Author's Note: Hi guys! It took me a few days to get an update ready for this but you'll be glad to know that I finally managed to get rid of my virus so I feel far more human than I've done for the past three weeks or so. Anyway, I have done nothing else but write today in an attempt to update all my stories. It's drained me but I managed it. Enjoy this chapter! ~Cissy

Chapter 14

Pandora's Box

The skies were dark and thick, black clouds had packed together, obscuring the silver glow from the moon and swallowing up the stars. Across the river the yellow light from the streetlamps reflected off the water's surface, casting mysterious ripples in the midst of darkness. The streets were quiet and abandoned. Hardly anyone dared to venture outside during the hours of the night. It was only during the hours of darkness that the Quarters were quiet.

Hermione stood by one of the windows in her bedroom overlooking the river. Dried blood covered her lip and the mud still clung to her hair. She held Narcissa's wand in her hand, her fingers gently following the shape of the wood. She had been unable to let go if it ever since returning to the castle. The last thing she remembered seeing before forcing Bellatrix to Apparate alongside her was the flames erupting from the village.

"I wondered where you'd gone," spoke a voice behind her and Hermione turned around slowly to find Bellatrix leaning against the doorframe. The raven haired woman had cleaned herself up and her thick curls were still damp. Slowly she strode across the room until she reached Hermione and her arms slipped around her waist.

"You haven't been able to let that go since we got back."

"I can't," Hermione breathed. "She trusted me to keep it safe and I will." She swallowed. "Any word?"

"Still nothing. Some of the warriors took a few villagers. They're speaking to them now," Bellatrix said and the meaning of the word 'speaking' was left entirely open. "Someone must know where the old fool went. He was injured. He can't have gone far."

"I can't believe I didn't see it," Hermione hissed. "She set this up. She intended to take Narcissa. The only thing Andromeda didn't think about was Narcissa giving her wand to someone else." She broke free from Bellatrix's touch and started pacing the room. "Where did they take her?"

""We'll find her," Bellatrix tried to reassure her. "Narcissa's smart. She won't give Andromeda whatever it is she's after."

Hermione turned around and hazel eyes found charcoal black. "And what if Andromeda isn't after something but someone instead?"

Bellatrix didn't blink. "You think this is about you?"

"When it comes to Andromeda it has always been about me."

Bellatrix let those words sink in for a few moments before speaking again. A dark, mysterious look had filled her eyes and she turned away from Hermione to stare out of the window. "Do you remember what she said that night she came to Black Manor to persuade you to leave with her?"

"She said she had protected you and Narcissa when you were younger. She knew what had happened between you but she lied to keep you safe," Hermione said slowly and carefully walked towards Bellatrix. The other woman didn't turn to acknowledge her. "She claimed that it was the reason you hate her so much. Because she didn't love you like Narcissa loved you. Because she wasn't part of you."

"There is something about Andromeda you don't know," Bellatrix said. Her voice was deep and low, as if the mere words brought back a memory she had been trying to hide for too long. A sudden lightning flash illuminated the room and in the window Hermione saw her lover's reflection, suddenly pale and broken. "There is another story no one told you."

"What story?" Hermione asked. "What is it, Bella?"

"She was the first," Bellatrix answered softly and Hermione stared at her in shock.

"You and Andromeda?"

"She told me we couldn't be together, that she didn't love me the way I loved her, the way she knew Narcissa loved me," Bellatrix said. In her voice the pain suddenly seemed raw. "She walked out on me and left me. It was that night that she found me with Narcissa. From then on she lied to Mother about us whenever she asked questions. Perhaps it was her guilt but she never could find it inside herself to betray me."

"So you betrayed her instead."

Bellatrix turned around and her black eyes found Hermione's. "I had no choice."

"No choice? For fuck sake, Bella! You set this up, didn't you? You asked me to sleep with Andromeda knowing that she would most likely fall in love with me!" Hermione screamed and the anger flickered in her eyes. She took a step towards Bellatrix and her hand made contact with the older woman's cheek before Bellatrix could stop her. "Did you know? Did you know before all of this that she would become a part of me?"

