The Sanity of Bellatrix Lestrange - A gift for madamemilfoy!
Title: The Sanity of Bellatrix Lestrange
Author: tempered_rose
Recipient: madamemilfoy
Pairing: Narcissa Malfoy/Bellatrix Lestrange
Word Count: 2,480
Rating: R+
Warnings: Torture, Azkaban, angst, grief of a sort, mind games
Summary: Narcissa is asked to come to Azkaban to see her sister. It isn’t until she leaves that she finds out the truth.
Author's Notes: I hope you like it. :) The story takes place before the Prisoner of Azkaban.
It wasn’t a place that any self-respecting witch, especially one of her status, would ever find themselves to be. However, as it was, Narcissa had made an arrangement-an inaccurate word considering the truth was that it was a bribe-to come to Azkaban. If she was honest with herself, she wasn’t entirely looking forward to seeing the prisoner she had once called her sister.
Bellatrix had never been a normal child. She had often found malicious jokes and pranks at others’ expense more fun than normal games and toys. Narcissa could easily recall the laughter that always seemed to come from Bella after another animal had been found dead.
It seemed only natural that once she grew up she would become a Death Eater.
At the time, when they were being recruited, Bellatrix had fancied the Lestrange boy. He had been as mad as she and the way she had regarded the Dark Lord… It was no surprise at all to Narcissa that she had risen as highly in favor and power as she had.
Narcissa moved inside and shivered. The feel of death and despair was everywhere. It would be easy to see why someone would go mad here. The corridor in which she found herself was almost entirely dark and the sound of water dripping somewhere off in the distance mingled eerily with the sound of the ocean behind her and the occasional moans or screams coming from within the prison cells themselves.
Swallowing the fear she felt beginning, Narcissa murmured the spell to light her wand and advanced forward, stiff-shouldered, into the darkness.
As she passed, some of the prisoners called out to her. Some pleaded for mercy, others called her a savior and begged for their release, others simply remained silent or moaned in agony. Narcissa never looked at the cells as she walked. She didn’t want to risk seeing someone she had once known, perhaps once hated or loved, or someone she would feel a need to become involved with. That wouldn’t be proper, or respectable. Even seeing Bellatrix would be going against an order Lucius had given her. An order, amid several, that she had ignored.
She finally reached the end of the corridor and felt the slight shift in atmosphere. Perhaps it was because she was further away from the frigid sea breeze or perhaps what lurked in the shadows here was far more evil, but the air did not move here. Narcissa extinguished her wand once she had reached the cell she had come to see and waited for her eyes to adjust before she looked inside.
There was a small shaft of moonlight that crossed the cell but didn’t quite stretch far enough to reach the door, everything else was in shadow. Narcissa could just make out the etchings in the wall, made from chalk or perhaps-more likely-a stone carved against the wall. Each mark resembled a tally, but what Bellatrix had been keeping count of, she couldn’t quite say. Perhaps the days she’s been here? Narcissa thought as she tried to find her sister.
Eventually, it was her sense of hearing that found her.
“Cissy?” A voice called and Narcissa finally managed to place her sister somewhat. All she could see was a mass of filthy prisoner’s robes, ripped in a few places, and dark, matted hair. It seemed a shame that was what her great, mad sister had been reduced to. “Is it you, truly?”
Not for the first time, Narcissa thought back as to why she was even here. A missive sent personally from Amelia Bones regarding the “sanity of your sister” had raised an eyebrow, but the words scrawled onto the page saying how she had “appeared less sane than usual”, “reduced to quiet mutterings”, “finally broken by Azkaban” had caused Narcissa to look into making a visit. Lucius would murder her if she was found out to have been here, but she didn’t care. After all this time, and after all the things Bellatrix had done-as well as herself-Narcissa still considered Bella her sister, her family. It would’ve been unacceptable not to go.
But the small voice coming from the dark hardly seemed to belong to her sister. It seemed to come from someone who was exactly as Madam Bones had described, someone broken by Azkaban.
The thought was monstrous.
Narcissa secured her wand outside of the cell, underneath a stone near the edge so she could still get access to it if she needed. This was the riskiest part. Narcissa had made a deal to be able to see her sister, personally. But of course the risk was great for a witch as powerful as Bellatrix. She could not escape, that much was absolutely clear to everyone involved in this sordid affair.
