Soul Bound 36

“Should we go search for her?”Bellatrix asked her sisters for the 7th time. The three of them were standing in front of Hermione’s door waiting for the girl. They all were supposed to meet right after classes ended but Hermione hadn’t shown up. The fact that they had been waiting for twenty minutes concerned Bellatrix greatly. Hermione was always on time and very considerate to other people. That meant she wouldn’t leave them waiting on purpose. Meaning something probably happened. Bellatrix wanted to go hunt her down but her sisters wouldn’t let her. They told her that Hermione likely stayed behind to talk to Minerva and that it wouldn’t do for Bellatrix to go storming in there. Bellatrix was of the opinion that even if Hermione was with Minerva it was perfectly fine for her to go storming in there.

“She’s fine. If she wasn’t she would use the necklace.”Narcissa was also worried but had faith that Hermione would alert them if she was in danger.

“It isn’t like her to keep us waiting.”Andromeda wondered if they should go search for Hermione.

“Let’s give her five more minutes.”Narcissa suggested. She looked at her watch and counted down the minutes. Just as it passed five she opened her mouth to tell her sister to go look when Hermione’s voice called out.

“I’m here!”Hermione yelled as she ran down the hallway towards the sisters.

“Slow down pet.”Bellatrix caught Hermione around the middle and looked her body over of any injuries.”Take a breath.”

Hermione took a few deep breaths to get her breathing under control.”Sorry I’m late.”

“Let’s go in your room and you can tell us the reason for you being late.”Narcissa didn’t want to speak in front of the audience they had gained that consisted of Slytherin students of all ages.

“I really hate that you don’t have keys.”Hermione grumbled as she opened the door and held it open for the sisters following in after them. She made sure it was secured before walking into the room and collapsing on the couch stretching her body across the length of it.

“Don’t put your shoes on the couch.”Narcissa didn’t want the furniture ruined.

Hermione sat up and dropped her feet to the floor.”Sorry Cissa.”

“Do you want a glass of water sweetheart?”Andromeda asked.

“No I’m fine now thank you Andy.”Hermione was feeling much better now that she was sitting.

Bellatrix sat on the couch next to Hermione.”Now why were you late.”

“That stupid staircase forced me to go to the third floor and wouldn’t move. I finally pleaded with it explaining I was supposed to meet you three here and you would be very worried if I didn’t show up. I think it understood me because after I told it that it finally moved.”Hermione was sure the staircase understood her.

“You said it kept you on the third floor?”Narcissa wondered why it did that.

“Yes but I didn’t get off the staircase and explore the area. I figured you would want to show me what was up there.”Hermione would rather experience things with her soulmates.

“That’s the thing. There is nothing but a long empty hallway on the third floor.”Narcissa had used it as a hiding spot during her years as a student because nobody went up there.

“Maybe there actually is and the staircase was telling Hermione that. It could be something only the heir has access to.”Bellatrix figured that was the reason Hermione got stuck.”If Hermione’s right and it understood her then that may have been it’s way of giving her the message.”

“If Hermione’s right that means the staircase has been purposely fucking with me since I was a student here.”Andromeda would be pissed if that was the case.

“Andy language.”Narcissa didn’t approve of her sisters cursing in front of Hermione.

“You know what this means pet?”Bellatrix asked Hermione.

“I have a feeling we are about to go on a field trip.”Hermione guessed.

Bellatrix hugged Hermione.”You are right. We are going on a field trip.”

“Do you think we will actually find anything?”Hermione wasn’t sure what would be hiding up there.

“Only one way to find out.”Narcissa held out her hand for Hermione to take. Once she did Narcissa pulled her off the couch.

Hermione gave Narcissa a hug.“Thanks Cissa.”

“You’re welcome darling.”Narcissa dropped Hermione’s hand and wrapped her arm around the girl’s shoulders. Side by side they walked to the door.

“We will still need to figure out how to get access to this room.”Andromeda didn’t like being locked out of Hermione’s rooms.

Bellatrix held the door open for everyone.”We can do that later. Now we have a fun adventure to go on.”

“I really hope the staircase was right and wasn’t just messing with me.”Hermione didn’t want to get on the staircase’s bad side.

“I’m going to have a few words with the staircase if we find proof it understands us.”Andromeda was going use some very choice words when speaking to the staircase.

“I don’t think it’s a smart idea to piss off the staircase Andy.”Bellatrix told her after she warded Hermione’s door and rejoined the three of them.

“She apparently already did.”Hermione wondered if she could convince the staircase to be nicer to Andromeda.

