Come Together
She say "one and one and one is three"
Got to be good looking 'cause she's so hard to see
Come together, right now, over me
July-August 1966
Summer was definitely Ara’s least favourite season. Too hot, too sunny, too emotionally charged. It was like every member of House Black went a little bit more loopy when the season was about. It was made worse by the fact that Walburga would arrange holidays with their cousins so the entire brood was around. And together, all the Blacks were utterly loony.
Take her cousin Andy, for example.
That summer, Ara’s thirteen year old cousin was acting oddly. She’d dart off away from the family for hours to her room, ignoring her cousins when they asked her if she wanted to spend time with them. Plus there were other clues; she kept passing letters to owls when she thought the twins weren’t looking and being snappy when asked who they were from. The twins spent the whole summer at odds with her, which sucked since Andy had promised to teach them proper flying. Eventually, Sirius came up with a plan to snatch the letters she had received and see for themselves.
If it had been two years ago, Ara would have refused. But she was seven now. And she understood that she wasn’t a usual seven year old.
It was clear in how adults spoke to her, keeping her slightly away as though she were dangerous. Just because every so often she had tantrums that would explode parts of her house, only being stopped by the pain of a hex from her mother. She was odd. Too volatile and too willing to go along with whatever Sirius suggested. It was often difficult for Ara to express what she wanted to do - mainly because her mind was always so garbled and dizzying that she didn’t really know what she wanted.
Sirius did. He seemed to always know the best thing to do, the prank to pull or place to go. He was patient when her mind wouldn’t let her focus and she had to spend a day in bed, trapped in the confines of her broken thoughts. He’d lie down next to her, wrap her in his arms, and send her happy dreams through their bond.
So, naturally, she went along with whatever he planned.
So, that summer, Ara joined her twin in reading their cousins letters to a boy named Ted. He seemed sweet, the two smiling over the softness of his words and his caring for their cousin. It took them four letters to figure out why Andy was hiding the letters.
‘… we travelled by plane. If you don’t know what they are, they’re muggle inventions. Like big metal birds to take people to other countries …
… my aunt was fuming! She couldn’t understand how the water pot had moved and I wasn’t planning to clue her into the existence of magic. Not when she talks about it like a bloody big joke or horror …
… we could go to muggle London next summer? I’ll understand if your parents don’t let you, but there’s more to life than Diagon Alley and Hogsmead. That’s the good thing about being a Muggleborn; you understand a lot more about the world around you …’
The mysterious boy their cousin was writing to was a Muggleborn. Not even half-blood.
And, as they placed the letters carefully back, the two silently agreed to keep their cousin’s secret.
August 1967
Next was the unfortunate summer when Ara was eight, where her cousin Cissa didn’t speak to her the whole time they were on holiday just because Walburga was considering a betrothal contract to Lucius Malfoy - some snooty boy a few years above Cissa in Hogwarts.
Walburga had been hunting through the list of eligible Pureblood men since Lord Nott had withdrawn from Ara’s first betrothal contract, but this time it was different. This time, the eligible Pureblood was a boy that Narcissa had a crush on.
Cissa told Ara that she was too ugly for him after a lengthy tantrum, prompting a brutal outburst of Ara’s magic that burned down the drawing room and blazed so terribly that she was left with scars on her face. After that, the contract was made to Cissa - though, the girl still didn’t speak to her cousin until apologising on the final day of holiday (most likely after her sisters forced her to).
But in the awkward weeks of silence, Ara felt the pressure of it all on herself. She didn’t even want the ruddy contract, and if Cissa had asked her she would have known that. Ara had cried with relief when Lord Nott set his sights on a girl slightly older than her - Sirius and Regulus had even given her a tiny sibling party to celebrate! She didn’t want to marry some old man, she wanted to be with her whole family, including Cissa. Instead, Ara was forced to spend the whole summer with Bellatrix, which she very much didn’t want to do at first.
Ever since the Cruciatus Incident (as the twins referred to it in private), her father had told her that she had madness. But not the same kind as cousin Bella.
Bella was all fury and crackling frustration. She was the perfect picture of their family curse of madness. All ice and rage and born with it. Unlike Ara, who’s madness was born from the fracturing of her own mind - all fire and pain and hurt. And it made Ara nervous that their madnesses would mesh badly.
