Rating:
PG
House:
The Dark Arts
Characters:
Bellatrix Lestrange Sirius Black
Genres:
Drama Humor
Era:
Multiple Eras
Spoilers:
Philosopher's Stone Chamber of Secrets Prizoner of Azkaban Goblet of Fire Order of the Phoenix
Stats:
Published: 04/10/2004
Updated: 04/10/2004
Words: 5,279
Chapters: 1
Hits: 1,931

Family Album: Truth or Dare

Nineveh

Story Summary:
Slytherin par excellence Andromeda Black had never really noticed Ravenclaws, but with Hogwarts stricken with flu and quarantine forcing the houses into closer quarters she finds them objects of increasing fascination, especially one Ted Tonks. In a game of "Truth or Dare" Andromeda learns more about what it is to be a Ravenclaw, and some interesting facts about her own family into the bargain. James Potter really shouldn’t have challenged Bellatrix to play....

Chapter Summary:
Slytherin par excellence Andromeda Black had never really noticed Ravenclaws, but with Hogwarts stricken with flu and quarantine forcing the houses into closer quarters she finds them objects of increasing fascination, especially one Ted Tonks. In a game of "Truth or Dare" Andromeda learns more about what it is to be a Ravenclaw, and some interesting facts about her own family into the bargain. James Potter really shouldn’t have challenged Bellatrix to play…
Posted:
04/10/2004
Hits:
1,931
Author's Note:
Each of the


Truth or Dare

It had been an interesting few weeks at Hogwarts: for the first time, Andromeda Black had really begun to understand Ravenclaws. She had never done so before, they had been an uninteresting enigma, comfortably ignored by Andromeda and her Slytherin sisters and friends. Or rather, they were ignored back. Ravenclaw was a somewhat insular house. It wasn't that the students were unfriendly, simply that they never seemed to care about the things everyone else did. Their numbers encompassed most of the school's brightest pupils - although no Black since Uncle Alphard - yet their marks and house-points veered weekly between the spectacular and the appalling. They won the house cup even more rarely than the Hufflepuffs, although it was notable that on the occasions they carried the trophy home they did it in a manner that only 500 points clear can indulge. Only their Quidditch was conventional, perhaps, as Narcissa pointed out, because even conventional Quidditch was hardly restricting in style. Yet over the last few interesting weeks, Andromeda had finally begun to understand Ravenclaws.

Ravenclaws didn't care about being thought clever; they knew that they were. They took their OWLs and NEWTs with flying colours as a sop to the outside world, and otherwise marks were a mere irritation in the business of learning. Ravenclaws didn't care about marks; they cared about knowledge, its acquisition and application. They were also absolutely brilliant at Truth or Dare. Three of them sat in the circle now on the carpet of the Slytherin common room, wiping the floor with the rest of the players. Andromeda told herself that she didn't really mind - any decent witch left that sort of thing to the house elf - but she had to admit that it was intriguing, and Ted Tonks, Ted Tonks from her elder sister's year, was perhaps the most intriguing of them all.

Andromeda did not know many of the older pupils in the other houses. The Slytherins she knew through Bellatrix, of course, and the casual intercourse of the common room, and there had been others she was familiar with through her parents' acquaintances and friends, the odd McKinnon and the like, but Slytherin was a big house, and it was quite evident to all the young Miss Blacks that all the most interesting people were in it. Sirius was not, but then Sirius was a law unto himself. Andromeda was the only one of the sisters not on the receiving end of his merciless teasing, possibly because Bellatrix found the practice hexing a useful challenge, more probably because in the year it had first grown particularly intense, Bellatrix, unlike Andromeda, had not swooped into nine-year old Sirius's bedroom with a boggart in a suitcase and promised in tones that brooked absolutely no defiance that if he ever even thought to push her so far again he would spend his nights in his Hogwarts dormitories still praying not to wet the bed in terror at the dreams she promised him. They had got on much better after that; they understood they were alike, although, Andromeda thought when her cousin arrived at Hogwarts, she was in a much better house. And Sirius was absolutely rubbish at Truth or Dare.

