Family Matters (Bellatrix Black)

Valerian scowled at Bellatrix as she covered herself up and yelled at him about the time; “Yes, it is Seven Forty Three in the morning; you should have been up Forty three minutes ago to begin your daily quidditch workout. That is what a real leader would be doing.” His voice was clipped, matching her own tone. Valerian didn’t have time to deal with her snobbish attitude this morning, he wanted answers and he wasn’t leaving until he got them; “And you don’t need to cover yourself, I assure I have no interest in your body. I find your bloodline to be appauling; I see way too much of your Father in you to find you even remotely attractive.” He shot her an arrogant smirk, “Now that we’ve established that neither one of us like the other, can we proceed to more important matters?”

Valerian crossed the room and sat down on the lounge chair and looked pointedly at Bellatrix; it was the preverbal ‘if looks could kill’ death stare that he had perfected during his time in the ministry. He didn’t understand what Zeke saw in Bellatrix; granted she was pretty, but nowhere near as beautiful as some of the other girls that Valerian had offered to Zeke. Zeke could have been betrothed to any number of pure-bred witches by now; some twice as beautiful as Bellatrix. But Zeke had refused them all… for Bellatrix? “I’ll be honest with you; I don’t know what my son sees in you.” He rolled his eyes and let out a sigh, “But regardless, he’s obviously madly in love with you; otherwise he wouldn’t have turned down so many other offers.” He once again examined the girl in front of him and shrugged his shoulders. “Are you in love with my son, Bellatrix?” he asked rather bluntly, “And please, be aware that I have studied legilimency under the direct tutelage of the Dark Lord, so I will know if you’re lying.”

Valerian looked around the room at all of the pictures, they were already confirming his assumption that Bellatrix was in fact, in love with Zeke. But regardless, that didn’t change what was happening. Valerian needed to know why Zeke was doing what he was; Valerian knew Morgana personally, and he knew how dangerous she was. If Zeke was training with her… it wasn’t for anything good, especially if the rumors that Valerian had heard were true, if Zeke was really going to pledge his undying loyalty to the Dark Lord, “More importantly Bellatrix… Can you please explain to me, why my son is set to receive his dark mark next week?”

Valerian shook his head at Bellatrix as she tried to snap back at him; “Listen little Ms. Black; you need to learn this quickly, you are entering a world where your smart mouth can and will get you killed.” Valerian voice was stern and serious, he wasn’t trying to threaten Bellatrix; he was warning her, letting her know that other people would not tolerate her back-talk. “This is a world where you’re Father, cowers like a bloody first year. So please, do not get yourself killed; I’m sure that would be most upsetting to my son.” His voice was nonchalant, despite the fact that he had more or less just told Bellatrix that he did not care one way or the other if she got herself killed. “But Yes, I am high up on the ’food chain’ right now, because I am useful to the Dark Lord. Do not let your mind get filled with those pathetic fantasies…” Valerian stop himself short, he wanted to warn Bellatrix and tell her that the Dark Lord was using her sick love obsession with him against her. But Valerian knew how powerful the Dark Lord was, he knew that the Dark Lord read all of his student’s minds during each session; Bellatrix’s mind would betray her and the Dark Lord would come after Valerian if he warned her about him. “There are multiple sections in our army Bellatrix, the Dark Lord has a very intelligent plan and each section is independent; those in other sections do not know who belongs to the other sections; that way if one group gets exposed the whole army is not brought down. You may not repeat any of this, and you will not think about it during your sessions.Is that clear?” Valerian was hoping that his sharing of information would go over as a peace offering and show Bellatrix that he was not here to fight. ’Tit for tat’ Valerian thought to himself, this was just another political game; something he did all day, every day. He would find a way to get Bellatrix to help him, he would find a way to win her loyalty.

Valerian’s temper got the best of him however, as she told him to check his facts, ”Check my facts? Are you a bloody idiot. Do you think I would have come to you if my facts were not one-hundred percent accurate?” He practically growled back at her, “Do you think that I enjoy coming into little school girls bedrooms at the crack of dawn and waking them out of bed when they’re barely dressed? No. I assure you I would much rather still be in bed with my beautiful wife right now, however, I have responsibilities as a Father to protect my son.” Valerian was seething at this stupid little girl, she thought that she knew how this world worked simply because she had been granted a couple training sessions with the Dark Lord, completely unaware of the fact that as soon as she was marked she would become just another foot solider that the Dark Lord had no concern for. “But so you know, I got my facts directly from the Dark Lord himself; Zeke has been training with a woman named Morgana; she owns the quill shop that you’ve been training at. She’s a rather lethal witch, capable of brutal hexes that you can’t even begin to imagine. Zeke has earned his DARK MARK from his training with her, can you possibly even grasp what that means? It means he is going to be a Death Eater. He’s going to be branded… for life.”

Valerian never took his eyes off of her, not even when she stopped to examine her nails; it wasn’t until he watched her pull her knees up to her chest that he finally looked away; dropping his head and shaking it side to side. Because in that moment he saw just how young and fragile Bellatrix was; she was no solider, she was not prepared to go to war. And for the first time, Valerian began to doubt the Dark Lord. “Bellatrix, I’m not trying to patronize you.” He said with his face still pointed towards the floor; he looked back up at her with the faintest hint of a smile, “I’m trying to explain to you, that you are nothing to us. These foot soldiers that he’s training her, are expendable. Granted, he’d be upset if we were to kill you… but he would not kill us. However, if you dared to raise your wand at one of us… he’d strike you down before you could think of the incantation.” Valerian had witnessed this personally, he’d seen the Dark Lord strike someone down and not even miss a syllable.

