PART 39

Sirius's head hurt a really lot. 10 on a pain scale. He was in the Death Eater headquarters, in the Dark Lord's study. He sat in a chair, and the Dark Lord was looking down at him, almost paternally.

"How are you feeling?"

"Cor blimey my head hurts!"

"That is not surprising. An incision has been made in your brain, and antiwyrm potion injected into your lubulabula."

"I don't understand any of that."

"Some friends of yours thought you had earwyrms."

Panic struck Sirius. He felt his head, checking for shaved patches but finding none. He heaved a sigh of relief.

"I guess they didn't have the heart to remove your miracle hair!" said Bellatrix.

Sirius put up his nose and faced away from his cousin.

"What's SHE doing here? I thought we had a deal."

"Bella, leave," Voldemort ordered.

"And don't let the door hit your miracle buttocks on the way out!"
Bella dug her sharp nails into Sirius's bandaged head.

"Ow ow ow ow ow"

"I'm going to cut you to bits and then sew you back together and play with you like a dolly!"
Sirius began to see a tunnel. Voldemort ordered two Death Eater guards in the corner to remove Bella from the room. He then left his study to talk to her.

"Why don't you get along?" Voldemort asked. "Haven't you heard that blood is purer than water?"

Bellatrix had calmed down.

"I'm sorry my Lord and master. It's just that he has ruined my life so many times. He's ruined my dates, engagements, my birth control. All with flypaper. He's just always been SUCH A NIGHTMARE!"
She banged the door to the study angrily.

"I would have thought you'd get along spiffingly."

Bella sighed.

"We used to get along. He was like the little brother I always wanted… to turn gay."

"You have to put the past behind you. I can't have my Death Eaters fight all the time, you have to work together. Besides it's never too late to turn someone gay."

"You are so wise, master. Always so wise. But what's going to happen now, when his earwyrms have been removed?"

Alas, Voldemort wasn't sure.

"If he is as clever as I think he is-"

"Don't get your hopes up."

"-he will still understand that the purist way is the one true way. Of course, who knows what damage those imbeciles may have done to his brain. We will simply have to keep him under a close watch."

"What, here?"

"I don't know yet. Maybe."

"In a dark little room, with no windows?"

Bella looked hopeful, like a child on Pere Fouettard night.

Voldemort just hadn't made up his mind about that. All he wanted to know was if Sirius still had enough evil in him, to be a useful second-in-command Death Eater.