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The days following the funeral had been relatively frenzied for Bellatrix. The press seemed intent on finding out more about the few remaining Blacks, and had taken a particular interest in the now married sisters. The Prophet had tried several times to contact the sisters for an interview, but they refused. Worst of all she still wasn't talking to Rodolphus, but that issue would have to wait as he was on another mission for the Death Eaters.
Finally, Narcissa was fed up with the press and decided to take Bellatrix on a surprise trip to Scotland and the two sisters had spent some days away from public eye. On their final day of the getaway, the sisters received a letter. It was from Andromeda.
"What does it say?" Bellatrix asked.
"She wants to us to meet with her," said Narcissa. The blonde witch placed the letter on the table and began pouring tea.
"What? Why?"
"She says that the recent developments with the family have prompted her to contact us. She feels it's time we forgive each other and reconnect as sisters," Narcissa explained.
"Forgive each other? What have we ever done to her? She abandoned us!" shouted Bellatrix.
"I take it you don't want to set up a meeting," Narcissa said.
"No! She walked out of our lives; we are not going to welcome her back. If she leaves the mudblood, I'd consider it, but even that's not enough," said Bellatrix.
"She has a child you know. A daughter, about four or five. I've heard she's a metamorphmagus. A rather odd talent, really. It's hereditary, yet I don't recall anyone on the family tapestry having been one. Perhaps there is some truth to that old myth that mudbloods descend from squibs after all."
"Cissy, you can't possibly be considering meeting her?" asked Bellatrix.
"Why not? She is our sister. I know that some of what Sirius said was hurtful and false, but he did have a point. As Regulus' brother he had every right to be there," stated Narcissa.
"How can you agree with him after everything he said?" Bellatrix screamed.
"I don't agree with most of what he said, but he did have a right to be there. How would you feel if Andromeda died and her family prevented us from attending her funeral? If they didn't even tell us? We let Sirius hear about his only brother's death from a newspaper or someone else, we didn't even bother to send him a note. If Andy's new family did that, you would rage," Narcissa explained.
"Don't say that name!" shouted Bellatrix. "She abandoned us! And any harm that befalls her and her impure family is well deserved in my opinion."
"Bella, you can't mean that! She's still our sister. No matter what happened in the past or happens in the future, we will always be sisters. You can't deny that," reasoned Narcissa.
"She's off the damn tapestry; she's out of our family! How can you forgive her for what she did?" Bellatrix asked.
As a young girl, Bellatrix had been very close to her sisters, but when she went to Hogwarts, she and Andromeda had grown apart. When Narcissa arrived the three sisters where united again, but Bellatrix and Andromeda still remained distant. Bellatrix had no patience for nicer, calmer, and general friendlier older sister. Andromeda began to make more and more friends outside of Slytherin, while Bellatrix's friends were all Slytherins and many future Death Eaters.
Andromeda's friends all wanted to become Aurors, healers and were generally mudblood friendly blood traitors. Bellatrix spent her time with Rodolphus, Lucius, Evan Rosier, and Rabastan. Despite their differences, they did not hate each other. It all changed Andromeda ran away with the mudblood just after her graduation; Bellatrix began to hate her older sister.
"Bella, I know that deep inside you want to forgive her," said Narcissa.
"Don't pretend to know what I do or do not want, Narcissa," Bellatrix said icily.
The sisters stared at each other, but Narcissa quickly looked away. She didn't want to further aggravate her sister, the last couple of days had put Bellatrix under enough stress, and there was no need to add more. She would just hide the letter away, and bring it back up later. Maybe she should write to Andromeda and tell her that maybe in a few months, or perhaps meet her alone.
"Have you thought about names for the baby?" Narcissa asked.
Bellatrix looked at her suspiciously. Narcissa, like all the Blacks, wasn't one to give up so easily, unless she had a better plan. With no idea of what her sister had in mind, Bellatrix simply went along with the sudden change of topic.
"Rodolphus and I have some we agree on, but no we have not decided," she answered.
"Well there's still time left to decide. In the mean time we need to plan a baby shower and start designing the nursery and a room for when he's older."
Bellatrix watched her sisters summon several packets full of information about colors, and patterns and other useless information and bite back a groan. She shouldn't have let Narcissa pick a new topic.
After separating from Bellatrix, Narcissa returned to Malfoy Manor. She wrote a letter to Andromeda telling her that now was not the right time to meet up and asking about a potential meeting later.
"Narcissa, what are you doing?" asked Lucius as he entered.
"Oh, just writing a letter," Narcissa answered. Looking around she spotted a planner full of party ideas. "I'm planning ways to keep Bella occupied."
"She has been more bipolar than usual. I suspect she'll blow up soon," Lucius smirked. "It's probably best if I stay away from her."
"Rodolphus asked us to keep help her out, we need to be there for her."
"The only way I could help her is to allow her to hunt down and maim every animal on the grounds." Lucius stopped. "That might actually work."
"What?"
"That's it! She may not be able to use Dark Magic, but I know of a way she can relief her anger and frustration without harming the baby," Lucius answered.
"What in Merlin's name are you talking about?" Narcissa asked.
"She can go hunting. There are plenty of forests and wild areas full of animals, I'm sure we wouldn't have any trouble finding some prey for her. That way she can take out all her anger on them and spare the rest of us. Merlin, I am a genius!"
"Lucius! She can't go hunting! She could get hurt. Who knows what dangers she'll encounter!" shouted Narcissa.
"The only ones in danger will be the animals. Bellatrix is very skilled with knives and knows archery. I'm sure she would enjoy the thrill of the hunt. After all the only thing she enjoys more than torturing and killing is hunting down her prey. She's like a wild animal when she's hunting. The only difference here is she'll be chasing animals instead of mudbloods. It's perfect!"
Narcissa watched her husband as he raved about hunting and killing mudbloods. This is not the man I married she thought. "Lucius, I don't think that's such a good idea."
"Why not?" he asked. "I'll talk to Bellatrix, I'm sure even she'll agree it's just what she needs."
"That's what I'm afraid of," Narcissa whispered so Lucius wouldn't hear her.
"Don't wait up; we'll probably stay out later!" Lucius shouted as he headed for the fireplace.
Bellatrix was sitting in the library reading The Evolution of Poisons when Lucius entered. She looked up and returned to her book.
"What do you want?" she asked.
"I have found the perfect way for you to release you anger without harming the baby," Lucius said.
Bellatrix looked up and studied Lucius for a sign of lying. "How?"
"Hunting," said Lucius. "We can go hunting. We'll find some animals for you to hunt. You can kill it, maim it, or torture it. I know you keep a collection of throwing knives and I'm sure that somewhere in this ancient mansion there's an archery set."
"What would we hunt?" she asked.
"I know for a fact that there's a pack of werewolves in a forest not too far away, and the full moon is tomorrow. We could go on nice hunt."
"Werewolves?" Bellatrix stared at Lucius. It does sound temping. "Alright, we'll go. Now get out of my house."
I got Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows pt. 1 yesterday! And I'm feeling a little sad now that it's coming to an end.
Anyway, don't forget to leave a review!
