Bellatrix sighed as she walked into the parlour of the house she shared with Rodolphus. They were just about ready to leave for the Quidditch stadium. She walked over to the glass case where she and Rodolphus stored their specialised Death Eater masks, and she pried open the angled lid. She pulled out both masks and carried them over to the plush, dark blue sofa. She sank down, setting the masks on the low wooden table before her.

Bellatrix dragged her fingers over the cool metal of their masks, contemplating them. Her own had gold filigree inlays, a curling and feminine design compared with the weightier, more masculine marks on the wizards' masks. Her mask was smaller for her little face, with a stitched-up sort of metal grate over her mouth. She was the only one who couldn't really hide. Her hair gave her away, for one thing. Then there was her tiny stature, and the swell of her breasts. It was why she could never be anything but a soldier for Lord Voldemort. Bellatrix Lestrange was known to the Ministry as a follower of the Dark Lord, and her husband Rodolphus was suspected alongside her.

She touched at Rodolphus' mask, which was black-on-silver. His design was harsh and masculine, strong and assertive. Bellatrix had no idea how many times now she'd seen this mask on her husband in battle. Many times. Countless times. She smiled a little to herself at the memory of receiving the masks from Voldemort. The Dark Lord had put the designs on the metal himself, stamping the personality of each Death Eater into the disguises. Bellatrix and Rodolphus had been gifted their masks at Christmastime when they'd been eighteen and fresh to combat. Getting the masks from Voldemort had felt like being given new lives. It had been wondrous.

"Bells?"

She looked up to see Rodolphus walking into the parlour, wearing his hooded black waterproof robe over his tunic and trousers.

"It's absolutely pouring out there. This ought to be good fun. Are you ready for this?" he asked. He pulled on black gloves, and Bellatrix watched as his gold wedding band disappeared beneath leather. Bellatrix silently held up his mask from where she sat. Rodolphus took the mask, dragging his gloved fingers over the edge. He set the mask back down and whispered, "Come here, Bells."

Bellatrix rose and walked over to him, and he took her face in his hands. She shut her eyes, feeling the leather of his gloves on her cheeks. Then she felt his lips on hers, and she huffed a breath. He deepened the kiss into something quite meaningful, pushing his tongue between her lips. Bellatrix began to ardently kiss him back, her hands convulsing a little on his chest as she hummed into his mouth. Rodolphus' gloved hands migrated to her waist and the small of her back, and Bellatrix moved closer. She tasted spearmint on him, craving more. She backed up a little, stumbling a bit, until her back hit a wall.

Suddenly Rodolphus had pinned her, putting his hands on her shoulders gently, and he'd begun grinding against her. His mouth delved down onto Bellatrix's neck, his hand pawing at her breast, and Bellatrix moaned softly. She tipped her head back, fluttering her eyes and whispering his name. This was escalating quickly, and she knew they had to leave. Finally she pulled at his hair and whimpered, saying regretfully,

"Dolph, it's time. It's time."

She pulled his face from his neck and kissed his mouth again, greedily absorbing as much of him as she could. Rodolphus finally broke free of their kiss and took a few steps back, swiping at his mouth with the back of his hand as he reached for his mask on the table.

"Blimey. So I'm to go fight a battle with a bloody erection," he laughed, and Bellatrix smirked. She stepped away from the wall, huffing and going for her own mask. She watched Rodolphus put on his mask, and she pulled her own mask onto her face and felt it seal its way on with its magic. She pulled her waterproof hood over the curls she'd yanked into twin braids. Rodolphus and Bellatrix each pulled out their wands, and Rodolphus reached for Bellatrix's left hand. She was often grateful that he was left-handed; it allowed them to hold onto one another whilst holding their wands. They grasped onto one another, ready to Disapparate.

"Here we go, Bells," Rodolphus said, squeezing at her hand. "Into the rain. Love you always."

He Disapparated, taking Bellatrix with him.

It was thudding rain, buckets of water descending from the heavens and dumping onto the surroundings of the Chudley Cannons' stadium. Thunder rumbled in the distance like the beating of war drums. Lightning flashed every once in a while, the violent illumination of the scene. Sheets of rain cast screens upon what was transpiring, reducing visibility so catastrophically that people were crashing into one another. The mud ensuing from the storm was thick and so slippery that the fleeing masses were falling victim to it and landing face-first in the muck.

