You know what's horrible? Insomnia. It's 3:35 am. So, in this chapter I seem to have run-on sentences like it's my job. I spell-checked, but please excuse errors I missed. 3:35, people. In an unrelated note, your reviews are wonderful and make me squee! Thank you so much.
Oh, and lest anyone suggest I didn't do my research, chess is generally believed to have been invented in India in the 6th century, but nobody knows by whom. Could have been a wizard!
Chapter 11- Checkmate
"Bellatrix Elladora Black!" I cried, scandalized. "What are you wearing?"
She paused, dress robes drawn halfway down her shoulder, grinning at my horrified face. Under the dark purple dress robes she cast aside with a careless flick, she was wearing red silk and lace not at all appropriate for a well-bred young girl. She raised an eyebrow.
"Sexy, no?"
"You better hope Mother doesn't find out you have knickers like that. She'd have kittens!"
"How would she? Not as though she does the wash," she shrugged, reaching for another set of robes in a rich wine color. Discarded robes were a sea of colors at her feet. Mother had left us at Madam Malkin's to choose new dress robes for the winter parties over the holidays. I'd found some I liked easily enough, and was relaxing in one of the armchairs in Madam Malkin's well-appointed dressing room while Bella tried on every set of dress robes in the store, scowling at her reflection.
"Look at me!" Narcissa flung open the curtain and stumbled in, tripping over the hem of a metallic silver, slinky dress. It was cut so that on a woman it would leave nothing to the imagination, but on a twelve-year-old girl, even one who wore it with Narcissa's flair, it just hung in the wrong places. Bella smirked at her in the mirror.
"Nice try, Mother would never let you wear something like that."
"Well, not now, but maybe in a few years…" she said, looking in the mirror somewhat hopefully.
"Mother could be dead and in her grave and she still wouldn't let you wear that dress, Cis," she pronounced. "You better take it off before she comes back."
Narcissa sighed and dropped down on the chair with me, and as Bella discarded the wine colored robes, we heard girls' voices from outside the dressing room, where Madam Malkin kept a selection of pretty hair ornaments and inexpensive jewelry of the sort that appealed to young girls. They weren't aware how their voices carried, and we could hear them clearly from where we sat.
"I thought you were going to the stationary shop?" one of them said.
"Oh, I was," replied a girl, sounding annoyed. "But I ran into James Potter and Sirius Black, and I didn't want to bother dealing with them."
"Honestly Lily, I think Potter fancies you."
One of the speakers must have been Lily Evans, and I knew that because according to Sirius, James Potter did fancy her. I suspected Sirius fancied her a bit as well, but I would never suggest it since she was a mudblood.
"He can just un-fancy me then," she replied petulantly. "I can't stand him, he's the most annoying, arrogant boy I've ever met, except possibly for Black! That boy is the biggest git ever born! I cannot stand him. That whole Black family, they're all horrible!"
I was indignant. Aside from Sirius, I doubted anyone in our family had ever spoken to her. I only knew her name from Sirius and James, and because she was another of the top students in our year, but I had never said anything to her good or bad, and so I thought she was being rather broad in condemning the entire house of Black because of some sort of childish prank by James and Sirius. The expression on Bella's face when I met her eyes in the mirror was not indignation, but pure fury. We all might say in private that Sirius was the biggest git ever born, but for an outsider to say it, and then insult the entire family on top of it, was too much for her.
Without a word, she spun and slammed out of the dressing room, and Narcissa and I exchanged a look and followed her, not sure what she was going to do, but knowing it was probably something she shouldn't in the middle of a robe shop.
She stepped out of the dressing room and said pleasantly, "Hello there."
They cut off talking suddenly, eyes wide. Had we not been worried about what Bella might do, the effect would have been comical. Lily Evans was indeed the pretty girl with red hair, and the other two girls I knew were Hogwarts students, though I didn't know their names. Bella didn't seem to care about them, she zeroed in on Evans.
