September 1st 1981 Hogwarts Express, Seventh Year Slytherin Girl's Carriage:
"Did you hear about Spinx?" Cassiopeia Montague (or Cassie) whispered. "Went on a raid last Monday, was supposed to be a quick in and out muggle-baiting, except when he got there he found a company of Aurors waiting for him with no backup on the way. Barely lasted a minute until…"
"Poor Sally," Isabelle Rosier sighed. "I went to visit her three weeks ago, their little girl was the cutest thing, barely a year old. She still wished she could be here with us you know." The four girls nodded. Sally Spinx nee Crowley had been their fifth roommate until her parents had removed her the summer before fifth year to get married. Apparently assuring the continuation of the Crowley bloodline amidst the death of many of the suitable young pureblood men in the war had been more important than their daughter's education. Thus in rapid succession she had become betrothed, dropped out, married and conceived while everyone else had been worrying over their studies. And now she was a widow at 17 with no credentials and an infant daughter.
"What will she do now, do you know?" Beatrice Blishwick asked.
"Probably work in her father in-laws spice shop, that's what she was doing before," Isabelle replied.
"If it were me, I'd never have let them force me into the marriage in the first place," Alecto Carrow declared.
"It probably wouldn't have been as easy as all that. If the Aurors hadn't caught Mulciber…" Isabelle shuddered. Darren Mulciber had been one of her brothers friends as well as her betrothed until he had been arrested a week before the wedding. Shamefully she was grateful that the same ministry that had killed her brother had saved her from that dreaded fate and let her finish school.
"Shame about that. Pretty soon there will be no acceptable pure-bloods left; my parents are finally starting to look for a husband for me again. It's been more than a year since Reggie disappeared but I don't think they've completely given up on me being the next Mrs. Black. If they don't hurry it'll be only invalids, babies, half-bloods and Hufflepuffs left," Cassie said. Beatrice flushed. She didn't talk about her family much, but occasionally the other girls would tease her for her muggle mother and the fact that all three of her brothers had been sorted into Hufflepuff. The line of Blishwick was fading and she felt it would be on her shoulders to restore the name. Alecto, however, was rolling her eyes.
"Well, I for one refuse to be traded like a cow for bloodlines," she said. "Bellatrix Lestrange would never stand for such treatment."
"Bellatrix was forced to marry Rudolphus Lestrange straight out of Hogwarts, in case you forgot," Isabelle scoffed.
"She wouldn't look forward to being treated as the Death Eater's Ladies Auxiliary either. You'd never see a lady like her fussing over her table so dinner is ready when her husband comes back. No, she fights with her man. She fights better than her man. I so want to be her when I leave school. Only I won't need a man."
"And have you run this past your parents?" Isabelle asked.
"No, but I'm not like you. No money to my family, pure-blood heroes aren't going to come knocking down my door," Alecto said. "Unless I make it happen there will be no betrothal."
"Humph, I heard that your parents were desperate enough they were offering you to Snivelly," Cassie said.
"Lies," Carrow responded. "My parents have better taste than to betroth me to a half-blood."
"I heard it was the other way around, that as soon as your parents presented the offer he ran away so fast the grease in his hair couldn't catch up," Cassie said.
"It might not do to make fun of him so much this year," Isabelle said. The other girls stared at her and Cassie whispered to Beatrice "I knew she had a crush on him." Making fun of Severus Snape had been one of the few things that the whole school had united in when he was at Hogwarts, and those who had social ties to the Death Eaters, like most Slytherins, liked to continue it even after he had been out of school for three years. Isabelle thought it rather rude and had liked him more than her brother's other schoolmates. He had also been the only one to show at her brother's funeral, Mulciber and Avery begging off for prior commitments to avoid suspicion of collusion. He also regularly dropped in on her mother for tea to see how they were doing, which was how she was probably the only person on the train who knew the biggest gossip for the start of term feast beforehand. She debated leaving them in the dark, but decided to move forward.
"I was just warning you, that since Sluggy retired over the summer and Dumbledore named Snape Potions Master and Head of Slytherin it might be in your interest to be more respectful," Isabelle finished.
