A/N: This insomnia thing is becoming a habit, isn't it? Okay, so here's chapter 4, being written at exactly 2:53 am. Enjoy!
For the third morning in a row, Bella was woken by Sirius, at an hour much too early for her liking. This morning, she had to admit, however, was in a much more gentle manner.
"Bella," Sirius whispered, poking her gently, but firmly, as though determined to wake her up. "Bella," he whispered again, now gently shaking her by the shoulder. Bella pushed him away with one hand, and with the other, she grasped the blankets up to her chin.
"Sirius," she whined, "you know I need my beauty sleep! You've made me break out from stress as it is!"
Sirius stood above her, hands on his hips, "Bella, that was a single blemish, and anyways, there's someone here to see you!"
Bellatrix looked up confusedly. No one ever came to see her this early except- "My Lord!" she gasped, jumping up and throwing on a pair of black robes and pulling her hair into a messy bun. She rushed down into her sitting room, to see none other than Lord Voldemort himself sitting in her green upholstered armchair, and twirling his wand between his fingers.
He looked up as she entered the room, "Ah, Bella, Merlin, it took you long enough." Bella dropped to her knees and kissed the hem of his robes, murmuring apology. He motioned for her to get up, a bored look on his unnaturally pale face. "None of that, Bella, I need a last minute favor," he informed her.
"Of-of course, my Lord," she replied, confusedly.
"Yes, well I'll need you to house a meeting of Death Eaters and myself today, at approximately 5:00 pm. You will do this for me, won't you, my sweet Bella?"
"Certainly, my Lord," she answered. You did not refuse the Dark Lord anything. Ever. Bella knew this perfectly well, and wasn't about to infringe it.
Voldemort's thin white lips formed an abnormal smirk, as though he had never been taught how to properly smile, "Good, I will see you then, my dear." And with that, he was gone, though not with the nice clean apparation that most wizards could produce, but instead leaving behind a thick cloud of smoke.
Bella coughed and attempted to fan the smoke out of the room, bumping into Sirius on the way. "What did he want?" Sirius asked warily.
Bella looked at him sharply, "Sirius, I'm having some...guests tonight, and I need you to go somewhere else."
Sirius's raised an eyebrow, "Who exactly is going to be here that so requires me to leave?"
"It's none of your business!" she snapped, not meaning to be harsh, but knowing what Sirius would say if she told him the truth. Though they were only cousins, Sirius was very protective in a brotherly sort of fashion towards Bella. He wouldn't feel safe leaving her at home with a group of "evil wizards", "So in a way," she thought to herself, "I'm saving him quite a bit of worry." Satisfied with this, Bella went off to go shopping, after deciding that she should have a good amount of hors d'oeurves ready incase any of the Death Eaters became hungry. Always better to be prepared when dealing with "these sorts of people".
You see, Bella was not yet a callous, and malevolent individual, but had been recruited by the Dark Lord himself, who for some reason seemed determined to have Bella in his inner circle of followers. She was greatly treasured by Lord Voldemort, and any Death Eater who so much as looked at her the wrong way was punished severely by him. Bella understood the motives of the Death Eaters, but did not exactly consider herself one, and as far as world domination, she couldn't care less who won, as long as she wasn't affected by it. To some extent, she considered herself superior to the Death Eaters, looking down upon them as riotous, unmanageable ignoramuses. [A/N: I must give credit to my good friend Ally Katz, for the use of the word 'ignoramus'. Thanx Ally!] Though she did have a level of respect for a select few of them, for the most part, she tried to be uninvolved with the majority of their killings and such, preferring to be the planner, supporter, the clandestine follower. Of course she had a high regard for the Lord Voldemort himself, and feared him in an admiring way, knowing the extent of his powers and respecting their potential. [A/N: Just basically giving you an idea of where Bella stands with the Death Eaters at this point. Keep in mind that this is when Bella was very young and just beginning to be involved with the Voldemort and such, so just for the record, this is not how I view her in the future.]
