A/N: Your reviews are very much appreciated. I apologize for the delay between chapters. This one just seemed to take a lot of time. Let me know if you think I should quit my night job and go make my fortune as a Regency romance writer.

Delenda Est – Rebooted

Lord Silvere

Chapter Twenty-One: The Marriage Mart

"And so I told him that I know and he knows that it will be a boring staff meeting, and that I'm an independent contractor—not a member of his staff," Bellatrix ranted. Her muffled voice was emanating from her bedroom where she was changing her clothes. "And then I reminded him that even if I was somehow obliged, I don't have time to sit through meetings because I'm studying for the blasted potions N.E.W.T."

"I see," Harry mumbled, only half paying attention. Bellatrix's complaints about the potions N.E.W.T. had become a familiar refrain over the past couple of weeks.

As part of his campaign to recruit Bellatrix into the Department of Mysteries, Chief Unspeakable Foxe had been giving her contract work and helping her negotiate an alternate path to receiving N.E.W.T. scores. So far, a combination of practical experience waivers combined with Bellatrix's prodigious nature had either netted her or put her within easy reach of almost all the N.E.W.T.s she needed to qualify for employment as an Unspeakable.

The only exception was the potions N.E.W.T., over which the pertinent Ministry officials had refused to negotiate. Although potion brewing was an art, the results were objective, allowing little room for error. This, combined with Bellatrix's lack of potions experience or talent had resulted in Bellatrix having to prepare for the exam from the same footing as any other witch who had not yet taken seventh year potions.

As for Harry, he was sitting in the shared common area of his and Bellatrix's hotel penthouse, thumbing through work correspondence.

Ever since Harry had repelled Lord Voldemort's attack on Azkaban, he had enjoyed a certain amount of respect from within the Ministry. Director Prewett had been more than cooperative with many of Harry's proposed reforms for Azkaban.

However, despite Director Prewett's willingness to help Harry, his goodwill could not overcome the shortage of Aurors and hitwizards. Of late, the DMLE had found itself being forced to dispatch more and more Aurors and hitwizards to respond to an escalating number of untoward magical incidents. On top of that, Minister Black was pressuring the DMLE to proactively spy on families suspected of being targets for Death Eater recruitment.

Harry and Director Prewett would have been lucky if understaffing was their only problem. However, Harry, and to some extent, Prewett, knew all too well that employee quality and loyalty were also problems. This reality was a particular thorn in Harry's side. He all but knew that Yaxley, Thicknesse, and perhaps others had helped Voldemort with the attack on Azkaban. Unfortunately, Harry had been unable to prove it without having to explain his time-traveling background.

The Daily Prophet had written extensively about the attack on Azkaban and provided detailed coverage of the Wizengamot's formal inquiry proceedings. Testimony from Harry and other key DMLE employees during the hearings had pinpointed Auror and hitwizard badges as the hole in Azkaban's security. The Ministry had been unable to determine whether the badges had come from current employees or were badges of former employees that had fallen into the wrong hands.

Harry had managed to emerge unscathed from the investigation into the Azkaban attack. It helped that the failure was from security infrastructure and that Harry was too new to be culpable for poor infrastructure. An extra boost for Harry had come from Amelia Bones, who had testified that Harry had, on the morning of the attack, instructed her to inquire about a new badge system.

The fact that badges had been the weak point combined with Harry having already been working toward fixing it had earned him additional respect beyond the prestige earned for dueling and repelling the Dark Lord. It had also inadvertently proved financially lucrative for Harry and Bellatrix.

The Wizengamot had awarded funds to the Department of Mysteries to create a special badge system for Azkaban. In turn, Chief Unspeakable Foxe, as part of his recruitment strategy, had contracted with Bellatrix to do the advanced spellwork on the badges.

It was not purely recruitment that had dropped the project into Bellatrix's lap. The necessary charms and spells and the urgency of the situation required a caster who could understand the complex schematics and mass produce the requisite spellwork without running out of stamina.

The result was that Harry's kitchen counter was now covered with dozens of small parchment envelopes, each containing a special Azkaban badge that Bellatrix was in the process of enchanting.

The downside of Bellatrix being in charge of enchanting badges was that Chief Unspeakable Foxe now wanted her to sit through endless staff meetings where Unspeakables would discuss their assignment to improve Azkaban security.

"I can just review the schematics. I don't need some dimwitted moron telling me how wards work," Bellatrix said as she emerged from her bedroom wearing an emerald blouse with a stylish bow on the front, black pencil skirt, and pumps. She put her hands on her hips and posed provocatively. "How does this make me look?"

"Looks fine," Harry said, barely glancing her way.

"No, it doesn't!"

Harry shrugged as Bellatrix stalked back into her bedroom.

Over the past few weeks, Bellatrix's wardrobe had evolved into that of a Muggle businesswoman. This was because she was having to switch between hotel manager and Ministry worker at a moment's notice, sometimes multiple times a day.

So far, the wardrobe had served Bellatrix well. But now, Bellatrix and Harry had been invited to a small dinner party at Malfoy Manor, and Bellatrix was feeling that her clothes were too Muggle-like for hobnobbing with purebloods.

Bellatrix emerged again from her room, no longer wearing the pumps. She walked across the living room and down the hallway that led to Harry's living quarters.

"Hey! What are you doing?" Harry demanded as he heard her open the door to his bedroom.

"Nothing."

"Sounds like something," Harry grumbled, beginning to pack up his work so that he could go defend his bedroom.

Just as Harry had finished packing away his work, Bellatrix returned to the living room. She was now wearing a set of dueling boots she had stolen from Harry's room.

"Those are mine," Harry pointed out.

"Are you wearing them to dinner?"

"No, but–"

"Great," Bellatrix said, returning to her room. After a brief moment, she remerged, still holding the boots. "I'm going to be late. Grab the bottle of firewhiskey and go on ahead. We can't arrive together, anyway."

"Don't steal anything else from my room," Harry instructed as he set about looking for the bottle of firewhiskey Bellatrix had bought for the party.

While Lily's parents and sister lingered at the breakfast table to chatter about plans for Petunia's upcoming wedding, Lily went to the front door to fetch the morning post. There, she found her Hogwarts letter waiting among the rest of the mail.

Normally, Lily could rely on her parents to exclaim over her Hogwarts letter, read it with her, and fantasize about the book list. However, this year, Lily did not want to take away any attention from Petunia's upcoming nuptials. So, after quietly dropping off the remainder of the mail in the kitchen, she retreated to her bedroom.

With a little bit of trepidation, Lily opened the parchment envelope and felt validation as a prefect badge slid out and fell onto her bed. Beaming, she reviewed the letter and its attachments. It was only when she got to the last page that Lily found a special letter to her from Professor Dumbledore.

In the letter, the headmaster informed Lily that similar to how he appointed prefects and Quidditch captains, he was now assigning her to serve as leader of the Hogwarts Dueling Club. The letter went on to explain that this would be a weightier role than the one Lily had played during the prior school year. Although there would be at least one faculty advisor, it would be up to Lily and any others she recruited to fill the gap left behind by Professor Ashworth and Professor Greengrass.

Having forgotten her Hogwarts letter and prefect badge, Lily took a seat at her small desk and pulled out a notebook. In it, she began mapping out her vision for the dueling club and competitions, quickly populating a to-do list. There would need to be club promotion, recruitment, tryouts, training meetings, and competition preparation. Someone would have to register Hogwarts for the competitions. There might need to be fundraising. It was not long before Lily realized she was in over her head and that recruiting help would be essential.

Naturally, Lily's thoughts turned to James, Sirius, and Remus. There was also Alice now that Frank Longbottom had left Hogwarts and would not be distracting her. Shifting gears, Lily began writing letters to James, Sirius, Remus, and Alice. She informed them of her new role and asked them if they would be willing to help her. The letter to James took Lily the longest to write. She lingered over it for some time even after having signed and sealed the others.

When Lily's mother called upstairs to announce that it was time to leave for London to shop for Petunia's wedding, Lily picked up the pace. Hurriedly, Lily scribbled an extra sentence on James' letter: Should we meet and discuss the club before term begins?

"Coming!" Lily called as she finished up the letter to James and prepared it to be owled. She was not eager to follow her mother and Petunia through endless stores on the quest for wedding materials, but if she wanted to owl her letters to her friends, she would need to get to Diagon Alley somehow.

Two days later, Lily had received responses from everyone except James. In their letters, Remus and Alice had expressed interest in helping out but had said little else. Apparently, Alice was having too much summer fun to be bothered with writing Lily a long letter. This left Lily feeling slightly miffed. On the other hand, Remus' reticence was understandable since her interactions with him were more incidental than anything.

Sirius' letter expressed enthusiasm for the dueling club. He then moved on to reporting that maybe Bellatrix and Professor Ashworth would be getting married soon. This tidbit of gossip instantly distracted Lily from James' failure to respond to her letter.

You must be joking! Lily wrote back, shocked. Tell me how long this has been going on!

