Title: Twin Dragon Heartstring Cores.

Author: Ladyfun9

Summary: After the Battle of Hogwarts, the Golden Trio's messiah-like status changes their lives forever; only Hermione remains skeptical about their new fame. When it becomes obvious who the real leader was of the group, Hermione feels chocked by her own fame and inexorably is drawn toward the last person expected: Bellatrix Black. Hermione loses herself….body, mind, and soul… to the dark mistress. Fortunately, things have a way of working themselves out. Endgame: Bellamione.

Disclaimers: All of this belongs to JK Rowling; I own nothing. Good clean non-profit fun.

Rating: Will degenerate quickly into my usual M...however I thought I'd try some plot first for a change.

A/N: Taking a small break from Pez-Fa-Berry world and thought I'd try exploring a little Bellamione. Sorry for those devout HP folks out there, I'm definitely a dabbler only, however, Bellatrix and Hermione is just hot as hell so I thought I'd give it a shot. They are so wrong, it's just right.

Enjoy! Comments appreciated.

XOXOXOXO

Chapter One: The Fame Monster

Hermione couldn't stand it.

People had an incessant need to meet them, see them, to touch the members of the Golden Trio. As the Wizarding World rebuilt itself after the fall of the Dark Lord at the Battle of Hogwarts, the image of the teenagers that carried an entire country on their shoulders and delivered them from evil was a story too epic to ignore. The Ministry, now led by Kingsly Shacklebolt, gladly used that symbolism to their advantage and promoted their images as a symbol of hope. Of Progress. Of Freedom.

He wisely offered them instant positions as aurors in his administration, bypassing the arduous entrance examinations and field practicals to gain that position; after all, they weren't just war heroes; they were saviors. Ron and Harry gladly took the opportunity to bypass their last year of school and rigorous admission tests necessary for placement in Auror training. Only Hermione chose to return to school and finish her studies.

Laughing, the three of them joked only Hermione would have passed the entrance examination, anyway.

She secretly hoped the attention would die down soon, honestly. Of the three, only Hermione seemed truly uncomfortable with the attention; she hated her lack of anonymity now. Before, she would be often disregarded as a mudblood, left to her business to roam the bookstores without a second glace; those days were long gone. Eyes that would once pass over her indifferently, perhaps noticing her emerging beauty from time to time in the past, were now replaced with obsessive, devoted eyes that followed her everywhere.

People behaved totally differently now.

They would nervously fidget if she was in the room and the amount of people that stalked them was now becoming ridiculous. The Ministry of Magic had to put 24/7 auror protection on the Burroughs to protect the "Golden Trio" from their rabid following. Piles of fan mail from the hundreds of owls that arrived daily to the Burroughs were taking up Bill's old room, entirely. Mr. and Mrs. Weasly were constantly putting up enchantments to enlarge the room, to little avail. She was waiting to bring her parents back from Australia and restore their memories until all this crap died down. Despite her friends from the war, she really didn't have anyone that was "hers", and she felt lonely. Furthering this gap, Ron and Harry were changing…not just because of the fame, but also, because they were getting ready to transition to the next phase of their life, and she was staying back.

XOXOXOXOXO

Amid this swirl of melancholy emotions, Hermione found she one late summer afternoon trying, half-heartedly, to plug in one late summer afternoon with Luna and Ginny, feeling stuck as though she was there…but not really there. She listened, partially, as Ginny announced she was going through Hermione's fan mail.

Ginny snickered as she read a few letters aloud to her best friend.

"Hey 'Mione! You have another proposal here…a Duke from Scotland. He would like a meeting immediately."

Hermione snorted. "Yeah, that's happening."

"Did you see the Daily Prophet today?" Luna asked.

"You know I don't read that rag."

"You should. You're in it, every day, you know." Ginny teased.

"Precisely why I don't read it. I like actual news in my newspapers." The brunette retorted.

"Well," Continued Luna dreamily, "It said that 'Hermione' is the most common name given to female infants this summer."

