Chapter 4

Never Loved Him

AN: Strong language displayed by our dear sister Bella in this chapter. You have been warned…

Outside winter was fading into spring. Through the melting blanket of snow a few brave blades of grass pushed their way up towards the sun - just that there was no sun. Not that day. The sky was grey and gloomy over Sheffield, the streets empty save for the one stray cat clawing at a dustbin.

Inside the Black's residence it was anything but quiet.

"No, no, no, Druella!" Sirius heard his mother's muffled voice through the floorboards of his cousin Cissy's room. "I think October would be much nicer!"

"June is much closer though, far more convenient, Walburga." his Aunt Druella's voice said.

"I couldn't agree more with you, Druella." a third female voice sounded up from the kitchen. "And the weather in October has the potential to be disastrous. I'm not risking it, I say it should be in June."

"Fine," Walburga huffed. "but then we can't go with the emerald accents, it's far too dark a colour for summer."

"Walburga has a point," Sirius heard his aunt say, "it's a shame not to use it, but I guess light blue will do the job."

"Absolutely not blue, Druella! Only over my dead body will I have Ravenclaw colours at this wedding. Nor red or yellow, I'm just not having it!"

He heard his aunt let out an exasperated sigh "Well how about lavender then? Such a pretty colour."

Sirius heard a cup being put down and then the third woman in the kitchen spoke up. "I agree, lavender would bring her eyes out beautifully. It's just her kind of colour."

"Oh, Eldalie, you're ever so right." his aunt Druella said quietly. "I think lavender must be the colour of her aura!"

Sirius sat bolt upright from where he had been lying with, his ear pressed against the floorboards as the door to his cousin's room was flung open.

A grey little House Elf stood in the doorway, hands on hips and ears swaying. "Young Master Black, is not meant to listen in on Mistress Black!"

Sirius rolled his eyes, standing up. "Go away, Bibsy, nobody asked for your company." he said, towering over the small Elf.

"Bibsy is not pleased with young Master Black's manners! Young Master Black is eavesdropping on Mistress Black's private conversation. Bibsy is not pleased, at all!"

"Go eat a sock!" Sirius growled giving the House Elf a well-aimed kick out of the door.

-S-

The following day at breakfast, Hogwarts…

"Did you finish that Ancient Runes essay, Maddy?" Narcissa asked, scribbling notes on a long piece of parchment.

Madison gave her a funny look, swatting Finn's probing hands away. "…Sort of. I just rambled on a bit, have no idea what I was doing." she grinned. "Did you?"

Narcissa nodded at the parchment in her lap, not taking her eyes off of it. "Does it count if I'm doing it now?"

"Mail's here." Lucius stated, ignoring his girlfriend's frantic writings.

Heads turned in the Great Hall as dozens of owls, in different shapes and sizes, came gliding in soundlessly. Immediately loud chattering swelled as parcels and letters were dropped in bowls of cereal and jugs of pumpkin juice. Why was it that the owls always managed to find their master, and then always failed to aim? You'd think they put that last bit of effort in, wouldn't you?

A dark, Cape Eagle Owl swooped down in front Bellatrix who was seated a few seats away. Bellatrix completely ignored it and continued ripping her toast to shreds. The owl was visibly not impressed and hopped a bit closer, jabbing his outstretched leg at her. Bellatrix glared at it. It glared back.

By now most of the Slytherin's were watching the stare-off between the ill-tempered girl and the persistent bird. Who was going to break down first? Girl or owl?

The owl gave an annoyed hoot and hopped another few centimetres closer. Bellatrix scowled at it and snatched the letter from it's beak. Most people quickly turned back to their cereal, not wanting to be caught staring by the oldest Black girl. Bella ripped open the seal growling at a first year who dared glance at her.

"Someone's in a cheery mood today." Finn muttered, hugging Maddy to his chest.

They all watched as Bella's eyes hardened even more (if that's even possible) and she balled her hands into fists, bunching and tearing the parchment at the sides.

"Yes, Finn, definitely cheery." Lucius said flatly.

Bellatrix suddenly stood up, slamming her fist on the table and stormed out of the Great Hall pushing an unsuspecting second year roughly out of her way.

"Wow," Finn's blue eyes were wide "she's like a rampaging Rhino. Awesome!"

Lucius raised his eyebrow at him and Maddy wiggled out of his arms and gave him 'the look'.

"Mature Finn. Real mature." Narcissa said, standing up too.

"Where you going?" Lucius frowned "Class doesn't start for another twenty minutes."

"Checking that the 'rampaging Rhino' doesn't actually kill someone…or worse." she sighed. "Anyone want to come?"

The others all looked at each other. "Um, I think I'll go over that essay again." Madison said hastily, pulling her bag over to her.

"I'll pass this time, but thanks for asking." Finn turned his attention to his jam roll.

