a/n: Thanks for the reviews! Another oneshot, this time about the three Black sisters. Please review!

Disclaimer: Not mine.

The Story of the Three Sisters

The heat of the late afternoon sun beamed down through the thick leaves of the tree, illuminating the faces of the three girls who were hidden deep within its boughs, giggling together at nothing in particular. The tree was their secret place, where no one ever found them, and that alone was enough to put them in good spirits.

Finally, one of them lifted her head to look beyond the branches, blinking against the bright light, and sighed.

"The sun's going down. It'll be dinner soon."

She sprang down from the tree without a second thought, laughing in an almost manic fashion as she slowed and landed gracefully on the ground, her black curls bouncing round her face.

The second girl went a little more cautiously, edging along the branch to a gap in the leaves before jumping, but with equal determination and confidence as she landed on the grass beside her sister.

Both girls turned back to look up at their youngest sibling, who was still clinging to the rough bark of the trunk, gazing nervously at the earth beneath her.

"Hurry up, Cissy!"

"Come on, you can do it, it's easy!"

The first voice was impatient, the second encouraging.

The little blond girl edged cautiously along the branch, trying to block out the moaning of one sister and concentrate on the encouraging words of the other.

"That's it, just go a little bit further!"

"Just let go, you'll be fine!"

She obeyed both commands, taking one more step sideways before springing from the tree. She landed nowhere near as gracefully as her two sisters had, sprawling with a thump on the fresh grass of the meadow, but she did not hurt herself. She had not expected to. Children of such pure blood could not be harmed by mere trips and falls, or so her father often liked to impress upon her.

A hand reached out to pull her to her feet.

"See, I told you you could do it." The owner of the hand smiled down at her, but the other girl was still impatient.

"You took your time! Come on, we need to get home!"

"Just give her a minute, Bella." The command was firm and, impatient as Bella was, she waited for the youngest child to brush the grass off her knees and get the worst of the stains out of her dress. When satisfied that she was ready, she led the way as they raced back towards their house, careful, nonetheless, to slow her pace if the other two started to fall behind. They were sisters, after all, inseparable. They always waited for each other.

O

"You're late!" Their mother looked at them disapprovingly as they burst through the kitchen door, panting.

"Sorry mother!" Bellatrix spoke in a voice of forced contriteness. "We were just walking in the woods and lost track of time." She was always the most likely to mollify their mother if she was annoyed, and sure enough, the woman pursed her lips but made no more mention of the time.

"Did you see anyone?" she asked her second oldest child. They were asked the same question every time they got home, and flash of annoyance seemed to cross Andromeda's face before she replied. "Only the farmer's boy from the next village. Mr Tonks' son."

Their mother looked down her nose and sniffed. "And did you speak to him?" Her tone made it quite clear that there was only one acceptable answer to the question.

"No mother. Of course not." The barefaced lie fell from Andromeda's lips with practiced ease and Bella glanced sideways at her. But she did not give her away.

Their mother, looking satisfied, turned to the youngest. "Your dress is dirty," she said coldly. "And you have a grass stain on your knee."

"Sorry mother," Narcissa said quietly. Her response was greeted with an irritable sigh as her mother pulled her closer for further inspection. "And you have twigs in your hair!" she exclaimed, running a rough hand through her daughter's blond, flowing curls before pushing her back a step and giving her a severe stare. "I hope you have not been climbing trees, like some filthy, common, muggle child?"

"N-no mother." She was not as good at lying as her sisters were and Druella Black narrowed her eyes in suspicion.

"She tripped and fell when we were running in the forest," Andromeda said at once. Their mother seemed satisfied with the explanation, although not entirely happy.

"You should be more careful," she informed her daughter. "Now go and change for dinner, please. We have important guests coming, as you know."

The three ran upstairs to get changed. None of them bothered to exchange gratitude for not giving them away, for it was taken for granted that they sprang to each other's defense, ensuring that their various misdeeds would not be relayed to their parents.

They were allies, united. They always stuck up for each other.

O

The three girls entered the dining room together. Their dresses were clean and beautifully pressed, their hair in identical braids of jet black, soft brown and white blond, their eyes wide with innocence as they took in the guests: a tall, imposing figure in immaculate grey robes and a boy about the same age as them, with sleek blond hair and grey eyes.

