Mouths and Manipulations
She thinks she must be the only person in the world that doesn't enjoy kissing.
The meshing of mouths and the wielding of tongues has never held much appeal for her. When Lucius kissed her that one time, she felt her body's reaction to it, but still could only observe with detached amusement that he hadn't shaved recently and that he tasted faintly of garlic.
So Bellatrix keeps her eyes open when she kisses so that she can gaze around the room and focus on something else.
Her days are spent in flurries of verbal duels with whoever is unlucky enough to cross her path. She makes a point to insult Narcissa at least once a day. It's good for her to remember her place, after all. She just ignores Andromeda, which some would argue is worse.
Bellatrix is beautiful, and she knows it. She carries herself like a queen, her dark eyes flashing with contempt for those around her. She only talks to those of her house or of her station, knowing that a member of the Black lineage should not submit to anyone.
At night, she gathers with some of her fellow comrades to whisper dark spells, the seductive caress of the magic entrancing them all. When she is sixteen, she finally meets the man that she soon realizes she is forever bound to. When his red eyes latch onto her dark ones, she shudders and cannot break the gaze. His voice is serpentine, and so is his tongue, but when the words stop coming and the eyes are closed, the connection is broken and Bellatrix finds herself with her mouth engaged and her eyes idly drifting around the lavish quarters.
The summer she is seventeen, she consents to have her silky cream flesh marred by the grotesque black brand. The pain is searing, but she grits her teeth and does not scream, gaining a smile from the Dark Lord.
She returns to Hogwarts that fall for her seventh year and can barely disguise her impatience with those around her. To amuse herself, she goes out of her way to make her traitorous cousin's life a living hell. She sets her followers on him and his small gang of friends, but in the end, they only succeed in breaking one of them. Peter's kisses are even sloppier than Lucius', but Bellatrix views them as an ordeal to make herself stronger for the times to come.
Sleep does not come easily anymore. At nights she prowls the castle or the grounds, finding it impossible at three o'clock in the morning not to ponder her future and her reason.
One night, pacing by the lakeshore, she runs into her cousin. Bellatrix knows she is beautiful, but even she doesn't recognize the allure that her hair and her eyes have in the moonlight. He gazes at her without speaking and a jolt goes through her stomach.
She sneers and means as if to leave, but he catches her with a gentle arm around her waist. Her skin prickles where he touches it, and when the kiss comes, as she knew it would, it sends a tingle through her entire body. Without realizing it, her eyes close and she moans low in her throat. Her hands reach up to run through his hair as his arms encircle her.
Suddenly, Bellatrix wrenches her mouth away and disentangles herself from Sirius. He stares at her, his breath coming shallowly. She turns and runs back to the castle.
Tears are entering the black eyes, but she's not sure why. All she knows is that she needs to get as far away as possible from the boy with the misguided principles and familiar features and that jarring smile that has never once been directed towards her.
Entering the Slytherin common room, she trips on the edge of a rug and falls forward into the shaking, skinny arms of Rodolphus Lestrange.
"Are- are you alright?" He blurts out, blushing as she makes no move to leave his arms.
Bellatrix looks at him carefully. He is staring at her with a mixture of adoration and fear, and she can feel that his chest, covered in rich silk, is trembling.
She smiles subtly and leans in closer, eyes open.