"Mrs Potter-Black, would you do me the honour of accompanying me to the Ministry's Masquerade Ball?"

The black-haired woman looked up from the heavy tome she had on her lap and smiled at the man still standing in his bathrobe holding out a hot chocolate to her. His own was hovering obediently behind him. She took the cup and watched as his smile widened when she took a sip and moaned deliciously. "Thanks love, I needed that."

"I know you did." She looked up at him with a quirked eyebrow, a smile teasing on her lips and he chuckled before collapsing into the chair opposite. "So what do you think?" He could see her indecision, felt it too in fact, and leant over the small table to clasp her hands in his own. "It will be out first real date Bella, and nobody will recognize us with the masks and glamours on." And then he finally said the words that he knew would sway her. "And I will finally be able to dance with the most beautiful woman in the world, and show everybody just how much I love her and am proud to be at her side."

Bella wasn't like most girls; she didn't spontaneously 'melt' as other women and girls put it…apart from when she was with Harry. She could feel the love and pride he held for her and that was all it took for her to choke up, smile radiantly, and nod her head.

Harry was wearing his most expensive set of clothing he owned, and grinned when he fixed the black mask over his eyes which glowed merrily back at him in the mirror. To wear what he was to an official, exclusive, and very formal Ministry event had never been done before – quite simply because such occasions were always frequented by bigoted purebloods that didn't give muggles the time of day. Harry was wearing a jet black tuxedo; polished steel capped shoes; a textured white dress shirt; and a green silk waistcoat which was delicately and finely embroidered with a beautiful and stunningly realistic Phoenix. Oh if only they knew.

A moment later the door opened behind him, and he felt a wave of love and lust crash across him. When he turned and saw the person from whom the emotion had originated he found himself replying in kind. Before him stood who he considered to be the most beautiful thing on the entire planet. The woman was wearing a strapless, forest-green silk dress that hugged ever perfect, voluptuous curves as if it were a second skin, which had Harry dropping his jaw immediately.

When she playfully twirled around with a giggle however, Harry became just that little bit more lusting and appreciative of the woman in front of him. Down the side of the dress and flowing over her him was a fine, white phoenix; apparently she had had much the same talk with her own familiar, but it was the slit from the bottom of the dress to just below her hip that had Harry wanting to make that opening about a meter longer. Harry could nearly make out her underwear, but smiled warmly when he recognized the impenetrable shadow charm she had placed there. When he pushed some magic into his eyes however, he growled and slammed her up against the wall.

In both their glowing orbs there was the matching emotion of wanton lust, and Bella's lips parted slightly in anticipation; her hot breath caressing Harry's skin; asking- no: begging for him to take her. He groaned loudly and dropped her arms that he had pinned above her head before looking into her eyes that he could see glowing lustfully through the holes in her mask. "I want to Bella, you have no ide- well actually you do, but we'll be late for the Ball."

"Screw the ball," she growled, and Harry was inclined to agree, but he held his ground with incredible difficulty as she pressed herself against him.

"I want to dance with you Bella; I want to show everybody that we are meant to be." He leant down and kissed her lovingly on the lips, and her lust dissipated quickly with the action. He pulled back and smiled, receiving one in return. "I want to show that bitch that she made me complete; that she made my life perfect."

She nodded, and then leant into his chest with a smile as his arms came around her; simply holding her. "So do I, but when we get back…"

He nodded in agreement, his eyes holding a hint of lust. "I know my love." And with that the two disappeared from The Valley. A moment later the announcer at the Ball was faced with a situation, and couple, that he had never had experience with before – were they trying to start trouble?

Nevertheless the pair had obviously been let in by the squadron of Aurors standing guard outside, else they wouldn't have been able to get there, so he asked them the same question he had been posing to the arriving guests the entire night. "Sir and Madam, who do you wish to be announced as?"

Harry turned to Bellatrix with a worried look; he hadn't thought of that. She rolled her eyes and turned back to the man with an apologetic smile. "Surprise us."

