You Taught Me Language Chapter 11: Dumbledore, a harry potter fanfic

"Today, we revisit the International Warlock Convention of 1289, which we discussed in your second year," droned Professor Binns. "As I'm sure you well recall, the Sardinian contingent of wizards at the convention was particularly interested in standardising magical currency for the purposes of easing trade. It was difficult enough, they asserted, to cope with the fact that each principality and locality had its own Muggle currency, but to add on differing local wizarding currencies was too complicated. However, they faced steep opposition from the Galicians, who were quite interested in maintaining their uniquely beautiful Aranoso coinage. An attempt was made by the Sardinians to standardise the lovely Galician Aranoso as the universal European wizarding currency, but ultimately no progress was made on this front."

Bellatrix dragged the nib of her quill over her blank parchment. She was meant to be taking notes in History of Magic lessons, but she just couldn't bring herself to care in the slightest. Lord Voldemort had written to her to tell her that she was meant to come home on her birthday, so how could she possibly care about lessons? Professor Binns kept bleating on about the International Warlock Convention of 1289, and Bellatrix finally dipped her quill into some ink, bringing the nib to her parchment as she wrote a letter to the Headmaster who was in his first year, the wizard who was Lord Voldemort's sworn enemy.

Dear Professor Dumbledore,

I am writing to inform you of my withdrawal from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. I shall be continuing my education elsewhere. As soon as I have turned seventeen years of age, I shall leave the school permanently. I trust there will be no impediment to my departure. I wish you and all the staff and students well in all future endeavours, and I thank you kindly for the stellar education I have been given here at Hogwarts.

Warm regards,

Bellatrix Black

"After the great argument surrounding European wizarding currency," droned Professor Binns, "Goblins across the Continent attempted to establish a bank to unify the finances of witches and wizards throughout all of Europe."

Somehow, Bellatrix made it through the rest of the lesson without falling asleep. By the time people started standing up and walking out of the classroom, she was yawning and utterly bored. Voldemort's lessons on history were so much more interesting than Binns' lectures, she thought. She walked with the masses of students out into the corridors, and she made her way toward the Great Hall for lunch.

"Bellatrix?" As she slid into the bench at the Slytherin table, a figure arranged himself on the bench opposite her. Rodolphus. Bellatrix just stared. She held a soft roll in her hands and chewed a bite, and she finally reached for a goblet of water to wash it down.

"I just wanted to ask you about your wedding," Rodolphus said, and Bellatrix cleared her throat.

"What about my wedding?"

Rodolphus pinched his lips and folded his hands on the table. "I would have given you a nice, big wedding. A beautiful white gown, with you marching down the aisle to me."

"Yes, I know," Bellatrix nodded. "I'm aware that that's what our wedding would have been, Rodolphus."

"And there's a rumour that you and he are going to marry at the Ministry, just the two of you," Rodolphus said. Bellatrix frowned deeply.

"I don't see what business it is of yours."

"I want you to be happy," Rodolphus pressed. "I would have spent these next two years making you so happy as your intended, and then we would have had a grand wedding, and then I would have -"

"Don't worry, Rodolphus. I'm going to be extremely happy," Bellatrix assured him. "Don't you worry yourself for even one moment over my happiness. My next two years will be spent in bliss, and my wedding will be just what I want, and then I shall live quite happily with my husband, the lord we shall all serve. All of us, in due time."

Rodolphus tipped his head and nodded. "I think he's given you a potion. A love potion."

"That's rich," Bellatrix scoffed. "I'm not marrying you, and I love him, so clearly I've been dosed with a love potion? That's something, Rodolphus."

His cheeks went red. He opened his mouth to speak, but then suddenly he went quiet, flicking his eyes to the side as a figure approached the table. Bellatrix turned and saw Albus Dumbledore walking right up to her. He had concern in his pale blue eyes, and he seemed to be studying her very closely.

