Hey guys, just wanted to let you know that I'll be doing a Q&A for the next chapter! You can PM me or leave a review. Because of my hectic work schedule next week, you guys will have until April 23rd to ask questions before I answer them in a special post that Saturday (April 25th). Then I promise I'll go back to posting chapters :)
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I AM NOT PROFITING FROM THIS. ANY RECOGNIZABLE PEOPLE, PLACES, OR EVENTS BELONG TO J.K. ROWLING
Chapter Thirteen
Bellatrix was uncharacteristically quiet in her bed after Madame Pomfrey looked her over. She needed Skele-grow, as well as a multitude of numbing potions. Crabbe, Goyle, and Malfoy were also banged up pretty bad, and the mediwitch was still trying to figure out how to undo the hex that gave another one of Bellatrix's classmates a pig's nose.
"Damonne had a prolific day." she thought glumly. She had never encountered a curse quite like the one that had caused her broom to go crazy, and she was sure it wasn't in any books she had read before.
"Whoever did this, I'll make them pay!" Lucius hissed through clenched teeth. His two troll-like friends responded with groans of discomfort.
"Mr. Malfoy, you will do no such thing!" Madame Pomfrey admonished as she looked through a cabinet of potions. Bellatrix ran her tongue over a new tooth that had grown in and sighed. She wasn't sure if she deserved to have the living hell smashed out of her, but she would certainly ask the perpetrator when she stopped by.
"Ladies, visiting hours are not-oh it's you three. Well, come in then." Bellatrix turned her head a little to see her sisters and Rose walk into the hospital, the latter looking distinctly guilty. It didn't make Bellatrix feel any better. As they came to stand near the bed, Lucius piped up again.
"Some half-blood Gryffindor? What's she doing here?"
"Lucius if you don't shut up, I will personally cut off all that pretty blonde hair and burn it." Bellatrix snapped, scaring him into submission. She looked back at Andromeda and Narcissa, who asked if she was alright and if she needed anything.
"Did she take her calming draught?" she interrupted them. Rose stepped forward and tried to pass the uncorked bottle to Bellatrix, but the girl pushed it away and looked at Rose darkly. "You haven't been yourself lately, drink it." but Rose shook her head. She looked at Andromeda, who nodded and left with Narcissa so Rose could speak to Bellatrix somewhat privately. Drawing the divider around the bed, Rose sat in a wooden chair next to Bellatrix and sighed.
"I can't keep drinking potions and expect the problem to just go away. It's only temporary, and it doesn't actually fix anything. I'm going to get help from the Ministry." she said quietly so nobody could hear. Bellatrix wanted to get up and sock this girl upside the head. She knew full well that the Ministry couldn't be trusted; the majority of anybody who didn't support the current Minister were blood purists. They loyally followed many of the Sacred 28, especially her father, and more than likely weren't people to be trusted with any sort of dark magic.
"And...I realize that you don't like that idea, but right now it's my best option. I'm becoming a danger, Bellatrix. I hurt you." her voice was small as she said this, and she was looking at the floor.
"That wasn't you," Bellatrix scoffed "It was probably just one of those moments where those voices got to you. And besides, I'm not hurt too badly." she exaggerated a little. She was actually in a tremendous amount of pain, but she wasn't about to admit that to her friend who was blaming herself for the whole ordeal.
"It...was me. I was in control the whole time. And I didn't think to stop…" Rose finally spoke after a minute of eerie silence. Bellatrix was inclined to believe that this wasn't the case, but the way that Rose's words just hung there between them, she realized that maybe Rose was telling the truth.
"Well, I won't rat on you, obviously." she sniffed "But do grab me another pillow, I'd like to sit up some more." she said dismissively, and Rose obliged, a little surprised.
"You mean, you're not going to report me? Even after I cost you the game?" she asked.
"Well, that was bloody rude of you to do that, but no, I won't." she fixed herself up so she could sit straighter, although she quickly hunched over and put her elbows on her thighs "But I will say that you owe me for that. They had to destroy my broom you know. It wouldn't stop after it tossed me. What spell was that anyway?" she asked casually, hoping to get Rose out of whatever shell she was trying to hide in. Instead, Rose dodged the question.
"I'm sorry I called you a spoiled pure blood...that...that wasn't right of me. At all. I didn't mean anything by it, I was just frustrated and I took it out on you. You didn't deserve anything I said to you." she looked at Bellatrix and the Slytherin could see unshed tears bubbling at the rims of her eyes. She sat up and slowly reached a hand out, clenching and unclenching her fist a few times nervously before setting it on top of Rose's hand. Neither of them flinched for a change.
