Bellatrix Black came storming out of the bedroom and down the long winding staircase with her wife following closely behind her. "You want me to do what now?" She turned around on the stairs and looked at Hermione.
The brunette gave her a sickeningly sweet smile, "it's called an anatomy scan, my love."
Bella rolled her eyes and turned around heading back down the stairs, "no, absolutely not. I refuse."
"But why?" Hermione was following close on her wife's heels as they rounded the dining room and through to the kitchens. It was around the time of day that Bella and her bump demanded a between meals snack. "Don't you want to find out what sex our baby is?"
Bella flung both doors to the fridge wide open and crossed her arms, clearly looking for something specific. "I don't need a scan to tell me that this," she pointed to her visible baby bump. She was nearing the 20 week mark and half way through her pregnancy, she was finally starting to show. Hermione didn't think it was possible to love her wife more until she caught the tender secret moments when Bella would be talking to the baby. It warmed her even when her wife was being stubborn. "This baby that I'm carrying is very much a girl. She is already a fucking pain in my ass every damn day." She hissed when a sharp kick landed just below her ribs. "Easy Junior. I'm finding it," she rustled through the fridge until she uncovered the burgers that she had Twiggy make when she asked for them. "If Bella Junior isn't a girl," she put her food on a plate and warmed it up using magic. She took a bite of her delicious snack and moaned at the taste, "then I'll give you a million galleons."
Bella held out the burger and Hermione took a tentative bite, "it won't hurt you to have the scan, you know?"
"Oh but it will, pet." Bella picked up her plate and walked into the library, her wife following closely behind her still trying to plead her case. "Whatever happened to the element of surprise? You know there are wizard tests to find out the sex and Cissy had been hounding me for weeks about this particular subject and I've told her the same thing that I'm telling you which is no. Cissy is rather insufferable without her girlfriend around. Quite unfortunate for me," she took another delicious bite. "My point is whatever happened to the element of surprise? When little Bella Junior comes out and she's a girl everyone can rejoice in the fact that I was once again right."
"Or?"
"Or if the spawn is a boy… which is less than a 1% chance, you can collect your million galleons."
Bella sat happily eating the rest of her burger and Hermione knew that there was no way her wife would ever agree to be scanned by muggles if she turned her own sister down with the magical approach. Sometimes it was better to just know when to give up. There was something though that she wasn't going to just let go of and smirked looking over at the love of her life happily eating her newly found favorite food. "We aren't naming her Bella Junior."
"We shall see," Bella shrugged.
"Oh I already know."
Bella cackled, "agree to disagree then but when she comes out of me, her name will be Bella Junior."
"We shall see indeed," Hermione rolled her eyes and accioed her book.
"You love me," Bella finished up her plate and cast it to the side, resting against the side of the couch and putting her feet on the brunette's lap.
A small smile graced Hermione's lips, "I do," she said as she reached down with her right hand and started to massage one of Bella's stocking clad feet.
Bella let out a low moan when Hermione hit a particularly sensitive spot on her foot, "pet," she said with a little hint of something in her voice.
Hermione bit her lip because she knew it was easier than usual to get Bella going since she hit her second trimester. She was horny all the time and Hermione was reaping the benefits. "Does that feel good?"
"Mmmmph," Bella's eyes rolled in the back of her head, "so good."
Hermione put her book down and started working both of her hands up Bella's leg, massaging as she went. The past week when they weren't at work or busy with Teddy, they had been thoroughly enjoying each other's company. Hermione knew that she got in this particular state after her midday snack so she would find an excuse to call Bella into the minister's office for a little treat. "Do you maybe want to?"
Bella smirked and opened one eye, "what a stupid fucking question," she laughed and pulled her feet out of Hermione's lap. She was just about to get up when green fire erupted from the fireplace signaling a visitor was arriving, "bloody hell. I was about to get lucky."
"Pardon me, Bellatrix but it would seem as if my visit is unwanted," a familiar voice rang out before the women saw Minerva enter the library. "Should I find a better time to drop by for a little chat?"
"Minnie," Bella smiled and sat up, "what brings you here? I'm not coming back to teach. I can't handle being around all those children and my sister at the same time. Wait a minute… Andy didn't light anything on fire or murder Sybil did she?"
