The Black Sheep

A/N: special thanks to my wonderful Beta Triumvirate: Lala, Proto and minime. You guys rock.

Chapter two

Bella's Great Wish

Back in her own living room at Noxbury Hill, Bo was pacing the floor, going over everything she'd heard at the Burrow. The audacity of their request filled her with contempt. How dare they try to use her in this manner? She, who had outwitted several of the Death Eater's recruitment attempts already! After all of her careful effort to stay prudently neutral, would she now risk her life for her accursed sister and a sad, rag-tag group of strangers? Had Nymphadora not been there, Bo might have thought it a puerile joke. And yet, she had been there, determined to put herself in harm's way and most likely get herself killed, the same as their mother had done. Bo seethed as a fresh burst of outrage washed over her when she thought of Arthur Weasley's idea of incentive; the desire to protect her "loved ones." There was no one alive--no one--for whom she would compromise her own safety, perhaps with the reluctant exception of her father.

So why could she not simply put the idea out of her mind? Why did she now find herself considering the best way to seek entry into the Dark Lord's service? There was, of course, the thrill of possibility, the attractive notion that, if she could manage it, she might end up with the entire world in her debt. But that wasn't it.

On the night that Albus Dumbledore died, Bo had been awoken in the middle of the night by several friends unable to wait until morning to deliver the impossible news that the Hogwarts headmaster was not only dead, but that he had been murdered by their former potions master, Severus Snape. Bo had been in her third year at Hogwarts when Snape began his first year as teacher. She had, almost immediately, become his favorite student, and Snape had easily been Bo's favorite teacher, as well as her Head of House. The idea that Snape had done something so contrary to the person Bo had known intrigued her greatly. To her, Snape had seemed shrewd, intelligent, clever, talented, and inexplicably loyal to Albus Dumbledore. Dumbledore's name was routinely abused within the privacy of the Slytherin common room, though the Slytherin students had learned quickly that speaking ill of the headmaster earned them no points with their new House leader. Could Snape have changed so much since she had graduated? Or had it been an elaborate act for all of those years? Somehow, she felt that neither was likely. There was something else going on. Was she curious enough to try to find out what it might be?

Bo was not one to make impulsive decisions, but she had learned through years of dueling professionally the importance of thinking on one's feet. Information was power, and Bo knew that only the well-informed would come out of this conflict the least worse for wear. She gathered a few items together, jotted a quick note to her father, left it next to the window used by the delivery owls, and locked her front door behind her just before she disapparated on the spot. A moment later, she knocked on the Weasley's front door, watching disdainfully as two garden gnomes chased each other in and out of several pairs of galoshes nearby. She heard a soft scuffling behind the door, and after a pause, it opened slowly. Arthur's face appeared, and catching sight of Bo, he pushed the door open wider, smiling pleasantly.

"Boadicea!" He gestured to the Burrow's interior. "Please come in."

"No, thank you," she said quietly, "I've only come to tell you that I will not join your Order." Bo paused just long enough to admire the effect of her words; his face fell almost comically, and she had to quickly suppress a smirk. "However," she continued, "there are questions I have which can only be answered by those in the Dark Lord's employ. I will join the Death Eaters in pursuit of these answers, and if I gain any knowledge which I can pass to you without great risk to myself, I shall do so." She reached into her robes and pulled out a small, wrinkled piece of parchment which she handed to the thoroughly bewildered-looking man. "This is the companion parchment to my Confidentiality Quill. If and when I wish to share information, it will appear there."

Arthur peered at her silently for a moment.

"T-thank you," he said finally. "And...and good luck."

Bo turned to leave, and was nearly to the gate when a thought occurred to her.

"Mr. Weasley," she said sharply, turning to look at him over her shoulder.

"Yes?" He stood in the doorway, framed by the light from inside the house as it poured out into the blackness of the night.

"Tell Nymphadora never to show her face in Noxbury Hill again."

