A Spark of Magic

As interesting as her younger sisters were, Bellatrix had decided they weren't much good for playing yet. Andromeda might have only been a year younger but Bella felt much older then her younger sister. And Narcissa! Narcissa was only two years old. That seemed like light years to Bella. She couldn't remember what it was like to be two, or three, or four for that matter. Her sisters were babies in comparison to how big and grown up she was. Five and a half was really very old indeed!

Her sisters normally took a nap at this time. Being as she felt she was much too old for that the house elves forced her to be nice and quiet while her sisters rested. That was on days her tutor did not come. Three times a week another witch came by to teach her how to read, and also to speak French. She could read a little already, slowly, if she was willing to sit down and be diligent, which wasn't very often, only if she was forced either by her tutor or one of the house elves on instructions from her parents. There were much more thrilling things that she could be doing then sitting still and trying to read. French was much of the same, sitting still and parroting back verb conjugations and vocabulary. She could already introduce herself in her lilting little girl accent, Bonjour Madame. Je m'appelle Bellatrix. Comment allez-vous?* This made her mother proud and Druella was constantly having the little girl show off to the rest of pureblood society.

But today, today the tutor had not been able to show up. Her parents weren't around; her father was at the ministry and her mother out socializing. Neither was supposed to be back until after teatime. In the hour or two she had while her sisters slept Bella had convinced the elves to let her play in the garden instead of reading boring books in her room. Sure, one of them was following her around to make sure nothing happened but the elf had to take orders from her, including playing any game she wanted with her such as hopscotch or tag.

With the normal limited attention span of a typical five year old, Bella forced the elf through various different games before getting bored with them all. The elf seemed happy and slightly relived to watch the girl instead of being involved with playing and subsequently losing to the little girl. The elf was capable of winning being older and knowing the games better but elves belonging to the Blacks knew better then to play to win. While Narcissa didn't know the difference and Andromeda didn't seem to care yet, Bellatrix did not like losing. She'd change rules to give herself an advantage, give her mother an adorable pour, anything that would ensure she would come out on top in the end.

She had exhausted her list of games finding them all to be very unsatisfactory in the entertainment department. She was a little frustrated with herself- a whole free afternoon and all she had thought to do with it was play several normal everyday games? She should be doing something exciting, some sort of exhilarating adventure! That was what she was looking for now, as she wandered about the garden, pulling leaves and flowers off of plants and shredding them with her fingers, leaving a small trail of shredded plant life behind her as she went.

Ooohh! Maybe she could lose the guardian elf. That would be exciting!

"Stay Back!" she demanded, turning to face the house elf and pointing to demonstrate her point. "No getting close to me. I don't like it."

Her house elf had no choice but to obey. He couldn't go against a direct order from a member of the family, no matter how young she might be. He might be under strict orders from the master and missus to keep a close eye on her but he felt as long as he could see young Bella he could keep her safe and still follow the girl's own orders.

For a while Bella was content to shred more plants while she waited for the perfect moment to escape from the watchful elf. It seemed to be content to stay at a distance she found acceptable but she wanted to be completely free of it, then she could do whatever she wanted. Even though the house elf had to take orders from her, the elves were instructed to do whatever it took to make sure she stayed safe. Once when she tried to climb into one of the fountains to splash one had apparated her back inside, much to her dismay. If she wanted to have fun, Bella knew she had to lose the elf.

She quickened her pace ever so slightly, since the elf wasn't paying the best attention to her. It seemed to think it could follow her based on the trail of plant matter she was leaving behind. Bella starting shredding less and less plant life in order to make the trail disappear. The elf wouldn't know what happened until it was too late.

Sure enough, as she rounded the next hedge she disappeared from the elf's view completely and took off running as fast as her little legs could carry her. This was adventure! Escaping from the elf that wouldn't know she was missing until it could not find her anymore! Her feet pounded against the garden paving stones, darting this way and that, trying to make it impossible for the elf to follow her on foot. The gardens at Black Manor were extensive, giving the little girl plenty of room to run. The house elf following her was unused to such escape attempts, more used to dealing with adults and wasn't sure what to do when it came to hunting down the girl. Bella secretly laughed when she heard it calling her name, trying to figure out where she went. She wasn't going to reveal herself now that she had broken free. Now she could explore and do whatever she wanted. If she wanted to climb in a fountain there was no one to stop her. If she wanted to climb a tree she could go all the way to the top unhindered.

