THANKS to: Penny is Wise and Swit-cuppycakes for commenting, enjoy Chapter 2!,
Senpen Banka- I'm glad you like the story, and I'm happy you think I chose the right route with Bellatrix. I primarily did it to really emphasize and show that she would really give up anything to keep Harry safe (i.e. lavish lifestyle, fortune...). And I have made a FINAL decision that it is going to be Harry/ Tonks later on in the story.
*All rights and characters go to the Genius known as J.K. Rowling for she and she alone created the wonderful world of Harry Potter*
Chapter 2: The Country
Devon, England
~1 1/2 years later~
"Mummy out!" Harry called to his mother while pointing at the little window in their small shack in the countryside. Bellatrix sighed as she looked at Harry, he had grown a lot in the past year or so, but she knew he wasn't even close to the average height and weight of a two and a half-year old. She tried to ignore Harry as he continued to pester her about wanting to go outside. The shack they had was small, but had a window and a fireplace which she knew must seem like a palace compared to what Harry was used to.
"Mummy, out!" Harry persisted, this time slightly louder.
"No Harry, Mummy has to finish this dress and then we'll talk." Bellatrix said, not even looking up from her needle work. She had been able to find work in a small shop in town mending dresses from home. She wasn't paid as much as if she went into the shop everyday, but Bellatrix knew it was safer for Harry this way since they hadn't been found in almost a year.
"Harry out alone!" Harry continued to plead. Bellatrix now looked up from her worked frustrated, she loved Harry more than anything, but being cooped up in a room with a two-year old could get to anybody at times.
"No Harry you can't go out alone because a death eater is gonna come along and kill you." She said slightly louder than she had meant to, but it did get Harry to shut up so she could finish the dress she was working on.
Harry went back to looking out the window. He really liked living in the country, it was better than the city. When his mother finally did take a break from her work, their walks in the woods were great. Harry rested his chin on his little arms letting out a 'Hmgf' before he could stop himself. He quickly looked over his shoulder to make sure his Mother hadn't heard. She was the greatest mother in all the world, but the one thing she couldn't stand was unnecessary noise while she was working. The more he stared at the beckoning woods the more he wanted to go out. It wasn't fair that he had to stay locked up in the house with his mom due to a bunch of seemingly non-existent villains that had made it their life goal to ruin himself and his mother's life. Besides, he could handle any old, rotten, stinkin', death eater. He had never actually seen one, yet they somehow seemed to be lurking around every turn. Every other sentence from his mother's mouth seemed to contain warnings about the mysterious beings. Harry looked back out the window trying to make a game out of counting the gnomes that would pop up out of what had to be at one point a garden.
Bellatrix looked back at her son, she knew she was going to have to come up with something to let some energy out of that kid or he was going to tear the house down. They both looked up as the previous radio song ended and the broadcaster was announcing the next one. Bellatrix had become fond of the little music playing devices while working in a muggle laundromat, and the different songs could captivate little Harry for hours
" Thank you to The Beatles, and their hit single All You Need is Love. Now switching gears we have little orphan Annie and Daddy Warbucks singing I Don't Need Anything but You from the Broadway classic." The radio announcer boomed in his deep confident voice.
"Oh Harry! It's our song." Bellatrix exclaimed jumping to her feet, she didn't know why but for some reason herself, and even more so Harry, had absolutely fallen in love with the cheesy american musical. Bellatrix gave a little chuckle as she saw Harry trying to stay mad at he by continuing to stare out the window. She ran up behind Harry scooping him up in her arms tickling him. It didn't take long for him to be completely at her mercy laughing his little head of. She slung him on her hip and soon began waltzing across the room, over exaggerating the turns and jumps just in time for their favorite part.
"[WARBUCKS]: You've wrapped me around
That cute little finger.
You've made life a song ...
You've made me the singer!
[ANNIE]: I'm poor as a mouse,
[WARBUCKS]: I'm richer than Midas.
[WARBUCKS AND ANNIE]: But nothing on earth
Could ever divide us!
And if tomorrow, I
'm an apple seller, too-
I don't need anything but you!"
Bellatrix sang along to all the words trying to stay on pitch, Harry also jumping in for the parts he knew.
"[WARBUCKS AND ANNIE]: We're two of a kind
The happiest pair now
Like Fred and Adelle, we're floating
On air now.
[WARBUCKS AND ANNIE]: Together at last!
Together for ever!
We're tying a knot,
They never can sever!
[WARBUCKS]: I don't need sunshine now,
To turn my skies at blue -
[WARBUCKS AND ANNIE]:I don't need anything but you!"* Bellatrix abruptly put a hand over Harry's laughing mouth as there was a loud crash outside. She silently made her way to the radio to turn it off. All of a sudden her laughing fun demeanor had changed and her face became dead serious.
