WHO: Narcissa Malfoy and Bellatrix Lestrange WHAT: Sisterly bonding WHEN: 23 January, afternoon WHERE: The conservatory at Malfoy Manor WARNINGS: None!
Even in the dead of winter it was always warm in the conservatory. Bellatrix sat on one of the wooden benches, watching her sister at work with her plants while she idly thumbed through the pages of a book she wasn’t very interested in reading. Eventually, she gave up pretending to look occupied and set the closed book facedown on the table beside her. She turned her attention to Narcissa. “Have you heard from Draco recently?”
“Not this week yet, but I did hear from him last week,” Narcissa said, glancing up briefly from the plant she was pruning. “He’s doing well.” With a sigh, she added, “He seems to have mended fences with the Parkinson girl. But I had a feeling that was too good to be true. Draco doesn’t like to be alone. It’s just that her voice reaches a pitch I cannot stand.”
“That’s unfortunate for you and Lucius, but of course, she could be worse,” Bellatrix pointed out. At least she was a pureblood. “But you’re right about her voice. It’s almost as annoying as that Lovegood girl’s and her cryptic nonsense.”
At the Lovegood girl’s name, Narcissa clipped a half-formed blossom from the plant and watched it fall to the tabletop with a sigh. The Lovegood girl was a sore spot. And she had the unsettling feeling the Lovegood girl knew just how uncomfortable she was with her being there. Narcissa could usually keep her guilty feelings in check, but there was something in the girl’s eyes that made it impossible.
“I wonder why she’s still here,” Narcissa said with a forced lightness. “Now that her father’s been shut up I would’ve thought she’d be sent off to Azkaban.”
“I can’t pretend to know exactly what he has planned for her,” Bellatrix said without mentioning the most likely outcome was her death. “She may be a bargaining chip, for when he finally draws the Potter boy out of hiding.”
“I suppose that makes sense,” Narcissa said, though she didn’t sound convinced. “I don’t really like having her here.”
“Why not?” Bellatrix raised her eyebrows. “She’s no bother to you in the basement. I’ve put heavy silencing charms up to keep it that way.”
“Which I appreciate,” Narcissa said, pruning a dying blossom from the plant now. “I’m not sure, though. It bothers me knowing she’s there.”
Bellatrix was already preparing herself to be irritated and there was a tinge of it her voice when she replied, “It shouldn’t. If she were even remotely capable, I’m sure she’d happily kill us all.”
“Bella, you say that about everyone,” Narcissa said, the lightness back in her tone as she glanced up at Bellatrix and then quickly at the plant again. She plucked a dead leaf from it. She didn’t feel like fighting over the Lovegood girl of all people.
“I can’t help if it’s true of everyone.” Bellatrix gave a dismissive wave of her hand and reached for one of the dead leaves. Closing her fingers around it, she crushed it against her palm. “And I’m not going to waste my sympathy on the likes of them either.”
Narcissa made a noncommittal sound in the back of her throat in lieu of the sigh building up behind her ribs. She wanted her wine cellar back. “I suppose not.” She lapsed into silence, letting her attention seem focused on the plant again.
After a moment, Narcissa spoke again. “I’m glad you and Rodolphus have made up.”
“He’s an idiot,” Bellatrix said with a beleaguered sigh. “He’d be less of one if he didn’t prefer his stupid horses to me, but here we are. At least he’s still handsome.”
“Rodolphus doesn’t prefer his horses to you, Bella,” Narcissa said, managing to not sound amused.
She gave her sister a dubious look. “You’re certain of that? Because I rather think he’d be much more upset to lose one of them than he’d be if anything ever happened to me.”
“I’m certain he would care very much if something were to happen to you,” Narcissa said, her eyes wide. She sat aside her secateurs and turned to face her sister, hooking a hip on the edge of the table and folding her arms across her middle. “Why would you think that?”
Bellatrix shrugged and cast a glance toward the house. “He’s far more preoccupied with his hobbies. But it doesn’t matter.” She didn’t want to dwell on it, though. She didn’t want to admit it bothered her not to be the center of her husband’s attention. “I have plenty else to keep myself occupied.”
“Surely the two of you can share a common hobby,” Narcissa pointed out. “There are countless hobbies out there to choose from.”
