"So. You're Griphook." Bellatrix folded her arms over her chest and glared down at the little goblin before her. He sneered back up at her and said,

"Madam Lestrange. I've heard quite a lot about you."

"It's not been Madam Lestrange for some time now," Bellatrix said. "I'm the Dark Lady now."

Griphook did not laugh, nor did he scowl. He just stared, and finally he said, "To goblins, there are no lords. No ladies. Dark or Light or anything in between. I owe no witch or wizard my loyalty."

"You owe my master your loyalty," Bellatrix snapped. "You're being paid more than enough to demand your loyalty."

"So long as the coin comes in, I'll do as Mr Riddle says," Griphook snarled. "This goblin tonight, this goblin outside Scarborough. I want to tell you something about him."

"Go ahead." Bellatrix shifted her weight in the gardens outside Malfoy Manor, and Griphook said matter-of-factly,

"Mordock, this goblin. He got a promotion instead of me at Gringotts. I suppose I should be more angry at your father than at Mordock, but just the same, he stole the position I wanted."

Bellatrix curled up half her mouth. "All right, then. He's alone in his little house. I'll supervise. You do the killing. Show me what you're capable of, Mr Griphook."

"Let's go, Madam Lestrange," Griphook said, and he Disapparated at once. Bellatrix frowned and quickly followed, thinking of the goblin Mordock's home outside Scarborough.

Be quick and careful, she felt Voldemort think. Suddenly, in the dying light of the evening, Griphook scowled up at her and noted,

"You have two pulses. Two sets of breath. Something is wrong with you."

"Perhaps you're paying entirely too much attention to my heart and lungs," Bellatrix snapped. She knew that goblins had their own magic, but this was odd. She narrowed her eyes and heard a distant church bell chime seven.

"There's the cottage." Bellatrix gestured down a little hill toward a small stone structure, and she commanded, "Go take out the little shit that stole your job, Griphook."

"He's not in the cottage," Griphook said. He bared his teeth in an awful smile and said, "Tell your father I said thank you for all the money. All fifty thousand Galleons."

"Fifty thousand... what the blazes are you talking about?" Bellatrix demanded, and she thought at Voldemort,

Something's wrong. Something's off. You should come. Quickly.

She could feel him panic a little, then felt his heart and breathing speed up in her own chest. His pulse in the ether was crimson with frustration.

"Fifty thousand Galleons," Griphook said again. "Perhaps if he hadn't been so clumsy in storing money at the bank. Fifty thousand for me, and fifty thousand for Mordock. Loyalty, as it happens, is a very fluid thing. Goodbye, Madam Lestrange."

He vanished into thin air then, and Bellatrix scowled at the empty space where he'd been. All of a sudden, Voldemort appeared beside her, standing very close and looking enraged.

"A hundred thousand Galleons?" he exclaimed, and she realised he'd watched the scene unfold along with her. She shrugged and admitted,

"I can't see in their minds. My Legilimency doesn't work on goblins."

"No, mine either." Voldemort snarled in anger and jammed his wand down the hill toward the cottage. "BOMBARDA!"

The cottage exploded as if a bomb had detonated inside. Bellatrix gasped and cast a quick Shield Charm, for stones from the cottage walls flew out in every direction. One hit the shield and fell to the earth, and as the cottage burned, Voldemort levitated the stone with his wand and flung it through the air, sending it soaring into a tree. He was absolutely furious, Bellatrix knew. She could feel his rage in their shared heartbeat, in their catching, uneven breath. She could feel his anger in her clenching stomach and her throbbing head.

"My Lord," she whispered, but he slashed his wand toward a cluster of trees and hissed,

"Confringo!"

They burst alive with angry flames, and Voldemort dragged his wand from left to write.

"Diffindo! Diffindo Trio!"

The trunks of the trees were sliced apart by his spells, and the burning trees toppled over onto the field one by one. Bellatrix waited for Voldemort to calm just a little, and she shut her eyes. She willed their hearts slow, willed their breath to steady, and she thought,

This is my father's fault. He was clumsy and lazy with the finances. Punish him.

"Shut up! Shut up! Get out of my head!" His Occlumency shields went up like a brick wall, and he whirled on Bellatrix, looking furious. "Get out of my fucking head, Bella."

"I can't," she said softly. She stared at the burning husk of the cottage down the hill and shrugged. "Well, if that goblin was in there, he isn't anymore."

"Go to your parents' house," Voldemort growled. "Get your father. Tell him to come to my office at the Manor. Immediately."

"Why don't you just call him through his Mark?" Bellatrix asked, and Voldemort took a few steps toward her. She couldn't feel anything from him right now. Her heartbeat was her own. It was bizarre and awful. Bellatrix gulped as she stared up at him, and he said simply,

"I've ordered you to go fetch your father to my office. Are you my servant, or aren't you?"

Bellatrix nodded once. "To the marrow of my bones, Master."

And with that, she Disapparated, leaving him alone in the field outside Scarborough, surrounded by the detritus of his rage.

"Cygnus. Sit down." Voldemort paced by the office window as a chilly rain began to fall in the darkness outside. He pulled the window open, deciding he wanted to feel the wind, to hear the rain. He sighed and watched the reflection in the mirror, watched as Cygnus Black III nervously sat down.

Voldemort opened himself up to Bellatrix again and took a moment to calibrate. Her heart was racing with nerves, and she was standing by a window, too. She'd gone back to the Master's Manor and was by an open window in the library.

If you do not wish to see your father completely humiliated, Voldemort thought, put your shields up now.

He felt her thinking that Voldemort needed to do what he would. He felt her loyalty, a tense braid of devotion threading from her mind into his. He shut his eyes and nodded to himself. He turned around, knowing his eyes were red as soon as he saw the look of terror in his father-in-law's own eyes.

