PUREBLOOD PRIVILEGE
This is an introduction to my fanfiction, Pureblood Privilege, the Perfect Doll of the Black Family.
This fanfiction is one I posted and completed a year ago. The reason I am digging up an old fanfiction is simple: I have a new one ready to post now. Once I update my blog with all the content about my previous fanfiction, I will begin the upload of my newest work.
I said I would return. I didn't lie.
Now to introduce this fanfiction, it's important to note that it takes place in the Harry Potter Universe.
I was officially sorted into Slytherin via the Wizarding World website. At first I was shocked because of the negative connotations I had from the books. I had been a longtime fan of Harry Potter since the books first came out when I was about 7, and the first movie came out when I was due to get my own letter from Hogwarts (I never did, by the way).
Soon, as I got older and matured, I realized the complexities of the Slytherin House, and what it meant to be a pureblood. The intense social implications were not lost on me, and I grew increasingly fascinated by the what ifs.
So I spun a story. A story showing the struggles of being a pureblood in a society where blood status is everything. And I had a goal: make it a companion piece for the original work instead of an alternative universe piece. I wanted it to be a believeable addition to the events of Harry Potter as it was written.
The Male Lead? Severus Snape. The Female Lead...? A hidden sibling of Sirius Black.
Runestella Black. Regulus Black's twin sister.
Without further adieu, here is an excerpt of the first chapter. I will post the link to read it after the excerpt.
The Doll's Monster Fiancé
How many days had she been stuck in the same room? She was unsure. At first she had kept a tally on the stone walls by scraping loose rubble along bricks, but without any sort of guiding daylight to help her keep track of the cycle of hours the tally soon became useless and confusing.
It was a perfect prison. All that was in the room was a thin mattress with a patchwork blanket, a bucket for relieving herself, and a bucket for water. That, and of course an entire potions laboratory. It was the purpose for her imprisonment after all. There were jars upon jars of ingredients lining the walls alphabetically, along with vials both full and empty. On an elevated table were multiple cauldrons set over a fire that she could activate at any time. Scales, mortar and pestles, and a knife and cutting board littered the surface of the long table. There was an hourglass she used for timing, but it was so consistently turned and twisted for potions that it was useless for keeping a calendar. The corner of the room held a tank that used to be full of frogs.
Because she was allowed to keep her wand for finishing potions she was able to keep herself clean and continuously summon water. Every time she was visited they forced her to surrender it under the door before anyone could enter, and the entire room was enchanted so her magic had no effect on the walls or doors, but inside of her space she could use magic as she wished.
Unfortunately she couldn't summon food so easily. It was one of the limitations of magic, and it was a glaring limitation since she had long run out of food and no one had visited in a long while.
At first she cooked and ate the clean dead frogs. The ones that hadn't been contaminated by her experimentations. But soon all of the frogs were dead, either of starvation, experimentation or poisoning, and she had to burn them before they made the room stink.
Now she was the only living creature in the space.
Not even bugs could venture past the magical wards so she was forced to start eating ingredients. Anything that wasn't completely toxic she ate. At first it was the safe ingredients like flobberworm mucus, vile as it was with his viscous texture, and bitter burdock root. But then she had to eat the less safe variants. Things that made her throat burn and her stomach twist.
Then there was nothing left but things that would outright kill her. At one point in her starvation journey she thought to just eat the poison, but she grew too weak to even open the jars. Her past self had sealed them tightly for safety, but she cursed her forethought. Now she sat, leaning on the mattress with her wand in hand, whispering Lumos every few minutes so that she wasn't left in the dark.
She knew she was going to die.
Her body was thin and frail, nothing left on her bones to sustain herself, and her stomach boiled with painful hunger. Now that she was too weak to make water her throat was parched, her tongue thick in her mouth. Staring at her lighted wand tip, she thought deeply about why she was there.
The damned potions...
It was a mistake to excel at potions.
As a member of the Pureblood Black household she was held to high standards. She was born as a twin to Regulus Black and was made to comply with the demands of the pure lineage in her veins.
How she wished she could be as flippant as her older brother Sirius, but instead she did her best to impress her parents.
At the time she was desperate for attention.
Regulus was easy to manipulate and hailed as their heir, chosen in favor of their older brother Sirius because of his willingness to conform to their rigid "pureblood" ideology. Runestella bore a long and pretentious name to reflect Black traditions, a nod to astrology but still a mouthful, but was unsure of her place in this strange cult-like behavior. When it was discovered before she even entered Hogwarts that she was a prodigy at potions her parents leaned into her talents. Hard.
There was not a moment that Runestella didn't live and breathe potions after that.
She was their pride, just as Regulus was. And she was suffocated with that pride. Potion crafting was genuinely her passion, but it was hard to enjoy it when she had hands full of burns and arms covered in contact dermatitis from irritating ingredients. By her thirteenth birthday she had already made every known potion and was creating her own.
And it was then that her parents decided to meddle in her future more, pushing the concept of pure lineage. They all but sold her to the Avery family, close confidants to the Dark Lord. They decided that once she was done with Hogwarts, instead of becoming a Potioneer, as was her dream, she would marry Avery and continue to keep the family tree pure.
She hated Avery.
So much.
He was an insufferable little sadist. And he acted as if he already owned her; leering and dictating what she could wear and who she could speak to.
