Nineteen sixty nine began with bad weather, vicious wind and torrents of rain. The lake flooded, and the Quidditch stadium was soaked in mire. Filch was to be heard loudly complaining about all of the mud tracked into the halls, and there was news in the Slytherin common room.

"War by next Christmas,  if the Ministry doesn't submit," Tiberius Burke was the proud bearer of the news. "The Dark Lord has had enough."

The common room cheered, and Andromeda cheered with them, even though something deep inside her ached.

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"I don't think there'll be a war," Glenda said confidently, in the library at lunch. "There can't be. Dumbledore will solve everything, you'll see."

Andromeda's stomach was churning, and Lacrimosa was similarly uneasy, playing with the buttons on her cloak. "I don't know if he can solve it this time," she said quietly. "It's really looking bad, Glenda. My mother is talking about me switching schools."

"Moving from Hogwarts?" Andromeda said, scandalised, at the same time as Glenda said, "She can't!"

"She can," Lacrimosa said glumly. "She says she will. She hates Dumbledore, and she thinks he'll lead this school to ruin. I...."

She looked around the library quickly, then dropped her voice. "I'm thinking about running away."

"Running away!" Glenda exclaimed, and the other two shushed her urgently, Madam Pince glaring from her desk.

"Sorry!" She hissed, and dropped her voice to a whisper, leaning forward, her long braids falling forward. "You want to run away? When?"

"This summer," Lacrimosa said quietly, looking down. "I can't stay there anymore. I can't."

Andromeda felt an avalanche of terror, shame, and admiration all at once. Lacrimosa had only just turned fifteen, and she was talking about leaving her family for good.

"But....you know what they'll do," Andromeda whispered, wide eyed. "They'll take you off your tree. They'll...."

"I know," Lacrimosa said thickly, and a tear fell down her cheek.

Glenda did what she always did, and hustled them all to the girl's bathroom, locking them in a cubicle for privacy. It was a bit of a tight squeeze. Lacrimosa sat on the closed toilet, Andromeda and Glenda in front of her.

"I'm sorry," Lacrimosa said, wiping her eyes. "I....I have to leave now. What my stepfather does, I –"

"What does he do?" Andromeda asked, puzzled.

Lacrimosa choked on sobs. "H-he comes into my room sometimes. He....he –"

"Oh Lacrimosa," Glenda whispered, her own eyes filling with tears, and she squeezed her shoulders. "He doesn't –"

"Not that," Lacrimosa mopped her face with toilet paper, looking down at the tiled floor. "Not that. Other stuff. He m-makes me touch him, mostly."

Andromeda didn't know what to say. She didn't think anything she could ever say would be enough. "Didn't you tell your mother?" She whispered through frozen lips.

Lacrimosa snorted through her tears. "She said I was lying, sh-she said I was a jealous little cow. She never believes me against him, never."

Though she was still crying, when she looked up her eyes burned like flames. "I've got to get out, I have to. I've got to leave, and it's got to be now, before war starts, before they make me choose the wrong side. I can't stay there anymore, I can't –"

"You can come and live with me," Glenda said, and she squeezed her shoulder. "I promise."

Lacrimosa gave a watery smile. "I can't ask for that," she said. "I've got an uncle, somewhere. He's been disowned for years, but maybe he'll take me in. I'm not going back to that house, never ever ever."

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Lacrimosa's plan made Andromeda more miserable than ever. She thought about it constantly, as spring turned into summer and they went home. She sat at the table in the drawing room, book open in front of her but unread, looking out the window. She imagined leaving Narcissa and her mother behind, leaving everything behind, and facing an unknown future. It filled her with a deep, horrible fear.

"Penny for them," Narcissa teased. "What are you thinking so seriously about?"

Andromeda cleared her throat and put the marker in her place of her book, closing it with a snap. "Oh nothing," she said, trying to sound casual and looking out into the gardens. "I was just thinking of how pretty the roses are this time of year."

"Yes," Narcissa said. "They rather are."

She smoothed her skirt, pausing. "I....I wanted to ask you something, Andromeda."

"Yes?"

Narcissa looked towards the door, but it was shut and Druella was in bed. Ever since coming home from the hospital, she spent most of her time there. She bit her lip, winding the end of her blonde plait around her finger. The sun through the window played upon her face, made shadows dance on its alabaster stillness.

What she asked made Andromeda blink.

"Have you ever had a crush on a girl, Andy?"

"I – a girl?" Andromeda repeated, flabbergasted. "Never. That's such a strange thing to ask."

She knew vaguely about girls who had crushes on girls, and boys who had crushes on boys, but they were faraway fiction. They didn't happen here, in ordinary grey England, they happened in sordid novels Druella didn't like her reading.

She peered at her sister, a creeping suspicion coming upon her. "You don't, do you?"

Narcissa gave a shrug. "Of course not," she mumbled. "I was just curious."

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Later that night, Andromeda lay in bed, unable to sleep, thinking of them both. Lacrimosa and Narcissa. Her friend was gone already, though it was two days since they had come home. There had been bad news: her uncle had died last year, though he had a wife, and two sons, who she was staying with for now. She said it was awkward, but anything was better than living with her mother and stepfather. Andromeda had nightmares about him sometimes, especially when she saw him in their house for dinner parties. She tried to tell Druella about him, but her mother waved her away. "Don't be silly, Andromeda," she said. "Those are horrible things to believe. Mr Travers is a perfectly polite man."

A perfectly polite man he may have been, but Andromeda shivered every time he smiled, and she did her best never to leave Narcissa in the same room with him. The world was changing, and it was definitely changing fast