Hair of the Dog

By Nuin

Snickering lightly the black haired girl peeked around the corner and spotted her younger cousins. She could barely contain her laughter as Regulus turned around, scratching at his chin where black coarse hairs had sprouted across his jaw and were quickly growing longer by the second. His grey eyes were wide and she could tell he was on the verge of crying, but then he was just a kid and hadn't even started Hogwarts yet.

Bellatrix smirked and leaned back against the wall in the downstairs hallway of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black. A slight finger poked at her shoulder and she turned her head to look at the offending appendage when it poked her again.

"Cissy, stop it." Bellatrix murmured shoving Narcissa's hand away.

"But I want to see, Bella." The blonde girl pouted and tried to get past her sister, only to be pushed back.

"No, you'll get us discovered." She hissed and quickly looked around the corner. What she saw was a pair of angry grey eyes, not so different from those of her cousin Regulus. Putting a bored expression on her face, Bellatrix stared at Sirius, whose hands were clenching and unclenching, his eyes flashing with rage.

"You did this to Regulus!" He snarled and pointed one finger at his sniffling little brother, who was now standing with a long black beard trailing to the ground.

"Well, actually it was supposed to happen to you." Bellatrix said nonchalantly and crossed her arms lightly over her chest, studying her nails.

"What?!" Sirius screeched and took a step toward her.

"You were just too stupid to not drink it."

"Bella, maybe we should get out of here?" Narcissa piped up nervously. "Mother and Father will be here soon."

Sirius glared at both of them. "You're not going anywhere until you fix Regulus!"

"Fix him yourself." Bellatrix whirled around on her heels and stalked away, grabbing Narcissa's hand on the way and dragged her little sister along until they were outside in the garden. But her cousin was not one to let go so easily and he stormed after them. Sighing she whirled around and raised her hand in a fist, letting speed and force do the rest as Sirius ran right into her. Bellatrix smirked, when she heard the flesh giving way to her knuckles and her cousin stumbled back holding onto his nose.

"You…" He sputtered and small droplets of blood flew at her and hit her new red dress.

Bellatrix stared at the blood and with a scream she launched herself at Sirius, knocking him back. "Idiot, that was a new dress. Cissy, keep watch!" She yelled at both her cousin and sister, while punching the former in his gut. He wheezed and nearly doubled over glaring at her through hooded eyes. Growling he reached out and grabbed a hold of her long, dark hair yanking it roughly, only to have her retaliate by clenching her fist in Sirius' shirt with one hand and pinching his cheek hard with the other. In the meantime Narcissa was standing a bit further away looking out for any of their parents to come by.

Which of them was the first to topple over they didn't know, just that they ended up rolling around on the ground and trying to get the upper hand. And that was how they were found by their parents with Narcissa looking sheepish at her father's side and Regulus standing beside his furious mother, his chin hairless.