A/N: I thought I would answer a few of the raised questions here. Although I have mentioned this before, but this story is a long and slow one. I am not sure whether It will be in a single story or with sequels, depends on how long it gets. I have the story planned for the next 3 chapters now. After I have settled everything down at this point, the story will move to the growing of the twins. I will show them grow, so that the situations and characters become clear, then, I'll let the rest be a surprise. Some of you don't like the blind trust that lily and the rest have in Dumbledore. I thought I would clear that up. They have no choice but to trust him. Dumbledore has not acted against the Potter's or Lupin at all. He did act against Sirius, and Sirius saw a side of him that he hides, which is why Sirius is starting to see things and observe, as you will also see in this chapter. The rest are wary but from their point of view Dumbledore is the only one who can help them, and hes had not done anything wrong per say, just some negligence, which is to be expected for such a busy man (their excuse for the inconsistencies they may have felt in his behaviour). I was not clear about dogsby's review, but what I gather is that there are no creatures in this fic so far. That is because there is no need of them, at this moment. Fernier is there, and he is inner circle, he will come up later in the story. As for other magical creatures. I am not sure, they will come up but how I don't know, any ideas? I had not thought over it before the review, but they are not really needed at this moment. I'll think over it when the time comes. Here is the next chapter. Enjoy.

IMPORTANT: The Bella trial. Some of the mentioned stuff here about Bella is not original. I read this in a fiction somewhere, no idea where or whose, but credit goes to that person.

Chapter 12.

It was a few weeks after the Death Eater attack. Many had been convicted and sentence to Azkaban in the earlier days. Dumbledore was feeling frustrated though, no major death eater had been caught, and none of the caught ones were Purebloods. All were half-bloods or lackeys it seemed. It all smelled like a set up but it was impossible. The death eaters did not have time to plan any of this.

He was surprised when he found out about Malfoy. It was good though, he might have another spy when the Dark Lord rose but he would have to be careful, Malfoy was too smart to be manipulated.

At least today they would have a loyal death eater sentenced and he would have the Lestranges family arrested. He would probably be able to hold on to their vaults as the Chief Warlock of the Wizangamot.

What surprised him was the fact there was no resistance from the Lestranges. All they requested was that they be given a couple of days to prepare a defence for themselves, which they were granted. Today had been set for their hearing. The Longbottoms and Potters were both here. Surprisingly Malfoy and his wife had also come. Why Narcissa came he did not know. They had left their children in the waiting rooms with aurors and Remus. They did not want Sebastian getting hurt by the Death Eaters.

As for the Lestranges men, they came in and showed their arms which were mark less, and Dumbledore almost chocked on the glass of water he had been drinking. He looked from glamour and other ways of hiding it but there seemed to be none. There was no one capable of casting a glamour that would hide from him, even Voldemort would have had a hard time hiding the mark as it was made from Dark Magic.

He was sure of that as he had been studing the Dark mark for a while now, the parselmagic in the mark stopped further study though. He would have suspected Voldemort at work here, if he was not sure that he was dead. He had double checked Severus's mark,which had faded to a dull grey, to make certain of voldemort's demise. The mark was still there though, which meant Voldemort was alive, but a sprit somewhere.

As the Lestranges did not have a mark, and he could not detect anything, it probably meant that they had never had the mark. Bellatrix on the other hand had the mark, which confused him further. How could his wife have the mark and he not notice, or maybe he did? Well they would get this mess straightened out.

Nothing had gone as planned since Voldemort's demise. The death eaters had behaved more rationally than he had given them credit, and it turned out many of the suspected death eaters were either forced or did not have the mark. Hopefully Bellatrix would help with this matter.

She was being represented by Lord Zabini, who was a cut throat lawyer. He had never before lost a case and Dumbledore knew that the only reason he took this case was because of the Lestranges . He was a neutral and had never sided with the dark Lord, still there was no way that this mad woman was going to be let go without life imprisonment in Azkaban.

