happy birthday, shannon!
Feb. 18th, 2007 04:13 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stephanometraA little late, but I flatter myself that it's worth the wait.
Bella & Tom gen.
-
"Who is this you've brought me, Rosier?" The man sits in a wingback chair, the sunset lighting the portrait window behind him.
"She's my sister's daughter, my Lord. Bellatrix Black." He gives Bella a gentle shove, and she takes the hint and steps forward, sinking into a cursory curtsy before lifting her eyes to meet the dark ones trained on her. Lord, her uncle calls this man; nothing about his clothes or his posture suggests the title, but his eyes – there is power there.
Bella respects power.
The man studies her with an inquisitive tilt to his head. "She's pretty."
Her uncle shuffles his feet behind her. "We think so, yes."
"You didn't tell me she was pretty," the man says, still looking at her intently. "Tell me, Rosier, what the hell am I going to do with a pretty girl?"
The other men - friends of her uncle - snigger, muttering lasciviously amongst themselves, and Bella bristles, fighting the temptation to whirl around spitting vitriol like a wet cat. Nobody talks about her like that.
He smirks. "How do they talk about you, Miss Black?"
With respect, she thinks, eyes widening in surprise before she can stop herself. "With respect," she says aloud, her tone stopping politely short of defiant in order to cover her fear. The muttering continues behind her, but her attention is fixed on the man.
"And why is that?" He pointedly looks away from her face as if she bores him, examining his fingernails instead.
Because I am a Black. Because I am beautiful. Because I am stronger, smarter, richer, better than they. Bella doesn't know which is the answer he wants, and so she only says, "Because they dare not do otherwise, sir."
He gets up and circles her, almost close enough for her to feel the heat of his body. "I don't care about your bloodline, Bella. Nor am I interested in your charms, however...enticing they may be. And I have no use for a spoiled, imperious little slip of a girl. But pride..." He stops in front of her, lifting her chin with a single cool finger. "Pride, I can use."
"Can you?"
"In a creature such as you? Yes." He raises a hand to tangle it in her hair where it lies loose on her shoulders. "Your pride, Bella, is a product of submission to an idea - the idea that you and the family that produced you and the ideals which produced that family are superior to anything and everything else."
She smiles. "And, sir?"
"And that idea, my dear, is wrong." He tugs sharply to punctuate the word, and she refuses to give him the satisfaction of having made her cry out. "I will offer you a better one, on the condition that you show that kind of loyalty to me. You believe you have a right to power; power I can grant you. You want to make certain that no one ever mistakes you for an ineffectual weakling or a sex object; I can show you how. I will make you lovelier and more terrible than you could even dream, if you can submit to Lord Voldemort instead of Toujours Pur. Can you give me what I ask?"
She swallows hard, mouth suddenly dry as his eyes bore into hers, and says nothing.
"Can you?" he repeats, tossing her own words back at her with a mocking edge.
"Yes, my Lord," she says, hypnotized by the darkness in his eyes as he cuts through her mind.
Then he smiles, a real smile this time, and without moving, he calls out, "Avery?"
One of the men steps forward. "Yes, my Lord?"
"What was it that you said about Miss Black just now? Something about how choice she'd look with her robes about her waist?"
Bella's wrist twitches, her wand dropping into her hand from where it was hidden in her sleeve, but the man's fingers circle her wrist at the same moment her hand touches the wood.
"Defend my honour, Bella."
"With pleasure, my Lord." The curse springs to her lips as she turns.
-
Also, Chad and Cindy and I watched Stage Beauty this evening and I am completely in love with this movie omfg. Like "in love" doesn't even begin to convey it. It has Pepys in it! PEPYS OMG. Also boykissing and stage drama and really believable gender confusion and Claire Danes being adorable and JESUS CHRIST LOVE THIS FILM SO MUCH OH GOD OH GOD OH GOD. Seriously. Seriously, seriously, seriously. I cannot possibly say enough good things about this movie.