"It's alright. I get that it wasn't helpful to rile you up. And maybe it wasn't very fair of me to tell you what to do. I'm just used to you being a little smarter than that." she finished quickly, and Rose couldn't help a snort.
"Asshole."
"Quite."
"I promise I'll be careful when the time comes, Bellatrix." she chuckled. Bellatrix looked at her sideways through lidded eyes and before grinning and lightly punching Rose on the arm, her black eyes sparkling mischievously.
"In all seriousness, that was quite the spell. I tried counteracting it, but either I was too distracted, or you are a lot stronger than I bargained for. Impressive, really." Rose couldn't help but blush at the comment.
"I could teach it to you if you wanted. It's not exactly in all the...normal realm of curriculum here." Rose said in hushed tones. And just like that, the incident was almost forgotten, and the two of them talked for as long as they could before Madame Pomfrey made Rose leave.
"We can practice together when you get discharged." Rose said with a smile, and Bellatrix agreed that practice would be a good idea.
The week progressed from that fateful quidditch match, with tensions even higher between Slytherin and Gryffindor, with rumors of cheating on both sides. Rose noticed that Lucius and his cronies were being especially shady, so she constantly kept her guard up. Bellatrix had reported during one study session that the little brat was snooping around her business when he thought she hadn't noticed.
"Keeps asking about my father, heckling me about you. Did you know I turned all his books into toads and watched him try and catch them? It was fantastic." Bellatrix said as she looked over some notes that Rose had made.
"Seriously?" Rose laughed.
"Yes. But then I made him grow antlers. By the way, you do realize a lot of this magic is kind of...dark?" Bellatrix squinted to see if she was reading right as she carefully traced the movements of her wand arm in the air. Rose paused for a split second before shrugging.
"I think as long as I'm not inherently evil, it's totally okay. It's the way that magic is used is what makes it 'dark'. Like you don't see me trying to murder babies or anything." she stopped to think "Have you noticed how weird Professor Morpho is? Like is it just me or has he been aggressive lately?"
"You do know that that class is cursed, don't you?" Bellatrix asked as she tried and failed to conjure up a floating eye. They had toted multiple books and pieces of parchment scrawled with notes to a secluded section of Hogwarts, likely an abandoned classroom of some sort, to practice without being seen and reported.
"Cursed?" Rose asked as she stared at the palm of her hand and twisted it slightly. A small flame ignited in her palm before sputtering out.
"They say a student who went here wanted to become the new professor, but the old headmaster would let him, so he put a curse on it. Most professors can't stay for longer than a year without something terrible happening to them." a large, stationary eye appeared in the air and stared unblinkingly at the two of them. Bellatrix banished it quickly and began working on another spell.
"If that's true, then why they don't they get a ghost like Binns to teach? You can't kill a ghost." Rose wondered out loud. She looked over her notes and considered fiendfyre, but Bellatrix was in the room with her and she didn't want to risk hurting her. When she managed to conjure up a larger fireball in her hand, she tossed it at a wall, where it landed with a small explosion and a roar of flames. Bellatrix looked mildly impressed before she smirked to herself.
"What's that look on your face for?" Rose asked cautiously, looking behind her to see if the witch had managed to sneak a ghoul behind her somehow.
"Oh, nothing. I just wanted to show you something." she said evasively. Standing straighter and holding out her wand arm, she cleared her throat dramatically before speaking.
"Expecto patronum!" she called out, and a blast of blue light emitted from her wand before a fully corporeal patronus was revealed. Rose couldn't help the drop of her jaw when a lion with a flowing mane prowled around the room when it realized there was nothing to attack. Bellatrix turned on her heel and gave another triumphant smirk. Rose clapped excitedly and tried hard not to squeal.
"Oh my gosh you did it! You actually did it!" she said in wonder as she looked at the regal king of the jungle lazing on the cold stone floor. Bellatrix tossed her hair.
"What? As if it were hard?"
"It's incredibly difficult! You've been practicing, haven't you?"
"Well," she sniffed "here and there I suppose, yes." in truth she was almost relentless in trying to produce her patronus. For weeks she had only managed a wispy blue light before it faded. But as she practiced more with Rose, she found it easier to get more distinct shapes to appear. And the night before, she had finally managed to get the massive cat to appear. At first, she was afraid and ashamed of what it meant. Lions were always more of a Gryffindor thing, but Andromeda assured her it would be fine.
