Well, to be honest I wasn't going to upload this chapter so quickly but I enjoyed writing it so much I can't wait to share it with you guys and after four reviews in less than 24 hours how can I say no? Planning on getting to work on the next chapter tomorrow so fingers crossed it shouldn't be a long wait for the next one haha

Anyway, as always please read, enjoy and please do drop me a review if you have a moment!

The Purple Black

Nymphadora couldn't believe the grand scale of the Quidditch World Cup, there were witches and wizards from all walks of life here and the woman was in awe of it all. They had met with Lucius, Narcissa and Draco earlier in the day, though Bellatrix was far more interested in paying close attention to everything around her than talking to the family (and this was not due to the grand scale of the event) and Narcissa had already tried to kindly tell her niece that bright green hair was perhaps not a good colour to be meeting the Minister of Magic with. Personally Nymphadora thought it was more than appropriate, though she had eventually agreed that her green robes would be enough to show her support of the Irish team without making her Aunt uncomfortable.

"Bellatrix, can you at least pretend to be interested in this match?" Rodolphus sighed as they climbed the seemingly endless staircase up to the top box. "You used to play Quidditch at school for Merlin's sake, it should interest you."

"You were on the Slytherin Quidditch team, Aunt Bella?" Dora asked curiously, her young cousin giving her a slight look of disbelief.

"Your Aunt was a beater, weren't you Bella?" Narcissa said, clearly grasping at any attempt to get her sister to take interest in polite conversation.

"Really?" Draco couldn't help but ask.

"Don't sound so surprised," Bellatrix smirked slightly, "my father highly disapproved of me joining the Quidditch team."

"Which is precisely why you did it." Rodolphus smirked. That made perfect sense to Dora, if she had a father like Cygnus Black she would take great pleasure in annoying him in any possible way she could as well.

"Well, I was good." Bellatrix shrugged.

"We made a good team." Rodolphus agreed. "I enjoyed it."

"Oh please, you only joined that team to get to Bellatrix." Lucius scoffed.

"So what if I did?"

Nymphadora couldn't help but laugh, covering her mouth with her hand to muffle the reaction. Draco looked both confused and slightly disturbed as he watched his Aunt lace her arm around his own, kissing him on the cheek as she reminisced about her Hogwarts days. It was true that Bellatrix and Rodolphus Lestrange barely showed their emotions for each other—or any emotion in general for that matter—outside of their own private company. Perhaps it would have been rather strange to see for Nymphadora too if she wasn't more used to the couple, though unfortunately for her she had walked in on the pair showing far more than emotions to each other before they had gotten used to the fact that they no longer lived alone and had to start using wards on rooms.

As they reached their destination Nymphadora couldn't help but grin at the sight, they could see the whole pitch from here along with the vast crowds that looked small enough to be ants from up here. It was only as she noticed that Draco seemed less than amused at that point that she frowned in confusion.

"What's wrong?" Dora lowered her voice, conscious that her Aunts could clearly hear them as both her Uncles had walked to greet the Minister.

"Potter." Draco spat.

"Potter?" Bellatrix whispered hurriedly. "Where?"

"Over there, with the Weasley's and that mudblood granger." Draco winced as his mother tapped his arm in warning.

"Be careful what you say with such ears around, Draco." Narcissa spoke through gritted teeth and a false smile before going to join her husband, taking her son with her.

Nymphadora looked to her Aunt Bellatrix, wondering what she was thinking and almost going to outright ask her before she nodded towards their seats and took her arm. The younger witch couldn't help but keep a close eye on her Aunt, the woman's barely concealed glare boring into the back of Potters head, she forced the smile to remain on her features above her worry for her Aunt as she went to sit down.

"Miss can't sit there!" a small elf cried, pulling on her bat-like ears as she stared up at her in fright through her big brown eyes.

