A/N: I originally started the concept of writing a Black sisters fic back in 2004 and I posted a couple of chapters of it in 2005, under the title of The Forsaken Daughters. Granted, I lost interest after awhile and because the Black Family Tree had shown up and messed around with the ages I hade determined for our favourite sisters, I found myself dealing with a nice dilemma on how I was going to make the story work out (I had a couple of chapters written already) So I abandoned it.

Now I'm back again after reading Deathly Hallows, and fully armed to invent a plausible story concerning those murky years of Voldemort's first reign and the Black sisters. So here's good luck to me and I hope you enjoy the story.

Fruits of Solitude

Prologue

Walking hand in hand, my eleven-year-old grandson and I mingle among unsuspecting Muggles at King's Cross. It's a fine end-of-the-summer day, just hot enough to wear light clothing but with that fine chill as an undertone to herald autumn's entrance. Today, Teddy Lupin leaves his grandmother's home to begin Hogwarts. He's excited and jittery, not at all nervous as most first-years are. We weave ourselves in and out of the massive crowd, until we approach Platform 9. Teddy's trunk and grey cat are happily place upon a trolley, and Teddy, being the young absent-minded boy he is, almost collides into a telephone booth. I look at him and he looks at me.

Originally, I wanted to side-along Apparate with him but at Teddy's insistence we opted to go through King's Cross.

"You go first," I murmur to him.

He nods, summons all his strength and while no prying Muggle is observing, breaks into a run and passes right through the barrier that will lead him to Platform 9 3/4. I follow him discreetly and silently.

The Platform is full of adults, teenagers and small young children laughing, bawling or simply running around. The Hogwarts Express stands silent in all its majestic glory. I spot Teddy up ahead, babbling excitedly to a quartet of adults who are accompanied by five young children. The saviour of the wizarding world is already twenty-nine years old with three young children and a beautiful redheaded wife. His brother-in-law is also there with his own wife, a brown haired witch and their own two children.

"Hello Mrs.Tonks," Ginevra Weasley-Potter greets me, holding the hand of her six year old son, who is in vain trying to free himself from his mother's grasp.

"How are you, dear?" I reply, pecking her cheek and that of her son. I turn likewise to the black haired four-year-old who is hiding behind his mother. Harry Potter, holding his daughter in his arms, comes forwards and likewise greets me.

"We're fine, we wanted to come and see Teddy off," he says. Lily Potter squirms in her father's grasp.

"That's very kind of you," I say, ruffling Teddy's soft brown hair, who has come to stand beside me. Ron Weasley and Hermione Weasley-Granger greet me while an exuberant little girl grabs onto Teddy's pants.

"Teddy..." she whines. Teddy pats her head absent-mindedly, now looking nervous. It is almost eleven o'clock. I know he fears leaving me alone, thinking I'll be sad and lonely. He's partially right. I will be lonely for he has been my constant companion for eleven years. I have lost many friends and I have no family left besides a younger sister who, after 25 years of no communication between us, has been making a half-hearted attempt to salvage our relationship.

But sad? Not at all.

Maybe he is too young to notice but he is taking his first baby steps into the wizarding world and his first steps into maturity and into becoming the wizard his parents would have been proud of. I choke up at that thought.

Harry has now relinquished his daughter to Ginny and alongside with Ron, is boarding up Teddy's trunk and cat.

"You'll be fine Teddy," says Hermione reassuringly, juggling her small son in her arms. Teddy only nods dumbly.

"You're going to love Hogwarts," says Harry, who was finished boarding up Teddy's stuff. "You shouldn't worry too much, after a few days you'll be comfortable in your classes and soon enough you'll be dreading going back home," he continues. He gives his godson a reassuring squeeze on the shoulder.

"We'll take care of your grandmother," he adds.

"Do you think I'll be in Gryffindor?" Teddy asks, speaking for the first time.

"Sure, why not? After all, Remus was a Gryffindor," says Ron, shrugging his shoulders.

"Yes, but Tonks was a Hufflepuff," counters Hermione. "And anyways, it's not a hereditary thing."

I smile, thinking that maybe Hermione was forgotten about who Teddy's ancestors are, the all-exclusive Slytherin family that the Black house was once. Except for one family member. But I decide not to say anything. A whistle blows out suddenly, making Teddy give a startled jump. Students are giving last minute hugs and kisses and rushing off to the scarlet train.

Teddy gives his godfather a farewell kiss and hurriedly says goodbye to the three other adults. H takes his leave of the children and I accompany him to the train. "Promise you'll write every week?"

"Promise," I reply.

He hugs me tightly and I bend over to kiss him on the cheek. He starts going up the steps of the train and suddenly stops and turns around, his face aghast.

"What about my lessons?"

He is obviously referring to his abilities as a Metamorphmagus, a trait inherited from his mother. For the past year, as according to Ministry law, Teddy has had weekly lessons on how to learn to control and use his abilities accordingly. There is no use of wands as his ability is dependent only upon himself.

"The Headmistress has already seen to it," I reply soothingly. "You'll probably continue with them at Hogwarts."

"Sure?" he asks doubtfully.

"Sure."

Seemingly relieved, he gives me a bright smile so like his mother's and scurries inside the train. His head them sticks out of the nearest window, and as the train begins to move he waves to me and to the others. I wave back and the train rounds a corner.

