Masquerade Act Three: The Veneer of Thalia and Melpomene
The Twenty Eighth Dance: The Great Reform
Punishment is not for revenge, but to lessen crime and reform the criminal. Elizabeth Fry
It took Hermione three long weeks but she was able to finally convince Kingsley, McGonagall, and her friends, to let her try to reform Bellatrix so that the woman wouldn't have to go back to Azkaban. Hermione made the point that Bellatrix could be in danger there, and due to the soul spell, this meant Hermione was bound to her same fate. Additionally, Hermione was sure the woman would be more open to change given how she had turned against her own master.
Hermione would be spending time to reform the woman herself, with McGonagall overseeing the process, both reporting the results of the program every week to the minister of magic. Bellatrix would be the first case in the brunette's eventually goal to overhaul the whole prison system that the wizards used as she deemed it monstrous. She let Kingsley know how she felt about it, by listing out all a hundred and ten reasons for why the system was outdated and should be torn down.
Ron naturally was vehemently opposed to the idea. He didn't want to see Bellatrix possibly walk free. And he didn't want Hermione to spend time at her side, despite the fact that the house Bellatrix would be held in would be warded and there would be aurors there at all times, to make sure nothing happened. Their difference in opinions caused them not to talk to one another for an extended period of time.
Harry and Ginny were more understanding, but still they had difficulty accepting the idea. Molly made it harder for Ginny to do so, as the woman was even more vehemently opposed to the idea than Ron. This was largely due to the woman not having her memories in which Bellatrix actually helped their side, but Hermione doubted that even if Molly had them that much of a difference would be made. The woman hated the other with a passion and she had good reason for it.
Luna and Neville were also let in on the plan. Neville understandably had a hard time swallowing down the pill of knowledge that Hermione gave him. But he was kind hearted and after much thought he decided that it was for the best; that if such evil was able to be prevented from ever happening again, able to be pruned before it grew too large, then it would prevent unnecessary death and harm.
Luna had smiled graciously at Hermione's words, telling her she had been glad that Hermione was back in her body.
"What?" Hermione, Ron, and Harry, who had been there talking with Luna and Neville blurted out in unison.
"Did I say something wrong?" Luna worried, raising her hand to her mouth.
"No...you said you were glad I was back in my body," Hermione started slowly, leaning forwards in her seat, eyes on the blonde. "Was I not in my body before?"
"You weren't. You and Bellatrix switched bodies and had to kill Voldemort and then you got your bodies back."
Hermione sat back with a 'huh' on her lips, the two boys next to her arching their brows.
"How come her memories weren't bloody altered?" Ron whined.
"It could be...maybe the forces didn't think anyone would believe her given her..." Hermione tried to think of a nice way to say kooky but Luna beat her to it. "Because I'm so loony."
"Uh, yea," Harry coughed uncomfortably. "But I guess this is just more proof that our memories were indeed altered."
"Wait a second. Did you say you and Bellatrix switched bodies?" Neville's muffin, that he had been snacking on at the cafe they were seated at, hovered in the air. The poor boy hadn't been privy to what had happened the past two weeks.
Hermione let out a long sigh and gave Ron and Harry a look before she decided. "It's a long story Neville."
But when she finally told him, he was more receptive and understanding of her wanting to reform the other woman.
"That's such a detour in character for her," he commented about the part when Bellatrix killed Voldemort.
"Yes, well people change when they are given a second chance. And I am all about second chances," Hermione replied.
After the plan had been finalized that Bellatrix indeed would not go to prison nor be taken to court and charged for her crimes, Hermione, McGonagall and Kingsley had taken to coming up with a list of programs Bellatrix needed to complete before she would be deemed safe to reenter society. There were a lot and it took many drafts before a completed form was secured.
Bellatrix had no idea this was going on the whole time. Or maybe she did? But Dorian's voice was exceptionally quiet in Hermione's head and she assumed that since he wasn't in her head, he couldn't snitch on her plans to Bellatrix. And when Hermione finally told Bellatrix the whole plan she expected the screaming, the ardent refusal, and the name calling. Yet Hermione was firm. "If you don't do this, the whole world will be your prison."
That had shut up Bellatrix's tantrum. And the woman begrudgingly tried her best to follow Hermione's plans. But there was plenty of arguing and grating of each others nerves during each session. The way it was scheduled was that Hermione would come over to Bellatrix's house every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. During this time Hermione would take her out to do community service. And the first place they would be starting in was the muggle world.
"Are you bloody insane? You want me to go to that world? It's full of filth and disease!" Bellatrix had raged, her voice hoarse from how long she had been protesting this.
Hermione, in the throes of the so dubbed Bellatrix migraine, was losing patience with the other woman rapidly. "You are going to do this, or else!"
"Just throw me into the prison then."
"You are not going there!"
"And why not? Are you scared for your own hide? Worried you'll die if I go there?"
Hermione couldn't argue against that as it was true, so she tried something else. "Is it so hard to think that someone actually cares for you and wants to help you get your life together?"
"And why would you care for me?"
