Sunday 15th August, 1971

- Bellatrix's Wedding

Aurora stood on the balcony, overlooking the manor gardens.

She knew she should be inside; it was her older sister's wedding day after all, but she couldn't stand to be there any longer. She wasn't like all the other girls. She wasn't the type of girl to spin around, dancing elegantly to the classical music that played loudly throughout the ballroom. She didn't like fancy ballgowns and expensive jewellery. She preferred the peace and quiet.

Overall, the day had been a huge success. The House of Black were not known for doing things by halves. A Black wedding was an expensive affair, and the Lestrange family came from old money as well. It became something of a competition between the two - which family could spend the most money. Though really, it didn't matter in the slightest; the wedding would still have been perfect without all the extra expenses that were paid towards it.

The wedding had taken place in a Chateau not far from Paris, the setting fit for royalty. Anyone who was anyone was there - trust two of the most prestigious pure-blooded families to make a happy union of their children into a networking event.

Cygnus Black never passed on an opportunity to demonstrate why the House of Black were practically wizarding royalty, and to compete on why their strand of the family line was best.

Since Druella's passing, he had been left to raise his children on his own; and he had done well for the most part. There was no male heir between them, but his eldest daughter Bella and his other three daughters (Aurora, Narcissa and Andromeda) fit his wishes perfectly. They were everything he could have ever asked for. The perfect pure-bred daughters.

Aurora, Narcissa and Andromeda had stood beside Bella her on the day. They all wore the same scarlet ballgowns, of Bella's choosing (much to Narcissa's disappointment), and had been given fresh rose petals to throw down the aisle as they walked behind her. Earlier that morning, they had had so much fun getting ready, giggling and gossiping together as they got ready for the big day. It almost reminded her of the old times. The times where the four sisters used to spend every minute of every day together; times where none of them had roles or responsibilities that were more important than spending time with each other.

Aurora was the only one left most of the time now, she was much younger than the other three (almost 5 years younger in fact). So, in the last few years, she seemed to spend most of her time with her cousins, Sirius and Regulus Black. It was nice; but it wasn't the same. Nobody could replace her real sisters.

Bellatrix's dress was a dazzlingly white colour, with a huge and heavy train that trailed behind her. Aurora couldn't remember a time where she'd ever seen Bella wear white before this moment, she tended to wear darker colours, colours had matched her naturally pale complexion, but she looked beautiful all the same.

The dress was long sleeved of course, to obscure the mark on her arm, but that didn't change a thing, because she was still a vision of beauty as Cygnus walked her up the aisle, the other three sisters trailing along after her. Aurora was proud of her; everyone was proud of her.

Rabastan Lestrange had been his brother's best man. Aurora had never really been a fan of the guy, she found him very distant and creepy; his presence made her feel uncomfortable. She didn't care for Rodolphus too much either but she knew Bella liked him very much, so she kept her mouth closed like any other respectable pureblood would do.

Rastaban had stood at the end of the aisle with Rodolphus at the wedding, and unbeknown to Bellatrix, he had a copy of Rodolphus' vows scribbled out on a small piece of parchment in his back pocket, just in case Rodolphus forgot them.

In fact, Aurora didn't think most people noticed the piece of parchment, but she had.

Her and Sirius, the person she happened to be sat next to at the time, had joked about it throughout the entire ceremony. They found it strange that the boys both seems so nervous and so serious about all this wedding stuff, considering it was just another arranged marriage. It wasn't like Bella and Rodolphus were actually in love. They were only getting married under the order of their fathers, who were advised to do so by the Dark lord himself, who apparently is a big deal in the pureblood community.

After the ceremony, began a grand celebration, located in the Black family's very own ballroom. Bella's first dance was set to the same piece of music that Cygnus and Druella had danced to at their own wedding, and Cygnus (with a little help from Walburga Black) had worked hard for many months now trying to teach his daughters how to dance like a proper pure-blooded woman so they were ready for the occasion - much to Aurora's dismay. She didn't get why she needed to learn to dance with the others, seeing as she was much younger than them and wasn't going to get married any time soon; but she joined in anyway.