Carefully, Narcissa opened the door with the key she had been given and then winced as the door squeaked open. She moved fast and was inside the cell before Bellatrix could move, which she did. To Narcissa’s surprise, Bellatrix moved backwards, not forwards to the door.
“Bellatrix, I came to see you.” Narcissa spoke softly, but it seemed loud amongst the quiet.
Silence was her only answer. She could feel Bella’s eyes on her, watching and waiting for her to do something. Finally, she spoke.
“Why are you here, Cissy?” Bella asked in the same quiet, resigned tone. Narcissa swallowed a new kind of fear. Perhaps…perhaps Bella was different, after all.
Narcissa moved into the cell more and found a chair thrown against the wall. She sat it upright and then let herself sit on it. She could hear the sound of chains along the wall and swallowed at the sight she could imagine Bellatrix being in.
“I was worried over you. And besides, you should have visitors as well.” Narcissa waited for Bellatrix to do or say anything, but when she didn’t, Narcissa continued. “Bella, come closer so I can see you, please?”
It took a few moments, but when Bellatrix complied, Narcissa wished she hadn’t even asked.
From what she could see of her, Narcissa could tell that Bellatrix hadn’t been either allowed or concerned with ways to keep herself clean or decent-looking. The long, dark hair that Bellatrix had vainly kept in curls was matted and dirty. The robes she wore obviously had been done for years, probably since she had arrived. But it was her eyes that held Narcissa in a vice-grip of shock. The eyes that had always held a spark of mischief, or madness depending, were now empty and devoid of even the tiniest fleck of life. They were cold, empty, lifeless.
“Are you happy to see me this way, Narcissa?” Bellatrix asked quietly and for a moment Narcissa thought that Bella was back to her old self.
“Of course not!” Narcissa said once her question had registered in her mind. “It pains me to see someone I love locked away like this!”
“Not disowned me then? Said you were ashamed of me?” Bella asked and Narcissa reached forward to touch her sister’s shoulder. Bellatrix flinched away from her, but Narcissa was used to that. Bella didn’t like soft touches or gentle gestures. She had almost always flinched away from when Narcissa touched her.
“You know I could never do that,” Narcissa said quietly.
There was too much between them for either one of them to ever turn their back on the other. Some of that, secrets buried long in the past, she could never even tell her husband about. She could never tell anyone about those summer afternoons, winter nights. Not even just those things. Bella and herself had played pranks against people that they had gotten away with and no one had ever known the difference. Bella and herself had gotten up to mischief as children and as teenagers.
There was simply too much between them to ever be able to forget.
“How do I know? You stay out there, in your happy little home, and I am here!” Bellatrix shrieked by the end of her sentence and Narcissa winced. No, it didn’t seem like there was anything wrong with her sister after all.
“Bella, please, you know I would do anything I could to ease your comfort…” Narcissa started, but Bellatrix intervened.
“Then do something, now! I hate it here!” For the first time in her whole life, Narcissa heard Bellatrix start to cry. Rooted to the spot, Narcissa was shocked to hear the sobs starting from Bellatrix’s chest and she swallowed past her propriety.
Narcissa slipped away from the chair and knelt on the stone floor next to her sister. She put her arms around Bellatrix’s body and this time Bella didn’t flinch. Narcissa didn’t dare spark Bella’s ire by trying to shush her. Instead, she held her sister close and let her cry. If she guessed, she could imagine this was the first and only time Bella had had any form of comfort in years.
Narcissa stroked Bella’s back slowly for Merlin knew how long. She would have continued to do so if not for the fact she quickly realized where Bella’s head, and then her hands, had gone to. What had started out as a head on the shoulder had moved to Bella’s head being pressed into Narcissa’s chest. Her hands had gone from her waist down towards her hips.
Too late Narcissa realized that she had been outmaneuvered and found herself on the stone floor of the cell. Swallowing slightly, she looked up but saw nothing but darkness. This time it was Bella’s eyes and hair that drowned out the rest of the darkened cell.
“I missed you, Cissy,” Bella murmured before lowering her head and taking Narcissa’s lips with her own.
