Chapter 63. The Date. Part 3. Ending
Almost immediately after the restaurant, the next place they went was a movie theater. Strangely enough, Bella liked it very much, even though she tried not to show it. She had repeatedly told him that Muggles were stupid, insignificant creatures who could never compare to wizards, and as a true Black she was stubborn and did not want to admit mistakes or take her words back. Even so, she still considered them insignificant creatures, after all, it is difficult to uproot what is planted in one's mind from the cradle, and one day is definitely not enough.
After that, they visited an amusement park. It seemed extremely boring to both of them, so they left after half an hour. Then they went to a shopping center, where Bella, almost in tears, stared at the shop windows full of clothes. But when they passed a lingerie window, she dragged him forward herself, so that the idea of going in and making her try on some outfits would not enter his head. Severus, on the contrary, found it amusing, especially the struggle between her principles and the beautiful clothes in the windows. He noted everything that caught her eye, and the house-elf was already buying it all up behind them.
Next came a confectionery paradise, an indoor market the size of the Great Hall at Hogwarts, filled with nothing but sweets. Bella tried to pretend she was not interested at all, but cakes, pastries, pies, buns, donuts. this time it was a complete rout. Such an enormous assortment of sweets could not be found even in Diagon Alley. Even though she was not a great lover of sweets, she still filled four bags.
The last stop was a simple park near Grimmauld, where they decided to just take an evening walk.
London. Grimmauld Place, 12
Walking up to a plain three-story house that looked inconspicuous and almost indistinguishable from the others standing close by, Severus could not hold back an interested smile. He had not seen this many protective and concealing charms in a very long time.
When they finally stopped in front of the building, he looked at Bella. She looked a little tired, but satisfied, because for her this day had been one of the brightest in her life, not counting the beginning, of course.
"I will not ask how you know where our house is, but thank you for this day," she said with a half-bow, deliberately polite. She glanced at the window, where a gloomy elderly woman was watching them.
"And I will hope you think about my words and make the right decision. Until our next meeting, Miss Black, and also." He took out a square white box with a red bow and handed it to the suddenly flustered witch. "Do not worry, it is not a ring and not a proposal. Although that can be changed at any moment, for now it is too early."
He placed the gift, no bigger than a ping-pong ball, into her hands and narrowed his eyes toward the window, catching the elderly woman off guard. Like the house itself, the windows were also charmed, like the interrogation room where Severus had once been. The fact that he noticed her, and even smiled, sent a shock through her.
How is this possible? He noticed me through enchanted windows? And when she finally saw him Apparate from their territory, Walburga, not knowing why, felt relief. Then she saw the satisfied face of her niece, even though Bella was trying to look indifferent, and Walburga frowned again. First with one, and now you come home at night with another. what is happening to you? Have you decided to disgrace our family?! Striking the windowsill in anger, she turned and walked down the long corridor toward the stairs.
At the same time, Bella entered the house, quickly shut the door behind her, and leaned her back against it, smiling.
This was the strangest day of my life. but. why do I not feel those same emotions? Did he really tell the truth? Before, a single mention of the Dark Lord in a bad light was enough to make her lose it immediately and be ready to kill the bastard who dared say it. Now, although the feelings had not vanished, they seemed to have dulled. Two strange impulses fought inside her. One screamed at her to torture Severus for insulting her lord, and the other, on the contrary, urged her to wait and watch him, as if two different personalities had started a war in her head. I need to calm down and think everything through. She forced herself to pull away from the momentary obsession and lowered her gaze to the box. Hearing footsteps, she quickly hid it in her purse and lifted her eyes to Walburga.
"Bellatrix, do you want to disgrace our family? Like that ungrateful creature, Andromeda, who ran off with a Muggle?"
"No, Aunt."
"Then what does this mean?!" Walburga shouted, slamming her palm on the railing. "First at the ball you behaved like a loose woman right in front of your fiance, and now you come home almost at ten in the evening with some unknown man!"
"."
"Why are you silent?!"
