"And when I watch my baby grow up,
I'll only want what's best for her"
-"Mama's Song"
Carrie Underwood
It was early September at Grimmauld Place, a warm day with dark, ominous clouds and the threat of a storm lingering in the air through the heavy humidity and the deep, distant rumbling of thunder in a place not too far away.
The Black children were once again in the schoolroom, supervised by their nanny, Eliza, and the newly hired tutor, Mr. Davis Steal. Mr. Steal was a Muggle; he was old and strict and had served in the army. He hated children, especially Bellatrix and Sirius, who had played one too many tricks on him in the two weeks that he'd been there.
Why their parents had chosen a Muggle to teach them was actually quite simple: their last teacher, Ms. Golding, had been a witch, and she was often distracted by attempting to teach the children magic. She was young and kind but she was a pureblood, and one that hadn't been taught any sort of Muggle school subjects at all. She could barely understand the information about science and math herself, let alone teach it to six year olds.
Ms. Golding still came around occasionally, and Bellatrix and Sirius thought this was just because their mothers felt bad for her. The young woman helped teach the children things that would make them more sophisticated. They learned about fashion, interior design, styling hair, makeup for the girls, how to dance properly, how to set the table, how to pour tea, how to eat properly, and how to speak French.
Mr. Steal was a much better teacher. Eight hours per day the children were forced to sit still and listen and learn and take notes. They were working on advanced things for children their age: multiplication and division, fractions, grammar rules, non-fiction books, science experiments, maps, and history. Andromeda even joined them in some of their lessons.
Although Mr. Steal didn't like Bellatrix or Sirius, he had to admit, he secretly preferred Bellatrix over her cousin. She was a better student; she had a better attention span, and she had an actual desire to learn.
That may have even been an understatement. Bellatrix was like a sponge, desperately soaking up new information.
That was a lot more than what could be said about Sirius, who didn't think there was a point to learning, and didn't seem to care about much other than learning to tell the time so that he would know when his lessons would be over.
Mr. Steal had to admit, Sirius had a sense of humor.
On this particular September morning, Bellatrix and Sirius had each been given a complicated long division problem. Bellatrix was scribbling away with her pencil, determined to solve the problem. Sirius wrote down a number every few seconds, struggling to remember the next step.
There was a knock on the door. Bellatrix didn't even look up.
"Come in," said Mr. Steal.
The door opened. "I need to take Bellatrix out of class for today, please," said Druella.
Bellatrix looked up at her mother, scowling. "Mummy, I'm trying to learn how to do long-division-"
"You can finish your lesson tomorrow," said Druella sternly.
Bellatrix pouted as she pushed her piece of parchment into her desk and followed Druella out of the room.
"I have something to teach you, Bella. Something more important than long division," she added, noting the look on her daughter's face.
"Okay," Bellatrix said, pleased. Her mother was going to take the time to teach her something!
Druella led Bellatrix into her bedroom. Upon entering, Bellatrix noticed that her mother's room was much different than it had been two years ago, when she and Sirius had messed it up. The room was much more dark now; things were grey or black instead of white.
Druella pulled the desk chair away from the desk and instructed Bellatrix to sit in it. She did as she was told as her mother sat on the bed.
"I'm going to teach you to keep your thoughts to yourself," Druella said.
"Keep my thoughts to myself?" Bellatrix repeated, confused.
"You don't want anyone to be able to get into your head, do you?"
Bellatrix looked extremely confused, and Druella sighed. "Do you want people to be able to read your mind?"
"I don't know," Bellatrix said, thinking that at six years old, she didn't really have anything to hide.
"You don't," Druella answered for her. "Trust me, Bella, someday you'll be glad I taught you this."
"I'm glad you're teaching me something, Mummy," Bellatrix said as she smiled sweetly at her mother.
Druella smiled, but it didn't touch her eyes, and that was when Bellatrix knew something was wrong. She sat a little straighter, and prepared to be on her best behavior.
"This is called Occlumency, Bellatrix."
"Occlumency," she repeated. "Okay."
"When someone tries to look into your mind, it's called Legilimency."
"Legilimency," Bellatrix said smoothly.
"Alright, Bella, are you ready?"
