Reversed Role

"I put her in a coma, her health had reached a critical point and only her magic kept her going, for Morgana's sake 77 pounds! She's just a bag of bones, the poor dear!" Lillian Selwyn exclaimed, her hands clutching her protruding belly. 

Narcissa sighed, her training in Healing was good, but Lillian was a full-fledged Healer, so she thought it best to call her, and she knew how to be discreet. "I'm... I'm shocked and ashamed that we missed this." 

Lillian patted her gently, "Don't worry, my dear, when people are in such a distraught state, they know exactly how to hide it, and besides, her magic is powerful and very attuned to her. There is no need to feel guilty, Lily needs to be surrounded by people who care about her. Have you warned her family?" 

The blonde sighed, it was one thing for Lucius to welcome a Muggle-born favourite of the Dark Lord, but to let a bunch of Muggles into his ancestral home was another. Not to mention Araminta. The woman had been sulking in her quarters ever since Lily had been here, only leaving to go out into the gardens or to complain with the other old matriarchs at some Sunday tea gathering. "I'll see what I can do."

Lillian placed a comforting hand on her shoulder, squeezed it and left her to her worried thoughts.

- - - ✦ - - -

A week later

"Bella? Bellatrix, it's me, Narcissa," she whispered softly in the dimly lit room of Lestrange Manor. 

Rodolphus, leaning against the wall, snorted, "That cow won't leave the room unless it's the Dark Lord". 

"Careful what you say about my sister, Rodolphus," she said threateningly, the man nodded, intimidated, the Malfoys were of much higher status than the Lestranges. "Go away, I will deal with her." 

Bellatrix was under her blanket, a tiny figure in the middle of her huge bed, squeezed between several pillows, like Lily she looked gaunt and hollow. 

"I'm useless now," her sister whispered, her voice hoarse from disuse. 

Narcissa sat on the edge of the bed and stroked her older sister's hair. Bellatrix was the eldest of the new Black generation and for a time had been considered the heiress, but Walburga gave birth to two sons and the inheritance passed to Sirius. Bella was nine when her cousin was born and immediately disliked him, feeling robbed of her birthright just because she was a girl and he a boy. 

Her dislike grew as Sirius refused to honour their family and traditions; she was a rebellious and angry teenager, while she and Andromeda were more discreet. As soon as she left Hogwarts, she joined the Dark Lord, telling her that she could restore the glory of the House of Black, which had lost its lustre over the decades, but Narcissa knew that being a Death Eater was a way for Bellatrix to express her anger and hurt at having been overlooked by men all her life, and to find a position of power as she had been promised as a child. 

The Dark Lord had given her importance before taking it away for Lily. She had hated Lily for it. 

"You are not. The Dark Lord has been inactive for a month now, no meeting has been called and no action has been taken." 

Her sister sat brusquely, "Really? Where is he then? Is he hurt? Did the Mudblood die?" 

"No, Lily is... she is recovering and the Dark Lord... I will not pretend to know him, much less understand him, but I think he is facing some kind of existential crisis, he needs time to himself. He is human too." 

Her sister nodded, "Of course, of course... Maybe he needs me? Is very loyal!" Her dark grey eyes shone. It broke Narcissa's heart to see her big sister so dependent on him. He could make her do whatever he wanted and she would do it with her eyes closed. 

"I... I think he needs to be alone. Our plans are changing, I can feel it Bella," Narcissa whispered, she wanted more than anything to avoid a war, there were only so many Wix, a war would mean their extinction. 

Bellatrix lay back, the light in her eyes fading, "If you say so... I was just hoping he was all right," she returned to her lethargic state. 

Narcissa put her head in her hands, not knowing what to do for her sister. "Bella, do you remember Pidelius Carcos?"

"Hm." 

"Father had drawn up a contract for you to marry him, he told you to always obey him, to support him no matter what he did and to give birth to an heir as soon as possible," Narcissa recalled quietly. "I will always remember what you said to him, you were fourteen at the time and I was ten, but it has stayed with me ever since, 'I will not bow to anyone, especially a man', you looked so disgusted. Mother smiled behind Father and Andromeda cheered until Father tried to Crucio her. But you crucified him first." Her father had then cancelled the contract as Bellatrix had refused the engagement. 

"Hm," Bellatrix muttered. 

"Then why do you bow to the Dark Lord? What is different?" She asked, genuinely curious. 

