The candles had been extinguished for weeks, he could tell. They sat, dusty, forlorn and dark, on the top shelves of bookcases, glowing slightly in the darkness. It was quite saddening to see. The dirty room was filled with an impenetrable darkness, so thick it felt as though he would have to work to even walk through it. Clenching his fists, he turned angrily to the blonde woman who had followed him in, cursing under his breath. Desperate for something to distract him, he glanced around, trying to make out the various shapes of his surroundings. Even as he squinted, he couldn't quite discern defined objects, any hint of an outline blurring as he tried to focus on it. The whole atmosphere of the room was vaguely threatening, and it made him uncomfortable. There was another moment of silence before he heard the woman beside him draw breath, and she began to speak.
"I have apologised. I didn't mean to insinuate that-"
"Insinuate what, Bella? Insinuate what?" He said irritably, cutting across the woman who had been speaking, harshly gripping her wrist and pulling her down to the ground where he sat.
"That it wouldn't work. But, after all, we're talking about the greatest mission that the Order of the Phoenix has ever had to deal with," Bella told him, smirking slightly. "And you would do well, dear husband, to accept that."
"We must have faith!"
"Maybe you have a little too much faith! Dumbledore, for all his faults, understood the power of faith. The power of belief. And knew that it was enough to drive men mad. Faith is quite one thing, but when a man is so blinded by the passion of his faith that he cannot see what lies in front of him, he needs to know where to draw the line! Dumbledore knew that well."
"Because Dumbledore has been so good to us before." The man replied, sarcasm obvious in his voice. There was an angry pause as Bella stopped to consider what her husband had been saying.
"Watch your tongue, Rodolphus," she said warningly. "He did us well."
"And still, he is gone," Rodolphus snapped. "Look at your surroundings, Bella. You are stuck hiding, moving from place to place, finding abandoned homes like this one just to keep a roof over our heads, and on the run from He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. This is the life that we are living – because Dumbledore did well by us."
"He could not prevent what happened!" Bella cried, immediately defensive. "Our capture was due to our own carelessness, you foolish man!"
"There is no point blaming ourselves, Bella. Now, we are all we have left to live with."
"There is no point in blaming dead men, either! For we only have ourselves and our guilt to live with!" At this, the man scoffed.
"Our guilt? What have we to feel guilty of? We have not betrayed-"
Bella interrupted her husband with an angry 'tut', exclaiming loudly, "Whom have we not betrayed? And if we have not yet betrayed them, whom are we soon to betray? I would have thought that you, of all people in all situations, would have known that the world is not merely black and white. We, now, reside in grey-scale."
Rodolphus began to retort angrily, but he could not stop a reluctant smile from tugging at his lips. He chuckled, and felt Bellatrix jump, startled, beside him. Bewildered, she gazed up at the barely perceptible shaking form of her husband, and, with a noticeable degree of uncertainty, gave a small laugh.
"At least we understand the gravity of our situation," Rodolphus said. "The Order of the Phoenix members, especially That Potter Boy, has no idea of what they're dealing with."
"Well, they have not dealt with the same things that we have. And That Potter Boy, as you so eloquently named him, is still seventeen years. Barely of Age."
"He should know, though, don't you think?" he questioned, glancing over at his wife. "After all, he may only be seventeen, but he has faced more than most have in their lifetimes."
Bella gave another chuckle. "You sound like Dumbledore." Rodolphus sighed patiently beside her.
"I don't mean to, you know." He said, but chuckled along with her all the same. Suddenly, another thought occurred to him. He sighed again, melancholy, before stopping himself. "It won't be long before He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named realises what has happened. We must move on soon."
And then, with just one sentence, the atmosphere in the room had shifted. It was as though the pair had only just properly considered the depressing intimidation that seemed to be painted into the walls of the empty house they had taken refuge in.
"Do you think it was wise? What we did?" Bella asked, her voice shaking in fear. Rodolphus turned to her and smiled softly.
"I think it was the best thing we could have done. Staying would have only led to our deaths. Neither of us is particularly accomplished at Occlumency, and He is the most talented Legimens in the world. It would have been foolish to stay. And," he added, as though it were an after thought, "what would we have done during the time when we remained inconspicuous anyway? Spy? Snape barely manages it, you can see what a toll it takes on him-"
"Anything Snape can do, we could do tenfold. However, you are right. We must just keep travelling until we find what we are looking for."
There was another long pause in which the pair of them considered their circumstances, weighing their options. You always have options, Rodolphus thought bitterly. Always. And yet, they struggled with their situation. They struggled to accept what had happened: to them, to the world, to the fight against Voldemort.
"I can see the darkness spreading across the world," Bella had said to him soon after the pair had escaped. "It smears itself across the face of humanity, scarring our beliefs and the good name of wizard kind. It's like a poison, like vermin, a common garden rat – violence breeds fear, fear breeds anger, anger breeds violence. And in that way, the circle continues."
But had they not broken the circle? The couple had chosen to break away from their circumstances, but, as a result from theirregrettable decision,this was their current condition. It was not in either wizard's blood to run away. It was against everything that they had learnt and knew. But still, they ran, because in the end, running was the only thing they could have done. And it sickened them.
He felt stupid, something he hadn't felt in a very long time. Useless, and stupid, and helpless. Rodolphus was always the man who knew what to do. Bella was always the woman who got the job done – that was part of the reason he had fallen in love with her. He almost smiled as he thought of the first time they met, back at that damnation of a school, but his temporary contentment was quickly shattered when he shook himself out of his memories and took in his surroundings once more.
There are always options, he thought again, allowing anger to shoot through his body, bursting his previously calm composure into a shout of rage, and he stood, seething. Bella jumped up to stand with him, placing her small hands across his own in an attempt to comfort him.
"There are always options!" He roared, and Bella shook her head, shushing him urgently.
"There are always options, yes. But not always good ones." She replied quietly,and he growled in frustration.
"What options do we have? We have to the option to run. We can face Him. We can turn ourselves in to the Azkaban guards. None of those options are particularly desirable, Bella. In case you haven't noticed, all of them potentially lead to our deaths!"
"Then we shall die!" Bella told him, ferocity burning in her eyes. "We will die, and we will fight doing it! If that is what will happen, it will happen. There is nothing we can do, apart from reaching those godforsaken Order Headquarters."
"And have you considered what we might say, especially to Potter, when we finally reach Grimm-" Rodolphus started, but was quickly silenced by Bella's gentle fingers over his lips. He looked at her, searching for the glimmer that he had come to expect from her eyes, and instead finding fear. Pure and unbridled. Unlike anything he had seen from her before. That fear saddened him. Rodolphus had never seen something so dismally beautiful – he never thought he'd see the day when his wife's passionate spirit broke.
He looked at her questioningly, and she pointed towards the door. The couple stopped, Bella's hands still resting on his mouth, and Rodolphus heard it. Not much, but a definite rustling of leaves. With a nod of understanding, the pair Apparated to their next designated hide-out.
It was true that Rodolphus and Bellatrix Lestrange well understood the gravity of their situation. It was fight, or die, or both.
Those were their options.
A/N: AAAAH! How did this happen? I can't believe I've update so soon. You awesome readers (both silent and reviewing) are inspiring me, I suppose. Thanks to scowlingpixie for her constant poking me in the back for an update.
Well, I hoped you guys liked it! Until next time... ciao!