Forbidden Fate

Chapter Four: Home Isn't Where the Heart Is

"Keep up, Cissa--I don't even see them yet!"

"I am keeping up! It's hard to move around in this crowd. Hold my hand, Bella!"

"Don't be such as baby. You're eleven years old!"

Andromeda grabbed Narcissa's hand in frustration. Only a minute off the train and already they were arguing! She dragged her younger sister through the platform packed with families.

"Look, there they are--away from all this half-blood filth." Bellatrix, who had been glaring at all the happy families, sped up towards the Blacks.

Arcturus and Adhara Black were standing off to the side but rushed over to Andromeda and her sisters. Adhara hugged and kissed Bella, her favorite, first. Bella hugged her mother back dismissively. Meanwhile her father was kissing Narcissa, his favorite.

Arcturus then hugged Andromeda and said in an undertone, "I do hope you're not mad at us for making you get a tutor. It was all for the best."

"You're right, Father. In fact, I should be thanking you. It's working out perfectly!" For once, she wasn't even lying.

"Is it?" he asked suspiciously. "Fenwick said he was an older Slytherin. I hope you mean your grades are perfect."

"Right, that's what I meant." She avoided his stern gaze by allowing herself an extremely brief hug with her mother.

Shoving her daughter away, Adhara said coldly, "I trust you've been behaving yourself, Andromeda?"

"Why wouldn't I be?" Their probing was making her nervous. Was she so different from the summer that 'blood traitor' was pasted on her forehead?

"Meda! Meda!" she heard. Only one person called her that...

"Sirius!" Pushing past her family, she ran over to her nine year old cousin and hugged him tightly.

She felt a tug on her robes. It was Regulus. Though two years younger than his brother, he followed him everywhere.

"Andromeda, Sirius is in big trouble!" he said in delight.

"Really? Good for you, Sirius!" The two boys cracked up.

Andromeda ruffled Regulus's hair and kissed his cheek.

"Ugh!" He wiped it away.

"It's nice to see you are encouraging Sirius in his troublemaking antics." Aunt Alya was standing right behind her sons. Dark and domineering, Andromeda didn't like her aunt at all. For some reason, the feeling was mutual.

"I'm sorry, Aunt Alya...an Uncle Rigel. That was wrong of you, Sirius. Whatever you did."

Sirius rolled his eyes. His mother gave him a pointed warning look and swept off, followed by her husband. Rigel had the classic Black family good looks, like her father. Unfortunately, he didn't have any spine--another classic male Black trait. Alya controlled everything. He only patted Andromeda's shoulder as he went by to greet the "favored" nieces.

Both Sirius and Regulus had inherited their father's good looks--black hair, strong jaw, straight nose-- and they had the potential to be little Hogwarts heartthrobs. She only hoped they had more strength.

"Really, I was only having some fun at the dinner party the other night. Everyone looked bored, so I put some firewhiskey in their drinks and Filibusters under the table."

Andromeda couldn't help chuckling. No, inner strength was something Sirius had in spades--for better or worse. "No one got hurt, did they?"

He shrugged. "No, they're just fireworks. And you can't blame me for trying to have fun. Grimmauld Place really needs it."

Andromeda nodded knowingly. She dreaded visits there, and couldn't imagine living in Sirius's house. Her heart went out to her bright, mischievous cousin.

"But Sirius, you were locked in your room for days!" piped up Regulus. "I only had Kreacher to play with, and he's creepy."

Andromeda resisted the urge to giggle. She couldn't like Regulus as much as Sirius, but was adorable at times.

"What do you think I did in there?" retorted Sirius. "Write sorry notes and read 'Nature's Nobility: A Wizarding Genealogy'?"

Andromeda snorted. "That would be something new. So what did you do?"

"Thought up new pranks, of course! Next week we'll do my next one, all right Regulus?"

He nodded eagerly. In five short years he would be reluctant to take part in rule breaking; now he didn't know any better.

"Andromeda!" yelled her mother. "Come visit with the rest of the family!"

