Black Heir [R]
By Hawk
Summary: This is the Hawk-style version of the heavily overused Harry-gets-a-letter-from-dead-Sirius plotline and stuff happens due to this. Hopefully a good read in spite of this boring premise...
Disclaimer: Harry Potter, Hogwarts and whatnot are not mine, though I certainly wish they were. The story is mine though, all mine.
Feedback/Flames: Yes, please. Both of them are equally fun to read, although I must admit that I greatly prefer the first variety. :)
I can be found at iamhawk at yahoo dot com, though not very frequently as real life lately interferes with my online existance more then I'd like.
Chapter Ten:
"What happened? What have you been doing?!" Harry asked as he slowly approached his wife and her unconscious sister. He cautiously and extremely tentatively moved in under Bellatrix spare shoulder and slung her arm over his shoulders, wrapping one of his arms around her waist as he helped Narcissa move her over to the couch.
The moment Bellatrix was prone, he whipped out his wand and aimed it at her, then grabbed the wand she was still hanging on to, even in unconsciousness, yanking it out of her hand before he stepped back away from her.
"I was hoping that Draco would be staying with Bellatrix in her private hideout, but he wasn't there. I rummaged around a bit hoping for some sort of clue, but she came home in the midst of my search. I gather she doesn't approve of my recent marriage, as she tried to capture me while uttering some very unpleasant things about me and some very unflattering things about you. Things didn't quite turn out that way, however." Narcissa replied and then grunted as Harry suddenly fired a Stunner at her, dropping her like a sack of potatoes.
"If it's really you, sorry about that..." Harry mumbled and then proceeded to put both witches in full body binds and moved Narcissa, or at least the one who looked like Narcissa, over to the reading chair and then went to get the Messaging Stone Tonks had left with Fistfang. The goblin lawyer had sent it over with one of the Gringott owls that had the ability to pass through the sort of Goblin Wards that protected his new home since he'd forgotten to bring it after the meeting with Tonks.
He tapped the stone with his wand and waited for a couple of seconds, then the stone vibrated and started glowing softly.
"Harry?" came Tonks faintly distant-sounding voice from the stone.
"Tonks, I need you to come over to the apartment. Bring some healing potions and something to dispel Polyjuice transformations." Harry said while holding his wand against the stone.
"... Rightie-oh, I'll be there. I'll be expecting a good explanation, so you start working on that right away." came Tonks faintly worried and intensely curious voice after a few silent moments, before the light from the stone faded away.
Harry moved over to the two unconscious witches, preformed Accio for wands, Portkeys and weapons, then carefully and extremely awkwardly started frisking them in case there were any Accio-proofed unpleasant surprises hidden anywhere. Narcissa had a small knife strapped to her left wrist hidden in her wide sleeves that hadn't responded to Accio, Bellatrix had an extra wand on her right leg and a ring hidden in her stripy hair. He wasn't sure what the ring was supposed to do, but he shivered as he touched it and could clearly feel some nefarious purpose imbedded in it even without the assistance of diagnosis spells. Mere touch was enough to feel some great evil radiating from it.
When he was reasonably sure that the two of them had been rendered mostly harmless, as there were some parts on the two of them that he hadn't had the guts to check for hidden items, he did what little he could for the two of them. Mostly cleaning cuts, healing minor bruises and making sure that they were as comfortable as they could be, undoing the body binds to move them around.
A minute or two after Harry had done what he could, Tonks arrived and nearly fell over in surprise at the sight that met her.
"What happened here?!" she asked, looking between the two unconscious witches and Harry.
"Narcissa went out this morning, looking for Draco. She Apparated into the apartment with her unconscious sister a couple of minutes ago." Harry replied and frowned. "But I'm not sure that it's actually Narcissa. It could be Bellatrix Polyjuiced to look like Narcissa and Narcissa Polyjuiced to look like Bellatrix. I'm not sure how the Goblin wards work, but perhaps contact with the real Narcissa could have made it possible for Bellatrix to Apparate here. So I stunned 'Narcissa' until I could be sure that it's really her." he explained and Tonks slowly nodded.
