Chapter Two: Education
"Miss Black, a moment please?" asked Professor Slughorn of Narcissa at the end of class. Narcissa, who had never possessed the astonishing skills of her elder sister, had finished yet another abysmal potion. Her swelling solution had dissolved the cauldron entirely, and destroyed a portion of the table.
"Yes, Professor?" the blonde haired girl asked timidly.
"I think it is necessary for you to receive additional instruction in Potions. Unfortunately, I am not able to oversee your studies because of my commitments to some of my older students. However, I am able to recommend a worthy second."
"A…second?"
"Yes, a student who is fully capable of tutoring you. Luckily, he is a member of your own house, so it should not be difficult to schedule tutoring sessions."
At this, Professor Slughorn beckoned to Severus Snape, who had been lurking in the shadows. The greasy-haired student emerged, and stood at attention.
"Severus, I want you to tutor Narcissa in potions at least three days a week. It should not be difficult."
Snape merely nodded curtly, and Narcissa followed up with a wary nod of her own.
When Professor Slughorn left the two students alone, Snape finally spoke.
"How about tomorrow, in the Slytherin Common room."
Narcissa barely found her voice to respond –
"That is fine."
There was a knock on the Head Girl's Door. Bellatrix frowned. Sirius would know to come in, and no one else would dare to meet her face to face.
"Bella, it's me," spoke a timid voice.
It was Narcissa, which, Bellatrix supposed she ought to have expected.
"Come in, Cissa."
The blonde girl smiled in a relieved fashion, and sat down on the bed, much to her sister's dismay.
"I just wanted to talk, Bella."
"There is no need for distance between sisters, my dear."
"Well, I'm just afraid of not fitting into society – you know, as mama expects."
"Between you and me, my dear, there is a great deal that mama doesn't know about society."
"What is that?"
"That one must be adventurous, and take risks in order to not only fit into society, but excel in it."
Narcissa's eyes had lit up. She stared at her sister as though she had just received a magical key to a tightly locked door.
"Adventurous, Bella? I am already very adventurous, I play Quidditch and once I went near the Forbidden –"
"That is not the kind of adventurous I mean."
Bellatrix gave Narcissa a very serious look. She smiled a benevolent smile, and continued,
"I think you know what kind of adventurous I am referring to."
"But Bella, mama would never approve of those things."
"Cissa, times have changed since mama went to school. It is exactly the sort of thing that has served me well thus far."
"But those things are for women of ill-repute."
"Not if no one knows about it."
At this point, Narcissa stood up, her face full of unbridled glee. Somehow, at the same time, she appeared mortally shocked. She turned to leave, but stopped for a second.
"Cissa, is there something more you want to say?"
"Oh – just that – you know my new Potions tutor?"
"Yes?"
"He's a very nice boy."
After Narcissa left, Bellatrix sat on her bed for a long time and thought. Stupid people are so easy to manipulate.
James ripped Sirius out of bed where he had been lying for the entire afternoon. If it were anyone else, it may have been conjectured that they had died in their sleep. However, James knew that Sirius merely seemed to become more tired than anyone else. James quickly pulled out his wand and though, "Levicorpus", with the result that Sirius was hanging upside down from the ceiling.
"Get up, you lousy oaf!"
"Honestly James, can't I sleep just a little bit longer? Also, I'd rather you set an alarm."
"We're going to dinner!"
"I've been to dinner dozens of times."
James smiled to himself.
"Not with Cornelia Crouch."
Sirius immediately regretted telling James about his bet with Bellatrix.
However, he thought "Liberacorpus", and was down in a trice, and in another few moments, both he and James were climbing into their dress robes. They made their way down the dormitory stairs, where Lily Potter was waiting with a very severe expression on her face. James nearly wolf-whistled, for Lily was wearing robes of bottle green that matched her eyes quite exquisitely. He was saved from this indiscretion by Sirius, who pinched him. The three exited with some Gryffindor sixth and seventh years who all walked wordlessly from the tower to the prefect's bathroom.
