A/N: Written for the final of the woman's tennis for the Hogwarts Games and for the Favourite Family Boot Camp with the prompt 'star', the OTP Boot Camp with the prompt 'thunder' and the Favourite House Boot Camp with the prompt 'fairy tale'.
)o(
Druella was not sure what to do as she held the small bundle close to her chest. She had to hold her baby tightly as her arms flung outwards, her mouth was wide open and she wailed for the entire world to hear with an impressive set of lungs.
"Shhhh," she whispered softly as she rocked the baby back and forth. "Come on darling, hush."
Her words had no effect. The crying drew on and on. Druella wanted to cry herself, but she could not. She could only look up at horror at the man beside her.
Cygnus had not said a word nor had he tried to help. He had only stood quietly and observed the bawling baby in her arms.
"She does not take after you," he commented idly over the wails that had finally started to lower in volume. "Not with a scream like that."
The pronoun 'she' sent another shiver of disgust through her. It was not to say she did not want a daughter, but Cygnus wanted a son. It was her job to give her husband what he wanted and she had failed at that. She was only grateful she would have more opportunities to give him his heir.
"Nor you," Druella agreed thankful that her husband had class. She could not help but think that her daughter seemed to take after her sister in law- Walburga.
"Though, it does provide a name."
Druella looked up like a snap. She did not understand what he meant. All of the names he had discussed were boy's names. "What do you mean?"
Cygnus smirked and Druella felt a thrill go through her that her daughter had finally gone silent. "With a scream like that she must be a fighter, a warrior. Our female warrior. Our Bellatrix."
)o(
Rain fell on her in torrents soaking her through causing her to shiver and for her robes to stick to her like glue. Wind rippled her hair and bucked her body with enough strength to bowl her over. Lightning zapped through the inky blackness and thunder clapped and roared around her almost enough to deafen and mute the screams of pain and pleading.
"Please," whimpered the filthy woman the rain mixing with the blood running down her face as she kneeled before Bellatrix. However, all the while she leaned back slightly to try and shield the figure behind her from Bella's wrath. "Please you can't do this."
She roared with delight her eyes lightning up in merriment at the stupid muggle's words. She had enjoyed playing with her. She had taken great pleasure in casting the curse and watching her writher and shake as the Cruciatus Curse rippled through her body. Her veins had almost popped out of her neck and the rapid vibrations of her body had been almost like her seizure, but there was other fun to be had and the muggle was now more of a pest with her stupid words than a figure of enjoyment.
So choked up in her laughter she could not answer with words. She only raised her wand and slashed it downwards. The woman cried again clutching her chest from the wide slash that had appeared down her body. Blood gushed at even faster volumes and louder whimpers escaped the filth's throat.
Kicking her in the ribs, she was now too weak and stumbled to the side with one last pathetic plea. "No!"
She was not quite dead and Bella had to blast away the arm that tried to reach for the scrawling brat.
The filth could not have been more than two or three. Its figure was small and round faced. It was crying softly, tears mingling down its face as it looked up at Bella. The eyes were wide and gloriously sky blue. She might have thought they matched the shade of her sister's eyes but she respected Narcissa too much to compare her in any way to a muggle.
"Crucio," she hissed like a caress to a well known lover and the jet of light hit the baby. It did not understand, but it knew pain and it withered shrieked, screamed and cried more passionately.
Bella laughed long and loud allowing the suffering and power to surge through her body. The idea that it was an innocent child did not enter her mind. She just knew it was a muggle that needed to be destroyed. All muggles were the same; young or old, man or woman, rich or poor they all needed to be killed and Bella was doing just that.
The jet of green light left her wand with the same carelessness. She did not even bother to comprehend the last whimper from the woman. She only turned her face even more alight with delight as she spotted the figure walking towards her.
Black robes circled his frame that was thin and emphasised his tall commanding presence and his otherworldliness. His face was pale and luminous in the light and Bella could not take her eyes off the dark intoxicating eyes that pulled her to him and made her walk as if in a trance.
"Master," she whispered trembling in his presence as he reached her side. Her neck craned to look up at him but she could not look away. "Your work is done."
She immediately felt disappointing as the bloodied eyes that she ignored left her to glance at the corpses behind her, but she forgot her negative feelings when they refocused on her and his lips twisted upwards.
"Indeed you have." One of his beautiful hands rested on her cheek slowly whipping away the blood that lingered there. "My favourite warrior."
)o(
As Druella rocked her daughter against her chest, this time she knew what to do. The hair upon her daughters head was lighter than Bella's and, unlike her sister, she did not cry. She was silent as wide eyes looked up at her mother with fascination.
Druella almost found herself smiling before she stopped herself. She could not forget that she had failed Cygnus again. This baby in her arms was another girl. She would try again for Cygnus' son but the feeling of failure hung heavy over her head was still overwhelming.
"She seems better behaved," Cygnus commented curiously as he perched comfortably on the cushioned chair. "Quieter than Bella."
"Thankfully," Druella replied immediately thinking back to the many sleepless nights when even the house elves could not keep their daughter quiet. "Another Bella would be difficult."
Cygnus nodded making a noise of agreement in the back of his throat. "A son would be better." Dru lowered her head in humiliation, but Cygnus did not notice and continued speaking. "She will need a name."
It would be another Black name, but, yet again, Druella did not have a clue. "What do you think, darling?" Cygnus was always wise about this sort of thing.
His eyes focused down on their daughter, but he did not smile. "She is not a warrior. She is a beautiful princess." Druella agreed with that notion completely. She was quiet angelic. "Her name will be Andromeda."