"Because you saved me in the afterlife. If it weren't for you I never would have been able to find out the truth, and to get free from there. So, let me do the same and save you from prison here."
Bellatrix bared her teeth in displeasure at this. "I don't need you to save me." But Hermione's words had softened her a bit. "I was only using you to help me. Just like you're only using me now to help you."
Hermione let out a frustrated growl and threw her hands up in the air. "Fine then. Take it that way if you want to. I don't care anymore. Just put on your muggle clothes and let's go."
Bellatrix eyed the outfit spread out on her bed disdainfully. "I am not wearing those rags."
"Those aren't rags, their normal clothing. Now put them on!" Hermione really wanted to take some medicine to stop the pounding in her head but she couldn't until the woman changed clothes.
"This is absurd. I don't want to be part of this stupid reform plan. I didn't have any say on this. Isn't this against your so called 'fairness' for criminals?"
"Bellatrix," Hermione started in a warning tone. "I swear if you do not put on those clothes in the next three minutes-"
"You'll what? What will you do? Torture me?" Bellatrix raised her chin up, arms crossed over her chest.
This seemed to take some of the anger out of Hermione. "Just get dressed and be ready. I know you don't want to go to hell, so help me help you stop that from happening. And for clarification, the muggle world is not filthy. If you want to avoid hell, start with removing your prejudices and keep an open mind because being highly opinionated and blind to the other side of things were what lead you to be blindly devout to the wrong thing." Hermione knew that erasing long held prejudices would be hard, as they were ingrained into all noble purebloods from birth. Hopefully she could at least make Bellatrix question those views if not refute them entirely.
Hermione turned on her heel to give the woman some privacy to change, shutting the door loudly behind her. Bellatrix snorted angrily, looked at the door, then looked at the clothes on the bed. Bellatrix was trying to fight against her ill convinced stereotypes but it wasn't as easy as Hermione seemed to think it was to do so. Bellatrix had to be careful to catch negative lines of thought. "I know muggleborn witches...aren't all bad. But muggles?" She sniffed, then picked up the shirt from the bed and let the thin material hang from between her fingers like she was holding up something disgusting.
Hermione was waiting for the woman downstairs, thumbing the vine wand in her pocket nervously. Was it going to be a good idea to let the woman into the muggle world? There was no telling if she would flip out and start trying to hurt someone. But it was a risk Hermione would have to take. It was why she was taking her wand and why Bellatrix was missing hers.
Bellatrix came down the stairs and the brunette could feel her heart speed up a little. Bellatrix looked surprisingly natural in muggle clothes. She was wearing tight black jeans and a green tee. "Well?" she asked in irritation. She clearly looked uncomfortable in these clothes, fidgeting around and trying to resist the urge to pull at the fabric of the shirt. It felt way too tight around her neck. "Are you going to stand there all day gawking at me or are we going to the place so we can do the stupid thing?"
"Uh, right," Hermione tore her gaze away. "We're going to be walking there as the place won't be too far, and it will give you a chance to walk among muggles."
"Goody," Bellatrix muttered with no joy at all. "Just what I wanted."
As the two women left the small safe house Bellatrix had been given, Hermione bid the two aurors guarding the entrance door a goodbye. "You know this is for your good," she began, noting Bellatrix's sour expression. "If you had continued to run away it would have only lead to bad consequences but in this way you can do your year of time and then be practically a free woman. You'd only have to be on parole for ten years, but after that you'd be able to partake in activities like an other witch or wizard."
"Yes, I'm sure glad I decided to stay," Bellatrix muttered sarcastically. They were walking pretty quickly, bypassing the magical barriers that separated the human world and the wizarding world. The brick wall closed behind them.
Hermione did wonder why the woman had stopped trying to run away. Was she simply tired of it? She had been put under extra scrutiny at the hospital, and her other two escape attempts had been thwarted before she gave up. Of course, she could still try to run away from Hermione now but the brunette knew the other wouldn't have much chance of being able to do so as Hermione had specifically devised a special tracking spell that would let her know where Bellatrix was if she was so much as more than ten feet from her. And it couldn't be taken off unless it was by the person who cast it. Hermione had made sure to inform Bellatrix of this and it seemed to put a wrench into the woman's escape attempts.
"Best part is, you'll get to be with your sister. Narcissa only has house arrest for the next ten years so after you finish your one year of house arrest you can go visit her."
Bellatrix made a scowl at that. It seemed she was a bit touchy on that topic. Hermione wasn't going to dabble in it until it was time.
There was silence as they walked down the smaller and emptier alleyways before pouring out onto the main street. "So, this is the muggle world?" Bellatrix asked with a hint of disgruntlement as she edged away from the corner of the street as several cars zoomed past her. Her hands clenched into fists but if she felt scared she was doing a good job of hiding it. She paid the roaring automobiles no more mind after that than one does to air.
There were a lot of people walking on the street right now as it was the midday rush. The distance between Hermione and Bellatrix decreased as she moved closer to the brunette to avoid the people passing her by; the backs of their hands brushing together. This made a faint blush hit Hermione's cheeks and she moved her hand away, hyper aware of the small distance between them. Bellatrix didn't seem to be bothered. She cast looks from the corners of her eyes. "What is up with all...these blasted noisy contraptions?"
