The years passed in a blur. Narcissa waved frantically on platform 9 ¾ as the Hogwarts Express pulled away carrying her eldest sister. Then again as it pulled back in nine months later. One whirlwind summer later, it was Andromeda’s turn to leave for her first year of Hogwarts. The next two years were the loneliest young Narcissa had known. She still saw her friends at the Pre-Hogwarts classes her parents arranged, but it wasn’t the same without Bella and Andy.

Then finally came the Summer she’d dreamed of for herself.

Her letter arrived from Hogwarts, her trip to Diagon Alley manifested, and she got fitted for a wand by the excentric old man at Olivander’s Wand Shop.

The young witch was practically giddy with excitement…

…Until their mother called them into the kitchen the night before they left for Hogwarts.

Narcissa had never forgotten the pain of the cruciatus. How could she. When Andromeda had first left for Hogwarts all three sisters had been more than a little apprehensive that they’d be treated to another round of the curse, but thankfully their father had apparently decided once was enough.

This summons felt eerily similar to that one.

All three sisters stood in a line before their mother.

“Girls, your father and I have decided how to handle your betrothals.”

Narcissa looked nervously to her sisters and found them like-wise exchanging nervous glances.

“Witches in the wizarding world have a duty to their husbands to support them to the best of their abilities,” Druella continued. “A good husband assumes leadership of his house and takes responsibility for all its members. One day, all three of you will have the duty to instil these same values on your sons and daughters.”

All three girls stood rigidly to attention.

“But, you three are not just any ordinary witches. You are Blacks. Control is in your blood. You will find it difficult to submit to the authority of a man, even one you love. This is a trial all Black daughters must pass. It is the fundamental contradiction of our house. The Black Blood demands your mastery. But your femininity demands your submission. I myself did not understand until after I married your father and felt the urge grip my soul.” The former Rosier sighed. “I do not envy you girls.”

Narcissa exchanged more glances with her older sisters.

Druella Black reached behind her, withdrew an ornate-looking wooden box, and presented it to the witches. “Inside this box are the contracts for each of you — standard clauses — bride prices acceptable for young witches of your standing. You have until your graduation from Hogwarts to decide your future. If you do not decide by then, your father and I will decide for you.”

“You’re letting us decide?!” Bellatrix blurted out.

Narcissa’s gaze snapped to the box as though it contained every answer to the secrets of life. In a way, it did.

“Yes.” Their mother let a suitable pause build up the tension before adding, “…and no.”

All three girls waited tensely.

“The box is secured with three magical locks that only a very specific action can act as the key for. Each of you will know one of the keys. You will only open the box to access the contracts once all three of you come to a decision on who your future partners will be.”

“I graduate in just three years,” Bella pointed out. “If we have to decide by then, Cissy will only have until the end of her third year.”

Druella nodded. “I trust you two will guide your little sister appropriately.” She gave them all a severe glare. “I do not need to say how disappointed your father and I will be if you abuse this responsibility.”

All three girls snapped to attention again.

— DPaSW: TGS —

Later that night, sitting on the floor in a circle in Bella’s room, the three sisters made another vow. To be loyal to each other forever and to use their future marriages to create a coven of Dark witches that will influence Magical Britain for years to come.

— DPaSW: TGS —

“Your parents sound like quite reasonable people,” Alex commented. She winced. “Apart from the whole torture curse thing.”

Lady Narcissa simply gave her a wry smile before continuing.

— DPaSW: TGS —

Narcissa waved frantically again, but this time it was from inside of the Hogwarts Express, pulling out of the station.

— DPaSW: TGS —

“What do you think of him?” Bella asked in a whisper as the school quidditch star walked past the Slytherin table.

“He is cute,” Narcissa chirped.

Andromeda hummed for a moment before giving a thumbs down. “Potter has the hots for a mudblood. You don’t want trash like that.”

— DPaSW: TGS —

“And what do you think of Malfoy?” Andromeda asked in a whisper as the Heir to the Noble House took his seat in the unofficial throne of the Slytherin Common Room.

“He is cute,” Narcissa chirped.

“Eh,” Bellatrix said. “He’s okay, I suppose. But he’s obsessed with duelling. You want someone more focused on school.”

— DPaSW: TGS —

“What about cousin Sirius?” Narcissa asked with a thoughtful finger on her chin. “He is cute.”

Bellatrix and Andromeda gave each other revolted looks. “Absolutely not!”

— DPaSW: TGS —

Alexandra made a face of absolute disgust. “You seriously thought about my Dad?!”

