Bejeweled

The next few weeks were uneventful. The leaves turned from green to shades of orange, yellow, and red as the temperature cooled and autumn rolled in. Bellatrix got one night of rounds to herself, mostly using the time to reflect on the first few weeks of her strange new partnership. 

Most of the time she was too focused on other things—homework, friends, the Dark Lord—for it to pop into her mind, but walking the same path that she usually shared with him brought it to the forefront of her thoughts. 

She supposed things were going well. She got tonight to herself to let her mind wander as her body did in the quiet corridors, which was what she’d been after. Well, that and time to explore a specific part of the castle, but she didn’t feel like going there tonight. Instead she found herself thinking about how she had enjoyed the past few conversations with Remus Lupin of all people. After she’d learned how enjoyable it was to get him riled up, she’d purposefully gotten under his skin again the next week. She didn’t let it go too far of course, just like the first time, relenting when she could tell it was almost but not quite. Going to the line, but backing down before she crossed it. 

He didn’t seem to understand the game yet, getting genuinely upset, but she could tell he was smart enough to figure it out soon. Honestly, he probably would have by now if she were anyone else. He was so aware of her reputation as this scary future Death Eater that it didn’t occur to him that she might be teasing. She wasn’t always so serious. 

Bellatrix wondered what he’d do when he did finally realize. She hoped it would be just as fun. Would he still get mad, knowing it was just a game? Would he tease back? He seemed like the type who might be good at bantering back. He was friends with Sirius after all. Whatever happened, she found that it wasn’t so bad on nights he was with her. 

She’d been so worried about who she’d be paired up with, not that she’d told anyone about her concerns. Sure, she knew she could simply tell the Head Boy and Girl who she wanted, and they’d give them to her with no questions asked, but she hadn’t really wanted anyone. She hadn’t really known any other prefects now that Lucius was gone, and people had all kinds of thoughts about and reactions to her. 

What if she’d gotten some hard headed Gryffindor who hated her on principle? Who would challenge her with nonstop nonsense just to be annoying? What if she’d gotten some cry baby Hufflepuff who would run in terror if Bellatrix so little as glanced in their direction? What if she got some goody-goody Slytherin who wasn’t interested in the Dark Lord and tried to talk her out of her dedication? She’d taken a gamble on Lupin, and was relieved it had paid off. Especially getting to enjoy the peace and quiet of doing rounds alone. 

However, the next week it wasn’t so dreadful that he was back. He looked tired, with bags under his eyes and slumped shoulders, and was only eight minutes early instead of ten. If he hadn’t looked so exhausted she would have given him shit for it, but this time she let it pass. He was sickly after all. 

“Rough week?” she asked when he approached. 

“Rough week,” he agreed. 

They started up the stairs together, falling in step beside each other. He was walking a little slower than usual, but she slowed her usual stride to match. “Hopefully my idiot cousin didn’t make it worse.” 

“No,” he smiled a little. “My friends make things a lot easier when my condition acts up.” 

“Well, that’s good then.” 

“How was doing rounds alone?” Lupin asked. 

“Wonderful,” she grinned. 

“May I ask why you like doing rounds alone?” he said, glancing over at her as they started up the next staircase. It was always a bit of a trek up to the beginning of the route. 

“It’s peaceful,” she explained. “It’s nice to just be able to have some time to think, away from everyone else.” 

“I get that. I can just shut up if you’d prefer,” he offered. 

Bellatrix laughed. “No, it’s fine. And it’s not the same. Being around anyone…puts me on guard,” she admitted. Why did she admit that to him? Maybe he was a little too easy to talk to. 

“Oh,” Lupin frowned, but didn’t say anything else. 

They made it to the beginning of their route and started off around the building. After so many years there, going up and down the steps so much didn’t bother her, but they had a very long walk ahead of them. At his slower pace it was sure to take longer than usual, but maybe it wouldn’t be as tiring. 

She felt antsy as they walked the first few steps. Why had she told him that? It had just slipped out like nothing. To a Gryffindor. A friend of her cousin! He of all people didn’t need to know how she was constantly on guard around everyone. Constantly aware of herself. Making sure she came off exactly how she wanted to at all times, keeping her cards close to her chest. Close to her chest around everyone except him apparently. She found she was nervously bitting her lower lip and stopped that right away. “Yeah, can’t accidentally give away anything about how I’m going to kill all the muggle borns after getting out of here,” she blurted out to tease him, watching his face to see if he’d figure out she was just messing with him yet. 

Bellatrix saw a rage spark in his tired eyes, but he didn’t say anything, his jaw and fists clenching as if he was holding himself back. 

It wasn’t what she expected. He’d firmly told her not to call Evans a ‘mudblood’, then snapped that he didn’t want to hear that word from her at all, but even when he’d been upset he hadn’t seemed like this. Something was off, and her first instinct was to back down, but she realized that impulse came almost from…fear. And Bellatrix Black was not afraid of Remus Lupin. That was a fight she could win every time. 

“I mean, Avada Kadavra is clean and simple, but who to use it on first, you know? It has to be someone special. Oh, I know! Maybe your and Snape’s m-“ she didn’t get to finish that sentence. 

Lupin had shoved her hard against the castle wall, one hand around her throat, the other holding his wand to her chest. Bellatrix could breathe, but knew she’d get light headed quickly the way he was restricting the blood flow in her neck. The look in his eyes was murderous, she knew he was holding himself back from not cursing her into oblivion or actually just strangling her. As it turned out, Bellatrix was very wrong about not being afraid of Remus Lupin. 

This was not the sweet puppy she thought she’d been walking the corridors with. This was a wolf breathing down her neck ready to take a bite. 

“Shut up! Just shut the fuck up! I don’t care who your family is or what kind of bullshit you believe. I know you’re going to end up some piece of shit Death Eater, but you will not threaten muggle borns in front of me. It’s not some fucking game, Bellatrix. This is war. This is life and death, and those people you want to kill are people I care about. I’ll be civil with you because I’m stuck with you, but I’m not just going to stand here and let you say that awful shit!” He was practically growling at her, voice low and sincere and terrifying. 

Bellatrix stood there frozen the entire time, eyes wide. It didn’t even cross her mind to grab her wand, to shove him away, to do anything but stand there and try to process his words. 

“You know what? You can do this alone tonight, since you enjoy it so much. Hopefully do some thinking.” 

Lupin dropped his hand from her neck and finally stepped back. He turned and walked away, off towards Gryffindor Tower, without once looking back.