(minor revisions to text for hopefully better reading: 20th August, 2016)

Disclaimer: I am not J.K. Rowling. I do not own Harry Potter.

Note: This story is set in a universe in which, although events play out much as in canon up until the night in October 1981 that Lord Voldemort attacked the Potters in Godric's Hollow, shortly thereafter events start to diverge centering around different-from-canon decisions by Bellatrix. This story opens in early November 1981, at a time where it is clear that 'something' has happened to Lord Voldemort to remove him from the scene, but not exactly what. This story is a one-shot.

Rating: This story is rated 'T'.

"No, I think I'll go Potter hunting."

Those fateful words had changed Bellatrix Lestrange's life.

The plan to go after Frank and Alice Longbottom for information – highly trusted aurors, who worked with Moody, who ought to know what had happened on Hallowe'en if anyone did – was a good one, Bellatrix had admitted to herself, but some feminine instinct told her that the Potter half-blood was a high priority target, too. After all hadn't her Lord been on an errand to do with the Potters when whatever setback had occurred had… well… occurred?

And it wasn't as if her husband, her brother-in-law, and Barty Crouch's son, Barty Crouch 'junior' wouldn't between them be able to get anything which the Longbottoms did know about what had happened to the Dark Lord out of them without Bellatrix's presence.

So, instead of going out to the Longbottoms', Bellatrix spent the evening 'in' at Grimmauld Place, buttering up Aunt Walburga and her other Black relations, in an effort to get permission to go through what remained of her cousin Sirius' possessions there for any clues about what Dumbledore might be going to do with Harry Potter? True, it was several years since Sirius had lived at number twelve Grimmauld Place, but even back then he'd been closely associated with James Potter and any 'inside track' information on James – whether a forgotten letter Sirius had never packed in his hurried departure from his family's home, or any photographs – might prove useful.

Whilst Bellatrix's search did turn up a few photographs of Sirius and his friends (some of which had brief descriptions and dates scribbled on the back), they didn't really suggest much by the way of both new and useful James Potter related details, and any other information proved in remarkably short supply. Sirius had disappointingly taken any and all personal written information away with him when he had left. There were a few sheets of dog-eared parchment lying forgotten under the bed, covered with notes and diagrams regarding some sort of magical mapping project meant to cover Hogwarts, which Sirius and his friends had apparently been bent upon at one point (Bellatrix wondered if they'd ever managed to devise a working system, since applied to several locations which she could think of other than Hogwarts it could be highly useful), and a few scribbles about 'improved dungbombs' and 'delayed action hair colour jinxes' – but that was it.

Bellatrix's evening spent searching through her cousin's detritus was heading towards a frustratingly-short-on-results conclusion, when Aunt Walburga came up to Sirius' old room with the news that Bellatrix's husband and his brother had been taken, along with Crouch, when aurors had shown up in force at the Longbottom home. It seemed that auror residences were currently being fitted with some new alarm charm, which alerted auror headquarters to attacks, and one installed on the Longbottom home had triggered without Bellatrix's husband or his companions being any the wiser for it; that had brought considerably more pissed-off aurors than they could conveniently handle down on their heads. They were all in custody, now, awaiting interrogation and trial, and the chances of anyone getting off who had been caught torturing two of the most popular aurors of their generation were practically nil.

Bellatrix was touched by Rodolphus and Rabastan's loyalty – and even young Barty Crouch's. In the wake of their capture at the Longbottom home, none of them gave her up. Despite being questioned for hours on end about Death Eater matters other than the attack which they had been caught making – even being dosed with veritaserum at one point – they hadn't said anything to indicate that Bellatrix had been a Death Eater. They had indicated that Bellatrix had been sympathetic to Voldemort's views and policies – there were limits to what one could hold back when veritaserum had been forced down one's throat – but in and of itself the Ministry had got no testimony out of them that they could use to go after Bellatrix in a big way. After a brief trial (the result of which had been a foregone conclusion that no amount of money, threats, or other leverage could ever have influenced) the three men were sent to Azkaban with no hope of release or parole any time soon. Bellatrix had only been brought in for the briefest of questioning – at which encounter she'd made clear her intention not to say anything incriminating – before being turned loose. Magical law enforcement were rather busy right now, with other people whom they did have solid evidence against to get on with trying.