And with a final swish of her cloak, she was gone.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

Bo was unsure how to best approach the Death Eaters. Such a thing must be done with the utmost care. But she knew of one way that would be the easiest and the most logical point of entry, which was why she now stood before a large and imposing stone house. From what she could see of them in the darkness, the once carefully manicured grounds looked like they had been left to their own devices for some time. All of the windows were drawn and dark. Bo took hold of the silver doorknocker, two long snakes whose tails entwined together, and rapped smartly three times. Almost immediately, a voice sounded from the other side of the closed door.

"Bella? Is that you?"

"No, Aunt Cissy, it's Boadicea."

There was the scraping of many locks and bolts being undone, and the door opened to reveal a pale, blonde-haired woman standing in the dimly-lit foyer. She looked horribly gaunt; her cheeks had hollowed quite a bit since Bo had last seen her. The woman opened the door, gestured Bo inside, and then hurriedly replaced all of the locks on the door.

"I am expecting your other aunt sometime soon," Cissy murmured, and Bo noticed how her voice trembled slightly, and how her hands fumbled clumsily with the locks.

"Are you alright, Aunt Cissy? You do not look well."

"I'm--I'm fine," she said, looking at Bo with a slightly defiant expression, as though challenging her to state otherwise. But, almost immediately, her face melted back into a countenance of great unease. Bo watched her silently for a moment.

"How is Draco? Is he here?"

"No, no, he's--not here." Bo was alarmed to see tears well up in Cissy's pale eyes, so she quickly diverted her aunt's attention.

"Shall we wait for Aunt Bella in the drawing room?"

"Y-yes. Yes." Cissy recovered herself expertly, and led Bo across the hall and into a room that was furnished and decorated lavishly. The room was dominated by a huge, frescoed fireplace. At almost the exact moment they sat, there was another quick three raps on the front door. Cissy leapt from her seat as though she'd sat on something sharp and walked swiftly back to the foyer. Bo heard the door open, followed by the soft exchange of lowered voices, and then Cissy returned in the wake of a tall, dark-haired woman whose mouth curled into what once may have been a smile when her dark eyes fell on Bo.

"Hello, Aunt Bella," said Bo, inclining her head respectfully.

"A pleasure to see you, Bo. What are you doing here?"
"Well, I came to tell Aunt Cissy something, but I am glad that you are here as well, because I will have need of your help."

The two older women moved to sit on the sofa facing Bo's chair. Cissy looked slightly apprehensive, while Bella looked excited.

"As you know, my idiotic younger sister has taken up with those Order of the Phoenix people." Bo paused as Bella let out a derisive snort. "And, against my ardent advice, she chooses to oppose the will of the Dark Lord."

Bella seemed to be inching to the edge of her seat, her face expectant, while Cissy watched with a slight frown.

"A few hours ago, Nymphadora asked me to join their little club."

Bella let out a loud whoop of amused incredulity. Cissy looked stricken.

"At first, I found the idea so laughable that I dismissed it out of hand. I told Nymphadora never to seek me out again. But then I began to ponder...these are the people who hope to defeat the Dark Lord? These are the tactics they use against the most clever and powerful wizard of our time? And it occurred to me that I would be in a much better position when the Dark Lord is victorious, as he certainly will be against these witless fools, if I express my support for him now, rather than after he has won."

Bella seemed positively beside herself with glee.

"At last!" she said, an almost hungry gleam in her eyes. "At last the Black women will be a trio once again! Ah, Boadicea, you have no idea how I have longed for this moment!"

Bo allowed herself a small, satisfied smile. Cissy's aspect, however, had changed little. If anything, she appeared even more anxious than before.

"Bo, are you--?" Cissy's eyes flickered briefly in her sister's direction. "Are you sure that this is what you want? You know that we will vouch for you when the Dark Lord has triumphed."

"You give her too little credit, Cissy!" Bella regarded her sister reproachfully. "She is a true Black! I would expect nothing less! It is the only intelligent thing to do! Oh, the Dark Lord is going to be so pleased."

"When shall I meet him?" Bo asked, speaking slowly and with extra care.

