"Bella! Bella, wake up!"
Hermione jumped back as Bellatrix shot upright. The older woman was panting for breath, her thick black curls pulled back into a high ponytail with her trademark rebellious strand falling in front of her right eye. As she lifted a hand to brush the curl behind her ear, Hermione noticed that she was trembling slightly.
"Do you want to talk about it?"
She watched as Bellatrix shut her eyes, drawing in a breath and letting it out as a deep sigh before opening them again, glancing around the darkened room. She shook her head, displacing the tucked-away curl which promptly fell back in front of her face.
"Bella...", Hermione tried again, brushing the long black ponytail over the older woman's right shoulder before resting her chin on the left one, "talk to me". She reached out slowly and took Bellatrix's hand, rubbing gentle circles over the pale flesh with her thumb.
"My father", Bellatrix finally said quietly, "again".
Hermione dropped a small kiss on her slightly bony shoulder.
"He's gone. He can't hurt you anymore," she tried to reassure the dark witch.
"No..." Bellatrix whispered, dropping her head and screwing her eyes shut again, "no, it wasn't me".
Hermione's brows furrowed in confusion, "What do you mean?".
"It was you", Bellatrix's voice sounded weak, breaking slightly on the final word.
Well, that took Hermione by surprise. Usually - and they were, unfortunately, a pretty regular occurrence - Bellatrix's nightmares were somehow tied to her own suffering. Whether it was memories of Azkaban and the dementors, her time as Voldemort's lieutenant, or the treatment she had received by the hands of her father as a little girl, all would leave the generally unshakeable witch a quivering mess. Of course, true to form, the woman never showed a slither of weakness in front of anybody except Hermione; putting all the pieces of Bellatrix back together was a privilege reserved only for the young brunette.
"It was you," Bellatrix continued, her voice sounding strained, "it was you...and he hurt you and you were lying on the floor, and there was so much blood -"
"Bella," Hermione interrupted the woman's rambling, "Bella look at me. I'm fine. You're fine. Everything's okay."
Bellatrix took a shuddering breath, "It was horrible," she whispered.
Hermione sighed, releasing Bellatrix's hand before shuffling back down the bed and resting her head on the pillows.
"Come here," she said, reaching out for the dark witch.
After a few moments, a head of dark curly hair was nestled into her shoulder. Hermione stroked up and down Bellatrix's spine, feeling her warm breath fan over her neck. Seconds turned into minutes as Hermione soothed the older witch, relieved when she noticed her breathing gradually begin to return to a normal rate.
"You're so good to me," Bellatrix said into Hermione's shoulder after a while.
"Yeah, I am aren't I?" The brunette teased.
"Too good to me," Bellatrix whispered.
"Rubbish," Hermione shot back, "you deserve the world".
Sensing that Bellatrix was about to argue back, Hermione quickly continued, "Don't even try it. I know you don't believe it but it's true; I would give you the moon if it would make you happy."
She felt the older woman smiling against her neck and, satisfied that she had cheered her up a bit, returned her attention to stroking up and down Bellatrix's back.
"Try and get some more sleep, Bella. I'm right here and I'm not going anywhere," she said, before dropping a soft kiss to Bellatrix's head.
"You'd better not leave me, Granger," Bellatrix growled.
"You don't need to act all tough Bells, you know I'm never leaving," Hermione chuckled.
"Good, because otherwise, I'd have to kill you," the dark witch replied, her voice airy despite the less than light comment.
Hermione rolled her eyes good-naturedly. Most other people would be terrified if this woman threatened to kill them. Despite her shift of allegiance towards the end of the Second Wizarding War, Bellatrix's past as a Death Eater was still fresh in everyone's minds. Hermione, though, knew that she would never hurt her and that this was just a part of Bellatrix's slightly twisted sense of humour.
"Psycho," Hermione murmured with a smile, "sleep, Bella. I've got you."
Bellatrix nuzzled further into Hermione's neck, her breathing eventually slowing enough to indicate that she'd fallen asleep. Hermione pressed one final kiss to her black hair, glancing down at the pale woman sleeping in her arms.
"My Bella," she sighed to herself, "you will never be alone again."