Disclaimer:I DO NOT OWN HARRY POTTER, nor do I have any money, so don't bother trying to sue me. I do this for fun, and it is a lot of fun, so on with the story…

Thoughts

" " – Speaking in English

$ $ – Speaking in Parseltongue

' ' – Non verbal spells

" " – Speaking in other languages

The Dimensional Traveler Chronicles

2: Bella's Mission

"Those we truly love, never really leave us. You can always find them in here …"

"Come on, you can do better than that …" said Sirius after he dodged a stunner.

Then he was hit with another red light and his eyes widened and his body arced and fell back very slowly through the thin veil. Her laughter echoed throughout the room filling his head in torment.

"She killed Sirius, she killed him … I'll KILL HER!"

"Come out, come out, Little Harry," she called him in her mock baby voice.

"What did you come after me for then? I thought you were here to avenge my dear cousin!"

"I AM" shouted Harry.

"Ah, did you love him, little baby Potter?"

"Crucio"

"Never used an unforgivable curse before, have you, boy? You need to mean the Potter! You need to really want to cause pain – to enjoy it – righteous anger won't hurt me for long – I'll show you how it is done, shall I? I'll give you a lesson – Crucio"

"I have nothing more to say to you Potter, you have irked me too often, for too long. AVADA KEDAVRA!"

And then Harry's scar burst open.

He knew he must be dead; it was pain beyond imagining, pain past endurance – he was locked in the coils of a creature with red eyes – fused together – beyond pain.

He was standing in front of Dumbledore in the atrium of the Ministry of Magic.

A snake was wrapping itself around his insides, squeezing out his very life, controlling his body and taunting Dumbledore.

"Kill me now, Dumbledore … If death is nothing, Dumbledore, kill the boy …"

Let the pain stop it's killing me. Let him kill us … Let it end … death is nothing compared to this … and I'll get to see Sirius again …

Harry was frozen, locked, looking into the snake-like cold red eyes of his arch enemy, Lord Voldemort.

There was nothing else, only two pairs of eyes staring holes into the other.

The evil crimson one's were ablaze with absolute hatred and spitting with power and destruction; while the bright emerald eyes shimmered with a pure love and painful loss while radiating an unmatched intensity.

"You are weak Potter, you couldn't even save your godfather … another person you love has left you, abandoned you, you are all alone again … and soon you to will join those pathetic scum who succumbed to death. I will destroy you and everyone you have ever cared about, you will be completely abandoned by everyone you have ever loved … you will watch as everyone you have ever cared for is killed before you … and it will all be your fault," hissed the high-pitched snake-like voice of the most feared dark wizard ever to walk the earth, "CRUCIO."

"NOOOO", screamed Harry as he quickly sat up in bed sweating and breathing heavily.

It was pitch black, and he knew immediately that it was very late, and he was still stuck in his bedroom at Privet Drive. The dreams kept playing over again even in his now conscious mind, but the closing words of Voldemort left him even more devastated than he already was. Everyone he loved had died, left him all alone, he was already destroyed. It was his own fault that everyone around him was in danger, that those he loved, and who loved him were targets, and those targets had almost all been eliminated, leaving Harry feeling completely alone, helpless, and abandoned. An angry hoot broke Harry's internal reverie, and he quickly looked up to see Hedwig sitting on his window sill skeptically investigating a very regal looking yet unfamiliar raven, with a letter attached to its leg.

"Hedwig", yelled a startled and sweaty Harry with a raspy sore throat, "what's going on?"

Hedwig gave a dignified hoot to Harry before glancing at the raven, and then taking off to Harry's desk with a package still attached to her feet. Harry immediately recognized Ron's handwriting on the top-most letter, and relieved Hedwig of her burden but set aside the stuff from his friends until he solved the question of the mysterious raven. The raven was very professional, and not at all affectionate, as it stood like a statue as Harry removed the letter. Once free, the raven simply disappeared into air. Harry was shocked. He had seen many weird and wonderful things since he was introduced into the magical world five years ago but he had never seen a bird that looked and felt real just disappear as if it had never existed. More surprising was the fact that letter did not disappear with it. He then poked the letter with his wand to ensure that it was real. He waited for some time to see whether it would disappear too but it did not. He saw a feminine handwriting he did not recognize. He assumed it was from some pureblood as the handwriting was too elegant and refined to be for anyone else. The envelope had a familiar seal but he could not recall where he had seen it. He knew that he was no genius like Hermione who could remember every magical theory that ever existed but he was not a complete idiot either. He knew that birds that looked and felt real delivering real letters and then just ceasing to exist was not normal even in the wizarding world. He was curious now. Many would say that he was too curious for his own good. Well, growing up in a boringly normal neighborhood of Privet Drive and having the Dursleys as his role models had its side effects. He only hoped that the present mystery would not include any life-death scenarios. He tentatively opened the letter.

