Author's Note: Uh, I got inspired? Don't expect the next – and last – chapter today, though.

Avalanche

She was waiting for him when he came back.

"You went to find Harry." It was not a question.

Remus glared at her. "What else could I do?" he scoffed.

"What about Tonks? She's your wife! And she's pregnant! Are you going to abandon her now?" she asked incredulously.

"What about you?" he shot back.

"I'll be fine," she snapped, checking her watch. "I need to go." Uncorking a bottle on the table, she raised it to her lips and drank, grimacing at the taste. There was a row of six other bottles.

Remus raised an eyebrow at the last one. The bright gold colour was unmistakable. "Felix Felicis?" he asked in surprise. "Where did you get it?"

"Slughorn," she replied shortly. "He left an entire cauldron bubbling away in the Potions classroom, so I simply borrowed the lot."

The corner of his lip twitched upwards in the ghost of a smile.

"You're just going to leave me behind, aren't you," he sighed.

She frowned slightly, checking her watch again. She needed to report in… ten minutes. It was often useful to arrive early, though not too early. She did not want to be accused of eavesdropping, after all.

"The war's no place for a father-to-be," she finally replied, already opening the door. Glancing back, she caught the worried expression on his face just in time before it was replaced by an expressionless mask.

He was frustrated that there was nothing he could do. She understood the feeling. But there was no way he could go with her. Just because she had lost her own chance at a family did not mean she ought to rip him away from his. Family always, always came first.

She turned around, tone softening marginally as she spoke, "There are other things you can do. I need a backup here just in case something goes wrong, and I'll be passing along information to you anytime I hear of a raid."

He closed his eye briefly and gave a terse nod in acceptance. That was at least better than nothing.

"Help me hide the Pensieve, will you?"

Remus nodded and watched her Disapparate with a sad smile on his face.

~*~*~*~*~*

The window creaked open a crack, causing the curtains to flutter in the sudden breeze.

A shadow slipped into the room, unnoticed.

The occupant of the room was lying spreadeagled over the bed, covers negligently tossed to one side. Perfect.

Moonlight glinted off the blade of a dagger.

There was a quiet swish and the unmistakable sound of flesh ripping apart.

In. Out. Quick and neat.

With a last flutter of the curtain, the shadow slipped out of the room.

A moment later, silence fell again.

~*~*~*~*~*

"My lord, Stevens, Gardner and Grey were found dead in their chambers this morning," reported some minor Death Eater whose name she had never bothered to remember.

Behind her mask, Bellatrix raised an eyebrow carelessly. My, my, the rookie Death Eaters seemed to be dropping like flies lately. Wonder what's up with them.

"And has their mysterious assailant been found?" asked the Dark Lord in a deceptively calm voice.

"N-no, my lord," the Death Eater replied, shrinking back as his Master seemed to loom up before him.

"Crucio!" the Dark Lord snarled in fury.

A sadistic grin crossed Bellatrix's face as she watched the hapless minion writhe in pain. Really, they ought to know better than to bring bad news. Twenty rookies dead in a week, it made their lord look bad.

~*~*~*~*~*

'You don't have to do this,' he tried persuading her again. 'It's too dangerous.'

'What lengths would you go to, in order to keep your family safe?' she asked rhetorically.

He had no answer for that. She had not expected one.

~*~*~*~*~*

Bellatrix smirked as she swept through the dark corridors of the Dark Lord's new abode, new recruits cowering away from her. She sneered. Cowards, the lot of them.

Someone had been spreading rumours that the Marauders – for who else could have murdered all those recruits? – would kill all of them and defeat the Dark Lord.

Preposterous.

No one could defeat the Dark Lord.

She ignored the sing-song voice at the back of her mind suggesting that Harry Potter could.

"Shut up," she told the voice irritably. That little voice was annoying.

The recruits exchanged a confused look.

"I think Azkaban unhinged her," she heard one of them inform the other in the barest of whispers.

Bellatrix scowled. Recruits and their rumours. She turned sharply on her heel, marching back the way she had come and heading straight for two minions who looked distinctively terrified at her approach.

She would teach them a lesson.

"Crucio!" she snapped, relishing in their screams.

Bellatrix ignored the fact that she was halfway down the next hall and thus it should have been impossible for her to hear that conversation. Minor details.

~*~*~*~*~*

'I'm running out of Felix Felicis.'

A reply was instantaneous. 'I'll find Slughorn. Next month, same time, same place.'

There was nothing more that needed to be said.

~*~*~*~*~*

Bellatrix blinked as she jerked back into consciousness. Funny, she did not remember ever falling asleep. She glanced down at herself and was surprised to find herself fully dressed.

"Did I go anywhere this morning?" she posed the question to her husband.

Rodolphus gave her a strange look. "You had a meeting with the Carrows this morning about the Dark Arts curriculum in Hogwarts, remember?"

She racked her brain but came up with a blank. "Not really."

