Harry Potter and the Wondrous Blood Ri

Chapter Nineteen

Regina was walking on to the train for her holiday from Hogwarts. Things had gone exactly as she had hoped. She was receiving O's in every subject. Her greatest leaps forward appeared to be in the area of the Dark Arts. She not only got O's in every essay and test, she was finding herself a natural at the Dark Arts. Professor Snape had told her at the last Intermediate class that next year he would move her to the advanced class.

During the last class he also related to her.

"You will be spending a week with a Dark Arts expert," he said. "When you arrive home, pack your Junior Death Eater robes, say goodbye to your grandmother. You will feel a summons in your bracelet. Follow it."

Regina was nervous because that night she would begin spending with her Dark Arts mentor for the break. The trip back was quiet – each of the girls around her had plans. Jillian was nervously preparing for the dangerous trip back to the Scottish Highlands with her brother. She still was not sure how her parents felt about things. Gale spent the last Hogsmeade Saturday with Theodore Nott, but was strangely quiet. Azure – who normally could get everyone talking – must have been thinking about the Zabini Holiday plans.

Regina slept fitfully during the long train ride back and forth until they made it to King's Cross. She recognized her Auror escort and followed him through the Floo line and back to Fawley Manor. She hugged her grandmother tightly – but she was in bed and was deathly ill. She already couldn't speak. She apologized to Niles because she had been summoned by the Minister for future training.

At last she stood in her room. She followed carefully the instructions she had been given. She cleansed herself of all her make-up and perfumes. She wore her hair simply in a ponytail to the back. She put on her black Death Eater robe and mask. She was to bring nothing else, nor was she to wear anything else.

At the time Professor Snape had said it would happen, she feels a slight tickle on the arm with her bracelet. It is barely noticeable at first, just an itch. But the sensation grows greater and greater, and soon Regina feels pain. Regina closes her eyes, concentrating until she hears it slashing into her mind. Crazy brown eyes look but they don't seem to focus. "Come to me" she hears.

Regina reaches out, knowing that the pain will disappear the moment she follows and then she feels the pop and her agony ends.

Regina quickly falls to the ground, knowing that she is in the presence of one of the Inner Circle. She doesn't look up immediately.

A well-manicured hand with nails dark black reaches down into her vision, takes off her mask and lets it drop with a small sound to the floor. She pulls back the hood with two hands.

"Look at me, Princess," she hears the feminine voice. Regina looks up into the haunted eyes of Bellatrix Lestrange. She fights with all her intelligence and tries to hold her confidence. Then the Dark Witch touches her cheek. She loses her fear and loses herself to the touch of the Dark Witch.

"Happy Yule, Princess –" she says. "I'm your Yuletide present."

+ + + +

It was Regina's first morning, she had arrived wearing nothing as Bellatrix had commanded. The room around her was dark as she carefully walked in. Then, suddenly she felt a flash and quickly she fell to her knees. Pain –

Pain was Regina's world. Her body and her mind screamed pain. Then it ceased.

"The Crucio –" said a voice in the dark.

"It inflicts beautiful lovely pain." It intoned with love and desire. "But it is one of the Dark Arts. For a practitioner of the Dark Arts that pain doesn't have to be pain."