Sirius responded two days later: I'm actually Sirius. I've been this way for quite a while now.

Normally, Lily would have been angry at Sirius' attempt at humor, but she was too busy fuming over James and his failure to promptly respond to her owl. She was, however, able to set aside her annoyance with James for a few moments to pen a firm reply to Sirius: Tell me why you think Bellatrix and Professor Ashworth might get married and give me details.

Apparently feeling at least a tinge of remorse for inflicting his humor on Lily, Sirius responded overnight. His response arrived in time for Lily to read the juicy gossip as she ate breakfast.

Abraxas Malfoy hosted a dinner and invited my parents. They also invited Ashworth, Bellatrix, and some others. Old Malfoy got drunk and kept making highly suggestive remarks to Ashworth about how Bellatrix was "of age," not a bad looker, and could be a good match. My mum has been calling him "that blasted salesman" ever since. My aunt is also furious. She is trying to find some other bloke for Bellatrix to marry because she thinks Bellatrix might actually say yes if Ashworth were to ask.

"What does your friend have to say, my dear?" Lily's mother asked.

"It sounds like a girl I know from school might be getting married soon," Lily said faintly.

"Well, that's fantastic!"

"That's one way of looking at it," Lily mumbled.

Lily retreated upstairs and penned her response to Sirius: Surely she would not say yes to that marriage! She does not seem like the marrying type, if you know what I mean. And he's kind of old! Even if he is very nice.

Two and a half days later, Sirius had not responded. Nor had James. The lack of communication had put Lily on edge. Lily's aggravation was compounded when Vernon appeared around dinner time, placing wedding planning and self-importance on the menu for the evening. Lily was all too happy to volunteer to do the dishes after everyone finished eating. As she washed and dried dishes, she could hear them chatting from down the hall in the living room.

"The hotel manager never fails to impress me," Vernon assured Petunia and her parents. "They were repainting the ballroom this summer, and she let me weigh in on the colors so that it would fit our wedding plans."

"That's amazing," Lily's father opined.

"And then my secretary was just telling me that she's been able to negotiate excellent rates on a block of rooms for a sales seminar we have coming up," Venron continued, his voice becoming a little pompous as he worked in the mention of his secretary. "Petunia and I have found a hidden gem."

No, I found it and gave you vouchers that you used for yourself instead of sharing with your coworkers at the office, Lily fumed as she vigorously toweled off a plate.

Lily was about to dry another plate when a belching noise reverberated through the kitchen. It was so loud that Lily's family and Vernon stopped talking in the living room.

"Is everything okay?" Lily's mother inquired.

"Nothing to worry about!" Lily called out as she stared at the partially eaten roast chicken the family had just enjoyed for dinner. She was not sure, but it seemed to her like the burp had come from the chicken. "I'll be done in a bit."

"Right, then," Lily's mother called back as the conversation in the living room resumed.

Another smaller burp sounded from the chicken. Lily grabbed for it, irrationally hoping that she could silence it with her hands. However, before she could touch it, the chicken rolled over, stood up on the remains of its stubby drumstick legs, and began to dance a provocative jig.

Lily's eyes widened with surprise, but she soon realized that somebody who could do magic was messing with her. She glanced toward the kitchen window and thought she spied movement in the bushes.

Grimly, Lily abandoned her dishwashing and stalked out the backdoor. There, she found James Potter and Sirius Black snickering in the bushes.

"I ought to hex you two!" Lily declared angrily.

They started guffawing.

"You should have seen the look on your face," Sirius wheezed.

Lily spun around, trying to see if she could grab the garden hose and give them a little bit of retribution.

"Who's that weird Muggle? Is he your sister's boyfriend?"

"How long were you peeping through the windows?" Lily demanded, forgetting her plan to spray them down with the garden hose.

"Not too long," James confessed as he and Sirius extricated themselves from the bushes and joined Lily. "I'm sorry for the unannounced visit. I've been out of the country with my parents. I thought stopping by would be quicker than sending an owl."

"Oh," Lily said, abruptly feeling a rush of relief as she found that James had not been ignoring her letter.

"Shall we have a planning meeting for the post-Ashworth dueling club?" Sirius proposed, sounding pompous.

"Of course," Lily said, excitement welling up in her. "I just need to finish the dishes and grab my notes from upstairs.

"We'll do the dishes while you go upstairs," James offered.

"Right," Lily said, "but don't let my family hear you."

She led James and Sirius into the kitchen and went upstairs for her dueling club notes. When she came back down, she found that they had used magic to finish the dishes and clean the kitchen while Lily's parents, sister, and fiance chatted in the living room, completely unaware.

"I'm going out for a breath of fresh air," Lily called, feeling a bit guilty because she knew her parents would rather that she help make nice to Vernon.

"If you must," Lily's mother said faintly as Lily herded James and Sirius out the backdoor.

As soon as the trio was out the door and down the street, Lily demanded to know how James and Sirius could do magic outside of school.

"Let's just say I found a really good gift shop in a less-developed nation," James said, winking at Sirius.

"How fortunate for you," Lily grumbled.

"Very," James agreed.

They continued catching up on what each other had been doing since the end of term and soon found a park with a slightly overgrown picnic table where they sat down. James and Sirius were looking expectantly at the stack of pages Lily had brought with her, but Lily wanted to broach another topic first.

"Do you think Bellatrix would really marry …"

"Yup," Sirius said. "Or at least my mum and aunt think so."

"What?" James asked. Apparently, he was not in the loop.

Sirius briefed James on the news he had shared with Lily earlier.

James was vastly amused and kept breaking out into laughter. "Can you imagine?"

"It's insanity!" Lily insisted. "He's too nice, she's too crazy, and there's way too much of an age gap."

"Her craziness makes it more likely. Hence, why her mom is having conniption fits," Sirius explained. "As for age difference, I mean, that's not necessarily a deal breaker."

James started laughing gleefully.

"We're talking fifteen or twenty years!" Lily exclaimed, outraged by Sirius' opinion and confused by James' laughter.

"I'm not laughing at the gap between Ashworth and Bellatrix," James explained. "I'm laughing at how Sirius wants to keep the door open for age differences."

"I don't follow," Lily said slowly as Sirius blushed.

"I'm trying to remember what we calculated the gap between Sirius and Professor Greengrass being," James mused, rubbing his chin theatrically. "Was it five years? Six? Seven? Maybe it was only four. If I'm right, there are still students at Hogwarts who remember Greengrass being a student."

Lily frowned at Sirius. "Do you have a crush on Professor Greengrass?"

"Her name is Pythia now that she's not a professor," Sirius pointed out, simultaneously deflecting and answering the question.

"This is insane!" Lily declared. "All of you! You've lost your minds! Is the entire magical world like this when it comes to marriage?"

"For your information, I think she likes me," Sirius defended. "As for you, I bet you're just jealous of Bellatrix. I think you've had a crush on Ashworth for a while."

"His name is Harry, now," James clarified solemnly.

"I don't have a crush on Professor Ashworth," Lily insisted.

"Ha!" Sirius shot back.

"I don't!" Lily insisted, beginning to blush.

"There it is," Sirius said slyly as Lily's blush deepened.

James cleared his throat. "I think we're overlooking something."

"What?" Sirius asked.

"You just said you think she likes you. Since when? What are you talking about?" James asked.

"I've caught her looking at me when she thought I wasn't paying attention," Sirius said proudly.

"That doesn't mean anything," James insisted. He looked to Lily for confirmation. "Right?"

"Well, I don't know," Lily squirmed. "What kind of looks are we talking about?"

"Kind of the look an ageless vampire would give a potential victim," Sirius said sagely.

"Excuse me while I vomit," Lily said, setting down her dueling club notes on the table and pretending like she was about to get up and go heave in the bushes.

"Hear me out," Sirius said, raising both of his hands.

"I don't want to hear about it," Lily declared. "Let's move onto discussing dueling club for this year."

"You can tell me later," James said, winking and nodding conspiratorially at Sirius.

Amelia was patrolling Azkaban's corridors and inspecting the condition of the prison's infrastructure when she spied an unfamiliar figure rounding a corner in the hallway ahead of her. Dropping her clipboard, she drew her wand. "Halt!" she shouted, dashing toward the intersection. When Amelia rounded the corner, she found that her quarry had stopped and was waiting for her in the hallway, a smirk on her face. It was Minister Black's daughter, Bellatrix.

Confused, Amelia approached, her wand trained on Bellatrix. "What are you doing?" she demanded. "How did you get in here? You're not part of the DMLE."

Eyeing Amelia's wand, Bellatrix slowly raised a hand and pulled open her black jacket to reveal that she had a neon purple badge pinned to her blouse.

"I don't understand what that is supposed to signify," Amelia said, frowning as she eyed the badge. It looked exactly like an Auror badge, except for its bold, almost off-putting, coloring. Amelia's frown deepened as she perceived that the markings on the badge were that of an Auror lieutenant.

"I'm the contractor responsible for manufacturing the special Azkaban badges," Bellatrix explained, gesturing to a satchel she was holding. "I'm here for an on-site test and delivery of the product."

