"I'm so glad you came,
I'm so glad you remembered,
To see how we're ending our last dance together,
Expectant,
Too punctual,
But prettier than ever,
I really believe that this time its forever."
-Last
Dance "The Cure"
***
The sun had long ago set in brilliant shades of pink orange and violet beneath
the darkened hills. The last day of autumn. The cold would come soon; this had
always been Narcissa's favorite season. She reminisced briefly of the days when
they had been younger. The days when they had danced under the flurry of new
falling snow. How very like a broken angel she had looked then, her Narcissa,
as close to innocence as she would ever be.
She remembered how the ice particles had clung to every strand of those long
pale eyelashes. How the rouge brightened the alabaster skin at the sharp
cheekbones, and gave life to a malleable cartoonish face. Very like a still
life painting, Narcissa had always been immobile as she was immaculate.
Oh how Bellatrix had been the opposite. She couldn't hold still, ever, in all
her years of existence, she had never been immaculate, always a dark eyed
beauty. A woman made of fire, too lively to remain in one place. Constantly
spinning and changing like a caterpillar into a beautiful butterfly.
Tonight would be the last one she spent in the Black manor. The entire
pureblood society had cultivated to her home for one of the predictable
organized events her mother through every year. But this was sort of like a
"going away" party for Bellatrix. An engagement party to Rodolophus,
however, She belonged to only two things.
Her master, whom she had pledged her allegiance too, and her living porcelain
doll, Narcissa. There was no room in that vast belonging for her to be torn in
another direction. Rodolophus would make a good husband, and she would make a
good wife. However she would never love him. She could never.
She had asked to be alone. She had needed it. She glanced dully at her
reflection in the gleam set into the window. Her fringe bangs like dark strands
of silk over her large forehead, her deep-set hazel eyes bore into that of her
reflections, as if she were trying to read herself. Some things simply weren't
meant to be fathomed.
How many hours had she been in this room? How many years had she lain against
the window, propping her elbows on the windowsill, pondering thoughts that
someone as young as she had been, should not have to contemplate. That had been
Bellatrix. And how long had Narcissa sat in the chair opposite the bed.
Rocking, backwards and forwards with that familiar doll in her arms that
resembled her so very much. How those tiny legs hadn't reached all the way over
the chair yet. How the silk and lace had spread over the seat in a flowering
motion. How that tiny bow in the back swished with the motions of her pace.
Those eyes of hers had been like fresh cut diamonds set into her eye sockets.
Always glittering with maliciousness uncommon to someone so petite. How the
platinum tresses had snaked their way down her back, pulled gently away from
her face and held back with that familiar ornamental serpent clip.
Like a ghost she haunts this room, even though she lives on in this house only
a few doors away. Had Narcissa taken a leave from the party to become pensive?
The probability was unlikely. Narcissa divulged in attention .She had always
grasped any opportunity to bat her eyes at anyone who she felt was worthy
enough.
Lucius would no doubt be here, He, along with Rodolophus obviously. Bellatrix
would have to cling to his arm, thank and smile at everyone who offered his or
her congratulations. Although tranquil on the outside, inside she felt like
screaming.
Through her oak doors he could hear the instrumental union and the melodic
tones of human conversation. How the regal all sounded like a chorus of
mockingbirds. Their voices soft and delicate. They never said anything unless
it was worth taking time to say.
Her dark hair was spiraled and c half knotted at the back of her head. The dark
silk of it set ever so nicely over the satin gown. Flowing over the window seat
and onto the floor. Her shoes coupled and resting against the wall nearest her
bedside table. Her gloves strewn across the squashy surface of her resting
place.
For a moment she admired the details of her room. The elegant craftsmanship of
the walls the construction of her furniture held a century of memories for her
family. Years of memory for the two sisters. How each night Narcissa's familiar
pitter-pattering footsteps came up the hall; the doors would creak open ever so
slightly. She would slide into her arms and there she would stay until morning.
Bellatrix remembered watching her, she remembered all those years of this
tradition and they never spoke a word to each other. The slow rise and fall of
her tiny chest, the steady breaths against her skin, and the wisps of gold
mixing with her ebony ropes. How Narcissa had twirled her tiny fingers through
those dark locks until she fell into slumber and all movement ceased.
She remembered dressing Narcissa every day, deciding exactly what shades of
blue and violet would match her that day. How she had pulled on the woolen
stockings in the winter and the silk embroidered ones in the spring. How she
had laced up the minute parallel holes in the back of her doll-like dresses.
Tied the large bows behind her back. Buckled the leather shoes and gently raked
the comb through her sun kissed mane.
Even as they grew older and their figures evolved to that of a woman, Bellatrix
still slid on the stockings, and now she buckled the garters, she still tied
the dresses but now there was a corset, she still brushed her hair
unnecessarily, and Narcissa still curled up against her at night.