Not that Bellatrix would have denied her allegiance or master if she had been caught at the Longbottoms' – she would have proudly boasted of it, she was sure – but she could do considerably more to advance her master's cause at the moment by keeping out of Azkaban.

And even though she would be able to say nothing significant to Rodolphus – she would be more than closely watched, on such visits, she was sure – she would at least be able to occasionally visit him in Azkaban, to check how he was faring. The authorities would not deny a wife the opportunity to visit her imprisoned husband. Well not when said wife was a daughter of the Black family.

The revelation that soon emerged that Sirius had apparently betrayed the Potters surprised Bellatrix. Bellatrix hadn't known precisely who the Dark Lord had had the secret of the Potters' location disclosed to him by – after all with something as tricky as a fidelius and written notes often being used, even if Sirius had been the actual keeper, someone else might have 'leaked' – but clearly someone must have done it and Sirius had now been caught red-handed in the act of blowing up another wizard (Peter Pettigrew) and a dozen muggles. And the testimony from the survivors of that particular little rampage of Sirius' had clearly indicated that it had come out during Peter Pettigrew's defiant last stand that Sirius had been the one who betrayed the Potters. Sirius had been screaming and ranting and laughing about how he'd done it at the end.

Bellatrix rather suspected that Sirius must have been acting under an Imperius Curse in his actions – she wasn't at all convinced he would have willingly done such things, given how doggedly devoted he'd been to Dumbledore at school, and the accounts of his almost hysterical breakdown whilst murdering Peter Pettigrew and the muggles suggested to her someone not-quite-in-a-sound-state-of-mind – but Sirius was at any rate on his way to Azkaban now to join Rodolphus, Rabastan, and young Barty and so many others; indeed in Sirius' case, he was off to Azkaban without his even having had a trial, the Ministry were so sure of his guilt (whilst perhaps being afraid that so much of the evidence against him was based on interviews of muggle witnesses of his last crime, that Black influence and gold might convince a court to find insufficient grounds to convict).

Most importantly though (as far as Bellatrix was concerned), during the aurors' brief investigation of her cousin, a great many of Sirius' personal possessions – including documents – had been discovered and confiscated by those searching his known recent haunts.

Bellatrix got to work on Aunt Walburga, to get her to gain access to all of these 'new' papers of Sirius. Of course, Bellatrix would as 'moral support' accompany the 'distraught mother' on all her visits to review her lunatic son's personal effects.

By April of 1982, Bellatrix believed that she had stumbled upon a lead in her hunt for Potter. It was clear to her by this point that Albus Dumbledore had not placed Harry Potter with any witch or wizard in magical Britain, but amongst the papers of Sirius Black which Magical Law Enforcement had discovered were ones which indicated that James Potter's muggle-born wife had had a completely muggle sister, whom Sirius hadn't thought much of. And to Bellatrix's mind, if Harry Potter was in the country at all, it was just possible that a muggle-loving idiot like Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore might have placed 'The-Boy-Who-Lived' with that selfsame muggle aunt.

It was the only lead which Bellatrix had right now on the Potter boy, and she was increasingly certain that her Dark Lord was not completely defeated. Her dark mark might have faded, but she could feel it there still at times, below the skin, an indication that Lord Voldemort was around somewhere.

If the muggle aunt lead failed to play out, Bellatrix would have to focus herself on trying to find out where and in what form Lord Voldemort still existed?

Trying to track down Harry Potter's muggle aunt proved remarkably frustrating an exercise for Bellatrix, not least because magical means employed to attempt to locate her repeatedly failed to do so.

That in and of itself was highly suggestive to Bellatrix though: magical means that were failing so consistently suggested that the woman was being protected in some way, by magic, and why would a muggle be protected so unless she was of incredible value in some way to a powerful witch or wizard?

In the meantime all sorts of odd rumours and stories were now circulating in magical society (source of origin, unknown) regarding what had happened to the Dark Lord on that October night in Godric's Hollow. They were totally inconsistent as to how it was supposed to have happened, but said stories and rumours tended to all point the finger at Harry Potter as being personally responsible for the Dark Lord's sudden disappearance; this naturally added importance to Bellatrix's current self-assigned task.

