Chapter 5
Chapter 5: (Tw: child abuse/punishment/injuries)
August 31th, Elmwood institute, 8:30pm
Bellatrix was about to enter Andromeda and Narcissa’s dorm when she sees Pandora on the other side of the corridor, quietly opening the door of their shared room. She stops to look at her.
“You okay?” Pandora raises her head a little, but not enough to meet her eyes. She nods and enters the room without a word, closing the door behind her.
Bellatrix shrugs and follows her sisters. She sits on the closest bed, which happens to be Narcissa’s, who sits next to her, leaning against the wall.
Andromeda sits on her own bed in front of them. “You realise you got yourself in trouble, right?”
Bellatrix looks at her. “I wasn’t gonna let the girl I share a room with get walked all over, I thought you wanted me to ‘try to be nice’?”
Andy rolls her eyes. “Of course it was a good thing, but that’s not gonna end well. If father knew you-” Bellatrix cuts her off. “Well father isn’t here is he? So end of the discussion. This isn’t your problem.”
Narcissa, who has been quietly listening until now, asks. “Father won’t know, right?”
Bellatrix turns toward her. “Even if he does, who cares? All I did was give Pandora her book back.” Andromeda adds. “I’m not sure Cressisda saw it that way though.”
The black haired girl shrugs. “What is she gonna do anyway?”
Bellatrix can feel Narcissa holding her arm. She winces slightly as her hand rubs her still sore skin.
Narcissa looks up at her. “What’s wrong?”, “Nothing, it’s fine.” As she says that, she can feel Andromeda suspiciously looking at her, but she acts like she didn’t see anything.
In that instant, someone knocks firmly at the door, and when Andromeda allows them to enter, the door’s opening reveals Mrs Turpide. She didn’t look happy. Her stern eyes immediately fall on Bellatrix. “Miss Black. Follow me please.”
Narcissa’s grip tightens slightly, making Bellatrix hold back another wince. She rolls her eyes and stands up, forcing Narcissa to let go of her. Andromeda follows her movement with a worried look. But Bellatrix doesn’t look at her. She has this same sick feeling as she does back home whenever her father is angry at her. And she knows her sisters are feeling it too. However, she’s not gonna let them know that she’s scared, she just gets out of the room, following the headmistress to what is apparently her office.
Mrs Turpide closes the door behind them and gestures to the chair in front of the desk. Bellatrix sits down and the headmistress does the same.
“I reckon you know why you’re here, Miss Black.” Bellatrix doesn’t look up and shrugs, acting unbothered.
Mrs Turpide frowns and resumes, her voice holding an angry edge. “One of our students reported your actions earlier in the corridor.”
Bellatrix keeps her gaze away and just mutters “Snitch.” before Mrs Turpide raises her voice.
“Such a behaviour cannot, and will never be tolerated within my school. Your father sent you here to make you behave and I don’t intend to let that go.”
At the mention of her father Bellatrix clenches her fists. The headmistress stands up, leaning her hands on the desk and keeps going.
“You need to understand, young lady, that here, at the Elmwood Institute, no wrongdoing is left unpunished. You need to learn and you will.”
After that, she opens one of the drawers of her desk and grabs a wooden ruler. “Stand up, hold out your hand, palm up.”
Bellatrix looks at her and scoffs, standing up and holding out her hand. She doesn’t say anything but looks at the woman in front of her right in the eyes.
She’s used to that kind of punishment since she was 6. Whatever Mrs Turpide is about to do, it can’t be worse than her father. And anyway, she doesn’t intend to make her think she has any kind of power over her.
So when Mrs Turpide slams her hand a first time with the ruler, she doesn’t flinch nor look away. Then the second, and the third. Her hand is getting red and she can feel the familiar burning sensation setting in, but she doesn’t let anything out, which is quite impressive to the headmistress. After ten strikes, the skin on Bellatrix’s hand is bleeding, but she still stays still. Mrs Turpide stops with a look of irritation on her face. She puts the ruler aside with a frown. “You’re dismissed.”
Bellatrix turns around without a word and leaves the office, slamming the door behind her. Next thing she knows, she’s storming into her sisters’ dorm rummaging through their stuff and muttering insults no one can quite understand.
Narcissa looks at her worryingly and Andromeda stands up when she sees her come in. “What did she do?”
Bellatrix eventually finds what she was searching for and opens the first aid kit Andromeda packed before they left home. She grabs a random bandage from it and puts it around her hand quickly.
