A/N: Bellatrix receives a mysterious gift wrapped in red on the night of her wedding. Bellamort.
Submission for:
The Pirate Ship Battles: Captain - Bellamort: Gifts wrapped in Red
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry (Challenges & Assignments: Magical Objects & Their Uses Assignment #3 - Write about someone having a deep wish or desire come true.
Fanfiction Marathon Competition/Challenge: Bellatrix/Tom Riddle Jr
OTP Competition: Bellatrix/Tom Riddle Jr
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.
The wedding had been beautiful. Bellatrix smiled as she and Rodolphus exchanged their vows and he slipped his mother's ring her finger. She laughed daintily as they cut the enormous wedding cake her mother had made. Now, she rested her head on his chest beneath the glowing orbs floating about the backyard of the manor, all eyes on the newly-wed couple as they shared their first dance as husband and wife. Rodolphus was the perfect gentleman, looking at her with such love in his eyes she almost felt nauseous, but she kept her composure and the smile on her lips. Bellatrix would be the perfect daughter, just as her parents wanted. She would not disgrace her family's name, not on this special night.
When the music ended, the guests clapped before a few other couples joined them, including Narcissa and Lucius, her parents and her in-laws. Everyone was happy for the newlyweds and she knew she should be as well, but she was feeling a bit overwhelmed by the whole thing. She stepped back a bit from Rodolphus and gave him an apologetic smile as she made some excuse to get away. He let her go and she ran into the house. Her chest felt constricted, feeling like everything was spiralling out of her control. She needed some time to herself.
She quickly ran up the stairs of the manor to the second floor, keeping out of sight of the giggling women in the parlour room or the elves running in and out of the kitchen and stopped outside her bedroom door, correction, her old bedroom door. As of tonight, she would be leaving the manor with her husband and spending her first night in their marital bed to consummate the arrangement.
She pushed the door open and stepped inside, needing to see the room one last time. The surface of her dresser was cluttered with opened vials and uncapped makeup pencils. Her closet door was opened as shoes were strewn across the floor in her mad search for her white heels. It was just as she had left it this morning as her mother and Narcissa helped her get ready for the ceremony, except for one difference.
On her bed was a neatly wrapped gift, its bright red paper contrasting with her black bedsheets with a silver bow on its lid. Bellatrix almost fell to the floor upon seeing it. All the wedding gifts were downstairs in the coat room, a tall mountain of useless appliances and figurines she cared nothing for. However, this gift was different. This gift was priceless, special and she had thought she would never receive another one in her lifetime. Her eyes travelled to the small shelf above her bed which kept the gifts that had come to her in similar red-wrapped boxes.
The first gift appeared on her bed a year ago, stopping her in her tracks just like tonight. She had stood by the door in disbelief, wondering how such a gift could get into her room, who would give her a gift and what it could be?
It had been a book about dark spells and potions which had been unheard of for years, their effects undetectable by common means. Only someone very influential would be able to get their hands on such an artifact, and for them to just give it to her was unbelievable.
She knew there had to be some price. Things like this didn't just happen without some form of repayment. But there had been nothing to indicate such. Only a lone card came with the gift - "For my Bella", and nothing more.
She treasured the book, reading it until she knew it like the back of her hand. She practiced the spells on animals which roamed through the backyard and brewed the potions in the dead of night, but still clueless as to who the sender was.
Then she got another gift about a month afterwards from the same person. It had to be since it came in a similar red box with a silver bow. She opened it and pulled out a lovely silver dagger. She had never seen something so beautiful before, the handle glittering in the soft candlelight. "For my Bella," the card read again and nothing more.
The gifts continued coming and Bella began to look forward to them. Even when she went back to Hogwarts for her final year, her mother forwarded the red boxes to her, never asking questions of the mysterious man who sent her priceless artifacts and jewelery.
It had been a surprise in January when instead of a red box, she received a letter from her mother's owl. It had been short and to the point: a wedding date for her own wedding. She would be a Lestrange by the end of the upcoming summer.
That was when the red boxes stopped coming. She wondered briefly if her mother was keeping the boxes from her but threw that thought aside. Whoever was sending them to her knew how to get around obstacles, evident in his acquisition of such impossible gifts. This left the only other reasonable conclusion: he simply stopped sending them.
At first, Bellatrix was sad and bitter but she tried to get over the mystery man. She stopped imagining what he was like. She stopped wishing to eventually meet him. She stopped thinking about him completely. It wouldn't do well to dwell on someone she didn't even know when she was technically engaged.
But tonight of all nights, the night she had stopped being a Black, he had delivered a gift to her bedroom, somehow knowing she would be here to see it before the night's end.
