DISCLAIMER: Harry Potter belongs to JK Rowling.
Steal away the darkened pages, hidden so shamefully. I'll still feel the violence of the lines. -AFI, "God Called In Sick Today"
~ Black Book ~
Lord Voldemort was in his private library, books and scrolls spread out in front of him, as he tried to figure out the best way to get more of his minions into positions of power in the Ministry in order to skew the Wizarding government entirely in his favor. He was soon interrupted - as was often the case lately - by Bellatrix.
"Have you been reading this?" she asked, an edge of panic in her voice.
He looked at the mess of information scattered across his desk and sighed. He wasn't sure which was more frustrating to deal with - his plans for domination of the Wizarding world, or his temperamental mistress.
"Have I been reading what?" he asked as he turned to face her.
"This."
Now that he was actually looking at her, he saw that she held a book in her arms. It was a thick leather-bound tome entitled Nightdream, and it was indeed one that he had been reading.
"More like studying it," he replied. It wasn't as though that book was something that could be read straight through. His answer did nothing to quell her panic, and he hastened to clarify, "That copy appears to have been badly mistranslated, and any coherent parts are nothing more than romantic drivel cloaked in dense metaphor..."
"You... really have no idea what this is about?" she asked, frowning.
"No."
He was mystified by her reaction to his possible knowledge of the indecipherable book's contents.
"Then why were you reading it?" she asked. She was looking at him with narrowed eyes, obviously still suspicious.
"I wanted to find out why it was banned by the Ministry. Most copies have been destroyed, and only copies like that one - which have been translated through so many different languages that they are almost gibberish - remain."
She seemed satisfied with that explanation, for which he was grateful.
It wasn't until after she had left the room that he realized she must already know the book's secret and had intentionally avoided informing him of what it was.
~end~