Persuasion

Chapter 1

Narcissa knelt over the limp, bloodied boy, dead leaves catching in her iridescent blonde hair as it brushed the damp ground. As she placed her hand gently on his chest, she couldn't help but think that she had done all the wrong things for all the right reasons. She always had, ever since she witnessed her eldest sister slip away from her, intoxicated by a mysterious man named Tom. Narcissa had known at once that this "Tom", if he truly existed (you never really could be sure with Bellatrix), was poison. She felt the threat of loss deep in her bones, swimming slowly up from her toes, pushing itself toward her young heart. And so, before she even entered Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Narcissa took it upon herself to take back her sister's soul.

Narcissa had been on her own from the start, considering her only feasible accomplice was far too self-centered to help her family. Always hurt by Bella's favoritism of Narcissa over herself, Andromeda ignored Narcissa and chose to find a Muggle boy to snog and flaunt, knowing full well of her family's (and particularly Bella's) convictions about the mixing of magical and Muggle blood. Narcissa wasn't the least bit surprised at her family's disowning of Andromeda at the pre-pubescent age of thirteen, but she herself was not against Andromeda's wishes. Narcissa had always held different beliefs, different morals than the rest of her family, though none of them had ever suspected it; she was a brilliant actress, a natural. Perhaps she was a genetic fluke, perhaps she was just the first of them to not fret over the uncontrollable evolutionary forces of genetic traits. Either way, she had her own agenda, and she would do anything to make it her reality.

Ten days after her eleventh birthday, Narcissa entered Hogwarts and became the last of the Black family to join the ranks of Slytherin. At Christmas that year (and, much later, to her darling son) she would proudly recount the story of her sorting, stating that the hat simply had known she must be a Slytherin. In all reality, the interaction between the hat and herself was far from that.

You could be great in Gryffindor, so much courage...so much conviction...so not like your sisters or parents. You wouldn't be alone; your cousin Sirius...he'd be joining you in four years' time. What do you say, Narcissa?

The hat had whispered rather convincingly into her ear. It had certainly given it a good effort, and Narcissa had naively been impressed with its knowledge and capabilities. But she still pleaded to be placed in Slytherin, promising only the best of intentions. The hat must have believed in her, for it shouted "Slytherin!" with the utmost amount of certainty.

It was the first time that Narcissa understood the power of persuasion.

Narcissa hadn't lied about her good intentions. After all, she knew her sister would never speak to her, let alone abandon this Tom, had she been sorted into another house. Even Andromeda was a Slytherin for Merlin's sake. Narcissa couldn't feasibly rescue Bellatrix without first building her trust, so that was what she did.

Entering the Slytherin common room for the first time was...exhilarating, to say the least. Bella had linked arms with her as they walked into the dungeon together. She had been so pleased with Narcissa's sorting that she had even given her a kiss on the cheek at the feast, followed up with an icy glare at anyone who gawked at the two of them. She hadn't let go of Narcissa's slender arm since. Her sister's excitement made Narcissa feel like a traitor, a double agent of sorts, though she had yet to betray anyone (aside from perhaps Godric Gryffindor himself). She knew she was not like these people at heart, but she could act. She could persuade. She could lie.

Fooling her fellow classmates was one thing, but fooling her own sister was far from easy.

"So...who exactly is this boy Tom you mention occasionally, Bella? Does he go to school here?" Narcissa had questioned one Thursday night in late September. They were reclining against Bella's headboard in their pajamas, the emerald curtains filtering the surrounding candlelight into a rather dim haze. Narcissa had always had quite brilliant night vision, and Bellatrix didn't need much light to doodle all over her Herbology textbook's meticulous illustrations.

Bella dropped her quill at Narcissa's question, scratching a sharp black line through the picture of gillyweed she had been morphing into an octopus. Bellatrix always liked to write with the sharpest of quills.

"...excuse me, Cissy?"

"I..." Narcissa faltered for a second under Bellatrix's stare. "I was just wondering who he is, since you speak of him sometimes. I've never met a boy named Tom at Hogwarts."

"Stop saying his name!" Bellatrix shrieked suddenly, slamming her book shut. Her quill cut straight across her mid-thigh, causing her to jerk and spill the dark ink that had been carefully balancing on the same leg. Narcissa looked down and saw the ink slowly seep into the cut on Bellatrix's milky leg, but her sister had yet to notice. "He's not a boy, he's a man, Narcissa, and it would do you well to never mention him again."

