The beginning of the end: Bellatrix Black

The pure-hearted one

January 13, 1996

I was about to go to bed after the feast of a dinner and the lovely warm bath with rose oil and rose petals from the solarium of the Malfoy mansion.

Just when I was redoing my hair I heard a soft knock on the thick, expensive door.

"Yes?"

"You weren't asleep now, were you? I remember you had hard time with that" said Narcissa

She looked a lot more confident with the trained Black smile. She had her mask. Of course.

"Believe me, in this soft bed I would die, mark my words Cissy." let's see if we could take off this mask.

"Careful what you wish for." still tense.

"Sit with me, do you want to talk? I have a lot to tell you and some questions as well..."

"Let's see." She took out her wand and casted some spells to mute our voices, lock the door and the light from the window. I added a fair share of my own just to be extra sure. She just looked at me but I knew that we were both certain that we had no idea where this was going.

"Tell me what happened" I stopped, unsure how to put it " The first year of Draco's, when Voldemort returned for the first time.

She looked at me still untrusting "No one believed really, the Ministry covered it quickly but to all Death Eaters, we all knew it was coming and he would find a way to do so. To return. Some were anxious, some expectant so some fled and some prepared." she stopped and took a deep breath.

"You remember that Potter family and the baby that had "killed" the Dark Lord. The child stayed with his mother's sister until he was eleven and had to start at Hogwarts... he... he got his letter and everything. Harry, the Potter boy, and friends of his, as the Death Eater rumours go, had gone through a series of challenges to get to the end where they somehow knew Voldemort was. The series of challenges were to protect the Philosopher's stone itself."

She looked at me with a childish grin, waiting for me to ask a question. A certain question.

"Who was the follower that helped the Dark Lord?" a wider grin.

"Some idiotic Professor down for anything in the name of the Lord and guess what type of physical appearance did the Lord make with his help?" now she was holding her laugh barely.

"Bella, he was "living" on the back of some man's head in a smelly turban for nearly a year. How unfortunate for he had to feed of unicorn blood." they were staring at each other.

Both women were thinking of that one and only time Bellatrix, Andromeda and Narcissa had gone on a picnic together but got utterly lost at the dept of a forest. None of them could apparate at the time and they had already tried setting red sparks but no one came.

Unicorns were creatures of pure heart and would appear only willingly to another creature of pure heart. So standing on a fallen tree, in the bushes they had seen the light of the magical animal. It was completely calm as it neared us. Fearless, it had seemed.

"Who do you think it was? The pure-hearted one?" Peculiar, I had realised in that moment that even though the three of us were Pureblooded, only one of us had been Purehearted. So much it mattered.

"I think that that unicorn was very sick in the head and had no idea who was Purehearted and who was not" she joked - she had relaxed and I had too, in a way. Maybe we both had the same plan.

So we continued catching up with years of information.

At some point Cissy got the House elf to bring wine. They had to celebrate the reunion. I was careful - taking small sips, careful not to lose my grip or let down my mask to much. A simple magic to make the glass seem emptier.

Narcissa on the other hand looked like she just had been needing a reason to drink. I was wondering what for would she be drinking but was certain that knowing her sister and how alcohol loosen her, she would open up anytime soon.

As we were discussing something rather unimportant Narcissa stopped in mid-sentence and whispering, staring at her perfect nails "Lucius was cheating on me."

I was shocked from the fact that Narcissa had said it but not from the statement itself. Purebloods, especially of the type, were like that. On both sides. The only difference here was that the whole Wizarding World didn't know. Maybe a fair lot suspected...

"Do you know the woman?" maybe not the best question but quite informative for me.

"Merlin be thankful, he is cheating on me with a man. After you were thrown in Azkaban and before your darling husband was, I saw him and Lucius in your house. I-I... I was going to collect some of your stuff before it was all thrashed by the Ministry.

I could not believe my eyes but it was happening before me and there was no way to ignore it. I left. Just like that. What could have I done?" I could see tears in her eyes. But she wasn't sad, no I knew her better than that, she was angry. Her knuckles white.

A proper sister would embrace her sister, tell her that it was okay, that Lucius was an idiot. Yet all those actions seemed so far, distant. We weren't the same people so they could not ignore that fact.

Narcissa, being not as good as me, had no hard time keeping her face features in order. Her tears quickly blinked back and her cunning smile back at its place. As the spark in her black eyes returned she said:

"A smart woman needs no man." that nearly brought an actual smile, not the fake one, to her face.

"Bring the champagne, sister. Let's drink to that." laughed I into the night. As time passed and for moment, maybe because of the alcohol, she felt at home and she felt... her heart full.