AN: Written for The Wand Wood Challenge/Competition Prompt: Walnut - Write about Bellatrix Lestrange, whose wand was walnut.
Bellatrix Black had always been dark, she was born into a dark family after all, and unlike her cousin Sirius she embraced it. She remembered being a child and watching her father and mother using dark magic, the feel of it had called to her, the magic called to her. She had heard about attraction to magic but she had never expected to be one that suffered from the curse. It was often said that one in every generation was attracted to magic rather than other people, they had a much closer relationship with magic than others, but they would only accept a partner with suitably strong magic.
Bellatrix knew that her marriage was to be arranged, but she would make sure that she had some sort of say in the whole affair. Her magic needed someone with strong dark magic, not just anyone would do, and she was a Black they had standards. When she entered Hogwarts she immediately began looking for someone who would be suitable for her, the magic within a person really flourished with constant use that came from the structure of the Hogwarts curriculum. There were a few who were possible future husbands, but none of them were powerful, yes, they all had power, but none of them called to her.
She had spoken to her parents about this, but they were only willing to bend so far when it came to her marriage. They had to choose someone who would be an acceptable Black spouse, whether or not he could assuage her lust for power was secondary to finding her a good match. She would be allowed to choose the top three from Hogwarts and her parents would look between them and choose who to begin negotiations with. By the end of her first year at Hogwarts negotiations were already taking place between her parents and the Lestranges, and by time she got home for the summer the contract had been signed. Bellatrix would be bound to Rodolphus Lestrange when she came of age, and their marriage would be a prosperous one. She knew though that he would never be enough, she had felt the magic on the edge of her consciousness, there was someone out there that was powerful enough to satisfy her, she just had to find him.
The year that she turned seventeen had been the best and worst year in Bellatrix's life. She had finished her Hogwarts career and was married to Rodolphus, and she had been right about him not being enough for her, he was good to her and catered to her every whim, but the lack of powerful magic was driving her mad. She had also met him though, the Dark Lord, she had pledged her life to him and his cause, knowing that it was a bond deeper than her marriage bond. She did this freely though, knowing that Rodolphus would never think too much of the bond that they had both entered into.
The Dark Lord was powerful, deliciously powerful, and Bellatrix basked in that power whenever she had the opportunity. She quickly and easily became the Dark Lord's most devoted follower, following him for his magic, the powerful feeling that he emitted wrapping around her like the warmest cloak in winter. She would do anything for him just to feel his magic. Years passed and she allowed herself to fall into the madness of the Blacks as she devoted herself to her Lord's cause, her marriage suffering as a result, but she didn't care.
One night that comforting magic seemed to flare for a moment before vanishing almost, there was only the faintest traces of it left at the edge of her consciousness, and Bellatrix knew. Something had happened to the Dark Lord, most likely at the hands of the order of the phoenix as the Ministry of Magic were not really doing anything about the Dark sect. Searching for the Dark Lord and bringing him back to his full glory was her self-appointed mission when she felt that magic diminish, and she quickly rounded up some troops.
She took Rodolphus, Rabastan and Barty Crouch Jr with her, and went to find someone who knew anything about the disappearance of the Dark Lord. The aurors Frank and Alice Longbottom were just the people that she believed would know something, the Dark Lord had spoken often about there defiance of him along with the Potters. As members of the Ministry and of Dumbledore's order they were bound to know something, and she was determined not to leave without the knowledge of her Master's whereabouts.
The two aurors were tortured within an inch of their lives, but yet they were still unwilling to part with the information that Bellatrix wanted. She let out a short screech of frustration when she felt the wards they had put up were breeched. Before she had a chance to call out a warning to the others or apparate away herself she found that they were overcome by aurors and before she knew it she was sat in a Ministry holding cell.
Her new accommodations on the isle of Azkaban were not as bad as people had always made out. The dementors were dark creatures, full of dark emotions and dark magic, that consumed all the happy memories that they took from those they guarded. The magic they possessed helped her some, but it wasn't anywhere as potent as the Dark Lord's magic and by the time he returned and came for her she had fallen into madness. The lack of strong magic to soothe her and her magical core had turned it inwards on her.
She was still alive when she left Azkaban, in fact she was in better condition than most of the prisoners, but she had completely snapped. Everything she did was fuelled by madness and a crazy need to possess the darkest of magic, to please her master was now her sole purpose, to feel his magic. Bellatrix Black had always been dark, but Bellatrix Lestrange was the Darkest Black, body, mind and soul where all consumed by the magic.