Lady Narcissa Malfoy shrugged. “Marrying cousins isn’t that unusual among the noble houses and we weren’t exactly swimming in choices. Most witches would consider candidates at least a decade older than them. We only had Hogwarts.”

Alex frowned, a thought striking her. “Hang on, hang on. You mentioned before about your sister, Andromeda, calling Lily Potter a mudblood. I thought that she didn’t—”

“—yes, yes,” Narcissa interrupted, impatiently. “I’m getting to that.”

— DPaSW: TGS —

“I’m glad to hear your studies are going well,” Cygnus Black said around the Black family dinner table.

Summer was out and Narcissa was back home for the first time since leaving. It was strange just how different the place now felt. Darker. Empty. Not as bad as Grimmuld Place, of course, but still not nearly as full of life and joy as Hogwarts.

“And how are your efforts with the box going?” he continued.

“Father, can we not talk about this?” Andromeda whined.

“Your futures are important,” their mother insisted. “Come on, girls. Do you have your eyes on anyone? We know you haven’t gotten any signatures yet or their portrait would have shown up on the tapestry and there’s no chance Orion wouldn’t tell us the moment that happened.”

“No one, yet,” Bellatrix said. “But you don’t need to worry, father. We’ve got another two years.”

“And a lot of the boys there are cute,” Narcissa added, earning glares from both her older sisters.

— DPaSW: TGS —

Staring out of the window of the Hogwarts Express, Narcissa sighed. Another year had come and gone and none of the three sisters were any closer to choosing a future husband.

They’d have to choose next year or risk letting their father make a match for them. Narcissa didn’t want to end up marrying some fat old fart. Moreover, finding a match was proving harder than she’d expected. For some reason, it had never occurred to her before that merely choosing wasn’t enough. She also had to persuade the boy that they should be together! The two boys she’d tried to interest this year had flat-out refused her advances. That wasn’t supposed to happen!

And now she needed to pee!

Getting up and patting down her robes, Narcissa headed towards the Hogwarts Express bathroom, passing many compartments on the way. Things had started to change since her first year. Everything had been so casual then. People sat wherever they wanted. No one cared much who sat with who. Over the last two years, things had started to change. Families aligned with the Dark had started to keep themselves more to themselves. All three sisters had heard rumours of a new Dark Lord of Lords rising and people were starting to get twitchy.

She passed the compartment containing Cousin Sirius, Potter, the Pettigrews, and ‘the Lupin’, and quickly moved on before they spotted her. The idea of dating the Lupin had been shot down by her sisters faster than even Cousin Sirius and after thinking about it she couldn’t help agree they were right. Even if he was cute.

Narcissa marched on—determined to get to the bathroom and relieve herself before the sweet trolley lady made another pass—when she heard something scandalous from the inside of another compartment several doors along. Panting. Kissing.

Eyes lighting up, Narcissa leaned towards the door to listen closer. Only to realise with horror that the privacy ward that had been erected was a Black one. That’s why she could hear through it!

Bellatrix was on the other side of the train. She’d just passed Sirius.

That only left…

Heart beating wildly, Narcissa pressed her eye up to the crack in the door and gazed inside.

It was Andromeda, right enough. Her clothes rumpled, sitting in the lap of a Ravenclaw one year above them.

Narcissa gasped with horror. She recognised the boy. It was Ted Tonks! Cute, yes. But he was a muggleborn!

— DPaSW: TGS —

“An actual, mudblood?! Andromeda, you were the one who said we shouldn’t have anything to do with them!” Bellatrix was furious in a way Narcissa had never seen before. “What would mother and father think? What would Lord Black think!?”

Andromeda for her part stood defiantly with her arms crossed. “Ted’s different,” she said. “None of the stuff about muggleborns applies to him. We can make an exception.”

“No, we can’t!” Bella counted. “Merlin, help us. Cissy! Talk some sense into your sister!”

Narcissa shrunk into herself. She really didn’t want to be here. Father and mother would be furious if they found out Andy had been even kissing a muggleborn, let alone wanted to marry one! “Maybe Ted tricked her with something,” she muttered. “Not love potion. Something else. Something the rings don’t protect against. It would explain her sudden infatuation.” And more importantly, would release Andy from responsibility for her actions.

Bella’s eyes widened. “Cissy! You’re a genius!” Quick as a flash, she raised her wand to point in Andromeda’s face. “Stupify!”

