The Serpent Lord's Consort

IX: The Beginning of the Merge

The next year and a half was full of joys, hardships, and more for both Tom and Harry, as well as Hermione and Luna. The factions of the Dark and the Light were now getting used to listening to the other's ideas and the reasons for them; not just reacting with vehemence and fighting. Tom had pretty much turned over almost all of the Outer Circle already; only a very select few hadn't been, and only because they were mentally stable with proper minds for business, politics, and other areas where people were needed. They also hadn't had much to do with the more gruesome raids, and or they had more money to pour back into the British magical economy.

Then it became harder for Tom; the cleaning out of his Inner Circle was something he hadn't looked forward to. The Inner Circle; they were all his most devoted, and the children or in some cases...the grandchildren of the original members to his Knights of Walpurgis. After what had happened to the Outer Circle; many of them grew suspicious and wary of what had started going on.

Bellatrix had been especially hard for Tom; the man having privately spoken to Lucius and Narcissa about her. Lucius, as was predictable for the ever cold man who was the patriarch of the Malfoy line, he had been coldly calculative and logical about it all; gaining some ire from his wife for his lack of compassion to her sister and his sister-in-law, and not really being pulled one direction or another about it.

But Narcissa knew deep down inside despite her ire to what had happened; her husband had been more logical about it. About what needed done to safe-guard their family as much as others, no matter how it had hurt them.

Narcissa, however, was more difficult to convince seeing as Bellatrix was her sister. She knew the Black Madness was strong in her and unlikely to ever get better by now. She knew that Bellatrix could go rogue at the drop of a pin, and be hard to rein back in. The instance with the Longbottoms was proof...

But her heart had bled and hurt; even if in the end, she logically knew that ending her life might be the only way to grant her peace of mind and save those around her from her. But Bellatrix still fought hard; crying, screaming, and pleading to Tom to spare her. To see her worth...to try to let him see her as more than a mere soldier; as a lady and his only other.

Tom's face was void of emotions as he ended her life. Then he knelt down next to her as his gaze was mixed; Harry's own eyes had showed his own mixed expressions to him and his own sort-of gentleness to Bella. In his eyes and his personal opinions that he did not voice; Bellatrix had deserved worse. She had tortured so many others; taken the ability of so many to have children because someone did so to her. She had killed many more and killed his godfather and her own blood-cousin.

Though internally; Harry knew that Tom was about equal to Bellatrix in the nasty Dark witch/wizard argument to his mind, so he held back on the snapping at his mate for his...compassion to the LeStrange woman.

Harry had felt it distinctly inappropriate for him to attend her funeral even if he had been disguised there, but he wasn't and he had gone to her burial; because he didn't wish to leave his mate alone. Harry; he had stood there cold and stoic; his eyes showed how much hatred he held for Bellatrix, even as he said nothing.

Green smoldering fire lingered in his eyes as he tried to burn her corpse to nothing before him. As anyone could have bet that his gaze was wishing her well on her way to the gates of Hell and to burn there.

Narcissa saw his face and didn't begrudge Harry; she knew that he didn't like Bella. Had nothing kind to say of her since he didn't know the person Bella was outside of her soldier role, and that he didn't or wouldn't ever forgive what she had done to Sirius. Wouldn't ever forgive her for it.

Narcissa also silently knew; that her sister would never have accepted Harry as Tom's partner. Bella was barren; she couldn't have children after the attack on her that had left her that way. She would have been bitter and jealous; horribly infuriated to know that she was considered unworthy in Tom's eyes.