4th August 1968
"Sirius and Regulus sit on the chairs in the middle. Sirius, sweetheart, sit up a little, and do up your buttons all the way, that's good. Now Narcissa, you kneel on the floor between them, that's lovely, now, hmm... Bellatrix, stand behind Sirius, now left a bit? Excellent, now Andromeda stand behind Regulus and we'll see how that looks... Yes, perfect, stay there - oh I've misplaced my paints, just wait a moment and we can start,"
The clearly anxious painter left the room, and the five Black cousins - four girls, one boy - immediately relaxed out of the positions they'd been placed in. Sirius loosened the collar of the frilly robes that were choking her and went back to slouching in her chair. Around her, Bellatrix was re-undoing the top three buttons of her robes, Andromeda was pulling her hair out of the tight knot it had been arranged in, Narcissa had got up from the floor and Regulus had relaxed slightly out of the stiff, upright position he'd been placed in on the chair.
"What a bore," Bellatrix scowled, tossing her hair over her shoulder. She had practically growled at the man when he had accidentally gotten a little too close to her whilst arranging her hair, which had made Sirius snort with laughter. "I would've cursed his hands off if he'd gotten any closer,"
"Now how can you not stand to let that poor little man try to do his job, but allow Rodolphus Lestrange to slobber all over you whenever you meet him?" Andromeda, her favourite cousin, raised an eyebrow. "I know you're going to marry the man, but really Bella, it's grotesque,"
"There's a difference when you enjoy it," Bellatrix smirked unashamedly.
Andromeda sighed but seemed amused, whilst Narcissa looked up, wrinkling her nose.
"How can you enjoy a man who is over ten years older than you - "
"Ten years?" Sirius exclaimed in shock, swinging her legs as she sat on the chair. "Lestrange is..." She paused to think. "Twenty seven and he likes kissing a seventeen year old?! That's disgusting, it'd almost be like you kissing me, Bella!"
Bellatrix's eyes bulged almost comically, Regulus pulled a face and Narcissa smirked. Andromeda laughed at her cousins lack of subtlety.
"There's a large difference between seventeen and eight, Sirius," Bellatrix snapped, glaring at her and tossing her hair.
"And they're not cousins," Narcissa said primly. "Or both girls,"
Sirius ignored her.
"That's still a smaller difference than between twenty seven and seventeen,"
"Why, you little - " Bellatrix went to draw her wand from her robe pocket, as Sirius laughed, unconcerned, but Andromeda quickly intervened.
"Calm down Bella," Her cousin smirked. "And you, shut up," She jabbed a finger at a snickering Sirius. "Though you do have a point, it truly is none of your business. You're eight,"
She only laughed harder.
"I'll hex you if you don't stop," Bellatrix threatened.
Sirius just grinned confidently back at her.
"But I can get you back, remember? You taught me your best ones," She had. Bellatrix was definitely not her favourite cousin, but she wasn't boring like Narcissa or Regulus.
Everyone had always said how alike Sirius and Bellatrix were, in looks and in personality. Both fierce, powerful and proud, her mother often boasted, true daughters of the Black family. The Blacks valued such things, rather than the namby-pamby ways of many newer pureblood families that preferred their daughters to be perfect little ladies.
"You taught an eight year old all your hexes?" Andromeda turned to her sister with an amused look. "More importantly, you let her use your wand?"
"She was six at the time," Bellatrix said carelessly, with a small grin. "And I didn't want to take the blame for hexing goody-two-shoes over there after he told Aunt Walburga that I ate a cauldron cake before dinner. WhichIgot smacked for," She glanced contemptuously at Regulus, who scowled.
"That was ages ago," He protested.
"Not long enough," Bellatrix glared.
"Oh leave him alone," Narcissa placed a hand on her cousin's shoulder. "He was only little. He's only six now, you're seventeen for Merlin's sake,"
"Trust you to stick up for him, you're just the same!" Bellatrix said. "Telltales and Mummy's favourites, the both of you,"
Sirius bit her lip; Bella was right.
"I am not the favourite!" Narcissa protested indignantly. As if.
"Well it's not me, Dromeda or Sirius is it?" Bellatrix countered. "You're Mother's Goodie-Little-Dainty-Blondie Princess. She says I'm too aggressive, and Andromeda scares away any potential suitors she tries to set her up with so she's out,"
"What can I say," Andromeda drawled guiltlessly. "I have standards, which Vincent Crabbe just can't hope to meet. Even you would've tried to put him off if he'd spoken to you like he spoke to me, Cissy,"
"And as for Regulus," Bellatrix continued. "Well, when the alternative is that," She jabbed a finger at Sirius. "I don't blame Auntie Walburga at all,"
"Why am I so bad?" Sirius didn't deny it, simply asked out of curiosity. Her three cousins and little brother all looked at each other with matching expressions of disbelief.
