InsaneJournal

It should first be said that Bellatrix is nothing if not a proper pureblood lady. She believes strongly in manners, etiquette, and the rules of society. Wizards are nothing without that which separates them from the animals and muggles. Her mother instilled manners in her from a young age and she has always been a behaved society girl-- now woman. She is disgusted by people who don't know their manners or do not know how to behave properly in public. Of course, Bells is a lady even in private-- well, most of the time, anyway. Ladies don't cuss or trash their peers or shout, but in close confidence Bells has done these things-- never in public though, as that would be purely shameful. As someone who believes so strongly in the importance of manners and propriety, it's unsurprising that Bellatrix has high standards for people, especially those who surround her. While she's tactful enough not to outright tell someone that they're acting like a dirty, disgusting dog her disapproval is hard to miss-- it seeps through her eyes and the pursing of her lips.

She is a very determined, strong-willed woman. Stubborn, even. When she sets her mind to something, she sticks to it. While she hasn't had to face truly "dirty" work in her life so far, she likely wouldn't balk at it if it was in the path to her getting something she wanted done. She's the sort of person who gets things done. And the sort who refuses to listen to nay-sayers-- indeed, any claims that she can't do something will only strengthen her resolve, to prove them wrong. Bellatrix loves the satisfaction of a good job well done, and showing people how strong she truly is.

It can certainly be said that Bellatrix is a proud person. Arrogant might be too strong a word, but she is certainly very confident and likely to highlight her strengths over her weaknesses (which in-of-itself is likely a weakness). She's very aware of what her social standing is. Her pride is hard to wound, mostly because Bells tends to see most people as "beneath" her and therefore their opinion doesn't count as highly as others, but when wounded Bellatrix can be very bitter and very offended. She generally reacts to slights on her pride by going out and showing the person up, whether it be in a game of wits, achieving a difficult goal, or in an outright duel.

As the eldest child, Bellatrix has always felt a strong urge to protect her loved ones. She's a very maternal person, the sort that protects her cubs. She does not take insults to her family well, and Merlin help you if you dare harm any of them-- especially her children. She has been known to ruin people just for a smart remark about her family at a party, or for implying that any of them are less than the epitome of pureblood society. She's a vengeful person, and not to be underestimated. There's a reason most people keep their comments about the Blacks and Lestranges to themselves most of the time. Bellatrix is a temperamental woman, but she has honed her temper to simmer rather than boil over-- to get even rather than angry. There was once a woman who chose to cross Bells by loudly trash-talking the Black family name at a party. That woman is now on the blacklist of most charities, clubs, and other organizations in the pureblood society, almost completely cut off from it, due to a few secrets that Bellatrix made sure got out.

It wasn't her ambition that sorted her into Slytherin-- it was her conniving, cunning nature. Bellatrix is a good analyzer, good at finding ways to get what she wants, good at finding exactly what it is that will ruin a person's life. She's not an idiot by any means, though she's certainly no scholar. She's very clever and quick-witted. No one has ever tried to accuse Bells of being anything less than that, as they know she'd be extremely offended by such claims and immediately outwit them-- just to spite them (because spiting people is just one of her favourite hobbies).

While Bellatrix is a cynical, skeptic woman she is also an optimist. Few people realize that she does, in fact, try to look for the upside to things. She can be surprisingly motivational when called for-- though it rarely is. She doesn't wear rose-tinted glasses or really see anything sunny about the world, but she does appreciate her life and all the luxuries she has. She's never been blind to how others are treated or live, and knows that she is very lucky to be where and who she is. She is not a woman to complain over trivial things, or cry over spilled pumpkin juice. She's very much a glass-half-full person.

Most people see Bellatrix as a hard, harsh young woman, but Bells is a much softer person than people realize. She's just very good at controlling her emotions and believes weakness is impolite. She's much softer and kinder beneath the intimidating glares and snarky remarks. Just because she's so hard on the outside doesn't mean that she doesn't have feelings, or like playing with puppies, or adore children, or other things that are "soft". She's very much a woman with a tough outer shell hiding a gooey center-- not too gooey, of course. She's not about to frolic through the forest singing with birds. She didn't allow herself to become too much a romantic, knowing that she would marry because that was what ladies in society did and not because of some sort of fated love or something. She's certainly more imposing than her sisters, a reputation she likes to keep.

By the early 1950s, the world had already been conquered by Dumbledore & Grindlewald, and was under the rule of the United Wizarding Nations. Cygnus and Druella Black had hoped for their first child to be a boy, but they were instead graced with a healthy baby girl in September of 1951. The baby was named Bellatrix Helene. While they were disappointed that their eldest was a female, Bellatrix was still treated like royalty. Cygnus was high up in the UWN, and so the Black children were raised in the center of the new world.

She was followed by a sister, Andromeda, in 1953. Bellatrix was not quite two years old and didn't quite understand what this small creature was that her parents were giving more attention to, but she accepted the new baby with little fuss, gifting baby Annie with one of Bellatrix's favourite stuffed toys. The two would later become the best of friends.

