The night sleeping beside his crib must have formed some odd bond between my brother and me because from then on he was my best mate, my one and only. Until I was nine he was my only companion. We invented games with a quaffle that we had, throwing and catching it. Father took us to several quidditch matches, both of us falling in love with the sport immediately. I taught Rabastan how to play Wizard's Chess and I soon played with him instead of Father on afternoons. I could beat Rabastan, but he was learning fast, beating me at least one out of three games.
I grew into a rather scrawny child, long limbs, tall, and lanky. Rabastan did the same way, though he was shorter. His hair took on a dark black colour where mine remained a shade lighter. I was the thinker, and Rabastan was the brave one, but I still needed him. I couldn't stand to be away from my little brother. The nursery soon vanished and turned into the room of a little boy, with toys where the diapers had been and a bed with dark black sheets instead of a crib with a blue blanket.
One day Father came home from work and immediately grabbed Mere and brought her into his study. I was nine at the time, Rabastan was seven. It was the last summer that we would be in France. I loved France, the pastry shops in the wizarding alley, the people, our Château. This was the only home I'd ever known but I'd sooner come to cherish the new house more than this one. We were playing in the garden when Father came into the house. I thought this was odd… since the teachers lived at the school during the year and only briefly came home on holidays. School wasn't supposed to let out for three more weeks. He'd told me so one of the countless times that I'd asked him.
"When will you come home?"
"In three weeks. When school is out. Stop asking me. It's not changed." He would smile down at me and ruffle my hair, a tenderness that would later vanish in my adolescent years.
"Is it summer already?" Rabastan asked, holding the quaffle and not throwing it back to me. My hands, which were held out and ready to receive the red ball fell to my sides.
"No. It's not?" I questioned more than stating. Why was he home three weeks early? Was something wrong? Rabastan and I knew better than to go snooping about and asking questions so we sat down in the garden; Rabastan rolling the quaffle around between his hands.
"Why do you think he's home early?" His voice cut through the quietness of my thoughts and I was jerked back to reality.
"I have no idea." I admitted.
Rabastan turned to me, "Maybe his classes ended early so he came home to eat dinner."
"It's going on 7 o'clock, classes have been over for a long time." I stated. What in the world was going on? I could suddenly hear hushed voices coming from his study. They were both speaking in French. Talking far too quickly and quietly for me to pick up anything. I could just hear the muffled tones, nothing more. My parents tended to speak in French to each other in hushed voices when something was wrong or when one of us was in trouble and they were debating the punishment. I'd done nothing to get in trouble for, Rabastan wasn't sick, so whatever they were talking about must be something else. Something was very wrong.
That night, Father was home for dinner. We ate in silence, which was odd for us. Usually someone talked. I liked that my parents treated Rabastan and I like we were adults, always talking to us in adult voices and never treating us like children. Though affairs not intended for children were never voiced to us, we felt like they kept nothing from us, but tonight they were hiding something. I could just tell, see it. I had this uncanny ability to read people since I often sat back and watched instead of saying anything. They both kept stealing glances at one another, nervous glances. This was a trait that I never saw in either of them.
I pushed the lobster around my plate before chancing a glance at Rabastan. He seemed to have noticed the silence too. As if we'd both planned this out, we looked up to our parents at the same time, forks positioned in our hands. They noticed this and Mere cleared her throat. Father then looked up to us, clearing his own throat in that way that meant he was about to tell us something of utter importance. Both of our forks went down to out plates at the same time, left there and forgotten.
"Boys- Rodolphus and Rabastan I mean….." He paused. I'd never seen him this frustrated before. Chevalier Lestrange was never a flustered man, lost for words. Mere blinked a few times in succession and I realized then that anything that could silence and baffle both of my parents at the same time must be something grave. When he didn't go on I said, "Yes?"
Father seemed to snap out of his reprieve and looked at us both again. "Boys, due to recent changes in my work profession, we'll be moving to England in two days."
"That's the day after tomorrow." Mere stated as she stopped her blinking fit.
"Why?" I asked. "Why are we leaving, moving I mean?" Father gave me a look, one that said, 'You'll find out later. It's not important now.' I knew then not to ask again. He'd tell me if he ever wanted me to know. So curiosity was pushed aside for obedience, for the time being at least.
Rabastan spoke up then. "Where are we moving to in England?"
"Newcastle." Father said. "Now. Neither of us is going to work tomorrow. We'll pack then and be ready by nightfall, just incase."
"Incase what?" I asked. I received another look and shut up, but he proceeded.
"Just incase." He said. I'd never known either of my parents to keep things from my brother and me, unless it was one of those adult topics that weren't to be discussed with us. I guessed that it was a very adult topic.
