It was late August 1968, and the Black sisters were preparing to go to Diagon Alley with their mother, the infamous Druella Black, and her sister in law, Walburga Black. Their cousin, eight year old Sirius, was ecstatic that his mother was leaving, if only for a few hours. His younger brother, Regulus, however, was not. Young Sirius ran around the house chanting random spells and hoping they'd work with his make-shift wand made from a stick he had found in the garden and fashioned into a wand like instrument. Excitement had overcome him at the thought of his cousins going to Diagon Alley. It was a reminder of the fact that he would be going to Hogwarts one day.
"Be good Sirry," Andromeda, the middle sister, reprimanded Sirius. He obeyed his favourite cousin, nodding and grinning impishly. Bellatrix scoffed in disgust at her sister, and Sirius reacted by kicking her in the shins. But before she could draw her own wand and curse him, he had run off up the many staircases that number 12, Grimmauld Place held.
"We're late Bella, Rodolphus will be waiting when we get there," Andromeda said to her sister, coaxing her out of hurting Sirius. Bella calmed down and put her wand safely back into the back pocket of her dark jeans.
"Ugh, Muggle clothes," she said, shuddering and wrinkling her nose in disgust. Narcissa and Andromeda rolled their eyes at their sister's loathing of anything remotely Muggle, and followed their mother and aunt into the fireplace, grabbing a handful of floo powder. "Why do we have to wear them anyway?"
"KNOCKTURN ALLEY!" they shouted, going one after the other, consumed by the green flames. Narcissa, the youngest sister and least experienced at floo-travel, went last, and landed with a thud in the fireplace of Borgin and Burkes. She tried to correct herself with grace, whilst her sisters giggled uncontrollably. Narcissa blushed, cursing her white-blonde hair and fair complexion for making the blush more visible. Stepping out of the fireplace, Narcissa noticed her mother and aunt conversing with Lucius Malfoy senior, a tall, intimidating man with a cane. This wasn't what bothered her though, the fact that Mr. Malfoy's son might be around was what froze the blood in her veins.
"Hello Narcissa," a smooth voice said behind her, and she hoped to god it was one of the talking heads mounted on the wall, though she knew full well who the voice belonged to. She turned to find Lucius Malfoy Junior standing with his arms folded, looking impossibly handsome even in Muggle clothing. His blonde hair was past his shoulders, framing his perfect, angular face and exaggerating his piercing blue eyes that so matched Narcissa's. He towered over her considerably, his black t-shirt clinging to every contour of his chest that was level with Narcissa's face, and so hard not to look at. He practically looked like a male version of her, and she had always thought herself to be so beautiful that if she did meet a man who looked anything like her she'd fall madly in love with him straight away. However Lucius' personality was a major flaw in her eyes; he mocked her every chance he got and acted as if he, of all people, was better than her. The thought almost made her burst out laughing, though she had to admit their looks were parallel.
"Lucius," she said, nodding slightly whilst glaring at him and feeling as if her heart would shatter her rib cage any second. It was hard to loathe someone who looked so… beautiful. Even if she had hated him for the past three years they had spent at Hogwarts together.
"Do you always make such dramatic entrances?" he said, smiling down at her cheekily and nodding towards the fireplace from which she had come. She blushed furiously and scowled at him, turning away in a huff. She wouldn't waste her breath yelling at such a conceited idiot. But he wasn't done with her yet. "Wait," Narcissa felt a hand close around her arm and turned to unleash all her fury on him. She didn't imagine that she looked particularly pretty when she was angry, but at that moment she didn't really care. "I'm sorry," he whispered, due to their close proximity. All thoughts of her sisters possibly watching were dissolved in her mind by the feeling of his breath on her face, the fact that his hand was still holding onto her arm and that if she just tilted her head up an inch, their lips would meet.
