Disclaimer: see first 20 chapters.
Unlikely Partners
Chapter 21
Severus descended the main staircase that led to the mansion's entrance hall. Bellatrix had her own private rooms on the ground level.
Severus would use Legillimency to rifle through Bella's recent memories to see if she had recently been in contact with her sister. Though Bellatrix was quite adept at Occlumency, there was only one way for Severus to see her memories without her realizing it.
Severus smirked at the very thought. Bellatrix had no idea that for the past year, she'd been giving Severus valuable information to pass along to the Order.
If only the bitch knew what she was doing. Severus could only imagine what her reaction would be.
Certainly she'd want to kill him. Castrate him. Torture him mercilessly. And not in that order.
Fortunately, unless he ever suddenly decided that he wanted to be gelded, tortured and killed and actually went to Bellatrix and told her what he was doing, there was no possible way for her to guess that he was stealing information from her mind.
When he reached the floor, Severus turned left into a long corridor. Most of the rooms in this part of the mansion were vacant and Voldemort, always efficient at designating areas for his needs on only one side of the mansion, had no use for the extra chambers.
Bellatrix's bedroom was the seventh door on the right. Without any hesitation, Severus opened the door like he owned the place. As Voldemort's second in command, he had the right to make demands on the lower ranking Death Eaters.
Severus found Bellatrix sitting on her bed, reading a piece of paper, presumably a letter from someone. She jerked her head up from the parchment at the sound of him entering her room. An opened white envelope lay next to her on the mattress, letting Severus know that the letter had been sent through the Muggle postal service.
What the devil are you reading, Bellatrix? Severus wondered. Something from your dear sister, perhaps?
Bellatrix immediately folded the paper in her hand and returned it to its envelope. She then reached down to the floor and deposited the envelope into her black purse.
Severus moved further into the room. Bellatrix didn't seem overly concerned that Severus had caught her reading the parchment. But he knew she could very well be feigning nonchalance so that he wouldn't think anything of it.
Though Severus would have loved to get his hands on the paper, he knew there was a good chance he'd be able to view its contents when he saw Bellatrix's memories.
Bellatrix got to her feet and approached Severus.
"And here I was beginning to think that you were tired of my company," she told him with a half smile.
Severus took a step towards her.
"I'm sure you weren't alone during my absence," said Severus.
"Yes, but it's not as if I particularly enjoyed the time I spent with the others. Surely, you must know that, Severus. Most of them are oafish pansies who come nearly as soon as their trousers are off,"
"How unfortunate for you," Severus remarked drily as he advanced on her.
It was no secret that Bellatrix's marriage had been for convenience only and both parties involved sought out other sexual partners on a regular basis. And if one were to look up the definition of nymphomaniac in a dictionary, there was a very good likelihood that Bellatrix's picture would be next to the entry.
Right now, she was more than happy to let Severus have his way with her. During intercourse, being the adept Legillimens that he was, Severus would have easy access to all of Bellatrix's recent memories and thoughts. When intimately joined with a woman, a man who was an especially good Legillimens could view his partner's thoughts with little or no effort.
But besides the need to get information from the mind of Bellatrix Lestrange, Severus also had a few much more carnally based reasons for his visit to Bella's chambers. If he sated his pent up lust with Bellatrix, perhaps he could finally get his mind off of indecent thoughts about both Hermione and Nymphadora.
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Hermione went into the suite's parlor, with the intention of finding something interesting to read from Severus's bookshelves. Late afternoon sunlight poured into the room through its large window. At this hour the light fell right over the back of the sofa so Hermione would have a good source of light to read by.
The warmth of the light felt good on her skin as she walked past the window to the two dark wooden shelves. Hermione was holding one hand against the crystal around her neck, drawing a relaxed contented comfort from its heat against her palm.
She knelt down in front of the first shelf and looked at the titles of its volumes. More than half of the shelf was taken up by books on potions. Two were about Legillimency and Occlumency. Others were about English history, Muggle and Magical.
Hermione moved to look at the books on the second shelf and was more than a little surprised at the title of the first book she saw.
