Disclaimer: Anything linked to Harry Potter belongs to JK Rowling and some parts are borrowed from Carol Ann Duffy who partially inspired this fanfiction.
Note: Just a little idea that's been niggling away at me since I first read Carol Ann Duffy's poem 'The Devil's Wife' a few months ago. I blame my English Literature A level for this! Make of it what you will...
Warning: There are a few smutty bits. I tried to make them as subtle as possible but when working with a Duffy poem there's not much I can do to get away from sexual content... If you don't like it don't read it... YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!
The Devil's Wife
1
From the moment I met Rodolphus Lestrange on our first day at Hogwarts I knew he was different to other boys. He loved no one more than he loved himself; but really, who could blame him? He was gorgeous: dark hair and eyes, tall, with perfectly toned muscles and an angular jaw. He looked at the girls that fawned over him as if they were filthy muggles rather than pureblood witches. He was quiet as well, and I mean he was really quiet; he barely ever spoke. On the few occasions that I did hear him speak I wondered whether anyone would actually want to speak to him. He was always sarcastic and insulting to anyone he entered into a conversation with. However the strangest thing about Rodolphus, the thing that separated him from every other boy I'd ever met and caught my attention, was that he didn't flirt. Not once had I seen him dropping hints to other girls. He'd never even had a girlfriend as far as I was aware. It was strange but, for some reason, everything about Rodolphus drove me crazy. I'd never met anyone who intrigued me quite as much as he did. He was something new in my world.
On occasions I would catch him staring at me. I could feel his eyes burning into the back of my head as he sat behind me in potions class. Whenever I caught his eye it felt as if he could see right into the depths of my soul. It scared me; but I wouldn't let him know that. I'd stare him out to hide my fears – stupidly thinking I could handle him. I didn't know what I was getting myself into; I didn't realise how dangerous he was. But then again I've always loved danger.
At night, as I lay in bed in the Slytherin girl's dormitory, my mind would fill with images of him. Thoughts flashing around like bolts of lightning; the sort of thoughts that a good little pureblood witch should never even dream of thinking. He was like a poison: burning me up, filling me with deadly feelings, making me a danger to myself. It was then that I made the decision – I had to have him as my own. I needed him to be mine.
I thought it silly how the other girls looked at him. The way they would giggle a little too much when he spoke and stare at him, foolishly, as he passed then in the corridors. I knew that wasn't the type of girl he wanted. He wanted someone as cold and heartless as him; someone who would withdraw themselves from the world that they knew, and allow him to become their new world. So that is the girl I became. I scowled and pouted and sneered, getting the same treatment in return. It didn't take long for him to ask me out. In fact, the colder I was towards him, the more he wanted me.
When our first Hogsmead weekend came along in the third year we met in a shadowed corridor in the seventh floor. He said it would give us more privacy, and no one would find us while they all enjoyed their day away from school. He took me to a room I had never noticed before, opposite a tapestry that depicted a wizard trying to teach trolls to ballet dance. Behind the heavy oak door the room was flooded with a dim red light; a smell of burning flesh lingering in the air and sinister shadows prowling threateningly along the walls. The floor, walls and ceiling were all crafted from a cold, rough stone and, in the centre of the room, a large double bed was sat on a raised platform; black silk sheets and pillows neatly spread over it, with wilted rose petals scattered gently around.
"Sit" he ordered his voice cutting through me like a blade crafted from ice.
I was apprehensive, but I had to obey. I climbed onto the platform, my heels clicking gently beneath me as I went. The scent of the room filled me up and began to disorientate me. The air seemed to thicken as I lowered myself on the cool sheets and placed my hands either side of me. Rodolphus pulled two cigarettes from his pocket, placed both in his mouth and lit them.
"Here..." he climbed on to the platform and slid a cigarette between my lips. The smoke invaded my senses, clouding my mind even further than it was before. I inhaled it deeply and allowed it to linger for a few blissful moments. As the cloud of swirling silver cotton escaped from my body, I could feel my apprehensions melting away and allowed myself to slide back until I was stretched out along the width of the bed.
I couldn't remember much after that; it was as if the power of rational thought had been wiped clean from my being. There was only brief moments where I was alert enough to realise what was happening: he bit down my neck, his sharp teeth ripping away at the pale skin until he reached my breasts and sharply clamped his jaw down, drawing blood; his violent words disgusted me, yet somehow I only wanted him more as he hissed them into my ear; I shrieked as he thrust deep into me, my eyes firmly shut and my claw-like nails embedded in his back.
"We're the same, you and I," he growled in my ear, "That's it."
I felt my heart swell; he regarded me as an equal, the only person he felt connected to in the entire world. Rodolphus had chosen me out of all of those other girls and the feeling made my heart skip a beat.
