Part I

Chapter 1: Prologue

June 1974

Bellatrix walked up a long driveway, her black curls bobbing, wand clutched tightly in her hand. Her pouted lips curved into a smile, her dark eyes gleaming. It had taken days – no, weeks – for the day that the plan would work to come along. Finally, finally her burning desire for revenge would be satisfied. Now that her sister was gone for an Order meeting, only Ted Tonks stood in the way of her and victory. But he was a trivial matter. A mere obstacle. With a wave of her wand, he could be eliminated. How she longed to cause Andromeda that sort of pain.

Bellatrix knew that she couldn't kill Andromeda – not only because of her prestigious skill – but also for the fact that Andromeda was her sister. No matter how hard she thought about it, she knew that all attempts would be futile; Bellatrix's nerve would fail her. The plan in place was a perfect way for Andromeda Tonks to suffer for her mistakes, pain that would be even harder to endure than death.

Love. Bellatrix delicately snorted at the word. The eldest Black sister wasn't stupid; she knew that Andromeda loved dearly and deeply. To love is to destroy, Bellatrix thought to herself. It was a phrase that her mother had taught her when she was little. But she would never know the full meaning until it was too late.

Her mother. Druella Black. This was for her, not for the Dark Lord, and maybe partially for herself. Andromeda made a mistake in marrying that mudblood Ted Tonks. A mistake that tore her mother – and Bellatrix knew deep down, herself – into fragments. But no matter, no matter. The middle Black sister was about to understand.

The gate was locked, and charms were cast around the property. Idiots, she thought to herself, a wicked smirk crossing her attractive features, making her brown eyes glow in the dusk light. She muttered a simple spell, and all of the protective charms dissolved in a shimmery light. It was easier than Bellatrix expected it to be.

Stepping lightly, she made her way up the stairs. A crow cawed, and Bellatrix looked up. It was an animagus, by the name of Rodolphus Lestrange. Her husband and guard. If any Order members came – which was unlikely – he would signal it.

"Alohomora," she whispered, and the door opened. Again, she contemplated on how naive her sister and husband were for thinking that the charms would be enough. Of course, Andromeda was far too noble to use stronger dark magic to protect her family, Bellatrix mused.

Walking to their bedroom was simple, as Ted was fast asleep in the hammock on the balcony; he was all the way on the other side of the house. When Bellatrix reached the bedroom, she cast her eyes upon the sleeping twins that lay in the cot. One of them had vivid pink hair; the other had green hair. Hmmm, Metamorphmagi. That could prove useful. All she could see in the twins was Ted. It was only when the green haired girl opened her eyes that she could see her sister, Andromeda.

The twins' names were Nymphadora and Magnolia. Bellatrix rolled her eyes. Even as children, Andromeda said that she would call her children those particular names. Horrible names.

Bellatrix stopped thinking about the past and focused on the task at hand. She scooped the two infants in her arms, not knowing how to hold them and doing so roughly. The pink-haired twin opened her eyes and looked up at Bellatrix, who had a vague idea of what she had to do.

"Hello, darling. It's Auntie Bella, and we're going on an adventure!"

To Bellatrix's dismay, the pink-haired baby started wailing. Frantically, she tried to console her.

"Shut it, brat!" she hissed, as she heard Ted's footsteps. Quickly, she turned on the spot as if to disapparate, but froze. Ted was standing, also frozen, in the doorway. Upon seeing his sister-in-law holding his twin girls, he yelled and launched himself into the room. Bellatrix stopped in the middle of what she was doing as Ted's fingers wrapped around her neck. Panicking, Bellatrix dropped the pink-haired girl and, being taller and stronger than Ted, managed to shake him off. In a rush, she cast a spell on the pink-haired infant. Deep cuts appeared all over her tiny body, her white clothing turned red in the blink of an eye.

Bellatrix ran with the green-haired baby in her arms, knowing that Ted was at a stalemate: he could go after Bellatrix, but then his other daughter would bleed to death. In terrible anguish, Ted chose to save Nymphadora, thus leaving Magnolia in the grasp of Bellatrix Lestrange.

Bellatrix fled, having discovered that disapparating in the Tonks' household was impossible. When she found a spot where she could disapparate, she did so, rematerializing in the hiding place of the Dark Lord.

