Sisters Three

Bellatrix put her hand over her mouth and yawned. It caught the attention of both her sisters, who looked up from their books.

“Tired?” Andromeda asked. Bellatrix nodded lazily and leaned back at the chair.

“I spent five hours working on an essay for professor Matthews last night,” Bellatrix told. “It was supposed to be in yesterday but she decided to be nice and let me hand it in today instead. Which reminds me, why are we cooped up in the library on a Saturday?”

“Because I have a test on History of Magic on Monday,” Narcissa muttered quietly to herself. She carelessly flipped the page of her book, half reading and half thinking that she would rather have fun with her friends rather than study.

“You’re not the only one,” Andromeda added, making a small gesture at all the parchments and books spread around her. “Professor McGonagall and Professor Brocklehurst both gave us essays to write... it has to be at least 50 inches!”

“You’re a Ravenclaw, are you supposed to enjoy this?” Bellatrix asked curiously. Andromeda simply glared at her and then went back to writing her Astrology essay. Being the only one who lacked something to study for, Bellatrix started to think of things to do. She was getting bored of the silence but had a feeling that if she broke it Madame Pince would be on her throat and very likely to kick her as well as her sisters out of the library. As much as the thought amused Bellatrix, she didn’t think that Andromeda or Narcissa would appreciate it. Bored, she had nothing to do but look out the window.

It seemed like a perfect day to do nothing but relax and spend time with friends. The autumn leaves had acquired bright red and orange colours and despite the fact that it had rained earlier in the week it was completely dry and warm outside. One of the school teams was practising out on the Quidditch pitch. By looking at the colours she could see that it was the Gryffindor team. She frowned, upon watching their keeper catch every quaffle that was thrown towards the three rings. Either the keeper was very good or his team mates really bad. Being a Slytherin, she hoped for the latter. She had never been a fanatic when it came to Quidditch, but it was natural for her to want Slytherin to win the Quidditch tournament, just like everything else.

The keeper flew a little closer to the castle to catch a quaffle that had flown way past the ring and out of the pitch (Bellatrix sincerely hoped that it was one of the chasers who had been responsible for it flying way off course). He was still far away from the castle and the window Bellatrix say by when he caught the quaffle but Bellatrix still managed to catch a quick glimpse of his face.

Connor Matheson. For the sake of the Slytherin team Bellatrix hoped that he was as bad at Quidditch as he was at chartering stars. She knew that from a fact since the Slytherins in her year were unfortunate enough to be paired with the Gryffindors in astronomy.

“I’m going now,” Narcissa suddenly announced, closing her book and getting up. “I’m sick of studying.”

“That’s my little sister,” Bellatrix said lovingly and smiled.

“I’ll see you two later,” Narcissa answered, smiling as well as she gathered her books and parchments. She left the library and the sound of her footsteps could still be heard even when she was out of sight. Bellatrix’s smile faded slightly and preoccupied herself with folding small airplanes of parchments and enchanting them to circle around Andromeda’s head.

Walking down the empty corridors, Narcissa struggled to keep all her books and notes in her arm as they kept slipping down and falling on the floor. She had just readjusted the books slightly for the fifth time when she looked up and saw a group of girls walking around the corner and towards her. Her heart skipped in fear when she saw that all the girls wore Gryffindor badges on their robes and that both Maria Mannering and Antonia Wilkes were among them.

Mrs Preston seemed to have done a good job of making Maria’s hair grow back because it looked exactly like the way it had before Narcissa’s potion. But something told Narcissa that Maria wasn’t going to let her get away with that easily, even if it had been unintentional. Taking a deep breath, Narcissa began to walk towards them as well. Turning around and going back to the library wasn’t an option and she would look stupid.

It was an accident, Narcissa thought. Make her aware of that and everyone will be fine.

“What are you doing inside on such a nice day?” Antonia said in sickly sweet voice and the entire group of girls stopped, blocking Narcissa’s way. “Reading up on how to make more devastating potions?”

“It was an accident,” Narcissa said, empathizing the last word as she looked at Maria, who was glaring at her. “I didn’t do that potion on purpose.”

“Yeah right,” Maria spat angrily. “The potion just happened to end up in my hair when nothing happened to you and your friend!”

YES! Narcissa wanted to answer, because it was just that that had happened.