She closed the door behind her and stepped forward, slowly taking the lid off the box. The room was silent as she held her breath, fearing if she made too much sound, the box may simply disappear before her eyes. She reached in and pulled out a folded piece of fabric before her mouth fell open. It was one of the most beautiful red dresses she had ever seen. It fell to the floor, the bodice shimmering and the slinky material already wanting to cling to her fingers.
At the bottom of the box was a small square of parchment. Her eyes widened upon reading it. Instead of the usual words, there was a time and place.
All the feelings from the previous boxes came back at once. She had wanted to meet this man since the first red-wrapped box and now it was a possibility. She looked to the small clock on her wall next to her mirror. The time on the card was thirty minutes from now, thirty minutes from something that would change her life forever.
Bellatrix jumped slightly as a loud high-pitched laugh carried up the stairs reminding her where she was. She was a blushing bride, her groom waiting for her outside while she went upstairs to collect herself. She was still in her wedding dress for Merlin's sake. She had an obligation as a pureblood Black to fulfill, to not be deterred by a mysterious man who propositioned married women.
But he had presented her with the ultimate choice: duty versus happiness. If you had asked her a year ago, she would have easily chosen duty, but with these gifts, they had given her a taste of something she never had before, something to hope for and look towards, something she could have now if only she took it.
Bellatrix held out the dress over her arm, the card in her other hand. Duty or happiness?
"Have you seen Bellatrix?" Rodolphus asked as he approached Narcissa and Lucius on the dance floor. It had been a few minutes since his wife had left him after their dance and she had yet to return. He had already searched the gardens for her lovely white dress but she was nowhere to be found.
The young couple paused their dance and Narcissa gave the man a worried look. "No, I thought she was still with you."
Rodolphus bit his lip before he made his way towards the house, hoping to find her there. He stopped in the kitchens, sneering down at the rushing house-elves after he confirmed she wasn't there. He didn't even bother with the gossiping ladies in the parlour room. Bellatrix would never be caught anywhere near them. So then, she must be upstairs.
He took the stairs two at a time, beginning to worry. She hadn't looked well when she had left him. What if something happened to her? What if she had passed out? Had he already messed up on his first night as a husband?
He pushed open the door to her room and stepped inside. "Bellatrix, are you all right?" he called out before he looked about the room. There were the shoes on the floor and the messy dresser top, but he hardly noticed them as his eyes landed on the discarded wedding dress on her bed next to a bright red-wrapped box.
"Bellatrix," he called out again, worry and fear seeping into his voice. He picked up the dress, the fabric still warm in his hands. She was here just a few moments ago and now she had disappeared.
He picked up the red box and shook it. Maybe there was some clue, something to tell him where his wife had gone to. But there was nothing, nothing at all.
He dropped the dress and stumbled back a bit. Bellatrix was always headstrong and wild, something he greatly appreciated in a woman. He was glad that they had been arranged by their parents for she was the best choice for him and he wouldn't get stuck with some ditzy bimbo. Bellatrix was also about duty and honouring her family, going through with the arrangement without complaint, but he never thought this would happen. She had left him, just like that, the night of their wedding. He growled in frustration. What would he do now? What would he tell the reception? What would he tell her family? He stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind him.
She appeared in the middle of an open field beneath the night sky, shivering a bit as the cool air blew against her bare shoulders. She stood out among the grey and brown in her bright red dress as she looked around her. She was alone among the high grass, the cicadas her only companions tonight. She had checked the clock just before she apparated out of her room knowing that she would be right on time for her meeting. She didn't want to make him wait and she didn't want to miss him. But then where was he?
She walked a bit through the grass towards the lone tree in the field, its large branches casting a shadow around its trunk. She was only a few feet away when she heard a low voice say, "You came."
She stopped as a man stepped out of the darkness towards her. His features were chiselled, his black hair swept back yet thinning and he gave her a smile that made her knees weak.
"I hoped you would," he continued as he took one her hands and kissed it, "And may I say, red looks lovely on you."
She looked at him and had just one question. "Why?"
He chuckled, running a long finger down her smooth cheek. "To get your attention. I doubt I would have gotten it any other way. But now that I have it, what can I do to keep it, Mrs Lestrange?"
She swallowed thickly. Rodolphus, the wedding, her family. Had she done the right thing by coming here? She was throwing away her life for this man she didn't even know.
But already, a warmth had spread through her chest and she felt freer than she ever had in her life. She thought wryly of her forgotten sister. Is this how she felt when she walked out of the house? Is this what she felt when she started her new life? Is this what it felt like to do something for yourself instead of for the sake of family and duty?
Bellatrix shook her head and said, "Just call me Bella."
He grinned and pulled her against his body and she had never felt so right. "Anything for my Bella," he said as his lips descended on hers.