Black Family Secrets
In a small room in a Muggle hospital lies a woman placed in isolation. The doctors are baffled at her symptoms. She has gone through such physical pain, such horrific torture that she ought to have died a long time ago. Yet, she is still alive. Unable to move due to the amount of pain she suffers, such a large amount that no amount of medication will cure, unable to talk, and only just breathing. But alive nonetheless. She has been fighting for ten long years, and still she continues to fight. There is no lasting damage done to her brain, thankfully, and she doesn't even need a life support machine. At first they gave her treatment, but then they decided to stop, that nothing could be done for her. But to their surprise, she fought back. They still give her medication, in the hopes that one day her fighting spirit will heal her and she can lead a normal life again.
This woman has a chalky white complexion, long sleek silvery black hair, gaunt cheeks and is underweight. She is monitored, she is continually on a drip to feed her. She has known this small, unfeeling white room for ten years. She has seen doctors come and go, seen medical students grow to become consultants, seen nurses' personal lives interwine with their professional lives. Three times she has seen a man propose to his girl, who is a nurse at the hospital, in front of her colleagues and her patients. She has seen two women say yes, and one woman say no. She has seen fights, screaming, and so many other things that would give a hospital quite a bad reputation if their patients knew of those things.
She doesn't understand why the doctors battle for her, why they are so determined for her to survive when she wants nothing more than to die. She fought back, yes, it is true, but now, she knows that it is time for her to go. The past is haunting her still, and she doesn't want to remember. She betrayed the ones who trusted her, she betrayed her heritage, she betrayed the Order of the Phoenix, she betrayed the Dark Lord and his followers. She betrayed everyone.
She knows that if she had gone to St Mungo's all those years ago they could have healed her, and restored her to health. Her condition has detoriated so much now that even if she changed her mind she can't go there. It takes up all her strength just to breathe, let alone get up and Disapparate. She came here for a reason. She was ashamed, bitter, vengeful - and all those emotions were directed at herself. She could not let herself get away with betraying so many people. She came here, to the hospital run by those she once looked down at, in order to punish herself. She knew that with their limited knowledge, they would not be able to cure her. She wanted to feel pain, and drive herself to the brink of insanity. When they took her off her life support, or off her medication, she fought to stay alive, because she wanted more pain, because she believed that her punishment was not over.
Her name is Dyna Black nee Carrow, the aunt of twins Amycus and Alecto Carrow. The wife of Leo Black. The sister-in-law of Orion Black. The close friend of Walburga Black nee Rosier. The mother of Bellatrix, Andromeda and Narcissa. The grandmother of Nymphadora and Draco. The aunt of Sirius and Regulus. She was the unique one of the whole Black/Carrow family. She was the one who understood, the one who always stood by you without judging you. She was, like her whole family, the white sheep in a black flock. They all were, in their own way. And only Dyna knows. Only Dyna can provide an explanation.
But now she is on her dying bed, wishing that the doctors would take her off the medication, knowing that even if they don't she will die anyway. Magic is far stronger than Muggle technology, and Dyna knows this. She is going to die, and her life is flashing past her eyes. She remembers everything, and keeps it in. She never lets it go, never breaks a promise. She may have betrayed people, but she doesn't betray promises. She knows that she is not Dyna Black any more, that she is not human, that she is simply nothingness in a body.
She remembers the pain, of letting the ones she loved go...
Orion was the elder of the Black brothers. He was the smart one, the charming one, the everything one. When a seventeen-year-old Dyna Carrow was sent to Number Twelve Grimmauld Place to find a man to marry, Orion was the one who was the more favoured. But Dyna saw Leo nonetheless. He was the one who appealed more to her, the quieter one yet still with the same spirit. He was the man that Dyna had fallen for; the man she swore that she would marry. Orion was the more flamboyant one, yet still he found a wife who preferred to be in the public eye a lot more than Dyna.
Walburga and Dyna had been friends at Hogwarts, both in Slytherin, both beautiful, both dutiful and honourable to their families. But Dyna knew that Walburga would never taken a second look at Dyna if she'd known what thoughts haunted Dyna's mind even back then. Dyna doubted her actions time and time again, but always pushed them away, because it was all she'd known. Yet those doubts always returned to haunt her mind with persistency.
