Chapter Thirteen

A/N: Thank you to kittyhawk09 and Marjorie Nescio for reviewing the last chapter.

Annie barely had time to tuck her legs beneath her as she collapsed to the ground, tears flowing down her cheeks as readily as raindrops in a thunderstorm. She was gasping for breath, feeling as if all the air in the room had been snatched away from her, just as the world she had known had been.

Everything she had ever been told, everything she had believed about herself... it had all been a lie. Even her name had been false; all these years she had thought she was Anastasia Selwyn, when in truth, she had been Narcissa Black all along.

"I'm sorry." she heard a voice say and the young girl started, her eyes flying upwards to rest on the boy knelt beside her. In her anguish she had forgotten that Sirius was with her. Her brow furrowed as she realised the obvious; 'He must have known about this.'

She opened her mouth to ask him why he had done it, why he had not told her in the first place, when he must have known for longer than this. She wanted to shout and scream, to kick and fight and tear at him, to create a hole in his heart akin to the gaping wound in hers. Yet somehow, when she saw the regret in his eyes, she could not bring herself to do it. Instead, she hung her head, resting her forehead on the cold floor beneath her.

Through her sadness, she felt a tentative arm reach around her shoulders. She did not shake it off, but instead leant into the embrace, grateful for someone, for anyone, to share her agony and confusion, even if it was the very boy who had ended her blissful ignorance.

"I'm sorry." he told her again, his voice no more than a whisper. "I really am. But I thought that you had to know. You have family here, sisters, people who love you. I couldn't let them feel that agony for years on end, knowing you were here and unable to speak to you. I'm sorry that I've caused you pain. I hope you can forgive me."

"It's not your fault." she told him quietly, trying to sound convincing. "You were the one that told me the truth; it was everyone else who lied to me. They're the ones I need to forgive, not you."

Then the girl thought of her mother, or the woman she had thought of as her mother. For as long as she could remember, Professor McGonagall had pretended to love her, had pretended that they belonged together, that she had no other family but her. But she had been lying. Narcissa Black was a third daughter, with two elder sisters, parents, cousins. She was not a lonely child, as Annie Selwyn had been.

'How can I forgive her for what she's done to me?' the child asked herself, feeling her heart tear in two at the prospect of hating McGonagall, no matter what she had done. 'She has kept me hidden for all this time and kept my family away from me. I should hate her for what she has done. But how can I hate her?'

True, Professor McGonagall had ensured her real family was a well-kept secret, something she had had no right to do, but since her childhood, the woman had raised her, loved her, cared for her and kept her safe. Her sisters and cousins had never done that, and she would never know now if they would have treated her in the same way, or if they would have hated her.

'Stop thinking about her.' Narcissa told herself sharply. 'She is nothing to you, not anymore. You have your own family now, your real family; you don't need a pretender to love you.'

"So, I'm your cousin, then?" the girl asked, although she knew the answer well enough. She merely wanted a distraction to take her pain away. "And the Black girls in Slytherin, they're my sisters?"

"Yes." Sirius answered simply, smiling. It seems that he was just as grateful as her to find a distraction. "Andromeda, the younger one, is one of the most brilliant people you could meet if you lived a hundred years. And Bellatrix... she's not the nicest of people, but she cares about her family. They both miss you."

"I want to see them." Narcissa decided, giving herself no time to think of the consequences of this action.

Sirius frowned a little, taken aback by her determination. Having been her mentor for such a length of time, the young man had become used to her shyness; but there was something in the name of Narcissa Black that did not give way to timidity. She would be strong from now on, of that she was certain, for if she was strong then no one could hurt her again.

"Are you sure?" he questioned, his very tone attempting to dissuade her.

"I've never been more sure of anything in my life." she responded, leaving no room for doubt. She was not sure whether this was the truth, but she was desperate to make him believe that she was a Black just as much as he was.

"Come on, then." he instructed her, beginning to lead the way, she suspected, towards the dungeons and the Slytherin Common Room. Narcissa offered no argument, although she would have wished for a little more time to prepare herself. 'Perhaps it's for the best.' she told herself, wishing that she could manage to be convincing.

It was only once she reached the cold darkness of the dungeons that she realised; if she was a Black, then she could not be a Gryffindor as well. The very idea was an oxymoron, and Bellatrix Black's hatred of the Gryffindors was well known. If she was going to become a part of this family, then sacrifices would have to be made, even if the sacrifice could be of the greatest thing that made her who she was.

'No, Gryffindor made Annie Selwyn who she was.' the child told herself, quenching the flame of doubt once and for all. 'But I am Narcissa Black. And she is a Slytherin through and through.'

A/N: Please review!