Insanity
When he had closed the door behind him, Bellatrix turned to Frank Longbottom once again.
"Well, now that the children are out of the room we can continue. I've seen how worried you were about your son. You'd like to see him grow up, wouldn't you?"
A good idea, Rodolphus thought.
Longbottom took a deep breath but didn't answer.
"Not answering any question, are you? Anyway, it doesn't matter. I know you would like to. He's talented, isn't he? Able to use his magic at this age. A true pureblood."
Rodolphus was asking himself if Bellatrix herself wanted to see the pureblood child grow up with his parents. She often seemed to be more wary of attacking people from the old families.
"Simply tell us what you know about the Dark Lord and you can go and fetch your son from your neighbours in, well I don't know how much it is, half an hour? We're not here to kill you or harm you severely if we can avoid it. Tell us and nothing more will happen to you."
"You're going to let us go?" Longbottom asked disbelievingly.
"That was the plan," Rabastan said in his straightforward manner. It was almost impossible not to believe he was saying the truth when he was talking like that. At least not for Rodolphus who had known his older brother all his life.
Longbottom looked as if he was seriously considering it.
"Maybe, he'll return anyway."
"No Frank. They're not going to let us go. We're Aurors and on Voldemort's death list."
Rodolphus looked at Alice, feeling the thoroughly unmagical desire to strangle her.
"She's right," Longbottom said suddenly. "Stop lying to me like that!"
Bellatrix too shot a very angry glance into Alice's direction. This was the second time she had messed it up. Rodolphus was going to make her pay for this. He felt as if he could cast the Cruciatus curse on her without even using wand or incantation.
Bellatrix had other plans. "Very well. Let's see how long you can resist the Cruciatus curse then." She looked at Alice. "And you watch closely and remember, my offer stands."
A reasonable plan. Rodolphus fought his desire to put Alice in pain back and joined his brother and wife doing it to Longbottom instead. He wasn't sure if trying to cause the maximum amount of pain would really have any effect on him but there was nothing else to try at the moment.
After a while the curse started to affect Longbottom's body stronger. In one break they took to ask him it was clearly visible that he was having fever. Under the next curse, he vomited, soiling his clothes. The one that followed made him lose control over his bladder.
Rodolphus knew how to interpret these signs. He wouldn't last long anymore. Three curses were definitely enough now.
He'd better try something else.
Alice was watching the scene in front of her, shaking all over as if her nightgown wasn't enough to keep her warm. She seemed to try to help Frank like she had done at the beginning but it wasn't working anymore. Rodolphus' first curse had already made sure of that.
He was approaching her from behind, putting his hands on her shoulders. She flinched; the fast beating of her heart was easy to feel through the thin fabric.
"Don't touch me," she said.
"I can do to you whatever I want," he told her. "There's nothing you can do about it. And your husband is not in a position to help you either. Have you seen what's happened to him?"
"You're wife's here," she said.
Rodolphus laughed when he realised what she was thinking.
"We're not talking about my wife; we're talking about your husband." He made her look into his direction. "He's enduring this because he doesn't want to disappoint you, Alice. Do you really think it's worth it? Do you really think your so called cause is worth this?"
"Everything the four of you are doing this evening makes me think so more," Alice responded without a second of hesitation.
So much pride and defiance.
Rodolphus couldn't let her get away with this. He let go of her and pointed his wand at her. "Crucio."
Using the curse had never been that easy before. She bit her lip, bloods was trickling over her face staining the white of her nightgown.
"Longbottom will not give us any answers anymore," Rabastan said. "Are you listening?"
It took a while for these words to reach Rodolphus. He lifted the curse on Alice and looked to the others. She did the same and hid her face in her hands when she realised what had become of her husband.
Bellatrix was staring at them, a feverish, haunted look in her eyes. Rodolphus knew this expression. She always wore it when her missions for the Dark Lord had gone wrong.
"Let's go," Rabastan said his voice heavy.
"No," Bellatrix shrieked. "She's still there. Maybe she knows too."
She stepped over to Alice and looked down upon her. "You tell me where the Dark Lord is!"
"I don't know where he is. We're not allowed to talk about our missions to each other. A sensible rule by the way."
Rodolphus knew that she was telling the truth. His Legilimency skills told him that much. He didn't point it out however. She shouldn't get away like that. The failure of the entire things had been only her fault.
When Bellatrix cast the curse on Alice once again, he joined in without hesitation. Bellatrix' curse was way too strong and unstable, he could tell easily. Rodolphus should have kept her from this madness, it was taking way too much out of her this way, but he couldn't bring himself to care.
Alice was the one he was interested in at the moment. He wanted her to suffer until she regretted her constant meddling.
Rabastan was walking around them, his impatience clearly visible. "You're wasting your time," he told his brother and sister-in-law. Neither reacted to this in any way.
