author's note: this chapter includes mentions on non-con events that have taken place in the past so please be careful reading this chapter if that triggers you! Also please read the note at the bottom especially the one note marked (1)! Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoy this chapter and the rest of part two of this story!

and now onto the chapter . . .

PART TWO ( NOTHING GOLD CAN STAY ) PROLOGUE:

000 The Girl Who Should Not Be

"in which we witness invents that change the story and shall remain a secret to our dear protagonist . . ."

circa december 1979 . . . fifteen years prior

THE PREGNANCY TEST was positive, it was Muggle-made because Bellatrix Lestrange could not go to any witch or wizard about this. If anyone found out, she wouldn't be pregnant for much longer. Of course, the child was the Dark Lord as she had not been with Rodolphus in three months, she could only be a month or so along which would match up with the last time he . . . Bellatrix shakes her head, ignoring the thought of that man. And the worst part of it all, his wife knew - his scorned wife who had lost two of her children to him. Esrom Riddle stands before her, but instead of taunting Bellatrix, she's giving her advice.

"What," Bellatrix chokes, her hands pressed to her flat stomach, she looks at Esrom through her lashes.

Esrom's sly grin turns bitter "Think about it, Bella, it's a perfect way to hide her from, Tom, he'll know if you don't and you know what will happen if he knows."

"Her," Bellatrix says breathlessly, her grimace turning into a small smile and she looks down at her stomach. The smile is short-lived and happiness at the thought of having a daughter like she always wanted is replaced with dread, Bella sniffles, "He'll kill her, just like the others - why are you helping me?"

"I need her," Esrom says simply, "She can help take down my husband, she's not vital but she is important which is why I'm helping you, I need this Riddle to survive."

"How long have you known I was pregnant," Bellatrix whispers, pushing herself into the wall behind her and edging herself closer to the other door in the room.

"Give or take twenty-three years," Esrom replies nonchalantly, "It's gotten more clear the past year but I first saw a glimpse of you with a lovely child and your beautiful wife. Together happy as a family and my husband was dead. At first I thought that your child was the cause of his death but it's changed over the years and I believe she will help whoever is responsible in killing my husband and she's vital to it."

Bellatrix gasps, her chest burns and she tries to breathe but it's as though someone had taken all the oxygen in the room "You -"

Esrom waits patiently for her to collect herself, Bellatrix stares at her, her icy eyes going through a series of emotions - confusion - hurt - betrayal - grief - anger - and finally realisation.

"You knew . . . Everything? You knew when I was eighteen and I was scared, he had me cornered and I had nowhere to -"

Esrom cuts her off "These things had to happen in order for me to get what I wanted -"

"I didn't want it," Bellatrix says and her voice cracks "I didn't want any of it!"

"It doesn't matter what you want. This child needs to be born to further secure my husband's death," Esrom says dismissively.

"You're sick," Bellatrix growls as hot tears slide down her reddened cheeks. Her chest heaves with every breath, her hands shake as she keeps them at her side "I was a child, he was - he was thirty - thirty seven when he first took interest of me and not only did you let it happen, you encouraged it! And - and what? Just for some revenge scheme?"

Esrom stares at her patiently, keeping a calm expression on her aging face which angers Bellatrix further.

"If he finds out and he kills her like he did with Tybalt and the others, it will kill me and what will you gain then? Besides death, Esrom, because don't think for one second that I won't throw you under the bus if I have to."

Esrom smiles at this "He won't find out. He wants Greyback's loyalty and it's the perfect way for you to fall pregnant. Tommy will not question you, he trusts you too much to even suspect you'd ever betray him."

Bellatrix raises her chin "How do I know you aren't luring me into a false sense of security?"

Esrom laughs coldly "Bella, I want my husband dead for killing our son and even though your daughter won't be the one to kill him she's going to play a role in it and that role might be bigger as her fate unravels. Nothing would thrill me more than for Tommy's deepest fear to come true and for him to perish thanks to it."

Bellatrix stares at Esrom horror-struck.

"You will be happy Bella, with this child, you'll have a family. A son, a daughter, and a loving wife. And you're daughter will be quite powerful for the Half-Breed everyone believes her to be. Fate is fickle, Bella, but not this. This was foretold years ago, changing ever so slightly, but always certain in some aspects. Maeve Macleod and the child you carry was always written in your fate - someway, somehow."

"I was . . . I was only five when you first saw this," Bellatrix whispers, tears blurring her vision.

Esrom doesn't seem bothered by this disturbing fact "Aye, and there is going to be a baby prophecised before his birth that he is meant to kill my husband. Heavy fates don't care about age."

"Clearly neither do you or your husband," Bellatrix says flatly.

Esrom softens slightly but she shrugs after a moment. She did what she needed to do to cement her husband's death at the hands of his own child just like he feared - the reason he killed their Tybalt. And she still wasn't done, there was still some tampering Esrom would have to do to ensure that it goes from being the Boy-Who-Lived killing him to the Girl-Who-Shouldn't-Be that puts an end to Tom Riddle for once and for all.

Bellatrix inhales sharply, folding her arms over her chest "What do I have to do to ensure that my daughter survives?"

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

So a FEW important things:

(1) So uhhhh there's a lot of ickiness revolving around Aurelia's conception, a lot of non-consensual implications and triggering subject matter BUT I will never show these events in graphic detail, there's no need to write it in detail. Still the implications alone can be triggering so I want to give a fair warning that from here on out there will be chapters that imply non-con events in the past, it will never be graphic or longer than a mention or two, but it's thrown in conversations and sentences in many chapters moving on from this point. And that can be triggering for some people so please be careful reading this book from here on out!

(2) I know it says that Esrom is gonna make sure that Aurelia merks Voldemort in the future but honestly she's gonna fail because that just ruins the whole Harry Potter series. Like yeah, Harry Potter didn't have to be the one who merks Voldemort in the OG books as it could've been Neville. And in this series, the prophecy about Harry/Neville is still the same so because the fact that Bellatrix hasn't thrice defied Voldemort ( she's only done it twice ) Aurelia doesn't fit the bill. And of course you may say that because she's voldy's kid and Voldy can't defy himself ( and you'd be right about that BUT also ) Aurelia doesn't consider Voldy her dad, the sorting hat said so himself and Aurelia's chosen father like lowkey thrice defied Voldy but not as boldly as the Potters & Longbottoms. So Aurelia can't be the one who gives Voldy the final blow but she can get in a few swings before Harry merks him completely ( or should I say shots )

ALSO if you're wondering who Aurelia's chosen father is and what I mean by that 1.) you can guess here who that's going to be, you find out in the next chapter and 2.) Aurelia, at three months old, looked at him and went, yeah, this man, this strange man I only see once in a blue moon, is the equivalent of Bellatrix and Mae. I love him just as much as them.

(3) Aurelia's not going to find out for awhile that Voldy's her father, and originally in the old version of this story I didn't end up posting this part because I wanted my readers to find out with Aurelia but it ended up getting to jumbled as messy trying to keep both the readers and Aurelia from the truth and it didn't read well when she does actually find out. Now in the rewrite, I decided to post the reveal of Aurelia's biological parentage for the readers to know and now the story flows much better! So, when Aurelia talks of her chosen father, she actually believes that he's her biological father.

Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed the chapter please let me know what you thought of it in the comments, your thoughts/feedback means a lot to me!