Not for the first time, Narcissa was too stunned to react properly. If she had any sense, she would have pushed her sister away from her. This was not the time, the place, or any form of the right way to act in public. But they weren’t really in public were they? They were in Azkaban, away from prying eyes, and who really cared? Only Bellatrix really knew what they had done, what they might do now. It would be all right. Besides, Bella needed the comfort. And if Narcissa was honest, so did she.
Narcissa’s hands moved up to hold Bella’s shoulders as she allowed Bella to deepen the kiss. The feel of her sister’s lips on hers was one she had thought she had forgotten. Bellatrix, happy that Narcissa had finally responded, tightened her hold on Narcissa’s hips and pressed herself closer into her body. Narcissa heard the chain drag across the floor when Bella moved and she seemed to come to her senses half-way.
“Bella, this isn’t-”
“Tell me you haven’t missed it,” Bellatrix challenged and moved her hand from Narcissa’s waist up to squeeze her breasts. “Tell me you haven’t missed me.”
Narcissa swallowed and moaned softly at the feel of Bella’s hands on her breasts. She stayed quiet and didn’t answer Bellatrix’s question, causing a knowing laugh to come from her sister. Bella opened the front of Narcissa’s robes and reached in, squeezing and kneading Narcissa’s breasts in her hands. She lowered her head and began to lick at one of Narcissa’s nipples. Moaning slightly louder, Narcissa arched into her sister’s mouth.
“Merlin, Bella,” she groaned softly.
Bellatrix moved her hand away from her breast and slid it down towards the hem of Narcissa’s robes. She pulled the material up and soon her hand found the place that had been growing wetter since the sudden kiss had begun. Bellatrix pushed her fingers in slowly and then twisted them, causing another loud moan from her sister.
Narcissa reached up to touch Bella’s face. “Let me…help you.”
Bellatrix shook her head, dark eyes molten. “No, I don’t want you to touch me.”
The sharp command stung, and Narcissa swallowed. Slowly, she pulled her hand away from Bella’s face and gasped suddenly as Bella’s fingers found an extremely sensitive place inside of her. The words faded away as Bella quickly, expertly, moved Narcissa closer towards orgasm. Once more her dark head lowered over Narcissa’s chest and she sucked at one taught nipple.
Moaning, Narcissa’s hips jerked and she arched off the floor. She felt the release tighten in her abdomen and then snap, a string that had finally pulled too much tension, and she sagged back to the floor. When she managed to recover some of her senses, Narcissa looked up and saw that Bella was watching her.
Narcissa licked her lips slowly and reached to straighten her robes only to find that Bella had already done it. Slowly, she shifted upwards and resumed her seat on the chair.
“I don’t…understand…” she said quietly, still not completely in control of her breath.
Bellatrix shifted back into the corner she had been in when Narcissa first arrived.
“You can go now, Cissy. I wouldn’t want to keep you,” Bella said in the detached tone that Narcissa considered her normal voice.
Frowning slightly, Narcissa stood and tried to piece together what had changed. Unable to do so, she said again, “I don’t understand. Bella, I-”
Bellatrix huffed out an aggravated sigh. “I don’t need you to understand, but if you insist I’ll tell you. I get frightfully bored in here, Cissy. And since all of my friends are either in here with me, or dead, I figured that the only one to be of any use was you. And you, as always Cissy, proved me correct. Thanks for stopping by, I enjoyed your visit.”
Narcissa could see the manic smile on Bella’s face and she felt her insides twist. She had been used.
“I’m glad you did,” she responded coolly, “so did I.”
“I know. I always know how to get a rise out of you.”
Narcissa looked at her sister and shook her head. She didn’t feel completely useless, although she had wished that this visit had been better than what it was. Narcissa had been right though. There wasn’t a single thing wrong, mentally, with Bellatrix Lestrange. She was as calculating as ever.
She left quietly, not making a fuss with Bellatrix. She locked the door and reached for her wand. When she straightened again, she startled because of the fact Bella’s face was right on the other side of the door. She hadn’t heard her move.
“Do come again soon, Cissy. I will miss you again, I think.”
Narcissa swallowed hard and nodded. “I’ll see what I can manage.”
Turning without a look back, Narcissa moved out of the corridor. She smiled a little to herself when all she heard in reply was that crazed, maniacal laughter that her sister always had.
