Disclaimer: Still don't own any of the characters or settings. All property of the lovely Ms. Rowling.

SPOILER WARNING: BOOK 6 SPOILERS TOWARDS THE END OF THE STORY.

So. You know what happened to Sirius. You know what happened in his life. You know that he was in Gryffindor, that his best friends were James, Lupin, and (ew) Peter. You know that Bellatrix was the one to kill him.

But did you ever wonder why he was the way that he was? Whose life did he affect, besides the obvious? How did he treat his cousins – three young witches who turned out so differently from each other? Well, this is my take on it. This story consists of facts, yes, but it is largely based on my opinion. The facts are mostly the events that happened in Sirius's life, the ones we already know about. Anything that you blatantly don't recognize or have never heard of, including Sirius's unusual relationship with Narcissa and her two sisters, is solely from my imagination and predictions.

As for Narcissa – this is my take on her character. This is MY theory on why she turns out the way that she does. Enjoy it or hate it, it's your call.

And this story will progress in a certain pattern: I'll post two chapters for each year of Narcissa's life, starting with when she's nine. After every two chapters, there will be a sort of "modern day" chapter in which we'll see Sirius watching interactions between Harry, Ron, and Hermione. Allrighty? Yes. I believe that's all I want to say. Thanks so much for reading this story – it's one that's very dear to my heart.

In fact, this story has kept me awake for many hours, for many nights, for the better part of these last three months. I've become so attached to it that it's almost frightening, and no matter what anyone says, I will now always, always have a certain place in my heart for both Sirius and Narcissa. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I've enjoyed writing it.

"A woman's heart is an ocean of secrets." - Titanic

Chapter One

The Spirits

Her mother is calling to her from downstairs. The little girl sighs. She's anxious to get back to Grimmauld Place for Christmas again. She feels more at home there than she's ever felt in her own home.

"I'm coming!" she yells back, for the fifth or sixth time. She picks up her robes so that they won't drag on the floor – they're much too long for her skinny figure – and she scurries down the hallway to Bellatrix's bedroom.

Bellatrix is standing in front of her mirror, perfecting her already perfect hair. It's dark, a stark contrast to Narcissa's brilliant white, and it is always long, smooth, and beautiful. Andromeda is in the room, too. She's only a year younger than Bellatrix, who's just turned twelve. She's the plainest of the sisters, though none of them will admit it. Her hair is only an ordinary shade of brown, like her eyes. She looks over at Narcissa when Narcissa enters the room.

"Your bow is crooked," she sighs. "Come here."

Narcissa obeys. She climbs up onto the bed in front of Andromeda, who begins to fiddle around with the bow in her younger sister's hair. "You look very pretty tonight, Bellatrix," Narcissa says.

Bellatrix continues to admire herself in the mirror. "Do you think so?"

Andromeda shoots her a glare. "You always look pretty. Don't act so surprised."

Bellatrix shrugs. "Okay. I won't." She sets her hairbrush back on her vanity table and then turns to look at her sisters. She always looks so much older and so much more important when she's looking at them, as if she's a queen observing her royal subjects. "Do you think Sirius and Regulus will be there tonight?"

Narcissa, though only being nine, and therefore inferior to her older sister's supreme knowledge of the world, lets out a condescending snort. "Of course they'll be there. It's their house."

She shrugs. "They weren't there for their parents' anniversary last year."

Andromeda finishes with the bow, slides off the bed, and then looks in the mirror to observe her own hair. "They were both sick with the measles … or maybe it was food poisoning … I don't know. Something severe enough, anyway."

Narcissa holds back a giggle. She knows what Sirius and Regulus were really doing that night, because she had been with them. Her sisters hadn't even noticed that she was gone. She and the boys been on the roof the entire time, running with their arms spread wide, pretending to be owls sent on dire missions to deliver letters being exchanged between Dumbledore and an evil villain they'd christened "Lord Darkface."

When their parents had seen all the scratches they'd gotten, Sirius and Regulus had claimed to have come down with a mysterious rash. Narcissa had been able to hide the scratches under her long dresses.

Their mother calls for them again. "Girls, if you aren't down here in thirty seconds, we're going to leave without you! And we'll throw all your presents out the window!"

The sisters exchange a worried glance.

"Do you think she means it?" Narcissa asks, very seriously.

Bellatrix laughs at her. "Really, my dear sister, you're much too gullible for your own good. She paid for those presents. She wouldn't just throw them away. It would make her look bad, and we can't have her looking bad, can we?"

