The Black Family Legacy

A new Generation

Cygnus sat with the peacock hatchlings, letting them clamber and climb all over her.

Draco stood over her shoulder, frowning.

"Cyg, mum wants you to start getting ready."

She sighs and cautiously rises, leaving squawking birds running around her feet.

"Thank you, Draco."

He inclines his head and follows her inside.

-
Cygnus sighed and turned to the house elf assisting her.

"Well?"

"Mistress looks wonderful, like a painting!" The new elf flatters her, and Cygnus nods.

"You may leave." The elf disappears with a crack.

She glanced to her discarded jewelry, all replaced by silver, and, with haste, swept them into a drawer.

A knock came at her door and she cast one more glance to herself in the mirror before posing herself and answering.

Her cousin stood in the corridor, dressed nicely, his deatheater mask in the crook of his arm. He smiled at her.

"Are you ready to carry on the noble house of Black?" He asked her, offering her his other arm. She simply nodded, not wanting her voice to betray her, taking his arm and gliding down the corridor to the grand staircase.

The deatheaters all stood on either side of the door to the drawing room, forming a path of sorts from the bottom of the stairs. It was through this path that the pair travelled, and as they passed the deatheaters fell in rank behind them.

In the drawing room the deatheaters found their seats, Cygnus sitting in the front, Draco and Narcissa on either side of her.

Lucius continued to the front and then turned to face them.

"Tonight marks the first death-eater initiation of the new generation!"

The deatheaters applaud.

Draco's hand finds Cygnus' leg and gives her a slight squeeze, she grasps his hand and they sit there clutching one another.

"My cousin, Cygnus Walburga Black, heir of the most noble and ancient house of Black-"

They applaud again.

"Will be joining our ranks tonight."

Another round of applause.

"After the initiation we shall feast in honor of this fantastic achievement." With those words he steps down from the platform and takes his seat next to Narcissa.

The door to left of the room opens and Lord Voldemort enters.

Everyone rises to their feet, Draco's grip tightens on his cousin's hand.

"Lucius, Narcissa." He inclines his head. Cygnus and Draco separate as his parents step on either side of her. As they step forward everyone else takes their seats.

"Throughout the previous days I have tested Cygnus Black, she has shown great promise, and tonight we welcome her into our ranks just as her father was before her."

Cygnus blinked. She had not expected him to speak of her father.

"It is tonight that she makes her father proud and proves herself to be his kin."

He turns back to them. Narcissa turns to Cygnus, handing her a single black rose.

"Tonight you make your father proud." She echoes, pressing a gentle kiss to her forehead before stepping back.

"Tonight you prove yourself a member of our ranks." Lucius nods sternly.

The two of them take their seats.

"Your arm, Cygnus." Voldemort says, and Cygnus raises hers. His cold, bone-like hand grasps her wrist firmly.

Cygnus makes eye contact with Draco as the dark mark is burned into her flesh.

She didn't scream. She wouldn't. She couldn't.

The deatheaters applauded as he lets go of her wrist.

"Behold! A deatheater!" He declares. Cygnus stills when his arm winds around her shoulder.

Then, just as suddenly as he appeared, he drifted out of the room.

Draco's lip was trembling as Cygnus stepped down from the platform and into his mother's waiting arms. She ruffled his hair and gave him a smile, a secret reassurance that everything was fine.

"Come, let's eat." Lucius smiles, clapping the two of them on the back. "Your cousin has done a wonderful thing tonight, Draco."

The boy offers him a wry smile, and they exit the drawing room and into the dining room, where everyone takes their seats and the yourselves being out many trays of bountiful roasts, potatoes, and countless other dishes.

Cygnus sits numbly, taking dainty bites of her largely empty plate and entertaining bits of banter with the more sociable of the deatheaters.

She jumps when Lucius spills his glass on her, wine spilling all over her.

"Oh Cygnus!" Narcissa gasps, rising to assist.

"Its fine, really." Cygnus insists. "I'll just go shower, change. Be back in a bit."

Cygnus hurries maybe a bit to quickly from the dining room, practically fleeing up the stairs, where she locks herself in the lavatory and stares at herself in the mirror, horrified at what shes become.

She turns the shower on, catching sight of her arm as she does so. She looks at her dark mark, and is filled with such rage that she grabs a rag and tries to scrub it off. When that fails to do anything other than irritate her skin, she grabs the coarse cleaning sponge and goes at it instead, sobbing as she tries to get it off.

Still crying, she runs across the hall and grabs a fistful of floor powder.

"The burrow!" She sobs, leaping into the fire.