Here's my entry for the fifth challenge

House: Gryffindor

Challenge: A

Character: Bellatrix Lestrange (Slytherin)

Note: Most of it is cannon except that Bellatrix survived the war.

I don't own HP :'(

She won't turn around

The shadows are long and she fears if she cries that first tear

The tears will not stop raining down

So stand in the rain

- Stand in the Rain by Superchick

Stand in the Rain

A figure stood at the edge of a large lake, a curtain of rain veiling her features from the world. She stared fixedly at the lake; never moving, the rain pounding on the ground the only sound breaking through the silence. But the figure didn't notice the rain running through her hair and down her face, mixing with the tears streaming from her eyes. Her mind was far away, thinking back on how her life had come to this. How she had become trapped without means of escape. She, who had always been the strongest, the most devoted.

As she dwelled on these thoughts, memories from long ago that she had unknowingly suppressed came back to her in an overwhelming wave of emotions; emotions she had not allowed herself to feel for years.

She remembered when she was little, sitting on her father's lap in front of the fire but he didn't even see her. He was too absorbed in his papers to notice the weight of his daughter on his lap. She remembered bouncing up and down, pulling his hair and tugging at his clothes; trying in vain to get his attention. Finally she grabbed his wand and started waving it around, amused at the pretty lights and flowers coming from it. But when her father grabbed the wand from her small hands and started shouting at her, the little girl's smile faded to be replaced by silent tears. She stared at her father's livid face for a moment before running out of the room, sobbing.

She had run around the huge house for a long time in search of her mother. When she finally found the source of expected comfort she was scolded for taking her father's wand.

When Narcissa was born it only got worse. Her little sister was the perfect pureblood in every way; with her delicate build and her perfect manners. Bella's father didn't even notice when she was in the room anymore.

But over time Bella found ways of winning her father's attention. She realized that whenever she cursed their muggle neighbors her father would greet her when she walked in the room. When she killed the people next-door's cat by accident, her father actually hugged her goodnight. And when she joined the dark lord in her fifth year at Hogwarts; he welcomed her home with open arms and boasted to all his pure blood friends about how wonderful his daughter was.

That had been the happiest day of her life. After fifteen years she had managed to win her father's attention and pride all with one simple decision. But little did she know that that one decision was going to change her life forever.

Weeks went by without her hearing from the Dark Lord or his death eaters. Her father's fading praise the only reminder of what she had done, until she was summoned to her master one night. He gave her orders to go with a group of Death Eaters unfamiliar to her and that they would explain what she had to do.

She followed them happily; eager to re-win her father's praise but when she found out what she had to do she felt her heart tearing apart. She was expected to kill a family of mudbloods. Not just the parents but the children too. Her companions warned her that if she should fail she would feel the wrath of the dark lord. She had felt trapped, unable to breath. But what could she do? If she failed she would permanently loose her father's love.

Taking a deep breath she walked into the dark house. When she saw the sleeping forms of the mudbloods muffled by the heavy blankets, she pretended they were just bundles of blankets and with that image in her head she murmured the killing curse.

The whole journey home had been like walking through a nightmare. Her feet didn't want to move and her heart felt like a brick inside her chest; weighing her down, silent tears streamed from her eyes while she felt numb and empty inside.

When she returned home she found her father in his study. She told him of the praise the Dark Lord had given her, of how she had fulfilled her duty beyond his expectations. But her father had just nodded without looking up from his papers; without hearing a word she said.

It was then that she felt something change inside of. It was then that she decided she didn't need anyone or anything other than serving the dark lord to the best of her ability. And if that meant dying, she would be more than happy to do so.

It was that night that she promised herself she would never cry again, for emotions are a weakness and she could not afford to be weak.

The years passed in a blur of darkness. She found comfort in hearing others scream, in making them feel what she had felt for years. She found pleasure in killing others; in seeing the horror on their faces in the instant before the light left their eyes. It made her feel powerful. Powerful enough that she didn't need anyone's praise or affection.

She married the man her father picked for her without a fuss but she found no pleasure in him. The only thing that still mattered to her was pleasing her master; earning the praise of the one who had shown her this new life void of pain; earning the privilege of causing others pain.

It was a dark but painless existence.

When her father passed away she didn't bother attending his funeral. She felt nothing. The next day she went out and tortured every mudblood and muggle she could get her hands on until their screams filled the numbness inside of her.

When the Dark Lord fell by the hand of a mere baby she felt the little that was left of her heart shatter. She gladly tortured the Longbottoms until they were too insane to scream anymore and relished at the power it gave her.

She was exultant at being sent to Azkaban for doing the work her master had set for her. But the years in Azkaban were long and she felt herself slowly losing grip of reality and falling into the dark with no means of escape until she was cast a rope she had never expected to see.

News had reached the prison of Harry Potter's crazy claim that the Dark Lord had returned but Bella knew that it was true and she waited silently for him to come for her. And when he did she simply smiled and followed him without a word.

During the years he worked to defeat Potter she had never once lost her faith in the belief that the Dark Lord would achieve victory. Even when she saw him hit by his own curse she refused to believe it. She melted into the darkness and followed as his body was carried out of the great hall and dumped in an unused room. She sat by him all day, willing him to wake and finish the battle.

By the time the sun was disappearing under the lip of the hill, reality had set in on Bella. She felt her master's stiff arm under her hand and knew deep in her heart that he would never come back.

Now there she stood on the edge of the lake, concealed within the shadows and the rain, crying for the first time in years. But she didn't care anymore. So what if she wasn't able to stop the tears; if she cried for every single life she had ever taken. She didn't care anymore. There was no turning around from the path she had chosen and no moving on. How could she resume her life if everyone feared and hated her? She would have to go into hiding; move to a place far away. Maybe she could go to America; people used to go there to start over.

But for now she didn't want to think about any of that. The future would come, throwing all it had in her face but for the moment she could avoid the future. Standing there, staring out at nothing she felt as if the future might never come and she wanted to hold on to that feeling for as long as she could.

A small smile crept over Bella's face at the peacefulness of the moment. Her first smile in years that hadn't been at the cost of someone's life. She felt content to just stand there, hidden in the cloak of time and the rain washing away her tears.

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