"Their automobiles. Muggles use them to drive them places. Their sort of like brooms but they don't hover and they are way faster. Plus they do more. They play music. And they provide cold air if it's hot."
"And that?" Bellatrix was looking at a flat screen behind a glass store front.
"That's a TV."
"A TV?"
"Yes. They play shows and movies on them. They even tell us the news."
"So, there's no owl that brings in the news?"
Hermione couldn't help but smile in amusement. "No, they don't use owls."
It seemed Bellatrix's curiosity over the muggle world outweighed her disdain and fear for it because she was asking Hermione a lot of questions about it.
"What's that?"
"A phone. It helps us call people and we can send them letters, much like we do with owls, but it is way faster."
"And that?"
"A fire hydrant. It provides water so firefighters can put out fires."
"Firefighters?"
"Their muggles who have equipment to get rid of fires that plague the human world."
"Shouldn't everyone have this sort of equipment?"
"Yes, but their specially trained to use this equipment. For example they wear special outfits so that they won't burn in the flames."
Bellatrix seemed impressed by that. "Muggles invented fire proof clothing without magic?" This was not meant to be heard by Hermione but the brunette heard it anyways.
"And what is that girl wearing?" Bellatrix sounded scandalized. She was looking in horror and disdain at a girl who was wearing a really short skirt and a halter top. "What purpose does that clothing have?"
"It's just a style," Hermione shrugged as Bellatrix proceeded to glare at the passing by woman who showed her two fingers in response.
"Why that rude-"
Hermione grabbed Bellatrix by the shoulder and pushed her forwards, trying to keep the woman from engaging any further. However she couldn't stop Bellatrix from craning her neck backwards and sticking out her tongue at the other girl who kept the two finger salute up until she crossed the street. Only then did Bellatrix turn back to Hermione and pepper her with more questions.
The line of questioning continued to the place they were going to do community service at. Once they arrived there, Bellatrix fell back into her grumpy demeanor.
"This is where I'll be working?" she grumbled out.
"Yes. We're going to be weeding the community garden."
"That's servant work."
"No, Bellatrix. It's people work. Anyone can do it, and you are too."
"Why am I doing this again?"
"Because if you want to gain the trust of the wizarding community you need to be seen working amiably with the muggles first, as you hate them. Once the public sees you don't hate muggles anymore then they'll trust that you've had a huge change of heart."
"And what if I told you I don't hate them. Then could we skip this?"
"No. Because I know you still dislike muggles. And muggleborns. Or pretty much anyone who is not you."
"And who says I like myself?" Bellatrix mumbled out, it being hard to tell if she was serious or not. But Hermione was already moving away past the silver fence that held the garden within.
Bellatrix heaved in a huge breath. Why did she have a bad feeling this wasn't going to work out?
Because nothing ever works out for you, jeered the malignant voice in her head.
Shut up. Then she walked over to join Hermione.
There were already a couple of people in the garden, some kids, but all mostly older muggles who were dressed in slacks and shirts covered in dirt. They blatantly advertise that they are dirt beneath a witch's feet if they wear such filthy clothing-no, stop that. Bellatrix shook her head to get rid of these thoughts.
"Hi, you must be Beatrix. I'm Eva," a chipper woman with brown hair in a ponytail stuck out her hand in greeting. Bellatrix took an immediate dislike to her. No one in their right mind could be this happy about digging in the dirt. "Hermione told me about how the two of you will be joining us in sprucing up the ol' garden. This is both your first time, right?"
Bellatrix looked down distastefully at the woman's gloved hand. Then back up to her smiling face and eager eyes. "My name is Bellatrix." She didn't shake the others hand.
"My bad!" The woman lowered her hand. "You just have a really unique name. Named after a star, right?"
"Yes," Bellatrix bit out.
"Hmm, not much of a talker," Eva turned to Hermione who grimaced apologetically.
"She's just on the wrong side of the bed. Always."
"I'm right here," Bellatrix pointed out, feeling like she was a little child and the adults were making fun of her by talking about her as if she wasn't here.
"Haha, I get it. I know plenty of people like that," Eva hadn't seemed to have heard Bellatrix's comment and the woman was about to repeat herself when Eva clapped her hands together. "Let's get some supplies for you guys and get this started."
She lead them to a little shed and handed both girls a pair of gloves, a cultivator, and a bucket for the weeds. Then she sent them off to start work on a part of the garden near the back. Other people were also getting to work, spread out through the garden and chatting to one another as they worked.
Hermione immediately got to her knees and began to to pull out green shoots she saw at the plant's base. Bellatrix merely stood where she was, cultivator held awkwardly in her hand. She was holding it upside down.
"Start weeding."
"You honestly expect me to do this...servant work?" Bellatrix spat out.
"Yes. It's part of the program. And it's not servant work," Hermione repeated irritably. "It's quite enjoyable. It helps to relieve stress."