When Bella's dance was over, others joined them on the dance floor. Aurora herself had decided to stay away from the dance floor. She thought that Sirius may ask her to dance, like he usually did at these sorts of events, both of them making up stupid dance moves as the night went on, trying to imitate the other party guests that surrounded them. But he never did. He was too busy flirting with a bunch of the other girls, many whom she never even seen before, to pay any attention to her.

So, instead she had decided to just sit and observe. A sweeping glance across the room showed that Andromeda and Rabastan were dancing - many thought theirs would surely be the next wedding that they attended, but Aurora wasn't so sure. Andy had never showed any interest in another guy before, and she certainly didn't like Rastaban.

Malfoy was also there, much to Aurora's dismay, dressed in robes that were drawing eyes all across the room. Trust Lucius Malfoy to try and show up one of his best friends at his wedding. It was exactly the sort of behaviour Aurora had come to expect from the Malfoy heir, and exactly the sort of behaviour she deplored. If Bella had been given her way, he would not be there; she knew he wouldn't. Bella had never been a fan of him either; Nobody was, except for maybe Narcissa, who was too blinded by her love for him to notice how awful the boy really was.

But unlike her three sisters, Aurora was still young, and had no interest in dancing or talking to any boys at all; however, she didn't have much of a choice. She hadn't even started school yet, and yet her family were still adamant pair her off with someone.

Walburga Black, her aunt, was the worst for this. She had already tried on many occasions to find her a perfect pureblood man but she always managed to avoid her attempts, finding some reason against it. Today, however, she seemed keener than ever to pair her off and, seeing as she had no other excuses to give, her only option was to keep walking, trying to avoid crossing paths with her.

After a few hours of moving around the ballroom, staying out of sight as much as she possibly could, Aurora had finally had enough, deciding that it would be best for her to leave the room all together.

And that brought her to where she was now, stood on the balcony, alone. However, as per usual, it didn't take long for the quiet to be broken once more.

"I thought you'd be out there dancing," a voice suddenly rung out from behind her. She turned around to see her youngest cousin, Regulus Black, leaning against the door frame with his arms folded; his grey eyes glistening like stars in the night's sky as he looked down at her.

Regulus was the youngest of all her cousins. Unlike Sirius, who was extroverted and opinionated, Regulus tended to stay quiet and kept to himself more. He was harder to talk to but if you were close with him, he was the warmest and friendliest person you could ever meet. She had spent lots of time with him in the past year, especially since Sirius had started Hogwarts, and the two of them had become closer than ever.

Aurora herself had always been fond of Regulus, even before the two of them started spending all this time together. Though she had spent most of her time with the older Black brother through the years, she had always had a soft spot for Regulus, and cherished any time she spent alone with him.

However, as close as they currently were, she never expected him to come and talk to her like this, especially at such a huge event like this. She was quite surprised he'd even noticed that she'd left the party in the first place.

"Me? Dancing?" she laughed, "I don't think so. Dancing not really my thing. Well, not that sort of dancing. I doubt anybody would want me to dance with them, anyway."

"Really?" he answered, raising a brow and giving her a knowing look. "I've seen you dance, Rory. You're a great dancer. I'm sure there are plenty of boys out there that would jump at the chance to dance with you."

She smiled, rolling her eyes at him. "Well, that's a shame, because I don't want to dance with any of them."

"What about Sirius?" Regulus questioned.

"What about him?"

"Why aren't you dancing with him?"

"He's too busy flirting with all the other pureblood girls to notice me," she answered sadly.

"Oh... I'm sorry" Regulus said awkwardly, secretly wishing that he'd never asked her such a stupid question.

"Don't be. It's fine..." She replied, brushing him off. "Why aren't you dancing?"

