Charcoal and Cream

The sky was as black as ebony, briefly illuminated with pointed spikes of pure ivory. Bellatrix only managed to count to two before a deep rumble was audible, which seemed to reverberate through her very bones. She cursed fluidly until the shock of being drenched with icy cold rain drove the air from her lungs.

"Impervius," she muttered, waving her wand, but whilst the spell certainly kept the water off her face, it did nothing to prevent the rain from driving through the rest of her body. Bellatrix set her jaw grimly, and continued walking back to the castle, only to skid and slide off the path, straight into a puddle that seemed to have been waiting especially for her.

She yelped and scrambled to her feet somewhat unsuccessfully, her shoes slipping all over the muddy surface, unable to get a grip. Finally, she regained her balance and returned to the stone path. She gave up thoughts of heading straight back to the castle as fresh lightning flashed across the horizon, and scanned the grounds for somewhere closer to take shelter. Her eyes eventually settled on the gamekeeper's hut and she nodded, thrusting her chin forward determinedly. She would have to sacrifice her pride for protection, her dignity for dryness.

As she set her hand on the handle, she readied her wand, prepared to hex the oaf to within an inch of his obnoxious, overlarge and overlong life if he so much as looked at her.

She threw the door open.

On first inspection, the unkempt hut was blessedly empty. Then, with a certain amount of apprehension, Bellatrix watched the rugs by the fire twitch as a blast of freezing air swept past her through the open door. The Hogwarts gamekeeper was notorious for the bizarre creatures he lusted after. She had no desire to encounter one that evening, not when all she wanted to do was wait for the storm to pass. Whatever it was leapt to its feet and, as the blankets fell away, Bellatrix was somewhat pleased to note it revealed itself to be very much human.

"Oh!" the girl exclaimed. Her brilliant green eyes narrowed as they examined Bellatrix, taking in everything, from the uncharacteristically dishevelled appearance to the drops spilling on the floor from her soaked robes. "I thought you were Hagrid."

Bellatrix's lip curled with contempt at this idea. "Are you always this complimentary, or did I just get lucky?" she asked, slamming the door shut as a new wave of thunder sounded.

"Just lucky, I suppose," was the answer as she brushed threads of damp red hair from her eyes. "Aren't you Sirius Black's cousin? I'm Lily Evans."

"Bellatrix. We have Potions together." She winced, her eagerness to avoid association with Sirius had led her into an unwelcome admission - the fact that she had noticed a Mudblood around school. To escape the awkward silence, she moved away from the door, aiming for the cupboard by the fire.

"Andromeda's sister. Yes."

Bellatrix decided to curb this conversation before it escalated into a full-scale discussion of all the family members she despised. They were already halfway there, after all. She flung the cupboard door open and examined its contents critically, skimming over the grubby jars filled with dubious looking items. Her eyes lit up as they fell on one particular bottle. "I could do with some warming up. Fancy a drink?" She glanced at Lily, easily reading the apprehension in the other girl's eyes, and struggling not to roll her own. Principled people were incredibly boring. "We can replace it afterward, I'm sure O-" She cut herself off before referring to Hagrid in the derogatory way that all Slytherins did. That was not going to get Lily Evans to do what Bellatrix wanted. "Ah, Hagrid won't mind."

Lily nodded finally, not being able to find anything wrong with this. "Go ahead."

Bellatrix smirked inwardly, and pulled out the bottle of Firewhisky, tearing off the label. Her hand hovered before choosing the two cleanest looking cups. She sat cross-legged on the rug opposite Lily and poured out the incandescent liquid, offering one cup to the other girl. "So, why are you in this-" She hesitated, wanting to add 'damned hole', but chose, "place" instead.

Lily looked at her as though she was stupid, something that was most definitely not appreciated. "There's a storm going on outside, if you hadn't noticed."

"Actually, it hadn't escaped my attention," Bellatrix said tightly. It didn't look like it was going to be worth spending more than another minute in Lily Evans' company for the pleasure of seeing her drunk. "I meant what were you doing outside the castle?" She brushed loose hair out of her eyes. "Out for a secret stroll with that Potter boy, were you? Did the storm interrupt a passionate poetry reading?" The barest hint of a sneer crept into her voice.

Lily made a choking noise, and took a swallow of her Firewhisky. Her eyes widened in shock, and as she opened her mouth to cough, rings of smoke escaped. "What is this?!"

