The Croft - Lestrange Estate - June 23, 1996.
Thorfinn Rowle was ready to explode. For the last five days, he had been stuck in the Lestrange family estate keeping Bellatrix away from the dark lord. To say that he was furious with those who had been at the department of mysteries six days ago when the world finally learned that he had returned was an understatement. He had crucio'd everyone who had been there and even Amycus Carrow when he had dared to interrupt him.
The Dark Lord had taken up residence inside the Malfoy Manor and banned Bellatrix from his side. To say that she was taking it badly was an understatement. The south wing was destroyed, the house-elves had taken to hiding in his suite whenever she got too close, to the point where he couldn't take a shower without finding at least three of them using toothbrushes on the grouting. He even suspected they were sleeping in closets to avoid their volatile mistress.
Rabastan Lestrange, her brother in law, looked at the whole thing as the most amusing show he had ever seen. With every room she destroyed, he took bets on how long it would take her and what spells she would use. According to him, this little display was nothing, he said the west wing had been destroyed the night she married Rodolphus. The west wing was modern compared to rest of the estate, having obviously been added in the last century. What bothered Thorfinn the most was that somehow he had unofficially become her keeper. When her rage would quieten and she lost momentum she would seek him out and cling to him as though he was an anchor in her madness.
She had spoken only briefly during those times, and when Thorfinn asked why she was with him, she would become violent. It was Rabastan who gleefully informed him that she hated her husband and his family, that she despised that her sister got to choose who they married and she was forced to wed the "high lord pauper". Having been living in their home for a month Thorfinn didn't understand until Rabastan explained that she hated him and his bleeding heart brother for not being as proactive and determined in their support of the dark lord as she was. Their marriage had only been consummated after copious doses of love potions and both of them had avoided the other as much as possible.
When the other residents of the house had seen how being around the tempestuous Viking had calmed the banshee death-eater they had abandoned him to the task of keeping her away from the dark lord. At this moment she was sat in the solarium, staring out at the tree-lined grounds, humming some tune that sounded haunting to Thorfinn's ears. She was clutching a doll and she looked smaller than usual, as she rocked back and forth. The madness of Azkaban was so apparent in her quiet moments that Thorfinn thought that this was when she was at her most terrifying.
He took a seat next to her on the wicker sofa and was not surprised when the witch leaned against him, her small arm looping around his as her yellowing nails traced the skin on his wrist. He could see out the corner of his eye a couple of house-elves scurrying to repair the damage their mistress had wrought before she would become enraged again. These moments gave the towering Viking too much time to think. This was not what he had planned for his life, but his father was unable to serve the dark lord and the Rowle family had a deep disliking of Dumbledore and his politics. He had wanted to travel the world, study obscure magic and use it to further his own causes.
Instead, because his father had burned himself alive in a fit of rage Thorfinn had been thrust into the position of the family patriarch far earlier than he had intended and he was responsible for his sister's and mother's well-being. His father was still alive, but barely and his bitterness was tangible every time Thorfinn went home. He had offered Thorfinn up on a platter to the dark lord in an attempt to get his position back but he was useless and the dark lord had known this. Instead, Thorfinn had been given a position on the Wizengamot and now had weekly assemblies to attend that bored him to tears.
His initiation into the death-eater ranks had been overseen by Bellatrix and she had taken a liking to him after seeing him set an entire muggle village in Romania on fire with fiend fire. Whilst the screams had haunted him she had danced to them as though they were producing the most euphoric music that she had ever heard. She had spoken in his favor to the dark lord, getting him placed within the inner circle and often accompanying her on missions for the dark lord. Their master had pulled him aside and ordered him to make sure that she came to no harm, he did not think she would survive another extended stay amongst the dementors.
"Finn" he heard her whisper and tensed, wondering which part of her broken psyche had emerged this time, his mentor and the Bella he imagined she was before Azkaban or the banshee who would destroy everything just to see it destroyed. "Finn" she whispered a little louder and her eyes met his. "If I asked you a favor would you help me." He removed his arm from her clutches and wrapped it around her shoulder as though to warm her, but also to be able to restrain her just in case.
"If what you asked of me does not anger the dark lord or hurt his plans then I would help you. You've helped me and my sister's its only right that I help you if I can." He watches as she considers what he says, mulling it over to see if his answer is adequate. She leans further into him and he watches as she wandlessly casts a silencing charm around them, a small gesture that proves just how powerful she still is. "My cousin was saved from a death I know I managed to cause. He died, we all saw it and he came back with a woman. A woman I saw leaving this house nearly seventeen years ago. I want her destroyed and I want what she took from me back."
"You want her and your cousin dead?" He asked, and she growled, clearly not happy with being misunderstood. "No, I'll kill that traitor Sirius myself, and this time I'll drain all his blood to make sure he stays that way. No, I want what she created with my husband. He looked haunted when he saw her and there is a child on the Black family tree that comes solely from him. A girl, but the name is obscured and Kreacher can't read it. I want that child, and I want you to bring her to me. He has denied me children so I will take his for myself. Marry her if you have to, just bring her to me."
If he had not been raised in pureblood society he might have balked at the idea of someone suggesting not only that he get married but that he do so at someone else's behest. Marriages in pureblood society were a way of forming alliances and an alliance with the deranged witch and favorite of the dark lord was something he could see the benefit of. She had influences that he could use to his benefit further down the line. His mother and family had been nagging him to get married since his father's accident and one that had profit for him was one he would consider.
Thorfinn looked at her, and the fevered passion in her features and he knew she wouldn't hesitate to kill him if he refused her. Bring her a girl he didn't know or care about to keep in the insane witch on his side seemed like an easy deal for him to make. "If I bring her to you, what will you do for me in return? The dark lord may look unkindly on stealing the child of another death-eater, especially one he is as fond of as Rod."
She grinned, showing her rotting yellow teeth and eagerly sat up from him, looking like a child on Christmas morning. "He didn't tell the dark lord that she existed, he did not offer her to him as he required his followers do, he will be punished. I will be rewarded and you, my dear boy will be rewarded as well. I'll even insist that she becomes your bride, not one of those little blood traitor whores that have been following you around since you became Lord Rowle but a girl who has been so well hidden I have no doubt she will be chaste and pure and all yours for the corrupting. You'll have a bride to breed your heirs upon and maybe at long last the dark lord will rid me of that spineless fool I am forced to be married to."
Thorfinn watched the mania grow in her eyes and knew, just knew that if he didn't help her she would find someone who would after she destroyed him and probably his sisters as well. He knew it may take months for him to even find out the girl's name and then he would have to find her. "I'll help you" he spoke, cutting her off with a gesture when she went to speak. "I'll help you, but if the girl will cause me disfavor with the dark lord I will not marry her, I'll give her to Antonin and his perversions instead. I am lord of my family and have to protect it, I can not have a shameful lady of the house." She threw herself at him and hugged him tight, her happiness drawing loud, glass shattering laughter out of her. She stood and curtseyed to him with a look that promised absolute chaos and delight before she turned back to the window and spoke. "Kreacher couldn't read the name, but darling Draco heard them talking as they brought the children back to the school. The girl you're looking for is Hermione Granger."
Thorfinn remembered the annoying little swot from his final year in school who almost got him expelled and swore: "fuck".