Disclaimer: Not mine.


Bella's Anniversary


Bellatrix sat sipping tea and tapping the butt of her wand on the table as she studied the calendar. It was time for a party. She had not been to a real party in years. Not that Narcissa didn't invite her up to Malfoy Manor whenever there was a to do, she did. They just were not the kind of parties that Bellatrix enjoyed.

She had already decided that dinner would not be sit-down and served by elves. No, Bellatrix bit the dangerous end of her wand, and thought how a banquet table could be set up in the garden. Paper lamps would sway in the breeze and music would start as soon as the first guest appeared and not after they were forced to sit through another perfect desert, severed on perfect plates, after a perfect- fucking-Narcissa-perfect meal.

She looked up as Rodolphus walked in and headed to the counter to get a cup of tea.

"I want a party," she pouted.

"Buy one, you buy everything else you want."

"Oh, be serious. I never have parties. Cissy always gets to, and I never do."

"What kind of party were you thinking of. I would not be against having a few friends over for dinner."

"I was thinking of a Fiftieth Wedding Anniversary." She smiled up at him in time to see his tea snorting out of his nose. "Go down wrong?"

"Fiftieth?" he sputtered. "We've been married twelve years."

"So? Fiftieth is Golden. I want gold."

"Bella, you can't just pick a year. If you want a party, just…. Merlin, witch… just call it the thirteenth."

"Thirteen is bad luck." She glared at him and tapped her wand harder, sending small bursts of flame up to the ceiling. "I want a Fiftieth. First I considered the seventy-fifty, but … that seems rude."

"Fine, invite them for August 3rd, thirty-seven years from now. It will give you time to clean the house."

"I am giving it in the garden. I don't need to clean. Anyway, Cissy, never cleans for parties."

"Because she has an army of elves, you have one."

"I have one?" She laid her wand down and looked at him strangely. "I don't remember an elf coming around for a long time now. I thought yours caught on fire, and that little one, you remember it? I thought Lucius killed that one."

"No, that was mine. Your elf is still recovering from the burns, but don't worry, I am sure he will be back in thirty-seven years."

"How's June?"

"Our anniver…June is fine."

"I'll need your guest list as soon as you can get it done."

"Bella, if it's your party, you make the list."

"I really don't see why I have to think of every little detail. After all it's your party too."

Rodolphus stared at her, Accioed his address book and levitated it to the table. Bellatrix picked it up and flipped through a few pages before nodding and setting it down.

"So, who are you bringing?"

"Bringing?" He swallowed hard.

"You are bringing a date, right? Cissy always says it is only proper to have an even number of guests."

"Why don't you just … You want me to bring a date? A date to our wedding anniversary? You are sure about this?"

"Do you think I need to send her an invitation, or will you just bring her?"

"Bella," he sat down at the table and laid his hand over hers. "Have you taken your medication today?"

"Of course, dear. I just thought that after being married for seventy-five years you would be too old to do anything with her and it may make Lucius jealous."

"We've been married fifty… I mean twelve years."

"Oh." She looked back at his address book and scowled. "Then who the bloody hell is Ursula?"

"Bella? Where do you keep your medication?"

"In the cabinet with the rest." She continued to scowl as she watched him cross the kitchen and open the cabinet, take out her medication and pour it in her tea. She glared at him as she drank the cup empty and slammed it down.

"Are you satisfied? Just because I won't let you bring a date you think I am crazy?"

"No, dear." He poured her a second cup and added more potion.

"Next you'll be telling me that I can't bring one either."

His hand hesitated over the cup. Looking from his hand to her and back to his hand, he tipped up the vial and added more potion.

"Here you go, dear." He lifted the cup to her mouth, encouraging her to drink it all. "Now, don't you feel better?"

"No," she pouted. "Now I don't want a party."

Rodolphus sighed and put the vial back. "You know, you can still have a party. Why don't you do it, Bella? You are always saying we don't have guests, and maybe this is what you need. Something to focus on."

"What kind?"

"Well," he said cheerfully and sat down next to her. "You have a birthday coming up."

"I do not!" she hissed at him. "That was last year and I won't have any more."

"Okay," he looked around at the medicine cabinet wondering how much more it would take.

"I know," she giggled and slapped the table. "We can have a party like the Muggles."

He looked at her blankly.

"You know, everyone dresses up like their favourite Muggle and at the end of the night we have to guess who they are."

"Umm, their favourite… I don't think that would work dear."

