A/N: 1. Dont own anything, just playing. 2. Read and Review, they go well together :). Thanks to everyone who's reading this.
Chapter 7
There are Advantages to Being Mad
Bellatrix appeared at the entrance to Malfoy manner with a soft 'pop.' She glanced around warily, noting with relieved surprise that the manor was still standing. A moment later her relief was replaced by annoyance as the wards had the impudence to hurl her fifty feet backwards at lethal speeds.
Bellatrix hesitated to remedy the problem, enjoying the rush of flying a near a hundred miles an hour towards a hard and unyielding stone garden wall. Still, she decided absently, being splattered against it would end up amusing Potter entirely too much.
With this in mind, she quickly spun her wand in a complex arc and brought herself gently down to the ground. Once she was safely back on her feet Bella turned her attention back to the rather rude wards that had attempted to kill her. Now, the Malfoy wards had been raised nearly a thousand years ago and had withstood the test of giants, dragons, and the odd Dark and not so odd Light lord.
Unfortunately, they had never encountered the rather warped mind of Bellatrix Black who chose to attack them with her particular brand of madness. Bella carefully paced off the distance between the garden wall and the edge of the wards before nodding to herself in satisfaction and tracing a quick series of runes against the wall.
Then, with a delighted smirk, Bella leaped at the wards. The responded in the same way as before, hurtling the madly giggling witch backwards at insane speeds. This time Bella did not bother to halt her progress, as she instead allowed herself to be flung the full distance into the wall. Instead of being splattered on impact as the first Malfoy to build the wall had no doubt intended, Bellatrix's runes instead glowed brightly and shot her back towards the wards at nearly five times her original speed.
Hurtling like some black-haired comet back at the wards Bella was once again repulsed. Back and forth she shot, a living, breathing and decidedly overly-amused pinball, until, at the end of the fifth cycle, she shot straight through the wards, having returned too fast for them to reset .
Once she was through the wards Bella's wand was immediately moving, casting a rapid sequence of charms that sent her flying straight up, using up her forward momentum before she slammed into the imposing walls of the manor itself.
When Bella finally descended from her three and a half thousand foot ascent she found an extremely angry looking Lucius standing outside the manor with his wand trained steadily on her.
"Hi there Lucy." Bella said with a smirk as she waved down at the death eater.
Lucius was not amused and it clearly showed as he fired a barely legal pain curse up at the witch. Bella simply smiled benevolent, well as benevolently as an insane and truly homicidal sadist can, and took the curse.
Lucius was horrified to note that instead of screaming in pain the witch he had hit was actually moaning in something that sounded suspiciously like pleasure. But that was impossible, no one in their right mind could possible enjoy the effects of the Agno curse. Then again, Lucius reflected as the witch reached the ground a few feet away from him, she didn't look like someone who was playing with even half a deck of cards.
"Who are you." Lucius snarled in his most imperious Malfoy voice.
"I'm hurt Lucy! You don't remember me? Why, we're family!" Bellatrix said cheerfully.
Lucius stated hard at the strange woman, taking in her tall and emaciated form and wild black hair. It wasn't until his gaze came to rest on her eyes that it dawned on him, "Bella? But your dead!"
"Really? That's a disappointment. I was really hoping to see the look on Potter's face when he ran into two of me. Still, I guess that means more for me; me me that is, not other me."
Lucius regarded the witch in front of him quizzically. It had to be some poorly conceived trick by either the old man or Amelia to try to get their hands on more of his money. He knew for a fact that Bella was dead, he had seen the rather gruesome proof during his own brief stay at Azkaban. Yet, somehow, this witch who stood before him seemed real.
No one but Bella was enough of a masochist to enjoy an Agno curse. No one but Bella would have the sheer audacity and brilliance to breach his wards in the way this witch had. And finally, no one but Bellatrix Black would ever be caught dead acting even half as mad as the woman in front of him.
"Yes well I suppose it might be you." Lucius conceded, lowering his wand slightly.
