And disaster strikes. *applause* I just love Rodolphus.

Dora


Nymphadora leant against the wall of Teddy's room, watch the fifteen-month-old child playing on the floor. "Mumma!" the child grinned, motioning to the stack of blocks he'd made and accidentally knocking them over. His face fell, but he began to stack them back determinedly.

She wasn't exactly watching him, more like she was avoiding her room in the hopes that Rodolphus would not come tonight. She was very much frightened at things that had been happening to her the past few days, beginning to put the clues together and coming to a terrifying conclusion. Dora did not want to have to explain her fears to anyone, and was terrified to find out the truth, especially since no one knew what had been happening between her and Rodolphus.

Nymphadora looked back at Teddy when he called her again, this time not moving his hands as he grinned at her. She gave him a small smile, then walked over, leaning down and kissing his brown hair. "I love you," she murmured. "Good job, Teddy."

"Tanks," Teddy answered proudly as his grandmother had taught him.

Her mother didn't say anything to her, but Nymphadora felt that her mother knew something was wrong, and sensed the same thing from Narcissa. Nymphadora avoided Draco, completely aware that the boy knew what was happening to her more and more often through the past weeks.

Too soon, Nymphadora found herself getting ready to go to bed, though Rodolphus' signal to her was lit up: he would be paying her a visit tonight. Nymphadora squeezed her eyes shut, knowing exactly how he liked her to prepare for him, but decided that she wasn't going to do it.

Rodolphus entered the room, his eyes narrowing as he saw Nymphadora, fully dressed, sitting on the bed. "We've been over this," he growled at her. "You did not obey, Nymphadora. You know what that means." He stormed across the room to her, grasping her as he surged a Curse through her body.

She shrieked in pain, a kind of alarm going off in her as she realised that it had probably been a bad idea to anger him if she was to tell him what she suspected. "R—Rod, please don't!" she cried. "Please—please—you can't—"

"And why can't I punish you?" he pouted, pretending to be disappointed. "I expected you to be all ready for me, and here you don't even think you deserve punishment for disobeying me..."

"No!" Nymphadora shrieked, her hair turning white as he reached for her again. "Rodolphus, please! You wouldn't if you knew!"

"If I knew what?" he rolled his eyes at her. "And don't tell me the Bloody Baron is here. I don't care."

She shivered, shaking her head, though she hesitated to speak, and he frowned at the unusual look in her eyes. "Nymphie," he sighed, playing with her hair though he kept a hand on her side in case she decided to act out. "Tell me what's troubling you."

Nymphadora squeezed her eyes shut in horror at the words she knew she must speak. "I—I—I might be—well, I think—I think I'm pregnant." She cringed at the sound of that sentence, feeling Rodolphus withdraw his hands from her. She opened her eyes to see him staring at her with the most insane combination of emotions on his face.

He suddenly whipped out his wand, and she whimpered, but he yelled, "Hold still!" and pointed the wand at her stomach. Seconds later he breathed, "Bloody hell, Nymphie, you are pregnant. You're carrying my child..."

She closed her eyes in horror, beginning to cry as the truth dawned on her. "No," she sniffed, and he jumped off the bed, walking toward the door. "Where are you going?" she yelled after him.

"I'll be back!" he warned her, then almost ran from the prisoners' ward.

"N—no," Dora sobbed, sinking down onto her bed. She needed to fix this: she needed to hide what had happened between her and Rodolphus. There could be no child to bring her worst memories to her every second of every day.

The witch whipped out her own wand, pointing it at her stomach as she winced, thinking of the pain and how she would be injuring herself as well. She was just about to do it when Andromeda walked into the room and stopped dead in her tracks. "Nymphadora Lupin, what are you doing?" she demanded. "Stop this instant!" She practically ran across the room and wrestled the wand away from the hysterical witch. "What are you doing?"

Nymphadora screeched in her rage, her hair red and white together. "Give it back!" she screamed. "I can't let it live! I can't mother such a child!"

Andromeda stared at her. "Nymphadora, stop screaming and tell me what is going on," she said to her daughter.

The girl threw herself into her mother's arms, sobbing desperately. "Mum," she sobbed in horror, "I—Rodolphus has been forcing me to sleep with him, and now—I'm pregnant with his child! Give me my wand! I've got to kill it! I can't bear the shame of it—oh, I can't have his baby!"

"Nymphadora," Andromeda breathed in horror, and the girl cringed at her mother's scandalised tone. "Rodolphus has been coming here?"

"Yes!" she shrieked. "He hurts me! And he was just here, and I told him, and—I don't know what he's doing now, but he's going to come back—he said so!"

"I knew something was wrong," Andromeda groaned. "I should have talked to you about it!"

Nymphadora wrenched herself away from her mother, throwing herself onto the bed. "No one can stop him!" she yelled, her hair pure white now. "Not even Bellatrix could tell him not to! I'm his toy! He takes out his anger at Bellatrix on me! He can't hurt her because she's the Dark Lord's bitch!"

