"Bellatrix…"
She awakened to the feel of his hand on her breast, to the feel of his lips on hers. She kissed him back immediately and then murmured,
"Master."
"Wake up," he ordered her. "I've had porridge and milk brought in. Come and eat it now. Come now, Bella."
She tried. She really did. But it was so, so difficult to rouse herself. Finally Voldemort peeled down her nightgown and suckled hard on her breast, making her gasp and making her eyes shoot open.
"There we are," he nodded, and he climbed out of bed. "Come now, Bella; food's getting cold."
"Food." She grumbled the word in confusion, but finally made her way up onto very shaky legs. Voldemort held her. He let her lean onto him and he held her as she stood. That felt very good, Bellatrix thought, and for a long moment, she just leaned against him. But then he whispered,
"Walk for me."
Come for me. He'd said the two commands in almost exactly the same way, though of course this order was very different than being commanded into orgasm. Bellatrix took a step, and then another, and found that her legs were dreadfully out of practise. But he guided her, and so she eventually made her way to the sitting-room, where there was a small dining table. Voldemort held out a chair for Bellatrix, and she sat, yawning as gracefully as she could against a fist.
"I'm so tired, Master," she complained. He leaned down and kissed her hard, and Bellatrix felt herself start to wake up a little more. He smirked and sat opposite her, and Bellatrix studied the food that had been put before her. Porridge in bowls with sugar and raisins on the side, a little pitcher of milk, a cup of tea. Bellatrix found herself enormously hungry all of a sudden, and she whispered, "This looks magnificent."
"Good. Take a bite," said Voldemort. He ate some of his own porridge, and Bellatrix reached with a shaking hand to pick up her own spoon. She shoveled some porridge into her mouth, but her hand shook so badly that half of it went down the front of her nightgown. She was terribly embarrassed until Voldemort Vanished the mess and said simply, "Again."
Bellatrix fared better with her second attempt. She was able to bring an entire spoonful of porridge into her mouth, and then she realised it needed milk and sugar. She used her shaking hand to sprinkle some sugar and pour a little milk, and then she stirred it up.
"Good. You're doing very well," Voldemort told her, and Bellatrix said honestly,
"I had no idea that the Cruciatus Curse could do this to someone."
"Do you regret casting it so many times?" he asked playfully, "now that you've been on the receiving end?"
"No. Of course not, My Lord. All of my victims had this and more coming to them," she said tartly. She stirred her porridge some more and then ate a bite, and Voldemort seemed very pleased with how awake she was.
"Just to be certain you stay awake," he murmured, and he stood and walked over to her. He went down onto one knee beside her chair and seized her face in his hands, and he kissed her long and hard. She squealed a little into the kiss, surprised by how ferociously he was attacking her mouth with his. She liked it - oh, she liked it - but she was admittedly taken aback by the force of the kiss. When at last he pulled away, Bellatrix was breathless and very, very much awake. He went to sit opposite her again, and he stared out the window for a moment. Bellatrix noticed that he was already dressed in robes, and she asked him,
"Are you very busy today, Master?"
"You occupy most of my time at the moment," he answered quietly. Bellatrix was shocked to hear that. She gulped and said sincerely,
"I'm very sorry."
"I need my best soldier back, and I'll do whatever it takes to get her in fighting form again," Voldemort said simply. "Make no apology for taking a battle wound, Bellatrix."
He sniffed lightly then, and something seemed to be affecting him a little bit, something Bellatrix couldn't quite put her finger on. She ate some more porridge, and then she heard Voldemort say,
"I wonder if you could cast a very simple Levitation Charm just now."
"I suppose I could," Bellatrix said, but Voldemort scoffed.
"You took many minutes of a Cruciatus Curse, Bella; you're drained in every conceivable way. It is probably most unwise to ask magic of you yet."
"I should like to try, Master, with your permission," Bellatrix insisted. Voldemort hesitated, but then reached into his robes and pulled out Bellatrix's oddly bent wand. When he pulled it out, he handed it to Bellatrix, and she gripped it very carefully. She took her teacup off of its saucer and aimed her wand at the saucer.
"Wingardium Leviosa," she incanted, and she made the swish-and-flick motion that was needed for the first-year spell. The saucer immediately rose off the table and floated in the air, and Bellatrix flashed Voldemort a little smirk. "You see, Master? I can do it just fine."
