Author's Notes: Written as a horribly late Christmas present for WeasleySeeker… I'm so sorry that I was so behind on this, and I hope that you enjoy it. Happy holidays!

)O(

Andromeda considered days when her parents went out and left her, Bellatrix and Narcissa alone to be some of the best days of her life.

Bellatrix didn't care about her comings and goings as much as her parents did, and certainly wasn't as careful about watching over her, so it was on days when Druella and Cygnus left their daughters alone that Andromeda had opportunities to sneak out and see Ted.

It was on one such day, while Andromeda was sneaking out through the kitchen – so close to the door and the freedom that she would be granted as soon as she was out of the walls of the manor – that Bellatrix called out to her.

"Where are you going?" Bellatrix asked, coming down the stairs and facing her sister. "Mother and Father wouldn't be too pleased if they saw you going out…"

Andromeda froze, turning to Bellatrix warily. "Don't tell them?"

"Why? Where are you going?"

Andromeda swallowed and touched her hair, running her fingers nervously through it. "I… nowhere important. But I have to go now."

"Are you meeting someone?" Bellatrix prompted.

"Yes."

"Who?"

"His name is Ted," Andromeda said, not looking at her sister while she prayed that Bellatrix wasn't familiar with Ted Tonks.

No such luck, of course.

"Ted?" Bellatrix asked sharply. "Ted Tonks?"

Andromeda winced. God, no, no, no!

"Yes… him…" she mumbled.

"The Mudblood?" Bellatrix demanded, and she spat out the word Mudblood with more disgust than Andromeda had ever heard from her sister in any other situation. "What are you doing with the Mudblood? Dear God, Andromeda, are you and he- romantic? If you are–"

"Why does it matter that he's a Mudblood?" Andromeda interrupted shrilly. "You don't understand, Bella – just because of who his parents are–"

"Oh, don't be stupid!" Bellatrix snapped. A flush was rising quickly on her pale cheeks. "Even if he weren't a Mudblood, you still couldn't have anything to do with him! You have a fiancé, Andromeda – what about Rabastan? What about him?"

"Oh, you're one to talk! I've seen you fawning over the Dark Lord – do you really expect anyone to believe that that's just proper, decent loyalty? Do you expect Rodolphus to believe that?"

Bellatrix let out a sharp little hiss. She hunched her shoulders up like a cat arching its back, and she narrowed her eyes at Andromeda.

"You don't know anything about me and the Dark Lord."

"I know that what you're doing with him is no more respectful of your betrothal to Rodolphus than what I do with Ted is of my betrothal to Rabastan!"

"I don't believe you!" Bellatrix raised her hand and Andromeda flinched back. For a moment, she really believed that her sister was going to hit her, but then Bellatrix lowered her hand slowly, clenching it into a fist.

"Get out," Bellatrix hissed. "And you had better hope that I don't tell anyone about this. If Mother and Father found out that you were running off to talk to your Mudblood…"

"He's not my Mudblood," Andromeda hissed, but she didn't bother to stay and argue the point. She turned on her heel and marched out, holding her head high, but she dissolved into tears almost as soon as she was out of the manor.

Sobs shook her whole body and she was barely able to drag herself out of the gardens and onto the path where Ted was waiting for her.

"Dromeda?" he asked, eyes widening at the sight of her tears. "What's the matter, darling? Are you hurt?"

"M- my sister," Andromeda sniffed. "She- she's threatening to tell- about you and me." She took a shaky breath and let it out slowly. "She doesn't want me seeing a Mudblood, and if she tells…"

Ted's eyes flickered away for a moment, and Andromeda wondered whether she had managed to anger him too, but then he pulled his handkerchief out of his pocket and daubed gently at Andromeda's cheeks. "Don't cry, Dromeda," he whispered, in what was surely meant to be a comforting voice. "It's all right. Don't worry about what they say."

And that made her angrier than anything Bellatrix had said.

"I have to!" Andromeda shoved him back, dashing her eyes on the back of her hand. "You don't understand, Ted – it's impossible not to care! They're my sisters!"

"If they were worth caring about, they would care about you as well." He tried to put her arms around her, and Andromeda stumbled back.

"We can't do this, Ted," she whispered. "I'm not going to give up my family – I can't give up my family. You don't understand!" she repeated when he opened his mouth, undoubtedly to tell her that everything was going to be all right or some other similar statement that would only betray how poorly he grasped the situation.

He couldn't even really be blamed. It wasn't his fault that he was a Mudblood. It wasn't his fault that her parents wouldn't even have let her speak with a Mudblood if they could control it. It wasn't his fault that Bellatrix found out, or that she, Andromeda, was so pathetic that she cared at all about what her sister though.

Ted stepped back, and Andromeda took a deep breath and let it out slowly. She didn't want to hurt him and she could tell by the look in his eyes that she had.

"Ted," she said quietly, breathing deeply and trying to stop the shaking in her voice, "Ted, I'm so sorry. I love you. I do. But… but they…"

"But they what, Andromeda?" he asked. He didn't meet her eyes. "But they're more important than me? The kind of people who would tell you that your feelings aren't important – that they're wrong, just because I'm a Mudblood – those are the people who matter to you."

Andromeda fell silent and bowed her head, then looked up at him. She could see tears and emotion hazing his eyes.

"No," she whispered. It took every bit of self-control and strength that she had to say it, because it hurt her desperately to think about discounting her sisters. They had always been so important to her, the two people who she had known she mattered to…

But she didn't matter to them. If they were treating her like this, then she couldn't matter to them.

"No?"

"No, they don't matter." Andromeda swallowed back her emotion. "I- I don't care. They can go to Hell for all I care." It felt almost blasphemous to say something like that about her sisters – she could almost picture Bellatrix's face if she heard such a thing, picture the hurt that would fill her eyes, though Bellatrix would try to hide it.

"You… you don't have to say that- you don't have to stop caring about them entirely…" Ted seemed unnerved by the sudden change in Andromeda's demeanour. "Just- just don't care about what they say about me–"

"No," Andromeda repeated firmly. "No. I don't care about them at all – especially not about Bellatrix."

LiarliarliarLIAR.

Bellatrix did matter. Andromeda did care.

But she couldn't.

If she ever wanted to be happy, she couldn't let herself care about people like Bellatrix.

)O(

Fin