"I'm bored," complained Bellatrix.
Narcissa glanced over at her sisters. Bella was lounging in the lawn, tearing up fistfuls of grass and letting them drift away in the light summer breeze. Andromeda, always the most sophisticated of the three, was sitting under the welcoming shade of a large, leafy tree, her nose buried in a thick volume.
"So what?" said Andromeda, not even bothering to look up from her book.
"So entertain me," Bellatrix replied scornfully, as if it were the obvious answer.
Andromeda sighed and pulled her nose out of her book long enough to say, "Cissy and I aren't your servants, Bella," before reabsorbing herself into the text.
Bellatrix's eyes narrowed, and Narcissa realised what she was about to do only a moment before she heaved herself up, strode across the yard, and yanked the book out of Andromeda's hands.
Andromeda was on her feet in seconds, her shoulders squared and staring her sister directly in the eye. "Give it back," she said in a deadly quiet voice.
"Or what?" Bellatrix scoffed.
Andromeda made a grab for the book, but her sister danced out of the way, holding it high above her head. "What trash are you reading now, Andy?" said Bellatrix, sneering. She shut the book with a loud snap, glancing at the front cover. "Pride and Prejudice? What's this rubbish?"
She flicked through the pages as Andromeda and Narcissa held their breath. "You're reading a Muggle book?" Bellatrix hissed.
"It's a very good book," said Andromeda with as much dignity as she could muster.
Bellatrix grinned maliciously. "Wait until Mummy and Daddy hear you've been reading Muggle trash," she said, her eyes glinting. "They'll throw you out before you can even say the name of this stupid authour, if you can call her that."
"She's a brilliant authour!" Andromeda shouted, and Bellatrix let out a derisive laugh.
"Stop it!" said Narcissa, standing and putting herself between her sisters. "Give it back, Bella, please?"
Her eyes beseeched her older sister, who looked like she was on the verge of giving in. But the expression was gone a moment later, and the malevolent smile had returned. "No, I don't think I will, Cissy," she said, and with a single, fluid flick of her wrist the book had flown from her hand and into the mud.
"It belongs there," she declared as Andromeda rounded on her in fury. Before either of them could exchange anything more than glares, Narcissa intervened again.
"Let it alone, Bella," she begged. "Just stop it."
"I'm doing it for you, Cissy," said Bellatrix coldly, turning to her youngest sister with the same glare she had fixed on Andromeda. "You ought to be grateful. I don't want that garbage anywhere near you."
"I can make my own decisions!"
"You're five," Bellatrix scoffed. "Go away. This doesn't concern you."
Narcissa drew herself up to her full height, which wasn't very high at all. "Fine," she said angrily, kicking at the dirt with her booted toe. "But just because I'm young doesn't mean you can treat me like I'm not there!"
And with all the theatrics of a five-year-old, Narcissa turned on her heel and tore out of the garden, slipping through the fence and into the woods that surrounded their mansion. She ran nonstop for what felt like hours, until, panting heavily and with tears and sweat streaming down her face, she flopped down under a tree, curling up in the cool dirt.
She closed her eyes, swiping angrily at her face. She and Bellatrix had always been on the same side. Now, she realised, that was only because she had always put herself on Bellatrix's side. She had always stood beside her, and how did Bellatrix repay her? Threats under her breath, thinly veiled disdain, as if Cissy was just a servant to her, dispensable. Perhaps Andromeda was the better sister. Perhaps –
A soft tickling sensation on her face interrupted her thoughts. She opened her eyes to find a beautiful, vibrant butterfly fluttering its wings on her chin. It was orange and black, with great splotches here and there, and it was the most majestic creature she had ever seen.
She sat very still, reaching one hand toward her face to catch the butterfly, but as her finger touched its wings, it leapt into the air and soared through the woods, its wings catching on the wind.
"Wait!" shouted Narcissa fruitlessly. "Come back!"
And she set off after it, winding her way between the trees as she followed it deeper into the woods. Dusk was falling by the time she finally caught up to it.
It sat, unsuspecting, on a leaf, and in one swift movement, Narcissa reached out and trapped it beneath her hands.
"Ha!" she crowed, feeling its wings beat against her palms. "Wait until Bella and Andy see this! You're going to be my pet," she told the butterfly, whose wings were still fluttering inside her clasped hands. "And as soon as I get home I'll..."
She trailed off, glancing around at her surroundings. This part of the woods was denser than she remembered, and with no moon to guide her, it was very dark.
Panic began to set in. She had traveled too far from the mansion, and now night had fallen and she was prey to the creatures that roamed in these woods. She took a few steps in one direction, then another, before collapsing beneath a tree and beginning to cry.
Despite her anger at Bellatrix at the moment, she wished her sister were there with her. Bella always knew what to do. She would easily be able to find their way back home.
As Narcissa sat, alone and scared, beneath the large tree, she felt the summer nighttime air begin to cool. It was becoming chilly, and Narcissa futilely wished she had thought to bring her jumper. She began to shiver, feeling the cold seep into her skin and clothes, and within minutes she was damp from the moisture in the air.
She felt the butterfly's wings beat again, more fiercely, inside her cupped hands. It was trying to escape, she knew. "You can't leave," she said, her voice breaking. "You're my only friend now."
"Cissy?"
Her head jerked up. She had imagined it, surely. It was only because she had been thinking of Bellatrix. She wasn't really there. The hope that had come with hearing her nickname began to ebb away.
"Cissy?"
She looked up again. "Bella!" she screamed, leaping to her feet, her eyes searching in the near-darkness for her sister. "I'm here!"
"Cissy!"
A dark figure raced out of the trees and rushed toward her. "You idiot, you could have gotten yourself killed!" Bellatrix shouted.
"I'm – I'm sorry," Narcissa sniffled, her eyes welling up again. "I didn't mean to go this far."
"How did you get all the way out here, anyway?" said Bellatrix, folding her arms.
"I was chasing this," said Narcissa triumphantly, opening her hands to reveal the butterfly sitting in them, flapping its wings. "It's going to be my new pet!"
Narcissa could hardly see in the dark, but it seemed that Bellatrix rolled her eyes. "You're a fool," she said callously, and Narcissa's smile fell. "Leave it here, and let's go home."
"But I want to bring it with me!" said Narcissa.
"I said, leave it here!"
"No!"
Her hands suddenly felt very hot, and she looked down and screamed. The butterfly was alight with white-hot flames, and Narcissa dropped it as it curled in on itself, crumbling to ashes.
"You did that on purpose!" she shrieked at her sister.
"Of course I did," said Bellatrix smoothly. "To teach you a lesson."
"What lesson?" said Narcissa furiously.
Bellatrix took Narcissa's arm in a vicelike grip, and Narcissa gasped in pain as her sister leaned in so they were eye to eye. "Listen to your elders," she hissed, enunciating each word carefully.
And with that, she shoved Narcissa in front of her and they began their long walk back to the mansion.
Narcissa glanced wistfully at the butterfly's ashy remains as they trudged along. It was the first lesson she would receive from Bellatrix, but not the last. And years later, when Bellatrix was dead and Narcissa had her family intact, she would realise the most important lesson she had learned that day: that innocent things sometimes end up in the wrong place at the wrong time, and that nothing beautiful ever remained that way.
But somehow, she had her family. And that was all that mattered.