"That should do it," Bellatrix announced as she used magic to restrain Vernon's hands in order to prevent him from simply removing the newspaper gag. She turned to Petunia. "As freaky as your sister is, I'm sure she'd still be nice enough to come over and fix everything up with magic. If I were you, I would be really nice in the asking, and I wouldn't give Lily too many details about my physical appearance. If I run into her and she knows I was here, or if I hear you weren't so nice to her, you can bet I'll be back. I'm the kind of girl that only needs an excuse."
"Who are you?" Petunia asked again, her eyes fearfully darting from Bellatrix, to the hole in the fireplace, and to her husband who was on the floor chewing on the newspaper and writhing as if he was suffering a seizure.
Bellatrix looked back and giggled. "In a very twisted, roundabout sort of way, you could say that I'm your niece." She looked down to the floor from where Dudley had been ogling her. "Which means, tubby, that I'm off limits to you." She blew Dudley a kiss, grabbed the box and newspaper, yanked open the front door, and strode out, neglecting to close it behind her. From inside the house, the Dursleys heard her yell to them from the front walk. "See you at the family reunion."
.....
Bellatrix grumbled as she cast an unlocking charm on a Muggle pharmacy. The sign above the storefront had proclaimed that it was open twenty-four seven, but Bellatrix had found that the store was closed anyway. A handwritten sign on the door proclaimed that the pharmacy opened one hour after sunrise and closed one hour before sundown. It seemed very peculiar to Bellatrix, but she was not about to think about it too hard. Harry was at home and needed medical attention urgently.
She was soon in and had locked the door behind her. Using her wand to light her way through the store, she gathered anything that looked like it might be useful for Harry's situation. Bellatrix found some bags at the register where she left a more than enough of the cash she had found in Harry's box to cover her informal purchases.
Satisfied that she had gathered enough supplies to address Harry's immediate needs, Bellatrix apparated back to the flat. Harry was unconscious and running a very high fever. The hair ornament was still protruding from his stomach, but it appeared that he had possessed the fortune to avoid rolling over onto it.
Briefly, Bellatrix debated over whether she should focus on getting the ornament safely out or whether she should focus on getting potions into Harry first. Potions won, and Bellatrix spent the next twenty minutes wrestling Harry into a sitting position and trickling various potions down his throat.
The hair ornament proved to be trickier than it really needed to be. Nervous about actually touching the ornament again, Bellatrix retrieved some tongs from the kitchen so that she could remove the ornament without touching it. With the aid of some precautionary magic, the ornament came out of Harry quite smoothly, though it caused Harry to bleed profusely.
Bellatrix used the tongs to drop the ornament into the box the potions had come in-she had emptied it of its contents. She reckoned that it was sturdy enough to hold the ornament securely. When she got a chance, she would take it to the vault at Gringotts. It broke her heart to be separated from the heirloom, but it had proved to be dangerous.
Stopping Harry's bleeding was a difficult task, but Bellatrix felt that she had done it in a timely manner. Furthermore, the potions she had already managed to get into Harry would help him restore his blood and protect against infection in addition to promoting healing.
Once finished, Bellatrix settled Harry back down into his bed and cleaned up. She yawned and looked down at Harry's prone form. "You do realize that this is the longest day I've ever had, don't you? It started about twenty years ago."
Abruptly, a cold sensation wrapped itself around Bellatrix's ring finger. Stifling a yelp, Bellatrix reflexively glanced at the hand and discovered delicate band lined with diamonds and black jewels. She smiled and looked down at Harry. "It's our wedding day, too." She leaned down and kissed him softly on the lips. "I'll be back soon, Harry. I want another of your boxes on hand."
.....
Stifling yet another yawn, Bellatrix summoned the box lying on top of her father's coffin to her. Feeling rather morbid, she looked down at the coffin for several moments before setting the box aside and using magic to replace the dirt in the grave. She then exerted a marginal amount of effort to conceal the fact that the grave had been disturbed.
Unbidden, thoughts of the death of her father and uncle came to the forefront of her mind. It had not been very long for her, even though they had been dead for over twenty years. Her ire began to rise as she thought back to her confrontation with her mother and aunt after her father's funeral-and Lestrange's comments from just earlier before she and Harry had happened across Voldemort.
Casually, Bellatrix moved around the graveyard that sat in the shadows of the Ravenbourgh ruins. Regulus Black had joined the ranks of the Black dead, it seemed. And her mother. Bellatrix stopped and stared at the tombstone of her mother-the tombstone that signified that Bellatrix was officially an orphan, albeit an orphan already of age. By the moonlight she read the dates of her mother's life. Druella had died relatively young-at least, relatively young for a witch. Bellatrix was not sure about the life statistics of Muggles.
At the bottom of the tombstone, a final phrase had been engraved in honor of Druella. "Beloved Mother of Narcissa, Bellatrix, and - Black." The third name had been crudely obliterated. Bellatrix smirked. Andromeda must have objected to being described as the beloved daughter of Druella. Bellatrix took her wand and blasted her name from the tombstone. She was not the beloved daughter of her mother by any means. Suddenly feeling rather angry and depressed, Bellatrix returned to her father's tombstone and sat down against it as tears came to her eyes.
....
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