Let me preface this entry with the fact that Bellatrix is one of my five favourite characters, easily reaching the first or second spot depending on the day. Also, SPOILERS!
Bellatrix isn’t spoken about much, at least not her past, but what she did while in the books was greatly significant and evil, we can assume that due to Sirius’ upbringing with his parents and what we know of his upbringing, and his great dislike for such a childhood, Bellatrix suffered a similar childhood along with her sisters since she was Sirius’ cousin and part of the infamous Black family. Pureblood rules and superiority would have been ingrained into her as the eldest sister and the one who was meant to follow all the traditions first. Therefore she had a ‘respectable’ (not ‘pleasant’ but respectable) marriage to a man of her parents’ choosing due to his pedigree: a pureblood. She joined, with her husband Rodolphus Lestrange and his brother Rabastan, the death eaters during the first war. While her exploits during the first war aren’t very touched upon in the books, I think they were horrific if she is so feared in the Wizarding world, but I’m not sure if this is because of all of her past actions, her devotion to the Dark Lord, or her torturing of the Longbottoms. Azkaban couldn’t have had a good effect on her mind, in fact, she was likely more sane before her stint in Azkaban and all those years being forced to relive and remember her worst memories which could be some pretty horrible things for all we know (she was raised in the Black household of course, and they were nearly as unstable as the Gaunts). During the Second War, she manages to kill her cousin and multiple people, torturing many as well, and remaining the loyalest and most fierce death eater in the Dark Lord’s service. If we look at the Death Eaters in the Inner Circle there are only two women (not including Narcissa Black Malfoy who was unmarked and only an accomplice/sympathizer): Bellatrix and Alecto Carrow. Bellatrix sat closest to the Dark Lord and was one of his lieutenants. It is safe to say that she worked her ass off to be in such a position no matter how horrid her actions had to have been to earn such a place in such a twisted cult.
Bellatrix loves her sister Narcissa dearly. She is seen with her when Narcissa makes the unbreakable vow with Severus Snape and seems to love her nephew, Draco, just the same. She doesn’t seem nor does she act like someone who easily shows emotion, but with the little details of her actions, it is apparent that she does hold love, or some sort of affection, for Narcissa and something similar to Draco when she taught him the Dark Arts and was proud of his induction into the Death Eater ranks. While her views were twisted, she still showed that she cared. She doesn’t approve nor does she care for her ‘blood-traitor’ sister Andromeda Black Tonks. In fact, she likely doesn’t think she deserves to hold the Black name by ‘soiling’ their purity with a filthy mudblood (or she may call Ted Tonks a ‘muddy’ like she called and taunted Hermione Granger). She clearly held no familial emotion nor care for Sirius since she murdered him in cold blood and then taunted Harry Potter with the fact she killed her cousin and his godfather on multiple occasions to get a rise out of him. She also kills her halfblood niece, Nymphadora Tonks, showing that she didn’t consider her family nor did she care for her. In fact, she may have targeted her just because she had ‘tarnished’ their status as the most ‘pure’. She has shown a great distrust for some of the other death eaters especially Lucius Malfoy and Severus Snape. She was right in her assumptions of their traitorous ideas as Severus was a spy and Lucius defected after her death and at the end of the Battle of Hogwarts. She also showed a fondness for the Dark Lord, always wishing to be in his presence and yearning for his praise of her. Some could say she was in love with him in whatever odd way, likely for his power and perceived purity due to such power, or because she was lonely and didn’t see anyone else as her equal besides the Dark Lord whom she could, at least in my opinion, take on and have a good chance (if not win).
Like Hermione Jean Granger, Bellatrix was considered the Brightest Witch of Her Age and was amazing at her classes; a near prodigy in magic. She was powerful and intelligent. She was the delight and want of the purebloods, she was amazing. She however slowly deteriorated from her use of the Dark Arts, which we know can cause people to lose their humanity. She fell so deeply into this magic that she lost herself and became the ‘crazy’ witch that the survivors of the war would likely remember rather than the intelligent and cunning young Slytherin she had at one time been. She also had to be quite powerful, skillful and strategic to gain a place so high up in the Death Eater’s Inner Circle; those closest to Voldemort.
However, like previously stated, she deteriorated and lost her sanity. Whether this was from inbreeding in her family line, delving deeply into the Dark Arts, untreated mental health or some combination/something entirely different, we will likely never know, but I’m hungry for more information on her and her loss of sanity and humanity.
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