CHAPTER ONE
"...BITCH!"
Bellatrix Lestrange cackled with laughter, and the red-haired woman in front of her shook with fury. She stared at the fat woman, daring her to curse or hex her. Bellatrix opened her mouth to speak but nothing came when she saw the flash of green light coming from the end of Molly Weasley's wand. Her eyes widened and she knew exactly what was happening. The bright lime green curse slammed into her chest.
FLASHBACK!
Bellatrix, surrounded by all of her baggage, her enormous black owl, and a few snacks, sat beside her sister on a bench in front of where the Hogwarts Express was soon to be. Narcissa, who would have her day the following year, held a sour expression on her face as she swung her feet over the ground because she was too small to reach it from her seat. It was to be Bellatrix's first year at Hogwarts and she was utterly excited. However, being a Black, she was not allowed to express her excitement, so she just bit her bottom lip and looked down.
There was a huge gust of wind and one of the loudest noises she had ever heard, next to her mother and father's arguments, as a giant scarlet train roared to a stop on the tracks. Smoke filled the crowded station and a small man jumped out amongst it all to shout:
"Hogwarts Express! Enter carefully, watch your step!"
Bellatrix looked up and watched the conductor help some fellow first years onto the train. A firm hand grasped her shoulder. She looked up at her mother, who was the owner of the hand, and her father.
"Bellatrix, we will write once a week and you will be coming home for the holidays to have dinner with the family," her mother, Druella, stated with a stone face.
"Be good, and see to it that your cousin, Sirius, does not disturb the peace. Last thing we need to hear is Walburga ranting on about his being such a disgrace," her father, Cygnus, said exactly the same way her mother spoke.
Andromeda, who was nine, just stared wildly at all the commotion, taking it all in and looking to her mother for explanation that never came.
Bellatrix looked at her feet and then to the train. She stacked all of her luggage and looked at her mother, father, and siblings to finalize her going away for a few months. And she pulled her stuff onto the train with Sirius Black following her on.
Bellatrix opened a compartment that was empty towards the back. Sirius had barely put his foot in when she held up a hand and said, "Nuh-uh, go find somewhere else to sit." Sirius shrugged his shoulders and his face, just for a split second, sighed with relief.
Bellatrix pushed herself against the window and stared at the vast openness of the fields the train was leading them through. Her breath fogged the window and she suddenly wiped it away because it began to cloud what she could see outdoors. She looked behind her and into the rest of her four person compartment. One boy was sitting with her. He clearly was engaged in a book. His black hair was greasy and near shoulder length. The boy scratched at his protruding nose and pushed some hair behind his ears. He was none other than Severus Snape. Bellatrix stared for a few seconds before turning back to the window.
"Any sweets for you children?"
Bellatrix jolted from her thoughts and her eyes narrowed as she looked over to the door. Turning up her nose at the short, stout woman who pushed the sweet cart, she curtly said, "no."
"Yes, a cauldron cake and the licorice," Severus spoke quietly.
The woman nodded and handed the little packages to him. And she trudged on, pushing her cart.
It was dark when the train pulled up into a heavily wooded forest. There was a dirt path in front of Bellatrix as she faced the woods, clutching all of her baggage. An enormous man stood in front of all the students and led them to a shoreline. Across the lake, all of the newcomers gasped. What they saw in front of them was a huge castle. The lights lit up the sky and reflected onto the lake. The crescent moon glistened in the water. Bellatrix stared in awe.
The man introduced himself as Hagrid The Gameskeeper before sending the students off in two-person boats to the other side of the lake. Bellatrix climbed into the boat, only grasping her owl's cage. She had to leave her baggage with Hagrid The Gameskeeper so he could take it to the school. A skinny, sickly looking boy climbed into the boat behind her. They faced each other and she stared him down. His clothes were obviously hand-me-downs because they were tattered and worn. His face was pale and sunken. His hair was a light brown, almost blonde, but not quite, and it was neatly combed. He avoided her gaze.
When he did look at her he asked, "So what house do you want?"
Bellatrix flashed her eyes in his direction, "Slytherin of course." She pursed her lips.
After a silence, maybe he expected her to ask him what he wanted, but she didn't care enough. The boy said, "I want to be in Gryffindor."
"Fascinating. Really." Bellatrix could kill someone with her sarcasm.
