The Other Black Girl

Boys And Girls Come Out To Play,
The moon doth shine as bright as day.
Leave your supper and leave your sleep,
And join your playfellows in the street.

Come with a whoop and come with a call,
Come with a good will or not at all.

17^th Centuary Nursery Rhyme

Wulpurgis Eve:

1969. The Easter of my third year and we were at Grimmauld place while our parents prepared for the coming Wulpurigs celebrations. Muggle traffic mingled with muggle music as we lounged on Narcissa's bed late at night. In the day we watched Sirius and Aunt Eugina fight which they seemed to do constantly. Aunt Eugina was related to the Blacks by more then marriage and she showed it with her unpredictable temper. Throughout my childhood my memories of her were a shouting voice and an angry swish of skirts. Yet when she was not fuming she would have moments of startling affection, which would baffle the three of us but barely faze Sirius and Regulus who would jump onto her lap and relish the ceasefire. Yet the nights were ours, insomnia was the family curse (or was it a gift?) and we would furtively let the waves of melody wash us to sleep.

'What's an Eggman?' asked Sirius after he had burst in on us, causing Narcissa to scold him for a good five minutes. 'You might have been Aunt Eugina and then where would we have been? Next time, knock, for Merlin sakes - and you can stop smirking Bellatrix Nymphadora Black!'

'I don't know,' I replied. 'I once asked Tonks and he laughed and called me a hypocrite.' I tapped my feet to Ringo Starr as Bella adjusted the gramophone and Narcissa pushed the blanket, that muffled the noise of the music, back under the door.

'What Mudblood Tonks?' chimed Narcissa and Bellatrix

'My Arithmancy partner,' I nodded

'Meda's boyfriend!' Sirius let out a snort of laughter and I gave him a glare that would have made anyone but another Black run for cover. Sirius, who was constantly punished by my Aunt Eugina for ignoring the same glare, stuck out his tongue at me.

Tonks had ambushed me in the corridor halfway into the winter term.

'Out of curiosity Andy, is every member of your family just born an obnoxious, arrogant, prat or do they 'ave it systematically bred into 'em?' he asked casually flicking a brown curl out of his even browner eyes. I noticed they looked like dark Honeydukes chocolate and suddenly felt incredibly hungry even though it was straight after lunch.

'Born of course,' I said contemptuously shaking off this feeling as quickly as I could. 'Is there any point to this or are you just annoyed because I got the top mark in the last astronomy test?'

'I just enjoy your charming company,' he said sarcastically. 'Where are the rest of the unholy trinity?'

'No idea. You know contrary to popular opinion we're not telepathic,' I snapped back. 'Why do you want to know anyway?'

'Because your cousin and James Potter are 'aving a duel on the second floor corridor.'

'What! Merde! Sirius will slaughter him. You have no idea what Bella's been teaching him!' I cried forgetting that Ted Tonks was the last person I wanted to bear my soul to about the re-formed Bellatrix/Sirius alliance, which had resulted from their joint desire to taunt Severus Snape and the fact that they got bored far too quickly without each other.

'Your sister? Teaching him?' Tonks's eyes went wide and we looked at each other for a moment, a flash of understanding passing between us. Nearly dropping our books, we sped down the corridor. We found Sirius and James rolling on the floor surrounded by a crowd of very excited first years. Potter's ears were a rather putrid shade of purple and Sirius had a black eye. Tonks and I looked at one other.

'Pincer formation,' he whispered. We broke through the crowd and pulled the two boys off each other. The first years' groaned and Sirius struggling out of my grasp, attempted a last kick at James.

''Meda, geroff!' he cried to affirmations from the crowd.

'Anyone who is not out of my sight in the next ten seconds will wish their parents had had the good sense to drown them at birth,' I snapped at them causing a small blond chubby boy to jump backwards five metres. Tonks who was holding an equally struggling James gave a small snort of laughter and good-naturedly mouthed, 'she means run.' The first years didn't need telling twice.

'Sirius what happened?' I asked with a sigh once the four of us were alone.

'I called Evans a Mudblood and that prat punched me out of the blue!' he snarled, a mix of indignation and confusion.

'I don't blame him,' muttered Tonks

'Only because you wouldn't even bloody apologise!' Potter yelled.

'Blacks never apologise,' Sirius and I chimed indignantly.

'Besides, what for!' he demanded.

'For calling Lily a Mudblood!'

'But that's what she is!'

I bit my lip, remembering that Ted Tonks had just dropped everything to come and help me. Suddenly against all my better judgement and as though my limbs were taking on a life of their own I turned to face my scowling cousin.