The announcer was thrown for a six; the pair in front of him apparently didn't have aliases ready, and had just asked him to give them names that he deemed appropriate. He could safely say that the man and woman in front of him were the oddest and most unusual pair he had ever met. A moment later his voice rang out yet again in the atrium, and not too many heads turned to look at the new arrivals, as it had been happening all evening. Those that did however, caught the attention of the other attendees with their dropped jaws, and soon afterwards their angered expressions, although one would have to be blind to miss the looks of lust directed towards the black-haired woman. "Presenting Lord and Lady Phoenix."

The two regally and confidently walked into the gigantic room; Bella with her arm looped in Harry's, and both practically glowing with happiness at showing the world their relationship – even if they hadn't a clue just who they were. Harry leaned down to her ear in the silence, a small grin on his face. "You can no longer say that you aren't beautiful; you've got virtually every man in this room looking at you."

"And you've got virtually every woman looking at you," she replied with a grin, and Harry snorted…before jerking slightly when he finally noticed the stares he was receiving from every female he laid his eyes on. "Well shit; I might just need a club to beat them off!"

"Not if I told them who I am." She raised an eyebrow at him, her face completely visible and uncovered to his eyes, and he immediately adapted an innocent expression. "What?"

She was just about to reply when they both sensed a presence behind them, and they both felt the other's furious anger as well as amusement and mirth when the bossy voice came from behind them. "Your names are not on the guest list."

Harry turned around, placing a small glamor on his eyes for the time being, and quirked an eyebrow – trying as hard as he could not to kill her right there and then. "Is that so? I believe that this is a masquerade ball, so I must wonder just how you know whether my lover and I are supposed to be here at all – unless of course you have surveillance wards to scan all that enter this room."

The slightly puffed out chest at his statement was impossible to miss, and both Bella and Harry rolled their eyes. "I do in fact, and you set them off. I'm afraid that I am going to have to place you both under arrest for-"

"Masquerading as authorised guests?" Harry snorted and winked at his wife. 'Nice pun'. She grinned back before returning her gaze to the now-very-annoyed brunette in front of them. "I assure you that we are supposed to be here Missus Weasley."

At this the Unspeakable tensed, and the two intruders found two wands pointed at their faces by the single woman in front of them. Her eyes were rather dangerous, but Harry once again took note of her magical reserves and grinned – no matter what she threw at them, both he and Bella could easily swamp any spell with their magic. "You are unauthorised to know that information," Harry noted the interest they were gathering and adopted a relaxed stance so that he came off as the good guy in the situation. He grinned when he saw Bella do the same; hugging herself closer to his arm and smiling as Hermione continued on oblivious. "I am here on official Ministry business, and by revealin-"

"Annoying, bossy voice – check; dictatorial, I-think-I'm-superior posture – check; bushy, brown hair – check; brown eyes – check…I think anybody here could guess who you are."

A few sniggers met his comment, Harry quite enjoyed his wife's laughs beside him, and said bushy-haired witch snarled angrily at him. "I have called the aurors to arrest you."

Harry raised an eyebrow at that, and spoke calmly – but it was clear to all that he was more than a little annoyed. "I can feel that, but the fact remains that you have just ordered the arrest of the head of two of the Ancient and Noble houses." By this point the silence had deepened so far that one could've heard a pin drop, and the glare that Harry was sending the Unspeakable was nerve-wracking; causing her to take a wary step back. The aurors in question had also frozen at the announcement of their prospective-prisoner's status. Hermione was clearly just about to complain when Harry growled out his next words. "I hereby do swear that I am the head of two of the Most Ancient and Noble houses, that I have the ancient right to be here, and that I will disable any person here who moves to harm or otherwise restrain me and my wife."

A golden flash signified the truth of the oath, and Hermione paled when she saw the man give a wave of his hand and a dark red rose appear in his breast pocket. He had clearly not lost his magic, and the traitorous woman immediately begun backtracking – a very, very worried expression on her face. "I am terribly sorry for my mistake here tonight my Lord and Lady…"

"Phoenix," Bella replied condescendingly, and Harry grinned under his mask.

