Disclaimer: If I owned Harry Potter I wouldn't be bothering with fan fiction. If I was Shakespeare I would be dead!

Chapter 2

I sat eating my food silently. It was the way pureblood daughters were expected to behave; like the rest of humanity two hundred years ago.

"Seen and not heard, dear. That's the way it goes," my mother always told me; or hissed in my ear as the guests walked in. Bloody parties! Always dull and boring with the added bonus of pricks like Lucius and Rabastan. Well, at least they are fun to play with. Or extract sweet revenge from.

"Oh hello, darling! How wonderful to see you here!" I rolled her eyes and forced down a scream of fury. What was she doing here?

"In case you hadn't noticed, darling, I happen to live here. This is the Black family manor. Honestly, I really don't condone traveling if you are not aware of your destination." Karina McNair flicked her tufts of straw away from her face as I spoke. She had plastered on too much make-up and her face looked like it was melting from the heat of the candles. Just then, Rodolphus had the ill-fortune of being 'espied from afar' by Karina.

"Roddy? Oh, Rodolphus, darling! Won't you come and have a glass of butterbeer with me?" The poor young man looked as if he was about to be fed to a horde of famished piranhas when Evan Rosier made a hasty exit from the situation. I suppose it's simply in my nature, but I did get a feeling of satisfaction from that heart-wrenching expression. Suddenly, I felt a slight whoosh of air. Startled, I spun around only to find that it was just the ten layers of frills on Narcissa's dress.

"What do you want?" I said rather unceremoniously to my little sister. She was obviously preoccupied as she ignored my comment completely.

"Oh, can't you kill him for me, please?"
I frowned. "Who?"
She rolled her ice-blue eyes as if I hadn't been paying any attention to the events of the past twenty minutes. "Mr Malfoy!"
"Oh, our happy pal Lucy. What's he been doing?"
"Well, I'll give you three guesses, shall I?"
"Don't worry; he'll get bored soon and move on to some other pretty form of prey. Just ignore him and he'll soon go away." She stalked off, muttering under her breath. I turned my attention back to rescuing Rodolphus. However, before I could stalk over and ditch the bitch, I was interrupted by my darling mother.

"Here she is! Bellatrix, won't you come and greet our visitors?"
I muttered a thousand silent curses in my head as I turned to face her, whilst plastering the best grin I could manage at that moment in time on my face.

"Hello, Mrs Rookwood, Mrs Yaxley, Mrs Avery. I do hope you are enjoying the ball?" My mother glared at me from behind the three womens' backs. I didn't know what I had done wrong, though; I had tried to rid my eyes of daggers and my voice of ice. Of course, if the women noticed, they ignored it completely. Yaxley took one look at me and stuck her nose back to its usual position - as high in the air as she could manage. Then she sauntered past as if she owned the place and I was merely a slug on the floor. I watched her go, and stuck my tongue out as she walked away. My mother saw. I was going to be in trouble later. It was a shame.

As the other two women struck up a lively conversation with my mother on the topic of the contamination of pureblood families by mudbloods, I saw something strange and for once, interesting. McNair had left poor Rodolphus alone for a while and was instead talking to Rabastan in the corner of the hall. They leant towards each other, heads bowed, and then broke apart suddenly. Rabastan handed her money, then shoved her roughly away. I narrowed my eyes. What was that basilisk up to now?

I found myself incapable of thinking when I heard that high-pitched voice call out as if to a dog.
"Roddy? Roddy!" I couldn't take any more of the stupid cow. I took a deep breath and…

"RODDY! Roddy, wherefore art thou, Roddy!" I screamed as loud as my voice could manage. The entire hall fell silent (which is an amazing feat in itself) and I pretended to shade my eyes with my hand as I scoured the hall with my eyes. My father stared at me, completely stunned. Had I really just used a line from Romeo and Juliet for Rodolphus Lestrange?

In all truth, Mother looked quite pleased. Maybe she thought that I would end up marrying him and leaving home prematurely. Now that would be a blessing for her. My eyes came to rest on Rodolphus' face. He seemed to have been rendered speechless by my little timed outburst, but then he began laughing and walked over to me. He clapped as he came, and once beside me, he turned to my parents.

"Your daughter seems to be quite the actress, sir. Let us hope that she continues to entertain and make this ball worth coming to." No one had ever spoken to my father like that except me. I actually felt pride for him. We laughed together and fled the room before my father's rage could inflict serious damage on the both of us. We continued to laugh as we ran up the stairs. Finally, we arrived at my room.

I opened the door and went inside with Rodolphus. I sat down on the end of my bed as Rodolphus looked around the room.
"You're crazy Bella; totally insane," he said as he sat down next to me. I looked at him, unsure of what to say.
"Would you want me any other way?" He merely smirked at my comment. I remembered then what I had seen earlier. "I saw Rabastan giving money to Karina. Do you know why?" I asked, trying to ignore the fact that I was struggling to breath.

"Rabastan's been paying her to get to know me. He thinks I don't know. Just forget about it. He's only doing it to annoy you. Anyway, no one would ever choose McNair over you."
I blushed at the last part while he just smiled. He lifted my chin up with his hand and he leaned down. I didn't know what to do; I could get up, say I'm sorry and run for it. Or I could admit I like him. Did I like him in that way, though?

He was my best friend and I didn't want to lose him and tonight showed me just how much I like him. I couldn't stand to see him with that cow. Should I go with my head or heart? Oh, do you what, damn it. Just kiss him. And so I did. It was sweet and soft, just like I had always wanted my first kiss to be. Yes, okay: no matter what has been said about me, I've never kissed any one before. The kiss ended and I turned my head away, embarrassed. Everything I like always gets messed up and, if I admit it, I'm nothing without Rodolphus. Merlin knows why, but tears started falling gently down my cheeks.

"Hey, Bella, don't cry; what's wrong? Is it me; have I done something?" Merlin, he was nice when he wanted to be. I wiped my tears away and turned to face him.
"Promise me something, Rodolphus. Don't leave me; don't you ever leave me."
He smiled and pulled me into his arms holding me tight. "I, Rodolphus Lestrange, promise to never leave thee, Bellatrix Black," he replied laughing. I stayed tucked up in his arms, slowly letting my dreams take over me…