Being left alone with Ron was amongst the very last things Hermione had hoped for. It wasn't that she didn't want to see him, but with Bellatrix still faintly on her lips she wasn't sure she'd be able to look him in the eye if he started to gravitate conversation towards his own attraction to her.

The Gryffindor sighed and put her head on the red head's shoulder casually. After a while Ron started plucking blades of grass in small handfuls, letting them fall messily back to the ground.

"Me and you. It's not really... Y'know, it can't... Can it?"

Hermione felt a stab of guilt and sat up to look at him.

"It's okay, I get it." He said immediately. "Not that you're not great, you are- just, you're like my sister and I think maybe... maybe I was just confusing, y'know... liking you with looking up to you." His ears were pink as he quickly moved on in a rush. "Ginny made me realise in the end, she said I looked at you like I would look at the Chudley Canons. And they're the best, and I wish I was as good as them, but... well, I don't wanna date them, if you know what I mean. I guess I wanna be them. And that's different, isn't it? Wanting to be somebody rather than loving somebody as yourself."

Hermione was quietly stunned. She had no idea that Ron was capable of being deep, let alone with such a graceful understanding of something as complex as love. Perhaps the whole Lavender Brown thing had given her lowered expectations.

"You know what, Ron? I think you're entirely right."

He smiled appreciatively, seemingly far more humbled by garnering some praise from her than he had been for all of the homework, life-saving and lectures she'd ever put forth put together.

"But you and Bellatrix, though. There's something there. Gotta be."

Hermione froze and Ron shifted as if to pretend he hadn't noticed. "S'all right. I mean, unexpected but... It's not like it was before, is it? She's not exactly the enemy to us now and she's definitely not to you. She's the only reason either of us could sleep at night, really. Even Harry admitted it, that at least if Bellatrix was at your side you should be safe. Even if we did miss you. I know she's done some pretty dark stuff, but... I'm..."

He took a deep breath. "Well, it's just, mum had a word with me the other week about how I was going to have to grow up and y'know... 'be a man' if we all wanted to get through this in one piece and even though it stung a bit, I guess she's right. Can't be sulking all the time, wouldn't forgive myself if one of my moods got you or Harry hurt. Or anyone. So I thought I'd start by making life easier on you and not going into git-mode over Bellatrix. I mean, I might have had a few days worth, but after that, I thought it was just time to man up about it and accept that not everything is black and white and we don't know the whole story, and-"

He was cut off as Hermione threw herself around his neck, stifling tears. She never thought she'd see the day, and to hear Ron say such things was honestly the greatest relief she never knew she needed.

"Blimey." He said. "If I'd have known it was that easy to get in your good books I'd have started years ago."

Hermione laughed through the tears that were still straining to get out, and rapidly blinked them into her eyelashes.

"Look, I... I don't know. I don't know what's happening with Bellatrix. I won't lie after you were honest, I do..." She sighed, unsure what to say.

"Yeah I know what you mean, I don't need all the intimate details." Ron joked.

"I, what- there aren't any-"

Ron began to chuckle. "Oh come off it, you kissed Harry at the Tri-Wizard Tournament and you didn't even like him, you're not telling me the two of you haven't-"

"Oh my god, fine, yes we did, about three hours ago and I'm still not very sure how it happened, happy?" Hermione was blushing fiercely.

Ron was laughing too much to respond, eventually managing 'I knew it.'

"Knew what?"

"Nothing!" Hermione yelped as Bellatrix reappeared, Harry in tow. Ron tried to cough to get himself together.

Harry looked much the same as he had after receiving his pep talk before facing the Hungarian Horntail.

"Everything okay?" Hermione asked, getting to her feet.

Bellatrix smiled in reply and put an arm around her shoulders, earning a childish smirk from Ron.

"Well." Harry said finally, looking around as if he was only just seeing what was in front of him.

"We should probably go, right? War to win, and stuff…" Ron looked dejectedly at the pile of ash where Minerva's magic had finally worn away.

"Actually, um." Harry ran a hand tiredly through his messy hair. "Bellatrix has, uh, offered us a safe house. One that belongs to the Blacks, not, uh, You-Know-Who." He shuffled his feet as if he was unsure of how to respond to such a gesture.

"Oh." Ron said, mirroring Harry's stance.

Hermione slowly craned her neck to look at the woman beside her. She smiled broadly as the woman pre-emptively rolled her eyes.

"Don't say a word." She said as the girl beside her held her hands up in surrender.

-X-

Bellatrix was lying on the sofa when Hermione pushed the library door to and stepped into view.

