"Does Cissy know about any of this?"

"Any of what?" Bellatrix sat in front of the huge glass doors that separated her sister's kitchen from the balcony.

Andy threw a blueberry at her from across the room.

"Ohhh, you mean about the whole prison Rodolphus vengeance thing? No. Haven't spoken with her in years. She wrote once." Bellatrix said with an air of complete disinterest, trying to scoop out the blueberry from where it had landed in her coffee.

"Why did you come to me first? Wouldn't it have made more sense to go straight to her? She has been a hell of a lot closer to that world than I have over the past few decades."

"Believe me, it was not my choice to come here sis."

"Rude."

The dark haired woman placed her ruined coffee on the floor, leaning back in her chair and allowing the sun to fall on her skin.

"Listen, Teddy is coming over again tomorrow and as nice as this reunion has been, I don't want you to meet him."

"Believe me, I have no interest in meeting the little squirt."

Bellatrix's eyes remained shut and she stretched her arms upwards, letting them fall behind her so she could rest her head on them.

"I've told you all I know. I believe Rabastan has taken over the running of the company - Lucius ended up getting cut out of a lot of the day to day business in the takeover because the git thought Rab wouldn't notice his attempts to shave off a few thousand from each shipment."

"That doesn't help me much. I need to know where they're based. Or at least how they're getting the stock across the borders."

"I told you - I don't know. How would I know?! When would I ever casually drop that into a conversation with Cissy?"

"Andy, since when have you ever been able to resist sticking your nose into everyone else's business."

"Since I had a family that I didn't want murdered, Bella."

Bellatrix snuck one eye open, quickly snapping it shut again when she caught her sister staring at her from across the room.

"So what, you're just going to camp out here until I tell you information that I don't have?"

Bellatrix pursed her lips and shrugged noncommittally.

"What about that woman you mentioned? The other agent? You're just going to leave the Lestranges to do what they please with her? You know she'll never find anything out as an outsider - she's more likely to end up dead."

Bellatrix remained silent, relaxing a little when she heard Andy begin to shuffle around the kitchen again, banging cupboards as she put the dishes away.

"The kid, Bear or whatever he's called - he's your grandkid I'm guessing?"

"Mmm." Andy hummed, clearly not interested in taking the conversation any further.

"What happened to Nymph, why haven't I seen her around?"

"Don't."

Bellatrix sat up in her chair, frowning slightly.

"What happened?"

"I said don't. We're not talking about this. You can't just stroll back in after years and think you've earned the right to be a part of my life."

"Did something happen Andy."

There was silence.

"Was it Rodolphus?"

Bellatrix walked over to where her sister was stood, her back to the room with a plate still held in her hands.

"I said I'm not talking to you about this."

Bellatrix stood behind her sister, staring firmly into the back of her head.

"If he's hurt her Andy, I'll kill him. I swear to you."

Andy spun around, the plate clattering to the ground as she misjudged how close her sister was standing.

Bellatrix's shoe crunched in the shards as she lifted her hand to her sister's shoulder, preventing her from once again turning away.

"It has no bearing on why you're here Bellatrix, and I don't owe you the details."

Andy shrugged her sister off and side stepped her, walking away to fetch a dustpan and brush to clear up the mess.


Bellatrix snapped the battery in place and roughly shoved the cover back onto the phone, holding down the end call button until it buzzed into life.

She spotted a bench that looked forgotten about as it was slowly absorbed by the surrounded foliage of the park, pulling a crumpled piece of paper from her pocket. Despite the relatively mild spring day her fingers were numb as she began to type the number into the phone.

Catching Bellatrix off guard, she inhaled sharply as a familiar but somehow foreign voice answered the phone. Ploughing past the chit chat, she steadied her breathe before speaking.

"What happened with Nymphadora, Andy won't say anything and I don't have the time to force it out of her."

"I knew it wouldn't be long until you did this, I just knew."

Bellatrix wasn't prepared for the anger in her sisters voice, forming a puzzled expression as she tried to understand the source of her annoyance.

Deciding she couldn't be bothered figuring it out, she frowned and tried to get the blood to make its way back to her fingers.

