Faithful
Chapter One
"Eleven one thousand, twelve one thousand, thirteen one thousand…"
Bellatrix Black's voice fell silent as the roll of distant thunder shivered through the room. Instinctively, the little girl sank deeper beneath her covers and quivered until the sound had died away. Straight black hair streamed over the pillows, the only evidence of her presence in the bed. Only when the growling echo faded, did she peek her head above the blankets again.
Her dark eyes, heavy-lidded with lack of sleep, peered across the nursery, taking comfort in the familiar shapes. There was her little sister's bed against the wall, and a rocking chair by the doorway. In picture frames beside the door a cow jumped perpetually over the moon while dolls and china dishes were littered across the floor. Above them all was the ceiling, charmed with stars. Bellatrix studied them as she tried to sleep, searching out the point of light that shared her name.
The stillness lasted just a moment before angry voices drifted through the hall, voices of a second tempest raging in the night.
"…disgusting, unnatural perversion!" Bellatrix's mother's shriek was audible through the floors of the house. "You can't be serious. You can't mean it, Alphard! It's…it's an enchantment, or a potion, or…"
Her voice was interrupted by a softer sound. Too deep and muted to carry through the manor walls it must have been her father's reply- unsatisfactory reply, to judge by the howl that followed along with the crash of china shattering against a wall.
Lightning flickered through gauzy curtains.
"It doesn't matter what you want!" Her mother hissed downstairs. "You promised! You swore to me it was over…"
A tiny, terrified whimper drowned the rest. Bellatrix glanced across the room. Splotches of evanescent light illuminated her youngest sister, Narcissa. Tiny and angelically blonde, the girl was huddled at the foot of her bed. Her little body was shaking and tears were gleaming on her cheeks. Bellatrix felt like sneering, but she couldn't deny that she was frightened too. Even exalted Andromeda, eldest of the Black girls, who had been given a bedroom of her own when she left for Hogwarts the year before, had come to cower with her sisters and ride out the dueling storms. She sat on the floor in the corner, knees tucked against her chin, casting uneasy glances into the hall.
"What do you think will happen?" Andromeda whispered, but neither of the others answered.
Narcissa continued crying. Bellatrix ignored the older girl. She concentrated her attention through the window on the churning clouds. Andromeda was overreacting. It was only an argument, after all. In the morning it would be forgotten, washed clean by the rain of the night before. Nothing was going to change.
CRASH!
The walls shuddered as thunder rolled again, closer now. The wind was building. It snarled past the ancient Tudor dormers of the house, blending with the wails of ghosts and ghouls in the attic and the groans of other, darker things awoken by the restless night.
Narcissa whined again and then slipped off of her bed to scamper into Andromeda's lap.
"A Muggle, Alphard! What are people going to say? What are they going to think?"
"I don't want Daddy to do it." Andromeda spoke cryptically, in spite of her sisters' muteness.
Bellatrix didn't know what her sister was implying, but she was far too proud to ask. She didn't understand why her parents were fighting. She didn't care to. The word "Muggle" and her mother's hysteria were reason enough for fear.
Andromeda's fingers twisted in her chestnut hair. "Father told mummy that he loved someone else. He said they were going away."
"Daddy wouldn't go!" Narcissa's voice was desperate. In the lamplight that spilled from the hall, Bellatrix read the terror on her baby sister's face.
"He would," Andromeda threatened darkly. "Lots of daddies go away."
"Not our daddy," Narcissa reasoned with all the certainty that a five year old could muster.
All of seven, Bellatrix was less convinced. "I gave you everything, Alphard. Everything you ever asked for," their mother screamed.
Light sparked against the wall.
One one thousand, two one thousand…
"Three daughters. Thirteen years of my life…"
"Who does daddy love more than us?" Narcissa asked, confidence rapidly draining from her voice.
"A woman from the village," Andromeda answered. "That's what Sirius said."
"Sirius." Bellatrix spoke at last, sitting up and snorting at the mention of her cousin's name. "He's an idiot. He doesn't know anything at all." Certainly not about Daddy, and the smiling, brown-haired woman who'd let them wait in her shop through the rain. She'd given them raspberry lollypops…
"He said mummy was talking to Aunt Agrippina. She-"
BOOM.
Andromeda finished her words with a yelp as a heavy clap rattled just beside the house, followed almost immediately by a high, slow crack that sounded like a piece breaking off of the sky.
None of the sisters spoke. It was a moment before Bellatrix realized that her parents had stopped talking as well.
There. Some of the tension in her body eased, and she settled back into her pillows. The fight was over. Andromeda and stupid Sirius were wrong.
There were footfalls on the stairs and then the sound shuffling and opening drawers coming from her parents' room."What are they doing?" Andromeda asked, leaning toward the doorway.
"Getting ready for bed," Bellatrix snapped, but her anxiety returned. Her chest felt tight as she craned her ears, listening for the sound of a mattress or the soothing shuss of running water to confirm her words.
The storm was building to a pitch. The wind was howling through the chimney and making branches beat against the glass. Rain tapped at the windows, muffling sounds inside the house. Bellatrix didn't hear the footsteps until they were just outside the door.
