Harry Potter is owned by JKR

Chapter 58

Bellatrix peeled her eyes open and glanced at the clock on the bedside table. Nine hours had passed, yet her limbs remained as leaden and her eyelids as heavy as the night before. Blinking away blurred vision, she dragged herself to the loo. The ache in her joints told her the damn low-grade fever she'd picked up still hadn't abated. As the usual potions hadn't helped at all, it must have been some kind of magical ailment. She leaned both hands on the counter and stared into the mirror above the sinks, at the dark bags under her eyes, the ashen pallor of her face.

"It was one of those bloody contract workers at the Manor who passed this to me, I just know it," she thought as she blew a strand of hair away, "unhygienic bastards."

A scalding hot shower didn't help, and only copious application of beautification charms managed to make her appear at least somewhat presentable.

"I'm going!" she called up the stairs.

"Okay, see you tonight!" Hermione called.

Bellatrix had been avoiding her to keep from passing whatever she'd caught. Their dresses, perfect mirrors of each other, had been completed for three days now, and Bellatrix apparated to the Manor to assist in the final preparations for the ball. The doors opened as she climbed the steps towards the threshold.

"Bella, is that you?" Cissy called as Bellatrix entered.

"Who else would it be?" she replied.

"You're late, hurry up," Cissy said.

Bellatrix followed the sound of Cissy's voice to the grand ballroom. A stage occupied one end of the hall, and a catering table, currently devoid of food and drinks, ran along the opposite one. Rich tapestries hung suspended from the high ceiling all around the edges of the room. Each depicted notable events in history, with the final one, the defeat of the Dark Lord at the hands of Harry Potter, currently being levitated into place by her older younger sister. At Draco's insistence, they had included events from Beings' history as well, except for the Goblin Rebellions or anything else 'divisive'. Bellatrix's lip curled at the sight of them. She might have accepted that muggleborns weren't necessarily inferior to purebloods, but that didn't mean goblins or house elves were on the same level as wizards and witches.

"Draco's head of House Malfoy though, and it's his party," she thought.

"Good, you're here," Cissy said as she glanced at her, "take a look at these, make sure they're level."

She set the last tapestry in place and glided towards the exit, her dark blue robe skimming the ground as she walked.

"You're not going to stay?" Bellatrix asked.

"It's been a busy morning; not everyone had the luxury to sleep in," Cissy replied, "I'm taking breakfast in the dining room."

Bellatrix stuck her tongue out at the back of her sister's head, then turned around to inspect the tapestries. She considered elevating the wizarding tapestries slightly higher than the others, then decided not to waste the effort as they'd only be levelled out later. She swayed on her feet as she stared up, and shook her head, willing the bout of light-headedness to pass, which it did.

"Stupid cold. Stress from Hermione taking her sweet time surely can't be helping either," Bella thought, "you should force her to come with you. Sticking around while she dithers is not a good idea… it's not worth risking Azkaban again."

She lowered one of the tapestries slightly.

"But what if she doesn't want to come?" Bellatrix thought, "could always take her, but I can't imagine she'd be too happy about that."

The notion was almost too much to bear, and she swallowed to keep her composure.

"What is wrong with you?" she thought.

Cissy chose that moment to return.

"That was quick," Bella said.

"Leana Zabini floo called, she's asking to arrive early for the ball," Narcissa said, "She gave the impression she very much wished to speak with you."

Bellatrix raised an eyebrow. Leana had been her roommate at Hogwarts, and flashes of their late-night trysts came back to her… thighs spread wide, darker skin contrasting with Bella's fair, swirling her tongue around a hardened nipple.

"What does she want?" Bellatrix asked.

"I do not know," Cissy replied, "shall I let her through?"

Bella paused for a second, then gave her a curt nod. She followed Cissy out and stopped at the grand staircase. The whisper of a floo-whoosh reached her ears, and her heart started thumping faster.

"It was just a dalliance, before I was forced to settle for Rod," Bellatrix thought. They had gone their separate ways at graduation.

"That was always going to be the eventual outcome, and both of us knew it," she thought.

As Bellatrix recalled, they'd said goodbye at the Express as if they intended to see one another the following day, but Bellatrix had never laid eyes on her again.

"She's half-blood, wouldn't have been possible anyway," she thought.

Her breath almost caught as Leana rounded the corner, trailing behind Cissy. Older, certainly, but that had only served her to fill out over the years. Dark hair loosely tied up in a ponytail, she wore a borderline scandalous red dress with slits high enough to reveal both thighs, and a low-cut v-neck that allowed ample breasts to sway freely with each step. Bella's eyes narrowed.

