A/N: Wow, a story of mine reaching chapter ten? But of a miracle these days. But late (wanted to post yesterday or the day before but didn't get the time to finish up. But of an exposition dump, I'm afraid, and shorter than I aim all chapters I write, but oh well. I wanted the Halloween dance to have its own chapter, anyway. And damn, 90 follows and almost that in faves?! Seriously thank you all, it means a lot towards keeping me writing this insanity, lmfao. Enjoy.
Chapter Ten
The Truth About Trixie
Hog's Head Inn, Thirty Minutes Later..
Aberforth set the bottle of firewhiskey on the table in the back room of the pub, otherwise known as his home kitchen as he lived in the house the pub was in fact a part of. He glared at his brother. "What do you want with my boy, Albus? He's out of the public eye for a reason. Him and that damned reptile he rescued a couple of years back."
Albus hummed thoughtfully. "It seems we have even more reason to speak to him, Abe. You wouldn't perhaps be speaking of a blood cursed python, would you?"
"Albus, how do you know about her? You didn't meet Aurelius until I did, but she's supposedly from before that battle."
Albus smiled in that way he did. "Oh, you haven't met our newest family Lord, have you? Terribly ingenious, has Lady Black rather attached to his arm."
"You mean the Slytherin I had in here a while back, his girlfriend grieving her dead father? Lord Gaunt, I believe?"
"Yes, but he much prefers his actual given surname. Nick has some.. very astute and otherwise forbidden knowledge that he so righteously is helping us fight the Dark Lord with. Just earlier tonight, you see, he helped me and our friend Newt capture a rather volatile basilisk. In the Chamber of Secrets."
Aberforth narrowed his eyes. "You lie. The Chamber is nothing but a myth."
"Here, Aberforth, let my memories decide and then we can further this conversation. You'll see why I needed to come to you." The Headmaster said, pulling the memories from his mind and offering them to his brother. Aberforth reluctantly took them and brought them to his pensieve, a slightly smaller one than Albus possessed, and added the memories as both brothers were sucked into the memory-reliving liquid.
Nick's Room, Slytherin Dorms..
Nick opened his eyes, the expected mess of black hair tangling his vision, making him smile softly as he heard Bellatrix's slow breathing. They had only been in bed for an hour, so Nick doubted she was still awake at all. To be honest, what she had told him about their family magics that afternoon made him fearful of what the consequences of such a connection truly were. Then there was the assumption- most likely correct- that the Elder Wand could severe the connection between the Black family magic and the power of Death itself that made such insane members of Wizarding society.
He ran his hands gently through her curls, knowing that protecting this pure Bellatrix was his top priority behind taking Voldemort out before Harry, Neville, and their friends could be born into the already screwed up reality they were given. What he hadn't been able to shake was something he'd seen in the set of visions Trixie had received pertaining to why her mind had been sent back weeks after Nick had first died in 2022.
In the visions, there had been a couple of mentions of the first time, like this journey he found himself on had not only been planned, but Nick and Trixie may very well have both lived through what they had considered fiction once before, most likely ending up as the characters then added to Nick's copies of the Harry Potter novels as seen when Trixie investigated them in her grief over losing Nick. But how could they retain no knowledge of such a thing if this was some twisted cycle of reincarnation like it seemed in Trixie's case, since her personality being so close to Bellatrix before Voldemort got his fangs into her couldn't possibly just be a coincidence. Things had added up unevenly yet too perfectly too much for that to be the case.
Malfoy American Estate, Crystal Springs, 2022..
Lizzy had finished her homework for the night, sighing as she wondered how Trixie and Nick were doing, if things had been reset like her parents had told her should happen. She didn't fully understand what they had been talking about, and even now, more than a month after Trixie had been sent back in time in whatever way she had sent her, she just knew she missed her friends. Even being non-magical as far as she knew, Nick and Trixie had been the best friends Lizzy could ever ask for.
As if sensing her thoughts, her father walked into the room. "Hey, Liz. You alright?"
