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Bella's Harem	By : Mamacita Category: Harry Potter AU/AR > Threesomes/Moresomes Views: 28885 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 2
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor any of the characters from the books or movies. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 20
- 21
- 22
21: Sweet Oblivion

Lucius let himself into the Malfoy suite, thinking how bizarre that whole scenario had been. Bella thinking he was the Minister of Magic (Did she really? Or was she having us on for some devious purpose of her own?) and having Lucius, as she thought, marry her to Harry was bad enough. But then to make Harry her King Consort? Of course, neither the wedding nor the appointment were binding, as Lucius was not qualified to perform marriages and Bella was not, in truth, a queen. He shook his head; she really was living in her own little world.

By now, he mused, she and Harry were probably consummating the supposed marriage. Lucius had been sorry to leave Harry behind to deal with Bella on his own, but as long as he played along with the marriage business to keep her happy Lucius didn’t think any harm would come of it for a day or two. He expected it wouldn’t take longer than that to settle the Bella issue permanently.

That was the way he thought of it: The Bella Issue.

“You’re back early,” Narcissa commented. She sat on a comfortable sofa with her feet tucked up under her, stitching on some embroidery project or other. Lucius knew she missed the gardens at Malfoy Manor, where she was accustomed to spend a good deal of time working with her beloved roses. Embroidery was a poor substitute, but at least it was something to do. “Come sit down and talk to me. Who did she have tonight—Harry again, was it?”

“Yes. Oh, and by the way,” Lucius said casually, “when you see Bella tomorrow, try not to act surprised if she refers to him as your brother-in-law.” He patted her leg and waited for the fallout.

“Of course, dar—what? What? Oh!” She gasped, having accidentally run the needle into the pad of her left index finger.

Lucius reached for her hand, which she was waving about as she rummaged for a handkerchief on the little side table. He drew her hand to him and Narcissa glanced over hastily as he lifted it to his mouth. She forgot about the handkerchief, her attention riveted on his mouth as he gently sucked her finger inside and watched her. He slid her finger out again and looked at it critically. “It would be a pity to get blood on your stitching after you’ve worked so hard on it,” he said. He was trying not to smile, because he could tell Narcissa was holding her breath at the sensation of his mouth on her finger.

He decided to tease her just a little. “Best to make sure,” he said, and he took her finger into his mouth again. This time he bobbed his head gently, engulfing the first knuckle, then the second, and finally her entire finger up to where it joined her hand. He swirled his tongue gently around the tip of it and sucked hard, the faint, coppery taste of her blood warm on his tongue.

Narcissa’s embroidery dropped from her hand, needle and all, and she gazed at Lucius’ mouth, her own slightly open. She was breathing again, her breasts rising and falling with the rapid, shallow breaths that indicated how aroused she’d become at the sight of her finger disappearing over and over again so suggestively into his mouth.

Lucius bit down gently and Narcissa gasped again, her eyes flying to his. He kissed her finger and then kissed his way up her hand and arm to her shoulder, pressing her back into the sofa as he flicked his tongue lightly at her earlobe. Narcissa quivered deliciously and felt an unmistakable surge of moisture between her legs. She squirmed a bit, wishing for something to rub against.

“Cissy...” Lucius whispered. The moist warmth of his breath on her ear made her shiver, and she felt her nipples tighten.

And then his mouth hovered over hers and descended slowly, torturously, and landed whisper-soft little kisses along the edge of her lower lip. His tongue traced the bow of her upper lip and slipped inside when Narcissa moaned. Her eyes fluttered closed and she lost herself in the sensation of warm, wet, sucking kisses.

After a bit Lucius lifted his head and looked at her. Yes, he thought, she’d forgotten about Bella for now. He was just as happy to leave further discussion of that subject for later, even if she did make him pay for it a little later when she realized what he’d done.

“Bed, Cissy?” he asked softly, and with an effort she dragged her eyes open again.

“Mmm,” was all she could say. Lucius stood and swung her into his arms—she loved it when he did that; she always felt so cherished—and he walked slowly into the bedroom with her, feasting his eyes on the lush twin mounds of her breasts beneath her favorite lilac gown.

He would tell her about Bella later. Right now he desperately needed to immerse himself in Narcissa’s warmth and, above all, her sanity. Tomorrow would be soon enough to deal with Bella, he thought. He didn’t bother closing the bedroom door; Draco was the only other person who would have dared to enter their quarters without knocking, and he was banished to the harem. Lucius reflected comfortably that he and Narcissa could probably run around the place naked, if they wanted to.

Hmm....

Well, maybe later. First things first. He bent and put Narcissa down on the bed. “Tell me what you want, my pet,” he invited softly.

She told him. He raised one eyebrow and his cock twitched with anticipation.

“Perfect,” he breathed.
A very short time later a soft pop! of Apparation came from out in the living room as Dobby appeared, but it went unheard by the occupants of the bedroom. He cocked his head at the odd noises coming from the bedroom and stole quietly to the doorway to see what was causing them. What he saw made his eyes grow even bigger and rounder than they usually were.

Lucius knelt amid the wreckage of the bedclothes with his head down, his face buried in his arms, and his ass in the air. Narcissa knelt behind him; an enormous dildo was strapped to her slender body and she held it poised at his entrance, bracing herself against his ass with her hands. She spoke to him in a low voice, teasing his cock and balls with the dildo through the vee of his wide-spread legs.

“Slut!” she hissed. “You want it, I know you do.”

“No, mistress! Don’t, please!” he panted. His cock jutted out rigidly in front of him, belying his words.

