AN: Enjoy!

Chapter 7 - Bellatrix Black

After his insightful conversation with Harry Potter, the old headmaster grabbed a handful of Floo powder and threw it into the fireplace. Kneeling in front of the fire, he called out:

"12 Grimmauld Place."

The fireplace that connected Grimmauld Place to the Floo Network was the one from the kitchen. What greeted his call was a House Elf.

"I wish to speak to Sirius Black," Dumbledore said.

"Master Sirius cannot talk now." the elf replied but Dumbledore was undaunted by his refusal.

"It is very important that I speak to him as soon as possible. It is in the interest of the House of Black as well."

The elf looked like he was in a dilemma and grabbed with his gnarly fingers at the few strands of hair poking from his mostly bald head.

"Master forbid Kreacher from disturbing him today. Master be fooling around with his mistresses every day but master should also care for the House of Black, no? Ahh, what should Kreacher do? This lazy master... ah, poor Kreacher!"

Dumbledore smiled in amusement at the elf's antics. Though slightly senile and often rude to those of less than noble origins, Kreacher was fiercely loyal to his master and the members of the House of Black. As proof of that, he started banging his head against a chair for having badmouthed his master.

"If Mr Black is indisposed at the moment, can you contact Miss Bellatrix for me? She's the one I actually have business with."

The elf's large ears flapped as he shook his head in negative.

"The house of Mistress Bellatrix be protected by strong spells. Even House Elves can't pass through."

"Figured so," Dumbledore said in slight disappointment. He stood up from the fireplace and terminated the Floo call.

Dumbledore knew that Bellatrix Black was an Unspeakable, working in the Department of Mysteries at the Ministry of Magic. Despite that it had been a time of peace in Great Britain for the past 10 years, her house was still unplottable. She had never removed the protections that she had installed during the war. Her home was still hidden by a Fidelius Charm and warded against Apparition, Portkeys, and even against House Eleves' means of transportation - she knew better than to underestimate the potential of these little creatures. Only her cousin, Sirius Black, and her older sister, Andromeda Tonks, knew how to contact her. As for calling Andromeda... ...Dumbledore preferred not to. The two of them were not on speaking terms.

There was only one other way to send a message to someone who lived in such a tightly protected and well-hidden place but it was considered rather rude. After all, said person had warded their home that heavily because they did not want to be disturbed. But he was left with no other option. Taking out his wand, he chanted:

"Expecto Patronum!"

⁂

Bellatrix had just woken up an hour before and now she was having breakfast - a rather sumptuous one for a single lady - while reading the newspaper with undisguised interest.

'That snivelling coward and his offspring got killed in one night? Whoever did them in should be given an Order of Merlin class III or II.' she thought and let out an unladylike snort. She hated Lucius Malfoy with a passion. Draco Malfoy being a carbon copy of his father had not won him any brownie points with her either, quite the opposite. She despised Malfoy and his spawn - it was because of Lucius Malfoy that she and her younger sister had broken off all contact more than 10 years ago.

Regarding the news of Cornelius Fudge's assassination, she did not show much of a reaction. She had never cared about the portly man and she could not care less about politics either. Bellatrix was content with studying the mysteries of magic and keeping herself busy with her job. She loved her work in the Department of Mysteries to the point that it did not even feel like work for her but more like leisure time.

It was while she was amusing herself with reading the various speculations made by reporters as to why had Lucius Malfoy killed the Minister (each one of them wilder and more outlandish than the other) that a silvery-white phantom in the shape of a phoenix flew through the wall of her kitchen and stopped in front of her. An old and wizened voice came from the Phoenix Patronus:

"Miss Black, it is of utmost importance that we met and talked. I have a proposition for you. Should you agree to meet me, you have my permission to Floo directly to Hogwarts in one hour."

Her good mood gave way to a feeling of annoyance when she heard that voice. She truly disliked being disturbed in her own home. Unfortunately, there were no wards - to her knowledge - capable of blocking out a pure spell such as the Patronus Charm.

⁂

One hour later, the fireplace in the headmaster's office at Hogwarts flared green and a woman stepped inside. Wearing black high heels with red soles, a long and elegant black dress and a chic black hat with a birdcage veil and a red rose - Bellatrix Black was the perfect example of how a sophisticated woman from a wealthy and noble wizarding family looked like.

"Miss Black, I'm overjoyed by your visit," Dumbledore said politely, attempting to ease the scowl on her face.

"Wish I could say the same. You know very well, Dumbledore, that I very much enjoy the privacy of my own home, especially in the morning. Whatever it is that you had called me on such short notice for, it better be crucial or I will be greatly displeased."

"Ever the thorny rose, aren't you?" he said with a chuckle and invited her to sit by pulling the chair in front of his desk for her, as a gentleman would.