"How dare you talk to my niece in such a manner." Bellatrix hissed, only stopped from cursing the poor elf as her husband came up behind her and put a hand on her wand arm. The children in front of them had turned to stare, rather indiscreetly, and though she knew not to make a scene in front of the rest of the box Bellatrix finally had an excuse to glare at the decidedly nosey Potter boy and his friends who quickly averted their gaze from the family.

"Winky is sorry," the elf whimpered, squeezing her eyes shut "Winky doesn't like heights, it has made Winky lose sense of her manners. Winky is sorry—I is saving the seat for Mr Crouch."

"Barty Crouch?" Rodolphus raised an eyebrow at the elf.

"Y-Yes, Sir." Winky nodded, though she refused to open her eyes again.

"It's fine . . ." Dora muttered, trying to place the look that passed over her Aunt and Uncle's features as she sat in the seat next to the empty chair, conscious that Ludo Bagman had stood ready to begin the match.

As much as Nymphadora had been looking forward to the match itself she couldn't help but become distracted by those around her during the game. The Weasley clan, Potter and their friends seemed enthralled and delighted by the both the match and the entertainment provided (even Bellatrix discreetly grasped on tightly to her husband's hand as the Veela entered the pitch, though Dora feared this was less of a loving move and more of a warning not to embarrass her as she dug her nails into the man's palm). She just couldn't help but be distracted, her Aunt was flitting between glaring at the back of the black haired boy in front of them and checking to make see if Barty Crouch had actually arrived yet. The elf kept on whimpering, eventually trying to cover her own face with her long ears as she became more and more of a snivelling wreck. Dora did eventually manage to gain some interest in the game however, remembering the Omnioculars that her Uncle Lucius had brought both her and Draco a pair of earlier in the day. She even found herself cheering along with the crowds by the end of it, acting completely innocent as her Aunt Narcissa gave her a pointed look at her now green hair acting as if it had done it of its own accord. She didn't care anymore and her lying to her Aunt was the first thing that distracted Bellatrix from her game of glaring with an amused smirk. It was almost sad when the game ended, though she was happy to see her team win. She looked to the rest of her family, Lucius seemed to be deep in conversation with Rodolphus under the roar of applause from the crowd, both Narcissa and Bellatrix clapped politely as the winning team apparently made their way to the top box as the trophy came out. It was at this point that Nymphadora felt someone step on her foot, causing her to let out a yelp of pain.

"You—!" Dora paused as she went to berate the house elf from jumping off of her seat onto her foot when she noted that the creature was still sat as she had been throughout most of the match; with her ears over her eyes shivering through her fear of heights.

"Dora?" Bellatrix raised an eyebrow at the girl "What did you do?"

"I—" Dora looked past the empty seat, furrowing her eyebrows in confusion. She did not imagine someone stepping on her foot, though it was on the other side to her Aunt and it couldn't have been the children in front of her. She shook her head, taking the opportunity to morph her hair to a silver rather than the Irish green. "Nothing—" She picked the Omnioculars off of her lap as she quickly thought of an excuse, "I dropped these on my knee, you know I'm clumsy." Dora forced a slight laugh, her Aunt did not seem convinced though she was unwilling to suggest that an invisible force had hit her in the foot. Knowing her luck Bellatrix would blame one of the less desirable people in the box and Rodolphus would have to stop her from causing a scene.

"If you say so." Bellatrix said, looking to her husband as he placed a hand on her shoulder, leaning forward to whisper something in her ear. The woman rolled her eyes in annoyance before nodding, though Dora frowned in confusion as the men both got up and made their way away from the box together. "They're going to meet with some friends; Rodolphus will meet us back at the tent."

"You're not going with him?" Dora asked.

"No." Bellatrix said bluntly before lowering her voice so that only Dora could hear her, "He knows better than to ask me to go and join him and a bunch of traitors."

Dora nodded, knowing exactly what sort of traitor Bellatrix meant. She did wonder why Rodolphus still associated with his fellow previous Death Eaters when his wife did nothing but slander them for being traitorous cowards, though she supposed the most of their life was 'putting on a show' to the rest of the world and most of the previous Death Eaters were still highly respected members of the wizarding community.