"Moody would approve, but I'm not sure that Narcissa will if you're wrong." she commented and pulled out a small vial from one of her pockets. "Well, let's find out if you'll be sleeping on the couch tonight or not." she offered with a small smile, then sprinkled Narcissa's face with the potion. "I think it's the couch for you, mister. This is the real Narcissa." she announced, then sprinkled Bellatrix as well. "And this is the real Bellatrix." she breathed with an almost reverent tone of voice. "I gotta give Aunt Narcissa major credit for that, Aunt Bellatrix is one devious sneaky witch."
"I know..." Harry replied and glared at the unconscious woman. "I've done what little I can for them, can you take a look at them and do what you can?" he requested and Tonks nodded, then got to work.
"Well, Narcissa is mostly all right now. She might need to see a specialist to make sure that this won't leave a scar and she'll need a lot of rest, but she'll make a full recovery." Tonks announced once she was finished with Narcissa, indicating that the former wound on her face had left a nasty scar after Tonks healed it to the best of her ability.
Unfortunately, she'd never made any extended studies in that particular field outside of emergency battlefield healing. She was adept enough at quickly fixing dangerous injuries, but only in the quickest and crudest of ways. Scars were quite another thing, especially as she herself didn't have to worry about them as she could simply morph herself pretty after an injury had been fixed, should a scar or other blemish remain.
"She's got a broken left ankle and I'm no good with bones, but other then that, she'll recover completely." Tonks finished once she'd had a look at Bellatrix as well, while Harry had almost reluctantly ended the Stunner he'd put Narcissa under before. Her body relaxed easily enough, but she didn't regain consciousness, likely due to her exhaustion. "You should have told me to bring Poppy right away or called for her instead, Harry." she added.
"No." he simply declared. "No more people then absolutely necessary can know about this. Besides, she couldn't get here on her own and you're not able to bring unauthorized passengers through the Wards anyway. Besides, that Bellatrix has been captured will have to be kept a secret from everybody else." he added.
"What are you talking about? I'll have to bring her in!" Tonks responded with a confused expression.
"Yeah, like we haven't seen how well that has worked before." Harry grunted with a shake of his head. "Narcissa apparently let the Aurors take Draco so he would be kept safe and wouldn't get involved in something dangerous, but now he's missing and has been inducted as a Death Eater. The Ministry guards at the holding cells are either dead or injured." he explained and looked over at Bellatrix, a hateful shimmer in his eyes that caused Tonks to shiver uncomfortably as she wondered just how much of a life expectancy Bellatrix had if she didn't get her away from Harry.
"That was before. With the new guidelines Fudge enacted, she'll be tried and convicted before there's time for a jailbreak." Tonks argued.
"We can't take that chance with someone as dangerous as her!" Harry protested and raised his wand in the Auror's direction, only to suddenly find Tonks facing him, her own wand held out towards him.
"Oh no, Harry. You got the jump on me once, I'll give you that and I'll even praise you for catching a trained Auror unawares. But don't expect the same thing to ever happen again now that I know what you're capable of." she informed him with a stern expression, as the two of them faced each other at wand point, staring silently at each other for several tense moments.
"Then I guess he's fortunate that he's got me to assist him." Narcissa suddenly commented, causing Tonks to freeze as she felt something poking into her back and heard Narcissa's calm voice from just behind her. "I'm with husband dearest here, niece. I'm afraid that I can't allow you to arrest Bellatrix just yet." she continued and Tonks shook her head, slowly lowering her wand until Narcissa pried it out of her hands. "Thank you for that, as I suddenly seem to find myself without a wand." she added and moved her left index finger away from the lower back of her niece.
Tonks eyes widened as she realized that she'd been tricked, that had been no wand that Narcissa had threatened her with.
"I'm sorry, Tonks." Harry apologised.
"I am too, Harry. Me too..." she said as she focused a disappointed expression at him. "I'm an Auror, Harry! Do you really think that you'll get away with this? I *have* to report this!"