The look on her face was strained and she was obviously trying to stop herself from wringing her hands, standing awkwardly in the doorway, her eyes going from Bellatrix to the floorboards, and back to Bellatrix.

The dark witch tilted her head and frowned gently.

"I'm no scarier up close." She commented, not moving from her lounging position but not taking her eyes from the girl either.

Hermione smiled wryly down at herself. "Is that so?" She said, more to herself than to the death eater. When Bellatrix didn't look away, Hermione sighed.

"Are you angry with me?" She asked after a moment, feeling like a naughty school child.

"No. Should I be?"

"Perhaps. Today could have gone really badly." She added, looking up at the woman across the room.

"And here I thought you were just developing a taste for disaster." Bellatrix smirked.

"That would at least explain the moth-like attraction to you." Hermione muttered, folding her arms with a half smile.

Bellatrix rolled her eyes and exhaled through her nose softly. "I'm sure there are at least two other reasons for that before my propensity for mishaps."

Hermione blushed hard as Bellatrix casually glanced down at her own cleavage.

"Shut up." She mumbled. "What did you talk to Harry about?"

"I explained why I killed Sirius." Bellatrix wet her lips. "And before you ask, I don't think I could do it twice in a day."

Hermione smiled lightly. "Kill your cousin or explain something to Harry? Because I feel your pain with the last one."

Bellatrix laughed. "Either. And I thought you were supposed to be the brains behind them?"

"Shut up!" Hermione blushed as she scowled.

"That's no way to talk to your deepest fear and desire." Bellatrix teased, her eyes gleaming good-naturedley in the fire light.

"Why did I ever tell you about that?" Hermione sighed, coming to sit on the floor in front of the fire with her back against the bottom sofa.

Bellatrix leaned down and stoked her fingertips absent-mindedly across the top of Hermione's head, tugging at a few dislodged strands.

"Well, I told Cissa about it. Know what she thinks?"

"That you tell her way too much?"

The dark witch made a sound of agreement. "Apart from that."

"Go on."

"She seems to think it's representative, not literal. That your mind used me to represent what you wanted most because what you wanted most didn't have any concrete form of its own."

"Well..." Hermione leaned her head back into the sofa and suppressed a contented hum as Bellatrix continued to play with her hair. "I guess you are just about the most powerful witch alive. You were the brightest witch of your age, I'm supposedly the best of mine. It makes sense I'd want that to continue to be true for me like it still is for you. Doesn't explain the boggart though."

"Mm, what if the boggart kissed you as me because after the mirror, your greatest fear was realising I, representing the people you thought- let's face it- were relatively moral to kill- was human after so long of hating me. And then it showed sex because you accepted who I was and realised how alike we are, how much she wanted to know me on a morbid level."

Hermione's mind was yet to stumble its way past hearing the other woman say the word 'sex' so casually.

"I- that- I mean, I suppose that's as good an explanation as any." She stuttered, trying to sound like she wasn't at all phased.

Bellatrix smiled silently behind her.

"How did that conversation come about?"

"With my sister? Well I was curious to know what she thought and so I asked."

"Hm." Hermione lapsed into silence, not sure what else to say. Bellatrix- or Narcissa at least- had made some very salient points. She closed her eyes involuntarily and let the haze descend around her mind that always did when someone ran their fingers through her hair as the older witch had taken to doing.

Bellatrix watched the Gryffindor intently. Taking her back to Malfoy Manor had put the girl at ease for the first time really since they had left, and it had given Bellatrix a surplus of time to think about what had transpired between them now that she didn't have to think about finding food or keeping watch.

"Hermione."

The younger witch's eyes re-opened and she turned to look up over her shoulder questioningly. Bellatrix moved to one side and pulled her up to sit on the edge of the sofa, sitting up more than she had been. Without thinking, the Slytherin caught the other girl's jaw and softly lunged forwards, pressing their lips together as Hermione's fingertips brushed through the ends of the dark witch's hair in surprise.

A second passed and Hermione's confusion cleared. She leaned in further and Bellatrix felt the natural time for a purely affectionate kiss to end pass them by. A slight tremor went through her as Hermione shifted to be partially lying on her chest, Bellatrix's other arm coming up to circle around the girl's middle with the first.

Nervously, Hermione pulled away just enough to be able to look the dark witch in the eyes. Yet again, Hermione realised she wanted her, and she wasn't sure how to appropriately deal with it now she had made it obvious.

The older witch thought to say something but decided against it, cupping the younger witch's face tenderly and hoping that Hermione was intelligent enough to be able to read the situation for herself.

