Subverted Expectations

“It’s not going to happen, Bella.”

“But you-”

“Can you both just drop this? You’ve been arguing all summer, it’s going nowhere.”

Bellatrix hissed in frustration, slumping down into her seat and crossing her arms resolutely over her chest. Across from her, Andy scowled and mirrored her position, while Cissy rolled her eyes at both of them. 

She had to admit that Cissy did have a point, not that she would ever say this out loud. Neither she nor Andy were likely to give in any time soon, so the matter was bound to come to a standstill.

But this didn’t mean she was going to give up. If Andy was going to insist on pushing her on this, she would keep on pushing right back if it was the last thing she did. 

They spent the next hour in complete silence, the only sound coming from Andy flipping the pages in her book. She passed the time silently fuming, debating whether or not she should continue the argument, but she eventually decided against it- Cissy didn’t like to show it, but their arguing made her upset. 

By the time the compartment door slid open to reveal a kindly old woman peeking her head in, trolley full of sweets out in front of her, she was considerably calmer, and it seemed like her sisters were too. They ordered, and conversation picked back up as they started making their way through the small pile of candy.

“Cissy, you excited for Hogsmeade trips this year?” Andy asked, grabbing her third chocolate frog. Cissy was going into her third year at Hogwarts, and would finally be allowed out to the village during Hogsmeade weekends. She had, the past two years, spent these weekends bemoaning the fact that both of her sisters were allowed to go while she was left behind- when she’d entered Hogwarts, Andy was in her third year and Bellatrix was already on her fifth. Bellatrix suspected that, now that she was allowed to go and there was no reason to feel jealous, she would grow bored of the visits after the first few times, as a large part of their appeal was that the two of them got to go.

Bellatrix and Andy both listened as Cissy launched into a lengthy tirade on what she was expecting to do on her Hogsmeade visits (Bellatrix could see many long hours of carrying shopping bags ahead of her, and groaned inwardly at the idea). After a while, she tuned her out and turned to glance at Andy, who looked more relaxed than she’d seen her lately, though this wasn’t exactly a surprise. She and her sister hadn’t been able to spend much longer than an hour in a room together without some argument breaking out the entire summer. But they would both put aside their differences for Cissy’s sake- most of the time, at least.

“-and of course, I’ll be able to buy my own robes this year instead of having Mother send them, and- oh!”

Cissy’s eyes widened, and Andy jumped, the soft smile she’d been wearing wiping off her face, sending a terrified glance towards the door….

Bellatrix whirled around just in time to see Ted Tonks’s face disappear from the window. She snarled, leaping to her feet and throwing open the compartment door, wand in her hand in an instant. Tonks was running down the corridor as fast as he could, not sparing the time glance behind him.

That was a mistake- he should have known better than to turn his back to her.

The jinx she shot at his back wasn’t fatal, nor was it one of the nastier ones she knew, but it certainly wasn’t pleasant. Tonks shouted once, then toppled to the floor, scrambling backwards as boils erupted on his face. Anyone that had been milling about in the corridor quickly ran into the nearest compartment, and a few curious people pressed their faces up against their windows to get a glimpse.

Naturally, no one stepped out to help Tonks. They all knew better than to mess with her.

She stalked over to him, ignoring Andy crying, “Bella!” behind her, and grabbed him by the front of his robes. “Stay away from my sister,” she growled, wand jabbing into his throat. He nodded, frantically.

“Bella!” Andy shrieked, grabbing her wand arm and pulling her off of him. Bellatrix scowled as she performed the counter jinx- she would’ve preferred for him to stay like that until they got to the school. “Come on,” she hissed, pulling her back towards the compartment. Tonks watched them go, wisely choosing to stay on the ground until she was out of sight. She held eye contact with him all the way back to the compartment.

“What the bloody hell was that, Bella?” Andy demanded, pushing her down into the seat. To her credit, she winced when Bellatrix let out an inadvertent yelp, but the sympathy disappeared from her face in an instant. “What did you do that for?”

“Does there have to be a reason?” she shrugged, studying her nails indifferently. 

“Yes, Bella, there has to be a reason! He was just saying hi!”

“Oh, really? Was he just saying hi when he was snogging you last year?”

Andy’s face flushed. “It’s none of your business, Bellatrix. Why do you care so much?”

