Dear Lord Voldemort,
It feels odd to call you that. I think I ought to call you… My Lord. Because you've got a title, haven't you? I know wizarding society did away with titles a long time ago, but I find it admirable that you've chosen to use one. Would you be amenable to 'My Lord'?
My mother made Narcissa and me go to Twillfit and Tattings to get new dress robes for Titus Malfoy's wedding. Andromeda refuses to go; she says it will be 'an orgy of Pureblood fetish.' My mother slapped her across the cheek for saying that.
Working at St Mungo's is not the same without my time spent in the bay of Bed Five. I placed two peripheral lines today and had to help when a wizard stopped breathing, but even so, it felt dull. Your presence, even when you were asleep, was mighty.
I want to hear more about your plans for wizarding Britain. Perhaps you'll tell me all about them… when we dance. Twice.
Bellatrix Black
"Bellatrix!"
She whirled around at the sound of her name to see Gardenia Greengrass, the sister of the bride, strolling up. Bellatrix frowned a little, but Gardenia said warmly,
"How good of you to come. All things considered."
"Yes, well. I didn't have much of a choice," Bellatrix said stiffly. "We're all expected to be everywhere, aren't we?"
"I suppose so." Gardenia curled up half her mouth and nodded. She sipped from her flute of Champagne and said, "You look very pretty."
"So will Aster, I'm sure," Bellatrix said bitterly. "She'll make a beautiful bride for Titus."
Gardenia pinched her lips and then said, "Glad you're here, Bellatrix. So good to see you."
Then she turned on her foot and walked away, and Bellatrix shut her eyes for a moment. When she opened them, she saw Tia Rowle, the girl she'd Hexed, speaking with Rodolphus and Rabastan Lestrange. Narcissa was caught up in conversation with Lucius Malfoy. Near them, Abraxas Malfoy and his wife Océane stood talking with Tom Riddle.
Only, he wasn't Tom Riddle, Bellatrix thought. He was Lord Voldemort. She gulped and thought of the letters they'd exchanged over the past week. He'd written to her telling her that he wanted a unified wizarding Britain, separate from the Muggle world, prioritising Blood Purity. He wanted witches and wizards to reign above other Beasts and Beings. He wanted to be in charge of it all, he had said, because he had been born to lead and he was the most qualified person in Britain to lead the charge.
Bellatrix believed all of it. She believed in him, in what he wanted. She believed in Lord Voldemort. She sipped her Champagne and watched him talk with the Malfoys, entranced by him. He was incredibly handsome in a set of luxe-looking black brocade dress robes. His beard had been neatly trimmed, and the sight of it reminded Bellatrix of how she'd kept him neat and clean throughout his coma. She remembered casting careful Severing Charms on his beard, Scouring his body, Freshening his mouth and breath, all whilst he was sleeping. And then he'd awoken and said he'd heard everything she'd said over the last five days, and he'd acted like she was a very interesting witch.
Until we dance, he'd signed his last letter, and Bellatrix had swooned at that. She'd been standing in her bedroom at the Black family home, reading his letter, and her hands had trembled around it. Until we dance - Lord Voldemort.
Bellatrix's eyes welled where she stood. Suddenly a booming voice, magically Amplified, called through the ballroom of Malfoy Manor.
"Gather, if you will, to witness the handfasting of Titus Malfoy and Aster Greengrass."
The Sacred Twenty-Eight were so intermarried that everyone was distantly related to everyone else, so they all made their way towards the platform that had been raised and stood in one mass. Bellatrix searched for Lord Voldemort in the crowd; he appeared to be chatting with Rickard Avery as they milled in the group waiting for the ceremony to begin. He raised his eyes as though he felt Bellatrix's gaze on him, and he stared at her as Avery spoke. He raised his glass to his lips and sipped, and he nodded with a little smile. Bellatrix's heart thumped a tattoo in her chest, and she grinned as she looked away. She straightened the skirts of her black raw silk ballgown and adjusted the beaded off-shoulder neckline. She tugged anxiously at her elbow-length black gloves and fretted that her makeup wasn't well done, that she ought not to have left her hair down.