"What's your name?" she asked imperiously.
"Lily Evans." To her credit, her voice didn't shake, but she was looking everywhere but at Bella's face. The other two were blushing, looking at their shoes.
"So you're supposed to be clever? Top of your class, hm?" she went on conversationally.
"Yes?" Lily said hesitantly.
"Then one would think a clever little mudblood like yourself would know to look around the corner before running off her mouth," she said, taking a step toward them. Despite the fact that she was just trying on the robes she wore, I didn't doubt she had her wand on her. She wasn't the sort to be caught without it. "Listen to me, little girl," she said, and I remembered the man who had spoken to her on the Lestranges' terrace - "Don't cheek me, little girl" – and shivered. "If I ever hear you talk about my family again…"
"Black, leave her alone."
Bella turned, and it seemed to take her a moment to place the boy who had spoken- Gideon Prewett was a Gryffindor Seventh Year, and his brother hung a step behind him. Bella was far too wound up to care who she fought now, she wanted to curse someone.
"I can't imagine what you're doing here, Prewett. You can't possibly need dress robes, seeing as your family is no longer accepted in decent company," she said, eyes narrowed. "I hear your sister has two of Weasley's brats now. I wouldn't have thought you could sink so low. Next I suppose you'll be bringing muggles into the family…"
"Better muggles than a family like yours," he replied.
"Blood-traitors," she said succinctly.
Their wands were faster than my eyes even, pointed at each other. Madam Malkin gave a small shriek. I reached for Bella's sleeve, because Prewett was a seventh year. She wouldn't know as much as he did, and if she did, I didn't think they were skills she should be displaying in public, but Narcissa tugged on my sleeve first. I turned to her and saw what she did- our Mother's dark robes passing by the window.
"Bella-"
"Stay out of this, Andy."
"But-"
"Expelliarmus!"
Gideon tried to disarm her at the same time she cast "Diffindo!"
Both of their curses ricocheted off the other, his striking the plate glass window with an ear shattering crash, and hers taking a huge chunk out of the wall behind him.
"Bellatrix! Andromeda! Narcissa!" Mother didn't yell, because ladies didn't yell, but she spoke in a voice that left no question as to just how much trouble we were in. "We'll be going."
"I have never been so ashamed of you! Brawling in the middle of a shop like common mudbloods! Have I been raising ladies, or barbarians?" ranted Mother. What I truly wanted to say was that she had little part in raising us at all, that credit went to the army of house elves, but I knew better than to say that. I kept my eyes cast down, standing between Bella and Narcissa. Next to me, Bella was staring insolently back at Mother. It hardly mattered that she had been the only one with a wand out, we had all been there, and so we were all in disgrace. Father was standing silent, hands clasped behind his back, as he let Mother go on. I noted that nobody said a word about the dangerous severing spell Bella had tried to use on Prewett, merely that she had done so in public.
"That mudblood insulted the family!" Bella finally burst out.
Mother turned around and slapped her. "Don't talk back to me!"
Father had glanced up when she spoke, and there was a sort of struggle in his face. Had she been a son, he would have been proud, but boldness was a quality he disliked in women.
"I can tell you this," Mother went on, not noticing. "You will certainly not be seen in public again while I am not sure you can be trusted to conduct yourselves like ladies. There will be no parties for you while you're home for the holidays."
"You're lucky, really…" Sirius said, lounging on Bella's bed in his dress robes. "I'd give anything to get out of these things."
"Bugger off, Gryffindor," she muttered. As much as she might complain, she liked looking pretty and she certainly liked being the center of attention, especially male attention. She wanted to go to the parties, and it stung that Sirius got to.