"I highly doubt that is true."
"The quicker we get this done, the quicker you can go back to brooding in your room," Hermione said.
Bellatrix sniffed but finally bent down and got to work. Hermione focused back on her work, keeping in mind the position of her wand in case the other wanted to reach for it.
Everything seemed to be going smoothly, the two girls even being joined by a trio of middle schoolers, boy scouts no doubt. They were a rowdy bunch, chattering all the while they began to clear the dirt of little pebbles or sticks. Hermione didn't have to look at Bellatrix to know the other woman was getting irritated with them, but for now she didn't say anything, that is, until they made fun of her.
"Hey, what are you doing?" the leader of the trio, a boy with a smathering of freckles on his face cried out, pointing a finger at her.
"What?" she ground out, holding up a large green plant in her hand, ripped out by the roots.
"You're ripping out the plants. You're not supposed to do that." Pointed out one of the others, one that was wearing a green hat.
Hermione's attention was drawn to this. "Bellatrix, have you been ripping out the plants?" she asked with a hint of exasperation.
"Do you know what a plant is?" asked the freckled boy.
Bellatrix's shoulders tensed up at this. "I bloody know what a plant is. I didn't know we weren't supposed to not rip them out!" Hermione could sense the woman was getting extremely defensive about this and so she knew she had to diffuse this situation before it got worse and the woman took to screaming.
"Aren't you an adult? You should know these kinds of things: that you don't rip out such plants in gardens," the boy with the hat snorted.
"Here, it's not a big deal. Let's just put them back in," Hermione gently took the plant Bellatrix was holding up and put it back in it's hole, covering up the roots and patting the dirt around it. "Where are the rest?"
When Bellatrix gestured to a small pile beside her Hermione bit back the annoyed groan. How many had she ripped out? The whole row? But the brunette got to work on planting them back.
Bellatrix meanwhile watched, sticking out her tongue at the boy scouts who were watching the two women. The boys just shook their heads, disgruntled with her.
After the plants had successfully been replanted and the garden beds all cleaned up, they had to water them. Long garden hoses were uncoiled and Hermione gave one to Bellatrix who held it in her hands, clearly at a loss as to how to use it. She eyed the three boys next to her who had managed to turn on their shared hose. Her staring must have been too obvious because the boy with the hat turned her with a smirk on his face. "What, don't know how to use a hose too?"
This made the older woman angry. "I bloody know how to use a hose." And then because she didn't know what else to do with it, she took to moving it around in a back and forth motion like the boys had. The boy with the hat nudged his friends, drawing their attention to the struggling witch.
"Wow, did you never step foot outside of a house? Don't you know how to do anything?" jerked the third boy.
"I've seen and done more things than you will ever do in your entire lifetime you snot nosed brats. How dare you make fun of me?!" They only snickered at her. She so dearly wanted to deck them, each and every one of their stupid faces. Stupid mudbloods! Why won't this hose work? "Augmenti!" she hissed at it, knowing that with a wand this spell brought forth water. Not in this case. The hose remained useless and Bellatrix craned her neck, wondering where the bloody hell Hermione was. She saw the girl making her way over, having chatted with that horrid woman Eva before.
"What took you so long?" Bellatrix demanded between clenched teeth and Hermione immediately wondered what had transpired that had made the woman so riled up. She had been fine when she had last left her.
"I just had to go turn on the hose." And true to her words, there was a slight vibration in the hose as it became heavier and then stiffer before water came out in a slow and steady stream. Unfortunately for the trio of boys but fortunately for Bellatrix, the hose had been pointed at them and they got a decent soaking.
"Hey!" they cried out in unison.
"Turn that hose the other way!" the freckled boy cried.
Bellatrix didn't want to, a grin spreading on her face, but a pressure on the back of her hand told her Hermione had pushed her hand down.
"Really?" Hermione arched a brow, not amused by Bellatrix's antics.
"What, it was an accident," Bellatrix smirked as she feigned innocence. Then she felt something cold and wet hit her face in a spray. She gasped loudly as if she had been offended by the worst crime possible, before snapping her head to them with an angry glare and screech on her tongue.
"My bad, that was an accident too," smirked the boy with the hat as his friend's howled with him at the older woman's soaked appearance.
"I'm going to kill you!" she vowed and gave chase as they stumbled out of the way of her spray.
"Bellatrix!" Hermione cried out, aghast. "Stop that!" Then she ran after her when she saw the woman wasn't listening, hoping that the woman didn't really mean her words.
Bellatrix sat grumpily on the stone wall to a building the two woman had sat down on. She was holding up a bag of ice to her face and if Hermione didn't know she'd almost say the other woman was pouting. "I'm glad you got a good laugh out of my pain," the raven haired witch stated bitterly as she sat, shoulders hunched in on themselves. Hermione sat next to her, letting the light summer breeze dry her wet clothes.
"It didn't make me happy to see you in pain," Hermione answered after a moment of debating whether she should point out the irony of that statement, as Bellatrix had often enjoyed laughing ridiculously hard at the pain of others.
