Subverted Expectations

Things reached a very strange stalemate of sorts with Andy after that.

They still were not talking unless it had to do with Cissy, who she still couldn’t believe had ratted her out to Andy, but unlike before, where she had felt that there was simply nothing else to be said, she could now feel the unsaid lingering in the air between them whenever they were in the same room. She was sure they should probably talk it out, but unfortunately, Bellatrix wasn’t exactly one for talking.

So instead of addressing this problem, she threw herself into other, more important matters. It wasn’t like Andy was going to do anything about her newest revelation- not necessarily because she was too nice to, or because she had asked or anything, but because she knew it would mean immediate retribution from Bellatrix herself.

(This was a similar, but not entirely the same reason as why Bellatrix had yet to inform father of Andy’s rebellion with the mudblood Tonks boy. Andy hadn’t even pleaded with her to keep it a secret or anything- she hadn’t needed to, but not entirely because she was just too nice to. No, it was largely self-interest. If father found out about her little trieste with the mudblood, he would either kill her or disown her, and Bellatrix planned on keeping Andy around, and preferably alive if she could wrangle it. That wasn’t an option if she just told father up-front, and knowing father, she would probably be punished in some way too just for keeping it a secret for any amount of time).

That week, she went to Black Manor three different times, each time more immersing than the last. The first, she had just been invited to ‘research’, which had primarily consisted of her taking studious notes on dementors until her head was spinning. It wasn’t that this hadn’t been a fascinating topic, or that she wasn’t perfectly eager to help- she just hated taking notes, and didn’t particularly like thinking about dementors. Disgusting creatures.

Still, she suspected that the Dark Lord was having her research them because he planned on utilizing their undoubtedly powerful abilities, so she might as well gather as much knowledge about them as possible in the meantime. For the first time in her life, she’d made a copy of her notes and kept them while giving the original to the Dark Lord.

The second time, he had taught her personally, which was far more thrilling. They’d spent the entire time, several hours worth, in a cycle consisting of dueling, then corrections, then learning, then dueling again and rinse and repeat. It was far more satisfying than going off by herself in an empty room and blasting things to bits- she actually got to think, and run around, and the danger of it sent a thrill through her whole body unlike any other. She doubted she would ever meet anyone else who was actually significantly better than her- she doubted she would ever meet anyone else who could teach her as much as he could.

She had returned home that evening dripping with sweat but still feeling as if she could have gone for another two hours, easily. Still, the moment she had hit the sheets, she had once again slept through the entire night, making her suspect that there must be something terribly wrong with her.

The third time, just last night, had been a group session. These were both her favorite times with the Dark Lord and her least favorite. On the one hand, she got to show off in front of a bunch of old men who thought they were better than her, including her father, and if that wasn’t vindicating she didn’t know what was. But on the other hand, that meant she had to share his attention with what could very possibly be at least twenty people. 

But last night had worked out in her favor, because there had only been five others, and it had been more of a strategy meeting, which she excelled at (she could admit, at least, that her father was slightly more powerful than she was, magically, just based on experience and age alone, but she was smarter and it showed). She had been sat at his right hand side; he had asked her opinion on every issue.

On the nights when she hadn’t been home, she had been with Green, studying or what-not. Her girlfriend had not asked where she was on the other nights, when she resolutely turned down any offers to hang out.

If she did, she would tell her that she was making a more concerted effort to spend time with her sister. Which she was doing! She spoke to her much more often at meals these days, even when it made her want to stab her ears out and when she would rather be making eyes at Green across the hall.

So it wasn’t even a lie. Not really.

Besides, what was she supposed to do, take Green’s concerns seriously? She knew exactly what she was doing with the Dark Lord- she was good at doing it, too, good enough to have risen to be one of if not his favorite supporters. Having never met the man, Green clearly just didn’t know what she was talking about.

The week had been going great. She was perfectly content with her relationship with Green; things were looking even better than they had already with the Dark Lord. Life was good right now.

Naturally, Andy felt the need to disrupt it.

“Bella. Can we talk?”

That never boded well- even when they had been on better terms, Andy asking to talk usually meant something serious that Bellatrix didn’t want to talk about. Now that they were unhappy with each other, it was bound to be even more horrible.

“I was on my way to meet with Green,” she tried, hoping Andy would sympathize with her plight and let her go.

But, of course, things very rarely went her way (this week had clearly been an outlier rather than indicative of any future trends), so Andy didn’t even consider her excuse. “You can be a few minutes late,” she snapped. “And besides, that’s what I wanted to talk about.”