"What is she up to?" she thought.

"So, the rumours are true," Leana said as she stopped at the bottom of the steps, "you look just as I remember."

"If you'll excuse me," Cissy said, and Bella didn't blame her.

Leana climbed the steps and approached to stop at the step beneath her. Bellatrix crossed her arms and leaned against the banister.

"It's been a long time," Leana said, and she dropped her voice to a whisper, "Bella."

Bellatrix narrowed her eyes.

"Yes, a very long time, a lot has happened since we last saw one another," she said.

Leana tilted her head questioningly.

"The news was you'd lost your memory," she said.

"I also developed a cure for obliviation," Bellatrix replied.

Leana paused for a second as that sunk in and her expression grew serious.

"To whom am I speaking with then, Bella Black from Hogwarts, or…?" she asked.

"You're talking to me, of course," Bellatrix replied, "now, what are you looking for?"

"Nothing, just to catch up," Leana replied as she traced patterns on the banister, "it's been a long time, after all."

"You said that already," Bellatrix said.

"I can't believe they let you go," Leana said.

Clark grunting from behind. Clark screaming in agony in the Dark Forest.

"Hermione arranged it. Quite brilliantly, actually," Bellatrix said.

Leana smiled at that, the same smile Bella remembered from Hogwarts.

"I heard," she said, "and you're… together."

"We are," Bellatrix said, "… more or less."

Leana tilted her head at the admission.

"Sounds complicated. Is that why you're staying in London?" she asked.

"Clearly I'm helping my sister prepare for Fall Ball," Bella replied as she gestured around them.

"What about afterwards?" Leana asked, "you must realise it's not safe for you here."

A girl like me won't wait around forever.

"I haven't decided," Bellatrix replied.

"I thought perhaps, and forgive me if this is too forward, but I thought you might consider coming to Italy," Leana said, "for a visit."

Bellatrix blinked and put one hand on the banister.

"Leana-" she said.

"I know it was impossible before, but times have changed… and so have I… so have you, if you're openly seeing a muggleborn," Leana said.

Bellatrix opened her mouth to speak, but the other witch kept going.

"I'm not the poor, skinny, gypsy girl you knew," she said, "I have a fortune of my own now, an entire villa."

Bellatrix chuckled.

"You think that's why it ended?" she asked.

Leana paused for a split-second.

"I know you always looked down on me because of it," she said, "that and my blood status. Seems neither of those things are much of an issue anymore."

She smiled and leaned forward slightly.

"It's something to consider," Leana said as she reached out and brushed her fingertips across the back of Bella's hand, sending a shiver up her spine, "I'll see you tonight. Save a dance for me?"

Bellatrix stared at the back of her hand, then locked gazes with Leana Zabini. Movement behind her drew her attention as Cissy's son rounded the corner, drenched in sweat, a muggle device jammed to his ear. Leana snatched back her hand as she turned around.

Draco's heart pounded as he stared out his bedroom window into the nighttime darkness and pressed the phone to his ear.

"Erith. Are you one hundred percent sure?" he asked.

"Yeah," Darren replied, "I saw 'em at the dock myself last week. My mate says they've been there before dawn every week for the past two months, hand delivering metal boxes welded shut, then they ship off to fuck knows where. The woman was wearing an eyepatch, but it's them for sure."

"You saw them? Did they see you?" he asked.

Darren laughed.

"Fuck no, I was on the other end of the pier," he replied.

"Alright, good… good. I need to make some calls. Umm, best stay away from the docks," he said.

"…yeah, no problem," Darren said, "don't go getting yourself killed now."

"Is he worried about me? Or the money," Draco thought.

"Just stay clear," Draco said, and he hung up.

Erith wasn't far upstream from Tilbury.

"To think, how many times were Alecto Carrow and Rodolphus Lestrange just a few hundred metres away, and none of us had any idea," Draco thought.

He clicked down to 'Chosen Wanker' and pressed the button to call Potter.

"Hello?"

"I know where two of them are going to be," Draco said.

"Who? Where?" Potter asked in a hushed voice.

"Alecto and Rodolphus. They're shipping something from the Erith Pier," Draco said, "They've been there every Sunday morning before dawn."

The sound of quill on parchment came through the phone.

"You're sure?" Potter whispered.

"Yeah I'm sure, now rally the troops or whatever the fuck it is you do and take them out," Draco said, "we're not going to get another chance at this. Don't fuck it up."