"Salazar knows when you would need a patronus, but it's still good to have that protection I suppose." the younger witch said, "I'm still not entirely sure why Rose herself would have needed to conjure one. And she did it with such ease, one would think she had mastered it long ago."
"Well, she is American. Maybe they come face to face with Dementors regularly. Because they're brash idiots. Most of them anyway." Bellatrix said with a dismissive shrug. She was glad that Rose was so impressed, but she was still worried about the multitude of dark magic she was using.
"Don't worry about me. This is stuff they taught us back at Ilvermorny. As long as you don't use it too much or go completely crazy, you'll be fine. Mastery of various spells is something that I've been striving for ever since I was young, and I'm not going to chicken out now." Rose shrugged.
"This is why you're a Gryffindor. A stupid amount of bravery. I would just call you stupid, but we're tied for top of the class aren't we?" Bellatrix chuckled throatily "Tell me, what else has your school taught you?"
"Ilvermorny? Well, loads of things. First off, there are far worse spells than what we're looking at, and I don't mean the unforgivables." Rose answered Bellatrix's questioning look "It's some really dark stuff, brought by the first witches to Salem. We're not even allowed to know the names of the spells, just that they're terrible and extremely illegal. Like you would be put to death for using them."
"To death?" Bellatrix frowned and looked skeptical "You just kill your criminals?"
"Yeah, why, do you just let them sit in prison?"
"Well, yes actually. I mean, the prison is guarded by dementors, and it's on some rock out in the middle of the ocean. What more could you need?"
"If the criminal is bad enough, they would want them put to death." Rose said firmly "I don't always agree with it, but I'm glad that some were done with. I mean, what about Grindelwald?"
"That wasn't even remotely related to what your ministry did. That has to be one of the most irrelevant things you've ever said in your entire life." Bellatrix cackled, and Rose sighed in exasperation.
"That's not what I meant! I'm saying if there was somebody that bent for power and prepared to kill anybody for it, wouldn't you want him dead so that you were sure he'd never be a danger?" she asked in a serious tone.
"I guess, but I bet you my bank vault that somebody else would get them before the ministry did. They're about as useful as a box of doxys." Bellatrix answered before dismissing her patronus.
They continued practicing together day after day whenever they had any spare time. People began to notice both of their absences, even though they both always attended class.
"Rose doesn't waste any time in the mornings, does she?" Hugo snickered as the witch in question grabbed an apple before leaving the Great Hall with a few quick greetings to her friends. Henrietta pointed a fork at her brother.
"I bet she's got a beau now. It makes sense. I'm sure you're all aware of St. Valentine's Day coming up." she forked some bacon into her mouth. The friends nodded sagely amongst themselves, and Terry's eyes visibly widened to the size of saucers as she stared at her food. The pieces were starting to come together in her head now. The rest of the group all raised an eyebrow at her and Henrietta leaned in.
"Something to say, Terry? Do you know who Rose's boyfriend is?" she looked around like she might pick the lad out of the crowds, but she couldn't think of anybody off the top of her head. Cyril also seemed mildly interested and looked at Hugo.
"You're good friends with her, you would know." he told his blonde classmate, who yawned and shrugged "I have no idea. Why don't you just ask her. I'm sure she would tell you."
While they all guessed at who it might be, Andromeda and Narcissa were having their own discussion at the other end of the Great Hall. Narcissa's flock of admirers had finally left her alone for the morning, so she could speak to Andromeda.
"Bella hasn't even come up for breakfast yet. Again. If she keeps this up she'll be the next ghost to haunt Hogwarts." Narcissa sighed.
"I'm sure she's fine. You know how she is." Andromeda said lightly as she put food on Narcissa's plate. Their meal was interrupted by one pale blonde wizard and two thugs accompanying him.
"Hello Andromeda." he said with a slimy smile. She ignored him.
"Hi Lucius." Narcissa beamed at him and twirled her hair. He ignored her.
"I've been meaning to ask about your sister and her pet." he said casually. Crabbe and Goyle snickered.
"She doesn't have any pets. The last one father bought for her got turned into a nice cloak." Andromeda said. It wasn't really a lie; Bellatrix accidentally transfigured the tiger into an expensive cloak, but Lucius didn't need to know specifics.
"Yes, well I was actually asking about that half-breed of hers, the Gryffindor." at the mention of Rose, a muscle in Andromeda's face twitched and she buckled down for a confrontation. Narcissa's eyes grew a little wide at this, but she didn't make a sound.