Ted Tonks was brilliant, sitting between Croaker and James Potter with his forearm on his knee and a gleeful smile upon his face. In fact, Ted Tonks was brilliant at quite a lot of things. He even talked to Bellatrix without flinching; quite an achievement for a boy in her sister's year who'd had a rather obvious crush on her in the fourth year. Of cause, Andromeda reflected, it probably hadn't been obvious to Bellatrix, who could be a bit obtuse when it came to that sort of thing.

Andromeda had first noticed Tonks was brilliant a fortnight or so ago. She had passed him in the corridor talking to Severus and some other young lad, and found herself listening in. They were talking, it appeared, about the 'flu. It had been a bad year for 'flu. Apparently this was the case even in the Muggle world, where 'flu was a lot more common, and the Muggles whinged about it every winter in the Great Hall when they had the least sniffle of a cold. Andromeda had assumed it was just a word, a magic word designed invoking extra sympathy for the sufferer of the head cold, like calling one's spots spattergroit. Madam Pomphrey certainly dosed the sufferers just as if they had a cold, and the snarkier Muggle-borns would make comments about crying wolf. Then in November of their fifth year, when she and Narcissa were studying hard for their OWLs, Andromeda learned what influenza was - and that it wasn't a joke.

It was something called an epidemic. The pure-bloods and more established half-bloods succumbed in droves, filling the wards of St Mungo's. All Hogsmeade visits were cancelled, and letters from home fumigated before being distributed in the afternoon, but it was too late. 'Flu was in the castle, and staff and children fell alike. The Mudbloods weren't too badly off. All the first and second years were sent home the moment their temperature shivered a little above strictly normal, Madam Pomphrey correctly pointing out that their parents would be able to care for them at least as well as the over-stretched infirmary, and that those parents themselves were at no risk. The little ones could enjoy a longer Christmas holiday than usual; it would do them no harm. The older ones were sent home for nursing before returning a little thinner to the morning or afternoon lessons provided by a skeleton staff of supply teachers and the few professors who had not succumbed. Dumbledore spent most of his time out of Hogwarts at the Ministry of Magic whose were growing increasingly frenetic at the spate of mysterious attacks perpetrated by the so-called Death Eaters. People remarked in tones of awe that they didn't know how he managed his responsibilities as Headmaster with all the work he did for the Ministry. Andromeda knew; he didn't. Oh, the school ran along, he was there at dinner and for events, but his presence was rather lacking, and Andromeda thought that the students somehow felt it. Not consciously, perhaps, but felt it nonetheless in the lapses of discipline that would previously have been picked up, in the sense that the hand on the tiller, whilst interested in the destination, was somewhat less concerned with what might happen along the way than would once have been its wont.

It was a rather trying time. The Gryffindor and Hufflepuff towers had been converted into dormitories for the sick, and the healthy and recovered shoved into Ravenclaw and Slytherin according to age. Andromeda and Narcissa were sharing their dormitory with a rather dull Hufflepuff named Dorcas and a couple of Gryffindor seventh years who spent all their time worrying about the effect the disruption would have on their NEWTs, and in the corridor leading from the Slytherin dormitory where he was presently camping out Ted Tonks - an unusually thin Ted Tonks - had been collared by Severus Snape and Avery. Avery, Andromeda saw to her consternation, was almost crying. She soon found out why.

'Is it true,' Severus was asking, 'that Muggles sometimes die of 'flu?' Avery sniffed loudly.

'Oh yeah,' Tonks affirmed casually. 'Mostly old people and little kids. Wizards it can get any age. You know, it's all down to whether you've got any resistance.'

'No,' Snape said, 'we don't know. Resistance to what?'

'To the germs, of course,' answered Tonks, as if talking to a couple of idiots, which in Avery's case perhaps he was. 'Your immune system's got to develop resistance to a germ to work effectively. Kid's haven't been exposed, and old people are just knackered. That's why these things get wizards so badly - because the population's isolated. It's like every little variant strain is Spanish Flu.' Andromeda suddenly realised that she had stopped to listen and that what she was hearing apparently made no more sense to the two original questioners nor to the growing body of students around her than it did to her. It did sounds as if it could be interesting, though.

'What's a germ?' she asked. Tonks shook his head.

'Are you trying to be funny?'

