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Harry Potter: The True Lord- Chapter 7: Revelation
🕑 Added 2025-06-22 09:53:04 +0000 UTCBellatrix remained frozen in disbelief. The disbelief was not because she had lost, but because of the ease she had been defeated.
It had been like a walk in the park for Antonio to defeat her. He had not even gone all out against her. He had been holding back. He had not displayed his full abilities.
And the moment he had decided to ramp up his offense, she had not lasted even a minute.
“Shocked, are we?” Antonio asked with a grin as he stepped closer.
Bellatrix met his eyes and remarked the obvious in an even tone, “You win.”
“Is it not obvious?” he smiled.
Then, a little softer he asked, “Need a drink?”
She gave a small nod. Antonio reached out and took her hand, the feelings of her softs palm coursing in his hands for another few moments, and apparated away from the duelling arena.
When the duo reappeared, they stood in the familiar environment of Antonio Olario’s inn.
Neither spoke for the first few minutes. Bellatrix silently took a seat on the stool along the counter, while Antonio stepped behind the counter and poured two drinks.
Bellatrix downed hers in one go and she slammed the glass onto the wooden bar with a thud.
“Not easy, accepting defeat for someone like you?” Antonio teased with a grin. She was a battle junkie through and through.
Bellatrix shook her head slowly, her composure returning.
“I never knew you were such a fine wizard,” she admitted.
“Back at Hogwarts, you never stood out. You were never in the limelight. You were just there. Nothing special to mention.”
If he been as brilliant at Hogwarts as he had been now, she would have definitely known about him, even if he had been a senior of different house.
Antonio gave a sheepish laugh, “Well, I prefer keeping a low profile. And Hogwarts does not really have many chances to show one’s brilliance.”
He knew that more the brilliance he showed right now, more the people would compare him with his mediocre self he or his predecessor had been at Hogwarts.
Bellatrix narrowed her eyes, “Then why the show today? Why act all high and mighty in front of me?”
He smirked, “Maybe I was drawn in by your beauty.”
She blinked and then burst out laughing. A few quiet moments passed before Antonio leaned forward, more serious now.
“Now then,” he said. “I think it is time you answered a few of my questions.”
Bellatrix raised an eyebrow, her curiosity piqued, “Go ahead.”
“Why were you so drunk last night?” Antonio asked.
The question caught her completely off guard. She had expected something different. Something else. A probe into the secrets of House Black, perhaps. But this?
“Rodolphus Lestrange,” even so she blurted out.
Antonio tilted his head, intrigued.
“Lover’s quarrel?” he asked, amusement creeping into his voice.
But the instant the words left his mouth; Bellatrix shot him a glare so venomous that it actually made Antonio flinch. Her eyes practically burned with hatred.
“Did I say something wrong?” he asked gently.
Bellatrix took a breath, trying to reel herself back in.
“We are not lovers,” she muttered. “In fact, I hate him. I do not even want to see his face.”
Antonio frowned, “Then how does he still manage to get on your nerves?”
“My family wants me to marry that buffoon,” she revealed, a note of disgust in her voice. “And whenever there is any occasion and he gets a chance, he would just get on my nerves.”
“Yesterday had been such an event, a small gathering,” she said. “And he had enraged me to the core.”
Antonio blinked, slightly surprised, “Really? But why the hate? Rodolphus is a decent wizard, has a strong family name. And is probably good looking too.”
Bellatrix scoffed, “Have you ever looked at him at Hogwarts? He was just two years behind you.”
Antonio shrugged.
“Everything you said is technically true,” she continued, “but he is a complete idiot. Not a single working brain cell in that thick skull of his.”
“Oh!” Antonio murmured, absent-mindedly, digesting the revelation.
It was a bombshell of news for him. Bellatrix’s marriage to Rodolphus had not been a topic which had been dealt in detail or anything even talked about it. But if this was the truth that Bellatrix had been forced to marry him, then what else had been twisted in the canon he remembered?
How had she gone on the path of the death eaters? Was her descent into madness truly because of her stay at Azkaban, or were there other factors in play?
His thoughts spun in overdrive. The Bellatrix from Hogwarts, according to the predecessor’s memories, had been arrogant and domineering, but never the bitch she had been in the cannon. That side of her had come later.
Antonio’s heart thudded with a sudden thrill of adrenaline. His curiosity had been lit ablaze. He wanted knowledge. He wanted to find out what factors were at play here? Was the world truly as it had been portrayed in the cannon? And what if he nudged few of those factors?
“Olario,” Bellatrix’s voice snapped him out of his thoughts.
“Hm?”
“Is that all? Or do you want to ask more?” She asked.
He shook himself out of the spiral and smiled, “That will do for now. I just wanted to understand what had driven you to act that way.”
Bellatrix leaned back, her eyes watching him with newfound interest.
“You are not like the others,” she said quietly.
“No,” Antonio replied as a matter of fact. “I’m not.”
