A/N : Chapter Seven! In which Bella schemes, and displays latent insanity. Nice girl.
This is for Tara, my lovely reviewer, because I forgot to shout her out last time, and I
love my reviewers, really I do. For you sweetie.
Disclaimer – I'll let you know if I fall into a parallel universe where I own Harry Potter, and can hold a note (vocal or instrumental). Until then. . . I own nothing, and no-one laments it more than me.
Ways and Means
Midnight.
Alone in the empty common room, Bellatrix watched the flames flicker, close to death, in the fireplace. It was getting late, and Slughorn's essay wasn't going to finish itself, but she couldn't seem to focus. Who cared, after all, about the sedative properties of some rare herb? Picking up the book with heavy fingers, she dragged her eyes to the index and tried to concentrate. Try as she might, however, she couldn't seem to stop her gaze from sliding, unseeing, over the text. Asphodel. . .. .nightshade. . .belladonna. . . .belladonna.. . . .Cursing, she shut the book with a snap and threw it to the floor. Her quill and parchment joined it there a moment later. Yawning, she glanced at the damp stone walls of the underground room, and tried not to think about the almost-full moon high overhead. Not for the first time, she wished she wasn't in Hogwarts. While school might, at present, be preferable to home, the truth was that she didn't want to be in either place. She had outgrown them both, and now found herself at a loss as to where to go next. She knew, of course, where she was expected to go – straight to the nearest church and up the aisle. And that would be it. The sum of her life – a ring on her finger and a few children to keep somebody else's name going, and deathly boredom until the day she dropped down dead. Bellatrix shuddered. No. That couldn't be her life. She wouldn't let it be her life. She didn't care if she had to take drastic measures to prevent it, or what her parents thought. That would not be her life.
Some first year brat had left a chess set carelessly on the table, midway through a game. This being wizarding chess, of course, the pieces had quickly tired of inactivity. In the absence of their owner, and confused by the sudden halt in the game, they had grown restless. Two white knights were currently wrestling in the centre of the board, oblivious to the black queen stealing slowly towards them. A few of the pawns had fallen off the table, unnoticed by the other pieces, and were now wriggling impotently on the floor, while a fat black bishop was attempting to sidle off the board and make a break for freedom. Fixing her sights on him, Bellatrix scowled in irritation and raised her wand. "Confringo!" she muttered, smirking as the bishop fell on its side and began to writhe silently, the black paint peeling clean of the charred wood and melting away. She lifted the spell when only a small pile of ash remained. If there was one thing Bellatrix Black hated, it was things that refused to stay in their proper place. If you were a black chess piece, she reasoned, you should stay with your own kind, not try and leave. Black should stay with Black.
Bella's ruminations were interrupted by the sound of footsteps in the corridor. A moment later there was a grinding noise, and the stone door of the Slytherin common room slid to one side, revealing a familiar figure silhouetted against the light. Lucius Malfoy. Smiling now, Bella sat up straight. Malfoy had been several days late returning to school, and the fact that he was now sneaking in in the middle of the night. . . Well well Malfoy, Bella thought with a smirk, Are you avoiding me?
"Malfoy!" she called. "Come and sit down."
Raising her wand, she pointed it at a nearby chair, drawing it closer to her. "Sit down," she repeated, enjoying Malfoy's discomfort. For a moment, he looked as though he might try and ignore her. Eventually, however, manners won out, as she had known they would, and he sat down.
"What do you want, Bellatrix?"
Bellatrix smiled. "That's not quite the right question, Malfoy. Why don't you try 'What can I do for you, Bellatrix?'"
Malfoy swallowed, and Bella's smile widened.
