ACT ONE: Love is Not Enough!
OPENING SCENE: Falling Apart
❨ 1996 ❩
LETTING OUT A HEAVY BREATH, THE sickly teenager looks at the redhead then to the Death-Eater. An expression of betrayal evident on her pale and clammy face, she stands up ready to fight them but, the sudden movement must make the room spin because she promptly sits back down look even more dazed then before.
The redhead of the name, Maeve Macleod rushes to the girl's side whereas the Death-Eater of the name, Bellatrix Lestrange, stays right where she is, watching the scene before her with a great deal of concern.
But, she doesn't get involved because as the sickly girl of the name, Aurelia Black, has said multiple times before: 'you've done enough'. It doesn't matter that the 'enough' was saving her life, Bellatrix had done enough and Aurelia would certainly attempt to fight her if she attempted to do anymore. In Aurelia's mind, Bellatrix had ruined her life, created a bloody mess, then kidnapped her.
Bellatrix supposes she can agree on the kidnapping part, but, really — what else was she meant to do?
After the events at the Ministry, there was little for Bellatrix to do. Everything she and Mae had worked so hard to protect their make-shift family from had been torn apart all thanks to Gwendoline Goyle, a snake, and the Dark-Lord.
However, Aurelia sees Bellatrix as the monster in this situation, and Bellatrix can handle that; she supposes.
Bellatrix is used to being the monster. She'll be the monster for as long as it's needed. She just needs her family to be safe, she doesn't care if her family views her as the spawn of satan while she's doing it.
And they're safe at the moment.
Bellatrix meets Aurelia's fierce but dazed glare, she frowns, watching as Mae tries her best to comfort Aurelia and ease back into bed.
"You're a monster." Aurelia says to which Bellatrix nods.
"I'm a monster but, you're alive." Bellatrix says back, not breaking eye contact with the young Hufflepuff.
Mae softly talks Aurelia back into lying down. It takes awhile but, eventually the sickly girl complies. Her previous, reckless actions must've tired her out because she puts up little fight when Mae tucks her under the sheets. Pressing a gentle kiss to Aurelia's forehead, Mae turns back to Bellatrix, a look of deep-rooted concern etched on her features.
Bellatrix has to swallow a tidal wave of jealousy as she watches Mae interact with Aurelia. Their bond is something she is viciously jealous of, Bellatrix tries her best not to be especially now, as Mae needs her help. Aurelia needs their help.
"I think I should go fetch her some water and soup, she hasn't eaten in a day or so." Mae says, "Stay here and watch her, love, make sure she doesn't try that again."
Bellatrix gives Mae a wobbly smile "You should stay here, she trusts you best. I'll go."
Mae kisses Bellatrix's cheek, muttering a soft 'thanks, love' against the bruised flesh.
"Of course, darling." Bellatrix mumbles, swallowing thickly. She glances at Aurelia who is now lying in bed, staring blankly up at the ceiling.
At least she's awake now, Bellatrix thinks. But, she's nothing like that girl from the photos or from that visit; she's different now.
They were all different, everything had changed, everything had fallen apart so quickly.
But, at least she's alive.
Mae goes back to Aurelia's bedside and sits down, Aurelia reaches out for the redhead, choking out a weak "M — m — mum."
Bellatrix frowns, turning to leave, she shouldn't be jealous of that, it's neither of their faults they developed such a strong bond. It's no one's fault that they had been able to move on, even little Ellie. If anything, it's Bellatrix's fault and the little issue of being in Azkaban for fourteen years.
Fetching water and soup doesn't take all that long. It takes a little longer due to the fact that Bellatrix's lost in her own consuming thoughts but, she's own her way back to the bedroom within twenty minutes.
When she reaches the bedroom, Mae is sitting on Aurelia's bed with Aurelia's head in her lap. Bellatrix's heart is both warmed and crushed by the sight.
Mae is singing a Muggle song to Aurelia, pressing a cool washcloth to the teen's feverish forehead. Bellatrix smiles sadly at the scene before her; she'd always enjoyed Mae's singing even though she's not particularly good, it always calmed Bellatrix down no matter what.
Mae has a gruff-ish singing voice which is odd because of her dainty appearance. She could hold a tune but, it didn't sound nice nor quite that nice unless she sang very quietly.
Bellatrix recalls many summer night spent in her room with Mae there, lying beside each other, as they would sing quiet lullabies to each other. Sometimes, they'd tell stories, Mae had always been an amazing storyteller.