"No way, Darcy. If I'm going, then you're going." Lucius stood and picked up his bag.

"But you're not going. Are you, Malfoy?" Finn pulled his friend back down onto the bench, giving him a pointed look.

"I'm not letting Cis alone with Bella. Are you insane! I'm going and you're coming with me." Lucius tried to stand again but Finn still had a strong hold on his robes.

Finn put his face very close to Lucius's one. "Are you insane? Bella's going to chop us into little bits of meat and eat us." he hissed "Or feed us to that bloody Giant Squid!" Lucius just rolled his eyes "Let go of me, Darcy."

Finn ignored his friend and continued "You remember that time she went ballistic in Arithmancy and burned Stevenson's hair off? And that was just because he said good morning to her!" Finn looked down the Slytherin table at a bald, dejected looking guy. "Look at him, Luce! That was two bloody years ago and his hair still hasn't grown back! Bella's mental, I refuse to go follow her. That's like…suicide."

"Finn, you're a prefect and I'm Head Boy. We have a duty to the other students at this school to keep them safe. That includes angry girls."

"Crazy lunatic monsters more like it." Finn snorted.

"Finn…"Lucius warned.

"I did not sign up for being a bloody prefect!" he growled, finally standing up.

The three Slytherins ran down to their common room, the most likely place where Bellatrix would be. And they were right.

"Bloody hell." Finn whistled through his teeth. The common room was totally destroyed; paintings were ripped, glass was shattered, couches shredded, tapestries torn to bits. And in the midst of it stood Bella, her chest heaving, eyes flashing and fists balled at her sides.

"Bella…?" Narcissa slowly approached her sister with caution. "Um, are you…alright?"

"Do I look like I'm fucking alright to you!" Bellatrix screamed storming right up to her sister, their faces only inches apart. The boys flinched back. She was like an enraged Hippogriff, caution was strongly recommended. "Our mother has gone fucking crazy! She's fucking up my entire fucked up life even fucking more!" she waved a battered looking piece of parchment in Narcissa's face.

"Dude," Finn whispered over to Lucius, "that chick has serious anger management issues."

Narcissa grabbed the letter and slowly lowered her eyes to read it. "Seriously?" she breathed quietly after she'd finished scanning her mother's slanted writing.

"Does mother ever fucking joke around? Yes, she's bloody serious!" Bellatrix threw out her fist, successfully knocking a china vase to the ground.

"Hey! That was my favourite one!" Finn muttered, crossing his arms. Lucius just gave him a funny look.

"No, of course she's serious. What I'm asking is why in the name of Merlin's knobbly knees are you making such a big fuss about it?"

"Me? Big fuss? Are you fucking kidding me! She wants me to go off and get hitched with some guy!" At this the boys raised an interested eyebrow, Finn's favourite vase forgotten.

Narcissa let out an exasperated sigh. "Bella, it's not just 'some guy', it's just Rodolphus…your boyfriend!"

"Exactly my point, sister of mine, it's Rodolphus! Come on, you can't seriously think I wanted to marry that oaf."

"Um, yeah…?"

Bellatrix's jaw slackened. "Seriously? Do you really think my standards are that low, Cissy? I mean, just look at him, he's a complete troll! Who in their right mind would want to marry something bloody awful like that?"

"Well, you have been snogging him for at least three years…so I just assumed…"

"What? That I actually loved the guy?" Bella snorted. "Not everything's a fucking fairytale, Princess. We're human, we use each other. So I used him. There was never any love, just sex."

Lucius and Finn looked down at their feet uncomfortably. That was classified information that they hadn't necessarily wanted to hear about their classmates. But they hand and they'd probably never get the mental images out of their head. "Uh, I…umm…left my book in the Hall. Come and get it with me?" Finn quietly asked Lucius as he slowly backed away towards the exit to their common room. "Yeah, I think I left my quill up there too." Lucius nodded. Alright, so he was leaving his girlfriend alone in a room with her deranged sister, but he'd just had to escape.

Finn was just letting out the breath he's been holding as he walked out of the entrance…and bumped into someone else.

"Oh, hey, Rodolphus…." he trailed off. Woops.

Rodolphus was standing just outside the doorway, a letter in his hand and what had once been an excited smile melting away. He'd definitely heard some of the conversation.

Oh, dear.

He'd loved her.

Poor Rodolphus…

AN: Sorry for the slow update guys, first week back in school's been slow. As it is.

Also sorry for the shortness of this chapter, but hey, last chapter was long so you can't complain!

I just wanted to let you know that this is when the story starts picking up a bit of pace. I've got bits and pieces of later chapters written up, but it still may take a while to get them finished.

I brought a bit of Sirius in, because you all seemed to like him. And of course, everybody's favourite, Finn had a few things going on too. :D

Read and Review peeps, you know how it works!

-alicerosemalfoy