For MillaMayhem

I'm not sure how good it will be though

I don't own anything

AU - as in wayyyy AU


She walks – well, walks is the wrong word; it's more like skipping – down the path as she clings to her mother's hand, heading to see her Aunt Bellatrix. Though her mother has never really liked little Dora seeing someone so… the only word she can think of is evil, she hasn't been able to stop her.

Ever since Dora was born, Bellatrix has had a strange affection for her. She may be a half-blood but since she was a baby, Bellatrix has enjoyed spending time with the kid who ought to be the top of her hate list.

Voldemort's power is growing and Bellatrix is moving with this, increasing her position in his ranks. But she still has time every Saturday for the visit of her now six year old niece, the one part of her life that seems almost normal… in these visits, she isn't Voldemort's most loyal servant, the almost head of the Inner Circle of Death Eaters. No, she is simply Aunt Bella, the rich aunt who indulges her niece in whatever fanciful toys she wants this week.

"Aunt Bella!" Dora cries as she spies the black haired woman at the end of the path, just inside her home. little known to the small child, the house is Unplottable and she can only head there because Bellatrix wants her to be there. The child runs up the pathway and into Bella's arms, who gives her a hug instantly, ensuring that her Dark Mark is covered over.


~flashback~

Andromeda holds her newborn baby in her arms, just as a near identical woman walks into the maternity room. It's a person she never expected to see again after she abandoned her family for a Muggle Born man – something that wasn't expected from the Black family.

"This is it then?" she sneers, looking at the baby but not really seeing it, if that makes sense.

"Yes, this is my Nymphadora," Andromeda responds, silently willing Ted to come back from the toilet to get rid of Bellatrix.

"Let me see her," Bellatrix requests, moving closer to the bed to get a look at the baby. As she looks into the baby's face, she gets an almost electric current passing through her body, making her realise that she needs to be in this baby's life, because she is her aunt. "Can I hold her?" she asks, her voice softer than her sister has heard it for many a year now.

The baby is passed across into her arms, albeit hesitantly, and she knows that this baby is the one thing that could keep her grounded… almost… perhaps…

~end of flashback~


"How are you, Dora?" Bellatrix asks her niece as she walks with her into the house, the little girl jabbering away a mile a minute as she tries to tell her aunt everything that has happened in the week since she last saw her.

"I'm good, you?" the more mature response issues out of her niece's mouth, more mature than it was merely last year when it was "Imma goooooooooood… I want more sweets though."

Surprised at being asked how she is, Bella simply nods at first, smiling slightly. "You know what, Dora, I'm good as well," she realises that this is the truth. Because though she still has her work to do in destroying Dumbledore and the Muggle borns, she knows that she has her niece and that is all that matters right now.

"Can we make a cake?" Dora asks excitedly, her hands clapping together in glee.

"If you want to, then that's what we'll do," Bella responds with another smile, in her heart knowing that this will end soon, that her Death Eater status will take over her more maternal side.

But whilst it lasts, it will be great.


Thoughts?

Vicky xx