What's Severus doing with a hardcover edition of Watership Down? Holding it for a friend? Hermione wondered in amusement.
Intrigued, Hermione took the book from the shelf and opened it up as if to make sure that the book really was Watership Down, the well known allegorical tale of talking rabbits.
And indeed, it was.
Hermione couldn't help laughing out loud. Obviously Severus was a man who only kept things he wanted to keep. This book must have meant something to him for him to have it in his collection. But it certainly didn't seem like something he would buy for himself.
This must have been a gift, Hermione thought.
But who would have given Severus such a present? Hermione could imagine Dumbledore, perhaps even Minerva gifting Severus with the novel. It would be in their nature to give Severus something so hilariously out of place with the rest of his reading material.
Thinking that she could find some sort of note from the person who had given this to Severus, or at the very least a to and from line, Hermione turned to the inside of the cover.
As she had expected, Hermione found a note written in round elegant handwriting. But it was not from Dumbledore or Minerva McGonagall. Astonished at what she saw, Hermione's eyes widened after she quickly read the script.
Severus,
Happy Christmas! Sorry, when I saw this I really couldn't resist. Honestly though, this in one of my favourite books and despite what I know you're thinking right now, this isn't just a book about cute and fuzzy talking bunnies. And you know I wouldn't have gotten it for you if I thought you'd utterly despise it.
With all my sincerest regards,
Lily
Hermione wasn't sure what to think. Why would Harry's mother give something like this to Severus? And what's more, the note had a very familiar tone. But from everything Harry had told her, Severus and his mother had been far from being close friends.
She supposed that this Lily could be a different woman, but knew full well that wasn't very likely. Obviously, there was more to the story of Severus's relationship with Lily Potter than what Harry knew.
Her interest piqued, Hermione wanted to know more. Unfortunately, she seriously doubted that Severus would give her any information on the subject if she asked him. He'd only refuse to answer her questions just as he had done regarding the subject of why Dumbledore put his utmost trust in him.
Hermione flipped through the book's pages, as if she'd find the answers to her questions written in the margins. When she reached the middle of the book, she stopped when something caught her eye.
There, tucked in between the pages was a color photograph of Harry's mother. Hermione picked it up and immediately turned it over, hoping to find something written on the back of it.
But the back of the Muggle photograph was blank.
Why does Severus have a picture of Lily Potter? Hermione asked herself.
The first reason that came to mind was quite extraordinarily farfetched. It ran along the lines of Severus having feelings for the woman of a non-platonic nature. Hermione quickly dismissed the thought almost as soon as it entered her head. But try as she might she couldn't easily come up with an alternative explanation.
Hermione let out a light snort.
You know that's about as likely as Voldemort turning into a talking rabbit.
There has to be a reasonable explanation.
Too bad I won't get an answer out of Severus. I'd love to know why he has this.
Sighing, Hermione replaced the photograph in the book and put the book back in its place on the shelf.
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Severus left Bellatrix's room, his mind working through everything he'd seen in Bellatrix's memories.
Bellatrix had a plane ticket to Sydney, Australia, given to her by Narcissa Malfoy for a flight on the coming Wednesday. Narcissa had sent a short letter with the ticket.
It had read:
Dear Bella,
There is something I need to discuss with you. If ever you trusted me, I beg that you put your loyalty to the Dark Lord second to your loyalty for your own sister. Please, come see me in Sydney and I shall tell you why my son and I have fled England. You need to know what I've discovered. And I need your help to execute my plan. If you help me, I guarantee that your place in the Dark Lord's intimate circle will be forever secured. I'll be waiting for you at the airport's front entrance, and I'll expect you to be there.
Just what had Narcissa discovered? What was she planning?
There was an Order Meeting in a week and half. That wasn't soon enough to alert the Order to the latest news so that an investigation could be launched in Australia before Bella arrived in Sydney.
Assuming of course that she would in fact travel to meet her with her sister.
But Severus knew Narcissa now had Bellatrix's full curiosity just as she had his.
Narcisssa obviously thought she knew something that would enable both her and Draco to be placed in Voldemort's highest esteem.
