Andromeda's galaxy

"Your Black Side is coming out.”, he chuckled and changed his voice into a hissing sound, as he made himself into one member of the many pure-blood obsessed families, “You filthy mudblood, Mr Neighbour!” He spoke quiet enough for his daughter not to hear it, not wanting her to know these word or ever have to hear that ruthless description of a muggle.

With a fake indignation Ted looked down at his wife and snorted over dramatically. “Me? Nerdy? Still?”, he repeated and nudged Andromeda in the side, “First, I am the worst when it comes to chess - you know that - and I think it is like a rule that to be a real nerd, you need to be good at chess, so that you can play the weird 3D Chess from Star Treck. I will never be able to play that. And, second, I got the girl, woman, I lost my nerdness when I made you fall in love with me!” He grinned,

and raised his eyebrows at her expression change. It was just a joke! Slightly Ted rolled his eyes when he was hit. His mind wasn’t constantly worrying about the war like other people’s did. He didn’t want to throw his life away because he was hiding from everything and everyone, because they could be bad. He didn’t want his daughter to see him worried the entire time and get worried herself. His parents shouldn’t worry, his muggle friends shouldn’t. There was a war running in the Wizarding World, but that didn’t mean that Ted would let it ruin his life, especially not the one here in his world.

Moving to the table as well he almost sat down with the words 'It's just a war', but he could suffocate it before the sentence left his lips. He knew they wouldn’t start arguing in front of Dora and he most definitely didn’t want to endure an entire day of coldness and waiting for the evening so that Andie could hiss at him.

"I’m never gonna leave you.", he said instead and looked at his wife for a moment before his eyes moved to his daughter, "You two."

Her Black side...finally resurfacing. She bit her lip at Ted's hissing, but a giggle still left her lips. "You'd make a terrible pure-blood, Ted Tonks. Your hissing is all wrong. You have to add extreme discontent and a bit of pompousness in there as well. As if it physically hurts you to be near such a person," She kept her voice low, though she could see Dora was more focused on eating every last scrap of her pancake and was paying them no attention whatsoever.

She laughed at his indignation and nodded firmly. "You are a nerd, Mr Tonks. A full on nerd," her head spun as he said things about 3D chess from Star Trek. She seemed to recall watching Star Trek with him once or twice, but it had made no sense to her whatsoever. "Okay, I beat you on the chess front. You can't even play a good game of Wizards Chess. Oh yes...I forgot that nerds never get the girl. It's always the hot football players, isn't it. I still reckon you're a nerd though," she prodded him in the chest with a chuckle.

She ate her pancake quickly, letting her anger fizzle out without speaking. She didn't want to ruin a day of fun at the beach. She didn't want to ruin Dora's day. She would just have to let this one go. "I know."

“You foolish, arrogant, selfish girl.” She spat “You talk of such womanly emotions as love and yet you stand here, behaving like a child denied its favorite tinker toy. How can you put years of careful socialization and tradition at risk for a whim? Passion fades, sister. Mistakes, such as this, last forever. They are an indelible stain against your character and our family. Forever. How can you hurt ones who love you in such a way?”

The rage that bubbled within her blood threatened to consume her whole. It had been hurtful enough when Sirius had left them. Her cousin, once a best friend and the younger brother she had always wanted, ripped the very heart from her chest when he abandoned the family forever. Though she would never admit how much pain his rejection had caused, it would permanently hurt her, only affirming the long-held fear that everyone, everyone she cared for, would end up abandoning her in the end.

Sirius had hurt, but Andromeda…well, that was a whole other world of absolute agony.

“You cannot leave.” She said, voice softening, revealing some of the true emotion that lay beneath the cold façade. “No. Andromeda, you belong here with m—…with your sisters. With the people who love you unconditionally.” Although it pained her to say, she was scrambling desperately for a solution to the problem “P-Perhaps the marriage to Rabastian is a mistake. I can fix that. His parents adore me and I’m sure we can find you a more suitable partner. Just…do not leave, my darling.”

