Bella's Return

Chapter One

"They, who knew the steps I took, long ago, to guard myself against mortal death?"

He woke up with a terrible headache, which wasn't really remarkable, considering how many times he'd had that before, of course. But this time, it seemed worse, and the shimmering remainders of the nightmare kept haunting him. It was about a witch, a witch that he knew all too well. It had been six years since he had last seen her, since he had thought her dead forever. Her and her master. But a day later he had woken up with a headache that had been worse than any he had ever had before, and flashes of horrible scenes running through his mind. And he had a feeling that it was not over, that one had survived that should not have. Bellatrix Lestrange.

The dream wasn't very difficult to understand, he saw her dancing among the ruins of the Astronomy Tower, splattered in blood and laughing like mad. Then she looked at him and said: "I'm coming back." and he woke up with a high heartbeat rate and an enormous headache. Every night. For six years. As I said, it wasn't really remarkable… anymore.

These six years, he had been occupied with tracking the remaining Dead-Eaters, rounding them up and getting them judged. It had been a hard, but satisfying job. But his personal targets, Rodolphus and Rabastan Lestrange, still eluded him. They had been the other torturers of his parents, and maybe the nightmares would stop when he had dealt with them. Sometimes he got glimpses of his parents, the way they had been before, seen through a window. And screams. Today, the feeling of dread was accompanied by a foreboding feeling, and he hoped he could prove that feeling wrong. He got up, showered, made breakfast and Apparated to the Ministry. So far, everything was fine. That changed when he got to the Auror Department. Harry, his 'superior', (though it was an easy yoke to bear, because Harry had been his mate for thirteen years, was brilliant at what he did, and never gave ridiculous orders) came to his office, looking like he hadn't slept all week (basically because he hadn't) and very agitated.

"Hey Harry, what are the plans for today?" Neville asked.

"Seems like there are some new cases of Muggle-bullying, we've had a constant stream of injured Muggles since 8 P.M., every time we got to the scene of the crime, they'd disappear, and after some time, we'd hear about another offense on the other side of the country. I've never Apparated that much on a single day before. We've had Brighton, Eastborne, London, Lincoln, Aylesbury, Trowbridge, Royston, Ipswich and some town in Ireland with a non-pronounceable name."

"Mate, you better get some sleep, with those hours you've been doing, you've worked non-stop from Monday to Wednesday, and then you claim to have slept through the night to Thursday, though Ginny says she woke up at 3 A.M. and found you on your desk, working on those strategies about two versus three duels."

"How did she know what I was working on?" Harry asked surprised.

"She didn't, I lured you out," Neville laughed, "but back to business, now we're Friday, and you look like a zombie. You won't be of much use to us if your reflexes are like mine in first year."

Now Harry looked offended: "I really don't like being talked to like that, Longbottom! I'm still your superior."

"Sure you are, Harry, and now get to bed, Mr. Superior."


After that was settled (Harry had gone home, being glad that he was off duty for once, though he didn't want to admit it), Neville went to Ron's office, told him he (Ron, that is) was in charge, and asked him where the last crime had happened.

Arriving on the crime scene in a group (consisting of two Obliviators, Neville and another Auror), he noticed what was wrong immediately. He almost fell half a meter into a crater in the small, dark alley he had just appeared in. The rest of the alley was filled with other, smaller craters and two men who were looking very scared, and had a Full-Body-Bind on them. On some places, the blasts had ripped through cloth and skin alike, and they didn't look like they would survive if they went to a Muggle hospital. Neville cast some Muggle Repelling curses around the alley, and the Obliviators questioned and then Obliviated the local Muggle police-men who had arrived on the scene some minutes earlier. Luckily, they had arrived quite early, and they could Obliviate all the persons who had seen the incident rather fast. In the meantime, Neville inspected the scene. He had experienced that, in cases like these, details could be very important. It wasn't very likely that a wizard would leave his wand behind if he'd just attacked someone, but tiny details, like a footprint, could do someone in. That was the way they had found out about the last crimes of the Carrows, as it was obvious it had been Death Eaters and they both had O-shaped legs. Finding them proved more difficult, of course. He didn't have to search for long. It wasn't a footprint, a piece of cloth or a piece of hair. It was a piece of paper, about 4 square millimeters large. Neville cast Engorgio on it until it was fairly well-readable.

Hey Nev,

Missed me? I'll start making your life very difficult from now on, so prepare yourself, I don't like killing an easy prey.

Yours sincerely, faithfully and truly, Bella L.

P.S. You might recognize the other spell I used on them, I hope they aren't too mad to question.

A.N. Okay, so this my first ever fanfic story, be good and tell me all the stuff I messed up, please?

As long as you don't insult me for personal stuff, everything is allowed.