It was now evening and the young woman with short brown hair was sitting on the porch of her new house in San Antonio, no more England, the cigarette smoke covered her entire view of the garden but she was fine with that, she preferred to be in nothingness, in peace, while her head was exploding.
The anger was affecting her magic, her magical aura was spreading, making all the creatures nearby move away, her gray eyes were tired, but at the same time icy and cold.
It was midnight and Ted had just returned from his job in the ministry as an accountant. He entered the house to find Andromeda sitting in the armchair in the living room with a cup of coffee in her hand.
"Why are you still awake? Go on, I'll join you, I have to take a shower."
he said placing his jacket on the hanger while she delicately put down the cup on the small glass table.
"Why? Do you have to remove the fingerprints of the women you frequent during your 'working hours'? she asked him, standing up and looking at his face with anger and coldness, she had already cried enough, it was time for her to come forward.
Ted's eyes widened and he looked at his wife.
"How can you think of such a thing, I break my back from morning to night and when I come home I find my wife accusing me of dating other women!" he pointed his finger at her.
"Maybe because it's true? are you seriously telling me that your job as an accountant ends at one in the morning and when you come home you don't even want to eat, you always take a shower, and don't tell me you sweat sitting in front of a desk?"
L
"Are you crazy? We have a daughter Andy, a damn family, let's not cause trouble!" he said walking away from her.
"Then you admit it!, this story has been going on for years, I've tried to justify you, but not since a letter arrived at home in the morning from a certain little witch who said the time and place of one of your appointments!"
She yelled at him as she threw the rolled-up piece of paper with the red kiss mold on it at him.
She felt her heart shatter into a thousand pieces, she had left everything for him, she had sacrificed everything, and when she meant everything, everything!
Ted immediately picked it up off the ground and opened it as if he didn't know what he was talking about.
"Listen, love, I don't know her and nothing has ever happened, you have to believe me, and even if this date had happened you hadn't even come to look for me to prevent the thing-" he didn't finish the sentence before she slapped him on the face, was he really serious?
"I don't have to come to anyone, I'm not a puppy, I'm not one of your mistresses who come to you and beg to sleep with you, you know how much I sacrificed for you!" he shouted at him unaware that she had woken up her daughter who was sleeping upstairs.
He suddenly grabbed her elbow.
"You didn't sacrifice anything, I saved you from those people, even if you had worked you wouldn't have contributed anything and I certainly don't satisfy you, you don't even want to use the money you got from your previous family, oh yes, you want to use that only and explicitly for Nymphadora!
The little girl with now almost blue hair looked out the door of her room to hear better.
“Don't scream, let go of me and what are you talking about?”
She freed herself from his grip which had left red marks.
"You only care about yourself that's what I'm talking about, you were so desperate to get away from them that you didn't consider who you were leaving with, I could never give you the luxurious life you had, you no longer have your dear cousins and friends with you, you also miss the people you ran away from!"
“That's not true, if I missed them I would never have left in the first place.” She said shaking his head and blinking back tears.
Ted let out a hysterical laugh, which further attracted his daughter's attention and led her to slowly open the door and carefully walk down the stairs to find herself behind the living room wall and see the two parents arguing.
"It's useless, it's impossible to argue with, you even gave Ninfa the name of your crazy sister!"
he said, poking her shoulder with his index finger.
She wobbled, not because she had put in the effort, but because she didn't expect him to continue putting his hands on her, tears came to her eyes, all the love she had given him was for nothing.
"Look at you, you're acting paranoid, first the money, then the lovers, and then what the divorce! admit it you're going crazy like the rest of your fucking family."
Andromeda raised her head and with all the strength she possessed in her vocal cords, now strangled by the desire to cry, exclaimed: "Yes"
"What did you say?" Ted asked her, astonished rubbing his brown hair.
"Let's end it here, let's get divorced," she said decidedly.
Andromeda didn't have time to turn around before Ted gave her a far harder slap than hers and knocked her onto the couch behind her.
"Mom!" Nymphadora shouted as she emerged from hiding, her hair now a shade between red and dark blue.
"How dare you?!" the woman shouted Witch tears in her eyes at him, after immediately getting up and dragging her daughter behind her, she was used to receiving slaps when she was still in her school years and always returned home..... but not her husband.
He tried to reach for his wand in his jeans, but she beat him on time by snatching it from his hands and launching an Expelliarmus.
She used the time to leave the house with her daughter behind her and half her face red.
Andromeda loved her daughter, her long dark brown hair that always changed color, her large dark gray eyes full of joy, and her visible cheekbones.
That was Andromeda's source of joy, at first she had given up everything for him, but now she lived only for her, every day, every hour, and every minute was dedicated only to her sweet and splendid daughter.
Yes, it's true, she was desperate to escape from that place, from that family, if that's how it could be defined.
But she loved Ted, every time she got hurt he was there for her and made her happy, but over time he changed, she tried to cheer him up from that society full of prejudices, but she never expected that he would be against her and their daughter.
She had left England a week ago and had used part of the money from the Black estate to buy the house, Nymphadora was immersed in her book on magical animals in the living room in front of the fireplace, the house had a rustic feel.
She had filled out the divorce certificate and sent it via owl to Ted's house, with some extra money to convince him.
