home is an abstract noun by crestwood

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Andromeda Black is not above a bit of deception. 

 

For ShadowRose's Faking It Challenge and Round Three of the Great Collab - bullying theme.

The year Andromeda Black graduated from school, many of her classmates went off on celebratory trips, threw parties and otherwise rejoiced. She sorely wished she could look at the occasion in the same light as her peers, but there was no denying that the summer to come would look much different in her hands than theirs.


Being of age and finished with her schooling meant only one thing to her family--she was finally eligible to be married off to a pure, highborn man. Andromeda felt crushed by the mere thought of losing herself to a marriage her parents would approve of. She would not submit to a lifetime of cold, haughty companionship; she would not become her mother. The whirring of the expectations placed upon her from birth seeped into her every action.


Andromeda yanked harshly at the neckline of her far-too-frilly robes, waiting in the light rain for her best friend’s arrival. She was uneasy about the choice of location - it seemed dozens of witches and wizards had poured in and out of the dreary pub since she’d apparated to the address.


“Blimey, ‘Meda, let’s get out of the rain.” Benjy Fenwick held out his hand to lead Andromeda inside. He tucked his wild strands of hair behind his ears, having left behind the close-cropped style he’d adopted for much of his youth.


“Are you sure this is the place for us to meet?” Andromeda frowned. “It feels a bit - public.”


Benjy pulled a chair for Andromeda. “There’s no better place to hide than plain sight.”


She had to admit that it seemed no one in the building had turned their head toward them since they’d walked inside. There were not many places that she could go to avoid wandering eyes any longer - her family grew in infamy with each passing day.


“So, I have something to discuss with you,” said Andromeda after the typical pleasantries.


“Ah, yes. This mysterious something.” She cherished that he, in the worst of times, could not muster a dour mood.


Andromeda tapped her wand against the table in efforts to calm her nerves. “It’s really more of a request than a discussion.”


“You know I’m down for anything - what do you need? Who do I have to curse?” He made to stand up, as if prepared to fight at a moment’s notice.


“There’ll be no curses necessary.” Andromeda placed a hand on his shoulder, urging him back into his seat. “I need you to be my boyfriend for a night.”


“Hey, you’re sweet and all - but I’m still gay, I’ve got a boyfriend now -”


For a night. We’d be pretending. And a boyfriend?” Andromeda slapped the table hard on the last word.


Benjy spoke a string of syllables without pause. “You remember Gideon Prewett? What are we pretending for?”


“You’re dating the cutest guy in our year, of course,” said Andromeda. “Oh and, uh, my parents.”


“I thought I was the cutest guy in our year,” Benjy pouted, crossing his arms in mock-protest. “Wait, your parents? What?”


“Okay, I know what you’re thinking -”


“Your dad and sister are De-” He started.


“I know.” Andromeda should have known better. She’d been uncharacteristically selfish, somehow not fully realising just how big of a favor she was asking. “Forget what I said, it was stupid.”


A perverse expression spread across his face. He balked at the insinuation that he would drop the subject so easily. “But what will happen to you?”


“They’ve been talking about Lucius Malfoy.” It was all she could do not to roll her eyes back into her head. Lucius reeked of perfume and deemed himself much more important than he’d ever been.


“That’s not happening,” Benjy interjected. “Take me home.”


“My father and sister are Death Eaters.” She mirrored his words from a moment before.


“And I’m a pureblood suitor,” he grinned.


*


Andromeda’s parents were not at all pleased by their daughter’s choice of companionship. While Benjy resembled their ideal pureblood consort from a distance, she had not considered that Druella would be so intimately familiar with his family line.


“Ah, yes, the Fenwicks,” her mother had sneered. “Undignified types, they were.”


Despite her initial reluctance, Druella was able to be swayed into meeting Benjy before casting judgment. After all, was it not her own mother who had remarried low in her twilight years? She did not need reminding of that fact from her slick-tongued daughter and made sure her displeasure was felt. Nonetheless, the Black household was dressed in preparation to receive Andromeda’s uncouth swain.


Benjy implored her to meet him before he was to arrive--half escort, half pep-talk. Andromeda conceded that it was probably best she gave him a primer on surviving a night in the scrutiny of House Black.


“Your clothes look nice.” She studied him, raking a keen eye over his rather traditional robes. “I don’t suppose you’re entirely unfamiliar with the styles, as they never change.”


“No, I’m most concerned with - dinner conversation.” He’d slicked his untamed hair down his back, looking the part of the blue-blooded gentleman.


Andromeda blinked at Benjy, searching for a way to condense the countless unwritten rules she’d been born into. “Ah, yes, well - Stand up straight. Look my mother in the eyes when you speak to her.”


“I won’t turn to stone?” he muttered.


Andromeda patted his head. “I didn’t say that at all, did I?”


“What do I say if I’m asked about my family?” He pointedly ignored her joke at his expense.


“You’re very different - a sort of black sheep,” Andromeda tilted her head as if to examine him from a new angle. “I’d say you’ve always been close with your conservative uncle, yeah?”


“Yeah, let’s say I’ve got one of those.” Benjy stared off into the distance.


Andromeda waved him off. “You’ll be fine, anyway. You’re literally the best inprovisational mind I’ve ever met.”


