Altera Aretla

Chapter Eleven

Hermione slept fitfully, nightmares of what had happened filling her mind. Blood, screams, Harry laughing evilly and Bellatrix's prone form. She woke up at dawn, a sheen of sweat covering her. Her body ached and she hadn't changed out of her clothes. She noticed with dismay there were some blood stains on it.

Wincing, she got up and used her wand to magic them away. She was thirsty and hungry- last night had taken a lot out of her. She looked over at Bellatrix's form. She was sleeping, her shoulders rising up and down, turned away from Hermione.

Hermione wondered if her wounds were okay now. She could see some spotting on the sheets. Waffling between waking up Bellatrix or not, Hermione figured checking on the wounds was more important. She went around the bed and whispered the woman's name.

"Bellatrix."

Immediately Bellatrix was awake, jerking up, only to gasp in pain and grab her midsection.

"Don't do that. You'll hurt yourself," Hermione said, reaching out a hand. Bellatrix reared back from it, confusion on her face. She looked around the room, perplexed as to how she got here. The panic in her black eyes faded as she recalled what happened last night.

"You...you helped me." It sounded like an accusation.

"I did," Hermione affirmed.

"After you hurt me!"

Hermione's lips thinned. "Not by choice," she said in a shameful whisper.

Bellatrix's look only grew more confused. "Explain yourself, Granger."

"I will, I would just like to tend to your wounds first. Make sure they're okay." Hermione wasn't even sure she could explain herself. But it seemed like Bellatrix had figured most of it out- or at least the crux of it.

This seemed to alert Bellatrix to the fact she was only in her undergarments. She looked down at her body, spotting the colorful bruising and the lines of red. "You and your little friends did a number on me."

"They're not my friends," Hermione said in a defeated voice. "Now will you let me look-"

"Don't come near," Bellatrix hissed as she scooted back on the bed and raised the sheets to her chest. "I'd like to check on my own. Make sure you didn't make matters worse."

"Fine," Hermione said, relenting and giving Bellatrix space. "There's potions on the cabinet. I'm going to go get you something else from the infirmary that can help with healing those bruises. They look terrible." She gestured vaguely at them.

Bellatrix pulled the sheets up higher to her chest. With some effort, she stumbled into the bathroom. Hermione winced when she heard something fall onto the floor. "I'll be back. Try not to leave the room," she called out to her, and opened the door to leave.

She found someone else on the other side, fist raised to knock. Someone else that looked very much like Bellatrix but softer, and with caramel hair. Andromeda's jaw dropped open and she gasped.

"What are you doing in my sister's room?" She immediately burst in, pulling out her wand and stepping inside, slamming the door shut behind her. Hermione backed up, hands raised in a placating manner. She didn't want to have to fight the only Black sister she actually had liked in her own world.

Andromeda's wand dug into Hermione's pulse point. Bellatrix was drawn out of the bathroom by the noise.

"Andromeda, please!" Bellatrix tried to hush her. When she saw Bellatrix draped in only a sheet, her face went pale, drawing to unsavory conclusions. The wand pointed in deeper.

"Tell me why I shouldn't end you right now Granger!" she snarled out and Hermione gulped, not knowing what to do in this situation.

"Andromeda, relax," Bellatrix got in closer, free hand grabbing her sister's wrist and twisting until she dropped her aim at Hermione's neck. "I can explain all this. It's not how it seems." Her voice was soft in only the way it could be for family.

"You can't tell her," Hermione placed a hand on Bellatrix's. She didn't need anymore people knowing who she really was. It would complicate matters more.

Andromeda stared at them, at their casual contact. She gasped in horror. "Don't tell me she seduced you!"

"What?" Bellatrix squeaked out as Andromeda pulled out her wand again. "What potion did you seduce her with? Tell me, you lying piece of shit!" Bellatrix shouldered her way in between Hermione and Andromeda's advancing hostile form.

"Stop this! She didn't do anything like that. Nor did we sleep together."

"Then what is going on?" Andromeda huffed out.

Bellatrix looked unsure as to what to say. "I-"

"I healed her," Hermione cut in, needing to salvage this situation before Bellatrix said the wrong thing. She edged around Bellatrix's form.

"Bullshit! Why would you do that?" Andromeda spat.

"Because I hurt her."

Andromeda said nothing to this, because they knew it was a very true thing for Hermione to do.

"And..." Hermione took a deep breath. "And I felt guilty for how badly I hurt her. I may not like Bellatrix, but even I know I crossed a line with how I treated her."

Andromeda held Hermione's gaze. "I don't believe you," she said lowly. "You would have left her bleeding out. You don't have any morals. You like pain and blood- I know because you've used my own for your sick twisted pleasure!"

Well shit, there had went that plan.

"Andromeda, please, just stop this," Bellatrix stood in front of Hermione again, pushing her sister's wand down. "Hermione...I myself was shocked by her actions but she really means no ill this time. I think...I think she's finally changing. All those years of people reprimanding her are finally getting to her through her thick skull."

Andromeda lowers her wand. "I can't believe this. I can't believe you're protecting her! Granger, did you cast an Imperio-"

"She didn't!" Bellatrix shouts suddenly, shutting up her sister. "And frankly, this is none of your business! So stay out of it."

