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Bella
Nymphadora chewed her lip as she looked to the clock on her bedside table for the fifth time that morning, staring at the hands indicating it was only just got seven o' clock. She stroked her husband's hand, the man having lazily draped his arm around her in his sleep, a small smile graced her lip as she watched her son wriggle to life. His small moan of tiredness sounded as the boy shuffled up the cot, raising his bum into the air first as he attempted to stand up. Dora held back a laugh, slowly and quietly getting up out of the bed and tiptoeing over to the cot.
"Come on Rigel," Dora whispered as she leant down and lifted the boy up into her arms "Mummy has things to do." She kissed his head, looking back at her husband for a moment before she slipped out of the room. She stroked the boys back as she walked a few doors down, sighing as she gently knocked on the door.
"Come in." Andromeda called out after a hesitant moment.
Dora kissed her son on the head, entering the room with the boy held tightly in her arms. The room was one of the more modest ones of Black Manor, though it was still on the larger side there was no en-suite, slightly smaller than the rest of the bedrooms and there were portraits in this room—something the room Dora and Rab were in lacked. The younger witch watched Andromeda for a moment as she finished getting Delphini dressed for the day.
"What's wrong, Dora?" Andromeda asked, placing a cardigan on the wriggling Delphi before placing her on the floor.
"This room is . . . different." Dora stated, clearly avoiding something with the woman.
Andromeda smiled knowingly as she put Rigel on the floor next to Delphini, summoning some of the girls toys for the corner to entertain the pair. "It's a guest room." The elder witch looked around the room before sitting down next to Nymphadora on the bed.
"Why are you in a guest room?" Dora frowned.
"Well I couldn't exactly go to my old room—" Dromeda shrugged "it's sealed."
"Well I can take a look at that . . ." Dora said.
"No." Andromeda shook her head "I'll go in there if and when I wish to. We're fine for now. Now, tell me what you want."
"What do you mean?" Dora shuffled on the bed, playing with her hands in her lap, she looked to the witch only to laugh slightly at the knowing look she received "Okay." Dora sighed "I have a plan . . ."
"Oh?" Andromeda raised an eyebrow.
"We need supplies." Dora said, looking to the witch "We need food, the elves have been using the food that we brought with us—I don't want to let them get food from outside in case we raise suspicion."
"That would be risky." Andromeda nodded "Though necessary. Would you like me to go?"
"No." Dora shook her head "I'll morph and go."
"Rabastan would never agree to that." Andromeda said.
"Rabastan needn't know." Dora shrugged.
"I see . . ." Andromeda considered it for a moment before he walked over to her bag "You'll need clothes."
"I have clothes." Dora sighed.
"No, you have a wardrobe of clothes that I'm sure we could sell one or two dresses and afford my home." Andromeda smiled at Nymphadora's blush "You can't go out in clothes like that, you'll stick out. You can use one of your old outfits."
Dora frowned "Why do you have my old outfits with you?"
"For occasions such as these." Andromeda said, pulling out a pile of neatly folded clothes and placing them on the bed "I also have your old clothes from when you were a small girl, I thought they could come in handy for Delphi if needed, Ted's old clothes and a few muggle garments."
"I—" Dora paused as she noticed the pile of clothes "Oooh! I miss this stuff!" Dora grinned, going through the pile as she ignored Andromeda disapproving look at her destroying the neatness of the previously folded clothes "My leather jacket!" the woman near enough hugged the floor length jacket, stopping as Andromeda laughed at her openly "What? Me and this jacket had some good times together I'll have you know."
"It's a jacket, Dora." Andromeda shook her head, going through the rest of the girl's old clothes and handing her a short denim skirt "Here."
Dora smirked, picking up one of her more low cut fitted long sleeved blouses "Think if I get back and Rab gets angry I could just use the seductive charm this outfit allows to distract him?"
"Nymphadora." Andromeda sighed, shaking her head disapprovingly, pointing to the privacy screen in the corner. The girl smirked mischievously before going behind the screen.
