BANG. BANG, BANG, BANG, BANG.

Tom blinked his eyes open and gulped, feeling thirsty. He raised his head up from where he'd fallen asleep on his desk and cleared his throat, rubbing at his eyes and grabbing the watered-down Tom Collins he'd made up hours earlier. He swigged the diluted, flat drink and called out in a voice hoarse from sleep,

"Enter!"

The door flew open, and Bellatrix appeared, practically slamming the door shut behind her as she dashed into the office. She bowed her head as a mark of respect to her master, and she huffed out,

"Oh, My Lord, thank goodness you are here. I knocked with no answer at your flat, and then Dobby - the little idiot - said he wasn't sure if you were in here or not, and that the Malfoys had gone to bed an hour ago. I didn't mean to bang on the door, but I was getting desperate."

"I'm so sorry; I dozed off." Tom rubbed at his eyes again and gestured to the chair opposite him. "Sit. Please."

She sank into the chair and stared at the piles of parchments on Tom's desk. He patted one stack of papers and explained,

"I was going through all of my documents when I drifted off to sleep. Seeing as how the Aurors who came here read them, I figured I'd make sure there really wasn't anything incriminating. But it seems that discretion has been key to this movement for some time. These papers are all remarkably mundane. And Abraxas had nothing to hide, it seems. They went through every single room of this manor. They were here for seven hours, Bella."

"Seven hours?" She clapped her hand to her mouth, and he raked his fingers through his hair as he shook his head.

"They got here at half-past eleven, said they were looking for evidence of Harriet Sugarman's presence, and began searching. They went through the dungeon. They interrogated the House-Elf, though of course he lied for his master. They looked in every parlour, every bedroom for scraps of evidence. They tore this office apart. They questioned me for two hours, though they couldn't legally use any potions or anything on me. It was exhausting."

He shut his eyes and remembered the way the Aurors had sat him down in the dining room and drilled him over and over about whether he had ever heard the name Harriet Sugarman, whether he'd been to Sussex, whether he'd ever seen the Muggle woman's face in person, whether anyone he knew had harmed her… whether Bellatrix Black had harmed her.

"I am so glad you're here." He opened his eyes and stared at Bellatrix. "I was so worried. I thought about calling you through your Dark Mark, but I thought they might have you. You see, they asked me whether you had been involved with the Muggle, so I thought they must have you in custody, and I was terribly concerned. It made me feel…"

He furrowed his brow and gulped. Ill. He'd felt ill, thinking of Bellatrix being held by the Ministry. He snatched his glass and swallowed down the last of his watery Tom Collins, and he sniffed. He rose from his chair and went over to his drinks cart. He mumbled,

"Want a Tom Collins?"

"No cucumber?" Bellatrix teased. He smirked a little and glanced at her, one brow up. She nodded gratefully, and he took out another glass. He scooped some ice from his EverCool bucket into the glasses and reached for his bottle of gin, and he said to Bellatrix,

"The Aurors got a lot of information out of Avery when he went to them. He told them that I asked for a Muggle so that I could witness your prowess with Unforgivables. He told them that Harriet Sugarman was taken from her home in Sussex and brought to Malfoy Manor and that she died here. So when they asked me about your involvement, I was certain they had you."

"Well, they tried," Bellatrix said, and Tom flicked his eyes to her as he poured gin into his largest cocktail shaker. He corked the gin bottle and opened his bottle of lemon juice, drizzling it in. He added the simple syrup and then put the lid on the shaker and asked,

"What do you mean, they tried?"

"Matilda Beaulieu found my mother and me eating ice cream in Diagon Alley," Bellatrix said as Tom began shaking, "and she wanted me to go with her to the Ministry. I refused."

"Good girl." Tom opened the shaker and poured the mixture into the two glasses. He set down the shaker and narrowed his eyes at Bellatrix. "You are so very brilliant. A lesser witch would have panicked and gone with her."

"Well, I've no desire to see either you or me in Azkaban," Bellatrix shrugged, "so I made her interrogate me right there in the street. She didn't get what she wanted. She did tell me they were searching Malfoy Manor… and that a certain Wizengamot member had recommended my wand be examined."

"Dumbledore." Tom pursed his lips and reached for the jug of club soda. He popped out the cork and topped off the glasses with the stuff, corking the jug again and sighing. He put two thick paper straws into the twin cocktails he'd made up. He carried the drinks back to his desk and slid Bellatrix's over to her. She gratefully accepted the drink as Tom arranged himself in his chair and said again, "Dumbledore. I want that bastard dead."

Bellatrix sipped her drink and looked a bit mournful. "I wish I could kill him for you, Master. I do not suppose I am strong enough."

"Bella." Tom shut his eyes, tipped his head back, and sipped deeply from his drink. "You are magnificent. Did you know?"

"My Lord?" Bellatrix asked in a cautious voice, "Will there be a meeting?"

"A meeting?" Tom dropped his face and opened his eyes. He raised his eyebrows and shook his head. "No, Bellatrix, there is not going to be a meeting. I was betrayed from the inside the last time round, by Avery. How could I hold a meeting to debrief my feelings on the Auror search of Malfoy Manor? I can't be certain yet about the true depth of loyalty of my Death Eaters. Until I can be certain of that, much as it pains me, my movement must move forward with caution. I simply cannot afford to be attacking enemies and instigating conflict."

Bellatrix nodded her understanding and sipped her drink again. "I see. You need to wait until the heat from the Ministry is off a bit. You need to be certain that you are trusted and feared in this timeline before making aggressive moves."

