The Other Black Girl

And it's whispered that soon if we all call the tune
Then the piper will lead us to reason.
And a new day will dawn for those who stand long
And the forests will echo with laughter.

Lead Zeppelin- Stairway to Heaven

The summer of Turmoil

'Andie!' I sighed and tried to struggle on with my boxes, wishing I'd brought a house elf or at the very least an umbrella, in my haste to leave the house. Instead I seemed to have thrown myself at the mercy of the person I least wanted to meet with my hair plastered to my face and my robes drenched. But before I could protest I was steered into the nearest shop doorway and relieved of my bags.

'Wotcher Andie, what's a nice girl like you doing in a thunderstorm like this?' Tonks scrutinised me with amused brown eyes. I was surprised to see him alone for once: usually he was with at least Frank and Alice, often with an annoyingly large crowd of people for an uppity Mudblood.

'Seriously, you look a mess,' he grinned and I felt confusion and annoyance flair up inside my chest. Other boys seemed to be drawn to my beauty but Ted Tonks completely ignored it. Once in Arithmancy I had (in what I strenuously told myself was the interest of science) undone the top buttons of my robes and placed my hand on my arched back so that my breasts protruded in the way Narcissa had taught me. Tonks had just looked slightly alarmed and amused at the same time and had muttered something softly about me trying to get him cursed. I also objected to my appearance being criticised by someone wearing faded muggle jeans and a patched jumper.

'Seriously Tonks, are you stalking me or something?' I snapped and moved out of the doorway just as a crowd of people rushed past splashing muddy water over my robes. Tonks looked like he was trying very hard not to laugh and took my hand, pulling me out into the street.

'Seriously Andie you're going to catch hypothermia or something,' he said briskly, rolling his eyes and pulling me along. 'Come on!'

'Excuse me but I do not need a knight in shining armour, least of all you!' I snapped pulling away from him just as an ominous bolt of lighting crackled behind me.

'Bloody hell! Come on Andie!' he yelled as the crowd rushed for the doorways and I hurried to keep up.

*********

It is a strange thing that looking back on the past that everything seems like it was more intense. The summers were always hotter and longer, the winters always colder and wilder. The summer before my fifth year seemed to become timeless. The very air that summer breathed turmoil. On the cafe terraces of Diagon Alley the heat bore down and the heated talk turned to politics. The headlines of the Daily Prophet glared out in large foreboding letters and we were in Grimauld Place again whilst the storm broke around us. The Office of Muggle Affairs, in reaction to the failing economy and the increase of muggle attacks were trying to force through a new "Muggle Protection Bill", splitting the Ministry of Magic and the whole wizarding world painfully in half. Everyone expected the Knights of the Wulpurgis to act; the question that seemed to hover constantly in the air was how to act.

But as Narcissa said with a sniff, 'politics were politics, men and their little amusements'. Why should they affect us?' Besides the summer of turmoil brought new spoils: as if triggered by the tension in the air the world seemed to have sprung into technicolour. The young and the idealistic were writing articles, forming political parties, holding forth in the streets. In the heat people started shortening their robes like Muggles, causing the more conservative sections of the press to become apocalyptic in their predictions of the beginning of the end. The first wizarding bands were appearing: the Hobgoblins made girls scream and Sirius lock himself in his room with a saucepan and our wands in an attempt to mimic lead singer Stubby Boarman. Although we were still Beatles girls at heart we relished the new found freedom.

Roldolphus stands at the end of the drive and aims pebbles at our window causing a laughing Bella to throw her head out of the window and call mockingly, 'Romeo! Oh Romeo!' and then shin down the drainpipe and unlock the front door for him by breaking though the family wards. We go to The Coven, the wizarding nightclub that has opened a few months before and is the new playground of the rich and young, we are regular attendees despite being under age. The boys sneak us in with their arms around ours and besides we looked older with our dark eye makeup. My dress is short and red silk with a stiff black net petticoat that fans out when I dance. The nights' blur into one as we dance, laugh, smoke, drink and kiss, although only Bella does the last three, ending up in a million corners with a million different boys, narrowly escaping being snapped by the Quibbler in a million undignified positions. She almost seems hungry in her frantic kisses- although for what? Narcissa tuts and holds her while she throws up. Roldolphus laughs, Bella is just a beautiful plaything to him to be picked up at will. When Sirius hears about it he becomes uncharacteristically sullen. We get home and fall into bed, barely sleep, wake up and go downstairs to make niceties with our parents' friends. Pour the tea and lurk in the shadows as Narcissa, who is after all poised to be the most celebrated debutante come winter, is sized up. And then the talk turns to politics and we are sent away, barricading ourselves in the old nursery. I lie on the bed and watch as Narcissa teaches Reggie how to dance, waltzing slowly to the jaunty sounds of 'Twist and Shout'. Bella lies on the bed and reads Dark Arts books, marking her favourite spells with crimson rose petals as she does high kicks. Uncle Alphard sent an atlas and Sirius calls out names every now and again as he pores over it.... 'Transylvania?'

