Obsession

Chapter 19

"Bella, dear. How are you holding up?" Druella Rosier Black folded her hands neatly at the breakfast table. Bellatrix had come to visit her family, ostensibly for comfort in the wake of Rodolphus' funeral, but Bellatrix had other reasons for coming. She cleared her throat and dabbed her napkin to her lips, glancing toward her sisters Andromeda and Narcissa. Her father had already gone to work for the day.

"I'm sure you all noticed that, for some time before Rodolphus fell in battle, his marriage to me had dissolved a little." Bellatrix studied everyone's reactions. Andromeda threw up a judgmental eyebrow, Narcissa looked a little sorry, and Druella pursed her lips tightly as she hissed,

"Yes. He had that whore Edwina Fawley."

"Well, he had Edwina," Bellatrix agreed, "and I had someone of my own. It had gone on for some time."

"You don't mean..." Narcissa's pale face flushed pink with fear. "You mean... him? The Dark Lord?"

"Yes." Bellatrix nodded firmly, and Druella yelped in surprise. Andromeda shook her head and tutted, and Bellatrix narrowed her eyes.

"Right, Andy. Go ahead and being a judgy little wench, why don't you? It isn't as though we don't all know about Ted Tonka."

"I thought those were just nasty rumours," Narcissa protested, but Bellatrix tipped her head up and said smugly,

"The Dark Lord has spies at Hogwarts. He has every reason to believe that Andy's been very intimate with the Mudblood. She's a blood traitor. You should know, Andy, that the Dark Lord won't abide such things."

"No, I know he won't," Andromeda sneered. "And you worship him like a god, like a king. He's nothing but a petulant little child who's managed to -"

"Silencio!" Bellatrix whipped her wand out and aimed it at her sister, and Andromeda swallowed her words as a look of shock came over her face. Bellatrix's mother and sister looked hurt, betrayed, and alarmed. Bellatrix kept her wand aimed at Andromeda and said, "Why don't you go trotting off to Albus Dumbledore, Andy? I don't think I want you here for the rest of this conversation."

Andromeda was still Silenced by Bellatrix's spell, but she looked desperately to her mother. Druella was shaking a little, and she said to her middle daughter,

"Go, Andromeda. If we want you back, we'll write to you. If what Bellatrix is saying is true, then... there can be no place for you among us. I've suspected, but I didn't want... didn't want to believe it..."

Druella brought her napkin to her eyes and daubed away a few tears. Andromeda scowled and rose to her feet, still Silenced, and she yanked her traveling cloak from the rack in the corner. She'd just graduated Hogwarts and had gotten her own tiny flat in London. She'd go there, Bellatrix thought. Finally, once Andromeda had gone, Bellatrix lowered her wand, and pretty little Narcissa said mournfully,

"She can't have gotten involved with that Tonks boy. It can't be true."

"The Dark Lord says it is," Bellatrix insisted, "and I trust him with all that I am. In fact, Mummy, that's why I've come today. I need to tell you both... and I suppose Father would have found out soon enough at a meeting, but... I am getting married."

"Again? So soon after Dolph's gone?" Narcissa seemed utterly taken aback, and Bellatrix glared.

"My marriage to Rodolphus had already been replaced by a far more important relationship. I mourn my husband, but now it is time to solemnise and formalise something that already existed. I am marrying Lord Voldemort."

Druella looked like she was going to topple straight from her chair, and she swigged hard from her glass of orange juice. Narcissa pressed her palms to her cheeks in surprise, and then she finally squeaked,