"No, I guess not." She leaned her head on her hand. "Yaxley would dress up like Captain Hook, and Snape would be the fairy."

Rodolphus bit the inside of his lower lip, knowing all would be lost if he laughed now.

"We could have a Halloween party, but everyone does those, and I refuse, I just flat out refuse to give a party for… wait I know." She sat up straight, smiling at him. "Our anniversary."

"This is where we started, Bella. Are you sure?"

"Cissy never has them you know. I think it's because she likes to think Lucius is going to surprise her with one, and then when he doesn't she is depressed for a month. I so love her anniversary time."

"Perhaps, if you are nice to her, she will let you borrow a couple of elves."

"I don't need an elf." She stood and raised her chin. "I can, I will do this. How hard can it be?"

That Saturday she sent out invitations, using every owl she could find, and drove them to exhaustion. Over the next week almost everyone responded politely, graciously accepting her kind invitation, knowing the thinly veiled threat, should they refuse, would be carried out. Encouraged, she drew up plans and hired a catering company, a band, and even hired a crew to set up a coat and broom-check room. Rodolphus watched, not interfering, pleased that the potions seemed to be helping. As the day of the party loomed near, he noticed her becoming more excited and decided she needed a treat.

"Bella dear, I am surprised at how well you have done," he smiled down the formal dining room table at her. "I think you deserve a new dress. Something fitting for the party."

She smiled warmly, put down her fork, lowering her head. "Rodolphus, not that I don't trust your taste in such matters, but I would rather you not help. Do you understand dear?"

"I just thought it would be nice for you. I've contacted the dressmaker, and she can take a run up any time you want."

"I can go to that damned robe shop, I don't want her in my house," she hissed.

He locked his eyes on hers and frowned. "You know she won't let you in unless you are accompanied."

"She never said that."

"What part of, 'Don't you come back in here unless your husband has you on a leash', don't you understand?"

"She was joking."

"I think not, Bella. Why not have the new dressmaker come to the house?" He smiled at her, hoping to take her mind off the shop.

"Is it the same one that does clothes for Cissy?"

"Yes," he swallowed hard.

"I don't trust her."

"I will take her wand when she is here. Will that make it better?"

"She needs her wand to measure." Bella rested her head on her hand. "Anyway, I have that dress I haven't even worn yet. You know, the one I bought for Cissy's holiday gala that she wouldn't let me go to and no one has seen yet. Well, almost no one. I don't count the guards at Azkaban."

Rodolphus nodded, and looked down at his plate, not wanting to get into this conversation with her again.

"I even promised not to curse anyone, but it's hard, you know how hard it is for me."

"I must say Bella, I didn't think you could do this, but you have surprised me. I think even your sister will be surprised that you managed everything by yourself..."

"Oh, I didn't invite Andromeda."

"I meant Narcissa." He drank his tea waiting for her to say more, surprised by her silence. "So, other than the dancing, have you planned any entertainment?"

"No," she pouted. "I think the dancing and the dunk tank should be enough."

"The…," his hand shook as the put down his cup, "you… you did say dunk … dunk tank?"

"Of course silly," she laughed at his expression. "I want to make sure that only true pure-bloods come. So, I found a delightful way to do it."

"With a dunk tank?"

"Yes, you see I remembered my history classes. Muggles used to throw witches in water, if they floated they were witches and they would be killed, if they sank they were Muggles. Of course they drowned but, they were only Muggles so that shouldn't be a problem when they die."

"You plan on throwing your guests in water?" His lip twitched.

"Just some of them. Like… well I always wondered about Yaxley's wife. I mean, come on, her name is Amanda. Amanda…what kind of name is that for a true witch?"

"She's a Black, Bella. Isn't she your third cousin or something like that? Her mother was related to your grandmother."

"She could have been gotten on the wrong side of the sheets." She nodded knowingly. "Anyway, I spelled the dunk tank to do things exactly like the Muggles would have done it. It should be fun. And don't go complaining about needing to tend it, the tank takes care of everything, even disposal."

"You have already done this?" He blanched. "Bella, we need to talk."

"Oh, Rodolphus, it's easy really. I'm going first, just to show them how it works."

"You've thought of everything it appears." He leaned back and smiled weakly, wondering how quickly the guests could clear out if the Aurors showed up. "Oh, incidentally, would you mind if Ursula came? That is if she just shows up later… after your … entrance?"

"Well, as long as she isn't here just for you. Just remember we are still married." She sneered at him.

"Till death do we part, my dear, till death do we part."