A/N: This was written for Slytherin Cat's "Green Houses Competition" for the category "Chili Pepper/Bellatrix" as well as Amber's "Out of Your Comfort Zone" competition for the prompt: "Frank Longbottom & Dust" I added Bellatrix in here, I think it worked nicely.
As always, all of the characters are JK Rowlings - I own nothing.
It was hot.
The tile was cold on his back. But the air was stifling.
The pressure on his chest made it difficult to breathe. And it was getting harder to see, but the only thing Frank Longbottom was incredibly concerned about at the moment was the heat. The dust in the air was helping to rapidly dry out his throat, and it hurt to pull air into his lungs.
Slowly, he rolled his head to the other side, the blur of dark colors: browns, greys, murky yellows, they swirled in front of his eyes, an obscene pressure around his head causing stars to burst randomly into his line of vision. He groaned.
"Alice?"
"He's got to know!"
"How would he know? The bitch didn't."
"Rodolphus! Please, listen," it was a croon, and Bellatrix reached up to smooth her husband's hair back, her hands shaking, "he has to know. They were involved, please; just let me talk to him again. I can get it out of him." Her hands shook and her lower lip quivered as she stared imploringly at him.
"Bella."
"Let me do it!"
"Fine," Rodolphus put his hands to his hips, drawing in a breath through his teeth, looking away from his wife for a moment. "But make it quick. They'll be here soon, two of the most noteworthy Aurors missing from a benefit put on by the ministry? They'll notice."
"Alice?"
He'd heard the door open.
Footsteps, he could feel the vibrations bang against the back of his skull. They were measured. With effort he rolled his head in the other direction, again, blinking his eyes, feeling them close and squeeze before opening them again, hoping to clear his vision. But the shadows still haunted him.
"Alice?" Licking his lips, he tried to sit up, wincing. "Alice, is that you? It's so hot in here, honey, so hot. We need to… We need to go home. Get Neville."
"Awh, are you uncomfortable?" It was a voice he recognized, but couldn't place; the words rattled around in his skull like bones. The footsteps had stopped. The shadows had gotten darker just over his head. He swallowed.
"Alice?"
Bellatrix turned her head, her dark hair tumbling down on either side of her face, her left eye twitching slightly. "Awh, are you uncomfortable?" She crooned, starting to cackle as he asked for his wife. With a sigh, she dropped to her knees, straddling his waist.
He was firm. It shouldn't have surprised her, Auror's trained hard, their bodies were always ready for a fight. But Frank Longbottom… The name just sounded soft.
Grasping his chin with her hands, she pushed her face into his, her back flat, her chest pushed against his. Her rank breath curled around his nostrils.
"Where is he?"
"Neville? Dear, I told you, I put Neville to bed before we left. Alice, you can't be forgetting these things."
"We can do this the easy way or the hard way, Frankie-Poo," she sneered, her long, dirty nails cutting into the warm, sweaty flesh of his face. "Now. Where is he?" He remained silent under her as she brought her wand to rest between his eyes. "Where is The Dark Lord?"
Rabastan paced.
Screams, mingled with hysterical laughter, were echoing off the walls around them, and the thin man had developed a nervous tick in the last two hours that his sister-in-law had been with their hostage.
"Brother, we have to go. They'll be here soon, if Junior hasn't ratted us out to Daddy already."
"Calm down, 'Bastan. She's right; he probably knows the where a bouts. We'll leave soon."
"What if soon is too late?"
"I said calm down!"
But Rabastan was right.