"Someday I'll be
Big enough so you can't hit me
but all you're ever gonna be is mean"
-"Mean"
Taylor Swift
"That's not Callidora," Bellatrix corrected her cousin. "That's Elladora."
The two of them were sitting side by side in the school room of Grimmauld Place, leaning over a picture book with portrait-style photographs of their ancestors, reciting information about their family trees to Walburga and Druella.
Andromeda sat in the corner, writing out the alphabet again and again, in printing, cursive, and ancient runes.
Regulus and Narcissa sat on the floor near Druella's feet. Usually Druella helped with the children's lessons, but she honestly had no idea about the Black family history, so that particular subject was left up to Walburga.
"Elladora, Callidora, whatever," Sirius muttered. "They all look the same."
Bellatrix raised her eyebrows at him. "Their hair isn't even the same color, Sirius."
Walburga looked at them sternly. "And what can you tell me about Elladora, Bellatrix?"
Bellatrix recited, "She was born in 1850 as the oldest daughter of Ella Max and Cygnus Black the first. Phineas Nigellus and Sirius Black I were her older brothers. She never married or had children. She died in 1831 at the age of 81."
"That's very good, Bella," Walburga said, smiling coldly at her niece. Bellatrix made no response; Walburga had been cruel to her in the past, and she had absolutely no trust left for the older woman. "Do you have anything to add, Sirius?"
"Wasn't she the one that started hacking off house elf heads?" Sirius asked bluntly.
Walburga rolled her eyes and took a deep breath as though she was attempting to calm herself. "Sirius Black, you are going to be the death of me."
Sirius smiled devilishly.
"Tell me about Sirius Black the first," Walburga instructed her son.
That was easy. He and Bellatrix had found his portrait, and spent hours talking to it up in their fort.
"Sirius Black the first was the first child of Ella Max and Cygnus Black the first. He was born in 1845. His younger brother was Phineas Nigellus Black, and his younger sister was Elladora Black. He died when he was eight years old, of Dragon Pox, in 1853."
Walburga looked slightly taken aback by her son's knowledge. Thinking he was cheating somehow, she asked him another question. "And what can you tell me about Phineas Nigellus?"
Sirius swallowed uncomfortably. "He was born in 1847."
"And?" Walburga prodded.
"He was, um, the Headmaster of Hogw-"
Sirius was interrupted by a thud on the window. All seven members of the Black family turned to look.
Regulus emitted a high-pitched, "Eh?"
"Oh, that daft owl!" Druella said, slamming her knitting needles and half-formed baby bootie onto the desk. She quickly exited the room, no doubt heading down to the floor below to retrieve the letter from the knocked-out bird who had landed on the balcony there.
"Continue, Sirius," Walburga instructed.
"Well, like I said, he was the Headmaster of Hogwarts. He died in 1925, at the age of 78. He married Ursula Flint and had four children, Great-Grandfather Sirius Black II, Great-Grandfather Cygnus Black II, Belvina Black, and Arcturas Black."
Without looking up from her piece of parchment, Walburga said, "Bellatrix, I do not appreciate it when you give him the answers. How ever is he supposed to learn when you do that?"
"I learn just fine, when it's something useful," Sirius muttered.
"What did you just say to me?"
"Nothing," said Sirius.
"What did he say, Bella?"
"I didn't hear him say anything," said Bellatrix, wincing slightly. She knew she'd just gotten herself in trouble, too. That was okay, though. She didn't want Sirius to have to face the punishment alone.
Uncle Orion really was horrible when it came to punishing them.
"Your fathers will hear about this, both of you," Walburga snapped.
Druella came back into the room at that moment, looking flustered. "Walburga, I'm sorry, I really have to go-"
"Where on earth do you have to go?"
Druella gave her a funny look as she took her cloak from the chair behind the desk and put her wand in the pocket.
"Druella, I must insist that you tell me-"
"I'm going to Eileen's, okay? I think we both knew that. Now goodbye, Walburga, and do learn to mind your own business-"
"Mummy, take me with you!" Bellatrix exclaimed, getting up from her desk.
"No, Bella. Not this time."
"Pleeeaaasee?"
Druella looked down at her daughter.
"I'll be really good," Bellatrix bribed.
"Alright, fine, then. But we have to hurry, understand?"
"Okay," she agreed, an ominous feeling overcoming her. Why did her mother suddenly have to go? Usually they planned these visits weeks beforehand...
"Bella, you promised we would play outside after our lessons!" Sirius argued.
"I'm sorry, Siri, we'll play tomorrow. I haven't seen Severus in two months!"
Druella grabbed her child's wrist and pulled her out of the room to go find a fireplace with Floo powder.
Sirius sat sulking. Whoever Severus is, he thought, I don't like him.
Tumbling out of the fireplace at Spinner's End, the first thing the mother and daughter pair laid eyes on was Severus, his eyes wide with terror, even paler than usual, sitting on the couch.
