Chapter four
Once Ceph was away to Dumstrang, Aunt Cissy thought it best for Iris to get some friends of her own, rather than constantly playing with older children, she had already given up on Aquarius, whom did not get on well with any of the purebloods lads his age.
On a Tuesday afternoon, when Iris had no other studies or piano lessons, Aunt Cissy, acting as the excellent host she is, invited Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle to play with Draco , and Pricilla, who was already friends with Lacerta and her little sister Pansy Parkinson to play with Iris.
Pansy came dressed in a rather garishly frilled dress that was the colour of custard, Iris wrinkled her nose, she was glad that her green velvet was a lot more tasteful, though secretly, she was jealous of Pansy's straight hair, that was in contrast to Iris's messy curls, in which a bow was hastily tied in last minute by her Aunt Cissy.
Pansy gave a sickly sweet smile, which put Iris's fierce scowl to shame and with Aunt Cissy's encouragement they were told to play in the nursery.
"What are you wearing?" demanded Iris, once they got in the nursery.
"A dress" smiled Pansy.
"It looks horrible!" laughed Iris.
Pansy began to sniffle and started to cry, this made Iris feel rather awkward and remembering what Ceph once told her to do if someone cried and gave her a push.
"Stop crying, Ceph say's nobody comes when you cry!" she said fiercely, pushing her to the ground.
Just then Aquarius had heard crying coming from the nursery and poked his head around the door.
"Oh, Iris...did you make her cry?" asked Aquarius, looking at the four year old laying in a heap on the ground.
"She pushed m-me..." snivelled Pansy.
"Iris you can't do that to people, you have to say sorry." He said.
Iris sulked, who was he to tell her what to do! She could do what she liked couldn't she... she could always get Estella and her latest crony Alex Nott, to tell Aquarius to mind his own business, but that might make more trouble.
"Iris..." her brother said.
"Fine!" she said scowling and closing her eyes, she said it as quick as she could and then glared at Pansy, as if to say it was all her fault.
Her brother smiled at her and she was glad that she had made him smile, even though it was humiliating on her part to do so.
With that her brother reassured Pansy that Iris would not push her again and left the nursery.
Sighing at the frightened pansy, she tried to smile, though it came out as a grimace.
"Well, get up then, only babies cry!" she said helping pansy up.
"My name's Pansy, are we friends?" said Pansy rather desperately.
"I suppose so..."Iris replied.
"Do you have any dolls?" asked Pansy, as she absolutely loved dolls.
"Well, I did..." said Iris thoughtfully "but then I gave them to Estella for target practise, though my other sister has dolls." Iris said.
"Can we play with your sister's dolls then?" asked Pansy hopefully.
"Dolls are boring and any way if you want to be my friend, then you have to do what I say" pouted Iris.
"Okay then...what do you want to do instead?" asked Pansy unenthusiastically.
Iris thought for a moment.
"I know, let's play with Estella and Alex, they're in the garden" Iris thought this would be a lot more fun than playing dolls.
Alex and Estella were by a pond near the bottom of the mannor's main garden and in the distance Draco was taking great delight in having someone else to play quidditch with him on his new training broom.
On the patio they walked by Pricilla, Santana and Lacerta flicking through the latest copy of 'witch weekly' and each were gushing over the latest pureblood witch robes and drinking cool lemonade while doing so.
When they walked past Draco, Crabbe and Goyle, Iris took the chance to point out who they were.
"That's my cousin, uncle spoils him rotten, and He thinks he can get away with doing anything." Said Iris.
Pansy blushed a little as Draco waved to them; Iris rolled her eyes and glared at him.
Walking right to the end of the vast garden, where it was more overgrown, they found Estella and Alex squatting down by the pond.
"What are you doing?" asked Iris curiously.
"Well, we were looking for a frog but now we're going to go exploring" grinned Alex.
"Yes, so what do you want?" said Estella rudely.
"Pansy wants to play dolls, but I said dolls were boring...so we thought, we would see what you are up to" said Iris smiling.
