Dark Arts and Diagon Alley

Disclaimer: All the characters and the plot that you recognize belong to J.K. Rowling. Anything you do not recognize is my own...

A/N: Thank you so much to my beta, LilyRox123!!

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Chapter 2: Dark Arts and Diagon Alley

August thirty-first arrived rather quickly and found Cissy and I sitting on Bella's bed, watching Bella unpack and repack her trunk. I had watched three times now as she had stacked all her schoolbooks and had folded her uniforms, as well as her other clothes, into her trunk. A week ago, Mother had taken Bella into Diagon Alley to get her school supplies. Cissy and I had tried unsuccessfully to keep ourselves occupied, but we couldn't wait for Bella to come home. We had sat on her bed while she tried on everything and told us all about the stores and people she had seen and met.

Finally, Bella seemed satisfied with her belongings, and she came and sat down next to us. Cissy, it seemed, still hadn't quite realized what was happening tomorrow, whereas I was holding back tears...a proper young lady never cried in front of others...and trying not to let Cissy see that I was upset.

For the last week, Bella had been daydreaming about Rodolphus Lestrange. She had run into him the day she went to Diagon Alley and had "fallen in love."

She spread herself out on the bed with a silly smile on her face. She looked at us and said, "Did I tell you that Rodolphus is on the Slytherin Quidditch team?"

I giggled and said, "Yes, Bella, but how will you get him to notice you? He's already a third year..."

Bella cut me off with a stern look and said, "Now, you know that he is a good match for me." By match, she meant his family's blood and status was agreeable to our parents. I nodded, and she continued, "So, he doesn't have to notice me; I just have to convince Mother and Father to initiate a betrothal."

I grimaced at this thought; I still believed in true love and did not like the idea of an arranged marriage. In one of our many lessons in decorum, Mother had explained the notion of betrothal and arranged marriages to us. On our sixteenth birthday, each of us would have a debut ball, in which all eligible pureblood males and their families would attend, and we would dance with each one in turn. During the year following this ball, our parents would speak with other pureblood families to find a "perfect match." Basically, they would marry us into the richest and purest family...it was a bonus if we were related. The betrothal would be announced on our seventeenth birthday, and the marriage would take place within a year.

Smiling at Bella, I tried to recall our parents' feelings about the Lestranges. We had been to many dinner parties at their manor, and Mr. Lestrange was a close associate of Father's.

"Well, Bella, I'm sure Mother and Father would be quite willing to set that up for you," I said. If my sister was happy with an arranged marriage, then I'd be happy for her.

Suddenly, she jumped up from the bed and started tossing things out of the trunk, muttering, "No, no, no, no!" Finally, she sat back on her heels and sighed in relief, having found whatever she was looking for. She then began the careful task of reorganizing her trunk for the fourth time. Cissy and I laughed at her and waited for her to finish.

A moment later, Cissy sat up with expectant eyes and asked, "Bella, you're only going for a few days, right?"

I looked up at Bella and remained quiet while Bella seemed to be searching for a response. Finally, she answered gently, "Well, Cissy, it's going to be a bit longer than that. I'll be back just before Christmas."

Cissy thought this through and even counted it out on her fingers. Looking up at Bella, she said, "But that's almost four months away." Her lower lip started quivering and Bella quickly came over and scooped her up.

Holding Cissy so that their noses were practically touching, Bella said, "The time will go by faster than you think. Andie will still be here, and I promise that I'll write you both every day."

Bella swung Cissy around and then deposited her in my lap. She sat down next to us and put her arms around us both. "Everything will be just fine," she whispered. However, I couldn't tell if she was trying to convince herself or us.

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The next morning, Girvan found us all asleep on Bella's bed. We had stayed up most of the night talking, and finally we had just passed out from sheer exhaustion. He woke us up with desperate cries of, "Miss Bellatrix, Miss Andromeda, Miss Narcissa." I was the first to wake up and carefully disentangled myself from my sisters to look at Girvan.

"What is it, Elf?" I said grumpily.

"Miss Andromeda, it is nine forty-five and Madame Black told Girvan that she wants to leave with Miss Bellatrix at ten fifteen," he said, looking worried.