After dark he took me down to the forbidden forest. It was barely possible to see an inch before my face as he pulled me by the hand, through bushes, between trees, over streams and past numerous clearings bathed in glittering moonlight. We kept delving further and further into the darkness for what felt like hours. By the time we finally stopped I was out of breath and my legs were stinging from cuts and scrapes that had been left there by protruding branches. Rodolphus released his grip on my hand to trail his strong fingers gently up my arm and across my shoulder to the locket that rested on my chest.
"This is nice." he commented, in a matter-of-fact tone, no emotion obvious on his face.
"It was a gift from my mother." I was barely whispering, the confidence I normally held around him seemed to have evaporated into the night.
"So it means a lot to you?" he asked, now staring at the locket with an intense look of concentration.
"Of course, it means the world to me."
"Take it off." I stared at him for a moment, stunned that he would ask me to do such a thing. But he wasn't 'asking' at all... in fact he was clearly giving me no choice in the matter.
"I... why?"
"Don't ask questions Bella, just do it." He ordered without moving his gaze from the locket, which was not sparkling as the moonlight hit it from a small gap in the trees. I lifted my hands to the back of my neck and flicked the clasp, allowing the locket to drop from the light and land, almost invisibly, in his outstretched hand.
"Now..." he hissed, pulling me so close that I could feel the muscles in his chest and stomach flexing gently. "Bury it."
My mouth fell open instantly. Bury it? Why on earth would he want me to bury my most treasured possession deep in the forest where I would probably never see it again? What could possibly benefit him in this? I could feel him trying to press the cold silver into my grasp; I didn't want to take it but I was afraid of what might happen if I didn't.
"Don't fight me Bellatrix!" he warned.
"But... I don't understand why..."
"I TOLD YOU NOT TO QUESTION ME!"
Rodolphus threw me to the ground with a rage I had never seen in him before. I looked up to find his wand aimed directly between my eyes. He didn't utter a word – had no need to voice his curse; but I saw the light spin from the wand's tip and sink into me. I felt the cool breeze that seemed to rush through my body and all my thoughts and worries being wiped clean from my mind. Then... nothing. I didn't think of feel anything that he wouldn't allow.
I remember closing my fingers around my locket; I remember digging a small hole with my hands, and I remember dropping the locket into the darkness. I didn't want to do it but at that moment I had no control over myself or my actions. I moved away from my buried locket, thoughts still absent from my mind, and turned towards Rodolphus. He was smirking distractedly into the darkness behind me, with his wand still pointed in my direction.
'Come to me' his voice whispered inside my head, without a single word escaping his lips.
Still I could not stop myself from obeying him and doing exactly as I was instructed. I was so far lost to his spell that I felt as though I floated to his side rather than walking; like I had left my body behind me and was now simply a ghost of myself, hovering towards him through the darkness until his arms were securely wrapped around my waist.
Rodolphus dropped his wand, leaving it discarded at his feet as he folded his arms around me. Everything came flooding back to me: what I had just done, how the arms holding me firmly in place had thrown me to the floor only moments ago and how confused I was about all of this.
"Now, that wasn't so hard was it?"
"I suppose not," I whispered "but I still don't..."
I never got the chance to finish my sentence. His lips crashed onto mine, battling me for dominance. I forgot everything else in that single moment. My arms snaked around his neck, fingers lacing together and pulling him closer. He bit my lower lip hard and I could feel blood seeping out gently. I didn't care about the pain, I just wanted him. I was no longer pretending to be in control as I had done until that moment. I knew he was the one with power over me. I went mad for the sex in a way I never thought possible. I couldn't describe what we did next if I tried; I was too lost within myself.
After that night we stopped attending classes. Neither of us needed lessons from the half-wit teachers who taught at the school. They didn't know nearly as much as we did about real magic... dark magic. Instead we would spend our time wondering through the darkened woods, or sitting in our room on the seventh floor.
Rodolphus did not allow us to be seen together. He insisted that it was important we were not seen as a couple until we could leave school and marry. I didn't understand why he thought it so important, but I had learned that questioning his motives was the most stupid thing I could possibly do. It didn't bother me anymore; I was too focused on my feelings for him to allow negative thoughts to plague me. So I would walk alone wherever we went, staring ahead, trying not to anger him by turning back to see him following behind me. I had done so once; I had looked back for just a second, to catch the slightest glimpse of him, but I had regretted it. Well, he thought I regretted it. The truth of the matter was I loved the pain he inflicted on me. When his cruciatus curse hit me I could feel fire where my blood should have been. It was the most amazing sensation I had ever experienced, and though I screamed it wasn't in pain; pure pleasure lad laced those shrieks that had been ripped from my body. Maybe I had gone crazy by that point, I can't really be sure. I only know for certain that I was no longer the person I had once been.
Time passed and I noticed something had changed with us. I was no longer able to be myself around him. I had become like a puppet or an object which he moulded to suit himself. He stopped me from speaking my mind. He ceased my ability to see the world around me for what it was. I had gone from being Bellatrix Black: a pureblood witch from a well respected family, to nobody. I had become nobody.
