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Bellatrix couldn't fully understand, she spent insufferable hours enduring a sharp, horrible pain that would not cease, when it finally stopped the next thing she heard was the cry of a baby, her baby. She thought that when the time came she would want to be the first to hold that tiny, defenceless creature, but the feeling never came.
The doors to the room opened and Rodolphus entered, he had an anxious and worried look on his face, Bellatrix really doubted it was because of her. Then when he finally lifted the baby that had just come out of her arms a smile that rarely appeared on her husband's face broke out.
— Alyssa, Alyssa Lestrange. That shall be your name.— She sat up slowly and awkwardly on the bed until she was leaning back against the large, comfortable pillows.
— Not the right name for a member of the Black family.— She added subtly, her icy eyes still on the man and the newborn.
At her words, Rodolphus looked up from his young daughter and down at his wife who was lying on the bed. A smile different from the one he had given his daughter appeared on his face once more, Bellatrix knew that smile all too well, mockery.
— That's because she's not a Black, she's a Lestrange.— She didn't say anything back, she knew he was right, but it was still a blow to her pride. She had hoped that her only daughter could carry on the family tradition, it would no longer be so.
Without a chance to see her, Rodolphus left the room with Alyssa in his arms, looking very pleased with the child. Most husbands and new fathers would wait for their first child to be the long-awaited male heir, especially purebloods.
But the look, the excitement and the smile on Rodolphus's face denoted every kind of emotion except disappointment or anger, he was truly delighted with his daughter. Bellatrix knew perfectly well what a face full of dissatisfaction and reproach looked like, her own father used to look at her and her sisters, the daughters who should have been sons.
That had to be a relief, the girl wouldn't grow up feeling like a disappointment to her father, Alyssa wasn't a Black, she was a Lestrange. In the future she could be anything she wanted, but she would never be a star.
— She's not a star.— she assured again in a low tone, it would be better that way, over the years Bellatrix had discovered that even the brightness of a star could be extinguished, Alyssa would never be extinguished.