Incarcerated Remembrance

A/N: I apologize for the lack of updates, I had writer’s block. You know how that goes, I’m sure. Haha.

Chapter Five
Deliberation & Death

Bellatrix didn’t know how long ago after that visit from Narcissa that it happened. If she could correctly judge time, it might have been no less than a week. She tried to keep track, because she felt the need to know how long Narcissa hadn’t been speaking to her; how long it had been since she walked out of Azkaban hurt and angry from what had been revealed to her from Rodolphus.

Rodolphus, the foolish man. He thought it wouldn’t happen, but he was wrong, as usual. Bellatrix was serious in her threat to him, and did plan on making him pay. For a long time she worried about how she was going to get around it without being given the order to murder the bastard. She really didn’t know how, though part of her didn’t care. Now of course, it didn’t matter.

She was sure her Lord would chastise her for her “careless aim”, that therefore resulted in his death. But it was when the entire side of Azkaban had exploded, and she was a little confused during her escape. Or at least, that was how she was going to play it off. Rodolphus wasn’t as important as her Lord’s other lieutenants, and therefore she was sure his death be much of a loss in the end.

Bellatrix had been crouched in her usual corner, slightly rocking back and forth as she whispered to herself, whispers that sounded like never ending apologies to her sister. It was all she could think of since she left, and she felt the overwhelming desire to make things right as fast as she could. When Narcissa walked out on her that day, she felt like she took a part of her with her.

Then confusion happen. Genuine confusion, not the one she was going to lie about. The side of her cell blew up out of no where, and Bellatrix threw her arms over her head to cover it from the flying rocks. When she looked up it was there: her freedom. Bellatrix scrambled to her feet, not believing it was happening now. Tentatively she walked towards her escape, and when she set her feet on the edge and looked out over the free world, she let out a long, excited laugh.

The dementors were leaving Azkaban, to join the Dark Lord. Bellatrix hurried off down the stairs to find the room where they kept all of the prisoners wands, and grabbed hers without a moments hesitation. She did stop for a minute after, however. Holding it in her hand, she looked at it, and remembered all the things she used to do with it. She was so excited, everything felt right again... and she was about to commit another murder. Oh, how she missed it.

She caught Rodolphus coming around the corner to get his wand, and she cackled through the darkness. She saw him stop, and a look of fear crossed his face that was even noticeable in the dim light.

“Three, two, one... time to run...” her voice echoed through the halls in a demented sort of sing song, though he still couldn’t see where it was coming from.

Rodolphus took a step back instinctively, and Bellatrix emerged from the shadows, looking positively maddening.

“Y-You can’t kill me...” Rodolphus said, but through his stutter it was clear he wasn’t exactly sure on that matter.

“You know, it was the most unfortunate thing,” Bellatrix said in an explanatory tone as she advanced on him, her wand pointed at his throat. “Poor Rodolphus got caught in the crossfire, and I accidently killed him while trying to escape. I’m just positively grief-stricken about the whole thing, really.”

“Bellatrix...” Rodolphus begged as he backed against the wall, “I’m your husband...”

“HA!” Bellatrix laughed, a crazed look adorning her face. “Were you my husband when you tortured me for years because of the information you knew? Were you my husband when you laid your hands on me? Were you my husband when you fucked up the love of my life?!”

“She’s just your sister, Bellatrix, how can she be the love of your life?”

“YOU FOOL!” Bellatrix screamed, as she advanced further, pressing her wand to his throat up against the wall. “She was everything good and pure in my life, she was something I lived for! She was everything to me....”

“Bellatrix please...”

“Bellatrix please...” she mocked, laughing. “This sounds awfully familiar. Unfortunately for you, you won’t get out of this like last time...”

After some time of torture, he was dead, lying on the ground with his lifeless body staring at the ceiling. Bellatrix stood over him as she giggled in a crazed way, and licked her lips at the taste of death on them again. She remembered her first kill, and oh... how sweet that was...

* * * *

“Do you think he will teach us it today?” Rabastan whispered to Rodolphus and myself as we all stood in the Shrieking Shack, awaiting our Lord to arrive for what he hinted at would be our final lesson, if not their final class.

“Do you think he’s going to use one of us as an example?” Rodolphus asked, eyes wide at the fear of that thought.

“Don’t be such a git,” Bellatrix answered exasperated, “How do you think it’s going to look if suddenly a couple students from Hogwarts end up dead?”

“Well then who do you think he’s going to use?” Rodolphus asked in a tone that suggested sarcastically that Bellatrix should know everything.

“I don’t think, I’m done what I’m asked to do and don’t ask questions.”

“Like a slave.” Rodolphus stated like it was degrading.

“Like a loyal servant to my Lord and Master, like you both should be as well,” Bellatrix answered pointedly, narrowing her eyes slightly.

Suddenly a curl of black smoke appeared from the center of the room, and all of the students fell to their knees to bow before him all in sync, as they had done so many times before.

“Arise,” the Dark Lord said, in a voice that inspired envy and fear to those around him.

All of them rose, keeping their heads bowed down in respect. “You all have mastered the Cruciatus Curse more quickly than I would have expected, and that gives me the confidence that you are finally ready for you final test: The Killing Curse.”

