Disclaimer: I don't own these wonderful characters they all belong to the wonderful J.K Rowling. I thank her for letting me use them though! What I wouldn't do if I actually had Rodolphus... :P
A/N: Set from trial after the fall of The Dark Lord to their escape in OotP
Together Again
"I hereby sentence, Bellatrix Lestrange; Rodolphus Lestrange; Rabastan Lestrange and Barty Crouch Jr to life imprisonment for the torture and permanent incapacitation of Frank and Alice Longbottom."
I was shocked to say the least, but no one saw any of that. I promised myself I would remain stoic to the end,
"Throw into Azkaban we will wait! The Dark Lord will rise again!" I announced to the courtroom, knowing my words had no effect on the angry members of the Wizengamot, many of whom were friends with the Longbottoms. Stupid foolish blood traitors! If they had given us the information we wanted, none of us would be in this situation right now.
"Take them away!"
Three Dementors glided into the room, instantly shrouding it in a cloak of despair. My shock at finding the Dark Lord gone reverberated ten fold in my head as we were led out of the court.
"Bella, my darling, how are you holding up?" Rodolphus whispered from my side as we walked the corridors out of the Ministry. I glanced briefly in his direction,
"As well as one could in the situation." He chuckled slightly in response. We continued on in silence for half and hour when I reached out and grasped his hand. Panic began to overtake my senses; I never planned for this! The Dark Lord was not supposed to die!
"Deep breaths, Bella. We will be okay, we are together." Rodolphus reassured me, attempting to calm me down. It wasn't working.
"Rodolphus, he will be back won't he?" I implored a slight edge of pleading in my voice.
"Yes, Bella, I am sure of it. He told us that nothing would be able to kill him, not with the steps he had taken." He replied firmly. "He said that anyone faithful to him would never suffer at the hands of the incompetent Ministry. He will come!" he finished vehemently. I could feel my panic subsiding at the strong words of my husband. We were together and we will wait for the Dark Lord and everything will be alright.
Suddenly we came to a stop I looked outside of the prison carriage we were riding in and noticed it was dark, we had been travelling for over two hours.
"Out you get, Death Eater scum!" called an Auror who was guarding the carriage.
I stepped out of the carriage first, ahead of my husband, I looked up at was going to be our "home" for the rest of our lives. My heart fell; it was a dreadful looking fortress. I could only imagine what the conditions were like inside, not counting the effects of the Dementors. I looked briefly at Rodolphus who had the same dread in his eyes. He reached out and clasped my hand. I smiled briefly at the contact, grateful he was trying to comfort me.
"It will be fine, Bella. We will wait the Dark Lord and he shall reward us greatly for our unwavering loyalty." Rodolphus whispered in my ear as we began to walk up the dark, narrow path which led to the entrance of the fortress. When we were inside, we stopped at the entrance of two paths: one which led to the right and one which led to the left.
"Okay this way Lestrange." One Auror snapped at Rodolphus pulling his hand out of my grip and leading him to the left. I made to follow when I was held back by a second Auror.
"Not you Bellatrix." I glanced wildly between Rodolphus and the guard, panic surfacing in my chest. I was confused; I didn't understand why I wasn't going down the same path as him. Rodolphus turned at the sound of the other Auror's voice,
"Why not?" She stays with me!" he barked back, barely containing the fear in his voice.
The first Auror just sneered at him,
"You think we are going to let you stay with your precious wife, you're in here for punishment, Lestrange, not a family vacation!" The second Auror pulled at my shoulder,
"This way Bellatrix." I struggled in the mans strong grip,
"No! No! I want to be with Rodolphus. You will do as I say!" I demanded of the man.
"Now, now sweet," he jeered, "That's not very polite is it."
"I will not do as you say unless I stay with Rodolphus!" I cried, throwing my self at his grip to break free, to no avail.
