Chapter 11
The wind howled around the house, rain lashing at the windows. I stared out into the darkness. I couldn't help but feel uneasy. Something was wrong. Something was happening. I could feel it. A cold shiver ran down my spine as a clap of thunder rumbled through the sky, lightning illuminating the grounds for a tiny fragment of a second.
I looked around as I heard to door creak open, and saw Sabina peering wide-eyed around the door.
"What's wrong, sweetheart?" I asked, though I was fairly sure I could guess. "Is it the storm?" As if in answer to my question, she jumped as another crash of thunder struck the house. She ran towards me and I lifted her into my arms. I turned back to the window so that she could see out of it.
"Look," I said softly. "There is nothing to be frightened of. It's only a storm." But as I had said this, another flash of lightning ripped through the sky, and I stopped. There was something there, in the grounds. Someone. I stared at the spot where the person had been standing. For a moment I thought it had been… But it couldn't have. That was impossible. Wasn't it?
"Come on?" I said softly, my eyes still fixed on that same spot. "Let's get you back to bed."
As I walked out of the library a deafening crash resonated through the front hall. The great dark oak double-doors slammed open and Sabina screamed. I placed her on the floor and pulled her safely behind me, my wand drawn.
My eyes widened in shock and I stood, frozen, staring in a stunned silence at the person standing in the doorway. The woman staggered through the front doors, water dripping off her tattered prison uniform. She stood, swaying slightly, as though she hardly had the strength to hold herself up.
"Bellatrix," I whispered.
"Hello, Narcissa," she croaked. A grin spread across her face, making her look half mad in her wet, tattered uniform. I ran towards my sister, throwing my arms around her, almost knocking her over. She held me tight in her arms, tears running down my face.
"How?" I whispered.
"The Dark Lord," she croaked. "He broke me out." I pulled back to look at her. Azkaban had broken her.
"You're crying," she stated, the shadow of a smirk playing at the corner of her mouth. "I could always make you cry." Suddenly her knees gave out from underneath her and she sank to the floor. I went with her, unable to support her weight as she fell.
"Lucius!" I shouted. I heard my husband run into the hall, stopping suddenly as he set eyes on Bella.
"Take Sabina to bed," I said quietly so that only he could hear. He nodded silently, wiping the shocked expression from his face, picking up my confused daughter and whisking her away.
I held tightly to my sister and disapparated with a loud crack, appearing in on of the empty bedrooms. We stumbled towards the bed where she collapsed not a moment too soon. After I had stripped the dirty rags from what remained of her once voluptuous body, and changed her into a clean black silk nightgown, I pulled that blankets around her unconscious form. I sat besides her, staring in shock at how much she had changed. My beautiful sister had been broken by fourteen long cruel years in Azkaban. Her beautiful charcoal eyes were sunken and hooded, the dark purple circles that encased them the only colour in her skeletal face. Her skin was otherwise sallow and deathly white, stretched over her thin frame. Where her body had once supported full, alluring curves in all the right places, she was now thin and malnourished. Even her hair looked starved of its health. Her ebony curls had given way to a mass of wild matted ones with tiny streaks of silver running through them. I felt a tear run down my cheek. Yes I had her back at last, but there was no telling just how damaged she was.
The next thing I knew I was being unceremoniously kicked awake. I must have fallen asleep on her.
"There is no need to kick me, Bellatrix," I said irritably.
"You are the one who fell asleep on me. What was I supposed to do?" I rolled my eyes at her.
"How do you feel?" I asked. The smile slid from her face.
"Hungry, tired, weak," she admitted. "Like I've just spent fourteen years in Azkaban. How do you think?" she snapped.
"Don't shout at me, Bella," I said flatly. I had not forgotten about my sister's unpredictable mood swings. "I am allowed to be concerned," I said. She sat back, grumbling incoherently.
"Bella, no one expects you to be back on top form immediately," I said carefully.
"Yes they do," she said stubbornly.
"Who?"
"The Dark Lord," she muttered.
"If he did he would have called you by now," I argued. I sighed to myself. "You're the only one who thinks that you should be back to full strength immediately. Give your self a few days to recuperate, you've only just escaped from Azkaban for god's sake."
"I kept dreaming about it," she said in a low voice. "Escaping, coming back to you."
"I dreamed about it to," I said, half smiling. Charcoal black met ice blue.
"I missed you, Cissy," she said.
"I missed you too," I replied thickly, a tear rolling down my cheek.