Walking the halls of the castle by himself, Harry walks towards the quarters of all his previous Defence Against the Dark Arts teachers. Not really certain on the reason why he was drawn to the rooms, he made his way cautiously so no one would hear his steps. 'What am I doing? She is Professor McGonagall's relative. But I feel she is hiding something, maybe her rooms are unlocked so I can just take a peek inside to keep my suspicions at bay.' As he reached the door he hears murmuring behind it. Startled that someone is in there, when he knows he had seen the teacher still in the Great Hall sitting beside the Headmistress, he presses his ear softly against the wooden door.
'Cissy, I am prefectly alright...' Harry cringes as he hears Bellatrix's voice through the door. 'You know better than to think that Artemis would ever cause harm to me. She saved me for Merlin's sake! No, she doesn't know if Minerva will allow me to stay here with her. I know it would cause an uproar if I am found out here but I need to be here just in case something should happen to her. What you told me this morning, about the Ministry trying to cause an all out war, because Umbridge is even more afraid of half-breeds since she was carried off by those centaurs in the Forbidden forest a few years back, has made me even more fearful of her safety. I lost her for twenty years. And she blames herself for that whole time wasted. I know I can never get those years back, but I can make them up to her. And I intend to... I will talk to you more tomorrow Cissy, she is going to be here any minute and I want to give her a welcome she will not forget.' Bellatrix laughs softly after hearing what was being murmered on the other end of whatever she was using to talk to her sister. 'Now don't be so modest Cissy... you would plan the same type of night I am intending to have if you would leave Lucius and find someone you actually love.'
Harry stands frozen at the door when he hears someone cough behind him, turning swiftly on his heels, he almost collides with Professor Artemis McGonagall. "A little late to be roaming the halls... even for you Mister Potter." She states cooly as she crosses her arms in front of her. Even though she was a lot shorter than Harry, he found her very intimidating and moves further away from the entrance-way to her rooms. "Finding anything interesting? I assure you that I am no more interesting than the other professors you have had grace your presence in these hallowed halls, but I am in no mood for your conspiracies. So I suggest you be off now before I send you to detention on your first evening back at Hogwarts."
"Yes, Professor." Harry nods his head and admits defeat, walking slowly away towards the Gryffindor Tower.
"By the way Potter... fifty points from Gryffindor for being so meddlesome!" Artemis calls out after him when he had turned the corner. Shaking her head at the boy's paranoia, the woman enters her quarters.
Bellatrix walks away from the fireplace and wraps her arms around the smaller woman's shoulders. "Hello, my love. Who were you talking to outside?" She kisses Artemis softly on the lips, pulling softly on the hairband that kept back Artemis's reddish-blonde mane.
Wrapping her arms around Bellatrix's waist, she rolls her eyes. "That Potter boy was sneaking around our rooms. Were you talking to someone in here before I walked in?"
"Yes, I was letting Cissy know that I made it here perfectly fine and that there was no ambush for me. Not that there would be anyway... unless you were in here before I came in." Bellatrix winks seductively at Artemis. "Why do you ask?"
"I believe he overheard you because I caught him with his ear to the door... this is going to be one tough year if I have to keep dealing with him and his paranoia. I don't see why he can't allow the past to stay in the past." She runs her hands up Bellatrix's sides as Bella runs her hands through her hair. "But he isn't the only one... that Weasley girl is another that is itching to get hexed." Artemis bristles at the name that rolled off her own tongue. " Her and that Granger girl overheard me talking to you on the train ride up here. Every time I see that red hair, I go crazy... I think of how her mother came so close to destroying you, the love of my life, and I just want to throw them all off the edge of the world. And to think that Molly and Arthur knew you growing up... they should have known something was wrong when you had first became a Death Eater. They should have realised that, even though your parents were into all of that, you would never have became one intentionally, you were too good for that. Oh, before I completely ruin the mood, Minerva said that it is alright that you stay here in my quarters and she made me the head of the Slytherin house."
