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Once Bella stopped daydreaming about Tom, she turned her eyes over to me and gave me an all-over look. I flushed and wondered what she was looking at. Raising an eyebrow at me, Bellatrix asked, "So how was your afternoon? You look rather hot. Your cheeks are all red. Did something happen?"

I debated just how much to tell Bellatrix about my afternoon with Lucius. She hadn't exactly told me any details from her date with Tom, but there were things I wanted to know about Lucius that Bellatrix might have answers to. As the two of us meandered towards the dress shop, I chose my words carefully, "No...Lucius and I just went to the Three Broomsticks. That's all."

"Hm," Bellatrix replied in a tone of voice that told me that she didn't exactly believe me. The two of us walked in silence until we reached the dress shop, both apparently wrapped up in our own thoughts. I was wondering what might have happened between Lucius and me if Tom and Bella hadn't interrupted us. I was also still obsessing over why Lucius had invited Bella to the dance. Something told me I didn't want to know what Bellatrix's thoughts were right now.

We entered the neat, cozy dress shop and immediately started sorting through the racks of dresses to try to find something that we liked. As we rooted through all the vibrantly colored dresses, I couldn't keep my questions to myself any longer. Giving Bella a sideways look, I blurted out, "How come you're not going to the dance with Tom?"

I caught Bella completely off guard and she jumped in shock in response to my question. Giving me a slight frown, she replied, "God, Cissy, don't shock me like that. Anyways, I'm not going to the dance with Tom because Tom is not going to the dance. So obviously, I can't go with him. It is rather unfortunate though. You know how much I'd love to go to the dance with him..."

Oh yes, I certainly knew how much Bella would've liked to go to the dance with Tom. It was no secret how in love with him she was. My suspicious peaked at Bella's words though. Why wasn't Tom going to the dance? I thought the dance was a required thing or something. I asked Bella, "But why isn't Tom going to the dance?"

Sighing and turning her gaze away from the dresses and other to me, Bellatrix replied, "It's really none of your business, Cissy." There was a pause and I waited while Bella debated about whether or not she should tell me anything more about the dance. Finally, she told me what Tom was up to, "Tom is going to meet with Igor. They've been long time friends. Igor is a Death Eater as well."

My nose crinkled up in disgust. The last thing I wanted to hear was that some of the Durmstrang students were Death Eaters as well. Trying to get Death Eaters out of my mind, I went back to sorting through dresses. I still hadn't found anything I liked. I wasn't sure what color would look good on me or what style dress I should wear.

Frustration building inside of me at not being able to find a dress I liked, I asked Bella the question that I had been obsessing over all day, "But why are you going to the dance with Lucius?" Not really giving my question a second though, Bellatrix replied as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, "Because I need a partner for the dance. Isn't that obvious?"

Well yeah, that part was obvious. We all had to have partners for the dance. But why did Bella's partner have to be Lucius? Why couldn't it be Nott, Walden, Avery, or Rodolphus? In kind of a whiny voice, I asked, "But why Lucius? Couldn't you go with Rodolphus? He seems to like you. Actually, all the Slytherin guys seem to like you."

My statement was actually true. All the guys did seem to like Bella. I guess it was her loyalty to Tom and her personality that attracted them to her. Shit, why couldn't I be Bella? Why did I have to be Narcissa? I didn't want to be Narcissa. Narcissa was weak and an idiot. Who would want to be her?

As my mind spun over all those questions, I felt two firm hands on my shoulders and looked up to see Bellatrix giving me a knowing look. Shaking her head slightly at me, Bella said, "Ah, I see what this is about. You have a little crush on Lucius, don't you? I always see you staring in his direction. Let me tell you something though, Cissy: Lucius isn't up for relationships. Whatever happened between him and Natasha...well...it hit him hard. He doesn't want a girlfriend."

I scowled at Bella. That was the last thing I wanted to hear right now. In a bad mood, I protested, "But why are you going with him to the dance then? I don't care if he doesn't want a girlfriend. He still could've invited me instead. He knew I wanted to go with him. I'm positive he did! It's like he decided to go with you just to hurt me."

"I'm going to him with the dance because he invited me," Bellatrix informed me in a matter-of-fact tone. "And seriously, I can't answer all your questions. I'm not sure why Lucius invited me." Bellatrix looked me up and down and then added in a hesitating voice, "It might be because I look more of Lucius' age. No offense or anything, but you do look kinda young..."

I grimaced and tried to ignore that last comment. It was true that I did look much younger than Bellatrix. It wasn't really my fault though. I mean, I couldn't do anything about looking young. Maybe makeup would help, but it wasn't going to change my age. Deciding that this conversation with Bellatrix wasn't getting me anywhere, I went back to sorting through dresses.

I wasn't exactly sure what kind of dress I was looking for. I really wanted a strapless one, but there was absolutely no way that one of those would fit on me. My chest was way too flat for one of those kinds of dresses. Just as I was starting to give up on finding a dress I liked, my hand rested on a shiny black one. It was made of a silky material and had a low neckline and spaghetti straps.

Excited about finally finding a dress that I might actually like, I hurried over to a nearby mirror and held the dress up to me to see how it looked. It looked amazing! I was actually shocked by just how good it looked. It made me look older and more mature. The skirt of the dress was dangerously short and sexy. It was just the kind of thing I needed to snag Lucius' attention.