"And you're just wandering the hallways of Azkaban? Don't you realize that dementors are dangerous?" Amelia demanded. She gestured the opposite way from which she had come toward where a couple of dementors were skulking.

There had been a couple of uncomfortable incidents with the dementors after Warden Ashworth had moved the prison's administrative offices into the prison itself. However, Ashworth had blown the dementors away with his Patronus Charm and menaced them in other ways.

At present, the dementors were keeping their distance from Ministry personnel and fleeing from Ashworth's presence any time he emerged from the administrative office suite. Indeed, when Ashworth was out and about, the Azkaban staff could count on there being no dementors on the same floor as him.

"I'm on my way to the warden's office, wherever that is located," Bellatrix said, ignoring Amelia's reference to the dementors.

"The guards should have escorted you directly to the administrative offices when you arrived," Amelia grumbled, making a mental note to report to Harry that the personnel stationed at the entrance were slack or not understanding their duties under Harry's recent reforms.

"Perhaps you could take me to the warden," Bellatrix suggested.

"Of course," Amelia said as her confusion morphed into irritation with Bellatrix's personality. She holstered her wand, retrieved her clipboard, and gestured for Bellatrix to walk ahead of her.

"This way, then?" Bellatrix asked, the tone of her voice mocking as she pointed down the hallway.

"Yes," Amelia said, choosing to ignore Bellatrix's subtle critique of her choice to lead from behind.

Theoretically, the daughter of the Minister of Magic could be trusted. However, Amelia could not silence the part of her intuition that was screaming that Bellatrix was mentally unstable and as dangerous as a rabid dog.

As a student, Bellatrix had always seemed like an odd one to Amelia. But now, Amelia's skin was crawling as she observed Bellatrix diffidently walking through the corridors of Azkaban in her suit jacket and pencil skirt.

They soon arrived in Azkaban's renewed administrative office suite, where Amelia let out an almost inaudible breath of relief as the protection offered from the anti-dementor wards and spells washed over her.

As luck would have it, Harry had a gap in his daily schedule and was able to accommodate Bellatrix's surprise visit despite the seemingly short notice. In what was a welcome boost to Amelia's ego, Harry gestured for Amelia to join him and Bellatrix in his office to inspect and discuss the new badges.

"I think you'll find that everything is in order," Bellatrix explained to Harry and Amelia as she placed her satchel on Harry's desk and began pulling out boxes of badges from it. "The Chief Unspeakable and his staff have confirmed that my work meets all of his specifications."

"Good work," Harry said, eyeing the badges approvingly. He gestured for Amelia to help herself to one of the badges with Auror sergeant markings. "With these on hand, we can finally make arrangements for the new wards to be activated unless you think we need to test the badges to ensure they mesh."

"On my way here, I confirmed that the badges mesh with the already active wards," Bellatrix reported, her voice smug as she watched Amelia help herself to one of the badges. "As for the new wards, I don't anticipate they will give you any trouble since the badges were made with those wards in mind."

"If we do have trouble, I'm sure we can reach out," Harry said as Amelia grabbed one of the Auror captain badges and held it out to Harry.

"Oh, wait, this one is for the warden," Bellatrix said, grabbing a different captain badge from the pile and holding it out to Harry.

"Thanks," Harry said, accepting the badge from Bellatrix and pinning it on his clothes next to his normal Auror badge as Amelia gave Bellatrix a sideways glance and wondered whether there really was a difference between the badges.

From there, Bellatrix gave a brief rundown on how the badges worked and could be adjusted for changing circumstances or employee turnover. For the most part, it was all old news to Harry and Amelia who had received briefs from the Department of Mysteries and participated in some of the discussion about security with Ministry bureaucrats.

Having finished her duties, Bellatrix closed her satchel and announced that she would be leaving. Harry thanked Bellatrix for the delivery and her work on the project, and Bellatrix declined Amelia's offer to see her out. After Bellatrix was gone, Amelia was left alone with Harry in his office.

"Can you get these badges distributed and the extras locked away?" Harry asked as he sat down at his desk and grabbed a folder full of reports waiting for his review.

"Of course," Amelia said. She gathered up the badges and was halfway out the door when she remembered something.

She turned around and cleared her throat. "Sorry, but I just recalled noticing that Ms. Black was sporting an Auror lieutenant badge on her clothing when she arrived, presumably for testing purposes. Do we need to retrieve that from her?"

The question appeared to have caught Harry by surprise. "Good catch," he said slowly. "I assume the Unspeakables will need to have a prototype or two on hand so they can modify or troubleshoot. I'll bring it up next time I see the Chief Unspeakable."

"Good," Amelia said, feeling a bit petty.

Seeing the grimace on Harry's face, the shopkeeper of Diagon Alley's racing broom shop rushed to reassure Harry. "The Nimbus is not our only line. We have a number of Cleansweeps over here. Even a Comet, if that's your thing."

"I'm not going to fly a Cleansweep," Harry muttered, eyeing the latest model Nimbus had to offer. Unfortunately, it resembled the Nimbus 1000 a lot more than it resembled the Nimbus 2000.

"Well, this is the latest Nimbus," the shopkeeper assured Harry.

"I can see that," Harry mumbled as he picked up the brochure again and pored over it. "I'll take it."

"Shall we discuss financing?" the shopkeeper inquired.

"No need," Harry said, reaching into his pockets.

Harry had completed his business, left the shop, and was making his way to the apothecary to pick up some potion ingredients for Bellatrix's N.E.W.T. studies when a familiar voice called for his attention.

"Professor!"

Harry turned toward the voice and saw Lily Evans approaching him. He stopped walking and put on a smile. "How are you?" he asked as soon as she came into sight. "Already doing your school shopping?"

"Good and yes," Lily said before launching into the news about how Professor Dumbledore had asked her to be the leader of the dueling club. She also reported that several classmates had already signed on to help manage things.

Glad to hear that the dueling club was going to continue, Harry congratulated her before asking her for details about her plans, which Lily was all too eager to share. They stood and chatted for a while before the conversation tapered off and Lily moved to shift the subject.

"It occurs to me, I mean, I'm just wondering … ," Lily said slowly.

"Yes?"

"If you have evenings free, perhaps you could come to Hogwarts and be a guest lecturer for a club meeting or two," Lily proposed.

"I wouldn't mind doing that," Harry said, not just because it was Lily asking for help, but also because he wanted to see the dueling club thrive. "Just send me an owl. I can set my own schedule if you give me enough advance notice."

"I'll do that!" Lily said, sounding thrilled.

Harry felt that he could not carry the conversation any further without coming off as weird, but Lily did not seem to be ready to wrap it up.

"I also wonder, Professor," Lily said slowly, "if you've seen or heard from Bellatrix, or I mean Miss Black, lately."

Harry arched a curious eyebrow, wondering both why Lily was asking after Bellatrix and why she would think that he would have any idea where she might be.

"I mean," Lily rushed to explain, "she would be a good guest lecturer, too."

"Oh," Harry said slowly. "I don't know how cooperative Miss Black would be. I've happened across her a few times. I suppose you could always ask."

"I've tried sending owls," Lily reported, "but they don't seem to reach her."

"I don't know when I'll see her next," Harry hedged, "but if and when I do, I'll mention your interest to her and tell her she should reach out to you."

Harry felt guilty for leading Lily to believe that he hardly ever saw Bellatrix, but he had not been entirely untruthful. He never knew for sure when he was going to see her, even though they were flatmates.

The night before, Bellatrix had been shut in the bathroom splashing around in the bathtub when Harry arrived home, and he had gone to bed without chatting with her. When he had woken up in the middle of the night for a quick trip to the bathroom, he had heard her cursing angrily in the kitchen. In the morning, he had found a note from her vowing vengeance if he did not pick up certain potion ingredients for her during his trip to Diagon Alley.

"It was nice chatting," Harry said. "I need to stop by the apothecary before it closes."

"Of course," Lily said. "It was good to see you!"

"Likewise," Harry said. "Do you have a way to get home? I mean, are you here with anyone?"

"My mom and sister will pick me up outside the Leaky Cauldron."

"Will they now?" Harry said, feeling outraged as he realized that Aunt Petunia could have been more helpful with getting him to Diagon Alley during the summers.

"Indeed. In fact, I may be late," Lily said. "Hopefully, I'll see you soon."

"You can count on it," Harry said.

Frank Longbottom was feeling a surge of self-satisfaction as he and his father walked into the Ministry Atrium where the Ministry Ball was well underway. Tonight, he was attending the ball both as a Ministry employee and as a well-connected member of pureblood society. He was feeling like he had achieved adulthood in fine fashion.

The Atrium, with its modest decorations, was filled with guests who were socializing, dancing, and eating. There were buffet tables, dinner tables, an open bar, a dance floor, and a reception line for guests to meet and greet the Minister of Magic.

"Gone social have we?" a voice asked.

Frank and his father turned toward the source of the voice and found they were being approached by Fleamont Potter.

