Tada! It's Chapter 13, which doesn't have a name. I think you'll like it anyways though. Perhaps it's simply in the nature of something with the number 13 to be just unlucky enough not to have a name, eh?
"There is a Mister Malfoy here to see you, Mistress," squeaked the house elf, with her nose about four inches from the g round, in a deep bow.
Bellatrix looked up from the note she had been writing. Setting down her quill, she asked,
"Is he waiting in the floo room?"
"Yes, Mistress Lestrange."
"I will be there shortly," she replied, giving the elf permission to leave. Bellatrix needed a few moments to compose herself. She cast a quick spell to expel any remnants of black ink from her fingertips and stood up to stretch a bit. This reminded her not to spend two hours writing thank you notes again. Wedding gifts were supposedly helpful, but all the Pure Blood formalities could be an absolute bore.
"She will be with you shortly, Master Malfoy!" came the irritate cry from Naina the house elf as Lucius Malfoy charged his way through the door into the study.
"Mister Malfoy is quite welcome here, and he is also a very busy man. That will be all, Naina," Bellatrix covered up her surprise. She also walked over, shood the elf out and locked the door.
"I'm sorry to have disturbed you, Bellatrix," came the formal lie of societal expectation. Bella doubted the man was truly sorry for anything.
"Oh trust me, I needed to be distracted from note after note of 'thanks and appreciation,'" she said with a smile, gesturing to a chair. It was always best to start off being kind to Malfoy, especially if he's so obviously agitated.
"Yes. The many trite responsibilities of marriage."
"Don't worry. Narcissa loves writing those kinds of notes. I doubt you'll have to write any."
Lucius helped himself to a tea biscuit before continuing. "This is actually somewhat along the subject I wanted to bring up with you."
Bellatrix raised an eyebrow as she sipped her tea. She was not one to simply pour forth with information, given her sister's recent relations which she tried not to think about. It was easier to wait for Lucius to be more specific.
"Did you become suddenly distant with Rodolphus prior to your wedding?" he blurted out. "I realize your sister's marriage to me has been somewhat forced, but is this avoidance thing normal?"
Bellatrix fought hard not to choke on her tea. Could sleeping around with a half blood while one was engaged to one of the most powerful Pure blood wizards be considered normal? Bellatrix had to be careful. Not only was the man being uncharacteristically frank and open, but he must be truly desperate (or suspicious) to come to her for relationship advice.
"Firstly, Lucius, it is entirely allowable for her to be nervous. Narcissa is still young. She's only just graduated from Hogwarts. That in and of itself is a difficult transition. Now, in addition to that, she's about to make the biggest commitment of her life. With everything else aside, I think that would be enough to make her nervous." Damn was Narcissa lucky she had a sister who cared enough to cover her ass.
"But what can I do? I feel like she can't bear to be near me. And that's so strange. Will she act this way in our marriage? Will I have to constantly try to win over her affections when I should, by all rights, already possess them?" He was truly worried. The poor bastard. Yes, he was rich, influential and attractive, but he had chosen a woman who had already given her heart away. The parallel between herself and Narcissa left an eerie feeling in her stomach. Both sisters had to give up their doomed love of a half-blood for the security of a proper Pure Blood marriage. Bellatrix suddenly envied her sister Andromeda for not giving a fuck what anybody else thought and marrying the man she truly loved. But damn did she pay the price for her freedom… and Bellatrix wasn't really that bad off. She was growing to love Rodolphus. Cissy could do the same thing with Malfoy. Perhaps she only needed some persuasion…
"Let me talk to her. Our mother certainly hasn't been as emotionally supportive as necessary, perhaps Narcissa just doesn't know what to think or do. My suggestion is to be a little over romantic for now, show her that you are willing to put an effort into this."
"Over-romantic? We're already engaged and I don't-"
"And how much have you actually seen her? How much time has she really gotten to spend with you? Lucius, she doesn't know you. Take her out. Let her get comfortable with you."
"Persuading women to like me has never needed to be a conscious effort for me, Bellatrix. Do you actually expect me to lower myself to fulfill the romantic delusions of a childish girl?' he scoffed.
"Well, if you put it that way, Lucius!" Bella spat out his name as she stood up. "You're welcome to leave, as I apparently have no worthy advice for you."
The man looked torn. As much as he hated to admit it, there was something this young woman could teach him, and he wasn't sure of how to handle Narcissa any other way.
"You may sit down again, Bella. I must be a bit too used to scolding you, from all the trainings and meetings," came the concession from a man who rarely found himself desperate, and was rather discomforted by this whole thing.
"Glad to know we're finally on the same page." This time, Bellatrix sat down next to Lucius on the couch. "Now, for this to work, you need to come up with most of the ideas. I'm here to provide suggestions and helpful hints."
"Er… where should I start?" Oh how entertaining it was to see this man so uncomfortable. Maybe she could convince him to run to the Ministry and stalk around like a hippogryff for a day and claim it's something Narcissa would like... Or would that just be too mean? No, she needed to focus here. She needed him to be able to distract Narcissa from the other man claiming her attentions right now.
"Well… has she kissed you yet?" she said, knowing the answer.