Feeling quite happy with myself, I skipped up to the checkout counter and paid the cashier the proper amout before I found Bellatrix waiting for me at the front of the shop. When I reached her, Bella pointed to my bag and said, "So? Aren't you going to show me your dress? I wanna see it. Want to see mine as well?"

From her tone, I could tell Bella was quite excited about her new dress and wanted to show it off as well. Shrugging my shoulders, I pulled my dress carefully out of the large bag it was in and then showed it to Bella. Bellatrix's eyes went wide as she looked at the dress. Finally, she said, "Wow, that's a nice looking dress. I see you're going for the skanky look?"

Blushing, I just shrugged again. Bella was already whipping her dress out of her bag to show me. Bella's dress was gorgeous. I loved it from the minute she pulled it out of her bag. It was strapless, black, and velvet. It would look perfect on someone like Bella. I was instantly jealous. So much for trying to snag Lucius' attention!

Despite my intense jealousy, I tried to be excited for Bella. Forcing a smile on my lips, I said, "That's lovely, Bella. It really is. Lucius won't be able to see anyone but you." Bella was too excited to notice the envious tone in my voice. She merrily chatted to me on the way back to the pet shop where we were to meet my mother. Along the way, my thoughts stayed on Lucius.

~ ~ ~ ~

The next few days went by very quickly. Before we knew it, Bellatrix, Andromeda, and I were all back at Hogwarts and it was Monday night! You know what that means, right? I hope you do since I've been blabbing about it ever since last week! It's the night of the big dance! As you can probably see, I'm really excited.

"Cissy, aren't you going to get changed?" Bellatrix asked from next to me. She had already changed into her beautiful black dress and was now working on makeup. The dress did look perfect on Bella. It fit her tightly and showed off every curve of her body plus a fair amount of cleavage that I didn't think Lucius needed to see!

I gazed down at my bed where my dress was lying. I figured Bella was right; it was time to change. Holding the dress up and scrutinizing it carefully, I turned to Bella and said, "Yeah, I guess I should. Don't look, okay?" I still wasn't used to the fact that all of us girls were suppose to change in the Slytherin dormitory without any privacy.

"Yeah, yeah," Bella said, rolling her eyes as she applied some pink blush onto her cheeks. Figuring Bella was too busy to look at me anyways, I quickly stripped down completely and selected a strapless bra to go under my dress. I really hoped it was going to stay up. The last thing I needed was my bra sliding down. That would be so embarrassing!

Once I clasped my bra on, I stepped into the black silk dress. The fabric made a swooshing sound as it fell into place around me. Feeling beautiful for once in my life, I returned to where Bella was sitting and asked, "Hey Bella, can you zip the back up for me? I can't quite reach it." I had always had a problem with zippers.

"Fine," Bella said, putting her compact away as she turned towards me. I turned my back to her and held still while Bella zipped the back up. Once my dress was zipped, I turned back around and looked at Bella shyly as I asked, "So? What do you think? Does it need any improvements? I still have to do my makeup..."

"You look lovely," Bella said with a genuine smile. I returned her smile and then tried to think about my makeup. What exactly was I suppose to do for makeup? I certainly wasn't a makeup artist. When it came to makeup, I usually ended up with it all over the place in a big mess. If only I was as good at putting it on as Bella was! Bella was perfect at literally everything.

As if reading my mind, Bellatrix gave me a look out of the corner of her eye and said, "Let me guess, you want me to help you with your makeup, don't you?" Blushing slightly, I nodded gratefully. Good thing Bella was in a good mood and was willing to help tonight! I didn't know how I would've gotten ready for the dance without her!

Grabbing her kit of makeup, Bellatrix knelt down before me where I was sitting on the bed. After giving my face a good long look, Bella selected some cosmetics out of her kit. First, Bella smoothed ivory-colored foundation all over my cheeks. Next, she traced my eyes with coal black eyeliner. It was hard not to blink as she did this. My eyes immediately started itching.

"Try to hold still a sec, okay?" Bella asked, biting her lip in concentration. "I have to put mascara on and that's going to be impossible to do without stabbing you in the eye if you keep blinking." Definitely not wanting to get stabbed in the eye, I held as still as possible as Bella applied mascara to my lashes. After what seemed like an eternity, Bella said, "Okay, that's done."

I immediately blinked and waited to see what Bella would do next. She took out some dark gray eyeshadow and applied it carefully to my eyelids before digging in her bag for some lipstick and lip gloss. Bellatrix looked between two lipsticks and frowned. Holding them up so I could see, she asked, "What color do you like better? Pink or red?"

"Red definitely," I replied without a doubt. Red was so much sexier than pink. Smiling at my reaction, Bellatrix nodded and smoothed the lipstick over my thing lips. After that, she slicked some shiny gloss over my lips and stood back to see how I looked. Happy with what she saw, Bella grinned at me, "Wow, you look great! You're all done. Are you going to do something with your hair?" Oops, I had forgotten about my hair. I hadn't even brushed it today!

However, before I could answer my sister's question, the door flung open with a loud bang and furious footsteps sounded from behind us. Bella and I quickly turned around to see who the angry invader was. Looking like hell was none other than Natasha.