'No,' she said. 'And I don't think they are either. Evan Rosier was taken to St Mungo's this morning. He's Avery's cousin. They say he's dying.' The Ravenclaw boy was momentarily abashed.

'Rosier isn't dying,' he said. 'He's just got pneumonia - it's a complication. It isn't really dangerous if you get proper care. Look, Rosier's a Beater, dead healthy. He'll be fine with some antibiotics.' More blank stares. 'Antibiotics,' Tonks repeated, 'against the bacteria?' He shook his head. 'Look, I'll explain if you like.' He paused. 'I'll need a blackboard.'

It was without a doubt one of the most interesting lessons that Andromeda had ever attended. The Slytherin common room was packed with pure-bloods from all houses, while the Mudbloods drifted in and out. Andromeda could hear them laughing behind the door. James Potter had laughed, too.

'Don't see why you're so interested in this rubbish,' he'd sneered at Severus as he passed through, 'unless you think it'll clean up your nose.'

'I don't know about that,' Tonks had snapped back. 'But it's keeping that friend of yours alive in St Mungo's right now.' Andromeda hadn't even needed to look round to know that the two bumps she heard behind her were Potter and Sirius hurriedly sitting down.

'Is one of your parents a Muggle Healer,' a conciliatory Potter had asked, 'that you know all this stuff.'

'No,' Tonks shrugged. 'Everyone knows it. Six year olds know about it.'

'So why don't wizards?' James persisted, and then the voice from the back of the room had come,

'Oh, but we do. Isn't that right, Tonks?' The voice from the back of the room was weak and raw, but Andromeda found herself trying not to smirk as she looked at Potter.

'Absolutely. It's just that no one bothers to teach you. And actually,' Tonks said reflectively, 'quite a lot of grown-up witches and wizards probably don't know. The knowledge is there, but they don't bother with it. The population's essentially strong, doesn't suffer that many infectious diseases, and you're all vaccinated as babies against the main ones to make sure.'

'Vaccinated?' asked a bemused fourth year.

'With Inoculum potion,' Bellatrix continued in somewhat exasperated tones. 'Honestly, are Tonks and I the only ones here who've read any Natural Philosophy?'

And so the lecture continued, Ted drawing disgusting looking things on the blackboards, and Bellatrix translating into more familiar terms when his audience appeared particularly confused. Andromeda had never ceased to wonder at her elder sister's taste in books. Bella's approach to her schoolwork was of the firmly expedient variety; her high marks were down to precise knowledge of what she needed and no more, and she yawned her way through her homework, but away from the classroom, lying as now on the sofa with her feet curled under the cushions, she could read for ours on the most abstruse of subjects such as - Andromeda squinted across the room - Russian court magic of the nineteenth century, and, apparently, Natural Philosophy.

Bellatrix had had a great deal of opportunity to read lately. The 'flu that had had Andromeda herself moaning volubly that she wished to die, and that Narcissa, usually so fragile, had not caught at all, had left Bellatrix pole-axed in the infirmary for three weeks. She still looked like death warmed up, released only because her bed was desperately needed and her sisters had sworn to report the least turn for the worst whatever the threatened hex. It was odd, Andromeda thought. When they were younger, Bellatrix had always been the strong one. Nothing laid her low, while she and Narcissa sniffled and squirmed through every possible sickness, but since Bellatrix had first come to Hogwarts things had changed. Her stomach was weak and she was too pale and thin, lacking sleep. Honestly, girl, their mother said, what do you do to yourself, and Andromeda caught Bellatrix glance away just for a moment and she had wondered. Bellatrix was lying on the sofa now, the one she had enchanted to be comfortably only when she or her sisters sat upon it, her face thin and pinched, her body sunk in lassitude after the exertion of the morning's lessons she was permitted to attend only after she had fretted so badly when forbidden them. And because none of the teachers wanted a frustrated Bellatrix Black experimenting in her own time, Andromeda mused. Bella shifted in her doze, and Narcissa hopped up again to tuck the shawl around her sister's legs.

Not that Bellatrix would have played with them even had she been well. Andromeda was surprised that even Narcissa had joined in, but when Benjy Fenwick had suggested a game of Truth or Dare and Sirius had leapt to it, Narcissa had obviously wished to give no future ammunition. It was not as if she had many secrets, anyway. At least, not ones that Benjy or Sirius were likely to ask about.

