Task 02: Dark
Although the patronus had been a rare sight in the Black family home, it perhaps would come as no surprise that boggarts were a much more common occurrence. Given the age and size of the estate, boggarts found it easy to hide out in its many nooks and crannies without even needing the philosophical similarities to their hosts.
She was five when she first opened the wrong wardrobe door in a misguided game of hide and seek. Immediately, the room had plunged into pitch black darkness. She could not find the light wherever she turned. In her panic, she forgot which direction was the door and which was the wardrobe. Her scream was heard by a house elf, but her mother did not come for her before the terrified child’s throat had been left raw. There was no riddikulous charm. One moment she was in the dark, and the next her mother had roughly picked her up - ignoring Andromeda’s grandmother shrieking at the two of them for sullying the Rosier name until the moment the door slammed shut.
There was no comfort. She was scolded for sticking her nose in places it did not belong, and was sent off with the house elf.
Third year came and when the students began to discuss the boggart assignment in excited voices, Andromeda was remembering the weight of that impenetrable darkness on her chest and how it had felt like she couldn’t draw in air. She was not five years old anymore, however, and the dark was no longer her greatest fear. She was grateful, therefore, when her place at the back of the line prevented her from going before the boggart in front of the class. When she stopped by the professor’s office hours to complete the assignment, she found herself even more relieved as she was confronted with her mother and aunt - screaming at her as they had screamed at Sirius the first time they had come home their first year.
So when her sixth year came and a student reported to her that a boggart had been found in one of the more unused corridors, Andromeda had assumed that she knew what she would see. She had brazenly tossed open the door and strolled into the room, not at all unsure of her own capabilities.
It was not until she stumbled upon the scene before her, that she realized how entirely unfounded that arrogance was. Nothing prepared her for the sight of Bella standing over Ted’s unmoving body, wand pointed, and the blood that was pooling over the stone floor. At the strangled sound in Andromeda’s throat, Bella turned and sneered. “Mudblood lover,” her sister snarled, while Andromeda struggled to take in air. She fell to her knees, ignoring the insults her sister was hurling at her while her head spun with heaving sobs.
It wasn’t until her hand pulled away from Ted’s still form without any blood, did Andromeda understand what was happening. In that moment, her relief could have powered any spell and so riddikulous came as no trouble. Ted’s body disappeared and Bellatrix shrank and sped through the air, voice sounding like she had sucked in a helium balloon. Bella’s shrinking form returned to the chest lying open on its side, and Andromeda closed it with a wave of her wand.
The memory of her sister over Ted, of his colorless and lifeless face, and of the blood on the stone were not so easily done away with.