Neither of the two children looked at Pansy.
"Well..." said Estella, pretending to think. "I suppose you can join us, as long as you don't cry." Sighed Estella.
"So... where are you exploring?" asked Iris chewing her bottom lip.
"Well-" began Alex.
"Let me explain, Alex" Estella cut in. "we are, at the moment right at the edge of the Malfoy garden and beyond that is woods." She sighed when both Iris and Pansy looked altogether quiet blank. "you know this, Iris...remember when Ceph told you that story about the muggles who wander from the fields to the woods and once they cross the boundaries, they get tortured...?"
Iris shivered and nodded, Pansy peered into the woods a couple of meters off, and quite fearfully she did this.
"So after the woods there are a few fields and after a few fields, there is a road that leads to the muggle village." Explained Estella.
"And after that?" questioned Iris.
"We don't know, so that's why..." Trailed off Nott, after a vicious glare from Estella.
"Anyway, as I was saying...we don't know, so that is why we are going to explore and find out." Estella looked triumphantly at the younger two.
"I don't want to go, I will get in trouble with Mr and Mrs Malfoy...a-all I w-wanted to do was play d-dolls..." Pansy sniffled, quiet frightened with it all and also, quite used to getting her own way.
"Too late little girl, you can't back down now!" sneered Alex and this time Estella did not try and stop him.
Quite confronted with what she should do, she timidly nodded and with a shove from Iris, the four children, two nine and the other two four and five, set off into the woods.
After a while of walking, Pansy began to grow weary and started to sniffle once again. Estella glared at Iris, as if to say that it was all her fault.
"Don't glare at me, Aunt Cissy invited her over and I was going to leave her...but then Aquarius said I had to say sorry for pushing her and then she wouldn't leave me alone." Iris grumbled.
"Aquarius always sticks his nose in; I should have a few words with him." Estella Muttered "I know!" she addressed the whole group. While Alex was thinking of nothing but the path ahead of him, Iris was thinking she sure she got her brother into trouble and Pansy was thinking she rather sit with her sister and watch the boys play quidditch, than trample through the dirt. "Let's tell a story while we walk, it will pass the time quicker." Estella demanded.
"Okay" brightened Iris. "There was a little orphan girl called Violet, and she had black curly hair..." Iris began.
"...She was called Violet, because she had the prettiest violet eyes..." said Pansy.
"...They weren't normal eyes though, none of the silly muggle carers had seen eyes like that before..." replied Iris.
"...That's because she was a witch..." supplied Alex.
"...the horrid, dirty muggle children bullied her because of this..." said Estella.
"...because that's what all muggles do, bully people..." replied Alex.
"...even though she was very sad, she knew she must have loving, pure parents out there..." said Pansy.
"...and she did, they were locked up, even though they had done nothing wrong, accept to stand up for what is right..." explained Iris.
"...and one day, a Powerful wizard came and set them free, he promised all the pure ones, they would have a better life and no longer would the unworthy pick on them..." smiled Estella.
"...so then-" Alex began.
"So then, the loving parents rescued Violet and killed all the muggles in the orphanage, the end." Finished Estella.
"That was a quick ending..." said Pansy.
"Do you have a problem with my ending?" Estella demanded, sticking her foot out, so that Pansy tripped and fell in the dirt, crying.
Groaning, Iris pulled her up and pansy wiped her hands on her dress.
"Look, the fields!" pointed Alex, as they approached the clearing and true enough they saw green fields.
"It looks a long way..." mumble Pansy.
"Well, why don't you just go back...unless you're scared..." teased iris cruelly, who had just about enough of Pansy's moaning.
"I don't care who's going where, all I know is that I'm going forward." Determinedly Estella said.
None of the four children said anything and all decided, that they had come this far, it was a shame to then walk all the way back and a waste too.
Climbing over the wooden fence, the girls ripping their dresses in several places, the Lestrange sisters, really not caring and Pansy looking dismally at the frills falling from her dress.
