Wonderful reviews, yet again! Thank you sooooo much! I really appreciate it, and now I'll show you my appreciation!:
"Firewhiskey, Bella?"
"What?" I asked, distracted. "Uh, no, Cissy, no thanks," I replied, barely holding back laughter, remembering my little outburst last time this had happened with my other sister.
She sat down, placing a bottle in front of me, anyways. "Okay, you're up to something," she stated, grinning from ear to ear. "I've never known you to refuse a drink before, and besides, I know that smirk."
"I have absolutely no idea what you're on about," I said nonchalantly, taking a sip from my glass of water only.
"Well," she replied in a falsely grumpy tone, "I've never succeeded in getting you drunk before, so I don't see why you're worried now. You might as well accept the challenge."
"I'm not scared," I growled irritably. "It's got nothing to do with being drunk, Narcissa." She looked taken aback at my defensive tone, and I knew that I was being overly sour, even for me, which was probably the handiwork of my raging hormones. "Uh, sorry," I said after an awkward moment. "There's just a lot going on at the moment."
"Oh? Is everything okay at home? With Lilith? What's wrong?"
"Oh, nothing's wrong. Everything's wonderful. It's wonderful," I insisted. "But I can't say it doesn't push my temper a bit."
She edged forwards on her seat, staring sternly over her nose at me. "Bellatrix. I grew up with you. I watched you lie to our parents for over ten years, so I can tell when you're lying to me."
"Now, Cissy, I'm serious here. It's important. It's a good thing, but it's very important," I stated, attempting to imitate her expression. I had a feeling I was failing miserably, but Cissy did not laugh. She was now looking at me intensely.
"You're serious? It's important? Knowing you, that means it's probably life or death."
"Well, yes, it is one of the two."
She gasped. "You've caught Harry Potter!' I shook my head. "You know where he is, and you plan to catch him?"
"No."
"You've killed-"
"No Cissy, we haven't killed anyone." For once, Narcissa was silent. "It's the opposite, Cissy. It's not death; it's life." Narcissa's face was the definition of confusion; her nose was slightly crinkled, her brow furrowed, eyes narrowed, and she lightly bit her lip. "Lilith is getting a brother or sister. Narcissa, I'm pregnant again!" I exclaimed, forcing what I hoped was a believable smile onto my face. Narcissa's eyes were wide, and her jaw gaped, but she did not celebrate as she had the first time. My grin faded. "Narcissa?"
"Oh, Merlin," she whispered.
"Cissy? What is it? I'm happy, you should be happy!" I said, becoming slightly frustrated. Why wasn't she reacting the way I thought she would? "Narcissa?"
"What have I done?" she groaned.
I raised my eyebrow. "What have you done? I believe I'm the one who's carrying a child here."
"I should have told you," she spoke, eyes wide and almost... fearful looking for some reason.
"Told me what? Narcissa, what the hell are you talking about?"
"You shouldn't be here!" she exclaimed frantically, snapping to life and standing up so quickly she stumbled, and I had to grab her arm to stop her from falling.
"Don't help me! I'm not worth it! You have to go home! Get on bed rest immediately! What have I done?" she wailed insanely.
I was just about to ask what she was talking about again, but just then, none other than her husband, Lucius Malfoy, Apparated into the sitting room, dirtied and out of breath.
"Lucius?" I questioned incredulously. What sort of crazy day was this?
"You have to come with me immediately, Bellatrix," my brother-in-law panted. "Dark Lord's orders."
"But-" I started. What was Narcissa so upset about? "I need to-"
"Now!" he said. "We have to go now! It's important! We need you to help us fight!"
"F-fight?" I stammered. Narcissa had fallen back onto the couch at these words, tears actually forming in her eyes.
"Narcissa! What's wrong with her? She got upset just because I told her-"
"There's no time, Bellatrix! She'll be fine. Come with me now!" He grabbed for my wrist, but I yanked it away. "Are you mad?" he hissed, showing no fear towards me for the first time in a while.
