"This semester has been ultimately . . . tiring. It wasn't near as wonderful as Andy and Bella said it would be, but they never got along perfectly with our parents," I vented ,"The only time anything was even remotely amusing was when people would scurry around preparing for the upcoming quidditch try outs. No one was turning in homework and most everyone's grades were plummeting, giving the headmaster no choice but to postpone try outs until after Christmas break."
Aneira was listening intently while she scanned the ballroom for any suitors worthy of her parents' standards, pure-blood, rich, and powerful, same as my intended standards. Aneira looked just as her Welsh-originated name described. Her skin was bronzed to perfection, as though she glowed golden from within her perfectly sculpted face.
"Are you going to try out for quidditch?" Aneira asked half-heartedly. She continued to absentmindedly toy with the chipping wood of the leg of the archaic chaise.
I pondered on this for a while. The mere thought hadn't even crossed my mind. Quidditch had always been played by boys ,and none of the girls in Slytherin had tried to even understand why. When I thought about it, why couldn't girls play quidditch. Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and even Gryffindor had female players on their teams.
"Now that I've actually thought about it, why not? I don't think I've ever seen a girl on Slytherin team. I'll mention it to Bella, maybe she'll try out, too." I replied, snapping out of my introspection of the entire vexing thoughts.
"What position?" she asked, now slightly interested, though part of her looked like it was somewhere completely different; probably with a rather raunchy-looking dirty blonde man across the room.
"I hadn't really thought about what position," I admitted, never losing my posture. Apparently listening in on our every word, Rodolphus and his group of friends sauntered over until they were standing directly in front of us. I wasn't sure if they were trying to purposely intimidate us or if they had just had too much to drink that night. Whatever they were trying to do to us, it wasn't working. Just as I thought that they were going to move on to another group of girls, Rodolphus opened his mouth and started talking, although some words sounded strained as though he was trying not to slur them all together.
"What's all of this vulgar conversation of positions?" he asked jokingly, which apparently seemed to make his gaggle of friends erupt with laughter, some even wiping tears from their cold, black, beady eyes.
" Once again, your obscene thoughts have overcome your good judgment. What do you think we were talking about, Rod?" I asked him, half my mind wondering just how his mind works, the other half scared to even contemplate what goes on up there.
"Well, Cissa, I thought you were inferring to what Bella and I do in our spare time," he retorted imperviously. I cringed as an image of his and Bella's bodies intertwined themselves around each other.
"Oh, yes, thank you for that repugnant mental image," I sneered.
"Anything to help," he retorted sarcastically. His "friends" seemed to have no right mind of their own; they mindlessly howled in laughter at every ungodly word that came out of his obnoxious mouth. Tears trickling down their plump faces, encouraging Rodolphus to want to say more repulsive words against Aneira and me.
"Rodolphus, please go away ,now," Aneira seemed to plead. I wasn't used to hearing people beg; it showed signs that you were the weaker person, which Rodolphus obviously knew, with him preparing to be a death eater, and all.
"Now why would I do that when you two alluring ladies are such fine company," he jested sarcastically.
"Well, I figured you would want to go and find Bella to go and do god-knows-what in some desultory broom closet. That's all you seem to do now-a-days," I countered with the renowned Black smirk. I could already start to see an ill-colored pink tint sweep across his pale cheeks. Had Bellatrix not tried to train me as though I were a death eater, I wouldn't have even noticed ;and apparently, no one around us, including Rodolphus's doltish followers, had noticed Rodolphus's flush. By the look in Rodolphus's black eyes, he knew I saw it, the smallest sliver of a moment when he showed he actually had emotions, something a death eater was never allowed to show, at any time. I opened my mouth as though I was about to say something, but before I could, Bella sauntered over and took my arm to drag me over to the seemingly abandoned balcony.
"Bella, what are y-" Bella cut me off before I could say anything more.
"Wait, don't say anything yet," she looked around at every possible angle to ensure no one would hear their evidently important conversation. After a few more moments of searching the surrounding balconies and courtyards, she came to the conclusion that they were, indeed, alone.
"Bella, what's so important that you had to drag me away from Rodolphus and Aneira?" She looked at me silently for what seemed like ages. Her usually distinguished face was twisted into an expression I had never seen before, and it startled me.
"Have you talked to Andromeda lately?" she asked me, the same intense facial expression, only this time the expression commingled with disorientation, giving her the appearance of a young bewildered child.
"No, not recently. I've been busying myself with schoolwork. Why do you ask?" I asked rather distraught.
