February 12th:

When we got back to our rooms (It was about half an hour later, honest…) Shell was sitting on the floor next to Adrianna, who was happily lying there, laughing merrily. She looked so gorgeous, edible almost. I could see Shell's tummy a bit now I was looking, she did look pregnant.

Voldemort walked over to her, and scooped his daughter gently into his arms, grinning down at her. Adrianna's tiny hand was squeezing his finger tightly, but he didn't seem to mind. He seemed madly in love with her, like she was everything in the world to him. She was, I knew, from previously seeing his diary.

"Hey Shell," I said, and sat down on the floor next to her.

"Hello Bella," she replied, grinning at Voldemort still. The Dark Lord put Adrianna down in my lap.

"Trix, I need to go and owl Adala, are you two alright to gossip?" he asked, smirking.

I rolled my eyes. "Yes, that's right, you go and do important things while I stay at home and look after your child," I called after him. He turned around, and smiled.

"You wouldn't love me nearly as much if I wasn't this important," he said, and then blew me a kiss.

"Aww Bella, she's yours as well," Shell said when he'd gone.

"I know; I like to try and make him feel bad." I grinned at her, and then I went down so I was closer to Adrianna, and tickled her tummy. She giggled softly. "Daddy's horrid, isn't he, leaving us so he can owl that nasty Vampire," I said to her. Adrianna looked at me like I was a mad woman.

"Meaning what?" Shell asked quietly. "You don't think that he would have cheated on you with her…"

I shook my head. "Even he wouldn't have dared do that." We were silent for a while, except for Adrianna's quiet suckling noises on her thumb. "I don't think he ever wanted to hurt me, and I think it was hurting him all along to be doing that to me," I said very quietly.

Shell nodded. "But he still did it Bell…" She trailed off. "No, you've forgiven him, and I think that's an amazing thing to do. I don't think I could have."

I grinned. "Rodolphus never will, because I will kill him personally. He knows that, I think."

Shell laughed. "You'd kill him? No, I think I might." She sighed. "I've always wanted to ask you, what is it like… Being married to the Dark Lord?"

I shrugged. "At first it was really surreal, just being with him in a romantic way, pretty much until the night he said he loved me." I smiled at the memory. "And then it just seemed right and normal for me." I grinned innocently at her. "Why, were you once someone just like me who would have gladly stalked him?"

Shell smirked. "No, just the type that would happily have seen the inside of his bedroom." I laughed quietly, and glanced at Adrianna who was now peacefully sleeping.

"Come with me," I said, getting up and leading her towards me and Voldemort's bedroom. I opened the door, and pushed her inside. I think she was shocked with this room, at its beauty, and size…

"Wow…" she said, looking around. "This is something, when did you first come in here?"

I smiled mischievously at her. "Shell, come on, do you think Voldemort would have let me in here if it wasn't for a very special reason?"

"And what on earth could that reason be," a voice behind us said. It was Voldemort.

I turned around. "You were so desperate you had to resort to me." I smirked, god I am quick…

"Yes, and then I ended up marrying you." He stepped towards me, and put his arm around my waist. "Ignore my wife, Shell, she's tired."

Shell smirked, and then beckoned to the bed. "I can tell by looking at this." We hadn't tidied up, and there was still stray underwear in the bed.

Voldemort smiled innocently. "I told you, Trixy, to tidy up, and did you listen?"

"When do I listen," I said. "Why couldn't you have done it?"

Shell beat Voldemort to an answer. "Its woman's work, that's why Bella," she said.

Voldemort looked temporarily shocked, and then smiled. "Indeed it is. Shell, you like babysitting, how about tonight?"

She looked very happy. "I'd love to! She can stay over at our house if you want!"

Voldemort smiled once again. "Lovely." He turned to me. "There's a Dark Alliances meeting tonight, we have to go."

"Okay, I'll find a dress."

"Find? You have enough." He paused for a second, and then slid one hard behind my neck and kissed me.

"What time shall I come and pick Adrianna up?" Shell asked.

