes flickered to her mother's wand. "What are you going to do with that, hmm?"
"Homenum Revelio."
"Really?" Dora crossed her arms as she glared at her mother, "There's no-one here."
"So, you were talking to yourself?" Andromeda raised an eyebrow at the girl.
"You're mad." Nymphadora shook her head, yelling in frustration as Andromeda stopped her from walking past her, "Mum, I need to have a wash, brush my teeth, you know. Or are you going to let me stew in my own filth in here for the entirety of the holidays?"
Andromeda looked to the girl for a few moments, trying not to be hurt by the girl's look of anger and hatred. "Go, I'll get your laundry then come downstairs to eat something at least. I wouldn't want you to accuse me of attempting to starve you."
Nymphadora huffed in annoyance, brushing past her mother as she made her way down to the bathroom. Andromeda sighed, waiting for the sound of the bathroom door slamming shut before she walked over to her daughter's trunk. It was true, she did need to clean and organise whatever clothes Nymphadora had stuffed in her trunk in her rage the previous night—but that was not her main goal at this present moment in time. Andromeda Tonks had laid in bed restless the previous night, trying to figure out what was happening with her daughter. She had come to the conclusion that it has to be outside influences that were making her behave in such a way and had decided she must find out what these were sooner rather than later.
She made sure her daughter's door was closed behind her before she swept her gaze across the room. Dora's trunk was already open, clothes spilling out where she had pulled her pyjama's from within the night before, her bed was an unmade mess of blankets. Andromeda couldn't help but roll her eyes, Nymphadora always had a habit of trailing mess behind her wherever she went. Andromeda Tonks walked over to her daughter's bed, pocketing her wand as she pulled the sheets neatly in place on the bed. She paused when she felt something hard under the pillow. With a frown, she lifted the thing up, her heart stopping for a moment as she looked at the mirror beneath.
"No . . ." Andromeda whispered to herself, picking up the old silver framed thing as she turned it over in her hands. She knew this mirror, with its delicate patterns engraved around the edge of the frame and serpentine handle. As she turned the silver mirror over in her hands it felt as though she had been punched in the chest. There at the bottom of the mirror were the words 'Toujours Pur'. This was her mirror.
She hadn't seen the thing for 17 years when she had left it on her bed in her childhood home. It had been a gift from her eldest sister, a set of three, given to her and her youngest sister on Bellatrix Black's wedding day. It was one of the few heartfelt gestures her sister had shown over the years, a way of communicating with each other when Bella had left Hogwarts and their childhood home. The only question that was spinning through Andromeda's mind now was how her daughter had gotten it—who she was talking to with it. Her first thought was Bellatrix, though after that all she could do was plead that it was Narcissa. Out of any of her former family (well, those of whom were alive and free) she would care the least about Narcissa talking to her daughter.
As she sat on the bed, trying to cope with the thousand panicked thoughts swirling through her mind she caught sight of her daughter's trunk again. With an urgency she didn't know she was capable of anymore she ran over and fell to her knees in front of it as she began to pull every last thing out. After pulling everything from dirty clothes to broken quills she found what she almost gave up. That was until she saw the cut in the fabric lining of her daughter's trunk. She cursed herself for not noticing it before as she slipped her hand into the lining, grasping onto the parchments within. With a quick glance around the room, she pulled them out. She didn't need to read the letters, she recognised the handwriting the moment she laid her eyes on it.
Nymphadora Tonks came crashing down the stairs, her footsteps thundering through the whole of the house until she stormed into the living room. Her still wet hair was bright red, the dress she was wearing had clearly been hurriedly thrown on and her chest was heaving in her anger.
"What right have you got to go through my things!?" Nymphadora screeched at her mother. "Where's my mirror!?"
"My mirror . . ." Andromeda murmured from her seat on the couch, pulling her gaze from the pile of parchment in her lap as she tried to stop her tears flowing yet again. "That was my mirror before you were even a thought in my mind, Nymphadora."
Nymphadora didn't know what to say, staring at her mother for a moment before she spotted the letters in her lap. "W-What are you doing with those?"
"I found them in your trunk." Andromeda said. "How long have you been talking to her?"
"You have no right to read those letters." Dora snapped.
"This is serious, Nymphadora!" Andromeda cried, genuine fear in her voice as she stood from her seat. "She is a dangerous woman!"
"She is not." Dora laughed.
"This is not a joke." Andromeda said, "She could kill you in an instant, put you through things unimaginable to you."
"If she wanted to kill me I would have been dead years ago." Nymphadora scoffed.
"Years?" Andromeda said, her eyes going wide in fright. "How long has this been going on for?"
"It doesn't matter—it's none of your business."
"It is totally my business!" Andromeda said, "She is a dangerous woman, capable of things that you can't even begin to imagine, she doesn't wish you well Nymphadora."
"That's ridiculous." Dora scoffed, "I know exactly what she's capable of—and if she didn't wish me well why would she give me Christmas and Birthday presents? Why would she send me sweets when I'm not well?"
"She's manipulating you." Andromeda near enough whispered, a look of terrified realisation coming over her face. "She wants to use you—for your powers. She's still set on her master returning and then you'll be the perfect moulded little servant."
"She wouldn't make me do anything I didn't want to do." Nymphadora yelled, outraged. "And don't put your stupid fears of people taking advantage of me onto me! That's not true! I'm not an idiot! Aunt Bella has warned me that people can be pulled to my powers since before I even went to school—the difference is she trusts me with it."
"Since before you were at school?" Andromeda gasped, "Nymphadora can't you see what she's doing!? She's tricking you, making you believe that you're her best friend so that you will do all that she says. She doesn't care about you, she doesn't love you. She would never associate with anyone but a reputable pureblood unless they had fallen in agony at her feet by her wand."
