Your Assignment: Though the stars shine with their own light, even the brightest star is hidden by daylight. Write about a character that is overshadowed by someone else.

Masked

He watches her as she get closer to him. He is her husband, but during these gatherings, it matters not. He has to watch stoically as she fawns over him, acting no better than the doxies found in Knockturn Alley. He sometimes thinks she does this intentionally, to see how far she can push him. He easily admits that she's beautiful, in a wild, untamed sort of way and it's that unrestrained beauty that attracts men to her. It certainly attracted him and he was not the least bit upset when it was revealed to him she was to be his bride. It was his hope, one that he now knows that was in vain, that the wildness in her would be tamed with time and maturity. For a while she had calmed just a little, but then, he started to favor her, enflame her passions and what was once was a comfortable fire is now an uncontrollable inferno.

"She's at it again, brother."

"I know," he answers tonelessly. He knows better than to let those around him to be able to read him by his body language. In the beginning when he cared (he still does), he made the mistake of letting those around him see how much her indifference bothered him. The consequences of reacting – he rather not repeat the experience or think about it happening again. Turning his head from the view in front of him, he changes the subject.

"So little brother, is there a particular witch you have your eye on?"

He dreams of having a family - a son, to carry on the family name, a daughter to dote on. He expresses this desire to her and she laughs, and laughs, and laughs. Finally she gets herself under control and gives him the answer he knew he would receive, but still hoped that he wouldn't.

"He needs me by his side, carrying out his commands. I cannot and will not give you a child until we reach our goal."

He smiles, yet it doesn't reach his eyes as he accepts his wife's answer. Yet he holds on to the sliver of hope she more than likely did not mean to give. When they go out on the raids he becomes more vicious, only surpassed by his wife. He figures the sooner they win, the sooner he will have his heart's desire – a piece of her to return his love.

As they torture the couple, the wails of their year-old son as the soundtrack, they do it for different reasons. She does it because her master, her mentor, her (rumored) lover is gone. His brother does it out of anger, because even in (supposed) death, their master's shadow stands between his brother and his wife. He does it out of frustration, because they were so close to their goal and therefore, he was oh so close to his dream of having a family. He does it out bitterness because instead of being good soldiers and retreating so they can fight another day, he is (once again) following his wife, the same wife whose lack of self-preservation is going to get all three of them caught. If he did not love her so much, he would send a slashing curse her way, so she could slowly suffer the way he has been suffering all these years. When the Aurors comes, he puts up a fight only because it is expected of him and the position he holds in the Inner Circle.

Sometimes, he can see them together and hear the whispered rumors.

"If I did not know from first-hand experience, I would think she has slept her way to the top."

"They are together constantly! What you heard is probably true."

"I heard she likes her bedroom activity with a little . . . bite. Her husband finds that distasteful, so that's the reason why she goes to him."

"He's from such a fine, old pure blood family and she is too. Too bad she took after the Rosier side of the family after all!"

"Like mother, like daughter. I heard that her father had a bloodline test done on her younger sister because she is so blonde and because she has no easily distinguishable traits from the Black side of the family."

"Hush, he's right there. He might overhear you!"

"Oh, it's nothing he hasn't heard before . . ."

When the dementors leaves their cell block, the images fade and the whispers quiets, only to be replaced by his dear Bellatrix's hoarse screams and yells promising vengeance and pledging her undying allegiance. Meanwhile, her cousin Sirius sometimes ceases his own dark mutterings to darkly mock him about his wife's attention being focused on a (supposed) dead man. He does not react- he neither flinches nor says anything to confirm or deny Sirius' assessment. Those reactions are locked down, hidden away – masked.