Chapter 20.

6:47 pm, June 27th, 1993

The Faithful Servant

Bellatrix Black was shaking all over herself when she trigger the portkey.

-Oh, Merlin, my Lord must be so displeased. Little Bella has lost the track of time. Little Bella is so late.

A month or so after her Lord retrieved her from Azkaban, Bellatrix couldn't quite remember the date back then, the snake animagus that had accompanied her Lord came to the secret hiding place. He said her Lord might need little Bella's left arm for a ritual to return to his true body. Bellatrix was so happy that she was again useful for her Lord, and she cut off her left arm without any hesitation. Actually, she didn't even feel any pain, because her Lord also ordered the snake animagus to move her Dark Mark to her breast, right above where her heart was. With each heartbeat, Bellatrix felt her Lord was with her. And her Lord also said that she should practice magic as hard as she could, and he might need her skills later as well.

Bellatrix was beyond herself as she thought of the possibility that her Lord might need her skills someday. She obeyed all the orders from the healer woman Crystal Camblebunker, who was sent to heal her by her Lord, so that she could be stronger when the time came. And Bellatrix practiced magic as hard as she could.

Even within her disoriented and fragmented memories, Bellatrix could still clearly remember that special date, June 13th, 1992. That morning, the snake animagus man, Jeremy Jaffe, came again. This time, that man ordered her healer to go with him, and gave Bellatrix some very important missions. Bellatrix was given a pouch and a set of instructions that she could only look at if her Dark Mark was not dark again within the next twenty-four hours.

Since Jeremy Jaffe and her healer left, Bellatrix had been watching her Dark Mark the whole day. The sun rose to its full height, and fell. The Dark Mark did not change. The moon rose, and rose. As the moon got to around its highest point, the Dark Mark suddenly turned black. Bellatrix almost couldn't believe her own eyes.

-My Lord is back! He is back! In his true body!

Bellatrix cried with happiness and joy, she danced under the moon, all the time watching her beautiful Dark Mark jumping up and down on her breast. She wanted to shoot a Morsmordre to the sky to tell the world that her Lord was back, but she was previously instructed to lay low by her Lord, so she hid her joy to herself.

However, Bellatrix's joy didn't last long. Her Mark suddenly flared up, as if burning through her soul and entire body.

-Oh, my Lord must be so angry at useless Little Bella. Does he want me to Crucio myself?

Just as Bellatrix was about to Crucio herself, some memory that she tried to forget emerged: that horrible Halloween night. All of a sudden, her Lord disappeared without a trace or message.

-No, Bella, you can't think that. It must be…

The pain above her heart subdued, and the color of the Dark Mark receded to light grey.

Bellatrix wanted to Crucio someone, she wanted to Crucio herself. She couldn't believe this, she couldn't accept this!

It was only that her Lord's order this morning that kept Bellatrix from running out to look for her Lord.

-Maybe, maybe my Lord will come back again. He told Little Bella to wait for twenty-four hours.

Bellatrix waited, and waited.

Tears ran dry. Wails became inaudible whispers.

The twenty-four hour mark passed. Her Dark Mark was still grey.

With trembling hands, Bellatrix opened the pouch she got one day ago. In the pouch, there was a note written in her Lord's handwriting, and several twigs. On that note, Bellatrix was instructed to trigger the portkey in the shape of green twig in her pouch in one year's time if she was not instructed otherwise. She should remain in the current place unless it was found by someone, in which case Bellatrix was not to fight. Instead, she should trigger a random twigs in any other color but green, and hide there instead. Food, water and potions for one year's use had been prepared for her in all locations. And Bellatrix should also read the Daily Prophet delivered to her hiding place, so she could hide herself better in case all locations had been found by someone.

Bellatrix did as she was instructed. She ate food, drank potions, and read the Daily Prophet that somehow appeared at her doorstep every morning without an owl.

However, without the healer woman, Bellatrix had began to lose the track of time, or even herself. She sometimes forgot to drink her potions in time, and ended up drank multiple bottles at the same time when she remembered, but that only seemed to make things worse.