Bellatrix had grown so lost in her thoughts that she hadn't noticed the arrival
of her sister. After a few moments more of remembrance, she turned to find her
youngest sister Narcissa standing before her, her arms held hundreds of
chrysanthemums. She unblinkingly stared forward at her sister who in turn gazed
right back.
"The last buds of spring," she said quietly dropping her hands to her
sides as the formerly cradled flowers fell on their heads into Bellatrix's lap
and over the seat of the windowsill. As Bellatrix shifted forwards the flowers
quivered and slipped from her person.
"Carefully preserved through fall. They're a gift." Narcissa stated
blandly. She always had a stony quality to the way she spoke.
"I have no love of flowers like you have." Bellatrix whispered more
to herself than to anyone else, as she turned to the window once more, a
further shower of white chrysanthemums splattered the floor as she turned.
"This I knew, but they're so pretty, so lively, I thought you might like
to destroy them."
"I would," Bellatrix snapped her teeth at the neck of a blossom and
clipped it from the stem in that sharp motion. She began tearing the petals
from the heads, and tossing the remnants into the fire on her right. For a few
moments Narcissa watched undaunted.
The lovely memories of spring went up in roaring flames. Bellatrix was made of
fire. Narcissa lifted her skirts and sat beside her sister. When Bellatrix
screwed her face up in anger she clawed at the flowers and angrily tossed them
into the flames in more frequent and larger amounts. She let out an angry scream
as she turned around to find still so many of them littering the floor around
her. She swept them up and pushed them under the wood where the caught quickly
to the blaze and curled up into ash.
Bellatrix, Now on her knees before the fumes, panted viciously for a few more
moments until she once again attainted a passive composure. Narcissa remained
where she had taken her seat, at the windowsill, holding the last flower in
between her index and middle finger.
She extended her hand and Bellatrix snatched at the remaining bloom, she was
about to tear it to shreds when she looked into Narcissa's face. The ice queen
still had her arm extended and she appeared frozen in time.
"Would you destroy everything?" Narcissa asked gently. Bellatrix's
expression softened, and she gripped her sister's bony fingers.
"Not everything." Bellatrix pressed her lips against the cold flesh
of Narcissa's palm.
"Do you remember the springtime?" Narcissa questioned inaudibly to
anyone with the exception of Bella. And in an instant She did remember.
*** Spring was still a pale green clinging to winters cheek; the first flower
had sprung before their very eyes. It had been Narcissa's first sign of magic,
at the age of 5, that very day. Narcissa had made the flower emerge from the folds
of melting white. Bellatrix had been 10 then, preparing to enter Hogwarts
herself, determined to uphold the family honor. Unlike that of her sister
Andromeda, who had gotten pregnant by a Mudblood and ran off with him at the
age of seventeen.
That spring Narcissa had been betrothed to Lucius and Rodolophus had claimed
Bellatrix. At all the suitor meetings, Bellatrix had been rude and obnoxious,
deliberately so she would never be chosen. And it had worked for six years
until he came along.
He found her spunk intriguing. How she was more like a boy, more roguish,
controlling, powerfully radiant. So very unlike a lady, and yet so very
feminine indeed. He had requested betrothal at once. Bellatrix had been given
no choice. Her parents were glad to have given her away at last, and that's
where the animosity began.
She hardly ever spoke to her parents. They were merely vassals to bring her
into existence. They were never intended to mean anything to her. True she did
not despise her parents, but she didn't love them either. Her father was a self
made man, but he was never at home, or if he were, the office was where he
remained. Their mother indulged herself in the glamour, the wealth, throwing
parties left and right, growing obsessed with the glory and honor of the black
lineage.
Bellatrix prided herself with her purity, but scorned the regal mindset that
came with it. The glamour isn't what she wanted. It was the pride. Her younger
cousin around Narcissa's age had never thought along those lines. He despised
everything about his bloodline, his family, and his history. He wanted to sever
all ties in the same way Andromeda did. Bellatrix shook her head, the blighted
fool.
That spring her parents had gone away for the entire season, that spring she
would never forget. With andromeda gone they had no one to rat them out. The
house elves took care of them, but they were in charge of the house, for the
entire season. This would be Bellatrix's last season at home, and Narcissa's
first alone without the parental.
They bid their parents goodbye, and immediately discovered the room of a
thousand keys. This house had so many locks, keys openings closings, doors,
entrances, exits, and Bellatrix had been determined to explore them.
They found the key with the red fingerprint smeared across it, and up to the
attic they traveled. Bellatrix had discovered this secret room at the age of
four. She had always gazed up to the tallest peak of the manor with the
circular glass window, and wondered, what's up there?
