Chapter 5—Lost and Found

Bellatrix appeared on the outskirts of Spinner’s End, the same place that her and Narcissa appeared years prior. The hunt was on. Snape had run. She had her suspicions but they were unfounded until now. They only reason why he would run was because he was no longer loyal to the Dark Lord. Bellatrix gritted her teeth. Deep down she knew, below the yelps from people that she was wrong, below her own voice that told her she was foolish, down there, underneath all that, lay the truth. She had known it all along.

She wound her way through the dank and narrow streets of the rundown muggle town. Bellatrix sneered at the thought of the filth brooding in the dwellings around her. Such scum, unworthy to walk this earth. The Dark Lord will remedy such an infestation, of that she had no doubt.

She came upon Snape’s house: the disgusting, dilapidated precipice he called a home. She sneered as she walked up to the door and blasted it open with her wand. She would take care of anyone that may see her. Muggle Protection Act. Ha! She popped her head through the door frame and looked around before stepping inside.

“Oh Snapey-kins!” Bella called out mockingly. “Come out, come out wherever you are…”

Her sing song-y voice echoed in the deserted house. She flicked her wand about the air, giving off a sense of boredom and unrest. She walked a few paces into the sitting room and stomped a foot down, crossing her arms over her chest.

“Snape!” she screeched.

Snape’s voice did not return but the soft, muffled pounding bounced back to her ears. She stood still, her eyes wide and her ears open, listening intently, trying to figure out if she was just imagining the noise or if it was really there. The pounding came again, this time it was a bit louder, more forced and if she listened just a little closer, she thought she could hear a voice carry about with it.

Her eyes darted around the room, searching for the source of the noise before they fell upon the bookcase at the far end of the wall. Bellatrix frowned and tread lightly over to it, pushing her ear closer to the musty books on the shelves. The pounding came again, clearer this time. She frowned and stepped away, pointing her wand at the bookcase and watching it slide back to reveal a set of stairs and a mangy, rat-faced man perched upon them. Bellatrix cringed and visibly drew back her body, disgusted at the sight of Peter Pettigrew hidden in Snape’s house. He was pounds thinner and looked wasted. She couldn’t believe that he was still here after all these years.

“Bellatrix!” Peter howled as he lunged out of his hole. Bellatrix drew her wand at arm’s length and Peter held himself, not wanting to face the impending wrath. “I’m so happy to see you!” he cowered. “He left me to die back there.”

“Can’t say I blame him, really,” Bellatrix said, looking gaggy.

“You’ve come to save me!”

“Purely by coincidence.” She desperately tried not to focus on the grime that had collected on Peter’s body and what, she distinctly thought, was mold. The smell was closing in on unbearable. “Where did he go?”

“He left!”

“Really…”

“The boy was here, too. Lucius’s son—”

“Draco…”

“Yes! Him! Snape told him everything! I heard it all! He must have forgotten about me—”

“Obviously.”

“He was careless. They went to the Ministry, the Department of Mysteries. Harry Potter, he found out how to destroy the Dark Lord,” Peter sounded winded, exasperated by his retelling. “Horcruxes—”

Bellatrix’s eyes widened, her jaw slackened slightly. So that was how he did it. She had heard about horcruxes, knew what they were but didn’t know of anyone that tried to make one. But…plural? The Dark Lord had made more than one? He had gone farther, and it would explain his transformation. It was just another item to add to the list of why she revered him so, his ability to test the limits of existence and then defy them.

Peter noticed Bellatrix’s look and said, “You know what they are?”

Bellatrix snapped out of her reverie and looked over at Peter, disgust still etched on her face. “Of course I do. Now, what about them?”

Peter sniffed and continued his story, a worried expression writ on his face. “The Dark Lord, he had six. Lucius, that diary he had, the one the Dark Lord gave him before…that was one. Dumbledore, he destroyed one, a ring. And then four, a piece from each founder of Hogwarts. The last one, Slytherin’s, a locket, that’s where they were going.”

“A little less ambiguity, Pettigrew, and a little more to the point,” Bellatrix snarled.

Peter winced and curled back, fearful of her wrath. “The locket, it’s in the Department of Mysteries, a place called the Death Room.”

A smile flickered across Bellatrix’s face. “Ah yes. My dear, sweet cousin perished there. Poor thing. If it hadn’t been for…me! Ha!” Bellatrix cackled an evil, sadistic laugh at the reminiscence of Sirius Black’s death. It brought tears of pleasure to her eyes. She composed herself and dabbed at the corner of her eyes, motioning for Peter to continue.

“Mundungus Fletcher, from the Order of the Phoenix, stole it from Sirius’s house after he died. He did some swindling with Borgin, knew he could get more money there, what with the Slytherin crest on it. The Dark Lord found out, used the Imperius Curse on an Unspeakable to have him get it. He had him hide it in there. No one knew.”

Bellatrix’s lip twitched. She thought, of all the people, the Dark Lord would tell her such secrets. He trusted her above anyone else, sent her on missions he knew only she could handle. Why not trust her with this information?

“The Order of the Phoenix,” Peter continued, “they have people everywhere, like we do. Harry Potter found out. So did Snape. Fletcher, get enough in him and he won’t shut up. That’s where everyone went—the Order, Snape, Draco, Harry and his cronies.”

Bellatrix’s contempt and loathing was prominent on her face. Without saying a word, she turned on the spot and marched towards the door. Peter scurried after her in a half-bowing position, afraid to meet her eye.

“Are you taking me with you?” he whimpered.

Bellatrix turned slowly around and glared down at Peter before breaking out in a maniacal fit of laughter. “Why? So you can turn on me too? I don’t think so, Pettigrew.”

She cackled again before stomping out the door. A resounding crack broke through the air and echoed throughout the mangy house at Spinner’s End as Bellatrix disappeared. Peter flinched and cowered inside, unsure of what to do with himself. Everyone had left him behind and it was only he that cared about it.