“Did you do something to it when you first started at Hogwarts?”Narcissa asked as she guided Hermione through the Slytherin dorm and out to the hallway. They got the usual stares that they all ignored.

Andromeda tried to think of her first experience with the staircase.”I honestly don’t know. I just remember it was about a month into my first year that it started hating me.”

“It seems to like me. Maybe I can asked it to be nice to you as a favor to me.”Hermione offered.

“Oh sweetheart.”Andromeda pulled Hermione away from a huffing Narcissa and wrapped her arm around Hermione’s shoulders.”You are so adorable.”

Hermione blushed.”It’s no big deal.”

“It’s a huge deal.”Andromeda had never had anyone treat her as good Hermione did. The girl went out of her way to make sure Andromeda felt special, cared for and appreciated. No one in her life had ever even put in half the effort Hermione did. 

“I just don’t like anything being mean to you. Even if it is just a staircase.”Hermione wanted to protect her soulmates from any and all harm. Even from mean staircases.

“You are a definitely swoon worthy my love.”Narcissa smiled when Hermione’s cheeks got redder.

“So about that third floor.”Hermione wanted to change the subject.

Bellatrix laughed.”You aren’t getting out of it that easy. You adorable, swoon worthy, gorgeous girl.”

“Bella stop.”Hermione complained.

“We will give you a break for now.”Andromeda would let Hermione calm down a bit before she continued teasing her.

“Just for now though.”Narcissa was definitely going to tease Hermione later.

“You really don’t remember upsetting the staircase Andy? Did you maybe fight with another student while you were on it?“Hermione was happy they were giving her a break from teasing. She always got embarrassed when they said that kind of stuff about her.

Andromeda shook her head.”I didn’t have any problems with anyone because they were all afraid of what Bella would do to them if they upset me.”

“More than one person learned the hard way what I would do if they messed with my sisters.”Bellatrix had enjoyed teaching those lessons.

“I’m sure you will be having to defend my honor soon enough.”Hermione expected that Bellatrix would have to step in and protect Hermione the next day in her class.

“I will proudly defend your honor pet. Especially if someone tries anything during my class with you tomorrow.”Bellatrix had Hermione and Gerold in her class in the afternoon and was anticipating the moment that Gerold acted out. That way she could punish the boy.

“How was your class with Minerva?”Narcissa asked.

“I think I’m going to like it a lot based on the syllabus she gave us.”Hermione was excited to start learning.

“Did you look at the list of clubs yet?”Andromeda wanted Hermione to join the club she ran.

“Yes and I looked at the schedule and I will be able to join all three of your clubs without them overlapping the times they are held.”Hermione hadn’t wanted to join any clubs initially but she could tell that her soulmates wanted her to join each of theirs.

“That’s wonderful news darling.”Narcissa was very happy hearing that.

“I’m sad you won’t get to participate until next year but it will be fun to watch the duels with you.”Bellatrix was just as happy as Narcissa hearing that she was going to get to fulfill her dream of watching the duels with Hermione.

Andromeda tightened her hold on Hermione.”I think you are going to learn a lot of fun stuff.”

“I know I will with you three running things.”Hermione figured she would be learning a lot of advanced magic for a first year.

“There is that charm again.”Bellatrix smiled when Hermione buried her face in Andromeda’s shoulder.

“We saw you talking to Pansy at lunch what did she have to say?”Narcissa asked as they made their way out of the dungeon entrance and into the main hallway. That was completely deserted.

“She talked mostly about Gerold and his claim on the Black family.”Hermione told her.

“What exactly did she say?”Andromeda wanted specifics.

“She actually told me some interesting gossip if it’s true.”Hermione said.”She claimed that Gerold and his family have been in talks with the Greengrass family throughout the years and have both tried to get other pureblood families to band together to challenge both Bella and Cissa for their claims on the Malfoy and Lestrange estates. Pansy mentioned that her mother had seen Gerold’s family during numerous visits to the Greengrass family manor.”

“Why would Pansy rat out her mother?”Bellatrix didn’t think it was an accident Pansy shared that information.

“She likely did it so that she could distance her family from the others. By telling Hermione who has a link to us that would make it seem that the Parkinson family wasn’t involved in the initial alliance. Even though we know they were.”Narcissa had proof of it when Lady Parkinson tried to force her to give her gold in that meeting.

“She also said that she didn’t think Gerold or Draco were worthy of being in charge of their families. When I asked her why she told me that if either boy did take the title she thought they would ruin their houses by bankrupting them and alienating everyone due to their attitudes.”Hermione agreed with Pansy on that.

