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This creature was not meant to be collared and so the sight of the barbed restraints tormented her.
The muggles stared and pointed. They mocked the creature and said names that should never have been spat at such a noble beast. Children tossed popcorn and other greasy foods over the glass and into the cage like the animal would lower itself to eating the muggle food.
A redheaded child who was as pudgy as he was ugly was especially brave and picked up a comically large and brightly hammer and began to beat at the glass.
Her black eyes observed that, with each beat of the hammer, the large, golden brown ear twitched to the sound. It gave her hope that this creature wasn't beaten down by these insignificant humans.
She wished for nothing more than to pull free her inner insanity and teach these muggles why magical creatures should be respected and feared. Instead, the hand gripping her shoulder kept her pinned in place: kept the creature in its small enclosure and covered in chains.
The redhead boy's father let out a booming laugh and hoisted the boy until his shoulders when the boy grew tired of the creature's unwillingness to respond and began to shout.
"Calm yourself." Fenrir warned lowly.
Bellatrix attempted to but then the child grabbed his toy hammer and threw it over the glass barrier and into the enclosure. The hammer landed on the downed creature and squeaked as it bounced off its hunched shoulders.
Chatter fell silent as the hammer clattered against the concrete enclosure floor. There was a long exhale of air from the animal that was so deep that its jowls trembled from the blast of air.
Eyes slowly opened and the sigh turned into a low but threatening growl. Years of abuse and neglect were clearly visible as it attempted to stand. The creature fought to get its paws under it and then its entire body shook violently at the effort to stand. One leg nearly collapsed but a violent swish of its tail seemed to give it the extra time it needed to steady itself.
The people must have found the struggle funny because a soft laughter started before it began to grow.
"What is that?!" A girl exclaimed. She clutched to her boyfriend's arm and snickered. "It's so ugly!"
Bellatrix let out a miserable mewl. How she wanted nothing more to pull out her wand and torture her. How dare she?! Did she not know what she was looking at? A Catoblepas was a gorgeous creature even if its attractiveness came from its magical and battle prowess.
As most muggles have, their description of a catoblepas was wrong. In Roman folklore, they were creatures with a large boar head that was too big for its body and was forced to be drug. A lesser known description was an ox like creature with an armored scaled back.
In truth, the catoblepas was built and colored like a hyena with hunched shoulders, a broad head, a scaled tail, sparse patches of dingy gold fur against black and leathery skin, and a pair of heavy tusks that resembled a boars that were so heavy it made the creature hang its head.
It was beautiful in the way its eyes could turn onlookers to stone with a single look or how its breath and bite could kill anything. It was gorgeous in the armored tail that was immune to all spells. In the end, the beauty of it was that they were and had always been loyal to pureblood witches and wizards: fighting beside them in wars and protecting them at the costs of their own lives.
"Here piggy, piggy, piggy!" The blonde's boyfriend shouted at the catoblepas in laughter. "You are such an ugly piggy, aren't you?"
The catoblepas' head shook as if disagreeing but, with the swing of its heavy head, the creature was thrown from its weak feet and collapsed to its side. It let out a long suffering groan and its tail slapped into the concrete almost in a futile call for help.
Bellatrix heard it. Every bone in her body heard it especially when the creature's long claws scraped against the concrete in an attempt to get up. All it managed was to entangle itself into chains and kick its empty water bucket away.
"How are you so calm?!" Bellatrix hissed at Fenrir. Any respectable pureblood, even one infected with the lycanthrope disease, should not be able to stand the sight of a catoblepas in any trouble. How they would give their life for a pureblood, a pureblood made sure to honor the creature and reward its loyalty with boundless affection.
"We are just here to look at the picture." Fenrir growled out. Hearing the growl, Bellatrix relaxed. Apparently, Fenrir wasn't as unaffected as his face suggested but attempting to keep himself calm. "We'll tell the Dark Lord. He won't stand for it."