"Rodolphus can, we're having a meeting before we go tonight," Voldemort explained.

"Yes, my Lord. I shall see you later then, I'm meant to be going out with Rodolphus." Shell smiled and left the room.

"And then that means we can get a lie in tomorrow morning," Voldemort said quietly. "As much as I love Adrianna, I do wish she'd sleep the same hours as we do."

I smiled at him. Then a thought hit me. "Voldemort, are we going to win the war?"

His smile grew wider. "I believe so, my Bella. I didn't tell you this in front of Shell because I'm sure Rodolphus wanted to tell her, but… I just got a letter. Dumbledore is dead, along with several other members of the Order."

Words actually failed me for three and a half seconds.

"Who was the letter from? Who killed them?"

"Lucius. I sent about seven Death Eaters out to where I knew they'd be…"

"Lucius? You didn't tell me?" I was happy, really happy, and then at the same time, kind of hurt he hadn't told me.

"If I'd told you, I would have no been able to stop you from going… And I was worried something would happen to you…" He put one arm around me. "Don't be angry."

I understood what he meant. "It's alright." Then I grinned, and put both my arms around him. "Who else is dead?"

He smirked. "Lupin, Shacklebolt, McGonagall and Tonks. That's nearly half of their good spies and Aurors. We need to destroy the Weasley's, and then we're there."

"The line of Black family scum is ending then, very well." I kissed him on the lips. "Then you will be informing the Dark Alliance tonight?"

"I thought you might like to do it." He tilted his head to one side, and gently ran both of his hands up and down the top of my arms. "You haven't said anything much at a meeting yet, and you'd be respected for it."

"If I must," I said, though I really wanted to. "Help me choose a dress to wear then." I opened up the wardrobe that contained all of my evening dresses. There were a fair few in there, whenever I went shopping and saw a dress that I liked, Voldemort would buy for me.

"Wait, something else for tonight first." He went into the back of his wardrobe, and pulled out a parcel. "Here."

I opened it, and inside the box was a black lace night dress, that was very see through, with matching knickers and bra. "You seem to like dressing me up for bed," was all I said about it, but I winked at him and put in carefully in my drawer. "Thank you."

"I just like to spoil you," he said, standing behind me with his arms firmly wrapped around me from behind. I smiled, and started to pick through the dresses.

"You always do," I replied absently. "What colour?"

"Black. Wear something tight and black…" I pulled out a dress that I hadn't worn yet. It was a lace up back that clung to every part of my body.

"You'll have to help me put this one on though," I said wondering which shoes to wear with it. This really is a hard business, being beautiful and important.

"Sure I-" We were interrupted by a loud crying noise. I smiled. "I'll go, she's probably just lonely." I went into the sitting room, and she was all red from crying. I picked her up, and she stopped right away.

"Is she okay?" Voldemort called from the bedroom.

"She was just lonely," I replied, and took her back in. Voldemort was standing there wearing quite literally only boxer shorts; his robes and anything else he might have been wearing were on the floor. "Be careful, you might scar your daughter for life."

He rolled his eyes. "New born babies can only see 10 centimetres in front of them, the rest is blurred." He smirked at me as I laid her down on the bed, moving any underwear to the floor.

"Know it all…" I muttered. Adrianna shut her eyes once more. "Voldemort, why must you be so damned hot?" I asked him, as he walked past me pretty much naked. He opened the door to the bathroom, and then turned back to look at me.

"I'm sorry," he said sarcastically. He then walked back to me, knelt in front of me and kissed both of my knees. He looked up at me, and god; that was gorgeous… His eyes were quite literally piercing. My eyes were typically Malfoy, cold and grey, yet Voldemort told me that they always glittered, like diamonds. He never called my eyes grey, they were always diamond coloured.

I told him that it isn't possible.

"I love you," he said, and his eyes were really gleaming.

