Chapter 23 - Bellatrix Lestrange
Lizzie, Ron, Hermione, Griphook, Bill, and Charlie drew plans for the bank heist late into the evening most nights. The plans were finalized. Lizzie hoped she could manage a switch of the swords but wasn't confident.
Hermione was verbal again, she'd recovered physically from the torture and the assault, and Lizzie was careful around her emotionally. One of the nights Charlie was up late in the atrium, Hermione knocked on the door to their bedroom looking almost abashed. Her eyes were red and puffy and she nudged Lizzie out of a very light sleep.
"Hi..." Lizzie breathed and rubbed the bleariness from her eyes. "What's wrong?" She asked, watching her best friend's face sink. Hermione shook her head with tears streaming from her cheeks.
"How do you not think about it?" She asked with a broken voice and knelt by the bed. Lizzie sat up and hugged her around the head, burying a kiss into her crown.
"'Mione you don't..." Lizzie whispered sadly. She cried into Lizzie's chest and a Lizzie felt her eyes swim in high tides.
"How do you - I feel - ruined," she sobbed. Lizzie's heart shattered. She had a feeling her and Ron had never gone that far. Lizzie felt fortunate that she didn't remember the first time. That it was sort of a screwed-up blessing that it had been normal or routine, or at least predictable. Cedric felt like her first time. It made it easier to compartmentalize. This, and the violence of it, she wouldn't be able to grapple with either.
"Come here," Lizzie said and Hermione lied down with her. Lizzie wrapped arms and kissed her shoulder with a hand firmly pressed into her heart.
"You're not ruined. I promise..." she breathed. "You're beautiful and that prat in the other room who bludgeoned him to death will do anything for you. He will kill for you and he will wait for you to be ready. He's not going anywhere, you'll be beautiful to him even when you have chin hairs and bunions..." she said. Hermione smirked.
"Bunions?" She asked.
"Fucking bunions...and I bet you anything he plucks the chin hairs..." Lizzie repeated and they laughed weakly.
"How did you survive that? All of it?" Hermione said in a cracked voice.
Lizzie was quiet. "The easy answer is I expected it. The real answer is I gave it to something else, someone else, to hold onto... because I couldn't move or breathe if I didn't. That someone is in my head but they don't rear theirs often. I'm scared to process it or think about it because I always thought just saying it out loud would be my undoing... I had to create another mind to saddle it with to survive..."
"Dissociate," Hermione whispered. "I always saw you as more than one person," she whispered.
"I tried to find love with the one who could still feel it," Lizzie said.
"I love the both of you. That scared little girl deserves it just as much as you do...I just couldn't even begin to comprehend the fear until..."
Lizzie pressed her forehead into Hermione's shoulder. "I tried, I tried to make sure they didn't. I never..." she sobbed feeling guilty and remembering the shipping containers.
"Never do that again for me... I couldn't breathe knowing they took you instead. That was... worse..." Hermione cried. Lizzie held her for awhile for comfort. Charlie must have bunked with Ron, because when she woke up, she was alone.
Hermione pulled a long hair of Bellatrix's off her sweater from that night at the manor and Lizzie kept it in a safe glass phyle while they brewed Polyjuice.
Griphook didn't like them speaking to each other without him, Bill had warned them about Goblins being hyper sensitive to being crossed.
Luna stirred finally and Lizzie broke the news about her father with intense shame. She was quiet and reserved, as though she already accepted that would be his fate. Her eyes had a familiar deadness to them that she recognized from all the years growing up with hurt girls. Fluer offered her a home with them for as long as she needed.
Dean, feeling useless and stir crazy in the cottage, took to tattooing over his mudblood mark, courtesy of the snatchers, with a dragon that worked his way up his arm. "You've always been good with art," Lizzie complimented. He smirked.
"Hermione... do you?" He asked gesturing to his arm and then looking at the more crude version Bellatrix had carved into hers. She sat down and sighed, seemingly in better spirits.
"Sure, go for it," she said. "Lizzie, get some whiskey?" Lizzie laughed at that because Hermione scarcely drank.
"What shall it be?" He asked. Hermione thought for a moment.
"Azaleas," she said.
"Like... her face or the flowers..." Dean asked.
"Tattoo my face on her arm and I'll tattoo a matching one on your right ass cheek while youre sleeping..." Lizzie snapped sarcastically and they laughed for the first time in days. "Seamus would appreciate that I'm sure..." he laughed harder.
"Flowers then," he chuckled.
"Only thing more damning than mudblood on her arm would be a portrait of the undesirable number one, Dean..." Lizzie said. He nodded that she had a fair point. By the time he was done you couldn't see the words. Lizzie was shocked and Dean left to grab a solution so it would heal quicker. When Lizzie touched them the flowers danced like they were blowing in the wind. Hermione was staring at her and Lizzie looked up with glassy eyes.
