It was nearly a couple of hours after midnight before Harry surrendered and admitted that he had no chance of falling asleep. The death of Romulus and Cygnus still weighed heavily on his mind. Even heavier was the responsibility that was now firmly his alone. Without the Blacks and Malfoy, what could he now do that would be profitable in the fight against Voldemort? Woefully awake and alert, he climbed out of bed and got dressed slowly, pondering his options.
Harry wandered out into his sitting room, slumped onto a couch, and leaned against one of its armrests. He began to make an inventory of his assets. He had Bella for an ally, money to cover expenses, and knowledge about Voldemort and the future that was quickly losing value. It didn't sound so good, but on the other hand, the Ministry would be dead set against Voldemort, and Dumbledore had been forewarned. Perhaps the headmaster had even founded the Order of the Phoenix. Moody had let it slip that he knew about the dark lord's existence, so it was plausible to believe that Dumbledore had passed the information on to a few people.
Allowing himself to slouch a bit more, Harry closed his eyes. The key was to kill Voldemort, to cut the head off of the snake. Would the Order and the Ministry understand that? Regardless, he would need to find a way to get more information to Dumbledore. The elderly wizard was the one who stood the best chance at keeping Voldemort at bay long enough for Harry to find a way to fulfill the prophecy and kill the dark lord.
Harry was still slouched on his couch mulling over the situation when he heard the door open and then close. He cracked open his eyes so that he could detect the identity of his visitor. It was Bellatrix. He felt too emotionally spent to show much of a reaction, but his desire to be extra nice to the now fatherless Bellatrix prompted him to sit up on the couch and play the sympathetic host. "You can't sleep, either?" he asked, looking at her closely. She was dressed in a dark bathrobe, her arms crossed over her chest as she hugged herself tightly. He wondered if maybe he should order something from the kitchens-that is, if the house elves could do something this late in the night.
Rather than responding to Harry's question, Bellatrix stared at him, her eyes looking rather glazed. Noticing this oddity, Harry frowned and waved his hand in front of her face. Her eyes followed but something seemed off. "Bellatrix? Are you all right?" he asked.
"I can't sleep," she slurred, still staring at Harry with her violet eyes. Her arms dropped down and she took a few staggering steps toward the couch, but stopped and continued her study of Harry.
Immediately, Harry realized that she was drunk. He sighed softly. "We'd better get you back to bed," he said. "If we're lucky, we'll find a sleeping potion on the way. A night's rest and some hangover potion will leave you feeling much better."
This apparently was not quite the reaction Bellatrix was looking for. She set her jaw and looked away from Harry, giving him a view of the profile of her delicate, pale-skinned jaw.
Harry suppressed a sigh and did his best to sound comforting. "What do you want, Bella?"
She turned her gaze back to him. Slowly, she reached up, untied her bathrobe, and then shrugged out of it, leaving herself clad only in her underclothes. Unable to help himself, Harry stared, taking in her soft curves. This seemingly being the desired reaction, Bellatrix lurched forward and then fell onto Harry's lap. He was too startled to react. In an instant she was grabbing at him as she awkwardly placed her lips onto his for a kiss.
It was a very wet kiss and was strongly accentuated by the odor of firewhiskey. This, combined with the realization that she was a seventeen-year-old student led Harry to stiffen like a board. Bellatrix instantly sensed Harry's reaction and interpreted it as a sign of revulsion and rejection. She broke the kiss, placed her head on Harry's chest, and began to sob uncontrollably. Harry hugged her and tried to comfort her, but it was to no avail. She continued to cry.
Still holding Bellatrix and occasionally patting her on the back, Harry tried to analyze the situation. Had she really intended to come down and seduce him? Or had it been a spur of the moment action brought on by alcohol? He shook his head in wonderment as he tried to decide whether he should let her stay on his lap or whether he should go and try to find something for her to eat or drink.
In the end, Harry was just too tired to do much of anything. Eventually, her sobs became weaker and he let himself slip into drowsing for about twenty minutes. When he regained his senses, she had stopped crying completely, though she had not removed herself from her position on Harry's lap. Noticing that some of his limbs had fallen asleep, Harry tried to shift a little bit to allow his blood to circulate. The movement alerted Bellatrix that he was awake and she moved her head so that she could look Harry in the eyes. The closer proximity of her face to his was decidedly uncomfortable for Harry-that and the fact that her eyes still seemed off somehow.
"Feel better?" Harry asked.
"A little bit," Bellatrix admitted after a moment. She was still clearly under the influence of the drink, but seemed to have slightly regained her senses-perhaps because she was no longer under the influence of having bottled up her grief.
Harry nodded. "I think I have some candy stashed in this room somewhere. If you get off me for a bit, I can dig it out. It might make you feel better."
Bellatrix looked down at herself and blushed. "Of course," she said, moving quickly, though clumsily, to let Harry free. Still blushing, she retrieved her robe and put it on her. "Worst seduction ever," she confessed, her voice bordering on the edge of coming out slurred. "The least I could have done would have been to wear more sophisticated lingerie-or nothing at all."
Harry couldn't help but smile. Bellatrix in all of her forwardness was back, albeit still drunk. "You look great in anything," he said, retrieving a chocolate frog and handing it over to her. "This should help you out."
She accepted the chocolate frog and also a chair next to the coffee table on which she perched, her legs crossed beneath her. He'd never seen her sit that way before. He credited it to her drunken state. Harry returned to his couch and watched her nibble delicately on the chocolate. Harry found the sight adorable. Despite his fascination with her appearance however, the tiredness that had motivated him to drowse in the first place was returning. Harry reckoned that this was a sign that he might yet still get some good sleep before the night ended.
"Harry?"
"Yes," he mumbled, fighting to keep his eyes open.
"Now that my father is dead, and my uncle too, I am left without certain options. At least, I don't have very many good options."
"Uh-huh."
"When school gets out, would you mind if I went home with you?" Bellatrix asked softly.
Harry shrugged, feeling slightly uncomfortable. Every since he had arrived in the past, he and Bellatrix had gotten on fine, and he practically viewed her as being as close to him, if not closer, than Ron and Hermione ever had been. However, there was the romantic element to be considered. He wasn't quite ready to jump feet-first into a relationship, at least not to the degree on which he sensed Bellatrix was planning. "I don't really have a house."
"You've got plenty of gold to buy one," Bellatrix reminded him, her voice slow and quiet, even serious. "Further, you have enough to rent a room at a pub or hotel while you look."
"This is true," Harry admitted, his thoughts vaguely turning to the Black and Malfoy gold he now controlled. It occurred to him that he should mention the Malfoy gold to her, but now was hardly the time.
"So? Is it okay? Harry, please. It would be a mistake for me to go home to my mother and aunt, now. Besides, now that this war is in full tilt, we'll need to work closely together. I promise that I won't… ah… come onto you like I just did." Bellatrix said, a small red tinge appearing in her cheeks. "Unless, of course-"
"All right," Harry agreed, deliberately cutting her off. He realized that it was pretty much the only decent option for her. The terms also sounded good. He could hold her to the promise of not invading his comfort zone, though he strongly suspected she would continue to press her proposition of marriage or find other ways of teasing him.
"Thank you, Harry," Bellatrix said, sounding dead serious and utterly sincere.
Harry nodded. "Well, there's still some time for us to sleep, tonight. If you don't mind, I'm going to turn in."
"All right," Bellatrix said, looking very worn out, but satisfied. "See you tomorrow."
....
Join my P@treon and get 60+ advanced chapters.
Link: p*atreon.com/0LordSilvere0 (Remove the *)
Free members get 5 chapters free.
Join Right Now