broken halos

Folded wings that used to fly

They've all gone wherever they go
Broken halos that used to shine

When she had sent the letter this morning, she had every intention of taking the boys to the park no matter what. Even if she hadn’t heard back from her goddaughter. Even if Adaline hadn’t said she would come, Andromeda knew her. She knew her well enough to know that she had done everything in her power to get her to come. She had tugged at the curiosity that she knew drove her niece. She was curious by nature, so was her mother. Andromeda had used that. And she had used the boys. None of the Potters had ever met them, on purpose.

There were very few people outside of family that had met them. But that was where she thought the line got blurry, because Adaline was family. And she wanted her to meet them. She wanted them to meet her. She was not naïve enough to think that everything that was wrong right now would be solved overnight, and she knew that she was going to have to try and make the best of things when they came. Because it was hard. Right now, it was very hard to be her. It was hard to be Minister, in a country in turmoil. And it was hard to be anything other than perfect, in front of a crowd.

But Andromeda knew that this afternoon, she couldn’t be Minister Lestrange. She couldn’t even be the Lady Lestrange. This afternoon she had to be someone that she hadn’t gotten a chance to be in a very long time. She was going to be Aunt Andromeda. She had invited Adaline to meet her here, in public, to meet the boys, and to offer her something. To offer her a way to make a difference. She hadn’t asked either. She hadn’t asked anyone. Not Isolde, not Hesper. She hadn’t asked Hermione or Harry. There wasn’t a soul on earth who knew what she planned to offer her goddaughter, but Andromeda thought that she would come.

She would hear her out, and hopefully, she would take it. She would take the chance to do something. To be a part of something. Because this was messy. And yes, her name was Lestrange. And no, she would never apologize for loving him. But that didn’t mean that she was the same type of monster that they wanted to make her out to be. The purebloods would hang her. The muggleborns would probably like to see her dead too. She made no friends, not in the position that she was in. Not when she knew that they were going to all lose something before they made it out of this. But Andromeda had decided that she had to stop thinking about her.

The only person that she worried about walking away from her, hadn’t so much as moved. He was still right there. And that was all she needed. She could do this. She could hold her ground, and she could do this. But she had had to know that he wasn’t going anywhere. And he hadn’t. He was still right there, next to her, beside her. And sometimes in front of her. Because what she knew that he knew, even if everyone else thought that she needed a talking to or needed thrown out on the street. Or killed. She knew, that he knew, that she was wife. There would always be times when she answered to him. No matter of station, or status. No matter her title. She was the Lady Lestrange first.

They called her Lady Minister. She was his Lady, before she was anything else.

If they were going to change the world, if they were going to stop fighting amongst themselves, and start fighting for magic, then they had to figure out how to work together. They had to figure out how to raise their children to be more tolerant of one another. They had to figure out how they were going to all move on, to move past the crimes of their past, all of them. Because this was not a one-sided fight. This was not one side giving something up for the other. They were all going to have to learn to live with whatever came next.

She was carrying the boys, one on each hip as she made her way towards the grass just outside of the toddlers play area. They were too little to climb on any of it by themselves, but she didn’t think that swings, or a slide, would hurt eventually. Setting them both down, Roarke immediately latched on to her leg as Arcturus reached for Odin. For as much grief as Rod had given her about that dog, she was glad that they had him. Spreading the blanket that she had tucked into the top of the diaper bag on the ground, she pulled out a couple of toys and then settled onto it and let her son crawl into her lap as his brother crawled all over the mastiff. Addie would show, she was sure of it, and Andromeda kept one eye out for her niece, as the other watched carefully over her sons.

Adaline Lily Potter • 860 •
andromeda's outfit + arcturus's outfit + roarke's outfit + odin

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

Broken halos
_{that used to shine}

She was not going to go. That was what she told herself when she read the most recent letter from Andromeda Lestrange. She was not going to see that woman. Sure, her mum had gone to see her--had a pair of meeting with her even. But Adaline was still not going.