More than that… it was like she knew that there was something off with her cousin, knew that her future was dark. But she didn’t understand how. After a while, she decided it must have been that her madness saw the darkness of Bella’s.
She was all too aware of her instability as she grew up. Her memories from before the Incident were garbled and cracked and difficult to understand. She had been sure of something, certain of her goals and of who she was. She hadn’t been Ara Black before she was five. Now, she didn’t know who else she could have been.
The block she’d had that had let her hide everything from her brother was gone. And she didn’t have the energy to try and fix her barriers, so she didn’t. Sirius had always been an open book and she knew it was her turn to do the same.
In doing so, Ara was aware of how she had changed. After the obligatory few days to recover after what her mother had done, Sirius had declared that his room was also hers and moved her in. Their mother tried to stop it, but every time she moved Ara away, she’d find Sirius in the bed with her in the morning. After a while, their parents began to understand that this was the only way she wouldn’t bring the house down with nightmares while sleeping.
Maybe it had been for the best? She’d sometimes wonder that. What her mother had done stopped the division between the twins, and they were finally using their bond as it should be.
Sirius helped her to rein in her emotions when they threatened to explode, he filled her mind with pleasant dreams and thoughts when she was sad. And she never asked him to. He simply did. He coped with Ara’s madness for her. At least, most of the time (excluding the recent unfortunate incident, resulting in Ara’s fresh scars).
But he couldn’t cope with Bellatrix’s.
And so, that summer, he left his twin and cousin alone as they unleashed their anger at the Black Holiday Estate in France, understanding that his twin needed to let off some steam.
Ara took to it quickly, with Bella quickly becoming her favourite cousin as they exploded trees and threw rocks and burned grass. They’d scream out their vengeances with the world - Bella being angry that she couldn’t inherit, that she’d be married off to some Lestrange brother, and Ara being angry at all the injustices she had seen done to her brother and herself. She scolded herself for being nervous about spending time with Bella - acknowledging that their madness worked well together. Whatever Bella’s future, she still cared about her family.
It was the best summer Ara had ever had, until the final day of holiday.
She and Bella had just destroyed some random cart they’d found by the wood-line. Bella used the spells that Hogwarts had been teaching her, showing Ara her lethality with magic. The younger girl used her anger alone - performing wandless through screaming at her targets.
By the time they were done, there were splinters everywhere and large chunks of wood embedded in nearby trees and earth.
“N'est-ce pas très joli!” Bellatrix exclaimed, falling back onto the grass to sit and stare at the scene. Ara joined, sitting close enough that Bella mindlessly wrapped an arm around her and held her close. “No matter what anyone says, our madness is beautiful, mon chou.” She told her younger cousin, trying to express an idea that she’d had to figure out herself so the girl wouldn’t have to.
It was no secret that Ara was Bellatrix’s favourite. When Ara was a baby, Bella had always gravitated towards her and held her close. After the Cruciatus Incident, her protectiveness had turned more to obsession. She kept her near and made sure that if she didn’t like the way Aunt Walburga was treating her, she’d take her away for a cousin bonding day. Sometimes Sirius came too, but he didn’t understand the way the two girls felt.
It was a bond, their insanity. Both caused by their families. Though, she understood that it would take Ara a while to see it that way and stop being afraid.
“We can make such pretty artwork.” Bella told her, pointing to the mess of wood with a pleased smile. She turned to her cousin and lightly traced the new burns on her face with a soft smile. They were raw and pink now, but Bella could see the swirls and patterns that would bloom once it had healed and she thought it was the most perfect thing she had ever seen. “Éclatant.” She promised. “And it doesn’t matter if anyone else doesn’t understand it, because we do.”
Ara looked up to her cousin with a question on her lips, one she’d thought for a while but had never had the courage to say. Bella could tell because she encouraged the younger girl to speak.
“Will it ever get better? How loud everything is? And how angry I am all the time?” She asked softly, looking up with nervous eyes. She’d been wondering it for years, but permanently scarring herself with her magic had made it more urgent for her to find out. She had to know if she was a risk to herself forever.
