A/N: Well... I hope you're all still with me xD
Thank you DarkSnow3 for Beta reading, and thank you NotesFromTheChamber for helping me last night with planning xox
Over the next week, Hermione didn't see much of Bellatrix. Despite not hearing anything breaking anymore, the shadows around the dark witch's eyes got darker and darker, and she spoke less and less. When she did speak and on the rare occasion that she joined Hermione for a meal, she was perfectly civil– one might even go as far as to say that she was kind– which Hermione found comforting. She knew that if she was the cause of this depression that the Death Eater was sinking into, she'd have found out about it by now.
Tilly had asked Hermione very nicely not to talk to her Mistress about her absence at least until she was better and, as much as Hermione was curious, she did as the small elf asked.
So to fill her time, Hermione had read a lot of books. She had come downstairs one morning to find Bellatrix in her favourite position in her favourite armchair, reading something Hermione didn't recognise.
Not wanting to startle the witch into leaving again, she had simply settled on the carpet by the fire where she usually liked to sit and opened the charms book she'd been reading.
"You are allowed to sit on the furniture, you know," Bellatrix's voice had sounded deeper, raspier, and she had not looked up from her page as she spoke. "Just because your cat isn't allowed, that doesn't mean you're not."
"I know, but I like it here. It's warm."
A small smile had tugged momentarily at the corner of the witch's mouth before silence fell again.
Merely half an hour later, Bellatrix had unexpectedly launched the book she was reading into the fire, standing up and storming out of the room. Hermione had jumped, not expecting the outburst.
Now, Hermione stood outside the open door to Bellatrix's potions room. She had her back turned to the door, leaning over the Veritaserum pot as she hummed to herself peacefully. The Gryffindor had never seen her look so relaxed and, instead of knocking, she quietly watched Bellatrix separate the potion into vials that she'd laid out on the worktop for herself.
"Can I help you?" Bellatrix didn't turn around and had showed no sign of knowing that Hermione was there.
Hermione jumped. "Um, I was just wondering when the potion would be ready, but…"
This time Bellatrix did turn around when she spoke, meeting Hermione's eyes for a moment before looking her up and down with a smirk. "I see Tilly got you more clothes."
Tilly had, in fact, gone shopping every day and brought Hermione back a new outfit that would go with her cloak. She had also bought Hermione a black cloak. It was lighter than the dark red one and she tended to wear it around the house a lot, since all of her other clothes had gone mysteriously missing.
"Yes," Hermione nodded, walking into the room. "I'm surprised that you let your elves go about and spend your money like that."
"Well I did tell her to," Bellatrix ladled another portion of the potion into a vial. "Put the stoppers on those full ones, would you?"
Hermione started putting the stoppers on the vials of Veritaserum very carefully and noticed, out of the corner of her eye, the other cauldron bubbling with what she recognised as a Sleeping Draught. "You told Tilly to get me new clothes every day? What happened to my old clothes?"
"They're safe," Bellatrix shrugged. "You'll get them back eventually. And I told Tilly to shop every day for the last week because she expressed that she was getting bored and threatened to tend to the floors again if I didn't find her something to do."
Hermione chuckled. "Well, I appreciate it, but you need to stop spending your money on me."
In all honesty, it made Hermione quite uncomfortable to have Bellatrix buy her things like that, even if it was so that she could look the part of a pureblood.
"It's not like I don't have enough of it," Bellatrix said.
"I have money, too," Hermione finished putting the stoppers on the final vials, watching as Bellatrix turned to tend to her potion.
The dark witch laughed, which Hermione found equally understanding and insulting.
"Harry left me money before he died. He gave all of his friends money."
Bellatrix looked up from the pot she was stirring, the smile gone in a second and replaced with a deep frown. "You didn't tell me about this before."
"I… didn't think it made a difference."
"It makes all the difference."
"How?" Hermione went over to the rocking chair that she spied in the corner, taking a seat now that she'd done her job.
"Because if Potter transferred money to his friends before he died, that means he knew he was going to die," Bellatrix said it like it was so obvious, and it was, and Hermione knew that this was the case, but she didn't know what the Death Eater's point was.
"So?"
"So," Bellatrix gritted her teeth, muttering something under her breath about sheer stupidity, "whoever killed him must've made numerous attempts at it, enough that Harry noticed but obviously not enough that he would bother anyone about it. He might've even thought he was being paranoid. God knows, being hunted since you were a baby will do that to you."
"I still don't understand what you're getting at here. I figured all that out for myself," Hermione stopped rocking in the chair as Bellatrix sauntered over and perched on the footstool, leaning in almost too close for comfort.
"Because whoever did it will likely have been in Hogwarts or will have a connection to someone there. This is big news for me, muddy. I always thought that it was someone with the Dark Lord trying to frame me. I'd prepare yourself for the possibility that it might've been a favourite teacher of yours, though," there was a joking undertone to the last part and Hermione's lips twisted into a small smile.