“You like having my cock up your ass, you know you do,” she whispered. “Perhaps you need a little reminder.” She slapped his rump loudly and Lucius grunted. He was literally trembling with anticipation. A glistening drop of pre-cum, clearly visible from where Dobby stood frozen in the doorway, oozed from the tip of his cock and hung suspended for a moment before disappearing into the blankets.

Narcissa picked up a small jar that lay on the bed and scooped out a dollop of the cream inside; she smeared it all along the length of her impressive “cock”, which she then nudged against Lucius’ ass. She took another blob of the ointment and replaced the lid. Steadying herself with her left hand, she blew gently across the cream to chill it and then touched it to Lucius’ anus, making him jump from the shock of cold on his sensitive flesh.

Slowly and deliberately Narcissa spread the cream along his cleft from top to bottom, circling his entrance every time she passed over it. Finally she wiggled one finger inside, then quickly added a second. (Little did Violet Dabney dream of the reason Narcissa kept her fingernails so short.)

“You don’t deserve that I should take such care to prepare you,” she said, her voice low and menacing. “I hope you’re sufficiently grateful, slut.” She added a third finger and twisted her hand, doing her best to make him ready for her. This was a new dildo she had only recently purchased, and she’d kept it hidden so as to surprise Lucius the next time they played one of their games. It was, as seemed appropriate for a Malfoy, black; and its dimensions were the stuff of fantasy. She thought Lucius would appreciate it. Although he had long ago promised her he wouldn’t sleep with anyone else (they hadn’t invited even Bella to join them in their bed games for years now, since Draco was tiny), Narcissa knew he sometimes missed his liaisons with Snape and one or two others from earlier years, so now and then, as she was doing tonight, she indulged him.

She inserted both thumbs in his anus and gently pulled his ass cheeks apart, needing to make room for what she was about to put inside of him. Lucius badly wanted to turn and look—she’d told him she had a surprise for him but he hadn’t actually seen it yet—but that was not how the game was played.

Narcissa inched the chubby tip of the dildo into his well-lubricated anus and Lucius gasped. Gods! What is that, a petrified elephant cock? he thought. Slowly she pushed in further and he gritted his teeth, no sound escaping except for a muted hiss. Dobby, still unseen in the doorway, sneaked one hand around behind him and placed it, fingers splayed wide, over his own bottom protectively.

Finally the dildo was all the way in and Narcissa leaned over Lucius’ back as he gasped rapidly and tried to relax. The pain was delicious; his anus burned with it.

“Well? Is that enough to fill you up, whore?” Narcissa snarled. “Get ready for the fuck of your life.” She rained a flurry of blows on both of his ass cheeks until she herself was panting and his ass was a bright, glowing pink. Very lightly she drew one of the nails on her left hand across the field of pink on his left cheek, and he grunted and clenched his muscles against the sting.

Narcissa pulled out of him slowly and then pushed back in. Lucius made no sound of protest, so she did it again. Gradually she built up speed, her abdomen slapping against his buttocks with every stroke as she rocked back and forth.

“There! Is that good? Is that what you want?” she murmured. Lucius’s hand sneaked beneath him and grasped his cock, but Narcissa barked, “No! I haven’t said you could touch yourself. This—” she slammed into him— “is good enough for a little slut like you. I want you to come from my cock and nothing else.” She angled it a little higher and Lucius made a high, keening noise. “There—is that it?” She thrust as hard as she could, again, again, and slapped his ass.

Lucius let out a sob of ecstasy. “Yes, oh gods, oh gods, Cissy! Yes! Fuck me, take me—harder! Harder!” Narcissa was pounding into him so hard she wondered that Lucius didn’t fall over. She reached down and simultaneously ran the flat of her tongue down his spine and dug her fingernails into his reddened cheeks and he came with a wordless roar, his cock jettisoning its load across the blankets beneath him.

Narcissa, nearly at the point of orgasm herself, gave him a few more strokes, the collection of small rubber bumps on the back of the dildo stimulating her clit almost more than she could stand. And then there it was: that delicious rising tide of shivers that scalded and froze everything in its path and made your scalp crinkle and then burst inside of you suddenly, like a tiny sun. She fell forward onto Lucius’ back, fully embedded in him, her groin intimately cupping his ass. She realized vaguely that she could still feel the heat from where she’d spanked him and smiled to herself.

Finally Lucius groaned and rolled over, tipping Narcissa off to one side. He winced as she withdrew from his ass and started to say something when a tiny noise came from near the door. In a flash Lucius snatched his wand from the nightstand and aimed it at the door.

When he saw Dobby standing there looking appalled, with one hand anxiously clutched to his backside, Lucius stared at him for a moment, anger beginning to rise in his face, but then he started to laugh. Dobby stood transfixed and watched him. Narcissa rolled her eyes. Quickly unfastening the harness from around herself, she got up and threw on a robe that lay across the foot of the bed. She considered house-elves to be little more than magical talking animals—and she certainly was no prude; still, she had no wish to parade around naked in front of a servant, regardless of its species.

“What is it, Dobby?” she asked.

Dobby tottered forward, his hunched figure giving every indication that Lucius’ ill-treatment of him was well remembered and that he expected more of the same now.

“M-master Harry has sent Dobby to Dobby’s old m-master,” he quavered.

Lucius sat up instantly. “Harry? Why—what’s happened?”

Dobby clutched at his ears and wrung them frantically as he did when he was upset. “Mistress B-bellatrix has collapsed,” he said. “She will not wake up, no matter how hard Master H-harry tries.”

Narcissa’s hand flew to her mouth and Lucius looked thunderstruck. “Is she—” He stopped, hardly able to put words to the thought; he was uncertain whether he should be elated or apprehensive about what he half expected the answer to be. He swallowed. “Is she...dead?”

