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Weaver of Dawn by The computer is an enigma

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Prologue (i): The Family
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When Lucius Malfoy married, he did so to uphold his family's honor and reputation, which was the most that was expected from someone of his wealth and social status. But he also did it for love, because unexpectedly, he had grown to care for the woman who stood with him at the altar. She was agreeable to him in her habits and character. Moreover, she saw the side of his personality that he rarely showed to others, and not because he had purposely done so for her, out of a sense of duty or obligation. Rather, it was because she had looked for it herself and discovered it there, like a hidden treasure, while he had done the same for her. She had allowed him into her heart; Lucius, likewise, had allowed her into his, and they became friends. He did not think of her blood when he gave her his vows and slipped the ring onto her finger.

They were surrounded that day by a crowd of the noble and affluent, the families of the wizarding world who had kept close throughout the centuries by adhering to ancient customs. Weddings of their sort were always lavish, and were held when the newlyweds had come of age and secured a respectable position for themselves in society. From the onlookers' point of view, the pair was perfect. Cygnus and Druella Black breathed a sigh of relief to see their last daughter leave to start a proper life, her radiant happiness healing wounds from past troubles. Lucius's mother watched with her head tilted to the side, admiring the way the couple's light clothing made their faces glow. Lucius's father sat in his spot at the front row, arms crossed, musing that Lucius had been lucky to find another blonde like him.

The Malfoys had known that their son's marriage would be something like this one, a union that provided family gain and showed the pure-blood world a new alliance. They had searched over the years and asked questions, but in the end their son's gaze led them to Narcissa Black, the youngest of three daughters, the only one who was still unmarried.

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At the first glance, there seemed little about Narcissa that one could call extraordinary. In some sense, it was a plight typical of that of a youngest child's. On her own, there were plenty of things that people admired about her: Her hair was soft and blonde, much like Lucius's himself, and her features held a beauty that was cool and gentle, much like her manner.

But when she stood in relation to her sisters, everything about Narcissa seemed to pale. First there was the passionate spirit of Bellatrix, the oldest, whose hair hung in rich, black waves and whose dark eyes held both nobility and ferocity. In school, she had quickly gained a reputation as a spitfire, who knew the nobility of the Black family and relished it, as one relishes in a bountiful feast, occasionally throwing around their food. Bella dueled with a stunning combination of power and glee, laughing while she danced around her enemy's hexes, then dealt the final blow with such decisiveness that the battle instantly ended with her victory. She could be set off by almost anything, and once she was in motion, the world seemed to bend to her will.

Andromeda Black was of a different sort. She was Bellatrix's near identical in appearance, but her regally-etched features were offset by a clarifying calm which both grounded and sharpened her. She was the ice to Bella's fire - she possessed a firm, cool authority, which grew prominent in later years when she became a prefect. She never doubted her goals, and pursued them with a dedication that bordered on ruthlessness.

But in addition to her drive, Andromeda possessed something that Bellatrix didn't: benevolence. That was why Narcissa had felt closest to her as a child. With Bella, playtime usually meant holding her figurines while she reorganized her shelves, hearing her yell "Mend it, you stupid!" whenever Narcissa dropped them. Her comb would always find a tangle in Narcissa's hair to yank, and any cut or bruise would first be treated with a scolding before she healed them. If Narcissa showed the slightest weakness or insecurity in front of her, Bella would pull it out and throw it back into her face. Once, Bella had let slip that Narcissa was an illegitimate daughter of the Selwyns and that the Blacks had adopted her out of pity, which explained why she looked so different from them. It was only weeks later, when Bella caught Narcissa heaving a trunk into the fireplace to set off in search for her real family, that she revealed the truth and sank to the floor in a fit of laughter.

But where Bella wounded, Anna healed. When Narcissa was a child, Anna had always been the one she could come to with a worry or an idea and receive a kind listening ear. She kept Narcissa's doodles amongst her masterful sketches and guided Narcissa's shaky hand to trace her perfect cursive. Long after Bella had run off in boredom, Anna would remain with Narcissa in the garden, sitting in the grass and talking away an evening. Narcissa loved to watch the stars and see Anna's slender hand trace the constellations.