"We can take you to him tomorrow!" Bella took on the demeanor of a mother planning a daughter's wedding. "We shall announce you as Boadicea Black, and give the Dark Lord a full account of your lineage. He will want to know about your father, of course, but he is most understanding of those kinds of flaws. The Dark Lord will be pleased to have a professional dueler under his direct command. I imagine the tasks he will give you will be quite important. I expect that you shall gain favor quickly. Perhaps you shall even become his favorite one day, after me!"

"What do you imagine the Dark Lord will require of me at our first meeting?" asked Bo, carefully keeping her voice light.

"Oh, it is different for each of us," Bella said energetically. Cissy made a strange noise like a strangled gasp, and Bella whirled on her. "You should be overjoyed, Narcissa! Draco may not have been the one to kill Albus Dumbledore, but he had a hand in it; a very important role! The Dark Lord has accepted him. His failure was not complete. Now it is Bo's chance to fulfill her destiny, and she will succeed beyond even our expectations because she is a Black, and once again our family name will be revered as it has not been for a generation!"

She turned back to Bo, her face alight.

"You should go to bed and get some sleep. You will want to look your best for the Dark Lord tomorrow. I'm sure Cissy has something special that you could wear, and I can fix your hair..." She faded out mid-sentence, her eyes glazed and staring off into space. Cissy watched her sister for a moment and then stood, indicating to Bo to follow.

"You can use the first guest room on the left. You know the one," she said softly. Cissy glanced quickly over her shoulder in the direction of the drawing room, and then turned back to whisper fiercely. "You do not have to do this, Boadicea. There are many who support the Dark Lord who are not Death Eaters."

Bo considered her aunt for a moment. Was it genuine concern she saw there, in the piteous, slightly sunken eyes? Or was it something else? Jealousy? Fear?

"It is alright, Aunt Cissy. I know that I do not have to do this. I want to do it. As Aunt Bella said, I am a Black."

And without waiting for a response, she began climbing the velvet-carpeted steps to the second story. When she had closed the door to the guest room behind her, she sank onto the bed, lost in thought. What would the Dark Lord ask of her? For the first time since she made her decision, Bo felt real trepidation. He had demanded that Draco kill Dumbledore. He may not have meant Draco to succeed; indeed, the rumor was that Draco's failure would be punishment for his father Lucius's mistakes. But if the Dark Lord could set a 16-year-old schoolboy to such a task, there was no way to tell what he would require of her. How far was she willing to go? She had assumed she would be able to do whatever it took. The thought that she might be asked to kill had occurred to her. Dueling had taught her that hesitation is a fatal flaw. If she was commanded to kill, she could not afford to falter.

She lay back on the bed, closed her eyes, and slowly cleared her mind of all thoughts, letting go of all of the emotions that the evening's events had brought to her. And then, suddenly and unbidden, the face of Severus Snape floated up into her mind. He was staring at her angrily, his expression fierce and reproving. His mouth silently formed some unknown words, which might have been a spell, for his face was abruptly obscured by a blinding light that grew so bright that it became painful. Bo jerked awake with a start. Her eyes were still watering heavily from the light, and she spent a few moments lying very still, desperately hoping that she had not been permanently blinded. Dreams like these sometimes came to her when she was especially tired or had had a difficult day. They had never caused her much concern in the past. But considering what she had learned earlier, this one unnerved her slightly. Why did this image of the most influential man of her formative years disturb her so? As she lay contemplating this, her resolution to find out exactly what was going on solidified further in her mind, and a new surge of determination greatly calmed her distress.

She settled herself down into a comfortable position, and once again cleared her mind. She would need to be at her most calm, her most wary when she faced the Dark Lord. She drove her former mentor's face from her mind and continued meditating, until the long day finally took its toll and she sank down into a deep sleep.

A/N: I forgot to add into the notes on the first chapter (although I guess it doesn't much matter at this point since we're all dealing with the system bug at the moment) that this fic works under the idea that Andromeda Tonks died sometime during the first war against Voldemort, which would make it slightly AU, I guess. While Tonks never comes out and says whether or not both of her parents are still alive, the text (especially in OotP) indicates that Andromeda is alive and kicking, but for storytelling purposes, she's taking a well-deserved dirt nap in this fic. Sorry if that causes any confusion/incredulity/bent noses.