"Ah girls, good!" Mr Black's tone of voice made it very clear how important their guests were. "Abraxus, these are my daughters, Bellatrix, Andromeda and Narcissa. Girls, please say hello to Mr Malfoy, and his son Lucius." They did as instructed, but a frisson passed between the three sisters as their guest looked at them, his pale eyes boring into each of them with a detached coldness. Bellatrix gazed back at him, unperturbed. Andromeda forced a polite smile. Narcissa was unable to meet his gaze, and dropped her eyes to the floor.

"Very beautiful girls, I must say Cygnus," their visitor said.

"Thank you, Abraxus." Their father looked at them with a smile, but his eyes were distant, and there was little pride in his gaze. "Now, let's eat."

Dinner was a silent affair for the four children. Lucius seemed as uncomfortable as they were, and only spoke when prompted by his father, while the adults discussed high up matters concerning people they did not know or care about, and it was with great relief that Bellatrix, Andromeda and Narcissa escaped back upstairs several hours later.

"I hate it when we have important dinner guests," Andromeda moaned, stretching out on her bed. "It's so boring. And we're never allowed to talk about anything!"

"Lucius didn't say much," Narcissa mused. "And when he did he sounded really stuck up! I didn't like him at all!"

Bellatrix gave a humourless laugh. "You might have to like him Cissy," she said. Andromeda raised her eyebrows and Narcissa's pale eyes widened. "What do you mean?"

Bellatrix sat up straighter and addressed them both. "You do know why we have to meet these people, don't you? All theses important guests who come with their sons and daughters?"

"I thought they were just high up people from the ministry." Narcissa looked confused and Bellatrix shook her head in a condescending sort of way and lowered her voice.

"It's for us," she whispered. "So we mix with the right people when we go off to school. Make the right friends. And so that when we grow up we will marry into good families. Pureblood families. Our parents have already started planning our future." She was puffed up with importance, the image of the older, more knowledgeable sister in the face of the other two's bewilderment.

"How do you know?" Narcissa's eyes were now wide with dismay and Andromeda looked equally displeased. Bellatrix shrugged. "Just do," she said. "You'll see what I mean when you're a bit older. You pick up on the stuff they talk about."

Andromeda scowled at her patronizing tone. "I'm nearly as old as you are," she reminded her. "Just because you're going to Hogwarts in September, it doesn't mean you know everything!"

"So that's why they were here? They want you to make friends with Lucius at school?" Narcissa persisted.

"Oh, he won't be going to Hogwarts just yet," Bellatrix said airily. "He's more your age Cissy, so you'll be the one who has to befriend him. Maybe even marry him," she added, giving her a knowing look. Narcissa blanched and Bellatrix looked amused at her reaction.

"You suit each other," she added teasingly. "You even look the same."

"Bella, stop it!" Andromeda chided her angrily, for Narcissa now had tears in her eyes. She hurriedly shifted along the bed and put an arm around the younger girl as she began to cry.

"It's nothing to worry about Cissy," she said in a soothing voice. "You're not going to Hogwarts for ages anyway!"

"But I don't want them to choose who I make friends with!" Narcissa sniffed. "Lucius was awful! They're always awful, the children who come round!"

Bellatrix sighed a little impatiently, but she too came to give Narcissa a hug.

"Look I'm sorry, I didn't mean to upset you," she said, her voice gentler now. "And don't worry. I'm sure some of the children at school will be nicer! There are hundreds of students at Hogwarts. We've only met a few, remember. They might be more friendly when they're not with their parents anyway. I bet we are!"

Narcissa wiped her tears away on her sleeve. Still concerned by what she had just learnt, but calmed by her sisters' reassurance, she managed a watery smile. Soon they were chatting and laughing again, and Andromeda and Bellatrix looked heartily relieved that her unhappiness had been so short-lived.

They were friends, first and foremost. They always comforted each other.

oOo

Thirty-five years later, Narcissa Malfoy stared over the fields that stretched beyond Malfoy Manor to the hills that eclipsed the town where she had grown up, and sighed. So close to her childhood home, yet so far removed from her former life, from those three little girls who had run through woods and fields without a care in the world.

Where were those three girls now? Inseparable, united, friends. How had it gone so wrong?

Everything had changed that autumn, when Bellatrix had started Hogwarts. They had greatly missed her company throughout that first term, and had eagerly crossed off the numbers on their calendar, counting down the days until the three of them could be together once more. But the Bellatrix who returned to them that Christmas was not the girl they remembered.