Finally, she was able to swallow down the rage because there was a plan. A catoblepas was a symbol of purebloods and the Dark Lord would rescue it. It wouldn't be trapped much longer.
"Let's look at the picture then leave." She said stiffly and began to shoulder her way through the crowd as they tried to guess at the identity of the catoblepas.
"It's just a hyena with mange." One said.
Another's opinion was that it was just a robot or some elaborate costume.
The blonde bimbo, that seemed to be hurling the most abuse at the poor creature, stepped back and right into Bellatrix's way.
"Watch yourself, you filthy muggle!" She shrieked. The girl jumped in surprise and wheeled backwards.
"Sorry." The girl apologized with a huff before muttering "bitch" under her breathe. The two death eaters continued to weave through the masses.
The painting in question was of a famous wizard that preformed illegal muggle experiments under the guise of a Nazi doctor. The doctor had been a mudblood which is why he was able to blend into the muggle society as well as he did, so he was perfect of why mudbloods were a threat to the secrecy and separation of muggles and magic.
The painting was of the correct mudblood and it did encase a spirit within the moving art. However, it was not of the mudblood but a pureblood being tortured in the background. With apologetic eyes towards the young pureblood male tied to the bed with tubes sprouting from his chest, she set the painting on fire.
A faint "Thank you" was the only thing that remained from the charred painting. She had considered burning the place to the ground and, without the presence of the catoblepas, she would have. However, she'd leave the fate of this place to her Lord.
"It's time to leave." She informed Fenrir. They both cast one last withering look to the crowd surrounding the abused creature's enclosure and apparitioned away.
Arriving home, her parents rushed to meet her the second she stepped through her fire place. She debated waving them off and even attempted to but her parents could not be brushed off easily.
"How was the mission?" Her father asked eagerly. His voice was lowered and his eyes implored her to bestow him with the information she had gathered. Her mother stood off to the side and looked as if she had not a care in the world but, by the way her eyes appraised her oldest daughter for signs of injury, Bellatrix knew her mother cared.
"Fine." She responded curtly. "I must relay the mission's outcome to the Dark Lord." She stepsided her father who attempted to dignify himself quickly. He absentmindedly brushed dust from his robes and nodded his graying head.
"Of course." He nodded. "It should be the first thing you do when you return."
"Thank you for the recommendation." She responded curtly and Fenrir snickered at her father's slight flustered appearance. He wasn't magically gifted enough to be of any use on missions, so the Dark Lord had all but demanded that he never leave his manor. It left the old man determined to live vicariously through his daughter.
Once out of ear shot, Fenrir finally broke his silent façade. "Wow, Bellatrix. Your old man is dying for some action. Maybe your old lady should oblige?"
Bellatrix simply gritted her teeth together and continued forward. She'd remember that remark though.
The Dark Lord had taken up residence inside her family manor and turned the entire west wing into his lair of evilness. She was happy that he had chosen the Black family as suitable hosts because it meant that she had been given the chance to show the Dark Lord the extent of her ability.
She was quickly gaining his favor and she guessed it wouldn't be long until she was his lieutenant. So much for pureblood females being weak, she thought with a smirk.
The Dark Lord currently resided in the library with his familiar curled up around him. As he usually did, the Dark Lord was reading softly for his snake. She felt bad for interrupting the pair but the door did the work for her.
He looked up with his brilliant green eyes and gave a charming smile while closing the book. "Returned so soon, young one?"
As she bowed to him, she was once against struck by how handsome he was. There was nothing more than a servant and master relationship between the two of them but she could at least appreciate that her master was superior in all ways.
"Yes, Master. I have news."
"Splendid." The Dark Lord said happily. "Please sit. And, Fenrir, would you please take Nagini to find some supper please. She has become testy in her hunger."
Fenrir swallowed but hurried to obey. Nagini was scooped up and carried out by a slightly pale werewolf.