"I was named after the galaxy Andromeda," she had once said. "According to Greek legend, she was the daughter of Cassiopeia, who considered herself to be more beautiful than anything in the universe. But the gods got angry at her vanity, and so they chained her daughter Andromeda to a cliff as a sacrifice. But before Andromeda could die, Perseus came to save her."

Narcissa, who was then nine years old, gazed up in wonder. "Is there a galaxy with my name up there too?"

Anna smiled. "No. Our parents named you after the narcissus bloom. It's very beautiful."

Despite her sister's praise, Narcissa felt something tick inside of her. It was a tradition in their family to name children after celestial bodies, one that, as far as she knew, was rarely broken. "But why did they name me after a flower?" she said.

Anna shrugged. "Because that's what you were to us. A beautiful bloom that never wilts. A flower is life in its gentlest and purest form. It breathes and emanates the energy it stores deep within, just like you."

With a wordless spell, she conjured a bloom out of thin air and handed it to Narcissa, who smiled. She loved watching Anna do magic. For some reason, it was different from way that Bella and her parents did it, which was choppy and nonchalant. Even in the simplest of tasks, Anna never seemed like she was controlling the objects around her to do her bidding, but rather bringing them to life, enticing them into motion by her presence.

Out of all her magical talents, the things Anna loved and knew the best were plants. The walls of her room were laced with flowering vines and her favorite gifts to friends were herbs and enchanted blooms. Even in her early years at Hogwarts, her bookshelves were already filled with encyclopedias and manuals. Oftentimes she took them down and showed Narcissa the pictures, pointing things out among the then-daunting paragraphs.

"Remember, Cissy, all life has a place," Anna would say. "Whether it's the biggest tree or the tiniest bug that lives in the earth, everything plays a role in keeping the world in harmony. All of it's important."

Anna's passions eventually steered her towards medicine, which she supplemented with her great skill in potionmaking. It was an unusual choice for their family, since the Blacks were mostly known for their spellcasting, but Andromeda's skill grew so pronounced that their parents hurried to approve.

But while Bellatrix pursued glory and power in her birthright, and Andromeda carved a path of her own, Narcissa remained like a petal in the wind, never quite finding a place to settle. By the time she started school, her sisters were in their third and fourth years and had left her weighty legacies. Anna had secured an apprenticeship with the school nurse and was taking advanced supplementary classes in Herbology. Bella was a member of the dueling club, where she knew the most advanced spells and held the longest winning streak.

Narcissa, however, didn't have any burning passions or prominent talents. The only thing she was willing to call a skill was that she could do reasonably well at anything she applied herself to, but this had always seemed more like a burden than a blessing. It often left her with a feeling of nonfulfillment, trying on one hand to learn everything she could, but at the same time feeling like she could never dig to the bottom of any of it.

She didn't compete to reach the top of her classes, fearing that it would only lead to embarrassment if she slipped up later on. Instead, Narcissa tried to befriend the people around her, figuring that even if she'd never live up to her sisters' success, she would at least be known for her kindness. At the same time, she kept her honor, steering clear of unwelcome types her parents had warned her about.

But the more time that passed, the more Narcissa noticed that the school seemed divided. Each House was like a solitary entity, with its own legends and traditions, which formed a bond between its members that transcended any friendship. Although everyone wore the same uniform, Narcissa was soon able to tell people of the Houses apart simply by how they behaved and who they stuck close to. If someone entered a study chamber filled with people they didn't know, they would sooner sit with people of their own House than others. If a Gryffindor had to choose between collaborating with a smart Slytherin next to them in Transfiguration class or saving a fellow Gryffindor from failing, they would do the latter. And no matter how the Sorting Hat had sung about the virtues of cooperation and companionship at the beginning of the year, once classes started, everyone seemed to forget about them.