"Yeah, dad, I'm fine.. No, I'm not, actually. What's the deal with all this time paradox shit you put me in the middle of? I'm the only one who even remembers Trixie even existed, and now I'm left without both of my best friends, because of something I don't even understand."
Draco sighed. He knew it would come to this eventually. "Lizzy, I know it's hard, being without them. If I had known they were your uncle and aunt before Nick was killed here, I'd have told you all about it earlier. How much do you remember about the stories grandmother Lucina used to tell you? About her last year at Hogwarts?"
Lizzy looked at her father confused, but hummed. "Well, I remember her saying that Voldemort seemed to be winning, most of Slytherin opting to join him in his crusade. I also remember her telling me about Aunt Bella's mental breakdown around Christmas that year.. Oh, and she always told it that a stranger came to Hogwarts that year and turned everything upside down, including fighting Voldemort until he was nothing but ethereal consciousness. But, then he came back when you and cousin Harry were in school. Aunt and uncle had all but disappeared by the time Voldemort was defeated for a second time, though."
"Disappeared is a.. loose term, really, when looking at how adept your aunt and uncle were with their spellwork. See, your great uncle Nick, since he's technically my uncle, he was a special guy, everyone could see it. Especially your aunt. Nick could tell you exactly what was going to happen before anyone else knew what was even going on. He had made it his personal mission to stop Voldemort while him, your grandmother, aunt and the rest of our friends and family were finishing up their seventh year. Then, supposedly, your aunt Bellatrix came under the maddening influence of her family curse, otherwise called the Black Madness. Fortunately, however, Nick was able to keep her from going insane in the way you learned from those damned books. Make me out to be a little troll.
"Anyway, they managed to stop Voldemort, but they had missed the final Horcrux, Voldemort's familiar python, Nagini. Because she escaped the battle between your uncle Nick and Voldemort, the Dark Lord was able to rise again years later, kidnapping your cousin Harry and myself. Voldemort thought he could turn me to his side, because my family had always been followers of his. Your aunt and uncle both took jobs at the school to help protect us all and, at the final battle, he was struck down after finally destroying Voldemort once and for all, but none of us know why he died, to be honest. Things started going downhill after that. Bellatrix went insane again and without Nick as her anchor, she eventually killed herself. Or, so we thought, at least."
"What do you mean, dad?" Lizzy had never heard all this before, but it did seem like Nick had never really died in the street that day. It seemed more like he had needed to be injured to send his mind backwards through time, but who thought about that plan in the first place?
"Your aunt, even while wrapped up in her delusions, had apparently seen clearly enough to devise a very elaborate and risky plan, especially with her mental state at the time. You believe she died, but that's not entirely it. No, she sent herself back through time to before she was born, but that jump through time had already created a different reality than your aunt thought she would wind up in. Instead of her and your other Black family aunt's being cousins to your uncles Sirius and Regulus, the five of them were all one unit, although she had no way of knowing that at first, I'm sure. Then, she somehow created a complete clone of herself as a baby, and brought the cloned version of herself to the more present day, where she grew up with her magic bound so tightly that her life would be all but forfeit if it was ever unleashed. Of course, Bellatrix knew when she was in the first place and obliviate herself of a good chunk of her memories, just so she could live here and help raise her younger self until she was ready to face the truth of her existence."
"Trixie.. So, my best friend was literally my aunt the entire time? And her mom was the real Bellatrix." Draco nodded. "Then.. what was she planning?"
Draco shook his head. "I don't know, Lizzy. Unfortunately, your aunt was mostly- but not all- there at the time when I figured it out. Babbled at me saying I was a little shit of a kid until I showed her the memories of her, holding me in the St. Mungo's maternity ward, flying on toy broomsticks alongside Harry and little Archie. She told me everything, then. How she had found forbidden and lost magic telling her how to travel back in time, the method to clone herself, everything. So she explained what her plan was.