"Yes, then whose laughter did I hear while I was lying flat on my back? I'm sure those three brats don't laugh like a girl." After Bellatrix had been sprayed with water by those three boys, she had given chase, ensuing in a water war that spanned the entire length of the garden and disrupted the other people. And then, in true Saturday morning cartoon style, she had run onto the flat part of a rake. The tool, which had been obscured by grass, had not been noted by the other and so when the tool lifted up due to her leverage on it, she was unpleasantly surprised to be smacked by the long handle right in the nose, sending her sprawling backwards.
Hermione, struck by the absurdity of this, could not stop the laughter from coming out. Bellatrix had understandably been less than amused, rising to her feet with a bloody nose. Hermione had then decided that they had done enough gardening for today and it was time to go home. They were both soaked with water from the boys spraying them with water. She couldn't wait to tell her friends this story though. No doubt they would share her amusement.
So, the first outing hadn't gone too well, but neither had it ended in complete disaster so the brunette supposed she could write it off as an improvement. "Let's head back home, so that I can properly heal you. I think that's enough for today."
"Thank Merlin." Bellatrix hoped off the wall and didn't even wait for Hermione before she started off with long strides down the sidewalk.
Given Monday's results, Hermione decided it would be better if today was a calmer day. So she went to a muggle bookstore and bought as many how-to and early explorer books as she could so that she could help clarify the way the muggle world worked to Bellatrix. The woman had raised a skeptical eyebrow when Hermione strode into her house prison on Wednesday morning and pulled out of the magically enhanced purse three stacks of heavy books.
"What are those?" Bellatrix inquired.
"Books," Hermione said as she patted the top of the tallest stack next to her on the table.
Bellatrix rolled her eyes. "I know that. But muggle books?"
"Yes. Even though we're not going out today, given what happened last time...we're still going to be learning about muggle inventions and the likes. I've brought books on technology, on science, on philosophy, and on art."
"How interesting," Bellatrix mumbled out sarcastically. "And what's that?" A small book with a pink cover on it caught her attention.
"I also took some muggle fiction for you, in case you might be interested in reading it. It's actually about supernatural things. Like vampires and stuff."
Bellatrix's lip curled up at this. "And why would I want to read stories written by filth for filth."
Hermione's arched brow made the woman realize she had spoken too hastily again. "It looks like a ridiculous book," she corrected.
"You shouldn't judge a book by it's cover," said Hermione, the phrase ingrained in her since childhood. Then she sat down and joined Bellatrix at the table, spreading open one of the first tomes on science.
It was rough going. The older woman had trouble believing in the concepts of atoms, of photons and neutrons, and in simple theories that were the fundamentals of gravity, energy production, and mass conversion.
"Mass can neither be created or destroyed? But we witches do it all the time," she pointed out. "What are the muggles blabbering on about?"
"But muggles can't use magic, so their constrained to such laws of physics."
But Bellatrix was already moving onto another topic.
"Clearly this is wrong," the woman grunted out, frustrated by a particular passage that Hermione had been explaining from found in the children's version of the science book. "As with magic you can reduce the size of shapes as well as their weight without misplacing the mass."
"Yes, I know that. But that's the way things work in the muggle world."
"Well, the muggle world is stupid." Bellatrix said this triumphantly, no doubt reinstating some of her earlier prejudiced beliefs. Hermione could see that this was turning out not to be convincing Bellatrix that muggles were actually smart and resourceful and so she dropped it and moved on to technology. But that too was proving to be difficult to teach to the woman. She couldn't understand what electronics were, or how magic was actually bad for them.
Hermione moved onwards, opening up the art books. This seemed to capture the older woman's attentions for a longer time. She grudgingly admitted to liking some of the art styles, mainly the expressionist eras. In particular she focused on The Scream by Edward Munich. When Hermione caught her staring at the picture for a long time, she merely sniffed and turned the page. "Even though the paintings don't move, some are really good at conveying the emotion in them."
Hermione tried to keep her smile small.
Then it was on to philosophy and Hermione found that the older woman had a penchant for the theories of the minds of those who had penned them. She was able to carry out deep and logical conversations about life and the meaning of it, and on society and it's rules. Hermione never would have thought the other was this educated, but then again she was a pureblood and they all had access to the best of the best education in the wizarding world. It was just that Hermione had thought her mad for the longest time, a symbol of insanity and terror on the battlefield. But sitting now at the table, nearly elbow to elbow with a muggleborn, pouring over muggle texts, she almost seemed normal.
"Why did you do it?" Hermione blurted out, unable to stop herself.
"Do what?" Bellatrix peered up at her, fingers pausing where they had been tracing the words as she read.
Deciding that since she had already started the topic, she might as well go all the way on it, for she wasn't one to give up halfway, Hermione asked, "Act mad?"
Bellatrix stared blankly at Hermione for a while before a bitter smile made it's way to her lips. "Who said it was an act?"
And Hermione didn't have the courage to continue the conversation from there.
The day soon turned to night and Hermione stood up from the table, realizing she hadn't felt the passage of time, so enraptured she had been discussing ancient theories with the other woman.