Dobby stopped wringing his hands and looked appalled. “Dead? No! Mistress’ heart beats, but Master Harry is worried. He asks Dobby’s old master—” Lucius was amused that Dobby seemed unable to bring himself to utter the Malfoy name— “to come quickly.”

“Of course,” Lucius said. “Please go back and tell Harry I’ll be there directly.” Dobby nodded and vanished with a snap of his fingers.

Lucius looked at Narcissa for a long moment. Then he asked, “Do you want to come?”

She seemed torn. “I—I suppose I should.” She didn’t seem overly enthused about the idea.

“Do you want to come?” Lucius asked again as he tugged on his boots. He straightened. “You needn’t, you know. I doubt there’s anything I can’t handle.”

Narcissa looked at him. “No,” she said at last, very faintly. “I don’t want to see her.”

Lucius nodded. “Very well.” He kissed her briefly and said, “You should go back to bed, if you can. Get some rest. I’ve no idea what tomorrow will bring, but I suspect one way or another we may find ourselves rather busy. I’ll be back when I can.” He strode out of the bedroom and had his hand on the handle of the door out of the suite when Narcissa called to him.

“Lucius!”

He turned. “Yes, dearest?”

She bit her lip and clasped her hands tightly. “Do you think badly of me—for not going? She is my sister....”

Lucius smiled. “That, dear one, is merely an accident of birth; in my opinion it does not obligate you in any way.” He opened the door and started out, then turned back again. “And for the record, I can’t think of anything you could do that would make me think badly of you.” After one more lingering look he left, closing the door behind him.

Narcissa felt somewhat comforted. She really did feel as if she should want to go to Bella, but it was years since they’d been close. Bella had been immersed in Death Eater activities at the behest of Rodolphus, even more so than Lucius had, and she and Narcissa hadn’t really felt like sisters since they were children. If Bella were to die...Narcissa wondered how she would feel about that. She suspected she would be more relieved than anything else. With a sigh, she went back into the bedroom and Vanished the puddle Lucius had just made on top of the bedclothes, then lay down and closed her eyes to see if she could sleep.
Lucius jumped out of the elevator before it had quite stopped and ran across the anteroom. He bounded up the stairs two at a time, coming to an abrupt halt when he saw Bella. Harry had lifted her onto the sofa but she had not woken as yet. He sat cross-legged on the floor beside her and Dobby hovered anxiously nearby. Lucius slowly walked over to them.

“How is she?” he asked.

Harry shrugged. “She’s out cold. I moved her to the sofa because the floor’s so cold, but she hasn’t woken up at all.” He gave Lucius a worried look. “Am I in trouble?”

“Trouble?” Lucius snorted. “From who? Snape, Narcissa, and I are the only ones here, besides the harem. And the house-elves, of course,” he said when Dobby leveled a look at him. “I very much doubt the others will be returning any time soon...if at all.”

He walked closer and bent to look at Bella, leaving Harry to puzzle over what he’d meant by that. Lucius placed a finger firmly under the side of Bella’s jaw, where he could feel her pulse beating sluggishly. He, too, had had to stare fixedly at her for several moments before he could assure himself she was still breathing.

He straightened and said, as he had on another notable evening Harry had spent with Bella, “Tell me again what happened.”

“Well, she kept moaning about how at first she thought being Queen would be so much fun, but it turned out it was too much work. She said she’d thought it would be a lark—she did all this for a lark!” The resentment began to rise in him again.

Lucius eyed him consideringly. “It doesn’t surprise me,” he said. “You realize she would have lost interest in all this sooner or later, don’t you?”

Harry, not mollified in the least, said hotly, “Well, it’s too bad she didn’t get tired of it before she started killing people! What about Stuart? And what about Arthur, and all the others who are stuck here without their families?” He shook his head in disgust. “I told her what I thought of her...and she kept trying to tell me she loved me. I was pretty angry,” he admitted.

“So you...struck her?” Lucius guessed.

“What? No!” Harry’s horror at the idea was obviously genuine. “I never laid a hand on her. I was kind of yelling at her, and—er—oh, right. Well, I said I didn’t want anything more to do with her. I said all of us in the harem would leave in a heartbeat if we had the chance, including me.”

“And?”

“That’s it. Then she just sort of...fell over. I don’t know why. I never touched her, I swear!”

Lucius sighed. He had no idea what was wrong with the blasted woman. If Harry was telling the truth, and Lucius was fairly sure he was, it would seem she was merely overwrought and had fainted or something. But if that was the case, he thought she should have come round by now.

He’d have liked to just leave her there, remove the wards she’d placed on the castle to keep the prisoners in, and let everyone go home. The thing was, though, he didn’t trust Bella. He had a feeling the minute he turned his back she’d come round and start looking for him. And if she didn’t find him—well, suffice it to say that Lucius had no intention of living the rest of his life on the run from a madwoman with vengeance on her mind.

“Dobby,” he said suddenly, “fetch Snape. He’ll know what to do.” He glanced over at the elf and something prompted him to add, “Please.” He was surprised to hear himself say it—to an elf, no less.

But the small courtesy transformed Dobby’s face from disapproving to eager. “Yes, master,” he said. “Dobby will bring the Professor straightaway.” He snapped his fingers and was gone.

Lucius paced back and forth, his arms crossed over his chest, and stared at Harry, who sat and watched Bella and seemed oblivious to everything else. Lucius said, “You can take off the formal wear if you want to.” He jerked his head at Bella. “She’s not going to know.” He resumed his pacing but kept a surreptitious eye on Harry, hoping to get another look at him in the outfit he’d worn to Bella’s suite tonight.

“Ha! No thanks,” Harry said. He pulled the robe around him more tightly. “I’m keeping this as long as I can. I’m tired of being naked all the time for no good reason.”