"You'll have to morph to a witch in her late teens, or else you'll draw too much attention as mutton dressed as lamb." Andromeda sighed, searching through the bag for a pair of Dora's old boots.
"Hey!" Dora yelled in protest "I wore this outfit the week before I left, I was 23 when I left."
"Yes and I relented in buying you that outfit when you were 18." Andromeda sighed, pulling an old pair of canvas trainers of the bag and smiling sadly "Ted got you these, Muggle shoes, to try and stop you from tripping over those boots you insisted on wearing."
"I loved those boots." Dora pouted as she stepped out from behind the screen, pulling her skirt down slightly and walking over to the mirror "This skirt is shorter than I remember . . ."
"Morph shorter." Andromeda sighed as the girl complied "Besides, that skirt was always that short."
"Hmm . . ." Dora looked to her son, sat on the floor staring up at her curiously as Delphi tried to sneak one of his toys away "Come here baby." She knelt down, picking him up and walking over to the mirror, she kissed his head firmly "Watch Mumma." After closing her eyes and taking a deep breath Nymphadora looked to the mirror, she slowly morphed each of her features, from her heart shaped face to her dark twinkling eyes. When she looked back down to her son through her now pale blue eyes she was completely unrecognisable, her son reaching up and pulling on her short blonde curls. "It's just me, baby." Dora smiled, sighing as the boy wriggled to be put down. "Give me the shoes."
"What do I tell Rabastan if he wakes up and wonders where you are?" Andromeda asked, passing over the shoes and watching Nymphadora.
"He won't wake up for a few more hours." Dora shrugged, giving the woman a coy smile "I kept him up last night and wore him out."
Andromeda wrinkled her nose in distaste "Wonderful."
"Well, you asked." Dora giggled.
"Right, excuse my mistake." Andromeda sighed "You'll want to leave through the back door, go to the end of the garden—you'll need to walk for at least ten minutes— and in the far left corner there's a space in the large red rose bushes. It's best to sneak out that way rather than through the front door in case people are watching or Rabastan looks out the window and sees you and tries to stop you. Walk another ten minutes and you'll hit the stream, it's outside of the ward boundaries so you can apparate from there with no risk of being traced directly back to the manor."
"Wow." Dora laughed "You clearly did a lot of sneaking out in your day."
Andromeda sighed "That's where Bellatrix used to sneak out from, I did find it useful once I discovered it."
"Interesting." Dora said, hesitating for a moment before she put on a higher voice, repeating herself "Interesting."
Andromeda rolled her eyes at the girl, going over to the vanity table and summoning some parchment, ink and a quill. Dora was giggling at Delphi trying to morph her hair blonde as Andromeda handed her a list. "Here." Andromeda sighed, watching the girl dart her blue eyes down the list, nodding "Okay . . ."
"There's a few things that will be helpful here." Andromeda said "I take it you withdrew sufficient gold in preparation for this? If not, I did empty my own vault."
"Don't worry, M—Andromeda." Dora smiled "Mum near enough emptied the vault of coin a while ago, not sure what she was doing but she put lots of useless heirlooms in there in it's place." She shrugged "I have it all, I'll take a handful."
"Right . . ." Andromeda looked the witch up and down for a moment before she notioned for the door "Go, the quicker you leave the quicker you get back. If you can't get back to the manor safely go to the place we took you for the summer when you were 13."
"Right." Dora nodded "Sounds like a plan." She grinned, kissing the woman's cheek before she dashed out of the room with a yell of goodbye.
The streets of Diagon Alley were livelier than usual, all witches and wizards who were previously in hiding seemingly celebrating their new found freedom by converging in the wizarding high street. Nymphadora had initially planned to stick to the sides, hiding in the shadows of the buildings as she got her shopping done, though after she had managed to get the food and gone out into the main parts of the high street she realised that was near enough impossible. There was the plus side of the business though; Dora could easily hide within the crowds of witches and wizards. As she approached the apothecary Dora looked around, tucking her magically enhanced handbag under her arm before she ducked into the room. The blonde witch swore to herself as she almost tripped over the door frame.
