Lunaris and I both felt the presence of an unfamiliar person before we could even visually confirm their presence. Our mind space was quaking as if an odd stone had just been thrown within one of it's, now, many ponds. As my brother observed the strange occurrence I narrowed my own efforts onto the sparrow that laxidazically danced upon the Slytherin table.
Harry, Hermione, Daphne, Tracey and Dracoria were all currently speaking with one another kindly, their topics unknown but surely mundane seeing the lack of emotion many of them showcased; though that was a trait idealised by Slytherin, so I could be incorrect. Amidst them all however was the sparrow who was staring directly at us, the little bird's aura projecting far more potent signature than most birds could ever produce, except for perhaps some of the more mythical such as Thunderbirds or Phoenixes.
~That is an Animagus and if our instinct are any indicator... She may be of the Black family?~
'Awfully drastic assumption to make.'
~Just a feeling I'm getting~
'I well treat with them amiably then, perhaps drawing them away to an alcove after breakfast has finished completely?'
~Sounds good... I'm going to try and comprehend the sheer... whatever you did~
'Did I stump you once more? Hehe'
~Nonsense, I just do not comprehend everything that went down yet!~
'Then get on with it, I'll handle the hard part of our lives, as usual.'
~You love it~
'Not denying that it is hard though, are you?'
~Mmmm~
Shaking our head I moved over to our friend group, saying good mornings and sharing the reason for our absence; not giving them any of the actual details but explaining that Lunaris and I were experimenting with some basic spells. Hermione instantly got side-tracked by that line of topic and started explaining her theories on how we could use charms with mundane science to undertake truly magnificent feats. One of her theories broached on the topic of gravity and how it could technically power homes by converting kinetic energy into electricity. The idea was intriguing and sparked something in me as well.
'Lunaris, what if magic interacts badly with electrical devices because the two energies conflict?'
~Yes, that is the basis for the entire reality of magic not working with muggle technology. Congratulations sis, you figured out what everyone else has...~
I ground our teeth together in annoyance before continuing out mental conversation, Hermione being dragged into a similar topic by Daphne who was trying to understand how mundane peoples had grasped electricity.
'Not what I meant! What if the two energies are much like the difference between this kinetic energy and electricity? Magic is interacting with electricity and that creates another form of energy, perhaps in the form of heat or kinetic energy.'
~Mmm, I can work on it...~
'No, I'll work on it. You focus on our mental space currently.'
~Okay!~
Blinking away the errant thoughts of my brother I turned my attention back onto the sparrow, who was now slowly inching closer to our plate. The eyes of the sparrow were a deep purple that reminded me of the ballgown dresses of my mother when she and father would dress. Regardless of being an Animagus the Sparrow looked utterly tired and wrecked. The wings were slightly bent and crooked whilst the beak looked mildewed and rotten. Feathers that shouldn't have jutted out, were, and to top it all off there were scars all along the legs and underbelly of the form. Whoever this was they had suffered immensely.
As the rest of our friends and in fact the table of faculty were talking amongst themselves, I softly spoke under my breath so that only the Animagus could hear me. "In five minutes I will leave this hall. Meet me in the second floor girl's bathrooms." The sparrow nodded timidly before swoop down to floor level and then softly fluttering away.
In the meantime I engaged my fellow Slytherins in idle conversation and gossip. Most of the chatter was about Harry playing for the team and how good he was doing. Some rumours were spreading about a Cerberus protecting the very floor that Dumbledore had said not to enter... It was all so tiring... If it were any other person who had been revealed to know about Pettigrew being the secret keeper they would have been put through the veil or kept in Azkaban, but no. Dumbledore got special exemption for being a good little politician and no doubt having polished off someone's door knob at some point. Lunaris gagged at the mental image as I cackled inside our crisp now mental space.
Finally as the five minutes passed we began our trek up to the second floor bathroom, the magical stairs calmly moving for us when needed. Others usually had issues with the tumultuous passageways and enchanted stairways... Fortunately we had stumbled upon an answer from the Gryffindor Twins who we had, at one point, watched clicking a single button at the start of the stairs and thus having an easy journey upwards.
Suits of armour stirred and shifted as we strode past, their movements only matched by the score of magical paintings that dully complained, murmured, huffed or downright yelled at us as we passed. That finally ceased however as we reached a stripped portion of the castle, where no frames hung and no armour was ensconced inside alcoves or crooks. Having known where we had asked the Animagus to go, we quickly reached the bathroom, the white porcelain sink with its snake motifs standing before the varying toilet stalls. Grates surrounded the edifice whilst dawn light faintly leaked into the room from the only stained window.
"Come out Black, I know you are here to meet with me." Our voice softly echoed in the empty bathroom, the rainbow-like light from the stained glass pane casting our hair in a smattering of different shades and colours.
A chirping sound resounded from one of the stalls before the vorpal sound of matter shifting and shaping conquered it. Immediately the magical presence became clearer.
Darkness was an interesting and intriguing concept. The idiots in the Ministry equated evil with the concept of darkness but that was an, incorrect, belief. Many believed that the 'Light' was thusly a purely good force. They too were fools. No... Darkness was something that one wallowed in. Some could say vengeance, sorrow, depression, disgust, hatred and any other long list of negative emotions were 'dark'. We all had them though. Just as we all have 'light' emotions, Love, Sympathy, Empathy, kindness, brotherhood, familial love...
How did this apply to the situation you ask? Well... The presence was smothered in a deep aura of darkness. Like a billowing thundercloud that promised rainfall and lightning, the negative emotions of this person hung onto their magic and dimmed the very nature of it. But as stated previously, she had a spark of hope, another 'light' emotion. Her 'light' was struggling to break free of the darkness she had clouded herself in, or perhaps, someone had forced upon her.