Andromeda bit her lip. "Shh, Dora," she said. "You shouldn't say such things..."

"That's right," came Rodolphus' voice from the doorway, and Nymphadora cried out in fear as the man walked toward the two witches.

"Leave her alone!" Andromeda glared at him. "You've done enough, Lestrange!"

Rodolphus chuckled. "Andromeda. She's pregnant with my child. I will no more leave her alone than I did before, though...I will definitely not abuse her as much..."

Tears of shame streamed down Nymphadora's face as the man walked over to her, reaching over and placing his hand over her stomach. "I have to take you to the Dark Lord before Bellatrix finds out and comes after you and the child," Rodolphus said, sticking his wand in her side. "Bellatrix will kill you both without hesitation unless she is restrained. This is the only way, Nymphadora."

"No," Dora sobbed. "Just get rid of it!"

"No!" Rodolphus glared at her. "Nymphie, if you dare try that, there will be punishment. I have waited too long to be a father: I will not have you destroy this opportunity."

"Even if it's a half-blood?" Andromeda demanded. "You know that you will be the brunt of all the Inner Circle jokes now? Do you really want the shame, Rodolphus?"

Rodolphus dragged Nymphadora up from the bed, half supporting her as she sobbed uncontrollably, devastated at her own news. "I've waited more than twenty years to hear that I might finally be a father," he said coldly. "And there is nothing more shameful than Bellatrix and Delphini, so it does not matter to me the blood of the mother. The power is the same, anyway."

"I won't!" Nymphadora screeched, and Rodolphus slapped her across the face brutally. She fell silent for a moment, seeing spots before her eyes before Rodolphus flung open the door to her room.

"You will do as I say," he hissed in her ear as he dragged her with him. "Especially if the Dark Lord orders you to."

"Nooooo!" Nymphadora screamed in despair, and Andromeda stared after her daughter, the hysterical witch being dragged off to the Dark Lord by her abuser, the father of her child.


Rodolphus had his arm wrapped around Nymphadora, his wand in her side. He had decided to take Rabastan's advice in asking the Dark Lord to allow Dora to have the child, since both his baby and the baby's mother would be in serious danger from Bellatrix. She was sobbing loudly as he dragged her down the hall, and he jostled her sharply. "Quiet down," he growled at her. "It's not as if I'm particularly displeased at this news."

"I hate you," Nymphadora sobbed, her hair white. "I hate you!"

"Shhh," he murmured, hearing a couple doors open somewhere in the manor. "They will all know soon, but you needn't tell them right now, Nymphie."

She choked on her sobs, gasping for breath a moment before Rodolphus pulled her on into the main hall of Malfoy Manor. "My Lord," he said, dragging Nymphadora forward and throwing her to her knees before he bowed to the floor as well.

The Dark Lord looked from his most faithful's husband to the man's broken, sobbing niece. "Nymphadora," he said coldly, "why do you make such a scene? Surely nothing can be that upsetting...in recent times, that is." A smirk of amusement broke across his face.

Rodolphus looked up, his gaze determined. "My Lord," he said, then continued after Nymphadora had quieted a little, "the girl is pregnant with my child."

Nymphadora began to sob all over again, and the Dark Lord nodded, raising an eyebrow slightly. "I see," he mused, walking closer to the two. "So why have you brought her to me, hmm?"

"For protection," Rodolphus answered. "And permission for her to have the child. You know they will be in danger when this gets out."

"Ah, yes," the Dark Lord mused. "Bella will have a lot to say, surely. Are you sure you want this child, though, Rodolphus? Nymphadora will not be the most compliant mother..."

"She is easier to tame than Bellatrix," Rodolphus answered, scowling at the witch kneeling on the floor beside him. "I know what will come of this, my Lord, but I ask that you give us permission for this child to be born. I have long waited for a child."

"You have," the Dark Lord sighed, nodding slightly.

"I will ask it," Rodolphus said finally, looking up at his master. "I will ask it as a favour for my service—my years in Azkaban."

Lord Voldemort looked at Rodolphus almost curiously, then said, "I cannot deny you do deserve that reward. I grant you permission for this, your half-blood child to be born. There is one thing, however." Rodolphus looked up, his eyes dark and guarded. "You must be the one to tell Bellatrix that she has lost her toy for the next few months."

Rodolphus nodded, his eyes lit up with a joy he could not hide. "Thank you, my Lord," he breathed. "I am most grateful."

"Yes, yes," the Dark Lord mused, waving him away. "And Nymphadora—" she looked up at him through her tears, shaking in her horror and shame "if you try to get rid of this child, you will suffer the loss of your own child."

"No!" Nymphadora cried out in anguish. "My Lord—!"

