Chapter Eight: My Scheming Mind

There was only one good thing about Hogwarts. I could sleep there without waking up to find the hungry shade of my mother at the foot of my bed. Nevertheless, even there I didn't sleep well. All those years in Black Mansion had set my awkward sleep-patterns so that I needed very little of it to survive, and eventually I adopted the attitude that sleep was for the weak. Most nights, instead of sleeping, I wandered about the castle after hours, slinking from shadow to shadow in search of interesting tidbits, nooks and crannies. Suffice it to say, I bet you never knew about Professor Dumbledore and Madame Pomfrey, did you, or that sometimes Argus Filch dances with his ratty old cat, Mrs. Norris, on the third floor, which is one of the primary reasons it's been restricted to all students. Imagine the horror it would strike in students if they walked in on that!

That night, however, the halls were quiet, unnervingly so, and the moon was full, so a silver luminescence glistened through the windows on the ground floor. He was there, standing at the window at the top of the first floor landing. He didn't hear me sneak up behind him and hold my breath there in his shadow. I reached out and touched his shoulder and he turned to look back at me. In that light he looked so much like his brother that I didn't even need to close my eyes to play pretend. . .

Bella had been meeting Rabastan in the hallways every night since the last full moon. In her late-night wanderings of the castle, she had come to know every hidden room and passageway, and had been using it to her advantage with him ever since. She knew it was wrong, but in just the right light, she could pretend he was Rodolphus, and unlike Rodolphus, he was far more devoted to her happiness. Sometimes she wondered why she didn't just forget about Rodolphus and runaway with Rabastan, at least he actually liked her--loved her in fact, but on the inside, she knew exactly why. She didn't really care about him at all. He was just a beautiful distraction.

Why kept on meeting with him, she didn't know. She was leading him on, and it was wicked, but she didn't care. Not to mention Rodolphus hadn't returned a single one of her owls since she'd been back and she was going out of her mind with the desire to hear from him.

"Going somewhere, Miss Black?" that silken voice emerged from a dark corner in Slytherin Common room.

Bella stopped where she stood and glanced over her shoulder into the shadow huddled just beside the fireplace, "You know I don't sleep well, Snape."

"And tell me, do you sleep better when you're with Lestrange?" He didn't lean forward, but she could see the pale visage of his face outlined by the amber glow of the fading fire. "I've watched you both going and coming. It's a wonder you get any sleeping done at all with the hours you both keep, but even more a wonder that you manage your school work. You must be exhausted."

She felt a sneering grin draw at her mouth, "And when did my school work become your concern, Severus?"

"It isn't really your school work that concerns me and you know it."

Severus Snape was the only person at Hogwarts, other than Rabastan and her sister that Bella could tolerate. She didn't like him, not much really, but she had watched him grow from a scrawny, pale little boy who liked to sit in the shadows and watch the world unravel around him, into a gaunt, pale young man who had become one of the shadows himself. That wretched school they attended had been far crueler to Severus Snape than it had ever been to Bellatrix, and she supposed that was why she even bothered talking to him to him in the first place. When the world had been cruel to her, she'd wanted someone to reach out, and no one had, so she had given Severus the one thing she never had, understanding.
"What then?" She posed with a hand on her hip, casually smirking into the shadow that contained him. "You want me to come and get into bed with you?"

An uncomfortable silence staled the air between them, and she could no longer see the fire light playing on his face. Had her question really been so shocking to him, especially after knowing where she went every night with Rabastan. Certainly he wasn't naïve, this one. No, there was something about Severus Snape that skirted the same edge of wicked Bella walked herself, and because of that, she rescinded her dislike for him and replaced it with respect.

"The last place I want to find you, Black, is in my bed. Especially after all the others you've been in since I've known you."

She laughed, "Oh, Severus, your wit never ceases to astound me." Her mind reminisced to a luncheon she'd had with Lucius, just before her first meeting with the Dark Lord, when she had asked him why he had chosen Narcissa and not her. He'd laughed at her as though she were some cute little girl in pigtails playing at being a woman. He had been humoring her even then, and Bellatrix decided right then and there that the only way to deal with Severus Snape was with the same strategy Lucius used on her: making him feel inferior. "I understand that my experience is far too much for someone of your age to even fathom. Perhaps if you were only a year or two older . . ."

