Confessions of a Death Eater

To Whom It May Concern:

If you're reading this, that means I'm now deceased. My name was Bellatrix Lestrange. I hardly think you need clarification of who I am, though, since my list of crimes is so long. I lived and breathed to torture and kill others in the Dark Lord's name. But that's just one side of me. Are people born evil, or do they have evil thrust upon them? It's story time, boys and girls!

Like every other young witch or wizard, I had to be homeschooled until I was eleven years old. Mum and Dad would always tell me that pure magical blood runs in our family. Not just any family, but the noble house of Black. To make them proud, I needed to marry a pure-blood wizard. The same went for my younger sisters, Andromeda and Narcissa.

When I was little, I asked Dad why this had to be so, and he simply said, "Because no Muggle man can handle a witch. Only a select handful of us in the world were gifted with magic. The rest of the world is useless. Look at the Muggle-borns. I'm positive that they steal their powers from someone else."

Not knowing any better, I replied, "How can you say that, Dad?"

"Bellatrix Electra Black, don't you dare try to challenge what I say!" he yelled. "So help me, if you keep taking this path, we'll never speak to you again. Am I clear?"

It was the angriest I'd ever seen him. I don't know about you, but whenever my father raised his voice, I listened. From that time on, I convinced myself that what he said was true. Fathers are never wrong, right?

Continuing the Black tradition, I wound up in Slytherin house during my days at Hogwarts. Lucius Malfoy became one of my few friends. He had long blond hair and a pale face that dared to say, I'm better than you and I know it. Of course, he reserved that look for the students outside of Slytherin. You had to be at least a half-blood to be sorted into our house, just like you would today.

After our first Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson, we walked out of the classroom together. "What did you think of Professor Deryn?"

"I think she taught us a load of rubbish," Lucius drawled. "As if we have to learn to

protect ourselves from dark magic. My parents promised to actually teach me some dark magic, and it sounds far more exciting."

"My parents know a little bit of dark magic, too," I admitted. "I guess it would be fun just to ask them about it." I stood in thought for a moment. What kind of forbidden things could I learn? And ooh... the power...unlimited. It was so tempting.

Crowds were gathering in our hallway, and a Hufflepuff boy brushed past Lucius, knocking books out of his hands. Lucius hurried to pick them up off the floor. His cheeks were bright red.

"Oh, I'm so sorry, Malfoy!" the boy exclaimed. I recognized him from Charms class: Alan Carter. A Muggle-born.

Lucius answered venomously. "You watch where you're going, Mudblood,"

My eyes widened. He didn't just say that word. I wanted to say something, because I still couldn't understand what made Muggle-borns unworthy. But to make Lucius happy, I warned Carter. "You should consider yourself lucky that we're not allowed to use magic in the halls, or he'd challenge you to a duel." Besides, we were too young to know many spells. I tried my best menacing look, and Carter ran away.