Harry Potter

We do not know each other. So I will begin with introductions. I am known in the muggle world as Altaira Bancroft and that is the name you will know me as … for now. I am the new Head of the Noble and the Most Ancient House of Black. I have learned that you are Sirius' godson. I could give you my condolences but as we do not know each other, I feel it would be inappropriate. I don't know how much you know about the magical world but I know that you have grown up in the muggle world and still live there during holidays. So, I am going to assume that you know nothing about the magical world. In magical world, the status of godson is equivalent to that of a son. As Sirius had never had a child of his own, you are his SON by laws of magic. In a magical family, a magical bond exists between the members of the family the strength of which differs in each case. That is the reason a loss of a family member would have greater effect on a magical than on a muggle. I don't think you would have learned it in Hogwarts as those who need to know are purebloods who already know and those who do not already are muggleborns who do not need to know. I believe that, as neither of you had anyone else, you and Sirius had a strong bond due to which it would be harder for you than anyone else. That brings me to the point. You are as much a Black as you are a Potter. You are my family now. I don't have much of a family left and I would like to treasure what little I have left. I will soon be talking to Dumbledore about arranging an opportunity for us to get to know each other. As the head of your family, your well being is my responsibility. But, I will wait until we are both in agreement before I officially take over as your magical guardian.

Damn! Now I have to explain another term, don't I? Alright. For a child raised in muggle world at any time in their childhood, there are two types of guardianships: muggle and magical. Magical guardian is a person who handles your affairs in the magical world. By default, the magical guardian of muggle raised children is the Chief Warlock of Wizengamot i.e. Albus Dumbledore but many prefer to have their grandmother, great uncle, cousin or some other magical relative to be the magical guardian. I am sure you would already know that magical guardian has no authority in the muggle world unless magic in some form is involved and vice versa. The important thing you should remember is that the magical guardian does not have to be a blood relative. You could have anyone from Madam Malkin to Garrick Ollivander as your magical guardian if you both are in agreement. For any usual muggle raised child, magical guardian does not have much to do. Their only responsibilities are to ensure that child and the muggle guardians know about magic and to ensure that the muggle guardians don't succeed in stopping the child from going to magical school if they want to. I believe Dumbledore did that duty for everyone including you.

But, you are a special child with special needs. A look at last year's Daily Prophet will prove my point. If you had a proper guardian, the first thing they would have done after you reentered our world is to have you sign an Exclusivity contract with a publishing agency of your choice. If you sign the contract, then you would be magically bound to them for a specified period of time and would not be able to give any interviews to any other newspapers. You would also have to give interviews or stand for photo sessions whenever they ask you to. On the other hand, you will get media protection. No other newspapers will be able to pull off the drama like Daily Prophet did. The reporter will even tell you what type of questions are asked and give you pointers on how to answer the questions to raise your standing among public. After all, you leaving them for another agency after the term is over would mean loss of business and reputation for them. Better the devil you have some control over than the devil you have no control over, don't you think?

I have managed to get the transcripts for your underage magic 'trial'. The only good thing that Fudge did was make it a public trial as it made it easier for me to get the transcripts. I don't understand what that idiot was doing? Any good professional attorney would have roasted him over the coals for the things he did. I am surprised and disappointed that you went unprepared for the trial. Was it so hard to hire an attorney? Also, you had the entire Black family library to help you prepare. Don't be surprised. I know that your Order of Chicken was using my home as headquarters. It doesn't matter anyway now that Fudge was kicked out of his chair. Rufus Scrimgeour is the new Minister now and I would advise you not to get on his bad side. He is a lot subtler, craftier and more dangerous than Fudge. Fudge must have really pissed him off because Scrimgeour made Fudge his servant, I mean, assistant. It must be embarrassing for Fudge to act as an errand boy in front of the very people he lorded over as Minister. A fitting punishment indeed! I think I have rambled on more than enough. As you can see, you need a magical guardian, or should I say patron, for whom the only responsibility is you. As I said before, our agreement is enough for me to become your guardian but I believe you will feel safer if Dumbledore arranges our meeting. I guess I will stop now. After all, you would not want me to take over your guardianship if I had nothing else left to teach you, will you?

