A/N: Andromeda finally learns the truth. This is the end of my five-shot. Thank you for reading.

Submission for:

Lyric Inspired Drabble Challenge II - I can't escape this now Unless you show me how.

Hogwarts Houses Challenges: The Quidditch Pitch - darkness

Hogwarts Houses Challenges: Drabble Club - bed

It is much later as she steps out of the fireplace and into the foyer. Her body is bruised and battered, and a fine trail of red droplets is left in her wake as she barely makes her way up the stairs to her bedroom.

Tonight had gone entirely different than she had anticipated. She stood among the other crowd, her head held down as she listened to the impressive man speak. Then her name was called and she stepped forward, ready to prove herself. She had expected to face off against another pledge, maybe even a tenured black-robed figure, but never against the man himself.

For what it was worth, she had held her own the longest out of all the pledges, earning a rare smile from the man just before he showcased his true power. The first spell slashed her arms, then her legs, sending her crashing to the ground with a startled cry. However, unlike the times with her father, the man did not relent just because she had fallen. He sent waves of pain through her body until her throat bled, before he suddenly stopped.

She takes a shuddering breath as tears drip down her chin and soak her pillow. She had been adequate. Adequate! And she had been the best, earning her the mark on her arm and the right to keep her life. The fear-stricken faces of the other pledges were still fresh in her mind. She could have been one of them, but instead she was adequate.

There is a gasp from behind her and she rolls over, barely making out the small figure standing in her bedroom doorway.

"I- You-" her sister begins, trying to find the words to say as she steps into the room. "Bella, I-"

"Go!" she screams, holding out one hand while hiding her face with the other. "Don't look at me!"

Her sister ignores her as she takes a seat on the bed, her hands running over the open wounds on her arms and legs, and tracing the fainter ones beneath. Then she stops over the hideous mark on her forearm, her skin red around the inky snake and skull.

"I can't believe you let them do this to you," her sister says, her voice but a whisper in the darkness.

She snatches her hands back, wincing a bit from the pain as she turns away. "You wouldn't understand, Andromeda. I didn't have a choice."

"Then make me understand," her sister says, her tone urgent and pleading. "We always have a choice, no matter what. All these years... You could have stopped at any time."

"No, I couldn't!" she cries out.

"And why not?" her sister asks.

"Because if it wasn't me, it would have been you!"

Her last outburst hangs in the air between them, threatening to suffocate them with the truth.

It takes a few moments before he sister speaks again. "You- you don't know that. You-"

"I did this to protect you, you and Cissy," she interrupts. "I chose to walk down this path so that you wouldn't have to. I chose to accept the darkness as my own, to keep you away, to keep you pure." Then she holds up her arm, the black ink shining in dim light slipping through her curtains. "And now there's no escape," she adds softly.

There is another pause before her sister reaches out, placing her hand over her forearm and hiding the mark from view. "We always have a choice, no matter what," she repeats. "I know our family isn't as perfect as we appear. I've been thinking about this for a while, a means of escape. You could come with me, you and Cissy."

She eyes her sister in the dark. The idea was far-fetched, ludicrous actually. There was no escape from the man once he had you in his clutches. But, for tonight, she wants to hope. She wants to believe in a world where such choices weren't necessary. She wants the relationship she had with her sister back.

She takes her sister's other hand and gives her a small smile. "Show me how."