With a million credits to my amazing friend, known as my Cissy, who wrote this with me. Please review!
Unfortunately, Bella and Cissy are not my creations.
Narcissa set her glass down with a sigh, enjoying the silence. It was bliss sitting there listening to the tick of the clock. Still she had that nagging feeling something bad was to happen. She pulled herself up and turned to the large Victorian window, sliding the curtains she watched silently as the snow fell peacefully. A smile shone on her lips but immediately faded, someone was walking towards the gate, it couldn't have been her husband he was away on business. Nor could it be her sister, she was imprisoned... wasn't she?
The cold winter wind bit at her exposed neck as Bellatrix Apparated to the ominous wrought-iron gates of Malfoy Manor. As soon as she had retrieved her wand and gotten free of the fighting Aurors, she went there. Narcissa was sure to be home, the goody goody housewife she was, and the cold, damp, uninhabited Lestrange Hall seemed like as much a prison as Azkaban. Quickly but weakly, she trudged through the deep, white snow along the path towards the front doors.
Narcissa blinked and caught a glimpse of ratty brown hair. It was all to familiar, still she couldn't be so sure, after all it might be another Death Eater or reporter on about her husband. With a disdainful sniff she swiftly walked to the doors. Curling her lips she put on the look she was so well known for. It did her well, usually people fell silent and weary at the sight. Huffing she opened the doors and stared at the lone figure.
Approaching the doors, Bella looked up. She saw the blonde haired woman she knew as her sister and smiled, though the effort of it hurt. The wind whipped at her overgrown hair and she attempted to hold it back from her face as she moved up the steps. She spoke simply, her voice shaky and breaking with little use over the years, "Cissy?"
Narcissa froze, her hands gripping on the door handles. Seeing her sister there in front of her was a too much. Her lips parted and a single raspy gasp escaped. Narcissa couldn't talk she instead stood there in her walled up, cold self. She took a step back letting room for her sister to walk in.
Bellatrix wasn't quite sure what to say or do but moved hurriedly and without hesitation into the warmth of the manor house. She stopped just inside the door and looked round. It hadn't changed one bit, appart from a new portrait of Narcissa, Lucius and a teenage boy with white blonde hair. Surely Draco was only 5, 6 at most... But she thought about it... How long exactly /had/ she been in that horrific place? Bella turned to face her shocked sister, thin lines of age and stress lined the corners of her eyes and mouth though she had covered those well with a thick layer of pale make-up. "H-how long?" she asked.
Narcissa felt awkward as she closed the doors with a loud, echoing thud. She turned towards Bellatrix growing colder by the second. Of course she wanted to hug her sister and cry of happiness but she could tell Bella had changed. "What are you..." she began in a low whisper.
Bellatrix just stared, breathing heavy and sniffing a little from the sudden warmth. She couldn't muster the energy to show emotion or do as little as speak. So she stood. Looked. Watched her sister. Waited for an answer.
Narcissa grew pale, "So you don't recall? ...Bella it's been 14 years." She stared at her sister, walking over to sit in the couch. She couldn't believe it, how much her sister had changed! Narcissa shook her head, she would keep her distance until Bella showed at least a relevance of her old self.
Bella blinked at the news. 14 years? Over a decade in that cold, dark, haunted place and yet as hard as she tried to remember, to think, to imagine what it had been like the only thing she could bring to the surface of her now scarred mind was the be never-ending pit of darkness she had sat in. Bellatrix lifted her head to the light, her gaunt, skeletal features becoming more promenant. She glanced back at her sister once again, seeing her face again after all that time seemed to bring forgotten memories back to her; stolen memories. She smirked a little.
Narcissa studied her with weary blue eyes, noticing her sister's smirk she relaxed a tad. But the frown returned, was Bella lost in her own mind or something? She surely wasn't speaking to her. Narcissa shook her head and spoke again with a more softer tone. "You need to eat."
At the voice, Bellatrix jumped. She hadn't been expecting her to talk. She also didn't expect to be able to answer, "You need to diet." In fact, her reaction, one of which she might have given years ago, surprised her so much she let out a quiet though chilling laugh.
Blinking she crossed her arms, trying to block out the laugh, though as haunting as it was Narcissa couldn't help but to smirk. "I'm serious, you need to eat." With that Narcissa called to a house elf to bring them something to eat. She wrung her hands... how much was left of her sister?
Bellatrix lowered herself into a chair, blowing on one of many stray strands of hair falling in her face. She didn't want to eat. She didn't want to sleep. She /did/ want to see her master. She had heard from the other Death Eaters that there would be a meeting that night and she was so excited and thrilled at that she could do nothing but touch and glance at her Dark Mark every so often, hoping that any moment it would burn and writhe on her forearm.
Narcissa sighed seeing how distant her sister was. When the house elf came back with a platter of food Narcissa clapped her hands. Maybe now her sister could eat and finally become her old self again. Hey, there was nothing wrong with a bit of hope.
Bellatrix watched the elf as it came with the food. She sneered as it put the platter down and hurriedly left. She glanced up at her little sister who seemed eager to dig in. Bella stared at the food in from of her once again and then at the door which the elf had just rushed out. "I'm not eating that," she said, poison laced in her words.
Narcissa's face dropped. "And why not? It's perfectly norm-" Narcissa jumped her words cut off by the loud pop of someone apperating in the kitchen. Breathing fast Narcissa ran to see what it was all about and stopped dead in her tracks. Lucius stood there his face bright with rage. "Where is she?" He spoke through his teeth. Narcissa shivered at his sudden domanite posture. "She's in the parlor-" Again she was cut off. "We cant have her here! Do you want those damn Aurors on our tail?" he hissed. Narcissa closed her eyes. "Let her stay."
