|Chapter One|

It was raining the day I was reborn as Persephone Blaire Black; the late June skyline was a deep charcoal gray and storm clouds hung overhead. My eyes were the traditional silver hue, my skin was as pale as ice glaciers, and I was born with a tuft of silver curly hair. A perfect hue between gray and black, perhaps Mother Morgana and Brother Death found amusement in making sure there would be something quite interesting about me for two of my sisters had black hair while another had white-blonde hair. One sister had the traditional silver hue as me when it came to our eyes, while the other two sisters had dark brown eyes; they were almost borderline black.

Druella and Cygnus (the third) Black were disappointed that I was a girl, for they had hoped they would finally be gifted with a boy to continue the family line. Even if it were my aunt and uncle that were having their eldest son being the one who would be the heir to the Black legacy. They didn't hate me though, even as I was born there was a sense of acceptance. Grudgingly they accepted me, for I would be just married off to whoever they wanted me to be married off to.

It was to no surprise that when she and Aunt Walburga had learnt they were both pregnant and were going to give birth around the same time they immediately had me become engaged to get married to my cousin, Regulus Arcturus Black. Even if we were the same sex, it wouldn't matter as long as the rest of the children were able to have children and continue the family line. We weren't though, so things worked out splendidly when it came to that development.

The age difference between me and my sisters was quite interesting.

Bellatrix, the eldest, was seven years older than me.

She was the tallest and most mentally questionable, doing things that could be borderline concerning but having pats on her head as if letting her know that our parents were quite proud of her, nonetheless. Her hair was a wild, tangible mess that never wanted to be brushed down or have hair potions lathered into it to try and contain it. Her eyes were so dark one could barely see the pupil in the middle, and she cut the heads off of her magical dolls, along with setting fire to the toys my other sisters had if they didn't do what she wanted them to do. She was already engaged to get married to Radopholus, marrying each other after they would graduate Hogwarts.

Andromeda, the middle, was five years older than me.

She looked almost as if she were supposed to be Bellatrix's twin, but unlike the harsh features that our eldest sister had, she had softer ones. She was the one who claimed she wanted to take care of wounded animals. She would try to heal the animals that Bellatrix would torture in hopes they would have a chance to live only for them to succumb to their wounds, nonetheless. She was often found in her bedroom crying for days, feeling trapped as a Black. She wasn't engaged to be married, she knew that would change when she was older, and our parents would find a suitable match.

Narcissa, the youngest, was three years older than me.

Narcissa was the one with silver eyes like me, with hair that was like mine. She was already daydreaming about a handsome prince coming and sweeping her away to marry her. She claimed she wanted to become a proper lady and be married to the most handsome and kindest lord of all the land. She would put all types of princess dresses on me from when she was a baby, determined to have me learn to be a princess like she was.

Mother, Druella, was an odd woman.

She had very interchangeable moods, some days she would wake up happy while other days she would wake up depressed. She was diagnosed with major bipolarism and with her tantrums and extreme highs or lows one learnt to just observe her and not speak unless she was addressing you. She was quite happy with me, quite attached to me, oddly. Andromeda was relieved that Mother had decided she would set her eyes on my future, while Bellatrix was already old enough to fend for herself and had Father focus his attention on her. Narcissa was just happy that she had a sister that wanted to hang out with her and didn't mind that she wasn't the baby anymore.

Father was strict, he brushed fingers against the top of our heads to let us know he was acknowledging us. He was often cocooned into his office, papers spread out in front of him, and his quill enchanted to hover above him as he would focus his attention on what was happening within our family. He would dismiss us, buying us toys and pets when he realized how long he had been dismissing us in order to have us not mad with him. He was too busy making sure that our house would not fall into financial or social ruin. His health was not in the best shape.

Today was the joint birthday ball between me and Regulus.

It was our seventh birthday, and since seven was a sacred number in the wixen world it would make sense there would be a ball to celebrate the impending marriage between me and Regulus.

Neither Regulus or I really knew each other that well, we knew what the other looked like and things the other liked because our parents had fed the information to each other. We were prepared for this day most likely, where we would sit together in throne like chairs in the ballroom of the Black Manor and observe others around us as they would wish us congratulations on both our engagement but also on our seventh birthdays. We would be the ones who would make sure to keep the family tradition going strong, we would continue the covenant.