"Miss Black," said Dumbledore in a soft voice, "Forgive an old man his mental folly, but I had the impression when you walked into the Great Hall today that you had something to deliver to me. Was that your intention? I do not mean to interrupt what I am certain is an illuminating conversation with Mr Lestrange, but…"

"As it happens, sir, I have got something for you. And you can open it right here, right in front of Rodolphus," Bellatrix said, tipping up her chin a bit. She reached into her leather knapsack and pulled out the parchment she'd filled out in her History of Magic lesson. She handed it up to Professor Dumbledore, who took it in his fingers with a delicate grasp. He peered over his half-moon spectacles and read aloud,

"Dear Professor Dumbledore,

Warm regards,

Bellatrix Black"

Rodolphus Lestrange looked like he'd swallowed a toad. He stared at Bellatrix, who raised her brows proudly, and his eyes went round as saucers. Bellatrix looked up at Professor Dumbledore, and he rolled the letter into a scroll. He tucked it into his robes and folded his hands before him. He shook his head a little, his face serious.

"Miss Black, I could not possibly advise strongly enough against this plan Tom Riddle has hatched for you."

"I assure you, sir, that it was me who begged him to let me come home." That was the truth, too, Bellatrix thought. But Dumbledore tipped his head and scratched a little at his hair beneath his tasseled hat.

"Tom Riddle," he began, "is a uniquely manipulative fellow. I do not doubt that you asked him to leave school. I do not doubt that you were elated to receive an offer of marriage from him. I also do not doubt -"

"Please, sir, if I may interrupt," Bellatrix cut in rudely, her voice snapping and her thick brows furrowing, "When I was twelve years old, I was the one beseeching Mr Riddle to teach me what he knew. There was no manipulation then, and there is no manipulation now."

Dumbledore licked his bottom lip and nodded. "I've no doubt that it is difficult to see, from where you stand. Tom Riddle obscures things very well."

"You certainly ascribe him all manner of talent," Bellatrix pointed out, "for someone who thinks so little of him."

"On the contrary, Miss Black," Dumbledore said almost sadly, "I am in awe of Mr Riddle. It is why I believe him to be so very dangerous… for you more than just about anyone else. For you, still, are not wholly Darkened, Miss Black. You may believe yourself to be, but you are not. I know it. Go home on your birthday, surrender yourself mind, body, and soul to Tom Riddle, and you will be lost forever. How could I, in good conscience, allow such a thing?"

Bellatrix scoffed quietly and stared right at him. "How could you stop it, Professor?"

Albus Dumbledore gazed down at Bellatrix again, and she felt an odd prickle inside her skull. All of a sudden, she saw images rushing behind her eyes. Voldemort teaching her about poisons, the two of them discussing her aspirations of using the Cruciatus Curse, kissing Voldemort after stealing wine, begging him at King's Cross not to send her back.

"Get out of my head!" Bellatrix shrieked, and very abruptly, the Great Hall fell silent. Students stopped their conversations. Rodolphus Lestrange stared at Bellatrix like she had three heads. And Albus Dumbledore took a large, slow step backward.

"Perhaps," he said quietly, "more damage has already been done than I had thought. And you are right, Miss Black. There is nothing I can do - not in the bylaws of the school, nor in the Ministry's laws - to detain you on these grounds after your seventeenth birthday. I can notify your parents now, since you are still sixteen, of your intention to leave, but somehow I suspect they will be neither surprised nor disappointed in you. I suspect that on the twenty-first of September, Tom Riddle will be waiting for you somewhere in Hogsmeade, seeing as you haven't got an Apparition licence yet. I can follow you down to the village and confront him…"

Bellatrix narrowed her eyes as the heavy silence around them just seemed to grow weightier and more significant. Dumbledore finished,

"But I fail to see what that would accomplish, aside from some property damage and a few scrapes and bruises and some wounded pride. No. It is best, I think, to simply let you go of your own volition, and I thank you most kindly for the considerate notification of your withdrawal. Educating you here has been an honour, a privilege, and a pleasure, and you will be sorely missed at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."

"Will I?" Bellatrix smirked. Dumbledore nodded, looking around.

"The time before lessons begin again is quickly slipping away from you all," he said loudly, "Please, students, do hurry up and eat."

Author's Note: And in the next chapter, we'll actually get to see her come home and be of age and everything that goes along with that. Mwah hahahaha. Thanks for reading and reviewing.