Dyna had, in others' eyes, become a great disappointment to Leo. She bore three daughters but no sons, miscarrying the only boy she had been fortunate enough to carry. But to Leo, his eldest and his youngest brought him dignity, and for a while, so did his middle daughter. Bellatrix, the eldest of the three, was a liar, a con, and abusive. She had a circle of well-known friends who boosted her popularity at school, and on her graduation night she had joined the Dark Lord, and become one of his most faithful followers. Leo was proud that his Bella was fighting for what she believed in and what was thought to be right by pure-bloods far and wide. Dyna knew, however, that her Trixie had only joined because she had met the Dark Lord in fifth year and had fallen in love with him ever since. Bellatrix had gone from being sexy, clever Trixie to dark, troubled Bella. And yet while many still considered her to be insane to continue to follow the Dark Lord, Dyna knew that it was love that drove her eldest daughter to beyond the point of no return.
Andromeda was Dyna's middle child and was always the star of the family. While her elder sister captured people's attention by force, and her younger sister by beauty, Andromeda captured attention simply by forming her own opinion. She never spoke out against the Dark Lord, but nor did she praise him. Most people thought she doubted him, including Leo, who kept trying to persuade his Andie to join the Death Eaters. However, Dyna knew that her Medie was afraid. She didn't dare to disobey her father, knowing the consequences, but she refused to praise something that she detested. Silence was the key, but it could not last forever. On Andromeda's graduation night, the night of her intended induction, she was not to be found. A quick search revealed that Andromeda had run away. Dyna found out later that Medie had run off with a Muggle-born wizard, Ted Tonks. She knew that Medie would not do something as rash as this unless she was serious. In her heart, Dyna had been expecting it all along.
Last, but not least, was Narcissa. She had grown up uniquely, blessed with blonde hair and blue eyes - a trait most girls would kill for but which she detested, because it was not of Black heritage. Narcissa, Dyna thought, would have been on the good side like Medie was, if it wasn't for the fact that she fell in love with Lucius Malfoy, who felt the same about her. She grew up dating him, she married him, she bore his son. Her love for him enabled her to stay true to him, even when it dwindled, she stayed loyal out of habit and out of duty. Leo had been overjoyed that his Cissy had married a respectable pure-blooded man, while Dyna sensed that her baby Narci and Lucius Malfoy would not be happy together. Even now, stuck in a Muggle hospital, Dyna maintained that belief, not knowing whether it had come true or not.
Leo's Bella, Andie and Cissy. Dyna's Trixie, Medie and Narci. Three girls but with two different personalities. Their childhood personalities and the women that they grew up to be. The evil, the good, and the bit of both. Bellatrix was the evil daughter, Andromeda the good and kind, and Narcissa, the one who was simply a bit of both but never showed it. And Dyna knew that love had driven them to be the women they were now. But what of her nephews? Orion and Walburga's sons? The rebel and the secret?
Sirius had always openly defied his family, and the havoc it caused when he was Sorted into Gryffindor! Dyna had been forced to rescue Regulus from the hostility of Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place, because he was so terrified of Walburga's hysterics and sudden attempts to throw things around. Regulus had begged her never to tell his cousins or brother, and she had gladly agreed, making sure the house-elves knew not to tell, too. Sirius had been the rebel from the very beginning and it was nothing short of a miracle that he had managed to last fifteen years. Dyna loved Sirius with all her heart, and had been heartbroken when he had walked away from the Blacks, never looking back, the same as Medie.
Regulus had been brainwashed into joining the Dark Lord and for a year or two, he served him loyally. But then one day, Dyna recieved a letter from him. A letter explaining such sordid secrets about the Dark Lord that Dyna had been so appalled at, she betrayed him and joined the Order of the Phoenix, and secretly helped Regulus to find and destroy all the Horcruxes. They had gotten to the second before last, but Regulus had wanted to do it on his own, with the assistance of Kreacher, his house-elf. Dyna had permitted him to do so, and was once more heartbroken when she heard of his death. For Regulus was the best of them all - he had helped to bring the Dark Lord down. All but one of the Horcruxes were destroyed, but Dyna had been too badly injured to go and tell anyone. Instead she walked away from the Order and into this Muggle hospital.
But now she was regretting it. She needed to tell someone in the wizarding world, so they could tell Dumbledore for her. She had heard from muttered whisperings between doctors and nurses that strange things had been happening. Dyna could tell that it was the Dark Lord's handiwork, but she couldn't do anything more. She couldn't move, she couldn't talk. Dyna realized that it was time to go, to a peaceful place. Whoever was the Dark Lord's equal would be able to find out about the Horcruxes. The doctors and nurses watched Dyna as they switched the life support machine off, knowing it would be for the final time. And as Dyna Rosaine Black nee Carrow took her last breath, the Black family secrets died with her...