It was then that she was introduced to Severus.
Severus Snape.
A friend of her 'fiancee' who was on the list of those she could associate with.
Her mind drifted as she stared at the Lumos charm, blinking in and out like a firefly.
The image of a small boy, svelte and brooding, came to mind. He wore the robes of Slytherin, just like she did, and kept to himself for the most part. Often she would find him thumbing through a potions book or a dark magic text, sitting under the shade of a tree and enjoying the fresh air.
Meek. Unproblematic. Brilliant.
In love with Lily Evans...
But overall the least insufferable person she could speak to without getting tossed around by Avery. They made small talk about the theory behind minced bubotuber vs bubotuber powder and its subsequent effects in potion crafting. And through their talks she found he was almost as bright as she was about potions.
It became habit to seek him out when Avery had been rough with her and sit quietly at his side, soothing herself with his calm aura. And if Lily came, her heart would ache to lose her safe place but she would stand and leave without a fuss.
Once she came upon Severus in a ruffled state, having been strung up a willow tree by the Marauders, a group of Gryffindor friends and bullies. One of their number was her older brother, Sirius, who had found his place with his friends instead of his family.
"Sev!" She scampered up the grass hill, kicking up blades of lawn in her haste, before whipping out her wand.
"Descendo!"
The spell holding him up released and he toppled to the ground. She just barely managed to cushion his fall with Arresto Momentum when she closed the distance.
"Are you hurt?" She asked, her brow furrowed in concern.
"I'm fine." He hissed, pulling his arm from her worried grip. She didn't take it personally. Red flushed the tips of his ears in embarrassment so she knew he was just upset.
"Those idiots." Tears choked her voice and she looked over at the group of boys responsible, the group of them rowdy and out of hand. Her older brother, Sirius, laughed alongside James Potter. Rune couldn't help but feel her lips pull into a frown in distaste.
She hated bullies.
"I'll have a talk with Sirius about keeping his friends in check. Ever since he met that James Potter he-" Runestella stood up to confront them but this time Severus grabbed her, holding her back. Everyday Runestella dealt with abuse heaped on her from her intended, Avery, and still she wanted to confront the biggest bullies of the school. It was admirable, but reckless. She was a few years younger than Severus and Sirius which made her small and vulnerable, and she was naturally petite to boot.
"It's fine, Rune." He hissed again, dropping her hand and brushing the grass from his robes. "When have your brothers ever listened to you?"
It was a harsh truth. She couldn't refute it.
Instead she dropped to the grass beside him, curling into a small shape.
"You're right." She whispered. "I just wanted to help."
Severus softened at her small voice, glancing to her face for the first time. Shame had kept his eyes elsewhere, but now he noticed that she had a small bruise by her eye.
"Merlin, Rune. Did Avery do that?"
"What? No!" Covering her face, she cursed herself for being forgetful. Like always she had meant to use a Wiggenweld Potion to cover any scars or bruises so no one would know how severe it had become.
"I'm okay." It was a lie. They both knew it. But Severus could see from the way she stared at him in a panic, afraid of the fallout, that there was nothing he could do for her.
"I heard your potion was submitted to the Ministry." Starting a new topic to distract her, probably because she looked like she was going to cry, he leaned back and looked up to the sky. Severus was starting to relax. Because Rune was there, Sirius wouldn't let James come over and bother Severus. Being a little sister gave her armor, so for the moment they had peace and could enjoy the day.
"Oh. Yes..." She glanced away.
Walburga Black had been thrilled when the Ministry announced her as a genius and added her potion to the index of known successful brews. It was in the advanced section and none of the staff Potioneers were able to replicate it. The Minister had already offered her a permanent position after graduation. Her dream career.
A position that Walburga firmly declined because she was to be married to Avery.
But they still called her a miracle brewer, spreading chatter of her abilities and even publishing articles about it in the Daily Prophet. She was lauded as the type of genius that came around once in a millennia.
There was so much pressure... and she couldn't live up to it. Her wedding ring was practically a shackle.
She could continue to make history at least. One index entry at a time, quietly making strides with no professional title. While she brewed potions away at Avery's home as a housewife, that is. If she had free time.
"Rune?" Severus saw her mood shift for the worse.
"Ah, I…"
Her mind drifted to her argument with Regulus. He was mad about how Avery treated her as well, but he assured her it was for the family. For the good of wizard kind. That she had a responsibility to pass on the magical blood circulating through her veins, just as he did. And that he would eventually get married too, so she shouldn't feel like it was too unfair.
Reg knew everything. He knew about the beatings and the name calling and the control.
And he let it happen.
She tried not to hold it against him. Regulus was the same age as she was. He had a little more power in their social circle because he was a boy, but he was still under an immense amount of pressure.
"I…" Tears came up and she tried to stop them but they poured over her cheeks anyways.
"Hey…" Severus leaned forward he wiped the tears from her cheeks. "What's wrong?"
The concern from the usually prickly guy made her break even further. If only the one she was engaged to Severus instead. They had so much in common and he was so kind to her. If it were Severus she wouldn't be upset. Because she did like him. So stupidly much.
Another sob wracked her body and she curled into herself, pressing her face into her hands. Unsure of what else to do, Severus pulled her close to his side, hugging her while she cried.
It was the worst thing he could have done.
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