The escalating number of reasons to find Potter finally overcame Bellatrix's natural disdain for such methods and she resorted to muggle resources to work around magic – hiring several muggle private detectives to locate 'Petunia Dursley' who had been born 'Petunia Evans'.

The muggles tracked Petunia to an address in Surrey. It turned out to be an address which Bellatrix herself (investigating in person) could not approach or even actually see, although she could sense overwhelmingly powerful wards in the vicinity.

Bellatrix paid the muggles to make more enquiries, and to take photos.

Petunia and Vernon Dursley had one son, 'Dudley', and had recently taken in a nephew, 'Harry', whose parents had died in an alcohol induced car-crash according to the muggle private detectives.

The (non-magical) photographs her investigators supplied her with clinched it for Bellatrix.

"Hello, Harry Potter." she cooed, examining a picture of a dark-haired, green-eyed, toddler with a peculiar scar on his forehead.

The question was as to what to do next? Bellatrix knew where Harry Potter was located. She might not be able to enter the residence herself, but she was certain that she could find muggle criminals prepared to enter and abduct the child for her if she wanted, or even just to arrange for the place to 'accidentally burn down' flushing the Dursleys and Harry out of the protective cover of the wards (which somehow seemed to ensure that Bellatrix always missed seeing when the Dursleys or Harry came out of the property).

If she hung around this 'Little Whinging' place for long enough, it was conceivable that Bellatrix might even simply run into Harry Potter and his muggle aunt or uncle in the street.

But, muggle-loving idiot though he might be, Dumbledore was not a fool.

He wouldn't have placed Harry Potter with the Dursleys, however well warded, without having some direct means to monitor the boy and to ensure his safety.

There had been a cat which looked at least part-kneazle in one of the early surveillance photographs of Privet Drive, so Bellatrix had been careful to disguise herself on all her visits, and she'd seen more such cats about the road. Someone with links to the magical world was clearly living in the vicinity of the Dursley house, most likely there to keep an eye on Harry, and it would be by no means certain that that would be the extent of Dumbledore's guardians.

Bellatrix had been tempted to employ the muggle detectives to ferret out the source of these cats in the area, but it was possible that any such questions might spook the watcher or watchers, and lead to security being tightened and revised. Bellatrix saw no need to push her luck that much, having tracked Harry Potter down, as it might perhaps prompt Dumbledore to move Harry if any watchers he had became overly alarmed that they were under observation.

For now though, having at least located him, Bellatrix decided to hold off on the Harry Potter question, and to head abroad to the continent to try and find her master. She was reasonably certain that the Dark Lord wasn't in Britain right now – she was certain she would have known it somehow, if he had been; that her dark mark would not have so totally faded.

Europe was the next possibility.

By June of 1982, Bellatrix had made limited progress during a 'foreign tour' of a month or so (foreign languages had fortunately for her been something of a forte), eliminating France and the low countries as places where the Dark Lord might have gone to ground after his setback, but she had become increasingly aware as she searched that she was being discreetly watched. Whilst she was being left alone in Britain, the moment she left the country she was being picked up and followed in very short order – she might not be a 'known' Death Eater, but she was clearly very much 'under suspicion' as far as various persons in authority were concerned.

It would be extremely inconvenient if she did happen upon her master and a dozen aurors or law enforcement officials of the broader international community intruded on the meeting.

Of course, she could attempt to shake the tails, but irrespective of the success of the action, that would clearly place her under even more suspicion.

Bellatrix was reasonably certain that nothing that she had done thus far on the continent could be construed as anything other than an extended foreign holiday by any but the most paranoid of men and women, and she retired back to magical Britain.

She spent time with her nephew, Draco, and wishing that she'd had a child. She also discovered that Draco's father, Lucius, was meanwhile apparently doing absolutely nothing for the cause. In one highly discreet conversation in a heavily warded room, he'd said without saying in that manner of his that he had no intentions at all of doing anything regarding 'the old crowd', considering himself bloody lucky to have escaped Azkaban by the skin of his teeth with an Imperius plea. Bellatrix accordingly rated Lucius as a potential security risk, and was not foolish enough to divulge to him anything about what she planned or hoped for – or to inform him that she had located Harry Potter.

