Startled, Neville spun around and found a gorgeous, raven-haired young woman pointing a wand at his face. Quickly, Neville surmised that Rose was correct. Bellatrix was definitely a teenage girl. "Aren't we on the same side?" he asked.
"Yes," said Bellatrix, "but I'm going to have to ask you to swear an oath not to reveal any information about Harry to anybody."
"I don't know if I like that," Neville said staunchly.
"Just do it," Ginny pleaded. "We need to rescue my mother, and we're wasting time."
After Neville grudgingly swore the magical oath, Bellatrix faded back into the forest, satisfied, and returned with Harry on a floating cot. Harry looked rather irate. "I can walk, you know," he grumbled for what the teenagers guessed was the umpteenth time.
"I've seen you do it, in fact," Bellatrix replied drily as she set the cot down with a gesture of her wand.
"Look at the bright side," Leo snickered. "After this is over, you can brag that you fought a battle while lying on a cot."
"I don't think that's something to brag about," Harry complained, sitting up.
"Let's get down to business," Bellatrix said impatiently. "First item on the agenda is to confirm that Harry can project his image past the wards without the Malfoy ring-or rather, with me wearing the ring and giving permission for people to project images past any wards tied to the land."
After removing the Malfoy ring from his finger and handing the ring to Bellatrix, Harry then produced his wand. Bellatrix then gave her subservient ring to Harry, who donned it as Bellatrix donned the Malfoy master ring. Harry then cast the image projection spell. The teenagers were impressed as they watched Harry's image seemingly disappear from the cot even though they could see the outline of his legs from the sheets lying on top of them. In a moment, Harry's "image" reappeared in the cot. "The coast is clear," he said. "I even appeared in an abandoned room in the basement."
"Excellent," Bellatrix nodded.
She dug through a satchel she was carrying and produced a number of small potion vials, which she handed to Harry. "Drink these and try to rest." She then pointed to Neville and Ginny. "You're on guard as of now. When we are ready to start, I will send a signal to Harry through the rings. If anything happens, you get Harry out of here." She paused and made eye contact with both teens. "If anything happens to him, I'll skin you two alive."
"You two," Bellatrix said pointing to Rose and Leo, "are with me for now."
Bellatrix and her two helpers shrunk the crates of explosives and then departed with them in the darkness. Neville and Ginny drew their wands and took position flanking the sides of the cot, peering out into the darkness as if some creature were out there waiting to pounce. Harry considered telling them that Bellatrix would not skin them alive if anything happened to him, but he didn't because he knew it would be a lie. In some small way, that made him rather happy.
.....
The picture of calm, icy arrogance, Narcissa Malfoy brushed her hair, focusing on her face in the mirror. Even when not in the presence of her husband or his Death Eater friends, she maintained this mask of indifference. In the beginning, it has been so that she could somehow convince herself that everything was fine. Now she did it to prevent herself from falling to pieces when contemplating her miserable life.
She was thinking about her son and his plight as he travelled with his father on a mission for the dark lord. The poor boy probably did not realize how precarious his situation was. He was not yet a major player in the dark lord's forces-he was only a pawn. However, Severus was helping her change that. If the dark lord approved, Draco would become an apprentice to Snape. The dark lord always needed potions.
Narcissa continued to brush her hair, already having surpassed the self-imposed count of one hundred strokes. She was just about to put the brush down when she saw in the mirror the air behind her ripple as a disillusionment charm faded. Standing behind her was her sister Bellatrix.
Narcissa's wand was on the dressing table directly in front of her, but Bellatrix's wand was in her hand already. A short jab of Bellatrix's wand and Narcissa was under a body bind curse, frozen on the stool and staring in the mirror, her hand having only moved an inch toward her wand.
Bellatrix stepped closer and put her head next to Narcissa's. The sisters stared at each other in the mirror. "Aunt Walburga was surprised to see me, too," Bellatrix said quietly. She saw the fear in Narcissa's eyes and moved to alleviate those fears-somewhat. "I did not kill her, though she would have deserved it. I would like to think she saw justice coming for helping the dark lord, but I think she just could not bear to continue living with me taking her place at the helm of the Black family. Narcissa stared with fascination as Bellatrix raised one of her hands and displayed the Black family ring that was reserved for the wife of the head of house.
Bellatrix stared at Narcissa's face, and for the first time felt the weight of how much time had really passed because of her and Harry's travel through time. She stared at the small wrinkles that were beginning to show around Narcissa's eyes. "Time has been far kinder to me," Bellatrix said softly, smirking as she said it and noting the confusion in Narcissa's eyes. The nominally younger sister, Narcissa, had just realized how remarkably young her older sister appeared.
"I'll be seeing you," Bellatrix said brightly, standing up straight and plucking a hair from Narcissa's head. She withdrew a flask from within her cloak, opened it, and dropped the hair into a dose of Polyjuice potion. She drank it, and a minute later, an alternate version of Narcissa Malfoy exited the room, heading toward the lower floors of Malfoy Manor.
....
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