Subverted Expectations

“Out of my way!”

The kid- looked like a first year or a particularly scrawny second year, like she’d been- hadn’t really been in her way, but she flicked her wand and sent him flying into the nearest wall anyway. Everyone else in the corridor backed away from her as quickly as they could to avoid the same fate.

While she was used to people moving out of her way in the corridors- nobody ever wanted to actually get in her way- it wasn’t normally this extreme. Of course, she knew why, she was self-aware enough for that. She’d been a bit of, as Andy had put it after she’d hexed a third year straight to the Hospital Wing, an ‘unholy terror’ ever since she’d gotten out of Pomfrey’s care last weekend. She knew everyone in the school was much more afraid of her than usual.

Did she care? Well, not really. It wasn’t like she was too torn up about some first year getting a few bruises- he could live with it, Merlin knew she’d been rammed into plenty of walls by the time she was his age. She did feel a little bad about scaring Cissy, who had taken to hanging out on the grounds with Lucius and his friends after two days of Bellatrix snapping at her. That was a pretty extreme reaction from Cissy- as far as she knew, she didn’t hold the same vitriol that Bellatrix herself did towards Lucius Malfoy and his stupid hair, but she did have an especial hatred for going anywhere near the grounds if she could help it, as she hated getting dirty. 

That didn’t mean she would be stopping anytime soon, though. No, she was in a mood, and the only thing that was going to fix it was being a bit of a bitch to everyone until it worked itself out of her system. That was just how it worked.

Only one thing was really going to be her saving grace, and it was the only thing keeping her going enough to spend any time outside of her dorm until Saturday. She would be going home that weekend, and while that would normally fill her with a special kind of dread, she couldn’t help but be excited. Last time she’d seen Lord Voldemort, he’d taught her a few new spells, they’d dueled for a bit, and then she’d been on her way. But this weekend, apparently, they would be going to the continent, on a raid. If that wasn’t a good way to let off all this excess energy, she didn’t know what was.

—--------------------------------------

“Bellatrix!”

“Bella!”

“Bellatrix Black!” 

Bellatrix felt a hand grip her wrist, and instinctively jumped about a foot in the air before turning her wand on the culprit. 

Smash!

The world cleared, fading back into its normal color, and she saw the small form that she’d blasted backwards; the small, blonde form.

Crap.

She ran forward and practically skidded on her knees next to Cissy, who thankfully looked relatively unscathed aside from being knocked out. “Enervate.”

Cissy’s eyes flew open and found her, still a little unfocused. “Mm- Bella? What happened, where’s Father?”

She frowned. “We’re at Hogwarts, Cissy, why would Father be here?”

“Why else would  I- oh.” Cissy glanced around  the room, looking a little more present. Bellatrix winced- it didn’t look too good in there. This was her usual, ah, venting room, which she only used when nothing else was working and she needed to be able to use spells that would definitely get her suspended. She knew Cissy recognized it, but she wasn’t usually the one to come and get her- that had always been Andy’s job, and she hadn’t had anything to this proportion so far this year.

The trick, usually, was to hex her in the back while she was distracted and then wake her up- grabbing her anywhere made her extremely liable to shoot spells first, ask questions later. She was just glad it had been a stunner instead of something more lethal.

“C’mon, get up, floor’s probably dirty- really, Cissy, you shouldn’t sneak up on me when I’m like that, you know that.” Really, no wonder she’d stunned her.

“It slipped my mind,” her sister said, a little stiffly- she couldn’t imagine that she was mad at her for that, so maybe she was just a little sore from getting knocked down. She couldn’t say she sympathized much- it was only a stunner, for Merlin’s sake- but then again, Cissy hadn’t ever had to deal with anything as extreme as she had.

“Well, remember next time. What were you in here for?” Now that she had been interrupted and the world was no longer red, she could focus a little better without needing to blow anything up (not that she needed to blow things up, but it did make her feel much better). 

“It’s past when we usually head down for dinner. I thought I might find you and walk down with you.” 

Oh. Was it six already? Now that she thought about it, she realized she was a bit hungry, which made sense as she’d barely eaten anything at breakfast that morning and had skipped lunch entirely.