It was the evening of our parents' holiday party, and Narcissa was the only one not sulking over our punishment, since she wouldn't have been allowed to go anyway. Mother seemed to have forgotten that and we were too loyal to point it out. I knew Will would be there and I wanted to go, and Sirius showing up in evening clothes did nothing to cheer us. I was curled in an armchair in front of the fire in Bella's room, reading. Bella was reading as well, sitting cross-legged on the floor, and Narcissa was dancing around with an imaginary partner, wearing some ancient family member's old wedding robes she had dug out of a trunk in the attic. Absurdly old-fashioned, she wore them with such ease and looked so lovely that the image she presented of a child bride was actually rather disturbing. Apparently Bella thought so too, for she kept giving Narcissa dark looks.
"Well, ladies, I bid you good night, as my very active social life awaits." Sirius made us all a deep, courtly bow before withdrawing. Bella threw her book after him, but it hit the door as he closed it behind him. She sighed and got up to retrieve it.
Although we were all lost in our own bad moods, there was a freezing rain pattering against the windows, and Bella's warm room in its rich tones and warm, crackling fire felt very comfortable, and I slowly started to realize I wouldn't rather be downstairs in constricting dress robes, making polite conversation with my parents' friends. After awhile Narcissa tired of dancing with her imaginary man and wandered over and curled up with her head resting against my knee. It was dim in the firelight, and warm and quiet, and eventually I started to drift off, with Narcissa dozing against my shoulder now, her breathing slow and regular.
My eyes were heavy as well, but I was idly watching Bella as she closed her book, sighed deeply, and then stood. She came over and looked down at us, thinking I was asleep too, and then brushed the back of her hand against Cissy's cheek, and left the room silently.
I gently disentangled myself from Narcissa and followed her, wondering what she planned to do and hoping she didn't plan to let Mother and Father see her. I was about to say her name when she disappeared around the corner onto the upper landing, and I hurried after her, cursing her for getting us in trouble again. But she didn't go near the stairs where the sounds of the party floated up, but rather paused in the doorway of Father's study. There was someone in there, for they spoke to her, too quietly for me to make out the words. Father did not, as a rule, speak softly.
I was suddenly afraid to speak or draw attention to myself, as she stepped into the room, but moving closer I could hear their voices.
"Come in, Bellatrix Black. Do you know how to play chess? I should think it would appeal to you. They call it the game of kings, but it was a wizard who invented it."
I knew the voice, the same man who I had watched her talking to on the terrace at the Lestranges. I hadn't liked him, which was odd because he was exactly the sort of man one ought to like. Good-looking, elegant, and refined. He had obviously been invited to our parents' party, which meant they approved of him. He went on, apparently still speaking to Bella.
"I find these social obligations tiresome, so I invited Mr. Dolohov up here for a game of chess. Sadly, he does not excel at it. The secret to chess is strategy, subtlety. Antonin prefers brute force."
"Andy!" Bella saw me in the doorway. She was standing next to his chair, examining the chessboard from his side. My first instinct was to run, but that would be foolish and not fitting for a Black. He looked at me, and smiled. Not with kindness, but with a sort of predatory glint.
"Another Black girl?"
"Yes Sir, my sister Andromeda."
Because it would be rude not to, I came into the room. He regarded me with mild interest over steepled fingers, but I felt as though he was looking through me. I crossed my arms, as though that could block out the invasive gaze, but it did nothing against the cold that seemed to come suddenly from inside me.
"Hm," was all he said, tearing his eyes away from mine. "Well Andromeda Black, we were just discussing chess." He leaned toward us both slightly, as though he was going to tell a secret. "Do you see my next move, ladies?"
I did, but I had always had more patience for games of strategy than Bella. She nodded, and he waved an elegant hand.
"Go on, then."
With a delicate hand, she picked up the highly polished black queen, and set it down with a decisive little click. She looked up, and smiled at his opponent, eyes glittering.
"Checkmate."
By then end of the holiday season our punishment was lifted. Back then I liked to think that Father interceded on our behalf, but I suppose in reality that wouldn't have occurred to him. Either Mother forgot or decided it was easier to have us go to the parties than mope around underfoot. Either way, we were allowed to go to the Parkinsons' New Year's Ball, and I finally got to wear the blue robes that I had gotten on that trip to Madam Malkin's. Jewel tones suited my coloring, and I thought I looked particularly nice. I had, without my really noticing, grown nearly three inches over the previous term, so that I was almost as tall as Bella, though still without her curves. Still, I thought I looked a good deal older, and wanted to be seen.
