Bellatrix "Minister of Murder" Lestrange (warriorstar) wrote in cultureic, @ 2015-11-06 14:33:00 |
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Entry tags: | bellatrix lestrange |
WHO: Bellatrix Lestrange and Katherine McKinnon-Smith
WHEN: Nov 6, very early morning
WHERE: A yoga studio in Scotland
WHAT: Bellatrix tries relaxation techniques (Prompt: In Public)
WARNINGS: Violence and torture :(
Bellatrix woke up annoyed. It wasn't all that surprising considering she had gone to bed annoyed, but it was the sort of feeling that ate away at her and kept her from falling back asleep even though it was far earlier than she liked to be awake. And there was only one solution to this sort of irritation. A solution that her husband, who she was still not speaking to, had deprived her of the previous day. Fifteen minutes later, Bellatrix was out of the house without a word and standing on a dimly lit street in Scotland in front of a yoga studio. She wasn't entirely sure what a yoga studio was, but she knew it was where Katherine McKinnon-Smith could be found at this absurd hour of the morning. She had tracked down Marlene's relatives precisely for moments like this. Her hair was charmed a fiery shade of McTavish red and her face was glamoured so that she was unrecognizable, but hadn't put much thought into things beyond the most basic of precautions. Bellatrix strode into the largely unremarkable building, killed the receptionist and turned her into a cat statue before she had a chance to finish her overly perky greeting. On second thought, maybe she should have kept the woman alive long enough to figure out where she would find the eldest McKinnon. Oh well. Fortunately there was a ledger and Bellatrix was able to find the room without much trouble. The class was just breaking up and a flick of Bellatrix's wand and a silent imperius had the McKinnon woman staying where she was while the others filed out. Once it was only Bellatrix and Katherine remaining in the room, she locked the doors and lifted the spell. "Hello, Katherine," Bellatrix said as she cast a summoning spell for the other woman's wand. Kathy McKinnon had a schedule. Her alarm went off at 5:47, she made the family coffee and her son's lunchtime snacks, and by 6:03am she was out the door. After a brisk morning jog, she arrived at her Early Bird Yoga Class with time for her to shower and change. Once class was over, there was grocery shopping to do, and on that day in particular, she had an appointment at Gringott's scheduled in her free period between the farmer's market and Snitch Please. On that day, however, Katherine found herself hanging out a bit longer after class. It just felt right to take some extra time to change her shoes. And to say goodbye to the instructor. And to check her ponytail in the mirror. She didn't have a care in the world or a single place to be except right there, making sure her hair looked okay. And then suddenly that sensation melted away, leaving Kathy with the realization that she was off schedule. She turned around at the voice greeting her, giving the other woman the sort of smile that one gives to passing strangers in the hall at work. "Hello… you! I'm sorry, you've missed the Early Bird. There's a Breakfast Beginners session starting in room 3A in about" -- a glance at her watch -- "fourteen minutes. Wands away, of course! You should still have time to change." Her own wand flew from her hand a split second later. "Excuse you, hun, I meant your wand," she corrected the other lady, giving her a tight-lipped smile. "I'm going to need that back." Bellatrix tilted her head and smirked as she twirled McKinnon's wand between her fingers for a moment before slipping it into her pocket. The one advantage to skipping the mask and cloak for the day was that she got to enjoy this. The moment where her victim was still unsuspecting and confused and completely oblivious to the horrors they were about to experience. "No," she replied flatly. "Crucio." The word was barely more than a whisper and while others might require some particular concentration or summoning of emotions to manage the spell at full power, it was as easy as an accio to Bellatrix. The desire to cause pain was her natural state and this morning she felt it even more acutely than usual. All of her anger and frustration were poured into the spell as she sought satisfaction from the suffering of the other woman. Kathy barely had time to register that the woman had rudely declined to give her back her wand when suddenly she was on the ground. She crumpled into a screaming heap, shrieking and sobbing in complete agony, barely able to register what was happening. There was no spell, there was no one casting the curse, all that seemed to exist was the pain that blazed from every nerve in her body. There. That was what Bellatrix needed. The tension seemed to evaporate from her shoulders the longer she held the curse. So she kept holding it. She held it longer than she should if she wanted McKinnon to stay entertaining, relishing every scream and desperate plea and choked sob. And then finally she lifted the curse, leaving the other woman to try and pull herself together on the floor. Bellatrix took a few steps back and for a moment it seemed as if that