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They arrive promptly at the front door of 12 Grimmauld Place.
It would never do to be late.
There's a thin hint of spring in the air, which is utterly obliterated as the large door creaks open a crack.
The smell of the house is something quite unforgettable, and almost impossible to describe.
She expects Kreacher to appear nose first, and is genuinely surprised to be greeted by her Aunt.
She had know idea that Walburga Black even knew how to open the door.
"Ah Wally there you are, and here she is. Now I really must go." Her Mother palms her off as quickly as she possibly can.
She practically pushes her through the door with her index finger.
Her Aunt steps to one side and let's her into the hallway.
"Have fun, darling." Her Mother coos, before apparating into thin air.
The front door closes behind her.
The atmosphere darkens.
"I've laid out things in each of the rooms for you to view." Her Aunt says, wandering away.
She knows that she is expected to follow her, but she'd rather apparate out of the house.
She'd rather be anywhere, doing anything rather than this.
The thoughts begin to crowd in around her, and it's a struggle to block them out.
You've never been in this house on your own, a small voice, her own voice, in the back of her head says.
It's right, she's right, it comes as something of a shock.
She glances to her left and sees the dark and imposing staircase that dominates the hallway.
Briefly she thinks she sees herself dancing down the stairs as her sister's slide down the bannister, to the soundtrack of giggles.
It's had to believe that anyone has ever laughed in this house, and yet they have, she has.
She follows her Aunt into the sitting room and finds Sirius Black sneering back at her from the mantlepiece.
Alecto Carrow is seated next to him in the photograph, and looks in equal measure bored and spiteful.
A garland of white anemones, baby's breath and carnations perpetually bloom around the frame.
She can't help but think of her own engagement portrait and how Lucius Malfoy suits her far better than Alecto does Sirius.
It also causes her to remember watching the first picture being taken, the one of Andromeda and Lucius.
The broken engagement.
Everyone says she shouldn't dwell on it, that if Lucius had been free to choose then of course it would have been her above her sister.
No-one bothers to ask her if she would have chosen him.
She might have.
She probably would have.
She doesn't know.
If it wasn't Lucius then it would just be someone else.
It's all the same to her really, a means to an end, the end being to finally shed her Black surname and the humiliation.
She tries to picture the Hufflepuff's face, Ted Tonks, the Mudblood, but she can't fix it in her memory.
Whatever relationship had existed between the pair, Andy had done a good job at hiding it.
No-one had seen it coming.
That's a lie of course, something they've all collectively memorised to avoid the truth.
It had always be coming.
She's seen her, Andy, a number of times in Diagon Alley.
She's seen her niece, too.
She's walked passed them head raised high.
She's repeated the mantra of her sister is dead and her niece doesn't exist.
But still...
But still, she can't help but watch their reflection in shop windows.
Andromeda has cut her hair, or at least she had the last time she'd seen her.
Bella and Andi have inherited the rich, luxurious Black family curls, while she has the yard of blonde pump water from her Rosier relatives.
Whatever she does her hair always looks greasy.
She will not have greasy hair on her wedding day.
She turns away from her cousin to her Aunt, who is waiting for her in the corner of the room the doors to a large cabinet open before her.
Andromeda had opened that door once when no-one was looking and one of the boxes had bitten her.
She'd watched as her sister's fingers had swollen to ten times their normal sizes.
The adults, the few who had been in the house at the time had been flung into a sudden panic.
Her cousin Sirius, who could only have been two at the time, had sobbed himself senseless in Bellatrix's arms.
Sirius' crying had set off baby Regulus and the whole house had been in uproar.
She'd hidden in the bath.
She'd laid on her back and stared up at the ceiling until finally it had all stopped.
Sometimes in her head she changes things so that Andromeda died then, the silver box killed her.
It was a beautiful funeral.
She peers cautiously inside the cabinet.
She gives her Aunt a nervous smile.
She does trust her.
She tries to trust her.
She reaches inside.