Eager to meet you …

Altaira Bancroft

P.S.: Call me Tara

To say Harry was shocked would be an understatement. As funny as it was, his first thought was that he would never call Hermione's letters lengthy ever again. He did not know exactly what to feel as each part brought out a different emotion in him. The part talking about Sirius brought out his pain and guilt. He felt elated that she spend time in explaining everything to him rather than assume that he knew everything. He could not say that of many people. He initially wondered how she knew that he did not know much about the magical world but then realized how silly the thought was. That joke of a trial was proof enough that his ignorance of the working of magical world is as legendary as his flying skills. He silently thanked the writer of the letter as it had served as a wake up call for him. He had been so busy moping around and drowning in his guilt and self-pity that he forgot about the existence of the world outside it. He realized that he could not afford to waste time moping around as it would be one of his best friends who would be paying for his mistakes with their life the next time. He suddenly remembered about his friends and resolved to write each of them a letter thanking them for supporting him when he needed it and apologizing to them for dragging them into what he now knew to be a suicide mission. He decided to read the letter properly again. There might be some clue as to the real identity of Altaira Bancroft.

As she said that she was the head of the Black family, her last name had to be Black. So, that ruled out the anagram theory. He found her magical bond theory interesting. He had initially wondered why he felt much closer to Sirius in spite of the fact that he had met Professor Lupin a year earlier. He had since then accepted that they just understood better as they both had loveless childhoods and had experienced imprisonment for more than a decade. Now, he knew there was more to it than he had assumed. The next part came as a shock to him. He had never known that he had a magical guardian. Why had no one told him that? He decided to ask Hermione about it the next time he saw her. He then wondered whether he was using his workaholic friend as a crutch to avoid doing work. He made a resolve to work harder not only to become an outstanding student without Hermione's help but also to become powerful enough to go one on one with Voldemort. He then read the rest of the letter. It made him realize that his ignorance was more far-reaching than he had initially anticipated. He had never heard of things like Exclusivity contracts before. The fact that he learned more from that letter than a year in school would have been amusing if it was not pathetic. He could not help but notice that majority of her information about him was centered on the last year and she seemed to not know about his feud with Umbridge. He did not understand why that was important as the only thing he could conclude from it was that the person was not a school student. But, he knew for some reason that it was important and decided to file it away for future reference.

He accepted that, whether she can be trusted or not, she had made an important point. All these years, he had been letting everyone, allies and enemies alike, walk all over him. Every year, he had been in a life-death situation at least twice. Regrettably, he had never learned a lesson from them until his godfather paid the price for them. He could not continue like that anymore. He made a resolution that he would always stay a step or two ahead of his enemies. He knew that it would not be easy. He had never been much of a planner but even he knew that he needed proper information for the things he had in mind. Hermione was quite talented in extracting required information from books but her outsider status limited her, and by extension them, in the fields that are dominated by purebloods like politics. He realized that he would need bigger, more diverse group of friends. He would have to get someone that can provide an easy in into the pureblood society. As she said, he would need to learn to play the game of politics to survive for which he would need a patron to teach him. He did not know any one eligible, trustworthy and willing to be his patron which made him consider the risky option of approaching the woman. He rubbed his scar to relieve the headache that had increased with all the thinking he did. From what he could deduce from the letter, the woman seemed to have a similar personality to Tonks: big mouth, weird sense of humor, wild mood swings. She would surely be an interesting person to meet. He decided to owl Dumbledore for advice. As she herself mentioned approaching him, he did not think she would mind it. He opened his trunk and took out all of his books in order to revise everything he had been taught in school. It was only then that he truly realized the difficulty of the task in front of him. He heard a voice in his head that sounded suspiciously like Ron's telling him to put it off for later and rest but he ignored it and started with first year History of Magic.