"Precisely." Tom nodded and licked his lip. He drummed his fingers on his desk and said, "My focus needs to be on solidifying my position in Pureblood society, in cementing my status as the leader of my Death Eaters. Marrying you will certainly do that. My presence at the wedding of Rodolphus Lestrange and Alivia Avery in a few weeks will help. I shall need to brainstorm some other social means of locking in authority. Once that authority is secured, my movement can proceed."

Bellatrix sipped a little at her drink and seemed thoughtful. Then she nodded and said, "I shall think on it, Master."

"Oh, I am so tired of contemplating Aurors and Dumbledore and politics today," Tom bemoaned, taking a rather large drink of his Tom Collins. He set his glass down and ordered Bellatrix, "Talk to me about something else. What sort of ice cream were you having when Matilda found you?"

Bellatrix smiled a little and chewed her lip. "Honey lavender."

Tom studied Bellatrix's pretty face, deciding it must be the prettiest face there was, and he asked, "Was it quite good?"

"Delicious," Bellatrix affirmed. "So good."

"I shall have to try it," Tom nodded. "Honey lavender ice cream from Florean Fortescue's. They didn't have that flavour in my time."

"What sorts of things were different?" Bellatrix asked curiously. "What's changed in twenty-five years?"

He sighed and shook his head. "In the wizarding world, not much. In the Muggle world, almost everything. Their automobiles look and feel and smell completely different. Their fashions have shifted entirely. Their music has radically changed. Even the food they eat is different now. In the wizarding world, the changes are more subtle. Different paint on a storefront. New beats to the popular music on the Wireless. Faster brooms in Quidditch. A few political shifts. Some new cuts and lines in clothing styles. But for the most part, our world stays steady, and their world rocks itself to pieces every few years."

"So you do not feel so very out of place?" Bellatrix asked. "At least not in our world?"

"No." Tom picked up his drink and sipped again. "No, but when I look out the windows of my flat onto the Muggle world below, it does seem foreign and odd to me. I saw a colour television set through the window of another flat, and I was baffled."

"What's a television set?" Bellatrix asked. Tom smirked a little and said,

"I had to figure that out for myself. They are, apparently, boxes that transmit moving images and sound to the viewer. A form of entertainment. They are so different from us, Bellatrix. Never forget that. They move about in great hulking metal beasts that belch out smoke. They eat food cooked slowly and without any real skill. They dull their senses with things like televisions instead of partaking in intellectual endeavours. And they devote endless financial and mental resources to the creation of terrible devices designed solely to destroy one another."

"Guns and bombs." Bellatrix nodded. "My father told me that Grindelwald used to give speeches about how destructive Muggles are by nature."

"Yes. I attended a few of his speeches, near the end of his time," Tom said. "At the height of his power. Everything he had predicted was coming true; the Muggles were fighting each other in an awful war where they packed one another into camps and killed each other with poison gas, where they hucked bombs into villages just to capture them… Grindelwald was right. Muggles will do anything and everything for power, including the destruction of entire populations, countries, and priceless places."

"And what would you do for power, Master?" Bellatrix asked rather boldly. He sipped his Tom Collins and turned up half his mouth at her, tipping his head.

"It's a little different."

She was silent then, and he set down his drink as he told her,

"Plucking victims out from the crowd to make a point is different from mowing down an entire city with bombs from airplanes. Giving an ultimatum in exchange for victory is different from saying, 'I win because you have nothing left.' I will seize power because I shall be clever about it, not because I will have been some ham-fisted strongman. In the war I shall win, I shall be the most intelligent combatant, not the most brash and ridiculous. This is the difference between Muggles and me. They try to capture power through sheer force. I will capture power by outsmarting and outplaying my opponent."

Bellatrix grinned broadly and sipped the last of her drink. She put the glass on his desk and huffed a breath. Her cheeks had gone quite pink, and she blinked a few times. Tom frowned.

"What? What is it?" he asked, and she admitted,

"It's rather wondrous, hearing you speak like that," she said.

He laughed a bit and swigged the last of his drink, but Bellatrix's face stayed sombre. As Tom set his drink down, the ice cubes in it rattling, Bellatrix stared straight at him. Her cheeks had gone darker than ever, and she pushed her curls away from her face with trembling fingers.

"What's wrong?" Tom asked, worried now. Bellatrix licked her lip and shrugged.

"I've fallen for you," she declared. "I'm sorry. I couldn't help it."

"Oh." Tom blinked. He examined her full lips, her lovely dark eyes, and he assured her, "I don't mind."

Bellatrix looked rather distraught. Her eyes welled heavily with tears, and she insisted, "You were meant to stay my master, even though you'd come back as a young man. And I was meant to stay your servant. And that was all it was meant to be. But then you said you wanted to marry me, to form an alliance with strong families, and there were dinners, and there were kisses. And then days like today, when I worried so ferociously over you, and came to find you here and spoke with you about your ambition. And all of combines, My Lord, into something I can't control. And I do want you, badly, all the time. And I find myself rather head over heels for you. So I'm sorry."

He shifted in his chair and shook his head. "I only wish you would not apologise for it, Bella."

She gave him a weak smile and said, "It's so late. I ought to get going home, probably."

"Come home with me," he suggested, and she dragged her teeth over her lip as she sniffed a little. He nodded and said, "It is late. Come back to my flat and sleep in until ten with me. We'll have breakfast food when it's almost noon."

She laughed and nodded. "That sounds marvelous."

He rose and held his hand out to her.

"Let's go."

Author's Note: Awwwwww. Bellamort Fluff and Stuff! And he knows what he wants to achieve, but he also knows he needs to wait to achieve it. What sorts of social climbing events will he and Bellatrix come up with to cement his position and power? Thanks for reading and a huge thanks for reviews!