Cygnus Black III was the youngest of three siblings. He was the quiet one, never interfering in Walburga and Alphard's constant quarreling. Never caring enough to share any possible opinion, and fearful to disobey his parents' commands.
From a very early age, he understood the meaning of his surname, and the importance that it held. Maintaining a high status was a must, and so was preserving the purity of their blood. Not doing so, had proven to be a matter of dishonour in the past, so much so, that not contributing to this purpose would lead to one's repudiation. This would be shamefully represented by the burnt of one's name from the black family tree tapestry, which depicted every member the Most Ancient House of Black had ever had.
It was an hyperfixation of his sister Walburga to stare at said tapestry for hours on end, her attention particularly driven to the burnt names, which she looked at with disgust.
His father's own brother, Marius, had been disowned from the family for being a squib. Pollux didn't like to talk about him, stating he despised him and had done nothing but bring shame to their family. When Alphard asked where Marius had been all these years, Pollux was had his son punished.
The punishments were borne by their mother, a plain woman who lacked every kind of love to be expected from a mother. Irma and Pollux were rather absent during the three siblings's childhood. They had their favourites in Walburga, who they thought to be the perfect embodiment of their beliefs; and in Cygnus, who was young, seldom naive and easily manipulable. Alphard was, since the day he learnt to talk, a cause of distress for the family; a boy with too many questions who failed to adapt to the family's rules, and therefore ended up being the victim of most of the punishments.
When he was nine, Cygnus discovered his older brother looking at a muggle boy across the street. Alphard was eleven at the time, and was a few months away from starting at Hogwarts. When Cygnus asked him what he was doing, his brother claimed they were "grown up things". Cygnus then demanded an explanation, threatening to inform Pollux and Irma, and Alphard gave in and confessed he was a friend.
The boy had moved there when Alphard had been eight, making Cygnus too young to remember such an event. Two years had passed, however, until Alphard found the opportunity to befriend him. He made Cygnus promise he wouldn't tell their parents and when the younger one nodded in agreement, Alphard dismissed him.
Before he could leave the room, however, Alphard called him again and asked, in a hesitant tone: "Do you find him any agreeable?" Cygnus didn't understand the question, nor the nervous hint with which it had been uttered, so he just shrugged and left.
The summer before Cygnus started at Hogwarts, their parents found out about Alphard's muggle friend. There was a big discussion Cygnus was not allowed to be a part of, so he went to his room as he had been told to, not without first hearing Walburga tut "He'll never learn..."
Way past midnight, that same night, he was shaken awake by Alphard. The room was completely dark and Cygnus could only discern half of his brother's face, but the long scar that travelled his face from his forehead to his chin, cutting through his nose, didn't escape his notice.
He looked very serious, and forcefully grabbed Cygnus's arm before whispering "Did you tell them?"
Cygnus shook his head vigorously, before realising his brother probably couldn't see him in the dark. "No" he said.
There was a moment of silence before he could feel his brother nod and the grip around his arm loosened. The next thing he heard were footsteps walking away from him and his door shutting close softly.
His first year at Hogwarts went on without any detail worth delving into. He was sorted into Slytherin, as it had been expected, joining everyone in his family in doing so, which made him feel a new wave of pride he had never felt before. He had no trouble making friends and slowly started talking more and more. Needless to say, his circle of acquaintances was made up of the highest class of students, who came from the most respected families in the wizarding world.
In his second year, he walked into his brother Alphard when he was with another boy. They leapt apart as soon as they sensed his presence and for a reason Cygnus did not understand, the other boy left. Alphard seemed quite annoyed at the interruption, but there was some nervousness in his voice when he asked what had he seen. When Cygnus's reply came: "Nothing." Alphard left as well.
Months later, however, on Christmas Eve, Walburga came to him and asked him if he had ever seen Alphard with a certain boy. As the description matched the one of the boy he had seen Alphard with a few months prior, and he had not been given any kind of threat from his brother that would indicate that interaction should be kept in secret, he nodded and told his sister.
She looked at him gravely and the next thing he knew was that Alphard was, once again, called in front of their parents. This time Cygnus waited on the stairs, looking through the bars towards the small slit of light that came through the half-open door of the drawing room.
He overheard words he didn't understand, that by the tone they were uttered by his parents must have had really nasty meanings. Cygnus didn't think they had ever punished Alphard this long, and by the time he came out of the room, Cygnus saw how he wiped a tear from his cheek. His face was red and rather bloated and when he finally took notice of Cygnus he thought he would yell at him. But Alphard sighed and with a tired voice told him to go to bed.
That night was never talked of, and their lives went on as they always had. But Alphard and Walburga's relationship, that had never been what one could call amiable, seemed to flare up even more.
By his fourth year, Cygnus started finding pleasure in partying. That, he shared with Alphard. His brother had always been fond of high society meetings, and seemed to have found comfort and friendship in the person of Tom Riddle, despite his dubious blood status.