But then she began to feel overwhelmingly tired. She dropped the saucer; it clattered to the ground and shattered into a hundred shards. She nearly fell asleep sitting up, and then she dropped her wand.
The next thing Bellatrix knew, she was lying in the bed again. He was kissing her neck - He, Lord Voldemort - and petting her hair.
"Pretty thing," he murmured against her skin. "I ought to have known it was still too soon to ask you to do magic. You were doing so well eating breakfast, too."
"I was trying my best," Bellatrix whispered, "My Lord."
"I know." He moved his mouth to hers, and suddenly all she wanted was for him to be inside of her. But he informed her a little crisply,
"I do have a meeting this morning. With your husband."
"Oh." Bellatrix let him pull away, and she sat up slowly. "Is Rodolphus in trouble, Master?"
"No. He wants a status report on you," Voldemort said, almost coldly. "I suppose I ought to give him one. We can't wait too long before attacking again, whether you're well or not. I can't have Rodolphus distracted and dour. I need him fighting, too. So I'll put his mind at ease."
"Well, erm… will you tell him I said hello?" Bellatrix asked carefully, and Voldemort's face shifted strangely.
"Yes," he said tightly, "I will tell him that you said hello."
He rose from the bed, and Bellatrix could see a firmness in the trousers beneath his robes. He'd wanted her, too. He'd wanted to take her. He noticed Bellatrix staring there, and he insisted,
"It is a normal male human bodily function, you know."
"I know, Master. I'm sorry." Bellatrix stared at the wall, and Voldemort sniffed again, hurrying away as he said over his shoulder, "Get some rest. I'll be back in a while."
"Lestrange," said Voldemort as Rodolphus walked into the office. "Do sit down."
"My Lord," Rodolphus bowed, and he shut the door behind him. He anxiously approached the desk, sat, and asked, "How is she? How is she doing?"
Voldemort knitted his brows. He was surprised, he had to admit, but just how much Rodolphus seemed to care about Bellatrix's well-being. He'd been surprised ever since the day of the battle about that. So far as Voldemort knew, Rodolphus and Bellatrix Lestrange led very separate lives in their entirely arranged marriage.
"First of all," Voldemort said awkwardly, "She says… hello."
"She does?" Rodolphus looked like a lovestruck puppy then, and Voldemort's stomach sank. He gulped and remembered the taste of Bellatrix just minutes earlier. He nodded and said,
"She was able to rouse enough to eat some porridge this morning. She attempted magic, but it was too much for her; even a simple Levitation Charm knocked her straight out again. She roused again after that for a brief time. She is making fantastic progress, but it is slow. There was definite damage from the Curse. Moody held it just long enough that there is some damage that is just this side of permanent, and just this side of debilitating."
Rodolphus shut his eyes and sighed. When he opened his eyes again, they were rimmed red and wet.
"And when will she be able to come home?" Rodolphus asked. Voldemort's mouth fell open.
"Home," he repeated.
"To Castle Lestrange. To me," said Rodolphus helplessly. Voldemort's chest twisted. He had grown very accustomed to Bellatrix sleeping in his bed over the last few nights, and he quite liked it. He did not at all care for the notion of Rodolphus wanting her at home, wanting her to be near. It made him jealous. It made him… possessive? It was an odd, uncomfortable feeling, and Voldemort despised it. He swallowed, but he encountered a lump in his throat that he couldn't quite bypass. He finally said to Rodolphus,
"I will keep her here with me during the healing process. You concern yourself with being a soldier, Rodolphus. Soon enough we'll have more attacks, more battles. You worry about that. I passed on your greeting, and she said hello. What more do you want?"
He snapped that last bit in a crescendo, and Rodolphus looked rather afraid. He shook his head quickly and whispered,
"I don't want anything, My Lord. I would never ask anything of you."
"Good boy," Voldemort sneered. "Your wife is doing fine. Anything else? No? You may leave."
Rodolphus tentatively stood, and Voldemort barked,
"Go!"
Author's Note: So she's doing better, but Voldemort's realizing that Rodolphus actually cares for her and… so does Voldemort. Whoops.
Also, to the Guest Reviewer who was very concerned that my icon was Natalie Portman as Bellatrix - 1) Please sign in if you want me to answer a question. 2) That's not Bellatrix; that's Natalie as Padmé from Star Wars. I write for LOTS of pairings. {Lockhart laugh} For more information, see my profile. In any case, I definitely use Helena at various ages as my Bellatrix model.