"That's not true!" Nymphadora cried, "She does care and she doesn't care that I'm a half-blood! She told me so herself."
"She lies." Andromeda shook her head, tears in her eyes now as she pleaded with her daughter "Darling, I'm your mother, I wouldn't want anything but the best for you. I want you safe and happy and she won't do that for you. You're going to end up hurt—or worse."
"You don't know her, not like I do." Dora spat.
"She is my sister!" Andromeda yelled, clearly beyond frustration that her daughter was not listening to her. "I lived with her from when she was two until she got married and left when she was eighteen years old. I spent nearly every day of my childhood around her, if anyone doesn't know her here it is you, Nymphadora Tonks."
"She said you'd be a bitch about her." Dora scoffed. "Just because you left her doesn't mean that I can't see her."
"I left her—I left all of my family—so that I could be with your father! So that I could have you! She tried to kill your father when I left, did she ever tell you that?" Andromeda said, trying not to become unnerved at the fact her daughter's bright red hair had turned into black curls so like her elder sister.
"You put a man before your family, that's not fair." Dora shrugged.
"You wouldn't have been born if I didn't do it!" Andromeda yelled in frustration, becoming furious at her daughter's clear idiocy in trusting her daughter. "Look what she's done to you, Dora! Did you even want to be in Slytherin, or did you ask the hat to put you elsewhere? I never figured you a Slytherin growing up—I was convinced you would follow your father to Hufflepuff." Andromeda ignored her daughter rolling her eyes at that remark. "She taught you the Cruciatus curse, didn't she? Is that all she taught you or did she show you the others too? Is this why you've turned into such an unruly child?"
"Unruly?" Dora snorted, ignoring the rest of her mother's questions. "Charming."
Andromeda yelled in fury, storming over to the girl and grabbing her by the shoulders as if she could shake some sense back into her young mind. "What has she done to you!? She's even got you acting like her! You're being just like she was at your age!"
"Really?" Dora winced at the tight grip on her arms, trying to pull away for a moment before giving up and glaring up at her mother. "Well, thanks. I'd sooner be like her than be a suffocating, overprotective, controlling bitch like you."
Andromeda froze, her daughter's words feeling like a stab straight to the chest. She couldn't get through to her, but she had to make her understand. She wasn't trying to be suffocating, overprotective or controlling of her only child. She just wanted her safe. She wanted her happy. Bellatrix Lestrange was sure to take both of those things away from her daughter one way or another.
"What?" Dora narrowed her eyes at her mother as she stared down at her, "Going to slap me again?"
Andromeda let go of her daughter, closing her eyes for a moment as she took a few deep breaths. Truth be told if she thought it would help in the slightest she would do far more than slap some sense into the girl. Instead, she shook her head, raising her hand as she summoned Dora's wand, ignoring the girls yell of protest.
"Go to your room." Andromeda whispered.
"I'm nearly seventeen, you can't send me to my room every day and force me to stay there." Dora protested.
"I can and I will." Andromeda said, her voice shaking slightly with her fear and anger, "Go to your room. I'm keeping your mirror. I don't want you talking to Bellatrix ever again."
"You can't do that!" Dora glared, furious as her hair tinged red yet again.
"This is for your own good. You'll thank me one day—when you're safe and happy and not dead in a ditch somewhere thanks to her." Andromeda argued, continuing to speak to cut off yet more protests from her daughter, "Go. To. Your. Room. I'm not arguing this."
Dora glared back at her mother, the girl could not remember ever seeing her mother look so angry, so serious and potentially frightening. If only she knew how much like her sister she looked in that moment. She didn't bother arguing, it was useless. She stormed up to her room knowing that she would not listen to her mother though. She was almost of legal age, her mother had no right to tell her who she could and could not speak to—especially when that involved her own flesh and blood. Bellatrix was her Aunt and she had every right to see her in her eyes.
The witch let out a scream of frustration as she slammed her bedroom door behind her, though she looked up the moment she heard her owl hoot in protest. The thing must have followed her from Hogwarts to currently perch just outside her bedroom window. Without thinking she ran to the window, opening it and pulling the owl inside.
"Shh!" Dora hissed, running to the pile of the contents of her trunk as she desperately searched for quill and parchment and grinning in triumph as she found it.
She wrote hurriedly, knowing her mother could think of the owl potentially returning or some other way of her communicating any minute. Though as quickly as she scribbled she poured all of her frustration onto that one sheet, her anger and annoyance of what her mother had said. How she wanted to run away and never return. How she was fed up with her mother and wished she would just go away and never bother her again. She wrote of her fear of what her mother could possibly try to do to keep them apart and told her Aunt every last detail of their fight. The ink was barely dry as she tied it to her owl's leg and sent it back into the cold December air. She watched it leave, waiting until it was a mere distant spec in the sky before she walked back over to her bed and fell onto her back. She didn't move for hours, refusing to leave her room and even to touch the lunch nor dinner that magically appeared on her nightstand later that day. She didn't move until the sun had set and she was listening to the muffled conversation of her parent's downstairs, probably her mother explaining the day's events to her father, that was when she heard the peck of an owls beak at her window. She let the owl in, taking the small strip of parchment off of the bird's leg before it immediately turned and flew back to its sender. She stared down at the familiar handwriting of her Aunt, unsure of what to think as she took in the only two words that were on that parchment . . . 'I'm coming.'
So I hope you enjoyed that chapter! I certainly enjoyed writing it, please do leave me a review if you have the time :D
The Purple Black