Bellatrix bristled, her fists clenching hard enough to turn her knuckles white. “He’s a mudblood, Andy. He’s filth. Next thing you know, he’s going to get grand ideas about courting you outside of school, and you’ll either be disowned or killed, you know how father-”

“Because of course father has something to do with this,” Andy muttered.

Something in her squeezed at the rebuke, and Cissy, seeing something in her face and likely expecting a fight, gripped her wand under her robes, shifting so she could jump between them if need be. The three of them sat there, silent and tense, for a minute, before Bellatrix huffed and turned to the window. From the corner of her eye, she saw both of her sister’s postures relax.

The worst part, of course, was that Andy wasn’t wrong, even if Bellatrix didn’t want to admit it. She was well aware that most of her beliefs were a direct extension of her family’s- not that this was necessarily a bad thing. And, sure, Cygnus had had a significant role in keeping her in line (her throat closed up at the phrase- how often had he used it while he….). So what if she was just doing her best to make sure her sisters stayed out of his way? As long as his gaze wasn’t turned on Andy or Cissy, everything was fine.

“Bella?” Andy asked hesitantly, leaning in towards her.

Bellatrix scowled at her, nails digging into her thigh as her fingers curled in. Andy sat back, looking down at the floor.

They spent the rest of the ride in silence.

—-----------------------------------

Bellatrix, naturally, did not pay attention while the first years were being sorted. She was only vaguely aware of each house erupting into cheers whenever they got a new member, and was even present enough to bring her hands together for a few halfhearted claps whenever her fellow Slytherins started applauding. But, for the most part, she was focused on the older students.

She entertained herself for a while by telling herself various anecdotes about random faces picked out among the masses. The Hufflepuff girl she and Rabastan had hung from her ankles last year; the Ravenclaw boy she’d punched in the face for talking to Cissy; a Gryffindor girl who-

Her eyes narrowed when she finally got to the Gryffindor table. She wasn’t really the sort to get to know all of her classmates, nevermind the ones in younger years, but she knew all of Hogwarts’s inhabitants by sight, if only because she spent most of her meals gazing absentmindedly out at them. But sitting at the Gryffindor table was someone new. Someone different.

She snapped out of her stupor, and leaned forward in her seat to get a look at the new girl. She was sure she had never seen her before- it would be hard to miss hair that bushy. But that just left more questions. In the seven years that she’d been at Hogwarts, she’d never seen anyone start attending after their first year. And this girl was around her age- who transferred to Hogwarts in their last few years? 

The girl, who was chatting away obliviously to Katherine Connors (ah, Bellatrix noted absently, she’s the one I knocked out on the Quidditch pitch last year), turned her head just a bit and caught her eye. 

Bellatrix, vaguely embarrassed at being caught out, took a moment to notice that the girl had frozen, face going pale and mouth gaping open. She frowned. What was her problem? She knew most people were afraid of her, but there was nothing that should’ve given the girl that reaction since she’d never even met her before. It wasn’t like she was like Rodolphus, who was physically intimidating- she was, unfortunately, shorter than the vast majority of her classmates, a fact that she had been trying in vain to remedy with heeled boots for the past three years. No, there was only one explanation: she’d already been hearing about her through her new classmates.

She would have to remind the Gryffindors why it was a bad idea to spread rumors- no matter how true they may be- about her tomorrow. And if the girl’s adverse reaction was caused by something else entirely, well, it wasn’t like she needed a reason to antagonize the Gryffindors.

Either way, it looked like she at least wouldn’t have to deal with this girl not knowing her place. Good. Less work for her.

With that decided, she broke her gaze away from the new girl just as the sorting finished up and the last first year scurried to her table on the other side of the hall. Throughout the meal, however, she found herself glancing up a few times, and every time she saw the new girl looking over at her, still looking pale and terrified. She couldn’t imagine what the girl’s problem was- besides, who did she think she was, blatantly staring at her in the Great Hall? 

Still, she dismissed the thought as soon as the meal was over and she stalked down to the Slytherin Common Room, scaring a few first years on the way. The girl was a novelty now, sure, but she would fade back into the background in no time. She had no doubt that, a few days in, she would completely forget about her and become as insignificant as the rest of her classmates. No use wasting time thinking about her.