“Well she isn’t wrong.”Andromeda also agreed with Pansy on that.

“Was anything else said of interest?”Narcissa asked.

Hermione shook her head.”She just asked me a few questions about if I knew I was the rightful Head of Household for my families my whole life and what the room I got is like. I ignored the first question and gave her minor details for the second.”

“Good job.”Bellatrix was pleased with the way Hermione handed herself. Coming to a stop at the bottom of the staircase Bellatrix raised her eyebrow when it immediately shifted to allow them to climb it.”That’s different.”

“And just more proof that Hermione was right about it.”Andromeda grumbled.

“Hello staircase. I would appreciate it if you would be so kind to allow us to climb to the third floor please.”Hermione figured treating the staircase with respect was the right way to do this.

“Let’s go.”Narcissa took Hermione’s hand in her own and started walking up the stairs. To her surprise the staircase shifted to allow them to walk right up to the third floor.

Hermione stepped onto the third floor landing and turned to the staircase.“Thank you staircase.”

“I can’t believe you are thanking it.”Andromeda was now convinced that staircase was fully aware of what was going on and had been screwing with her since she was a student at Hogwarts.

“Thank you staircase.”Bellatrix shrugged when Andromeda glared at her.”I don’t want it to start fucking with me.”

“Bella language!”Narcissa scolded.

Bellatrix rolled her eyes at Narcissa.”Come on pet let’s see what secrets the castle has been hiding from us.”

“How do we find these secrets? I was to young to remember exactly how it worked on the estates I visited.”Hermione wasn’t old enough to really remember what happened when she visited the many family estates she inherited.

“All we did was walk you through every room and hallway and things would reveal themselves to us once you were close. Plus we had you walk the grounds after a random building appeared on one of the Lestrange family estate while you and Andy were playing on the lawn.”Narcissa had been shocked by the building appearing because she had never heard of such a large structure being hidden like that before.

“That was a fun building to find. All those weapons, armor, uniforms and the collection of military and war materials. Then there were the 12th century maps of the world, countries and even territories of a few of those countries. I’m honestly surprise it remained untouched for all those centuries.”Andromeda had thought the building was amazing.

“I’m not. The Lestrange family are morons who probably didn’t know it was there as that was an unused property. They mainly just used the family manor and didn’t visit other places the family owned.”Bellatrix had enjoyed the building as well and tried out some of the armor and weapons.

“So we just walk around and something will appear.”Hermione wished she remembered a building appearing out of nowhere. Rounding the corner she stopped at the sight of a wooden door with a metal Slytherin crest on it.”Something like that?”

Narcissa smiled.”Exactly something like that.”

“Let me see if I can open it.”Bellatrix rushed to the door and tried the door knob. She huffed when it didn’t open.

“You aren’t the chosen one then?”Andromeda teased.

Bellatrix ignored the jab.”Open it pet.”

“Alright.”Hermione stepped up to the door and turned the knob causing the door to swing open. She walked inside and stopped a few steps in to take in the room.

“What is this place?”Andromeda asked as she looked around. There were a dozen tables in the room all them holding different types of equipment. All the equipment from what Andromeda could tell was used to create some type of magic. Be it potions, spell, runes or anything else there was the equipment to help. Plus an area for practicing spells with targets set up. There was also a lounge area in front of a fire place, the walls were lined with shelves to the ceiling that were filled with different materials and a library the same size as the one in Hermione’s room.

“More books!”Bellatrix cheered as she made her way over to the bookshelves.

“I think this was Salazar’s private workroom.”Narcissa walked around looking at the shelves lining the walls with various things on them to include potion ingredients. Some that were very rare and extremely expensive.”These are feathers from a phoenix.” 

“You’re kidding?”Andromeda stopped her investigating of the tables and joined Narcissa.

“I’m not kidding. They’re a six in here.”Narcissa set the bottle down and moved on to the next one.

Bellatrix whistled.”Phoenix feathers are incredibly valuable.”

“How valuable?”Hermione asked.

“If you sold those six you could fill up a vault with enough gold to equal the Lestrange one.”Andromeda told her.

“There are also phoenix tears. A full bottle of them.”Narcissa wondered how they were gotten. She fully believed they were real she just didn’t know where they came from.

“There are other rare items here as well. Like intact frost dragon scales and a Veela feather.”Andromeda wanted to know where the items were gotten as well.

“It the scales are intact that means the dragon gave the scale willingly. The same with the Veela feather. You can’t take a feather from a Veela you have to be given it or cut it out of their body with a special blade.”Hermione had learned that from one of the many magical creature books she had read over the years.