"You see," Lucius continued "I highly doubt that your father would be too keen on hearing how she's become friends with somebody of such low standing. Not as bad as a mudblood, but my goodness, a Gryffindor? It's positively shameful."
"I have no idea what you're talking about." Andromeda rolled her eyes.
"Don't play dumb, Black. It's highly unbecoming. There are things at work here of which you wouldn't understand, and your sister is risking an awful lot with this little game of hers. As I said, your father would find that undesirable, and it could bring shame to your family. This is her first and final warning." he sneered, and Andromeda wished with all her heart that she could have kicked Lucius in the kneecaps right there. She wasn't an idiot, she knew that Lucius was part of some blood purity uprising, and a large majority of the Slytherin students were in on it. Of course, it was all young men, with Bellatrix being the only exception. But Andromeda thought she had stopped going to their meetings.
"Have a good day, Lucius." she bit out, not even bothering to offer an insincere smile. He stalked away, and Narcissa almost immediately grabbed Andromeda by the collar of her blouse.
"Father will kill her if he finds out! About Rosie!" she hissed.
"We need to warn her. Or they could both be in serious trouble."
"I'm going to Ministry, finally." Rose said as she walked back into the abandoned classroom "This weekend."
"Oh are you?" Bellatrix asked sullenly as she lazed on a desk. Rose took a bite of her apple.
"Yeah. What's got you in a bad mood?" she asked around bites of her apple. Bellatrix rolled over onto her side and looked at Rose, who looked genuinely confused. The dark witch huffed, blowing a curl out of her face.
"Nothing, it's fine. How about we brew potions today instead of doing spells? I've got some ingredients here already, and I'd like to do a bit more work before exams."
"Really," Rose said, unconvinced "you need more practice for something that you could do in your sleep? You can't pull the wool over my eyes that easily. What's really going on here?" she crossed her arms as she inspected the aforementioned pile of ingredients that Bellatrix has collected. Ashwinder eggs, rose thorns, peppermint, powdered moonstone, pearl dust…
"You want to make a love potion." Rose said flatly, maybe thinking that she had mistaken some of the components and looked again. She was correct the first time. A deep red blush set her face on fire, so she turned her back to Bellatrix as she continued eating her apple.
"Don't get your knickers in a twist, it's for a prank. But yes. And not just any love potion, we're making amortentia." Bellatrix said as she tossed her wand in the air and caught it. Rose choked a little and turned back around.
"Do you have any idea how dangerous that is? It's the most powerful love potion in the world. Who knows what would happen if we messed up or spilled it? Wait wait wait, how exactly do you plan on pranking somebody with this? If you give it to anybody, they'll be obsessed with you!" Rose's voice was a strangled squeak as she spoke in one long breath.
"Would that be a problem?" Bellatrix dared to tease, and Rose would have died on the spot if she hadn't noticed something.
"We're missing a few key ingredients if you want this to be amortentia and not some run-of-the-mill love potion, Bellatrix. You forgot to get syrup of hellebore and fairy wings." Rose crossed her arms triumphantly, glad that this madcap scheme was derailed. Bellatrix's Cheshire grin did nothing to assuage her previous worry.
"I believe we have Potions today. And correct me if I'm wrong, but Slughorn has both of those on a shelf behind his desk." she said.
"Stealing. So we're stealing now." Rose nodded and rubbed the bridge of her nose "Great. This is good. Now I can add petty thievery to my list of crimes. Thanks Bellatrix, what would I do without you?"
"I haven't a clue. Probably dithering with that dim friend of yours with the lackluster curls." Bellatrix fluffed her own hair for effect.
"Please stop making fun of Terry." Rose sighed. But she begrudgingly agreed to help steal ingredients during their last class. The entire day, all the brunette witch heard were whispers of trysts and outlandish rumors sparked by the fervor of the approaching holiday. She even heard that Arthur was going to propose to Molly.
"Those two are so in love," Terry said in COMC "I bet they're going to have a thousand kids."
"Is that going to be you and Cyril?" Henrietta laughed as she wrote out her essay. Terry hid her face and blushed, and Rose laughed. The Hufflepuff pointed her quill at Rose "Now who's your boyfriend? We know you've been sneaking off to see him at every spare chance you get. Spill." This made Rose laugh even harder, and it frustrated Henrietta.