Damn, Lucius thought. Oh well, it was worth a try. “No good reason, eh? And what would you consider a good reason?” he asked idly.

“Nothing that goes on in this castle, that’s for sure,” Harry muttered.

Lucius had a provocative reply all ready but Harry was never to hear it, as Snape came dashing up the stairs just then, breathing hard.

Lucius raised an eyebrow. “What did you do, run all the way?” he asked.

“Yes—wanted—get here—quickly,” Snape puffed. He straightened. “No change, I take it?” He strode over to the sofa, and as Lucius had done, he checked Bella’s pulse.

“No,” Lucius confirmed. “No change.” He joined Snape and for a few minutes they stood there staring down at Bella.

Suddenly Snape looked at Lucius. “I wonder...” he said. Harry looked up at them. There seemed to be some silent communication going on between them—not impossible, Harry supposed, as they were both accomplished Legilimens.

He wondered what they were saying, especially when Lucius looked back at Bella after a bit and said, “Hmm...you could be right. Perhaps it would be for the best.”

That sounded ominous. Harry stood up. “What’s for the best?” he asked, suddenly suspicious. Regardless of who she was or what she’d done, it seemed awful to think of murdering her when she was like this, defenseless and unknowing.

Snape and Lucius looked at him. “Harry, Snape said finally, “It’s possible she won’t ever wake up. She appears to be in a coma of some sort. I suspect she worked herself into a state and your show of disapproval was, er, rather a shock to her...more than she could take, I suppose. She’s been rather overwrought for the last couple of days; this was likely to happen sooner or later. You’re not to blame yourself, Harry.”

“But what did you mean, ‘Perhaps it would be for the best’?” Harry persisted. “What are you planning?”

“Nothing,” Snape said hastily, and Lucius nodded. “We have no plans to do...anything.”

“But she’s dying, right?” Harry asked. “And what—oh! You mean you’re just going to let her die? Is that it?”

“Ah—well, not exactly,” Lucius said. “We don’t know she’s dying. She might wake up and be just fine.”

“Although it might be kinder to just let her go,” Snape said. Harry looked at him in disbelief.

“You’re just going to leave her lying there? She’d starve eventually if she didn’t wake up, wouldn’t she? How can you just let that happen?” Harry asked incredulously.

Lucius asked, “Would you miss her if she was gone, then, Harry? You said it yourself: she’s caused untold damage to any number of people; destroyed families, a whole government even. And soon an entire way of life, if she’s allowed. Why are you so determined to see that she lives? Think how much easier it would be for all of us—even for Bella herself—if we just let her slip away. It’s a far kinder death than she would have given any of you for breaking her harem rules.”

Harry colored at that, and Lucius suddenly felt a niggling curiosity as to whether Harry had broken the cardinal rule of the harem and indulged in sex with one of the other boys—and if so, who—Ron? Fred? Harry was certainly good friends with both of them.

Or...Draco, perhaps? Lucius suspected Draco would have little patience with any rules that inconvenienced him. And if Draco found Harry half as attractive as Lucius did, he might well have taken advantage of the afternoon nap routine, or even the close proximity of his pallet to Harry’s during the night, to indulge himself as much as he wished. Remembering Theo, Lucius was even more relieved to have him safely out of the picture.

Harry looked very unhappy. “I know...but doesn’t that make us as bad as her, if we could help her but we let her die instead? Isn’t there something else we can do?

Snape cleared his throat. “There is one thing.” He looked at Lucius and shrugged. “It worked for Theo.”

Lucius looked thoughtful. “Hmm. It could work, I suppose. But everyone in wizarding Britain knows who she is. It would be complicated.”

Harry didn’t know who Theo was or what Snape and Lucius had done to him, but if it meant letting Bella live he thought they should try it.

“What do you mean?” he asked. “What could work?” He looked from one to the other of them. Snape and Lucius looked at each other and Harry said, “Stop doing that! Just tell me—what could work?” He put his hands on his hips and waited.

Lucius reluctantly said, “Well...there is a potion that, when combined with a memory charm, wipes out all of a person’s memories. All of them—completely gone, forever. There is no cure.”

“So what’s the downside?” Harry asked. “I mean, it sounds pretty perfect to me. No more Queen Bella, no more Death Eater Bella—right? She wouldn’t know anything about that?” But then he thought of something. “But...what about her Dark Mark? If she touched it, wouldn’t it still summon the Death Eaters, even if she didn’t know she was doing it?”

Lucius shook his head. “No. Llike the Unforgiveable curses, the Dark Mark requires intention to make it work. If she didn’t know what it was, or who she was, or what a Death Eater was, it would be as harmless as a normal tattoo.

“Besides,” he went on, “as I’ve said, it’s extremely unlikely that any of the Death Eaters will survive the mission they’ve been sent on.” He looked at Snape and smirked. “The Order went to quite a bit of trouble and put themselves in great danger to ensure that.”

“Well, I think we should do this memory potion thing,” Harry said. “Is there any of it around, or do we have to make it?”

“Actually,” Snape said, “we do have more of the potion. However, we can’t do anything unless—or until, I should say—Bella wakes up.”

Harry looked at Lucius. “What do you say? Can we do it? You can’t just kill her. You just...can’t.”

Lucius sighed. “Well, it would work—there’s no question of that. But I’m not certain what we’d do with her once she was Obliviated. She’d be of little use on a farm, or I’d take her where I took Theo.”

“True,” Snape said. He laughed. “I doubt she’s ever done a day’s work in her life. She’d hate it.”