Mother was in one of her highest moods today, pleased with everything around her as she stood behind me in my bedroom. I was standing awkwardly in front of the standing antique mirror with a dress that had too many frills and laces and ribbons. The black dress swallowed me whole and pressed itself against my skin, but I didn't have any curves since I was only seven, so there wasn't anything that would be highlighted. There was makeup placed upon my face, my eyelashes were thick with mascara and there was lip gloss that was spread across my lips. My hair was coiled together and put into an intricate eighteenth-century hairstyle with multiple hair jewels nestled throughout the valleys of my thick and too extravagant hair.

I even had on elbow high black gloves and had on some high heels that hurt my feet. I had a crest ribbon necklace nestled against my throat with the Black Crest, a silver medallion in the middle of the ribbon. It was my betrothal necklace that I was to wear anytime I would go outside so others around me would know I was already taken. There would be no way that any other pureblood or higher status half-blood family would come forward to try and marry me into their family.

Mother smelt a tinge like alcohol if I paid too much attention.

I knew she liked to put some alcohol into her teacups, she would walk around with the cups in her hands and her eyes would be distant. She was often found talking to the portrait of grandmother, learning if there was anything she should know as a mother. She had a chaotic relationship with her own mother and often would run away from the portrait with tears falling down her face and threatening to burn the portrait.

Narcissa had thankfully helped me with my hair, she was about to enter her first year at Hogwarts next year. It would be no surprise she would end up being in Slytherin, there wasn't one Black in our family that had been in any other House. I knew it was expected for me and I honestly couldn't care less, I would be there if that was where I was destined to be in. There was no need to try and think too much about the House or about Hogwarts in the end, everything had already been decided for me. It would be no surprise if this was something that was already decided too.

Narcissa was wearing a silver dress that had some layers to the skirts and she had already gone through puberty not too long ago. She had barely started forming breasts and a more prominent bum. Her neck was draped in a necklace of pearls with diamonds between each pearl. Her hair was in a simple bun with a diamond hairband that was almost like a diadem. There was light and sweet cherub-like makeup on her, nothing that was dramatic like it was for me.

Mother gave an almost dreamy smile at the sight before her, almost jolting out of her skin when my other two sisters came into the room. Andromeda and Bellatrix were wearing the same dresses as Narcissa, only in different colors. Andromeda was in a dress the color of deep emerald, while Bellatrix had a dress that was such a deep red it was almost black. It reminded me of the times she would cut herself for some time period to create paintings with her own blood, before she would heal her skin in order for our parents to not see any scars.

"Oh, my little ravens, you are all so beautiful! Can you believe that it is finally the betrothal ball between our littlest raven and her crow?" Mother probed, her eyes flickering over to where the table was not too far away with her tea pot still waiting to assist her with pouring out another generous amount of alcoholic tea.

"Yes, it is wonderful that the time has finally come for little Persephone to pay her dues to this family. We shall be heading off soon, shan't we, Mother? We need to get there at the perfect time," Bellatrix stated, her smoky eyeliner and deep, smoky aristocratic voice made me shiver some from her. She had the power to destroy anyone who was in her way, and as long as I stayed out of the way she wouldn't put too much thought into me.

The fourteen-year-old girl had already had her betrothal ball with Radopholus when Mother was pregnant with me. So, I hadn't seen the betrothal ball, but I had seen the oil painting of the both of them in their betrothal clothes. Having an immortalized seven-year-old Bellatrix with an equally immortalized seven-year-old Radopholus was more than unsettling. Especially when they thought the corridor, they had been placed into was their dominion and everyone who was to enter the hallway had to give them well wishes for their eventual marriage.

Sensing my father about to enter the room, I turned around right when he appeared.

In the corner of my eye, I noted Mother had one of the teacups in her hands.

She had her eyes closed and her body relaxed as she took some needed sips.

She had built a good immunity to the amounts of alcohol she drank so she was always pushing herself further into her alcoholism to get that same kind of buzz she had when she first had Bellatrix (turns out Mother just wasn't someone who was naturally motherly, just like her own mother wasn't with her). She drank and drank to her heart's content until she would pass out on the loveseats with her cup on the ground and some of the remaining droplets of alcohol would splatter across the antique rug in the parlor room.

"Ah, there's my Persephone."

I gave an awkward smile, before relaxing my lips and trying again. I looked at myself in the standing mirror once more, pleased with how I was able to put this kind of look onto my face without having to try a third time. One could tell my eyes were empty, there was nothing about them that showed any type of aliveness that would let them know I was okay. I was too numb over everything around me; this was my normality while to others this was their nightmare.

