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Chapter 2
"How dare you!" Druella was furious. "How dare you"
Bellatrix, sitting on a kitchen chair, looked her mother straight in the eye. "Yes?"
No sooner had the word escaped her lips, she felt a stinging slap round her face.
"Don't speak to me like that! Bellatrix Druella, I need a word with you"
"We are 'having a word'. Right now."
Another slap from her mother landed across her face.
Bella could see her aunt and sisters behind her mother, Cissy with a large red mark along her cheek, her eyes red and puffy, Walburga with a satisfied expression on her face.
"But if you'd rather talk some other time, I have things to do." Bella said, standing up to leave. Druella flicked her wand, and shining black ropes coiled themselves around her daughter, bringing her crashing back into the chair.
"Bellatrix," there was an edge to her mother's voice. "I'm disappointed. First you slap your sister, then you listen in on my conversation…"
"I could have heard it from anywhere in the house, you were yelling so loud."
Another slap from her mother.
"Then, -listen, Bella- then you call your sister names, you are deliberately immature and from what I've heard you've been bullying Sirius."
"So?"
"So?" This last came from Walburga, who stood up and sauntered towards her. "So? So you've been causing my son misery, traumatising him at school, and all you can say is so?"
Bella shrugged, as best she could with her wrists tied up behind her back. "Yeah. He's in Gryffindor. Filthy blood traitor."
Her aunt slapped her. Harder than ever. So hard the sound of it seemed to ring in the room afterwards, so hard Bella could taste blood in her mouth. Cissa looked horrified.
Druella came back into the picture. Kneeling by her daughter, she continued in a whisper;
"Bella. Bellatrix, honey. Look at me. I'm relying on you to look after your sisters. Dromeda's only thirteen and Cissy is just starting Hogwarts. You're the eldest here. Please?"
"Fine."
"Good girl. You can go. But you're grounded." A second flick of the wand, and the ropes disappeared. Bella stood up immediately, rubbing the marks on her arms where the ropes had cut in, and left the room, but not fast enough to miss Walburga say icily 'You're too soft on her, Druella.' Cissy ran after her.
Bellatrix lay on her side on the bed staring into space. The manor was quiet; her family had gone out to Diagon Alley.
Was she really that evil? Was it her fault Sirius had left? She wasn't truly that nasty. Or was she? She closed her eyes. A single tear escaped her closed lids. A memory, long forgotten, came back to her.
She was eleven years old and ready for Hogwarts. A few days before she left, her parents had given her a new broom. She had run out to the garden to try it out, but her cousin Sirius had snatched it from her before she could mount.
"Sirius," she'd yelled, "Sirius, it's mine! It's new! Give it back!"
Sirius had said something back, she couldn't remember, but it had made her even angrier. He kicked off and began to fly around, zooming towards her, but turning at the last minute. Whipping the brand new walnut and dragon heartstring wand from her pocket she'd yelled one of the only spells she knew at that time; Stupefy.
She remembered the comic way he froze on the broom, but carried on flying. Eventually he collided with the wall of the manor, and fell. She remembered Dromeda's face as Sirius toppled past her window, her aunt's scream as they saw what she'd done, her mother's hand grabbing her by the scruff of her neck and dragging her inside.
More tears slipped over the bridge of her nose. She raised a hand to touch the swollen area where she'd been slapped. Did her family hate her that much? Did they think she should be punished? For what?
The truth hit her hard. She had forced Sirius to leave. She was evil.
What had she done?
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