"Use those pureblood manners of your that old Druellawould have taught you, then I may consider your request." He offered. I sighed inwardly with relief; they were going to listen to me. As I closed my eyes in relief I missed the evil glint in the man's eyes which straight away would have told me he would do no such thing.
"Please, let me stay with my husband. I don't want to be apart from him." I looked deep into the man's eyes hoping to find some glimmer of compassion that deep down I know I didn't deserve. Unfortunately I was proved right.
"Just like that poor kid Neville wouldn't want to be apart from his parents… Well too bad for him now, isn't it? You made that choice for him, now I will make this choice for you." He paused for effect, "No, Lestrange, I will not let you stay with your husband." My heart practically stopped at the thought of a lifetime without Rodolphus. By this time Rodolphus was already being dragged up the corridor to the left.
"No! No! Bellatrix! Stop! I want to be with her! You can't do this to us! You can't!" he started hollering, losing all vestiges of control and assurances that everything would be fine. My heart broke to see him like that and I continued struggling harder against my bonds.
"Rodolphus!" I screamed as I was dragged down the corridor to the right. "NO!" As we both reached the edge of the corridor where it veered off into dark rows of cells, Rodolphus and I locked eyes for the last time, emotion swelling deep within his eyes as he yelled,
"I love you Bella. He will come!"
"I love you too Rodolphus! I love you so much!" Then he was dragged out of sight. I gave up all fight as I focused all my energy not to fall apart and cry.
Cold hard stone greeted my face as I was thrown into my cell.
"Hope you have fun, Lestrange, without your poor darling husband!" the Auror sneered at me. I turned away from the bars, resolutely ignoring him. I heard him snort,
"Have a nice life Bella!" he spat scathingly, and he walked away. I listened as his footsteps slowly resounded into nothingness. The dank musty air swallowing up the sound. In the distance I could still hear Rodolphus, shouting and screaming my name, demanding to be placed with me. I fell onto the moth eaten blanket on the floor and broke down in tears, despair washing over me as two Dementors flanked my cell, feeding on my fear of being alone, being worthless. I screamed out Rodolphus' name one last time before I collapsed with exhaustion, the events of the past few days finally catching up to me. Before the dark shadows of sleep took me one last vicious though crossed my mind:
You're going to be here a very long time, Bella.
BOOM!
I jumped up from the floor where I lay, where I had lain for every day for the past fourteen years. An explosion echoed through the prison. I was so sure this was it now, The Dark Lord coming to rescue us. I felt the mark burning steadily stronger all year; I knew he would be back.
"Bellatrix is that you?" a voice came from behind the bars. I turned to look closer.
"Lucius?" I croaked, hardly daring to believe that I would be seeing my brother-in-law again,
"Yes, Bella, it's me. Let's get you out of here! The Dementors have finally returned to the Dark Lord's side and Azkaban has been broken open!" he announced proudly.
"So it is true, The Dark Lord has returned?" I ventured.
"Of course Bellatrix, he returned to us June last year, that's seven months ago now."
I could see Lucius grin in the dusty darkness in front of my eyes, "Enough talk, you're free again!" He waved his wand and the door swung open. I ran out of the door and into Lucius' arms,
"Thankyou! Have you released Rodolphus yet?" I asked as I extricated myself from his arms.
"No, I haven't seen him yet. I looked for you first, Narcissa made me promise to find you. I don't know where he could be. The whole left section exploded moments ago, with an explosive device that Aurors had placed there." I froze with shock; I could not even begin to believe it. I refused to believe that Rodolphus might be dead.
"Come on, Bellatrix! We can look for him later; we have to get out of here now!" he gabbed my arm before I could protest and apparated me to a clearing where all other Death Eaters had gathered. He sat me down by a tree and handed me a wand to clean myself up with.
"I will go back and check for Rodolphus, It won't be long before the Ministry decide to swarm in the place, so I will be back soon. Don't get your hopes up." He briefly squeezed my shoulder before apparating. I sat there numbly, my mind swirling with all different emotions: joy and the Dark Lord had returned triumph that I had escaped and deep sorrow at the prospect of not reuniting with my husband. I closed my eyes and drifted off to sleep.
