The beginning of the end: Bellatrix Black

A wall of dreams

I had made my decision. And the Dark Lord had given me my biggest weapon. For the moment I would be devising my plan. Until he came back and he would. After all, I was his most loyal follower. He needed me. Just because of that twisted feeling he called love.

It was a big challenge but I had time to work it out.

When he regained his powers, which he would, I was certain of it, he would put the Imperius Curse on me. Just as a precaution. And this time I had to find a balance. I had to fight it. Not to give in but let him think I was completely under his control.

My mask had to be perfect. My life was on the line but I had nothing to lose.

The only thing I was fighting for was seeing my sister, for the last time. And for revenge. Revenge for me, for those deaths, those tortures, all that blood I had spilled in the name of Voldemort.

I was ready. Ready to fight for the only things I had left in life. So little yet so much.

In my spare time, which was plenty, I practised Legilimency against the poor unsuspecting minds of my fellow cell-neighbours.

I put up and down mental shields. The Dark Lord was one the brightest Legilimens in Wizarding History and exactly who I was standing against.

My Occlumency skills had to be at their very best.

Up, down, up, down.

I was going through the minds of the people around me, some great criminals, some having served the Lord, some being innocent. I hoped to reach my cousins mind but uneventfully. I got to my husband's mind, empty as a shell.

Not that the Prison made any difference. He was always an idiot, fueled by power and envy. That's why Tom picked him.

Up. Down. Up.

I held my shield up for weeks, while I slept as well. The secret which the Lord taught my controlled body and me in the process was the lack of emotion.

Such lack, you have to be empty as a shell. Like another person, like a puppet. You have act like soulless puppet to prevent becoming one.

At first it was hard getting the hang of my mental shields but brick by brick I got there. I made them thicker by the day. And the biggest secret of them all. If the shield is thick enough, at the core of your mind, at its roots you can let a sparkle of emotions, enough to keep your shields up but not to put them down.

Once I got there I was unstoppable.

Or so I thought until the day I was freed of my smelling, rotten, dirty, disgusting prison cell of mine.