"No," Minerva rolled her eyes with a hint of a smile on her face. "I can assure that Andromeda has been on her best behavior."
"Then is it the other one," she raised an eyebrow when Hermione swatted her thigh and dramatically sighed, "Aviya? There… happy?" Hermione nodded. "Did she do something stupid? I knew it was only a matter of time. She can't be trusted."
"Bella," Minerva walked over and sat down on the chair nearest Bella's side of the couch and touched her knee. "I assure you Ms. Hart is perfectly lovely. Well," she smirked. "Lovely enough. She seems to have a love-hate relationship with Poppy. Aviya loves Poppy and Poppy hates in return. Though to be fair, Poppy hates almost everyone. Madam Hooch isn't thrilled with her because she accidentally destroyed the broom closet and Filch has tried to expel her numerous times but I have informed him that she's not a student and he's not in charge of expelling students let alone adults. Oh dear, and there was that thing with the mandrakes. I've never seen Mr. Longbottom that angry before but I think Aviya is quite delightful."
"Delightful," Bella crossed her arms and stuck her chin up in the air. "Everybody thinks she's delightful. Just wait. Soon everyone will see what I see."
"What's she on about dear?" Minerva turned her attention to her once favorite student.
"Oh," Hermione let out a small laugh. "I think it's because she's in a relationship with Cissy. There's some one way animosity happening. Aviya is well aware of it and Bella is a little standoffish because Aviya is not afraid of her," she nodded towards her wife who was still pouting.
"It's not often she runs into someone who can match her toe for toe," Minerva suppressed a laugh. "Until she met you of course," she saw Hermione blushing.
"She's right here you know," if possible she stuck her chin further up into the air.
"Now," Minerva's voice went into teacher mode for a moment and Bella's posture relaxed. "I've come here for a reason and not just to talk about Ms. Hart."
"Thank Salazar."
"Don't think I'm not happy to see you but what did bring you away from school on the weekend?" Hermione's curiosity got the better of her. "Do you need Bella back for teaching duties?" Bella sent a scowl in the direction of her wife.
"Oh no," the elder witch shook her head. "Nothing like that. I just heard through the grapevine that the house of Black was expecting a new member."
Bella rolled her eyes, "Andy."
Minerva turned towards the brunette, "how far along are you?"
"Oh," she cleared her throat. "I guess Andy wasn't as forthcoming with the information. Bella's the one caring our baby," she reached over and put her hand on the baby bump that was concealed under Bella's oversized blouse.
Minerva's mouth hung open as her eyes trailed over to where Hermione placed her hand. "You're going to catch Phoenix shit Minnie if you keep your mouth open like that." She cackled when the older witch snapped her mouth shut. "Trust me, we were all as shocked as you when we found out."
"My apologies for the assumption," Minerva tried to hide the shock on her face. "When Andromeda said the two of you were expecting, my mind immediately went to Hermione."
"Common mistake," Bella dismissed the apology with a wave of her hand. "Seems the only person who actually knew I was pregnant the whole time was Luna. I swear that happy idiot knows more than the rest of us put together."
Bella saw Hermione eying her out of the corner of her eye and gave her a cheeky grin, "she's your best mate and you are going to call her that?"
"Oh come on," she rolled her eyes. "You don't always speak so highly of Harry either."
"Well," Hermione shrugged, "he can be very thick sometimes."
"Ladies," Minerva interrupted. "I only wanted to come by and offer my congratulations."
"Will you still be around as headmistress to welcome little Bella Junior here into Hogwarts in 12 years?"
A nervous laugh fell from the elder witch's lips, "I think I'm scheduled to retire that year."
"Bullshit," Bella cackled. "You'll be lucky to have little junior at Hogwarts. She's destined to be the smartest witch of her age."
"You know it's a girl?"
"Don't get her started, Minnie," Bella tried to quell the subject but Hermione was already off of the tangent of the muggle anatomy scans. Bella rolled her eyes and checked out of the conversation, content to listen to her wife talk so passionately about something that was never going to happen.