"Gods, this means that I've seen two of my professors hanging upside-down with their underwear showing," Beatrice said wincing, remembering the incident in Charms that had caused them to see much more of Flitwick than any of them ever wanted to.
"At least he will properly honor those of us who follow the Dark Lord in completing Salazar Slytherin's noble goals, unlike Slughorn who shuns us," Alecto said.
"Any chance he'll provide the liquor like Sluggy does for our house parties?" Cassie asked hopefully. Isabelle shook her head; Snape had always been the most sober of Evan's friends. "Could he put in a good word for me with Avery?"
"You do know that Avery is with Bast, don't you?" Isabelle said.
"What Avery and Rabastan Lestrange do in private is not likely to produce pure-blood heirs for the Avery family line to leave all their money to. Besides, it's not like he's running an Imperius Brothel," Cassie retorted, making a dig at the most notorious of Muciber's crimes.
"You'd be ok with that, though, your husband keeping a lover on the side? And the only thing you'd be there for would be to have his children?" Beatrice asked.
"No, she'd probably pull a Zabini," Isabelle replied.
"There is no proof that she did anything to her husband, the poor man," Cassie said. "The second wedding happening only months after he was buried while the baby was in nappies is purely circumstantial. Still, mighty selfish of her to take two pure-blood men for ourselves when some of us are having trouble finding one"
"Is that all you want to talk about, catching a man and having babies? No higher ambitions from a Slytherin?" Alecto said.
"Not all of us can be Bellatrix sitting at the right hand of the Dark Lord," Cassie said. "Besides, it was good enough for my mother and her mother before her."
"I'd quite like to design dress robes," Beatrice said.
"A seamstress?" Alecto said with disgust.
"No, a designer," Beatrice replied. "I'd like to become the first haute couture wizarding designer. In the muggle world clothing designers are wicked famous and I think a witch could do a much better job of it than stupid muggles. Though the Dark Lord and his servants do have such a strong inclination towards black that all the work I'd do after we win would likely be entirely with patterning…"
"You must make my dress robes for the Malfoy's Christmas ball," Cassie said. "I'm sure Isabelle also would like some."
"Yes, that would be wonderful," Isabelle smiled, hoping it would be more tasteful than the pinks Beatrice favored.
"Bellatrix Lestrange could care less about the Malfoy's Christmas ball," Alecto said.
"Bellatrix Lestrange is a batshit idealist, the rest of us live in the real world. Being a proper pure-blood lady means there are things that you just must do," Isabelle said.
"And if you were an improper pure-blood lady and not the last of the Rosier bloodline, what would you do then? Wouldn't you fight for the honor of our cause to your very last breath?" Alecto said.
Isabelle stared at her calmly, "I don't think it's worth dying for, do you?"
"Of course I do" Alecto said. "I'm going to find the boys, they probably aren't afraid to fight for the Dark Lord." She stepped out of the compartment, and stormed off to find the seventh year boys.
"Do you think we should do something for Sally? Make a card, get a gift or something?" Beatrice asked. "I've started knitting maybe I could make something for the baby?"
"Excellent Idea," Isabelle replied, and the three of them started creating a gift for their friend.
Their last year of school did not go at all like they expected. For one thing, starting in November all plans that involved the Dark Lord were null and void. Alecto was devastated. The mass arrests of Death Eaters further depleted the pool of eligible pure-blood bachelor's. Cassiopeia was devastated. The Malfoy's did not hold their annual Christmas ball so the girls could not wear their new dress robes. Beatrice supposed she should share Cassiopeia's disappointment, but her friends absolutely adored their robes and had started recommending her to the younger Slytherin's as well as anyone in another house who would still talk to a Slytherin. Isabelle didn't know how she should feel. Part of her just knew that it was a disgrace that the people who took Evan's life had won and that part made the rather larger part of her that was just relieved it was over feel guilty.
