This is my first time writing about the Black sisters, so I'm a bit nervous about how I tackled their characterization! Not going to lie - took a look at my relationship with my own sisters to get a feel for the chemistry between these sisters ;)

Written for Hogwarts Myths/Legends Assignment 4 - Task: Write about the three Black sisters (Narcissa, Andromeda and Bellatrix), and their struggle with one of them being different to the other two.

WC: 1, 572

Prompts used: (dialogue) "Do you know what that means? I always win."; (word) Danger

It used to be that some nights, when Bellatrix and Andromeda felt particularly adventurous and Narcissa felt a little adventurous too, the young Black sisters snuck into the backyard of their manor past bedtime.

There wasn't much space out there, but there was a nice grassy area where the three could lay on a blanket and look up at the stars. They used to race to see who could find Andromeda's or Bellatrix's or their parents' stars first. And when the stars failed to amuse them any longer, they would just lie there and talk until their mother discovered they were all missing and came outside to drag them back in.

They stopped going outside when Bellatrix went off to Hogwarts. For Andy and Cissy, it just wasn't the same without their older sister; besides, it was harder to convince Narcissa to go outside with just one adventurous sister than it was when both of them were there to persuade her. Andromeda and Bella were always the more daring of the three, after all. Narcissa feared what the dark could bring, and she hated the vulnerability of lying out there in the cold night air unless she knew her two sisters were beside her.

So the backyard remained empty as Bellatrix went off to school, then Andy, then Cissy. The nights they used to spend together under the stars grew distant as years passed and the sisters grew.

They returned to their yard once more, when Andy was fifteen and Bella was seventeen. But by then, even the map of the racing stars above couldn't connect the three sisters anymore.

"Found it."

Through the dark, Andromeda's hand shot up and pointed at a spot just above the shadow of a tree. Her voice was effervescent; lately, her older sister had been sounding like that, Narcissa mused. Happy. Light. As if life had breathed its very air into her bones and made her less poised but somehow more vivacious.

"I can still find mine first," Andy continued proudly. "Do you know what that means? I always win."

"Oh, be quiet, Meda." From Narcissa's left, Bellatrix leapt off the blanket. She had refused to lie down earlier, and now seemed as if she didn't want to even sit on the dirty blanket. Narcissa saw this as a sign that she, too, could sit up now and brush the dirt out of her light blond curls.

"It's not that impressive. The stars are always in the same place anyway," Bella was pointing out. "And I don't see why we're still doing this. The Lestranges are coming over tomorrow."

At this, Narcissa smiled wickedly. "And you know how Rabastan will be around you, Meda," she sang out.

"Oh, shut up." Andromeda sat up as well and glowered at both of her smirking sisters. "You know that it's all just a show for our parents. He always tells me himself, when we're alone."

"He's lying. And I'll bet he tells you a lot of other stuff when you're alone," said Bellatrix. She swept her long black curls over her shoulder and pranced over to the edge of the grass. "Too bad the Malfoys can't make it, Cissy."

Narcissa hummed in agreement but didn't say anything at the mention of Lucius Malfoy; if she did, she knew that Andy and Bella would be able to see that she was hiding something big from them. They could always see. She pretended to be immersed in braiding her hair until the topic shifted back to the Lestranges.

"You know, I don't know why you like Rodolphus so much," Andromeda began matter-of-factly, either unaware of the way that Bella stopped in her tracks and whipped around to glare at her, or doing a good job of ignoring it. "He's worse than Rabastan, in my opinion. You've heard the rumours."

Everyone in Slytherin back at school, Narcissa thought, must have heard the rumors about the handful of sixth and seventh-year boys who had snuck out of the school one night to join a certain Dark group of followers. The followers of a powerful wizard making a name for himself in pureblooded society called themselves Death-Eaters. And Rodolphus Lestrange was one of the suspected boys in that group.

"Are they true?" Narcissa questioned. Her sisters turned to her in sync, as if they'd forgotten she was there. "The rumours, I mean."

