A beautiful day, how sickening ( Cissy )

[Bellatrix Lestrange]

Belle Apparated into the Leaky Cauldron early in the morning. Today she'd decided to go back to her youthful blond image, it worked well before in Hogsmeade, and so she gave it another go. There were very few patrons in the pub at this hour and that was just how Belle wanted it. Walking out of the pub she ventured down the virtually deserted streets, only a few shop owners were up at this hour. "It's going to be a beautiful day!" A rather plump looking woman said to Belle as she passed by her shop. "Yes, how sickening" Belle replied as she walked past the round woman and didn't give her another moment of her time.

Turning down into Knockturn Alley Belle walked until she reached Poisonous Candles and then pushed open the door. "Stupid wench! The bloody store is closed how stupid are you!?" Yelled the shop owner who was eating breakfast while pouring a foul smelling red liquid into candle molds. Belle walked briskly to the counter where the man was and swung her arm, knocking the candles, vial of red liquid and the man's food onto the floor. In a blink of an eye Belle also had her wand out and pointed right at the man's face. "Stupid maggot! How dare you speak to me like that!? Crucio!" As the man was writhing in pain, Belle took to sending a few more hexes about his shop causing a great deal of damage and destruction. Finally releasing the man from his pain, Belle kicked him in the stomach, "Now, if I ever come in here again, you will show me more respect! Now where is he!?" The man then pointed a shaking hand in the direction of the back room.

Belle shoved open the door and found a little man in a brown robe sitting at a table, in front of him he had a small wooden box. "Is that it?" Belle asked, skipping the greeting. "It is" the man replied, "you have the jewel I presume?" Belle reached into her dress pocket and pulled out Valanduria's Jewel and held it in her hands for the man to see, "Of course." Eagerly the man sat up, eyes fixed on the jewel, "May I see it?" He asked with his hand outstretched. Belle held the jewel in her hands, "You see it just fine where you are, now open that box." With a disgusted grunt the man spun the wooden box around and flipped it open, revealing a dragon's claw with several deep engravings upon it, "So we have a deal?" The man asked, as he slid the box toward Belle and extended his hand once more. Belle set Valanduria's jewel in the man's hand and the grabbed the box, snapping it shut before turning and walking back toward the front of the shop. "What do you want with Kalgareth's claw?" The man asked, but Belle simply slammed the door shut behind her before exiting the shop.

As Belle walked back up the steps that led to Diagon Alley, she slipped the tiny wooden box into her dress pocket. The streets were now lined with shoppers waiting for all the stores to open, Belle hated being around so many pathetic people, but she agreed to meet Narcissa. She was of course going to put in a good morning's worth of shopping for Draco, honestly Belle didn't understand that at all, Draco was nearly graduated, the boy ought to be able to buy his own things or send a servant to do that, Cissy was just babying him.

As Belle waited outside of Madam Malkin's Robes for all Occasions, she was approached by a boy while two of his mates were behind him pointing and egging him on. "Excuse me miss, might I trouble you for the time?" The boy asked. Belle rolled her eyes in disgust, "Seven - Fifty - Eight, the exact time the clock I'm standing next to shows, are you blind or are you just too stupid to tell time?" Flustered the boy answered, "Umm, oh right, sorry, it's just, well I was wondering, if I..." Belle then sighed once more cutting him off, "If I? If I? What? You want my name do you? Want to send me some candies and flowers do you!?" Once more Belle had her wand in her hand and pointed it squarely at the boy's face, "Beat it! I'd rather be in Azkaban than listen to a worm like you!" Quickly the boy scurried off while his mates laughed at him. The commotion had not gone unnoticed, a trio of witches also waiting outside the shop had stopped their conversation and were now starting at Belle, their jaws open. Quickly putting her wand away Belle gave them a sweet smile, how disgusting it felt upon her face, "Sorry, but that boy's mates gave him a hit of love potion, I saw them do it in the pub over breakfast, severe threats are about the only way to fend someone off while they're under a love potions effects, I bet you all get it all the time too." Once more Belle gave a sickening smile and then leaned back against the wall while the witches, believing her, continued with their conversation. "Cissy better hurry up or I'm going to kill someone" Belle thought as she waited.

