July 1975
The second week of the holidays, it was a warm day and the house elves had left the windows open letting a faint breeze into the manor.
In the master bedroom, sat a young blonde woman with her mother, being berated for existing.
Druella Black pulled the hairbrush through nest of knots in Narcissa's hair , as she sat in front of the mirror of her mother's mahogany dressing table. Narcissa blinked back tears as it felt like her mother was ripping her hair from her roots.
She didn't let out screech or scream due to pain the pain her mother was inflicting on her as she really to keep her poker face straight, one sign of flinching then her mother would put more enough into harming her.
"Stop slouching , sit up straight." Druella ordered her youngest child as picked up the diamond clip from the dressing table. Her picked her hand up and check her nails, Narcissa had left her nails and short along with having manicure but hated the clear nail polish her mother instead she wore on her nail.
"Mother." Narcissa said waiting for her mother cutting remark as she sat there on the hard back chair in front of the mirrors
"How many times have I told you it's not becoming for a young lady to bite her nails." Druella said coldly.
"But I-I'm sorry." Narcissa said her stammer showing when she was nervous as her elder sister floated into the master bedroom.
"Bellatrix, I've no time for your nonsense." Druella said sighing as her eldest was her carbon copy of her.
Druella Black pulled the hairbrush through nest of knots in Narcissa's hair as she sat in front of the mirror of her mother's mahogany dressing table. Narcissa blinked back tears as it felt like her mother was ripping her hair from her roots.
She didn't let out screech or scream due to pain the pain her mother was inflicting on her as she really to keep her poker face straight, one sign of flinching then her mother would put more enough into harming her.
"Stop slouching , sit straight." Druella ordered her youngest child as picked up the diamond clip from the dressing table. Her picked her hand up and check her nails, Narcissa had left her nails and short along with having manicure but hated the clear nail polish her mother instead she wore on her nail.
"Mother." Narcissa said waiting for her mother cutting remark as she sat there on the hard back chair in front of the mirrors
"How many times have I told you it's not becoming for a young lady to bite her nails." Druella said coldly.
Finally she was allowed to go to her room, Narcissa walked past the old nursery. She went to twist the handle, thinking better of it she carried on to her bedroom
There was pressed a Lily in the pages of the book; She smiled as she thought of the muggle born red haired girl with those beautiful green eyes , who had taken to her on the day they meet on train during their first year along with Severus.
It was only until later, she remembered meeting Lily in Hyde Park when she had spent the weekend after Christmas with Andromeda in London.
She had been taken to see The Aristocats at a muggle cinema which she had loved watching. Those visits stopped after Bellatrix ruined everything as she did, when Andromeda had met Ted Tonks and they had a small, no tiny flat in London than when she used to go for weekends.
Narcissa never told a soul about Ted, she had kept it quite about him. She had in fact like him as he would spend time with her treating like a child then a miniature adult.
Bellatrix had told their mother and Andromeda had been summoned to the house, well that was the last time she saw her older sister again after the violent and vicious argument between their parents and Andromeda.
She had watched as her sister retreating from the house and out of the front garden in the early hours of the next next day
She had cried tears for a long time after and hated Bellatrix for Andromeda for leaving her behind with their parents and deranged elder sister.
She was carefully not act like she knew Lily but they had spent time in the library a lot as Camille Rowe and Pandora Malfoy would not entertain going anywhere near the school library.
They were entering the fifth year and neither of the two slytherins, bullies as Narcissa come to think of them had never cracked a book since starting school, doing as little as possible to complete each year.
Apparently they had chosen to find wealthy husbands and never have to work in their lives. Rudolphus had habit of trying to crawl into her bed at night when her mother saw fit to entertain for the weekend, she hated Bellatrix for that as well; she wondered if her sister even knew what her fiancee was doing with underage girls in the place, as she heard their cousin talking about the fact about the Lestranges.
One being Rudolphus was gay but was only an excuse for what he did with underage girls and Bellatrix would never agree with him that was the correct behaviour to have; would her sister justify it in his defence?
Narcissa shuddered at the thought as she picked the quill on her desk as she found the page; she needed to use for her Herbology homework. Narcissa reread a passage in the Herbology book and wondered if they had another book in the vast library her parents had, she spent hours in there if she was not studying and another room Bellatrix would never set foot into if she could help it.
She checked the small alarm clock on her bedside table as it ticked towards lunch time. Narcissa stroked her owls head as she when the bathroom adjusted to her bedroom as she washed her hands several times and inspected her hands before drying them.
One ink spot and she would pay for it for later as she would be on the receiving end of her mother's temper. They all had the black temper, which was a family trait and Narcissa had tried to keep in check especially during the school year.
The sunroom was where her mother insisted they had lunch until she was fourteen years old. Narcissa had spent all meals alone with the Nanny in the nursery.
She would only see her parents one day for an hour before bed.
She had liked it that way as she had adored the Nanny who had raised her sisters and her since the moment they were born. She adored the Nanny and been furious to find she had fired during the term before the summer holidays. Narcissa had howled and cried but it didn't bring back the women who she saw as her mother and the one who dried her tears when Bellatrix had been cruel and mean to her during the day or night.
