Inspired by the true story of Maria Barbella.

"Regulus? Regulus Arcturus Black, where are you?"

Before Regulus could reply, Walburga swung open the door to the tapestry room and stared down at Regulus, who was sitting on the floor in front of the far wall.

"What are you doing in here again? You're supposed to be practicing your spellwork with your father before you start Hogwarts."

Eleven-year-old Regulus shrugged, keeping his eyes on the tapestry. "I like to come and look at the family."

Walburga walked over to Regulus's side and folded her arms, her expression softening. "Who were you thinking about today?"

Regulus pointed at the scowling face of one of their ancestors—Elladora Black. "She didn't have a husband, or any children," he commented, gesturing to the empty branches around Elladora's name. "How come?"

Walburga smirked. "My favourite Aunt Elladora," she said, almost wistfully. "She certainly was an interesting woman."

"Can you tell me about her, Mother?"

Walburga pursed her lips. "I suppose this is...educational," she said finally. "It's important that you know about our history." She took a breath, and started pacing around the tapestry room. "Aunt Elladora wasn't always the terrifying, wonderful witch that she came to be known as."

Elladora Black was only just eighteen when her mother allowed her to attend her first ever family soirée. She spent the whole day beforehand in front of the mirror, patting down her hair and powdering her skin until it was pale as milk. Her mother helped to lace her into her dress, and she was ready to go.

Everyone at the party was beautiful and charming, and Elladora was delighted. The ladies wore their best gowns and the men were polished in their finery, and waiters wandered around the room carrying trays of champagne.

Elladora was forbidden from drinking any alcohol, and she wasn't that bothered. She was just glad to finally be part of the festivities.

"Are you the famous Elladora?" A smooth voice distracted her from her thoughts, and Elladora looked up. A young man with a smooth complexion and shiny, slicked back dark hair stood before her, holding out his hand. "I'd be honoured if you'd dance with me, my lady."

Elladora flushed and accepted his hand. As he led her into the centre of the room, tinkling music began to play, and he swept her around the room gracefully. "My name is Carter Avery," he introduced. "I don't think you remember me from school. I was friends with your older brother."

"It's nice to meet you," Elladora replied, smiling meekly at her dance partner. He grinned back down at her as they danced slowly, never once looking away.

When they finished, Carter drew back and bowed deeply. "I wonder if you might be interested in joining me for a drink next week?" he asked. "I have already asked your father, and he permits me to take you out so long as you are returned home at a reasonable time."

"I...I'd love to," Elladora said, a little shocked.

Carter's smile broadened. "Then it's a date."

oOo

The public house that Carter took Elladora to was alive with activity. A jazz band had centre stage where they played their music to a cheering crowd, and the bar was full of patrons slapping their palms on the mahogany, demanding attention.

Carter led Elladora to a secluded table by the window, where he pulled out her chair and allowed her to sit down. "Wait here a few moments, and I'll bring us drinks."

"Nothing alcoholic, please," Elladora insisted. "My mother forbade—"

"—Nonsense, my lady," Carter interrupted breezily. "You're in safe hands with me, and your father has permitted us to visit a public house together. All men know what drinks are served in these houses."

Elladora bit her lip, unsure, but she didn't protest. Carter left the table for a mere moment, as promised, and returned quickly with two small glasses of port wine. As the drink touched her tongue, she fought to hold down the rich, red liquid, having never tasted anything quite like it.

"You get used to the taste," Carter said, holding up his glass before placing it to his lips. He kept eye contact with her as he drank deeply, and she did the same. "Now, I must admit that I had further discussions with your father during the soirée, regarding our...union."

Elladora almost spluttered on her wine. "Our...pardon?"

"You may think I'm a little forward, but I have known your brother for a long time, and he has only spoken highly of you. Since seeing your portrait some time ago I knew that I wanted to make you my wife." Carter suddenly dropped from his chair to his knee and took Elladora's hand in both of his. "I don't have a ring to present you with just yet, but the question is still the same. Will you be my wife, Elladora?"