[cissa]

The sun streamed in through the window and rested softly on Narcissa’s pale face, dulled by the curtains. She stirred and turned over – knowing she would have to rouse herself soon. There were a lot of things to be done that day whether she felt like it or no. The dark blue room was so perfect for sleeping in Cissa found it difficult to get up most days – at least that’s what she said the reason was. Truth be told Cissa was still very much not over her husband being sent to prison. After about five minutes of moping about in bed though she knew it was time to get up and pulled a navy silk bathrobe about her. “Emily! Get up here this instant, I am going to be late!” Narcissa called to her houseelf. The bumbling creature appeared instantly and bowed so low her nose was being crushed against the floor. Narcissa shuddered thinking of the carpet being soiled with that thing’s filth on its nose. “Go and get me some breakfast, I am going out today tell Draco I am not home and clean all the carpets before I get back. Now go.”

She stood in front of the rack of regular day clothes in her dressing room looking at everything she could possibly wear out– none of it seemed right – she would have to get some new outfits later too. Finally after about three minutes she settled on a pair of black dress pants and a ox blood silk blouse. When she emerged from the dressing room she was greeted by a bagel with cream cheese and a cup of tea. She sat at the vanity and began her breakfast as Emily pulled her long flaxen hair into an elegant bun and began on her makeup.

After what seemed like forever Narcissa was ready to be seen and apparated into Diagon Alley. She watched amused as a young boy tried to hit on her older sister and was promptly told off. Nothing was better though than watching Bella trying to explain her behaviour to a bunch of witches sitting to breakfast at a nearby café. Still giggling Cissa walked over to her sister and took her by the arm outside Madam Malkin’s. “Are you ready for our girl’s day, Bella dear? I believe the shops should be opening soon. Perhaps would you like to get some tea before we begin?” She said cheerily ignoring how annoyed her sister had seemed by her late appearance before she had shown up.

[Bellatrix Lestrange]

Cissy arrived, late as always, she most likely had stayed up all night drinking and crying about Lucius or how Draco was going to grow up without his father. Cissy then began to go on about a girl's day out. "Shut up Cissy! You are late once again! The Dark Lord favors those who serve him well, being late won't keep you in good standing." Belle then grabbed hold of Cissy's arm and pushed her into Madam Malkin's Robes for all Occasions, and away from the prying ears. "You're going to be given an assignment soon, it'll be your chance to show your skills at things other than babying Draco! You have to get yourself together! Stop drinking like a lush and get your mind right! Crying about Lucius does nothing to help him, have you thought about how weak you must look in Draco's eyes when you behave like this? I will be going with you on your first assignment, but even though you're my sister I will not cover for you or accept failure! If you do well next month on your first task, maybe our plan to break Lucius and the others out of Azkaban will be moved up."

As she was talking a witch who obviously worked at the shop approached them asking if they needed assistance. "Speak to my sister, she no doubt has a long list" Belle said as she turned and walked back toward the window and watched the people outside while waiting for Cissy to finish. More and more people began to show up in the Alley, how she hated Diagon Alley and all the filth that infested it.

[cissa]

Cissa feinted being affronted by Bella’s reaction – although she hadn’t expected any less. “You tell me to shut up Bella? Your own flesh and blood? I am only trying to save your mental heath you know – you really need to calm down. Now, I seriously doubt The Dark Lord expects anything to be accomplished before noon. And taking some time to yourself does not mean you are not serious about supporting him – you are looking a little pale my dear – and might I say rather thin too. Although I am flattered you are copying me in your appearance rather than that whole dark hair and thing you used to sport but that doesn’t mean I cannot tell that you are working too hard. But if you don’t want tea I suppose we can skip it seeing as I already had a mug with my breakfast.” Cissa babbled happily – knowing this would only aggravate her sister further and loving the knowledge.

