Notes: Written for the Malachy O'More fan fiction challenge by Qoheleth. Medium Corpus Pilarum was the 72nd on the
Malachy List and is traditionally assigned to Gregory XI. A short scene about the Death Eaters being Death Eaters.
Medium Corpus Pilarum
'First raid?' Lucuis Malfoy looked down at the hooded figure in front of him. The masks and cloaks were meant to hide identities, but there were still obvious clues as to who the figure was. A man, naturally, and quite young. Dark black hair, and scrawny limbs, he had a feeling it was one of Narcissa's cousins. Reginald?
The boy nodded, Lucuis smiled behind the mask. 'They're not usually too bad, although Bellatrix does have a tendency to be rather…overenthusiastic.'
'Bella's in command?' Bella. The boy must be a Black. He tried to remember what his name was. Hadn't he noticed the long raven curls sliding down the back of the woman in front of them? There were very few female Death Eaters, and Bellatrix's hair made her instantly recognisable. If he was going to survive any legth of time he'd have to start noticing things like that.
That was the thing about masks, they hid faces, but they couldn't hide people. There were six of them in the group, all hooded and masked, but Lucuis still had a fair idea who everyone was. Rabestan was the one standing to his left, he always twirled his wand when he was nervous, and Goyle was behind him, the slight hunch of his shoulders and the sound of his laboured breathing made that clear.
The boy was to his right (Reinald, Regulus? He would have to ask Narcissa) and it was fairly obvious who would be near the front, right behind Bellatrix, his sharp laugh cutting through the air every time she spoke.
Bartemius Crouch. Bellatrix's latest prize. The Dark Lord was keen to introduce new people to their ranks, and Bellatrix made it a point of pride to try and introduce one new recruit every month. Her cousin (it was Regulus, yes, he could dimly remember the boy at school) had been last months and Crouch the month before.
Usually she killed them, after they'd become disenchanted with the whole affair and attempted to leave the Dark Lord's service. Occasionally, a rare few survived, hanging around the fringes of Voldemort's main forces, begging favours, occasionally taking part in raids.
But Crouch was different. He'd taken to this like a duck to water. Lucuis wasn't sure how close his relationship with Bellatrix was, but she organised most of the raids and for some reason Crouch was always in her group. Her husband was not. Lucuis grinned under the mask. Rudolphus Lestrange had no power over his wife, even if he had heard the rumours about her and Barty Crouch, there was very little he could do about it.
'Ready?' Bellatrix's voice cut harshly through the silence. Barty giggled slightly, whether out of nervousness or delight it was hard to say. Next to him, the boys breath was coming in short gasps, he sounded terrified.
'This isn't just a raid,' What he could see of Bellatrix's eyes seemed to be sparkling dangerously, 'It's a warning.'
'Right.' Behind him, Goyle nodded. Malfoy wondered if, at some point in the proceedings, there would be any way of getting Goyle in front of him. Not that he was scared, but there was no point in getting needlessly injured, when Goyle was large enough to take the blow for both of them.
They crept forward, and Lucuis suddenly wondered why they had to wear white masks. They showed un in the darkness, and despite the various charms placed upon them, they still impaired vision rather badly. It wasn't as if they even hid anything, he knew who all of his companions were.
The house was ahead of him, the boy was shifting nervously beside him and suddenly Bellatrix hissed 'Now!' and all hell broke loose. He was running, shouting (but running just slightly slower than Goyle, who charged straight ahead of him) and the screaming curses, ignoring the cries and crashes from around him. There was light, noise, blinding flashes, he could hear the sounds of Bellatrix cursing, Barty laughing, and someone was retching in a corner. Then it all died down, and the six of them were standing amidst the destruction.
He looked for the boy, he was Narcissa's cousin after all and she would probably be upset if he were killed. He was standing at the side of the room, shaking. Lucuis wondered if he'd been the one throwing-up.
Then Bellatrix lifted a hand, and in one fluid movement, took off the mask, shaking her hair out as she did so. Next to her, Crouch giggled then did the same. Rabestan gasped, and Goyle gave a grunt of confusion.
