For Ella, because... well, I don't need a reason to dedicate a fic to my wife, do I?
The tiny piece of parchment that had brought down in flames all of Lord Voldemort's plans was lying on the coffee table next to him. It had been screwed up by its receiver in a fit of rage and then thrown away with disgust, and now the Dark Lord was eyeing it from the other end of the room as if his mistakes, his blindness, had been its fault.
But it was completely his fault. He, Lord Voldemort, best Legilimens the wizarding world had ever seen, had believed Severus Snape, he had swallowed his ludicrous stories and nodded along with his endless excuses. To make matters worse, he had brushed off his lieutenant's warnings about the slimy traitor and had even yelled at her for worrying too much, when she was in such a delicate emotional state and could have used that time to get back to her old, powerful self.
He had relied more on that half-blooded filth than the only person who had ever cared about him... A dry wind of despair, completely foreign to him, invaded the empty cavity where his heart was supposed to be. Would she still care about him after all this, or had he managed to break her too? Would he be alone ag-
"Master? You called for me?" a hoarse voice came from the entrance of the room.
Bellatrix was standing there, her head lowered, hair falling like a shiny curtain over it, shielding it from the world.
Voldemort looked up and his fiery eyes scanned the emaciated body that was dressed in dark silk.
"Bella, yes," he said slowly. "Yes. I called you for a very urgent matter. Apparently, I have been... mistaken."
"Mistaken, my Lord?" Bellatrix repeated blankly, as if these were unknown words to her.
'Yes, mistaken," Voldemort confirmed, his voice showing no emotions. "You see, I just received, by a stroke of luck, solid evidence that Severus Snape has been a spy acting under Dumbledore's orders since the first war."
He paused and focused on her face, feverishly looking for signs that she would start laughing or screaming. Instead, Bellatrix simply nodded.
"How would you like to proceed then, my Lord?"
"We will reverse the game for a while, feed him with inaccurate or incomplete information to pass to the Order of the Phoenix," he covered up his surprise with his cool voice, "and when he becomes unusable, we will dispose of him appropriately. If nothing changes, that would be in three or four months."
Bellatrix nodded again.
"I would like you to come back here in three hours so we can talk about it properly, you deserve to take the lead in this."
For the first time, a small hint of emotion lit up Bella's face: a smile fluttered swiftly on her lips.
"Of course, my Lord, as you wish. Thank you very much."
Voldemort made an indefinable gesture with his head and then waved her away. She hadn't even closed the door behind her properly, when his voice, clear and high came from the room:
"And... Bella? You did not say 'I told you so', interesting."
"I would never do that, my Lord," Bellatrix replied softly. "I may be asking you for Snape's head on a plate in the next three to four months, though," she added with a devilish smirk, the same that had attracted his attention many many years ago.
A/N: Thank you for reading, please let me know what you think.
We've got stag-heads on plates for the walls in my place, I s'pose Bella would be more advanced, yes? ;)