There were lots of things to do in the garden but now that she was alone she couldn't seem to decide on one particular thing. She began to wish her sisters were old enough to play with her; it would be more fun to be running around with them then wandering about on her own. But her sisters were upstairs sleeping and if she was to sneak into the house to try to get them a house elf would no doubt attach itself to her and losing two house elves in one day was more then she could ask for.

She had to content herself with wandering while she searched for something to complete the adventure before the house elf hunted her down. She was further away from the house then she had ever gone before. Out here the flower gardens were a little more wild, clearly not having been tended as well as the immaculate beds near the house. Those beds Bellatrix was already very familiar with, as she had been bringing those flowers into the house since she had been allowed outside. Flowers from those beds currently occupied many rooms of the house thanks to her nimble hands and fondness for the colors. But out here! Out here there were weeds growing, something she had never seen before since those other beds had been spelled to repeal such things. Bellatrix didn't know this and was amazed at how tall some of these new plants were the further out she got. Some of them were as tall as she was. Immediately the girl started scheming to build a fort with her sisters, or actually, make the house elves fashion a fort out of the weeds so that the three of them could play in it.

Pushing through these nifty weeds, Bellatrix came upon a bit of a clearing. Inside the clearing there was a small pond, murky with algae. As she approached the water, a few tiny toads jumped out of her path making little ripples. She enjoyed the effect and grabbed a few pebbles off the bank and threw them into the water to emulate the splashing the toads had made. Pebbles turned into bigger stones and soon Bella wanted bigger splashes. Spying a rock alongside the water she decided that if she climbed up on top the stones she threw would make more water fly into the air. Filling her white pinafore pockets with more of the slightly slimy stones from the water's edge she approached the rock looking for a way to properly climb up to the top.

Walking around the obstacle she happily found that the other side had a few more rocks and dirt that almost made a ramp up to the wide flat top of the rock. Grabbing the edge of the big rock, Bella hoisted herself up the last few inches only to surprise a grass snake that had been sunning itself. It was hard to tell which was more startled, the smallish reptile or the young girl who let out a scream as the animal slithered down the rock to get away from the disturbance. Bellatrix had never seen such a creature before and when it slid into the water she determined it was a small monster out to gather its monster friends, which were sure to come and eat her.

In her fright a strange thing happened. Bella screamed out of terror which alerted the house elf to her whereabouts, it's bat like ears heightening the sense of hearing for the creature desperately searching for it's young charge. But instead of one crack of elf apparition that happened when the elf appeared beside her, two happened. In Bella's fright she blew up the offensive snake. The force of the young girl's unintentional magic hit the water and snake with such force that snake guts, algae, pebbles and water flew everywhere, essentially covering the little girl, which only caused her to scream more.

"Miss Bellatrix? Miss Bellatrix?" the worried elf asked, only to be met with wide-eyed terror from the girl whose dress was damp from water and now had bits of snake stuck to her face and hair. Bella had seen magic before but she certainly had not experienced doing any herself, nor had any of the magic she had seen ended up all over her.

Frightened, covered in slime and uncomforted by the house elf, Bella called for the person who could fix all. "MMMMMOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMYYYYYYYYY!!!!!"

Tears started to flow from her eyes as she continued to scream for her mother. The frightened elf quickly whisked her back to the house in order to get cleaned up only to run into the woman in question.

"Mommy! I want my mommy!"

Druella had just Floo'd in, getting back early from her social engagement, when she was confronted by the sight of a house elf trying to drag a slimy, screaming Bellatrix upstairs for a bath.

"What is going on here?"

Hearing her mother's voice, Bella pushed the elf off her with all the force she could manage and ran to the woman, burying her face in her skirts, continuing to cry. Druella quickly knelt down to wrap her daughter in a hug, stroking Bella's hair to clam the girl down. Her question had still not been answered and a stern look at the house elf was all it took for the creature to start talking.

"Miss Bellatrix wanted to go out into the garden during naptime Missus. So Knobby went out with her, like Knobby is supposed to." Now the elf started wringing it's hands together, clearly worried about the events that had followed. "But Miss Bellatrix ran away from Knobby and Knobby couldn't find her. Knobby didn't know what to do until he heard Miss Bellatrix scream and he went right to her side." Unsure of what else to say the elf grew silent, hands having moved on to pulling on its ears.

"Why is my daughter covered in… gunk?"

"Miss Bellatrix was down by one of the ponds. She got scared and blew up a snake. But the snake was already in the pond and it caused snake and pond to fly up and land all over Miss Bellatrix."

Hearing the elf recount the events Bella sniffed into her mothers dress. "It was scary and mean looking. It was going to eat me."