Dinner went by in silence, no one speaking again. I remember that the only sounds present were the clinking of our forks against the blue china and the rustle of our two house elves, running here and there to refill our goblets and bring my brother and me dessert.
------------------------------------------------------------
Packing was an easy task, seeing as how we didn't really have to do anything. Mere and Father packed most of our things away with a wave of their wands and the house elves picked up whatever was left behind. The only thing not packed away was my quaffle. I wouldn't let the little ball be packed away for some reason. I'd wrestled it away from one of the house elves and had carried it around with me the whole day. This had been the ball I'd been holding right before my life had changed, right before I was to be told things that I couldn't ask about. The last time I'd held this ball, my world had made perfect sense. Now, I hoped that by holding it again that the red object would give me the answers that no one seemed to be able to supply me with at the time. Why were we moving? What had happened at Father's work? Why weren't we allowed to ask questions about this sudden change? The ball gave no answers but it offered me a sense of comfort. I took it everywhere with me that day, from the bathroom to the kitchen table.
An air hung over our house that day. One that signaled that we were leaving and might never come back again. I didn't want to leave. I truly didn't, but I had no choice in the matter for I was only a child living in a world ruled by adults and their conversations that they wouldn't let us in on.
The day went by quickly. Far too quickly. Father had disappeared to his study, talking with someone in the fireplace by floo powder. Their voices were a slight buzz that I could barely hear and couldn't make out and just as it had been with Mere, he spoke French in a very quick manner. Father wasn't present at breakfast and only for a short bit at lunch. He grabbed a bowl of soup and retreated to his study again. Mere seemed highly withdrawn, walking around the house and making sure that nothing had been left behind.
The place was empty except for the kitchen, where we stayed most of the day. The kitchen supplies were all to be packed up shortly before we were to leave. I wondered if we would leave that night or in the morning. Why was leaving at night an option? Just in case what? Questions that I didn't ask for I knew that they wouldn't be answered.
That afternoon Father came in to the kitchen and sat down at the table. He told Mere that the kitchen supplies could go ahead and be packed away; we were leaving as soon as the sun set. He waved his wand at a few things, helping Mere pack up. She scolded him for such actions.
"They can trace magic at the Ministry. Stop using your wand." Mere stopped talking once she realized that Rabastan and I were in their presence and went back to packing up, but Father seemed to not notice us.
"They're not going to snap my wand. They can only do something like that if you actually use if for—" He cut himself off, noticing then that we were there. Father disappeared to his study yet again, though nothing was left in the room, only the fire place.
All of our traveling cloaks were lain out on the table and our two house elves sat at the table with us while we waited. I still held tightly onto the quaffle, refusing to let it be stowed away. I got up from the table, growing tired of listening to my brother talking about something or another. I wasn't really listening so I had no idea what he was going on and on about. Mere had vanished into the front room with Madame Mossiuer whom she'd called upon. I guessed she was telling her that we were moving. Madame probably got the full reason on why we were leaving. All that I'd been able to gather was that it was something that could get my father's wand snapped in half, in Mere's opinion, but which the Ministry could do nothing about in his. We were also moving for something to do with his job. Had he been reassigned to teach at a school in England?
I hadn't noticed until then, when I was walking through the house by myself, that it was empty. All of our possessions had already been moved to the new house. I liked our Château in the mountains. I didn't want to leave, but of course it was the only home I'd ever know so that was to be expected. I wandered through the empty house, up the stairs and into my room. Like the rest of the house, it had been stripped bare, nothing left anywhere. I sat by the window for the longest of time, watching the red sun sink below the horizon.
"Rodolphus!" The voice shattered the small bubble I'd placed myself in while sitting on the window sill. Rabastan appeared at my doorway, his traveling cloak already on. "We're leaving. Mere said to come and get you."
I watched him. He didn't seem to be shaken by this, didn't care that we were leaving our only home.
"What?" He questioned, tilting his head to the side in that manner he always had.
"Nothing. It's just…." Something occurred to me then as he handed me my traveling cloak. "Rabastan, how are we getting there?" I hadn't taken in to consideration how we would be traveling to our new home, and my question made for a nice change of subject.
"Don't know." He said as the same wonder seemed to take him hostage as well. How were we to get to our new home? Rabastan shrugged as I fastened the buckle of my cloak, grabbed my quaffle and followed him out of the room. Once back in the kitchen, we found Mere ushering Madame Mossiuer out of the back door, bidding her good bye and talking in that same familiar French that was too fast for my brother and me to understand. Madame stopped in the doorway and smiled at Rabastan and me. She waved us goodbye and disappeared into the coming night.
For the next hour the five of us stood around in the kitchen; Mere standing by the back door, Rabastan and I near the space where the table once stood, and the two house elves beside the extinguished fireplace.
