"Narcissa has been trying to write you for days," Lucius said as they entered the library.
"We haven't had much time to check mail," Bellatrix drawled with a sigh. "We come home late and go to bed."
"You couldn't bother to stop in and see if we were alright?" Lucius demanded. "You with your magic could not bother to see if we needed anything?"
"You have plenty of money, and it can buy you whatever magic can't make happen, Lucy," Rodolphus snapped. "Sorry not to play nursemaid to you when we had other things going on."
From the growl in Rodolphus's voice, Bellatrix found it obvious that he wasn't sorry in the least. If Lucy knew what was good for him, he'd realize it too and ease off his complaining. If not...things would get interesting. Rodolphus could've handled him any day, and now that Malfoy had no magic, Rod wouldn't even have to try.
Glaring icily, Lucius settled himself into a chair on the far side of the room. "So did you have your child during this magical pandemic and douse her with a bit of fast grow potion," he asked drily as his gaze traveled skeptically over Lyra.
Lucy's mention of a fast grow potion reminded Bellatrix of the time they'd used it on a baby Mandrake in Herbology in her and Rod's fifth year at Hogwarts. They'd intentionally poured too much, and the Mandrake had quickly towered over Rod, and continued to grow until Sprout angrily reversed the process. Effectively ruining the fun, as most professors were wont to do.
"Now, Lucy! You know very well if we used such a thing on a baby, she still wouldn't be able to talk yet. She would remain a baby mentally, which would just make her a larger bother," Bellatrix chided.
"Do stop calling me Lucy. It does not amuse."
"Oh, but it does," Rod said with a snicker. "See? I am amused right now."
"Have you heard about...Delphini," Bellatrix asked carefully. She wasn't sure how much she dared to go into, or how much they could trust Lucius, but she supposed it may be wise to find out.
Lucius blinked. "We've read the papers, if that's what you mean, but we have no idea how true any of it is."
"Well, she obviously isn't my daughter," Bellatrix snapped, and Lucius arched a brow.
"Clearly not... I meant the rest. We have no way of knowing if she is truly His, though I can't imagine him having a relationship much less a child with anyone. I assumed they pinned the mother tag on you because you were so open with your devotion to him, Bellatrix."
"Well, it wasn't that sort of devotion," Bellatrix bit out, and Lucius arched his brow again as he lounged back in his chair, relaxing now that she was more uncomfortable with this new topic.
"Yes, of course, but the masses seek an explanation that requires little thought," he pointed out, his tone dripping with feigned boredom.
"Lucius… How do you feel about the Dark Lord now," Bellatrix asked. She heard the caution in her own voice, a result of not knowing who to trust among the Dark Lord's former followers. Granted, he and his family had defected in the end, but would he have the courage to do so again if he knew the Dark Lord had returned...sort of?
"What's this about, Bella?" Lucius snapped, straightening in his chair to frown at her. She couldn't help but smile. He was no longer enjoying the conversation.
"It is about potential trouble to come," she replied.
Lucius sighed. "Fine. Why don't you tell me how I am supposed to feel about him?" The sudden resentment and anger in his eyes caused her caution to retreat, and Bellatrix sighed as she felt her body relaxing.
"It would be nice if you wished none of us had ever served him," she said in a rush. "It would be just grand if you remembered how poorly he treated those who loved him and served him well, yourself included."
The anger on Lucius's face quickly turned to shock. For any former follower to speak so was obviously blasphemy, but for Bellatrix to do so was the last thing he expected.
"Is this some sort of set up?" he demanded. "Because I am not going to..."
"No," Bellatrix cut in, already bored with whatever ranting or threats he had in store. "He made Horcruxes, Lucius."
Lucius nodded. "Yes… Narcissa told me when Regulus told you and you told her." Bellatrix couldn't help but grin at the fact he'd kept all that straight.
"Very good…one of them is inside Delphini. We had a bit of a conversation with it when I stabbed him… her repeatedly a few days ago when she broke into Azkaban to chat us up."
Lucius's jaw dropped. "What? You did what? That's declaring war on him! Fool! You'll get us all killed. All you ever do, Bellatrix, is think of yourself!"
Rodolphus took a single step toward Lucius. His expression was friendly and a little gleeful, which meant he was about to fuck him up. Rod always got really happy when he was about to throw down some serious torture.
It was Lyra who spoke, however. "Hey! You don't get to talk to my mum like that! That's my job, and besides, you have no bloody idea what they went through because of that monster!"
"Really," Lucius asked silkily, turning a hard glare on Lyra. "I know my family went through enough to defect while the Lestranges, his favorites, did not."
"I assure you they went through more than you ever did at his hands," Lyra said venomously. She stood glaring at Lucius, hands on slender hips, and Bellatrix's heart swelled with pride. "He is the reason they couldn't raise me and had to leave me in Australia! He..." Here she paused, turning her head to her parents. "May I tell him?"