Bellatrix nodded imperceptibly in appreciation at his show of good manners and smoothened her long black dress before sitting down. After he sat down behind the desk too, she raised a supple eyebrow at him as if to tell him to start talking. Dumbledore did not mind her rather brusque manner; her attitude was like a breath of fresh air compared to the majority of people who always had a fawning look on their faces whenever they interacted with him. His meetings with her, though rare, were always entertaining. Knowing for a fact that there was mutual respect between the two of them also cut the edge of her behaviour.

"I won't beat around the bush," he began. "I have discovered an exceptional young boy, one whose talent may even rival that of the likes of Voldemort."

Saying that, he pushed across the desk a few papers with Harry Potter's results in class a file with the professors' reviews of him. But the fact that he had gotten straight O on every single quiz in every class did not impress her.

"Be that as it may, my grades weren't much different from his when I was his age. Many other wizards and witches had similar results in their first year at Hogwarts too, especially those children coming from respectable pureblood families. As the saying goes, brilliant at 11, quite smart at 15, just average at 20."

"But that wasn't the case for you, was it? Miss future chief Unspeakable?"

Bellatrix revealed a small smile but she shook her head. "I know my worth. But I also know what would happen if I had to fight you or Voldemort head-on... to claim that an 11-year-old boy might be as talented as you, aren't you a bit presumptuous?"

"You can't ask a snake to fly, just like you can't ask a monkey to swim. Our talents lie in different fields. For example, I could never hope to match your expertise in warding and Dark Arts." Dumbledore said but Bellatrix just sniffed. She highly doubted that someone who had defeated the worst dark lord in history - Gellert Grindelwald - was not a master of Dark Arts too. One needed to know the Dark Arts in order to properly defend against them.

"In regards to young Mr Potter though, he learned how to cast a Disillusionment Charm after only 1 month of school, just so he could sneak out at night to fly on his broom. A boy that grew up in a Muggle orphanage, never having heard of magic before managed to learn an OWL-level charm all by himself, without a teacher's help. What does that tell you about his talent?"

Hearing Dumbledore's words made even the proud Bellatrix become silent. After a while, she said:

"Very well. Your high opinion of his potential is not unwarranted. But how is that related to me in any way?"

Dumbledore put his hands together on the desk and interlocked his fingers before saying: "It's not a secret that you've always wanted a child. Would you be willing to take care of him?"

Momentarily, she looked at him stunned, as if she could not believe what he had just asked her.

"You- want me to adopt him...?" she said slowly before bursting: "Surely you're jesting!"

Dumbledore winced at her sharp refusal but he could not say he had not expected it. Adopting a child was not something trivial. People would generally ponder carefully over such an important matter for at least half a year and make multiple visits, spending a lot of time with the child they wanted to adopt in order to make sure they were good for each other. It was not something that could be done willy nilly.

"You don't need to adopt him. Just letting him spend the summers with you would suffice. I wish he was given the resemblance of a family and understand what it means for someone to love him."

Bellatrix appeared to be mollified by his explanation but she asked:

"What are you not telling me?"

For a moment, he looked like he was debating whether to tell her the truth or not.

"Both exceptionally brilliant. Both orphans. Both raised by Muggles, in an orphanage. Both showing a talent in magic that I have never seen in anyone else before... Harry Potter shows an uncanny similarity to Voldermort when he was young."

"Are you afraid of history repeating itself?" she asked.

Dumbledore seemed like he did not want to voice it out but his face told her the answer to her question.

"Unlike the young Voldemort, Harry has not shown any questionable tendencies at all. He's never been a bully and he's never fought against anyone. According to my sources, he's only been genial and helpful towards his peers. However, I do not want to leave it up to chance. Not again." After making a small pause, he continued: "My first thought was to send him to the Weasleys."

Bellatrix wrinkled her nose.

"Don't they already have 7 children? Everyone knows they're as poor as dirt. You were planning on giving them an additional burden?"

Dumbledore chuckled to hide his embarrassment.

"What's so funny?"

"That's exactly what Harry told me when I suggested him to go there," he explained.

"Quite the sensible and considerable young boy, isn't he?" she said in approval.

"Indeed. I dare say you will like him. He's rather quiet and polite, he will not inconvenience you. All I'm asking of you is to take him until January. I suspect that by that time the school year will resume. If you're against taking him once again in the summer, I won't insist anymore."

"Why me? Why not to one of those so-called 'light' families that worship the ground you walk on?" she finally asked.

He chuckled a bit at the expressions she used.

"He is distantly related to you through his father, James Potter-" Dumbledore began but she rolled her eyes at him and said: "Every pureblood family out here is related to the Blacks in one way or another."

"It's because I trust you, Bellatrix," Dumbledore admitted, his twinkling blue eyes peering deeply into her pitch-black ones. "There is no-one I trust more than you to give young Harry an unbiased and correct education. If you decide to take him in I am also convinced that you will not neglect him."