“Look, I’m sorry but it was an accident,” Narcissa apologized. “Now will you please let me pass?”

The girls didn’t move. Some crossed their arms and shot Narcissa death glares. Antonia took a couple of steps forwards and stood in front of Narcissa.

“Not so brave without your friends, are you?” she mocked. “You Slytherin are all the same, always doing bad things and sucking up to teachers so they won’t punish you.”

Narcissa flushed, not out of embarrassment but out of anger. She wanted to say something witty and mean to counter what Antonia had just said but couldn’t find the right words. Instead, her hand reached up to clutch her gold pendant, something she often did when she was nervous or needed time to think.

Antonia spotted this and in one fast move she yanked Narcissa’s hand away so that she could see the necklace. She eyed the necklace with a look that for some reason made Narcissa feel angry and protective of it. She pulled away her hand away from Antonia’s grip.

“Just leave me alone,” she said in a low voice. Before she could react, Antonia had pulled out her wand and was pointing it at Narcissa’s pendant.

“Diffindo!” she cried and Narcissa felt a tingling sensation in her neck as the gold chain that held the pendant split and slipped down from her neck. Antonia reached out her hand and snatched it as it fell.

“Give it back!” Narcissa cried, extending her hand and reaching for the necklace but Antonia backed away. She opened her palm and looked at the necklace while Maria walked up to her.

“How does it feel to loose something you like?” Maria sneered and gave Narcissa a strong push on her shoulder. She fell back and hit both her head and back against the cold, stone wall. Rubbing the back of her head, she could hear the sound of mocking laughter as the girls walked past her and down the corridor.

Narcissa put her hands against the floor, attempting to push herself up but instead she found herself tears rolling down her red cheeks. Crying like a little baby, she buried her face in her hands. The pendant had belonged to her mother, it was her mother’s last gift to her before she had died. How could those girls be so cruel to take that away from her? How could they?

Crying and thinking how angry Bellatrix was going to be when she would find out that Narcissa had lost the necklace, Narcissa didn’t hear the footsteps around the corner. She didn’t notice that she wasn’t alone in the corridor until she felt fabric brushing against her leg and someone’s hand on her shoulder. Lifted her head a little, lowered her hands and looked up to see who it was.

She found herself staring into a pair of deep grey eyes.

Eyes so intense, yet at the same time so cold and harsh. Enchanting and luring, it was impossible for her to do anything but to continue to stare into them. The more she looked, the more intoxicating it became to continue to look into them. She could have looked into those eyes forever, willingly lost and drowned herself within them.

“What’s wrong with you?”

The voice awoke her from the daydream she had slipped into. Blinking several times, she saw that a boy, or rather a young man, a couple of years older than her kneeling down in front of her. He was rather pale skinned with long, sleek blond hair that hung slightly over his shoulder as he had leaned forwards a little. Narcissa’s eyes darted to badge on his robe, to her relief she saw the same Slytherin badge on his robe as her own, along with a small pin with the letter P.

A Slytherin prefect, Narcissa thought to herself, somewhat surprised at herself that she hadn’t seen him before. Because she sure would have remember those eyes.

“I’m.. um... I...” Narcissa mumbled, trying to come up with a logical sentence to say but the only thing she could think of was how she wanted to loose herself in those grey eyes of his.

Sighing, the young man wordlessly got up and pulled Narcissa up on her feet. Blushing, she stroke a lock of her dirty blonde hair behind her ear and shyly looked up on the young man, who was much taller than herself. Narcissa nervously reached up her hand to finger on her pendant, but her fingers found nothing where the pendant usually hung. Her eyes widened slightly

“T...they took my pendant,” Narcissa stammered, trying not to panic.

“Who?” the young man asked, trying to sound patient and understanding.

“Gryffindors,” Narcissa told. Since he was a prefect, he should be able to help her out. She pointed towards the way the Gryffindors had walked down. “They took my pendant and went that way.”

Without saying a word the young man walked down the corridor. Narcissa brushed a little dirt off her robes and, forgetting all about her books and notes lying on the floor, she followed him. It didn’t take long before the Gryffindors were in sight, as they had stopped and were standing in a closed circle talking amongst themselves. They were so into their conversations that they didn’t even notice Narcissa and the prefect walking up to them.

“Antonia, you know that we’re going to get in trouble!”

“We’re gonna loose points!”

