The Ring

 That evening, during dinner, Snape crept into the dark owlery and found what he had hoped would be there. Potter's pet owl, Hedwig. Dumbledore had mentioned to him in passing, when the students went home for Christmas, that Potter had elected to leave his owl at Hogwarts to avoid confrontations with the Dursleys.

He held out the sealed letter to her. "I need you to take this to your master. He's in trouble and this letter contains important information."

The owl looked at him suspiciously, but hooted and came down from her lofty perch. Snape quickly attached the letter and gave her some instructions. "Find him and deliver this as soon as you can. However, it will be no good if anyone spots you."

She hooted and immediately flew off into the night. Snape watched until she faded in the distance and let out a sigh of relief. If Potter was alive, he would get the letter.

....

"Yes, it is a hefty piece of real estate." Bellatrix replied, rolling her eyes. "If I'm correct, you're the new owner of this fortress and that makes you richer than all of the wizards and witches in the world combined with just the value of the castle."

Harry studied the castle. It was a pretty cool looking place, although the grounds on the outside did look a little sparse. "Let's go in shall we?" He stepped towards the imposing door and lightly touched it. It promptly swung open without a sound.

They then stepped into the main entrance hall and looked around. There was absolutely nothing. It was simply an abandoned room. "It's hard to believe that an army would try to conquer this place. There isn't anything here." Harry said.

Bellatrix was looking around thoughtfully. "I think that the castle is under some sort of spell. It's probably designed to look like an abandoned ruin to anybody who finds it. Since you're the heir of Polairix, you can probably undo it somehow."

Harry was about to speak when he heard a faint whisper. "Something is whispering." he said to Bellatrix quietly.

"It's coming from that direction." she said, pointing down towards the broad corridor that stretched straight in front of them from the entrance hall.

The whisper made itself heard a third time and they didn't need any urging to try and find where it was coming from. They made their way down the hall and soon found themselves in what appeared to be a gigantic throne room.

Massive black columns marched up to the front of the room where an imposing black throne sat upon a raised dais. The whisper grew louder as they approached it. They soon discovered that the whisper was coming from the star that was engraved in the floor in front of the dais.

When they stepped onto it, the star suddenly produced a glowing white light and a miniature column sprouted from the center of the engraved star. On the top of the little column was a mini-star which was glowing red. It stopped growing when it was as tall as Harry's waist.

"Take thy wife's hand and then place your other hand on the red star." The whisper, which was no longer intelligible, commanded.

Shrugging, Bellatrix offered Harry her hand. He gingerly held onto it as he placed his other hand squarely onto the red star. The instant he made contact with it, their world exploded into bright white light.

The whispering voice could be heard again. "All hail Harry James Potter, Lord of Polairix and Nair'icaix and Earl of the North." It paused for a moment before continuing. "Hail to the Lady Bellatrix who hath redeemed herself from her past crimes by aiding the House of Polairix. Long may she be faithful to her Lord. You shall both have strength, youthfulness, and power to restore Polairix to it's glory and be triumphant over those who would oppose you."

Harry blinked as the white light faded. The first thing he noticed as he looked around was that the decor of the castle had drastically changed. The room was no longer empty. It looked as if someone actually lived there. The interesting thing was the countless banners that hung from the ceiling. On a field of emerald green flew a black shackled phoenix with a lightning bolt clutched in his talons.

He glanced toward Bellatrix to see what she thought of the new developments. Instead of observing the changes, she was on her knees, silently crying tears of joy as she squeezed the life out of his hand. "Are you okay?" Harry asked, his voice rich with concern.

"Never better, my lord," she whispered. Her violet eyes were glowing and the tears had stopped.

Confusion clouded Harry's mind for a moment until he mentally repeated what the whispering voice had said. He quickly took action before anything got out of hand. "I'm your husband, not some overlord. I would think that would put us on an even footing." He tugged on her hand and she stood up.

"I'll accept that." she said quietly. "But I don't think I deserve you."

Harry knelt before her, still holding her hand. "Bellatrix, would you be my wife?"

She looked at him with a bemused expression on her face. "I am your wife."

"Yes," Harry replied, "you are my wife, but would you BE my wife." He glanced at her hand and noticed a silver ring with a star shaped emerald set into in on her ring finger before speaking again. "I would try to get you a ring, but it appears you already have one."

Bellatrix looked at the ring, nodded and began crying for joy again. She pulled Harry to his feet, wrapped her arms around him firmly and kissed him on the lips. She stopped for a moment and said three simple words before initiating another kiss. "I love you."

Although Harry was somewhat nervous about kissing a crying woman, especially after his experience with Cho, he was pleasantly surprised and felt a warm glow as he and Bellatrix kissed. When they ran out of air, the kiss ended and they merely leaned against each other for several minutes, and after that, they moved toward the throne and sat down together on the dais.

"So where did the ring come from?" Harry asked, breaking the romantic silence.

"I don't know." Bellatrix answered. She looked at Harry's hand and found that he too had a ring. It was obsidian and a star was outlined in the face of it with silver. "You have one too. It must have happened with the white light."

Harry studied his new ring and attempted to remove it to study it more. It wouldn't come off. "I think that it just comes with the title." he said.

Bellatrix nodded and looked at Harry studiously. "You look . . . older than you were before."

"What do you mean?"

She shrugged. "You're taller and more filled out. I think that the last thing the voice said was about strength and youthfulness. Maybe that has something to do with it."

Harry laughed. "I'm barely sixteen! The strength may apply to me, but not the youthfulness." He then looked at her closely. "You don't look a day over twenty-three."

"What!" Bellatrix exclaimed. "Where's a mirror!" Suddenly an elegant handheld mirror appeared in her hand. She looked at it with surprise before studying her face in the mirror. "Wow! There are witches who would kill to lose some years this fast!"

Harry was looking at the mirror with surprise written all over his face. "How does a mirror just appear out of nowhere? I wonder. . . is this like the Room of Requirement?" he muttered. After thinking some more, he said in a loud voice, "Any chance of getting some plates of food for two?"

Two plates filled with delicious food promptly appeared next to where Harry and Bellatrix were sitting. Without a word, they both dug in and ate until there wasn't a crumb left. "I could get used to this." Harry said with a broad smile.

Bellatrix stood up and looked around. "Everything is perfect. . . except for . . ."

"For what?"

"We'll need the master suite of course. Any ideas?"

Harry's obsidian ring pulsed and an image appeared in his head. "This way," he said, pointing to a door that led to a side corridor. They started walking towards it. "What's the master suite for?"

Bellatrix smiled and then said something that made Harry blush bright red. "It's time for you to perform your husbandly duties. I hope that you already know about the birds and the bees."

.....

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