"Yes?" The voice was sharp and raw; Bellatrix Lestrange was a cannibal, and she would eat him alive. Xenophilius looked around at the faces of the people around her; they were Queen and court, sitting in their throne room, the Great Hall. Their sneers cut into his soul, and he looked away.
A second later, he heard quickened whispers and agitated laughs.
"Bellatrix," he said, as if her name was all there was to it, as if she would now understand his request. There was something offensive about her dark clothes and her posse; they were all boys, and Xeno felt like they were a statement rather than a friendship.
"What?" she barked. Her laughter rose, loud and cynical, as he winced, but he forced himself to look her in the eyes. She was sitting, tallest of them all with her hair towering over them, feet planted on the bench rather than the ground. Lunch had been over for ten minutes, but the Slytherins still lingered─they always did. They all seemed to be made from sharp edges─glances, chins, teeth─the kind of people Xeno was afraid to cut himself on.
"You have something that belongs to me," he finally managed, his eyes not quite meeting hers anymore.
"Aw, the itty bitty raven wants its worms back."
"They're not─well, technically they are worms, but I need them!"
A delighted, scorning laughter chimed like bells, spilling from her lips like drops of ice. The choir of tenors and basses backed her up, but she was obviously the lead singer.
The star.
"What will you give me in return?" She was leaning forward, a malignant glint in her eyes, and he matched it, madness for madness, like the Mad Hatter telling off The Red Queen.
His words, of course, never came.
"This is where you ask me what I want," she said with an impatient wave of her hand.
"What do you want?" he asked.
Bellatrix put a finger on her lips and knocked on them mockingly three times. "How about… your firstborn? I am, after all, a witch─isn't that what those silly Muggles believe?"
Xeno, done with the scene, done with the ridicule, done with the empty threat, threw an angry 'Fine' her way and left with his Blind-worms.
.ooo.
She was laughing maniacally, holding Luna.
"Please," Xenophilius begged, "Don't take her!"
"Ah, itty bitt raven," she said, sounding as if every word tasted delicious on her wicked tongue, "you should have thought about that before you promised me I could."
.ooo.
"Oh, we're being led to the Red Queen's court now." The voice chimed like bells, childlike and far-off. Succeeding it was a parched cough with only a semblance of a laugh.
Bellatrix, already displeased, shot Cissy a look.
"Come on, Wormtail," she barked.
"Wormtail?" she once again heard the girl's voice, "What is he, Mr. Ollivander? We've already chosen a Caterpillar, and he doesn't really look like an insect."
Wormtail, appearing at the half pace, looked up in a stupid, dumbfounded look. Bellatrix felt fury rise within her, but she administered temperance to herself nonetheless.
Anger was only scary when it was unexpected.
When the old man and the girl finally reached the top of the stairs, the girl took one look at her and Cissy and said, "The Red and the White Queen. Usually you bow to queens, I think, but I don't think Alice would bow to the Red Queen."
Bellatrix, all black robes and hair, said, "If I'm anything, Little Lovegood, I'm the Black Queen."
"Oh, but there is not Black Queen in the Alice books. There is a Duchess, now that I think about it, but I think you would be the Red Queen."
The Lovegood girl seemed completely unperturbed, and Bellatrix felt a desperate need to change that. Brandishing her wand and stroking the girl's chin and cheek with it, she said, "And why is that?"
"Because," the willowy-haired girl replied, "you are the angry one, and so is she. She's also rather unfair, I think, beheading people for small mistakes."
Once again not knowing how to respond, Bellatrix suddenly shot a sharp glare at the old man, almost unable to stand. "Why are you bleeding all over my new rug?" From behind her, she could hear a muffled protest from Lucius. "I swear some people are just so inconsiderate. Crucio!"
The wand maker let out a scream and crumbled to the floor. The girl immediately sat down beside him and began running her hand along his arm softly.
"Don't worry, Mr. Ollivander. The Mad Hatter and Alice find a way out in the end, and Alice wakes up from her dream."
"Dear, sweet girl," Ollivander croaked, a smile that could either be genuine or ironic on his face. Bellatrix thought it might be both.
"Step aside, girl," Bellatrix snarled menacingly, the corners of her mouth curling upwards.
"I don't think I would like to. If I do, you'll just hurt Mr. Ollivander again."
"If you don't," Bellatrix countered, "I will hurt you too."
The little Alice simply looked up at her, and Bellatrix, now dissatisfied, cast the Cruciatus Curse.
.ooo.
There was something about that girl, though. Something about that dreamlike fantasy─and Bellatrix couldn't deny she liked the imagery of her as the Red Queen, once she'd gotten her hands on the book─and something about her eyes.
It was a hunger deep inside her, raw and howling, that made her go down to the cellar and stand there, listening to the girl's whispers and fairytales. She haunted her, and Bellatrix didn't like to be the prey.
She had the girl brought up one day, dismissing Wormtail to be alone with her.
"Still looking for your way back out through the Looking-Glass?" she asked cruelly, knowing there was no way out.
"I don't think there are any mirrors in the cellar," the girl responded nonsensically, and Bellatrix leaned in quickly, hoping to intimidate her.
"You─" No words followed, and Bellatrix, surprised, said the first thing that came into her head, "─are an itch that needs to be scratched."
"I'm sorry," the girl replied, "I don't know what that means."
But Bellatrix did. The girl was so clean, so pure, and Bellatrix had always been the first to step in new-fallen snow. If something was beautiful enough, she had always wanted to destroy it.
When she wanted, she wanted now, and placing a hand on the back of the girl's head, she mashed lips against lips in what she hoped would be a killing blow.
Whether it was supposed to kill herself or the girl, she wasn't entirely sure, but something needed to be purged.
Prompts
The Mystery Competition: Bellatrix x Luna, one has a crush on the other, word: half pace
Fairy Tales Competition: Rumpelstiltskin - Write about the loss of a firstborn child
Optional prompts: "You're an itch that needs to be scratched.", "Why are you bleeding all over my new rug? I swear, some people are just so inconsiderate.", Fury, Temperance,
Potions Club: Lady's Mantle - Write about someone pure
Challenge Your Versality: Character: Bellatrix Lestrange
Diagon Alley II Bingo: ['Untamed' in the title]