I OWN NOTHING EXCEPT FOR GEMINI (future me here, I just woke up time to rewrite this yayy)
Gem's POV (Her nickname):
The day seemed a little brighter today. How I knew? Well, simply because no rainwater was leaking from the ceiling into my cell. For one of the most exclusive facilities meant to contain the Wizarding World's worst criminals, it had a rather frail structure. Any Wizard with enough skill could break it if they desired. But unfortunately, the only person who would willingly break Azkaban prison was dead. Today marked my eleventh birthday, and nearly ten years of being stuck in this place. You would have thought that I would have developed strong opinions on things from the people who raised me- and I did! I inherited Sirius's reckless tendencies after a few years, and I also grew to have a rather blunt outlook on the world from Auntie Bellatrix. However, there was one thing I was conflicted of. While Sirius despised the man known as Voldemort, Bellatrix did nothing short of praise him. At times, both of them got awfully close to ripping the other's eye out over their political and social opinions. What were politics again? Right, that thing Sirius described as annoying and useless (I always had a feeling he hated politicians). Bellatrix described politics as an obstacle for her Dark Lord, a bunch of flies and mosquitoes that were weak, but incredibly hard to kill. I had never seen a politican, but my guardians described Lucius Malfoy as one, so who was I to disagree with their opinions?
Ten years ago, he got away from his imprisonment, causing me to be put here instead. You'd expect me to be bitter, right? Well, not really. I would be extremely bitter if I had been raised solely by my aunt. But lucky for me, I had Sirius. He always told me to let go of the past. He'd often remind me that Lucius was not worth my anger, nor was he worth my time. He would tell me that Malfoy resembled a Loreal commercial? I never knew what it meant, but Sirius told me to be grateful that I inherited more of my mother's features. Speaking of Sirius, he woke me up today with what he called the muggle Happy Birthday song. Although he sounded like a dehydrated cat, I still appreciated his efforts to cheer me up. Uncle Sirius told me he used to be a fantastic singer back when he was a srtudent at Hogwarts, he also told me that on the day of his eleventh birthday, his younger brother Regulus attempted to sing that exact same song but failed. Not because he didn't know the lyrcis, but because their mother did not want anything muggle to make contact with her precious children, not even a song. For such an awful woman, he made her seem more like an angry 'cartoon character'. I didn't know what that meant, but Sirius explained it as muggle pictures that moved and talked to tell a story, and were often very funny and exaggerated. As a child, I foten wondered if all wizards were like Walburga Black, did they all hate muggles that much?
Aunt Bellatrix said that muggles were powerless creatures, unworthy of our attention unless the Dark Lord commanded them to be... slaughtered. She said that in the past, wizards and witches were burned and persecuted and treated badly, so we had to go into hiding. She claims that Voldemort wanted Wizards to claim their place as the rightful rulers of the world. Why couldn't muggles and wizards coexist? She never answered that question. However, Bellatrix did teach me some useful things. One of those useful things was basic wandless magic, which I used since I started showing signs of accidental magic at about three or four years old. She said that it would become useful in the future. She also said that about the Occlumency and Legillimency her and Sirius taught me. Occlumency to block my mind against the cloaked dementors, and legillimency to defend myself against other prisoners who found it entertaining to torment a child.
Azkaban had taken its toll on my guardians. It took away Sirius's signature charisma and Bella's... not so insane behavior. I always wondered what they were like before the prison, before the war, before the conflict. Probably bickering cousins, but way worse. The small wooden crib that had been placed when I was a child had been transfigured into a brick bed that, quite honestly, gave me more back pain than treatment. Ah, treatment. I was thankful to the guards for not tormenting me on my birthday. Maybe they, too, realized that I should be eating a warm meal, preparing for my Hogwarts letter, probably fixing my hair in the mirror. I don't even own a mirror. Sirius and Bellatrix, however, were not so lucky today. They were taken out of their cells soon after I woke up, Bellatrix in a fit of mad giggles and Sirius rolling his eyes. Treatment took its toll on the prisoners, for sure. It was unnecessary physical torture, as if the Dementors and near starvatation weren't enough to drive us mad.
While waiting for them to come back, I sat on the floor of my cell, laying my head down on the dust, which now gave my platinum hair a redish tone. I had done what Sirius described as 'healthy physical exercise' an hour prior to this, so to say I was exhsausted was an understatement. Small beads of sweat flowed down the sides of my face, making some hair stick to the edges of it as I looked up at the ceiling. They'd been gone for a while, but then again, tracking time was rather difficult here at Azkaban prison. Because of this, the guards had placed a single clock and calendar not too far from my cell. It was the sole reason that I knew when my birthday was. I watched as Dementors flew past my window, occasionally looking in. Closing my mind had become a habit at this point, but there wasn't much to torture me with, really. When you grow up with a lot of bad memories, feelings of dread and anger and fear become the usual. With that said, they had less effects on me than they did on other prisoners.
