The Houses Competition.
House: Slytherin
Class: Potions
Prompt(s): [First Line] If you want peace, prepare for war.
Category: Standard
Word Count: 1032
Warnings:
If you want peace, prepare for war. If you want to rise, prepare to fall. If you want to live, prepare to die.
Bellatrix had prepared. She had practiced curses, and spells. She had stood strong against her parents, and her peers. She had written her will, and made her peace. But the war didn't care for carefully laid plans. So here she was, trapped in a living hell; her soul and happiness sucked out of her, her hopes and dreams torn from her, her lord and leader dead. What would it have been like, she almost wondered, if she hadn't? If she hadn't prepared for war, prepared to fall, prepared to die? If she hadn't laid her cards out so perfectly and carefully, would war have torn them to pieces? Would she have lost all she wanted, and wanted what she could never have?
When had it all started? When she took the dark mark? When she married Rudolphus for freedom from her father's rules? When she'd graduated hogwarts? Or had she always been destined to take this path?
No. She could still remember a time before she sold her soul to the temptation of power, of respect. She could remember, because it wasn't a happier time. No time with Andromeda could be anymore. Though perhaps, if she'd chosen Andromeda's path they could have been happy. But she wasn't Andromeda; she could never choose the path of the righteous… though perhaps she could have chosen Narcissa's path… after all, could you really choose wickedness and still be happy?
Andromeda had always been the more mature one, despite being two years younger. She was the one Mother and Father gushed over, the one that Aunt and Uncle Orion called 'wise beyond her years'. She was always asking questions about topics that Bellatrix would have gotten in trouble for asking about. It came as no surprise to Bellatrix when she finally asked one question too far. Bellatrix had been eight at the time, Andromeda only six.
"If muggleborns are wizards too, why cant we marry them?"
Bellatrix had followed along with her parents' disgust, but what if she hadn't? What if she'd held her tongue? Would Andromeda still have set her jaw and determined to find out? Maybe they would've sat and talked about it instead, just like they always had. Maybe then she wouldn't have turned to Ted Tonks for answers.
And what if, though Bellatrix barely dared to consider it, what if she hadn't allowed herself to be taken with the Dark Lord's teachings, his calculated boldness, his determination. What if she hadn't been so convinced to follow him? Would she have still have gotten stuck in a marriage with a man she didn't love? Or would her parents have slowed down, made sure she had the best possible suitor. Maybe then she wouldn't be afraid of losing everything if she conceived. Maybe then she and Andromeda would have had children at the same time, just like they'd made believe so long ago, before that fateful question. Andromeda would've had a girl, and she would've had a boy. Then their parents would have been proud of both of them.
But maybe war still wouldn't have cared. Maybe it still would've torn everything away from her. Maybe she'd still be here, trapped in 'what if' after 'what if'. It didn't matter who she married, any pureblood with an ounce of self respect had fought for the Dark Lord. She had fought for the Dark Lord, and she wouldn't wish it any other way, not really. She had made her choice; Narcissa had made her choice; Andromeda had made her choice. She spat on the floor, watching in interest as the spittle froze in the presence of the patrolling Dementor.
Funny, Narcissa was the only one that got what she deserved. Narcissa had gotten a husband that would lie about his loyalties to keep himself at her side, just like she would lie to stay by her family's side. Andromeda had gotten everything she'd wanted, a little family with a white picket fence; she didn't deserve it, she was a traitor, she should be the one locked up. After all, Bellatrix had only fought for what she believed in, and isn't that what the Gryffindors teach? 'Fight for what you believe is right.' HA! They didn't mean that, what they meant was 'fight for what I believe is right.'
She could almost feel her mind crumbling as what seemed to be time passed… she couldn't be sure if it was time, time or just the dementors, draining every last drop of hope out of her leaving nothing but spite. She would make them pay, give them what they deserved. Sirius had already started punishment for what he did, he was here too… completely innocent from their perspectives; eventually he'd see that they didn't care about truth, or honor, or friendship. When push came to shove, they'd thrown him away without a second thought. Andromeda would pay, maybe not directly, but maybe that little halfblood of hers; after all, Bellatrix knew better than anyone that life was a better punishment than death.
She began to look forward to the day when all her happiness would be sucked from her. Then the dementors would have no power over her. Then their punishment would be useless. The thought filled her with glee, but that was quickly snatched away from her as another dementor passed.
How much longer—she wondered from the depth of her angered mind—how much longer until her Dark Lord arose from the prison they had cast him in? How much longer until he came to save her? HOW MUCH LONGER? She wanted to scream it to the four winds, but she couldn't move, couldn't speak. Occasionally she could hear her husband's voice from the next cell over, and she hated it. What had he ever given her? It was nothing like what the Dark Lord had. The Dark Lord has given her freedom, power, purpose! He would come save her, and he would plan. He would plan so carefully. So carefully that not even war could defeat him. And she? She would be ready.