Later on they were all together for the First Year sorting ceremony. Crucie was in awe with the ceiling, it was fascinating… She listened to the names being called, knowing that it would be her turn soon enough. First she had thought she would be up with Neville and Luna, but then she remembered the false name she had taken on. After Bittermole, Christina, who got sorted into Hufflepuff, they called.

"Black, Crucio!"

She saw Neville pale, for some reason. She also heard a girl whisper.

"Poor whoever that is…"

Crucie felt very awkward when she got up and walked to the sorting ceremony stool. She caught Neville's wide eyes before the hat was placed on her head.

"Hmm… Hmmm…"

Crucie heard the hat as if he spoke in her head, and she prayed.

"Please, just put me in Slytherin. I don't want to be in Hufflepuff. Please, uncle Rabastan would kick me out for that I think."

"Oh, you are no material for Hufflepuff, my dear… You're much too much like your mother for that… you would do well in Gryffindor though, like your uncle… But alas, if it's what you want, it'll be SLYTHERIN!"

That last word was yelled out, and under applause Crucie walked to the Slytherin table. All the children of Death Eaters, or somehow related to them, got placed there. Crucie heard Neville and Luna getting placed in Gryffindor and Ravenclaw, and for a moment she wished she had said she wanted to be in Ravenclaw. It would have been nice to have a friend. The rumours of the children that knew her spread fast around the table, and she noticed the other children eyed her a bit uncomfortably. A girl with brown hair and a particularly arrogant look on her face asked rudely.

"How did you ever get a named after an unforgivable curse?"

Crucie grinned and said.

"Why do you think?"

"Oh, maybe because your mom never forgave your dad for knocking her up with such an ugly child?"

Crucie bit her teeth and kept her smile up.

"Maybe you should ask Draco why exactly I'm called like that. I'm sure he would love to explain it, he's felt it first hand after all."

The girl kept looking arrogant, but there was a glint of apprehension in her eyes now. Success, Crucie thought.

"You can't cast unforgivables, you're not even allowed to do magic outside the school yet."

"Who says that?"

"The Ministry, duh."

The girl rolled her eyes and Crucie really had to restrain herself. She had never had her patience tested like this before… Maybe she should give it a go.

"Auch!"

"What?" Crucie asked most innocently, while she sent another short stroke of pain to the girl.

"Auw! Auwch! Aargh!"

"I think something's wrong with her" Crucie whispered seemingly concerned to her neighbour. It didn't go unnoticed for long. While the arrogant girl bit her lip in pain and looked like she wanted to curl up and cry, a shadow fell over Crucie.

"Crucio Black, I want to see you in my office after dinner. And stop doing that."

Professor Snape wasn't pleased. Sighing, Crucie stopped her little game and concentrated on her plate of food again. The girl that had been the subject of her torture had calmed down now –it had been a very light curse after all- and stared shocked at her. Crucie took a bite of her food and asked, almost sounding absentminded.

"How are you called, if you think your name is so much better?"

"Pansy. Pansy Parkinson."

"I don't know if you know, but a pansy is a homosexual guy. I'd say that's not much better than an unforgivable curse to be named after."

"What?"

"Just saying."

There was a bit of a stare-down. Finally Pansy remarked.

"Your name is ridiculous, but that curse thing is pretty cool."

It was said gruffly, but the girl knew with the survival instinct of a Slytherin that Crucio Carina Black was not someone you wanted as an enemy, so they could better make friends. Crucie knew well enough though that she had won a possible ally, but not a friend. She should learn to think in different terms if she wanted to survive in the Slytherin House, that much was certain…

(Pagebreak)

"Lucius and Rabastan are idiots for letting you come here. You can't even control yourself for five minutes!"

Crucio yelled indignantly.

"She was provoking me!"

"Ten points from Slytherin for misdemeanour against your head of house, Miss Black! You don't have to expect favours from me!"

"I wasn't expecting favours, professor. I just wanted to point out that I did not start the fight."

Crucie adjusted her voice volume and tried to sound a bit more respectful. Snape gave her a piercing glare.

"If you can't take a verbal jest then I wonder what you're doing here, Miss Black. Your family may have mollycoddled you for quite some time, but the faster you learn the modern wizarding world is not tolerant towards people with your… gift, the better. If you're going to react to every provocation by living up to your name you'll be expelled by next month."

Crucie looked at the floor. Snape was right, and he wasn't even being mean about it. For years she had been allowed to torture random passers-by for fun and had she been able to practice her talent on a variety of creatures… that time was over now. She would have to learn to control herself better.

"I am sorry Professor Snape."

"I hope I won't need to have this conversation with you again. Now go to your dorm to unpack. The password is "snakeling" if I'm right."

Crucie didn't know the way, but some friendly portraits showed her. She had missed the tour, so she kind of would have to find it all out for herself. Everyone was already in the common room when she arrived, and they immediately started whispering when she came in. She ignored it and went to the dorms to unpack. She opened her trunk and was happily surprised to find a lot of things that hadn't been in it when she had packed it. There was a box of chocolate cookies, the silky emerald bedspread Narcissa had made for her on a blue Monday –maybe she let the house elves do it; Crucie knew nor cared- another bag of candy… and an envelope. It was a big, thick envelope of cream white paper, on which was written with a curly handwriting "For Crucio". That wasn't uncle Rabastan's handwriting, the death eater could barely write his name in a way other people could read it. Crucie smiled as she remembered he had told her how Alecto had always said they didn't need to charm their documents if they just made him take notes during the meetings; his handwriting was so hard to decipher it would place the Aurors for a mystery anyway. When she opened the envelope she found a few letters, each one with a ribbon around it. The first one was long and consisted of many parts in different handwritings.