She doesn't know what to say, so she nods. They hurry downstairs, their fancy Christmas robes swishing around them as they go, and they meet their parents at the foot of the staircase. With one hand each touching an old book, they are off by portkey to the house of their relatives, and another Christmas begins as it always does.

There is always so much food. If Narcissa remembers nothing else about the holidays, she always remembers the food. The meat, the fruit, vegetables, potatoes in every shape, colour, and size, turkeys large enough to swallow her and her sisters whole, and desserts to dazzle the minds of even the most luxurious diner.

"What a day it will be when we all go starving!" her mother always exclaims every year.

Bellatrix, Andromeda, Narcissa, Sirius, and Regulus are at the "children's table," though none of them call it that, because that would mean admitting that they are children. Sirius is across from Narcissa, making funny faces at her as Bellatrix is talking about something dull and adult. Narcissa giggles into her goblet of juice, and she notices that the corners of Andromeda's mouth are twitching as well.

Regulus, meanwhile, is pouting. He finds his brother and cousins to be spoiled and rude; they aren't paying him enough attention. "Look at my new scar!" he orders them, sticking out his arm. "I got it when I was exploring in the attic!"

Sirius pauses in his facial contortions in order to slap his brother across the back of the head. "Don't start with that again. That isn't a scar. It's a smudge of gravy. I saw you rub it on your arm two minutes ago."

Regulus glares at his older brother, but says nothing else. He's only six, three years younger than Sirius. He's only six, but he already knows how much power Sirius has over him.

"Anyway," Sirius says, sitting back in his chair with his arms behind his head, "you're too afraid to go exploring in the attic."

"I am not!" he says hotly.

"Course you are," Sirius grins. "Don't blame you. It is haunted, after all."

Regulus glares shamefully at his potatoes.

"Is it really?" Narcissa asks, setting her fork aside. "It's really haunted?"

Sirius nods. "There are spirits up there."

"Are you sure they aren't just ghosts?" Andromeda asks. She isn't convinced easily about things like hauntings.

"Spirits and ghosts are the same thing," Bellatrix snaps. "Honestly, you'd think the lot of you haven't got any brains behind those thick skulls."

"They aren't the same," Sirius argues. "You can see ghosts, but you can't see spirits. And besides, ghosts are people who choose to come back to earth as ghosts. Spirits are stuck here against their will."

Bellatrix runs a hand through her hair. "And how would you know?"

He shrugs. "Anyone with half a handful of common sense knows that."

Andromeda and Narcissa share a victorious glance at this insult.

Bellatrix says nothing. She falls into a spiteful silence and pretends to be listening to the conversation that's taking place at the adults' table.

"Do they talk to you?" Narcissa asks Sirius eagerly. "The spirits, I mean?"

"I think they're trying to," he says. "I mean, when I was in the attic yesterday, I kept hearing these sounds … I thought Regulus was whispering something to try to scare me."

"I was in the kitchen," Regulus pipes up excitedly, as if this proves that there has to be spirits. "It wasn't me!"

"Exactly," Sirius says. "I tried talking to them, but they seemed … I don't know. Angry, I guess." His eyes are glinting mischievously. "And … can you keep a secret?"

"Of course," Narcissa says readily. "What is it?"

He glances at Andromeda. "And you?"

She nods, as willing to hear a secret as her younger sister is.

Sirius glances next at Bellatrix. She's pretending not to listen, but from the way her lips are pursed, Narcissa can tell that she's ready to catch every word Sirius will say.

"Okay," he whispers, leaning in towards the table. Narcissa, Andromeda, and Regulus lean in too, as if they are all fellow conspirators in some frightfully private scheme. "When I was talking to them," he says, eyes glinting intensely, "the entire room went cold … it was awful, I've never been so cold in my life. And … and I heard this growling … a really low, angry growling … and so … I think … I think that maybe …"

His four audience members – for now even Bellatrix is glancing sideways at him – wait in a tense silence during the climax of this confession. Sirius looks at each of them, obviously enjoying the way they're all holding their breaths in anticipation, and then he clears his throat, leans in even closer, and whispers, "I think that the spirits are evil. I think that if I hadn't left the attic when I did, they would have killed me."

Narcissa gasps, Andromeda frowns, Regulus stares, and Bellatrix snorts. "You can't be serious," she says to him, looking as if she's never met anyone more stupid in her entire life.

"Actually, last time I checked my birth certificate, I was Sirius," he says coolly.

Narcissa, still in shock from his confession, doesn't giggle like she normally would. "Evil spirits? Trying to kill you? Do you think they're after your entire family? Do you think they'll sneak down from the attic into the house? Into your bedroom? Do your parents – "

Sirius holds up his hands, grinning. "Don't worry, I'm sure they'll stay in the attic. Spirits don't really like to wander around."

