Dark Beauty *Newly Updated Chapters*

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Chapter Three: Childhood

Draco watched his cousin carefully. His parents had told him that wandless magic was normal for all magical children, but he could tell that even they were impressed by what Calligenia could do. Now, as he stared, she was bewitching flowers to change color. So far she had the darkest purple he’d ever seen on what once was pale pink roses and there were midnight blue baby’s breath.

“Calli, turn the tulips green next,” he asked, unable to stay quiet any longer.

She turned to face him and for a moment he wished he’d stayed silent. His parents were forever talking about how beautiful she was, but there was something frightening about how she seemed to look straight through him. Her dark hair fell in waves to her waist. Her mahogany colored eyes were hooded, giving her a perpetually haughty look. Calligenia had fair skin and from what his parents said, from the pictures they had hidden away in albums, she was the image of her mother, his aunt Bellatrix. And from watching her and how much magic she could perform now, days before they were scheduled to go to Diagon Alley to get their wands, she was as powerful too.

Calligenia smiled at her cousin. Little Draco, so eager to please, eager to play the Pureblood prince his parents have pretended he was for his whole life. She considered, momentarily, turning the little brat green. How dare he order her to use her magic for his own amusement, she thought. She reconsidered, however, knowing that nothing good would come from giving into temptation and cursing the son of her guardians. She preferred, she thought as she changed the tulips for her cousin, her position of doted upon niece. No, she wouldn’t hex him, although her mind twitched with the urge, not yet.

Lucius watched the children as they played in the garden. Actually, they weren’t playing, Calligenia rarely played. No, his niece was enchanting the flowers to change colors based completely on her will alone. Gods, he’d known a child of Bellatrix’s would be powerful, but watching her grow for the past eleven years had definitely had it’s share of surprises. He recalled her delivery to the manor, hours after Bella and Rodolphus were taken for torturing the Longbottoms into madness. Her parents hadn’t told them of her signs of magic, they’d hardly spoken of her at all, as though she were merely a task set to them by the Dark Lord and then once completely, forgotten.

Draco had, of course, shown signs of magic early too, but Calli’s magic was more powerful. Any fool could see that. Unlike most magical children who do magic when emotionally upset or elated, Calli could control hers, use it as she wanted. They’d noticed it within hours of her arrival. She’d become fussy, as a baby of nearly a year is prone to do, but instead of waiting to be consoled, she simply bewitched the books of the library into a dance. She’d also conjured her own bottle, as though used to providing nourishment for herself. Even when she’d been in their care for over a year, she still held herself at a bit of a distance from the family, strange for a child little past babe stage. She’d finally started to warm to them when she was five. Finally allowed Narcissa to dote on her, actually allowed Lucius himself to dote on her too.

This year would be her and Draco’s first year at Hogwarts. The year that the “Boy Who Lived” would come back to the magical community. His wand hand itched. The brat that defeated his Master would come home to acclaim and adoration. He wondered, for a moment, if the rumors could be true. Could the child have even more remarkable power than even Lord Voldemort? He stood gazing at his children, because he did think of Calli as his own, and considered the entrance of another dark wizard to the Wizarding world.

He didn’t hear his wife approach, didn’t see her watching the children as intently as he was.

Narcissa looked in the direction Lucius was staring into and noticed Draco and Calligenia standing in the garden. She watched as her niece willed one of the hedges into the form of a swan, going so far as to turn the greenery to brilliant white. Dear Merlin, she was a talented little witch. It almost frightened her to think of Calli with a wand to harness her power further. She watched as a summer breeze played on the waves of her niece’s hair and was struck by how much she reminded her of Bella. So much like the sister trapped in Azkaban, she thought, but her eyes had a glint of something Bella’s never had. Almost as though she was born with all the intelligence that Bella had gathered through adulthood, as though she had a reserve of knowledge and power that they couldn’t imagine.

Narcissa shivered and let out a little hiss of air, alerting Lucius to her presence beside him. He turned and kissed her temple in one of his rare displays of affection. Placing his arm around her, he turned her from the window of the library and walked her to one of the chairs before the fireplace. He sat in the one mirroring hers and with a snap of his fingers had a House-elf groveling to attend them.

“Wine,” he ordered, without a look at the creature. Two glasses popped into the elf’s hands, and having his glass and making sure Narcissa had hers, dismissed the elf with a wave.

“It’s time,” he stated, taking a drink of the elf-made wine. “Time for our children to go off to school.”

Narcissa nodded, taking a sip from her own glass. She offered a cool smile. “It hardly seems like they could be eleven, does it?”

“And yet they are,” he said, sitting back in his chair. “Harry Potter goes to Hogwarts this year too.”

Narcissa’s lips thinned. The child who defeated the most powerful dark wizard in living memory, returning to the magical world. She detested the thought of the Muggle raised brat being in the same castle as her precious children.

“I think Draco, and perhaps Calligenia, should befriend him.” Lucius’ eyes were on the mantle, so he didn’t see the look of revulsion on Narcissa’s features. “It might be wise, if the rumors are true.”

She sniffed, shocked that Lucius would think to believe the absurdity of the rumors that a mere child could be the beginnings of a powerful dark wizard. Her thoughts fell to her niece and she paused. Perhaps, but of course it couldn’t be... Calligenia had Bellatrix and Rodolphus for parents. Her blood was untainted, undiluted, so of course she was more powerful than the average magical child. She considered Draco, also Pureblood, but not nearly as strong as Calli.

Lucius left Narcissa to her own thoughts, as he fell into his own. If the Potter brat were as powerful as the rumors insinuated, having Draco or Calligenia near him, befriending him, would be a stroke of genius. They’d be nearest the new Dark Lord and he, being their guardian, would become near him as well.

Thoughts of powerful children kept Narcissa and Lucius sitting by the fireplace as Draco watched Calligenia bewitch the hedge swan to come to life. So entranced in their own thoughts, the elders didn’t hear Draco scream when the hedge attacked.