"Hmm, Hmm," Dumbledore cleared his throat, "Let the session begin. Today we are here for the assessment of Bellatrix Lestrange as a death eater. May the Prosecuter have first say.", Dumbledore began, settling the reporters who had been hand chosen to be present during this session.

The prosecutor started by calling Lord Longbottom who had raised the issue and called for arrest.

"Well Lord Longbottom, could you please tell me when you first suspected this woman of being a death eater".

Frank looked at Bellatrix Lastrang who was sitting on the chair, enclosed within the chains, and she looked nothing like the mad woman who had cursed his wife. She was very put together and looked beautiful and her eyes seemed sane for a mad woman.

Frank told the people how he recognised her voice and how she laughed at their pain as she crucio'd him and his wife at the raid. Only the arrival of the aurors and Dumbledore had stopped the torture, otherwise he had no doubt that his wife and he would have lost their minds.

The whole room was silent, Dumbledore was mentally clapping himself on the back. There was no way she would run away from this. He could use this to say that the Lestranges knew about her and hid it, thus they be punished as well.

"Yes. Well what does the defendant have to say about this?"

"Well, first I would like to say that everything Lord Longbottem said is absolutely true, and Lady Lestrange admits to those crimes but only those. The rest of these crimes", Zabini turned the pages of his copy of the crimes, "have no basis in facts and are all circumstantial".

"But how can you explain this crime. If she committed it, and she has the Dark Mark, who is to say she did not do do any of the other things?", Dumbledore commented.

Zabini continued with a slight edge in his voice, " Well our impartial judge, there is an explanation behind Lady Lestrange's actions, and if the court would give me a moment of its time, I can prove that this women does not belong in Azkaban but in St. Mungos. Azkaban would destroy her more than she already is".

The Hall listened, silent waiting to hear what skeleton was about to come from the closet now. The reporters chosen were practically bouncing on their feet, it was their lucky day it seemed.

Zabini turned towards Bella, and after submitting the Veritaserum and checking it , which the Lestranges had agreed to, softly asked his questions, as if raising his voice would cause pain to the woman.

"My Lady, did you join the Dark Lord by your own free will? Or did someone force you?"

"I chose it out of my own free will", came the monotonous reply.

"Why did you join the Dark Lord?"

She pointed to the Longbottoms,"I wanted to get my revenge and give them Pain!", she suddenly screamed.

Frank and Alice looked at each other in shock, they had never done anything to cause someone to want revenge against them.

"What did they do to you My Lady?"

There was silence in the hall, when suddenly

"They took my BABY!", she screamed and started pushing and pulling the chains. "Ill kill them, I'll kill them, I'll kill them".

"My Lady, My lady calm down", the whole hall was in a panic when Rodolphus came to her without paying heed to anyone, and took Bella in his arms and hushed her. She stopped her shaking after a few minutes but did not raise her head from the confines of her husband's arms.

"Lords of the court, I would like permission to answer in my wife's stead"

"So you were aware that she was a death eater?", Dumbledore said, which earned him a look, as if he was stupid.

"Of course I knew. I could do nothing about it, though. I tried to help as much as I could, but", he stopped, eyes full of sadness. "I would like to continue for her. I swear I will only tell the truth. Bella has already said as much as she possibly can".

He then looked at the Longbottoms, "I am sure you are as confused as everyone else. The fault is not truly yours, but in my wife's mind you are to blame."

He took a deep breath, still clutching Bella, as if taking support from her and continued.

"A year from now, there was a raid in Diagon Alley. I know there were reports of some pureblood ladies getting injured by the Dark Lord, and how he would discard and harm the dark families who were also his followers." Looking at the Longbottoms he said, "You both were there at the raid"

"Yes we were there", came the confused reply.

"The Pureblood Lady injured that day was my wife but it was not the dark lord or death eaters that did it. During the battle your wife fell and when Bella went to help her up, you shot her the bombarda curse. Under normal circumstance, she would have escaped with minimum injuries but Bella was pregnant at the time. Not only did she lose the baby, we were told that she would not be able to have children again".