"She had taken herself here, in an effort to keep her mind tethered to your uncle so she wouldn't succumb to the Madness again. It helped, it seemed, even knowing she could never approach Nick herself and speak the truth. Aunt Bellatrix found me and told me there was a plan to make everything better, and I knew she was talking more about losing Nick than anyone, her eyes always having that spark of insanity in them from just thinking about it. Then, she told me how Nick, your friend Nick, wound up somehow back in her seventh year, and indeed was that very same stranger grandma Lucina spoke of. Your aunt knew Nick would eventually wind up back then, even if that never made the most sense.
"But, she was right it seems, all along. But, there was a complication now because of your aunt's actions. Something she hadn't foreseen in the form of the Madness she thought young Trixie was safe from afflicting, not having her magic. When you went and sent Trixie's mind back to the girl your aunt then was in school, you were sending her to protect her, and I know I'm a stupid father for not saying that sooner. If we had kept her here, with the now altered events recorded in those strangely, prophetically spot on novels the Muggles love so much, her mind would have frayed and the seal on her magic could very well have broken. Dangerously so. But, when you completed your end of the plan, your aunt disappeared without a trace once again. But, you gave Trixie a second chance at being happy, Lizzy, and nothing can take how good that should make you feel away, even yourself. You grew up around plenty of magical kids here, you'll find another friend come the summer. If you can wait that long." Draco explained at length, sighing and patting his daughter on her leg as he stood back up. "Hopefully that was helpful, sweetheart. Thong will get better soon enough, you'll see." He left the room, leaving Lizzy with a lot to process.
Nick's Room, Slytherin Dorms, 3am, 1975..
Bellatrix gasped, feeling like she desperately needed air as she awoke from her nightmare. This was now the third night in a row since they'd started.. since she had told Nick about the Black Madness. She had chalked it up to being connected, both events too interwoven with each other, as seen in the nightmares. That was how her dreams turned nightmares always began, replaying the end of that conversation and going further to show the two of them happy, until they inevitably turned horribly wrong.
The first night wasn't so bad. She hadn't expected the quidditch date to end in Nick dying from a particularly nasty bludger to the face, sending her into a rage that killed half of the other onlookers with an anger-fueled tempest of ice shards. Her reaction had been a bit much, but the rest wasn't so bad. Then the second night, where he had been killed by Voldemort, and she had gone right into that loveless bastard's arms in her then raging insanity. Bellatrix had thought that would be the worst of it, but this new nightmare had made her realize how wrong she could be.
It started out a much better dream, herself and Nick married, a bit further on in life judging by the toddler rushing after Nick this way and that and the distended stomach Bellatrix had sported in the dream. Then it flashed to Bellatrix strung up on a cross, a crucifixion without the nails. It wasn't much further than the scene before it, Bellatrix still pregnant as she watched everything light in her life get snuffed out at once. Voldemort appeared in front of her, but she couldn't hear him. Or maybe she was too focused on the already dead bodies of Nick and their older child laying at her feet. She was screaming her throat hoarse in agony as, even in her dream state, she felt the pain of another lost life, Voldemort casting a killing curse on her body, the Unforgivable being absorbed by and therefore killing her unborn child. That was why her hand was still rubbing her stomach unconsciously, several minutes after the dream sent her sitting in bed.
She looked back at Nick as he kept sleeping, seeing the time on the clock hanging from the top curtain rod of his bed- odd choice to keep it- that read 3:14. It was still the middle of the night, she guessed as there was little to no noise elsewhere around the outside of the room, the dungeons having very picky walls. Sometimes they would soundproof almost anything while other times.. Well, it was earned if Slughorn caught anyone doing something inappropriate in their rooms through the night, wasn't it? Surprisingly, he hadn't berated either Bellatrix or Nick for not following those rules, but then again Slughorn wasn't one to get in the way of things between students unless it was hostile. Plus, both students in question were the definition of model students, when Nick wasn't gallivanting about with the Marauders and Bellatrix wasn't off somewhere, trying to research anything she could to get to the bottom of the mystery that was Nick's strange way of time travel, as well as Trixie.
She shuddered as the nightmare replayed itself one more time, making her toss her legs over the side of the bed, the Slytherin green and silver nightgown she wore billowing in the current of her movements as she bent over, feeling nauseous.