"Actually, you're currently a plain civilian as you're on vacation. Additionally, I think you'll find that you're no longer wanted as an Auror when you get back from your vacation." Narcissa claimed with a faint smile, as she hobbled back to the reading chair, where she slumped down with a relieved sigh, obviously still worn out from her earlier jaunt outside and the confrontation with her sister. "Amelia Bones no doubt has a few issues with you being part of an illegal vigilante group. You'll likely be given the choice of resigning as an Auror or give a binding Oath not to have anything to do with the Order in the future." she continued and gently touched her own face, wincing when she traced the outline of her scar. "Will this heal?" she asked with a faintly worried tone of voice and a rapidly paling complexion.
"You'll need to see a specialist for that, because I'm no good at removing scars." Tonks responded and Narcissa slowly nodded, deciding to make an appointment with a specialist as soon as possible. "Aunt Narcissa, Aunt Bellatrix is a criminal of the worst degree. Justice must be served!" she claimed.
"My son is missing, Nymphadora." Narcissa replied. "My sister likely knows exactly where he is and I intend to get that information from her." she continued and looked over at Bellatrix for a few moments. "She's also been one of the Dark Lords most loyal followers and likely has all sorts of valuable information to share with us in addition to the location of my son."
"And after that?" Tonks demanded to know.
"She is my sister..." Narcissa replied with a faintly uncomfortable expression. "I know that she'll have to face justice for what she's done, but..." she added, but trailed off with a sorrowful expression. "I won't be the one to turn her in. I just won't." she finally declared.
"And what do you have planned for her, Harry?" Tonks asked with a raised eyebrow.
"I want the information she has as well." he admitted, though he didn't admit that he hadn't even thought about that part until Narcissa had mentioned it just now, then his expression grew hard. "After that though... Tonks, she's the one who killed Sirius!" he snarled, his wand-hand twitching with fury.
"Harry, you can't just kill her. She has to face justice for what she's done." Tonks argued.
"Harry, you can't just kill her. She's my sister!" Narcissa argued and Harry sighed, rubbing his temples as the two women glanced at each other, before looking back at Harry.
"Narcissa, Draco was one thing. He's been a right prat for as long as I've known him, but until his initiation, he's mostly just been a major pain in the arse and not a real threat. Bellatrix... I can't promise anything when it comes to her!" Harry protested with a furious shake of his head.
"Draco was initiated after his jailbreak?!" Tonks exclaimed with a horrified expression, only now recalling what Harry had revealed earlier with this additional reminder.
"Yes, Potter had a vision of it." Narcissa absently replied, while looking thoughtfully at Harry with her arms crossed. "All right, 'husband dearest'. You've shown yourself willing to negotiate in the past. I don't want you to kill my sister. What do you want in return?" she asked, causing Harry to blink in surprise.
"What?!" he exclaimed.
"You blackmailed me for information in return for your promise not to kill Draco, so you're obviously willing to negotiate when it suits you." Narcissa replied and caused Tonks to blink with surprise at that particular revelation. "Well, so am I. I want Bellatrix. Now, what is it you want in return for leaving her fate up to me?" she asked again and Harry was just about to tell her to shove her ruddy negotiation up her uptight Pure-blooded arse, when he suddenly realized that he'd just struck gold!
"I want your promise to divorce me when I become of age, Narcissa." Harry replied and got a furious glare in return.
"No." she replied, shaking her head dismissively. "Try again." she suggested.
"Come again?" he exclaimed.
"If you're living with the delusion that you're ever going to get me to agree to a divorce, then let me dispel that little fantasy right now." Narcissa replied. "Until death do us part or things radically change for unmarried witches, 'husband'." she almost growled. "So, forget that. Either suggest something else or start *trying* to take me down, because I won't let you lay a hand on my sister."
"Ahhh, newlyweds..." Tonks murmured as Harry stared in shock at Narcissa.
"Ah, ah, ah, niece. Keep your hands where I can see them." Narcissa said, as Tonks had made use out of Harry's distraction to shift her hands towards her back. She pouted and slowly moved her hands back again as Harry glanced back at her, then shifted around so that he could watch both Tonks and Narcissa at the same time. "Isn't trust amongst allies a wonderful thing?" Narcissa commented with a faint smile, before she glanced pointedly at Harry again. "Well, do you have another suggestion or shall we start cursing each other?" she urged him on.