Andromeda's jaw trembles as she looks between them. At Bellatrix protecting Hermione and at Hermione being docile for once. Andromeda/s feature fill with betrayal. "This isn't over, Granger. You've done something to Bellatrix and when I found out what-"

"You'll hurt me?" Hermione snorts. "I'm not afraid of you, and I've got friends who would be more than happy to repay you in your own tears if you so much as touch a hair on my head."

Andromeda flees the room at this and Bellatrix whirls around and slaps Hermione hard in the face. "Ow!" Hermione shrills, grabbing her cheek. "What was that for?"

"You don't talk to my sister that way, ever again!" Bellatrix demands, nostrils flaring.

"I was only playing my role-"

"I don't care. I won't allow it," Bellatrix steely said before wincing as her side flared. "Shite," she groaned under her breath as she swayed before Hermione caught her in her arms. "You'll need a stronger potion from the infirmary," Hermione said, setting Bellatrix down on the bed. "You stay here, I'll go get one."

Bellatrix's hand latches onto her wrist. "You can't go now! You'll get spotted and get in trouble. Just wait...a bit."

"...okay," Hermione says, not expecting this reaction from Bellatrix. "Let me see what I can do to help ease the pain in the meantime." She rustled through her robes and got her wand out. Bellatrix dropped the sheets around her and Hermione traced the tip of her wand down the wound marks. Little shivers went through Bellatrix's body as the magic worked.

"Feeling better?" Hermione asked once she put her wand away and examined the wounds with her fingers, pressing down to make sure none of them were infected.

"Mhm," Bellatrix agreed and when Hermione looked up she saw Bellatrix was looking away, bottom lip clamped down tightly between her teeth. "Sorry," Hermione said, backing away. "I um, forgot you hate me in this world. And that I no doubt have caused so much pain with these hands."

"It's...fine," Bellatrix breathes out. "I don't usually let people...touch me."

"Not even boyfriends?" Hermione pops out of Hermione's mouth before she can stop herself.

Bellatrix gives a wry smile. "Uh, well, I don't happen to like boys enough to do that with them."

Oh. Hermione can feel her insides get all tingly. Bellatrix likes girls. Makes sense if she's the opposite of her proper world self. "Right," Hermione says, clearing her throat and trying to affect an air of nonchalance. "Um, you seem fine for now. But you'll probably need a proper potion to make sure there are no lingering affects."

Bellatrix nods her head, the air tense around them. Then, Bellatrix breaks it. "I don't...actually know a lot about you. I just know you're not the Hermione I know. But, what happened? What are you doing here?"

"I don't know how much I can tell you. I don't want to screw up some rules that are in place and cause a con-flux in time and space." Hermione rubbed her chin, looking out the window. She could make out students playing down people on the giant fields. Throwing snow at one another, laughing, running. How could this all be so similar and yet so different?

"Can you just answer as much as you think you can tell me?"

"I...I arrived here by mistake, I think. I've been having these odd headaches and they all culminated to this really painful one and when I woke up I was in this world. But I am, was, Hermione in my world too. I must have switched with the one here. Who knows what she's doing there." Hermione really didn't want to think about what sort of damage the evil alter of herself was doing to her world.

"What's the world you're from like?"

"One where I'm good and not bad. And Harry and Ron are good too."

"Am...am I good there?"

Hermione didn't answer that. Bellatrix thinned her lips when she got the meaning of that silence. She moved on.

"It must be a real shock to be here."

"It is. I just want to go home. But then I found out about what my evil twin and Harry and Ron were trying to do here, and I can't let another war erupt!"

"Was there war in your world, Hermione?"

"Yes. Except it was purebloods killing muggle borns like me."

"I knew you trio were up to no good," Bellatrix murmured. "Should you even be trying to stop this? Won't it mess things up?"

Hermione shakes her head. "I don't know. Maybe it was fate for me to get thrown here. But all I know is that if I can help save lives, I will. Especially since I have an inkling of what awaits everyone who takes part in this war."

"I'll help you," Bellatrix said, rising up from the bed on unsteady feet. "This may not be your world, but it's mine and I don't want any harm coming to it. Besides, you have an in that I won't be able to get, but I have sources outside that I can ask for help."

"Bellatrix..." Hermione sighed out. "I don't want you getting any more involved in this than you have to. This could go south-"

"A war is an even more terrible option."

"Bellatrix, you're on their shit list! If you stay behind, much less help me, you'll be killed. Actually!" Hermione exclaimed.

"I'm not scared of them." And Bellarix didn't look scared at all. She had stared death down in the face from her own classmates but mere hours ago. There was a good reason she had been Voldemort's second in command in the Proper World. She was a warrior through and through and it seemed it didn't even change in this Fake World.

"Maybe you should be," Hermione insisted, stepping in closer, intimidating.

"I'm not. You were the scariest one out of all of them. And now, you're good," Bellatrix says confidently. "I have nothing left to fear."

Hermione's not so sure things will be this easy. She cannot share Bellatrix's confidence.