Bellatrix didn't know what she was supposed to be ready for, but she nodded anyway.
"Clear your mind, okay?"
"Clear it?" she repeated, her eyebrows going up and together. "I don't understand-"
"Try not to think about anything."
That was a lot harder than it sounded. Memories of every prank she and Sirius had ever pulled, every rule they ever broke, and every other little thing they had done wrong suddenly filled her head.
She scowled, attempting to rid her head of any thoughts.
"Legilimens," said Druella gently as she pointed her wand at her daughter.
The first memory was her and Sirius, trashing Druella's bedroom in that game of Slytherin vs. Gryffindor. The next was when the two of them had shattered a vase and hid it under a bed in a random bedroom, then they were using their magic comb to search all throughout the house, then she was lighting Lucius Malfoy's hair on fire with the little flame that wasn't just a pretty little thing, and then her and Sirius were walking up the secret staircase to the place where their fort was hidden.
No, no, no! Bellatrix thought. I'm sworn to secrecy about that fort -
Bellatrix felt her dress getting uncomfortably warm, and she jumped.
She had accidentally started the chair on fire.
Quickly summoning the flame back onto her hand, she extinguished it, leaving a scorch mark on the arm of the chair.
"Sorry," she said sheepishly, looking up at her mother.
Druella looked impressed. "When did you learn to do that?"
"Awhile ago," Bellatrix said, attempting to drop the subject.
"Before we were at the Malfoys'," Druella said, slightly amused that her child had lit Lucius on fire.
Bellatrix nodded, blushing.
"Well, that wasn't a bad try, for starters, Bella," Druella said. "Should we try again?"
Black spirles went flying as Bellatrix nodded.
"Legilimens."
She and Severus were pulling the kitten from the tree, and then they were playing in the river, tackling each other into the mud... Then they were listening to the little mudblood girl talking to her Muggle sister...
And she was back in her mother's bedroom.
And Druella looked extremely impressed. "That was incredible. It took me years to get to that point, and you've gotten it on your second try- and you're ten years younger than I was, when I started to learn-"
She wasn't even talking to her daughter, really. She was just ranting to herself.
Bellatrix was very pleased with herself.
"Bella, darling, come here," Druella said, suddenly darting into her bathroom.
Bellatrix followed uncertainly, and watched as her mother dug through a bathroom drawer and pulled out a little vial of thick, blue potion.
"This is Veritaserum," Druella explained. "Do you know what it does?"
Bellatrix frowned in concentration. "Is that the one that makes you turn into someone else, or is it the one that makes you tell the truth?"
"It's the truth potion," she said, pulling her water cup down from the medicine cabinet and filling it with water from the sink. She pulled the dropper out of the potion, and used it to add one drop of potion to the cup of water.
Upon contact, the potion turned a silvery gold color, and then disappeared.
Druella turned to her daughter with the cup and held it out.
Bellatrix took it hesitantly.
"Drink that, and then tell me that your name is Bathilda Bagshot."
Looking at her mother like she had gone crazy, Bellatrix drank the cup of water. It tasted normal to her.
She set the crystal cup down on the countertop. Druella was looking at her expectantly.
"My name is Bellatrix Black," she said confidently, and a crestfallen look immediately covered her face as her hands went up to her mouth as though trying to figure out why she hadn't said what she had intended to.
Druella looked slightly disappointed.
"My name is Bell- ugh, no," Bellatrix said, frustrated. "Mummy, I can't do it."
Putting the stopper back into her potion, she handed the vial to her daughter. "I want you to drink a cup of water with one drop of this in it every night, and keep trying to say that your name is Bathilda Bagshot. Will you do that?"
"Yes," Bellatrix said truthfully.
"Good," Druella said, satisfied. "I'll come and get you sometime tomorrow and we'll try the Occlumency again, okay? We're practicing every day until you can do it."
"How did you learn to do Legilimency?" Bellatrix asked, although she normally wouldn't have - she felt like she couldn't keep her mouth shut. "I want to learn that!"
"We'll see," Druella said, ushering her child out of the room. "Go put that in your room," she said, indicating the vial, "And don't let your father see it."
"Okay."
"Good night, darling."
"Good night, Mummy."