Narcissa looks at her, her eyes fixed on her hand and Andromeda calls out again. “Trix, what happened?” Bellatrix doesn’t look up from what she’s doing and answers defensively. “Nothing we didn’t know would happen anyway. If he chose to send us here it wasn’t to keep us safe, was it?”
Andromeda signs and walks to Bellatrix, she gently takes her arm and pulls her to sit on her bed. She unrolls the roughly made bandage from her sister’s hand and starts to properly clean and bandage the wounds.
Once she’s done, she looks at Bellatrix and quietly says. “That’s why it might be wiser not to get in trouble, just for a while you know? Do what they ask and just stay out of the bad stuff.”
Bellatrix doesn’t look up. “You mean fighting right?” Andromeda nods slightly. “Yeah, mainly.”
Bellatrix nods too. “I know.” She frowns. “I just can’t. Even if I try, I just fuck it up eventally. I can’t control it. I’m just…angry.”
Before Andromeda can say anything, the both of them are interrupted by a sniffle coming from the other side of the room. When they look up, they find Narcissa hunched up against the wall on her bed. She was silently crying, holding her knees close to her chest. At that sight, none of them wastes a second and they both stand up to sit on each side of their little sister.
Andromeda is the first to talk, she gently rests her hand on Narcissa’s knee. “Hey? What’s going on?”
Narcissa wipes her eyes with the back of her hand and looks at Bellatrix, her teary eyes going back and forth between her sister and her bandaged hand. “She hurts you too. Like father.”
Bellatrix smiles slightly and runs her non-injured hand through her blonde hair. “I’m okay Cissa. She’s not gonna do much.”
But Narcissa doesn’t look convinced. “It’s because you pushed that Malfoy girl right?” Bellatrix nods slightly. “Why did you do that?”
Bellatrix frowns slightly. “I- I don’t know.” Narcissa says quietly. “If you keep doing that you’ll keep getting hurt.” Bellatrix doesn’t come with anything to say, she tenses slightly. Narcissa adds. “I don’t want to see you hurt.”
Bellatrix uncomfortably straightens up on the bed, she simply answers quietly. “I know.”
The three of them stay silent for a couple of minutes until Narcissa asks. “It’s not going to be better, is it?”
Andromeda and Bellatrix answer at the exact same time. “Yes, it will.”, “No, it won’t.” They look at each other and Narcissa hugs her knees a little tighter.
Bellatrix looks at her. “Whatever, life was always crap for us. It's not a few more years in a stupid school that’s gonna stop us right? I’m okay to have it shitty as long as I’m with you.”
For what it's worth, it makes a smile emerge on Narcissa’s face. Andromeda chuckles. “That was cheesy. Since when do you make cheesy talks?”
Bellatrix raises her eyebrow, offended. “Shut up Andy, don’t ruin it. I just tried to make her smile.” She looks at her little sister. “See? It worked.”
The three girls stayed together a bit longer, until Andromeda looked at the clock. It was already 9:40pm. “Trix, you should go back to your room. It’s almost curfew.”
Bellatrix looks at the clock as well and shrugs. “It’s fine, I have time.” But Narcissa shakes her shoulder gently. “Don’t get into more trouble today, please.”
Bellatrix looks at her, Cissa is right, this one is something she could easily avoid. So she sighs and gives a gentle rub to her sister’s arm. “Okay, you’re right. I’ll go.”
She stands up and wishes good night to her sisters before heading back to her own dorm.
When she opens the dorm, the room is dark and quiet. Is Pandora already asleep? She comes in and can only see thanks to the dim light coming through the closed curtains. Pandora is curled up on her bed gently rocking back and forth.
“Pandora? Are you…Okay?” But no answer. Bellatrix walks towards her, Pandora stops rocking and moves away from Bellatrix slightly.
The Black haired girl raises an eyebrow. “Relax, I'm not gonna eat you. What’s wrong with you?”
Pandora doesn’t answer either, she looks towards Bellatrix but not to her face. Bellatrix can see that something’s wrong, only she doesn’t know what, or what to do about it, or even if she wants to do something about it.
“Do you need something?” Still nothing. So Bellatrix gives up and goes to sit on her own bed. She grabs a book and turns on her bed light.
Now that she can completely see Pandora, she sees her hugging herself tightly and staring into space. This sight is so against everything Pandora showed until now, she’s just quiet and motionless. Bellatrix hasn't known her for a long time but she can tell it’s not normal.
