"Bellatrix."

She blinked slowly. Her face was burrowed against Voldemort's chest, and her hair was falling all over him. She pushed herself up and gazed down into Voldemort's eyes, and he smirked at her.

"Merlin's beard. You're beautiful in the morning."

"Master," Bellatrix sighed. She dragged her fingers over his chest and whimpered. "Mmph."

She spent the next fifteen minutes riding him, for he was hard but insensitive in the early hours. She rotated her hips hard down and forward, up and back. She tipped her head and let her hair fall in wild, kinky ringlets around her shoulders and down her back. And Voldemort touched her all over, his hands squeezing at her breasts and fluttering up and down her ribcage. She came hard, and he followed soon thereafter, and then the two of them just lay on the bed in silence. Finally, Voldemort suggested,

"Showers? I'll go first."

Bellatrix held his fingers as he heaved himself off the bed and walked away from her. She was left alone in the bed and stared at the ceiling as she listened to the shower running. She thought back to Voldemort in St Mungo's. He'd been still and silent, and she'd attended to his bodily needs. She'd talked and talked to him, and he'd listened. They'd written letters. They'd danced at a wedding. They'd danced at a garden party. He'd asked her to be with him, to be more than just a one-time date. She'd murdered for him. He'd begun to teach her Occlumency. He was her master.

And as she listened to him in the shower, she realised something.

She was falling in love with him. Not just blind infatuation - real love. She felt something very, very strong toward him. It went far beyond girlish obsession. This was something deep and real and true.

She sheathed her mind in velvety darkness, the sky on the Moon, in case Voldemort was 'listening in' with Legilimency. But the shower stopped, and he came walking out of the bathroom with a towel around his waist, and he said lightly,

"Your turn."

Bellatrix smiled weakly and pulled herself off the bed. She picked up her wand and used it to neaten the blankets and sheets. She took a quick shower, washing her hair and scrubbing off with soap as expeditiously as she could. She wrapped a black towel around her torso and came walking out into the little bedroom, noticing that Voldemort had already dressed in what appeared to be a Muggle suit.

"I suppose I'll just put my party dress back on," Bellatrix said softly, and she picked up her wand from the bedside table. She aimed it at her rumpled dress on the ground and Scoured all of her clothes, from her knickers to her flat shoes. She pulled on her underwear and bra, dragged her cream flouncy dress over her head, and tied the sash at the back. She slid on her flat shoes and mumbled,

"I confess I am quite looking forward to this."

"To killing with me," Voldemort affirmed, and Bellatrix stared at him. Suddenly she had another wild, fleeting thought. She was in love with him. She shut her eyes and thought about the barren surface of the Moon, filling her mind with empty blankness.

"You're hiding something from me," Voldemort said softly. Bellatrix opened her eyes and whispered,

"I can't."

He narrowed his eyes at her and commanded, "Stop hiding."

Bellatrix let down her guards and finally sighed, thinking that she was in love with him. She thought about planting Flobberworms at his house. She thought about kissing him here in this house, of murdering the Tonkses and his enthusiastic reaction to that. She thought of him destroying the bus, of dancing with him. She thought of him, tipsy and defensive, talking sternly to Aster Greengrass Malfoy. She thought of sex with him, every blessed time it had happened. She thought of touching him, of him eating dinner at her parents' house and discussing his plans for wizarding Britain. She thought of all of it, and then she thought that she loved him.

She studied his dark, glittering eyes and waited. What would he say? Would he send her away?

"That pleases me," he said finally, in a quiet, steady voice. He nodded. "It pleases me that you feel that way."

"It does?" Bellatrix was breathless. She would never, ever expect him to love her back, but she was overjoyed that he actually approved of her emotions. She tried to take a breath, but it hitched in her throat and she started to cry instead. She whimpered rather helplessly, "How could I feel any other way towards you?"

He smirked and nodded. "Good girl, Bellatrix. You're such a good girl. Now. Let's go hunt some Muggles."

