The Mysterious Department

Arc Four: The Mystery Unravels

Chapter Twenty One: Heads will Roll, on the Floor

When Hermione steadied herself from the apparation, she found that Bellatrix had brought them outside a club.

A owl hooted over them, dropping down the notes Luna had for them. Bellatrix snatched it out of the air first, unrolling it, and Hermione had to extend her neck to see over the dark haired witch's shoulder because Bellatrix was hogging the notes.

"Death-step?" Hermione frowned in question as she caught some of the text.

"It's a sub-genre of muggle music," Bellatrix said off hand.

"How do you know this?"

"I spent some time in the muggle world, too much of which dealt with seedy bars and clubs in order to redeem myself." She snapped the notes closed so Hermione couldn't finish reading them. The brunette frowned in annoyance but Bellatrix opted to explain things to her. "We're looking for something that uses death step in order to influence people into getting violent, to the point of even killing one another in night clubs."

"Murder on the dance floor," Hermione concluded, and she did recall seeing on the muggle news something involving a string of club violences. It could be possible that an artifact was behind this. After all, Hermione wouldn't be on this case if one wasn't involved.

"We'll need to dress up to fit in and canvas the floors." Bellatrix held her palm on which two pairs of ear buds rested. "Luna prepared these for us to help cancel the effects of the music."

Hermione took them and put them in, finding she could still hear Bellatrix just fine but the music from the club across the street was now drowned out. Marvelous.

"Do we know who has it?" Hermione asked as Bellatrix waved a wand over their hands and turned them into party goers. Fishnet stocking, ripped jeans, tight shirts and leather jackets over it all. "I would hazard and say it's the DJ but that would be too easy."

"Sometimes it is that easy," Bellatrix responded with and they crossed the street, ready to go partying. They flashed their ID's to the bouncer and were let in, finding a crush of bodies inside that stretched between them and the DJ. Going to scope him out would not be easy, and judging his DJ booth from this distance, it seemed normal. No outright artifact to be found.

He must be another muggle with his hands on something he shouldn't have, because it didn't seem right for a wizard to be DJ-ing. They didn't know enough about muggle customs and music tastes like that. Just to be sure, Hermione covertly slipped out her wand and cast the artifact locator spell. It hovered over the dancing patrons and right to the DJ. Yup. It was him. Case practically closed.

"Stick close to me, we wouldn't want to get separated," Bellatrix instructed and grabbed Hermione's hand to lead her through the crowd. They had become so used to holding hands because of Bellatrix's therapy that Hermione only felt mildly taken aback by Bellatrix reaching for her first. Hermione followed after her as they made way through the crowd. But it was hard work, and short of jinxing people, they moved too slow for the two detectives to progress quickly.

Hermione could see Bellatrix getting angry and shoving more pointedly. Maybe they should try another way around?

Just as Hermione was going to voice this, a rough hand grabbed her, jerking her out of Bellatrix's grip. It belonged to some drunk guy, his hands immediately all over her. "Hey baby, wanna dance?" he leered at her drunkenly. She shoved a hand at his chest but it did nothing to push him away.

"Get off!" she hissed out, trying to find her wand so she could zap him away. She shouldn't have worried. A fist came sailing right into his temple, knocking him off balance and away from Hermione.

"Don't touch her," Bellatrix growled out. Hermione felt as shocked as the guy who'd been punched. In fact, Bellatrix's actions almost made Hermione feel like she got punched too. But in the gut. And emotionally.

"Bellatrix what the bloody hell-"

But Bellatrix was already leaving the place, grabbing Hermione by the hand and tugging her out. Hermione followed after her, pushing through the sweaty crowd. When they got outside, to the much cooler air, she found Bellatrix bent over, hands on her knees and breathing hard. "Bellatrix, are you okay-" she reached out a hand to touch her only to have it be slapped away harshly.

"Don't touch me," Bellatrix scooted back, face pale and her eyes looking just a bit frenzied. It was almost like she was...afraid of Hermione?

"What's wrong. What's going on? Do you think the artifact affected you?" Hermione asked rapid fire. If that was the case, she had to find it and neutralize it quick.

Bellatrix parted her lips as if to answer and instead grabbed Hermione by the upper arms and tossed her against the wall. Hermione's head collided painfully with it and she hissed out. She knew some hand to hand combat, so she wasn't afraid to throw Bellatrix off. She just didn't want to do that now and hurt Bellatrix without getting to the root of the issue. Bellatrix glared at her, her jaw tensed and shaking a bit.

"Bellatrix," Hermione voiced, wondering what the hell was affecting her partner. But Bellatrix's lashes fluttered shut and she took a deep shuddering breath. When she opened her eyes, she seemed to be under control.

She backed off of Hermione. "I'm fine," she said brusquely, like nothing had happened, rolling her shoulders back. And she had said it not a moment too soon. All of a sudden the music from the club got louder, vibrations coursing through their body from the bass.

