Bellatrix Lestrange (unyieldingstar) wrote in an_ill_wind, @ 2009-05-04 23:33:00 |
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Entry tags: | - 1980/05 may, bellatrix lestrange, rodolphus lestrange |
Who: Bellatrix and Rodolphus Lestrange
When: Monday night, after this
Where: Lestrange Manor
What: Bellatrix returns home. Rodolphus is less than pleased
Rating: Bickering, blood and a bit of violence
Status: Completed Log
Bellatrix was, quite frankly, a mess. Her hair had fallen free and laid around her shoulders in thick, unruly tangles. Her robes were covered in dirt and blood and while she had at least taken the time to cast the counter curse to the sectumsempra so she did not bleed to death before making it home, there was still a rather impressive length of metal sticking out of her leg. But mostly, she was just annoyed. What had started as a furious rage at Sirius's abrupt departure from their fight had dulled surprisingly quickly into a bitter irritation as she worked her way through a rather impressive series of rationalisations.
She had not truly been trying to kill him. That was what she was telling herself now at any rate. If she had really wanted him dead, he would be dead. So he had dodged a killing curse. That was hardly a feat that required talent. She could have very easily continued to throw killing curse after killing curse at him until one connected but she did not. Perhaps she would try that next time. Or perhaps she would forgo killing him and instead show him what it felt like to be tortured for hours on end. And there it was - the one thing that was keeping her from flying into an apoplectic rage at his escape. There would be a next time. It had been all too easy to bait her cousin into coming out of hiding and she would simply do so again.
Making her way through the house (with a quite determined yet still unsuccessful effort at not limping) Bellatrix stopped when she found herself outside Rodolphus's study. Oh, she should have just gone to their quarters, tended to her injuries and pretended that none of this had even happened. But as she had yet to take the more sensible course of action in any of the choices presented to her that day, she instead went into the study where Rodolphus was working.
Throwing herself into one of the armchairs, Bellatrix frowned for a moment as she studied the remains of the seesaw that she had brought home with her. And then she clenched her jaw, pulled the shrapnel from her leg with a strangled cry and a grimace of pain, and held the offending pieve of metal up for a moment's curious examination before it was tossed to the floor. "Hello, Rodolphus," she finally greeted. With one hand clamped over her now bleeding leg (she would get to healing it soon but was suddenly quite tired) she leaned back in the chair and closed her eyes.
Let it never be said she did not know how to make an entrance.
Rodolphus had been wrapped up in more documents pertaining to combining departments and eradicating many altogether when Bellatrix entered his study and effectively commanded his attention. Between her appearance and the bit of shrapnel she pulled out of her leg, Rodolphus was left speechless for a moment as he attempted to process the situation and make something resembling sense of it.
"What have you been doing?" he asked after a moment, setting his parchment aside and getting up to move to the other side of the desk where he could inspect the injury whatever the cause had been. And, given his recent blunders where the Dark Lord was concerned, and the plans he and Bellatrix were building to appease him, it had better be a damn good cause.
"I had a run in with a playground," Bellatrix replied dryly as she slowly opened her eyes and looked up at her husband, feeling generally unimpressed with the level of concern he was showing for her condition. Not that she would have appreciated anything that might have resembled doting or fretting either. Really, there was no way Rodolphus could win when it came to Bellatrix and her fickle moods.
She certainly did not intend to tell him just what she had been doing. As much as she tended to relish the fights between them and as much as she knew she was doing nothing but drawing his attention with her entrance, the prospect of yet another screaming match just seemed... oddly tiring. Right. Well that was definitely a sign something was amiss. Deciding it was probably time to deal with the wound in her leg before she lost even more blood, she lifted her hand and set towards mending it.
"Oh, do not worry about me. I am quite fine," she said, with more than a hint of bitterness and sarcasm in her voice. "Although if you are going to insist upon standing and staring, you might at least fetch a blood replenishing potion and some salve."
Her tone made gave Rodolphus the urge to roll his eyes and sit back down at his desk and ignore her. What sort of spell would he have to develop to tell whether her mood was compassionate, dry or what have you, so that he could "properly" respond? Instead of speaking to her he summoned a house elf to fetch supplies, leaning on his desk in the meantime and surveying her with slightly raised eyebrows.
"Did the playground strike first, I wonder?"
"I believe it was the swing set that launched the first attack," she replied, giving him a wry smirk before returning her attention to her injuries. Bellatrix stripped off her robes, revealing what used to be a crisp white collared shirt but was now completely soaked in blood from the shoulder down. Well that was another shirt ruined. Really she ought to have learnt by now that wearing white to a duel was inadvisable but she had not truly thought Sirius would be able to injure her.