Bellatrix still paused with the torture to ask Alice where the Dark Lord was. Alice kept giving the same answer like her husband had done before. Unlike him she wasn't lying however.
Just like it had on him, the curse was soon taking its toll on her. During the third pause, it was clearly visible that she had fever. Her body was attempting to fight the dark magic off that way, a hopeless struggle of course. Visible on her face was only despair, no hint of defiance anymore.
Under the next curse, Alice too was vomiting and almost suffocated from the mixture of blood and vomit in her face. She still tried to clean herself up after that but barely managed to answer Bellatrix's question anymore.
"I don't know." The words were barely audible.
She looked at Rodolphus. "Please, Rodolphus please, I can't stand this anymore."
"I know that," he told her before casting the next curse.
She had had her chance, and refused to take it. Now it was much too late.
When Bellatrix asked her next time, she didn't answer anymore. Alice didn't seem to see her anymore at all. She was still trying to appeal to Rodolphus' pity, begging for mercy and holding unto his robes.
He kicked her so she fell backwards again.
"You are where you belong now, blood traitor," Bellatrix said.
Satisfying as her reaction was, Rodolphus knew that Alice wasn't in control of her behaviour anymore. Trying to beg for mercy wasn't a conscious decision on her part but an instinctive sense of self-preservation.
Not that it did her any good.
The next curse was the last one as Rodolphus had thought it would be.
She gave one last scream that made even Bellatrix flinch and then there was silence.
"It's over," Rabastan said.
Rodolphus looked down upon the former Auror. She was lying quite still, her face grey like ash. Even her once blue eyes seemed to have changed towards grey.
"I don't believe this!" Bellatrix shouted. "They didn't say a single word."
"Let's get out of here," Rabastan said. "Quickly now. Barty, you too."
Neither Bellatrix nor Rodolphus had even noticed that the boy had returned.
As soon as the four Death Eaters had returned to the Lestranges' house, Barty hurried towards the bathroom.
The others took off their black robes. Rodolphus noticed a large burn hole on his. That Longbottom's boy really had talent, he thought.
Bellatrix' face had a reddish colour and looked strangely hollow. She quickly walked towards the living-room without a word or a sideways glance, as if she were expecting to meet the Dark Lord who'd punish her for her failure.
"What a mess," Rabastan said. "Now the Aurors will be after our blood. What do you think? We could say it was only us. We might be able to survive it, but the others are not."
Rodolphus heard the words his brother was saying but they held little meaning. Silently he walked on following Bellatrix.
"Rodolphus? I was talking to you."
"There's a reason these curses are called unforgivable," a wizard from one of the portraits joined into the conversation.
Rabastan gave him an angry look. "Don't pretend you've never used the Cruciatus curse, Rinaldo."
"That's why I know," the wizard said, watching his descendants with a worried frown.
"Listen, Rodolphus, we have a real problem now," Rabastan tried again.
"Tomorrow, okay?" his brother said. He couldn't deal with Rabastan's worries now. In his head, there was only emptiness.
"Okay, tomorrow."
They walked into the living-room and sat down. The clock was tolling twice. Two o clock in the morning.
Bellatrix looked at them, her eyes wide as if she had eaten certain poisonous plants. "We were faithful. The Dark Lord will reward us, won't he? Won't he?" Her voice grew louder and louder.
"No one's going to reward us," Rabastan said. "The Dark Lord doesn't tolerate failure and we're facing the Dementors or worse. We need a new plan. Tomorrow."
They were all sitting there in silence for a while. Rabastan was fetching a carafe of water and poured some into jars, handing them to the others. They took the water but no one even bothered with a word of thanks.
After a while, Rabastan once again broke the silence. "Maybe I should look for Barty. It seems as if he has fallen into the toilet or something."
This wasn't necessary however. The boy joined them only a few minutes later, his freckled face milk-white.
He looked at the clock and sat down next to Rodolphus.
"I didn't know that someone could endure the Cruciatus curse for so long," he said. His voice sounded strangely high quite unlike his own.
"I don't know how to go through the few minutes when the Dark Lord's punishing me."
Rabastan gave him a worried look.
Barty kept on talking. "She reminded me of my own mother when she was with the boy. The boy, what will become of the boy? He has watched too much and he's not even three years old."
"You should have stayed at home with your Mommy," Rodolphus told him annoyed. "If you can't keep your mouth shut, go out of here."
Barty flinched, staring at him in shock. Until now, he had only ever known Rodolphus as a patient listener to all his worries and doubts.
Rabastan looked at them all, frowning. He almost reminded Rodolphus of old Rinaldo, the former master of the Cruciatus curse whose portrait self preferred to worry nowadays.
"Oh, what have we done, brothers and sister," the older Lestrange said.
His words were only greeted by silence.