Bella counts the money in the jewellery box. 'Too cold'.

'Burma'

'Too expensive.'

'Uncle Alphard says they have people with necks like giraffes.... can't you pawn something?'

'And live off the family?' Bella snorts with a shudder. 'I might as well be married.'

And so the summer days pass like a dream.

Bella was restless that summer, fourteen years old, dark and beautiful and turning heads wherever she went. I felt it as she lay sleeping beside me and saw it her eyes as she danced. When the boys' talk turned invariably to what they would like to do with the "Muggle Protection League" she, unlike Narcissa who would shudder and crinkle up her nose ('Oh Lucius, don't be disgusting!') would join in, laughing and pulling her dark hair around her.

I think she would have almost been happier if we had been more likely to get caught on our nightly jaunts, Bella always liked the stakes to be high, but our parents were far too preoccupied. Father, who barely noticed us anyway, was rarely home and when he and Uncle Orion did show up for mealtimes the dinner table became a ranting ground. It seemed like half our parents' dinner companions' names had become obscenities to be spat with venom over the fine china. Even after resorting to scanning the Daily Prophet we could not work out how Barty Crouch, a ministry official and an old dancing partner of Mother's had incurred Father's wrath.

**********

'He would be quite dashing if he wasn't the most boring man in the world.'

It was the last week of the summer and the heavens had finally opened, drenching the parched earth and cascading off the windows. We were sitting on the stairs half listening to a heated debate between Father and Uncle Rookwood. Bella's head was on my lap and she was chanting incantations from a large dusty book whilst throwing dirty looks at Sirius, who was reading his usual large pile of letters and laughing sporadically. From Reggie's expression he seemed to think the muggle paper half of them were written on was about to blow up.

'Bella dearest...manners,' said Narcissa without much conviction and a slight smile.

'What do you think he's done though?' I asked.

'Maybe he's a New Blood liberal like the Longbottoms.'

'Maybe you're a crashing bore, Reggie.' Sirius rolled his eyes. His younger brother had spent most of the summer before his first year at Hogwarts reading aloud large chunks of 'A Wizarding Genealogy' and mimicking Father. 'I'm so bloody bored!'

Bella gave a snort of laughter 'The Longbottoms aren't really New Blood,' she said and Narcissa and I exchanged a smile. Ever since Frank's Mother, after seeing Bella on too much champagne at the last New Years Eve party, had remarked loudly, 'You can tell they've been dragged up by house-elves, can't you - that one at least will come to a bad end,' Bella had not joined in with my moans about Frank. The prospect of coming to a 'bad end' delighted her.

We heard the slam of a door and the sound of footsteps along the hall. 'Quiet! Mother!' Narcissa exclaimed and we stood up to move but a snort of laughter from Bella told us that the footsteps belonged to someone else.

I recovered first, standing up and casting Bella and Sirius a quelling look 'Mr Crouch, I think Father is in the study. I'll send Kreacher to tell him you're here.' Crouch nodded brusquely, straightening an invisible crease in his robes.

'Thankyou Bellatrix, I'll wait...Ah, Black.'

'Andromeda,' I whispered.

'Crouch!' Father's voice was like barbed velvet, he barely noticed us but Uncle Augustus's glare made up for his indifference. I had never been fond of Mother's elder brother and his ill temper had intensified since Aunt Aurora had finally succumbed to her illness, even driving Evie to finally marry, choosing to enter the bonds with the mediocre Marcus Parkinson. He had become a fixture in the house, leaving a trail of ill will that sunk into the panelled walls like dry rot and occupying father for hours in the study.

'Well let's not discuss this in front of the children gentlemen,' he said venomously, 'Shall we go in?'

