InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "and so it goes"

Bellatrix Lestrange (first_bellatrix) wrote in _firstwar_hist,
@ 2009-11-24 02:40:00

Entry tags:

* incomplete, 1972, bellatrix lestrange, sirius black

Who: Bella and Sirius.
What: Bella surprises Sirius by teaching him how to fight like a Muggle and in fact revealing that she know show to do so as well.
Where: The Black family summer home in France.
When: Summer of 1972.
Rating: IDK. I'll fill this in later.
Status: Closed/Complete.

The summer couldn't come fast enough for Bella. To say that her year had been busy was an understatement. Missions, recruitment, moving up in the ranks and proving herself to be more than just a female with thoughts and ideals of her own had kept her far busier than she had ever expected it would but never once had she complained. She had been knocked down, beat up, pushed to the brink of exhaustion and then pushed even further but she had taken it all and dealt with it as was expected of her and in the end her dedication had paid off and she was quickly rising in the ranks, surpassing many of the men who had had their marks for years now and were still no further than when they had taken them. Bella was pleased with herself, incredibly much so. But her dedication to her cause and her mark had caused other areas of her life to suffer, mainly her relationship with her family. She had closed herself off and withdrawn from in favour of being able to focus and she knew they noticed. The owls from her sisters and her parents were piled up on her desk, unopened, unanswered and collecting dust. Furious wasn't what they were with her and she knew it but at the moment it didn't matter to her. She had a mission of her own and she would see it completed if it killed.....something it might very well do yet.

Summer arriving though changed all of that. She had informed her Lord that she would be spending it in France and that all he need do was call and she would come as she always had but she needed to work on her relationships with her family and prove to them that she was not as horrible as they believed her to be and that she did in fact still love them. They had arrived at the manor the week before and Bella would have been with them but loose ends needed to be tied up before she could go. Rodolphus was accompanying her but he was staying at the Lestrange family home and she would travel back forth between the two. The moment she set foot inside of the manor though and took a breath it seemed as though all of the stress of the past nine months just disappeared. Summers in France were always relaxing for her and this would be no different than all of the other times she had been there. Heading up to her room she dropped her bag on the floor and kicked off her shoes, a grin spreading across her face as she did. Sure the summer was a time for relaxation but for her it was filled will lessons, adventures and relaxation. It meant more time with her family and now more time with Sirius. He had gone to Hogwarts the previous fall and as such she had not seen as much of him as she usually did and if she were honest it bothered her a bit to not be able to see him whenever she liked or to show him new things such as the wide array of spells and tricks she had learned in her time with her Lord. That would all change now though. They had the rest of the summer and she was determined to show him as much of what she knew as she could before they all had to part and go back to their normal lives.

Barefoot and clad in a pair of shorts and a tight black shirt she left her room and went in search of her cousin. The spells could wait until later. At the moment she had something more important she wanted to show him, or well something she felt was more important. Most would be shocked if they knew she could do it but she felt it was a necessity, especially with the life she led. One always had to be prepared and this ensured that she was. And as such was the case what she knew she passed onto Sirius and this was going to be no different. She really was in no hurry though so she wandered through the hallways slowly, poking her head in and out of random rooms trying to find the others and simply to see what had changed and what hadn't in the she had been away.

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first_sirius
2009-11-29 03:49 am UTC (link)

She hit him.

She'd actually hit him. With her fist- she'd made a fist and punched him. It was so absurdly unexpected that he was laughing before his brain registered the blossom of pain across his cheekbone. He just. It was. She was a girl, and she'd hit him- and fucking hard, too. His whole head seemed to throb as he found his arm jerked and yanked behind his body. The asymmetry of the firm hold and angle had his body flat out perplexed at how to properly free itself. And he wasn't entirely sure she wouldn't let him break his arm trying.

It was just that it had happened so quickly. There's been no grand wind-up, no helpful warnings. Replaying it in his head, it was as if the blow had come out of nowhere. And when she spoke, he believed her. But he couldn't quite keep himself quiet, or from laughing a little again. He couldn't help it. She'd hurt him before, that was just natural when people dueled, but something about her punching him just seemed absurdly surreal.

"How did you do that?" he all but grinned over his shoulder, airs of unimpressed disinterest evaporating.

