Remember Halloween

Narcissa sits on her father's grave. Her arms are around her knees, she's rocking back and forth. She remembers Halloween.

It was ten years ago. Andromeda was seventeen, just graduated, and pregnant with a Mudblood's child.

Her father had never hit any of them. But that day, he slapped his hand across Andromeda's face, to all the sister's shock.

Narcissa buried her head in Bella's shoulder, rubbing the tip of her finger against the scar between her thumb and pointer. All of the girls had one. They had did it last year, as a bond.

She couldn't block out the screaming, though.

"I love Ted!" Andromeda screamed. "If you can't handle that, fuck off!"

Gasping, Narcissa comes out of the memory, the pain as fresh as it was when her sister first yelled those words. Not I love Bella or I love Cissa but I love Ted. One difference, forever changing the family.

~

Bellatrix tries to forget Halloween.

She sits in Azkaban, leaning against the wall and holding back the tears and the memories.

But the wounds still are fresh, and the memories can't be fought off anymore.

Bellatrix felt Cissa's hand digging into her arm. With one hand, she rubbed her sister's back, soothing herself as much as the youngest Black child. She rubbed at the scar between her thumb and pointer, remembering the blood that the sisters had shared and wondering how this happened.

"Don't you DARE say that to me! I am your father, young lady!" Bellatrix's dad screamed back at Andy.

"I will tell you anything I want! You are not my father! I'm not part of this family any more!" Andy looked up at the stairway. For a split second, the sister's eyes met. Bellatrix knew that they would always love each other.

Then Andy left, and Narcissa looked up with the door slamming. The two remaining Black girls scrambled up to Narcissa's bedroom to distract and soot each other without Andy for the first time.

~
Andromeda doesn't want to remember anything.
She curls up with Ted and tries to forget, but as Halloween draws closer, she remembers.
As the door slammed behind her, Andromeda began to cry silently. There would be no more Bella and Cissa. They were behind her now. The Black sisters were over.
She imagined her sisters now, probably sharing a bed, trying to comfort themselves and forget. She knew them too well.
So she tried to forget. Forget the scar between her fingers, forget the scars in her heart. Forget why Halloween was her favorite holiday, today was Halloween. The first day she and her sisters discovered their other kind of love.
And forget the mystery they shared. The basement in the house was always locked. The sisters liked to believe it was a torture chamber, and if they ever were too bad, they'd be sent down there.
She knew if her father knew about the three of them, they would be in there in a second. So she tried to forget.
It didn't work. It never worked.
She still remembers.
~
It is almost midnight. Almost Halloween. The anniversary of the sister's love, the sister's bond, Andromeda leaving and their father dying.
Narcissa takes out her knife and opens the wound between her fingers once more. She lets the drops fall onto her father's grave.
"I hope you burn in hell for what you did to us, dad," she growls.
Somewhere in the distance a clock strikes twelve.
It's Halloween.