Bellatrix arrived in the atrium of Ministry of Magic early morning. It was busy time at the Ministry as they were all coming to work and she was counting on the rush to ensure that no one looked twice at her. She knew that their security would be average at best as they had only recently accepted the return of the dark lord but she was not taking any chances. She had changed her appearance enough that not many would be able to recognize her. She now had straight dirty blonde hair in a traditional updo, blue eyes which are a shade lighter than the ones Black family usually had and a square rimmed glasses. She even changed her facial features slightly to make her look older. She now had the look of a typical Ministry worker. Everyone in her family line had the potential for Metamorphmagi ability but it had always remained latent. But, it was partially activated in her as a side effect of a ritual she had performed. She could not completely change herself to be a look alike of someone else like myths stated a metamorphmagus to be capable of but she could manipulate her features enough to not be recognizable. That was more than enough for her current mission. The queue quickly emptied and her turn came.

She approached the security desk and handed over her wand, well, the wand of an ancestor she had picked up from her home. She could not hand over her real wand as she had made it herself. So, it was untraceable and left no magical signature, perfect for someone involved in illegal activities.

"Your name?", a voice broke into her thoughts.

She observed the boy in front of her. He was as young as he was nervous. By his looks, she would guess that he was just out of school. It was obvious by the way he was eyeing her assets that he was as pure as the day he was born. A smirk came unbidden on to her face as she imagined the fun she could have at the boy's expense.

"Altaira Bancroft", she purred.

The boy flustered at her tone. She had initially considered giving a completely fake name but she later decided otherwise. He registered the wand and gave it back. She made sure to let her hands brush his slightly when she took back her wand. She gave him a saucy smile and a wink causing a pink tinge to spread across his cheeks. She then walked away towards the lift swaying her hips knowing that the boy was looking at her.

Bellatrix pressed the call button and waited for the lift. The lift arrived a moment later and she entered it and pressed number two. The lift rattled and started on its way to the floor containing the Department of Magical Law Enforcement and her first stop. The lift paused on the seventh floor, the Department of Magical Games and Sports, and two people entered the lift hesitantly. The lift proceeded to level five, Department of International Magical Cooperation, and one more person entered the lift. He was a stout little man and had wild mustache that seemed to reach his shoulders. He greeted one of the other men happily by name and struck up a conversation completely ignoring everyone else. She was amused at the things she had learned just by standing in a lift. Without further interruption, the lift arrived at level two, Department of Magical Law Enforcement. She cleared her throat causing the people to part ways for her and she left the lift.

She was about to put the Disillusionment charm on herself when she was knocked over from behind. She heard another sound and her battle instincts took over. In the split second that followed, she had her wand pointed at the person's throat and her right hand had sparks coming out of it ready to attack the imbecile who thought that she was an easy target. She stretched her senses outwards to check for other hostile elements in the area and found none. She was interrupted from her analysis by an 'eep' sound. She realized that it was made by a young girl on the floor who had found herself in the unfortunate position of facing the wrong end of her wand.

The girl held her hands to show that she meant no harm and said, "I am sorry. It is my fault. I was in a hurry and I did not see where I was going."

"I can be a little clumsy at times", she added when it did not look like the woman was going to relax.

Bellatrix scrutinized the girl in front of her and realized that she was genuinely frightened. She felt smug knowing that she was the one who instilled the fear in her. After all, it was the sign that she was superior to the girl in front of her. She withdrew her wand from the girl's throat and got up letting the girl relax. She extended her hand to her and helped the girl get up. It was then that she really had the chance to observe the other girl. She was wearing an Auror uniform which seemed to have been put on hastily, was of average height, had violet eyes and magenta colored hair. She felt as if she was missing something. It was a moment later that she realized what her mind was trying to tell her. The young girl in front of her was a metamorphmagus, a true one not a pseudo one like her. She cursed her luck. Had the circumstances being different she would have been excited to make the acquaintance of a true metamorphmagus. It would have been a good way to see if her abilities were really as limited as she had assumed. Considering the present predicament, the combination of Auror and Metamorphmagus was a dangerous one. She saw the girl in front of her scrutinizing her and involuntarily stiffened. She hoped the girl did not have the ability to see through her transformations. She did not know the full extent of a true metamorphmagus' powers as she had never met one before.

"You look familiar for some reason but I don't remember seeing you before.", she said.

She looked over the girl in search of something to divert the conversation from the dangerous waters and saw her badge with something inscribed on it. She concentrated on the words and saw that it was Nymphadora T.

"I have heard that a lot of times. I guess I have just got that look. I apologize for the way I reacted. I am sure you can understand considering the times that we live in. We don't know who is a friend and who is an enemy. You can never be too careful these days.", Bellatrix replied.

