A/N: Written for the Harry Potter Femmeslash Project Challenge. Head on over to the Harry Potter Forum and check it out!

Furious adrenaline coursed through my veins, causing my skin to tingle. I felt a manic grin spread across my face as each hurried step I took brought me closer to my victim. My heart clenched painfully as I pictured her dancing eyes and carefree smile, but I pushed the image to the back of my mind.

I flinched as my husband's cloak brushed against my shoulder. I glared at him from under my lashes, but he paid no attention; his eyes fixed determinedly ahead, brow furrowed.

I despised Rodolphus Lestrange, and his foul brother as well. In fact, men in general made me feel sick to my stomach. But as a daughter of the Black family, there was no option for a lesbian but to marry into a wealthy pureblood family, just as the straight sisters should.

We were almost there.

Barty Crouch Junior, who had accompanied us on our expedition, was practically skipping alongside Rabastan. I scowled at him and felt my heart rate increase as we came to a stop outside a quaint little cottage at the end of a deserted lane way.

I smiled at the simplicity of the design. White bricks, red roof, rose bushes…it was so Alice. My heart ached for the second time that evening and I forced myself to think of how she had betrayed me all those years ago. Fire raged through my chest, and I gripped my wand.

I had first met Alice in the fourth floor corridor of Hogwarts. I was exiting a classroom and she had rounded the corner, her nose buried in a book. She was not looking where she was going, and collided into me. At first I sneered and growled at her to watch where the fuck she was going, but then she had smiled and said she was sorry, her eyes so blatantly reflecting her sincerity, and my whole world had flipped on its axis.

I had never been one for romance; I didn't believe in love. I had never experienced it, not even second hand. But I knew that I was deeply attracted to this girl.

She had timidly introduced herself as Alice as I was staring at her. I had mumbled my name and she told me she already knew who I was. My heart had soared and I couldn't help but grin.

After that, we became friends. Not publicly, of course. No respectable Slytherin would ever admit to having befriended a Gryffindor.

Alice seemed happy with our arrangement and sometime during our secret rendezvous I fell in love with her. It took months but finally I gathered the courage to tell her how I felt.

Instead of running away screaming as I had assumed she would, Alice surprised me by leaning forward and capturing my lips with hers. She said she felt the same way, and so began our ill-fated union.

She meant everything to me for a few short months and I thought I had meant as much to her. But as the date of my graduation grew nearer, I knew we could not continue our clandestine relationship.

I wanted to run away with her, perhaps move to a different country - just until most of my relatives had died out - but Alice refused to leave her family, and would not concede to coming with me.

No amount of begging changed her mind and all too soon, I graduated from Hogwarts and began my life in the adult world.

I wrote to Alice every day, but I never received a reply. The next time I saw her was in a photograph in the Daily Prophet when she announced her engagement to Frank Longbottom.

My heart had shattered that day, and the tiny bit of hope I had clung to for so many years faded. She had never loved me, not truly. I was just an experiment for her; a new toy to try. As soon as she tired of me, I was discarded like a piece of trash.

I had never moved on, if I was honest with myself. But the hurt she had inflicted on me was all the motivation I needed to go through with what my Master had ordered myself and the three Neanderthals I was chaperoning, to do.

With determination, I entered the small house and easily located my former flame in the kitchen. I grinned wickedly at her shocked expression, and relished in her gaze as her eyes raked over my form. Rodolphus soon appeared with a struggling Frank Longbottom.

"Bell…Bellatrix!" Alice choked out.

My name on her lips sent shivers up my spine but I forced composure and leant casually against the counter behind me, as if being in her presence had absolutely no effect on me.

"Alice," I drawled.

"Wh-what are you doing here?" The small witch trembled slightly and she shot a furtive glance at her husband, who was eyeing me with unabashed hatred.

"Well, Alice," I began, "It has come to the Dark Lord's attention that you and your beloved Frank here have vital information which could be used in our favour…"

"You'll never get it out of us!" Frank barked, but I did not look at him.

My eyes were trained on Alice as she jutted her chin out defiantly and anger crashed over me in boiling waves at their united front.

"Tut, tut," I murmured, inching closer to the woman I had once loved, "The Dark Lord does not like it when people defy him."

Alice's brown eyes bore into mine and I grinned.

"I think we should remind you what happens to those who believe themselves to be above the Dark Lord's wishes."

"Crucio!" I cried and a sick thrill ran through me as Alice collapsed, writhing on the floor. She made no noise, though her mouth was open wide. Tears trickled down her cheeks.

"NO!" Frank bellowed but I tuned him out. This was between me and Alice.

"Crucio!" I screeched again.

I wanted her to feel as much pain as she had caused me to feel after our break up.

"Crucio!" Rodolphus now had Frank under the Cruciatus curse.

"Stop!" Alice panted as I released her again.

"Give up?" I hissed.

"Bellatrix," she whimpered, "Don't do this. You loved me…you loved me, remember?"

I leapt forward; bent over Alice's spent body and yanked her hair, forcing her head back with a crack.

"Of course I fucking remember," I hissed into her ear, "I fell so deeply for you and what did you do? Replace me!"

Alice was sobbing and shaking her head as much as she could with my fingers still tightly threaded in her short locks.

"No…no…" she moaned.

"Yes, Alice, you filthy whore!" I dropped her hair and her head hit the floor with a satisfying thud.

"You're going to pay, Alice," I sang, "I'm going to make you feel how you made me feel when you up and left me for that pathetic sack of shit!" I pointed angrily at her husband, who was lying in a pool of his own blood and vomit, shaking violently from the effects of the curse Barty now had him under.

The three men were crowded over him; I had told them to leave Alice to me…she was mine.

"Bellatrix, please," she begged.

I waited, but my heart was silent. It was beyond repair, completely frozen. I no longer felt anything.

I smiled, lifting my wand lazily and pointed it at her face.

"Crucio!"