Hi sorry for the slightly late update, but this chapter's a bit longer so hopefully that makes up for it, thanks for all the reviews so far!


4.

It had been three days since Harry had stepped out of the room of requirement into the crazy past of his parents, and school was, apart from the students, unchanged. The lessons were exactly the same; Harry was up to date with everything because he was pretty sure the teachers had been using the exact same lesson plans for years, and as he knew they would be using them for years to come.

He had been with James, Sirius, Remus and Peter –whose pink hair had finally been returned back to normal- in most of his lessons and Bella in few. She was in less than the others because she had all her lessons with the Slytherins, of which Harry only had a few with.

Lessons with Bella were strange though, the teachers asked them to try a spell, of which Bella always did first time, so whilst everyone else was practicing each teacher gave her a book with what Harry presumed were more complex spells in, which she sat at the back of the classroom reading and trying them out, whilst occasionally making remarks on everyone else's lack of 'magical prowess'. The only lessons where she didn't get to do this were, as far as Harry could tell, care of magical creatures, which he hated to admit but was a lot more interesting with professor Kettleburn as a teacher, and History of Magic, though she still seemed to know more about everything in those lessons, though Harry had never seen her work outside of them, though he had managed to catch even James and Sirius, hurriedly doing bits of work.

Harry was at the moment just walking up to the entrance to Hogwarts after having gone on a walk around the grounds, which like everything else was pretty much the same, though the whomping willow was a lot smaller, he had already passed Hagrid's hut which had smoke pouring out of the chimney and harry could hear Fang barking and Hagrid trying to shut him up. Harry was sorely tempted to go and visit Hagrid, but he had to remind himself that Hagrid had no idea who he was at the moment, and it would be a bit strange for a random student to knock on the door, especially so close to curfew.

Harry had just walked through the doors to the entrance hall when he was suddenly accosted by none other than Bella Black.

"Come on, we're going out!" said Bella, grabbing Harry's arm and proceeding to drag him up the staircase, heading to the fourth floor.

"Why…?"

"Wooo! We're coming too!" came a yell from behind interrupting Harry, and he turned to see James and Sirius running up the staircase towards them.

"S'up Harry, you coming to celebrate the growing demise of Sirius' darling mother?" called James, whacking Harry on the back as he passed him.

Harry stared at the pair incredulously; he knew Sirius wasn't on the best terms with his family, his mother's portrait in Grimauld place in the future was enough evidence of that, but actually celebrating her illness that Regulus had informed Sirius about a few days ago was a bit…

"Mate, she is one of the foulest human beings to walk on this planet and despite the fact that the Voldemort supporting cretin technically is my mother I have no emotional ties with her and anyone else in my position would be celebrating. I would have gone out the moment I found out she's ill, but Quidditch practice, ya know," said Sirius noticing Harry's expression, he paused before adding "Bella's related to the bitch as well, ain't I right Bells?"

"She's gone beyond evil, headed straight into the insane spectrum," said Bella, smiling at Harry, who just had an image of a different, beyond evil, insane witch pop into his head, an older version of the one standing in front of him. He shook his head to clear it, it had been happening less and less the more time he spent around Bella, he was getting more used to this version of her, the old one that he had known popping into his thoughts less frequently, but it still shocked him every now and then.

"Potter!" called out a voice from behind them and both Harry and James automatically turned around to see Lily Evans stalking towards them along the corridor, trailing behind her was a small greasy haired Slytherin that Harry didn't recognize.

"Hello, Evans how nice of you to join us, we were just…"

"Don't give me that crap, you should be in the common room, it's almost curfew."

"But not yet," James pointed out causing Lily to scowl even more. "Now Evans I think you are simply wonderful, loyally doing your duties as prefect to the school and all, but please could you enlighten me with the reason why that piece of slime is anywhere near you, I'm sure he's contaminated with something," said James, nodding to the dark haired boy standing behind her.

Bella and Sirius sniggered, both of them standing behind James and Harry, who suddenly felt a spell rush past him heading for the Slytherin boy. Harry whipped round expecting to see Bella, with her wand out, but instead Sirius was striding forwards, past Harry to join James whilst Bella was leaning against a wall watching the whole scene with amusement.

Lily whipped out her wand and blocked Sirius' spell, scowling.

"Tut, tut Evans, magic in the corridors, you might have to put yourself in detention," laughed Sirius.

"Shut up Padfoot," warned James, scowling at his friend. "You don't have to do what he said Evans," he nodded to Lily, whose scowl deepened.

