Sometimes it hurts to even look at them. It's like looking at the sun - they are great, powerful and it feels like their presence is essential to keeping her alive. They burn so brightly, an eternal, glorious blaze that she wants to bask in forever...
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BELLATRIX'S POV
JULY, 1964.
Bellatrix Black had been born into conflict. Conflict in this sense does not refer to some asinine, childish disagreement. Maybe it started that way, but it has since developed and evolved uncontrollably to turn into a volatility that has come to define her.
Her birth was initially heralded by disappointment. Cygnus Black had desperately wanted a male heir, and in lieu of one, decided that Bellatrix would do. She had been raised with the same education that is typically given to male heirs - she learnt of politics, warfare, and hints of dark magic, rather than be taught about tea parties and elegance and poise. Still, Druella Black expected her to embody every trait of the perfect lady, despite the fact that she hadn't been raised to be one.
Most of the time, she is emblematic of a violent, vicious kind of conflict. These days, though, she is plagued by an emotional kind of conflict. She seldom admits it, even to herself, but she's gradually becoming more distressed.
First and foremost, as the summer holidays are now in full swing, Bellatrix is relieved to be reunited with both of her sisters. Letters and conversations via the two-way mirror do not compare to real life. She's glad to have both of her younger sisters under the same roof that she is, where she can easily find and check on them, where they're never far from sight.
Narcissa is slightly more aloof than she had been when she was younger, but Bellatrix is eager to put that down to ageing and becoming more mature, rather than the influence of their mother. Of the three Black sisters, Narcissa Black is the most like their mother - Druella had taken her youngest daughter under her wing, and Narcissa had flourished under her tutelage.
Since her birth, Narcissa has held a special place in their mother's heart. Druella sees an apprentice, the opportunity to create the woman she could never manage to be. Her relationship with her eldest daughter is far more tense. Bellatrix has this spark of madness in her eyes that scares her mother, and she's never managed to fulfill the expectations for the perfect pureblood lady. There is now the additional strain of Bellatrix's status as a member of the slytherin quidditch team. The two tend to avoid each other.
Bellatrix feels overwhelmingly reassured by having her sisters close by. And yet, there's an itch under her skin - she feels Briar's absence deeply, on both a mental and physical level. Unconsciously, she finds herself looking for Briar whenever she enters a room, and she may start a sentence that she would address to Briar, before realising that she isn't there - the same way a person who has had a limb amputated may still feel pain where it once was.
She wants, more than anything, to just be able to keep an eye on Briar and her sisters at the same time. It feels grievously unfair that the second Bellatrix gains one thing she must lose another.
