A/N: Ok, new chapter, yay, please read and review. (:
Chapter 12
Rodolphus nearly collapsed into his seat in the Great Hall the next morning. He was wickedly exhausted, and felt slightly sick. He instantly regretted his instinctive gravitation towards food. He focused instead on the familiar face across from him, who was concentrating on revising an essay while she drank a small glass of pumpkin juice.
"Heard you had some night terrors," she began, smugly.
"That's none of your business, now is it?" he said in a low voice, glancing over at Narcissa and Lucius to make sure they did not overhear any of their conversation. Thankfully, the pair was deeply engrossed in a conversation of their own.
"I'd say it's my business whether or not my partner's going to perform as well as my Master expects them to."
Rodolphus looked up at her with wide eyes, for she had never before spoken of Voldemort in such explicit terms. She smiled back at him daringly.
"I'll perform fine." He assured her. "How do you feel?"
"Powerful." She looked up at him, her bold eyes boring in to his until he was forced to look away.
He quickly crunched a piece of toast and went to gather his things for his first class.
The day went by in a blur of professors and classrooms, only to be ended by dinner in the Great Hall. Rodolphus was not hungry at all due to nervousness, but ate for strength. Bellatrix merely picked at a small mound of food without ever placing any in her mouth.
After dinner they set out through the tunnel to Hogsmeade again. The trip was the same as the day before, except this time, Rodolphus knew what to expect, and this time, his hand somehow wound its way into hers. They apparated to the cave, and outside it was once again pouring rain. They ran inside, and found the entrance to the smaller cave. Rodolphus spotted the pile of corpses at once, and exhaled slowly, shaking nausea from his system.
Bellatrix paced around to the far side of the pile, and stood facing Rodolphus. "Alright." She said to him. "Let's finish this and make our Master proud." He nodded back at her nervously. He hated the draining, cold feeling of this spell, and hesitated to begin.
Rodolphus had been at work for a half hour when it happened. The spell he cast at a corpse hit the dead man's silver pendant necklace and bounced back at him. He held his wand up to defend himself from the spell, but had no time to cast a shield charm. He yelled to get Bellatrix's attention. The spell hit his wand and sent it flying, right onto the clear, placid top of the lake.
"Accio wand!" called Bellatrix, vainly. She walked over to him, wand raised, so that she stood right in front of his right shoulder. He could easily see over the top of her head. She then created a new inferius, which she directed into the water towards Rodolphus's wand. The new inferius, however, was dragged down by the masses already underneath the water, and turned into one of them. He too, now crouched low below the surface, waiting for a new challenger.
"What do we do?" asked Rodolphus desperately. He needed to get the wand back, and Voldemort couldn't know about his mishap. He watched in amazement as Bellatrix transfigured a rat that had been scurrying along the cave floor into a large, majestic bird that flew in a circle over the lake, then swooped down low and grabbed Rodolphus's wand in its beak. It landed on the dirt a few feet from Bellatrix and placed the wand near her. She transfigured it back and it scuttled away.
"Thank you, Bell." She smiled at him. "That was amazing." He bent down to pick up his wand, and she turned away, already making more inferi, creating an impressive three at once. They walked haphazardly towards the lake, and stumbled in. He quickly returned to his work, and soon grew tired. He sat on a rock at the edge of the lake to rest, and watched as Bellatrix worked, her skill impressive. She was pushing her limits, he could tell, sheer exhaustion threatening to take over at any moment. Still, she managed to outperform him again and again. He was so fascinated by her, he failed to notice when his toes dipped into the water's edge, suggesting an attempt to defy the inferi. He was shocked out of his reverie when a clammy hand encased his ankle in a surprisingly firm grip. He grunted and tried to shake it off, but the hand persisted and was soon joined by more inferi, a tangle of limbs reaching for any part of him they could get.
"Help! Bella!" he called, now panicking. Visions of his nightmare filled his head along with thoughts of being turned into an inferius. He fought back harder. She came, and grabbed onto his arms. She pulled, but it did not help at all for she was already drained from creating the monsters that were now trying to kill him. She slipped on a wet part of the rock and slid towards the cold lake water. Inferi limbs groped up her legs. She grabbed his hand. She suddenly looked enlightened and put her wand arm towards the water to cast a spell. An inferius grabbed her wrist and pulled himself onto her. Rodolphus had managed to keep the inferi at bay below his knees, but they were now clambering all the way up onto Bellatrix.
"Rod! Lumos Maxima!" she yelled towards him. He cast the spell using all the strength he had left, and thankfully, it worked. The inferi retreated almost immediately back into the depths, leaving him and Bellatrix panting on top of the boulder. They both looked down to make sure they were completely out of the water before laying back on the large, flat rock. Rodolphus turned onto his side to look at Bellatrix. She was shivering and pale, but she turned away from him, sitting up and drawing her knees to her chest.
