the sins we commit
This time, it is Blair who is sent on a mission to retrieve the Horcrux.
She will pose as Bella, of course. Who better to impersonate a lady of the House of Black than another lady of said illustrious house?
Retrieving a hair from Bella is the easy part. Deranged bat that she is, Bella has a habit of invading her the personal space of her beloved cousins. After a few visits to the Malfoy Manor after raids, Blair is able to collect enough hairs to have an extra vial of Polyjuice tucked into her pocket.
Pretending to be Bella- that is the difficult part. The notorious Black insanity, of which Blair and her siblings admittedly have an amount of, is especially concentrated in Bella, magnified by her constant exposure to the Dark Lord.
Blair strides into Gringotts, relying on her own famed imperiousness, interspersing her movements with discernible sniffs of disdain. She fixes everyone who passes her by with a stony glare, and maintains eye contact for longer than necessary. She aims a Bombarda at a trash can for good measure.
“Take me to the Lestrange vaults,” she barks at Gornuk, one of the attending goblins.
“Your wand, Madam? We will need to verify your identity.”
Blair stills, her mind racing. She takes a deep breath.
“How dare you,” Blair says in her most derisive tone. “You must know that I don’t bring my wand with me all the time. I have more than enough power to draw on without one.”
She spits out the last part. Blair wonders if she is pretending to be Bella or Walburga at this point.
Seconds later, she aims a wandless stinging hex at Gornuk. She inwardly winces. Not her finest moment.
Blessedly, this is the right thing to do because Gornuk nods curtly.
Her heart stops when she realizes that Rodolphus is also in the vault. This is not something that they had accounted for. Blair is unfamiliar with the relationship between Bella and her husband. He, like all Death Eaters, remains impassive in the presence of Voldemort. The Dark Lord does not cultivate familiarity after all.
“Bella,” Rodolphus says tonelessly. “I did not expect to see you today. I thought you had an... assignation with the Dark Lord.”
“He was called away,” Blair says in her haughtiest tone. “You would do well not to inquire. You have no right to be inquiring after the Dark Lord’s business.”
Rodolphus’s eyes darken. He moves closer to her. “Is that so?”
He pushes her against the wall of the vault, uncaring of their audience of one. “Then I suppose he won’t mind if I do this.”
Rodolphus starts kissing her with a ferocity that throws Blair off. He stops to plant bites on her neck. Blair’s mind and magic scream wrongwrongwrong.
Is this the sick form of foreplay that Bella engages in? Blair shudders. She is glad that Rodolpus is not magically powerful because otherwise, he would have sensed the inconsistency of her magic.
Rodolphus moves as if to unfasten the buttons of her robe, pawing at her. Blair’s magic curdles uncomfortably in her core. In a sudden burst of energy, pushes Rodolphus away with a stunning force. He is left sitting on the cold stone floor of the Lestrange vault.
His expression hardens. “You’re not Bella.” He starts grappling for his wand.
“Now which filthy blood traitor are you?”
Blair has no time to think twice. She pulls out her own wand, summons her reserves of magical strength, and casts a powerful Obliviate.
“You will remember nothing of seeing anyone at Gringotts today. You will walk out this door, go home, and think nothing of this day. You will not mention this to anybody, not even the Dark Lord, most especially not your wife,” Blair hisses.
Rodolphus nods, a vacant expression on his face.
As he clambers onto the trolley, she whispers to Gornuk, her Bellatrix persona abandoned. “Please don’t tell anyone,” she implores. “I’m doing this for good reason.” She doesn’t try to justify herself. She is still a Black after all.
Gornuk eyes her coldly. “I will not tell anyone, but not out of respect for you or your human reasons. The magic accepted that you enter the vaults. I merely brought you here. That is the extent of my duty.”
He pauses.
“Goblins don’t care about wizarding conflict, Madam.”
Blair nods.
After, finding the horcrux seems almost anticlimactic. Blair finds the Hufflepuff Cup in an ornate box in the middle of the vault, with only Black wards to protect it.
Bella is many things, but she is not prudent.
-
Blair collapses with relief when she arrives at headquarters. She refuses to tell Sirius and Regulus what transpired, for fear that they will hastily seek retribution for a sin they cannot yet reveal.
She spends the next few nights in Dan’s arms, his magic tending to the frayed tendrils of her own.