Several hours later I shaken awake by Lucius, before he could speak I interrupted him,
"Where is he Lucius? Where is my Rodolphus? Did you find him?" I clutched at the front of his robes, glaring wildly into his eyes,
"I am so sorry Bella, I could not find him. But there is always the possibility that he was already rescued before I got there, Macnair and Jugson, were in that area when I first came to get you." He placed his hand on my shoulder comfortingly before walking away, leaving me with my tumultuous thoughts. I buried my face in my arms, and to my horror I could feel tears making tracks down my dirt ridden face.
"Where is the strong Bellatrix that I fell in love with." A startling familiar voice called from in front of me. I looked up hesitantly, hardly daring to believe my ears. There before me stood Rodolphus, his wild hair, halfway down his back and dirt streaked across his face, but the one thing that hadn't changed was the love that shone through his clear blue eyes. I almost cried with relief as I jumped up and ran into his outstretched arms. I breathed in his familiar scent, something that hadn't changed over fourteen years.
"Merlin, I missed you Bella!" he whispered fiercely as he clung onto me as if for dear life. I looked up into his eyes and smiled for the first time in fourteen years.
"I love you Rodolphus, I love you with all my heart!" I closed the gap between our lips and kissed him roughly, the feel of his lips on mine unlocking thousands of memories that the Dementors had kept from me. As we broke apart he kissed me again and then on the cheek.
"I really thought I lost you Bella, when I escaped I couldn't find you anywhere. I was trapped for some time under some rubble but managed to free myself and I searched around Azkaban looking for you but no-one was around. I ran out side and apparated the first moment I could to a nearby town and used the point me spell to find you." He paused as he recollected his travels. "I could have cried for joy when the spell led me here, I was so sure that it wouldn't work. But Merlin, I'm glad it did." He placed his hands on my face and kissed me tenderly, all his emotion and love for the past fourteen years seemed to be imbued in that kiss. We were interrupted by a cold voice from the centre of the clearing,
"My loyal Death Eaters, those who suffered in Azkaban for me, in my name, I welcome you back proudly to me." He turned to where Rodolphus and I stood clasping hands, "Bella and Rodolphus, the ministry will pay for separating you from each other for so long." We kneeled before him, heads bowed,
"Thankyou my lord," I said," I am so glad to be back here with you"
"As am I to have you back, Bella. We will begin our plans to get the prophecy and have dominion over this world!" he announced before disapparating us away to our new gathering place.
"Bellatrix, Rodolphus, you two are staying with Narcissa and me for awhile, until we can get you sorted out. Come, let's go." Lucius said, after our meeting with the Dark Lord. We arrived at their Wiltshire Manor and stepped into the entrance hall, where Narcissa was waiting anxiously,
"Cissa! I missed you so much!" I ran forward and enveloped her in a hug.
"Bella! I missed too! Oh Bella!" she squeezed even tighter, standing there until Lucius pried her gently from my arms,
"Come, let's have dinner, I'm sure they're starving." He said, grinning wickedly, "I don't suppose thy feed you much in Azkaban,"
"Oh shut up Lucius!" laughed Rodolphus. We walked into the dining room where a sumptuous feast had already been laid out by the house elves; we sat down and started eating straight away.
Hours after dinner Rodolphus and I lay in bed just watching each other.
"I missed you." Rodolphus whispered, kissing my hand.
"I missed you more." I countered, snuggling closer to him. "Hold me close Rodolphus; I want to feel you here when I wake up in the morning." He pulled me closer, resting his chin on my head. I breathed a sigh of relief; I could sleep properly for the first time in nearly fifteen years; by the side of the one I love.
"I'm never letting go again." He murmured into my hair as we both drifted off to sleep, bathed in the bright light of the full moon outside, comforted in the fact that we would wake up and face the new day together at last.
