She stood poised at the gate of the foreboding black mansion, her heavily lidded violet eyes sweeping the many balconies and windows. She was waiting. the looming towers and parapets blocked what little moonlight there was, and shadows cloaked her lean and muscular frame, thus causing her silhouette to look somewhat hazy around the edges, like an out of focus photograph. Her black robes swirl around her , and her hands are clasped together. Wind blows her mass of abundant black curls over her thin face, whipping them around and around her head, like the halo of an angle of the devil. she stands with the confidence and maturity much more befitting of someone tens years older then her, and her whole stature reflects imperiousness and scorn. her amethyst eyes seem to hide all secrets forgotten by mankind and her thin lips are open slightly, her pale skin paler in the waning light of the moon. She was beautiful in the strange, dangerous way of the wolf, Recklessness, beauty, passion and hatred are all in her eyes, but she hides these feeling from herself and others as one might hide their wand from a muggle. What comes through is only the carefull guardedness, and something which awakes a natural instinct to flee. Her lips curve into a smile that only hints on humor. Her hand is in her pocket, slim fingers closed around her wand, ready to fire a deadly curse at anything and everything. Always on her guard and always watchful, as quick with her tongue as with her wand, Bellatrix Black never missed a chance to use her wand. As she stood there looking up at the Riddle House, her finely tuned hearing picked up on a slight sound on the path behind her. In a flash, her wand was out, a spell went hurtling through the air, only to be bounced back again. Bellatrix gaped in astonishment, then fury, then at last, realization and fleeting warmth. Only one person, she knew, could defect her magic that that. At 17, Bellatrix Black was a better dualist then most of the teachers at Hogwarts, a fact which had been proven more times then Bellatrix cared to count. She turned around as he appeared. "My lord…"
"Bellatrix." he smiled, and he was so impossibly handsome, considering how much older he was. "Bellatrix, you're early. How many times do i have to tell you. You will be punished Bella."
" Yes my lord, or course my Lord. But, My Lord, it is not i who was early. You should have been here a long time ago." She smiled at him. She was the only one whom he let contradict him.
"Bella. Enough. We have much to do. Come." Lord Voldemort strode towards the manor, his cloak billowing out behind him. Bellatrix followed him closely, her high-heeled boots tapping softly on the chipped pathway. With a wave of his wand he unlocks the door, and steps inside. It slams shut with a hollow bang after Bellatrix walks over the threshold. He gestures for her to take of her cloak, which she does, then silently vanishes it. Bellatrix is clothed in a Many-layered skirt, and tight black corset top, with black tights, a thick belt and high heels. . She looks up at him with utter adoration.,
"My lord."
"What now Bella?"
"I am 17 now."
"do you want me to wish you a happy birthday then?"
A faint pinkness escapes into Bellatrixes cheeks at his sarcasm. " no, my lord. It means the trace is broken. They cannot track me anymore."
"Tired of fending off ministry idiots then, Bellatrix? I thought you liked crucio."
"Of course my lord. But you said when i was 17….I could join you. For real" There is no mistaking the longing in her raspy voice.
"Yes Bellatrix i did. You're right. But it will be more….Dangerous then just summer training in the dark arts. I chose you for a reason Bellatrix. You have great…Promise. With more instruction, Bella, you could rise among the ranks of the Death Eaters."
"My Lord, i am most honored." Her face is aglow with his compliment. His eyes bore into her, thinking. "My lord?"
"Yes, Bellatrix, i did hear you. I am merely considering the advantages."
"I'm sorry my lord." She bows her curly head.
" Alright Bellatrix." he pulls out his wand. "Legilimance!"
Bellatrix easily blocks him from her mind, putting her defensive shield. She knew what would happen if he got into her mind. She did NOT want him not see what she had been thinking about him last night, especially after what had happened the LAST (and first) time he had entered her innermost thoughts. A year ago yesterday, she realized. She had learned so much in a years. She had been just 16, and had been violently in love with him for years, ever since she was eleven and had entered school with exceptional powers. She had tortured the son of a death eater almost to death in her first year. He told his father and had started her training by Lord Voldemort that christmas break. Even now the memory of that night she turned 16 was painful.