'Yes.' Crouch turned to the small sandy haired boy I recognised instantly as his son 'Barty stay here and...,' he glanced distastefully at Sirius and Bella who were whispering ominously, before sweeping into the study '...don't touch anything.'

Of course behind us in the study history was being made, perhaps if I had known I would have paid more attention. But then I am no historian, and this is a muddled, biased partial history. As it was, the moment Crouch disappeared, Bella, after a nod from Sirius, slipped like a flash to the door, pressing her ear against the mahogany and shushing us violently in an attempt to catch the conversation.

Barty Crouch junior looked horrified. 'Father says we aren't to eavesdrop,' he squeaked practically toppling over and causing Sirius to look at Regulus with a hint of appreciation in his eyes. He was a small, nervy blond little boy whose only resemblance to his Father seemed to be the identical look of disgust he evoked on Bella's dark features.

'Dear Merlin!' she exclaimed scathingly, retracting slightly from the door, 'You don't do everything Daddy says, do you?' Sirius laughed appreciatively, his boredom apparently gone. Bella looked satisfied, she may have rolled her eyes in disgust at Sirius and his Gryffindor friends, and have bickered and teased him constantly all summer, yet she would still do almost anything for his entertainment.

'No!' Barty protested a little too weakly.

'I bet you do, I bet you're daddies ickle wickle darling!' she crowed flicking her hair in delight and licking her lips like a lioness fixing on her prey. 'Oh damn this house, I can barely hear a thing!'

'Eavesdropping Bella?' A smooth cool voice echoed through the entrance hall sending an icy chill through the warm air.

'Lord Voldemort!' Narcissa stood up and extended her hand, her voice only betraying a flicker of sarcasm on the 'Lord'. 'What a pleasant surprise, Bella go and find Kreacher and.....'

'Find him yourself Cis, I want to hear this.' Bella lent into the door and screwed up her forehead slightly in concentration. Voldemort glanced over to Sirius who was opening a parcel of Dungbombs, which I hoped wouldn't find their way to the Slytherin common room in the coming term, and took one.

Slowly and precisely he rolled it to the door where it catapulted off, narrowly missing Crouch junior. Bella broke away from the door and stared at him in amazement. Sirius's expression turned from one of detain to admiration.

'It's imperturbed. How did you...?' he said.

'Very good Sirius. A little known trick I picked up on my travels.' Voldemort smiled. He was handsome under his dark hood, wearing the shadow like a mask. If he really was from the Marvolo line he must have been older than he looked but his pale skin and shadowy features had a timeless quality. If I had not known better I would have said he was almost inhuman, but that was...impossible?

Bella inexplicably glared at Sirius. 'That's all very well but we still don't know what's going on in there.' She sat down on the step.

Voldemort gave the smallest of smiles and said. 'Its quite simple Bella.' He sat down next to her so that his robes brushed against hers slightly, yet she didn't move away. I suddenly wondered how this.... man...could be a friend of Evan Rosier. Evan who was always laughing and entertaining. Evan who called me, 'Little Miss Beautiful.'

'Your father,' he continued, 'And certain others wish to take the Mudblood situation into their own hands and Mr Crouch, and certain others wish to negotiate with the ministry.' He talked to us like no adult had ever before and I could understand the flash in Bella's eyes, yet his casual, reasonable tone sent an irrational shiver up my spine.

'And if they continue to disagree?' Narcissa's voice was sharper than usual.

'Then it will cause a parting of the ways, a split in the knights of the Wulpurgis.' He said and her beautiful face lost the slightest bit of colour. I watched Voldemort to see his reaction but he looked unconcerned as he met my gaze.

'And the other Black girl, you're normally so full of questions?'

'A parting of the ways?' I asked with apprehension,' What will that mean?'

He looked directly at me as though he was trying to read my soul and I caught the tiniest of frowns as though he didn't like what he found, before he smiled again slightly less warmly. 'Nothing,' he said 'for you to worry your pretty little head about...ah Phillius, you have extremely perceptive children.'

'Quite,' said Father from the door of the study. Crouch swept out from behind him, his face white with anger.

'Barty.... we're leaving.' His son jumped up from where he had been listening to Voldemort with rapt attention, as though he was a criminal caught by one of his father's Aurors and scurried out behind him. Father watched them leave, his face set into a hard line.