Benjy Fenwick was a Ravenclaw, a brash, bright half-blood boy in Tonks and Bellatrix's year, with a dirty grin on his face and the ability to twist anything - anything - into vulgarity. Inevitably, he was highly popular, and Andromeda could not help but find him amusing. Bellatrix, inevitably, was less keen, but even she admitted he was bright. Bella respected intellect; in some ways she might have been a very good Ravenclaw herself. There were nine of them in the game, Benjy, Tonks and Croaker from Ravenclaw, Sirius and his crony, Andromeda and Narcissa, Avery and Snape.

Andromeda was uncertain whether she was surprised to see Snape there or not. Certainly he never shrank from a challenge, but he was an intensely private boy, and it was even less his sort of game than Narcissa's. But Sirius was playing, and they were in the Slytherin common room, and Snape no doubt was damned if he would be driven away from the floor in Slytherin. Besides, Andromeda was there, and Andromeda was one of the few people whose good opinion Sirius really cared about, and she was very free in telling him when he - frequently - lost it. And there was Bellatrix. Bellatrix got on oddly well with Severus considering that they were four years apart in age and seemed to have almost nothing in common other than an interest in some extremely obscure books. Most of Severus's friends were older than he, and Andromeda worried a little what would happen when they left. But Severus was a Snape. The Snapes might go their own way, deny the rules of the game that all else played by, but they would never, ever be beaten. If he was being beaten now, well, it was no more than the rest of them.

It was magically-binding Truth or Dare. That had been Avery's idea, oddly enough. The usual rules, with a magically binding contract that committed them to taking the dares (carried forward to the end of a complete round) and prevented evasion. The second part had been Benjy's idea.

'We'll have a lie-detecting charm,' he said. 'Anyone who tells an untruth will be struck by lightning.'

'Miniature lightning,' Tonks stressed in the same moment that Croaker added,

'Knowing untruth.' She paused. 'Who's going to do the charm?' Tonks smiled.

'You are, of course. And Andromeda Black.' And so they had. Andromeda was rather pleased about it; Avery had already been caught out after denying that he had ever cheated in an exam. Slightly singed, he protested that spelling tests aged seven didn't count.

'The lightning,' said Narcissa, 'seems to think otherwise.'

The Ravenclaws were definitely winning. Andromeda had hardly ever played before, not for years, and never with such stakes, but it had soon become apparent to her that the essential technique was to ensure in asking a question that to opt for Dare was as revealing as telling the truth. Sirius had rather missed the point. His question, Have you ever indulged in bestiality, had certainly caused amusement, but the chorus of 'No' around the circle had not been very interesting. Not at least until they got to Benjy, who hesitated and seemed about to say Dare before receiving an elbow in the ribs from Croaker.

'Just before you answer that,' she said, 'bear in mind that one of your dares might be from me.' Benjy Fenwick's denial had followed hard upon.

'Now it's Crux's turn,' said Tonks. "Crux" Croaker grinned. Andromeda was uncertain as to how the Ravenclaw girl had acquired her nickname, only that it seemed to date from her fourth year, and, though now familiar, that it retained an aura of more than mere respect. Croaker sucked in her upper lip.

'Have you ever,' she said slowly, 'had erotic feelings towards a person of your own sex?' Next to her, Tonks shifted his leg and looked sideways.

'Define erotic,' he said carefully. Croaker shrugged.

'Of or pertaining to sexual arousal or attraction, regardless of whether such arousal or attraction is either consciously or subconsciously accepted or otherwise.'

'Crux, you bitch.' Croaker smirked.

'You shouldn't try to catch me out, Tonker.' Now that, Andromeda, reflected was how to play, especially as all the girls replied with a flippant negative, and all the boys in varying degrees of somewhat shamefaced yes, Dare meaning just the same and threatening much. All, that is, with the exception of one No from a rather prim Severus and an insouciant, Yes of course, from Benjy.

'What d'you think I am?' he asked. 'Abnormal?'

'God forbid,' said Croaker.