The magical ear plugs they both sported would block out the negative affects of the music while still letting them hear each other and it was a good thing they did, because something about this music they felt, was off. They exchanged looks and ran towards the club.

They stepped inside the club, finding everyone fighting tooth and nail as the music made them do this.

"We need to destroy his DJ booth, and now," Bellatrix shouted out over the crush. She ducked as something went flying over her head.

"How are we going to get through them?" Hermione shouted back. They couldn't get through them normally. With the crowd crazy like this now, it would be even more impossible.

"With magic," Bellatrix announced, brandishing her wand.

"No, that'll take too long," Hermione shook her head. "And it might be too dangerous." She eyed the exit sign not far behind the booth. "We'll take the back exit."

They left the crush of the crowd, running around to the back of the building. With a quick alohomora, the door swung open and they raced down the stairs to where the DJ was close by. He had his back turned to them, vibing to the violence he was causing. Was he doing this on purpose? Or did he not understand what his music was doing to others?

"Hey you asshole," Bellatrix cried out. He didn't hear her insult; this was why she hated clubs, no quiet to truly engage verbal barbs. "Hey!" she tried again, as they got up on the stage he was on. Now he seemed to notice them and his face grew dark. "You better turn that music off!" Bellatrix screamed over the music. "Or else I'll make you."

"Then make me," he mocked and she lunged at him, engaging in hand to hand combat. She was particularly pissed off to the point she wanted to use her own hands to hurt him, to feel his flesh split under a well placed knuckle sandwich. Hermione, meanwhile, took to looking for where the artifact was. The locator spell didn't work this close because it couldn't descipher where the object was. So she began pressing buttons, flipping switches, making the music sound awful, while the DJ and Bellatrix exchanged blows behind her, tousling back and forth. Hermione eyed the disc jokey. Could that be it? The disc? But it was such a muggle object. Why would it be a wizarding artifact? Just as she was about to extract it, Bellatrix had punched the DJ so hard he stumbled back and into Hermione. There was no railing over the DJ booth. She went crashing off of the stage and into the fighting crowd headfirst. If that wasn't bad enough, she was now directly in front of the throbbing bass and hit full front with the music. The ear plugs could only do so much- faced with this much power they left her susceptible to the artifact's might. And with a snarl she was up on her feet, whipping out her wand. She had some people to make pay.

She couldn't remember the rest of the night.


Hermione awoke to the sound of chirping birds and bright light coming in through the window.

"She's up!" Dora announced happily when she saw Hermione awaken. Her happy face entered Hermione's field of vision. Hermione moaned in answer.

What had happened? She knew she was in a bed in Grimmore manor, but last she recalled she was in a club. So then what?

"How do you feel?" Bellatrix asked. She was standing by the door, arms crossed across her chest.

"Like I've been trampled on by people," Hermione groaned out truthfully.

"Because you were," Bellatrix confirmed without any humor.

"What happened?" Hermione asked as she sat up. Everything hurt and she could feel the bump on her head without even having to feel it. It pounded along with her pulse.

"You got exposed to the music. And while you were out, taking on the crowd with your magic, I knocked out the DJ, broke his booth and confiscated his record so he won't be doing that again. And then I wrestled you to the ground."

That explained the bruise on Bellatrix's cheek. It must have been healing from whatever troubles occurred. Hermione wondered if it was from the DJ or from herself.

"I must say, you are quite a handful when in a rage. You almost got me," Bellatrix admitted and it shouldn't have made Hermione feel honored she had almost hurt her teammate but it did. Because it meant she was getting better at fighting.

"Kingsley gave you the day off to relax," Dora said. "And tomorrow too, if you should need it."

Hermione shook her head. "I'll be fine. Just need some rest and I'll be back on the team. Besides, I know Bellatrix would kill Blaise if I left the two of them alone together." She was already getting up out of bed.

Bellatrix humphed but didn't deny this.

And ever since that case, whenever Hermione heard death step music, she couldn't help but feel a bit riled up.


Things moved on as normal. Hermione was currently acing her afternoon classes and couldn't wait until she progressed to the harder one's. Poor Ron kept taking the same classes as Hermione and struggling in them. She was all too happy to help, however, and stayed in the library with him, working late into the night.

Ever since their interrupted date, Ron wanted them to go on another one. Hermione wasn't entirely sure she wanted to go on one, but he was just so insistent and he had that kicked puppy look on his face when he offered the idea.

Technically she owed him one because the last one hadn't worked out. "Alright," she caved. "But only a quick one. I'm swamped with work, both class and from my job."

"They give you work at your job?" he seemed perplexed by this.

"Sometimes things carry over." Like filling out reports and shifting through news to catch anything artifact-y. "I'll let you know as soon as I'm done with everything and then we can go."

"Another date with Ron, huh?" Dora questioned when Hermione had told her about it at work. The brunette was loud and after she stated that a loud snap came from across the room where Bellatrix was sat. In her hand she was holding the broken shards of a mug. Underneath it hot coffee pooling.

"Oh, shite, are you okay?" Dora rushed over to help Bellatrix, Hermione hurrying after.