"Are you coming out to play in the snow, Bella?" Andromeda and Narcissa said, knocking excitedly on her door on the first morning of the holidays.

"I'm busy," came Bellatrix's haughty reply. "I don't have time for childish games any more."

Andromeda and Narcissa exchanged shocked looks, before traipsing outside themselves. They tried again the next day, and the next, but every time it was the same response, and so the pattern continued and they would go outside while their sister stayed shut up in her room, reading books, writing letters to her new, important school friends, overcome by a secretive nature that they had never noticed in her before. On the rare occasions she did deign to join them, her domineering attitude caused friction between them, and when she returned to school in the new year, Narcissa and Andromeda could only feel relieved that she was gone. When the Easter holidays came round, they barely saw her at all, and she spent most of the summer meeting up with friends from Hogwarts, uninterested in what her two sisters had to offer in terms of company. And so the three girls, sisters though they were, were never inseparable again.

O

Then, when Andromeda started Hogwarts herself, another barrier came between them.

"So who are your friends, Andromeda?" their father asked, the evening they returned home after the first term. The seemingly casual question was laced with pointed interest, and his three daughters knew what he really meant. Are you associating with people worthy of our acquaintance?

Andromeda ducked her head and mumbled a few names that she knew her parents would approve of: Bulstrode, Greengrass, Flint, and sure enough, their father nodded, looking satisfied. Bellatrix, however, laughed loudly.

"What about Tonks?" she jeered. "Spend plenty of time with him as well, don't you?"

Andromeda went slightly pale as her mother's head jerked upwards. "Tonks?" her father repeated slowly. "The farmer's boy? I did not know he was at Hogwarts."

"He might as well not be. He got sorted into Hufflepuff," Bellatrix sniggered into her soup and their mother looked beside herself with indignation.

"Is this true?" she demanded. "You associate with children from other houses? Mudbloods from other houses?"

"We're friends." Andromeda's voice shook as she answered but she glared at her parents defiantly all the same.

"You cannot be friends with the son of a muggle farmer, Andromeda." Druella's face was now twisted with anger. "Don't be absurd. I forbid it!"

"But-"

"You will not talk to him again, Andromeda, do you understand me?" Cygnus's voice was calmer but firm and Narcissa watched her now favourite sister scowl in anger, but bow her head, apparently accepting defeat. Their father's word was law.

"Why did you tell them?" Andromeda demanded of Bellatrix later that evening, her eyes wide with dismay.

Bellatrix merely shrugged. "Didn't think it mattered," she said carelessly. Narcissa, silently watching the exchange from the sidelines as she often did, saw the hurt in Andromeda's eyes turn to hardened understanding. Their oldest sister had clearly changed more than they had thought.

Andromeda forgave Bellatrix, because they always forgave each other, but she was very careful from that moment on what she told her, shocked by her sudden betrayal. Sadly, she appeared to lose trust in Narcissa too, and the confidences that had once been shared as easily as the air they breathed gradually became private, until eventually she stopped telling her about her life at school altogether. By the time Narcissa started Hogwarts herself, several years later, she knew no more about Andromeda's life than she did about Bella's. And so a once unbreakable alliance between three sisters was shaken, and the trust that had been at the heart of their solidarity was damaged beyond repair.

O

Despite the fact that they had grown apart, the three girls remained amicable for several more years. Then, as might have been predicted, everything changed once more.

Narcissa was in her third year, Andromeda in her sixth, and Bellatrix was about to take her NEWTs and seemed ready to take on the world once she left school. It was rare, now, that the three sisters spent any time together at all, but it just so happened that one bright spring afternoon they had found themselves in the same spot in the school grounds and were talking together as they stretched out in the sun. Narcissa was just beginning to think that it was like old times, when Bellatrix spoke.

"I was talking to Rabastan about you yesterday, Andy. Saying you two should go into Hogsmeade together at the weekend. He said he'd be happy to take you out!"

The atmosphere changed instantly from relaxed to awkward and Andromeda looked coldly back at her older sister.

"I doubt he meant it," she replied instantly. "He likes you. He always has. And anyway, I detest Rabastan. He's the most arrogant person I've ever met!"

Bellatrix glared at her. "That's my friend you're talking about Andy," she said in a low, dangerous voice. "A very good friend. And if he's a bit arrogant, he has reason to be. His parents are some of the most important, highest ranking wizards in England! And the richest!"