Druella made a few comforting sounds as she rubbed Bella's back, unhappy about the pond water that was now all over the carpet and her dress. Then she realized the implications of the elf's words.

"She blew it up? Bellatrix blew up the snake?" The elf nodded in response and Druella pulled Bellatrix away from her enough so that she could look her daughter in the eyes. "Bella? Did you blow up the snake?"

"It was scary. I screamed and it went BOOM!" Bella said resolutely. As she emphasized the last word a bit of snake flew off her and Druella struggle to contain a bit of laughter.

"Bella, do you know what you did?"

"Something bad?"

"Oh no! No honey. You did something good. You did your first magic!"

Bella frowned at her mother.

"You blew up the snake didn't you?"

She nodded.

"Did you touch it?"

Bella shook her head no.

"Then you did it with magic. It means you are a witch like mommy."

Bella seemed to accept this information as it was the most natural thing in the world. Of course she was like mommy. Were people stupid? It was obvious she was like mommy. "Ok. I want a bath now. I'm covered in icky."

By this point Andromeda and Narcissa had heard the commotion and were peering through the railing a floor up. "Why is Bella dirty?" Andromeda asked. Narcissa merely sucked her thumb, staring at her older sister with wide eyes.

"Narcissa, get your thumb out of your mouth." Druella frowned at her youngest child's bad habit before answering the question. "Your sister just did her first bit of magic but it caused her to get all dirty. She'll get all fixed up with a bath and then tonight we are going to celebrate."

"Cake?" asked Narcissa.

With Bella following behind her, Druella made her way up the stairs. "We're going to let Bella pick the treat," she told Narcissa hoisting her daughter onto her hip. "When you do your first magic you can pick the treat." With that she led all three girls upstairs to get Bella cleaned up and so that her oldest could tell her the full story of the event.

Instructions were given to a house elf to make Bella's favorite meal for dinner. There had never really been any question that Bellatrix was going to be a witch, after all in the hundreds of years the Blacks had been around only one squib had come out. Druella had never even thought of the possibility. Bellatrix's first bit of magic was still cause for celebration. By the time Cygnus got home from the ministry, the female members of his family were washed and dressed for dinner, pretty, lacey dresses on all three of his daughters.

"What's the occasion?" he asked Druella, giving her a peck on the cheek, propriety over feeling.

"Well," Druella said with a big smile on her face. "Your daughter did her first magic today and I thought we should celebrate."

"I blew up a snake," Bella proclaimed proudly.

"Did you?" Cygnus asked, being rewarded with a fervent nod on Bellatrix's part. "I guess a celebration is in order."

"I let Bella pick the meal so we are having macaroni and cheese. Followed by ice cream."

Cygnus raised his eyebrows at his wife; a little disturbed that the girl had been given so much reward for something that was natural. Had it been up to him, he'd had given her a small treat and been done with it. There was no need to reward her with an entire dinner, now the other two girls were going to expect it.

"Cygnus. It's her first magic."

The three girls were already headed toward the dining room so they missed the hushed whispers between their parents that clearly stated their father did not approve of these actions. Druella disagreed, first magic had been celebrated in her household and she intended to mark the special event for her girls. If she had time before dinner to go out and buy Bella a present she would have. In fact, the next time she went shopping she fully intended on buying her daughter a little trinket, maybe a charm bracelet with a little snake charm, which would be appropriate. Cygnus didn't mind spoiling his daughters, they were Blacks and no child of his was ever going to want for anything, but to let a five year old pick a meal seemed overkill to him. Giving her a special treat made sense, and he didn't mind paying attention to the event, but to force all of them to eat Bella's current favorite food seemed overkill. However he ended up conceding to his wife, it wouldn't kill him to eat the pasta, and all three girls seemed excited. If it made Narcissa happy he could live with it for one night, but he hoped that when she did her first bit of magic she'd pick something he'd find more delectable.

Bella regaled them all with the tale of the snake, how she escaped from the house elf and discovered really tall plants and then found a humongous snake that tried to attack her and she blew it up! Her story had gotten a tad grander from when she told her mother that afternoon. Cygnus nodded along at his daughter while Narcissa watched with wide eyes, fork stopped halfway to her mouth. Andromeda wished she had gotten to explore with her sister and Druella smiled indulgently at the exaggerations added to the story. Overall it was a happy night in the Black family, house elf that was supposed to be watching Bellatrix included. With all the excitement over the bit of magic, not one of the family members had increased his punishment and he only ran into the wall three times for losing the girl.

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* Translation: Hello Madam. I am called Bellatrix. How are you?