Chapter 10 here! I do hope you like the story so far and I hope you'll stay until the end. Not that we're even halfway there but :D Enjoy, and remember I don't own Harry Potter
Late night rendezvous
Hermione stood in a dark room, wondering where to sit and wait for the other witch. The chair in the room was missing a leg, the bed was broken, and the piano looked nowhere stable enough to hold her weight. The young woman reminisced about the last time she had been in this room. It had been a scary night, but a nice one all the same. Harry got to reunite with Sirius, after all. Hermione smiled sadly at the memory of the carefree marauder, and her thoughts immediately wandered to Bellatrix. She still didn't know that she had killed her own cousin. Or maybe she did – Hermione hadn't asked her what she had seen in the flashbacks she was getting.
The stairs creaked. Hermione turned to face what had been left of the door. Apparently, Bellatrix had worked out her clues about the meeting place. A silhouette appeared in the dark corridor and entered the room. Hermione's eyes had adjusted to the dark and she saw that the other witch was wearing a black dress, black knee-high boots, and a black cloak to finish the outfit. Bellatrix lowered her hood, freeing her mass of raven black curls. The younger woman briefly wondered whether it was wise to be meeting Bellatrix Lestrange alone in the dead of night in an abandoned 'haunted' house. This feeling disappeared when the other woman blinked to focus on her and grinned.
"'Meet me in the place where howling once reigned, where still no human ever presence decides to deign.' Poetry isn't one of your strengths, Granger."
"You wanted me to be secretive in a letter!" Hermione snapped indignantly.
"Isn't that a skill the Brightest witch of her Age should have? And a war heroine on top of that" the older witch raised an eyebrow. This piqued Hermione's interest.
"How do you know that?" she asked.
"I have my ways" Bellatrix replied at once. "It's not hard to find information on you, Miss Golden girl, nor on your friends."
Hermione stiffened.
"If you wanted to trap me here to get to my friends-"
"I simply meant I checked who you were!" the Pure-blood was quick to defend herself. "Is it so hard to trust me?"
Hermione simply stared at her until she bowed her head and muttered "Fine."
"You wanted my help" the brunette rekindled the conversation.
"You said you could provide it."
"Like you've undoubtedly found out while checking me, I'm part of the so-called Golden Trio."
"Ah, yes, the Light side's heroes. Mister Harry Potter, Mister Ronald Weasley, and yourself." There was something unreadable in the other witch's expression when she spoke next. "The Potter boy lived to beat Voldemort, then?"
Hermione nodded, wishing to escape the subject fast.
"And Lily and James Potter?"
"Voldemort killed them. 31 October 1981."
"So, it is true" Bellatrix looked at the ground. "I remembered it yesterday. Getting the news."
"You've remembered something. As in, it wasn't a flashback?"
"No, it was clear in my mind all of a sudden. Has been ever since."
The brunette was intrigued.
"That means you'll get your memories back! It's begun to happen already."
"Yes" the older witch agreed though she didn't sound too excited about it. "But we're not here to talk about this. You said I could get a normal life, I could… live amongst people, I think you meant."
"You've been punished for things you had no idea of doing!" Hermione fired up at once. "And the people will want you to be punished again now when they find out you're alive."
"If they find out" Bellatrix corrected her.
"Didn't you just say you wanted my help because I told you you could live amongst other people?"
"Not my words" the Death Eater sing-sang.
"Bellatrix!" Hermione snapped, getting angry. "You need to know what you want, I can't help you if you keep telling me half of everything."
"I do want to lead a normal life and be able to see people. But I can't very well stroll along Diagon Alley or go into the Ministry and say 'Hey, I'm alive and don't intend to kill anyone, just mentioning it.'"
"I'm not saying that. Maybe we could," Hermione looked lost in thought for a second, then smiled, "we could arrange an interview for you. Give you a chance to tell your story without being interrupted or – well – hexed."
Bellatrix laughed.
"No normal person would get close enough to interview me."
"You seem to know a lot for someone who has memory loss" Hermione narrowed her eyes.
"I was dumped with the dead bodies, Granger. One does work some things out from that."
"Okay, well, if not letting the public know you're alive by telling them, then how?"
"Weren't you supposed to know that?"
They stood staring at each other until Bellatrix huffed and threw herself down on the bed. Hermione winced as it creaked ominously, as if it would break down for good at any moment. The witch laying on it didn't seem perturbed by the possibility of breaking the wooden floor underneath and falling to the first floor. She suddenly seemed very interested in a cobweb on one of the pillows. Hermione watched her poke it with her finger, eventually making a small spider make its way out of it. The brunette watched it crawl out of sight then cursed herself for getting so easily distracted. She was supposed to be thinking not watching the spiders and their cobwebs.
"Anything come up in that brain of yours?" Bellatrix broke the silence after a while. Hermione shook her head.
"How did you think of the Shrieking Shack as a meeting place?" the other witch surprised her with a question.
"I've been here once before" the brunette admitted. "And I remembered almost no one knew how to get in."
"Have they tried the front door?" Bellatrix took out her wand and began to spin it in her hands. Hermione managed not to flinch at the sight.
"Haunted, remember? I don't think anyone wanted to go in, much less actually try it."
"Yet you say you've been inside. I'll bet all my gold you were with Potter and Weasley."
"That was a one-time occurrence. We had to retrieve Ron's rat."