He closed the phone, then glanced at the clock. Pacing the thick carpet of his bedroom didn't help settle his pounding heart in the slightest, and the Fiend rattled its cage. He sat down on his bed, opened the box with Mary's photo inside, then shut it and tucked it back in his pouch. He realised he was wringing his hands, so he stood up and took a hot shower, then wandered the Manor. Decorations for tomorrow's ball were complete, wards were set, caterers and a band had been hired…

"Tempus," he said, and glowing figures appeared in mid-air.

"Not even midnight," he thought, "fuck this."

He took the private floo to his house in Tilbury, then called a taxi to ferry him to Erith. Only one or two people walked the streets of the small residential town this late at night. Draco paid with cash and exited the cab. Streetlights, few and far between, lit the quaint streets in only a few places. Draco followed signs for the pier until he heard water, then spotted a large swath of darkness with no lights, the river Thames. He turned down a side street and found a four-story brick building overlooking the pier. A quick glance around to make sure nobody was watching, then a turn and a pop and he was on the roof. He settled down on the asphalt-like surface and hit himself with a warming charm to keep comfortable under the overcast autumn sky. Lights winked at him from the opposite bank as, ominoculars in hand, he found himself an ideal spot to watch both the road and the pier.

Was he taking a risk by being so close? Probably, but he wanted to see the Death Eaters taken down first-hand. It wasn't until around three in the morning when he spotted Aurors on the streets. They wore muggle clothing, but walked in groups of twos and threes towards the pier, glancing around before subtly using wands to cast.

"Probably setting up wards to keep them from apparating," Draco thought, "muggle repelling, too, maybe."

Eventually, the activity died down, and Draco yawned more than once, but his nerves refused to allow him to even think of sleep. The eastern sky towards the mouth of the river had just started turning a hint of rose pink when a boat, at least ten metres long, pulled up alongside the end of the curved pier. Draco focused in with the ominoculars as a shifty looking fellow wearing a dark wool hat jumped down from the deck to tie a rope to the mooring. He didn't recognise him, but he would have bet a thousand galleons it was one of the former Snatchers.

He zoomed back to the entrance of the pier, and there they were, two figures wearing black, carrying a heavy metal case between them. He zoomed in some more and spotted Rodophus' face clearly, and Alecto, wearing a dark eyepatch over one eye. Draco's heart thudded in his ears as they crossed the threshold of the Ministry wards. A slight shimmer appeared in the air, and then four Aurors appeared on either side of the two Death Eaters, wands drawn. Incredibly, rather than taking them down immediately, it looked like they started talking.

"What the fuck are you waiting for… kill them!" Draco whispered as he watched the standoff play out.

Suddenly, the staccato echo of automatic gunfire reached his ears, and one of the Aurors closer to the boat dropped in a spray of blood. From his perch on top of the building, the muzzle fire of at least two rifles coming from the boat was obvious, but chaos erupted on the pier as a fierce duel exploded. Multicoloured bolts of lanced out and deflected, some shooting up into the air, and others blew chunks out of the pier or splashed into the water, while bullets ricocheted off protego shields. Another Auror went down as the group closer to the river were sandwiched between the Death Eaters and the Snatchers on the boat.

"Fuck," Draco whispered.

Then brooms appeared above the boat, and spells zipped down, tearing into the deck and neutralising the shooters, but they had done enough to distract the Aurors on the river side of the pier long enough for one of the Death Eaters to blast a hole through to the water below, and they both jumped. Aurors ran about, tending the wounded and searching for the Death Eaters, but as Draco's heart continued to pound, he knew the shifty Dark wizards had managed to elude the trap.

"Useless arseholes! They warded the sides of the pier and had brooms above, but they forgot about below!" he thought.

His phone buzzed in his pocket and he nearly leapt out of his skin; he flipped it open to see an SMS from Darren: What the fuck was that?

"Shit, is he watching?" Draco thought as he glanced around.

Automatically, he thought about whether it would be a Statute breach. He turned and scanned the roofs of other buildings, then caught a glimmer of light, the glow of a mobile phone. He brought the omnioculars to his eyes and zoomed in to see Bruno and Darren both lying prone on the roof of another four-story brick building, about a hundred metres away. Bruno held binoculars to his eyes and watched the pier, while Darren fiddled with his phone.

"You didn't actually cast any spells in front of him… if it's a breach, it's on the Aurors," he thought.

"Told you to stay away," he texted back. He pressed send and then his phone buzzed again: 'Chosen Wanker'

"Potter," he said as he flipped it open.

The-Boy-Who-Lived took a breath, but Draco cut him off.