Once they had crossed about two fields, they sat, all together far too tired, too tired to go forward and too tired to go back. All of them secretly wished they never started and it seemed a silly idea now, though all of them were too proud to admit such a thing.
Alex staring of into the distance, looking casually vacant, then furrowed his brow in confusion.
"Look..." he said pointing to the edge of the vast field in which they sat. All of the children looked to where he was pointing and none of them had ever seen such a thing, it was like a metal box, with wheels and inside was muggles.
"What do you suppose it is?" asked Iris, unable to take her eyes of it.
"How should I know!" said Estella, all together quite put out with the knowledge she did not know.
"It's muggle" stated Pansy.
"As if we didn't know that." Replied Estella scathingly.
"You know what this means? We're close..." thought Alex aloud, once the muggle contraption had gone by.
With a bit more hope the children stood up and stretched their aching legs, with enthusiasm, they realised that they were closer to the road than expected and once they got there, their expressions changed from sulky scowls and snivels to triumphant and happy looks, they had made it.
The village itself was quaint and when one was accustomed to living in a manor as big as the Malfoys, most homes look small in comparison. There were a few muggles here and there and local shops were open, though not selling things that the children knew off. They spied a man talking into a smaller metal box and Iris thought the man to be quite mad.
"Estella?" asked Iris.
"What...?" Estella was too dazed to be her usual snappy self, it was as if they had walked into an alien place, and in which the children were quite apprehensive about.
"What do we do now?" Iris was beginning to wonder what the point of this adventure was.
Estella stopped for a moment, she wasn't sure, she didn't expect them to get this far, however as luck would have it, she spied a park, with swings (that she knew of) and other such things, they could always go to the park, could they not.
"Over there, there's a park." She replied quite affirmative.
The other children nodded numbly, for what else was there to do, so with determination on their young faces, they walked through the village taking care to stick together, for they only knew one another. The children received a few odd looks, for it was not every day, the quiet village of south Wiltshire, saw a young boy, who was quite gangly, wearing a kind of robe, that was well mudded and ripped, with a sneer etched upon his face. A young girl, with wild fly away hair and pale gaunt skin and a long old looking dress, that was embellished with mud along the hem and rips up the sleeves, an even younger girl, who almost matched the previous and wore an expression of snobbery and her in turn had an old dress, fresh with tares and stains of the outside. And finally a plain child, with an ancient mustardy dress, with unravelling frills and cheeks stained with tears.
At last they got to the park and sat down upon a spinning thing, which you could stop and go with your feet. Iris heard one of the children call it 'a round-something' the children saw concerned mothers, that never took their eyes of their children and gave them juice drinks and packets or something or other when they were hungry. So, this was what muggle mother's were like, for Estella and Iris especially, they found the whole thing far out of their comfort zone and what was more, when a child cried, the mother came running like nothing could ever stop them. This was not parenting, the two sisters thought, however was a child to learn to be strong and independent?
"I want to go on the swings" moaned Pansy.
"Alex, take her!" demanded Estella. Alex looked quite put out at this and sighed dutifully yet quite literally, dragging Pansy to the swings.
The girls sat there on the round something, steadily pushing it with their feet both locked in their own thoughts.
"Suppose, that's why muggles are useless, they're babied their entire life." Remarked Estella.
"I certainly wouldn't want to be one" the other replied.
Just then two muggle girls walked up to the Lestrange sisters, one with blonde pigtails and wearing a type of blue trouser, in which the children found, were quite popular amongst muggles and a pink jumper. The other, was quite an ugly thing, thought Estella distastefully, with bushy brown hair and buck teeth. they seemed to be about five and seven.
"Do you think we could play with you?" asked the bushy brown haired one.
Estella and Iris looked at one another formulating a plan.
"Well" Iris smiled "we're finished playing on here, so you can have it."
"Well, no we were wondering whether we could be-" The bushy brown haired girl began.