"Come on Cissy!" Bella called from the doorway out into Knockturn, reminding her where she was. Narcissa turned and ran out of the shop, not looking back. Her flustered look gave her away, though. "Have a heated debate?" Bella asked, sniggering with Andromeda. Ganging up on her was the only time they agreed on anything. Narcissa ignored them, her heart still palpitating too fast for her to be angry at the same time and manage not have a heart attack. She silently cursed the day she met Lucius Malfoy, but all the same, she couldn't seem to get his smug face out of her mind.
***
Walburga and Druella occupied themselves in Florean Fortescue's ice cream parlour whilst the Black sisters made their way around Diagon Alley to collect their school things. In Flourish and Blotts, Bellatrix was looking around in the dark arts section alone when a pair of hands covered her eyes. Reacting as she normally would, Bellatrix turned swiftly and flipped the person, who so dared to touch her, on their back.
"Bella! It's me!" Rodolphus claimed, holding his hands up, half in surrender, half in defence. Bella immediately relaxed and smiled, helping her boyfriend up, whilst he tried fixing his messed up brown hair. He was a lot more muscular than Bellatrix; however he was no match for dainty Bellatrix with her superb skill and bad temper. Even Rodolphus would admit that.
"Sorry!" she apologized. "Where does it hurt?" He pointed to his arm and she kissed it. He pointed to his neck and she kissed it. Finally he pointed to his mouth and he kissed her before she could do anything. She pulled away after a while, going back to the book she had in her hands.
"Look at this," Bella said excitedly, her violet eyes twinkling. Rodolphus groaned and rolled his eyes, but she ignored him. "The Philosopher's stone. It produces the Elixir of life that makes the drinker immortal."
"Come on Bella! Can we not talk about the dark arts for two minutes?" he moaned. She sighed and put the book back.
"Look, if we're ever going to join… the Dark Lord, then I want to know everything," Bellatrix lowered her voice when uttering the dark lord's name. Rodolphus glanced around to make sure they were alone. "It's our last year; soon we'll be Death Eaters for sure."
"Yeah, I just wish this year would go faster," Rodolphus sighed. Suddenly he tensed up, and Bellatrix did the same. "Who's there?" he said, deepening his voice and raising it. His brother, Rabastan, emerged from around a bookcase.
"Hey, just me," he said, smiling the heartbreaking smile that every girl in fifth year and under swooned at the sight of. "Hey Bella, is Andromeda with you?"
"Yeah," she said unenthusiastically. "She's off somewhere, probably in the Muggle studies section."
"Thanks," Rabastan said, nodding his head at the two of them and leaving them to contemplate becoming Death Eaters in peace. Stalking through Flourish and Blotts, looking for Andromeda, Rabastan couldn't help contemplating the idea too. He and his brother had talked of joining the Dark Lord many times, and Rodolphus had even performed the Imperius Curse. But the thought always scared him, especially the Dark Mark that he would have carved into his arm. Once he was in, there was no way of getting out.
"Meda?" Rabastan called out into the store. There was a bang and muffled conversation. Rabastan followed it until he found Andromeda covered in books and intertwined on the floor with Ted Tonks, a Hufflepuff from his Potions class. "What the-?"
"Rabastan!" Andromeda said, laughing nervously whilst trying to stand. "Wha- what are you doing here?"
"I could ask you the same question," he said, smiling smugly and leaning against a bookshelf. He had been trying to get Andromeda, who so resembled her sister Bellatrix, to be his girlfriend for five long years; this was exactly the kind of leverage he needed. "Ted," he said, nodding to his fellow classmate who was now standing and helping Meda up.
"We were… um, we were," Andromeda stuttered. Ted cut in for her.
"What do you want Lestrange?"
"Hmm, let's see… what have I wanted for the past five years?" he replied, tapping his chin thoughtfully and staring at the ceiling. He looked down at Meda to find her jaw open wide, and Ted standing in front of her protectively.
"No way!" he yelled gruffly, narrowing his eyes.
"Well then, you're mother will be very surprised when she reads her mail in the morning Andromeda, if I were you I wouldn't go back there, she'd be pretty angry, not to mention your aunt-"
"OK!" Meda shouted, stepping around Ted. "Fine," she said, looking straight at Rabastan's face. "Just don't expect me to fall for you or anything."
