Lucius Malfoy looked fearfully at the wand pointed at him, and the mad eyes of the young woman holding it.

"Bella... I swear... I never..."

"Crucio."

Bella spoke the curse softly, coldly, but none could mistake the dark rage channeled into the incantation. Lucius screamed as he was hit in the chest with the red light. He'd felt pain, before, but nothing could prepare him for this.

"You dare..." Bella said, still softly, still menacingly...

"BELLA!"

Bella turned, hearing her youngest sister, Narcissa.

"Bella, don't!"

How, Bella wondered, could Narcissa be so weak? Family honor was at stake.

"Cissy, do I have to remind you, Andromeda is pregnant! And he..." She motioned at the writhing Lucius, "refuses to accept responsibility! So..."

"But, it wasn't him!"

Bella shook her head in confusion. What was Cissi saying? Then, realization.

Bella turned back to the still prone Lucius.

"Well, why didn't you say so!"

Lucius looked up incredulously, and painfully gutted out "I... did!"

"Oh. Oops. Sorry."

Lucius attempted to sneer, but control over his facial expressions hadn't returned, yet, so all he could manage was a grimace.

"But.. If Lucius isn't the father, then who?" Bella wondered. Then, another dark expression, much like the one she wore before finding Lucius, came over her face.

"Where's Sirius?" she asked, before storming off in search of her reckless cousin who had just gone too far.

Narcissa was confused, but just for a moment, before, once again, giving chase to her oldest sister.

"It wasn't him, either!" she was calling, as she ran.

Lucius lay there, in pain, hearing a familiar voice.

"Are they gone?"

Lucius's henchmen, Crabbe and Goyle, came into view, rushing to him.

"Are you all right, mate?" asked Crabbe.

"Where were you two a few minutes ago?"

"C,mon, Lucius, it was Bella. So, you OK?"

Finally, Lucius was able to sneer, again.

"Oh... just... bloody... DANDY! I just got CRUCIOED by BELLATRIX BLACK! FOR SOMETHING I DIDN'T EVEN DO! SO, NATURALLY, I'M FEELING BLOODY WONDERFUL!" Lucius realized that he was speaking in what his now very ex, Andromeda, called Capslock, but he didn't care. Sometimes, circumstances just called for it.

"Wow", said Crabbe, amazed. "And I'd heard her Crucios really hurt! I guess you can't believe everything you hear, eh?"

"No", Lucius wearily replied, wondering if conversing with these two was worse than a Crucio from a Black sister. "Why don't you two go find her and tell her that?"

Crabbe looked at Goyle, then shrugged.

"All right", he said. They then left to find Bella.

"Alone, at last", Lucius muttered. And to think, Rodolphus was going to marry that madwoman. Lucius counted his blessings that Andromeda had broken up with him. After all, anyone who'd marry into that family needed a stay at St. Mungo's.