"I know that Potter, and don't act like you wouldn't have tried to do the same…"

"I could have dealt with it," muttered the boy behind Lily, narrowing his eyes at Sirius, his wand clenched in his fist.

"Last time…" Lily began, "Never mind."

"Anyway Potter, you're just as bad as the Blacks," Lily paused as Bella raised her eyebrows, questioningly as if daring the red head to bring her into this.

"I mean Sirius," Lily corrected herself, glancing nervously at Bella before continuing. "So don't give me any bullshit, trying to look after me crap cause if it was anyone else you would have been just as bad, if not worse."

"How could you think so poorly of me!" exclaimed James in mock exaggeration, bringing his hands up to his chest.

"Oh, just piss off," snapped Lily, turning away and stalking back down the corridor.

"Don't go Evans! I thought you were going to join us!" James shouted at her back, but was ignored as the red head continued down the corridor, 'Sev' following behind her, wand still out and ready, expecting an attack.

"What was that?" Harry asked Bella, thinking, not for the first time in the last few days, that he had been transported not just back in time, but back in time into a parallel universe like in those muggle TV shows Dudley used to watch. A universe where Bella wasn't evil and also it seemed, one where his parents hated each other… well one where his mother hated his father at least.

"Eh? That's normal; James hates Snape, Lily's friends with him, they fight, Lily gets pissed and James sulks afterwards, it starts to get amusing after a while," she said casually. "You didn't notice it in charms yesterday?" she asked.

"No, no I did, it's just…" Harry shook his head; he had indeed noticed it in charms yesterday, -a lesson like all the others he had been to that hadn't changed in all the years between now and his time-. James had tried to impress Lily by adding antlers to a Hufflepuff's head, of whom Harry didn't yet know the name of. James, Sirius and Bella had laughed whilst Lily had just scowled and called him an idiot, before trying to get rid of the antlers.

Wait, did Bella just say…?

"Snape?"

"Yeah, scrawny, greasy haired Slytherin kid behind Lily, what about him?" she replied raising her eyebrows.

"Nothing," said Harry. That was the kid Snape? And his mother was friends with him, Harry sighed, well at least the fact that Snape and his father hated each other at school seemed to be true.

"Then why d'you ask?" said Bella, her eyes twinkling mischievously.

"I just…" Harry paused, narrowing his eyes at the girl who seemed to be incapable of going a minute without attempting to wind someone up.

Bella raised her eyebrows expectantly, smiling at Harry.

"Just what?"

"Just checking who he was, I haven't seen him in any lessons," said Harry, hoping Bella would let it go, but knowing that she could take this much further.

"He was in charms, but he sits at the back, hiding from everyone, well hiding from James at least, maybe you're just unobservant," replied Bella, smirking a little, letting Harry know that she knew there was something more to it.

Why the hell did she have to be so bloody smart, people who get lured into being death eaters were meant to be stupid, thought Harry. Though Harry was starting to question if there was some other way she would become a death eater, he doubted the imperious curse, as she seemed like the kind of person who would throw it off without a thought, so how…?

"Yeah maybe," he replied rolling his eyes at her, letting her know he'd picked up on her 'secret message'.

Bella smiled then diverted her gaze to James and Sirius. One was still staring down the corridor, his wand out, subtly trying to hex Snape's back before he turned the corner whilst the other was being a lot less subtle yet aiming instead at a portrait on the wall, who yelped very time she was hit by what ever spell Sirius had just fired.

"Oi! Are we going!" shouted Bella, snapping Sirius out of his one sided duel with the portrait and causing James to miss Snape just as he turned the corner, the jinx hitting a suit of armor instead, and bouncing off only to hit the portrait Sirius had just stopped firing spells at.

"Uh!" screeched the portrait, before running through the paintings and into another corridor, shouting obscenities about students these days as she escaped.

"I was trying to see if the Furnunculus Curse had the same effect on the paintings as it does on humans, which apparently it does not," said Sirius after seeing Harry's questioning glance.

"And yeah," he said to Bella. "We're going, move it Prongs, we need to get ourselves some drinks to celebrate the upcoming death of my mother, and to commiserate once again, the fact that Lily Evans hates you."

"Gee, thanks Padfoot, you really know how to make me feel better," said James, rolling his eyes.

"It's what friends are for!" said Sirius in an overly cheery voice, ignoring the obvious sarcasm, and instead jumping forward to open the secret passageway behind the mirror.