The witch's resolve lasted all of five minutes, and she accepted that her aunt that woman knew her well enough to draw her into coming to the park. But she was NOT wearing a coat. A scarf, boots and warming charms were plenty...and it was a little rebuke to the motherly sort of undertone that phrasing carried. 

Her father had taught Adaline--by example rather than actual exposition--that it was better to beg forgiveness than ask permission. So, she did not actually inform her parents that she meant to go see Andromeda and the woman's sons. Not completely careless, though, and still having some sense of self-preservation, Adaline did leave a note saying she was going to Dumbledore Park for awhile. That way if something happened to her and this was some messed up ploy, they would at least have a point to start the search for her.

She did not actually think she was in danger, though. She still had her magic. She would be able to apparate away if the need arose--and as she understood the rumors, Andromeda was one of the many afflicted by Epidemic X. Loads of people were. It had struck down purists and muggleborn alike. It was a bizarre and curious thing. Since the first announcement of sickness had come out in the Prophet, Adaline--much like her mother--had been reading everything she could find on magical bugs and diseases. Nothing fit though. She needed to back up and change her approach. She just wasn't sure how, though.

That was why she had applied to the new program at Bangor. Medicine and healing had never been what she thought she would do for a career---but it made sense, really. She had always just wanted to help people, to do something to exact change in the world for good. Getting magic was definitely something that was for the good of many. So, she was going to do what she could studying and researching. It was worthwhile. Hopefully, she would get accepted and her connection to the university would open up more avenues and opportunities for that. She just wanted to do something meaningful. It was important to her above all else. 

Adaline really had no idea what she had been summoned to the park to discuss. But her curiosity and her desire, no matter how she tried to fight it, to meet Andi's sons had won out--so, here she was, walking through the brisk January air, feeling quite pleased with herself for having left her coat at home. It was not nearly as cold as she had thought she remembered January's in the UK being. It had been a few years since she had experienced the weather here at this time, but it did seem warmer. Maybe she just wanted it to be warmer to justify her lack of a coat. 

The Potter spotted Andromeda with a massive dog and two little ones on a blanket on the ground. The sight of the boys playing--particularly the little one crawling all over the mastiff was really very cute. It tugged at Adaline's heartstrings--as did seeing Andromeda again. She had so many memories of the woman--fond and filled with joy. Adaline had learned countless lessons at that woman's knee. Every recipe she knew practically had been taught to her by her aunt...or whatever Andromeda was now. 

Adaline approached with some degree of caution. She saw no guards or menacing men around, but that did not mean they were not there. She had come this far, though. The witch was not going to turn back. Plus, she believed she had already been spotted by the Lestrange. She kept her face neutral as she drew closer. "Hello." The single word was all she offered once she had reached the blanket's edge. She wasn't sure what else to say. Andromeda had called her here; Ad would let her direct the exchange (for now, anyway). 

Idk how to tag you okay V conflicted   OUTFIT | 703

703

BROKEN HALOS

FOLDED WINGS THAT USED TO FLY

THEY'VE ALL GONE WHEREVER THEY GO
BROKEN HALOS THAT USED TO SHINE

Asking Adaline to join her was something that she had done without so much as thinking about it. She wanted to see her, and she wasn’t above playing on what she knew about her goddaughter. Andromeda was well aware of the natural curiosity that existed within her. So much like her mother. But she thought that she was going to be just curious enough to come here today. She would want to meet them. A privilege, actually. It wasn’t just anyone that Andromeda let the boys meet. The family, yes, and Adaline would always be family, but she was a different kind of family. She was the kind that had been chosen, and Andromeda hoped that that could mean something again.

Meeting the boys was only part of the reason that she had asked her to come here today. She had an empty desk, in her office, and she wanted it filled. She wanted it filled with someone that was going to be good at it. That was going to know what she was doing, and that needed to have a handle on the politics that were going to come sweeping through at any moment. Because there were plenty of people that didn’t like what she was doing. There were plenty of people that didn’t like that the epidemic had taken priority. That she was more interested in finding a cure, and restoring magic, than she was in the pureblood regime of it all.

