A/N: Okay, okay… more than a year, yadda yadda… I know. I don't know what happened. But here's a new chapter. It's actually the first half of what I wrote… it was WAY too long. I harbor no delusions that anyone will remember this fic exists… but maybe it will be rediscovered and revived. One can dream.

Warnings: Blackcest/slash and death eaters in love. You've been warned.

Have fun!

Part 2: Bellatrix ii

"Is it true?"

I do not move to hide my hand or my disgust. I let both of them show plainly, my loathing shining as clearly as the single diamond on my engagement ring. Neither his opinions nor his feelings matter even slightly to me now. "I am not having this discussion with you, Lucius."

On any normal day, before Rodolphus came into the picture, Lucius would have backed down immediately had I used that tone and those words. But today I can see that it will not work. Lucius is in an absolute fury. I can tell because he is perfectly still. Not a single muscle twitching. Not even his eyes move, except to follow me. The calm before a particularly bad storm.

I don't want this confrontation. Not now, and not here, of all places. For the halls of our Lord to be sullied with Lucius' petty jealousy is unthinkable.

"Tell me, Bellatrix. Is it true?"

"What, exactly, do you hope to achieve by having this discussion, Lucius?" I put all the bitterness I can muster behind the words. Let a man down gently and he'll keep coming back for another lashing. Let him down hard and he'll hate you forever, but you'll at least be rid of him. "Do you expect me to lie? To tell you it's not true, that I'm not betrothed, that it was all a horrible dream? Do you want me to cradle your head in my arms, stroke your hair and make it all better?" I glare snidely. "I won't do it, Lucius. What have I ever done to indicate that you should expect that of me?"

Lucius is again silent, this time only for a moment. "You are supposed to be mine," He says coldly. "Everybody knows that. Even our Lord has acknowledged that we would be a perfect pair. He told me once that you were the only woman worthy of me." He takes a step towards me. I do not recoil, but god, how I want to. "Do you betray your Lord, as well as me, Bella?"

"No." A cold fury rises in my chest at his words. How dare he suggest that I would ever, ever turn from the path my Lord has chosen from me? There are very few things in this life that I am passionate about. My Lord is one of them. I would follow him to the ends of the earth and back, and there is little doubt that I will. If he came to me and told me to marry Lucius, I would do it, and without a moment's hesitation. I take a moment to calm myself, and then speak again. "You know that I have always done exactly as he's told me to. I have never once strayed from his path, and I never will. For you to doubt that just proves what he has told me." I stare him down. This is going to hurt him, break him. "I am the only woman worthy of you, Lucius. But that is not the matter in question. The matter in question is, are you worthy of me?" I pause, still staring as hard as I possibly can. "And you're not."

He recoils in horror and shock, knowing that I wouldn't have used this argument if I didn't have the words of our Lord behind me. It takes him all of two seconds to compose himself again, but the damage has already been done. I've seen his hopelessness, his despair. He fixes a shielding glare over his wounded face. "How can he possibly be, then?" a slow sneer begins to form on his face. "You know he's not. He's not even one of us!" I can tell by the sudden look of triumph on his face that this new idea has got him convinced of his victory over Rodolphus. I shake my head.

"Not yet," I say coldly. "But he will be." I enjoy watching his face fall. "The Dark Lord is initiating him now."

This is the final straw for Lucius. He fury breaks onto his face in full bloom. "That can't happen!" He yells, overturning one of the ornate wooden side tables that line the hall. It splinters into thousands of shards of wood and scatters all over the floor. "This is my life! He has no right, NO RIGHT, to steal it from me!" He turns on me. "You will not marry this man." There is poison in his words, and for once even I feel the sting of it.

"Yes I will," I say, calm and unruffled by his childish display. I am ashamed for him, ashamed of him, but most of all ashamed that this man, this impetuous, whining little man, thought that I would ever be his. "I will marry Rodolphus in ten days time, and I will do it happily, with our Lord's consent." I again glare pointedly at him, and it stills him. I still have far too much power over this weakling of a man. "I am the Queen of this hive," I say slowly and deliberately. "And whoever marries me is King, next to our Lord, who is already very pleased to be receiving such a passionate and dedicated servant." My voice takes on a mocking tone. "Whatever made you think that you could have any of that? It belongs to me, Lucius, and to my husband." I smile wickedly. "And you will never be my husband."

Lucius looks as though he is about to retaliate, and then something changes in his face, and he turns on his heel to walk away. Half way down the hall, however, he seems to think better of it, and turns back to face me. "This is not over, Bellatrix," he says, and for a moment I feel an almost prophetic chill run down my spine. "Don't ever think it is."

"Run along, Lucius," I say dismissively, and after pausing for a moment, he turns back around and retreats. Only when he is completely out of sight do a reach out a hand to steady myself on the nearest wall. There is no greater surprise than discovering that you are more human than you thought.

oooOOOooo

Rodolphus emerges from the Dark Lord's initiation late in the evening. He looks exhausted, drained. I have never seen him like this. But there is something else, an almost euphoric glow in his eyes. He has been physically broken, but his spirit, his soul has been mended. I rush towards him and cradle his face in my hands.

