Bad Romance

Chapter 139

Chapter 139: Head Games

The Lestranges left Arthur to get some sleep and went home to get their own. As per usual recently, Lyra woke Bella and Rod the next morning by banging on their bedroom door.

Bella groaned as she dragged the blankets up over her head. It didn't feel as though it should be time to wake yet. She was still so very sleepy. It had been a long tiring few days, and didn't they deserve to catch up on their sleep a bit? Apparently not. Lyra banged again.

"Are you hearing me?" she yelled. "I've only been talking to you through the door for forty-five seconds!"

"Is that why I was having a dream about an obnoxious talking woodpecker?" Rod muttered sleepily.

"When people don't get enough sleep, they aren't as sharp. In our line of work, that is dangerous," Bellatrix shouted back. "If you don't let us get enough sleep, that could get us killed!"

"Okay, well I'm not the one sitting in our dining room with a worried look on his face, asking for you both."

"Grindelwald?" Rod called the question as he sat up in bed. His hair was sticking up everywhere, which made Bella grin.

"Romeo," Lyra replied. "So if you'd like I can tell him that you don't care about whatever has him so concerned, and that you'd prefer sleeping to hearing about it."

"Contrary to your unpopular belief, being a brat does not at all become you," Rod grumbled as he tossed back the blankets with a resigned sigh.

"I hope it isn't about the bloody guns," Bellatrix muttered as she regretfully rolled out of bed.

She and Rod hastily dressed and hurried downstairs to discover what had brought Romeo out to speak with them so early. They entered the dining room to find the Head Auror seated at the table with a mug of coffee in front of him, and large dark circles under his eyes. Bellatrix decided not to grumble over being woken up when it appeared Romeo had gotten even less sleep.

"One of Delphini's people turned himself in two hours ago," he began, not bothering with one of those annoying good mornings, which Bellatrix greatly appreciated, considering it really was not. "He wanted to exchange information for a pardon now that Delphini is dead. We weren't interested until he dropped your names, saying he knew exactly why Delphini believed Bellatrix was her mother."

"Skeeter," Bellatrix said. Even after they'd thoroughly killed the woman, she couldn't speak the name without making a disgusted face.

"Though Skeeter did put the word out to the public, someone else put it into Delphini's ear as a possibility first. He says his name is Aymer Dolohov. He professes to be the cousin of Death Eater Antonin Dolohov. He claimed that Voldemort paid him personally, through Antonin, to find Delphini when she was older and suggest that you, Bella, were her mother." Bellatrix shrugged, but Romeo held up a hand, indicating that he wasn't finished. "He was ordered to do so while transfigured into Rodolphus, claiming to have escaped Azkaban just to give her the information and any help he could."

Bellatrix felt herself giving a slow blink as she processed this.

"But why in the hell wouldn't I have broken out of Azkaban earlier if it were that bloody easy?" Rod grumbled. "Convenient timing, wasn't it?"

"She likely wanted to believe so didn't think it out," Bellatrix mused.

"That and she probably knew little of how Azkaban rolls," Romeo added with a tired smirk.

Rodolphus and Bellatrix joined Lyra, Romeo, and Rabastan at the table and Harold breezed in to serve breakfast.

Bellatrix had a sneaking suspicion the elf wasn't tired at all from the fast way he moved, but if he had any bags under his eyes, his plague doctor mask hid them well. Perhaps she should get herself one of those, Bella thought drily. It'd come in useful if their sleep remained this bloody sparse.