4
“Wow Bellatrix you look beau….”Was all Rodolphus got out before he vomited all over himself and the table he was seated at. Bellatrix cackled at the sight. It seemed that Andromeda was right about the side effects of breaking the bond. It made her extremely excited for Narcissa’s to be broken as well. They were just waiting for the opportunity to get the sample of Malfoy blood needed to perform the ritual. After the one to remove the Black family curse went so well she and Narcissa immediately did the one to break her marriage bond. Seeing her husband dry heaving uncontrollably made her feel even better than she already did. After removing the curse Bellatrix’s mind felt clearer and she was able to focus better. Plus her magic was stronger. Adding on to her fixing her teeth and hair, taking a shower and wearing clean clothes her confidence was at an all time high. She couldn’t remember feeling like this ever in her life. She was inpatient to finish her potions so that she could get her body back in shape and obtain a new wardrobe. That would complete her transformation into the rightful Head of Household for the Black family. A title that was hers for the taking anytime she wanted now that she wasn’t a Lestrange anymore. She had checked the Lestrange family tapestry and she was no longer on it.
“You are not looking so good Rod. Do you need a healer?”Bellatrix asked the man who was having trouble calming down. She took her seat at the right hand side of the chair at the head of the table happy that she wasn’t close to her husband.
“What’s wrong with you Rodolphus?”The Dark Lord asked as he entered the room and caught sight of the man covered in vomit taking deep breaths.
“I’m fine my…”Rodolphus started heaving again when he caught sight of Bellatrix sitting next to the Dark Lord.
“Clean up after yourself then leave my sight and don’t come back until you can’t contaminate the rest of us.”The Dark Lord ordered.
“Yes my lord.”Rodolphus mumbled as he pulled out his wand, cleaned up all the vomit and scurried out of the room.
“Now that is taken care of. We have many things to discuss. First I would like to welcome back Lucius.”The Dark Lord said.
“It’s good to be back my lord.”Lucius replied.
“Bellatrix took the punishment for your actions this time but next time you might not be so lucky.”The Dark Lord was bluffing. He would never hurt any of the high ranking members of his followers. He had Bellatrix who was always more than happy to take the beatings for them. He just had to make the threats to keep up appearances.
“And I thank her for that my lord.”Lucius wasn’t worried about the Dark Lord punishing him. He had screwed up many time to include having a half blood heir and the Dark Lord didn’t do more than yell at him. It was Bellatrix who was the main focus of his anger.
“Always happy to help Lucy.”Now with the new information from Hermione and Andromeda Bellatrix could easily see that she was the whipping boy. Lucius was never punished for anything. None of them were except for her. Maybe it was her sister and her lover’s influence or maybe it was the removal of curse but Bellatrix was seeing a lot of things she hadn’t noticed before. Like the fact that all of the people that were members of the inner circle were dressed in expensive clothing and looking very put together. Even the rat Peter Pettigrew was in a nice suit with his hair in a pony tail looking like a respectable member of society.
The Dark Lord looked at Bellatrix surprised to see her appearance.”Why Bellatrix you look different. What made you make the change?”
“Oh you know Cissa always wanting me to look my best. I just couldn’t take the nagging anymore.”Bellatrix was only partially lying. Narcissa really did always pester her to take care of herself. Bellatrix just didn’t put in the effort until after it was pointed out to her that her appearance was being used as a tool against her.
“Well don’t get to obsessed with your looks that you lose focus on the cause.”The Dark Lord was not pleased Bellatrix was cleaning herself up. He would look less intimidating if he had a proper pureblood woman as his right hand compared to the wild animal that Bellatrix looked like when she got out of Azkaban. That image of the mad woman who would do anything for the cause caused fear in the hearts of anyone who saw her picture. Looking at her now she looked like a normal person you would pass on the street without taking a second look at. He would need to figure out how to dissuade her from this path.
“I would never get distracted from the cause my lord.”Bellatrix was being truthful. It was just her cause wasn’t the same as his anymore. Her cause aligned with Andromeda’s and Hermione. Both women she wrote letters to. She wanted to know if Hermione was alright after what Bellatrix did to her. It was the first time she actually felt guilty about torturing someone.
“As my most loyal I know you won’t.”The Dark Lord wasn’t concerned about Bellatrix straying from his side. She truly was his most devoted.”Let’s get back to the many things we need to discuss. I have become aware that during the incident at the ministry that Potter’s mud blood killed Sirius Black and has become the Head of Household for the Black family.”
“My lord I thought that Potter was his heir.”Alecto said.
“It seems that Sirius never adopted him so by killing him the mud blood earned the title by right of conquest.”The Dark Lord explained.
“So we kill the mud blood right?”Rabastan concluded.
“My lord I will happily volunteer to kill the girl.”Lucius wanted the extra title. If he was the head of two pureblood houses he would be the most powerful wizard in Britain.
“You couldn’t even handle Potter how are you going to kill his mud blood.”Macnair would go after the girl regardless of what the Dark Lord said. There was no way he was passing up the chance to get control of a pureblood family.
“I think the only logical choice is for me to go after the girl. I could use the gold to support the army of werewolves I want to create.”Greyback could already imagine all the soldiers he would have control over if he had the gold to finance their needs.
“You’re awfully quiet Bellatrix. What did you think?”The Dark Lord would have thought Bellatrix would have been the first one to speak up.
Bellatrix cursed herself for not committing to the act. It was very hard to act crazy after finally getting her sanity back.”I want to kill the girl as that title is my birthright. However I can’t gain it because of my bond with Rod. That being the case I think he should go after the girl so at least I would have some control of my family.”