Now she had been forbidden to go looking, but her curiosity caught the better
off her, and she was going to take advantage of this moment. Narcissa followed
closely behind her, silent as a doll, and obedient as a dog. When at last
Bellatrix climbed the latter the overhead doors lock wouldn't budge. Perhaps
the key was wrong?
She played with the lock a few more minutes' ant at last it clicked and swung
open. The first thing she noticed was dust. Dust everywhere. It thickened the
air alike a dirty fog, and teemed in and out of her lungs. She quickly pulled a
handkerchief from her bodice and put it over Narcissa's face.
Once they had both entered the room. The door had closed. And there was no lock
from the inside. They were trapped. Bella had not noticed this flaw at first.
All she saw was a room full of old toys, a merry-go-round, a cluster of
porcelain dolls, dressmakers dummies, lamps, sofa's and a long Curtin that ran
along the back of the room. She vaguely wondered what was beyond the curtain,
however she was too intrigued by the carousel to care at the moment.
Narcissa had the handkerchief tied around her nose and mouth so's not to breath
in the infested unhealthy air. Bellatrix straddled a ceramic horse and as soon
as she touched its mane it began to move, it creaked and the melody it emitted
was dull and haunting. Narcissa continued to creep towards the porcelain dolls,
and then she screamed.
Bellatrix had rushed to her side before she could collapse to the floor. The
porcelain dolls faces were all smashed, and the ones that weren't were crying
tears of blood. Their tiny hands extended reaching for Narcissa. Bellatrix's
eyes widened with fear. She didn't know what to make of them Narcissa was
shaking with fearful sobs now. She scratched up Bellatrix's torso and screamed
into her shoulder.
Bellatrix cradled Narcissa and backed away from the eerie dolls. Bellatrix
attempted to open the door but realized there was no handle, no lock, no
nothing. And she began to beat her fist on the wood calling for house elves for
andromeda, for her mother and father, for anyone to come and help.
But darkness came and went. She couldn't hear any other part of the house in
this damned place, and she wondered if anyone could hear her. She cured up in a
corner with Narcissa whose tears never ceased. The dolls remained where they
always were, and their hands were still stretching forward. The blood dripped
from their glass eyes and the carousel occasionally started its haunting tune.
This place was evil.
True EVIL, her master doesn't believe in evil, but she knows of its existence.
Whatever held this room together, whatever it was the epitome of evilness.
After four days, no food no water, no help. She grew desperate. And began
searching for something to eat. She found nothing but dust and clumps of hair,
hair that to her horror had clumps of flesh at the end.
She grew even more afraid of what was held behind that curtain. The dust caked
the wooden floor, and there were footprints in a circle from Bella's pacing. At
one point she had gotten so angry that she picked up one of the bleeding dolls
and threw it against the wall where it shattered and crumpled to the ground.
Narcissa let out a fresh wail at this scenario. Bellatrix had grown so
irritable that she left her there to quake and cry. She grew mad with her rage
and tore back the curtain in desperation for some kind of food. What she found
would scar her fore life.
Seven glass coffins each with a small child in it. The first a little girl
who's face was horribly disfigured. Siamese twins attached at the back of the
head, a little boy with no legs, a baby with one eye, twins who appeared
normal, a gaggle of 12 babies all born premature, and at last a blonde haired
girl who appeared to have no tongue and no hands.
This is what incestuous nature of the black family produced. At the turn of the
century, she heard it was custom to kill a maimed young, or a child that was a
dishonor to the family in some way. So this is what they did with them, the
locked the children up in this room to die, so they could never shame the
family again.
Bellatrix let out a scream so long and loud that she could hear nothing else
around her, their coffins preserved the bodies and yet they slowly decayed. The
face of the girl with no tongue was deteriorating from the bone. Bellatrix
stumbled backward in horror, becoming entangled in the velvet curtain, it
caught around her neck and began to suffocate her, as her body grew limp she
was sure she saw the toungless girls eyes open.
Narcissa had untangled her and dragged her body to the corner, where the two of
them shook and wept until a week later andromeda let them loose.
She had come back to gather her thins since she had discovered their parents
were out of town. She was cradling a newborn baby in her arms, and Bellatrix
watched mesmerized as its face changed completely, it re arranged its
appearance on its own will.
Bellatrix wondered if they had lived back then, if Andromeda and her faceless
baby would be in one of those coffins. Bellatrix hated her sister for what
she'd done to the family's name. She hated everything about andromeda, however
no amount of hatred could bring her to condemn Andromeda to that horrible
place.
For the rest of the season. Bellatrix had night m mares, she ate very little,
and hardly left her room, Narcissa had taken all her porcelain dolls and
smashed their faces with a poker, she watched the fire eat their hair, and
curled against Bellatrix's side.
