Bellatrix Black had known who she was destined to marry since she was eleven years old. It was a tradition in the black family that your spouse was picked out for you some, like Sirius and Andromeda, have gone rouge as of late, but they aren't talked about any more. Bellatrix was grateful that her intended husband was someone she got on with. She didn't love him, not yet but at least she liked him. It could be worse, she knew that, just like she knew how lucky she was.
Despite knowing that she was going to marry Rodolphus Lestrange some day after she was seventeen, and of age, they weren't permitted to date. She wasn't allowed to date anyone else either, which she hates. She did have fun mindlessly flirting with people though. Obviously only the right people, she would never be caught dead flirting with a mudblood or a half blood or one of those blood traitors who loved all the lesser people around. The very idea made her skin crawl.
Bellatrix loved her family, she really did, but she hated some of their rules. She didn't know if she could marry someone unless she loved them; so for years she had been bugging her mother asking if she could at least go on one date with him before they announced their engagement. She knew she liked him, she wanted to see if she loved him. A loveless marriage wasn't going to kill her, but it would make her future more desirable. She was not going to just marry anyone she fell in love with, she would marry the person her parents wanted her to. She just wanted to love him first. Was that so unreasonable a request?
After her mother finally relented and said she could date him only after she was sixteen, she actually danced around her room. Cissy walked past the door — and knowing her sister well enough to know she never danced she stuck her head in the door and said "What's got into you?"
"Mother has said I can date Rod next year." She smiled at her younger sister. "Which means you will get to date Lucius once you're sixteen too."
Cissy stepped into her sisters room, she rarely set foot into Bella's space, as her elder sister was a somewhat private girl, and Cissy had learnt early on not to push things. "Who says we aren't dating already?" Cissy had a sly grin on her face.
"What?!" Bella practically screeched.
"Ssh" Cissy hissed at her sister. "Don't let mum know!" The last thing she needed was their mother finding out she was doing the one thing that was forbidden.
"Bu are you seriously telling me you are already dating him?" Bella asked, in a softer tone, almost a whisper now. "Spill," she said as she walked over and shut her door. She needed to know how her baby sister was getting away with dating Lucius in secret. Yes, the other one had dated Ted in secret for years… but they didn't talk about her.
"It's only during term-time," Cissy smiled glad she had one up on her sister who thought she was so damned clever at coming up with things. "We use the room of requirement." That is where every date of theirs had been. Around everyone else they were close friends, but in there they could be more. She wasn't going to add that they sent letters every other week during the holidays, that would be like rubbing salt into her sisters open wound.
"Why didn't you tell me?" Bella asked, genuinely hurt.
"Lucius made me swear not to," she said, "I'm sorry."
It was the start of a new school year, thankfully she only had a few months until her sixteenth birthday and the day she could — with her mother's blessing — start dating Rod. Bella had other plans though, she was going to take a leaf out of her baby sisters book between now and then and date him on the sly.
As they boarded the train she found the compartment with her group of friends in. She had already said goodbye to mother, and Cissy had gone off who knew where; not that she cared in the slightest.
Once they were off she tapped Rod on the shoulder, she had somehow managed to sit herself beside him, "I have some news for you." She said, just loud enough so that only he could hear her.
Rod smiled at that, he liked news. "Good I hope?" He whispered back. He had slid his arm around her in this time, and curled his body towards her. Thankfully none of the others were taking much notice of them, they were used to the pair going off into a conversation of their own by now.
"Very good news" Bella smiled "On us dating." She added, infusing her voice with all the glee she had felt over the summer.
He was open-mouthed, literally his jaw has dropped. She couldn't help but chuckle at that. She placed a hand under his chin and gently closed his mouth. "You'll catch flies like that Rod"
"Sorry," he muttered. Heat slowly rising in his cheeks. "I just never thought I would hear the day you had good news for me on that front."
"Well II do, but I'll tell you later." She smiled "I want us to be alone when I tell you."