“That’s a good point. It was your birthright. Not Sirius’.”If it had been passed to Bellatrix the Dark Lord wouldn’t have matched her with anyone. The only reason she was married off to Rodolphus was because the boy was madly in love with her and was willing to do anything to have her including paying half the gold in the family’s vault to him as a dowry.”That being the case Rodolphus will go after the girl.”
“Thank you my lord.”Bellatrix was sure that others would make their move on Hermione as well and would be sending her and her sister a warning. At least Bellatrix knew that Andromeda could easily handle most of the inner circle if she had kept up on her dueling practice. Based on what they had learned so far of Hermione she was probably even better than Andromeda.
“It’s settled. Next Greyback tell me how your efforts with the vampires are going?”The Dark Lord had been trying to get the vampires to join with him since he resurfaced but was having no luck.
“My lord they have rejected all of my gifts and refused to set up meetings with their leadership. I honestly don’t know what else we can do other than attack them and force them to fight for us.”Greyback had gone out of his way to get the vampires to talk to him but nothing worked.
“I am all for a good fight but we don’t know their exact numbers or what allies they have.”Bellatrix knew exactly why the vampires weren’t agreeing to meet with Greyback and it was taking everything inside her to stop herself from pointing out how inferior the wolf was to her sister.
“That is true. We could be easily overwhelmed and lose many of our followers.”The Dark Lord didn’t want to fight the vampires.”Anyone else have any ideas on how to get them to align with us?”
“Did you give them traditional offerings?”Alecto asked Greyback.
Greyback nodded.”I followed the old ways and even brought with me a sacrifice to ask for the meeting with their coven leader.”
“It’s odd that they don’t want to at least hear you out. Has anyone heard word of them having an alliance with someone else?”The Dark Lord figured that would be the only reason they refused to meet with his people.
“I have heard that the Order has reached out to them but the received the same response we got. I honestly believe that the vampires don’t want to be involved in this war.”Lucius said.
“What about the goblins and the giants?”Those were two more groups that refused to align with the Dark Lord.
“The goblins claim that they don’t want to join us because they say their involvement will affect the value of gold.”MacNair told him.
“If the goblins think that then there is no changing their minds.”The Dark Lord was upset hearing that because if they had the goblins on their side they would have had control of the banks.”The giants?”
“Me and my men were attacked when we entered their territory and nothing we said made them stop and listen to us. We have gone back numerous times but it seems all we are accomplishing is pissing them off.”Nott told him.
The Dark was not pleased to hear that either.”What is being said about their alliances?”
“Dumbledore had his half giant try to talk them into joining his side but they refused claiming they had no interest in dying for humans.”Lucius flinched when the Dark Lord slammed his hand on the table.
“Why are they not getting involved? Do they not understand that when this is all over that their rights and freedoms will be decided?”The Dark Lord didn’t know why the creatures wouldn’t join him. He was obviously the best choice for them in this war.
“Should we reach out to Veela?”Rabastan asked.
“The Veela would never get involved. Their culture in insular and they barely interact with outsiders. There is no way they would get involved in a human war.”Bellatrix was having a hard time not laughing in the Dark Lord’s face hearing about all the magical creature communities refusing to side with him. She really hoped before he died she would get to tell him that the real reason for that was because they were aligned with her blood traitor sister and her mud blood lover.
“I’m actually surprised that they came to Hogwarts for the tournament.”Lucius said.
“Did they befriend anyone when they were there?”The Dark Lord asked.
“From what was said in the paper and my nieces reported they were very good friends with Potter’s mud blood. There was an article about her being in a relationship with the French champion who is the second in line to be elder of her Veela clan.”Alecto told him.
“That mud blood again. How was she able to kill Sirius?”That was something the Dark Lord hadn’t asked about.
“The girl was trying to cast the killing curse on me but my idiot cousin jumped in the way. After that I tortured her until you called a retreat.”Bellatrix really hoped Hermione was alright.
“She was able to successfully cast the killing curse?”The Dark Lord wondered if he should have paid more attention to the girl as it seemed she was a lot more influential than he realized.
“Yes my lord.”And Bellatrix couldn’t have been more proud of Hermione that she did.
“I want Rodolphus to kill this girl right away. Bellatrix give him whatever help he needs in doing so.”The Dark Lord knew that with Bellatrix’s help Rodolphus would have no problem killing the girl.
“I will be more than happy to help my lord.”Bellatrix was already mid plan of using this as a way to kill her husband. Maybe she would have Hermione do it to make it less suspicious.
“The rest of you I want each of you to put in the effort to find a way to get the creature communities on our side. Everyone can be persuaded to do something if you have something to offer them or something to threaten them with. Figure out what that is and do it soon. We need their numbers and the benefits of each of them on our side.”The Dark Lord had been counting on the creature communities on joining him. He had gotten some small groups during the first war and thought it would be easy to bring in the full communities. The fact that it wasn’t happening was making him very upset.
“Yes my lord.”Lucius was going to do all he could to get at least one of the communities to agree because he knew if he did he would be rewarded greatly.
“You are all dismissed.”The Dark Lord told them.
“Thank you my lord.”Bellatrix did a double check and didn’t notice the Dark Lord keeping any object close to him except for the snake. He wore a skull ring but no other jewelry. Giving him one more once over she made her way out of the room. She needed to find her husband and tell him about his new mission. Bellatrix wondered if he would be able to get through it without being sick the entire time. Once she was done telling him about the mission she was going to check in with Narcissa. Her sister was going to be delighted to learn that Andromeda had been right and their husbands would get sick at the sight of them. That brought with it another thought. They needed Malfoy blood. Making a detour from the fireplaces Bellatrix decided to search out Lucius and make him bleed. She was supposed to be crazy so it wouldn’t be odd for her to attack Lucius. It happened often enough. It might lead to the Dark Lord punishing her but Bellatrix thought it was worth it to free Narcissa from her marriage.