"Take her away," the Dark Lord said carelessly, and Rodolphus obeyed immediately.

"No, no, no," Nymphadora sobbed as the man half carried her back toward the prisoners' ward. "Please..."

"Please what?" Rodolphus outright laughed, and Dora couldn't remember him ever sounding so happy. "I told you, Nymphie, you simply must be more specific."

Nymphadora just cried hopelessly, not even fighting him as he finally had to levitate her to the prisoners' wing. Rodolphus finally pulled her into his arms again just inside the ward and turned her to look at him. "I will be keeping an eye on you," he told her quietly. "I will know if you try anything, Nymphadora. I don't think you want to risk your precious Teddy, do you?"

"N-no," she sniffed, replying automatically before he could demand a reply. She heard her mother's voice and closed her eyes in shame. "I don't want to be here," she whimpered.

"Well, you're stuck here," he said sharply, then motioned to Andromeda. "Take good care of her. I wouldn't want anything to happen to the child. For your sake as well, Nymphie."

Nymphadora shuddered as her mother wrapped her arms around her, cradling her gently as she completely ignored Rodolphus. "I love you," Andromeda murmured to her, and Nymphadora just shook her head, sobbing heartbrokenly.

Rodolphus finally turned and left Nymphadora to her misery, a proud smirk on his features. Never in his wildest dreams would he have dreamed of having a half-blood child, let alone being happy with one, but he would take what he could get. After all, he would have full control of his son or daughter, whatever it was. Laughing to himself, he went straight back to his brother's room, ready to celebrate his good fortune.

Knocking on the door, Rodolphus was soon admitted by Rabastan. "Did you get his okay?" Rabastan asked, half earnestly.

"Yes," Rodolphus laughed. "Yes, I did."

"You're insane, to be so happy at such a child," Rabastan sighed, shaking his head at his brother before he laughed too. "All right, then. Sit down. I'll pour the drinks." He eyed his brother for a moment, then said, "So how does Nymphie compare to Bellatrix?"

"Wouldn't you like to know?" Rodolphus smirked, taking the glass his brother handed him and downing it in one drink.

"Yeah," Rabastan grinned, sitting down with his own glass. "Because once Bella kills you, Nymphie will be unprotected. I wouldn't mind a shot at her, though I'd like a bit of warning."

"Unpractised?" Rodolphus smirked, and Rabastan laughed uproariously.

"Rod, you are too happy," he laughed. "You'll sing a different tune when Bella gets a hold of you."

Rodolphus just grinned and held out his glass for more wine. "I intend to make the most of the next few months," he told his brother. "With Nymphie and Bella both."

Rabastan grinned, then said, "I dare you to show me just one memory, Rod. Just one." Rodolphus glared at his brother, and Rabastan said, "Come on! It's not as if I haven't seen you and Bella! Just one?"

After a few moments, Rodolphus shrugged, laughing in delight, and nodded before sitting on the edge of his chair eagerly. "Do you have the Pensieve?"


Andromeda cradled her hysterical daughter for a long while, trying to calm her, but not knowing what to say. She could not get over the shock that Rodolphus Lestrange had been raping her daughter and had finally got her pregnant. She was too horrified to try to calm Nymphadora without making the girl more hysterical.

The girl was barely calming down when Narcissa entered the room, standing near the door. She looked at the two, then sighed and walked over to them. She sat down on Dora's other side, then asked, "What happened to bring him running down here twice in the same evening?"

Nymphadora cringed into her mother's side, unwilling and unable to speak through her sobs. Andromeda looked across her daughter's head at her sister. "Rodolphus...has finally fathered a child."

Narcissa's eyes widened in shock, the witch pressing her hand against her heart. "Dora?" she breathed. "Oh, Dora!"

The young witch didn't even look up, filled with shame at the discussion going on around her. Andromeda sighed, pressing her cheek against her daughter's head. "Dora has been ordered by the Dark Lord to carry this child and bring it to life," she said to Narcissa. "If she loses the child, she will lose Teddy as well."

Narcissa took a sharp breath, shaking her head in disbelief as Andromeda motioned her to be very careful what she said. "Oh dear," she sighed. "At least you get a break from training and missions, though."

"Only to be half killed by Bella when I return!" Nymphadora cried, not comforted.

"She'll hurt him, too, don't worry," Narcissa nodded. "She will not be pleased."

"I can't stand it," Dora sobbed. "I'm just a pawn in this awful, awful game!"

Andromeda hugged the girl tightly, murmuring, "Dora, we all are. And I know you've been singled out, but we all serve our purposes. I—I'm sorry."

Nymphadora clung to her mother. "Why me?" she whimpered, tears streaming down her face. "Why? Why did I have to be the one that everyone hates and decides is the traditional Lestrange toy?"

Both older witches didn't answer. All of them knew that there was nothing to be done but to endure the hardship and pain of their captivity.