"Twice I saved you tonight." She said.
"Yes, you did." Rodolphus swallowed back a gnawing fear in his throat. "You're not going to tell Him, are you?"
"No, I suppose not. Then we'd both be punished for your mistakes." She winced, and Rodolphus thought of how she had suffered the Cruciatus Curse at the hands of her alleged comrades.
"Thanks, Bell. I won't mess up again." He tried to force a smile that wouldn't form in the grim circumstances. He stood up and began to finish the task Voldemort had assigned them.
When they finally got back to the castle, it was nearly three in the morning. The last of the inferi had taken a long time because of their tiredness, and the journey back through the tunnel was slow-going. Rodolphus didn't even remember going up to his dormitory that night, but he was shaken awake by Rosier the next morning, ready to bargain anything for a few more hours of sleep. Anything, except perhaps another night in the cave.
As it was, Rodolphus was forced to get up, stumble into his robes and travel with his friend down to the Great Hall for breakfast. His hair was disheveled, and his face was lined with creases from his pillowcase, but he cared not, for he felt tremendous relief at being done with his mission. Hunger soon panged at his stomach, and he was stuffing his face full of elf-prepared delicacies when he saw Bellatrix sit down next to her cousin. Dark circles were present under her eyes, and her hair hung limply down her back. She looked slimmer than she had at the beginning of break, and he could surely attribute her undaunted effort towards Voldemort's mission to her new physique. She had bathed, he noticed, so she was running on less sleep than him. He called her name but she didn't seem to hear him. They were, after all, seated a few people apart at the long dining tables.
He instead chatted with Rosier about Quidditch, as he filled his aching stomach. He was berated soon after in transfiguration for forgetting his essay that was due that day. He noticed Bellatrix handed hers in, surely a perfect paper. He sighed; he did not have time to balance both school and working for Voldemort. He didn't understand how Bellatrix made it seem effortless. He spent the rest of transfiguration gazing at her, and was yelled at again at the end of class for failing to take any notes or recall any of that day's lesson.
The rest of the day went on much in the same fashion, although luckily all of his other homework was complete, albeit done with a halfhearted effort. He was looking forward to relaxing in the common room after dinner, and maybe working on the transfiguration essay when he felt his dark mark prickle, right before he was about to go down to the Great Hall for dinner. He swore under his breath as he clutched his wrist, and headed towards the tunnel. As he passed Dumbledore's office, he saw the professor coming down to dine.
"Coming to eat, Mr. Lestrange?" asked the headmaster, with a curious twinkle in his eyes.
"No, sir, I need to get to the library, behind on homework, need to work," mumbled Rodolphus, blurting out lie after lie, although he wished they were true.
"Ah well, good luck to you boy, but always remember to take a break now and then and come enjoy a good meal, and forget about your other obligations."
"Yes sir, I shall, but not tonight."
"Alright then boy, I'll see you in the Great Hall tomorrow then."
"Yes sir, goodnight." said Rodolphus quickly as he skirted away from the headmaster and down the hall to the passageway. He sprinted halfway to Hogsmeade where he caught up to the others in the middle of the tunnel. He shuddered at his recent encounter, but chose not to repeat it to anyone. When they got to Voldemort's mansion, all the lights were out except a faint glow coming from the far window. The death eaters gathered inside the house, kneeling before their master. A giant fire blazed behind him.
"Have you, Bella, completed the task you were assigned?" he asked, without any pretense of greeting.
"Yes, sir, it is done." She bowed her head even further in reverence, a strange devotion that Rodolphus didn't understand.
"Very good. You and Rodolphus are very loyal servants." Voldemort turned his attention to a necklace that he levitated in the air before him.
"Rabastan!" he suddenly shouted.
"Yes, my Lord?" answered Rabastan, and Rodolphus felt a sudden urge to protect his brother from whatever Voldemort planned to use him for.
"Would you like to prove yourself on another mission? Perhaps make up for the errors of your last attempt?"
"Of course, my Lord." answered Rabastan, but the tone of his voice suggested he would rather be doing a lot of other things. Rodolphus's mind travelled to a train of thoughts he had often: Did he drag Rabastan into this? Was this what he wanted? Should Rodolphus have waited until he was older? His meditations were interrupted by Voldemort's piercing voice.
"Good. I would like you, Bella, and Crabbe to find someone for me." Bellatrix's eyes widened. Rodolphus held back an urge to go to her side.
"I shall finish telling you about the mission after the meeting. Now let's talk about the muggle problem…"
Rodolphus didn't pay attention to a second of the meeting that followed. He watched Bellatrix, her demeanor assertive and attentive, but he could see the dread bubbling just below the surface. He felt relieved that he wasn't chosen, but he felt dread for his brother and his… He wasn't sure what Bellatrix was to him, but he did not want to see her hurt at Crabbe's hand ever again.