Bellatrix waited until Cissa was out of the room to stand and have a snoop around. She would not eat food prepared by disgusting, dirty animals and so had to find some means of amusing herself. Bellatrix heard Lucius Malfoy's loud, firm voice from somewhere in the manor but shrugged it off as she ambled to the fireplace and watched the flames dance behind the grid. She imagined, to her joy, Muggles and Mudbloods burning in it...
Narcissa finished talking with her husband and walked back into the parlour without him. Bella would stay. Finally her persuading had paid off, after all they did have connections to the ministry. Clearing her throat Narcissa tilted her head at her sister, again in her own mind. This wore her thin and made her want to cry, she wanted her old sister back!
Bellatrix slowly turned to face Narcissa and spoke in her broken but mocking voice, "Old Lucius is still a dickhead I hear," she smirked and laughed again; that same haunting laugh. Bella walked towards her sister and stood inches from her, tucking a lock of her blonde hair behind her ear.
Narcissa's brow furrowed as she looked at her sister oddly. "He was just scared was all." She grew all the more wary of her sister but held her ground. Narcissa was hesitant how close her sister was, what had the place done to her?
She bit her lip and supressed another maddened laugh, "Poor ickle Lucius..." she mocked him. She had always enjoyed other people being scared, she knew it was an easy state to strike them in. Now though, she felt as though mocking her brother-in-law was funny, hilarious but... Why? She wasn't quite sure... Bellatrix leaned into her sister and pecked her cheek with dry, cracked lips. "I missed you Cissy."
Narcissa sighed and touched her cheek. "I missed you too." She crossed the room and sat down crossing her legs as she did. Narcissa grew all the more distant. This surely wasn't a good thing. "Do you still remember Draco?" she asked looking down at her manicured hands.
Bellatrix did remember her nephew though it had irritated her constantly how much the boy looked like his prat of a father. "Yes," she answered shortly. Bellatrix was reminded of the portrait in the foyer. Surely Draco wasn't... she quickly added in her head... 15 already? No... Yes...? "How old is he?" she questioned,
Narcissa gave a quiet groan. "15 Bella, he's 15." She frowned and shifted in her seat. Of all the things why did her son have to be a lost priority for her? It made her heart sink.
Not caring much about her nephew, Bella was still in shock that she had been locked away for so long. She wandered over to the window and gazed out at the snow. It looked like a white blanket on the country scene before her. She took in the forgotten surroundings for a while, thinking to herself.
Narcissa shook her head, her eyes beginning to prickle with tears. Imprisonment had taken it's toll on her sister that was obvious, but she couldn't grasp the concept. Where was her sister? This woman standing before her was nothing but a hollow shell of her old self. She had already lost one sister, Bellatrix's condition was heartbreaking she had lost her too. Sniffing and wiping away a single tear Narcissa stood up and walked out to the gardens. Sure, it was cold but Narcissa never minded it. She plunked herself down on a snow covered bench, her hands reaching out to pick a frostbitten rose. Her sister was gone, she had to accept that. Letting the tears flow freely from her eyes she softly plucked the rose petals, watching them flutter to the ground. A blood red stain on the sheer white background, it was already to late. Narcissa's world was already turning a shade of gray. She had lost everything near and dear to her. How she wished her sister could change.
Noting that Narcissa was no longer behind her, Bella decided to go and follow her. As weak and brittle as she was and as frosty the weather was, she found the entrance to the gardens and made her way out to where the flecks of red were whipping around the white blanket in the wind. She shook violently, wearing only a thin robe but she was used to feeling cold by now. She was only grateful that the cold was on the outside this time when she had been so used to feeling it in the inside. As Bellatrix approached her sister, she cleared her throat slightly, causing her to jump slightly. "Isn't it a bit cold to be outside?" she said, smiling for the first time in what felt like a lifetime. She took a seat beside Cissa.
Narcissa pricked her finger on a thorn and made a slight squeak. It was awful being pulled away from her state that she was in. She sucked lightly on the cut. Seeing her sister smile caused her own to warily appear. "No..." she whispered watching the breath escape her lips, "I suppose not. I like the cold." She watched her sister take a seat beside her and tore off another rose, twirling it in her hands.
Bellatrix saw the crimson liquid bead to the top of the prick and she bit her lip. Why had Azkaban made her blood lust stronger? If there was one thing the world didn't need, it was for Bellatrix Lestrange to have a stronger bloodlust than she already did. She fought back the nagging urge to touch it, smell it... she became lost in her thoughts for a moment before snapping back. Her mind was jumbled and didn't seem to be making an awful lot of sense. "That's a nice rose... Nicer if it were black..."
Narcissa frowned and whispered "Yes, I suppose so." She stood up, dropping the rose at her feet the tears beginning to fall again. "You've changed...that place it's done something to you!" Narcissa glanced at fallen rose, thinking of her sister, all those memories. No. It was a lost cause. Her sister was a lost cause. "Well its good to have you back Bella, in some form at least." She turned sharply on heel, crushing the rose beneath. If this was to be then Narcissa didn't stop it. She gathered herself, becoming the Malfoy she always was and walked. Narcissa walked away from her sister, away from the rose a picturesque of the now torn relationship between the sisters. She left knowing things would never be the same.