"I wasn't even sure if I believed Delphini truly had any followers until the attack on Gringotts," Regulus said. "Gellert told us she had a good sized group fighting with her there."
"Yeah it was...interesting," Rabastan mused, wandering over to the liquor cabinet to pour himself another drink. The library door opened then, and an elf stepped inside.
"Miss Kereston is home," he announced. "Will the Lestranges be dining with us?"
Regulus turned to the elf and nodded. "Yes, Piper, they will. Thank you for checking. Is the food ready now?"
The elf nodded. "Yes, and Miss Kereston has someone with her that she was hoping you could escort to the Lestranges, but as they're here, that's sorted itself nicely."
Bellatrix felt herself stiffening. Who would need to be taken to them and why? She honestly didn't feel she could deal with any more right now. It was something right after something else right after something else all bloody week!
"Where are they," Regulus asked.
"In the dining room. Miss Kereston thought she should give the girl a meal first, and that it would give you time to meet her and such, before taking her to the Lestranges... But again, that's sorted."
"Girl," Bellatrix asked. The first horrified thought that occurred to her was Delphini, but Kereston wouldn't exactly be bringing her home... Unless she was under the Imperius Curse, of course! Why did her mind have to immediately jump to the worst, Bellatrix wondered darkly. Because it had been a fuck of a week, that's why.
Sighing, she rose to her feet, all four men fast to follow. "Let's get this over with, shall we?" she said grimly, moving toward the door. The elf hastily backed up as she approached. "Is this girl blonde, by any chance," Bellatrix asked him and he gave her a surprised glance.
"No, Miss... Indeed she has black curly hair much like your own."
"Well, this is getting interesting," Bellatrix muttered, exchanging a perplexed glance with Rodolphus. Rhadamanthus lumbered to his feet from his spot in the corner and followed as they left the room. Until the giant spider moved, Bellatrix had basically forgotten that he was there. He was so quiet that it was easy for her to forget, or overlook, him in spite of his size. Perhaps that was a good trait in a guard, though.
"I should lead the way," the spider rasped.
"But Kreacher and I are even harder to kill," Regulus told him with a quick grin at the Acromantula over one shoulder. "Plus we know the house better, what with living here our entire lives and such. I'm sure it's alright. Piper would've noticed were something amiss."
The elf nodded. "Miss Kereston seemed tired, but quite herself...you know, with a lot of talking."
Bellatrix smirked. She often wondered how Kreacher and the little blonde Minister managed to be such fast friends when both talked so much she didn't see how the other ever got a turn. Regulus and Kreacher led the way down the hall and into the dining room, the others following close on their heels. As they neared, Bellatrix could hear Kereston babbling at whoever this girl was. "They're not truly as bad as everyone says, and a lot of what happened wasn't their fault, really. It has to do something to a person to be forced against their will and not even be aware, you know?"
Looking uncomfortable at the fact the Lestranges were being spoken of while they were about to enter, Regulus cleared his throat and sped up his steps. "Hello, Kereston," he called as he entered the dining room. "As it happens, the Lestranges came to visit and are also staying for dinner. Who have we here?"
Bellatrix moved up beside Regulus to stare at the girl seated at the long ebony wood dining table across from Kereston. She had curly black hair like Bellatrix's and Rodolphus's strong jaw, stubborn chin, and long straight nose. Her eyes were dark, but as Bellatrix and Rodolphus both had dark eyes, who she got them from wasn't so obvious. Rather than Rodolphus's trademark hard, blank stare, the young woman's eyes held an expressive alertness much like Bellatrix's own. As Bella stared at her, memories came flooding back.
Little, nearly one year old, Lyra angrily hitting her father in the face with her broom shaped baby rattle when he didn't stare at it in open fascination the fiftieth time she showed it to him. Rod had grinned, saying she already had the family fighting spirit. Bellatrix had been so proud. Then there was the day they tried to leave three weeks after that. Bellatrix and Lyra had both cried, and Rod had been close to tears himself. They put off departing until the next day when Bella and Rod took the coward's way out, slipping away while Lyra slept.
"Baby," Bellatrix ran forward, and the girl in the chair broke her heart when she shrank back a little, extending a hand to shake instead of opening her arms for a hug from her mother.
"I...just...when I saw that article you wrote I thought I should see you. My aunt and uncle believed you were dead until then. They also believed my father was in prison. When did both of those things change?"
Bellatrix blinked. So her article to the Daily Prophet had made it all the way into the Australian newspapers! That or else Australians just got the Prophet there, as well. Either way, the word was spreading and that was good.
"We've been out for over twenty years," Rodolphus said, tone and expression a bit dazed. "We made ourselves forget you to keep HIM from being aware of your existence. We could've had you this entire time had we only known..." Rod shook his head sadly. "We missed raising you!"
"Want to tell us what's going on," Regulus asked, and Bellatrix approached the dining table, taking a seat beside her daughter. Rodolphus came to sit on the girl's other side.
"This is our daughter," Bellatrix began. "To make a long, strange story slightly shorter, we forgot we had her in order to keep the Dark Lord from knowing."