They came to on the side of a row of houses in Tonsby, a little village in the Midlands. Voldemort adjusted his grip on his wand and peered around as he said to Bellatrix,

"Right. Time to Transfigure our features. I'll do yours, if you'd like."

"Of course, My Lord." Bellatrix thought she had done a fine job of Transfiguring herself when she'd bought him a Flobberworm in Diagon Alley, but she just stood there and let him work. He cast his wand down her front, around her eyes, touching her lips, murmuring spells as he went. Bellatrix wondered what she'd look like when he'd finished. She could hear him lightening and straightening her hair, and when she pulled it aside to look at it, it was smooth and blonde. He was widening her nose, she heard, lightening her eyes. She felt a bit taller all of a sudden, and when she looked down to the ground, her suspicions were confirmed. He aimed his wand at her dress and incanted spells to make it black and to change the material to satin.

"Now you do me," Voldemort said, curling up half his mouth and surprising Bellatrix. She scoffed and pointed her trembling wand at him.

"Are you certain?" she asked.

"Do it now, before anyone comes," Voldemort demanded. Bellatrix nodded and began muttering Transfiguration spells. She made his eyes green, made his hair lighter and thicker and messier. She smoothed his face and pulled out the chipped part of his chin, which would have been a giveaway. She added some weight to him with an apologetic look, and she Conjured eyeglasses, which she handed him. He slid them on, staring at her through the clear lenses, and nodded.

"Now we are disguised," he said with a little smile, "and we can hunt. What do you feel like, this morning, Bella? An old woman doing her shopping? The driver of a car?"

"Two cars," Bellatrix breathed. "Let's crash some cars."

"All right," said Voldemort, sounding very amused. He strode around the side of the row houses, and Bellatrix followed him. He started to walk alongside the road, and he said quietly to Bellatrix, "The moment two cars are headed towards one another, make one swerve."

Bellatrix grinned and gleefully skipped up alongside Voldemort. She swished her wand a little, and sparks came out.

"You're entirely too excited about this," chided Voldemort, but he seemed awfully beguiled by her behaviour. He gave Bellatrix a warm look and paused, whispering,

"I made you pretty, but you're so much more beautiful with your dark curls and your dark eyes and your dark… your dark soul is still there, I suppose."

"I suppose so, Master," Bellatrix confirmed. She turned her attention to the road then, for one car was headed north and the other south. They were approaching one another, and Voldemort said,

"Wait… wait until they're close."

"Yes, My Lord." Bellatrix raised her wand. She was steady and sure now, not shaking the way she'd done when she'd adjusted Voldemort's features. She waited until the cars neared one another, and then she cried out, "Derigo!"

She yanked the southbound car hard to the right, and the tyres squealed loudly. There was a hiss, the smell of burning rubber as the driver slammed on the brakes, but it was too late. The cars careened into each other with a terrible smashing crunch. Smoke arose from the crumpled fronts of the cars at once, and the northbound car was shoved back and to the side by the impact. Glass shattered and landed all over the road in tiny shards. The creak of bending metal sounded in the quiet village morning, and then the door of the southbound car opened. A bloodied man crept out of the car, down onto the road where the glass had landed, and he called out to Voldemort and Bellatrix,

"I lost control somehow… can you… can you go phone…"

He trailed off then, and he collapsed onto the road. Bellatrix aimed her wand at the man and cried out,

"Avada Kedavra!"

There was a violent flash of green light. The man's visible breathing ceased, and he lay in a lifeless slump halfway inside the car and halfway on the road. Bellatrix giggled.

Voldemort looked down to Bellatrix and raised his eyebrows.

"Well," he said, "that was fun. Let's go."

"Bellatrix," said Madam Carte, and Bellatrix set down her bottle of Draught of Peace. She'd dosed Mr Bummons with some more of the stuff; he'd been having crippling panic attacks after ingesting Wild Mind Poison on accident. Madam Carte gestured for Bellatrix to walk over to her. Madam Carte pulled them over to the window and said quietly,

"Your sister Andromeda has been admitted to the hospital. I thought you ought to know."