Sweeping into the room as quietly as possible, Bellatrix shakes those nostalgic memories from her head. She places the bowl of soup down on the bedside table, just as she goes to place the cup of water down, her Dark-Mark erupts in a horrid burning sensation, she drops it in surprise.
Cursing out in pain, Bellatrix catches Mae's murky green eyes that hold the same amount of terror that Bellatrix feels coursing through her veins.
"Don't go." Mae says at once.
But, she's got to. There's no way she can just not to a bloody meeting after the predicament she has found herself in.
"I have to leave." Bellatrix says with a shake of her head and a tremor in her voice.
"Bellatrix."
"I have to leave." Bellatrix insists, "He'll definitely kill me if I don't go."
Although Mae wants to, she doesn't argue further. She grabs Bellatrix's hands "Be safe." Mae mumbles, kissing Bellatrix's knuckles.
"I love you too." Bellatrix says softly, squeezing Mae's hands in reassurance.
Then she lets go and within a blink of eye, Bellatrix is gone. Apparating off to another Death-Eater meeting and if she comes back, she'll probably be black and blue, barely clinging to life.
It had been that way since that incident. Bellatrix had earned Voldemort's fury for — in his eyes — unknowingly betraying him. Of course, Bellatrix had know she was betraying him the whole time and she did it with pride. But, he doesn't know that, he still blindly trusts her, she'd be dead if he knew the true story.
It's bloody lucky that Voldemort blindly trusts Bellatrix, to believe the lie she had told. It wasn't even a good lie but, he was willingly to believe it all the same. And even though, he believes that Bellatrix had down it unknowingly, he was still furious with her and punished her whenever he got the chance to.
Mae sighs nervously, slipping out from under Aurelia's head. The poor girl had fallen asleep again, which isn't unusual, she always sleeps. It's not like she can do much else. Aurelia is still recovering and on most days, she can hardly stand.
Aurelia's eyes flutter open just as Mae places her head down on her pillow "Mum?"
"Aye, wee moon?"
"Can you — can you tell me about . . . What was she like when you — when you were younger?" Aurelia stammers, "How did someone like you fall in — fall in love with someone like her?"
Mae gives her a curious look, Aurelia is struggling to keep her eyes open as she peers up, her breathing ragged. Smiling slightly, Mae sits back down at Aurelia's side.
Aurelia props herself up with what little strength she has, watching on curiously as a distant but content expression replaces Mae's nervous and fearful one. She rests her chin on Mae's thigh and Mae's hand comes to rest on Aurelia's damp, dirty-blonde curls, gently stroking them.
For a moment, Mae can pretend like everything around her isn't falling apart. Just for a moment, she can recall a sense of peace as she recounts the story of how she found her home.
"Well, you see, it all began on my eleventh birthday . . ."
ʙᴀᴅ ʙʟᴏᴏᴅ / ʙᴀᴅ ʙʟᴏᴏᴅ / ʙᴀᴅ ʙʟᴏᴏᴅ / ʙᴀᴅ ʙʟᴏᴏᴅ
━━ AUTHOR'S NOTE:
Sorry this took so long to get posted, I haven't updated this story since Valentine's Day oof! This prologue was SUPER hard to write, I have eleven different versions of it somewhere, six of them I finished (the six are very similar to the one you read just now) and the reason I didn't post any of them is because I was nervous about it because the six were all different versions of Mae telling Aurelia about how she met Bella and all that jazz and for some reason I felt like no one would like it so I restarted them with it opening up to Mae's 11 B-Day but I could never finish those version to the end! So eventually I just decided to have the opening be Mae telling Aurelia the story of how she fell in love with Bellatrix. Which, I feel is fitting because Bubble Gum which is sort of the old version of this story, opened a similar way but like it was angstier.
However the rest of the story won't be narrated by Mae, in fact the story will be told as a normal story. I just thought it'd be cute and kinda fitting to have the opening show that Mae is telling Aurelia the story. Plus, this will be a future event in Make Them Gold so like we got some insight in what happens some time later in Aurelia's story too.
In short term, it's kinda like The Princess Pride but Aurelia will interrupt far less and not everything that you read will be told to Aurelia but it did happen and it's too much to tell Aurelia who is baby and shouldn't know that graphic things that happened to Maetrix™! There will be future chapters titled 'INTERLUDE' where it will show Aurelia again and she'll be asking Mae to know more about Mae and Bellatrix's relationship but it won't happen often, only when Aurelia smells that Mae is telling a Big Lie™!
Despite the long wait, I hope you enjoyed it! Thanks for reading, I would really appreciate it if you could let me know what you thought of it!
word count: 1727