"I'm coming, but I can't Apparate. I'm pregnant," I snapped.
If Lucius was at all surprised, he hid it well. His eyes may have widened slightly, but he smoothly said, "By Floo then. Hurry." He grabbed for my arm again, and this time I let him pull me towards his fireplace, trying to ignore Narcissa's inexplicable sobs from behind me.
"What is going on with her?"
"No clue," he said gruffly, pulling a handful of powder from an elaborate vase. "Bellamort Mansion!"
I gawped at him. "It's at my house?"
"Go!" was his only response, and he pushed me through. I winced as my forehead connected with the rough bricks, but I skillfully regained my balance, searching for the gate.
I jumped out of the green flames, coughing out the ash and smoke I had inhaled in my moment of surprise. Lucius crashed into me as I moved away too slowly, and I nearly fell as he stumbled over me, and landed on the ground himself. Now that we were safely here, however, his aggressive mood seemed to have disappeared.
"Well?" I asked a few moments after he stood. "Don't expect orders," I sighed. "I have no clue what's going on."
"Right," he said shortly. "Follow me, then, I suppose." He allowed himself a small chuckle. "Though it's been a while since that's happened."
"Marry Voldemort, and you can have that privilege," I said sarcastically, struggling to keep up with Lucuis's rapid pace. "Now, would you like to explain what the hell is going on?"
"The 'Golden Trio' it seems, has somehow gotten through your defenses and into your home, though I can't possibly imagine why. It's as if they were suicidal."
"We're fighting three kids, and you really need me?"
"Well," he said, clearly embarrassed, "They were loaded with lots of their own defenses. Those little distracting things you get at joke shops, for one, and Peruvian Darkness Powder, for another. We couldn't tell where they were. They had different magical objects to protect them, too. They each had some sort of shield, as well as one of those curse-breaking hats."
"I hate those fucking things," I breathed.
"Yes, they do tend to get in the way, don't they?"
"I could outduel them all in two seconds without those fucking things in the way. It's cheating," I spat.
"I know it's not really possible, but if there were some way that you could possibly turn down the hormone levels, if you don't mind-?"
"Shut up, you."
"Yes, well, they've all lost their shields by now, at least. The mudblood girl dropped hers not moments after we started to fight, simply because she was scared. Potter's shattered when five spells hit it at once, it cut him up pretty badly too, and the ginger is so incompetent that he threw it to the ground after tripping over it several times. Well, it was a bad choice, because his helmet fell off his head merely seconds later- due to his miniature brain, no doubt- and he is currently without any protection, besides that mudblood girlfriend of his." I scoffed. "She may lose hers fairly soon, as well. The strap was severed right before I left. But you must understand that the Dark Lord is not fighting with us. He's hiding something, I'm sure you know what it is, and I don't know what, but I'm guessing it is of great importance. He has Lilith with him too, so don't worry," he assured me. "Anyways, it's just me, Yaxely, and Goyle. And... well, you know Goyle." He pulled a face.
"Noted," I responded dully. Suddenly, I began to hear the sounds of a skirmish, and a beam of light bounced off a window and zoomed past my ear. I started, and I saw Lucius follow my hand out of the corner of his eye as it flew to my stomach.
"You don't have to do this, Bellatrix," started Lucius, but as we peered around the corner, we saw that Goyle was down, and Yaxely was bleeding heavily from his arm.
"That's debatable," I responded, rubbing my thumb along my bellybutton. "Besides, If I can fight a battle mere minutes before giving birth, I'm pretty sure I can pull this off."
Lucius shrugged, and I realized that that was one small thing I liked about my brother-in-law: he didn't question it, and he didn't press the matter. He just accepted it.
We launched ourselves into the fray, and the mudblood screamed at the sight of me and Lucius returning. Yaxely was clearly relieved that we were back. He wouldn't have held up much longer, and surely enough, he fell to his knees mere moments later.
