A/N: My girls have been wild all morning then my girlfriend shows up and tells them she's never seen Beauty and the Beast (the original cartoon) and they have made her sit down and they are explaining all about how ugly the beast but how he is the good guy and how pretty belle is. They are so cute but apparently since I've seen it I can't watch it I have to hold my youngest's Mr. Bear…On another note Bella has one line that may be considered a bit crude but it was honestly the best way to say it. And it seemed like a Bella thing to say anyways. And I hate to say it, but I don't like this chapter.

"I'm decent." Bella turned around to find the student fidgeting next to her bed. She waved her newly found wand over the sheets and removed the blood and dirt then she turned her attention to the student and did the same. Hermione looked down at herself. "Probably should have done that before I changed into your clothes."

Bella shrugged and moved to sit on her bed. "End result is the same, magic and all."

"Um…Where will I sleep? There's only one bed." Bella smirked.

"Can't get anything by you can we Granger? You've slept with me before what's wrong with this time?"

Hermione's forehead got an adorable little crease in it. "But you don't like me." She said it with such conviction it made Bella's heart squeeze. She reached up and tugged the girl onto the bed. She wasn't sure what to say so she said nothing at first. Her bed was big enough they didn't have to touch but she climbed to her preferred side and pulled Hermione with her. She settled with Hermione's back pressed tightly to her front and wrapped he arm around her waist while pushing the other under the pillow beneath Hermione's head.

"Granger," She whispered into brunette hair, "What makes you think I can't stand you?"

Hermione shrugged as much as she could in her position. "Everyone knows it. At first I didn't understand. But now," She sighed defeated. "Now I can see why. I would resent being attached to someone if I didn't have a choice." Hermione rolled over in Bella's arms so she could see her dark eyes in the little light. "I'll find a way to get rid of the bond. You won't always be stuck with me."

Bella gasped and grasped Hermione's chin. "Don't even think about it."

"I know the risks; I won't risk your life needlessly." Bella shook her head furiously; she reminded Hermione a lot like Sterling when she did that. The two looked very similar, something she'd never noticed before. Bella had tight black curls where Sterling's were looser and their eyes were completely different colors, but their features were similar.

"I don't want the bond to disappear Hermione, and you don't need to forcefully remove it if you don't want to be bonded to me. You have a choice, I know it will be difficult for me but I'll let you go. You can get married and have children without worrying about me."

"I thought you hated it?"

"No." Bella said firmly. She leaned up and placed one hand on the other side of Hermione's head effectively forcing the girl to look up at her. "I want to give you time to finish school, I want you to have the opportunity to fall in love with someone of your choice."

"So you have to be an asshole to give me those opportunities." Hermione tried to turn her head away, uncomfortable with the intimate position Bella had put them in.

"Well," Bella drawled, "It was either that or bend you over a desk after class and fuck the life out of you but I wasn't sure you'd prefer it." Hermione's eyes jerked back up to the dark witch and her breath caught.

"That's just….." She swallowed thickly, "Just the bond talking."

Bella chuckled humorlessly. "If it had been the bond, as disgusting as it would have been, that would have been my desire when you were only eleven." She made sure Hermione was still watching her and flicked her eyes down to the girl's lips. Hermione stuck out a pink tongue to wet them nervously. "The bond doesn't create desire or love Hermione. I would have thought you'd know that by now, smart as you are and all."

"I don't understand what you're telling me." Bella knew it was a lie; she was trying to give Bella a way out. Grateful as she was Bella didn't want one.

"I'm saying I fell in love with you. I fell in love with a smart student who can't stand not to answer a question, the student who is entirely too loyal to her friends and too nice for her own good. With the girl that would stand up to me when I got to be too much, who didn't hesitate to call me a bitch to my face and the girl who threw herself over a little girl and took the brunt of a madman's rage all on her own without saying anything." Hermione couldn't look away if she'd wanted to; she never expected to hear anything close to that confession from Bellatrix Black. "I love you enough to let you go. If that's what you want." Bella moved to lie back down but Hermione reached out and set her hand against her pale cheek.

"It's not the bond?" Hermione leaned up and lightly kissed Bella's cheek when the witch shook her head. "I don't know…."

Hermione didn't get to finish Bella leaned down and kissed her for the first time. It was like being struck by lightning. It was soft and gentle and everything she didn't know she needed. Her arms moved around Bella's neck by their own accord as she strove to deepen the kiss. Bella chuckled and pulled away. Hermione groaned in annoyance. "No more tonight, Mrs. Black." Bella pulled Hermione's arms away from her neck and examined the injured one. "You're bleeding again." Hermione stared at it in confusion, forgetting all about her trip to the forest and the words scrawled into her flesh. Bellatrix Black was bad for her intelligence. Bella lay back down and tugged Hermione into her arms again. "Let's get some sleep," she sighed into her wife's hair.

Hermione didn't protest. She snuggled deeper into the witch and closed her eyes. She didn't know how she was going to sleep after that but if she could wake up to the dark witch actually there she was going to try her damnest.