'Bellatrix, why haven't I told you a hundred thousand times how beautiful you are?'

'Master…' She hummed against his lips and petted his chest with her fingertips. His skin was smooth and hard at once beneath her touch, and she whimpered a little. Voldemort bent to kiss her, so much harder this time than he'd done in the corridor at Malfoy Manor. He slid his tongue into her mouth, and she squealed a bit against him. Her fingers convulsed on his bare chest, and his hands were all over her - searching, petting, tightening. She shut her eyes and drowned in him, in the feel of him, and then -

Bellatrix awoke with a gasp, sitting upright in her curtained bed. She breathed heavily as she realised she'd been dreaming of him, of her master. On instinct, she slid a few fingers down under the blanket and between her legs, and she touched the pads of her fingers to the slick, wet folds betwixt her thighs. She huffed a breath and lay back, whispering two words that carried such weight.

"Lord Voldemort."

He had been everything to her for the past years of her life. He had been her tutor, her mentor, her guide. He had been her friend. He had become her master. And now, she wanted him, so very badly, and the night before, he'd kissed her in a way that showed he wanted her, too, at least a little bit. Bellatrix kept touching at herself as she wrenched her eyes shut and licked her lip, imagining the bare chest from the dream. She imagined his lean arms, his body hovering over hers. Bellatrix moaned a little and felt a wet flush around her fingers. Then, suddenly, she heard the door to her bedroom open, and their House-Elf, Pinky, called out,

"Breakfast is ready, Miss Bellatrix!"

Her joy spoiled, Bellatrix pinched her lips and yanked her hand away from her legs. She dressed in a simple black tunic and black leggings with flat boots, and when she pattered down the stairs to the dining room, everyone else had already arrived. Andromeda looked morose with her porridge, but Narcissa was eagerly slathering clotted cream onto a scone.

"Here she is! The debutante herself!" Druella Black wrapped Bellatrix up into an uncomfortable embrace that Bellatrix did not return. Bellatrix sat and mimicked Narcissa in doling out some clotted cream on a scone, and as she did, her father said,

"You did beautifully last night, darling. Rodolphus Lestrange was not the only interested party."

Bellatrix chewed her lip and nodded. "So glad to have made the cocks come crowing, Father."

"Bella, dear," scolded Druella gently, and Andromeda did not help one bit when she said,

"I noticed you sneaking out into the corridor with Tom Riddle, Bellatrix. What were the two of you up to?"

Bellatrix scowled at her younger sister, munching on her scone as she insisted, "He was just helping me calm down after so much excitement."

"And are you off to see him again today?" Andromeda pressed, spooning some porridge and letting it plop into her bowl. Bellatrix narrowed her eyes.

"What business of yours is it if I do go and see him?"

"I'm sure the Malfoys get very sick of you just showing up in their Floo fireplace," Andromeda mused.

"Girls! Enough fighting!" Druella said, slapping her fingers on the edge of the table. "Really, that is enough. Andromeda, you know very well that Bellatrix has been studying under… Mr Riddle… for years now. We have allowed that because we know he holds the future for wizarding society, and -"

"Ha! That man is nothing but a narcissist," Andromeda cackled.

"Careful, Andy," warned Narcissa, and Cygnus Black III looked quite cross.

"Andromeda, you are excused from the table," he said. "Go."

"But I haven't eaten my porridge," Andromeda protested. Cygnus shook his head.

"You speak ill of him here and you're excused. Goodbye."

"Hmph." Andromeda shoved her chair back from the table and pushed her way by Narcissa and Bellatrix. As she passed Bellatrix, she huffed, "Have fun with your boyfriend today, Bella."

An hour later, Bellatrix stepped out of green licking flames into the Floo fireplace in the coral-coloured parlour of Malfoy Manor where she'd been arriving for years. She called out,

"It's just me, Mr and Mrs Malfoy. Bellatrix Black!"

There was no answer, so Bellatrix opened the door from the parlour to the corridor and walked carefully down the centre of the runner. When she reached the door on the left that led into Lord Voldemort's office, she knocked a few times, and after a moment, she heard his voice say,

"Come in."

Bellatrix opened the door, smiling at him, but he had his head in his hands at his desk and was staring at the wood grain. Bellatrix's smile vanished, and she shut the door as she asked,

"Is everything all right?"

"Monstrous hangover," he explained. He looked up and shrugged. "You don't know what those feel like yet, because you're entirely too young to have them."

"I see." Bellatrix tightened her lips into a line and knew then what the matter was. He was thinking about what they'd done, the two of them, kissing in the corridor. She'd noticed that he'd disappeared to his office for most of the rest of the ball, only reappearing visibly drunk toward the end. Had she tortured him in some way with that kiss? She sighed and asked,

"May I sit down, please?"

"Yes." He wandlessly pushed her seat out for her, and she sat opposite him. She did not dare tell him that she'd dreamed of kissing him without his shirt on, that she'd touched herself a little to the thought of him. She cleared her throat and said,

"I had rather hoped for a lesson today. Perhaps more information about that Irish necromancer who created the Inferi to guard Leprechaun gold? Or maybe you might instruct me on a new way to curse objects. We had been talking about putting Shrieking Damnations on jewellery the last time that we -"

"Bella." He raised his face to look at her, and she shut up at once. There was pain in his dark eyes; she could see it at once. She had caused him pain somehow. That thought made her throat burn with bile, and she shook her head a little as she whispered,

"I'm so sorry."

