Love is weakness, but only if you let it be

10.

Soon Bellatrix calmed a little bit and drank a glass of water. She still felt dizzy, but no as much. When Bellatrix thought that she had annoyed the Dark Lord, she tried to stand up to only end up reeling on the chair again.
"My Lord, I'm sorry for being a trouble-"
He interrupted the truly broken woman in front of him. She tried and tried to be brave and strong, but she has gone through so much, and he was the only one to know and realise it. "No need. I won't kill him, but when he wakes I'll make sure that he will never do against my will again. He will be punished greatly, but I won't let him have the satisfaction of death."
"Thank you, My Lord.", and her eyes started pouring tears again.
"My Lord, the person who last time shouted at me like that, was my father. And you know how it always ended-" she started crying uncontrollably letting all her emotions out at once. Voldemort could hear her say things like "I'm sorry", "kill me", "less problems", or lastly ;
"I'm okay." The Dark Lord had no intentions to believe that, but he couldn't make the woman any more emotional;
"I know, I know you will be." But it didn't work, it only made her cry harder again.  And then he did something he had never done before. He somewhat hugged her, and allowed her to cry on his chest. Normally, if anyone would be like this they would be killed without a second thought, but this was an exception. First of all she was carrying his heir, and what comes to second, he simply couldn't do it to her.

    In ten minutes, she had fallen asleep, because she was so exhausted. He wondered what to do with the sleeping woman in his arms. Voldemort could've waked her up, but she was so peaceful. So he easily, because she was so lightweighted, lifted her up bridal-style and took Bellatrix to her own bedroom of the Malfoy Manor. Then he turned the lights of with a small movement of his hand, and went downstairs.
There wasn't anyone anymore, except Narcissa and Lucius of course.
"My Lord, where's my sister?"
"Sleeping. As you should too, tomorrow is going to be a long day for you Lucius." He spoke in cold tone again, while he left the room to go to his own manor. Though no one knew where it was, because he always kept his meetings in the Malfoy manor.

     Bellatrix woke up in the middle of the night, screaming in cold sweat. She had a nightmare. It wasn't unusual she had almost every night, but tonight she had no silencing charm. Lucius and Narcissa must've heard her. All these dreams about her father banging her head into a stone wall because she was an idiot, because she got one E instead of all O's, or him starving her for three weeks because she was too fat for him, or when he used all the possible dark spells to make her hurt. She knew that these dreams are going to end someday, but right now, they were just driving her to the edge. She looked at the old clock on the wall, and realised it was only half past four at the morning. She didn't catch sleep anymore, so she just stared at the black ceiling of her room. Bellatrix realised what had happened last night, and immediatly felt need to apologise from her master. Suddenly, she felt her child move in her abdomen, and even though no one could feel it outside of her, her hand flew to her stomach as thinking she could feel something. Bellatrix couldn't say that it was nice to have the baby moving, but she couldn't say that it was terrible. It didn't really feel like anything, because the child was so small.
She got up from her king-sized bed and didn't care to dress up. Her nightgown hided her belly best, even though anyone else wouldn't be awake. She probably looked like a mess, with her long curls just hanging free. She walked down the stairs, and went to the kitchen to eat something.

      "Bella!" Bellatrix heard her sister call her, and realised she had lost on her thoughts on the kitchen table.
"The Dark Lord is coming to have inner circle meeting, so dress-" she stopped when their eyes met, and Bellatrix's were awfully red and tired from last night.
"Are you okay?" Bellatrix left at same time when she replied only "I'm perfectly fine."
She went upstairs, putted on a long black not-tight dress, which had layers, so no one could notice her small bumb, without touching.  She looked at herself from a mirror, did a spell to hide her tear-stained eyes and went back downstairs.

       "My Lord." Bellatrix said and did a respectful nod as she saw him come in from the door.
"I need to speak with you, my lord." Bellatrix said, wanting Lucius to leave them alone.
"So do I, my lord. Bellatrix can wait." Lucius shot her a mean look after her stealing him from him yesterday.
"Lucius, I will discuss with you later."  Once again Lucius was left offended. 
"My lord, I am sorry about last night."
"Do you think you would still be alive if you had something to apologise about?"  Bellatrix didn't reply because a yawn took over her.
"You think I'm that boring?" It was not kindly asked, if you can say.
"No, my Lord, of course not, I've just been awake since four and I didn't sleep quite well." And his heir was making her tired.
"You know you didn't block that last thought?" Voldemort almost grinned,
"Well, it's true. And get out of my mind-!" She knew that she can force him out, because she was taught by himself.  Now she got serious again.
"What am I going to do if they hug me? If they notice? And they will hug me today after what happened yesterday." Voldemort thought, but wasn't sure about his answer ; "I don't think they'll notice."

      Today, it was only inner circle's meeting. As excepted they hugged her, but no one noticed. Or at least no one said a word to her. Rodolphus was no longer included in the inner circle.
When Voldemort had said what he was supposed to say, Crabbe informed everyone; "We have a winter ball this saturday. You're all invited, and can bring anyone you want."