Father appeared after exactly an hour in the doorway to the kitchen. "Everyone ready?" He seemed extremely alert and held a small black bag in his hand. It was about the size of his palm with a gold string that kept it shut. "We'll be traveling by floo powder. I arranged a one way hookup that is only activated for five minutes. After that the line will be cut off, disappear completely. I'll take Rodolphus, you can take Rabastan." Father looked to Mere for a minute as she picked Rabastan up. He was getting awfully long and lanky, just as I was, so his feet hung down around her knees. Father turned to the house elves. "Go ahead and apparate." They both nodded and disappeared with a pop. He took my hand in his and told me to hold on to his robes with the other. Mere conjured a fire and Father threw in the powder. Rabastan and she went through first, then Father and I. His hand gripped tighter around mine as he said, "Lestrange Manor, Newcastle."
We appeared in a large room with a very high ceiling. It looked to be sort of a front room or entrance hall, with chairs here and there but a chandelier hung over head, the chandelier that had hung in our house back in France. It was large, with draping chains of diamonds and a hundred glowing lights. A large red rug led down the center of the room, covering the wooden floor. Father led me over this rug, by the hand. "Welcome to your new home. Our new home." I took in the whole of the room, staring around. "All of your things are already up in your room. Come on." He picked me up, a rare thing for him to do, considering my growing size and the fact that he believed that I was becoming 'a young man,' and led me through another room, which I took to be the living room and up a set of stairs. I didn't question his antic though or ask to be put down. I could tell that it gave my father a weird sense of security to carry me, and I didn't want to interrupt that. This mansion was as big as our old one but was completely different. It didn't have the winding hallways that seemed to lead to no where. This house was girded, straight, and planned out. It had a few curving turns but not nearly as many as the old one had.
"You and Rabastan have the whole West Wing." He explained.
Father carried me into a room that had a large black door shutting it off from the hallway. He cast the door aside, revealing a room. My room. It had all of my old belongings in it. My oak bed with the black and blue sheets, my broomstick, my dresser, my posters of famous quidditch players, and my mobile of different sorts of cauldrons and wands that used to hang over my crib. I guessed that it had been dug up by Mere and she'd decided to place it above one of the windows which made up half of the wall to the left of my bed. This wall gave way to small balcony. Father sat me down on the floor and walked over to the wall.
In the middle was a large section of window, framed by wood. A golden knob was set in the middle of the window. Father grasped the knob and turned it. I heard a soft click and the window turned out to be the door to the balcony. It swung out and Father ushered me on to the stone flooring.
I immediately saw the ocean and the beach. This was a place that our family had only visited but now we lived here. It was dark but I took in every inch that I could see. Darkness didn't seem to hinder my vision that night. I could see all. It was amazing. There was water and beach as far as I could see. A soft breeze whipped through the air, carrying with it the scent of salt and flowers. Flowers from a nearby garden. I tried to pin point the exact scent of those flowers. Pick out and identify what flowers might be growing there and who owned them. The only smell that I could discern was that of roses. I knew the smell so well for Father often gave roses to Mere on a regular occasion. He always picked out the softest shade of pink I'd ever seen.
"Rodolphus! Rodolphus!" I felt something tug at my cloak around my shoulder. I turned to see Rabastan standing there. He wore a large grin, all teeth clearly visible. "Rodolphus! It's the ocean!" His eyes were bulging out of his head so that he looked like an over-excited, bug eyed…. Well…. There's quite nothing to compare him to in that instant but himself. Rabastan always got so excited about things. Everything and anything seemed to perk him up. "The ocean!" He nearly squealed again, as if I hadn't heard him the first time.
"Yes. I know--I saw." I couldn't help but crack a grin that nearly rivaled his own. I loved to see him so excited. He blinked a few times before pointing to his right. "That's my room!"
Looking in the direction he pointed, I noticed that the balcony I was standing on continued on for another twenty to thirty yards. There was another door about fifteen yards away, mounted on a wall of windows like my own. A stretch of windows spanned from my door to his, our reflections looking back at us in it.
Rabastan noticed that I was looking at my reflection in those windows that seemed to not belong to his room or mine. "Oh! That's a little room thing between yours and mine." He grabbed me by the arm, pulling me past Father and Mere, who had come to stand beside him, and back into my room. He led me to another black door, opposite of my bed and yanked it open. We were in a small room only a few strides wide. One whole wall was made up of windows, the same ones that I had been looking in. There were a few chairs in the room, along with a mirror and a table. Rabastan pulled me across the room and through another door. I was met with his room, full of all the old things that had been in his room back in France; his bed, wardrobe, family portraits, and the red rug that took up the middle of his floor.
"See? Our rooms are connected by that little room!" That's just so-" Rabastan was too excited to communicate what he felt and I didn't bother to interrupt his silence.
