Summary: Ari Black was raised to believe that she was the daughter of Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy, growing up alongside Draco as his younger sister. It's 1992 and Ari begins her first year expecting to be sorted in Slytherin like all of her family before her, but nothing goes according to plan. Also, the Chamber of Secrets has been opened, and Ari is set to discover some secrets of her own.

Copyright: I am not J.K Rowling and therefore do not own any characters or concepts recognised as belong to her universe.


Riddled with Black
Chapter Two – Eleven Years Later

A distant rumbling sound could be heard as I waited patiently with my mother and father for the Hogwarts Express to arrive at Platform 9¾, carrying my older brother Draco back from his first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

"Oh look mum, there it is," I heard a voice from somewhere behind me. Turning to look I saw that it belonged to a girl who appeared to be similar to me in age, with ginger hair and freckles. She was standing with a short, plump woman. I could only assume that this was her mother, as they had the same ginger hair and warm brown eyes.

"Yes it is Ginny, dear." At this point, Ginny and I made eye contact, so I smiled at her and she smiled back. This was quickly met with a hard tap on the shoulder from my father's cane. I looked up at him.

"That there is the Weasley family, Adhara, and they are a disgrace to the Wizarding community with their muggle obsessions and too many children then what they can afford." Father remarked, and I nodded. Muggles were people who could not perform magic, and who for the most part remained oblivious to magic's existence. My parents, in fact my entire family, believed that muggles were inferior to wizards and witches. Sometimes, somehow, magical children were born to muggle parents, and more frequently wizards and witches had children with muggles producing half-blood children. Apparently there are only twelve families left who can call themselves pure of blood.

Within moments the Hogwarts Express had stopped at the platform, and shortly after children started piling out.

"Oh look mum, Harry Potter, there he is!" I heard Ginny squeal as a group of six got off the train and headed towards them. I noted that there was five boys and a girl.

"It's rude to point Ginny," Her mother remarked. Four of the boys looked like they were from the Weasley family as well, with their ginger hair and freckles. Two were tall and lean with blue eyes while the other two were identical twins, stockier with brown eyes like their sister and mother. One of the two noticed me watching them, and made eye contact and winked, which startled me into redirecting my attention towards the train looking for Draco. I'd also noted that the girl looked completely unrelated with her brown bushy hair, and that the remaining boy had dark hair and emerald green eyes. This was Harry Potter, and my brother had a large problem with him. This caused me to assume the girl was Hermione Granger, a muggle born girl in Draco's year who he has also formed a special distaste for her, as she seemed to best him in all his classes.

What I had found most interesting was how all the siblings looked almost identical to one another, whereas my brother and I looked nothing alike. Draco looked like a typical Malfoy, with platinum blonde hair and pale grey eyes. My mother was the youngest daughter of Druella Rosier and Cygnus Black, and had taken after the Rosier family with her golden blonde hair and blue eyes. I instead took after the Black family. I have thick dark curls and brown eyes. We do not even have the many similar facial features.

The Weasley family left through the gateway back to rest of King's Cross Station, and shortly after Draco had arrived, along with an entourage. With him stood Vincent Crabbe, Gregory Goyle and Pansy Parkinson. Crabbe and Goyle I could cope with, they were too dumb to be any real nuisance, Pansy however, I did not like at all, and she had shown the feeling was mutual. We shared looks of distaste.

"Well I've reached my family now, you can all go to yours." Draco essentially commanded the three. The boys left really quickly, while Pansy seemed really hesitant.

"Promise you'll write over the summer?" Pansy asked. Before Draco could respond, my mother, who'd been quite silent, spoke for him.

"I'm sure we will hosting an event that you and your family will be invited to, Pansy." Pansy seemed satisfied with this answer and left. So then, with Draco and his luggage in toe, we were off to. We went through the gateway and headed towards an area designated from wizards and witches to be able to apparate in and out. Father and Draco apparated together, whilst I went with our mother. Within seconds we'd arrived in the entrance hall of Malfoy Manor. Two of our house elves, Dobby and Sandy, were waiting for our arrival. They took Draco's luggage and we headed for the dining room, as dinner was just about ready. Mother had the house elves prepare a marvelous roast from Draco's return. Dinner was filled with small talk, Draco talking about how good his grades were, he'd been second in the year in exam results.

"Who was first in the year?" Father prompted. Draco seemed hesitant to respond. Father raised an eyebrow, not wanting to ask again.

"Just a girl in Gryffindor." Draco said rather quickly.

"What is her name?"

"Hermione Granger."

"Granger, I don't think I've heard of that name before in the Wizarding community." Draco shrugged it off like he wasn't sure. Really he just did not want father to know that he had been beaten by a muggle born.

"Oh well, I'm sure she comes from a good Wizarding family if she managed to top our son, maybe her parents aren't from Britain." Mother chimed in, and father didn't push any further, and instead changed the topic.

"Draco, I've been consulting with Professor Snape about some changes to be made next year." He had mine and Draco's full attention.