Lucius looked at him. “She wouldn’t, wouldn’t she?” he said slowly, and he grinned. “You know how much she hates exercise of any kind. She had the elevator put in so she wouldn’t have to walk up all those stairs to get up here. She complains endlessly whenever she has to walk all the way to the school gates to Apparate.” He seemed almost gleeful. “Do you know, I’m starting to think life on a farm would be just the thing for Bella. Can’t you imagine her in peasants’ clogs and an apron, feeding the chickens?” He snickered.

Snape rolled his eyes. “If we’re agreed, then I’ll go get the potion. Stay here and watch her; it’s anybody’s guess what she’ll do if she wakes up.” He departed, running lightly and quickly down the stairs.

Lucius Transfigured a cushion from the bed into a comfortable-looking overstuffed chair and sat down to wait.

“So,” Harry said a few minutes later into the silence that had fallen between them. “Who’s Theo?”
When Snape returned, Lucius and Harry were sitting there quietly and Bella was still unconscious.

“Any news?” Snape asked as he strode toward them. He set a vial on the table next to the coronet Harry had worn so briefly. “Well, well, what have we here?” he murmured, picking up the coronet.

Harry glanced over and snorted. “A delusion, that’s what.”

“Looks to be just about...your size, I’d say,” Snape said, holding it up and eyeing Harry through it.

“No,” Harry said firmly. “It isn’t. And I won’t wear it, and no one—no one,” he repeated, glaring at the unknowing Bella, “can make me.”

“Don’t tease the boy, Severus,” Lucius chided. “He’s put up with quite enough for one night.”

Snape shrugged and came to stand next to the sofa at Bella’s head. “Do you think we ought to try to wake her, perhaps?” he said. “If we’re going to go through with this we ought to get on with it.”

“Be my guest,” Lucius said. “Just how do you plan to wake her?”

Snape considered. “Has anything at all been tried yet?”

“No—Harry lifted her from the floor to the sofa but she didn’t wake up. He didn’t do anything else, did you, Harry?” Lucius asked.

“No. She didn’t budge when I moved her,” Harry confirmed.

Snape sat down on the edge of the sofa and picked up one of Bella’s hands, chafing it with his own and then patting it briskly. “Bella! Bella, wake up!” he said urgently. “Can you hear me?” There was no response so he patted her face, gently at first, but when that had no effect he slapped her quite sharply. Harry gaped at him but it had to be said that the slap seemed to have no more effect than the patting.

“Never say die,” Snape muttered, and he took out his wand. “Ennervate!” he snapped. At first this seemed to have as little effect as all the rest, but then Bella suddenly caught her breath with a gasp and her eyes fluttered open. She looked at Snape and frowned.

“Where am I? What’s happening?” She tried to sit up and he stood to give her room.

“You fainted, my lady,” Snape said politely, physician to patient. Harry and Lucius noted that he held his wand unobtrusively behind his back. “Are you feeling quite all right?”

“I—well, I think so,” Bella said. “Are you a Healer? Did they send for you?”

“‘They’, madam?”

“Yes—my husband and the Minister,” Bella said impatiently. She craned to see around Snape. “Harry, darling—there you are!”

Snape took a step back and, taking a good grip on his wand, quickly pointed it at Bella and said, “Imperio!” before she could react. There was a brief flash of knowledge in her eyes as she realized what he was doing and heard him utter the charm, but by then it was too late to get her mental shields in order. She didn’t have her wand at hand and her brain was too fuddled to think clearly. The instant Snape uttered the curse her eyes went glassy and she sat there quietly, looking straight ahead of her, her face expressionless.

“Quickly now,” Lucius said, and he stood and shook out the folds of his robes and waited. “The curse seems to be working well enough but it would be stupid to take any unnecessary chances.”

Snape fetched the potion immediately; he removed the stopper and held the vial out to Bella. “Drink this,” he ordered sternly.

Bella took the vial from him and delicately drank it all. When she was finished she swayed and for a moment it seemed as if she might be going to faint again, but then she recovered and sat quietly as before.

“Finite Incantatem,” Snape said quietly, ending the Imperious Curse. He gestured to Lucius. “All yours.”

Lucius stepped forward, his own wand out, and pointed it at Bella as he cried, “Obliviate!” in ringing tones. As if the spell had a physical force that was pressing her back into the sofa, Bella shrank away and her eyes fluttered madly for a moment. Then her blank eyes focused and she looked around at all of them.

“Wh-where am I?” she quavered. She looked down at herself and ran a finger lightly over the lace and pearls of her dress. “Pretty.” She smiled bemusedly.

Snape and Lucius looked at each other and nodded; they looked at Bella intently and Harry suddenly realized they were using their Legilimency skills to look into her mind to see if they could determine whether she really had been Obliviated or was just pretending. After a moment they looked at each other again.

“I think it’s genuine,” Snape said. “It seems to have worked. What do you say?”

“Yes, I believe so,” Lucius said. “The weakened state her mind has been in lately made our job that much easier.”

He walked over to Bella and gave her his hand. “Will you stand, please?” he requested politely. Bella readily came to her feet, eyeing him with curiousity.

“Who are you?” she asked

“A friend,” Lucius said, as he had to Theo. “And do you know who you are?”

Bella, a little smile on her face, looked around at the three of them and shook her head. “No,” she said brightly. She didn’t seem worried by the fact; in that moment she reminded Harry strikingly of Luna Lovegood. “Do you know who I am?”

“Of course,” Lucius said warmly. “You, my dear, are Isabel.” He looked at Harry and winked. “Isabel Regent.” Harry rolled his eyes, but Bella accepted the name as if it had always been hers.

“Isabel. I like it. It’s a very nice name, isn’t it?” she asked Harry.

“Er—” He glanced at Lucius, whose friendly smile remained firmly fixed in place, and Snape, who was observing dispassionately from off to one side. “Yes. Yes, it’s lovely. Isabel. I like it.”