I looked out the window, fumbling with the quaffle still gripped in my left hand. I didn't know the time, but I was sure that this was the latest I'd ever been up. Just as I was savoring my breaking of the normal rules that applied for bed time, Mere and Father came through the door that led to the balcony from Rabastan's room.. "Time for bed." Mere announced, walking over and ushering Rabastan to his bed.
Father did the same with me, pushing me by the shoulder blades back through the door, through the little interlude room, and into my own. He turned down the sheets of my bed and stood aside for me to crawl in. I did so but with a confused look on my face. Father pulled the covers up to my chest and patted the bed. He left the room, shutting the door behind him.
Mere came in a few minutes later, kissing me on the forehead and shutting the door between Rabastan's and my room. She left as Father had, shutting the door to the hallway behind her.
Rabastan came in a few minutes later, still fully dressed. "Did they forget that you're in regular clothes too?"
"Yeah. I think they're both out of it." I pushed the blankets off of me and went over to my wardrobe, pulling it open and shedding the traveling cloak and pulling out a pair of red pajama pants and a white shirt. I quickly changed, leaving my dirty clothes and tennis shoes on the floor. In the mean time, Rabastan had been looking around my room.
"Wonder why we moved?" He asked.
"It's something to do with Dad's work… something about…. Oh I don't know!" I threw my hands up because I couldn't express what I was thinking. I was nine years olds and my whole life had stopped and started again. I was in a new house. My Father had been the reason that we had to leave. All I knew was that it was something to do with his work, something that the Ministry could track his wand for, and that it had been a big enough deal for us to move. I didn't know any more than that.
Rabastan shook his head and sat on my bed. "What's wrong with them?"
"I don't know that either." I hated not to be able to supply my little brother with the answers to questions that I could tell by looking at his face, he was so eager to know. "We should get to bed. They could come back in here and check on us again or Chiffon and Fife could have heard us and run to tell that we aren't sleeping." I just wanted to get him out of my room before he asked me another question that I couldn't answer.
Rabastan nodded and disappeared through my room, leaving the door open behind him. I didn't bother to close it for I noticed that he'd also left his own open. Obviously it was something he'd intended to do. As I crawled into bed, I could see him getting dressed in the dark. He stumbled a time or two and I had to shove the blankets in my mouth before I busted out laughing at him. It was such a funny sight to see him struggling with his shirt and hitting his knees on the toy box at the end of his bed to only fall face and shirt first into the blanketed surface.
I rolled over on my side and buried my face in my pillow. It still smelled like our old home. I wondered what other rooms this house held and how long I'd live here. Would we move again? I finally fell asleep, thinking about the roses I smelled earlier.
------------------------------------------------------------
Mere was what you might call a social butterfly. She was always introducing my brother and me to tons of people, bragging on our little achievements and such. So it came as no surprise to me when I found her sitting on my bed the next morning, gently shaking me back to reality. "Roddie. Get up. We're going to meet an old friend of mine. She has three daughters. Rabastan and you can make play mates with them."
I immediately rolled over, huffing ,"Girls," under my breath. I didn't really want to go gallivanting about with little prissy, primped up things. Girls were always so fragile and you could never be rough with them. They constantly played with dolls and wore dresses.
She shook me by my shoulder again and smoothed my hair off of my forehead. "Come on. Get washed up. We can't have you looking like you've just crawled out of bed."
"But Mere. Idid just crawl out of bed." This was my morning routine. I would always mess with her for as long as I knew I could get away with before crawling from the depths of my bed and doing as she wished. I don't know why I did it. Maybe it was to see the smile that always crossed her face when at this early hour of the morning. Mere saw that I was making a slight effort to drag myself from the bed, so she left for Rabastan's room to wake him up. Five minutes later, she was walking back to my room with him trailing behind her. "Come on. You get to see you're new bathroom."
This morning I noticed something that I'd neglected the night before. There was a sort of front room to my own. It was a sitting room sort of thing, like a foyer to a house, but to a room instead. How had I missed this the night before? I had to have walked straight through it and through the archway on the left to even get to my room. My only explanation would have been if I ran straight past it all. The room only contained a couch and a table with a lamp, but I still found it near impossible to have missed. "Do you have a room like this at the front of yours?" I asked Rabastan as Mere directed us out of my bedroom door and into the corridor.
Four doors appeared in front of us. Two of them were made of oak with a glass window set in the center. The window was impossible to see through. To the right of these two doors were two French windows with brass doorknobs and velvet red curtains draped about them.
"Yeah… I do-what do these doors lead to?" Rabastan seemed to be more interested in the doors than fully answering my question.
