When She Spoke (Marauders Era)

Chapter Sixteen

"Um...hello, I guess," wasn't exactly how Andromeda had planned to enter her grand speech, but the words she had intricately organized and charted simply slipped away, leaving her to fumble with the dumpster of a vocabulary she had assembled over the years. "I'm Andromeda."

The room was silent, only peppered by the constant creaking of old wood and screech of wind on rusty nails...maybe that was why they called it the Shrieking Shack. Chilling wind weakened her bones, causing her to shiver abruptly, skin tingling with the Winter breeze and spine crawling. Ten pairs of eyes followed the small girl's every movement, watching as her tiny figure threatened to cave in, collapsing with the weight of unspoken words.

Andromeda had tried to be confident. She had looked in the mirror, told herself she could do this. She had then squeezed her eyes shut, envisioning it all play out. For the first time in forever, she had stared at her reflection without the urge to vigorously brush out her unsteady mud-brown waves, pinch her cheeks to make them rosy or even strike a pose. She only gazed at the mirror and thought, 'This is it.' ...And it was. But right then, as Lark Riddle offered her a reassuring smile, she forgot all the deep breaths, hopeful gazes to the sky and careless waves of the past. It was all done, all over, and she was determined to go out with a bang.

"So, a while back, I swore to my parents I would write them every week," said Andromeda, smiling ever so slightly, unsure if her composure was even real. "I also promised that I would apply makeup everyday, use my manners, and be careful who I make friends with," she shot a nervous glance around the room, making eye contact with everybody she could. "And I meant it. Seven years later, I still put on makeup, still write my parents, and still smile at virtually everybody, no matter how awful I feel inside. I keep my promises, all the time. All the time except around two weeks ago. I had been breaking one of my promises for a while then, just refused to admit it to myself. It was two weeks ago when I finally realized exactly what I was doing. To put things bluntly, that just made me want to do it more-"

"'Dromeda," Sirius interrupted her, and Lark was taken aback by the softness of his voice, how he was tender with the syllables of her nickname and careful with his timing. "This is nice, all of us here and such," he gestured around the room, which was full of Andromeda's classmates and friends, even James and Remus, "but the quidditch match starts in half an hour."

"Er, right," she said, laughing a little, the sort of sound that reminded Lark of the sound gears made when they were broken. "I guess what I'm trying to say is that I made friends with a muggle boy and there were repercussions." The creaking house was silent as her audience froze, all awaiting what was to come next, wide-eyed with anticipation. "Please tell me you get it," she begged them. "Don't make me say it. I don't want to say it. Not in front of all of you."

The teenagers looked to one another, each one searching for an answer that hadn't quite made its way into their sight. "Do you know what she's talking 'bout?", James questioned, scratching the back of his head. "'Cuz I don't. Can someone please-"

"Pregnant," Lark said before he could even finish. "Good Godric, you can all be so daft sometimes! She's pregnant and she's ashamed and it would be real nice if you could all just take a minute to quit your fidgeting and think."

The murmur of shoes scuffling against the aged wood once again came to a halt, quiet chatter subsiding to the flat of a scream in outer space, pointless and unheard. Nobody had ever heard Lark Riddle be quite so forward and intimidating, ready to squash whatever bug crawled under her shoe and turn at the drop of a pin. Then again, nobody had ever ever heard of a sin among the Black sisters, always regal and majestic, despite Bellatrix's constant tricks and Narcissa's dreamy absence whenever she gazed at the board in History of Magic.

"Mummy's going to be unhappy with you," Andromeda's platinum-haired little sister was the first to pipe up. "Very unhappy," she sounded out each syllable like rain dropping into a puddle, brief but well-noticed.

Sirius was the first to respond, his soft expression suddenly morphing as he turned in his seat to speak to Narcissa, lip curled and brow furrowed. "Would you shut up, Narcissa? Your sister's been impregnated by a bloke you don't even know and that's the first thing you think of? Lark's right. Quit your folded handkerchiefs and 'proper postures' and 'soup spoons'. Nobody cares, and nobody will."

The silence was different this time, roaring with tension as the lean fourteen-year-old stood, straightening her robes and offering a hand for a very ruffled Bellatrix, who looked taken aback far beyond what words could described. "Nobody really ever liked you either," she sniffed, taking a few short steps towards the door before adding, "filthy traitors," and slamming the poorly assembled wooden beams behind she and her sister.

Andromeda still stood in the front of the room, seemingly frail and weakened, even though she was most definitely not lacking in size and professionally withheld the tears that threatened to slip out of the corner of her eye. What else could she do?

"I'll fetch us some tea," a seventh year acquaintance of her's stood abruptly and followed the two sisters out of the Shrieking Shack. Though the actual "shrieking" and moaning of the worn old household could only be heard on full moons, everybody in the room could hear it now, full of sorrow and anger and plain emotion, screaming at whoever would hear. Lark could hear it in Remus' watery eyes, see it in Sirius' curled fist and feel it through his shoulder with was only just grazing hers, the clammy fingers intertwining themselves through her soft ones.

"'Dromeda," Sirius started to speak slowly, as if he was approaching a wounded animal, voice full of comfort. Before he could continue or even open his mouth to begin another sentence, Andromeda was down on her knees, crying softly. At first, she was alone, only accompanied by the eyes boring into her head, but then Lark was there, along with Sirius and Remus and James and the whole lot of them, whispers of encouragement and friendship slinking around the house like the soft rustle of pages turning in a library. The whimpering quickly escalated to a sob, and then one person turned to six, and soon there was nothing left but a series of wailing children, letting out all their pain and remorse gladly, a truckload slowly sliding off their shoulders.

To sum things up, neither Sirius nor James attended their quidditch match that evening.

________________________________

A/N: Oh, gosh...I love this one. You'll have to tell me what you think in the comments! Do you want me to stop doing the questions or do you like them? I'll stop if they're a bother :) Do you think we can reach my goal? It's a hard one ;)

How's about 20k reads and 3k votes within the next four months? Can we do that? I'll make an epilogue if we do!

XOXO,

Rose