DRABBLE: "To and Fro" (Bellatrix)

[kelly_chambliss]

Here's my drabble from this year's hp_halloween. My recipient, donnaimmaculata, listed Aberforth, Fleur, Bellatrix, Minerva, and/or Remus as her characters of choice, asked for either horror or drama as the genre, and offered "cats, haunted house, masks" as her prompts.

Well, of course I was going to write something with Minerva and flirted for a moment with the notion of a Minerva/Aberforth pairing. But then I thought, "come on, it's Halloween. And I'm being offered 'Bellatrix' and 'horror' as options. Why am I even thinking twice about what to write?"

So I came up with an over-the-top, Gothic scenario, gave Bella her mad head, and let her run with it.

Hope you enjoy it as much as she did.

(Many thanks to the excellent magnetic_pole for beta-reading.)

The Shades guarding the Veil flutter uneasily as Bellatrix approaches.

Yet they do not stop her as she glides past them into the temporal realm. Indeed, they cannot stop her. Not tonight.

For tonight is Samhain, the one time that the Veil thins, and any spirit who wishes can pass through to spend a brief, breathing hour among the living.

But only Bellatrix has the power to bring one of the living back with her.

Back to death.

Her Lord taught her the secret, for she is the only one He really trusted. She is His. Always and forever.

It is for His sake that she breaches the Veil, seeks out His enemies. Why should they live when He is dead?

She likes to choose someone who is loved and needed. Someone whose passing causes pain.

As the Veil closes behind her, Bellatrix draws breath.

And lives.

She has not decided, yet, who will return with her.

Perhaps hateful old McGonagall. Perhaps her ungrateful coward of a nephew. Or perhaps she will seize one of the Potter spawn, leaving its father alive to mourn.

She relishes the possibilities.

Taking another breath, Bellatrix dons her mask and joins the Samhain revels.

(Note -- It's official: pairing/characters make all the difference in terms of response. My drabble for last year, which featured Minerva/Septima Vector, got all of five comments at the comm. This year's mad Bella got 22. Of course, there could be other factors at work, too; last year's fest, iirc, was more subdued overall.)