She'd done that for him. Her mother had scolded her to put it up, to put it into a chignon or a braided style or something, but Bellatrix had simply used some Miss Cassidy's Curl Creme to make her ringlets shiny. She'd pushed back part of her hair with a jeweled clip - onyx and emerald - and she'd left her hair to cascade down her back and fall over her shoulders.
Would he care, she wondered? Would he mind her wild hair? Pretty, he'd said in St Mungo's, when he'd looked into her memories and had seen her getting ready for bed with her curls hanging loose. Would he still think her pretty, when there were so many other witches about?
Bellatrix huffed and scoffed her way through Titus Malfoy's union to Aster Greengrass. She tried not to think of the times she and Titus had kissed, the way he'd touched her through her school uniform and promised her that when they graduated, they'd be married. She tried not to think of how Titus had Conjured her roses on Valentine's Day, the way he'd bought her sweets at Honeydukes and given them to her on days when she'd been sad. She tried not to think of being told by her old friend Hestia Selwyn that Titus was cheating on Bellatrix with Aster Greengrass. She tried not to think of the way she'd stamped to the Hufflepuff table in the Great Hall and called Aster a 'nasty whore.' And she tried not to think of how, in May, Titus had proposed to Aster with a beautiful diamond ring in front of Bellatrix and Dumbledore and everybody else one night at dinner.
But she couldn't help thinking of that. She couldn't help thinking that Aster looked gorgeous in her white lace gown, her blonde hair pulled into milkmaid braids from which a floor-length veil cascaded. Bellatrix's stomach churned with ugly envy when Titus kissed Aster, the cord binding their hands dissolving into the air as their union was sealed. Everyone clapped for them - everyone except Bellatrix, who just stood there watching and feeling like she was going to be sick on the floor.
Titus Malfoy was fabulously wealthy, and Aster Greengrass came from some money, too. Neither of them would have to work a day in their lives, though Bellatrix knew Titus had taken an administrative position at the Ministry of Magic to keep himself busy. Soon enough, Aster Greengrass would have children with Titus, living a life of luxury, and -
"I'm sorry you had to see that."
Bellatrix turned and dropped her empty Champagne glass. Lord Voldemort quickly stuck out his hand and wandlessly Vanished the glass before it hit the ground. Bellatrix's eyes went round, and she whispered,
"My Lord."
His gaze flashed, and he pursed his lips. He flicked his eyes to where Titus Malfoy was leading Aster Greengrass onto the dance floor, and he murmured,
"If I were you, I'd be terribly drunk by now. I admire your self-control."
"I'm two glasses of Champagne in with every intention of having more, sir," Bellatrix said, and he smirked at her. He went a little serious then, looking around before returning his eyes to Bellatrix's.
"You're the prettiest witch here."
"You flatter me," Bellatrix said helplessly. "Aster is -"
"A nasty whore," said Voldemort. Bellatrix realised he'd been watching her memories with Legilimency, that he'd been in her head during the ceremony. Somehow, she couldn't find it in herself to be angry with him about that. Perhaps she should have been, but she wasn't. Instead, it seemed almost… romantic. It seemed wondrous, somehow, that he had such power and could wield it at will. She licked her lips and muttered,
"I find I am not so bitter about being here… having been promised two dances."
"I confess I have been looking forward rather earnestly to those dances," said Lord Voldemort. "I have been rendered rather a fool by them, by the promise of them."
Bellatrix felt like she was going to cry then. It was all too much. Titus marrying Aster. Lord Voldemort's letters over the last week. The memories of caring for him and covering his tracks with the Ministry. She had been taunted by the spectre of the dances, too. She'd been lying awake, night after night, hearing phantom music in her head and imagining his hands on her.
"Miss Black."
She looked up at him and insisted softly, "Bellatrix."
He sank his teeth into his lip and just stared for a long moment. People started clapping, and Bellatrix realised it was because Aster had finished dancing with Titus. The hired orchestra picked back up, and couples began to make their way to the floor.
"Bellatrix," said Lord Voldemort, holding out his white-gloved hand.
"My Lord," she whispered back, and again his eyes flashed wildly. She put her fingers into his palm, and he curled up half his mouth as he murmured,
"I quite like that. My Lord. Shall we dance?"