'Sirius, you mustn't call people Mudbloods if it's going to upset them,' I told him firmly.

Ted Tonks let go of James in shock. 'You call me Mudblood all the time!' he exclaimed.

'Yes, but it doesn't upset you. Oh look, just keep out of this. I don't want to spend my life in the hospital wing sorting out the first years' squabbles!' I realised I was starting to make very little sense and wished he'd go away.

'Andromeda, why are you blushing!' Sirius suddenly exclaimed. James and Sirius looked at each other and suddenly their faces cracked into identical evil grins. Forgetting their argument they collapsed into peels of laughter.

Now, back at Grimmauld place I turned to Sirius, 'I don't see what's so funny!' I said as stiffly as I could.

From that moment, Sirius and James had been inseparable and had an annoying tendency to turn up whenever Tonks and I were bickering and make kissing noises. I wondered if we had created a monster.

Now Sirius, lying casually back on Narcissa's bed, shrugged and said casually. 'Lily says that you have un-stated sexual tension.'

'What on earth is that supposed to mean?' I demanded.

'I don't know, Lily's sister reads lots of American magazines,' he replied.

'Sssssshhhhhhh, Eleanor Rigby is coming on,' Bella turned up the gramophone and I decided that Ted Tonks needed to be avoided. I didn't like the effect he had on me.

*************************

'Black, sweetheart, is really not your colour,' my cousin Evie announced triumphantly after ten minutes of deep speculation in which she and Narcissa had circled me like vultures viewing the dress from every angle. The three of us and the two younger Rookwoods had colonised the changing room of Lady Grey's and now stood with piles of dresses, robes and magical hair ornaments.

'Well thank Merlin that's sorted out,' the voice of Bilabus who, leaning on the side of the changing room, said sarcastically 'I was on tenterhooks.'

'No one asked you to come,' Evie retorted giving her brother a playful push. 'Now go and fetch the burgundy gown like a dear will you?'

Bilabus gave a long drawn out sigh and summoned the seventh dress I had tried on so far with a casual flick of his wand. Augustus Rookwood was not head of the department of mysteries for nothing and had had the good sense long ago to bar his youngest daughter from charging anything unbidden to the family account. Consequently Bilabus had already been dragged down Diagon Ally several times that morning. As the only son of the chairman of the Knights of the Wulpurgis and the heir to the Rookwood fortune, my maternal cousin could afford to be scornful of most things. He surveyed the spectacle of female grooming with the usual cool distaste he afforded everything, however despite his attempts to appear exasperated he could not fail to be amused by his sister's antics. The two of them teased each other so mercilessly that lesser mortals, who did not share the Rookwood temper and joue de vie, could not believe that they were actually fond of each other.

'You, Andromeda Black have breasts,' Evie told me as she threw the Burgundy dress over my head.

Bella gave an exclamation of laughter and trailed her own dress unceremoniously along the floor. 'Why is everyone so obsessed with Breasts? ' she demanded, slipping a black orchid behind her ear. As it was her first ball Mother had insisted that she wore white, a notion that Bellatrix was disgusted with. The dress was a Rookwood heirloom and had already been worn by not only Narcissa and I but before us our elder cousins. The dress had contrasted perfectly with their freckled skin yet it had not been able to live up to the Blacks. Although Narcissa looked good in everything the dress had struggled with her beauty, giving her a pale ghostly look and on me it hadn't been much better.

However, if it had not been the best dress for us it looked terrible on Bellatrix, the bright white frills giving her a disrumpled look and making her expression appear sallow. Bilabus thought it was hilarious and smirked that obviously the Blacks were just too 'pure' to wear white. Evie, sensing a fashion disaster had concentrated all her efforts on trying to stop Bella from trying on every inappropriate hair accessory possible, including a brocade of hag teeth she had discovered in a shop Bilabus had dragged us to in Knockturn Alley.

'Because not everyone is quite as blessed as you are darling,' Evie laughed, gesturing at her own small bust. 'It looks like the Rookwood family were not as fortunate as the Blacks!'

'Speak for yourself, Moll has perfectly nice breasts,' retorted Bilabus.

'Molly is pregnant idiot!' Evie exclaimed rolling her eyes and muttering something exasperatedly which sounded like 'men'. 'No idea why already, she'll ruin her figure,' she continued pensively.

'Well, that's what you get for marrying a Weasley,' Bilabus shrugged. It was considered rather bad form for a woman to become pregnant so soon after her marriage. Delicate pureblood women were expected to take longer to beget an heir.

