Chapter 263 - 262. Bellatrix.

A few days later. Castle Combe. Southwest England.

In the evening, several hundred meters from a small village, a young, barefoot woman with long, nearly hip-length dark hair stood on a wide, empty clearing, wearing a tight-fitting black dress. Her cold gaze was fixed on another witch.

Their facial features were very similar, but in all other respects they were opposites: the other had light hair tied in a long ponytail, blue eyes, a playful smile, and a luxurious green dress decorated with colorful patterns, mainly red and yellow.

"I suppose I’ll never understand what goes through your head," Narcissa sighed heavily, shaking her head. A wooden wand rested in her hand, and one by one, balls of water the size of a Snitch began to appear around her.

Thanks to these exercises over the past month and a half, Narcissa had become quite adept at creating them without speaking the incantation, using only her thoughts and wand.

But such skills didn’t particularly interest her, unlike Bellatrix.

While Bellatrix strove for power, honing her abilities day and night, Narcissa, with far greater excitement and impatience, awaited another meeting with Lucius, her fiancé.

Bellatrix herself, seeing that her sister had once again zoned out, no longer felt her former irritation, only weariness. She had even begun to miss that vile fellow a little, the one with whom she could at least train in peace rather than listen to the delusional stories of a certain Black obsessed with romance.

*I wonder what he’s doing now...* This treacherous thought flashed through her head, and in the next moment she shoved it into the farthest corner of her consciousness. *What am I thinking!* she scolded herself in embarrassment, a faint blush appearing on her cheeks.

"By the way, your half-blood still hasn’t contacted you in the past three weeks?" Narcissa inquired, a sadistic smirk flashing across her face as the balls flew toward Bellatrix one by one.

"Hmph!" Without even raising her wand, Bellatrix calmly began dodging them with minimal movement, slightly tilting her head or torso, which provoked a dissatisfied "tsk" from Narcissa. "You won’t catch me that easily."

"But it worked the first time," Narcissa needled, batting her eyelashes innocently and touching her lower lip with her index finger. Bella wrinkled her nose in displeasure but said nothing in response, understanding that in this battle, she would definitely lose.

"Let’s continue." As she lowered her wand, gray magic shot from her finger, taking the shape of the number one.

"Fiiiiine..." And again, water balls appeared around Narcissa, immediately rushing toward her sister. "By the way, I heard he was recently seen in Diagon Alley with some lady..." When one of them almost reached Bellatrix, she jumped sharply aside, then started running, continuing to form numbers and completely ignoring Narcissa’s words while concentrating on the magic behind her.

She was trying to replicate Severus’s trick of sensing magic, which she was barely managing.

Without even turning around, she dodged all twelve balls flying at her from various angles.

*I should have started physical training earlier...* she thought gloomily, recalling Severus’s lectures on the matter.

Now she could easily perform many tricks that would seem incredible to ordinary wizards, and dodging spells had become much easier. Her body itself had become considerably lighter. *He said he was ready to teach me a style perfectly suited for mages against other mages, but...* The number nine she was forming on her finger trembled, and her cheeks flushed. *If something like that happens in public, I’ll definitely die of embarrassment! No! That won’t happen!*

"Should I increase the number of balls? It seems too easy for you," Narcissa said with an unkind squint, half in jest, and without waiting for an answer she formed another twenty. "...I’m attacking." With those words, they rushed toward Bellatrix, who, strangely enough, wasn’t particularly surprised; rather, she seemed excited.

Her wand immediately joined in, because dodging thirty-two balls was simply impossible.

But she didn’t destroy them; instead, she seized control and immediately flung them back.

Compared to five months earlier, her movements had grown far smoother and more precise.

Severus himself hadn’t trained her physically; he had only given her a couple of tips that had helped him personally, and then she had decided to try them out on her own, tired of constantly running across the field in wet clothes and catching his mocking gaze. Though, in truth, that last reason had probably been the deciding factor.

Severus knew exactly how to get under people’s skin, and Bellatrix was one of the easiest targets.

Games with water balls usually lasted no more than twenty minutes, and after that she moved on to more complex control exercises.

But although she had already learned to cast nearly all the spells in her arsenal without a wand, that didn’t satisfy her; it was still too slow.

And although the difference was only fractions of a second, even that could cost a life in the heat of battle.

So she never stopped practicing, and seeing that it helped, she only made the exercises harder, simultaneously forming numbers on two, three, four, and five fingers. She still struggled with the last two, but with three she was already managing quite well.

But on this day, the training ended much earlier.

She stopped abruptly, and a transparent dome formed around her, blocking the projectiles. That puzzled Narcissa for a moment, but as soon as she saw Bellatrix clutching her left forearm, her smile faded.

"Cissy, that’s all for today. Go home," Bellatrix said coldly, feeling her master’s call as a burning sensation in her Dark Mark.

"He managed to escape even from there," Narcissa sighed irritably. Bellatrix herself wasn’t particularly surprised. It had only been a matter of time. After all, someone like Tom couldn’t be kept in a cage.