"Alright Bellatrix. Are you ready to begin?"
"Yes My Lord."
"You are sure you were not followed this time?"
she laughed mirthlessly. "They follow me everywhere now. I have no freedom, i am underage, and i am the eldest." She fingered her wand with a look of pride and anger on her face.
"i thought they supported me and the death eaters."
"They do, its just.. i'm the eldest. They want me to marry a pureblood, and support you from afar like they do. Keep up the tradition." She laughed bitterly, concealing the pain in her eyes.
"I see." Said lord Voldemort, but of course he didn't, and she knew it.
"Narcissa came after me again, she demanded to know were i kept disappearing to. She's my sister, my lord. I had no choice, i cursed her. Repeatedly. Crucio." She allowed a smile on her face.
"And did you enjoy it? We cannot feel love or- debt or bond with others Bellatrix, she may be your sister but that doesn't mean she is on our side. Trust no one. So tell be truthfully, did you enjoy it?"
She hesitated. "Yes." She said, truthfully. Apparently, he did not believe her.
" Legilimance!"
This was not what Bellatrix had been expected. Usually a pretty good Oclimance when she was focused, She was no match for the Dark Lord when she was distracted. images rushed into her head. ( She with her sisters, blond Cissy and dark Andromeda, playing at being death eaters, but anyone could tell Andromeda was disgusted with her. Screaming at her parents, hair flying around her face, shooting curses at them. At school, torturing Arthur Wesley with the cruciotis curse, her laughter growing with each of his screams. Hexing Rita for speeding rumors about her. Yelling at Andromeda for sympathizing with muggles. Outside the Black manor, Narcissa on the ground, screaming in pain as she stands over her with her wand drawn, pleased.) Voldemort had seen what he needed to see, and fully indeed to stop. But he saw something else. A dream from the night before, of which Bella had been reliving when he had entered her mind, and distracted her. ( She, in a long black dress, hair loose on her porcelain shoulders, approaching was Voldemort, in a pair of handsome dress robes. She puts her hand on his shoulder, and he puts his hand on her waist. They dance, and kiss. A bed appears, and he leads her toward it-)
"NO! " screams Bellatrix, and with a burst of energy pushes him out. She gasps for breath, and her eyes meet his. They are hot with anger.
"Master…"
"CRUCIO" He shouts at her, his wand raised. She screams but not entirely in pain, it's the look in his eyes that hurt her most. The look that was most positively not love. The pain of the curse itself did not bother her so much, she had been trying for years to repress and hide pain of any sort. She stood there in front of him, sobbing uncontrollably, unable to meet his eye. " Bellatrix…." His tone was hard.
"I'm sorry master, i swear!"
"I feel no love for you Bellatrix, or for anybody. If that is all you have been coming for for the past 6 years, you can leave right now, and never come back."
"I am done with that. it is over, i have forgotten. i come because i want to help you with whatever it is you want to do. i want to be in your army, to fight the authorities, to make this world one in which wizards rule, and' you are the minister and head of everything." 'maybe then you can love me,' she thought, but had no notion of saying it aloud. At 16 she was bold in everything but love, of which she was blind.
" Bellatrix, i am pleased. you have seen the error of you ways and will be an amazing addition to the death eaters when you are of age. I am glad that you have but your silly little feelings aside."
"Death eaters have no feelings, my lord."
Bellatrix remembered that night as clearly as yesterday.
"Bellatrix?"
"Yes, my lord?"
"I think you will be a valuable addition to the death eaters. Lucius and Abbarotte have orders to torture information out of, and kill the Rodfrenders tomorrow night. You will go instead of Lucius. Inform him of that and check in with Abbarotte. You know him?"
"Yes, my lord."
"fine. I expect the best, Bellatrix. I am giving you a chance to prove yourself before you are marked as one of us. You will report here at the usual time for instruction tomorrow. Same as yesterday. I have something new to teach you, an old curse elapsed by time. But let me warn you, Bellatrix, it will not be easy." She nodded. Inside of her, her heart sang, elated, but to the observer she remained impossibly calm, standing there in the shadowed entryway, her eyes hungry of what the future hold for her. Bellatrix Black was not one to back away from her own destiny.