"I'm Remus Lupin."
"Bellatix Black."
Bellatrix ended the exchange of words by turning her body to face the other shore, opposite of Remus.
It was a few minutes until their boat bumped into the rocks and another fat, grotesque teacher pulled them into the grass. He faintly smiled at the two before stating, loud and clear, that he was, in fact, Professor Slughorn. HE was going to be their Defense Against the Dark Arts.
Her nose crinkled at the sight. SHE was supposed to learn what her family valued most from this man?
Hagrid The Gameskeeper's voice boomed once again to shout "Firs' years! Firs' years! Over here!" A crowd of jittery children walked to him. Once Hagrid had all of the children amongst him, he beckoned them to follow him into the school. The doorway was huge and opened into a room where another professor, woman this time, came up and said for them to wait for her to come back. Whispers and voices filled the room at once. Bellatrix stood alone. She craned her neck to look around. Sirius was laughing with another boy. She observed them with her head cocked to the side and her eyes squinted slightly. ...Sirius? With a friend?
The other boy was slightly smaller than Sirius; his hair was black and disheveled. He wore glasses. And he was also nicely dressed in dress robes and his wand was poking from his pocket. As soon as he turned his body while he spoke to Sirius, he faced in Bellatrix's direction and she knew EXACTLY who he was.
The blood-traitor son of the Potter family. James Potter.
Bellatrix's eyes widened to the size of dinner plates. Sirius turned his head and made complete eye contact with her. His face whitened considerably. Her mind raced, how could he think he could get away from me long enough to make friends with Potter?! She was dumbstruck.
She would write mother after the sorting. Immediately. Who knew what kind of trouble Sirius was in? Did this make him a blood-traitor now? What was going to happen now?
The professor returned and she opened her pursed lips to speak, "I am Professor McGonagall. If you would follow me now, we will begin the sorting." She abruptly turned on her heels and led the students into another room.
This one was enormous, just like everything else that seemed to be in this school. The ceilings were charmed into taking form of the sky. Stars twinkled above the four tables that sat in the middle of the room. Giant paintings hung from the walls that looked like they were made from cathedrals. A long desk was up in the front with teachers facing the crowd of students. Hagrid The Gameskeeper sat at the end, drinking from a goblet the size of a water pail. In the middle, front and center, sat a very old man. He had a long white beard and his robes were a pale blue, which she would learn in the future were the color of his piercing eyes. He was the well known Professor Dumbledore. In the Black house, he was spoken very ill of. He was a muggle-lover.
An old hat sat upon a stool in front of the teachers' table. The Sorting Hat sang a very loud song to the students. Bellatrix ignored the song because it was simply boring. She knew what the hat sang about - the houses and why they are supposed to mean so much the school. It was all very lame to her.
She was one of the first twenty students to be called.
"Avery, Ryan!" McGonagall called to the students. A nervous boy stood up and slinked over the stool. The hat was placed on his head and after about five seconds--
"SLYTHERIN!"
Avery stumbled off the seat but practically skipped to the Slytherin table, where the older students cheered for him.
"Black, Bellatrix!"
Bellatrix stood up, her knees shook ferociously. She straightened her back and stood to her full height. She lifted her chin and marched to the stool, where she sat down. The hat barely grazed her head before shouting:
"SLYTHERIN!"
A wave of relief swept her body as she was welcome by the table. She turned in her seat to face the front where Sirius had just been called up.
The seconds turned to minutes before, to her horror, the hat shouted unmistakably, "GRYFFINDOR!"
The room was dead silent.
A sheepish half-smile appeared on Sirius's face. Bellatrix was taken back by his reaction. In the middle of the silence, Sirius turned to face Bellatrix. All the students, and the teachers, followed his gaze to his cousin. He lifted his arm, and put his hand to his head and saluted her. Eyes widened, gasps were gasped and the Gryffindor table exploded with hoots, hollers, and whistles. James Potter, guaranteed a spot in Gryffindor, (confirmed later), clapped Sirius on the back.
Bellatrix strode into the common room and sat herself upon her bed. She looked down in front of her, and held her quill to the parchment.
Dear Mother,
I have a bunch of news for you.
I got into Slytherin. But about Sirius...
She continued writing, informing her mother of the events that occurred that night.