As she was speaking her sister pushed her into the shop and started going on about an assignment. She rolled her eyes as her fanatical sister went on about not tolerating failure but looked down as she mention the plan to break out Lucius being pushed forward. Would they really? Narcissa had been counting the days since he had been locked up – heart leaping every time a fellow death eater mentioned him – hoping there would be some new developments in the plan to get him back home where he belonged.

Cissa looked up Bella imploringly but at that moment someone came by and asked if they needed any help. She rolled her eyes at Bella’s comment but a rueful smile forced its way onto her lips because she knew it was true – though she would never admit it. “Yes. Where are your real materials – not this… rough, thin, worthless junk?” Cissa asked with an annoyingly sweet smile picking up the corner of a nearby sheet with her thumb and forefinger as if it was a piece of filth. The woman she had been speaking to crumpled her nose annoyed and knowing this was going to take awhile but that she had to be nice because it was apparent that Cissa would pay a pretty knut for anything she liked.

The pair walked toward the back of the store where the more expensive fabrics were kept and Cissa looked over it all with her nose wrinkled distastefully as she carefully examined everything the woman brought to her as she sat on a chair regally. Finally Cissa settled on three different sets and gave the woman her measurements for one set of robes and Draco’s for the other two. Walking back to Bella Narcissa stood beside her looking out the window. “You sure you don't need anything from here? You can always use a new set of robes you know…”

[Bellatrix Lestrange]

Belle stood at the window with her arms crossed across her chest while she stared out the window at the morning shoppers. While waiting for Cissy to finish looking over every piece of cloth in the store, Belle took out the little wooden box she'd acquired earlier that morning as well as a large smooth black stone from the same pocket. The black stone was fairly large for a stone yet could still be held in one hand. Running her fingers over it's smooth glossy surface she felt the coldness of the stone. Colder than normal as it's magic enchantment was very strong.

Taking a seat on a couch near the window, Belle opened the wooden box and took out Kalgareth's claw and ran her fingers along the engraving. Though very old and worn, the engravings would be easily deciphered once it was cleaned up a bit. Glancing back to the store, Cissy was still going on about the fabric selection and it's low quality. Returning her focus back to the claw, she placed it upon the black stone and then tapped it several times with her wand looking for any reactions. As she heard Cissy finally finish and walk over to her, Belle hastily put the items away back into her pocket and stood up, "fine,where else do we have to go today on your long list?"

[cissa]

Cissa simply rolled her eyes when Bella said fine but then questioned the next place on her list with no steps to actually getting the new robes she just agreed to. Honestly, her sister was way too uptight. It’s not like she’s expected to put everything aside in her servitude of The Dark Lord… What help can you be without your mental heath? And how stable will you remain if all you think about is work… “Quality Quidditch Supplies” Narcissa told her sister, “I want to get Draco a new snitch to practice with this summer. The old one’s wing is bent slightly. Can’t have him playing with a faulty ball – he is far too talented. It would be a waste of skill. Perhaps he could use new Quidditch robes as well… oh and a pair of gloves to go with it.” Narcissa mused as she walked toward the door.

The small bell tinkled as Narcissa left Madam Malkin’s and walked out into the bright street, which by then was beginning to fill up with people. It was nowhere near the midday rush but certainly more so than at that God forsaken hour Bella had brought her into the robe store. Walking down the street Cissa glared at everyone who had the misfortune of looking her way, simply for the heck of it. They all now knew she was the wife of a Death Eater and since his arrest had looked at her as if that was something to be ashamed of, blood traitors, cowards, and mudbloods, the lot.

Still categorizing the things she wanted to get for her son Cissa didn’t even notice if Bella had followed or not until she had wrenched open the door. Narcissa flung her head around to look behind her and searched the street for a sign of her sister’s temporarily blond hair.

[Bellatrix Lestrange]

Bellatrix walked in silence down the street after Cissy. She was, once more off to go do shopping for Draco, something that he ought to be able to do for himself by now. As the approached the next stop, a Quidditch store Belle simply stood at the door. "I'm not going in there Cissy, you go do whatever you do in there, I'll be out here." Outside the shop she soon found a vendor selling magazines and the Daily Prophet. Grabbing one of the Daily Prophets, Belle took it and sat down on the bench in front of the Quidditch store.