"No!" Bellatrix screeched. "I didn't know fate was going to take this twisted turn. I didn't know there was an element of truth to the story I told her all those years ago about people being split into two, left to wander this Earth looking for their soul mate! I believed it to be a fairy tale!"

"You used me to get back at her, knowing that if she fell in love with me and I walked away I would break her the way she broke you," Hermione hissed through clenched teeth. She jerked her arm away when Bellatrix reached for her hand. "You lied to me! You lied when you said this was all about the Cores and weakening the Order. This was all about you! You saw your chance and you took it!"

"All about me? How did is this all about me when it all happened because of you? Because of what happened to you, because of what you allowed yourself to feel afterwards. You opened the darkest pit of hell inside yourself. That had nothing to do with me!" Bellatrix countered. "You started this, Hermione. All of this came together because of you."

"Narcissa's always been second best, hasn't she?" Hermione spat. "Never quite good enough for you because she wasn't Andromeda. Never quite good enough to anyone because she was never what they wanted her to be." She cocked her head. "Well, guess what, she is good enough for me and I damn well want her back!"

The sound of heavy boots made them both look up and a dark clad warrior had appeared in the door way. He was tall and broad shouldered with short cropped brown hair and had an ugly scar across his face. He raised his hand to flash the mark on his wrist. It was a routine a lot of the warriors had gotten into over the recent weeks and it symbolised a greeting.

"What's the news?" Hermione asked coolly as she walked away from Bellatrix and towards the warrior who would have been chosen to be the messenger.

"We have located the wand maker in a small village in the Highlands," he said. "Clearly he didn't go far."

"Take me to him," Hermione said as she summoned her cloak and wrapped it around herself. Bellatrix had reached her and grabbed her hand. She wasn't going to let Hermione go on her own. She glanced at the older woman and for a split second she saw the tormented look in her eyes she had seen the night Bellatrix had gotten drunk. She wondered if the demons Narcissa had mentioned were in fact not demons at all but memories of Andromeda and the everlasting pain of a broken heart. She straightened her spine and looked back at the warrior. "Take us to him."

~()~

Glenrose was a small and ancient village hidden deep in the Scottish Highlands. The families living in the village went back generations and outsiders were uncommon. It consisted of several small cottages, a market square with an old pub named The Horse Shoe, a tiny post office and a simple little supermarket that sold only the essential day to day things. But there was one thing about Glenrose that made it different from most of the other small villages scattered around the area. The village appeared to be occupied by Muggles, and to anyone driving through it appeared completely normal but in fact every family living within its boundaries descended from wizards. Since the rise of the Cores most of the families had fled the violence that had descended upon the village and only a handful remained, trapped within the wards set up by the Keepers.

Bellatrix and Hermione reappeared in the middle of the village square and followed the warrior down a narrow street. All the houses were dark and Hermione glanced at Bellatrix as they walked. The older woman's eyes were dark and her face emotionless. Whatever hint of pain she had seen earlier was long gone.

"Where is he?" Bellatrix barked when the warrior reached the small pub. Its windows had been boarded up and the wooden sign with a hand painted picture of a horse shoe had fallen from its place above the door. The place looked abandoned. "Where is he?!"

"Inside," the warrior spoke. "Two men are guarding him."

"Stay here," Bellatrix said as she started for the door and the warrior remained behind.

Hermione followed Bellatrix inside the dark pub. Only a single candle illuminated the room and her eyes needed a few moments to adapt to their dark surroundings. Instinctively she reached for her wand and whispered, "Lumos." The tip of Bellatrix's wand started glowing at the same time and cast a silver gloom across their faces. Hermione raised her wand to eye level and looked around. She discovered the two men standing on the opposite side of the room. Their wands were drawn and they appeared to be staring at something that lay at their feet.

"Step aside," she ordered as she walked towards them and the two warriors quietly stepped aside.