The Dark Lord chuckled as he watched the pair go. "I wonder when I shall inform Fenrir that Nagini despises the taste of dog." He shook his head and turned his lively green eyes onto Bellatrix. "So, tell me of the mission."
"I have two bouts of bad news, sir." She informed him softly. "The first, but surprisingly, better news of the two, was that the mission was a failure. The picture was of Gredlin Jyst but it contained the soul of a tortured pureblood."
He gave a nod. "I assumed you burned it and released the soul?"
"Of course."
"Now, I'll admit I'm intrigued. If the mission being a failure was the lesser of two evils, do regale me with what resides in first."
She swallowed as the rage she had felt earlier built up. "The residence contains a catoblepas that has been chained and placed in an enclosure for muggles to stand around and make jokes of it."
She heard the Dark Lord inhale sharply but continued on without looking up. "It's heavily abused, wrapped in chains, and appears to struggle even standing up. My Lord, I have never felt such rage in my life."
Finally glancing up, she saw her rage reflected back in her Lord's eyes. "Muggles are mistreating a catoblepas?" He asked dangerously. His green eyes searched her face for any deceit and then she felt him pressing against her mental barriers.
She let him in and let him experience firsthand what she had seen. At first the probing was invasive, as it always is, but nothing out of the normal.
When the Dark Lord laid witness to the low groan the creature had emitted while entangled in chains in front of the mocking mass of muggles, she felt a rage explode inside her head.
She let out a scream and clawed at her temples.
The Dark Lord jerked backwards and cleared his throat. He watched as Bellatrix attempted to hide the tremors that sudden and acute pain had given her but she could not escape his green gaze.
"I do apologize." He said with a grunt. "Harming you was not my intention."
"I understand." She reassured him. "I would be more pained if you had not been upset, My Lord."
He seemed pleased with the answer. He stood up and placed the book he had been reading back on the shelf. He began to walk out the library all while leaving a curious Bellatrix in his wake.
Right as he walked out the door, he peered back in. "Aren't you coming? I do feel like you'd like to be on the team sent to retrieve the catoblepas and punish those that have harmed it."
She was pleased to hear the shouts of outrage when The Dark Lord relayed what he had learned to the inner circle. The entire circle threw themselves at the chance to, not only see a catoblepas in person, but to rescue one too.
The Dark Lord usually did not allow for large groups on mission in case something went wrong but, seeing as it was a special circumstance, any pureblood was allowed to come. In the end, the retrieving party consisted of ten and they were all ready to repay any torture the creature had felt tenfold.
Feeling a familiar tug of her stomach, she closed her eyes and let her body be thrown across the physical plane. The feeling of her feet hitting dirt was finally coaxed her into opening them.
In front of her read was a sign for the building.
Donald's Freak Show
She didn't know what a 'Freak Show' was but it set her teeth on edge that a catoblepas was grouped with the other oddities she had seen in the building.
The group slipped on their masks and walked to the front door. It was covered in more chains than the magical creature within. Unfortunately for the owner, he hadn't secured the building from magical intruders and the chains fell off after a simple flick of the wand.
The death eaters followed after Bellatrix as she led them past the panels and exhibits that housed different attractions. There was one on bigfoot, Merlin, and many other human legends. There was even a section dedicated for the most deformed muggles in the history.
The death eaters studied everything as they walked by but none slowed to stare. There was something more important that needed their attention.
Finally, Bellatrix led them to the enclosure and let them stare at the scene in front of them.
The beast was lying in the same place it had when Bellatrix had left hours ago. The only difference was that its legs had become even more entangled in the chains and had immobilized the creature completely.
It wasn't as if the owner hadn't noticed his main attraction was down because a slab of meat had been placed in front its mouth and the water bucket had been placed near its head. The only problem was the creature couldn't reach it even if it wanted the green water or rotting meat.