There was very little useful information in the paper, as always it was stupid commentary about the Ministry finding new clues. All of these so called new clues, were actually bits of information that they had not needed in the past several months, it was quite comical to Belle. As she continued to flip through the paper she found a bright yellow parchment inside listing ways for people to stay safe in these difficult times. Stay in groups, travel during the day, call for the Ministry's help if anything suspicious is seen. Belle laughed at the entire list and threw whole newspaper onto the ground near the bench. If she wanted to kill people, it wouldn't matter if they were in a group, or if it was in full daylight, she'd kill them and there was nothing the Ministry could do about it. Yet looking at the alley, most people seemed to be taking in that advice as large groups of people from one shop to the next.

It was nearly noon when Cissy finally emerged from the Quidditch shop. "I've got to eat Cissy, unlike you I actually have things to do today other than waste time shopping all day long. I'm going to the Leaky Cauldron." Belle then turned and like her sister had done earlier, she walked away not even turning to see if she was following.

After a brief walk she arrived at the Leaky Cauldron and pushed open the door. It was quite crowded as it was noon time but Belle found several private booths that were unoccupied. Taking up a booth near the corner she sat down and almost immediately one of the waitresses was at her booth, "excuse me miss, this is a private booth, it's reserved, I'm sorry you'll have to wait for a regular table to free up." Belle shot the girl an annoyed look, then opened her coin purse, grabbed the girl's hand and put 8 galleons into her palm. "I think you'll find my name is on that list." The waitress looked alarmed at the money but none the less put it in her pocket and returned quickly with menus. "The chicken soup, a turkey sandwich, and a bottle of the best wine you have."

Belle then once more took out Kalgareth's claw and studied the inscription on it while she sipped the wine waiting for her food to arrive.

[cissa]

Narcissa simply rolled her eyes as Bella said she wouldn’t go into the Quidditch store. She really had no clue why her sister would be so opposed to that particular place but she didn’t bother finding out. She simply turned around and walked into the store as if she were alone that day; if Bella chose to hang around outside that was of no consequence to her. The Quidditch shopping went remarkably quickly, according to Narcissa, and she had everything she wanted by noon. Walking out of the shop with all of her purchases shrunk in her purse Cissa gave her older sister a small smile and was promptly told off by the hotheaded witch. Bella stormed off to the Leaky Cauldron as Cissa trailed behind as if affronted.

On her way after her sister Cissa popped into Madam Malkin’s and picked up the now completed robes. By the time she got into the pub she found her sister already seated and stroking something as a waitress walked away. It was, of course, below her dignity to call out to or chase after the waitress so Cissa simply stepped in front of the girl very rudely almost knocking her over. “I will be sitting with my sister. Get me a tea along with a ham and Swiss on white bread slightly toasted with mayonnaise no tomato. Two minutes after that I expect a glass of your best white wine in front of me – chilled to exactly 8 degrees below. Five minutes after we seem to be finished eating I expect a piece of chocolate cheesecake in front of me with strawberries, raspberries, and blue berries on the plate – all fresh. That is without mentioning that our plates should be cleared the second we finish eating – I expect not to have empty plates cluttering our table. Bring it within the next two minutes or it will be on your head, understand?” Narcissa said quickly as the girl was re-stabilizing herself before walking over to the seat adjacent Bella’s.

