School Escort Service. Or something Who: Severus Snape, Bellatrix Black What: Severus pays an unwelcome visit Where: Bellatrix's cottage When: Quite early Wednesday morning, 17 October
He knew she wouldn't be pleased to see him, but that hardly mattered. He wasn't going for her pleasure but for his curiosity. Though he'd walked passed her hospital room whenever he had to deliver potions - having taken that task from Albus precisely for that reason, as well as to keep the boy from going there unnecessarily - Severus had only caught glimpses of her through the tiny window in the door or if she were walking in the corridors.
It was time to see if he could glean anything about her situation by talking to her and bringing his unique set of keen observational skills into play. He was wearing his usual black robes again. Even though he now had more fashionable things to wear, thanks to Draco, he preferred his robes for brewing and he'd be going to the apothecary next. Besides, he felt more at home in his robes, more confident. He still wasn't certain he quite had the hang of what went well together and he hated feeling like such an idiot, constantly asking Draco for advice.
That he felt more intimidating in the billowing black had nothing at all to do with the decision.
Severus really didn't think there was anything to all this worry and suspicion that she had her old memories. Why should she be unique? Even though the change from one incarnation of herself to another was virtually instantaneous, that didn't follow that she should somehow still be the same manipulative bint in a new form.
Then again, he could well imagine that seventeen-year-old Bella was plenty enough of a manipulative bint in her own right. Severus was nine years younger than she in age, in their natural timeline. He hadn't known her at seventeen. The first time he'd met her, she had been nearing twenty at some family function at the Malfoy's home. There, she'd been exquisitely beautiful and powerfully charismatic, and more than a little off-putting and haughty to the likes of him.
Memories best set aside for now so he could make a clear-headed assessment of her present state. He steeled his Occlumency and rapped on the door to her cottage.