"Why are you angry with me?"

"Why am I angry Bella?! Are you seriously asking me that?!"

Starting to get annoyed herself, Bellatrix stood up from the bench abruptly.

"I don't really have time for this Cissy. Just tell me what's happened so I can fix it."

Narcissa laughed loudly and it set Bellatrix's teeth in edge.

"Oh, because your 'fixing it' has worked so well in the past."

Bellatrix didn't respond, instead stomping her way across the park in no particular direction.

"I'm hanging up Bellatrix. I'm not doing this with you, not like this. If Andy wants to tell you, she will. But please, don't try and kid yourself that you're in a position to offer any sort of help to anyone."

"Have you so easily forgotten what I've done for you? For both of you? I gave up my childhood - my fucking adulthood come to think of it - so you two could go off and play happy families. Do not forget that, Cissy."

The line was silent for several seconds until a string of beeps crackled across the line and the call went dead.

"Fucking sisters." Bellatrix muttered angrily, storming her way out of the park. It was time she returned to Russia.


"This is what I have, take it and then hand over the visa."

"It doesn't work like that. You leave when you get told to leave."

"Yeah? So I'll just set up a small bakery stand and wait it out here until some old man in London says I can get on with my job?"

"We wouldn't recommend you establish a business whilst you're here, but yes, essentially. You wait here until we tell you to leave."

The thin wooden coffee stirrer snapped under the force of Bellatrix's grip.

"We have information about your niece." The man eyed the splintered stick with weariness. He was getting too old for this job.

"Tell me."

The man set his jaw, choosing to ignore the misplaced demand.

"When you mentioned the child's father, Lupin, we had our team run some checks."

Bellatrix bounced her thumb atop of the rough wood.

"He has ties to the agency. Tenuous ties, but at one stage he acted as an informant. This was in exchange for the agency's assistance with protection for Nymphadora."

"Protection? From Rodolphus?"

"Yes."

"Where is she?"

"She's safe and the agency is aware of her whereabouts. I cannot tell you anything more."

"Does her mother know?"

"She knows she is safe."

Bellatrix glowered at the man, intensely aggravated by his obtuseness.

"You can collect your new documents tomorrow evening. You'll receive a text with details to this phone."

He tapped lightly on the phone next to him, which Bellatrix had thought to be his. The sallow skinned man then unfolded himself from the booth and walked out of the cafe, not bothering to look back.


The raven haired agent sat at the back of the crowded coach, thumb absentmindedly running back and forth over the red passport she held in her grip.

The bastards never told her she'd be taking on a Russian identity, although she did appreciate that it would make the hassle of document checks a lot easier. Her main gripe was that it would force her into speaking Russian the whole time, something she resisted whenever humanly possible. It wasn't that she hated the language, in fact she actually loved the complexity of it - the way three words could replace a whole sentence in her native tongue. And Bellatrix was a fan of anything that meant she could spend less time speaking with other people.

It was more that she'd moved on. She never intended to regress - to move back to Russia and the lifestyle she'd once loved and loathed. Leaving the language behind seemed like a simple way of drawing a line beneath the whole ordeal that was her teens and twenties.

To add insult to injury, she'd also discovered that she wouldn't be flying into the country - she'd instead crossed the boarder from Finland, meaning she'd had to fly into Helsinki and then take a coach the rest of the way. She was surrounded by dirty backpackers and swollen, loud families. Needless to say, she'd placed her rucksack on the seat next to her and scowled at anyone that contemplated sitting nearby.

The fifteen hour coach journey to Moscow had given her far, far too much thinking time. She'd not gone back to Andy's since their final conversation about Nymph. She'd not bothered calling Cissy back. She'd tried to block out any and all thoughts about where Hermione was. She felt an uncomfortable but familiar twist in her stomach as she rapidly fluctuated between worry about her family, and worry about Hermione. She resented it. She hadn't intended to feel responsible for anyone or anything again - she had planned to leave prison and head straight to one of the old abandoned family homes around Europe. Maybe buy a dog. Read some books.

