Author's note:
Dear readers,
a new idea for a fanfiction popped up into my mind today, and I simply needed to share it with you. As this is a work-in-progress, I'm currently also working on 3 other fanfictions and haven't got any chapters pre-written, I don't know how often I will be able to update it. But I plan to update at least twice per week. As I'm not an English native speaker, I hope that you can bear with my mistakes in grammar, spelling, and punctuation that I will undoubtedly make, although I check everything with a program before posting it. I appreciate any constructive criticism. So if you notice anything major in the language department, please don't be afraid to point it out to me via a review or PM. I always long for your honest feedback - constructive criticism included - to improve my writing and story. So, if you like my story, want to know something about the storyline, characters or time frame or point something unpleasant out, don't hesitate to leave me a review or PM.
This story will play in the Marauder's Time, starting in 1978, and span into the 1980s. It will be AU, non-canon and rated M because it will contain distressing topics like physical abuse and depression as well as descriptions of physical interaction of sexual or violent nature. So be warned and only read it, if you are over 16. The main ship will be BL/SS, so if you don't like these two together, please refrain from reading my story. I will change Bellatrix Black's birth year to 1955, Andromeda's to 1953 and Narcissa's to 1957 so that my story will make more sense.
I hope that you will enjoy reading it.
Best wishes
Vani12
Black Rose
Prologue - A life-changing discovery
Bellatrix' Bedroom, Black Manor, Countryside near London, February 1978
Bellatrix Black fiddled nervously with her 12 ¾", Walnut, Dragon heartstring core wand between her delicate, long fingers. Hell, what was wrong with her? For the last days, she couldn't stop throwing up, had terrible headaches as well as some dizzy spells and felt miserable in general. Well, it was a given that she would be the only person in her family who had caught a stomach bug, Bellatrix thought groaning miserably. Being sick wasn't fun at all and a real pain in her ass because she needed to cancel her next meeting with the brilliant Dark Lord. She played distractedly with her raven black, thick curls and tried to suppress her nauseousness. Fuck, she really couldn't stomach anything without vomiting again. Today, her mother Druella, a thin, elegant blonde woman with striking icy-blue eyes in her mid-forties, had urged her to drink a camomile tea and eat a toast for breakfast. She claimed that Bellatrix needed to stay hydrated and nurtured to build up some energy. Although Bellatrix was highly stressed out by her constant nagging and mothering, she decided to follow her advice like the obedient, perfect pure-blooded lady she claimed to be. Sure, Bellatrix was anything but a well-behaved, doll-like daughter, but her mother Druella didn't need to know this.
Well, Bellatrix thought with a wicked smile gracing her pale, pouty lips, her mother was sadly well aware of some of her youthful escapades and knew that she was a strong-willed, ambitious and independent young woman with an allergy to rules, societal expectations and authorities. Albeit she didn't suspect anything of her newest escapades and knew only a sliver of the wild and crazy things she had gotten up to in her youth. But Bellatrix could nonetheless count the scars on her body for any mischief and scandalous action she had been caught for in Hogwarts. Druella valued discipline, virtue and proper behavior above all and punished her daughters for failing to meet her standards mercilessly and cruelly. Behind her well-practiced mask of the caring, loving perfect pure-blood mother slumbered a vicious, sadistic and crazy witch who wanted to model her daughters into perfect pure-blood wives by any means. She had tortured her daughters until they were exhausted with wicked dark curses and jinxes when they had misbehaved and shamed the esteem of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black and ruled over their entire future with an iron fist.
She had educated her daughters Andromeda, Bellatrix, and Narcissa in the history of the House of Black, magical heritage, etiquette and morals of a pure-blood witch and the Dark Arts since they had been five. For the House of Black belonged to the Sacred Twenty-Eight and was one of the oldest, wealthiest and largest pure-blooded wizarding families in Great Britain, Druella regarded every Black as wizarding royalty and bred her daughters to perfect future pure-blooded wives. She and her husband Cygnus who worked as a politician for the domination of the Pure-bloods in the Ministry, didn't care about the welfare of his daughters and spend his time working or enjoying evenings with his mistress, installed in them the arrogance of any aristocratic Pure-blood, the dogma of blood purity thanks to their family motto Toujours Pur and the ambition of any Slytherin. They had signed marriage contracts with respectable, wealthy pure-blooded wizards out of the Sacred Twenty-Eight since their birth. Andromeda should marry Corban Yaxley, Bellatrix should wed Rodulphus Lestrange and Narcissa should get married to Lucius Malfoy.
Well, Bellatrix chuckled amusedly. That didn't turn out so well. Her older sister Andromeda had eloped with a Muggle-born wizard named Ted Tonks barely out of Hogwarts five years ago and got blasted off the Family tree for her betrayal of the pure-blood ideology and the scandal she had brought upon the wealthy House of Black. Although Bellatrix could understand her reasons for wanting out of a future marriage to Corban Yaxley, a sadistic, cruel and violent thug who would have undoubtedly tried to beat Andromeda in submission, reduce her to a pretty society lady without her own money and job and tie her down to him with some bratty children, she condemned her marriage to a Mudblood and her abandonment of the pure-blood ideology. In her mind, Andromeda wasn't her sister anymore. She was only a blood-traitor who chose a life in the filthy Muggle world with a classless job as a receptionist in St. Mungo's, a magical weak and poor upstart and a freaky half-blooded daughter out of fear to fight for the rule of all Pure-bloods and a flighty emotion called love. She was absolutely dead to Bellatrix and she would love nothing more than to destroy her disgusting, rosy Muggle fairy tale.
