Author's Note: This is for the Album challenge. The idea is to pick an album and write a chapter for each song. I chose Coldplay's newest album "Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends" and each chapter will be a one-shot, centered around a member of the Black family. I'm picking some lyrics from each song, and the story will be centered around those lyrics, not necessarily the title of the song. The first character is Druella Black. Reviews are welcome!
Life in Technicolor
"There's a cold war coming on the radio, I heard. Baby it's a violent world."
Druella stared out the window of her large and unbearable lonely house as she flicked her wand at the radio, searching for a good station. She was in the midst of the Dark Lord's rise to power, and she hated it. Her eldest daughter, Bellatrix, was a Death-Eater, torturing and killing people, perhaps at this very moment. Her youngest daughter, Narcissa, was probably at her own large and lonely house right now, waiting for her Death-Eater husband to come home. And her middle daughter, Andromeda, was gone from her forever. Little Andromeda, who stopped the endless fighting between fiery Bellatrix and selfish Narcissa, who curled up to her during the nights when Cygnus was gone and whispered words of love and comfort in her ear, who brightened the dark home considerably, and who left the entire family when she married the Mudblood. Druella was disgusted, of course, and silently watched without protest as her sister-in-law eagerly blasted her daughter's name off the Black tapestry, but on nights like these, she couldn't help missing her daughter.
Druella idly wondered where Cygnus was tonight. Was he trying to curry favor with the Minister? Or was he enjoying an idle game of Muggle torture, perhaps with the Death-Eaters themselves? She sighed, but decided she didn't care much. She would rather have her daughters with her, Bellatrix passionately explaining the Dark Arts to her, Andromeda cuddling with her, Narcissa gazing into a mirror and telling her all about the wonders of Lucius, than have her cold and cruel husband at home.
She paused at a talk radio show. From listening only a second, Druella realized the hosts were staunchly against the Dark Lord. She knew Cygnus would be furious if he knew she was listening to this filth, and that alone made Druella listen a little more closely, smiling at her secret act of rebellion.
One of the hosts was loudly ranting at the horrors done by the Death-Eaters, and Druella felt her heart stop for a second when he mentioned Bellatrix in disgust. The other host cut in and gave a solemn warning to the listening audience: "Witches and wizards and Squibs everywhere, know this, people are going to die. This is going to be a bloody hard war to win. There are going to be sacrifices and it's going to be horrific. But I know in my heart that we will manage to win!"
Applause came from the radio and Druella quickly turned it off. Yes, there would be sacrifices. But these sacrifices would not only come from the "good" side. Her side would lose people too.
A tear slowly trickled down Druella's face as she thought about her daughter and son-in-law in so much danger. Didn't these people realize that all the Death-Eaters were someone's daughter, someone's husband, someone's family? And that their family would be crushed if anything happened to them?
Druella wiped away her tears and sat up straight as she reminded herself to stay strong, stay cold, stay Black. Still, no matter what she acted like to her husband and to others, Druella hated war and violence and longed for the day her entire family would be safe and together again. And Druella pretended that one day, that would happen.