Sirius was not having a good game. Crux's question had left him oddly discommoded and somewhat pink. Then there was Snape's question, characteristically clever with its odd mix of the distant and the deeply personal, although Andromeda couldn't see why the Ravenclaws were flashing one another such wry smiles. Have any of your relatives of the last one hundred years been sentenced to Azkaban? Un-struck by lightening, Sirius had apparently been genuinely unaware that his adored Uncle Alphard had spent a couple of years in the wizard prison and was visibly shocked at Narcissa's chirpily enlightening him.

'He was fomenting rebellion among the giants,' she said. 'How on earth didn't you know?' Quite easily, Andromeda thought. Clever as he was, Sirius had always had a weakness for failing to see what he didn't want to know.

'But that's impossible!' he protested. 'The charm would have got me if I'd lied.' He ran his hand through his thick black hair in bewilderment, glancing swiftly though the shield of his arm at James Potter sitting next to him. Potter, too, was looking somewhat perturbed. Potter was such a prig when it came to that sort of thing. Andromeda decided to be merciful.

'You didn't lie,' she pointed out. 'You just didn't know. You should ask father about it, it's an interesting story.' Although one she would be surprised if he wanted to hear more of. Sirius had always idolised Uncle Alphard, who had died when the boy was eight. How the mighty are fallen, she mused, and realised suddenly that Tonks had stopped sniggering, that he was speaking and she was missing his question.

'Earth to Andromeda Black!' he called, and Bellatrix behind him, who had now woken up and stopped even pretending not to listen, coughed loudly. 'Ready now? Right.' He folded his arms and looked at his house comrades. 'My question, ladies and gentlemen, is thus; to placing you in which other house did the Sorting Hat give significant consideration?'

'That's two questions,' said Avery, breaking the stunned silence that had followed. People didn't talk about what the Hat had said to them, they just didn't. It was one of the unwritten laws for survival in the common room. Marriages, it was said, had foundered upon the subject. Benjy recovered first, and being a Ravenclaw, had the right answer.

'It isn't, you know. It could be, but not the way Ted asked it. Personally, None.'

'None. None.' Croaker, then Potter.

'Dare.' Sirius. Slytherin, obviously, and too much for a fierce, brave Gryffindor to admit.

'None.' Andromeda herself, with Avery.

'Hufflepuff,' a blushing Narcissa, plucking at her golden head, and then silence. Two of them left.

'No need to ask Snape,' said Potter. Andromeda saw the sallow boy's hand clench in his robe.

'Shows what you know, Potter,' he said disdainfully. 'Gryffindor.' Potter's horrified face was a study. Bellatrix on her sofa gazed intrigued through narrowed eyes. Andromeda was pretty impressed herself.

'And what about you Tonks?' she asked. Benjy thumped his legs,

'Hey, Tonks is one of us, right Crux?' Croaker nodded.

'I think Gryffindor,' said Sirius suddenly and Potter agreed, harmony apparently restored. Narcissa rolled her eyes.

'Any more bets,' Tonks asked. Andromeda tapped her fingertips together.

'I'll place one,' she said. 'Chocolate frog to the winner?' Tonks nodded. 'Excellent,' Andromeda held out her hand. 'Slytherin.'

'A chocolate frog to Miss Black,' said Tonks, and threw. Over the confusion he asked her, 'How did you guess?' Andromeda shrugged.

'Oh, it was easy; you're a cunning bastard. Why did it choose Ravenclaw instead?' Tonks grinned.

'It asked me which I wanted. I said that it had rather more experience at that choice than me, so it decided that I obviously had the sort of smart obnoxious intelligence in which Ravenclaws excel.'

'But you're not a pure-blood!' Avery protested. Tonks pushed out his lower lip with his tongue and grimaced.

'Historically, I'll think you'll find the Sorting Hat has not made that an essential qualification. Anyway, last question. Mr Potter, I believe you drew the long straw.' Potter nudged Sirius and made an appearance of deep thought, but it was quite obvious to Andromeda when he asked it that he had been dying to give his question from the off.

'How many people have you kissed?' he asked. Flickering glances of consultation among the Ravenclaws.