The hell was that?! That was one really fucked up nightmare, Bella. Even knowing Voldemort would if given the chance to make an example of Nick or you, there's no way it'll happen. Nick is close, I feel it.
Even if he did stop such a thing from happening, it makes me fearful of the future, Trixie. Like, can a happy future even exist with all this shite going on?
I don't know, but we have to keep faith in Nick. Having you waver would hinder him, considerably so.
Bellatrix narrowed her eyes as she stared ahead at the stone wall of Nick's room. What do you mean, Trixie?
It's simple, Bellatrix. Nick loves us. If either of us have doubts that he can do this without dying like the righteous idiot he is, we may as well be the reason he does die. Again, since this supposedly isn't our first rodeo.
What the hell is that supposed to even mean? This is my life, the only one I've ever known, other than the memories that I have from you. If this was a repeat, I would think I'd know about it.
What if.. you couldn't know about it? Think about it, Bellatrix. If things progress how it seems they are, judging by what I saw in those altered books in Nick's old.. future house, then he may just die during the final battle, I didn't go that far in the seventh book. If that happened, you two probably had a family by then, you know? Or maybe Nick died after they were killed by Voldemort, I don't know. But, if either of those scenarios happened, it would send you right into that damned Black Madness. Maybe you wouldn't be completely gone as the first time, but it would make you probably do something others would most likely tell you welas absolutely fucking insane even if you were in your right mind and had a point with whatever that idea of yours was. What exactly though, I couldn't tell you.. Bellatrix sat on the edge of Nick's bed, unsure whether it was worth going back to bed as a bright light appeared in front of her, blinking into darkness as a letter floated down to the floor, Bellatrix's name written on the envelope in her own handwriting.
2022..
Draco sat at the desk in his study, staring at the letter encased in spells that floated above one corner of the desk. The letter a somewhat insane Bellatrix had given him to give back to her when next they met. How do you know we would, auntie.. Unless..?
He raised his wand hesitantly, grimacing as he decided to do something he thought could be incredibly stupid and detrimental to what his aunt had intended, but it might be the only way to ensure what Bellatrix wanted, as well. With a short incantation, the letter vanished from sight, sent back to a Bellatrix that, while younger, would no doubt make sense of the words within.
1975..
Bellatrix's hands were shaking as she picked the letter up from the floor, eyes glued to her name etched on the parchment of the envelope. With Trixie's voice coaxing her softly, she managed to break the seal and unfold the letter, taking a deep breath before silently reading the words written within:
To Bellatrix/Trixie/Myself, I guess,
I hope this letter finds us in good health, both physical and mental. If I'm reading this, then I do believe our plan at fully stopping Voldemort came true the second time around, although there's no guarantee I'll be around to see it anyway. Anyway, you may be wondering why you are writing yourself a letter, and the truth is that whether you know what happened the first time or not already, you need to know the truth about ourselves, Trixie included.
I know this must sound all kinds of confusing and you probably think this letter is absolute goblin shite, but everything I tell you in this letter is real. Nick and I met in Diagon Alley, the summer before what would be our seventh year. He was a mystery, but I grew to love him closer than anyone, even my cousin, Sirius. Although, I suppose judging by the way the books changed, it's technically our brother now, isn't he? Anyway, Nick and I became formally betrothed soon after school began, and together we fought the Supremacist regime headed by Voldemort. We only failed in killing him because we couldn't find Nagini, or Voldemort's familiar ball python turned Horcrux. The rest had been destroyed however, but that didn't stop Voldemort from coming back during the nineties. Nick and I both fought against Voldemort in the final battle in the Forbidden Forest, our oldest children joining the fight despite being just a first and third year student, respectively. I was also pregnant at the time, however.. Bellatrix trailed off, her nightmare replaying in the back of her mind, but she ignored the distraction to continue reading. Voldemort had me captured, using me as bait for Nick. I was so stupid to allow him to catch me so easily, but now it's in the past. Nick and our other children showed up and.. Voldemort took everything away from us, Bellatrix. The children died first, they were nowhere near ready to face the Death Eaters that were crawling all over the school. Then, he killed Nick as our husband was mourning the children, his sadness-fueled rage causing Nick to be sloppy and unable to dodge Voldemort's underhanded tricks. Then, he approached me and I thought with every nerve in my body that I was going to die, but it was so much worse, personally speaking. He used the killing curse, but it didn't kill me, instead the magic of my and Nick's unborn child absorbing it all. I felt the baby die in my womb, and then Voldemort told me to suffer as Nick and I made him in the aftermath of the first War: broken and alone. I vowed to never allow him the chance again, and so I succumbed to the Black Madness, killing that snake bastard with everything I could muster. Then, my madness brought me to studying books on everything I could find, trying to figure out how Nick had first done the deed to no avail.