"I love you too," I replied, and bent forward to kiss him on the lips. He then grabbed my arms, and pulled me on top of him on the floor. "Tom Riddle!" I said, teasingly. He smiled, and sat up. Unable to stop myself, and ran my hands down his chest. It was warm…

After a while of kissing, I let him go and have his shower. He came back out wearing his dressing gown open, with quite literally nothing underneath it. His hair was wet and falling over his face, dripping all over the carpet. He put on his boxers; tight ones that make me drool, and came and sat with me.

"Nice shower?"

"Mmm, yes," he replied absently with a smile to himself … Suspiciously… I was aware instantly what he'd been doing.

"So tonight, is it just the Inner Circle?" I asked, anxious to get off that subject before it had a catastrophic effect on whether we get out of the door tonight or not…

"Yeh, we'll call them at about six, so be ready for then." I glanced at the time, it was nearly half three.

"Okay, I'll go and shower now while you look after Adrianna." I took off my robes, and put them in the washing bin for the elves to see to. He was staring at me, probably because I was only wearing my thong and bra. "And no peaking!" I shut the door firmly behind me and got in the shower.

When I went back into the bedroom, Voldemort was sitting up holding Adrianna in his arms, feeding her milk from a bottle. She was suckling on it happily, her eyes wide open looking around inquisitively. "You look so cute together," I told him as I sat down and proceeded to do my hair.

On the half I wasn't bothering with yet, Voldemort was gently stroking. "I'm proud of you, Bella," he said. "I am going to give you whatever you want when this war is over."

"I am honoured to receive this wonderful gift from the Dark Lord," I started to say.

"I don't think you've seen me as the Dark Lord for a long time," Voldemort said quietly.

I nodded. "Not really, since…" When had I stopped? "Since you said you loved me for the first time." That was it.

We were both silent for a while, until Adrianna burped quietly. I smiled, and Voldemort chuckled slightly, and I quickly remembered my hair. "Your hair looks stunning like that," he said after a while of watching me curl it. I smiled.

"Can you brush the other side for me?" I asked him as I had just finished one half of it. He nodded, accepted my brush, and started to smooth my hair down with it very gently.

When my hair and make up were both perfect, it was time to get my dress on. Voldemort was getting Adrianna's stuff ready to take. I pulled the skirt on first, and then put the corset over the top of him to lace. He was so gentle pulling it in; I had to make him pull it tighter. It was six o clock by the time we were both ready.

Voldemort carried Adrianna while I carried her huge bag downstairs to the meeting room. He'd already taken her pushchair down, so he laid her in that next to my throne (Not as good as the one in the Ball Room, less… chunky and glittery, but it was still a tall chair with the Dark Mark engraved in the top of it, identical to his). Rodolphus and Lucius were first to arrive, followed by everyone else. I love the way they always arrive together.

"My friends, I would enjoy to tell you how pleased I am with out newest kills," he said, standing up. During these meetings, he likes to walk around the table so he can see everyone properly when he wants to. There were many smiles around the table. "I am most impressed with all of you, and I see this as repayment from many of you."

He walked so he was standing behind Lucius, though very slowly, like a cat on the prowl. "Who would like to tell me whom our next targets will be?" he said, looking around the table.

"The Weasley's," someone said.

"Why?" Voldemort shot back quickly. He always likes to test his more… Worthy followers.

"They're close to Potter and there are a lot of them, my Lord," was replied.

"Anyone else after them?"

"Blood traitors," I said suddenly.

Voldemort turned to look at me, with a smile. "Why so, my Lady?"

"They disgust me, my Lord," I returned.

Lucius's next comment was predictable. "You're related to one, Bellatrix," he snapped.

"My Lady," Voldemort snapped, whacking Lucius over the head with the back of his hand. Malfoy looked shocked, and gave me a dirty glance. I remember when Voldemort used to do that to me, though it was always flirtatious, and I would go out of my way to make him do it. It never used to hurt unless he meant it, and then when he did (Which wasn't that often) it was like having my head blown off. I think that's what he just did to Lucius…

…Who was probably just concerned his hair might have been messed up…

"So are we all, I do believe." I smirked, ignoring it. I do love the way Voldemort hit Lucius…

"Half bloods that claim to be Dark sided!" Someone else said after a while.

