DRABBLE: What Hurts Most (Bellatrix/Voldemort)

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Title: What Hurts Most
Pairing: Bellatrix/Voldemort
Prompt: And Now, For Something Completely Different
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 210
Summary: Things would be so much easier if he were consistent in how he treated her…
Link to Prompt Table: http://gamma-x-orionis.livejournal.com/9

With time, Bellatrix got used to how things were with her and the Dark Lord.  She learned to take whatever he gave her – the pain right along with the pleasure.  She learned to enjoy it, even, convincing her body and mind to take pleasure in being subservient to him, despite it going against everything she had learned as a Black.  It wasn’t so difficult, really, to train herself to turn into a masochist, letting herself enjoy how harshly he treated her.  She convinced herself that she didn’t care.

But then, just when she thought she had gotten used to him, things would change.  He would lie in bed with her and talk to her and hold her.  He would tell her she was his favourite, his most faithful, that no other Death Eater – no other woman – could ever do for him what she could.  And Bellatrix would believe him, let herself believe that she was so important to him.

And then, as soon as she became comfortable with that, he would change tactics again, striking her or calling her worthless or pathetic, telling her that she was hardly worth keeping.  And that hurt more than it would have if he never acted as though he cared about her at all.