star child

‘yeah, well- that was indeed- a first time thing.’ marlene had never got that drunk and somehow even if she should have been worried; she was just feeling like it was a bit amusing. ‘of course! i am smart- am i not always?’

Oh, she wasn’t finished in the slightest, but she’d let it out somewhere else. Andromeda certainly wasn’t the person for that. “No, I didn’t. I wasn’t in the mood to start of the year by being annoyed by drunk children,” she shrugged. “Besides, it sounds like I was better off not going anyway.”

“Fair enough.” Andie nodded, thinking about the scary amount of truth-or-dare sessions she had seen. “It was... Everything a Gryffindor party normally is. I think. I don’t go to that many, shockingly enough. The music was quite good, at least!”

“If you are going to have that attitude, then maybe I do want the exact details.” She was just trying to keep her sister safe, after all. Safe and away from the likes of the mudbloods that ran around this school. “Fine, fine!” She held up her hands in defeat, “I will drop it. So, how have you been?” She would drop it for now, at least as far as her sister was concerned.

“I wouldn’t have an attitude if everyone stopped acting like it was a big deal.” she shrugged her shoulders, frowning. Andromeda had thought it was funny at first that Rita had made the night seem like some scandal, but by the third time it was brought up she was over it. “Classes are already getting hard, I saw Paris for the first time since last year and it was... weird, my roommate are awful as always except for Marlene, and Cissa has me worried about Malfoy. That’s pretty much a grand summary, what about you?”

He couldn’t answer her at first. It was too embarrassing. How could he tell the girl he liked that he was so pathetic that he was getting threatened and beaten up for being seen with her? Then she asked again. “It’s n-not a big deal,” he tried to downplay it, his nerves bringing out his stupid fucking stutter. “Just a few people… don’t like us being friends. I’m just keeping an eye out for them.” He didn’t want to ruin her first hogsmeade trip of the year with his troubles so he tried to put on a smile. “I’m just being stupid, it’s f-fine.”

“No, Ted, it’s not fine.” He was obviously upset, and she was stupid for not even thinking about how the article would’ve affected him. To be honest, though, she didn’t think it would - it was a Rita Skeeter article, for goodness sake. “Who is it? I’ll tell them to stop. They didn’t- Did they hurt you at all? Or just bother you? Not that either’s okay.” They were just friends, Merlin, did nobody have anything better to do than harass Ted over something as simple as that? If it wasn’t so awful, it would be silly.  

‘’Oi, Black!’‘ Rod jogged after her, making his way through crowds of students heading to their next classes. He had a free period, and at the sight of the middle Black sister, Rod threw away all his plans of kicking his feet up at the fire in the common room. ‘‘Wait up, kiddo. I want to talk to you.’‘ @andromedaxblack​

“Rod, hey!” Andromeda hadn’t expected to hear Rod calling for her down the hall, but it wasn’t an unpleasant surprise - she was just planning on sitting around in the courtyard before her next class, at least now she had someone to talk to. She slowed her pace so Rod could catch up with her, “Is everything okay?”

Ted knew he was acting even more jumpy than usual, but what could he say? If he told her what had gone on, she’d probably try to talk to the people who did it, which would end badly for everyone. “Yeah, no, I’m um… not w-waiting for anyone, I’m just…” He looked back to her and sighed. He already wasn’t a good liar, but he really couldn’t lie to her. “You’re not the only one who read the article, Dromeda, and… some people aren’t happy.”

“...What do you mean?” Some people aren’t happy. Andromeda knew what that sounded like, but she also didn’t want to believe that Rita Skeeter’s stupid article had led to anything bad happening to Ted, especially not if it was somehow because of his being mentioned with her. “Ted, is someone bothering you?”

“Why?” Rita laughed, lacking any sort of real emotion. “Because I’m bored, sugar. And I want to see who’s more important to you. Clearly, Avery trusts you enough to tell you whatever he’s hiding and I just know it’s juicy.” She shot a glare at a passing fifth year, who was lacking the subtlety needed to eavesdrop properly. “And I know you care about that muggle-born, so I’m telling you I want information, and I’ll make things a lot harder for him if I don’t get it.” 

“Merlin, I’m not going to play your ridiculous games!” she rolled her eyes at the girl. Andie wasn’t sure how Rita had gotten to this point in her life without anyone knocking her down; her ego was bigger than any Andie had experienced, which was saying something. And now she was trying to threaten Ted to get information out of her? Absolutely not. “You’re threatening a Black, Rita, you should know that isn’t going to work out well for you. Do you want information on Paris? Go ask him yourself. He’ll be more useful than me.”