"No. I've barely seen her. Weren't you listening earlier?" It was just like him to turn his misgivings around on her.
"You should take her on a picnic," Bella suggested, ignoring his previous insult. "I know, I know. It sounds pathetically romantic and juvenile, but you need her to view you as approachable. After that, don't underestimate her."
"What do you mean?"
"You can't treat her like a naïve, delusional school girl is all she'll ever be to you."
"You're still being evasive. I don't understand- how am I supposed to be sappy and treat her like an adult at the same time?"
"Adult women enjoy a good romantic interlude as much as young girls do."
"So… if I were to take her on a picnic and then ravish her senseless afterwards- that'd be in line?" he asked, moving his head closer and lowering his voice.
He couldn't seriously be that dense, could he? The man must be joking if he thinks that's what she meant! Sweet Salazar she had work to do! Bella was too shocked to respond aside from her customary eye brow raise.
"Or is this how you ensnare a young, but experienced girl?" he asked. Before Bellatrix could ask him to elaborate, he had moved in, grabbed her face in his hands and planted his lips on hers, his tongue snaking into her mouth. It was at this most inconvenient of times that Rodolphus decided to enter the room. He did so silently, as was his way of finding out who had locked the study door and why, and emerald anger boiled up inside him. Disgust overcame Bellatrix has her hand rose to the level of their faces as she pulled away. Eyes glaring, he hand came in sharp contact with Malfoy's cheek, leaving a bright red patch of skin and a trickle of blood where her long nails had scraped him.
"Salazar help me if you ever do that again!" she spat, wanting only to raise her hand to him again, but harder.
"I'm sorry! Do you think this is easy for me? Having to see you all the time, knowing you're already married and detest me, while your sister stalks around with who knows what kind of man, and completely ignores me!" he shouted, standing up.
"However lamentable your story, Lucius, I'll have to ask you to mourn your pathetic romance at a very respectable distance from my wife," came the venomous reply from Rodolphus, standing in the doorway.
"I-"
"Really have a knack for choosing the unavailable ones?" Bella finished for him. Oops- she'd let her anger overcome her.
"Are you implying that your sister is unavailable? I'm her fiancée! No one should be getting in my way of her. Who is it? Who!"
"I was referring to myself, five minutes ago, and to that girlfriend you had last year, the married one. No need to be so touchy," Bella couldn't remember the last time she had to lie this much. Cissy owed her. Maybe the fact that she would have to spend her life with Malfoy was enough though.
"I don't believe you."
"And I don't want you here anymore, Malfoy." Rodolphus had moved into the room and was now gesturing Malfoy out.
As the Lestranges looked at Malfoy's retreating back, they knew that this whole incident would be ignored and never spoken of again. That didn't change the fact that Rodolphus now felt he had to prove himself in that arrogant wizard way of his.
"Fancy a shag?" Bellatrix fought the urge to laugh at his uncustomary frankness, knowing that he was actually serious. What a day it had been.
"What the fuck do you think you're doing, Cissy?" sneered Bellatrix as she apparated into her sister's chambers at the Black family mansion.
"Well, how pleasant to see you, too, Bella. To what do I owe the pleasure of your… er, snarly company?"
"You're still with Snape. That's what."
"But you knew that. Why the sudden rampaging?"
"Guess who came to see me yesterday? I'll give you a hint. He's powerful, he's a Death Eater and he's your fiancée. Not to mention he's a tad suspicious."
Narcissa squinted her eyes. "Suspicious of what?"
"Why you've been avoiding him. I know that you've been with Snape, as much as humanly possible probably, before you get married and will no longer be able to continue your… sextivities. Lucius doesn't know who, but I think he fears the what."
"Did you come here just to criticize me? Do you think this is easy for me? You're right, I won't be able to continue my sextivities. You don't know what it's like- you never had sex with Tom. Hell, the only time you kissed was when he was trying to seduce you!"
"I came here to warn you, but apparently I shouldn't have bothered!"
"Since when have you been the boss of my love life? Since when did you have the right to tell me who to fuck!"
"Ever since a man who is quite capable of smearing your reputation, ruining your life and probably killing you or worse, decided to actually come to me for advice because he's convinced that there's something he can do. Take this as an advantage, Cissy. The man cares enough about something to actually ask my advice. That's an almost impossible situation." Both of the sisters had settled down a bit, realizing that shouting their heads off wouldn't really get them anywhere.
"So Lucius actually thinks I'm sleeping with someone?"
"He didn't quite say that. He got rather testy, though, when he thought there might be some other man in your life. This is tricky. If you suddenly get all clingy, he'll get even more suspicious, but you have to keep him from thinking you've been with someone else this whole time. He'll probably start monitoring you."
"So my only chance is to break it off with Severus as silently and quickly as possible? This isn't what I wanted to happen."
"It never is, Nars. It never is." Stepping forward, she brought her sister into a hug and felt the warm tears start to fall onto her shoulder as she silently contemplated how their lives had become so miserably dramatic.
A/N: Well there you are. Also, if you belonged to the bellaslytherin yahoo group, you could have read half the chapter about a week ago:) As always, I thank you so much for reading, and hope you enjoyed all the random stuff I hurled at you here!