TW: violence/torture
Hermione's mouth was wide open, and she let out a scream into the marble floor, her bones felt like they had been lit on fire, and that the only relief would be to pull off her skin with her own hands. When it stopped, she went limp and the air she dragged into her lungs felt icy cold.
"I was going to get rid of you quickly Mudblood, but it seems that now I'm going to make this the longest day of your life" Cygnus threw his wand up again. "Crucio"
The next scream was unstoppable as it tore from her throat, making her eyes water. Hermione had never wanted herself dead, but in that moment, she wished he had of killed her quickly like he'd planned to.
"Now, are you going to tell me why you were whispering my daughter's name in your sleep" He walked over to where the girl was crumpled on the ground and used his foot to roll her over on to her back to look up at him.
"we…we were friends" Hermione stared up into his piercing blue eyes, the sharpness in his face reminded her of Bellatrix's regal cheekbones.
"All your kind does is lie" Cygnus's face screwed up as he spat the words out "thrilling as it must be to have someone of stature give you the time of day, I can't imagine why you would be murmuring their name at night" He raised his wand slowly once again.
"we…" Hermione hesitated, she didn't want to out Bellatrix, but if he cursed her again, she wasn't sure she'd ever come back from it. Ashamed as she was to admit it, she always thought of the Longbottoms when her and the others had been fighting against Voldemort and his followers. She knew their fate of life-long insanity was far worse than death and that if she had to choose, she would rather Cygnus kill her in a rage than break her mind trying to wean the information out of her. "We were more than friends, we were together" her voice croaked out the words.
Cygnus stared down at her for a short time, considering her words before he slid his hand into his pocket. "My daughter made a grave sacrifice by allowing filth that close to her, but make no mistake Mudblood, she did it for the greater good of her people, and most importantly her family". From his pocket Cygnus drew out a small, polished knife and fiddled with it between his fingers. "Bellatrix got close to you to give me information, so that I could bring the dark lord back using the Potter boy" He met her eyes again. "you weren't even meant to end up here, but I imagine she will glad to have you disposed of, I owe my daughter that at the very least for all she has done for the dark lord".
Bellatrix wouldn't do that, why would she have done that, she hated her family. "No, she wouldn't. It's not possible" Hermione threw the feeble words at him.
Cygnus chuckled slightly "There is one thing in this life I am sure of, and that is how afraid of me my daughter is. Fear means obedience and obedience means loyalty". He began to walk slow circles around Hermione. "My Bellatrix turned in her own sister for mixing with filth, she wouldn't spare a thought about you or Harry Potter of all people". Cygnus sneered in anger at even the idea that his daughter would care for the Mudblood on their marble floor, but he composed himself. "When the dark lord returns, it will be a nice surprise for her, and she will be rewarded most grandly for her efforts". With a sudden movement Cygnus stood over Hermione and dropped to his knees to pin down her arms, "I'm going to remind you of what you are" He took the knife in his hand to Hermione's arm and began to carve as she struggled and screeched "then I'm going to let you watch your little friend die".
"It's up here" Bellatrix rushed up to the overgrown gates of what appeared to be an abandoned house. As she grew close, the vines un-winded themselves from the metal of the gate and once it was clear it swung open so she could enter. Before them stood the Black family house. Her, Sirius and Dumbledore had come as soon as she had confessed, they had sent word to the ministry that they were coming, and Bellatrix only prayed that this was where his father had taken Hermione and Harry. She ran up the walkway and past all of the anally maintained gardens till she came to the front door. When she grabbed the handle, it took a second for the magic engrained in the building to recognise her blood before the door handle slacked in her hand and allowed the door to be opened. Bellatrix walked into the foyer and looked into the small ballroom that stood just beyond it, at first it looked as though no one was there, but Dumbledore had already lurched forward towards a slumped figure on the ground. She felt as though everything were in slow motion as she followed him and watched him kneel next to a bleeding Hermione, his hands hovering over her.
"She's alive, there's no fatal injuries" His hand twitched as it got to her left arm, he got his wand from his sleeve and Bellatrix stared, frozen in place, as he chanted and Hermione's blood began to seep back into her forearm. When the blood was all gone, it revealed a word marked in deep red scratches.
"It won't heal" Dumbledore said whispered solemnly and behind them Sirius gasped at the sight of the wound. "Bellatrix there's no time, are there dungeons here?"
Bellatrix said nothing, she continued only to look down at Hermione.
"I know where they are, Albus" Sirius said and began to walk towards the staircase just down a nearby corridor.