I cleverly didn't look at Voldemort, or let him answer. I did notice that his hand jumped very quickly into his pocket where I had put his wand… (He has a habit of forgetting his. He did in a meeting the other day, and he had to borrow my wand…)

"No," I said quickly. "There are many half bloods in our ranks, who come half from muggle and mud blood families, and half from some of the greatest pureblood and dark families in the world."

Voldemort nodded. "I agree, my Lady." Yeh, he would, funnily enough.

"Another suggestion, my Lord, my Lady," said Rodolphus. "Mad Eye Moody."

"We have never been able to take him down, spells seem to bounce of him," I said after a moment.

"Yet we must." Voldemort didn't look happy suddenly. "After Moody is gone, who is next? That will mean the Order is destroyed, but we will not even be close to taking over."

"Fudge always used to look up to Dumbledore, doing everything Dumbledore said. After one year of working without Dumbledore, I think that Fudge will be back to relying on Dumbledore… And now he is gone…" Lucius smiled as he spoke, obviously thinking that would be enough to sort his hair out. "Well, the Ministry will be weakened."

"Fudge coped by himself when he'd abandoned Dumbledore…" Someone said. I don't know enough names.

"He simply pretended that our Master hadn't returned," Rodolphus said quietly.

"We need to work out how we can kill the Squib guarding Potter," Voldemort said, and sat back down again. He gently picked up my hand and started to stroke it absently.

"How can that be hard?" I smirked. "My Lord, we can get past the wards on Potter's house because there will be no one of importance to come and stop us!"

Rodolphus seemed to have thought up something, he was suddenly all bright. "We can go there, get Potter and at the same time we can get all of the Order members there, and kill them all!"

"I've thought of that," said Voldemort, with a small smile in Rodolphus's direction. "But there's a possibility that there will be Ministry Aurors with them, and there'll be too many…"

"Not if we use our entire force," I cut in, being the only one brave enough to interrupt. Voldemort raised an eyebrow.

"And then when it comes to the final battle? They will know the full extent of our force, and will play on it, getting more of their own support. No, my dear, we will carefully select enough people, a mixture of our best duellers, and people that are of little importance to me. We will have an equal balance, and if it goes dreadfully wrong," Like the department of mysteries, I could practically hear him think it… "We will have enough good fighters left for the final battle."

Damn, he's cleverer then he looks…

"We will formulate this plan when we have other kills in place." That sounded technical.

"So we're going to target Moody, all of the Weasley's, the teaching staff at Hogwarts who are-" Adrianna started to cry half way through my speech, and Voldemort got up and picked her up to calm her down while I continued. "-Who are loyal to Dumbledore though he is dead, firstly, as well as the squib."

"And Fletcher, though he'll be easiest," Voldemort added. After varying nods of agreement, he sat back down, sitting Adrianna up on his lap. She was looking curiously around the table, her dark hair shining, and her eyes twinkling blue. "For those of you that have not met her yet, this is Adrianna, our daughter." He sounded proud, but he was hiding the love in his voice.

"We need to go, my Lord," I said quietly to Voldemort. He nodded.

"If anyone thinks of anything else, tell one of us right away," he said beckoning to me with a hand, carelessly. Hmm. "You may all go." The Death Eaters, except for Rodolphus, all stood up and bowed, and then disapparated together. Voldemort handed me Adrianna and I went and laid her down in her pushchair, and gave her a kiss gently on the forehead. I wondered then if I should be leaving her, how much I'd miss her, but Rodolphus was already coming over and I knew she'd be safe.

He smiled down at me. "Don't worry Bella, she'll be fine. Shell's decided that Adrianna's going to sleep in our room, with us tonight." He rolled his eyes. "I can see her motherly emotions coming out already."

I smiled. "Make sure you don't leave all the work to her," I said.

"Work? Baby's are a piece of cake." Overly confident.

"Take it from me, Rodolphus," said Voldemort, looking up from the pushchair. "It isn't easy." Rodolphus looked shocked. Probably because of whom he was hearing it from. "Come, Trixy we must go."

