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❝women's hearts are lethal weapons did you hold mine and feel threatened?❞
≪•◦ ❈ ◦•≫
Lyra followed Bellatrix to a room in the manor that she's never been in before. There were certain rooms that she and Draco had been told were off limits, and this was one of them. It remained locked at all times, and only a special enchanted key was able to unlock it.
Inside was a floating, round, dish-like thing. It was dark except for the blue lanterns that dimly lit the room. If Lyra didn't know better, she'd suspect that the room was haunted.
Bellatrix walked over to a cabinet and took out a small vial. She came back to the floating disk – a pensieve – and poured the contents inside. "Go on," Bellatrix said, motioning to the pensieve. "Take a look."
Lyra leaned her head over the pensieve. Figures came into view. She saw Bellatrix, Narcissa, and two people that could only be her parents. It was like she had been transported into the past...Into one of her flashbacks, only it was Bellatrix's memories instead of her own.
"What do you mean you're pregnant?" a younger Bellatrix asked as she stared at Cygnus and Druella Black with creased brows and a less-than-thrilled look on her face, unlike Narcissa, who seemed excited by the news.
"Well, we figured that since Andromeda was such a disappointment, we'd try again," Druella said as she rubbed her baby bump.
"I'm gonna be a big sister?" Narcissa grinned.
"It's not as fun as it sounds," Bellatrix grumbled, crossing her arms and leaning back in her seat. "I'll bet she'll be a beastly little thing."
The scene changed. Two women wearing hooded rain cloaks were walking up the stone pathway to Black Manor. They entered the house, lightning flashing in the windows. One of them opened the door to a nursery, where a small, blonde baby that could only be Lyra lay asleep in her crib.
"I say we dump her at an orphanage."
"Bella!" Narcissa gasped at her words. "We're the only family she has left."
"That's not my fault." Bellatrix shrugged.
"Bellatrix," Narcissa said sternly, her gaze hardening.
"Narcissa," Bellatrix mocked her little sister's tone. She rolled her eyes and carefully picked up the sleeping baby, holding her at arm's length. "What did I tell you? A beastly little thing."
She wrapped Lyra in her baby blanket and tucked her into her cloak, protectively holding the back of her head as she and Narcissa went back out in the vicious thunderstorm.
Another shift. It was a few years later – Lyra was guessing 11 from the look on Bellatrix's face as she read a letter from Hogwarts.
"Hufflepuff?!" Bellatrix screeched and slammed the letter down on the table in front of Sirius. "This is all your fault, Sirius! You influenced her!"
"Bellatrix, have you ever stopped to think that maybe this is something beyond any of our controls?" Sirius raised a brow. Bellatrix clenched her jaw.
"We've always known that Lyra has been different," Narcissa said gently. "And, while I'm sad that Slytherin house missed out on having such an amazing young witch...I think, for her sake, Bella...you need to put whatever issues you have aside and be here for her. Draco's already written to me saying me how terrified she is to come home for the holidays."
"I'm killing that little brat," Bellatrix growled, angrily beginning a letter to their youngest sister. "This is completely unacceptable. Every member of the Black family, except for that blood traitor over there, has been sorted into Slytherin. I'll bet she told the hat to put her in Hufflepuff just to spite me."
"Bellatrix, you don't really think that–"
"Shut up, Sirius!"
The scene changed one last time. Bellatrix was rattling the handle to Lyra's locked bedroom door. She muttered a wandless Alohomora and stepped inside.
Bellatrix's heart stopped for a moment when she saw her baby sister lying on the floor, bleeding out. "Cissy! Cissy, come quickly!" she shouted. She pulled out her wand and rushed over to Lyra's lifeless body, uttering a series of healing spells to stop the bleeding. Narcissa ran in, tears instantly filling her eyes. "Don't just stand there! Help me!"
Narcissa kneeled down next to Lyra's lifeless body and copied Bellatrix's actions until the bleeding stopped. Lyra was laying pale and lifeless on the floor. Narcissa pressed her ear to her chest, listening carefully until she heard the faint thumping of a heartbeat. "She's still alive," she whispered. She looked up at Bellatrix. "Quick. You have to take her to Madam Pomfrey at Hogwarts. She'll know what to do."
Bellatrix nodded. She carefully picked up the 15 year old and apparated them outside of Hogwarts. Children that had stayed at school over the spring holidays were hanging out in the courtyard. The rest was a blur as the hours passed.
Some time later, Bellatrix was allowed in the hospital wing to see her. Lyra was asleep in the hospital bed, probably tired from whatever Madam Pomfrey had given her. She sat down in a chair by her bedside and watched her with sad eyes, blaming herself for what could've happened if she didn't find her in time.
"I know you care about her," Narcissa said quietly as she sat down beside Bellatrix. "You wouldn't have wanted to try and save her if you didn't."
Bellatrix breathed in slowly through her nose, not once looking away from the sleeping blonde. "I can't love her, Cissy."
"Can't? Or won't?"
"I already lost one sister..." Bellatrix turned to look at Narcissa with teary eyes. "I don't want to get too attached and lose another."
The pensieve went blank. Lyra pulled her head out, her ocean orbs glistening with tears. "It was you," she whispered as she stared at Bellatrix in slight disbelief. "But...But why? Y-You were so mad that I didn't die."
"No." Bellatrix shook her head. She walked up to Lyra, who took a step back out of fear. "I wasn't mad because you didn't die, Lyra...I was mad because you could've died...B-But I'm sorry if it came off like that."
"I wish I could believe you," Lyra mumbled, lowering her gaze.
Bellatrix understood why Lyra would be apprehensive about believing her. She had really bad trust issues, and she knew that she was to blame. "Three weeks."
Lyra glanced up. "What?"
"Give me three weeks. I...I'll prove it to you. I'll do better."
Lyra took a deep breath in through her nose as she thought about it for a moment. "Fine. Three weeks. After that, I'm leaving, and I'm never coming back," she decided. "I know you, Bellatrix." She shook her head, her jaw slightly clenched. "You're a terrible person...and won't be able to change."