"All right." Harry eventually responded. "I want three things from you, in return for Bellatrix survival." he announced and Narcissa nodded at him to go on. "First... I never want to see her again, ever! Second... No more going off unannounced on your own like this morning! Third... No consummation!"
"The second is agreeable, I think we can come to an agreement that unless it's absolutely necessary to avoid delays as lives might be at stake otherwise, I'll discuss my comings and goings with you. The third will be hard if you still want us to be married, unless you know of some way to trick the Ritual, because I certainly don't. The first... The first we'll have to discuss. I don't know about you, but I wouldn't trust Bellatrix to not come up with some way of getting away if she's left to her own devices for too long." Narcissa replied, causing Harry to frown.
It wasn't as if they had their own personal Azkaban they could put Bellatrix in, so as loathe as he was to admit it Narcissa actually had a point. If Bellatrix wasn't killed and instead merely kept as a prisoner, then he'd certainly not trust her not to do something utterly devious!
"What were you planning on doing with her?" he asked suspiciously.
"Well, as Dobby and Winky decided to settle in one of the upstairs hallway closets after they converted it to suitable elf quarters, we do have your guestroom to spare..." Narcissa hinted with a carefully studied neutral expression.
"You... Move in... She..." Harry stuttered, then took a deep breath and regained his focus. "You intend for her to live here?" he asked for clarification, but didn't wait for a response. "You intend for my godfather's killer to live here with us? Her?!" he snapped, pointing angrily at the unconscious Bellatrix Lestrange.
"Her, yes..." Narcissa agreed and sighed. "Look. I bought a lot of properties from Draco, but I can't really put her at any of them. Not only might she run away on her own, but there's also a chance that she'll be broken out by other Death Eaters as Draco is well aware of the Malfoy properties. Lucius was an absent father, but he certainly did show Draco all he had coming to him as heir to the Malfoy family." she explained and nodded at Bellatrix. "She'll need to be watched closely and hidden away from her allies, both of which she'll be here with us and inside the Goblin Wards."
"Or at Azkaban..." Tonks muttered. "This wouldn't be a problem if you'd just let me take her in." she hinted.
"Hush now, Niece." Narcissa suggested to her. "The adults are talking." she added, causing the younger woman to bristle indignantly although she did refrain from commenting.
Audibly.
She appeared to be quite vocal under her breath, however...
"You're serious?" Harry breathed. "You *really* want us to harbour Bellatrix here? In our home?!"
"Yes." Narcissa replied with a firm nod. "Now that we've established that, all we have to agree upon is your price for allowing that to happen."
Harry rubbed his temples as his gaze once again strayed to Narcissa's slender neck. That strangling thing was becoming more and more appealing by the minute.
"You've got a very determined wife." Tonks commented as she indicated a long blue dress. "How about that one?" she asked.
"Don't I bloody know it..." Harry muttered and glanced at the dress. "How should I know? Try it on and decide yourself, I'm just the pack mule and ambulatory wallet." he replied with a tired sigh.
It was weird how things worked out sometimes. Yesterday, if somebody had asked him what he thought might happen today and received a *thousand* different answers from him, then *none* of them would have been that he'd be out buying clothes for his new flatmate Bellatrix Lestrange.
But seeing as Narcissa's clothes didn't fit her sister and all that bloody woman had to wear was the dirty and torn robes she'd worn when Narcissa brought her over, he had agreed that it was necessary.
It was nauseating enough having to live with the woman, without her walking around flashing her skin through the tears in her clothes every other second.
The negotiations hadn't gone well, especially not with Tonks providing a running commentary and the occasional outrageous suggestion from the sidelines. Narcissa had provided counterpoints for nearly all his suggestions and he'd very nearly been about to raise his wand and duke it out with his wife, when Narcissa had sighed and offered up some suggestions of her own on his behalf.
They'd harbour Bellatrix with them until the war was over and Narcissa would be allowed to use that time to do whatever she could to lighten the sentence Bellatrix would have to face once Voldemort wasn't a threat. When he was dead and his other Death Eaters neutralized, they'd turn Bellatrix over to the Aurors and the dubious mercy of the Wizarding justice system.
