AN: Thank you to Losille2000 for the beta work: )

The Tale of Bellatrix Lestrange

I

The door clapped shut, the lock clicking into place. I tucked my hand back into my robes, feeling to make sure that I had my wand with me. Satisfied that it was there, I turned my back on the house that my husband and I shared – and I use the term 'shared' loosely.

We shared the house in the same sense as one shares a public toilet.

Before leaving the house, I had given our elf instructions to have dinner waiting for my husband. He was due back sometime that evening while I was gone, so I would not have the misfortune of dining with him. I contemplated going back inside and giving the house elf some poison to slip into my husband's meal, but decided there were too many other pressing concerns.

After all, if there was one thing I have learned from the Dark Lord, it is that death is the ultimate sacrifice one can make for another person. Perhaps second to that is a term in Azkaban.

I probably should be in the wizarding prison, what with all the things I've done. The Dark Lord keeps the Aurors off my back, though. He knows that I am too valuable for him to lose.

On the front stoop of the house, I Disapparated. The Dark Mark on my arm burned, and I hoped that the Dark Lord was summoning me personally.

Reaching the graveyard near his mansion brought disappointment. The other followers were gathering round, coming from their respective stations. Glancing over them, I saw my husband whispering with his brother, Rabastan, and another young wizard that I did not know.

Stupid, stupid men.

I ignored them, seeking out the Dark Lord instead.

I found him off to the side, talking to Malfoy. My throat constricted at the sight of the noxious man. I never understood my sister's marriage to him, let alone how she could allow the dog to impregnate her. The thought made me sick – wizards should leave themselves pure to the pursuit of power.

Again, that was another basic thing I learned under the Dark Lord. The physical body was not something to defile by another person's desires. Giving in to physical desire meant giving up power, and power was the only thing a pureblood wizard should desire.

The Dark Lord spotted me and slipped Malfoy a small package wrapped in dull parchment. I bristled, taking a sharp breath. Malfoy said nothing, did not even acknowledge me, and stepped away to join his friends Nott and McNair. I shivered as my eyes followed him.

"What has you concerned, Bella?" the Dark Lord asked soothingly. "You come to me disappointed."

"I had hoped you had something for me to do," I said, sounding like an impudent child.

"I have many servants. You would be wise to remember that."

I stepped closer to him, and he shook his head. Immediately I stepped off, my heart pounding. It was the closest that the Dark Lord ever allowed me to get to him, even though he knew I wanted more. I looked him in his eyes.

"There is a traitor near us, Bella."

My body tingled, as it always did when he called me that name. He was the only one to do so, having created it as a token of his favoritism. As far as I know, he does not call any of his other servants by a shortened name – for they are merely that, servants.

The Dark Lord went on, "He is near to you."

I looked him over, trying to decipher whether he was giving me a warning against this traitor or a warning against himself.

"My husband? I can dispose of him for you," I said, twirling my wand around with the fingers of my right hand. I was willing, eager even, to do whatever the Dark Lord commanded of me. It was one of the reasons I was his favorite.

"No, I think not. That would give you too much pleasure. Plus, your husband is still performing a necessary function for me."

Except that I might kill him anyway, I thought to myself.

"Of course you might, Bella." The Dark Lord smiled knowingly at me. "You are not one to stay with a powerless man. Now go take your place in the circle."

Again tingles ran from my stomach through my arms to my fingers and down my legs. A rush of irritation replaced my excitement, as I thought how he knew exactly how to keep me from doing what I wanted, and I made my way back to the gathered Death Eaters. I took my place in the circle next to my husband. He did not look at me as I stepped next to him.

"I don't know why you waste your time so," he mocked me.

"Shut your mouth, you filthy cuckold," I spat back to him.

"Sharp as always. I'm surprised your tongue isn't forked. Perhaps you should have him make it so."

"Go to hell, Lestrange."

"Careful, that's yourself you're talking about there."

Just as I was going to curse him, the Dark Lord walked into the center of the ring – his call for silence. I stiffened and stood at attention.

"Welcome, my faithful followers. I called you together tonight because I must tell you that my plans are nearly ready. This may be noted by one absence tonight."

At his words, I glanced over the group. Immediately, I noticed not one, but two, of our numbers missing.

Snape.

The filthy traitor. He had to be just as impotent as my husband – completely unable to understand the true meaning of power and the attainment of it.

I glanced to the second empty space, this one directly across from me.

Regulus. My little cousin.

I swallowed. The Dark Lord's words faded into a cold wind around me. For several days, my cousin had been acting mysteriously. And now the Dark Lord had intimated that there was a traitor near to me.

Regulus knew. He had figured it out. He had no idea of the damage he could do. My husband pretended that there was nothing to it; neither he nor I spoke of it. The Dark Lord knew – he was the very reason for the secret.