"Dean..." Lizzie asked. "Your hand tired?"
"You want one too?" He asked. Lizzie rolled up her sleeve over the burned over crude dark mark on her forearm.
"Jesus..." he muttered.
"Can you do a thestral?" She asked. Hermione watched him trace the outline curiously.
"Why a thestral?" Hermione wondered.
"To remind myself that I'm not afraid to die," Lizzie said quietly. "Sometimes I forget," she added, staring at Charlie from across the room.
They sat together on the shore for a long time that afternoon. They didn't say much. She tried to explain where they'd been.
"I don't want to leave you after Gringotts, let me come with you..." he said. Lizzie contemplated it and agreed. She hadn't realized not knowing if he was alright had eaten away at her for months. The waves crashed and she wanted the sand to swallow them whole into safety.
Lizzie melted in Charlie's arms at night. Like in London, he was magically in tune with what she wanted and she was eager to return the favor. It was certainly a sin to enjoy it as much as her body was letting her, she bargained as much and no longer cared. He balanced a fine line between handling something or rather someone who could quickly shatter if triggered, and lighting a fire in her soul that desperately needed the intimacy and release.
She started having sharp visions the night before they broke into Gringotts of Voldemort and Bellatrix in a distorted timeline she couldn't place.
Bellatrix looked very young in the first, still at Hogwarts perhaps from the softness of her skin. She was once very beautiful. Striking, cunning, confident, and not deranged.
Voldemort, a less snake-like version of himself before his downfall in Godric's Hollow had hands splitting open her hips and clutched at her body greedily. This seemed to give her satisfaction and purpose. She obviously craved love from he that he couldn't begin to comprehend.
In an instant, she was screaming in birth with a child born still and cold. Voldemort paced the room in rage, approached her bedside with an aggressive gait, and struck her across the face. "You'll marry Redolphus," he hissed. Tears pooled and her skin went hot with shame and guilt.
"No, my lord, we can, I will do this as many times as it takes," she pled. He stared down at her with reproach.
"You'll do this in your grave," he growled. She shuddered uncontrollably.
Bellatrix married Redolphus not long after. Voldemort gave her a year to bear a child and a potion for her and her husband to take to manipulate the father. She lost several pregnancies in the process that he cruelly punished her for while her husband was made to watch. It slowly drove her to insanity.
In the next wave of images she was on her knees, begging him for mercy. She looked older now, this looked recent. "I'm sorry, My Lord, I'm sorry. You can have him, you can have him. I did this for you, I promise," she begged.
"You could not have done this for me Bella, Travers never took the potion. This is your son, not mine," he hissed.
"Travers is dead, my Lord. Pure blooded boy, he is for you, you can do with him what it is you've needed to do," she pled desperately. "The potion you gave my husband kept killing the children. It rendered him impotent. This was the only way..."
His eyes looked calculating and he roared with frustration. "The point was for MY offspring to be - " he clenched his fists in fury and struck her hard before turning his wand on her and taking satisfaction in her screams of agony.
In the next, her face was pressed to his feet. "Please," she whispered. The chandelier was shattered on the floor. There were bodies splayed on the ground for Nagini. The great snake was feasting her eyes on a boy, roughly a year old.
Lizzie woke in distress and the images stayed in her head. "I don't want to be her," Hermione said and broke Lizzie from a deep mental haze. "You do it..."
Lizzie froze and held the hair for a long moment. Bellatrix's wand sat on the table, the wand that killed Sirius. She wanted to break it. Nonetheless, she nodded.
Hermione did a masterful job on Ron and Charlie's disguises. Black hair and beards in death eater robes, not a freckle to be seen on either of their faces. Lizzie drank the potion and gagged involuntarily on the taste. They looked back at her with trepidation, and she handed Hermione the cloak to stay under on the mission. Lizzie took a liking to Draco's wand and pocketed it just in case. It worked for her better than Hermione's or Mathelda's usually did.
They trekked beyond the protections surrounding the cottage and with a loud crack they apparated to the Leaky Cauldron where Tom dropped his dishes at the sight of Madam Lestrange. Lizzie glared at him and passed with the boys like henchmen in her wake.
Diagon Alley was unrecognizable. It had been years since she stepped foot here and most of the shops she remembered were shuttered. Vagrants lined the streets, Wizard Order Police patrolled the alleys. There were dark arts shops that had recently opened for business by the looks of them, and the bank sat at the end of the alley looking bleak and dismal.
They walked along at an unsuspicious pace and caught stares from many passers by in the process. One of them glared at her reproachfully and stood. Charlie stopped Lizzie in her tracks as he approached her. "What did you do to them, you evil BITCH!" He screamed.