Severus would have loved to be a fly on the wall during the Narcissa's upcoming conversation with Bellatrix.
One thing he did know for sure was that whatever Narcissa Malfoy was planning, it couldn't be anything good. The damn bitch was up to something, scheming to ascend in the rank's of Voldemort's most trusted men and women.
Severus needed to get a full meeting of the Order of the Phoenix scheduled before Bellatrix left for Australia. Aurors could then be dispatched to Sydney to track down the Malfoys before Narcissa divulged her secret to her sister.
Severus would have telephoned Minerva, as it was much too risky for him to use any sort of magical communication, only the old witch didn't have a telephone in her office at Hogwarts. This was one of the occasions when Severus hated the fact that electrical appliances didn't work inside intense magical fields.
He had two options. He could telephone Remus or Kingsley Shacklebolt.
Figuring Remus had enough on his plate right now with Nymphadora pregnant, Severus opted to call Kingsley.
Severus entered his rooms, completely ignoring Hermione who was coming out of the bathroom just as soon as he walked into his bedchamber.
"Is everything all right?" she asked, approaching him as he reached the phone on his desk.
"Yes and no," he clipped out.
"What do you mean?"
But Severus held up a hand to silence her as he was already dialing the phone.
"Hello, Kingsley?"
There was a beat of silence as the Nigerian recognized Severus's voice and and asked what he needed.
"I need you to talk to Minerva for me and set a date for an Order meeting before next Tuesday. I'll explain things at the meeting in full detail, but for now, just know that Bellatrix has been contacted by her sister and Narcissa seems to be planning something that will significantly please Voldemort."
"Call me back at this number once you've scheduled a time with Minerva."
Severus hung up the phone and let out a long exhalation.
Hermione came up to his side.
"You seem a bit tense," she said softly.
"I'm fine." Severus told her tersely.
It irked him that Hermione was always so forward and outspoken. And it irritated him even more that she could accurately pick up on his mood and act as if he were some wounded animal in need of her assistance.
He was seriously beginning to rue the fact that it was Hermione who had to be his captive instead of Ginny Weasley. At least the Weasley girl would have known when to leave him alone.
How was he supposed to get Hermione out of his mind if she didn't give him some space?
Good God, did she not know that after the influence of the Occlumency all she needed to do was get in his line of sight and his mind would involuntarily turn to improper thoughts of her?
So the Occlumency's magic had left his system. That didn't mean that his mind had immediately turned off all sexual thoughts concerning the young woman before him.
He had thought, had hoped, that after his visit to Bellatrix's chambers, his lust for the Gryffindor girl would have been completely extinguished.
But as he gave her a scrutinizing gaze, he found that his desire for her was still there. It was almost as if in some way the Occlumency magic still had a hold on him, though he knew that was impossible.
It was just that after three days of having the mental images induced by the Occlumency's magic fresh in his mind, looking at Hermione automatically turned his thoughts back to all of those images.
If he could just ignore Hermione for a couple of days, perhaps he could get his mind to function normally in her presence once more. She didn't need him now. She had her amulet from Fred and could live in peace.
Severus stared at Hermione's eyes for a second or two longer than was strictly proper.
"I'd appreciate it if you left me alone this evening. I'll be in my second bedroom if you should have some sort of emergency,"
After seeing Bellatrix a long shower was in order, preferably a cold one now that he knew his thoughts concerning Hermione hadn't changed.
"Won't you have something to eat with me? I'd like to know what you learned from Bellatrix."
Severus set his jaw to keep from snapping at her.
"I'm sure you're quite capable of eating alone. I'll speak with you at another time."
At last Hermione took her cue to stay silent on the matter. She gave Severus a little nod and he turned away, leaving her to stare after him.
He could feel her eyes on him as he walked across to the door on the other side of the room. He pulled the door shut behind him, a bit more forceful than necessary and headed into his smaller bathroom to take his shower.
A shower that would be ice cold.
A/N: I'm sincerely sorry for the wait! Please don't be too mad at me. The next chapter will be done within a week I promise. Leave me a review, all of your comments are greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Dafina