"We are alone in the house at the moment, so nobody will see us going upstairs," Narcissa said. Bella knew this to be true – Lucius and Draco had gone out into the garden to do something for the Dark Lord, who was out somewhere, and nobody else was staying in Malfoy Manor at the moment. The sisters walked quickly up the stairs to the attic at the top of the house. Bella went up first. "You do the silencing charms, Bella, and I'll stop anyone being able to discover us." Bella complied. By the time she had finished, Narcissa was sat on a sofa that Bella was sure wasn't usually in the attic. Bella sat next to her sister. "Are you ready?" Narcissa asked. Bella nodded. Narcissa raised her wand, and it all came flooding back to Bella. Everything that she had made herself forget, and why. She looked up at her sister, who looked shocked. Bella began to cry again, and Narcissa pulled her in close, allowing Bella to sob on her shoulder. Even in her distraught state, Bella realised that she had never been held like this. She had never been hugged as she cried, feeling as though all of her problems were being lifted off of her. Bella didn't know how long she sat crying into Narcissa, but eventually she stopped, pulled herself away from her sister, and wiped her eyes.
"Oh, Bella." Narcissa seemed to be unable to say any more, and she pulled Bella close again. This time Bella hugged her sister back, something that they hadn't done since they were young, and they stayed like that for a long time.
"What do we do, Cissy? What can I do? I can't stay being able to remember all of this. If the Dark Lord were ever to find out, he would kill you. He would kill Draco. He would kill all of you to get at me because of my betrayal."
"You have not betrayed him, Bella. You have done nothing to betray the Dark Lord."
"You know that isn't true, Cissy. If he knew that I blamed him for the person that I am, the deaths of Sirius and Regulus. If he knew that I wished he wasn't powerful, that he had never been born? He would kill you to get at me and then kill me as slowly as he could. You know that this is true. I may have been the Dark Lord's most trusted advisor for years, but you know as well as I do that that will mean nothing if this is discovered. I would rather die than allow him to hurt you to hurt me. I have caused the deaths of too many members of this family – I will not allow his to hurt you, Cissy!"
"Bella, get a grip on yourself. Do you know how long you have been doing this for? Remembering and then modifying your memory?" Bella shook her head – she had no idea. "You've been doing it for more than a year! Ever since we went to see Severus Snape in Spinners End almost two years ago. If the Dark Lord had suspected something, he would have got it out of you by now. If he suspected that you were hiding something, he would have been able to perform Legilimency and see your real memories, even though you modified them extremely well. Now the real issue is what we are going to do to help you. You cannot live the rest of your life like this, Bella."
"Why not, Cissy? Why not? According to you, I have been doing this for nearly two years, so why can I not continue like this for the rest of my life?"
"Because, Bella, it isn't healthy. I can see it now – you are making yourself ill by modifying your memories so regularly. That's another reason – you are modifying your memories more and more frequently, as if there are more triggers to make you remember. What happens if you start to remember, and you are with the Dark Lord? What happens if you cannot lock yourself away to modify your memory? What happens if because of this, the Dark Lord finds out? Then he really will punish you, Bella. He will have no mercy, and you know it. If he found out that you regret what you did to the Longbottoms, that you feel guilty about Regulus' death, that you didn't mean to kill Sirius, that you want to protect your family more than you want to serve him, I think we both know what he will do. He will go on such a rampage and kill everyone that you care about Bella, so we need to come up with a plan. We need to work out what Potter is doing, because he is working to destroy the Dark Lord, is he not? If we can somehow come up with a plan to help him succeed, then you need not worry anymore Bella. None of the other Death Eaters need to know that we conspire against the Dark Lord. It can be our secret. Now, you are a superb Occlumens, you are the Dark Lord's most trusted and most faithful servant, so I doubt that he would suspect anything if you were to practice Occlumency whilst you are around him. The question is whether you believe that you are strong enough to handle having the burden of knowing how you truly feel without allowing the Dark Lord to suspect anything. This would mean acting as you usually do, essentially portraying madness without letting it consume you, killing people on a whim, not showing displeasure at the idea of killing or anything else that would give you away. You need to think really carefully about this Bella. Do you think you can handle that? Alternatively, once we have a workable plan, I could perform a Memory Charm on you so that you do not remember how you truly feel. You would be the most secret of secret agents Bella; you will not even remember that you are on the other side until the time comes to act. Do you think you can cope with that? Not knowing that you are actually working for the other side? Not knowing that we are working to bring about the end of the Dark Lord? The choice is entirely yours, and I will support you no matter which you choose, however I think that you must know that if I perform the Memory Charm on you, it is unlikely to break unless I remove it. You are an extraordinarily powerful witch, Bella, but it is my experience that Memory Modifications performed on oneself tend to weaken over time, whereas those performed by another do not. If we go into battle, as I suspect we might, I may not be able to remove the modification. It may be possible to perform a Memory Charm that will break at a certain point, say for example if I am in danger, but I cannot be certain – I know that hypothetically it is possible, however I have never actually performed one and we do not have time for mistakes. If you choose for me to perform a Memory Modification on you, Bella, you must be aware that you might do something which you regret. You might hurt someone, you might even kill, and I would not be able to stop you. I wish I could tell you something different, but I think you must know all of the facts before you make your decision about which of your three choices you choose. Obviously you can mull over and decide while we come up with the plan, but you do need to make a decision, as this is one that I cannot do for you. It must be you, and only you, who makes this decision.