Fires had been set on the billowing canvas trappings around the seating area and the arena. People were shrieking and running in every direction, Disapparating in random spots. Masked Death Eaters were striking down fleeing spectators with assorted spells. One Death Eater hit an aged wizard with a Cruciatus Curse. The man wriggled on the ground, shrieking in pain, as a scarlet web of light encircled him. Another Death Eater had sliced off the arm of a witch, whose husband was kneeling beside her and desperately attempting the staunch the bleeding.

A witch clutching a bundled infant in one arm and the holding the hand of a small child came running past Bellatrix, terror in her pale eyes. For a brief second, Bellatrix considered striking the trio. But she decided they were weak prey. There were better targets. She let the witch pass her by and aimed her wand at a sturdy, twenty-something wizard who was staggering through the mud. He looked like he'd had entirely too much to drink, likely having partied before the match and consumed firewhisky during it. He was having trouble running away from the chaos in his drunken state, a fact which amused Bellatrix immensely. She giggled and Immobilised the wizard with a quickly murmured spell. He froze where he stood, and Bellatrix skipped over toward him.

"What have we here?" she taunted him. "A drunkard, have we?"

The wizard stared straight ahead, immobilised mid-stride, and Bellatrix poked his ginger beard.

"Drunk, drunk, drunk," she teased. "Will he still feel the pain through the drink?"

There was an explosion behind her, and a burst of screaming. Bellatrix laughed and said,

"Best we hurry up, eh? Let's go, then." She backed up a few steps and held her wand out toward the wizard. "How will Mister Drunk feel the pain? Let's find out, shall we? CRUCIO!"

Red light burst forth from her wand and snarled around her victim. He collapsed to the ground, the Cruciatus cutting through the Freezing Charm. The wizard writhed on the ground and clutched at the muddy grass, soaked through with rain and now covered in mud as he squirmed. He clawed and screamed, and then suddenly he began to repeat a single word over and over again.

Mummy. Mummy. Mummy.

Bellatrix cackled with glee. She kicked at the wizard, holding the Cruciatus Curse, and laughed mercilessly,

"You want your mother? Is she here? Did Mummy come to watch Quidditch with you?"

The wizard arched his back and let out an ear-piercing shriek of agonised pain. Bellatrix wondered absently what Rodolphus had gotten himself up to. She was getting bored and was about to break the Curse. This wizard had had enough; he'd be mentally scarred from this.

"Flipendo!"

Suddenly Bellatrix was thrown backward by a screamed Knockback Jinx, forcing her to break her Cruciatus Curse. She coughed as the wind was knocked out of her. She'd hit her back hard against the wet grass. Bellatrix struggled to get to her feet, and when she stood, she found herself staring at a very angry-looking witch. Bellatrix's mouth fell open as recognition washed over her along with the pouring rain. She knew this witch. She was staring at a tall, thin blonde named Isla Asher, a Gryffindor who had been a year above Bellatrix in school. Isla was an Auror, Bellatrix knew; they'd seen one another in battle before. Isla and Bellatrix despised one another and had since the day of the Sorting Ceremony at Hogwarts. Isla was wearing a Chudley Cannons jumper; she'd come to the match as a spectator.

Isla Asher aimed her wand at Bellatrix and opened her mouth to incant another spell, and then several things happened at once, almost in slow motion.

First, the dark shadow of a wizard with his wand outstretched moved behind Isla. As that happened, Bellatrix determined that this qualified as a defensive occasion, and she set her mind to eradicating Isla Asher before the Auror could cast another spell. Bellatrix lifted her wand, jabbed it toward Isla, and screamed with all her might through the grate in her mask,

"AVADA KEDAVRA!"

Isla Asher somehow managed to make a motion halfway between crouching and leaping. She dodged Bellatrix's Killing Curse and spun into a black whorl, Disapparating from the spot. The Killing Curse socked into the dark figure behind Isla. That hooded figure slumped down in death, their wand dropping from their gloved hand. Suddenly, Bellatrix realised that the dark, hooded figure facing away from her was a Death Eater. She immediately realised that she has accidentally killed one of Voldemort's servants, and the first thought that went through her mind was that Lord Voldemort was going to execute her for what she had done.

