Even though they rarely lectured her or said anything cruel towards her, Narcissa swore that she often saw disappointment in her parents' eyes in one of the rare moments when they actually looked at her.
In the Pureblood world, males were more valued than females because males would be the one to carry on the family name to the next generation. The females, on the other hand, lost their name as soon as they married; and no respectable Pureblood female would ever consider having a child without a husband.
To put it shortly, the name "Black" would not continue through any of the children of Cygnus and Druella Black because all they had were females. The only way that the name "Black" would continue would be if either Sirius or Regulus Black had wives to bear them children.
But along with the disappointment of her being just another girl, Narcissa sometimes wondered if she had been an accident. Had her parents really intended to have a third child?
Bellatrix and Andromeda had both been named after the stars. Narcissa, on the other hand, had been named after a flower. Why hadn't she been named after a star as well? Was there something wrong with her? Did her parents not see her as being a true Black? Was she just an afterthought?
Narcissa was not like Bellatrix, who (despite believing deeply in blood purity) never showed any interest in being a proper lady. Nor was Narcissa like Andromeda, who insisted on standing against all of her family's beliefs.
Unlike her older sisters, Narcissa always tried her best to be the perfect Pureblood daughter. She obeyed all the rules, and she was quiet and refined.
Yet, nothing Narcissa did was ever enough. Her parents would occasionally praise her and tell her what a good girl she was (and she treasured each of those moments), but it seemed as if they spent most of their time yelling at Bellatrix or Andromeda for something improper that they had done.
In all honestly, the only time Narcissa's parents noticed her was when neither Bellatrix nor Andromeda were around. But even then, Narcissa was so quiet and so afraid of saying something wrong that there was never much conversation between her and her parents. She might as well be invisible.
Narcissa was just glad to have her name acknowledged by her parents, but even that was tainted by the fact that her name was that was a flower instead of a star.
Narcissa sometimes considered being bold and loud like her sisters, but that just wasn't who she was. She wanted to be the perfect Pureblood daughter, and the perfect Pureblood daughter was not high-strung like Bellatrix or a rebel like Andromeda.
And even if Narcissa was to start acting like her sisters, would it really make any difference? There wasn't anything she could possibly do that Bellatrix and Andromeda had not already done. Narcissa would be just copying them, and she didn't want to do that.
Narcissa wanted to be her own person, but she also wanted to be a daughter that her parents could be proud of. She didn't want her parents being any more disappointed in her than they already were. It was bad enough that she had just been another girl instead of a boy. She didn't need to make it any worse by being a troublemaker.
There was simply no denying it. Narcissa had been an accident. Her parents had never intended to have a third daughter. She was not special or significant. She was just there to one day marry a proper Pureblood male and give him a child, so that he at the very least could continue his family name.
Narcissa wasn't even important enough to be named after a star. She was nothing more than just an afterthought.