“But-”

“If you don’t come talk to me, I’ll tell Cissy that you were the one who spilled all her shampoo.”

Unfortunately, this did make her hesitate- not because Cissy would be mad at her indefinitely (honestly, that would have been preferable, because she could generally win Cissy back over to her side of things within a week), but because she would undoubtedly give her an unreasonably long lecture about the matter. She couldn’t stand it when she did that.

“Fine. But make it quick,” she scowled. 

Andy pulled her into a supply closet, which boded even less well- that meant she wanted to ensure that whatever they said would remain a secret. Or that she wanted to yell at her without anyone hearing.

Great.

“Look, I just wanted to say, I’m not going to tell anyone about you and Green and- whatever you’re doing,” she started.

“Why would you? I could tell everyone about you and the mudblood. Besides, you’ve never said anything about the other girls I’ve fucked,” she shrugged, not sure why this warranted a discussion. Hadn’t this been a kind of unspoken agreement already? Did they have to stand here talking about it?

“No, I haven’t. But this is different, isn’t it? And, by the way, super hypocritical,” Andy scowled. “Like, seriously? I know Green isn’t muggleborn, but she’s still a girl, and I don’t think father would appreciate that much either.”

“I am not being hypocritical,” she protested. “I have some perfectly reasonable issues with your, ah, relationship with the mudblood. This isn’t at all the same thing.”

Andy huffed. “Oh, really? Because as far as I can tell, your argument amounts to ‘father wouldn’t approve of it’, and isn’t that the same thing? Your logic astounds me, Bella, it really does.”

“It is not! I am fully aware that what I’m doing with Green is temporary. You seem to be operating under some sort of delusion that you and Tonks are going to continue this outside of school, and that is unacceptable!” she countered. “It’s not like I love her or anything.”

“You’re the delusional one,” her sister scoffed. “Seriously? You seem to think I’m going to come running back to you with my tail between my legs! You seem to think I’m just going to drop Ted like that and get married to some prissy pureblood that father picks out, and he’ll either be twice or half my age, and it’s not going to happen, Bella!”

She sighed- it was as she’d thought. It was entirely useless to argue about this with her right now. She was too convinced that she was right. Bellatrix would just have to wait for her to come around, which she obviously would- until then, she would just continue parroting the same points at her.

It also did help with her current argument, so it would be even more pointless to contest the point right now.

“So you agree, then. I have absolutely no problem dropping Green, so this is completely different than you and the mudblood,” she pressed. “Am I right?”

Andy scowled at her for a very, very long time. “Of course you are, Bella. I’m not sure why I thought you actually liked her- you can’t even call the girl by her first name.”

“I do like Emma,” she said stiffly. “But we’re not in love, or anything. Don’t be ridiculous.”

“Does she know that?” Andy asked, her voice almost turning soft. She looked at her carefully for a while- long enough that Bellatrix began to grow uncomfortable under her searching gaze- before she finally spoke again. “I don’t know whether or not you actually love her, Bella. Just- don’t hurt her. Don’t hurt yourself, either. Please?”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” she repeated. 

Andy sighed deeply. “Alright, Bella. Whatever. Just- don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

She let herself out of the closet, leaving Bellatrix standing in the closet and wondering what on Earth she had been warning her about.

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

“Hey. Sorry I’m late, I was talking to Andy and lost track of time,” she explained on her way into their usual classroom. Emma looked up from where she had already started her homework.

“Oh. That’s alright. I’m glad you’re talking to your sister, then- she asked me about you the other day, you know?” she told her.

“Really? What did she ask? I swear to Merlin, if she made you uncomfortable….”

“No, she was fine. She- well, she told me you have a history of wooing a lot of girls and dropping them once you’ve gotten what you want. I think she just wanted to make sure this wasn’t like that,” she said hesitantly.

She scoffed. “Okay, yeah, I’ve hooked up with a lot of people, but she’s definitely conflating it. Besides, you’re different. I didn’t actually care about any of those other girls.”

Emma flushed, and Bellatrix took that as another win. “I- care about you too, Bellatrix.”

Something tingled in her chest, and she let herself settle in next to her girlfriend, who was trying and failing to look like she had gone back to paying attention to her homework.

“Emma?”

A smile, cautious at first and then wider, spread across Emma’s face. “Mhm?”

She opened her mouth, then swallowed and opened it again. “Nothing. Just- curious, I guess.” 

Emma. She could definitely work with that.