"I'm surprised you found enough time in your busy travel schedule to stop by," Frank's father said, his voice markedly neutral as he ignored Potter's thinly veiled suggestion that the Longbottoms were reclusive.

"We need to stop by and check on our house every so often," Fleamont said lackadaisically. "How is Augusta by the way?"

"A little under the weather tonight," Frank's father confessed.

"I'm sorry to hear that," Fleamont said as he studied Frank with a penetrating gaze. "I take it you're hoping to find your son a wife. Could it be that you have set your sights on Minister Black's eldest daughter? After all, this ball seems to be her debut."

Potter waggled his eyebrows suggestively and nodded his head toward where Minister Black and his daughter Bellatrix were greeting guests. The fact that it was Belltrix instead of her mother at the Minister's side supported Potter's theory that the Black family were treating this as a special social event for Bellatrix.

Frank blushed intensely as he looked at Bellatrix. She was attired in a modern style black and emerald ball gown. The elegant coiffure of her hair and the cut of her bodice had attracted all sorts of stares and attention. Had Frank been unaware of Bellatrix's personality, he would be among the many wizards loitering near her, waiting for an opening or excuse to approach her and maybe ask for a dance.

"I find your characterization of things to be a bit raw," Frank's father said coldly to Fleamont.

Fleamont shrugged. "For purebloods, marriage is a grim, raw, and sometimes nonsensical endeavor, is it not?" His voice was mocking. "We can't let discomfort or awkwardness get in the way of the greater good."

"I'll admit that there are valid marriage considerations that Muggleborns often do not think about," Frank's father said diplomatically. "But I think you're being too cynical."

"I wager you've told Frank he had better score a dance with Miss Black before the end of the night. Am I right?"

Frank blushed again but did not respond. Fleamont was not completely correct. However, he was close enough. Earlier that evening, Frank's parents had fought with him over his intention to wait for Alice to leave Hogwarts so he could court her. Her bloodline was not impressive, but at least respectable. His parents had higher hopes for him. They had not precisely tasked him with asking Bellatrix for a dance. However, he knew all too well that if he did not interact with Bellatrix, he would need to be able to say he had spent time with other eligible witches at the ball.

"No need to respond," Fleamont told Frank, his tone warming. "I don't mean to put you on the spot. I'll victimize someone else to prove my point."

He peered around the crowd for a bit before settling on a table at which much of the Bones family was seated. "Aha! Look there at Amelia Bones. I wager her parents are remonstrating with her right now about how her career has plateaued, that she's getting too old, and that it is high time she settled down or found some way to establish a connection to get herself promoted."

"You are awful," Frank's father snapped.

"Maybe I am," Fleamont admitted. He winked at Frank. "If I were you, I would Just go ask Miss Black to dance right now. Get the monkey off your back and enjoy the rest of the evening."

Seeing the wisdom in Fleamont's suggestion, Frank squared his shoulders and made his way to the reception line, leaving his father to continue chatting with his longtime frenemy. The line had thinned out, and Frank was soon shaking Minister Black's hand and receiving congratulations for his performance at the Salem dueling tournament and answering questions about his Auror training.

Neither Frank, nor his parents, were fans of the Black family and had looked on Minister Black's ascendancy with skepticism. However, Frank could not help but be pleased that Minister Black had paid attention to his performance at the Salem tournament and was aware that he was a Ministry employee.

As for Bellatrix, she remained silent as she smirked at Frank answering her father's questions about Auror training.

Just as it was time for Frank to move on and let the next person in line chat with the Minister of Magic, Frank courageously spoke up.

"Actually Minister, I was wondering if I could ask your daughter for a dance."

Bellatrix looked like she wanted to laugh, but the mirth on her face quickly dissolved and was replaced by something more calculating.

"I wouldn't mind seeing the two of you dance," Minister Black told Frank genially. He looked at Bellatrix. "I think you could sneak away from the reception line if you want to dance with him."

"Very well," Bellatrix agreed, stiffly offering Frank her hand.

Frank took her hand and led her to the dance floor as his skin crawled.

Harry was late to the ball. He knew he was going to catch an earful about it later even if he did have a legitimate excuse needing to meet with a couple of the guards from the night shift. As warden, Harry did not belong to any one shift and had the luxury of setting his own schedule. However, sometimes he had to work outside of normal hours.

During the days leading up to the ball, Bellatrix had repeatedly reminded him that she was going to be introducing him to key political players and that he needed to get off work from Azkaban as soon as possible. Upon arriving, Harry was simultaneously relieved and horrified to find that Bellatrix was otherwise occupied on the dance floor with Frank Longbottom.

Assuming that Bellatrix could catch up with him later, Harry set about greeting faces familiar to him, even if they did not know him. He stopped for a couple of moments at a table where Arthur Weasley was seated with some Prewetts. The conversation with Arthur was shorter than Harry would have liked, but understandable since he and Arthur had not yet built a friendship.

Despite the lack of familiarity, Harry would have been bolder and would have pushed for a longer conversation with Arthur, perhaps even inviting himself to sit down. However, he had noticed Amelia Bones sitting at the next table over. She and those at her table kept looking at him and whispering among themselves. Harry assumed that the whispering was Amelia pointing out her boss. Harry concluded that the wise thing would be to go over and introduce himself.

For Harry, meeting members of the Bones family was fascinating because they had largely been extinct in his version of the future. Overall, he found them to be simultaneously haughty and polite. He supposed this made them the equal opposite of the Malfoys or Blacks. Overall, they left Harry with a good impression, even if he was not sure he would want to cozy up to them.

After ending the conversation with the Bones family, Harry was walking away from the table when someone tapped him on the shoulder. He turned to find that Amelia had followed him.

Her cheeks red, Amelia inquired if Harry might like to dance.

"Of course," Harry said, feigning more willingness than he felt as he held out his hand to lead her toward the dance floor.

Bellatrix had been smirking at how quickly Frank had vanished from the dance floor after their set had ended, but when she saw Harry lead Amelia Bones onto the dance floor, the smirk melted into a scowl. Angrily, she stalked off the dance floor. There were a handful of younger wizards who looked like they might like to ask her to dance, but she bowled through them on her way to find the punch bowl.

She was tapping her foot as she watched Harry waltz across the dance floor and make nice to Amelia when her mom, Druella, followed by Bellatrix's Aunt Walburga, sidled up to her. Bellatrix turned toward them and arched a questioning eyebrow.

"It looks like Ashworth has found someone his age," Druella said.

"And?"

"We're just suggesting that old Malfoy's idea to match you and Ashworth doesn't make sense," Walburga said.

"Spare me," Bellatrix groused before taking a sip of punch. "Why is it that you two are suddenly so worried about age differences? And what makes you so sure I am interested in Ashworth? All you know is that Malfoy favors a match."

Walburga leaned toward Bellatrix as Druella glanced around to make sure nobody else was listening. "First, don't try to fool us. We can tell when you are fixated on someone or something. And then when Malfoy started in on his matchmaking, we could tell that you were secretly delighted. Second, you need to realize that certain things are afoot and that connecting yourself to someone who chit-chats with Prewetts and Weasleys and dances with the likes of Amelia Bones is a poor move."

"What is afoot, exactly?" Bellatrix asked. She already knew, but was curious to hear what they would say.

"You know what I mean," Walburga snapped. "If things were different, an alliance with Ashworth would be advantageous since he appears to be powerful and increasingly influential. However, things are different."

"Isn't it too late for me to ally with the right sort?" Bellatrix snapped back.

"Not quite. You could make amends," Walburga suggested.

"Amends?" Bellatrix said, swallowing back an angry laugh as she suddenly felt her silver bracelet, currently invisible, tugging on her wrist and her magical core. Even if she thought Voldemort had a better chance of winning, she had passed the point of no return by swearing allegiance to Harry. "You have no idea. Why would I even want to?"

"Power is power," Walburga hissed as Druella nodded. "Sometimes you just have to swallow your pride. You would be better served to explore an alliance with the right sort of wizard."

"You mean the sort that cannot even show their face at this ball lest they be arrested and thrown into Ashworth's prison for helping the Dark Lord to assault me?"

"That won't always be true," Walburga predicted. "For your own good, we are forbidding you from pursuing a marriage with Ashworth. And for that matter, don't let us see you dancing with the likes of young Longbottom again."

"Forbidding me?" Bellatrix sneered as she took note that Harry's dance with Amelia Bones was coming to an end. " You must be joking. I'll do what I want, thank you." She turned and started walking toward the dance floor.

"You belong to the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black," Walburga hissed angrily toward Bellatrix's retreating figure.

Bellatrix pretended that she had not heard, but inwardly, she wanted to laugh. Not only had she sworn allegiance to the ascendant Lord Black, but she was plotting to lure him into a marriage. One day, when Bellatrix became Lady Black, Walburga would be obliged to pay deference to her.