"It is done," I say, a rare smile breaking onto my face. His expression mirrors mine.

"It is done," He repeats, and then laughs, kissing me lightly. And then his face goes dark for a moment. "So much power," He whispers. "I was angry with you, at first, for not warning me, for not explaining it better. But now I know… there was no way you could have. There aren't words…"

"You think I don't know?" I shake my head and rake at his sweat-drenched hair with my fingernails. "It hurt, to send you to that without warning. But you're right, there aren't words enough to describe his power." I kiss his forehead. "I'm sorry." He grabs my shoulders, a strong, powerful grip.

"Don't ever apologize for this again," He says, almost angrily. "You have given me the greatest gift any person can give. You have helped me pledge my soul to him." He drops to his knees and grabs my hips, laying his cheek against my abdomen. "You are my Goddess, Bellatrix. You have given me life."

I gently pry his arms from me and drop to his level. "Then you are my God." I then take his left arm in my hands and pull up his sleeve, reverently tracing our Lord's freshly minted mark with my fingertips. He shudders. I know that I am hurting him, but it is in all the best ways a person can feel pain. "And with him, we will make an unbreakable Trinity." I bring my lips to the mark and kiss it lightly before kissing his lips. We remain there, kneeling in the middle of the empty room, locked in each others arms, for two hours more. Neither one of us notices the cold of the room or the hardness of the stone floors. We've found a salve for all wounds.

oooOOOooo

"You're leaving me." It is the first time my sister has looked at me when I'm dressed to the nines and been able to refrain from gushing. Her gray eyes look like two dark, watery stones dropped into the lightness of her pale face. And she is crying. I shake my head.

"Narcissa," I say, crossing the room to her, "I am not leaving you. I will never leave you. We've been over this, many, many times." I am shocked as she shrugs off my hand on her shoulder and shies away from me.

"I saw you," she says, bringing her eyes up to meets mine. There is clear hostility in them, something I've never seen in her before, not directed at me. "You didn't know I was there, but I saw you. With him." She narrows her eyes. "He's more to you than you said he was, I know he is." She leans in towards me, her entire body tense with hostility. "You think I can't recognize your passion?" Her laughter comes out as a short hiss. "I know you better than you wish to believe, dear sister, but evidently you still know nothing about me." She is hurt and angry. With Lucius, bringing out those feelings had been a minor victory for me, but Narcissa is different. She is a clingy, petulant little pest, but for some reason at this moment it stings to see her hurt.

"I never lied to you, Narcissa," I say softly, mimicking the innocence that I can usually be sure to find in her. "I'm still not lying. He is not like us. Of course I am passionate towards him… you've seen the man. But that's all it is. Politics and Passion. Believe me, Narcissa." I again reach out to caress her face, and this time she does not move away, opting instead to lean into my touch. "And you're wrong, you know," I say as an afterthought. "I know everything about you."

I've hacked at her angry dams with my kindness, and her eyes spill over suddenly. "I wish you didn't have to marry him," she whispers as I wipe at one of her tears. "I wish we could cash in our accounts and move someplace far away. Why do you have to get married off to some man you hardly know and leave me here in this house with mother and father all alone?"

I would never let her know just how well I know Rodolphus, or just how badly I wish to leave this place, but with him, not her. She must not know that today, in marrying him, I am getting everything I've wished for and more. "I must. It's just the way things are." Narcissa is not an idiot; she would be very unlikely to accept this answer from anyone else but me, and yet she has always been easily swayed by my opinions. She nods silently and sadly, and falls forward, throwing her arms around me.

"Bella," She whispers, sobbing, "Don't leave me. Please, don't leave me." I kiss the top of her head gently.

"I've already told you, darling, I never have, and I never will." I hold her face away from my body so that she can see me clearly. "You are mine. Forever." She nods shakily.

"Forever. Always, Bella."

oooOOOooo

After that, Narcissa was much easier to handle. She was as obedient and trusting as always, waiting sweetly at home while I was with Rodolphus, hardly even aware of her existence save for a tiny prickling in the back of my mind. While she continued to bind herself ever tighter to me, I was loosening myself from my involvement with her, so absorbed was I in the man I was to marry.

As for Rodolphus, he was perfect, everything I could have dreamed of and more. An ideal servant of our Lord, a flawless son, brother and fiancé. We were easily accepted into each other's families, with my mother fawning endlessly over Rodolphus and Agrona Lestrange being rather fond of me. Life was at it's most perfect. Everything was going according to my best laid plans. Our marriage would seal things off nicely, our marriage which was to take place as soon as possible. Our Lord and Master had officially sanctioned the union after inducting Rodolphus into his ranks, much to Lucius' fury, and all that remained was the official ceremony. I had only three weeks to wait until my life reached it's most perfect and beautiful point.

I did not realize then how swift the decline would be once I had taken the summit.