The house elf quickly returned and Rodolphus dismissed it the moment it set the items on his desk. "Remove your shirt," he instructed with a bottle and cloth in hand, ready to tend to her as she had for him after his meeting with the Dark Lord. "Who was weilding the swing set?"
Although hardly anything that could be considered prone towards compliance, Bellatrix did not see any reason to be stubborn about her shirt when it was clear it needed to come off anyway. Instead she quickly undid the buttons and slid her right arm out before more gingerly peeling the left sleeve off. It would be clear as soon as he had cleaned the wound (if it was not already) that it was no mere slash from rogue playground equipment, but she still did not intend to tell him the truth. "Surprisingly, it seemed to have developed a mind of its own."
"I sincerely doubt it," Rodolphus replied, gingerly touching the gash before he started to clean it. "I also have my doubts that playground equipment is able to brandish a wand, since this is not a injury that was caused by bits of metal, Bellatrix." He was quiet for a moment as he wiped the blood away, then hand his wife a blood-replenishing potion before starting to close the wound with his wand.
"Ah, you see, then you would make the same mistake as I did. Do not underestimate the strength of playground equipment or it might very well impale your leg. Although that was actually the seesaw." She really was impossibly stubborn when she chose to be. Downing the blood-replenishing potion, she leaned back in the chair as Rodolphus tended to her arm. At least that would help with the irritating feeling of light-headedness that was consuming her. And apparently driving her to poor attempts at humour.
Enough of this. The wound sealed shut, Rodolphus applied a salve to minimalize the swelling and then bluntly questioned, "Who were you duelling in a children's playground, Bellatrix?"
"You really do not wish to know," she replied, closing her eyes again. It was, at least, the truth, if not an answer to his question. "Shall I remove my trousers next?" And there was her amused little smirk again, the only expression on an otherwise tired face.
Rodolphus sighed audibly. "You are trying my patience, Bellatrix. You know perfectly well that I will continue to badger you until you tell me, so it would be best for both of us if you would stop avoiding telling me what happened," he said, getting frustrated. "But yes, please remove your trousers."
He was, of course, quite correct. That did not make her any more inclined to cooperate and instead she remained stubbornly silent as she undid her trousers and carefully lifted her hips in an uncharacteristically awkward movement as she slipped the garment off. Putting her weight on her injured shoulder brought forth a hiss of pain through clenched teeth as well as a flash of irritation. "I should have just killed him and been done with it," she growled. She had not been intending to vocalise that thought but it was too late now.
"Killed who?" Rodolphus questioned, tone short, his patience having deteriorated completely. He went to work cleaning the wound on her leg. "Who challenged you, or who did you challenge? For surely this was some quest of pride. I hope that whomever it is is dead, at the least."
"No," she growled, her annoyance now displaced onto her husband at the reminder of her failure. As he clearly would not shut up about it until she had told him, she folded her arms across her chest and glared. "Sirius seems to have an uncanny ability for running away," she replied snappishly.
Rodolphus stopped. "Sirius Black." he deadpanned. "Your blood-traitor cousin, who Ben failed to assasinate along with Dorcas Meadowes. You lured him out? Have you lost your mind?"
Choosing to ignore his second question (the answer was likely yes, but that was not a thought she wished to dwell upon) she focused instead upon the first and replied as if Rodolphus was somehow impressed with her ability to bring him out of hiding rather than the quite obvious annoyance he was displaying. "It was quite simple. Sirius has never been able to resist a challenge. At least until he realised he was losing. The coward."
Rodolphus resisted the urge to shake her, instead focusing his attention on sealing her leg wound. "Well enough. But why would you go out of your way to engage Sirius in a duel when we are planning a mass extermination in which you will have the opportunity to dispose of him regardless?"
"He declared he could best me. He questioned both my ability and willingness to kill him. I could not allow it," she replied as if that was the most perfectly rational explanation in the world, although she was starting to feel rather defensive about the whole thing in the face of Rodolphus's questions. "Why should I have waited when he was so willing to offer himself up for a fight?" It wasn't just that, although the truth of the matter was not one Rodolphus was likely to appreciate. "When I kill him, and I will, he will know that he is dying at my hand. Not that of a faceless Death Eater."
"I doubt you are a faceless Death Eater anymore, as far as he and his little group of muggle-loving creatins are concerned," Rodolphus said in response, applying salve--it looked as though the bruising would be quite sizeable. "And he is not dead, thus the point you were defending it moot. "
"Yes, I am quite aware of the fact that he still lives," she snapped, her temper flaring. "A problem which I fully intend to remedy quite swiftly. I lured him out once, I will do it again. And next time I will not toy with him first. And really Rodolphus. It is not as if I walked up to him and declared myself to be a Death Eater. Not that he has not already assumed as much so it is not as if it matters, but I did attempt to refrain from the unforgivables at least." Attempt being the operative word, but... details. "That was a mistake I will not make again."