"Yes." Bellatrix walked with him towards the dance floor, sparing a glance to where Narcissa was tangled up with Lucius Malfoy in a clumsy stance. They were smiling and happy, though, and when Narcissa saw Bellatrix with Lord Voldemort, her younger sister's face broke into a broad grin. Bellatrix felt herself blush, wondering if he was embarrassed to be seen dancing with her.
"Of course I'm not embarrassed. To be dancing with the prettiest one here?" He raised his eyebrows at her. Bellatrix coughed a little laugh and said,
"You told me you weren't in my head all the time."
"I'm curious tonight," he confessed. "I'm being invasive. I apologise."
He curled one hand around Bellatrix's waist and took her other hand in his. She flinched and then relaxed at the feel of him touching her, even through the fabric of his gloves and her gown. She gulped hard and put her hand on his shoulder, and they started to sway.
"You've left your hair down," Voldemort noted after a few notes, "and you've done so for me."
"Yes," Bellatrix confirmed. He flicked his eyes up and down her form and asked quietly,
"What else would you do for me?"
Bellatrix felt her brows furrow. She shook her head, surprised by his question. "Wh-what do you mean? Sir?"
"I am a wretched man," he whispered, "and I am prone to doing terrible things. You didn't flinch, not even a little, when I told you my poison was meant for the Muggle Underground. Instead, you helped me. You Transfigured your features, and you planted Flobberworms in my garden to help my alibi, and you kept caring for me. Obediently. You have already shown such obedience."
Bellatrix nodded and said firmly, "If there is something you wish for me to do, you need only ask."
His face hardened, and he said in a low hiss, "You really are beautiful. So dangerous, and so obedient, and so beautiful."
"Dangerous," Bellatrix repeated. She tipped her head and squeezed at his shoulder a bit. "I like that."
"So do I," he told her. The song ended, and Bellatrix felt sadness wash over her. But then Voldemort tightened his hand on her waist and reminded her, "Two dances."
"I could dance all night with you, I think," Bellatrix chuckled, as the new song started up. This one was a little faster-paced, and Bellatrix adjusted her stance. "I know you have people to talk to."
He met her eyes and told her, "I think I'm having the most important conversation of the night right now."
Bellatrix felt dizzy at that. She nodded and asked, "Have you been well in yourself?"
"I'm perfectly fine. No more brewing in my cellar," Voldemort told her. "And, as I told you, the Flobberworms have all gone."
"Has the Ministry given you any trouble?" Bellatrix asked in a low voice.
"No," he said. Then he looked around and lowered his voice. "I still mean to carry out an attack on Muggles. I've got some ideas. Nothing that I can discuss here, and nothing that I can put into a letter. I want to make a mark so that my old friends from school come crawling back to me as their leader."
"Instill fear," Bellatrix smiled, and Voldemort's fingers cinched around her.
"You like the sound of that."
"I'd be the first in line to obey you once you've attacked the stupid Muggles," Bellatrix promised him, and he shut his eyes for a moment.
"I know you will be," he whispered. "Bellatrix…"
"Can we meet to discuss your plans?" she asked, and he nodded. He opened his eyes and told her, "You know where my house is."
"21 Bassett Gardens, Isleworth," Bellatrix affirmed. Voldemort chewed his lip for a moment and then said,
"Tomorrow evening, at six o'clock, come to my house. We'll have dinner and discuss what I have in mind."
"Dinner?" repeated Bellatrix, and Voldemort scoffed.
"You've seen my house. Don't expect anything formal."
"N-No. Of course not. I'm not expecting… anything." Bellatrix shrugged. The song ended, and Bellatrix reluctantly let her hand slip from Voldemort's shoulder. But he took her wrist and guided it back up, his glove covering hers for a moment before he put his hand back on her waist. Bellatrix was surprised, even more so when he asked her,
"May I have one more dance, Miss Black?"
She grinned. "I'd be honoured, My Lord."
Author's Note: Everybody say "awwwwww." Now they're going to have dinner and discuss plans to murder Muggles. Sounds romantic, no? Well, it is for these two. Thank you so much for reading. I'd really appreciate your feedback.