It did cause a change in direction but not the one she had intended.

"There is a big difference between being careful and being paranoid. I have never seen anyone move that fast before. I am an Auror myself and I could never draw my wand that quickly. You know, Moody would have given up what parts of his body he has left to have you in his team.", Nymphadora said awe and respect evident in her voice.

"You are saying that because it is your first experience of a war. If you manage to survive this war and live until the next one, you will be just like me.", she replied smugly.

She did not consider herself vain but she had never been accused of being humble. She saw the girl scrunching her nose and held in a smirk. She was now sure that the girl had Black blood in her. She did not remember seeing anyone named Nymphadora in the family tree but she was sure that the girl would not be difficult to find later on.

"Forgive me if I am wrong but weren't you in quite a hurry when you collided with me?", she asked.

Nymphadora's face took on a look of horror and she ran off saying, "I am already late. If I waste more time, Moody will slowly torture me to death. We will meet later, if I manage to survive."

The sight was so funny that it took all of her pureblood training not to laugh out loud. She did not fail to notice that the girl had not asked for her name. She wondered whether the girl was always forgetful or was the day difficult for her. Well, she was not planning to remind her anyway. It was a good thing that she did not have to use any mental suggestions to send her off. She preferred not to take that route unless necessary even if the recipient happened to be an unimportant muggle. She genuinely liked the girl and found her to be entertaining. After ensuring that no one was looking in her direction, she quickly put Disillusionment charm and Silencing charm on herself. She then added a Notice-Me-Not charm as an afterthought. With a swirl, Bellatrix disappeared completely from view.

She walked down the hallway ignoring the scenes the windows projected. She stopped at the door to the Auror Headquarters and took a deep breath. Bellatrix turned the handle and was met with the sounds of a busy office. She slipped into the room silently and stayed close to the left wall. She saw a few people walking about discussing things and a few paper airplanes floating about near the ceiling.

Bellatrix slinked her way to the rear of the room where a closed door sat beneath a small, hanging sign that read 'Improper Use of Magic Office'. Under the sign was a name plate 'Mafalda Hopkirk'. She pushed her magic out and searched for the wards and was surprised to find none. She wandlessly opened the door and slipped in closing the door behind her.

She heard the sound of quills working on parchment coming from a room in the back. She had a short wall blocking her view of the small office where she knew Mafalda Hopkirk was waiting. She walked to the wall and peered over it. She saw a well kept desk directly behind the wall and Mafalda sitting there methodically sorting papers. A large stack of papers were already sitting in an out-going box. Bellatrix saw another door in the rear of the office and the quill sound was coming from in there.

Bellatrix slid around the short wall and worked her way to the rear door and found it to be unlocked, but Mafalda was sitting at her desk sorting papers. She saw a chance to get in without her noticing. She created a breeze in the room strong enough to cause some papers to slip out of alignment and fall off the desk. Mafalda noticed the papers shift and reached out with her short arms and try to stop them from falling over. Her efforts only caused the stack to fall over in a very dramatic way.

Papers were scattered in all directions and Mafalda cussed once before getting out of her chair and started picking up the papers. Bellatrix retreated to the back door and opened it when she saw the chance. Inside the room she saw at least thirty translucent spheres, that looked similar to the crystal balls, were kept on wooden stands. There was a quill hovering above a piece of parchment near the crystal. She saw labels on the plaque in front of the device and moved to get a better look. One read 'Wales', another was 'South London', another was 'North London'. The list kept going. Many major cities had their own device.

After a few minutes, Bellatrix found the device she was after. On this device was written 'Harry Potter' in dark writing underneath which was scribbled 'Surrey'. She wondered why she had not noticed it before as it was dissimilar to other devices. While other crystal balls had rust on them or were dented, this device was clean and well maintained. The stand that held the particular device was bigger and was made of stronger wood. Her knowledge in magic tracking devices were limited but even she could see that it was more sophisticated than the rest. She had learned recently that Harry Potter was an important person in this world but she had no idea that he was that important.

