Roddy and Cissy – his most faithful servants

Lord Voldemort sat on a coach, relaxing against the side of it. The person in front of him was a young, quite good-looking wizard (though his thin moustache was not among his best ideas, the Lord thought), but with a very gloomy look on his face, and seemed like he'd grown 20 years older in just some months. The Lord knew perfectly well what had happened during that time – he'd married the pleasant, fascinating, pure-blood upper-class lady he'd been admiring for the last ten years.

Of course, the Lord didn't care for the young man as a person – but he had had a good use of both him and his pure-blood parents, from a very old wizard family. The parents had also named him godfather for the boy some twenty years ago – for whatever that might mean.

"I am offering her to you, my Lord", the young said, with a very stiffly voice.

"My dear Roudolphus. My dear godson." the Lord said, with his most engaged voice. "I'm of course very fascinated over your great offer to me, but this still sounds a bit…let's say, special? I can assure you, women's minds are a very difficult mass to go through…"

"HER mind is not possible to misunderstand", Roudolphus moaned. "She doesn't love me! And she doesn't love her parents, her baby sisters, or her own life! The only person she loves is YOU, my Lord!"

"Loves!" the Lord answered, with something close to pure despise in his voice. "Love is a feeling for the weak, the poor, the unpure, the less intelligent! Honestly, I was expecting more from you and your wife, Roudolphus!"

"I just want her to…be happy!" Roudolphus said desperately. "I want to give her anything she wants, let her life be wonderful, make her walk on skies…"

"ENOUGH!" the Lord said, louder. "Roudolphus, you know perfectly well your parents, and I as well, did not raise you to sound like a loving sissy! Your father raised a MAN, not a sipping lovebird! And should a MAN, and even a godson of the Dark Lord himself, not be able to control his woman?"

"Control, my Lord? Bella is not a lady you can control! Bella claims, Bella demands, Bella gets what she wants! She's the oldest daughter of the noble house of Black, and she's…"

"…still nothing more than a woman! And a servant of the Dark Lord! What you say, Roudolphus, is just…"

"She loves only you, my Lord! She speaks of you all the time, how she will do your every bidding, how she's spending all the time just longing for your..." The man cut himself of very quickly. Lord Voldemort looked at him, with a combination of fascination and disgust.

"Oh, she's LONGNING, isn't she? She's WANTING? She should be wanting to serve the Lord, just like you and the rest of the Lestrange family! I have even marked her with the Dark Mark, and you know, it's not many women who's won that honour!"

"And of course, we all do want nothing but serving you, my Lord! But for Bella, it's something different, something more than the rest of us…" "Oh, really?" the Lord said, not able to help himself from being fascinated. "Something more…" the words hung in the Dark Lord's chamber.

"Well, Roudolphus, the Dark Lord expects both of you to meet me, here, tomorrow. You will show up, and you will bring your lovely wife with you." Roudolphus nodded, with a combination of fear and gratefulness. "We will be here, my Lord! Right at the time, my dear godfath…"

The Lord smiled to himself, as the young man disapparated.