"We'll see about that," he replied, quietly enough so that only she could hear. Her face went bright red with rage and she had to use all her will power not to punch him. Rabastan had leverage over her now, and she was powerless against him. The Lestrange's were notorious for blackmailing.
***
Steam billowed from the Hogwarts express as it waited at Platform nine and three quarters at Kings Cross station. The last stragglers were boarding and bidding goodbye to their parents, and it was very nearly time for departure.
"Cissa!" a dark haired, pale skinned girl called out from inside a compartment. Narcissa smiled and entered.
"Amara!" she called back to her best friend, whom she hadn't seen all summer. They hugged and sat down, catching up on all the things they'd done. Narcissa was careful to leave out her little meeting with Lucius Malfoy. As much as she trusted and loved Amara, she knew her best friend would interpret it the wrong way. Even though Narcissa didn't know what the right way was, she didn't feel the need to tell Amara.
"Hey girls," a boy with dark, messy hair and smouldering brown eyes said, entering the compartment and smiling at the girls. Narcissa smiled back, until her eyes landed on Lucius standing behind him. Unfortunately for her, the dark haired boy sat beside Amara, who was fluttering her eyelashes uncontrollably, so Lucius was forced to sit next to her.
"Hi Argon," Amara breathed. Narcissa rolled her eyes, and then remembered how she had nearly acted in the same way with Lucius. She tried her best not to blush, and most of all, not to look at Lucius. Though, despite her reluctance to acknowledge his presence, he leaned over and whispered in her ear.
"Hey Cissa." She tensed up immediately and snapped her head around, nearly bumping her nose with his. He sat back and laughed, dimples appearing in his porcelain-like cheeks. Argon and Amara didn't flinch, too engrossed in each other to notice anything else.
"Hi Lucius," she replied, gritting her teeth and loading her voice with as much venom as possible. He stopped laughing and looked at her, his expression very different.
"Oh come on, you're not still mad are you?" he asked, folding his arms over his chest and arching a blonde eyebrow. He had grown over the summer, and the muscles in his arms bulged.
"When am I ever not mad at you?" she asked, folding her arms over her chest and then unfolding them once she realised that they touched his arms. Lucius grinned and leaned into her, until it looked certain he was about to kiss her. Then his head turned and he whispered once again in her ear.
"When I'm this close." She tried desperately to hold onto her anger, not letting it slip away this time. But it was no use, her hormones were getting the better of her brain, and so she simply froze herself until he moved to a safer distance, refusing in the logical part of her brain to let herself do anything stupid that she'd regret later on, like kissing him.
"Fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight," the students chanted, running down the train and interrupting Narcissa and Lucius. Then a girl in Narcissa's year opened the door to their compartment, clearly out of breath.
"Narcissa! It's Bellatrix, she's in a fight!" the girl ran off immediately and Cissa, Lucius, Amara and Argon followed the crowd. Most people made way for Narcissa and Lucius, once they realised it was them. The only ones who didn't were either friends of theirs or wanted to watch the fight too badly themselves. In actual fact, the word that the students should have been chanting was "duel" but considering that Bella's opponent, a seventh year Hufflepuff girl, had blood on her face, Cissa guessed it hadn't started out so courteously. A throng of students near the duel, a few that Narcissa could identify as Goyle and Avery, were chanting slightly different words, like "mudblood" and other degrading terms. Bellatrix's robes were torn slightly, reminding Narcissa that she hadn't changed into hers, but she didn't seem to mind.
"You don't deserve to be here," Bella sneered. "Go back to Muggle-land where you belong!" The crowd was a mixture of jeers and cheers at this point. It was hard to tell who the crowd favoured most. Some people were even placing bets, and encouraging others to do so, but nobody won a sickle that day on the Hogwarts Express, because a Professor came and broke up the brawl. He looked almost like one of the students, though slightly taller and rounder. His black hair was thinning, but still covered the most part of his head.
