12. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Even after some days strange things continued to happen. In the dead of night Felipe would note that his wife was not in bed. He could not follow her, because whenever he tried, she simply disappeared as if she was invisible. Only a small shadow could be briefly seen on the floor near the spot where she had disappeared. She would then return hours later. This happened several times. When she was questioned about where she was, every time Flora would very sincerely, replyreplied that she had not left the house. At least that was what she believed herself.

Summer vacation did not seem to cheer her up. The presence of her children at home often irritated Flora. So much so that when Narcissa invited them to stay for some time in her house, Flora was relieved and let them go without even suggesting to take them there.

Gradually, Flora began to mistrust herself just as Felipe did. He began to make a record ofeach and every time his wife went out and when she returned. He could see that those periods coincided often with strange events, which were later reported in the Muggle's news. It was as if Flora was responsible for all the evil that was spreading across Europe like disappearances, attacks ofon Muggle families, unexplained fires everywhere, and so on. The Daily Prophet, as usual, gave all credits to the fugitives of Azkaban or to Harry Potter, since the few witnesses who could point out a guilt person always pointed him out. That complicated his situation even more.

On the other hand, Flora seemed to be getting sweeter and more dedicated towards her lessons which she had resumed early in the term. It was the beginning of October. Felipe himself checked the content of his wife's lessons, which to his surprise, were real declarations of love for Muggles. WouldWas it even possible that his wife who was so sweet and muggle loving during the day, could even commit such atrocities in the evening? she be able to commit atrocities in the evening and be the sweet Flora during the day. It reminded him of "Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde".

After nearlyPast two weeks since Felipe had begun his investigations, Flora found his notes. She was suddenly startled, as if getting out of a trance; she realized that he shouldcould be totally right in his suspicions.

Flora looked at the ring on her hand and immediately made the connection: Bellatrix. So, she focused her mind and was able to notice her presence. Somehow, Bellatrix was with her, or inside her. It was worse than what she had thought at first: she could not devise a strategy to end that connection without her dead mother noticing her intent. That was why all her attempts to take off the ring had failed, Bellatrix was sabotaging her. She would have to dissemble all her feelings, thoughts, plus anything that she decided to do. But first, she needed to know what was happening at night. What she was doing at night. Fortunately, Felipe's notes were all in Portuguese, so she should not have understood that she was being monitored.

What Flora naively ignored was that even this decision could have been shared with Bellatrix.