Author's Notes: This is rated M for a reason. Warnings for graphic depictions of violence, torture, off scene rape, a bit of child negligence (but no harm)

Prompts and Challenges listed at the end

Word count: 2,396

Better Half, Darker Half

There was a lethal note to the wind's song that night, one inserted there by Bella's laughter.

She hadn't laughed in a month, ever since the Dark Lord had fallen. She had been on the verge of insanity ever since, lashing out at others and things, breaking into sobs and wailing cries every other night, looking for comfort in Rodolphus embrace, being furious at him for comforting her, lost in daydreams about reuniting with their master, happy at how glorious his return would be, murderous that anyone had dared to bring him down.

They kept looking. Hoping against all hope. The three Lestranges and Barty had become the bastion of fidelity, of certainty in a future that seemed impossible to reach now. And yes, Rodolphus yearned for his Master back but he did not really know why anymore. He had a growing suspicion that he wanted him back for Bella's sake more than anything.

She was the most faithful, always had been, her devotion had seeped into him and his brother, growing under her care, to a size it would never be were it not for her. They had risen together, up and up, ever higher through the ranks of the Death Eathers, on their devotion, on their wickedness, on their sheer cruelty, on their talent. On her intimacy with their Master too. And now there was no other way but down. Unless…

Rabastan had found the refuge of the Longbottoms. They were headed there now. And that was the reason for Bella's happiness. Tonight, they would have a chance to stop the fall, to rise again. Tonight, they would gather the information they needed to bring him back. Rodolphus was ecstatic, Rabastan was impatient, Barty was absolutely deranged, but Bellatrix surpassed them all with her sheer joy.

It wasn't just that they were going to find the Dark Lord's whereabouts. It was the how.

They stopped at the crest of the hill, looking down on the town. Their answers were down there, in the shape of two Aurors. Two Aurors with a baby. Now that would make for some interesting scenarios. The terror one could elicit from a parent was never ending. They needed not touch the child, let alone harm it. All they had to do was tell the parents what they would do to the snotty creatures and watch them crumble.

Bellatrix crawled under Rodolphus arm, nestling against his body. In nights like these, their marriage made perfect sense. They were the better-half to the other, even if none of them truly belong to the other. They belonged to the Dark Lord first and foremost, only then was the other allowed a small part of them. She giggled in excitement, in anticipation, and he let his fingers dig into her flesh, over her ribs, just on the frontier of her breast. They completed one another. She was the fury, the madness, the eagerness. He was the measure to all those things, the safe haven she retreated to when hurt, the steady course to her journey.

And then she sobbed. One single sob made it past her lips. Rodolphus cradled her face in his hands and looked her in the eye, waiting for her words.

"What if it doesn't work? What if we can never find him?"

He wiped the tears from under her eyes, kissing both her cheeks lightly. Then he lowered his lips and captured hers, and kissed her until she kissed back.

"We will find him, Bella. We are his most faithful. We will not let him down."

And she smiled so brightly under the moonshine that his heart actually hurt. He would fix her world in the following days he knew. They stayed still for very long, or maybe just a minute, looking into each other's eyes, shy smiles on their lips. It was the fading sound of steps moving down the hill that reminded them of their mission.

The house was heavily warded, but Bellatrix had trained under the Dark Lord himself. She swiftly eliminated every single one, while the others casted all sorts of protections of their own, warding and silencing the place to the outside world.

"Bombarda!" Rabastan yelled at the door, pushing through the rubble. Bellatrix immediately went after the woman's screams, while Barty and Rodolphus searched for the man.

They were so easy to disarm that Rabastan spent their first minutes inside just teasing them about how the Aurors must have let down their standards of admission and training. Then Bella went upstairs and the witch bound on the floor screeched. She screamed at Bellatrix not to hurt her child for the entire time she was gone from the room.

Her screams were so much worse when Bella entered the room again with a crying baby in her arms that the wizard was woken from his unconsciousness. And Merlin, did his eyes grow wide, the pupils dilating, and dilating, and dilating under the command of fear alone. They knew exactly who stood in their living room, and they knew far too well what would follow.

"What should I do with him?" and Bellatrix was all joy and mirth at the possibilities. Rodolphus removed the boy from her arms, kissing her forehead, and walked away.

"Oh, I don't know… maybe we'll just keep him on the side for when his parents prove difficult, eh?" everyone laughed over the pleads of the Aurors, while Rodolphus put the child on the floor in the adjacent room. Not being able to see whatever they would do to him would only further break the Longbottoms.

. . o . .

They had been at this for hours now, trading places every now and then to regain their strength. The boy had quickly crawled away from the room where he had been left, seeking refuge in some other part of the house. If they let their wands down, however, and focused on minute sounds, his sobbing could still be heard. His mother had pleaded and pleaded, swore that they knew nothing, that they could tell nothing, promising to let them go without a hunt should they just leave and not harm her child.

Bellatrix had not taken those words kindly. She had let her vicious streak run wild since then, determined to uncover the truth, that the Longbottoms did know where their Master was, what had happened after the Potters.

Rodolphus was currently bathing in the sight of Bella torturing Frank to the despair of Alice, while Barty sent random jolts of hurtful magic at the witch. Rabastan had drifted away into the kitchen, looking for some food and some much needed water.

"Bella, dear," he purred in her ear, embracing her from behind, locking his hands together at the front of her waist, "take a break now, have something to eat." He soaked in the smell of her hair, rose and smoke, and then on the taste of her skin, as he kissed and licked the pulse point on her neck. She halted her Cruciatus, though the body on the floor kept moving, evident prey to convulsion, and turned her head so that they could kiss properly.