And Bellatrix's sister, Narcissa, had never really been interested in being involved in Death Eater politics at all, which meant that in this case Bellatrix couldn't speak to her about anything important. That was a pity, because Bellatrix would have liked to have talked to someone about her attempts to find the Dark Lord to date, and that in despite of all Abus Dumbledore's cunning she had successfully located the child being credited with vanquishing the Dark Lord.

After her stay at the Malfoy home, Bellatrix went off to Azkaban, to see her husband, which frankly depressed her – especially since she couldn't say anything to him either, with all the prison officials watching.

She decided a renewed effort was called for to try and master the patronus charm – something she'd never quite got the hang of at school.

Her visits to Malfoy Manor and to Rodolphus now done with – and with other things on hiatus, her (patronus) charms studies aside – Bellatrix decided to send the muggle private detectives in for one last wave of Dursley-bothering, getting her everything that they could on the family and on Harry Potter, before she called it a day.

The results threw up something highly interesting, not least in that one of the detectives, posing as a man 'come to read the electricity meter', had discovered that Petunia was keeping a particular green-eyed toddler in the cupboard under the stairs, along with the meters.

"It's the only way to get the brat to shut up." Petunia had said, before hastily (and in the detective's opinion highly insincerely) adding that of course he wasn't usually kept there.

Things that other detectives had observed seemed to corroborate that the Dursleys barely tolerated Harry at best.

Bellatrix went back to notes she'd made from Sirius' papers, and persuaded Aunt Walburga to make one further visit to inspect her son's possessions.

Sure enough, there it was in Sirius' writings – Petunia and her husband absolutely loathed magic. Even being in the same room as Sirius had been apparently enough to put them on edge, and a prank that James had played at Petunia and Vernon's wedding had almost caused an all-out war between the former Evans sisters. Petunia hadn't in latter years been able to stand James Potter, and had refused to even speak to him.

Bellatrix had to wonder exactly what Albus Dumbledore was playing at, putting a boy who was the half-blood heir to an old and respected family in the care of muggles who loathed magic in general, detested the boy's father, and who had barely been on civil terms with the boy's mother? There was something fishy going on here. Either a placement with 'mother's kin' was essential for some reason of magic or Dumbledore wanted the boy to have an unhappy upbringing – unless, of course, Dumbledore was finally losing touch with reality.

Had it been any magical child other than one of a family that her lord and master had had such an interest in (and with said child being credited with upsetting her master's plans), Bellatrix would have gone all-out to remove him from such carers, but as it was, it was possible it would suit her master's own plans for Harry to suffer at the hands of muggles.

She needed to consider this carefully.

And also to manoeuvre herself into position to be able to discreetly monitor Harry Potter on an ongoing basis, if at all possible.

It was now September (1982). Bellatrix engaged in a process of rigorous analysis of the situation which lay before her, and of the potential quandary in which it left her. Of foremost concern and priority were her master's wishes or what – in his current absence – she could presume them to be. Into this jigsaw slotted a piece of information which Bellatrix had come by at the start of the current month from Severus Snape. Bellatrix disliked the secretive half-blood, on general principle, and mistrusted anything which he had to say now, on the basis of the way in which Albus Dumbledore had apparently intervened to keep Snape out of Azkaban at the end of the war; however what he had approached her with during the first weekend 'Hogsmeade trip' of the new Hogwarts school year (which he had ostensibly been supervising), was most certainly interesting. In a shady booth at The Hog's Head, protected from eavesdroppers by one of Snape's own personally designed privacy spells, Snape had informed her that a while back the Dark Lord had become aware of a prophecy indicating that a boy born at the end of July was a potential threat to him; ultimately (according to Snape) the Dark Lord had narrowed the field down to Neville Longbottom and to Harry Potter, out of whom he had identified Harry Potter as the main threat.

