Hello guys! So this is my first fanfiction inspired from various fanfictions I read on this site, most of those have been added in my favourites. There are elements of similarity with few fanfictions in the start and it shall remain so for a while, but the story will completely diverge in the later chapters. Also the updates may not be frequent, but I will guarentee that this story wil be completed.

A/N: I don't own Harry Potter, though I own the story and all its unique elements.

A/N 2: Posting this to clarify the full summary, as the space in the description was not enough. Belladonna is the abandoned and unfavoured second child of the House of Potter. She was thought to be a squib and left with her relatives by a not-so-sane James, and Peter. Sirius Black was not dumped in Azkaban and Lily was declared clinically insane. She learns how to survive her circumstances, with smiling face and hidden thorns, the perfect example of the nightshade plant she was named after, meanwhile creating and operating an underworld organisation from scratch with her not-so-accidental-magic before she receives her Hogwarts letter, with a clear aim for the said organisation in her mind. The revelation of magical world throws her entire life into a disarray. So how will she face this new world where she is not welcome by her own parents? Will she take vengeance against her father for abandoning her, resulting in her abyssimal childhood? What are her reasons behind operating an underworld organisation? Read further to find out...

Enjoy the chapter...

The birth of Belladonna the nightshade

31st October 1981

It was a windy evening, with Halloween decor all over the apparently modest sized village, Godric's Hollow. Everyone was celebrating the all Hallows eve, except for a select few houses, which ware all but invisible to those who knew nothing about them. These houses included "the refugee," as named by one Albus Dumbledore, Chief Warlock of British Wizengamont, Supreme Mugwump of the ICW, Honourable Headmaster of Hogwarts School of witchcraft and wizardry. Despite knowing its general location, the house was inaccessible to anyone who knew not the secret, such was the way of Fidelius charm or so thought Mr. and Mrs. Potter, living in their refugee from the ongoing wizard war to protect their daughters, Camilla and Belladonna from the attempts of murder by a mad man, the perpetrator of this senseless violence. As it was a holiday, their little belle was getting dressed while their little flower was all set for the festival when they heard the opening of the gate, inviting their favourite godfathers to their very private halloween party, or so they thought. Little did they know that their happy lives were going to end that night, leaving their little angels to fend off for themselves for a long while.

"Such foolishness, that's the reason it's never prudent to believe in anyone," thought Lord Voldemort, entering the house to put an end to his so called "vanquisher." Seeing James Potter without a wand in his hand, he considered letting him live, he was after all a pureblood lord, but ultimately decided against it as the potters were Dumbledore's through and through. "But, let it not be said that Lord Voldemort has no mercy," he thought to himself while using his version of blasting curse, resulting in a collision with the wall. Noting that the annoying idiot will live if brought to immediate medical attention, he checked where the kids are. The prophecy, he might not have heard it in its entirety, but he knew that someone with power to undermine his existence shall be born. the thought itself was ludicrous; He, Lord Voldemort, who wished to take magic to previously unreached heights, would be killed, and that too by a snot-nosed brat? End the noble cause they were fighting for? He would never let that happen, and the best enemy is always a dead enemy. With these thoughts, he further looked in the house. Hearing the hurried scuttling of Lily Potter, the mudblood wife of James Potter, from the upper floors, he climbed the stairs to find a nursery, messy in every way as though someone ransacked the place. Probably did so too, he thought, thinking of what he knew of Lily Potter. Lily Potter nee Evans, a muggle-born. Member of the Order of Phoenix established by Dumbledore and was extremely skilled with a wand, more so than her husband who was an Auror. As much as it pained him, he had to admit that she was truly vicious when need arises, of course she never used the killing curse but she always fought his people with the intent to kill, not incapacitate, like the other people of Dumb-as-a-Door, and was leading a research among the unspeakables, according to his faithful agents in the department of mysteries. Dare he admit it to himself, the children of a pureblood and a mudblood, both with excellent prowess as wizards. He never considered himself as a wizard, he was a mage first and foremost with his skills in wandless magic, though he lost the ability long ago due to the countless rituals he performed upon himself to increase his power levels. Entering the nursery, he found the girl begging him to spare his daughters, and take her life instead. He thought of the promise he made his faithful spy, the promise he made to him for his continued allegience and finally decided that the girl was snivelling too much and put her to sleep with a parseltongue curse, she won't wake up unless another parselmouth uses the spell, such was the greatness of the serpentine language. He did not notice her wrists slit open and bleeding with runes carved in them. Neither did he notice the minor glamour on the foreheads of the two girls. Pointing his wand towards one of those little brats, the one with eyes the same colour of his favourite curse; he did not know their name; he immediately uttered the killing curse, but before the curse could do what it was supposed to do, the curse was dissolved and turned him into ashes. Fleeing the house as a disembodied spirit, his last coherent though was to have had killed that brat with a cutting curse, rather than the killing curse.