Evie laughed. 'Remind me if I ever marry for love, to make sure I pick a decent pedigree.'

'Arthur's pureblood.' Bella said annoyed. We had only met Molly's husband once as a result of the family's quiet animosity at Margarette Rookwood's choice of husband. But it was from him that we had obtained the gramophone and we therefore had nurtured a grateful loyalty.

'Well there's Pureblood and there's pureblood, but never mind about that,' Evie said with a wave of her hand.

You're just smug because she's promised to call it Genevieve after you- Evie Weasley- how awful that sounds, she'll have to give it another nickname.' Bilabus made a face.

'Ginny then, and Arthur's promised he'll get me some fashion magazines from his job so I'm not going to look down on it!'

Bilabus smirked. 'My sister, the mini-skirt obsessive, what would the Quibbler say?'

'Oh shush, you're making me out into some frightful blood traitor and you can imagine what a field day the tabloids would have about that. Besides it was you who took me to Camden!'

'You went out into the muggle world, what was it like?'

'Bellatrix!' Narcissa exclaimed and Evie laughed as she noticed my younger sister had snapped out of her sulk.

'Absolutely vile of course,' Evie said smiling. 'Although muggles do know how to have a good time. We went to a place called a nightclub and Bilabus got drunk off his face.'

'At least I didn't have five muggle men crowding around me,' Bilabus replied. 'It's a good thing Father doesn't know what a flirt you are.'

'I can't help it if I'm naturally charming can I!' came the retort. Narcissa tried and failed to look shocked while Bella jumped up and down with glee.

'No, no one could doubt that. I'm surprised you didn't marry Rosier when you had the chance,' Bilabus said. 'Or are you really planning on dying an old maid?'

'Oh, not that again. You know I like to keep my options open.'

'Yes, and let Father barter you around in his business deals,' Bilabus replied nonchalantly.

'Of course, darling. I only live to serve the Rookwood name,' she simpered falsely. 'Besides everybody knows Evan and Juliana were made for each-other.'

Genevieve Rookwood was eighteen years old and despite being the self-proclaimed party girl of her year and the most popular debutante had, to the talk of everyone, not yet managed to snare a husband. Aurora Rookwood, after seeing her eldest daughter married was now despairing of her lively younger daughter who seemed more interested in forcing her brother to drag her to parties then planning her trousseau. However Evie relished the scandal, joking that soon there would be betting pools on the man of her choice. At the moment she said, she was more than happy to play maid of honour at the marriage of Evan Rosier and Juliana Fudge. The wedding would be a grand affair; the daily prophet's society pages had paid exclusively for pictures and rumours were that Oswald Fudge, the minister for magic, had hired a troop of dancing banshees for the approaching nuptials. However, not even Narcissa, the youngest bridesmaid, could pretend that it was a boring wedding ritual which had caused Rabastan and Lucius to let off a cluster of filibuster wet start fire-works on the school train. On the 30^th of April, the night before the wedding, the young and the beautiful would come out to play. Because we were wild and for a fleeting illusion passing over the shadow of the moon we were free, because it had been done for generations before us, the tradition as pure as the blood running through our veins and most importantly because we could and it was the tantalising hint of possibility that would later change my life.

Evie tightened the burgundy dress, pulling the polished mahogany comb that I had used to secure my hair so it fell down onto my bare shoulders. She scrutinised me for a few moments and then turned to Bilabus.

'What do you think?'

'I think it's a good thing her blood's so pure, because she looks dark as the night,' he laughed.

'Excellent,' Evie placed the Black Orchid behind my ear. 'Let the revels begin.'

********************

We were ambushed after dinner; already giddy on champagne and lack of food. (Mother had always assured that if she caught us doing anything as unladylike as eating in company then we would go without food at home). Everyone who was anyone was there, including all of the years Debutantes and we had formed a laughing ring around Juliana, a protective circle of teasing, blossoming womanhood, admiring her large diamond engagement ring as it sparkled in the candle-light. Seventeen year old Juliana Fudge was a joyous dark-haired ex-Hufflepuff and the heiress to one of the most prestigious political dynasties ever known. It was thanks to the close relationship between the Fudges and the Blacks that the ministry overlooked the shadier of Father's business deals, because after all it was the influence of people like us that kept the right people in power.

