Written for the Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition, Round Eight
Team: Montrose Magpies
Position: Chaser 3
Challenge: Write about Bellatrix Black
Prompts: Destruction, Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. – Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina, : "Your father and I disagree; you are forbidden
Words: 1, 758
1961-
Three sisters sit in a row at the dining table, straight-backed, carefully silent. The only sound in the room is the quiet clinking of cutlery on plates and, if you strain your ears, delicate chewing.
Presiding over the picture-perfect scene are the monarchical parents, raven-haired father and sharp-eyed mother.
Bella knows that to outsiders, the scene may seem happy, but it is not. Bella has seen happy families, and they are all the same. They lack the unique subtleties that mark an unhappy family. A family such as hers.
XXX
1961-
"Ready? Attack!" At the sound of the familiar words, Bella is already tensed, and when the wasps fly at her, she is lightning fast, jabbing the wand, sending beams of coloured light. "Reducto! Reducto! Petrificus totalus! Impedmenta! Confringo! Impedmenta! Incendio!" She struggles with the last spell, more advanced than the others, but is able to perform it through sheer will power. She knows the consequences of failure, and it isn't just a wasp sting.
Druella Black watches sternly with heavy-lidded eyes, so like Bella's own. With not a word of praise, not a second to let her daughter draw breath, she speaks the command again.
"Ready? Attack!"
Bella grits her teeth, but obeys. This constant training, the punishment, is all just the price of being the oldest, the strongest. And it is a small price to pay for becoming more powerful.
XXX
1962-
"Black, Bellatrix!"
Throwing back her chin, and tossing her long dark curls over her shoulder, Bella walks towards the stool, the very picture of confidence. She cannot show anyone the doubt, the fear that sleeps deep within. Such emotions are not worthy of a member of the Black family.
And anyway, where else would she be sorted but Slytherin? There is nothing to fear. That is what she tells herself.
So she struts up to the front, and places the hat on her head, pausing only to wrinkle her nose at the tattered garment.
'So, the next generations of Blacks are finally coming to Hogwarts, are they? I suppose Slytherin's ranks will be filling up then. But - how curious - you seem slightly unsure of where you belong.'
No! I am not! I want to be in Slytherin, I belong in Slytherin, and you're damn well going to put me into Slytherin!
I need to be in Slytherin. The last thought slipped out before she could stop it.
'Need? Why do you need to be in Slytherin, Miss Black?'
Because I belong in Slytherin. All Blacks are in Slytherin.
'That has been true so far, Miss Black. But perhaps things shall be different this time around…?'
NO! The vehemence in her voice seemed to startle to magical artefact.
'No, perhaps not ... Although you possess a fierce loyalty that would be prized by Helga herself, you lack the humbleness that characterizes Hufflepuff house. You are intelligent, yes, but not in the manner of a Ravenclaw. Rather, you know how to twist your knowledge to your own advantage. But, in the end it is up to you. Where do you want to go, Miss Black?'
The question caught Bella off guard. I don't really have a choice, do I?
'Of course you have a choice. It's not just your character that determines your house, but what you want.'
No, I mean Blacks have always been in Slytherin. I don't have a choice, I have to be a Slytherin. Bella paused. No, I want to be a Slytherin. It's my destiny.
'Very well then. I see you have made your decision. Good luck, Miss Black.'
And then it shouted "SLYTHERIN!"
A grin broke over the young girl's face as she slid off the stool and strode towards the cheering table. She had entered Slytherin, the house which every member of her family had been in for centuries. It was reassuring that she was definitely one of them. Bella shook of the shadows of her doubts as she sat. This was where she belonged.
XXX
1966-
"Malum somniis!" Bellatrix yelled, and a jet of crackling purple struck her Gryffindor attacker.
He immediately crumpled to the ground in a deep sleep, shuddering and twitching as his mind was seized by the horrifying dream the curse created.
The Slytherins behind her laughed maliciously. "Nice one, Bellatrix!" Avery said, sneering at the crumpled figure.
"T-That was a dark spell," whimpered the girl who had been with the Gryffindor.
Bellatrix threw her head back and laughed, long and hard. "Yeah, and what are you gonna do about it? Get out of here before you end up like your pathetic mudblood friend!"
The girl paled, and fled down the corridor. Just as she reached the corner, Bellatrix lifted her wand lazily, and drawled "nullam gravitatis."
The girl flipped upside down, and flew upwards, until her feet were planted firmly on the ceiling. She shrieked and began crying.
"Too slow!" Bellatrix cackled shrilly, and swept away, tailed by her fellow Slytherins.
XXX
1968-
Whispers of a new Dark Lord were circling through Slytherin. Someone who aimed to eradicate mudbloods, to conquer muggles, and wanted to bring wizards to the place of power they deserved.
Bellatrix licked her lips, lounging in a chair before the fire. She cast a glance around the common room, filled exclusively with purebloods. The way it should be, she thought. A world of wizards and witches, untainted by muggles and their filthy offspring.
