"Hey, Bells, is this really a good idea?" Alina Knuckel's voice was quiet and scared in the dense closeness of the suffocating Black Forest.
Bellatrix stopped moving and laid a reassuring hand on her closest lieutenant's shoulder. "Has there ever been a scrape we couldn't get out of?" The reassuring hand squeezed the girl's shoulder. "Remember when we took out both the Lestrange brothers and that Rookwood creep? Seriously, you and I can handle whatever this Lord Voldemort can throw at us." Bellatrix's heavily hooded eyes narrowed as her lips drew up in a sultry smile. "And then, we can go about the business of taking Magical Britain by storm."
Alina smiled back in kind and moved closer. "We didn't let Slytherin House dim us, why should we let the Ministry do any different?"
Bellatrix leaned in a dropped a kiss on Alina's nose. "That's right, my lovely." Her voice was low and husky. "'Bright Witches be Dimmed' has lived its last decade." A quick peck on the lips followed. "Now!" Bellatrix's voice grew bright again. "Let's find this so-called 'Dark Lord' and get back to changing things for the better!"
The two witches ventured deeper into the forest, past the ever denser trees and the thickening undergrowth. The Black Forest was aptly name; before long it was all Bellatrix could do to see Alina walking next to her. By unspoken, mutual consent, the two began holding hands. The bold plans set forth in their secret Room back in Hogwarts began to seem less and less realistic. Bellatrix knew that Alina was looking to her for strength and so strode forward with power and purpose, but the intention was hollow. There was a mist beginning to form, further obscuring the scant vision allowed to the two women.
Alina's hand was gripping more tightly than ever and Bellatrix was secretly glad of that. The sharp pressure was forcing her to stay aware of where they were going. The information had said that Lord Voldemort was busy training his supporters in the middle of this forest and that he would be vulnerable, given the amount of magic he'd no doubt be spending. Bellatrix knew that if bright witches were to be undimmed, this newest threat to Magical Britain would have to be dealt with first.
Suddenly, the two were standing in a clearing, in the sunlight that had been shining everywhere before they had entered the forest. Alina let go of Bellatrix's hand and clapped in delight. Bellatrix was more guarded and immediately drew her wand. She looked back at the way they had come and saw that the darkness was still there, hovering right on the edge of the forest. It looked more like a curtain than a shadow. The clearing was almost perfectly circular, around fifteen or so feet in diameter. With a sinking feeling in her chest, Bellatrix knew exactly what they were standing in.
A perfect dueling ring.
"Alina! Quick, we have to-" Bellatrix's voice was suddenly cut short by a Silencing Spell.
Alina turned to look quizzically at Bellatrix and drew her wand at the look in her lover's eyes. The two witches hurried into the middle of the clearing, back to back, facing the fringe of the forest, waiting for anything.
"Very good, very good indeed," came a chillingly high and frigidly cold voice, seeming to echo from everywhere at once. "Now, my Death Eaters, have at them."
Immediately, masked figures in dark robes began appearing at the fringe of the clearing. Bellatrix couldn't make out any features, or any descriptors at all really. Just then, she felt the questing, demure poke of Legilimency that she had come to associate with Alina's mind.
Hey, what's the plan? A sense of excitement, tinged a little with fear, suffused through Bellatrix.
I'm Silenced, but that's not a problem. There's...ten? Ok, let's start with you putting up that Shield Charm you're so good at and I'll see about taking them out. Bellatrix had always been better at the harming spells.
"Protego Maximus!" came Alina's cry just as shots and beams of a wide variety of colors shot out from the cloaked figures, only to sputter and die against Alina's shield.
Bellatrix, meanwhile, was dispassionately shooting a calculated combination of Stunning and Bombardment spells into the circled Death Eaters. This was, the two girls had found, a profoundly effective way to deal with large groups of enemies. The overconfidence that inevitably came with a large group removed the normal thoughts of defense and this made them an easy target for Bellatrix's offensive.
Before too long, a majority of the masked figures were either Stunned, lying in odd positions on the ground, or had been Bombarded into trees.
I need to stop protecting you, if that's ok. Alina's brush of Legilimency gave Bellatrix a brief feeling of reassurance.
That's fine, I'll be fine. There's only three or four left. A red spell shot out of Bellatrix's wand and felled a particularly tall and thick Death Eater. Three.
Ok! Thanks so much! Alina's mind retracted from Bellatrix's.
"Protego!" came the cry from Alina.
Bellatrix dropped a Disillusionment charm on herself and snuck to the fringe of the clearing as best she could. Another Stunner dropped the third to last Death Eater, and the other two still seemed to think that the threat was in the middle of the clearing. Bellatrix thought to herself that this "Lord" Voldemort couldn't be anything special if this was the combat abilities of his servants. A Bombardment spell dropped the second to last masked enemy.
