Bellatrix Lestrange cofwered in the corner of a vast cavern, allowing her stringy black hair to fall over her once beautiful face in a way that would have been graceful at any other location. It had been nearly two days since her secret imprisonment, since the fall of her one true master. She took one of her long and bony hands and observed its emaciation. Tears coming to her eyes as she ran the long fingernails down her cheek, noticing that it had been hollowed through starvation intermingled with deep depression. The 'Decoro' spell had worn off.
She was once beautiful, the right hand lady of her Dark Lord Voldemort, a powerful man of ruthless nature whom she admired even more than her ever-faithful husband. In her intimacy with the Dark Lord, she almost began to think of herself as Lady Voldemort, Queen of Wizard-Kind. This was of course foolish, for Voldemort did not love. He didn't need to, after all; he had no purpose for a wife, let alone a queen. Only a mistress. But it didn't matter now. The dark lord was gone.
Yet she still couldn't help but think Voldemort had something planned for her. Or something planned for his own return. You see, on the first day of May over two months prior, Voldemort visited her in private. It was in a secret chamber Malfoy Manor, shown to them by Lucius; the Malfoy senior. She remembered it so very clearly.
"Bella," Voldemort began with a wicked hiss, towering over her in the dim light of the musty room.
"Yes, master?"she crooned in reply, kneeling unto the cold, stony floor.
"Do not interrupt," he spat in casual fury, glaring into her dark icy-blue eyes with his own angry-red ones.
Horror struck her face and trembled her body as she stammered, "M-my apologies m-m-merciful Lo-ord."
Voldemort looked away, uninterested and began to speak in the same high-pitched hiss in which he had spoken in before. She bowed her head low before him.
"As you know, tomorrow there will take place a battle of epic proportions, a battle we must- will- win!" He looked to her expectantly and she nodded with a solemn expression. "If -when- we win, your services will be needed." Bellatrix looked at him, confused, but he did not explain any further. "The battle will be grueling. The lives of many of my subjects shall be lost, and my own army's blood shall most definitely be spilt." He paused to stand and pace around a bemused Bellatrix. "We must be sure that none of theses lives, and none of this blood, belong to you."
"Oh master," she said, oddly surprised. She new very well that Voldemort rarely cared about the safety of his Death-Eaters. That was their problem. This only made her feel all the more special, but a bit disappointed. "I will not fight?"
"YOU WILL FIGHT!" he screamed, drawing his long and knobby wand.
"Oh please my lord! Please! I didn't-" she pleaded, grasping the bottom of his robes and crying onto his disgusting feet.
He merely kicked her away and stated, "You incompetent fool!"
She covered her face with her arms as he raised his wand and incanted, "Gemenio!"
In a flash, there was not but one Bellatrix, but two.
Voldemort ignored the amazement and fear still lingering in Bella's watery eyes as she gazed upon her life-like double. He then used a potent Imperius curse to regain her attention, jerking her head back in his direction. Bella was scared. Voldemort wasn't usually so violent towards her.
"Listen to me," he commanded as she nodded. "I am going to charm your nervous system and sensory organs so that everything your mind does will actually effect your double. You will see through the eyes of your double, feel with the skin of your double, hear with the ears of your double, smell through the nose of your double, taste with the tongue, and move with the body of your double. You will cast spells through your double."
"But why, my lord," she asked hesitantly.
"Any curse thrown upon the double- through which you are living- it will affect the double, while the real you stays perfectly intact somewhere far away. Any food you eat our water you drink through your double will support the true you and not the double, for it does not need to eat, drink or sleep. Even so, it can do anything you can, except perhaps bear a child."
"I see," she said. "What is it that you want me to do?"
Voldemort snarled "Your job is to kill. Kill as many mudbloods at the battle as you can. Kill dear Harry's little girlfriend. You know, that filthy Weasley. If any of her pack try to intervene, Kill them."
Bellatrix smiled wickedly and accepted.
"Oh, and one more thing," he said calmly, regaining her attention. "Your little half-blood niece. The so-called shape-shifter. I want her dead. Kill her mate if you get to it. Their cub must be isolated. He… interests me. He could be a powerful ally, I feel, we can't let him be raised in a loving environment, can we? And if your blood-traitor of a sister decides to show up…"
"I understand," Bellatrix cackled, much to the amusement of her master. She was finally given the chance to show the disgraceful branch of her family once and for all that purebloods true to their heritage are the only humans deserving of life. Her family embarrassed her for the last time. Revenge is imminent. "But why am I being duplicated in such a way."
"So you will not be harmed," Voldemort said. "Only your double will be. If you are struck by a killing curse at the battle, your double will be knocked down, lifeless, but all your senses and muscle controls will come back to the real you, which would have been immobile for hours. You may suffer from temporary paralysis, or even partial blindness, but that should clear up about twenty-four hours after the body switch."
This made Bella a bit apprehensive but she would do anything for her master. It was an honor that she was being protected in such a way as it was, so she easily refrained from complaint out of fear.
"But, hopefully, you will complete your assassinations before death comes upon your double," he said, eying her menacingly.
"I understand," she nodded, nerves rising. The Dark Lord did not take failures lightly.
"Once you wish to return to your own body, either ask Lucius to hit you with a killing curse, or ask him to take you to your own true body. Once you and your double touch, there will be only one of you- the real one."
He added this last question a bit harshly as she began to reach towards her duplicate. This was a very odd experience for her.
"Why are you keeping me so safe, my lord," she asked.
"So inquisitive, are you? You will have to perform a very important service to me."
"May I ask what this is?"
"There is much you must do, but only one thing is important now. I plan to produce an heir, Bella."
"Oh, master," she cooed. Her life-long dream had suddenly come alive. She had waited for the requitance of her love, or at least her lust, for such a long time.
"Decoro!" he said. With a swish of his wand Bella felt all the beauty that had been taken from her face through her long years in Azkaban wash back onto her.
She thanked her master soppily and watched in admiration as his robes fell gracefully to the floor.