Author's Notes: This story is the fruition of an idea that has been niggling in the back of my mind for the past few days.

This is a Strange love story told from Rodolphus Lestrange's POV.

A longer author's note will be found at the bottom. Hope that you will all read, enjoy and review!

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. Unfortunately.

The Strange Love

9

Today is the first time that I met Bellatrix Black.

Someone who is unlike any other girl I have ever known.

Someone that I can truthfully say that I do not understand.

And maybe it is because she is just...

Too strange.

Too different.

And yet, somehow, still so beautiful as well.

With her long, curly sable hair and extremely dark eyes...

That seem to be black at first.

Though they aren't.

Not really.

Just a deep deep brown.

And she is tiny... compared to me.

At least a good foot shorter, with bones so thin that I could have wrapped my arms around her twice.

She looked delicate.

But when she laughed.

Her laughter was loud.

Strong.

Perfect...

Not weak.

Not weak at all.

And I heard it only once today while the three of us were in the living room of her house:

Me, my brother Rabastan who is a year younger than I am and her.

The Eldest daughter of Cygnus and Druella in the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black.

A girl still in the tender age of 7.

She was carelessly tossing a small ragdoll in the air and Rabastan, the obnoxious little prat that he is, just had to grab it and wave it around in front of her face.

"What the bloody hell is this thing?"

He had asked, ignoring the proper way of addressing a fellow pure-blood while making Bellatrix stare back at him.

"Mine."

She simply answered, holding out her small hand.

There was something... dangerous about her then.

But Rabastan was too thick to notice anything and had quickly opened his mouth again.

"Not anymo-"

Before she immediately closed it for him and caused bright red blood to gush from his now broken nose.

An instant result of the fact that she had punched him.

She had actually punched him.

So hard that he was now screaming bloody murder as he desperately tried to stop the flow.

And as I watched them, I knew that I should have gone to my brother and helped him.

But I couldn't.

I could only refocus my gaze on her and ask.

"Are you okay?"

A simple question that made her look back at me and smile.

"Yes, but he isn't."

And then she was laughing.

And all I wanted to do then was laugh with her.

So I did...

And now I realize that as much as I say that I do not understand her.

Maybe I also do not understand myself.

The following day.

In the beginning, I did not know why she had come to our house with her parents.

I thought at first that it was just going to be a simple house visit, like the one we had given them yesterday.

But I now know that I was wrong and couldn't have been farther from the truth…

The three of them had arrived in our house at an early 9:10 am, just missing my own parents and brother who had left only moments ago to indulge Rabastan in his love of Quidditch; a sport that had never really caught my interest.

And readily helped me say "no" when they asked if I would have liked to join them.

A decision that I definitely did not regret, most especially when the Blacks had unexpectedly arrived, bringing Bellatrix with them.

Just the mere thought of her presence quickly caused excitement to unconsciously bubble up inside me as they graciously entered the living room of our house, the pronounced distance between Cygnus and Druella Black from their daughter immediately signaling me that there was something wrong.

Though I did not yet know what it was.

"Hello." She distantly greeted when she finally saw me as well, her dark brown eyes strangely…

Unfocused.

The two of them far dimmer than they had been yesterday. The fierce light that had once shone in them, as she had laughed, now gone. Replaced with a sorrowful starkness that immediately prompted me to walk towards her, my gaze focused only on her slight frame.

"Bellatrix."

I carefully started when I finally stopped in front of her, my right hand thoughtlessly reaching out to hold her cloth-covered wrist.

An action that automatically made her flinch and recoil, her entire body moving quickly away from my touch as an unexpected hiss of pain slipped past her ruby red lips.

"Don't," She mustered past gritted teeth as she tried to glare at me. "Don't you dare tou-"

"Silence." Her father growled warningly at her, his bushy black brows meeting in anger as he carelessly pushed Bellatrix towards me, easily making her stumble and fall into my now instinctively open arms.

The two of which quickly helped steady her as I observed the barely suppressed winces of pain that passed through her face.

"Apologize now." Cygnus Black commandingly thundered, his large right hand tightening menacingly around the hard cane that he always carried.

The serious anger in his tone reflected religiously by his actions as Bellatrix carefully wrapped her own arms loosely around her chest in discomfort and shame, her entire body seeming to shrink into itself as she gazed at me with such disturbingly vacant eyes.

"But he is no-"

"I said APOLOGIZE!" Her father swiftly interrupted, his hulking form trembling with the fury that was laced into his dark words.

"You are a pure-blood!" He shouted at her. "Not a filthy mudblood, you should have known better Bellatrix! How could you have acted like an uncivilized muggle and hit someone?!"

I swallowed slowly as I watched him rage at her, his imposing figure blocking out his slender wife who did nothing but observe the scene unfolding in front of her with cold, disinterested orbs.

A disturbing image that immediately struck me and made me realize that there was such contrast between the two of them as I gently reached for Bellatrix's currently limp right hand and took it in my own.

My strong fingers entangling effortlessly with her slim ones as I named who they were in my mind, knowing then and there that…

He was fire.

And she was ice.

A dangerous combination that made me breathe in deeply before opening my mouth.

"Excuse me," I cautiously began as I took a step back, lightly pulling Bellatrix with me.

"Mr. and Mrs. Black, might I suggest that you let Bellatrix and I speak of this in private? As you have said, she is a pure-blood and must handle matters like this as such. It would do no good to expose this little… incident to others."

I calmly suggested as I drew my body up, as straight and as high as it could go, and gave him the most regal and serious facial expression that I could muster.

The one that I learned from studying my own father as he dealt with his business associates.

