I had wanted to go to Durmstrang. It didn't matter if the school was only for boys, they taught the Dark Arts there, or at least that's what I had heard. After one year at Hogwarts, with no one but my sister to talk to, I wanted to crawl into a hole and die. The other kids were terrible. They called me names like Smellatrix and liked to pull the braids Narcissa took to so carefully twining through my locks. Merlin! How I hated them. I wanted them all dead, every last one of them. When second year came around, my father threatened to have me muted for a year because I wailed so hard about going back to that horrid place. I was twelve and twelve year old girls didn't behave that way. What did he know about twelve year old girls? I kept trying to tell him that he didn't understand, that Hogwarts was a terrible place run by wicked, horrid people, but he kept reminding me that my Great-Great-Grandfather Phineas Nigellus had once been the headmaster there, and that made the school ok.
All of the professors despised me because I knew far more than a girl my age should have known, and I suspect that most of them were out to get me, except for Professor Dumbledore. He was the only one who didn't seem to hate me, even though I always felt like he knew exactly what I was thinking and feeling on the inside. He had a smile for me, or an encouraging statement of wisdom, and even when I ignored him he smiled anyway, like he knew something I didn't.
Two things changed for me second year. The first was that I became acquainted with a first year Slytherin boy even less fortunate, and more likely to be picked on than myself, and secondly Rabastan Lestrange transferred to Hogwarts from Durmstrang. Rodolphus had been a sixth-year Slytherin at Hogwarts, and since he hadn't ever picked on me I didn't even know who he was until I met Rabastan. Of course, I'd seen him following Lucius Malfoy about like a withered shadow, but I don't think I even knew his name until I became acquainted with Rabastan. Rabastan changed my life when he introduced me to perfection. . .
Bella leaned the side of her face against the cool glass of the window. The freezing condensation dripped down her cheek, and soothed away the headache that had been pulsing in her skull all morning. Beside her Narcissa was excitedly handing out thin details of her Saturday date with Lucius Malfoy to Maeve Basil and Charlotte Thistlewit. Both girls inserted the appropriate giggles, oohs and ahhs required to stroke Narcissa's frail ego, and Bella was glad, because starting the term with one of her sister's monumental fits would not have been in any way appealing.
The compartment door slid open, "Good afternoon ladies." She looked up at the sound of Rabastan's voice, fluttering her heavy lids for a moment before focusing her blurred vision on him. "Bella, there you are. I was looking all over for you."
"Do come in, Rabastan, the stale air from the hallway bothers my complexion," Narcissa cooed gently, tilting her head in that adorable fashion that made everyone love her. She gave a little cough to emphasize her point, and Bellatrix grinned to herself. That was why she loved Narcissa. She was so obvious, and yet no one seemed to care. "How was your holiday, my little darling? Come, sit with me and tell me all about it."
Ever since Rabastan and Bellatrix had become friends, Narcissa had taken him on as an honorary younger brother. She looked out for him, especially after she'd become a prefect in her Fifth Year. Rabastan blushed and sat down in between the sisters, ignoring the eyes Charlotte was making at him. "It was ok," he glanced out the corner of his eye at Bella. "Great really. A lot of new things going on in my life."
Bella couldn't tell if he was just talking about his newly pledged service to the Dark Lord, or if there were something else implied. She had thought about him after Lucius had seen her home, pondered that look she'd seen in his eyes that she longed so desperately to see in Rodolphus, and wondered how she could spark it in her true-love's eye. Somehow, she knew that Rabastan was the key, but how exactly, she wasn't sure yet.
"So I have heard," Narcissa leaned back in the seat and lowered an arm across his shoulders. She tugged him into a sweet hug and kissed his pink cheek. "Congratulations, dear boy. If anyone deserves such honors, it is most certainly you."
"What did you hear?" Charlotte leaned forward inquisitively, "Why are we congratulating Rabastan?" She fancied him. It was obvious by the doe eyes she made at him every time he was around.
Bellatrix hated her sister's friends. They were so empty, thriving on gossip and clinging to Narcissa's every word like vultures. "Haven't you heard, Dimwit?" Bella snuggled in close to Rabastan snaking her arm around his waist. "Rabastan and I are getting married. We're leaving school at the end of term and running off together to start a new life." She breathed in, the scent of his robes reminding her of Rodolphus, who hadn't even come to say goodbye to her before she left. "Isn't that right, lover?"
"You are not, you little liar," Charlotte rolled her eyes.
Narcissa cleared her throat, "Please don't call my sister a liar, Char. I'll be forced to give you detention, and you all know how nasty I can be when provoked." Chided, Charlotte sat back in her seat and muttered an apology under her breath.
"Really though, why are we congratulating him?" Maeve wondered.
"Rabastan?" she looked over at him to make sure it was all right to divulge his secret. Among other Slytherins, such a revelation was safe, but she didn't want to violate his privacy. "May I?"
He shrugged, "If you wish."
Narcissa cleared her throat daintily, "Rabastan has been invited to join Lord Voldemort's inner circle."
Bella sat upright with a jolt, as though she'd been completely scandalized, "Narcissa!" Rabastan also shifted uncomfortably in his seat.
Rolling her eyes, Narcissa waved her hand, "The Dark Lord," she droned almost sarcastically. "How picky he is about the use of his name."