Narcissa would fit her sister with some sort of slave gear. Anklets, bracelets and a collar that'd somehow keep the woman under control by magical means. He'd never heard of such things and Tonks hadn't either, but she had promised to research it and let Harry know if what Narcissa had told him was the truth. It would keep Bellatrix under control, mellow her out a bit and possibly also help with her disturbed mentality.
They'd also look through the Black Vault and locate the Oath of Loyalty for Bellatrix. They'd put down some things jointly to ensure that she behaved herself, but they had also agreed that Harry would get to put down two things of his own on it for Bella's punishment if he so desired, as long as those two things didn't endanger her life or incapacitated her in any sort of permanent manner.
Narcissa wouldn't run off without letting him know about it beforehand, unless lives were on the line and it was absolutely imperative that she did so. On the other hand, she'd somehow gotten him to make the same promise to her so he had to talk to her about his comings and goings as well. She had however sworn to tell him the truth about what she was up to, which he hadn't done in return, so he could at least lie about what he was up to should it become necessary.
He'd also gotten her to promise to never get him declared mentally unfit, even if he really did go bonkers at some point. She'd also offered her full support to him in the social, political and economical arena, though she had claimed that she would have done that anyway, but now he had a binding Magical Oath that she'd do just that.
He wasn't really sure if it was a good deal or not, considering that he'd now have to put up with having Bellatrix around the apartment, but he had resolved to do his best to live with the devils bargain he'd just made with his own wife.
It had been necessary to make a deal with Tonks as well, as Harry had been dead set against simply Obliviating her as Narcissa had first suggested. Narcissa had managed to convince Tonks that she would be out of a job soon, so his 'darling' wife had offered her a new one as compensation.
She would serve as a guard for Bellatrix and also function as the Potter-Black body-guard during public outings, something Narcissa claimed was necessary for a man and woman of their standing. Harry had groaned at making even more of a spectacle of himself, but had eventually caved and agreed. Tonks had been incredibly hesitant to accept, but after Narcissa had told her that her salary would be half again as large as the one she had as an Auror, more vacation days and that she was welcome to eat with them instead of making her own meals, she'd been quick to accept.
So much for 'doing the right thing' and bring Bellatrix into custody! Everyone apparently had a price, it was only a question of finding out just what that price was. The going rate for Tonks was apparently free food, more money then she currently earned and twenty-five paid vacation days a year.
"All right." Tonks replied in response to his suggestion, grabbed the dress and headed for a changing room where she could strip out of her clothes, morph into Bellatrix and try the dress on for size.
Though he still didn't quite understand just how he'd wound up having to go shopping for his deranged sister-in-law.
But he supposed that it was better then sticking around the apartment as Narcissa woke her up. He wasn't sure that he'd be able to control himself around that freak of a killer and he'd gladly put that particular meeting off for as long as possible, as he wasn't in any hurry whatsoever to find out if he could keep from killing her or not.
"Urgh..." Bellatrix grunted.
"Snap out of it, you miserable excuse for a human being." Narcissa urged her sister, causing the woman in question to focus a bleary gaze at Narcissa, upon which her eyes narrowed and her lips curled into a feral snarl.
"You bitch!" she snarled and tried to claw her sister in the face, only to discover that she couldn't move anything below her neck. "What the hell are you doing, you bloody slag?! You went through my apartment! And where the hell am I now?" she demanded to know.
"Shut up, you freak of nature." Narcissa icily replied and grabbed Bellatrix by the front of her robes, pulling her up off the couch and putting their faces right next to each other. "Where is my son? Where is Draco?!"
"Wouldn't you like to know, you blood traitor?" Bellatrix laughed. "What the hell were you thinking, marrying the Potter brat?!"
"I wasn't at the time. He used my Oath of Loyalty against me." Narcissa replied. "Now, where is my son?!"
"Potter did?" Bellatrix exclaimed with an astonished expression. "Well, well, well... First he Crucio:ed me and now this? He's got a bigger set of conkers then I first gave him credit for!" she laughed.
"I wouldn't know about his conkers, as the marriage hasn't been consummated yet." Narcissa commented, then held her wand just in front of her sisters' right eyeball. "But you're getting off track. Where is he?! Where is my son?"