Things were never the same then. That moment brought the two of them to an
understanding. Of what is trivial and what means everything. Pride in whom you
are, not what to resemble is what mattered. All those defective children should
have been prized for being purebred, not discarded because the were deformed.
She convinced herself that they were traitors, like andromeda, she tried to
justify her a castors actions. But she always thought of the toungless girl,
and the tears of blood from those shattered dolls. When her parents had come
home, she asked about the room and found the girls with the missing tongue and
hands, had been their aunt.
*** "Of course I remember." Bellatrix whispered wrapping Narcissa in
her embrace, resting her face in her sister's familiar blonde coils. "How
could I forget.?"
"Would you destroy me someday Bellatrix?" Bellatrix looked into those
diamond eyes and decided.
"Only if you wanted it Sister."
"Would you kill me if I told you to? And would you enjoy it if I wanted
you too?"
"I could never enjoy it."
"Even if that was what I wanted?"
"I could never enjoy killing you, I love you."
"Love." Narcissa repeated it slowly; as if it were a foreign word she
couldn't comprehend. After the look of puzzlement she plucked a petal from the
flower and slid it into her mouth.
She fisted Bellatrix's hair and put her feather light lips over that of her
sisters. Their tongues flicked and they both sank to the floor. They unfastened
their corsets and slid the dresses from their bodies and mingled together like
the light against the dark.
The flames licked the wood beside them, the air steamed at each and every
touch. Bellatrix loved to control her, she loved to taint that seemingly
innocent façade, and she loved to make her body curl the way it always does in
times like these. Narcissa loved to submit, she loved to be loved, and it was
all so glorious.
When at last they reached the pitch and fell together their naked bodies
entwined together, like, rope in a delicate knot. Bellatrix loved this part.
The part where they braided their fingers into their manes, and poisoned each
others mouths with the forbidden taste of one another.
The whole aspect that this was wrong, made it feel so right. Made it all so
fine. Bellatrix felt like the cold winters night, and Narcissa the frosty
daylight.
"Ah, love." Narcissa confirmed to herself. "Will you love
Rodolophus?"
"Not like this."
"How so?"
"He is not you, he and I are two bodies made of fire, but our hearts are
made of ice. With you I melt the ice, with him I only freeze over."
"Lucius tells me he loves me." Narcissa said benignly twirling her
fingers through her waist length hair. Bellatrix began lacing Narcissa's
corset, pulling the dress over her head and registering each and every lace.
She silently attached the garters and slid on the pointed buckle high heels,
encrusted with diamonds. Narcissa's dress was a pale blue, pale like the bluish
prisms in her eyes.
Bellatrix laced herself, and registered her own dress, as Narcissa reapplied
the make-up, and her usual bangles and drooping necklaces. Bellatrix wore no
jewelry, and her dress was red. The color of dinner wine, with matching pumps
complete with a tiny bow at the toe. She twirled her hair around an ornamental
black pearl headdress.
Narcissa registered it for her, and twirled the dark strands with her wands
magic. Holding every strand into place. She powdered Bellatrix and applied all
makeup and Bellatrix squirmed uncomfortably, she never wore make-up.
Narcissa left an invisible kiss on her sisters cheek, and began to clip back
her own hair with that familiar Serpent clip with the chopstick sliding through
it. Bellatrix smiled slightly and coiled her arms around that tiny waist and
she gently bit her sister's ear.
"Will you come down to the party Bellatrix?" Narcissa asked as she
put her hand on the doors handle.
"I haven't got a choice have I?" Bellatrix said arms folded under her
breasts gazing out the window as a flurry of light snow began to fall.
"Will you enjoy it.for me?" Narcissa half pleaded.
"I cannot do that." Bellatrix stated quietly as she registered the ruffled
train of her dress.
"You cannot enjoy anything for me?" It was a statement more than a
question.
"I can enjoy you, not anything for you." Bellatrix said walking to
the door and opening the handle for Narcissa. "You know this."
"Yes." Bellatrix slid her black gloves over her arms and clicked her
way down the hall leaving Narcissa standing there in the doorway alone.
Copyright © 2003 Darcie
Delano
Harry potter Copyright © J.K
Rowling/scholastic books and W.B INC.
".Never say anything
unless its worth taking a long time to say." and "Spring was still a
pale green clinging to winters cheek"-Copyright © J.R.R Tolkien "the
Lord of the Rings".
"Last
Dance"-Copyright © 1979-2003 Robert Smith of 'the Cure'
"Smashed their faces with
a poker, watched the fire earth their hair"
-Copyright © Anne Rice
"The Queen of the Damned"
Authors note: I'll be adding onto this story, so if you want to hear more,
Please Review.