Hey! Here's a Frank/Alice insanity fic written for flutter of angel wings's Fear Factor challenge at Harry Potter Fanfiction Challenges forum. My character was Bellatrix, and the prompts were 2 Unforgivable Curses, "You filthy little - you dare?", broken glass, and alone. Hope you enjoy!
"Hello," she says, like they're best friends or twin sisters – her tone belying the way that she's pushing the other woman into a corner, "Hello, Alice."
Alice doesn't answer, her heart throbbing in her throat, trying not to look at the door at the end of the hall.
"Do you know where he is, Alice?" Bellatrix asks, cocking her head to the side like a confused puppy, "Do you know where the Dark Lord is?"
Bellatrix savors her master's name on her lips. It slinks out…like a snake.
"Alice?"
So, the blood traitor's husband has come out to play, Bellatrix thinks, her thin, wasted lips curling into a wrenching smile.
"Barty!" Bellatrix shrieks, "You know what to do. You know what the Dark Lord would have wanted."
The man steps out of the shadows, and pointing his wand at Frank, yells,
"Imperio!"
It all happened in a matter of seconds – Frank wouldn't have even had a chance to defend himself.
Just the way the Dark Lord would've wanted, Bellatrix muses.
"Where is the Dark Lord?" Barty demands, leering at Frank, as Alice closes her eyes.
Coward, Bellatrix thinks, Coward, coward, coward. Closing her eyes…not wanting to face death in the face. She should suffer. She should suffer for her cowardice, for her blood treachery, for her Mudblood friend Lily Potter – thank Merlin the Dark Lord eliminated that one.
"I don't know," Frank says, his eyes blank and as empty and dark as a bottomless well.
"Do you miss you precious Mudblood friend, Alice?" Bellatrix asks, "Do you miss her? She got what she deserved…"
"Lily was twice the person you'll ever be, pureblood or not," Alice whispers, still not opening her eyes, because she can't let them know what's in the room down the hall.
"You filthy little – you dare to say that to me? You know something, don't you," Bellatrix asks, moving closer, closer, "I can hurt you, blood traitor. You'll feel pain you've never felt before. So tell me where the Dark Lord is. Tell me what happened to him."
"I don't know," Alice says firmly.
"Imperio," Barty repeats, and suddenly, Frank has turned on Alice, and he mutters, casually,
"Crucio."
Alice's screams echo through the house, and she collapses to the ground, twitching, twitching.
Bellatrix giggles.
"In the dust where you belong, blood traitor. And at your husband's hands!"
"I – I – swear – AHH! I swear I don't know where he is!" Alice cries through her screams, "I don't know!"
"Let's try the other," Bellatrix says to Barty, "Where's Rodolphus?"
"Here, darling," the man says, sarcasm oozing into the second word.
As Bellatrix continues to torture Alice, the two men turn and cast the Cruciatus curse upon Frank, who replies the same way his wife did.
As he writhes on the ground, he hits a table, and all the glass on the table falls and breaks upon the ground.
But they can't stop cringing, neither Frank nor Alice, even though they're collapsed on top of broken glass.
Stubborn ones, aren't you, Bellatrix thinks, Won't betray your precious Mudblood order. Well…we can fix that…
But they don't give up a single bit of information – they are dying and they still insist that they don't know anything. For a moment Bellatrix can almost believe them.
And then, something changes. Something snaps, something breaks like the glass that fell.
The three Death Eaters can see it in their eyes – they're gone. But not dead. Just lost.
They paid the price, Bellatrix thinks wryly, Tortured into insanity. The Dark Lord would have been so pleased…
The heel of her shoe crunches on some broken glass as the three of them leave the whimpering bodies on the ground.
And once they've gone, a baby starts wailing from inside the room that is down the hall. A baby who is now truly alone.
Frank and Alice are gone – but the worst thing is, they're gone, yet they're still here. And the baby probably won't ever understand what happened and why it happened.
Their souls are alone – who knows where – and no one cares to pick up the broken glass as they take the delusional couple to St. Mungo's.
Wouldn't the Dark Lord be pleased with me, Bellatrix thinks, as she sits alone in her cell in Azkaban.
A cell with broken glass scattered on the floor.
So what did you think? I don't really write Bellatrix all that often...so...I'd really like some constructive criticism and feedback! Please review!
Love always,
Lily