Dumbledore rose and put his hands on Bellatrix's shoulders "Stay with Hermione, we are going to get Harry and make sure no one else is here, if anyone comes then shout for me and I will come"
She watched as the two men hurried to find Harry, their only tie to fatherhood. Bellatrix walked closer and looked down to Hermione's left side, at the angry scratches of the word that had been carved into Hermione's soft skin. 'MUDBLOOD'. She had used the word so many times and heard it even more, she knew the intent behind it, but never before had its destruction been more palpable. Next to Hermione's side laid a knife slathered in blood, it was small and had a swirling set of initials marked into the handle. It was her father's blade, the one he always carried with him. Her knees felt weak and she felt the urge to lowered herself next to Hermione, but behind her Bellatrix heard the slow click of familiar shoes, so she stayed on her feet. She found the wand in her robe and held it tightly in her sleeve.
"Bellatrix?" Cygnus Blacks face was relaxed but slightly confused as he slowed to a stop a little way in front of her "what are you doing here?".
Bellatrix turned and stared back at his skinny, aged face, he looked like he'd been in Azkaban for a decade.
Cygnus's brow furrowed at the lack of reply from his daughter, he started to walk towards her with his mouth beginning to form his next question.
Before any words could leave her father's mouth, Bellatrix raised her wand. "Avada Kedavra". The burst of green from her wand seemed to hit her father like nothing more than a breath of smoke, but instantly he dropped to his knees and then flat on to the ground like he was a puppet who's strings had all been cut at once. She heard more footsteps coming towards her, but she didn't care to look at who was coming. Instead she walked to her father's corpse and stared at the back of his head. A pressure rose in her throat, it felt almost like vomit. She raised her hand to her mouth instinctually, as a laugh broke out of her mouth. Once she had started, it was almost as though she couldn't stop. The laugh that came from her was raw and sinister, yet as it forced itself out of her mouth, it felt as though it took with it a weight that had been sitting inside of her for all of her life.
Dumbledore stood in shock watching Bellatrix with a horrified expression, Sirius did the same with an unconscious Harry in his arms. Then Dumbledore heard footsteps coming up to the entrance of the home and hurried to Bellatrix's side, he grabbed the wand from her hand and quickly performed the same healing spell he had performed on Hermione randomly into the air. "Stop now, when they ask you what happened, you say we found him dead, do you understand?" Dumbledore held Bellatrix's hand as he put the wand back into it and stared deeply into her eyes as her laughter finally died down. Then a group of people in official looking robes broke down the front door and burst through, he released her hand and walked back to Hermione's side.
"We need medical attention please" Dumbledore said smoothly and a couple of wizards in doctors' robes rushed past the Aurors to help.
It didn't take long for the building to become a crime scene, with people everywhere looking at Cygnus Black's body and searching his home. They checked everyone's wands to see what spells they had last cast and made notes of everyone's accounts. Bellatrix told them nothing, they tried to probe her, but she simply stared back at them and soon they gave up, assuming she was grieving the sudden death of her father. With some back and forth Dumbledore and Sirius were allowed to take Harry and Bellatrix to Hogwarts, and the medics took Hermione back to St. Mungo's hospital. It wasn't long after they had left that the Aurors found Antonin Dolohov and Druella Black hiding in an upstairs room with a gathering of suspicious items. They were taken into custody and it was concluded that they were planning to perform some ritual with Harry and had possibly killed Cygnus in some sort of disagreement, despite Mrs Black's horror upon hearing that her husband had been murdered in rooms below her. It was easy for them to patch together a story that looked good in a headline, where good had overcome evil just in time and Dumbledore insisted that they had his full support. Despite this being the conclusion of the case, rumours quickly gathered steam about Bellatrix's actions, many were now coming out of the woodwork claiming to have seen Hermione and Bellatrix together. Thus, Hogwarts was briming with whispers that it had in fact been Bellatrix who had killed her own father for her muggle born love, and that Dumbledore, in the interest of protecting children, had helped cover it up. Though there was a renewed fear of Bellatrix in the student body, the whole tale seemed too ridiculous to be worth protests to the ministry for a better investigation, and so it remained only a rumour.
