Authors Notes: This is my first story so I hope you like it. I did my best with the spelling and grammar and I think it's all right. Enjoy!

The Regrets of Bellatrix Lestrange – Chapter 1

Written by YT12J

Harry Potter was bored. And this wasn't the usual 'Ron isn't playing chess' bored. This was the 'I haven't been attacked by Death Eaters recently' bored. Usually, he would be celebrating this, but after two whole years of not even Malfoy's dad hissing 'The Dark Lord shall kill you next time, Potter' he was beginning to feel the effects of it.

It had been three years since the time that he had destroyed all of Voldemort's Horcruxes and almost killed Voldemort himself. If only Voldemort hadn't apparated away before Harry had got the chance. And if only they had taken down more of Voldemort's Death Eaters as well. So many of them survived, and if the rumors were true, Voldemort was building an enormous army, sufficient of taking them down in several minutes. Harry doubted this however. At the Battle of Hogwarts, it was proven to many of the people and creatures supporting Voldemort that the light side was capable of wiping them out. Therefore many of the magical creatures supporting Voldemort had left him to build an army with others. This had been a big achievement for the light side as it meant that Voldemort had lost almost three-quarters of the forces that he had.

Harry was getting lonelier every day, since the time two years ago when Ginny had been taken from him. He remembered the attack. It was supposed to be a romantic dinner at the restaurant, but it had ended with the slaughter of just under a hundred muggles, and in the end, Ginny…

Flashback-

Harry was glad that he had chosen this specific restaurant. It would be the perfect place for him to propose to Ginny.

He walked in with her, feeling even more nervous by the second. "This is a nice restaurant Harry." Ginny commented as they were shown to their seats.

"Yes, I picked it for a special occasion." Ginny didn't say anything, but from the look on her face it was clear she knew he was up to something.

The actual eating had gone reasonably well. The restaurant was quite expensive, but probably had the best food in the entire country. "So Harry" Ginny said as she finished off her dessert. "Are we leaving now, or are you going to reveal what you have been planning for tonight?" Harry grinned. He knew that she would work out what was going on sooner or later. He decided that it was time and got down on one knee. Ginny didn't show any sign of surprise on her face as he pulled a small box out of his pocket. "Ginny, I love you with all my heart and want to be with you forever. Will you –"

There was a sudden bang, and Harry could see that the door had been thrown off its hinges. He watched, knowing who was about to come through. But to his surprise, the only people who came through were twenty Death Eaters. Harry reacted instinctively, pulling his wand from his pocket and firing a curse at one of the Death Eaters. He didn't even wait to see if the curse had hit, he just immediately turned round to Ginny and shouted over the loud noise "Run! I'll hold them off and come back to our house as soon as I can!" Ginny shook her head, as he knew she would, and whispered into his ear.

"I'm not leaving you!"

Harry cursed, knowing that Ginny had already made up her mind and he would not be able to convince her otherwise. He immediately turned back to the Death Eaters, and froze in shock. Every single muggle had already been slaughtered. The Death Eaters must have been watching them speak. Even worse, he could sense extremely powerful Anti-Apparition wards that would be impossible to break through. He then realised that they were so powerful that only one person could have made these. Lord Voldemort.

And he heard the high cold voice, like he did every night when he fell asleep. He knew that he didn't stand a chance against twenty Death Eaters and Voldemort himself. "So Potter, we meet again.

Harry turned around to see Voldemort standing behind him with an evil smirk on his face. Harry felt like he had just been punched in the gut. Ginny would die, he would die, and so would the rest of the wizarding world. He stared at Voldemort for what seemed like a small eternity and then broke the silence by saying "Leave Ginny alone, Tom! I don't care what you do to me just leave her out of this."

"You certainly have a lot of courage to speak to me like that Potter. It is a shame that I will do everything and anything to make your life miserable. And the most effective thing for that would probably be to murder your beloved."

