Disclaimer: If I owned Harry Potter, I wouldn't be agonizing about my AP American History exam, now would I? Therefore, I own my insanity, and nothing else.
Dedication: To Munchkin Viener, a lovely friend who indulges my Harry Potter passion, and is just as obsessed. Library conversations are awesome!
The mists around me cleared, and for the first time in years, eons even, I found I could think clearly. My mind wasn't twisted into impossible shapes, and the sounds and shapes that haunted me were gone. I was free! Laughing in delight, I began to run through the mists, not caring that I couldn't see where I was running. It was like being a child again. Like the days I played with my sisters Andromeda and Narcissa, when the biggest concern was whether to play dolls or tea party. I was so happy, happier than I had been since I went to Hogwarts.
Until I ran into a sold, human shaped thing that appeared from the mists. I didn't see it until I ran into it. Ungainly, and very un-Black, I fell to the ground. The thing reached a pale hand to help me up. Hesitating, scared, I took it, and found myself face-to-face with my disinherited cousin, Sirius Black. I killed him. My happiness disappeared faster than any Dementor ever made it. I fell back on the childhood training that had been inscribed into our brains. Back straight, chin up, lips defiantly pouting. He just laughed.
"Bellatrix Black Lestrange, I have been sent to tell you your options. They decided I would be the best to talk to you."
"I don't talk to…" I couldn't finish it. I couldn't say blood traitors. In my free mind, my sane mind, I knew I would talk to a filthy Mudblood loving blood traitor. I would talk to Sirius. "Speak."
"You may stay here, and live in the mist. You may return as a ghost and pick a certain haunt. Or, you can follow me to the otherside. The otherside will force you to look over your life, and it won't be easy."
What a choice! I wanted to stay in this misty world of childish illusion, but I knew that it would be a prison worse than Azkaban once Sirius left. I didn't want to be a ghost, but that left looking over my life. Reliving the pain of my mind changing, watching all my deeds from a clean mind and being stained. I didn't want that, it sounded so hard. I would hate it.
"Bella, I knew you would never chose something that would cause you pain. I know you are picking your haunt right now!" While I was thinking, Sirius had changed into his child self. He taunted me like he always did. That made up my mind. I would be strong and face myself. If I didn't, who would?
"I chose to go to the other side."
"Silly Bella, not other side, but otherside."