No, there wasn’t anything wrong with Bellatrix Lestrange at all. She was still just quite happily insane.
Author: tempered_rose
Recipient: madamemilfoy
Pairing: Narcissa Malfoy/Bellatrix Lestrange
Word Count: 2,480
Rating: R+
Warnings: Torture, Azkaban, angst, grief of a sort, mind games
Summary: Narcissa is asked to come to Azkaban to see her sister. It isn’t until she leaves that she finds out the truth.
Author's Notes: I hope you like it. :) The story takes place before the Prisoner of Azkaban.
It wasn’t a place that any self-respecting witch, especially one of her status, would ever find themselves to be. However, as it was, Narcissa had made an arrangement-an inaccurate word considering the truth was that it was a bribe-to come to Azkaban. If she was honest with herself, she wasn’t entirely looking forward to seeing the prisoner she had once called her sister.
Bellatrix had never been a normal child. She had often found malicious jokes and pranks at others’ expense more fun than normal games and toys. Narcissa could easily recall the laughter that always seemed to come from Bella after another animal had been found dead.
It seemed only natural that once she grew up she would become a Death Eater.
At the time, when they were being recruited, Bellatrix had fancied the Lestrange boy. He had been as mad as she and the way she had regarded the Dark Lord… It was no surprise at all to Narcissa that she had risen as highly in favor and power as she had.
Narcissa moved inside and shivered. The feel of death and despair was everywhere. It would be easy to see why someone would go mad here. The corridor in which she found herself was almost entirely dark and the sound of water dripping somewhere off in the distance mingled eerily with the sound of the ocean behind her and the occasional moans or screams coming from within the prison cells themselves.
Swallowing the fear she felt beginning, Narcissa murmured the spell to light her wand and advanced forward, stiff-shouldered, into the darkness.
As she passed, some of the prisoners called out to her. Some pleaded for mercy, others called her a savior and begged for their release, others simply remained silent or moaned in agony. Narcissa never looked at the cells as she walked. She didn’t want to risk seeing someone she had once known, perhaps once hated or loved, or someone she would feel a need to become involved with. That wouldn’t be proper, or respectable. Even seeing Bellatrix would be going against an order Lucius had given her. An order, amid several, that she had ignored.
She finally reached the end of the corridor and felt the slight shift in atmosphere. Perhaps it was because she was further away from the frigid sea breeze or perhaps what lurked in the shadows here was far more evil, but the air did not move here. Narcissa extinguished her wand once she had reached the cell she had come to see and waited for her eyes to adjust before she looked inside.
There was a small shaft of moonlight that crossed the cell but didn’t quite stretch far enough to reach the door, everything else was in shadow. Narcissa could just make out the etchings in the wall, made from chalk or perhaps-more likely-a stone carved against the wall. Each mark resembled a tally, but what Bellatrix had been keeping count of, she couldn’t quite say. Perhaps the days she’s been here? Narcissa thought as she tried to find her sister.
Eventually, it was her sense of hearing that found her.
“Cissy?” A voice called and Narcissa finally managed to place her sister somewhat. All she could see was a mass of filthy prisoner’s robes, ripped in a few places, and dark, matted hair. It seemed a shame that was what her great, mad sister had been reduced to. “Is it you, truly?”
Not for the first time, Narcissa thought back as to why she was even here. A missive sent personally from Amelia Bones regarding the “sanity of your sister” had raised an eyebrow, but the words scrawled onto the page saying how she had “appeared less sane than usual”, “reduced to quiet mutterings”, “finally broken by Azkaban” had caused Narcissa to look into making a visit. Lucius would murder her if she was found out to have been here, but she didn’t care. After all this time, and after all the things Bellatrix had done-as well as herself-Narcissa still considered Bella her sister, her family. It would’ve been unacceptable not to go.
But the small voice coming from the dark hardly seemed to belong to her sister. It seemed to come from someone who was exactly as Madam Bones had described, someone broken by Azkaban.
The thought was monstrous.
Narcissa secured her wand outside of the cell, underneath a stone near the edge so she could still get access to it if she needed. This was the riskiest part. Narcissa had made a deal to be able to see her sister, personally. But of course the risk was great for a witch as powerful as Bellatrix. She could not escape, that much was absolutely clear to everyone involved in this sordid affair.
