Narcissa Black’s lean face, usually rendered handsome by its striking, perfectly-shaped features, looked uncharacteristically ugly [though not uncharacteristically bad-tempered] as she surveyed her elder sister through steel-like, blue eyes.

“Where I go, and with whom, is solely my concern, Bella,” she said, her voice so high, it shook.

Leaning against the staircase in a gray gown of sorts, Bellatrix Black raised an eyebrow. Narcissa, she could not help thinking, was turning out to be as much of a disappointment as Andromeda. How could the girl be foolish enough to think the Castles her well-wishers?

“Indeed,” she said, her tones cool. “It becomes my concern, however, when the family pride is at stake – and all because of your foolish whims.”

“Andra Castle is my friend!” Narcissa half-screamed.

“Andra Castle is a Castle,” Bellatrix replied, very calmly.

“That doesn’t make her –”

“That does make her an enemy, Cissy. You know just well as I do that no Castle has ever wished a Black anything other than the utmost ill-will. What a stupid story they’ve come up with this time – Why would Andra want you, a sworn Black, to come along when she shops for her dress? She would have brought it long ago, rest assured. And, even if she hasn’t, she wouldn’t let a Black know that. The humiliation! Or is she that stupid?”

“She’s stupid,” Narcissa mumbled. Bellatrix laughed.

“I don’t doubt that, Cissy, but I don’t doubt that she has some cunningly shrewd people around her, either. Alva Castle – and, most importantly, Victoria Glade. That woman knows Andra in and out: she would certainly be expecting some stupidity of this sort from the fool.”

Whenever Bellatrix reasoned, Narcissa could not help finding herself at a loss for words. But, abundance of speech or not, she knew one thing, and she knew it well: Bellatrix was not going to run her life.

“I don’t care about Victoria Glade,” she said stubbornly. “Get out of my way, Bella.”

“Cissy, don’t be stu –”

“Stupefy!”

She had not learnt the Dark Arts – and that, too, from the Dark Lord himself – for nothing. Bellatrix Black deflected the curse with ease, but she could not help swearing under her breath. Narcissa was acting a fool!

“Cissy, if you don’t stop it this instant, I will tell mother!”

“Take your time,” Narcissa replied acidly, storming down the staircase. “Because, you know what? You’re going to have all the time in the world.”

There was a crack, and Narcissa had vanished into thin air.