Chapter Text
Snow crunched underfoot as he turned the corner, walking out to the isolated field. He figured he’d find her here, blowing off steam if the sounds of her cursing was anything to go off of.
“--ing Black,” he heard her cry out.
“Hermione,” Harry said to the lone girl who nearly jumped out of her skin because she didn’t hear his approach. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” she said, but it was clear as day to Harry she wasn’t.
As Harry moved closer he noticed the snowman in front of her. To call it a snowman was a bit too simplistic, it was more of a snow sculpture and it looked a lot like… “Is that Bellatrix?!” Harry uttered in surprise, the resemblance was uncanny, the untamable hair, the jawline, those eyes that stared right through you. The only thing that made it different from the real deal was the lack of that signature smirk of hers. Rather in its place, there was a smile, and not one that spelled imminent doom, but a genuine smile. It looked strange.
“W-what no!” Hermione stammered, flustered.
“Mhmm,” Harry hummed, not buying it. He looked around the landscape and noticed small mounds of snow and the evidence of a few blasting spells.
“I was just making snowmen for target practice,” she quickly explained, her hand gesturing to the blasted apart remains.
“And that requires you to make hyper realistic snowmen of our classmates?” Harry jokingly asked, as he inspected the snow Bellatrix. “The hair is amazingly accurate. In fact, it looks perfect, you know, exactly like her.” He pointed at Bellatrix’s face, an action he wouldn’t dare try with the real Bellatrix, mainly because he rather liked having all his fingers.
“No, it doesn’t,” she muttered under her breath with a tone that Harry thought sounded a bit disappointed.
Harry wasn’t sure what to make of it. It was most definitely easily recognizable as that haughty Slytherin rival of hers. Harry wasn’t sure why they were at each other’s throats because they had a lot in common and practically lived in the library. However, even since their first year, the two of them had been locked in a vicious cycle of one upmanship. He did notice Hermione staring down Bellatrix during breakfast and wondered what Black did to piss her off this bad. Harry flinched as the snow Bellatrix in front of him exploded.
Still pissed, Harry thought to himself. “Once you’re done with this.” He gestured to the snowy ‘battlefield’. “You should get back to the castle before lunch starts,” he reminded her before leaving her to blow off some steam alone.
-o-
Once Harry left, Hermione tried one last time to get the spell to work. Another snow Bellatrix formed before Hermione who inspected her work and groaned in frustration. It still wasn’t right. The eyes barely caught a fraction of her mischievous nature and the smile was still off.
Mainly because you haven’t seen her smile before. Hermione thought to herself.
She was sure she was able to recreate Bellatrix from her memory after all those hours she spent staring--studying, it was most definitely studying her. Those dark expressive eyes, luscious lips, the long curly hair that she wanted to lose her hands in. Not to mention those voluptuous breasts, she was pretty sure at least had those down pat… as far as she knew, ...which she didn’t. She spent enough time studying face to know her work, although mostly right to the untrained eye, hailed in comparison to the real person. It frustrated her to no end.
-o-
“So Bella,” she heard her younger sister say.
“What Andy?” Bellatrix answered. Andromeda was up to something, she just knew it.
“That rare first edition book on ancient runes. It’s for a certain special someone isn’t it?” Bellatrix knew if she bothered to look up from her work she’d see her sister with the biggest all-knowing grin on her face.
Bellatrix rolled her eyes and huffed, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“So you didn’t think me and Cissy saw you staring at a certain muggleborn know it all?”
“She was staring at me first.”
Andromeda giggled, “So. You do admit you were staring at her.”
Bellatrix groaned and massaged her temples. She did NOT like Granger and she most definitely wasn’t staring at her like a love struck teenager. Even still, Bellatrix would never hear the end of it from Andy who had been bothering her about her supposed crush on the girl from the first year Andromeda came to Hogwarts. “Is there somewhere else for you to be? Or course work to do?”
“Aww, you wound me dear sister,” Andromeda said, feigning hurt. “You know it’s my job to torment you. And I think I’m doing pretty well at it. I’d score myself with an ‘Outstanding’.”
“Troll,” Bellatrix mumbled as Andromeda rolled her eyes.
“For what it’s worth I think she’ll love it. She’s out near the forest if you want to see her.”
Bellatrix turned to leave, hiding the large grin on her face. Of course, she’d love it. The Great Bellatrix Black picked it out for her, and she was attentive and through. There wasn’t anything she didn’t know about Granger. It wasn’t stalker-ish at all. It was just her knowing her enemy. After all, the quote in that muggle book she read said something about knowing herself and her enemy and not needing to worry about the result of a hundred battles. And she knew exactly how their little rivalry would end.