"I'm fresh, and you've already fought! I'm no good with healing anyways, so see what you can do with Yaxely's arm and if you two can revive Goyle! I can hold them off for a while!"
I began to duel furiously with the Mudblood. Sure enough, she no longer had any protection. Potter, the only one who still possessed a curse-breaking hat, was attempting to revive the red-headed boy. He wasn't having much luck. I noticed Potter was cut up pretty badly.
As another curse zoomed by my ear, I had begun to reconsider my orders. "Leave Goyle, just help Yaxely!" I shouted over the crackle of spells. "Goyle's not worth it! I'll need back up pretty soon!"
It was true. I was handling the Granger girl fairly well, but then Potter gave up on the blood-traitor friend, and began to fight. I could duel many people at once, sometimes up to six, but I was still distracted by Narcissa's odd behavior, and every now and then, a wave of nausea came over me.
Resisting the urge to empty the contents of my stomach onto the front lawn, I sent a simple stunning curse to Potter, and a more complicated Rictumsempra to the Mudblood. Both blocked it with ease, and I discovered what kind of people I was fighting with..
Potter was clearly an expert dueler. He had the same intuition that both Voldemort and I had. He could dodge fast, use the most logical curse, and his wand movements were natural and quick. However, his spells were limited; he had the power to use them, but he was held back by his limited incantations, and he was an extremely poor Occlumens.
On the other hand, the Mudblood was not a natural dueler. It was clear that she was smart. She used complicated, and sometimes even obscure curses. She had a good mind; she had a fair control of Occlumency, but her movements were stiff and awkward, and she did not have a dueler's intuition.
Therefore, I sent complicated curses in Potter's direction that he would most likely be unfamiliar with, and a succession of curses at a time towards Granger. In a space where I didn't need to cast a curse or block an incoming attack, I shouted, "Incarcerous!" to bind the Weasley boy in ropes, just in case he came to.
Things were going pretty well for a while. I managed to injure Granger on her lower leg, but I had only cut Potter on his cheek. Granger was limping, clearly slowed down, but Potter was just as skillful as, and possibly even more angry, than before.
"Stupefy!" I cried, pointing my wand to the right of me. I did not hit the Mudblood, but I did cause her to fall over.
However, I had left an open shot by moving my arm. Potter spotted the target, and shouted, "Sectumsempra!" Next thing I knew, that horrible cutting curse was sailing towards me, and I was frozen in place, as it sped towards me at lightning speeds, right at my center, where my new little baby slept.
This was the end.
Or so I thought. Right before it hit me, Lucius jumped in front of me, pushing me backwards. I fell to the ground, hard, but safe. A huge shield formed in front of him with such a force that it knocked out the already dazed girl, and brought Potter to his knees.
Just then, a curse came to mind. It was a simple charm, just a silly little thing that I had invented myself in my Hogwarts days. But it would be oh so useful right now. I stared hungrily at Potter's cuts.
A firm grasp pulled me towards my feet. My blood lust must have shown in my eyes, because Voldemort nodded me on. But first I had two questions.
Lilith? I asked silently.
Safe upstairs, his voice echoed through my mind.
And the horcruxes?
Hidden.
Wonderful, I thought.
I steadied my balance, and stared at the bespeckled boy. He raised his arm to cast a curse, but I was faster. "Oceanus Totalus!" A spring of water shot from my wand, but this was no Aguamenti fountain. A huge blast of salty water blasted from the tip, soaking Potter, and all his deep wounds. He screamed in agony, before falling to the ground, unconscious from the pain.
I breathed heavily for a moment before Yaxely and Lucius whooped, and Voldemort kissed me, one hand on my still-flat stomach.
Harry Potter was caught. He was good as dead.
This must have meant we'd won.
WOW! Have they won? What do you think? Review!