Suffice to say, Lord Voldemort was far from pleased with Bellatrix' actions in kidnapping the baby. He had known of Bellatrix's plans, but he had forbade her from putting her them into action whilst Andromeda and Ted were home. In other words, he forbade her from following through with her plan, because no parents would leave two infants alone in their house during a war. But there was more to his displeasure than just that. Ted had certainly caught more than just a glimpse of the Dark Lord's best lieutenant, thus the Order would target her. But Bellatrix, in an uncharacteristic turn, didn't care what the Dark Lord thought. She had her reasons which she considered just as important as following her master's orders. Members of the Order had killed her mother. Druella Black had taught Bellatrix pureblood supremacy and raised her to be a strong, ambitious woman. There were few Bellatrix loved, and her mother was amongst that few. Making her traitorous daughter – Andromeda – pay seemed like the perfect way to live up to her mother's memory. Nothing destroyed their family like Andromeda did. Nothing.

Bellatrix had a plan, which could not be put into effect until her youngest sister, Narcissa, graduated from Hogwarts in a year's time. For the next year, Magnolia Tonks' carer was the most infamous of Death Eaters, Bellatrix Lestrange. 'Carer' was a loose term, which Bellatrix was certainly not worthy to hold. It was a nuisance looking after an infant, because Bellatrix had to be more careful than ever, since the Order were targeting her. She already had a brutal run in with her cousin Sirius Black and an Auror and did not need more whilst the child was in her care.

When Narcissa graduated, Bellatrix used her plentiful powers of persuasion to convince her sister to look after Andromeda's daughter. Bellatrix didn't want Magnolia to die, for there would be a day when she was older that she would become useful. She would become a weapon. How was something even Bellatrix wasn't sure of yet. It all depended on the woman Magnolia grew to be.

Now, there were two flaws in Bellatrix's plan. The first was that Narcissa wasn't like her. Andromeda and Narcissa were close as children. When their mother would lecture Bellatrix on their family's history and the importance of pure blood, Narcissa and Andromeda would be each other's playmates, too young to fully understand such concepts. As they aged, they were still very close, until Andromeda started to venture off into more rebellious waters. Narcissa wanted to please her parents. They were essentially different. They went their own ways, but remained in contact. Narcissa always idolised her big sister Andy. Narcissa refused to raise her niece with the sort of cruelty Bellatrix wanted her to instil. She would treat the child with the love and respect that she deserved. It was how Andromeda would have wanted it. However, the youngest Black sister was too scared to disobey Bellatrix completely and return the baby to Andromeda. All she hoped for was a day when the war was over, and she could safely give the child back to her mother.

It seemed that when Harry Potter conquered the Dark Lord, that day had finally come - the day that Narcissa could give the child back to her rightful mother.

But Narcissa was too scared to tell Andromeda the truth, for Bellatrix would break out of Azkaban one day, and the Dark Lord would return. Narcissa had an infant son, whom she fiercely loved. Her family would be in danger if she betrayed Bellatrix or disobeyed her wishes – no, more like orders. So Narcissa and her husband, Lucius Malfoy, acted as if Magnolia was their own child. They raised her as a pureblood should be raised. It was what was expected of them, if she was to become a weapon and a Death Eater one day. The only problem was that Narcissa came to love Magnolia, as if she was really her own. It wasn't just for show. It would make things harder for her down the track.

Andromeda searched for her child for years after Bellatrix had been imprisoned in Azkaban. No one had ever seen Magnolia, and if they had, it wasn't since she was under the care of her parents, when she was a mere infant. Andromeda even approached Narcissa, who insisted she had no idea where her niece could be.

Bellatrix's second flaw became clear when Nymphadora Tonks turned eleven and was due to start at Hogwarts. Andromeda could feel that something was going to change. The feeling of emptiness was becoming a feeling of hopefulness. There was a chance, however small, that Magnolia was alive. And if that small chance was true, there was an even bigger chance that whoever was looking after her would send her to Hogwarts.

It was the sort of hopefulness that nothing, not even common sense, could dissuade. It was the desperate sort of hopefulness that comes with a last chance. It was ironic that Hogwarts was bringing that sort of hope, considering that the school had also been Andromeda's source of hope when, as a young girl, she yearned to escape her parents' tyranny and pureblood-supreme ways.

Hope was the only thing stronger than fear; the fear that her desire for the safe return of her daughter would not come to fruition.

A/N: I originally wrote the entirety of this story (not including this chapter and up to chapter 79) in first person years ago. Now, I can't stand the fact most of this is in first person, and in general I can't stand what my writing, characterisation, descriptions and dialogue are like in this story. At the same time, though, I am proud of this story and think it can be improved, so I'm in the process of rewriting in third person. I was going to wait until I had rewritten every chapter to replace them, but I've decided that I'm just going to replace as I go. I've tried to keep the story as authentic to the original as possible. There are some minor plot changes, but overall I don't think it will be too confusing to read. Just keep in mind that until I have replaced the chapters there will be a sudden change in POV and general writing style at some point – please bear with me. Thank you to everyone who has read this story, and hopefully I'll have a new chapter up soon.