Obsession

Chapter 25

A dull, throbbing pain in her limbs. The sensation of needles poking into every pore on her skin. Stabbing agony behind her eyes. The sensation that a great weight sat upon her chest. Churning nausea.

"Bellatrix?"

He could sense her waking up, she thought. Her Occlumency shields would be nonexistent just now; he'd be able to tell that her mind was coming out of this hell. Bellatrix turned her face to where she could tell he was, and she blinked her eyes open.

Immediately, he scowled deeply, but then Voldemort corrected his features and murmured,

"I know you're in pain. Unfortunately, neither a Painkilling Charm nor Anodyne Potion will help that. Only time will make it fade."

"All right." Bellatrix's voice was so hoarse she could barely hear it. Her throat burned like fire when she tried to swallow. Almost immediately, Voldemort brought a mug of something to her lips. There was a steel straw in it, and Bellatrix closed her chapped lips around it, drinking without hesitation.

Lemon water with a hint of honey and ginger. It was lukewarm in the mug, which for some reason felt like just the right temperature. Bellatrix sipped more eagerly, gulping down the citrus and spice and sweet.

Perhaps, she thought distantly, this was why he so despised lemon flavour. After five Horcruxes, he must have grown quite weary of the taste.

"It helps with the nausea and thirst," Voldemort said matter-of-factly. He flicked his eyes to the bedside table, where a large pewter pitcher sat, and he informed her, "You should drink as much as you can. Your body is extremely dehydrated just now."

Bellatrix just shut her eyes, for the pain there was bad enough that she couldn't think straight. Suddenly she felt an ice-cold sensation there, on the place above her eyes, and she gasped a little.

"It's just a wet rag that I've charmed to stay chilled," Voldemort said quietly. "It'll help that stabbing pain go away very quickly. The first three times, I waited that particular pain out, but it'll be gone in ten minutes with the rag. Here. Drink more."

"Thank you, Master," Bellatrix rasped. She felt the cold metal straw at her lips again, and she sipped the soothing concoction for awhile before Voldemort took it away again. She felt his hands gliding over her skin, rubbing firm circles with his thumbs in a perfect sort of massage. He worked his way along her shoulders and down her arms, and then he whispered,

"It'll all fade."

"Did it work?" Bellatrix asked, blinded by the perfectly icy cloth he'd put on her eyes. She heard him sigh.

"It worked perfectly," he said at last. "It's beside one of mine, under the floorboards of a shack just outside the town of Little Hangleton."

"A shack," Bellatrix repeated. She knew there must be some significance to the hiding place. Lord Voldemort did nothing arbitrarily. There was a long pause, and finally he said,

"The shack is... is where my mother was raised. Both sides of my family came from Little Hangleton. I've got a Horcrux - an old family ring that I took great lengths to acquire after its loss - beneath the floorboards of the deserted shack. It's very strongly protected, of course. I have written out all the spells you'd need to take down the wards. If ever you need it, though, your Horcrux will draw you to it. Know that it is safe."

"Beside yours," Bellatrix whispered, and after another long pause, Voldemort said,

"I have a theory that they strengthen one another by being side-by-side."

Bellatrix curled her lips up weakly. "Oh. I quite like that theory, My Lord."

"Bella." She felt his lips on her cheek then, and some of the worst of the pain evaporated as he kissed her. She sucked in breath hard and begged him,