Once again, Bellatrix bowled through a gaggle of hopeful wizards on the edge of the dance floor and made a beeline to where Harry was chatting with Amelia. It looked to Bellatrix like Amelia was prolonging the conversation with Harry in hopes that Harry would ask her to dance a second set. However, Bellatrix was not ready to tolerate Amelia having a second dance with Harry.

She told herself that her real purpose was ensuring Harry had enough time to network with the wizards and witches to whom she was going to introduce him. However, a small voice in the back of her mind suggested there might be something more behind her anger.

"Good evening, Warden Ashworth, Auror Bones," Bellatrix said as she walked up to them. "I trust the badges I delivered are working properly."

"I haven't noticed any problems with them," Harry said. He looked at Amelia. "What about you?"

"No," Amelia said, looking slightly annoyed with Bellatrix, who stood there smiling politely as an awkward silence ensued.

"Would you like to dance the next set with me, Miss Black?" Harry finally said when he realized that neither Amelia nor Bellatrix were going to stand down..

"Thank you, yes," Bellatrix said, smiling as Amelia frowned.

After dancing with Bellatrix, Frank stopped by the buffet for a plate of food and rejoined his father. He was eating with Fleamont Potter, who was still editorializing about marriage customs. It seemed that Amelia Bones asking Harry Ashworth to dance had proven Fleamont's theory, and he was now waxing on about his views of the pureblood marriage mart.

"It just goes to show you how raw and ugly it is," Fleamont said, waving his fork around. "If it weren't for our pureblood culture, a young lady like her would never ask her boss to dance."

"Maybe she's legitimately attracted to him. Maybe they are already friends," Frank's father suggested placatingly. He glanced at Frank. "Wasn't she stationed at Hogwarts for a few months while he was a professor? I imagine they are more than just acquainted."

"She was," Frank said. "But I didn't notice them interacting much."

"You might be right," Fleamont said, finally seeming to take interest in his food. This only lasted a minute or two until he and the Longbottoms saw Bellatrix Black approach Ashworth and Bones after the dance ended, her body language broadcasting that she expected Ashworth to ask her to dance next.

Frank, who was aware as anyone that Bellatrix had only recently been one of Ashworth's students, was startled to see Bellatrix asking Ashworth to dance. Although he knew Bellatrix had interacted with Ashworth more than her fellow students, he had not sensed that there was anything more at play beyond her being a little bit of a teacher's pet.

"I don't envy Ashworth having to interact with Minister Black after tonight," Frank said as they all watched Ashworth begin leading Bellatrix around the dance floor as music sounded through the Atrium.

"I think you might be wrong on that count," Frank's father said, gesturing toward where Minister Black was standing, watching the dance with a benign expression on his face.

Fleamont abandoned his food and smacked the table lightly. "That only goes to show you how ridiculous the pureblood marriage mart is."

Frank's father sighed. "In this instance, I think you should feel sorrier for the wizard."

"What are you two doing?" Bellatrix demanded as she stepped into a dimly lit conference room. The room was, in essence, a glass-enclosed balcony overlooking the Atrium where the guests at the Ministry ball were eating and dancing.

A catering worker had passed Bellatrix a note from Orion Black telling her to meet him and Abraxas in the conference room. She had complied and arrived to find them alternating between scribbling down tidbits of information gleaned from their observations of the crowd below and gorging themselves on food platters stolen from the buffet.

"I could ask you the same thing," Orion said firmly.

"What are you talking about?"

"He's talking about how you just marked your territory and sent Amelia Bones packing," Abraxas translated. He sounded amused, but distracted, as he spied on the guests through a small telescope. "Looks like Fudge and Diggory are about to invite themselves to the Potter-Longbottom lovefest."

Orion snorted. "Noted, but not significant. Although, is Mrs. Potter still missing?"

"She must be in a sideroom or something," Abraxas theorized. "Although, I don't think she plays cards. Maybe she just stayed home." He moved the telescope and looked at a different part of the Atrium. "The Bones family are still chattering with each other. Oh, dear. Amelia is eyeing Ashworth with a faraway look in her eyes."

"See!" Bellatrix said. "I had no choice! She's fantasizing about him!"

Orion frowned.

"She's not entirely wrong," Abraxas observed, lowering the telescope and squinting as he tried to find someone else to spy on. "The Darker-minded purebloods are not making it easy. They must be congregating in the bathrooms or something."

"It seems our brilliant plan is turning into a bust," Orion concluded. He eyed Bellatrix. "Actually, two of our brilliant plans have failed. The purebloods we wanted to observe during the ball are laying low, and Amelia Bones is fantasizing about Harry Ashworth while Bellatrix is still in the 'casual acquaintance' stage of our plan for achieving an Ashworth-Black union."

"She's practically his secretary," Bellatrix bit out, feeling a tiny twinge of guilt for misleading her uncle and Abraxas Malfoy by not disclosing that she and Harry were flatmates and that she had sworn allegiance to him. If Orion became aware of those facts, Bellatrix had no doubt that he would see the marriage as a done deal.

Still, from Bellatrix's perspective, a marriage between her and Ashworth was not a done deal. He had displayed no romantic interest in her. And now, Amelia Bones was displaying interest in him. Even though Bellatrix understood at some level that Harry was not necessarily interested in Amelia, Bellatrix could not get past seeing her as a serious contender.

"It would be a good match," Abraxas pointed out, pocketing his telescope and fixing himself another plate of food. "To start with, they're both Aurors."

"More than just good," Orion declared. "It would be natural and probable. As Bellatrix has pointed out, Auror Bones is practically his secretary." He made eye contact with Bellatrix. "What do you want to do about it? You don't want us to give him a job promotion too soon, and you don't want to work at Azkaban. So, you will need to either change your mind or come up with another idea."

"She should just get on her knees and pop the question," Abraxas suggested, winking at Bellatrix.

Bellatrix blushed beet red, recalling that she had already gotten on her knees and tried a proposal. Harry had not reacted well, saying that he wanted a romantic marriage and not something that was merely the business merger or social alliance she had been proposing. In turn, Bellatrix had countered that a romantic marriage would be disgusting since they were technically in a teacher-student relationship.

If Bellatrix was being honest, the teacher-student situation was, or had been, strictly a public perception problem. Harry was only a handful of years older than her. Plus, they had begun their acquaintance prior to Harry assuming the persona of a middle-aged wizard and finding a job at Hogwarts.

Still, when Harry had said he wanted romance in a marriage, Bellatrix had felt squeamish about the thought of opening herself up to him, or anyone else for that matter, and being vulnerable.

In the time since Bellatrix's awkward marriage proposal, she had overcome a small portion of that squeamishness. At the Cape Town tournament, she had kissed Harry on her birthday as part of a dramatic demonstration of her now being a legal adult. She had found the kiss enjoyable and had used similarly non-romantic reasons to steal a couple of more kisses since then.

Then, during the Salem tournament, she had found herself rankled by her inability, under Lily Evans' watchful eye, to march into Harry's bedroom and talk about what was on her mind. Her one-on-one conferences with Harry had been something she had been taking for granted.

For Bellatrix, there had been nothing romantic about those visits. She had always seen such visits as just another standard interaction with Harry. At Hogwarts, she had chafed a little bit at having to avoid the notice of staff and students when arranging for time to meet with Harry, but she had endured the inconvenience without much thought.

However, when Lily had scrutinized Bellatrix's conduct at the Salem tournament, Bellatrix had become angry. When her anger subsided, she realized just how much she craved her interactions with Harry.

Things had played out well since Salem. Practicality had led Harry to take up residence in the penthouse suite of the hotel. Bellatrix now relished the fact that she could expect to regularly interact with Harry in their shared living area without anyone knowing or caring. Plus, if she needed Harry sooner than the next time she bumped into him, she could always march down the hallway or lay in wait for him to arrive home from work.

With proximity problems solved, the only obstacle to marriage was the lack of romance. Harry had made it clear he expected romance in a marriage while showing no sign he was romantically attracted to Bellatrix. As for Bellatrix, as much as she was in favor of marriage, she was not comfortable with increased romance. She was still feeling squeamish about the idea of being completely open and vulnerable to Harry.

"I was already giving the situation some thought," Abraxas went on, his voice becoming more serious as he plowed forward, oblivious to Bellatrix's blush or the storm of thoughts whirling in her head. "We heard that you're being recruited into the Department of Mysteries and have already done work for them on Azkaban."

"That's right," Bellatrix admitted. "If the Department of Mysteries gives me the same type of assignments, I could arrange to bump into Ashworth more. My first assignment went well. I wouldn't mind some more assignments."

Bellatrix's visit to Azkaban to deliver the badges had shown her that Harry had the prison well under control. She would not necessarily want to be there day after day. But visits here and there would be tolerable.

"Assuming you complete the requirements to be hired as an Unspeakable, we can work with your father to nudge Director Prewett and Chief Unspeakable Foxe toward making you some sort of Azkaban researcher or liaison without being too obvious," Orion said. "But maybe you should just start looking for more opportunities to socialize with Ashworth."