She observed the device more carefully and had a sudden epiphany. She knew that, by law, the wand makers were obliged to cast certain charms on the wands they make which helps the Ministry to monitor the wand and indirectly the owner of the wand. There were two parts in it. The first was for underage wizards which will automatically deactivate the moment the owner comes of age. The other will remain until the wand was destroyed or the specific counter charm was cast. They had initially intended to monitor everyone but they soon realized that it was an overly expensive and impractical venture. So, they later decided to monitor only those with criminal background or suspected to be a danger to the society. In spite of its initial success, it turned out to be another big failure when a major loop hole in the law was found. There was nothing in the law prohibiting the wand makers from removing the charm on the wands they did not create or from teaching the counter charm to their customers. In a few years time, everyone who was part of the traditional dark families and even some of light and neutral families had the Ministry charms removed. It was common for the parents of those families to take their children to the wand shop in Knockturn Alley to remove the charms right after they bought their wand from Ollivander. The law had never been repealed in spite of the fact that it had become obsolete.

As the devices required to perform such a detailed monitoring was expensive and high on maintenance, they got rid of them. No one knew exactly what had happened to them but if she was right, one of them was right in front of her. The devices used later were simple ones which could only monitor the magic cast in an area. So, any underage witch or wizard could get away with doing magic during the summer as long as there was a magical adult in the area. It seemed that it was not the case for Harry Potter. As the Ministry had an advanced device monitoring his wand, he would not be able to do magic anywhere outside Hogwarts where they don't have any authority. There was also the fact that the Ministry could continue monitoring him well into his adult years and possibly till his death. She wondered whether he was so powerful and influential that Fudge considered him a bigger threat than other well established players like Malfoy and Dumbledore. She licked her lips in excitement. She had always liked her men young and since she was a child she had had a thing for power. Both of them in a single package was a dream come true. She felt her spine tingle in pleasure at the very thought of being his dark consort. She shook her head forcibly bringing herself out of her fantasy land. He was much younger than the men she had gotten into her bed before. For all she knew, he could turn out to be an ordinary boy with mediocre abilities. She let out a deep breath and forced herself to concentrate on her job.

Bellatrix took out a camera and took many photos. She then cast a Freezing charm at the device. Nothing specific happened but she knew that it had worked. She reminded herself to remove the Ministry charms of Harry Potter's wand when she meets him. She did not know whether the Freezing charm would be temporary or permenant. She had many plans for the boy and she was not going to risk some bumbling fools poking their ugly noses in places where they do not belong. When she had prepared plans to sneak into the Ministry, she had initially had no intention to disable the underage detectors. She had actually planned for Harry to live with her but Dumbledore had been adamant about him staying with his muggle relatives. That was the one thing the old man was unwilling to budge on. After she had that talk with her aunt's portrait, she had sent Kreacher to learn everything he could about Harry Potter, his family and the neighborhood. She was not happy with what she had heard. So, she prepared a plan for that. She had learnt to consider the possibility of failure and prepare plans to enact in that scenario. Disabling the detectors was part of that secondary plan.

Bellatrix ensured that the disillusionment charm was still in place and opened the door slightly. She saw Mafalda finishing up on rearranging her papers. She had her back to the door and she was sure she heard her mumbling under her breath. She slipped out of the detector room and closed the door. Moving very carefully, Bellatrix worked her way to the front of the room and the exit that led to the Auror department. Mafalda was done sorting her papers and was sitting down again. She looked over the barrier making sure she was far enough away in case she heard her open the door.

Now is my chance. Bellatrix opened the door quickly and silently. She slipped out of the room and closed the door. Once the door was closed, she retreated to the door leading out to the hallway. She kept one eye out for aurors and one on Mafalda's door. When she reached the doorway to the hall, she saw two aurors coming into the room. She waited for them to move away from the door before she approached it. In one quick motion, Bellatrix opened the door and slipped through to the hallway. Once she was in the hallway, she removed the Disillusionment charm but kept the others. She still had a mission to do and had no time for any other clumsy idiots.

She quickly got into the lift and pressed number eight. It was time for the second part of her mission. The lift chimed at a floor other than the one she had wanted. She noticed that they were on level five and saw a tall, slightly stocky, middle aged man with ginger hair step into the lift and press the button for level seven. She felt her lips curl automatically in disgust. She could easily deduce that he was a Weasley by the color of his hair. Even though she was not as strict about blood purity as many others in her circle, she could not stand them. They were the embodiment of all the qualities of Light family. Everyone she met from that clan had turned out to be arrogant jerks who always boasted about having the moral high ground when they were as bigoted as the one they look down upon if not more.

