After that, she decisively abandoned all high-profile behaviors and returned to the quiet state she had in her first year.
She no longer raised her hand to answer questions in class, nor did she make any actions that could easily be misunderstood; she disguised herself as a completely harmless and transparent character.
And this strategy clearly made a lot of sense.
Under this approach, apart from some students in Slytherin, people from other houses gradually forgot about this fiercely powerful Witch.
Thus, two quiet years passed.
During this period, Andy and Narcissa entered Hogwarts one after another, and Lucius also enrolled during this time.
It was as if the plot had suddenly accelerated, and the parents’ era was about to arrive.
In the very year Andy and Lucius enrolled, she was brought up again in Slytherin.
Someone proposed that she become a prefect to manage Slytherin, and even Professor Slughorn agreed, but Bellatrix chose not to accept.
She refused on the grounds that she was busy with magic research.
Upon hearing this, some girls showed very pleasantly surprised expressions, then realized something was wrong, hurriedly restrained their expressions, and then reservedly expressed their agreement, but the urgency in their eyes was almost impossible to hide.
Bellatrix took everything in, but didn’t say anything.
After all, these things were not important to her.
Later, after Lucius enrolled, he tried several times to invite her to some gatherings concerning the Sacred Twenty-Eight, which she also cleverly found reasons to avoid.
Perhaps realizing something, she didn’t participate in anything afterwards.
She only stepped forward when Andy came to her with something.
But after entering school, Andy instead let herself go.
Clearly she used to be a quiet girl, yet after entering school she met a Ravenclaw and spent all day wandering God-knows-where in Hogwarts.
Once when Bellatrix saw her, she actually displayed very strong pro-Muggle views.
Although Bellatrix herself didn’t care much about this point, if Father were to find out…
“Sister, don’t tell Father, okay?”
Andy—Andromeda Black, who was later Tonks’s mother—rarely looked at Bellatrix with a pitiful look in her eyes at this moment.
You must know, this was Narcissa’s usual trick, and she had never called Bellatrix sister before.
Bellatrix rarely felt a bit soft-hearted.
“Watch yourself, don’t let word reach Father’s ears, otherwise… you know the consequences.”
It seemed her destiny had already been revealed upon entering school. Enjoying the story? Read on at g.com.
The personality that had always been suppressed by the House of Black was quickly released after arriving at Hogwarts, even habitually choosing rebellion.
Just like Sirius.
“Got it,” Andy seemed not to have listened.
But it didn’t matter.
In this life, with Bellatrix around, she wouldn’t end up worse than in the plot.
However, also because of Andy, she met an unexpected person, Gilderoy.
That memory thief from Harry Potter, the Ravenclaw adept at the Memory Charm.
Although in the original work this man seemed to be good for nothing except the Memory Charm, upon truly interacting with him, Bellatrix instead discovered some of his shining points—such as his cognition of emotions.
This also pushed Bellatrix’s research into a new level.
Compared to Andy, Narcissa was much calmer when she entered school.
She smoothly entered Slytherin, smoothly adapted to the environment here, and even smoothly established a social connection with Lucius.
She performed better than Bellatrix; after all, Bellatrix was so self-centered.
Speaking of which, Rodolphus Lestrange still became a qualified Death Eater.
Although Bellatrix had never introduced him to Lord Voldemort, he still managed to see Lord Voldemort through family connections.
It was said that upon their first meeting, he knelt down beneath his knees, begging to be granted the Dark Mark.
Yes, during these two years, Lord Voldemort finally created the Dark Mark.
And the moment Bellatrix saw it, she knew this was a typical Dark Arts, created by him, carrying strong subjective emotions.
This mark was extremely twisted, symbolizing its eerie nature.
It was also because of the Dark Mark that the momentum of the Death Eaters grew even larger.
The confrontation between the Death Eaters and the Order of the Phoenix also made the situation tense, and even Hogwarts was affected.
Some people began to be wary and targeted Slytherin students, especially Gryffindor the most.
The conflict between the two houses began to intensify increasingly.
For reasons unknown, the Deans of the two houses did not stop those boring disputes.
She didn’t hesitate at that time, only lowering her head.
“Teacher, I do not want the Dark Mark to affect my magic path.”
That was the first time she addressed Lord Voldemort as teacher; previously, she had always called him Lord.
What she thought at the time was that refusing Lord Voldemort required demonstrating her own value.
And her exceptional magical talent could become a huge asset for him in opposing Dumbledore.
Seeing her fair arm, one would know that she had clearly won the gamble.
For reasons unknown, Lord Voldemort tacitly approved of her addressing him as teacher.
Of course, she wasn’t tricking Lord Voldemort either.
In these two years, not only had she finished learning everything in the Hogwarts textbooks, but she had also simultaneously developed her own magic system.
In her view, why were Dark Arts usually curses or harmful magic carrying intense malice?
The main reason was that those beneficial, positive magics had long been almost entirely developed by people, and creating a new one was extremely difficult.
Take for example the first Dark Arts created by Lord Voldemort—the Horcrux.
Although he wasn’t the first to think of it, he used a highly cost-effective method to complete the improvement and creation of the Horcrux.
Yes, she had read *Secrets of the Darkest Art*, and Slughorn had approved the slip, right in that position.
Dumbledore acted as if he didn’t know at all.
The Horcruxes mentioned in that book were much more complex to make, requiring the souls of at least 10 Wizards, some unique Dark Arts materials, and astonishing Alchemy attainments in technique.
Otherwise, why do you suppose Slughorn didn’t use this method to pursue immortality?
Nothing more than the difficulty being too high.
Yet, after Lord Voldemort’s improvement, it unexpectedly only required lodging intense emotions, and then at the end of the creation, killing one person would suffice.
Compared to the original, even capitalists would say his method had super high cost-effectiveness.
These were all discovered by her during her private research, which Lord Voldemort did not know.
But Bellatrix was still once again shocked by his genius.
At the same age, he had already completed the creation of his first Horcrux—the diary, while Bellatrix had just finished sorting out her own magic system.
Fortunately, it wasn’t too late.