Dumbledore leaned on his office desk and stared down at the items upon it: the ring, the goblet, the diary and all the objects he had collected over the years. Every horcrux had been destroyed, except for one. Harry potter. Dumbledore sighed deeply, when the last plot to bring back Voldemort had failed, dumbledore had upped his pace at finding the horcruxes, thinking that he would have time to remove them all. Then all he would have to do is keep Harry safe and hope that no one else knew about the small piece of Voldemort that lived within him. But he had failed, a plot had been carried out beneath his nose and the optimist in him had overlooked the daughter of a notorious death eater. Even at his age, he wished so badly that his past wouldn't define his actions that he projected that onto the children he taught. He shook off the negative thoughts, there was still hope. Bellatrix had done something undoable and extreme, but he knew she had done so for Hermione. There was hope for Bellatrix, that's why he had covered for her, so the ministry didn't make an example of her. He would make sure she took the right path from now on and he already knew the best way to do it, in fact he imagined they should be outside by now. He rose and walked swiftly to the office door and opened it just as McGonagall went to knock, behind her stood two women. They appeared to the unfamiliar eye as polar opposites, one stood tall and slim, her hair shocking white with strips of black and her eyes were piercing blue. Her face was serious to the point that one might imagine that the air around her might be colder than the rest of room. The other woman on the other hand was shorter and had fair brunette hair with matching fair brown eyes, everything about her radiated friendliness. The clothes she wore, her stance, her face and yet if you looked closer at her sharp jaw line and nose, a more trained eye would see they were related in some way.
"Ah, Mrs Malfoy and Mrs Tonks, thank you for coming on such short notice, please come in." Dumbledore stepped back to allow the two women into the room. "please take a seat"
As Dumbledore moved round to his desk, the two women looked at the three chairs in front of his desk and chose to sit at either end and leave the centre seat empty. He looked between them both "my condolences about your father".
"Thank you" Narcissa said shortly.
Andromeda gave a small polite smile and said nothing.
"I know I asked you here in order to discuss the custody of your younger sister Bellatrix now that your mother had been sentenced, but I have something slightly more serious to discuss." Dumbledore acknowledged the look of confusion on both of the sister's faces and pressed on. "I a not sure how to inform you sensitively, and I do hope you will Miss Black to explain, but…I'm afraid it was Bellatrix who took your father's life."
Two sets of wide eyes stared back at him in disbelief.
"is this some sort of wise, moral test to determine who's best fit to care for Bellatrix, because I assure you, she was his most loyal daughter" Narcissa noted darkly.
Andromeda gave her sister a sideways look "I can't say I know much about Bellatrix these days, but I think I would have to agree with my sister" Andromeda said grimly.
Dumbledore sighed and looked sadly at them both "I think there is a great deal about your little sister that you don't know, and I think that now is the time to perhaps, get to know her again."
"Now that she has allegedly murdered our father in cold blood?" Narcissa stared at Dumbledore like he had claimed the sky was pink.
"I'm not one to always side with the ministry, but I am also not a man who knowingly allows people who mean harm to others to walk the halls of my school. I think your sister was pushed to an extreme act by a good intention, and that now is the time to make sure she follows the right path." Dumbledore leaned onto the desk passionately, he begged Merlin that they would agree eventually.
"I am the last to defend our father, but with all due respect, what good intentions are there behind taking a life?" Andromeda's face was troubled and sad as she asked the question.
"Your father had been torturing another student whom Bellatrix had…grown very fond of. I believe her actions were a reaction to what he did to said student." Dumbledore said.
"Bellatrix is fond of Harry Potter?" Narcissa scoffed slightly.
"No" Dumbledore said it slowly and hesitated slightly at betraying Bellatrix's privacy "Bellatrix is fond of Hermione Granger, the muggle-born girl who was tortured and whose arm was mutilated, as you've no doubt heard."
Again, both sisters were stunned, and Andromeda turned to look fully at her sister. "you said that Bella was her father's daughter when you last wrote Cissy."
"Nothing she did ever suggested otherwise after she turned you in all those years ago, and almost got us both killed, Andy." Narcissa threw the nickname with spite, frustrated that Andromeda would refer to her own nickname in front of Dumbledore.
"As I said" Dumbledore interjected "there is much you don't know about your sister. So perhaps you might like to speak with her now?" Dumbledore gave a small hopeful smile to the women across from him.
Andromeda looked at Narcissa again and shrugged slightly "She is our responsibility now".
Narcissa frowned slightly "Yes I suppose she is." Though she was still undecided on how she felt, she must admit that motherhood had softened her.
"Excellent" Dumbledore rose from his desk immediately "she's outside waiting" He walked over to his office door and pulled it open to reveal the youngest Black sister. He ushered her in "I will leave you to it, if you need me then simply inform a portrait and I will pop back in to see what decisions have been made." He walked to the doorway and just as he went through it, turned back, and gave Bellatrix a warm, encouraging smile.
