Hey everyone. This story was brought to you by December Event's Advent Calendar, Hogwarts Eastern Winter Funfair's Polar Express, Hogwarts Southern Winter Funfair's The Nice List, Hogwarts Northern Winter Funfair's Snowball Fight, and December Event's Holmes Mystery on Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. For Advent Calendar I wrote for Day 17's prompt of NTOPs and my pairing was Bellatrix/Neville. For Polar Express my prompt was the theme of happiness. For The Nice List my prompt was Bex - (trope) De-aging (3 tickets). For Snowball Fight I wrote for the object of ribbon. For Holmes Mystery my prompt was the genre of Suspense. I hope you all enjoy Fixing Bellatrix.
"What are you looking at, Longbottom?" Bellatrix Lestrange heard a voice she hadn't heard as her own since she was in seventh year at Hogwarts. "What?" She glared at the tall dark haired boy in front of her with an annoyed grimace on her face. She'd just woken up from the worst dream ever to find herself confront with Neville Longbottom of all people. She knew who it was because the boy looked just like his father at this age.
Holding out his cloak to her with a small blush crawling across his face Neville murmured, "You might want to wrap this around yourself, Mrs. Lestrange." He turned away to give her some privacy.
"Why is that?"
"Your clothes are a bit loose on you," he told her pointing towards a mirror in the room they were standing in.
Wandering over to the mirror Bellatrix had to hold back a scream. What met her in the mirror was a sight that shouldn't even be seen. She was met with her seventeen year old face staring back at her. Long black curly hair falling over her unclothed shoulders and big doleful dark brown eyes stared out of the mirror at her. She turned back towards where Neville Longbottom stood with his back still to her. Storming over she pulled him so that he was looking at her. "What is this?" she demanded angrily. "What have you done to me, Longbottom?"
Neville shifted nervously from foot to foot. "I don't know," he told her trying to sound every inch the brave Gryffindor he was while standing up against Voldemort. "I think the spell that you were hit with was a de-aging spell." He sighed as he a girl approached him.
"Here you are, Neville," the young blonde girl said before turning to Bellatrix with a smile. "You were quite pretty when you were younger, Mrs. Lestrange."
Bellatrix didn't know how to answer this and it wasn't because someone she had been trying to kill a moment ago was complimenting her. She was still trying to process what Neville Longbottom had said a moment ago. She'd been hit by a de-aging spell that felt like it had killed her.
"Thank you, Luna," Neville said as he waved for the girl to leave.
"Your welcome, Neville," Luna replied in the same dreamy form of voice when she'd been held hostage at Malfoy Manor. "I hope we can find a way to help get back to yourself, Mrs. Lestrange."
Bellatrix watched stunned as the girl walked away from her and Neville. Turning back to Neville she could tell the boy was nervous about being left alone in the room with her.
"Here you are, Bellatrix," he said holding out a set of clothes that looked more the appropriate size for her now. "Luna says she'd be happy to lend more clothes if you need them."
Taking the articles of clothing from Neville she saw that the girl, Luna Lovegood, had chosen out a rather fetching black dress with a pair of black leggings to go with them. She couldn't get it through her head why the girl wanted to lend her any clothes. She'd helped torture Luna while she was held hostage and now the girl was trying to help her. It didn't make sense to Bellatrix.
"I'll just let you get changed," Neville said heading to the door. "Then we can start trying to figure out a way to get you back to your original age if you want." He walked out the door leaving Bellatrix alone with her thoughts.
Once she was sure the door had closed Bellatrix began to change clothes a whirlwind of questions racing through her brain. What was going on? Could they figure out a way to get her back to herself? Did she even want to go back to herself? She mentally slapped herself. Of course she wanted to be turned back. Something seemed wrong. It seemed like Neville Longbottom was holding something back from her. Completely changed she put her long curly hair up in the hair bow that Luna had given her and walked out the door.
"There's something you aren't telling me," Bellatrix snapped as soon as she found Neville. "What aren't you telling me, Longbottom?" She picked nervously at one of the ribbons on the black dresses sleeves.
"You were very de-aged when I found you," Neville told her. "You aged up really fast though that is until you reached the age of seventeen. It seems you've stopped aging."
"I've what?"
"You stopped aging. Not all together but you don't seem to be doing it as fast as you had been. I'm not sure how it happened. Or if it's done but for right now this how you are going to be."
"We can fix this? Right?"
"Hermione and I are going to start working on that problem tomorrow but tonight we have a celebration feast to get to." Neville stopped himself from going any further and saying anything else that would insult her. Bellatrix was from the loosing side after all. "I'm sorry to rub it in."
Bellatrix waved him off. "So now what?" she asked trying not to show how upset she was. "I'm just stuck as a seventeen year until next year? It was terrible enough going through it the first time. Let alone going through it a second." She followed Neville Longbottom to the Great Hall.
"We'll get through this, Bellatrix," he told her taking her hand and leading her over to the table. "By the way. Your sister Narcissa is acting as your adopted mother until we figure this out."
"What?" she demanded as they joined the happy table of friends. She could tell that no matter what had happened this group of people would be happy no matter what. Feeling Neville's fingers lace through her own she wondered if maybe she too could find her happiness here. In this form. Maybe if they couldn't find a cure to this de-aging spell it wouldn't be that bad. Maybe she could survive this.
"Welcome to your fresh start, Bellatrix," she heard Neville whisper. "I hope you use it well."
I hope you all enjoyed the first chapter of Fixing Bellatrix.