when we were kids
Character: Bellatrix Lestrange
Summary: Is this the taste of regret?
Prompts: Tap on the window, Dialogue: "How is that a joke?!", Good as gold
Regulus was dead.
She did not know why or how her cousin had died but she knew what it meant for the family – that the traitor, the cousin she never wanted to see again in her entire life – unless it would be to kill or torture him, of course – would inherit the legacy, the wealth, the house and everything else even though he had been thrown out a while back for his disgustingly muggle-and-mudblood-friendly opinions.
It was so unfair.
Regulus had been – although he had never been an especially gifted wizard – at least loyal to the Dark Lord and the ideals the Dark Lord stood for. That he was dead now and that Sir-, no, she did not even want to think that name, would get the wealth and the glory and everything … well, she remembered with a sadistic smirk, there was still a good chance that Sirius would die before he could ever set a foot back into his parents' house.
If necessary, she would personally make sure of this.
She leaned back in her seat before she realised that her bottle of fire whiskey was empty. Again. And with the empty bottle, unbidden thoughts returned. And memories, too. She had been proud when Regulus had joined the Death Eaters because after the failure his older brother had been, some people – like Lucius Malfoy, Merlin, how she detested the man – had doubted the courage and the faith of the Black Family into the agenda of the Dark Lord. Regulus had been a good kid, she had always thought that.
Now, he was gone, killed for something he had probably not done – many among the Death Eater were jealous and in their ruthlessness, they had no qualms of killing a young man full of faith, a young man who could have been someone great one day.
She impatiently waved her wand, refilled her bottle.
What would she tell her uncle, her aunt?
Of course, being a Death Eater carried a risk of dying – but how could she tell them that it had been a fellow Death Eater, maybe even a friend or comrade of Regulus who had killed him, who had murdered him? It would have been easier if it had been an auror, she decided. If an auror had done it, her family could hate the ministry. If it had been the doing of a member of Dumbledore's stupid, stupid group, her family could continue to hate Hogwarts' despicable headmaster.
It was not because she had especially liked Regulus. Compared to her duty to the Dark Lord, a duty she would always fulfil, her cousin had meant nothing to her. But he was family, even after everything. The reason why his death upset her was that he had been most likely betrayed – and that someone had dared to lay a hand onto a member of the proud Black Family. That was what vexed her.
She turned her head, facing her sister who stood by the window and even without seeing her reflection, she knew that Narcissa had cried.
"Well, Aunt Walburga will behead me when I tell her what happened," she said drily. "Hell, why did he have to get killed by one of us? Did you hear any rumours, Cissy?"
"Nothing but the usual … that he tried to back out," the blonde replied slowly, her voice firm and unwavering. "Why are you asking?"
"They are kidding, right? Regulus was a Black. We don't back out. Muggles and mudbloods, they can surrender – but not a Black, right?"
"Maybe … he did really back out. There is a black sheep in every family, right?"
"You are kidding, huh?"
"How is this a joke, Bella?"
"His brother, he is the black sheep, right? Regulus was a fine boy, someone reliable. When we were younger, he used to follow us around, trying to get us to teach him spells – something you always did, of course. Because when have you ever been strong enough to resist puppy eyes?" the older sister lashed out. "He was fine, very so. A rather intelligent wizard, someone I can accept as a Death Eater – unlike certain lackeys of your dearest husband."
"They are loyal."
"And that's their only redeeming feature, I gather."
Narcissa frowned deeply as she tapped a nervous rhythm onto the window, a pattern that annoyed Bellatrix to no end even though she could not understand why, maybe because it reminded her of other times, times when there had been no blood traitors in the Black Family – or at least none of the kind her sister and her older cousin had become.
"Aunt and Uncle will have to look for another heir, I think," the blonde said after a moment, ignoring her sister's jabs onto Lucius' friends – they were fellow purebloods after all, were they not?
"They might leave their wealth to the Dark Lord, they are supporters after all…" Bellatrix mused.
"I wouldn't count on this, Bella. They just lost their only remaining son – to the Death Eaters. This is a harsh thing … they will need to sort out their priorities first."
"What over priority is there?" the black-haired woman asked sharply. "The values of the Dark Lord are a good currency, they are just as good as gold."
However, there was a bitter taste of regret on her tongue for some reason.