Placing my arm in Father's, we walked out of my bedroom with the rest of our family trailing behind us. I could tell that Father tightened his arm around mine for a split second when we heard the sound of Mother tripping behind us, she most likely had her shoes caught in the hem of her skirts once again. She had dropped her teacup and was probably also trying to bend down to pick it up but with the wave of his hand I was certain Father had made it disappear. The carpeted flooring had long since been charmed to be stainless so there wouldn't be any stains from the dark tinged tea.

We arrived at the Black Manor at the right time, miraculously, through the fireplace using what was called the Floo Network.

All we had to do was pick up a pinch of powder and call out the location we were wanting to go to. Then we would step through the fire and walk out of the fireplace that the location had. I was able to do this for once without tripping, sometimes I would face plop when I wasn't focused on my composure. Mother slapping me across the face made that end up nipping that bad habit of mine in the bum. I'd never want to be slapped by Mother again for something as silly as social etiquette. So, I made sure to move forward only when Father was ready to move forward.

The location of the Black Manor had never been spoken aloud, there was a Fidelious Charm which made it impossible for someone to know of the manor's existence unless the Secret Keeper would tell them the location. Only those that Black family members were allowed onto the property and those that were married into the family. The Secret Keeper often was Lady Black. At the moment that happened to be Aunt Walburga.

For some odd reason, when Aunt Walburga and Uncle Orion had come forward to take their place on the family hierarchy the Black Manor did not accept them as permanent residents. It was to no one's surprise that Uncle Alphard was the favored future Lord but since Uncle Alphard didn't want to be Lord Black the manor was waiting for the right Lord and Lady who would want to reside in the manor for the good of the family and not for the good of themselves.

So, Uncle Orion, Aunt Walburga, and my male cousins lived in one of the townhouses that were scattered throughout London.

12 Grimmauld Place.

A quite dreary, depressing place that I had been to but reeked of nothing more than poison and darkness. Black Magic, a type of magic that originated from our own family but through countless years of inbreeding and improper family dynamics, it seeped into our family's brains and drifted down to our hearts. One could not live in that house and feel as if they could come out of it alive without being horribly damaged or alive.

Aunt Walburga, as Lady Black, should have been placed into the psychiatric ward of St. Mungo's.

There was nothing about her which was good, she was rotten all down to the roots. She needed to be plucked out of the soil, have the soil blessed with holy water, and disposed of quietly. Yet that wasn't how Walburga Black was like, she wouldn't go without screaming and kicking. She should have been the mother of Bellatrix, if we were to be quite frank about that also.

We came through the extravagant ballroom fireplace.

Everything around us was glitz and glam, precious metals and jewels were everywhere.

Ribbons were tied in dramatic arches above us and there were black rose petals that were hovering above us on the ceiling, ready to be released so all the rose petals would fall down on me and Regulus when we would be doing our waltz to commemorate our engagement. There was also the painter who was supposed to make a portrait of us during the night in order for us to also have something to remember our night decades from now. Round tables were in a horseshoe shape, and since the ballroom was extremely large there was no need for us to move the tables to make room.

I had to bite my tongue when I noticed the throne chairs that were in front of the stained-glass windows, the windows were of emerald petals with snakes curled around the thorns. I imagined myself having to sit on the more feminine one and putting one of my hands into Regulus, another reminder that this was really happening. In ten years, a decade from now, we both would end up married and the family would look up to us as the new lord and lady.

I only tore my attention away from the chairs when I heard a little squeal next to me.

A gloved hand reached out and took mine in theirs.

I looked at who was gaining my attention, not surprised when I saw Narcissa was the one who was excited. She thought that it was just a picture-perfect fairytale come true for me and Regulus. We were engaged to get married, and Regulus was the more tamed one between him and his brother, Sirius. They were only a year and a half apart in age, we would be attending Hogwarts at the same time, but Sirius would be a year above us.

"Ah, look, Phone! He looks so adorable. You make such a lovely couple," Narcissa remarked, letting out a little sigh.

I was glad Bellatrix had gone to torture the poor House Elves for just existing or else she would put a spin on it that wasn't needed.

She would cackle, telling me things that she had already done with Radopholus, things that she wasn't supposed to be doing until she would marry into his family. She had already said she was taking some kind of special herb that would make sure to ruin the ability for her to have children. She didn't want children; she had told me and our sisters this one night when our parents were asleep.