"I dreamed of you," he informed her, and Bellatrix's mouth fell open. He continued, "I dreamed of kissing you, being above you, my fingers in your hair. I dreamed of you killing an enemy on a rainy field and then dashing into my arms to celebrate. And when I woke… Bella…"

She shut her eyes and pushed forth the thoughts of her own dream, of touching herself. He was in her head. She knew he must be. So as she powered forth the memories of what she had done this morning, she heard a broken little noise come from him, and when she opened her eyes, she saw his chest heaving.

"Hugh O'Fogarty used Inferi to guard Leprechaun's gold very effectively; he kept it properly hidden for seventy-five years," Voldemort said. "It wasn't until he got very drunk and told a friend of his all about it that his defences were destroyed and the gold was stolen."

"Thank you for the lesson, Master," said Bellatrix with a nod. He let out a breath and continued,

"To put a Shrieking Damnation on a necklace, you'll want to circle your wand in a spiral moving outward, anti-clockwise. As you spiral your wand, incant seventeen times, Karalax Maxima. It is an old and ancient curse that will impart itself into the stones and metal."

Bellatrix gazed into his dark eyes and nodded again. "Thank you, Master. I shall remember that."

"See that you do. You are my student, and I have spent years teaching you the Dark Arts," Voldemort said, his breath puffing as his chest rose and fell. "I won't have you going back to school to engage in silliness now that you've got boys tripping over themselves to marry you."

"Oh." Bellatrix blinked a few times, staring at her fingernails as she mused, "I don't much want to be married any time soon after leaving school, Master. I've more important things to do."

"Like what?" he snapped, and she lowered her hand as she sucked on her lip.

"There's to be a war, isn't there? There are to be battles. I'm going to make poisons for you. I'm going to curse objects for you. I am going to kill people for you. I shall be entirely too busy to be married."

Voldemort's throat bobbed, and he whispered, "You are off-limits to me, legally, until the twenty-first of September."

"How off-limits?" Bellatrix tipped her head. "And who's watching, anyway?"

"Bella." Voldemort shut his eyes, and she felt compelled to rise from her chair and walk around his desk to where he sat. She stood beside him, and she could smell the ocean on him. He looked up at her, and she asked again, more softly now,

"How off-limits, Master? When each of us dreams of the other?"

"Bella." He sounded choked, pained, but he turned his chair and spread his legs a little. Bellatrix stepped up between his knees, standing awfully close to him, and on instinct she snarled the fingers of one hand into his thinning, greying hair. He tipped his head back a bit, and he whispered,

"Terrible creature. You shall ruin me."

"You have made me. Formed me like clay in your hands," Bellatrix told him, bending down until her lips brushed his. She murmured onto his mouth, "You took a wild little urchin and you crafted her into a Dark witch, Master. She is yours now. Take her. Take me."

"Bellatrix!" He sucked in air hard through his nose, his hands flying to her waist. He pulled her a little closer, and then he kissed her. He drew her lips onto his, pressing them together a few times. He dragged his tongue along Bellatrix's bottom lip and suckled a little. She moaned, feeling everything come alive. She squeezed at his shoulder with one hand and his hair with the other, and she dug into the kiss. She let her tongue go into his mouth, and he immediately pulled at it with his own. They tangled, knotted together as their teeth knocked once or twice. Bellatrix hummed on his lips and felt drenched between her legs.

One of his hands went from her waist to her backside, compressing his fingers into her soft flesh through the fabric of her leggings and tunic. Bellatrix yelped a little in surprise at the touch, at the way he'd dared to really feel her, and she edged closer to him. She broke their kiss and breathlessly huffed,

"In my dream, your chest was bare."

"No. That's too far," Voldemort said, shaking his head. He sounded hungry as he rubbed at her backside again and murmured, "Believe me; I wish I could… mmph."

"Master." Bellatrix kissed him again, harder this time, and she felt herself completely losing herself to the kiss. But then, very suddenly, there was a knocking on the office door, and Bellatrix flew back from Voldemort's chair. She gasped, and he growled,

"Really, Cygnus?"

Cygnus? Her father had come here? Bellatrix staggered away from Voldemort's desk as he cleared his throat, red-cheeked, and called,

"Enter!"

The door opened, and Cygnus Black III came walking merrily into the office. He saw his eldest daughter, who undoubtedly had swollen, pearly lips and pink-stained cheekbones and a guilty look on her face, but he just nodded and said,

"Sir, I've come because I wanted to let you know that there were six thousand Galleons pledged in donations last night at the Debutante Ball. I had meant to have Bellatrix tell you, but I'd forgotten."

Voldemort shut his eyes, sighing very heavily, and he nodded.

"Thank you, Cygnus. Bella, you may go home by Side-Along Apparition with your father. We've discussed enough for today. Thank you."

"When shall I come back?" Bellatrix asked, knowing she sounded a bit wounded. Tomorrow, she thought. Please say tomorrow. But Voldemort just shrugged a little and said,

"I'll send you an owl. Good day."

Bellatrix put her lips into a line, thinking of his hand on her backside and his tongue twined with hers. She could still taste him, could still smell him, as she walked away with her father and said over her shoulder,

"Good day."

Author's Note: A very happy Easter tomorrow to those celebrating, and a Happy Passover to those celebrating.