“No; I will not. Not until you get it through your little head exactly what you are getting yourself involved with here.” Valerian snapped at him, “Your Father, the man that you fear most in the world, is nothing more than a sniveling little twit during our meetings. Afraid to say anything at all in fear of being punished by the Dark Lord.” Valerian didn’t understand why Bellatrix couldn’t get it through her thick skull that she was dealing with something especially dangerous, and that she was vastly out of her element.

Valerian could hear her thoughts, he could see all of the Fantasies that she was reliving with the Dark Lord; he could feel her emotions of lust towards the Dark Lord. He shook his head and rolled his eyes, knowing that there was no way for him to convince her otherwise without risking harm to himself; The Dark Lord would already be upset when he found out that Valerian was upset about Zeke becoming a Death Eater. Her outburst about the Dark Lord almost made Valerian nauseous; “Yes, he’s brilliant.” The plan is flawless, even down to the part of him using a student army to overthrow Dumbledore; because Dumbledore wouldn’t be able to harm them. He finished silently in his head. He listened to her response and then heard her call him a ”twat” in her head. He scowled at her, “I would also advise you not to call me a ‘twat’; ever again, Ms. Black.”

PROUD?!? Did she think this was a matter of pride? Valerian stood up quickly, his temper completely gone at this point, “Do not begin to talk to me about needing to be proud of my son, you worthless imbecile!” Valerian was shouting at this point, almost blind with rage, “I’ve pushed him to be great, Not to go off and get himself killed. He’s worth something Bellatrix, he’s not just a useless foot soldier.” He continued to snarl at her, “I pushed him so that he would have a career, so that he would have options. You know, so his place in life wouldn’t hinge on the fact that he’s marrying into a wealthy family. My son is going to be more than just a lowly house-wife for the Lestrange family.” He knew it was low, but at this point Valerian didn’t care, Bellatrix was ignorant; she needed to open her eyes. “People are going to DIE. Is that what you want? Do you want to see Zeke dead?” Valerian felt himself pull his wand, he was seething at this point, his eyes stayed locked on Bellatrix. He wanted to hex her into oblivion. “If you cared about him, you would be more concerned.”

Valerian scoffed at Bellatrix as she talked about Zeke still being great, “My son was bred to be a General, not some lowly private!” his voice was filled with resentment, he knew that somehow, someway; Bellatrix was responsible for this. Zeke wouldn’t make a stupid decision like this. This was foolish; and Valerian knew that love will make you do foolish things. It had caused Valerian to isolate himself from his entire family for years because they had not accepted Astrid. Was that what Zeke was doing? Was he isolating himself from Valerian because he thought that Valerian didn’t approve of Bellatrix? Valerian had gone to Cygnus time and time again, trying to convince Cygnus to break off the Betrothal with the Lestranges, offering him double what they had. But, Cygnus still had a distaste for Valerian that had dated back to their school days. Valerian’s attention was snapped back to Bellatrix as she tried to threaten him by telling the Dark Lord what he thought about his foot soldiers. Valerian knew that if she actually did that, Astrid was dead. If the Dark Lord questioned his loyalty for a fraction of a second, he would change from reward to punishment. He would kill Astrid to prove to Valerian that he owned him now; and Valerian could not, and would not, allow that. Valerian did what he did best, he lied. He laughed at Bellatrix, not just a chuckle but an actual laugh. “You sniveling twit. Are you going to run and tattle on me? Please, go ahead; He stayed at the quill shop last night with Morgana, they’re in the back room having breakfast by now, discussing the student-army.” That was a lie as well, The Dark Lord had left with Morgana on a mission that Valerian was not privy to know about. However, this way he could wait and see if Bellatrix actually was trying to get Valerian out of the way. Which if she did… Valerian would of course have to handle the situation. Zeke would get over it. “Who do you think it is that called you a bunch of worthless foot-soldiers in the first place? Why do you think that the world’s most brilliant wizard would use a bunch of lowly students? Because you’re disposable, gullible and most importantly, replaceable. You mean nothing to him.” That part, was true. Valerian was trying to cut deep enough to free Bellatrix from her obsession with the Dark Lord.

Valerian laughed at Bellatrix again, this time it wasn’t fake. “Are you trying to threaten me? Because I assure you… I’m not the person you need to worry about. I’m close with the Dark Lord, but I’m far from his right hand man… If I were you, I’d be concerned about Morgana. I’ve never seen the Dark Lord so fascinated by a female before.” Valerian knew that he was playing up to Bellatrix’s jealousy, but he was hoping that if Bellatrix shot her mouth off to Morgana, that Morgana would solve the Bellatrix problem for him.

Valerian felt a growl grow in the back of this throat, “Do not talk to me about what my son wants. I know full well what he wants, but I also know what’s best for him.” Valerian glared at Bellatrix, furious with her for talking about Zeke as if she knew him better than he did. ”What my son wants, he cannot have. It’s best that he learn that sooner rather than later; before he messes up his entire life chasing this fantasy that he can have a woman that doesn’t even want him.” Valerian had not intended to say that last part but it had come out just the same. “I know my son, and I know he is doing this to try to prove to you that he can be just like your little savage Rodolphus. But my son is better than the Lestranges, you may not see that and maybe you’re too stupid to ever see it; but I’m not going to sit back and watch him degrade himself just so he can prove to you that he’s worth your affection.”