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first_bellatrix
2009-11-29 04:08 am UTC (link)

In any other situation is laughter would have been contagious and Bella would have more than likely ended up giggling right along with him but as it was she found nothing funny about this situation, he might have, but for her it was anything but funny. Perhaps it was because she took the whole thing far more serious than he did but at the same time he was only twelve where as she was twenty one and had seen a great deal more than he had and had done a great deal more than he had. It also helped that she had been taking lessons since she was eighteen and practiced several hours a day whether it was on her own or with someone else.

"Patience, practice, not to mention the fact that I have nine years more in life than you do and I constantly study my opponent. Even when you think I'm not I'm watching every little move you make. The way you move, the way you carry yourself and even the way you speak. It gives away little clues about you and how you act and react that you don't even realize your giving away. Watching how you interact with a normal person tells me more about you than you could ever think possible and by watching the way you move I also find your weak areas. As for how I hit you, you left yourself open to that by getting excited about having evaded my first attempt to take you down." Letting go of his arm she pushed him away from her and fell back into a defensive stance while gazing calmly at him.

"Try and hit me and in any way that you think might work. I want to see what you can do."

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first_sirius
2009-11-30 12:39 am UTC (link)

No part of Sirius liked the idea of so continuously doling out information to any attentive observer. It was impossible to grow up a Black and know that they were set apart, that they were different, that parts of who they were weren't for public consumption, that some things were just for family. It was something Sirius had been intellectually, implicitly aware of, though he'd never really experienced it like he had at school. He'd never really expected to want to bridge some of that divide. His upbringing had been thrown into sharp relief against the things his Housemates had experienced, the things they talked about. It was easier to keep most people at a distance lest they see too clearly some of those differences. He didn't wear his every emotion on his face like most of his classmates did, and he rarely ever spoke his true thoughts about nearly anything except to James, but her words left him feeling a bit exposed.

Not to her- there was no negative consequence to her seeing him as he was, but she was family. That was different. However, if she could see his, surely he'd be able to see her if he looked for them. That boded well.

Once he was free he fell back on fencing habits, letting his gaze go soft to focus on the whole of her instead of focusing on one part. He suspected she'd be too quick to just flat out punch, seeing as to how she was expecting it and Sirius wasn't anything of a boxer. Most of the fights he'd been in had started off with a bit of grappling, a bit of wrestling, and the punches didn't come until he'd gained the upper hand. So maybe that was the best way to go. Reckoning he wasn't likely to come up with a better idea, Sirius lunged at her, intending to take her down to the floor. If he couldn't fight on her terms, his only hope was to pull her down to his.

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first_bellatrix
2009-11-30 02:20 am UTC (link)

Bella couldn't hold it against him that he was still young and still had so much to learn about people and life in general but at the same time she did because he was a Black and they were anything but normal. Their family lived by and followed a different set of rules and codes that set them far apart and above and beyond the rest of the world and as such things were different for them, they always would be and that included in the way they lived and fought. Soon enough he would learn how to study people like she did and pick up on the subtle things that weren't said as well as those that were said and he would learn how to use them to his advantage in a fight. But it would all come in time, just as they had done so for her. For now he had other things to learn.

Such as how not to be so predictable and how to better guard himself whether it be during a fight or just in general everyday living. Bella was actually quite surprised that he hadn't tried to hit her and instead chose to charge her and try to take her down that way. It would have made more sense for him to try and hit her as he had more muscle than she did and was already almost as tall as she was, but who was she to critique his methods?

Oh, yeah, she was the teacher. Grinning she waited until he was right in front of her and about to crash into her before ducking under him and using his momentum to flip him over onto his back. Standing above him she grinned down at him with an incredibly amused look upon her face.

"Piece of advice, that move only works if your coming up behind someone or if their incredibly dazed from you having just hit them. If your going to charge a person like that from the front then make sure their dazed and can not duck. And, make sure that their the same height or taller than you are. Taking down someone shorter than you like that is incredibly hard." Offering him a hand she helped him to his feet before taking a step back and falling back into a defensive stance once more. "Now, again, try and hit me. I want to see what you've got. And Sirius? You're not going to break me. Don't be afraid to hit me with everything you've got. I assure you that I can handle it."

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first_sirius
2009-11-30 03:50 am UTC (link)

Maybe the mats weren't such a bad thing for the time being.