I looked at the clock, it was 5:30 PM and they hadn't come back, maybe the guards were feeling particularly evil today. Every day at Azkaban would be miserable if it wasn't for Sirius and Bellatrix, so whenever they were gone for extended periods of time, things became dull and boring and depressing. Sirius once said that music calmed him down when things got to that point, but I'd never heard much music. There were no muggle 'radios' in Azkaban. The only melodic sound was that of Bellatrix's odd lullabies, which she sung less and less as the years passed.
"Happy Birthday to me"
The prison was dark and lonely, but something seemed to light it up. A glowing blue light I could spot beyond the bars of my cell. With it, it brought warmth that I had never felt before. I do remember Sirius telling me of a charm that could have this effect. What was it... spirit animal? Patron- Patronus! Yes, a Patronus charm had this effect. And that meant that there were visitors coming into the prison. Quickly pulling my hair out of my face and standing up, I walked towards the bars of my cell, watching two- no, three strange people approaching, all surrounded by guards. The Patronus itself was an animal I didn't recognize, maybe some tropical bird? I, like many other prisoners, watched as they walked, eager to see where they were headed.I didn't expect them to stop walking at my cell, nor did I expect the adults' faces to look like the many portraits Sirius had drawn of them over the years. He was right, I was thankful to have inherited my mother's features.
Draco's POV:
My Birthday was going as planned until lunchtime. After breakfast and getting ready, my friends Blaise and Daphne had come over to the Manor, bearing gifts for me. The day went by in a blur of laughter, running around the Manor, and yelling because I recieved my Hogwarts letter. I was only allowed to behave in this... childish manner since father was not around. He said he'd come back in the afternoon because he had important work to do. Although I initially felt a bit dissapointed, I remembered that father had a very important job at the Ministry of Magic, a job that made the Wizarding World respect us Malfoys. Though I had noticed him getting a bit stressed these past couple of weeks. We'd recieve weird looks when going outside, glares, even. Father brushed it off, saying that they were filthy Halfbloods and muggle apologists who were jealous of our status, of our wealth, our pure origins. I believed him, of course, but there seemed to be something else at play.
I noticed this when my mother told me we were going to a surprise location for my birthday. She looked odd though, sad. Not crying, but incredibly sad. What did I do wrong to make her sad on my eleventh Birthday? Did she expect to get a letter to that school in Bulgaria? Was she mad that I acted rashly throughout the day, and not composed like I should?
"Oh, it's nothing of the sort, dear. We're just going to visit people we haven't seen in a long time and I'm just... sad I couldn't see them until now. They're relatives of ours that your father and I must speak to and introduce you to before you go to Hogwarts, that's all."
I hesitantly nodded. If we were seeing family, why did mother look so solemn? Were they family she had issues with? No, impossible, mother never had issues with family, she was praised for her social skills! I barely noticed her putting a an old photograph in my hand. It had me as a baby, and someone else. Someone who looked nearly identical to me, though our eyes were different. Mine were a light, nearly blue grey, the other baby's... they looked like my mother's eyes. A darker and more intense grey. Who was this person?
"Draco, hold on to this photograph, it'll all be explained soon, I promise. In the meantime, get your coat, it's cold where we're going and your father is arriving soon! You know he does not like being late to important affairs."
Sure enough, father apparated into the Manor a few minutes later. Without so much as a 'hello' to me, he grabbed mine and mother's hands, apparating all three of us into the Ministry. To me, everything was a blur until the moment we took another portkey into the 'surprise location'. In a very sloppy fashion, I fell flat on the ground when we landed, forcing father to grab me by the collar to make me stand up. It hurt, but I did not land like a Malfoy should have landed. After regaining balance, I looked at my surroundings for the first time. A grassy ground on an island, with only a triangular building built on it. The sky was stormy and the sea was violent, so I had to move away from shore as to not ruin my clothes, they were very expensive!
The aurors accompanying us led us into the building, which smelled terrible and didn't look much better. We walked across rows and rows of criminals, all with disshiveled hair, half dead faces, and rags for clothes. What kind of family reunion was this? It was the kind where my mother muttered an incantation, making a blue peacock appear in front of us. Whatever it was, it calmed me down, and also stopped me from shivering every time one of those floating cloacked things passed by a 50 meter radius of me. She was holding my hand as we walked deeper into the prison and up endless flights of stairs. I had not anticipated there to be so many prisoners in here. Prisoners. That's when I realized where we were. This was no ordinary prison, this was Azkaban, which meant that every single prisoner here had committed atrocious crimes against wizardkind. That was when faces began looking familiar. Some from the Daily Prophet, said to be Death Eaters. Others from old portraits and photos at the Manor. Followers of the Dark Lord were the people mother and father were most likely going to speak to, so why was I here?