"Okay," he said, disheartened. "Can it be tonight though, I am not sure I could stand waiting."
He took hold of her hand that was still resting on his chin. He was in love with this girl, and he wanted to shout it from the highest tower, but couldn't as they had always been told they weren't allowed to date.
"Of course." she smiled like there was any way she was going to make him wait until tomorrow or something. "Don't be so silly."
Once they were off the train, fed and all the first years had been sorted they had all returned to their common rooms. Curfew was about an hour away, Bella went up behind Rod and asked: "Want to go for a walk?" She hoped he realised why she was asking him specifically.
"Yeah, sure," he said. His eyes lighting up; so yes he knew why she was asking.
As they strolled through the corridors the walked side by side, matching step and pace. "So, how was our summer?" Rod asked, he was burning to as what her news was, but he knew her well enough that she would tell him when she wanted to and not a moment before.
"It was okay, hectic, but okay." She smiled. There had been plenty of ups and downs over the summer, but he didn't need to know them all. "Yours?"
"It was okay," he said they'd had to go to his cousin's wedding, which was fun. It made him look forward to his own more.
They rounded a corner and as they hadn't seen hide nor hair of another student for the last few corridors Bella figured right then and there was a good a time and place as any to tell him her, well their, news. "So…" she began, leaning her back against one of the cool stone walls. "Mother has relented…" She smiled, "on the whole we aren't allowed to date thing. But…"
Was he hearing things. Had Druella Black actually changed her mind on, what to him was, one of her strictest rules? "Of course there was going to be a but… go on" was all he said. He was smiling though. He just wanted to reserve his comments until she had said it all.
"We still have a few months to wait, as it can't be until I'm sixteen, but it's better than it was."
Rod smiled, a few more months wasn't too long to wait. Little did he know that Bella wasn't finished. "That's doable" he started.
"I wasn't finished." Bella butted in with a scowl. "I have even better news."
"Better news?" Rod couldn't fathom news that could be better than that. He stood and took hold of her hands in his as she smiled, he hoped she wouldn't drag this out forever.
"Cissy let me in on a secret, that means we don't have to wait to be together till I am sixteen." She smiled at him, clearly expectant of something.
Rod didn't make her wait long. As soon as she caught breath after she finished talking his lips were on hers. He didn't care about details in that moment, he had waited so long to kiss her it had been agony at times. Knowing there was a way he could was enough for him. The kiss was gentle at first, but as it lengthened it got fiercer, they were both letting loose on the passion they'd had to keep under wraps for years. She pulled him as close as she could get him, so there was no inch of their bodies that were free of the others touch, he kissed her deeper, and even began flicking his tongue over her lips parting them as he did so.
When they finally stopped Bella said, "we should head back before they send a search party looking for us."
"Yeah," rod sighed, he didn't want to stop but even he knew people would get worried. Hand in hand they headed back to the dungeons and their common room. "So this secret of Cissy's. What is it exactly?" He asked.
"Use the room of requirement and sneak around." Bella gave a conspiratorial grin to Rod. "You up for that? For a few months?"
"Definitely." He could hide it for a few months it wasn't like he had to hide it from her any more, just everyone else. It was worth it, rather than facing the wrath of Drusilla Black that woman scared him far too much to want that. "That works for me if it works for you." He smiled, hopefully.
"Uh huh" she smiled, "of course it works for me, I wouldn't have suggested it otherwise."
They stayed hand in hand till they entered the common room.
Two days later, they had finally managed to sneak away to the room of requirement for their first 'date'. It was slightly lame to have to date in secret, but they had agreed to make the most of it. Bella was there first, she'd been waiting for half an hour and was pacing the room when Rod finally turned up out of breath. He near enough collapsed against the wall beside the door. Bella looked over and her anger at being left waiting disappeared the second she saw him. She rushed over to him. "You okay?"
He nodded, while attempting to get his breath back. His face was white as a sheet, not that he knew that. He could see Bella was scared, did he honestly look that awful? When he had finally managed to breathe properly he said "I realised I was late and legged it here, but I then started being followed" he swore under his breath "so I had to shake them off. I'm fine, just worn out." He tried to smile, hoping she'd relax now.
