Authoress: Stormy Llewellyn
Chapter: Three, The Trouble With Muggles
Authoress' Note: I hope you like this chapter. It's about Bella's first encounter with muggles and how her hatred was emphasized. Please review, it helps me write.
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On the next page were pictures of Sirius which snapped her out of the memory of the last time that she had seen the middle sister. In her fragile state she wasn't sure it was a good idea for her to be looking at pictures of her former cousin. Well, they used to be pictures of Sirius. Bella had destroyed them the night that Sirius had turned his back on the family. Narcissa remembered her sister sitting at the foot of her bed that night and taking the quill to each image of him. She looked at the book where the two of them were covered in mud and had their arms thrown around each other. They'd been so close. And although Bella had not cried when he left, for it was a sign of weakness to cry, it had been an unfortunate day for any household object or house elf that got in her way.
Slamming the book shut Bellatrix drew her knees up to her chest and Narcissa decided it was time to move on from the pictures. Slowly, reverently, she opened the box next to it, full of the broken shards of girlhood. On top was a braid of brown hair that she had been reluctant to add to the box and had only done so at Bella's insistence. The braid was left over from one of Bella's first interactions with muggles, it hadn't been a pleasant one.
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It was summertime before any of us had gone to Hogwarts. Bellatrix had just turned ten, Andromeda was eight and Narcissa was five years old. We had come down from our home, to the small magical store in the mostly muggle town to pick up potion ingredients. Cambridge Village was a charming little town with one main street and many residential buildings on the side streets. It was overlooked by the Black Manor, set high on a cliff which was difficult to reach with magic, let alone without it.
Mrs. Black walked rapidly towards the market and she struggled to keep up, gripping Andromeda's hand as they ran to stay the appropriate distance behind her. Bellatrix did not run, something that was supposedly unbecoming to Blacks, but walked swiftly beside her mother which was not allowed. However, when their mother glanced over at her oldest daughter she gave a slight, approving nod which was highly affectionate coming from the woman. After all, fate favors the bold. When their mother was talking to the shop owner (a rather frightening old crone who was missing an eye) Bella began to edge toward the door, dragging along her youngest sister. Quickly, she looked around to make sure that their mother was distracted as well as Andromeda who was a stickler for the rules. Well, certain rules anyway, Narcissa noted as she saw her sister hiding behind a large crate with a muggle paperback she'd probably nicked from a local muggle store open on her lap. Next thing she knew the two of them were out in the hot summer sun and Bella through he head back and let out a laugh.
"Come on Cissa! Let's go explore!" The younger sister let out a hefty sigh, wishing that this had been a weekend that Sirius was visiting. He could always handle Bella's adventures as well as her mood swings.
She dragged her down the dirt road where they came upon a group of four children who were playing some sort of muggle game involving a ball. Bellatrix gave them a wide-eyed look and apparently they caught her attention because then she began to drag her youngest sister off toward them.
"Bella," the blonde whispered urgently, "do you have any idea what mother will do to you if she finds out you were talking to muggles?"
"Mother won't find out, now will she Narcissa?" Bella asked in a falsely sweet tone and with a meaningful glance.
"No," she responded meekly.
The two walked forward and stopped before the group. In the little time they had been permitted to visit other children her sister had learned that it didn't take long for people to take notice of her. These children however, did not seem to register her arrival and there was a flash of irritation in her sister's eyes.
"Excuse me." She said, causing the other kids to stop the game they were playing. There were two girls and two boys. One of the girls had startlingly red hair and bright green eyes while the other one had brown hair and a rather bony looking face. The boys looked similar, both with dirty blond hair although one had dark blue eyes and the other had light brown ones.
"Hi," said the redhead, holding out her hand, "I'm Lily and this is my sister Petunia. This is Bryan and Rob."
"Hello," said Bella, "I'm Bellatrix Black and this is my younger sister, Narcissa Black." She put an emphasis on her surname just as she'd been taught to in her etiquette lessons.
"Weird names," the bony girl commented with a distasteful sniff.