“Hmm. I like you,” Bella said suddenly, her manner changing subtly, her pose becoming a bit seductive. “What’s your name?”

“I’m—er—Harry.”

“Harry.” The way she said his name, Harry could almost feel her caressing him. She remained sitting on the sofa but she twisted a lock of her hair around and around one of her fingers and stared at Harry rather as if she’d like to pounce on him and gobble him up.

Lucius was enjoying the situation immensely; he’d always thought Bella could be good for entertainment value if the circumstances were right, and they could hardly have been better. Still, there was a lot to do, and reluctant as he was to spoil the moment he needed to get on with it.

“Isabel,” he said, “are you ready to go home now?”

“Home?” She looked puzzled for a moment. “Home...yes, I should like that. Is it nice there?” This time it was Snape who barely resisted the temptation to roll his eyes.

“Yes,” Lucius said reassuringly, “you’re very fond of your home. I imagine you must miss all your friends.”

“I have friends?” Bella asked interestedly. She slid a look at Harry, and he hastily looked away. “Har-ryyy...are you my friend, Harry?”

Harry tried to keep a straight face as he said, “Yeah—um, sure. Yeah, I’m your friend. Sort of. I guess.”

Bella positively beamed at him. “Will you come home with me?”

Lucius intervened. “No, Harry lives here. You might see him again sometime, but I’m sure you’ll be very busy for a while when you get home. You’ve been away for a very long time, you know, and there’s a lot to be done.”

“Is there?” She looked intrigued by the idea. “Really? I—I’m afraid I don’t quite remember—what is it that I do, again?”

“Isabel, you are, bar none, the very best chicken-feeder in the British Isles. That is what you do; no one does it better.”

“Really? I feed chickens?” She thought about that for a minute. “I don’t think I remember how to do that.”

“You’ve been unwell,” Lucius said smoothly. “That’s why you’ve forgotten so much. But after you’ve been home for a few days you’ll start to remember—”

Not if the potion worked, she won’t! Snape thought fervently.

Harry thought irreverently of the (hopefully impossible) chance of her suddenly remembering all this someday when she was ankle-deep in chicken shite and had to fight a sudden fit of the giggles.

“—and you’ll soon feel as comfortable there as you always have. Shall we go?” Lucius gave her his arm and Bella rose from the sofa.

He regarded the priceless wedding dress and shook his head. “Perhaps you’d like to put on some of your regular clothes. You won’t want fancy dresses once you’re home, you know. They’ll just get in the way.” He flourished his wand and said, “Vestare!” Bella looked down to see the wedding dress vanish, to be replaced by a plain brown drugget gown and, as Lucius had joked earlier, peasant clogs.

“Oh!” she cried, and she looked at Lucius in amazement and some alarm. “How did you—what have you done with my lovely dress?” She looked as if she was on the verge of tears.

Lucius said, “Now, now, nothing to worry about. Obliviate!” Instantly Bella/Isabel’s eyes went blank. “Come along, Isabel,” Lucius said firmly. “Time to get you home.”

“Home?” she repeated. “Where is home?” She looked over at Harry and smiled. “Well, hello there! Who are you?” It reminded him strongly of Gilderoy Lockhart when Harry and Ron had Obliviated him in the Chamber of Secrets. Harry thought it was interesting that Obliviation seemed to leave its victims so cheerful.

“Er, Lucius...” Snape said, indicating that they should get a move on.

Lucius nodded. “This is Harry. He won’t be coming with us, as he lives here. Come now, Isabel. We have a bit of a walk ahead of us to get to where our—er—transport is waiting.” He assisted her in walking down the stairs, which very nearly ended in disaster as she wasn’t used to walking in clogs.

A distant wail of “Are you sure these are my clothes?” drifted back up the stairs to Harry and Snape as the elevator descended.

They looked at each other. “Now what?” Harry asked.

“Well,” Snape said, “we’ll need to call a meeting of the Order when Lucius returns—tonight probably, tomorrow morning at the latest. Bella is gone, but we still have problems to deal with. The general wizarding populace doesn’t know she’s gone, you see. And of course they can’t ever be told what we’ve done with her. That,” he said, looking sternly at Harry, “must remain privileged information.”

As if I’m some irresponsible little kid who’s going to go off and tell secrets! Harry thought resentfully. “I think I’ve proven myself,” he said stiffly. “If you don’t trust me with the Order’s secrets by now, you’re welcome to Obliviate me.”

Snape stared at him for a long moment; Harry didn’t have any sense that his mind was being invaded by Legilimency, so he assumed Snape was just considering what he’d said. “You’re right,” Snape said at last, his manner as stiff as Harry’s had been. “My apologies, Potter. I tend to forget, as amazing as it may sound, that you’ve fought a war for us.”

He began to pace back and forth in front of the sofa, and Harry climbed up onto it from the floor so as to stay out of his way, although Snape didn’t seem to take any notice of him.

“The people need to know she’s been dealt with—and half of them will probably have to see it with their own eyes before they’ll believe it,” he mused. “And by ‘dealt with’ I mean disposed of.”

“You mean—” Harry interrupted.

“I mean, Mister Potter, and kindly do not interrupt when I am speaking,” Snape rattled off, “they will quite naturally want revenge on Bellatrix. Only human nature, I suppose. And since they can’t exact it themselves they will expect someone in power to do so.

“Which brings up the second of our problems: a government. I personally feel—and I believe Lucius does as well, but we’ll have to poll the Order, of course—that the fundamental idea of the Ministry was a good one, and I should like to see a new Ministry put in place as soon as possible. If we can find ways to improve it this time round and start clean without the corruption at its core, I see no reason it shouldn’t work well.