Bellatrix tried to read the Daily Prophet every day, but she began to lose the grasps on the meanings of the words. Bellatrix remembered the paper had run long stories on how her Lord attempted to gain omnipotence by the sacrifice of all Death Eaters, how the mudblood girl - Granger or something - spoiled the whole plan, and how David Monroe might also be involved. Bellatrix didn't believe a single word in it. How could her Lord be defeated by a mudblood girl, or the David Monroe guy who had only created some minor troubles for her Lord?

There was also something else on the Daily Prophet that had caught Bellatrix's attention. It was about the return of Narcissa. Bellatrix didn't have much memory of her youngest sister, except the anguish and anger she felt when she heard Narcissa was burnt alive in her own bedroom. She wanted to kill Dumbledore for it, she wanted to kill the useless ponce Lucius Malfoy for it, but her Lord had forbidden all revenges. Bellatrix couldn't remember much beyond that, which meant other memories about Narcissa were happy ones. Now, all Bellatrix had was the newspaper, where a beautiful woman smiled beside a blond boy whose face looked too much a resemblance of his useless and treacherous father.

On a later paper, the sister that Bellatrix didn't really remember she had was caught to meet Lesath Lestrange in Mary's Place. And that was a name that Bellatrix didn't quite remember, either. Bellatrix remembered the horror and disgust she felt when she knew she was impregnated by either one of the Lestrange brothers, how she wanted to get rid of the thing in her belly, and how she was ordered by her Lord to give birth to the baby. Narcissa had hugged her, brought her things when she was pregnant, and cried, maybe? Oh, she remembered. She had berated Narcissa for her weakness, because if her Lord wanted her to have the baby, Little Bella was going to do that, and it was not Narcissa's place to insinuate that Little Bella should at least get married. As for the childbirth, and whatever happened around the child afterwards, Bellatrix couldn't recall. So there might be some happy memories there.

And there were all that news on the Stone, and the Hospital. They said that the mudblood girl killed all the dementors in Azkaban, and a hospital with some fancy name, which everyone just call it the Hospital, was built there. The healing power of the Stone was used to heal everyone from old age and disease. The place of desperation now became a place of hope and life. But there were rumors that the real location of the Hospital was not in Azkaban, but in Hogwarts, or in a sealed chamber in the Department of Mysteries set up by Merlin himself, or in some other secret locations, protected by some ancient wards.

Bellatrix knew her Lord would want that Stone, but her was ordered to wait. So she waited, and waited.

Bellatrix practiced magic while waiting, she planned her revenge while waiting, she ate and drank while waiting, and she downed the potions while waiting.

The problem was, Bellatrix began to lose the track of time and the track of herself while waiting. She had slept for days after she drank too much potion in one dose. She had woken up in odd places in the ward set up by her Lord, like in a corner of the yard, on the dining table, or on the rooftop.

When Bellatrix woke up this time amidst cockroaches and plastic wrappings of muggle food this time, she was horrified to find out that she had drank all the potions her Lord left her, and she had missed the one year mark!

Bellatrix trembled all over herself when she fumbled to find the pouch, and broke the green twig.

A hook grabbed Bellatrix's navel point, and the world swirled.

Bellatrix steadied herself, and looked at the surroundings. She was inside some cavern dimly lit by eerie green light, and the place she stood was a small island in the middle of a great black lake. Something on the bottom of the lake seemed to be unsettled by the sound of Bellatrix's landing, and began to gather.

However, those were not Bellatrix's concerns. No matter it was Heaven or Hell, Little Bella would just do her Lord's bidding. Her eyes were instantly attracted by a green pouch a few feet away from her. Bellatrix grabbed the pouch, and took out a note. The note in her Lord's handsome writing said:

"My Dear Bella,

Those who desire light will be engulfed by it.

Drink your final dose of potion in the pouch, then obliviate yourself of all your memories except that you will take a cup out from the pouch afterwards.

-L.V."

Bellatrix was quite happy to receive a new order from her Lord, but then she found her Lord ordered her to obviate herself of all her memories.

-Oh, my Lord has no use of Little Bella's memory anymore. But Little Bella will do as instructed.

Bellatrix called "potion", and a bottle of grey potion jumped into her hand. She drank down the bitter content in one gulp, then pointed her wand toward herself.

Bellatrix inhaled, exhaled, and thought of the vague faces of her youngest sister and her son for the last time.

"Obliviate."

The next chapter will be published at 6 pm (EDT), 04/19/2015.