"Where does this one lead to?" asked Harry, looking around at the wide passageway that extended straight ahead as far as he could see.

"What makes you think there are more?" said Bella, falling into step next to Harry, James and Sirius up ahead.

"I never said…"

"You said 'this one', not this, sounds like you think there are more," she pointed out. Harry didn't reply for a moment, trying to think up an excuse in his head.

"My dad told me about some, he went to Hogwarts," said Harry, thinking that this was at least partly true, he had found a lot of the passageways using the marauders map, which his dad, Sirius, Remus and somehow Peter had made. He wandered for a moment if Bella had played any part in making it, and also if they had even made it yet.

"Huh, which one's d'you know?"

"Er, the one behind the statue of the one eyed witch," said Harry, not sure if he should be telling the person who would become one of the most feared witches in history the secret passageways into the school, but if she knew about this one and was friends with Sirius and James then she probably already knew the others. At least that was what Harry told himself to ease his conscience.

"I found that one before the boys, wouldn't believe me when I told them there was a passageway they didn't know about, won twenty galleons from the bet," she smiled, "any others?"

"I'd heard of this one, never actually knew where it went," said Harry. Bella smirked.

"How serious are you're parents about getting you a good education?" she asked.

"Er a bit I guess, they just want me to do as well as I can," Harry shrugged, wondering where Bella was heading with this.

"Why?" he asked. Bella laughed.

"Why don't you use you're brain and work it out," she said. Then turned her head away and carried on down the corridor still walking next to Harry, her arms swinging by her sides, humming a tune Harry didn't recognize.

The tunnel was starting to get lighter, as if they were nearing the end and were about to step out into daylight. Then Harry reminded himself that it was past 9 o'clock and winter, so there would be no daylight they could step out into. As they went further James and Sirius started shouting and hooting at the large walls, their voices echoing along the tunnel, causing Harry and Bella to laugh as they learnt exactly what random words the 'devil pair' had decided to yell.

The light that Harry has momentarily thought was daylight was now turning a warm yellowy colour, which reminded him of the lamps in…

"Wait a minute..." said Harry. "The three broomsticks?" he asked turning to Bella eyebrows raised. She laughed back at him.

"Took you long enough, been before?"

"Yeah, but where…"

"You'll see in a sec, it's kinda weird how the boys found this one, might let them tell you the story when we get there," she said, still smiling. She seemed calmer and more relaxed since they'd entered the tunnel, more relaxed than he'd ever seen her before, less prone to winding people up, Harry noted. Most of the time she seemed to be on edge, alert, still joking, laughing and taking the piss out of everyone but her posture and eyes were always sharp. Harry guessed if death eaters came charging into the great hall one mealtime, they'd all be unconscious on the floor in microseconds without the faintest idea of what hit them. Bella probably would have seen them before they'd even looked into the hall themselves. But right now she was different, relaxed and nicer, which was nicer for everyone else including Harry.

They rounded a corner and suddenly the light filled the entire tunnel, which appeared to open right into the three broomsticks, in fact it seemed as if the wall -where the regular door to the pub, from the street usually was- had disappeared and this giant tunnel entrance had appeared instead.

"Wow…how?" asked Harry, looking out into the pub, where people were sitting at the usual tables and bar, paying absolutely no attention to the fact that the wall had just disappeared.

"Don't really know," shrugged Bella, "they can't see or hear us until we step out of the tunnel, but hang on a sec," she said grabbing both his and James' arms to stop them from entering the pub.

"I need to sort you lot out first," she said smirking at Sirius, who immediately made big puppy eyes at Bella.

"Please make me look good Bells, I'll buy you a drink, please, please, please," whimpered Sirius.

"I'll buy you a drink to make him look bad," said James sticking his tongue out at his friend.

"I'll get you two!" Sirius shot in.

"Eh, can't be bothered, do what you want Bells," said James shrugging. Bella smirked.

"What about you Harry?" she asked.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," he said shaking his head warily, this may be a more relaxed Bella, but he was sure she could do just as much damage. She laughed at him again.

"Of course you don't," she said before turning to Sirius, wand out tilting her head and tapping it on her chin as she examined his face.

"Hmmm…"

"Get on with it Bells," grumbled Sirius. "And remember the drinks," he added quickly. Bella smirked once more before changing her stance and bringing her wand up.