Mere nodded to the middle one, as she had a hand placed on each of our shoulders, "That's your playroom. For now. When you get older it will turn in to more of a sitting room for the two of you. That's where most of your toys and things are. Those other two doors, lead to your bathroom." She pushed us through the oak door with a window farthest to the left.
We were in a white marbled room. In front of us stood a very large mirror mounted atop a black marble counter. To the left was a shower, completely concealed in glass. I noticed that the room seemed to loop around a corner to the right, so I followed the loop. The bathroom continued on. I stood in the middle of a little curve that led to the rest of it. Windows were to my right and a door to my left. I guessed that the door led to a toiletry. I continued around the loop, sunshine now pouring into the white marbled room, making everything seem by luminescent. I found myself looking at two sinks mounted into another counter against the wall in front of me, another mirror above the surface of the marble. In the center of this side of the room there was a large garden bath, that at my current size was almost like a pool.
Rabastan began to jump up and down excitedly. "This is OUR bathroom? It's so… so…"
"Unbelievable." I finished. Five minutes later Mere had us separated and doing different things. She left the bathroom, leaving Rabastan in the tub and me brushing my teeth, already bathed. I could hear him splashing around in the tub. "Did Mere tell you that we were going to meet girls?"
The splashing stopped quickly. "Really?" He asked.
"Yeah. I er….suppose she's going to want us to act like 'little gentlemen.'" I put the toothpaste on the brush and began to work at my teeth.
"Uhhhh!" I heard him fall back into the water and took the moment of silence to finish brushing my teeth.
I spit the white paste from my mouth and said, "Might as well get it over with, but she's not putting me in dress robes."
"Me neither." Rabastan squealed, jumping naked from the water and wrapping himself in a towel.
I bit my lip and wandered from the room, across the hall to my own to get dressed.
Thank Merlin that we didn't have to wear dress robes. Mere was happy to let each of us go the way we were; Rabastan in pants and a t-shirt and myself in shorts and a ¾ sleeves shirt. Tennis shoes were on each of our feet. She was dressed though in pink robes. "We'll walk. Druella knows that we're coming. Besides, wouldn't you boys like to see the beach?" Rabastan immediately nodded his head so roughly that I thought he'd get whiplash and snap his neck if he didn't stop. I was excited too. About the beach, not about meeting three little girls who would probably giggle themselves silly.
We left the house by way of the back door, which led to the beach. Mere led us down the stone steps which gave way to the sand. "Try not to get dirty." She remarked as Rabastan's eyes grew twice their normal size at the sight of all the sand. It's amazing how little boys love to get dirty. They see dirt and are attracted to it like dementors to fear. Truly amazing. For the walk, he stayed away from diving into the sand, but mumbled to me, "When we come back…." And I could only guess what he was to do.
Mere pointed to a manor a bit off. Only one house stood between ours that that one and it was nestled far back into the ridge of a cliff of rock. The manor was a white, cream colour with balconies like our own though much larger and it had a large garden at the front of the estate, with fountains and hedges. The back of the house faced the ocean just as ours did.
"That's the Black Manor, where we're headed. An old friend of mine lives there. I met her at a coming out party a few years back. I understand that she has three daughters now. Lovely little girls from what I'm told. Except for the oldest. Druella tells me that she's charming but a bit of a handful." Mere grinned down at us. "I think she has two nephews as well but I'm not sure if they're here or not. They were a few days ago but I've not spoken with her since."
My ears perked up.
"One your age." She looked to my brother. "And another a few years younger."
Oh fun! Two lovely girls, one charming one, and two boys both younger than I. At least they were boys though. I might be able to have some sort of fun after all. Just maybe.
We neared the house and Mere knocked on the back door. A small little elf came to answer the door. "Masters and Madame are here. Freem is telling his Madame now!" He bade us enter and the square nosed creature ran off, skipping slightly. I noticed that we'd come to a back sitting room from the looks of it. Everything was either a dark blue in hue or purple, from the couches to the rugs. Mere ushered us in a closed the door behind us.
Minutes later a tall, thin woman with sandy blonde hair came into the room. She wore light blue robes and had a pair of reading glasses perched on her head. "Oh! Lauriette!" Her and my mother exchanged quick hugs, like old school girl friends meeting up before the woman I took to be Druella turned to face us.
"And these are your boys?" She asked, eyeing us both up.
"Yes yes. Rodolphus and Rabastan." My mother indicated, nodding her head to each of us in turn.
"They're quite the little gentlemen. Speaking of which, I've been landed with my nephews again. Lovely little boys but--" She was cut short by a crash upstairs and a short giggle followed by a squeal. "Bella and Sirius tend to rough house a bit."
Mere nodded, smiling as another squeal issued from above us.