About a month into the term, Narcissa's Potions instructor announced a special project: To brew a serum that would dye fabric. Fortunately, Andromeda was taking a class on magical herbs, so Narcissa asked her to lend her a library book she had been about to return. It was clearly meant for a higher-level student, but Narcissa quickly found the plant she had been looking for - a flower that could change its color to blend with its neighbors. Narcissa gathered some samples from Anna's stock and brought them to class, and instead of following the textbook's procedure, she followed one she had written up for herself. As a result, Narcissa managed to finish her brew earlier than anyone else and demonstrated to the professor a liquid that could dye any color one wanted. Little did she know, some of her classmates had caught on to what she had done. After class, she overheard a group of Ravenclaws talking.

"Looks like she had a fun time cheating, didn't she..." said a girl.

"She thinks she can bend the rules just because her name's Black; no doubt, that's where Slytherin's headed these days," a boy replied. "I heard that one of their great-uncles got a paper published that he basically copied off a classmate's notes. But the real students of Hogwarts will always be the ones who work."

Narcissa was too stunned to speak. She looked askance at the group, where the boy stood at the center, casting her a cautious glance. But before she could begin to think of a response, there was a rush of air as a tall figure stepped in front of her.

"And you would do better to remember the rules you cite before using them against other people," said a voice. "Outside readings are only forbidden if you copy from them. Now get to your next class, and if I ever hear you saying something like that again, I'll make sure your Head of House knows. Go on!"

The students broke apart, drifting off into separate directions. Moments later, a hand lowered itself onto Narcissa's shoulder and whisked her off to the side. Anna could be terrifying when she wanted, comforting when you needed it most. She pulled Narcissa to a vacant corner and sat down with her on some steps. Narcissa was shaking.

Andromeda put her hands on her shoulders to steady her. "Don't listen to him, Cissy."

Her voice was deep, soothing. Gently, Andromeda tilted her sister's chin up till their eyes were level. Even then, her gaze held a kind wisdom that transcended her years, and Narcissa found herself staring back, helpless in its power.

"Is… is it true?" Narcissa whispered. "Our great-uncle - did he really-"

Andromeda silenced her with a shake of the head. "I don't know. Cissy, it was almost a hundred years ago. It doesn't matter. What matters now is that you're here, you did honest work, and you deserve credit for it. There's nothing wrong with what you did. You used a text that was more advanced than what everyone else was reading and managed to make sense of it. You were creative and resourceful, like a true Slytherin. I'm proud." She smiled. "Promise me you won't be upset. If anyone bothers you again, just come to me and I'll handle it."

Narcissa shook her head, trying to steady her shakes. "No. It's all right, Anna, I'm fine... I am." But despite her willful focus, the tears were already spilling down her face. She bowed her head again and began to sob, cheeks burning with shame and anger. "Th-that… stupid Ravenclaw!" she blurted. "He already thinks I'm dishonest and he doesn't even know me! He says it's all because I'm a Black. What's wrong with that?"

Andromeda gave a shrug. "Some people have prejudices they can't let go of. They think that just because someone in a family did something bad, the deed trickles down to the children. Or if someone was noteworthy, then that blesses them for life. Same with the houses. It's true, some people in Slytherin were dishonest. They were cruel. But you can say the same about any of the others. None of those stigmas are true. You are your own person. You don't have to continue anybody's legacy; you can make yours. Remember that, okay?"

Narcissa wiped her cheek with her wrist and nodded. Andromeda gave her a pat and walked with her to her next class.

Narcissa's dismay did not abate, however. She thought over the incident, and finally she decided to return the Herbology book to the library and never do any extra research again. She found Bella reading at a table in the common room, for once not surrounded by a posse of upperclassmen. Tucking the book timidly against her chest, Narcissa approached. "Bella?"

Bella lifted her gaze from the book. "What, Cissy? I'm working."

"Do you know where the library is?"

Bellatrix scowled. "Go find it yourself! You're not at home anymore, you're at school. You can't honestly thing we're going to hold your hand and baby you for the rest of your life. Stop clinging to people and use your own brain, for once."

Narcissa stomped her foot. "Bella, I mean it! This is Anna's book and if I don't get it back for her on time, then the staff will yell at her!"

