Written for the 'Pairing the Character - Drabble Competition'. My pairing was Bellatrix/Voldemort.

Word Count: 442

Of Love and Hatred

Bellatrix Lestrange was not a woman who liked things. No, she obsessed over things. Like when she was five years old she started to obsess over getting sorted into Slytherin house at Hogwarts. When she was sixteen she started to obsess over joining Lord Voldemort. When she was twenty she started to obsess over doing anything to please The Dark Lord. When she was twenty-three, Bellatrix started to obsess over Voldemort himself.

You are a married woman, she told herself sternly on many occasions. The Dark Lord isn't capable of love. He doesn't want you.

Yet Bellatrix still found herself dreaming about him night after night, and when she was around him all of her emotions seemed to be heightened. All she could hear, see, feel, breathe was Voldemort. He was highly intoxicating, and the fantasies that came from being around him were nothing short of delicious.

Voldemort had made it clear to her that he did not feel the same way. In fact, he had even pulled her aside once after she had begged him to use the cruciatus curse on her. "Bella," he had said in his cold voice, "as much as I admire your dedication to me, I am not interested in you in that way."

Bellatrix had nodded furiously in an attempt to stop herself from crying. It had been a blow, but Bellatrix decided not to let it get to her. She couldn't help loving him—no matter how hard she tried not to.

Lord Voldemort did not love. No, quite the opposite really. He hated. When he heard that one of his Death Eaters, Rodolphus Lestrange, had betrayed him, his first instinct was to kill the worthless man.

But then his mind started putting things together. Killing the man wouldn't hurt him—he'd be dead. No, there was a much better way to deal with Lestrange's misconduct.

"Bella," Voldemort had said, fingering his wand and gazing down at the woman who worshipped him so much. "I have changed my mind about you."

Bellatrix's eyes widened and she ran towards him. "My Lord? What are you saying?"

"I'm saying that I want you to meet me tonight," Voldemort hissed. "But lose the clothes."

"My Lord?" Bellatrix's eyes were burning into his with a fire he had never seen before.

"That is an order."

Bellatrix's face broke into a smirk and she nodded. "Certainly, My Lord. I will see you tonight." She skipped away, her mass of tangles bouncing behind her.

And so Voldemort would give Rodolphus Lestrange the worst possible punishment. In some ways, it made both him and Bellatrix happy.

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