Shades of Grey

Adventures in Australia prt 1

The travel days were somewhat of a blur to Hermione and Bellatrix.  They had three portkeys set up between Diagon Alley to just outside of Melbourne where a small wizarding village stood.  Hermione was grateful that Bellatrix had cleared their travel with the international wizard embassy which made their journey a lot easier.  They had intercontinental clearance which Hermione noted was probably due to the Black ancestry and Bella's reformation.  She didn't ask questions, she was just thankful to be with the older witch as she had everything under control. 

The first stop was in Cairo.  It was merely a half hour layover and they were off to an overnight stay in Phuket, Thailand.  After arriving at the embassy in Thailand, they were told that their final portkey wouldn't be available until the next morning.  Bella had been prepared when selecting the portkey locations and apparated herself and Hermione to an unknown cottage near a beach. 

"Where are we, Bella?  It's beautiful here."  Hermione said exiting the backdoor of the cottage which let out to a small porch with a hot tub leading to a private section of the beach.

Bellatrix walked up next to Hermione and grabbed her hand, leading her down to the beach.  When they got to the edge of the water, she encouraged the girl to sit down next to her.  She put her arm around the younger girl encouraging her to rest her head on her shoulder which Hermione did without hesitation.

"This is a Lestrange property."  Bellatrix started and felt the girl tense up.  "Before your mind starts wandering, no me and my ex husband were never here together.  No one besides me and well now you, have ever set foot here.  I bought this place as an escape with some of the money from the Lestrange vault.  Minerva encouraged me to combine the Lestrange and Black vaults and she said it might be nice to have a few properties around incase I needed an escape." 

Hermione relaxed back into the other witch.  "It is beautiful.  Have you been here recently?" 

"The last time I came here was a week before school started when Minerva told me that you were coming to teach.  I needed to breathe.  This seemed like a good place to wrap my head around having to come face to face with the person who hated me most in the world."  Bellatrix answered honestly giving the girl's shoulder a squeeze before Hermione raised her head to look at Bella.

"Hey.  I don't hate you." Hermione said looking into Bella's eyes.

"You might not hate me now but even you can't convince me that I've always been your favorite person."  Bella said looking back out into the water.

"Well no but I've seen the progress you've made, Bella.  You aren't the same woman who gave this to me at Malfoy Manor that afternoon."  Hermione said rolling up the sleeve on her blouse exposing her mudblood scar. Bellatrix looked at the scar and ran her finger over it.  Hermione shuddered at the feeling. 

"I'm sorry you ever had to meet that version of me.  In a perfect world, the person sitting right here with you would be the only one you knew of."  Bellatrix sighed absentmindedly tracing Hermione's scar. "I want to fix this." 

"The dagger was cursed, no?"  Hermione asked stopping Bellatrix's finger from feeling the scar and intertwining their fingers together.

"Unfortunately." Bella sighed.  "It's not impossible to fix this.  I just need my original wand and the dagger." 

"I turned your wand into the ministry after the war was over.

"I know.  They have my dagger as well.  I won't be able to get those back until I complete their program.  I swear to you Hermione,"  Bella said grabbing Hermione's chin and stroking it softly, "I will fix this and make this disappear.  It'll never take away what happened between us but it will hopefully help to aid in a fresh start after I can erase this disgusting reminder of who I used to be."  Bella said quietly resting her forehead against Hermione's.