The faint smell of smoke watched over the wreckage of the house like a bound ghost. In her long experience in magical warfare, that was the first time she saw a Killing Curse produce another result besides a dead body, but the cottage looked as if the most powerful exploding curse had coursed through it, from the inside out. Even at the gardens, she could feel the dark magic rippling in the air, like the aftershocks of an orgasm.

The door had been ripped from the hinges and laid flat on the floor. She touched the splintered wood and closed her eyes. Some kind of knocking back jinx had been used on it, and the ghost of a smile graced her lips. In a way, the man had been polite enough to knock.

There were scorch marks on the walls and a long rip line crossing the couch. A wet mark tainted the carpet near the bottom of the stairs. She didn't need to touch or smell it to know it was piss. Wizards normally thought the Killing Curse to be clean and inexplicable, a light that left only a dead body in its wake. However, the mechanics of the darkest spell of all acted directly on the soul, not in the matter. The unexpected relaxation of the muscles made the body leak its bowels contents before rigor mortis kicked in and stiffed up the dead again. Aurors usually left the stains in place after removing the body, so they could easily recreate the crime scene afterwards. In the scorching days of summer, they would even use preservation charms to make sure the mark wouldn't dry off.

She tested the first step of the stairs, letting her weight fall on her leg bit by bit. There was a loud creak, but the wood held firm. She climbed up slowly, one foot a time. The upper steps were cracked and moaned loudly, but she could climb. The corridor was short, just four doors, two at each side. All of them were open, the impact of the explosion breaking their locks and almost blowing them off their hinges. She could see a closet, a bathroom, a bigger bedroom with a huge bed, and a smaller bedroom that looked like the epicentre of a disaster. She took that door.

Whatever had filled up the bedroom before, was just a pile of indistinguishable rubble. Broken wood, glass shards and burned cloth were scattered everywhere. The back wall had disappeared, and the night stars burned brightly in the sky. She started to shift the pile of rubble around but quickly gave up. It would be impossible to find something in the middle of so much trash. She couldn't find the piss stain of the other body. There was fresh blood on a fallen raft, she rubbed her fingertips against it and took the almost dried life liquid to her lips, tasting it quickly with the tip of her tongue. Young, very young. Probably the little boy then.

She inspected the other rooms with no hope to find something interesting and braved down the broken stairs. There was a kitchen on the ground floor, she opened the icebox. Most of it was full of baby food, in tiny containers. One was labelled apple pie and she took it, unscrewed the small lid and pushed a finger inside. The first lick filled her mouth with the taste of freshly baked pie, just like how grandma made it. She tried to find a spoon, but the drawers and cupboards were locked with a baby-safety charm. The tap was still working, so she washed her hands and dried them before using again her finger to scoop the baby food from the glass jar. It was really good, that's why, she reflected, children grew up so spoiled most of the times.

There was a door to the basement, but somehow it was behind a small cabinet. She rapped the black wood with her knuckles, and rubbed it with her clean hand, shifting the glass jar around so she wouldn't stain the cabinet with the baby food. She opened it and it was empty. There was a spell inside, it shifted a little when she touched the door. She palmed her hand against the backboard, closed her eyes and concentrated. An image of a rundown shack filled her mind. A runway scape, through one of the legendary Vanishing Cabinets. She even knew where the matching twin was, the Shrieking Shack had always been a good point to party and fuck during the Hogsmeade visits. The twin should be in the second smallest room, one of the many rooms that had been locked for long.

However, the Vanishing Cabinets were famously unreliable. They could sometimes take you to other, unintended, places, or stuck you in-between for days or even weeks. In her time, Lancelot Lockless had been pushed inside one and the wards of Hogwarts interfered with the displacement. Instead of exiting through the twin cabinet or even coming back from inside, he had disappeared forever. The First Years probably never recovered from that trauma. It was no wonder they wouldn't want to use the cabinet as an escape route the second the wards had been breached, even more with a baby in their arms. That meant they had some other escape route. Or, maybe, the baby simply was upstairs when the door fell and they went to fetch it and got stuck upstairs. The door behind the Vanishing Cabinet was annoying her with its secrets, so she closed the black doors, braced herself against the left side of it and pushed.

