"Good evening, sir."
Abraxas Malfoy appeared in the doorway of Voldemort's office. Voldemort raised his eyes and folded his hands on his desk.
"Hello. Thank you for letting me use the dining room again this evening, Malfoy."
"It's no problem at all, sir." Malfoy stepped into the office and narrowed his eyes, looking sceptical. He asked carefully, "Are you… courting the girl, sir?"
"Courting her?" Voldemort's mouth fell open. "No. Of course not. What would make you say such a ridiculous thing as that?"
Malfoy raised his eyebrows. "Dinner. Tea. A Wimbourne Wasps match. Time alone outside a wedding. Dinner again."
"What I do with my personal time is none of your business!" Voldemort snapped, and Malfoy looked taken aback. Voldemort realised he needed to treat carefully; he was borrowing Malfoy's house and hospitality. He cleared his throat and said, "I enjoy the girl. That's all."
"If I may offer just a touch of advice, sir," said Malfoy, "be careful with her. She is so young. She'll get all sorts of ideas. Ideas like… ideas that you are courting her. That you want more than just her body. She'll get all sorts of mad notions in her mind."
"She isn't a bloody little fool," Voldemort retorted. "She won't get ideas."
"As you say, sir." Malfoy bowed his head respectfully. "As you say."
"Is there anything else, Malfoy?" asked Voldemort, and Malfoy replied,
"I wanted to let you know, sir, that the Ministry is getting nervous about our movement. They are trying to figure out who the Death Eaters are."
"Well, good luck to them," Voldemort sneered, and Malfoy smirked.
"Good luck indeed, sir. They'll need it. That was all. Enjoy your meal. Scallops again, Dobby said?"
"They're a favourite of mine," Voldemort mumbled, and he watched as Malfoy stepped out of the room.
"Hello, My Lord," said Bellatrix, stepping up the foyer stairs in a scandalously short black dress. "Thank you for having me."
"Thank you for coming." He sounded like an idiot saying it like that, he thought. So he cleared his throat and told her, "I've prepared a menu that I hope you will enjoy. Including a dessert that is not cloyingly sweet."
"Since neither of us likes things too terribly sweet," she smiled, and he suddenly wanted to kiss her again. He led her down the corridor to the dining room, and when they were inside, he wandlessly pushed her chair out and mumbled,
"Food will be here soon."
But she didn't sit down. She just stood there, staring up at Lord Voldemort, and she informed him, as if he didn't know already,
"You kissed me."
"I did. What of it?" he demanded. "It was one kiss after too much firewhisky."
She looked a little wounded at that, and Voldemort thought perhaps Malfoy had been right. Bellatrix would get ideas. He cleared his throat and said,
"It was nothing at all. Don't go thinking that… that…"
He trailed off then, because she looked so damned pretty standing there in her short black dress, her hair wild and free falling around her shoulders. Suddenly he took her face in his hands and whispered,
"It was just one kiss."
"Mmm-hmm." Bellatrix put her hands to his chest and squeezed her fingers, cinching her grip on him, and he found that he liked that.
"Touch me more," he heard himself say, and her hands went to his arms, running down the sleeves of his robes. He bent to kiss her again before he could stop himself, pressing his lips to hers and drawing her body against his as his tongue raked over the roof of her mouth. She moaned a little and backed up against the table. She was sliding up then, hiking herself up onto the table and sitting on the edge, and Voldemort put his hands to her knees as he kissed her. He glided his hands up from her knees to her bare thighs, revealed by her short skirt, and he groaned as he felt himself flush hard.
He wanted her. Oh, he wanted her.
His fingers gripped and pried at the insides of her thighs. She was soft here. Soft and thin and young. He wanted to feel every little part of her; every ounce of her needed to be in his hands. He squeezed and rubbed at the tender skin, feeling the radiating wet warmth coming from her knickers, and he realised just how quickly this was all moving.
He tore his mouth from hers and saw that the appetiser was on the plates.
"Food's here." He wiped at his lips with the inside of his wrist, and Bellatrix shook like mad as he helped her off the table.
"Scallops," she said knowingly as they sat opposite one another.
"You so rarely get to eat them," he teased, and she replied,
"Not anymore. Now, it seems, I have them often."
"Do you mind? Eating here? Often?" Voldemort seemed nervous, but Bellatrix just shook her head and put a bite of scallop into her mouth.
"Far from it, My Lord," she insisted. There was a long pause, and she told him, "Someday I'm going to fight battles for you."
"Yes, well, to that end." Voldemort set down his knife and fork and folded his hands on the table. "There is a meeting of Death Eaters on Friday. I should like you to be in attendance."
"To watch and learn, My Lord?" Bellatrix felt honoured beyond belief. She swelled up where she sat. But Voldemort shook his head and whispered,
"To become one of us."
"To become…" Bellatrix gnawed hard on her lip and tried not to cry. Do not cry in front of him, she thought. Not in front of him of all people.
"I want you as a Death Eater. Most of mine are useless," Voldemort complained, as their empty plates of scallops gave way to roast lemon chicken. He picked up his fork and knife and said, "You are not useless."
"I promise to try my very best to be anything but useless, My Lord," Bellatrix vowed. "I promise I will try to… no, wait. No. There is no trying. I will give you everything. I will be everything you need me to be. I will be your messenger at Hogwarts, if you will it."
"That is precisely what I will, for this coming school term. I expect you to communicate with me regularly by owl and to see me at every opportunity," Voldemort said stiffly, sipping his wine. "You will be my eyes and ears at Hogwarts. And as for when you graduate… well, hopefully by then we will be strong enough for battles, Bellatrix, and you can fight for me in them."
"I will be the fiercest soldier that you've ever seen," Bellatrix promised, and Voldemort stared at her across the table for a very long moment.
"It was only one kiss," he murmured. "Just one kiss in a lantern-lit garden after too much firewhisky."
She didn't remind him that it had turned into kissing and groping here, too - that tonight's kissing had been far more vigorous than anything that had happened in that garden. She didn't remind him that he'd had his hands up her skirt, holding onto the insides of her thighs.
She wanted him to touch her breasts. She wanted him to kiss her neck. She wanted to kiss his neck. She wanted to suck his -
"Bellatrix."
She snapped her face up to him, and then she realised that the chicken they'd eaten had given way to a dark chocolate cake.
"I hope it isn't too sweet. I commanded Dobby to use a recipe that wasn't too sweet," said Voldemort. Bellatrix's eyes watered a little, and she just nodded a bit.
After dessert, he walked her out of the dining room and reminded her that she was to come back for tea, and then the Death Eater meeting.
"Tea," said Bellatrix, and as they stood in the foyer of Malfoy Manor, Voldemort whispered,
"It was only meant to be dinner and tea. Look at me now."
"I'm sorry," she mumbled, and he shook his head. He kissed her forehead, and he said in a quiet voice,
"Do you have any idea how much more I want to do to you?"
"No, My Lord," Bellatrix said honestly, for she did not really know what Lord Voldemort wanted to do to her. He bent down and put his lips beside her ear, and he whispered carefully,
"Everything, Bellatrix. I want… I crave… everything."
Then he stood up and said in a crisp, firm voice,
"Everything in due time. First, tea. Then, we make you a Death Eater. Then I get my everything. Good evening, Miss Black. Thank you for coming to dinner."
Author's Note: So he may be SuperFloof, but he's still in charge! And he wants to make her a Death Eater! And do everything to her. Mwah hahaha. Thank you for reading and reviewing; I apologize if you try and leave a guest review. I have tried to turn that feature off for the time being.