"Harry I want you to get the bag and put the emergency things in it while I see what's going on." Bellatrix whispered, she knew it was probably nothing, just some nosy neighbors or those muggle girls in uniforms always trying to sell her something. But that was the exact type of thinking that would end her up in a cell in Azkaban. She peered out the one window just long enough to see her worst nightmare, she quickly shut the curtains and blew out the oil lamp. Bellatrix found Harry trying to fit a pan in the sack when she grabbed his hand telling him to leave everything. Bellatrix tried to take a deep breath, those weren't just any two Aurors out there it was Alastor Moody and James Potter, and two others she had never seen before. Suddenly there was a loud noise as the front door burst open. Before Bellatrix or Harry could register what was going on a stupefy missed Harry's head by about a centimeter.
"Who in the hell attacks a child!" Bellatrix yelled still keeping a death grip on Harry's hand. She sent her most powerful reducto at Moody, but he deflected it.
"Oh I don't know maybe Lord Voldemort." James Potter said with as much sarcasm as possible.
"Oh can it Potter, like you ever did anything to stop him!" Bellatrix snapped back at him.
She had to admit she was doing pretty good as she sent two more Expelliarmuses at the two Aurors in front of her. Then suddenly she heard cry from Harry as a stray stinging hex hit him square in the face. Bellatrix looked down panicked that her son had been severely injured, but realized too late that in her alarm she had completely forgotten about Moody and Potter. Harry screamed as Diffindo hit his mother's left shoulder making a gash so deep that you could see bone.
Bellatrix screamed at the pain saying quite a few choice words mainly pointed at Alastor.
"Lestrange you're under arrest for the murder of Harry Potter, and will await a formal hearing in Azkaban prison." Moody called getting too confident in thinking this fight was over. Bellatrix took what little strength she had and bolted for the back door with Harry trying in her arms. The two Aurors she didn't recognize were probably waiting for her in the back since they didn't come in with Moody and Potter. As she burst out the back door knocking it off its hinges she hit the first Auror with a stupefy and the second expelliarmus catching his wand in mid-air. She flew too the front yard trying to apparate, but she couldn't.
"Anti- apparation wards" she muttered under her breath. Suddenly it all made sense the stumbling and the crash,
"ACCIO PORTKEY!" Bellatrix yelled so loud it made her lungs hurt. She was more than relieved when a chipped flower-pot came flying at her.
"Hold on tight." she whispered to Harry as the pot landed in their hands. If she had been only half a second later James could have caught her, she had almost felt His hands closing on the hems of her robes before herself and Harry were flung into the air.
Lily was anxiously pacing the ground outside of the Burrow, Molly had tried to convince her to come inside multiple times, but Lily wanted to be right there when her husband got back. Why Alastar had suggested they have the portkey's take off and landing spot be here instead of the ministry she would never know,but for the time being it was much mtor calming for her nerves to know that she would be the first thing her husband would see. Lily however, just couldn't get the image of Bellatrix Lestrange's deranged face out of her head after she had just murdered her infant son. When Fudge had started going after specific known death eaters James had made it his personal vengeance mission to make sure Bellatrix got the kiss. They had been so close so many times too, but she somehow always managed to slip through his fingers. She had a good feeling though about this time, that somehow it would be different. All of a sudden in the distance she saw it, small at first, but then getting larger... the portkey.
"They're here! They're back!" Lily yelled into the house she couldn't wait to see James, hug him, and know he was alright. But when the Portkey landed it was not her husband that she saw, but a tangled mess of hair and rags and the all too familiar face of Bellatrix Lestrange. Lily was stunned as she looked into the woman's eyes something seemed different, was it fear she saw in the woman's eyes? Then she saw it, her arm was barely still attached to her was all over her, and the emaciated looking boy standing next to her. Wait, a boy, a boy that looked shockingly like James.
"Harry?" she said under her breath reaching for wand, but she was too late as Bellatrix Lestrange and the mysterious little boy shot up into the air in a cloud of black smoke.
Bellatrix didn't even know where she had apparated to, all she could tell was that she was in some sort of Alley somewhere. She was breathing heavily and the pain of what had happened was really starting to kick in. The swelling from hex on Harry's cheek had gotten worse, as she looked down she felt her throat closing as she saw her arms it was still barely connected to her body and she was losing blood fast. With her good hand she felt in her dress for a small vial of essence of dittany. She shut her eyes and bit her tongue as her wound bubbled when the liquid was poured over it. She then tour a piece of cloth of her dress and wrapped it almost painfully tight around her arm. When she found the strength to sit up she saw Harry looking at her apprehensively little tears rolling down his little face. She took him in her good arm and held him close. After a while he looked up at her, "Who's Harry Potter, Mummy?" He asked in innocently Bellatrix had to smile. She took a deep breath knowing it was better to have this conversation sooner rather than later. She looked into her little boy's dark eyes and said, "Harry we have to have a little talk."
.:
-Please comment about what you guys thought of this chapter I will be looking forward to your reactions and concerns!
-* I Don't Need Anything but You, from Annie.
- Didn't mean for this to become a song fic, but I always just imagined that song playing during that scene with Bellatrix and Harry.
- Chapter 3 is SOON to come!