Bella softened more and brought her cousin in for a firm hug, gently soothing her and running a hand through her curls. Bella loved her curls. They matched in their insane hair - something not even Bella’s own sisters had.
As they parted, Bella wiped the tears from Ara and smiled sadly.
“Non.”
August 1968
The next summer was equally as hectic. The two families returned to their French estate for the month of August, with the two mad cousins continuing their assault on the land.
Bella’s words, well word, had stuck with Ara more than she wanted to admit. Bella was right. Nothing got better. Mother still beat them, father did nothing about it, and stupid Reggie got fawned over as their ‘little Heir’. The scars weren’t fading yet and father had told her that it reduced her marriageability, which would have been good, were it not for her mother’s wrath. Frankly, she was sick and tired of it all, only growing angrier as the year went by.
Luckily for her, Bella felt the same. After all, she had turned seventeen that year. In July she’d been officially betrothed, being given the jewellery and necessary steps completed. The two had exchanged letters over the school year, both ranting on the paper about how awful everything was and how they wanted to make somebody suffer.
And so, that summer, the duos tirade was awful. They didn’t limit it to their own land, going out and seeking to ruin Muggle market stalls and explode wheels on cars. They caused so much chaos that their parents found out.
Ara expected to be reprimanded for not being a proper lady, or forced inside for the rest of the holiday. Instead, their parents all encouraged them to keep going - even offering other Muggle targets. Ara didn’t understand, but Bella seemed to preen at the praise so she shrugged and accepted it.
They continued their explosion of madness - ignoring Cissa warning them to be careful and Sirius telling Ara that he didn’t like who she was when she was with Bella. Andy left them alone, as usual, probably writing her boyfriend.
After a while, they got bored of the Muggles (or, rather, Ara started to feel too much guilt to continue and derailed her cousin’s plans) and went back to creating art in the woods by exploding logs. It was late in the day now, and dinner would surely be called soon, but the two were too busy having fun. On the third log that Ara exploded with her mind, she heard an awful cry from in a tree.
Bella helped her to climb the tree and investigate - telling Ara that sometimes doing things with magic isn’t as fun. As she reached the branch of the cries, she nervously looked to the source.
It was a birds nest, with a little pigeon sat inside. Ara scanned it curiously, before seeing a splinter of wood going completely through the poor bird’s wing. She had done that. With her rage or madness or whatever people called it; she had wounded a poor little bird.
After retrieving the nest, the cousins made a pact to look after the bird they’d hurt. Despite Bella’s penchant for violence, she didn’t relish in hurting innocent things. As such, they kept the bird in Bella and Andy’s room, knowing the younger girl wouldn’t say anything about it to their parents. If their parents found out, the bird wouldn’t be staying.
The next week was spent helping the bird recover. Sirius saw the events unfold through the bond and came to help, with the three spending most of their days inside Bella’s room, watching the bird and enjoying each other’s company.
That is, until Cissa got suspicious.
“What is that?” Three heads shot up to spy the blonde stood in the doorway, pointing at the bird in Bella’s hand. They’d been taking turns stroking it before she’d busted them.
“It’s a bird, Nasty. How’d you got into Hogwarts if you don’t know what birds are?” Bella teased her sister. This turned out to be the wrong move. Cissa’s face exploded red and she huffed, raised a warning eyebrow and turned to yell:
“Maman! Papa! Bella a gardé un oiseau!”
“You little bitch!” With that, Bella passed the bird to Sirius and went to fight her younger sister. The blonde wasn’t expecting it, moving back too slow. Bella grabbed her hair and the two were soon on the ground, flailing arms and high pitched wailing.
Soon a hoard of parents arrived, ripping the girls apart and yelling about being ungraceful.
Ara turned away from it for a moment, watching the little pigeon in Sirius’s hands. It was asleep, not noticing the tension around it.
An hour later, Bella was forced to kill the bird. After that, the holiday was over and the cousins were returned home. Ara tried to write Bella a letter saying she was sorry about it all, and that she still wanted to make art together.
Bella wrote back telling Ara that she was a stain on House Black.
And with that, the bond of madness between the two splintered apart.