Hermione rolled her eyes, glancing out the window. As she often did, the brunette unconsciously rolled her fingers across the tip of the walnut wand hidden in her robes, for comfort. Reverently, she traced the length of the 12 ¾" bent wand with the Dragon heartstring core, as she gazed out the window. Odd, how much this wand soothed her; she once hated it. After all, it wasn't originally hers.

It had once belonged to another witch.

A witch just as intelligent, just as cunning, as the young brunette; however, one who was radically different from Hermione in the application of her brilliance.

It was an interesting analogy, really; Hermione's original wand was made of vine wood, and she never felt totally comfortable with the wand. The wand she now carried was made of an ancient walnut, and was unyielding. Despite the horrors it had committed in the past, and despite her initial squeamishness in holding it for the first time, the wand now felt…right.

The wand that once belonged to Bellatrix Black, nee Lestrange, mistress of the dark, was now owned by the epitome of good, Hermione Jean Granger.

It wasn't so strange, really; after all, the cores of the two wands were identical.

Dragon Heartstring.

XOXOXOXOXO

It's bound to happen, really. Those who crave fame for the wrong reasons will watch it slip through their hands like sand at the beach; those who are famous because of who they are will have it come back 100-fold.

Such was the fate of the Golden Trio, to some degree. In this case, fate came in threes.

Three sentinel events that solidified the true identity of the leader of the trio to the world. Three unforgettable events.

The first was Ron's initial auror-in-training raid done by the Ministry in a foreign land near Durmstrung. Intel suggested they were stockpiling weapons of mass destruction to use against them and they were doing surveillance of the area to determine who was providing the rare materials mined to make the core of the weapons.

Ron missed his mark, and using the wrong spell in retreat, alerted the enemy to their presence. In the firefight that ensued, three aurors died that day. Normally, that would have been written off as a rookie mistake, but the Golden Trio had unfair expectations placed on them. Without Hermione's discipline, Ron had only half-heartily studied the protocol, and screwed up. Worse, his lack of public remorse or apology was disconcerting. Even Kinsley's diplomatic skills weren't able to recover the brief truce that the two regions had enjoyed following the demise of Voldemort.

Ron fucked up, on an international scale.

XOXOXOXO

The second event was not quite as dramatic. Harry was an exceptional auror, and after Ron's debacle, he worked even harder. However, he was just as susceptible to the fame monster as Ron. One day, during an interview with the newest Rita Skeeter wannabe, he was taken in by her mindless flattery and didn't notice her slipping something into his water prior to showtime.

He felt a little off at the start of the interview.

"So, Harry, you certainly were brave, facing He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, weren't you?"

"I tried to be."

"Brilliant how you found all the now infamous horcruxes, wasn't it?"

"I suppose."

"You've told the story in the past how you concluded where they were. Is that true that you figured it out?"

"No."

"No? No, What?"

"I didn't figure it out. Hermione did."

"Hermione. That would be Hermione Granger, the female member of the Golden Trio?"

"Yes."

"What else did she plan for you three?"
"Well, everything, really."

"You mean, she did all the tactical planning?"

"Yes."

"And strategics?"

"Yes."

"And you and Ron took credit for it."

"Well, well…yes."

A small gasp went through the audience. Harry was turning red.

"But, you were the one who fought Voldemort in the end, right?"

"Yes."

"And you did an excellent job, Harry. Well done."

A polite round of clapping, with some whistling, was heard from the studio audience.

"Not many people would have thought you could survive the killing curse a second time, Harry." The interviewer squinted her eyes. "Use of the Priori Incantatem, where the caster and his opponent's wands and spells are locked together, saved you. Very usual. How did you get the idea to do this?"

Harry looked glumly at the interviewer.

"Hermione. She gave me the idea. Hermione knew it would work."

Harry realized, albeit too late, that this horrible person had slipped versatium into his drink before showtime. He couldn't do anything but tell the truth, and the whole truth.

He would survive the interview, but a little bit of the gold was tarnished.