Bellatrix glanced at the clock on the wall, obviously waiting for something potion related judging by the impatient way she looked to the bubbling cauldron.
"Oh, I think you should know," she said, getting Hermione's attention again, "I received an owl today informing me that Voldemort has become aware that you are missing and that he suspects our alliance."
"How on earth could he figure that out?" Hermione stared, panic-stricken, at her ally.
"He is intelligent. Although, I highly doubt he knows what we have become allies for. He most probably thinks that I'm trying to switch sides, perhaps that I kidnapped you and am trying to persuade you to let me in."
"He's not far off," Hermione grumbled, leaning back in the chair.
Bellatrix raised her eyebrows. "I did not kidnap you, you came willingly."
"Tell it to the judge," Hermione joked.
"Your sense of humour is embarrassing."
"You're embarrassing," Hermione shot back childishly, only making the Death Eater shake her head with a small laugh.
Hermione looked at Bellatrix's face and noticed that she no longer looked as tired. Her eyes had their usual sparkle back and there were no shadows under them. She looked beautiful, not that she hadn't looked beautiful before.
"Bella?" the Gryffindor hadn't meant to use the nickname, but her tone was so soft that it was almost as if her mouth wouldn't allow her to finish the harsh ending.
The older witch tensed at the use of the nickname, but still met Hermione's gaze.
"Muddy?" despite the use of the derogatory term, her tone was light and Hermione didn't take offence, she even smiled slightly.
"Where did you go? I've barely seen you around the house."
"I was around. I spent most of my time in the sitting room, you just never noticed me."
Hermione looked at Bellatrix in such a way that prompted an explanation.
"My animagus form," the dark witch eventually said, "is a venomous snake."
The idea that Hermione had been sharing the living room with a snake that, knowing Bellatrix, could probably kill her with one bite, was terrifying. Not to mention how undeniably creeped out the brunette now was.
Bellatrix has been watching me?
"Where were you?" Hermione asked.
"On top of the bookshelf. You really do read fast, don't you?"
"So you just watched me for a week from the top of your bookshelf?"
Bellatrix sighed. "You make it sound so stalker-ish. I was asleep most of the time, I find it easier to sleep as a snake sometimes, but yes I did watch you. I wanted to know if you were going to show any sign of betraying me, but you were quite boring. You just read and cuddled that bloody cat."
It made sense, Hermione supposed, and was oddly comforted that Bellatrix had gone to such lengths to make sure she was genuine. No one who was planning to betray someone spent that much time making sure that the other person wasn't going to do the same.
"But I heard you… throwing things," Hermione delicately approached the subject and watched Bella visibly stiffen at the mention of her breakdown.
"I lost my temper," she said evenly, looking down at her nails and busying herself with checking them over.
"But–"
"I don't want to talk about it," the sheer intensity of the gaze Bellatrix fixed the brunette with made Hermione cringe away.
Her mouth snapped shut and she didn't open it to say another word. Instead, she just slouched in the chair even further. She had so many questions, but she didn't want Bellatrix to get mad at her. As she had told herself before coming to the safehouse, if either of them were angry at the other it would only jeopardise their alliance.
Funnily enough, thinking of all the things Bellatrix had done in the past no longer made her angry. They made her sad, but she did not feel the burning hatred that she had felt before. The ghosts of resentment still resided in the pit of her stomach, but when she saw Bellatrix look as vulnerable as she had before, it was as if the haunted look in her eyes evoked enough pity to chase the ghosts away.
"My Animagus venom is in the potion," Bellatrix broke the silence, pulling Hermione from her thoughts. "So whoever managed to brew the potion also managed to get their hands on an Alcatrazes Lancehead."
"Is that a breed of snake?"
Bellatrix nodded.
Hermione gave one nod in return. She didn't think what type of venomous snake Bellatrix turned into made a difference, so instead of carrying on the conversation the way it was going, she changed topic and decided it was best to address the question that was hanging over both of them like a dark cloud.
"What are we going to do about Voldemort? If he knows I'm with you then surely he'll find out where we are sooner or later."
"He suspects," Bella corrected, "and he'll find us. I just hope we've found proof that I am innocent before he does."
"And if we don't?" Hermione asked.
"Then we die," Bellatrix said with a huff.
Hermione examined the dark witch's face for a long moment, but she couldn't read it. She was usually good at reading people, but Bellatrix was tricky, almost foreign.
"What if he dies first?" the question could be interpreted in a number of different ways, but Hermione knew that Bellatrix knew exactly what she meant.
"You think we should kill the Dark Lord?" Bella's tone conveyed shock to begin with but then she cackled, almost falling off the footrest. "Oh, muddy, you must be delusional!"
"I'm not, I know how to kill him."
"Do you, now?"
Hermione sat up a little straighter, trying to make herself sound as convincing as possible. "I do. He has Horcruxes."