This friendship between the two, however, seemed to come to an end at some point in Cygnus's sixth year. He was the only one of the three still at Hogwarts by then. Walburga was to be married at any time with some pureblood from one of the sacred twenty eight, and Alphard had taken a year off, since there was really no rush for him to find a job, considering their family's fortune.
By the end of the year, however, Cygnus soon found out that Alphard and Tom Riddle were no longer on speaking terms, and his brother had no desire on speaking about him.
Before he began his last year at school they attended their second cousin Lucretia's wedding. At the age of thirty she was marrying Ignatius Prewett, a match that hadn't been particularly liked by her parents, but had been rather urgent, considering how big the difficulty to find a perfectly pure match was becoming. After the wedding Alphard announced he was leaving, heading somewhere in the East of Europe. His motives weren't questioned, and Pollux and Irma both agreed, fully conscious of the school of thought around there.
In the scarce letters Cygnus received from him, his brother mentioned a man a bit older than him who he had met. Cygnus, who was no longer a child, was now fully cognizant of what irked his parents about his brother's male companions, but in a childish way he chose to ignore it.
They wouldn't see Alphard again until Cygnus's own wedding, in 1948. The witch chosen to be his wife was Druella Rosier, a beautiful young woman who sould have been betrothed to his brother, hadn't he been away.
Cygnus couldn't say he loved his wife, not at first, at least. But he fulfilled his duty and never once argued his parents's decision. This marriage, however, irked Walburga to an extent, since she still hadn't gotten married, and was becoming rather desperate.
He had his first child in 1951. He was hoping for a son, that would bear his surname and continue the family's legacy. But instead, he was greeted by a daughter. They called her Bellatrix, following the family's tradition.
Two years later, Druella gave birth to another child. By then, Cygnus had warmed up to her wife, and he had gotten the closer one could get to love without it happening when it came to her. Since the beginning of the pregnancy, they had hoped for a boy, an heir. That's why when their second child turned out to be yet another girl, they were devastated.
When Cygnus went to see his newborn daughter, however, something in him changed. Perhaps it was because he was closer to his wife now, but when he saw the little girl in Druella's arms, he asked to hold her.
It was almost immediate, as he held the little girl in his arms he felt a wave of pride he had not felt before, much to his surprise. He decided then that she'd be called Andromeda, after the galaxy.
The next year, Walburga finally married. The engagement had earned a scoff from Alphard, since her husband to be was non other than their second cousin Orion, the actual heir of the Black family.
Walburga, however, didn't seem concerned at all by this match, seeing it as an opportunity to not only preserve the blood purity of a family, but her own family of all, the one she had been so devoted to since she had any conscience.
In 1955, Cygnus had his third child. Yet another girl. At this point he hadn't even harboured any hope, despite Druella's conviction that this time it'd finally a boy. Due complications during birth, it became impossible for Druella to ever get pregnant again, and so every hope they may have had was swept away. Druella called their third daughter Narcissa, no longer following the family's tradition. It didn't seem necessary, anymore.
They weren't the only ones who were having trouble having a son, since all of Walburga's attempts to get pregnant ended up in abortions. That is until in late 1959, a boy was finally born: Sirius Black, the next heir of the House of Black.
Another son came in 1961, Regulus, assuring that way that the family's name would survive one way or another.
The next years went by faster than one would expect. Cygnus had a favourite in Andromeda, who proved herself to be charming in the most cunning of ways. Druella would always deny having a favourite, but it was obvious to anyone that it was Narcissa who she cared most for. Bellatrix, on the other hand, stayed in no man's land. She reminded Cygnus of his older sister an awful lot, resemblance that only proved itself right when he once found her looking at the tapestry when she was nine.
He watched all of them go to school, one by one. All of them sorted into Slytherin, as it was to be expected. He watched them all become young powerful witches, and he felt a wave of pride that he'd never allow be noticed by anybody.
This feeling didn't last long however. In 1972, the one he had deemed his favourite betrayed them all. Andromeda confessed her love for a muggleborn. Cygnus couldn't believe his daughter, each word she uttered feeling like a stab to his heart; her treason, like a twist of the dagger.
On his deathbed, in 1992, he only remembered that night like a nightmare. That night he had recalled Pollux and Irma's punishments, Andromeda's birth and her daughter in the same place Alphard had been years back.
Walburga burnt her name off the tapestry that same night, and they never saw her again. It was Walburga who burnt her own son off the tapestry as well, after his leaving; and also their brother Alphard after he helped young Sirius.
A lot had happened since Andromeda's leaving. He had seen his older daughter Bellatrix going to Azkaban with her husband, brother in law and another death eater after following the steps of that old friend of his brother's. He had walked Narcissa down the aisle and become the grandfather of a boy, Draco. He had never met his other grandaughter, however. Nymphadora, he believed she was called.
Narcissa was with him as he died. She was the only one who heard her last words, in his weakened state: "Andromeda, Andromeda..."
It was however impossible for her to tell, or for him to know, if they were uttered as a curse or as a last wish to see the daughter he had loved most.
(originally posted on my twitter)