The cabinet groaned loudly, scratching the tiles of the kitchen floor and jerking to the point of almost toppling over. She grunted, unused to the physical effort, but marched on, squaring her shoulders against the wood and pushing with her legs, trying to find a gripping point in the quite slippery surface. With a final screech, the blasted thing gave in and slid out of the way, revealing a narrow wooden door. She swept the sweat from her brow and readjusted her robes before opening it and trudging down the rickety stairs.

The smell of copper and fat was heavy in the air, making her skin tingle with the oily feeling. The basement was tiny and the ceiling was suffocatingly low. There was no light at all, but she could see clearly the remains of some drawing on the floor. She knelt and brushed her fingertips against the line, bringing them in front of her eyes and sniffing the powder that clung to them. Ashes, a circle and what she supposed were stars and runes. It had been a long time since she had seen hermetic magic. Her knees groaned when she stood up, still sore from all the effort upstairs to remove the cabinet. There was nothing in the cottage, no clue and no reward. It had been only a phenomenal waste of time.

Your master isn't here.

She drew her wand. There was silence in the air, the rancid feeling of dark magic gripping her robes with ghostly fingers. She twirled slowly, taking the pitch black room under her gaze. There was movement under the stairs. A black snake uncoiled from her resting position, her small tongue tasting the darkness, tiny beady eyes squaring on her. She strode towards the snake and knelt down to touch it. She moved away from her touch, seeming quite miffed by her audacity.

Your master is gone, fled through the night. You won't find him here.

"Who are you?"

The snake tasted the air again. There was something about her, something different in the dance of her scales. It took her a moment to understand and recognize the colour as green instead of black. An emerald snake, and a pretty one at that. The voice in her head, talking directly to her thoughts was familiar too, even if she probably… yes, even if she only heard it spitting spells at her master.

"How are you alive, Potter?"

The snake moved slowly, curling around her unmarked left arm. She weighed almost nothing, around 3 feet long, but a good 6 inches wide, like a flexible water pipe. Her tongue brushed against her pale skin, and a shock coursed through her flesh. After making sure the snake was secure around her limb, she stood and climbed up the rickety staircase, returning to the soft moonlight of the kitchen. There, her scales shone like precious jewels.

You have a very good sense of magic. Not even Hagrid found me there.

She snorted but had to recognize the praise. Rubeus Hagrid was a lump of turd, but his magical sense was unparalleled. The man could find a single wounded animal in an entire forest of magical lifeforms. The snake was small but so close to him, there was almost no chance he wouldn't sense her. He failed probably because she consciously hid her life energy. And probably because she wasn't a real animal, anyway.

"You haven't answered my question. How are you alive?"

Your master wasn't the only one to take precautions against Death, Bellatrix dear.

She felt a shiver racking her body, but tried to stay impassive. There was a very selected handful that knew her master's deepest secret. Right now, one of his anchors was still in her possession, hidden in the depths of Gringotts. She was a Black and so had learned much about the darkness. But Potter was a light sided bitch, wasn't she?

Looks can be deceiving, Bella, you should know that more than most.

"You are quite annoying in death as you were in life, aren't you?"

She took another jar of baby food from the icebox, this time one labelled as "Chocolate Pudding". Complete madness, all of it. How could goo taste so good? Probably her baby was fat as a barrel if he ate that all day long.

He likes to exercise, that's why he isn't chubby. But he has cheeks that make you want to bite him.

"Where is my master right now?"

Far away. I can't sense him anymore, but he must have crossed the sea already. His spirit was weak and his conscious was feeble. It will take years for him to recover some sense.

"And why are you conscious? Better yet, where is your anchor?"

But as soon as the last question left her lips, she already knew the answer. Even she had heard the whispers, the tales that wizards and witches traded in the back of taverns and in the darkness of their basements. She had heard the cheers in the streets and had seen the movement in their meeting places.

