Who: Bellatrix Lestrange and Sirius Black When: Monday night Where: A playground just outside Thetford What: Idiocy. Complete and utter idiocy. Rating: Violence, language Status: Completed log
This was, by all accounts, a terrible plan. This was not lying low. This was not being discreet. But Bellatrix did not care. This had nothing - or at least very little - to do with the Death Eaters and the cause that she devoted her life towards. At least that was what she told herself to justify the reckless action that she had not even seen fit to tell her husband about. This was about family and the need to right the wrongs that had been done to her own. This was about showing Sirius, who dared question her ability to kill him. Who issued challenges that begged to be met.
It was with some amusement and her taste for the profane that Bellatrix had selected the location for this fight. A public park, complete with playground. And after setting a few quick wards just to ensure they would not be interrupted by anyone even at this late hour, Bellatrix was perched on a swing, looking every bit the innocent young woman that she was not. There were no cloaks and masks for this. Instead her long hair was pulled back loosely from her face and her fingers curled around the chains of the swing and she glided back and forth through the air waiting for her cousin to arrive.
Sirius knew that this was stupid. Horrifically stupid. Beyond horrifically stupid. So stupid that if Bellatrix didn't kill him, James and Remus would gladly pick up the slack and finish the job for her. It made his visit to Alecto look like a positively brilliant idea. He still wasn't entirely better, and he knew he should be taking it easy and not doing anything to risk life or limb, but there was no way in hell that Sirius could ignore his cousins' taunting and goading; he knew he should have more control than that, but he didn't. He just didn't.
Wondering vaguely if there actually would be a crowd of fifty waiting to serve his head on a platter to his mother (finally, they must be chomping at the bit for that), Sirius apparated to the coordinates Bellatrix had sent him. He was surprised (and a little wary) to see only one figure, on... a swingset, of all things. In a playground. A playground. This was probably the most bizarre location for a duel he'd ever heard of.
"Well this is a surprise," Sirius called out, crossing the playground to join Bellatrix near the swings. "I thought playgrounds were places of innocence, so how are you here without your flesh burning?"
There had been some question in Bellatrix's mind as to whether or not Sirius would actually show. Oh, she knew as soon as she had issued her own challenge that he would never be able to refuse, but that did not mean he would have the sense not to tell his idiot friends and they would keep him from coming. Apparently he did still have some sense of honour, a thought that she acknowledged with an odd bit of respect.
She brought her feet down hard upon the ground and stopped the swing from another arc as she rose gracefully to her feet. An amused smirk crossed her lips as she walked towards him until they were almost touching. "Churches, Sirius. Churches are where the flesh of heathens burns. Or so the stories say." She laughed, shaking her head at the notion that any silly Muggle superstitions would bring an end to her and then just as abruptly as her laughter had come forth, it stopped and her wand was out, twirled idly between her fingers.
"Are we going to do this properly or should I just kill you now?" she asked, the picture of calm confidence. "It is your choice."
"I just assumed demons burned anywhere innocence thrived," Sirius replied dryly. His eyes narrowed when she took her wand out, his hand already pulling his own from his pocket, not trusting her to be armed when he wasn't. Even with this absurd duel - or whatever it was that was actually going to take place - he didn't have concrete proof that she was a Death Eater, but that didn't mean he didn't think she could kill him. Or at least inflict serious harm. She almost fascinated him, really, with how much hatred she could inspire with so little words. Sirius would never dream of hurting a woman, but Bellatrix wasn't a woman in his mind.
"I fight properly," he said, frowning. "And fairly." Yet another thing he didn't trust her to do. And yet another reason why he shouldn't be here. "If you want to play with the boys, then I'll take that challenge."
His last comment had her narrowing her eyes in annoyance. Fight with the boys indeed. Oh if only he knew. She was better than any man, save the Dark Lord himself and he was not a man so much as a god. "Foolish to the end, I see. I would give you one last opportunity to repent for your sins, but we both know it would be a wasted effort. Pity." In an odd gesture that even Bellatrix could not have explained had she been pressed, she reached up with her free hand to press her palm against her cousin's cheek, almost as if she did have some fleeting moment of regret over what was to come.