'Twelve,' said Ted,

'At least thirteen,' Croaker,

'God only knows,' from Benjy, and no lightning. Sirius,

'Two,' and it would have been Andromeda's turn. Narcissa and Snape were both looking decidedly uncomfortable, and she half wondered about joining them in saying dare herself when she heard the answering snort from Bellatrix across the room. Sirius drew himself up haughtily. 'Personally, I think two is a comfortable average at thirteen. Unless you could do better?' he challenged. Bellatrix sneered.

'I don't care for baby games.'

'Well, if you don't care,' said Sirius, 'you can answer.' Bella's white face set.

'I don't think so.' The nudge of Potter's elbow sent her cousin sideways into Andromeda.

'Aww,' the Gryffindor boy whined in an irritating baby voice. 'Is ickle Bellatwix afwaid?' Bellatrix turned her head. Oh God, Andromeda thought, although her sister's wandless hand remained mercifully in view.

'No,' said Bellatrix quietly, 'I'm not afraid. And I don't accept challenges from kids like you. But in the spirit of friendly confiding, I can count at least twenty-four.'

'Twenty-four!' breathed Potter. Bella shook back her heavy hair,

'What, haven't you got a family?'

'And what do you think I am,' Croaker added. 'Morgan le Fay?' She flicked her tongue over her top lip. Potter's deflation was visible, although Andromeda noticed that Snape still answered Dare. Benjy Fenwick dusted his hands together.

'End of the round, folks!' he said gleefully. 'Get ready for your dares. Bags not one from Crux.'

'Just a minute, Fenwick,' said Bellatrix, 'I've got to ask my question.' James's eyes opened wide and horrified.

'But you can't!' he protested. 'You only answered one.'

'Yes,' she shrugged. 'And I was quite happy not to answer any. But the rules are that everyone must ask one question per round and answer all questions from point of entry to the game. Potter asked me a question, and I have to ask one in return. Otherwise,' she gestured vaguely above her head,' I believe I get struck by lightning.' Potter did not look as if he would be sorry to see this happen. Benjy, Tonks and Croaker leaned together to consult in hurried whispers.

'Bellatrix is right,' said Tonks. 'She has to ask.'

And in the interests of fairness,' Bella added, 'I'll even answer all your questions.' She rattled of a list of positives, negatives and numbers as the others tried to remember the question order. Nothing interesting there. If Bellatrix had secrets, they were not the sort to be discovered by puerile teenagers. 'Now, my turn.' She sank her chin into her hands and rubbed at her heavy-lidded eyes as her sisters and the others stared. She looks awful, thought Andromeda, she should never have been let out of the infirmary, but then Bellatrix smiled and the curve of the thin lips lit her face and she asked, 'Have you ever successfully practised the Dark Arts?'

A circle of white faces and a shocked silence broken only by tremulous breathing and Benjy Fenwick's slow hand-clap.

'Now that,' whispered Croaker, 'is how to play the game.' She sat up a little straighter and hesitated a moment. 'So who'll join me in yes?' There was no reply, not even from Fenwick, and Andromeda realised with a jolt how Crux Croaker had come by her nickname. The silence stretched out.

'No!' burst in a panicked rush from Avery.

'No,' an insouciant shrug from Fenwick and another from Tonks,

'Never been interested,' he said, but Andromeda wasn't listening. Her attention was on her family, Bellatrix's unreadable expression, Narcissa wide-eyed and watchful, and Sirius making a desperate effort to look angry instead of terrified. Carefully, he slipped his hand around his wand and looked shiftily about. He's going to try it, thought Andromeda, he's really going to try and she felt her hair drift up to the crackle around his head before he gave up and glumly murmured,

'Dare.' Denial from Potter and Narcissa, both honest, both expected, Potter being what he was, and Narcissa not experimental by nature. In any case, Potter was concentrating quite hard on not looking at Sirius and didn't even notice Snape's grim 'Dare.' That could have a covered a denial, thought Andromeda, though she doubted it, but it was Bellatrix she was interested in, Bellatrix upon whom Narcissa's impossibly blue eyes were fixed, Bellatrix to whom all faces but Sirius's had turned and who laid her head down on the sofa arm and said in a voice Andromeda could not make out,

'Me?' she shook her head gently. 'No.'