"I don't have a boyfriend guys." she knew that they were talking about Bellatrix, but she didn't know how the other witch would feel if she told people that they were friends. She would have to get over her "bad girl" attitude one day, but Rose thought she might appreciate a little more time being seen as invincible.
"You're right, you don't." Terry said, and she looked knowingly at Rose, who just shrugged and acted like they hadn't said anything. In herbology, Hugo was strangely quiet. Rose tended to her angel's trumpet before taking off her gardening gloves and getting a watering can.
"So Hugo...do you have any special girls on your mind?" she asked innocently, and his dark grey eyes considered her for a moment.
"No. But you do." at his simple statement, Rose dropped the watering can with an enormous clang, the water spilling everywhere. Hugo turned back to his own plants as everybody else in the greenhouse watched the normally calm and collected Rose splutter in bewilderment, further confirming Hugo's statement.
"Damonne, is everything alright over there?" Professor Sprout asked. Rose poked her head up over the workbench and nodded as she worked quickly to clean up the spilled water and to refill the empty watering can.
"So I was correct?" Hugo mumbled, and Rose gave him a look, although he couldn't see it.
"You didn't answer my question." she hissed back.
"Fine. No, I don't have a girl on my mind. Have met a lovely lad though." Rose almost dropped the watering can again at this admission, but managed to keep a shaky grip.
"Rose, I hope you realize that I'm a lot more observant than a lot of people take me for. The others may not have seen who you're always around with, but that's alright, I won't tell. And you shouldn't be worried about what others think. Listen to what your heart is telling you for once, not your ridiculously large brain." he said, and Rose thought that it might have been the longest that Hugo had ever spoken in at once.
"I...I don't know what to say." Rose admitted.
"That's alright. But if you need to talk, I usually hang out here in the greenhouse after classes. Come find me." he gave her a pat on the back, and they worked the rest of the time in silence.
Thanks to Hugo, Rose now had to confront an entirely different set of emotions that she hadn't realized were there. Did she really think of Bellatrix like that? She couldn't deny that she was attractive, smart, and quick with a comeback, all things that Rose loved. But she was also a mixed bag that even she hadn't fully begun to understand yet. She knew that Bellatrix had almost no control over her life, and it made her very upset. Combine that with a limitless potential for learning magic, and you had a dangerous person on your hands. And that's what people saw her as. But Rose noticed how she had changed over the months that they knew each other. She wasn't outright harming people for the hell of it, unless it was Lucius, and she was far more talkative. Rose frowned; any attraction she felt was probably some misguided affection because Bellatrix was one of the few people in this new school and life who had shown a level of relatability that she found comforting. Yes, that made sense.
"Damonne. Where do you think you're going?" she heard Bellatrix ask and blushed involuntarily. She was a little early for potions, and found that it was just her and Bellatrix in the room.
"What? I'm just sitting at my desk."
"All the way over there? No, come sit here. There's an extra seat. Besides, I feel like today will be partner work and I don't feel like working with that Rosier idiot." Bellatrix waved her hand for Rose to come over, and the Gryffindor did so slowly, still feeling the heat on her face and neck. Bellatrix rolled her eyes "Today Damonne. I'll be long dead by the time you get over here."
"Aren't you worried about somebody seeing us near each other?" she whispered, even though nobody else was there. Bellatrix let out a short laugh.
"Who cares? If they say anything, I'll just set them on fire."
"Merlin, no you can't just do that." Rose set her things down and sat on a stool, scooting it a little farther from Bellatrix. Her inner thoughts had made her extremely paranoid, and the other witch caught onto it.
"Why are you moving now? Do I smell or something? I took a bath this morning when I snuck into the Prefect's bathroom. They've got all sorts of interesting soaps up there."
"No, you don't smell. I'm sorry. Just a little jumpy." Rose's voice shook a little.
"Well get the jitters out of your system, because we're stealing those ingredients. We have two options; do it now before anybody comes, but risk Slughorn noticing, or snatch them when we're looking for ingredients for class." Bellatrix's voice dropped lower. Rose looked around the classroom at the vast shelves. Syrup of hellebore would be on a shelf where they could easily nab it, but the fairy wings would be a little more difficult.
"Watch the door while I find the fairy wings. If anybody tries to come in, make sure they don't." Rose said suddenly. Bellatrix squawked in alarm when she saw Rose run to the front of the classroom near Slughorn's desk. As Bellatrix braced her full weight against the door to the classroom, Rose scanned the shelves quickly. Her heart pounded in her ears and her skin prickled with nervous energy as she saw various bottles and cases of rare and interesting ingredients that she would have loved to use.
