All Harry was aware of, as he regained consciousness, was a slow thudding ache in the back of head. As he slowly lifted himself off the ground, he tried to remember what had happened. A gold box, a letter, and an overwhelming sense of dread, after he touched what was inside the box. It was a time-turner, but unlike the one he had used previously, it seemed that instead of turning the device to go back 1 hour per turn, this one was designed to send the user back to a pre-determined point in time, just on touch. Come to think of it, that was probably why the box opened at his touch, it had been charmed so that it opened only for him, and so only he could use the time-turner. He looked to where the box had previously been on the table, to not only find the box not there, but the table gone as well. As he stepped forward the crunch of broken glass was heard, well it definitely was a one way trip now, he had no idea how time turners worked, let alone how to fix them.

Seeing as though he was now definitely stuck here, he decided that he should at least try and figure where here was, and more importantly, when he was. It was safe to say he was no longer at Grimmauld Place, but he thought that at the very least, Dumbledore would've sent him to somewhere familiar where he could get his bearings. Somewhere like Diagon Alley, possibly the Leaky Cauldron, but as of now he was more concerned with figuring out where he was.
He appeared to be standing in finely furnished parlor room; the wall to his left stacked with books of all shapes and sizes, and to his right a small liquor cabinet, above which was mounted the head of a deer, and several other creatures that Harry did not recognize. The only light came from the small fireplace, its flickering embers cast dancing shadows across room. It was then Harry realized he wasn't the only occupant of the room.
A man, sat with his back to Harry, currently sipping a glass of Firewhiskey, seemingly unperturbed by the sudden appearance of Harry. He tried to make out the face of man, but the flames only showed a silhouette with shoulder length hair, and any distinguishable features were lost to the shadows.
It was then, that the stranger spoke,
"I suppose you have a lot of questions Harry, some of them I will be unable to answer because I too have the same ones. But first things first, 'who are you?' It's pretty obvious I know who you are, and I'm sure I don't need any introductions?"

Harry recognized the voice, but he just couldn't put a name to it, "I'm sorry but I don't…"

"Oh come now Harry, surely you couldn't have forgotten your dear Godfather so quickly" the man interrupted

It suddenly dawned on Harry who the voice of the stranger belonged to, "Sirius? Is it really you?" tears of joy threatened to run down Harry's face, the only thing holding them back was the disbelief that the man before him was lying and this was some sort of trick.

"No it's a senile mountain troll. Of course it's me Harry' Trust Sirius to ruin the sentimental nature of the occasion.

Harry lost all self-control as he practically ran to his Godfather to grab him in a rough embrace, knocking the glass from his hand.

"It's okay Harry, its okay, I'll never leave you again" Sirius whispered this in Harry's ear as he held him tighter, stroking the boys hair, relieved at finally being able to see him again

/

It was half an hour before Harry's emotional outburst to subside. As the tears finally dried he lifted his head from Sirius' shoulder, "How are you here, I thought you were dead? You know at the department of mysteries"

"I wondered when you were going to ask that" Sirius remarked with his trademark smirk, "It seems I am the first person to discover the mystery of the veil. The veil is a portal to the past, I don't know how it works, and all I know is that I've been waiting five years for you"

Harry not paying attention to his Godfathers last statement, "I thought that crazy bitch Lestrange hit you with the killing curse and you then disappeared in the veil"

"No Harry, Bellatrix would never kill me, and I'd appreciate it if you not refer to her by that…. name again. It was all in good sport, sure as kids we used to fight but we loved each other. We were family and always there for each other when our parents weren't. She hit me with a stunner, only intended to knock me out, how was she to know I would fall into the veil." All the while comforting the closest thing he'd ever have to son.

"But...but..." Harry stammered through choked sobs, "You didn't see her, you didn't see her after it happened. The joy in her face at killing you, the joy in her cheers chanting 'I killed Sirius Black'."

"Harry, there's a lot about my dear Bellatrix that you don't know, even more so you wouldn't understand. All I can say is that she never was, or would've been the woman she grew up to be if it wasn't for one thing. Her 'arranged' marriage to that bastard Rodolphus, what he did to her was worse than any of the unforgivables; he forced her membership to the Death Eaters. The things she was made to do, she hated it, at first the imperious curse was used to make her perform such acts of cruelty, but eventually, somewhere down the line she snapped and became the thing she hated the most." It was amazing how Sirius could keep his stoic façade while reliving the life of his cousin, well in his mind mostly, he couldn't bring himself to tell Harry the horrors she had witnessed, the many tear stained letters he had received were proof of the torment she had been through. Sirius couldn't have said he was surprised when the letters stopped; he was just surprised that she had still been alive; he was sure Voldemort had her killed for contacting him.

He would spend most nights awake, unable to drift off in peaceful sleep, partly due to nightmares caused by hearing of such atrocities, but mostly for fear of his cousin's safety. A tear slowly tore a trail down his face.

"I'm sorry... I didn't know…"

"No Harry, you have no reason to be sorry, you had no idea of her past, and you certainly had nothing to do with it. Now, if it's ok with you I wish to get some shut-eye, and I'll talk with you again in the morning. As for you, I'm sure you'll be suffering with the worst case of time-lapse ever, but if it's ok with you I can perform a spell which will help reset your body clock and quickly get re-adjusted to the time here"

Harry nodded, "Sirius, before we sleep, can I ask you one last question?"

"Okay harry, as long as it's quick"

"What was Lestr… I mean Bellatrix like before, when she was younger."

"She was beautiful, intelligent, she was very cunning, and she always had great ambition, I guess that's why she ended up in Slytherin. But she was also loyal and brave, she could've ended up in Gryffindor, but I guess family ties won out in the end" Now before Harry would inevitably ask more questions, Sirius cast the spell which he had cast upon himself every night since the letters started

"Pacis somnus" And Harry slept the most peaceful sleep he had ever slept in years.

/

A/N : Thanks to all the people who added this to favourites and/or alert. I never expected this story to get the response it got, so thank you. I know this is still a plot builder, the main intention was to add details which would make a Harry/Bella fic more plausible by harry finding out about her past. There will be a bit more of this in the next chapter with a proper explanation as to how/why Sirius is here and what his part in Dumbledore's plan is. Then hopefully after that the pace will be quicker and humor will begin to creep in, I already have several scenarios in mind.

If any of you were wondering, the spell used by Sirius is latin for 'Peaceful Sleep'

(Oh and if I cross the rating of teen at any point in my story, please tell me and I'll change the rating, I'm just not sure how much I can get away with in a T rating, I just know that I doubt this will be a lemon anytime soon)