There are no sunrises anymore. Only darkness. Only death. Only power.

14.

(A/N The last chapter was kind of confusing and weird, but I hope this one makes more sense and is even a little bit better!)

    "Good morning, Bella"
Rodolphus tried to talk to his wife, but with Ambrosia on his side, Bellatrix ignored him. Everytime he had tried to talk to her in the past two weeks, Bellatrix hadn't even looked at him. Instead, Bellatrix walked past them and went to talk with Severus and Lucius.

    In a few minutes, Nymphadora had joined them, and Bellatrix was, slowly, accepting the girl.
"You were an auror right?"
Severus questioned her, and Bellatrix's interest to the conversation grew.
"Yes?"
"Who trained you?"
"Alastor Moody"
"Does he miss his eye?"
Bellatrix laughed madly, remembering the moment she had taken it from him.
"You took it?"
"He didn't tell you?"
"No - I wasn't allowed to ask anything about it!"
Just when Bellatrix was about to open her mouth again, Narcissa rushed inside to the meeting room.
"They're all here!"
"What?"
"Who?"
"My parents!"
Bellatrix's eyes widened and she took a few steps forward.
"What?"
"Yes! And the Lestranges and the Malfoys too!"
"Where are you, Narcissa?"
Came the voice of Druella Black. Bellatrix quickly turned to Nymphadora;
"You should leave. Immediatly."

    Bellatrix was sitting on her place in the meeting room, as the Dark Lord had just joined them to greet the older Death Eaters. Bellatrix's mother quite awkwardly, her blonde curls swinging on her chignon, came over to her eldest daughter, who looked as murderous and dangerous as always.
"Bellatrix."
"Mother."
There was no signs of kindness between the two. The dead look in both of their eyes told everyone much about their relationship, and as Druella went to her youngest daughter again, everyone in the room could find out which one of them was the favorite child.
"Bellatrix."
Bellatrix heard her father's political voice, but then her eyes got icily cold.
"Cygnus."
"We need to talk."
"We don't."
"It's family business."
"Later."
Cygnus left as fast as he could, seeing that his daughter still wasn't comfortable with him around. Bellatrix hated the man. He wasn't worth the word 'father'. Bellatrix stood up from her chair, and at the same time she heard the arguing in the next room;
"You dishonor our name!"
"You're a Lestrange, Rodolphus! I excepted better from my son!"
"But, I - "
"I don't want to hear your excuses!"
"You go and apologise your wife, and you two better start acting like a proper pureblood couple!"
That was the sentence that sent Bellatrix's wrath, with her already mixed up hormones, up. She almost threw her chair out of the way, opened the communicating door to the next room and the people in the room looked at her with different feelings of confusion, terror and interrogativing.
"You are no one to tell me what to do!"
"Toujours pur, Bellatrix."
The words of Rodolphus' mother didn't help at all, they only made it worse.
"Don't bring blood purity into this! I've dedicated my life to blood purity!"
"Pureblood women should stay home and take care of children."
This time it was Druella, and soon the Malfoy's came into the conversation too;
"Touché. Look at Narcissa and Lucius! She took care of Draco, while he worked for the Dark Lord."
"I am not a toy of Rodolphus'!"
"Why don't we just calm down -"
"Be quiet Lucius!"
"You don't have to get involved in this, Cygnus -"
The way Cygnus looked at his wife, made her shut up immediatly, fear clear in her eyes, looking at the floor and taking a step back. The door opened, and Draco stepped into the room from the invitation of his mother's, but stayed unnoticed by others. By the look on Cygnus' face, everyone in the room knew that he was about to start a speech to prove his point again and Malfoy and Lestrange seniors stood at his side, agreeing with his words;
"Druella is right. You can imagine my and everyone else's disappointment when the newspaper came to inform about the eldest of the new generation's Blacks had gone to Azkaban."
"You're on a dangerous path, Cygnus. Sounds almost like you wanted me to betray the Dark Lord!"
Bellatrix was furious, and soon, she couldn't or wouldn't control her temper anymore.
"Sounds almost like you're threatening me!"
"Who said I wasn't?"
"You're a woman, Bellatrix!"
"Stay out of this, Abraxas!"
"Every and each woman in this room can and will listen to me now: You are here to keep the image of purebloods up. You don't get to have an opinion - Put the wand down, Bellatrix!"
"You are no one to tell me what to do and what not to do! You do not own me!"
"Don't even try to curse me!"
At the dangerous wave of Cygnus' hand, the three older women and Narcissa took a step back, while Bellatrix stepped forward, being only a few inches away from her father. The Dark Lord was watching and listening this from his own seat at the end of the table in the other room, and knew, that soon he would have to step in and stop the mother of his future offspring.
"I'm just trying to make your life go the way it should, Bellatrix. Have I ever done something bad to you?"
Bellatrix's eyes widened, she took a deep breath as an attempt to stop herself from killing the man in front of her here and now.
"208 times."
"What is she talking about, Cygnus?"
"Don't you dare to ever mention it to anyone!"
Cygnus hissed to Bellatrix, and she couldn't keep the control of herself anymore.
"You filthy excuse of a man! You are no more than a coward!"
At this, without no consideration, Cygnus raised his fist, and hit Bellatrix as hard as he could. The fragile figure of his eldest daughter lurched a little, but then she started shaking because of anger.
"Crucio!"

   After a several minutes, the terrified whispers started;
"He can't go insane from one curse, right?"
"How much does it take from her to break his mind."
Narcissa took a careful, irresolute step forward. Then another and then the third, until she reached her sister, put her hand lightly on Bellatrix's left arm, and started softly speaking;
"Bellatrix - you don't need to continue anymore."
But Bellatrix only stared at her father, like she hadn't heard the words of her sister at all. And when Cygnus stopped screaming and his eyes fell backwards, everyone's concern grew and soon Druella and Rodolphus were trying to stop Bellatrix, who still acted like she didn't hear them. They were soon accompanied by the others, but the fire burning in her eyes only got stronger and the power of her perfect curse only grew.
"Bella - "
She lifted her eyes from the man in the ground to face the Dark Lord.
" - That is enough."
With one more powerful strike, Bellatrix removed the curse, and Cygnus layed unconsious on the floor. The others ran to his side, but she didn't take her eyes of Voldemort. She didn't care if her father had gone insane. He deserved it.

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