"How did I….?" Bellatrix looked at Madame Pomfrey as the witch walked briskly over to her and began counting her pulse.
"We found you, myself and Madame Pomfrey here" Dippet began, "In the room of requirement, and she transported you back to the hospital wing."
"You were lucky we found you too!" Madame Pomfrey squeaked, "You had a broken nose that wouldn't stop bleeding, owing to someone placing a jelly legs curse on you, making you're blood incredibly thin and unable to clot." She dropped Bellatrixes arm back down and began walking back towards her office while muttering something about, "three blood transfusions" and "stock looks a bit low…"
"Yes well as you can see your nose is now healed and you no longer have the curse on you." Dippet clapped his hands onto his knees and he shifted his position on the bed so he faced Bellatrix more squarely.
"However Miss Black." He paused watching her intently, but Bellatrix knew what he was going to ask.
"I don't know how I got there." She exclaimed, the two teachers swapped glances, "I don't remember anything apart from leaving the common room with…. Someone…" she didn't think it was wise to put Tom on the spotlight just yet. However Dumbledore as watching Bellatrix with interested blue eyes over his half-mooned spectacles and Bellatrix was certain he knew she was withholding information.
"Then I just, woke up in the room of requirement." She said, stopping abruptly, she didn't like the idea of telling the headmaster that she and several other students had been practising the crutiatus curse or that she had managed to successfully duel half of them out of the room.
"Were there others with you Bellatrix?" Asked Dumbledore quizzically.
"Yes. A few."
"Can you remember how many exactly?" Dumbledore never took his eyes off of her and Bellatrix began to feel hot and clammy under the scrutiny.
"Not exactly, but there must have been about twenty maybe more, I don't really remember." She said honestly.
"Who was organising this…errr…Gathering Miss Black?" Dippet now re-joined in with the questioning but his voice was sympathetic.
"Ermmm…I…" Bellatrix wasn't sure whether to tell them or not, she didn't want to get Tom into trouble but neither did she want to be in trouble herself.
"You are not in any trouble Bellatrix" Dumbledore said calmly, "we just need to know the facts, after all you were severely injured from this event."
'Yes I was wasn't I!? This is all Tom's fault!' She thought, suddenly waves of anger rushed through her as she recalled Toms smile when he had put the curse on her, when he had seen her writhing about in pain on the floor. At this, one word sprang into her mind, 'Payback!'
"It was Tom, Tom Riddle!" The two teachers now stared at each other almost in shock. Bellatrix felt her right arm begin to twinge under her shirtsleeve.
"The Head Boy did this?" Dippet said in disbelief.
"Yes and he did this to me too!" She trust her right arm at them and pulled the sleeve up, revealing the grey skull and serpent in a figure of eight. Upon looking at it Bellatrix was certain that it was moving.
Dumbledore pulled Bellatrixes arm towards him so he could get a better look for himself. "This looks to be the same as what I saw on Crabbe and McNair's left arms last week. They were showing it off to their friends." He said to Dippet.
"Can you get it off me? It hurts!" Dippet looked away from her arm and right into Bellatrixes eyes, unable to hold the gaze she looked at her arm as it began to burn slowly under the skin.
"I'm afraid not Miss Black. It would appear you have been given a magically induced brand by, if it is who we believe it to be, Tom Riddle." Dippet sighed.
"You mean I'm stuck with this!?" Bellatrix yelled.
"Yes I am afraid so, But why Tom has given it to you I cannot say, however you say it hurts?" Dumbledore asked letting go of her arm. Bellatrix nodded.
"Is the pain like a burn, stab, pins and needles or freezing?"
"Burn." She answered.
"This would appear, in that case, to be a summoning brand." Dumbledore stood up, as too did Dippet. Bellatrix watched them intently, she was trying to gage whether or not she really was in trouble and if they had just said that she wasn't just to get the information they were after.
"I suggest you get some rest Miss Black, I have informed your teachers that you probably won't be in lessons tomorrow." Dippet turned and began walking away, Dumbledore in the mean time stayed where he was.
"I don't want to miss any lessons sir, I feel fine, honest." Bellatrix lied, her arm felt hot and tingly from the brand and she couldn't help but feel very light headed. Never the less Bellatrix swung her legs out of the side of the bed, fighting the dizziness that spun through her head.
"I don't think so young lady!" Madame Pomfrey shrieked as she re-emerged from her office carrying a yellow jar with what appeared to contain very fine grains of golden sand. "You need rest and sleep, you lost a lot of blood from that nose of yours and you need to get your system used to the donated blood."
Bellatrix watched as Madame Pomfrey took out a small silver spoon from the bedside cabinet and uncorked the yellow bottle with her wand. However Bellatrix didn't enjoy being in the hospital wing, she preferred to get better alone. She recalled how her father had taught her and her sisters from a very young age that; "A wizard or witch who cannot help themselves cannot be fit to help others, only fit for death. Only the strong survive." Words she had never forgotten.
