AUTHOR'S NOTE: This story was written for the My Dear Professor McGonagall's Sibling Rivalry Competition.

DISCLAIMER: I do not, nor will I ever own Harry Potter. I am merely an admirer of the magical world that J. has created. The world that she has kindly let people, like myself, play around in.

Her face was laughing, when she fell to the floor for the last time, never to get up again. Her arrogant smile and hooded eyes, never to move. Her cold, unwavering voice never to whisper another word.

Narcissa Malfoy woke with a start. She looked around her bedroom, as if surprised to find that she was still there. The moonlight escaped through the clouds, shining through the window, playing with the trees outside, casting dancing shadows on the floor. The wind howled, competing with the thunder, in some sort of elemental confrontation. The lighting flickered and jumped through the air, occasionally joining the dance with the shadows on the floor.

Narcissa ran her long, slender fingers through her pale blonde hair. She had been dreaming again. Dreaming of a woman. The woman was tall, with long, black hair, cold, unyielding eyes and a brooding, harsh beauty. She moved with a swagger and when she smiled, she smiled like a woman possessed. It was a graceful madness that, at one point in her life, Narcissa had known well.

She turned to look at her husband, who was lying in bed beside her, his silvery-blonde hair spread out over the pillow. He breathed softly, his muscular chest moving up and down beneath the black silk sheet. Narcissa ran her hand down his cheek, a loving fondness in her blue eyes. Lucius had been with her through everything and for that she was eternally grateful.

Getting out of bed, she walked to the wardrobe and slipped a black coat over the top of her nightgown. She didn't bother with shoes. As she left the bedroom, Narcissa grabbed her wand and let it fall in to one of the billowing pockets in her coat. She probably wouldn't need it, but over the past few years, at her husband's insistence, she had taken it everywhere and old habits die hard.

Quietly shutting the door behind her, Narcissa walked down the hall and crept down the stairs, pausing only to listen outside the door of her son. Draco had been so distant, ever since the battle at Hogwarts, and Narcissa worried about him more than anything else. Though she heard nothing, she wondered whether or not he was sleeping. If he was, she hoped his dreams were pleasant and not a reminder of the cruel war, through which they had just come.

The big, iron door opened with a creak and Narcissa stepped outside, in to the grounds of Malfoy Manor. She started down a path, that took her to a small forest. The trees were tall and menacing, their dark leaves blocking the sky. An owl moved in the trees, it's eery hooting weaving in and out of the foliage. Narcissa's feet were red and muddy, from walking bare on the cold ground, but it didn't bother her. She had walked through worser things.

She came to the edge of the forest, overlooking a steep embankment that led down to a lake. It was here that she finally stopped and bent down beside a large, polished stone. She laid her palm down on it, underneath where the word Bella was written. The stone had been placed there by Narcissa, as a memoriam to her older sister Bellatrix Lestrange.

Bellatrix had died in the Battle of Hogwarts, killed by a grief fueled mother and her own arrogance. In the back of her mind, Narcissa had always known that Bellatrix would go down fighting. She wondered, if Bella had survived, what she would say when she discovered that it had been Narcissa that betrayed the Dark Lord. Her Dark Lord. Yes, Bella had loved Lord Voldemort, with a passion and fire that only someone like her could have. Narcissa had seen it, even in the early days of the movement. Bellatrix would worship the very ground he walked on, unfalteringly and unquestioningly.

It had pained Narcissa, to her sister give herself entirely to a man who was incapable of loving her back. Falling at his feet, when he only viewed her as something her could use. No doubt, the Dark Lord was fond of Bellatrix but, if it had come to it, he would have thrown her aside, like the many nameless and faceless people he crushed on his way to power.

Narcissa shivered, as a flash of lighting lit up her pale face. The lightning reminded her a bit of Bella; inconstant and jumpy, with so much destructive energy. It scared her a little bit too. Bella had scared her sometimes, more and more as time went on. As children, they had played together, Bella and Cissy, the best of friends. They had grown up, side by side, always close. But as days turned into years, Narcissa found it harder and harder to understand Bellatrix's motivations. She threw herself in to the role of Death Eater, embracing the darkness and cruelty that came with it. Narcissa, on the other hand, only truly cared for her family, her husband and son becoming all she wanted to live for. This difference in their character created an ever growing rift between them.

A noise from in the trees caused her to jump up abruptly. She turned back again when she saw it was only Lucius.

"Narcissa!" he said, sounding relieved.

He walked over, to stand beside her.

"You're not wearing shoes." he commented, quietly.

"Neither are you." she said, without looking at him.

She held out a hand and Lucius took it, pulling her in to him, his arms wrapping around her waist, her head leaning against his shoulder. Together they stood silently, taking in the trees, the lighting and everything else that surrounded them.

It was awhile before Lucius said, "you miss her, don't you."

It wasn't a question, simply a gentle statement of fact. Narcissa nodded.

"I do miss her. She was my sister, what ever else she was. I loved her and I wish I could have told her"

She turned to her husband with a tear running down her cheek and a sad smile on her face.

"But, you know, sometimes I think it was a good thing that she died."

Narcissa stared out at the lake beneath them, her eyes distant.

"This world was too small for someone like Bellatrix." she said, somberly.

Lucius held her tightly, kissing her on the cheek.

"Come inside, my darling." he whispered, softly, before turning and heading back towards the manor.

Narcissa went to follow, then paused. She bent down and picked a purple flower, placing next to the engraved stone. She gazed up at the sky and the stars gazed back, with a vivacious gleam, that reminded her so much of her sister.

"Yes," she thought, bittersweetly, "this world was far to small for Bella."

She stood up and, before leaving, she glanced once more at the name.

"I only hope the next one will have better luck containing her."

As she turned her back on the polished stone, the wind picked up and carried the purple flower away. It was as if Bellatrix, in her always mocking tone, had sneered and said,

"nothing can contain me, Cissy!"