It was not a popular opinion, amongst the circles that she had been raised in. But there was a part of her that simply could not understand that. She could not understand how it came to be that they were so worried about the muggleborns and everything that they had come to represent, and they weren’t worried about the fact that their magic was gone. Perhaps it was those that had kept their magic that were causing this. Those that had been spared by whatever means it was that she couldn’t explain. But Andromeda thought that they would get there. They would see that this was going to have to work.

They were going to have to trust her. Because in the end, this was what was important right now. And she was going to hang on to her power, and to her position, to make sure that this was what they were focused on. They needed their magic back. But more than that, they needed to worry about what it was that they were going to do if people tried to leave. They couldn’t keep them here forever. They couldn’t indefinitely shut down the borders, and expect that people weren’t going to get restless. But if they opened them again, they risked exposing the whole world. And they couldn’t do that either.

They needed to reopen the borders. Commerce needed the borders open. Travel. Tourism. They needed them open across the board. But Andromeda was far too much a doctor to think that they were going to be okay exposing the rest of the world to something that they couldn’t explain. If they could just make some headway. If they could find some answer. If they could do something. Anything. She needed answers of some sort. She needed someone to give her something. And she didn’t know what it was. But she knew that if she could get it by letting all of the muggleborns go back to the lives that they had had before, she would make that deal. If she could get to a cure, she would.

But she didn’t believe that this was just something natural. Andromeda didn’t believe that this had just sprung up out of nowhere. She thought that there had to be someone out there that knew what it was. How it had been created. Someone had the answers. Someone knew where it had come from. And knowing where it had come from was enough to have her hoping that she could just make some progress on getting rid of it. They had to beat this, somehow. Somehow, they had to find a way to make everything right again. And if that meant that the purebloods were going to breathe down her neck about it, then they could make all the threats that they wanted. She cared about pureblood politics, she was one of them. She had pureblood sons. But she didn’t think that they could honestly prioritize whatever their mission was, above the health of a nation.

Or if they did, they needed to rethink who the real monsters were. Because they were monsters. Every single one of them. Herself included. They were all monsters of one sort or another. Because they were human. Pureblood, halfblood, muggleborn. Muggles themselves. They were all monsters, in their own ways. But they were only demonizing themselves further if they truly thought that their ‘way of life’ was more important than magic as a whole.

Andromeda was going to do her best not to let any of her inner ranting play out on her face though and laughed as she watched Arcturus tumble over Odin’s paws before he righted himself again. Looking up at the sound of her goddaughter’s voice Andromeda’s laugh turned into a smile. “Hello Adaline.” She nodded to the other side of the blanket that she had left purposefully empty. “Won’t you join us?” Andromeda felt Roarke press closer to her at the girl’s presence, but she saw Arcturus look at his cousin with curiosity she recognized as a reflection of her own from where he was still standing, holding on to Odin’s collar.

@ goddaughter • 935 • andromeda's outfit

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

Broken halos
_{that used to shine}

Mere meters separated her from Andromeda. Adaline saw the familiar face--the posh coat screamed luxury, but the older witch had always been well dressed. Nothing really looked different about her. Of course, that was to be expected. Logically, there was no reason for Andromeda to look any different. A woman of her age was not going to age or change really in a few years time.

Adaline would look different, though. Much so. She had grown several inches, and her body matured somewhat. The witch still had a lithe figure, but there was curvature to her now that would not have been present the last time Andromeda saw her. Ad wore her hair differently, too…. Shorter by a good bit. In her youth, the Potter had sported long hair down her back. She’d used serums and spells to straighten it. Now, Ad still made use of smoothing serum, but it was only to contain and conquer any frizz. Charms mastered her curls, but left them in their natural state. The brunette locks barely brushed past her chin, ruffling slightly in the wind.

Put simply, the last time Adaline had stood before Andromeda, she had been a child. Now, she was a formidable young woman. Adaline was by wixen standards a legal adult. Her seventeenth birthday had passed during the last fall. She’d sat for her NEWTs just a few weeks prior to this little reunion. Her marks had been as impeccable as one would expect from the daughter of Hermione Granger. She was set on using the years spent studying at the School of Mum to her advantage--and not simply to avoid going back to Hogwarts. Her goals were much bigger than that.