After the Bulgarian team had left the top box and they had said their polite goodbyes to Bagman and Fudge, Dora began to walk with her Aunt to their tent, secretly grateful she would never have to climb quite so many stairs in her life again.

"He never showed up." Dora mused as she walked through the tents to find their own.

"Crouch?" Bellatrix scoffed, "No, quite frankly I'm glad." Dora went to ask her Aunt what she had against the man when she put her hand up to silence her niece, pointing to a modest looking tent just ahead of them. "Our hovel for the evening."

Dora couldn't help but laugh slightly, following her Aunt up to the tent, though when she got through the entrance she couldn't help but let her jaw drop slightly. This was certainly worlds apart from what she had been used to when her father had taken her camping as a child. If she hadn't known any better she would have sworn she had walked into one of the larger sitting rooms of Lestrange Manor, their house elf—who was just setting down a tray of glasses and a few bottles of wine and whiskey—bowed deeply as they came in.

"Mistress Bellatrix, Mistress Nymphadora." Tilly squeaked, "I have just finished preparing your rooms." Dora had to blink as she realised the staircase to the end of the room the elf was pointing to.

"That should have been ready hours ago, what if we got here early?" Bellatrix hissed.

"Tilly is sorry, Tilly will go iron her hands." Tilly whimpered then with a pop she was gone.

"Not what you're used to?" Bellatrix said with a hint of amusement, causing Dora to blush as she managed to close her jaw.

"Well . . . it's the best hovel I've seen." Dora joked.

Bellatrix smirked as she went to sit on one of the sofa's, reaching out and pouring both herself and Nymphadora a glass of wine as before pointing her wand to the fire to light it. "Stupid elf, can't even remember to do that."

Dora had to shake herself to remember that she probably looked an idiot stood gawping at what was apparently a very normal tent, she had known there were wizarding tents like this though she couldn't imagine that they could be so extravagant and couldn't help but wonder why her father had ever insisted they used the old muggle rubbish with stuff like this around.

"So," Dora took the glass of wine her Aunt offered her as she sat next to her on the sofa, "why do you hate Barty Crouch?"

"Did I say I hate him?" Bellatrix mused as she sipped her wine.

"You didn't need to say anything." Nymphadora said.

"Very intuitive." Bellatrix said, Dora raising an eyebrow in a look that clearly meant for her to go on, the older witch sighed, "He was head of The Department of Magical Law enforcement back during the last war."

"He's the reason that some of the Death Eaters got arrested then?" Dora asked.

"Yes," Bellatrix wrinkled her nose in distaste, taking another rather large sip of her wine then drawing her wand to ensure that the tent was warded before she went on, "he presided over the trial that sent Rodolphus' brother and his own son to prison."

"He sent his own son to prison?" Dora asked, "To Azkaban?"

"Yes." Bellatrix said, glaring at the mere thought of it. "Though don't go talking about such things around Rodolphus . . . as tough as the man may seem to you he does miss Rabastan, he blames himself for the whole matter."

"But Rabastan and Barty Crouch Jr got sent to Azkaban for torturing those two Aurors, didn't they?" Dora screwed up her face in confusion as Bellatrix nodded, "How is that his fault?"

"Really, Dora?" Bellatrix couldn't help but laugh, "Let me ask you this, do you believe that two men who had only just been enlisted as Death Eaters could take down two Aurors on their own?"

"He helped them?" Dora asked, biting her lip as her Aunt shushed her despite the silencing wards she had put on the tent.

"We both did." Bellatrix barely whispered, lost in her memories as she gently swirled the wine around her glass, "The Aurors came and Rodolphus thought it was best if we split up, he should have gone with Rabastan, and I with Barty, but he wanted to go with me . . . I tried to go back to help the boys but he insisted we ran . . ."

