"Daddy, daddy look!"

A delicate looking girl, no older then 6, with creamy pale skin and a head of sleek black curls cried, tugging on a stern-looking man's arm. The man grunted and ignored the child, his gaze still on the other rather mean looking adults sitting around the large round table as they talked quietly.

"Daddy, look! Look what I drew, Daddy!"

The girl cried, tugging on his arm harder, a piece of paper clenched in her small hand and her dark eyes blazing. The man made a shooing gesture, nodding to another man across the table.

"DADDY! LOOK!"

The child yelled, thrusting the paper under his nose. The man's eyes blazed with the same fury in the child's as he swung his head around, and grabbed the girl's hand with the paper in it with his own. Throwing her hand down with disgust, he gave the frowning child a mean look. "Go outside and play. Now." He growled quietly, dark eyes darting to the other adults at the table, who where looking impatient, as their kids where behaving themselves in another room. "But Daddy! Look at what I drew!" The girl said, surely, a child less braver then she would have quailed under the man's furious gaze, but the little girl in the pale, frilly pink dress and bows in her hair held strong. The man's face screwed up angrily as the other adults at the table coughed and shifted about, waiting for him to resume. "Bellatrix Black, go outside, now." The girl crossed her arms, and opened her mouth about to protest, but the man grabbed her shoulder and spun her around. "GO!" He roared. Bella stifled a cry and stomped her way down the hall, pausing at an old oak door. She yanked it open and dashed outside, letting it slam heavily behind her.

She tore through the grass and followed the sound of other children playing near the back of the house. She paused just around the side of the house, tripping over a bit of old rope half-buried in the ground. Frowning, the black-haired girl looked down at the wrinkled picture still clutched in her hands, where a crudely-drawn picture of her father with a lumpy head and too many fingers waved at her. Wiping her eyes with the back of her hand, she again glared down at the picture she was so proud of seconds before and then savagely tore it in two. Tossing it to the ground, she stomped on it, pressing it into the soft ground. Tucking a stray black curl behind her ear when this outburst was finished, Bella turned simply and walked towards where her siblings, her parent's friend's children, and cousins where playing.

"Hi Bella!" A thin girl with short, wavy brown hair called, waving at her. Bella glared at the girl, and her hand slowly sunk back into her lap. The girl quickly got to her feet and walked over to Bellatrix, brushing some dirt off of her pale blue dress. Drawing level, her own dark eyes met Bella's, and she frowned. "Bella? What's wrong?" She said, her brow wrinkling in concern. "Nothing, Andy. Where's Cissy?" Bellatrix asked quietly, dark eyes glancing around the small yard. "I dunno, Mum took her inside earlier. She's probably napping or something. Want to play dollys?" Andromeda asked, her own dark eyes lighting up as a soft smile lit up her face.

Bellatrix returned her smiled somewhat wickedly, "Sure. Let's play torture chamber. I found some rope earlier. We can tie the dolls to a tree branch and poke them until they spill the beans." She said maliciously as Andromeda frowned. "Can't we play house? You can be the daddy doll and I'll be the mommy doll and they can have a baby and have fun and play and stuff." Bellatrix snorted, "Andy, don't be stupid. Why would we play that? That's boring." And with that, Bellatrix skipped off to the side of the house and dug up the rope she had tripped over moments earlier. Setting off back to her sister and humming merrily, she stopped and looked at her torn apart drawing half buried in the ground. Scowling, she stomped on it again and then spit on it angrily before running back to her sister to begin torturing their dolls.


"Bellatrix Black!" Came a loud screech from the upstairs floor of the Black's large home. The nine year old Bellatrix ignored the screech, humming an odd tune loudly as she laid belly-down on the rug in front of the fire-place, drawing distorted people on a scrap of parchment. "Bella, Mummy wants you." A quiet voice said from the bottom of the stairs. "Why?" Bellatrix asked boredly, not looking up from her doodling. "Uhm, I think it is because you cut Andy's hair." Said a small blonde girl, twisting the hem of her dress worriedly in her hands. "It'll grow back." Bellatrix said simply, swinging her feet in the air as she drew a person without a head. "But - but Bella, Mummy wants you to go upstairs." The small girl said, her blue eyes wide and scared. "I don't care, Cissy. Go run around with some scissors or something, will you? I'm busy." The girl, Cissy, frowned and crossed her arms, "Bellatrix!" She cried, turning and running back up the stairs.

"Crybaby." Muttered Bella. More footsteps on the stairs. "Bellatrix Black. What have I told you about being mean to your sisters?" Druella Black said in a deathly quiet voice. Bellatrix didn't respond, but continued humming. "Bellatrix?" The blonde woman said, a bit louder, her hands on her hips and one clutching a wand. No answer. Druella, fuming, brandished her wand and silently instructed to it a spell.

The dull, black-and-purple room lit up with the flash of a spell, and in an instant, Bellatrix was floating in midair. "Put me down!" The girl yelled, squirming wildly. "You're a bad girl, Bellatrix." Said Druella coldly, flicking her wand and making Bellatrix spin a few times in the air. The nine year old screamed loudly, her mass of curly black hair whipping against her face as she spun. "What a shame. Perhaps your Father and I will take back that new toy we got you for your birthday." The blonde woman said quietly, cold blue eyes watching her daughter bounce up and down now in the air. Suddenly, Bellatrix let out a loud scream of anger and her mother flew backwards. The girl landed lightly on her feet, her mother landed in a heap feet against the wall where she had knocked off a picture or two. Bellatrix smiled coldly, brushing out her dress. Her raw magic had saved her again, Bellatrix noted.

"I'm going to be the best witch ever one day, and then, you'll be sorry!" The nine year old hssed as she walked past her mother, who was slowly regaining herself. Spotting her mother's dropped wand a foot away, Bellatrix quickly snatched it up. Twirling it between her fingers, she smiled wickedly. "Hey Andy! Cissy!" She yelled, looking at the ceiling where her sisters would be upstairs. Grinning, she took off at a sprint up the stairs to reek more havoc.

to be continued~~ reviews so far are loved