"Would you like to meet them?" She asked us, though not really wanting an answer. We were to meet the five of them by force anyway, so Rabastan and I both nodded our heads. "Come on then. I think they're in the guest room that Regulus and Sirius are sharing." Druella led us through the back sitting room and into the front hall. I noticed that it too had a chandelier but it was a dark one, black in hue with candles instead of lights. We were directed up a set of stairs, onto a landing. The East Wing of the house must have belonged to the children as the West Wing did at our own house, for the doors to their West Wing were shut tightly and by the looks of it, locked.
"Where's Chevalier?" She asked my mother.
Mere answer in a hushed whisper. "He's out. At the moment."
"Oh."
We turned to the right, heading down a corridor with blue carpet and large windows at the end of it through which the sun was pouring through. There were four doors on this hallway, each one different. It looked up ahead, as if the hallway turned to the right. We stopped at the first door on the left, which was open. I could hearing the giggling and squealing that I'd heard downstairs, mixed in with a few thuds and crashes. Druella gave Mere a rather apprehensive look and then led us into the room.
The children seemed to sort of be segregated by hair colour. A small blonde girl was sitting in a chair, tall postured and playing with a porcelain doll. She herself looked to be made of the same material, looking as if one were to even touch her she'd crumble into a thousand pieces. She wore a set of frilly pink robes and her hair had a slight wave to it. She put the other girls that I knew to shame. I'd never in my life met one this girly. Another girl, with hair that wasn't as platinum blonde as the first but more of a dirty blonde colour sat on the floor in a corner, nose buried deep within a thick book. She didn't seem to notice anything going on about her. The book was her world and held her attention. Her own set of light blue robes were ironed to perfection. Nothing was out of place on her. She looked to not be the type to cross. None of the girls that I'd ever met were smart like this, most of them stared after boys or played little games. Next I noticed a small little boy with coal black hair that was cut so that it fell gracefully around his face, a tad longer than Rabastan's spiky hair. He squealed and went into a giggle fit, clutching the sides of his shirt.
"GET HER SIRIUS!"
In the middle of the room were the two that were at the center of attention. It was hard to tell who was who. All I saw was a mess of black hair, black robes, and blue jeans. I heard a squeal again and guessed that one of them was the missing daughter that didn't seem to be around the room. Honestly… a girl behaving in such a fashion? This was truly different. Extremely different from how I knew any girl to behave. Then again, the behavior of the other two was different as well. I guessed that things were really different in England.
They were both rolling on the floor, one had a hold on the other's hair and the other had olive coloured hand clasped around the other's neck. Finally one of them managed to upturn the other and sit on them. Sirius, who I assumed was the boy, judging that his hair was shorter, had pinned the girl to the ground. He straddled her stomach, holding her wrists down by her head. He wore a stupidly large smirk on his face.
"I win." He said simply.
The girl must have been the one that Mere had mentioned. The charming handful. Her face had a slight tinge of red to it and she kicked against him. Sirius let the kicks hit his back, obviously too happy with beating her.
"No you haven't!" She flipped him over, rolling on top of him. "I win. You lose." She gave a slight pat to his cheek and pulled off of him, straightening up and dusting herself off. Her hair was coal black, like both of the boys and her skin wasn't the pale colour that her sisters' was. It was a shade darker, but not as dark as Sirius and his younger brother. She looked like someone you didn't want to mess with or even think of crossing. I took this to be 'Bella.'
"Oh… mother…." She looked up, realizing for the first time that others were there. "Who is this?"
She talked like she was an adult, equal to Mere and Druella in every way. She talked as if nothing had happened at all. Sirius jumped up to his feet and the other three seemed to notice that three strangers stood in the room.
"Bellatrix, Sirius." Druella looked at helplessly at her daughter and nephew, then turned to Mere. "If they aren't trying to kill one another then they're scheming together."
Mere nodded before Mrs. Black turned back around. "Well you've met Bellatrix, and Sirius." She indicated them both with a wave of her hand. "They're quite the entertainment. My oldest daughter, and oldest nephew." Next she indicated the little black haired boy. "Regulus, Sirius's younger brother. The one with the book is Andromeda, my second oldest, and that's Narcissa, with the doll." Each of them looked up at us, Bellatrix just standing there, Sirius tilting his head to the side, Regulus giving a shy little wave, Andromeda nodded her head, and Narcissa giving a smile. For the next few years, these were to be my companions. I would grow distant from some and far too close to others.
Narcissa never strayed far from her doll house or from her dolls. Andromeda hardly ever joined in on anything we did. She was a loner and preferred her books, often scolding us for being rough. Sirius and Regulus were like the brothers that I and Rabastan never had. They were always there, willing to play and ready to rough about. Bellatrix was there too. She never liked doing many girlie things. Dolls bored her to death and books were a waste of time. She liked to learn through life rather than from another's writings.