A second sister, Narcissa, was born in 1955. By now Bells better understood the concept of baby sisters, and gifted this new sister with one of her toys just as she had Annie. While Bells was always closer with Annie, she was also always protective of baby Cissa-- even when Cissa was no longer really a "baby".

When it was clear to Cygnus and Druella that they would not have a fourth child, there was only one route left to go down to gain a son and heir. As Druella worked with the Muggleborn Rescue Committee, they chose to rescue and adopt a muggleborn boy, Phineas, in 1960. Bellatrix and Andromeda were old enough to be let in on the secret, but were told that under no circumstances were they to ever tell Phineas where he'd come from. They were to treat him as their younger brother, protect him like they would Narcissa. It was hard for Bellatrix to look upon the muggleborn babe and connect him to the word "brother", but she had to keep in mind that this was a good thing, that they were rescuing this poor child from his horrible muggle family that would only mistreat him. So, like she had done with her sisters before him, nine-year-old Bellatrix took one of her old toys and gave it to baby Phineas-- christening him as a Black and as her brother.

Like all of her family before her, Bellatrix went off to Hogwarts at age eleven. She felt uncomfortable about leaving her younger siblings behind (Annie, her closest friend, in particular) but had no choice in the matter. She was sorted into Slytherin, much like all of her family before her. Bells had friends within the house already, pureblood children who she'd known from societal gatherings, but had few close friends in her first years at school. She was an intimidating girl, too tall and harsh for most of the young, frivolous girls in her year to feel comfortable around. She was more than over-joyed when Annie joined her at Hogwarts, when Bellatrix was in her second year.

Through-out school, Bellatrix had a penchant for following the rules-- or at least being very good at not getting caught breaking them. She was one of those kids that "stood-out", not just because of her striking looks but because she had a tendency to just be a presence wherever she went. There were plenty of other students who weren't fond of the eldest Black girl and her dark, disapproving looks and slightly scary adeptness in the Dark Arts.

In her fifth year, she was made Prefect. Bells didn't fret too much over her O.W.L.s as she knew that she would do well on them-- and she did, with nothing under an Acceptable (and that one Acceptable was, of course, in "silly" Herbology). In her seventh year she was Head Girl, something she was modestly excited about-- well, modestly in public, as in private to Annie she squealed with joy (she'd also squealed when she had learned Annie was going to be a Prefect the year before). She was a strict Head Girl, leading by example and making a hobby of catching rule-breakers. She did, however, go easy on the younger years as Bells has always been a bit motherly. She did well on her N.E.W.T.s, within the top five of her class.

After school, the proper thing to do was to marry. She was courted by Rodolphus Lestrange, a man slightly older but still in his prime, for about six months before marriage was proposed. They married in July of 1971, at a lavish if "small" event-- small here meaning only "family", which included the majority of pureblood society-- with Andromeda as Bellatrix's maid of honour. Married life was a bit less exciting than Bellatrix had expected it to be, but her and Rodolphus made a good match for each other.

Bellatrix finally gave birth to a son, Pyrrhus Rodolphus Cygnus Lestrange, in the summer of 1973. The birth was a labourious one and the boy was born two-and-a-half weeks before he was meant to. From the start, Pyrrhus was a sickly baby, always crying and having some sort of problems. A year later, Lavinia Andromeda Violetta Lestrange was born, and in contrast to her older brother was a quiet, happy baby in good health. Pyrrhus hasn't outgrown his sickness at the age of two, and the Healers have no idea what's causing the coughing, crying, and other symptoms. Bellatrix knows that Rodolphus hopes that they'll have another son in the event of the worst case scenario, if Pyrrhus should become sicker. The two children frequently play with their cousins, Annie's five children, while Bells and Annie frequent each others company.

SUMMARY OF FUTURE EVENTS
As Pyrrhus was a sickly boy and they were sure that Bellatrix wouldn't have more children, they rescued a muggleborn boy in 1978-- Perseus Rebastan Theodore Lestrange. Pyrrhus and Lavinia were too young to be told, and the Lestranges acted out the pregnancy to some degree. To their surprise, they did have another son in 1979-- Adonis Lucius Phineas Lestrange. At the same time, they adopted another muggleborn-- Hermione Druella Narcissa Lestrange-- so that Lavinia would not feel alone as the only girl. Hermione's adoption was easier to play off-- the Lestranges simply acted as if Adonis and Hermione were born twins.

1. Bellatrix drinks tea obsessively-- she rarely drinks anything else. She has a rather large collection of tea sets and cups to drink from.
2. While many society ladies appreciate art, Bellatrix has never seen the appeal of a lot more of the abstract and "soulful" works. She prefers practical paintings of flowers, vases painted with vines, etc to fancy paintings of splatters or outlandish sculptures of things that... don't look like things. She also doesn't understand the insistence of inflicting "deep meanings" on works of literature-- she seriously doubts that "the blue curtains wafted" is a metaphor for wizarding oppression. Sometimes blue curtains are just blue curtains.
3. Despite her school house, Bellatrix has never been fond of snakes or the colour green. Well, not live snakes, anyway, as she has quite the collection of snake-related jewellery.

missmegan

Bellatrix #1; Canon Bellatrix.
Bellatrix #3; TBA