I nodded, and stood up. "Are you okay carrying everything Dolphus?" I asked him.

"Yes Bella, go on and enjoy yourself." I smiled at him, and took Voldemort's hand.

"See you tomorrow," I said, just as we disapparated all the way to Norway. It wasn't raining tonight, thank god.

"We're really early," Voldemort said as we got to the castle.

"We can go and sit down though, and wait for everyone else to arrive." Voldemort led me through the first door, then into the main chamber. Both rooms were completely empty. "Good," I said softly, seeing that. I walked around the table, and sat down on my chair.

"Has everyone been invited tonight?" I asked Voldemort. He nodded.

"I owled them ahead and said that we had some important news." He grinned. "Well, I said you did." Voldemort sat down next to me, and gently kissed the side of my neck. He moved around slightly, so he could reach my lips, and kissed me passionately.

"What if someone sees us?" I asked him quietly, pulling back.

"Let them, we're married," he replied shortly, and kissed me again. I smiled into his mouth, and then stopped right away when the door opened. Adala and Fallon were standing in the doorway, looking at us.

"Ahh so the happy couple are back together," Fallon said sharply as he walked in to sit down.

"I wasn't aware we ever were separated," I replied to him before Voldemort could say a word.

Adala laughed. "I told you Fallon, but you never listen to me, and then you look stupid." She sat down next to me. "How is the little one?" she asked, ignoring the look Fallon gave her.

"She's beautiful," I said smugly. "I think even the Death Eaters find her cute, and that's something." Voldemort hand was resting gently on mine, and after a while, he squeezed it. I turned back to him as soon as Adala was engaged in conversation with the person on her other side. The table was filling up.

"What?" I asked him. Voldemort shrugged.

"I really didn't know what to say to Fallon back there," he muttered, and took a long drink of his wine.

"Stop it," I snapped, though quietly. "I need you sober."

"I will be…" he said, but put the wine down. "Thank you Bella."

"Stop it," I said again. "We've discussed this, and we don't need to anymore, you're above all this." I leant over and kissed his cheek lovingly, I knew if I kissed him on the lips we'd end up eating each other.

(I think he's right about not writing anything about what happened in the meeting… It's not like you need to know anyway, you're either in the Order, Lucius or Voldemort.)

It was strange coming back to a baby-less house, really weird, but a lot quieter. Voldemort let me go and put on my new nightdress in the bathroom while he was changing in the bedroom. Changing into nothing, as I discovered as I left the bathroom.

He was lying on the bed, with his arms behind his head, showing off his beautiful six pack, grinning madly at me. "We need to make the most of this," he said, and then beckoned me over. I went to him, the dress trailing behind me, and sat next to him. He was staring at me for a while, and then pushed my hair out of my face.

"I agree," I replied, and then leant over to kiss him on the lips. Just when he was trying to get me to lay on him, I stopped kissing him, and pulled back. "Voldemort, did I do alright tonight?" I asked him.

He rolled his eyes. "Why must you start asking me serious questions at a moment like this?" he replied, and put his arm around my neck, pulling me right into him. "You did fine Bella."

I smiled into his chest. He was really warm, soft, and he smelt really nice. I love him. Everything about him. "Good," I replied, and kissed him again.

"You look very sexy in that dress," he told me after a while of kissing. "But I think it's time it came off." Seemed a bit of a waste to me, but I thought I should let him in case he got all nasty and Dark Lord-y.

As he was taking it off, I said "I really love the way you hit Malfoy tonight."

He does it with Lucius enough.

I mean the Dark Lord-y thing…

He smirked. "I thought you would. Something I used to do to you more then anyone else, I'd better be careful, Lucius may think I fancy him."

We both laughed at the very thought of that. He threw the dress onto the floor, and kissed my shoulder. "Do it more often love," I whispered into his chest as things got a bit heavier.

"For you, I shall," he replied with a large smile. "And anything else I can."

He's so romantic…