Memories from the House of Black

Short fiction concerning members of the Black family.

Winter 1964

This is the story of how a legacy of a thousand years came to an end. This is a tale of how one family disappeared, of how generations of wizards came to nothing.
This is the twilight of the Black Family. Here is the beginning of the end.

Outside it is snowing. The residents of Grimmauld Place are mostly Muggle, and have a tendency to be somewhat afraid of the strange people living at number twelve. Eccentrics, they call them. This is Christmas however, and people are usually inclined to be more accommodating at Christmas. As such, the visiting relatives of Grimmauld's residents do not mind sharing their snowball fight with the visitors to number twelve.

There is only one child who does not laugh with them as they beat each other with weapons of snow, although she joins in with their game in silence. She is wrapped tightly in her winter clothes, aristocratic, according to the grown-ups, her long dark hair held back in a fancy braid. Her eyes are dark, and there can be no doubt that she is beautiful. All the boys outside observe her with reverent awe, and are afraid of hitting her too hard with the snow. She is clever, playing this to her advantage, she beats them every time. Oddly, they don't seem to mind, being beaten by a girl from the house of eccentrics.

This is Bellatrix.
She is the dark one, the one they never understood, the eldest.
She is afraid; in her heart she fears greatly what will come.
In her mind she holds a memory, of a dream in which she saw her world crumble.
She does not tell a soul, for they might think her strange.
She knows her dreams come true sometimes; she sees the destruction left in the wake of her fight for freedom, and seeks to undo the future.
She will fight on the dark side, for now the dark side is the safest way to go.

She stops, only for a moment, around her the game continues. She stares upwards, back towards her house, to where the other stands watching. She waves her hand in a beckoning motion, but the girl in the window does not move.

This is Narcissa, the watcher at the window whilst the others play in the snow outside.
They call her the fair child. The youngest.
She laughs at everything, like a small twinkle of starlight her joy echoes across the world.
She is the dreamer; the one they always said would change the world.
She is the beautiful one, that is all.
She dreams of changing the world, making herself more than just beauty. She knows one day she will better her siblings, will be the one the world remembers.
The greatest of the Black sisters. This is what she dreams.

From behind the dark one, another appears, smaller and mousy. She is pretty, but not beautiful, her hand reaches out to touch the other on the arm.
"What are you looking at, Bella?" she asks. Bella turns slightly to face her sister.
"Nothing," she says. A snowball hits her on the shoulder and explodes into powdery dust. As though this breaks a spell, the fight resumes, and Bella is still winning. The mousy one glances up at the house where her sister had been looking. All the windows are empty.

This is Andromeda.
She is the one who learned to be stubborn.
Trapped between the eldest and youngest, she is neither fair nor dark. Between the great beauty of her sisters she is entirely unremarkable.
She was never one to indulge in dreams, for she knows they never come true. Nor will she plan for a future that may never come.
She has her way.
She does not mind, for she knows herself and is certain. She knows she will find happiness for she never thinks to seek it.
Here and now is where she lives, wherever that may be.

This is only the beginning.

Before these children is kept a thousand years of history, in front of them, the greatest events of those thousand years. Night is falling rapidly now. In this moment in the snow, they cannot know what awaits them. In this moment they are innocent, they are truly themselves. This last winter that they share before the end begins. This is the end, as it stands. Here and now. This is the story of the last years of the Black family, from their twilight until their fall. It is almost over now.