Fidelius charm is one of the very few charms which breaks upon the incapacitation of any one of the secrets, that is death or disposal of the secret results in the breaking of the charm, making it very useful against murderers like this. So, the loss of consciousness of James and Lily resulted in the dispelling of the charm and allowed the headmaster and everyone who knew of the refugee yet were unable to enter regain their knowledge. Thus, Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster extrordinaire of Hogwarts, came to check the house out and noted that James was on the verge of death and Lily was cursed asleep with a parseltongue spell, as he was unable to wake her with any of the countercurses he knew for the general sleeping and nightmare curses. He noted that one of the girls, the redheaded one, had a scar of the shape of teiwaz and algiz, implying sacrifice and protection, in an angry red as though someone carved it on her head with a hot knife. Immediately calling the healers from St. Mungo's, he transported his favourite students to the hospital, hoping that they might wake up soon enough to take care of the kids. In his haste, he did not notice the sig rune on the other one's head in the same location, same red but pulsing with energy.

Sirius Orion Black, also known as Padfoot and the Godfather of Belladonna, on regaining the knowledge of the refugee's address, immediately understood that they were betrayed by a rat known as Peter Pettigrew, the true secret keeper of the potters. He immediately set out to the Godric's hollow and met Dumbledore, and tried to explain him that Peter was the secret keeper only to physically be incapable of doing so. "Damn you Peter, That was the reason for that twisted oath to be included as a marauder's secret as well?" he thought, unable to come up with any solution to inform the headmaster the true identity of the secret keeper, as he was physically bound by the oath, preventing anyone who was not a marauder from knowing who the true secret keeper was. He hated to admit it to himself, but the rat's idea was a good safety net for himself. The marauder's secrets as they were defined, were secrets stored in a contract, using Black family magic, that was his contribution, and only the oath holder can allow the secrets out, similar functioning to that of a fidelius. In fact, he was quite sure that the fidelius charm was inspired from the black family magic just like many other modern magical innovations. Like it or not, his family was ancient and on its way to be most ancient, so they had a good spell repertoire, outclassd only by the most ancient houses like Peverell, Grimm, Emrys, Le Fey, Nightshade and few other families lost to onslaught of time.

1st November, 1981

Dumbledore, in all his intelligence, immediately called for a Wizengamont meeting, with Sirius, Remus and Peter, the other three marauders, as the ones responsible for the Potters' current predicament, knowing that one of them is the secret keeper of the Potters. An immediate veritaserum questioning and several hours yielding no result, it was decided that the three marauders shall be given benefit of doubt till James or Lily wake up and the custody of children to Dumbledore. He returned to the hospital to check on his students and their children. According to the prophecy, he knew that one of the girls was responsible for the disappearance of Voldemort, though he did not know who as both the scars had magical residue. Noting that James was awake and speaking to Sirius, who was the first among the marauders to arrive, he went to check the status of the kids, only to hear devastating news that Belladonna was tested to be a squib, losing all her magic that night. James Potter was in denial, yelling at the healers and mediwitches and Sirius was busy controlling him. For once, the situation is quite opposite, observed the headmaster, usually it was Sirius who lost his composure and James who was the mature one. "No daughter of mine can be a squib!"

"Please maintain your composure Lord Potter, this is a hospital!"

"I want the secret keeper arrested immediately, Sirius. He is responsible for this! Tell me who the secret keeper is! I know that you are the oathkeeper of that detail, not me. So spill!"

"James, you and Lily hold the identity of secretkeeper together, so stop asking me to reveal it. Get your bearings together and either wait till Lils wakes up or I can make you the oathkeeper if she does not wake up by tomorrow. That's how the contract works and you would know that if you have studied every clause in detail. So stop making a commotion!"

He immediately went to the healers to ask what was wrong with James, as his student rarely lost composure these days. "We are sorry headmaster, but Lord Potter is perfectly healthy according to the scans we performed just a while ago, except for a mild shock in his brain. We cannot say the impacts of this wound as mind is a sensitive part of the body and can only hope that he will heal well," was their response. "James, get a hold of yourself, she is your daughter, does it matter if she does not have magic?" yelled Sirius, unable to see his brother in all but blood lose it so badly and start blaming Belladonna for his current situation. His entire behaviour was insane. Rounding up on Sirius, he all but shouted, "You! You are her godfather! The reason she lost her magic! You were our oathkeeper. You are the reason all this happened!" Albus, choosing that he heard enough, asked the healers whether his words are reliable, only to know that James lost control on his thought process, so he will have many angry and out of control episodes, and is technically not fit enough to care for children, and might never become alright. Heartbroken, he decided against James meeting his children in his situation, and only hoped that the man can be healed as soon as it was possible. He also checked the status of Lily and got to know that she might need a parseltongue spell to regain consciousness, and even then, she might not be the way she was before this incident.