"The boy? There were tales about a scar on his head, a scar carved by my master's wand…"

A useful assumption. Hagrid saw it while taking him from the rubble. He looked so tiny and vulnerable in his huge hands… It broke my heart no being able to touch him, hold him… But you are right, my soul shard is inside him. I thought it would be… poetic. He resided in me before living, and now I reside in him after living. We are bound by a string of fate as we were bound by my umbilical cord. Isn't it beautiful?

"So you split your soul and merged a piece in your own baby? You did it just so you would survive my master's power?"

There was laughter in her head, and it still tinged the words from the snake.

Oh Bella, your master's power gave me no fright or worry. Haven't I defeated him three times already? His magic is weak and waning, his mind is drifting and dulling… Haven't you seen the signs even before entering this home? The virgin blood on the doorsill, the runes on the cradle, the human ashes on my basement? You refrained to use your wand under my roof and refused to attack me in my home. Haven't you seen it all, and yet aren't you just a servant? The one you call master saw nothing and paid a great price for a great error.

Bella kept her silence.

I have no fear from Voldemort. Instead, my precautions were for my own gain. This plan of mine has been simmering like a delicate brew for most of my life. And while you judge me for using my own flesh and blood as my anchor, haven't you done so much more, and all in vain, for your only daughter?

"Your mudblood tongue doesn't deserve even to pronounce her name."

And yet, my muddy blood protected my son from your master's curse, while your daughter died inside your womb by his wand.

"I've committed everything to his cause, my past, my present and my future. I have no regrets, and no wishes but my master's wishes."

You lie, Bella dear. They took more than they deserved, and it pains your heart and consumes your soul. You wished for life but was rewarded with Death. And yet, even now you search for your old master. Haven't you learned your lesson that night when he tortured you for so long your daughter died?

"I… I haven't told… It was a…"

A mistake? Haven't you served a man, mistaking him for a god?

"And you want me to serve you now, Lily Potter, now that my master is gone? You want me to worship your dirty blood just because you created yourself a Horcrux inside your son's forehead and survived a Killing Curse? You want me to help you and serve you and adore you as if I haven't wasted my entire life killing your people?"

Do you prefer to serve a weak man that got bested by a muggleborn?

The snake slid from her arm to the kitchen table. It was strange to talk like that, so high up, so she took a seat in front of Lily. The tiny tongue brushed the air and the small head moved from side to side, glancing at everything. Bella slumped, feeling drained.

"What do you want from me?"

I want my baby boy.

Bella laughed at that, even if her heart tugged hard. It had been so long, and yet so soon since that night. She had opened just with Cissy. Her baby sister had lost one too when Lucius discovered it was a girl. He wanted a male heir, a stud who would carry the Malfoy name further. His friend had produced a potion… Cissy told her the pain ebbed away after some time, that she hardly wake up crying anymore. But Cissy had always been the coldest one of them. Sometimes, she wondered what would Andy say. She couldn't even fathom the words her younger sister would offer, but she was sure they would heal here more than time could.

"I can't exactly appear in one of the safe houses of the Order, can I? Even more with their dead heroine turned… Is it really a snake?"

A magical construct, an emergency body that I carried inside me. When my soul was stripped from my human flesh, I simply migrated to this. After the explosion, I burst out but decided against showing myself. This is a useful body, but it lacks… finesse. Your old master failed in taking this kind of precaution, and now is less than a ghost. But I digress. Harry isn't in one of the Order's.

Bella closed the basement door and pulled the cabinet back into place. She was sure to have a sore body after that. Maybe she should have asked to use her wand? The snake had something in her expression that reminded her of an amused smile.

Albus would mistake my Horcrux inside Harry for a blood protection. Men, no matter if Light or Dark Lords, have a hard time understanding the complexities of love. Your master scoffed at it, Albus romances it. None could even conciliate with the idea that love and power aren't opposites. He won't see it as a Horcrux because he can't understand a Horcrux can be made out of something besides hate. Seeing it as a protection, he would take Harry to my sister, my last living relative, so he would be warded by my blood.