And then she moved away from him, stepping back to put several metres between them. She did not turn her back on Sirius as she did not trust him any more than he did her, ironic considering the value that they both placed upon proper duelling protocol. (At least when it had been agreed upon, in Bellatrix's case.) With a sweeping bow Bellatrix raised her wand, waiting for him to do the same.
The very last thing that Sirius had expected was for Bellatrix to press her hand against his cheek, and for a wild moment he was convinced she was going to somehow kill him with the gesture; but her hand dropped harmlessly away, merely leaving him baffled. He didn't know if she'd done it to rattle him, but he didn't have time to think it over.
He watched her back up and put the proper amount of space between them, amused at least that she didn't turn her back to him. He wouldn't have done anything to her at that moment, even though she probably would've gladly hexed the hell of him when he least expected it. His eyes narrowed again when she bowed and raised her wand, the helpful little voice that should be telling him not to do this conspicuously absent. He bowed gracefully and raised his own wand, eyes locked on her, every muscle in his body tense and waiting. He would let her throw the first hex, because it was polite and proper, and because he was smug enough to let her think he thought her inferior, and in need of the upper hand.
Despite the sheer and utter recklessness of this entire plan, Bellatrix did at least have the good sense to refrain from unleashing unforgiveables or other dark magic upon her cousin to confirm whatever suspicions he had about her. Just in case he turned into a coward and ran before she could finish the task. Who knew how long that would actually last, but at least for the time being standard duelling spells would have to suffice. It did put her at something of a disadvantage, to refrain from using at least half the curses in her arsenal, but she was still confident that she could easily best him with blasting spells alone if need be.
And apparently he was allowing her the first strike. Idiot. As he predicted, she assumed he, like so many others, was underestimating her because she was a woman and that only further raised her ire. Sirius of all people should know better. He should know what she was capable and what she had learnt at her father's hand, if not the Dark Lord's. With a flourish of her wand, she sent a silent blasting hex towards his feet, followed by the flames of an incendio aimed for his chest.
Sirius instinctively took a step back when Bellatrix's wand arm moved, and he was glad he did when the ground he'd just been standing on erupted, grass and dirt shooting everywhere as he stumbled back a few more steps. He threw a shield up to block her incendio, the flames exploding as they crashed against the shield and burst upwards, and it was a really good thing that any nearby Muggles couldn't see this.
He grit his teeth and shot a disarming spell at her, followed rapidly with a stinging hex, throwing all of his anger towards her into it. He hoped the expelliarmus would distract her enough to let the other hex hit her, wanting to hurt her more than he was willing to admit.
Bellatrix waved aside his disarming spell with an almost-casual flick of her wand and quickly side-stepped out of the path of his stinging hex. She would not be so easily distracted, not when at least half of her waking hours were spent devoted to duelling practise and study. At least until recently. She was a brilliant duellist and she knew it, a fact that all too easily led to over confidence. Not that she would acknowledge as much as over confidence would imply her faith in her own abilities was not entirely warranted.
"I see you are taking fighting with the boys literally," she sneered as she levelled a series of slashing hexes at him in quick succession. "I seem to recall fighting someone like you before. As a third year."
Sirius blasted the slashing hexes, though one caught the sleeve of his shirt and tore a strip of fabric clear off, just grazing the skin of his arm. "You wound me deeply," he replied, resisting the urge to roll his eyes, not wanting to miss a slashing hex aimed at his face. He grinned and shot a blasting curse at the ground in front of her, the tip of his wand jerking even as the curse flew out, casting several slashing hexes of his own. "And you insult like a third year."
Frowning slightly as her slashing hexes were deflected, Bellatrix fell into his trap, jumping back to avoid the blasting curse that wasn't even aimed for her. One of his slashing hexes sliced neatly across her left shoulder before she could throw up a shield to deflect the rest. Her shoulder stung, but she did not make a sound aside from a slight growl of annoyance, nor did she look down to see her blood exposed through torn robes.
