All night Bellatrix had pondering thoughts on that Hermione girl she had met in the bathroom. She admired her - yet despised her. She admired her courage but despised the fact she had beat her at her own game, and seen her cry. The young Slytherin was annoyed by the fact she had let a girl she barely knew get under her skin, annoyed by the fact she had walked away from the arising fight, because she always won a fight.
As much as she did despise Hermione, she couldn't help but feel something towards her. She didn't know what it was she felt – weather it was admiration of courage or admiration of her beauty. She didn't know what it was but it was something. She felt an urge to find this girl again, to see her again. She didn't know why or what she was going to do when she found her. She resisted the urge and decided just to go to bed – it seemed like the easiest option.
When Hermione woke up the next day she noticed 'her trunk' had arrived, changing and getting reading for class, she made her way down to the Ravenclaw common room where she found Ron and Harry talking to Rosa and a blonde haired girl she thought looked familiar, who was talking in a soft, airing voice about nargles. That must be Luna's mum, Hermione thought at she joined them.
"Hi!" She smiled at the four, who smiled back.
"How did you sleep, Hermione?" Rosa asked politely.
What sleep? Hermione thought, after she had left the bathroom, she tossed and turned all night in her bed and when she did sleep her dreams were haphazard and filled with Bellatrix, but of course Hermione replied that she slept well.
After Rosa and Lyra (Luna's mum) gave them a quick tour of the Raven claw tower, they all headed down to the great hall for breakfast.
Ron sat next to Rosa and was talking away to her – he clearly had a bit of a thing for her, Hermione smiled – Rosa was much better than Lavender Brown. Harry, Lyra and Hermione were talking about classes, though Hermione was not fully paying attention, her mind was wandering to thoughts of Bellatrix, she had even caught herself scouring the Slytherin table for her, but she couldn't see her.
Just before Dumbledore dismissed the school to go to classes, he announced that there were 3 exchange students, he did not say who or ask them to stand up, probably because he didn't want to attract too much unneeded attention to the three.
"What have you got now?" Rosa asked them.
"Me and Ron have a free period then Transfiguration." Harry said.
"I have charms with the Slytherins." Hermione said, she was hoping Bellatrix would be in her class.
"So do I." Lyra said, so Hermione and her maneuvered there way thought the crowed corridors to charms with Professor Presint. As they took there seats, there were many murmurs and whispers that followed Hermione discussing her and how she must be the new exchange student.
Hermione scoured the room for Bellatrix, ignoring the whispers, only to be disappointed when she wasn't there.
The charms lesson was all theory that day, and the lesson seemed to go quite slow. Half way through the lesson class was interrupted when Bellatrix walked into class. She didn't say anything as she took her seat with two other Slytherins. "You're late, Miss Black." Professor Presint pointed out to her.
She shrugged, "I know." The short, chubby professor just sighed and shook his head before carry on with his class.
Hermione couldn't help but stare at the newly arrived Bellatrix; there was something about her that intrigued her – this did not go unnoticed by Bellatrix, she flashed her eyes over to Hermione, who blushed with the embarrassment of being caught, she looked down at her book. When she looked back up, Bellatrix's eyes were still carefully studying Hermione; Bellatrix took a mental note of Hermione's embarrassment, easily embarrassed, she thought, not a good weakness to have. Seconds upon seconds passed – their eyes still locked and once again it was Hermione who broke the eye contact.
The rest of the lesson ticked on slowly, with quick glances stolen from both witches, discreetly of course - because Bellatrix couldn't be caught staring at a her, and Hermione couldn't be caught starting at Bellatrix Black.
Hermione was secretly disappointed when the day progressed and she did not have any sort of encounter with Bellatrix. Dinner came and went, yet still no sight of the curly-haired Slytherin girl that would not escape Hermione's thought. This is ridiculous. This is Bellatrix Lestrange; she should not be on my mind! Hermione scolded herself, but then it clicked it was not Bellatrix Lestrange – it was Bellatrix Black. Essentially, yes, they were the same person just younger, but yet they were so completely not the same person. Hermione pondered on the thought, was it possible that Bellatrix Black was a completely different person to her older self? Was there perhaps some passion and some empathy still there in Bellatrix Black?
Ron, Harry and Hermione sat in the Ravenclaw common room, lounged in the big blue arm chairs by the fire. "So we are going to be stuck here, in the past for the rest of the school year?" Ron sighed; they hadn't really had a chance to talk about what had happened since they got themselves stuck in this situation.
"I'm afraid so." Hermione said.
"Do you think that when we get back to the future, everything will still be the same as when we left?" Harry wondered aloud.
"I hope so, because if it isn't that means we would have done something to change the past, and changing the past is never normally a good thing." Hermione answered.
The time seemed to fly by as the three talked and laughed. They had talked about their day – they had all recognized people; Harry and Ron saw their parents and a few other people, Hermione neglected to tell them about her encounters with Bellatrix.
"It was so strange seeing my mum and Snape sitting next to each other at lunch and laughing together. I badly wanted to go up to them." Harry said, to which Hermione reminded both the boys about what Dumbledore said about interaction with people you know, not that she was innocent of that at all. They had laughed about absurd things that could be different when they got back, like Snape actually using shampoo.
After a while, the boys headed up to bed, leaving Hermione sitting by the fire alone - her thoughts wandered to Bellatrix. She wanted to find out if she was different to her older self, if she was capable of empathy and passion; emotions other than manipulation and sadistic insanity. Hermione was staring to think that she was, because during that time that she looked into her eyes, they had seemed soft, delicate almost, not like Bellatrix Lestrange's eyes that were hard and cold. And after all, she was crying when she walked in to the bathroom the other night. The bathroom Hermione thought. That's it! She would go to the bathroom tonight, where she and Bellatrix had met the other night and see if she was there – maybe she would be able to see through that mask she put up and find out who she really was.