When the lifts reached her level, Bellatrix stepped off the lift as soon as the doors opened. She quickly reapplied the Disillusionment charm and moved down the long hallway which had doors on both sides every twenty feet or so. There were letters on each door for every letter of the alphabet. Bellatrix sped up her pace so she could get to door 'P' and get home. Seeing an 'N' on the door to her left, she knew that 'P' was going to be next. She walked the twenty feet and found it. She scanned the door for wards or intruder alarms and found none but she found out that it was locked by an advanced locking charm which required a specific counter. It was not a problem for a witch of her skills. She opened it and moved inside closing the door behind her.

She lit the lamps around the room and started searching the long room for his name. There were shelves and shelves of folders inside of boxes. The shelves were along the outer wall and a set of shelves were in the middle of the room as well. The organizational method seemed to be by family name. Bellatrix started at the end, on her right, and started looking at the labels on the boxes. 'Pyrite' was the last name on the last box.

Spending the next few minutes searching, Bellatrix found the box labeled 'Potter'. She pulled the box off the shelf and found that the outside of the box was completely clean of dust. She had found some boxes that had layers of dust on them meaning that the people had either done nothing worth documenting for years or that the family was dead. The 'Prewett' box was covered in dust confirming her belief that Molly Prewett Weasley's activities were filed under 'Weasley'.

Once Bellatrix had the box on the floor, she removed the top and looked inside. There were rows of miniaturized folders lined up side-by-side. She could see that there were a few levels worth of folders as well. Searching for a while, she found a section that had a small label on it marked 'Harry James Potter, 1980'. She pulled out the section and set it on top of the rest of the files. She enlarged the section and opened the front of the folder. The first sheet was a certificate of live birth stating that Harry had been born on July 31th, 1980 at St. Mungo's at 12:46 P.M. to Lily and James Potter. She ran through the whole to ascertain that it was what she had in mind and kept it back. She then took an empty box that was sitting at the end of the row and copied the entire contents of the original box into it. She returned the original box to its rightful place and pocketed the new box after sealing and shrinking it. Moving to the door, Bellatrix extinguished the lamps with a wave of her hand. With a feeling of accomplishment bursting from inside, she opened the door and exited the room.

She went back the way she came. She had been intending to apparate home straight away but when she reached the room 'B', she had a different idea. She quickly got in and found her family's records next to that of Bones'. She quickly copied the Black family records in the same way and exited the room. As much happy as she was with the success of her mission, she was disappointed at the ease of her success. She had expected some challenge and had come all prepared with many emergency plans. She would be the first one to admit that the British Ministry of Magic in her reality was no utopia. It had its share of idiots, incompetents and greedy politicians but it was nothing compared to the sheer incompetence here. In her reality, the Ministry headquarters was well warded inside and outside as the politicians, in spite of their misgivings, care about their health and safety. With how incompetent the Ministry was, she was surprised that the dark lord had not taken it over already. Maybe the dark lord and the Death Eaters are as incompetent as the Ministry.

One of her favorite escape plans was employing a Reverse Portkey. As far as she knew, the knowledge of it was nonexistent in the present reality. It was something she had created herself unlike the Portkey Destroyer spell whose knowledge she had extracted out of one of Grindelwald's men she had captured and so she took personal pride in it. She had kept her creation a secret and it turned out to be useful once or twice. A portkey was an object which was charmed to teleport to a certain destination when the required conditions were satisfied taking along everyone who was in contact with it directly or indirectly. In that case, magical connection between the object and the destination was established. A reverse portkey is an object kept at the final destination charmed to pull an object or person with which it had established a magical connection upon fulfilling certain conditions. There were two ways to operate it. First was to connect it to the intended person and time it such that they would be pulled at the required time. Second was to connect it to something the person would carry with them. That object, which in her case was her necklace, would act as an activator where the person can activate the reverse portkey any time by touching that object. Reverse portkeys are tedious, difficult to set up, more power consuming and unable to create on the go unlike the regular portkeys but they are more stable, accurate and it bypasses every Anti-Portkey ward known to exist. After all, no ward could be created to prevent a mode of travel not known to exist. Bellatrix fingered her necklace wondering whether she should apparate or use the portkey. After a moment of contemplation, she clutched her necklace and activated it.

It is heartening to get such a good feedback. I know that many of you are confused. So, I will clear it up. As I have already stated, the story starts in the summer after Harry's fifth year. There is an important reason for Bellatrix arriving at that time which will be explained in the next chapter. The next chapter will clear all the doubts you have.