"I was hoping she would agree... I know I must have caused some slight problems for her during the summer when you had arrived and quickly took me away from the battle before that Weasley woman could off me. I know she really didn't like the fact that we used Lovegood's house while I was on the mend, but once you explained everything to her and I got my mind back, things got better. So, I guess maybe that is the reason she is okay with me staying here. Hold on... did you say Slytherin House? Why Slytherin, when your old house was Ravenclaw?"
"I guess dear Minerva feels that Helena Ravenclaw will remember me and go slightly mental seeing that I have yet to die nor aged for that matter. Remember the only ghost who I really talked to about what I really am was the Bloody Baron; and besides, he never said a word to anyone that I was still alive when I taught here when you were in school. What are we talking about the ghosts for when we should be celebrating?" Artemis says as she slowly lowers her hands to Bellatrix's backside. Bellatrix moans as she feels Artemis give her a slight squeeze but pouts when she feels one hand leave to go back to her waist. "Oh don't fret, Bella..." Artemis lifts her hand away from her lover's waist and points towards the door. "I needed to cast a few spells so no one can hear us nor can they interrupt what I want to be as a very very special night for the two of us."
Bellatrix laughs, getting caught up in the flow of how beautifully perfect the night was turning out for her. "That is true, you tend to get a little loud when I start biting that beautiful neck of yours. And I definitely get loud when you do that thing with your tongue that I absolutely love. Now instead of talking about our celebrating... how about we get right to it and then afterwards we will discuss other matters. But until then shut up and kiss me." Artemis stifles a moan as she greedily kisses Bellatrix's full lips and fully complies with her each and every wish.
Several hours later after the full moon had hit its apex in the sky, the couple lie languidly on the bed with the blankets hanging haphazardly around their waists. Bellatrix strokes lazy circles on her lover's shoulder blades as Artemis stares out at the night sky. "I love feeling like this. I feel so complete. I thought I would never feel this way again once the hex had worn off and I realised I was in Azkaban and married to that pig, Lestrange." Artemis turned her attention away from the window and to the woman who was lying underneath her. "I had maybe one day of happiness in that hell hole, but then the dementors caught scent of it and wiped away all memories of you and the way you made me feel. I tried to hold on to my sanity but over the years it went away until I was nothing left but what you had heard about when the Dark Lord sent Death Eaters to blow up the prison."
Artemis places a hand over Bellatrix's mouth, "Shh, my love. It is all over now and I do not want you to punish yourself with thoughts about that god-awful place or thoughts about the past. I knew when I had first heard that you had became a Death Eater and married that awful man, you were not yourself. I just could not figure out who had cursed you to become what you had become. When I heard it was the Dark Lord himself that had Imperiused you, I was mad with grief thinking there was no way to save you... then as luck would have it he had been partially destroyed when he had tried to kill off that Potter boy and you had retained your mind but, alas, you were in Azkaban and I couldn't reach you. I tried everything I could to get them to release you but they had barriers to keep me out of the country and I could do nothing but hear rumours of what was happening in England. That is why when I found a way to by-pass the barrier I came when I did to save you... but I wish I had came sooner so you would not have been hurt." Artemis traces a scar that runs alongside Bellatrix's arm.
Bellatrix places her hand over Artemis's and kisses her forehead, "My love... I am glad you came when you did, otherwise I would be dead and we would not be here in this very lovely setting." She smiles at the smaller woman before continuing. "But let's take our minds off the dark past and speak of what seems to be a dark future... well, it won't be too dark because we will be together in it, so forget I called it dark in the first place. So what are you going to do about that Potter boy? The first class starts tomorrow morning and he is in that class, is he not?"
Artemis rolls over and lays on the bed beside Bellatrix, letting out a sigh in the process. "Yes he is... I don't know. Minerva says not to do anything that will make them notice what I am, so as not to startle them." She rolls her eyes before she continues. "She even thought you were the one to put me up to teaching them how to combat someone who can use magic without a wand. I told her that you were just as concerned as she was and I think that shocked her even more."
