The Fate of Black: Chapter 2
“You called sister?” Narcissa steps out of the floo and stands at her full height looking over her outfit to make sure that none of the dust remained. She looked up into the open space of the Black Manor Library to find her eldest siter pacing relentlessly. Moments of her thoughts peeking out through the emotions she felt into barely coherent thoughts. “You know Bella, I can barely understand what you are thinking if you don’t calm down.” Moments of ‘mudblood’, and ‘Dark Lord’, among thoughts of ‘Fates fucking with her’ seemed to come to the forefront of Bellatrix’s mind.
“Again sister, I cannot seem to comprehend your thoughts let alone to distinguish between the small amounts that are being given.” Narcissa arched her perfectly sculpted eyebrow as she continued to watch Bellatrix pace madly. Bellatrix looks over to her and takes a deep breath before pausing her pacing for a moment.
“Cissy, something is going to happen, something horrible in fact.” Bellatrix quickly resumes her pacing. Her mind becoming more frantic making it more difficult for Narcissa to understand. Narcissa let out a sigh and sat down in a seat around the fireplace as she watched Bellatrix continue in her movements. She patiently watched as Bellatrix finally came to a stop and plopped unceremoniously into another of the chairs.
“Now dear sister, would you like to expand upon your thoughts and what you believe is going to happen?” Bellatrix didn’t answer her right away instead choosing to call for her house elf.
“Tipsy!!” Bellatrix screeched into the open space of the library, causing Narcissa to wince slightly at the pitch. The frail house elf appeared in the center area between the two sisters her head bowed.
“Y-yes Mistress Black?” The poor thing almost shaking as she spoke to Bellatrix.
“Fetch me my Firewhiskey Tipsy, and whatever my sister would like.” She dismisses the elf with a wave of her hand. The house elf turns to Narcissa
“Nothing for me Tipsy, thank you.” The elf nods her head and disappears with a pop, to return a moment later the requested drink upon a tray alongside a single glass. She sets it down on the table between the two and steps back to pop away leaving the sisters alone. Bellatrix let her sisters question ruminate in the air as she began to pour herself a glass of Firewhiskey before draining it quickly.
“Well Bella, care to explain why you have summoned me as early as,” She pauses in her thoughts to look at the old clock hanging above the fireplace. “Five in the morning? Rather frantically it seems as well.” Narcissa turns back to her sister, the stoic woman’s blonde hair swaying with the movements of her head.
“Well Cissy, I decided it would a delightful situation. You know to summon you in a panic after awaking from an even more delightful meeting with the Fates.” Bellatrix pours another glass of Firewhiskey before draining it quickly. She lets out a sigh hanging her head, the luscious curls falling forward covering her face. Narcissa can feel her barriers drift away as she feels her way around her sister’s doors, the only one open wide was the one she stepped into. She began to sift through the events of her meeting with The Fates quickly coming to an understanding of what she was seeing, these were the futures her sister was to be handed, and by the looks of it herself as well. Narcissa withdrew from Bellatrix’s mind and called for the house elf again, the petit creature takes order of Elf-made Wine and disappears to collect it.
“I…see” in that moment, was all she could formulate. The house elf returns quickly and sets the wine down on the same table the Firewhiskey is settling and disapperates. “Well then sister.”
Bella chuckles darkly and grabs her third glass of Firewhiskey, pausing to stare at the burgundy color. “Now do you understand what I mean, Cissy?” She takes a small drink from her drink and swirls it around her glass.
“It seems to be quite a predicament, what do you think this means Bella?” Narcissa takes a sip of the Elf-made Wine she has poured for herself. She looked at her sister pointedly.
“Which part dearest Cissy? The part that The Fates have decided that I am, in the simplest terms, fucked.” The threw back the rest of her glass quickly and plopped it onto the table between them.
“I feel you may have missed the part in which you are not the only one Bellatrix.” Narcissa lifted here eyebrow again as she watched her sister tense at the thought. “Yes, it seems you have indeed. See what I was able to identify it spoke about Three Sisters and the Queen. In fact, it seems as if you, me, and Andromeda all have been attached to this…mudblood girl. The biggest thing about it that concerns me, however, is knowing that the only future they were able to give you while He was in charge was your own death.”
