Bad Romance

Chapter 32

Chapter 32: We're Survivors Who Keep on Surviving!

Everyone was quite drunk and the hour was very late by the time they all headed up to bed. Bellatrix kissed Lyra's cheek as she passed her in the upstairs hall. "Goodnight," she said, and Lyra smiled.

"Good night, Mum."

The unexpected words caused Bella's breath to catch in her throat. Lyra had yet to refer to her parents by anything other than 'you' when addressing them until that moment.

Rod paused with a hand on their bedroom door and turned back to Lyra. "Night, brat," he said with a grin, and Lyra gave a little wave as she turned down the hall to her own room.

"Night, crazy Dad."

"Well that's progress," Rodolphus said cheerfully as Bellatrix entered their bedroom behind him and closed the door.

"It would appear so," she agreed, a small smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. "We'll just have to see how she treats us when she's sober tomorrow."

"True," Rod agreed as Bellatrix crossed the room toward the bed where he sat, tugging off his pants.

"Seeing that memory where he said that to me was...so surreal. It was coming from such a different perspective." Bellatrix knew there was no need for her to clarify which memory she was referring to. Even then she, Rod, and Rabastan had been confused. Their lord was angry with the Malfoys, sure, but the three of them were always his most loyal and steadfast. Including them in his disapproval had stung and perplexed them.

"Now that we remember everything, having that knowledge, knowing what he was really saying to me..." She shuddered. "It's so horrifying! I wish this would all stop feeling so dreadful," she confessed.

Now that they were no longer distracted by their drinking game, the revolting horror was creeping up on her mind again and gripping it in a vice. The Dark Lord's cold sarcastic words echoed over and over in her mind. "That means a great deal, Bellatrix, from you." What he was really saying was so evident now, even in his sarcastic tones. He was really saying, "I remember, Bellatrix, you were one of those who attempted to kill me once, and I richly enjoy making you pay for that."

He kept them alive as a reminder to himself, but he obviously relished the fact that he had made them his puppets. A horrifying and never-ending punishment. An eternal silent scream!

"I wish you would stop," Rodolphus said. His harsh tone was almost like a slap, and Bellatrix blinked at him in shock.

"What?"

"You heard me, Bella! I wish you would stop. He's gone, and we survived. It's no longer him doing this to us. It's you with your refusal to just drop it. If we don't let it go it will break us, Bella. Why can't you when we've come this far?" Rodolphus demanded. "I truly do not understand!"

Bellatrix shook her head, struggling to understand how Rod thought this was her causing the problem. "But he isn't dead. He's in her."

"A tiny twisted fraction of him is in her, and eventually, with Grindelwald leading us to victory, we'll kill that too," Rod said firmly. The confidence in his voice made Bellatrix smile, though the cold feeling in her stomach, at what she perceived as him unfairly blaming her for being justifiably upset, persisted.

"Do you truly believe he can die, though," she asked darkly, wanting to hope and not sure that she could. "He hasn't thus far, after all."

"He has," Rod disagreed. "Just a little at a time. Now there is only very little left, so this third time should be a charm."

Bellatrix remained silent while Rodolphus continued to undress for bed. She hoped he was right, wanted him to be right, and hated that she still feared that he was somehow wrong. "What if he somehow gets at us again," she asked, voice coming out smaller than she liked through a throat constricted by fear and anxiety. "How does it not get to you, Rod?" she demanded.

Even as she asked the question, Bellatrix recalled him abruptly rising from the table after they'd all viewed that memory tonight. He had been rattled, yes, and yet he could just shake it off where she obviously could not.

"It gets to me and you know it," Rodolphus snapped. "I just can't allow it to sweep me away. I won't give him that, and you'd better not either."

"I don't know if I know how not to when it grips me," Bellatrix admitted numbly.

"It's simple," Rodolphus said, rising from the bed. "Let. It. Go!" He reached out and drew her hard against him, roughly covering her mouth with his in a way that caused her to groan against his lips with need. The kiss deepened, and her slender body arched against his far larger one. As his touch always did, it made unpleasant memories retreat. Nothing mattered but the feel of their bodies together.

With a growl, he tore her dress down the front, exposing her breasts then lowering his face to them, covering them with nips and kisses.

"Oh Rod, yes," she breathed, head thrown back as her body basked in his touches. The feel of his warm mouth and sharp teeth combined with the nearly rough grip of his hands had her so close already. Hurriedly, she relieved herself of the rest of her clothes and sighed in contentment as he pushed her back on the bed and loomed over her.

When he thrust inside, Bellatrix's body arched up to meet his. "Let. Go," he demanded. Grasping both of her wrists in one hand, Rodolphus stretched them above her head, holding them there as he drove into her again, and again. Gasping in pleasure she bit hard at his lower lip. His eyes glazed with primal lust, and he picked up the pace, drawing nearly tortured sounds of ecstasy from them both.

Twisting one hand from his grip, Bellatrix raked her nails down his back, drawing blood.

"Gods, yes," Rodolphus encouraged. "More!"

She swept her hand across his back again, crying out in pleasure as he thrust into her hard enough to cause the headboard of the bed to slam into the wall. "Alright," she gasped. "I'll let it go." She didn't know exactly how, but she would because he was right, and she knew it.

"Good," he growled, and the world exploded. Bellatrix's scream of pleasure thundered through her own ears as she clung to Rodolphus, riding out the waves.

They slept deeply and woke to the sound of an insistent tapping on their bedroom door. Bellatrix's eyes fluttered open only to discover that the light was far too bright and slammed themselves closed again. She didn't quite have a hangover, but she was perilously close. Her eyes threatened to bring on a headache if she made them look at any more god damned light for several more hours. More sleep...that was it... they needed more sleep.

"Yeah, what is it," Rodolphus asked groggily.

"Aurors are downstairs to check on you. They were worried when you didn't show for work." The voice was a near growl, belonging, without a doubt, to Rodolphus's spider. Bellatrix sighed, then her lips twitched up into a small smile.

"Normally, if Aurors were at our door, it would mean we had a fight on our hands," she muttered drily. "Having them basically on our side is going to take a lot of bloody getting used to."

"For real," Rodolphus drawled his agreement. "Tell them we'll be into the Ministry in an hour," he called to the spider. There was no reply, so Bellatrix took that to mean the spider had gone off to deliver the message.

The last thing she wanted to do was be in to the Ministry in an hour, but she knew Rod was right to be responsible. Kereston would bitch that they couldn't afford to take drunk days while Delphini was quite likely staying sober and busy, after all.