Laws of Motion

A/N: Thanks to everybody who reviewed so far!

Acceleration

Bellatrix could see the outline of a robed arm on the rests of the armchair, but not of a head. This bothers her more than the cold does, and the cold bothers her a lot. She had just flown for two hours over wintry, pitch-black countryside. While she is grateful for the fire blazing in the hearth, she still doesn't see why they couldn't have just Apparated to this imposing manor house.

"The Dark Lord has his reasons," Rodolphus had curtly replied when she had told him this.

The Dark Lord waves a hand. Rodolphus and Bellatrix stand before the armchair. She remembers how Rodolphus had first described the Dark Lord to her--how he was more than a man. Seated on the armchair, he seems human enough. But the reddish gleam in his reptilian-looking eyes tells Bellatrix that Rodolphus could be right.

"Bellatrix Black, my lord," Rodolphus says, bowing. "The eldest child of Cygnus and Druella Black--and my fiancé."

Bellatrix bows too, resisting the urge to smile at the memory of Rodolphus's hands on her the night before. She figures this Dark Lord doesn't take too kindly to smiling, until she sees him smile himself.

"Come here," he tells her, conjuring an armchair out of nowhere. Bellatrix dutifully sits on it while Rodolphus converses with two other men in black robes, who Bellatrix had mistaken for shadows.

For a while the Dark Lord looks intently into her eyes. Bellatrix is determined not to be the one to look away. He seems to be reading not her face, which she keeps composed, but her mind, which is wordlessly asking him how he got the power to make the room seem perfectly still and the people in it ready to do his bidding. She knows what he wants to do for wizardkind, and his curiously pale body appears to glow with the conviction to do it. She wants what he wants, and she can tell that together they can get it. She just needs to find out what she has to give.

"You believe in putting these upstart Mudbloods in their rightful place," he finally says.

"I do," Bellatrix replies, even if it wasn't a question. He still hasn't broken eye contact. She wonders if he even blinks.

"And you would do anything to do that," he adds.

Maybe it's the warmth from the hearth and from the Dark Lord's bloodshot gaze, but Bellatrix does feel that in this impenetrable bubble of fire, she can do anything. But "anything" meant anything--cheating, torture, murder...

Bellatrix takes a deep breath. "I am, my lord."

***

"Aaarrrrgh!"

Petrified and supine, Bellatrix can only see the sky above her. But even that view soon gets obstructed by a towering figure that mutters a spell and waves a wand in her direction. Fearing the worst, Bellatrix instead feels her limbs loosen. Regaining mobility quickly, she clasps the hand that is offered to her and allows herself to be pulled up.

"Are you all right?" Rodolphus asks, brushing her hair from her face.

"I'm fine, thank you," she says breathlessly.

"Aaah--arrrrgh!"

Bellatrix turns around. Lucius Malfoy is standing over that Mudblood Andromeda was trying to help. The boy trembles and flails on the ground as the Cruciatus Curse hits him from Lucius's wand. Bellatrix couldn't see her sister anywhere.

"Where's Andromeda?" she asks, gripping her wand tightly between her fingers. Bellatrix doesn't know what she will do once she sees her sister, but she's pretty sure she will need her wand.

"Safe in the castle," Lucius answers, momentarily looking up from the writhing Mudblood--Tonks, that's his name--to answer Bellatrix. "I told her that I'd bring this boy myself." He casts another disdainful sneer and a silent curse at the boy.

"You didn't do anything to her?" Bellatrix asks Lucius.

"I wouldn't want to hurt the girl I plan on marrying," he replies smoothly.

At this, Bellatrix notices the Mudblood's eyes widen with shock and...something familiar she can't put her finger on but looks suspiciously like envy. She can't stand the thought of the Mudblood harboring any--Bellatrix grimaces--romantic intentions towards her sister, but she doesn't want Andromeda to think that Lucius is a torturer either.

"Bring him back, Lucius," she says in a tone that invites no arguments. Surprised at the command, Lucius nonetheless levitates the Mudblood towards the castle, but not before raising his eyebrows at Bellatrix.

