Disclaimer: I do not own these characters, and I make no money from this.

House of Black

Sisters

"Our lives are so hopelessly entangled in the choices of others, we can never have full control over our destiny or fate or purpose or whatever you want to call it. The choices we make will define us, of course, but so do the choices of everyone around us whether we know them or not."

- David Bowick

"They have horrible scales along their skin that can cut you if you touch them. And if you look at their nails, they're black and rotten. Uncle Orion told me their hair is rougher than a doxy's, and that their eyes can cry blood if they're angry enough." A young girl laid across a swing in the garden, tucking her dress robes underneath her so that it wouldn't soak in the dewy grass. Her dark eyes were shaded by the crook of her arm, leaving her long curly hair free to be braided by her youngest sister.

"Bella, don't scare her with stories," her other sister said as she carefully perused the flowers in the garden.

"She needs to know these things, Andromeda. Wouldn't you hate yourself if our baby sister was attacked by Muggles because she didn't know how to recognize one?" She lifted her arm to toss a grimace in the general direction of her sister's voice, "Although, you wouldn't be able to spot one either since Uncle knows his stories always make you cry and fuss."

"But why would I ever be near a Muggle, Bella?" The smallest girl of the three sat on a blanket near Bella's head, her fingers busy weaving flowers into Bellatrix's simple braid. "They would never be able to set foot here, especially not with Mummy and Father protecting us. And when its time for us to leave, we'll have already finished at school and have husbands to protect us."

"We don't need protection from Muggles, Cissa. They wouldn't attack us unless we attacked them first-"

"And how are you so sure, Dora?" The black haired girl sat up from the swing, the braid coming undone as it slipped out of Narcissa's little fingers. "You've never even seen one."

"Neither have you!" Andromeda said indignantly. A deep frown creased her brow and she busied herself with the flowers in her hands. "And Mother says that most Muggles know nothing about magic, and aren't anything that witches need to be afraid of."

Bellatrix laughed loudly, her young mouth so wide open that the sound tumbled out and nearly bowled Andromeda over. "Well, of course stupid Muggles aren't the creatures we'd really need to worry about." At this, Andromeda looked up, her face even more confused as she regarded Bellatrix suspiciously. "It's the mudbloods that will do worse than kill you."

Narcissa began to shift uneasily on the navy blanket beneath her. Her fingers tangled themselves together restlessly. "Bella, what's a mudblood? Father's never told me anything about a mudblood."

Andromeda's frown deepened even further as stepped forward to kneel alongside Narcissa. "Here, Cissa, could you make me a crown? You always make them the prettiest." She laid the flowers out before her and chose the largest one for her to start with.

She looked up at Bellatrix after Narcissa had started on a pattern, "You shouldn't use those words around her, Bella. Father says ladies shouldn't use foul language."

"I'll call them what they're supposed to be called," she said as she glanced towards the open french doors not far from them. She paused a moment, waiting to see if anyone really would reprimand her before turning back to her sister, "I bet you don't even know what they are."

"They're supposed to be dangerous," Andromeda said quickly. "That's all I really need to know."

"You just said that Muggles were nothing to be afraid of!" Bellatrix said, grinning with satisfaction.

"But mudbloods aren't Muggles!" Andromeda began to frown again, glancing at her youngest sister, "We shouldn't talk about these things, it might scare Narc-"

"It isn't Narcissa that's afraid, Dora, it's you! You're so afraid that you don't even know what you're talking about!" Bellatrix sat up on the bench as she looked down on her younger sisters.

"But Mother said that Muggles aren't dangerous!"

"Most muggles are too stupid to know about witches or wizards and they aren't dangerous, Dora." Bellatrix laughed to herself and bent downwards, speaking quietly so that it wouldn't reach the door, "Mudbloods are muggles that stole magic."

Narcissa looked up at this, dropping the ringlet of flowers into her lap. "Muggles can steal magic? You mean from Mummy or Daddy?"

"Worse!" The youngest girl began to glance between her sisters, alarmed at the idea.

"Bella, please, we really shouldn't tell her stories-"

"Muggles could steal magic from any witch or wizard that forgets to defend themselves," Bellatrix said quietly, "but Uncle Orion tells me that they're not nearly smart or strong enough to overpower a wizard, and that they've needed to find other ways to steal magic."

Andromeda looked back and forth between her younger and older sister, her face still frozen in a fearful and unhappy frown. Bellatrix was ignoring her entirely, eyes settled on their fair-haired favorite sister.

"Some muggles know which families are the strongest, like ours. They watch for purebloods that are about to have a family, and then, after their little baby shows their first signs of magic..." Bellatrix looked into Narcissa's bright blue eyes, unblinking, "They bleed the magic right out of the baby's soul."

Narcissa let out a cry of fear, pushing the flowers out of her lap and running into the house. She abandoned her outer-cloak on the bench and Andromeda picked it up along with her own.

"Bella, I told you it would upset her! She'll have awful dreams, I knew your stories would scare her-"

"They aren't stories, Dora. Uncle Orion told me himself. He wouldn't lie to me, he's the one that told us about how awful goblins can be."

"But the only time we've ever seen goblins were at Gringotts, and Father trusts them with our vaults-"

"Andromeda, you've heard about the Goblin Wars, haven't you?" Bellatrix picked up one of the flowers off of the blanket, twirling it between her fingers. She looked up at Andromeda expectantly.

She thought back to her tutoring lessons, remembering that one of the masters had mentioned they would cover the Goblin Wars in a few weeks or so. "Well, yes, I've heard of them..."

"Then you must've heard how terrible they used to be until the wizards won the war. Mudbloods are the reason why pureblood families have squibs. They're the reason why little Corvus can't be a part of our-" Andromeda exclaimed at this, which Bellatrix rolled her eyes at, "-Oh, grow up, Dora! Mother says he's happy wherever he is." She turned away from her, grimacing at the flower instead, "Uncle says that mudbloods are even worse than Goblins. That's why they haven't been able to get rid of them yet. Ouch!" Bellatrix dropped the flower quickly, looking at her bright red blood forming a drop at the tip of her finger.

"I don't know, Bella. How can you be so sure?" Andromeda picked up Bellatrix's outer-cloak from the bench behind her, holding it up for her to take.

"Father and Uncle wouldn't lie to us. Why else wouldn't Corvus be able to come home and play with us? Why would they try to scare us with stories? They only want what's best for us, Andromeda, you know that." Bellatrix glared down at the flower, crushing it beneath the flat of her shoe. "Besides, I'd rather be safe than sorry."

Andromeda looked down at the flower, still holding Bellatrix's cloak until her older sister pulled it away from her. "If- if they can steal magic, can't we take it back?"

Bellatrix began to walk toward the manor, drawing her cloak around her. "Uncle says the only way to return magic to whom it belongs is to kill them."