"He's with the Dark Lord." Bellatrix replied with a shrug. "I only have my own place because it's not a good idea for a woman to stay around a bunch of murdering raping assholes 24/7 and the Lestrange estate isn't the smartest place to hide out in. Though considering how much of a feminine-looking butt-monkey your pitiful excuse for crotch droppings is, perhaps he should consider a place of his own as well before he becomes the bitch of some bugger-inclinated Death Eater!" she added, only to shout in pain as Narcissa fired a mild stinging hex right into her eye from point-blank-range. "Ow! You bitch!" she cried out as her eyes teared up and she realized that she couldn't keep her eyes closed for longer then a swift blink, before they were forced open again.
"Let me make three things perfectly clear, Bella. First, I love you to pieces. I know that we've grown apart since you wound up in Azkaban, but I do love you." Narcissa calmly informed her. "Second, know that I don't have time for your antics and won't stand for you insulting my son right now." she continued and then bared her teeth at her. "Third, I love Draco more then I love you and I won't hesitate to tear you limb from limb unless you tell me exactly what I want to know!" she finished with a snarl.
"Now that's my loving sister right there!" Bellatrix muttered with a demented smirk, blinking furiously to ease the pain in her eye. "He's with the Dark Lord and the hide-out is under a Fidelius, so I can't tell you where it is." she smugly added.
"But if I know you right, you know way more then you're supposed to, so you'll probably be able to tell me when Draco might next be away from that hideout, right?" Narcissa hinted with a faint smirk.
"Oh, I just might." Bellatrix drawled. "I might know about a little field trip for some new Death Eaters, where the little rookies will have to stretch their own tiny wings and fly solo, bravely slaughtering some defenceless Muggles. A real test of bravery." she snorted, refraining from mentioning that it was right up Draco's alley to do something of the sort, simpering little ninny that he was.
"Oh? Do tell, sister dear." Narcissa replied, moving her wand over to her sisters left eye. Bellatrix was one sturdy and hardy woman, able to endure just about any sort of torture and means of interrogation. But Narcissa knew that her weak point was her eyes, knew just what buttons to push in order to get Bella to tattle.
And Bellatrix most certainly did tattle her little tail off, spilling her beans about everything she knew in regards to a raid on Privet Drive. Now that Harry was gone and partially a Black, the wards had weakened enough that they could be shattered without too much of an effort. Even inexperienced Rookies should be able to manage it and Voldemort had thus picked the newest recruits to eradicate Harry's relatives and their neighbours.
"So, now that I'm at your 'tender' mercy, what in the world are you going to do with me?" Bellatrix asked with an artfully innocent expression, feeling more confident now that Narcissa wasn't threatening her eyes any longer.
"Let Harry interrogate you and then I'm going to make you my loyal little slave for the rest of your life." Narcissa replied neutrally. "It's for your own good." she added by the way of explanation as Bellatrix stared at her in astonished shock, her mouth hanging wide open as her jaw had simply dropped at the surprising statement from her sister.
"What?!" she demanded to know.
"You've never been much of a history buff and never cared much about the old tales of the family Black, so I doubt that you're aware of it. But there are a set of items that can be used to bind someone to another person. Slowly and over time, those very items will bind your will to mine, until you're a faithful little lapdog. My faithful little lapdog." Narcissa explained with a calm emotionless expression. "In order to save your life, I had to promise that I'd turn you in. But I was also promised in return that I could do whatever I could to lessen your sentence. Well... As a slave, you're considered my property and thus can't stand trial for your crimes. I'll likely have to pay some sort of fine to pay for your crimes, but you'll get to live, even if only as a slave." she continued and glared down at Bellatrix. "It'll save you from certain death." she finished.
"If that's how you save people, then I want no part of it!" Bellatrix snarled.
"You don't have a choice in the matter, sister dear." Narcissa announced. "If I have to enslave you in order to save your life, then I'll bloody well do it! Stupid crazy bitch or not, you're still my sister and I love you!"
"You've certainly got an odd way of showing it, you despicable slag!" Bellatrix growled, then spat Narcissa in the face.
Ahhh, sisterly love...
The End! ( For now... )