'Well Riddle,' he barked. 'It has happened, you'd better come in.' Voldemort's expression turned suddenly grave and he stood up. Yet as he made for the door he turned back to me and smiled a completely different smile, a cool, satisfied, calculating smile. He's planned this, I thought and immediately cast the thought out of my mind as ridiculous. Yet suddenly an urge to run overcame me, to get away, to get out of the house.

'Did you see that thing he did with the dungbomb?' Sirius exclaimed.

'Yes, he's very charming for a halfblood,' Narcissa said dismissively and a little coolly.

'Rodolphus thinks he's marvellous.' Bella put her arms around her legs, her eyes unreadable.

'Yes,' Narcissa frowned. 'So does Lucius. Meda where are you going?'

'To buy school supplies,' I said throwing on my cloak.

'Don't be silly, look at it out there! We'll send an elf tomorrow.'

'I'll be fine, I think I need some fresh air,' I said as I made for the doorway.

'A parting of the ways,' I heard Sirius say as I walked down the hallway. 'I wonder what that means.'

'Well it can hardly affect us, can it?' Narcissa's voice was swept away on the wind as I closed the door.

*********************************************

So an hour later, sitting in a booth at Florian Fortesque and shivering over a cup of hot coffee, I was too cold to care if I was having to spend time out of school with Ted Tonks of all people.

'So Andie....'

'For your information Tonks I have no desire to have a conversation with you. I am only here because I don't want my mascara to run. So I'd appreciate it if we just sat in silence until it stopped raining. And don't call me Andie.'

'Drommie?' he asked with a surreptitious grin.

'No,' I said

'Meaddie? Meda Moo?'

'No,' I said smiling slightly, 'All those nicknames are extremely immature and derogatory.'

'So is Mublood,' he said with a raised eyebrow.

'I don't call you that anymore,' I said quietly.

'Yeah! Why is that?'

'If you must know, it's because of Sirius, he glares at me every time I say it, he's...'

'Sweet on Lily? He's an incredibly... subtle guy, your cousin. I think the whole school must know.'

Bella had been teasing Sirius about his 'little bitty Mudblood girlfriend' all summer. He had received a beating from Father, who had decided it was time to rectify the behaviour of the heir to the Black lineage, for putting a bat bogey hex on Bella, which of course had caught her by surprise. Later, she, to no ones surprise but her own, unlocked the door of the attic where he had been locked and appeared later red cheeked, her robes crumpled. For Bella there was no middle ground, the world was split into those she loved passionately (Me, Narcissa, Rodolphus) and those she detested with a vengeance (Mother, Aunt Eugenia, Dorcas Medowes, most of the Hogwarts staff). Sirius was always the exception to every rule, she adored him with every fibre of her body and loathed him with equal zeal, usually at the same time. It was no wonder these feelings often turned physical.

'Well he better get her out of his system soon.'

'Why? Wait let me guess, she's not good enough for his oh so pure blood?'

'Not really, I don't think they care who we play around with as long as it stays as playing around. But Sirius isn't just the most popular boy in his year; he's the heir to the family fortune. I have nothing against Evans but she's hardly marriage material.'

'You're an incredibly romantic person aren't you?'

'I'm just telling the truth, that's what the rules are.'

'And you think Sirius will stick to the rules?'

I smiled 'You know what he's like, he's going to be hell next year now he knows I'm a prefect, you are too aren't you?' I said and suddenly remembered the conversation I had had with Father.

*************

Father had called me to the library mid-way through the holidays to give me the news.

'So' he said venomously, after he had handed me my badge and the accompanying lecture. 'Your muggle-loving fool of a head master has certainly out-done himself this year. I've never seen such a mongrel ridden batch of prefects.' From the crash of the umbrella stand outside I was pretty sure Bella had just run downstairs to eavesdrop.

'Haven't you Father?' I said quietly wondering how long this was going to take. Upstairs I had been deeply engrossed in 'Advanced Arithmancy' and I was keen to get back to it. He ignored me, ploughing on with the list in his hand.

'Nott- well that's something. Longbottoms are dratted meddlers but at least their pureblood, the De Winters are a fine family- not of our class of course. Prewitt?' he spat.

'Gideon,' I said. 'He's a Gryffindor, he plays Quidditch.' As I was feeling charitable I decided not to mention he had an obvious crush on me. Father's temper did not need to be further inflamed.

