[As an apology to everyone who has waited patiently for over a year now for me to update The Black Pearl, I’d like to offer you this scene. I’d intended to add it on to the last chapter when I finally updated it, but that’s taken far too long. It will still be added on but I thought you should have it anyway. Also, I’ve begun rewriting the chapters that have already been posted. Which, thankfully, is helping me get back into the swing of things with this fanfic and will hopefully lead to me pushing though and updating more regularly. So when new chapters are posted I will notify you if chapters 1-5 have been altered in anyway so you can see what you think of the changes.]
A whirlwind burst into the entrance hall of Lestrange Manor. Rodolphus appeared on the landing as it reached the top of the stairs and grabbed what appeared to be his wife around the waist. Her instant reaction was to fight, punching and clawing with every ounce of feeling she still had left in her. “Belle,” he held onto her tightly, trying his best to keep them both from toppling down the staircase. “Belle, love, Bellatrix… Stop! It’s me!” Her movements stopped quite suddenly at the sound of his voice, as though she had been frozen, and he fought the urge to shake her in an attempt to get her moving again.
She didn’t say anything, she didn’t make a sound.
“You scared me, and Narcissa, we’ve been looking everywhere for you,” he said in an effort to elicit some form or response. “Where were you, love? I checked your favourite places…”
She remained silent, burying her face against his chest.
“Narcissa didn’t mean to upset you, love…”
“No!” Bellatrix shrieked as she pulled out of his embrace. “Narcissa does not think of anyone but herself. I don’t wish to hear any more.” She pushed past him, heading straight for their rooms. She would get changed, polish her wand, and then she would go out. If she killed every last living creature in her path, so be it. She wanted blood and gore, there’d been enough weakness.
“Bellatrix, what are you doing?” Rodolphus asked as followed her to the bedroom, watching her change into another dress.
“I’m going out, what does it fucking look like?” she snapped at him, throwing her cloak around her shoulders and fastening it at her neck. Her back remained to him, she wasn’t prepared to meet his eye. He would talk her out of it. He’d always known just want to say to make her change her mind no matter how stubborn she was being.
“I’ll come with you…”
“No!” she yelled, turning on her heel to glare at him. Meeting his eyes finally she bit her lip and held her ground, raising her wand to him. “Step aside and leave me be, Rodolphus.”
He drew his wand on instinct, assuming a duelling stance.
Bellatrix let out an ear piercing screech as her wand moved swiftly and without hesitation. She shot six spells in quick succession, forcing him backwards even as he blocked each and every one. “Fight!” she yelled at him, her wand snapping through the air almost like a whip as she attacked him. The more he defended himself and made no other move the more frustrated she became. She wanted him to react, she needed him to react, though somewhere buried deep in her mind she knew he could easily hold out longer than she could. He was calmer than she was, always had been. Much like the old adage of horses and water, she could make him draw his wand in this state but she couldn’t make him strike. Had her aggravation not got the better of her, she could have easily provoked him. Had her mind been clearer, she would have thought to take a different approach. As it was she hastened her attack, driving him back through the doors of their bedroom onto the landing.
Moving out on to the landing was a mistake. He knew it the moment he passed through the doorway. Her eyes darted down to the threshold and with lightening speed the large double doors were slammed in his face. “Bellatrix!” he rushed forward, grabbing at the handle and barrelling back into the room just as she disapparated with a loud crack. He dropped to his knees in their empty bedroom, letting his wand slip from his fingers. She would return when she was ready, he knew that, but it did not shake the ominous feeling that festered deep in his heart. It was not his wife who would return to him, his Bellatrix was broken beyond repair making way for something much more menacing. “Merlin, help the souls that cross her path.”