"I enjoyed this. Next time you should teach me something that you know about," Hermione suggested, cracking her back to get the kinks out.
"Like how to hurt others?" Bellatrix asked mockingly and Hermione frowned in answer. "No, teach me some of your magics. Like the soul spell."
Now it was Bellatrix's turn to frown. "You think you deserve to know the precious family magics of the highly esteemed Black family-"
"I think I at least deserve to know about the soul spell, since mine and your life are entwined together by it." Hermione leaned forward on the table at this, staring Bellatrix right in the eyes defiantly. The other didn't say anything, only stared back until it got uncomfortable for Hermione and she had to pull back, blushing a bit. "I'll see you Friday. But in the meantime, you can keep reading these." Hermione swept a hand to gesture to the books around her and then she left.
Bellatrix sniffed at the books, giving them a glance over and then picked up the small fiction book from before. It had a pink cover and the blurb promised an enthralling story of love and intrigue in the vampiric world.
"We'll see about that," the witch muttered tossing the book aside before temptation became too much and she picked it back up.
Friday was a trip to an amusement park, meaning Bellatrix yet again had to wear muggle clothing. She looked as uncomfortable in it as before but she had complained less than last time, only cursing the muggle clothe five times before she had put it on.
"Was is this...nightmare?" the woman asked warily as she eyed the running and screaming kids that passed by her and Hermione. Everywhere it was loud and it smelled obscenely of popcorn and grape soda.
"It's an amusement park. It's where muggles go to for fun. And since we're trying to get you acculturated with muggle traditions, this is one stop that we need to take," Hermione insisted, beckoning for the other to follow her. Hermione herself had only been to an amusement park once. She much rather enjoyed staying indoors and reading books, but other muggles loved it a lot so it was a necessity to show the dark haired witch this.
"It doesn't look like fun," Bellatrix muttered as she heard the shrieks of the people on the passing by roller coaster. "More like a center of torture. What are those contraptions?" Now her eyes were focused on a ride where people were riding over their heads in suspended cages.
"Their rides, meant for fun. Come, let's go on that one. We can start with the small rides." Hermione pointed at the smallest roller coaster she could find. Bellatrix tsked but complied. There was a small wait for it since no one thought the coaster scary enough. Soon they were strapped in, metal bars across their waists. "And this will protect us?" Bellatrix indicated to the bars.
"Yes, it's meant to stop us from falling out the train car."
"And why would we fall out?"
"We wouldn't, but just for safety reasons," Hermione explained, noting that the witch was a bit tensed up. No doubt she was feeling uncomfortable due to her being out in the muggle world again.
Then the ride began. When they got off Bellatrix was shooting Hermione the nastiest glare she could over her shoulder as she held onto the fence to steady her legs. "Were you trying to kill me?! What was the point of bringing me on that blasted ride?!"
Hermione clamped her lips together to prevent the laugh that threatened to bubble out unbidden. "I didn't know you were such a scaredy cat," she taunted, knowing that if she did this then the witch would be less inclined to be mad at Hermione and more at being considered chicken.
"A what?"
Right, Hermione had forgotten the wizarding world didn't use such jargon. "Don't tell me one of the most powerful witch's in the world can't handle a roller coaster."
"That thing is madness. Madness I tell you. Who in their right mind would go on such a thing! All you muggles are insane!"
Should you really be the person to say that? Hermione internally questioned. She merely shook her head in amusement. "Let's go on something less frightening."
"I refuse!"
Hermione then proceeded to try to convince the other to let go of the fence and move but the witch ardently refused, causing attention to be drawn to the two. "I swear to Merlin, I will hex you right now if you don't move! You're behaving worse than a five year old kid!" Hermione's patience was wearing thin. She could see a security guard approaching to check out the commotion. She couldn't have him in their business so she really needed Bella to move.
"Fine!" Bellatrix stomped off, finally moving. "But if you put me on one more ride like that, I will scream bloody murder!"
"Then you pick out the ride," Hermione offered as an offer of appeasement.
"All of them look insane."
They walked around the park, Bellatrix squinting her eyes and making a face at each ride she paused at. She looked the ride over for a few minutes before she moved on, not liking it. As they walked, the two of their bodies gravitated closer to one another and Hermione had to consciously move away before the back of her hand could brush against the others like it had last time. Just thinking about it made weird tingles spread from that spot on her hand up her arm. She touched that spot with her other hand, wondering why the heck this was.
Halfway through their wanderings Bellatrix declared that she was hungry.
"I'll buy you something to eat. Wait here," Hermione went off to a nearby food stand, leaving Bellatrix sitting on a bench. She sat with her arms crossed over her chest and head held up high, her foot tapping in irritation.
She couldn't believe she was doing this. A noble and pureblood like her, walking among muggles, dressing like one. But she supposed if it would mean her freedom, the ability to walk the wizarding world freely, then she would put up with it. And she did want to be a better person, to make up for her sins in the past. Speaking of which...she still had no idea how she would do that. Should she pay the victims families reparation money? Should she go up and apologize to them? No, that didn't seem likely. In neither case would the people forgive her. So then what? Maybe Hermione would have some brilliant ideas?