'He's a half-blood. Weasley- do that vulgar family do nothing but breed? And who by Merlin is this Tonks!' he shouted.

'He's Muggle-born,' I sighed deciding that it was futile to offer up any information.

'Yes I'm aware of that, girl' Father said in a low dangerous voice. 'I have been attempting to persuade the board of governors to reverse the decision since they sent me the list. Yet it seems that Dumbledore himself has an express wish to see the boy made a prefect.'

'Father, he's just a Mudblood- hardly worth the family's time.' However much Tonks may have annoyed me I was almost certain he didn't deserve the family wrath wreaked down on his unsuspecting brown curly head. Besides, I told myself, I needed someone to compete with.

'All the same girl, I expect you to keep an eye on this.... boy.' I wondered for a moment if he had forgotten my name.

***************

'Are your parents pleased?' I asked the boy I was supposed to be keeping an eye on, deciding not to give him the satisfaction of knowing how much he'd annoyed the family, least of all tell him Sirius's lurid interpretation of 'keeping an eye on'. The others, having heard the whole conversation from Bella, had been delighted at my being made a prefect and had ambushed me for an impromptu party the moment I had returned upstairs. As we cracked open the butter beers and Bella and Sirius both got so drunk on fire whisky that she could walk in a straight line for once, Sirius had remarked jokingly that I might start vying for his position as 'disgrace to the noble and ancient name of Black.' No one in the family had been a prefect since the school had stopped accepting bribes since Dumbledore had become headmaster.

Tonks shrugged, 'I'm not sure they really understand the system. I suppose yours are delighted?'

'Of course,' I said a little too quickly. In fact I had no idea how what they felt, if anything, but I wasn't about to get accused of being a 'poor little rich girl' by Tonks, who most likely had some large, annoying jaunty cockney family who all had extremely attractive smiles and the ability to make people laugh inexplicably. 'No woman's been one since Aunt Nymphadora in 18....'

Tonks dropped his coffee cup with a clatter. 'Sorry Aunt who?' he said 'because I could have sworn you just said Nymphadora was a name.'

'It is, it's been in the family for years. Oh for Merlin sakes it's not even remotely funny.'

'No..... no,' Tonks said between laughs. 'It's really deadly serious because somewhere there are actually parents who would impose that on a small 'elpless child.'

'Yes...mine. It's Bella's middle name.'

'Wow, I have new found respect for your sister.' Tonks stopped laughing, 'are you sure they didn't call her it for comical value?'

'You've obviously never met my parents,' I said with a wry smile.

'Your Father's the Black that's in the papers, right?'

'I expect so, I try to avoid politics,' I said darkly.

Tonks stopped grinning, 'Oh yeah, our wonderfully incorrupt political system. Tell me what that Voldemort nutter is on about now?' Suddenly the lightness I had been feeling since I left the house evaporated.

'Since when have you taken an interest in wizarding politics?' I asked, keeping my voice impassionate.

'Since wizarding politics started taking an interest in me. You've heard what he's said about muggle-borns 'aven't you?' he looked uncharacteristically serious.

I searched around my mind and came up with a few vague comments.' Yes he's mentioned it a few times, but it's hardly a big thing is it?'

'It's easy for you to say that, I suppose you think he's wonderful.'

'No Tonks!' I snapped angrily slamming down my cup of coffee, 'I don't think he's at all wonderful. For Merlin's sake if you can't say anything nice then restrict your remarks to the weather!'

'I just assumed...' he trailed off, his voice shaking.

'Well, you assumed wrong' I snapped.

'Well, it's stopped raining and...I'm sorry. Especially since we were having a relatively civil conversation before that.'

'Unfortunately,' I said coolly 'Although luckily that doesn't mean we are obliged to become friends'

'Well, thank God for that. So we're definitely not friends?' he said as we left the cafe.

'No.'

'Just Arithmancy partners'

'Yes'

'Righto. So I'll see you at school, Andro.'

'Andro,' I bit my lip and put on my most annoyed expression,' Sounds like a brand of toilet cleaner.'

'It's not as bad as Nymphadora, which sounds like some kind of sexual disease. Bye Andie!' he said with another snort of laughter, before going into the opposite direction. I stood for a moment, watching the rainbows formed in the puddles before shouting.

'Andromeda!'

What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet. Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet