#& meta: rodolphus lestrange.

[slitheringghost]

Voldemort Fic Recs

I meant to post this for hprecfest over four months ago, but uh... I didn't. More fic recs in Part 2 here.

The Limits Of Perception by deslea (800 words, G)

Rec: A truly fantastic character study in few words.

He meets a different kind of falsehood at school. The Pure prize the collective. They put aside their individual interests and feelings, follow codes of honour designed to protect family and name. It is still lying, but at least it is lying for something better than one's own ends. This is a kind of hypocrisy that he can tolerate, he decides.

of all my demon spirits by slashmarks (Tom & Ginny, 1.7k, T)

Rec: Ginny writes to Tom after the events of CoS. Paints a detailed picture of Tom and Ginny's relationship, and it's a great character study of Tom in addition to Ginny.

But I think maybe you were lying when you said that I was boring and stupid after all. Do you remember when we talked about the last war and I didn’t understand how anybody could think muggles were animals, because even if I don’t really know any muggles we go into the village to get groceries and stuff all the time and Mrs. Hoof keeps sweets by the counter just to give them to kids like me? You teased me about being bought with candy, but then you said the Death Eaters had to decide muggles weren’t people in order to kill them, and that really most people do that all of the time, like with house elves and stuff. You said that it was because most people are hypocrites and can’t face their real choices, but I think maybe it’s something you do, too, Tom. Maybe I had to be a boring and stupid little girl because you were about to kill me.

a shade amidst the shadowy dead by slashmarks (Tom & Cassiopeia Black, 2.4k, T)

Rec: THE Voldemort backstory of all time - Bellatrix's great-aunt Cassiopeia Black, a lesbian Dark Lord with a Muggle lover, and Tom Riddle and Bellatrix's mutual teacher and Mother Figure (TM) who they're both grieving when they meet. AKA Bellamort's very own Bathilda Bagshot.

Circling around to the potions shelving, she stopped halfway, a small twitch of a half-smile disturbing her serene face. Tom had fallen asleep with his face in a book in the armchair between bookshelves. In a moment he would wake, hearing her move. He would politely pretend he had lost track of time, and she would politely pretend to believe him. Of course, she knew perfectly well he was sleeping in the lab all the time for the summer, and she knew why. The school-leaving age in muggle Britain was fourteen, and Tom had therefore been expected to leave the orphanage two years ago.

The Shack at the End of the Lane by Asenora (Tom & Merope, 4k, G)

Rec: Voldemort’s victims meet Merope in the afterlife. A wonderful concept.

One day, a second bedroom materialised in the shack. It had white-washed walls and a black-and-white tiled floor, and contained no furniture other than a rickety iron bedstead, a wardrobe, and a hard wooden chair. She opened the wardrobe, and found nothing in it except an empty shoebox. 'This place needs some cheer,' she thought, and was unsurprised when a set of paint pots appeared in front of her.

the serpent's tale has come undone by slashmarks (Bellatrix/Voldemort, 6.2k, E)

Rec: Fantastic Voldemort POV in a Bellamort getting together fic. Slashmarks' ability to write both Voldemort's hunger for connection and intimacy and his cruelty is so impressive.

Orion Black's idiocy would be his prize, in this case. He understood what he was seeing when he looked into Bellatrix Black's cool gray eyes and the mind beyond them. He would gratefully use what Orion Black had discarded or overlooked as essentially worthless; or at least, not worthy of his attention and maintenance. He knew that pureblood men were often idiots about women, but sometimes the boundless capacity for it in otherwise intelligent ones surprised him. - Moreover... He had wanted family as a student, he remembered that; something to replace the loss that had occurred at and before his birth, someone to claim him, someone who would defend his interests and give him something to defend. He had the Death Eaters as the closest possible thing now. The demands marriage would have made on him would not be... tenable.

endless nights took on my whole life by slashmarks (Bellatrix/Voldemort, Voldemort & Rodolphus, Bellatrix & Rodolphus, Sirius & Bellatrix, 12.4k, M)

Rec: My absolute favorite Tom Riddle POV. A HILARIOUS Voldemort and Rodolphus dynamic in addition to a wonderful Bellamort.

Bellatrix was a new experience for Tom, as something of a kindred spirit. Abraxas might be the closest thing Tom would admit to a brother, but he had no real patience for magical theory or interest in it beyond utilitarian concerns, and Reinhard was simply too nice a person, deep down, a condition even the Lestranges had never cured him of. Bellatrix, though, was capable of sharing everything for the first time: she could keep up with him intellectually, she was as fascinated by magic as him, and any squeamish bone had long ago been extracted. Best of all, she shared Tom Riddle's fervent loathing for every aspect of magical Britain's society and his desire to personally torture to death most of the Wizengamot, which Tom had always known better than to fully express even to Abraxas.

The Edge of Reality by deslea (Bellatrix/Voldemort, 4k, E)

Rec: Fascinating exploration of the Death Eater cult and initiation.

To ensure their continued loyalty, they must be given a new family and future, better than the one they have agreed to cast away. When this is achieved, in his experience, they will do virtually anything in his service. Their loyalty to old laws and values and connections is either severed, or so conditional as to be irrelevant. It is a delicate exercise, carried out with an intricate blend of Legilimency and plain old-fashioned manipulation. It is magic at its finest.

'The son and heir of nothing in particular by @artemisia-black (2.6k, M)

Rec: Beautifully written, and I love Tom's musings on London in this fic.

But unlike the damp which pervaded the orphanage in the depths of winter, this scent did not evoke desperation and destitution. It did not remind him of scratchy government-issued pinafores and the flavourless soups that the matron insisted warded off the flu.  No, this damp smelled different. It smelled of ancient, untapped magic. But most importantly, it smelled like home.

The Velveteen Rabbit by Asenora (Tom & Mrs. Cole, Tom & Merope, 3k, G)

Rec: A unique take on Mrs. Cole and Tom's relationship, and a heartbreaking young Tom.

It’s just about pride - when he’s hurt, when one of the bigger lads punches him in the face, he won’t give anyone the satisfaction of knowing. He just watches, his face completely unmoving, staring whoever's attacked him down until they're the one that's frightened, and then whirling off triumphantly, with his chin in the air. But, if you know where to look, you can find him a wee while later curled up in a corner of the orphanage where nobody usually goes, running his fingers over his black eye or bruised jaw like he could cure the injury by magic, muttering words of comfort to himself, telling himself he’s all he needs, and he’ll be alright, and he will always, always manage to survive.

My True Family: Voldemort and Family Connections by slashmarks (Meta, 3k)

Rec: Cheating ‘cause this isn’t a fic, but a must-read essay that challenges the idea of an inhuman Voldemort who can’t love.

Voldemort immediately knows how to lure Harry to the Department of Mysteries when curiosity isn't enough: a threat to Sirius Black will be enough, and it is. Sirius is not only Harry's only remaining magical family, but he represents a hope Tom Riddle once shared, and once was equally disappointed in: a magical guardian who would take either boy away from the muggle world and status as a friendless orphan.

In Place And Blood. by Lanna Michaels (Tom & Merope, 2.3k, G)

Rec: Tom raised by Merope still becomes Voldemort and this time his motivation is solely revenge on purebloods for his mother.

That night, for the first time, he shares a room with six other boys, five of them purebloods, and he wants to murder them where they sleep. He doesn't know how to do it, but he has ideas. They all deserve it. They deserve it for what they did to his mother. Purebloods had left his mother friendless, a disgrace, had thrown her out and left her to die and her son with her. Tom is going to make sure they live to regret it. Tom is going to make every one of them regret it.

if the sea were sand alone by Anonymous (Tom & Dumbledore, 12.8k, G)

Rec: A gorgeous and heartbreaking what-could-have-been for the Dumbledore and Tom relationship, the starting point being Slughorn comes to the orphanage to introduce the magical world to Tom instead of Dumbledore.

"I wanted to kill them," he said. "They left me there. All those years, and my father, and my grandparents, they left me there. The last thing my mother said to him was, 'What about the baby?' and the last thing he said to her--" He cut himself off. There was so much pain etched into his face that Albus shuffled off the bed, and, standing over him, pulled his head to his chest like he was still a small child. He had felt abandoned, once. It was a wound that had never truly healed, and it had taken him years to realize the extent of the damage.

More fic recs are in Part 2 of rec list here.

[poetryandbloods-blog]

The new face for one of my OC favorites, Corvus Rodolphus Lestrange, tell me he doesn't look exactly like a young Bellatrix? And the mouth seems to run in the family, as it also resembles Rabastan.

My young Bellatrix, breaking hearts forever.

[sofoulandfairaday]

I don't know if you'll even receive this because of the godforsaken shadowban, but what do you think of Bella's relationship with her parents? I know it's unpopular but I've always seen her as a mama's girl personally. I think Andy was Cygnus's favourite and for Narcissa I can't decide between her being nobody's favourite and everyone's favourite but in a more subtle way lol.

This is honestly such a good question - and something I wanted to talk about for ages.

I appreciate your takes a lot, even if I somewhat disagree. You were the first person in this wretched fandom who made me see the light about Bella's relationship with her family. Not in the sense that it's necessarily wrong to headcanon her as being abused, but you were the first person that made me see that there could be other interpretations: no one, both in the English and Italian fandoms, seemed to think that Druella might have not been a stuck-up bitch.

With this being said, I think Druella was a stuck-up bitch. Nah, kidding. Kind of. Long post under the cut, but this is one of my favourite pieces of meta I've ever written.

I think Bella has a very bad case of Older Daughter Syndrome. I believe that both her parents had wished for at least one son because that is unfortunately what was common in noble families in the 1950s (and pureblood society seems to be stuck much further than that). I actually hc that Druella had one or more miscarriages (all boys) before and after having her daughters. When C&D were told that they couldn't have more children, both by her own volition and by being unconsciously pushed by her parents, became desperate to prove herself. Of course, it was useless. Not because her parents were cartoon villains ("I wish you were a boy" bullshit, only said in Disney movies), but just because they would never see as they would have seen a son.

Bellatrix confronted herself with impossible expectations throughout her life, as very often happens to the oldest children (daughters most of all). I'm sure she was brilliant, magically talented, possibly good at most things she tried - it was never enough. Not that her parents weren't proud of her, they were, but there was always one grade that could have been better, one hour more she could have spent practising, one sentence she could have said better at a social gathering, etc. Whenever something wasn't up to par, as it was bound to be, there would be corrections. Always too many corrections and never enough compliments. Parents often fall into this trap: it's not enough to be proud of your child if you never tell them you are.

I'm also sure she was immensely spoilt. You can imagine how that goes: Cygnus and Druella were probably very cold people, bad at demonstrating affection, and tried to show their immense love for their daughters by showering them with gifts and material things. They always told their daughters how good and special they were, how they were destined for the best. Personally speaking, this is not enough. It's not enough to point at all the money you spent on family holidays and private schools - "look at what your mother and I have done for you; is this how you repay us?" - if you've never taken interest in your daughter's interests. If you've never asked her opinion on the world, what she wants to be when she grows up. If you've always taken for granted that she would follow in your own footsteps - no doubt, the best possible life choice. It's not enough to tell your daughter she is destined for greatness because she is a Black. She should be destined for greatness because she is great.

Also, I'm sure she was put in charge of her younger siblings from a very early age. Again: oldest daughter. Simultaneously loving them more than anything in the world and resenting them immensely because they were probably held to lower standards than she was. Parents often go softer on the second child, especially if less successful, or less gifted (I'm sure that both Andy and Cissy were bright and talented witches, just not as good as Bella overall).

She would be the bossy one, and the comforting one. She would be the one teaching them right from wrong, the one to go to when they had problems (she would act high and mighty about it, and maybe tease them, but heaven help anyone who dared do anything to Bella's sisters - and they knew it). She would go out of her way to help them.

She would feel extreme amounts of pressure on her shoulders, she would be more solitary, more reserved than her siblings, less likely to share except for the times when it all came gushing out - imagine everyone's shock when they found out about her interest in Dark Magic. Andromeda would be appalled, "I thought I knew my sister". But did you, did you really?

So: reserved, more academically skilled, both proud and resentful of her younger siblings, who were probably considered more charismatic (Andromeda was meeker and kinder and Cissy was probably a social butterfly, the popular pretty girl with tons of friends), who don't realise that they could only be that way because someone else before them had taken up the burden of the family's expectations upon herself. Of course, Andy&Cissy probably saw big sister Bella as the best, most successful, most intelligent, confident girl in the world - probably had inferiority complexes - but she never knew that. (keep in mind: the Blacks, a British upper-class family in the 1950s, probably had all of the generational trauma that we see in shows like The Crown. They were NOT the type to talk about their feelings at the dinner table).

Bellatrix was also probably very controlling of her younger sisters, and a bit of a perfectionist. She probably never apologised (a sign of weakness) and never admitted when she was wrong. She gets it from her parents. You can see how this is a recipe for disaster for the things to come.

And what happens then? She graduates from Hogwarts with whatever number of NEWTS and exceptional grades in all of them for her parents to say: "Oh, good, you did your duty. ANYWAY, no pressure, but we kinda really need you to pick a good pureblood boy and marry him. A trip around the world (to explore dark magic in faraway lands) as a graduation present? Don't be ridiculous, dear. We'll throw you a big party".

OH. OH. I would go insane. I would seethe. I would combust with rage. And I think Bella probably did. That was her breaking point, her "let it go" moment where she said: you know what? I've tried so hard to be proper, and good, and fit into """"patriarchal""" standards and it's never fucking enough. No more. Everyone is talking about this new dark wizard, Lord Voldemort, and I've been following his work. Of course, you people, my family, don't know because you've never asked me about myself beyond how I was doing in school, but my view on the world is that Mudbloods are infiltrating our society and we need to fight for survival (ironically, a view absorbed from her parents). I choose Rodolphus Lestrange, who is more than willing to let me pursue a military career and we'll happily practice Unforgivables on random Muggles that live too close to our house. Suck it.

Andromeda (who is secretly dating Ted behind her sister's back because she's afraid of her disapproval) is appalled. Narcissa is too young still (and being the youngest, possibly the most immature). Her parents go "Ehm, we don't really think you should blow up buildings- how about silently influencing politics?" But nope. Bellatrix marries Rodolphus to appease them and then she happily follows Voldemort from one Muggle village to the next, blowing up houses and getting railed by the Dark Lord next to her victims' corpses - he is the only one who sees her for what she is: dark, talented, hungry.

Andromeda runs away, and Bellatrix takes it the hardest. She sees it as a personal failure. The sister she helped raise. You can hear the hurt even thirty years after it happened.

As for her parents: Cissy was without a doubt Druella's favourite, as the daughter who looked most like her and lived the life closest to hers. Andromeda was probably nobody's fave (Middle Child Syndrome, a whole other post), but likely both her sisters' fave.

Bella... Bella was the child Cygnus understood most and was probably proudest of. She was also the hardest to love: I think that the few instances of physical affection he showed his daughters were for Andy (a naturally kind and bubbly child, who would not relent in her pursuit of affection even when told to go away) and Cissy (who was always slight, non-threatening, delicate, etc). Bella was prickly, maybe easily hurt (by her parents, seeing how attuned she was to their reactions). She strikes me as the sort to push away any display of sweetness saying she didn't want it, as a preventive measure. The kind of child who hides so that people will go looking for them, to see if they care. She was the same with Rodolphus, probably (but the man is a saint and at a certain point must have been like "it's not just that enjoy fucking you, i do like to hold you, i do like to kiss you, you are not a duty to me, i don't care if you're stubborn. i love you") and the Dark Lord (who is so scarce with his affections, she must have brainwashed herself in saying "it's fine, i don't really need it. i only need to be held in high esteem by him").

Anyways, Bella is the child Cygnus (and secretly Druella) are proudest of. Yes, Cissy made conventional choices, but imagine having Lord Voldemort, your old classmate-turned-Dark-Lord, over for tea and he keeps going on about how he didn't expect to find such an apt pupil in Bellatrix and that she is wonderfully skilled with a wand (pun intended, and Tom knows it, the little shit). I'm getting carried away, but you get the gist. [Although, while I hc Cygnus as a Voldemort fanboy, albeit not a Death Eater, I always liked the idea that Vold and Druella didn't like each other much]

Also. Bella: Daddy Issues, yes or no? Yes. Obviously. She hides them (with more or less success, after Azkaban) because she is a Black, but it's pretty clear from her entanglement with Voldemort that having a male figure her father's age, giving her validation does things for her. Happens to the best of us.

Did Bellatrix and Druella hate each other? No. No, I think that blood is too important for someone like Bellatrix. But I think that Druella's lack of understanding of her feelings and her life choices (and also the fact that Druella, to me, is the sort of mother who always plays the victim "oh, what did I do to deserve this?") definitely didn't help their relationship. I think that Bella was a dutiful daughter, the kind that would take care of her mother in her old age and stuff like that, but they would fight a lot.

Oh, look, another ginormous post. Anyways, I hope I painted a good picture. I could talk about this for hours.

[sugarsnappeases]

gnawwww rawrr rawr give me more rodolphus meta i am starving

hello my beloved atlas thanks so much for asking i will try my level best to satiate your hunger ❤️

i think we should talk about voldemort actually. i think it’s time. so. as i said yesterday, i think rodolphus (and also antonin) were both some of the earlier people to join the death eaters (around 1970, when tom comes back to england and like. soft launches his war). to me, rodolphus works his way up the ranks very quickly. like he’s determined, and ambitious, and when he sets his mind to a task he gets it done one way or another. and he’s set his mind to the task of voldemort’s cause (he also started off pretty high in the ranks just bc of his family name and connections etc)

tom likes him bc of the aforementioned characteristics but also bc he’s like. solid. strong. reliable. he knows what he’s about. he’s someone that could be put in a bit of leadership position in the death eaters (bc as i said before. he’s basically a poster boy for them, like in all aspects of his life even if he complains about or disagrees with certain things he’ll still ultimately follow through and obey the expectations or orders)

i think he and tom meet through family. in the hbp pensieve memories, a lestrange is mentioned specifically by surname in the slug club meeting. i don’t think this is rodolphus’ father, bc i have Opinions about tom’s gang back at hogwarts and whether the heirs of the pureblood houses would ever have been able to fall in line with someone who they had known in first year as a shabby, no-name orphan w an unknown blood status. but i think maybe this lestrange is an uncle? or something of the sort to rod and rab and when rodolphus takes over as lord, this uncle falls under his jurisdiction or whatever and mentions it to rod when tom gets back to england or something like that

and rodolphus takes his responsibilities as lord very seriously so he’s investigating everything that his family is involved in, he’s setting up a meeting w tom. i reckon the uncle isn’t a very high level death eater but he tells tom that his nephew, the lord lestrange wants to meet and it happens fairly quickly after that. for tom, it’s a good point of entry into the younger generation of pureblood society, the ones who, unlike some of their parents, didn’t know him before he became lord voldemort, the ones that he can much more easily turn into a part of his army.

and rodolphus goes. obviously. he goes and meets tom and they chat and they see very eye to eye. tom is very good at appealing exactly to what his interlocutor desires and its no different w rodo, he’s investigated a little pre-meeting, figured out what rodolphus wants and leans into it while they talk. and rodo sees a release, something he can use as an outlet for all the emotions that he has to keep under the surface. and he also obvs sees it as like. an important task, the destruction and removal of muggleborns from his beautiful pureblood society, a worthy cause.

in the first war, i think rodo has a lot of power within the death eaters. he was basically the first in his generation to join up so through him people like lucius and the carrows and obvs bella and also importantly rabastan all join up as well (and this is another thing. to me rab isn’t made for fighting. he hates getting his hands dirty. he should be at the club. like genuinely. and i mean club in the sense of a gentleman’s club or something of the like. but he joins bc of rodolphus). he’s the first link to the new gen death eaters which eventually leads to the likes of barty evan and reg as well

and obvs during the first war, lucius sort of acts as right hand man (this is another thing that i can go in to) and i think rodolphus is the left hand. if that makes sense. he’s got the family name and the connections and the sociopolitical power but he’s also got the drive and the slightly twisted desires, the thirst for violence that tom would’ve absolutely fed on and nurtured and expanded until it consumed him whole. until the death eaters, by dint of being a release or something of the sort, become the most important part of his life. become the sort of thing that he would sacrifice his life for (in terms of azkaban being that life sacrifice).

like seriously. he goes to azkaban THREE times for voldemort. THREE TIMES. and he remains loyal to the very end. he never even wavers in it. and that’s very important to me. he is very important to me i think about him far too much.

[saintsenara]

Literary style (rich prose, use of narrative techniques, etc.); strong adherence to the principle of charity (diversity of perspectives/everyone is given the fairest possible shot); thematic focus on death and its effects on the living (particularly, grief); thematic focus on gender; devastating one-liners; emphatically correct Ron Weasley takes; Voldemort having a thing for mirror sex.

thanks so much, pal!

sex/gender/death are in an exclusive triad over here, but what i most appreciate you drawing out here is the principle of charity in writing [also the subject of this meta: fandom is like medicine].

I've seen a lot of posts from villain-enjoyers recently taking against the idea of redemption. and i do get this - there's been such a move in many fandom spaces against any sort of moral complexity in characterisation that i understand the impulse to say fuck it, and enjoy your favourite horrible people as horrible people.

but i do also think that this rejection of theme of redemption often misunderstands the reading that we all owe our blorbos. i think there's a tendency to believe that redemption would require some sort of damascene extraordinariness which would result in the character in question becoming neutered - perfect and soft and lacking the bite which led to us becoming interested in them in the first place.

but not so. redemption can be small, ordinary. it can be accidental. it can sneak up on you. it can exist in some areas of your lives and not others. sometimes little chips of redemption are gradually carved by bringing the man whose parents you murdered cups of tea - and maybe that's not enough to redeem you fully, and maybe it shouldn't be, but it's something - and by him being charitable enough to understand what happened in your life which led you down the path of evil.

one of the real issues with the harry potter fandom [and this is why i am so frequently on my soapbox about how we need to think about the narrative conventions of the series, and how it wants us to do this and how we should work against it] is that far too many people involved in it find themselves on sides. maybe they identify as gryffindors, and therefore fail to offer any of the other houses the nuance they extend to their favourite characters. maybe they think the villains get a bad showing in the series, so they bash the heroes. maybe they loathe a specific character, or ship, or subfandom, and so they dismiss anyone who writes within those confines.

but this is an error. every single character - just like every single person alive - can be interesting and worthy of exploration and worthy of the chance to transcend their canon [and fanon - catch me defending molly weasley against both sirius and percy nation like it's my paid employment] evils if we just give them the chance.

and i'm not just saying this because i have been recently forced to become fascinated by rodolphus lestrange...

i hadn't deeped before now that the 'lord voldemort enjoys watching himself get fucked in a mirror' thing had turned up in more than one piece... and all i have to say is...

[attention-seeking behaviour here]

[siriusly-sapphic]

thoughts on nobleflower i need to know i have so much in my brain

Oh oh oh! Yes!

Okay so I'm a little sick and my thoughts about anything Narcissa femslash related are usually already all over the place so? Bear with me while I type this on my phone?

First: let me establish the specific setting. Since I tend to mess about with Narcissa's age a little depending on the ship bc the canon Black family tree is a right mess that I've decided I can do whatever I want with. For alicissa tho, I tend to just go with Narcissa being 4/5 years older than the marauders, and Alice being like a year older than Narcissa.

And as for any Narcissa headcanon I have, I'm writing this with the idea of trans!narcissa in mind, though it works very similarly if you imagine her as cis. If you want more context for how I see trans!narcissa in canon compliant settings, I have a 7K meta post here but it's not necessary for this (I just like linking it).

Also we're going with some canon compliancy here. No happy endings today.

So.

Alicissa is one of those ships that, for me, starts out genuinely cute. Like... dorcissa starts out as denial and rivalry, narlily can end cute but starts messy. Alicissa starts sweet. It starts hopeful.

It starts in an icecream shop.

I'd say it starts the summer before Narcissa's 5th year, which is the time I headcanon she comes out as trans and has begun her transition. Which means 1. She is quite terrified of making 'another' mistake to embarrass her family and 2. The scariest moments of her life have just been blasted over Witch Weekly and the Daily Prophet. She is scared, she's being very brave about it, and she gets mean when she's nervous. (Well. Meaner than usual.)

Alice has a type of girl she loves and that type is brave and mean and a little sassy.

So you know, when Narcissa comes into Florean Fortescue's, ignores all the stares she gets, and gets snappy when Alice teases her about mint-chocolate chip being the worst flavour to order.... what choice does she really have except to fall in love right then and there?

And I think on Narcissa's side, developing any crush on a girl will always come with a bit of angst. Because from the moment she transitions, she has a very clear path in mind of what to do and what to be in order to make her family proud of them again. (I could go into more detail, but honestly for that if you're interested see the meta linked above.) And dating girls... not a part of that plan.

But she wants to.

And Alice makes it easier to be brave.

They're prefects in different years and different houses and they're good at keeping secrets and Narcissa can get Kingsley, the head boy, to move the prefect schedule so that she and Alice have rounds together. (She knows that Kingsley's into Rodolphus Lestrange like no other, and like I said. She can be a little mean.)

And I think that for that first year. The first two years, even, when they’re still at school and life hasn't gotten quite so tainted with war yet? They're happy. And they're cute. And it feels good. Like it can last.

It can't. Obviously.

One headcanon is that Narcissa starts struggling in school bc yknow she's going through some shit, and maybe there's a subject or two she's never been a natural at and is now falling behind in, and it just so happens that Alice is really good at that. So they can meet publicly in the library while Alice tutors her and Narcissa struggles to get over her embarrassment for needing a tutor.

Narcissa has only ever missed one quidditch game (she hates the game, but her best friends are the Lestrange brothers (oh yes that gets painful later) and they play on the team, sonshe has to go). That's the game Alice convinces her to come into the Gryffindor common room while everyone is gone and they make out in front of the fireplace.

They almost get caught. Narcissa avoids her for about a week. They never take that risk again.

And then the war. Alice graduates first, and I see her as being quite determined to make a difference in the war and unsure how to do it. Obviously the Order is a very secret organisation, and she doesn't know about it immediately, so she becomes an auror.

That's also where she meets her future husband Frank Longbottom (bless that man).

Meanwhile Narcissa is a seventh year, her best friends are losing their parents and are drowning in it and she is trying to balance NEWTs and helping the Lestrange twins and the ever important thing of Not Disappointing Her Parents (Again).

I think, however unjustly so, she starts blaming it on Alice for leaving. Which is obviously not actually Alice's fault bc that's just how gradustion works, but it's easier to blame a girl with who it never could've worked out (and maybe shouldn't have worked out as long as it did), than it is to realise that this is just a shitty collection of circumstances. Or worse, to blame her family. She can never blame her family. (She feels she owes her family too much to blame them)

So by the time Narcissa graduates, she's planning an engagement with Rabastan Lestrange that will fall through soon enough and she hasn't told Alice about yet. Alice, at that point, is an auror who's working together with Frank and feels so very betrayed when she does find out about Narcissa's engagement.

It's one of those things that has always been inevitable. But that Alice couldn't help but secretly hope wouldn't happen anyway.

And I think that's where it goes wrong.

Because Alice tells her not to marry Rabastan, around the same time that Rabastan is trying very hard to destroy everything good in his life because grief isn't kind, and Narcissa is the best damn thing to have happened to him. Druella Black ("you should do better than a miserable second son"), Alice Fortescue ("just get away from all of it"), and Rabastan Lestrange ("why are we bothering anyway?") himself, all tell her to break off an engagement that brought her SO much joy when it became reality.

And so Narcissa decides to hate all of them for it.

Except she can’t. Obviously. But she decides she does anyway.

Because Druella is still the mother she wants to be proud of her, and Rabastan is still her best friend who she wants to protect, and Alice is still the first person she ever really fell in love with. She can’t hate them. But she wants to.

But I think that strains alicissa's relationship a lot. Because it shows that Narcissa isn't just mean, she can be cruel and delusional. And it makes it clear that it doesn’t really matter how much Narcissa loves Alice (because she does. She really does.) Because as brave as Narcissa can be, she's a scared young woman who seeks to protect herself. And protecting herself in pureblood society means marrying a suitable pureblood wizard. It doesn’t mean running away with a halfblood witch and hoping life turns out alright.

Narcissa has always protected herself by planning ahead and following her plan. Alice doesn’t fit into that. And Alice isn't the type of woman who will wait around to see if Narcissa's plans change.

So when Narcissa gets engaged to Lucius Malfoy, and her happy and perfect smile is all over the Daily Prophet, Alice accepts Frank's invitation for a date.

And for a while that's that.

There's some looks, because Frank is a Longbottom and while he's on his way to become a traitor, his great aunt was a Black and he still gets invited to notable pureblood events. Not for long, but long enough. There are some strained conversations and longing glances and even, once or twice, guilt-ridden hookups when their respective husbands are out.

Alice feels a whole lot more terrible about that than Narcissa does. She loves Frank. I swear she does.

Alice is a renowned auror and joins the Order and is a genuine danger to any death eater who comes her way. Narcissa is terrified every day that her husband might die at her lover's hands — or god forbid the other way around.

Alice grows to hate Narcissa during that war. Because how dare she attend charity galas to safekeep the victims of a war, when she damn well knows it's her friends and family waging that war. The hypocrisy and the cruelty too much.

Alice likes her women brave and a little mean. Not cowardly and cruel.

They become mothers around the same time. Two months apart. When they’re both pregnant, they see each other occasionally in the same maternity shops and healer waiting rooms. There's a kinship there and this very strong desire for a closer bond, that ultimately can't withstand the hatred and the mistrust that the war and Narcissa's choices have brought upon them.

And then the war is over.

Narcissa and Lucius manage to escape any time in azkaban. Alice and Frank can finally settle and mourn their loved ones. All four of them can look at these beautiful young boys in their arms and hope with all their might that their lives will be easier.

(It’s unclear when the attack on the Longbottoms happened. We know it happened after the war, and we know it happened when people had just begun feeling safe again. We know there was enough time for Crouch sr to start greying by the time the Lestranges were put on trial.)

But that wrecks Narcissa.

I wanna say that Alice and Narcissa stopped actively seeing each other when the war ended. Alice doesn't want to have an affair when she is genuinely happily married and she has a son. Maybe she's trying for a second child.

But Narcissa’s best friends in the world. The family I tend to describe as "what the Potters and James were to Sirius, the Lestranges and Rodolphus were to Narcissa". And her sister. Two of whom knew just how fucking important Alice Fortescue was to Narcissa, once upon a time.

I genuinely don't think Narcissa believed it, when the Lestranges were first accused of that crime. I don't think she wanted to believe them capable of it. And when it turned out to be true.... I have so many thoughts about that connection I could fill another and longer post. But it wrecks her.

Narcissa only visits Alice once.

It's under the guise of "seeing what her sister has done, to put it behind her". Augusta Longbottom is there, in absolute pieces because her only son is gone. Neville is there, Draco's age. Alice doesn't recognise her. Narcissa thinks it might be better that way.

Narcissa just really doesn't belong there. And she doesn't belong there because of her own choices, her own mistakes. And I think that realisation breaks her even further.

Only one of them remembere what they used to be, and Narcissa selfishly wishes that it wasn't her.

Okay and this is getting long so. The rest is just little moments of pain. Draco writing home about how stupid this Longbottom kid is? The absolute guilt of knowing her darling boy is bullying the son of the woman Narcissa loved most? Post war, when maybe Neville is old enough to want to know more about Alice and find out that there aren’t many people alive who remember Alice when she was young. But Narcissa does.

And don't even get me started on the Lestranges escaping Azkaban. That's agony right there. I have no time. But also I have SO many thoughts and all of them heard more than the other so one day I'll inflict them on others.

This became so long I'm sorry lmao, but I hope you like the thoughts. This is why happier fix it AUs exists.

[therealvinelle]

Harry as the son of Rudolphus and Bellatrix Lestrange

Bellatrix and Rodolphus did not have kids, which I take to mean Bellatrix was on contraceptives.

Say the contraceptives failed.

Bellatrix would have an abortion.

There's a wizarding uprising happening, she's in the thick of it, very notably rejecting her role as the pureblood wife that pops out babies in favor of seducing serving The Dark Lord. Having a child will not only put her out of commission and take away a huge chunk of her personal freedom going forward, but it will make her a Pureblood Wife™.

Pureblood society will see this as conforming, her fellow Death Eaters will see this as her stepping back, and Voldemort will see her as a fat and haggard mother, as opposed to a femme fatale he can have sex with.

Or so Bellatrix would fear.

Whether the Death Eaters actually were such a boys' club, and whether Voldemort was ever interested in her sexually, is up for interpretation, but Bellatrix allowed being a Death Eater, and having Voldemort's favor, to define her. A child would threaten all of that.

She gets an abortion.

[knowshisowna]

META | the relationship between rod & bella.

one thing i feel like i don’t talk about enough on this blog is the actual relationship between rodolphus and bellatrix. not the perceived relationship , not the one crafted and solidified for them , not the one on paper. no , the real and raw relationship they share between the two of them when no one else is around , when no one else is watching. because it is one of the most important relationships not only to rodolphus but to rabastan and the death eaters as a whole.

first and foremost , they are as close to close friends as either of them can imagine , more so even than rodolphus and antonin although their relationships do not at all look alike and not just physically. bella and rod grew up together , and while he is substantially older , they learned from one another. they didn’t get along at first probably. they are at two opposite ends of a vast scale , and there was a lot of push and pull to start. he was order , and she was chaos. limits had to be tested. lines had to be drawn. and some things had to give.

of course , him being older and a lover of organization , this clashed with a reckless little girl’s idea of fun , but they grew to respect each other , or at the very least each other’s abilities. it was evident to everyone how formidable they could be together under the right circumstances , circumstances tom himself manufactured. and a union between the two of them would offer them both the freedom few others could say they had without upsetting tradition. bella wouldn’t have to bare children , and rodolphus wouldn’t have to worry for his home.

the marriage is of course more to the benefit of tom , but it benefits the two of them as well because at the time of the union , they had the same ambitions. they wanted the same things , and they were focused on the same goals. bella is still up in arms about it , but more so about the marriage itself and the fact that not even she , protege of voldemort , is able to evade the horrid tradition. but she and rod are still friends. and more importantly , they are partners and allies. they aren’t focused on raising a family , they’re focused on raising an army , and whatever may come of that , the foundation still holds. 

and in his canon verse , rod becomes comfortable in his role. he gets to do what he wants , bella gets to do what she wants , and they both reap the benefits of being in tom’s inner circle although those benefits differ between the two. and eventually they grow to love each other , which bella is still bitter about lmao , but it isn’t a love that looks like any other. they aren’t overly romantic and head over heels or anything , but they care for one another. they look out for one another. they worry about getting the both of them home. and they call the other out on their bullshit always. 

most of all , they’re honest with each other and with themselves. tom and bella will always take precedence for bella , and the brothers lestrange will always take precedence for rod ( and narcissa takes precedence for both , but anyway ) , and they have a comfortable understanding. they trust and respect each other , and while they can still be selfish , they accept that about each other.

[rodolphus-lestrangex]

Meta: Rod and joining the death eaters and his relationship with the other death eaters and the Dark Lord.

Rodolphus joined the Death Eaters together with his wife very shortly after graduating from Hogwarts. His father was a Death Eater, too, and used to go to school with the Dark Lord, so it was clear from a young age that Rod would join as soon as he became of age. The Death Eaters and the Dark Lord stand for everything he believes in as he is a big advocate of pureblood values (was raised to be, like all pureblood children).

He has a good relationship with most other Death Eaters even though there’s of course always a certain amount of jealousy happening amongst the Death Eaters over who is the Dark Lord’s favourite and all those things. He is closer to some Death Eaters (Bella, Lucius, Rabastan, Antonin, Severus) than others. He doesn’t really try to “make friends” in the ranks.

His relationship with the Dark Lord is a bit ambiguous, obviously. On the one hand, he admires him greatly and kills and tortures in his name and for his values, but on the other hand, he’s not too happy (that is an understatement) about what’s going on between him and Bella. He sometimes feels like the Dark Lord is hinting at things and saying/doing things regarding Bella on purpose because he knows Rod can’t do anything about it.

[archopv-blog]

were there any death eaters who would have helped regulus if he'd asked? anyone in his family?

META QUESTIONS !!! | always accepting. 

so i’ve had this in my inbox for two months , and i am so sorry , but also , i had time to actually consider it , and now i can offer a complete list of those who would have helped regulus if he would have asked.

now let me preface this with saying that the chances of regulus ever asking for help outright is slim to none because first , he would have only wanted to ask sirius and his pride would never allow him to do that. second , his pride in general would have barred him from seeking out help in any capacity from anyone. however , if any of these people would have found out , they would have , at the very least , NOT allowed him to get captured and killed by voldemort. 

in order from most likely to help him betray voldemort to... least likely to turn him in i guess. 

EVAN

evan has his doubts from day one about joining voldemort. his father has mapped out his life for him , and his mother has no spine. evan is terrified of oblivion , of being another body forgotten in the mud at the end of it all. he is going to die nameless , and he hates the idea. if his cousin would have come to him , or if he had been conscious enough to see what reg was doing , he would have helped him. he would have realized that not only was he not alone in his feelings of disenchantment but there was also a way to make a name for himself. now while he doesn’t think much of muggles / muggleborns / etc. , he doesn’t believe in blatant genocide , and he doesn’t think voldemort is best for them. so he would help reg if sought out.  

RABASTAN

now if evan helps , this is a given. evan is his best friend. he loves evan to death and where evan goes , he goes. even if evan weren’t involved though, rabastan wouldn’t let regulus get killed. he’s family , and truth be told , rab doesn’t care which way the war goes. he’s been undermined and downplayed and ostracized and taunted by the entire society. his own parents have constantly and consistently alienated and emasculated him. he’s down for some revenge.

RODOLPHUS

once again , while rodolphus is dedicated and devoted to the cause and believes in it fully , his family always has and always will come first. that includes both rabastan and the black family. now rodolphus is not going to outright help regulus. he will not play along or aid him directly. however , if he thought regulus was in danger of being discovered or if he believed he was on the verge of getting himself killed , rodolphus is going to intervene. with the amount of time regulus spends in the lestrange house leading up to and after his initiation into the group , rodolphus becomes overtly protective of him. he will not hurt children if he can help it. that is rodolphus’s code , and he will certainly not let the children in his family get killed. he was the one person not all that comfortable with regulus joining so young , but he could hardly stop it. regardless he looks out for him always , and he would be in regulus’s ear a lot , both trying to persuade him to abandon his efforts but also ensuring he keeps himself safe. he does not want to see regulus dead. that is more important to him than anything. 

BARTY

for barty , this would be the hardest. regulus is his friend, his closest friend probably especially after joining. now , barty is so fucking dedicated to the cause. mostly out of spite for his father , but it is ingrained in him. he is fucking ready to die for this shit. if he found out what regulus was up to , it would send him into a goddamn spiral because one, he doesn’t want to see his best friend dead. but two , his loyalty has been completely and irrevocably entrusted to voldemort. so i think he would constantly be wrestling with this , but he wouldn’t be able to turn regulus in. if there is one thing barty knows how to do , it is keep a secret. now obviously if you get on his bad side or provoke him , he can weaponize a secret so fast and ruin your whole life , but he does know how to keep one safe. but he isn’t going to actively help. 

BONUS : NARCISSA 

bubbles and i talked briefly about this before but while narcissa has her own views of shit , she loves her cousins and would not have let him die. she would have followed his little ass into that cave and dragged him out and taken him home. that’s just the facts. whether she believes in what he’s doing or not , she is going to have his back and that’s what i can say about that. 

[slitheringghost]

Voldemort Fic Recs, Part 2

Part 1 is here.

colours by @allthepeculiarthings (900 words, T)

Rec: A beautiful Tom character study, and I love the detail of Merope's green shawl.

It was Mrs Cole, herself only a young girl at the time, who had thought to take his mother’s shawl from around her shoulders, and bundle him in it instead. His mother, after all, would have had no use for it, resting under a few feet of soft earth. It was a frayed and ragged thing, and the green dye of the crocheted wool faded further and further into the dangerous territory of grey each year, but Tom clung to it nevertheless. His shawl, his name, and his life – he clung onto all he had inherited from his mother like a starved dog guarding its last meal.

time turns and tells them by @slashmarks (Tom & Abraxas, 1.4k, T)

Rec: The most fascinating version of how the Death Eater cult started - from a Tom that never really planned on it or on becoming Voldemort.

Hogwarts uniforms were a great class leveler as long as you were a student. Afterward, of course, the Wizarding World sorted most of the upstarts straight back out. Tom hadn’t needed to be sorted, being the best and brightest, except that he would have gone out buggering a lethifold before he resigned himself to pushing papers at a Ministry desk to buy first generation class privilege without even the paltry efficiency of doing it with a fountain pen instead of a quill. Magic in Britain, he had long ago concluded, was wasted on the magical. They had no imaginations at all. - Abraxas was the only one of his friends he’d let keep calling him Tom at school, less as a sign of intimacy and more because ‘Voldemort’ was terminally wasted on him. Abraxas’s great gift for amoral calculation was marred only by a dire lack of romance in his soul. But he was also the only friend Tom still saw regularly, have retired the Voldemort character when he no longer needed to keep a dorm full of pureblood morons in line.

a learning experience by @laeveteinn (Tom/Hepzibah, 9k, T)

Rec: I love Tom's voice and characterization in this, with an unexpected twist on Hepzibah Smith.

“Tom, my boy,” Slughorn exclaims, all well-meaning, smothering concern, “you can’t work at Borgin and Burkes!” This, naturally, is the moment Tom decides he will.  (He learns that his disdain for boundaries extends far past the realm of magic.)

the tiger’s lady by slashmarks (Bellatrix/Voldemort, 4.8k, T)

Rec: A Voldemort tells Bellatrix about Merope fic. The portrayal of cyclical violence will make you ache, with Bellamort playing out Merope's past. I requested this; you can request fic from slashmarks in return for a pro-choice donation here.

“My Bella," he said, softly and directly into the back of her neck. She had missed this, or else it had come suddenly, this switch into the most dangerous of his moods. "You lie very well and very often, do you not?" She didn't know what to say, but the words came out on their own, responding to a lifetime of instincts built for just this sort of situation – when saying the wrong thing was better than saying nothing at all. "My lord knows I am a Black... And generally appreciates it." She felt him tense behind her, and for a moment she expected him to fling her into the hot stove, but instead he moved back, and he was laughing – a real, sincere laugh, a sign of genuine relaxation, and her shoulders also relaxed

The Pleiades by @saintsenara (Bellatrix/Voldemort, 2.8k, T)

Rec: Beautifully written, another version of Bellatrix and her finding strength in Merope that makes me ache.

But she could still see, as she hugged herself for warmth, the seven sisters engaged in their celestial Quidditch match. She muttered their names each night like a prayer. Alcyone Maia Sterope Taygeta Celaeno Electra Merope - ‘Do you like Quidditch?’ she asked the Dark Lord, as she levitated a coffee tray into the study. He didn’t look up from the wanted posters of himself he was inspecting at Mr Lestrange’s desk. ‘No.’ This didn’t surprise her. For all his magic, so strong that it seemed to roll off him like the waves which could be heard from the open window, there was a brittleness about the Dark Lord which made it unlikely that anyone would describe him as sporty. A healthy whack from a bludger would probably snap him clean in two.

Still Water by deslea (Bellatrix/Voldemort, Bellatrix/Rodolphus, 2.2k, M)

Rec: A post-Azkaban Bellatrix fic with an equally heartwarming Belladolphus and Bellamort.

"Show me," she said. Just that. He frowned for a moment, but then, he nodded, and then images and impressions exploded in her mind. His near-annihilation, and the struggle that followed. His boundless, relentless will to live, to find a way. To find a way back. Years alone with his own mind, with no other input to sustain him. He'd reflected and re-reflected on himself, his life, his nature, until it was like eating himself alive. And then, finally, rebuilding himself, cell upon cell, bone upon bone, skin upon muscle. To her, his body before her seemed like a work of art, the work of a great creator. That he was still himself seemed a miracle.

stray shard of soul by Laeveteinn (Tom & Delphini, 100 words, T)

Rec: An excellent Dadmort mini fic.

He hates this child’s screaming. It jangles long-numb nerves, and he considers igniting her crib. (Old habit.) But when he considers another harming her, some faceless enemy, he burns. He’d incinerate them. Next, the world.

[dumbledore-and-grindelwald]

What do you think of Rodolphus Lestrange ? How did he feel about Delphi ? Or his wife? Was the Lestrange's marriage a " real " marriage ? Or was it a ménage à trois of sorts?

We already know that Bellatrix and Rodolphus’ marriage did not happen out of love on her side and she only went through with it because having a pureblood husband was what was expected of her. 

I think that Rodolphus was not an idiot and they were close friends. After all, they tortured the Longbottoms, Rodolphus was too loyal enough to never renounce Voldemort for a chance at a comfortable life, they were paired together in the battle of the seven Potters etc. He was a firm supporter of Voldemort and he might have actually even considered his wife being the Dark Lord’s favorite to be an honor. I also don’t think they would have had sexual relationships from the moment he became aware of her relationship to Voldemort (whom I can never see as someone sharing his toys, just because of his ego and not for sentimental reasons).

Bellatrix, being a supporter of Voldemort more than anything else, would have felt much more comfortable with trusting such a loyal friend and death eater with the secret of her pregnancy -including her own sister, who was wavering and never took the mark- and I am sure that Rodolphus wouldn’t have minded. I think that he took an actual interest in Delphi’s well-being, especially after he learned about Voldemort’s potential return. However, even if she had rose to power on her own, he would have stood by the Augurey; and I definitely headcanon that he introduced her to aspects of her history and to some of the spells and abilities that she mastered.

[sofoulandfairaday]

I know you’re not a big fan of CC, but I adore your takes and meta, so, how do you imagine Delphi and how would you improve her character?

Or headcanons, to put it more simply hshshs

Errr not an easy question, actually. I'm going to imagine two different scenarios for this because this character is such a blank slate that she could be taken anywhere.

Scenario n°1 - Bella&Vold die (follows canon)

Delphi was a Dark Magic experiment that Vold&Bella did for whatever reason. Either that or she was an accident (the more I think about it, though, I'm starting to believe that maybe Vold wanted to involve her in some kind of magic experiment, maybe even to get a new body/get a better grasp on immortality and he needed his own child's flesh - think Abraham and his sacrifice to God, just twisted)

They just don't have the time to do it. The Battle of Hogwarts happens suddenly when Vold realizes that Harry & Co. have the Cup, so there is just no time. We all know what happens.

In the aftermath, Lucius/Narcissa/Rodolphus/whoever tells Harry (not the Ministry, Harry specifically) about Delphi, in exchange for a better plea deal. It's up to Harry to decide what to do.

Harry (who is the same character as he was in the books, not that weird OC that has his name in CC) has a little crisis: he doesn't know what to do with this information. His first impulse is "oh no, oh God, Bellatrix and Voldemort's lovechild, let it die". I think he would tell Ron and Hermione, and Dumbledore's portrait. He also tells Andromeda (together with Narcissa - *insert their complicated reunion HERE*)

After much reflection and discussion (and Dumbledore's help, and the fact that Harry is an empath with a huge heart in canon), he would come to the conclusion that they cannot fail this child: they cannot have another Tom Riddle, shunned and abandoned by the world. They cannot let another monster be born out of neglect.

Andromeda still hates Bellatrix and she has Teddy (she needs time to love her daughter's murderer's child), Narcissa&the Malfoys have their trials going on (also hated Bellatrix and Vold by the end), Hermione has to go back to Hogwarts, so Harry & Ron raise her ???

It's mostly Kreacher, in truth. They all stay at 12 Grimmauld Place.

It takes years for all the adults in her life to check their fucking biases, but in the end, they all have a hand in raising her: Malfoys, Tonkses, and the Golden Trio. Draco likes her especially.

They keep her identity hidden for her own safety (and even just to give her a fair chance at life). They say she was Rodolphus' secret niece or something. She still has access to a part of the Lestrange fortune.

Speaking of Rodolphus, he is horrified that the girl doesn't know who her parents are (they decide they'll only tell Delphi when she's a little older), and he asks for visitation rights for years. Finally, they grant them to him for good conduct, with the promise that he'll be supervised and won't try anything funny (like prophecies or time-turners, which just do not exist in this version).

Delphi isn't stupid, though. She's incredibly magically talented, looks like Bellatrix & Tom Riddle (Rod might have cried the first time he saw her), she's a Slytherin, she can speak Parseltongue (her biggest secret, no one outside of her closest family knows) - she starts having suspicions at the age of 9. She finally asks Harry, one day, when she is 13. He tells her that he would have liked to wait, but that he never wanted to hide it from her - yes, your parents were Tom Riddle and Bellatrix Lestrange.

Of course, she knows who these people were. What they did, even just to some of the people who are closest to her (Andromeda, Hermione). She denounces their actions, and yet she feels an ache for the family she'll never know.

She'll also never be able to claim her own surname out in the open - she'd be lynched in the streets.

She starts asking about them. She always has to preface it with"I know who they were, but". Harry understands. Oh, no one understands better than him. And while Ron&Hermione don't know much, Harry tells Delphi all he's gathered on the Dark Lord in those years, especially when he was still young, bright, Tom Riddle.

Andromeda is still very hesitant to talk about Bellatrix, but Narcissa likes to show her old photograph albums, and talk about her childhood, and Rodolphus never shuts up about Bella. They tell her how talented she was, how bright, how powerful, how passionate.

They tell her how she had been conceived as a Dark Magic experiment, her father never really paid her much mind, but how her mother couldn't help but get attached - even though she fought it, even though He told her not to. She couldn't help but love that part of Him that was in her. Rodolphus had adored that child too, from the beginning.

She has always been loved, from the start. She does not become Tom Riddle 2.0

Her parents were horrible people, but they were people. She was going to be just like them: powerful, ambitious, determined, studious, the best.

I feel like she would become a teacher, like her father had half-wanted to do, many many years before. Maybe not at Hogwarts, maybe even in higher education, but she would become extremely respected in her field and is remembered as a researcher and a great witch.

Rita Skeeter or whoever tries to come out with a theory about "Voldemort's secret child" when she's 30 or around that age. She's already so respected (not to mention, Harry Potter's goddaughter) that she is able to just laugh it off. "Even if I was, suck my dick" is basically what she says (in more elegant terms, of course).

She does have her parent's temper, though. And, just like Harry, her mother's eyes.

I also like to think that she took care of Rod in his old age, after he gets finally released from Azkaban (<3). In his deathbed delirium, he sees Bellatrix and dies in a Snape-way, happily.

Scenario n°2 - Voldemort wins AU

First of all, I guess it really depends on whether Bella dies. And I'm sorry to say that Delphi's survival chances increase if Bella does die (because there's something just so heartbreaking about Vold not being able to kill Bellatrix's daughter now that she's gone, now that she's the only part of her left).

Also, now he does need a new second in command. He can find another way to reach immortality but Bella's magical skill cannot go to waste.

Who raises her?

Errr

Do the Malfoys still betray Voldemort? If they do, which leads to Bellatrix's death, they are soooo fucked. There is no way they survive.

So Rodolphus, maybe? I'm going with him.

Voldemort isn't father of the year, guys. He's hateful and bigoted and utterly unaffectionate. Also, he misses Bella, although he'd never admit to it. He never talks about her. Ever. In his twisted, dark, mind he hates her for leaving him, for letting herself get killed, for dying. She betrayed and failed him.

Rodolphus, in all his grief, cannot shut up about her. As soon as Delphi musters the courage to ask him, Pandora's box opens and she learns everything and anything about her.

I don't know how her personality evolves in this scenario. I can't imagine her being particularly stable. She vows to become like her mother, better than her mother even. She failed her father, in the end, but Delphi won't (I imagine she also thinks of Voldemort's word as Gospel).

Vold trains her, of course, as he did Bella.

He cannot help but notice her and Delphi's similarities, but also their differences. Delphi is more subtle, quieter. Like Bella, she's naturally skilled at offensive magic. Unlike Bella, she's cold. Sharper. Hides her emotions more. She's reserved, and flighty. And yet, she craves his approval just like her mother did.

She grows up quite lonely, with no friends, possibly a tad socially awkward.

I think she'd have a hard time dealing with people outside her comfort zone, but also nobody would ever treat her like they would a normal person, they'd always be too afraid. It probably gets lonely.

She would call herself either Gaunt or Black, I feel. Voldemort wouldn't like her having the Lestrange name, Rodolphus' name, but all three are pureblood houses with no heirs, so at least one of them has to be picked up again (also, unless the Malfoys have some distant cousins tucked away somewhere, they're also gone)

I never really know what to make of Voldemort wins!AUs because these characters, to me, are somewhat doomed by the narrative. There is no happiness for them, even when they win. Voldemort is so full of rage that, once England is at his feet, Harry Potter is dead, he realises just how empty immortality is. A black pit even deeper than death and yet he knows that he cannot die, because he cannot feel guilt for his crimes, and therefore if he were to pass on to the next life, there would simply be no next life. His soul is destroyed, it's eternal nothingness. So he's fucked himself, basically.

Rod dies, eventually, and she mourns him deeply. She cannot bring herself to realise that he was more of a father to her than her own father but she feels his absence, and only understands how much she took him for granted when he's no longer there.

She and her father have this weird attraction/repulsion relationship where he wants to have her close but then cannot stand it when she is. She is at the same time too much of Bellatrix and too little of Bellatrix.

Much more depressed than in the other version of events. Her father is an immortal God who can't love her or be close to her in any way that matters, she's mostly alone (when she's an adult, it's by choice, because she just can't stand other people). She's immensely powerful, much more than her other self, but it just means nothing.

Loves her mother much less, in this scenario. She is too obsessed with Vold to really care about her (much like in the original play).

I cannot really imagine a happier future if Bellatrix had lived, because I feel like Voldemort would have even less need for Delphi. I could write a very long post about why it makes absolutely no sense for either of these characters to choose to have children, so this is the best I have.

I think that Bella would have loved her daughter but never more than the Dark Lord - and that in itself is tragic.

I'm sorry if these suck, I've tried my best.

[artemisia-black]

Bellatrix's Villain origin story

Following on from my meta I wanted to give Bellatrix, a villain origin story that is more nuanced than her simply being ‘insane’.

Note: I’ve changed a few cannon things like her father only being 13 when she was born and given her a birthday (she’s a scorpio like her cousin Sirius)

Part one

Bellatrix’s father Cygnus Black, was a man who was keenly aware of his position as the first-born son of the secondary branch of the Black family. He had always felt second best to his meek cousin Orion and longed to best him by being the first to secure the family line. An accomplishment that would be rewarded by gold and political office. To achieve his end, he married Druella Rosier, a beautiful witch with a good name, in a lavish ceremony which took place three days after his graduation from Hogwarts.

His new bride, was also keenly aware of her position as the only daughter of a family whose only asset was a respectable name. And although Druella had initially set her sights on Orion, she lacked the dowry and charm to secure him, so she married Cygnus instead (a match that her father still considered a coup).

After their honeymoon, Cygnus spent long hours at the Black family estate currying favour with Arcturus Black the titular head of the family, only returning home to deal with his marital duties.

Finally, after three years of marriage Druella fell pregnant and the couple basked in their collective dreams of glory and power. A dream that hinged on the baby having a penis. However, they were sorely disappointed.

Bellatrix Black was born in the drawing room of her parent’s Wiltshire house, on a cold November day, only to be met with the cold-disappointment of both her parents.

After being given a traditional Black family name, the infant girl was handed to a Nanny while her parents returned to the task at hand.

Her early childhood was characterised by loneliness and Bellatrix would often find herself retreating into a vivid fantasy world where she would slay dragons and complete quests. A fantasy which contrasted starkly to the small, featureless nursery to which she was often confined.

By age seven, she had two sisters and with the birth of her cousin Sirius, her parents' tenuous marriage began to fail completely.

Blazing rows would erupt between Cygnus and Druella. Rows which were so loud, they could be heard throughout the cavernous rooms of the manor. Cygnus would increasingly spend his days drunk, berating his wife and daughters for the misery his life had become. And on many occasions, singling out Bellatrix as the useless wretch who had cost him the glory that was his birth right as a Black. An opinion which was the only point of agreement between her parents.

A few weeks after the birth of her cousin Regulus, Cygnus moved his mistress into the property while regularly threatening his wife and children with destitution should they dare report it to Arcturus or their Grandfather Pollux .

Bellatrix was a precocious child and she used books as a means to fill the void inside her. The void where her parent’s love should have been. She read voraciously, and soon realised that her father was wrong. She was not a useless wretch but a member of nature’s nobility. A superior being who was born to rule over others as was the natural order. And Bellatrix, spent many hours recounting her readings to her sisters, as they cowered together during yet another row between his father and their mother, or their father and current mistress.

At age 11, she was sent to stay at the Black family seat in Kent. Here she was taught how to behave in a manner befitting her last name as she prepared for school.

At age 12, Bellatrix attended Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry and was sorted into Slytherin house.

Transfiguration and Potions were a joy to her. She sat next to Rodolphus Lestrange in Defence Against the Dark Arts class, where they developed an immediate hatred for each other. In time, she grew to hate her inferior, vapid classmates.

She was a talented student and far surpassed every one in her year, yet she was keenly aware (as her mother before her) that her purpose in life was to make a good pureblood marriage and be her husband’s brood mare.

And the wild thing inside her chafed against this, she longed to make her mark on the world, and finally prove she was not a useless wretch.

At age 16, Bellatrix's beauty blossomed, and although she showed no interest in boys, it was not long before her parents arranged her marriage to Rodolphus Lestrange in exchange for a hefty dowry. The day Bellatrix was called into her father's study and told she would marry was the only time he ever expressed pride in her. Although it was a pride, rooted in her ability to bear children.

At age 18, Bellatrix and Rodolphus were married in a lavish ceremony attended by the more important branch of the family. And for the first time ever, Bellatrix truly understood what it meant to be a woman in this world. The walls seemed to close in on her as she observed the deference given to her cousin Sirius. A mere boy wielded more power than she could ever hope too. Despite her prodigious talent she would never escape the confines of her sex.

[saintsenara]

hello! welcome!

i’m eithne (she/her) and i write as asenora on ao3 [you can find out why i chose this pen-name here]. i'm thrilled that you're here!

please feel free to reach out to me. my ask box is open and you can also find me on: ao3 | discord | reddit

i'm a northern irish millennial harry potter fan-fiction writer who writes for multiple ships and characters. the masterpost of my writing is here, or you can browse:

by ship | by character | by era | metas

fics i recommend can be found here

things i have to say about writing can be found here

my current works in progress are:

one year in every ten

harry potter/tom riddle explicit | 200k words and counting no major warnings apply

a decade on from the battle of hogwarts, after ten years of the wizarding world thinking it’s safe, a serial killer emerges, leaving a trail of dead women in his wake. each of the bodies bears a gruesome, encoded message for the aurors… a message which - once unscrambled - claims the dark lord has risen again. in the face of the mystery, the order of the phoenix is hastily reformed, ron is stoic, hermione is scared, ginny is getting very good at putting on a brave face, death eaters who were never caught are getting ready to crawl out of the woodwork, and the ministry of magic has plenty of secrets of its own for kingsley to worry about… all harry wants is to distract himself from a marriage falling apart at the seams. all lord voldemort wants is to get out of the horrible place between life and death. so much so that he’s willing to agree to help his old enemy solve the case. or so he claims.

masterpost

scylla and charybdis

severus snape/lord voldemort explicit | 15k words and counting graphic depictions of violence | major character death

severus snape is looking for somewhere - anywhere - to belong. he makes the wrong choice.

masterpost

subluxation

rodolphus lestrange/percy weasley mature | 10k words and counting major character death

percy grows up surrounded by a happy family; yet his belonging is not total. percy leaves his family for the ministry of magic, but the dislocation is not total. percy stays in his job once the ministry is seized by the death eaters, and his resistance is not total. percy returns to his family in the shadow of grief, so his readmittance is not total.

percy falls in love. and that is total.

the war of the roses

sirius black/severus snape explicit | 7.5k words and counting no major warnings apply

a butterfly flaps its wings and sirius does not go to the department of mysteries. what follows from that twist of fate is a story about the long, destructive shadow of a schoolboy rivalry; a story about surviving, and how surviving is sometimes more difficult than dying; a story about the fragility of beauty, the gentleness of hope, and the value of choice.

it is also a love story.

masterpost

[warriorlid14]

More Ron Meta

So, something I've been thinking about lately that I've never heard talked about is that Ron is very efficient on his own without the rest of the trio. The main two examples of this are:

1. That one time he led the silver trio out of a sticky situation in Umbridge's office.

2. And most telling: escaping the Snatchers. He was on 5-to-1 odds and still escaped. Now, he kinda tells us what happens and there's no reason to think he's lying, but I do think he's not telling us the whole story because he was gone the entire night. Even if it was as quick of an encounter as he made it out to be and he landed a few miles off, it still shouldn't have taken all night to find the other two. So I'm led to believe the encounter lasted longer than he said, BUT ANYWAY. Even if he wasn't. Still successfully manipulated them and escaped on 5-to-1 odds with his life and stole one of their wands.

But even with those being the main two examples, we still see more of it throughout the rest of the series.

1. The chess game. Sure, the other two were there, but this was an entirely Ron operation.

2. Staging a rescue operation with Fred and George in CoS.

3. The DoM when the groups were separated. We don't see this one at ALL besides Luna telling us how Ron and Ginny got injured. But we do know that they were being chased by 4 death eaters, and there's no way they simply outran them because of Ginny's broken ankle and Ron's loopiness. So they must've disabled them in some manner or outmaneuvered them or distracted them or SOMETHING. I so wish we could've seen this.

3. Dueling Bellatrix Lestrange AND Rodolphus Lestrange AND at least one other death eater with Tonks. Tonks tells us they didn't get Bellatrix but that they really hurt Rodolphus and that Ron stunned one of them straight on. I'm assuming it isnt Rodolphus he stunned cuz the death eater in question probably fell to their death. Oops. So at least three, two of them being in Voldemort's inner circle and great duelers.

4. Taking down Fenrir Greyback with Neville. The most notoriously evil werewolf in the series. These badass boys.

5. Also dueling some unnamed death eater at the end of HBP.

Now I'm not by any means saying that he works better without Harry and Hermione. But it's interesting how a lot of his more badass moments are apart from them. And I don't know it it's his inferiority complex or some sort of groupthink thing going on and him going "well, they're my awesome friends, who are smart and I trust them, so I'll just follow their lead", but I so wish we could've see more of his leadership/fighting/ability to finesse his way out if situations on screen.