;slytherin p r i d e

                     just another day in the life of bellatrix black. ]

            It's the voices in her head that break her. Not of the lives she's taken or the victim's she's tortured. But the people she used to care about, her family. It doesn't matter to her, they don't matter to her. But something deep inside her heart, well hidden by the madness the dark mark brought upon her, something stirs and for a brief moment, she remembers. 

                     She remembers her sisters. The love they had for her and the faith that she would not fall to their mother's manipulation's but she was not strong enough, she would never be strong enough. She was the oldest, she was born and moulded and she is a Slytherin. She is a Pureblood. She is a Black. She would never be anything more than that but they would be. They would have the chance to be something other than what they were told to be and deep down, that's what she wanted. Even if it's not what she said.

      She remembers her cousins. Sirius and Regulas and how close they used to be. She still held Regulas in her grasp, clinging to him because he was all she had left but Sirius -- oh, it had gone so very wrong with him. House pride came between them and from there, the wedge only grew larger. He was a traitor! A betrayer! How dare he turn against the family when family was all they had! She felt slighted. She felt abandoned. How could he choose a Potter over his own flesh and blood?!

                It's her mother's voice that makes her cringe, makes her skin crawl and sometimes, makes the shame flood through her body.

              'I'm so proud of you Bella'

     'Such a good girl Bella'

 'Just like mommy'

                       She screams and she screams but no one can hear her because no one cares anymore. She sold her soul the moment ink blackened her skin and there is no coming back from that. Not for her. So she retreats. She withdraws and that only makes the voices louder and louder until suddenly she's angry all of the damn time and he -- oh, the Lord takes that anger and he twists it in to madness and suddenly the voices are gone. Now, there's only Bellatrix.

                                But Bellatrix Black is dead.

     And Bellatrix Lestrange takes her place, shackled in chains and shrouded in darkness, the cold bitter air of Azkaban chills her skin, and she laughs.