"Where is she?" Druella asked him.
"Upstairs," Severus said, looking as though he was about to cry.
"Is she okay?" asked Druella, walking up the stairs as she spoke.
"I can't tell," he said, his lower lip trembling as he followed her up the stairs.
"Are you okay?" Druella asked gently.
He nodded.
"He didn't hit you?"
"It'll just be a bruise," said Severus bravely.
Druella looked at him sympathetically. "She's in her room?"
"Yeah," he said, his voice cracking as he began to cry.
"You two go back downstairs," Druella said. "I'll let you know as soon as possible."
Back downstairs, Bellatrix asked Severus softly, "What happened?"
"I don't want to talk about it," he said quietly, tears sliding down his face.
"Was it your dad?"
He looked at her and burst into tears.
Luckily, being a big sister, Bellatrix knew what to do. She sat down next to Severus on the floor and put her arms around him while he cried.
He quieted down after about ten minutes, and when Druella came back downstairs ten minutes after that, he was barely sniffling.
Druella smiled softly at her daughter, and then gently said, "Severus?"
He looked up, a hopeful, nervous expression on his face.
"She's okay. I healed the worst of the injuries, but she wanted me to come down and tell you she's okay. Why don't you two go outside and play? I think it will help you feel better."
Severus looked a little reluctant, but he nodded, and he and Bellatrix filed out the front door, and Bellatrix led him down the now-familiar route to the playground.
Once they got to the park and were just about to round the corner to the playground, Bellatrix turned around, and, walking backwards so she could face Severus, she asked, "Do you want to play on the slide?"
He grimaced. "No."
"The swings, then?"
"Not really."
They both fell silent, Bellatrix watching her friend's face while he stared at the grass beneath his feet.
"It's nice out today," she commented, turning her face upwards towards the sun.
"Hmm," said Severus, still looking at his shoes.
Bellatrix sighed, defeated. "Let's just go sit by the riverbank, then."
He nodded wordlessly and followed her to a spot they had discovered underneath a willow tree, a spot which couldn't be seen from the playground. They sat down on the long, pressed down grass, side by side.
Severus laid down on his back and folded his hands over his stomach, closing his eyes and laying silently in the sun.
Bellatrix studied him for a moment. He looked slightly upset, but mostly okay. She knew he was tough, and he'd pull through like he always did before.
She kicked off her polished white shoes, peeled off her tights, and dangled her feet into the cold water of the creek. After a moment of that she grew bored, and began kicking the water furiously, trying to create the biggest splash possible.
Her big toe scraped the bottom of the riverbed, and she pulled her foot out of the water, scowling as she attempted to wipe mud off of her freshly painted toenail.
"You're such a girl," came Severus's sarcastic voice from just next to her. She jumped; she hadn't heard him move.
"What's that supposed to mean?" she asked indignantly.
"You're glaring at your foot because there's mud on it," he said, his eyebrows raised in amusement.
"Was not."
"Were, too."
"Was not!"
"Yes, you were! That's okay, though, Bella. Pureblood girls are supposed to be all girly and clean-"
He abruptly stopped talking when a glob of mud hit him in the head.
Aghast, he looked at Bellatrix, who was smiling devilishly at him and wiping mud off of her hand onto the grass beside her.
"You're not going to get away with that," he said, attempting to rub the mud out of his hair as he kicked off his shoes and clambered into the creek beside her.
"Oh, no, Sev, don't-" Bellatrix squeaked, but it was too late: he had lurched towards her, grabbing her around the legs and dragging her down with him into the creek.
Bellatrix sat up a moment later, spitting water and wiping her sopping wet mess of curls out of her face. Severus came up around the same time, rubbing the water out of his eyes and laughing.
She shot him a nasty look and reached down to the bottom of the creek, scooping up as much mud as she could and, standing, she dropped it directly on the top of his head.
He grabbed mud and attempted to hit her with it but she ducked just in time.
Five minutes later, they were not only dripping wet, but also almost completely covered in mud, and their stomachs were sore from laughter.
But now, as the sun began to set, the children were growing concerned.
"Our mums are going to kill us," said Bellatrix somberly.
Severus silently agreed. They both gathered up their shoes and crawled out from under the willow tree.
As they walked back past the playground, Severus stopped suddenly, grabbed Bellatrix's wrist, and dragged her behind a bush.
"What the-" Bellatrix began demandingly.
"Shh!" Severus said, peering out from behind the bush. He watched for a moment, and his face lit up. "Bella, look!" he urged her.
Bellatrix leaned out from behind the bush and watched. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary - just about four or five Muggle kids, playing tag, running up and down the slide, swinging from the monkey bars, and-
Oh.
"Mummy said you weren't allowed, Lily!" the tall, thin girl that had thrown snowballs at them the previous winter shouted to a red-haired girl whom both Bellatrix and Severus understood to be her younger sister.