Reaching out, she lay a shaking hand against her sister’s cheek. This was so much more than just a sibling. Andromeda was a secret-keeper. An ally. One of only three people to ever see Bellatrix break. To have known she vomited on the morning of her wedding, begging her sisters to help her find a way out of it. But when they had brought their Father to her dressing room, a bemused look on his face, she had smiled blithely, chalking it all up to nerves.

Though he may have disappointed her, time and again in her young life, she refused to bring shame to the Ancient and Most Noble House of Black she loved so much.

“We…we can fix this. I promise. Just don’t go.”

"There are already indelible stains against the family name, sister. And as for my character...I can deal with that. I am not a girl that will cry if I see my name dragged through the mud, and I know it will happen. This is not a whim, Bellatrix. I have been considering this since the middle of seventh year. You speak of those who love me, but Ted also loves me, and I love him. I've made a decision, Bellatrix, whether you like it or not."

As she softened, Andromeda saw a little of why she was so upset. Of course it was upsetting that she was about to lose a sister, but Bellatrix was still aching about Sirius. That was why she was fighting so hard. "I belong with Ted, Bella. You say they love me unconditionally, but if I leave this house, I will be forgotten. I will never see mother or father again. They will not love me if I go to Ted. It is a conditional love and you know it, sister," she paused for a moment, taking another deep breath. "A marriage to anyone other than Ted would be a mistake. There is no solution to this, Bella."

"I am a half-blood, yes." he said bluntly. "But so is your daughter, is she not? What kind of life did you choose for her? Had you chosen your pureblood heritage, she would have been untouchable. Your family would have kept her safe. How would you feel if she was killed by her own auntie? By the man who, if you’d chosen to marry, would have no doubt protected her with his dying breath as his own daughter?"

The more he spoke, the more bitter he felt. He would have dearly loved to have been born in a pureblood family, raised in an environment where he was not forced to call a muggle ‘father’. Tobias had no right to criticise him and his mother practicing magic. He had even less right to try and stop them. When Severus left for Hogwarts, the only grief their separation gave Tobias was the thought of what his son was doing during that time.

"And so to you, a few years of bliss is worth all of that?"

He confirmed his heritage and she nodded. Nobody of muggle-born heritage would manage to get so close to Bellatrix, but a half-blood was not as scummy as muggle-borns. "Yes, my daughter is a half-blood. I chose a life of love. A life of happiness and a life of love. She smiles, she laughs, she knows the love of her parents. She will not grow up with the knowledge that she will not have to work because all she will ever do with her life is be a house-wife. Not even purebloods are untouchable, sir. Purebloods die just as muggle-borns do. A pureblood hit with a killing curse will fall, just as muggle-borns, just as half-bloods. Nobody is untouchable. Not even the one they call the Dark Lord. My family is keeping her safe. Ted and I will protect Dora until our dying moment. I do not need the power of an age old family to love my daughter as children are meant to be loved."

At the soft whisper Ted raised his eyes from the next pancake to look at his daughter for a moment. “Is that a real question?”, he asked with a small smile on his lips. For him the answer was obvious and it surprised him that Andie wouldn’t think of it herself. “I ask myself exactly the same each time I look at my wife.”, he explained, “So don’t tell me you don’t think you look alike because you do! She is beautiful. She is perfect. You are perfect. She obviously is so adorable because her mother is the most wonderful woman I ever met in my entire life.”

He moved to the table to let the pancake slide on one of the tables and then set the pan on the kitchen counter. Grinning he slid his arms around Andie’s waist and mumbled into her ear. “The real misterious question is: What did I do to deserve such happiness? How did that tall, nerdy, muggleborn Edward Tonks end up with someone like you? And that, Dromeda,”, he placed a kiss on the side of her head, “Can only be answered by you.” 

She didn’t need to answer him. He never would dare to demand an answer for why she had chosen him, chosen love over her family, while every other pure-blood was willingly obeying whatever their family wished. He didn’t need an answer. As long as she was with him and as long as he could see her smile, he was the happiest man in the Muggle and the Wizarding World.