Barty moved from Alice to Frank, rejoicing on the witches screams as he further maimed the already unconscious Auror, and Bellatrix and Rodolphus rejoiced together on the rising shrieks. He was walking her very slowly, but very deliberately, to the other room, keeping her lips prisoners of his. She clutched his clothes then, prying her mouth from his, a wondrous evil smile on her face, meant just for him. Anger, and frustration, and lust, for him and blood in equal parts, populated her eyes.

"Not before this is over," she said, with a quick peck on his lips, "not before we have what we came for." But she made it very clear that she meant to have him too, later, as her right hand caressed a path down his chest to the bulge at his crotch.

"Let's finish this faster then," he growled through his teeth, relishing on the feel of her hand on him there, "together." He took his wand out then and pointed it to the writhing wizard, at the same time she aimed hers.

Two jets of bright red light left their wands and landed squarely on Frank Longbottom. His movement ceased, as did the smile on Barty's face, only to be replaced by the arching of his body off the floor.

"Sorry to take your play thing away, Barty. But we really should move on to someone who can still talk," Bella mused in a most seducing tone, "although we do need to stop her crying so that we can understand her."

She tilted her head, aimed her wand once more, and shot a Confundus spell at the remaining sane Auror. Alice's eyes went blank, the suffering was erased from her face, she moved to sit up on the floor, face turned upwards to the couple, there was even a hint of a smile after Bella murmured Legillimens. She lowered her wand after a minute, and Rodolphus saw her smile grow as reality dawned on the fallen witch all over again.

"Neville. Where's Neville? What have you done to him?"

"Nothing yet. But we might," Bellatrix took two feline steps to her victim, and crouched, making sure the curves of her body were on display to her husband, "if you do not tell us what we want to know. Where is he? What happened at the Potters' house?"

Alice remained silent, tears falling from her eyes.

"No? Let's see where little Neville has run off to then," said Rodolphus, turning to leave the room.

"No! Not Neville, please! Pleeeeaaaase!"

"Where is he then? Crucio!"

. . o . .

Rabastan came back into the room to a sulking Barty and two very amused Lestranges taking turns at their victim. The colour was drifting from their faces however, so he saw it fit to stop them.

"You two should go eat something. Rest a while. Barty and I can take over."

There was a dangerously lustful glint to Rabastan's eyes, and Rodolphus knew his brother hadn't had a witch ever since they were on the run. He figured letting him have this one wouldn't be so bad now, it would probably break her some more, and it wasn't like she was going to remember it. Not when they were done. Barty seemed to understand want he meant to do and didn't even bother getting up from the armchair he was comfortably seated on. He would wait his turn, as was his place, being the lowest in the ranks, and have his own fun last.

Bellatrix understood too, but she was not one to watch. So she took Rodolphus hand and pulled him away from the room. On the way to the kitchen, she pulled him closer, maddeningly closer, so that he could feel the movement of her shapely bottom through his pants. He held her waist and pushed her against the wall, keeping his chest to her back, and threatened her.

"Stop that, minx," while he pushed his hard groin into her smallback, "or I will not wait until this is over." He bit her collarbone then, and she hissed in pain, trying to get away from him and managing nothing but to bury her body further into his.

"Dolph," and she sounded so keen that he could not stop his hands from climbing up her body to latch at her breasts, kneading the soft flesh, "please, don't wait."

He laughed in her neck, into her curls, and pulled away, striding to the kitchen, proud of her rushed panting. Payback, Bella, payback, he thought when she cursed him under her breath. They sat at the kitchen table, devouring bread and broth that Rabastan had left for them, gulping down water like they had traversed a desert. The sounds from the living room had changed to rhythmic sobs and yelps and grunts, but one would think they were listening to jazz music made for lovers, such was the content on their faces.

Bellatrix rose from the table, picked an apple from the fruit bowl, and walked to Rodolphus' side. With her wand, she moved his chair away from the table and sat astride her husband's lap, taking a loud bite from the ruby red fruit. Then she offered it to him, and he kissed her fingers before taking a bite for himself. They sat there, sharing an apple while looking into each other's eyes. Bella's free hand caressing his neck and his jaw, both his hands caressing her back, her shoulders, her bottom, her hips.

When the apple was over, Rodolphus took the core from Bellatrix, tossed it away, and pulled her in, devouring her thoroughly, roaming her body with his hands, while she rocked on him and dug her nails into his hair, humming at the back of her throat.

They were right together. They were a match meant to be. The perfect pair of servants to darkness, the same cruelty pulsating in their veins, the same faith, the same devotion, two halves of a whole. They belonged together, and together they belonged to the Dark Lord wholly.

The sounds from the living room had changed again. Barty's laughter filled the air, louder than the screams. Rabastan was quiet now, done grunting. The child had stopped crying completely it seemed. At least they couldn't hear him anymore.

"Shall we go and give Barty his rest?"

Rodolphus couldn't stop a growl from rising from his belly when she broke their kiss. She held his face, caressing his cheeks with her soft thumbs. He responded by caressing her shoulder blades and then dropping his hands to her waist to lift her up.

"Let's. Before we forget why we're here." She moved to stand between his spread legs then, and he took the chance to pull her closer once more, and plant a kiss between her breasts, licking a line from her cleavage to her neck.

"I love you," he said, looking up in adoration to her eyes.

"I love you," she said back, "and together we will find our Master." She kissed the crown of his head, while linking their fingers together, and pulled him up from the chair, leading him to the screams once more, a shared smile on their swollen mouths.

Author's Notes: Don't forget to leave me a review before you go.

Prompts and Challenges:

Assignment #5: Muggle History Task 3 - Write about a couple who are both cruel and/or murderous.

Caffeine Awareness Challenge: Affogato - Write about someone whose mood or personality changes frequently.

Jewel Challenge: Beryl Bracelet - Write about marital bliss