Bella let out a laugh. "Getting you to be her servant now, is she? Maybe you can try some cooking classes with the House-Elves next. I'm sure they'll be happy to have you join them someday!"

Narcissa's face reddened. "Fine! If you don't help me, then I'm never going to talk to you again. You're always mean to me and you do nothing but push me around! I hate you. And I hate this place. I'm going to go to the Sorting Hat right now and ask it to put me somewhere else, because I don't want to be in Slytherin with you anymore!" She slammed the book down onto the table and turned away, fresh tears spilling down her cheeks. Frowning, Bella stood up and pulled Narcissa's hands away from her face.

"What's the matter? What's wrong with you?"

Narcissa bowed her head. "I hate it here! People are stupid and mean!"

"Who's mean?" Bella pressed. "Is it me? Is it one of those first-years?"

"Yes!" Narcissa pushed away from her. "This stupid boy said I cheated and all I did was use a book to help me make a potion, but he said it was because I came from a wealthy family and that I thought I was better than everyone else. And now everyone's going to hate me!"

Bella drew back. "Who said that?"

Narcissa recounted what had happened through her sobs. She didn't dare look Bella in the face, expecting at any moment to be grabbed and verbally smacked. But when she mustered the courage to look up, she saw that Bella's eyes were wide with anger.

"And?" she said. "You hexed him, didn't you? Closed that filthy mouth of his on the spot for talking about our family?"

Narcissa swallowed. In the shadow of her sister's fury, she felt strangely shamed. "I… I…"

But Bella did not wait for her response. She grabbed Narcissa by the arm and pulled her out of the common room, forgetting all about the book and the work she was doing, shoving aside passersby who got in their way. She pulled some strings, asked around, and tracked the first-year boy down by the Quidditch pitch, where he was fooling around with a group of friends. Without preamble, Bella approached the group and held up her wand.

"I'll teach you to run your mouth, you maggot of a first-year!" she said. "Insulting my sister! Dishonoring our family!"

She uttered a hex, and seconds later, the boy stumbled back with a cry, red hives erupting on his skin. The other boys jumped away as he fell to the ground, arms and legs twitching as if struggling against some invisible force. Then suddenly he seemed to lose control and began to rock from side to side at an eerily rhythmic pace. Bellatrix was doing something strange with his body, moving the fingers of her free hand to make it go where she wanted. Narcissa watched in silence, torn between horror and awe. Several heads in the vicinity turned, and in almost no time at all, an entire crowd of onlookers had assembled around them, gasping and pointing as the boy rolled around in the grass.

All of a sudden, a scream pierced the tides of voices.

"BELLA, NO!"

Narcissa's blood chilled. She turned, just as Andromeda appeared from the top of a hill, her robes billowing as she descended towards them. When saw the boy, Anna's jaw dropped. "Have you lost it?" She snatched the wand from Bella's hand and ended the spell, turning to her in fury. "You think you're back in dueling club where you can just wave your wand like a stick and do whatever you please? This is borderline expulsion! What if a professor saw you?"

Bella returned her gaze with a sneer. "Let them see!" she said. "Let them see how a first-year learned his lesson. Let them come and lock me in the dungeons. But they'll never insult my sister!"

Andromeda looked down at Narcissa, her face marked with such shock and disbelief that Narcissa felt herself pale. Without a word, Anna turned away and rushed over to the boy. She knelt down beside him and said some soothing words, then cast a spell to make his body airborne. She whisked him off to the hospital wing, several other students following behind.

Bellatrix watched them leave indifferently, and when they had fled off into the distance, she crossed her arms. "That'll show him. Brat of a Ravenclaw. He'll know better than to mess with us now, right Cissy?"

Bella's manner was brute, direct. Normally, it was something Narcissa feared about her, but in that moment, it reached out to her with a surprisingly gentle touch, lifting a sadness that constricted her heart. For the first time, Narcissa felt weak with love for her oldest sister, a flood of gratitude that filled her with warmth. Her face broke into a smile.

"Thank you, Bella."

Bellatrix winked. She looped her arm around Narcissa's own and steered her back towards the castle. "Let's go, Cissy. We have more important things to attend to than these low-lifes."

