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Bella
"Andromeda?" Nymphadora called sheepishly as she walked into the library, unsurprised to see her once mother sitting in an armchair with a book. Dora held her five-month old daughter in her arms, slowly walking over to the woman.
"Yes, Dora." Andromeda sighed, putting the book down.
"I have a favour to ask you . . ." Dora spoke softly, kissing her daughters head as she moved to sit on the arm of the woman's chair. "Could you look after Bella please?"
"Why?" Andromeda raised an eyebrow, "What are you up to?"
"Nothing." Dora chimed, wincing slightly as Bella tugged on her hair "No, baby. Mummy's hair."
"Well if you're doing nothing you don't need me to take Bella, do you?" Andromeda shrugged, picking her book back up.
"Oh come on, you love looking after Bella, admit it." Dora pouted.
"No, I quite enjoy my time without a screaming infant." Andromeda peered up at the girl from her book "Stop trying to convince me to do things in such ways, you're acting just like your mother."
"Good." Dora grinned "It'll come in handy."
"Nymphadora Lestrange." Andromeda put her book down for the second time, narrowing her eyes in suspicion at the girl "What are you planning?"
"Take Bella and I'll tell you." Dora giggled.
After a few moments Andromeda rolled her eyes and stood in agreement, gently taking the dark haired infant into her arms and resting the girl on her hip before looking back to Nymphadora. "Go on then." Andromeda said "Tell me what you're up to."
"Well," Dora smirked "Rodolphus, Rabastan and I believe it is time the children learn how to duel properly."
"I've been teaching them how to duel, Nymphadora." Andromeda protested, trying to hide her offence. Of course her way of duelling would not be good enough for the other three adults of the Manor.
"I know," Dora agreed "and you've done a great job. But they need to learn . . . the Death Eater way."
"Ah." Andromeda nodded, sitting back on her chair and placing Bella on her lap "You mean with no rules, no holding back and not playing fair."
"Well if you want to put it that way." Dora shrugged with a smirk. "Anyway, Rod and Rab have been off teaching Rigel merlin knows what and I feel rather left out—plus I don't want Delphi to think I don't care about her."
"Dora, you know what the boys have been teaching Rigel." Andromeda shook her head, summoning a rattle for little Bella to play with.
"Yes." Dora frowned "They've been teaching my little boy that it's not acceptable to cuddle his mother anymore—that he doesn't need me."
"He's thirteen," Andromeda couldn't help but laugh in slight amusement of the woman "they're teaching him to be the Lestrange heir. To be the head of a House, to run it. To be a proper Pure blooded child."
"Hmpf." Dora shook her head "No, I'd rather he just stay Mummy's little boy forever." She smirked as Andromeda shook her head in amusement. "You'll be Mummy's little girl forever, hmm?" Dora grinned, leaning down and kissing Bella's head, tickling her tummy as the girl giggled furiously "You won't grow up, will you?"
"All children grow up, Dora." Andromeda said "Now, are the boys waiting for you?"
"Shit!" Dora's eyes widened, jumping up straight "Yes. The children too. See you later! Thanks!"
And with that Nymphadora ran from the room, Andromeda sighing as she looked down to the little girl in her arms currently attempting to hit her shoulder with her rattle. Andromeda Tonks couldn't help but wonder as to when she had become a glorified babysitting service.
Nymphadora walked into the grounds of Black Manor with a smirk on her face, ignoring the impatient look of Rodolphus as she walked straight past the two teenagers sat on the bench and walked up to her husband.
"Nice of you to join us, Nymphadora." Rodolphus drawled.
"Sorry." Dora shrugged, taking her husband's out stretched hand as she noted his suppressed smirk with amusement. "I had to finish feeding Bella before I could hunt down Andromeda and beg her to babysit. I hope you didn't start without me?"
"They won't even tell us why we're out here." Delphi groaned, leaning back into the bench as she folded her arms.
"I'm sorry, do you have better places to be?" Rodolphus raised an eyebrow at the girl, ignoring her childish glare back at him.
"What's going on, mother?" Rigel asked, confusion on his pale features.
Dora sighed, trying to ignore the fact her son was suddenly calling her 'mother' now instead of 'mum' or 'mummy'. She would have to have stern words with Rabastan about forcing her son to grow up without her consent. "We're going to teach you how to duel, Rigel."
"Andromeda's already been teaching us that." Delphi frowned.
"Andromeda has been teaching you the concept," Rabastan rolled his eyes "how to duel in ways that you would learn at school."
