Bellatrix came up to the Great Hall to find Ravenna locked in conversation with Atalanta Parkinson, Viola Zabini, and Herman Greengrass of all people, occasionally stopping to sip some pumpkin juice. Andromeda was staring at the conversation in mild concern, which caught her by surprise. Those were the three most popular students who could be categorized as Grey after all, it wasn't like she was talking to Nott, the Lestranges, and the Carrows. "What's up?" She asked, fighting down a desire to hex Atalanta when the dark haired girl batted her eyelashes at Ravenna and earned a blush from her best friend.
"Well, the conversation seems fine, Ravenna's just asking their opinion on politics as more neutral Purebloods." Andromeda reported. "But when she came in Ravenna sat down and started drinking pumpkin juice like she was trying to get drunk from it, and she tore into some sandwiches like a dog." Bellatrix blinked. That...sounded like Ravenna when she was deeply upset, but it had been a while since she'd seen that particular expression of upset. She glanced over at the Gryffindor table, but James Potter seemed perfectly fine, so it wasn't a death in the family.
"Huh." Bellatrix said slowly. "Thanks for keeping an eye on her."
"You'd kill me if I didn't." Andromeda replied cheerily, making Bellatrix snort before carrying on down the table. She plopped down across from Ravenna, grabbing some salad herself as she let the conversation pick back up. Did they expect her not to sit near Ravenna at this point? The minute Herman started talking, Bellatrix stretched her leg, bumping Atalanta's with her foot then, when the girl glanced down in confusion, began to possessively rub said foot up and down Ravenna's leg. She was treated with two pairs of blushing girls and Viola looked like Christmas had come early. The girl really did thrive on drama she'd noticed. Ah well, message received and that was what mattered.
"What do you think Bellatrix?" Herman asked finally. She blinked at him, raising an eyebrow.
"Herman, when have I ever listened to a word you've said?"
"Never." He replied brightly with a grin. "You ignoring me whenever we get paired in Arithmancy is the entire reason I passed that class in Fourth Year." Bellatrix snorted. Well the boy was cheery, she'd give him that. "We were talking about whether or not it was wise for the Ministry to not create a standing army, given that not all of Grindelwald's army fell with him, and nobody knows when someone like him might pop up again." Bellatrix blinked slowly, glancing at Ravenna. Well that wasn't something she'd expected to come from her friend, what exactly was going on?
"It'd be dumb to make one." She said flatly. "Ministers change too often, and those changes can happen at the public whim. You'd need to make a new Department in the Ministry, and separate it from everything else so much it might as well be its own branch of government, or else everyone would be trying to become Minister just for a personal army, and one of them would inevitably get it." She shrugged. "It's not a bad idea overall, just can't work with a government that can change as easily as ours."
"That was the general consensus." Viola agreed, nodding. "Before that we were discussing the merits of increasing our relations with the other Wizarding nations, and lessening our isolationist stance."
"...is this a lunchtime politics club now?" Bellatrix asked, raising an eyebrow. That got a round of chuckles and a blush from Ravenna.
"It wasn't hard to tell that things got more tense over the summer." Ravenna said slowly, shrugging. "I thought it might be worth getting opinions on a few topics that have been bugging me. I've got my family for Light, you for Dark, thought I'd try and get some Grey feelings." Bellatrix paused, a sinking pit in her stomach. The main reason behind those tensions was the Dark Lady. If Ravenna felt she had the Light opinions on topics, then the well might have already been poisoned on that front.
She shoved that worry down. The fact that they hadn't bothered to teach Ravenna the Family Spells demonstrated to her quite clearly that the Lord and Lady Potter didn't have her best friend's interests at heart. And if she could convince Ravenna of that, then she could convince her to hear the Dark Lady out. But she needed to answer the question before people started thinking she was behaving too strangely.
"I can't think of a good reason not to." She said honestly. "It would take a lot of reforms though. The Department of International Cooperation is a dead end in the Ministry as things stand. Can't keep that attitude and make meaningful connections with other nations." This received a round of nods.
"That was the consensus, yeah." Ravenna said, nodding. She stretched, gently shifting away from Bellatrix's foot, and stood. "Alright, I have something I need to check on in the library, so I will see you all at dinner." She said, nodding at everyone and leaving.
"...what on earth did she hear from her parents that has her so worked up?" Viola asked with a frown, watching the Potter heir leave. Bellatrix grumbled and shrugged.