Together they walked away from the scene, heads held high.

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From that point on, Bellatrix became nicer. She still snapped at Narcissa every now and then when Narcissa asked a silly question or made an unbecoming blunder. But this time her smirks were goading, her jostles bracing. She took Narcissa into her company at meals and events, and soon, the sisters were rarely seen apart. At Bella's side, the world no longer seemed daunting or stifling. All the people and places Narcissa had once been too apprehensive to approach seemed to lay themselves out before her in splendid invitation.

Soon, Narcissa found herself surrounded by friends and gained contacts from almost every big family her parents talked about. Their connections were ones that transcended the Hogwarts Houses, because they were steeped in blood itself. And within their fold, Narcissa never again felt lost. She attended their parties, was drawn with them into professors' inner circles, and was enveloped in their community to such a degree that she stopped noticing all the other students that filled the castle, walking around like nameless space-fillers.

But for some reason, Andromeda never returned to her central place in the picture. She and Narcissa still spent time together at home and at school, and Anna still sent her enchanted cards for her birthday. But by the time Narcissa reached her fourth year, and Andromeda her sixth, she finally noticed how distant Anna had grown. She barely spoke at family meals and answered their parents' questions to the bare minimum. She spent increasing amounts of time alone, writing letters to people they didn't know. On the rare occasions that Bella managed to pull a few words from her, they were curt and unrevealing.

Marriage proposals came steadily during the summer before Anna's final year, promising faithful engagements before she finished school. But she turned a cold shoulder to them. Meanwhile, Bella married Rodolphus Lestrange, whom their parents had long been pointing out for her, and left the family house with honor. Blacks married young, so Anna's passivity struck Narcissa as odd. She was left wondering, for a while, if Anna's time would come at all.

In the end, it did.

One year later, Andromeda Black did choose a husband, but he was someone not of their order, someone such a far cry from their sphere of relations that even his name was outlandish to their ears. A Muggle-born, Ted Tonks.

The shock that descended upon the Black household came with the suddenness of a thunderclap. Druella threw dishes. Cygnus spent hours in his study with Andromeda, the door locked to contain his fury while he scolded her, tried to reason with her. But Andromeda would have none of it.

Though Narcissa was barred from these conversations, she still listened through the door, gleaning what information she could from her sister's shrill, passionate voice. Anna had met Ted in her fourth year, and they had become friends. He was a Gryffindor, but he was kind and fair to everyone, and had only one demand of a friend - that they never betray his trust. It didn't matter to him that Anna was a Slytherin. He didn't care for her wealth or her inherited glory. All he wanted from her was her love, and in return he would give her everything.

The voices of parents and daughter wracked the large, empty house for weeks. During that time, Narcissa got almost no sleep. She tossed and turned in her bed, wincing at every beat of footsteps that passed by her door, feeling her skin tingle as if the tension within the household had taken on a tangible form. Her parents used every tactic they knew of, calling to the nobility of the House of Black - toujours pur - and the loyalty that was demanded of every family member. Narcissa knew it. It had been imprinted on her since childhood, sewn into the very fabric of her life, and now her heart seemed to beat with the rhythm of those words, like a frantic bird trying to escape its cage. Keep the blood alive. Keep the blood alive.

But Andromeda was relentless. She had all of Bellatrix's power and emotion, but was using it against the family, which in her parent's eyes was as good as mutiny. And mutineers were thrown into the sea. The resolve with which they did it came to Narcissa like a slap in the face. Why didn't they care? Wasn't the girl who stood before them the same one they had cuddled as a child? The same girl whose white, slender hand rested on Narcissa's shoulder in their family portrait, who stood beside Bellatrix under her parents' proud, protective gazes? And yet here they were, fighting her, as if overcome by an ancient monster that slumbered deep in their souls.

