A/N: the characters decided that this direction would be more fun (I think xD) and dragged me along for the ride. I hope you will enjoy it too~ please leave me feedback! I love hearing what you all think 3

Chapter 5

"I don't understand." Luna was clutching on to the article containing the picture. "How can…It's not… How?" She whispered toward the witch by the door with as much fear in her eyes as curiosity. Bellatrix sighed. This was not something that she and Narcissa liked to talk about and something which their third sister avoided entirely. Where did she even begin?

"Growing up, we weren't all that different. The three Black sisters were practically inseparable. It wasn't until the Dark Lord rose the first time that we were divided. He and my father were adamant about purebloods being the superior race of all humans and my mother agreed. It was during my four year in Hogwarts that we found out. Sirius had started his first year and already scandalized our family by getting himself placed in Gryffindor with that lot and our family was feeling pressure to…correct…or rather, trim the tree of all the rotting branches." She paused to let that sink in, and moved to sit across the table from Luna. This was going to take a while to explain and she needed to watch for any and every reaction from the young witch. This needed to be flawless. "My father had previously been fine with my mother's prior…indiscretions… with your mother and had taken a liking to the oldest of the three daughters. However, with our whole family under scrutiny because of Sirius, my parents had to make a choice of how they defined 'blood purity' and 'power'." She saw fear and pity written all over the girls face. Bellatrix stood and moved back to the door, faking emotions to hide the smirk threatening to break her façade. Taking a breath and making sure it was safe to turn around she continued, "That was the choice, the fight, which pushed Andromeda out of our family and against us. The story has always been that she left us of her own will, and I really believe that if she had found out the truth before that night it would have been her choice to go. Our mother decided that her blood was pure and she had power, yet she was not natural and that announcement was what broke our family."

Luna was in awe. This was too much. There was no magic that could allow two women to have a child together. It was dangerous magic. Deadly. Nearly every child died before birth and the ones who managed to survive were squibs and given up for adoption in the muggle world. The 'parents' in these experiments were always the richest of the wizarding world and more commonly purebloods who did not want their genetic tree tainted by squibs.

Unbeknownst to Luna, Bellatrix had again been tip-toing through the mind of the younger witch, making sure that she was putting the pieces together. However, these were all the wrong pieces. The blonde was not supposed to be thinking about the impossibility of the birth of Andromeda, she was supposed to be seeing that she and Bellatrix could be sisters. This was not working the way she thought it would.

"It can be true. No couple has ever successfully had a magical child without a male." Luna looked back down at the image. The child was no more than two years old and she looked much more like the other woman than Luna's own mother. "How is it that she doesn't look like what she is. She looks like you."

Bellatrix was stunned. This is not where she had planned for this to go. "Don't remind me." She sneered, "Just because we got along as children does not mean I still count her as my sister."

"But how?"

"They had to use only one set of magical genes to ensure that the child would have magic. My mother was the one to carry her so it was my family genes which comprised the most of the baby. Andromeda can do magic even though she is an experiment because she was designed to instead of leaving her traits up to the natural order of things, as had been done in the past." Bellatrix began to glower; this was not the turn in mood she had wanted, nor the explanation she had wanted to make.

Luna was in awe, clinging to the article and image which exposed her mother's deepest secret. "Is it only Andromeda or are all three sisters… are there four… Why is Malfoy's mother blonde like mine?" She had a single question and no clear way to ask it. She didn't want Bellatrix to know that she was disappointed at the fact they were sister: not because it was Bellatrix but because she thought of her captor as more than that, deeper than that, wanted her.

Bellatrix fought the shock from her expression as she meandered through the young witch's mind, trying to find the answer to give her the reaction she needed. She wants me? The thought, just the thought, was an honest one and astounded the raven-haired witch. Luna looked up from the image and Bellatrix remembered she was waiting for an answer. Dang! What was the question? Oh yeah…

"There was only Andromeda, but they both worked dangerous magic and created their own spells to change my mother's body for their little research project. We think that Narcissa and I look the way we do as a result of what they did, even though my father truly is my father." It was a lie, they really had no answer themselves, but what did this girl know? Nothing. What would she believe? Anything.

"We aren't sisters." A quiet statement that Bellatrix didn't know how to respond to. "We aren't sisters." Curiosity took over and Bellatrix silently entered Luna's mind yet again to discover what the girl was thinking. This time, she was bombarded with images of a young blonde and an older brunette together in private; holding each other, whispers, breaths, moans, cries, and skin on skin. Then she saw herself with an astonished expression staring back and realized that Luna knew now that Bellatrix had invaded her mind. She ended the spell and the two sat in uncomfortable silence for what felt like hours.

Luna sat there staring straight at Bellatrix, wondering. How much had she seen? How many times? What is she thinking? Why? Am I to be punished? The idea of being sent back to the dungeons sent her mind racing down another track back to the bad memories, towards torture, towards submission, toward fear. She kept staring at the woman before her and dreamt up punishments for herself to be dealt out by the beauty, all manner and means, good and bad pains…