Severus had claimed (in the seedy atmosphere of The Hog's Head) that he was informing Bellatrix of this 'to show that he was still sympathetic to the cause'. Bellatrix – able to sense a possible trap from a mile off, especially given that it was Snape who in a letter had requested this meeting – had innocently asked 'what cause?' and feigned complete ignorance of any matters Death Eater related, just in case there were aurors waiting nearby, ready (despite Snape's 'privacy spell') to pounce, the moment that she said anything remotely incriminating. Snape had responded with something indifferent to that (which could be read as his loyalties lying either way), and the rendezvous had ended shortly thereafter.

Nevertheless, even though she considered the source highly suspect, Bellatrix had to admit now that what Snape had told her sounded plausible and fit reasonably neatly with how events had played out. It at last explained to her just why the Dark Lord had suddenly become so fixated with the Potters, and tied in with the countless rumours and stories which had been circulating since Hallowe'en, the most recent of which were claiming that Harry Potter had been destined to defeat the Dark Lord.

However, in her analysis, Bellatrix was starting to doubt that her master had picked the right target to go after at the end of October, the previous year. Too much wasn't adding up, not least in that if Snape were in Albus Dumbledore's pocket at this moment, that recent interview with Snape in Hogsmeade was clearly designed to push Bellatrix in Harry Potter's direction. The removal of Potter from the magical world, his placement (under powerful warding magic) with muggle relatives, the stories and rumours spreading about how he had been the one to defeat the Dark Lord… all this seemed to Bellatrix designed to make everyone look towards Harry Potter, and thus – incidentally – away from someone else.

And Albus Dumbledore was supposed to be a long way short of 'stupid'.

And just how likely was it that a toddler, not many months past a year old in October, 1981, had actually been able to defeat one of the greatest and most powerful wizards in the world, in an encounter to which – conveniently – there were no known interviewable eyewitnesses? The more that Bellatrix thought about it, the more likely it seemed to her that it had been Harry Potter's disgusting mudblood mother, who had somehow incapacitated the Dark Lord. She'd probably been armed with some revolting piece of muggle trickery that the horrible creatures were always coming up with – maybe it had been a small version of one of those 'atomic bomb' things that Bellatrix vaguely recalled mention of from muggle studies back in her own days at Hogwarts. Muggles tended to start off with inventing really big prototypes of machines and death-dealing devices, and then made them smaller and quicker and more efficient. Start with a cannon, and finish with a Gatling gun…

Yes, the more that Bellatrix thought about it, the more that she was sure that it was probably one of those atomic bomb things – maybe in grenade form – which Lily Potter had used that Hallowe'en night, in 1981. Maybe the Potters had noticed their secret keeper behaving oddly (if it had been Sirius and he'd been Imperius Cursed) or maybe if Snape had been in Albus Dumbledore's pocket before the war ended, he'd tipped the Potters off – but either way the Potters must have been expecting trouble from the Dark Lord that Hallowe'en night and Lily Potter had had a muggle weapon to hand which she'd used to kill herself and inconvenience the Dark Lord, knowing that any attempt that she made to beat the Dark Lord with magic was going to be utterly futile.

The point was here, though, that it had been Lily Potter who had bested (however temporarily) the Dark Lord. Harry Potter, it was becoming increasingly obvious to Bellatrix, had had nothing at all to do with it. Harry Potter was a child incapable of keeping the muggles into whose guardianship he had been placed in order, as was apparent from the whole stick-him-in-a-cupboard-under-the-stairs business. If he lacked the power to control a bunch of muggles, then how was he supposed to have produced the great feat of magic necessary to even temporarily 'beat' the Dark Lord?

No, clearly Harry Potter was Albus Dumbledore's red herring to fixate attention, which the entire Wizarding World had swallowed, hook, line and sinker, leaving the genuine 'child of prophecy' – if there had been one – free to be raised, devoid of any undue attention, in the midst of the Wizarding World.

It would probably not be safe for Bellatrix to move against Neville Longbottom, mind you. Her husband, brother-in-law, and Barty Crouch junior had tried to attack the Longbottoms and failed (had it been less than coincidence that they had been detained so quickly that night, if Neville Longbottom was a 'child of prophecy'?) and protections on and around Neville would no doubt have been redoubled since then. Neville Longbottom would probably have to wait for the Dark Lord's own (eventual) triumphant return.

