Hermione was still trying to pull Ron off Draco when Bella entered. Ron was astride Draco blood spattered from his broken nose across both their shirts, slamming Draco's head repeatedly into the tiled kitchen floor. She watched, unamused, for a moment before clearing her throat loudly.
The three turned and looked at her. Dry blood was clumped in her long dark hair and her clothes dripped, her hood was down and for the first time all three saw her face.
"I think I'm going to be sick… Again." Ron groaned and covered his mouth.
Bella's eyes narrowed, she straightened her stance and stuck her nose in the air. It was the posture she was all too familiar with as a Black, but it was ruined by the – all too common - roll of her eyes.
"It is done." Bella snapped. "I have to go back and watch over him, but I thought you'd like to know that Miss Granger's plan worked. He's no longer comatose, just sleeping. I will not know the full extent of the damage until he awakens again." She bowed and left the three standing, crouched and sitting, shocked.
Draco pushed Ron off him and quickly stood. "See! I told you, you knew what you were doing!" He exclaimed, pulling Hermione into a tight embrace.
"And I told you… Wait…He's?" Hermione pulled back and rested a hand over her heart.
Draco smirked, taking both her hands and dancing her around the room. "You did it! You did it!" He sang.
Ron glanced at them and gagged, "…I really am going to be sick."
Fate, Bella thought as she gazed into the mirror in Harry's room. She threaded her hand through her hair and pulled out some of the globules of congealed blood that had begun to stick her hair together in some hellish parody of dread-locks.
-was a bitch! Oh how hilarious, Bella whined internally. Let's make Bellatrix Lestrange and Harry Potter the only two of some new Dark Creature species and see how that turns out! Sparks will fly! She huffed and made another attempt to un-clump her hair.
This is stupid, how can I, in the span of little over an hour go from hating Potter to… Liking him? No, it's more than that - feeling attracted to him? Eugh, Salazar help me! I am not attracted to the Boy Wonder! I just feel… A sense of perverted kinsman-ship with him!
She stared deeply into her reflections eyes. Maybe… Maybe we have mates? She speculated. Thus because Potter is the only other creature of our type in existence we have to… And why am I not repulsed by this? I'm not attracted to Potter, I'm NOT.
Bella let her head fall forward and press against the cool mirror's surface. Why do I feel a deep ache inside me? What is it that I want? What are my instincts telling me?
She growled in frustration, and punched the glass; it shattered and tinkled as the silver slithers hit the floor.
"That's seven years bad luck you know." A deep, raspy voice said behind her.
She turned sharply, her eyes narrowed, "You, are supposed to be asleep." She all but hissed at him.
Harry shrugged, "Not when people are smashing mirrors." He was propped up on his elbows, gazing at her curiously.
She rolled her eyes, gazed back at him for a moment then frowned. "Wait… Do you remember who I am?"
He looked at her intently, his head tilting to the side like a puppy. "You look familiar but… The person I'm thinking of doesn't have blue skin, metallic eyes, and weird markings on her face. What ARE you by the way?"
Bella sighed and rubbed her eyes. How do I tell the Gryffindor Golden Boy he is no longer human?
"Potter… I'm…" Bella cleared her throat. "WasBellatrix Lestrange… But now I am a…" She sighed. "Well we don't really have a name for what we are. A twisted creature Voldemort decided to create for his own sick pleasure."
Harry blinked, his whole body seemed to tense up. "…You. You killed…"
"I do not kill wizards!" Bella shouted hurriedly, before looking down at her blood stained hands. "Well… To a point." She shrugged. "I mean… I didn't kill the Longbottoms or Sirius. They just…" She stuttered, her hands making vague gestures again.
Harry's eye narrowed and he struggled to sit up properly. "Where am I?"
"Your safe, just as I said before. I am a prisoner, just as you have been for the last few years." She said leaning against far wall. She let herself slide down and rested on the floor, her back pressing up against the wall trying to get further away from Potter.
"A few years! Years! What's going on?" Harry shook his head, then clasped it between his hands and moaned. "Ow."
Bella watched him, "Yes Potter, years. I don't know exactly how many… Do you remember the battle?"
"Battle…?" He looked lost. His eyes darted around erratically before narrowing. "…I remember, Lucius and Macnair… The axe… Pain… Screaming, my screaming?" He gasped and reached behind himself to feel his back, his hand running down the long, wide scar.
"Yes…" Bella hissed her eyes slid closed. She felt an almost unbearable amount of anger and rage fill her when she thought about what Macnair had done to her Childe. "Macnair almost killed you with that blow. You're lucky to be alive."
"But, 'a few years'?" Harry glared at her. "Lestrange, why are you here?"
Bella winced at the use of her late husband's last name. "To save you. Your friend, Weasley, tracked me down. He captured me and brought me here, to give you life again."
Harry was very confused at this point; "Why would you do that?"
"Because…" Bella sighed and opened her eyes. She levelled a defeated look at him. "I am no longer what I used to be. Bellatrix Lestrange died some years ago in an experiment. What you see now is Bella, a reject from Voldemort's…" She could not stop her hands from gesturing, again."Meddling."
"Oh…" Harry's eyes shifted over her following the path of her markings, down her cheeks across her collarbone under her tattered dress. She had removed her soiled cloak before he'd woken up.
"As you can probably tell, I no longer take orders from Voldemort or anyone else for that matter, I am the first and last of a species that should never have existed… At least until about two hours ago." Bella shivered, as much as she was proud of what she had become that didn't make it right.
"What do you mean?" Harry groaned his head falling into his hands again.
"…Harry." She used his first name to get his attention, he looked up their eyes locking. "Your friends have tried everything to wake you up-"
"Wake me up?" Harry was so confused. What was going on?
She sighed, "You were in a chemically induced coma, say thanks to Pansy for that one. They, well Granger has been working 'round the clock from what I heard from Weasley to bring you back from la-la land…"
Salazar can I get through one sentence without my hands making flailing gestures! It was an old habit she'd had as a child, though she'd thought she had overcome it with years of pure-blood conditioning. Apparently not.
"Their last hope was me and my venom. It appears… That it has worked." Silence. It rang for what seemed like an age, she could see him putting the pieces into place. She looked down, she truly felt sorry for what she had been forced to do.
She really had no other choice. Weasley had told her when he had captured her, shoving that forsaken ultra-violet silver contraption in her face. 'Follow my orders or I will make you feel true pain.' As much as she'd find a kind of release in death, she just couldn't bare the shame of being tortured by a Weasley. It all came down to pride, it always did for her.
"So, I'm… What exactly?" Harry looked up at her with big metallic green eyes. He glanced down at his own hands and saw the blue tint, the markings and the black nails. He traced them with his fingers, he was in shock.
"I call us Mapusnoctus…" She said with a shrug.
…tbc