A small huff of a sigh left his chest as he looked up at her self-satisfied grin. However, he listened indulgently, not moving from where he'd landed. Her words were taken with a grain of salt, were given a context where they could be considered rules, seeing as to how he'd managed to take down a decent number of other boys simply by charging them. This wasn't about meaningless scuffles with other boys. Then again, Sirius wasn't exactly certain just what this was about. He didn't have to understand to go along with it, though.

Back on his feet, Sirius somewhat absently rolled the shoulder he'd landed on.

She could say it all she liked, Sirius still hesitated over the thought of punching his cousin in the face. It was poor form to hex girls. And to hit girls- let alone his cousin. The idea of striking at her core seemed more comfortable. So he threw a punch at the center of her body, aiming for the ribs because as much as he didn't want to hit her face, he didn't want to imply he thought she was weak just because she was a girl by offering something that wouldn't hurt.

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first_bellatrix
2009-11-30 04:54 am UTC (link)

Bella hadn't been expecting the blow to her ribs, not the in least. She had been expecting him to do as she had said and had been preparing to block a shot at her face. As it was his blow landed directly to her ribs and it had a huff of breath escaping from her as for a moment she doubled over, an arm coming up to cradle her ribs. He was stronger than he looked and she had no doubt that come tomorrow she would be bruised where he had hit her.

"Not quite what I was going for, but good," she huffed out as she straightened back up, a hand still pressed against her ribs for the moment. At least he was thinking on his feet and doing the unpredictable...or what she thought was the unpredictable most wouldn't have seen it as such but she wasn't most.

Letting her hand fall from her ribs she took a step forward and launched into a lecture over the proper way to flip a person and therefore gain the upper hand in a fight. It was a move that had taken her a while to master but it was one of her favourites. She also showed him how to use the momentum like she had earlier to flip a person and ended up on her back several times looking up at him but she didn't mind. At least he was learning. Sure she was going to pay for all of this tomorrow but she didn't mind. That was what they had relaxing baths and pain potions for. Not to mention private masseuses who could work out the kinks in her muscles that were going to develop after this. She moved through things quickly but that was only because he picked them up quickly and it made her feel better about attacking him time and time again now that he was able to defend himself much better.

After a while she doubled over, her hands resting on her knees and her breaths coming out in short pants as she called a time out. "Stop, time to rest. I need to catch my breath. We keep going at this rate and I'm going to collapse."

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first_sirius
2009-11-30 05:31 am UTC (link)

Once she showed him something, it didn't take him long to pick apart the mechanics. He didn't bother trying to mimic her motions exactly. Understanding how something was supposed to work, Sirius was most concerned with adapting the practice to his own body instead of the other way 'round. He got more comfortable with striking her after she proved to be every bit as resilient as she'd said. Time was a bit lost to him when he was caught up in something wildly engaging, and this? It was hard for Sirius to get enough of it. What he'd been doing before seemed brutish in comparison. This had both precision and flow- well, it did on Bella. Sirius still found it a bit tricky, reigning in the level of force his body wanted to employ.

When she called for a halt a faint sheen of sweat covered his bare upper body, his hair just a bit damp at the tips. He nodded over the fast, deep breaths his lungs rhythmically drew into and evicted from his chest. Adolescent energy was merely compounded by Sirius's inclination to relentlessly pursuing something he was enjoying- he was enjoying this. Nearly all of him ached, but that was countered be a nearly electric vibration humming through his veins. For a moment, they stood in silence but for the heavy sound of their gradually slowing breathing.

After pausing long enough to summon an elf to bring water, his heart rate dropped enough for his body to feel gratifyingly worn out. He didn't so much notice the blossoming red marks across his skin. There was little point. Although they were likely to swell up, by morning none of the bruising would be visible. By then it was something he'd come to take for granted. The hot tension across his cheekbone, his jaw, and his slightly swollen lip, however, were a little too insistent to be ignored. They kind of throbbed, like he could feel his pulse in them.

When the elf returned with two large glasses of water, Sirius took them both from the tray and handed one to Bella before sitting down on the floor. After tossing his hair back off his forehead he drank about half his water.

"It's good, yeah?" he mentioned, with little of his normal eloquence, the smile on his face light and sated. He meant the whole affair, the fun of it, not the water.

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first_bellatrix
2009-11-30 06:03 am UTC (link)

It was workouts like these that was part of the reason why she had taken up learning how to fight like a muggle in the first place. The challenge it presented to her not to mention what it put her body through was well worth it and given how she lived her life and the things she did in it being in shape was a necessity. After all more often then not her toys fought back or at least tried to and if she remained as she had been her entire life fighting with them would have been difficult. Now though, now she had no problem with it and if anything she enjoyed the fight more simply because most were surprised when you could fight back.