And there may or may not have been whiskey involved. Erm. Yes.
Bella & Tom gen.
"Who is this you've brought me, Rosier?" The man sits in a wingback chair, the sunset lighting the portrait window behind him.
"She's my sister's daughter, my Lord. Bellatrix Black." He gives Bella a gentle shove, and she takes the hint and steps forward, sinking into a cursory curtsy before lifting her eyes to meet the dark ones trained on her. Lord, her uncle calls this man; nothing about his clothes or his posture suggests the title, but his eyes – there is power there.
Bella respects power.
The man studies her with an inquisitive tilt to his head. "She's pretty."
Her uncle shuffles his feet behind her. "We think so, yes."
"You didn't tell me she was pretty," the man says, still looking at her intently. "Tell me, Rosier, what the hell am I going to do with a pretty girl?"
The other men - friends of her uncle - snigger, muttering lasciviously amongst themselves, and Bella bristles, fighting the temptation to whirl around spitting vitriol like a wet cat. Nobody talks about her like that.
He smirks. "How do they talk about you, Miss Black?"
With respect, she thinks, eyes widening in surprise before she can stop herself. "With respect," she says aloud, her tone stopping politely short of defiant in order to cover her fear. The muttering continues behind her, but her attention is fixed on the man.
"And why is that?" He pointedly looks away from her face as if she bores him, examining his fingernails instead.
Because I am a Black. Because I am beautiful. Because I am stronger, smarter, richer, better than they. Bella doesn't know which is the answer he wants, and so she only says, "Because they dare not do otherwise, sir."
He gets up and circles her, almost close enough for her to feel the heat of his body. "I don't care about your bloodline, Bella. Nor am I interested in your charms, however...enticing they may be. And I have no use for a spoiled, imperious little slip of a girl. But pride..." He stops in front of her, lifting her chin with a single cool finger. "Pride, I can use."
"Can you?"
"In a creature such as you? Yes." He raises a hand to tangle it in her hair where it lies loose on her shoulders. "Your pride, Bella, is a product of submission to an idea - the idea that you and the family that produced you and the ideals which produced that family are superior to anything and everything else."
She smiles. "And, sir?"
"And that idea, my dear, is wrong." He tugs sharply to punctuate the word, and she refuses to give him the satisfaction of having made her cry out. "I will offer you a better one, on the condition that you show that kind of loyalty to me. You believe you have a right to power; power I can grant you. You want to make certain that no one ever mistakes you for an ineffectual weakling or a sex object; I can show you how. I will make you lovelier and more terrible than you could even dream, if you can submit to Lord Voldemort instead of Toujours Pur. Can you give me what I ask?"
She swallows hard, mouth suddenly dry as his eyes bore into hers, and says nothing.
"Can you?" he repeats, tossing her own words back at her with a mocking edge.
"Yes, my Lord," she says, hypnotized by the darkness in his eyes as he cuts through her mind.
Then he smiles, a real smile this time, and without moving, he calls out, "Avery?"
One of the men steps forward. "Yes, my Lord?"
"What was it that you said about Miss Black just now? Something about how choice she'd look with her robes about her waist?"
Bella's wrist twitches, her wand dropping into her hand from where it was hidden in her sleeve, but the man's fingers circle her wrist at the same moment her hand touches the wood.
"Defend my honour, Bella."
"With pleasure, my Lord." The curse springs to her lips as she turns.
Also, Chad and Cindy and I watched Stage Beauty this evening and I am completely in love with this movie omfg. Like "in love" doesn't even begin to convey it. It has Pepys in it! PEPYS OMG. Also boykissing and stage drama and really believable gender confusion and Claire Danes being adorable and JESUS CHRIST LOVE THIS FILM SO MUCH OH GOD OH GOD OH GOD. Seriously. Seriously, seriously, seriously. I cannot possibly say enough good things about this movie.
And there may or may not have been whiskey involved. Erm. Yes.