"Hasn't said anything to me yet about it." She admitted. "But she also wasn't this bothered yesterday or this morning, so something sparked in that brain of hers recently. Just don't know what." She let out a hum, and was so focused on the problem of Ravenna's recent behavior that she entirely failed to notice the spiteful look Rodolphus gave her best friend as she left.
Violet likewise failed to notice the look she'd gotten from the young man who considered her best friend his. Her mind was too busy working on her current problems. Well, that and the distressingly positive reaction her body had had to Bellatrix rubbing her foot up and down her leg. The other girl's negative, possessive reaction to Atalanta's flirting should have been a turn-off she knew, but it very much wasn't, and she didn't quite know how to feel about it.
Thinking of Atalanta, it had been interesting talking to Slytherins who weren't Draco or Bellatrix. Not that she'd ever been especially talkative with Draco, but still. It was new. As was the information that the House of Parkinson was matrilineal, with inheritance and the name both going down through the women. Supposedly there hadn't been a Parkinson son born since Perseus Parkinson in 1709, though the tradition pre-dated that string. That was...interesting to learn to say the least. Herman seemed fairly gregarious and pleasant, more than some Gryffindors or Hufflepuffs she knew. And Viola...well she hadn't talked a lot, but she'd been polite and decisive when she did talk.
It was rather weird how few Purebloods seemed to have siblings. She wasn't sure what was up with that. Mass impotence seemed unlikely, given that most seemed to have at least one kid, but she wasn't sure what else to attach to it. It couldn't be the tendency towards Dark magic and incest cause, well...the Blacks seemed perfectly capable of having kids. Still, she wasn't a scientist, so it really didn't matter in the end. Something to look into if she became queen maybe.
She stopped and shook her head. No, she was not going down that road. Someone else could be monarch. Not her, that was a bit too far a road to go down. Plotting to wreck a democracy to put a monarch in place to try and stop a war was one thing. Plotting to put herself on the throne felt like too much. That was something Lucius or Umbridge would do, and she wasn't there yet. This was about saving people, not putting herself in power. She was still shoving down the intrusive thoughts of power and stability when she entered the library.
"Excuse me? Madam Pince?" She asked as she approached the woman. "I'm looking for any books on the history and makeup of the Ministry?" The librarian blinked at her.
"Well, I don't hear that often." She said with a raised eyebrow. "Good for you Miss Potter." She gestured with her feather duster. "Eighth bookcase on the farthest right from the door, starting at the fifth shelf from the bottom of the third column and ending at the bottom of said column." Violet blinked, then nodded.
"Thank you Madam Pince." She said before hurrying off at the politest speed she could manage. She probably could have gone back up to the Room of Requirement, but Bellatrix hadn't explained how the room worked to her. It would have raised questions she wasn't prepared to deal with if she'd gone up there. Besides, this was...probably fine. Dumbledore had taken far less interest in Ravenna Potter than he had in Violet, which meant the best she'd been able to get with him before hitting a brick wall was general geniality that was not...openly tainted by her association with Bellatrix. Time would tell if that was actually the case or if the Headmaster was just being careful.
Of course, she thought wryly, the problem with her plan was that she rather doubted Dumbledore would go along with it. It wasn't appeasement, she didn't think. Rather compromise. Put the power in the hands of a Pureblood, ensure that'd more or less stay Pureblood, but also do what she could to ensure that whoever got the crown and the throne was a good person who'd treat the Muggleborn well and pass Mr. Weasley type Muggle protecting laws. Which would be easiest to accomplish if she were the queen but...no, no. That was too risky, too power hungry, too...ambitious.
She shook her head violently and started perusing the books, snagging a couple basic seeming ones and heading off to find a table. The best place to start, she figured, was to read up on exactly how the Ministry got started, what, if any, changes had been made to its structure, and how exactly it functioned today. From there she could work on what needed to be done to get the changes she'd wanted done. And who knew, maybe she'd see something that proved a monarch wasn't necessary and there was something entirely different that could be done to turn things around without devolving into a brutal war. She could only hope.
Violet spent the rest of the afternoon pouring over books, trying to find as many answers as she could. She'd forgotten to pack a bag, meaning she couldn't take notes, but she did the best she could. She wasn't exactly Hermione, and she never would be, but she wasn't dumb, and she was desperate. Desperation tended to do good things for her learning, as the Triwizard Tournament had taught her. There was a ticking clock, and she had no idea when it'd go off. To make matters worse she honestly didn't know when Voldemort would start her war. She hoped it wouldn't be until after Bellatrix's seventh year, but for all she knew Bellatrix hadn't climbed the ranks until the war had already begun in earnest. She really wished Binns had been more interesting and had talked about more recent history. Was that a seventh year thing?
