Author's Note: I'm going more than a little crazy because I have signed up for far too many challenges and I have far too little time to complete them all! But I am far too stubborn to give up on any of them and so I am sorry if that compromises the quality of the fics that I produce. I hope that you enjoy them anyway :)

Disclaimer: I don't own anything that you recognise.

Crazy

Bellatrix Lestrange had not always been crazy. Eccentric yes, dangerous certainly but the madness that so set her apart from the other death eaters had come much, much later.

Her marriage to Rodolphus Lestrange had been arranged by their mothers and Bellatrix knew that she would never love him but they lived together in a quiet contentment. Friendly if a little cold but this was an ends to a means and if she had to marry anyone at least it was a pureblood. At least the troublesome feelings that came with love could not distract her focus from serving the dark lord.

But it seemed that not everyone felt as much devotion to the cause as she did.

X

The day that Bellatrix began to lose her mind had been a dreary Tuesday despite it being June. She had spent the day carrying out the dark lord's bidding as instructed; killing, maiming and torturing as she was dictated.

She delighted in her duty and the important jobs that the dark lord entrusted to her and she was excited to inform Rodolphus of the new honour that the dark lord had decided to bestow upon them.

She was the chosen vessel and he the chosen protector. The dark lord had thought long and hard about the fact that his legacy would need to be continued on and the work that he was doing would need to be continued on beyond him and his life. In order to go global with this he would need to send certain people to all the countries of the world.

And who could he trust more than his own children, his own flesh and blood.

The dark lord was no fool, he knew that he could not become emotionally attached to a woman enough in order for progeny to occur naturally and so he had chosen Bellatrix to be the bearer of his children. She would be magically inseminated.

He also knew that he didn't have the time or the patience to raise screaming brats and so he had ordered the Lestranges to not only bear his children but raise them also until they were old enough to learn from whence they came and the glorious purpose they were to be burdened with.

Bellatrix could not be more excited, she came as close to girlish giggling as she ever had in her 22 years of existence. She rushed home to their tidy little townhouse. It was poorly situated, so close to so many disgusting muggles, but it was her home and she had always been taught that her home would be the first thing she was judged by so she made sure it was neat and tidy but also minimalist. She didn't need all the finer things in life.

She hurried up the big stone steps and pushed open the heavy emerald front door. The hallway was cold and empty, and quiet. Suspiciously so.

Whenever Bellatrix had come home before there was noise. Either from the filthy little house elves as the scurried about doing their chores or from her husband, as false as their marriage might be, as he worked in his study loudly cussing about the workload and the orders he had to take from lesser beings. It was a daily routine.

Bellatrix listened hard but it was as if silence had magically been cast over the house.

She took the wooden staircase two at a time, trying to remain as silent as she was swift. The door to his bedroom stood out amongst all the others, it was the only one with a light flickering under the frame.

Bellatrix stole towards it quietly, quietly. There was still no sound.

The door knob was warm in her hand and it twisted silently, she threw open the door to her husband's bedroom and as she looked upon the naked, writing bodies of the man who had pledged his life to her and the sister she had known and cared for her whole life something inside of her snapped.

"Narcissa?" she choked out and for the first time in years Bellatrix felt tears stinging at her eyes.

The betrayal, not from one but from both, was just too much.

Much Love, MaryandMerlin x