"You're probably still exhausted from the consecutive Mudblood raids," Rodolphus suggested. "Maybe you should go back to sleep."

"Maybe I should," she agreed and laid back down.

Being in Azkaban for over a decade had done many strange things to her mind, after all. Memory loss was the least of them.

She conveniently ignored the fact that she had no memories of any of the raids either.

~*~*~*~*~*

'Still no sign of Harry?'

'No.'

'Good.'

'Good?'

'No news is good news.'

'Can't argue with that.'

'How's Tonks coping with her father's death?'

'As well as one could expect. I took her to Andy's for the moment.'

'I hope she can pull herself together for the pregnancy.'

'I hope so too. Do you know who killed him?'

She paused. 'There are several who claim credit. A group of Snatchers.'

A wave of hot, burning anger. She had to struggle to clamp down on her own emotions so as not to be affected.

'If you find out, I want to know.'

~*~*~*~*~*

Bellatrix blinked. Why was there a commotion downstairs?

"What is this? What's happened, Cissy?" she asked, opening the door to the drawing-room.

Her gaze was immediately drawn to the group huddled in the center. She crossed the room, walking slowly around the prisoners, until she spotted a rather familiar face. "But surely," she said quietly, "this is the Mudblood girl? This is Granger?"

Something stirred in the back of her mind.

"Yes, yes, it's Granger!" cried Lucius. "And beside her, we think, Potter! Potter and his friends, caught at last!"

The feeling that something was awakening, was rising through her mind intensified.

Bellatrix ignored it in favour of the revelation. "Potter?" she shrieked. "Are you sure? Well, then, the Dark Lord must be informed at once!"

There was a twisting sensation.

She jerked abruptly, her hand hovering above her Dark Mark just as Lucius clamped his hand on her arm. "Potter has been brought to my house, and it is therefore upon my authority –"

"Your authority!" she sneered instinctively, mind working furiously while attempting to wrench her hand from his grasp. "You lost your authority when you lost your wand, Lucius! How dare you! Take your hands off me!"

Her mouth worked on autopilot, sprouting Bellatrix's favourite phrases as she thought furiously. There had to be something she could do.

Wait, she recognised that sword.

Lucius threw her hand from him and ripped up his own sleeve –

Unable to think of anything else, she screamed, "STOP!" As an afterthought, she added, "Do not touch it, we shall all perish if the Dark Lord comes now!"

Lucius froze.

There was brief, intense struggle for the sword of Gryffindor.

She had to find out if it was real. If it was a fake, she could swap it for the one in her vault. If it was real – well, if it was real, she could pretend to 'lose' it.

Greyback dragged the entire group into the cellar with the exception of Hermione, whom he took upstairs to interrogate. She frowned. Now, if she could just figure out how to get Harry out of a cellar covered with permanent Anti-Apparation wards…

At the sound of Hermione's screams, she changed directions.

"You are not supposed to rip her apart!" she screeched, blasting Fenrir aside. "We need her coherent!"

Gritting her teeth, she began the distasteful interrogation.

"What else did you take, what else? ANSWER ME! CRUCIO!" One… two… She lifted the curse after three seconds, confident that Hermione would not break under so short a time, and immediately cast a nonverbal pain illusion charm. Hermione screamed again, her brain still believing that she was under the Cruciatus. She was counting on the phantom pain to mask her actions.

"What was that?" Lucius suddenly shouted. "Did you heart that? What was that noise in the cellar?"

"Draco – no, call Wormtail! Make him go and check!" she commanded. Wormtail was weak and cowardly enough that Harry might stand a chance, if he was free.

Next on the list was finding out whether the sword was real, or just a copy, as Hermione had said.

"No," Griphook told her calmly. "It is a fake."

Relief crashed through her as she realised that she would not have to torture anyone else for allegedly breaking into her vault.

That moment of weakness, however, proved to be lethal. "And now," Bellatrix called in a voice filled with triumph, "we call the Dark Lord!"

Bellatrix pressed her forefinger to the Dark Mark.

The next few moments was a haze of confusion as she fought with Bellatrix to assume control, all the while subtly influencing Bellatrix to edge Harry nearer the door. Run!

Bellatrix was so focused on her inner battle that the crystal chandelier crashing onto her head took her totally by surprise.

The other presence took that chance to struggle for control again, causing Bellatrix – the currently dominant personality – to shriek some nonsense that she could not hear over the roar of her own heartbeat. Their heartbeat.

NO! she snarled and to her surprise Bellatrix was shocked enough to relinquish control.

Without pausing to think, she hefted her silver dagger and aimed carefully. Harry's right there. So, a centimeter to the right and slightly lower, the air beside his legs would do.

She could only watch in horror as the little House Elf chose that moment to appear right in the path of the knife.

~*~*~*~*~*

There was another voice inside her head. The voice of a male.

'Where are you?'

The voice sounded familiar, very familiar, though she was sure she had never heard it before.

And to her horror something in her answered back. 'Malfoy Manor.'

Bellatrix froze.

Who am I?