In a different world, in a different life, she might have played Quidditch for a living. She might have worked at Rising Phoenix. Adaline had seen possibilities for both of those career and life paths before the muggleborn registration...and before the epidemic. Now, though she loved Quidditch, it seemed so utterly mundane and unimportant. Who cared about a silly game when the world was falling to shit? Charity and philanthropy--while incredibly important--were not enough for her. She needed to be in the thick of making a difference, in solving this sickness, in healing her fellow Englishmen. That had brought her to St. Mungo’s, with the intention to study medical medicine at Bangor as soon as she was far enough into the healer training program to do so.

Did she really want to be a healer? Adaline wasn’t sure. She had been more resistant to the idea than was reasonable just because that Andromeda had been one. But more than she wanted to not be like the woman in front of her today, she wanted to save the world in a tangible way. Right now, that meant dedicating herself to medical research. She was smart--she was capable. She could make a valuable contribution to the effort to understand and cure Epidemic X. It was the right thing to do...and really, in the end, wasn’t that alway what Potters did?

Though her eyes had rested on Andromeda’s face, Adaline had not missed the two little ones there on the blanket. They were, of course, adorable. She was torn on how to behave. She wanted to maintain a cool indifference towards the witch, but the children would pick up on hostilities. Little ones were always quite astute about such things. She did not want to upset them. They were truly innocents. The boys might have been fathered by Rodolphus Lestrange, but to be born of a monster does not necessarily make one a monster. It broke her heart to know they would be raised to cultivate hate in their hearts. Hints of the sadness that struck to the very core of her flashed over her face when she saw the cute little child by the mastiff look at her with such curiosity. It was truly a tragedy that such wonder could be crushed down and malformed into hate.

Andromeda suggested Adaline sit with the trio of Lestranges. Instead of giving a snarky reply of how she would prefer to stand, the witch gave a small nod. “Okay,” the Potter consented. Her voice was soft, the hints of conflicting emotions slipping into the few syllables. Adaline pushed a smile onto her lips, as she came closer. She wanted to make herself seem friendly and kind to the boys. No child ever deserved to be frightened. She settled herself down on the ground with a seeker’s grace, curling her legs up beside her. Soft eyes with a gentle smile were offered to both the boys, but her gaze did harden when it ultimately returned to meet Andromeda’s. Without words, Adaline asked the woman why they were here.

795 | OUTFIT

BROKEN HALOS

FOLDED WINGS THAT USED TO FLY

THEY'VE ALL GONE WHEREVER THEY GO
BROKEN HALOS THAT USED TO SHINE

The world that she had known as a girl had changed so many times. Andromeda had lost count of the number of times through the years that things had changed so completely. There had never been a time when she thought that things had actually been stable. And she was sixty-six years old. She had been alive long enough to think that there would have been some little bit of peace. And perhaps there had been, the years between when the Dark Lord had risen, fallen, and risen again, perhaps those were the years of peace for the rest of the world. But Andromeda did not believe it.

She would not believe that that had been peace, when the person that she thought that she loved most had been taken away from her. That was not peace. Not to her. He had been taken to that miserable island, and it had changed him. The man that she loved was still there. He was still in there somewhere, and she knew it. She knew it in the way that he said her name, and the way that he didn’t push her away. The way that he let her invade his personal space, the way that sometimes, on the rare occasion even in public, he put her desires first.

Andromeda knew that it happened, and she thought that perhaps she was the only one that saw that, but it did. There were times when he put her first, even if it was invisible. He had never looked for the Potters. He had set that precedent that even Griffith was following now. He had made that choice for her. And she knew that he had. He could have chosen something else, he could have chosen his own pride, and he hadn’t. He had chosen her. And she knew that. She could see it. Mention it? No, she knew better than to mention it, but still, he had done it for her.

He had to trust her, they all had to trust her, because she knew what she had done when she had let Hermione Potter walk into, and out of, the Ministry. She knew that she had sealed her fate, and that there would be plenty of people lining up to kill her alongside them. She knew that she had done that to herself. She knew that she had chosen a side, in their minds when she had agreed to a meeting, but the exact opposite was true. Andromeda did not make the choices that she made to be popular. Being popular might have helped keep her alive, it might have given Rodolphus one less thing to worry about. But it wasn’t going to fix anything.