The light of her wand fell across Gregorovitch's bloodied face. The old man looked frail and his eyes were only half open. He lay slumped down against the wall, his legs stretched out and one hand across his stomach. His bushy beard was covered in blood and the blisters still covered his hands and arms. He groaned now that he saw Bellatrix and Hermione.

"Leave us," Bellatrix said. When the warriors didn't move quick enough she spun around on the tip of her toes and pressed her wand into the nearest guy's chest. "I said, LEAVE!"

Hermione fell to her knees as the wounded wand maker's side and he managed to turn his head to look at her. Before he could speak however Bellatrix had grabbed his shoulder and yanked him up. He wailed in pain and Hermione's eyes snapped up. Bellatrix's face had contorted into a mask of hatred as she slammed the old man back against the wall.

"No!" Hermione objected and her fingers closed around Bellatrix's wrist, preventing her from attacking the old man a second time. "Don't!"

Bellatrix's dark eyes fixed on Hermione. "What?!"

"He's close to death as it is, Bella. Attacking him isn't going to get him to tell us where Andromeda is or what she's looking for," Hermione said and looked back at Gregorovitch. He reminded her off Ollivander and how fragile and scared he had been when she had found him in Venice. The memory of Susana brought a shudder to her spine and she let her hands travel across the old man's chest, checking for injuries. She muttered the healing spell under her breath and the deep cut across his sternum healed underneath her fingertips.

"Don't kill me," he uttered when she sat back up. Bony, blistered fingers grabbed her hand. "Don't….kill…me."

"Tell me what I want to know and I promise I won't let her anywhere near you," Hermione said softly and glanced up at Bellatrix. The older woman had placed her hands on her hips and stared down at Gregorovitch in contempt. Anger burnt in her eyes and she huffed when she heard Hermione whisper her promise. "Tell me where Andromeda is and what she's looking."

"She wants the wand," Gregorovitch gurgled. He coughed and blood spurted from his mouth across Hermione's hands. It felt warm on her skin and she felt herself tense up. She realised that he had to be bleeding internally. There was nothing she could do for him. She wasn't a Healer.

"What wand?" Hermione whispered. "The one that is made out of the Ashwinder eggs? Such a wand has never been created. It is believed to be impossible."

"It is," Gregorovitch stammered. His breathing became shallower as the seconds began to pass and Hermione nervously glanced up at Bellatrix. "She is looking for the Wand of Destiny."

Hermione frowned. "The Wand of Destiny?"

"The Deathly Hallows," Gregorovitch breathed. More blood seeped from his mouth and his eyes rolled back into his head. Hermione's grip on his chest tightened as she willed the old man to speak again. Gregorovitch's eyes were now almost closed but she could still feel his chest rise and fall underneath her hands. His heartbeat was faint and she shook him gently in an attempt to bring him back. Tired bloodshot eyes opened again.

"What are the Deathly Hallows?" Hermione whispered. "What is the Wand of Destiny?"

"The Elder Wand." He spoke so quietly that she could barely hear him. "The most powerful wand ever made. It can do magic that was believed to be impossible like the mending of a broken wand."

"Or the destruction of one."

Bellatrix's words were cold and Hermione's eyes snapped up. "The Elder Wand can destroy us?"

Gregorovitch nodded weakly. "Its core is made out of the hair of a Thestral, making that it can only be handled by those who accept death."

"Andromeda is looking for the Elder Wand," Hermione said and slowly she stood up. Gregorovitch's hand slipped from her arm and fell beside his body. She rose to her full figure and her eyes found Bellatrix. "Once she finds it there is no way to stop her. She will have found the one way to destroy us."

"She has Narcissa. Who is to say that she hasn't destroyed us already?"

Hermione reached into her robe. "Because Narcissa's wand lies with me. She didn't destroy it. Taking the one who controls the wand is not enough. She once said that to kill something, you have to kill all of it." She slipped Narcissa's wand back in her robe and glanced at Bellatrix. "He gave us what we needed. You can leave him to die or finish him off. The choice is yours."