"Seeing as Slytherin performed so dismally in the Quidditch Cup this year, it has been decided that the team needs a serious shake up, and an upgrade in brooms. I will be supplying the entire team with a new Nimbus Two Thousand and One, and you will be playing as their seeker." Draco's jaw dropped as he struggled to contain his excitement.

"Thank you father!" Draco exclaimed.

"That is quite alright Draco, you just make sure you perform well. Do not let me down."

"I won't father." The conversation resumed to small talk as we finished off dessert. Draco and I excused ourselves from the table so that we could talk about the year before going to bed.

The dining room led out into a large entertainment or drawing room, which in turn lead back out to the entry hall. The entry hall had two main staircases that stopped at a large open space, with a balcony that looked down at the entry hall. The open space was used a second sitting area, with couches surrounding an open fireplace. Being an old, stone building in a climate that wasn't exactly warm, Malfoy Manor required many fireplaces to keep it warm. Overall, there is seven fireplaces in the manor; one in the both the drawing room and the open sitting area, another in the library, as well as one in each bedroom including the guest room. On either side of the fireplace of both the sitting room and the drawing room were two doors that led out to balcony and porch that faced a north-easterly direction. Almost every morning I would get up early to watch the sunset on the balcony.

Mine and Draco's bedrooms were both on the left side of the landing, along with a shared bathroom. Draco's bedroom was rather dark, with a colour scheme of black, green and silver. My room, on the hand was the exact opposite with warm colours in yellows, oranges and reds.

"So, how was Hogwarts?" I asked Draco again as I sat down on his bed. He sat down beside me; he probably wouldn't start to unpack until after we'd finished talking.

"It was fun, to some degree. I still believe that Durmstrang would have been a better choice though, that Dumbledore is right idiot."

"Why is that?" I asked, cocking my head slightly to the left. He looked frustrated about something. He was thinking deeply, and without even meaning it I found myself thinking about was he was thinking about, his school year was flashing through my mind.

"Ari, are you doing that thing again?" I quickly shook myself out of what felt like a trance.

"I'm sorry, I don't meant to." For as long as I could remember, I could look at a person and be able to tell what they were thinking about, just whatever was on the surface. The only person who knew was Draco, as I was worried what would happen if I told anyone else.

"It's okay, I just want to be able to tell you what is going on myself sometimes, rather than have you already know." I nodded and he took a deep breath in order to start his rant.

"Well to begin with, he allows mudbloods into the school, like that wretched Hermione Granger. Any headmaster with any respect for the school he is running would not even consider having that sort in the same room as us pure blood wizards and witches, we are better than them!"

"I don't understand why you are so upset about that, getting second is still a really good thing." I tried to make him feel better, but I knew exactly why he was upset. Father expected him to be number one at everything, he had a reputation after all.

"It wasn't just second in class, Slytherin were this close to winning the House Cup this year," He said while pinching his fingers together. "We also lost at Quidditch, I just feel like a failure this year."

"Well with you on the team and everyone riding new broomsticks, this next year will be better, plus I'll be there!" Draco smiled. I'd already received my letter before the school year had finished.

"Unfortunately I don't know if that is going to be enough, he seems to favour Harry bloody Potter, the Weasley's and that know it all mudblood Granger. Merlin, he even has a liking for that incompetent fool Longbottom."

"Gryffindor were at the bottom of the ladder, and then Dumbledore comes out with oh, 'Ron Weasley's good at chess, I'll give him some house points,' I mean, how is that worthy of house points? And that 'cool logic' and 'bravery' earning Granger, Potter and Longbottom enough house points to beat us, they broke the school rules and they were rewarded!" I sat quietly as Draco exploded; we'd be raised to never let others see our emotions, but we both felt comfortable to talk to the other about our problems.

"I'm sure we'll win next year," I attempted as a reassurance to him.

"You better be in Slytherin, or I'll be forced to disown you." My comment put him in a slightly better mood, as he joked. At least, I hoped he was joking.

"Of course I'm going to be in Slytherin, where else would I be sorted into?" My entire family had been in Slytherin. No other house made sense; I'd been taught that from a young age.

"I know, I'm joking, but yes, we will win." I nodded, a yawn escaping my mouth as I did so. I was starting to get tired.

"You better go to bed, you look tired," Draco commented, and I nodded wishing him goodnight as I walked across to my room. My bedroom was shaped like the 'T'; with the door starting at the top. Straight down the middle at the end of my room were a fireplace and a sofa. To my left was a chest of draws and a vanity unit, while turning around lead me to my bed. There was a desk before the sofa, which was fairly neat, aside from the loose sheets of drawing paper and the sketching pencils that sprawled out across the table. Next to my door, before the bed was a canvas; when I wasn't learning, I often spent my time painting or drawing.

I quickly got changed into my night clothes placing my clothes in a neat pile on top of the dressing table for Coral to collect and wash. Before going to bed I decided to put my artwork in a neat pile, I also went through my sketch book, noticing that I had less than ten pages left. I'd have to get another next time we went to Diagon Alley. When I'd finished making more room more organised I turned off the main light, using only a lamp for lighting. I got comfortable in bed, beginning to feel very tired, turned the lamp off and found myself asleep not long after my head hit the pillow.


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