"I never knew you had a sister."

She is a muggle.

Bella laughed.

"I don't know if I should mock or applaud his line of thought. In a way, that would be the perfect hidden spot, as a Death Eater would never consider the possibility of Harry Potter living with muggles. Oh, poor boy."

I lived with muggles all my life and came out quite okay.

Bella didn't dignify that with an answer. Instead, she took the snake and let it coil around his left arm again.

"So, can I murder the muggle?"

Privet Drive was enjoying a calm and silent night. For the sixth time in a row, the forecast was wrong and the night sky was devoid of even a single cloud, the almost full moon shining down the street and lending a bluish hue to everything. Strange things had happened there not very long before, but, like a bad dream coming to an end, the residents were just starting to forget it. The woman in black crossed the gate of Number Four and rapped smartly on the door. In the quiet night, the sound was like gunshot.

She had to knock at least three more times before a light was lit on the second floor. There was a lot of grumbling noises coming down towards her from the inside of the house. At the distance, a cat meowed loud enough to raise the dead, and she was sure someone was spying on her from the house to her left. She had her hood over her head, the black robes shining like obsidian under the blue light. One of the lampposts was flickering madly, producing a buzzing sound. Someone had used magic on it less than a day before.

"WHAT IN THE NAME OF—"

Her spell shut the fat man up faster than a lightening. His eyes became dazed and his shoulders slumped slightly as he relaxed. She moved forward and he stepped away, her careless afterthought making him close and lock the door. She glanced at her guest and felt the common disgust at been near a muggle be followed by a new kind of nausea. The man was a mountain of fat and sweat topped by a tiny head covered by a nightcap and a horrendous full moustache. He was wearing striped pyjamas full to the bursting point, his huge chest panting trembling from the effort to go down the stairs. His sausage-like fingers were still curled around the latch of the door, his empty brain waiting for new orders. She had half the thought of making he kill himself in some enjoyably gruesome way, but a hiss under her robes made her go back to the plan.

Light steps announced someone coming, and she turned to face the muggle sister. The woman looked tired and scared, frail and nasty, all rolled up under a too big dull grey camisole. She sniffed loudly, her eyes travelling from the frozen man to her dark figure.

"Vernon? Who is this?"

"Hello, Petunia Dursley," greeted Bella, getting closer to the woman. "I have a gift for you, from your late sister."

The woman stepped back, some sort of recognition shifting behind her eyes, her mouth opening to scream. Bella thought about silencing the thing with a spell, but the snake was faster. She tore through the long sleeve that hid her body, striking the thin woman. Her body was light, but the sudden, lightning-fast movement, coupled with the emerald blur jumping on her face, made Petunia trip behind, falling on her back on the floor. Vernon didn't move a muscle, still gripping the door latch. That's when Petunia tried to scream.

It wasn't a wise move. Most of the snake was over her chest, strongly gripping her left breast, the head towering over her horrified face. When her mouth opened to scream, her hands trying to push the snake away, the emerald head stroke again, penetrating her gaping maw and chocking the woman.

Bella watched the spectacle with some interest. Muffled cries leaked around the snake body as she pulled herself deeper inside Petunia's throat. The snake's body entering her twisted her head so her mouth would align with her throat, her fingers trying to grip the body and rip it away from her, but sliding over the slippery scales. Her legs flouncing wildly, her entire body contorting and twirling, her eyes wide open and screaming in silent agony.

The last of the snake disappeared inside her, and Petunia finally laid still. There was blood in the corners of her mouth, the snake too wide to fit comfortably inside it ripped her flesh. Her camisole had ripped open during the struggle. Her small breasts, flabby stomach and wrinkled cunt open to Bella's inspection. She wondered if the plan had failed and the woman was dead now. Well, she could at least murder the walrus.