“And it in no way fazes you that the only way to prevent that death is to somehow find a Queen, more specifically a Queen that happens to be a mudblood, oh and that we somehow have to make do with our blood traitor of a sister as well?” Bellatrix cackles madly at the thought of it and throws her glass at the wall above the fireplace. “Or how about the fact that I now must find a way to keep Him out of my head? Keep this hidden from him? To prevent him from releasing an unending limit of torture before he inevitably kills me for betraying him?” At this point Bellatrix is back on her feet pacing back and forth her hands gripping into fists repeatedly. “Because what we need at this point is to have him find us unfaithful!”
“Bellatrix, what all do you remember about the second future?” Narcissa watched her pace back and forth furiously.
“To be quite honest I recall that same girl from the first one, casting some form of curse on me. Then come to find out that because of this he decided to kill me. In fact, I quite vividly recall the killing curse coming at me, if not successfully killing me prior to The Fates pulling me out of the delightful thing!” Bellatrix snarled at her sister before closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. “I’m sorry Cissy, that wasn’t appropriate”
“You are correct on that sentiment Bella, now if you will allow me a moment without you snapping at me, I can add some more to your thoughts.” Bellatrix’s shoulders slumped down and she shifted uncomfortably on her feet. She looked almost like a scolded child as she dropped to her knees at Narcissa’s feet. Narcissa encouraged Bellatrix to rest her head on her knees as she began to gently massage her fingers through the thick dark curls.
“Tell me dear Cissy, what would you like to add to this predicament?” Bellatrix’s eyes began to drift shut at the feel of the long thin fingers toying with her hair.
“Well Bella, upon looking into your dream, and watching through the whole thing. There are three core things to take away from your meeting with the Fates.” Narcissa pursed her lips in an inelegant manner deep in thought. Her not speaking for more than a few moments caused Bellatrix to begin tensing up again.
“And they are what exactly?” The youngest Black couldn’t help but allow a small chuckle to escape from her lips.
“Patience Bella, I am working through how to best formulate the thoughts.” Her nails scrape against Bellatrix’s scalp causing the older woman to groan softly. “So, from what I have established; one, the Dark Lord has every intention of killing you regardless of what happens. Two, if you choose to continue down the path you, and I at this point have been taken nothing good will come of it. And lastly, three, if we are to find this young woman, we will indeed be required to restore our bonds with Andromeda.”
Bellatrix made an attempt to stand up but Narcissa’s fingers drug her back into the position she was in continuing with their ministrations. “Cissy, she betrayed us. She ran off with…with a filthy mudblood. Why do we require her for this?” Narcissa let out a sigh and shook her head.
“Bella, we were no better in betraying her by not standing by her side.” The statement that came out of her mouth this time did allow for Bellatrix to stand up. Her body tense and fists balled white knuckled. Her eyes wide with a fury Narcissa hadn’t seen directed towards her in a while.
“You DARE say that?? You DARE try to tell me that we betrayed her?” Bellatrix’s teeth mashed together in rage. “She turned her back on us. We did as we were expected to do. We became who we were required to!” Narcissa allowed her icy front to slide into place quickly.
“You want to talk about expectations sister?” Narcissa stood squaring against her eldest sister. “I still have to suffer at the hands of my so-called husband. I still must face having that cowards’ hands on my body. When the mere thought of him disgusts me. When you dear sister got off easy, your pathetic mongrel of a husband wouldn’t DARE to lift a hand against Voldemort’s Right Hand.”
Bellatrix began to deflate as her sister returned her fury back tenfold. “See while you got far more freedom, I was placed into a cage with a wilting shaft of pathetic wizardry. So don’t you DARE speak to me on expectations. Because I am the ONLY one who has had ‘expectations’ placed onto their shoulders. Andromeda on the other hand saw what we were expected to do, and yes, she fucking ran. Just as we all should have!” She had begun to stalk forward dangerously causing Bellatrix to stumble backwards into a chair.