“...don't worry, I’ll just drop it somewhere later and then someone will find it and turn it in.”

“I suggest you turn it in now,” the prefect said in a clear voice, causing the group of girls to jump and then turn towards him. Narcissa tried not to grin as they had all looked at the prefect as if he was the grim reaper himself.

“Give her back her pendant now or I’ll take you all to see professor McGonagall.”

Antonia seemed to have recovered from the shock of seeing the prefect, because she stood up tall and held her nose in the air.

“What pendant?” she asked, trying to sound as if she didn’t know what was going on and that she wasn’t afraid. In the corner of her eye, Narcissa saw Antonia hiding a closed fist behind her back. The prefect must have seen it as well, because he pulled out his wand out of the pocket of his robe and pointed it towards Antonia.

“Accio pendant,” he said calmly.

Antonia’s arm shook, then suddenly the pendant and its gold chain came flying out of her fist and into the prefect’s hand. Narcissa couldn’t help looking at his long, beautiful fingers. She blushed again, then turned her eyes back towards the group of girls, who now looked even more afraid.

“I suggest that you get out of my sight before I deduct points from Gryffindor and then turn you over to professor McGonagall so that she can deduct even more points,” the prefect told. In only a few seconds the girls had left the corridor and were out of sight. Narcissa swore that the only time she had seen anyone run that fast was when Bellatrix had threatened a house elf with clothes if he didn’t get out of her sight.

The prefect turned towards her and held out his hand so that Narcissa could take the necklace. Suddenly he frowned and pulled it back. For a brief moment Narcissa was afraid that he was going to take the necklace just as the girls had. But she sighed in relief as he tapped the gold chain with his wand and said:

“Reparo!” The gold chain, which had been split by Antonia’s spell, became whole again and looked no different from the way it had looked before. Narcissa’s entire face lit up with happiness as the prefect placed the pendant and the gold chain in her hands.

“There, don’t loose it again.”

Then he turned around and left. Narcissa couldn’t help smiling the rest of the day. Not just because she had gotten the pendant back, but also because she could have sworn that the prefect had smiled just a little at her before he had left.

Days passed by quickly after that and had it not been for decorations being put up one morning Bellatrix wouldn’t have remembered that it was Halloween. Since she had classes most of the day, it wasn’t until she sat down at the Slytherin table that she could finally relax. She spent most of the dinner eating and listening to Jennie complain about the amount of extra transfigurations homework that she had been given by professor McGonagall. Occasionally Rod and Winston said something that interested her but most of the time she kept quiet.

Two hours and three attempts of starting a food fight later, the Great Hall was almost empty on people. Some of the teachers were still sitting at their tables, enjoying drinks and talking about different things while professor Jigger dosed off and fell asleep in his seat. Almost all of the students had finished and were in the respective common rooms. The exceptions to this were Bellatrix, Andromeda and Narcissa, who were sitting closely together near one of the fireplaces. Bellatrix and Andromeda were sitting next to each other while Narcissa sat on the floor, leaning her back against their legs. All three of them held a cup of hot chocolate while staring into the fireplace.

“You should have seen her face,” Andromeda laughed. “Professor Matthews chewed her out and said that she’d hardly find instructions on how to get rid of a boggart in a romance novel.”

“Serves her right,” Bellatrix agreed. “She spends most of her time running after Rod all the time even though she knows that Rod doesn’t like her.”

“She’s a Hufflepuff,” Andromeda reminded. “Hardworking, remember? They don’t give up easily.”

“For our sake I hope not,” Bellatrix murmured and sipped at her chocolate. “They’ve got least points so far, I checked the points this morning. Ravenclaw is leading at the moment and we’re close second. We got a good chance to win this year.” She smiled as Andromeda opened her mouth, probably to say something about Ravenclaw winning last year. “Just gotta watch out so those blasted Gryffindors don’t get ahead of us.”

“I hate Gryffindors,” Narcissa suddenly said in a bitter tone, almost startling both her sisters since Narcissa had been very quiet that nice. Andromeda’s left eyebrow rose slightly as she looked at Narcissa. The way Narcissa had spoken didn’t sound like it had much to do with the normal rivalry between the houses.

“Why?” Andromeda asked.

