"Morganna!" Bellatrix marched through the ground floor of Marsham House. "Where are you? We've got to get you properly dressed!"
"I'm upstairs playing!" called Morganna, who was five now and had developed something of a sharp attitude as of late. Bellatrix huffed and ascended the stairs in her own bridesmaid gown - a deep purple colour not of her own choosing - and went into Morganna's pale-green-and-peach rooms. She found Morganna sitting on the floor with three porcelain dolls set up for tea.
But there was something strange. The dolls' teacups were Levitating to their mouths, and the dolls were sitting in unnatural positions. Bellatrix frowned and said quietly,
"Don't stop doing that. Don't stop playing. Just… hold on a moment."
She left Morganna's rooms and went quickly into the Master suite, where she found Voldemort getting dressed into his tuxedo robes. He'd aged considerably in the past five years; running an entire nation would do that to a wizard. They'd decided to stay living at Marsham House so that Morganna could have as ordinary a life as possible despite being the ward of the Dark Lord and Lady. But things were feeling cramped around here, and Voldemort had talked of moving into a grander manor soon. Bellatrix had to confess to herself that she wouldn't mind. Now she stepped up beside Voldemort and said,
"Your silver-haired creature is Levitating teacups for her dolls."
"Is she?" Voldemort looked at once proud and curious, and he finished tying his bow tie before walking out of the Master. He crossed along the upstairs corridor and stood in the doorway of Morganna's rooms, watching her play tea with her dolls. He watched her move her hands, watched her perform expert wandless magic at five, and he smirked.
"She's brilliant," he sighed. "Terrifying, but brilliant. Get her dressed, will you? We'll be late."
Bellatrix rolled her eyes a bit and went back into Morganna's rooms.
"You're to be a bridesmaid, too, but you'll be all in white, like Mummy," said Bellatrix. She opened Morganna's wardrobe and pulled out a fluffy confection of a cream lace dress, and Morganna turned her lip up at it.
"It looks like candy floss. Like a Puffskein," she complained. Bellatrix snorted a laugh.
"You'll look lovely. Now. Out of that drab black."
"You always wear black, Aunt Bella," Morganna reminded her, pulling off the black velvet dress she had on. Bellatrix huffed a breath and yanked on the white dress over Morganna's silver hair. She used her wand to curl the hair, and then she said,
"All right. Big smile for practise. Ready?"
Morganna put on a winning grin, and Bellatrix nodded.
"Perfect."
"What is that child doing?" asked Druella at the reception, and Bellatrix glanced over to see that Morganna was standing in front of the window, Vanishing and Conjuring glass panels.
"Oh. Oh, dear. One moment." Bellatrix rushed over to Morganna and set down her own glass of wine on a nearby table. She put her hand on Morganna's shoulder and said sternly, "You mustn't do that sort of magic here in front of everybody."
"Why not?" complained Morganna. "It's nothing. I can fix the glass once I make it disappear. It's fun. I'm bored."
"Well, if you're bored, go dance with the Dark Lord," Bellatrix suggested, deciding to pass off her responsibilities for a few moments. Morganna let out an annoyed sound and then went over to where Voldemort was talking with Avery. She yanked on his robes and insisted,
"Aunt Bella says you're to dance with me."
"Oh, I am, am I?" Voldemort winked at Avery, and he took Morganna out onto the dance floor, letting her stand on his shoes as they swayed awkwardly.
"Bella."
"Cissy." Bellatrix turned round to see that the bride and groom had finally approached her in the ballroom of Malfoy Manor. They'd been so busy that they'd scarcely talked all day. Narcissa and Lucius looked up to where Morganna was dancing with Voldemort, both of them laughing, probably about the Vanishing windows.
"You're doing such a grand job with her," said Narcissa seriously. "We are more grateful than we could ever say."
"So very grateful," Lucius nodded. He sipped his firewhisky, as though gathering courage, and then he stared at Narcissa. Bellatrix frowned, her stomach twisting strangely.
"Congratulations on the wedding," she said, for lack of anything else to say.
"Bellatrix, we'd like to raise our daughter, now that we're married," said Narcissa. "We're nineteen. She's mature enough to need less intensive care. We'd like… we are so very grateful."