Hermione however, even though she had insulted them enough, had the gall to look affronted and annoyed at their lack of cooperation. "I must insist…"

Harry was getting more and more irritated by the moment at his ex-friend's actions, and just managed to grind out his next sentence without cursing her. He could feel Bella's fingers twitching in irritation as well, and had no inhibitions about allowing her to curse Hermione should the brunette take another step to annoy them. "And I refuse, you stubborn wench." A few gasps echoed out in the silent hall, no more than the witch in question. Harry glared at her, the light from his eyes threatening to break through the powerful glamour, and growled at her. "You have the audacity to interrupt the first public outing I have ever had with my wife, and then make demands of me?" He lifted up his hand and clicked his fingers ominously – which resulted in the bushy-haired woman flying back several meters to land on her rump.

Nobody moved a muscle, but Hermione's eyes glowed angrily at the couple. "You just assaulted m-"

Bella simply couldn't take it anymore, and her eyes burned right through the glamour charm that had been concealing her identity – which led to Harry throwing all caution to the wind as well and blasting through his own with merely a thought. Hermione's eyes widened at the significance, but most of the people there had no idea of just what was so momentous about the, what they assumed to be, powerful glamour charms now covering the eyes of Lord and Lady Phoenix. "You little bitch!" she spat, and a wave of power flooded outwards, making the people who had been agreeable to the powerful glamour hypothesis quickly begin to rethink their views. "My husband brought me here tonight so that we could show everybody that we are in the deepest of love possible, and you – you meddling, backstabbing little skank, just ruined that!"

Hermione's mouth opened and closed a few times, comparable to a goldfish really, before she moved to stand. She was shocked, and more than a little afraid to find that she couldn't move a muscle. Harry watched as she grew more and more frightened when her attempt to pull in more magic failed, and he stepped back from her in disgust. "You abuse magic like some muggles abuse cocaine; you overuse it, you steal it, and you pay the consequences."

He waved his arm in a wide arch, and everybody's eyes widened when flowing blue currents became visible in the room – but it was two things that caught everybody's specific attention; the first being that the flow of blue seemed to avoid Hermione like the plague; and the second being that the mysterious Lord and Lady Phoenix were surrounded by a current of pure gold, which was willingly flowing into them so fast that compared to the other people's tap-like flow it was like Niagra Falls. Harry looked down at the shocked woman and gave a triumphant snarl. "You have finally abused it to the point that it will no longer respond to your demands, you see, unlike drugs magic has a will; a consciousness, and I happen to be rather good friends with it."

He watched her try desperately to pull in the magic against its will, and the current depressed towards her for a moment before snapping back to its original flow – making Harry smile and lift the silencing charm on the young witch. "WHAT THE HELL HAVE YOU DONE TO ME?"

Harry raised his eyebrow and waved his hand to magically silence the annoying voice, but Bella bet him to answering the seething brunette still paralysed on the ground, her voice equally as angry – if not more so. The disgust was palpable. "You sick, horrible witch; you lost the trust of magic because of your greed – just like you lost the best man you could have ever had in your life."

Some mumbling in the crowd followed this, but it hadn't hit them yet – which meant that Harry and Bella had more time to berate her. Bella took the lead. Harry had absolutely no problems with that. As she spoke she trembled with anger in his arms, and he wrapped her tighter in his embrace. "You are no better than Death Eaters," she ignored the gasps at the accusation and continued; her tone scathing and full of hate, "simply for the reason that your best friend denied you knowledge you got him thrown into a Hell on Earth; you abuse the source of your power for greed; you will do anything to get what you want. All that matters to you is knowledge and power – neither of which is synonymous with the self-serving, jealous, failure of a wizard that your husband is."

Harry released Bellatrix from his arms as she knelt down to glare into Hermione's eyes. "My husband is so, so much more than you could even imagine in your convoluted, twisted little world." She leant closer, and whispered so that only the petrified woman could hear. "You have no idea the restraint either of us is showing in not kidnapping you this instant and making you pay for all that you have done – but one day we will; one day you won't be safe."

