"Tell me a story, Bella."
Bellatrix sat with her legs crossed and her wand gripped between her long, black nails. Her laced dress was pulled tight, flowing over the edge of the chair she was sat on. She turned her head to look.
"A story?" she drawled. Regulus nodded, the ten year old boy looking at his frightening cousin. Her eyelids fluttered shut, "You two brats want a story?"
"Well, only one brat does." Sirius said from further away. "I don't want one of your insane murder plots."
"Well, dearest cousin – I'm babysitting you and your precious little brother here. I can curse you right now." She laughed without humour, "But don't worry. Your sorry blood-betraying arse will only be slightly damaged. Wouldn't want to spill pure-blood, even if you are a Gryfinndor."
Bellatrix didn't give him time to retort.
"Once, about a thousand years ago, there were four magical beings. Two witches and two wizards. Godric Gryffindor, Rowena Ravenclaw, Salazar Slytherin and Helga Hufflepuff. Godric, Rowena and Salazar had decided to start up a school, to coach the younger ones like themselves.
The first thing they decided was the different qualities and character traits each desired for their houses.
Rowena immediately stood up and cried out, 'I call the smart ones!'. Nobody could argue with the beautiful woman, as she herself was quick thinking and her wisdom couldn't be defeated.
Salazar quickly followed, 'And I the cunning ambitious ones!'
Godric, not one to be beaten, cried, 'I'll have the brave ones!'
And sweet, nice Helga said, 'Alright, I'll have the rest.'" Bellatrix paused, the evil tone not leaving her voice for anything.
"Go on, Bella!"
"The next thing they decided on were their colours. Godric, remembering the last round of choices, immediately said, 'Red and gold are mine!'
To which Salazar added, 'Green and silver for me!'
Rowena, seeing she still had a choice, jumped in with, 'I'll take blue and bronze!'
'Okay,' Helga said quietly, 'I suppose yellow and black are nice.'
Regulus looked at her with eyes full of admiration. Sirius was discreetly listening, trying his hardest not to look interested.
"They still needed to decide on mascots. Predictably, Salazar called the snake because his mind felt like it resembled his slippery personality. Godric the lion, as a symbol of everlasting bravery, and Rowena the graceful eagle, leaving Helga a dull badger. When the time had come to constructing the school, roughly the same occurred, Rowena and Godric called upon having the two highest towers to symbol superior students. Salazar snatched the dungeon, to show his dark minded ideas and his low schemes. But he didn't tell any of the others that, of course. They were concerned about themselves.
And Helga Hufflepuff had the basement left to herself. It was better than nothing, of course, but not as great as the Helga never minded, though. She was a sweet tempered woman, not the type to raise a fuss.
"Several years after all this had happened, the Founders were having dinner together in Rowena's private quarters. Salazar and Godric were eating like pigs, as was their custom, and Rowena had her nose in a book, as was her custom. Helga had tried and failed to start a conversation. Sighing, she reached for the last steak, but before she could get it to her plate, Godric snatched it from her and stuffed half in his mouth.
Helga's eye twitched. She took a deep breath, counted to ten, and snapped. With a vicious cry of rage, she rose, upending the marble table over her shocked colleges. She whipped out her wand and pointed it at them, a stream of violent hexes and foul epithets already streaming from her mouth. Godric fought her off, inadvertently using Salazar as a shield. Soon Godric and Salazar were fighting again, having nearly forgotten about Helga. But gone were the days when she would wait politely, twiddling her thumbs until they'd finished their little tiff. Stepping over Rowena's bloody and inert body, she cursed Godric until he lay twitching on the floor, resembling a brutally chopped mandrake in a hat and robes. She turned on Salazar, who took one look at her enraged expression and ran, leaving the school forever.
"Helga stood in the middle of the wreckage, surveying her handiwork, chest heaving. She watched as the door swang back and forth on its broken hinges. She watched as the chandelier fell to the ground with a crash. She watched as the pages of Rowena's book flipped back and forth in the breeze coming from a large gap where she'd blown the walls clear out of the room. She watched as the nasty, mandrake like form that had once been Godric Gryffindor oozed blood and guts over what had once been a decent set of robes and a rather nice hat.
"'Dammit, Godric, that was MY hat!' she cried angrily.
"Whipping out her wand, she decapitated her old friend and summoned her hat, which was still attached to his head. The large array of curses she had used had fused it to his skull. With an almighty wrench, the hat came off, along with most of Godric's brains. She absentmindedly stuffed them into the hat. She had just realized something.
"'None of you ever let me do anything first,' she muttered to Rowena and Godric, who were quite unresponsive. 'Not even die!'
"She felt very depressed, and still holding the hat in her hands, she took her cup of wine and drank deeply from it. A sudden thought struck her, and she stared around for the bottle of poison Salazar had always kept handy. Not seeing it, she shrugged her shoulders. Dying seemed peaceful … and she didn't want that. Not again she would be the most kind, nice one. Her fingers wrapped around the golden goblet and she brought it against her scalp once. And again with increasing force. She beat herself around the head with the cup until she staggered to the floor, bleeding profusely. Her last words before she lost consciousness were, 'I beat Salazar.'"
Sirius was silent. Regulus was half smiling.
"There you go kids. How was that?" Bellatrix curled her lip.
"Violent."
"You don't know the half of violent, little one." She muttered in a baby voice to Sirius. "I'll show you violent."