"Socializing?" Bellatrix said, still trying to sort things out in her mind.

"Yes, I think you should accelerate our plan in that regard," Orion told Bellatrix. "We were hoping you would develop a work relationship with him that could naturally morph into a more personal and then hopefully intimate relationship. But now that you have a competitor, you will need to push the personal relationship quicker so that you can stay ahead of Amelia. She probably has the work relationship aced. By asking him to dance tonight, she has kicked open the door to an outside-of-work relationship."

"Right," Bellatrix said slowly as she took Orion's advice and tried to adjust it in her mind to account for the fact that she and Harry already had an excellent working relationship.

"Actually, don't be neglecting the work relationship," Abraxas cautioned, suddenly sounding serious. "It gives you a chance to showcase your power and talent. Ashworth seems like the type of wizard who would find that attractive. You can out-duel and overpower Amelia Bones any day of the week. Use your superiority to your advantage."

"How, pray tell, is an Unspeakable who is doing research going to showcase her dueling prowess and stamina to the Warden of Azkaban?" Orion inquired, sounding a little exasperated. "He was already her dueling coach. He knows she is powerful. We need to focus on getting him attracted to her personality."

"What about that one proposal Prewett mentioned the other day?" Abraxas argued back as his words about showcasing talent and Orion's exasperated response took root in Bellatrix's mind, albeit not in quite the way Orion intended.

Harry and Bellatrix had not been practicing their dueling with each other as much lately. If Bellatrix were to push for those duels to occur more frequently, Bellatrix would be increasing her opportunities to socialize with Harry while showcasing her talent at the same time. She would also be ensuring he was not spending free time with Amelia. As for what Orion had said about Harry needing to be attracted to her personality, that also resonated with Bellatrix, but she was not sure how to proceed.

Orion and Abraxas were arguing about a proposal that involved calling on tenured Ministry workers to substitute in as hitwizards during emergencies when Bellatrix interrupted them. "I think the goal I want to focus on is encouraging Ashworth to become attracted to my personality."

"Meaning, you want him to fall in love with you," Abraxas clarified.

"I wouldn't say that," Bellatrix said, blushing again. In her mind, she just wanted Harry to be comfortable enough to marry her and cement their alliance. She did not want to think about the word love. Just the thought of telling Harry that she loved him made her squirm. Him saying it to her would be flattering, but also awkward. She would rather just focus on the social, financial, and power benefits of an alliance, as well as the private interactions she had come to crave.

Amusement danced in Abraxas' eyes but faded as his face became more serious. "I think the two of you spending more time with each other will be the ticket. Go down there and chat him up. Maybe he'll ask you to dance again. Maybe you can talk about a nice place to eat dinner another day."

Feeling strengthened by the advice from Abraxas and Orion, even if they knew little about her relationship with Harry, Bellatrix announced she was returning to the ball.

After the ball, Cygnus, Orion, and Abraxas convened in Cygnus' office to debrief each other. Since, unlike Orion and Abraxas, Cygnus had spent the entire evening on his feet interacting with the guests, he retreated to a couch to lie down and put his feet up.

"Please tell me that we got something useful from all of this," he begged.

"I'm afraid not," Orion replied as he paced near the couch. "For the most part, the wrong people turned out. Or at least people in whom we have no interest."

"Well, at least Bellatrix was able to enjoy a debut of sorts," Cygnus said. "And I'm glad the Longbottom boy asked her to dance."

"We're pretty sure Potter put him up to it," Abraxas revealed. "There's no way young Longbottom is interested in her."

"The important thing is that Ashworth is not the only person she danced with," Cygnus emphasized.

"Yes, well, about that," Orion hedged. "I'm not sure what you were able to see from your vantage point, but her desire to dance with Ashworth was extremely pronounced."

Cygnus sighed. "Druella is going to be furious. Ashworth probably thinks she's a lunatic. The witches eyeing Ashworth themselves are going to be resentful and jealous. The list goes on."

"It gets worse," Abraxas said before recounting his and Orion's conversation with Bellatrix.

Then, Orion summed it up. "Basically, Bellatrix sees Amelia Bones as a rival to be defeated, even if she has a hard time articulating what she is going to do with the prize."

Cygnus chuckled bitterly. "Basically, she's already in love with him and is trying to make him fall in love with her, except that she has no clue about love. That's my fault. And it is Druella's fault."

"To be fair, part of the problem is cultural and part of the problem is her natural sociopathic disposition," Orion pointed out. "In fact, I would say a lot of it is her natural disposition."

"And she's young," Abraxas said, trying to help alleviate Cygnus' guilty conscience. "So that is why I advised her to spend more time with him. Not only will it help reel Ashworth in, but she will start to become comfortable with the possibility of a normal relationship."

"I hate to think she's out in the world tackling this alone," Cygnus said. "If you're accelerating the marriage plans, can't we accelerate Ashworth's promotion so that we can keep an eye on them both?"

"His promotion is within reason," Orion agreed. "Even Director Prewett has expressed pleasure with Ashworth's work performance."

"Just don't let Bellatrix know you're going against her preference on that count," Abraxas warned.

"This might be too much of a stretch, and I'm not advocating for this immediately," Cygnus said, putting his feet down and sitting up. "But how does Undersecretary Ashworth sound to you?"

"That's our job!" Abraxas shot back as Orion raised his eyebrows.

"I think real undersecretaries do more grunt work," Cygnus snapped. "It would be nice if we had someone like him in the upper echelons of the Ministry because it would give me less to worry about. As things now stand, I am constantly having to look over the shoulders of people and try to anticipate their politics."

"What makes you so sure Ashworth is the solution to that particular problem?" Abraxas demanded.

"I think Cygnus has a point," Orion said. "As we observed tonight, Ashworth seems drawn to the right sort of people. And of course, he has already made strides in his short time at Azkaban. I think a promotion to that level within a few months or so is a valid option."

Theorizing that Voldemort's attack on Azkaban had been an attempt to seize Evander Edgecombe, Harry had opted to report to the Ministry that Edgecombe had died of natural causes during the battle. He then moved him into one of the hotel's rooms. There, Harry could keep his existence secret.

Bellatrix was annoyed because she did not want her hotel to become the Azkaban annex. However, she did have small hotel rooms without exterior windows that were less marketable. Further Edgecombe's stay was going to be short. The hotel's house elves were administering hospice care, and Edgecombe's death was imminent.

Harry had also moved Estella Borgin into a room in the hotel. He was not trying to hide her existence like he was hiding Edgecombe. Rather, he had told Bellatrix that he felt she should be allowed to serve out the remainder of her sentence in comfort because her time in Azkaban had been more punitive than it should have been.

Managing Estella was more complicated because she was due to be released soon. The official story Harry had crafted and disseminated was that Estella had suffered a mental breakdown, was a danger to herself, and that it had been necessary to contract her care out to a private mental hospital. There were those who thought Harry's concern over the mental health of Azkaban prisoners was odd. However, the Ministry had bigger things to worry about, and Estella's family was not complaining.

Because of the hotel's house elves, Harry and Bellatrix did not have to think or worry much about either prisoner's care. On the other hand, Edgecombe and his wealth of knowledge was a source of curiosity, and Harry had spent a fair amount of time interrogating him to see what useful information he might share. During these interrogations, Bellatrix would stand guard outside the room to ensure Harry could deactivate and reactivate the security wards to enter and exit the room without incident.

For Bellatrix, who was already juggling multiple endeavors, this extra chore was annoying. However, the worst part of it was having to pose as a hotel maid to justify repeatedly walking up and down the hallway or camping directly outside of the room with a housekeeping cart.

When Bellatrix had decided with Sabine that the hotel's housekeeping staff should wear crisp, black-and-white maid uniforms, she had not realized she would end up wearing one of those outfits as she tooled up and down the hallways with a housekeeping cart.

Bellatrix had taken a break from pushing the housekeeping cart and was picking at her overly starched white sleeve cuffs and dress collar when a vaguely familiar voice startled her out of her reverie.

"Weren't you working the front desk earlier this summer?"

Bellatrix gritted her teeth and turned around to find Vernon Dursley approaching, a bottle of wine clutched in one of his fat hands. Apparently he had just exited the elevator and was on his way to his room. Bellatrix suddenly recalled that Vernon Dursley and Petunia Evans had checked into the hotel for their wedding.

"I was working the front desk when you arrived for your first stay with us," Bellatrix acknowledged.

"What happened?' Vernon asked, sounding sympathetic as he eyed Bellatrix in her uniform with a little bit more than casual interest. "Have you been demoted?"

"I'm not sure," Bellatrix said slowly. "I just do what management assigns me."

"Well, I hope nothing my fiancé or I said or did resulted in your demotion," Vernon said, his voice reflecting genuine concern.

"I am sure it did not," Bellatrix said tersely, beginning to wonder if Petunia had been saying things to Sabine that she did not already know about.

"So, remind me, your family owns the hotel. Is that right?"

"Let's just say they are key investors," Bellatrix said. "They were kind enough to arrange a temporary position for me while I seek permanent employment."

