Disclaimer: I don't own anything.
I know it's been a bit of a long gap, but there you are... what can you do? Small thanks to Electra De Lioncourt (sorry if that's spelt wrong) for reviewing almost every chapter; I LOVE YOU! Okay, calming down...
Chapter Eleven
The next day Bellatrix awoke with a thudding head. Narcissa and Maxine were sat on the bed beside hers chatting in lowered voices, and both shot her grins when they spotted she was awake.
"Interesting night, Bella?" Maxine asked innocently, leaning across and batting her eyelashes. "Skipping into the dorm at three in the morning with a bloody lip?"
"Sod off before I turn you into a yak again." Bellatrix growled, groaning and rolling over to escape the light seeping in through the window. "I'm going to kill Sirius."
"Why? Oh, you mean because you wouldn't have a banging headache if you'd stayed in the hospital wing?" Narcissa pointed out, getting up off the bed and sitting beside her sister. "It's your own fault and you know it is. Now get dressed, we're going into Hogsmeade."
"Go without me; I'm spending the day right here." Bellatrix replied stubbornly, dragging the blankets further up over her dark head and closing her eyes again.
"You've got ten seconds or I'll get Max to start singing." Narcissa warned. "Ten, nine, eight, I think we'll have some warbling please, Maxi, six, five-" Letting out an irritated scream, Bellatrix threw the covers aside and got out of bed, being sure to 'accidentally' elbow her sister as she went. Narcissa grinned triumphantly.
"Lucious and Severus are waiting in the common room for us; hurry up." Maxine said, fastening her cloak over her jumper and leading the way out of the dorm. Narcissa soon followed, leaving Bellatrix alone. It was so tempting to simply get back into bed and go back to sleep, but she knew they would just come back for her anyway so she dragged on a pair of trousers and her jumper. Besides, she might get the opportunity to flaunt her new-found knowledge of Sirius and his friends in front of him today, and the thought of getting her cousin back was making her feel better already.
"Finally." Maxine sighed when Bella emerged into the common room, slamming the dormitory door behind her. "Head still aching?"
"Yes." Bella snapped, dragging a baseball cap over her hair and crossing her arms. "Let's go already; it's boiling in here."
"Bella, the whole place is freezing." Narcissa rolled her eyes and took Lucious' hand. "It's snowing outside and the fires aren't lit."
"Well I'm boiling." Bellatrix shrugged, following Maxine out through the tapestry and into the dungeon corridors. It seemed that the rest of Slytherin were either already at Hogsmeade or scattered about the rest of the castle, as she didn't see another student until they emerged into the Entrance Hall.
"I need to go into Honeydukes and get some chocolate." Maxine was saying. "My mum said I really need to stop eating so much but I'm hooked on their Fantastic Fudges."
"So that's why you're looking so fat." Bella chuckled, ducking as Max swung for her. "I think that this one time you should take her advice. Don't you agree Cissa? Look at how fat Maxine's ass is."
"Bella! My ass is not fat! Tell her, Cissa." Maxine grinned and looked to the blonde for backup, but instead found a not-so-reassuring comment from someone quite unwelcome in the conversation.
"Well don't give up your day job, Maxine." Andromeda Black said nastily, brushing past them arm-in-arm with some of her Ravenclaw friends. Bellatrix made sure to stick out a foot and trip one of them up. "I'd watch it Bella, don't forget what I know... something like that could travel around the school very easily."
"Yes, and I think your head could do the same thing to. Separated from your body first, of course." Bellatrix replied icily. The red-head narrowed her eyes and reached into her robes to draw her wand, but Snape got their first.
"Sod off, Black." He snarled.
"Who the hell asked you to-" Andromeda began, breaking off when the point of Snape's wand was pressed to her throat.
"I wouldn't push it, Andromeda. He could probably hex you into next week, so why don't you take your twittish little friends and bugger off?" Bellatrix suggested calmly, smiling at the look of pure hatred in her sister's eyes. "You shouldn't forget that I do know that you're seeing a muggle, and all it would take is one slip of my wand for him to either vanish into the oblivion or forget about you forever..." On that note she pushed past Andromeda and continued out into the Hogwarts grounds. Laughing, Maxine jogged after her.
"That was good; did you see the look on her face? What was she talking about, anyway?" She asked, linking her arm through Bella's as they walked. Narcissa exchanged a look with her sister, who merely shrugged.
"Not a clue. Probably nothing important." She said, almost slipping as she stepped onto the icy cobbled path that would lead them into Hogsmeade. Snape was on her other side, the familiar careless smirk dancing on his pale lips and his raven-coloured hair dancing in the icy wind. Bellatrix could almost have said he looked handsome.
"So where are we going first? I was going to suggest Honeydukes, but I'm way too cold. Let's go into the Hogs Head." Maxine said, her teeth audibly chattering. There was no argument and so they passed the busy shops and huddled into the cold warmth of the Hogs Head. Not many other Hogwarts students would be found in here; the customers of the 'Head weren't very... social when it came to any children other than those bearing a Slytherin badge, which fortunately they held on their cloaks. The barman could have easily passed off for a vampire; tall, pale and thin, and Bellatrix could have sworn she occasionally caught him looking longingly at people's necks and licking his lips.
"Vot can I get you?" He asked when they appeared at the bar.
"I'll get them." Lucious offered. Narcissa smiled and led the way across the room to an empty table in the shadows in the corner. Her head still throbbing, Bellatrix took the corner seat, which was almost completely shrouded from the light. Severus sat on her left and Maxine slid across to her right, still chatting ten-to-the-dozen about her chocolate addictions. Bella rolled her eyes at Snape.
"Maxine." She interrupted in a painful voice. "Please, for the love of Merlin, shut the hell up. It's bad enough having to sit here with my head feeling like there's a Gryffindor on steroids in it, but I cant take having to listen to you talk about chocolate anymore. Seriously... shutup for a bit."
"If you feel that bad maybe you should go back up to the castle." Narcissa said worriedly. Bellatrix ignored her and unfastened her cloak. It was incredibly stuffy in the bar, which seemed slightly odd as it was almost empty and the fire at the other side of the room had burnt down to glowing embers.
"What are you doing that for, it's freezing in here!" Maxine said in a strangled voice. "Put it back on before you die of pneumonia or something!"
"I'm roasting, Max, leave me alone." Bellatrix snapped, sitting back and taking the beer Lucious offered her. The glass felt blissfully cool against her sweating palm and she only just managed to resist the temptation to press it against her face.
"Bella, you really don't look well." Lucious reasoned, sipping his own drink. "It's only just above zero degrees in here, you can't possibly be warm."
"That's just it, Malfoy, I'm not warm, I'm effing boiling." Bellatrix was starting to get annoyed. Her vision and hearing both kept blurring out, like some kind of a bad wireless radio that kept losing its signal, and she was so hot it was becoming suffocating. And then, abruptly, it stopped. Her vision and hearing went back to their usual crispness and she was suddenly as cold as everyone else in the room. The only thing she could feel was relief that something wasn't wrong with her, and this lasted a mere ten seconds before she lost consciousness completely and fell against the table with a dull thud.