"Which is no fun, really." Dora shrugged.
"Forgetting the fact that it's practically useless against skilled duellists." Rodolphus muttered.
"Yes, that to." Dora rolled her eyes, enjoying herself far more than she should be. "We believe that you two should learn to duel the way that we duel."
"Didn't Mum teach you how to duel?" Delphi asked eagerly, sitting forward on her seat.
"Yes." Dora laughed slightly at the memory "Though I was ten years older than you when she did that, maybe it might be more fair for you if I give you warning before you start a duel or—you know actually explain myself before I start flinging spells."
"Besides," Rabastan gave his wife a mischievous grin before he spoke again "we think you should probably witness a duel or two first—get a feel for it before we try and throw you in the deep end—so to speak."
"So you two are going to duel each other?" Rigel's eyes widened slightly as he looked between his parents.
"Actually Rigel," Rodolphus smirked, Rabastan frowning in confusion as Dora nervously bit her lip "your mother and I were talking last night and we decided maybe she and I would be better off demonstrating."
"What?" Rabastan snapped "Rodolphus—"
"It was your wife's idea, brother." Rodolphus smirked, drawing his wand as he began to make some space between himself and the witch.
She didn't look at her husband, though she could feel his look of shocked disapproval practically boring into her as she drew her own wand "Well," Dora lowered her voice so the children couldn't hear "let's face it Rab, could you really hurt me?"
"You—"
"I know, I'm an amazing duellist—You wouldn't get a spell in." Dora smirked before she looked up to her husband, sighing and kissing him as she ignored the children's looks of disapproval of the lingering gesture of love. "You would barely try to get a hit in at me. They need to learn, Rab. Rod won't hold back, neither will I."
"That's what I'm worried about." Rabastan muttered, looking cautiously to his elder brother.
"Don't worry, Rabastan." Rodolphus smirked. "I'll make sure she can be healed easily enough."
"Ha!" Dora flung a spell at the man, giggling as he deflected it easily "And I'll make sure you're walking sideways for days."
"Bring it on, Nymphadora." Rodolphus smirked as he sent spells flying back at her.
Within an instant they were furiously locked in a duel. Rabastan barely made it past them to the two waiting children as he quickly put a shield up to defend them from any stray spells. He anxiously watched the pair, it was clear from the grins on their faces and the flurry of spell work going back and forth between them that they were enjoying themselves. If either of them were honest it was the most alive they had felt in years. They danced around each other, each one almost hitting the other every few moments. Rodolphus bent backwards to avoid a carefully placed curse, quickly sending one back at Nymphadora that caused her to dive out of the way though she still fired from her position on the floor.
"Had enough yet, Nymphie?" Rod laughed, getting closer to the girl as she struggled to hold him back so well from her positon on the floor.
"Not yet." Dora replied, gritting her teeth to stop herself yelling out in pain as a spell hit her arm.
"Sure?" Rodolphus asked, taking a step back as the girl got to her feet again.
"Stop trying to distract me!" Dora yelled, her hair burning a bright red as she put all of her might into pushing the man back and submitting him into defeat.
"That's the point, girl. Did your mother not teach you well enough?" Rodolphus chuckled as he managed to direct Dora backwards again, smirking as she tripped and stumbled onto her back.
Dora couldn't help but yell out this time as her ankle twisted at the unnatural angle the fall along with a helping hand from a spell of Rodolphus' had put her ankle into. She pointed her wand up at the man, trying to push him away from her but it was no use, soon she was disarmed and the tip of the man's wand was pressing into her neck as he crouched beside her.
"Told you I'd make sure you could be easily healed." Rodolphus smirked.
Despite her agony Dora couldn't help the bark of laughter that escaped her. She couldn't blame the man for hurting her, she had practically asked for it after all. "You've been practising."
"Do you mind, Rodolphus?" Rabastan's voice called out, the man walking over to his wife and gesturing for his brother to remove his wand from her neck. "That is my wife you've just bloody hurt."
Rodolphus paused for a second before he shrugged, backing away from the girl. He looked to the children, Delphi's eyes wide with wonder whilst Rigel couldn't take his worried eye's off of his mother on the floor. "She's fine, Rigel." Rodolphus remarked, Rigel forcing himself to look at the man.
"Yes, just let me fix my ankle." Dora winced, blushing slightly as Rabastan healed it for her then went straight to work on the other area's on her body that his brother had clearly hit "I'll be fine, Rab. Just a little sore." She kissed the man before she gingerly stood on her own two feet again. "I'm just a little rusty with my duelling, next time I'll win."
