If you are coming back, you must read this. It's a prologue I decided to add.
If you are new, this is AU-ish. I've changed some of the birthdates, Bella for example was born in 1951, but I moved her up to 1955.
Please, read and review and tell me what you think. Ah, that's all I have to say.
Oh, the next chapter of Belly of the Beast will be up soon! By this weekend at the latest.
Prologue
Bellatrix Black Lestrange
1955-1998
"Well, at least they didn't put 'loving aunt' on there."
Andromeda Tonks stared down at the plain marker of her sister's grave. Of course, she wished that the corpse had been thrown into the sea, burned to a crisp, or possibly fed to rabid wolves. To be buried, and given a headstone, like a decent human being, was a desecration. If Andromeda had had her way, the name of Bellatrix Black Lestrange would be stricken from all annals of history, all books, all records, and all memory.
Oh, yes, Andromeda hated the woman who had once been her sister, with a passion. She wanted to wipe the imprint Bellatrix had left from the face of the earth.
She wanted what was hers back.
"You're the last person I would have expected to see here."
Andromeda froze, her burning hatred for one sibling turning to resentment for the other. "What do you want, Narcissa?"
Narcissa Malfoy did not answer for a long time. "It's cold outside, Dromeda. You shouldn't be here."
"Since when do you care?" Andromeda demanded.
"You're my sister," Narcissa began.
"Not for a long time," the other woman hissed. "Not since you stole him from me."
Narcissa's eyes narrowed dangerously. "I stole nothing from you."
Andromeda spun to face her. Face to face, the sister's resemblance was unmistakable. Both had fine bones, though Narcissa's jaw was somewhat narrower and her mouth slightly thinner. They shared the steel gray eyes of the Black family, the long, defined nose perfect for looking down. The most obvious difference was their hair, and had always been.
The cold March wind whipped the long strands up, out of the carefully crafted styles and mixed them. Narcissa watched it sadly, remembering how the three sisters would spend nights together talking excitedly on Bella's bed, and how the three shades of ebony, chocolate and gold would mingle.
Andromeda didn't let herself remember. "Don't pretend you came here out of concern for me, Narcissa. Why are you here?"
"It's Bella's birthday."
"Are you saying you're here to pay your respects?" Andromeda sneered.
"I knew you'd be here, and that you'd probably freeze yourself to death," Narcissa answered. "But I checked Nymphadora's grave first."
In an instant, Andromeda's wand was out, pointing at her mouth. "Say my daughter's name again and I will make sure it is your last word."
Narcissa tensed, knowing that Andromeda wouldn't kill her. She did, however, know some interesting, permanent silencing hexes. "How coincidental that they share the same birthday."
Andromeda spun away from her, a pained cry tearing past her lips.
Mrs. Malfoy closed her eyes. She couldn't imagine it. So close in that last battle, within inches she'd come to being where Andromeda was now: her husband and child, both dead. Her heart stuttered at the thought of it and she reached out to her sister, offering comfort.
"NO!" Andromeda hissed. She batted Narcissa's hand away. "Don't you dare! You have your husband, you have your child!"
She took a step closer, so that they were mere inches apart. "You have the life that should have been mine!"
"Don't blame me for that, Sister," Narcissa shot back. She'd come to offer help to her last living relative, partly out of pity, but Andromeda's attacks had driven that from her. "It was your fault, and entirely yours that you lost him when we were in Hogwarts."
Andromeda didn't reply to that, but turned around and paced over the cold earth. She twitched and prowled, looking like a great, agitated panther, waiting to lash out at someone. Narcissa suppressed the urge to leave; she looked so much like Bellatrix. When Bella got itchy like that, she'd usually drag some poor prisoner of war in and torture them senseless. It was as if another's pain could distract her from what she was feeling.
"You've come here to flaunt it, haven't you?" Andromeda snapped. She stopped her manic movements and faced Narcissa again.
"You wouldn't have had this life, even if you hadn't gotten yourself pregnant straight out of Hogwarts," Narcissa asserted. Andromeda's shoulders hunched and her eyes flashed, but the blond sister was undeterred. "You wouldn't have had the thought to lie to the Dark Lord, to tell him that the Potter boy was dead. You were always rash, unthinking. You could never have handled life with Lucius."
"He was mine!"
"You threw him away! Shoved any affection he had aside to spite our parents!" Narcissa shouted.
Andromeda smirked. "And you got my sloppy seconds."
"Now you're implying you chose that Muggle," Narcissa responded. "Him over Lucius, and Draco."
Andromeda closed her eyes and unbidden, the image of a boy, Draco's age, with Lucius' face and the Blacks' coloring came to her. Just as soon it was transposed with the image of her daughter in her original form, dark brown hair and big gray eyes. Then the face of that damned boy as he walked up to her, holding a werewolf baby in his arms and sorrow in his eyes.
Teddy Lupin, they'd named him. Nymphadora had always adored her father.
"She just had too much Black in her," Andromeda murmured, eyeing the silent gravestone with disgust.
Narcissa frowned. "Bella?"
"'Dora."
"What are you talking about?" Narcissa demanded, stepping forward. "She was nothing like the rest of our ancestors."
Andromeda laughed then, a cold chilling laugh that Narcissa remembered all too well. "My ancestors, Narcissa. Mine."
Narcissa sucked in a breath. To think that she'd hit that low. But 'Dromeda always did play dirty. Well, if there was one thing Narcissa had learned in this war, it was to give as good as she got. "Oh, yes, always obsessed with what was yours. You never actually loved that Muggle, did you?"
"Do you really love Lucius?"
"Yes."
Andromeda scoffed.
"Maybe I didn't at first, when I had to take your place, but I do now. He and Draco are my whole world."
The older sister folded her arms and closed her eyes halfway. Contempt slid into the familiar gray and a sneer wormed its way across her face. "Really?"
"Yes."
Andromeda shook her head. "You always were weak, little sister. Easy to manipulate. Do you really think any of us are really capable of love?"
Narcissa opened her mouth to speak, but Andromeda raised one finger, waving it back and forth to indicate more silence.
"Why do you think we're called Black, Narcissa? Because we are. We are black, dark as night. You, me, Bellatrix, Regulus. Even Sirius and Nymphadora, in their own way. It's what we are. There's no escaping it."
With those parting words, Andromeda apparated away, presumably to her grandson, Teddy.
Narcissa stared down at the ground for a moment before turning her eyes to the engravings. Bellatrix Black Lestrange. Though there were no graves for them, the names of Sirius Orion Black and Regulus Arcturus Black came to her mind.They were all dead, Andromeda had turned her back on the name and Narcissa wasn't really a Black anyway. She huffed and sneered.
"You failed us, sister. You failed all of us."
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Well, that's it. Go on, read the next one. It's pretty darned good! You know you want to. ;) Especially if you're curious about all the references in there, or Andromeda's character.