However, in the meantime, if Harry Potter were regarded as just any other magical child, whose parents had picked the wrong side to support, then he must be regarded as if any other half-blood who represented the last blood of an old and (at times) respected family – whom if he married carefully would have pure-blood children and restore the honour of his line. And that meant (since nobody else was going to do it) that Bellatrix would have to do something about removing Harry Potter from those uppity muggles, into whose ungentle hands he had had the misfortune to fall…

Author Notes:

Bellatrix makes some assumptions in this story. Some of them are reasonably accurate; others make sense to her, but are off the mark to varying degrees.

For the purposes of this story, I've taken a line that during the first Wizarding War Death Eaters worked in 'cells' and that members frequently had little idea of the identities of members outside their own little groups (although they might have suspicions).

I've assumed in this universe that Death Eaters such as Bellatrix knew in late October/early November 1981 that the Dark Lord was going to attack the Potters, but not that there was a prophecy involved (if nothing else, Lord Voldemort in this universe didn't want to reveal information that somewhere out there was a a child/possible rival predicted to be his 'equal', until he absolutely had to do so) - Bellatrix assumes (at least at first) that Lord Voldemort attacked the Potters because they were prominent Dumbledore supporters who kept on getting in the way, and it was supposed to send a message to the Order of the Phoenix.

In this universe, (possibly due to the absence of Bellatrix) Rodolphus, Rabastan, and Barty Crouch junior are actually caught in the act of 'questioning' Frank and Alice Longbottom. In canon there appears to have been a lapse of several days or more between their interrogation of the Longbottoms (which they initially got away with) and their being named as responsible by others and caught.

I'm undecided on whether Frank and Alice end up permanent hospital cases in this universe.

I'm not sure if I've adhered to a strict canon-compliant line in Rodolphus, Rabastan, and Barty Crouch junior not saying anything which incriminates Bellatrix as a Death Eater under veritaserum in this universe, when interrogated by Magical Law Enforcement. The veritaserum article available on Harry Potter wikia at the time of these notes says that it is possible to 'resist' veritaserum to some degree, and I've assumed that these three men are all sufficiently motivated not to give Bellatrix away.

I'm unclear (at the time of these notes) on whether in canon the Sirius/Peter 'showdown' occurred before or after the attack on the Longbottoms. From the point of view of this universe, I've assumed that the attack on the Longbottoms occurred a day or so before Sirius was finally able to track down Peter Pettigrew.

I've assumed that Bellatrix in this universe is fluent in several foreign languages, allowing her to go off and do a bit of searching for Lord Voldemort, before she realises that she's being followed... (Part of a reason for her being left at large by the Ministry and Magical Law Enforcement in the UK, besides lack of evidence, might be to see what she does/who she makes contact with/where she goes. They suspect her of being a loyalist, and hope that she might lead them to other people or places/items of interest that they've missed.)

Albus Dumbledore prodded Severus Snape to tell Bellatrix about the prophecy in the hope of getting her to trust Severus and/or to reveal important information about the doings of herself and/or other Voldemort loyalists who escaped Azkaban. Albus is pretty convinced that Bellatrix was an Inner Circle Death Eater, and although Severus may have never seen her carrying out Death Eater activities 'unmasked' (hence he is unable to given testimony to the Wizengamot which would put her in Azkaban), Severus is 'reasonably' certain that she was one. Bellatrix, meanwhile, had been informed by Lord Voldemort that Severus was a spy for him.

This story is a one-shot.

Past the point where it finishes, I think that Bellatrix (feeling 'broody' during the visit to the Malfoy home, note), attempts to 'rescue' Harry Potter from the Dursley household and to adopt him. In her favour, on this count, she is a daughter of the Black family, which is assumed to be still wealthy and powerful.

I'm undecided what happens in the long-run, although possibly there would be a scene where Bellatrix explains to Lord Voldemort about the 'mistake' that he made in picking Harry Potter to go after, when Dumbledore clearly thought Neville Longbottom was the threat, and she's raised Harry Potter with 'proper' ideas and a view of the world...

For those looking for longer Bellatrix adopts Harry pieces, I would like to recommend 'And The Truth Shall Set You Free' on this site by 'silverskies'. It's a whimsical take on such a relationship, which pairs a recovering-dark-magic-addict Bellatrix with an unable-to-lie Harry.