We entered the hall with Mother and Father, feeling as though we had been confined for years rather than less than two weeks. Mother glided away from us with a hissed "Behave yourselves," and Bella made a face at her back. Before I could say anything to her, Rodolphus appeared between us, putting an arm around both of us. I could not help but admit that he was indeed very handsome.
"So, I see the lovely princesses have escaped the imprisonment of the evil queen," he joked. Bella smiled, eyes sparkling.
"More like the evil queen couldn't be bothered, but the end result is the same…" she admitted.
"Hm," he bent and whispered something in her ear, and then turned to me with a heart-melting smile. "May I have this dance, Andromeda?"
I flushed, surprised, but agreed. He was incredibly good-looking, older, and romantic and mysterious…who wouldn't agree to dance with him? I knew deep down he was Bella's, and that he was just distracting me from whatever he had just said to her, but I also knew people would see me dancing with him, and so I accepted the hand he offered me.
"Of course."
He was a good dancer, leading so confidently that I really didn't have to think much about the traditional waltz, but merely follow him. We were silent for a few moments, and I could feel the jealous eyes of others, some grown women, when he spoke.
"You don't like me, do you Andromeda?"
The question took me completely off-guard. I didn't actually dislike him, but I was wary of him. I knew that I was deeply protective, and some might say possessive, of Bella. Anyone who influenced her more than I did was somehow a threat. It was something I had not given much thought to, and I found I didn't want to. It was simply the way things were. I chanced a look at his face, which was blank aside from the slight amusement in his eyes. To anyone watching, we might have been discussing the weather, or the latest popular restaurants and shows in Diagon Alley, but I'm sure he felt me tense.
"What makes you think that?"
"Answering a question with a question." he said approvingly. "Very Slytherin."
Under the blank, polite expression, there was one of surprise, as though he didn't think I was really a Slytherin, and that offended me.
"Well, I imagine that's why the sorting hat put me there," I replied acidly.
He chuckled. "Yes, I suppose so. You don't say much, and I think people underestimate you. I'm not out to hurt her, you know," he went on. I didn't bother with pretending to not know who he meant, he would have seen right through that.
"You're not going to help her either," I replied just as evenly.
"Do you think she needs to be helped? To be saved, perhaps?" he said, and there was clear amusement in his voice now, that he wasn't bothering to hide. "Does power frighten you Andromeda?"
I took a step away, and looked up at him. At that moment, I felt like a Black...cold, dangerous, arrogant, and completely sure of myself.
"No. Don't make the mistake of underestimating me."
As I turned away, I heard him say softly, "No, I won't..."
Before going back to school, we went to stay at Grimmauld Place for the week-end, as Mother and Father were going abroad on "business." It made little difference to us since we rarely saw them anyway, and we were happy to spend the last few days of freedom with Sirius and Regulus. As an added treat Uncle Alphard was visiting, recently back from India, which seemed fantastically exotic to me.
Sirius seemed to hate Grimmauld Place with a passion that I couldn't have summoned just for a house, and although he took out most of his aggression fighting with Auntie, he occasionally found some other outlet for his anger, so it was not too terribly surprising walking part the drawing room one day to find him in a shouting match with a portrait of Phineas Nigellus, hung prominently next the huge tapestry bearing the family tree.
"You do realize you're not going to change his mind?" I asked when he paused for breath. "It's a portrait, it's somewhat frozen in time, you know."
"She's right," Uncle Alphard said from behind me. "And since I was coming up here, your Mother asked that I tell you that if you don't stop shouting, she will charm your mouth shut for the remainder of the holiday."