Hermione held the other witch's gaze for a few tense seconds and then shocked herself as she leaned in and kissed the death eater again, more firmly than before. She felt her heart flutter as two hands started to slowly make their way up the front of her blouse, undoing one button at a time as slowly as possible. By the time the two sides of her shirt fell away from one another, their kiss had deepened enough that Bellatrix's tongue had found its way into her mouth and the room was filled with the quiet sounds of their breathing.

"Bed." Bellatrix breathed against her throat, pulling her up and leading her through the house as Hermione's heart rate soared at the idea someone might see her like this as they made their way upstairs.

They reached Bellatrix's room without incident and the second the door was locked and warded behind them, Bellatrix's dress was gone with a devious look that made Hermione so weak she had to half fall, half sit on the bed whether she liked it or not. The other witch was overwhelmingly beautiful and on top of her in an instant, throwing Hermione's blouse and then her jeans across the room whilst trailing hot kisses down her flushed neck as the Gryffindor pressed herself back into the pillows.

After a few minutes, Bellatrix pulled back and ran her eyes over the other girl with a soft smile.

Who knew she would look so beautiful when she was riled up like this?

Slowly, she let her fingertips grace butterfly light over the Gryffindor's clit through her underwear and the girl groaned, clawing at the death eater's waist.

"Come on kitten," Bellatrix coaxed quietly, "Just one little word?"

Hermione closed her eyes tightly and tried to resist, never having been one to beg. The eldest Black sister was relentless and hit her clit again, with her knuckles this time, biting her lip subconsciously as the other woman's chest rose and fell harder as she tried to keep control over herself. With a mean grin, she went back to trailing her fingers over the girl's thigh.

Burning, Hermione gave in.

"Please." She whimpered.

"Sorry?" Bellatrix asked innocently, readying herself to move incase Hermione felt driven to attack her.

The girl very nearly did. She looked up into Bellatrix's eyes, her own dark and desperate, and set her jaw.

"Please." She growled, still looking into the Slytherin's eyes, her voice strained.

Bellatrix obliged. She repositioned herself and rid the girl of the last of her underwear in a few seconds.

"Fuck." Hermione cursed loudly as Bellatrix's tongue ran softly over her slit. She laced her fingers into the woman's hair weakly and closed her eyes again as she repeated herself, harder this time, flicking at the brunette's clit with the tip of her tongue.

Slowly, Bellatrix started to move her tongue in a more consistent way, and Hermione's moans slipped out under her breath more quickly. She had never been so turned on in her life.

"Bella…" She whined as the death eater slipped a long finger deep into the smaller girl, humming against her clit. She took a couple of minutes to let Hermione get used to a harder pace before adding a second finger and curling them suddenly.

Hermione choked out a moan and clenched her trembling fingers in the Slytherin's hair, feeling release slowly start to build in a hot coil in her abdomen. Bellatrix nipped sharply at the brunette's clit with her teeth and then softly licked over the same spots she bit, listening to the other witch's breathing get more and more erratic with every spike of pain and subsequently soothing pleasure.

The darker woman curled her still-working fingers again and sucked softly on the girl's clit and Hermione let out a high keen as she felt herself start to hold her breath as her muscles tightened.

"Oh, fuck, Bella-" She cut herself off as she crashed over the edge, moaning to god and pulling at the death eater's curls hard. The death eater found that she quite liked the sensation, and pressed her lips against her lover's thigh with her eyes closed as Hermione tried to recover.

When she re-opened her eyes, Hermione was staring down at her in a daze, still very much clouded with lust.

"We have forty minutes until dinner." Bellatrix offered with a long, teasing kiss just below the girl's naval.

-X-

The floo lit up with a brilliant light twice in quick succession as the boys stumbled into the dimly lit office.

The furniture was barely changed from then the room was uninhabited, save for a few extra books scattered around, the fresh flowers in the vases left by the house elves and the distinct smell of fire whiskey hanging in the air.

Coming to Hogwarts had been a risk but after the very obliging elf attached to the safe house Bellatrix had escorted them to had informed them that the floo was still connected to one at Hogwarts for certain privileged persons only, and that as guests of Miss Black that extended to them, the opportunity to get to shrub had been too good to pass up. They had sent a letter with the elf, called Dea, to Shrub, asking him to be in the room alone at exactly half past nine, and then waited through the hours between in relative ease.

Ron had been thoroughly converted to Hermione's side, much to Harry's quiet confusion after how the two women had interacted with each other. He had been convinced that seeing Hermione undeniably 'involved' with someone else would have driven the red head crazy, but he seemed oddly cheered up by it.

Harry himself was, at least, comforted by what he had found in Bellatrix and what she had told him, no matter how hard it had been to hear.