"No!" Harry whispered, realising what Voldemort was about to do. He raised his wand to try and defend her, but before he could even utter a curse Voldemort blasted his wand out of his hand. It skid underneath a table far from Harry's reach. Harry watched dumbfounded as Voldemort raised his wand. "Avada Kedavra." A jet of green light soared out of his wand and before Harry could even try to take the curse himself, it reached Ginny. Harry watched as she was blasted backwards with a look of sadness on her face. Then he felt the rage welling up inside him.

Before Harry could even try to get to his wand, the wall was blasted apart. Through it came several members of the Order of the Phoenix, alongside some Aurors. They immediately engaged in battle with the Death Eaters and Voldemort. Harry immediately went for his wand. As soon as he found it, he joined the members of the Order in battle.

There were curses flying everywhere. The battle had been going on for around half an hour, with no progress whatsoever. Harry himself was battling Voldemort with no success. Finally, after around twenty minutes, Harry fired a curse that managed to penetrate Voldemort's barrier. Voldemort was blasted back, and Harry joined the order in retreating. They left the building and as soon as they passed the anti-apparition wards, they all apparated away to different places.

###########

Harry sobbed as he sat on his sofa. He had thought that he would have a long and happy life with Ginny, but Voldemort had destroyed any hope for that along with Ginny. He didn't think that he would ever be able to get over her being dead. He loved her, and now he had lost her. He had promised to himself to make sure that no harm came to her, but thanks to Voldemort that promise had been undone.

Harry finally stood up after ten minutes of crying. He wasn't sure what he should do. He was still full of hatred to Voldemort, but it would be extremely stupid for him to go after Voldemort seeing as he had an army of Death Eaters that would capture and kill Harry instantly. He sadly remembered all of the times that he had shared with Ginny. Their first kiss. Their first date. All of those memories were all that he had left of Ginny now…

The present-

Harry bitterly remembered his guilt at not taking the curse for Ginny. Everybody he knew told him that it wasn't his fault, but he didn't believe them. Nobody blamed Harry with the exception of Ron when he first found out. Ron had got into a rage and was shouting at Harry how he should have saved Ginny, and how it was his entire fault. Harry had looked on with tears in his eyes, unable to say anything back to him. A few days later, Ron had turned up a Harry's house and apologised. Harry didn't blame him. After all, Ginny was Ron's sister and he had loved her. Ron had said that he didn't blame Harry and that it would have been foolish for Harry to take the curse for her. Even Mrs Weasley had forgiven him eventually. At first, she had acted like Ron, but she saw sense in the end. Unfortunately, she was not completely through with it. She and Harry had not spoken for several months.

Harry got up and walked around for a bit, trying to get his emotions under control. But he couldn't help it. He still cried at the memory of her. He would never forget it, and after it, he had another reason added to the multiple reasons of why he despised Voldemort. He wouldn't nothing more than to kill the man after torturing him mercilessly. The only reason he had not gone after him in the time that passed, was because he knew Ginny would have been mad at him putting his life on the line just to avenge her death.

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. Harry was instantly alert and had his wand out. He had been very paranoid lately, thinking that it was a Death Eater whenever he got a knock on the door, although it never actually was one. This time though, it was as if he had a sixth sense telling him that it was a Death Eater at the door. He decided that he might as well open it, after all, his senses had never been particularly perceptive.

The knocking came again and Harry, who got annoyed through his extremely short temper, walked up to the door. He then got into a fighting stance and opened it. "Hello Harry!" said a grinning Bellatrix Lestrange. Harry stared at her, shocked, giving her an opening.

"Stupefy!"

###########

Harry woke up in an armchair. In front of him was a figure slowly coming into focus. His eyes cleared, and he remembered what had happened before. He also noticed Bellatrix in front of him, pointing a wand at his head. "Sorry to be so rough, but I couldn't risk you attacking and murdering me could I?" Harry tried to move, but realized that he was paralyzed. "In case you haven't figured it out already, you cannot move. I am not risking my own death. The reason I am doing this is because I want you to listen to what I have to say. I am going to tell you a story about none other than myself. And I want you to listen. It all started quite a few years ago, before you were even born. Just so you know it is true, I am going to drink this." She held up a bottle of Veritaserum and drank it. She then spoke again. "OK, now back to the story..."