Bella got a slightly disappointed look as she mock pouted at Lucius, "Your not going to torture me? Not even a little? By the Dark Lord himself, what has the hospitality of a death eater come to in this world?"
"This world?" Lucius asked curiously, "I wasn't aware there were any others."
"That's why Cissy's always been the brains of your marriage Lucy dear." Bellatrix shot back as she began to walk into the house without bothering to wait for Lucius's permission. Lucius snorted in annoyance before resigning himself to following his guest and waiting for her to explain just what in the name of Merlin she was rambling about.
Bellatrix did not seem especially inclined to do so, as she instead headed for the wine cellar and served herself a tall glass of two hundred year-old firewisky. Only once she had taken a long drink worth several thousand galleons did Bella at last turn back to Lucius, "Well since you've been such a good boy Lucy I guess I owe you an explanation."
"You'd best." Lucius drawled back, adding the slightest bit of edge to his tone as he fingered his wand threateningly. Bellatrix seemed not to notice as she sprawled on a nearby chair before replying, "It's a rather odd story Lucius. You see, a few hours ago I had the unenviable pleasure of realizing that Potter had just offed out most eminent Dark Lord."
"A few hours ago? Bella, that was years ago! I know your insane, but this is really a low point even for you.!"
"I'm getting there Malfoy, calm down!" Bella snarled, her wand suddenly in her hand. and aimed between his eyes. Holding the threatening pose for a moment, Bella at last sighed and put down her wand, "Anyways, after Potter killed the Dark Lord I apparated behind him and tried to finish him off. Somewhere in the course of our little brawl we both fell through a dimensional rift. After that aside from a brief misunderstanding with the aurors and an oath truce with Potter I came directly here." Bellatrix drawled causally.
"How brief was this misunderstanding?" Lucius drawled back with a Malfoy smirk firmly in place. Bellatrix had been an unholy terror in the Dark Lord's first rise, capable of decimating at least five aurors at once by herself.
"I wasn't wearing a watch, but if those idiots lasted longer than a minute against us I'd be surprised."
"Us?"
"I could have taken them alone, but they pissed Potter off too so he joined in on the fun."
"Potter killed an auror?" Lucius stammered in disbelief Bellatrix nodded happily in answer as she drained the rest of the firewhiskey. "Potter, as in the golden boy, lion-loving Dumbledore's lack-witted pawn Potter killed an auror?"
"Actually I think he got eight of them." Bellatrix drawled back as she absently drew the dagger Potter had given her and began to pick the last of the blood out from under her nails, "Though I could be wrong, we were rather too busy trying to kill each other to get a good count."
Lucius was left simply staring speechless at Bellatrix's casual pronouncement. Bella simply looked at him in amusement, "Oh do get that expression off your face Lucius, you look like Goyle. Now do something useful with yourself and tell me where all the rest of the Death Eaters are."
Lucius hesitated for a moment, the answer to that question would have been the wet dream of any auror. Seeing his hesitation Bella rolled her eyes and wordless hurled a Crucio curse at Lucius who screamed in agony as the angry red beam made contact. Bella didn't bother to hold the curse for more than a few seconds before freeing Lucius with an elegant twirl of her wand.
"Come on Lucy, I'm not an auror! Though, if Cissy's into it I could pretend..." Bellatrix trailed off with a mad sort of giggle as she carelessly lined up her wand for another Crucio. Lucius scowled in anger at her statement, Bellatrix or not this bitch was going to pay for that! No one cursed a Malfoy and got away with it.
Pretending to be opening his mouth to answer her question Lucius instead threw himself to the side at the last second, shooting a bone shredding curse at Bellatrix as he rolled for cover. Bella swiftly raised a pale blue shield in response, deflecting the dark spell off into a nearby table with ruinous results.
Lucius continued to hurl curses at a dizzying pace as he fought to break through Bella's dark Aegis shield. He was rewarded a moment latter as it crumbled under the combined pressure of a hellfire bolt and three darts of pure black magic energy. Before he could press his advantage Bella was moving, her long black hair dancing about her as she cast on the run.