"Back to your compartments! Nothing to see here," he ushered the students away from the centre of the fight. "Ah, Miss Black, how nice to meet you. I had hoped it would be in slightly different circumstances, though." The blank look on the remaining students' faces and the silence that followed made him carry on. "I am Professor Webb, the new Defence against the Dark Arts teacher," he said proudly, smiling when realization dawn on them and their mouths formed Os.
"Sorry Professor," Bellatrix apologised, casting her eyes down and letting her straight black hair fall over her face. It was hard to tell whether she was really sorry or not. Professor Webb was taken slightly aback by this direct apology. "It won't happen again." The side of her lip curled up slightly in a smile, but the Professor didn't notice.
"Well, all the same," he cleared his throat and regarded the poor Hufflepuff girl with blood dripping from her nose and lip. "Who did this to you?" She was silent, looking at Bellatrix first, and then at everyone else to confuse him. Professor Webb sighed, looking at the others for answers. Nobody stirred.
"Fine then, I would like to see you all in my office on the first day of lessons." He nodded to Bellatrix, Rodolphus, Rabastan, Andromeda, Ted, Narcissa and Lucius, before they could object, or proclaim their innocence, and departed.
***
The new first years entered the great hall, looking around with frantic eyes, taking in the magic of it all. Candles floated in mid air, creating shadows and covering the house tables in a golden glow. Stars glittered on the ceiling that depicted a calm, cloudless night sky. The students whispered, judging by the look of the first years how many would be sorted into their house.
Andromeda was deliberately sitting at the opposite end of the Slytherin table, to keep up her chances of avoiding him.
"Muggle born," Bellatrix whispered to Rodolphus, nodding towards a petrified young wizard, rounder than his classmates, with a head of messy, mousy brown hair and matching eyes. Rodolphus snickered. The headmaster, Professor Dippet, cleared his throat and the hall fell silent.
He commenced his long speech, about welcoming the students, new and old alike. The students rarely paid attention. After most of them had yawned at least several times, Professor Dippet had finished his speech.
"Now, first years follow prefects to the correct common rooms, thank you all and have a wonderful year at Hogwarts," he concluded. The Slytherin table was the first to rise and vacate the great hall, unable to wait to get back to their dark depressing common room in the dungeons.
Andromeda sighed as she flopped down on a green velvet sofa in the Slytherin common room. Her relaxation was short lived when a certain someone crept up behind her.
"Guess who," Rabastan said, covering Meda's eyes. She breathed in sharply and swiped his hands away, jumping off the sofa and turning to look at him.
"What do you want?" she said, already knowing the answer. He pretended to be hurt.
"Is that any way to talk to your boyfriend?" he asked, his hand on his heart as if it were aching. The group of first year Slytherin girls who were staring at and, no doubt, whispering about Rabastan sulked off at his question to Meda. At least the first year boys were happy.
Andromeda rolled her eyes. "Yes, if you blackmailed me into it."
"Well, you're going to have to start acting as if I didn't, because I already told everyone we're going out," he said smugly, smiling cheekily. Just because, as far as they knew, Rabastan was attached, it didn't stop the other girls in the common room from swooning. Meda felt as if she was going to be sick, and the green tinge to the room didn't help her feel better. She cursed the ill-thought-through position of the Slytherin common room underneath the lake, which was the cause of the green light. Salazar Slytherin obviously hadn't hired an interior decorator.
"You did what?" she tried screeching, but it came out as more of a whisper.
"Seeing as you were avoiding me on the train, and did a pretty good job, I decided to tell everyone without you," Rabastan said, shrugging.
"Hey you two love birds!!!" a blonde haired blue eyed girl cooed, entering the common room. Meda groaned. Rabastan had told her best friend. This meant war. "Am I interrupting anything?" Juliet asked, her eyes wide with hunger for gossip.
"No," Meda said immediately. Rabastan wrapped his hand around her waist and gave her a squeeze. She had to try hard not to break his arm, and instead smiled sweetly at him as if they were in love. Her thoughts couldn't help but travel to Ted.
"We were just talking," Rabastan said, smiling in a way that implied they weren't. Andromeda's face flushed red with rage but Juliet mistook it for blushing. She squealed and dragged her best friend off to the girl's dormitories.