"Well, you see, I was dancing," Regulus started, "But the song ended, and I need a new partner, so I thought I'd go and ask my favourite cousin to dance with me."

"Oh," Aurora sighed, walking over to the large curtain that draped over the balcony door and peering back into the ballroom. She looked around the room, searching for any signs of her sisters. "Well, Narcissa should be inside with Lucius somewhere if you want to-"

"Rory..." Regulus laughed, tapping her shoulder lightly, getting her to turn around and face him once more. He then got down on one knee, jokingly holding out his hand for her to grab. "Would you like to dance? With me?"

"Me?" she gasped. "Reg, I'm flattered... and I want to, but I can't because..."

"Because what?"

"You won't tell?"

"Never!"

"I ripped my dress, see?" she said, holding up her silk dress and revealing a large rip down the side of it. "Narcissa told me to keep still, so that no one would see it. Father would be so disappointed if he found out I ripped my new dress, and Narcissa isn't allowed to use magic outside of school yet, so it can't be fixed. You can laugh if you want to. It's funny, I know."

"Never mind that," he smirked, moving his hand closer to her again, almost begging her to grab hold of it. "I'll show you how we can manage."

Finally giving in, Aurora grabbed hold of his hand, pulling him to his feet. He then bowed, allowing her just enough time to awkwardly curtsy, before carefully grabbing her hand again, holding it whilst he gently placed his other hand on her waist.

"You ready?" he whispered into her ear, smiling as he pulled her closer to his chest.

"Ready as I'll ever be," she whispered back.

And so then, they started dancing. Both of them spinning and jumping wildly as they moved across the balcony, dancing to the music as if they didn't have another care in the world.

Dancing with him wasn't like dancing with other boys; it wasn't romantic and it certainly wasn't made to be graceful or elegant. It was different, and special; something for only the two of them. In their dance, they weren't pressured to act a certain way, or dance specific steps. They were free. They could do whatever they wanted; nobody could see them out on the balcony, and they knew that nobody would see them. They didn't want to be seen.

In their dance, sometimes Aurora was the woman, twirling and spinning around in his arms, and sometimes she was the man, leading the dance, doing steps she would never normally do; that she had never been allowed to do.

She'd danced with Sirius like this plenty of times before, bouncing around the room to his muggle records, but she had never expected it from Regulus. That was probably why the dance was so special to her.

However, their dancing was soon cut short by a noise, a loud noise, a noise that echoed out from inside the ballroom.

"HOW COULD YOU! YOU SELFISH AND UNGRATEFUL BITCH!"

Confused, Aurora and Regulus peeked through the curtain, unsure about what was going on inside the ballroom. Everything had stopped. The music has stopped, the dancing had stopped, the laughter had stopped; everyone's eyes looking across the room to where the new Mrs Lestrange stood, towering over her younger sister.

"YOUR SUCH A BITCH YOU KNOW THAT, RIGHT?" Bella's shouts started back up again. "HOW COULD YOU? YOU HAD TO GO AND RUIN MY SPECIAL DAY, DIDN'T YOU? I KNEW ONE OF YOU WOULD, BUT I DIDN'T EXPECT IT FROM YOU OF ALL PEOPLE, ANDY!"

"Bella, you're being unreasonable. The days not ruined I just-"

"JUST WHAT? YOU TOO IN LOVE WITH THAT FUCKING HUFFLEPUFF BOY TO ACCEPT A MARRIAGE PROPOSAL THAT IS ACTUALLY DECENT?"

"He's called Ted, and this isn't about him, Bella! He's just a friend! You know he is!"

"A friend... HE'S A MUDBLOOD, ANDY! PUREBLOODS AND MUDBLOODS CAN'T BE FRIENDS!"

"THEN MAYBE I DON'T WANT TO BE A PUREBLOOD, MAYBE I WANT TO BE- "

Andromeda suddenly stopped what she was saying, clapping her hand over her mouth, looking around the room, seeing the other guests' eyes glaring out her from every part of the ballroom. "Bella, I- "

"GET OUT!"