Narcissa let out the breath she had been holding since the outburst. She watched as Bella finally took note of the mixture of ink and blood blooming throughout her thin slip, dripping down her leg and spilling onto her bedspread.

"Fuck," Bellatrix muttered to herself as she reached for her wand to clean up the mess. Suddenly, she froze. She slowly turned toward Narcissa, her head cocked curiously, and delicately pressed her wand against Narcissa's pale throat. Narcissa's pupils dilated immediately; her heart rate quickened to a pounding that Bella could feel through the wand pressed against her sister's pulse point.

"Narcissa, I don't believe I've ever spoken about a Tom to you before. In fact, I don't believe the name has ever been uttered by anyone in our mutual presence. How did you...where did you hear of him?" Bellatrix's voice was soft and level, though no one was there to eavesdrop. But Narcissa could feel Bella's wand slowly digging further into her neck; she knew it would bruise within the hour. More important than that was the reason behind her current predicament. She had most definitely heard Bellatrix speak of a Tom...hadn't she? The name Riddle suddenly floated onto her tongue, and she knew immediately that it was his. In fact, she could even picture him. Dark hair, cold eyes, skin so pale it showed the bluish veins below. He was a man, undoubtedly, but with a young face that made him seem no more than sixteen. Narcissa mentally reared to a halt. How could she see him? She slowly looked up into her sister's eyes and knew she wouldn't easily escape this one.

"Bella...I'm sorry! I don't know how, I just...know. I can see him and understand him and I-" Narcissa choked on her sentence as another voice entered her head. It was as if she could suddenly feel Bellatrix's thoughts, roaring and crashing into her own mind.

Occlumency...no, legilimency, right?... but how could she?...only just a child...how does she know?

Narcissa stayed frozen as Bellatrix's voice materialized with an alarming clarity. Can she feel my thoughts now?..could be inbreeding...how does she know? How? Narcissa stifled her panic at the sound of Bella's voice inside her head. She quickly formed an excuse.

"Bellatrix!" Narcissa exclaimed, snapping her sister out of her bewilderment. "I think I heard you murmur the name in your sleep. Yes, that must have been it. When you fell asleep on my bed a few weeks back, back at home..." Narcissa could feel Bellatrix begin to fume once again, "yes, that certainly must've been when-"

"DON'T lie to me, Narcissa!" Bellatrix screamed as she jabbed her wand against Narcissa's throat. Her eyes began to water and she involuntarily whimpered in pain. "What dark magic have you been using? Do you know what you're doing?" Bella's voice was exasperated, angered, but her thoughts were slowly becoming excited.

She barely knows any magic yet, much less dark magic...but she's so bright...could be so helpful to the cause, could be my right-hand woman! Discover secrets without even being there, keep track of the liars...I'd have the pleasure of torturing for torture's sake!

Narcissa gasped in shock. Torturing? Why did Bellatrix want or need to torture anyone? Narcissa knew she was cornered. If she didn't keep Bella in this state of excitement...well, she didn't want to find out what would happen next.

"I don't...Bella, I think I can read thoughts. I don't know how, they just come to me, as though I can feel them. I feel them swim around in my head. Am I mad?" Narcissa held her now-watery gaze with her sister. Instead of seeing Bellatrix's anger, Narcissa saw a twisted sort of...arousal. She could practically feel the adrenaline pumping through Bella's veins.

"Oh no, Cissy, you aren't mad at all!" Bella suddenly pounced on top of her, dropping her wand down Narcissa's slip and haphazardly slamming her head against the wooden headboard behind her. Narcissa winced as her vision darkened for a moment, then she felt the blood and ink smear from Bella's thigh to her own. She gritted her teeth in pain as she felt something slowly cut up her thigh. The quill must have been thrown between them in Bella's excitement. She raised her eyebrows at her sister, who was currently holding her shoulders against the headboard, nails digging half-moons into her sensitive skin. "You are...amazing. Extraordinary, really," and so beautiful, what a pretty little mess... Bellatrix gushed as she looked down admiringly at the mess on their legs, their blood mixing and blackening with the ink, filling their mirror-like wounds.

"Narcissa, darling...I'd like you to meet Tom."