The seven weeks that passed from when Kate woke up from her coma until now were the longest of the young huffelpuff's life. She finally convinced her husband that she was well enough to go back to work 5 weeks after she woke up just so she could have some alone time. She was currently sitting at her cubicle in the DMLE going over new case files that Draco and his temporary partner had been bringing in daily. The fact that they hired a temporary replacement for her seemed like a slap in the face. Not to mention that the temp was a complete asshole and the way he had Draco wrapped around his finger made Kate question whether or not it would be easier to just kill the temp and do her time in jail. Hindsight would say that maybe her approach to the whole rapist scenario wasn't the best and that she had this coming. She would argue that she went with her gut instinct even if she did almost wind up dead. The doctors had told her that her memories may come back but she still had no recollection of what happened between having ice cream with Draco and waking up in the hospital.
She was fine with the whole not remembering except the worst part by far was that Bella was treating her like she was breakable. Kate was in no way allowed to do anything other than office paperwork. She hadn't been out in the field once since coming back and while she could understand why, she also felt it was completely unnecessary. "Enough of this," she pushed back from her desk and walked the short distance to her supervisor's office. She knocked and heard the older woman give her usual greeting of 'go away' before she pushed open the door and walked inside. "How long is that temp going to be going out on cases with Draco?"
"How long did the doctor say you had to stay on light work duty?" Bella didn't look up from the files she was reading over.
"8 weeks," Kate mumbled.
"What was that?" Bella looked up with a smirk on her face.
Kate's grimace turned into a scowl, "8 weeks," she crossed her arms over her chest.
"That's right," a perfectly sculpted eyebrow raised in response, "and how many weeks has it been since you've been back to work?"
Kate rolled her eyes, "two."
"So," Bella tapped her finger to her chin and leaned back in her chair pretending to think. "By my expert calculations that means you have six weeks of light work duty left."
"But I'm ready."
"Maybe you should've thought about that before you went against my directions and thought you could take on the murderer yourself."
"Can we at least get rid of Tony?"
"Draco needs a partner. I can't send him out there alone and you aren't able to go into the field yet," Bella went back to her papers. "My hands are tied here Kate. And even if you were able to go into the field, I don't know if you can be trusted out there. You've seemed to have forgotten just who is in charge around here."
"You're kidding me right? That temp is ridiculously full of himself and thinks that he is Merlin's gift to the DMLE."
"Seems to be quite a common problem around here," she stood up, hand resting on her bump as she walked over to the other side of her desk. "You need to clear out. Junior is starting to get violent in there every time you speak so kindly piss off. Go review the files, look over the crime scene photos and leave me alone. We can revisit this conversation in six weeks's time."
Kate turned to leave knowing it wouldn't do any good to argue further. "Fine. I'm going but only because I can't take you seriously when you're nursing your bump so adorably."
"Go," Bella's stomach made itself known and her baby wasn't happy. "Wait." Kate stopped in her tracks. "Fuck, what time is it?"
"I don't know around 2pm?"
"Okay," Bella gave Kate a cheeky smile when she turned around. "I've changed my mind. You can go out into the field. Junior here requests a snack and you seem awfully keen on going outside."
"Absolutely not. I am not a food delivery service."
"Supervisor," Bella pointed to herself. "Subordinate," she pointed at Kate. "Seems you aren't in the position to tell me what you will and won't be doing. Now," she walked over and scribbled a note with her order on it. "Draco usually goes and picks this up for us but he's out working so congratulations," she grinned. "You've been promoted from full time desk duty to almost full time desk duty and burger retriever."
Kate walked over and snatched the parchment, "fine. I'll do it but only because I want to go outside and I'm already slightly terrified of your unborn child."
Just as she was almost at the door she stopped when she heard the older witch speak up, "oh and Kate? It takes Draco 20 minutes to get to McDonalds and bring my food back to me. Anything longer than that and I'll know you were up to something. Now go on." She shooed her out of the office and walked around to her desk chair. "All right, settle down," she put a hand on her belly and closed her eyes. "Your snack will be here soon," she started humming softly, feeling her baby calm from the sound of her voice.
15 minutes later, Kate returned with Bella and Junior's order, "tell Draco he can suck it. 20 minutes is far too long." She tossed the bag onto Bella's desk and gingerly placed her strawberry milkshake next to it. "Enjoy."
She turned to leave and Bella noticed she was still holding a bag, "get yourself a little treat?"
"I'm not going to say no to a 2pm burger," she shrugged. "I mean the muggles got something right here." She exited the office hearing Bella cackle and the rustling of her paper bag.