This wasn't like that though. This was something else and while she couldn't exactly find the word to describe precisely what it was it would come to her eventually. Very rarely though could she ever find the right word to describe how things were with Sirius when they had lessons like these. Perhaps it was because he was family, blood, and there fore that tie between them already made things more intense than they were with other people. Whatever it was she always enjoyed it a great deal and now was no different than any of the others.

Taking the glass from him she downed half it in one go before she all but flopped down on the floor next him, her breaths still coming out in sharp pants. She might have still been young, only being twenty one, but it was nothing compared to being twelve and having the never ending amounts of energy that one had at that age. She needed to remember in the future that he would always have more energy than she did and that pacing would be an important thing.

"It is. I'll admit that your picking up on it much faster than I thought you would, but its a good thing that you are. It means I won't have to worry as much." Though she would always worry. She had ever since her parents and her Aunt and Uncle said that as the oldest it was her job to take care and look after him and it was something she had taken very personally and made sure to do to the best of her ability. "Next time though we'll take things a bit further and I'll show you how to fight using weapons, starting first with daggers and then moving to bigger things. We'll just have to be careful and make sure that you end up with no visible cuts that would scar and give your parents reason to question what is going on."

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first_sirius
2009-11-30 06:32 am UTC (link)

His smile widened when she mentioned that he was exceeding her expectations. Weapons fighting sounded interesting, but not as exhilarating. After all, he could already handle himself with a sword. Then again, a knife would be a very different sort of combat. A lot tighter. Closer. More dangerous. His interest perked back up. But that was for next time, he reminded himself. And he could wait.

Sirius finished his water and nodded again. Well, the nod was more for what they'd do next time. They last of it wasn't actually much of a concern. Not that she knew that. It had only occurred to him a few months ago, it was only something he'd noticed because the healer in the infirmary had told him he was going to have to let his fighting injuries heal in their own sweet time so he could appreciate the consequences of his actions. All it had made him appreciate was the fact that the library didn't keep books on healing spells to treat swelling in the restricted section.

"I don't scar," he said, his voice a bit quieter than he'd anticipated, but still perfectly at ease.

Sure, he hadn't tried hexing himself, but Sirius wasn't yet so curious as to venture it. Besides, it might wear off. Eventually. At first, when Remus had pointed out that Sirius's busted lip had really healed far too quickly, Sirius had begun paying attention. Once it faded, it had vanished completely. Not a discernible mark on his skin. He'd tried to find any of the little scars from his younger years, only to find they were gone. Little things, like the faint line from cutting his hand with a letter opener, but it wasn't there anymore.

It had taken him months to properly suss out the only reasonable explanation: she'd done it to him. The last time she'd healed him. One of his hands drifted absently to stroke his fingertips over the place on his chest where her rapier had delved deep beneath the surface of his skin. It sort of tingled when he touched it. His understanding of what had happened had been so gradual that by the time he was really aware of it, it was something a bit odd to try to bring up in conversation.

"Not anymore." He still got hurt, he still sustained injuries, but no marks from it ever manifested on his skin for more than a few days.

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first_bellatrix
2009-11-30 06:58 am UTC (link)

Her thoughts had wandered to what they were going to do next time, her collection of daggers flashing in her mind as she picked which ones to use and which ones to leave at home. Which ones she deemed safe enough for a thing such a thing such as this and which ones she would never let him see no matter what the circumstances behind it were. At first his words didn't register to her and it wasn't until his hand moved and she caught the movement out of the corner of her eye that she came out of her thoughts and focused on him once more. A frown appeared on her face as she ran back over what he had said and it made little sense to her. What did he mean that he couldn't scar? That wasn't possible. All humans scarred. She had her own fair share of them from various things over the course of her life and the thought that one might not scar was absolutely absurd to her.

"What do you mean not any more? Everyone scars, even I do. To not scar isn't possible. It would mean you were something other than human and last time I checked you were every bit a human being." The frown on her face just deepened even more as she continued to stare at him, his words tossing over and over again in her head as she tried to make sense of it all. There was a rather quick way to determine if what he said was true or not but she wasn't sure if she was willing to go that route. If she cut him badly enough to scar and it did in fact scar and someone saw it she would never hear the end of it. But at the same time how else was she supposed to find out if it was true or not?

