Shit Like That Makes My Skin Crawl

Harold led Griphook in with another goblin trailing behind. "This is our Curse-Breaker. Let's get this taken care of," Griphook said briskly and Kereston nodded. The other goblin had slightly longer hair, and it was either white-blonde or just white, but Bellatrix couldn't tell. His face didn't look particularly old, but, hell, she didn't know how goblins aged.

He produced a thickish, rough looking black wand and approached her and Rodolphus. Lifting her hand, he pressed the wand to the mark made by the Unbreakable she had given to the old Ministry. The wand was cold on her skin, appearing to be carved out of a black stone of some sort. It traced the mark all the way around her wrist and once it was done, a white light flashed from the wand's tip and struck the goblin in the chest. He screamed, body arching backward in pain.

Bellatrix frowned, for it was a pity she hadn't caused it. Pain wasn't so much fun if she didn't dislike a person, and she wasn't causing it, she thought with a sigh. The goblin moved to Rod next, repeating the same process. Grindelwald paused in his work on Rabastan to allow the process to be repeated on him last. Promising grimly to collect his fee from the Lestrange bank vault tomorrow via Griphook, the Curse-Breaker departed, expression drained and tired.

"That doesn't look like a fun job," Bellatrix drawled and the Lestrange men nodded.

"Will you want dinner within the hour as usual," Harold asked a little hesitantly and Bellatrix shrugged.

"I suppose. Recalling immense trauma probably shouldn't affect our need for sustenance... Although it's a new experience for me," she concluded a little lamely.

Even as she spoke, she wondered if she would actually be able to eat. If not, Rod and Rabastan surely would. Men and their appetites were never separated, after all.

"I should probably go," Kereston said with a sigh. "I need to see how much Kreacher remembers of this...because Bellatrix said something that worried me."

Bellatrix gave the little blonde a knowing look. "The bit where I said I don't remember what the Dark Lord did to them?"

Kereston nodded. "Precisely! I'm thinking you don't remember because it wasn't done to you so you wouldn't know. It, like yours, was probably internal, something he did to their heads. It may be wise to know what, especially considering the new threat."

"Do you truly believe this Delphini girl actually has something to do with... Him," Bellatrix asked, obvious doubt in her tone.

Kereston shrugged." I don't know. I don't believe anything, but her power is...strangely freakish in how immense it is and the unusual things she has been able to do. We will have a folder for you that briefs you on it in the morning. Everyone is getting one. The old Ministry was keeping it very hush-hush until they learned more, but I want everyone in the new Ministry to be fully aware of the danger this...girl poses," Kereston said.

"Sounds good," Rodolphus said with a nod. "I'd like to say we're looking forward to it but..." he grinned and Kereston chuckled.

"Indeed."

"We'll come with you. I'm finished here," Grindelwald said, turning to Kereston as he stepped away from Rabastan.

"Thank you," Bellatrix said, glancing from Grindelwald to Kereston.

"Sure," Grindelwald said and Kereston nodded.

"I think I'm going to issue all of you a formal pardon that could somewhat clear your names," she said, surprising them. All three Lestranges gaped at her. "Well...though you did commit many of the crimes for which you were imprisoned, many were under duress as it were, so it's hardly your fault. Even if you could've committed some of them on your own, you did not, and I think you've been through enough."

"Well, that's certainly something we've never ever expected from any sort of Ministry," Rabastan laughed. "Thanks, Minister!"

Kereston nodded. "Just don't make me regret it. I'm not going to make you take Unbreakables under the circumstances, because enough has been forced upon you. Before I thought you deserved, and even required it, but now not so much... I am quite aware that you were perfectly happy killing Muggles for Voldemort, though, and I am telling you there will be none of that shit! I don't expect you to be white light Gryffindors...I'm not myself and that's not what I want. I just don't need you lot committing crimes that any Ministry, even one like ours, would have to lock you up for because right now I need you free."

"Sounds good," Rodolphus told her and Bellatrix and Rabastan nodded.

"Thanks for that as well," Rabastan said.

"Yes," Bellatrix agreed, "Thank you." The words felt odd to say, but she did mean them. For quite some time no one had given her a reason to thank them for anything, Bellatrix realized.

"We're your thugs, Minister. We are loyal, and we won't make you regret it," Rodolphus told her. "And yes, thank you."

"Good," Kereston said, rising to her feet. "Thank you. We will see you at work tomorrow. Just report to the ground floor because we're having an assembly there where I introduce everyone and all that."

They nodded and Harold led her, Grindelwald, and the still silent Zabini out. Bellatrix glanced from her husband to her brother-in-law. All three sat in silence for a moment, no one seeming to know what to say in the face of all they'd remembered... and all they'd previously been made to forget.

"So...we've been pardoned, and you're saying we've still gotta be thugs," Rabastan told his brother with an amused grin, always going for levity. Bellatrix supposed it worked for him, though. It had kept him sane in Azkaban, after all, where at times she and Rod definitely both had their moments of...not so sane, especially her.

"Being thugs is always so much more fun than being gentlemen... and Bellatrix can be thuggish with the best of them while still remaining the perfect lady," Rodolphus told his brother.

"So true," Rabastan agreed. "On that note, this thug is going for another drink... Either of you want one?"

"I am getting a shower," Bellatrix said. "Come with me, Roddy... We still have to make use of all this blood before I wash it off."

Rodolphus stood eagerly. "I am always and ever at your service, my lady."

Upstairs on their large four poster bed, with Rod's mouth on hers and his hard body covering her more slender one, Bellatrix was able to lose herself in passion and almost forget. Rod felt incredible, and he knew just how to move within her to make her explode with pleasure over and over. When at last he joined her in orgasmic bliss, the two just lay together for a time, catching their breath. Rod was the one to speak first.

"We made it, Bella. We survived all of it, and we're still here, and we're alright."

That sounded lovely, but was she alright? Her mind felt so scrambled. "Come shower with me," she said.

While she always enjoyed showering with her husband, tonight she needed to do so. She didn't want to be alone. Tonight the shower, or was it her mind, felt like a very vast place to face alone. Standing together under the warm spray, Bellatrix was eager to focus on getting clean. She scrubbed herself from head to toe twice, then washed her hair. Perhaps she did that twice too, she wasn't sure. Her mind wandered over each forgotten detail as she applied soap and shampoo. Then it examined each obsessive action they'd taken in the Dark Lord's name after he'd bent their will to believe him to be greater than all the gods.

"It's as if I can't scrub it off no matter how hard I try," she said. "I know it's because it's all inside..." She tapped the side of her head with a fingertip for illustration. "But thinking about who he really was, and all the years we wasted...were forced to waste... All that we might have been or done without his influence...it's all gone, Roddy!

"Even the memory of him embracing us... and then how he looked when he returned from the dead, I always found that disconcerting. We all did, but now...in the face of everything we knew, that memory is somehow even worse! The idea of him embracing us when he twisted our minds, or later showing us favor when I now know that he considered us enemies, just makes my skin crawl!"

Rodolphus drew her close, rubbing her back. "But it's all over now, babe," he said, not getting it in classic guy style. It had happened to him too though, so Bellatrix didn't know how he didn't get it.

"I know," she said, sighing as she leaned against his shoulder while the warm spray cascaded over both of them.