"Tell our parents I’ll be late today." With that, she made a circular motion with her wand over her head. Her simple black dress transformed into something more luxurious, and a pair of stiletto boots appeared on her feet, the ones Severus had once given her, which had an interesting effect many men wouldn’t appreciate. "See you this evening." Then she disappeared, leaving Narcissa anxious about her sister once again.

*When will this finally end...*

---

London. Lestrange Mansion.

The half-empty hall of the huge family estate had become overcrowded with wizards, and more were appearing by the minute.

Almost all of them, save for a handful, wore the trademark Death Eater masks and long black robes.

Those who walked openly were mostly leaders of some kind: the heads or members of the richest and most influential families, as well as those the Dark Lord considered worthy, among them both Malfoys, the Lestranges themselves, Corban Yaxley, Antonin Dolohov, and many others.

Their puzzled faces made it obvious that this summons had caught them off guard, especially after the cheerful letters containing a clipping from a French newspaper.

After that, although shocked by the outcome, most of them had openly gloated over their master’s failure.

Over the past three years, he had become a true madman, and not many wanted to serve such a person, especially those who valued their own lives and their families’ lives far more than ravings about blood purity.

But they simply had no choice.

Almost at the entrance, Bellatrix appeared with a crack. After sweeping an indifferent gaze over the huge crowd gathered in the hall and locating the faces she sought, she headed toward them calmly.

But deep down, she was very tense. As soon as she entered the mansion, she immediately cast detection charms and sensed two powerful magical sources on the second floor, one far more powerful than the other.

And to her surprise, the latter definitely did not belong to her master.

*Who could this be? I don’t remember such a powerful wizard in his circle...* By then, she had already approached the group near Voldemort.

"Lady Black, you’re late today," Yaxley greeted her with a restrained smile.

"As soon as I felt the Master’s call, I rushed here immediately, but he himself is nowhere to be seen."

"I see. At the moment, he is on the second floor with an unknown guest."

"A guest?" She looked with interest at the frowning Abraxas, who, like the others, had been forbidden to go upstairs and ordered to wait below.

"Yes, some wizard he met in France. I don’t know anything else myself," Abraxas answered, glancing toward the stairs with displeasure.

"I see." Although outwardly Bellatrix remained as indifferent as ever, inside she was going over every wizard she had ever seen near her master, trying to figure out who it could be. *If he’s going to be near him all the time now, then I’ll never be able to take my revenge... I didn’t sense that much magic even from that irritating bastard...*

"He’s a very dangerous man, so be careful what you say," Yaxley warned them gloomily. Thanks to his life experience and ability to read people, he served as the organization’s recruiter and was responsible for maintaining order in the organization.

"I agree," Abraxas backed him up, patting Lucius on the shoulder. Lucius kept glancing nervously toward the stairs. "What’s wrong with you?"

"Huh?" The former prefect looked at his father in surprise, but after a few seconds, realizing how strange he was acting, he shook his head. "Nothing. I was just thinking." But inwardly, he was panicking. *Damn! Damn! If he’s that strong, what if he notices that we removed the marks?! So much time spent preparing, all for nothing! I need to calm down. Severus said no one would notice anything if we don’t give ourselves away, so I can’t panic. I need to behave as usual...* "Forgive me, but I need to step away."

"Where are you going?" the elder Malfoy asked, puzzled. "The Master might come down at any moment."

"I want to talk to Crabbe and Goyle," he answered calmly.

"Hmm? All right, but when the Master comes down, come back and stay near me."

"Yes, Father." With that, he left the inner circle.

Bellatrix herself found Lucius’s behavior suspicious, but she didn’t dwell on it, her attention fixed on the person beside Voldemort.

After nearly thirty minutes, a bell rang through the room, and once everyone had fallen silent, a striking pair descended from the second floor: the Dark Lord himself and an unknown figure in a black robe, whose age was evident in his chin and wrinkled hands.

But what sent shivers through the gathered Death Eaters was the lifeless gray eyes visible beneath the hood.

"Before the meeting begins and we discuss further plans, I want to introduce a new member to you: Mr. Mortis, who from this day forward will serve as my right hand," Voldemort announced in an icy voice, much to the surprise of the wizards present. Yet no one dared to comment on or contradict his words.

"It’s very pleasant to meet you all..." The raspy, creaky, yet oddly cheerful voice and the mad, toothless grin made many people deeply uncomfortable. When Mortis’s gaze fell on them, they paled. *Heh... such weak-willed creatures. But what else can you expect from the aristocracy? With a few exceptions, the rest are just trash... Still, it will be interesting to see what becomes of this. It’s been a while since I’ve had fun...* His eyes darted from person to person until they settled on the dark-haired girl. He sensed a dense, dark magic emanating from her. *What an interesting child. Perhaps she will prove even more interesting than him... heh-heh-heh. I didn’t come all this way for nothing... Ah... and what should I do with her? Ruin her or develop her... or maybe both?*

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