"Hurry up! I can hear somebody!" Bellatrix hissed, and Rose stopped snooping long enough to actually find the fairy wings. Uncorking the bottle, she dumped them into her hand. They were very small, and looked a lot like dragonfly wings, but they shimmered with an iridescence that looked a lot like a precious gem. Taking out her wand, she whispered a spell she had invented, and hoped would work.
"Effingo." and the pile of fairy wings in her hand multiplied twice over. After copying the bottle, she dumped half the pile back in and corked it before putting it back on the shelf. The copies she made wouldn't last longer than a few days, but it was fine for what she was doing. Just as Rose slid back into her seat to put the pilfered copies into their own bottle, Bellatrix jumped away from the door. Slughorn himself walked in and scrutinized Bellatrix immediately.
"Ah, Miss Black. You're uncharacteristically early." he looked very nervous, and scanned the room for any visible signs of damage. He only saw Rose, who was sitting in a different seat than normal. She offered him an equally nervous smile.
"Oh I see, you're both early. Well." Slughorn seemed to be perpetually sweating nervously, and it only got worse as he went to sit at his own desk. Bellatrix sat back down and wiggled her eyebrows at Rose who coughed to hide a blush, but gave her a subtle thumbs up. When more students started showing up, they all kept looking at Rose and Bellatrix, who they had all previously thought to be mortal enemies. In fact, most of them thought that it was Rose who had jinxed the quidditch game, so seeing them sitting with each other made their theories almost null.
"Alright class, settle down please." Slughorn said meekly as chatter buzzed around the room, "Today I'll be teaching you how to brew an antidote to love potions, because I'm sure most of you are going to need them after this Thursday. Get your cauldrons warmed up. The ingredients will be on page...something of your textbook. Honestly just look at the table of contents, you all seem to have working eyes. Except for you, Avery. Have your partner look things up for you." Slughorn chuckled at his joke, which was at Avery's expense, who wore a rather thick pair of glasses.
When a Slytherin student at the desk in front of Bellatrix turned to look at her, Bellatrix had already grabbed Rose by the arm and was dragging her to different shelves to find what they needed, plus a little something else. By the time class was over, the Gryffindors and Slytherins had a multitude of new theories, and Rose and Bellatrix had what they needed.
"I'll meet you there later tonight," Rose said as she gave Bellatrix the contraband "I have to do something first though."
Rose went to the fifth greenhouse after classes ended and opened the door slowly, poking her head in to see Hugo working with plants, humming to himself.
"Don't be shy, it's just me in here." he said, and waved her over. Rose closed the glass door behind her and walked through the dimming light to see what her friend was up to. It looked like he was growing roses.
"Do you like them?" he asked "I'm growing them for Thursday so people can give them to that special someone." Rose looked at the buds which hadn't yet opened. They were the typical shade of red.
"Muggles call them the Louis Philippe China rose, but I believe I'll call them the Grace of Gryffindor." Hugo said as he trimmed a dead leaf off the stem "I've crossbred them a little, so I think I'm allowed to take a little artistic liberty."
"Why are you calling them that? Why not Helga's Revenge?" Rose asked. Hugo chuckled good-naturedly, a deep baritone sound that made Rose feel more relaxed.
"Well, I would if they were yellow. But something tells me that revenge wouldn't have been Helga Hufflepuff's thing." he continued fussing over the rose bushes on the bench until the brunette witch finally decided to speak about what she really came by for.
"So...you like a guy?" she asked timidly, wringing her hands and looking anywhere but at Hugo.
"You mean to say 'Are you gay?'. Haha, the answer is yes." he smiled warmly. Rose nodded to herself and leaned back on an empty bench, getting some potting soil on the hem of her cardigan but she didn't mind too much.
"I hope you don't mind me asking, but I have so many questions."
"We have time."
"Do Henrietta or the others know? Have you told them? And how did you know? When did you know?"
"To start, Henrietta has known since we started school. Being a twin, you can only keep so many things a secret for so long. I haven't told anybody else though. I don't really want to spread it around to much. People can be cruel when they see differences in others, and I'm not just talking about Slytherins. I've known for awhile now I suppose. But it was like one day, I woke up and I realized that I didn't fancy girls at all." he paused to collect his thoughts "It was really scary. I thought that Henny would hate me, that my parents wouldn't love me anymore. So I kept it bottled up inside of me, and I was miserable for a very long time. Eventually, my sister had noticed how much I was changing and she sat me down to talk, just to see if she could help me. So I told her everything. To make a long story short, my fear was blown out of proportion. I was fortunate enough to have parents who loved and accepted me no matter what. My grandparents weren't too keen, and they still think they can find me the right girl." Hugo took a deep breath and yawned, which in turn made Rose yawn. The Gryffindor let her friend's words sink in for a minute before he asked a question.