By the time we got to the highest level of the prison, I was tired. My legs ached, I felt hungry, and mother and father seemed to be bickering amongst themselves in quiet whispers. Some inmates, the ones who could speak, at least, would occasionally throw insults at my father, who would brush them off with one of his signature glares and condescending looks. They were muttering insults in barely coherive language, but words like 'coward' and 'daughter' stood out. Daughter? I was his only son! Did I look like a girl? Is there some other Malfoy here to steal my place as heir? Then I remembered, the picture mother gave me. It had two babies, not one. If the first one was me, what happened to the second one?
I wished I had never been able to answer that question.
I nearly tripped over as we suddenly stopped in front of a cell. The brick dust had stained my shoes and pants, but I couldn't care less about that at the moment. Because staring right at me seemed to be a reflection, but this reflection was dressed in rags and had long, tangled hair, and a blank expression adorned her face. It was me, but... a girl. That's when I looked back at the old photograph. Same eyes. Same eyes. Why was- why was a child here? In Azkaban? And why did she look like me? And why was mother holding back tears? Everything was so confusing, so foreign, so... strange.
"Mother, who is this?"
My father answered instead. "That is Gemini Narcissa Malfoy, your fraternal twin sister."
The girl interrupted father, her voice dry and worn out, her lips chapped and her part of her skin flaking off. "Black. My name is Gemini Narcissa Black. I stopped being a Malfoy the day you chose your freedom over mine. It's nice to finally meet you all, by the way! Narcissa, Lucius, Draco. And happy birthday, Draco! It's a shame we had to meet like this. Did you get your Hogwarts letter already? I can't imagine how exciting that must have been!"
Although she was a complete stranger, her presence seemed familiar. Welcoming, even. And her name was Gemini, Gemini Narcissa. As per custom of Pureblood families, she was named after her mother... my mother, who was now struggling to speak between sobs. "My darling, Gemini you've grown to be so beutiful! W-where are Sirius and Bellatrix? Don't tell me they're-"
Gemini responded with a rather annoyed tone. It almost resembled my father's voice when he got irritated. "They're not dead, don't worry, Narcissa. They should be coming back from treatment right about now though, so why don't we have a chat while you wait? Let's start by not referring to me as 'darling'! You lost those privileges when you stood by as that blonde bastard you call a husband made the deal to trade me away for his freedom! Did you know that, Draco? Did you know that your dearest father was so scared to rot in prison for being a Death Eater that he had to trade my liberty away instead? He should be here, not me!"
The girl let out a laugh, making mother's eyes widen. It must have reminded her of someone, or maybe she was just scared. Truly, I was also scared. My father- he did that? He gave her life away to be free? I couldn't move, I couldn't speak, I couldn't think. I could only ask myself why. Wasn't father a respectable wizard? Someone to be looked up to? Why would he do this? To his own daughter?!
Gem's POV:
"Why do you call father and mother by their names?", asked Draco. I thought it would be obvious, but then again, he was raised to be the heir to the family, he was not immediately disowned and thrown out.
"Because they are no parents of mine. The closest I have to parental figures are my guardians, who took care of me. Unlike Narcissa and Lucius here, who left and ran away from their problems in a true Malfoy fashion." When I looked at their faces, I saw guilt, sadness, regret. Good. They deserved it. Well, Lucius and Narcissa deserved it. Not Draco. He's a pawn in his family's plans, so it wasn't his fault in the slightest. It was then when I heard bickering coming from the hallway. Ah, they were back. Bloodied and bruised, but alive and chatty as ever. Bellatrix and Sirius only had to take one look at Lucius to lunge at him, freeing themselves from the guards' grasp with little effort. Perhaps the guards wanted Lucius to suffer as well, as cruel as they were themselves.
Narcissa took advantage of the ruckus being caused by Bellatrix as she got into a fight with Lucius, grabbing Sirius by the arm and handing him an evelope, which he hid in his robes. I kept Draco distracted by asking him trivial questions, like his favorite color and food. By the time the guards restrained Bellatrix and dragged her into her cell, Lucius had a black eye and parts of his hair torn out.
"Ahem, Draco, this is your aunt Bellatrix Lestrange. And that... Is the blood traitor Sirius Black. We d not speak of him." Sirius laughed, waving at Draco.
"Nice to see you again, cousin! You too, Loreal hair commercial. And it's nice to finally meet you, Draco. Remember to stay free from Lucius's control, he tends to be... insufferable and manipulative."
"Shut it, blood traitor. I will raise my son how I wish for him to be raised. Narcissa, Draco, let's go. Our buisness at the top floor is finished."
Lucius gave them no time before he began walking away, Narcissa and Draco following close behind him.
WOOHOOOOOOO 3rd chapter, and well I hope you enjoyed it and please comment on questions you might have or what I can improve. THANK YOU for reading this but remember it is my first story so it might be trash. (future me here, it WAS trash, but the rewritten version is better, bear with me while I finish. I have also found out that classical music is great for writing, so yeah!)