Narcissa knew, in a sense, that their parents were in the right. Blood was a bond that couldn't be broken. What could a Muggle-born ever understand about their heritage? What more could his appreciation of magic amount to than a shallow wonder, when she and her family had been steeped in its traditions their entire lives? Families like the Blacks had worked for centuries to hone and preserve their abilities. And all the Muggle-born did was win a gamble of nature. Ted might have loved Andromeda for who she was as a person, but he'd never appreciate her for all the rest, because he'd never know. By marrying him, Anna was turning away from everything that had raised her, incorporating herself into a completely new fold - with someone whose relatives they'd never know, someone whose way of life was a complete mystery to them.

But even so, Narcissa wondered.

She watched how weeks of stress and scorn tore through her sister like a fire, stripping away her former temperance to leave a cold, irritable vestige of the person she used to be. Even in the rare moments when she and Narcissa were alone, Anna never quite managed to return the light to her eyes. They remained dreary and distant, and as the tension between her and their parents heated, Narcissa fearfully withdrew from her contact. She removed herself from the fray, shutting herself up in her room and waited for the three raging demons to abate.

Finally, one morning, Narcissa woke to the sounds of calm conversation in the drawing room. She crept over to the doorway, but instead of going in, she lowered herself to her knees and listened. At first, it seemed that Anna and their parents had finally found a ground for rapprochement. But what Andromeda said instead was worse than anything Narcissa had so far heard: The wedding had been planned, after which she would go to live with Ted in his new house.

Druella replied that she didn't have to worry about the wait. She could leave that very moment.

For a long while, the room was silent. Narcissa leaned as far forward as she could, so that she could see the fireplace and Andromeda standing before it. From Narcissa's position, neither Cygnus nor Druella could see her, but to Andromeda she was in plain sight, a tiny figure ducked beside the doorway, the light from the hallway just barely tracing her horror-stricken face.

The two of them locked eyes.

Narcissa didn't know what she felt as she looked at her sister's face. Anna, her rock, her helper, was leaving without so much as a backward glance, without even bothering to say goodbye to her. Narcissa bored her gaze into Andromeda's, willing with all her might that she'd stay, that she'd think it over, that she'd do it for Narcissa's own sake, even if for nothing else. But for all the effort Narcissa made to transmit the message, it seemed to dissipate in the air somewhere before it reached her sister. The dark eyes hardened, the momentary connection between them severed, and without a word, Anna stepped into the fireplace. She threw up a cloud of Floo Powder and disappeared in a burst of green flames, which cracked and hissed till they swallowed her completely.

As soon as her last embers dissipated in the air, Cygnus turned away and swore. Druella stormed right past Narcissa into the dining room, where the Black family tree was laid out on the wall in a fabulous mural, and blasted Anna's miniature from its place on the younger branches. The explosion rocked the house and rattled the walls. Narcissa turned away, eyes welling with tears, but she quickly suppressed them before her parents could notice.

Now, she was truly alone.

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As with other blood-traitors in their family, Cygnus and Druella neither mentioned Andromeda after the incident, nor, likely, even thought about her. Her portraits and possessions were thrown from the house, along with all other traces of her presence, as if she had never been among them at all. From now on, Narcissa only had one sister. Bellatrix.

But long after her parents had moved on, Narcissa hadn't. In the months and years that followed, she still lingered in memories of the event, which spun round and round with stunning clarity in her restless mind. She thought of Andromeda's straight posture, her proud, resolute expression as she met her parents' gazes. She saw Anna's face, pictured the curves and contours she had known her entire life, and welled with a sudden, gnawing loathing for her sister. Because Narcissa had loved her.

Anna's friendship was pure and kind. She had been the only one who understood Narcissa's quiet nature, the only one who seemed to share that segment of her spirit that searched for beauty and joy in the world, which Narcissa herself could never explain. But with Anna gone, it was as if that part within her had died. The fact that Anna had chosen to leave, to choose a love that would break her away from her own family, tore something from Narcissa's heart, leaving behind a knot of confusion and sadness. And as much as she wanted to forget, as much as she wanted to follow her parents' example and let Andromeda go, she couldn't.

The blackened hole in the web of branches peered out at her like a malevolent eye, stilling her mind into penitent silence.

Keep the blood alive… Keep the blood alive...

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