Andromeda looked around. Alphard, her favorite uncle, wasn't in sight. Groaning, she led her cousins back to the Black family.

~~~

Andromeda survived the next week by spending as little time as possible with the adults. Instead, she and Sirius hid from Bella (and Lucius Malfoy when he was there) and teased Cissa and Regulus.

The rest of the time she stayed in her room, writing letters to Ted. He would never read them; owls in Muggle Liverpool would look odd and she couldn't risk the letters being intercepted by her family. She missed Alphard terribly. He didn't even show up for Christmas Day! She was at Grimmauld Place when he finally did arrive--writing as usual.

"Dear Ted,
I can assure you: You're having tons more fun then I am. The only people who don't look at me as if I have some huge problem are either mysteriously absent or under the age of eleven. It's even worse when my parent's friends (in other words, the Malfoys) come to visit. I can't stand Lucius, and I have the great misfortune of being in the same House and only a year older than him. Anyways, the adults (with some other 'respectable pureblood families') all had this secret meeting earlier today, ushering us kids out after presents, etc. They've muffled their noise and even put an Imperturbable Charm on the door! I snuck over once to eavesdrop but Bella was around and I had to make Kreacher distract her so I could get away. It's awful to say this at Christmastime, but...while I love my family (who doesn't?) I really don't like them. I only wish--"

"Andromeda!" Adhara screeched up the stairs. "Come down here now! Your uncle has arrived!"

Andromeda shoved the parchment into her bag and raced down the stairs, nearly knocking over the troll's leg by the door.

"Be careful!" her mother hissed. Andromeda ignored her.

"Uncle Alphard!" He enwrapped her in a huge hug.

"How's my favorite niece?"

"All right now," she said, grinning. Alphard didn't mind calling her his "favorite" niece. Bella didn't care and Cissa was too young to care.

He hugged Sirius and Regulus as well. "How are my favorite nephews?" he bellowed.

"It was devastating without you," Sirius said over-dramatically, pretending to wipe a tear from his eye. Regulus nodded with him.

Alphard cuffed his oldest nephew lightly on the shoulder. "Knew you'd miss me, Sirius." He added darkly: "Couldn't say the same for anyone else."

The rest of the family filed into the hall. They hated Alphard not only for his eccentric ways, but because (being the eldest son and heir) he had ten times more gold than the rest of them did.

Narcissa said 'hello' to him primly and shyly. Bellatrix stood with her arms crossed until her mother jabbed in the direction of her uncle. Rolling her eyes, she smiled painfully and shook his hand.

Once the required greetings were over, Andromeda and Sirius got some more time with him alone. He was tall, dark, and hawkish, but Andromeda showed no fear as she faced him with her arms crossed.

"Do you realize how long we've been here? Or the fact that we're leaving tomorrow? How could you have deserted us like that?"

Still, she couldn't help smiling as she said it.

"Truth is, no one wanted me to come. I'm just here to say hello--and goodbye--and then it's off to another exotic locale."

"We want you to stay!" Regulus begged.

"Thanks, my boy. But unfortunately you children don't make the decisions around here."

"We should," said Sirius, "As we have more sense than the rest of them put together."

Alphard sighed, as if in agreement. "Which is why one day I'll leave and never come back. Let them all be tried for insanity and sent to Azkaban."

"You wouldn't really leave, would you?" Andromeda muttered. "In good conscience?"

He gave her a serious stare. "Not for another eight years or so, my dear." Then, brightening: "And you'll be compensated with a pile of gold, so you won't care a whit!"

Sirius laughed uproariously, but Andromeda was still uneasy. When he left a few hours later, his parting words played over and over in her head:

"Someday you'll leave them too--I'd bet all the galleons I have on that. Don't feel bad about it, Andromeda. You'll do the right thing when the time comes."

And with that, Alphard Black Floo'd out of her life. She wouldn't see him again for four years.

The next day they were on the train back to Hogwarts. She promised Sirius at least a hundred times that she'd write. As she climbed into a compartment with Derrick, she saw Ted with his friend. He winked and she tossed her hair--their code for saying 'hi'. When Derrick raised his eyebrows in confusion, she only grinned back at him.