She assured herself that Sirius would have no problem finding somewhere to go for a few hours. However, when she returned, her house was far from empty. She came in, handed off the bags to the house elves, and immediately froze as she heard raucous noise coming from her living room. "No," she moaned, "Please, don't even tell me..." She burst into the living room, and halted abruptly at what she saw. Sirius and five other people, two of which she recognized as Remus and James, two of Sirius's best friends, were sitting on the edge of her huge red couch, eyes glued to the screen of the television. Suddenly all of them jumped to their feet, cheering at full volume, giving each other high-fives, and in general just being boisterous and wild. Bella stared in horror at the mess of chips, popcorn, and several alcoholic beverages that littered the coffee table. Suddenly, the guys noticed Bellatrix and froze.
James flashed her an award-winning smile, and looked as though he was about to say something, but Remus, who had sat down and was looking rather nervous, signaled him to stop. Sirius, however, ran over to greet Bella, looking cheerful as could be, "Hey, Bella! This is Conner, Brian, and Adam, you know James and Remus, and-" He was cut short by Bella pulling him roughly into the hall. She placed an accusing finger on his chest, and pushed him backwards until he was against the wall.
"Sirius Black," she hissed murderously, "What the blooy hell is this?"
Sirius rather wished she would chase him through the halls again, instead of standing in front of him, looking as though she would whip out her wand at any moment and kill him then and there. "Um...Monday Night Football?" he asked hopefully.
"And did I not tell you this morning that I needed you leave tonight?" she asked, once again in that calm, yet lethal voice.
"Um, yes," he replied slowly, then speeding up his voice so as to be heard out, "but-we-all-wanted-to-watch-football-and-I-was-the-only-one-who-had-a-tv-so-I-brought-everyone-here!"
"THAT IS NOT-" But Bella was interrupted by the sound of voices in her foyer. "Oh, no, they're here," she whispered, "Okay, Sirius, you go back and watch football with your friends, but you sure as hell better not make any noise, as a matter of fact-" Bella cast a Silencing Charm on the room, so no noise would be heard. After making sure the door was securely shut, Bella ran to meet her guests and lead them to the sitting room. The followers sat around, talking loudly and eating the food that Bella had levitated out from the kitchen. Soon, though, Voldemort himself arrived and they quieted abruptly. As soon as he arrived, Lord Voldemort looked around, seeming a bit puzzled.
"Bella, pet, why don't we move the meeting to the living room, it's much bigger," he commented. Though the meeting was only of the elite Death Eaters in Voldemort's inner circle, there were quite a few of them, and it was rather cramped in the sitting room. Bellatrix was about to agree, when she remembered Sirius and "Monday Night Football".
"No," she replied hastily, "it's...it's a mess in there, the elves haven't cleaned it since...since-" But she was spared an explanation of exactly what event had taken place in her living room, as she noticed that Voldemort had simply frowned and turned back to his conversation. Bella let out the breath she had been holding with relief. She knew that if the Dark Lord had demanded to move the meeting to the living room, she could not refuse. Bella barely paid attention to the subject of the conference, but instead spent the time hoping that the muffled shouts of "Fumble! Oh, come on where's the fumble?" and "No, where are you going, crush him!" [A/N: Note that these comments were actually taken from listening to my father, uncle, etc. on Superbowl Sunday...] were not heard, as the Silencing Charm gradually wore off. The meeting continued on until late in the night, when James, Remus, and the other friends whose names Bella had not paid attention to finally left.
Unfortunately, Voldemort took it upon himself to turn towards the window and just in time to see the five of them apparate off her walkway. [A/N: Don't ask me why they didn't just apparate out of the living room. We'll just say that...there are charms on the house that prevent anyone from apparating directly inside of it. Wow, that's one of my better excuses!] "Bella," he asked, looking as though he was striving to keep his voice level, "Who are those men?"
Bella racked her brain for an excuse, and finally told him, "Those are just some people I had working on the...the roof. Yes, we lost some shingle in a storm a few weeks ago," she said, doing her best to sound convincing.
"Bella, doll, we haven't had a storm for weeks! Surely you must be mistaken," he replied in a manner that implied that what he was actually saying was "you are lying to me and I know it".
"I-I...um well, you see-" Bella stuttered as Lord Voldemort's eyes thinned to threatening slits. Suddenly, he cupped a finger under her chin rather roughly and tilted her face towards his.
