Blood Forgiven

The woman appeared with a faint pop, her blonde hair blowing in front of her face suddenly as a gust of wind rippled through the air.  She pushed it out of the way impatiently and began examining her surroundings.  She’d never been to this place, only heard her sister’s snide tales of its Muggle-like filth and horrible stench.  She’d expected a larger house, in all honesty.  This stone cottage with warm light falling from the windows hardly seemed like a satisfactory home for a Black.  But then, Andromeda had never been like her sisters. 

            Narcissa paused for a moment, her eyes resting on the window to the right of the dark blue door.  It seemed to look in on the sitting room, where she could just make out a small boy sitting on the floor, giggling and clapping his hands as a woman with soft brown hair levitated a top with her wand and made it spin round and round.  A smile crossed Narcissa’s lips as she watched the top, remembering when her sister had played that game with her. 

            The woman inside the room glanced up at the window and the top fell to the floor.  The little boy began to wail, the sound audible from outside, as Narcissa’s face flushed.  She hadn’t thought through of what to do, what to say if Andromeda was at the house.  Inside the pocket of her robes, her moist hand clutched the note she had planned to attach to the door.  Why she hadn’t just sent an owl…

            The door banged open, and Narcissa stepped back quickly, her foot squelching in the mud.  Andromeda strode out of the house, her wand pointed forward and her eyes flashing.  For a moment, Narcissa was struck at how closely the woman resembled Bellatrix, in looks and in temper.

            “You.”  Andromeda spoke in a whisper, barely audible over her grandson’s screams.  She did not remove her wand.

            Narcissa closed her eyes and nodded.  “Yes,” she said, barely able to keep her voice even.  “It’s me.  Cissy.”  She kept her eyes shut, unable to look at her older sister, not wanting to remember their last meeting.

            “You’re alone,” Andromeda said.  Her wand touched Narcissa’s neck, and the younger woman shuddered, but nodded. 

            “Why?”

            Why?  There wasn’t any reason, really, other than it had seemed like the thing to do.  With Lucius busy talking his way out of Azkaban and Draco unwilling to leave his bedroom, she had longed for company, longed for conversation.  However, these days, few cared to be visited by the wife of a convicted Death Eater. 

            “They took over my home, ‘Droma,” she found herself saying.  “They came and they told us it was our honor and our duty to serve him, and gave us no choice.  And they nearly had Draco killed…” Tears shone in her still-shut eyes as she spoke, her voice barely a whisper.  “I didn’t want it, but I was afraid.”

            “They killed my Nymphadora,” Andromeda said, her voice harsh.  “You whine about your home, but they killed my Nymphadora and my Ted.  Your husband is in Azkaban, but he’ll be back, won’t he?  Well-connected family, the Malfoys.”  She gave a laugh.  “He came back last time.  But not my Ted.  Not my Nymphadora.”

            The tears flowed harder, but still Narcissa did not open her eyes.  She could not bear to see the face of her sister, who had always been stronger and braver than she, who had never regretted for a moment the path she had chosen.

            “Look at me.”  Andromeda’s voice was soft, almost kind.  Narcissa dared to open her eyes, and her sister’s face swam in front of her, those familiar brown eyes watching her.  “My husband and my daughter are gone.  My son-in-law is gone.  Other families have lost members because of you, because of what you believed in.  Is this what you wanted?  To tear the world apart?”

            Narcissa shook her head wildly, her normally-sleek blonde hair flying in front of her face and catching on her wet cheeks.  “I didn’t know,” she whispered.  “We didn’t know that he would-”

            “It was the same as last time,” Andromeda said.  “The murders, the torture, the hatred.  Some say it was worse.  We lost some of the best witches and wizards of our time with the flick of a wand and the shout of a curse.  Is that fair, Narcissa?  Is it?”

            Again, Narcissa shook her head.  “I don’t know why I came here,” she said. 

            A harsh smile appeared on Andromeda’s aging face.  “Don’t you?”

            Narcissa bit her lip and looked down.  She did, and knew Andromeda would make her admit it.  With Bellatrix dead, and the war over, there had been a hope that the two sisters could reunite and forgive each other for their differences.  But it seemed that could not happen.

            “Do you know what she sent me, when Ted and I announced our engagement?”

            Curious, Narcissa looked back up and shook her head. 

            “The wedding invitation that I’d foolishly sent her, with the words “Remember your blood” scrawled on the back in what could only have been her own blood.”  Andromeda laughed, the sound remarkably similar to the laugh that had so recently cackled through the Hogwarts halls.  “A week later I got a picture of the family tree and a crushed box of baby teeth.  It was her own way of disowning me.”

            “Her…blood?” Narcissa shuddered.  Bella had always been so crude. 

            “Yes,” Andromeda said, nodding.  “Her own blood.  My blood, I suspect she wanted me to think.  Ted asked me if I wanted to still go on with the wedding, and I told him he was a fool if he thought I would stop just because of a silly bit of blood.  What did it matter, anyway?  His blood was the same color, wasn’t it?  If I had stuck a pin in his finger and bled it onto a page of paper, it would have been as red as Bella’s.”

            “She never frightened you, did she?” Narcissa asked, her tone admiring. 

            Andromdea laughed once more.  “Frighten me?  How could she?  I knew just as well as she that she could never hurt me, that I was a far better witch than she was and could have cursed her into oblivion if I’d cared to.  It didn’t stop her from trying, though.”

            “I would’ve come…” Narcissa began, “to the wedding, I mean.  But Bella…and Mother…I didn’t want…I didn’t want them to-”

            “Burn you off the family tree?  Disown you?  Send you a curse in a card?  Of course not, Narcissa.  I wouldn’t have expected any less of you.”  Narcissa dared a glace at Andromeda’s face and was startled to see a smile. 

            “We may not agree when it comes to blood,” Andromeda said, “but I’ll be damned if I ever am as unforgiving as Bella.  She would never have come here, you know.  And you have.  The least I can do is ask you in for a cup of tea.”  She turned toward the house, pocketing her wand.  “Now, it’s milk with no sugar, right?”

            “Yes, but-” Narcissa began, startled.

            Andromeda turned back to face her.  “You’d best come in before I change my mind, Cissy.  Besides, it looks like it’ll storm soon, and you wouldn’t want to get your pretty little head wet.” 

            Smiling weakly, Narcissa hurried to join her sister inside just as the rain began to fall and Teddy’s wails filled house.  Her heart warmed as she sat down at the small kitchen table, happy to know that at least one person was able to forgive her past.