Becoming My Sisters' Enemy

A/N: Well, I am back! I am in the process of revising the chapters I had previously written under the title "A Raven In A Family Of Snakes," and there will be some major changes! I want to thank Hermystwin, my beta!! She has been great :) Anyways, please read and review and let me know what you think!

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Chapter One: The Sisters Black

To say that my childhood was not enjoyable would be an entirely incorrect statement. Yes, my parents were harsh and unyielding in their beliefs, but I truly did not know any better. My sisters and I were very close and kept each other in check. We did almost everything together, and I can't think of very many moments when I was ever truly unhappy.

I was born Andromeda Persephone Black on the night of February 28, 1953. It was a cold winter evening, but beautiful nonetheless or so my mother once said. As was tradition, I was named after a constellation. Although I was too young to remember it, I've seen the photographs of the night I was born, and while I wasn't the male heir that my parents desired, they were still happy when I was born. Even if it was never shown to me as I grew up, my parents did truly love me.

My earliest memory takes place about two and a half months after my second birthday, when my younger sister, Narcissa, was born. When Mother and Father explained to my older sister, Bellatrix, and I that we were going to soon have a little brother or sister, Bella told me that we should pray for a little sister. After all, Bella and I, at ages four and two respectively, were already extremely close, and we didn't want a little brother to ruin what we had.

On the morning that Narcissa was born, Bella and I danced round and round when the house-elf told us we had a little sister. However, neither of us understood why Mother sobbed hysterically for days, or why Father, when he wasn't locked in his study, was in such a foul mood. It wasn't until years later that I learned why they had reacted in this way. Mother had had such a hard time delivering Narcissa that the Healer had told her that she would not be able to bear more children. This had been their last chance at a male Black heir, and it had not turned out the way they wanted.

Regardless, our childhood was decent. The three of us were a collective front against our parents and the house-elves. We were raised from the very beginning to be "proper young ladies" and to be proper members of "The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black." We had to uphold the pureblood standards and do nothing to disgrace the family name.

Even from an early age, the three of us had very different but complementary personalities. Bella was the wild child, determined to do things her own way, without any regards to the consequences; however, her wildness usually stopped short of actually bringing any disgrace to the family. She also had a wicked temper that could flare up at any moment. Bella was named after one of the stars in the Constellation Orion. Bellatrix is directly translated from the Latin into "female warrior." As her name reflected, she was a female warrior, and she was always ready to prove her brilliance when it came to dueling. Long before she ever had her own wand, she would manage to nick either Mother's or Father's and practice her hexes. Bella's looks reflected her personality as well. She had the aristocratic looks of our long-standing pureblood family, with sharp lines and heavily lidded eyes. Her eyes themselves were so dark a brown that they were almost ebony, and her hair, which she kept naturally long, was straight and black.

Narcissa, or Cissy, as she became known to us, was practically the polar opposite of Bella. She was much more feminine than either of us, and she could easily charm not only Father, but even other grown men, from an early age. The drawback to this was that she became very narcissistic and vain, a vice we too often indulged. She didn't care too much for reading or learning, as she felt she could rely on her looks to get her through life. Cissy was often regarded by our peers as a bit of an airhead, but to those of us that knew her well, she was someone not to cross. She could stand up for herself, if she truly wanted to, but more often than not, she preferred to allow others to look out for her. Cissy's looks came from the Rosier side of our family, with her blonde hair that was so light that it sometimes looked white, cascading down her back in perfect curls, and her crystal clear blue eyes. Her smile was perfect with straight teeth and her face never became blemished, even throughout her teen years.

I seemed to fall somewhere in the middle of the two. I was the logical one, who thought before I spoke and who could usually be counted on to get us out of trouble. I was more even-tempered than my older sister was, and definitely not as vain as my younger sister. This isn't to say I was perfect or had no shortcomings. I was very insecure about myself, and I had a stubborn streak that often got me into trouble with my parents. As I grew older, boys and men would often tell me I was pretty, and while I didn't always believe it, I guess in a way I was. I had also received my looks from the Black side of the family, and as such looked like Bella; however my hair was a much lighter brown, and my eyes were blue, but darker than and not as clear as Cissy's were. Once I was old enough to decide how I wanted to look, I kept my hair just about at my shoulders and usually allowed it to stay naturally wavy. I was always the shortest of the three of us, and the most petite; and I was the last of the girls my age at school to develop, which worried my parents. They were afraid they wouldn't be able to marry me off to a decent pureblood husband.

