Drabble: Songbird
Title: Songbird
Author: dexstarr
Word Count: 200 x 2
Rating: PG-13
Challenge: slytherin100: Prompt #134: Button
Characters: Bellatrix Lestrange, Lord Voldemort
Author's Note: No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't whittle this into 100 word installments, so it's two imperfect drabbles instead! This was a tough prompt, but I wanted to do it justice.
Disclaimer: Not mine.
***Winter, 1970***
“Bella?” His voice caressed her nickname lovingly, a sibilant whisper against the flock of incessantly cawing ravens.
She immediately obeyed the unspoken suggestion, sending a flash of sickly green light towards the irritating beasts. Her killing curse hit the biggest raven, effectively muting the loud krak, krak that had so bothered her master.
The feathery body dropping to the frozen ground startled the remainder of the flock of sooty black birds; they scattered instantly, silently.
“Accio.” The bird’s corpse landed in the Dark Lord’s death-white palm. He flicked his wand. The raven’s body disappeared, leaving only a pristine skull. “Argentum Calvaria.” Silver erupted from the tip of his wand, washing the bone in a gleaming layer of metal.
Her eyes widened appreciatively. “It’s beautiful, My Lord.”
“A fitting trophy for my favorite follower.” He tapped the skull one last time, sending it to levitate in front of her; a black leather cord now dangled from it. Bellatrix fastened her prize around her neck, carefully positioning the pendant until the pointed beak rested in the hollow of her throat.
“I will treasure it always, My Lord.”
Lord Voldemort nodded, pleased. “Now, my sources have informed me that Alice Longbottom is expecting…”
***Winter, 1981***
Bellatrix Lestrange will survive Azkaban.
The dementors may peruse her memories daily, gleefully sucking choice morsels into slack, skeletal mouths, but she has a continual source of renewal.
For, concealed in the left sleeve of her ragged prison dress, is a single tarnished button. The metal button is just as battered as her surroundings - the crumbling stone fortress that is Azkaban - but that just makes it less likely to be noticed. Without the button that hides just below her faded Dark Mark, she would descend to even darker, baser instincts; already, she sometimes teeters on the thin line between human and animal.
But that single, silver button is her secret weapon - transfigured from its original pendant form - her valued trophy from the Dark Lord. With it Bellatrix can recall every happy event at his hand, every Crucio and Avada Kedavra directed at Mudbloods and Muggles. She can replay the event that led to her arrest and imprisonment: the torture of the Aurors Frank and Alice Longbottom - a damn good night.
Bellatrix misses wearing the songbird’s silver skull around her neck, a proud declaration of the Dark Lord’s favor, but for now it is her salvation.
**Argentum Calvaria = silver skull
Author: dexstarr
Word Count: 200 x 2
Rating: PG-13
Challenge: slytherin100: Prompt #134: Button
Characters: Bellatrix Lestrange, Lord Voldemort
Author's Note: No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't whittle this into 100 word installments, so it's two imperfect drabbles instead! This was a tough prompt, but I wanted to do it justice.
Disclaimer: Not mine.
***Winter, 1970***
“Bella?” His voice caressed her nickname lovingly, a sibilant whisper against the flock of incessantly cawing ravens.
She immediately obeyed the unspoken suggestion, sending a flash of sickly green light towards the irritating beasts. Her killing curse hit the biggest raven, effectively muting the loud krak, krak that had so bothered her master.
The feathery body dropping to the frozen ground startled the remainder of the flock of sooty black birds; they scattered instantly, silently.
“Accio.” The bird’s corpse landed in the Dark Lord’s death-white palm. He flicked his wand. The raven’s body disappeared, leaving only a pristine skull. “Argentum Calvaria.” Silver erupted from the tip of his wand, washing the bone in a gleaming layer of metal.
Her eyes widened appreciatively. “It’s beautiful, My Lord.”
“A fitting trophy for my favorite follower.” He tapped the skull one last time, sending it to levitate in front of her; a black leather cord now dangled from it. Bellatrix fastened her prize around her neck, carefully positioning the pendant until the pointed beak rested in the hollow of her throat.
“I will treasure it always, My Lord.”
Lord Voldemort nodded, pleased. “Now, my sources have informed me that Alice Longbottom is expecting…”
***Winter, 1981***
Bellatrix Lestrange will survive Azkaban.
The dementors may peruse her memories daily, gleefully sucking choice morsels into slack, skeletal mouths, but she has a continual source of renewal.
For, concealed in the left sleeve of her ragged prison dress, is a single tarnished button. The metal button is just as battered as her surroundings - the crumbling stone fortress that is Azkaban - but that just makes it less likely to be noticed. Without the button that hides just below her faded Dark Mark, she would descend to even darker, baser instincts; already, she sometimes teeters on the thin line between human and animal.
But that single, silver button is her secret weapon - transfigured from its original pendant form - her valued trophy from the Dark Lord. With it Bellatrix can recall every happy event at his hand, every Crucio and Avada Kedavra directed at Mudbloods and Muggles. She can replay the event that led to her arrest and imprisonment: the torture of the Aurors Frank and Alice Longbottom - a damn good night.
Bellatrix misses wearing the songbird’s silver skull around her neck, a proud declaration of the Dark Lord’s favor, but for now it is her salvation.
**Argentum Calvaria = silver skull