Carefully, Narcissa opened the door with the key she had been given and then winced as the door squeaked open. She moved fast and was inside the cell before Bellatrix could move, which she did. To Narcissa’s surprise, Bellatrix moved backwards, not forwards to the door.
“Bellatrix, I came to see you.” Narcissa spoke softly, but it seemed loud amongst the quiet.
Silence was her only answer. She could feel Bella’s eyes on her, watching and waiting for her to do something. Finally, she spoke.
“Why are you here, Cissy?” Bella asked in the same quiet, resigned tone. Narcissa swallowed a new kind of fear. Perhaps…perhaps Bella was different, after all.
Narcissa moved into the cell more and found a chair thrown against the wall. She sat it upright and then let herself sit on it. She could hear the sound of chains along the wall and swallowed at the sight she could imagine Bellatrix being in.
“I was worried over you. And besides, you should have visitors as well.” Narcissa waited for Bellatrix to do or say anything, but when she didn’t, Narcissa continued. “Bella, come closer so I can see you, please?”
It took a few moments, but when Bellatrix complied, Narcissa wished she hadn’t even asked.
From what she could see of her, Narcissa could tell that Bellatrix hadn’t been either allowed or concerned with ways to keep herself clean or decent-looking. The long, dark hair that Bellatrix had vainly kept in curls was matted and dirty. The robes she wore obviously had been done for years, probably since she had arrived. But it was her eyes that held Narcissa in a vice-grip of shock. The eyes that had always held a spark of mischief, or madness depending, were now empty and devoid of even the tiniest fleck of life. They were cold, empty, lifeless.
“Are you happy to see me this way, Narcissa?” Bellatrix asked quietly and for a moment Narcissa thought that Bella was back to her old self.
“Of course not!” Narcissa said once her question had registered in her mind. “It pains me to see someone I love locked away like this!”
“Not disowned me then? Said you were ashamed of me?” Bella asked and Narcissa reached forward to touch her sister’s shoulder. Bellatrix flinched away from her, but Narcissa was used to that. Bella didn’t like soft touches or gentle gestures. She had almost always flinched away from when Narcissa touched her.
“You know I could never do that,” Narcissa said quietly.
There was too much between them for either one of them to ever turn their back on the other. Some of that, secrets buried long in the past, she could never even tell her husband about. She could never tell anyone about those summer afternoons, winter nights. Not even just those things. Bella and herself had played pranks against people that they had gotten away with and no one had ever known the difference. Bella and herself had gotten up to mischief as children and as teenagers.
There was simply too much between them to ever be able to forget.
“How do I know? You stay out there, in your happy little home, and I am here!” Bellatrix shrieked by the end of her sentence and Narcissa winced. No, it didn’t seem like there was anything wrong with her sister after all.
“Bella, please, you know I would do anything I could to ease your comfort…” Narcissa started, but Bellatrix intervened.
“Then do something, now! I hate it here!” For the first time in her whole life, Narcissa heard Bellatrix start to cry. Rooted to the spot, Narcissa was shocked to hear the sobs starting from Bellatrix’s chest and she swallowed past her propriety.
Narcissa slipped away from the chair and knelt on the stone floor next to her sister. She put her arms around Bellatrix’s body and this time Bella didn’t flinch. Narcissa didn’t dare spark Bella’s ire by trying to shush her. Instead, she held her sister close and let her cry. If she guessed, she could imagine this was the first and only time Bella had had any form of comfort in years.
Narcissa stroked Bella’s back slowly for Merlin knew how long. She would have continued to do so if not for the fact she quickly realized where Bella’s head, and then her hands, had gone to. What had started out as a head on the shoulder had moved to Bella’s head being pressed into Narcissa’s chest. Her hands had gone from her waist down towards her hips.
Too late Narcissa realized that she had been outmaneuvered and found herself on the stone floor of the cell. Swallowing slightly, she looked up but saw nothing but darkness. This time it was Bella’s eyes and hair that drowned out the rest of the darkened cell.
“I missed you, Cissy,” Bella murmured before lowering her head and taking Narcissa’s lips with her own.