Sally Spinx was just overwhelmed. Little Samantha grew so fast, Samuel's father and grandfather started retreating from the world following the war and she found herself running their spice shop. As foreign countries opened for trade with Britain after the end of the war she found that the shop could start stalking some of the foreign magical spices that had been missing for years. Order's started flooding the Hogsmeade store, and sometimes she would be overwhelmed but at the end of the day somehow she got all the orders filled. Over time it got easier and she even found the time to develop her own signature mixes, and soon there were few English house witches who did not have a bottle of Sally Spinxes' Spice Mixes on hand. Despite this success she didn't feel she had made it until after the ministry let students take their OWLS and NEWTS outside of their normal year due to the Second Voldemort War. She was not your typical student at the testing, but she might have been one of the most excited. She passed most subjects.
Cassie Montague spent most of the year following graduation watching her nieces and nephews and trying to catch the attention of Avery (who was still grieving after Lestrange who had been imprisoned for torturing the Longbottoms). When she finally despaired of him ever noticing her she went on a Grand Tour of Europe, seeking a husband. Unfortunately most continental wizards shied away from English pureblood fanatics. When she was 25 she gave up on ever finding a husband. When she was 28 an Australian half-blood shipping magnate named Lorenzo Capulet caught her attention due to the Shakepearian irony of their names. They live in Sydney with their three kids.
Beatrice's reputation in robe making at Hogwarts led to her obtaining a position as apprentice to Madam Malkin's immediately after graduation. A year into her apprenticeship Horatio Gladrags, who was the assistant manager of the London Gladrags store, convinced her to leave Malkin's for Gladrags carrying several of Malkin's signature patterns with her. The ensuing rivalry, sabotage and romance filled many editions of Witch Weekly culminating in the wedding of Beatrice and Horatio being on the front page of the Valentine's issue in 1984. Beatrice quickly became the top designer at Gladrags and with the help of her husband's company established the first wizarding fashion week in Paris for fall 1989. It is still going strong and Beatrice's line is always the main attraction. Beatrice and Horatio have two kids and are currently running the new Gladrags shop in Milan while trying to get a collection shown in muggle fashion week.
Alecto Carrow sought most of her life for the opportunity to be on the ground floor of the next Dark Lord. She was going to be his Bellatrix, whoever he was. This led her to fall in with many frauds, petty thieves and unsavory men seeking to take advantage of her. Sometimes the only thing keeping her alive was her partnership with her brother. They drifted from one place to another, looking for a purpose. When the Dark Lord rose again they were the first to receive the Dark Mark. She never managed to rise like Bellatrix had and even grew to share the distaste most had for the older woman. Alecto and her brother were appointed Hogwarts professors under Severus Snape and both died at the Battle of Hogwarts.
Isabelle Rosier should have gone home after finishing Hogwarts. Her mother was expecting her; she was to be married to a rich eighty year old widower with many connections to the Ministry. Some of his grandkids were in the lower years of Slytherin. It was a fine match, one that would restore honor to the family after Evan's end. She should have been on the train looking forward to her new life. However, none of her friends questioned when the night before she was going home Professor Snape called her into his office. A first year that Cassie sent to spy on his office said she thought she saw the fire turn green and someone go through the Floo, but they never knew where exactly she went. Sally thought that Professor Snape once picked up an order made with her handwriting, Beatrice thought she saw her in New York once, Cassie thought she passed her in a crowd in Australia and Alecto thought she saw a letter from her on the Headmaster's desk. No one blamed her.
Disclaimer 1: Characters in this story are either from or derived from Harry Potter by JK Rowling thus I have no monetary rights.
Disclaimer 2: Opinions held by the characters in this story reflect the views of the characters and are not meant to be seen as the views of the author.
Authors Note: Yes, Snape did turn in both Evan Rosier and Mulciber but Isabelle doesn't know that. Spinx is based on one of the mystery names in JKRowling's notebook. The Imperius Brothel appears in my story Mulciber's Dollhouse which might not get another chapter. There may be another story in the making for the Slytherin girls in Harry's year including Samantha Spinx and that will be posted as a second chapter.