She briefly considered Disapparating without finding out who she'd killed and pretending none of this had happened, but then a coil of unease began to tighten in her lower stomach. She took a few steps toward the dark, crumpled figure and licked her dry bottom lip as rain pattered on the metal of her mask. Her breath huffed loudly inside the mask, and her boots squelched in the mud as she approached the figure she'd accidentally killed. Who was it? A terrible feeling of dread began to wash over Bellatrix. She tightened her grip on her wand and stepped up to the figure where it lay on a patch of wet grass, and she carefully used her boot to rotate the dead wizard onto his back.

Then she saw the design on the Death Eater's mask. Black-on-silver. Rodolphus.

Bellatrix's knees gave out, and she fell to the ground. Everything went cold and silent, except for the loud ringing in her scorching ears. The screams around her faded away and the fires seemed to have been snuffed out. She had gone entirely numb. She could feel absolutely nothing. She began to shake so violently that she dropped her wand. And then, at long last, gulping air into her lungs with a terrible burn, Bellatrix screamed. She screamed with all of her might, a keening shriek of absolute terror that cut through the chaos around her.

She ripped Rodolphus' mask off of his face and yanked him up into her lap, cradling him in her arms. She moaned desperately and shook her head, staring at the way Rodolphus' eyes were staring blankly into the falling rain. Bellatrix brushed her thumb under Rodolphus' eye and begged him in a whine,

"Wake up, Dolph. Please. Please, please."

"What are you doing? What's happened?" hissed a voice. Bellatrix looked up to see another masked figure dashing over to where she and Rodolphus were on the grass. She recognised this mask, too, and the stray blond wisps of hair that have escaped around it. This was Lucius Malfoy, her brother-in-law. Lucius knelt down and shoved Rodolphus' mask almost roughly back onto his dead face.

"Who killed him?" Lucius barked. Bellatrix's breath shook inside her own mask.

"I did. I did. It was an accident; I was aiming for an Auror. Oh, please wake up, Dolph. Please."

"Bellatrix. We need to get you and him back to headquarters immediately. The Dark Lord must know what's happened."

"He'll kill me for this," Bellatrix whispered. Lucius shook his head and insisted,

"It was an accident. It was a stray -"

"Please! Rodolphus! Wake up! Just speak to me, my love." Bellatrix desperately shook at Rodolphus' shoulder. "Please. My beloved husband… speak to me. Please speak to me."

Lucius picked up Rodolphus' and Bellatrix's wands, which were on the ground. He shoved Bellatrix's wand into her right hand, tucked Rodolphus' into his robes, and muttered,

"We need to go. Now."

He grabbed onto Rodolphus' stiff hand and clasped hold of Bellatrix's tiny wrist. He Disapparated at once from the chaotic scene where Death Eaters were still fighting. Bellatrix gasped as they were whipped through the whirling, pinching black void, away from the rain and mud and fires and screaming.

They came to outside of Malfoy Manor, and it was only drizzling lightly in Wiltshire. Rodolphus' body fell limply onto the grass, and Bellatrix immediately crashed onto her knees again to take hold of him. She began to cradle and rock Rodolphus as though he were an infant. Tears were streaming down her cheeks beneath the cold metal of her mask, but she wouldn't have been bothered to wipe them away, anyway. Lucius stood in silence for a long moment, as though he was unsure of what to do with the keening Bellatrix and the dead Rodolphus. Bellatrix peeled off Rodolphus' mask and her own and set them aside. She needed to see his face right now. She needed to kiss him. She bent down and touched her lips to his, brushing her mouth onto Rodolphus' and whispering to him in a shaking voice,

"Wake up, Dolph. Please wake up. Please. I'm so, so sorry, Dolph. I didn't mean it. I was aiming for that wretch Isla Asher. She was casting spells at me; it was defensive. I was trying to kill our enemy. I'd never hurt you. I would never, ever hurt you."

"What the blazes happened?"

Bellatrix raised her eyes to see Lord Voldemort storming through the gate of Malfoy Manor's garden. Had he seen this scene unfolding from his office window and come outside? Lucius pulled off his mask and quietly explained,

"From what I understand, My Lord, Bellatrix was fighting an Auror who was at the match. She aimed a Killing Curse that missed, and it hit Rodolphus."

Bellatrix wailed and buried her face into Rodolphus' hair. She breathed in the scent of him, heady and masculine. Suddenly all she could think of was the time they'd spent together being in love, and a horrid thought came over her. She couldn't stay here whilst he was gone. She'd done an awful thing, and she deserved punishment. She deserved to pay the ultimate price for this mistake. Bellatrix grasped her wand, aimed it at her throat, shut her eyes, and began to whisper,

"Avad-"

"NO! Expelliarmus!"

