THE FURIES ▸ Draco Malfoy

Chapter One: CHAOS

"Andromeda."

Her name fell off her cousin's lips with such effort that she was forced to turn her head. Theodore Nott looked worse off than she remembered him on the last day of school. Wearing his expensive dress robes and fixing his hair didn't change the dark circles under his eyes. Standing straight didn't cover his sullen attitude no matter how hard he tried. After a few moments, his face became blurry, and she had a hard time seeing him stepping forward through her impaired vision. She almost believed she would resist the urge to blink away the weight on her eyelashes, but the second that she felt arms wrap themselves around her, bringing her forward, she let the panic set in. Theodore didn't say anything as she gripped tightly onto his black clothing, ignoring the growing sting from his heart that grew by the second. He parted his lips, trying to figure out what to say to calm her down before they were forced downstairs.

"Mia...Mia, you need to calm down. There are people downstairs that will dig into your wounds without hesitation, and you're going to feel everything from rage to grief when they do, but don't let them think that you're weak. Let them think you are cold. Let them think you have no love. Let them think that you have no heart to bleed for your father, but don't give them the satisfaction of seeing you fall apart. They deserve nothing from you. They definitely don't deserve to have your strength."

"I can't be in a room with them, Theodore," she dismissed sharply, lifting her head just so she could shake it to solidify her claim. She didn't need to go into any further explanation of who 'them' was, nor that they were downstairs for a purpose greater than grieving over a friend. "You know what he will ask me to do in my father's place. They've already begun speaking to the Malfoy's. You know how much judgement those at the Ministry have towards his name for being there that night. Mother saying he was under the Imperius Curse isn't going to protect us forever, no matter what they choose to believe. It might not be spoken aloud, but it will still exist. Even in his death, he is one of them. That mark cannot be erased by something so simple as Sirius Black's wand or Fudge's declaration of innocence!"

Andromeda knew that she was not going to be protected by the Order of the Phoenix or the Ministry of Magic, despite what they saw her father do in his last moments. That was a death sentence within its own to test the limits the Dark Lord had to wavering loyalty. If he found out she sided with the Order instead of him, her mother and Theodore would be dead in seconds. The statements that the Order gave of her father's small act of heroism might have been enough for the Ministry to believe he was under the Imperius Curse for so many years, but it wasn't enough to change the image people had of her family. 

It, especially, would not change that a follower the Dark Lord thought so highly of had deceived him. Because of her father's mistake, she knew that she was the one who would have to pay the price. Even at sixteen, she understood very well how the hidden hierarchy worked. They were coming for her, and it was only a matter of time before she was sitting in a meeting in preparation to become everything Alastiare Erebus died defying.

"Listen to me," Theo urged, grabbing a hold of her face to stop her panicking before the whole manor heard their conversation and retaliated. "You are not your father's actions. Those that love you know this. You will never be your father, no matter what the Dark Lord tries to get you to do in place of his death. You told me once before that we aren't defined by who they are, but what we choose to be ourselves. Give them loyalty if that is what they want. Give them every bit of that hatred you feel right now. Bloody hell, Mia, give them nothing. As long as you stay alive long enough to see seventy more years."

Andromeda looked at her cousin to see that his blue eyes were set to steel, liquefying the world whole with a resilience for her to stay alive that screamed that of a Slytherin.  After so long of looking at her own, it was reassuring to see the expression on someone else. Her breathing slowly calmed down as she took careful steps out of his grasp, hands reaching up to wipe away the streaks on her newly pale complexion. It was a long second before she spoke again, his previous words still pressing hard on her skull.