From the Ashes
Summary: When Cygnus and Druella Black were killed in the burning of the Black family manor, their three daughters were left alive, but alone. However, when questioned by their Ministry carer, one of the girls was found to be uncorrupted by belief in blood purity. Separated from her sisters and sent to an unlikely adoptive home, can Narcissa rise from the ashes of her past and shine?
Disclaimer: It belongs to JK, not to me.
Chapter One
Emergency. It was a word that, as awful as it sounds, had become quite routine to the Ministry of Magic in recent months and the night of June 13th 1959 was no exception to that at all. In fact, that very night was the beginning of one of the most dangerous times in Wizarding history.
It had all begun when a woman had seated herself before the drawing room fire, deep within the Black family manor. Her three young daughters were long since in bed, the warm summer air tiring them a little sooner than in routine. 'With the Summer Solstice a few mere nights away, this is the quietest they are likely to be for a dozen days at least.' she thought, leaning further back into the velvet cushions of the armchair she occupied and opening a novel that was resting on the table.
A quarter of an hour later, the woman shut the book she was reading, a smile spreading across her face as she heard the door of the informal lounge click shut.
"Are the girls in bed?" the man in the doorway asked.
"Just about." she replied, moving from her place in the chair to the heavily-upholstered settee a few feet away. The dark-haired man crossed the room and sat down beside his blonde-haired wife, leaning back into the pillows and wrapping his right arm around her shoulders.
"It's rather strange, isn't it?" Druella sighed contentedly. "To think how much the girls have grown."
"I thought precisely the same when I went to check on them last night." Cygnus agreed, nodding his head slowly. "I know it's rather nostalgic of me, but I can still remember when Bellatrix was stealing my wand and toddling around casting spells. Andromeda chanting fairytales twenty times over, as if she wasn't sure we'd heard."
"Oh, I know!" Druella laughed, leaning her head back into the upholstery. "And don't even let me begin on little Narcissa. Nearly three years old already and I still feel as if it were only yesterday I brought her home from St. Mungo's."
Cygnus slowly nodded his head in agreement, following his wife's gaze to the family portrait hanging proudly above the mantelpiece. True, all three girls were still young, but in their parents' eyes, they were close to slipping away, each candle on their cakes a reminder that they would not always remain in their beds upstairs, that they would have their own lives to lead, ones that would hardly involve their parents.
Suddenly, a low rumbling sound came from somewhere outside of the huge manor.
"There's a storm approaching, it seems." Druella sighed, instinctively moving a little closer to her husband, as if sensing some disturbance. In response, he tightened the hold of the arm laid about her shoulders. Their eyes met for a moment as she turned her head, and the pure sadness mirrored in them was unmistakable. It lasted for naught but a moment, however, as the sadness was replaced by fear at another, far louder sound.
It was at that moment that Cygnus and Druella truly realised how little time they had, and that they had a decision to make. It was a simple choice, one of two options, but it was an almost undoubtedly lethal decision either way. Still, there was only one route that could be taken, and both knew it.
The short walk up the stairs took only half a minute at most, yet it felt like a lifetime to Druella, knowing it would be the last time she would do so. The coward in her screamed to run, hide and not look back, but her motherhood retorted that she would be a monster if she did so. Of course, the motherhood prevailed and she charged into the room, running to her eldest daughter's bed and shaking the cocoon of blankets vigorously, ignoring the groans of protest from within.
"Bellatrix, get up. Up! Bellatrix, now!" Druella cried, repeatedly hitting the girl through the covers.
"Why?" came the sleep filled murmur from the blankets.
"No questions, just move!" came its reply. Bellatrix could hear her mother's anxiety through her anger, and could feel it in her heart, not to mention the blossoming bruise on her left side from her mother's attack. That was why she reluctantly sprang out of bed.
"Good. Now wake Andromeda, I'll fetch Narcissa. Hurry!" Druella instructed her daughter, running from the room to the one three doors down. There she reached down into the crib and plucked her youngest daughter from the bed, wrapping her blankets around her and bobbing her up and down as the girl began to wail in her arms.
"Ssh, Narcissa, ssh. I know that you don't want to get up, but we don't have a choice, sweetheart. Ssh." Druella was almost sobbing as she held her daughter, as she walked through the door back to the corridor, knowing each step she took was one step closer to parting with her daughters.
The other two of the girls were waiting outside Andromeda's bedroom when Druella returned to them, looks of worry and fear mirrored from her face to their own.
"Mother, what's happening?" Bellatrix asked, visibly shaking a little as spoke.
"I can't tell you that, Bellatrix. You only need to know that you need to get out of the house, as fast as you can run."
"Are you coming as well?" Andromeda piped up, answering the question that she knew Narcissa would have wanted to ask, if she knew the words to do so.
"I will do. As soon as I've found your father, I'll be out there with you as well." It truly stung Druella's heart to lie to her seven-year-old daughter, but it could not be helped. They would never go if they knew the truth, and she would have to watch them be destroyed. She could not allow that to happen. She would not.
As soon as she heard this, Bellatrix reached out her arms to take Narcissa, who was now crying profusely at being separated from her mother. Ignoring this, the eldest girl held onto her with one arm, grabbing Andromeda's hand with the other hand to pull her along behind her.
"Mama!" Narcissa whimpered, disliking the urgency of the situation.
"She'll be with us in a minute, Cissy, but we need to get out first." Bellatrix explained, her pace quickening even more, in hope that it would mean that their parents could get back to them faster.
Unfortunately, just as the thought went through Bellatrix's mind, the house ten metres behind them erupted into flames. All three girls turned, Narcissa beginning to scream, while Andromeda and Bellatrix clenched their hands together, watching in silence as their lives were changed forever.
A/N: Please let me know what you think! I really value all my readers opinions.