The fourth day, she was determined to drill in the spell until it was effortless for him, no matter the amount of times she would have to awaken him.
Adrian slumped to the ground, hand clutching his shoulder where crimson weeped from a cutting curse.
Bellatrix folded her legs and sat directly across from him with a savage look in her eye. She poked his arm, ignoring his hiss of pain and licked the red from her dark nails.
"Your father wants you to learn Occlumency." She informed Adrian, causing the latter to freeze; the pain in his arm felt so insignificant all the sudden.
"What?" He breathed, pulling his knees to his chest and clutching them carefully.
"I don't know how to do it," Bellatrix confessed, "He said my brain is a bit too-" her eyes became alit with a maddening fire, "too confusing."
"When does he want me to learn it by?" Adrian swallowed, feeling anxiety rise in his throat and buzz nauseatingly in his stomach, "How much time do I have?"
"Summer?" She asked, tilting her head as she squinted into nothing, "Summer I think?"
"That's not long," Adrian whispered, hand spasming into a tight fist. Bellatrix acted like the information wasn't new, she could have given him more time. She could have told him.
He almost saw a filter slide over his eyes, something dark and shrouding his vision. He looked at Bella, so intimately cold at her, and with a crack of one knuckle she was suddenly trapped in the chaotic mingling of screams and laughter.
"Why didn't you tell me sooner." Adrian bit out, somewhere between hysteria and raw fury. "You could have given me more time."
He released her, the pressure vanishing as the hands pushing on his skull released their grip. She went lack on the ground, still laughing although they only sounded winded.
"Because," her voice bubbled between still twitching lips, "It's funny when you do this."
"You think it's funny?" Adrian asked, voice strikingly cold; he twisted his head, trying to get something in his neck to crack on the one side while it refused to do so.
He pressed on her, feeling something in his chest tighten as her breath refused to come to him. She spasmed on the ground, unable to laugh with the air being pulled from her very lungs.
"You've placed me in a poor situation, Lestrange." Adrian's voice was ice, "Not again."
He released her, and walked away.
Christmas Day Adrian spent with Lutain nestled on a stack of warm towels, and Hedwig perched in the branches of an obnoxiously large tree in the drawing room.
Rodolphus and Rabastan were gone often the days leading up to the holiday, apparently on missions to recruit or blackmail wizards. Christmas day they were battered with broken bones and blackened eyes, all in various states of healing.
"Let's ignore that," Bellatrix huffed, instead sliding a hazardous wrapped box over towards Adrian. "Open it!"
Adrian did so, pulling on the tape to loosen the paper. It was a crate, and inside that was a single key.
He held it up questioningly, to which Bellatrix elaborated that it was a key to her childhood home. She didn't understand Adrian's compulsion or longing with every book within sight, but could recognize the vast collection of books and scrolls that belonged to the family of Black held valuable wealth.
Rodolphus gifted him a journal, one thick and black Adrian immediately designated to keep track of all the deals that had transacted. Rodulphus also gave him various objects that although showed an effort, it didn't show that he knew Adrian very well. Socks, a pair of new boots, treats for Hedwig and a potion for Lutain to aid during sheds. Rabastan went slightly further, giving him an inkwell fashioned from some sort of magical creature's claw, and a collection of potions in small vials; most were likely questionable in content.
There was another gift, in a small box with silvery embossed paper. Once Adrian was able to see it closer, the embossing was actually a delicate peacock feather pattern.
"The Malfoy's?" Adrian asked, glancing at Bella who shrugged and looked at the paper.
Adrian pulled it open, lifting the black lid off until he spotted the shimmering black fabric.
He pulled it out carefully, the material feeling almost like silk yet it likely was much stronger.
"Why would Malfoy's gift me something?"
He lifted the entire mass from the box, freezing when he deciphered spidery handwriting at the very bottom.
'You will show your worth.'
It wasn't signed, and it didn't need to be.
He pulled the cloth out and unfolded it, it was a cloak. The trimmings were in silver with ivory clasps akin to Death Eater masks. The tail of the cloak was in tatters, select strands touching the floor while other ratty tears only met his calf. The material was silky and chillingly cold compared to the rest of the cloak.
"Adrian," Bellatrix spoke, voice low as she leant in to be heard, "The Dark Lord has named you as his heir," Her lips nearly touched his ear, "Cerastes."
Like a viper rearing to strike, Adrian felt the thick coils of something under his skin tightening in tension.
He was out of time after all.
....
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