Elladora flushed as crimson as her port wine, and she nodded. "Y-yes," she replied hazily. "Of course I will."

"But she'd only just met him," Regulus said to his mother. "Why on earth would she agree to marry him so quickly?"

Walburga placed a hand on the back of her son's head. "This family has its traditions. One day, when you're expected to marry a good, honest pureblood, you'll understand. I suppose we have become...lenient...over the years, but back in Aunt Elladora's time, her role as a good, obedient woman was even more important." Walburga rolled her eyes, as if she was offended by the mere concept of a good, obedient woman. "She had been brought up with the knowledge that she would one day be expected to marry a pureblood from a fellow high-standing family, and if she didn't do it while she was young and fertile, she would struggle later in life to marry."

"I can't imagine having to live like that," Regulus replied.

"You never would have had to," continued Walburga. "You're lucky enough to have been born a man."

Elladora had barely finished her first glass of wine when she started to feel hazy.

She rubbed her temple with her fingers. Was this what being drunk was? Had she overdone it? "Mother is going to be so upset with me…" she slurred, and made to stand up. "I think I should go home. I'm starting to feel faint."

Carter smiled strangely at her. "Of course, my love," he said. "I'll take you home right away." He helped Elladora to her feet and looped an arm around her waist to steady her. The crowd parted when Carter gave them gentle shoves, and soon they were in the rainy street outside the public house.

Elladora's vision continued to blur as Carter led her through the dark streets. She lost track of where they were going, which street they were on, why she was walking up a flight of stairs. Eventually she registered that she was no longer being speckled with rain, and felt the plush of a mattress beneath her.

The room swam when she opened her eyes, but even in her half-awareness she realised that the dirty cream walls and wooden window shutters didn't belong to any room of her own house. She opened her mouth and tried to call for her mother, but her throat was dry and no noise came out.

"Quiet now, love," a familiar voice said. Carter's dark grey eyes swam into vision. "Everything is alright." She felt his hands at the front of her dress, and then everything went dark.

oOo

When Elladora opened her eyes the next day, she felt strange.

The room stank of cigarette smoke, and when she sat up she realised why. Carter sat in the armchair across from the bed with a thick cigar between his grinning teeth.

Realisation set in quickly, and Elladora felt her heart sinking through to her stomach. She was naked beneath the grubby cotton sheets, and she couldn't remember a thing from the night before.

"What did you do to me?" she gasped, sitting up and holding the sheets to her body. "Why didn't you take me home?"

Carter took a long puff on the cigar while he seemed to think about his reply. "Honestly, I have no answer for you," he replied. "Now, put your clothes back on. You need to leave." He picked Elladora's dress and underskirts up from the floor and tossed them over to her.

"But...but…" Elladora felt herself beginning to panic. "You still plan to marry me, don't you?"

Carter took the cigar out of his mouth and stubbed it onto the arm of the chair. "Unfortunately, that was never on the cards." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small, crumpled painting of a beautiful blonde haired woman holding a baby. "This is my wife and child, who live in France. She understands, however, that when I come away to England…" Carter chuckled cruelly. "Boys will be boys."

Elladora jumped from the bed and sank to her knees. "Please," she begged. "You've taken my virtue. No respectable man will ever want to marry me now."

A sympathetic shadow seemed to pass over Carter's face. He walked over to Elladora and helped her to her feet, wrapping the sheet around her to protect her modesty. "I will find someone to marry you," he murmured. "There are many eligible bachelors in my employment circle. We can dress you in black and pass you off as a recent widow. That will explain the…" his lips curled into a smirk once again.

Elladora's face twisted with rage. She pulled her skirts on and ran out of the dirty hotel with tears in her eyes, never looking back for a backwards glance.

"Was Aunt Elladora really that drunk that she didn't know where he took her?" Regulus asked. He was sat cross-legged on the floor, gazing up at Walburga as she relayed the story.

"No one could get so intoxicated from one glass of port, silly boy," Walburga scoffed. "He had laced her drink with opium before bringing it to her. It's quick-acting, which is why she barely had a chance to understand what was going on before it happened."