Flashback-

Bellatrix was running through the forest, terrified. Her husband Rodolphus had gone mad and became a follower of Lord Voldemort, and even worse, he was trying to get her to follow him as well. After she refused, he attempted to use the Imperius curse on her, but she managed to escape before he did. Now she was running for her life, knowing that she would never forgive herself if she joined Voldemort.

She heard a noise behind her. Just as she turned around, wand at the ready, the jet of red light hit her. She collapsed instantly, screaming from the effects of the Cruciatus curse. Rodolphus came into sight and grabbed her wand. "Now Bella, maybe you'll think twice before running from me."

"I will never join him you sick idiot." she whispered through the pain she was currently feeling. He showed his anger on his face as he finally brought off the Cruciatus curse. "Maybe not willingly. Imperio!"

The present-

"So you see, I was never willingly supporting Voldemort. I recently escaped the Imperius curse through the death of my husband, which you'll have probably heard about. I don't think you'll ever forgive me for all of the things I did, but I hope that you will at least try." Harry stared at her, wide-eyed, before saying, "Why did you not try to fight off the effects of the Imperius curse?"
"There are two reasons for that. First, I am not particularly good at fighting it off for some reason. Second, my husband was extremely skilled at the Imperius curse. Happy?"
"I guess. Though I don't think I'll ever forgive you for killing my godfather."
"I wasn't expecting you to. I'm happy enough that you believe me."

"Why are you here?" he asked. "It was a huge risk for you to come here. Order members come all the time and if one of them came and saw you then they would have killed you without any hesitation whatsoever."

"I guess I was really determined to make you see that I wasn't truly responsible for any of the crimes that I committed. And there is also another reason which I am not so happy about, but I don't really have a choice. When I left Voldemort, I lost the place that I was staying in. I was wondering if I could stay here with you. You're the only person who I thought might let me stay with you even if you knew I was innocent."

"I guess if you can't stay anywhere else then you might as well stay here. But be warned, I don't have any house-elves and I will not do their job for you. And I want your help in bringing down Voldemort while you are here."

She beamed. "Of course I'll help you. I hate Voldemort and will assist anybody I can in bringing him down. And I don't care if you haven't got any house-elves. Do I really look that lazy to you?"

"Yes." he said before bolting with an annoyed Bellatrix running after him, firing hexes everywhere.

###########

Later, after they had both calmed down, they had dinner. Seeing as Harry never was especially skilled at cooking, he bought pizza from the nearest place he could which was about five houses away. That was why he had chosen to live here. While they ate, neither of them spoke until Bellatrix finally broke the silence. "So, what is our first move against Voldemort?"
"Our first move is to train against him. That is what I do every day. I learn new spells that I can use in duels and I practice them until I have mastered them. So technically it's not inaction. It's just lack of useful action."
"Whatever." she muttered, finishing her pizza. "Is this what you eat every day, because if it is, you must be really unhealthy." He scowled.
"This isn't what I eat every day! And word of advice, you should be watching what you eat yourself. You seem to be getting really fat to me and you soon might turn into an over sized hippo."

She jumped up angrily and pulled her wand out at the same time he did. They glared at each other for a few minutes, then put their wands away and sat down. Harry smiled to himself. 'This is going an interesting time, though I can never truly forgive her.'

Forgiveness wasn't really an option, even if she was innocent. However, at least she had the decency to ask for his forgiveness nicely. And it would be useful to have her help in defeating Voldemort.

Authors Notes: I should hopefully update it soon. If you can, please review so that I can correct any of the mistakes that you may have found. Thanks for reading!

Edited for Improvement, 27/04/2013