Rita smiled the sweetest, fakest smile as they walked with their arms linked. She chose to ignore Andie’s sarcastic comment. “Darling, I have a proposition for you.” Her eyes darted around to see if there were any prying eyes, before coming back to rest on the Slytherin. “You see, Ted came to me with a little problem. Because I wrote about your little rendevous, it seems he’s been in the firing line. I have a way to remedy that, but it requires you to give me information about what Avery is hiding up his sleeve.” Her smile only grew, but it turned from a sweet smirk to a manipulative grin. “So who will it be, darling, Ted or Paris? Who comes out on top?”

This was not at all how Andromeda imagined her first Hogsmeade trip of the year would have gone. She hadn’t realized Ted had spoken to Skeeter, and she wished he had told her he was going to do that. That was also slightly on Andromeda herself, for not realizing the position Rita’s stories had put him in, but mostly - well, mostly it was on Rita, for simply being infuriating in general. And now she was trying to get her to give up Paris’s secret, for what? “Why would I bother telling you anything? You’re good enough at coming up with elaborate lies, make something up.” Andie didn’t bother matching her fake smile, “Is there something wrong with you?”

“Yes, you do have a way of pushing her.” Narcissa’s angled her head so that Andromeda could see her smile. She envied her sisters’s ability to push back when it came to their parents, a skill that Narcissa never developed. “I can’t imagine Mother being afraid of anything…” She said wistfully. She thought of all the times her mother had turned her away when she reached out for comfort, it was why she had turned towards her sisters, and now she knows that even mothers are afraid of things. “I always thought that if she had nightmares about something it would be about the table being set with the wrong china for dinner time.” 

“No, no, nothing is wrong. Lucius is, well he’s perfect.” She said, plastering a smile on her face. “Really Andie, I’m just a little nervous is all.” She realized she couldn’t tell her sister, because she knew that Andie would want Cissa to be happy, even it meant giving up her dreams to be with Rabastan, but what if she gave Rab her heart and she lost everything her family had worked so hard for. “What if he doesn’t want to marry me? Everyone would be so disapointed.”

“I know. It turns out she’s just as human as the rest of us.” Andie loved their parents, truly, but it was no secret that she clashed with them quite often; particularly with their mother. Still, when she had learned that she had nightmares like everyone else it was almost... reassuring. Druella Black liked to present herself as statuesque, even to her daughters, and it was a rarity for her to admit she had problems. It was nice to see that statue crack just a little. 

“Are you sure?” It wasn’t that she didn’t believe her sister, it was just that she didn’t quite believe her sister. She also had a considerably large distrust of anyone who might be involved romantically with her, because Narcissa deserved nothing less than the perfect husband when that time came. “Oh, Cissa. Of course he’ll want to marry you. You’re the biggest catch at this school.” she teased lightly, though her voice shifted back to something slightly more serious, “Nobody would be disappointed in you, Narcissa. You don’t need to worry about that, not ever.”

“I just enjoy that mundane lifestyle. What can I say?” She had a tight smile on her face, not exactly happy with her sister’s choice of company. “Truthfully, I spent most of the evening brooding with Paris in the corner and then returned to my dorm with some sixth year that I can’t be bothered to remember the name of. Back to you though, what exactly were you doing with Ted Tonks?”

“You’re too exciting, Bella.” She wondered briefly if Paris had also told Bellatrix about his… situation, but seeing how hard it was for her to get it out of him she figured not. Andie sighed, not hiding her annoyance. She knew her hanging out with Ted at the party wasn’t a big deal at all, but she also didn’t feel like it was necessary to explain herself to her sister. “We went for a walk. Do you want the exact details, step by step?”

Natalya grimaced a little. That sounded indeed rather boring. “You looked at portraits? What are you, five? Was he scared every time they moved, too?”

“Are you finished?” she was used enough to Natalya that her response wasn’t much of a surprise, but it still managed to get on her nerves a bit. “What about you, then? Did you go to the party?”

Ted’s shoulders tensed when he recognized the voice. He wanted to spend time with Andromeda, of course he did, but after his last two experiences with people who were “discouraging” about it? He was less than excited about the possibility of more people seeing them. “H-Hey,” he greeted, his eyes going from hers to the surrounding area, looking for any of the people he definitely did not want to see right now. “Yeah, um… n-no, I’m not.”