Kate took her food back to her desk and started to feast. She wasn't one to turn down muggle take away. "I suppose there's a benefit to being Bella's burger bitch," she chuckled as she took a bite of her burger.
"A burger bitch?" An unknown voice was heard from the front door to the DMLE suite. "Maybe we got the wrong department."
"No," another woman spoke up. "You aren't backing out."
"Come on Sin. Let's just go," the first woman sounded desperate.
"No," the woman with the harsher voice said. "We are doing this. Is there anyone here?"
"No answer… let's go."
Kate rolled her eyes while listening to the conversation, "can I help you?" She asked with a mouth full of burger.
"See," the one that was called Sin said, "someone is here."
"Hi," the two women walked over and stood in front of Kate's desk. "I need to speak with Madam Black."
"She's kind of busy right now," Kate wasn't about to get yelled at for letting someone interrupt burger time.
"This can't wait."
"I can take a message for her," she pulled out a quill and piece of parchment. "Names?"
"Honey you can call me Sin," the one with the harsher voice said. She sounded like she had been smoking for years. "That's neither here nor there. This is Kandi and she's the one who needs to speak with Black."
"I would recommend not calling her only by her last name unless you are in the market for an unforgivable. It's funny what can be forgiven when your wife is the Minister for Magic."
"We can come back," the one called Kandi said, giving her friend a pleading look.
"Okay the two of you obviously made the trip here for a reason. What's the nature of the visit?"
Kandi swallowed which did not go unnoticed by Kate. This woman was nervous, "I might possibly know something about the rapist."
Kate put her quill down and looked up, "next time maybe that's a sentence you could lead with," she rolled her eyes. "Wait here," she said to them as she got up and walked over to Bella's office. "Bella?" She knocked quietly before entering.
"What?" Bella sighed just finishing up her burger. "She's finally happy," she pointed to her little bump. "Why are you intent on ruining the afternoon?"
"I swear I'm not. There are two women here who are insisting on seeing you," she saw Bella look up and the face she gave her was one that Kate was very familiar with. "I tried to get the details so I could tell them to piss off."
"And that apparently didn't work out so well," Bella was not amused at the situation unfolding before her. It was just about the time of day she headed up to Hermione's office.
"The one woman said she knows something about the rapist."
Bella raised an eyebrow and considered what Kate just said. "Why won't they talk to you?"
"Not sure," Kate shrugged. "The younger one seems nervous to say anything around me. What do you want me to do with them?"
"Send them in." Kate didn't move. She just stood there looking at Bella intently. "Fine," she rolled her eyes. "You can stay but one peep out of you and you'll regret opening your mouth. Understood?" Kate smiled and quickly nodded, opening the door to let the women in. Bella did a quick visual of the two women. She swore they looked familiar, she just couldn't place them. "Take a seat," the command came out a little harsher than she had meant for it to sound.
"Does she have to be in here for this?" The younger woman grimaced and nodded towards Kate.
"Whatever you have to say, you can say it in front of my colleague. Now," Bella took out some parchment and her special quill that Hermione had bought her a few years ago. "Names?"
"Kandi," the younger woman pointed to herself and then to the other woman. "That's Sin."
"Your name is Sin?" Bella questioned with judgement dripping from the tone of her voice.
"Short for Sinnamon, Sugar. But we are here for Kandi," the older of the two dismissed Bella with a wave of her hand.
Bella's mouth fell open at the audacity of the woman in front of her. Was she not aware of who she was dealing with? She honestly had the nerve to dismiss Bellatrix Druella Black heiress to the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black, Wife of the Minister for Magic and mother to Junior? She looked over at Kate and saw her mouth "Phoenix shit," and it snapped Bella back into the present. "If this doesn't concern you then why are you here?" Bella flashed a smile through gritted teeth.
"Oh Kandi asked me to come along for moral support. I don't think she'd have come without me."
"Well now that she's in here," Bella suggested, "you can see yourself out. We will take good care of your friend here."
"No," Kandi had found her voice.
"No?"
"No. She stays or I go too."
Bella took a moment staring at the two women in front of her. Hermione had told her that just because she was minister didn't mean she could torture the witnesses for information but honestly at this point, she didn't care what she had promised in a momentary lapse of judgement. "Fine," she picked up her quill. "You told Kate that you know something about the rapist."