"Does your family invest in other enterprises?" Vernon asked.

"Yes," Bellatrix said. It was not exactly true. But investments were in her long-term plans.

"I don't know how close you are to the decision makers in your family," Vernon said, sounding excited, "but I've been thinking about a proposal for my firm to branch out overseas, perhaps to Egypt."

"Egypt?" Bellatrix repeated, feeling confused.

"Do you remember us crossing paths in the hot tub earlier this summer? There was that chap from an expatriate family in Egypt. If you have his contact information, perhaps we could work up some sort of deal with my firm's product, your family's investment capital, and that other fellow's connections in Egypt."

Bellatrix blinked as she tried to wrap her mind around the investment proposal that had come out of the blue. "I can certainly pass on the idea," she said. "What is your firm again?"

"Grunnings. We make power drills."

"Drills. Right," Bellatrix said, wondering if a power drill was comparable to a magic wand.

Vernon produced a business card and handed it to Bellatrix. "Here's my contact."

"Thank you," Bellatrix said, accepting the card and depositing it into one of her pockets. "I'll be sure to pass it on."

Vernon wasted a little more of her time making small talk before he proceeded to his room. Not long after he disappeared, Harry signaled Bellatrix that he was ready to be done, and Bellatrix swiftly went to the entrance to Edgecombe's room where she stood guard as Harry exited and reset the wards.

"Well?" Bellatrix asked expectantly.

Harry sighed and shook his head. "He's still trying to figure out who I am and play mind games with me. Who does that? After decades in Azkaban, he's dying and still trying to manipulate people."

"There are reasons that even the purebloods were happy to see him go to Azkaban," Bellatrix pointed out.

Further conversation was cut off by a noise from down the hall. Cursing under her breath, Bellatrix grabbed Harry and bundled him into a nearby broom closet, slamming the door shut behind them.

"Do you have prefects patrolling your own hotel?" Harry joked in the dark as tried to find a wall to lean against.

"No. Lily's future brother-in-law is staying on this floor for his wedding."

"His wedding?" Harry asked, sounding shocked.

"Yes. I was talking to him while you were in the room with Edgecombe. He was nattering on about how we could make a three-way deal between investors, his company, and your contacts in Egypt. If he sees you lurking around, he will become suspicious at why I would not mention that you were also at the hotel.

"Oh, fabulous," Harry said, not sounding as thrilled as his word choice implied. "So, do we just sit here while we wait for him to pass? And when is the wedding?"

"Later today, actually. And we can just apparate from here," Bellatrix pointed out.

"Right," Harry said.

Bellatrix took Harry's arm and squeezed, signaling that she was ready. One quiet popping sound later, the two were back in their penthouse, and Bellatrix was on her way into her bedroom to change her clothes while Harry puttered around in the kitchen, apparently putting together a sandwich.

"When you were in the future, did you ever hear of a company named Grunnings?" Bellatrix called out, her voice carrying through the bedroom doorway that she had left open.

Harry's response was slow in coming, and Bellatrix wondered if he had left the kitchen and retreated to his bedroom on the other end of the penthouse suite. Even though her bedroom door was open, she could not see whether Harry was in the kitchen because of the corners between her bedroom and the main living area.

"Don't they make drills?" Harry asked, his voice sounding a bit odd.

"That's what Vernon tells me," Bellatrix said, shucking her maid uniform and quickly replacing it with her standard business attire.

"And Vernon is looking for investors?" Harry asked.

"Precisely. If you happen to know whether Grunnings has a good outlook, it may be an easy investment."

"As far as I know, it would be solid," Harry said, his voice still sounding odd. "I remember their drills being on sale in Muggle stores."

Bellatrix exited the bedroom and found that Harry was standing at the kitchen counter, cutting a sandwich in half.

"Maybe I can find a way to broker a deal with his firm, then," Bellatrix speculated, helping herself to half the sandwich. "He'll think that the investor is my family, not me. So, I would have to engineer something a bit elaborate."

"Should we maybe crash Vernon's wedding?" Harry mused, changing the subject away from Grunnings. "It might be fun to see Lily in her natural habitat, as it were. And speaking of Lily, did I mention that she's going to be in charge of the dueling club this year?"

"You already mentioned it to me," Bellatrix reminded Harry, not sure whether he truly did not remember telling her about it or whether he was subtly trying to encourage Bellatrix to volunteer.

"Oh, right," Harry said blandly.

"And actually, yes, let's crash the wedding," Bellatrix said decisively. "I have a little bit of a score to settle with Petunia, and," she said, pausing for an extra second, "you owe me a proper dance."

"A proper dance?" Harry said, rolling his eyes. "Since when? We already danced at the Ministry Ball."

"That dance doesn't count. You were really awkward," Bellatrix insisted, being a bit dishonest. "It was more like a practice run."

The truth was that she had been more than satisfied with her first dance with Harry. Her only complaint was that she had wanted a second dance but missed the opportunity because the various people to whom she had introduced him had been overly chatty. Luckily, that had also prevented Harry from dancing with Amelia a second time. Now, if Bellatrix danced with Harry again, she would be one-upping Amelia and also following the advice from Orion and Abraxas.

"What does it matter how well I danced?" Harry demanded. "I thought the whole purpose of going to the Ministry Ball was for me to meet people. Plus, we were supposed to put on a public show of only just beginning to interact socially outside of school."

"Just accept the fact that you owe me a proper dance," Bellatrix snapped. "You'll need to come up with a disguise. We don't want Lily knowing what we're up to. And I don't want Vernon to think we're fishy if we end up doing some sort of deal with Grunnings using our real personas."

"Lily doesn't really want me to come," Sirius pointed out to James. "She just invited us both so she can say it was an invitation to friends and not a romantic overture."

"If it works, it works," James said, excitement bubbling up in his chest as they navigated through the lobby of the hotel where the reception for Lily's sister and her new husband was being held.

"Don't get me wrong," Sirius said as he admired the hotel's decor. "I don't mind tagging along. It beats having to hang around home listening to my mother and Aunt Druella complain and scheme."

They found their way to the hotel's finest ballroom and were hovering over the guestbook for the Evans-Dursley wedding when Lily found them just as they were about to write in comedic pseudonyms and dubious well-wishes.

"No need to write anything," Lily said hastily as she approached. She was wearing a beige dress that screamed bridesmaid since only a bridesmaid could be compelled to wear something so awful.

"I assure you, it is no bother," Sirius declared even as James dropped the pen and gave Sirius a stern look, choosing to comply with Lily's wishes.

Lily briefly introduced James and Sirius to Vernon, Petunia, and her parents. Lily's parents seemed thrilled to meet James and Sirius. Petunia was apprehensive, and Vernon was mildly suspicious since he was under the impression that Lily and her friends went to a school for juvenile delinquents. From there, Lily escorted James and Sirius through the buffet line and then to the last empty table, which was near the edge of the room.

"Does your new brother-in-law know about magic?" James asked Lily.

"No. It will be quite a shock if he ever finds out," Lily chuckled.

James raised his eyebrows. "I should say so. He seems like the type that would be displeased."

Lily shrugged.

"Not that I know much about him," James rushed to explain. "I'm sure he's a very nice fellow."

Sirius snorted, apparently having concluded otherwise. "How did the happy couple meet?" he asked, grabbing his goblet of punch and downing it one swallow.

"They worked at the same company for a time. Most of the guests are from the company," Lily said vaguely. She then changed the subject. "I should tell you, I saw Professor Ashworth in Diagon Alley the other day."

"Did you confront him about Bellatrix?" James teased.

Lily blushed. "I asked if he had seen her. He said he had run into her a few times. It sounds like any relationship between them is strictly casual. He did not sound interested at all. When I asked if he could pass on a message to her, he acted like he might not even run into her anytime soon."

Sirius chuckled darkly.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Lily demanded. "Why are you laughing?"

"I think he is aware that Ashworth danced with Bellatrix at the recent Ministry Ball," James explained.

"He did what?" Lily exclaimed, suddenly outraged as she put her elbows on the table and leaned forward.

"Are these seats open?" a soft, barely masculine voice asked.

James, Lily, and Sirius looked up to see that a couple with plates in hand had approached the table, apparently having been attracted by the sight of empty seats. The man was middle-aged. His hair was brown with hints of grey. His face was so nondescript that anyone not looking at him would be hard-pressed to remember what he looked like. On the other end of the spectrum, the woman he was escorting sported platinum blonde hair, icy blue eyes, and sharp facial features.

"Of course," Lily said genially, her hesitation barely noticeable as she gestured to the open seats. "I'm Petunia's sister. How do you know the couple?"

"I'm Ella White," the blonde said. "Vernon and I are business associates." She gestured absently to the man. "This is my husband, Bob."

Bob winced.

"I take it that these two young men are your friends," Ella observed once she and Bob were seated.

"Yes," Lily said, introducing James and Sirius.

At this juncture Ella and Bob turned their focus away from their tablemates to their dinner plates, seeming to lose interest in the teenagers, who were able to resume their conversation.