"He didn't want you to get caught." Dora breathed, desperate to hear more details about the famous torture of Frank and Alice Longbottom but knowing this was neither the time nor the place to do so.

"He didn't want anyone to get caught," Bellatrix scoffed, "after he heard they had been captured he naïvely thought that they would perhaps be okay—what with Barty's own father judging. But it was a sham trial." Bellatrix spat, "Bastard wanted to make an example out of the pair of them."

"But they didn't give up your names?" Dora asked, "They lied and said they were alone?"

"Well, would I be here if they hadn't?" Bellatrix rolled her eyes as she drained the last dregs from her wine glass before pouring herself another glass and topping up Dora's.

"I suppose not, no."

The two woman continued to talk about various other things, as Nymphadora soon realised that the whole Longbottom incident was a sore subject for the witch and quickly moved on. By the time Rodolphus Lestrange entered the tent again they had consumed little over a bottle of wine between them and Dora was beginning to feel rather merry.

"Rodolphus." Bellatrix grinned as her husband came in.

"Ladies." Rodolphus spoke curtly as he walked over to the table, pouring himself a small glass of fire whiskey and downing its contents before immediately pouring a second glass. "You know, I've been thinking Bella, we don't need to stay in this tent if you don't want to. The match is over and I'm sure you'd both be far more comfortable back in your own beds."

"I don't mind it here." Dora smiled as she put down her wine glass.

"I can tolerate it for one night." Bellatrix said, though she sounded distracted as she looked at her husband more closely.

If Nymphadora hadn't have already had three glasses of wine that evening she might have noticed what her Aunt had, though it was apparent that Bellatrix Lestrange knew her husband too well regardless of the wine that was also making her feel slightly merry by this point. Rodolphus forced a slight smile at his wife, though it was clearly forced.

"How was your talk with your old friends?" Bellatrix asked, standing up and taking her husband's glass to gently place it on the table. "Hear anything interesting?"

"No." Rodolphus shook his head, reluctantly letting his wife place her hands on his chest as she pressed herself into him.

"No?" Bellatrix raised an eyebrow, snaking her arms around him.

"Not in front of the girl, Bellatrix." Rodolphus took the woman's arms, disentangling his wife from himself.

"So tell me what's on your mind, we can go for a walk if you like."

"No." Rodolphus said, "I'm rather tired, why don't we go home and the elf can pack up in the morning."

"Or we could just go to bed, right here." Bellatrix narrowed her eyes at the man, "What do you think, Dora?"

"I—" Dora winced as she spilt the wine she was trying to pour, drawing her wand to clear up the mess. "I don't mind."

This was clearly not the answer that Bellatrix was looking for as with a huff of annoyance she turned back to her husband. "There is something on your mind, I know it."

". . . You've warded the tent, haven't you? Put a silencing ward on it?" Rodolphus asked.

"What?"

"Did you ward the tent?" Rodolphus repeated. "Did you soundproof it."

"Yes, of course I did." Bellatrix snapped, "Why on earth does that matter?"

"I think it's started . . ."

"What's started?" Dora asked, standing up as her Aunt stormed to the entrance of the tent who growled in frustration as Rodolphus grabbed her arm.

"Get off of me!" Bellatrix shrieked, though Rodolphus did not relinquish his grip.

"Do not get involved, Bellatrix." Rodolphus warned, "It's not sensible."

Bellatrix glared at the man for a moment, not moving as he slowly let go of her arm, Dora was unsure if she was about to try and hex him until she suddenly ran from the tent. It was then that she heard the screams. She looked to her Uncle, her eyes wide in a sudden sobering shock.

"Come on." Rodolphus said.

Nymphadora followed her Uncle out of the tent, nearly running into her Aunt as she was stood mere feet from the entrance with her wand drawn. She followed the witches gaze, past the group of tents that had already been set alight to the group she was currently looking to. Dora couldn't help but swear as she saw what was making the surrounding wizarding community scream and flee in terror. There, plain as day, were a group of Death Eaters. Hovering above them were three people who Dora could only assume were the Muggle family that actually owned the campsite. She knew that her Aunt and Uncle had both despised the idea of them being here enough for Rodolphus to have to remind Bellatrix she couldn't kill muggles, it made sense that a group of Death Eaters would pick them as their victims.