However, it wasn't only my looks that worried Mother and Father; it was my love for reading and my thirst for knowledge. To them, this was a trait that should be crushed out of me at an early age. Women in the Black family had no need for jobs, as they would marry into other rich pureblood families. At the time, this was what I believed their reason was for wanting to change me, but later, as I grew older, I learned they feared that eventually, I would become learned enough to reject the family beliefs and values. Little did I know at the time that their worries would eventually turn into reality.

The three of us were mainly raised and cared for by the family house-elves, Tillie and Girvan, although we were never allowed to call them by their names, only "elf." Father was rarely home, and when he was, he was in his study. Mother made sure that the house-elves kept us out of her way as much as possible. On the rare occasion that we were graced with her presence, we had either done something drastically wrong, or she had decided it was a good moment to teach us some sort of lesson in decorum.

Mainly, though, we were left to our own devices. The years all seemed to fly by, each day running into the next. As it would not be appropriate to attend a Muggle school, we were taught how to read, write, and even speak foreign languages by our tutor, Ingrid. She was a pureblood witch, who had been met with an unfortunate divorce, leaving her penniless. However, as she was of a good pureblood family, our parents believed her fit to teach us.

Most of our time was spent either in Black Manor or on the sprawling grounds surrounding it. The few times we left the comfort of our manor were for the occasional dinner parties at the manor of another respected pureblood family or to visit number twelve, Grimmauld Place, where our Aunt Walburga and Uncle Orion lived. There were always extravagant feasts and balls for Christmas, New Year's and end of summer, none of which we would be able to attend until we were thirteen. In our own family, we had fancy dinner parties for each of our birthdays.

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On April 3, 1962, when I was barely a month over nine years old, I was curled up on the couch in Bella's room, braiding Cissy's hair. I watched Bella try on every dress that she owned and then immediately rip the dress off. Pulling a pastel pink dress over her head, she sighed in frustration. Bella flopped dramatically on to the couch next to me and buried her head in my thigh.

Although her voice was muffled, I heard her say, "Why are none of my dresses grown up?"

I looked around at all of the dresses spread over her bedroom floor and sighed. Things were changing and I was a bit scared. It was Bella's eleventh birthday, and that morning at breakfast, she had received her letter of acceptance to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. At nine years old I couldn't exactly tell you why things would change or what would happen to all of us, but I knew that once Bella left for Hogwarts, things would never be the same.

Standing up and trying not to step on Cissy, I waded through the dresses and finally found the one I was looking for. It was the first dress that Bella had tried on, and it was by far the least frilly of her dresses. It was a plain mint green dress with short sleeves and a skirt that fell just to Bella's knees. Mint green was by no means Bella's colour, but Mother constantly bought the three of us dresses befitting of proper young girls, even if they looked horrid on us.

Holding it out, I said, trying to sound sincere, "Bella, this one isn't so bad."

Bella lifted her head and grimaced, but reluctantly stood and pulled the dress back on. Looking at her reflection in the mirror, she shook her head but made no attempt to pull it off and didn't say another word about it. Sitting back down on the couch, I resumed my braiding of Cissy's hair, adding pink ribbons in to match her dress. Finally, Bella broke the silence, saying, "Andie, you and Cissy should go get ready. You know Mother will want to inspect us before Auntie and Uncle get here."

I finished the braid and tied it off with a piece of pink thread. Standing up, I stretched, took Cissy by the hand, and quickly gave Bella a hug, allowing her to give me a kiss on the forehead. Pulling Cissy out of the room with me, I called out, "Elf!" and walked towards Cissy's room. Finally, Tillie appeared in front of us with a loud pop and said, "Yes, Miss Andromeda?"

I didn't smile at the small creature, as all three of us had learned from a very young age that house-elves were servants and should not be treated with respect. "Make sure that Narcissa gets dressed appropriately in a pink dress for dinner," I barked as sternly as my nine-year-old self could manage.