“Cissy, please, I’m sorry” Bellatrix looked small in the moment she sat in the chair staring up at her youngest sister. Narcissa took a deep breath and stood poised a moment later.
“Now when you come to terms on the reality of what is, you can come to mine and grovel at my feet. But until then do not expect sympathy from me. Do I make myself clear Bellatrix?” Bellatrix whimpered and winced at the icy coldness in Narcissa’s voice. “Am. I. Clear?
“Y-yes Cissy.” With that Narcissa spun on her heals to make her way back to the fireplace. Grabbing a handful of floo powder she paused.
“I am not upset with you, but at this point I believe you need to work through your priorities before we can have a civil conversation on this again. I love you Bella” She threw the floo powder into the fireplace and stepped in with ‘Malfoy Manor’.
Bellatrix sat there stunned at what had just happened. True she did deserve it, but it didn’t change that she didn’t like it. Narcissa was correct in what she was saying. That why both her and Narcissa had walked away from Andromeda. They got left behind by her when they refused to walk with her. Bellatrix grabbed for the bottle of Firewhiskey and began to drink from the bottle not bothering with the glass. She flung a spell at the fireplace causing it to explode before mending it and repeating the action. She threw her head back and screamed loudly and manically. It felt like things were slipping away and with the new knowledge in her head she didn’t know anything else to do. Bellatrix took another long drink of the Firewhiskey and stood before dancing through the library flinging spells of destruction at the walls and the bookshelves. The bottle of Firewhiskey still in her hands as she wreaked havoc through the length of the space.
After a while, with pages up in smoke and bits of wood falling through the air Bellatrix collapsed into a wall before sliding down it. Narcissa was right, hell, she always was but the knowledge of her youngest sister being right didn’t help in this moment. She wasn’t ready to come face to face with Andromeda, there was still far too much anger and hurt. She didn’t even want to think on the knowledge that her ‘Lord’ had every intention of killing her. That was far too deep of a thought to follow. And the knowledge that somehow, she had to find a random girl to bring them to a better future. A future that Bellatrix craved after being witness to the possibility. That feeling still radiated inside of her chest, it was something she hadn’t felt since Andromeda had left, that fullness. Bellatrix hung her head her curls covering her face as she began to sob. It wasn’t fair, she had spent so much of her time under someone else. Given so much to his cause to be happy, to be the best, but all the knowledge that it was simply wasted time. Tears were falling down Bellatrix’s cheeks when she threw the remainder of the bottle across the room. 14 years of Azkaban, fourteen years of pain and emptiness while she waited patiently to come back into service of a man who had no intention of allowing her to rule by his side. Didn’t she deserve better than that from him? After everything.
Bellatrix screamed again loudly, the savage noise echoing through the destroyed room. It took her a while to pull herself up from the wall as she blankly looked at the ceiling above her. The thoughts swirling around in her head, how could the Fates be so cruel to her? She finally gave up in attempting to make sense of the thoughts as she stood shakily from her seat.
“Tipsy!!” Bellatrix called out for her house elf who appeared instantly.
“Y-yes Mistress?” The elf bowed her head deeply as she waited for what was expected of her.
“Clean up this mess. Make sure to have everything back in order by the time I awaken” Bellatrix slipped past the house elf to return to her chambers. More sleep would do her good, she would go by her sisters place afterwards to make amends with her.
“Y-yes mistress!” the house elf could barely be heard as Bellatrix began to skip out of the library humming a tune. Yes, she would be able to make sense of this after a nice long nap. She and Narcissa would make up a plan that didn’t consist of involving some filthy mudblood. If what her sister had said was true Her Lord had every intention of killing her, and Bellatrix was sure as fuck not going to allow that to happen. She can play the part; she can make sure he doesn’t dispose of her too soon. But when the time came, she would topple the world. The mad cackle of Bellatrix Black could be heard through the manor causing Tipsy to shiver and take a moment before returning to the task at hand.