"Careful, young lady." The wizard at the counter called out.
"Sorry." Dora mumbled, looking down at her list as she walked towards the salamander blood.
"Oh that's okay!" the wizard grinned, coming out from behind his counter to approach the witch "I could not be upset at anyone for their clumsiness in my store today, for now is a time of celebration."
Dora forced a smile back, biting down on her tongue to stop herself saying something she would regret "Yes, lovely."
"I've just got a fresh stock in this morning!" the wizard declared, still unable to wipe the huge grin off of his face "I mean yes, we had deliveries when You-Know-Who was in control but they were limited and the clientele I received were less than savoury."
"Oh?" Dora asked as casually as she could "Like who? I hope you were okay, you seem unharmed."
"You know those in the paper yesterday, Bellatrix Lestrange's daughter? What's her name, Nympha . . ." The man frowned "Nym . . . Oh merlin knows, her mother was insane of course she's got a stupid name." Nymphadora nodded, gathering her things as quickly as she could whilst not arousing suspicion. "Woman came in here a few months back, I wasn't here but my wife was—questioned her blood and near enough cursed her before she threw her galleons at me and left the shop. Rude girl, no manners."
"Oh dear." Dora breathed, she had indeed come into the apothecary previously, she only popped in for one or two things and she most certainly did not question the woman's blood nor did she attempt to curse her. In fact, the occasion was so normal and uneventful she barely remembered the trip at all. Dora took her small basket of shopping to the counter, smiling politely at the man as he looked through her items.
"I daresay it's lovely to be back in proper business again." The wizard took a paper bag, unknowing that the witch in front of him was trying to think of a thousand ways to wipe that awful grin off the mans face "There's a special discount today in celebration, it'll be 11 Galleons, 13 Sickles and 24 knuts, miss."
"Thanks." Dora smiled politely, handing over the money and taking her change without another word before she shoved her items into her handbag and left.
She looked up and down the street again, she had completed the list of things that Andromeda had asked for along with the food and a few extra items. She looked down at her watch, chewing her lip for a moment as she decided her next move. She hadn't been caught so far, not even had as much as a suspicious glance her way, in fact everyone seemed far too jubilant to bother keeping their gaurds up on the look out for straggler Death Eaters. Fools. Nymphadora thought to herself, sighing as she decided to walk towards The Leaky Cauldron, merlin knew when she would be able to get out again. Successful trip or not if Rabastan caught wind of her little exploit he wouldn't let her out of his sights for a long while and would most likely find a way to convince her never to try it again. She pulled her jacket close, slipping past a couple happily giggling together besides her very own wanted poster, she couldn't help but feel herself smirk as she walked into the pub. After acquiring a glass of butter beer from the bar Nymphadora went to sit in a spare corner seat of the pub, watching the witches and wizards around her in their cheerful celebration. After a few minutes of sipping and watching quietly and patiently the girl sighed, clearly she wasn't going to overhear anything of any import at the bar. Just as her resolve to stay was starting to wane two wizards came up to her table, she felt her hand moving subconsciously to her wand as a wide grin split over one of their faces. They didn't seem like Aurors or undercover hit wizards, one was short and stout with a balding head, the other tall, though very large around the waist and from the looks of his walking stick he was not in the peak of physical fitness.
"Hey Miss," the man said "why are you sitting all on your own?"
"No-one should be on their own." The other man said "Especially a pretty lady such as yourself! Mind if we sit and drink with you?"
"I—" Dora hesitated for a moment before she smiled sweetly "Sure, I'm leaving after this drink anyway." The two men sat in the available seats next to the witch, looking far too happy for their own good. Nymphadora clasped onto her drink with both hands, forcing an awkward smile as she slouched back into her seat. The girl did have to admit it was fun being out in public without having to carry herself in the ways that Narcissa had been drilling into her the past few years.
"I'm Ben by the way, this is Taylor." The tall man said cheerily "You are?"
