Chapter 5

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Hermione wasn't quite sure how she wanted to play her Roxanna personality to Bellatrix. Lyra, she reminded herself. Hell. Miss BLACK, that should keep me safe. She wanted to be vulnerable enough to be a good target for Bellatrix's recruitment efforts, but confident enough to keep the dark witch hooked personally. For further encounters and incrimination, she reminded herself. Not for anything else. Of course.

"I was in the bathroom because I needed to use the bathroom. I wasn't hiding."

Bellatrix looked knowingly at her. "Hm-mm. Keep telling yourself that. I'm not buying it."

Silence.

"Well, I… I might have been hiding a little. I wanted to see what this was all about, but I wasn't sure how much I wanted to get involved. It seemed like the type of thing that once you show up, you are involved."

Bellatrix leaned back, looking a bit astonished. "And why wouldn't you want to get involved?" Her tone seemed to imply that Hermione should count herself lucky to have been invited, and that to suggest otherwise was not a wise course of action.

"… I… don't get involved in too much. I prefer to keep to myself." Hermione looked down in what she hoped was self-conscious modesty, though honestly, this part of Roxanna wasn't too far-fetched for her. If she hadn't become friends with Ron and Harry, she had a feeling she'd have ended up a lot like the isolated Ravenclaw girl.

"What, don't you have friends? A girl like you?" The older witch scoffed disbelievingly.

"No, not really. I am here to learn, and I don't really seem to fit in with other people so well." Hermione met the dark witch's eye and was pleased to see that she had her interest.

"So then, tell me, how did you end up in detention with Snape last week?" Bellatrix leaned forward eagerly. Hermione sensed that Bellatrix was trying to gossip with her, open her up and get her more comfortable. She decided to tell the truth on that score.

"I was rude in class. He was spending too much time berating unprepared students, and I wanted to move on. He didn't appreciate my opinion." She smiled a bit when Bellatrix laughed delightedly.

"Miss Black? May I ask you a question?" Hermione waited nervously to see if she'd crossed a boundary, but it appeared that Bellatrix was in a social mood, as her only answer was a raised eyebrow. "Why did you obliviate him, but not me?"

"Ah… well…" The raven-haired witch leaned back in her chair with her hands crossed behind her straightened hair. She placed her black boot on the edge of Hermione's chair, right beside her thigh, in order to push her own seat back onto its two back legs. "I wanted you to remember that night. I don't care about his pompous ass."

It seemed that both Hermione and Bellatrix realized at the same time that the dark witch was supposed to be a different person than the woman in the Forbidden Forest that night, and that the game was up. Bellatrix let her chair fall forward with a loud thwack to the stone floor, and Hermione sat up straighter, trying to figure out if she should flee.

The two witches eyed each other carefully, before Bellatrix gave a slight dip of her head. Both of them knew that the older witch's identity was in the open, but the charade would continue. For Hermione's sake, it had to continue. Bellatrix, it seemed, was merely enjoying the extra layer of entertainment.

As if to prove her comfort with her non-disguise, Bellatrix began to twirl the blue streak in her hair around one finger. "You remind me a bit of myself, you know," she said, slowly, teasingly.

"Wh-why is that?" Hermione was distinctly nervous. She wasn't sure of Bellatrix's tone, nor of being compared to the most powerful dark witch in the modern age.

"I also enjoyed learning, and I didn't find that my peers understood me or my dedication to my studies."

Hermione lifted her gaze to meet the dark eyes that were looking at her more gently now.

"I had a hard time making friends, and I always felt like those who did approach me only did so because they wanted to be associated with my family's wealth, or my status as a star student. I didn't waste my time with them, but I wished I had some real friends."

Hermione bit her lip and looked down, surprised that Bellatrix was sharing this with her. She has a reason, Hermione, she's not doing this just to be nice. Be on your guard. Hermione nodded, hoping the older witch would continue.

"It was pretty lonely back then, and I imagine it's still lonely now."

Hermione nodded again. Even with Ron and Harry and Ginny, sometimes it did feel lonely. They were friends, but they didn't really understand what drove Hermione, and nor did they make an effort to.

Bellatrix leaned forward and placed her hand on Hermione's forearm. At the contact, Hermione looked up quickly to meet the conspiratorial twinkle in the other woman's eye.

"Do you know what got me through? What made it all worth it?"

Hermione shook her head, aware that she hadn't spoken in a while, but unable to find words.

"I knew more than them. I was always going to know more than them, and because I knew more magic, I was always going to be able to do more than them. Their ignorance made them helpless in comparison to what I was going to be able to do."

Hermione attempted a response. "I… I do feel like they are wasting their time. There is so MUCH to be learned at Hogwarts, and they are just getting the minimum. Most of them haven't even set foot in the library!"

"Exactly what I mean, pet. They may be your same age, but they aren't your peers, and they never will be." Bellatrix squeezed Hermione's arm for emphasis. Hermione's face immediately flushed, but she made no effort to remove her arm, and neither did Bellatrix remove her hand.

"My mother says I just have to wait to grow up, to wait for my peers to grow up to be friends with them." Hermione remembered the wisdom her mother had tried to impart to her when she was the tender age of seven, already having trouble with her classmates in muggle primary school.

The older witch nodded, and stroked Hermione's arm gently. "She's right. You aren't going to find companionship among teenagers. You need adult stimulation."

… What? Did she just…? Oh Merlin, is she coming on to me? Blushing furiously, Hermione couldn't help but search Bellatrix's face, letting her gaze rest on her slightly smiling lips. Full lips that, as she watched, slowly began to smirk. Hermione's eyes shot back up to meet a dark, knowing gaze.

"Umm…" Great. That's a great response. Lovely. She watched as the smirk grew wider, until finally Bellatrix was grinning openly at her.

"I mean, little one, that you need to be around some adults who can teach you what you want to know. Hogwarts doesn't have all the answers, you know, and in fact the teachers there spend a lot of time making sure you don't learn everything you could."

The young witch swallowed nervously and nodded. Bellatrix squeezed her arm one more time and removed her hand, sitting back and folding her arms in front of her. The movement brought Hermione's attention to her corseted chest, now being pushed forward by the folded arms. Eyes up! Pay attention! This is getting serious!

"Roxanna…" At the dark witch's use of the name, Hermione suddenly remembered who she was supposed to be. "You can come to these meetings with Jugson or not, but I can see that you don't need to be around those sweaty, nervous teenagers any more than you already are. I can teach you and provide you with books that you won't find in the Hogwarts library."

Hermione's eyes widened at the invitation. "Umm… thank you. But will it… will it be dangerous?"

Bellatrix winked at her and grinned enticingly. "Dear one, safety is for those who want to experience nothing. It's the dangerous things that are worth doing."

Hermione swallowed again and smiled tentatively. She felt she was getting in awfully deep, but she wasn't sure she wanted out.