"I was on patrol with Rodolphus when we came across Andy and some mud blood boy . They were walking down the corridors back to their common room, holding hands and laughing. We didn't say anything to them because they were going back to their tower, but I have a bad feeling about it. They seemed like they were more than friends," she said, her eyes narrowing at the thought of our other sister courting a mud blood. Andy had always been the rebellious one, being sorted into Ravenclaw, but she would have to be completely daft if she thought she could sneak around with a mud blood boy without Bella knowing; Bella always knew if something was wrong.
I was silent for a while. The only noise was the sound of the wind blowing, sweeping our hair over our eyes, obscuring our view for awhile. I was thinking how to handle this deadly frail predicament. If Andy was sneaking around with a mud blood, Bella and I both knew how their parents would handle this if they ever found out. They would most likely disinherit her, with little, if any, qualm.
"We'll have to convince Andy to end it, discreetly. No one will even know of her treacherous mistake of the heart. After she does leave him, we should really have her head examined, either that or tie her up and make her understand that would she's done is wrong and explain the dolefully permanent consequences that would have followed if she still dated that filthy mud blood, an intervention." I said mostly to myself, still trying to accept the fact that Andy was sneaking around, and whatever else they were doing, with such filth.
Bella sat down and pondered my it for a few more moments ,"It is a more favorable suggestion than what my method."
"What was your idea, Bella?" I asked. I could only imagine what Bella would do if I did not accompany her to restrain her. She would probably kill her. No, she would kill her, no remorse or grief. She would simply, with a minuscule flick of her wand, kill Andy. I was sure of it.
"I was planning to talk to the mud blood first, kill him, and send his left ear to Andy, with a note saying that she was never allowed to even dare think about courting such impurity. Of course she would be mad but she would get the point," she said, her acute expression never once faltering. She was dead serious.
"Bella!" I uttered slightly amused. For almost half a second, a smile had etched its way on both of our faces before we turned, once again, solemn.
"What? That's why I said that we should go ahead with your suggestion," she replied, our smiles surreptitiously crept back onto our naturally pale faces. As much as I enjoyed my eldest sister's company, it was nearing midnight, and fearing what was to happen in the near future, all I wanted to do right now was to crawl under my silk and satin sheets and dream dreams of when everything in my life was once perfect, when Andy wasn't rebellious, Bella wasn't as destructive, and all I was expected to do was nod my head and look pretty.
I said my goodbyes to Aneira and the rest of our parents' high society friends and disapparated back to the comforting warmth of Black Manor. The elves retrieved my coat and gloves, storing them dutifully in the hall closet, where all of their other expensive coats and such were stored.
I clambered up the same regal staircase I usually walked up, but something was different. In the pit of my stomach, I knew our family would never be the same. Like Bella, my mother always knew when something was even slightly different than usual, and put a stop to it, immediately.
I opened my door, changed into my night clothes, and crawled under my soft sheets, the chiffon comforter billowing as the open window lured the night time wind into my room.
It was hard to get to sleep not knowing when Bella, Andy, and our parents would be back. Had Bella decided to tell our parents? If she did, what would they do? The worrying thoughts all dissipated at about three in the morning, when I heard them all stumble through the front door. Their footsteps grew fainter as they replaced their shoes with the soft plush of slippers, although I could still hear the muffled steps of my family walking towards their rooms. Three door snapped closed as I drifted to sleep, only to be awakened a few hours later by the usual house elf, announcing that it was time for breakfast.
I changed into my day clothes and walked warily down those same stairs as the night before. Everyone was already sitting at the table when I walked in. There was an air of discomfort so thick I could hardly breathe. As I took my seat beside Bella, she gave me a look saying 'I didn't tell them yet', but our parents didn't seem to notice. Our father was busy reading the front page of The Daily Prophet and mother was reading Rita Skeeter's gossip column. Andy, Bella, and I said nothing, we just stared at each other, unsure of what we should really be doing. After a few more moments of silence, it was time to pack for our trip to Hogwarts tomorrow.
Once again, I walked back up the stairs and into my habitual bedroom of emerald and ruby. I packed all the essentials: new robes, quills, some make-up, brush, etc… It only took me about thirty minutes to pack everything I needed to bring tomorrow, most of what I needed was still at Hogwarts in the girl dormitory of the Slytherin dungeons.
We used the floo network, we arrived at the 9¾ train station just as a wave of students and eager parents were coming through the wall from the muggle train station. I kissed mother and made my way onto the train; my personal house elf, Calla, trailing behind my every step to take my luggage onto the train.
I walked onto the train and found the train compartment where Bella and the rest of the other elite were sitting. I nestled myself in between Bella and Rabastan were sitting. I could feel eyes on me as I read through a textbook, knowing that they had found out about Andy and the mud blood. I continued to read until I saw that we were half way to Hogwarts and the ladies had to put on our robes. As the boys came back in, Rodolphus looked disgusted, as did Malfoy and Rosier.
