toujours impur | black family

03. the ones who lived | gen iii

cw child death, bigotry, chronic illness, abuse

—

ella black (née max)

Iola is conceived as a replacement.

Ella has given Cygnus Black three children in five years, and she is exhausted. She is nothing but a broodmare. One more, Cygnus croaks, even as he weakly moves beneath her. His body wastes more and more every day from some illness no Healer can quash. (Muggle science could tell them. But they do not speak to Muggles in this family.) Ella could barely stomach Cygnus on their wedding day. Then, his sallow skin and wheezing breaths were a terrible enough brideprice. He is even more skeletal now.

They have two sons already, but Cygnus wants one more. There is a wateriness in Sirius's eyes that worries them both. So, though Elladora is still a babe, they try again. (In spite of Cygnus's ills, it does not take long. His body is good for one thing, at least.) Cygnus ekes to his twenty-second birthday, long enough to see Ella's body swell with promise. Then he dies.

Six months later, Ella gives birth to another wailing Black – but a daughter. The mewling cries of another girl only underscore her sad excuse of a life. Freshly widowed. Four babies, though she is, in essence, still a child. No hope for bearing another Black heir.

Ella weeps in hysteria until the nannies take the baby away. 

—

phineas nigellus

All of six years old, Phineas is the man of the house.

Father has been gone two years, a third of his life. He hardly remembers the man now, and his sisters are too young and too stupid to remember anything. But losing Sirius is a pain he swallows because he cannot cry.

Mother is always crying. His sisters are always crying. Someone in this house must be strong. Someone must remind them of who they are. (When his fool of a sister waves to a neighbor Muggle boy, he slaps her like Father did once upon a time. They do not speak to Muggles in this family.)

So Phineas decides he will be great, for all of them. He is the Black heir now. He will live a brilliant, accomplished life for himself and for Sirius. For Father, even. He will achieve enough for three lifetimes. He will earn back what Death has stolen from the family.

Phineas Nigellus Black will be renowned forever even if it kills him.

—

elladora

Elladora is her mother's gift.

She is the only one to inherit her mother's beauty, and perhaps this is why she is the only one blessed with her name. (One day, the Blacks will all be born beautifully patrician. In a few generations, they marry enough beauties to match their legacy. But not yet.)

Sirius, of course, shared their father's constitution and died early for it. Phineas takes after Grandfather in his austerity. Iola's face is kinder, but she is plain.

Elladora's hair falls in soft curls like Mama's. Her eyes are wide and gentle, her cheeks kissed by apple blossoms. But Elladora's eyes slide off to nowhere, and she cannot sit still. Conversation with her is tiresome, for she can scarcely grasp a thought.

(Muggle science could teach them how to help Elladora. But they do not speak to Muggles in this family.)

Though Elladora is beautiful, the only Black beauty of her generation, there is no one to marry her. No one wants the burden of that vacant face and a legacy of sons who die.

—

iola

For as long as Iola can remember, they are three.

Phineas reminds them they are the remnants of a quartet. He is the only one who remembers. Elladora, on her better days, has a glimpse of another brother. But Iola was only two when they lost Sirius. She has nothing.

Mama is beautiful but capricious. Some days she is their greatest playmate, both benevolent queen and exuberant princess. But then, without warning, the joy drains from her face, and she hands them off to a nanny or house elf. Then they cannot reach her, as if she were Snow White, trapped in a glass coffin.

But there is no prince to bring Mama back to them. Father is dead.

Phineas is serious and always unsmiling. But when he leaves for Hogwarts, Iola misses him dearly. In the cavern of their home, Iola is trapped with two cold stars. A mother who eyes her with unkindness and a sister who eyes her with nothing at all. She loves Elladora, but she misses conversation. Her Black cleverness is wasted on the house elves.

With Phineas gone, Iola is unwatched. The next time she sees the neighbor boy, she musters a tentative wave. He waves back with a delighted smile. Iola cannot help but return it, even though they do not speak to Muggles in this family.

Over the next four years, Iola learns much about her neighbor. Though he lives in a world without magic, Bob regards the world with unabated curiosity. "You know, Iola," he whispers once, as they look up at a rainbow, "I'm quite certain magic is real."

Iola stares at him agape before he continues. "After all, how else would we have rainbows?" His eyes shine with pure joy, and Iola has not the heart to correct him.

Even after Iola leaves for Hogwarts, she steals moments with Bob when she is home. He is the best person she knows. He always smiles at Elladora with fondness, even if Elladora does not acknowledge him. (More from forgetfulness than the family's haughtiness. Elladora does not have the wherewithal to share the Black superiority; she only does as told.)

He is the only one on all of Grimmauld Place who does not titter behind his hands when Elladora is near. To Bob, Elladora is a person, not a zoo exhibit to be gawked out. And though she never tells him, Iola is grateful.

And it is because of Elladora, too, that Iola realizes her true feelings. As Elladora's graduation nears, Mama becomes desperate to marry her off, as is her duty. Phineas is well and settled with Ursula Flint. But Mama still owes the Black family two more respectful pureblood marriages.

The parade of eligible bachelors is ceaseless and impossible not to notice, even for a Muggle boy. When he asks, Iola unleashes her frustrations. How Mama insists because it is what is done. Even though all these boys drink in her sister's beauty, they never deign to let her speak. Iola's heard them in the Slytherin dungeons, of course. A simple wife is good. But never one as brainless as Elladora Black. Without her brother's Head Boy protection, Iola can only stew in resentment. These idiots will never deserve her sister, but she will never be able to tell them so.

"But why does your mother put her through this?"

"We have to," Iola says, with an exhausted roll of her eyes. "Because everyone does. Because everyone in the family does. A Black who does not marry is a shame upon her House."

"Well that's a whole bunch of poppycock," Bob scoffs. "Elladora should marry someone who is good to her, regardless of his family. She should be allowed to marry who she wants, or not at all."

Iola looks at him with surprise. Bob always surprises her. The fortune of him growing up in a world so wholly unlike hers is that he always sees things another way. He reminds her that there is, in fact, another way.

So, in a move that surprises them both, she kisses him. As she basks in the sweetness and perfection on his lips, she realizes the path she will take and what it will cost. But she knows at Number Twelve Grimmauld Place, happiness will always be denied.

And so Iola Black becomes Iola Hitchens, and the Black sky burns off its first star.