"I'm not taking that stuff!" Bellatrix said sternly, as the bottle magically emptied its sandy content onto the spoon in Madame Pomfrey's hand.
"Bellatrix I think it would be best in this instance if you did, Madame Pomfrey is right, you need sleep." Dumbledore said softly.
"No way that's solid sand!" Bellatrix sounded a bit more frantic than stern now and she watched as Dumbledore seemed to let out a light chuckle.
"This will help you sleep." Madame Pomfrey was beginning to sound impatient, "Now get back into bed and lie down."
"Help me sleep? What did the sand man give you that stuff or something?" she laughed sarcastically but it sounded manic and inhuman. "Honestly I'm fine Miss, I just want to go to lessons."
"If you'll wait just for a few more minutes Poppy, I have a few more things to ask Bellatrix" Dumbledore interjected.
Madame Pomfrey sighed and folded her arms in frustration. "Alone if you don't mind Poppy." And the nurse walked off.
"I am in trouble aren't I?" Bellatrix looked at Dumbledore, she thought that although his body looked fairly frail he still seemed to walk about with the energy of someone much younger.
"No, no, no Bellatrix, you are definitely not in trouble..." He chuckled again.
"Is Tom then?" She interrupted.
"Possibly." Dumbledore paused. "He may be in the future however, if this sort of thing continues." He sighed.
"Do you think it will do Professor?"
"I am unsure yet, but if it does it could lead Tom and by the sounds of it, several other students down a very dark path indeed. Including you, Bellatrix." She was certain that Dumbledore wasn't telling her off but he was giving her a warning. 'He knows something I don't' she thought, and she tried to consider the possibilities of what Tom would be like as an adult. The image was not a pretty one.
"Now I just have one more question I need to ask you." Dumbledore rummaged inside one of his pockets in his purple robes and pulled out a vial containing a violently pink liquid. Bellatrix gasped.
"I take it this is your love potion Bellatrix?" He said with a knowing smile and Bellatrix knew there was no point lying and she dropped her head and gazed at the sheets. She felt foolish and embarrassed and her cheeks turned scarlet.
"Yes professor." Even her voice sounded guilty.
"Hmmm I thought so. It wasn't by chance for one of the other students was it young lady?" Bellatrix was certain that inside Dumbledore was laughing at her stupidity and she felt ashamed for even contemplating the idea. "Only it's against school rules to do such a thing, it also goes against life in general. Surely a smart girl such as yourself must know this?"
"I was going to give it…." She hesitated, she thought she may sound desperate, but when she looked up into Dumbledore's bright blue eyes she knew it was better to tell the truth, just this once. "I was going to give it to, Tom."
"Riddle?"
"Yes sir." She nodded before looking at her fingers as she twiddled them in the awkwardness.
"But you didn't, did you?" Dumbledore raised an eyebrow.
"No sir." Tears began to fill in Bellatrixes eyes but not from embarrassment, from anger at herself for being stupid enough to think she could ever get away with such a plan. She was even angrier at the fact she was allowing herself to be so honest about such matters, and to a teacher too.
"Then I cannot punish you." Bellatrix looked up to see Dumbledore's beaming expression looking down at her.
"You're…. You're not?" She said as a tear ran down her cheek.
"No, I can't I'm afraid. You didn't give it to a pupil so you are not guilty of anything except carrying it around with you. However," he continued, "I will take it away with me so you shouldn't be found to have it on your person later?" He said it more as a question to Bellatrix, she was now certain he was probing her to find out if she had anymore potion, but alas she didn't and she shook her head in response.
"Good. In that case then, I bid you goodnight." With that he began walking back towards the hospital door and at the same time Madame Pomfrey appeared from her office, yet again, and walked over to Bellatrix, golden spoonful in hand.
Just as Dumbledore was about to leave however, he turned around and looked at Bellatrix, who stared back at him, before he said calmly, "You know Bellatrix, this would never have made Tom love you." He waved the potion vial in his hand, "he would merely have become obsessed and infatuated by you, and I don't think he would have interested you once he had changed, do you?" Then Dumbledore turned and walked out of the door and closed it behind him. Bellatrix heard a faint *Click. 'He's locked me in! Great. Now I'm stuck here!" she thought crossly and she folded her arms and legs and scowled at Madame Pomfrey who was now by her beside.
"There's no way I'm swallowing sand!" she said stubbornly.
"HA!" Madame Pomfrey laughed, "you're not going to swallow this, good God! Close your eyes please!" She raised the spoon up to her own mouth.
"You wha…" Too late Madame Pomfrey blew hard onto the spoon, scattering Bellatrix in bright golden sand particles and before her head had even hit the pillows, she was sound asleep.