My eyes widened and I looked at Bella, sound asleep next to me. Finally, I said, "Elf, run a bath for my sister, and I will get her up."

Trying hard not to wake Cissy up yet, I shook Bella until she finally smacked my hand away. Growling, she sat up and gave me a deathly stare. "Andie, what do you want?" she said, looking ready to attack me.

"Bella, it's already nine forty-five; you need to get up," I said urgently.

She was just about to go back to sleep, but then sat up very quickly with wild eyes. Tugging at the comforters, she jumped out of bed.

"Bella, relax. Girvan is running a bath and I'll find some clothes for you," I said, trying to calm her down.

Twenty-five minutes later, Bella was bathed, dressed and ready to go. Mother refused to take Cissy and me with her, so the three of us stood at the bottom of the stairs to say our goodbyes. Bella reached forward and tucked a piece of my hair behind my ear. Holding back tears, I took her hand and we embraced, and just before she pulled away, she said, "I love you."

I was surprised. We never spoke of things like love, and although I did love my sisters, I never told them that. I smiled at her, trying to convey the same feeling, which she acknowledged with a nod. She hugged Cissy and then took each of our hands. "I'll write every day, I promise, and I'll be home before you know it," she said.

Then, she quickly pulled up her hood and followed Mother out the door. Cissy and I clung to each other, but neither of us ever cried. We waited on the steps until Mother returned and shooed us up to our rooms. And thus our lives had begun to change in ways we couldn't even imagine at the time.

True to her word, Bella sent an owl every day. She wrote to us that she had been sorted into Slytherin; and she told us all about her classes, friends and the other students in her year. Occasionally, she would make mention how Rodolphus had smiled at her or waved to her, which would send Cissy and I into a fit of giggles.

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Two years went by rather quickly, with Cissy and me studying with Ingrid. We spent the rest of our time writing letters to Bella or reading the letters she sent to us. The first Christmas she came home, and the summer after her first year, were normal for the three of us. It was as if nothing had changed between all of us, and we just picked up where we left off.

But when Bella came home for Christmas during her second year, things were really starting to change. She was beginning to dabble in the Dark Arts, as I would soon find out. It was three days after Christmas when I walked into Bella's room without knocking, which was a regular occurrence. I found Bella holding a small dagger over her left palm, and she had a book open in front of her. I rushed over, calling "Bella," as I went. She turned towards me with a look of pure hatred, making me stop dead about three feet from her. I watched, eyes wide with terror, as she made a gash on her palm and whispered a spell. Unsurprisingly nothing happened and Bella threw the dagger in frustration.

She quickly conjured a bandage for her hand and turned back to me. Standing, she walked over, so that her face was only inches from mine, and whispered, "You will never say anything, will you, Andie?" I shook my head, a little afraid of the look on her face, but all of a sudden, it was replaced with a smile as she took my hand and led me out of the room to find Cissy. We never spoke about that day ever again, and at ten years old, I was still too young to realize the possible ramifications of what she had tried. Instead I worried that she was depressed and intentionally hurting herself; her ever changing moods always made me wonder about this as well.

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My eleventh birthday came, as did my invitation to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, while Bella was away at school. The dinner for my birthday was similar to Bella's, although five-year-old Sirius had taken a real liking to me and demanded to sit by me. This time, my Uncle Alphard was also in attendance, which lightened up the mood very much.

I received a new skirt and blouse from Mother, as well as a cloak with the Slytherin crest already embroidered on it from my Father. It was very strongly believed I would follow in the footsteps of the rest of my family into Slytherin. After receiving my gift from Auntie and Uncle ... one hundred Galleons ... Uncle Alphard took me into the drawing room and brought forth a beautiful necklace. It was an amethyst, my birthstone, in the shape of a heart with tiny little diamonds surrounding it. After promising to take good care of it, I gave him a hug and went up to show my sisters. The necklace was a matching one to the one he had sent to Bella for her eleventh birthday, with the only difference being that hers was a bloodstone.

