Chapter Sixteen:
Bellatrix stared up at the stone ceiling feeling, for the first time in days, a sense of overwhelming content. Her mind wasn't trying to ensnare the next buzz, her body didn't want to get up and go. Instead if felt nice to just be.
Maybe it was the medicine Madam Pomfrey had given her, but Bellatrix actually felt good inside. Like somehow she could grow-up to be a decent human being.
She remembered her plans to be a politician and change the world for the better. To be a musician and touch millions with her music, or a poet with the ability to capture the human emotion in a single page.
Of course all of that was beyond reach now. The Dark Lord was her salvation now. He was her future. Besides even if she wanted to she wouldn't be able to leave.
A Death Eater remained a Death Eater to their dying day. Bellatrix remembered the night they had all learned that lesson.
The moon had been full that night yet its shining brilliance failed to shine through the dark veil that hung over the crowd of black clad figures. They stood there stoically waiting for their Master to bless them with his love and presence.
Next to Bellatrix stood a girl that was only slightly younger than her. She was quivering with fear and her breath was quick and ragged.
Bellatrix took her hand and gripped it reassuringly. She understood the fear the Dark Lord could instil upon a person without even being present.
The girl tugged her hand away just as a loud crack filled the cemetery. Everyone got down their knees bowing their head to the ground.
"My children, there is no need for such formalities. Come rise and honour me by letting me see your faithful faces."
Everyone stood back up and pulled away their masks. The Dark Lord smiled and began to move around the ring of Death Eaters staring straight into their eyes until they could bear it no more.
When he stopped in front of Bellatrix a wide grin crept across his face. His red eyes bore deeply into her brown ones.
He was probing her mind, testing her faithfulness. Finally she couldn't take the piercing gaze and looked down at the ground.
The Dark Lord shook his head, laughing, and move on to the shaking girl.
He stared at her for a brief second and then began to cackle merrily.
"Is there something you would like to tell me love?" His voice was cold, but still full of laughter.
The girl squeaked in fright. She shook her head vigorously.
"So you aren't going to tell me that you want out?" The Dark Lord asked in a dangerously playful tone.
"No… sir…" the girl choked on her words.
"FOOL! DON'T LIE TO ME!" His voice filled the graveyard.
"I want out," she whispered as fearful tears rolled down her face.
The Lord reached out with his pale hand and wiped away the tears. "The only way out is by death."
"I want out," the girl said sternly pulling away from the Dark Lord.
He shook his head grievously. "Fine." He pulled out his wand. "Avada Kedavra," he hissed.
A blinding green light filled the graveyard. Everyone turned their heads either because they couldn't bear the light or they couldn't stand to see a friend killed.
Bellatrix looked down at the girl's lifeless body lying on the cemetery ground.
"Let this be a lesson to you all. The only way out is by death. Now bury her in some grave."
"What are you thinking about?" someone whispered in her ear.
Her eyes snapped open and she was looking at the rugged face of Lestrange. His face was crinkled in a smile. Bellatrix thanked God that he was in her life. If ever there was someone there for her it was him. She didn't deserve Lestrange.
She sat up and kissed his prickly cheek. "I was just resting." Bellatrix withheld what she was really thinking about because Pomfrey was across the room trying to keep a kid from smoking out his ears.
"Just resting, huh? Are you sure you weren't thinking how incredibly sexy I was?" Lestrange laughed and his eyes were bright and merry.
"If I was it is none of your business. My private thoughts are just that, private."
"And private they shall remain. I think it is suicide to try and get into your thoughts."
"Why are you so cheerful all of a sudden?" Lestrange grinned at her. "Never mind I don't care. Just stop before you make me hurl."
"I don't think that will be possible," Madam Pomfrey said pushing Lestrange aside and feeling Bellatrix's forehead. "Your stomach is relatively empty. "
"No thanks to you," Bellatrix moaned. "I've been asking for something to eat ever since I woke up."
Her stomach growled as if on cue. "See what I mean?"
Lestrange laughed, yet again. Bellatrix threw her head over the bed's side and pretended to barf all over the stone floor.
"Like I said your stomach wouldn't react well to food. But if you're that hungry I could give you a supplemental potion. It would fill you up without upsetting your stomach."