As she sat brooding, a six year old kid came up to her, timid looking and with fear in their eyes. "Excuse me?"
Bellatrix merely cast it a derisive look before looking away.
The child continued on. "I got lost from my mom and I need your help to find her."
"That's none of my concern, not my business if you were dumb enough to get lost."
The girl wasn't deterred by the harsh statement. "Please. My mom always told me to ask a nice lady for help."
"Nice lady, ha! You sure picked a winner, kid," Bellatrix grumbled out.
"I'm so scared...I miss my mommy," the little girl began to cry. At this Hermione came back with a hot dog and soda in her hand. She took in the scene with one look, a scowl on her lips. "Bellatrix, I leave you alone for two seconds and you already made a kid cry."
"It wasn't my fault! She just came up to me and started crying!" The older woman explained as the girl began to sob harder.
"What happened? Can you tell me?" Hermione bent down so she was eye level with the little girl. She was speaking in a softer tone.
"My mom...I got lost. I can't find her." The little girl hiccuped.
"Here, why don't you eat some food. It'll help you calm down. And we're going to go and help you find your mom, okay? Just don't cry," Hermione handed the hot dog over to the girl who had already stopped sniffling, although her cheeks were wet and red.
Bellatrix's fingers twitched. That was supposed to be her meal! Infuriating brat! This was why she hated kids! "And why should we help her?"
As soon as Hermione gave her a pointed look, Bellatrix knew what the one word answer was going to be. "Reform." And with that she resigned herself to following Hermione who held the little girl's hand as they walked around the park.
"What's your name?" Hermione asked kindly to the girl.
"Sarah," she answered, taking a bite of the hot dog. She was already halfway done with it, practically inhaling it.
"And where did you last lose your mom?"
"Over by the water slides."
"Then let's go there."
"Okay. Thank you. What's your name?" Sarah beamed up at Hermione. She looked completely at ease with the brunette. Hermione found her adorable. She had always loved kids. And one day, dare she say, she hoped for some of her own, if work would permit.
"I'm Hermione. And that's Bellatrix over there." Sarah turned her head to look over at Bellatrix who was petulantly following after them. Bellatrix scowled at her to dissuade her from looking.
"She's funny. She makes silly faces!" the girl giggled and Bellatrix snorted angrily. Merlin, was she losing her touch, that she couldn't even frighten a six year old now?
"Yes, she does," Hermione affirmed with a touch of humor. "She's always grumpy, that's why."
"I am not!" Bellatrix insisted although she knew it was largely true.
"Are you two bestest of friends?" Sarah asked innocently. The trio had made their way over to the water slides now.
Now what did Hermione say to this? Were they best friends? It was weird to think of the once frightening woman as her friend. But they had certainly gone through some taxing things, so did that warrant the basis of a friendship? Hermione would say it did. The question was, would Bellatrix? It was hard to tell with the prickly woman. "We are...in a way," she cautiously answered. She cast a look over her shoulder to see Bellatrix's reaction but the woman had purposefully looked away at this.
Hermione gave a shrug. "So Sarah, what does your mom look like so we can help find her?"
"She's wearing a red dress and has long brown hair like me!" Sarah described before her eyes landed on a frantic looking woman in the distance. "That's her! Mommy!" she ran over to her, hands outstretched.
"Sarah!" The woman turned to meet her daughter, nearly crying tears of joy at being reunited. "Where did you go? I was so worried!"
"I went to go see this man in a lizard suit do tricks and then when I turned around you were all gone. So I went to go find a nice lady to help me."
At this the mom lifted up her head. "I see you found two. Thank you so much. You have no idea how grateful I am."
"It was no issue, really. I'm glad you were both reunited. Have a good day," Hermione gave a wave and then tugged on Bellatrix's elbow so that the two of them could walk away. "Bye bye," Sarah called to them and Hermione gave her another wave, this one over her shoulder.
"Children are so lovely," Hermione commented.
"Their a pain in the arse, is what they are,." Bellatrix wasn't as much of a fan it seemed.
"You've never wanted a child?" Hermione asked, genuinely curious.
"No. Their a hassle to take care of, and they would just get in my way. I wanted to explore the world, to focus on work. Not become a common house witch and settle down for some man. Besides, I'm selfish. I don't think I have it in me to take care of kids."
Hermione thought this over. She couldn't really see the other with kids, this mainly having originally been to the fact the woman was-and still is- a murderer and maniac. But now, maybe Hermione could do something to help the woman get along better with kids; given her past adventures with kids she wasn't too good with them.
"Are we going to leave this park yet? I'm bored." Maybe a root of the problem lay in how the dark haired witch could act like a child herself sometimes.
"Sure. Just one more ride. Let's go on..." Hermione quickly scanned the area around her. There was a love tunnel and Hermione was half tempted to take the woman there with her for some reason but she shook the thought away. "The Ferris wheel." She settled on that at last.
