Bad Romance

Chapter 18

Chapter 18: Don't Call Me Your Sweetheart

Something akin to wary hope flickered in Delphini's expression. "You reject joining me in making the wizarding world a utopia, but you want to be a family?"

Bellatrix nodded slowly. "It is just that we need time, and we think you need time to see what is already being accomplished. If you dislike the Dark Lord as well, perhaps we were all victims, and as such we should stick together."

Knowing that it was now or never, Bellatrix stepped forward and reached to embrace Delphini. The girl hesitated then with a shy laugh reached to embrace Bellatrix in return.

That was when Bella made her move, drawing the dagger from her belt at lightning speed and thrusting it into Delphini's chest while holding her waist with her free arm. Rodolphus struck then, hitting Delphini with a spell that had her stumbling backward with a pained cry tearing from her throat.

Bellatrix went with Delphini, her arm still clutching the girl's waist. She reached to withdraw the dagger from the girl's chest so that she could stab her again, to ensure the job was properly done. Delphini's head flung back, and she coughed, blood staining her lips as she struggled for air. The veil of mist previously covering her eyes had faded. Her eyes were blue as they met Bellatrix's, and her gaze held an amused challenge. As Bella watched, one hand moving to the hilt of her dagger, Delphini's gaze went from blue to red.

Sighing out a breath, she reached up a hand to touch Bella's cheek. Bellatrix yanked the dagger from her chest and plunged it in again.

"Bella... Sweetheart." The girl's voice was huskier now, and Bellatrix felt her hand freezing in place as dread and shock gripped her at the all too familiar tone.

"You wound me for the second time... Betrayal doesn't become you. Before Delphini you were the closest thing I had to a daughter, but children can be so unappreciative. You pretend to hate me, but I made you what you are... I made all three of you!" Delphini's head came up, and she gave Bellatrix a hard glare before casting her gaze to Rodolphus, then Rabastan.

"That dagger won't kill me, and that combustion spell you tried is so primitive, Rodolphus. It seems you haven't recovered from my cowing of you as well as you assumed."

"Don't call me your sweetheart," Bellatrix whispered. Though she knew that her dagger would not destroy a Horcrux, and that a Horcrux was obviously what spoke to her through Delphini's mouth, she stabbed her/him in the chest again. "Actually, don't call me at all! The girl who worshiped you as a god and was so honored to be personally trained is dead and buried because you were no god at all. You were, and are, just a pathetic lie. You are nothing! When I saw the way you treated loyal followers, I couldn't love you anymore. I already have a father. A god I did not have, but I am good without religion, as it turns out. All three of us are."

Rodolphus nodded and Rabastan agreed with a fervent, "Damn right!"

"I almost feel sorry for you," Bellatrix continued. "But then I think about Kreacher and Uncle Orion and it's just time for you to die. We're all so much happier without you sucking up all of our energy. We are free."

As Bellatrix spoke, the goblin and Acromantula Aurors were surrounding Delphini's body with webs and bindings. Surely the Ministry had some sort of Basilisk fang weapon at the ready, and they'd use it on her and it would be over, Bellatrix thought eagerly. Just let it be over! The sound of several Aurors Apparating in flooded her with sudden relief, and that was when she noticed how much she was shaking. Withdrawing the dagger once more, she stepped back from the bound body of Delphini and glanced around.

Valdez, Grindelwald, and his Zabini boy toy approached with wands drawn and several Aurors trailing them.

Delphini coughed blood again and smiled manically at Grindelwald. "I hate to bleed and run, but I must recover. Not today, Grindelwald." With a wink from one of her amused eyes, that were once more blue, she Apparated away, causing the island itself to shudder as more wards were broken that should have been, by all rights, impenetrable.

"Well, that was dangerous of her," Grindelwald complained. "How the hell did she break through all those wards anyway?"

"I've never seen power like that," Romeo muttered, looking ill as well as dazed.

"It isn't just her amount of power...it's the way it feels," Grindelwald said, frowning and looking both unsettled and disgruntled.

Romeo nodded. "Are we speaking of the crazy part or the 'what the hell is she' part where it feels like several different types of magic at once?"

Grindelwald smirked and nodded. "Yes, exactly."

"I need that knife, at least for now, Mrs. Lestrange," Blaise Zabini spoke up, ice blue eyes flashing eagerly. That was the most animated Bellatrix had ever seen him, so it was...almost interesting.

"Are you giving me a replacement," she asked, extending it hilt first to the tall dark wizard. "As you can see, it comes in handy when you want to attack someone without alerting them to it via flying hexes."

"I won't be keeping it for long, and if plans change, we'll have a replacement to you by the morning," Blaise told her. "I just need her blood from the blade. Good job for getting that, by the way! It shall be very helpful for tracking spells as well as magical attacks we can perform on her now from a distance."

Grindelwald stepped closer to Zabini, meeting his gaze in an intimate glance as he smiled. "Sharp thinking, my boy," he praised. "Did I not tell you that you would be a natural at war tactics?"

"Well, I'm glad my failed attack accomplished something other than having the Dark Lord pissed off at us," Bellatrix said. "In case you missed it, he was talking to us through her. He claimed that my dagger wouldn't kill him, so obviously this is Horcrux number eight."

"Eight unless he had something set up for each Horcrux to jump to another predesignated item if its host item was destroyed," Blaise said. "That's something Kereston suggested, and we're all hoping that it isn't possible."

"We really are," Romeo murmured with a slight cringe.

"How did you all know that she was here anyway," Bellatrix asked, curious.

"I sent Rhadamanthus to the Ministry for help," Rodolphus said, turning to nod to the Acromantula who stood at his side. "I was hoping you could hear me whispering to you. I hardly dared make a sound, so I was betting on excellent spider hearing, and you did not let me down, my man," he praised the giant spider whose mouth opened in what Bellatrix could only guess was a smile...unless he was hungry, of course.

"I could tell by the way she tore an opening in those wards that even with our skills we could not take her alone," Rodolphus went on, and Romeo nodded.

"Good bloody call. I still can't wrap my mind around what I saw of her abilities, so it's no fault of yours. We'll probably need an army to take her."

"Not just any army, but a specialized one," Grindelwald said grimly.

"Say, wasn't your name Rhdar or something like that," one of the goblin Aurors asked Rodolphus's favorite Acromantula.

The spider waved a leg negligently in the air. "It doesn't matter," he rasped. "I like Rhadamanthus better anyway. It sounds impressive."

"My apologies," Rodolphus said, chagrined. "I truly thought that was your name."

The spider opened its mouth again in that way that made Bellatrix hope it wasn't hungry. "It is now."