Author's Note: Okay, so this story is going to be rated M because this set of characters pretty much makes this story M, but also because there will be mature themes and a lot of swearing. I didn't want to limit the story (if I do want to put something in later) to a T. I know this is an unpopular and niche set of characters, and I'm mostly writing this for myself because I'm bored out of my freaking mind. I figured if I was going to write this then I might as well post it because I could always use pointers on my writing since I'm not going to get it anywhere else. Anyways have fun with this story and please let me know if I'm fucking it up somewhere.
Chapter 2:
Estella was completely hung over and Aunt Cissy would not stop talking. Her sister Carina's birthday had been last night, and she and her other sister, Cassiopeia, had gone out to celebrate. She had turned 23, and Estella was grateful for the time they were able to spend together. Even though Aunt Cissy insisted that they see each other regularly, while hosting a weekly dinner with her sisters, it had been hard for them to find time alone together, like it used to be. Estella of course loved her brother-in-laws and her niece and nephew, but she often longed to spend time with just her sisters. She and Draco got along just fine, but the summer holidays and their relative proximity was starting to increase the tension for them both.
"How was Cassiopeia, Estella?" Aunt Cissy asked from the head of the table. Her uncle Lucius had already left for work. They normally all made a point of eating breakfast together, but today they had let her sleep, knowing that she had been out late with her sisters. Normally Aunt Cissy was completely against drinking of any kind, for Estella was practically royal being a Lestrange, but she was more lenient when it involved her sisters. Aunt Cissy, it seemed, missed them more than she and Draco did.
"She was fine, I guess. I don't know it seems like a lot of work dealing with a two year old," Estella leaned into her hands, nibbling on a piece of her toast. Her curly, nearly black hair was falling onto her plate and Aunt Cissy was glaring disapprovingly.
"Yes, she tells me that Leo becomes more of a nuisance each day, much like how Draco was," she turns to look at Draco, her back proud and straight against her chair. Estella did not think that she had ever seen her sitting in any other way. Draco looked up at Estella with a smirk, mocking her hangover.
"Peia said that Ursa was finally sleeping through the night," Estella said as she continued to nibble on her toast, since her stomach was barely holding onto every swallow. Her oldest sister Cassiopeia turned 24 in March, and had just given birth to her second child, Ursa, at the end of April. Estella had spent the week with Cassiopeia earlier in the summer, and her house had been a zoo.
"If only Carina would start reproducing, the Rosier line could use a new heir," Aunt Cissy cut into her ham slice delicately. Draco looked up and smirked again.
"Yeah, with half the family either dead or in Azkaban," Draco carelessly said. Even Estella shot up to that remark. Aunt Cissy dropped her knife and stared coldly at Draco.
"I will not have those Mudblood manners at this table, Draco," she retorted, staring back at Estella. Aunt Cissy was not one for gossiping about her family, or at least not until she had a few glasses of wine with her immediate family.
"Has she said anything to you?" Narcissa finished. Draco went back to shoveling food into his mouth after being glared at by his mother. There was little that could keep his mouth shut.
"No, of course not, but you know how she is." Carina was known to be cruel and cold. All three of the daughters were, but it often seemed as though Carina had no conscience.
"Yes, well I will write to her soon. Speaking of which, while you were busy this morning," Estella groaned and fell onto her arm dramatically, Draco stifled a laugh, "your Hogwarts letters came. We best make a trip to Diagon Alley sometime after breakfast before all of the Mudbloods show up." With that, Aunt Cissy stood up, pushed her chair in, and yelled for a house elf to come and clear the table. After she had left the room, and the house elves had entered to begin clearing the places, Draco looked up at her and laughed.
"I could hear you puking from across the hall. And to think you believe that you can hold your liquor better than me." Draco's sarcasm was unparalleled in the Wizarding world. "And by the way, I got Prefect. Mummy promised to buy me something special this afternoon." Estella rolled her eyes.
"A real win for Hogwarts."
"Yes, Father seems to think so, though you wouldn't know because you were breaking the upstairs toilet." Draco looked rather proud of himself.
"Classy Draco, very classy." Estella flipped her hair behind her shoulder, and walked off.
Estella looked nothing like her sisters, besides a few facial characteristics that were occasionally pointed out. Her sisters were beautiful, and tall, with auburn, wavy hair that fell like their father's. They looked almost entirely like their father, Rodolphus, with a few of her mother's characteristics in her face. The two of them were very close, and had excelled in their years at school academically. Carina, however, was expelled from Hogwarts during her third year, after a first year Gryffindor girl had been found tortured on the grounds. Though no one could prove that she had been behind it, Dumbledore had expelled her. Estella had no doubt that she had been behind it.
Considering the small amount of motherly influence that their mother had had over them, it was shocking that all of the girls had not yet ended up in Azkaban. Cassiopeia was the most mild of the three, though she was prone to fits when she did not get what she wanted. She acted with the same entitlement as Draco, though it was clear that Aunt Cissy had spoiled her to make up for her mother being imprisoned.
Carina was cold, distant, and at times violent. Estella was certain that she had killed her childhood pet, a small cat that she had found in the gardens. Carina had ended up being enrolled in a school in Russia that taught mostly the Dark Arts, with a concentration in defensive and offensive spells. Though she had a horrible temper and a violent side, she was defensive and endearing towards Estella. She and Cassiopeia were close.
It took awhile for Estella to get ready, because her eyes kept drifting towards the picture of her mother that was framed next to her bed. She had a similar picture in a silver locket, that had a small snake curling up it. It had a picture of a handsome man too, whom she assumed to be the Dark Lord. Her sisters had told her, from the few memories that they had of her, that they had been quite close.