"Hmmm," Cygnus roughly rumbled out as he stared at me from head to foot, his probing eyes studying every inch of my stature as he criticized me silently in his own mind.

"I agree." He finally relented after a long moment of boring into my brain with just his gaze, his left hand now waving dismissively at us. "You may both go."

I nodded briefly at his words before sharply calling out a single name, "Tatu".

A loud crack sounded as my favored house elf appeared and hastily began bowing so low that her large ears flopped to the ground.

"Tatu is here to serve master! What is it that young master wants?"

She happily squeaked out as she stared at me with her large, bulbous eyes.

I gestured toward Cygnus and Druella Black with a short sweep of my free hand and said.

"Prepare tea for our guests and make sure that they are comfortable during their stay here."

She nodded jerkily after hearing my command, her thin lips widening in bliss of willing servitude.

"Of course master!"

I accepted her short answer with a small and forced smile on my lips that I reluctantly directed to Cygnus and Druella.

"If you will excuse us…"

I respectfully said; earning curt and simultaneous nods from the two elder Blacks that finally permitted me to turn around and quickly walk away, subtly dragging Bellatrix with me who impassively followed my lead into the Lestrange Manor's library.

She slid into the room after me, her heavily-lidded eyes taking in nothing as she quickly pulled her hand from my now slack hold and deftly closed the large door behind her before turning to face me.

The unnatural aura of weakness that shrouded her entirety immediately penetrating my senses, overloading my young mind and causing the tiniest hint of a raw yet indiscernible emotion to grow inside me.

"What happened to you?"

I anxiously asked her before I could stop myself, both of my hands nervously stuffing themselves into the pockets of my trousers and now pressing tightly against my thighs.

My knuckles trembling with a desperate force that drove my nails to pierce harshly into my skin through the thin cloth.

So hard that I could feel little drops of thick liquid moisten the tips of my fingers.

"Why are you so… Different? From yesterday."

I irrepressibly continued when she did nothing, her lustrous hair curling defiantly around her porcelain face and slender neck as her entire body did its best to emulate a marble statue.

Beautiful, yes.

Undeniably so.

But also oh so… perfectly.

Destructively:

Lifeless.

I felt my nails dig even more deeply into me at the thought, just the changed sight of her quickly causing my breathing to become far more hurried.

Strained.

Almost painful…

As the entire area around my chest tightened.

And as my mind lost its ability to understand how she could affect me like this.

How she could make me react like this…

So uncontrollably.

So unlike me.

And then I did not understand, or even care, anymore why I suddenly felt so sad.

So hopeless.

And why I had stepped closer to her, both of my hands no longer in my pockets but raising themselves warily, cautiously, into the space between us.

My mouth now moving on its own as it whispered achingly, breathlessly, before my entire body paused a few loathsome inches away from her.

Desperate and so horribly confused at the same time.

"Please Bellatrix, tell me why."

My voice cracked at the end of the sentence, and I could finally her body subtly regaining its formerly lost motions. The light movements of her shoulders gradually becoming more pronounced as she inhaled more deeply, her dark eyes now staring at me instead of past me.

The strange subdued dimness that I now hated, still there.

Taunting me.

As she gracefully moved forward, her gaze never leaving my own as she purposely leaned herself closer to the hands that I had raised between us and deliberately placed her face between them.

Her smooth, flawless cheeks now framed by my faintly trembling fingers. The bloodied tips of them curiously caressing and unintentionally staining her beauty a deep crimson red.

A vivid color that beautifully contrasted with her snow white skin that felt so gloriously perfect beneath my touch.

"My father," She silently began, never moving away as she spoke. Her ruby lips brushing softly against my warm palms.

"Did not approve of my treatment of Rabastan."

She evenly continued as I carefully ran the soft pads of my thumbs up along the silken sides of her angular nose.

The ideal texture of her skin immediately causing the insides of my mouth to dry and the tightness in my chest to constrict even more so.

Leaving me completely incapable of speech.

"And he, who loves his chains…"

I watched her devoutly as her lips proceeded to move, her own slender hands slowly rising up and placing themselves over my own as the voluminous sleeves of her green dress freely fell to her bent elbows.

And fluidly exposed her delicate wrists that bore deep and angry cuts.

Vicious red lines received from struggling against cruel restraints.

"And his whips…"

Her eyes daintily fluttered close, the edges of her long lashes grazing softly against my thumbs that gently began to trace the delicate thinness of her eyelids.

"More than his own daughter. Taught me a very excruciating lesson yesterday. And told me to apologize to your family."

My hands shakily moved further, my fingers slowly and meticulously threading themselves into the welcoming curls of her hair.

The dark strands effortlessly curving around my skin and entangling themselves to me.

"But believe me," She solemnly murmured, her beautiful eyes swiftly opening.

The sharpness, the strength, the shine that they had lost now blazing heatedly in them once more.

"I will not… and will never be sorry…"

And then she was sobbing, quietly but painfully.

Her entire body suddenly pressed completely against my own as she cried into my shoulder, her hot tears scorching my flesh and her strong words echoing loudly in my mind…

Additional disclaimer: I also do not own t.A.T.u but might change that name, what do you think?

Author's Notes: This will be a long piece of work and will tell of the story between Rodolphus and Bellatrix, as time passed around them. Will stick to canon for now.

A kind of behind the scenes story for the two of them.

And well... I have not much experience in writing this kind of stories so I hope that you will all bear with me and help me achieve my potential!

Reviews are much loved. Suggestions, questions, comments and any forms of reactions are very much appreciated, just click the little button below! Thanks!

P.S. Please check out and vote in the poll on my profile.

H.O.D.