This is Just How We Were Taught to Love
The next few hours turned out to be very boring- she’d been banned from using magic, reading, or writing until the next day when her concussion went away, which was completely unreasonable and borderline barbaric. Thankfully she had a deck of Exploding Snap in her bag. It felt a little depressing to sit there and play it alone for six hours, but it wasn’t like there was anything better to do.
Cissy had stopped by to alleviate her boredom, though, which was nice but got tedious in and of itself after a while, and when she left for dinner she did not come back. She tried not to feel slighted when Pomphrey closed up for the night and Andy hadn’t visited.
It wasn’t like she cared, anyway.
But, finally, the lights went off and Pomphrey closed the door and they were alone (at least, she was pretty sure). She slid out of bed, laced up her boots, and threw open her curtains, emerging into the rest of the hospital wing (the curtain had gotten stuck and she’d gotten dizzy, almost tripped over the heel of her boot, and practically walked face first into the curtains, so it hadn’t been nearly as dramatic as she’d wanted it to be, but at least there hadn’t been anyone around to see it).
The bed next to her was quiet, but she doubted Green was actually sleeping. If she was, well, she would just wake her up.
She stepped through the curtains surrounding Green’s bed, grinning when she let out a startled squeak. “Hello, Green.”
The other girl sat up, shock clearly laid out on her face. She stumbled onto her feet and grabbed her wand from the bedside table. “What are you doing here?”
“Put that away, Green. We wouldn’t want to have another fight, would we?” Hopefully Green would never have to find out that her wand was locked up in Pomphrey’s office, and that she was basically defenseless.
She lowered her wand. “What do you want?”
“A talk,” she said lightly, plopping herself down on the edge of the bed. “Girl to girl.”
Green flinched, almost dropping her wand. “Get out.”
“No, I don’t think I will. Calm down, Green, you look like I’m about to torture you.” She wasn’t necessarily above torture if needed, but she felt that would probably be too extreme in this situation. For some reason, her words didn’t seem to calm Green down.
“You’re not going to leave, are you?” she asked shakily.
“No, of course not. I’m… curious about you, Green. There’s something off about you, but I haven’t figured out what yet. And I despise not knowing things.”
Green immediately started looking nervous, which was a good sign that she was barking up the right tree. Green wasn’t great at hiding her emotions.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she squeaked, and, wow, she was a terrible liar, too. This would be easy.
“I think you do. You’re weird. You show up in our seventh year completely out of the blue even though you clearly know enough to just take the N.E.W.T.’s and be done with it a year early. No one has ever heard of your family name, but you can’t be a mudblood, since you claim to have been homeschooled. Who are you, and what are you doing in my school?”
“I just wanted- to interact with other witches and wizards my age and experience Hogwarts’s education methods,” she said, sounding like she was reciting some pre-written answer.
“Let’s say I believe that,” she scoffed, making sure to let her know she absolutely did not believe her. “You’re still- strange. You’ve been terrified of me since your first day here, and you didn’t even know me. What’s your deal, Green?”
She took a step back, looking like cornered prey. “I’m not-”
“Don’t lie to me,” she snapped, and Green went so white she was kind of surprised she hadn’t just fainted on the spot. “What is it? Did your little Gryffindor friends tell you I was a terrible monster? They’d be right, of course, but still. Have you heard of my family? I know it’s not how I look, nothing about this should be terrifying to you,” she said, gesturing to herself. “Well?”
Green seemed to find her voice, and forced out, “I- yeah, my friends were- just, er, saying-”
“Saying what?” she pressed when it was clear Green’s voice was failing her.
“That- that you’re-” Something sparked in the other girl’s eyes, and she blurted, “That you’re a horrid person and that you’re nothing but a big bully who’s no better than her o-” She gasped, cutting herself off by clamping her hands over her mouth.
“Than my what?” she snapped, stepping towards her. “Go on, Green. I’m no better than what?”
Green sputtered for a moment, clearly trying to come up with some alternative to what she’d actually been about to say before her eyes hardened with determination. “Who’s no better than her parents.”
She slapped her.
“Don’t you dare compare me to them,” she hissed, so close now that she was practically breathing down the other girl’s throat.