The return of the Dark Lord was both threatening and exciting. While Estella was worried that the Dark Lord would tear her family apart, as he had all those years ago when her mother was sent to prison, she was also excited about the prospect of him getting her mother, and possibly her father out. After the night out with her sisters, she was excited at the prospect, but she was beginning to worry about Carina. It seemed that Cassiopeia had less active duty because she had just given birth, and Carina was out and about torturing people, which she refused to admit explicitly. Above all, Estella did not want to lose any more family.
"For fucks sake Ella, hurry up," bellowed Draco from the bottom of the staircase. She could vaguely hear her aunt scold him for language. Estella threw on a black, casual dress, throwing on a travelling cloak over herself. It looked as though it might rain. As she ran down the stairs she saw Draco practically tugging on her aunt's sleeve, like he was two years old.
"If we get there and there are loads of Mudbloods, I will expect you to clean all of our cloaks without magic," Aunt Cissy said to Estella, her nose practically pointed in the air. Draco smirked at her, and Estella made a face back. "Enough you two, hold onto my arm."
Aunt Cissy apparated the three of them into the growing crowds of Diagon Alley, and yanked their sleeves away from an approaching crowd. Estella pulled her hood up over her head as she felt a few drops of rain. She had waterproofed the cloak herself two years ago.
"Here are your lists for the year, and here is some money," Aunt Cissy put some money into their hands, and they put it in their pocket.
"Mummy, are you leaving already?" Draco smirked, "scared of a little rain?" Aunt Cissy grabbed his wrist, her blond hair falling over her shoulder.
"I am sure you will be able to do just fine without me. Besides, there is plenty for me to do at home while you two are away." With that, she disappeared, leaving the two of them alone.
"She always does this, every year," Draco kicked a rock near his shoe and Estella rolled her eyes.
"You're being ridiculous, she does not."
"You know she hates the rain. Besides, normally I wouldn't give two fucks, but this year she told me I could pick out whatever I wanted from Borgin and Burkes because I got my prefect's badge." Estella rolled her eyes further.
"I'm sure Uncle Lucy will bring back something for you at dinner. There's no way she hasn't told him yet." They began walking towards Flourish and Botts as the rain began to come down harder.
"But what if he brings home something I don't want," Draco practically whined. They looked around as people began to disperse seeking shelter from the rain. "Well at least we won't have to deal with the crowds of Mudbloods."
"I suppose, or at least not the Weasley bunch, every year I swear they purposefully get into my way." They entered the store, pulling their hoods down from the rain. People stared for a few moments, and then went back to what they were doing. They quickly picked out their books and went on to get new robes. They were lucky because the lines were not nearly as long as they had anticipated. As usual, Aunt Cissy was right.
"Remember before our fourth year when father was tied up at the Ministry and mother had that luncheon and Peia took us?" Draco turned to look at Estella, who was sitting down waiting for his fitting to finish. She had already gone and had gotten her new robes packaged for her.
"Yes, and she had to bring Leo. He was such an annoying baby," Estella began to twirl a loose curl in her finger.
"Watch it woman, you're going to make me bleed," Draco snarled at Madam Malkin. She snapped her hand away, continuing to work, just more quickly.
"Honestly Draco people will think you have absolutely no manners at all."
"Yes, but then they will remember who I am." Draco smiled deviously at Estella, who was already standing up. Madam Malkin had finished, and sourly trotted off.
"With your attitude and my hangover, it might take us the entire rest of the afternoon to finish." They paid and left. It would not stop raining.
"She is such a lovely baby," Bellatrix said, sitting on the window sill in Voldemort's office. He normally hated it when people lingered in his office, especially some of his Death Eaters who he was not entirely sure why he kept around. Time and time again he found himself unable to kick her out, no matter how hard he tried to push her away.
Voldemort pushed up his reading glasses and continued writing, "yes she really is. If only she would sleep through the night." It was a cloudy afternoon and Bellatrix had been up almost the entire night hushing the baby. The past three years she had been residing with him in his townhouse in Norfolk. At the beginning she had made frequent visits to visit her daughters and still appear with her husband to events, but as time went on she spent more and more time with him.
"I think I will take her to see the girls tomorrow. Cissy wrote telling me she had been watching them while the nanny is out with dragonpox." Voldemort put his pen down and took his glasses off to stare at her. She looked beautiful with her white nightgown, that she had hardly changed out of since the birth, and her hair carelessly loose. The baby was fast asleep in her arms.
"I think you should," he said distantly, trying to ignore how much more beautiful holding the baby had made her. He hated to think of her other children because it reminded him that he was the other man. It was irrational, he knew, but he could not look at them without thinking of Rodolphus with his Bella. In the past years, he had forbidden them from coming anywhere near his residence.
She was fully distracting him now. He thought after he admitted to loving her, in his own way, that she would become clingy or unbearable. Instead she had once again told him she loved him and had continued on as though he had said nothing. He wondered if she even remembered or heard him say it. Narcissa had told him of the hard birth, and Lucius had mentioned it in passing, which confirmed to him that the child would be powerful. For Lucius to bring up a woman's tale over drinks was more than enough proof. Especially considering his dislike for Bellatrix.
She transfigured a small crib, and set the child down. She walked over to him, and put her hands on his face. He tried to turn away, eager to get back to work, but he could not. The power she yielded over him increased daily.
"I love you," she said, as she seated herself in his lap. He felt himself growing hard, especially seeing how see through her gown was. She kissed him deeply, and he put his hand to her back instinctively.
"You should go," he said in between kisses. She smelled like lemon, and every part of him wanted to keep kissing her, but he had things to do and her sitting in his office could not be tolerated. She sighed into his lips and got up, vanishing the crib after picking up Estella. He needed to maintain his distance, no matter how she looked carrying his heir.