When she knew that he was only out of breath cause he had been making sure to keep them a secret she breathed easier. She was glad to not be the only one that was wanting this to work. "Okay, well what do you want to do?" She began trailing off as she finished her question. She realised that they were in an empty room, alone, there wasn't much they could do really.
"Erm," He shrugged, he took a step away from the wall and looked towards her. There was a gleam in his eye that she had never seen, or at least never seen directed towards her. Before Bella could take a breath he had caught her up in his arms and was kissing her. Slowly at first, but she soon snaked her arms up and put them behind his neck, she had never really kissed anyone, or not like this. It was as if her insides were made of molten rock, the warmth spread from her lips to the top of her head all the way to her toes, she didn't want this to end, and she pulled him closer to her. She briefly heard him gasp as she did so, which made her smile. It felt like hours though it was mere moments later that they broke apart. Their goofy grins mirroring each other.
"Well, that was…" Bella began, faltering as she found herself unable to come up with a good enough way to describe that, her very first, kiss.
"Mind-blowing?" Rod finished for her, with a slight laugh. All she did was nodded in agreement, glad she wasn't the only one who felt that way. The difference being Rod had kissed plenty of girls in the past.
Bella wished she had had the forethought to think of somewhere for them to sit down, she started searching through the numerous cupboards that had been around when she walked in, after five minutes of searching she smiled as she dragged out a blanket. It wasn't great but it was better than having to sit on the cold stone floor. She spread it out in the middle of the floor and sat, as ladylike as she could, on one half of it smiling up at Rod saying: "Care to join me?"
Rod was still catching his breath from the running and the kiss, he was back to leaning against the wall; as he did this he watched Bella flitting around looking for Merlin knew what. FInally, she pulled out a blanket, it looked kind of old and clearly forgotten about. She seemed happy though as she laid it on the floor and sat down, he eyed it sheepishly was she asking him to join her. Did he really dare sit on it?
His overwhelming need to be close to her overrode his curiosity over whether sitting on that god awful old blanket was a good one, and he joined her, smiling and not showing what was going through his head. He pulled her into a one-armed hug and asked, "So what are we going to do now?"
"I honestly have no idea," Bella said, and her face fell. Internally she was kicking herself, yes Cissy had informed her about this, but she hadn't given her ideas of what to do whilst here… and she didn't want to think what her baby sister and Lucius got up to in here. "Do you have any ideas?" She asked.
"Not really," Rodolphus replied, with a matching grimace on his face. "Let's explore here and see what we can find?" He suggested. They, like most of the older inhabitants at the castle had an inkling of how this room worked, that it gave you what you wanted or needed at the time. Surely it would give them a helping hand before this "date" turned into a disaster.
So they both started looking in the cupboards and every nook and cranny that there was surrounding them. It took ten minutes for them to discover something. "Bella, come look over here." Rodolphus called, not believing his eyes. Right there in the cupboard in front of him, though the cupboard was tucked right at the back of the room, sat a gramophone. This way they could enchant it to play music, and dance. Right? That was an okay, and fun, thing for them to do on their date, right?
Bella inwardly jumped for joy, hearing Rod asking her to go look at whatever he had found. She practically ran over to him. As she gazed on the gramophone her heart fell a little. Really? This was his big find? Not wanting to make him feel bad she smiled, she supposed it could turn out to be fun, she'd always wanted to dance with Rod at those dumb society parties that they were dragged to. With her mother's eagle eyes on her that was a no go though. "That's pretty cool," she finally voiced something. "We could make it play…" she said, looking at how to do that "... somehow." She finished.
"We could charm it to play, some of those songs at all those parties we were dragged to for all those years."