Bellatrix looks over at the woman of her life and smiles, "Why would she be shocked that I care for you just as much as she does? Does she think that being from Slytherin house and also being a Black keeps me from showing care and concern for the love of my life?" She laughs softly as she ponders momentarily on her own sentence. "Well, I guess she does know how much I care about you, it's just hard for her to put it into perspective with everything that has happened the past couple of years. Thinking of me as the sweet and caring girl she knew back while I was in school, pales in comparison with what I had done recently."
"Bella, I thought we weren't going to bring up the past again?" Artemis raises up on her elbow and stares intently into her lover's eyes. "What happened... was not you. And I don't want you to constantly make it seem as if it was. Things will change I promise. I hate having to hide your beauty from the rest of the world because of what somebody else cursed you to do." She leans down and kisses Bellatrix softly but passionately. "But I don't mind hiding you too much because that means I do not have to share your stunning good-looks with anyone else in the world."
The dark-haired woman smiles up lovingly at the fairer haired one, "Someone is trying to score some brownie points... What else are you going to do to get in my good graces? Hex Potter and the Weasley kids and pretend it was an accident?" She also rises up on her elbows, looking Artemis in the eyes.
"I wish I could do that, because of all the trouble they had caused you in the past but Minerva will disapprove. And besides we have to make him and his rag-tag team realise that the Ministry is the problem, not us. I saw the way they looked at me when Minerva announced I was taking over as Head of Slytherin House, I thought they were going to go mad. There is going to be too much going on in the days to come to be fighting against people who could be possible allies, sure he isn't that great of a wizard... not without his friends anyway. That is the only reason why the Dark Lord lost, was his friends, not him. But the only way to his Weasley friends is to get him to side with our cause... which I think he will, because of his relationship with that oaf of a gameskeeper, Hagrid. But I feel it is all a lost cause because he is such a dim-witted twit... so are the Weasleys for that matter." Artemis lands back onto the plethora of pillows and bedding that adorned their bed with a sigh.
Bellatrix smirks slightly, not at all convinced at her lover's attempt of acting like she had given up. "Don't make me laugh... I know you better than I know my whole family, you are not at all defeated. You want me to pity you and come up with an idea that you will not use or you want to see if I come to the same conclusion as you. But if I know you the way I think I do, you already have an idea formulating in that brain of yours... You always have. And I think I know exactly who is your best bet..." Artemis arches her eyebrow waiting for the dark-haired woman to continue. Bellatrix gives another smirk as she leans in close to the other woman's ear and murmurs. "The muggle-born, Hermione Granger, is who you are going to use in your plan, isn't it? That is the obvious choice. From what Cissy told me that Draco told her, that Granger girl has quite the soft spot for the rights of other creatures. He said that one year she had set up petitions throughout the school for the house-elves to have rights. She is the one that needs to be won over not Potter. He will hopefully follow if you get her to help you." She nods her head softly thinking about what she had told Artemis and it sounded better the more she thought about it. "Yeah that will work... just don't tell her about me. Cissy told me how I had tortured the girl when I had lost my mind and I feel awful about it. But I don't think she would quite understand yet. But I think you were already planning on using her anyway. I'm sure Luna told you all about her little friends while you were there waiting and watching out when they were healing me."
Artemis laughs softly and turns back on her side, facing her partner. "You know me so well. It is almost as if you were using Legilimency on me." She peers into Bellatrix's eyes more closely and says jokingly, "You aren't, are you?" A smile never escaping her lips.
"Now why would I do that, my love? I can't help that I know you inside and out... you are like my favourite book. Now, no more talking. You have to get some sleep in preparation for your new job tomorrow." Bellatrix softly kisses Artemis's lips and they both drift off to sleep together.
