DISCLAIMER: I don't own Harry Potter. It belongs to JK Rowling.

title: Unfamiliar Territory
by: The Rose in Death's Garden
written for: The HPFC 335 Pairing Bonanza Challenge
pairing: Bellatrix Lestrange/Morfin Gaunt

Bellatrix's search for her master led her to some strange places. Strangest of all perhaps was a rundown shack at the edge of a small muggle village.

Considering the state it was in she fully expected the shack to be abandoned but still she approached it with caution. The overgrown lawn was littered with the dried corpses of small snakes and when she got close enough to the place she could see that there were several fresh specimens nailed to the door. She tried to avoid the dangling tails as she reached to push open the door and cringed as the inward swing of the door caused a dead snake to slide across her arm.

Perhaps had she not been distracted by the feeling of disgust she felt at snake corpse's touch she might have noticed that someone was inside the house. Her wrist was seized through the gap of the half-open door and she found herself being pulled inside.

She got a glimpse of her captor as she scrabbled for her wand. He was a filthy man dressed in filthy rags with hair of indeterminate color because it was so obscured by dirt. She didn't have time to notice much else about him as he pulled her against his chest and she felt the tip of a wand pressed against her temple just as her fingers found her own within her robes.

"Pretty," the strange man grated out in a voice that sounded rough with disuse. "What are you doing here, Pretty? What shall I do with you, hmm? Skin you? Hang you out to dry like my little snakies?"

Despite the danger of the situation her need to get away from this disgusting creature outstripped the survival instinct that told her to remain still in order to avoid harm. She struggled.

"None of that, now!" he snarled and pulled her more firmly against him with a hard jerk of his arm.

Her wand clattered to the floor.

"Witch are ye then, Pretty?" he asked and she noted that he sounded less aggressive after this revelation. She felt the tip of his wand trail down from her temple over her cheek. "Black family?" he guessed.

Perhaps she could get some information out of him after all.

"Yes," she answered. "You?"

"Ye came here not knowing, then? Morfin Gaunt, I am." Gaunt... Why did that name set off alarm bells in her head? "Now answer me. What did you come here for, Pretty?"

Deciding to take a gamble on the chance that he might actually have some information that she would find useful, Bellatrix explained her quest to him.

"Do you know anything?" she asked.

"Give us a kiss, Pretty, and we'll tell ye."

She was utterly repulsed at the idea of it but if he really had the information she was after...

Bellatrix allowed the disgusting man to kiss her. And somehow managed not to vomit at the feeling of it and the scent of his rancid breath.

"Now, the information?"

Morfin cackled. "Don't know nothin', Pretty! But you're welcome to stay..."