And she knew that Hermione Potter wasn’t likely to have the answers hidden up her sleeve either, but someone did. Someone had to know something, and if working together was how they were going to get those answers, then she was willing to work together. She was willing to do just about anything that was going to get them what they needed. And what they needed was their magic back. It was what made them who they were, it was how they were defined as a race. Being without it made them less than what they were. It made them failures. And she couldn’t have that.

She couldn’t have them all failing. She couldn’t have a country that turned to ruins because they didn’t know how to adapt. They had to adapt. They had to figure it out. And they had to do it quickly. They had to figure out how to get the borders opened. They had to figure out what it was that they were going to do when it came to commerce, and the treasury, and everyone else that she didn’t want to deal with. But she knew that dealing with Lucius was a necessity. He knew what he was talking about, and her country, and her people, meant more to her than her annoyance at her brother-in-law’s existence.

Andromeda was worried about all of that, and she was worried about what Adaline thought. She was worried about how much she would have to do, what it was that Adaline would need, because she would give it to her. She would try, very, very hard, to make sure that she knew that she still loved her. That she had always loved her. It was messy, the world was messy, but that didn’t change who she was to her. That didn’t change how she felt about her.

The older witch watched her elder son with a curiosity that mirrored his own as he took in Adaline’s arrival. His eyes had finally settled on a color, and they were the exact shape, and shade, as his father’s. He looked like her, Arcturus looked like a Black, with the nose, and the chin, but his eyes were Rodolphus’s. And they turned on her with the child-like innocence that she had never seen in her husband’s. It was awe inspiring in a way, to see the same eyes that she had seen looking at her for years, look up at her with an expression that she had never seen, in a child that knew nothing of the evils of the world. “Mama?” Andromeda hummed in response to her son before she actually answered him, “Yes?” His gaze moved from her, to Adaline, and back again as she shifted Roarke in her lap, and then nodded to Arcturus’s unasked question. “It’s okay. This is Adaline.” Dark eyes drifted down to the little one in her lap, “Can you say hi?”

She watched both boys hesitate for a moment before a quiet, “Hi.” Came from each of them. Roarke not quite looking at Adaline at all, and Arcturus watching her with a curiosity that she knew would push him forward sooner rather than later. Taking her full attention off of him for a moment, she looked back across at her niece. “I’m glad you came. I thought you might, just to meet these two.”

@ goddaughter • 1014 • andromeda's outfit

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

BROKEN HALOS

FOLDED WINGS THAT USED TO FLY

THEY'VE ALL GONE WHEREVER THEY GO
BROKEN HALOS THAT USED TO SHINE

Adaline had countless questions. So many thoughts swirled in her head. It was painful to see Andromeda. More so than the Potter had expected. The woman had been dear family for so long. Now, Adaline perceived her to be a stranger, a liar, and a danger to those she loved. But was it really that simple? If it had been, then why was she even here? Why had she agreed to see Andromeda, if all she thought of the witch were such negative things?

There was more to them than could be just washed away and forgotten by the events of the last three years. Adaline had been raised in may ways by the woman before her now. She had learned to cook and bake from Andromeda. She had been mentored in becoming a strong and capable woman by the witch. There had been so much love between them. That did not just go away. She wished it could be that simple. She wished she could just pull her wand and use one curse to start another revolution. 

But Adaline could never do that. She could never kill another person in cold blood--and especially not Andromeda. Assassinating the Minister of Magic in this scenario would not really help the muggleborn cause, or so Adaline thought. There could be far worse people in the position. At least, Andromeda had not executed her mother--and had met with the Order. Ad had a very strong feeling that any of the replacements the Death Eaters would try to prop up to power in Andi's place would not be so amicable to change for the greater good. 

Plus, the children were here. Babes though they were, the sight of their mother passing was not something to imprint upon them. They were innocents. No matter who their father was. No matter who their mother was. They were innocent. Adaline offered the pair kind smiles as they made their meek hellos. "Hi there," she answered gently, waving her fingers at the young boys.

