Chapter 6 – The Final Countdown

Bellatrix found herself once again on the lowest level of the Department of Mysteries, just outside the corridor that led to the black door. She cackled with delight, her last confrontation here had been successful, resulting in her killing her own cousin. It had been about time that pest was taken care of, she thought. Long had he been an embarrassment to her family, even before the ultimate and unforgivable indignity of his being sorted into Gryffindor. She shuddered. Sirius’ brother had been a disappointment, too. The Black family all thought he was Death Eater material until he suddenly got scared and tried to run from the commitment he had made. Too bad he didn’t have killer genes. Did no one understand there was no way out once you decided to become a Death Eater? The only way out was death itself, as Regulus Black had found out. Bellatrix grinned unpleasantly at that thought.

Bellatrix walked down the corridor and passed through the door which led to the circular room. There were twelve doors to this room, all black and handleless, and it was usually impossible to tell which room was which on the other side of any one of those doors. That wasn’t the case today. From behind one of the doors an extremely loud commotion could be heard, clearly the sounds of battle. Bellatrix knew immediately which door to pass through. She danced up to it with eager anticipation. This was going to be so much fun.

The scene on the other side of the door was complete melee, worse than it had been on the day when she killed Sirius. She had come here looking for the traitor, Severus Snape, and her foolish nephew, Draco, but it was going to prove difficult with this mess that was going on. It didn’t matter to Bellatrix; she was prepared to send as many of the Order falling behind the black veil as she possibly could, just like she had her cousin. Bellatrix saw the familiar veil waving above the stone archway, bringing back pleasant memories of Sirius’ death.

Bellatrix surveyed the situation quickly. Fenrir Greyback was there fighting against the Order member who had him to thank for being a werewolf, Remus Lupin. All the Death Eaters were there and all the Order members, including a young girl who she recognized as the daughter of her disowned sister. She shuddered, yet another embarrassment to the Black family. Andromeda Black had married a muggle and this pathetic creature was their mudblood offspring. The girl was fighting against MacNair. Bellatrix thought it would be fun to take care of her once and for all but she had more important things on her mind. Her mission was to take out Snape and she would do just that. She looked around the room again; there was no sign of him in the chaos. Bellatrix realized that her husband, Rodolphus, was there as well along with his brother Rabastan. They were both good fighters and true to the Death Eater side.

With wand ready, Bellatrix fought her way through the crowd, Crucioing a few select Order members as she passed through the throng until she finally reached the center where the Dark Lord himself was dueling with Harry Potter. Bellatrix knew that this was the most important battle she would ever take part in; that everything the Dark Lord had ever done was in preparation for this single moment. She wanted him to crush the upstart Potter now! She knew that this was the Dark Lord’s battle, she had no place interfering in this showdown unless he asked for her help.

“I have come to destroy the last horcrux,” the Potter kid shouted. What nerve, Bellatrix thought, for him to even come and address the Dark Lord. “Once I destroy it, you will die.”

“You don’t have the strength to kill me,” the Dark Lord taunted, flicking his wand back lazily. “You aren’t a killer, you’ve never killed anyone before and you aren’t going to kill anyone now. You don’t have what it takes.”

“That’s where you’re wrong!” Potter screamed, showing something he had clutched in his hand. The Dark Lord lunged forward just as Potter started to destroy the thing in his hand. With a start, Bellatrix realized that the object was, indeed, a locket. Bellatrix was fearful and jumped forward to aid her master.

“Don’t you dare,” she screamed at Potter, wand pointed directly at his head. “Prepare to die!”

Potter was attempting to fling the necklace into a small fire that he had started nearby. No doubt about it, he was a fighter, but he was not going to destroy her Lord! Bellatrix reached to stop him when the Dark Lord caught the kid by surprise. “AVADA KEDAVRA”, he thundered.

The next moment there was the loudest sound Bellatrix had ever heard, the explosion of green light filled the entire room. This was no ordinary killing curse death; she had never seen anything like this. The light was far more intense and bright than it would ordinarily be. There was something very mysterious about it, almost beautiful.

Bellatrix turned and saw the Dark Lord lying on the floor, virtually fading away to nothing in front of her eyes. Suddenly, she realized that the Potter kid had somehow been able to fling the locket into the fire before she or the Dark Lord was able to stop him. The fire had now disappeared, as had any trace of the locket. She ran to the Dark Lord, weeping. “You can’t leave us,” she cried.

“The horcruxes are gone, I can’t live without them,” the Dark Lord said weakly. He was but a mere shadow at this point and fading fast. “Bellatrix, you have long been my faithful servant. I appoint you as my successor. I trust you to take care of my business.” With that, he was gone. The sound of Bellatrix’s wails and cries filled the room.

Bellatrix was in great distress and mourning but she was somehow able to register the fact that the fighting had stopped. Everyone had simply quit fighting the battle all at the same time. She saw the Order members were all crying and mourning for the loss of the great Potter. His body was lying only feet from her dead master. How foolish they were to put their trust into someone so young and inexperienced, though she did have to admit that the boy was brave.

She wanted to kill someone to avenge the death of the Dark Lord. She had come here to finish off Snape but he was nowhere to be found. Apparently he didn’t have the guts even to show up to this battle. What a chicken, she thought disgustedly. He had played a very large role in the Dark Lord’s death and he would die a very slow, painful death for that.

Bellatrix heard the Order members weeping. Apparently, digging sight from the little bit of rational sense that she had left, they had just inexplicably appointed the kid, Neville Longbottom, as their leader now that Potter was dead. He stood at the front of the crowd making some kind of stupid speech, talking about what a great man Potter had been and how everyone should be proud to have known him, how they weren’t going to rest easy until the last Death Eater was gone but that the Dark Lord’s death had been a great victory for them, blah blah blah blah. Having heard all of this, Bellatrix knew instantly who her next victims would be.

She was no one to mess with, indeed, as she apparated to St. Mungo’s. There was a price to pay for the events that had taken place on this terrible day and she was going to start extracting that price right now from a certain two people. She knew there wasn’t going to be much resistance from her next pair of victims. No resistance at all. She had already seen to that years ago.