XOXOXOXOX

The final event was as the summer came to a close and Harry's interview and Ron's debacle were fresh on everyone's mind. Ginny, Luna, and Hermione were making their way to Diagon Alley to buy the books and material needed for their last year. Ginny and Luna flanked their friend, guarding her from the probing stares of on-lookers. Some of the bolder onlookers wolf-whistled, a few yelled, "glad you dumped that git, Ron Weasley!"

Hermione gently put her hand on Ginny's shoulder as she winced at that one.

"Don't let them bother you, Gin. Their idiots." She whispered.

"Yeah, but they're right. That's what painful." She hissed back. "He is an idiot, sometimes."

Amid the distraction, people didn't notice at first, the stealth arrival of 7 soldiers flying in on what looked like a cross between a broom and s child's sled. They were covered head to toe in some kind of body armor that had an orange metallic hue to it. Bolts of laser fire started shooting from the broom sleds, detonating buildings as they exploded. Wizards cast spell after spell, only to have them deflect of the metal alloy. Amid the chaos, only one wizard kept their head. She observed momentarily, she didn't react.

The flying machines are doing all of the assaulting. The pilots themselves aren't casting a single spell! She noted. In the confusion of a surprise attack, that detail was easy to miss. As one of the enemy craft flew overhead she quickly dodged but noticed the construction. They're not unlike muggle transport vehicles, she noted. Her mind raced to the construction design of a few prototype hovercrafts she had seen, and she raised her wand to cast her first spell.

"Everyone's tried to jinx them, Hermione!" Yelled an onlooker. "They're invincible!"

Pausing, Hermione said, "I'm not everyone. I'm not jinxing … them."

Out of nowhere, a familiar voice spoke in her head. Don't just stun it, Hermione, choke it. Choke the intake.

Without thinking, the magic flowed from her body, out the length of the bent Dragon Heartstring wand. Hermione commanded, "Fumos duo arenae! Oxygenium nox!"

Two beams of light shot out simultaneously from the brunette's wand, a torrent of red and blue lights hitting the flying craft of the seven intruders.

In the retelling of the story, it would often be exaggerated; some saying Hermione cast seven different spells at once, when it in reality was only two. Two, however, is a difficult enough feat on its own, without embellishment. It is unclear how she stopped them, exactly, but she essentially caused a sand plug to enter the front of the air intake of the flying vehicles, while sucking the air out of the rear. In effect, she "plugged" the airway and "chocked" what air remained out of the motor. The vehicles stopped, immediately, dismounting their riders and they were quickly subdued by the onlookers.

It later came out that multiple guerilla assaults had been made concurrently all over England that day; however, only at Diagnon Alley was the mysterious enemy brought down and subdued for questioning. While the Ministry worked around the clock gathering Intel on their mysterious assault, the legend of Hermione Granger grew.

Paparazzi were swarming all over her.

"How did you know how to stop the vehicles?"

"Are going to go work for the Ministry now as a result?"

"How did you cast two spells at the same time?"

"Were you scared?"

Hermione just ignored them, as always, pushing past them to finish her shopping. This was ridiculous! She grumbled, to no one in general.

XOXOXOXXOXO

Later that evening in the Burroughs, Ginny looked at the pensive brunette in front of her with some awe.

"How did you cast two spells, 'Mione?"

Hermione sighed. "I don't know. I just…did. I think I had some help."

"Help?"

Quickly Hermione shook her head.

"Forget I said that. Forget …. It. Look, Gin, no offense, but I'm really tired, and I think I'd like to go to bed now."

"Oh…okay. Well, goodnight then, 'Mione."

Hermione was already looking out her window, barley acknowledging the redhead's retreat. She closed her eyes, taking in the silence, acknowledging finally what she knew in her heart to be true.

After a minute, Hermione spoke, to no one in particular. "Thank you, Bellatrix." She said softly.

The voice in her head replied.

No problem…It was my pleasure, Puppy.

Hermione sighed, rubbing the side of her wand, for comfort.

TBC