Bad Romance

Chapter 23

Chapter 23: Don't Let Me Go

Everyone Apparated to Auror headquarters, abandoning Gringotts to Delphini. Bellatrix grinned, imagining how enraged the girl would be to find nothing but vacated vaults. It would appear that they'd given way to her, but then she would find that they'd left her nothing.

"We really need to work up some sort of mental shield for everyone against whatever she's doing," Zabini stated. He was the first to speak when everyone arrived. That suited Bella fine as it meant Grindelwald wasn't yelling at her again for what she'd done. It wasn't her fault, after all. The girl had done something to her mind, and she was getting bloody tired of her mind being messed about with!

"It was just Bellatrix's mind which was attacked, so perhaps I can work with her on shields personally," Romeo said.

The Head Auror had a rare talent for natural telepathy so Bellatrix actually did have confidence in his ability to produce flawless mental shields. Hopefully, he could teach them as well.

"Not just Bellatrix," Blaise corrected calmly. "She also did something to me. It lasted about half a minute. Gellert and I had just finished with the deflecting shields when it happened. It was as if I was stuck in a nightmare... or rather several nightmares. It felt as if it lasted for months and months, yet when I returned to awareness at Gringotts with the rest of you, only half a minute had passed according to the wall clock. I understand what Bellatrix went through, because it was so vivid." Zabini's eyes briefly closed, and he visibly fortified himself before continuing. The man never showed emotion, so Bellatrix found this interesting as well as alarming.

"It was as though I experienced all manner of different situations, all horrible. In one, I somehow went back in time to the twenties, and when I attempted to approach Gellert, he was only interested in my assistance in his cause and nothing more. He was appalled by the idea of a relationship with a man, and was very reluctant to admit to his feelings for me. I knew that he had them because...well, to be frank, physical interest is a thing men literally can't hide."

Bellatrix knew everyone would've laughed at that one were the situation not so worrisome, and even Rabastan didn't make a wisecrack.

"I ended up...going a bit psychotic and killing a lot of his followers in rather graphic and brutal ways in order to get his attention. Keep in mind that I've never actually killed anyone. In the end, I think in that one instance, I managed to take mental control of the illusion Delphini was spinning, because Gellert didn't really try to stop me. In the illusion, I knew that this was because he loved me. Of course Gellert would always protect his followers, so I think that was my way of adjusting the situation to show Gellert's caring so that I could stop going bloody mental. That one ended, and in the next I was back in present time. I watched Delphini kill my parents, and it was so vivid and dreadful. Unfortunately, thanks to her, I now know what that would look and feel like, and for that she will pay," Zabini said grimly.

"She repeated that one over and over in different ways before moving on to Gellert being killed." He closed his eyes again, and Grindelwald reached for his hand, uncaring of all the gazes upon them. "I know what your body looks like when it's dead. When rigor sets in and...how foul it can smell. I wouldn't accept that I couldn't restore you to life somehow, and I held onto your body. People kept trying to take it away from me, and I wouldn't let them," Blaise told him.

"Good," Grindelwald said. This caused Zabini to smile, and he relaxed a little as he let out a breath.

"I can't tell you how vivid and real it all felt," Blaise said, turning his gaze from Grindelwald to sweep the rest of the group. "With that being said, it wasn't a matter of Bellatrix being careless."