"Th—That's a little rusty?" Rigel couldn't help but stammer.
"Well I used to be much quicker on my feet than that." Dora sighed "And I didn't think your Uncle Rodolphus would appreciate me flinging unforgivables at him." Rodolphus couldn't help but roll his eyes at the remark.
"Great." Delphi stood up, reaching for her own wand "Let's try it."
"Not so fast, Delphi." Dora said.
"Well we have to learn, don't we?" Delphi snapped back.
"Yes, but you can't just run head first into it." Dora frowned "You need to observe, to get the feel for it first."
"Did you have to watch a million and one duels before you got to do it?" Delphi demanded.
"Well no—I didn't actually get a choice the first time I got into a proper duel."
"And you came back covered in blood if I recall." Rodolphus looked to his brother "Not your finest moment."
"I didn't know." Rabastan mumbled.
"The point is I didn't know what I was doing and if Andromeda hadn't of healed me I would have bled out and died." Dora took her husbands hand, not wanting him to feel as if she was having a go at him, merely trying to get the point across to her younger sister.
"Well no-one here is trying to kill me!" Delphi yelled.
"Rabastan wasn't trying to kill me when we first met!" Dora couldn't help but yell back, getting annoyed with the girl already. She was trying to help her, trying to teach her how to survive in the world. Why must the girl always make her life so difficult even in such matters? "The point is he lost control and almost made a dire mistake for doing so. When you're in that mind set of duelling you can't control it, Delphi! None of us will duel you unless we feel you can at least hold your own ground for five minutes!"
"I can!"
"You can't!"
"Yes I can!" Delphi yelled, throwing a spell at the girl without warning.
Dora quickly deflected it, making sure it didn't rebound anywhere near the two children again as Rigel automatically got up and stood back from the girl. "Don't you dare!" Nymphadora yelled in fury, quickly sending a small hex at the girl to shock her so she could disarm her with ease. She grabbed the wand in her hand, pocketing it quickly.
"Give that back!" Delphi growled.
"No, not until you calm down." Dora nearly whispered, aware of the men staring at the pair.
Delphi let out an all mighty yell, the rest of the group jumping in shock as her magic went wild and shattered the nearest windows of the Manor. "I hate you!" Delphini gave a furious scream before she turned back and stormed back inside.
"Delphi—" Dora began, stopping when Rodolphus took her wrist to stop her running after her.
"Leave her to calm down." Rodolphus shook his head. "We can focus on Rigel for now."
". . . No." Nymphadora winced, pulling away and going after her sister.
She went straight to her sister's room, hearing the door slam before she even managed to reach the corridor. She was used to her sister's temper problems; it was almost a part of daily life of living with Delphini Riddle. If they girl didn't get what she wanted she would pull a tantrum of sorts until you either decided she could have her way or left her to it, the latter being the option ninety percent of the time. Nymphadora was done with such things, the older the girl got the worse it became and she could not step on eggshells around her sister for much longer. She was hardly surprised to feel the ward already placed on the girl's room as she reached out to knock, though that didn't surprise her she wished it wasn't the case.
"Delphi?" Dora called out, waiting a few moments for a reply before with a sigh she called again "Delphini, you know I have overriding power on the wards of this manor so please take it down yourself or I'll take it down." No response, again unsurprising. She took a deep breath to prepare herself for what she knew would greet her inside the room before she placed her hand on the door, the wards soon crumbling to her command.
"Go away!" Delphi screamed as her sister opened the door, glaring at her furiously from across the room.
"No." Dora spoke calmly, closing the door behind her. "We need to talk."
"I'm done talking to you!" Delphi growled "You never let me do as I wish and I've had enough! If I want to duel I should be able to duel!"
"Delphi—"
"Don't Delphi me!" the girl spat, her face lit with fury. Merlin, she had inherited the Black temper. "You always do this! You treat me like some idiotic child when I'm not! I—Get off of my bed Nymphadora!"
Dora looked up to her sister, amazed at herself for keeping calm as she gently shook her head "We need to talk, Delphi. Now, are you willing to talk or would you prefer a screaming match? Personally I would prefer to talk."
"Don't act all high and mighty with me." Delphi spoke through gritted teeth, showing no signs of moving.
"Fine, I'll talk, you can listen." Dora sighed, cutting her sisters protest off "Please Delphi. Amuse me."
The girl glared furiously at her, folding her arms as she seemed to consider the girl before she nodded slightly. "Fine, I'm listening. But I'm not sitting down."