“Let’s go, then.” 

She grabbed her bag- she’d been attempting to do work in the library before giving up and coming here- and gestured for Cissy to lead the way.

“Right.” Cissy walked down the corridor looking unbothered and a bit like the entire incident had never happened. Well, if she was willing to forget about it, that certainly wasn’t a problem for Bellatrix.

The peace lasted until they got down to the corridor, where Cissy interrupted it with a simple question:

“What has you all upset recently?”

Her head turned towards her sister so quickly she was surprised she didn’t hurt her neck. “What do you mean?”

Cissy suddenly looked very uncomfortable, though Bellatrix for the life of her couldn’t figure out what had changed. “Oh, nevermind.”

“No, really, what do you mean? I’m not upset.”

Okay, she could see why Cissy would think that, given the storming-around-and-hexing-everyone, and the destroyed classroom, but she wasn’t upset. Just- in a mood.

“I just- you’ve been a little snappish since your match on Saturday. I’d assume it was because you got injured, but you seemed perfectly fine when you woke up in the Hospital Wing. I was simply wondering if anything had happened.”

“Nothing happened.”

Cissy narrowed her eyes, suddenly looking like a miniature version of her mother when she caught her out in a lie. Damn- she knew she’d said that a little too quickly.

“So you’ve just been irrationally angry with everyone for no reason?” Okay, she definitely sounded mad now.

“Who says I’ve been irrationally angry? I’m in a perfectly normal rage right now.” 

A hand lays on her arm, and she turns to stun without thinking or looking, because the world is enveloped in a shroud of red and she can’t see past it until she’s broken through whatever stupid, irrational emotions are coursing through her. 

She flings herself to the floor to hold her youngest sister as her father yells in the background- she’d never meant for her to get caught in the crossfire.

“Well, in that case,” Cissy said blithely, sounding rather more pissed off than Bellatrix was used to hearing.

Her thirteen year old sister’s legs were nearly as long as hers, so when she picked up the pace Bellatrix wasn’t quite able to catch up before she found a seat at the Slytherin table right in the middle of Lucius and his friends. Bellatrix scowled, but stormed off to sit with Rodolphus, since she wasn’t about to sit with Lucius, and Cissy knew that. She knew how to take a hint.

“Hey, Bella. I never got a chance to tell you- Perry stopped by the Slytherin party looking for you,” Rodolphus teased. “Think you had her hooked after that game you two had.”

She huffed. She still couldn’t believe she’d spent the night in the hospital wing while Perry got to go to her rightfully earned victory party, especially since yes, she’d ended the game pretty confident that she’d gotten her invested enough in their Quidditch rivalry to hook up with her. At least until she’d hit her head, twice. 

“Well, we’ll see if she’s willing to wait for the next game. Gryffindors aren’t exactly patient,” she said eventually, silently still stewing over the lost opportunity. It wasn’t like she was attached to the other girl- she wasn’t even in her year- but she was hot, damnit.

Not as hot as Emma Green, apparently, came a teasing thought, but she squashed it as quickly as it had appeared. She had done an excellent job, she thought, of forgetting completely about that girl and that night. It was Rodolphus’s fault, his and Cissy’s, actually, for reminding her, however briefly.

She shoved him, sharply, to get out of her way so she could reach a plate- better him than her sister, and it wasn’t like she was able to hurt him much anyway. 

“Pass the sauce,” she said shortly, because her arms were only so long and he was closer, anyway. He shrugged and grabbed it from some second or third year. 

“No problem, Bella,” Rodolphus drawled after a brief moment of silence. “Really, I didn’t mind at all.”

She huffed, but didn’t respond, and he didn’t push it- this was why she didn’t mind being around Rodolphus nearly as much as she minded most other people. She didn’t necessarily like him by any means, but he knew when to get out of her way.

That was, truly, a necessary skill to have.

—------------------------------------------

Bellatrix, paradoxically, never felt more awake- or alive- when it was around one in the morning. She wondered, when she was in the mood to wonder about such things, if this was because her body had become so used to being awake for most of the night- if so, she supposed it was the only thing she could thank her father for.

