Bella had been hit with a powerful reducto, that much was true, but since when had that been enough to stop the most powerful dark witch in existence?

She lay on the ground convincingly dead, and trying not to smile as Molly walked away thinking herself triumphant. All was going to plan.

She cast a silent wandless disillusionment over herself. She couldn't get caught in anymore battles, there simply wasn't time, she had to find the room of requirement. Plus Molly had been dangerously close to actually beating her for a few seconds there. Bella's smile froze for a second as she considered this, before dismissing the notion. The dark witch also found the anxiety that thought provoked, lying restless in the pit of her stomach, easy to disregard.

Bella got up and sprinted up the grand staircase, weaving through the battling sides with ease. Although she went a little out of her way occasionally to bump into a few Gryffindors and knock them down. May as well give her comrades an advantage. Eventually she arrived, paced three times, and... Nothing. Dammit. Someone must already be in there. She didn't have to wait long before her nephew and Harry Potter came flying out of the room, which was apparently on fire? She'd have to ask Draco about that later...

And they had the diadem, which swiftly dissolved into a heap of Fiendfyre ash.

Bellatrix swore quietly in each of the five magical languages she knew. Leaving them to it, she took the broom unnoticed from where they had discarded it and started back down to the Dark Lord. She was expressly forbidden from giving her herself away.

The disillusionment was making it difficult to move quickly, it was harder to be invisible than to be someone else with the number of people around, so she transfigured herself into Alecto. The Carrow sister was meant to be finding Harry, but since that clearly wasn't going to plan, she was probably dead and safe to impersonate.

Bellatrix was reliving all of this in her own private cell in Azkaban. It had taken them four months to capture her and put her through a trial. And now… well there was, after all, little else to do but reminisce in that dank, dark, empty cell. Though the memories were hardly enjoyable to relive, they gave her a sense of peace, that there was nothing else she could have done. She could hear the occasional patrols of magical law enforcement officers, a new addition to make conditions more 'humane' as the pencil pushers like to say. As if any of us had any happy memories left for the Dementors to take away, Bella thought as she lay on the floor on the ratty blanket they had given her. It looked like the one she had been given on her first stay. How nice of them.

Bella was slowly putting herself into an increasingly bitter mood, when she heard the slight crackle of metal coming into contact with ice and freezing. Frost was starting to grow around the tiny window of her cell door. A dark hooded figure slowly waved its arm and opened the door, revealing itself to Bellatrix.

It was only her first day back, and this day already could not get any worse. She had no happy memories left . She had barely anything left. They must have decided to suck her soul out and be done with her. Suddenly she was grateful for the worn, old blanket beneath her. It had shielded her from the cold stone floor, and provided what insulation it could for all her years of imprisonment. She didn't even blink as the figure glided closer, she was ready to die and move on to the next life. She stared at the hooded creature, but the soul sucking never came. The black cloaked figure simply hovered near her. A minute passed, and then another. It was rare for a Dementor to play with its food, but Bellatrix remained resolute, she would go with what dignity she had left. It was only fitting for the oldest child of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black.

Even though she was still disguised as Alecto.

The creature suddenly buckled over, as though in pain. Well this was unexpected… Bellatrix's mind sprang into action as a plan became apparent to her. Had it bothered to lock the door behind itself? If she could bypass the figure and reach the door, there was a chance she could escape. Within the same moment, the Dementor writher in the air before sinking to the ground in a pile of darkness.

Bellatrix's hand was on the bars, pulling with all her might, when the figure behind her started to cough. Now she was no expert, but she was sure Dementor's didn't cough. They didn't have the right anatomy for a start. Sighing as the door refused to budge, she turned back to the figure who was now sitting up, still swathed in black.

"Do you know how disgusting Dementor polyjuice potion tastes?"

Bellatrix nearly laughed at the bizarre sight of her nephew sitting in the middle of the mound of black cloth, looking around himself, with a look of extreme unimpress written across his features. She had to be hallucinating. Ah well, if she was to go mad again, and this time start hallucinating, it would at least make Azkaban more entertaining.

Draco looked at her grinning face.

"Well I'm glad one of us finds this so amusing"

Acquiring Dementor DNA for the potion had been quite the feat, and it had honestly tasted like unwashed socks, rotten eggs and that time he was little and had overheated a frog 'til it exploded.

Bellatrix had yet to say or do anything beyond staring at her nephew with a mixture of amusement, disbelief, shock and more disbelief.

Draco stood up and waved his wand removing Bella's transfiguration to Alecto, turning her back into herself on the outside.

For the first time today, Bella felt like a version of her old self. No, for the first time since before the war… before even the first wizarding war, before she had joined Voldemort, she felt… free. She had loved her master and saviour obsessively, and his death was terribly, terribly painful, but that infatuous love had kept her caged. Something changed within Bellatrix as she realised she was being given a second chance with no strings attached, and no one to stand in her way, only by her side. The time for mourning was passed, he was gone, she had accepted that, and it had given her liberty. Now, she would truly be unleashed, unrestrained… uninhibited.

She smiled a wicked smile at her nephew.

"Thank you, Draco"

Draco pat his aunt on the shoulder and grinned.

"So, shall we get out of here or?"