"M-My Lord." Cygnus bowed his head, and he said, "Bellatrix told me that something happened with the goblin Griphook. May I ask... may I ask what's happened?"

"Oh, yes. You may ask, and I will tell you," Voldemort snapped. He stood behind his own chair, his fingers curling tightly on the leather. "But first, I'll tell you something else, Cygnus. I wonder... have you got any idea what sorts of things I do to your eldest daughter?"

Cygnus' face went red, and he shut his eyes. "Seeing as you are her husband, Master, I'm sure I have some idea."

"I don't think you have any idea," Voldemort smirked. He took a long, smooth breath, feeling Bellatrix's morbid curiosity around the edges of his thoughts. Then he pulled his chair out, sat down, and folded his hands on the desk. He cleared his throat and barked, "Look me in the eye, Cygnus."

Cygnus did, slowly raising his gaze to the wizard with murder in his twinned soul. He seemed afraid, ashamed, and more as Voldemort said softly,

"You kept one hundred thousand Galleons in vaults that were apparently very easily accessed by two goblins who teamed up to betray me. One hundred thousand Galleons. Gone, dissolved into the air just like the goblin who was meant to be killed tonight and the one who was meant to kill him. You have utterly failed, Cygnus. You are derelict of duty."

Cygnus' mouth fell open, and he whispered, "My Lord, I am so very sorry. I will be so much more careful in future, and I -"

"I like to come on Bella's face," Voldemort said suddenly, "and she likes it, too. She likes it quite a lot. She's a bit of a glutton for the taste and smell of it, you see."

Cygnus' face went ruby red and then drained of all colour. He licked his bottom lip carefully and coughed a few times. He seemed like he might be sick, and he said,

"Master, I will personally replace the lost funds. That money will be pulled from my own vaults and placed in an account at a Danish bank for you. I will add an extra fifty thousand, My Lord."

"An extra seventy-five thousand Galleons will be fine. Thank you," Voldemort nodded.

I knew we couldn't trust those fucking goblins, he felt Bellatrix think, and he rolled his eyes a little.

It wasn't as though I could let Dumbledore claim them, and, anyway, you should watch what happens next. Your poor Daddy.

He could feel her laughter then, and he was suddenly aware of all the times Cygnus had punished Bellatrix as a child, all the times she'd been tied with Conjured ropes to a chair leg or whipped with spells from her father's wand. Cygnus' screaming voice, scolding his daughter's Darkness, reverberated through the bond. Voldemort cleared his throat and stared at his father-in-law, listening to the rain. Finally, Cygnus said,

"One hundred and seventy-five thousand Galleons will be in a vault controlled by sympathetic wizards in Denmark, My Lord. I will have it done as quickly as possible."

"Quicker than that," Voldemort said. He stroked at his jaw and said thoughtfully, "Her poor little mouth doesn't really fit around it. I'm rather... oversized, you understand."

"Master." Cygnus shook his head and lowered his eyes, and Voldemort snarled,

"I told you to look me in the eye."

Cygnus shook his head again, still staring at his lap, and Voldemort picked up his wand, nonverbally dragging his father-in-law's humiliated and horrified gaze up. Cygnus' eyes watered, and he mumbled,

"If this is because of the parties, My Lord, I can promise you that I -"

"The parties were a mistake. A big mistake. Just as this - losing my money to goblins - has been a colossal mistake. You paid the price for the first one, and you'll pay the price for this one. What I'm telling you now is preventive. I hope that by hearing this information, something with click within you and stop you from making all these terrible mistakes, Cygnus."

Cygnus blinked a few times and sank his teeth into his bottom lip. He said nothing. Within Voldemort's mind, he could feel Bellatrix urging him to tell Cygnus something that would break him. Some strange part of Bellatrix was enjoying this, watching her father suffer at her master's leisure. She was thinking of a time when she was nine, when she'd earned herself two days without food because she'd lied to her father. Voldemort could feel Bellatrix's head throbbing, longing to see her father brought to the edge of what he could take.

"One time," Voldemort said calmly, and Cygnus began to tremble a little, "I put her on her hands and knees. It fits better that way, you know. Or, at least, it's easier to force it in. She was used to Rodolphus' normal little thing, but she still wasn't used to me. She is now, of course. Anyway. I put her on her hands and knees and pushed in and... Mmph. I can still hear the way she screamed into a pillow. First it was from the pain and then quickly, very quickly, she was screaming because she liked it. Please. Please, Master. I could make out those bits, even muffled by the pillow."

He drummed his fingers on his desk and huffed out a little breath as Cygnus Black III touched his shaking hand to his forehead.

"I am more sorry than I will ever be able to say to have failed you, Master."

"Just consider yourself lucky I don't tie you up, or whip you with spells, or deny you food as punishment," Voldemort said lightly. Cygnus' eyes went wide, and Voldemort smirked a little, his voice bitter and cold as he said, "That little girl who danced on my feet... you were an awful father to her then, and you're a lazy servant to her husband now. Do better, Cygnus, or the price will become more than you can pay. Understood?"

Cygnus nodded quickly. "Yes, My Lord. Understood. As soon as I leave here, I shall begin moving the funds as needed."

"Good," Voldemort said tightly. "As soon as I leave here, I'm going to fuck your daughter. In the shower tonight, probably; I need to wash off the smell of burning trees."

Cygnus shut his eyes, and Voldemort listened to the rain again for a moment. In his mind, he thought toward Bellatrix,

Clothes off. Wait for me in the upstairs bathroom. I really do want that shower, and I want it with you.

He cleared his throat, folded his hands again, and said neatly,

"Dismissed, Cygnus."