The stall opened in a somewhat horror-movie way, the creaking of wood blaring through the cacophonous architecture. The signature heaved for a few seconds, the darkness exploding outwards and then coiling inwards as the light of her emotions served to bind them once more. Whoever this was had done terrible things, whether they were her own choice was another question.
"I-I must ask you not to gasp, or, or attack me... My, appearance will possibly frighten you or alert you to my previous, condition..." A woman's voice crowed outwardly in mild fear. It seemed she had placed a lot of hope upon our shoulders and was hoping for redemption through us in some way.
"We will not, I assure you. My father used to say that even the darkest and most destroyed gems could glow once more if we but put effort, care and kindness into judging them, caring for them and polishing them." Lunaris took a momentary break from his explorations and payed attention in this moment, partly because I had quoted our father using one of his most popular lines.
A small giggle resounded from the stall as the woman slowly walked out. At first her clothes gave away the fact that she had been imprisoned somewhere for a long period of time, they were ragged and torn, worn down by an extended period of captivity... Father had shown us some of his prisoners in the war, they looked the same after a while. Following her clothes was the scrunchy and exploded look that she sported in both her hair and in the soot along her face. Her teeth were a twisted yellow-black and were glistening with spittle, what little of them we could see. What was once a beautiful face was now pockmarked with scars and drawn sallow. The only aspect of her that retained the gorgeous resplendence that was, no doubt, her defining feature, was her stunning purple eyes. Her irises were like pure amethysts and glowed with all the power of a bombarda spell.
"Beautiful..." The woman flinched and frowned towards us, her eyes widening despite the frown as she processed our compliment; Lunaris felt the same way as I did.
"H-how am I beautiful!? I am more than forty years old, my life was taken away from me by a cursed marriage document, my teeth have been poisoned against me by a dark curse, my clothes can barely be called as such and I am drenched in darkness!!!" She all but screamed towards us as her frustration plumed outwards and spilled over into her magic, the tiles around her losing their vibrancy somewhat.
I took in each statement, processing it before conversing with Lunaris. Eventually I answered for the both of us.
"Your eyes and the spark of light I can see within you." She flinched once more.
We continued before she could interrupt.
"The cursed marriage answers my question for me, you were forced to bathe in 'darkness'. Your teeth can be healed and mended, brought back to new and shine like they once did. Your clothes are but a covering for the body, not for the soul, your soul shines like moonlight amidst the darkness of night. As for the darkness, that is but your unresolved issues, your unresolved emotions and the lack of 'light' emotions you have recently experienced. That too, can be mended. Thus, our statement stands, you are beautiful."
She stood deathly still, her lithe but attractive figure shaking ever so minutely in the cold temperatures of the bathroom. Her eyes searched our own and quaked with unshed tears, her irises gaining a shimmering quality to them as unbidden tears softly coated them. Soft heaving breaths were had by the woman but still she stayed perfectly still, her aura; an aspect of our sight that was new, sifting and shaking as the light grew in intensity within her. The woman wasn't out of the darkness yet and would likely never fully escape her emotion turmoil but she had just been shown the path forwards and had taken the first step. That was more important than any 'dark' or 'light' philosophy that the ministry or even we could come up with. Magic, like humans, just was and had billions of different facets to them.
We broke the prolonged silence by quietly leaning back against the sink. Lunaris and I both knew who this was. When we had freed Sirius we had known of the other Black family members. Narcissa Malfoy nee Black was one such member and was unilaterally under our thumb as both families were subject to us as Vassals. This was Bellatrix Lestrange, or perhaps more aptly, Bellatrix Black. She had been imprisoned for torturing Neville Longbottom's parents into insanity. Perhaps, at one point she had been that person... Forced by magics more cruel than any normal person could imagine. At this moment, she had just shown us that she was no longer that being who so enjoyed flaying mundane peoples and her fellow magical alike.
"Bellatrix Black, as your liege lord, I offer you protection from the wrong sentence that has been subjected to you incorrectly. As of this moment I fully declare you free from your contracts and binds." A metaphorical weight upon her chest lowered as a large fragment of the darkness screamed into magic itself, ignored but embraced nonetheless.
Tears fully flowed down from her eyes at this moment whilst her breath hitched and her legs gave out. In a single moment of release she had dropped to the floor in sorrow, horror and relief.
"As of this moment, you are a member of the court of LeFay. You shall answer to no one but me. As of this moment you are subject to no one within Britain bar myself. The Wizengamot will have no hold over you and the Ministry of Magic shall no longer seek to hunt you down; should they come to find you have escaped." More tears leaked from her.
~Are you sure this is wise sis?~
'Yes Lun, I need someone who is powerful, dedicated and is not a bastion of the so called 'light'.'
~So she is just a pawn to use...?~
'No. I genuinely feel her suffering and know that she never committed the crimes she was accused of.'
~Awfully drastic assumption to make sister.~
'Just a feeling I'm getting'
~Using my own words against me... Well played~
'I learnt from the best.'
~Huh, I guess I am~
'I meant Dad... hehe'
~........~
In the second that my brother and I had conversed magic had swarmed down around the two of us and connected us. A line of ethereal string, made of pure magic, joined us together in purpose. She had fully accepted her position at my side in this moment. Suddenly I felt an urge to speak out into the frigid quiet...
"Thus you are our Martial, so do we say it, so, MOTE, IT, BE!" As we spoke in unison our voice deepened and magic flexed. In an instant a deep purple-crimson magic swirled around Bellatrix's eyes and our connection was made permanent. She would now forever be our Martial... Our right hand... Our sword.
"So mote it be..." She whispered into the lull of our booming vow, her eyes closing in acceptance.
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