Any further talk was interrupted, however, when loud and quick footsteps came from outside the office. A flush and out of breath Minerva McGonagall burst in through the door.

"Albus! There's been another attack!"

⁂

Harry's mind was racing. He had blown up the whole corridor.

'No doubt the portraits I've just wrecked have already told other portraits in the castle about what happened. Dumbledore will be here in a matter of minutes. The portraits saw me. I can't hide this.'

As difficult as the current situation seemed, it was nothing compared to some instances from the previous three wars he had gone through. He was a decisive man - the wars had made sure of that. Once he put his mind to something, he would not waste time second-guessing himself.

He ran towards the unconscious Fleur Delacour and pointed his wand at her.

"Enervate!"

The girl woke up with a start, her eyes wide in disbelief as the last scene she had seen was the vortex of air razing everything in its path. Her hastily cast Shielding Charm had not been enough to fully protect her. When she came about herself, the first thing she saw were two bright green eyes and a wand pointed at her head.

"Episkey!" she heard him mutter and a prickling sensation came from her temple where her cut flesh was mended. "Dumbledore is going to be here in less than two minutes. Take your invisibility cloak and run!"

The girl looked at him as if she thought he was messing with her.

"The portraits saw me, I can't sweep this under the rug. But they haven't seen you, you were hidden by your cloak. They only saw me getting attacked. Get lost already, damn it, you wanna get caught?"

Fleur scrambled up to her feet and covered herself with the invisibility cloak.

"Climb down two floors and then turn right. You will see a stone statue of a one-armed knight. Rub its elbow and a passage will open up for you in the wall. It will take you somewhere close to the Gryffindor Tower. Do that so you won't stumble upon the professors." he fired one instruction after another.

"We'll talk on the train." Fleur said and, before turning to leave, she added: "Thank you."

Then, she ran away. She recognized a dangerous and urgent situation when she saw one. There was no time for an explanation as to why he was suddenly helping her. While she was still confused and wary of him, she would not look at a gift horse in the mouth.

After the French girl disappeared, Harry sat down on the floor, with his back against the wall of the corridor and schooled his face into a distraught expression.

'I better get a bloody Oscar when this shite is over.'

Barely five minutes later, four people rushed into the devasted corridor. Minerva McGonagall and Filius Flitwick gasped in horror when they saw the scene of destruction in front of them and the downed body of Harry Potter. Flashbacks of Draco Malfoy lying in a pool of his blood played at the front of their minds. Strangled with emotion, they sprinted towards the boy. Albus Dumbledore and Bellatrix Black were not far behind then, also running after them but not quite as fast - Dumbledore due to his old age and Bellatrix due to her 3 inch tall high heels.

All four of them released a collective sigh of relief when they heard Harry speak in a weak and scared voice.

"Professors?"

"Mr Potter! What happened here? Are you alright?" McGonagall asked in a voice tinged with panic as she knelt right next to him.

"Minerva, let the boy breathe, you're not doing him any good by acting like that," Dumbledore said and Professor Flitwick took the initiative to take the emotional woman aside.

"Can you talk to us about what happened? Don't worry, now that we are here, you are safe. No one can hurt you." Dumbledore said calmly.

Harry swallowed a node in his throat before saying:

"I-, I don't know. I was going to the Owlery to tell Hedwig that we're leaving when someone suddenly attacked me from behind."

"Did you see who it was?"

Harry shook his head.

"They were invisible. A Disilussionment Charm I think but better than mine."

That got raised eyebrows from the other two professors there but it was not the right time to discuss that at the moment.

"I'm lucky they missed the first spell. It was a red one, I don't know what it was. I hid behind a suit of armour while they fired spells at me continuously."

"Was the corridor destroyed by your attacker?" Dumbledore asked, seemingly not suspecting the veracity of his words.

Harry purposely winced and he did not even have to fake it.

"I did it."

Now it was Bellatrix's time to look at him stunned too, not just the two professors.

"I cast the advanced Windy Spell. I wanted to make him or her stumble so I could get some time to run away. I didn't think it would blow up everything. I'm sorry."

None of the adults there could bring themselves to blame him for the propriety damage that he had caused. His scrawny body huddled up against the wall and still clutching his wand in fear had filled them with feelings of pity. In the first place, the professors were enormously glad that he had not ended up dying just like Draco Malfoy the evening before.

"As I told you, you have nothing to worry about," Dumbledore said kindly and patted him on the shoulder once. "Fortunately, we have magic. Everything can be fixed as long as it's still here. All that matters is that you are safe."

To prove what he said, he waved his wand and the shards of glass magically returned to their place and were moulded back together in one piece, the windows looking as good as new. The jumbled up paintings and armour suits also flew back to their respective places. In no time, the entire corridor returned to its previous pristine appearance.