𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝔹𝕝𝕒𝕔𝕜 𝕊𝕙𝕖𝕖𝕡

32- Stress-Induced Jumping Jacks

"Walk me home in the dead of night
I can't be alone with all that's on my mind"

TW// mentions of child abuse, eating difficulties

Hogwarts meals were something that had only grown on Andromeda recently. In a home where eating just enough was too much, she was overwhelmed by the sheer amount of good food presented to her during meal times. This had caused the rumbles of her stomach to stay more constant until someone intervened.

To say Meda was grateful for him was an understatement. The he mentioned was none other than her Uncle Alphard.

The winter break of her first year had arrived much too early. At Hogwarts, Andromeda had been having a wonderful time staying on top of her studies, people watching, and occasionally striking up a conversation with Quinn McKinnon, the head girl. Of course, her mood dimmed the second she sat alone on the train, enduring a ride that would take her to her least favorite place.

It wasn't fair to say she wasn't excited about seeing Narcissa, or her cousins, Sirius and Regulus, but the idea of going home wasn't a very joyful one in general.

However, when her Uncle Alphard and Narcissa picked her and Bellatrix up from the station and announced he was going to care for them as their parents were away for some meeting. Andromeda didn't care why they were away, she was just thankful they were.

Over the course of a few days, Alphard noticed that the girls did not eat very much. Now, he knew just as well as any sane person from their family—which was a very low amount of them—that the ideas pushed onto the children were damaging.

"Why don't you three have more?" Alphard suggested like it was optional.

Between the three of them they hadn't eaten more than he had, which might as well have stabbed Alphard.

They surveyed Alphard for a moment before Andromeda was the first to grab another roll and load it with butter. Narcissa followed her lead, but Bellatrix stood from the table and excused herself.

"It's never okay to stop eating before you're full, alright?" Alphard said, hoping with every bone in his body that these girls would not just survive their family but thrive separately.

"Okay," they replied obediently.

They each took another roll.

"I'm going to go talk to your sister," Alphard explained as he got up. "Do your best to behave down here."

Andromeda thought of writing to him while she took another roll. Before she could transpire any further, Narcissa sat down next to her on the bench, surprising her enough to drop the roll on the floor. She glared at her sister lightly.

"That was a perfectly good roll I was about to eat," Meda complained as she picked it up from the floor and placed it back on her plate. "But, no—"

"Oh, please," Narcissa rolled her eyes. "Just grab another one."

Andromeda hmphed, grabbing a roll and spreading butter on it before stuffing her face and wondering why Narcissa had joined her in the first place. They had barely talked since the summer, and at this point, Meda had thought it would never be the same between them as it was before.