"So, they danced?" Lily asked, pushing Sirius for more of an explanation.

"I heard she was the one who practically asked him, if it makes you feel any better," Sirius said. "My aunt and mum came home spitting mad about it. They ranted and raved about how the younger generation has no respect for tradition. They lectured Narcissa about what will happen if she follows in Bellatrix's footsteps."

"So, she really is open to marrying him," Lily said faintly.

"Actually, I'm less sure about that than I was before," Sirius said judiciously. "From what I've overheard, Bellatrix may have just been trying to make my mom angry. They had a dustup right before she went and asked him to dance."

"She also danced with Frank," James piped up. "But that was my father's fault. He put Frank up to it."

"Oh dear," Lily murmured. "Did Ashworth dance with anyone else?"

"Amelia Bones," James reported. "My dad had plenty to say about that. Apparently, Amelia's parents forced her to ask him. Or at least that is his theory."

"I'm not sure why your dad even cares," Sirius said, rolling his eyes. "He's awesome. But when he breaks out his soapbox, he gets a little boorish."

"Well, even if our pedigree is unobjectionable under most pureblood standards, he has a chip on his shoulder about certain pureblood traditions. It might have to do with him getting in a lot of fights while he was at Hogwarts," James tried to explain. "Unlike poor Frank or Amelia, or even Bellatrix for that matter, my parents aren't scheming to get me married to the best possible pureblood."

"That is good news for the lovelies who are not necessarily purebloods," Sirius said slyly, pointedly not looking in Lily's direction.

James swatted Sirius and gave him an angry glance.

"A marriage with Amelia Bones would make sense for Ashworth," Lily declared brightly, pretending to have not heard Sirius' comment. "They are both Aurors, and there isn't much of an age difference. I mean, if Ashworth married Bellatrix, isn't that, what, 20 years of an age difference?"

James nodded in agreement.

"I don't know that age difference is that important," Sirius said casually, glaring at James before he could start snickering.

Looking for affirmation, Sirius turned to Ella and Bob and raised his voice a notch. "What do you two think about age differences in marriage?"

Ella, who was looking nonplussed and even surly, shrugged.

"What about you, Bob?" Sirius asked.

Bob had been staring at all the other guests and had not heard the question. He turned around. "Sorry, what was the question?"

Ella repeated it for his benefit. "These lovely teenagers are debating with each other about whether their friend Ashworth should marry Amelia, who is his age, or some other person named Bellatrix, who is apparently a helpless teenager nearly twenty years younger than him."

"I think the question is more about age differences in general," James clarified.

"I'm sure if the young lady in question is mature enough it should not be a problem," Bob said, squirming under everyone's scrutiny. "If it works for them, it works."

Ella was looking like she had something else to say but a commotion at another table drew everyone's attention away from the conversation. One of the guests had brought a dog, and it had leapt up onto the table where it was trying to eat another guest's chicken.

"Whose dog is that?" James asked, sounding outraged.

"Vernon's sister, Marge," Lily revealed.

"Bringing a dog to a wedding," Ella grumbled. "Barbarians. If that thing urinates on the carpet, there will be scalpings and other unpleasant things."

Bob was also frowning as he stared at Marge and her dog. "Excuse me," he said before standing up and leaving the table. Ella quickly followed.

Shortly after Bob and Ella left, a pair of hotel staff materialized from wherever they had been staying out of sight. The two workers firmly informed Marge that her dog was not welcome and then proceeded to forcefully remove the dog from the ballroom as Marge sobbed angrily. Other staff appeared to clean up the table and replace the food that had been contaminated by dog slobber.

Eventually, the people at the table persuaded Marge to sit down and finish her meal without her dog. This could have been the end of the incident, except that somebody had surreptitiously placed a large whoopee cushion on Marge's chair during the commotion. When she sat down, the whoopee cushion let out an unnaturally loud and sustained explosion.

"Please tell me that wasn't either of you," Lily gasped, her hands over her mouth, as she watched the blood drain out of Marge's face. Everyone in the ballroom was either staring at her or going out of their way to look the other direction.

James and Sirius shook their heads, clearly struggling to hold their composure as Marge stood up and fled the ballroom.

"Why would you do that?" Bellatrix demanded as she and Harry watched Marge Dursley flee the ballroom.

"Do what?"

"Don't be coy!"

"It seemed appropriate," Harry said as he leaned against the wall and folded his arms.

"Now I can't harass Petunia with what I had planned without triggering a demand for a refund," Bellatrix complained. "Couldn't we have just taken that dog woman out to the hall and threatened to rub her nose in the carpet if her dog relieved itself?"

Harry shrugged as he and Bellatrix watched Lily get up and rush to the head table to confer with Petunia and her mother about the commotion. A couple of other bridesmaids and the best man had joined them.

Petunia was looking like she wanted to cry. Vernon was trying to joke with a groomsman and pass off the Marge incident as nothing, though Harry could tell from his body language that he was beyond embarrassed.

"Lily was trying to introduce her prospective beau to her family. Now, he must think her family are a pack of idiots," Bellatrix said, sounding uncharacteristically empathetic.

"It was not that bad," Harry said, rolling his eyes. He knew all too well that Marge deserved any humiliation that came her way. With any luck, this would cause Vernon and Petunia to distance themselves from her.

"Have you ever tried to introduce your girlfriend to your family only to have them embarrass you?" Bellatrix demanded.

"Well, not quite. Let's just say I can sympathize," Harry said, inwardly smirking over the irony that the same embarrassments Lily was suffering would be his to share if Bellatrix ever figured out that Lily was his mother and that many of the guests at Petunia's wedding had been his family, too. However, even if she did figure it out, it was not as if Harry had been introducing her as a prospective girlfriend to his family.

Suddenly, Harry realized why Bellatrix was being sensitive. Back at the table, Sirius had mentioned the Black matriarchs and their machinations. Harry, who had been staring around the room at what he thought must be some of his mother's extended family, had been too preoccupied to pay attention. However, he assumed that whatever was said must have been embarrassing.

"It looks like they are about to start the dancing," Harry said, hoping to help Bellatrix stop thinking about what Sirius had said. "I seem to recall that the main reason we're here is that you think I owe you a proper dance."

"That's right," Bellatrix agreed. Then she frowned. "Although it's going to be awkward again. You don't exactly look like yourself."

"Neither do you," Harry said judiciously, eying Bellatrix's blonde hair as, in the background, Petunia and Vernon began their first dance. There was also the problem, in Harry's mind, that Bellatrix's dress at the Ministry Ball had been quite a bit more stunning than the dress she was wearing now.

"It's my dance. It doesn't matter what I look like." Bellatrix grumbled. "I'll accept dancing with you tonight in your disguise as a holdover. But you'll owe me another one later in circumstances where you actually look like yourself."

"Are you joking?" Harry demanded as Petunia and Vernon began their first dance as a married couple. "If this one doesn't count, maybe I'll just sit this one out and pay you off later."

"Or maybe you'll just dance now and dance later," Bellatrix said, her voice suddenly menacing, though the slightest twitch of one of her facial muscles suggested she was teasing Harry.

"What's the benefit of that?" Harry said mulishly, playing along.

"I know where you sleep. And I know you hate it when people fingerpaint strange designs on your face while you're sleeping."

"How could you possibly know that?"

"It might be more of an assumption."

Harry crossed his arms and frowned. "Would you really fingerpaint my face?"

"Maybe I would just artfully trim your eyebrows."

"If you touch my eyebrows, I will shave off your eyebrows."

"I sleep on my stomach," Bellatrix revealed. "So, good luck doing that without waking me up and getting yourself walloped."

"I sleep on my stomach, too," Harry said, bluffing.

Bellatrix arched an eyebrow. "Nice try."

Harry was about to ask if she really knew what side he slept on or if she was also bluffing when the music for Vernon and Petunia's dance stopped after the first verse. Apparently, the person in charge of the music was attempting to put Vernon, Petunia, and all the guests out of their misery.

The guests then watched as Petunia danced with her father, followed by Vernon dancing, with his mother. Though Harry harbored less than fond feelings for Petunia, he drank in the father-daughter dance since Petunia's father was one of his grandfathers. After that, Harry could not help but join Bellatrix and a few of the other guests in smirking as Vernon and his mother waddled around the dance floor.

When that spectacle was over, the remainder of the guests were invited to join in the dancing. Bellatrix wasted no time dragging Harry onto the dance floor, where she took his hand and instructed him to put his other hand on her shoulder blade as the next song began playing.

Grumbling that he knew how to dance, Harry complied with Bellatrix's instructions. As they glided around the dance floor, Harry found himself almost enjoying the experience, at least compared to his experience at the Ministry Ball. This time, he was not sensing the scrutiny of various Ministry workers and purebloods.

It also helped that Bellatrix seemed to be in a much better mood. Indeed, she was unusually silent, apparently savoring the experience. Normally, Harry would have been happy for her, but he could not help but feel dread.