“But to resume: justice for Bellatrix must be dispensed through official channels, not by mob action. The Order has no real power; most people don’t even know it exists. We need to announce the new Ministry by tomorrow so the wheels can begin to turn with regard to justice being carried out in Bellatrix’s case.

“This leads us to the third problem—which actually might be easier to deal with than the first two. Obviously the problem of Bella has already been taken care of. We didn’t have to kill her since a place was found for her to exist—probably quite happily; better than Azkaban, certainly—and she is out of our lives forever, her influence nullified. But the wizarding public will no doubt want to see her punished. See it, with their own eyes. We need to find a substitute—someone to stand in for Bella and take her punishment.”

“What? That’s crazy. Why would anyone volunteer to do that?” Harry blurted.

“Well, no one would, Potter, obviously.” Snape smiled, and it was just a little frightening. “I’m thinking more in the nature of a sacrifice than a volunteer. While a voluntary sacrifice is so much less messy, an unwilling one will work just as well for our purposes. Tell, me, Potter—what do we need in order to pull off a hoax of this nature?” Snape stood before him, arms crossed, and looked down his nose at Harry as he had so many times in class, all but tapping his toe on the floor as he waited for an answer.

“Er—well, you’d need someone to be the sacrifice, wouldn’t you?”

“Obviously. And?”

“Well, no one’s going to believe someone else is Bella. I just can’t see how—I don’t—ohhh.” Harry stuttered to a stop, not needing Snape to prompt him this time. “Polyjuice?”

“Very good, Potter. If Barty Crouch Jr. can carry off the deception among a group of people who all knew Moody quite well, how much more easily shall we do so among people who have never been closer to Bellatrix than the width of a battlefield? I really don’t think her trial will drag on very long; there’s not much question, after all, about the crimes she’s committed against wizardkind.”

“So then what—you have...someone....” Harry glanced up at Snape, wondering whether he would insert a name into the pause he left hanging invitingly, but if Snape knew of one he didn’t tell Harry. “So you have them under Polyjuice,” Harry finally continued, “and they—she—has a trial. Then what? You automatically pronounce her guilty?”

“Oh, there will be the appearance of due process, to be sure,” Snape said. “There can’t be any question of the legality of the proceedings. But yes, the verdict will undoubtedly be Guilty. Can you really imagine it being anything else?”

Harry couldn’t. “And then what? Will someone perform the Killing Curse? I didn’t think the Ministry did that.”

“No more do they...but they won’t have to,” Snape said. “The prisoner will be sentenced to the Dementors' Kiss and then sent to Azkaban. Soon it will be reported that her health is failing, and finally she will die.”

“With a little help, I’ll bet,” Harry muttered.

“As you say, Potter. But we must do what we must do. So—what do you think of the plan?”

“You’re asking me?” Harry snorted. “I have no idea. I suppose it would work. But who are you going to get to vol—I mean, who are you going to ‘sacrifice’ in Bella’s place? Will they really die?”

“Oh yes. Be assured, they—she—will really die. The person I have in mind was sent out by Lucius in one of the envoys to the other magical species. As I suspected would happen, she has managed to enrage the spokesperson for the species, and is being returned to us for punishment. The others of that group have, I am most pleased to say, been...removed. The wizarding world will see them no more.” He looked rather pleased with himself.

Harry asked, “Envoys? For what?”

Snape looked startled. “You don’t know? Oh—well, true, I suppose you wouldn’t. After all, it’s not like you and Bella spent your evenings discussing government, is it?” His voice held more than a faint sneer.

“No,” Harry said quietly. “She never talked about anything important.”

Perceiving that he had perhaps gone just a bit too far with that last comment, Snape hurried on. “Well, you can ask Lucius all about it. Envoys were sent to some of the other magical species as Bella was trying to enlist their aid in forming a new army, first to take over wizarding and then Muggle Britain, and then the world.”

Harry looked incredulous and a half-smile appeared on Snape’s lips. “Oh, it’s true. One of the species they were to approach was the Vampires. It so happens that a—” he counted on his fingers— “great-great-great-uncle of mine headed the group that received Bella’s envoy, and I understand that Alecto Carrow has practically single-handedly been responsible for assuring that the Vampires will never collaborate with wizardkind in any such endeavour—which, of course, is a good thing.

“But more importantly, the Vampires were so outraged by the assumptions made by the Death Eaters in the envoy that they killed them—every one of them, except Alecto. Through the kind offices of my uncle I have made arrangements for her to be sent back to us, Imperiused and under heavy guard. She should arrive tonight, most likely, and we will keep her in the dungeons here at the castle, under the Imperius Curse and a strong sleeping draught.

“She will stand trial in Bella’s place.”

The more Harry thought about it, the more he realized it would answer the purpose very well. Alecto Carrow personified everything that was worst about the Death Eaters, and if she were left alive she would cause as much damage and obstruction to the rebuilding of the wizarding world as humanly possible. She could never be trusted. She herself was more of a follower than a potential Dark leader, but she had amply demonstrated her willingness to lend her not-inconsiderable powers to whoever was strong enough to lead, and that could not be allowed to happen.

Alecto was the perfect scapegoat. To be sure, she wouldn’t even know what was happening to her if she was under the Imperius Curse at the time; it was a kinder end than she would have offered to any of the Order, had their roles been reversed.

“It’s just too bad—” Harry began, but then he stopped. He supposed it wasn't the best idea to sit here and criticize Lucius’ methods in front of Snape.

“What’s too bad?” Snape wasn’t going to let him get away with teasers.

“Well, it’s just too bad that Bella killed all those men,” Harry said in a rush. “Or had them killed, I suppose she didn’t do it herself.”