“Holy shit!”Bellatrix exclaimed as she finished reading the first page of the book she was looking at.

“Bella language!”Narcissa was going to have to figure out a punishment for her sisters cursing in front of Hermione.

“Who cares about that Cissa. What we need to care about is in my hands I am holding one of Salazar’s personal research notebooks.”Bellatrix smiled at the shocked looks her sisters were giving her.

“Seriously?”When her sister nodded Andromeda rushed over to see the book.”It looks like the original.”

“What am I supposed to do with this room?”Hermione had no clue what she would use the room for.

“You will do nothing without one of us in here with you. That way we can make sure you are being safe.”Narcissa wasn’t going to allow Hermione to play around with anything in the room without supervision.

“I am more than willing to spend time in here with you pet.”Bellatrix thought this room was cooler than Hermione’s dorm room. Well maybe not cooler. They just were in different categories of cool.

“I am to.”Andromeda would love to read through all the notebooks that were on the shelves that were likely from Salazar and all his heirs.

“We all would.”Narcissa wanted to use the room and the ingredients to make some of the more complicated potions she never got the chance to make due to the lack of materials.

“Do you think Salazar picked me as the heir so that you guys would have access to all this stuff as well?”Hermione asked.

“From what I have seen the things in this room could help us out a lot with what is to come so he probably did.”Bellatrix could see the founder having knowledge of the future.

“The potion ingredients will be handy for making some lifesaving potions.”Narcissa agreed with Salazar picking Hermione because of her bond with the sisters.

“He probably knew all along that we would teach here and that you be a student. He couldn’t make any of us the heir because we weren’t in a position to safely take advantage of the perks you are getting while we were students.”Andromeda bet that Salazar knew what would happen all along.

“Makes sense.”Hermione said.

“Regardless of why you were made the heir we have access to this room until you graduate Hogwarts. That means we should make use of it.”Narcissa was going to search through the notebooks for anything about potions. She had a feeling that she find some unknown ones that would be very valuable to them in the future.

“I want to get started now but I’m more excited to see the rest of the castle.”Hermione wanted to finish the tour.

“I was thinking about taking this notebook with me but I don’t think it’s safe to remove anything from of the rooms that reveal themselves to Hermione.”Bellatrix didn’t the material to fall into the wrong hands.

“I agree. We don’t want anything to happen to all this stuff. We especially don’t want it to be stolen.”Andromeda also didn’t want it falling into the wrong hands.

“It’s to bad we can’t inventory all this.”Hermione wished there was an easy way to find out what was in the room.

“I would say we could have an elf do it but we don’t own the ones that work here and that’s means they could tell anyone who asked what they saw.”Narcissa didn’t think it would be safe to use the Hogwarts house elves.

“We can’t call the Malfoy or Lestrange ones either.”Bellatrix like Hermione wished there was an easy way to find out what was in the room.

“We can next year. Until then we will deal with it.”Narcissa would like to have an inventory of the wall of potion ingredients because it was going to take weeks to examine everything. It was going to be a fun task though. One she would definitely enjoy.

“Let’s go take you on the rest of the tour. If we spend anymore time in here I’m going to lost in one of these books.”Andromeda desperately wanted to read Salazar’s notebook. She was hoping that they would finds others of his as well.

“Do you think we will find anything else?”Hermione asked.

“We most likely will. I doubt it will be as cool as what we found so far but you never know.”Bellatrix wouldn’t be surprised if they found out more stuff.

“Come on let’s go. I want to finish the tour before dinner. That way we can spend time in your room relaxing afterwards.”Narcissa was still trying to figure out a way to be the one who spent the night Hermione. She knew better than to ask Hermione outright because it distressed the girl when she had to choose between the three of them.

“I want look over that library.”Bellatrix said.

“I do to.”Hermione didn’t get the chance that morning before she went to breakfast.

“Alright like Cissa said let’s get this tour done before dinner.”Andromeda reached out her hand for a willing Hermione to take and led her out of the room. She wasn’t looking forward to using the staircase again because it was extremely hard biting her tongue. Andromeda didn’t want it to get angrier at her than already was. She was banking on it liking her now that it knew she was linked to Hermione. Then again with Andromeda’s luck the thing would be even angrier that she was linked to it’s friend. Andromeda held back a sigh. She hated the fact that she was going to cave and ask Hermione speak to the staircase on her behalf. It was the only way to stop getting stuck on the thing all the time. She really didn’t know what she did to offend it so badly that it had been targeting her for so long. Andromeda would make amends if she did know. She would do anything to get on the staircase’s good side. It would save her a lot of time if she could.