Saturday December 18
"CRUCIO!"
Lucius didn't bother to hold back his scream, nor did he attempt to withhold his thrashing, as a pain worse than any other seemingly lit every nerve in his body on fire.
It didn't matter if he looked like a fool screaming and thrashing on the floor, the Dark Lord would accept nothing else. It wasn't difficult to act as if this were the worst physical pain imaginable, for it was.
"You continue to disappoint me," the Dark Lord ended the curse. He stood over Lucius' knelt position on the floor before him and watched with a cold disinterest as Lucius struggled to righten himself.
"My Lord, please, I'm sorry." Lucius crawled forward to kiss the hems of the black robes before him.
"Will you?" Voldemort hissed, furious with Lucius' failure. "You have accomplished nothing Lucius! I expected better!"
As if it were Lucius' fault that even an Unspeakable was unable to retrieve a prophecy from the Hall of Mysteries. Lucius hadn't been surprised in the least when word was leaked that Bode, the employee he had imperiused to fetch a prophecy from the hall, was found foaming at the mouth and had to be taken to St Mungo's. To an extent, Lucius had counted on this outcome. It was an easy cover to continue hiding the fact that the prophecy was no longer in the Ministry, hadn't been in years.
Lucius had a part to play though, so he lowered himself to groveling and sniveling for another opportunity to prove himself worthy until the Dark Lord tired of hearing it.
"Go," he ordered Lucius. Lucius scrambled to his feet, backing away in a hunched bow until he rejoined the line with the others.
"It's a shame that your son isn't with us, perhaps he'd prove more useful than his father," Voldemort said in a mocking hiss, causing the others to laugh gleefully at Lucius' disfavor.
Which was abhorrent behavior considering many of them were residing within his walls. Eating his food, clothed by his coin.
Ingrates.
"I have no son," Lucius snarled. It hurt him to say it, tore at his very soul, but he had to play his part. He couldn't risk his family's safety, nor his own, by behaving in a manner of his own choosing.
It was fools who did such things. Fools and Harry Potter.
"What of you Bella?" Voldemort ran a single skeletal finger down his snakes body as he sat in the throne he'd had placed in the middle of Lucius' sitting room. "Do you have no nephew now? Or perhaps will you join your sister and family on Harry Potter's side?"
Bellatrix let out a disturbingly mad snarl and stepped closer to the Dark Lord. "Never!" she swore passionately. "I would kill them myself if it would make you happy my Lord."
Lucius thanked Mother Magic above that Narcissa was safely hidden out of the country, under the protection of the Italian Contessa and that Draco was under the much more formidable protection of Potter himself.
"You would, wouldn't you darling Bella?"
Bellatrix was all but quivering with joy as the Dark Lord continued speaking at her.
"Yes my Lord! Anything for you! I would kill anyone who opposes you!" Bellatrix cried.
The others were silent as the watched, not even Rodolphus dared lift his eyes from the floor.
"You would kill your sister for me? Your nephew? What of your cousin, Black?" Voldemort asked softly.
"I would bring you their heads my Lord!"
"Albus Dumbledore?"
"Nothing would make me happier!" Bellatrix said.
"Would you kill Harry Potter?" Voldemort asked her, his tone that of a curious child. "The 'Boy-Who-Lived'? Would you kill him Bella?"
"I'll do it now my Lord!"
Mistake.
Voldemort raised his wand lazily, "Crucio!"
Lucius didn't know why the Dark Lord bothered to curse Bellatrix. Ever since she had arrived at his home with the others, covered in filth and physically wasted away with shadows filling their eyes, she had seemingly embraced insanity to the point where this... this mad cackling was the only reaction to the same spell that had Lucius longing for death.
It was luck that Lucius had been betrothed to Narcissa, he would have ended his life years ago had he tied himself to Bellatrix in such a way.
"The boy is not to be touched," Voldemort hissed, releasing Bellatrix from his curse. "Your orders are simple— leave the boy alone and bring me all the information you can. Rowle! What have you discovered?"
Thorfinn Rowle jumped into an immediate bow as he addressed their Lord. "The boy was residing with muggle relatives before he was expelled in his second year my Lord."
"Why was he expelled?"
