) Chapter Eight – Consequence (
The day after Slughorn's Christmas party, Bella woke up to find that, not only did she have a splitting headache thanks to the firewhiskey, but she was also infamous. Nothing spreads faster than good gossip, and the news that Regulus Black had punched his older brother in defense of his date was the best gossip that Hogwarts had seen since the news that James Potter and Lily Evans had become a couple. Bella found herself laying uselessly in her bed, half hiding from the curious stares and half with the hope that her head would stop pounding.
"Severus Snape is waiting outside for you," Regina said, entering the dorm room. She started taking off her dripping boots.
"Outside where?" Bella grunted from beneath her layers of blankets. The dungeon could be quite cold in winter.
"Outside the entrance to our dorm," Regina replied. "He looks agitated."
"When isn't he agitated?" Bella snorted, and uncovered her head to look at her dorm mate. "And since when do you use words like agitated?"
Regina stuck out her tongue at Bella, and after changing into dry clothing, left the room with some textbooks.
Bella dozed off. A short while later, her other dorm mate Vanessa entered.
"Bellatrix? Severus Snape's outside, you know. He wants to see you."
Bella roused from her unpleasant dozing to throw off her covers. She marched out of the dorm room without paying any attention to her bed head or striped nightgown. Snape was in the doorway to her dorm just inside the common room glowering at her, and she strode toward him furiously, looking demented with her tousled hair.
"What do you want, Snape?"
As it was Sunday, a couple of other Slytherins were in the common room studying, and they looked up at her exclamation.
"Guess!" he snapped.
"No, tell me!"
He roughly gripped her arm and pulled her into a corner so no one could overhear them.
"It's bad enough that your magic is worse than useless," Snape hissed, "but parading around like a grand fool at a party, intoxicated and having boys fight over you…"
"Is that what everyone's saying?" Bella asked, feeling proud in spite of the chastisement. "That they were fighting over me?"
"Since when does it matter what people say about you, Bella!" Snape countered. He lowered his voice. "You have lost sight of our goal—to develop our skills so that when we graduate we might serve him! You are frolicking like a foolish girl!"
"For your information, I am a girl, and you never used that as an insult on me before!"
"I never had to!"
Bella could do nothing more than glare at him; she knew in her heart that he was right.
Snape sighed. "Bellatrix, I am going to have to report you to your father."
She paled. "You can't. You wouldn't!"
If her father heard how she had slacked…she couldn't begin to imagine what punishment he would wreak upon her!
"I can and I would. You seem to have lost sight of what an honor and privilege we have…to become Death Eaters right after school…"
"I'll do better!" Bella said, bordering on desperation.
"You've said that before," Snape pointed out sadly. "I have to report you, Bella. I should have a long time ago. If I had, you might not have strayed so far."
"Snape, please," she whispered, as close to begging as she could ever get.
"Your magic hasn't been improving! I have to!"
"I told you, it's not my fault! I can't control it!"
"If you really can't control it, then you should see Pomfrey like I said!"
"I thought you were joking!"
"I wasn't. Go see Pomfrey, Bella, if you are convinced there's something wrong with you. The holidays are coming up, anyway, so your father will know your laxness when he sees you. Use the holidays to get yourself in order, or I will report you in January."
Bella relaxed somewhat. "Thank you, Severus!"
"Then go!" he said. "Today!"
Bella found herself sitting on a bed in the empty hospital wing, telling Pomfrey all she could about her ailment. Pomfrey took notes as she questioned Bella, looking serious.
"And how long has your magic been irregular?" the nurse asked.
"Off and on for a month, I'd say," Bella replied.
"And what is the weakest you've gotten?"
"The weakest?"
"The least amount of magic you could muster when you tried to do a spell."
Bella thought. A time where she had tried to levitate Sirius' shoe to him after one of their "sessions" came to mind.
"I…tried levitating a shoe. I couldn't even get it off the ground. It was as if I was…I was a Squib…or a—a Muggle."
Pomfrey wrote something down. "And what is the most powerful spell you have done?"
That one was easy. "I accidentally blew up a desk."
"A desk."
"Yes, a desk."
"Where was this?"
"Um…after class one time. I wasn't even trying to."
Technically, it was after class…and she hadn't been trying to hex the desk…she had been reaching for her wand for another reason...
It's interesting that my highest fluctuations have been with Sirius, Bella noted.
Pomfrey wrote something else.
"All right, dearie, I have an idea what it is. It's surprisingly common for girls in your year. I won't say anything until I'm sure, though, so hold your horses and I'll grab a test."
Bella waited for a few minutes, curious about the ailment that could be so common that she had never heard of. Pomfrey returned with tray holding a cup and a parchment. She held out the cup.
"I'll need some of your urine, dear," Pomfrey said.
Bella blinked. "My what?"
"You know where the bathroom is from your last stay, I presume," Pomfrey said cheerfully.
Bella nodded, slowly slipped off the bed, and plodded to the bathroom. When she returned, Pomfrey was taking notes.