"Pardon, would you like to repeat that?" Lizzie hissed back in her best impression of Bellatrix. He lunged at her, and Charlie shoved him hard against the wall, cracking his head on the brick. He was not dead, but bleeding and Lizzie tried not to look horrified. Ron had mentioned Charlie became belligerent with him, but witnessing the aggression was uncharacteristic of him in her opinion. He backed up looking almost apologetic while still playing the part when they heard a man clear his throat behind them.
"Madam Lestrange," Rookwood said. Lizzie recognized him and gave a weak sort of smirk as a gesture of such.
"I'm rather surprised, my dear, I thought the inhabitants of Malfoy Manor were not to leave..." he inquired.
"Why would you think that?" She retorted a little harshly.
"The escape. Potters escape..." he said as though it were the most obvious.
"Right, well as you know, the most loyal to him receive his mercy," she hissed. He nodded.
"Where are you headed?" He asked.
"My vault," she said curtly. He strode forward and opened the large doors to the bank, gesturing her to go ahead of him inside while eyeballing the boys curiously.
At the hilt of the long room sat a goblin scribbling out furiously on parchment. Lizzie stopped in front of him and cleared her throat. He looked up and startled at the sight of her. "Madame Lestrange," he said. "What can I assist you with?"
"I wish to enter my vault," Lizzie said curtly. She stole a glance at Rookwood handing a different goblin his key, showing his mark, and not having difficulty establishing his needs. The goblin looked intently at Lizzie and she heard Griphook say from behind her, in her ear, that they'd been warned. Ron couldn't mask the apprehension and Charlie stiffened.
"Would you please present your wand?" The goblin asked.
"Why would I need to do that?" She asked, staring intently to read him and catching a wavelength that they'd been warned their vault may be compromised.
"It's the policy, surely you understand with the New Wizard Order taking mass effect," he said reassuringly.
"I don't have my wand," Lizzie said sharply. "It was stolen. I am borrowing my nephews," she added. Rookwood narrowed his eyes curiously.
"I'm sorry to hear that," the goblin said but looked nervous. Guards were approaching from the entrance but quickly retreated to what sounded like Hermione confunding the men in uniform. Suddenly, without precedent, the goblin smiled. "Very well, follow me Madam," he said cheerfully and Lizzie recognized the demeanor. Rookwood stared as they departed into the cart entrance to go down to the vaults.
Charlie put a hand on Lizzie's back to help her in and once they had traveled several layers down, Hermione pulled off the cloak. "He's imperioused," she said.
"Yeah, I figured as much. The guards?" Lizzie asked.
"Confunded," she confirmed.
"We're going to need clankers and his hand to open the vault," Griphook chimed. Lizzie nodded. "Wait, no, no, no," he said suddenly as they soared through a waterfall of sorts. Charlie stared back at Lizzie and gaped.
"It washed away enchantments," Ron said in a panic. The cart came to a screeching halt and Charlie shot a charm at the tracks to break them as alarms sounded in the deep depths of the underground.
They clambered out and onto the ledge where the vault was hidden. The goblin who showed them in was suddenly no longer under an imperious. He scowled and shrieked at the sight of Lizzie. She clapped a hand over his mouth and they heard a low and loud groan from several yards ahead.
Lizzie stole a look of terror at Charlie who gestured for them to be quiet. The alarms blazed and he looked around. Ron grabbed the clankers and imperioused the goblin again. Lizzie cast a look at Griphook thinking she ought to do the same to him, but remembered Bill's warning and hesitated.
They entered the tunnel and at the end of the walk they could hear the talons of the dragon scraping the stone floor. Charlie moved ahead of all of them and gestured for them to carefully follow. Almost like a sixth sense, he cast a charm that shielded them from an unprecedented surge of flames none of them anticipated. He reached for the clankers and though it pained him to do so, he rang them loud until the dragon cowered feebly in the corner.
"It's mostly blind," Griphook said. "Trained to expect pain when he hears the noise."
"Disgusting," Charlie muttered with contempt and ushered them into the vaults corridor. The placed the Goblins hand on the door and it unlocked with many gears and latches from the otherside before swinging open.
"What are we looking for?" Charlie asked. Hermione let out a loud yell of pain when she bumped something that burned her and then broke into several identical pieces.
"They've added curses, be extremely careful," Griphook warned. But just a slight movement could knock a treasure trove into a pile on burning metal.
"Freeze! Don't move! Let me ... look," Lizzie yelled. Her eyes scanned the walls, she could feel one in the Chamber with them and her eyes stopped at a small cup with an engraved badger on a high shelf.