However, nothing was further from our minds than politics that night. The air was like static electricity before a storm, crackling with excitement and the high feminine laughter of youth, affluence and beauty. I could hear the clink of jewellery and whisky glasses and our father's after dinner conversation wafting on the air. It was Juliana's last time at doing this, once she was married and deflowered (Evie had shrieked with ironic laughter at this concept and the older girls had exchanged significant glances before collapsing into giggles), she would go to join our Mothers in the drawing room and so she was enjoying her last night of freedom in a way that would probably be splashed over the tabloids the next day. Someone had brought out a bottle of Bordeaux and we had laced it with Veela blood for beauty and elderberries for fertility, toasting marital felicity as we wound the traditional boughs of ivy into Juliana's hair. However it was when the last swathe of crimson settled behind the trees, that the twenty masked figures appeared at the door, illuminated in the shadows, their flaming green torches flicking manically as they burst into the room.

Evan was the first to move, he pulled his fiancé towards him, kissing her to catch the shriek of mirth escaping from her mouth and suddenly we were all laughing and exclaiming, calling out:

'Happy Wulpurgis Eve!' as we embraced each other in the twilight, the masked boys pulling the girls into their maniac dance.

I watched a tall slim figure that must have been Lucius swing Narcissa in the air, her fake laughter turning into a startled, unguarded smile as he placed a tentative kiss on her lips.

Narcissa. I think of her sometimes, my beautiful elder sister. Her marks were never as good as Bella's and mine yet she understood so much we could never comprehend. Whilst Bella would let people attract themselves to her enthralling manic energy, Narcissa liked to coax them into the palm of her hand and warm them until they were putty to mould. It was Cissa who taught me how to walk so that your skirts swayed seductively, how to hold a man's gaze so his desire for you almost drove him wild and then suddenly look demurely away. How to dance as though your feet were enchanted and most importantly how to make the world dance to the tune you wanted. At breakfast the next day she would appear with strange crimson and purple marks on her pale neck that Mother would extinguish with a satisfied swish of her wand.

A masked figure that I identified immediately as Rabastan from the small wisp of blond hair escaping through his eyehole hugged me from behind as he joined in with the other boys in their boasts. Marriages traditionally happened on Wulpurgis day in front of the setting sun. Yet it was Wulpurgis eve that we all looked forward too. Muggles have a tradition of gathering before a wedding to celebrate the last night of 'freedom', a stag night or something as ridiculous, yet in the Wizarding world we would do more than celebrate. On Wulpurgis eve the adults and the ministry would turn a blind eye to the midnight revels of the young and so armed with their wands and wearing the traditional masks, the boys and the groomsman to be would leave us to wreck havoc in the muggle world.

'Last year Theo tipped over a...what's it called?'

'A car idiot and that's nothing, remember what I did to that old woman!'

'Do you think the muggle authorities wondered why she was turquoise?' everyone laughed.

'Who cares. I bet the ministry sorted it out in the end, they turn a blind eye. Anyway tonight will be better, we should try some real curses.'

'Bat bogey hex is a real curse!'

'For a Hufflepuff Rabastan, you're not scared are you?'

'Course not, I just don't want to spend time in Azkaban because my elder brother can't hold his Rum!'

'As they'd ever put us in Azkaban.' Rodolphus gave a snort of laughter

Dorcas faked a yawn. 'Are you going or are you just going to talk about going?' she demanded causing a roar of laughter.

But it was Bella who laughed the loudest. In the darkness illuminated by the light of the torch she looked suddenly radiant and startlingly beautiful, a twirling, ghostly, ballerina, her white dress glowing in the moonlight and the light of the torches flickering over her laughing face in a frenzied dance. Suddenly she didn't look like the sister I knew, the small girl with the nightmares, the twelve year old who would listen to Eleanor Rigby and suck blood-pops until her tongue was crimson. She looked older and younger at the same time, a helpless child engulfed in the harsh beauty of life. I turned away nausea sweeping through me. Not knowing why I felt suddenly repelled.

'I'm coming,' she told Rodolphus. 'I'm not staying cooped up here!'

The other boys turned to him expectantly waiting for his answer, usually there would be uproar if a girl wanted to join in the revels but Bella was after all a Black and Sirius was too young to join in. They treated my younger sisters like a treasured mascot although I sometimes wondered if Bella didn't want to be more. I suddenly got the urge to try and stop her.

Rodolphus looked at her for a second and then nodded, conjuring her a mask out of thin air. She secured it, her laugh a beautiful violin sonata I had never heard before and waved to us as Rabastan kissed me goodbye. The two of us blushing slightly as I draped my satin sash around his neck and felt my stomach churn again.

As the other girls collapsed into laughter and settled down to wait for news of the revellers adventures, I replayed the image of Bella laughing as she secured her mask, fresh nausea flooding over me.

Excusing myself I ran to the marble bathroom and wretched until my stomach was clean of vomit.