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Standing before the intricately carved double doors of Cygnus Black’s study, Andromeda couldn’t help but wonder how many of her forebears had stood in this same place. How many had come to their fathers with news they knew they wouldn’t want to hear?
How many came with a bag ready packed to leave?
It wasn’t her first time standing before these doors. She had been called here on the first days of holidays after fifth year, to explain her first, and only, detention, received when she and her dorm mates had snuck down to the lake after their last OWL exam with a couple of bottles of French elf-made wine that Ophelia Greengrass had snuck from her parents’ cellar. Andromeda had stood in the same spot before she insisted to her father that she didn’t want to marry straight from school, that instead she wanted to continue her education.
The memories weren’t all bad. She could remember excitedly waiting outside these doors on her fifteenth birthday for her father to take her to the family vault to choose her first piece of jewellery. The same bracelet that she had left on the vanity in her bedroom. It was a Black family heirloom, lent, not gifted, intended to be passed down.
She highly doubted her father would let her take it with her now.
One deep breath, then another, and she knocked firmly on the door before her.
The doors opened smoothly for her without a single creak.
Andromeda stepped into the study. It was Cygnus Black’s domain, filled with dark wood and emerald green furnishings. Andromeda doubted that the room had changed at all over the generations of Blacks that had sat at that desk.
The doors closed firmly behind Andromeda. Cygnus glanced at her quickly before returning his attention to the papers before him.
“What is it?” he asked gruffly.
This had been their relationship ever since he had found out about her activities. Where previously Andromeda had always been welcome in her father’s study, to quietly read or do her own work, now she was dismissed as swiftly as possible.
“I need to speak with you, Papa.”
“Can it wait? I’m busy.”
Andromeda moved to hold her carpet bag in front of her. It held all the possessions she intended to take with her, everything that could be considered hers alone, and not property of the Black family.
The movement caught Cygnus’s attention, and he finally laid down his quill. Silence fell between them as he waited for her to continue.
Andromeda swallowed around the lump in her throat, and she stepped forward to place a ring box on her father’s desk. “I cannot marry Yaxley.”
A dark cloud crossed her father’s face. “We had a deal, Andromeda,” said Cygnus, in a low voice.
“We did,” she agreed, relieved that her voice was level and clear. “We agreed that if I did not find someone to marry before the end of my fellowship, that you would choose my husband.”
“And I have chosen Yaxley.”
“And my fellowship does not end for another month.” Andromeda took a breath, her knuckles turning white from the tight hold she had on her carpet bag. “There is someone else who I wish to marry.”
A heavy silence fell again, Cygnus’s calculating gaze pinned Andromeda to the spot, she didn’t dare speak again. His eyes dropped to the bag in her hand, and she knew that he understood.
“Am I to assume this is the man you have been whoring yourself out to all these months?”
Andromeda’s nails dug into her palms as she worked not to react to his words. “His name is Ted Tonks. He’s–”
“The mudblood,” Cygnus scoffed, reaching into his desk he pulled out a pile of parchment, each with a photo attached. On the top was a picture of Nora, Andromeda’s friend and closest colleague. “Did you really think I wouldn’t look into exactly who my daughter was spending her time with?”
He flicked through the pages, eventually finding the one with a picture of Ted attached to it, and threw it to land in front of her. “Muggle-born born to a single mother, dirt poor. This is the man you will throw Yaxley over for?”
Andromeda lifted the parchment from the desk, her fingers tracing his face fondly. She looked back to her father.
“I love him.”
Her words were soft but clear, and they caused Cygnus’s face to turn red as he slammed his hands to the desk, making Andromeda jump.
“This will not happen!” he shouted, the sound echoing through the room.
Tears sprang to Andromeda’s eyes but she refused to let them fall. “It’s too late, Papa.”
“You’ve written to Yaxley already.” Cygnus assumed as he stood, shaking his head in disappointment as he began to pace. “We can rescind it. Tell him it is the usual pre-wedding nerves–”
“I’m carrying his child.”
Andromeda couldn’t remember a single time in her life when her father had been stunned into silence. Not once had he been anything other than the man in control, the man who ruled every room he entered. For the first time in his life, he had no more control over her.
Andromeda’s soft pronouncement halted his pacing, but he didn’t turn to her. The sound of the ticking clock filled the room, each second agonisingly slow. His voice was low but clear in the quiet room.
“Get out.”
“Papa–”
“YOU ARE NOT MY DAUGHTER!” he roared, his face filled with fury when he finally turned to her. Andromeda’s tears began to fall silently, but she nodded firmly. She had known this was the most likely outcome, it was why she held her dearest possessions in her carpet bag. Resigned to her fate, but still with her head high, she turned to leave.
“You are a disgrace,” he spat at her back, and her steps faltered. “I no longer recognise you. I will not recognise the bastard child in your womb.”
Rage and disappointment filled Andromeda as she turned to face him once more, but she forced herself to keep her voice level. “I hope that one day you will be able to see past your prejudices and realise that there are more important things than blood.”
Cygnus sneered at her, an ugly look that had never before been directed her way. “Get out of my sight.”
She swept from the room and found her mother and Narcissa waiting outside, no doubt drawn by Cygnus’s outburst. Her mother stayed silent, her knowing look to Andromeda’s stomach confirming that she suspected the reason for the argument.
Narcissa’s forehead was furrowed as she stepped towards Andromeda.
“What’s happened?”
But Andromeda ignored her question. Her father’s glare at her back kept her moving. Towards the front door of the house she had grown up in. Towards Ted.
Narcissa grabbed at her arm but it didn’t stop her. “Andromeda, what’s going on?”
“The girl has disgraced herself. She is no longer welcome here.”
Andromeda felt Narcissa’s shock, but she kept her head high, refusing to be cowed by the spite and anger in her father’s voice. Her sister stayed at her side, down the stairs and to the entryway, despite their mother’s insistence that she come away. “Please Annie, tell me what’s happened.”
The door opened before her, no doubt at her father’s will, but Andromeda finally paused, turning to her younger sister, affection flooding through her as she kissed her cheek.
“You know what is right, Cissy. Don’t let them tell you otherwise.”
She glanced towards her parents, watching her from the top of the stairs, a vision of the perfect, pureblood marriage. The kind of marriage that Andromeda would never have. Her life would be very different now from the one she had grown up with. But she knew for certain that her marriage to Ted would be filled with love she would never know if she followed the path her father set for her.
With that one final look, Andromeda Black turned and left the only home she had known.
Her future was waiting for her.