Bella sat and thought for a while. She knew that it would be extremely hard for her to continue living if she knew about her true feelings, but dare she risk a Memory Modification so powerful that she might live to do something she regretted?
They sat and talked over various ways that they could make this work. Bella knew that she needed to forget everything, but that she also needed to protect her family. She knew that forgetting was the most likely way that she would succeed in saving her family from the Dark Lord, but that it was also dangerous as she would not be able to stop herself doing something that she might remorse. Bella gulped. She knew that once they had a plan, Narcissa would perform a perfect Memory Charm and she would remember nothing until the right time. She nodded slowly. "I can do it. If it will save you, I will do anything! But what about you, Cissy? You won't be able to do a Memory Charm on yourself, will you? Not if we have a plan to destroy the Dark Lord?"
"Don't worry about me, Bella. You know that I am a natural Occlumens and Legilimens – I was born with the ability – I didn't learn it like you or the Dark Lord. That makes my ability to block out the Dark Lord more powerful than his ability to read my mind. Incidentally, it would make my ability to read his mind a lot stronger too! I promise you that he will never be able to read me. He will not find out about our plan from me. Okay?" Bella nodded. "Then let's get to work!"
The sisters sat in the attic in Malfoy Manor for what felt like hours. They tried to work out the best way to bring down the Dark Lord. "Well that must be what Potter and his friends are doing too! Working to bring the Dark Lord down." was the point that they kept coming back to. If only there was a way to find out what they were doing. Why had they gone to Bella's vault in Gringotts? Why had they taken Hufflepuff's cup? Why had they taken the Sword of Gryffindor? What was so important about those two objects that they would risk death to get them? The sisters tried to remember everything that had happened in the past year – to see if there were any connections between the various events – but they couldn't work out what the trio were up to. They had broken into the Ministry of Magic, but it seemed that they had taken nothing except the eye of Mad-Eye Moody, they had gone to the Lovegood's house but nothing seemed to have happened as a result of their visit, and they had gone to Godric's Hollow to see Bathilda Bagshot. None of these events seemed to be linked in anyway apart from that at each of them, the trio had nearly been caught! How many places had they been to where they had been more successful in staying hidden? Why had they gone to these places? What was the big picture that both sisters were missing? Suddenly Narcissa remembered something that Lucius had told her. "He said that the Dark Lord said that he had gone further than any wizard before on the path to immortality, or words to that effect anyway. What does this mean Bella?"
"I am not sure, Cissy. How does one make oneself truly immortal? Not the Philosopher's Stone because it can be stolen or destroyed, and anyway other wizards have succeeded in making a Philosopher's Stone. It would have to be really complex magic to make yourself immortal."
The two sisters sat in silent contemplation for some time, pondering how someone could make themselves immortal. They racked their brains, but couldn't come up with any ideas. "Cissy, I'm not sure if we are going to work this out … I think we need to start looking for a different angle …" her words seemed to trail away as though she were latching onto a thought and letting it form in her mind. "Horcrux" she whispered.
"What?" Narcissa asked, clearly puzzled as to what Bella meant.
"It was something I heard at Hogwarts once. I was in my first year, but I overheard some seventh years talking in the common room. Dumbledore had taken over as Headmaster from Armando Dippet when they were in their second year, but they remembered some of the older students talking about it. They were trying to work out what they were, but Dumbledore had taken all of the books about Horcruxes out of the library, and they had been in the Restricted Section to begin with! If Dumbledore removed them from the library, that must mean that they used extremely dark magic that he didn't think students should have access to."
"Oh, Bella, that sounds promising doesn't it?"
"The question is what exactly is a horcrux? If this is what the Dark Lord did, and Potter and his friends are hunting, then how do they make a person immortal? How can they be destroyed? And how many did the Dark Lord manage to make?"
The two sisters sat in silence while they each tried to work out a plan.
"Maybe," Narcissa said after a few minutes, "the best plan that we could come up with is just to help the trio if we happen to cross their path. I don't think that we should actively look for them to help them, as that would be suspicious, but a gentle nudge if we happen to stumble across them shouldn't be noticeable."
"I guess you're right, Cissy, but what if we're with the Dark Lord and come across them? I won't be able to help as I won't remember our plan. What if I accidentally do something detrimental, and ruin the whole thing?" Bella was getting nervous now. Not because she was actively plotting to betray the Dark Lord, but because she might mess up the whole plan.
"Well, we wouldn't be able to help the trio in front of the Dark Lord anyway, and I might be able to help you to not hurt them without the Dark Lord knowing."
"How?" Bella asked.
"Give me your wand quickly."
"Why?"
"Just do it, Bella!"
Bella did as she was told, and gave Narcissa her wand. She got her own wand out and murmured a spell that Bella did not recognise. She wondered briefly how many spells her sister had made up.
"There" Narcissa said as she gave Bella her wand back.
"What did you do?" Bella asked in awe.
"I simply added a charm, which will make any spell directed at one of the trio miss. Only very slightly, but any spell you cast will miss."
"That's brilliant Cissy!" Bella breathed. Narcissa just smiled in reply. They sat for a few more minutes in silence before they both realised they should probably go back down into the house, now that they had a plan. The Dark Lord had not returned and Lucius and Draco were still outside. No one had noticed their absence. It had all gone exactly as they had hoped.