Chapter Thirty-Eight

Awareness seemed to come to Violet all at once, though she did manage to play dead, so to speak. After all, the chair underneath her was entirely unfamiliar, as were the voices she could barely hear. And, an additional worry, her Legilimency was dampened, not reaching outside the room she was in. That was only a minor worry. She never did depend on it, at least not solely. Instead, she focused on the feel of ropes around her wrists, tying them behind her back. The lack of further bands told her it was a magical person, confident in their ability to keep her there without any further restraints. Ah, the arrogance of the Pureblood, she thought, repressing the grin that wanted to escape.

The door opened. "You can quit pretending to be asleep, Violet," a high voice said. "The monitoring charm alerted me the moment you woke."

She opened her eyes with a yawn. "One never knows which snake might be around, so it never hurts to be cautious, Barty. Where's your rat?" she asked politely, as if back in the LeStrange Hall for tea.

"He's around." Barty threw a dismissive hand in the vague direction of the door. The room was rather small, and only had the one exit, but it didn't worry Violet.

"Out of all the snakes I know, I really didn't expect it to be you, so congratulations on surprising me," she said. She wanted to keep his attention off the ropes she'd already untied. And it wouldn't hurt to rummage around using her Legilimency. "Of course, I'd thought you were dead, like everyone else, but still, you surprised me."

"Oh, such high praise coming from Violet LeStrange," he mocked. "You never were anything special, just an ornament for Rab's arm."

"Then why go through all this trouble to get me?" she asked, once again holding back a smirk. After all, she'd spent more than half her life pretending to be nothing special. And, it appeared to have worked on yet another person.

"That new husband of yours seems particularly problematic for our plans."

"Yes, he does tend to do that," Violet agreed, though keeping her triumph to herself as she began to dig in his mind, and she was getting a wealth of information. "So, what are these plans of yours?"

Barty laughed, but turned his back to her. He added some shredded mandrake leaves to the potion he was brewing, stirring anti-clockwise a few times. "Do you think you can ask me a few questions and I'll suddenly spill all my secrets? I'm not a villain in a Muggle film, Vi."

I don't need you to even talk to spill your secrets, Violet thought with vicious glee as she gained the location of Riddle's current hiding place. A wood in Albania, most likely where he'd found Ravenclaw's diadem. "Are you doing this for Voldemort, or for Bella?" she asked.

That caught his attention. His sudden jerk nearly upset his potion. "What are you on about? What does Bella have to do with anything?"

Violet monitored his appearance closely. His color was up, a very good result. "I simply thought you might have heard, but I suppose being in Azkaban isn't the best place to get news. And then, once he switched you out for your mum, dear old dad wasn't terribly keen on giving you news, I suppose."

"What didn't I hear?" Barty spat, crossing the short distance to stand directly in front of Vi.

And he missed that I know how he escaped Azkaban, she noted. Perfect. "When you and the LeStranges attacked the Longbottoms, they were waiting for you. Didn't you ever wonder how they knew? I mean, even Rodolphus figured it out."

Violet watched the understanding dawn across his face, then braced for the slap she knew was coming. Sure, it hurt, but it wasn't anything she couldn't heal once she was done with the whole affair. "You told them," Barty hissed. "You betrayed us."

"Actually, I used you all," she corrected. "My auntie happens to be the head of Department of Magical Law Enforcement. As soon as Rab started showing interest in me, I went to Auntie Amelia and presented a plan where I could use what I heard around him to bring down the Death Eaters, from the inside. It helps that I'm a Legilimens and could read every thought you ever had around me."

Another slap sent her head snapping to the side. She had to keep her hands behind her back, to stop from wiping away the blood that trickled from her lip. "You were already Stunned when I got to the Longbottoms', so I know you didn't see what happened to dear old Bella. You loved her, didn't you?" she mocked.

"You don't know what love is," Barty spat. "Bella was going to leave Rodolphus for me. We were going to have a family together."

A laugh spilled from Violet's lips. "Bella loved you? Oh, you poor dear. She loved Voldemort, and him alone. You were a nice toy, something to fit between her legs in her spare time. And she never wanted children. She had me prepare a birth control potion every single month, like clockwork."

"You lie!" This time, he punched her chest, knocking the air from her lungs. "Bella adored me! We were going to be happy!" he screamed at her, nearly hysterical.

But not quite there yet. Violet let a, no doubt, bloody smile lift her lips. "You want to know what happened to her, Barty? You want to know how she died?"

"Tell me," he seethed, grabbing her face to keep her gaze on him.

"I killed her," she whispered slowly, deliberately pronouncing each syllable to drag each word out, while staring directly into his eyes. "I killed Bellatrix LeStrange. I turned that useless organ in her chest into its true form: stone."

Barty seemed frozen for a long moment, before screaming incoherently in rage. He screamed, he kicked the chair Violet sat on, he threw things, he pulled his hair. But when he turned his rage back to Violet, swinging his fist to hit her again, he was surprised when she caught it, ropes long gone.

"You see, Barty," she said, rather conversationally, as she stood up, pushing him backwards and stripping him of his wand. "You made a number of miscalculations in this little plan of yours. First, you thought I was nothing more than Rab's arm candy, not realizing I was using him all along. Second, you thought that because I was tied up and didn't have my wand, I couldn't do magic. Third, you forgot to take my wedding ring off me."

That last one threw him. "What's that got to do with anything?" he asked, still going for bravado, though wandless.

"Because, as long as I'm wearing it," Violet began, allowing the man to see the ring in question.

"I can find her."

AN: And I didn't leave you hanging for an extra week this time! But we found out the identity of the snake, and Vi gets to be brilliant, and we found out just how she killed Bella (which, I gotta say, I've been looking forward to revealing since basically the start of this). Thanks for reading, and a big thanks to those of you who review! You're my favorite!