“What men?” Snape asked, mystified.

“The ones who were injured during the war. Lucius said Bella didn’t want to be bothered with them if they were injured, and they weren’t Death Eaters, so they were—” He stopped. Snape was standing there shaking his head slowly and looking at Harry as if his IQ had suddenly sunk by about a hundred points.

“Harry, Harry...do you believe everything you hear, or only the bad parts?” Snape murmured. “That was in the script, as it were. He had to say it. He had to say a lot of things in order to have the eunuchs and slaves look convincingly cowed and demoralized in front of a Great Hall full of Death Eaters. Oh, for heaven’s sake,” he sighed when Harry didn’t seem convinced. “Do you really think Lucius would do something like that? I mean, do you really, Harry? Because if you do, you still don’t get it. You don’t get any of this.”

Unable to stop himself, Harry asked, “Well, then, where are they?”

“Where are who?” Snape bellowed in frustration.

“The men who were inj—”

“Listen to me, for I will only say this once more,” Snape hissed. “No injured persons were slaughtered. Several men were injured, yes. If they were badly injured, Bella’s forces merely left them to lie on the battlefield; no doubt they have long since been gathered up and taken back home by their families or friends. If they died, they died during the battle. There are no hidden corpses in the walls of Azkaban, no secret gravesites full of Bella’s victims. At least,” he said as an afterthought struck him, “none that I know of. Lucius made that announcement for effect only—surely you knew that?”

He really did appear to think Harry might believe Lucius capable of coldly killing dozens of ailing resistance fighters who were too badly off to be able to defend themselves. Harry started to feel a little ashamed of himself.

“Oh,” he said, feeling foolish. He supposed he should have known, really. It had all just seemed so very...real, at the time.

Snape snorted. “Potter, why are you still here?”

Harry looked at him blankly. “What, in the castle, you mean?”

“Don’t be thick. I mean here, in Bella’s quarters. There’s no need for you to stay. You should go back to the harem and get some sleep. I daresay things will move fairly quickly tomorrow, and if you don’t get any sleep you won’t be of much use.”

Aw, is that your way of wishing me sweet dreams, Snape? Harry thought to himself. But when Snape aimed a suspicious look at him, he quickly thought about something else—Quidditch, the Burrow, McGonagall, the Order—just in case Snape was tempted to reach his mental fingers into Harry’s mind and see the sarcasm there.

“Okay.” Harry got up tiredly. He indicated the dress robes. “Can I keep these on? Since there’s—er—no reason I need to walk around the castle half-naked any more?”

Snape waved him away. “I couldn't care less what you do with them. A word of caution—you might want to take them off before you enter the harem so as not to excite a lot of comment. You don’t want to have to do too much explaining about what happened here tonight.”

“Right, I will. Thanks.”

Harry wandered down to the elevator and stood bracing himself for the plunging descent. When the main floor came into view he stepped out and made his way back to the harem, feeling more and more tired with every step he took. Just outside the reception room he paused and took off the dress robes and left them on the Chief Eunuch’s desk. He went into the main room and Arthur, who sat reading at the table, looked up in surprise.

“Why, Harry!” he exclaimed. “Is everything all right?” He pulled out the chair next to him. “Come sit down. You looked fagged to death.”

Harry went over and flopped down in the chair. “I am,” he said. “I don’t know why, because nothing happened. Er—well, not nothing, exactly, but nothing like the usual.” He gave Arthur a recap of the highlights of the evening, and Arthur’s eyes grew rounder and rounder with the telling. By the time Harry had finished Arthur was a comical caricature of himself, eyes wide with astonishment and his mouth a round O of wonder.

“So—she’s gone?” he whispered, as if he was afraid to believe it.

“Gone, permanently Obliviated, and Snape says there’s going to be a meeting of the Order first thing in the morning.”

“Oh, good heavens yes, I should certainly think so,” Arthur murmured. “Er—Harry—I know it’s a lot to ask, but could you try to be rather, er, uncommunicative tomorrow morning with the other lads? I’d like this to stay between you and me for now. The others will know soon enough, but if they start asking a lot of questions—well, let’s just say I’d rather Lucius told them, or that they find out like everyone else will, through the Daily Prophet. Funny,” he mused, “it’s been pretty much just a rag for a while now, since the Death Eaters took it over. About time it earned its keep again with some decent news people really need to hear.

“Off to bed with you, then, Harry. Oh—and if you want to rip off that outfit before you go to bed, I don’t have a problem with it.” Arthur grinned. “It’s not like you’ll ever be wearing it again. I’ll make a point of getting all of you some clothes as soon as possible tomorrow after we have our meeting and decide what to tell the others here. For one thing, we’ll have to change the castle wards to let you all out without setting off alarms. And we’ll need to track down the castle slaves, see about getting them out of here as well. Just think, Harry—by this time tomorrow you could be home!”

Home. It had a nice ring to it. Except...Harry wasn’t sure just where home was, for now. He supposed he could go to Grimmauld Place; he did, after all, own it. But somehow he couldn’t really like the idea of living there. He always had a feeling, when he was there, that he hadn’t yet begun to find out all the nasty secrets the house held, and he had no wish to live the rest of his life in fear of his own home.

Well, he didn’t have to think about it tonight. He was sure he’d be welcome at the Burrow indefinitely, if it came down to it. He envisioned some potential awkwardness between Ginny and himself now that he had learned more about his sexual leanings, but that too was a problem for another day. Right now he just wanted to sleep. He all but tore off the outfit he wore, under Arthur’s humorous gaze, and went to his pallet for once with a feeling of...lightness, almost.

Like maybe things were finally going to be okay.
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Bella's Harem