I did, however, find another method I thought quite useful. And so, I flung myself back to when we were just born, using what most would consider forbidden blood magic to clone ourselves. I took you to the modern day, naming you Trixie and raising you as Donna Talos in Crystal Springs alongside the boy who would eventually become our husband. I told Draco, my nephew through Lucina, that when the time was right and the seal on Trixie's magic was about to burst open, to have his daughter Lizzy use a spell of my own creation in order to merge our two separate consciousnesses, mine and the modern day Trixie. Integrating the two minds was the only way I could see this conflict ending sooner than it had, and hopefully with none of the bad memories I first encountered. However, there seems to be a drawback I did not foresee, and that is that Trixie would gain several memories not of her own, with nothing able to counteract the occurrence. By the time you read this letter, I would hope Voldemort is long dead, and our family flourishing. Hopefully, my nightmare is finally over as Trixie was sent back just yesterday, but only time will truly tell. All my best
Bellatrix Black-Negron, reigning Lady of Houses Black, Negron and Gaunt.
P.S. Never lose that love, Bellatrix, you'll never find another quite as powerful or pure again, trust yourself on that.
Bellatrix dropped the letter, shocked at what she had read. Her own thoughts about the situation sounded like yelling in her own mind, drowning out even Trixie's own thoughts as she conjured a robe onto her person and rushed out of the room.
Meanwhile, in the seventh year Gryffindor dorms, Sirius was looking at the Marauder's Map when he noticed the dot for his twin rushing out of the castle. Whatever could be wrong with Bella? He thought, shrugging it off as he knew she would probably tell him once he got her alone, if it was as important as her dot ran across the castle grounds, straight towards Hogsmeade.
Several Hours Later..
Nick shot up as the magically-summoned (and vanished) water washed over him. "The fuck?! Sirius?" He said, seeing the Gryffindor standing in his room, Nick then noticed the absence of Bellatrix from his bed. "How'd you even get in here?"
"I got Regulus to let me in a few minutes ago. Took me that much longer to get through whatever array of locking charms you have on that door, which surprise me that they weren't already unlocked, judging by Bella last night."
"Ah, yeah you shouldn't have been able to get past the lock charms, which means Bella undid one or two to let herself out. You know where she is, by the way?"
Sirius tossed a rolled-up parchment to him, Nick opening it to find the sheet blank, or so he thought as he looked back at Sirius with a grin. "Really? You guys finally managed it?" Sirius nodded with an equally proud grin as Nick said the password to his new copy of the Map. "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good." He said, tapping the parchment with his wand.
This map was updated, it seemed, as well, as the ink slowly started bleeding through the sheet like it had always been there: Messrs. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, Prongs and Fangs are proud to present the Marauder's Map. "You guys added me into it? Even without an Animagus form?"
Sirius nodded. "Of course. We never could have enhanced the map in the first place without you. Plus, you'd probably be a Horned Serpent if you were an Animagus, your connection to them is a little too clear to see."
Nick laughed. "Thanks, man. It's an honor, really. But, that doesn't answer my question. Where's my beautiful bride-to-be?"
Sirius shook his head. "The chastity going on between you two is quite sickening, really. Have you two even actually kissed yet?"