"Hermione...I don't really want to be friends with them, they look scary and are dressed weirdly" whispered the blonde.
"We were wondering whether you wanted to be friends with us and whether you might want to play with us." Said the bushy haired one, known as Hermione.
"Well we were going to exploring, if you want to come" said Estella, with fake sincerity.
"Where?" demanded the blonde.
Iris looked over to where the village of south Wiltshire ended at the edge of the park. "In the woods, over there" she replied.
"I don't think I can, I don't think my mummy will allow it..." said Hermione.
"Of course some aren't braving enough" Estella smiled, if anything, it was a little psychotic.
"I'll go" said the blonde determinedly.
"Alyssa, you can't!" exclaimed Hermione, Iris thought she was secretly a bit if a stick in the mud.
"I can and I will, to prove these to weirdoes, I am brave." Said Alyssa, although she was foolish, you had to remember she was only seven.
Hermione groaned and reluctantly nodded.
With both siblings smiling they, beckoning the two muggles to the woods.
"So, do you live here?" asked Hermione, trying her best to make friends, she always struggled to make friends.
"Yes we do, in that big manor near the village, do you?" asked Iris.
"My mummy and Daddy say that whoever lives there is rich and no we are on holiday, me and Alyssa's mummy's are friends."
Estella was steadily leading them through the woods, through the winding paths that were sure to get them lost, until eventually Estella made them stop and she and Iris sat down upon the floor. The sky was now starting to darken and they had been out a while now.
"So, I've proved myself..." said Alyssa whimpering a little, looking all around her.
"Can you take us back now" said Hermione rather frantically.
"I think not...it's much more fun to watch you panic" Estella smiled sadistically.
"Please!" pleaded Hermione starting to cry.
"Nobody is coming this time, when you cry" hissed Iris.
Both sisters stood up and Alyssa, her face shone in the darkened light of the moon, felt her legs shake; surely her mummy must be looking for her and in utter desperation, she pulled hard on Iris's curly hair and pulling out a clump of curly hair she begged "Help us!"
At the same time, Iris let out a shriek of pain and both sisters drew their eyes upon the blonde muggle girl.
"How DARE you touch my sister" hissed Estella in a voice not quite her own. Both sisters pushed the girl to the ground and she hit it with a thump, neither was quite aware of Hermione's pleas to top. The sisters fuelled with anger, felt a spark rise in them, and a type of power, entirely new to them, but so divine and sacred, they felt the need, the want to use it, all so suddenly.
How dare the muggle touch them and harm one of them thought the sisters and all so suddenly the words Mother, Father, Auntie and Uncle had told them all became true, muggles were weak, trash and should never walk the earth. With this fuelled emotion, the blond child lying on the ground began to twitch; she began to let out merely cries of pain and despair, she started to shake and the muggles hands felt entirely not her own, as they tried to clamp themselves around her neck, to kill the pain inside her. She jutted and jerked and coughed, when the pains took way her screams and blood rose up to her throat and poured down her chin and above stood her captures. Two young girls, each of the eyes showed black holes in the abyss of hell. Their mouths turned into upward smirks of satisfaction and not there be one inch remorse set about their features. Hermione's voice had gone horse from screaming and now she stood still with fear and her breathing became shallow and the last she saw before she would awaken again and convince herself this was all but real, was two girls, with jutting bones like pipes in a machine carrying blood and an animalistic hunger for the screams of last and final hope before all was gone and given in and with that Hermione fainted. Alyssa at last gave a last shake, as her goodbye to the world in which she was presented and it was as if the girls had been playing a game of chase and the Lestrange girls had been the victors and Alyssa gave a nod of acceptance, to the fact that she had been well and truly beaten and left them to play with someone else. And there she lay dead on the ground and no longer would the future reflect Alyssa's choices and emotions because the choice to follow the girls led her to have no choice at all.
Once the girls were feeling much more themselves, they surveyed the scene in front of them and the young held onto the elder, while she motioned to her lips the sound of silence.