Sometimes she wondered if the affection he had shown towards Nymphadora had been real or if he was just pretending, her husband was distant with her, she was too much like her family, she was a mix between her older sister and her father, only to think about it made her laugh and at the same time tramble.
She had inherited her grandfather Cygnus's dark gray eyes, the same shape of the face and facial expression, when her daughter didn't speak, smile, or laugh she tended to have a serious expression all the time and when a stranger or someone she didn't know approached her even with good intentions she remained detached and assumed a detached composure.
As for her older sister, she has the same high cheekbones, the same almond-shaped eyes, and the same sparkling vivacity.
And she was starting to develop a certain taste for style, like Narcissa and her mother.
Andromeda shook her head down as she stood up and finished her cigarette with quick, deep breaths.
Was that right?
To think like that, of the family that had mistreated her, abandoned her, and dishonored her by the family, she was no longer a Black, but that didn't mean they had taken away her magic entirely, she was still a witch with her magic and a vast knowledge of spells, it took her some time to get used to, but she did it.
But Nymphadora?
Was her magic part of the Black family?
Well, yes, truly a strange case but Andromeda didn't give a damn, she had been dishonored, and consequently her daughter is not part of that family, she was a child prodigy full of potential and tenderness in her eyes, she had the gift of metamorphosis and she worked hard to hold back her emotions in public, a cause for which she appeared cold, and she was a half-breed, this was proof that the blood contributed nothing, she was the daughter of that ingrate and a dishonorable woman, but she had everything that pureblood parents would want for their children.
They had kicked her out of the house at the age of nineteen, without any remorse, that's what she could see in their eyes, in the eyes of all of them, they were disgusted, repelled by her.
Every time her family, her entire family had given her a smile, a sweet phrase, or even a gesture of comfort, it was just a lie, her entire childhood was a lie, a whole scene of puppets.
Even at nineteen when she became pregnant with her daughter, Ted's mother rarely showed up to help her, perhaps because she was not a Christian or because she came from one of the most powerful 'enemy' families, Edward was excited but continually busy integrating into his work of the magical world.
In the beginning, she didn't know how to behave, she wasn't ready, and she had to study many books on motherhood even if only later did she understand that theory and practice were two truly different things, she had a mother, now in the past, but she wasn't exactly the most affectionate person in the world even if she happened to express some affection.
She wished that at least her husband had been there at the moment of her birth, but she found herself in a small and cold blue room in the basement of the hospital giving birth to her daughter, assisted only by two male doctors who shouted at her to push and injected painkillers and constantly spreading her legs, stretching her muscles excessively, adding also that they were wizards, not muggles, but she didn't open mouth so as not to create any scene and spread the rumor about the birth of her daughter to keep her safe.
Thus giving birth anonymously and paying the doctors a fortune to keep quiet and on top of that an oath, once all the pain was over, she fainted from the exhaustion and when she woke up the room was empty and her daughter was on her aching belly wrapped in a cloth full of blood as she continued to cry, she had no idea how she got home.
The truth is that deep down she would have preferred to give birth in the company of the women of her family, as much as she hated most of them, her mother who wiped the sweat from her forehead, her sisters who comforted her and held her hand, the sweet aunt Lucretia who checked the baby's condition and her cold aunt Walburga who changed the blood-soaked sheets and gave instructions.
To then pass her daughter into her father's arms, only to see his expression soften at the sight of his grandaughter and then hand her into the arms of each of her uncles and cousins, she was just hoping for a family...
It happened that when she was very little she tried to comfort her mother after a fight with Cygnus, she found her bent over with her hands on her face on her big chair in the study, she gave her light pats on the back, knowing that if she made too much contact her mother would have chased her away believing that the little girl felt pity.
When her mother was left without energy to stay awake and fell asleep she would take a blanket and cover her up and then turn off the light in her father's study who had also fallen asleep on the sofa, at the end, she went to sleep in the embrace of her sisters.
Sometimes she wondered if they thought about her, how she was doing, if she had started a family and where she lived, even if she was alive after having practically stripped away half of her magical energy in the middle of a war and in the first weeks of pregnancies, of which she was unaware.
She wiped away the tears that rolled down her cheeks, red from the effort not to scream, and she wobbled as she took her first steps into the house, her hands empty and her eyes surrounded by red veins, while she was turning the doorknob she felt a shocking pain in her head that made her wobble all the way home, it was like a shock that reached her heart.
"Mom...what's on your mouth?" her daughter asked her as she watched her mother enter into the living room.
"What do you mean?" the young woman put a hand on her lips, but took it away immediately after feeling an internal burning on her skin, she saw ash on her hands, and she stared at her burnt fingers and the reddish wounds with the open post-burn liquid covered by the ash.
The daughter got up from the sofa and approached, just noticing the mother's delicate, slightly burned fingers.
"What is happening?"
Andromeda glanced at her daughter and then told her.
"Stay here darling, I have to go to the bathroom, don't worry I just scratched myself while I was cutting some weeds outside, you review the book and then I'll ask you about what you studied.
Her daughter wanted to open her mouth but was already running on the stairs to the bathroom on the second floor, she violently closed the door with the key and rushed in front of the mirror, only then did she feel her throat burning, while checking her reddish and tear-filled eyes she put her burned fingers on the side of the cold sink.
But hadn't she thrown it away?
When she was finishing it she was deep in thought.
She had eaten the cigarette.