My Teddy is gone.

Gone only temporarily but that doesn't stop the heartache that now weighs heavily in me. It brings back bad memories. Teddy has always been invited to the Potters' household and often he'd sleepover at his godfather's house, enjoying the stories of the Second War, of the Marauders and other miscellaneous stories that Harry could come up with. Anything relating to his mother and all he has to do is ask me.

But he's gone for nine months. I know I'll see him again at Christmas but still...

The others have already left, heading back to work or to drop off their children at home. I wander over to a green bench and sit down. Rummaging inside my hand bag and take out a slightly squished sandwich I prepared for myself early this morning. I stretch out my legs and look around at the now empty platform.

Platform 9 3/4, home of so many memories.

Memories like when Bellatrix first got onto the Hogwarts Express, followed two years later by my own ascent into the train. Platform 9 3/4, which had seen that fateful time when Narcissa attacked me in plain sight of everyone, calling me a blood traitor and a Muggle-lover after I had eloped with Ted.

The place where Ted and I accompanied Nymphadora as an eleven-year-old girl and every year after that. It's hard to believe she's been gone for eleven years, hard to believe Ted is also gone and my son-in-law, Remus, to whom I was just beginning to warm up to.

It's nor fair. They were all so young.

Nymphadora with her young twenty-four years, Remus and his thirty-seven years of life and Ted only forty-four. Their youth and the manner they were killed is what hurts the most. Ted, who was hounded out by Death Eaters, forcing him to go into hiding but even that did not save him. Remus who was killed by Dolohov in the final battle, by Dolohov who I had once counted as a friendly acquaintance.

But none of these deaths sicken me as much as Nymphadora's murder. My only daughter killed by my older sister. An aunt murdering her niece. A sister killing another sister's child. My mind still can't accept this.

I now know that at the end of her life Bellatrix was almost completely insane, consumed by her love for an inhuman being and old-fashioned ideals. I know that I should have grieved her death, but I have never been able to do it. I have no problem conversing with Molly Weasley, the woman who brought about my sister's demise.

Bellatrix, in the end, disregarded other people and their families. She underestimated her enemies thinking herself above them, but how easy it was to rouse her anger. She was arrogant and had goaded a mother who lost a child into a duel.

A duel which she lost.

Maybe she's better off dead. She can't harm others but most importantly she can't harm herself. I do not know what happens after we die, but I hold onto the hope that I will be welcome to whatever afterlife there is by my husband and daughter.

But death is not in my immediate future. I am only fifty-six years old and I now live for Teddy. Teddy who has given me a reason to continue and to keep on fighting to preserver the memories of husband, daughter and son-in-law.

My grandson is the future, while I am only a reminder of a distant violent past. But those times have come and gone, flitting in and out like the people who entered and then left my life. I have only memories left of those people, good and bad. These memories which now, more than ever, I am recalling them. They are the fruits of my solitude.

Over these past eleven years I have been trying to find out as much as I can about Bellatrix's role in the First War and the peculiar relationship between her and the Dark Lord. During those years, I was woefully absent from the lives of my sisters. I will be the first to admit that Bellatrix will always hold the position of being the more enigmatic sister, the one most difficult to understand, and for most it is extremely difficult to comprehend how such a seemingly normal girl began a morbid fascination with the Dark Arts. How she developed a taste for torture, for blood and pain. What did she see in Voldemort?

Some information I have gathered from Narcissa, who only began to talk to me after the battle at Hogwarts, after she found out that Bellatrix had murdered my daughter. I sometimes think that Narcissa feels guilty, perhaps because he son was close to death on many occasions but survived while my own child did not. My relationship with Narcissa is somewhat-strained, but what else can I expect? Too much has happened, too many barriers were set between us whne we were young women. We will never be like we once were. But I do occasionally owl her and I was even invited to the party held in honour of her newborn grandson four years ago.

But even Narcissa is reluctant to speak about Bellatrix nowadays. I do not think she knows an awful lot, for our defunct sister became more secretive as the years passed on and Bellatrix always resented that Narcissa never took up the Dark Mark.

But there is one woman who knows more about Bellatrix than Narcissa and I will ever hope to. Another fellow Death Eater, Bellatrx's most trusted "friend" and partner in crime. This woman is Callista Valloi Crowley, who currently resides in Azkaban with a life sentence pronounced on her. I have visited her numerous times in these past elevn years, thirsty for more knowledge on Bellatrix. Callista's story is also closely tied with ours but only becomes prominent during our last years at Hogwarts.

Perhaps by knowing more on Bellatrix, I will come to grips with Nymphadora's death. I am sure that if it had been someone else who killed Dora, I would not have developed this almost obsessive behaviour towards my dead sister.

I suppose I should refresh my mind, now that that phase of my life is over, perhaps now I will be able to understand how my sister and I became so estranged from one another. Us three are to blame firstly. We made our choices, we went down different paths but we were also affected by external forces, by changing and turbulent times.

After all that I've been through, taking a peek into the past won't hurt me.

A/N: Yes, you can obviously see how I feel about poor Andromeda's fate in DH. Damn you Jo.

Anyways, comments, suggestions and reviews are very much welcomed! I already have the first chapter finished, all I need to do is type it up and fix a couple of things. Anyhoo, hope this prologue was interesting enough to make some of you people wnat to read more.

Until then!