#misc owlery

[bellacktrix]

Elladen

Elladan: Have you ever failed to help someone you cared about?

Bellatrix tended to put more responsibility on her shoulders than was strictly expected of her. As the oldest of her sisters and cousins, she had thought of herself as a leader, one who could keep her family intact, and in that, she had failed. In any other circumstance, her answer would be no, but when it came to familial duty, Bella was unforgiving, even with herself.

[bellacktrix]

Melkor / Ungoliant

Melkor: Has greed or the desire for material goods ever backfired on you?

Bella didn’t see money, thought the affluent way her family lived as nothing but the way civilized humans were meant to live. They had been given this because they were better. People who had to beg had obviously done something to make their way to the dirt beneath Bella’s shoes.

Ungoliant: Are you proud of your children or younger relatives?

Narcissa was everything a pureblood lady should be, something Bella was endlessly proud of. Her young cousin, Regulus, was also showing promise, developing into the future Black heir that Sirius wasn’t. While growing up, Bellatrix hadn’t dealt with Sirius’s eventual growth into what he should have been well, tending to treat him with a disdain that was rooted in jealousy, but the age difference was greater between her and Regulus, and the kind of relationship she had with Sirius was not repeated with her younger cousin.

[bellacktrix]

Fëanor, Aredhel & Bifur

Fëanor: Does desire tend to blind you to the consequences of your actions?

There were very few things Bellatrix actually desired in life, surprisingly. She tended to have a one-track mind about most things, and if she couldn’t manage to get what she wanted, it was only because it was an impossibility. When it came to things such as physical desire, well. Bella knew, intellectually, how others felt about her, but she could hardly dirty herself further by sinking to that. It was what her mother had done, falling prey to something so basic as physical attraction. Bella wasn’t like that, would not let herself be that, only wanted the best. And, if the best wasn’t a possibility, she just simply wouldn’t want.

Aredhel: Is listening to other people something that is important to you?

She cared about very little about what the majority of people had to say; it had always been that way, even as a child. In school, if Bella found the subject matter boring, she would even tune that out on occasion, but her sense of duty was usually a heavy motivator for her to try her best in that sense. Bellatrix only cares about the important things that come out of people’s mouths and occasionally the entertaining things.

Bifur: What is your most interesting injury, and how did it happen?

Bellatrix never saw her more violent forays into supporting blood purity as fights per se, but it wasn’t as if none of her victims fought back. It was interesting to Bella how even the most magically inclined of the mudbloods would end up fighting her with their hands, if the opportunity arose. One of her favorites had been a Slytherin girl, an Angela McPoyle, two years below her, a half-blood who reminded her a bit of herself. That night, while Bella was practicing certain spells that weren’t necessary illegal on her dear Angela, her hand had gotten too close. Close enough that Angela was able to bite her, hard enough to bleed profusely.

Bellatrix hadn’t really known what to do with the wound at the time. She wasn’t very skilled with healing, and the extent of her knowledge ended with applying bandages. Going to the hospital wing was a last resort, one she refused to sink to if she could help it. Over time, she tended to look at the scarred dents in her perfect, soft skin with something akin to pride and fondness, like a gift from the unsuspecting Angela McPoyle or battle wound she had earned in the throws of her cause. Time heals all wounds and scars fade, but Bella could still find them in the dark with her fingers.

[bellacktrix]

Maglor

Maglor: Do you believe in redemption?

No. Bellatrix had years and years to redeem herself from the dirt of her birth, and it never felt any closer, no matter how much she struggled. She knew, as a girl, that had been because it wasn’t possible, and it had been her mission to spread that absolute truth, even if it had been with unorthodox methods inspired by poorly hidden vindication. 

She didn’t believe in redemption for those who tried to fight against the natural order of things either; while with her cousin there had been no love lost, her sister’s betrayal struck her deep, in her own way. If there had been a part of Bellatrix that was built for pity, she may have had felt it for Andromeda, after her choice, or possibly even for herself and the life that had been stolen from her. But she didn’t, and both of them were damned in different ways. 