"Dumbledore believed he was responsible for numerous attacks on fellow students," Rowle said, no doubt quoting old articles from the Prophet. "After his expulsion, the muggles kicked him out. He was missing for quite some time before moving in with Snape."
"You are telling me nothing I could not have read about myself," Voldemort hissed. "Crucio!!"
It wasn't that the torturous curse lacked motivation, it just became rather commonplace when used in such abundance, Lucius mused to himself as Rowle's screams echoed around the opulent room. Potter would certainly never reuse the same curse so many times.
Lucius envied Barty and Severus. They had certainly gained choice positions within their alliance. Had Lucius made a poor decision by placing the diary in the Weasley girls possession? Certainly. He personally didn't believe that it was nearly as poor of a decision as entering Potter in the Triwizard Tournament in an effort to deliver him to the Dark Lord, but apparently that was more easily forgiven as Barty is more interesting to Potter than Lucius is. According to Severus anyway, who shared that information when Lucius had bemoaned his position during their brief meeting in August.
Lucius knew he should have adopted Potter when he had been a mere boy seeking temporary solace within this very manor summers ago.
"You have all disappointed me," Voldemort said once Rowle's whimpers tapered off. "I return, prepared to clear the world for you, and this is the best you can offer me? Regurgitated news stories and failure to procure the prophecy I need?"
Not a single person in the room was brave, or brainless, enough to respond. Voldemort sighed and hissed something to Nagini, who hissed back almost soothingly.
"The boy is an anomaly," Voldemort said softly. "He has gifts that any of you would die to have. He carries a strange, if much lesser, likeness to myself... What do I do with the boy?"
If Lucius, Potter, and the Dark Lord were all still alive by the next time Potter's alliance was meant to meet, Lucius would need to ask Potter what he has done to pique the Dark Lord's curiosity even further than it had been.
"It is no matter for now," Voldemort eventually said after a lengthy conversation with Nagini. "I'll capture Potter soon enough and discover his secrets," he decided. His cold red eyes flicked over the assembled Death Eaters once more. "Do we have any news on 'Dark Lord Barty'?" he sneered the name.
Lucius braced himself, knowing what was likely to come at the end of his report, but needing to say it regardless.
"My Lord," he bent over in a reverent bow as he addressed the madman before him. "I have heard whispers within the DMLE that believe Crouch Junior has went the same way as Nott Senior. Foster told me that many believe the boy is fabricating Crouch's actions to hide his crime."
And if Joan Foster was questioned by their Lord, she would repeat that exact sentiment. Unless someone managed to break his very strong imperio, a daunting task if he does say so himself.
Instead of angry, the Dark Lord looked thoughtful at this. "The boy is an anomaly..." he said again. "If Barty is not dead, then he has left us and will be killed along with the traitor Severus," he said with more icy determination. "If any of you see either of them— kill them. I want Potter unharmed, the others don't matter."
"Yes my Lord," the fourteen assembled Death Eaters replied with dutiful reverence.
Lucius might be concerned for Severus' safety if he didn't know the man could out duel any Wixen within this room, aside from the Dark Lord.
The scars Severus no doubt wore on his chest from June was a testament to that.
"Macnair, Travers, remain. I have a job for you," Voldemort said coolly, a blatant dismissal for the rest of them.
The others bowed deeply, murmuring praises, as they backed out of the sitting room hastily.
Except for Bellatrix, who lingered in the doorway, attempting to cloak herself in the shadows, until the Dark Lord gave her an icy look of contempt and she followed behind the others.
"Are we supposed to leave and go home or stay here?" Crabbe asked once they were far enough from the sitting room that his low grunt couldn't be heard.
The only thing Lucius desired less than inviting the others to dine with him was interpreting the Dark Lords dismissal incorrectly and facing his wrath.
"Come," he said curtly, attempting to maintain some dignity despite the circumstances. "We will have dinner together and await new orders."
It was unsightly, and an overall taxing task, to share his home and meals with the followers of the Dark Lord, but Lucius was hardly a man who couldn't play nice when needed.
Even if Bellatrix made it a truly ghastly experience.
The mad witch simply refused to keep her mouth closed. Throughout the few house-elves who remained within the manor (Narcissa always did have a soft spot for the creatures) Bellatrix ranted about Lucius' lack of finery, Lucius' lack of family, and Lucius' lack of honor.