Not that Narcissa's encouragement was needed either.

We were still children.

Narcissa was the only one between all four of us girls that had always looked forward to being married. She sometimes claimed she wished me, and she had our ages swapped so she could experience what I was going through. She had been envious of her eldest sister being engaged too, but no family came forward to try and engage their sons with Narcissa. There were rumors the Malfoys would probably put their sole heir, Lucius Abraxas Malfoy, into the pool next year when Narcissa would start Hogwarts. He was about two years older than her.

Still, I turned and looked at Regulus, giving him an awkward smile and brought my hand up in a stiff wave hello. He stood in front of me, taller than I last remembered him, with his black curly hair combed down. He was dressed in rich fabric, his robes fitting him perfectly, wearing a silk button up black shirt, black trousers, and black dress shoes. It was as if he had been given a de-age potion and given a set of clothes that were meant for him at this age.

I was certain that this was the same way I looked.

We both, with our similar eye colors, soft and attractive features, were the other side of the coin.

If coins had three sides to them, we would add Sirius to that equation, but it didn't.

He was another category on his own, lost in another plane of existence than ours.

He would always be the one who was on his own pathway, and never cared to walk the same pathway that was expected for him to walk. He would merely turn his head up and move with that signature family walk down the pathway that suited him the best, not for our family.

I envied him, to be honest, to see how Sirius wasn't afraid to act the way he acted.

I also didn't envy him at the same time.

I had known Aunt Walburga and Uncle Orion were extremely abusive, toxic as they come, and made sure to have their children submit to them and their terms or else the boys would get hit with the Crucio Curse. They would be withering on the floor, tears flowing down their faces, as they would twitch. Their skin was sensitive, I had known this when I had accidentally touched Sirius shortly after he had come back after being called into another room by their father.

Soon the rest of our family members appeared at the manor, some of them had left England and traveled back to our ancestral roots in France. Others kept themselves in solitude and taught their children the way they wanted them to be taught, either being tutored at home by mentors or were sent to Drumstrang to be schooled on the proper magic: dark magic. On spells that were too gruesome and disturbing to even utter their names aloud. Blood magic, a specialty also in our family. We had a few necromancers in our family and were in charge of taking care of things in a different manner.

Regulus and I were led to the thrones, and we sat down awkwardly on them.

I turned my head and peered at him, at his too thin cheekbones for a child.

He was too thin, with sticks for bones.

His eyes were large for his face also, kind of like mine, and sometimes his hand would twitch as if he was expecting one of his parents to come over to touch him. I could see in the corner of my eye the painter was now in the process of using actual paint instead of sketching out what we would look like in the painting.

To no surprise Mother and Father were being the dutiful hosts for our family members, showing off a little more than Aunt Walburga and Uncle Orion. I couldn't help but smirk a little bit, which in return made Regulus start to scrunch his eyebrows at me and tilt his head in a cute manner. I shot him a warm smile, which in return made his face become flustered red at having an actual positive reaction towards his curiosity for once.

"Apologizes, dear cousin. I was merely thinking of how my parents are trying to outshine your parents. Yet if you pay attention to both the manor's magic signature and the rest of the family, they will rather consider us higher than both of them combined," I remarked, my gloved right hand reached out and went to touch his hand, just to know what it felt like.

The only male figure who was allowed to touch me was Father. Even Uncle Orion wasn't allowed to touch me. The same thing went with female figures. Only Mother and my sisters were allowed to touch me. Anyone else who tried to touch me would face the wrath of Druella and Cygnus the Third. No one wanted the wrath of the Blacks.

"Are you looking towards our engagement or not…knowing that you could have been with someone like Sirius?"

I blinked a few times at Regulus, at how he had his head tucked down. My eyes went over to where Sirius was, he was too busy changing the name placements so that family members that weren't supposed to even look at each other due to inner stalemates would sit next to each other. I smiled some but shook my head a moment later.

"No. If I had the chance to choose between you and him it'd, be you. I can only ask for forgiveness when we have to have the waltz done."

Regulus nodded his head, agreeing with me without saying anything.

As the painter began to give out certain instructions, I turned my attention back towards other matters.

Such as making sure to have Father watch Mother's 'tea intake' and how the petals of the black roses sent out a bitter yet sweet scent.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: AS ALWAYS HARRY POTTER DOESN'T BELONG TO ME

-IT'SEMMYNOTEMMA