Amelia Bones sighed heavily as she threw back the duvet in the spare room. Andromeda had told her under no uncertain terms that she could just stay in the fucking guest room as long as Bellatrix was in Azkaban. Amelia had tried to explain it was procedure, but Andromeda wasn't having it. She was right of course, Amelia could have intervened, put Bellatrix under house arrest but what message would that send. Be the sister in law of the head of the Auror's office and get special treatment, well no that was not going to happen. She laid back against the pillows and sighed again, her head hurt, it had been one hell of a day.
Sleep came quickly to the Auror, she had taken to using her draught of dreamless sleep more and more often it seemed. As she fell deeper into the darkness, she pulled the covers up tighter, it was cold in the room. She should call the house elf to light the fireplace, but it was August…Screw it, she pushed the blanket back and sat up…she found herself in the middle of a forest clearing…but...how she was sleeping, with a dreamless sleep potion…she heard leaves crunching and turned to look.
"Who's there?" She called searching for her wand. "What the hell am I doing, this is a dream." She shivered slightly; the woods were eerily quiet except for the crunching leaves that grew nearer. A low fog hung near the ground and when Amelia looked down her bed was gone, and she was standing in her nightgown.
The wind started slowly, it was frigid and drew puffs of steam from Amelia's mouth.
"Where is the witch?" A voice sounded on the wind.
"Hello?" Amelia called turning around to try and spot the speaker.
"You are not our witch." The voice sounded again. A chorus of voices sounded among the trees echoing that she was not the correct witch.
"This is a dream." She whispered to herself, the hairs on her neck stood as a laugh tore through the air.
Amelia heard slow footsteps and turned to see a red-haired girl approaching her. She blinked in surprise and then more girls appeared behind her, all silent, all watching with black eyes.
"You are not out witch." The girl said though her mouth did not move. She inclined her head towards Amelia. "Where is the witch?"
"I-no-I'm Amelia. I-this is a dream. I am in a dream knowing it is a dream." As she spoke, she found her words becoming harder to voice as she began to feel pressure on either side of her neck.
The black eyes of the girls were pitiless as Amelia found her breathing being cut off more and more. She approached Amelia and held out her hand, "The blood stone."
Amelia began struggling against the pressure on her neck.
"I-I don't have it." She managed to croak out before she blown back against the ground.
"Lies!" The girl hissed as the trees shook around them, the other voices chimed in declaring Amelia a liar.
Amelia gasped and clawed at her neck trying to pull the invisible force away from crushing her windpipe. Her vision was going dark as tears seeped from her eyes.
"The blood stone." Came the demand again as Amelia's vision went dark.
Bella lay on the bed in her cell, her hands tucked beneath her chin as she shivered under the blankets. She was fighting the memories that were threatening to overtake her. There was a dementor stationed outside her cell door, ice formed in the cracks as the soulless demon sucked at the space beneath it. Flashes came like a motion picture reel. Severus, Hermione, Nymphadora, their smiles and voices. She tried to hold them there with her, Severus' arms around her, Nymphadora cuddled up on the couch and Hermione's lips. She pulled the blanket over her shaved head, "Severus" She whispered into the grey cell.
"RUN BELLA! IT'S A SET UP!" She felt Severus push her towards the exit, spells blasting over their heads and plaster falling and breaking on the floor around them. "GO!" He shouted before sending a killing curse over her head. She had tried to grab him to come with her. She had pulled his robes, her fingernails nearly ripping off as he refused to move with her.
"SEVERUS" Her screams shattering the windows with raw magic, their assailants taking cover from the falling shards of glass that threatened to impale them. He had turned then, turned to follow her to apparate just beyond the door. They were almost there, her foot crossing the threshold when the spell came, he shoved her down, he had blocked it from hitting her. It wasn't meant for him but for her, it was meant to kill her, but Severus had taken it. Severus had blocked it with his whole body.
She had apparated, she hadn't realised it until she was there, Severus' lifeless body clutched to her. They had arrived in Andromeda's garden. The pain of it all not yet realised as she heard Andromeda's scream and the weight of Severus being lifted from her. There was blood everywhere, in that moment it was unclear where it had come from. Later they discovered that in her apparting she had managed to splinch her arm quite severely. She was shaking, her fingers still locked onto his robes.
"Severus." She whispered, "Severus, no-no." She had cried out as Amelia had tried to untangle her fingers from his robes. "No, no." Her cries grew louder.
"He's gone dearest." Andromeda whispered, her hands closing over Bella's to try and loosen her grip.
A loud clang sounded, "LUNCH" came a shout that stirred Bella from the memories, the ice was gone from the door. The flap in the cell door opened and admitted her lunch tray and a cup of tea. She ate slowly, her hands shaking from the memories and the cold. The lunch also contained a chocolate biscuit which she ate gratefully to feel the warm spread through her. They had never stationed dementors outside her door before.