When she reached the other side of the room a brief flash of green light illuminated the pub and Hermione heard a soft moan followed by Bellatrix's footsteps walking towards her. Together they left the building and Bellatrix turned to one of the warriors waiting outside.

"Torch it."

Hermione waited for Bellatrix to catch up with her and glanced up to the dark midnight sky. "We have to wind the Elder Wand. Our Cores are strong but if the wand falls into Andromeda's hands, everything we are becomes meaningless."

"Are you familiar with the legend of the Deathly Hallows?" Bellatrix asked and Hermione nodded.

"I read about it once." She reached for Bellatrix's arm. "I'll tell you when we get home. Come, we don't have that much time left."

~()~

"I once heard a story about a wand more powerful than any other ever created. It is said Death itself took it from an elder tree and added the Thestral hair for its core. I passed along a line of violence and the wand's history is smeared with blood," Hermione said as she walked into the large library inside the castle. Once she reached the middle of the room she flicked her wand and muttered the name of a book under her breath. A book flew off a shelf behind her and floated through the air towards her, landing in her lap. Bellatrix curiously watched.

"The Tale of the Three Brothers is a children's story," Hermione said. "Basically three brothers cheated death by using magic and he offered to reward them. One asked for a wand more powerful than any other. The second asked for a way to bring back loved ones from the dead and the third asked for a way to move on without Death being able to catch him."

Bellatrix frowned, not understanding what it was Hermione was trying to tell her. "And the meaning of this?"

"It is supposed to teach children about values and warn them about greed," Hermione said and started flicking through the book. "However, some believe that it is not just a story and that the three brothers were in fact real." She put down the book on the table and pointed at a picture. "They believed the Peverell brothers are the ones mentioned in the story. Antioch, Ignotus and Cadmus Peverell are widely rumoured to have been the first owners of the Deathly Hallows."

"So the Elder Wand is part of the Hallows?" Bellatrix asked as she studied the page in the book Hermione had pointed out. A strange looking mark sat at the top of the page and Bellatrix placed her finger on it. "What's this?"

Hermione turned the page and found the description. "That is the sign of the Deathly Hallows." She turned away from the table and began pacing around the room. "I have seen it before." Bellatrix turned around too and fixed her eyes on the young brunette. "I have seen that sign before somewhere."

"What do you mean?"

Hermione's eyes widened as the memory suddenly flooded back into her mind. "I only saw it briefly, maybe for like a second." She walked back to the table and stared at the sign printed on the page. "It was at the wedding, right before you came to take me away." A smile spread across her face. "Xenophillius Lovegood was wearing it around his neck!"

"Lovegood is dead," Bellatrix said dismissively. "Killed himself after you killed his daughter."

"I know," Hermione said and looked up from the book. "But what happened to his house?"

"His house? Why the bloody devil would you be asking about his house?" Bellatrix asked.

"Xenophillius Lovegood published the Quibbler. The whole thing was a load of shit but stories like this were the kind of thing that idiot lived for. He was wearing this sign around his neck when I saw him at the wedding so he must have known something about it," Hermione explained and Bellatrix just looked at her, bewildered. "Have you got a better idea about where to start looking for this Elder Wand considering our best lead just died?"

"I guess not."

"We'll leave at dawn," Hermione said and grabbed the book off the table. She clutched it with one hand whilst using the other to take Bellatrix's hand. The older woman let her guide her across the room, towards the door. "Let's try and get some sleep."

Title explanation:
In classical Greek mythology, Pandora was the first woman on Earth. Zeus ordered Hephaestus, the god of craftsmanship, to create her, so he did—using water and gods endowed her with many gifts: Athena clothed her, Aphrodite gave her beauty, and Hermes gave her speech. Pandora was given a beautiful container which she was not to open under any circumstance. Impelled by her curiosity given to her by the gods, Pandora opened it, and all evil contained therein escaped and spread over the earth. She hastened to close the container, but the whole contents had escaped, except for one thing that lay at the bottom, which was the Spirit of Hope.