In another part of the castle, the Gryffindor common room to be exact, Harry bursts through the portrait of the Fat Lady and searches the room for his friends' location. Once finding them in their usual place beside the fireplace, he runs over a flops down onto the couch beside Ron. Staring at his unusual behaviour, his friends remain quiet, each one silently hoping that the other would ask the question that was each of their tongues. Hermione sighs, knowing that there is only one way to end this charade. "What's wrong Harry? You seem a bit out of sorts."
"More than a bit, mate." Ron says trying to get his best friend to tell them what was the matter.
Harry looks around the room to make sure no one was listening to their conversation. Once he felt that it was safe to continue, he lets his back lean against the sofa; sighing as he felt the softness of the back of the leather couch as he sank further into it. "You guys would never believe me if I told you... but I have to say something anyway. I think I heard Bellatrix Lestrange's voice in the new DADA professor's quarters. I know that sounds really mental but I know what I heard. She was talking to Draco's mother about being safe and not to worry. She was also talking about how she had lost Artemis over twenty years ago and that she was afraid for her because of Umbridge."
"That's not all though is it Harry? Did someone find you out?" Ginny asks as she sees that Harry was just a little more than shaken, even if that was all that happened.
"Yeah... the younger Professor McGonagall caught me listening in at her door. She told me that it was too late for me to be wandering about the halls and that she was in no mood for my conspiracies. And she took away fifty points from us and told me to go to bed. I think she might be worse than Snape ever was to me." Harry lets his head fall to his chest as his friends look amongst themselves trying to find anything to say to their friend.
"Are you sure you heard Bellatrix's voice, mate? I mean it might have just been in your mind like how you think you hear Voldemort's voice in your dreams. They are both dead, we all saw what mum did to her during the battle in the Great Hall. She got blasted to dust; there's no way you can come back from that, mate... no matter how evil you are." Ron says to Harry as he tentatively looks about the room, avoiding Harry's stone-cold death glare.
"I know what I heard Ron... and if you even try to say that I am going crazy I will hex you so quick you will be on your back in the hospital wing quicker than you can say 'Lumos'. Now if any of you others want to add to Ron's drivel, I suggest you keep it to yourselves and talk about me behind my back like I know you all do anyway." Harry gets up and storms up the staircase to the Boy's Dormitories.
Ron cringes as he hears the door slam behind Harry as he had made it to the room that housed theirs and two other seventh year boys' effects. Ginny looks over at her brother with a pained expression on her face, "I know you did nothing wrong Ron... you only said what we all were thinking. Hopefully everything will be better in the morning and he will just realise that he imagined her voice just like he does when he thinks he heard Voldemort's or even Sirius's voice. But as for him snooping about McGonagall's quarters that is a bit weird even for him. I just hope he understands that he probably has the wrong impression about yet another teacher of ours. But I think we all should just go to bed now because there is nothing else we can do until morning anyway. As for you though Ron, I think you might need to sleep down here on the couch tonight just to be on the safe side... I don't want to have to explain how you get transfigured into a toad or something to mum." She gets up and ruffles her brother's bright red hair and walks towards the staircase that leads off to the girls' rooms.
Hermione gets up and laughs softly, "She's right you know, about everything. Give it some time and we will have our normal Harry back to us. Last year was just too stressful for him... I mean he died for Merlin's sake. And others that were his friends and ours died as well. So you know there were going to be some times where he would not be all there."
"But we don't get all twitchy and paranoid like he does, so what makes him any different?"
"It's because he blames himself for their deaths. Voldemort wanted him, not all those others so he is going to feel some kind of way about them sacrificing their own lives to buy him time. If either one of us were in his shoes I believe we would act just as he does. Now go on and get some sleep. I'm sure that this new professor is going to take after her aunt and give us tons of homework on the first day maybe even more considering she is a Slytherin." Hermione follows the same steps Ginny took up the stairs towards the girl's quarters, leaving Ron by himself to ponder over what had occurred thus far in his final year at Hogwarts.
