Bellatrix

The grey, miserable walls that make the circular room are gloomy, and if someone should enter the dungeon-like chamber, they will surely not give them a second glance; if a first one at all.

However; white, bony, long fingers trace waving lines along the bricks as if they are precious. The movement comes to a sudden, unexpected stop, and the palm is placed gently as a replacement. Smooth, cold skin meets with rough, colder surface. The owner of the odd hand almost leans into the wall, before giving a frustrated sigh. They snatch a bird of prey's talon shaped wand from a collection of other unique wands on the shelves, caressing it a little and lighting their own with a murmur of 'lumos'. This strange voice – though high – is undoubtedly a male's. Walking gracefully, he makes a gesture with his hand at cloaked, masked men, and they immediately split into small groups. Only the white-skinned man remains alone.

His destination is at the very top of Azkaban, where he knows that only the most dangerous prisoners are kept.

Ascending the crumbling, spiralling stone staircase, the man can identify cackles and screams of the insane, and when he reaches the very end cell, he halts, examining the female inside it.

She has wild, waist-long, black now-streaked-with-grey, tangled curls that hide her sunken, grimy face, looking down upon what he assumes is a beetle, while it crawls along her shaking, skinny hand. He edges toward the figure, and she glances upwards with lifeless black eyes and a skull-like face. He can see she is so thin that nearly all the bones in her neck stick out against her filthy pale skin.

It is odd, he thinks, that even after all these years; even after any good looks he had before he fell have left him; she knows it is her beloved Lord. Her saviour.

Crawling forward, Bellatrix looks at him, with a child-like curiosity and her head cocked to one side like a confused puppy.

"Master?"

Her voice is raspy, quiet and unused. She begins to cough, and her tongue is white, teeth rotten. A wave of his wand, the bars of her cell disappear, and she giggles, despite her half-choking.

"What have they done to you, Bella?" His words are said with slight disgust.

She is too mad to notice.