The girl, Lily, had jumped off of the swing at its highest point, launched herself forward, and literally flew through the air, only to land lightly on her feet a few seconds later. Too many seconds later to the eye of a Muggle.
Lily's sister obviously thought there was something strange about what the red-haired girl had just done.
Bellatrix and Snape glanced at one another, wide eyed, as Lily said, "But I'm fine! Tuney, look at this. Watch what I can do."
The older girl, Tuney (That's a funny name, thought Bellatrix), glanced around.
Lily picked up a fallen flower, and, as she held it in the palm of her hand, it began opening and closing its petals.
"Stop it!" shrieked Tuney.
"I'm not hurting you," the younger girl argued, but Bellatrix and Severus were already gone, running down the street barefooted, eager to report to their mothers what they had just seen.
"A witch?"
"Wow, can you believe it?"
"And a Muggle-born witch, too!"
They were two houses away when they heard the shouting. Quickly coming to a halt just in front of the Snape family house's drive as their smiles disappeared from their faces, Bellatrix and Severus glanced at one another.
Severus clearly recognized his father's voice, while Bellatrix heard her mother's.
"This can't be good," Severus muttered.
Bellatrix took a step towards the house, and Severus caught her arm.
"What are you doing?" he asked, terrified.
"I'm going in," Bellatrix said simply.
"You can't just go in! My father - he sounds really angry, and Bella-" Severus said, desperately trying to convince her not to enter the house.
"We have to go in! He's yelling at my mother!"
"Bella! We can't- come back!"
She was swinging the front door open before he could do anything about it.
The sight that greeted them wasn't pretty.
Tobias was attempting to back Druella into a corner, and she wasn't having any of it. Screaming in defense of her best friend, Bellatrix's mother was wild with rage as she took a step towards the man, literally shaking her fist in his face. Her long blonde hair was beginning to slip out of the tight, elegant bun she usually wore it in, and her skirts were wrinkled and lopsided.
Tobias looked rather ridiculous, drunkenly shouting at a woman half his size. He was getting angrier and angrier and his face was turning a deeper shade of red. Bellatrix would've found this slightly amusing had he not been screaming in her mother's face for her to mind her own business.
"Mummy-" Bellatrix began, starting to become frightened.
Druella's head jerked in the direction of her daughter's voice, and Tobias took the opportunity of the temporary distraction to swing at her. His fist collided with Druella's elegantly high cheekbone with a sickening thud.
Druella slowly raised her fingers to touch her cheek as though she was surprised. Then, everyone in the room could see something visibly change in the woman's eyes. Tobias took a step backward, startled, as Druella aimed her wand at him.
"Crucio!" she shrieked wildly. Bellatrix barely recognized the woman standing in front of her; she had hardly ever heard Druella raise her voice, and now... was that one of the Unforgivables? Bellatrix couldn't remember. Everything was happening so fast...
Tobias Snape was writhing on the floor, screaming bloody murder - much to the terror of Severus and Bellatrix, neither of whom had witnessed a curse before, not to mention an Unforgivable.
Only when the drunk had passed out did Druella lift the curse. She glanced around the room, breathing heavily, until her icy blue eyes landed on Bellatrix and Severus, who were huddled together and looking at her with a mixture of awe, admiration, and terror.
"Oh, my God," Druella said, her fight-instinct fading to be replaced with one that was purely maternal, "Children, are you okay? You're not hurt, or -"
She was interrupted when Bellatrix threw herself into her mother's arms, crying, "Mummy, did he hurt you?"
"I'm fine, darling," she said, gently stroking her daughter's mess of curls. "Bella - why are you all wet?"
Bellatrix looked a little guilty, scuffing her toe as she said, "Well, Sev and I were playing and we... sort of fell into the creek -"
"'Sort of fell?'" Druella asked, raising her eyebrows in amusement.
"I'm sorry," Bellatrix said immediately, assuming she was about to be scolded and feeling slightly afraid of her mother due to what she had just witnessed.
"Oh... It's alright, darlings. Here, let's dry you off." With a wave of her wand, the children were clean and dry.
"Is... is he okay?" Severus asked as though he was almost hoping the answer would be no.
"He will be," said Druella. "I think. Hmm. Here, let me just..." she waved her wand again and Tobias's unconscious form floated onto the couch. "Obliviate," Druella whispered, aiming her wand at his head. She grabbed an empty beer bottle from the pile on the floor and shoved it in his hand. "There," she said, turning to face them. "Is that what he usually looks like when he's passed out?"
Severus winced, then nodded.
Druella glanced at her wristwatch. "We really ought to be going... Severus, darling, it's getting awfully late. Do you want me to tuck you into bed?"
"No," he said firmly. "I can do it myself."
"Alright," Druella agreed. "Come on, Bella. We'd better get home before your father starts looking for us - you're sure you'll be okay, Severus?"
"Yes," said Severus.
And as Bellatrix and Druella arrived home in their fancy front parlour, Severus Snape crawled into bed with his frail mother and fell asleep curled against her side.
