Note from the author:
I originally published this story in French (my native language) many years ago on .
I have been wanting to translate it for years, and take this opportunity to revisit it – and hopefully improve it. Some aspects of the story will likely be changed, but the main lines will be kept. Moreover, I will endeavour to match the current canon, and most importantly make the story more inclusive.
Ultimately I intend to also rewrite/ edit the original story in French as well.
This story is meant to be the first of a trilogy, weaving across chapters the lives of the Black sisters.
Prologue - Salazar
On the day she was born, England was hit by one of the most violent storms in its history. There was nothing natural about this cataclysm, and Muggles were all made to forget about that dreadful night and its consequences.
That night, her parents had an appointment with one of her father's friends from school. A young man named Tom. Years later, she heard about how he touched her mother's belly and told the couple that their child would be a great wizard.
Her father stayed with Tom, while her mother travelled to her sister-in-law at 12 Grimmauld Square, where she came to the world at the exact moment an odd green "lightning bolt" killed three Muggles in Newcastle.
The delivery went well, but there was an unexpected and dramatic problem: she was not Salazar Black, as her father had expected and hoped. When he walked into her mother's bedroom, he did not even look at the child: "you will get it right next time". For she was only Bellatrix. Bella.
Cygnus Black had made it clear since their marriage the previous year that he was expecting to be given a male heir. When her mother was finally with child, Cygnus grew less cold and violent for a time. But that kindness did not survive the disappointment of that stormy night – Cygnus was, at heart, an angry and cruel man, and his wife was punished for her mistake. Walburga, his sister-in-law, stood outside the room as he disciplined his wife, and walked in to console the child as he was leaving. But the newborn did not cry, that's what she was told in later years. For the first year of her life, Bellatrix never cried, as if she knew she would anger her father – at least this is what Mother thought.
Before she became Mrs Black, she was Druella Rosier, a talented and intelligent Pure-Blood from an excellent family. But she was mostly known in Hogwarts for her incredible beauty and her long silver-blond hair that made her look like a Veela. She was rumoured to have been enamoured with her childhood friend Abraxas Malfoy, and him with her. But other engagements had been arranged for Druella and Abraxas, other political alliances had been picked. At just 17 when she left Hogwarts she obediently married the man her family had chosen for her: Cygnus Black, five years her senior and one of the richest and most powerful wizards in Europe.
For the first two years of Bella's life, Druella was a loving and caring mother. She would protect her from Father's wrath, risking her own safety to shield her child. She persuaded the Black family to commit to investing in Bella's education, so she could become a witch worthy of the Black name. Bella's life was a happy one, until the day Andromeda was born.
She was two years old, waiting outside her mother's chambers for her brother Salazar to be born. Father sat next to her, looking preoccupied – at the time, she thought he worried about Mother, whose screams she vividly remembered years later. Of course, he wasn't: Tom had told him that this child would be a disappointment.
When the midwife, Mrs Pinkers, left the room carrying Andromeda and announced it was another healthy daughter, Cygnus walked past her, into the room, and locked the door behind him. Mrs Pinkers told Bella to put her hands over her ears and sing her favourite lullaby to the new baby. Andromeda was crying as Mrs Pinkers rocked her. When the door finally opened and Father left, Mrs Pinkers walked Bella to her mother, sitting at the edge of her bed, with bruises on her arms and face, and a broken lip.
"Hello sweet one, come and sit next to me", she said as Mrs Pinkers tried to hand her the newborn, which she refused. "This is your sister Andromeda – take care of her and love her like life itself. You are her everything."
Mrs Pinkers was told to take "the child" to the nursery, where the nurse awaited. Bella fell asleep that night looking at her baby sister across the room. That night, and every night after.
The next morning, Mrs Black had become a cold and stern woman. She never held Andy in her arms, nor Cissy. Had the children been boys, perhaps she would have remained the kind, warm and loving woman Bella had known for those two wonderful years.
Salazar was born a year after Cissy. By then Mother had been weakened by four pregnancies in close succession, and years of abuse. The birth was traumatic, and Mrs Black barely survived. Sal' was not so lucky. After the funerals, Mediwizards forbade Mrs Black from having other children. The Rosier family forced Mr Black to make an unbreakable vow, to protect their daughter. On this day, Bella became the heir of Cygnus Black. And the best match in England.
Father had hired all sorts of private tutors for the three children, including one who specialised in manners and etiquette. The girls were the three roses of the English Wizarding Aristocracy, and gossiping aunts already saw them married to the most prominent families.
Cissy was the most beautiful of the trio, with her beautiful blond Rosier hair. She looked just like Mother in her younger years. Andy and Bella looked identical, if not for their eyes – though Bella always found herself darker, and more beautiful, than her younger sister. Poor Andy had very little going for her, an unnoticeable middle child. No surprise she turned out to be such a disappointment.
Despite their differences, the sisters were inseparable. They shared enough love and affection between the three of them to make up for their parents' coldness. In spite of the army of House Elves tending to their every need, they were lonely, so they imagined their perfect lives: the day they would each join Hogwarts and meet other children, when they would get loving husbands and black-haired children. Cissy and Bella daydreamed of a handsome Pure-Blood wizard who would swoop them off their feet and take them away to a beautiful mansion. Bella's husband would be the most powerful of their generation, and rid the country of "Mudblood scum" like Father, whatever that meant. Andy often suggested that maybe there were more important things in life than a man or his blood. What a strange child she was already. All those romance novels made her yearn for purity of heart rather than of blood.
One day, as the girls were reading in the Black Library, Andy accidentally called Mother "mommy". The slap that followed left a dark mark on the three girls' memory. What surprised them the most was that neither Bella nor Cissy was ever hit by Mother, even for making worse mistakes. From this day onwards, Andy stopped trying to interact with Mother, and over the year grew to hate her as much as she hated Father. As Bella had promised her mother, she grew even closer to her younger sister and loved her unconditionally. She loved her more than she, later, loved her master.
A man named Tom would often come to the Manor while the girls were playing. His face grew stranger and stranger over the years, pale and smooth, as if it had melted somehow. He was exuding confidence and magic, a sort of energy that Bella was drawn to. Many times, he personally checked on the oldest Black daughter, who was both scared and fascinated by the strange wizard – she would run away as soon as she was dismissed. Tom always came with a group of a dozen of men, less terrifying than him, but equally strange.
At the end of her eleventh summer, Bella got ready to go to Hogwarts. She was thrilled to finally learn more spells, meet new people and make her family proud, but a knot in her stomach plagued her for weeks at the idea of abandoning her two sisters. She had promised to protect them, and she was letting them down.
The day before they headed to King's Cross, Andy came to her room and held her tight in her arms.
"I will miss you Bella"
Bella stroked her sister's hair and whispered.
"In two years, you will join me, and we will be together again. Until then, you have to take good care of Cissy for me, ok?"
Andy started weeping. She had always been an emotional child, thought Bella.
"You will make friends and forget about us"
"I promise you that I will never forget you, Andy. I will always be there for you. I will always be my sister. I promise. Always."
That night Andy fell asleep in Bella's bed. As a punishment, Father prevented the children from joining Bella at the station.
As Father handed her the Portkey to King's Cross, Bella looked at her sisters crying on the sofa. Even Mother looked emotional, more than she had been in years. And one last time, she imagined what her life could have been if she had been the so-desired Salazar Black.