I Solemnly Swear

By headsfullofstars

Summary: Harry travels back in time to the Marauders Era in hope to save countless lives from Voldemort. He goes by the name 'Harry Turner', and attends Hogwarts in the 1970s. Hopefully a good read in spite of the probably generic plot line,.Disclaimer: I would like to state that I am only a thirteen year old girl and that despite I wish they were, no characters are mine besides 'Harry Turner' himself. The story is all mine, however.

Chapter 4

The Black Sisters

Harry entered the Room of Requirements, sighing in relief when a pile of the school books he still hadn't managed to acquire were sitting on a stool in the centre of the room. He was growing tired of constantly having to ask to borrow school books, and preferred to have his own. He took them graciously and turned, ready to leave when he found himself looking at a blank wall. Typical he thought, his eyes wandering the room intently, searching for a way out.

His eyes fixed upon another wall and saw thankfully that the door had simply moved to another wall. Slightly rushed, he made his way over to the door and opened it hastily, weary that the door may suddenly change location any second. He promptly left the room, relieved, and was pulled abruptly from his thoughts when he crashed into something, someone in front of him. He fell to the floor with a startled gasp, his glasses falling off and skidding across the stone.

"Sorry." He gasped, looking up into the eyes of none other than Andromeda Black, her dark brown hair falling effortlessly around her shoulders. Sirius had warned his friends of his family and their hostility at the moment due to his 'betrayal', though Harry knew Andromeda would defect from her sisters and their pureblooded mania, so she couldn't be that bad.

"It's alright." She smiled, her eyes gleaming; her smile turned to a slight frown as she observed Harry, pensive in thought. "You're one of Sirius' friends, right?"

"Yeah." He replied nervously.

"How is he?" She looked at him expectantly, displaying obvious care for her younger cousin; no matter how much her sisters hated to admit it, they all showed some sort of care for him, except maybe Bellatrix, though that didn't surprise Harry one bit. She had made it painfully clear at the sorting that as soon as Sirius was sorted into Gryffindor, she no longer considered him worthy of her time, concern or even their family.

"He's good." Harry said, smiling slightly at the girl standing before him.

Andromeda nodded, smiling thankfully.

"Andy, what are you doing?" Both turned to face the girl that now stood behind Andromeda. Her voice sounded a little harsh, but was also filled with curiosity as she stared down at Harry.

"Nothing, Bella." Andromeda shrugged, throwing a quick apologetic look towards Harry.

"And what are you doing here, and on the floor, may I ask?" Bellatrix inquired, looking down at Harry with interest.

"I ran into him, Bella, he didn't do anything." Andromeda said, placing a hand on Bellatrix's shoulder. "I was just going to help him up."

"Well, Andy, I'm sure he can get himself up, Gryffindor chivalry and all that crap." The black, messy-haired witch sneered at Harry, who hastily stumbled to his feet.

"It's called being polite, Bella." Andromeda said, raising an eyebrow and sticking her tongue out.

"Oh shut up Andy." Bellatrix said, rolling her eyes playfully.

"You love me really." Andromeda said, smirking.

"Bite me."

"You're Harry Turner, right?" Bellatrix turned to face Harry, who was smirking slightly as he watched the two sisters. Harry nodded, looking at Bellatrix nervously; he knew the woman she had turned out to be and quite frankly, she was horrifying. He decided then and there that one of his missions whilst in the past would be to convince all the Black sisters to come to the light side - it could definately make things easier in the future.

"Bellatrix Black." She said courtly as she held out her hand, which Harry shook apprehensively. "Come on, Andy."

The two sisters rushed off in the opposite direction, and Harry stood slightly bewildered as he stared at their backs curiously. He had not expected Bellatrix Lestrange, well Black, to act so courtly to a Gryffindor; his opinion of the Black sisters, of whom he believed were arrogant, heartless Slytherins, was quickly fading and in it's place a feeling of curiosity as to exactly what was going on with them and their family.

All five of the boys sat in the Great Hall, donning red and gold as they dug into the usual feast that lay in front of them. Harry barely touched his food, instead played with it as he stared at the Slytherin table. Ever since the encounter this morning he couldn't seem to get the Black sisters out of his head, no matter how hard he tried. Yes, Bellatrix was a little intimidating, and no he would definately prefer to stay on good terms with the fiery girl, though he was beginning to feel a little curious about them. They didn't seem evil, as Bellatrix and Narcissa had appeared to be in the future, but instead ordinary school girls, who didn't appear as crazed with the pureblood beliefs as he had initially expected them to be. His eyes widened as Andromeda looked in his direction; their eyes met, and she smiled, though Harry quickly looked away, blushing. He resorted to playing with his food again, occasionally joining in with the heated debate over Wizarding Chess that was taking place across the Gryffindor table.

"Of course, the knight is the most valuable piece." James said, rolling his eyes as the other boys looked at him in disbelief. Sirius snorted rather loudly, causing an eruption of giggles among the five boys. Harry's eyes averted to the Slytherin table once again and he stared with curiosity at the three faces watching them attentively.

