Mysterium Tremendum
“It doesn’t speak well of you that you can only handle being around her when she’s sick and not when she’s well.”
“I recognize that it’s problematic, but I can’t handle being around her ever, Cissy. You remember what it was like.” Andromeda hated the words that spilled from her lips.
Truthfully, the few meetings Narcissa had arranged for the three of them had gone relatively well. They were awkward at first, especially Andromeda, but Bellatrix treated her just like she had back when they were barely adults. Their signature banter began slowly at first, but it was beginning to feel more and more normal.
Now two younger Black sisters were facing off in the atrium of the Malfoy Manor. The auburn-haired woman believed she was at odds with her younger sister, but Narcissa knew they wanted the same thing. Andromeda had already restored to the Black Manor the glory it had before the Dark Lord had begun to frequent it. The house had literally sung with joy while the middle Black sister’s face shone with joy she probably didn’t know she had. There was no way Narcissa would lose this fight.
“You need to come through, Andy. We can’t be what we are supposed to be without you.”
“This is harder than I expected. Entering back into a deeply personal relationship with the two of you – especially with Bella – is much different than meeting for tea once or twice a week. You know that. In fact, how on earth can you be around her regularly without being reminded of – of – “ The middle Black sister struggled to speak about their sister’s trial, but trying to do so was distracting her from feeling so hypocritical about telling Hermione to answer Bellatrix when she hadn’t been brave enough to do so herself.
“Don’t use that against me!” Narcissa spat words laced with pain. “And don’t you dare invoke your own pain and hardship over against me either. Do you know how I survived the war? How I survived all the imperius curses? How I survived all the times Bella cried and screamed in her sleep after Azkaban and all the times my son and husband were tortured by the Dark Lord? I outlasted them. I outlasted the Dark Lord himself. I outlasted evil. I’ll outlast this too. It’s not your job to interrogate or rehabilitate me. It’s your job to come back.”
“You could’ve left too, you know.”
“No, I couldn’t. Especially not after I lived through your leaving with Bella.”
“Wow. How can you think this conversation would make me feel better about trying to repair everything with the two of you?”
“You have already repaired the Manor, Andy! You are already a part of this again! And you know what? I don’t think you really ever weren’t. Bella told me your daughter called her “Aunt Bella” when they ran into each other at the Weasley raid. That’s an awfully intimate name for estranged family members.”
“I wanted Dora to know about her family.”
“’Aunt Bella!’ Like you spent holidays together!” Andromeda looked helpless while she tried to think of something to say. “She used to call for you in her sleep, you know?”
“Are you trying to guilt trip me?”
“If it’ll get you to come back.”
“I am afraid of this!”
“Suck it up! You’re a grown woman whose been through way harder things than the vast majority of people out there. You can and deserve to be with people who still love you and people whom you still care about.”
“Goddamn you, Cissy.” Andromeda only lost fights to her sisters, and she was way out of practice dealing with that.
“That’s the Andy I remember. I expect to see you next week when we chat about what comes next.”
**
Narcissa Malfoy had been nervous to see her sisters when she accompanied Hermione Granger to her flat. She was not nervous now as she perched on her mother’s old high-backed chair stirring milk into her tea at her childhood home. She sat across from Bellatrix by the fire in the great room of the Black Manor, waiting for their middle sister to arrive via floo. Despite struggle with Andromeda’s commitment, she had successfully facilitated regular rendezvous for the three of them at the manors and one of the Black family homes in France. Even though she was clearly the one wielding control, she had been surprised by two developments. First, she felt comfortable with them – perhaps even more than before the war. Even if they were not quite as comfortable around each other, she knew being together was a relief to them all. Second, for the first time since the Dark Lord had marked Bellatrix, she felt purpose other than to protect. Almost as soon as she had left Hermione’s house, she had begun formulating a plan and planting seeds in her sisters’ minds for something new.
Their middle sister appeared in a tornado of flames, everything about her billowing, and stepped from the fireplace directly in between them. It did not escape Narcissa that Bellatrix raised lidded eyes to look Andromeda up and down once before brandishing a very full glass of firewhiskey at her.
“Andy, have a seat and a drink.”
Andromeda took the offered glass and arranged herself in the third chair. “I’m tired of you dropping hints, Cissy. What’s your scheme?” It was just like the middle sister to skip pleasantries.
“It’s time to resurrect the Black family empire.”
“Excuse me?” Andromeda choked on her drink.
Bellatrix looked pleased. “I thought you might say that, Cissy.”
Andromeda glanced between the two of them. “Are you in on this together?”