"Up there, I need to get up there," she said pointing. She tried to summon it to no avail. Levitating it was no use either. Charlie was tallest and hoisted her up onto his shoulders. She grabbed for the fake sword and used it to get a handle on the cup, but Charlie lost balance and a large cascade of treasure fell to the floor. He yelled in pain and Lizzie managed to hoist the cup.
Hermione removed the real sword. Griphook hovered close to the door. Lizzie threw him the fake sword so she could get off Charlie's shoulders as the room exploded with hot golden objects. He snatched the cup as well. Lizzie reached for it.
"I didn't say anything about getting you out," he growled. He cast a glance at the sword and shoved Lizzie backward into the pile of hot metal when she took hold of the cup. She screamed and Charlie quickly hoisted her our before she fried.
"Get us out!" Hermione yelled at Griphook as he used the other Goblins hand to open the door. She threw him the real sword as barter but he didn't leave the door open for them. Charlie blasted through the side wall with an exceptional bombarda curse and they toppled straight into the dragon's lair.
The four of them stood and distanced themselves from the hot metal but looked up in horror at the dragon. Charlie put a finger to his mouth and held out a hand for them to stay still. The dragon reared its head and came close to his face before roaring with fury that made Lizzie's heart and muscles seize.
Charlie shot a curse at the far wall that made the dragon turn on axis to inspect. He hoisted the chain and pulled despite the dragon roaring in exorbitant pain. "Tail, use it to get on, he won't feel it," Charlie ordered, then used the chain to pull himself up onto the top. They looked down at a slew of guards running into the vicinity and the dragon let out a long breath of fire. Charlie cast a curse to break the floor shackles and the dragon gained altitude.
"You're mad!" Lizzie yelled and held onto him for dear life. The dragon took off at a sharp incline straight into the ceiling of the underground chambers and crashed through the main halls of the bank. It torched the vicinity and Lizzie watched Rookwood, having been leaving, fry under the blaze. Charlie made a bucking motion for the dragon to again gain altitude and they covered their heads as he crashed through the glass ceiling and soared over diagon alley and the streets of London.
Lizzie felt the thrill of being in the air again and clutched at Charlie's shoulders. Her heart beat savagely but she knew they'd escaped with the fourth horcrux. It felt like victory.
They flew for quite sometime into the country and Charlie noticeably had apprehension about decending.
Lizzie, nonetheless, was amazed by the way he handled the dragon on the decent into the countryside. Charlie laid a hand gently on the neck and had an affinity like no other. The others slid off and stammered back as far away as they could. Charlie stayed atop the perch and Lizzie kept her arms latched around his waist. He dug in his pocket for needle syringe and quickly drew several vials of blood he pocketed. He got Lizzie down off the tail which tended to have very little feeling.
The dragon paced aggressively and Charlie moved carefully to remove the chains entirely. It was obvious it had hardly any sight and Charlie didn't want to provoke an attack. He removed his robe and levitated it to sit atop the dragons back like a rider. Maybe it was the smell, but definitely something about the prompt sent the dragon airborne and across the hillside to freedom.
Charlie stared after it apologetically and Lizzie grabbed his hand with gratitude.
There was suddenly a sharp flash of vision that burned her scar like nothing else.
Voldemort was pacing. Bellatrix was heaving terrified breaths and he struck her astonishingly hard. He was in Lizzie's head now and the ophidians lurched into life. "What did you do?" He hissed in her ears until it was all encompassing. In quick flashes he witnessed them steal and destroy the locket. He watched her plunge a fang into his diary and observed the ring on Dumbledore's finger. He caught flashes of the Albanian church, the cup in hand, the sword. He roared in fury and Charlie was hitting her face for her to come into the present. He had a hand on her stomach and felt it writhe. Charlie pulled from his pocket the mixture he'd invented at the cottage and used the syringe to mix it with a dose of the dragons blood.
Lizzie wasn't coming around, there was blood pooling at her mouth, this is what it felt like to be eaten alive, and there was no pushing him or his unparalleled fury from her mind and her bloodstream. Charlie plunged the needle just over heart so the blood could circulate through her artery. This set her veins on fire and he held her still while she screamed in agony. The writhing in her abdomen ceased. She got up on her forearms and vomited something like black tar with what looked like small snakes in its mix. She vomited until there was nothing left in her stomach. He gave her a potion to heal the internal bleeding and watched her closely.
"I don't know if they're completely gone. But that mix would have been lethal to them," he explained to Hermione who gaped at Lizzie.
"We need to get back. She's going to start burning up and that dragon fever will be lethal. We have supplies though, help me," he said and hoisted her to apparate back to shell cottage where they tended to her fever immediately and Charlie felt confident the ophidian curse was abated enough to give her a shred of hope of facing Voldemort. There were no words to express the gratitude for that. It gave her a tremedous amount of hope that the war would end soon.
