Disclaimer: Another chapter where I have not only used the characters and places provided by J.K.Rowling, but also a pairing suggested by my great friend and beta Heptagon.
Chapter 12: Bellatrix and Alastor
Thump. Thump. Thump.
Auror Alastor Moody was on patrol duty this morning. Just as he had been every morning this last month. And every afternoon. And even some of the nights.
The young, and insolent, and just plain stupid Aurors running the Office these days said that he should retire again now that the war was over. They said it would be a well-deserved holiday for him. They said they could handle the Bad Guys without him keeping his magical eye on them at all times.
He knew they actually thought they could take their job much easier if he weren't around.
But though he was the one that kept everything in the perfect order it had to be in, and reminded the less weathered Aurors to maintain constant vigilance, he was no longer the Head of the Office. Someone just as young and insolent as the little boys running around with Auror badges attached to the chests of their official Auror robes had decided he was too old for the responsibility of running the Office.
Thunp. Thump. Thump.
He knew most of the younger people just called him senile and demented. So he was assigned this job. Probably one or other young official had thought it was a good joke now that the dementors were not guarding the prison any more. His job was not the most demanding one, certainly, but definitely one of the most responsible — should any of the people he was assigned to guard break free, the whole world would know and go senseless in fear.
They said he should take a break. Just take a day off, or a week; or maybe an eternity. But he said he knew better than to leave it all to the young fools. And in his mind he knew he had other reasons, too.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
He ended up next to her cell again. He didn't know why, but all the corridors in this cold and draughty prison seemed to lead there. The door was white steel, a huge padlock keeping it closed in addition to the numerous defensive charms. He knew that no lock in this prison was similar to another, and that there was only one key to every lock. And that those keys were stored in a vault of Gringotts with such magic on them that only the goblins could find out the number of the cell each of the keys would open. And it needed human magic to make the numbers of cells in the prison visible, so that only a human and a goblin together could match a key to the lock.
A lot had changed in Azkaban since Sirius Black had escaped.
The thumping of his walking ceased as he stopped at her cell and took a quick magical glance both ways along the corridor. Confident on being the only guard around, he took out his wand and drew a circle on the door of the cell.
The inside of the circle turned invisible.
Bella was at the opening in less than a breath.
"I thought you weren't coming this morning," she said in an urgent whisper.
"I just had to see you," Moody replied, touching his wrinkled and scarred hand to the small circle. Bella's small and white one touched from the other side.
"Oh, I don't know if I can take our separation any longer!" Bella whined, and though her face was pale and haunted and skinny, the way she shook her pitch black hair made something flip over in Alastor's stomach.
"You won't have to wait for too long any more," he whispered serenely.
"You have really found a way?" Her eyes lit up in fiendish glee.
"Around everything but one spell," he nodded. And that was true. He could break more than half of the spells with his eyes closed and hands tied. And after some research that he had done he could work his way through most of the others as well. He had even persuaded a goblin into believing that he, Alastor Moody, was the only trustworthy person in the world, so that now that goblin would do anything for him. But that one spell…
"What is that spell?" Bella asked. "Maybe I can…"
"It's virtually unbreakable, coded to the wand that cast it. The one main defence on those cells. Every cell is padded with it right after the criminal has entered it."
"Yes," she sighed, "I remember now. Rufus Scrimgeour himself did mine."
"Exactly. Only you might not know that both he and his wand were burned to cinders in an arson fire two weeks ago."
Bella cursed silently, then suppressed the words, and took on the look of a small unfortunate child she had harboured before.
"What does it do?" she asked, staring at Moody through the invisible part of the door with moist eyes.
Moody grinned humourlessly, baring his few yellowing teeth. "It keeps any person that's named Bellatrix Lestrange crossing the space it was cast on."
Bella looked crestfallen. Actually she was in a maddened rage, but she couldn't let Moody see that. This old senile Auror was her only ticket out.
"What will we do then?" she sobbed instead, and was gratified not only with distress at her misery in his normal eye, but also the glint which informed of a plan being born.
"You could get out, if your name wasn't Bellatrix Lestrange," he hissed mirthfully.
"True," Bella considered it. Under the laws of magic changing names was strictly regulated. Or it would be easier to say, just plain prohibited. There was only one way the name could be changed, and not even everyone could use that way. Only women…
"Will you marry me?" Alastor asked from outside.
Bella looked at him in heartfelt surprise. Was she really that good an actor?
"I understand that I'm old and ugly and we have a history that would not be considered very loving, but I can see it in you that you want to be with me, and that the end of our lives would be happier if we were anywhere but here. And I'm not just thinking about you getting out… Will you marry me, Bella?"
"Yes, certainly," she answered, and before Moody left the side of her cell they had made arrangements of how he could smuggle a piece of parchment and a quill in there for her.
-----
The Daily Prophet, and it's most well-known reporter Rita Skeeter, hadn't been selling as well for a long time.
Dark Forces Rising Again, read the title on the first page.
After the infamous breakout of the notorious Death Eater Bellatrix Lestrange, the wizarding world was convinced nothing could shock them more. That belief was blown after a group of Aurors studying the circumstances of the escape published their report, declaring the Auror who had been responsible of guarding that wing of the prison missing in action, and the major enchantments on the cell still intact. The author if this story has found out from reliable sources that the Auror was none other than old 'Mad-Eye' Moody, who was known in the Office to be getting senile.
Onward investigation revealed that the Aurors have received a torn-out human heart via owl mail, which has been suggested to be that of Alastor Moody, though the medical team hasn't yet managed to get any firm results on that, and the rest of the body hasn't been found.
To further the belief in the new rise of the Dark Forces, this reporter has found out from an anonymous ministry official that none of the detection spells that the Aurors used to identify the way by which Bellatrix Lestrange left the prison has turned up any results, implying that she has not left the prison at all. The Aurors are still baffled, trying to find out how she could have made her disappearing unplottable, instead of informing the wizarding society of the new and more advanced kind of evil that has broken free.
The author of this story promises solemnly to do her best to get the criminals to the justice, and the truth to the readers.
Bella snorted humourlessly as she crumpled the paper and padded her toes with it to keep them warm. There was a job opening, she knew, at a tiny and secret and quite illegal school she respected. And though Siberia was not among the first places she would have liked to spend her life at, it was still better than Azkaban.
Besides, there would be snow in Siberia. And she liked snow.
Author's note: There's one thing in common between me and Bella. We both like snow. Don't you?