She and Rodolphus start walking. Bellatrix burns with anger--at her sister, at her own carelessness (What was I thinking, Bellatrix wonders, wasting my time by talking?), at that hint of condescension that Lucius occasionally shows her.

"Was she the one who Petri--" Rodolphus began.

"I don't want to talk about it," Bellatrix cuts in and, wanting nothing more than a blazing hearth to sit by, blasts a nearby rock to pieces.

***

The Dark Lord looks pleased.

The two Hit Wizards Bellatrix had captured sit chained to two comfortable armchairs in this rarely-used study in the Riddle Manor. A fire crackles merrily behind them, making use of their broken wands. The Dark Lord circles them, appraising them. Tegerson and Muniroy stare at him, wide-eyed and beyond disbelief. With their connections, no doubt they have already heard of this Dark wizard who has been worrying more than one person in the Ministry already.

Bellatrix sees the Hit Wizards visibly crumple when the Dark Lord withdraws his wand. They have also probably heard of what has happened to those whose deaths the Dark Lord has taken responsibility for--the way the victims are sometimes found with their heads facing backwards, their mouths open in an expression of horror...

Nothing is heard but the Dark Lord's pacing on the cold stone floor. He goes around the chairs once, twice, thrice. Bellatrix stands still by the grate. Tegerson looks sallower than he did earlier this evening, and tiny beads of sweat have appeared on Muniroy's forehead.

Lord Voldemort stops walking. A corner of his lips curl in disgust. He nods to Bellatrix and leaves the room.

Bellatrix points to the walls, the windows, the floor, and the ceiling. "Silencio," she says.

They already scream when the first curse hits them. The sound of their terror energizes Bellatrix, running through her body like a barely benign bolt of lightning. She wants to hear more. She wants to bottle the auditory proof of her power over them. It occurs to Bellatrix--as Tegerson's eyes roll around in their sockets and Muniroy throws his head too far back--that she should get a Pensieve. She knows there will be many more memories like this.

"Just...kill...us...already," Muniroy gasps between hexes.

"Not in your state," Bellatrix coos. She sounds maternal even to herself, and vaguely wonders how a child of hers and Rodolphus would turn out to be like.

He wouldn't make the same mistakes, Bellatrix vows.

Tegerson glazed eyes stare at her pitifully--or they would if he could still focus his pupils. Rivulets of blood leak from the corners. Something unfamiliar stirs at the back of Bellatrix's head for a moment, but it isn't enough to make her stop. She couldn't possibly stop when it comes to the men who had nearly discovered the Dark Lord's hideout. How appropriate that they would die in it.

"Crucio! Crucio!"

Bellatrix's mind whirls with all the curses she'd like to cast but can't get her tongue to say fast enough. She is beginning to sweat and wishes she didn't wear black velvet robes today. Her wand feels hot in her shaking fingers; Bellatrix can swear that she feels each spell go from her skin to the wood and out the end.

"Avada Kedavra!"

Bellatrix imagines that that green light might actually be comforting to them. But it doesn't matter. They are beyond recognition when she is finished. Their faces have grooves like the bark of old trees and only the whites of their eyes can be seen. Their green veins are raised all over their skin. Even their mothers would have a hard time identifying them.

Bellatrix binds their ashen bodies with some conjured rope, careful not to get any of the drool from their open mouths on her. She covers them with an Invisibility Cloak and brings them to the telephone booth that is the entrance to the Ministry of Magic offices. There she props them up on both sides of the telephone and leaves. The next kindhearted Ministry lackey to report for work would have to take all the trouble of bringing them in.

Bellatrix flies back to the Riddle House to report to the Dark Lord what she's done. He is not given to excessive praising, but she thinks that the faint smile he gives her is gratifyingly warm.

A/N: HP Lexicon rules. Whenever I'm too lazy to look something up in the books, the site saves my life. I totally made up Tegerson and Muniroy, obviously (but I really avoid making up OCs as much as possible). I couldn't find enough Hit Wizards. Anyway, I got their names from tegere and munire, which can both mean "to defend," according to William Whitaker's online Latin dictionary.