Hello Crucio sweetheart! I hope you'll have a lovely time at Hogwarts! This was your mother's idea, making us all write you, as if we wouldn't come see you off in person! The idea, right? I wish you all the best, and hope that you'll keep practicing that lovely talent of yours! Love, Alecto Carrow (that's aunt Allie for you dear)

Best wishes. Don't go out for a night swim in the lake, the merpeople are really creepy in the dark. (As if they're not creepy in the light, dirty creature bastards…) Amycus Carrow

Don't insult the Ravenclaw house ghost. EVER. The Bloody Baron (our house ghost) has haunted my dorm for weeks after it; ghost solidarity or something. Anyway, have fun! Rabastan Lestrange

Self control is everything, dear niece. Be careful with who you trust, but make sure to keep the ally/enemy ratio in your favour. I hope by the time you read this we'll have talked about this in person. Don't blemish your family's honor! Greetings, Lucius Malfoy

Dear Crucie, all the love for my favourite girl! I wish you the best, please be careful. You're already so much like your mother, but I still hope you won't try to break her record of detentions… By the way, the only other person I know who ever managed to reach that level of unruliness was Severus... He always wanted to be a professor, so if he is by now, don't tell him I told you! xxx, Narcissa Malfoy

It went on for a while, all the Death Eaters she knew had written a few lines, giving best wishes, advices, silly anecdotes and sometimes even a useful spell or hidden portrait passage. It was as if they were there for a moment, when she read their words. That thought made Crucio's eyes teary; it had been so long since she had seen any of them, apart from the Malfoys and uncle Rabastan. Many were in Azkaban now, and she didn't even want to think about that. It was the place she had nightmares about… At long last she got to the second letter.

My dear Little Curse,

If you're reading this, I wasn't there to see you off on your first trip to Hogwarts. It's a cliché way to start a letter like this, but it's the truth.

I made all our friends and family write a few words to you, just in case, because I know our profession is a dangerous one and we never know what might happen. I didn't want you to feel alone on your first day, regardless of what has happened to us. I give this letter to my brother-in-law, Rabastan, because if anyone will get away unscathed in case of peril it is he. He has always been a bit of an escape artist, a slippery bastard, as your father would say.

I hope I will have been there to see you grow up, but I know that when you're reading this I may have been gone for quite some time already. Know that I love you, no matter what. If I'm dead, and doomed as everyone believes us death eaters to be, I will think of you from the depths of hell and take every punishment with a smile because nothing can hurt me more than you did when you came into this world.

If I'm in Azkaban –and I hope not- I will think of you and your memory will be the only bit of happiness those wretched Dementors can't take from me.

I know life might be hard on you. Life is often like that on people who are exceptional in some way. Don't let it get you down, my dear. Life may be hard but I know you are made of a tougher material. You're my daughter after all… Sometimes I think all you inherited from your father is that nose. It is, admittedly, a pretty one.

I babble, and that is because you're still so small when I'm writing this, and it's so hard to imagine that one day you'll be standing on King's Cross Station with your trunk, ready to become an adult. It's so hard to imagine that I may not be there to see that. I'm looking at you while writing this; you're on the carpet busy stealing Draco's building blocks. With that image on my retina I find it hard to think of good advice to give to your future self.

They call me crazy, and maybe I am. But in our craziness your father and I made you, so I don't care about it. Don't care about how they call you or what they say about you. Even if it's true, it's not necessarily all bad. I think everything has a good side (except perhaps Amycus Carrow on photographs, that man looks ridiculous no matter what side he's turned to) and it's up to you to find that side. If people mock you, if they are disgusted by you or cast you out, that is only because they are too blind to see the beauty of what you are and what you do. Don't be like that. Find that good side.

It may be strange for a woman in my position to call out for open-mindedness, after all what they accuse us Death Eaters of is pure-blood-centric narrow-mindedness. I'm not so crazy that I'm not aware of that… We all have to make decisions on a certain point and I have made mine. I would like you to share my opinions, and I would truly hate to see you turn to the light side, that much is true. But you are your own person, and I will not impose my will on you like my parents did on me. Make your own decisions, and know their consequences. No matter what you choose and no matter the consequences that will have, your father and I will always love you.

With this I end the letter. All that remains to be said is gossip that will be meaningless by the time you read this.

With all my love,

Bellatrix Lestrange, née Black

(Author's Notes)

So, this is IMPORTANT. READ THIS.

Crucie is relatively unbiased, which is not a typical characteristic of purebloods, but it's caused by how she was raised. The first years of her life she was raised by whoever was around to do it (death eater missions and stuff often keeping her parents occupied) and that's why she considers all the death eaters part of her family. Also, since she was still rather young she didn't fully understand what was going on anyway. Then she lived with the Malfoys, but in that period she became depressed and withdrawn (and developed an intense dislike of Draco) and so whatever brainwashing they attempted didn't really sink in. And then she went to Rabastan, who is as I've stated a bit (very much) careless and not too concerned with Crucie's "political education".

Further: Crucie does not actually know occlumency; When she was a child Bellatrix taught her just enough to not accidentally curse everyone she laid eyes on.

I honestly thank Avalon Kore for this, because she asked the right questions and hopefully also got the right answers ;)

Then... Bellatrix may seem a bit out of character in the letter, but I'm just trying to convey that she doesn't follow Voldemort because she's crazy; she has made certain choices, set certain priorities, and lives her life according to those. And the letter was written pre-Azkaban obviously, so that adds to the relative sanity of it.

WOW. This was the longest Author's Notes section I EVER wrote. And it's not over yet. I still have to BEG FOR REVIEWS! *begs* PLEASE REVIEW! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE! There are cookies for all my reviewers, and critics are always welcome too!