"Daddy!" Narcissa bounced out of Andromeda's arms, instantly recognizing her father's heavy gait. She jumped into his arms almost as soon as he entered the room. "Daddy!" she murmured again, suddenly sleepy now that she was safely wrapped in his embrace. "I knew that you wouldn't go away."
Snuggled against his shoulder, she didn't see when he looked away. Bellatrix did. She exchanged an uneasy glance with her other sister.
"Are you frightened of the storm, princess?" Mr. Black asked, raking his fingers through his daughter's pale blonde curls and letting her cling to his neck. "There, there." He soothed gently, "Nothing to be afraid of now."
"We heard mummy shouting."
Bellatrix shot a dark glare at her older sister who was apparently too stupid to leave things alone. The fight was finished now. They shouldn't mention it again. They would pretend it never happened. They would forget.
Their father wasn't forgetting though. Lightning strobed through the windowpanes almost constantly now. Bellatrix saw his face in snatches of light: handsome and angular, with a strong, straight nose that Andromeda had inherited, and dark, hooded eyes like Bella's own. His features were stretched into an expression of detached concern, but it started to crumple at the edges at Andromeda's reminder.
"Sometimes…" he started, but faltered.
Bellatrix forced herself to remain still and watched with growing trepidation as her father very deliberately returned Narcissa to her bed. Ignoring the little blonde's grasping fingers, he walked back to the door.
"I do love you," he started again, voice quavering and still not quite able to meet their eyes. "I don't want you to think that it's something you've done."
"That what's something we've done?" Dauntless, Andromeda persisted.
"I…your mother…"
Bellatrix had never known her father to struggle with words. The loss of eloquence was unnerving.
He took a breath. "Daddy and Mummy need some time apart."
"How much time?"
Bellatrix would kill her sister. She would do anything to hush Andromeda's stupid mouth.
"I don't know." He admitted heavily and took another step back. "It might be…it might be for a rather long time."
"But not forever," Andromeda demanded.
He had no time for a reply. "You'll take us with you, daddy?" Narcissa asked, squirming out of bed again to twine herself around their father's leg.
"I can't take you, princess," he answered sadly, but Bellatrix didn't think that the implicit apology managed to reach his eyes. "The place where daddy's going…it isn't nice for little girls."
"Where, daddy?"
Bellatrix finally snapped.
"Shut up!" She screamed at Andromeda, launching herself across the room. "Shut up and leave him alone!"
"Bella…"
"You don't have to go!" Bellatrix gasped, shoving her sister aside. "We won't tell anyone that you fought. We'll just…"
"It isn't like that, Bella," Mr. Black said in a tone of thinning patience.
But it was! Surely he could see that? Andromeda wouldn't ask any more questions. Bellatrix wouldn't let her. There wasn't any reason to leave. She started to tell him so.
Then she saw her mother.
That was when she knew.
Her mother never looked anything less than perfect: a goddess fluttering about their house. Narcissa was her mirror. They were both petite and exquisite and blonde, with corkscrew curls and bright blue eyes. The sight of Melantha Black, makeup streaming and hair disheveled scared Bellatrix more than the shouting or the storm. She hovered like a ghost outside the door, pale and shaking with mute rage and humiliation while she watched her husband say goodbye.
He bent to pry Narcissa's chubby fingers off his leg. The process was complicated by her refusal to cooperate. Every time he succeeded in peeling one hand away, the other latched tighter around his limbs. Finally, in frustration, he picked her up and deposited her into Andromeda's arms. "I'll see you very soon," he promised, but Bellatrix knew it was a lie. "I want you to be very good girls for your mother." He was across the threshold now, still walking backwards.
"Don't go!" Narcissa started shrieking. She clawed and twisted wildly, trying to wriggle free.
"Goodbye Andromeda…Bella…Cissa…" There was a glint of something in his eyes, maybe remorse, but when he blinked it was gone. Lightning flashed. In a swirl of his cape, Alphard Black vanished too.
One one thousand…
Bellatrix heard his boots treading back across the hall, then down the staircase to the door, the soft thuds blending with the constant blows of thunder that still engulfed the house.
Andromeda hesitated just a moment and then dropped her sister and went streaking in his wake, but the footsteps didn't falter as they continued to the door.
Two one thousand…
"Daddy, take me with you!" the eldest daughter shrieked.
Narcissa, still in the nursery, pleaded, "Daddy, please don't go."
Three one thousand.
A crack and a rumble together shattered the night. Apparation? Thunder? Or both?
"Alphard!" A cry of wounded fury echoed through the house.
"Daddy!" Narcissa bawled.
Bellatrix was silent. Lightning glinted in tears that trailed wetly down her cheeks.
She whispered through gritted teeth:
"Traitor."
A/N: Thank you so much to annibug, clanmalfoy, thalia and, (as always) Aulizia for beta-reading and providing inspiration. Thank you to my returning readers. Please note that this story won't be updated as quickly as my most recent stories. Unfortunately, this one isn't finished yet, but I'm excited about where it is headed. The good news is that I will be able to incorporate some of the wonderful suggestions that I get! Comments are cherished, and criticism is duly considered.