Eventually though Bellatrix had appeared with a worried (and confused) look in her eye, and dragged her off to dinner. She'd been mostly silent throughout the meal, only occasionally answering questions from Bellatrix. She knew she was worrying the other girl, but her mind was racing and honestly she wasn't in a very good mood right now. She was trying to deal with the twin pressures of stopping a war and not collapsing at the fact that she'd lost everything and everyone she cared about. Trying to put up a brave and gregarious front was out of her range at the moment.
After dinner she'd retreated to the Common Room, where Viola had swiftly pulled her over to the fireplace, poured her a drink of remarkably mild wine (apparently her family had a small vineyard in Italy) and started asking her about the various stances her parents took on things, as well as various Light aligned single boys she'd met. Violet let herself get engrossed in the conversation with the Zabini girl, too tired of being panicked and ready to fire off random tidbits from Ravenna's memories if it meant not having to think too hard or interact too in depth. Bellatrix had given her a worried look that she'd entirely missed before retreating back to her own room to study the Elemental magic book some more.
She likewise failed to notice the charms Rodolphus put on her drink, though in her defense nobody else noticed either.
Bellatrix let out a growl as there was a knock on her door. She'd been throwing herself into the Elemental magic book, trying to push past her worries about Ravenna's behavior, all day. It had been an hour since she left her best friend in the Common Room with Zabini. Normally she was loathe to do that sort of thing, but Viola had managed to actually get Ravenna talking, and was the straightest girl Bellatrix knew to boot. Everything would...probably be fine.
At least, it would be if someone would leave her alone, but instead there was another knock. She huffed and threw herself out of bed, walking over to the door with a huff. "What?" She snapped, before registering that it was a rather nonplussed looking Lucius Malfoy who'd been knocking.
"There is...something going on with Ravenna." The fifth year said slowly. "And I thought you might like to see." Bellatrix felt a pit in her stomach, and quickly nodded, following him back to the Common Room after shutting her room.
Whatever Bellatrix had expected to see, it had not been what she saw. Ravenna was standing in a cleared out space in the Common Room in front of no less than four chalkboards, all of them covered in writing. Ravenna herself was lecturing the room on...something, while their House mates watched in rapture. Not even horrified or amused rapture, despite the way Ravenna was slurring every fifth word and stumbling whenever she moved to write on a chalkboard.
Bellatrix blinked. She had never seen Ravenna drunk before. She looked over the chalkboards and blinked again as she realized that the writing on the boards was clear, concise, and well written. Entirely coherent in fact, aside from one part on the third chalkboard where Ravenna had apparently gone on a tangent about how all red trunks should be destroyed and weren't to be trusted before getting back on track.
"She's been like this for the last three quarters of an hour." Lucius murmured, staring at Ravenna with fascination. "She was talking with Zabini about politics and then she conjured up a chalkboard to better illustrate a point. Then other people started watching and...somehow it just sort of morphed into a lecture."
"Is she...talking about overthrowing the Ministry and creating a monarchy?" Bellatrix asked incredulously. She'd missed most of the lecture obviously, but reading the chalkboards she got the gist.
"She's rather charismatic, even when she's clearly drunk. I dare say half the professors here couldn't explain things so well." Lucius replied. "But yes. She seems to have decided the best option to deflate tensions between Purebloods and Mudbloods is to install a monarch. And while I'm not convinced, she's not making a fool out of herself. She's made good points."
"She also shouldn't be this drunk." Viola murmured, sliding up the two. "She had a glass of my family's mildest wine." She held up the glass in question. "You're the best at magic here, tell me what you think." Bellatrix frowned and pulled out her wand, doing a basic diagnostic charm on the glass before growling.
"Someone cast a potency curse and a flavor enhancing charm on the wine. The first made it a lot stronger, the second made it so she wouldn't notice. Can't tell who did it though, they weren't that clumsy."
"So either someone was hoping to humiliate Ravenna...or they felt this was easier than a love potion." Viola said grimly. "Not the worst strategy, but not something you should be doing to a fellow Slytherin."
"Well either way it backfired." Lucius said, waving a hand. "Ravenna's the opposite of humiliated right now. I think I see some people taking notes in fact." A quick glance around the room told Bellatrix that he was right. "And thanks to the audience, and presumably you, the second option can't come to pass." Bellatrix nodded firmly, slipping her wand back into her robe.