"Were I a year or two older, I wouldn't even bother with this place or with you for that matter," he assured her. "However, circumstances being as they are, I am here and at the mercy of your lofty experience." She imagined him snarling at his own words. "While I quake in your magnificence, perhaps you would be so kind as to speak with me on a matter of vengeance."

"Vengeance?"

"Vengeance."

"Against whom?" she asked.

"Your cousin."

"Regulus?"

"No, the Gryffindor."

"Sirius?"

"Have you another embarrassing cousin in Gryffindor we should know about?"

"I no longer consider him family, you know that. He's a blood traitor on the verge," she explained.

"I would say he has committed treachery enough against his own family's ideals," Severus intoned. "You do know he has made friends with some rather unsavory creatures."

"Tell me something I don't already know, Snape. You're wasting my time. Rabastan is waiting"

"Lestrange can wait," he assured her slowly. "This won't."

"Then spill it already, if it's burning a hole in your tongue."

"He tried to kill me."

"Sirius tried to kill you?"

"Last full moon," he replied.

"And how did he manage to do that? He's not exactly the brightest berry on the bush," she crossed her arms over her chest, rubbing off the damp chill.

"He sent me into the den of a werewolf," his tone wavered a little bit, and Bella could smell the fear of his memory.

"A werewolf?"

"Yes, a werewolf. Must you repeat everything I say, Bellatrix? It's tremendously disconcerting."

"That's horrific," a nervous laugh escaped her. "A werewolf? Perhaps there's hope for my cousin yet."

"You sound amused."

"I'm sorry. I'm not amused," she admitted. "Not in the least. That's horrible. No wonder you want revenge."

"Yes," he whispered viciously. "That is where you come in."

"What would you ask of me?"

He wasted no time relaying his request, "I've heard the rumors circulate these last weeks that you and Rabastan could get me audience with the Dark Lord."

She felt her mouth twitch with delight. Early in his service and already she would be able to bring him a devoted servant, for Bellatrix truly believed if ever a wizard was born for the Dark Lord's work, Severus Snape was it. "I could make some arrangements for you," her tone was superior, impressive even to her. "Give me one week."

"Of course," she saw him nod within the shadows, only noticing the movement because for a moment, he was blacker than the shadow itself. "And in return, I will do whatever you ask of me."

"I'll bear that in mind," she was still grinning. "I can think of some interesting ways for you to repay me."

"Get me the audience first," he rose from the shadow and swept his robes around himself like a cloak before stalking toward the boy's dormitory. He stopped at the entrance and added, "If you do, Bellatrix, I'll do anything."

"Anything?" she asked.

"Anything," he repeated, before slipping into the dark chasm that led further into the dungeon and into the boy's dormitory.

She really didn't think getting him an audience with the Dark Lord would be so difficult. Of course, once he had the audience, he might not like it so much, but she'd hold up her end of the bargain and for that, he would hold up his. As for his end, Severus was brilliant with potions, where she was rubbish at them. She wasn't even taking potions now that she was studying NEWT levels. Of course, Narcissa was brilliant with potions too, she could always ask her sister, but something told her Snape was the key to the potion she was brewing in her mind.

It was wrong, and she knew it, but this new plot her mind was devising seemed a vengeful way to get Rodolphus to see things her way. A potion might be just the trick she needed to evoke the love confession she so desperately desired, especially if they were going to be married. She was so delighted with her own scheming that it carried her away until Rabastan came barreling through the common room doors.

"What are you doing, Bella? I've been waiting over an hour up there?" His voice was nothing like his brother's, she thought. Smooth and lazy, Rabastan's tone, even when angered lacked the conviction Rodolphus used with her and this alone was enough to make it difficult for her to take him seriously.

"There you are, lover," her chest deflated with a sigh when she realized she'd have to entertain this new plot more intimately later. "I was just coming to find you," she said.

"I waited forever," he whined. "I thought you forgot about me."

"Now, now, my beautiful little boy," she stepped forward and squeezed his cheeks together adorably before leaning up to kiss them. "How could I ever forget about you?"