"I'm fine," Bellatrix said roughly, shrugging away their concern. "Bugger off, will you?" She took out her wand and fixed everything, even the cut on her hand. "Just got a strong grip."

When that was okay with, Dora fussing over a fickle Bellatrix, she and Hermione resumed their conversation. "I thought you didn't like him?"

"I don't, not like that at least. But our last date did get ruined by a case so I figured it was the least I could do to indulge him." But after that, she would make her lack of interest clear to him.

Wednesday, the day of the date arrived, and it was pretty mundane. They went to get dinner and visited a special dessert place before heading back, making small talk about everything and anything. It was pretty late now, and it was time for them to part ways.

"Thank you Ron, for everything," Hermione smiled. She also had to tell him this was going to be a one off thing but before she could, he was stepping closer to her, a certain look on his face. Oh. He was going to kiss her. She was sure of it.

How the fuck did she back out of it? Before she could say something, someone else did for her. "Oi, did she say you could kiss her, knobhead?"

They both jerked apart to see that Bellatrix was standing against a lamppost not far away. She was in all black and though her body was languid on the structure, it was clear from her face she was pissed off about something.

"Um-what?" Ron blubbered out.

"Really, you'd choose him? He's so slow, even a sloth would be faster," Bellatrix grit out before she leaned off of the post and began to walk away. Hermione was confused and shocked.

Why was Bellatrix acting like a jealous lover? It didn't make sense! "Bellatrix-!" she called out after her retreating back but Bellatrix had already apparated away.

Hermione wouldn't let this stand! Without even saying goodbye to Ron, she hurried away. It took Hermione a bit longer to find a floo network and use it, so when she got back home Bellatrix was already locked up in her room. "Bellatrix!" Hermione pounded on the door. The wards were down, but Hermione was banking on Bellatrix opening up the door for her. If not, she was blowing it down.

"What?!" a cranky Bellatrix jerked open the door after Hermione had nearly banged a hole in it. Hermione huffed.

"You were incredibly rude! Did you follow me on my date and then sabotage it?" Hermione demanded, hands on hips.

Bellatrix grit her teeth, not refuting that point. "I already told you what I thought about him. Don't waste your time on him-"

"That's not for you to decide! Stop behaving like a child!"

Bellatrix stuck out her tongue which did not help and then slammed the door shut. When Hermione went to go knock on it, she found herself being repelled backwards. She landed on her rump with a thump and would have loved to give Bellatrix a taste of her own magic, but she figured she'd do that when she saw Bellatrix at the office tomorrow.


Bellatrix refused to talk to Hermione about anything, stringently ignoring her by doing work that she couldn't be bothered with. And when she, Bellatrix and Blaise did go hunting down a minor artifact, Bellatrix seemed to find fault with how close Blaise walked next to Hermione sometimes and pushed her way in between. Hermione couldn't make heads or tails of why Bellatrix was behaving this oddly. She had been fine a couple days ago.

When Hermione met up with Ron a while later after work, she found him unsmiling.

"Why didn't you just tell me you were dating her," Ron said, a sour look on his face.

"Excuse me?" Hermione's brows went up as did the pitch of her voice.

"That woman who interrupted us."

Hermione wanted to laugh at the absurdity of all this. "I'm not- we're not together. Not like that. I mean, she's my work partner, and we live together, but that's it. We're not romantically involved," Hermione waved her hands, flustered by this accusation.

Ron didn't look convinced. "Then why the bloody hell was she there? Nearly insulting the shit out of me?"

Hermione gave a watery smile, trying to come up with an excuse. "Um, we work in a dangerous field and maybe she thought you were someone who wanted to hurt me. Not that you would," Hermione hastily put in, "but we've had a lot of close calls recently and she's a bit shaken up as I am."

Ron grunted, not looking convinced. "Well, keep her away from me. She seems bloody mental."

Hermione thinned her lips. "She's not crazy. She's a genius in her field."

"Right," Ron said, not believing it and Hermione felt irritated by this. She wanted to protect Bellatrix. She truly was an amazing and skilled woman but she was acting weird these days few days, and Hermione didn't know why. Was it like Ron had said? Did Bellatrix...like her?

The thought made Hermione flush. She liked Bellatrix too. Admired her, mainly. But did she have deeper feelings for her? She didn't mind the hand holding or the spending extra time. It felt nice to be around Bellatrix even if her prickles might scare away other people. Hermione knew they were mainly just for show.

Should she ask Dora about this? But no, she didn't want the girl to know yet. Bellatrix was her aunt, it might make asking for romantic advice from her awkward.

"Mione?" Ron called out and Hermione was brought to the present. "You alright there? You zoned out?"

"I'm fine," she shook her head. She and Ron were on their way to class and she had nearly bumped into someone, so deep in her inner musings. But, she was a bit giddy. Bellatrix seemed to like her, maybe even in a romantic manner. And maybe Hermione liked her the same way.

She smiled to herself as Ron looked on at her in silent intrigue before they went into the classroom.