)o(
Logical and always with the determination that most matters could be solved and determined by simply analysing the situation, Andromeda had a number of views on the way life should operate. She knew that everything occurred in the same pattern time and time again. She knew that the outcome of someone's life could be easily predicted.
It was why she refused to accept fairy tales occurred. She knew they did not. In her world she knew that a girl did not sit back and wait for her Prince Charming to arrive. She knew that, as a pureblood woman, it was her duty to look merely for the most tolerable man. She only ever planned to find someone she could see as a friend and a partner and hope that feelings might develop. There was only a certain number of pureblood men and, despite the fact that she did not see the sense in her family's ideas, she would do what was wise and marry like they wished.
She still resisted the idea that fairy tales did occur as Ted knelt down before her, his smile large but nervous and a shinning diamond ring that he could not afford staring up at her.
She knew that she loved him. She had stopped denying the full extent of her feelings several years ago. Looking down at him it was hard not to smile like a fool and throw herself on him. However, she did not. She stood tall with a proud posture with the gentility that her parents had practiced upon her as she tried to banish the emotion from her face.
It would not help.
"I can't Ted," she replied softly trying to stop herself saying what she wanted and to hide the quiver in her voice. "I can't. I would lose everything. My family."
His face fell and her heart clenched wanting every moment to run towards him and embrace him and make him smile. Her brain resisted.
"You love me," He tried to phrase it like a comment, but it turned out like half a question. "I know you do so why can't it be enough. I love you Dromeda. I want to make you happy. I promise you I can do that."
It would be so nice to believe him, but it was just so unlike her to accept something that was so out of the ordinary and sounded so much like a fantasy.
"Of course I love you." Her smile flicked up slightly as the phrase left her mouth. "But I don't think it can be enough. Fairy tales don't happen."
Ted stood his smile not having returned but his eyes blazed as he went for her hand. She could not refuse him as she lightly curled her fingers around his. "They do. People run away with princesses and, despite the odds, live happily ever after. You have been everyone's princess, but now I want you to be my princess."
It was hard to not let her eyes water at his kind words. She knew what he was saying. She knew even more with the ironic and seemingly perfect way she had been named after the chained princess.
It was still so hard to think that he could be right and that fairy tales could happen, but somehow the part of her that wanted to be unchained leaned over and kissed him softly on the lips. Her hands wrapped around her and she was close her heart beat against his. His hands caressed her hair and his lips sent reverberations through her body and, when they withdrew, she found the smile that she had tried to hide was showing.
"Yes," she whispered her voice quieter than usual. "I will marry you."
)o(
Druella now had years of practice of childbirth and child raising, but she still felt lost and unsure as she held her new daughter. Her eyes filled with water, but, despite her total failure, she refused to allow Cygnus to see her cry.
She had her third daughter. She could not try again for Cygnus' desired son.
Her daughter was unlike Bella and Dromeda. She did not do anything amiss. She rested her head on her arm her eyes closed as she snoozed away like she did not have a care in a world.
"She takes after you."
Cygnus' voice was filled with bitterness and it stabbed through her heart, but somehow her lips moved upwards when she better examined her daughter. Cygnus was right. Unlike Bella or Dromeda, the hair forming on her head was blonde and her nose was small and delicate like hers.
Druella gently stroked her hair looking up at Cygnus. His eyes met hers but they were furious and alight. Standing up he did not look at her but stormed from the room.
"Cygnus," she whispered her voice vulnerable as she watched his departing figure. "Cygnus! What about her name?"
Her raised voice appeared to have woken her baby. She did not cry, but her clear blue eyes opened and looked up at her mother. Druella was frozen until her lips curled into a smile.
Druella laughed softly and carefully caressed her cheek. "My darling," she murmured unable to find anything to fault the baby in her arms despite her gender. "You're not a Black, but you're such a beauty. Like a beautiful innocent flower. My beautiful; Narcissa."
)o(
Narcissa smiled to herself as she allowed her posture to lax slightly in her chair as the woman before her cast makeup charm after makeup charm; perfectly ensuring her appearance was even more flawless than usual.
Today was her day. It belonged completely to her and no one else could take it from her. She had wanted it to occur desperately since she was a little girl listening to her mother's stories. The feelings had intensified in later years when she had understood what it really meant and grown to love Lucius unconditionally.
"And I think that is all, Miss Black," the makeup artist stated, looking over her with a critical eye. "You look beautiful."
Narcissa did not trust the word of a half blood worker, but she glanced at her mother on the other side of the room. She was immediately taken aback by the expression on her face- a genuine smile. Her mother was renowned for being ice and hiding her emotions. Seeing the woman she idolised above anyone else look up at her like that, made her emotions soar.
"Beautiful is not strong enough of a word." Gracefully crossing the room, she offered Narcissa her hand. She automatically took it and stood walking with her to the full length mirror on the other side of the room. "My beautiful flower has never bloomed so brilliantly until this moment."
She could have commented at the words, but she froze as she stopped in front of the reflective surface and moved her eyes up and down the reflective surface.
She was gorgeous.
Of course she was always attractive, but her features were all highlighted to the upmost peak of perfection. Her face was smooth and flawless, the rouge highlighting her high cheekbones and her lips shinning, pink and tempting. Her silky blonde locks were done up in a perfect bun with a few curled strands framing her face and the rest allowed the exposure of her long swan neck. Her dress was ivory; slightly fluffy and making her appear like a princess while the bodice was tight and revealed her small but perfectly framed curves.
Her smile grew and she could not look away. How could she from such a beautiful sight?
Narcissa always had been a bit of a narcissist.