Bellatrix arranged her face in a carefully innocent manner as she gathered her hair in her hands, wringing the rainwater out of it. "The label said 'Butterbeer'," she lied smoothly, sipping her own and enjoying the sensation of flames rushing down her throat.

Lily stared down into her drink in disbelief. "This isn't Butterbeer."

"Maybe Hagrid gets a different type of Butterbeer imported?" Bellatrix suggested, gulping this time, and blowing the cloud of smoke out carefully.

"Maybe," Lily repeated dubiously, raising an eyebrow. To the other girl's delight, she raised her cup to her lips again and drank. "I feel like my insides are on fire."

Bellatrix considered this, savouring her own Firewhisky and watching with vague, detached amusement as the flames skittered across the surface of the liquid. She needed to persuade Lily to continue drink whilst remaining as sober as possible herself. "It makes you warmer though, doesn't it?"

Lily shivered involuntarily as thunder rolled once more. "You could say that," she rasped, her mouth expelling fluid skeins of smoke.

"So what about that Potter boy?" Bellatrix pressed, curious to know why this was such an uncomfortable subject. In the silence, she idly watched the web of smoke thicken overhead, waiting for the answer.

Lily's face was rapidly darkening, passing from flushed pink to scarlet. Her green eyes flicked down to become absorbed in her drink, the flames making shadows jittering across her expression. Momentarily, Bellatrix experienced regret at the masking of those eyes, then, she shook herself, mentally chiding herself for allowing the Firewhisky to get to her. "Nothing," she replied dully. "He - nothing. He asked me to-" Her mouth tightened. "Nothing."

"Aw, was the poor prefect turned down by the Quidditch Champion?" Bellatrix asked mockingly.

The other girl's eyes flashed and drew Bellatrix's. "No," she snapped. "Nothing of the sort. As if I would want to go out with that - that - him!"

"Ashamed?" enquired Bellatrix, sipping from the cup as delicately as she could. Sobriety appeared to be a fast fading fantasy. Her hand was shaking as the Firewhisky began to take effect, and the thunder booming outside sounded fuzzy to her ears. The only clear things were Lily's face, and Lily's voice. "He is a pureblood after all, no matter how twisted the lineage, and you're nothing but a filthy Mudblood."

She awaited Lily's reaction with greedy anticipation, hoping the goody-two-shoes of a prefect would try jinxing her. Instead, Lily's eyes lowered once more, and her voice was horribly, infuriatingly even as she said, "Better than an ignorant, inbred, filthy pureblood, wouldn't you say?"

Bellatrix raised her cup to Lily in a mocking toast. Her head was beginning to swim, and she didn't fancy trying curses in case they backfired. She could teach Ms Evans a lesson in manners later. "No, I would say that you have a strange impression of the wizard hierarchy."

A smile curled Lily's lips as she shifted closer. When she spoke this time, her voice trembled. "And you, Black, have a strange impression of people's preferences. I would rather kiss a frog than that pretentious Potter."

Bellatrix blew more smoke out, watching it unfurl into the already foggy atmosphere of the room. She couldn't think of any replies that didn't sound like suggestions or proposals, things that she didn't want to be offering, things that she wasn't sure Lily would let her offer. It occurred to her that her mother would have a fit if she knew her eldest was in such close proximity to a Mudblood.

Luckily, Lily spoke next. "I think - I feel like my mind's gone somewhere else," she said dreamily. "I feel like I don't have to think, like I don't have to let anything bother me."

Bellatrix snickered, smoke blooming from her nostrils. "Maybe your mind's taken mine with it. My mind. It's not here anymore."

"Did you ever have one?" Lily asked, moving closer still. "I thought you were insane."

Bellatrix could almost taste the smoke from her mouth. "You would think that," she murmured, letting her hair fall in front of her face so that she wouldn't have to look at Lily. It was a bad move; the redhead simply reached out and tucked the hair behind her ears. She was close, too close. Her unfocused eyes were locked with Bellatrix's, and she was still moving closer.

"Potter's going to kill me," Bellatrix muttered, letting her eyes drop to Lily's mouth. Everybody knew about James Potter's unhealthy obsession with Lily Evans.

"I don't care about James Potter," replied Lily, clumsily moving forward.

"Funny. Me neither," Bellatrix whispered hoarsely, suddenly wanting to be anywhere else but here, and yet wanting to be here more than anywhere else. The Firewhisky was a bad idea, yet such a good one.

The kiss was terrible, yet somehow the best.