Nadine watched as Andromeda adjusted the Omnioculars. They were in a dusty loft in Knockturn Alley. One grubby window (rubbed clean with a good application of scourgify) steeply overlooked the dingy alley below. They were observing the comings and going from one particular shop below, acting on a tip-off.

“I met Ri[1] yesterday,” Nadine mentioned casually, folding her long arms one over the other. There was little else to do right now as Andromeda’s eyes were fixed on the scene below. ”You didn’t mention he was stopping with you.”

Orion, Andromeda’s oldest brother had been Nadine’s husband once. They’d married straight out of Hogwarts, with Ariadne on the way, but divorced a few years later when their daughter was a toddler. Their relationship ebbed and flowed, mostly eased by the fact Orion barely visited Britain. His job with Devia Orbis kept him away, and it had just been arrangements on who Ariadne lived with which had caused friction. Now their daughter was old enough to work and rent a flat with friends, there was even less reason for Nadine and Orion to interact.

“Yeah?” Andromeda responded, flatly.[2] Her eyes didn’t leave the omnioculars. “Well, I did not expect him to stay for long.”

Nadine pouted thoughtfully and nodded. That seemed reasonable, given his wanderlust.
“Yes, we caught up.” Nadine continued, filling the quiet. “He asked if we could.” She shuffled closer to try and see out of the window with her own eyes. Andromeda blinked. Looked away from the lenses. Why did Nadine have to stand so close? She frowned. Andromeda looked into the lenses again.

“I was telling him about Aoide’s first term at Hogwarts…” Nadine continued, wrinkling her nose. The dust was beginning to tickle it, she was sure. “You know what?” She glanced down at Andromeda’s raven hair. No sign of any reaction whatsoever, so Nadine pressed on. She had a captive audience! “He asked if I’d considered a tutor.” Nothing. “I couldn’t quite believe it. Him!” Nadine threw her hands up in exaggerated astonishment. “He never had a good word to say about me choosing to get Ari and then Aoide tutored by your mother.”

Andromeda adjusted the omnioculars. Shrugged.
“Maybe he didn’t realise a good thing until it ended.”

Above her, Nadine recoiled.
“Eesh Andie! That’s dark even from you.”

Lyra Gamp, Andromeda’s mother, was missing and no presumed dead in connection with the ghastly things that had taken place on Level Nine last February. The witch had been an unspeakable when she’d met and married Mortimer, Andromeda and Orion’s father. She’d left to have a less risky career as a tutor, teaching middle and upper class magical children at the house in Godric’s Hollow before they went to Hogwarts. It had been where she’d met Orion before they were sorted into Slytherin together. She’d met Andromeda there as Orion’s little toddling sister.

Nadine shook the cold, dark memory of losing her slip of a cousin Moses. His body had never been found. She tried not to think about it when she had to work with Andromeda. There was a lingering temptation to seize her fellow auror and former sister in law and demand she wring it out Mortimer Gamp, wherever they were keeping him. She folded her arms again, wriggled her shoulders uncomfortably.

“… he wanted to talk about what happened, you know, with your parents.”
“Better late than never. ”

She stared bug-eyed at Andromeda who barely looked up from the surveillance. There was a lack of emotion in all of her responses. Did she not understand how weird it had been to speak to Orion about that?

“I thought he’d talk to you long before he tried to ask me. You are his sister, after all.”

But Nadine’s grumbles fell on deaf ears. Andromeda had snatched up the omnioculars in a flash, grabbed her by the wrist. Quick as a flash, they were gone, plunged straight into action below. Curses flying.

1.	7th February, 2012 The Illusion Which Appeals
2.	All of Andie’s responses provided by Milly