[bellacktrix]

Arwen

Arwen: Did you ever make a decision your family didn’t agree with?

Bella’s dedication to The Dark Lord’s cause had caused more than a little strain between her and her mother. Her mother was of the opinion that Bella should be more focused on starting a family, leaving the more violent sides of the war to others. Unfortunately for her, nothing could pull Bella out of this war anymore. 

[bellacktrix]

Thorin

Thorin: What have you lost that you wish to regain?

Bellatrix saw Andromeda’s choice to marry a mudblood as her own personal failure. She had always been told it her responsibility to ensure their continued blood purity. There was no love lost when it came to her cousin Sirius, but Andromeda’s betrayal sat heavy with her. Her normal way of dealing was simply to push the blame off, but despite everything, a part of Bella couldn’t completely hate her estranged sister. Instead, she aggressively ignored her, and when it was a topic that couldn’t be avoided, with her poor grip on her mixed emotions, it usually ended badly. 

The larger part of Bella didn’t believe in forgiveness, but sometimes she wondered if she would be able to leave Andromeda out in the cold if she were to return to her family’s side.

[bellacktrix]

Legolas, Maedhros, Glóin

Legolas: What has been your most unlikely friendship, and did it last?

Bellatrix was never quite sure on how friendship worked. In school, she had always found people of good lineage and stuck close to them for seven years. As she matured, she gained attention that wasn’t platonic in the slightest, which she always had just considered her right. If she were to choose any friends at all, it would have been her sisters, and even then, she was connected to them by familial duty. 

The only person she had ever considered a friend was her husband, Rodolphus. When Bella had been told she was to be married, it had come as no surprise; as long as his family could match hers in prestige, she really wasn’t picky. Over the time they had been together, though, Bella found herself comforted by Roldophus in a way that was unfamiliar to her. 

Maedhros: What is the greatest thing you have ever lost?

During Bella’s first year at school, she had been over-compensating in the worst way, the need to prove herself ruling the majority of her decisions. It would have been fine if it had been simply studying, but Bellatrix’s magic had always been of a force to be reckoned with in itself. As a child, she had thought it to be a result of her standing, but when it became clear that it was just her, Bella’s control became tenuous at best. Casting was easy; controlling was not. 

In her struggle to maintain perfect grades, control her magic, and take her rightful position as one of the more elite in her house, Bellatrix didn’t make top of her year. She didn’t really try the years after that, finding alternate, less conventional ways to prove herself. 

Glóin: Are you skilled at something most would consider unusual or esoteric nowadays?

Bellatrix had always jumped from one obsession to the next, with only a few exceptions. Normally, after one of her flings with whatever had fascinated her was done, the information would either be filed away or thrown out. One of the exceptions to this rule was her enchantment with Parseltongue. She liked to think it was the rumors that trouble followed whoever spoke it flared her interest, but more likely than not, it was the prestige that came with being an obvious descendant of Salazar Slytherin himself. 

Bella knew her family didn’t possess the ability, and if they did, it certainly wasn’t passed onto her. At first, her interest was in learning it, even if she had to stumble her way through every choked hissing noise, but when it became clear that wouldn’t be possible, Bella settled for studying the theory. It was something she still considered herself an expert on, as much as any person without the talent could be. 

[bellacktrix]

Aragorn :')

Aragorn: What is your heritage? Do you embrace or reject it?

Were anyone to ask Bellatrix this question, her answer would have been a coy smile that quickly degenerated into a sneer. She considered the name of her father, and all that came with it, as her heritage, but in the back of her mind, there was that ever present flare of disgust with the way she had been born into the world. In Bella’s childhood, it was a sat heavily on her, a sore tooth she couldn’t soothe. More than a few of her classmates took the brunt of her cruelty, simply for acting as if only having one acceptable parent wasn’t something to be ashamed of; she quickly corrected those assumptions. One of her only solaces was just how deep Black secrets remained buried. 

Now, he had different, more violent approaches to dealing with those emotions.