An Abridged Dynasty

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

Author's Note: My goal was to write this story so that could fit in the canon timeline and in such a way that would make you wonder if things could have really been this way. Unfortunately, as I continued to write, the plot holes that arose with that hope were… annoying. (Trust me, I've stalked the Bellatrix and Death Eaters Wiki hard during writing this, I know where the holes are.) That was my original intention and as I continue to write it's what I'm trying to stick with. So if something doesn't fit perfectly, please excuse my creative license.

Oh, and one more thing- I've posted this early in celebration of Chewie4370's Birthday! Happy Birthday Challa! (I didn't forget)

Prologue

O~~~~~O

After a year of searching for her parents, Hermione was exhausted not only physically, but emotionally. She was finally forced to faced the idea that maybe they had moved away from Australia. She had obliviated her parents and implanted a desire in them that made them impulsively move to Australia, maybe is wasn't such a stretch that they remained impulsive and would continue to move. The could be anywhere. Aside from how easily she was able to convince her parents via obliviation that they didn't have a daughter, what disturbed and upset Hermione the most was when she first started this quest to find her parents was a memory, something she never remembered until now.

She ran into a huge room with black and white marble floors and huge black marble columns. Rich tapestries hung from the walls but she could barely see them because of all the men that stood around in dark robes. Hermione could only clearly picture these men from the knee down, she must have been quite young. She remembered laughing because her daddy told her once that this was his palace and she was his little princess.

"Daddy, are all these men around your pwinces?" She asked him on that particular day.

"Yes, love, you could say that. Although they are not the heir to my throne, you are."

"That!" She exclaimed happily and then burst into a fit of girlish giggles.

"What are you laughing about, my little princess?"

"You said, 'you could say that,' an' I did! Daddy, do you wuv me?"

"Dearest, I would do dark and disturbing things for you."

She figured that she must not have understood at the time because she remembered herself just jumping up, laughing, and running off.

The memory came in bits and pieces, at first she just saw snippets of the opulent throne room, then the men standing around, then another memory would come of leaping playfully up to the dais, and then finally the one of her crawling into this strange man's lap with the ease of a little girl that had done it many, many times before.

This particular morning, Hermione woke up with another piece of the memory that her mind seemed so desperate for her to remember. She remembered that strange silly conversation that she had with the man she called Daddy.

She wondered if it were real. Deep down in the darkest places of her mind, she knew who the man was, she just wasn't ready to admit it to herself. She just didn't know why she would call him daddy. Why would she call any man other than John Granger daddy?

O~~~~~O

Chapter One

The story starts in 1973, a year after Narcissa graduated Hogwarts, Bellatrix has been out of school five years and is looking for something to finally do with her life.

Bellatrix was a beautiful girl when she graduated Hogwarts. Her grades were the top in her class. She dreamed of a career as an Unspeakable doing human and other magical creature experimenting with newly developed spells and potions. Though not quite in her sadistic prime, she was on her way.

Although she had overheard about her dream position at the ministry from an associate of her father's, she found that getting her foot in the door, even with her superior pureblood status, was impossible. She didn't give much thought about men either, she preferred the solitude of her own mind, or chaos depending on the day.

"There is no such position," they told her pompously and sent her away.

She didn't need the money or compensation but back then she wanted it. What she really wanted was to matter, to contribute in some way.

She had lost hope for a few years after her graduation. It wasn't until a year after Narcissa had graduated and married that Malfoy boy that she felt the need to do something with her life. She picked up where she left off on here search. After another trip to the ministry, she decided to confide her plans and wishes in her sister, Narcissa.

"Can I come through?" Bellatrix asked from the floo connection. Narcissa was sitting in a uncomfortable looking chair that was at the fire. She looked even more stony since she married that Malfoy. Narcissa had no desire to take on a career. It was her ambition to live her life in the upper wizarding society and nothing else.

"If you must."

Bellatrix seemed to rise up out of the fire as she entered Malfoy Manor. Her sister smirked at her dramatic entrance. Everyone else tended to fall out of fireplaces.

For a moment Bellatrix noticed her sister almost relax, but Narcissa wouldn't. That was a large reason why she didn't want to marry. She didn't want the stiffness that seemed to accompany marrying into the elite world that came with it, not that she ever consider marrying anything less. Mudbloods were beneath her, that was what she was taught. That's the way it was. That is the way it is.