This message was delivered with some amusement. He had always been particularly fond of Sirius. The youngest of three boys, there was little chance that he would have ever been the heir of the house of Black, but Sirius's birth had confirmed that, leaving him free to pursue his travel, a lifestyle not an option for the Black heir. Perhaps he saw some of that rebellious spirit in Sirius, and knew that life would not particularly kind to a Black heir who did not want that legacy.
Sirius swore viciously at the portrait once more, causing it to sniff and wander out of the frame muttering dire predictions about the future of the Black line. He threw himself across a chaise, looking sullen. "I can't wait to get out of here."
I made a face, which caused Uncle Alphard to look at me in surprise. "I thought you were the one quite fond of school Andromeda. In fact, "a most appalling know-it-all" as young Narcissa phrased it."
Sirius snorted with laughter. "She is, but she's just in a snit lately as she's had a fight with her muggle-born boyfriend."
It took a moment to realize who he was talking about, and then I glanced at the door and gave him a warning look. He might be joking, but Auntie and Uncle would not think such a joke funny, and nor would my parents.
"He is not my boyfriend," I informed them both. "In fact, come to that he's not even my friend anymore, I think…"
It had been on my mind over the holidays, although it was easier to forget away from school.
"I told you to apologize," Sirius said.
"I did, but he wasn't having any of it."
Sirius gave a shrug, which might have meant "sorry" or possibly just "tough luck, you blew it." I didn't ask, as I really didn't want him to elaborate. He had succeeded in turning my mood quite as dark as his. He said something about packing, and wandered out. Uncle Alphard cast a sympathetic gaze on me.
"Confession is good for the soul Andromeda."
I considered that. There seemed to be a good many things weighing down on my soul just then, in my own little world and in the wizarding world. I was worried about Bella- her dark fascination with the man who called himself Lord Voldemort, the indefinable but deepening rift between her and Sirius, and the fact that she seemed to be suddenly growing up very quickly, slipping away from me. I was worried about Sirius, whose dark, fatalistic moods were more defined when we were at home. I was worried that I had not, as Tonks suggested, figured out what I believed in. I was worried that he truly didn't want anything to do with me, and though that should have been the least of my problems, he made me laugh.
Beyond my own small problems, the problems of the real world loomed. The newspapers talked of killings, the whispers in the pureblood circles were of revolution, of rifts in the Ministry, of purifying the world through bloodshed if necessary. Nothing had happened, but the world felt as though it was waiting.
And yet none of that could be clearly articulated, and confession was not something that the Blacks were given to. I shook my head slightly at the offer.
"Ah well, just remember things have a way of working out for the best."
I left my Arithmancy book in the drawing room, and it was late when we finished packing. I escaped Auntie shouting at Sirius because one of the house elves had reported to her that he had dungbombs in his luggage, and snuck back downstairs to retrieve it. The door of the drawing room was slightly ajar, and the lamps were lit. I was about to go back upstairs, having little interest in Uncle Orion's guests, when I heard the name that was being whispered about among all the worrying rumors.
"I'm a reasonable man, Riddle," Uncle Orion was saying. "All I want is to secure my family's position. To ensure my children won't be exposed to mudbloods at school. To keep the power in the wizarding world where it belongs, in the hands of the pureblood families."
"That's exactly what I want Orion, that's the entire aim of what I'm trying to do. To cleanse the wizarding world, to make sure these careless laws regarding mudbloods don't cause more destruction to our purity and traditions than they already have. Your family is one of the purest in our world, people will follow you, and your brother."
"I'm a businessman, not a crusader."
"Crusades must be financed, Black."
Uncle Orion paused, hands in his pockets, considering this. "I see. Well, I can't say I don't agree with you..."
"Then join us."
Uncle Orion nodded slowly, and then shook his hand, sealing not only his own fate, but that of our entire family.
Next Chapter: Ted and Andy make up, rumors of a mysterious "Riddle" reach Hogwarts, and the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher gives both Bella and Andy some things to think about.