Petunia sat up slowly, rubbing her jaw and curling her long, twig-like legs under her flat butt. The camisole slid from her bony shoulders and pooled around her thin figure. She looked up at Bella, blowing the dirty blond hair away from her face.

"This body is bloody horrible."

She stood up, leaving the clothes on the floor, and walked away from Bella, wobbling a little as if unused with the length of her legs. Petunia was taller than Lily had ever been, but she had none of her curves and her body looked a lot older than her 27 years. She stopped in front of a mirror in the entrance hall, brushing the blonde hair away and glancing critically at herself from all the angles.

"I look like a vacuum-sealed bag of bones."

Bella snorted, even if the vacuum part had sailed over her head. Instead, she stood at Lily's side.

"At least you have a proper body now."

A gurgling sound coming from the second floor seemed to unstuck Lily from her inspection. Striding fast with her new, second-hand body, she climbed the stairs and burst into the second biggest room, where a huge cradle held a bald lump of fat. She ignored it while searching, before trying the next door, to a smaller bedroom devoid of life. The third door was Petunia's room, and the other one was a bathroom. Frowning, she left the boy undisturbed and went downstairs. The kitchen was empty, the living room held only Bella fiddling with a portrait of something that looked like a beach ball wearing a hat. There was a door to the basement, and she went down the narrow stairs, finally finding what she was looking for.

Over the washing machine, in the dark, there was a soapbox, and inside it, there was her little boy. He was dirty and his back was quite red, probably from staying so long inside the box. There was a piece of cloth under him, an old T-Shirt stained with piss. His emerald green eyes found her, and he whimpered quietly. Feeling her heart breaking at what had been done to her precious little prince in such a short time, she took him from the box and cooed softly, kissing his cute cheeks and discarding his too-big diapers. Not caring with the filth that covered his lower body, she cradled him in her arms and went upstairs, talking softly in his little ear the entire time, telling him how she defeated even Death just to stay with him.

"I see you found your little half-blood."

Bella shut up at her blazing glare and took a step back. Lily ignored her as she went upstairs again, straight to the bathroom. She shifted Harry to her left arm and twisted her wrist in a quick gesture, a wand popping on her right hand immediately. She rolled the wood between her fingers, enjoying the humming of magic. At one gesture from the wand, a stone basing raised from the tiled floor and filled with water and soap. She used her elbow to test the temperature before lowering her precious bundle on it. Harry seemed happy to be finally taking a bath and splashed water a little bit.

"Mommy" called the boy with his sweet, sweet little voice.

"Yes, my dear, I am here, mommy is here again."

Staring hungrily at the mother-son display, Bella shifted her weight so she could rest against the threshold.

"Did your husband knew about all of this?"

"Of course not, Bella, don't be silly. James was… a cute guy, he had everything I needed at the time, but he was unprepared to dwell in the darkness like we are. He was playing red-and-gold hair pranks on Slytherins when I was studying the dark arts. I regret we couldn't have more time, but he never was a long-term part of my plans."

"He had everything you needed? Like what?"

Lily gave her an amused smile, using her wand to dry the baby and clean her own naked body.

"Well, he had money, some amount of power, a fantastic library, a big cock and worshipped me as if I shit gold. In fact, it was his treatment that made me realize a critical error in my plans: I never wanted to be a Dark Lady or some kind of dictator. That never was my style. But the way James looked at me would make me shiver every time. That's why I'm doing all of this, defeating Death and raising my son here, away from the wizarding world. And that's why you are here, Bella. I'm now a Goddess, and you are my first priestess."

She left the bathroom and Bella followed her in introspective silence. Lily used her wand to create a new cradle and fitted it inside the baby's room, making Dudley Dursley wake up and start to whine. With a silent spell, the lump of fat fell asleep again. Lily cooed at her little prince and finally laid him on the new cradle, playing with his little hands until the exhausted little thing closed his eyes and went to the land of dreams.