"I probably will have to pay with my life for this one day.", he joked, "Just to have it all in balance." Maybe an entire life filled with happiness meant that he only had the chance to live the half of it.

"Yes, that is a real question!" She was a little baffled that she had to clear that up, but a soft blush spread across her lips at Ted's compliments. People had often hissed at Andie that after a year of marriage, the romance was dead. That certainly wasn't true for Andromeda and Ted. .Everytime she looked at him she was reminded of the 16 year old girl who had fallen desperately, irrevocably in love with a boy she couldn't have. And here they were. Her heart still swelled when she saw him, and he always managed to bring a smile to her lips.

She slipped her own arms around him, pulling him a little closer to her. As he spoke, she grinned a little wider and turned after he kissed the side of her head to capture his lips with her own briefly. "Tall and nerdy...that hasn't really changed then, has it dear? Nerdy Teddy Tonks with his office job," she jested before pausing. "Though, saying that, I work in a bookstore and spend 70 percent of my time reading the books."

At his joke, Andie soured a little. The war was ever present at the front of her mind, and she was fully aware that he could end up paying with his life for this. Anyone could be out for blood and they wouldn't know until it was too late. She hit his arm firmly, shooting him a look that told him clearly what he thought of his joke before sitting down to eat the cooling pancake.

"Maybe that is why you would need practice?", Edward suggested with a wiggle of his eyebrows, as he followed his daughter outside and passed while doing so his wife, "We could just go outside and then there is no ceiling you can clash the poor pancake again. You can throw it as high as you want. We could make a competition out of it!"

He grinned at his wife and when he noticed his daughter staring at him with wide, sparkling eyes he bursted out into gaily chuckles. “Next time?”, he offered her and still giggling lightly he walked into the kitchen to make the batter, before Nymphadora could actually demand the pancake-throwing match.

Quickly Ted had collected all the ingredients and blend them in a bowl. In their marriage it hadn’t been much of a question who would be the one cooking most of the time. For him it was as normal and as easy as breathing. He couldn’t even think back of when he had not been able to cook. However, for Andie it was much more of a task. She was 'such a witch' as Ted liked to quip whenever she failed in something that every muggleborn would easily master.

Pouring a part of the batter in the pan on the stove, he waited until one side was baked, flipped the cake easily around and turned to the table in the room. “Careful!”, he warned and making one quick move with his hand he threw the first finished pancake on one of the plates.

"Well, that would be one awsome-aim point for Daddy.", he joked.

She hadn't been to the beach in a long time, and she was actually feeling pretty excited. She seemed to recall going once when she was a small child, and once with Ted when they ran away and once with a very small Dora, but not at all since then. Andromeda loved the waves, loved the calming nature of them. She loved the smell of sea turf and how relaxed everyone was at the beach.

She followed them into the kitchen and grabbed the bread off the side, flicking her wand to summon the butter and jam from a cupboard. She caught them and flicked her wand once more, standing over it as the sandwiches made themselves. Not having a house elf was nice, but Andromeda had ended up learning a lot more domestic spells than she'd ever thought she'd need to. Making the sandwiches with magic was faster and it meant they wasted no time.

At Ted's joke, she rolled her eyes and nudged him with her shoulder. "Daddy gets no points for that joke though. Isn't Daddy silly?" She grinned as Dora giggled. Grabbing some syrup she poured it over the pancake and cut it up for her daughter, grinning as her eyes lit up. Moving back over to Ted as she began to eat, Andie mumbled "How did we end up with such a cute kid?"

"You clearly understand your sister well." he replied smoothly. "Look at me and take a guess at how her face is so familiar to me."