"You want to take her back?" Bellatrix's throat went dry. She turned her face to see Morganna dancing with Voldemort, the two of them giggling like lunatics about something. "No. You don't understand. She's so profoundly gifted."
"We think we can handle her," Lucius said, and Bellatrix shook her head firmly.
"The Dark Lord will never agree."
"Why not?" Narcissa asked rather petulantly, looking resplendent in her cream silk gown.
"Because there was a… there was a…" Bellatrix stumbled over what to tell them. "It was foretold that Morganna would be a servant of the Dark Lord, raised by him and me."
Narcissa and Lucius gave one another grave looks, and Lucius sipped his firewhisky again.
"But that could still come to pass," he insisted softly. "If she lived with us, and we were His servants, too, then -"
"You'll have to speak to the Dark Lord about this," said Bellatrix. She felt her eyes well heavily at the notion of letting Morganna go. It had never been parenting, she knew, but it had felt awfully close for the last five years.
She had fed Morganna her milk as a baby. She had sung to her, rocked her to sleep. She had healed her through fevers. She had taught her to speak, taught her to walk. She had dressed her, bathed her, changed her nappies and taught her to read. Was not this child as much Bellatrix's as Narcissa's?
"You'll have to speak to the Dark Lord about this," she said again, and she stormed off, off toward the window where Morganna had been Vanishing and Conjuring glass without a wand.
"No! I don't want to live with Mummy and Daddy! No!"
"Settle down, Morganna," warned Voldemort, but Morganna wandlessly hurled her blocks toward the wall. The wood on them splintered from the force of her magic. She aimed her hands at her bed, and she managed to dislodge it from where it stood. It squeaked and moaned against the wooden floor, and Voldemort said loudly again,
"Settle down, Morganna!"
"I will not go live with them!" Morganna screamed, and she wandlessly threw all her dolls at the wall, shattering all of them. That was enough for Voldemort, who whipped out the Elder Wand and aimed it at Morganna.
"Petrificus Totalus. Settle down, Morganna. Now."
She stiffened up and toppled over, able to see and hear but not able to move. Bellatrix sighed and came into the bedroom, mending the blocks and dolls with quick Reparo spells and moving the bed back to where it had come from.
"If she doesn't want to live with them," she began, but Voldemort insisted,
"Your visions showed her calling us My Lord and Aunt Bella. She already does that. Narcissa and Lucius are married now. They are her parents. There is no reason why they can not raise their own child."
"The prophecy," Bellatrix murmured. "The stone, the wand, the cloak…"
"Can all be given to her whilst she's living with Narcissa and Lucius," Voldemort insisted. "I have a wizarding country to run, Bellatrix. Playing father has been very difficult."
"She can hear you! Master!" Bellatrix cried, and both of them stared at where Morganna lay in her white fluffy dress on the floor. Voldemort sighed and hovered over her.
"I will strike a bargain with you, Morganna," he said stiffly, as though she were not a child at all. "You live with your mother and father until Christmas. If you despise it there, you can come back here. You do not try to make things difficult for them. You try to make things easy for them. If you like it there, you stay there. If you hate it there, you can come back here at Christmas. Understood?"
She couldn't answer, so he released her from her stiffening, and she sat up slowly, looking much calmer now.
"My Lord," Morganna said slowly, "What if I hate them?"
"You won't, Morganna," Bellatrix promised. "You know them. It's Mummy and Daddy."
"But I don't like them so very well," Morganna protested. "They get afraid when I do magic. They don't laugh like The Dark Lord laughs."
Voldemort scratched at his hair and eyed Bellatrix. He cleared his throat and said carefully,
"Whenever we visit, you can do as much magic for me as you'd like. All right?"
"All right. Fine." Morganna began to cry, and Bellatrix had to turn her face away. She finally said gently to Morganna,
"Let's get you into a nightgown, little creature; it's so very late."
Author's Note: Part III of the Storm Series! Who's ready? This story will feature Morganna! Prophecies! Political insurgencies! A trip to Mexico! And More! Let's get this party started!