“Not yet. Not any more than you are.” Narcissa steered the conversation. One of the most powerful of the Sacred 28, rumored to be related to Salazar Slytherin himself, the Blacks had dominated trade in northern Europe and what was now Russia for centuries. Naturally, this came with great political clout; they had collected vassals and pledges from non-magical and magical families alike (including others in the Sacred 28). Their magic was legendary, and long after the time of wielding raw magic had passed, other wizarding families still warned their children about the consequences of clashing with the Blacks as well as the merits of ingratiating themselves to them. Their tempers, proclivity for conflict, magical prowess, and inescapable charisma maintained their formidability even once the trade empire had fallen and the Wizengamot took the place of ruling lords. Despite their sympathy for dark magic, disdain for muggles, and distaste for what they saw as a rapidly declining civilization, they had provided the wizarding world with stability throughout several crises, including the throes of Grindelwald’s war. The stability was a façade, however, and generations of turmoil and self-destruction came to head in Cygnus’ and Druella’s leadership. They groveled before the Dark Lord, and he used, abused, and discarded them. The family name was tarnished and, after Sirius’ death, could not even be passed on to another generation by marriage or progeny.
“You want to save the Black family name?” Andromeda was incredulous. “This is absurd.”
“It’s not, Andy. We have a massive fortune and an entire book of vassals pledged to us by blood – all of which will be divided amongst Draco, Teddy, and Harry Potter of all people when we die.”
“Why Potter?” Bellatrix asked.
“Sirius left his whole bloody inheritance to him.” Narcissa scoffed.
“Ew.”
“Why shouldn’t it be divided up?” Andromeda was still suspicious.
“Because then the Black family dies. Its accounts disappear. Its elves are re-pledged.” Both of Narcissa’s sisters winced at their only memory of an elf pledging as she continued. “It goes down in history as just another old pureblood family that collapsed because it was too weak to resist the allure of evil, too backwards to keep up with changing times.”
“All semantics about old magic aside, Cissy, that is exactly what we are.” Andromeda made a sweeping gesture around the room. A ripple in the walls followed the trail of her hand. She tried to ignore it, which made her sisters look at her with mild irritation.
“We are only that if we let ourselves be,” Narcissa asserted.
“How can we unmake the choices we’ve already made?”
“We can’t. We just make new ones. Together.”
Bellatrix smiled, listening to her sisters argue. Narcissa had already won; Andromeda was already calling the family “we” and “us.” It wouldn’t take long for her embattled sister to realize it now.
“Cissy, our family has hurt too much. Hurt ourselves, hurt others. Maybe it’s time we just let go of the façade of greatness.”
“Then let’s stop hurting. Let’s be ourselves again. Not good. Not bad. Just who we are.”
Andromeda was covering her face with both hands, a few tears starting to peak between her fingers. “You think I didn’t want that? You think it was better for me without you both? You think I escaped it all?”
“None of us did the right thing, Andy. We’re not blaming you any more than ourselves. I’m sorry for when I’ve made it seem like I do.”
It didn’t matter to Andromeda if her younger sister was right. She just felt that she had lost too much. “Our family… our magic… it’s all – “
“Right here.” Suddenly Bellatrix was kneeling between them pulling their hands together, and once they were joined, she put arm around either sister’s neck to hold them close in an intimate embrace. Andromeda’s breath came in increasingly ragged gasps buried in Bellatrix’s shoulder. Narcissa’s free hand balled up in her shirt. Tears fell into the oldest sister’s neck, but then there were also raindrops collecting in her hair. The louder Andromeda sobbed the harder rain poured down on them.
Bellatrix whispered, “Come home. It’s time to be together again.”
Lightning flashed from both of her younger sisters out into the corners of the ceiling, and thunder deafened them. When the deluge finally passed, they huddled, trembling together until Narcissa snapped her fingers behind her. The fireplace roared to life. Water was sucked back up into the ceiling, and they were dry and warm in seconds.
“I suppose that’s a yes.” Andromeda sighed. She could see her own reflection in a mirror mounted on the opposite wall and thought she maybe looked as if she was setting aside a heavy burden. “A ridiculous yes.”
The dark-haired woman let out a frustrated sigh and rolled her eyes. “Gods, baby girl. What does someone have to do to convince you to do the thing you want?”
“Seriously? Unless this is all just a game, the whole idea rests on something that is impossible.” When her sisters gave no indication of understanding, Andromeda continued.. “There’s no male heir to carry on the family name.”