Not for the first time, Narcissa was too stunned to react properly. If she had any sense, she would have pushed her sister away from her. This was not the time, the place, or any form of the right way to act in public. But they weren’t really in public were they? They were in Azkaban, away from prying eyes, and who really cared? Only Bellatrix really knew what they had done, what they might do now. It would be all right. Besides, Bella needed the comfort. And if Narcissa was honest, so did she.
Narcissa’s hands moved up to hold Bella’s shoulders as she allowed Bella to deepen the kiss. The feel of her sister’s lips on hers was one she had thought she had forgotten. Bellatrix, happy that Narcissa had finally responded, tightened her hold on Narcissa’s hips and pressed herself closer into her body. Narcissa heard the chain drag across the floor when Bella moved and she seemed to come to her senses half-way.
“Bella, this isn’t-”
“Tell me you haven’t missed it,” Bellatrix challenged and moved her hand from Narcissa’s waist up to squeeze her breasts. “Tell me you haven’t missed me.”
Narcissa swallowed and moaned softly at the feel of Bella’s hands on her breasts. She stayed quiet and didn’t answer Bellatrix’s question, causing a knowing laugh to come from her sister. Bella opened the front of Narcissa’s robes and reached in, squeezing and kneading Narcissa’s breasts in her hands. She lowered her head and began to lick at one of Narcissa’s nipples. Moaning slightly louder, Narcissa arched into her sister’s mouth.
“Merlin, Bella,” she groaned softly.
Bellatrix moved her hand away from her breast and slid it down towards the hem of Narcissa’s robes. She pulled the material up and soon her hand found the place that had been growing wetter since the sudden kiss had begun. Bellatrix pushed her fingers in slowly and then twisted them, causing another loud moan from her sister.
Narcissa reached up to touch Bella’s face. “Let me…help you.”
Bellatrix shook her head, dark eyes molten. “No, I don’t want you to touch me.”
The sharp command stung, and Narcissa swallowed. Slowly, she pulled her hand away from Bella’s face and gasped suddenly as Bella’s fingers found an extremely sensitive place inside of her. The words faded away as Bella quickly, expertly, moved Narcissa closer towards orgasm. Once more her dark head lowered over Narcissa’s chest and she sucked at one taught nipple.
Moaning, Narcissa’s hips jerked and she arched off the floor. She felt the release tighten in her abdomen and then snap, a string that had finally pulled too much tension, and she sagged back to the floor. When she managed to recover some of her senses, Narcissa looked up and saw that Bella was watching her.
Narcissa licked her lips slowly and reached to straighten her robes only to find that Bella had already done it. Slowly, she shifted upwards and resumed her seat on the chair.
“I don’t…understand…” she said quietly, still not completely in control of her breath.
Bellatrix shifted back into the corner she had been in when Narcissa first arrived.
“You can go now, Cissy. I wouldn’t want to keep you,” Bella said in the detached tone that Narcissa considered her normal voice.
Frowning slightly, Narcissa stood and tried to piece together what had changed. Unable to do so, she said again, “I don’t understand. Bella, I-”
Bellatrix huffed out an aggravated sigh. “I don’t need you to understand, but if you insist I’ll tell you. I get frightfully bored in here, Cissy. And since all of my friends are either in here with me, or dead, I figured that the only one to be of any use was you. And you, as always Cissy, proved me correct. Thanks for stopping by, I enjoyed your visit.”
Narcissa could see the manic smile on Bella’s face and she felt her insides twist. She had been used.
“I’m glad you did,” she responded coolly, “so did I.”
“I know. I always know how to get a rise out of you.”
Narcissa looked at her sister and shook her head. She didn’t feel completely useless, although she had wished that this visit had been better than what it was. Narcissa had been right though. There wasn’t a single thing wrong, mentally, with Bellatrix Lestrange. She was as calculating as ever.
She left quietly, not making a fuss with Bellatrix. She locked the door and reached for her wand. When she straightened again, she startled because of the fact Bella’s face was right on the other side of the door. She hadn’t heard her move.
“Do come again soon, Cissy. I will miss you again, I think.”
Narcissa swallowed hard and nodded. “I’ll see what I can manage.”
Turning without a look back, Narcissa moved out of the corridor. She smiled a little to herself when all she heard in reply was that crazed, maniacal laughter that her sister always had.
No, there wasn’t anything wrong with Bellatrix Lestrange at all. She was still just quite happily insane.