"You can relax with me," she tried, thinking of the sister that, not too long ago, would flounce into her room and tell her about inane girlish things. Narcissa only nodded towards the chair that flanked hers.

Bellatrix sighed and sat. She resisted the urge to curl her legs under her. Obviously, Narcissa was playing house today.

"I feel so restless! I went to the ministry today and sought out Mr. Taylor, you know, the one I was tell you about that was speaking with Father. He directed to me to the lower levels, he even gave me the pass codes to get there and you know what that pompous man down there told me? Ugh, he was so ugly, he obviously had mud running though his veins. Anyway, he said," here she puffed up her chest and lowered her voice, "'there's no such position.'" She laughed a humorless laugh and said, "Jerk."

"Compose yourself," her sister admonished sternly, "There will be a house elf coming any minute now, it wouldn't do to let them see you in a fit. It will make me look bad. And are you a Slytherin or not? Do you not have any sense of stealth? You just marched in the Ministry of Magic and inquired about a job where you are free to torture people all day. I ought to have one of these elves around here knit you a maroon and gold scarf for Christmas."

"It's lucky that I am a witch and can just switch the colors."

"It is not 'lucky' that you a witch, it is destined. Mudbloods are lucky to have the privilege of entering our world. Someday, they wont have that privilege."

Bellatrix looked at her sister strangely, noting that she seemed to be getting deeper and deeper into this life of pureblooded superiority.

"Indeed," she agreed. She left shortly after with no more answers than when she came.

O~~~~~O

It wasn't more than a week before her sister contacted her. A raven came bearing a short message is Narcissa's handwriting.

Be at the Manor after tea or else.

Or else. She snorted but prepared herself to go anyway. She put on her favorite fitted black robes, the ones with the deep purple velvet trim and apparated to a sandwich shop in Knockturn Alley. She would have a bite to eat there before seeing what her sister wanted. She ordered her usual and sat down to eat it.

Across the restaurant, she could see two people that had graduated a few years before her, they didn't take notice to her and she wasn't bothered by it. She ate her meal and drunk her juice that she ordered slowly, waiting for it to be an appropriate time to go. She was a little nervous. 'Or else,' the note had said. It rang in her mind ominously. She had a bad feeling but it was faint enough to ignore, so she did. At a quarter to six, she go up and strode out of the restaurant into there where she apparated without looking for a 'nice spot' like one might do in Diagon Alley.

Bellatrix looked around at the large garden with the white roses blooming everywhere and decided in her mind that if she were to marry, she'd like a nice rose garden, too. She reached out and squeezed a stem hard, feeling how the thorns imbedded themselves in her palm and fingers and then the stinging heat as they slipped out of their new holes in her skin when she loosened her grip. She looked down at her punctured hand with amusement, smiling for the first time that day, before casting a healing charm. She herself was the only person she would cast one on, everyone else could suffer. She cleaned the rose stem with a spell so the blood couldn't be collected at a later time and used for spells or potions involving blood magic.

Bellatrix stopped dallying after that and made her way quickly to the front door and was let in by a house elf.

"I is Trollie, I is to specifically look after Miss Bellatrix," she heard the house elf declare, but she mostly ignored the short elf that wore a light green towel as a toga style dress. "Mrs. Malfoy is in the sitting room, Miss Bellatrix will follow Trollie!"

Bellatrix rolled her eyes and walked off in the direction she planned on going in the first place… which so happened to be where the little elf was trying to lead her.

"Leave me," she told Trollie after she almost tripped over her towel in front of her. This was why the vermin were enslaved, they couldn't even keep a towel in place long enough to go from one room to the next, they wouldn't survive on their own. They were stupid.

"Bella, you're right on time!" Narcissa exclaimed, taking her by surprise with her uncharacteristic enthusiasm… Wait, was she nervous? Bellatrix tried hard to keep a neutral expression on her face.

"Right after tea," she added cheekily, "or else." She couldn't help but let out a single 'ha'.

"SHHHH! Sister, you are being watched, evaluated. Please do not joke at a time like this." Narcissa's breathing was ragged, but only because Bellatrix knew her sister so well did she let her guard down enough for her to notice.

She followed her sister further into the room where the chairs that she had sat in a week ago had been moved so that they faced a mirror. She decided not to say anything.