The house-elf nodded her head and shooed Cissy into her room. Our parents expected us to be fully independent by the age of eight, so at nine years old, I was almost able to do everything without help, but Cissy was still a month shy of seven and still relied on us to help her out. I walked down the hall to my room, which was across the hall from Cissy's but next to Bella's. My room was the size of what most would consider a small cottage. It was painted a dark blue, and along with a king size bed with a canopy and two walk-in closets, I had two couches, a large desk, and a beautiful dark brown bureau with a matching armoire and full-length mirror.

Walking into the closet to the right of my bed, I was confronted with possibly hundreds of choices for dresses. Knowing that this was Bella's dinner, I picked out a very simple light blue dress that almost reached my ankles. I brushed my hair carefully and decided to wear it down naturally. Throwing on a simple pair of flats--proper young ladies were not allowed to wear heels until their thirteenth birthday, and they were never allowed to wear sandals--I looked in the mirror one more time then walked down the hall to collect Cissy. I found her on her window seat, staring at the birds flying outside. I walked up to her and gave her a hug from behind.

She smiled and looked up at me just as Mother called from downstairs, "Girls, time to come down now, your Aunt and Uncle will be here any moment." I rolled my eyes and helped Cissy down from her perch. We walked into the hallway just as Bella came out of her room, looking like a queen. In a way, she was just that for this evening.

Mother, who looked us up and down as she met us at the bottom of the stairs, said nothing, but gave us a curt nod. We took this to mean we looked passable, and we went into the sitting room to wait.

Bella, Cissy and I had been raised with the idea that children, especially girls, were to be seen and not heard. So, dinner was a relatively quiet affair, even with our three-year-old cousin, Sirius, constantly getting into mischief and his younger brother, Regulus, who was only eight months old, constantly dropping his silverware and food on the floor. Aunt Walburga, of course, did not seem to be affected by the stress of the two children. We all knew that their house-elves, Kreacher and Mosley, were raising them just as we had been raised by ours.

Occasionally, the conversation would stray to the impending war and talk about Mudbloods, but Mother would give Father a sharp look and he'd ask Bella another question about going to Hogwarts. Naturally, this would spur another comment from Uncle Orion about the Mudblood population, and the whole cycle would begin again.

Of course, in the abstract, I knew what a Mudblood was, although I had never met one and I half expected them to bleed mud. Even though we rarely left the manor, Mother and Father had, on more than one occasion, spoken to the three of us about the importance of our blood. We were not to associate with anyone that was not a pureblood of good repute, meaning that they were not a so-called "blood traitor," siding with the Mudbloods. Our parents even had their doubts about sending us to Hogwarts, as the Headmaster, Albus Dumbledore, was what I once heard Father refer to as, "a Muggle-crazy blood traitor." They also worried about the situation in Slytherin, where no doubt all three of us would be sorted into--the consequences were unthinkable if we didn't end up in Slytherin--as the Head of Slytherin, Horace Slughorn, seemed to have no qualms about teaching and helping to advance Mudbloods.

Finally, after what seemed like a lifetime, dinner was over. It was hard to sit still and be quiet for three hours, and I couldn't wait to get upstairs and change out of my dress. Cissy and I stood out of the way as Aunt Walburga and Uncle Orion said their goodbyes, but Bella was called forth to receive 100 galleons from Auntie and Uncle, and she beamed in surprise at the gift.

After Auntie and Uncle left, our parents just looked over at us and Father said, "Go on, then, get to bed." We walked rather quickly up the stairs--proper young ladies were not allowed to run--and Bella walked into her bedroom, while I took Cissy into her room and helped her change.

After she was in her nightgown, I said, "Go into Bella's room. I'll be there in a moment, all right?" She nodded her head and ran across the hall.

I walked into my room and quickly changed into my nightgown and braided my hair. Walking down the hall to Bella's room, I found her and Cissy already lying on her bed. Taking my place on Cissy's right, so that she was in the middle, I smiled sadly over her head at Bella. Bella seemed to know what I was thinking and shook her head slightly, murmuring, "It's fine, Andie." I knew that she didn't want to discuss the fact she was leaving yet, and she definitely did not want to upset Cissy. As we fell asleep all together, I prayed that no matter what Bella's first year would bring, once she came home, things would be perfect again.