Notes: Warning for torture.
The sounds of revelry grated on Bellatrix's ears, making her hiss in soundless displeasure at the house that squatted so innocuously on the next hill. Her wand vibrated in her fingers, as if it could guide her on in the Dark Lord's place.
He couldn't be dead. He couldn't be dead. A whining, puling baby could not have killed her Lord. It had to be a trick. Some kind of trick to lull the wizarding world into a false sense of security and then snap! The trap would be set, and the Dark Lord would rise in his full glory. So Bellatrix believed and so she refused to consider anything else.
"Are we ready?" Barty Crouch Jr. whispered in her ear, stammering in his nervousness. She looked over at him once, briefly, contemptuously. His face was pale as milk, and he couldn't stop trembling. She could see the devotion burning in his eyes, though, even as his tongue swiped at his bottom lip once more.
"Yes," Bellatrix said, and smiled. "It's just the Longbottoms now. They'll tell us. They'll tell us if they want to live." The smirk on her face was terrifying.
Breaking in was almost disappointingly simple. The Aurors' security had grown lax since the discovery of Voldemort's disappearance, and it was an easy matter of picking the front lock. Barty did it, glancing over his shoulder every five seconds until Bellatrix placed the tip of her wand at the nape of his neck and whispered, in the most nauseatingly pleasant voice she could manage, that if he didn't hurry up, she was going to decapitate him. He moved swiftly enough after that, and soon, they were filing into the Longbottoms' slightly messy kitchen.
Nobody was there, of course, and Bellatrix snarled in silent anger as she slipped into the parlour. Nothing. She kicked over a lamp, relishing the sound of the ceramic breaking as it hit the floor and only then, did she hear movement upstairs.
"Now," she smiled, the effect ghastly in the dim light.
"Frank? Did you hear that?" Alice Longbottom's voice filtered downstairs. Bellatrix lifted a finger to her lips, knowing that Rodolphus would have no trouble keeping quiet, but watching Barty start in badly concealed surprise.
"Maybe someone forgot something," Frank's voice, descending the stairs, and Bellatrix lifted her wand, feeling power crackle down her spine, as the rest of her ever-devoted team grew closer to her.
Frank appeared around the curve of the steps, and Bellatrix's response was immediate.
"Alice, run!" Frank yelled, but it was drowned out by Bellatrix's own voice.
"I don't think so," Bellatrix shouted, raising anti-Apparition wards and nodding to Rabastan to deal with the upstairs.
She flicked her wand at Frank then, almost lazily.
"Crucio," Bellatrix whispered, and laughed.