"I have a solution for you," Narcissa said after they had situated themselves in the chairs. "A solution about your career ambitions."

Bellatrix noticed for the first time that that woman sitting across from her looked, scared, ashamed, and apologetic. She was sure she was the only person that would ever read those things from her. Bella glanced at the mirror warily.

"The Dark Lord wishes to recruit you." Narcissa waited for her sister to respond but she couldn't. Bella was shocked and suddenly aware, so aware that the Dark Lord himself was watching her through this mirror. How deep of a breath could she take without it being noticeable?

"Go on," she said although that wasn't what she wanted to say. True, she believed the wizarding world would be better with purebloods in their rightful place but at the time, she didn't want to be on the frontlines of the battle. And not until that moment did she fully realise that her sister already was, at least in this moment.

"As you may know, the Dark Lord creates many of his own spells," she said almost reverently, "but he does not have the time to test them and tweak them. He is offering that position to you. You would be foolish to turn him down."

It was what she wanted, she argued to herself. She wouldn't be on the 'frontlines' as she herself put it and she would be giving those who were fighting for the Dark Lord an edge. The idea was starting to have merit in her mind. Still whatever doubt or misgiving she might have would have to be suppressed, Bellatrix knew there was a chance Narcissa would suffer if she didn't accept.

"I would like to speak with the Dark Lord."

She was only answered with a small, stifled gasp. Bellatrix didn't notice the man walking into the room at first. He was tall with dark hair, handsome features and bright blue grey eyes. He didn't yet look like the reptilian husk of a man he would become after being reborn with a horcrux. When Bella did notice him, she immediately noticed the commanding presence and the magic that seemed to swirl around him, controlled, waiting to be unleashed.

"Miss Black," the Dark Lord said in acknowledgement. "Narcissa, I would like a moment alone."

For her part, Narcissa made herself scarce very quickly.

When Voldemort and Bellatrix were alone, he spoke. "There are two ways of convince someone of something. You can ask nicely," he sneered, "or you can torture. I don't often make practice of using the former tactic. I will say this once," he intoned slowly. "You will take the position I have offered or we will revisit the second tactic. You will be compensated, yes, I know what you want. You want to matter. I will give you something that will make you matter."

She dared to ask, "What did you have in mind?"

"When the time comes you will know. It is the opportunity of a lifetime."

"My Lord?"

"Ah ah, Miss Black. You will learn not to question me or you will find yourself on the business end of a curse that will leave you barely breathing."

He strode from the room after that, leaving Bellatrix to her thoughts. She sat on the chair again, this time with care of someone whose mind was not in the here and now. How was it a week ago she looking at getting a job at the Ministry and today she was as good as inducted as a Death Eater? She realised that she wasn't all that upset about it like she imagined that she would be but it didn't mean she wasn't flabbergasted by it all.

"Come with me to my room, Bella," she heard a soft voice say from the doorway. She turned around only to see sister looking pale. She followed her as requested.

There was a night and day difference between the woman that greeted her when she arrived a week ago and the woman she met in these private chambers.

Narcissa flung herself at her sister, "Bella, I'm so sorry. I didn't know Lucius would tell the Dark Lord! I didn't want that for you! It's a good cause, but he's a cruel man. I'm afraid I will have to be initiated and take the Dark Mark soon. Lucius told me some women don't make it through. Oh, I don't want that for you!" She wailed again.

"Narcissa!" Bellatrix said firmly, it was her turn to keep her composure. "Get a hold of yourself!" She almost slapped her face. "I will be fine, you will be fine. We all have our places in life and if this is mine, I'm not going to sit and be hysterical about it and neither are you. You wanted to marry a Malfoy and you did. I wanted to further the advancements in magic in my own way and now I will have the opportunity. Now dry your eyes and get yourself together! Has the Dark Lord even left?" She added.

"Yes." Narcissa cleared her throat after a minute and took a deep breath. "Indeed," she said, her stony features were back in place. "Silly me. I just needed a moment and it's over now. Would you like some tea before you go?"

"No, thank you." She wanted to be out of the Manor as quickly as possible.

"Alright then, Lucius will be in contact with you and let you know when the Dark Lord will be holding his next initiation. Trollie!"

"Yes, Ma'am?" The elf curtsied low.

"Please show Bella out, I need to rest."

"Yes, Ma'am!"

O~~~~~O

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