“Hello Dear! Did you miss me?” Cissa asked cheerily as she slid into the seat but didn’t wait for an answer before she started pulling her new robes out of her purse. “What do you think of these? A little shotty stitching on the arm if you ask me… Have to check them all and have my elves fix it but if that is what they supply I fear I will have to find someone else to go to… Speaking of someone else… Oh look here is the quaffle I got Draco; isn’t it great? It zooms back and forth so he can practice chaser without having to depend on any of his housemates. You know his father always taught him that a good Quidditch player knows all positions and who am I to disagree? And here is the new glove; so cute don’t you think? Slytherin colours, I insisted. But back to what I was saying about new places, here is one of Draco’s new robes, the stitching on that looks fine. I was talking to someone the other day and she was going on and on about this new place her sister just opened up in Glasgow Scotland. Gosh don’t you just hate it when people go on and on like that? You can’t get a word in edgewise can you? They are so annoying and inconsiderate – can you say self-absorbed? But at least she had something worthwhile to contribute. I will have to check this place out – because if they are any good I can say I discovered them you know? The girl who told me about them… well she doesn’t matter I don't even remember her name. So it will be good to be the first again; don't you think?” Narcissa babbled taking out each object she mentioned in turn and inspecting it until their food arrived – in exactly 1 minute and 30 seconds.

[Bellatrix Lestrange]

Belle rolled her eyes as her sister continued on about shopping and showing off what she'd bought and mentioning new stores that she had to go to. Honestly she didn't even know how she could possibly be related to someone like this. The lunch meal was consumed with nothing but talk of shopping and fine deals and top quality merchants, it was enough to make Belle lose her appetite, but she ate anyway, she still had a lot to do today and she wouldn't have time for a rumbling stomach. As the clock slowly ticked away, it was now a few minutes before one o'clock, this had gone on long enough. Opening her coin bag, Belle put down more than enough for the both of their lunches. "Let's go Cissy, I've got a shop to pay a visit to now."

Back out onto the hot streets Belle walked as she pushed her way past crowds of shoppers. In very short time she arrived at Magical Menagerie. Looking back she waited for Cissy to reach her and she grinned at her sister. "Are you ready then?" She said more as a statement then a question while she withdrew her wand from her dress pocket. "Today will be a wonderful day!" Raising her wand she pointed it straight at Magical Menagerie. Murmuring a spell for a few seconds, soon the tip of her wand glowed red and out exploded a steady stream of fire that engulfed Magical Menagerie and it soon exploded into a fireball. Smiling in delight as the building burned and scared people ran from the scene, Belle grabbed the black stone from her pocket and threw it into the middle of the street, "Cissy, the Dark Mark now! Then stand back, that port key is going to be opening very soon! You'll not want to be in the way!"

[cissa]

All through lunch they talked, or more like Cissa talked and Bella appeared annoyed but put up with her because she was blood. The waitress was apparently smarter than she appeared as everything went exactly to Cissa’s specifications and their lunch was an enjoyable one – with no need to hex anybody for incompetence. When the cheesecake was finished Cissa began to sit back to relax for a minute when Bella, surprisingly, mentioned that she needed to go to a shop and so they should leave immediately. Cissa wasn’t sure how to take this news – it had been shock enough Bella agreed to come today but to shop for herself like a normal person… Narcissa didn’t dare believe it… She was likely on some errand for the Dark Lord and left Cissa out of it; if that was the case there would be Hades to pay. Or perhaps, by some miracle, her sister was beginning to act like a normal female. She had gone for a more elegant appearance today…

Narcissa Malfoy followed after her sister as though entranced. She turned toward the Magical Menagerie along with Bella but raised an eyebrow as her wand was raised; she knew it was too good to be true. She stepped back as the store she knew so well shone, suddenly ablaze. Her sister shouted orders and Cissa snapped back to the present. Unsheathing her wand from her hip she pointed it to the sky and in a strong voice shouted “Morsmordre!” People panicked as the store burnt away and a green glow filled the sky – emitted from a shinning green skull with a snake coming out of his mouth.

That was that – her allegiance had been made public once and for all. Now there would be no one fearing for the poor woman with her husband a death eater – as if she didn’t already know. Nobody would be doubly careful in expressing their thoughts – uncertain who she sympathised with. It was the end of her going out in public likely but in that simple act she gained so much more – honesty. She had shown the whole of the wizarding world just who she thought should win this war – and that was worth all the shopping in the world… she hoped. Narcissa calmly walked toward the next store after the people fleeing left and right – getting out of the way of the portkey. She would deal with her sister’s hiding things later – for now she would revel in the absolute destruction on Diagon Alley she knew was about to come.