"Oh I'm Hestia, Hestia Forbes." Dora said.
"Nice to meet you Hestia." Taylor smiled.
"So, I take it you've heard about what they're calling 'The Battle of Hogwarts'?" Ben near enough jumped over his words in excitement "Brilliant, isn't it?"
"Yes," Dora nodded "it is."
"My daughter was there when it happened." A smug grin appeared on Taylors face as he took a sip of his drink.
"Oh?" Dora looked to the man.
"Yep." Taylor nodded "She's seventh year Ravenclaw, bless her heart."
"Oh that Kendra of yours is so brave." Ben shook his head.
"I know," Taylor chuckled "must have got it from her mother. Anyway, she was right in the thick of it. Helped get the younger ones that couldn't get out in time to the Slytherin common room, because naturally that seemed to be one of the places those dastardly Death Eaters wouldn't disturb."
"Naturally." Dora agreed, leaning her elbow on the table as she rested her head on her hand feigning great interest and awe at the mans tale.
"Yes well, after she'd done all of that she got right into the battle." Taylor carried on "Passed some right baduns on her journeys, helped pull down that Dolohov character."
"No." Dora feigned a gasp of awe, holding back her internal smirk, she'd always hated that man. It did please her to think of all of them he would be one of the ones dead or as good as on their way to Azkaban prison.
"Yes!" Taylor nodded "Even had to deal with Lestrange!"
"What one?" Dora asked "There are four Lestrange Death Eaters."
"Was four." Ben interjected, not noticing the bristle from the girl beside him.
"Yes." Taylor chuckled yet again "Well anyway, I believe it was the younger couple, the girl with the ridiculous name and her husband—ones in the paper yesterday."
"Nymphadora and Rabastan." Dora muttered, taking a gulp of her butterbeer.
"Yes, those. Well anyway they were about to kill some poor child that hadn't made it down to the dungeons, laughing at the poor little girl apparently. She got them out of the way and took the boy to safety."
Dora gritted her teeth for a moment, taking a deep breath, her and Rabastan had not cornered a child and they definitely did not laugh at some 'poor little girl'. She was far too focused on getting out alive and protecting her family to laugh at anything much at all that day. The smile on her face was definitely more forced this time "A seventeen year old got two fully grown Death Eaters out of the way?"
"Well Kendra is a very smart girl." Ben gave an impressed look at his friend as he continued to drink "Besides, at least we can rest easy now that you-know-who and his crazed servents are good and gone."
"Yes," Taylor nodded "shame about the escaped ones but we can revel in their fallen for once." Taylor laughed to himself as he perked up again "Did you hear how Bellatrix Lestrange died? Killed by Mrs Weasley! A witch like that killed from a ruddy house wife. Poetic justice if you ask me. Bitch didn't have a sane or warm bone in her body, Molly is such a lovely lady, just goes to show you."
"Mmm, I'm sure that woman was cold as ice before they killed her." Ben said.
"That is until they burned the bitch." Taylor laughed.
"W-What?" Dora asked, her fists clenched under the desk as she took all of her concentration to keep her hair blonde and not let it turn the vivid red it so wanted to be.
"Yeah, they burned all the Death Eater's bodies." Ben shrugged "No-one's going to claim those lot, even if they wanted to it would make them look bad."
"Oh . . ." Dora breathed.
"But hey, who cares?" Taylor said "I'll drink to their downfall any day."
"Here here!" Ben grinned, raising his glass "To the ironic and fitting death of Bellatrix Lestrange, may the crazy bitch rot in hell."
The two men clinked glasses, downing the rest of their drinks, jumping in shock as Nymphadora suddenly stood nearly taking the table down with her. "Excuse me." Dora said, grabbing her bags and storming out of the pub to the echo of cheers to the death of her own mother.
The young witch near enough burst through the wards, her hair a wild red and mousey brown as she tripped over some of the old flowerbeds, grabbing onto a tree to keep herself stable. Nymphadora Lestrange didn't stop running until she hit the back door, biting her lip as she tried and failed to calm herself. After a few deep breaths she opened the door, looking around the kitchens until she was satisfied she was alone. She pulled the bag off of her shoulder, snapping her fingers for the elves as she emptied their contents onto the table.
