1prompt: 'i'm tired of fighting. for once, i want to be fought for.'
Hermione crouches beside Bellatrix, glancing back at the Auror standing guard outside the cell. She brushes the hair from Bellatrix's face, runs her hands along Bella's cheeks, tries not to cry at the dead look in Bella's beautiful gray eyes, the spark of life and defiance that Hermione loves extinguished.
"Bella, please, you can't give up," Hermione whispers. Her otter swims around them, keeping the creeping cold of Azkaban away - or at least it tries, because Hermione can still feel it, embodied in Bellatrix's eyes, in the very core of her, all her strength and arrogance and wild beauty gone. "You're innocent. They don't have anything on you."
Bellatrix gives no indication she hears. Just stares at her hands in her lap blankly.
"Bella... Bella, please, don't give up. I need you to fight."
To Hermione's surprise, tears well up in Bellatrix's eyes. She blinks them away before they fall.
When Bellatrix speaks, her voice is strained. "I'm tired of fighting. I always end up back here again. They'll never be happy until I'm dead. What's the point?"
"Bella..."
"I'm always fighting. I can't... I'm tired, pet. For once I want to be fought for."
Hermione swallows past the lump in her throat. "You are. You are being fought for. I'm fighting for you. This is...this is all my fault. If I wasn't campaigning for Minister of Magic you wouldn't be getting set up like this, not now - "
Bellatrix shakes her head, lets it fall back against the wall of her cell. "It would just be something else. It's always something else."
"This is illegal, and it's wrong. They can't do this."
"But they are."
"Not for long," Hermione vows, fire burning in her eyes, in her veins, rising inside her and filling every part of her until she's sure she can breathe it if only she chooses. "Once I'm Minister, no one will ever touch you again, do you understand? I'll make them all sorry. You've done enough. Let me fight now."
Bellatrix lets out a deep shaky breathe. "I'm tired, pet," is all she says.
Hermione moves to sit beside Bellatrix on the cot and pulls Bella to recline against her. She holds her and rubs her hands up and down Bellatrix's arms and back, trying to warm and soothe her.
"I'll have you out in no time, my love," Hermione whispers into Bellatrix's hair. "They have nothing, and they know it. They're trying to scare me out of the running, trying to make sure I lose or withdraw, whichever comes first. I won't back down. I'll fight. I'll make them sorry they ever so much as looked at you, I'll - " She chokes up.
Bellatrix doesn't move or make any noise. Nothing.
Then, "I'm tired, pet. I'm so tired..."
"I know." Hermione kisses the top of Bellatrix's head. "Sleep, my love."
Bellatrix closes her eyes and falls into a fitful sleep in Hermione's arms. The silver otter swims lazy circles through the air around them, keeping them safe and warm for a few moments of peace that will be shattered all too soon.