The Heirs of The Noble House of Black

Prologue

August 1966:

"Bella! Lyra! Wait up!" Eva Rosier chased after her cousins, her bronze hair clinging to her sweat covered forehead. She could see them up ahead, skipping through the trees of the woods on the grounds of one of the many Black family properties. It was a blistering hot summers day, a true rarity in England, and so she and her cousins had decided to make the most of it. Although Eva had to admit that she was feeling slightly left out. Lyra and Bellatrix slowed ahead of her, giving her enough time to catch up.

"Finally remembered me, did you?" Eva panted heavily.

"Sorry Eva, we thought you were right behind us!" Lyra apologised, looking genuinely sorry.

"We should get a move on though, Andy and Cissa should be waiting for us at the pavilion by now, and we need to get there before the boys find us!" Bellatrix said turning on her heel and expecting the other two girls to automatically follow- which they did. Eva smiled. She liked to be included in their games, even if it meant leaving her twin brother Evan behind. "He's with Sirius and Regulus anyway," she thought to herself "he'll be fine without me for a few hours."

The three girls approached a clearing in the leafy green woodland where a beautiful pavilion stood, looking out across a large pond. Two girls already sat within it, one blonde and the other with hair the shade of a deep dark brown.

The brunette smiled as she saw them approach, "It's about time!" she called out "We've been waiting here for ages, and, err... we may have gotten a head start on the sandwiches."

"Andy, you greedy pig!" said Bellatrix, plopping herself down next to her sister and playfully swatting her arm. Eva took them both in, noting how they looked even more alike than her and her twin, Evan. From a distance you could barely tell them apart, the main difference being that Bellatrix's black curls were darker, and much wilder than her sisters brown ones.

"I can't believe you've eaten all of the ham salad ones, you know they're my favourite! Cissa, why didn't you stop her!" Bellatrix whined on as both Eva and Lyra sat down on either side of the blonde girl to which Bellatrix was now speaking.

The Black Family. Bellatrix, Andromeda and Narcissa were Eva's cousins, as their mother Druella was her father's sister. Eva and Evan would come down to their house in Kent frequently throughout their childhood to spend time with them. And then there was the other half of the Black Family, Lyra and her younger brother's Sirius and Regulus, related to her cousins on their father's side. They would often come down to visit at the same time as the Rosier's, and so the 8 of them had become very close.

Tucking into the remaining sandwiches and pouring herself a glass of pumpkin juice, Eva listened to the girl's chatter, and joined in with their laughter.

"I'm trying to convince mother to take me to Diagon Alley next week to buy a new dress. Hopefully the new guy at the ice cream parlour will be working again. He's sooooo cute, he smiled at me last time I walked past." Said Lyra, dreamily looking off into space as she twisted her raven black hair, the same shade as Bellatrix's, around her finger, clearly lost in the memory of the event.

"Ooooooh, spring or summer?" said Andromeda, her tone clearly indicating that she was intrigued. However, Eva sat back in confusion. It seemed like such an odd response, but Lyra seemed to know exactly what she meant. "Hmmmm, I think I'm going to have to go with summer. Don't get me wrong he's gorgeous! He's tall and has really dark hair -you know how much I like dark hair- but I haven't actually spoken to him yet, so I can't really call him spring. But who knows, maybe one day..." her voice trailed off wistfully.

Eva furrowed her brow now, thoroughly lost. What the hell were they talking about? Why did they keep mentioning seasons? It seemed very out of place in the conversation.