"Do you look at us and laugh
When we hold on to the past?"

Respect, a force arguably almost as powerful as love itself. If one truly respects another, then every aspect of their life will be respected. Their wishes, hopes, and dreams, along with the traditions they uphold shall all be respected. Thus, Andromeda could never respect her parents, no matter what way one bent the meaning of respect.

Their very way of life disrespected people's existence. She could not harbor respect for people that refused to, at the very least, be kind to others who were different than them.

This had been the way she thought since an epiphany had struck her during the first year she roamed the corridors of Hogwarts.

The feast that welcomed Andromeda to Hogwarts had done a better job at comforting her than her parents ever had. She sat in one of the upper levels of the school, reading a textbook she had bought prior to coming to the school.

Tomorrow would be the first day of her first year. She should be excited for this, yet she couldn't help but think about anything except Narcissa's sad face as she left with Bellatrix. Even when promising to write every so often, Narcissa didn't get any happier.

Andromeda thought back to when she was sitting alone on the train, looking out the window at her family. They looked like a miserable group of people, and Meda was sure this wasn't because they had just said goodbye to two out of three of their children.

Her mother scowled at a child that had just run into her and fallen on the ground. The little girl started to cry and a girl, who Meda now recognized as the head girl, collected the child while being scolded by Meda's mother. Meda could've jumped back in surprise when the girl spit out words just as generous as her mother's. She was amazed.

Clearly lost in her thoughts, she hadn't realized that the head girl she was thinking about had found her sitting on the floor, alone. Meda looked up with wide eyes as she sat down next to her on the floor.

The head girl was extremely pretty. She had short blonde hair that was cut off at her ear, but was longer at the top. Many ear piercings drew more attention to her ears, Andromeda especially liked the sword earrings at the very bottom of her ears. The girl also wore thin, wire-framed glasses, shaped peculiarly.

"What're you doing out here this late?" She asked quietly. "It's past curfew, y'know."

The girl spoke with an air of authority that Andromeda imagined Professor McGonagall would have in her classroom too.

"I know. The portraits keep reminding me of that," Meda replied.

The head girl raised her eyebrows out of amusement. Her first day on the job, and she was already meeting first years with sass.

"My name is Quinn McKinnon," Quinn stated, holding out her hand formally for the first year to shake. She already knew who this first year was—she remembered her from the sorting—and she figured this first year was used to handshakes. "What's yours?"

"I'm Andromeda Black," Meda replied, shaking Quinn's hand firmly.

"Good to know," Quinn said, loosening her Slytherin tie. "I've got to report you being out this late to our Head of House, Slughorn, unless you give me a good reason not to."

When Meda didn't respond right away, Quinn kept talking.

"Believe me, I'd really rather not report it at all. Slughorn would ask so many questions, and I'd have to explain what I was doing out this late on a day that wasn't my patrol day," Quinn winked at the girl in front of her and laughed to herself at the expression of wonder on her face.

Andromeda looked up at the head girl with confusion. She wasn't going to question why Quinn hadn't just punished her immediately because Meda simply did not want to get in trouble, but that didn't mean Andromeda hadn't hesitated even more before explaining herself.

"I miss my little sister. It's my first year without her around," Meda sighed and shook her head. "Bellatrix, my older sister, would just tell me to suck it up, so I thought it would be best to leave the common room."

Quinn didn't seem too surprised at all by the explanation. She held empathy in her face and in her shoulders.

"I have younger siblings too," Quinn said, stretching out her legs in front of her. "My younger sister's name is Marlene, the little rascal. With this being my last year, I still get sad when I leave them."

Andromeda assumed Marlene had been the one to run into her mother at the train station. She knew that Quinn's words were supposed to be comforting, but knowing that she still missed her siblings did not provide any comfort.

"Next time you feel sad, instead of roaming the corridors, come to me," Quinn suggested.

"What're you gonna do?" Meda asked.

"I'll give you some chocolate, tell you some funny stories, and you'll be good as new," Quinn said convincingly.

"Can I hear one of those stories now?" Andromeda asked eagerly.

"As long as you come back to the common room with me," Quinn replied as she stood up.

Andromeda still looked back on that memory and smiled. Quinn earned her respect that day, whether it was standing up to her mother, or helping her out when she was upset, Meda never figured it out. All she knew, was that discovering Quinn's existence led her to a lot of thought processing. It was the start of a butterfly effect.

Of course, everything that has happened in her life had led her to the moment she was in right now, which didn't provide much comfort to her. What had she done wrong to be engaged to a Carrow?

Alexander was a boy that would never earn Andromeda's respect, ever. Not even in her wildest dreams would she grant him that privilege. This made the scene he created a little comical to her.

Since the beginning of term, Alexander had been following her around like a puppy. Not a good puppy though, more like a vicious one with rabies that stole everyone's food. He didn't even let her alone during her precious prefect patrols, (alliteration!) which is where they found themselves currently.