The hall was silent. Frank remembered that day, remembered hitting the person who was near his wife. Alice put her hand on her mouth as if to stifle her pain. Tears filled her eyes and started to fall. Lily also had tears on her cheeks, she could not imagine having as such done to her.

He continued with irony in his voice, "She told me to marry someone else and get my heirs but I refused. The Dark Lord told her he would help her get revenge. She went to the Dark Lord and he let her join. I knew, but I was not going to tell on my wife. How could I when I understood. Bella was already losing her mind to her grief, I did not want to add to it."

Dumbledore was seething; this was not going as planned. Why had Severus not told him this so he could prepare. "If such a thing occurred, St. Mungoes would have let it slip, yet no one heard a word?", Dumbledore questioned.

Bella wanted to kill that pile of bones, how could he? Here they were parading their most guarded and most painful secret and he was treating it as a joke, as an excuse.

Sirius looked at Dumbledore at the comment, their pain was visible to see, how could Dumbledore make it seem as if they were lying?

Zabini though had been warned by Malfoy and had prepared,

"Narcissa Malfoy actually had been there when Lady Lestrange found about her pregnancy. She was also the one who looked after the lady when she was injured. As you know most Pureboold's have private healers and Lady Malfoy wanted to look after her own sister. If you would like to question her, she is present here in this court."

Before anyone could ask, one look at Lucius Malfoy told them not to even try, but Dumbledore could not let this go.

"Lady Malfoy, could you please give us your statement regarding your sister's pregnancy and her mental health. I am sure the court would also like to know where you got your medical training from, to make such an assesment. There are no certificates in your name regarding the matter, otherwise I am sure it would have been common knowledge", Dumbledore said, looking for a reason do make their defence innefective.

Sirius could feel a vein throb in his forehead. The Old fool, did he not know that Purebloods had secrets, and powers passed in the bloodlines. No one other than the Purebloods, selected chosen one, knew of them.

Lucius felt like hitting the old fool as well, this could work in their favour but only for the Purebloods. Halfbloods and Mudbloods had no concept of the powerlines.

"Dumbledore, are you saying that Purebloods who have sent their wives and kids to Lady Malfoy, including me, were incompetent idiots to do so without proof of her medical knowledge?", Zabini questioned, he had to defuse the situation before it got worse. Malfoy was going to kill him if this did not blow over quick.

Dumbledore could not answer that without getting himself trapped thus he decided to force thorough,

"It does not change the fact that she is a death eater and deserves Akaban.", he turned to look at Rodolphus, "My boy I am so sorry for your loss, but the punishment must meet the crime. A cruciatus curse earns a one way ticket to Azkab-."

"NO",Dumblredore was interrupted,mad he looked up, to see it was the Longbottoms.

"We take back our case." Frank looked at the Lady, who looked beautiful even with tears on her face and a crazy glint in her black eyes.

"I request that Lady Lestrange be convicted to St. Mungos where she can get the medical attention that she needs, to help her get over her trauma"

Dumbledore was gobsmacked. What was going on here?

Zabini was quick to take the offer. "Yes, it would be better this way".

Dumbledore could do nothing but watch as none of the Lestranges were sent to Azkaban. Bellatrix was sent to St. Mungos and the Lestranges were fined for harbouring a death eater, and the court session was over.

While Dumbledore was trying to comprehend what had happened. Lucius Malfoy was watching with glee. Oh how he loved to get one over the old coot.

This boy has come a long way Dumbledore, he smirked, raising a toast towards an unaware Dumbledore and left. He had a lot to tell his Lord.


A/N: Did anyone ever wonder why Bellatrix was the only female death eater, and why she hated the Longbottoms. Torturing for information is something else, torture till they went mad would not have given her any information about the Dark Lord. I read about the her inability to get pregnant somewhere and something about the Longbottoms, not sure, but I decided to join the dots and put this here. Also I have suddenly become very busy, so Updates are going to become very slow. Sorry, but don't panic if the span between chapters is a long one. Apologise for the mistakes, this chapter was posted in a hurry.