Right now, her blood was practically singing through her veins, so much so that it was hard to keep herself at a normal, steady pace as she walked down the halls of her family home, one step behind Lord Voldemort and one step ahead of her father. Part of her delight came from that- the look on her father’s face when Lord Voldemort had put her on his right hand side before they started walking had been priceless, and something she would likely remember forever. However, most of the adrenaline still coursing through her was from the raid. To be completely honest, she didn’t have too much taste for that amount of bloodshed- hexes and petty jinxes were all well and good, but even she didn’t commit arson, at least around other people. But being surrounded by the chaos of it all had been wonderful, instead of hiding herself away in an empty classroom.

She barely paid attention to the farewell Lord Voldemort gave her father, only tuning in when he pressed a kiss to her hand and told her that he would be in touch for her next lesson. This was good, amazing even- a promise of a next lesson meant he had been pleased with her performance, and that meant more of this.

Eventually (and reluctantly), she floo’d back to Hogwarts, emerging in Slughorn’s office as she always did- being part of an influential family had its uses. She was far too- full, right now, to even consider going to sleep, so without ev, she opted to wander the corridors instead of returning to her Common Room.

The raid had filled her with a good kind of energy, but it still hadn’t really gotten rid of it, so her mind was still running as fast as it had been before. Without anything to do, the adrenaline faded and, before long, she was right back where she started.

Already thinking about how she could get that back- maybe she would go hunt something down in the woods, or wreck another abandoned classroom (it wasn’t like they were using them, anyway, that was kind of the point), because there were no other students around- she didn’t notice that someone was walking around the corner towards her until it was too late.

“Hey, watch where you’re-” The words died in her throat.

Damnit.

“Bellatrix! Er- I mean, what- why are you-”

The other girl scrambled to her feet as she scowled at her. “Green. Watch where you’re going.”

She flushed. “We both ran into each other,” she said defensively, which was far more courage than she’d shown so far. Than most people were willing to show. Bellatrix huffed and started off down the hallway- she didn’t feel like getting in another fight with Green right now. “Listen, I know we haven’t gotten a chance to talk since- er, since Saturday, but I really wanted to have some sort of discussion, I mean, you sort of sprung it on me out of nowhere and it was all very sudden-”

“We’re not discussing it,” she hissed, not even looking back at Green as she followed her down the corridor. “In fact, I think we should simply never speak again.”

That was reasonable, right?

“Wh- I mean, I’m perfectly willing to do that. You’re a horrible person to talk to, and be around, and you clearly don’t like me, but that’s exactly what makes it so confusing. I just want to know why you did it, and I don’t think it’s entirely unreasonable for me to want to have a conversation with you, because you started it-”

Entirely caught up on impulse, because Green’s nagging wasn’t helping her right now, Bellatrix whirled around and pinned the taller girl against the nearest wall, and before she knew it they were-

Huh.

For the first time since last weekend, everything went really, truly calm. Sure, she’d been slowing down a bit over the last few days, and she’d hoped that the raid and the meeting with Lord Voldemort would end her mood completely, but it hadn’t had the effect she’d been hoping for, though of course it had still been enjoyable. But for everything to just stop like this?

She hadn’t taken much note of this, or thought of it much since, but she decided then that she actually didn’t mind kissing Green. If pressed, she might even admit to enjoying it. And now the other girl was kissing her back, again, and her body actually relaxed into it.

She pulled away, and stared at Green possibly more intently than she ever had before. She was- pretty. And not a bad kisser. Of course, she’d definitely had better, but something about her had just been so….

Maybe. Maybe this was something she would consider pursuing. Something- just a side thing, just to keep her from going insane until she graduated, when she would be able to chase that feeling from earlier as much as she wished.

She would definitely think about it. But for now, she pushed away from the wall- leaving a flustered Green in the middle of the corridor- and headed in the opposite direction, down towards the Slytherin Common Room. Maybe she would get some sleep tonight after all.

Then, maybe, she would track Emma Green down in the morning. She could decide what to do with her then.