"So do you like Bellatrix Black?"
"For Godric's sake, I have no clue!" Rose bursted out. Hugo didn't seem surprised by this, and opted to listen quietly while she let her feelings out to somebody other than Bellatrix for a change.
"I think she's dangerous, incredibly smart, and a temper quicker than the strike of a rattlesnake. She's beautiful in every way possible. I feel like I can relate to her somehow. I know that we're from completely different worlds. She's from a crazy rich and powerful family, and I literally could barely afford robes for this year. She was raised to believe that anybody who wasn't pureblood was filth, while I literally only learned about the purist thing a few months ago." Rose took a deep breath and could feel her heart crumpling in on itself."I think she's great. But I don't know if I actually like her, or if it's some misplaced affection because she's shown me kindness. Or relative kindness, when you think about how she used to be. I think I was afraid of making new friends to replace my old ones for so long that when I did think of us as friends, maybe my mind went a little farther than it should have."
"Perhaps. Or maybe you do have feelings for her and you're just trying to rationalize an excuse not to." Hugo said after a minute of silence between them. Rose could only shrug helplessly as she put her hands in her pockets.
"There aren't too many things I'm sure about these days. I'll have to think about it I guess.", she sighed uneasily "by the way, who is this guy you like?" Rose asked with a sly smile. Hugo began dispersing fertilizer too the roses.
"Oh, his name is Justin. He's a Ravenclaw, and in the Frog Choir. Beautiful voice." Hugo grunted and Rose grinned broadly. They chatted amicably for a little while longer before Rose excused herself.
"Bellatrix wants to brew amortentia. So let's see how this is supposed to pan out." she groaned, and Hugo gave her a sweet smile before she departed.
The sun was already setting, an orange glow blazing the old stonework of the castle and making the halls look as if they were part of some fiery dream. Few students lingered now, and it didn't look like there was anybody intent on following her, so Rose headed to the abandoned classroom, the whole walk thinking about what Hugo had said to her.
"Why am I overthinking this? It's just some stupid question because it's near Valentine's Day and that's supposed to get me all worked up over nothing. Ugh, I'm such an idiot." Rose chastised herself bitterly as she rounded a corner and descend down a flight of spiral stairs. Feeling nervous, she gripped the locket around her neck and rubbed her thumb over it as she traversed further through the maze of dusty halls that not even ghosts hadn't ventured into in years. Bellatrix was pacing impatiently when Rose finally showed up.
"There you are! I was starting to think you stood me up. Or had one of your episodes. Remind me again why you aren't taking your draughts?" she crossed her arms and stood haughtily like she always did, and Rose couldn't help but notice how shapely she was.
"Nope. Nope, not thinking about that." she frowned at this thought, and Bellatrix mistook it for a frown at her.
"Well, sorry I'm concerned for your well-being." she replied mockingly.
"Nevermind that. Let's just get this potion over with. Get the cauldron heated while I find my notes." Rose waved her hand distractedly and paced to the stack of tomes they had amassed in the weeks since their argument. A lot of it was on darker magic, which Rose had found herself to be more inclined to study recently. She didn't want to admit out loud that she was interested in casting an Unforgivable. Not to hurt anybody or to inflict pain, but just for the experience of learning it.
"Fine, I'll get the stupid pot. But you're not going to be doing all of the work." Bellatrix pouted as she heaved the pewter cauldron onto the burner and lit the fire.
"This is an incredibly difficult potion. Not that I don't doubt your skill but we can both agree that my patience will be instrumental in making sure this doesn't blow up in our faces, literally." Rose advised with mirth as she flipped through one book and found the page she needed. Gathering up everything in her arms and walking to the cauldron, she put them on the desk and muttered to herself while reading the recipe over.
"It says we need a cherry wood spoon for stirring. Do we have that here?" Rose looked at the one spoon they did have, which was decidedly oak or pine, some common cheap wood.
"No. Just use your wand." Bellatrix suggested.