She started tapping Sirius' face muttering spells under her breath. Slowly Harry started to notice changes, Sirius had gotten taller, grown faint stubble on his chin, his nose had lengthened and eyes changed from black to blue. When Bella was done Sirius looked almost entirely different, he looked older for one, his features had been altered slightly and skin was a few shades darker, you could still see the real Sirius underneath it all if you knew what to look for, but otherwise he had essentially transformed into someone else.

"Why?" asked Harry as Bella moved onto James.

"We're underage mate," said Sirius. "And bloody Rosmerta and her father know us lot from Hogwarts, can't buy anything stronger than butterbeer with us looking like us so Bells sorts it out," shrugged Sirius, catching his reflection in a mirror on the other side of the pub, which seemed -at least to Harry and supposedly Sirius, James and Bella as well- to be reflecting the tunnel back at them.

"Nice job Bells," said Sirius pausing, "well much better than last time at least," muttered Sirius.

"What happened last time? And isn't this illegal?" asked Harry, as Bella put the finishing touches on James who looked barely anything like James anymore, especially with the blonde hair Bella had given him.

"He was being a little shit on the way here so I made him look like an old man, and wouldn't change him into something better, he still came out and got a drink eventually," shrugged Bella. "And yeah it's probably illegal but who cares, we still pay at least," she said, now moving over to Harry.

"Most of the time," Harry barely heard James mutter from next to him, but he chose to ignore it, it wouldn't hurt anyone to have a bit of fun, would it?

"Your turn," Bella smiled at Harry before getting to work on his face.

As her wand tapped his skin he felt each place it touched tingle and shift, it was a weird experience and when she'd finished Harry looked down at himself, only to realize he was taller than usual. He looked up at the others only to see James and Sirius scowling at him.

"She obviously tries harder, the shorter the time you've known her for," muttered Sirius shaking his head. Bella smiled at him.

"Remember my two drinks couz."

"What do I look like?" asked Harry, curious, trying to catch his reflection in the same mirror Sirius had used, but failing as he couldn't get the right angle.

"I'm getting a drink," announced James, before walking out of the tunnel and into the pub with Sirius following behind him.

Harry waited a moment whilst Bella waved her wand around herself, causing her to gain some height, and her hair straightened slightly and turned a redder colour.

She glanced up at him as she transformed her school robes into muggle boots, leggings and a top.

"You look good," she smirked, before tucking her wand away and stepping out of the tunnel. She turned back to Harry, who was still stood in the same place, wondering if he should say thank you or something back to her.

"You coming?" she asked, tilting her head, waiting for him.

"Yeah, sorry," he mumbled, before stepping out of the tunnel, only to have it disappear behind him and turn into the door to the pub. Harry glanced back at the wall.

"What's the password to open it up again?" he asked as Bella lead them over to a table where James and Sirius were already sitting, glasses of something, possibly firewhisky in their hands.

"Bananabarbowlendor," said Bella, smirking a little.

"How the hell, did you find that out?" Harry asked raising his eyebrows in surprise. Bella shook her head.

"Get James or Sirius to tell you, I wasn't actually there when it happened," she said, smiling and shaking her head. "This is one of the few passageways they actually found by themselves, though it was a bit of an accident."

They sat down at the table across from James and Sirius when a young, blonde girl, hardly older than Harry's actual age -not the presumed age after whatever Bella had done to him- came over and took their orders.

"Who was that?" asked Harry as the girl made her way back over to the bar to get their drinks, having vaguely recognized her, but not sure where from. James smirked.

"That was Rosmerta, finished at Hogwarts last year, her family owns this place," he said, just as the door to the pub flew open letting in a gust of icy cold air along with several darkly robed figures.

Harry noticed Bella's relaxed demeanor that he had just been getting used to fall right off, her eyes hardened and seemed to grow colder as they followed the group of figures to the table where they sat down, not too far away from where Harry and the others were.

James and Sirius however were oblivious to Bella's sudden change and paid no attention to the robed figures and instead they had started to plot ways to humiliate Snape, preferably in front of the whole school tomorrow, the level of firewhisky in their glasses slowly decreasing.

"That won't work," interrupted Bella, listening into James and Sirius' conversation about Snape, though still keeping tabs on the group behind them.

"Sure it will, he'll be humiliated for weeks," said James defensively.

"Yeah maybe if you manage to pull it off, but you idiots will also definitely get caught, detentions for weeks, no Quidditch practice or time to go out… I could go on," pointed out Bella, and Harry rolled his eyes as he watched James and Sirius prepare to argue back, knowing they're going to lose.

"What makes you think that," asked Sirius, finishing off the last dregs in his glass and waving his hand randomly around in the air, trying to catch Rosmerta's eye for another one.