"Affligo!" cried the last Death Eater, in a decidedly male voice, a greenish drill shooting out of the wand and smashing the Shield Charm. Alina staggered back, seeming dazed and, before Bellatrix could do anything, a light violet beam followed and hit Alina in the stomach. The quiet girl's eyes went wide and a hand went to her stomach and she doubled over.
Bellatrix's rage broke her Disillusionment Charm, as well as the Silencing Charm, and she screamed, "Diffindo!"
The spell shot, right where it was aimed, into the crotch of the Death Eater. The light cut right through the robes and a scream told Bellatrix that she had hit home. The Severing Hex into the crotch of a man was usually a deterrent.
Bellatrix ran over to Alina and whispered, "Finite Incantatem." Alina remained heaving, a small trickle of blood leaking out of her mouth, her jerky movements splattering blood onto Bellatrix's face. Bellatrix whispered the incantation over and over, with no result. When Alina's eyes rolled into the back of her head, Bellatrix ran over to the crying Death Eater and shoved her wand in his mask.
"Listen, worm, tell me the counter-jinx for whatever you hit her with or I'll make you even less of a man than you are right now." Bellatrix's whisper made the Death Eater stop crying at his disfigured anatomy. A cough and a whimper came from under the mask. Bellatrix rolled her eyes and said, "Reducto." The mask became a fine black dust and fell away from the pale face and blue eyes beneath. Bellatrix grabbed the man's throat and pulled his face up to hers, the hood falling off of his head, revealing long, blonde hair. "Now. Tell me what I want to know."
The light blue eyes filled with fear and the voice came with a shiver and a whimper. "I-I d-d-don't kn-know the c-c-counter-jinx! It-it's all m-m-mental. L-let me d-do it." He looked at Alina and frowned in concentration. Her unconscious heaving stopped, though she did not wake. "Th-that's the best I c-can do! I s-s-swear!"
Bellatrix nodded and pulled the pale blue eyes back to hers. The pupils dilated in fear even as Bellatrix's narrowed in disgust. She looked into the soul behind those weak eyes and tried to pull the truth from what she found there. It seemed the weakling was telling the truth. She put the tip of her wand against his temple. "Somnum Exterreri Solebat!" The man's eyes closed, but his face was anything but peaceful. As Bellatrix arose and walked back to the middle of the clearing, his body began twitching occasionally.
Bellatrix paced in a circle in the middle of the clearing, eyes darting back forth at the fringe, on alert for any new threat. Her quick glances soon caught the strange sight of a pale, white foot entering the clearing. Attached to the foot was a black robe, under which was undoubtedly Bellatrix's next opponent.
What entered the clearing almost made Bellatrix begin heaving in much the same way Alina had recently demonstrated. The creature that walked forward was pale, far beyond the twitching weakling, almost as pale as white marble. His eyes held a distinctly pinkish hue, almost as if they'd been bloodshot beyond all reason, and for so long, that the blood had simply fused with the whites. The face seemed to be a man's face smeared and stretched onto a snake's skull, distorting and twisting the visage almost beyond what could be considered human. The hands were thin, as white as the rest of him, with long fingers gently caressing a white yew wand. The mouth was, seemingly painfully, stretched into a smile. But the most disturbing thing of all was undoubtedly the perverse joy that seemed to emanate from the figure.
Bellatrix felt a sudden, sharp mental probe that she was powerless to deny. It ravaged her mind with the speed and efficiency of a hawk diving onto a mouse.
"Tell me, Bella," the same high, cold voice from before sounded from the thing's mouth, "What spell did you use on poor Mr Malfoy over there?"
Bellatrix gritted her teeth against the mental ravaging. "It's a variation of the sleeping spell." She twisted her lips into a cruel grin. "However, the jinx only allows nightmares into the sleep."
The tall, skeletal figure withdrew from Bellatrix's mind and stroked his chin with a long finger. "Fascinating." The figure walked into the middle of the clearing and faced Bellatrix. "I assume you can figure out who I am. You have dispatched my servants with efficiency and skill. Would you perhaps-"
Bellatrix cut him off with a Stunner shot directly at his face. Voldemort casually flicked his wand, causing the spell to bounce off into the trees. An amused smile slithered onto his face. Bellatrix shot spell after spell at the dominating monster, dodging and rolling around the clearing, trying constantly to get a new angle, some advantage. She began trying a new technique that Alina had theorized about: a sort of delaying effect on spells, so that the enemy had to keep an eye on the actual light and not on the caster's wand.
Nothing worked.