Regulus gaped at the girl seated beside Rodolphus and Bellatrix. "Oh...Well then..."
"I am Lyra Lestrange," she said, meeting his gaze with her own steady one. "You're my cousin or something, right?"
Regulus nodded. "Yes. Regulus Black at your service." He smiled. "I see your parents kept up our family tradition and named you for a constellation as well."
"I suppose so," Lyra said drily. "I didn't get to grow up around that side of the family, as you are aware, so it's a bit hard to appreciate the significance. Thank you for having me to dinner, by the way. I arrived through the Floo to the Ministry from the Australian Ministry. My aunt and uncle wanted me to travel with Ministry protection in case Delphini decided to look for me to get at my parents."
"Wise thinking," Rodolphus said, nodding. "She shouldn't know about you if we didn't, but she seems to know a great deal more than she should."
"It was convenient that the Minister happens to live with some of my family," Lyra added. "I was unaware of that until arriving here today."
The girl spoke carefully and a bit too coldly for Bellatrix's liking, but she had come to see them and that had to mean something, didn't it?
"We conceived Lyra when the Dark Lord asked Rod and I to perform a sex magic ritual for him," Bellatrix said, beginning to tell the second strangest story of her life. The first, of course, was the night they all attempted and somehow failed to kill the Dark Lord. "It was nineteen ninety-six. We were out of Azkaban for about a week when he asked this of us. He said he required the magic for a long term project of his that would ensure his victory. Though the request was an odd one, Rodolphus and I were, of course, honored to acquiesce."
"Wait, the two of you weren't doing it with him, right? It was just the two of you without him, wasn't it," Lyra asked. "If I am in any way his daughter, I probably don't want to know."
Bellatrix shuddered and shook her head violently. "No! He wasn't the sexual sort, no matter what that trash mouth Rita Skeeter says."
Lyra sighed, shoulders relaxing. "Good!"
Bellatrix gave her daughter a slight smile before continuing. "We were on our bed at Malfoy Manor. It was strange doing it with him in the room, but...Rod and I have always been passionate, so eventually we were able to almost forget the Dark Lord was across the room working some sort of magic. At least he didn't seem to be looking on very much, which helped," she recalled.
"It still seems gross," Lyra commented. Kereston nodded and Bellatrix shrugged. Though this memory wasn't as disturbingly twisted as the one where Voldemort killed Uncle Orion right before their very eyes then rearranged their minds for them, it was still a horrifying recollection nonetheless. Remembering it and experiencing the feelings it engendered again on top of everything else was unpleasant to say the least. Drawing in a shuddering breath, she clung to the edge of the dining table for something to do with her hands and forced herself to continue.
"So Rod and I are performing the sex bit of the Dark Lord's sex magic ritual, and he's doing some sort of spell across the room. Suddenly this shadowy cloud floats over to us and..." she shuddered as the memory became clearer in her mind as emotions of pure revulsion gripped her. Oddly enough, though, they were emotions that needed to be shared and understood to perhaps be released. "Here is where it gets difficult to explain, but this thing flew out of the cloud... Like a bug with clicking pincers. I remember the sound of the wings and the pincers, but, to be honest, I can't be certain it was a bug. Perhaps my mind is only associating the sound with bug wings and pincers. It was a whirring and clicking, of that I am sure."
She glanced to Rodolphus for confirmation, and he nodded. "Yeah, I remember the same."
"It flew at us really fast, and it just didn't feel like a good idea to let it touch us so Rod and I reacted at once, throwing up a spell of deflection that bounced it off." Bellatrix gave a proud grin. "Your father and I fought together so long for the Dark Lord that throwing spells as one was second nature to us," she told Lyra. "The Dark Lord didn't fancy it working against him, though. He shouted that we'd ruined it, and then Rod came because..." Bella shrugged. "Guess he was close then the Dark Lord shouting startled him. Then everything was over and you were on the way. Of course, we were unaware of that at the time. Upon later reflection, though, we came to the conclusion that at least part of the magic the Dark Lord worked was a spell of fertility."
Lyra blinked. "But...I'm surprised you kept me after all that... Weren't you worried I was somehow part of whatever that thing was?"
Bellatrix shrugged. "A little, but we had a Healer check you out when we arrived in Australia. You were pronounced healthy and normal and all ours. We had every test run under the sun!"
Lyra rubbed her own arms and shivered as if chilled. "I read once in a book on dark spirits and demons that there is a fear demon that looks like a bug and makes clicking sounds with pincers when it flies. When summoned, it flies into the mouth of a person to possess them. I wonder if he intended it to possess one of you then through the sex magic go into me."
Bellatrix felt her eyes widening as a new level of horror hit her. Rod's expression was much the same. "Unfortunately that makes sense, though, of course, we can't know for sure," he told Lyra. Grinning, he added, "You're a smart girl. That's only to be expected of a Lestrange, but you do us proud."
"Glad to hear it," Lyra muttered resentfully. Still, she looked pleased at the compliment in spite of that.