"That death trap?" Bellatrix arched a brow. But she quickly gave in when Hermione sent her a taunt about being easily afraid. "I'll do it, only to get you to shut up about it."
So they made their way over to the wheel, boarding their wagon. As soon as it went up, Bellatrix looked a bit pale but she crossed her arms over her chest and tightened her jaw. "Look out the window. The view is amazing," Hermione suggested, in an attempt to ease the woman. It was truly funny how this woman couldn't brave such things as roller coasters but she eagerly dove into battle where her life was at risk ten of thousands of times more.
"The view is nice," Bellatrix had to admit as she finally looked out the window. The sun had slowly begun to set as the two of them had been out for quite a while in the amusement park. At the pretty sight, some of her tension left her and before she knew it they were descending yet again.
Hermione smiled softly at the other woman as Bellatrix shifted her body so that it was closer to the window. The close and intimate space of the ferric wheel cab made Hermione think about dates. When had she been on one with Ron? She couldn't recall a time. Was it perhaps never? After all, with the war and the post war cleanup there hadn't been much time for that. Add the soul spell into the mix and there had been barely any time to see each other much less spend time doing something just the two of them.
And now that he was being an arse hat, who knew when they could go and actually date.
But if they did go on a date, she would want to do something like today. Go to an amusement park, hold hands, eat food together and then have a romantic kiss in the Ferris wheel cab as they watched the sun set. Sort of like what she was doing now with the raven haired witch. Except this totally wasn't a date. Because she was dating Ron. And Bellatrix was...Bellatrix. Hermione briefly closed her eyes, imagining kissing Ron's lips, finding them soft and full and then running her hands through his long, black hair-wait, what?
Hermione's eyes shot open as she became frighteningly aware of what she had just been thinking of. Ron doesn't have black hair. Or full red lips. Hermione nervously eyed Bellatrix. The other witch had those features. Had Hermione simply mentally slipped up when thinking about Ron because she had spent so much time with Bellatrix and thus replaced his features with hers?
Yes, that was it.
Then she shook her head to clear herself of thinking anymore about this.
"So what did you think of that?" Hermione asked as she and the older woman strode out of the park, on their way to hail down a taxi to take back to the magical world.
"Of the park? Muggle nonsense. Like everything else," Bellatrix snorted haughtily. Hermione let out a defeated little sigh. So this had been a failure. Of course. "But..." and this part looked very hard for the woman to say, "not entirely irredeemable. The Ferris wheel was nice."
Hermione couldn't stop the smile from spreading on her face. "I'm glad." And she was. Spending the day with the prickly woman had been surprisingly fun despite the earlier hiccups. She had thought that the reform program would be more of a pain in the ass, and that the woman would be more difficult, but Bellatrix was putting in her own effort even if Hermione couldn't outwardly see it from the get go.
"So, are we going to be doing the same thing come Monday?"
"No. I was thinking something else," Hermione finally managed to flag down a cab and the two climbed inside. Bellatrix was calmer this time around on the cab ride. Her first time using one had been hilarious. She had gripped the car seat as if she would fly off if she didn't hold it and she had told the driver to slow down even when they were just going ten miles an hour. And she had shouted out other things like "why are there so many people on the street? Do they not see the car coming?" or "Why are there so many damn cars on the road? And why aren't they moving?"
Hermione had gently tried to explain to her that people had a right to cross the street on certain lights, and that there was such a thing as traffic which was caused by a large influx of cars. "Then why don't they use brooms? There's never any traffic with brooms," Bellatrix had asked. Hermione had just laughed at this. Muggles couldn't fly brooms.
This time around though, she was calmer and her eye only twitched at the 'fast' speeds the taxi driver was going. Her hands still held onto the seat as always. It would probably take Hermione ten minutes to pry her free, like last time. "And what are we doing Monday?"
"It's a surprise," Hermione coyly stated.
"Another surprise like this place? I'd rather know, so I can prepare myself for more nonsense," Bellatrix shot back, but her tone wasn't as acerbic given how she was more preoccupied with how the car turned a tad too sharply on a corner. "Slow down you fool! Are you trying to get us killed!"
The taxi driver ignored this, figuring she was on meds or something.
When they exited the taxi it was time to go back home, Bellatrix to her prison house and Hermione back to her apartment. She had her own place now, but she hadn't had a lot of time to spruce it up, as she was busy with this thing or another. If it wasn't Bellatrix's reform program than it was helping clean up the mess in the ministry.
"I'll see you Monday," Hermione said to the other as they stood on her doorstep.
"Right." Then the two of them proceeded to stare awkwardly at one another, both feeling like they were missing something to conclude this evening...but what?
"Ah, I better go then." Hermione had been hoping the other would say something or do something, just anything really so she could stay a bit longer, suddenly loathe to leave, but she wasn't, so it was Hermione's cue to go. And now her face was burning with embarrassment. She hurried down the steps and apparated once she was past the gates. Bellatrix arched a brow at the girl's rapid escape. Weird. And then she went inside to totally not read those muggle books she had been given.
A/N: Their going on dates and they don't even know it.