Voldemort quickly Disarmed her, putting a swift stop to her attempt at executing herself, and her wand spiraled from her hand to his. He tucked her wand away and gave her a dangerous look, shaking his head.

"Don't you dare."

Bellatrix clasped her hands and insisted,

"Please, Master. If I have killed my own husband, no matter how accidentally, I do not deserve to live. I beg you, put me down like the animal I am. Execute me. Please."

Voldemort's face was stony. He stared down at Bellatrix and said firmly,

"No matter what mistakes you have made, Bellatrix, you have far too much work left to do for me. I need you alive. Say your farewells to Rodolphus. Lucius will take his body inside. You should go find Narcissa and get some Draught of Peace. These next days will be trying for you."

Bellatrix desperately tried to obey her master. She tried to set Rodolphus down on the damp earth, but she couldn't. She couldn't let go. She burrowed her face into his hair and keened again, fresh tears coming. She squeezed at Rodolphus' hair and remembered the way, just a scant while earlier today, he'd had her pinned against a wall in their house whilst they kissed. She remembered waking beside him this morning, telling him she loved him.

"I promised you forever, and instead I murdered you," Bellatrix whispered. "What sort of a wife was I, Dolph? You loved me, and in return, I killed you. It was a mistake. I didn't mean… that death was not meant for you. You and I were meant to grow old, to have children together, and I've spoiled all of it, and I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I… I…"

She broke down then, heaving with sobs, holding her husband and crying against his hair. She heard Lucius and Voldemort above her, speaking in low voices.

"She may need some assistance getting inside, My Lord," Lucius murmured, and Voldemort replied crisply,

"Yes. Imperio."

Bellatrix suddenly felt an overwhelming compulsion to walk away from Rodolphus, to let him go and to walk into the manor. When she pulled him back from her body, it was as though her hands were moving of their own accord. When she spoke, the words seemed to come on their own.

"Goodbye, Dolph. I love you."

She left him on the grass and slowly stood, and she looked at Lucius and said numbly,

"Be careful with him."

Lucius nodded, seeming quite troubled. He pinched his lips and stared down at his fallen comrade on the ground.

"Bellatrix, come with me," said Voldemort, and Bellatrix obediently followed him. She'd been Imperiused, she thought distantly. But there was nothing to do about that. She just walked with Voldemort in silence through the gardens and up the steps of the manor. He paused outside the great front doors, and Bellatrix stopped beside him, feeling as though she had no other choice.

"You are a widow now, no matter the circumstances," Voldemort said very tightly. "And both you and your late husband have been exceedingly loyal servants of mine for years. So please allow me to be the first to extend my most sincere condolences."

Bellatrix was numb. "Thank you, Master."

He hesitated with his hand on the doorknob. He blinked and looked at her as if he found her to be equal parts troubling and fascinating.

"It wasn't your fault," he said.

Bellatrix demurred. "With all due respect, I think it was."

He shook his head. "It was an accident. You were fighting. It was a terrible accident."

Bellatrix wet her bottom lip with her tongue and choked out, "I killed my husband."

Voldemort sighed and was quiet for a moment. He seemed to be studying her face, and then at last he said quietly, "I am sorry, Bella."

He pushed open the door, and Bellatrix felt the urge to follow him inside. They walked in silence upstairs and down a corridor, up a winding flight of stairs until they reached an elegant parlour with dark paneling and burgundy decoration. Inside was Narcissa Malfoy, anxiously pacing, obviously awaiting news of the attack at the Quidditch pitch. She saw her sister and scowled, rushing over.

"My Lord," she gasped, "What's happened to her?"

Voldemort put his hand on Bellatrix's shoulder blade and said almost sternly to her,

"Wait in here for a moment, Bellatrix. Narcissa, come in the corridor and speak with me. Your sister has been involved in a terrible accident. She is going to require a great deal of assistance."

Author's Note: Oh, noooo. Poor Rodolphus. And this version of him was darn near likeable, too. :( But we all know this is a Bellamort story, and the slow burn has to get there somehow. So what happens to Bellatrix now that she's accidentally killed her husband?

I would really love to know your thoughts on this story! I value your feedback more than I can say. Thanks in advance for each and every review.