After all, I was his favorite.

At that point, Regulus Apparated.

He knelt down before the Dark Lord, ready to be admonished for his tardiness. The Dark Lord stepped over to him, exchanging words that I could not hear, then screaming filled the air as my cousin writhed under the Cruciatus Curse.

Suddenly the screams stopped.

"As I was explaining, some of you may have noticed the new absence tonight," the Dark Lord said as he turned back to the rest of us. "If someone else has information that I might find pertinent, something that will allow me to avoid a mistake – I suggest that information be divulged now. I do not have to say again that I do not tolerate mistakes.

"After some deliberation, I have decided to proceed with my plans. My new servant has handed me the perfect opportunity despite the latest blunder. I have decided that I will proceed then work on obtaining what lies inside the Ministry."

My thoughts wandered back to my cousin. Squinting, I could see the obvious relief on his face. I wondered what he had been up to the past couple days – then I realized that it coincided with the disappearance of his brother, that blood-traitorous Sirius.

Perhaps the secret was safe. Maybe Regulus was simply planning to sell us all out to the Aurors. For all I cared, he could turn my husband in. The Dark Lord would keep me safe, and if not, I would be proud to serve a sentence for him. However, being betrayed by my cousin was not a way by which I wanted to leave the Dark Lord's service.

The Dark Lord fell silent, and I realized his speech had come to an end. He started to go around the circle, whispering to each of us our respective tasks for the coming days. He merely nodded to my husband. I hoped that he had the pleasure of staking out a public toilet somewhere.

In front of me, he leaned close with his wand in hand. The fingers on his other hand ran up and down it slowly, as if he were suggesting something to me. Next to me, my husband coughed and the Dark Lord's fingers stopped moving.

"Bella. What to do with you. I have decided that you should handle the one who plans to betray me. He knows a secret that cannot be allowed to escape – you must finish him."

"Who is it, my master?"

"He stands across from you."

No sooner had he finished speaking than he moved on to the Death Eater on the other side of me, my brother-in-law. I did not pay attention to what was said to him, for my eyes were locked on the person the Dark Lord had marked: Regulus.

My little cousin planned to betray the Dark Lord. After all that I had done for him. I brought him here – I introduced him to the Dark Lord personally. And my repayment, the Dark Lord's repayment, was treachery. I brought only those I believed would truly serve the Dark Lord, and he trusted me to do so. Having delivered a traitor to him was something he would not easily forgive, especially given that Regulus was a member of my family.

Lost in my thoughts, I did not notice as the Dark Lord disbanded the meeting and the circle broke apart. Regulus made his way over to me.

"Where the bloody hell were you, Regulus?" I hissed to my cousin.

"Kreacher…you know how the old elf is…knocked over the flagon of dragon's blood, couldn't let it waste…"

He was obviously lying. His mother hated dragons' blood and had forbidden their father from keeping it in the house years ago.

Of course, that was after I tried to use it to hex Regulus, but that was beside the point.

"He knows, cousin. He knows you were up to something before you came here," I whispered to him. "You had best tell him what it is. If he finds out before you do, he'll kill you."

"I think he's going to kill me anyway," Regulus said. He paused for a second then continued with an insolent tone in his voice. "The family name only goes so far."

"It's that way only because you suddenly refuse to secure your position. I have to wonder what's gotten into you. I wonder if the only reason you are allowed into the house is because of blood – otherwise you would be locked out, you Mudblood-lover."

"I have found out things I would rather not know," he said, letting the insult slide. He glanced to both sides of where he was standing.

I wanted to smack him. I forced myself to keep my arm at my side.

"What can that possibly be?" I stepped closer to him, thinking back to the day with the dragon's blood, wishing that I had some right now. "Or are you going to run to your brother, that filthy blood-traitor? You always did that. You could never stand up for yourself. He's with the Potters. He'll probably die with them."

"Sirius is quite free to do as he pleases. Perhaps you have forgotten that he ran away from the family, disowning himself," he said. "I don't care who he consorts with."

I wrinkled my nose. The Dark Lord's words came back to me.

Leaving him with a warning, I said, "You won't survive, Regulus. The Dark Lord is getting ready for the final takeover. He will only have those with proven loyalty at his side. All others…will be cast aside."

He nodded as if to show that he understood my meaning. I wanted to ask him what he had thought he was doing, why he had chosen to thank us in this manner. Before I could do anything, he turned and walked away. Not bothering to find my husband, I Disapparated to Grimmauld Place – knowing first that I must take care of my cousin as the Dark Lord bade me to do, then that I had to talk to my own sister, Narcissa.

She was the only other person to whom I had confessed the secret.