Meda lay awake in her bed, sleepy after an exhausting day with Bella on her first day back for the Christmas holidays. They'd spent the morning tricking muggle children in the local village, frightening them by making things clatter behind them and shift in the corner of their vision. It was a favourite pastime of theirs but quite frankly Meda felt that Bella was starting to take it a little too far. This morning she'd sent a Stinging Hex at a little boy's leg that had him crying and limping home. Bella said that made him a wuss. Meda wasn't so sure. Then, after a long, boring lunch with Mother, Mrs Avery and Mrs Malfoy, they'd spent the afternoon practising Quidditch tackles, though Meda wasn't convinced that you were actually allowed to hit someone over the head to surprise them into dropping the quaffle. Cissy had opted not to join them, choosing instead to take afternoon tea with the adults, who were discussing the upcoming Black New Year's Ball, an annual event that Meda was forced to suffer through. Bella did tend to make it more fun though.
Meda sat up and, brushing the lace drapes with her hand, picked a book off her bedside table. It was late so she was unlikely to be disturbed. The binding was old with a strange, unidentifiable stain gracing the cover, obscuring the title – 'Muggles and Why They Want to be Ruled Over'. You shouldn't judge a book by it's cover, though. Inside was an entirely different sort of book and Meda had just got to the part where the trolls were arguing over how best to cook the dwarves when Bella had arrived home from Hogwarts yesterday. She loved Muggle fantasy books with their funny ideas of what magic was like and all the quests and adventures embarked upon. If only real Muggles were so exciting. She propped the book up against her knees and started to read.
'Meda, help me!' Cissy came tearing into her room, shocking Meda. Cissy didn't 'tear' anywhere. Her face was awash with tears and cuts littered her arms beneath tattered robes. Meda snapped her book shut and shoved it back on the bedside table, then shifted over to one side of the bed. Cissy climbed in next to her. She would get blood on the sheets but it didn't really matter. The house elves would clean them.
'What happened, Cissy?' , Meda asked, alarmed. Cissy didn't respond immediately, but slowly her breathing slowed and she seemed to find the words to speak.
'Bella said that all magic children do magic by the time they're seven. She said that if I was a real witch then I'd be able to stop her and if I wasn't then I wasn't her sister and it didn't matter what she did.' Meda put her arm round her sister, who buried her head in Meda's side.
'Bella did this to you?' Meda asked, knowing the answer. Cissy nodded into her side. She was silent for a few moments.
'Does this mean I'm a Squib, Meda?' Cissy whispered.
'No of course not, Cissy, you're a Black.' Meda reassured her, though she didn't really have a clue. 'Accidental magic doesn't just burst out of you when you want it to. It'll show itself in its own time and you've still got two months til you turn eight. That's plenty of time. Even if you were a squib, though, you'd still be our sister, no matter what Bella says.'
'Thanks, Meda' Cissy smiled at her.
'Are your arms still hurting?' Meda asked, but got no reply. Cissy had fallen asleep, nestled into Meda's side, her thumb in her mouth.
Meda lay awake for a while longer, her arm pinioned uncomfortably to her side by Cissy's body. An idea was forming in her mind. She reached over to her alarm clock, setting it for 5am, and shifted around in her bed, trying to get comfortable without waking Cissy.
Meda blinked blearily. Her alarm had just awoken her and her mind hadn't quite caught up yet. A glance to her side reminded her what was going on. She slammed her alarm off, hoping not to wake Cissy. No such luck.
'Meda?'
'Shush. It's okay, Cissy. Go back to sleep.' She remained still until her sister's breathing grew deeper and more even, then slipped out of bed. She extracted her wand from under her pillow and she padded over to her engraved, mahogany wardrobe and grabbed out the first set of robes she touched, unable to see but for what the moon illuminated. Careful not to wake Cissy again, she pulled her robes on over her pyjamas and left the room. She made her way downstairs. The entrance hall was eerie in the darkness, with not even the portraits awake and most of the room cast in shadow. She crossed the hall to her father's study where she could practise undisturbed. He rarely got up before noon or went to be before the early hours. She sat cross-legged out of sight of the door, leaning against a cabinet of books and set to work.
It was no good. She'd been trying to master a simple healing spell for the last two hours but it was just beyond her, even with her talent for charms. She'd nicked her arm with a knife and no matter how many times she tried it just wouldn't heal. She was running out of time. At any moment Bella could wake up, or Cissy. Time for Plan B. She crept back upstairs, hesitating before passing Bella's room, but the light was still off. She walked slowly over to her bed, thankful that Cissy as still asleep, got undressed and climbed back in. She closed her eyes, feigning sleep, and tried to relax.
Some hours later, Meda was lying on the thick landing carpet, peering down at the entrance hall. She'd asked Cissy to meet her there at 12 noon and she was, of course, punctual. Bella, on the other hand, wasn't. Bang! Bella had finally arrived, slamming the front door shut behind her. It was time to put her plan into action. She watched as Bella made some comment to Cissy, making her shoulders slump, and aimed her wand at Bella's head. With a whispered incantation, Bella's hair turned hot pink and Cissy gasped.
'Look Bella. Your hair's pink. I think I turned your hair pink.' she giggled, grinning.
'Seriously? You give all the appearances of being a useless Squib and the first piece of magic you ever do is to turn my hair pink?' She looked about to hit Cissy. Meda decided that would probably be a good time to make an appearance and walked down the stairs. Cissy turned to her.
'Meda! I turned Bella's hair pink!'
'So I can see. I told you it was just a matter of time.'
'I'm going to go and tell Mum.' Cissy ran off, her robes flapping round her legs. Meda could just catch a hint of red coming through her robes.
'I love the new look, Bella.' Meda laughed. She dodged the hex Bella sent at her with practised ease and ran off down the corridor. She slipped behind a grandfather clock, hidden in the shadows. It felt good to get some light revenge on Bella but it didn't change what she'd done. Bellatrix was her best friend but she just couldn't stand the way she treated Cissy. It was horrible. That's when Meda knew that she was going to be a Healer. Maybe she didn't have the guts to stand up to Bella but at least she could make up for what she did.
Many years later, she watched as Cissy made a tea set dance across a table and grinned.
Many years later, she held her baby girl for the first time, saw her bright pink hair and laughed.