"What?" Andromeda looked up at her, watching as Bella moved closer and closer towards her, an angry look plastered across her face.

"YOU HEARD WHAT I SAID! GET THE FUCK OUT BEFORE I MAKE YOU... BLOOD TRAITOR!"

Andromeda didn't need to be told again. Without even hesitating she got up, and she ran, leaving the ballroom as quick as she possibly could. Aurora turned to Regulus, who now had his arm wrapped around her, obviously trying to comfort her. It wasn't working.

"I'll be back," Aurora whispered, looking over at him with a sad smile, before dashing down the corridor after her sister.

She knew that Bella would be annoyed that she ran after Andromeda, but she had to. She had to because as much as she hated to admit it, she knew nobody else would; they wouldn't want to. Not even Sirius, who claimed to be the closest person to the girl, would run after her, because he more than anyone knew what the punishment would be, and he was too afraid to face their parent's wrath.

She ran past the weird mounted house elves that hung in rows on the wall, and the portraits of the ancestors that came before her, running as quickly as she possibly could, not stopping until she reached Andromeda's room.

When she finally reached the door, she twisted the handle, trying desperately to enter the room, but it was locked. So, she knocked. No reply. She tried again. Still no reply. She then put her ear to the door. She knew Andromeda was there. She knew she was in the room; she could hear her crying.

"Andy? Andy it's me, Aurora," Aurora said calmly, knocking on the locked door again, hoping that she would answer if she knew it was her. "Can you let me in?"

"Go away, Rory!"

"Why? I want to talk to you."

"JUST LEAVE ME ALONE!"

"Fine, I will!" Aurora muttered grumpily, "But while I'm here, I may as well let you know that I agree with you... I agree even if nobody else out there does. I trust your judgement."

She started walking away, turning on her heels and heading back towards the ballroom. However, before she reached the end of the corridor, she heard a small sound, a squeak, the sound of a door opening. Looking back, she saw Andromeda, peeking out the door.

"You- you do? You- you agree with me?" her sister's muffled voice echoed down the long, dark corridor.

"Of course, I do! I believe you, and even if you're not telling the truth about that Muggleborn boy, I couldn't care less about the blood status of the man you love!" Aurora smiled, as she headed back down the corridor towards Andromeda. "Now, will you please let me in?"

Sighing, Andromeda slowly and reluctantly opened the door, letting Aurora into her room before quickly closing the door behind her, locking it again so nobody else could get in.

"So... What- "Aurora started to speak, but was soon cut off by Andromeda.

"It was terrible Rory," Andromeda cried, falling back onto her bed, grabbing her pillow and using it to soak up her tears. "He- "

She stopped herself. Aurora could feel the hurt and pain in her sister's voice. She hated seeing her sisters upset, especially Andy. Andromeda was hardly ever upset, she never cried and she never complained; not once. She was always the sister that was there for everyone else; the one that helped everyone else, but now she was sad herself, and Aurora couldn't bear to see her like that.

Aurora walked slowly up to the bed, perching on the end of it and hugging into Andy.

"I know," she whispered, still hugging onto the crying girl. "I don't blame you Andy. I hate the guy and I'm glad we aren't going to be stuck with another 'Mrs Lestrange'. Having one of them around is quite enough already."

"But Bella- "

"Bella took things way too far! So, what your friends with a Muggleborn! Whoever he is, I can guarantee he is nicer and more handsome than the stupid Lestrange boys."

Andromeda giggled, letting out a small smile, sitting back up on her bed, facing Aurora. "He won't understand that though... Father won't understand. He will agree with Bella; they all will! He's going to be so disappointed in me. Tomorrow, he will- "she began.

"He will do nothing," Aurora stopped her before she could say anything else. "He will do nothing because I will always be there for you, as you have been for me, and I won't let him hurt you."

"No, you can't!" Andromeda shook her head. "I'm the older sister, so it's my job to protect you. Not the other way round!"