"It isn't about being picky, 'Cissy. It's an issue of respect. His name is power, and for you to toss it around in casual conversation. . ." Bella shuddered, "Please, just don't say it anymore."
Maeve swallowed, "What about you, Bella? Have you joined in his service yet?"
"Maybe," she looked away. She didn't really think it was anyone's business who she served in her spare time and the fact that her sister and those dull friends she kept were discussing it over afternoon tea unnerved her. She stood up, retrieving her arm from behind Rabastan and shaking it a little beside her. "It's really stuffy in here. I'm going to see if I can find some Gryffindor's to hex."
"I'll come with you," Rabastan leapt up almost too quickly.
Narcissa made sad eyes at her sister, as though worried she was mad at her, that her misuse of the Dark Lord's sacred name had caused a rift between them, but Bella gave her sister a genuine smile, a promise that there wasn't a disagreement in the world that could tear them apart, and then she slipped into the hallway, bracing herself against the jerking movement of the train as Rabastan closed the door.
Without even looking back at him to acknowledge he was there, she started down the aisle, occasionally peering into compartments they passed by for someone to take the frustration of her lingering headache and her sister's disregard for power out on.
"Are you all right, Bella?" He fell into step beside her, leaning forward to try and look at her face.
"I'm fine," she lied.
"Headache?"
She turned slowly to look at him, "How did you know?"
"I had one my first morning after," he shrugged. "Unfortunately Rodolphus had me up and about the next morning before dawn. I thought my skull was going to crack."
"How long before it went away?" she asked hopefully.
"Just around tea."
She groaned in agony, but her spirits lifted when a compartment at the end of the train car opened. Lily Evans stepped into the aisle, still grinning from whatever happy activity she had just left. She didn't notice Rabastan and Bella walking toward her, as she had called back over her shoulder with a little laugh for Alice to close the door already.
"Well, well, well. . ." the crooked grin appeared at the corner of
Bella's mouth, "have a nice holiday did we, Mudblood? Nobody kill your
parents while you were home?"
Lily turned around with a startled gasp, the gold of her Prefect's
badge glistening under the copper hair that had fallen over her
shoulder with the movement.
Rabastan chuckled, "I think you scared her, Bella."
"I think you're right, Rabastan. Ickle scaredy Evans." She laughed. "So sweet."
"What do you two want?" Lily's face revealed nothing. No emotion, no fear, not even anger; even that small, startled gasp that escaped her had been an unusual response from the Fifth Year girl.
"Where should I start?" Bella drawled, stopping so that there were about four paces between them.
"Oh, I don't know," Rabastan replied. "Perhaps we could start with a round of exquisite torment. I, for one, would love to hear her scream."
A smirking laugh bubbled from inside Bella, "Yes, I think I would like to hear you scream too, Evans. Why don't you scream for me?" She reached into her robes for her wand slowly, pondering which hex she could use to evoke screams from the girl.
Lily remained calm, her nerve unflinching, "I've got an idea. Why don't the two of you throw yourselves out a window? Or better yet, you could throw each other. . . but that would leave one of you in the lurch and we don't want that, do we?" Her green eyes glimmered with the challenge and she reached into the folds of her own robe.
"Ooh," Rabastan laughed. "Nice comeback, Mudblood."
"What's going on out here?" The compartment door they were standing in front of whooshed open, and Head Boy, Frank Longbottom, stepped out into the aisle. "Ms. Black, you're not threatening Ms. Evans out here, are you?"
"So what if I am, Longarse?" She snarled over at the Head Boy, "What business is it of yours."
"My right to keep the peace among students on this train back to the castle makes it my business, Bellatrix. Now why don't you go on back to your sister's lap and have her brush your hair for you before I give you a detention Narcissa can't revoke."
Seething that he had brought Narcissa into his threat, Bella started at him through deadly blue eyes, but Rabastan grabbed her arm, holding her in place. This was what she hated about Hogwarts. People like Frank Longbottom, who thought that because they had special privileges they could push the other students around.
"No, it's all right, Frank," Lily spoke up. "We were just discussing our holiday."
Frank glanced over at Lily curiously. He didn't buy it at all, but even more surprised was Bellatrix. What was Evans trying to prove? Frank nodded, and slipped back into the compartment, but he had his eye on them now and it would be impossible to curse the little snit with him watching. Bitterly, Bella tugged her arm out of Rabastan's grasp and started toward Lily. She brushed shoulders with her, but didn't look back, as she made her way down the rest of the aisle and stepped over into the next car.
In a perfect world, mudbloods like Lily Evans wouldn't even exist, and the Frank Longbottoms of the world, the dirty blood-traitors who preferred to taint the wizarding world than to clean it of the filth that infiltrated deeper every day, would suffer for their insolence. The Dark Lord had promised her this perfect world when he had spoken with her after the extermination, but even he didn't feel that starting at Hogwarts just yet was a good idea. It would draw far too much attention to him, to them if his Death Eaters were working so close under Albus Dumbledore's watchful eye.
"Be patient, dear Bella, most loyal of my servants," he'd hissed, stroking his hand atop her head the way a loving father does his favorite daughter. "You will have your perfect world before our work is done."