"What should I answer?! This was the Master's order! What can I do about it?" Bellatrix could not hold it in any longer, and the cold snap in her voice made the elderly woman fall silent. Walburga, like no one else, knew about her niece's unrequited feelings, and in almost twenty years under her roof she had learned Bella well, because she had grown up right before her eyes. To Walburga, Bellatrix was an open book, and Bellatrix saw every line of pain on her aunt's face. "He ordered me to fulfill any of his commands, no matter how terrible. and Rodolphus knows about it, so stop teaching me how to live!"
As soon as the words left her mouth, as soon as she finally let out what had been tormenting her heart all day, she felt as if something cracked inside her. It was a strange, and at the same time soothing feeling, as if she had overcome a barrier in her mind, as if she had woken from a long sleep.
"I am going. You need not worry, Aunt. I am still a virgin. That person is not so terrible that he would force me into obscenities. We just walked and talked," she said in an emotionless voice, then simply walked past the stunned head of the Black family and headed for her room.
Walburga did not try to stop her, because she had also noticed the sharp change in her niece, and that feeling was familiar to her too. It was an awakening.
After graduating from Hogwarts, Walburga still remembered Bella as strong-willed, cunning, smart, and confident, very much like herself in her youth. After the quarrel with Sirius, who had left the Black house, Walburga and her husband, who was currently in another country, had even considered appointing Bella as the temporary head of the family. But after Bellatrix joined the Death Eaters, she had begun to change sharply, and her blind infatuation with the Dark Lord had alarmed Walburga greatly. She tried not to show it, because she considered Voldemort's ideas correct and was proud her niece had joined, but she still acted carefully. First and foremost came the prosperity of the Black family, and only after that helping Tom Riddle carry out his plans. That was why she and her husband never joined the Death Eaters. They kept their distance and were ready, at any moment, to pull their family back to neutrality so trouble would not fall on them.
And seeing this change in Bella, Walburga felt excitement, because perhaps, finally, her niece might become her old self again. Almost everyone in the family considered Walburga an emotionless woman without a heart, but in her own way she tried to care for everyone. Perhaps it was cruel in places, but that was the magical world.
I considered him a smart man, but to act this way with a woman in love with him. A barely visible smile touched Walburga's lips, and the house-elf near its mistress froze in shock at the sight.
At the same time, not far from the Black family home, in the park, Severus sat on a bench under a streetlamp, watching all of it from the front row.
My words still had an effect, but I did not expect it to be so fast. Apparently I underestimated her. She is far more interesting than I thought, and Tom helped me a lot. he mused with a grin, and the image of Bellatrix lying in a dark room on her bed, staring at the ceiling and lost in thought, still lingered in his mind.
Of course, he could have guided her in the right direction, but he did not want to. It was much more interesting to see what Bella would come to on her own, and he was not planning to just observe either, because the dates were not canceled. There was another reason he did not want to use the seal inside her. It caused personality distortion, and he was not a mind wizard. He was a fighter, and he simply could not influence a wizard's mind with that kind of subtlety.
Just then, Bellatrix sat up, turned on the light, and took out the box, hoping it would distract her from the storm in her head. As soon as she sent a bit of magic into it, dresses, T-shirts, trousers, and much more began appearing on the bed.
"When did he manage this, and how did he guess?!" she muttered, not believing her eyes as the bed filled with outfits and the floor filled with shoes. "But. how did he find out my sizes?" And when lingerie began to appear in the pile, her cheeks flushed sharply. "Damn pervert!" she hissed through clenched teeth, rummaging through it all and realizing, with mortified embarrassment, that everything was the same size. Her size.
Watching the angry, embarrassed witch, Severus could not hold back a playful smile.
And she has not read my note yet. At that moment, Bellatrix found a piece of paper. Barely holding on to her temper, she snatched it up and, after reading it, immediately burned it.
"So you want to see me in red with lace?" She pulled out her wand and pointed it at the pile of clothes, but she could not do anything. Snorting in displeasure, she put her wand away, then, like an offended child, began throwing glares at the heap. "To hell with you!" And with a gleam in her eyes, she walked up and began sorting through the outfits.
At the same time, Severus pulled out popcorn and set a bottle of soda beside him. Today he was in for a magnificent fashion show, and he was not going to miss it.
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