Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter and I don't make any money from it.

Authors Note: I don't believe that any of us start out as good or evil, but that we slowly develoupt one way or the other as we grow. I always liked Bellatrix Lestrange (nee Black) so I thought I would try a story about what shaped her as a person and why she became like she did.

Authors Note 2: In this chapter we learn about how Bella saves her sister and how she first saw Hogwarts.

Black hearted

Pain

Bellatrix Black was sitting on her bed with her cat on her lap, she was purring gently as Bella stroked her over her fury back. The cat was a purebred like herself. Her fur was as black as Bella's curly, long hair, which at the moment was hanging loosely down her shoulders.

Salty tears were dripping onto the cat's black fur, vanishing into it. The young girl had been wounded gravely by her father, which was the reason to her tears. She was by now used to his treatment, but didn't help the tears that sometimes found her their way down her soft cheeks.

Bella shivered lightly, perhaps in pain, perhaps in sorrow, not always understanding why he was so upset with her.

"Not a real witch, a disgrace to the family name," was his exact words.

Bellatrix couldn't understand what he meant as she like himself and her mother was a pureblood witch. She had only turned little paper birds into real ones, watching them quibble as they flew away. Why was that a bad thing?

She sighed as she curled up under the covers with her cat, closing her eyes, wanting to escape this world, if not for long, maybe for just a little while.

"No, let go!" Bellatrix hear her seven year old sister scream. Bella frowned a bit as she started to walk towards the forest grounds where the screams were coming from.

"Cissy!" she called out for her, but she could only hear the wind blowing through the trees.

"Will you lay still," she heard a male voice snare and started to walk faster, her heart pounding like crazy.

There in the opening a little further ahead she saw a boy sitting atop of her little sister, pinning her arms above her heard. Fear was shining in dark grey eyes, as tears were running down her face.

"Let her go…NOW!" Bella's young voice broke through, sounding firmer than she actually was.

The boy turned to look at the frail eleven year with raven black hair. She was wearing a black dress that was matching the darkness, clearly showing in her eyes.

Even if he had never seen such darkness he didn't see her as much of a treat, considering he was bigger and stronger. His eyes slipped from Bellatrix and back to her sister.

Bella looked at him, hatred and anger was building up inside her, her eyes fixating on the boy that dared hurting her sister. She looked at him intensely, fixating on him as she wanted him to be crushed into a million pieces; instead he got lifted of Narcissa, only to be slammed hard into a tree close by.

The boy looked at her, his eyes now filled with horror, wondering how she could even have done that, but Bella just smiled at him. She took one step closer and said, "You should have let her go, you filthy Muggle."

Narcissa that by now had gotten behind her sister, looked at boy that had been attacking her moments ago. She was still feeling a bit shaky, but having a big sister that protected her surely helped.

Bella gave him one last look, but on her way from there she could hear him screaming out in pain. She knew for a fact he would never harm them again.

She never would feel guilty about harming him, all things considered he acted wrong and you never ever did the mistake of crossing her. That would have severe consequences; he was the first that would learn that the hard way.

It was later that day the young Miss Black got her letter from Hogwarts. She smiled with joy over that, finally she was to go to the school where her parents were educated to learn how to become a witch.

Proudly she went into her father's study saying, "Father I finally got my letter, I'm starting at Hogwarts in a week."

"Finally, just make sure you get sorted into Slytherin and do not mess up your chance," he said in a serious tone. He didn't want a drop-out knowing Bella had a tendency to off-track from time to time.

Bellatrix nodded in a serious way asking, "Can I bring Cassio with me to school?"

For some odd reason she didn't feel it wise to leave her beloved cat behind, after all her father hated it and her sister tended to drag her tail and bee too rough with her.

"Yes, tell your mother to go shopping with you, I can't have you turn up without the things you need," he said.

Bella nodded obedient as she went in search of her mother, overexcited over the fact that she was going to leave this house. No matter how bad her fellow students were they couldn't be worse than her father and that alone gave her some comfort.

When Bellatrix first saw Hogwarts she was amazed by the size. As the slowly came closer she gasped, it was so much bigger than she would have ever expected. Of course she had heard her father and his friend talk about the school from time to time, knowing that she would one day go there as well as she was magical like them. She had showed her own abilities from a very early age and now the young witch was hoping that the school would help her better her skills and to become the greatest witch that ever was.

Walking inside the gates of the school a shiver excitement ran through her young body. Slowly she followed the other students into the great hall to be sorted out to their houses.

From the teachers table Dumbledore was keeping a watchful eye on the new students. Having been at the school for quite some time he at once could tell that the young girl with raven black hair was coming from the house of black. Then again he knew she was coming.

He smiled as her eager eyes was looking around, curious of the students and staff. He could see her eyes fixating on one of the members of the staff. One with a very stern appearance, green eyes and ebony colored her. Her hair was tied up in a knot and she was looking down at the students that were arriving not eying anyone in particular, then her attention got turned towards the professor next to her that was saying something.

The young professor's name was Minerva McGonagall, and was spite her age by far one of the most brilliant witches he had ever had the pleasure of knowing. She was also the one that would teach the newcomers the art of transfiguration.

His eyes going from Minerva to the stage in from of them as the students were to be sorted into their houses.

Bellatrix Black Slytherin.

Bellatrix didn't get the rest of what the sorting hat said; only that she had ended up in the house where the rest of her family had once been in.

A smile spread over her face as she went down to sit down by the table next to her peers. She at once knew that this school would help her on the way to greatness. To… The rest of her thinking was interrupted when she eyed the food appearing on the tables. It was then she realized how hungry she was and she did not intend to wait another minute to dig in.

From the teachers table Albus was smiling, pleased by the new students, knowing he could expect great things from a lot of them. From further down on the staff table young McGonagall was eying him, smiling slightly as well, knowing this was the start of a new and what she could only assume would be an interesting term.

"Cassio, Cassio, where are you?" Bella yelled out, trying to find her cat. Her black companion was however nowhere to be found. She was nowhere near the Slytherin common room, or around the dungeons near it.

'Great, just great,' she thought annoyed, as she was having an early class the next morning and was not up for looking for her. That and the fact that she was supposed to be in her tower at this time of night. Bellatrix sighed as she pulled on some shoes before leaving the tower without anyone noticing.

"Cassio," she whispered out in the dark hallways of the castle.

'Where was she?" The young girl was starting to get slightly annoyed as she rounded another corner and saw what in the darkness seemed to be a black cat on the floor.

"There you are you little troublemaker," she whispered, slowly lifting the cat up in her arms and carrying her back upstairs.

'Oh Merlin,' Minerva thought, lying as a curl on top of the sleeping Bellatrix. How did she even get herself into this situation?

She had been down in Hagrid's hut outside the castle walls to fix something, and turned into her cat shape to get back faster. Only to be picked up by young Miss Black before she could reach her destination.

She of course was well aware of the young girl did have a black cat, that except the color was quite like herself. She had to admit that in the darkness the mistake was easy to make. She sighed knowing she would have no way of leaving before the morning when Bellatrix left for class, so she decided to find some rest to make the time pass by faster.

At least she was not being kept imprisoned by a dark wizard and that in itself was something.

Feedback always welcome and very much appreciated :o)