Andromeda had already been at the school for three years when Bellatrix first arrived. Bellatrix had somehow expected her to be the girl she was at home, tall and domineering, wrapping herself in cold and hostility. To Bellatrix's surprise, however, Andromeda changed in almost every way the moment she left her parents, standing in the midst of Muggles on platform 9 ¾, trying not to breathe in the air.
Bellatrix was left completely alone as she watched her sister go off with her friends. Staring forlornly after Andromeda, she finally dragged her trunk to an empty compartment and sat down, alone. She had been there barely ten seconds before the door burst open and suddenly she was surrounded by a group of sixth and seventh years. They looked rather surprised to have a first year in their midst.
One of them knelt down, pushed his face up against hers. Bellatrix looked right into his eyes. They were a bright blue, contrasting with his thick black hair.
Beautiful, she thought, surprising herself.
"Now then, kiddie, why don't you toddle off to people a bit nearer your age, eh? Leave us big people in peace?"
She didn't move and the boy sneered, an ugly expression marring his perfect features. "I asked you once. I'm not going to ask you again."
Keeping her brown eyes fixed on his blue ones, Bellatrix pulled her trunk from the luggage rack and dragged it out of the compartment, quietly sliding the door shut behind her.
She found other first years, of course, but found none to be her equal. They talked of such trivial things that if she was trapped with them she would close her ears to them and meditate. Bellatrix did not have any friends at Hogwarts.
The idea of the beautiful boy stayed in her mind all throughout her first year at Hogwarts. She was sorted into Slytherin and joined him in the cold dungeons underneath the school.
Every night she would curl herself up in one of the big, enveloping armchairs in the common room and watch him. He surrounded himself with such idiotic people – they fawned around him like rats, always allowing him the warmest spot beside the fire, doing his NEWT coursework for him so he had more time to pursue things outside of the curriculum, always trying to scrabble above each other for his favour. Bellatrix hated and scorned them. She considered only herself to be his equal.
One day I will have you, she thought to herself as she sat in shadow, his face illuminated by the firelight on a cold January night. She scolded herself for thinking it. Making silent promises to oneself never made anything happen.