"What's wrong?" I asked in a nonchalant tone.
"You mean besides the fact that we should even have to share a train with all these mud bloods and blood traitors?" he replied, slightly agitated ,"We just saw Andromeda and the mud blood with their lot." Bella and I exchanged perturbed glances as I got up to leave the compartment.
"Where are you going?" Malfoy asked incredulously. I looked at him for a moment, a look of sheer annoyance on my face, before closing the compartment door. Not even an entire second passed before I heard Bella and probably everyone else attempting to get a view of what the youngest Black sister was going to do to her blood traitor sister.
I found the compartment I indubitably knew Andromeda would be behind, with her mud blood boyfriend and mud blood friends. I hesitated before opening the compartment's clearly unlocked door.
Should I do this?
Yes… Definitely.
She needs to know what will happen, even if she ends up hating me.
I opened the compartment's slightly rusted door and took a step in with my head held high in the most superior way I could. I took a decorous step into the compartment, receiving a few glares; I assumed they noticed my Slytherin robes. I took in the change in of light and turned to see Andromeda, obviously shocked, with a shaggy-haired boy's arm around her neck.
"Cissa?" she asked, still in a state of shock.
I looked around at the faces staring at me as though I'd seen them everyday, which seemed to annoy some of them, obvious of the scowls on some of their faces. I smiled prettily at them before I turned back to Andy.
"I need to talk to you . . . privately," I told her, my cordial smile never faltering.
"Anything you need to say to me, you can say in front of my friends," she replied, a new, malicious smile on her face, reminding me of our mother. I raised my brow before returning her malicious smile.
"Fine, I'll get straight to the point," I started; by now I had everyone's attention ,"you may not like it but you can't be associating with mud bloods and blood traitors."
This obviously upset her, her eyes were brimming with tears. She stared at me blankly while I stared back, my smile now replaced by a sneer as I looked around at the surrounding witnesses.
"You, too?" she finally choked out.
"Yes, but only because it's not right. You are a pure blood, now start acting like it or even you should know what will happen once our parents find out." I replied mercilessly.
"What do you mean 'it's not right'?" she asked, her head buried into the shaggy-haired boy's shoulder.
"You very well know what I mean!" I snapped ,"You disgrace our family, tainting our family tree! Our family has spent years perfecting it, too many years for you to thoughtlessly tarnish it!" I said as I felt my temper rising. Did she not understanding what she was about to do to our family?
"To hell with our family tree! What if I don't want to marry a pure blood? What if I want to marry Ted?" she shrieked, removing her head from his shoulder.
"What do you mean to hell with the family tree? It's our responsibility to keep the pure line alive, like it or not! And who the bloody hell is Ted?" I asked, now bemused.
"Me," answered the scruffy boy she was clinging to.
"What do you mean its my responsibility?" she exclaimed, her temper boiling higher and higher.
"Yes, whether you like it or not, it is, because you're a Black!" I retorted, my eyes still surveying 'Ted' with disgust.
"WELL I DON'T WANT TO BE A BLACK!" she exclaimed, her tone dangerous and upset.
"WELL, IF YOU KEEP IT UP, YOU'RE NOT GOING TO HAVE A CHOICE!" I screamed back. I heard murmuring from not just inside the compartment, but from the corridors of the train, people were congesting the corridors to listen to our argument, everyone in shock; hardly anyone had ever heard me raise my voice.
"What's that supposed to mean?" she asked, her voice now starting to crack, and her voice lowering.
"It means that if you keep dating 'Ted' that you will blasted off of the bloody family tree!" I explained, but my tone softened as she finally started to comprehend what I was saying ,"And guess who's going to have to sit there and watch it, me and Bella. Bella might not mind losing a sister, but I do." I finished. It was just as I finished talking that I was aware that everyone had been listening to us, hanging on to every word we said, some even writing it down or recording it.
"I- I" she tried, but I had already had enough.
"Andy . . . don't. I don't want to hear anything else from you for awhile," I said, my voice hoarse, my own eyes brimming with tears. With that, I nimbly walked out of the compartment, everybody's eyes never leaving my pace. When I walked back to my compartment, I found it empty, followed by the hastened footsteps of Bella, Rodolphus, Malfoy, Rosier, and the rest of the elite.
I took the seat next to the window and stared blankly out into the country side. Bella sat dutifully next to me, thinking of saying something that might comfort me, something she wasn't used to doing often. For the first time since I've been at Hogwarts, everyone was completely quiet, not even the sound of a page flipping from a book. I only wish it wasn't because of me.