— DPaSW: TGS —

Tied up on her bed with Black Family Magic Chains, Andromeda threw up again into the bucket strategically placed on the floor. She glaring up at her prison guards. “I keep telling you both, I haven’t been ‘tricked’!”

Narcissa bit her lip, a worried expression creasing her face.

She wasn’t the only one.

Bellatrix gazed down at the scowling Andromeda with an expression that mirrored her own.

It was starting to look like Andy might not have been influenced by some unknown magic.

“Andy,” Bellatrix said in a desperate voice. “You can’t marry a mudblood. It’s just not done! You know that! Forget mother and father. Who knows what Lord Black might do if he learns you’ve sullied the line of Black with one not of noble birth or pure of blood!”

“I don’t care! I love Ted! We’ll make it work!”

Narissa groaned.

— DPaSW: TGS —

“Bella, what do we do?” Narcissa half-wailed. “Andy won’t listen to reason. It’s like this boy’s stolen her from us! She called me a traitor when we released her. A traitor!”

Bellatrix stared moodily into the black lake from behind the large window in the Slytherin common room.

“I think,” she said, slowly. “That we’ve been going about this the wrong way. I think it’s time to go after the root of the problem.”

— DPaSW: TGS —

Andromeda burst into the Slytherin Common Room, tears pouring down her face. Crying her eyes out, she rushed past the assembled Slytherins, sitting stunned in their chairs as one of the Black Princesses abandoned all pretence of her Slytherin mask and exposed feelings of anguish and distress for everyone to see.

Sitting with her legs crossed, Bellatrix sipped her tea as Andy stumbled into the stairwell that led to the Slytherin Girl’s Dormitory. About ten seconds later, the sound of a door slamming echoed up the corridor, finally silencing the sobbing.

“I don’t like it,” Narcissa whined, staring where her crying sister had vanished.

“It is necessary,” Bella said. “We may be immune to love potions, but this Ted—” she spat the name like a curse —“is not immune to hate.”

— DPaSW: TGS —

“It didn’t work!” Narcissa wailed about a week later. “The moment the potion wore off, he just made up with her! And now everyone knows they’re a couple!”

“She’s ruining our reputation,” Bellatrix groaned with her head in her hands. “The boys have started looking at me like I’m a whore. Rodolphus even asked me to blow him! Me! A Black!”

Narcissa gasped. “You hexed him, right?”

“Of course!” Bellatrix scoffed. “But If this carries on, neither of us will find good matches and we’ll end up being married off to some fat fart thirty years older than us.”

Narcissa made a whining noise. “What are we going to do?”

Bellatrix didn’t say anything. Instead, she simply stared glumly at the locked box their parents had entrusted them with, sitting on the table and containing their half-signed betrothal contracts.

“I’ll tell you what we’re going to do,” said a voice from the shadows of the door that made both sisters startle in their seats.

Andromeda walked out into the light of the room, her face grim, her wand out and pointed right at Bellatrix. “You’re going to use your magical keys on the box — we’ll all apply our magical keys on the box — we’ll all take out our contracts, and then we’ll bugger off and marry who the fuck we want.”

“Language, Andromeda!” Bellatrix admonished. “That boy really has corrupted you.”

“I don’t care,” Andromeda said, walking slowly forward. “We’re done with this stupidity. Unlock the box and we’re done here.” She kept her wand trained on the pair of them, switching between them, but mostly keeping her focus on Bellatrix. “You’re not my sisters anymore.”

Narcissa gasped. Bellatrix looked poleaxed.

That final statement hung in the room like a guillotine.

“Andy,” Narcissa whined. “You don’t mean that!”

“We only did what we did for your own good!” Bellatrix added. “You must see that!”

“What about our promises!” Narcissa yelled. “We promised to be loyal to each other!”

“That promise died when you drugged my boyfriend to hate me,” Andromeda snarled.

“We made him see your negative characteristics,” Bellatrix corrected with narrowed eyes. “And you seem like you came out of that just fine. Which I should have guessed, of course. You are a Black, Sister. We are near perfect to begin with. I just wish I could give you one of those potions so you could see how awful this boy is for you.”

Andromeda locked eyes with Bellatrix. “So long as you refuse to accept my choice of husband, you are no sister of mine.”

Bellatrix held her gaze. “Our parents gave each of us one-third of the key to this box so we could guide and look out for each other. I will not back down on that responsibility, not even if you push me away.”

Narcissa swivelled her head back and forth between her two older sisters, wringing her skirts as the battle of wills played out before her.

Andromeda sighed. “Then you leave me no choice.” Her eyes narrowed. “CRUCIO!”