Heater Love
"I don't believe this!" spat Bella, brushing the droplets from her hair. "We have to lay on the ground all night and the sky decides to bless us with rain."
Rodolphous snorted and watched Bella attempt to dry herself and calm down the Beast that was her Hair. It sat like a sagging muffin on her head and she looked miserable– and angry. He stifled his laughter and sat demurely by his lovely fiancè, ignoring her venomous stare.
"When is the rain going to stop?" Bella demanded, squinting up at the pouring sky. "I hate rain. I hate precipitation. And I hate my hair!"
Amused, but not daring to snicker, Rodolphous murmured, "Bella, you're going to wake the entire neighborhood if you keep screaming. Why didn't you just put up the Repelling Charm?"
Bella whipped her head at Rodolphous, her eyes burning with indignation and contempt. "You think I didn't try?"
Rodolphous, understanding Bellatrix's tendency for frequent contemptuous statements, ignored the sting of the words entirely and only concentrated on creating a small water-repellent tent woven by a few choice spells. Eventually, the droplets began to falter and bounce away from Bella. She scowled with little murmur of gratitude. Rodolphous sat in the rain.
"Are you damaged in the head?" Bellatrix asked, turning her head towards Rodolphous. She was scowling.
"What? No–"
"Then why the hell did you stretch the spell over such a small space, you idiot!" She glared at him. "How can I kill anyone when my partner's dripping wet and looks like a bloody puppy drowning in his soggy clothes!"
"But I can't stretch out the spell any farther or it might start leaking," explained Rodolphous, being very plain. "There's no point to a magical tent if it has a hole."
Bella slapped the ground disbelievingly. "Then don't sit so far away from me!" she snarled. "Scoot in closer! Are you stupid?"
"But you told me you liked space–"
"I'm not going Mudblood killing with a dripping wet fuckwad!"
"Alright, alright!" Rodolphous rose and moved to Bella, she scooting to give him room. There were little shifts and shuffles before they both realized there definitely was not enough space for two under the thinly-stretched Repelling Charm. Bellatrix cursed.
"Are you sure you don't mind me sitting in the rain?" Rodolphous asked, realizing Bella's anger was spiking up to frightening levels. "I mean, I could dry myself off before we go–"
"Shut up." Bella squinted up, seeing the raindrops explode away from the invisible barrier. By estimated, she scratched a basic outline of where the spell was specifically covering. It was a small square and Bella sat right over it.
"Come here," she ordered, pulling Rodolphous towards her. "You sit with your legs open. Then I'll sit here and you just wrap your arms around my waist." They now snuggled perfectly in the outline of the square, Bella sitting between Rodolphous' legs and his arms wrapped around her small waist. "See? Now it's even warm."
While Bella was nonchalant about her new seating arrangement, Rodolphous' cheeks were burning red. Here was the girl he would be marrying in a few months, a girl he'd always found attractive: that power-lust, that beauty, the most beautiful devotion to the Cause. Without thinking, he pulled her a little closer, breathing her scent deeply.
"Do you mind not squeezing out my ribs, Lestrange?" Bella tried to pry apart his tight hands. Rodolphous chuckled.
"Black, I'm just trying to get the heat out of my heater."
"I'm not your heater."
"You're my heater because you're giving off heat and I need a heater which gives off heat and you're right here so you're my heater."
She looked back at him. "That made no sense."
"Are you sure?" He smiled. She rolled her eyes at him and returned to staring intently out at the sheets of rain.
"You're insufferable," she muttered. "I'm not sure why I'm being married off to you."
Rodolphous snorted. "You bloody know well why."
"Because my family needs the money your family has?"
"No..." Rodolphous grinned at her wolfishly. "It's because you love me."
"Me? Love you?"
Rodolphous nodded happily like a child. Bellatrix scowled.
"Lestrange, I love nothing but the Cause," she spat. "I couldn't love you even if I tried."
He scoffed. "You love me."
"No, I don't–"
"You love me." He gripped her a little tighter. Bella tried to push herself away from him and his predatory, smug grin.
"Let go of me, Lestrange, or I will–"
"I won't let go until I hear you say it," he retorted childishly. Bellatrix stared.
"Until you hear me say what?"
"That you love me."
"But I don't love you."
"You love me." He pulled her in closer again, whispering in her ear. "I can feel your heart beating, Bella. Just say it."
"I don't love you, Lestrange," she whispered back, her breath ragged as her hands clawed at the circle his arms made. "I hate you."
"You love me," he let out, a breathless exhale. "I know you do."
He craned his head so he could peer at Bellatrix. She stared up at him, her eyes wide and mouth pinched. Smirking, Rodolphous carefully leaned and rubbed a speck of mud off her cheek. "Got it."
"I don't–"
"But I do," he whispered in her ear. "And I know–"
She ripped out of his arms and pushed him down to the mud of the ground, hooking her fingers under his beautifully soft head and leaning down...
And kissed him. As the droplets tickled Rodolphous' nose and Bella's neck. And kissed. And kissed. And kissed.
"I knew–" Rodolphous breathed when Bellatrix eventually slipped away.
"Knew what?" Bellatrix smiled deviously, her lips smeared with lipstick. "That I love you?"