Andromeda spoke of being glad she had come and laying credit on the children for Adaline's presence. There was some truth in that, but ultimately, it had been Adaline's curiosity that brought her to the park today. She wanted to know what it was that Andromeda had to give to her. She could not just not know. No matter what it was.

"I'm here. Your sons  are cute. No horns or hooves or anything. Remarkable-" Adaline said dryly, eluding with very little to no subtly that their father was the devil, or at the very least demonic. "But, why am I really here?" The younger witch probed. She wanted to get her answers and get them quickly. She was not intending to just linger about for hours on a picnic with the Minister of Magic.

@ still have some attitude for you  • 471 • outfit

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

BROKEN HALOS

FOLDED WINGS THAT USED TO FLY

THEY'VE ALL GONE WHEREVER THEY GO
BROKEN HALOS THAT USED TO SHINE

If she could have come up with some simple fix for all of this, Andromeda would have taken it. She didn’t even really care where it could have come from. If there was a cost. Any of it. She would pay it. She wanted this fixed. She wanted their world set to rights again, and she knew that her definition of what was set to rights, and someone else’s might not be the same, but she thought that at least getting magic back, and then figuring out where they went from there, those were the top priorities. They would figure the rest of it out, but if she could have found a quick fix cure for this magic thing, she would have taken it.

The answers that they needed were out there, but it was just as complicated as it had always been. There were just as many things that they needed to do, just as many things that they were going to have to try and understand. She didn’t have the answers, and she didn’t know where to look for them. All she knew was that she had to keep the country running. That she was the one that was responsible for that. That she had to keep the economy running. That she had to get the borders back open. Andromeda knew that that was on her, but she was doing the best that she could.

She had the support system that she needed. She had the people around her that she needed, at least professionally, to get the job done. And it was an undertaking. The entirety of the situation that was upon them made it heavy. It was not something that she could just tuck under her arm and carry, she had to carry it on her shoulders, she had to carry the weight of it, because she was the Minister, and she had asked to be. She had forcefully taken office. But now that she was here, she wanted to use it the way that you were supposed to use it. She wanted to do the right thing.

Andromeda knew that it was unseasonably warm right now, but she also knew how fast the weather could change, and she didn’t just mean literally. The political climate was just as rocky. For the moment she was okay. She wasn’t making popular decisions, but she was making the decisions that they needed. Meetings with the Order weren’t going to fix anything, and she could feel the tension of her decisions, even in her own household, but she had to do this. She had to fix this. And if that meant that she was going to talk to Shacklebolt. If she was going to listen to what Hermione Potter had to say, that was fine. She could listen to them.

Her decisions were still her own. She still had made sure that they had immunity. If her loved ones abided by the rules that had been laid out for them, or at least didn’t get caught breaking the new set of rules, then that was all that mattered. She wasn’t going to lose them to that place again. She refused. She wouldn’t follow them there, but she would fight like hell to keep them with her instead. To keep Rodolphus with his sons. To keep Rabastan from going back to that place. She would fight like hell to keep them with her instead. And she had to trust them not to do anything that was going to break the truce that had been called.

Well, it wasn’t a truce. Not really. But it was better than nothing. And she didn’t know what other word there was to describe it. The illness had done this as much as anything else had. They had put them all in that hospital together. The Death Eaters and the Order, side by side. And Andromeda wasn’t a fool. She knew who was and who wasn’t Order. At least in broad strokes. She knew exactly who the Death Eaters were. It wasn’t that hard for her to see who had had to learn to get along then, and who could work together now.

If that meant that she was going to have to stay Minister for a while longer, and play the middle ground, she would. She was very grey, and she thought that she had proved that plenty by now. She was a Lestrange. She was always supposed to have been a Lestrange. But she couldn’t deny the affection that she carried for people like the girl sitting in front of her right now. She had invited her here, to meet the boys. She had invited her here, because she wanted her to be a part of this. To be a part of the change that they were going to see in the world around them. She needed people like her goddaughter around her for this.

