"AAAARGHH!" screamed Bellatrix, grabbing Narcissa's hand and squeezing it tightly. "Get this thing out of me!"

"Bella, please," winced Narcissa. "You're hurting me."

"Then - get - this - atrocity - out of me!"

"Calm yourself, Bella," said Narcissa, attempting to wrench her arm away from Bellatrix's grasp. "Larkins will be here at any moment –"

"That old hag!" shrieked Bellatrix in disgust.

"We could not risk getting anyone else to help," said Narcissa icily. "What with your fondness for torturing, the Ministry would be positively thrilled to capture you what you did to the Longbottoms, Bella."

Bellatrix grinned at the memory and then screamed again. "I did it for the Dark Lord! I am his most faithful – his most loyal – arghh!"

"And look where it got you," said Narcissa coldly, turning her back to her sister. "I shall see if Larkins is here yet."

She left the room and went to the small, ornate owlery at the very top of Malfoy Manor. She scribbled a note, attached it to one of the large eagle owls, and shooed it out of the window. As she glanced quickly down at the large grounds, she saw the old woman they had been waiting for, stumping her way past the fountain with the help of a wooden walking stick.

xox

"You're nearly there," said Larkins for the hundredth time, sitting lazily on a chair, away from Bellatrix.

"Will you stop saying that!" spat Bellatrix, her face covered in beads of sweat as she gripped the sides of the bed tightly. Labour was not in her favour; she had been in near constant pain since it had started and they were all extremely tired – apart from the magical midwife who seemed to be quite enjoying herself, sitting with her feet up, stuffing boxes of the Malfoy's expensive chocolates into her mouth, and giving Bellatrix the occasional poke with her walking stick.

"I don't understand it," Larkins commented, scratching her greasy hair. "Three days you've been in labour – it's like the baby is staying there just to spite you."

"It'll be sorry when it does come out!" snarled Bellatrix. "I've had nine long months to think of a name and it should – argh – be made to suffer."

"You cannot mean that, Bella," said Narcissa quietly from one of the corner's of the room where she had been lurking for the past few hours.

Bellatrix ignored Larkin's advice, that giving a witch such a nasty name out of spite would only come back and bite her in the bottom.

"Be quiet," panted Bellatrix, "It shall be called Nymphadora and that is my final word, ha!"

A cruel smile lit her face before it contorted in pain once again. "AAARGGHHH!"She shrieked louder than ever, slumped back on the bed and was very vaguely aware of the sound of a baby screaming loudly.

xox

Wrapping the tiny infant in a black shawl, Larkins took it over to Bellatrix and shoved it in her face. "Look, it's a girl."

"Get that thing away from me," snarled Bellatrix, lashing out with an arm and narrowly missing the child's head.

"Give her to me," ordered Narcissa to the Larkins. "Your money is over there; take it and leave."

The old woman handed over the child to Narcissa, who held it as though it could explode at any second, and picked up her money greedily. As she reached the door, Narcissa called, "Remember, if you are to tell anyone ..."

Larkins gulped and nodded, in no doubt that she would never mention this to anyone as she shut the door behind her. Bellatrix groaned again, putting her sweaty palm to her forehead. Narcissa cleared her throat.

"Bella," she said softly, but clearly. "Your daughter?"

She moved closer to the bed and, as she did so, the baby bawled louder. Bellatrix grabbed weakly for her wand, but simply did not have the strength to reach it. "Just drown it, Cissy."

Narcissa glanced at her sister, horrified. Without a minute's more hesitation, she took the baby and ran from the room, moving as quietly as she could across the floorboards, careful not to alert her husband or any of the Malfoy portraits. As the baby screwed up it's face, Narcissa glanced down and saw, to her great surprise, that it now had bright pink hair. She stopped running and stared.

"Cissy!" called Bellatrix weakly, muffled because of the walls separating them.

Narcissa jumped and started to hurry away again. When she finally reached one of the unused bedrooms, she pushed open the door with a hip and entered. Andromeda span around from where she was sitting at the window. "Quick!" she said urgently. "Cissy, the Aurors!"

"Aurors - what?" said Narcissa.

"The Aurors from the Ministry are here! For Bellatrix!" said Andromeda. "Give me the child!"

Narcissa obeyed. Andromeda looked down at the now calm baby, her heart leaping to her throat with worry. A shouted spell was heard below and she jumped slightly and prepared to Disapparate, but Narcissa laid her hand upon her sister's arm. Andromeda looked up.

"The child - she is to be called Nymphadora," said Narcissa.

Andromeda nodded in assent, before turning on the spot and vanishing. An extraordinarily pale Narcissa could hear the Aurors making their way through the manor.