DISCLAIMER: The ideas are mine. The characters and everything that is in the Harry Potter Universe belong to J.K.


Bellatrix woke suddenly. According to the position of the planets on the alarm clock on her bed stand, it was early; at least two hours before the time she usually would have woken up. Something wasn't quite right.

It took her a while to figure out what was wrong. She was sweating. Her body felt cold. There was a cramping pain in her abdomen that made her twist in her bed. She took a couple of deep breaths, hoping, against all reason that the feeling would just go away. It did not. She felt different in her throat, her chest, her belly, and she simply could not explain it. Then there was a light burning sensation on her stomach and she thought she was going to be sick.

What is happening to me? Bella thought, curling up on her side and closing her fists on her sheets. I am not going to get sick. I am not going to get sick. I am not going to get sick. She repeatedly thought to herself, almost like a mantra. Then her stomach seized again, pain washing over her like a wave and she ran to the bathroom as fast as she could.

She had barely entered the bathroom when she gagged violently on the floor. Hoping more than anything that no one had heard her, Bellatrix closed the door and leaned back against it, taking a couple of seconds to breathe easily again.

"Evanesco", she murmured, cleaning up the mess she had just made. She was thankful, more than anything that she'd managed to grab her wand before running to the bathroom, almost like a reflex.

Her legs were shaking. She walked up to the sink to wash her face, before going back to bed. The worst seemed to have passed.

She had barely reached her bed though, and she felt something strange in her stomach again. This time she did not wait, she walked back to the bathroom straight away, and her knees collapsed in front of the nearest toilet before she could even close the stall's door. Once again, she gagged violently, feeling the contents of her stomach burning all the way up as she expelled the liquid from her body. Once again, she tried to calm down with deep breaths, slumping back against the stone wall of the bathroom stall, but this time she was fully aware that the pain in her stomach had not entirely ceased.

She had heard stories about this, but she never thought it would happen to her. It was the first week of June, after all. Fifth-year students no longer counted the time before their O.W.L.s in months, but in weeks, and every other day there was a story about a student who had collapsed under the pressure. Last week, that Ravenclaw girl passed out in the Library because she forgot to eat for an entire day, and before that some Gryffindor mudblood had ended up in the infirmary vomiting his brains out on account of a nervous breakdown. Could the same thing be happening to her?

Bellatrix felt weak.

She was only happy she managed to get out of her dormitory before any of the other girls woke up. She could not afford to have anyone else know that she was breaking down under the pressure of the exams.

The uneasy feeling in her stomach ceased after about ten or twelve minutes, and she felt like she could stand again. She was no longer dizzy. She brushed her teeth to get rid of the sour taste in her mouth and went back to bed as silently as she could, but there was no going back to sleep after that. She tossed and turned for another half hour and decided to get up and head to the common room, where she could start revising her notes for the Transfiguration exam.

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The next morning, it happened again. She woke up early, two hours earlier than she would have liked, and she felt her stomach seizing again. She went to the bathroom straight away this time, her heart racing, and she felt violently ill for several minutes before she was herself again. That morning she did not have breakfast. Perhaps that would help.

She thought about visiting the infirmary, but she really did not want to do that. It was bad enough that her body was betraying her in such a way, she did not want the entire school to hear about it, and lately, the school was flooded with rumours whenever a fifth-year visited Madam Pomfrey with some sort of O.W.L.-related ailment.

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Every morning, the searing pains in her abdomen would wake her up, like clockwork. She tried brewing a potion to control nausea once, but it had no effect. So, every morning, it happened again. She resisted for as long as she could, at first, curling up around her middle, hoping the pain would go away on its own this time, and when she couldn't resist anymore, she walked to the bathroom, as quietly as she could, feeling dizzy, nauseous, trembling, and soaking in sweat. She would cast a sound muffling spell on the door, for privacy, and kneel down on the floor. Then she was violently ill for twelve to fifteen minutes, sometimes more, before she could straighten herself up again, rinse her mouth and start her day.

