In a moment, she had returned with a small vial."Fill it up," she directed.
"What are you going to do with my blood?" Harryasked suspiciously.
"I'm setting the wards around the place,"Bellatrix explained to him. "Short of a Fidelius charm, blood wards arethe best protection. Unless you have someone you trust to be secret keeper thatdoesn't live here, we're doing blood wards."
Grudgingly, Harry irritated the cut from Lestrange untilit was bleeding more freely. He then filled up the vial for Bellatrix beforegoing back to his original goal of patching up the wound. "I'll want towatch what you do with that blood," Harry called after her as he worked asquickly as his could.
"Yeah, whatever," Bellatrix said loudly fromthe stairs so that he could hear her.
It took Harry only a few moments before his wound wasunder control. He then dashed to his bedroom, put on his shirt, and then madehis way up the stairs to Bellatrix's loft. It had not taken her very long totransform the place. She had several work tables set up at various places and anumber of glass cabinets against the walls. Despite this, though, the roomstill felt relatively open and empty.
She was in the process of filling another vial with herown blood as Harry approached the work table beside which she was standing."That you're also using your own blood is reassuring," Harry observedas he removed from his pocket the cases of artifacts he had taken from MalfoyManor. He enlarged them and stacked them on the floor next to another worktable.
Bellatrix made no immediate reply as she patched up thecut on her arm. She then took the vials of their blood and mixed them in alarger vial before emptying the blood onto four square-shaped tiles of stonethat were carved liberally with runes. Harry leaned over and examined the stonetiles as the blood mixture seeped into them.
"That should do it," Bellatrix announced."Unless, of course…"
"Unless what?" Harry asked.
"You aren't actually biologically descended from amember of the Black family, are you?" Bellatrix asked.
"No," said Harry. "I'm pretty sure I'mnot-at least, I don't think so."
"Well, as long as it isn't a parent, grandparent, orgreat-grandparent," Bellatrix said, "I think we'll be okay."
"Okay," I think we're good then."
"And I'm not descended from any of your people,right?" Bellatrix said.
"Pretty sure," Harry offered.
"Good," Bellatrix said, smiling faintly."The wards should work then. In order to pass the wards, the person mustbe both a Black and, uh, an 'Ashworth' by blood, or have permission from theboth of us specifically. Or a mixture. For instance, if you were dumb enough toinvite one of my family members, they could pass. Otherwise, they cannot."
"What if we have a spat? Can one of us kick theother out?" Harry asked.
Bellatrix smirked. "As much as I would have enjoyeddoing that to you, I didn't want to be caught on the other end. Thus, we'reboth keyed in whether we're on good terms with each other or not."
"Sounds fine," said Harry. "How much canthe wards take from attackers?"
"Quite a bit," said Bellatrix, gathering up thetiles. "But given enough pressure over a certain amount of time, they'llbreak. The best defense is to make sure the enemy never figures out where tostart applying the pressure. In other words, make sure no one follows you home.I've incorporated some other camouflage measures and defenses, but they're notinvincible."
"Of course," replied Harry. He eyed her handswhere she was holding the ward stones. "Do you need help setting themup?"
"No," Bellatrix said, declining the offer."It'll only take me a couple of minutes. After I'm done, though, there area couple of things I'd like to speak with you about."
"All right," Harry agreed as she left the room.He followed her down the stairs and to the living room. She exited through thefront door, leaving Harry alone.
Slightly concerned for her safety, Harry proceeded to oneof the windows, pushed aside the curtain and peered out into the night. Thelight in the room made it difficult to see out into the darkness, but he couldfaintly make Bellatrix out as she proceeded to one of the corners of theproperty and levitated one of the stones into the air. He wondered why she wasputting it in the air, but then remembered that she was renting out the firstfloor to ambitious entrepreneurs. It wouldn't do to ward against the renters.
Bellatrix disappeared around the back of the buildingafter cloaking the first ward stone with an invisibility spell. After aboutfive minutes, she appeared at the fourth corner, once again in Harry's sight.She set the final stone, and Harry retreated to an armchair. A moment passedand she had returned to the apartment.
"Easier than I expected," Bellatrix commentedto Harry. "Stay there, and I'll be right back." She disappeared downthe hall and into her bedroom. In no time, she had returned, holding a roll ofparchment. She sat down in the matching armchair directly across from Harry."Since I'm pretty sure I know how this particular conversation willgo," Bellatrix announced, "we may as well get it out of the wayfirst."
"Oh?" said Harry, eyeing the parchment warily.
Bellatrix handed the rolled up parchment to Harry."As you will see, this is our marriage contract." She held up herhand to forestall Harry's reaction. "I've taken the liberty to sign it sothat when you finally have your moment of weakness, all that we need is yourtwo signatures-one because you're the groom and one because you're LordBlack."
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