Harry made his way towards the Gryffindor common room with his friends, talking about lessons and doing all sorts of stuff boys their age did, undeniably causing the most about of trouble possible. He looked up and was rather startled to see a certain Andromeda Black standing before them, worrying her lip nervously.

"Harry, do you mind if I talk to you for a bit?" She asked, looking at him expectantly. Her eyes averted to the boys standing besides Harry. "Alone." She added hastily.

"Uh, of course." Harry said, turning to his friends with an apologetic smile before following the brown-haired witch. They soon reached an empty and presumably unused classroom, judging by the state of the room. It was dusty and looked rather unoccupied and ancient, like it hadn't been attended to for months, years even.

"Look, Harry, I know you probably hate me and my sisters right no-"

"I don't hate you or your sisters." Harry added, his face a confused frown.

"Oh." Andromeda said, tilting her head sideways as if urging Harry to go on. "Well, I thought I would just say.. we don't hate you, or Sirius, or any of your friends. Sure, my sisters have funny ways of showing it, but we don't really." Silence fell upon the two as they stared at the floor pensively.

"Could you tell me about your sisters?" Harry asked out of the blue. He figured that this was probably the only chance he would get to find out about the Black sisters, and perhaps it could explain the reasons they averted to the Dark Side, besides Andromeda of course. Andromeda looked up at Harry, eyebrows raised, and she remained silent for a moment before opening her mouth to speak.

"Well, Narcissa is the youngest, Bellatrix is a year older than me. We come from the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black, our parents are Cygnus Black III and Druella Black... there isn't really much to say about them."

"If neither Bellatrix or Narcissa hate Sirius, why don't they act like it?" Harry asked, his eyebrows drawn together slightly as he looked at the brown-haired witch expectantly. She hesitated for a moment, before sighing and opening her mouth to speak.

"Bellatrix and Narcissa are... complicated. All our life we have been raised to believe that we were better than everyone else because we were pureblood, not to mention from the House of Black. We have been taught to hate half-bloods and muggleborns, believe ourselves superior above everyone else. I've truly never believed in any of it, but I sort of go along with it because mother and father expect me to. We have been brought up to be nothing more than trophy wives, to have no ambitions. We've grown up being told that we are not to have jobs, nor dreams, but rather bear children and have a respectable pure-blooded husband. Our parents... aren't the nicest of parents. We've never really had the affection or care that other parents give their children. We've grown up in an atmosphere of fighting and suspicion, and we've never known any different I suppose. Narcissa is fragile. She bottles up her emotions and never lets herself seem vulnerable around people she doesn't trust. She learned very quickly, like Bellatrix, that we must never trust anyone. Bellatrix, on the other hand, is very... complicated. She too grew up to know that she must never show weakness. She was trained by threat not only at home but by some of the people at this school, and any show of fear or weakness was brought an instant persecution. She's learned to be hard to cover her fright, to hide her vulnerability. When she feels vulnerable, she lashes out. It's just how she deals with fear, with stuff she doesn't understand. Bellatrix isn't a horrible person, neither is Narcissa — if you could get closer to them, if you could ever break down the thousands of little defences they have built up to shield themselves from every threat they suspect, you would find nice, honest girls."

Harry stared at the girl intently, not at all expecting a response like this. He hadn't thought about the fact that perhaps Bellatrix and Narcissa were just afraid, vulnerable girls who used their name to intimidate and defend themselves, to shield themselves when they feel most frightened.

"When Sirius got sorted into Gryffindor, I believe they felt betrayed. Bellatrix and Narcissa loved Sirius very much - he was their favourite cousin. They had always been very close growing up, almost inseperable. I think they were afraid more than anything. Sirius' parents, Walburga and Orion Black are much like my parents; prejudiced, arrogant, and quite scary. They're not exactly a barrel of laughs when they don't get their own way. I believe they, along with myself, feared the very worst for Sirius. They, like the rest of their family before us, are Slytherin through and through, and I can't even begin to imagine their reactions once they find out." Andromeda explained, shaking her head at the thought of what Sirius' parents would do.

"I.. I never thought of it like that." Harry said thoughtfully.

"No one ever does." Andromeda sighed.

"We'd better get back to our common rooms.. curfews soon." Harry said after a minute or two of silence between the pair.

"Right.." Andromeda said, before smiling slightly at Harry, saying her goodbyes, and heading towards the Slytherin common room. Harry quickly made his way towards his own common room, deciding he would rather not be caught out of bed after hours. No matter what he did, however, he couldn't get rid of Andromeda's words that echoed in his mind.

If you could get closer to them, if you could ever break down the thousands of little defences they have built up to shield themselves from every threat they suspect, you would find nice, honest girls.

A/N: I'm so sorry this chapter has taken so long. Usually I don't take very long to write chapters as I seem to have a lot of time on my hands most of the time, but school had recently been getting a little much and so I took some time of writing. This chapter is sort of dedicated to the Black sisters, probably my favourite characters in Harry Potter as you will probably come to realise throughout the book.

Thank you for reading!