Black Rose - Severus Snape x Bellatrix Black

Chapter 7 - Marriage enflames a love-hate affair, V!

Winter garden, Malfoy Manor, Wiltshire, England, December 1977

Merlin, this couldn't be happening to her. How could her magical signature match with the one of a poor Half-blood Slytherin schoolboy who was rude and smug to boot? She could merely suppress a wanton moan that wanted to escape her dry throat and refrain from attacking the sly Snape boy with passionate kisses. Well, her acting like a common tart in front of the aisle at her little sister's wedding by throwing herself at a young bullied and arrogant Half-blood would clearly cause a scene at the wedding and an uproar in the Wizarding world.

Her dear mother would probably die from a heart attack, her old female and male schoolmates would make jokes about her bigoted behavior and bad taste in men, Cissy would probably never speak again to her for destroying her wedding before she had even the chance to utter her wedding vows and the press would have a field day and produce vomit-inducing headline's like "PDAing with a Half-blood Schoolboy - Black heiress breaks the heart of her Pure-blood fiancé" or "Scandal at the Malfoy Wedding – Black heiress passionately makes out with her new Half-blood toyboy".

She couldn't produce headlines like that and be granted with the Dark Mark. Hell, she would die out of humiliation and shame and could kiss her Dark Mark good-bye, for the Dark Lord had made it very clear to her that he would only brand her with his power-inducing loyalty-displaying and fear-transmitting sign if she was married to his loyal follower Rodolphus Lestrange. Therefore, Bellatrix fought against her intoxicating desires, lustful thoughts and wildly thumping heart with all her might. She, the powerful, genius, sassy and cold Bellatrix Black wouldn't let herself be reduced to a mere slave of her desires.

She could break any complex curse and ward, torture, injure and kill the enemies of the Dark Lord without batting an eyelash and reduce any pathetic wizard or witch to tears with her sharp tongue, quick wit and unique magical powers. She wouldn't fall prey to her magic-evoked sexual needs and some ancient hogwash about the powers of matching magical energies. This old sacred belief in the compatibility of magical signatures was a fraud like Divination. In Bellatrix mind, it was total bullshit, and she would prove it's falsehood by withstanding the compelling allure of Snape's magical signature.

Sure, her lust rushed through her veins and her magical energies seemed to pulsate in closeness to Snape, but she could keep her cool by focusing on her self-studied skills in Occlumency. Thank Merlin, she had read everything about the subtle mind arts Occlumency and Legilimency in the Black library, had studied them profoundly and had learned to turn her face blank on a whip, to construct a mental wall inside her mind and to conceal her emotions in any dangerous situation. And your magical energies trying to hook up with your pale-faced smug and poor Half-blood nemesis was a real life-threatening situation.

Besides that, she could easily apply some simple Occlumency techniques because the Blacks were famous for their natural skills in mind magic. Thanks to them, she could easily build up a solid mental protection shield on her memories and thoughts, conceal her true feelings under a cold mask of indifference and penetrate the mind of her enemies to take a peek in their darkest desires and happiest memories. Sure, she couldn't read their minds like a book or watch their childhood memories play out like a Muggle cinema movie without eye contact, her wand, the correct incantation, and force but she could nonetheless get a general picture of their emotions and mindsets with a simple glance into their eyes, if her victims weren't proficient in concealing their minds.

To her dismay, the Snape boy seemed to be also adept at magically closing off his mind from her curious eyes because she could only see a tumultuous dark seastorm while searching his mind for his emotions. But she didn't need Legilimency to see that Lucius' best man felt madly attracted to her. His mysterious bottomless obsidian eyes sparkled with sexual desire, the maddening rush to live out something forbidden and an intoxicating power to dominate his most-hated female enemy.