"Well, what do you think?" said Bellatrix idly, at the same time that Andy muttered darkly, "Unfortunately." Immediately the two turned back to each other, dark eyes alight with the same burning fire that was not reflected in Narcissa's wide blue eyes.

She butted in hastily, "How do you know they're true?"

"You're too young. No one would've told you," said Bellatrix with a wave of her hand. A five years difference in age seems a hefty length of distance when you are younger, and even though the Black sisters had been always been relatively close to one another, it was no different for them in the way that the older sisters regarded the younger.

"What she means is that they all brag about all the time," said Andromeda. Her voice was level but her eyes emitted sparks of displeasure. "But no one in your year has gone rogue, so you haven't heard much of the danger. Yet."

"Danger?" Bellatrix frowned. "Now honestly, Andy. It is honorable."

Narcissa listened in growing dread as Andromeda tensed and whispered, "Have you heard about what that powerful wizard does to people? I've heard he tortures people for no reason -"

"People?" Bellatrix spat out.

Narcissa wanted to shake her head at Andromeda, tell her to back down before Bella became too angry. If she got in a bad mood now, she'd be in a bad mood tomorrow morning when the Lestranges came. She knew that it would be no use, though, even if Andy tore her eyes away from the crackling energy of their eldest sister; Andromeda wouldn't back down. She never did.

"People," repeated Bella scathingly. "You act as if those muggles are worth something. As if they're actually people like us."

Andy's mouth dropped open. "They are! How could you even suggest they're -"

She broke herself off and leapt to her feet, mouth opened in indignance. Bellatrix took this moment to lift her chin up and say, "Honestly, Andromeda, what has gotten into you? Have you forgotten? Those muggles haven't any magic. They're worthless. They're no danger to us at all."

"That's not what I meant."

"I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that," snapped Bellatrix. "And I'm going to go back in now."

"You do that," said Andromeda, turning away as Bellatrix stomped up the back porch steps and let herself into the house. (She didn't bang the door shut, which, Narcissa supposed, was kind of her; this way, Mother wouldn't find out they were out here. That was, if Andy's and Bella's voices hadn't already woken her or Father up.)

Narcissa stood, finishing off her pleat with a quick flourish of her elegant fingers. She eyed Andromeda's livid face, devoid of all the happiness that had been there moments before, and ventured, "Are the Lestranges actually part of that… group?"

Her sister glared at their house over her shoulder. "I'm certain Rodolphus is," came her reply a moment later. "Rabastan is planning to join soon. Did you know" - Andy shuddered and looked at her - "they have to brand themselves when they join?"

Narcissa was quiet for a moment. She thought of the Lestranges and how, despite all Andromeda claimed was false, Rabastan was most definitely in love with her, maybe more than Rodolphus was with Bellatrix. She thought of her eldest sister and the hungry gleam in her eyes when she'd been talking about the Death-Eater group. She thought of Lucius Malfoy and the way he had let the words Dark Lord slip last time she'd been with him.

At last, she said into the night air, "That does make it seem romantic, in a way. Like Bella said. Honorable."

She knew how Andromeda would react before she did, that her sister would whip around in the way she did, dark eyes flashing with disapproval - but when Narcissa calmly lifted her face to look at Meda's, she saw something else that she didn't expect to find in Andromeda's eyes.

Betrayal.

"Not you, too." The words were spoken in a low whisper. Andy stared at her for a few seconds, as if willing Narcissa to take back her words, but Narcissa didn't speak.

She didn't speak when Andromeda at last spun around and followed Bellatrix's path of stomping back into the house. She didn't speak when the door slammed shut, the loud bang echoing through the night. She only looked up at the sky and the stars that would never bear her name like it did her sisters'.

She paused and searched for her sisters' constellation and star now, eyes flitting through the silver specks in the distance, searching across the inky blue satin sky.

"Found them," she murmured to herself.

She could almost hear Andy's groan of disappointment and Bella's growl of frustration, as if they stood right there beside her. For a moment, she felt as if the three of them were lying down on that years-old blanket again, drinking in the sky like they used to. But when reality hit her again, Narcissa was only standing in their yard alone.