Around 10 minutes later, Bellatrix didn’t read a single page of her book, she can’t help but look at Pandora every now and then.
For some obscure reasons Pandora is intriguing to her. That doesn’t make any sense, she’s nothing like Bellatrix or the kind of people she could potentially be interested in. But she can’t stop trying to understand what’s wrong with her.
10pm comes and Bellatrix hears Mrs Turpide in the corridor making sure everyone is in their own dorm. She gets to their door and knocks, not even bothering to open.
“Miss Black?” Bellatrix answers. “Yes.”, Mrs Turpide continues. “Miss Lestrange?” Bellatrix turns towards Pandora, waiting for her to answer as well. But she doesn’t.
Mrs Turpide calls out again. “Miss Lestrange.” Since Pandora still doesn’t say anything Bellatrix answers for her. “She’s here.”
The headmistress opens the door in an annoyed motion. “Well then she should answer.”
She stops when she sees Pandora and rolls her eyes. “You have to answer when called Miss Lestrange. Your temper isn't my problem.”
Pandora simply nods slightly and the headmistress goes out muttering something Bellatrix doesn’t catch.
Once she closes the door, Bellatrix puts her book aside and sits on the edge of her bed. “Come on, what’s going on?”
Of course, the blonde girl stays silent. Bellatrix looks around the room as if the answer would be somewhere on the shelves or something.
She stops on the record player. Actually, it might be. She remembers that Pandora told her music helped her.
She could let her do her weird things and just go to sleep. But it isn’t late, she wouldn’t sleep anyway. And having her blankly staring into space like that is unsetting. She might as well get her out of that weird trance.
Bellatrix stands up, turns on the record player and grabs the headset. She stands before the other girl and pulls the cable. “Do you want that?”
Pandora looks up at her and nods slowly, carefully taking the headset and placing it on her ears. Bellatrix sits back on her bed and just waits.
Half an hour passes before Pandora takes the headset off her ears, Bellatrix had to start the record again a couple of times. When she sees her, she sets the book she picked in the meantime aside but doesn’t say anything.
Eventually, Pandora looks at Bellatrix, and barely above a whisper she says “Thank you.” And leans against the wall.
Bellatrix straightens up a little on her bed. “Are you gonna explain this or..?”
Pandora looks at her, apparently thinking it over. “It happens sometimes. When things get…a lot, my brain kind of goes blank and I can’t explain it, even if I wanted to, I just can’t.”
Bellatrix frowns a little. “That’s why you didn’t talk?” She nods. “When I feel too many things I end up overwhelmed, sort of. I just shut down.”
The black haired girl nods slowly. “Right…” It sounds weird, but having the feeling that you can’t stop yourself from doing something, no matter how hard you try, Bellatrix knows it way too much. And if someone asked her to explain it, she wouldn’t. So she doesn’t ask Pandora any more questions.
Pandora looks at Bellatrix’s bandaged hand. “What happened?” Bellatrix looks down at it as well. “Mrs Turpide didn’t like my ‘attitude’. And Cressida is a snitch.”
Pandora looks a bit sad. “I’m sorry.” Bellatrix shrugs. “For what? It would have happened one day or another, and it will most certainly happen again.”
She lies down on her bed. “You look dead by the way.” Pandora looks at her with worry. “What?”
Bellatrix looks at her perplexed. “Dead like tired, you look tired.” The blonde girl sighs in relief. “Oh, yeah, I am.”
“Did you really think I meant it literally?” Pandora shrugs. Bellatrix thinks about saying something else but she realises she actually doesn't care that much so she stays quiet.
A few minutes later she eventually stands up and goes to the bathroom to change into her night clothes. It’s a fancy nightshirt, she actually hates it but her parents refused to get her anything different. As if anyone would care about what she looks like while she sleeps. However, during the summer, Rita got her a large black jumper, something too simple for her parents to allow her to wear it at home so she made sure to take it to the institute. Before going out of the bathroom, she puts the jumper on to cover her arms. It was so big that it covered half her thighs too. Her mother would say that she looks ridiculous. But she doesn’t care in the slightest right now.
Once she comes back into the dorm, Pandora is already buried under her covers, her light off. Bellatrix goes into her own bed and turns off the light. She doesn’t sleep for a couple of hours, she never does. She’s thinking over everything about her day, mostly Pandora actually. She is nothing like anyone Bellatrix saw in her life, nothing like most girls from her status, nothing like probably 90% of the girls in that school. She’s just different, but for once, in a good way.