“We did have fun with those muggles last week,” Bellatrix said with a hint of a wistful smile.
Narcissa resisted the urge to sigh. “That isn’t quite what I meant.” She gestured at the conservatory, which was beautiful, of course. “The two of you could try watercoloring together. There’s plenty of inspiration at Malfoy Manor.”
Bellatrix raised her eyebrows and all but laughed at the suggestion. “Do I strike you as the sort of person who enjoys watercolours?” She shook her head. “I much prefer Gerald Avery’s style to those.”
“Well, that would certainly be a hobby,” Narcissa said, looking a bit green at the idea of it taking place in her house.
Bellatrix nearly did laugh at the look on her face. “I doubt I could convince Rodolphus to take the time away from his other hobbies anyway.”
Now Narcissa did sigh. “I’m sure that isn’t true. I’m sure if you told him you’d like to spend more time with him he’d be more than willing to set aside his balls and spend time with you instead.”
Bellatrix shook her head. He could say no. It would be humiliating. They’d fight again. “No,” she said. “I’d have to admit I want to spend more time with him. And really, I do have plenty else to keep myself occupied.”
“But he’s your husband,” Narcissa said. She couldn’t imagine not simply telling Lucius he needed to spend more time with her. Then again, she couldn’t imagine ever having to tell him that either.
“He isn’t Lucius,” Bellatrix said, as if reading her sister’s mind. She barely held back a scoff. If he’d been like Lucius, she wouldn’t have married him.
“I know that, but that’s beside the point.”
“It isn’t,” she said. “He’s independent. It’s fine.”
“But you want to spend more time with him.”
Bellatrix tilted her head back with mild exasperation. “I want him to want to spend more time with me.”
Narcissa was going to make Rodolphus want to spend time with Bellatrix. “Fine,” she said, though, seeming to relent. She scooped up her secateurs again and pointed them at her sister demonstratively. “But I still think you’re wrong about him. He loves you or he wouldn’t be here. He’d be with his horses.” She turned back to the plant she’d been working on and pruned another dying blossom.
“I didn’t say he didn’t love me,” Bellatrix said, wrinkling her nose. She’d said he loved his horses more. And she was sure he did, but there was no use in arguing the point with Narcissa. She drew her book back toward her. “It doesn’t matter anyway.”
“Don’t ignore my excellent point, though.” Narcissa trimmed another blossom crisply. “If he loved them more, he would be with them.”
“Or he might be playing with his balls,” she said, rolling her eyes.
Narcissa blinked. “Oh, right. Golf.”
“Indeed.” Bellatrix snorted. “Golf.”
“That really is a very strange hobby.”
“They’re all strange hobbies,” Bellatrix said, moving her book into her lap. “If it isn’t his horses or his golfing it’s meditation or—” And she looked particularly repulsed by the thought. “Muggle sport.”
“Meditation isn’t so bad,” Narcissa said, giving the plant a considering look. But she looked at Bellatrix next. “You would hate it, though.”
“I know I would,” she said. “Almost as much as yoga with Adrienna.”
Narcissa laughed, thinking it was a joke. But Bellatrix looked serious. “Oh, you’re serious, aren’t you?”
Bellatrix raised her eyebrows, the hint of a smirk curving the corners of her mouth. “You should see her students’ faces every time I attend.”
“Every time?” Narcissa blinked again. Hard. “You’ve been multiple times?”
Bellatrix’s smirk grew wider. “I find it amusing.”
“I don’t think I could ‘yoge’ in front of other people.” Narcissa wrinkled her nose ever so slightly, turning the plant around so she could see its other side.
“If the sight of terrified stay at home mums entertained you, you could.”
“Unfortunately, that doesn’t entertain me.” But she glanced at Bellatrix again. “I think it’s nice you’ve found something to entertain you, though.”
“I don’t do it often,” she said. “ Only when I’m bored and want to feel intimidating.”
“Of course,” Narcissa said. She turned the secateurs around and held the handle out to her sister enticingly. “Do you feel bored enough to help me prune the rest of these?”
Bellatrix eyed the sheets for a long moment before she set aside her book again and took them from her sister. “May as well.”