Watching the boys get their bearings, Shrub leaned heavily back against the broad mahogany desk that lined the wall.

"Am I to suppose you know the truth, my boys?"

Harry glanced quickly at Ron and found assurance in his equally confused look that he hadn't expected this kind of reaction from the man, either.

"We know that Shrub died a long time ago." Harry offered uncertainly, looking around for somewhere to settle.

The old man swirled his drink around in his crystalline tumbler, staring into it morosely.

"Yes. Getting on for twenty years now, terrible shame." He looked up at the two boys, still swirling the whiskey.

"Alright." He said eventually, sounding astonishingly similar to how Slughorn had when Harry had finally whittled him down. "Alright. I suppose this conversation was on the list anyway. Come."

He beckoned them to join him on the dark, overstuffed sofas by the fire.

"When I first arrived here at Hogwarts, it was with only the best intentions." He said, wincing as his knees protested at being bent into a sitting position.

"Then why the fake name?" Ron asked, his suspicion getting the better of him.

"Because to get this post, I had to give a name, and my name, my real name, would have been a problem."

"Why? Are you one of them?" Harry scrutinised the man. He didn't look like a death eater, but then what did a death eater look like?

"No, no, nothing of that nature. My name is Elias Urquart and a very long time ago, my brother Elphinstone Urquart, was very much in love with your Professor McGonagall. They were happily married, for a short time. But Elph had a vindictive streak- never showed it to Minerva, but one evening he ran into a woman I believe you must know- or at least rather know of- rather well."

Harry had visibly relaxed now that he was placated the man wasn't a death eater and that he was telling him the truth at long last.

"Bellatrix Black. She was- and still is, as I hear it- the most remarkably beautiful dark witch, among other things. I couldn't tell you what possessed him, but he... 'prepositioned' her, despite Minerva, and in Minerva's ancestral gardens whilst a ball was being held in the manor at that. Long story short, Bellatrix hexed him in an instant and sent him scurrying away back to the party before he even had the words out."

Ron pulled a face as if he was trying to preempt what this had to do with anything. "Is this going somewhere?"

"Of course, my boy."

"Why was Bellatrix there?" Harry chimed in.

"Well, all three Black sisters were there- Minerva tried very hard to steer them towards alternate world views whilst she still could, and once invited it would have been ill-mannered to decline by the way they were brought up." He shrugged.

"But I digress. Elph ran back to the party humiliated and in a horrible lapse in judgement decided to get revenge."

"What did he do?" Harry leaned forward in his seat once more.

"Nothing, thankfully. Bellatrix put an end to him before he was... successful."

Both Gryffindors stared expectantly and the man sighed woefully.

"He sought out Andromeda. They looked so very similar when they were young, they were mistaken for one another on a daily basis. Bellatrix was never going to look twice at a man three times her age and he couldn't fight her, even then. So he... targeted her younger sister. Andromeda was a formidable witch in her own right, but she was a healer, not a harmer." He trailed off sadly.

Harry wasn't sure he understood. "What do you mean, 'targeted'?"

"The same way he targeted Bellatrix. But with brute force and a one-track mind."

Ron went a little green. "You mean he tried to-"

"Yes."

"What happened?" Harry was looking from Ron to Elias as if this were a recent scandal.

"Bellatrix happened. She didn't trust him and so she followed him- took a loaded ceremonial shotgun from the wall and blew his heart out of his body."

A stunned silence descended upon the room.

"So that's why McGonagall is going so mental over this? She's trying to take from Bellatrix what Bellatrix took from her all those years ago."

Understanding dawned on Harry.

"That's why she's so determined? Hermione's heritage is just an excuse, she just wants her dead to spite Bellatrix."

Elias looked somber. "Her heritage started the fire, but her involvement with Bellatrix is what turned it into this. I returned here to try to make amends with Minerva, she's only a step-sister, but she's all the family I have. She blames me just as much for Elph's death, because I wasn't there to 'protect' him." Elias laughed humourlessly as if even he knew the notion was a ridiculous one. "If she had seen my name on the application list, she would have burned it before I had the chance to speak with her, and so I used the name of an old friend who passed away long enough ago I didn't think anyone would remember him."

"That explains why she was so livid when she saw you." Ron surmised, still processing that Bellatrix had once taken a wizard out with a muggle weapon.

"Once I got close enough it became apparent that Minerva was far beyond reconciliation. I had planned to leave, but on my way out I got talking to the gamekeeper- who has a terrible problem with letting things slip, may I add- and realised something more was at play. And so here I am."

Ron frowned. "Here you are, doing what exactly?"

Elias drank the last of his whisky in one go. "Well now, it's funny you should ask."