/No! It can't be!/
Bellatrix sat bolt upright in bed as these thoughts went racing through her mind. What couldn't be? What the hell was she thinking about? Or had she been dreaming? Then she felt it...sensed her.
"Nimue?"
She murmured the question and Rod groaned and rolled over, reaching out to wrap a muscular, warm arm around her waist.
/Our cave! You said Voldemort tainted everything… Personal possessions from the Founders, though I told Gellert the locket couldn't have really belonged to Slytherin, but still. He even tainted the Hallows by shoving part of his foul soul into the resurrection stone thingy. And now this!/
Nimue was pouring too much into her mind at once!
"Wait… The locket wasn't Slytherin's?"
/Oh, it likely belonged to a Slytherin, just one a few centuries younger than Salazar. Lockets weren't popular until the fifteen and sixteen hundreds./
"Oh… That's nice, I suppose," Bellatrix decided. "Better that he didn't befoul Slytherin's actual possessions...I wonder if there are any of those left floating about somewhere...things that actually belonged to Salazar himself?"
/I don't know, but can we get back to what I want to talk about,/ Nimue asked peevishly.
"Sure, but you're the one who brought up the locket," Bellatrix muttered, frowning.
"Bellatrix. What the fuck are you talking about… Lie back down," Rodolphus complained, giving her a gentle tug.
"Wait," she hissed. "It's Nimue." He grunted, but left off.
/Bellatrix! Are you listening to me?/
"Yes."
/The cave with the black lake… Do you know if that was our cave? Our crystal cave in which legend has it we sleep until we're required again, but in actuality where I died after poisoning myself and our bird with hemlock when Merlin died of the coughing sickness?/
"Wait, you what? Is that how it happened?"
/Yes. All romantic and such… I wrapped his dead body up in his cloak so I didn't have to see it, then I scried for three days in the fire as I promised him I would, using all the proper divining herbs. I knew we would lose to the Saxons and I was correct. I saw loss no matter what Arthur did without us there so I went. I couldn't do it without Merlin, and I knew the bird would miss us so I took him too./
"Not extreme at all," Bellatrix murmured, a smile twitching at her lips. "I approve. While softer souls would take issue, I find that romantic. I wouldn't live without Roddy either."
"Wait, what are we talking about," Rodolphus asked, at last sitting up in bed to join Bellatrix.
"Not sure yet," she told him. "So far I gather that there is a far darker story behind the legend of Merlin and Nimue sleeping in the crystal cave until they, and Arthur, are needed again to save Britain. Instead, it seems that Merlin died of pneumonia or something. Nimue ended herself and their bird because she didn't want to go on without him, and her scrying efforts said she'd not be of help to Arthur anyway as he was going to lose against the Saxon hordes."
"Damn," Rodolphus said eloquently and she nodded. "They had a bird?" he added after a slight, thoughtful pause. "What sort?"
Bellatrix's brows shot up. "Why do you care? Are you going to want a bloody bird now because they had one?"
"No," Rod assured calmly.
That was good because they weren't really pet people.
"I just didn't think they were the sorts to bother with pets, so I wondered what kind of bird it was."
"What sort of bird," Bellatrix asked, focusing her mind back on Nimue.
/Ah, we're talking again./
"Yes, sorry. Rod was asking to be caught up."
/He was an eagle-hawk. Merlin found him as a baby. In this life he was a parakeet who seriously thought he was an eagle-hawk. He lived for eleven years. That's far longer than most parakeets live, you know, but it's only because the idiots who are just allowed to walk into any pet store and buy them don't know how to care for them properly. They feed them on a diet of seeds which kills them because that's basically snack food./
More than she ever wanted to know, Bellatrix thought, tossing a dark look at Rod as she repeated what Nimue said.
Rod blinked as he mentally tracked the progress from eagle-hawk to parakeet. "Poor bird, must have had severe identity struggles."
Bellatrix sighed. "So why are we talking about all this," she asked Nimue.
/Aren't you listening,/ Nimue demanded.
"Yes, but the conversation is going everywhere," Bellatrix explained, struggling for patience, because it was Nimue. She vaguely recalled reading some historical recollection at Hogwarts that claimed Nimue to be a bit insane. She was beginning to believe it, not that she had room to talk.
/It occurred to me that Voldemort may have turned our crystal cave into his foul cave with the black lake, and I am asking if that is true./
"How should I know? No one knows where your cave is. Why would you think it was your cave, though?"
/Because Voldemort tends to relish befouling the property of great wizards and witches. As we are the greatest, and we had a cave, and he used a cave, it was a thought. Also, our cave had a lake as does his. Merlin dedicated the lake in our cave to his magical patron, Vivian, Lady Of The Lake./
Bellatrix nodded. "We are aware of her and the lake, but we didn't know it might be your cave. I understand your concern now. I'll write Gellert, if you like, and have him have a look."
History had it that Merlin was a water mage and so served the fairy goddess of water, Vivian, Lady of the Lake, while Nimue, being an air witch, served Vivian's sister, Queen Maeb of the Fae. That was back when wizards specialized more exclusively in elemental magic forms, but things had changed over the centuries. Many would say they'd evolved, but some darker wizards, including Bella and Rod's families, were more interested in the ancient and often frequently lost magic forms.
/I was hoping you'd already know,/ Nimue said, mild disappointment in her voice./But thank you./
"Sure." Bellatrix thought perhaps Gellert could have Parvati scry if he couldn't get any visions about the cave when he paid it a visit. She was betting he'd be visiting after her letter, so that ought to be interesting. She had never seen the place and didn't plan to. Even if it had once belonged to Merlin and Nimue, it was ruined now.
As if reading her mind, Nimue spoke darkly. /If he fucked up our cave, I swear I'll find a way to help you kill him./
"Aren't you already trying to help us do that?"
/I'll work harder!/
Bellatrix got up and wrote Gellert directly, even before getting dressed. Once that was done, though, she did get dressed, and Rod finally rolled out of bed with a sigh of resignation.
"It's nearly eight, and we'd have to get up in half an hour for work anyway," Bellatrix told him with an amused smile.
"What if it is their cave?" he wondered. "Think there is anything useful in it?"
"I don't know. Let's see," Bellatrix replied, mentally reaching for her connection to Nimue as she and Rod headed downstairs for breakfast and a lot of coffee.
"Did you leave things in the cave? Anything we could use, perhaps?"
/Probably/ Nimue answered. /That is yes, we left things there and you can probably use them,/ she clarified.
That meant Bellatrix had another letter to write to Gellert, because he'd certainly want to know that. Though she was curious about whatever rare magical treasures the cave held, she would not go. Not after what Regulus and Kreacher had gone through in it. It just felt too...wrong.