"You don't understand, Cissy," her sister breathed, "you wanted to get married and have children. I never wanted that and My Lord..." Her eyes shone, "He is the first who did not care about my sex. He didn't care about weddings and babies and heirs, I was useful and that was all that mattered, not my supposed role because of my fucking uterus." 

Narcissa remained silent. "You know Andy and I... we never thought what you did was wrong, we admired you for it. You were brave and confident, you always said no to Father, you were the one who saved me from that marriage contract with Rodolphus. You sacrificed yourself for me, I will never forget that". 

Bella finally moved and sat down beside her, "Rodolphus is weak and stupid, he is easy to handle, but I know that our contract says that I must give birth to a child for the Lestrange line and..." 

"...you don't want children," Narcissa finished. 

Her sister grimaced, "I wouldn't mind so much if I didn't have to have sex with Rodolphus, he's a real brute, I'm sure, and if I didn't have to carry the child for nine months. No, I can't," Bella shivered. 

"Oh Bella... I'm so sorry..." Narcissa had no idea how to help her sister in this impossible situation. 

She waved her hand in concern, "Anyway, what about you? How come you're not pregnant yet?" She asked with a mischievous smile. 

Narcissa sighed, "We will wait and see where the Dark Lord takes us, I will not bring a child into a world of war".

"You've always been the clever one, Cissy. Andy wasn't so clever with her half-blood brat," Bellatrix sneered. 

"I heard Nymphadore is a Metamorphmagus." 

Her sister gave her a surprised look, "What? How..." Narcissa gave her a stern look, "No way...the Mudblood..."

"New fresh blood plus old magical strong one," the blonde concluded, "It's the Dark Lord theory and Lily tried to explain the genetics to me but it's far too complicated, but it sounds fascinating."

Bellatrix gave her an incredulous look, "How is she? You said she was recovering." 

"She suffers mostly mentally, plus the training the Dark Lord put her through, well, she had to be put in a coma so her body could heal. She is seeing Zoleia to deal with her issues" she paused "Come to dinner with us, I assure you Lily is lovely and she can make you learn so much" Bella snorted "You could try to understand what the Dark Lord saw in her..." That did the trick. 

"Fine." 

✧ ✦ ✧

It was just the three of them at the table, Lucius and Abraxas busy preparing for tomorrow's Wizengamot meeting, that old cow Araminta sulking about the Mudblood presence. And if Araminta wasn't happy about Evans' presence, which meant Bellatrix had to make an effort to get along with her, she would do anything to annoy the old hag, even fraternising with Mudbloods. 

"So, Evans. What brought you to our side?" She asked, playing with a lock of her curly hair. She had tried to style her hair, but its rebellious nature made it impossible to work with. It wasn't like she cared anyway, hair, clothes, makeup, not her cup of tea. 

The redhead looked up from her plate to look at her, she had impressive green eyes, "Oh, well, I was mostly drawn to revenge, I guess, but I didn't know how to act on it, and Voldemort gave me a purpose, a way to move forward. I suppose that's what Zoleia said." 

Narcissa sent her friendly smile, "And is that what you think?"  

"I really do want to be part of creating a better world," she muttered. 

Bellatrix huffed, Evans was so subdued, it was more amusing before. "I can help you with your revenge, you know, I always wanted to see Sirius wither in pain under my wand," she said dreamily. 

That brought a smile to the redhead's face, "That would take that awful smile off his face"

Narcissa looked pleased at Lily's renewed joy, and well, if Evans was the kind of person who smiled when talking about torture, perhaps she could make a permanent effort to be polite to her. 

"Did your family know how to use the two-way mirror?" Her sister asked the Mud...Muggleborn. 

Evans nodded "Yes, it was very funny, of course Petunia had to ruin it all by being her usual mean self".

Bellatris cackled, "Petunia? Who called a child Petunia?" Narcissa shot her scandalised look, but Evans just laughed. 

"My grandmother was named Petunia and Mum insisted that if she had a girl she would be named after her mother. It suits her though, Petunia symbolises anger and resentment, ever since I got my letter she has only shown me those emotions".

"She's just jealous that you're magical and she's not," Bellatrix said, poking at one of her baked potatoes. Evans gave her a surprised look, "What?"

"No...I just got the feeling you didn't like me very much." 

"I don't, but I'm having a civil conversation with you for my sister's sake," she explained absently. Narcissa kicked her under the table.

But again Evans grinned, her tired features brightening, "You're very good, I almost thought you were complimenting me". 

"You have magic, that's a fact, not a compliment," Bella protested. 

The redhead continued to smile proudly, "Yes, but... I'm a Mudblood and I must have stolen it, you know, that sort of thing?" 