"Thank you Malfoy. Zabini, maybe start charming your glasses defensively in the future, like they do at the Three Broomsticks and Leaky Cauldron."
"Definitely." Viola said, nodding as Bellatrix started working her way through the crowd to stand besides Ravenna.
"And in closhing...there she is!" Ravenna said, distracted from whatever her closing statement was going to be by Bellatrix's arrival. "Best girl!" She slung her arm around Bellatrix's shoulders, and Bellatrix fought the urge to blush as she addressed the assembled students.
"Alright everyone, that's it for tonight." She said firmly. "I'm getting our political professor off to bed. Take notes, make copies if you want, but vanish these things by midnight, alright? I don't think anyone here wants word of this getting back to the Headmaster." There was a round of nods from almost everyone. Only a few confused first years who hadn't learned that their Headmaster was a biased old git didn't nod, but they'd learn, sooner or later.
"Right! Nobody tells Dumbledore!" Ravenna agreed, nodding and not letting go of Bellatrix. For her part Bellatrix didn't mind too much. She wasn't going to complain about Ravenna touching her, and it made dragging the taller girl out of the Common Room easier. She glanced at Andromeda and jerked her head, and her middle sister nodded, slowly working her way through the murmuring crowd.
"Everything's fuzzy." Ravenna murmured as they entered the hall where their rooms were.
"I'm not surprised." Bellatrix replied wryly.
"Not you though. You're soft and warm and...present, y'know?" Ravenna stepped away and in front of Bellatrix, looking down at her intently. "And so...pretty." Bellatrix blushed, then her eyes widened as the other girl leaned in for a kiss.
"Nope!" Bellatrix said firmly, giving the girl a shove. "Our first kiss will not be while you're drunk off your ass. I'm going to kiss you so hard you forget how to breathe and you're going to remember it the next morning dammit, which means not tonight."
"But Bella!" Ravenna whined. "I want to!" Bellatrix felt something dark and hungry stirring inside of her. It would be really easy, she knew. She could send Andy back, follow Ravenna into her room, and just...have fun. Ravenna probably wouldn't even be upset in the morning. Zabini hadn't been wrong about drunk girls being a bit easy.
She firmly and harshly stamped that part of her down. No, even for her there were lines she wasn't going to cross. Especially not with Ravenna. Yes she fully intended on fucking the other girl's brains out, but when she was sober dammit. She'd fuck her sisters before she fucked a Ravenna who was this out of it.
So she was rather relieved when Andy showed up finally. "No. You're going to bed. Andromeda's going to help you get into pajamas, okay? Make sure you don't fall over and hit your head or anything." Andy looked a bit put out by this, but Bellatrix shot her the most pleading, desperate expression she could. For all her conviction at the moment, Bellatrix knew her own limits and she knew exactly how quickly her morals would fall apart if she started helping Ravenna undress, particularly while next to a bed. Andy frowned, but nodded and carefully led Ravenna into her own room.
Bellatrix waited outside, staring intently at the door, until, ten minutes later, a rather tired looking Andy emerged. She urged her sister to the side, then drew her wand and started adding extra warding to the outside of Ravenna's door, just in case. "What the bloody hell was that?" Andy demanded.
"Someone enchanted the wine Ravenna was drinking with Zabini." Bellatrix growled. "Made it stronger than it was supposed to be by quite a bit, and made it so she wouldn't notice the difference. Good news is this...probably wasn't the result they were hoping for, bad news is that...well, you saw."
"That's...well fuck that's disgusting." Andy murmured, blinking rapidly. Bellatrix nodded as she stepped back and examined the door. She'd made it about as impossible for anyone to break in as she could manage without carving into the wood or using blood.
"Yeah. So...stay away from alcohol for the next little bit, okay?"
"...I was going to do that anyway, but yeah." Bellatrix sighed and ran a hand through her hair. She was going to have to pop up to the seventh floor for some hangover cure she knew. She couldn't brew one, and a House Elf would tell staff if she requested one. She had an invisibility cloak, albeit a shitty one that had maybe a year left in it. Ravenna had the Potter family cloak, which was in much better shape, but she hadn't told Andy about it and Bellatrix wasn't about to go in and get it. "Thanks."
"Of course." Andy replied quickly. "Just...let's not make a habit of it, shall we?" Bellatrix chuckled.
"Gods I hope we don't." She said before heading off to her bedroom.