"I should hope not," Rodolphus said, carefully beginning to bandage her leg. "And when we carry out our Lord's orders, I'm certain that you will be able to arrange an opportunity to reveal yourself to Sirius in his last moments without compromising yourself entirely.
"You think I intend to wait?" she asked incredulously. She really should have just let it go, agreed with Rodolphus and moved on. The reminder of their Lord's orders almost gave her pause, but she certainly did not see how the Dark Lord would object to the death of her blood traitor cousin whether it was within a week or a month. "I would draw him back out tonight if I believed he would rise to the challenge again."
"I believe you should wait," Rodolphus said, annoyed with her. "You are still the Minister's wife, Bellatrix. If Sirius opens his mouth and spews off about you attacking him with children's playthings, I doubt it will reflect well on anything we are doing for our Dark Lord."
There it was. The lecture she had been anticipating since she had abandoned her attempts at maintaining the 'attacked by a rogue playground' story. She was tired of the seemingly near-constant reminders of her position. From Rodolphus, from Narcissa, from everyone around her, or so it seemed to Bellatrix. Although there was the distinct possibility that she was just a bit oversensitive to the admonitions to behave.
"Sirius will not say a word," she replied, exasperated. "At least not publicly. And if he does? If for some reason he decides to step forward and inform the world that the Minister's wife attempted to use the killing curse on him, I am certain he will quite swiftly be disproven."
"That does not stop what happened from being unwise on your part," Rodolphus said as he bound the bandage on Bellatrix's leg. After what had happened during his meeting with the Dark Lord the previous week, Rodolphus had absolutely no inclination to seek out any of Dumbledore's rag-tag group of mudbloods, blood-traitors and idiots. The attack on Hogsmeade that he and Bella had been planning would remedy the issue of vigilantes for the time being. Bellatrix would have her opportunity to take down whomever her heart desired during that prospective chaos. "Are there any other injuries that need tending to immediately?"
"Just the two," she replied dismissively as she sat forward in the chair, her hands gripping the arms. The combination of her annoyance and the blood replenishing potion had restored at least some of her strength, although she still did not stand. That didn't mean she couldn't raise her voice. "And really Rodolphus. I do not know what you expect of me. We are Death Eaters. Am I to turn a blind eye when one of our opponents, when my own blood traitor cousin is so willing to present himself upon a silver platter? And do not remind me again that I failed to kill him as I am still quite aware of that. You would have me refuse his challenge? I will not allow him the satisfaction!"
"And what on Earth will arguing with you about it accomplish?" Rodolphus snapped, standing up and calling a house elf to remove the healing items from his study. He still had work to do that evening, with no time left for Bellatrix's excuses for why she had had a lapse of common sense.
"Nothing," Bellatrix snapped back, although at least he had finally reached the proper conclusion on the matter. "I will do as I please, as ever. And I will be the one who brings Sirius to his end." Not that she expected there was any question on either point in Rodolphus's mind, but she stubbornly felt the need to say it nonetheless. She pushed herself out of her chair with considerably more force than was wise and wavered on her feet for a moment before stepping forward and catching her balance, attempting for all the world to cover that momentary display of weakness. Although her husband was one of the few people she would normally be willing to let her guard down with, she certainly would not do so in the middle of an argument. Or at its end. "Good night, Rodolphus."
"Good night," he answered, returning to his chair and considering the matter finished. Bellatrix would drag an argument out and beat it until there was nothing left. "Perhaps we will be able to discuss the wards on The Hog's Head tomorrow, if you would be willing to join me at the Ministry for lunch."
"Fine. I will be there at noon," she replied as she snatched her robes up from the chair and wrapped the ruined fabric around herself. The remainder of her clothes would remain where they were but there was some semblance of propriety that Bellatrix possessed that did not allow her to cavort through the house in her knickers. Not that her present appearance was any less ridiculous.
His irritatingly calm dismissal only further piqued her annoyance and she was almost tempted to further prolong their argument, but fortunately for Rodolphus she had already set her mind towards storming out of the study. Which was precisely what she did, stopping only to pick up a vase from a bookshelf near the door and throw it at his head. There. Now it was time for bed.
Not prepared for flying decor that evening, the vase caught Rodolphus with surprise, Bellatrix's aim being dead on. He was more than dazed for a moment, his head and shoulders covered in porcelin. Once he had managed to shake the shock and realized what had happened, Rodolphus had to physically stop himself from going after her and strangling her. Instead he got up and summoned a house elf to return the healing supplies, and to clean up the mess the collision had made.
The cuts the vase had left on his face dribbled down from his forehead, nose and cheeks, and Rodolphus could already feel a goose egg swelling at the top of his head.
He sincerely doubted that he would finish his work tonight.