Seven steps to insanity, 1998

Chapter one - 1998

  Bellatrix Lestrange was dead. She was buried in an unmarked grave for obvious reasons. It was a small funeral on a dark, cloudy evening. It had to be done at night, otherwise there would be people who would start a riot and ruin the already miserable event. Eight people attended the funeral. Lucius, Narcissa and Draco Malfoy, Druella Black, Rodolphus Lestrange and the two Aurors accompanying him and last but not least Andromeda Tonks, hidden out of view.

  Lucius had an arm around his sobbing wife and was staring blankly at the grave in front of him. He had never really liked his sister-in-law; in fact he’d loathed her. But his wife had insisted that her ‘last sister’ get a proper burial, the one she apparently deserved. Lucius Malfoy sighed and, to pass the time, made a list in his head of all of the people who would disagree with his wife.

  Draco stared at the wet and muddy ground. He wanted to not be at his Aunt’s funeral more than anything. His childhood had been stripped away from him because of the war, and Bellatrix had been such a major part in everything, the Dark Lord’s most faithful. Everything had started to go terribly wrong in his life as soon as his Aunt showed up along with his Uncle and the rest of the escaped Death Eaters, and now it was all over he only wanted to forget the last few nightmarish years. This event was just bringing back memories, stopping Draco from moving on.

  Narcissa was the only person crying at the funeral. Her sister had been taken from her yet again; first she had been taken from her by the Dementors, then insanity pulled the old Bella that Cissy once knew away from her and then even the insane, evil woman that her sister had became was taken away from her. She continued to cry.

  Druella had no emotion for her eldest daughter. She merely stood there, leaning on her walking stick, looking displeased as she almost always did. For as long as she could remember Bellatrix had always been a disappointment to her, an embarrassment, something to hide away and not to love. Druella could not remember ever loving her first daughter.

  Rodolphus was stood in-between two Aurors. Unlike his late wife he had managed to survive the great Battle of Hogwarts, although part of him wished he hadn’t; he wished he had died, as now he had to return to the place that had been his living hell for the past fourteen years; Azkaban. He stared at the coffin containing his once-beautiful wife as it was lowered into its grave. Once upon a time he had loved Bellatrix with all of his heart, but of course he was your average Pureblood man and Bellatrix was not your average Pureblood woman. She had never been able to give him the sons he had wanted, nor had she followed the rules a Pureblood wife was expected to follow. And of course, he had made Bellatrix pay for this on numerous occasions. Although, in his own way, Rodolphus Lestrange did miss his wife. It was not as much as he should have, but he did miss her.

  Andromeda was stood behind her once-family, far enough so that they did not yet realise that she was there but she could clearly see them through the mist. Although her eldest sister had caused so much pain and misery in her life, taking her only daughter from her only months after she had given birth to Andromeda’s first and now only grandchild and taking the love of her life away from her, her husband, she could not help but mourn her sister’s death. As much as Bellatrix had made clear that she never wanted to see her again, would kill her on sight and after all of the harsh words she had said to her, Andromeda was still sure that at least one part of her sister had loved her.

  The Aurors Dissapparated with Rodolphus to take him away as soon as the service finished. Andromeda was lost in thought and therefore only realized her mother turning around to leave once it was already too late. She was spotted. A look of fury mixed with slight insanity overtook Druella’s face as she threw her walking stick down and pointed her wand at her disowned child, storming towards her with surprising speed for the old woman unaided.

  “How dare you show your face here!!!” She screamed and then threw a stinging hex, one she’d used oh-so-often on Bellatrix as a child, at Andromeda.

  The younger woman was sent flying backwards with a yell of pain. It was clear that this woman was   Bellatrix Lestrange’s mother. It was only at this point that everyone turned around and realised what was going on. .

  “Mother!!!” Narcissa cried through her tears and ran to her mother’s side.

  There was silence for a few moments as Andromeda and Druella had a glare-off. Lucius retrieved his mother-in-law’s walking stick and passed it to her.

  “Thank you, Lucius.” Druella spoke in a sweet voice and smiled at her son-in-law as she took the stick off of him. She then without warning struck Andromeda harshly over the head with the walking stick. The woman, who was almost trying to pull herself to her feet, fell back to the floor again.

  “Stop it!!” Andromeda yelled and crawled out of the reach of her mother’s walking stick before she pulled herself to her feet, glaring.

  Druella went to try and hit Andromeda again but her youngest – and in her opinion – only daughter grabbed her arm, tears streaming down her pale face.

  “Please, Mother! Not here! Not now! I beg of you!” Narcissa cried.

  Druella snarled and shoved her daughter away from her, making her fall back into her husband, who took her in his arms and held her as she cried.

  “You stupid girl!! You pathetic, Mudblood-loving failure!! That’s the one thing Bellatrix ever did right, Andromeda!!! Killing off your pathetic excuse of a family!! What did you think would happen when you went with that pathetic excuse of a man!?!?!?!?” Druella continued to throw abusive comments at the woman in front of her.

  Andromeda winced, she knew it did no good to retaliate and right now she wanted nothing more than to go get her grandson off of Molly Weasley and go home. She waited for her mother to run out of insults to use but Druella continued to shout.

  “You’re a pathetic excuse of a witch, Andromeda Tonks! I hope you rot in hell with that Mudblood and that Half-Blooded freak of yours! And look where she’s gotten you!!! Looking after another freak child! At your age!!!!” Druella seemed to have been storing up her hatred for her middle daughter since the day she had left as she continued to yell abuse over her youngest daughter’s crying.

  Dromeda looked down and did what she had done when she was waiting for her mother to stop shouting at Bella when she was a small girl – she thought of other things. She thought of her now-deceased sister. As her own mother was shouting at her for being at her own sister’s funeral she realized see how Bellatrix had ended up in her grave today. Insanity. Andromeda thought for a while (Druella was still shouting like there was no tomorrow) and narrowed it down to seven things that had turned her insane . . . seven steps to insanity