Authors Note: Please forgive us for forgetting to introduce ourselves before. I am co-writing this story with my friend Gryffindorgirl. It's our first time, so be gentle! While a large portion of the story is already written, we still have to write (er…actually…figure out) the last few chapters. Being that it is our first story, the first few chapters are quite a bit shorter than we are writing nowadays. To make up for that, I'll be posting a new chapter every 3 days or so.
By the way, some reviewers were wondering how Harry knew the article about him was coming out if Cho didn't interview him. What we meant was that Cho didn't interview him herself; her low-level assistant did.
And I realize now that a lot of you don't like Cho! Tsk tsk tsk. Well…if you don't like her now, you'll really hate her in a few chapters. (Muah-ha-ha!)
One more thing! (I promise!) Can you believe that Prisoner of Azkaban comes out in less than 2 weeks?! I am so excited! (Padfoot LIVES!)
Happy reading!
Disclaimer: We don't own, so please don't sue. ;o)
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One chance a clean break
Much more than I can take
Lies cast shadows
Dark things nobody knows
You've lost, who's won
My revenge has just begun
I've just begun
And I'm coming home
I'm coming home
I've just begun
My revenge has just begun
-Good Riddance, "Heresy, Hypocrisy, and Revenge"
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Bellatrix Black Lestrange was part of a dying breed. One of the few Death Eaters who survived Voldemort's
illustrious defeat, she now lay in wait among some tall bushes outside a large apartment complex, like a black widow
lurking amid her web, waiting for her next unsuspecting victim. This was her last chance to avenge her Master's
death. By accomplishing what he never managed to achieve in life, she would finally complete her Dark Lord's noble
work. And in Bellatrix's twisted mind, that meant definite big plans for Mr. Harry Potter. Not only would she
finally kill the Boy-Who-Lived, but she intended to make him and the people he loved most suffer tremendously
first.
As the thoughts of the mischievous plot she had concocted enveloped her thoughts, Bellatrix couldn't hold back the smug smirk that materialized on her face, now long stripped of its once healthy glow and beautiful features from the years of anguish in Azkaban. She was going to make the two people little bitty baby Potter treasured the most in the entire world endure the very same pain that she herself had felt when he had taken her reason for living only five months ago. But the loud snapping of a twig and a stifled rustle near her forced Bellatrix to momentarily divert her attention to the bushes directly across from her. Her fellow Death Eater, Antonin Dolohov, was hiding in a rose bush a few feet behind her, so it couldn't have been him that made the commotion. Fearing that they had both somehow been discovered, Bellatrix and raised her wand in an attempt of resistance. But as she squinted her shadowed hazel eyes in the dying sun's rays, instead of a person greeting her gaze, she saw only a small pair of twinkling maple tinted ones peeping back at her.
"Lumos!" Bellatrix whispered hoarsely as her curiosity got the best of her as she twisted her neck for a better view. But the creature that had been gazing so idly at her had already darted away. Bellatrix was only able to catch a glimmer of what must have been the beast's tail, which was colored such a magnificent crimson red with a blotch of snow-white at its tip that she almost would have called it beautiful. That is, if her warped mind had still functioned properly.
* * * * *
"Mental that one, I'm telling you" Ron Weasley muttered softly to himself, referring of course to
Hurricane Hermione as he emerged from12 Grimmauld Place and bounded down its front steps. With a quick look at the fast
setting sun, he disappeared with a loud crack which echoed through the unusual chilly summer twilight.
Ron soon appeared on the steps leading to his apartment house. As he reached for his keys he glanced at his watch, which read nearly a quarter past five.
"Ah…bloody hell," he muttered under his breath. "Hermione will murder me if I'm late to pick up Harry."
"Talking to yourself is a sign of insanity, you know" an acidic voice whispered coolly behind him.
Ron hastily whipped around, wand at the ready, but saw nothing. A slight ruffling in the bushes next to him made him lash to his right, but saw only a flash of something fuzzy with a dashing scarlet hue.
"Aww…is the itty-bitty Weasel fwightened?" the eerily familiar voice called again, causing Ron to turn himself around in a complete circle searching for it.
'Where is that voice coming from?' he pondered quietly in his head. 'Was it someone in an Invisibility Cloak?'
"Now!" Bellatrix Lestrange cackled as she slithered from her hiding place.
Instantly, a new rough voice shouted "Stupefy!"
"Protego!" Ron roared instinctively, now eyeing Antonin Dolohov squatting rather humorously amid a pink rose bush. But Ron knew this was no laughing matter.