"What a terrible thing to do," Regulus murmured, looking slightly downcast.

"Yes," continued Walburga. "And he'd soon realise that a scorned woman of the Black family is a truly terrible entity, also."

Elladora told her mother almost the minute she returned home to Grimmauld Place, and she was appalled. After putting her daughter straight into a hot bath and making her dress in clean clothes, she dragged Elladora out of the house, straight to the public house that Carter was known to haunt—the same public house that he had taken Elladora to just the night before.

It was easy to find Carter in the bustling public house, even while it was so busy. He had the loudest laugh and the most people around him. To Elladora's disgust, he already had his arm looped through the arm of another young lady.

"He's revolting," snarled Elladora's mother. "You wait here, and I'll go have a word with that man."

In front of all of his friends, Elladora's mother marched up to Carter and jabbed a thumb into his chest. "Elladora told me everything," she hissed, ignoring the jeers and smirks from his entourage. "You still have a chance to make an honest woman of her."

"I'll pass on the chance," Carter drawled, winking down at his lady friend. "Tell her thanks, but no thanks."

"I don't think you understand," continued Elladora's mother. "You still have a chance, before I tell her father. You've met my husband Cygnus, haven't you? Are you sure you want to tryst with him?"

A flicker of fear passed across Carter's face, and he swallowed nervously. "I'll make you a deal," he said. "Compensate me with a selection of your most valuable heirlooms, and I'll make an honest woman out of your daughter."

Her mother's face flushed with heat. "My daughter cannot be bought like an auction pig," she snarled. "You'll want to hurry back to France soon, before this catches up with you." With a flick of her loose grey hair, she turned back towards Elladora.

But Elladora had heard Carter's comments, and was already heading over to him. "I'll ask you myself," she said quietly. "You've ruined me, Carter Avery. I'm begging you. Don't let me be a ruined single woman."

Carter leaned in close to Elladora to murmur in her ear. "No one will ever marry you now that you've been defiled. You're lesser than the auction pig your mother compared you to," he paused. "You're pathetic."

The words were enough to make Elladora see red. She yanked her wand from her sleeve and pulled it away from the ornate handle she kept it in. A straight-edge razor was concealed on the inside of the handle, and she swiped it across Carter's throat before he could say anything further.

He fell to the ground instantly, clutching his hands to his bloody neck. The woman who had been stood with him started screaming, along with Elladora's mother and several of the men at the bar. Elladora's lips twisted into a smirk as she looked down at Carter's crumpled, fading body.

She was pleased with what she'd done.

"Surely not," Regulus protested, jumping to his feet. "Aunt Elladora would have gone to Azkaban for doing something like that!"

Walburga smiled knowingly. "Someone of this noble house would never be sent to live in such depravity. Her father paid off the Wizengamot to ignore her trial, and the ordeal was never mentioned again. Of course, most people were completely aware what a scoundrel Carter Avery was, and the kind of things he did to women."

"But what happened to Aunt Elladora after that?" asked Regulus. "Did she find a husband?"

"You've seen the heads of the old House Elves that line the corridors, haven't you?" Walburga smirked. "Elladora was never the same again after what happened, and she certainly never tried to find another husband. Why, she might have had him beheaded too, if she had."

Regulus shuddered noticeably.

"Now, enough chatter," Walburga said sharply. "Your father will have noticed your absence. Get yourself along to his study." She turned on her heel and walked out of the tapestry room.

Regulus followed her, turning back once to glance at the scowling face of Elladora Black.

End

Written For:

- QLFC Round #13: Ashwinder - Write about someone who seeks revenge and its consequences.

- Assignment #8/Defense Against the Dark Arts Task #3: Write about someone being misled.

- Fantastic Beasts: Vampire - (word) Blood, Kenya - Write about an ancestor of one of the more popular wizarding families (Blacks).

- Writing Club/Character Appreciation: (location) Grimmauld Place

- Fortnightly/Around the Board: 12 Grimmauld Place - Write about a member of the Black Family.

Word Count: 2,405