"Bella, I am not a stupid man. I can tell when someone is lying to me, and I don't like being lied to. I suggest you tell me exactly who those people were right now before I lose my temper," he finished.
Bella stood perfectly still, though desperate to do something, anything to get Voldemort's fingers off her face. She finally managed to choke out, "Y-Yes my Lord," and he dropped his hand to his side.
"So?" he inquired, "Who were they? Surely not...suitors? Is my little Bellatrix looking for a husband, because if you are, I assure you I could find you a high ranking Death Eaters that would suit you well..."
"No," she responded quickly, "No, I'm perfectly happy as I am. They-they were..." but Bella was interrupted by Sirius bounding into the room and standing directly between her and Voldemort, which was a pretty tight squeeze as Voldemort had been nearly pressing against her. Bella took a step back, but the Dark Lord held his ground.
"They were my friends!" Sirius shouted; the Death Eaters turned to look, "and I suggest you get out of here right now...and leave Bella alone!" Sirius looked as though he expected the whole crowd to cower at his very presence, which, of course, they didn't. Bella closed her eyes, "Maybe they'll humor him. Maybe they'll just leave," she thought, but knew they were empty wishes. Lord Voldemort would play with Sirius like a cat plays with it's prey [A/N: No, Voldemort is not going to bat Sirius around in the grass and toss him up into the air before carrying him around in his mouth a bit and then devouring him in a secluded corner! You know what I meant! I hope...] until it was convenient for him to do one of several things to Sirius, none of which was very pleasant. A few days ago, this would have been a perfect scenario for Bella: get rid of Sirius, and pass him off as some anti-Voldemort supporter that Bella had brought for her master to do away with. But now...she wanted to save Sirius, but knew that if she took a stand, it meant certain death.
Voldemort replied to Sirius's comment, "Do you really? Because I beg to differ."
"This house ain't big enough for the two of us," said Sirius, narrowing his eyes. Bella groaned inwardly, she'd really have to put away all those Western films... [A/N: Thanx to my dear friend Trisha for that! Long story...]
Voldemort answered smoothly, "Interesting, because I was thinking the same thing." Sirius looked surprised, and Bella could practically see what he was thinking: Shouldn't they be running away now? But Voldemort had no intention of moving a finger. "Now, I'm not quite sure I know your name, Bella didn't tell me she was having house guests," he continued, not looking in Bellatrix's direction. Bella felt her body go cold; she hadn't considered what having Sirius in her house meant for her. And Lord Voldemort did not look pleased. Sirius looked lost for words, so Voldemort spoke for him, "I strongly suggest you leave this residence as soon as you possibly can. This is a very unfortunate place for you to be." Translation: Get out before I kill you. Bella looked up, shocked; he was just going let Sirius leave? Just like that? Impossible! But lucky. Sirius spoke again, and Bellatrix hung her head once more: Voldemort knew Sirius wouldn't give up. He knew he'd stay and have his say.
"I don't think I'll be going anywhere for a while, thank you very much," Sirius said coldly finally realizing he wouldn't win.
"No? Well then I will leave in charge of this, Bella," Voldemort finished and turned on his heel, "I expect that he will be out of this house by the time I come back tomorrow. Is that very clear, my dear?" Bellatrix nodded vigorously. She had no other choice. Sirius would have to go. It was a miracle Voldemort hadn't killed them both already, and what had to be done, had to be done. The Death Eaters all began to leave, and apparate outside. Soon, Lord Voldemort was the only one left. He turned back to Bella, still on her doorstep, "And do make sure he leaves. I'd hate to bestow the consequences on you, such a pretty face..." And with that, he was gone.
To be continued...
A/N: Breck- I know, I know! I have failed! tears But he good news is that it's here now :)
Wow, that was late. And long. I've had it written for the longest time, but my internet was screwed up, but now it's fixed and then I lost the disk this was on, but I shall be posting new chapters more often now. I just realized, too, that this story is changing genres a lot: first it started out humor, then pre-romance, and this was somewhat drama. Hmmm, I not sure where this will all end up, as this is just one of my spur-of-the-moment stories that doesn't really have a lot yet at all. Thank you, thank you, thank you to all my lovely reviewers! Chocolate covered popcorn for all! Ciao peepz!