Andromeda merely rolled her eyes and Bellatrix sighed impatiently.

"You could do a lot worse, you know."

"You go out with him then," Andromeda retorted. "I'm not interested."

Bellatrix just laughed. "I've got my eye on Rodolphus," she shrugged. "I'm still in touch with him. We're planning to see each other this summer."

"Rodolphus?" Narcissa blurted out, in surprise. "But... won't Rabastan mind you going out with his brother? He does like you, you know he does!"

Bellatrix's dark eyes narrowed.

"Don't be so naïve, Cissy. You think this is about who minds? Just about boys? About who likes who and teenage romance?" She had lowered her voice now. "The Lestrange family are well connected, you know. A very valued family. They know, Cissy. I mean, really know. About what goes on in our world. Stuff even our parents don't know about. Rabastan tells me of things you would not believe, things he is not even permitted to speak of-"

Andromeda just snorted in derision. "So what's he telling you for then?" she demanded.

Bellatrix glowered. "He trusts me, of course," she declared. "And don't you see what that could mean for us Andy, if we were associated with them, for the long term? You know we will be expected to marry into a pureblood family-"

"You're thinking about marriage?" Narcissa gaped at her two older sisters, only just of age, barely more than girls. "Now?"

"Of course not, not yet," Bellatrix replied witheringly. "But we will have to quite soon. And who better than the Lestranges, one of the only other families in this country with blood as pure as ours? Two sons, two daughters, to bring the families together." Her voice was impassioned, her chest heaving, and naive as she may be, Narcissa knew even then that it was not a romantic fantasy that made Bellatrix's eyes glow so vividly. It was the thought of power, an influential partner, and the chance to be at the very centre of the inner workings of their world.

But Andromeda did not seem to be paying any more attention to the conversation. She was staring across the courtyard to where a group of sixth year students were lounging in the sun, chatting and laughing. Then she spoke.

"If I marry it will be for love," she said determinedly. "Nothing else."

Bellatrix just gave a cackle of laughter. "A nice idea Andromeda, but be realistic. You will only be allowed to marry a pureblood, our parents will not permit anything less. They have been discussing our marriage since we were eight years old, probably before then. And that limits your options. So you'd better choose carefully who you fall in love with!"

Andromeda finally tore her gaze away from the other students and looked back round at them. Her face was set and an odd expression flickered in her eyes as she took a deep breath. "It doesn't matter," she said. "I've already made my choice."

Bellatrix sneered at her. "You already know who you're going to marry?" she asked disbelievingly.

"Maybe not, but I do know one thing," Andromeda said. She got to her feet and looked down at Narcissa and Bellatrix in turn. "I am not going to fall in love with someone simply because of their parentage, or who they're related to, or their house. And who I end up marrying certainly won't be dictated by how much magical blood they have. I don't give a damn about purity of blood."

Two pairs of eyes, one dark, one blue, widened visibly at this last statement and the vehemence behind it. The one sentence that defied all the careful lessons given to them throughout their youth, followed by the dire warnings that had followed them through their school years. It was the rule they had been taught to abide by from day one, that being a pureblood and preserving the pureblood line was a priority, and associating with anyone of lesser stature was strictly forbidden.

Her older sister sprang to her feet, fury suddenly twisting her elegantly carved features. "Don't be a fool," she hissed menacingly. "The world is changing, you know. Powers are shifting. Have you not heard the rumours? Soon, blood purity may be all that matters, and where will you be then if you have not had the sense to care now, before it is too late?"

But Andromeda just turned away from her siblings. "I don't care," she said simply. Her voice did not reciprocate the anger of her sister and she was calm. "I don't think I've ever really cared, Bella, but I can't care now. Not now I've seen that it truly doesn't matter what you are born, or who your parents are, or which house you are in. I may be a Slytherin, but that doesn't mean I have to act like one."

