Paradigm

Not Enough

My mother was a wise woman, always doing the right thing, making the right choices. At least, any time the situation didn't concern my father.

I was the daughter of Minerva McGonagall and Albus Dumbledore, although Walburga and Cygnus Black raised me as Andromeda Black. I never had fit in with the Blacks - for instance, I was kind to the house-elves and non-purebloods. I also did NOT believe in what the Death Eaters did.

The first inkling I had at my real heritage was my Sorting during my first year of Hogwarts. The Sorting Hat told me that both of my parents had been in Gryffindor, while I knew for a fact that the two people I called Mother and Father had been in Slytherin. I did not have time to think upon the Sorting Hat's words, though, for I was Sorted into Gryffindor before being able to ask any more questions.

I never had friends in Gryffindor. Being a Black, all non-purebloods avoided me, as they did my relatives. However, the people I had grown up with ignored me, because they were all in Slytherin. Narcissa and Bellatrix took to punishing me for everything by using the Cruciatus curse, beginning after I was Sorted into Gryffindor.

One day in the April of my fifth year at Hogwarts, Professor McGonagall caught Bellatrix and Narcissa torturing me. This time, they were punishing me for "going steady" with Ted Tonks, who was Muggle-born. Flying into a rage, she took away one hundred points from Slytherin apiece, and gave them detention for the rest of the year. Sending them to Dumbledore, she led me into her office.

As she comforted me, Professor Dumbledore stormed into the classroom. He was in such a rage that he didn't even notice me. He grabbed Professor McGonagall by the arms and bodily flung her across the classroom. Screaming about the unfair punishments for two of their daughters, he slapped her face hard, yet she didn't cry out. I, however, was not as brave. I screamed at him. Turning around, his face blanched as he realised he and Professor McGonagall were not alone. He flung her against the wall, hard, yelling at her, asking her why she didn't let him know their daughter was in the room with them. She couldn't answer - he had knocked her unconscious.

I started pounding on Professor Dumbledore's chest with my fists, cursing him for hurting the only person who had ever cared about me - the woman I had just learned was my mother.

Now he is dead, and my mother is freed from his unimaginable cruelty. But it's not enough. It's too late for her to be happy. Although her body is still here, her soul died along with him - she always had been blind to his flaws, even when she ended up at St. Mungo's due to his beatings.

His death wasn't enough punishment for the things he did to her. Nothing is.

Blonde Slytherin

I was Sorted into Slytherin, to the joy of my adoptive parents (although I believed them to be my biological ones) and the chagrin of my birth mother, who is the Head of Gryffindor. My birth father, however, was ecstatic, although he was a Gryffindor himself. His face grew smug as he recounted my mother's misery over both my Sorting and Bella's as well. He was thrilled that Bella and I would marry purebloods, as my sister Andromeda, also their daughter, had married a Muggle-born. She was Sorted into Gryffindor, however, and Bella and I were Sorted into the noble house of Slytherin, where those pure of blood and heritage reside. Dumbledore referred to Bella and I as the "bookends" of the family - both of us Sorted into Slytherin, while Andromeda, the middle child, was Sorted into Gryffindor. She always did resemble our mother more than Bella and me.

I found out the truth about our heritage one day in the middle of April during my third year. That evening, Professor McGonagall came upon Bellatrix and me casting the Cruciatus curse (I had always been very advanced in casting curses) on Andromeda, punishing her for dating that filthy Mudblood, Ted Tonks. After one hundred points - each! - were taken away from Slytherin, and she and Andromeda had departed for her office, after ordering us to see Headmaster Dumbledore in his office at once. Bellatrix and I decided to listen to her, and we began making our way up to his office. However, we ran into Rodolphus Lestrange on the way up to his office, and not caring about McGonagall's reaction, Bella went off with him.

I was ascending the Main Staircase when I saw Headmaster Dumbledore march angrily into Professor McGonagall's office, flinging open the sealed door. I rushed up the stairs, eager to see why the Headmaster was radiating such fury. I saw him throw Professor McGonagall across the room, screaming about the unfair punishment she had given to two of their daughters. I realised that the two daughters he meant must have been Bellatrix and me. My theory was confirmed when he saw Andromeda, and further beat Professor McGonagall - my mother - because she hadn't told him their third daughter was in the room.

After finding out that Dumbledore and McGonagall were my real parents, I ran from the doorway of her office.

Later that year, I confronted Dumbledore about my parentage, and he acknowledged that Bellatrix, Andromeda, and I were his children by Minerva McGonagall. It was during what became our weekly afternoon tea sessions - ostensibly "detention" to my adoptive parents - that I learned of my parents' reactions to my sisters' and my Sortings, as well as our choices of spouses (Lucius Malfoy for myself, Rodolphus Lestrange for Bella, and Ted Tonks - the Mudblood - for Andromeda).

My father and I did become close. In my own marriage, however, when Lucius would become angry, I would cower in fear as the memories of my father flinging my mother across the room surfaced. I was grateful that Lucius had never struck me, and sorry that my mother never had that luxury.

Haunted by the Notion

The day my world fell apart was the day I found out I was not a Black. Cissy came up to me at breakfast and told me that she found out something incredibly important. I was busy with Rodolphus, so I told her to go away. She ignored my dismissal and grabbed my wrist, yanking me away from the prying eyes and open ears of the Slytherin table.

As astonished as I was, I still could have hexed her. I didn't, however, because I had never seen Cissy in such a state. As she trotted down the hall, pulling me after her, we finally ducked in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. After she checked to make sure no one was there, including Myrtle, she sealed the door with Colloportus and told me that we really weren't Blacks.

Our parents were Albus Dumbledore and Minerva McGonagall.

Cissy shook me by my shoulders when she realised I wasn't listening to the rest of the story. She had seen Dumbledore - my father, I realised - throw McGonagall - my mother - across the room. All because she had punished us too harshly.

I felt guilty about how Cissy and I had tortured Andromeda, but it soon passed. After all, I concluded, He (I still couldn't think of him as my father) had thrown her and beat her. That's so crude, and at least Cissy and I don't leave marks.

The Second War is coming to a close - and Snape has killed Dumbledore. He had to - I was the one who had witnessed the Unbreakable Vow between him and Cissy to kill Dumbledore if Draco was unable.

I still can't think of Dumbledore as my father. However, I accepted the idea of Minerva McGonagall as my mother almost immediately.

Even after his death, I'm still haunted by the notion of what he did. He who was called the Leader of the Light. I wonder what his followers would say if they knew what he did to my mother.