The older witch rolled her eyes at Adaline’s thinly veiled comment on her husband and shook her head. “I’d watch the teeth though. Razor sharp.” All baby teeth were that sharp, but she didn’t think that there was any reason to point that out either. They had sharp little teeth, and she had taken the brunt of learning that the hard way for a long time. Though they nursed far less now. Just before they went to bed at night. Tucking her arm protectively around Roarke, Andromeda met Adaline’s gaze with one that had changed ever so subtly. No longer was she just her godmother sitting before her, now she was the Minister for Magic. “I’d like to offer you a job, Adaline. Working for me, in the Ministry.”

@ goddaughter • 951 • andromeda's outfit

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

BROKEN HALOS

FOLDED WINGS THAT USED TO FLY

THEY'VE ALL GONE WHEREVER THEY GO
BROKEN HALOS THAT USED TO SHINE

Adaline had been gone for a very long time. Two years was practically a lifetime to someone barely seventeen. She had lived those years finding company and adventure through narratives and in fictional lands. Muggle and magical authors had given her friends to bond with and handsome boys to crush on. They had given her something, but it wasn't the same as a real life. She didn't have experiences and that bothered her.

She could not just go back to Hogwarts, though. It baffled her that Liam had. Why? Why do that? Why pretend to be like all the other seventeen year olds? They weren't. They were Potters. They had been cut off from the rest of the world for years--an the world had just kept on going. Their absence from Hogwarts had not really meant anything. It was stupid to try to go back and believe that it could be familiar--that there was some place there waiting on them. There wasn't. 

They needed to find new places. They needed to pursue new opportunities. Going back to Hogwarts was regression--and Adaline was only interested in moving forward. They had come back to England. They were back home--and now it was time for them to be Potters. That meant stepping up, that meant standing out, that meant being a voice for those too cowardly or weak to speak themselves. Her mother had already taken the first step by charging into the Ministry---a foolish and reckless decision, sure, but one that Adaline could understand the necessity of.

This sickness had changed the world. It was horrible to think it, but it had presented opportunities. Death Eaters had lost their magic just like everyone else. If they had to go to war, wasn't it a good time to do it? And maybe with the world as it was, revolution didn't have to be literally war. But if it did, she thought that more of the youth that still had their magic would side with those who were going to fight for just treatment for everyone. The Death Eaters all had their pardons and clemency. Old crimes were not going to be punished. Everyone had a clean slate. They could all be on equal footing, but they needed to end this blasted registration and get muggleborns back into reasonable employment again. 

And just maybe, the woman sitting across from her could make that happen. Andromeda had taken steps--now hopefully she would keeping doing that. She would keep taking meetings with people like Hermione and Kingsley. She would keep moving the world in the right direction. And if she wouldn't, then Adaline hoped that someone who would would rise up and take the Ministry away from the Death Eaters. They had lost a lot of their might and ferocity with the epidemic. Even if she had to lead the charge herself, Adaline was going to see it done that the country got back to sanity and justice. 

Her sass about the children was met with a jest from the Minister. Adaline fought the smirk that threatened to turn up her lips. She would not smile--not at Andromeda. She would not give her that...and she most certainly would not laugh. Or so she thought, but when the Lestrange put plainly into words the reason that Adaline had been summoned, the Potter did just that. She burst out laughing. "What?" the witch questioned in utter disbelief. "You can't be serious." Could she? Surely not. This was some disturbed joke. What was Andromeda inviting her to do? Take part in wrangling and registering muggleborns?

Disbelief and surprise still laid heavy in her tone as she asked: "What would you have me do at the Ministry?"  Adaline could not even begin to think of what role that Andromeda would find her suitable for. She had performed excellently on her OWLs, well enough to enter any training program at the Ministry, but she could never do that. She could not be an auror right now. She could not be an Unspeakable. Who knew what she might be asked to do?! It was unthinkable. Andromeda clearly was mocking her. She had to be, even if it did not really seem like she was. 