She walked away without looking back. Both older and younger sister gaped after her as she crossed the grounds and joined up with the group of sixth years, who were now getting up and preparing to go to class. Narcissa could see Ted Tonks' sandy hair among the throng, and watched in amazement as he turned to smile at her sister, before putting an affectionate arm around her shoulders. Frank Longbottom, captain of the Gryffindor quidditch team, muttered something to her with a grin, and a group of Ravenclaw girls immediately involved her in their conversation. Watching them, Narcissa was baffled as to how the group could possibly welcome a member of their most rivaled house into their midst so easily, without so much as a suspicious look or a cold shoulder. It was only as one of the Ravenclaw girls paused in the conversation and turned to stare at where she and Bella were still sitting, her eyebrows raised with interest, that the realization hit her. This was not a new development. Andromeda had chosen her friends a long time ago, probably as far back as her first year at Hogwarts, when her father had forbidden her to speak to Ted Tonks and she had appeared to accept defeat. Judging by how at ease she looked in his company, she had disobeyed him from the start, and had clearly worked hard to conceal the friendship over the years. But there was no hiding it now, and the coloured hood of Andromeda's robe stood out proudly, a lone green speck amidst a melange of red, blue and yellow: proof, not of a sudden change of heart, but simply the choice to declare her longstanding loyalties to the rest of the world.

Bellatrix watched them, scowling ferociously, and then turned to her younger sibling.

"You agree with me, don't you?"

"I-" Narcissa, in truth, didn't know what to say. She admired Andromeda. She always had, and her most recent display of bold honesty had impressed her somewhat. But the ferocity of Bellatrix's gaze frightened her, and all she could manage in reply was a feeble stutter. Bellatrix snorted in derision and sprang to her feet.

"You're hopeless," she said coldly. "But you need to choose carefully, Cissy. No good will come of Andromeda associating with that lot," she threw a final, contemptuous look in the group's direction. "I can promise you that."

She walked away, leaving her sister shivering suddenly in a gust of early summer breeze.

And so a friendship that had withstood many differences and changes over the years was brought to an abrupt end, and never renewed, and three sisters who had once shared everything now only shared a prejudiced upbringing and a genetic bond of blood. Segregated by their interests, divided by their loyalties and turned against each other by their choices, the paths of the three Black sisters led them down very different roads from that day onward.

Andromeda continued down the path that had been laid ahead of her at seven years of age, when she had first met Mr Tonks the farmer and his son and found herself intrigued by the normality and friendliness of those people who she had always been taught to despise. Her loyalties became apparent ten years later, on that spring afternoon, as she looked her eldest sister in the eye and told her boldly that she would marry for love or she would not marry at all, and walked off to join the friends she had only dared associate with in secret until then. And her choice was set in stone the day she announced to her family that she was going to have a child, the child of a muggleborn no less, and was subsequently disowned by her own parents and removed unceremoniously from the Black family tree by her dear old aunt. But for every day she looked into the kindly eyes of her husband, or the vibrant face of her beautiful daughter, she was proud of her choice and she had no regrets.

Bellatrix's path was made obvious to her the day she started Hogwarts, the day she met children from families even more powerful and prestigious than her own and realized what associating with them could mean for her own status in the magical world. In later years, her friend Rabastan offered her an insight into the regime that he claimed would soon dominate their world, introducing her to a new master, Lord Voldemort himself. Her loyalties were confirmed when she married his older brother Rodolphus, not for love, not even to appease her family, but for the powerful status and proximity to the Dark Lord that he alone could give her. The ruthless and unyielding nature that had been apparent even in her childhood was brought into full force as she did everything she could to prove her worth to her new master, never fully comprehending that he would never love and revere her the way she did him. Nevertheless, she reveled in her position as one of Voldemort's most trusted servants and she never regretted her choices either.

But for Narcissa, the youngest of the three, the least decisive and most easily influenced, her path was not clear for a very long time, torn as she was between fear of one sister and admiration for the other. Although fear won out in the end, she could never loath Andromeda the way the rest of her family did, her outward disapproval serving only as a mask for her envy that she had not had the courage to act in the same way. For her loyalties were blurred also. She married more for her parent's approval than for anything else, yet a part of her came to love Lucius all the same, in spite of what she had thought of him during their first childhood meeting. His manipulative nature worried her for many a year and the Dark Mark burned into his arm served as a permanent reminder of the dangerous life she had chosen by marrying a Death Eater. Yet he treated her well, and he showed her a respect that very few people ever had, and she grew to feel safe and protected in his company. When Draco was born, she forgot her initial worries altogether, because Lucius's position gave them a protection that very few other children could be offered as Lord Voldemort rose to even greater heights of power. Upon his unexpected downfall, her husband's slippery nature spared them too, for they escaped the trials that most Death Eaters were subjected to, and their family was accepted graciously into the high rankings of the wizarding world. With one sister imprisoned, and the other estranged from her entire family, Narcissa learnt to be grateful for what she had, and made peace with the life she had settled for, forgetting her reservations as her son grew up pampered and privileged, a prince among magical children.