As if they were not all things gone due to the madman whose boots she kisses so lavishly.
It was a task to simply turn the other cheek, but Lucius had done well up until she began disparaging Draco.
"Maybe I'll kill Cissy myself and you can have a chance to get a broodmare to give you a real heir," she cackled. "An heir who isn't some worthless, disgusting, traitor—"
"Perhaps I will kill you myself to give Rodolphus an opportunity for an heir untainted by your madness." Lucius dabbed his mouth with the linen napkin and raised his brow at his sister-in-law in a blatant challenge.
The others were silent, their clinking dinnerware and whispered conversations falling on the wayside as the waited for Bellatrix's attack.
Bellatrix's light grey eyes blazed as shadows fell over her face. Lucius gripped the head of his cane, prepared to pull his wand out in an instant. Then, just as quickly as the shadows appeared in her eyes, they disappeared. Bellatrix threw her head back, her tangled black curls swaying as she did, and she laughed.
"Aww, wittle Lucy has a spine after all!" she said in a wheedling and infantile tone. "I thought maybe Cissy took your backbone when she took your son."
"And I believed Azkaban took both your youth and what remained of your sanity, yet here we sit," Lucius drawled. "Do close your mouth Bella," he added with a sneer as she gaped at him.
Honestly. How someone as refined and regal as Narcissa had been raised in the same home as Bellatrix was a never-ending mystery to Lucius. The two sisters were as different in personality as they were the color of their hair.
Lucius awaited Bellatrix's retaliation, but she was distracted by Alecto's quiet snickering.
"What's so funny?" she demanded, boldly turning her back to Lucius as she glowered at Alecto.
"Nothin'," he leered.
Lucius would have preferred an all out duel to destroy his dining room over the ridiculous, and juvenile, bickering that broke out between the three Lestrange's and the two Carrow's.
Potter's alliance could nearly be considered noble company as compared to these dregs of ignorance that Lucius is forced to play host to.
He would give quite a bit of the gold within his vaults to trade positions with even Lupin. Surely even the werewolves Lupin cared for had better sense than to throw mashed turnips at one another.
The Dark Lord's army was disappointing indeed. Lucius tried to remember if it had been more refined before— before Potter caused the fall of the Dark Lord, before Lucius realigned himself with the boy, before his family was torn in half— certainly it must have been.
He would never have joined otherwise.
The group seemed to split off in fragments, disjointed bits of conversations reaching Lucius' ears as he pushed away his half-eaten meal.
He wondered how Narcissa was enjoying Italy. How Draco's fifth year was going. Did Narcissa know he mourned their forced separation? Did Draco believe his disinherited status was anything other than a ruse for the Dark Lord?
Lucius eyes roamed casually over those that he was sharing a table with and he grimaced lightly in obvious distaste.
Disturbed and disturbing were the only fitting describers for these Wixen. Although, Rookwood, Travers, and Yaxley were bearable in small doses.
"Are you allowed to share your mission?" Rookwood asked Macnair and Travers, pulling Lucius' attention to the plotting and whispering duo who had rejoined them partway through the meal.
"I guess so," Travers said slowly. He shared a look with Macnair, who grimaced and shrugged. "We're just taking Nagini to the Department of Mysteries. He didn't say if it's to do some recon on the area or if He thinks she might be able to get the prophecy."
Macnair had an expression of distaste as he stabbed harshly at his food, surprisingly not pleased with their mission.
"At least it's something easy, something you can't bugger up," Rookwood smirked, mirroring Lucius' thoughts.
"If it doesn't bloody eat us," Macnair muttered.
None of the others commented, save a scathing noise from Bellatrix. Lucius was relieved when the conversation moved to politics— a much less likely topic to result in their individual torture.
Although, Lucius was fairly certain that listening to the Lestrange brothers bicker over a decade old political bill regarding the security of Gringotts investments was a type of torture in itself.
Once the guests had gone, the Dark Lord retired away in what used to be Lucius and Narcissa's suite, and Bellatrix and the other recently released convicts had hidden away in their own rooms, Lucius laid in his sons bed and prayed for the first time in years.
Mother Magic, the maker of all of us, see me through this so that I may one day have my family back, my home back, my dignity back. And Mother Magic, kindly grant Harry Potter the wisdom he desperately requires to kill the Dark Lord soon.