Druella had notiably had dismissed her as she had wanted the long for son had been disappointed when Narcissa had not been the male heir they wanted to have and was handed to the Nanny with seconds of being born.
"Sit down," Druella commanded her youngest daughter as Bellatrix was spraddled over the chaise lounge, skirts a mess and the tips of her pointed black boots poking out from the mass skirts she was wearing. Her hair was a wild as ever and Druella never complained about her how eldest daughter dressed around the house or when she went out in public.
Maybe that was because Bellatrix flip like a light switch with her moods and Narcissa wondered if in fact her mother was secretly terrified with of her eldest daughter.
Narcissa hated the hardback chair, she was always mad to sit on as a house-elf come in with a tray of glasses full of ice and pitcher of lemonade, she found it was on the sour side not the sweet side as she prefered it. The ice was used sparely as her parents hated spending money.
Druella dismissed the house elf as she took a glass of lemonade as Bellatrix sat up, lady like as she took her glass of lemonade.
"We are to have an engagement party for Bellatrix and Rodolphus in two weeks." Druella announced to her Instead of the annual summer ball."
Narcissa groaned inward which meant, she was old enough to attend the summer ball this year and she would have wear that horrible green raw silk dress and those terrible pointed boots which pinched her toes.
It was to be haven her debutant year, Bellatrix had found away to make it all about her yet again.
The dress was a design from the eighteen hundreds, Narcissa thought but she couldn't quite pinpoint the year it was designed but still loathed it anyhow.
"Congratulations." Narcissa mumbled as Druella pulled the thin wire which lead to the kitchens below them to announce they were ready for the light lunch as her mother called it.
There were tiny thin finger sandwiches and few cakes, if they were lucky, were not going stale. She sat there listening to her mother and sister talking to each other, apparently, she was not old enough to join into the conversation.
Her mother handed her small side place and she took a sandwich as Bellatrix stuffed a piece of a millionaires shortbread into her mouth, she would never dare do such things in front of her mother.
Narcissa loved millionaires shortbread, she rarely allowed to have it. The house elves would send her the occasional box to her during the term time, if she was luck to be remembered.
"Which means we shall have the Lestranges to stay the rest of the summer." Druella said as she picked her glass of lemonade, the only reason she drank it was the fact the children's Nanny said it was they liked to drink with their meals.
"Oh." Narcissa sighed as she stared at the floor, realising her mistake to comment in front of her mother.
"Get out of my sight." Druella said dismissively of her youngest daughter and she could not careless where her younger daughter did as long she stayed out her sight for the rest of the evening.
"Mummy." Bellatrix said in her little girl's voice, which got her own way with her mother as lesson Narcissa had never learnt and never would do as far as Bellatrix was considered. "Please, can my wedding be the most lascivious one this year as I want us to look really good in front of every one of the scared twenty-eight families."
"We will see Bella, as I keep telling you were are not made of money." Druella said through gritted teeth as she put the glass down on the table. " See to it that your sister stays in her bedroom for the rest of the day."
"Mummy really." Bellatrix said as she watched her mother leave as she went to the ladies drawing room to carry on with the needlework she was doing as Bellatrix smirked to herself. She was going have a pleasant afternoon torturing her sister. She was still angry that .
Andromeda had run when she was seventeen years old with that mudblood. She hated the fact Narcissa worshipped Andromeda more than she ever did with her, not that Bellatrix would admit she was jealous of her little sister, who had long blonde hair and pale blue eyes, the same heart-shaped faces like her older sisters and mother.
Narcissa's stomach rumbled as she sat alone at her desk again as she heard the singsong voice of Bellatrix. It was never a good sign as she heard her sister getting closer to the door of her bedroom, which had been the nursery and it became her sanctuary.
"Open the door Cissy." Bellatrix said sweetly as she tapped her wand against her leg; she smiled her little sister was unable to defend herself with magic and the trace was still there as Bellatrix let as manic giggle out as she waited for Narcissa to open the door for her to enter the bedroom.
Bellatrix justified to herself was not doing anything wrong with what she about to do but she would make sure Narcissa was too scared to tell anyone about what her eldest sister was doing to her, going to Azkaban would not do and maybe one day she wind up in the prison, that was for another day to worry about as she raised her hand banged harder on the bedroom door.
It was game Bellatrix had invented while playing with her in the garden when she had been about nine, Bella had finished her final year at Hogwarts and it was called torture the baby. Narcissa had learnt how to stop herself from screaming in pain or terror. In fact a combination of the two as the first curse hit her, Narcissa fell to the floor on her knees as she braced herself.
It depended on Bellatrix's mood to how long the so-called game carried on til and their parents never stepped in to confront their eldest daughter. Although Aunt Walburga had the sense to channelling Bellatrix when she had caught her using the curse on Regulus one Summer holiday at Grimmauld Place, she had set Bellatrix straight and she would call the Aurors to the house if she ever caught her doing such a thing under her roof ever again.
Bellatrix, Narcissa recalled had shrunken into a shadow of herself as she obeyed Aunt Walberga for the rest of the summer Holidays at the time.
Narcissa vowed one to make sure everything her elder sister had inflicted on would be rectified and she would be allowed to do the same if the ministry allowed it as she wanted her sister feel the pain she had done to someone else.