“Like I expect you to be a rational, reasonable grown up capable of saying when something upsets her, rather than running away from it all only to try and make it up to me by writing some letter later?” Ted scoffed, shaking his head. He felt so tired, and not for the first time wondered how he managed to keep going like this. “Then I don’t have much else to say, Dromeda.” Which was probably what she wanted. For him to just shut up.

SOFTSOFTSOFT | @dearestregards

“At least I say something after.” Andromeda said after a long moment. It wasn’t an attack, just a statement--soft with the sort of nauseous undercurrent of something long dismissed bubbling up. “I run away but I write it down later. I make sure you know you matter. Every day. I write it down every day.”

She didn’t come from a family who did that sort of thing--it was better not to express this base of neediness, this pile of honest affection. She had thought there wasn’t much to give up from home. She hadn’t thought this flat would remind her so much of it. “I suppose,” She said very slowly and kept her eyes towards the windowsill. “You’ve been telling me what you really feel everyday?”

@themanyseasons  liked for THIS starter

“ I’m not in the mood. ” Sirius quickens his pace, trying to elude or put off the person trailing behind him. Sirius knows who they are, of course, but he can’t bring himself to turn back and regard them. To do so would mean confronting something he does not wish to confront.

“Well,” Andromeda snorted, letting her feet stutter to a stop. “I suppose thats all fine, then. Master-Former-Black.” She waved a hand in a dismissive goodbye as she turned and started off again.

 Childish thing, sentimentality and she tried very hard to avoid it at all costs--but ...but...

Surely even her former sisters would understand. Not that they did. Or would. Because neither Black on this street were family anymore. And Andromeda had long learned not to chase when someone didn’t want the conversation.

“Are you sure?” Andromeda had had more then a couple glasses of wine by this point at the party, settling her into a tipsy daze that let her shrug her posture into a slouch that half wrapped around her little sister. Or not so little, as it turned out, given she was letting Andromeda know just who she was intending to snatch up for marriage.

And thus snatch up for Andromeda, too. How embarrassing, Andromeda thought and picked another glass from a waiter. One indescression and then...what? A two for one. 

It was amazing Narcissa had agreed to it. But it would be a miracle if her potential husband agreed to it--given the secondary rule of no the sisters would not sleep together. A packaged deal, saving face, only went so far. 

“He is almost as pretty as you.” She continued, turning form her glass to burry her face half in Narcissa’s hair. “Or maybe half as pretty. And he clearly knows how to use his tongue but anything more then that?”

“Coat closet.” Andromeda said and pushed him back into it, having to rearrange a moment later when it turned out the door pulled out--not pushed in. There was something about this being her childhood home that made it better. Or maybe that had been the tobacco for the pipes--which Andromeda had taken, of course. 

She had taken everything that night. The offer for tobacco--normally for men only. The second glass of wine.

She spat blood, grinding her teeth until she felt as though they were bound to shatter. Stupid, she thought, Stupid, stupid, stupid. It pulsed like a heart beat in her head, thrummed out through the bite taken out of her middle. It was too deep, she could tell that--peering down at it not with ... dismay, exactly, but vague surprise as though she didn’t recognize what had happened.

“Fuck,” Andromeda said at last, it came out harsh, single syllable, nonsense. She was grabbing at Narcissa’s shoulders, trying to scramble up into her even as her legs barely spasmed a kick against the ground. There was dust all round them and she wanted to take out her wand and banish it all. She wanted to white out the noise of her own pulse. She wanted...

To have not been so stupid to sign up for a bite. 

Andromeda has many flaws but she addresses them in two different ways. She might sit right down and go “Let me tell you all the ways I have messed up” or she might laugh, tilt her head up and fling her eyes to the ceiling, “Flaws? what flaws?”

Like most children of the Black Family (but not all, of course) Andromeda has a distinct difficulty in expressing emotions. Sure she readily expresses glee, satisfaction, contentedness, and sharpness...but its almost all a little muffled. Even while she might perceive herself as utterly cackling with joy others might see it as merely laughing lightly. While this might not seem like a large flaw, this can become a large issue when dealing with intimate relationships. It is difficult to present just normal human care and expressing fear or failure? Absolutely not.

To this end, Andromeda is willing to pick a fight to make herself feel better before asking for help. She’d literally rather risk taking a lift from some strange looking muggles if she ends up on the side of town she didn’t expect then to admit to her husband “I got on the wrong bus and now I am lost without my wand please help.” its this same stubbornness which lead her to throwing over her family in the first place (although she really does love Ted, she is not the innocent white lamb in the midst of the black)

That stubbornness can also be presented as possessiveness. Anther lovely mark of her childhood--there are certain people that are hers and to lose them would likely cause her to fall apart... or become quite a bit more like Bellatrix through the looking glass.