Instead - she scowled even harder at the thought - here she was. About to head to yet another shitty flat to meet yet another know it all agent to be given yet another list of ridiculous tasks.

She just wanted to give Andy back her daughter and ensure the younger agent - who she had decided she'd resolutely avoid naming both in her external and internal monologue - returned back to England with all limbs firmly in their correct place.

Stupid bloody people with their stupid bloody ability to make her care.


"Lucius is her in."

"It's not going to work. Firstly, Lucius would rather stab himself in the eye than do something 'for the greater good', and secondly he's been boxed out by the company for being a little weasel."

"Yes, he's not in the inner circle anymore, but he still has connections. He's the closest thing we've got."

"Can I remind you that 'we' don't have anything. And I haven't spoken to Lucius since I threatened to get him taxidermied if he ever crossed Cissy."

Bellatrix had her back to the middle aged woman as she made herself a strong coffee. Strong in the sense that it had whisky in it.

"You're going to be stuck here until you have something of worth to feedback to the agency. If you're that resistant to utilising your family connections then you're going to be here for a hell of a long time. And as you can see, the agency isn't so bothered about providing you with a luxury experience whilst you waste their time."

"Where is Agent Granger anyway?"

"She's currently in Rostov. We have a tenuous lead on a drug import/export racket. One of the parties involved has a sideline in weapons. It's almost definitely leading nowhere."

"And remind me again what your job is in all of this? Telling people what to do whilst doing nothing of use yourself, or have I missed something..?"

The older women raised an eyebrow and never replied.

"We know where Narcissa and Lucius currently live, and we know of a little sideline Lucius is currently running. Either you go and play happy families, or we send Granger in with some old fashioned blackmail. I'm sure you can appreciate that the latter doesn't always go to plan for either party."

The old woman crossed her legs, leaning back in her chair with the ghost of a victorious smirk.

That old witch Caroline had obviously not been above exploiting her personal knowledge of the pair in order to manipulate the battle field. Naturally.

"Where's my sisters kid?"

"Do you really think I'm privy to that information?"

The woman stared at Bellatrix with a patronising expression. Bellatrix nearly snapped the handle of the mug in an attempt not to punch her.

"Fine. I'll go. But Caroline can fuck herself if she thinks I'm sleeping in this shit hole for the night. I'm using that handy credit card and booking myself into a hotel. Enjoy your life."

Bellatrix hailed a taxi a couple of streets away from the apartment, happy to find the driver preferred blaring the radio to attempting small talk. As she pointedly requested the most expensive room the hotel had available, she couldn't help but constantly scan everyone around her. Ironically, prison had been quite a relaxing place to be all those years. Once she'd established herself as thoroughly unhinged she didn't have to worry so much about threats from other inmates. She was left alone. Now the familiar sensation of being constantly watched was settling itself deep in the base of her spine.

She left her rucksack with the concierge, requesting that everything be washed and repacked in time for her departure tomorrow. If she was going to have to engage with her brother-in-law she was at least going to do it with fresh clothes and a solid nights sleep.

The agent piled her curls up into a bun on the top of her head, hissing enjoyably as the boiling water of the bath immersed her skin. She let her head fall back against the rim of the tub, closing her eyes as her fingers trailed through the water. Honestly, she couldn't give a shit about blackmailing Lucius into doing something - in fact, the thought was actually quite enjoyable. Instead, it was the idea of turning up on her sister's doorstep that really made her jaw clench. An enraged Cissy was something even Bellatrix dreaded a little. If Bella was fire, Cissy was ice. After their brief phone conversation the week prior, she wasn't hopeful of being able to thaw her.

Bellatrix ran a wet hand over her face, letting her nails drag some hair back into place as they tried to escape her bun.

Despite her intense efforts, she felt her thoughts dragged back to the younger agent. Her foot began to tap distractedly on the tub as she thought about intentionally engineering a situation where she'd place the woman in a setting she herself had fled from years ago. Calculated plans to ensure her safety kept getting bombarded with these ridiculous emotions that distracted her from the logistics of planning. She groaned audibly and once again shut her eyes, focusing on the gentle slosh of water and pushing out anything else from her mind.