And she made her decision - she wanted to find out more about this Dark Lord.
XXX
1970-
Bellatrix walked down the aisle on the arm of Cygnus Black, the white dress she wore swishing softly. At the end of her walk stood Rodolphus Lestrange. Her fiancé. In a couple of minutes, her husband.
They were marrying through the mutual agreement of their family, the desire to continue their family lines.
It wasn't that Bellatrix didn't want this marriage - it was that she had no choice. It was her duty, her destiny. She would be assuring that the Black line was continued. There was no love between them. Camaraderie, perhaps, but not love.
But then, who needed love? Bellatrix only loved two people, Cissy and Dromeda.
Although … she peeked a glance over at her brunette sister. She had seen the glances Dromeda had been giving that mudblood, the Tonks boy. She and her sister were in need of a little chat …
And then she had reached the end while still consumed in her thoughts, and suddenly she was standing opposite the dark haired man, and the service had begun.
XXX
1971-
She knelt, trembling. The power, oh the power, it roiled through the air. Strong, sharp, and deliciously dark, she inhaled deeply, trying to surround herself with it.
"Rise," his voice hissed, and along with the other dark-robed figures, she stood, bare feet on the blood-drenched stones.
He paced down the line, scrutinising each recruit closely. Bellatrix stood as straight as possible, eyes straight ahead, trying to contain her euphoria. This Dark Lord was indeed everything he was rumoured to be, and more.
And tonight, she was to be marked. Her husband and her brother in law stood beside her, as did her school friends Avery, Mulciber, Dolohov and Rosier, and a couple of Durmstrang graduates whose names she didn't know.
But they all faded away when He approached her. "Are you ready, Bellatrix Lestrange?" He asked, but his tone spoke of the punishment for backing out.
But Bellatrix would never back out. Never.
"Yes, my Lord," she breathed.
And he lowered his wand to her left forearm.
"Morsmorde!"
She had never felt anything more beautiful than that pain.
XXX
1973-
"Your father and I disagree; you are forbidden to marry that filthy mudblood!" Druella's voice hissed. Bellatrix had heard enough. She burst through the drawing room door, wand drawn, lips pulled back in disgust.
"How dare you disgrace our family this way, Dromeda!" She shrieked, trembling with emotion. "Wishing to marry a mudblood! I'm ashamed to call you my sister!"
"Bella -" Her sister spun around, her face pleading, but Bellatrix was too far gone into her rage to care.
"Crucio!"
"Scuto!" Andromeda barely raised the shield in time, and the unforgivable curse was absorbed by the magic.
"Bella, how could you?" She cried, betrayed. Her eyes, so like Bella's own were widened in hurt and shock, unable to believe her own sister could direct an unforgivable towards her.
Bellatrix did not care. She shot another curse, and another, screaming the incantations among insults and jumbled syllables of rage and disgust.
Her parents did not stop the duel, but merely watched, emotionless.
Andromeda was not retaliating, only defending, but this only increased Bellatrix's rage.
"Filthy blood-traitor! BOMBARDA!" She screamed, firing a blasting curse directly at her younger sister's face.
There was a loud CRACK as Andromeda disapparated, seconds before the spell would have landed. Instead, it hit the wall behind, tearing a gaping rift, and leaving behind only destruction.
XXX
1978-
Bellatrix had never been happier than when she was serving her lord.
With a shrill, mad laugh she whipped her wand to the left, her severing curse sending the paralysed mudblood's head spinning through the air, landing with a grotesque splat. She then proceeded to decimate the body, hacking and slicing the limbs gleefully.
"Hurry up, Bella," grumbled Rosier, finishing off his own victims.
She ignored him, ignored the blood spatter on her dress. This was so much fun.
She had always been drawn to death, destruction, the pain of others, and now she could direct these desires into the service of her lord.
She was wonderfully, terribly, insanely happy.
XXX
1981-
The Dark Lord has fallen.
The whispers had rippled across the country, at first tentative, unsure. But then they had grown, until it became a roar of victory and freedom.
The Dark Lord has fallen! Little Harry Potter, yes James and Lily's son, he defeated him! A year old child has conquered the Dark Lord. We are free!
Bellatrix threw her head back and screamed. The sound tore from her throat like a beast, spiralling upwards through the dawn sky, a beacon of rage and despair. She collapsed to the ground, pounding it with her fists. She sent out jolts of pure, uncontrolled magic, her fury, despair, leaving her helpless.
No. It could not be true. Her Lord was alive and well, and she would find him. And then, then she would punish all those who had said otherwise.
And he would reward her loyalty like no other.
XXX
I hope you liked it! I'm really not happy with how this turned out. It's just so … bland. I originally planned to write all the way up to her death, but decided I liked this ending better. I also planned to write more of her childhood, but nothing I wrote felt right, so… Urgh, well whatever.
Please leave a review, it makes my day! Or maybe favourite, if you really liked it?
Have a nice day!