Happy holidays! ;D
Disclaimer: fanfiction.
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For This Time Only
It was three days before Christmas and Bellatrix Lestrange found herself sitting on a high back hair in her sister, Narcissa's, house. Her fingers were interlaced together and her legs were crossed, her heavy lidded gaze heavier as she stared at the fire. There was a scurrying sound from behind and then a soft thump that meant Narcissa had taken a seat as well on one of the other chairs. Placing a teacup on the table beside Bellatrix, Narcissa drew back and watched, like her sister, the fire raging on.
And suddenly, a question had popped up, something Narcissa would never, not once, in her life expected to hear.
"What are relationships for, Cissy?" Bellatrix high voice seemed lower by a pinch now, the coldness absent, her eyes seemed to reflect the flames she was gazing at. And for once, Bellatrix was absolutely serious with a question.
"Um..I...What, Bella?" Apparently, it was not just the world who were caught crazy with Bellatrix's question.
"I asked you – What are relationships for?" repeated Bellatrix, still incredibly solemn.
"It's - - Bella, are you okay?" So Narcissa was not buying the act, if ever there was any act, and had looked up at her older sister's face. Bellatrix got to her feet, glanced down at Narcissa and walked to the door where, with a hand on the doorknob, she turned once more to Narcissa, though this time, the madness in her eyes were present.
"When am I ever, Cissy?"
-
The actual day of Christmas had come and Bellatrix was found wearing sweeping violet robes and sitting in her house's parlor. Again, like three days ago, Bellatrix was staring at the open fire. Footsteps behind her meant that Rodolphus, too, had woken up. And the funniest of things was, there was jingling in the air. As in, the actual sound of bells jingling.
There was no interaction aside from Rodolphus entering the room for a mere second and exiting it. He had not thought of finding his wife in the parlor by the fire. What more, he had never seen her so solemn, most of the time when he entered, she had started screaming at his face. Had blasted him out of the room, today, however, she wasn't doing it.
He had noticed these slight difference three days ago, when she called to him and told him that she had just gotten back from Narcissa Malfoy's house. It was funny, how she had even told him of such a thing because they rarely conversed over such trivial things, they never even look each other in the eyes anymore, unless it was to threaten the other with a curse or with an insult.
The bells had stopped as Rodolphus started to trod off into the hallway, the oddball hat he wore in his hands as he swung his coat over his shoulders and headed for the door. Was Bellatrix sick? If she was, she would've whined about it, and he wouldn't have a need to go outside and just...Get out. But she wasn't sick.
And as his hand touched the golden doorknob, Bellatrix's voice rang down the hall, from the parlor.
"Rodolphus...It's Christmas. Sit by the fire with me."
His wand had been drawn but he felt no need for it, as with his cloak for he had hung it back and was now making his way into the room, slowly, though, the hat he held in his hands silent, as if, it were to make a single, chiming, jiggly sound, Bellatrix would curse his arse off.
"Sit."
Okay, so that was more of an order. And a chair, just inches beside Bellatrix's own, was the one he was instructed to use. Sitting on it, stiffly at first, he watched the fire and then felt her deep, sunken black eyes on him, slowly, he turned to face her, brown meeting black and then, just as suddenly, warmth rushed up in his whole body, his cheeks.
"M-Merry Christmas, Bella..." Rodolphus sounded hesitant, as if all of this was a trap.
There was silence and Bellatrix averted her gaze from him and went back to staring at the flames, whereas Rodolphus stared at the side of her head. Bellatrix was acting rather queer, wasn't she? Weirder than the odd hat filled with bells he had on earlier.
"Rodolphus," said Bella softly, as if something was pulling at her, her face was still strong, as if really the only way to tell whether Bellatrix was still alive, yet, her voice was not sharp.
"Yes, chéri?" Rodolphus was now staring into Bellatrix's dark eyes and for a moment, he thought he saw her lips tug up into a smile. Not a maddening smile, not a smirk, not a grin, for Bellatrix hardly grinned, no, it was one of those things people called genuine. And for a fleeting moment, Rodolphus grasped on to the hope that his Bellatrix had not been lost, that there was still something in her, in him that made her cherish their moments together.
For Bellatrix, Christmas had just become brighter. That one word – cheri - repeated over and over, Rodolphus soft, yet somewhat drawling voice, his intense gaze, his always-present charm...Had Bellatrix really only married him to prove that she did not want to disappoint her family, to just show that she married a Pureblood? But really, the tugging at the corner of her lips earlier really was leading off into a smile. But she did not show it, her eyes, cold as they always were, seemed to soften up as they locked into Rodolphus' own.
"Merry Christmas, Rod."
And it is in that moment that Bellatrix got the answer to her own question, asked three days ago.
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Quick note: This happened YEARS before they went to Azkaban. YEARS before...Well, everything else.