Lucius meanwhile held his ground as he assumed a traditional dueling stance the Malfoy had favored for thirty two generations. Arm slightly bent with his right leg placed in front he calmly shielded himself, refusing to engage in the indignity of running about if he could avoid it.
Dark hexs filled the air between the two as Lucius was slowly forced to give ground before the furious assault of the witch. She was simply too fast and too sure in her movements for him to ever land more than a glancing blow.
As bone-breakers gave away to suffocation and impaling hexs the room around the two was shredded to pieces, priceless artifacts and relics exploding all around the two. Finally, just as the structural integrity of the walls themselves began to give way Bella ended the fight with a burst of necromantic energy, sucking the power from Lucius's blood shield and leaving him exposed to her follow up Crucio.
She advanced slowly towards the writhing Malfoy, somehow managing to twirl her wand while still holding the Crucio steady. Only when she closed to within a foot of the prone man did she at last release the curse. As Lucius lay gasping on the ground she slowly bent down to whisper in his ear, "You'd better hope I really am Bellatrix Lucy, or you'll have to add someone else to the list of two people who have ever beaten you.
Lucius could only nod weakly in reply Dumbledore and Bellatrix had both bested him the first war, somehow succeeding even as he laid the likes of Moody and the famed Auror Nicholas Damien low with almost causal ease. Voldemort easily could have as well, but Lucius had never been mad enough to cross wands with the strange creature that was his Dark Lord
Dueling ran in the blood of the Malfoy's, literally due to a series of dark rituals performed at an heir's coming of age that passed hundreds of years of inherited knowledge down. The knowledge came though more clearly in some than others, the ancient secrets raced more readily through the blood of the most exultant of the Malfoy clan. The average heir could access reflexive fragments from time to time, hear an odd voice with a dark spell in their ear when they needed it most. The reflexes never left Lucius, the voice always whispered at the edge of his mind. Still, if the dueling ran in the veins of the Malfoy clan then murder ran hard and fast in the cold blood of the Black family.
"Now ickle Lucy," Bella began, "I believe you were going to tell me where the rest of the death eaters are."
Lucius glared at Bellatrix even as he nodded his assent while pulling himself up off the ground with a pained effort. "Fine Bella. Cissy is here of course, Avery is hiding somewhere in the south of France, McNair fled to America after he got caught red handed and axed in the middle of a muggle massacre."
"He never really was too bright." Bella commented, "I'm surprised he escaped."
"McNair may not be too bright but he's strong as an ox and deadly with that axe of his. From the reports I was able to steal from the ministry he killed a pair of aurors before turning his axe into a portkey. But in any case, I do believe we are digressing. Who else would you like to hear about?" Lucius replied.
"Rookwood, Nott, that idiot husband of mine and his brother should do for now. To be perfectly honest I could give a damn where the likes of that inept Jugson happen to be holed up." Bella drawled back
"Rookwood is actually still in the ministry, managed to get away with the imperio defense somehow. Nott is still in his ancestral manor, I managed to bribe enough people to get him off."
"And my Husband?"
"Ahh...yes... well... sadly your husband is still in Azkaban, we never got the chance to break him or his brother out." Lucius muttered nervously, eyeing Bella's wand. His Bella's temper had been second only to the Dark Lord's, and this one did not seem to be much different. Much to his relief she used her wand to summon another bottle of firewiskey rather than curse him. Taking a long pull straight from the bottle Bella smiled down at Lucius, "Well then Lucy, I guess we'll just have to go get him."
"Impossible Bella. It will take an arch mage to bring down the wards Dumbledore put up over the island at the end of the war. As long as those things are standing anyone with a dark mark who even comes withing a mile of Azkaban is rather rudely apparated a few miles straight down.
So, Unless you happen to know where to find an arch mage other than the old man Rudolphus is going to have to stay where he is for now." Lucius replied back calmly, secretly grateful that the insane witch in front of him would have no valid excuse to drag him on some foolhardy attack on the wizard prison.
Bellatrix simply smiled radiantly in response, "Don't worry Lucy, I know just where to find one."