"No one believes that dear, only the eldest..." Narcissa interrupted.

Lily's face fell, "Yes, like that bitch Araminta," her sister choked on her wine as she cackled. "No but seriously Narcissa, I ran into her in the corridor one day and she looked at me with this look of disgust and told me 'you must have stolen my cousin Idrantus' magic, you even took his eyes, he was cast out of the family because of you' and she went back to her room. Completely mad, that woman," Evans shook his head in dismay. 

“Anyway. I admit Araminta is....old fashioned” Bellatrix rolled her eyes at her sister prudence. 

"She told me I had the hips to have at least four or five pureblood babies. I told her she had the hips of shriveled onions, that's why she only had one child". Evans bursted into laughter. 

“Oh that’s amazing !” She wiped some tears of joy and Narcissa looked so pleased to see her guest like that, so Bellatrix felt content. “By the way, I always wondered, how many children do you want, Narcissa ?” 

He sister seem to shrunken in her seat, Bellatrix squinted her eyes in suspicion “Oh, well, I always wanted to have at least two...but” She looked around her “The Malfoy’s...they have the strange tradition to only have one child, it is to avoid spreading the wealth around, so I suppose I’ll have one child” She looked sad. 

Bellatrix leaned on the table, "Dear sister, if Lucius doesn't grant you your wish for a family, just lock me in a room with him and I assure you you will have as many babies as you like," Evans snorted, while her sister gave her a disapproving look, but there was a hint of consideration in Narcissa's eyes...there were sisters for a reason, she supposed. 

"And you Lestrange, children or not?" 

She sighed and turned her head towards the teenager, "I am bound by my marriage to contract one at some point."

Evans grimaced, "So romantic. That's awful, I'm sorry." Worst of all, she looked genuinely disgusted for Bellatrix. 

She just shrugged, "I just don't want to be pregnant." 

The Muggleborn blinked and looked thoughtful, "Is there a system of surrogate mothers in the wizarding world? I never heard of it, I thought" 

The two purebloods looked at each other and Bellatrix asked slowly, "Surrogate mother?"

"Yes, last year in the US, parents with infertility, who couldn't have a child because the woman had problems with her uterus, used a surrogate mother. So basically they..." She paused, "Do you even know what egg and sperm are?" Narcissa nodded hesitantly, Narcissa had healer training so she knew more than she did, "Well, the sperm produced by the man fertilises the egg and then we have an embryo, the embryo contains fifty percent of the mother's DNA and fifty percent of the father's, that's how the physical characteristics are passed on. So basically surrogacy is taking a bunch of eggs from the woman and sperm from the man, fertilising them artificially and then putting a viable embryo into the womb of another woman who is not genetically related to the baby. The surrogate mother

Bellatrix felt as if the world had shifted on its axis, as if an invisible crushing weight had been lifted from her shoulder "R...Really? That's possible?" She asked, not even caring how her voice trembled. 

"Well, if Muggles can do it, then magic shouldn't be any more complicated," The redhead shrugged, not realising how life-changing this information was. 

She turned to her sister who was looking at her, her eyes starting to tear up, "Narcissa, do you think we could do this?" 

Narcissa rose from her seat and started to walk around, "I can certainly call Lillian and ask her, but I don't see why we couldn't, of course we would have to be careful about the magic of the baby and the surrogate, but... the magic of an embryo and a newborn is dormant, so there is no risk of a clash, we just need to find a surrogate whose magic would not recognise the child as a threat". 

"So it's possible?" She shrieked, jumping out of her seat and grabbing her shoulder. 

Narcissa broke into a smile, "I'm going to ask Lillian, I'll be right back." She left the room in a hurry. 

Bellatrix turned to the Muggleborn, who now looked a little lost, "I'm telling you, Mud... Evans, if these work, I swear I will never go against you." 

Lily just nodded, looking a little surprised. 

Bellatrix sat back in front of her, "Rodolphus is a brute and an idiot."

"Do you think he will agree to this?" She asked hesitantly. 

She grinned maliciously, "Oh, he will have no choice, rest assured little Muggleborn. 

As Narcissa returned, grinning from ear to ear, Bellatrix let out a triumphant roar and jumped up to embrace her sister, then pulled back, "I have to go, I have to...explain to Rod and then we will discuss the details! Oh, what a wonderful day to be a woman!" She cackled, already thinking of a few curses to make Rodolphus understand how wonderful this method was. 

Narcissa and Lily exchanged worried glances.