"They're family names," snapped Bellatrix, "and I would so the same about all of you."
"My sister didn't mean anything by it," said Lily with a warm smile, "Would you like to join our game?"
"Lily!" Protested Petunia.
"Hey, wait a minute. I know who they are! You two live in that creepy old house up on the hill, don't you?" Asked Rob, his blue eyes wide.
"We live in the manor, yes," Bella said, giving them all an appraising look.
"Is it really haunted?" Asked Lily tentatively, her eyes not fearful but curious.
"Well not for a while, Aunt Serenity moved on a couple of years ago," Narcissa explained with childish innocence.
The kids simply stared at them and Bella cuffed her younger sister in the back of the head for saying something like that. Lily looked at them with keen interest, which was odd for a muggle, but the rest of the children were still giving them odd looks.
"You know," Bryan began, "I've heard all sorts of things about your family."
Well, who hasn't, Narcissa asked, wondering where he was going with this. Her older sister seem inexplicably tense all of a sudden. "I heard that the woman who live up there is a witch."
"Really?" Squealed Lily, who was young enough to believe the muggle fables about magic.
"Yes, I bet they are! Look at the way the freaks are dressed!"
"You're one to talk," spat Bellatrix, looking ready to fight if it came to that.
Suddenly one of the boys picked up a pebble and pelted her with it. Bellatrix let out a furious scream and pounced on him, using her weight to push him to the ground.
"Stop it!" Screamed the redhead, Lily, though no one paid her any mind.
The two boys managed (with some difficultly) to restrain the girl and hold her still while Petunia picked up a good sized rock and tossed it at her. In all of her childish stupidity, Narcissa ran forward to save her eldest sister and ended up face down in the mud. Staring down at her long, rose colored robes she began to cry. There was suddenly a burst of energy and All the kids were sent sprawling in opposite directions and into the mud. Expecting her savior to be her older sister she was shocked to find that it was Lily whose eyes were flaring and wind was whipping around her, lifting her red hair into the air. They screamed in terror and Petunia push her sister causing her to fall flat in the mud and they all began to run down the road. Lily watched them with fire in her eyes as rocks began to pelt themselves at the group. Bellatrix dragged herself up bleeding, dirty, and looking for all the world like a mini-warrior. Instead of looking thankful, she looked angry.
"I don't need your help, mudblood." She spat angrily, planting her foot in Lily's side and causing the girl to give out a small whine. Just then there were footsteps behind them and before they knew it their mother was bearing down on them.
"What are you doing!" She asked angrily. Narcissa noticed that Andromeda had lost her muggle book and was carefully holding her hand away from where it could touch anything on her body. A nerve irritation spell on her hands, Narcissa realized with a wince. She'd suffered the same spell several times before and it hurt. Every little touch made your body scream with pain, even the wind could feel like needles pricking your skin. She strode over to her youngest child and smacked her none to gently on the cheeks. "Stop that whimpering, right now!"
"What are you doing, associating with these muggles?" She asked sharply to Bella, then she lifted her wand in the air and muttered, "Sloanaco."
Lily watched with a mixture of interest and horror as a line of blood slowly start appearing on her arm causing the girl to flinch in pain and grasp desperately at her arm. Mrs. Black informed her, "For letting yourself fall victim to muggles."
"As for you," she gave Lily a disgusted look, "I should obliterate you, but...let this be a lesson about messing with your betters."
Bella scurried away from her mother, seeking comfort from the sister who was closer to her age. She found none. Andromeda raised her head slightly and whispered with a slight smile, "That serves you right for going around terrorizing muggles."
Eyes flashing, Bella grabbed her sister's hand hard and refused to let go, "Andie, Blacks never take pleasure at seeing one of their own kin in trouble."
Weeks passed and Narcissa began to believe that all had been forgotten. She never realized that her sister had revenge on the brain until one night Bellatrix came in gripping the braid like some sort of trophy and Andromeda gasped in horror, "What did you do Bella?"
"Why, just what mother said dear sister. I taught her who her better was."
Narcissa shivered and it had nothing to do with the draftiness of the manor.