How many of them knew that she had lied? Andromeda herself of course, Sirius, if he had heard, and Narcissa. That was probably all of the children. The professors knew, of course, and people well enough acquainted with the family to have seen Narcissa before it happened, but one hardly went around boasting that one's toddling daughter had transformed youngest her sister from a pattern little Black into a Dresden doll. Father had blamed it on a lunatic house elf, which, being decapitated, could not protest. Andromeda wondered if any of the Muggle-borns might suspect. One blonde child in a family of Blacks was not exactly usual after all, and it was just the sort of thing that Muggles would waste their time on understanding. Look at Tonks with his Natural Philosophy... Andromeda pulled herself out of her thoughts. She could think about that later, for now, her attention was demanded by her sister.

'How dare she? How dare she?!' Narcissa was livid, her clear skin blotched with rage, her hands curled into fists as she hissed. 'What the hell did she think she was doing? What right did she think she had?'

'Calm down!' Andromeda sat on her own bed opposite Narcissa. They had thrown the other girls out of the dormitory after they had raced upstairs after the game, Narcissa just managing to get out of the corridor before exploding in fury. 'You'll do yourself an injury.'

'Oh yes, right, I'll do myself an injury. More than she's done?' A hand tore through the sunny curls, 'More than she's done herself?' The voice rose to a shriek and then dropped. 'For God's sake, Andromeda, I know she doesn't always think, but this? How stupid could she have been? How bloody, bloody arrogant to do that. Oh, she beat the charm, but she couldn't've known, not absolutely, and then what would have happened? Everyone would've known. Everyone!' Andromeda felt her heart turn to ice.

'Oh my God.'

'Exactly!' Narcissa raged on. 'Everyone would have known, and I swear it's not just about me. You just can't joke about that sort of thing, a-about the Dark Arts any more, not these days. Not with ... everything happening. I don't want to seem like Potter, but you even the legal stuff is too dodgy for school. Oh, it's alright for you and Lestrange to muck about, but Croaker must know she's lucky not to be in Azkaban, and Bellatrix can't afford people thinking things like that about her. She just can't!'

'I know, but it isn't that.' Andromeda drew her hands down over her face. She fixed her gaze upon Narcissa's tear-filled eyes. 'It isn't that at all.' She took a deep breath. 'Bellatrix didn't break the charm.'

'What?'

'Bellatrix didn't break the charm. She couldn't have. I mean, she probably could, she's good at charms, but she didn't know what it was. She'd have had to hear it to know how to break it. She was asleep when we cast the spell, and it was Croaker's idea, mostly, and she put in loads of weird catches, and we'd have felt it if they'd gone. Bellatrix couldn't have got around them without knowing they were there, and she didn't know. So she told the truth.'

'She can't have,' Narcissa protested.

'But she did.' Andromeda tried to think like a Ravenclaw. 'Bella didn't lie, so she must have told the truth. It's answering the question that matters.' Narcissa's eyes were fixed on hers. 'Tonks asked two questions, but he worded it as one. And Potter meant how many people have you snogged, but you only have to answer the words. That's what the Ravenclaws worked out, and Bella too. It's the words. She asked about successfully practising Dark Magic. She didn't say she'd never done it; she said she'd never been successful.'

'So all those things Bella's done,' Narcissa said slowly, beyond incredulous now, 'That time she put Wilkes in the hospital wing, and that hippogriff at Aunt Elladora's, and when she threw Sirius into the lake, and, and me, she wasn't successful?' She shook her head.

'Apparently not,' answered Andromeda with forced levity. Narcissa gave a watery smile.

'So is thinking like that Ravenclaw or Slytherin?' she asked, the smile becoming fixed and determined. 'You're the expert, guessing Tonks.'

'Both, I think.' Andromeda shrugged. 'Remember what the Sorting Hat said, But only all together/ Can triumph in their Art.'

'Bella must want to triumph, then. I wonder what she plans to do?' But they didn't want to think about that, and Narcissa hurried on. 'Funny, I always thought she was such a Slytherin she couldn't think any other way. Gryffindor, then, well she's brave enough, though I think she and Sirius would kill each other if they had to live in the same place. I wonder what's Hufflepuff about her?'

'Definitely loyalty,' said Andromeda. 'She is a Black, after all.'