"Kreacher believes that Lyra was intended to be Delphini, basically," the elf spoke up. "Considering the memories he recalled from the cave where Voldemort mentioned her, perhaps at least part of her is an entity summoned from elsewhere."
"Great, we're not even fighting an extra strong witch," Kereston said flatly. "We're fighting a fucking unknown entity with unknown powers! I'm really feeling up to the challenge," she concluded in obvious sarcasm.
"Well, it unfortunately explains her unusual abilities, if Kreacher is at all correct," the elf said, giving his blonde friend an apologetic glance. "Perhaps the Dark Lord did not plan to be her father at first, but when Bellatrix and Rodolphus ruined his plans, he might have decided, as they say, that if one wishes a thing to be done properly, one must do it oneself."
"So now the girl is part entity, part Nagini and part Voldemort's Horcrux," Rabastan asked.
"At least," Regulus said, nodding.
"Perhaps Kreacher is wrong, though," the elf murmured, but no one, Bellatrix included, seemed to feel overly optimistic on that matter. Too many things added up in the worst of ways, after all.
"So," Lyra prompted. "Let's have the rest of the story."
Bellatrix nodded. The worst bit was already out, at least. The rest wouldn't be that bad. "Hiding you with the Australian branch of the Lestrange family seemed the wisest thing to do. We suggested to the Dark Lord that we visit Rod's family in Australia in order to gain him more followers in that part of the world, and he allowed it for eight months. That gave me time to have you and spend some time with you."
"But how did you keep Voldemort from knowing you were pregnant," Lyra asked, and Bellatrix smiled.
"Simple enough for a woman. I used slimming charms and wore voluminous dresses. We went to Australia a week or so before you were due. You were our precious little dark secret, and we kept you well. We knew if the Dark Lord won, it may not be safe for him to know about you, and if he lost, we'd likely end up in prison again. We wanted you safe and away from all that until or if we could get out and get to you. We had your aunt and uncle help us to place the spell of recall on you so that seeing you again would restore all of our memories. They promised to bring you to us if we were able to take you."
"And technically they aren't your aunt and uncle," Rodolphus added. "They're distant cousins, but good trustworthy wizards with the proper pureblood values, and we trusted them to raise you properly. We owe them much, for thus far it seems they have done an excellent job."
"They never told me the story of how I was conceived," Lyra said.
"That's because they didn't know. We only told them the basics to keep them safe," Bellatrix explained. "The less anyone knew the safer everyone was. They didn't have any children, so were perfect to take you in."
"They do now. They had a daughter, Lillian, when I was six. She's like my sister," Lyra said.
"But she is your cousin," Rodolphus said, obviously territorial. Bellatrix liked that and nodded her agreement.
"True, but she feels like my sister, just as Agrona and Jehan Lestrange feel like my parents because they raised me while you were out doing who knows what," Lyra said darkly.
Her eyes now held a hard resentment that put Bellatrix in mind of Rodolphus in a mood. "You aren't being fair," she chastised. "We did that to protect you. We had no idea the Ministry would keep us out of prison to work Shadow Ops. As we had to see you to reverse the Memory Charm, we had no way of recalling your existence until now."
"Perhaps if you hadn't felt the need to follow a madman in the first place, I could've grown up with you," Lyra shot back angrily.
"We made that mistake long before you were born, and it was an easy mistake to make at the time," Bellatrix defended.
Regulus nodded. "Unfortunately, she is right. If you were a pureblood wizard tired of being under the Muggle thumb, feeling you should have far more rights in this world than you did, it was all too easy to believe that following the Dark Lord was the obvious way to achieve that goal. Kreacher and I followed the Dark Lord as well, for that very reason. As a result, I nearly got the person I love most in the world killed, my father is dead, and it's probably the reason my mother is dead. Not to mention it's because of that that your parents got their minds twisted as well," Regulus told Lyra sadly.
"In other words, everyone paid for serving him, and at least you paid least of all, kid," Rabastan said, speaking up at last. "I'm your Uncle Rabastan, by the way," he added with a grin, reaching across Rodolphus to grasp Lyra's hand and shake it a bit too vigorously.
Rabastan got the first warm smile that Lyra chose to bestow, and Bellatrix had to struggle a bit not to feel jealous.
"Hi, Uncle Rabastan! I suppose you're right, but while the rest of you did suffer far more, you chose to serve him, and I did not."
"True, but we did pay," Rabastan reminded her. "Your parents did make sure you had a good life, and while it's a drag we missed your childhood, we can all still have a lot of fun now. Even more now that you're grown up!" he said with a grin. "For example, we can go out drinking, and you can be my wing woman!"
Lyra grinned. "Sounds like fun."
While recalling and reconnecting with their child was wonderful, Bellatrix sincerely hoped she didn't have anything else to remember this week. One's mind, especially hers, could only take so much.
Three elves entered the dining room then and dinner was served. Dinner was a delicious venison stew with slices of thick, flaky bread on the side. Rodolphus's Acromantula really enjoyed the bread, inhaling two pieces in between his first three mouthfuls of stew. Everyone ate besides Regulus and Kreacher, who were just there for the conversation.