"Why didn't you tell me that before," Bellatrix said angrily, whipped her head in the direction of Pomfrey. "Like an hour ago when I was only just starving. Not when I was almost about to whither away from hunger."
"That's your problem." Pomfrey scribbled something on Bellatrix's charts. "You get too wrapped up in the drama of life. 'Oh I'm withering away to nothing. Help me! Save me!' Maybe if you weren't so melodramatic your life would run a little more smoothly."
"Hey!" Bellatrix said indignantly. "My life is perfectly fine."
"Oh yes," Pomfrey rolled her eyes. "I call spending ninety percent of your life in the hospital fine."
Lestrange stood at the head of Bellatrix's bed sniggering into his palm.
"The reason my life is so screwed, if it is like you say, then it's because all the adults in my life ridicule me and never take a thing I say seriously."
"Oh your little word games won't work on me missy. Now Lestrange will you please go fill this cup with the potion in the tall purple bottle. I would have it labelled but they've all worn off in the years."
Lestrange took a small glass cup from the nurse and headed over to the potion cabinet. He opened up the cupboard doors and studied the contents carefully.
There were two tall purple bottles, very similar in colouring and shape. Lestrange picked up both of them.
"Which one is the supplement in?" He held the vials up for Pomfrey to see.
She looked up from the patient she was attending. The smoke had ceased to steam out of his ears but now it was billowing out of his mouth.
"Umm… that one," she pointed to the bottle in his right hand.
Lestrange peered at both bottles wondering how she could decipher the contents of both without taking a closer look. Shrugging his shoulders he set the one in his left hand down on the counter beside the cup and unscrewed the top to the supplement.
He poured the thick, green liquid into the cup. It stunk of vegetables and fired eggs.
"Why can't they discover a way to make potions less distasteful?" he muttered, crinkling his nose to avoid the awful stench.
"Lestrange?" Bellatrix called from across the hospital.
The cup was only half way full but Lestrange was obliged to see to his maiden's side.
He twisted the cap back on and set it next to the other bottle.
"What is it?" he asked, tapping his foot.
"I was going to ask how long it took to fill a cup full of potion," Bellatrix hinted, her eyes glowing hungrily.
"If you had been patient and waited it would be filled right now," Lestrange snapped. Sometimes Bellatrix could really get on his nerves.
He walked back across the hospital wing and picked up the bottle. He finished pouring the runny, pink liquid into the cup and set it down next to the other purple bottle.
The contents of the cup hissed angrily as he handed it over to Bellatrix. She wrinkled her nose and shouted at Pomfrey. "Do you actually expect me to drink this vile shit?"
"It's the only form of substance you'll receive here. Now drink up." She turned back to a girl with mushrooms sprouting out of the top of her head.
Bellatrix plugged her nose and dumped the liquid down her throat. She dropped the cup on the floor and coughed. The cup shattered into a million pieces.
Lestrange pulled out his wand. "Reparo." The glass cup fixed itself and flew into his hands.
"That wasn't so bad now was it?" Madam Pomfrey said, when a paper aeroplane flew into the room and landed in the nurse's hand.
She opened it quickly and read what it said. "Oh dear it seems your sister has gotten herself into a right spot of trouble. I need to go to the dungeons to help out. I'll be back." Pomfrey sped out of the room.
To Bellatrix the small nurse had been a blur and her voice a high squeak.
"Is everything okay?" Lestrange asked worriedly as, yet again, consciousness slipped away form Bellatrix
Trees. Running. Freedom. Hunting. Food. Meat. Smell. Chase. Devour. Blood. Wild. Happiness.
Running across the leaf-strewn forest. She could smell her prey's fear. She could almost taste his blood in her mouth.
Hunger.
Take him down. Rip him to shreds. Warm blood. Soft meat. Food.
Wild animal. Neither leash nor boundary.
The world was hers.
A/n: There. I have finally posted another chapter to the ongoing adventures of the Black Sisters. Of course it is yet to see if they shall endure for as long as I have planned for them to. For I have many a weird and interesting plot cooking in my devilish mind.
And to the abominable maiden Victoria, Prince Patrick bids you to hurry up with the new chapter or he will be forced to hang you by your toes on his bedroom ceiling. ;-)
Good day.