would be it. A cruciatus would be the beginning and end of the torment, but then her wand was raised again and she dragged the woman up off the floor, letting her dangle in the air and then throwing her back against the nearest wall. Even once the curse ceased, the memory of it still played through Kathy's limbs. "What are you doing? What the fuck are you doing?" Kathy yelled as the spell dragged her off the ground, holding her in the air by her ankles while the ends of her hair brushed the floor. She didn't receive an answer before being tossed like a ragdoll against the wall, and no amount of padding from the gymnastics class that would be occupying the room later that afternoon could soften the blow. Something snapped in her wrist as she tried to brace herself for the impact, but she still struggled to push herself up to her feet while digging in her pocket for her phone. She needed to call Owen, he'd get the Aurors. Or the police. Or SOMEONE. "Look, you must have the wrong person. I have no idea who you are. If I've done something to you I'm sorry but I really don't think I have!" she tried to reason with the other woman, although she doubted that if she was throwing around Unforgivable Curses, she probably wasn't interested in logic or negotiations. Bellatrix was about to sneer some kind of retort about how she most certainly did not have the wrong person when Katherine pulled her phone out of her pocket and the sight of the muggle gadget just made Bellatrix snap all over again. "NO MORE PHONES," she screamed. She slashed her wand through the air and a ball of fire went flying at Katherine's phone. And her hand, her arm, her side… it was a rather large ball of fire to destroy such a small item, but Bellatrix didn't care. Katherine screamed as a massive fireball that looked like something out of Indiana Jones came blasting at her, engulfing her phone and half her body with it. Being a McKinnon, Kathy was well acquainted with stop, drop, and rolling, and immediately fell to the ground to try to put the flames out. Instead of rolling away from Bellatrix, though, as most people would have done, Kathy rolled toward her attacker as she pulled a small can of pepper spray out of her pocket. As soon as she felt she was close enough, she sprayed the can up toward the massive woman's face, hoping it would slow her down enough for her to get out of there. This was supposed to be easing her anger, not making it worse, but the sight of the phone was just pushing Bellatrix over the edge. So while Katherine was flailing around on the ground for some reason, Bellatrix was trying the ridiculous breathing exercises that Evan had suggested. She took a deep breath, held it for a count of five, and slowly let it out. That didn't seem to do a damn thing. Frowning, she took another deep breath… and her entire face felt like it was on fire. Bellatrix let out a startled yelp as she staggered back, wiping her face and trying to make it so that she could see again. But her eyes were burning and every breath felt like fire (and not the good kind) and she was even more angry than before. The room was blurry with her tears but she could still make out something resembling Katherine's figure well enough to send a series of blasting curses at her one after another, and just waiting for her to scream from the impact of one of them so she could deal with her face. In a perfect world, Katherine would've taken the opportunity to run for the hills. She would find her wand, apparate away, and inform the DMLE immediately that she'd been attacked by some lanky McTavish reject. Daring escapes, though, didn't account for dealing with the pain that accompanied daring escapes. All she wanted was to curl into a ball on the floor and cry, but she knew she needed to get out. She had her kids at home to get to. She couldn't die here in the middle of the yoga studio! Blasting curses were exploding all around her as she pulled herself with one arm towards the door like she was crawling through a mine-field, when suddenly one hit her dead on in the side. The impact sent her crashing back against the door before she slumped to the ground, dazed. Freedom was so close, the door practically mocking her with just how far it still seemed. A jet of water and a numbing spell later, Bellatrix was looking a good deal like a drowned ginger rat and she could no longer feel her face, but she could see and breathe and focus on the task at hand. Her wand was raised and another crucio was on her lips but in a moment of clarity, she cast a stunning spell instead. She couldn't kill the McKinnon woman. Not today. It would be too obviously her. So instead she crouched down and slipped McKinnon's wand back into her pocket and started altering her memories. This wasn't a magical attack. It was a muggle. A muggle from the yoga class who was angry. And just… happened to have some sort of muggle flamethrower. (So the fireball might not have been her best choice.) When Bellatrix was convinced that McKinnon would swear up and down that this was a muggle attack, she withdrew from her mind and woke her up with a carefully concealed wand. "That's what you get for cutting in line," Bellatrix snapped before giving the woman a good hard kick to the side and walking out. |