"My sister Andromeda?" Bellatrix blinked. "What's happened to her?"

"She's been Obliviated," Madam Carte said, "so thoroughly that not even members of the Obliviator Squad from the Ministry could restore her mind. They found her early this morning on the street of Diagon Alley, wandering and not knowing who she was. She doesn't know what magic is. She doesn't know her family. The Ministry's already worked on her; our Healers have tried… this must be terribly difficult to hear."

Bellatrix tried not to smile.

"Oh, this dreadful," she lied. "I can't believe she would have been… that someone would have attacked her like this."

"The Ministry searched her mind for any trace of the attack," Madam Carte said, "but they could find nothing. No clues as to who had done it. There's barely anything in her mind anymore, Bellatrix. She's been admitted to the Janus Thickey Ward. Your parents are there now. I think you should go; we'll cover your patients."

"Yes, Madam Carte. Thank you." Bellatrix bowed her head and tried hard to look sad. She blinked quickly a few times and tried hard to force tears to her eyes, but it didn't work. She just planted a deep frown upon her face and said, "I'll go now."

She went to the bank of lifts and hit the button for Janus Thickey. When she walked out onto the floor, she saw her parents standing before a bed. She walked over to them, and Cygnus Black III turned to see his eldest daughter approaching. She nodded, and Cygnus scowled. Druella turned to Bellatrix and hissed,

"He's gone too far this time, Bellatrix. Andromeda had many flaws, but she was still our daughter."

"Was? Is." Bellatrix scowled. Druella's eyes were swollen and puffy, as though she'd been crying for hours. Bellatrix shifted on her feet. "Who's gone too far?"

"Tom Riddle," Druella snarled. "We know he did this."

"How do you know?" Bellatrix demanded, and Cygnus said,

"It's the only explanation that makes sense, Bellatrix. He knew she was dating that Mudblood boy who disappeared. He knew she was a Blood Traitor."

"Can you prove it was him?" Bellatrix said, tipping up her chin. "Perhaps it was some friend of Ted Tonks. Or perhaps -"

"It had to have been Tom," said Cygnus. "He's crossed a line."

Bellatrix licked her lips and said, "I'll go talk to him."

"Yes, do." Druella looked to where Andromeda lay sedated in the bed. They'd probably suspended her so that they could keep searching her mind, Bellatrix thought. She looked peaceful, as though she was merely sleeping. Bellatrix's stomach actually clenched a little, and she blinked a few times.

"I'll go talk to him," she said again.

"Bella. I was wondering when you'd come," said Voldemort, holding the door aside and letting Bellatrix walk into the house at Bassett Gardens. "I heard what happened to your sister."

"You… you heard?" Bellatrix stared up at him in disbelief. "It wasn't you, Master?"

"No," he said, shaking his head. "It wasn't me. I suspect it was Abraxas Malfoy, or his son Lucius. I had discussed with Abraxas that your sister was the girlfriend of the disappeared Mudblood Ted Tonks. This is probably an act conducted to try and impress me."

"Someone trying to get into your good graces," Bellatrix said numbly. She shut her eyes. "They say she'll never recover."

"Sorry; are you distressed about your traitor sister?" Voldemort snapped, and Bellatrix opened her eyes.

"N-No. Of course not, My Lord. I need to go see my parents. They're convinced it was you, and they've turned against you because of it."

"We'll go together," Voldemort said, raising his eyebrows. "I'll go to the Janus Thickey Ward myself to pay my respects to your parents. Let's go."

He took hold of the elbow of Bellatrix's Mediwitch uniform, and he Disapparated from the spot, coming to outside Purge and Dowse Department Store.

Author's Note: Is he telling her the truth? Is someone trying to impress Voldemort, or did he do it himself? And the two of them really seem to enjoy hurting Muggles, huh?

Thanks as always for reading and please do review.