Lord Voldemort seemed in his element, his wand flicking spells away as though they were nothing more than horseflies. The massive maelstrom of spells that Bellatrix was casting, only due to the delaying effect, were sweeping around the new Dark wizard, a giant tornado of magic. Voldemort seemed utterly at peace, cutting through the webs and beams and ray with all the poise of a conducting maestro. Bellatrix could have sworn that he had his eyes closed and was reacting purely on the feeling of magic around him. There was an awful beauty in this dance.
Bellatrix began to grow more and more desperate as her spells continued to prove ineffective and Voldemort showed no signs of slowing his defenses. Bellatrix knew her magical reserves were almost gone and she suddenly knew that she only had one chance.
"Crucio!"
The spell cut through both the maelstrom of spells and Voldemort's defenses at the same time. The monstrous conductor was blasted onto his back, and an involuntary cry of pain escaped his lips. Bellatrix moved forward, victory in sight. The only warning she got was a slight flick from Voldemort's wand. Suddenly, Bellatrix was spread-eagled in midair, unable to move.
Voldemort got up and there was a new look in his eyes, a look reminiscent of respect, though only a mockery at best. He walked over to the helpless Bellatrix and stroked her cheek with a single finger.
"Tell me, Bella, do you know why the British wizards invading India had such an easy time of it?" Voldemort's voice was still light, not even out of breath, as if the two were sitting on a park bench, watching children play.
Bellatrix felt the pressure lighten on her neck and she shook her head.
Voldemort nodded knowingly. "It's quite simple. They fully, and completely, believed in their superiority." He turned away from Bellatrix and casually gestured around the clearing. "Just as you annihilated my servants with ease, they were able to decimate the ranks of all others they found." Voldemort turned back to the helpless girl. "They had the spell and they knew that they deserved to kill the Indian wizards. They knew that they held that right." Voldemort moved closer to Bellatrix. "And." He leaned up close enough to kiss her. Bellatrix felt a strange, foreign desire that he do it. "They wanted them to die." The last word somehow ended in a hiss. The whisper stuck in Bellatrix's mind and she couldn't shake out the sound.
Voldemort strode back into the middle of the clearing and spoke in a louder voice, as though teaching a class. "Do you know why the Unforgivables are named as such?"
Bellatrix again shook her head. Not for the first time, she cursed Hogwarts for not teaching anything important.
"They do not, as all other spells do, attack the body." Voldemort's eyes took on an even eerier gleam than before. "They attack the soul." Voldemort's wand was being slowly raised, Bellatrix's worry along with it. "The trick to the Cruciatus Curse, my dear Bella, is really wanting to cause pain – to enjoy it." The wand stopped rising. Bellatrix's apprehension didn't. "I'll show you how it is done, shall I?" His eyes and her eyes went wide at the same time.
"Crucio!"
Pain. That's all there was. Until it stopped.
Bellatrix came to herself on the ground, her mouth full of blood. She quickly spat it out and realized that she was face down. With all of her body bitterly protesting, Bellatrix managed to shift herself to where she would not drown in her own mouth blood. She looked around for Voldemort and saw him crouching over the "male" Death Eater. A sudden sizzling sound told Bellatrix what was happening.
"I don't know why you're trying to save him," came the utterly weak voice from Bellatrix, "He's probably the most pathetic thing in the clearing."
Voldemort glanced over his shoulder in surprise. Then he smirked. "Believe it or not, this one has influence. That will be useful."
At the sound of his voice, Bellatrix felt herself blush. Her body was responding in ways to him that she hadn't ever experienced. It unnerved her.
Voldemort stood and walked back over to her. He crouched. "Do you get it yet, my dear Bella?" He twirled his wand. "Or shall we have another lesson?"
ΨΨΨΨΨΨΨΨΨΨΨΨΨΨΨΨΨ
It was several "lessons" later. Voldemort had always enjoyed using Legilimency on strong minds. It was always amusing how the spike of admiration he always implanted initially took root. Although, even he had to admit that this obsessive, almost dog-like, devotion was among the stranger eventualities.
"Now, dear Bella," Voldemort's voice was what he knew Bellatrix would hear as a croon, though to most people, the sound would undoubtedly be horrendous. "Are you sufficiently taught?"
The grinning, almost drooling, girl who had fought him so viciously before lost her dopey smile and her eyes filled with sadness. "I'm so sorry, Master. I know how the spell must work, but I fear that I'll be unable to feel the perfect loathing that you can feel." Her eyes filled with tears.
She was finally ready. "Fear not, my pet," Voldemort stroked Bellatrix's cheek. He glanced lingeringly at the prone form of Alina. "We'll have much practice together."