""That's right."
"Would you care to elaborate?" Bella was starting to get frustrated. She wasn't the type who liked to play until of course some sort of bodily injury towards the other person was involved. "If you don't want to share you can both see yourselves out. We are very busy here and if this is going to waste everyone's time then head on out."
"I was Diagon the day she was attacked," Kandi was looking nervous. Bella also picked up on a tone of guilt. "I was actually in the alley behind the Leaky Cauldron when Kate was attacked."
"You are the one who fled the scene and left me to die?"
"Kate…" it came out as more of a warning but had a bit of a motherly tone to it. Kate looked at her and Bella just shook her head. They needed to get information out of this woman, not scare her back into hiding. "So you saw the assailant?" When Kandi nodded, Bella pressed. "You were lured into the alley by the perp. What happened from the time the assailant found you to when you left the crime scene? Can you fill in any of those details?" Kate stared at Bella wondering what she was getting at. Why didn't she ask for a description? Bella saw Kate staring at her and she shook her head.
"He didn't lure me into the alley, madam Black. I lured him," Kandi was fiddling with her fingers not looking up from her lap.
Bella looked over at Kate and raised her eyebrows with a self-satisfied look inferring she knew what she was doing. Kate rolled her eyes and waited for the story to continue. "Please start at the beginning."
"That's where we run into the problem," the other woman spoke up.
"No," Bella held her hand up. "I'm no longer talking to you, Sin," she was done playing around. "Kandi is the witness and I only want to hear the story from her."
"I'm requesting immunity from prosecution if I provide a witness statement."
"Of course you are," Bella let out a little chuckle. She knew there was something more to this confession.
"What am I missing?"
"Well Kate. It's very simple. Our friend here, Kandi is probably on parole from Azkaban and she was in the alley doing something she shouldn't have been and that's why she ran. She's afraid of being sent back to prison and now she feels guilty about what happened to you and she's here to clear her conscience. Am I close?" Kandi just nodded. "What are you on parole for?"
"I was in Azkaban for prostitution, ma'am." She swallowed. "I was there for a few years then when Kingsley stepped down and the race for Minister started, those of us with petty crimes were let go on parole. We were sent to work in the ministry."
Bella snapped her fingers, "I knew I had seen you before," she pointed between the ladies. "You two run the cafeteria, no?" The women nodded, "so you weren't satisfied? Needed a couple of quick galleons?"
"I shouldn't have gone. I was honestly just at the Leaky Cauldron for lunch but then I saw someone who kept staring at me and I thought he might be keen and I did need some money. I didn't know it was going to turn into all of this."
"Okay," Bella shrugged. "Suppose I can grant you immunity as a witness. Do you have enough information to give me to make it worth my while?" Kandi nodded, "okay then. I'll bite. Tell me what you have."
"He is one of the sacred 28."
Bella's eyebrows shot up, "well now… that does narrow it doesn't significantly. Do you know who the assailant was? Name? Description?" Kandi nodded and was going to speak when there was a knock at the door and Harry entered. "Potter, can't you see we are busy?"
"I know but this can't wait," he walked over to Bella's side of the desk and cast a muffliato, blocking their conversation from the other three people in the room. Kate looked offended. He mouthed sorry before turning to Bella.
"Well what is it? I don't have all day. This woman," she pointed to Kandi, "was in the alley where Kate was attacked."
"Seriously?" Harry immediately regretted that when he saw Bella's face.
"What do you want?"
"There was another murder. Draco and Tony haven't been called to investigate yet."
"Then why are you here? In my office? Interrupting my interrogation?"
"The aurors recovered a partial print," he saw Bella finally look interested. "Did she say she could id the perp?"
"One of the sacred 28. We were getting to the id when you barged in here. Why?"
"Show her this," he handed Bella a portrait and her mouth dropped.
"Are you shitting me?" Harry shook his head no. "Well fuck us all," she waited until Harry broke his spell and turned back to the women. "There was another attack this afternoon and the aurors got a partial print. Is this the man you were in the alley with the day in question?" She slid the photo across her desk into their line of sight, Kate leaning in and her eyes going wide.
"Oh yes madam Black," Kandi shook her head. "That's him."