"You're gonna do it in front of the staff table, at dinner, and you have to be out in the open to do what you idiots want to do, so there's no way you'll be able to not get caught. That and I'm just smarter than you Gryffindors," she finished, causing all the boys to scowl and Bella to smirk, then narrow her eyes and turn round to the group behind them, a few of whom had taken off their hoods, Harry followed Bella's gaze and recognized a familiar blonde haired boy, sitting there along with other people he thought he might have seen at school in the last three days.

"Sonofa… what's that shit head doing here?" scowled Sirius as he noticed Lucius Malfoy sitting at the table not too far away.

"You know, we don't look like ourselves, can we just go and hex them?" asked James, looking up at the others.

"Stay here, beetle brains," smirked Bella, getting up from the table, just as the group including Lucius Malfoy started to shuffle around, looking as if they were about to leave.

"That was the worst insult ever Bells," said Sirius as Bella took off, not in the direction of the group but to the toilets, turning round momentarily to direct a middle finger at her cousin.

"What's she doing?" asked Harry, and Sirius nodded in the direction of the toilet door that Bella had just gone through, walking out of it was a witch, draped in dark, midnight green robes, black hair cascading down her back, a witch who looked just like Bella, but not the Bella that had just walked through the door. Instead this witch looked just like the Bellatrix that had tortured Neville's parents to insanity and had then been locked up in Azkaban for over ten years, though admittedly a younger and cleaner version than what Harry had seen in the papers.

Harry swallowed a lump in his throat, tensing as the witch walked past their table. She winked back them as she passed and Harry had to suppress a shudder. Then she moved towards the table with Lucius Malfoy on it, who looked up in shock at the beautiful, but scary witch.

She whispered something in his ear, causing him to nod –albeit hesitantly- then as the group gathered up their things and moved off to one of the more private booths at the back of the pub, the witch joined them.

"That was Bella right?" asked Harry, watching as the she settled down on one of the chairs with at the edge of the group.

"Yeah, she must have heard something they said," said James, twirling his drink around in his glass.

"Why…?"

"She's gonna interrogate them essentially," said Sirius. "Otherwise I'm pretty sure she would have just let us hex them, much more fun."

"How long have you lot been friends with her?" asked Harry, genuinely curious, looking over at the strange witch, he can't imagine she'd be easy to approach.

"Well, she's my cousin so pretty much since 1st year I guess, James even went out with her for a bit last year," said Sirius, before snorting into his glass. Harry raised his eyebrows.

"You serious?"

"Yes, actually, that is my name," snorted Sirius again. James rolled his eyes before turning to Harry.

"It lasted a week," said James shaking his head. "What was it she said exactly?" he asked Sirius.

"That she was bored of being nice to you and that it was more fun to take the piss herself than fail to comfort you when other people, namely me, do it because she's unable to," snorted Sirius again.

"Not that she was ever unable to, she still wound, me and everyone else up in that week just as much as usual," said James. Harry laughed along with Sirius, whilst James was looking round the pub.

"There's no one interesting here tonight," he frowned looking disappointed, "remember when there was that pack of Veela's?"

"Yeah!" said Sirius laughing and smiling before turning to tell Harry the story.

/

Meanwhile, Bella was sitting disguised at the table full of mostly seventh year Slytherins, and a few older wizards and witches. Having told them that she was here for the meeting -she'd been hearing rumors floating round the Slytherin table, and common room for weeks- they'd let her sit with them, though she was getting a lot of wary glances, which she ignored, they'd tell her everything anyway. She would have left the group alone when they came into the pub, had she not overheard what exactly they were talking about.

All of them being avid Voldemort supporters had supposedly called this meeting on the 'Dark lords orders', though none of them had ever actually met the guy, but she wasn't to worried about that, what she'd heard that had made her come over was the fact that they were planning to disobey this 'Dark Lord's orders'.

This was something that for any other reason, she would actually have come over and congratulated the idiots, however when Voldemort had apparently told them all to lay low and to not draw attention to the fact that they were soon to become what she had heard them call 'death eaters', this bunch of idiots instead had decided to start planning an attack on the muggleborns in the school, to put them 'in their place' as she had over heard them saying.

So being the smart Slytherin she was, she had stopped the Gryffindors from hexing the group to smithereens, though that would have been much more satisfying and instead took the much more effective Slytherin method, find out what they were going to do.

Then, she thought she could always hex them to smithereens later.