"It's not cherry wood, and even if it was I wouldn't use it as a utensil. They're sticks imbued with powerful magic; I'm not just going to dunk it into a potion and see if that works." Rose looked at Bellatrix like she had lost her marbles.
"Yeah yeah whatever. Just transfigure us a spoon and let's get on with it." she said impatiently and hovered her hand over the powdered moonstone, ready to toss it into the warming cauldron. Rose rolled her eyes and snapped the rotting leg off one of the many old chairs in the room and focused to make sure she got it right. Transfiguring basic objects didn't take too much concentration, but they needed something more specific.
"So why were you late? What were you doing?" Bellatrix prodded as she watched Rose like a hawk.
"It's...shit Bellatrix I need to be able to focus for this one." Rose sighed in frustration as the broken wood before her shimmered before reverting back to its original form.
"Well I was only asking because word travels fast. So you were seeing your boyfriend?" she sounded genuinely upset by this, and Rose couldn't help slapping her palms on a desk.
"No. I don't have a boyfriend. I was talking to my friend Hugo." she spat, quickly angered "What do you not understand about staying quiet so I can work?" Bellatrix snorted at this as she looked at the fairy wings, but she didn't speak anymore after Rose yelled at her. After a few minutes, she finally got the spoon right and angrily tossed in the first ingredient and started stirring. Bellatrix watched her closely, and her skin began to prickle after awhile.
"I'm sorry I yelled at you again." Rose sighed "I'm just really stressed right now." "And I'm afraid of what this potion will yield." she thought bitterly.
"I don't really care," Bellatrix shrugged "we all have our ways of getting things off our chest. Mine is completely obliterating anything within reach, and yours is being an asshole." she looked at her nails, which she had painted black today. As the vapors from the cauldron became stronger and the potion began to take on its customary mother-of-pearl sheen, Rose tugged the collar of her cardigan over her nose to try and filter out some of the fumes.
"What are you doing that for?" asked Bellatrix, who had her head directly over the cauldron and was probably inhaling half of the nearly completed potion on her own. Rose gently nudged her back a little.
"These fumes are going to smell like something that you truly love, if I made this the right way. I don't need you swooning over a hot cauldron. Have you seriously not done research on this?"
"I have, I'm just not weak enough to be affected by it." Bellatrix insisted. Rose couldn't help feeling a little disappointed by this in some morbid way.
"Wait, do I want her to like me? Do I really like her?" she finished stirring and waved her wand over the potion, finishing the incantation. Bellatrix stepped forward and inhaled deeply, and Rose squeaked in surprise "Bellatrix!".
"Shut up! I'm trying to figure this smell out!" she hissed, and sniffed again while Rose kept her sweater over her nose. The Slytherin witch inhaled again and stopped, her knuckles white as she curled them into fists. She could smell it, the citrus, sunshine, and fresh spring dew, like waking up on a chilly morning but she could see the wildflowers pushing through the dirt and springing upwards to face the sun. There was also a hint of baking sweets mixed with honey, but it wasn't as strong. She would have known this smell anywhere. Hazel eyes and light brown hair, a nervous smile and a genuine laugh at something she said.
"Bellatrix?" Rose backed her up again, seeing that she was off in another world. When Rose touched her she leaned into her hand for a fraction of a second before jumping back and coughing.
"Ugh, I think you messed this one up Damonne." she wheezed dramatically as she waved her hand in front of her face. But it only spread the fumes around the room more, and Rose was hit in the face with a powerful wave of what she feared would be there. Sharp pine needles like a forest at night, earthy cinnamon lingering just beneath, and a hint of something wild. Her mother's cinnamon rolls and the scent of fresh laundry paled in comparison, and Rose quickly vanished the perfectly brewed love potion and held her breath.
"Yeah, I definitely messed up somewhere. Guess you can't use that for your prank. You wouldn't want to accidentally poison somebody." she gasped as she took in fresh air. Everything smelled like Bellatrix, but it wasn't overwhelming, and Rose almost forgot to pretend she was a victim of a botched recipe.
"I...I agree." Bellatrix fumbled with her words. Uncharacteristically, she wrung her hands in a clearly nervous action, and stepped closer to Rose, who couldn't help a squeak as the captivating witch looked at her with lidded black eyes.
"I'll see you later." she said quietly, offering a weak pat on the shoulder that felt like a jolt of electricity to the Gryffindor witch. Bellatrix practically ran out of the old classroom. Rose let out a shaky gasp when she thought Bellatrix was out of earshot.
"I don't just like Bellatrix...I love her."