"I would offer you the fat one, but it wouldn't be fun for you to have a muggle. As my priestess, only the best will be offered to you. We'll get you pregnant later, a little prince or princess of your own will start the process of healing you need so much, dear Bella. The pain from the little girl that was stolen from you won't ever go away, but every smile of your new baby will help you carry the burden with more grace. In time, you are going to find your will to live again."

Bella swallowed the strange lump in her throat and followed her new Goddess out of the room. Maybe Andromeda wasn't the only one in the world who knew the things that run deep under life. Maybe she was right in betting her last chips on this woman.

"Of course you are, my pretty Bella. Oh, how I wish I could speed up the merging process with this horrible body. I can't wait to have my beautiful hair again. Wish Petunia took better care of herself."

"Was it a really big cock? I mean, how big could it be?"

Lily quirked her eyebrow at her, and showed Bella her hands, spaced to reproduce the length. She let them drop and waved her wand, soft relaxing music playing in the bedroom, the door closing quietly not to disturb her little boy or the lump. She would have to get rid of the thing, Petunia had probably received her prince two days earlier, so she most surely hadn't registered him yet in the muggle world. She would register herself as his new guardian and simply rewrite the memories of her new neighbours so "Dudley Dursley" never existed. The thing would be probably happier in an orphanage or some such thing, she remembered how much Petunia suffered while living with her and her magic, the lump would have to live with three magical beings, maybe four after she impregnated Bella. Yes, it would be easier getting rid of it now, while he was somewhat presentable and had a chance of getting adopted.

So, the next step would be making sure the neighbourhood accepted the changes. She needed to add some memory triggers and suppressors so they would even accept her own changes, as that sack of bones would surely be reshaped into something more appropriate for a Goddess. After that, she could make a new backup body and put it inside Petunia's.

No, first she needed to review any safety measures Albus had left behind. The wards were easy to go through, as they were based on her own Horcrux, so the house wouldn't be able to detect her, as she would appear to the magic as another part of the ward itself. Albus probably had left some ties to those trinkets he fiddled with in his free time, and the man liked his spies to a fault. That line of thought made her remember something else…

Hagrid had taken Harry from the rubble but met Sirius Black before leaving. Sirius had betrayed her trust, ignoring his duty as Harry's godfather to go and search for the damn rat that almost destroyed her plans. If the man had stayed and done things properly, Harry would be safe with him and she could work on obtaining a better body than that… skinny, flabby thing Petunia had to offer. She could easily seduce Sirius, it wouldn't even be the first time, and marry him. That way, she would have a clean cut way to get Harry, grab another fortune and even indulge in some carnal pleasure. Sirius never recognized her divinity, but she had yet to find a dog that couldn't be properly trained.

But no, Sirius had gone in his own demented manhunt, and Harry was left in the tender care of his magic-hating relatives. He would probably fail, and maybe even be accused of being the traitor. Well, he could suffer for a bit. She could rescue him anytime she wanted, and some time in the doghouse would make him more agreeable to her plans. It would suck to only have priestess, even if they were gorgeous, intelligent and delectable like Bella. A well-mixed clergy was something she always dreamed about.

"The walrus is still stuck to the door."

Lily sighed. The days ahead would be busy, and any faulty step could set back her plans even more. For now, she needed to establish her position in that house, dominate Bella to keep her on the line, get rid of Petunia's lump and make sure Harry recovered well from his recent ordeal. After that, she could take care of the rest of her plans. One step a time, Daddy had taught her.

"Didn't it hurt a lot?"

"What?"

"A cock that size."

Lily smirked.

"Order the walrus to sleep on the couch and act normally tomorrow morning. He must not talk about you or what happened tonight. After that, come to the master bedroom, I will teach you how to properly worship your Goddess and… other things."

Bella moved towards the staircase but paused for a moment. She seemed a little bit shy, maybe because Lily was almost drowning the house in dark magic. Her body needed some time to adjust its output.

"Other things, my Goddess?"

The woman laughed at that, before using the tip of her wand to trace the neck of the Black beauty.

"I will torture you tonight, little Bella. But, from what I heard about you, you'll probably enjoy it."

And, in fact, she did.