Right away it was clear that something was wrong. Ted was a generally anxious person, that she knew, but there was still something off about how he was acting. She followed his eyes, looking around them, not quite sure what the problem was. “...Is everything okay? Are you waiting on someone?” 

Paris couldn’t bring his gaze up from where it lay on the cobblestone at his feet. He thought it would have felt good to tell someone and while he felt lighter in weight, talking about it for the first time so openly caused an unexpected wave of nausea to wash over him. He felt sick to the core, although he didn’t shy away from her touch when her hand came to rest on his arm.

He swallowed, his jaw tightening. “No. How could I? It would ruin my family. Their reputation, their marriage.” He couldn’t do it to his mother and he wasn’t sure he was strong enough to face the wrath of his father. “She’s a…..” he wanted to say mud-blood, but couldn’t in front of her, knowing how much she hated the term. “She’s not like us.”

When she was certain he wasn’t going to pull away, she gave his arm a light squeeze before dropping her hand back down to her side. It was obvious what he wanted to call her, but how could he when it wasn’t even true? 

“But she’s your-” Andromeda lowered her voice, though there was nobody nearby. This wasn’t her secret to give away. Even with nobody listening, she was afraid she would ruin it somehow if she spoke too loudly. “She’s your sister. She deserves to know, doesn’t she?” That thought was strange enough - Paris Avery having a younger sister. To be perfectly honest, she imagined that Paris would have made a great older brother, had he actually known about her.

Bellatrix: Well, that’s just your personal opinion, I don’t have anger issues. Do you guys think I have anger issues?

So now she was alone, looking at the store fronts and deciding which one to look through next, when she spotted Ted walking not too far from her - or, at least, she hoped it was Ted; it looked like him from a distance, “Hey! You’re not with anyone?”  

@andromedaxblack​

“Andromeda Black. Just the girl I wanted to see.” Rita linked her arm around Andie’s and pulled her away from whoever she was locked in conversation with, not caring that she’d interrupted them. “Come to The Three Broomsticks with me, darling. We have lots to catch up on.”

“No, I’m-” Before she could get the words out, their arms were link and she was suddenly walking with Rita Skeeter. Andie waved a quick goodbye to Hannah, then turned to shoot Rita a quick glare. Not that she stopped walking with her, mind you - she was a bit curious to see what the blonde was up to. They weren’t exactly friends, after all. “I was talking to my friend, Rita. Did you forget that people could have those?” Not wanting to end the conversation with her annoyance, she quickly added, What is it?”

“Mother?” Narcissa asked, her interest peaked. She always thought of her mother as unflappable, like a statue on a goddess, beautiful and cold. “I can’t imagine Mother having nightmares. What did she say it was about?” She asked, just like she used to ask for bedtime stories. 

“Yes, it was very scandalous indeed, I’m the new trollop of Hogwarts.” She giggled, knowing all too well that no one would dare call her a name with a family like hers, the Black family would pounce on the poor fool. “He is very handsome, and he was kind.” She smiled, thinking of their walk. It had been lovely, if not a little stiff, however her mind involuntarily wondered to thinking of another Pureblood gentleman. She couldn’t describe her time with him as lovely and it certainly wasn’t stiff. “But Andie…” She bit her lip, wondering if she should tell her sister about Rabastan. 

“I don’t think she wanted us to know she got them.” she shrugged, recalling that night. It was clear that Cissa wanted a story, and so a story she would get. “I had just gone down for some water, and Mother was sitting at the table in the kitchen. I don’t remember how late it was, but it was definitely somewhere in the middle of the night. I asked her why she was awake, and she didn’t want to tell me at first, so I pushed it a little - you know, as I do with her - and she told me she had a nightmare about Grandmother. They were on a ship, I think, and the waves were massive and kept trying to tip it over. She told me she woke up right as she went underwater.” As Andromeda relayed this story, her fingers lightly combed through she sister’s hair, hoping it would help sooth her to sleep. 

Her smile grew while Narcissa spoke, though it dropped the moment she added the but. “What? Is something wrong?” she sat up a bit, worried now that she was leaving out something about Lucius. A thousand scenarios flew threw her mind and she was suddenly already decidedly angry with Lucius for whatever it turned out to be.