“Well, you-” Green protested, before turning to face her and stopping short. Bellatrix became very acutely aware of the stupid, rebellious tears in her eyes and heat in her face, and huffed, stepping back. “I didn’t mean-”
“Forget it, Green.” She sniffed disinterestedly for good measure, crossing her arms over her chest. “Clearly I’ll be getting no actual answer out of you even though you’re a terrible liar.” Green made a little noise of protest, but really, she couldn’t exactly argue with that assertion. “But I’ll be keeping an eye on you,” she threatened, because if she’d been curious before now she was dying to know what horrible secret Green had hidden away inside of her. She would find out what it was.
Even if she had to play the long game to get it.
—-----------------------------
“Bella, you haven’t left the library all weekend. I know you’re not this dedicated, what could you possibly be doing?”
She bristled at Cissy’s interruption, though she did suppose she had a bit of a point- she had never tried in any of her classes simply because she did not have to (that had changed when Green showed up, but she was still determined to put in as little effort as possible), but she had spent almost every waking moment pouring over books in the library since she’d been released from the hospital wing.
“None of your business, Cissy. Get out before Hawkins gets fussy about you talking too loud.”
Cissy completely ignored her, because of course she did, and sat down at the table with her, checking the cover of one of the books she’d discarded hours ago. “French Pureblood Genealogy? What are you doing with that?”
“Nothing.”
“These are all genealogy books. What, are you looking for potential suitors?”
“No, don’t be weird, Cissy. Just leave me alone, okay?”
For a moment Cissy actually looked upset, and she felt a flash of guilt before the expression was wiped off her face and replaced with an increasingly familiar haughtiness. “Fine. I’ll see you at dinner.”
She frowned as her sister got up and grabbed her bag- she hadn’t even noticed she’d brought it, probably intending to sit down and work with her. “Yeah, see you.”
She sighed and pushed the book she’d been skimming through away from her- it was no use now. At first, she’d been so sure she’d be able to find something, but so far it had been a no go. She’d been through obscure textbooks, every family tree she could think of, and still nothing.
There was no mention of a “Green” family anywhere. It was as if they didn’t exist.
But how? Green had made it clear that she had a wizarding family- everyone knew by now that she’d been homeschooled until her parents died, and had decided to come to Hogwarts. But- there were no Greens that had died recently. She’d checked. There were no Greens anywhere in Wizarding Britain, hadn’t been for centuries, and Green herself had a very distinctly British accent.
She didn’t know how long she sat in the library mulling the issue over, but once the idea came to her, she couldn’t believe she hadn’t thought of it before. If there were no Greens in the Wizarding World, then….
Was Green a mudblood? Oh, that would be a wonderful little scandal if it got out- unfortunately, having Muggle parents wasn’t exactly a source of shame in the current Wizarding World, but lying about your parentage was another thing entirely. Maybe she would have to leave Hogwarts and get out of Bellatrix’s life.
Something in her paused. Maybe… she could keep this quiet for now. As nice as it would be if it got out, it would be so much better if it were something she could lord over the other girl’s head. Perhaps then she could see what other fun secrets she could get out of her.
She grinned, and started absentmindedly clearing away the books strewn around the table. This would be fun.
Once she was ready to go, she realized she was actually rather hungry, and cast a quick tempus charm to see if the Great Hall was open yet. To her surprise, it was nearing nine- she’d been in the library for hours.
Why hadn’t Cissy come and gotten her? It wasn’t like she never did this- she didn’t do her schoolwork but she could get a little obsessive about her problems, to the point where both her sisters had commented on it. Of course, Andy couldn’t be bothered to come running after her anymore (not that she cared), but Cissy usually did. She frowned, wondering if maybe she’d upset her more than she’d thought earlier.
Oh, well. She’d keep her company on the first Hogsmeade trip of the year to make up for it- Cissy was quick to forgive if you knew what she wanted, and she supposed she could put up with carrying her sister’s bags if it meant at least one of her sisters was still on her side.
Not feeling particularly hungry anymore, she decided it wouldn’t hurt to stay in the library a little longer- she still hadn’t done any of her homework, and she had class tomorrow. She would probably be up late, but it wasn’t like she ever got much sleep anyway.
She set her things down with a soft thump, pulled her books out, and got to work.