"P—Put it away." Dora stuttered, walking away again as they were bowing in obedience.
"Dora." Andromeda came walking towards her from down the hall "I felt you come in, listen Rabastan is awake. He realised you were gone and demanded that I tell him where you were."
"Okay." Dora breathed, staring at Andromeda for a few moments before she frowned slightly "Where are the children?"
"Delphini and Rigel are taking their morning nap." Andromeda said "Dora what happened? Where you seen—?"
"Nymphadora!" Rabastan came charging down the hall, stopping a foot short of his wife as he grabbed her shoulder "What were you thinking? I woke up and you were gone! If we needed more supplies I could have gone—Andromeda could have gone!" Rabastan took a deep breath before he looked her over as if expecting to find some horrific wound from her outing "Why is your hair that colour?"
Nymphadora stared at her husband, as if she could see him though not hear him. She barely noticed as Andromeda came up behind her husband, looking her over before sighed "Dora . . ." Andromeda spoke softly, hesitating for a moment before she looked to Rabastan "She's in delayed shock, Rabastan."
"She . . ." Dora shook her head, trying to find the words "She's dead."
Rabastan sighed, stroking his wife's arm as he explored her face "Dora—"
"She's dead!" Dora cried, voice cracking as the red in her hair faded to entirely mousey brown "She's dead and burnt and gone."
"What?" Andromeda gasped "Bellatrix?"
"Did you know that?" Nymphadora looked to her husband, tears now streaming down her face "Did you know that's what they did? They just get them all together and burn them! Then they sit around the pub and laugh about it!"
"Dora, come on." Rabastan put an arm around her shoulder, guiding her into the sitting room and towards the couch "Calm down."
"No!" she yelled, pulling away from him as she stepped away from the two adults looking at her with deep concern and shock "Did you know Rab, that we apparently cornered some little girl and laughed at her!"
"We didn't—"
"We did! Some seventeen-year-old Ravenclaw got us out of the way apparently!" Dora shrieked, pacing the floor "We were laughing at the child!"
"Dora that did not happen." Rabastan frowned.
"Well that's what people are saying!" Dora yelled, tears streaming down her face and her hair growing wilder by the minute.
"Dora, it doesn't matter what people are saying." Andromeda sighed, folding her arms.
"No!" Dora cried "But it matters to me! People are sitting around downing drinks and cheering to my mothers death and I'm hidden away like some scared rat! I can't do anything! I can't say anything! I can't even sleep at night! For fucks sake I want my mother!"
Rabastan and Andromeda stared at the witch in helpless confusion as Nymphadora fell to the floor, leaning against the sofa as she cried hysterically. Rabastan looked to Andromeda for some form of help, though in his eyes the woman looked to be lost in her own little world as she looked to the witch with a glazed over gaze. After a deep breath he walked over to his wife, jumping back as she cried out at his approach, swatting him away. "Dora . . ." he breathed, hesitating again before he slowly leant down to her level and gave her a moment to adjust to his presence before he bent to lift her into his arms. "Shhhh . . ." Rabastan kissed her head as he stood, cradling her in her arms "Come on darling, rest . . ."
"I can't, Rab . . ." Dora mumbled through her tears, wrapping her arms around his neck and pressing her head into his shirt "I can't . . ."
"It's okay, just shut your eyes, Dora . . ." Rabastan murmered, taking her to their bedroom and laying her on the bed, crawling into bed beside her and pulling her onto his chest "Go to sleep. It's been a long few days . . . Shhh." Rabastan calmed his wife, rocking her gently as he softly stroked her back, kissing her wild mousey brown curls. Once she had eventually cried herself to sleep at least an hour later Rabastan stared at the ceiling, trying not to think of the troubles and trials the family still had ahead of them and what it would do to his young wife's now clearly depleting sanity.