He dropped his book and stepped back from the counter, his right hand casually dropping to his side next to the pocket where he kept his wand. Although he himself wasn’t aware, Severus’s appearance had grown more haggard in the recent months. The angles in his face were sharper, his nose casting a longer shadow over his cheekbones. Dark circles had begun to appear under his eyes, evidence of long nights spent waiting for the opportune moment to drop ingredients into a bubbling cauldron. He couldn’t even remember when he had last cut his hair. The black robes he wore in all weathers hung a little more loosely about his shoulders, and he kept finding himself twitching back his sleeves back to work unhindered. Overall, his appearance gave the impression of one who had rapidly aged years in a matter of months. Not that this was necessarily an indication of being a death eater these days - many wore the same look. But if you looked at Severus Snape, that he was a trustworthy person would not be one’s first assumption. For the most startling transformation one would have observed in the young man was his eyes - gradually, they seemed to darken, mirroring the stone cauldrons he spent so much time gazing into. It was as if he was walking further and further into a tunnel, the light of the entrance growing smaller and smaller until just a pinprick could be seen.

"You may have chosen love over loyalty, but many have not." the young death eater now dropped his book and took a few steps back, his right hand casually dropping to his side to rest next to the pocket where he kept his wand. "Do you really think, when the war is won and your beloved muggleborn husband is defeated, that choosing to side with those who stand in the way of a future where witches and wizards will no longer hide will have been worth it?"

"I did once. Our minds are very different now," she narrowed her eyes ever so slightly as the young man stepped back into a better light and she got a full look at him. Then she understood. He was one of them or at least a practitioner of the dark arts , a part of the darkness that was ever growing. His eyes were sunken, his appearance was messy and haggard. And yet she knew that this was because of his status as what she presumed to be a half-blood. Her sister and other pure-bloods involved in the darkness would never let themselves go like this, but their eyes and expressions were similar. Andie had seen the Order's suspected list, and he certainly fit the bill.

Her eyes narrowed further as his hand dropped, and her eyes followed where it landed. She kept her hands firmly above the counter top to show that she didn't intend on attacking or doing anything. She wasn't looking for a fight, not today. "Who says I am not loyal, boy? I am loyal to my family. To my five year old daughter who has nothing to do with this war whatsoever. I'm loyal to her protection, to the protection of the family I care so much for. You suggest I chose love over loyalty, but by choosing love, I have a new loyalty. My daughter will not grow up in a world where she is slandered for being a half-blood. Perhaps you know the feeling, boy," Andromeda took in a deep breath, though she was evidently a bit more firey now. The Death Eaters fought only for themselves, for selfish reasons. She saw now that all purist ideologies were wrong. She was on the right side, and nothing this small boy who knew nothing of the world could say would change that.

"Somewhat." he said evasively. “‘I’ve heard the name. Seen her around."

He wondered what it was like to have siblings. Not that the Black family seemed to be the best example of an functional family, but it must have been nice to have someone while you were growing up. Bellatrix and Narcissa must have been close to their sister once. He was never very close to anyone, his mother aside, until he met Lily. He studied Andromeda’s expression closely. Was she perhaps worried about her sisters? Perhaps she simply wanted to know if he knew how Bellatrix was faring. Hadn’t he tried the same trick to find out about Lily’s wedding?

Severus wondered why he was trying to search for positive motives in people instead of negative ones now. Not his style at all. Though he decided to keep talking anyway - he felt an avid curiosity towards Andromeda. He wondered what could possibly have made her so different from the people she was raised around, what had been going through her mind when she left a pureblood heritage he sorely envied and married a muggleborn instead.

"I don’t suppose you see your family much any more? What exactly happened?"

She paused for a moment after his response, narrowing her eyes ever so slightly as she bagged his book for him. "I think that's a lie, sir. Anyone who can misidentify me as Bellatrix sees her more than in the gossip columns," she said casually, keeping her expression neutral. It probably wouldn't be a surprise to anyone that she missed her sisters, that there was a space within her that could never be filled because of their loss, but she did not want that sort of gossip being spread around, and she especially did not want to divulge it to a man who's name she did not know. 

She had noticed the coy way Andromeda had her owls come to her room, rather than the hallway as was customary. The dreamy look she got on her face when she wrote correspondence. How, as of late, her book collection had been expanding to include Muggle texts. Stories of romance. Poems of love. There was little doubt that someone was getting under her skin.