Her and Sirius were exactly alike but just the opposite as well. He always knew how to push her and pushed her until she snapped. Sirius enjoyed messing around with her but if Bellatrix got hurt, which happened a few times, he'd be the first one there at her side. Bellatrix didn't seem to notice that she was a girl, or at least it didn't seem to bother her. She always played with the four of us, never made excuses, and wasn't afraid to get dirty. Her sisters seemed to fear dirt whereas she could care less if it was on her or not.
The Blacks had a large manor which I soon knew inside and out as if it were my own home. Our play ground became the beach, my house, and theirs.
Bellatrix and Andromeda received brooms that Christmas. They both naturally took to quidditch. Sirius and Regulus were the same way when they got they're own a few days later. Narcissa never took to flying though. It would mess her hair up. All six of us began playing mock games but Andromeda always grew tired and claimed to miss her books too much. She'd land and leave us to carry on. Bellatrix never quit and neither would Sirius as long as she remained on her broom. It was a competition to them to see who could stick it out the longest and Regulus wouldn't leave his broom either for he admired both of them so and didn't want to leave their sides.
We often played quidditch over the Blacks' gardens or over the beach. It we actually wanted to score, we'd travel to my house where we had a goal put up for Rabastan and I when he turned eight. We were playing here on the day that I met Lucius Malfoy. It was the last summer that we would all be together. Bellatrix and I hadn't received our letters for Hogwarts yet but they were to come in a few days' time.
Mere and Druella had stayed behind at the Black Manor, letting all of us wander over to our manor and be watched by my father. He sat at a table on one of the balconies, The Daily Prophet in his hand, reading glasses on. Occasionally, he'd glance up and make sure that none of us were injured or anything. Rabastan and I still had no idea why we'd moved and Father had found a new job. One at the Ministry of Magic in London. I had no idea what he did but I knew he had a job and that seemed to be enough for me at the time.
It was a warm day, even Andromeda had left her book for the game, playing on a team with Bellatrix and Regulus. Narcissa remained with her doll, the same one that she had been playing with when I first met her. Sure she had plenty others but this one seemed to be her favorite with its blue dress and blonde hair with pink ribbons.
Sirius and Bellatrix never played on the same team. Opposing each other was half the game to them.
"If it bounces off his head, it's still in play!" "But it didn't bounce of his head. It landed on the ground!"
"Rodolphus!" Sirius rounded on me. "Please tell Trixie hear that the ball hit your noggin and not the ground."
I gave a small smile and threw my hands up. "I'm not getting in to this."
"That's as good as a no." Snapped Bellatrix, taking the quaffle from Sirius. "Our ball." Just as she threw it to Andromeda for her to begin the play with, a loud popping sound issued forward. Mere and Druella had apparated and were standing just below us with a boy that looked to be our age and two blonde adults, one male, the other female.
"Who is that?" Regulus asked.
"No clue." Answered Sirius and Bellatrix together. They glared at one another as if it were they're phrase and the other had stolen it from them.
Druella was talking and pointing up at us. Bellatrix sighed, lying down on her broom. "And the game stops because some blonde twit walks in with two adults."
"Apparated in." Corrected Sirius.
She smiled at him but it quickly disappeared. The 'twit' remark had obviously reached the boy's ears. His blonde head turned up to us and I could see his gray eyes flicking over us each, before coming to land on Bellatrix and singling her out as the culprit. She rolled her eyes and dismissed it.
I could see Andromeda shaking her head out of the corner of my eye. Soon the party was up on the balcony with Father, talking. The boy hung back, watching all of us before inspecting his fingernails. He was arrogant. I could tell that already and had a superior attitude, the same attitude that Bellatrix had.
Andromeda threw the quaffle to sister, screaming "Bella!" shortly before it was to hit her. Bella was a nickname, one that everyone of us in the air called her. Regulus shortened it to 'Bell' and Sirius would rather throw in 'Trixie' because he knew it bothered her. The blonde boy's head shot back up, watching Bellatrix catch the quaffle, barely moving on her broom as she did so and not fully sitting up either. Andromeda sped off to the ground, landing and immersing herself in a book.
"Well she's gone for the rest of the day." Regulus announced.
"Unless we use that precious book of hers as a quaffle." Bellatrix said, watching her younger read below her. Sirius chuckled and acted as if he were to go and retrieve the book but stopped after acting like he was about to dive for it.
"It's uneven… how are we going to play?" Rabastan asked.
I was always the quiet one. I sat back and let the others talk. I preferred watching most of the time.
Bellatrix and Sirius shrugged. "The lovely company seems to have ruined our fun. Rodolphus, you should go and play a good host. Show him the door before you slam it in his face." She hissed, watching him.
Sirius rolled his eyes. "Give up the ball then!" Bellatrix threw it over her shoulder at him and sat up on her broom.