"Crucio!" Bellatrix bellowed, but Ron had already flung himself to the ground to avoid being struck with the unforgivable curse.
"Petrificus Totalus!" he hurled back to Bellatrix, which she avoided as well. But as he jumped to his feet to unleash another spell on her, Dolohov hurled himself out of the bushes and upon Ron, forcing them both painfully on the hard concrete steps.
"I'll take that" Bellatrix barked as she managed to pull Ron's wand from his struggling yet tightly gripped hand and pocketed it in her cloak as he thrashed around in the invisible ropes that sprung up around him moments ago.
"Bellatrix Lestrange. You filthy, blood-sucking, whore." Ron spat boldly. He wasn't a Gryffindor for nothing.
"Aaaah…sticks and stones, Weasel." She replied smoothly, an eager smirk materializing on her once attractive visage. "You won't be nearly as brave when I am through with you and your impertinent friends."
"How thick are you?!" he shouted, now on his knees and still struggling with the ropes. "Voldy is already dead! It's ove-" but he was interrupted by a loud smack. It was the sound of Bellatrix's palm connecting with his face.
"You dare address the Dark Lord so insolently! You! You shameful, worthless, brainless blood-traitor!" she shrieked, raising her hand again and striking him once more, this time with her fist. Seconds later, a tiny dapple of blood appeared at the side of Ron's mouth and began to trickle feverishly down to his chin. Regaining her composure at the sight of the blood, she leaned in close to him.
"Death is only the beginning for the Dark Lord." She drawled menacingly in his ear. The seriousness of her tone sent a shiver down Ron's spine. "I have big plans for your great and valiant hero, Weasley, and I daresay that you are the unlikely key to my entire plot."
"I won't be a pawn in your fucking game, Bella" Ron shot back, quieter than before, but still extremely forceful and defiant.
Bellatrix raised her hand, as if to strike him again, but seemed to think better of it and lowered it slowly. The eager smile she wore before appeared on her twisted face for the second time as she exchanged glances with Dolohov.
"Oh, that is the best part Weasel" she said softly, drawing closer to him. "You won't realize what you are doing to your friends until it is too late. Then ickle little Ronnikins will feel just so horrible." She finished in an awful mock-baby voice that made Ron recoil in his bindings. Her face was much too close to Ron's now, and he flinched as she touched the dribble of blood that had cascaded all the way down to his shirt. He recoiled once more as she seductively licked the flowing blood, starting at his neck and moving up. When she was done, she licked her lips enticingly and stood up.
"You bitch" he spat repulsively.
"Now, for the highlight of the evening" she drawled on, ignoring his comment. She produced her wand and raised it, shouting "Imperio!"
Ron's body jerked as the curse hit him, his eyes closing as he fought to keep Bellatrix from controlling his mind. Ron was a very powerful wizard in his own right, but the craving for revenge and malice behind Bellatrix's curse was too much for him. His body went momentarily lip, forcing Dolohov to hold him up. After a few second, Ron's head snapped up, eyes blank and staring straight ahead, ready and waiting for instructions.
Bellatrix stepped back, eyes twinkling with desire as she circled Ron, searching him up and down, inspecting him like a military sergeant would his cadets. Her lips parted in a smirk of triumph as released a deafening cackle that would have stricken fear in any of its listeners.
"State your name" She whispered in his ear.
"Ronald Weasley." He answered in a stony and monotonous voice.
"Who is your master?" she persisted.
"Bellatrix Lestrange commands me, but my master is the Dark Lord, who even in death still prevails."
Bellatrix let out another screech of glee.
"Nice…very nice…" she commented. "…now… sing me a song."
"Weasley cannot save a thing, he cannot block a single ring, that's why Slytherins all sing; Weasley is our King…"
The words escaped his lips before he could try to hold them back; Bellatrix's grip on Ron's mind was a firm one. The two Death Eaters erupted in laughter.
"Enough of this foolishness" Bellatrix muttered after their laughter had died. "We need to program his mind before we send him off, and it's almost time for him to leave to go get Potter."
Dolohov released Ron's bindings to take him inside his own flat.
"Keep a firm grasp on him" Bellatrix ordered. "Victims of the Imperius Curse who actually manage to fight it off do so within the first few minutes after its execution, and we cannot risk his escape."
"Yes, Bellatrix" Dolohov answered as he grasped Ron's shoulders and steered him through the doorway.
As she turned over her shoulder to enter the apartment, Bellatrix glanced once more at the setting sun, which had turned the skies surrounding it an unnatural blood-red.
"How appropriate" she murmured to herself as she entered Ron's home, her long cloak swishing behind her.