"Have you kissed Marlene yet?" Sirius looked at him questioningly. "I didn't think so. We're just.. taking it slow. Enjoying our time together, you know? Seriously though, where is Bella?"
Sirius pointed to the map. "She's out at the Shrieking Shack, no idea why. She's been out there since early this morning, I was checking the map at about.. a little past three, I believe."
Nick opened the map fully, seeing Bellatrix was indeed at the Shrieking Shack. "That's.. odd. And she's been there since just past three?"
"That's how it seems. I figured you knew what had happened, since she fled from your room."
Nick looked around the room and spotted the letter Bellatrix had read earlier in the dark hours of the morning. He got out of bed and picked it up, eyes widening impossibly as he read the first couple of sentences. "Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck! Tell Dumbledore I went after her, I'll tell you and the others later. If he asks why were gone, just tell him she had a night terror or something that made her go outside the school. You'll figure something out, I'm sure. Thanks for the heads up, Padfoot."
"No problem, Fangs. Just make sure my sister is alright, won't you?"
"You know it's my top priority, brother. I'll be back." He waved his wand and his clothes transfigured I to more Autumn wear, Nick leading Sirius back out of Slytherin, no one daring to send even a wayward glance at the Gryffindor in their midst.
Shrieking Shack, Hogsmeade, Several Minutes Later..
Nick had searched all over the upper floors of the shack, no sign of Bellatrix anywhere. The copy of the Map he now carried said she was still here, but the other Marauders hadn't yet fully fleshed out Hogsmeade, meaning the multi-level shack was shown as a single floor at the moment.
He went downstairs into the basement and that was when he heard the desperate gasping for air coming from one all-too dark corner of the basement. "Bellatrix?" Nick could see the light from the top of the stairway reflecting in Bellatrix's violet eyes, wide with fear as she met his gaze. "There you are. You had me and Sirius worried sick." He went over, sitting on the floor next to the girl and throwing his arm around her shoulders, pulling her close as he fished the letter from his robe pocket. "What is this?"
Bellatrix looked away, refusing to meet his eyes. "Get that damn thing away from me!"
Nick hurried to put it back in his pocket. "Fine, fine. What happened last night? That letter.."
"It happened! I woke up from another nightmare, and the damned thing just bloody appeared in front of me from thin air. I read it, and.. I couldn't think, there was too much going on in my head.. Did you..?"
"No, not all of it, just a couple lines in. I'd rather hear it from you, not some piece of paper."
Bellatrix looked at him then, smiling. "Oh, Nick.. ugh, fine. I guess it does concern you more than we thought." She cleared her throat, and Trixie's near identical voice came through. "Nick, you and I have been much more connected than we ever would have thought. My mom, in our time.. she is Bellatrix, but from another time loop that began with your death. You got sent here, fell in love with Bellatrix, got married, had a family.. But we missed Nagini the first time, and Voldemort came back as the books told of, with you and Bellatrix included as main characters. He killed your whole family, Nick, even your unborn child but left Bellatrix to suffer that loss. She fell to the Black curse and found some ridiculously out there spells.
"Mom sent herself back in time, but she wound up in this exact timeline, just after Sirius and the Bellatrix we both know now were born. She used some forbidden spell to clone Bellatrix and then took the cloned version forward in time to live and grow alongside you.." Nick nodded for her to continue, although they both knew what she was going to say. "Trixie Talos, I, am a clone of the one and only Bellatrix Black, magic sealed until I found out about my would be life- had I been the Bellatrix I now share a body with- before Lizzy sent me back here to be with you again, and help Bellatrix keep full control of herself while making sure this second chance works out the way we want it to, which means we need to get that snake and destroy it before we inevitably face Voldemort by the time school ends, since that seems a prerequisite for a plot point involving magical schools. Either way, now it's so fucking obvious why everything has happened this way, why me and Bellatrix are merging.. We're literally the same person.."