"Tell me everything!" she demanded. Meda groaned. "Come on! Spill the beans, let the cat out of the bag, give me the gossip!"
"There's nothing to tell," Andromeda said calmly, sick of Juliet's constant harassment. Juliet looked disheartened.
"There has to be something," she said, folding her arm and eyeing Meda with suspicion. She had the strange feeling that Rabastan was listening in on them somehow, and she knew he wouldn't like it if Juliet became suspicious, and that didn't bode well with Meda either. "What about that Muggle-born you had an obsession with?"
It took all Andromeda's will power to scrunch her nose up in disgust and say, "Ugh, gross, don't remind me." She felt guilty immediately afterwards, but carried on. "Rabastan is so much… better," she said, finding it hard to describe Rabastan with a more endearing term. It was the best she could come up with without having to gag after the words had left her mouth. Juliet seemed pleased with her act, smiling and flicking her hair over her shoulder.
"Totally," she said, giggling. "I'm really happy for you Meda," she added, smiling genuinely at her best friend and hugging her. Guilt twisted in Meda's stomach, and she tried forcing it down. It just made her hate Rabastan more, and she had no idea how much longer she could keep up the act of pretending she loved him as passionately as she loathed him.
As they emerged from the girl's dormitories Andromeda and Juliet saw Bellatrix and Rodolphus chatting with Rabastan. Meda froze; she knew Bella would see right through her lies. She never was a very good liar and Bella wasn't easily fooled. Then Meda was spotted by the three, standing frozen next to Juliet.
"Hey Andromeda," Bellatrix greeted her sister a lot more nicely now they were at Hogwarts. Meda was used to it, having experienced four years of it.
"Hi Bells," she said, smiling sweetly, knowing that Bella hated being called Bells. She didn't let on though, but didn't smile either. Nobody else seemed to notice.
"Rabastan just told us the news, congratulations," Rodolphus said to Andromeda in his smooth voice. She forced a smile back at him. Juliet looked ready to melt like ice in the warm presence of both the Lestrange brothers, and sometimes Meda wondered whether it was her connections or her personality that Juliet favoured.
"It's quite a surprise," Bella said, implying suspicion. Andromeda shrugged, not looking at Rabastan. It wasn't the best thing to do to dampen her sister's suspicions, but she didn't care. She couldn't stand the sight of Rabastan at that moment. She needed Ted.
Bella and Rodolphus were like royalty at Hogwarts now that they had reached their final year. Nobody except the teachers were above them. Even the Muggle-borns who didn't know who they were sensed that they were important and not to be trifled with. People rose from the green leather sofas to let them sit once they had finished talking to their siblings, and every Slytherin waited on them hand and foot. But tonight they didn't want to be waited on, they had a prior engagement. Once everyone had vacated the common room, they donned their black cloaks and snuck out to the room of requirement that had formed, for them, a large dining hall. There was an insanely long table in the middle, and a large roaring fire was warming the cold stone room. People whose genders could not be identified sat around the table, in make-shift Death Eater outfits. They all fell silent as the couple entered.
"Why did you call us here?" a boy piped up, his deep voice giving away his gender.
"Do you dare question us?" Bella asked, staring him down. She had sat down next to Rodolphus at the head of the table. "We called you here to discuss what we do every year: the recruiting of first years."
"What is there to discuss?" another boy asked. "We recruit the pure-blood Slytherins." A murmur of agreement followed that was silenced shortly by Rodolphus.
"It isn't that easy, teachers are becoming suspicious and when we leave, who knows what'll happen," Rodolphus said, standing up and balling his hands into fists on the table. "But… seeing as we have lessons tomorrow, we'll postpone this meeting."
The murmur was hesitant to start this time, but it soon did, and nobody silenced it. The Death Eaters vacated the room in pairs, and at least five minutes after each other, so as not to arouse any more unwanted attention. They all crept back into the Slytherin common room and to their beds, their fellow classmates blissfully unaware, too far gone in innocent sleep.