Instead she stepped forward and cast a quick lumos in the hopes of blinding him with the sudden bright light filling the darkened playground so he would not see her next attack coming. A handful of knives were conjured into the air and sent flying towards him as she continued her taunts. "I should hardly worry about wounding you with my words when I shall have you bleeding upon the ground."
Sirius was grimly pleased to see one of his slashing hexes hit, not wanting to think about the satisfaction he felt as a neat line of blood spurt out from her shoulder. His satisfaction was short lived, however, when she temporarily blinded him, and he turned his head and blinked rapidly to let his eyes readjust. Pain suddenly tore into the side of his thigh, and he blasted out blindly at whatever it was she'd thrown at him, realising belatedly that it'd been bloody knives. He growled low in his throat and yanked the knife from his thigh, sending it hurling back in her direction.
He aimed his wand behind her, ripping the chain swings from their bar to send them hurtling through the air at her. "You'll have to try harder than that to kill me," he claimed, running his wand quickly over the wound in his thigh, grateful for the basic healing charms he'd learned for Remus' sake.
"Oh Sirius. This is hardly me trying," she replied with a laugh. As soon as she had sent the knives flying at him she had taken a moment to deal with her shoulder and now she was ready for whatever he threw at her. The knife was sent flying off into the distance and although she hardly expected him to send the swings flying at her (swings? really?) it was hard to miss the noisy metal coming towards her head and she quickly dropped into a crouch as they sailed over her.
Well if he wanted to destroy the playground, she could certainly play that game as well. The entire merry-go-round was ripped from the ground and sent hurtling towards him as she leapt back to her feet and sent a gouging hex straight towards his chest. This was quickly becoming absurd.
Sirius' eyes widened when she sent the fucking merry-go-round hurtling through the air towards him, and the only thing he could do was blast it as quickly as possible and try to step out from underneath it. Huge chunks of the thing exploded, shooting debris everywhere, and he hastily threw up a shield to keep anything from landing on him. A fucking wooden horse went careening past his head, and he dimly realised that this was absolutely insane.
He tried to sidestep the gourging hex, but it caught him on his left side, beside his ribcage, and it sent him flying backward, pain blossoming through his chest. He didn't even want to know what damage had been done. The places where the Sectumsempra had cut him during his last fight were on fire, and it was harder to breathe, but it spurned him on as he rolled to his feet and snarled out "relashio!" the end of his wand exploding with a fiery burst aimed at her chest. He jerked his wand arm and sent a wave of sharp debris at her, pieces of shattered wood and jagged metal from the fucking merry-go-round.
Bellatrix was laughing again as she watched her cousin avoid bits of flying merry-go-round (a few that she had to duck as well) and then go sailing back and into the ground. It was to her detriment as she was too amused by her own attack to defend against his and the sparks connected with her chest, knocking her off her feet. It was several seconds that she was in the air until she connected hard with the ground some distance back. Her wand was barely up in time to stop the bits of metal and wood flying towards her, but a shield erupted before her just in time and the shrapnel fell harmlessly to the ground.
Oh, now she was angry.
Practically shoving herself back to her feet, she stalked across the playground, closing the distance between them once again. Forgetting whatever assurances she had given herself at the start; that she would not resort to dark magic, that there would be no need for it, her wand sliced through the air as a jet of scarlet tendrils burst from her wand, tenderils that were intended to coil around their victim and tear flesh from bone. "You have no idea what I am capable of, Sirius!"
Sirius stood his ground as she advanced on him, even though he didn't know if he'd be ducking another curse or another piece of fucking playground equipment this time. What he hadn't expected was a curse he couldn't identify, and he blasted at the red tendrils as they flew through the air at him, knowing at least that he didn't want any of them touching him. He wasn't so lucky, unfortunately, as a tendril surged past his defenses and curled itself around his left wrist. White hot pain momentarily blinded him as the flesh of his wrist was torn off wherever the tendril hit, the shock of it reverberating up his arm. He dropped to his knees, staring in horror at his wrist, and tried to heal the deep gashes, but he only succeeded in slowing down the bleeding.