“I tell jokes. I’m no actor, trust.”


“Untruths don’t mind your tone,” Andromeda smiled. She held out a hand, pulling Benjy to his feet.


“I guess we should do this thing then.” He breathed slowly, gripping her hand as if he would hover off the ground and toward the sun without her as an anchor.


Andromeda’s family was, thankfully, not quite ready for dinner when they arrived. They’d cut it close, but managed to slip inside before Narcissa had finished composing her assuredly elaborate attire. Andromeda half-expected her to trail down the stairs in a wedding gown, if only because it was a special occasion.


Her eventual Southern Italian designer was not all too far off Andromeda’s wildest predictions. “Coming of age today, Cissy?”


“Oh, no sister,” she scoffed. “That’d be you, would it not?”


The two sisters glared back and forth for what felt like a solid minute before Benjy stepped between them, holding his hand out, shaking mildly. “Fenwick. A pleasure.”


Narcissa’s smile was as flat as it could be without turning to frown. She placed her hand inside his. “Yes, a pleasure.”


The dining room had been restructured for this introduction, their table enlarged - a meaningless adjustment; Benjy could simply have taken Bella’s seat - and their furnishings newly silver-trimmed. The silverware gleamed under swaying candles, the lighting lending an intimate air to the night.


Andromeda’s mother spared no time. “Mr. Fenwick, you seek my daughter’s hand?”


“I - well, we are together, yes. We have not discussed marriage to this point.” Benjy’s face laid bare his regret.


“We are discussing marriage here, right now.” Druella was curt, lips pursed dismissively.


“Right. I -” Benjy started.


Druella had already moved on to the next line of questioning. “Your parents never impressed me much.”


“I’ve always been closer to my uncle.” Benjy smiled in Andromeda’s direction, proud that he was able to keep their story straight.


“Maternal or paternal?”


Druella’s question wiped any hint of joy from his face. “Um, uh.”


“You don’t know?” Andromeda’s father looked up from his food for the first time, sensing the shift in the room. Druella continued, either unaware of or unconcerned with the clutched breath of everyone at the table. “Is he the brother of your mother or father? It is a simple question.”


“My mother.” Benjy finally spit out, sinking lower and lower into his chair.


“Ah, the airhead.” Druella nearly laughed.


Andromeda looked from her mother to her supposed boyfriend and figured she’d seen enough. Employing the most pleasant tone she could muster she asked, “Mother, should you not eat something? Somehow, I doubt you’ve found the time.”


“I am not surprised to hear you speaking this way, spending time with this one.” She pointed a long, lime-green nail at Benjy. “I should have known. Fenwick.”


“We’re leaving.” Andromeda realized that her mother would never like Benjy, but she hadn’t given up on her plan just yet. “I’m of age and we’re going to be together.”


“Then we’ve nothing left to discuss.” Druella stormed out of the room in a breeze of flowery fabric.


Andromeda grabbed Benjy’s hand, leading him away from the table. “I won’t be back tonight,” she offered to her father and sister, who knew far too well than to get in between Druella and her prey.


They escaped on foot, Andromeda pulling Benjy across the hills to the North of the Black residence. Laying on her back, eyes trained on the stars, Andromeda explained the updated plan. “Okay, so I’m never bringing you back here.”


“I’d hope not.” Benjy mumbled.


“But - it was a success.”


Benjy laughed, “We have entirely different definitions of that word.”


“The scorned ‘us against the world’ thing will upset her so much that she’ll stop trying to pair me off,” Andromeda explained.


“I feel like this is setting a bad precedent for me,” said Benjy. “Not that I haven’t always gone along with your ridiculous ideas.”


“One - my ideas are great,” Andromeda counted on one hand. “And two - stop worrying. In a few months we’ll have a nasty breakup.”


“As long as I break things off with you.”


“Is that necessarily believable?” joked Andromeda. “That could throw off the entire thing.”


Benjy jumped to his feet. “Oh come on, I was the cutest guy in our year!”


“Gideon,” she said. “Gideon was the cutest guy in our year.”


“Don’t let him hear you say that.” Benjy rolled his eyes.


“So I do get to meet him,” Andromeda smirked.


Benjy shook his head fast enough to pull something in his neck. “I did not say that.”


“It was implied, Benjy-cake.” She ruffled his hair just how she knew he hated.


“Look - you’re lucky I did this. Don’t push your luck, kiddo.” Benjy pulled his head out of Andromeda’s reach.


“Oh, I’ll be pushing my luck all right,” she said. “We’ve got at least five more scheduled performances before this thing’s all over.”


“Am I supposed to be able to tell if that’s a joke?” Benjy narrowed his eyes at her.

 

“No, Benjy,” Andromeda grinned. “No you’re not.”

End notes:

Author's Note:

 

Here is my long overdue Andromeda and Benjy fic! I hope Benjy the actual character lives up to Benjy the idea.


This story falls into my Things Change fic universe and it’s for both the Faking it challenge and round 3 of The Great Collab - bullying theme.

 

Thank you for reading!


to be continued...


This story is part of the series, The Things Change 'verse. The previous story in the series is everything merges with the night. The next story in the series is flower in its decay.


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