"I recognise these woods, it looks like we've gone in a big circle, I think if we fetch Pansy and Alex, we will only have short way to go until we reach Malfoy manor." Said Estella at last.
Holding hands they did exactly that and walked as if in a dream like state, their faces eerily calm. When they arrived back at the manor they lied with perfection about a childish scenario of getting lost in the woods while playing tag, and childish it did seem after that. Alex and Pansy were oblivious to what went on and would probably always be, their parents were concerned enough and gave looks to the children that promised a beating. And in turn, once their friends had gone home, the girls also received a beating – for staying out late of course, whether they would have received more or less if they told the truth, it was never to be known, And whether they would have told the truth if it was Mother instead of Aunt Cissy, it would never been known also. But it was only when Iris sneaked into Estella's room after being put to bed, did the real talk begin.
All at once little Iris burst into tears, though she was not sure why.
"I- I have d-done something bad...and I-I promised Aquarius I w-would be g-g-good..." Iris snivelled.
Sighing, Estella picked up Iris and sat her on the large double bed.
"You didn't do anything wrong, that muggle thing was meant to be punished, she hurt you, so we in turn punished her." Explained Estella, although her voice was shaking a little.
"Then why do I feel guilty..." wondered Iris out loud.
"Because you're young and think about it like this, if mother saw what we did...do you think she would be disappointed?"
"No, of course not...she would be-"
"Very proud of us, she will see us as great Death eaters!"
"But Aquarius said that Death eaters are bad-"
"Listen Iris, you need to stop thinking about Aquarius, he has turned the wrong way and in turn, he will betray us" whispered Estella frantically as it was getting quite late and neither sister was in the mood to sleep.
Furrowing her brow for a while and looking at her hands, little Iris, although now five and yesterday feeling young and today feeling old. She looked up at her sister and realised that you had to be one of the other, she could no longer be friends with Aquarius if she ever expected to make Mother proud and she desperately wanted to, even though (and she would never tell the others this) she could not remember her Mother's face.
She nodded and made a silent promise, to not bully her brother but to treat him with behaviour that was stiff and cold and she would keep her brothers secret, for she wanted him to have a chance to choose, to dance or to kill. It was up to him. Just like she had chosen now, the chance to kill, but she would still dance and play, except to play with people's minds and to dance upon their graves.
When Estella saw the nod, her heart leapt, with relief, that no longer would she have to expect to play cat and mouse with her youngest sibling.
"Good, I am proud" nodded Estella. "From now on, you will hang around with me and Alex and we will teach all you need to know about the world." Grinned Estella sadistically.
"Now" Estella said chewing her lip a little. "What we did there was powerful magic and it seemed to be based on emotion, what I think we should do, is practise on simpler objects like spiders and such"
"Okay, all my life, I was told by you, Ceph and Lacerta that Mother was the greatest witch and I never knew her, if I saw her and chose to be a blood traitor, I would see her next on the battlefield, as my opponent." Spoke Iris
"You have a way with words, Iris...but back to the present topic, I find Ceph to be entirely correct with his views but entirely unfair with the way he treats his sisters."
"What do you mean?"
"Perhaps you are too young, to realize, but our brother walks around as if he is better than us but... if we practise what we did today, then we can prove him wrong and no longer do we take orders from him and to be seen as girls to be married off-"
"-but I thought Aunt Cissy said it was a woman's honour to be married."
"Hush. Don't interrupt, it is, but what our brother expects, is that we won't fight for the cause, we will let our husbands do so instead..." Estella's voice grew softer "But we will prove him wrong..." Watching Iris yawn, she looked down lovingly at her sister. Her brother Ceph never loved her and her own twin, whom she should have been close to, had chosen to be some silly wife instead of fighting for the cause she knew and loved. But, no, who would have ever thought Iris and her would be powerful and now they knew of their gift, to inflict pain upon others, without the use of a wand, they could begin to train and nobody will ever know until the time is right.
With that final thought, Estella Bellatrix Lestrange went to sleep.