Bellatrix gave a small nod. "I was going to out of necessity, but I would enjoy hearing you do so instead," she said with a small amused smile. The story poured out of Lyra then. She told Lucius of how Voldemort had intended to kill Kreacher, and how the six of them attempted to take him down only to have Orion die instead.
She concluded with Voldemort's…'forgiveness.' Even hearing the story from her daughter's lips made Bellatrix shudder at the memory of Voldemort embracing the three of them, speaking of keeping his friends close and his enemies closer as he twisted their minds to obsessively, maniacally adore him.
"So, I think he was even less fond of them than he was of you, and I dare you to disagree," Lyra told Lucius. The stubborn set of her chin was very reminiscent of Rodolphus, whom Lucius never dared to argue with for long.
Bellatrix realized that her hands were clenched into fists at her sides, clutching the fabric of her skirt as she clung to her composure.
"I don't know what to say," Lucius said. His blank expression was difficult to read, and Bellatrix found that she didn't truly care what he thought on this particular matter.
"That's alright. I'd prefer you shut the hell up anyway," she drawled. "What I need for you to do is to promise not to follow her no matter what. She doesn't need more help."
"Delphini," Lucius asked and Bellatrix scowled darkly.
"Yes, genius! Who bloody else?"
"And what am I to do instead?" he demanded. "Stab her repeatedly as you did? As you're speaking of her as though she is alive and well, that doesn't seem to have worked!"
"We need to kill her with a weapon that contains a Basilisk fang because of the Horcrux." That word tasted no less foul the more times she spoke it.
"Sorry," Lucius said breezily. "We're fresh out of those at Malfoy Manor. What else?"
Bellatrix counted to three for patience before speaking again. "The Ministry is having weapons made up as fast as they can. I will speak to them on your account."
She felt a stab of guilt that she hadn't done so earlier. Truly, she did. So much had happened, though, and in truth, due to the more than disturbing nature of the memories Grindelwald had helped to restore, they'd been deep into their own issues. That sort of thing didn't allow much room for thinking of others.
"We should have checked in earlier… I am sorry, Lucius. I also honestly thought Regulus would have." She definitely planned to speak to her cousin on that matter the next bloody time she saw him. If anything had happened to Cissie… Bellatrix sighed before she could even finish the thought. If anything had happened to her sister, she would have herself to blame.
Lucius's lip curled. "He is a vampire now, Bellatrix, and thus a predator. Predators don't look after anyone but themselves."
"Ah," Bellatrix said, giving her brother-in-law a wide smile. "Now I see why he didn't consider coming here to check in. If you treated him as a predator rather than family, I doubt he felt very welcome."
Before Lucius could formulate a reply, Narcissa entered the library looking far more presentable. She wore a long green silk dress and low heels. Her blonde hair was pulled into a neat bun at the nape of her neck, and she wore sparkling emerald snake earrings that swung and caught the light as she moved.
As always, Bellatrix felt a bit rougher and more uncouth beside her delicate flower of a younger sister, though her black dress was just as elegant.
"I'm sorry," Narcissa said in a rush. "I'm afraid I was listening at the door for quite some time. I heard what the Dark Lord did, and then...I didn't know what to say so...I just…waited in the hall hoping that something would come to me, and...it didn't. Oh, Bella…I wish I'd done something when I noticed that you and Rod weren't quite right in nineteen seventy-nine!"
"You noticed?" Bellatrix hissed. "Mother and Father did not, so they had some sort of excuse, but you...actually noticed?"
"I didn't know what was wrong," Narcissa insisted, face twisted with regret and misery as she reached slender hands out to her sister. "I thought it was the deaths of Uncle Orion and Regulus. I thought it just made you harder...angrier… You never wanted to talk about it."
Bellatrix remembered Narcissa's tentative attempts to bring up the losses of their uncle and cousin during those early days. It had upset Bellatrix in ways she'd been unable to understand so she'd always cut the conversation short. She'd believed it was herself being uncomfortable with grief, but now she understood that there had been far more roiling under the surface.
"It's alright, Cissie," she said, reaching to take Narcissa's outstretched hands in her own. "I love you for noticing and trying. You couldn't have guessed what really happened." She sighed, knowing the truth of her words. No one could've helped them, dreadful as that truth was to contemplate.
"I could've looked harder, and perhaps noticed that something had been done to your minds," Narcissa persisted.
Bellatrix shook her head. "He was good. I'm sure he didn't make his work easy to detect. We are all here now, and we are all alright. Let's just go shopping for my daughter's clothes."
"I don't think so," Lucius huffed. "What about us?"
Rodolphus arched a brow. "You need clothes, Lucy?"
Narcissa gave her brother-in-law a look of reproachful disappointment but remained silent.
"If you don't want us working with Delphini, should she come asking, I need a Basilisk fang," Lucius replied tartly.