Bellatrix was shocked, stunned, shaken to the core.
"Have I…Have I ever…" She stuttered, stumbling, then composed herself completely. She drew herself up to her full height. "Love for the Dark Lord is the only love I have room for."
"And what of Rodolphus?"
Bellatrix was surprised to actually hear herself snort. "Rodolphus? That empty headed numbskull? I won't even let him bed me, let alone love him! What nonsense! I thought you a better man, Lucius, than to ask me such mindless questions!"
"Did you, now…" Lucius muttered, strangely preoccupied.
Bellatrix returned her focus to him, suspicious as he seemed lost in thought. "Unless, you mean to turn my mind from why I came here…"
Lucius'
eyes widened with fear as she raised her wand. "Please, I beg
you-"
"Shut up, damn it! Crucio!" She roared.
She watched with mild interest as Malfoy performed another macabre display of anguish on his rug, but now she too was pensive. How strangely he had looked at her when she said she held no love but for the Dark Lord. Strange because it wasn't a look of unease or even a common tie, but a look that said something else, something she had no knowledge of…
"Enough." She said with a flick of her wand, leaving her brother in law gasping on the floor.
"Stand, Lucius." She ordered hollowly. "And tell me why you speak of…love."
He stood, seizing his staff for support, which had rolled away from him as he had been tortured.
"You do not… believe in… love?" He choked, closing his eyes as he fought a sudden onset of dizziness. "It is my wedding day…" He chuckled with the rasp of a man dying. "…and I do not believe in it either."
Bellatrix looked at him. She could have sworn he loved Cissy. Everyone loved her. Except Bellatrix, of course.
She bent down, pushing up on his shoulders so that he stood tall again, for he had been weary with pain. "You do not love my sister?" She asked, quietly.
Lucius looked at her sharply, fearing he had earned another Cruciatus curse, but saw in her eyes that it was not so. Slowly, he shook his head.
"No. I do not."
Bellatrix was not quite sure was this feeling was inside her. It was unusual, like confusion, mixed with elation, mixed with fear.
"You do not…" She repeated in the barest of whispers.
Lucius looked at her, and took her smooth chin in his hand. "Do you know what I do believe in, Bella?"
Taken aback by the sudden change of atmosphere, Bellatrix shook her head like a young girl, made speechless by the combination of the warmth of his hand on her skin, and the use of her childhood name. Cissy must have called her that when she spoke to Lucius of her family. No one had dared call Bellatrix by a nickname in years.
Lucius gripped her waist to steady himself and locked his mint green eyes with hers. "Power." he said, gaze glittering with avarice.
Bellatrix stared at him. It didn't occur to her that he dared touch her, dared to pretend himself close enough to her that he could call her by an old pet name. He had said the magic word, the true magic word, the one that kept even her Lord and Master in its sway.
"Power." She repeated, twisting her hands in the white blonde silk of his hair. "Yes, Yessss." She hissed, arching against him with delight at the thought. "Power is something I believe in!"
Lucius caught her in his arms, pressing her close against him and running his fingers through the ebony curtain of her hair.
"Yes, my Bella." He said, breathing in the scent of her, so foreign and sultry and like a woman, not a girl like Narcissa! "You and I know what power is. We have tasted it…" He remembered suddenly the dream and pulled away from her to look into her black eyes. "And that is why I must join your order. I will serve the Dark Lord as my master!"
She smiled, a smile brilliant as though he were her lover proposing their wedding day. Her eyes filled with tears and she buried her face in his chest. "Then you truly are my brother!"
That phrase uttered by her own lips returned her grip on reality. She looked up at Lucius, saw the desire in his gaze, and felt his arms tight about her waist, pulling her closer.
"My brother…" She whispered in horror.
"Bellatrix…" Lucius murmured, his voice low and soothing like a snake charmer's flute. "Do not fight it. It is what we are. We are creatures of night, you said it yourself…"
"But you are my brother in law! A married man! Married to my sister!"
"Whom you have no love for, nor do I." He replied, simply as he backed her up, struggling, against the wall.
Bellatrix fought to twist her wand to aim at him, but in the effort it slipped from her hand and fell to the floor. Seeing his chance, Lucius kicked it so that it rolled out of sight beneath a cabinet.
Bellatrix's eyes grew large in terror. Without her wand, she was powerless.
A woman, not a witch.
Lucius grinned in triumph, leaning in close to his prey. "Do not fight me, Bella, my sweet. It is meant for us to do this…"
"Do this?" Bellatrix mimicked, with a hint of hysteria. "You forget that I am a married woman? What of Rodolphus? Your comrade? Your friend?"
"Rodolphus is no friend of mine." Lucius growled, gazing at the ample swell of Bellatrix's breast. "And you scorned him your love, so I do him no disservice."
He came closer, breathing his sweet breath in her ear, tracing it with his tongue. Bellatrix swooned silently, still unwilling to give in. By the Dark Lord's name, nothing had ever felt like this, why had Rodolphus never pleased her like this, even when he tried? Why did it have to be this wretch, this Malfoy…
He knees weakened and she sank in his embrace, beginning to tremble.
She had made love before. Not to her husband, no. Rodolphus knew Bella had lain with another, but he wedded her anyway, knowing he did so as a service to the Dark Lord. Long ago, when Voldemort had sought the paths of old magic, magic extending back to the Druids, he had required a female consort, virgin, willing to give herself to his means. Naturally Bellatrix, who had already proven herself so useful to her master, would be chosen. Bellatrix looked back on that night, when there had been a full moon. It was unreal, frightening. Though she adored her master she was afraid of him, because she had never known a man before, and he was cruel. He was rough, and though it was bliss to be that close with her Lord it had taken her ages to recover from the pain and the wounds he had made in her body with his roughness. She hadn't thought it very important, only a service to the Dark Lord. She hadn't been new to pain at the time, and she was happy because she was useful, and the magic they had summoned upon that night made her Lord stronger and more terrible than ever. She had not considered sex much afterwards, and distained her husband Rodolphus, refusing his entreaties because, quite simply, she had no interest. Not just in him, but in the subject at all. It was a base nature, nothing more, nothing a civilized witch couldn't perfectly ignore.
Or at least, so she had thought.
Until the warm flesh of Lucius Malfoy pressed upon her own.
"What if Cissy hears?" Was her last, tremulous protest.
"You muffled the room, my darling." Lucius returned, dancing his long fingers over the nape of her neck. "Narcissa will not hear us."
It was as though the voice that Bellatrix heard was not her own, though it came from her own mouth. "Kiss me then, Lucius, you bastard, before I lose my nerve."
Author's Note:
So.. I love Bellatrix and Lucius dearly, but if you haven't noticed there is no plot to this story other than romantic setup and tension, so if you don't like lemons and you came here for a good, rousing plotline, go somewhere else now! The next chapter will be a beautiful juicy lemon, and if you don't like it TOO BAD. I love my readers, ardently, ardently, but I shall not be moved.
With all my fondness,
M32