And with that the terrifying power that had been overwhelming the entire crowd, and keeping them silent, disappeared. Bellatrix stood up and levelled one last, cold glare at the frozen woman before returning to her lover's open arms. Harry turned around to all the guests present and growled lowly. "You are all the cause of problems like this stupid, power hungry woman," he stabbed a finger at the still-paralysed witch, "your stupid, closed-minded views of the world will be our downfall. Your pureblood supremacy is worthless – would you like to know why? Because I'm a half-blood, because Voldemort was a half-blood, and both of us could, and in his case did, kick your old, decrepit arses from here right back to Timbuktu."

Slowly blue tendrils swum up from the floor to surround the pair, and Harry gave them one last glare, and parting statement that made them shiver in fear. "I intend to do the same." And with that Harry and Bellatrix disappeared from the room, leaving very, very scared witches and wizards behind.

They reappeared in a dark alleyway and Harry let out a deep sigh before turning to Bellatrix with a rueful expression. He didn't get time to apologise however, because as soon as he turned his head he found himself pulled into a kiss. After a moment she pulled back and rested her head on his chest; her soothing, loving voice reaching his ears moments later. "Don't ever apologise for trying to make me happy, never Harry."

He nodded into her hair and after a deep breath smiled down at her. "I promise, but now let me try again to make you happy." She cocked her head in confusion, but followed him after he had changed his and her clothes to something a little more casual…and provocative. She looked at his smart, black jeans, and form-fitting dark green t-shirt, and then down at her short, black miniskirt and blue tanktop that showed off her long, stunning legs and toned, flat stomach before looking up at him with a raised eyebrow. He smiled, but nervousness was in his eyes. "Did I overdo it?"

She stared into his eyes for a moment before speaking. "Do you think I look beautiful?" He cleared his throat and shook his head in the negative, but his slightly predatory and lustful expression stopped her from feeling disappointed at his comment. "Well then what do I look like?"

He stopped walking and turned himself to face her fully, and when he truly saw her in the light of a nearby street lamp his eyes flared with a force that he had shown back in the Ministry Ballroom – but it was far from angry as she found out when he pushed her into a brick wall and crashed his lips against hers. After several minutes of clinging to one another, their lips never separating for a moment, Harry rested his forehead on hers – panting softly. "You look- you make me want to apparate back to the house and take you for the entire night…" he looked into her smouldering red eyes and closed his eyes after a moment, the strain of not doing just that very clear in his voice. "Does that answer your question?"

After a moment's silence she smiled, and shook her head. "Then no."

His eyes snapped open and he cocked his head slightly. "No?"

She nodded. "No, you didn't overdo it." She kissed him lightly once more and looked at him with barely restrained need. "If you like it, I like it." She grinned up at him, "And if it makes you look at me like that then I most definitely don't mind."

He stared at her, and then a matching grin spread across his own features. "You will never, ever cease to receive my need."

She smiled, but shook her head. "Thanks for the thought, but in forty yea-"

"Bella," his firm tone made her stop, and she looked up at him, confused. "I don't think you understand: you will never, for all eternity, ever not be wanted by me."

"Harry, I love you for your nobility, but when I get all wrinkl-"

She found herself a moment later with his hands on either side of his face, and his eyes burning seriously into hers – a deep want for her palpable, and punctuating his words. "Bella, even though you have my memories, at least the ones that I didn't hide as a surprise, the ones of my knowledge and conversations with The Valley were blocked from you – through no will of my own, but because of The Valley." He leant down slightly and placed a gentle kiss to her forehead before looking back into her eyes with a joyous smile. "Bella, you will never age." Her eyes widened and his smile widened before he shook his head. "Far be it from being immortal my love, but suffice to say that both you and I are far from normal."

He turned to pull her towards their mysterious second destination, but found himself stopped by Bella – whose eyes bored into his. "What have you done to me?"

