Bellatrix Black walked up the winding passageways from her dungeon common room to the great hall where most of her classmates would just be seating themselves. Andromeda walked a pace or two behind her while Narcissa was practically running to keep up with Professor McGonagall who would lead her to where the other first years were waiting. Bella didn't like the idea of leaving her little sister alone in this, what if they weren't in the same house? She shook her head, that was ridiculous, the Black's always ended up as Slytherins. Maybe that wasn't always a good thing, to much ambition, if family got in the way of a Black's goals did they care? She shook her head, causing Andi to raise a concerned eyebrow. 'Of course it's a good thing, we stay together. I would never put anything in front of my sisters. We have to stay together, protect the pure blood of the Black family,' She thought, though she really couldn't say if she was certain of that or not.
Professor McGonagall pointed them towards the great hall as she walked away with Cissy in tow. Bellatrix stood outside the door for a long time, Andi waited patiently for her until they could hear the chattering voices of the first years coming, still faint but growing louder by the moment. "Bella we need to go eventually," she finally said softly. That was Andi's way, Bella mused, always softly. Bella envied her softness, when one of her sisters was irritable or on the verge of tears she could never soften their burden, she just barreled in and seemed to make things worse. She had to shake her head again to shake herself out of the daze.
"Right, let's do this," she said. Andi sneaked a sideways glance at her sister, she worried so much. The sister walked in side-by-side, rather than one behind the other as they had done in the corridors. A few heads turned to stare, and the few students who had heard what had happened to the Black sisters and their parents immediately set to spreading gossip around the great hall. Bella looked up to the ceiling, she could see the moon, 'or rather, the fake moon,' she reminded herself. It seemed odd, why wasn't it raining? In stories when things looked bad it was always a dark and stormy night. There was certainly a storm raging inside of herself, and it just didn't seem right that this storm was so self contained.
She pushed her way into a spot at the Slytherin table, and made sure that the other students made enough room for Andromeda. The sound of hundreds of school kids talking made it kind of impossible to really hear anybody. Several people tried to come up and talk to her, comfort her, even hug her. Bella made eye contact with Andi, who frowned and shook her head. Sharing a room with this chick for thirteen years was kind of terrible sometimes, like she could tell when Bella was about to confundas some well meaning girl before she got the chance to hug her.
Luckily it wasn't long at all before the first years came trailing in, poor Narcissa looked so small, like the crowd was swallowing her up. She nearly tripped over her robes only to be really tripped by some blonde boy. Bella nearly stood up then and there to jump to her sisters defense. Snickers spread across the hall and a single glance to Andi let her know that even level headed Andromeda was outraged. Everybody else moved on quickly though and Bella didn't have time to worry about that before she was back to worrying about what house little Cissy would be in.
"Hanson, Alice" a girl walked up, even smaller than Alice with large scared blue eyes and a round face. She went to Gryffindor.
"Malfoy, Lucius," the blond boy stood up with a smug little grin, and was put in Slytherin. Bella couldn't tell if she was disgusted with that, or thrilled that she'd have an opportunity to boss the little punk around a bit, not much, just a little pay back for embarrassing' her little sister.
Bella was on the verge of tearing her own hair out by the time that the name "Black, Narcissa" was called. The frail little girl bravely climbed the steps up to the stool. This wasn't a big deal to anybody else, but her sisters were holding their breath. They knew everything would be fine, but still they couldn't help it. Narcissa had been fretting all summer. "What if I'm not in the same house as you?" "What if I end up in the wrong house for me?" "What if none of the other people in my house like me?" "What if I end up a Hufflepuff?" Bella had laughed at that, though Andi gave a disproving lecture about the importance of the Hufflepuff house, and all it's good qualities.
When the hat was placed on Cissy's head she seemed to gasp a little, Bella could only guess at what the hat was whispering. What seemed like an eternity passed. But time seemed to pass slower when you're holding your breath, so it probably wasn't really that long. Finally when Narcissa looked ready to cry, the hat shouted out "Slytherin!" Andi and Bella both exhaled, happily clapping. Bella jabbed the student who sat next to her hard in the ribs.
"Oi! Make room!" She snapped. The girl who she'd been sitting next to made an ugly face at her, but did make as much room as she could. Luckily that was plenty for Narcissa.
"What the blazes did that bloody hat say to you?" asked Bella. Andromeda shot her a glare for the language, but Bella ignored her.
"What?!" yelped Narcissa as if she hadn't expected anyone to comment on her reaction to the hat's musings. "Oh um, nothing, it's not important."
"Well that's rubbish, you looked like you'd have a heart attack, come on if you can't tell your own sisters who can you tell?"
"Nobody. Ever."
"Oh come on, it couldn't have bee-" Bella was interrupted by Andromeda's foot landing on her foot. "Youch! Andi you little witch!" she stormed. Her sister said nothing but her face got the idea across. Don't push her. Fine, Bella could control herself. She could give her time, surely once Narcissa had time to calm her nerves she would tell them.
Bella didn't pay attention to the rest of the sorting, one of the kids could have transformed into a dragon and she wouldn't have noticed. She was staring up at the moon, the same moon she'd been busy staring at a week ago. The meal began, but Bellatrix found she didn't really have an appetite.
While the headmaster was giving his usual beginning of the year speech, her eyes drifted across the hall, nothing held her attention until they found the Bloody baron, who for some odd reason was staring at her, with his cold gray eyes. A shiver went up her spine, and she quickly looked down. By the time she looked up again the ghost was gone, like she didn't see him anywhere in the hall. She wasn't almost positive that his disappearance wasn't actually a good sign, but she breathed a sigh of relief.
Of all the oddities, this certainly wasn't starting like the usual boring old start to the school year, and as Bellatrix slept in her dorm room her dreams were filled with ghastly images. Her parents, then their shadowy killer, then an army of ghosts. Perhaps it was far from a boring start to the year, but it was also far from a pleasant start to the year, and Bellatrix had a terrible feeling that from now on her life was only going to get harder.