Authors Note: Here we go, part two of the Magic Number Competition. Pride, with the prompt Triumph. I have a feeling I'm going to miss the meaning of Pride altogether again, but sure anyway. Oh well. Wrote about Bellatrix, about an event that didn't happen in either the books or the movies. It doesn't matter, does it? It wouldn't surprise me if they did shit like this.
2. Pride comes before a fall.
Bellatrix grinned toothily, watching the building crumble, flames licking at the roof before they finally gave in and collapsed. The people who had lived there were lined up in front of the house, watching it burn with shock in their eyes. They had been harbouring Mudbloods, the Snatchers had said. Feeling bored with hiding away in Malfoy Manor, she had opted to go and take care of it herself, bringing a couple of Snatchers with her and dragging the traitors out of their beds in the wee hours of the morning. The house had been searched for secret compartments, places where they could have hidden the Mudbloods, and found a suspicious panel in the wood of the sitting room. They also hadn't been able to gain access to the cellar. They let the tenents believe that they hadn't seen these irregularities, until they had dragged them out of the building and set fire to it.
The tenants themselves had been all for proclaiming their loyalty, that they'd never harbour fugitives when they could have given them to the Snatchers, but their lies were revealed when they screaming started from within the supposedly empty house. The family, a married couple with two children, had done their best to pretend that they didn't care about the fact that their house was being destroyed with all their belongings, but the youngest child had no such inhibitions, and had wailed when she saw the fire, begging her father to let her friends out. He tried to explain that it was her teddies that she was worried about, and tried to silence her, but Bellatrix tore the child away from her fathers embrace to ask what she was talking about. Of course, it had all come out then, a list of names of Mudbloods mixed with the names she had given her toys, and Bellatrix smiled sadistically at the girls' parents. They had both fallen silent, staring her in sheer terror. Yes, this is what she lived for. The heady rush that came with having such complete control over other peoples' lives. She handed the child to one of the Snatchers, who held her awkwardly as she squirmed in his arms.
A few curt orders and the Snatcher was gone, taking the child with him, and the mother started wailing, sounding almost comically similar to her daughter. A quick flick of her wand forced the remaining family members to turn and face the burning building, and she moved to stand behind them, prodding them in the back of the head with her wand if they tried to look away. "This would never have happened if you hadn't welcomed those Mudbloods into your home." She murmured silkily, straight into the fathers' ear, grinning as he recoiled away from the voice right behind him. "If you weren't raising your daughter to be a blood traitor, I wouldn't have had to take her away from you, before you corrupt her further. The Dark Lord will thank me for removing the corruption from her life. With the right parenting, she'll grow up proud of her heritage, proud of what we did for her." The pure belief in what she was saying filled her voice, her eyes shone with an almost religious fervour. The other two Snatchers took hold of the couple, holding tight despite their struggling.
"Take them to the Ministry for questioning." She commanded, and they disappeared, taking the remaining child with them, and she sighed contentedly, watching the fire continue to ravage the house. The screams had stopped some time ago, but she would stay until the fire had burnt itself out, to make sure there were bodies to show the Dark Lord if he came to inspect the damage. Tonight had been a triumph, like many other nights before it. A small triumph, but a triumph nonetheless. The Dark Lords power was getting stronger with every day, most of the people who opposed them had been eliminated. Harry Potter was nowhere to be found, and the seeds of doubt that had been planted with his disappearance had started to grow, fuelled by the Death Eaters who told all and sundry that he had abandoned them.
They were so close to total control that she could taste it, and it tasted sweet. Nothing could go wrong now. All was well.