Bellatrix scoffed. What a weak and delusional witch Andromeda was. Love wasn't anything real. It was only a passing fancy, something to cloud the minds of lovey-dovey hormone-driven teenagers and naïve little girls who believed in the existence of their Prince Charming. The fool Dumbledore and his band of goody-two-shoes advertised it to stir up hope in the hearts and minds of their supporters. Love wasn't a pure, powerful feeling that could conquer all. It only was a delusion that made one vulnerable and pathetic. Bellatrix knew that love didn't exist and the quest for it was only a waste of time and energy. She didn't love her fiancé Rodolphus, although she couldn't deny that he was a great fighter for the rule of Pure-bloods and loyal follower of the Dark Lord who had – unlike her – already been branded with a Dark-Mark. And she knew that he shared her feelings. Hell, Bellatrix laughed hysterically. She had noticed his preference for men since their teenage years. She knew all about his secret trysts with Alexander Avery on the Astronomy tower or his current affair with Anthony Dolohov. Bellatrix wasn't jealous of his male lovers or scandalized by his homosexuality, although she realized that it was a pretty frowned upon lifestyle in the Wizard society and against any rules of the persistence of pure-blooded lines.
She didn't feel attracted to Rodolphus and was lucky that she didn't need to concern herself with the prospects of little brats. They had a simple business deal. They would get married this summer in a lavish ceremony, exchange their vows – naturally without any binding effects – and a quick peck on the lips in front of the aristocracy of the Magical world, act like a happily married couple in public and keep their extramarital affairs quiet. Besides that, they would live in Lestrange Manor near Manchester, inhabit two different wings of the Manor, get their own accounts at Gringotts and fight together for the reign of the Dark Lord. Bellatrix hoped that the powerful, mysterious and compelling Dark wizard would brand her with the Dark Mark after her marriage to Rodolphus. Bellatrix cursed in anger about the male-dominated Magical world. Although she had proved her loyalty to the Dark Lord by using torture on filthy Muggles, devastating a Muggle hospital and dueling cowardly blood-traitor Aurors, the brilliant Dark Lord wouldn't brand her with the Dark Mark before she had been married to a Death Eater and had proved her value by creating new dark curses and recruiting new followers.
So, Bellatrix needed to wait until summer to be finally branded with the Dark Mark. Then, she would show everyone that she was the most loyal and accomplished follower of the Dark Lord albeit being a woman. A shiver ran down her back as she thought about the power and esteem she would get by being a branded Death Eater. She could finally plan their attacks, destroy the Light side mercilessly with devastating curses and by cracking their protective enchantments and relentlessly establish the rule of Pure-bloods in the Ministry and at Hogwarts. Perhaps, the Dark Lord would even acknowledge her loyal servitude to him by promoting her to his lieutenant or his mistress. Bellatrix longed to be the lover of the Dark Lord because she was deeply attracted to his dark aura, powerful magical signature, and handsome looks. With his neat, slightly curly raven black hair, his piercing emerald green eyes, his clean-cut features and ripped tall frame, he radiated cold beauty and devilishly sexiness. Bellatrix desired him like no other man and dreamed about passionate nights between the sheets with him. But he had rejected any shameless flirts, sensual touches or straight-forward offers of sex with the excuse of solely being focused on his plans to conquer the Wizarding world.
Bellatrix thought with a wicked smirk on her lips that she would change his mind with her newly developed dark curses, plans for spells to break the security charms of Dumbledore's Order and her alluring beauty. She was rudely interrupted in her glorious future plans by a new wave of nausea. Hell, she hated her stomach bug, because it ruined her plans to research magical protective enchantments and ways to break them. In lightning speed, Bellatrix jumped up from her plush, covered with dark purple sheets, bed and raced to the toilet bowl in her cream tiled en-suite bathroom. Thank Merlin, she had reached it just in time to throw up her undigested toast and tea. Hell, her mum's advice was as always rubbish, Bellatrix thought annoyed while clutching her toilet bowl for dear life and miserably emptying her whole stomach contents. After some minutes of exhausted vomiting, Bellatrix gathered her energies, stood up from her kneeling position, flushed the toilet and walked in front of the huge bathroom mirror. Shocked by her peaky skin color, the dark circles around her eyes, her glassy and reddened blue-grey eyes, her sunken facial features and her wild, greasy curly hair, Bellatrix used a non-verbal Fresh-Breath Charm to dispel the taste of vomit in her mouth, washed her face with an Aguamenti and smoothed out her curls with a Hair-combing spell and Dry-shampooing spell.
Taking a look in the mirror again, Bellatrix noticed satisfied the huge improvements on her looks, although she still looked ill. But she couldn't change that because her stomach bug was still racking her. She really didn't know what she could do to alleviate her symptoms for no healing potion or spell seemed to work in the long run. The Anti-Headache Potion and Anti-Nausea Potion only operated for a short time and her dizzy spells didn't stop at all. "What the hell is wrong with me?" thought a panicked small voice inside Bellatrix' head. Going through her symptoms – nausea, vomiting, headaches, dizzy spells, and fatigue, she came to a shocking conclusion. Every symptom could apply to the early stage of pregnancy. Her huge blue-grey eyes widened, her face turned pale and she started to tremble. It couldn't be true, she couldn't be pregnant. Clutching her beloved wand tightly in her right and her cream washbasin in her left hand, Bellatrix raised her wand with a trembling hand above her abdomen. She concentrated on the wand movements and incantation of the Pregnancy-detection Spell and muttered in a shaky voice Dignosce praegnationem. Immediately, a green light appeared above her abdomen and her world came crashing down. She was unwanted pregnant – and by this arrogant, smug Half-blood Severus Snape nonetheless. Bellatrix blacked out and her body fell onto her covered with a plush, light brown bath rug cream tiled bathroom floor.