Narcissa shifted position so that she sat half turned towards them. Leaning her head against Andromeda’s knee, she told them what happened at potions class and her encounter with the Gryffindor girls in the corridor a couple of days ago. She had just come to the part where Antonia had taken her necklace and left her when she saw that Bellatrix’s face was flushed and red with anger.

“Oh, that... cow!” she exclaimed so loud that professor Jigger stirred in his sleep and that the rest of the teacher cast curious looks at her. “I’m going to hex her next time I see her!”

“Bella,” Andromeda said warningly.

“Fine, I’ll beat her up,” Bellatrix corrected and looked at Narcissa. “Do you want me to beat her up? Because I will.”

“Bella, please,” Andromeda said again. “Do that and you’ll get all kinds of punishments.”

“We’ll lose points and then Gryffindor will catch up,” Narcissa reminded, putting a hand over Bellatrix’s and squeezing it lightly. “Besides... he got the necklace back for me and he even repaired it.”

“He?” both Bellatrix and Andromeda repeated at the same time, both looking equally puzzled. Narcissa smiled, thinking about the prefect and those grey eyes she had lost herself in.

“A Slytherin prefect. He had grey eyes and blonde hair. But I don’t know his name or year.”

“Malfoy,” Bellatrix informed, smiling at Narcissa. “He’s a 5th year. I think father knows his family or at least a relative.”

“Can’t you tell me more about him?” Narcissa pleaded and raised her head slightly. She looked very happy and excited all of the sudden. “Like... his first name or how father knows them or... what food he likes and when his birthday is... and...!”

“What do I look like, Malfoy’s biography?” Bellatrix laughed, ruffling Narcissa’s hair lightly. “The Malfoys are a pure blooded family, just like ours. And his name is Lucius, that’s all I know.”

“Lucius...” Narcissa repeated to herself, as if she was tasting the name. She lowered her head again, letting it rest against Andromeda’s knee. Something inside her told her that it was a name that she would never forget, no matter how much time passed.

“Aw, our little Narcissa has a crush on Lucius Malfoy,” Andromeda teased and tickled Narcissa on the neck.

“I do not!” Narcissa shouted defensively, but she couldn’t help the fact that her cheeks were turning red. Bellatrix laughed again, knowing that Andromeda had been right on the spot.

“Oh yes, you do,” she insisted, tickling Narcissa as well. Narcissa laughed and tried to wriggle out of their grip. With both her sisters tickling her, she couldn’t get away. She pulled at her own arm and when she finally managed to pull it out of Bellatrix’s hold, she accidentally knocked the jug of chocolate out of Andromeda’s hand. The hot chocolate spilled out over Andromeda’s robes, as well as Bellatrix’s. Narcissa gasped and stared at her sisters.

Not a word was said and almost nothing was heard with exception from the fireplaces and Peeves wrecking havoc in a nearby corridor. Bellatrix, Andromeda and Narcissa all sat still as if they had been petrified by some spell. Seconds and minutes passed without any change.

Then, Bellatrix suddenly looked from the chocolate stained spots on her robes to Narcissa. Andromeda did the same. Instinctively, Narcissa crawled a little backwards. The two eldest Black sisters exchanged a short look. In a playful shriek and more hot chocolate being poured on robes, Narcissa got up and ran around the table. Her two sisters ran after her, one of them holding the last jug of chocolate and preparing to pour it over her anytime.

“Come back here you little rascal!” Bellatrix shouted, trying to sound angry while in reality she was doing everything to keep herself from bursting into full laughter. Narcissa was half laughing and kept tripping and stumbling as she ran around the tables to get away from her sisters.

They had completely forgotten about the teachers’ presence in the Great Hall. When the sisters started to chase each other around the table, professor Brocklehurst, the head of Hufflepuff and the astronomy teacher, rose slightly from her seat and was just about to tell the girls to stop when she felt someone pulling her arm. She looked to her left and saw that it was professor Baptisa, an old gypsy who worked as the divination teacher at Hogwarts.

“Leave them be, Brenna,” professor Baptisa said smiling. “It’s Halloween after all.”

Professor Brocklehurst gave her a questioning look, and then decided that it wasn’t that important after all. She sat down in her seat again and resumed her conversation with professor Flitwick about duelling. Professor Baptisa resumed her conversations as well, but once in a while she glanced at the three sisters. She watched them with a smile, but at the same time she felt a strange sadness inside her. But she kept quiet about it and for once, she hoped that her visions wouldn’t come true.