"How do you know?"

"I just know," he says, and that settles the matter. Narcissa always trusts his knowledge. He always seems to know so much that she's never even heard of or considered. "If you're really interested, we could go up and see them. That is, if you're brave enough."

She shivers, and her stomach is fluttering. "Of course I'm brave enough."

He seems impressed. "Really? You aren't afraid?"

She shakes her head. "Why would I be afraid?"

He shrugs. "You're a girl."

Bellatrix snorts again. "You have a lot to learn about girls if that's your opinion, my dear cousin." She pushes her plate aside. "Anyway, if there really are spirits in the world, then they wouldn't be in your attic. Our family is practically royalty – your mother even says so, almost everyday."

"Parents don't know everything," he says, snorting.

"Don't interrupt me," she snaps. "Now listen, if there really are evil spirits in the world, they'd be attacking somebody who's actually worth attacking, like … I don't know. Mudbloods. Muggleborns. Commoners. Those types of people."

"Don't call them that!" Andromeda says. Her cheeks are red. She's only eleven, but she has enough sense to be angry. "You're so prejudiced, Bellatrix."

Bellatrix doesn't even flinch. "And you, my dear sister, have been listening to one too many of Dumbledore's speeches. Merlin, that man is irritating. He thinks he knows everything."

Regulus perks up at this. "I've heard that he treats mudbloods like any other witch or wizard. As if they're equal to us, or something."

"They are equal to us," Andromeda says fiercely. "And you're only six – what do you know? If a witch marries a muggle, or a wizard marries a muggle, they shouldn't be hated, scorned, disowned. They're just not as magical as we are, that's all. It's not a crime."

Bellatrix laughs at her. "Andromeda, really, you don't know what you're talking about. And those sleeves! Look at them! You're getting them in your food! Really, sometimes I marvel at how much of a pig you are!"

"Get over it," Sirius tells Bellatrix with a grin. He leans back in his chair, hands behind his head. Always so confident.

Bellatrix turns up her nose at him. "You all are such children, I hope you know that."

Sirius salutes her, still grinning. She glares at him, stands, throws her dark hair over her shoulder, and retreats like a queen to the kitchen.

Sirius laughs at her after she's gone. Narcissa asks him why, and he says, "I hid a frog under her pillow tonight."

Andromeda, Narcissa, and Regulus all laugh with him until the adults scold them. If you're going to be loud, you might as well go upstairs, say their glares. And so up the stairs the children go.

It's quiet and dark upstairs, and Narcissa really wants to go explore the attic. "I want to see the spirits," she whispers to Sirius, when Andromeda and Regulus aren't looking.

He frowns. "You can't see spirits."

"Well then I want to hear them, like you did."

He nods. Then he grins. His eyes are twinkling again. "I know. Look, I think it'll be better if we go in the middle of the night, when everyone else is asleep. Then we can stay up there for as long as want, and no one will notice we're gone. Plus, I don't think the spirits will be expecting us then. Maybe we can take them by surprise – it can be like a surprise attack!"

Andromeda glances over her shoulder at them. She's playing chess with Regulus, even though he isn't very good at it. Sirius pauses. Andromeda looks back at the game again, Sirius takes a breath, and then he lowers his voice. He continues. "Meet me by the attic stairs as soon as both of your sisters are asleep. I'll be there already – Regulus always falls asleep fast. He's such a baby."

She grins with the excitement of their secret scheme. "Should I bring anything?"

He shrugs. "Do you have a candlestick in your room?"

She nods.

"Bring that. You know – just in case. We don't know what these spirits are up to, so we should have some sort of weapon."

"You can't hit a spirit with a candlestick," she says, though she's only guessing. She's never met a spirit before, like he has.

He shrugs again. "Spirits are afraid of light. If we get scared, we'll just light the candle."

"Okay," she says, shaking from the excitement of it all. "I'll be there."

"You'd better be," he grins. "I'd hate to face those spirits alone again. Who knows what they'd do to me?"

"You aren't afraid?" she asks unbelievingly.

He looks offended by this question. "Afraid? Me? Narcissa, it takes a lot more than a few spirits to scare me."

She grins, her own fears eased by this. "Me too."

"What on earth are you two conspiring about now?" Andromeda asks them.

"Conspiring?" Sirius repeats, feigning offense once again. "We never conspire. How could you even think such a thing?"

Narcissa smiles at him, and he winks at her. They have a special alliance, and no one else besides them even suspects a thing.