They walked mostly in silence as Andromeda checked the corridors for possible disturbances. Alexander, who must not have a clear thought process, thought it was a splendid idea to break the silence with his loathsome words.

"You must start respecting my family," he said grandly.

Andromeda rolled her eyes with her back turned towards him. Not responding, she continued her job of patrolling the corridors, ignoring his presence entirely. Of course, he didn't like this very much due to his arrogance and belief that he was the most important person in the room, so he took matters into his own hands.

What he felt was appropriate was entirely not.

He walked quickly to catch up with Andromeda, who had put almost half a corridor's distance between her and the offended Carrow already. Once he caught up to her, he pushed her shoulder back so that she stumbled backwards and faced him. He was met with a nasty glare, and what he wasn't expecting, a shove back.

Andromeda had apparently reached the boiling point. Her steely grey eyes shown with nothing but hate as she spoke to him with her wand pointed directly at his throat. He gulped.

"I thought I had already made this clear, but I guess not," Andromeda said harshly. "This marriage and your family mean absolutely nothing to me."

To add to the disrespect she was currently giving him, she spit in his face and smirked. With her wand still dug into his throat, he attempted to speak.

"You little-"

Andromeda pushed her wand a little further into his throat and scowled while he gagged.

"Finish that sentence, I fucking dare you," Andromeda said angrily.

She wasn't usually one to swear, but she felt that this was a situation that called for it.

Glaring directly into his eyes for a few moments more, challenging him to say or do anything, cooled Meda down enough to think that he wasn't worth this anymore. She removed her wand from his throat, spun on her heel, and left him standing there.

"You can finish my patrol since you were so eager to go on it in the first place," Andromeda called over her shoulder, smirking to herself because she knew she had scared him enough to do that.

...

In the days afterward, Andromeda noticed that Alexander steered clear of her a hilarious amount. She found this spectacular for two reasons. One: He was so afraid of her now that he gave up on his mission to make her life hell. Two: She now got breathing room.

Taking full advantage of this, Andromeda spent every extra minute of her day that she had with Henri. She had felt bad about the amount of time she had spent with her one and only friend over the course of months because it wasn't much. With the holidays arriving soon, Andy wanted to make sure she made it up to her.

The first thing she did when she met Henri in the library—after greeting her excitedly, of course—was relay the epic patrol story to her. Henri was a great listener; she managed to have a perfect reaction to every part of the story that reflected what Andy had been feeling at the time. 

"You'd think the guy would've taken the hint before you held a wand to his throat," Henri said after Andromeda had relayed the tale of the patrol to her.

"Well, Carrow is extra thick-headed, so it just took more for the idea to sink into his brain," Meda remarked, causing them both to go into a fit of giggles.

They sat in the library for the next half hour chatting idly about whatever crossed their minds. The only thing from stopping them from continuing this was their herbology class. Henri had purposely skipped last time and Andy would never be caught dead skipping a class. So, of course, they both had to go.

Unfortunately, this meant trekking through a foot of snow that had graced the Hogwarts' grounds that morning. Perhaps, the coldness in her toes spread to her brain to think cold thoughts, or maybe she just couldn't ever escape them, but either way Andy was led to a cold train of thought.

"My name is going to be Andromeda Carrow soon," Andy said with her teeth chattering.

Henri's eyes grew sad in an instant, but Andromeda could see the determination in her face.

"We've been over this. You're not marrying him," Henri replied bluntly. "Even if you were, you wouldn't have to take his last name if you didn't want too."

Andromeda hesitated before responding, yet she didn't stop the words that wanted to fly out of her mouth since the trust she had in Henri had grown around her like vines on a tree.

"Is being a Black any better than being a Carrow though?" Andromeda asked, fully expecting no response.

Henri's eyes grew even sadder than they were. Andy had noticed that Henri had grown to be more worried about her since she had told her about the abuse she endured at home. Andy felt protected in a sense, almost like she had a security blanket.

"Are you going to be okay going home over the holiday?" Henri asked, biting her lip as they stopped outside the greenhouse to continue talking.

The sad part was Andromeda wasn't sure what the answer to that question truly was, which made her decide to shrug in reply.

"My house is always open, y'know?" Henri said immediately. "If you ever need a place to stay, you've got me."

Her words had warmed whatever cold thoughts Andromeda had been thinking earlier. She had a friend who was with her against the world, and that's all that really mattered.

"Okay," Andy said, smiling softly. "Thank you."

"No problem," Henri replied, smiling softly back. "Now, let's get in this greenhouse, so our buns don't freeze off."

...

Song: Hey Angel
By: One Direction

Hello, hello, hello!!! I hope you enjoyed this chapter as much as I did. It featured a girlboss Andromeda and it was a fantastic scene for me to write.

I wish you all well! If anyone needs anything, let me know!!

Lmao anyways thanks for reading
-teddy xx