@ you are a crazy woman  • 701 • outfit

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

BROKEN HALOS

FOLDED WINGS THAT USED TO FLY

THEY'VE ALL GONE WHEREVER THEY GO
BROKEN HALOS THAT USED TO SHINE

The world that they had known for so long had been thrown into turmoil. There was no denying that. There was no denying that she was the one that had been at the helm when the world had fallen into disrepair, but this was different. This was not something that she could have prevented. It was something that she had known was coming. Hesper had shown her, in the days before it had struck, what was to come. But she had known too late. There had been no preventing it. Perhaps, if they had known earlier, they could have tried to prepare, but as it had been, they had nothing.

And they didn’t have the answers that she would have liked. Andromeda would have liked to know who had started it. Where it had come from. Because if there was one thing that she did know. It was that Delilah Graves had been the first to present symptoms, but she didn’t think that the girl would have done this to herself, or to all of them. She had read Santiago’s reports. She knew that the witch had not taken it lightly. Not with the calm and studious nature of someone that would have thought up this destruction themselves. And she didn’t think that there was any reason to think that she would have done it in the first place.

The Graves family was one that had always been respected. In both Light and Dark times. They were Dark enough to have Marks, and neutral enough to get along with the Light. She put no blame on the Graves girl. This was not her doing. But they didn’t know who it had been. They didn’t have any answers, and she almost wanted to talk to her. To try and determine if there was anyone around that had been different. If there was anyone that had seemed like they were up to something. If there had been anything at all out of the ordinary. But she couldn’t do that now. It had been too long.

If she were to have gone looking for answers like that, it would have had to have been in the weeks right after all of it. She would have had to try and convince them to let her into the hospital to see her. And she could have. Andromeda had lost her magic, yes. But she had not been ill. Not the way that her family had around her. She had run a fever, for a day or so. A mild one. And she had ached a little as the magic had seemed to fade away. But she had never taken to her bed. She had only missed two days of work. She had been fine. And she had had it lucky. She knew that. She knew that she was amongst those that had been ill, but not terribly bad off.

There were others that had not been so lucky. The Czech princess that had lost a child and fallen into a coma. The Weasley witch, and others, that had also lost children. Her other goddaughter had been spared, as had her mother. Though Pansy had still been ill. It had not been an easy thing. And she knew that even in her own home, things had been hard. She had taken Davina and Griffith into the castle with them, they were staying together. She had had Brenna in her care, because Sloane had elected to fall into a coma of her own. Things were not simple. They were not easy.

And Andromeda thought that they were going to have to try and make the best of it now. Now that things had slowed down. The rate of infection was almost nothing. They were doing well enough on their own. But she knew that Lucius was going to start worrying more nad more about the economy. She knew that Graves was going to start to worry about his quidditch league. They were going to have larger things to worry about, and that meant that this tentative peace had to hold. They had to find it within themselves to make it last, and she thought that she knew how. They had to integrate.

They had to take those that they had thrown out, and pull them back in. They had to get the muggleborns back in their jobs. They had to get the borders open, and they had to have all of the best people around to do it. No matter who they were. But they were going to have to take that one step at a time. She was well aware of that fact too. And that meant that she was going to start here, today, with Adaline. She was going to ask her goddaughter to do the impossible. To be one of the first to breach that distance, and to trust her enough to come and work for her. They would work on the rest later.

They would work on reforming the bond that they had once had. But that would take time, and Andromeda thought that there was only one way to start. She had to be the one to do this. Because she was strong. And she was smart. And she was a Potter. Her parents were Harry and Hermione Potter, and it was time to stop being just their daughter. It was time to make the choices for herself, and to decide what path it was that she wanted to choose. Andromeda knew that she was asking the world of her. But if she could trust her, even just enough to take that first step, Andromeda would prove to her that she was worthy of that trust. She was not going to betray her. She couldn’t. Not again. “I’m entirely serious.” There was nothing in her tone, or on her face to suggest anything other than sincerity, even as Roarke pulled at her curls, and Arcturus inched closer to Adaline. “I need an assistant. One that I can trust. One that I know is going to be more than capable of the tasks assigned to her. I need you.”

@ goddaughter • 1026 • andromeda's outfit

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0