"Why doesn't the creature escape?" Goyle questioned. He was a useless death eater but, this early in a rebellion, the Dark Lord just needed bodies.
"The chains." The Dark Lord said. "The glass is simply meant to keep the onlookers from getting to close to the beast. That's why there is no top to the enclosure. The chains, especially the one around the neck, are so tight that the catoblepas cannot move without pain and, if I'm correct, this creature is severely underweight. Probably a mixture of ignorance, neglect, and an attempt to keep it weak, so it can't escape."
Bellatrix made another tortured sound. No one seemed to care though because she could hear similar sounds from her comrades.
There was a door in the back of the enclosure and, as the decided how best to approach without scaring the catoblepas, it swung open to revel three men. The drunken one had to Donald of Donald's Freak Show because he walked towards the creature like he owned it.
Under the Death Eater's hateful stare, they approached the downed creature. Its dark eyes opened and it swung its tail weakly as if to try to halt their approach.
"Calm yourself, Demon." Donald spat at it. He then turned towards the two other men. "Whatcha waitin around for? Untangle its legs! I don't want no more animal activists sniffin their noses here cause of this beast."
The two men approached fearfully as they should.
"Why doesn't it turn them to stone?" Crabbe, another useless Death Eater, asked.
"The legend that they can turn people to stone with a look alone stems from the fact that they are so fierce in battle that a look along can freeze an entire army in their place." The Dark Lord explained as he watched the men try to untangle the beast. "But they do not actually posses the ability to turn one to stone."
Its legs were weakly flailing and it was trying to raise its head but, as its head was unusually heavy anways, it couldn't manage it in its weakened state.
"Let them untangle her." The Dark Lord commanded. Bellatrix nodded but wondered how the Dark Lord could tell it was a girl from this distance. "Once she is free, make them suffer."
It took the muggles a long time to free the catoblepas but, once that final chain was pulled free, the wizards swarmed the enclosure.
Bellatrix landed with full intentions of racing towards the men and inflicting as much damage as she could by herself but, once she landed, she heard the fearful roar of the beast.
Its dark golden gaze was flickering towards all the masked individuals suddenly in its enclosure and it was trying to push itself away. It, she, Bellatrix reminded herself, was so frightened that the catoblepas backed away until her chains refused to let her back anymore.
"It's you!" Donald shouted with a sausage like finger point at the Death Eaters. "I told ya, you animal nuts, that if you came in here preaching about animal cruelty again, I'd shoot ya!"
While the Death Eaters approached the three men and she heard the beginning of the Dark Lord's speech, she turned her attention to the fearful beast. Her tail was held high above its body like a scorpion and ready to swing into anybody that dared approach.
Bellatrix placed her wand away and approached slowly. "Calm yourself, Noble One." She cooed. The animal's ear twitched but that was the only proof she showed that she had heard her.
"I'm not going to hurt you." She promised. "I won't hurt you."
A back tongue peaked from between the creature's lips and licked at one of the boar like tusks. She didn't know what the movement meant but, in her soul, she felt like the creature was listening now.
"Will you let me take the chains off?" She asked. She had never asked permission from anything but her master before but it felt right. The creature's tail swayed above her massive head and she let out a warning growl.
Sensing that she couldn't move any further forward, she stopped an arm's length away. She stared into the creature's golden gaze and saw such intelligence, misery, and pain there that she felt the need to weep.
"Yer crazy!" Donald hollered. Both Bellatrix and the catoblepas looked over. He was surrounded by Death Eaters and the Dark Lord had just explained the importance of the catoblepas to the man. "Ya aint wizards and that aint some pureblood pet there!"
Donald looked over to see Bellatrix standing near his beast and his eyes widened. "You get away from there! I can't have another lawsuit on my hands!"
When Bellatrix didn't move, she saw something snap in his eyes.
