Interlude: Chamber of Secrets

How he ended up doing this, Neville couldn't say. Certainly, nothing about the enormous snake corpse or the statue of Salazar Slytherin or the fetid smell of stale water and dead animals felt at all erotic. Neither did the pulsing frustration and confusion radiating through his bond from Susan and Hannah. And if there was anything Neville was sure of, it was that he hated Bellatrix Lestrange with all his being.

None of it explained how he'd gone from continuing Bellatrix's training to finding himself digging his fingers into her hair as he groaned in pleasure. She'd made her usual inappropriate comments, offering unwanted suggestions about what he could do to her, and he'd been prepared to ignore them as always… and then it was like he'd snapped.

And now, shaking, he came back to himself and released her, but the damage had been done. He had a smirking witch in front of him, licking her fingers. Shame flushed through him. What would his parents think of him?

"Do you feel better, Master?" Bellatrix asked. "If not, I know plenty of other ways you could relieve your stress."

Neville stared at her. He still couldn't quite process what had happened.

It was a punishment, part of him whispered. Just another way of punishing her. But if that were the case, he shouldn't have enjoyed it. Right?

Bellatrix drew her brows together, sitting back on her heels and studying him with a concerned(?) frown. "Was - was it not any good?" She sounded small and hurt and like she'd never done that before, but she had to have. Right?

"No, it was… It was fine…" Neville started automatically, only to wince as her expression turned stricken. On second thought, perhaps fine wasn't the goal with this sort of situation. Why was he trying to reassure her anyway? Shouldn't he be yelling at her for pushing this on him? He'd never have done anything like this if it hadn't been for her. But his mouth didn't agree, it seemed, because what he said instead was, "It felt good, I mean. Really good! It's just that that was my first…" He turned red and shut up. What was he even doing?

Immediately, Bellatrix went back to smirking, a smug energy to her now.

Maybe Tom had cursed him. That made far more sense as a reason Neville had suddenly lost all sense of who he was.

But speaking of Tom…

Neville closed his eyes and forced himself to take a deep breath. She wasn't obedient by any stretch of the imagination, but he didn't think she was just pretending to want to please him. That should be good enough, probably. He glared at the reddish-gold mark on his arm and, with a sigh, pressed his wand against it and pushed magic into it. Tom wouldn't be able to come, of course, but he could send someone else. Neville wanted to end this as soon as possible.

To his surprise, Bellatrix grabbed his arm and examined the mark with something like wonder. "You really do follow him, don't you?" she asked quietly. "Even if it is reluctantly." A soft smile crossed her lips, and Neville found himself with the startling realization that she could be beautiful.

He frowned at her to shake the thought away. "Does that matter?"

The woman shrugged. "Only in that it would be uncomfortable to be bound to him otherwise. I'd half expected it was some form of punishment."

Neville wasn't sure how to respond to that, so he was glad when Hermione appeared from the dark tunnel between the main chamber and the plethora of entrances to the Chamber of Secrets. For some reason, Theodore Nott followed behind her, floating and unconscious. "I think she's ready," he said, rather than think about Bellatrix any further.

Hermione blinked, looked at the both of them in bemusement, and shook her head minutely. "I see. Bellatrix, do you think you'd be able to get into your vault at Gringotts?"

Bella peered at her. "Of course," she said coolly. Then she turned and looked up to Neville, eyes wide and cheeks flushed. "Is that what you'd like me to do, Master?"

Neville sighed. "Yes. I'd like you to go to your vault within Gringotts and retrieve or destroy…"

"Hufflepuff's Cup," Hermione supplied.

"Wait, really?" Neville asked before he could stop himself.

Hermione shrugged. Defiling a priceless piece of history certainly hadn't been her idea, after all.

Neville scowled and sighed. "Alright then, Hufflepuff's Cup. Can you do that?"

Bella tapped her bottom lip consideringly. After a moment, she nodded. "I can do that. When?"

"Now, if you can," Neville replied.

Bella licked her lips and grinned. "I expect an appropriate reward," she sang and sauntered out of the chamber.

Once she was gone, Neville stalked up to Hermione. "What did Tom do to me?"

Hermione stared back at him cooly, one eyebrow lifting just enough to make Neville feel like he was the unreasonable one, the expression startlingly like Tom's. "Pardon?" she asked.

"He -" Neville shook himself. "He cursed me. Something… The Imperius, or something like it." He stared into Hermione's eyes, willing her to understand. "I wouldn't do that. I wouldn't have done that."

Hermione gently pried Neville's hands off her robes. "I don't know what you're talking about." She dropped his hands and gestured to Nott. "Let me know when she gets back. I have something I need to do," she said.

Neville stiffened at the dismissal, then sagged. Even if Tom had done something (and if he was being honest with himself, it didn't really feel like anything had been done), Hermione probably wouldn't know. "What are you doing with him?"

"He's the one who poisoned Tom."

Neville shuddered at the flat tone she used. Whatever she intended to do to Nott, it wouldn't be pleasant. "He's going to be alright, yeah?" He meant Tom. He didn't care what happened to Nott, but they needed Tom to kill Voldemort and bring back Harry.

Hermione nodded. "Ginny says he'll be released tomorrow morning. I want this taken care of before then."

Neville cocked his head to the side. "What are you going to do with him?"

"Well," the muggleborn girl said slowly, "I was thinking Nott might experience an accident while experimenting with a level of Transfiguration he's not prepared to attempt." Her lips twisted. "Perhaps he attempted to become an animagus, but upon realizing what he was turning into, fought the change and became stuck between forms."

Neville eyed the boy. "What's his form?"

"A worm, I think," Hermione said hesitantly at first, then again, more confidently. "Yes. A worm."

Neville smiled, and he didn't think about how this was also probably not the sort of thing a good Gryffindor was meant to do. "Getting trapped between such different forms would kill him." He hummed thoughtfully. "I suppose he must have suffered greatly in his last moments, but at least he passed quickly."

Hermione gave him a somewhat startled, but pleased look. "I suppose so," she agreed. "Would you like to help?"

"Of course."