AN: What if Bellatrix Lestrange did have sons? Would she really be so willing to offer them up to her Dark Lord? This is just something that I was thinking about when re-reading the sixth book. It kept nagging at me until I wrote it out and this is what I came up with. I'm not sure when I'll next be able to update this as I'm mostly just writing it for fun or when an idea pops into my head. Also, obviously, this is AU. I'll try to stick to canon where I can but there are going to be quite a few changes. I hope you like it and tell me what you think in a review.
Disclaimer: This is fanfiction people; I do not own Harry Potter. I also do not own anything written in bold italics (like the scene below), it came from the books.
She crumpled, falling at his feet, sobbing and moaning on the floor.
"My only son… my only son…"
"You should be proud!" said Bellatrix ruthlessly. "If I had sons, I would be glad to give them up to the service of the Dark Lord!"
(Narcissa Malfoy and Bellatrix Lestrange with Severus Snape in Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, chapter two: Spinner's End).
If She Had Sons…
Chapter One: Bellatrix Lestrange
She wasn't quite sure how her life had come to this point.
Bella supposed she could blame Cissy – look how Draco turned out. She could blame Rodolphus for not taking a firmer hand in their lessons. Bella could also blame her blood traitor sister Andromeda and her mudblood spawn; Nymphadora Tonks, who married the half-breed, for their part in this. In the good name of Salazar Slytherin she could even blame the Dark Lord for daring to start the war of purification in the wizarding community. Bella could even blame herself for getting locked up for torturing the Longbottoms into insanity after the fall of the Dark Lord to little bitty baby Potter.
For all the people she could blame she would never ever be able to blame the two she loved above all else.
Yet Bellatrix still could not figure out how, as she made her way through and battled many on the grounds of Hogwarts, her life had come to this point exactly. How she could even be thinking that maybe, just maybe, Andromeda and Sirius and every other "disgraced" and "disowned" member of the House of Black had been right all along.
She knew exactly who she was. She was christened Bellatrix Druella Black, born into the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black. Her parents were Cygnus Black III and Druella Black née Rosier. She became the older sister of Andromeda when she was two and Narcissa when she was four.
From a very young age Bellatrix had been taught the ways of being a pureblood and more importantly what it meant to be a Black.
As a pureblood, Bellatrix was taught the proper etiquette when dealing with her equals, superiors, and inferiors. She was expected to be proper and dignified and to uphold the family name. Of course, Bellatrix was also expected to be married off to a pureblood – a rich and proper pureblood at that, not some blood traitor – and have and raise pureblood babies. As a Black, Bellatrix was taught that she was better than half-bloods and mudbloods. She was taught to want for nothing. It was drilled into her that to be a Black made her royalty in the wizarding world. Personally, she couldn't disagree with this logic.
After she graduated from Hogwarts she was engaged to be married into the Lestrange family. Better yet, to the heir apparent of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Lestrange. One day in the near future it would make her the Lady of an old and influential wizarding family. And that was all well and good in Bella's opinion.
It was almost a year after Bellatrix had graduated that she was walking down the aisle to marry Rodolphus. Rodolphus… There were very few people that she cared about and even fewer that she loved. She cared about Rodolphus – he was her husband, though she didn't start out caring for him – that had happened over time. She cared for her parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, and cousins. At one point in her life, Bellatrix had even cared for her younger cousin, Sirius. That was before he turned out to be a blood traitor and disgrace to the name of Black.
While she had cared for all these people, Bellatrix Druella Lestrange nee Black could honestly say she had only ever loved two people. Her sisters, Andromeda and Narcissa. When they were younger, Bella would play with them, dress them up and loved how they would look up to her. Of course the love that she had for Andromeda had turned to hate when her middle sister had betrayed the family and her pureblood roots by marrying the filthy mudblood, Ted Tonks. Narcissa, on the other hand, was the perfect pureblood. Her youngest sister had made a good and respectable marriage to the heir of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Malfoy. Narcissa was the sister that could be counted on to make the right choices. The only one she loved.
That was until she had given birth to her firstborn son.
Bellatrix had never expected to feel this way. She who had tortured and had killed many in the short time that she had followed this new Dark Lord and had been branded as one of his Death Eaters, had felt something magnificent and terrifying at the exact moment that her sister placed the small bundle wrapped in blue in her arms.
It was unlike anything else she had ever felt. It was an overwhelming need to protect, and a rush of emotion so strong. Love. More love than she had ever felt for Andromeda or Narcissa. More love than what she had ever thought herself capable of.
Naturally, it scared the hell out of her.
Confused, scared, happy, proud, and honored was what she felt in the early evening of the 31st of March 1973; when her son, Aries Rodolphus Lestrange was given to her. Bellatrix had chosen his name; a constellation and the god of war. She thought it was suitable seeing as how they were in one and her son's name would bring them luck in the oncoming battle against mudbloods and blood traitors.
While her sister cooed over her child, Bellatrix could only stare down at the baby in her arms and hold him just a little closer. She never thought she would feel any of these emotions for any other human being for the rest of her life.
Fate decided that she would.
After she gave birth to her first son, Bellatrix continued to fight for her master against all those unworthy to be in the presence of purebloods. She continued to torture and kill. And she liked it. The Lady Lestrange would appear to be unpredictable in battle. But really, she was just as cautious of her actions as anybody else. Bella was just better at hiding it; she had a son to think about after all…
Just over six years it had been, since Aries was born that Bellatrix suddenly found another bundle of blue blankets being placed in her arms by a four-month pregnant Narcissa. Just minutes after the New Year had reined in; she had given birth to a second son. Cygnus Rabastan Lestrange was named to honor her father who had passed a few months before and her husband's only brother.
Like with her eldest, Bella found more love for the tiny being than her love for Narcissa or even that of her blood traitor sister, Andromeda. The same amount of love she had for Aries, she now had for Cygnus.
To think things had been going great.
AN: So that was the first chapter, giving you a look inside Bellatrix's head. Off the top of my head, the next chapter should be more about what happened after Voldemort's downfall.