Chapter Text
No sooner had Druella and Narcissa landed in the foyer of 11 Phoenix Avenue, the Evans’ London residence, than Lilyanna came flying down the stairs.
“Narcissa! You’re here! Oh, thank Merlin, you’re here!” Barely curtsying to Druella, she grabbed Narcissa by the hand and positively dragged her upstairs. Narcissa would have protested, but there was a desperation in Lilyanna’s manner that stopped her.
Safe behind the wards and thick wooden door of Lilyanna’s sumptuous bedroom, the redhead threw herself into Narcissa’s arms and burst into tears.
“Lilyanna?” Narcissa staggered backwards, just a fraction, under Lilyanna’s weight, tightening her arms around the other girl on instinct, “What’s wrong?”
Her mind was jumping even as she spoke. She hadn’t seen Lilyanna this distressed for years, not since they’d turned seven and started their Occulmency and deportment lessons. It wasn’t proper for a girl of their standing to lose control of their emotions – not to this extent. Whatever had happened this morning must have been truly shocking to upset Lilyanna quite so much.
Whatever Narcissa had been expecting Lilyanna to say, however, it wasn’t the next few words.
"Petunia's letter came today. Her Hogwarts letter. And Mummy just burned it. Threw it in the fire without even opening it. She wrote to Dumbledore, saying that Tuney wouldn't take the place because she had a place at a Muggle school. A Muggle school."
The disdain for such a place was clear in Lilyanna's voice even through her tears, "A Muggle School," she repeated. "As though such a place could ever be worthy of my sister.”
“What? Why would she do that? Petunia’s an Evans, of course she’s going to go to Hogwarts!” Narcissa reeled back in shock, and sensing her flinch, Lilyanna lifted her head to look her in the eye, her green orbs wide.
"But… Narcissa…Surely… Your mother’s Tuney’s godmother. You must know she’s ill!”
“Ill how?”
Narcissa couldn’t stop the question. It wasn't as if she hadn't heard whispers before, but she'd never known what the adults were talking about. Not properly. And while she’d been invited over to 11 Phoenix Avenue or Yewroot Manor to play with Lilyanna numerous times, Petunia had never joined them. There had always been some excuse why she couldn’t. Narcissa had never thought to question it before, but now Lilyanna was suggesting there might be some reasoning behind the older girl’s secluded life. She couldn't help but be curious.
Sadly, Lilyanna scratched her head, idly ruining the elaborate style her mother had had the Elves weave her copper curls into only that morning, "I'm not sure," she finally answered, "I think she's scared of her magic. She doesn't want to use it and it's making her ill."
"But who'd be scared of magic?" Narcissa laughed. Even the words sounded preposterous. How could anyone be scared of the beautiful force that was woven into their everyday lives, into their very blood?
Lilyanna shrugged. "I don't know, but I think Tuney is. She screams herself sick every time someone does a spell around her.”
Unable to help herself, Narcissa gaped like a codfish. In all her nine years of life, she’d never heard of such a thing!
“But that means…” She trailed off as the magnitude of Lilyanna’s words sank in. Lilyanna nodded, “She won't be going to Hogwarts in September. How can she? And that means she won’t be at Hogwarts with us. She won't be able to show me what to do. Where to go. Who to make friends with. What teachers to avoid…"
Lilyanna’s voice trailed off as she broke down again. Narcissa wrapped her arms around her impulsively. "My sisters will do that, Lilyanna. Bella and Meda will show you. They'll treat you like a sister, just like they treat me. So, we'll be fine, you'll see. And Tuney will only go away for a while. Just until she feels better. When she feels better, she'll join us at Hogwarts. You'll see."
Even as she was saying the words, though, Narcissa wasn't sure they were true. Not for the first time, she wished Meda had come with them. Meda was eleven, about to start Hogwarts and she always knew what to say to make someone feel better. Always. But Mama had only agreed to bring Narcissa because she’d begged, pointing out that it was Lily’s owl to her that had alerted them to the fact that they were needed at Phoenix Avenue, not a letter from Lady Evans to Mama. Bella and Meda, their fierce curiosity and Meda’s excitement at her Hogwarts letter notwithstanding, had been dispatched to the tender mercies of Miss Skye and their deportment lessons.
“Will you swear to it?” Lilyanna broke into Narcissa’s musings, her hands clutching at Narcissa’s wrists, “Will you swear to it on Merlin, Morgana and all the Four?”
Her green eyes, still damp with tears, burned into Narcissa’s sapphire ones, utterly compelling in their intensity.
Without quite meaning to, Narcissa nodded, “Bien Sur,” she answered, choosing to use the French her parents expected them to speak at home over English, because it seemed to suit the solemnity of the moment better, “You’ve always been like a sister to me, Lilyanna. Let’s make a promise that will always be true.”
“Lily,” the other girl choked, and Narcissa blinked, “Lily?”
“It’s what Tuney and my parents call me. I don’t like Lilyanna. It’s too long. If you’re going to be my sister, you have to call me Lily.”
“Cissy. Or Cissa.” Rather than answer with a confirmation, Narcissa responded by proffering her own nickname, one that protocol demanded only her closest family were allowed to call her.
Lilyanna – Lily - nodded, and drew in a deep breath, “Lilyanna Helena,” she confided, “You’ll have to use my full name for the oath or it won’t be a proper promise. It’s Lilyanna Helena.”
“Narcissa Chastity,” Narcissa echoed.
The formalities settled, the nine-year-olds smiled at each other and sat cross-legged on Lily’s bed, hands clasped in one another’s.
"By the magic of Merlin, of Morgana and all the Four, I, Lilyanna Helena Evans, promise to Narcissa Chastity Black…”
“By the magic of Merlin, of Morgana and all the Four, I, Narcissa Chastity Black, promise to Lilyanna Helena Evans…”
“…that I will always hold her to be my sister, as though she were mine by blood. By this promise…”
“… she is mine and I am hers. May our magic ever run in harmony, from this day until our last.”
“...From this day until our last.”
Their young voices overlapped, matching each other’s beat for beat and word for word, until, on the last phrase, they melded together perfectly.
Eyes squeezed shut to mark how serious their pledge to one another was, neither of them saw the way a pale blue tendril shot out of Lily’s hand and merged with a black one that extended from Narcissa’s, until, utterly interwoven, the braid of magic cleaved itself in two and sank gently back into both girls’ left wrists and into the blood that was being pumped back to their hearts.
Two miles away in Duske Knight Square, Cygnus Black jolted at his desk. Across London, in the prestigious Godric’s Gauntlets duelling club, Robert Evans did the same, though he at least turned his into a subtle feint against his opponent.
Both of them had just felt the exact moment when Lady Magic herself had accepted their daughters’ vow.