| 3:37a |
Bellatrix Black/Rita Skeeter [sixth year]
Bellatrix Black was little more than a hunched pile of wild black hair. She had leaned so far and hard over the desk that were it not for the rhythmic scratch and the steady motion of the quill in her hand she might well have been asleep. She had never been one to sit properly, and when she folded her slender limbs beneath her she tended to look almost spider-like. She had chosen a desk alone towards the far side of the class -- not the back because it was where Gryffindor idiots would gravitate, and not front and centre because Merrythought would call on her. There wasn't a teacher in the place who didn't concur that Bellatrix was an exemplary student academically, but they were equally unanimous when it came to her attitude. Arrogant. Headstrong. Disinclined to accept guidance and certainly unwilling to take criticism. Only Slughorn sang her praises openly and without reserve, and Bellatrix thought him a fool for it.
Her fingers scratched idly at her neck. She always looked shrugged into her uniform, and this afternoon she had turned her collar up. It was to conceal the lovebite that had been sucked there, and she prodded at it with cold fingertips, confident that if her collar didn't conceal it, her hair would. Quite what Rodolphus thought he gained by leaving her blotchy and covered in strange marks she didn't know -- it was rare that she permitted him to touch her because he was so determined to be dominant, and far less concerned with being any good at what he was doing. Bellatrix hadn't the patience to teach him. Their betrothal hadn't come as a surprise, nor did she oppose it -- not even in private. But she found, as with most things, if she wanted to enjoy herself she had to take matters into her own hands.
Emily Blishwick served that purpose. She was a Ravenclaw, fifth year, which meant Bellatrix didn't have to look at her in the common room or a class. It suited her, to take the lead. She stretched and yawned, the most animate she had been thus far, and then turned the page. The class was reading about advanced methods to dispatch with vampires, but Bellatrix was looking at a chapter on Unforgivable Curses.
She wanted to learn how to cast them. |