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[alt_hydra]

Something strange happened last night.

After we finished at Mould-on-the-Wold, Mummy took me to Buckingham. She was cross with me for how I handled Harry, on the journals. She wanted me to "diffuse his words," but when she looked back and read what I wrote, she didn't think it was good enough. So she wanted me to explain my failure to the Lord Protector himself. I think she hoped that he would Cruciate me, or maybe she was just hoping that he would terrify me.

When we were finally brought in to see him, I bowed down as one is supposed to, and Mummy ordered me to tell him everything that happened. So I did, and he wasn't really even looking at us. I'm not sure where his mind was, but it only seemed to be half there. He asked Mummy why he was needed for "this matter," and she said that she only wanted to be sure that he was informed of my poor showing. He was quiet for a long moment, and I just stared at the floor, waiting for something to happen. But then I heard Mummy screaming - he was Cruciating her. When he finished he said "Bellatrix, of all my servants, I can usually count on you to know that if you want a job done a certain way, then you must do it yourself. Any failure of your daughter's is therefore your own."

She fell down to her knees and started wailing and begging for his forgiveness.

It was - I've never heard her be like that. She almost sounded like a real person. And that would have been the strangest thing of all, except then he took a few steps toward me and looked me over very close. I didn't avert my eyes. Maybe I should have, but his face was so grotesque I couldn't help but look right at it. And then he told me to Cruciate my mother.

She went completely silent. Maybe she thought he wasn't being serious, or was just testing me. I didn't wait to find out. I just Cruciated her, like he wanted. Three times. It wasn't really as satisfying as you might imagine.

And I really don't know what any of it means. Maybe he was in a bad mood from everything that had gone wrong and wanted to take it out on her. Maybe he didn't think what I wrote to Harry was important, and he was cross that she bothered him. Maybe it doesn't mean anything.

But it was still very strange.

Comments

[alt_draco]

Strange? Bloody nightshade, but that's putting it lightly.

Especially the part about your mother crying. Is that what wailing is? Or is wailing more like "loud, incomprehensible noise?" Because I've been polyjuiced as your mother in the last week and I'm pretty sure she doesn't have functioning tear-ducts.

Can't believe you got to cruciate her.

I suppose this won't really endear you to her more, though, will it?

[alt_hydra]

You cried while you were polyjuiced as my mother?

I suppose I can't blame you.

[alt_nymphadora]

Strange doesn't sound like the half of it.

Glad you weren't the one being taught the lesson to, though. At least not directly.

[alt_kingsley]

I wonder.

Could it be, that as we're destroying the horcruxes, there's, well, less and less of him there?

It could be it's also make him even more unpredictable. What's left of his soul, as we destroy it, piece by piece, is becoming more unstable.

Isn't that a thing to contemplate.

Thanks for the report, Hydra. And once again, thank you for doing what you have to do to be in a position to give us critical intel like this.

[alt_hydra]

Weren't those pieces of his soul already gone, in a manner of speaking? I'm not sure the absence would register, then, but I don't know the finer details of how horcruxes work.

[alt_hydra]

Guess I got lucky. I'll take it

[alt_justin]

Hydra,

I've been thinking about this since you told me last night. We know he often grows tired or paranoid of his favourites. One can hope that your mother's charms are wearing thin, what. Or perhaps it's his fancy to see if he can pit you against her, but the more troubling question is whether he expects you to best her, if it comes down to an open struggle for dominance.

I suspect it's more likely that he realised she was attempting to use him to get at you. I can't think he's ever the sort who takes well to being manipulated. Not when he's accustomed to being the one manipulating others.

-Justin

Private Message to Hydra

[alt_justin]

And thank you, by the way. I don't remember you leaving, which means I must have fallen asleep. Your story made for some interesting dreams but at least I was able to have them, and not--not the other ones.

I miss you already. Never enough time, love.

-J

Re: Private Message to Hydra

[alt_hydra]

Yes, you were deep asleep when I left. I made sure of it. I almost expected my mother to be at St James when I returned, and I wondered what would happen. But she wasn't there - I suppose she stayed at Buckingham to grovel.

You know, I thought of something last night. I don't think I'll come back to Hogwarts next year. Not with you finished with NEWTS and moved on.

Re: Private Message to Hydra

[alt_justin]

If you weren't there, and if I didn't have Professor Dolohov to spy on, what, I shouldn't have come back today, either.

N.E.W.T.s. Dash it, you had to mention them. I've not even thought of them in days. They're only three weeks away--I can't imagine how one will be able to concentrate on them with so many more important concerns.

But no, particularly if you're simply going to read minds and earn all O's, then NEWTs are probably a moot point for you. Are you sure, though? I expect it will simply mean Auror Crouch will expect you at his side all the time.

-J

[alt_hydra]

I'm really not interested in dominating my mother, so I really hope that isn't his idea of entertainment.

She's usually good at avoiding the mistakes that others tend to make around him, but maybe her anger at me clouded her judgment.