There was silence in the room. Bellatrix’s heart was pounding in her chest, the anticipation of committing this final act exciting her.

There was another cloud of black smoke, and a man maybe in his mid twenties appeared, bound and gagged. His eyes were wide with fear and tears, and while most of the students in the shack started to glance at each other nervously and like they were beginning to have second thoughts, Bellatrix just stared at the man on the floor curiously, like she was studying his reaction and taking it in.

“This man overheard some of my plans. Accidently, of course, but still he will not be permitted to live much longer because of it.”

The man was trembling, and Bellatrix cocked her head slightly to the side as she watched him, a hint of a smile on her lips as she enjoyed the man’s fear. She had learned recently it had become like a drug to her. Rodolphus’ fear as she tortured him was such an intoxicating feeling of power, and she just needed to have more.

“The Killing Curse is used by simply pointing your wand at someone and using the incantation, ‘Avada Kedavra.’ To express a fact that should not have to be spoken due to it’s obvious nature, you of course have to mean it. You have to want to kill him. To strike him down with the power that you hold in your hand. I highly doubt any of you yet have it in you, but by the time we are finished, you all will.”

Every nerve in Bellatrix’s body seemed to be dancing with the anticipation. Oh, how she hoped she would be the first to try.

“Rodolphus, you will be the first.”

Bellatrix was disappointed, but accepted that she could not always come first. She stood back, and patiently awaited Rodolphus’ attempt, which she was sure he would fail.

“Kill him,” The Dark Lord ordered, and stepped back to watch from a distance.

Rodolphus noticeably gulped down the lump that had formed in his throat. To control another or to cause pain was one thing; to end a life was quite another.

His arm rose that held his wand, and it was shaking slightly.

“We don’t have all day, Rodolphus,” The Dark Lord stated, his patience clearly being tested by Rodolphus’ hesitation.

“A-Avada Kedavra!” Rodolphus yelled, and Bellatrix watched to see what would happen.

The twitched for a second, his eyes going wide in shock, but then in an instant it was gone. He was still alive, Rodolphus had failed, like expected.

“A pathetic first attempt, you did not even stop his heart for more than half a second. Step back in line,” The Dark Lord ordered, and Rodolphus flushed red from his embarrassment of his failure and stepped back.

One by one the Dark Lord ordered them to come up and give it a try, but all of them failed. Rabastan got the closest, having stopped the man’s heart long enough for him to keel over, but still it was not enough.

Finally, he spoke her name. “Bellatrix.”

Bellatrix made her way to the center of the room, until she stood facing the pathetic excuse for a human being that knelt in front of her. Without breaking eye contact from the man Bellatrix asked quietly, “If I may, my Lord, I’d like to try something that could result in a successful attempt.”

“Go ahead, Bella,” he answered, in a tone that suggested he was slightly curious at what she was about to try.

Bellatrix was silent for a minute as she circled the man, much like a lion circles it’s prey. She studied him intently, as if trying to learn something from the unspoken words the flowed off of him in waves.

“Do you understand why you are here?” She asked him, curiously. The man whimpered in response and she continued. “You are being made an example of. You are just one of many that will fall at the Dark Lord’s feet, and pave the path to his glory. You are nothing but a number, a body to be counted out of the many. You have no name to us, you have no face.”

She paused, as she stopped her circling and stood to face him, her wand pointed directly at his heart. “Your death will be meaningless as a single man, for you are nothing, a no one. But your death will be a laurel leaf on his Lord’s crown of domination.”

“Before your demise, you will look down in the respect of your superiors and bow before your Lord and Master.”

The man did nothing, just whimpered as tears fell from his fear stricken eyes. “Bow, slave!” Bellatrix screamed, angry with his refusal to show her Lord the proper respect. “Crucio!”

The man doubled over in pain and screamed, though it was muffled because of the gag. He lay on the ground in a bowed position as he gasped for his last breathes of life.

“That’s better,” Bellatrix said as she watched him gasp in pain. “Your time on this earth is done. Tell Hades to prepare himself, you will not be the last.”

Her wand was still pointed at his heart, and she looked at the thing in front of her, and was done seeing him pathetically begging for his life to be spared with his eyes. Weak people like him did not deserve to grace this Earth, nor deserve to even be in the presence of pure greatness.

“Avada Kedavra!” She screamed, and a jet of light released from her wand and hit him directly on the heart, and he fell to the ground in an instant.

He was dead, she had done it.

She stared at him, and realized she had a smile on her face. The power washed through her like a wave of forbidden ecstasy... and she laughed. She absolutely loved it, the feeling, the power, to be able to snuff out the very existence of a person was so intoxicating, and she felt like she was drowning in it.

“That,” the Dark Lord started, “Was precisely why I chose you last, Bellatrix. I knew if anyone in here was to be able to do it, it would be you. You are going to be one of my greatest allies in this battle, my Bella.”

Bellatrix’s laughing had subsided, but she was still smiling, in almost a maddening sense. She looked over at her Master, and bowed her head in respect. “I live only to please you, My Lord.”

“And pleased me you have...”

TBC....