"You think that I don't know that?" Bella snapped with raised eyebrows, her laughter only now dying down, her entire aura changing. Suddenly she was more intimidating again, more like the Bellatrix Hermione had met in the Ministry.
"You know about the diary? And the ring? And the-"
"The diary, the ring, the locket, the snake, the diadem, the cup," Bellatrix's voice was verging on playful as she ticked each Horcrux off on her fingers, voice getting louder with each one and she stood up, leaning over Hermione in the rocking chair, "but don't forget the last one!"
"What's the last one?" Hermione shifted uncomfortably as she witnessed Bellatrix's face change and her eyes glaze over exactly as they had done when she was about to cast Crucio on Carter.
"You don't know?" she sang, a smile of great delight spreading across her face.
Hermione shook her head. She hadn't known any of them beyond the diary, ring and pendant, but Bellatrix didn't need to know that. She had just been given the information she needed to bring Voldemort down and it had been as easy as…
"He doesn't even know. The Dark Lord's completely oblivious to his seventh Horcrux. It's Potter," Bellatrix's hands rested on her stomach as she laughed, "or, you know, was."
The sound of the dark witch's cruel cackles made Hermione feel sick and the use of past tense for Harry in such a throw-away way only worsened the feeling, to the point where Hermione thought it was necessary to run for the toilet.
As soon as she was gone, she heard Bella's laughter come to an abrupt stop and it wasn't until she was on her knees leaning over the toilet that she felt cool hands collecting the hair from around her face to hold it out of the way.
Hermione slapped the hand away, surprising herself with the harshness of the action, moving so she was leaning back agains the wall and cringing away from Bellatrix. "Don't touch me!"
As comfortable as she was around Bellatrix when she was calm, Hermione hated this side of her, the side that she could see hadn't fully left yet. The Death Eater's eyes still shone with glee and Hermione knew that she was revelling in either her reaction or Harry's demise– or both.
"It's not my fault you can't handle the truth, muddy," Bellatrix folded her arms, looking down at the brunette.
"You take so much delight in the fact that he's dead, don't you?" Hermione panted, feeling like retching at the mere thought of it.
Bella's voice was calm and soft. "Yes, but ask yourself this: if the Dark Lord died, would you not take delight in that?"
"He's evil!" Hermione shouted, unable to spit out anything else.
"That's up for interpretation," Bellatrix moved back a step to sit on the edge of the bathtub, arms still folded. "He believes in a world where muggleborns and half-bloods are treated as the inferior race, where muggles are prosecuted as they have prosecuted us. He believes in purity, that anyone of impure blood does not deserve the title of a witch or wizard."
"And do you believe that? Do you believe that I don't deserve to be a witch because my parents were muggles? Should I be prosecuted for something beyond my control?" Hermione felt her face go red hot with rage as she swallowed back the bile that rose in her throat.
Bellatrix remained perfectly calm. "If you'd have asked me that a week ago, I might've said yes."
"And now?"
Bellatrix shook her head. "Now? Now, I'm not sure what I believe. You have a level of intelligence exceeding most purebloods. I even looked into your ancestry earlier this week because I was certain you were adopted but you are most definitely muggleborn. You're defying everything I believe in, Hermione, and I hate it."
Hermione had not been prepared for the use of her real name. She had gotten used to the use of 'muddy' as a form of address and had never expected Bellatrix to use anything other than the nickname– perhaps maybe her last name as she had to Tilly, but never her first name.
A quiet settled over them both as Hermione chewed on the words Bellatrix had just said and she was about to open her mouth to say something about Bellatrix having to suck it up when the dark witch met her eyes and spoke, voice quiet.
"But I can't bring myself to hate you."
Hermione finally found her feet and slowly stepped closer to Bellatrix. The dark witch's eyes flickered all over Hermione's face, trying to read her.
"Hermione, I…" she trailed off as Hermione got closer, her eyes flickering to her lips for a moment when she thought that the Gryffindor was about to kiss her.
But Hermione only enveloped her in a hug.
Bellatrix blinked, arms held out to her side in surprise. It took her a while but, eventually, she wrapped them around Hermione's waist and buried her face in the brunette's hair. Hermione felt Bellatrix's breaths become ragged and uneven, almost as if she was crying, but when she pulled away there was no sign of this on the dark witch's face.
Instead, her features were soft and the crazed glint in her eyes had been replaced with a loving one. But as soon as Hermione noticed it was there, it was gone and Bellatrix's walls were back up. Her chin tilted up and her shoulders went back as she stood.
"Bellatrix?" Hermione's eyebrows drew together as she watched the Slytherin's demeanour change almost instantly.
"Come, muddy," Bellatrix said with a sigh, "I have the address of the first buyer. We can leave tonight."
Hermione watched as Bellatrix walked away as if nothing happened and she felt tears slowly slip down her cheeks for the first time since she arrived at the safehouse.