Bellatrix stood at the entrance of the office as the door behind her softly clicked shut. Turned round in the chairs before her sat her two older sisters. Narcissa gave her a wary and serious gaze, while Andromeda looked at her with wide eyes, as though she were drinking in the sight of her.
They all stood silent for a moment, Bellatrix wanted to stare strong at them, but she failed and looked down at her feet briefly. Suddenly Andromeda rose from her seat and walked over to her, it had been years since they had been in the same room, let alone that close to each other. Andromeda searched her face and as she did so, her eyes became glassy with tears, just as Bellatrix noticed this, Andromeda opened her arms wide and wrapped her arms around Bellatrix in a tight hug. Bellatrix smelt floral perfume and felt the heaves of her sister's chest as Andromeda began to cry. Bellatrix caught the eye of Narcissa over her other sister's shoulder as she began to reciprocate the hug and as they stared at one another, Bellatrix too began to cry. What began as mere tears turned into sobs.
"I'm so sorry" Bellatrix gripped her sister tighter "I never meant for either of you to get hurt." Years of guilt came pouring out.
With that Andromeda put her hand to Bellatrix's hair and began to shush her "It's okay Bella, we're all okay now, you were only young".
Narcissa watched her two sisters and could no longer keep her frozen exterior intact, she wiped the tears from her own eyes and with a sigh, she walked over to them. They accepted her into their embrace and the two older sisters stood and held their younger sister close, after what had felt like decades.
After a few moments they stopped their embrace and each woman composed themselves. "I think you have some explaining to do Bella" Narcissa said as she gently raised her wand to fix her makeup.
Bellatrix sat down and her sisters sat around her. "It's true, I killed father." Bellatrix let out a deep breath.
Narcissa and Andromeda gave one another a brief but concerned look. "but, how did it come to that" Andromeda questioned with sympathy in her voice.
Bellatrix felt her eyes becoming wet again. "Well, I won't go into too much detail but, me and Hermione became…close. It was an accident really, I knew that as time went on that people were wising up, then I got a letter from father. He wanted me to help him acquire Harry Potter sooner than his peers could arrange, so I agreed to help."
"why would you help him." Narcissa whispered.
"The man escaped from Azkaban in less than a year, you saw how close he got to Harry at the wizard cup. It was only a matter of time before he got closed again, whether I helped or not. I thought that if I could control how it happened, I could keep Hermione out of the way, I thought it was just revenge." Bellatrix stared at her feet, ashamed.
"You were happy to let him kill Harry, Sirius's god son, Hermione's friend." Andromeda looked at her with pleading eyes.
Bellatrix couldn't look at her "I saw what happened to you, imagine what father would have done to your husband. Well, I don't suppose we have to imagine anymore." Bellatrix said darkly. "I thought I could stomach it, if it meant I could keep Hermione and not be exiled with nothing."
"you wouldn't have had nothing; you still would have had us" Andromeda said and looked to Narcissa who looked a bit torn at that statement. "well you could have come to me, if anyone would have understood it's me"
"I thought you were both finished with me after what I did." Bellatrix looked between her sisters.
Narcissa sighed "I think that was my doing, I was cold to you since it happened. I just assumed that it was a sign you were following the same path as our father so, I shut you out." Her voice broke slightly at the end and she looked away, embarrassed of her emotion.
"If anything, I'm more like father now than I've ever been." Bellatrix gave a sullen look.
"Now don't say that" Andromeda puffed the words out passionately. "I know we've been apart all this time but, you are not like him. And..and well, if it had of been my Teddy on that floor, with that word on his arm like that, I would have done the same thing you did."
Narcissa raised her eyebrows and nodded "Bella, the only thing that bothers me is that you ever helped that man, I'm glad he's dead. We can live free now, we can all be sisters again." She gave a rare a genuine smile. "so, lets not dwell on what was done, lets think about what we will do, I was thinking now is a better time than any for Andy and I to have an extra pair of hands around the house."
Andy smirked "you know I have been thinking about a suitable babysitter, and me and Ted have a spare room, you could spend the time between us perhaps?" Andy looked to Narcissa with the question.
"you will have to learn to get along with Lucius, but I think with the amount of money we've both inherited will make him quite agreeable." Narcissa said thoughtfully.
"I suppose it's decided then" Andy smiled but then turned to Bella with a serious expression "But now that's sorted, you have other things to think about. Harry and Hermione deserve an explanation, and they have a lot of people who love them who deserve one also. You have your work cut out for you."
"I do" Bella said, but she was hopeful and ready to be completely honest for what felt like the first time in her life.