"Prove it." The words were out of her mouth before she could even stop them and while the statement sounded incredibly juvenile and made her sound like she was twelve right along with him there was no other way of actually putting truth to his statement other than to have him prove it.

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first_sirius
2009-11-30 07:13 am UTC (link)

Setting his empty glass down on the floor, a push from his fingertips set it rolling away. It wasn't important; an elf would get it.

He could practically see the way her thoughts snagged. It was funnier, that it had to have been her doing, and yet she balked at the notion of his skin's unwillingness to accept marks. Her demand for proof was too much of a challenge for him to even think of refusing. He supposed he could have broken the glass he'd been holding and use that, but cutting with glass was decidedly unpleasant. And his own wand was still upstairs. But Bella had hers.

"Conjure me a knife," he returned, the faint dare in his voice matching hers.

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first_bellatrix
2009-11-30 07:28 am UTC (link)

She just rolled her eyes at his command for her to conjure and as she drained the rest of the water from her glass she sat up straighter and set it aside before reaching behind her and grasping the dagger she kept tucked there and pulled it out. It was not the most conventional or convenient place to keep it but as the outfit she was wearing didn't allow for it to be kept any other place (like the top of her boot where she normally kept it) she had to make due with what she could. Much like her wand, her dagger was something she didn't ever leave home without any longer. It was as much a part of her as her wand was and when she did manage to loose it it was like loosing a limb.

"What do I need to conjure one for when I have one right here?" Moving closer to him she handed the dagger over and then waited quietly, albeit not very patiently. She wouldn't believe what he had said until she could see it for herself and even then she wasn't sure if she would be able to believe it. After all what human didn't scar? It was something that wasn't possible. Being made of flesh and bone and blood meant that they scarred. It was just how things were. To be otherwise was something she couldn't quite wrap her head around.

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first_sirius
2009-11-30 07:44 am UTC (link)

The curl to his lips was a bit wry as he took the dagger from her. That she had one on her was less than surprising. Sirius pulled the blade from the sheath, letting it fall to the ground between them as he took the dagger properly in hand. In an hurried fashion, Sirius lifted the knife to his cheek. It was the most brazen place he could think to cut into his own skin. While only time would prove that it wouldn't mar his face, he could think of no place better to prove that if nothing else, he believed his own words.

The slice he made was shallow but long, parallel to the angle of his cheekbone. Her dagger was conveniently sharp; the break of his skin was clean and just dully stung. Blood beaded and dripped quickly, but not for long.

His eyes were momentarily distracted by the ribbon of red along the nearly silver looking blade, but he was soon looking back to Bella with a rather pleased little expression. Sure, he hadn't exactly puzzled out how he was going to to avoid his parents' noticing it, but he supposed he could find a way to avoid them until the following morning. He held out the knife to Bella, intending to return it. However, he supposed it could be interpreted as an offer to let her have a go at his skin. He found he had no objections to the idea. After all, if it were him, he'd want to do try it himself.

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first_bellatrix
2009-11-30 08:24 pm UTC (link)

Bella watched him make the slice across his face with a calm expression on her face, something that said a great deal about who she was and the things she had done in her life if the sight of her cousin purposefully harming himself didn't bring some sort of reaction from her. For a moment she sat still, watching the blood as it trickled down his face and stained the blade of her dagger before she pulled out her wand and with a soft murmur healed the cut. Leaning forward she grasped his chin firmly and tilted his head to the side so as to see the skin where the cut had been seconds before better. With a cut that shallow there should have at least been a faint silver line that only if one knew what they were looking for would have been able to see it but all she saw was pale, flawless skin. Something that shouldn't have been.

Frustrated she pulled away, her gaze flicking between the smooth skin on his cheek down to the blade in his hand and back up again. In a flash her hand wrapped tightly around his arm and held him in place as she took the dagger and with one fluid motion drew it across the exposed skin of his arm. She was not as gentle or as careful as he had been and the blade bit deeply into his arm, his blood staining the blade, her hand, and the mat they sat upon. Tossing the blade aside she picked up her wand once more and with the same carefulness she employed earlier she healed the wound, bringing his arm up closer to her face so she could inspect the area where the cut had just been. And as it was with his cheek it was with his arm. Not a mark to be seen anywhere. Just the smooth pale skin they were known for having as Blacks.

"How? And more precisely, when?"

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