DRAGON'S HEARTSTRINGS || dramione | harry potter

Chapter Twenty

Hermione stared at Bellatrix who was smiling madly at her. Hermione didn't know what to do, what to say, how to react – she was immobilized by fear. How long has she been here? Did she listen to what they were speaking? Did she realize what they were planning?

Searching for strength, Hermione turned her gaze to Malfoy. His face immediately blanked, revealing no emotions, solely displaying his cold and uncaring façade.

"Aunt Bella," he greeted her with an annoyingly bored tone. "I didn't expect you here."

Bellatrix's eyes flashed, the mad smile still not leaving her face. "Oh, I thought I'd pay my dearest nephew a visit – he has been so long without a mother, he must need somebody, some womanly nature to attend to him. I was to take that role upon myself, and yet I find that it might not be necessary," her eyes glinted dangerously to Hermione, "somebody has already been doing that."

"You may be aware that the Mudblood is now my wife. I need to make heirs since I'm the last legitimate successor to both the Malfoy and the Back familial lines," Malfoy said calmly and confidently.

Bellatrix stood up from the armchair, her oddly shaped wand wobbling to the sides in her unsteady hand. "Oh, I'm aware..." she said poisonously. "I'm aware of a lot of things... The Dark Lord told me..."

She took a few steps towards them, her eyes switching from Malfoy to Hermione—whenever they landed on her, Hermione felt threatened and uneasy. Malfoy had moved to the front, covering Hermione with his body, his eyes watching Bella's wand movements carefully.

"What else I know," Bellatrix continued, "is that you could've chosen any wife you wanted, and yet you chose her!" She pointed her wand to Hermione, and Malfoy moved further to the side. "Why is that? Is it because you still have fee—"

"Tell me what you want and leave, Bella, I don't have time to talk of nothings with you," Malfoy cut off.

Bellatrix's lips set into a hard line, her right eye twitched – she seemed to be losing it. Her whole demeanor seemed a lot more deranged than the last time they saw each other.

She still kept pointing her wand and Hermione, but it was clear that is she was to shoot a curse it could hit Malfoy, and the chance of her speaking a Killing curse didn't seem unlikely at all, not when she was so full of anger and instability. Hermione thought of what to do. Malfoy stood before Bellatrix empty hand, Hermione wasn't sure if he really didn't have a wand with him or if he was not taking it out on purpose. Maybe he believed his aunt wouldn't hurt him? Hermione wasn't so sure of it, so she had to take precautions. She slowly leaned down to grasp the skirt of her dress, and started pulling it up, trying no to draw Bellatrix's attention. It seemed to be working because her attention was still on Malfoy, whose body hid Hermione from view.

"I heard what you said! You want to take down the Dark Lord! You—"

Hermione reached the wand attached to her thigh and pulled it out of the garter slowly.

"Remind me one more time, Aunt, when was the last time you heard someone talk about the Dark Lord and it turned out to be false? Was it this week? Last week? Or was it every singe instance you told the Dark Lord of some conspiracy only to found out very quickly you were hallucinating?" Malfoy sounded vaguely irritated.

But Bellatrix didn't buy that. "You want me to be mad, you wish I was as unstable as you tell everyone that I am, but I know what I heard, and I know I'm right!" Her wand shot out a rain of black-green sparks.

Hermione pointed her wand to Bellatrix, screaming, "Expelliarmus!" but she didn't do it fast enough – Bellatrix saw it before and yelled out the same spell. Hers was stronger, and Hermione felt her wand slip away from her fingers and shot up in the air until it ended up in Bellatrix's hand. A horrible self-satisfied grin distorted her face.