He could see the slight fear in her eyes and hastened to quell it. "Look into my eyes Bella." She did, and he continued. "I love you more than life itself, and it was that feeling that caused The Valley to do what it did. There was one other person who had the power like you and I possess, but he had nobody to love him and nobody to love. The Valley vowed that anybody from that moment forth that was worthy of its power and who had a lover who was worthy of the same, it would grant them a longer life, and cease their signs of aging while giving them certain abilities in regards health and healing."

The fear had lessened, and had instead turned to disbelief and hope. "Like?"

"Well we will never appear to age, you will appear to be around my age, as you very well know, we will live for nigh on five hundred years before dying – unless we decide to pass on earlier, our healing is nearly instantaneous, we are resistant to all potions and poisons – unless we chose otherwise, and I haven't been sick once since I came to The Valley and was granted its power."

She looked at him, disbelieving. "All of that?"

He nodded with a warm smile, but it faded after a moment. "I'm sorry for keeping it from you my Love, but I wanted to wait until we got fully settled into The Valley before I told you."

She was still for a moment, and Harry's heart fell – but when her eyes once more sharpened, and she smiled lovingly at him, he felt relief wash over him. "You're telling me that I will live on this world by your side for nearly five hundred years, that I will always remain this age, and that my health will never fade…and you expect me to be angry at you?" A moment later she wrapped him in an embrace and smiled into his chest when his arms inevitably wrapped around her. "I will always love you Harry, never think different. I may get annoyed, or even angry, but you will always have my heart."

Harry very nearly teared up at that, but managed to hold it in with a huge, overjoyed smile. "And you will always have mine. Thank you." She shook her head with a smile, and the couple stood in an embrace for several minutes before Harry took her hand and led her along the quiet street. She looked down at his and her attire once more, and raised an eyebrow; this wasn't exactly the place she expected to be wearing such clothes. She saw his concealed grin at her confusion and she narrowed her eyes at him – which he responded to with a completely innocent expression.

After several minutes of walking they reached a small café on the corner of the street, and Harry held the door open for her with a small, mischievous smile. She narrowed her eyes further at him as she entered, and looked around – scouring the room and the occupants with her eyes. Seeing nothing out of the ordinary, and two elderly couples drinking a cup of coffee, she turned to the man behind the bar to ask just what he was hiding, but found him stuttering and staring over her shoulder. She turned to see Harry giving the man a look of immense amusement. "Hello Collin, how's business?"

"H-h-h…HARRY!" Forgoing the waiters door from behind the counter Collin leapt over the bar and went crashing into Harry – causing Bella's eyes to widen in amazement; it was impossible to jump that far…without magic. She whipped around as the man was hugging Harry and peered at the elderly couples – narrowing her eyes further when she saw them still talking, almost as if nothing out of the ordinary was happening at all.

"Harr-"

"Bella, this is Collin Creevy; one of the people we were talking about."

Collin looked at Harry in confusion. "Bella? As in Bellatr-"

"Who are you involved with at the moment Collin? Sorry I'm not up on events but Azkaban was very good at keeping information out."

Colin looked at Harry in confusion, happiness, and slight worry, but answered all the same. "Uhrm, Susan Bones but-"

Harry's eyes lit up, "Wonderful! This might make things a whole lot eas-"

"HARRY!"

Said raven haired man turned to the irate black-haired woman and raised an eyebrow. "Yes love?"

"What the bloody hell is going on here?"

Collin tentatively put up his hand and winced. "Actually, I'd really like to know that as well Harry."

Harry grinned at Bella's steaming condition and she scowled when she realized that Harry had been playing both of them. He turned to Collin and his grin widened. "Collin, before I explain – I'll be in contact with you and Susan in the near future, okay?" The young man nodded warily, and then Harry gleefully dropped the bombshell. "This is Bellatrix Potter-Black, my wife," Collin's jaw dropped, and Harry then turned to his lover, who had calmed down slightly, before taking her hand and pulling her towards the wall behind the counter. She blanched in shock when they passed through the bar as if it didn't even exist, and Harry's grin got wider. "And this here is my club." And with that he pulled them both through the wall.

String Quintet In E Major, Op.13 G282 Minuet