"You entered the most haunted house in Britain to retrieve a rat?" the older witch stared at her.
"He was important to Ron" the young woman protested though her cheeks had reddened slightly. She hoped that wasn't noticeable in the darkness. "Too bad he turned out to be a human in the end."
"Now you're not making any sense" Bellatrix shook her head.
"Most of our time at Hogwarts didn't make sense. This story is one of the most normal you'll hear about Harry, Ron and me. Although at the time it seemed like we were helping a convicted murderer escape the Dementor's Kiss."
Hermione grinned at Bellatrix's stunned expression.
"You did what now?" the other witch asked with a hint of admiration in her voice.
"Long story" Hermione waved her off and they went back to staring at different parts of the room in silence. After a considerable amount of time, the younger woman finally checked the time.
"Wow, I didn't expect it to be so late already. Or early."
Bellatrix checked for herself and sighed.
"I suppose you have classes tomorrow."
"Yep, last day before the weekend but still a busy one."
"It's nearly three o'clock. You should head to the castle." The older woman stood up and dusted herself off. "Can't say this was a very useful rendezvous but there was some conversation, nevertheless. I'll send you Sirius's ring so you can contact me if you have an idea."
"Right, I suppose that's a good way to ensure communication. It'll only work in the weekends though."
"I'll manage to free them. Busy life and all that" Bellatrix winked at her. "Go get some sleep, Granger. Skip the first class if it's not important so you can sleep in."
"I doubt Professor McGonagall will react positively to me skipping her class, but we'll see."
"McGonagall is still a teacher here? Merlin, this woman's got nerves of steel. I thought she'd give up teaching after seven years of dealing with my dear cousin Sirius and James Potter."
Hermione felt a pang when Bellatrix mentioned Sirius like that, but her thoughts immediately picked up on something else altogether.
"McGonagall!" she gasped and beamed at the other witch.
"What?"
"She'll know what to do. If I tell her you're alive, she'll have an idea what you can do."
The brunette thought this was a genius idea, but Bellatrix obviously didn't share her opinion.
"No."
"What? Why not?"
"Because it's bad enough you know I'm alive, Granger, I'm not letting anyone else find out."
"But Professor McGonagall is trustworthy. If I ask her for advice, she'll-"
"Tell Dumbledore at once" Bellatrix cut her off. "The old man isn't my biggest fan."
"Dumbledore is dead" Hermione dismissed her coldly.
"What?" Bellatrix stared at her blankly. "Impossible. How would he-"
"Snape killed him. It was staged." Hermione wished she could read Bellatrix's face, but it was expressionless.
"McGonagall will go to the Minister then" the older witch said after a while, her jaw set once more. "The answer is no. If you breathe a word to anyone about me-"
"What?" Hermione cut her off, drawing out her wand. "What will happen? Try threatening me, Lestrange, I've been dying to have a one on one with you. Let's see how it'll end when we both have our wands!"
"I-damn it, Granger, fine" Bellatrix looked angry but bowed her head in shame all the same. It seemed like she really did feel remorseful about what she'd done to her. "Tell McGonagall and ask her for advice but if she tells anyone – and I mean anyone – you won't like the consequences."
"Deal," Hermione said, "I'll contact you when I've spoken to her. If you've sent me the ring."
There was an awkward pause.
"Right. We best be off then."
"You go first. I'm not leaving for the village anyway" Hermione said, putting her wand away and sitting down on the bed to retie her shoelaces.
"You're not?" Bellatrix sounded curious.
"No."
"Any chance you'll tell me how you're going to get to school then?" the other witch tried to joke but Hermione wasn't having it.
"You don't tell me where you're going, you don't get to know where I'm headed. Fair and square" she finished with bitterness in her voice. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Bellatrix preparing herself to say something, but she seemed to think better of it.
"Goodnight then. See you."
"Goodnight" Hermione said, still not looking her in the eyes.
When Bellatrix was out of the room Hermione reached under the bed and pulled out the Invisibility Cloak. She was prepared to dust it off but saw no dust or dirt on it. This Cloak was truly peculiar. Maybe there was some truth in the Tale of the Three Brothers after all. Throwing it over herself, she walked quietly towards the window. There were cracks between the boards which overlooked the way towards Hogsmeade. Hermione watched as Bellatrix's dark silhouette appeared on the lawn and moved swiftly away from the Shack. The older witch didn't stop or turn around. This didn't stop Hermione from frowning as she got lost in thought on the way back to the castle through the secret tunnel. All the casual talk with Bellatrix had made her forget just who she was dealing with. But this second threat from the witch had reminded her – Bellatrix Lestrange: Death Eater, Pure-blood supremacist, convicted torturer of many, including Hermione herself. It didn't matter whether or not she had been made to do these things. The brunette was starting to doubt whether Bellatrix would have turned out different if she wasn't controlled by Voldemort. As she neared the double doors of the castle, she came to the conclusion she wasn't sure if she wanted to help Bellatrix anymore. By the time she was in front of the Fat Lady's portrait she knew she would, first and foremost, ask Professor McGonagall's opinion on her dilemma of helping the Death Eater. Yes, that was the best plan she could make. Professor McGonagall would know what to do. Hermione got to bed, hoping Harry and Ron had made it into the Quidditch team today so she could sneak up to their dormitory and return Harry's Cloak.