Fury welled up in him as he stared at the damage she'd inflicted, and without thinking at all he pushed himself to his feet and slashed his wand blindly at her, furiously snarling "Sectumsempra!" He wanted to hurt her as much as she hurt him, and that was the first curse that came to mind, as it'd been hanging over him for days now, the throb of it coursing through him and nearly burning his wand hand he was so angry.
She had not expected her cousin to be so willing to abandon his noble Gryffindor ideals and resort to dark magic of his own and as she heard the incantation for his curse, there was a fleeting expression of surprise across her face. It was a mistake. Gryffindor or no and regardless of whatever they doctored their family tree to say, he was still a Black. She moved a few second too late to dodge his attack and the curse tore across her already injured shoulder. There would be no quick remedy to this wound, not with the time she had and she let out a shriek of pain as her blood spilled down her arm.
But now this was a real fight. The thrill of a proper duel coursed through Bellatrix's blood, side by side with her anger and she sent an entrail-expelling curse at Sirius, followed by a burst of searing black fire. A killing curse would have been far more expedient but Bellatrix was almost desperate in her need for Sirius to see the magic she could bring forth, to acknowledge her power. It was as if fighting to the death was simply the next step in some childhood game of trying to impress each other and out-do one another.
Sirius didn't have much time to enjoy the satisfaction of his curse hitting her, as she was already firing back at him and he really didn't want to get hit by anything else she threw. His wrist was excruciating but slowly numbing as adrenaline and anger took over. He held his injured arm against his chest and threw a blasting hex right at her head. It collided midair with her entrail-expelling curse and the two exploded, sparks shooting out from the force of it. He scrambled backwards as a burst of black fire came at him right after, and hurriedly called out an aguamenti, a jet of water shooting from his wand and spraying over the flames. A lick of it caught his shirt and ignited the side of it, and he yelped in surprise, turning his wand on himself to put out the fire with the last of the stream of water.
He clenched his jaw and threw a scarlet burst of flame back at her, then flicked his wand at the metal seesaw to their left. The long metal rod, seats and all, was torn from its base and sent hurtling at her, quickly followed by the seesaw beside it.
Oh good, back to dismantling the playground. Sirius's first attack was easily deflected and then she quickly turned her attention to the seesaws. Taking a page out of Sirius's book, Bellatrix fired two quick blasting curses at the metal contraptions and then threw up a shield to protect herself from the shards of metal that went exploding every which way. Too eager to turn her attentions back to her cousin and assuming she could easily dodge the remainder, she dropped her shield before the last of the shrapnel had fallen to the ground. Her recklessness was promptly rewarded by a razor-sharp piece metal that embedded itself into her thigh and she stumbled, barely managing to keep on her feet.
Pain radiated through her leg, blood was still running down her arm from the wound in her shoulder and Bellatrix decided she had had enough. There was not even the slightest moment of hesitation as she raised her wand and in a high, clear voice said, "Avada Kedavra!"
Everything suddenly came to a screeching halt when Sirius heard those two words, and his eyes widened in a surprise he wished he didn't feel. Their duel had gotten beyond dirty, but actually hearing her cast the killing curse caused reality to come crashing down around him. Green light burst from the tip of her wand, and Sirius threw himself to his left, landing hard on his injured wrist as he collided with the ground. He bit through his bottom lip in pain as he forced himself to roll onto his side and throw up a shield, knowing he had to protect himself. The curse soared overhead, rustling his hair, the force of it pressing his shield painfully against his injured side. When the light was gone - and he was still breathing - he let out the breath he'd been holding and staggered to his feet, staring at Bellatrix in horror.