Nevertheless, Narcissa was not proud of her life's decisions. She had many, many regrets. And when Voldemort rose once more to power, and her son was subsequently put in graver danger than she could have possibly imagined when she had accepted Lucius's hand in marriage and the promise of protection against the Dark Lord, she began to understand the true consequences of letting other people dictate her actions. But it was not until the 2nd May 1998, in the dead of night as she walked towards the apparently lifeless form of Harry James Potter to find out if he was indeed dead, that she found the strength to do something about it and confront her true loyalties. For as she bent down and felt Harry's beating heart, and asked him to confirm that Draco too was still alive, the relief she felt upon his reply was not only for her son. She knew that Harry Potter's continued survival increased the chances of Lord Voldemort's downfall, and it was that thought that propelled her to her feet, that caused her, for the first time in her life, to defy those more powerful than her rather than succumbing to their will. It was not just for Draco, but for the good of the entire wizarding world that she gazed back at the man who was her enemy, who would always have been her enemy if she had only had the strength to admit it, and boldly uttered the two words that would subsequently play a part in his final destruction.

"He's Dead."

oOo

Narcissa stared miserably over the fields. If only she had made that choice a long time ago, staying loyal to the sister she admired and liked rather than caving in to the sister she feared. But it was too late now. And here they were, imprisoned in their own home, awaiting trial. In just a few days they would be at the Ministry of Magic, where their fate would be decided. She feared the worst. Lucius had no protection to offer her now.

Narcissa never planned on making contact with Andromeda. She may not have been directly involved in her daughter's murder, like Bellatrix had, but she had inevitably played a role in the invasion of Hogwarts, and she knew that Andromeda was unlikely to forgive her for that. She didn't blame her. If anything had happened to Draco during that battle she would not have forgiven herself either.

Yet Andromeda surprised her. For when their trial came about, and Harry Potter himself gave testimony in their favour, declaring that if it hadn't been for Narcissa's defiance in the forest the war may have endured and claimed hundreds more lives, she was surprised to see her own sister sitting in the jury, her face serious, listening intently to every word, having reclaimed a favour that the ministry owed her from long ago to attend the trial and judge the fate of the accused.

And when the vote was cast, and the judge demanded that those in favour the Malfoys' official pardon raise their hand, Narcissa dared to glance up at her elder sister, and saw with astonishment that Andromeda's mouth was set and proud, her dark eyes never leaving Narcissa's pale blue ones as she raised her hand into the air. The majority was passed, and as Andromeda lowered her hand she gave Narcissa a nod of acknowledgement, the smallest of gestures to suggest that an alliance long lost could be reformed.

Bellatrix's body was cremated, as were those of all the Death Eaters who had died in the final battle. There was an official ceremony, and the names of the deceased were read one by one, not in honour, but in memory of those who had not had the courage to resist Lord Voldemort's dominion, and those who had never been taught to take the moral path in the first place. Harry Potter was insistent of this, declaring that not all those who lost their way and fell to the dark side were evil at heart, and that what could not be pardoned in life should nonetheless be forgiven in death. As the hero of the hour, his wish had been instantly granted. Narcissa was surprised to see Harry among the few who attended the ceremony, but even more so to see Andromeda, who stood slightly apart from the other members of the crowd, tears falling from her eyes.

She had never seen either of her sisters cry before. Whether Andromeda mourned for Bellatrix's final victims, or for the life the three of them had abandoned so long ago, or both, Narcissa never knew, and it was not her place to ask. They were not friends, after all, merely allies once more in a world that had no place for animosity if it was to be rebuilt anew. But she left her husband's side and went to hold Andromeda's hand, feeling relieved that she accepted it and held on tightly, a tiny reminder of the bonds of comforting friendship they had shared as children.

The ceremony came to an end, and the few who had attended it departed, all but two woman, one dark haired, one blond, who stood there, heads bowed, as the sun went down and the black fumes from their sister's body spiraled high into the sky: one final image of those three little girls, once inseparable, once united, once the best of friends, now estranged beyond all possible chance of reconciliation in their shattered, grief-filled world.

Please review