"Here," Bella said, holding out the half-full cup with a disgusted expression.
Pomfrey took a dropper off the tray and took used it to drop a couple of drops of urine onto the parchment. She watched Pomfrey's expression curiously.
"Well, dearie, I have some good or bad news, depending on how you look at it!"
"What?" Bella asked, relieved that the mystery was solved on the first try. She was excited to have control of her magic again. "What is it?"
"You're going to have a baby!"
It was as if the words went in one ear and out the other. They were utterly incomprehensible.
"Come again?"
"You're going to be a mother!"
Pomfrey showed Bella the paper. It was titled, "Mistress Webber's Guaranteed Home Pregnancy Test: Only One Drop Needed!" There was a circle on top, with the words "One Yellow Drop Here, and All Your Questions Answered!" Below the wet circle were the words: "Percentage of Probability of Pregnancy: 98 Percent Certain." The percentage was in green.
"H-how?"
"I think you know how, dear," the woman tittered. "That's why your magic is off. The baby is developing its own magic, and it tends to interfere with the mother's magic, making it unpredictable. Some witches don't notice a great change, but most do. I'd advice being very careful with your magic until the baby is born. Your teachers should be notified of the situation, and they will make special accommodations for you."
Bella had no words. There were no words.
Pomfrey patted her shoulder. "Your situation is actually more common than people let on. All girls in your situation are shocked at first, but look on the bright side: you'll be graduated and married to the father before the baby is ever born!"
"I'm not marrying the father!" Bella yelled.
Pomfrey jumped at the outburst. "Why—whyever not?"
"Are you joking?" Bella exclaimed. "Me marry the father?"
The image was absurd: Bella and Sirius in a shotgun wedding that neither Sirius' friends nor Bella's family attended, with only Bella's huge stomach and a couple of Ministry officials as witnesses. It was so idiotic, Bella started cackling.
"But why wouldn't you marry the father?" the nurse asked confusedly. "This is usually a good opportunity to force the man to marry you!"
"Lady, I am not marrying the father," Bella laughed. "He is an ass!"
"Then why would you engage in such relations…?" the nurse asked, red-faced.
"Because we were careful! We used all the right spells! This wasn't supposed to happen!"
"Dear, even the most advanced spells aren't one hundred percent guaranteed…"
"Evidently! Now how do I get rid of it?"
"Get—get rid of it?"
"Yes. Remove it. Kill it. Whatever. How do I do that?"
"Bellatrix, there is no spell in the wizarding world that has been legalized yet—it is extremely, extremely dangerous…safe methods haven't been established…"
"Muggles have managed to find a way, have they not?"
"Why, yes, but abortions are not encouraged…the Ministry frowns upon witches having them…Muggle medicine and all…"
"Abortions? That's what they're called?" Bella confirmed, slowly reaching into her sweater.
"Yes, yes, abortions. But…"
"Thank you," Bella said, satisfied. She whipped out her wand, and exclaimed, "Obliviate!"
Pomfrey's eyes immediately glazed over for a moment. Bella banished the tray, cup, and parchment with a flick of her wand. When Bella was done, Pomfrey blinked confusedly.
"Why, hello there, Miss Black! Why are you here today? Didn't get into another fight with those Gryffindor boys, now, did you?"
"I think I'm coming down with a cold," Bella lied. "May I have a few of those De-coughing Drops?"
"Why, of course!" Pomfrey said happily. "It'll be just a moment…"
It was a strange isolation that Bella felt as she wandered the halls of Hogwarts, very aware of the abomination that had been growing in her for a month. It was a vicious parasite that had no right to take over her life. Her magic, her most prized part of herself, was being affected. Not only that, her reputation, which she regarded almost as much as her magic, was in danger. If word ever got out…
She passed a group of Ravenclaws who were wet, snowy, and laughing heartily at something juvenile. Most were seventh years like Bella. Unlike her, they were still children. Bella was no longer a child; she, in an instant, had become grown up. She now had a taste of the consequences of her actions, and it was a bitter, bitter taste.
"All packed for the holidays?" Andromeda's voice came to her. "Christmas at Grimmauld Place! It'll be so fun with Regulus and his friends—and Mum said Father's even going to be here this year!"
Bella paused and leaned against the cold stone wall of the passage, looking pained.
Father. And Mother. If they ever found out about this, she had no doubt they would put her through the worst Cruciatus Curse she could imagine. She had brought shame upon their family in the worst way: fraternizing not only with a Gryffindor, but a family traitor.
What was I thinking? Bella agonized. The victorious feeling of disobeying Druella so blatantly was gone from her. She had played with fire, and had gotten scorched. She had shamed herself, her family, and the cause of Lord Voldemort, the man she had been dying to one day meet and serve. How could she even dare to face him now?
Bella felt a foreign feeling overcome her: a mixture of desperation and anger. No one could know about the thing inside her. It had to go. It didn't deserve to live. She hated it, hated it deeply.
She would find a way to get herself out of this mess, no matter what it took.