Rodolphus suggested with a shrug of his shoulders. Dancing was always fun, and was about the only part of the parties and balls that he'd been dragged to as a child. He knew it was strange for him to like it, but he did. As he'd aged he knew it was the closeness to the girls that he enjoyed, quite a lot. Even though the one girl he wanted to be that close to he had never been allowed. He saw now as a way to change that.
"Yeah," she agreed, with a smile on her face, if she hadn't known better she would have thought that he had read her mind. "I would love that."
Between them they got the gramophone nearer the centre of the room, and Rodolphus charmed it into playing the music they knew so well from their childhoods. He walked over to Bellatrix with a smug grin on his face and a glint to his eye. Holding out his hand and putting on the most formal voice that he could muster he asked: "Would you care for a dance?"
Bella couldn't help but laugh. It was actually rather funny, it was his voice, if he had used his normal voice it wouldn't have been so funny. Putting n a matching formal voice she replied "I would love to, thank you" she took his hand, and they started dancing.
As she placed her hand in his Rod pulled her into him, before beginning to lead them in a waltz. Twirling them around the space in the room. Thankfully they both knew how to dance, you couldn't be raised in a pureblooded family, with all the parties they held or went to, and not know the basic steps for many styles of dance.
Once that song finished another, more lively song started; but instead of dancing Bellatrix took hold of Rodolphus's hand and pulled him over to one of the cabinets she searched earlier. "Look what I found before?" She smiled while pulling out a nearly full bottle of firewhiskey. "Want some with me?" She asked.
"Uh, sure." he nodded. "Any idea who it belongs to?"
"Who cares?" She returned to the space on the floor. "If they leave it here then they can't complain if someone else drinks it." She pours a healthy measure into each of the glasses, handing one to Rod "Cheers" she says before putting her own glass to her lips and taking a large sip of it. As it hits the back of her throat she starts to cough and splutter. This firewhiskey was a lot older than any she had drunk before, with age it strengthens, and it was too strong for her to handle.
Rodolphus couldn't help but laugh, once he recovered enough to talk he asked "are you okay?" He genuinely wanted to know, he worried.
Once she was done coughing she answered. "Yeah," cupping the side of his face in her hand. "It was just stronger than I expected it to be is all." She wasn't used to seeing this side of Rod, or at least not directed at her. He worried about those he cared about, that was obvious, but he had never shown worry over her before.
"Okay, so long as you are fine?" He double-checked before taking a sip from his own glass. "Wow this is on the stronger side. I wonder how long it has been in there."
Bellatrix slowly sips her drink "no idea, even strong it is still good." Only trouble is the more she was drinking the more it was going to her head. She scooted closer to him. "Fancy some more dancing?"
"Yeah, go on then." He smiled, waving his wand at the now silent gramophone to make it play music again. He got to his feet and held his hand out to Bella to help her up.
She got up and wrapped her arms around his neck the 'dancing' she wanted to do was more like swaying to the music, and she could only just manage that, her head was spinning thanks to the firewhiskey. In all honesty, she was starting to look a little green, which Rod noticed and it put him on high alert.
"Bella, honey…" he started gently, "maybe we should head back?"
"Yeah-" she managed. "I'm not feeling too great…"
With that Rod quickly cleared the room up — not that he needed to do this, not really, it was more out of habit than anything. As soon as he was done he wrapped his arm around Bella's waist. "Ready?" He didn't care about the fact that they were now going out to the main part of the castle, around everyone else. He wanted to make sure she got back safely, it was the most gentlemanly thing to do.
When they got back to the Slytherin Common Room Rodolphus looks around, Bella really needs to go to bed, but he can't take her — boys are not able to get into the girls dormitories. He spots Narcissa and figures Bella wouldn't mind her sister helping her out. "Cissa, can you come help?"
Narcissa looks over and sees Rod and Bella, she comes over and grabs Bella from the other side; despite her slight frame Narcissa has a lot of strength. "I've got her from here." She smiles. "How was it by the way?" She asked a perplexed Rod, "the date?" she pushes.
"Great, till… well" he waves his hand towards Bellatrix. "Take care of her for me?"