“Which is a stupid convention, everyone knows.” Bellatrix was still rolling her eyes.
“So the whole empire thing will die with us three regardless.”
“Not necessarily. Our library is probably the only one west of Jerusalem since Alexandria burned down to have enough remnants of ancient near-eastern blood rituals to help us approximate a virgin birth.”
“Oh my god.”
“And Bellatrix has discovered that Hermione Granger has an unprecedented ability to engineer magic and doesn’t even know it. I’m sure she could be quite helpful,” Narcissa added.
“No way. You leave her out of this. She’s seen enough already without getting introduced to the grotesque intricacies of our family.”
“Relax, Andy. I’m just kidding about a virgin birth. You’re so uptight.” The dark-haired woman needled. “Although it’s not out of the question, I suppose.”
Narcissa wouldn’t let the point pass though. “Andy, the Black estates and Wizengamot seat will continue in the family’s name regardless of what happens. It’s written into the unbreakable contracts; I checked.”
Bellatrix poured everyone a glass of firewhiskey and ended the banter. “So what actually is the plan, Cissy?”
Narcissa described how she would manage their trade and financial opportunities. Draco would take over managing the Malfoy affairs. The House of Black would become the Malfoys’ biggest investor, and she would manage their circulation of profit.
“But surely business is only part of it.” Bellatrix prompted, lobbing her youngest sister a perfect pitch with a knowing look. “What about a strategy for managing political interests and obstacles – gods know we have plenty of those.”
Narcissa delivered, even though they had not discussed this yet. “Andy will claim her rightful place as the Black family seat in the Wizengamot.”
Andromeda did spit out her drink that time. “Fuck me and Morgana! What sodding – are you shitting me – you’re insane, you cock-sucking bitch-ass bloody fucking assholes - ” They let her sputter until she ran out of profanities.
“You’re out of practice with that, Andy, although it’s nice to hear you be yourself again.” Bellatrix tsked at her.
Andromeda ignored her. “It’s not my seat anyway. It’s Bella’s.”
“But Bella cannot hold the seat due to her sentencing.”
“Which is probably for the best anyhow.” Bellatrix was still wiping Andromeda’s drink off her face. “I’m insane, remember? And I don’t have the patience for it.”
“So if it’s going to be held, you have to do it.”
“What the hell are you two driving at?” Andromeda jumped to her feet with both fear and outrage in her eyes, something that made Narcissa have to work very hard to hide her quaking hands. “If I take the seat, then my grandson, the grandson of the muggleborn man the last head of the Black house almost killed me over, will be next in line for the seat.”
“You have a grandson. Ugh, I forget how old you are.” The oldest sister looked unimpressed.
Narcissa only nodded.
“The Black family seat! The Black empire that you’re trying to resurrect!”
“It’s a new era, Andy. It’s time for the House of Black to be new too. We spent too much time wasting ourselves away with worthless causes and fake ideals.” Narcissa was gentle again.
Andromeda shook her hands at them aggressively. “This is just a new thing. It’s just a new way to pretend that we aren’t dark and that our magic isn’t killing us.”
“I’m not arguing with that.” Narcissa sounded like she was arguing. “But if we do it this way, maybe it won’t be like that forever. The House of Black needs you, Andy. It needs the Tonks now.”
“This is unreal. You really want this.” Andromeda swung her head between her sisters.
Bellatrix’ voice was a firm whisper. “It seems like the closest thing to a right thing that we could do.”
“What about you? You’re technically the head of the family, aren’t you? How will that work?”
“Yes, but of course the Ministry keeps closer tabs on me than we’d want. So Cissy will have to manage transactions and all. And clearly any right that I deny goes immediately to you. Though I’ll be sure only to pass on the shit ones.”
“But Bella will control assets, networking, and the social space – the Black family landscape, if you will – as always.”
Andromeda snorted. “Bella’s going to play belle of the ball. How cute. It’s a good role for someone who now looks like she’s barely old enough to get into adult clubs.”
“Been at the adult clubs looking for barely-old-enough witches lately, have you, sister?”
“Don’t be a perv, Bella. Cissy, this is only going to work if she doesn’t do something fucking insane. But then again, maybe the likelihood of something truly terrible happening will decrease since she won’t be using magic.”
Bellatrix was on her in a second. “Oh, Andromeda,” she purred. “Maybe you’d like to be the first witch to feel how powerful I am without magic.”
Andromeda shoved her off, trying to hide her reddening cheeks. “You’re wicked.”
Narcissa cracked an amused grin. She couldn’t be more pleased with how well things were going.