"Suit yourself." Dora shrugged, looking to the floor "Delphi, I have done so much to keep you here—with me. If it were up to Rabastan I would have never have taken you from Malfoy Manor when we fled, he was happy for Narcissa to pay a witch to take you and hide you away with her. But you are my sister and I promised our mother that I would protect you and love you as if you were my own. I have tried, Delphi—so hard—yet all you do is throw it back in my face as if it were nothing. I want to teach you, to be there for you, to be everything that mother wanted me to be for you but I just can't." Dora winced as she heard her voice crack a little with her emotions. "I'm trying Delphi . . . Y—You just need to let me—you need to be patient."
Delphi narrowed her eyes at her older sister, considering her for a moment before she spoke quietly, anger present in her every word still "You don't help me, you just baby me and think you're helping but you're not. You know that mother and father would have taught me so much more than you have by now, shown me more too, don't you? I think you're just scared that I'm going to realise my full potential and become too powerful for you to handle. It's not fair! Even Rodolphus understands more than you do!"
"Delphi—"
"Shut up!" Delphi hissed. "You should be listening to me! What would my parents tell you if they were here today? What would my father—your Lord—tell you?" Delphi glared furiously, blowing away a strand of hair that fell into her face as she looked to her sister with wide eyed accusation. It was unsettling how much she looked like her mother in that moment. "Well?"
"Mother would want you safe." Dora murmured.
"She would want me to be fighting! To be finding a way to get her Lord back! Not sitting around playing games waiting for you to teach me something useful!"
"You're not even 14 yet . . ."
"It doesn't matter!" Delphi screeched "Don't you understand who I am? Who my parents are!?"
"Yes!" Dora finally yelled back, standing up as she could feel the tips of her hair tinging red as she began to lose her patience with the girl in her anger "We share a mother, Delphini! She didn't sit in Azkaban for all those years wondering 'Hmm, I wonder why my child hasn't gone and risked her life in her stupidity to bring back The Dark Lord?'. She told Andromeda to keep me safe and train me on the unforgivables. She made me promise to keep you safe! I am doing that whilst teaching you—I'm sorry if you don't think I'm going fast enough but I'm in charge here! You are not! I don't care what your father would want, he didn't care about you as a person! He only cared about having another powerful servant to do his bidding—He didn't need an heir; he was supposed to be immortal. You were just another pawn in his game!"
It was only when Nymphadora took paused and took a deep breath that she had realised what she had said. She was instantly mentally kicking herself for it. Poor Delphini looked like a dagger had just been plunged into her back, her dark eyes wide with an incredulous expression on her features. The older witch's hair immediately turned to black, biting her lip as she went to reach out to her sister. "I—I'm s—"
"Don't." Delphi breathed. "Don't apologise for something you mean . . . Just get out."
"Delphi—"
"Out!" Delphi snapped, pointing towards the door as she refused to look at her sister.
Dora looked to the girl for a few moments before with a small nod she walked out of the room. She knew fighting anymore with the girl was useless, she could feel the wards instantly go back up on the room and this time she was adamant she would not bring them down. The walk to her own room was almost trancelike, horrified of what she had said to her sister. Delphi was right, she did mean it . . . but that didn't make it right to say to a 13-year-old. The moment she entered her room she lay down on the bed, staring at the framed photograph she had of herself and her mother from her wedding day. Both Bellatrix and Nymphadora gave identical grins from the frame, their arms wrapped around each other's waists as they held back their fits of giggles at something Narcissa had said moments before the photograph was taken. She didn't realise the single tear that left her eyes, splashing onto the silk pillow case under her head, nor did she realise the countless tears that followed as she simply stared at the photograph. She only responded after she felt an arm wrap around her waist, pulling her into a warm body in an embrace. She took her husband's hand in her own, realising her tears yet unable to stop them.
"Shhh . . ." The man shushed softly in her ear, kissing her black wild locks that had appeared the moment she let herself mourn her mother so deeply. "It's okay . . ."
"It's not . . ." Dora whimpered, closing her eyes as she could no longer look at the happy photograph on the side. "I don't know what to do, Rab . . . I can't help her . . . I can't raise her like my own like I promised mother—she won't let me."
"I know . . ." Rab sighed, kissing her head again as he turned his wife into him, hugging her closely into himself as she pressed her face into his chest. "It's okay, you tried."
Dora simply shook her head, unable to speak of what she had said to the girl or her worries. She simply let herself cry as she clung onto her husband until she fell asleep in the mans loving embrace.