Hey all, this is from Ginny's POV, with lots of Bellatrix and a touch of Belladolphus. I know I promised one shots, and these are...just interlocking one shots...
Ginny isn't quite sure why she Apparated out of the house on a cold January night. She's even less sure why she goes to the Leaky Cauldron. There's no one else there. At first, Ginny isn't even sure its open. She turns slowly. A women stands in the shadows behind the bar, reading the Daily Prophet. Her face is thin and pale, and dark eyes filled with sadness seem to take up her entire face. Thick curls of black hair, streaked here and there with gray. Purple robes draped over a small, frail body. Ginny knows who this is. She knows that she was not sent back to Azkaban with her husband, because she was proven to be crazy. But somehow, the broken woman in front of her does not seem to be the same person that she dueled with eight months before. The fire is gone from her eyes, and the manic anger gone from her face. If anything, the woman in front of Ginny just looks sad.
" Excuse me, Ms. Lestrange, can I get a butterbeer?" Ginny keeps her voice soft and quiet.
When Bellatrix looks up, her face is full of surprise, and then gratitude. Ginny can see that it has been a long time since someone has been kind, or at least civil, to Bellatrix Lestrange.
"Sure. Ms. Weasley. Sit where you want." Bellatrix's voice is slightly hoarse, but there is none of the mocking anger Ginny remembers it having. Maybe she's changed. It would make sense, Ginny thinks. So much else has changed. She herself is not the same girl she was less than a year before.
Ginny smiles a little, and sits down at the bar.
The clock in the corner ticks the time by. It's quiet. Too quiet, in a way that makes Ginny's head hurt and her ears hurt and her heart hurt most of all. Before the war, before everything, her home would never be this quiet. Now, it almost always is. Without Fred, George is quiet and moody, and wanders, as if lost, around the home he grew up in. Ginny's mother, too, is strangely quiet. Its as if the words in her died along with her son that fateful night in May. Her other brothers are never in the house now. They hate the silence as much as Ginny, but they have other places to go. Ginny decides to break the silence.
"Your robes are lovely, Ms. Lestrange." Ginny actually means this. The robes are a deep, rich purple that reminds her of her room at Hogwarts.
"Thank you." A small smile just manages to play around Bellatrix's full lips. "They are some of the only things that we where allowed to keep. Not that I'm ungrateful, for the chance to start again is wonderful, but it is very hard…" Her voice trailed off, and she looks into the distance, her eyes even sadder.
Ginny is not sure what to say to that. Bellatrix surprises her by being the first to speak again. Her hands draw patterns on the worn wood counter as she speaks.
" I did things I regret. Everyone thinks that Bellatrix Lestrange doesn't have a heart, has no regrets, is just a cold, crazy, sadistic murderer. " Bellatrix laughs, a hard, bitter sound with no joy. " How wrong they are. I regret more than anything. But I made a choice that I thought would last forever. But then I didn't. Funny, how when you need to start over everything seems to be dragging you back to the past."
Bellatrix turns, waves her wand, and a glass filled with butterbeer soars through the air toward her. She hands it to Ginny.
"So you regret what you did?" Ginny immedietly regrets her question. She expects Bellatrix's rage, insults, and curses. She is shocked when she sees tears falling slowly down Bellatrix's face.
"I do. " Bellatrix says quietly. " I do." The tears fall faster, and she lets out a small sob.
Ginny bites her lip. This was not what she expected. She looks at the clock. To her surprise, an hour has passed.
"Look, Ms. Lestrange, Bellatrix, I'll take you to your husband, OK? Don't cry. Please don't cry though." Ginny does not know what to say, only that she has seen too many tears recently.
Bellatrix just shakes her head, burying her head in her hands.
"Bella? Are you OK?" Ginny turns. Relief washes over her. A tall man with thick brown hair has just Apparated in. He quickly crosses the space between him and Bellatrix and wraps his arms around her. Bellatrix quiets in his arms, and Ginny slips out, unnoticed.
Things truly are not like they were a year before, Ginnny thinks to herself as she enters Diagon Alley. She has never been at night. She could just apparate home, but suddenly she has no intention of returning to her cold quiet home. Her pace quickens as she walks, quickly, down the dark streets. Her mind turns to Harry. The boy who lived, who became the man she loves. He's away. Ginny can't go see him now. As she walks, Ginny does not notice the slim figure in front of her.
With a yell, she collides with a certain Draco Malfoy.
I know there was not a lot of pure Ginny here, but there will be more in the Draco Malfoy chapter. Also, I had to put a few things in about Bellatrix. Actually, who am I kidding? I just love Bellatrix and making her fragile and sad and regretful. So yeah. But bear with me here and shoot me review or a PM, because as the Beatles put it, all you need is love. And Reviews = Love.