During the Easter holidays, we celebrated Bella's thirteenth birthday, and she received her first pair of high heels from Mother and a pair of diamond earrings from Father. This dinner was a lively affair, since Mother and Father had invited some of their close friends to help celebrate. The Malfoys, Rosiers and Wilkes were all in attendance, although unfortunately for Bella, the Lestranges were unable to make it.

When Bella arrived home after completing her second year at Hogwarts, things settled back into normalcy. The three of us were inseparable, spending all our time outside on the Manor grounds or running around the Manor, terrorizing the house-elves that had been set to watch over us. A week before school was to start again, Mother brought Bella and I to Diagon Alley to purchase our supplies for the coming year.

Diagon Alley was even more amazing than I had imagined it. It was amazing to be in such a bustling area, where all the other students were preparing for school as well. Before leaving our manor, Mother had lectured the two of us about not speaking to anyone without her permission and not to stray off from her. After arriving, Bella and I walked a short distance behind Mother, with Bella giving me a running commentary about other students that we saw.

After buying my wand...a nine and a half inch mahogany wand with a unicorn hair core...we went to Madam Malkin's Robe Shop, where Bella got new robes since she had outgrown her old ones and where I got my first five sets of student robes and school uniforms. Mother also bought me two new cloaks, one for fall and spring and a heavier one for winter.

We next went into Flourish and Blott's, where Mother stood off to the side, holding her nose up in the air, glaring around at all those she believed were not worthy to associate with. After we finished getting our books, we left the bookstore and ran right into Mrs. Lestrange and her sons.

Mother smiled kindly and said, "Hello, Elizabeth. How are you today?" Then, remembering we were with her, she nodded toward Bella and me and said, "These are my oldest daughters. Bella is starting her third year at Hogwarts, and Andromeda is starting her first year."

We both smiled and gave small curtsies, saying, "M'am." Madame Lestrange smiled back at us and nodded to her boys. "I'm sure you remember my sons, Rodolphus and Rabastan," she said to Mother. "Rodolphus has been appointed as a Prefect, and Rabastan, here, is also starting his first year."

The younger boy, Rabastan, smiled shyly at me, and I smiled back. Good looks did indeed run in the Lestrange family. Bella was staring so hard at Rodolphus that I was surprised he never looked her way. Instead, he smiled politely at Mother.

"Well, we must be on our way," Mother said, "We shall have to get together for tea soon, Elizabeth." Then, she turned towards us, saying, "Come along, girls." We nodded our goodbyes and walked down the street back to the Leaky Cauldron.

Stopping suddenly just before we arrived at the pub, she turned around and stared down at us. "Now, that is the type of friends you should be keeping at that school of yours. You need to uphold the family name and ignore all those that are not of our status, do you understand me?" she asked.

I said, "Yes, Mother," as did Bella, but she frightened me a bit with the look in her eyes. I still didn't realize how very few pureblood families would be attending Hogwarts that were of good enough standard for our parents, and I worried that somehow, I would make friends with the wrong person.

Mother turned around on her heel, and we followed her quietly to the fireplace inside of the pub. Mother hated traveling by Floo powder, but as we were not old enough to Apparate, she had very little choice.

When we arrived home, Bella and I found Cissy in her room, looking miserable. She refused to talk to us or even look at us, and this made both Bella and I feel terrible. For the next two years, Cissy would be all alone, while Bella and I were to leave and enjoy school without her.

By the next day, Cissy was almost back to herself, but the tension and sadness were still hanging over the three of us. However, by the evening of August thirty-first, things were at a breaking point in the Manor. I had already packed my trunk, so Cissy and I sat on Bella's bed, and as usual we watched Bella pack and repack her trunk.

Suddenly, Cissy burst out into a fit of tears, and Bella and I looked at her in shock. Bella came and sat down on the other side of her, and the two of us held her close. Eventually, she cried herself to sleep. Due to nerves and Cissy's disappointment, I did not sleep soundly that night. Instead, I tossed and I turned, unable to fall asleep for hours. I worried about what the next day would bring, and I worried I would be a disappointment to my family. Finally, with only a couple hours in the night left, I fell asleep.