Mere was directing us to come and land, to stop our game for a minute. Druella was calling over the balcony to her two daughters, instructing them to come up and greet the company. They did as told, Andromeda harboring her book and Narcissa her doll.
A few minutes later, after we'd all landed and the land loving two had made it up to the balcony we were introduced.
"…. Abraxas, Latona, and Lucius Malfoy…."
Father knew Abraxas. They worked together at the Ministry and Bellatrix's father, Cynus, knew him as well. We'd never met his son or his wife before though but I recognized the patriarch of the family immediately for he'd stopped by our house a few times.
Lucius was released to us for the next few hours while his family talked to our own, minus Mr. Black, for he was away on business to do with work. Everyone that was important seemed to work in the ministry. Andromeda went back to reading and Lucius came up into the air with us. His father had conjured his broom for him shortly after the three mothers had disappeared inside the house. Rabastan shifted over to Bellatrix and Regulus' team and Lucius joined Sirius and I. Lucius, I found out, was just as aggressive on a broom and Sirius and Bellatrix were.
After an hour, the Fathers had disappeared into the house as well, and no goals had been scored. Regulus, once pushed was a match to rival his brother and Bellatrix and Lucius seemed to be going at it. This was the first time but it wouldn't be the last. Each of them had a determined look in their eyes and they began to get rougher and rougher with one another.
Bellatrix stole the quaffle from Lucius, passed it to Regulus, who passed it back. He seemed to have gotten skittish with the taller and older child coming after him. Lucius had quickly changed velocity. He was gaining speed on Bellatrix and was soon flying above her. He let go of his broom and twisted around so that he could easily grab the quaffle, but Bellatrix had seen him coming and dove lower. Lucius quickly regained his grip and followed her to her dive to the ground. He straightened up as she did, both now only five feet form the grass. Finally, he gave up and I could tell that this had been coming. This had been what he'd wanted to do from the beginning.
Lucius let go of his broom and jumped, landing on Bellatrix. She let go of her broom and the quaffle, plummeting the five feet to the ground. The ball went soaring into the air and I caught it. Sirius, Regulus, Rabastan, and I all stopped in mid air and watched the two tumble to the ground "He's gonna get it." Sirius winced, looking away.
Neither of them moved for a minute, and Regulus went to speed out for them, but I held him back.
Finally we heard the scream we'd been waiting for. Bellatrix pushed Lucius off of her, giving him a kick in the ribs. He allowed it to happen, and rolled over, pushing himself up off the ground. Bellatrix followed suit.
"You cheated! FOUL!"
"Did I? I thought tackling was perfectly in the rules." He smirked, quite happy to get her riled up.
"Tackling is! Chasing after with intent to kill ISN'T!"
"Can't we just get back to the game?" He mounted his broom and kicked off, waiting for her to the same.
Bellatrix did and sped to me, wrenching the quaffle from my grasp and hurling it at Lucius' head. He hadn't expected this and it hit him roughly. He caught the ball on the rebound though, holding it in his hands.
"What's wrong, Bella?"
"Don't you dare call me that! It's Bellatrix to you." She wouldn't be made a fool of, wouldn't be over powered.
"Did I upset you?" He threw the quaffle roughly back to her. I wasn't sure if he intended it to hit her or not but she caught it and hurled it back at lightening speed.
"You're nothing but an arrogant, egotistical pretty boy!" Bellatrix screamed, as he caught the quaffle.
"Just like you Trixie, but not a girl…" Sirius muttered.
"Or is he?" Rabastan threw in.
"I don't know his hairis kind of long." Sirius said, smirking.
I busted out laughing and Lucius scowled at me. I returned the favor. The quaffle was thrown back to Bellatrix. She had to stretch to catch it, something probably done by him on purpose.
He rolled his eyes. "Sorry to upset you, BellaTRIX. I play roughly though. Can't help it." He gave her a leering smile and she only watched him. "Please forgive me though. I didn't mean to." He gave her a knowing glance and it seemed as if he meant it. For some reason I felt something rear up inside of me and I wanted to beat Lucius to a pulp, till he couldn't move. The feeling slowly went away.
Bellatrix threw the quaffle to Regulus. "Fine but tackle me again and I will kill you." She scowled at him. Lucius smirked. "I can only try."
From that moment on they would compete against one another. I can't remember a day that went by when they weren't at it again. They were so much alike too. Both dominating, arrogant, imperious, and too determined to ever let the other win. They often tied or one would beat the other only by a hair. Anything and everything they did turned into a game to them, from not talking to seeing who would swim the farthest in the ocean. A friendship based on rivalry had begun and the only thing that the rest of us could do was to sit back, watch, and throw in comments to insult Lucius whenever the occasion proved fit.