"Aunt Bella?" Dora called, unsure of what on earth was happening. If Death Eaters were running amuck why were two Death Eaters stood beside her right now clearly not enjoying the display, why weren't they joining in?

"This is an outrage." Bellatrix growled.

"It's stupid." Rodolphus added.

"Are they . . . acting on orders?" Dora asked, immediately regretting asking as Bellatrix let out a yell of annoyance.

"No, this is all them." Rodolphus shook his head.

"This!?" Bellatrix turned on the man, lowering her voice as she spoke through gritted teeth, "This is what Lucius wanted to talk to you about? Is that where he is?"

"We'll talk about this later." Rodolphus quickly said.

"Should we go?" Dora asked timidly, concerned her Aunt was about to direct her anger at her if she wasn't careful.

"No," Rodolphus shook his head, "it's too late; it will only look suspicious if we're unaccounted for now what with our . . . family connections. Bellatrix, go and find your sister—" the man raised his hand in an attempt to stop his wife's protest, "—you're concerned for your sister's safety. Go." Bellatrix looked as if she was about to yell again, though to the girls surprise she merely nodded and ran off in the direction of Narcissa Malfoy, Dora went to follow her but to her surprise she was quickly stopped as Rodolphus grabbed her arm. He leant in close as he lowered his voice so as not to be overheard, "Your cousin is in the woods, go find him. If anyone asks you were fleeing for safety whilst I went to see if I could help. Do you understand? . . . Do you understand?"

Dora forced herself to nod, letting out a breath she didn't know she was holding as Rodolphus promptly disapparated. She was amazed that she didn't manage to fall flat on her face as she ran through the campsite, jumping over the idiotic small fences around some of the tents and barging past the odd fleeing witch or wizard on her journey. She was sure she wouldn't be able to find her cousin as she sped through the trees in her search, though to her relief she saw him leaning against one of the trees, smirking as a small group of children walked away from him. She groaned in annoyance as she reached out to steady herself on the tree to catch her breath.

"Why have you been running?" Draco raised an eyebrow at the woman.

"To find you," she panted, "Uncle Rod said to get to the woods."

"So you ran?" Draco asked, amusement in his voice, "Rather than apparate?"

". . . If I apparated I might have gone straight past you." Dora quickly defended herself, in truth she had been in such a rush to follow orders in the chaos she hadn't even thought of disapparating. "Who were those kids you were talking to?"

"Potter, Weasley and that mudblood granger." Draco spat, though he couldn't help but smirk as he continued, "Told Granger to watch out unless she wanted to end up with her knickers on show to the world like that muggle."

"Right." Dora sighed as she slipped down the tree to sit on the floor.

"Hardly graceful, are you Nymphie?" Draco mused.

"Shut it, squirt." Dora rolled her eyes, " . . . Where's your father?"

Draco snickered, looking down to his cousin as he nodded back towards the campsite "Where do you think my father is?"

"About to get the full wrath of Bellatrix Lestrange by the sounds of things." Dora suggested.

"Why would—" Draco did not have a chance to finish his question, as suddenly a green eerie light lit the night sky.

Dora was in awe, she had never seen the Dark Mark like that before, only ever on an arm or in old photographs. It looked almost like a star constellation glistening above them; it was beautiful. However, there was no denying the chill it sent up her spine.

"Draco?" Dora called, not taking her eyes off of the mark.

"Yes, Dora?" the boy's voice seemed distant as he was clearly distracted by the mark as well.

"Was that planned?" Dora asked.

"I don't think so, Dora."

"Well . . . Shit."

Thank you so much for reading, I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it! Please do drop me a review if you havea moment!

The Purple Black