Favorite AO3 story (Hermione pairing - fxf)

Seeking Redemption byArufa_DaAren

https://archiveofourown.org/works/14557152/chapters/33636558

Discontinued- 7 chapters

Bellatrix/Hermione

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Chapter1 

Bellatrix Black woke with a start, screaming and sweating as the final forms of her dream scraped across her vision; settling on one which was at once the easiest, and the most difficult to stomach.

"Just like every other morning" she breathed as the last image dissipated from her mind's eye.

Stretching out on the cot-like bed, she took a minute to collect herself, before swinging her legs over the edge and pressing her feet to the floor, pushing herself away from the bed as a means to force herself upwards.

She ambled across the floor of her humble tent, wiping sleep from her eyes as her bare feet padded through the room.

Bella Black, in a tent, in a muggle tent, in the middle of a bloody forest. I do hope mother is positively spinning in her grave. She chuckled to herself as she reached the small fire pit, and hung the simple camping kettle on the hook suspended over the flame.

Bellatrix Black was on a mission, as it happened. More surprising than her current living arrangements, was the purpose of the self-imposed mission. Bellatrix sought redemption, and peace.

It had begun many months ago, the mission. She had spent each night with little sleep, unable to rest with the tormented faces of her former prisoners, interrogation subjects and murder victims screaming at her in her mind. She had tried to push the feeling away, the guilt. But it was no use, she was utterly useless against the debilitating feeling that clenched at her chest and tore through her soul. Bellatrix had never been insane, that was merely an act to keep people scared, but she was definitely getting there. The tears and pleas of her victims was destroying her mind, and she desperately wanted to end their suffering. So she decided to try something, ANYTHING to give them the peace they deserved.

She began with her first real victims; the Longbottom's. Alice and Frank Longbottom's current situation had actually been an accident. Bella was still learning the Cruciatus curse, and had failed to control it correctly in her first real-world use of the spell, which resulted in the insanity that had ensured the couple a one-way ticket to St Mungo's.

After nearly two years of research, she had finally developed a way to return the couple to their former selves, and had developed a strategy for entering the hospital and administering the treatment without being detected. Immediately after word got out that the Ministry of Magic would cease their hunt for Death Eaters that had escaped after the war, she made her move.

Silently stalking through the halls of St Mungo's psychiatric wing, she quickly found the couple, both rocking back and forward and mumbling in their separate, but connected cells. Carefully, she opened Frank's cell, and silently cast a silencing spell over the man, before gently levitating him into Alice" cell, and silencing her to be doubly safe. She pondered the order of things before making her decision; she would apparate first, and cast the healing spell second. She gently rested a hand on each of the Longbottom's shoulders and apparated away; arriving soon after in a cottage on the outskirts of a lovely little fishing town she'd discovered when reading through some useless muggle travel guide during her exile. She had made sure to change her money to muggle currency before putting her escape plan into play during the war, and had already purchased the small, but comfortable cottage for this exact purpose.

Soon after their arrival in the cottage, Bella set about mending the minds of the Longbottom couple. And to her own relief, it worked. Frank and Alice Longbottom stared at her, wide-eyed and unmoving; for about two seconds, before - Bella assumed, as they were still under the effects of the silencing charm - screaming bloody murder at her. Ever thankful for her strategic mind, Bella took a second to pat herself on the back for ensuring that she had hidden the couple's wands away before healing the damage to their minds. She knew that they would need to calm down before they would even give her the chance to speak, so she busied herself with menial tasks while she waited for the couple to wear themselves out. Once again congratulating her own wonderful mind, she deigned fit to perform said menial tasks, without the aid of magic, instead, lighting the fire by hand, boiling a kettle the muggle way, and even drinking a cup of muggle tea. She was cleaning her teacup (the muggle way) when she noticed the distinct feeling of being watched. Turning to greet the piercing eyes, she smiled sheepishly and motioned for the couple to sit at the dining room table, as she took a seat herself. The Longbottom couple cautiously took their seats and eyed the woman wearily. Satisfied that the couple would at least give her a chance to talk, Bellatrix began the task that terrified her more than anything else; apologizing to people she had so terribly hurt.