In a way of placating James, he decided to search foe a parselmouth, and asked for help among all of his acquaintances, pulling old favours to get help. Finally, he found that the answer was with James' friend Peter Petrigrew of all the people, that kid knew someone who had the details and asked him to heal Lily and James, if he can. Despite his scepticism, he decided to trust Peter as he was always with him from the day the fidelius was cast, so he had a solid alibi. Also, he gave an oath to the headmaster that he was not the secret keeper chosen by James, so it was satisfactory for him.

8th November, 1981

The following week saw many reforms, with James regaining the custody of his daughters, Lily forgetting almost everything about her past and reverting to having the mind of a toddler (as though she was obliviated), the attack on Longbottoms, Sirius losing his best friend and his job at the auror office because of false testification, yet he did not get arrested as Lord Potter was unable to provide any credible proof against him and the attestation from healers regarding his sanity, immediate round-up of all the accused death eaters and most of them escaping Azkaban with flimsy excuses of imperius, and providing 'donations' to the financially crippled ministry. "And they call my family mad..."thought Sirius, "they are the really mad ones, just because he has a good political situation now, his testification is true and will be taken into consideration despite his questionable sanity... And just because he was not from a dark family, Peter is allowed combined custody of his God daughter along with the Potters. I am sure there is a good donation in this situation, but my accusations will only place me in perilous situation... He is not insane like Sirius Black, cousin of Bellatrix Lestrange nee Black, who suffers from the black family madness after all... And Remus, heh, I don't even know where he is as of now... Left the place without a good-bye note..." He also lost the legal right to care for Belladonna, though it was accepted in Wizengamont that he will be allowed to visit her whenever he wished. After all, she was his god daughter and no one can deny him his right and duty towards her. Deciding that he will not ignore his responsibility towards his god daughter, despite his current dislike of his once-bestfriend, he went to James to meet his little Belle and hopefully flee England with her, away from James and Peter, especially Peter. If she was a squib, he would find a good muggle house and allow her to lead her life away from magic, even if it meant he won't be able to use magic again. Though he felt sorry for Lily, he knew that she most likely won't be leaving the ward for long term psychological damage, along with the Longbottoms and there was nothing he could do to help her, she was James' responsibility as his wife, not his.

"What do you mean by she is not with you?" Sirius all but yelled at James on hearing that his little Belle was dumped with Lily's 'very normal' sister Petunia. "Lils would be ashamed of what you are doing right now, Prongs, though she doesn't remember anything." Giving the grim animagus his utter disgust, "Don't call me that you traitor... You lost the right to do so the day you gave me up to You-Know-Who. I know you are the oathkeeper no matter what you did to make me forget it. You are not a marauder anymore Sirius Black. I, James Charlus Potter, as the leader disown Sirius Orion Black from the marauders' oath," retorted James, doing so resulted in magic herself not recognising him as a marauder anymore, as his security features never took insanity into account, it did not require sanity checks, only free will. Sirius immediately felt a sharp pain in his heart, indicating that he was indeed not a marauder anymore and lost direct access to half of the marauder secrets (he was the co-leader, so he held half of the secrets with him) though he did not lose the knowledge that Peter was the secret keeper, he became incapable to speak of it to Remus as well, whom he was trying to contact even now; even when the oath was redundant as it was a marauder's secret and from the looks of it, James forgot who the true secret keeper was and lost all his marbles, easily manipulated by Peter, who was behind James waving towards him conspiringly, just like the rat he was, vividly reminding him of his harridan of his dead mother and his cousin dearest. He decided not to speak to them unless James regains his sanity or he finds a way to undo the oath, though he knew that the only possible solution needs a higher tier magic than the secrecy ritual he used in the marauder's oath. That would include family magic with stronger language than Latin like Mayan runic language or parseltongue, both of which are inherent, along with some other magical skills, you either know them or you don't.

"James, I don't care about that right now, you will tell me where my god daughter is unless you want the wrath of a Black upon you. I have an obligation towards her as her bonded godfather, you daft moron!" Towards the end of the conversation, Sirius had to restrain himself from using the very colourful curses he knew form the black library though he let himself lose with swear words that would make a sailor blush. With no positive result towards the end of the conversation, he left the place, not before giving James one last warning. "Do as you see fit James, I will find Belladonna and pray that she is in a good situation the day I do find her. Do not forget that she is a Black as well, her grandmother and her blood adopted father is a Black, if she is a witch after this ordeal, she will never forget this. She might forgive you if she had a happy life but never forget this. Also pray that she had a happy life, if not, I shall hold you responsible for this forever. You do not want to face the wrath of a Black kept away from his family."

It would take Sirius another ten years to actually find Belladonna due to the intricacy of the charms woven on her, rendering it impossible for anyone with magic to find her, and another week to actually meet her. He never found a solution to undo the oath forced upon him, thereby allowing Peter to roam free for ten entire years. And despite leaving James with that warning, he never expected it to hold true word by word. Neither did he expect his sweet little Belle appear as Belladonna of the Nightshade when he next met her.

That's it for now folks... There are few inconsistencies, which I will try to remedy as the story progresses further.

Edited on 3/11/20

Added A/N on 3/22