Chapter 3: The First Cry of Magic
Four months later, March 1964.
Walburga hosted a tea party — nominally a spring gathering for the ladies, though in truth it was her chance to show off her sons' progress to her sisters.
Thirteen-year-old Bellatrix arrived first, wearing a dark green velvet dress, every hair combed into place, her gaze so critical it seemed designed to find flaws in everyone.
"I heard you blew up the drawing room," she said, marching straight up to Sirius.
Sirius held his chin high. "I can control my magic now!"
Nine-year-old Andromeda and eight-year-old Narcissa followed their mother Druella inside. Andromeda offered Regulus a warm smile, while Narcissa busied herself inspecting the new decor in the drawing room.
The tea party began. The adults chatted about tedious matters — personnel changes at the Ministry of Magic, the engagement of some pure-blood family's daughter whose bloodline was not quite pure enough but whose fortune made up for it.
The children sat at a small table of their own, child-sized cutlery laid out before them. Sirius was itching to demonstrate his newly learned magic.
Regulus, meanwhile, was turning a question over in his mind: 'Why does Transfiguration require imagining a specific form? What happens if I simply want to change a substance's state without specifying an exact shape?'