Bellatrix looked around at the prone figures in front of her. 'A warning…' she said slowly. Lucuis glanced at Barty's face, he looked eager, excited.
He turned away, he did not want to know what they would do. Bellatrix on her own was bad enough but Crouch just wound her up, and she wound him up, higher and higher, until they were doing things that not even the Dark Lord would contemplate. They were mad, both of them, and Lucuis did not want to see what they could do.
He wandered into another room, and noticed with slight annoyance that the boy had followed him. 'Lucuis?'
'Hm?' he pushed aside the remains of a table, wishing he had some purpose to pretend to be carrying out. 'What is it.'
'Did you…kill some of them?'
Behind the mask he rolled his eyes. He wondered what Bellatrix told her young recruits when they joined, far to many of them seemed all to innocent.
'A few.' He continued his systematic destruction of the furniture.
'Oh.' A pause. The boy seemed to be finding it difficult to speak. 'What was the warning about?'
'Warning?'
'Bella said this was a warning.' His voice faltered on the last word. He sounded very young. Lucuis tried to remember what year he'd been in when the boy had started Hogwarts. He remembered Regulus being sorted, Narcissa had been really worried after the fiasco of her older cousin, but couldn't for the life of him remember what year it had been. All the sorting ceremonies merged into one after a while.
'Oh yes, a warning to them.' He waved his hand around, taking in most of the destruction surrounding him. 'Auror Lewison and his family. Lewison is responsible for the capture, and subsequent killings, of three Death Eaters.'
The boy put a hand to his mouth in horror, 'Three Death Eater's were killed?'
Lucuis's mouth twisted into a sneer, but he said nothing.
'What will Bella do?'
He turned to face the boy. Innocence was all very well, but there was a time when children needed to grow up. 'Shall we go and see?'
The little of Regulus's skin that he could see behind the mask turned pale. However he followed Malfoy uncomplainingly as they made their way back into the main room of the house.
And then it was Malfoy's turn to go pale, for the corpses had been laid out to form the shape of a skull and in the centre of each body were three overlapping circles, drawn in bright red lipstick, brighter than blood. And then Bellatrix slid over to where he stood by the door and hissed in his ear 'Isn't it marvellous?'
Barty was smirking, and wiping lipstick from the edge of his fingers and the side of his cheek.
Next to him, the boy turned away and started retching again. Lucuis couldn't blame him.
'It was Barty's idea.' She wrapped an arm lovingly around Lucuis's neck. 'Next time you must stay and help us.'
He nodded, but he was glad she couldn't see his face, because underneath the mask it was stretched into an expression of terror and disgust. Still her voice went on, spilling into his ear like poison.
'The circles are for our fallen comrades, I would've drawn them in blood but unfortunately the Avada-Kedavra doesn't produce any. Barty has been a great help, you must mention that to the Dark Lord.
He wished she hadn't taken the mask off. Because with a mask on you can separate the world you kill in from the world you live in. When the mask is off you're a decent man, with a wife, with a child, with a respectful position in society. But once the mask is on it releases something, something wild inside you. Putting the mask on is like taking another mask off…
But you must keep them separate. Because killing in a mask, even carrying out actions like this in a mask, that's part of the job. Your expression is hidden, you only pretend to like it. But to treat this death as your life, that's another thing entirely.
It was the image that stuck in his mind later, the image that returned to haunt him during his time in Azkaban. Bellatrix, smiling wickedly, black eyes flashing, standing above the ruins. Barty by her side, giggling madly with lipstick all over his hands and face, dripping like blood. And the corpses, desecrated, lying on the floor, and in the centre of each corpse, three bright red circles, shining with an almost luminous glow.
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Well, not all my stories are that macabre, but I couldn't find anything else to fit the title. Medium Corpus Pilarum means roughly 'balls in the middle of the body' and I have translated it even rougher as 'circles in the centre of the corpse' which just about works.