Disclaimer:
I don't own anything!
Summary: Tom Riddle knew what he
was doing. Bellatrix Black did not. She was the first Death Eater.
The
First
By Philandera
Chapter 1—Graduation Day
You had screwed up on everything since your graduation from Hogwarts. If you could, you would travel back to fix what you had broken and hated for being broken. Your heart had known nothing but self-disgust for the past years. You had lived on lust and shattered love. You had joined his side because you craved darkness and he could give you everything you wanted, because everything you thought you wanted you needed. He built you a life of steamy nights and forbidden curses, and you had risen to the glory that had been rightfully yours. But then the fire died, leaving nothing but ashes. Unlike a phoenix, you could not—and would not—rise up. As you caress the silver blade in your hand, you think back to how it all began, from your graduation day.
The day was clear and sunny. All the days of the Hogwarts seventh years' graduations were sunny. If there was ever disagreeable weather, it mysteriously cleared up before diplomas, signed with a flourish by the headmaster or -mistress, were distributed among the students, who either cried, rejoiced, or both.
Bellatrix Black did none.
She laughed, and at the same time ignored the sly but hopeful look on the boy next to her, a fellow Slytherin named Rodolphus Lestrange. She knew how he looked at her, how he had looked at her for the past seven years. She hadn't encouraged him, however.
"Black, Bellatrix!" called her Head of House, Professor Slughorn.
She smiled for the camera.
She smiled for her professors.
She smiled for the boys looking at her, even the ones attached already. They weren't only Slytherins.
She smiled for her sister, Narcissa, whom she knew was watching. Probably with tears. Narcissa had always been a bit of a sap, but she wasn't a dumb blonde.
She smiled for Professor Slughorn.
But most of all, she smiled at the diploma as it was handed to her, signaling her release from Hogwarts. "Party in Hogsmeade!" someone in the audience shrieked when the last diploma was given.
Bellatrix whooped. Parties. Parties she was good at.