Bella's Bridesmaid
Narcissa Black hates weddings.
It is spring and lovely and smells like love. The chapel is full of people whom they could count as friends and admirers. It is decorated with red carpets, bouquets of lilies and deep plum fabrics. The heady smell that permeates the room makes her feel light-headed and dizzy.
She fidgets in her lavender dress robes and smiles fakely to a fellow bridesmaid. Everyone is looking at her, she knows. She is the most beautiful, the most lovely. It is too bad that she is not the bride, only a bridesmaid.
It is her elder sister's wedding. Bellatrix Black looks ravishing in her wedding gown. Her strikingly beautiful features, both dark and aristocratic, is played up and accentuated by the innocence of her clothes and the mysteries of her reputation. (Everyone knows that she is hardly virginal after her scandalous exploits.) Everyone is looking at her and she is smirking at them.
Narcissa hates being second best. There has been tons of weddings through the spring season and she has been a bridesmaid for at least three times. (These are dangerous times. Everyone is getting married left and right, simply because there is no better time.) She hates not being the center of attention. She's tired of always being the bridesmaid.
The music starts. She lifts her skirts and takes a step, vowing that she won't set foot in another chapel unless she's the bride.