"You bitch," he growled, both horrified and infuriated. "You fucking cunt!" He wanted, suddenly and desperately, to kill her, to throw the Unforgivable right back at her, the desire so strong it nearly took his breath away. But no. No. He hurled a stupefy at her, suddenly sick to his stomach with everything else he'd thrown, realising just how much he'd played her game.
Bellatrix should have been angry to see Sirius avoid her curse. She had cast it with every intention of killing him, and yet he lived. That ordinarily would have been enough to send her into a fit of rage and yet she found herself oddly satisfied by the expression of horror on his face alone. He truly had not thought she would do it - clearly a foolish mistake on his part, and she was more than happy to disabuse him of any notion that he might be entitled to mercy from her.
And yet, she did not cast it again. "Did you not believe I was serious?" she snapped back at him as she waved aside his stunning spell and fired back with a blasting curse of her own. It was oddly anti-climactic and soon enough they (or at least she) would undoubtedly be back to flinging playground equipment and dark magic about, but for the moment she wanted to enjoy his shock which was much easier when he wasn't writhing on the ground. "Did you truly not believe me capable?"
Sirius deflected her curse, sending it bouncing off somewhere to his right. "Of course I knew you were serious," he lied, entirely unwilling to admit that, for awhile there, he didn't think they'd do more than attempt to best - and hurt - each other. "But I don't believe you're capable." He sneered at her, through the haze of pain between his wrist and his side. His wrist was going to scar (or worse) if he didn't get it looked at soon, but he didn't want to give in. "You didn't get me, after all. I'm still here. You failed." It was stupid to bait her, he knew that, but the bitch had just tried to fucking kill him - he was entitled to it. "How does that feel? Watching me live?"
No, that was definitely not a smart move on Sirius's part. She could tolerate his taunts about the fact that he was still alive, but to say that she was not capable, to say that she had failed... Those were insults she would not bear. Had he left well enough alone, she likely would have been content to just keep bickering and sending petty hexes back and forth. "If it means I have the chance to hear you scream, I can live with that," she snarled as she thrust her wand towards him and shrieked an angry "Crucio!" She had already cast one unforgivable in front of him, it hardly seemed that another would matter and oh how she wanted him to suffer for his insolence.
Two Unforgivables in the span of two minutes; if it wasn't so horrifying, it'd be absurdly, darkly funny. Sirius threw up a hasty shield but it wasn't as strong as he would've liked it to be. The curse slammed into him, and the shield managed to hold, but the force of it threw him backwards, his breath knocked out of his lungs with a huff. While he hadn't been hit by the actual curse, the shoddy shield had let some of it seep through, and his body ached from head-to-toe. This was insane. Ridiculously fucking insane. Why was he still out here?
He clambered to his feet, his wrist bleeding freely again after his fall. "Too bad you won't get that chance," he bit out, the urge to kill her overwhelming him again. But he couldn't, not now, not here. He didn't have the strength to do it, not after everything that'd happened, both tonight and the night in Dorcas's flat, and he needed to get his wrist and side looked at. Gathering the last of his strength he hurled an incendio at her, a ball of fire exploding out towards her. In the glare of it he apparated away from the playground, knowing that if he didn't do it now he'd stay and get himself killed. Whether or not he wanted to admit it, he didn't have the strength to go on. Not now - but he would again soon. Very soon, if he had his way.
As soon as Sirius was back on his feet she threw another enraged "Crucio!" at him but it connected with his incendio instead, erupting into a violent explosion of fire and sparks. And before she could bring her wand around for another attack, Sirius was gone. With a furious howl, she spun around and fire burst from her wand over and over again, devouring every last still intact piece of playground equipment in flames. The coward had fled. And if she had any idea just where he was likely hiding, she would very well follow after him.
Except now that the adrenaline of the duel had started to fade, the pain in her shoulder and thigh became all the more acute and she became quite aware of just how much of her blood was still running down her arm rather than through her veins. As fire burned all around her, she apparated home and made her way inside. She would face her cousin again. She would draw him out andfinish what she started.