"Somewhere along the line of the last couple weeks, I kinda figured that, myself. It was the only thing that made any kind of sense, even thought the notion itself seemed nonsensical. But, Trixie, this changes nothing. You know that, right? Just because you and Bella wound up being the exact same person doesn't mean either of you have false feelings for me or vice-versa. It only cements what we all feel. You being here, in any way, means that now I honestly don't have to hide how I've felt about you, not when I have you and this pure soul we never would have known if it wasn't for all this time travel shit. So don't feel that you're any less just being a part of Bella's mind, alright? Truthfully, you're just making her stronger for being there."
Bellatrix nodded as her normal voice spoke back up. "Thank you, Nick.. I barely know what to think about all this, it seems like something so far from reality.."
Nick quieted the girl as he patted her cheek tenderly. "You are my Trixie, Bellatrix, no matter the time or place. And I'm here, never letting go. Even if it seems all I'm doing is hiding from what I should have been embracing this whole time."
Bellatrix smiled widely, nodding as Nick helped her stand back up. "I'm sorry I worried you, Nick. I just panicked.."
"It's fine, I probably would, too, in your shoes. That does sound like some pretty heavy shit to find out all at once. And just after a nightmare? You had a really rough night, love. Now, let's go back home, eh? Everyone is worried, and I may have promised Sirius we'd tell the others. Your family, our family here, deserve to know the full truth of what's going on with us."
Bellatrix frowned, not enthused by the idea. "I don't know if that's such a good idea. Won't they freak out?"
"If they're any bit as trustworthy as they've made out to be so far? Maybe, but not badly enough to stop them from being there for us if we need them. Be brave, Bella. What happened to the talk-tough, no-no sense Bellatrix I met in Diagon Alley?"
Bellatrix giggled coyly. "You did, love. But I would never change that."
"Oh, for bloody Merlin's sake, kiss already!" Both teens looked towards the stairs to find Sirius, Marlene and Lily there, the others all probably waiting further up the stairs. "Please, for all that's holy just kiss. You both have run laps around each other nonstop since you met, just end this ridiculous race."
The two looked at each other, smiling as they made their way over. "Nah, I don't think we will, just yet." Nick said as he took his wand out. "See y'all at school!" He said before apparating himself and Bellatrix back to the castle.
Sirius looked at the others that had all tagged along. "Did he really just..?"
"Oh, yeah, they're gonna be snogging in his room before she goes to get ready for classes. I'm sure everything is fine, nothing to really worry about." Lily said. "I know Bellatrix well enough to know that whatever Nick means to her, whatever happened hit her hard and him getting her himself proved to her that he feels the same, whatever the bloody hell is wrong."
Sirius hummed. "Yeah, you're probably right." He said as the group all moved to get back to Hogwarts themselves, using the secret passage linking the Shrieking Shack and the Whomping Willow.
Nick's Room, Several Minutes Later..
Nick separated himself from Bellatrix's lips, panting. "You know, your brother and the others will be back in the castle soon. Guaranteed we won't be alone much longer and you need to go get ready for our day. Our first public kiss will be on our terms, not the dumbasses who crashed a moment."
Bellatrix giggled. "Trixie says fuck them, and I'm inclined to agree. Just one more, we've both held ourselves back long enough." Her already wild curls made Nick chuckled, tucking some behind one ear.
"Either way, we have enough alone time thanks to you sticking to me worse than that day with my mom's leash jinx on a daily basis. So go on, get your gorgeous butt ready for class." Nick said, charming the door open as he pushed her out.
"But.. Nick!" She whined as the door closed behind them both, Nick walking off towards the common room with a chuckle.
In the Great Hall, Dumbledore watched the room curiously, looking for a rhyme or reason Bellatrix and Nick weren't there. The doors shifted open a bit as he watched the two in question slip inside, laughing and looking happier than he'd seen them before, as amorous as they usually were together. He smiled, nodding as Nick looked in his direction and grinned in greeting. Dumbledore only hoped the Marauders didn't have anything particularly dangerous planned as a Halloween prank this year. The Samhain Formal was in three days, after all, and it looked to be such a happy occasion without the friends causing their mischief.