"I fear for my life." Donald stated calmly. "I fear for my life." He reached into the back of jeans and pulled out a rather interesting looking wand. It was black and almost shaped like an L. He swung the oddly shaped thing towards Goyle and then thunder filled the enclosure.
Goyle fell with a howl and grabbed his shoulder as if he had been hit with a spell.
"You hear me, you prosecutor rats?! I fear for my life. This is shooting is in self-defense!"
He swung the weapon, because it must have been a weapon of some sort, onto Bellatrix. With her wand already put away, she hoped that the Dark Lord knew the counter curse to whatever was coming her way.
She heard the thunder and flinched. She saw a shadow and waited for whatever pain had befallen Goyle. None came.
She opened her eyes to see the catoblepas' armored tail hovering in front of her and an odd ball of, what appeared to be, lead smoking from where it was smashed into the tail. The creature retracted the tail and it automatically curled around itself.
Bellatrix didn't know what had just happened but she knew that this creature had just saved her life. So, this was the catoblepas's loyalty in person.
Its flat snout began to sniff and it cautiously extended its thick neck so the female creature could sniff her. Bellatrix could see in its eyes as it realized that it was now surrounded by purebloods.
Even Donald and the other men's screams couldn't take away the look of relief and peace that had overtaken the creature's body.
With a mighty yawn that revealed rows of sharp teeth, the creature slowly lowered itself to the ground and let out a content purr. The catoblepas cracked an eye open and her armored tail slithered out to wrap around Bellatrix.
She wasn't scared. She trusted this creature. The tail drug Bellatrix closer until she was standing by its head. She slowly reached down to scratch at a small patch of fur on the beast's ears.
There was a loud rumbling and the catoblepas's massive head rose into her hand. Bellatrix giggled and continued to scratch the beast: surrounded by the sounds of purrs and screams.
"It seems like you've made a friend." The Dark Lord announced.
The catoblepas stopped purring and eyed him suspiciously. He chuckled. "She can sense that I'm not a pureblood. Let's see if she deems worthy anyways."
Her nose was pale compared to even her black skin and it took her the Dark Lord's scent. She appraised him with golden eyes and then she reached up to press her nose into his chest and rumbled.
"I have passed, it seemed."
Bellatrix noted that her Lord looked very pleased by the fact. She knew that his being a halfblood was sometimes hard on him when he lived and thought like a pureblood, so to be accepted by the guardians of purebloods was truly a joy for him.
After a few scratches, the female returned her attention to Bellatrix and drug her even closer with a heavy paw.
"Catoblepas love all purebloods but they imprint on a single pureblood and love them most of all." The Dark Lord said with a grin. He paused as Donald let loose an especially loud scream. "It appears she has attached herself to you."
"I can't, My Lord." Bellatrix whispered sadly as the creature rubbed its broad head into her stomach. "A creature as great as this belongs with you."
"But, alas, I am not a pureblood." He explained. "And Nagini is already my familiar and I cannot acquire another even if I was. She is yours now. I don't believe I have to tell you to take good care of her."
Bellatrix was overwhelmed. Having a catoblepas was an honor that not many purebloods even could have. To just be given one was shocking. As internal panic set in if she was worthy enough of having such a grand companion, the creature's purring turned gargled and her head dropped to the ground with a thud.
Bellatrix instantly dropped to her knees as a feeling of strong panic overtook her.
"Calm yourself." The Dark Lord chuckled. "It just appears your familiar has had more excitement than she can handle."
He kneeled down by the slumbering creature and panicking woman.
"Let's take her home. I believe they are almost done with the muggles."
Sure enough, a gurgle later and all three of the men where dead. Bellatrix thought they had gotten off easy with only a few minutes of intense torture.
"Everyone grab ahold." The Dark Lord instructed. All the pureblood hands touched the creature with such sheer awe. The sad thing was that, even unconscious, the creature was so used to harsh touches that its skin jumped away from the touch.
"Let's go home." She told the beast fondly.