Bellatrix awoke to the sound of rapping on the bedroom window.
"Hmph." She rolled over and curled up against Tom, but he sat up and dug his fists into his eyes.
"It's an owl," he said gruffly. He threw his legs over the edge of the bed and stood, hustling to the window. He tossed open the window, and a small brown owl came toddling inside. Tom untied the letter from its foot and said gravely, "It's got a Hogwarts seal."
Bellatrix sat up slowly, an ominous feeling taking her over. She slid off the bed and moved over to where Tom stood, and then she gasped when he opened the letter to reveal handwriting that had become familiar from years of seeing it on blackboards in classrooms. Albus Dumbledore.
Dear Tom, she read over his shoulder, I know you understand why we took the liberty of searching your belongings before sending them back to you. Miss Lestrange's belongings were innocuous enough. Yours, on the other hand, were alarming. We discovered several Dark artefacts that appeared to have been purchased from Knockturn Alley, antiques with dangerous potential. We also found a seemingly blank diary with a small card stuck inside. On the card were many spells that were entirely unfamiliar to the entirety of the Ministerial staff, including the whole of the Auror force. I also did not recognise these spells. But we could tell they meant something evil, Tom. Necromancy or worse.
This diary has been safely locked away in a location you will not reach.
The rest of your belongings, along with Miss Lestrange's, are being kept in Ministry custody for the time being. They will be searched more thoroughly. We believe there is reason to charge the both of you with crimes against wizarding Britain, and this evidence may lie in your school belongings. Do not think for a moment, Tom, that the Ministry or Professor Dippet or I are blind to your games. We are none of us blind to you any longer.
Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore
"He's keeping our things?" Bellatrix gasped. "They're keeping your Horcrux?"
Tom crumpled the letter in his hand and shut his eyes. He shook his head and whispered,
"That bastard."
"But how will you be protected?" Bellatrix demanded. "Master, how will you -"
"I've got another," Tom told Bellatrix, holding out his right hand and showing her his ugly black ring."
Bellatrix grasped the ring and stared at it. "This is a Horcrux?"
"I made it not long before you arrived here," Tom told her. "When I killed my father and his parents. I took to wearing it to keep it safe. I should have hidden the diary somewhere safe. But at least now it's hidden wherever they've got it. They can't destroy it. They won't be able to. Besides, I'd feel it if they did. But I need to make another one to be safe, in case they try to break me."
"Make another one." Bellatrix shut her eyes, her heart racing. "That process seems to involve killing every time. Is that right?"
"Have you a problem with that?" Tom snapped, and Bellatrix insisted,
"No. Of course not, Master. But where will we go? We can't stay here. They're trying to find an excuse to throw us into Azkaban."
"We go to the Continent now," Tom nodded. "We'll stay in Muggle hovels if we need to; I don't care. We'll seek out the best teachers the Continent has to offer. We'll learn the best Dark Arts there are. And they won't find us. They won't catch us."
"What about Borgin and Burkes?" asked Bellatrix anxiously. "What about the poison shop?"
"Forget about them!" Tom insisted. "My Horcrux is being held hostage. The rest of our belongings are being held hostage by Dumbledore! If I'm to come back to this country victorious, Lord Voldemort, recruiting, ready to defeat Dumbledore, then we have some learning to do. We need to go to Paris."
"Paris?" Bellatrix breathed. "What's in Paris?"
"Everyone knows that there's a wizarding underworld in Paris," said Tom. "We just have to find it."
They Apparated from London to Dover, from Dover to Calais, and from Calais to Paris. By the time they reached Paris, Bellatrix felt sick and dizzy, and she and Tom leaned back against a stone building, panting and weary. Bellatrix thought she was going to be sick, until Tom murmured,
"Nonemesis."
"Thank you, Master," Bellatrix whispered.
"We need to look in the Catacombs for clues," he said at once. Bellatrix glanced at the stone wall opposite them. She could read French, and she saw that the poster was advertising the first municipal elections since the Nazis had left Paris.
"What if the Catacombs are still closed?" Bellatrix asked. "This city's still at war?"
"Closed to the public? Even better," Tom smirked. He started walking down the alley where they were, a narrow little rue cloistered by five and six storey buildings leaning down upon it. They walked and walked and walked, twisting and turning through the streets of a part of town Bellatrix recognised as Denfert-Rochereau. Suddenly Tom stopped, stared down, and whispered, "They're here."
"Who's here?" asked Bellatrix, and Tom murmured,
"Witches. Wizards. In the Catacombs below. I can feel them. Hear them."
With his Legilimency. Bellatrix reached for his hand, looking around to be certain no Muggles were watching them. One lone elder Muggle was walking slowly down the street, so Bellatrix aimed her wand at him and Confounded him to keep walking away without looking back. Tom removed a manhole cover nearby with his wand, and with a mighty scrape, it came off the hole in the ground and lay on the pavement. Tom stared at the ladder going down into the Catacombs below the street, and he stared at Bellatrix.
"Ready?" he asked.
"Ready," she said, her voice shaking.
"Lumos."
They walked in the light of their wands for some time until they reached what seemed like a dead end. There was a wall of skulls before them, and Bellatrix studied it for a time. Teeth. So many teeth. So many eye sockets. What colour hair had these people had, she wondered vaguely?
She could hear voices on the other side of the wall of skulls. There were people through there. People on the other side of the dead end. She stared at Tom, and he whispered,
"I've searched a mind. It's like Diagon Alley; there's a tapping code to get through. Here we go."
He suddenly tapped a series of skulls as though he knew exactly what he was doing. He touched his wand to the tops of their heads in a complex pattern he'd obviously extracted from a mind on the other side of the wall. Then he staggered backward, dragging Bellatrix with him, for the skulls began to clatter and clack as they moved away to clear a path, to make a hole in the great wall.
Then the voices on the other side went silent.
Bellatrix stared through to see an ornate, elegant lounge, outfitted in burgundy and gold and mahogany. There were charcoal drawings on the walls, moving just a little. There was a bar with a goblin barkeep serving up sophisticated cocktails to witches in fancy dresses and wizards in beautifully tailored robes. There was a large tank in the corner with a merperson of some kind looking oddly content to be there. There was a Demiguise that came into view on an Ottoman before a sofa where a witch sat petting a crystal ball as though it were a beloved animal.
"Pense-tu que c'est eux?" hissed a wizard to another man whose hand he stroked affectionately. Do you think it's them?
"The time traveller," said the witch with the crystal ball, speaking English, "and the man who would be Lord Voldemort. Yes. It is them, just as I have foreseen. Only… sooner."
"Sit down, Bellatrix. Lord Voldemort," said the second man, the one standing. "Have a drink. We have much to discuss."
Author's Note: Oh, my. So they appear to have found their tribe. But Tom's Horcrux is locked away somewhere he can't reach. Eventually he's going to have to do something about that, when he's less helpless. Seems like he won't be helpless for long, no? ;) Thanks for reading and reviewing.