We Never Shoot To Stun

When the meal was over, Bulstrode led them back into the kitchen, where there was a Floo against the back wall. Rather than elves, wizards and a few goblins were doing the cooking over several open fires. The room was full of delicious smells, and Rodolphus eyed the dishes in progress as they passed.

"We are going to the wand factory now. It is called Elemental Mages," Bulstrode said before tossing a pinch of Floo powder into the fire and stepping through.

"Here you are." The voice came from a goblin near Bellatrix's elbow. His face was flushed from the heat of the kitchen, and his shoulder-length white hair was held back in a hairnet. He held an open can out to them with a Floo powder label on the other side.

Bellatrix and Rodolphus each took a pinch, then the goblin extended the can to Ali Bulstrode. The three went through the Floo one at a time with Rod in the lead and Ali bringing up the rear. The fireplace on the other end was just as large, located in the back of what appeared to be an office.

"Tell Mr. Grindelwald thanks for coming through on the help!" The voice came from a muscular wizard wearing forest green robes who sat behind a huge desk across the room.

"Yes, of course," Bulstrode replied distractedly. He was glaring down at his Ministry robe, feverishly trying to shake the soot off the front of it. Turning to Bellatrix and Rodolphus, he added, "And you lot aren't allowed to kill everyone. Just half." Bellatrix's jaw dropped.

Bulstrode scowled. "What? You can't just stop at half? Because we need to question some of them, you know! How else do you expect us to get an upper hand on the cow's activities?"

"She didn't look fat to me," Rodolphus muttered with a smirk.

"She doesn't have to be overweight to be an emotional cow," Bulstrode shot back. "Her personality is cowish."

"True enough," Rodolphus grinned.

"It's just that I didn't think we were going to be allowed to kill at all," Bellatrix said. She shot a look at the man behind the desk, obviously unmoved by the conversation, which Bulstrode apparently did not mind having in front of him.

"The Minister and Grindelwald want to send her a message, so you are allowed to kill half," Bulstrode explained.

"Your new Minister doesn't fuck around! I like it. That's exactly what we need these days." The wizard behind the desk lit up something to smoke. It didn't smell like anything Bellatrix recognized; though she, Rod, and Rabastan could do some aggressive partying, none of them were smokers.

Taking a heavy drag, he leaned back so that his chair tipped onto its back legs as his eyes focused happily on a point on the ceiling.

"That's our girl," Rodolphus agreed with a proud nod, as though the Lestranges had handpicked the new Minister themselves.

"And letting you lot out." The desk wizard blew a smoke ring, then let out a chuckle that turned into a cough. "I bet that scared the shit out of everyone! Really keeps fuckers in line, though, don't it? With you lot running Azkaban."

"That's the idea," Bellatrix murmured. Americans were an unsettling mix of blunt and strange, half refreshing and half uncomfortable. Bellatrix was amused.

"Well, there are three invisibility cloaks behind the door there. Help yourselves, and thanks again for the assistance."

Bulstrode nodded, taking one cloak which he draped over himself and his wife, promptly vanishing. "We wait outside for the strike," he told Bellatrix and Rodolphus. "We thought we'd leave you each a cloak in case you need to do a lot of moving about and don't find it convenient to stick together."

"Thoughtful," Bellatrix said, catching the cloak Rod tossed her.

"We will share, though, so there will be an extra in case any of the workers here require it," Rodolphus said. "We always fight close together so we know where we all are." He slipped under the cloak with Bellatrix as he spoke, and she took his hand.

One of the Bulstrodes opened the door, but with them being under their own cloak it looked as if the door moved of its own volition. Bellatrix and Rodolphus moved out into the factory proper where there were racks upon racks of wands of all kinds. Some looked like the sort one would find in any wand shop in Europe, while others were quite different. One large redwood wand was engraved with a rather gaudy American flag. Others had animal heads on top carved of the same wood as the wand, as if it was one solid piece. Some of those heads were animated, snapping their teeth and twitching their noses as the Bulstrodes and Lestranges passed. They could sense that someone was there even under the invisibility cloaks, which was impressive.

"Do you think there are any raven wands," Bellatrix asked Rodolphus.

"That would be interesting," he replied. "We should have a look once we've done killing exactly half of whoever Delphini sends to raid this bitch."

Bellatrix cackled as they reached the front door which swung invisibly open. It was dark out so they couldn't even watch the world pass as they waited. Ah well, at least they would get some good fun killing out of it, Bellatrix reminded herself, feeling boredom setting in. Rabastan would really be sorry he missed out.

Bellatrix briefly considered going down on Rod for fun while they waited because no one could see, then realized just how unwise that would be. If someone were to sneak up and neither noticed, something unpleasant could happen even if they were invisible. Sighing, she leaned close to Rodolphus's ear. "Do we prowl the premises or just wait near the back door while ordering the Bulstrodes to prowl?" The back door was always the favorite entrance when someone wanted to break in, after all.

"I don't get the impression they'd be the best prowlers," Rodolphus whispered back. "We'd better do it."

The two placed silencing charms on their shoes then proceeded around the building in a silent stalk, hand in hand. Frequently they paused to listen. Nothing happened for hours. It was boring as well as tiring. When something did happen it was big… As in a literal small army of people. Where Bellatrix had expected no more than ten, a line of roughly one hundred people came up the street toward the shop.

"Sweet," Rodolphus hissed into her ear, his tongue flicking out to trace her earlobe.

Bellatrix shivered in anticipation, made all the sweeter by all the dull drawn-out waiting. She ground her bottom against his front as he reached around to cup her breast in a large hand. The group's approach was silent, indicating that they also had silencing charms on their shoes. Well, at least they were trying a little, Bellatrix thought, smirking as she and Rod dodged out to cut them off before they reached the shop.

"Let's stun them all, then kill half," Rodolphus whispered, and Bellatrix squeezed his hand in wordless agreement, her wand coming up in the other. It turned out stunning fifty people as fast as possible was like dueling in itself as it involved quite a lot of rapid-fire spell work.

What Bellatrix learned from the experience was that even dull, basic spells could be fun if performed at lightning speed. As the last wizard fell, the dimly lit area around the wand factory blazed with light, and the bulky desk wizard followed the now visible Bulstrodes over to the Lestranges.

Impressively, the light was coming from whatever the wizard was smoking, somehow surrounding the entire building. Interesting, Bellatrix silently admitted. Not interesting enough for her to want to take up smoking, but impressive all the same.

"Go ahead and kill your fifty before we call the Ministry to bring in the rest for questioning," the desk wizard said before blowing a smoke ring.

"Don't stop to torture them," Roger added with a peevish frown. "We don't have time. We still have to meet with the American Minister…in less than two hours, and I'd like to stop for coffee. That helps when pulling an all-nighter."

Bellatrix admired the casual way Bulstrode spoke. Cackling in appreciation, she began killing. Only part of her mind was required to focus on such basic magic so she remembered to ask the desk wizard about the raven wands while she worked.

"We do actually! Ravens are rather popular so we have several in stock. If you can't use any of them, we'll have some personally made for you. Fuck, you're the Lestranges, so it'd be somewhat of a twisted honor!"

Sadly, killing twenty-five people each didn't take Bellatrix and Rodolphus very long at all. The fun was nearly over before it began.

"Damn, a lot of people got themselves killed during an attempted break in," the desk wizard said, then turned and casually kicked in the nearest window. "That shall sound off an alarm that will have Aurors here within five minutes, if they aren't too busy eating donuts."