"Next time bloody Avada them and be done with it!" Draco said.

"You saw what happened? We can't, there are rules and orders we have to follow," Potter replied, "we captured three Snatchers though, and the boat and crate…. Have you ever heard of Nostrandis Emperiosa?"

It tickled something in the back of Draco's memory, but he wasn't in the mood right now to think about anything except how the DMLE had fucked up an opportunity to take out two Death Eaters. An opportunity he'd served to them on a silver platter. Not to mention the fact that Darren and Bruno had seen the whole thing.

"No fucking clue. I'm not on your bloody payroll, don't ask me to do your job for you," Draco said.

He hung up. He couldn't bear to hear Potter's annoying voice for another second. He apparated home to the fountain so as not to disturb Mother this early in the morning. His phone buzzed again: Darren.

"Yeah?" Draco.

"Yo, what the hell was that shit?" the dealer asked.

"You both need to forget about it," Draco said, "I told you to stay away."

"Both? Are you watching us?" Darren asked. Draco could practically see him and Bruno craning their necks.

"I was, but I got the fuck out of there," Draco replied, "and that's exactly what you should do. If I saw you, someone else could too. And don't talk about what you saw, to anyone, got it? Anyone."

"Yeah yeah, we're already on our way," Darren said as the sound of a car passing by came through the receiver, "that was some crazy ass shite anyway, who would I even tell?"

"Just don't…" Draco said, then he rolled his eyes, but it was perfect, "just don't be a chimp."

"Mother fucker," Darren muttered, "yeah okay, talk later."

He hung up, and Draco, still humming from the night's activity, started a long jog through the grounds to channel his excess energy into something useful. The mid-morning sun burnt off the autumn mist and hung low in the sky by the time he returned to the Manor, and his thoughts turned to Tracey.

He called Darren again.

"Hey," Draco said, as he entered the foyer, "hospitals need blood, right? Like if someone gets hurt and they lose a lot of blood, you can't just… give them some medicine and replenish it, right?"

"Good morning," Darren replied with a yawn, "yeah, yeah they need blood. So… we're not going to talk about whatever the fuck?"

He had apparently not had the same issue with sleeping as Draco had.

"Where do they get the blood?" Draco asked.

"They uhh… they have blood drives and shite," Darren replied, "where's this coming from?"

"What's a blood drive?" Draco asked.

What followed was a high-level explanation of volunteer blood donations, transfusions, and storage.

"I ain't a doctor, but that's basically how it works," Darren said.

"So… theoretically, if I had the money, I could sponsor a blood drive?" Draco asked.

"Yeah, what are you thinking?" Darren asked.

His question fell on deaf ears, because as he rounded the corner, he spotted two figures on the grand staircase. Aunt Bellatrix he recognised immediately, her raven hair as wild as ever, standing a step above another woman with long brown hair, far more voluptuous than his young aunt, with her back to him. It took him a moment to place her.

"Good Morning, Aunt Bella, Madam Zabini," he said as he folded his phone and tucked it away, and Blaise's mum jerked as if caught in a private moment.

"Interesting… Mother must have let her through the wards," he thought.

Leana jerked her hand away as Draco spoke. Bellatrix nodded to her nephew as he folded the muggle device and tucked it away.

"I have to get ready," Bella replied.

Leana apparently took that as a yes as she smiled, then turned and descended the steps and made for the front door of the Manor.

"Morning Draco," she said as she passed.

Bella swallowed as her eyes followed the older woman's hips sway with each step. A wave of nausea passed through her as she caught Draco's gaze linger on her as well. He paused as he approached her on the steps.

"Why's she here?" he asked without making eye contact.

"The ball, obviously," Bellatrix replied, "you look like shite, did you stay out all night?"

Draco nodded.

"It was a bloody disaster, don't ask. I need to sleep so I can function tonight," he said as he gave her a wide berth as he continued climbing the steps, "but first, shower."

Draco paused after a few steps, but Bellatrix's mind swirled with other matters.

"I've already overstayed my welcome," Bella thought, "I'll ask Hermione again after the ball. If she doesn't come away with me then…"

Draco cleared his throat.

"Blaise's mum is trouble," he said, again without looking at her, "just in case you're not aware, she's had seven husbands, all of whom have died and left their estates to her."

He continued walking and muttering to himself. Bellatrix shook her head, and a jolt of discomfort shot through her skull.

"Perfect, now I have a headache, too," she thought as she thumped a fist against her forehead, "stupid, bloody cold."

She ran her fingers through her hair several times, then returned to the ballroom to look for Cissy.