"I wonder," Andromeda said with a grin. "You might be your mother's pride, but you're definitely not her joy,"
"You're always running around like a maniac," Bellatrix ticked the list off on her fingers. "You're rude to everyone at parties. You've got too smart a mouth for your own good. You insist on generally being a pest - "
"You never do as your mother says without questioning her first," Narcissa chimed in.
"You always fight with the other children your mother brings here," Andromeda said. "Remember when you threw Evan Rosier down the stairs?"
Sirius grinned at that particular memory of accidental magic.
"He deserved it," She shrugged.
"Last year you hung that Avery boy from the ceiling because he tried to kiss you," Bellatrix snickered. "The only reason you got away with it was because your father was so impressed,"
It had been funny watching the boy's blustering father try and convince the cold, immovable Orion Black to punish his daughter for that, and failing miserably.
"And you made Leticia Nott cry - " Regulus started but was cut off.
"Well that's 'cos they're all as annoying as you," Sirius snapped - she hadn't minded her cousins teasing her, but there was something about her whiny little brother joining in that got her back up - and Regulus glared at her with the same expression.
"You always pick on your brother," Narcissa murmured, adding to the list.
Bellatrix smirked in agreement.
"Bella does exactly the same as everything you said," Sirius, fairly, pointed out.
"That is true," Andromeda admitted.
"I'm not always pestering people about those damned muggles and mudbloods outside at least," Bellatrix protested, tossing her hair. "When will you get it into your head that they're not fit to speak with?"
She should've known her cousin would bring that up. It wasn't that Sirius liked muggles or anything. Not after a lifetime of it being drilled into her that they're dumb, violent and barely above animals, that they should be enslaved by wizards, instead of wizards being forced to hide. She was curious to meet one all the same, perhaps for that reason.
Although they did seem normal enough as they walked past Grimmauld Place, talking to each other, pushing prams, their children playing in the street. The only difference between them and wizards - aside from the obvious lack of magic - seemed to be their clothes and lack of decorum, which to her hardly seemed like a bad thing.
But then again, she'd never properly met a muggle. The closest encounter she'd had with one had been outside the Leaky Cauldron a few years ago; she had only been five, but remembered it vividly.
She had been running, her mother calling angrily after her, and had tripped over, grazing her knee. Sirius didn't cry - she'd learnt from a young age that crying got her nothing more than cold stares and sharp words - but just lay there hurting until an older muggle lady nearby had hurried over to pick her up. The woman - a stranger - had offered comforting words and a hug, pressing a muggle sweet into her hand.
Her mother had quickened her pace for that - not her daughter falling - and dragged her away with a venomous look at the muggle. She had casting all kinds of cleansing spells on her, berating her for being so foolish and muttering about how dare a muggle lay a hand on a daughter of the House of Black.
Sirius had just been confused that a supposedly filthy, dumb, violent muggle had treated her with more warmth and kindness than anyone in her noble family.
No point bringing that up now, though.
"Alright," She pretended to be hurt by Bellatrix's words. "None of you like me and I should just run away to another family and leave you all to rot!"
No one seemed bothered by her dramatics.
"Ah, don't worry," Andromeda said. "They'll kick me out too soon enough if I keep refusing to be nice to the next potential husband they line up for me,"
"Then all I've got to do is get rid of Regulus and I'm heir to the House of Black," Bellatrix leered at the boy, who exclaimed in protest, as the painter returned to the room with a small sigh at how they'd all moved out of position.
The portrait of the next generation of the Black family ended up being less than perfect. Sirius wondered why the painter hadn't used some artistic licence to remove Regulus' annoyed expression, or make Cissy look anything but angelically bored, or get rid of Bella's haughty scowl. There was no need to paint Andromeda with quite as provocative a smirk as she actually wore. And the fact that Sirius was depicted slouched in her chair with her collar untucked, robes askew and her hair covering half her face, earned her an earful from her mother.
"Could you not have tried to get a nice painting, at least?" Aunt Druella seemed rather disappointed, looking at the moving figures in the painting.
"It's realistic, if nothing else," Andromeda grinned.
This has been in the works for a while now. Like many of my stories it started as just a bit of a fun 'what if' just for myself but I feel it's polished enough to publish - I hope you enjoy! Please let me know at any point if there's any constructive criticism or advice you feel I should hear, I'd always rather have a mistake pointed out so I can fix it.
Thanks for reading!