"It's not your job, Andy," Aurora sighed. "And besides, even if it was, you've done enough for me. It's my turn to do something for you!"

"You don't have to... I can look after myself you know!"

"I know, but I want to," Aurora said, looking over at her sister, who was smiling again. "Next time there's a ball you should just stick with me, then neither of us will get into trouble, and we'll be there to protect each other!"

"What were you doing? At the ball?" Andromeda spoke up again quickly, trying to change the subject, moving the conversation away from herself. "I didn't see you all night. You weren't out there dancing with the others... where were you?"

"I was out on the balcony..." Aurora shrugged.

"With..." Andromeda continued giving her sister a knowing look.

"...With Regulus."

"Regulus, huh?" she smirked. "Is he-"

"Oh no, definitely not! We're just friends," Aurora laughed. "He's not another one of Aunt Walburga stupid potential pureblood suitors for me if that's what you're thinking!"

"Good, I'm glad," Andromeda nodded approvingly. "I don't think I would be able to cope if you married one of our cousins; that would just be taking the pureblood thing a bit too far. I'm happy you two are just friends..."

"Me too," Aurora smiled, the memories of that night instantly coming back to her at the thought of him. "He's a good friend, he really is, and he's actually really nice when you get to know him better. He's not too dissimilar to Sirius!"

"No way! Really?" Andromeda looked over at her, shocked. She, unlike Aurora, had never had much to do with Regulus (the youngest of the Black boys). She just assumed he wasn't like Sirius, and that he was like all the other members of her so called 'family'; prejudice and cruel. That's how Sirius had described him, anyway.

"Yes way!" Aurora replied.

"Are we thinking about the same Regulus here?"

"Yes, we are! I was surprised at first too!"

"You can't be serious!"

"I'm not... I'm Aurora..." she said mischievously, looking over at Andromeda who was smiling and shaking her head, trying desperately not to laugh at the awful and over-used joke. "What? It's just a joke!"

"A bad one."

"Still made you smile none the less," she giggled. "It worked!"

"You really are turning into the girl version of him, you know that, right? You're turning into Sirius!" Andromeda laughed. "Must be because of all the extra time you've been spending with him recently. He obviously has an effect on you."

"Nah," Aurora shook her head. "I don't think so. Personally, I still think I'm more like you. A younger you. I hope I am, anyway."

"Really? You do?" Andromeda

"Well yeah!" Aurora shrugged. "Of course, I do. Why wouldn't I want to be just like my favourite sister?"

Andromeda bolted upright in shock. "Me? I'm your favourite?"

"Of course, you are, Andy. Who else do you think it would be? Bella is way too over protective and Cissa, though she seems to be everyone's favourite nowadays, is extremely irritating! I can't stand her!"

"You can't say that, Rory!" She gasped. "I get the Bella thing... but Cissa isn't that bad."

"Why can't I say it? It's the truth! Cissa only ever talks about the Malfoy boy, and it's just so boring. I hate the guy! If I have to hear about how great his hair looks, or how good he looks in his suit one more time, I think I'll have to launch myself out of the nearest window!"

"You wouldn't!"

"I totally would," Aurora smirked. "Watch me. Next time she mentions him, I'll do it. I really will!"

"I'd rather not watch that," Andromeda shook her head letting out another small smile, wrapping her arms round her sister once more and pulling her into yet another hug.

Though the rest of black family seemed cold and heartless, not all of them were; and this hug, the very hug they were having, proved it. It proved that although they came from such a horrible family, they could still show compassion towards one another; something that many of their ancestors lacked. They were different. Their bond was different; but a good difference.

"I love you, Roars. Remember that, yeah?" Andromeda finally broke the peaceful silence, using her hand to stroke Aurora's dark hair.

"I love you too, Andy!" Aurora replied before looking up at the girl and whispering, "But whatever you do, please don't tell Bella and Cissa that-"

"I won't," she laughed, "I wouldn't dream of it!"

"Good."