It was not for nothing that the professors at Hogwarts were considered experts in their field. The taps and other signs of a bathroom had completely vanished to create an enchanting dining space. The students from Ravenclaw had lined up along one table, and Sirius could her dark brown hair from the entrance. He and James nearly tripped over each other trying to sit next to the girl they liked best. Soon Sirius found himself seated across from Cornelia with only the blood pudding separating them. James was next to Sirius on the other side and had managed to scrape a seat next to Lily. Sirius suspected that he had pulled some strings with the professors for this result, as Lily had only recently agreed to talk to him at all, and then only when he wasn't hexing Snape. On the other hand, Cornelia had taken one look at Sirius and did not seem interested in sparing another one.
"You know Cornelia, I read what your father said in the Daily Prophet today," began Sirius, referring to Barty Crouch, Sr.'s announcement about new restrictions on Dark Magic users.
James choked on his fish and wondered at his friend's audacity. Cornelia looked scathingly at him, since she didn't appreciate being associated with her father inside the school.
"I thought it was rather absurd." James then slopped his soup over the front of robes, which only served to draw the attention of the remainder of the table to them.
"That is interesting, considering the otherwise positive responses my father has received."
"No one would say otherwise, considering the subject matter."
"I highly doubt that one of your repute would understand my perspective."
Sirius managed to keep a straight face, but James was sure that he had gulped down at least one whole mussel.
"Myrepute, my dear?"
"I don't need to go any further than your name, do I, Black?" countered Cornelia, her dark eyes glittering.
Sirius sneered, looking particularly elegant and handsome.
"What makes you think that my views are colored by my lineage? Maybe I have some other problems with what your father is doing? You know—like deciding to send people to Azkaban without a trial."
The name of the wizarding prison drew gasps from the other dinner attendees. Cornelia looked unfazed.
"Desperate times call for desperate measures, Sirius. Maybe if you didn't spend all your time with mischief doers and Dark wizards, you would understand what it means to be serious."
"Why not decide for yourself, instead of discounting my opinion based on what your father thinks?"
Cornelia flushed. There were many things people could accuse her of doing—but being a pawn was not one of them.
"Is that not what I am doing?"
Lily pursed her lips as if she did not like where the conversation was going and James obliged by turning the topic to more mundane matters. For once—her annoyance wasn't directed at him!
Cornelia was walking with Lily down to the Great Hall, and turned to her auburn-haired companion.
"Is Sirius different from his family?"
Lily looked appraisingly at the brown haired witch—her hair was rather darker than her brother's sandy thatch. Lily knew of Bartemius Crouch's reputation—he would stop at nothing to put away dark wizards—and she rather wondered if his daughter was the same.
"Well, he's not in Slytherin, for one."
Sirius sauntered into the Head's Suite, slightly tipsy after the round of firewhiskies that he had James had gotten after the dinner ended.
"How goes it, my dear cousin?"
"She is already warming up to me."
"That's not what I heard about Miss Crouch."
Sirius looked properly chagrinned—but continued as though he were successful—
"Miss Crouch enjoys our verbal swordplay—I think that most people don't challenge her views for fear of retribution from her father."
Bellatrix looked utterly bored with the discussion.
"You appear to be doing poorly with regards to my sister."
"Narcissa is hardly as engaging as Cornelia."
"I hardly think that you would have been as interested in her were it not for our bet."
Bellatrix knew that she had hit a soft spot—for she alone among the girls of Hogwarts could be distinguished from Sirius's many conquests and admirers.
"Irked by Lucius' infidelity."
"That is not relevant, cousin. If you do not make haste, I shall allow Snape to take your place."
"As though Snivellus would be good at something like that. I think he spends his days wondering where Remus goes once a month. Well—who knows where I would spend my days if I didn't have somewhere else to go?"