And it wasn’t Rabastian, as it should have been. Bellatrix was close enough to him to be well aware of how long he was often kept waiting for so much as a note from the sister that should have been planning her betrothal with him, as was written.

So when those poisonous words came spilling from her mouth, filled with so much foolish hope and perhaps even pride, her worst fears were confirmed.

“Andromeda, dear. We need to speak alone. Now.”

Leaving no room for argument, Bellatrix got up, showing her sister to the drawing room where her father so often had his business meetings. This was also a popular venue for his affairs. How many women had been bent over this desk? It made her stomach clench.

“I will handle this, Father.” She promised as she slid the doors closed, before her head snapped to survey her sister.

“WHAT are you thinking? Have you completely taken leave of your senses? In love…with a Muggle born? What of Rabastian, sister? He is your betrothed and has been for many years now, as Rodolphus was mine.”

Holding up a hand as her sibling went to speak, Bellatrix closed her eyes.                                    

Andie followed Bellatrix to the drawing room in silence, feeling no need to argue or make apologies. She had done what was right for herself, and she had come to the conclusion of what to do long ago. There was no room for argument on either side. Andromeda stepped lightly around the room that she had so rarely entered, standing on the other side of the room to her sibling. 

As Bellatrix reminded her of her 'betrothal' to Rabastan, Andromeda's stomach curled. The pure-blooded marriage, respectable, and dark. The Lestrange's were a dark, dark family - Merlin only knew what she would be reducing herself to if she joined that family. She had never clicked with Rabastan, never. A life with him would have been a life of hell. She opened her mouth, but stayed silent at Bellatrix's gesture.

As Severus browsed through the potions making section in Flourish and Blotts, he privately thought that most of these books would be wasted on those who bought them. Granted, some like Potions Practice or Bubble Bubble were moronic and deserved to spend the rest of their lives crumpled at the bottom of some schoolbag. But as he ran his fingers along the spine of a book called Moste Potente Potions, thinking of the knowledge this book contained passing to inexperienced hands invoked a wave of intense jealousy. It was something that he, Severus Snape, would never learn to embrace – the idea of those less competent than himself practicing the art he loved. The very thought of their shaky hands and unpracticed eye for timing – the anger in his stomach was as real as if he was witnessing it before his eyes. He had never thought of himself as a beginner. To the other students, he had seemed to spring into existence at Hogwarts as already a natural potions maker. That he attributed mostly to the fact that he had spent his childhood surrounded by potions his Eileen brewed away from her husband’s hateful gaze, always with the shimmer of magical steam in the corner of his eye and the names of exotic ingredients dancing on the tip of his tongue. He had always known he would grow up to a future of potion making some day – the question was, what use to put his skills to? And now he knew. Working with the Dark Lord had given him access to ingredients he could never have acquired himself, allowed him to practice potions to turn the stomachs of ordinary witches and wizards. For now, he was content.

Severus’s hand closed around the book’s gilded cover. As he flipped through it, there were a few pages which made him raise his eyes in appreciation. What he earned at the apothecary wasn’t much, but this book he could afford.

He approached with the cash register still poring over the delicate pages with their spidery words. When he glanced up at the clerk behind the counter, he blinked. From the corner of his eye, he had almost been fooled into thinking it was Bellatrix, though he knew full well the proud witch would be hard pressed to be found in a place like this. But those features, that posture – even just the look in her eyes, reminded him of his fellow death eater. A name flashed through his mind. Andromeda. Seldom mentioned by the rest of her family, her name on the tapestry reduced to an angry scorch mark. Though it was silly, Severus suddenly felt a little frightened of this witch, the middle of three sisters who was now a member of the Order of the Phoenix.

Sorting, though productive, was long and boring. Especially on slow customer days, like today. There weren't many people that entered, leaving Andromeda to silence amongst the books. However, when a younger man entered, she slipped back to the cash register without a word. He hadn't looked at her, and she merely watched lazily as he searched through what she knew to be potions books. Potions, though not one of her best subjects, had a special place in her mind because of the memories formed there in Slughorn's classroom.