Before this started happening, she hadn't even realized she was so nervous about her exams. She had been distracted. There was so much going on in addition to her O.W.L.s. She had not moved past what had happened on her Easter Break. She wanted not to think about it, she wanted it desperately, but sometimes, when her mind wandered, she still caught herself thinking about that day, wondering about what that day had made of her. On top of all that, her O.W.L.s were just around the corner, and she hadn't exactly done her best when it came to reviewing the material for the exams. Perhaps it was not that strange that her body was feeling the pressure.

Be that as it may, the awareness of the extent to which her body was affected was not doing anything to make things better. She felt weak, and Bellatrix was not accustomed to feeling this way. She got sick one afternoon after eating a piece of rhubarb pie, and she decided to skip dinner that day. She skipped meals often, and when she did eat at all, she never had much. She was often light-headed and tired, although she could not say if it had to do with the pressure of the exams or the lack of proper nourishment.

Fortunately, most teachers had given the fifth years the rest of the term to study up until the exams, so she barely had any classes to attend anymore. She never had to worry about feeling sick in the middle of a class. She spent every waking hour studying, in the hope that the intensity of her preparations would soothe her nerves and make those uncomfortable pains fade away.

The evening before their first exam was a quiet one. Nobody spoke much, and most students ate with gusto, having spent the whole day studying. Bellatrix, on the other hand, had only a piece of toast and a mug of tea. She was aware she was losing weight, but she had an exam early the next morning and the last thing she wanted was to get sick in the middle of the test.

Overall, it was a miserable couple of weeks. She did well on her Charms and Transfiguration exams, as well as Herbology, but she committed a few mistakes in the translation portion of her Ancient Runes written exam. The practical portions of the exams were particularly challenging. She was constantly tired, and she had to concentrate twice as hard to produce the spells the examiners asked for. She failed to produce a shield charm in her DADA exam, for instance, and she was sure she could not have gotten more than an A in her Care of Magical Creatures exam. However, she managed to do well in her Astronomy exam, and in the written portion of the Potions test. Then, on the last day, things started to go south.

Bellatrix had not had an easy time on Thursday morning, during the practical portion of her Potions exam. The examiners had each student prepare a different concoction, and the mix of all the fumes in the dungeon made her feel queasy. She rushed through her exam in order to get out of there as soon as possible. As a result, her draught of peace was not exactly the bright snow-white colour it should have been, but she bottled it up and handed it in anyway. She barely had an hour to lie down before the History of Magic exam that afternoon.

Bella walked into the great hall as soon as the great wooden doors were open and found it exactly as it had been for every written exam for the past couple of weeks. The four House tables had been removed and replaced with many tables for one, enough to accommodate every fifth and seventh-year student in the school, all facing the staff-table and the end of the hall, in which an enormous hourglass lay, the one that marked the time they had to finish the exam.

At first, the exam was surprisingly simple. She was able to discuss the medieval witch-hunts at length for the first couple of essay questions, and then there was a large portion of the exam dedicated to goblin rebellions, giant wars and centaur revolutions. Then, halfway through the test, she realized there was something wrong, but it was difficult to pinpoint what it was. She felt tired, and it was hard to concentrate. She was sweating and her breath was shallow, but she told herself that it must have been her nerves acting out again, that she had to power through and finish the test.

Another hour went by. In spite of her discomfort, she felt confident. She had answered every question up to that point. Nevertheless, she was aware that she was not getting any better. Then, in the middle of a question about Paracelsus, Bellatrix started to feel a cramping pain in her lower abdomen, like a fist closing up inside of her. The pain surprised her. She smeared the page with her pen quill and struggled to focus on her exam. Then it went away, as suddenly as it had started.

A few minutes later, the pain came back, this time, radiating from her lower back. It was a familiar type of pain, and it made sense. It was probably her time of the month, Bella thought, staring at the parchment on her desk and biting her lower lip. She had been so distracted lately she had not realized she was supposed to have gotten it weeks ago. She wondered if the stress she had been feeling could have anything to do with that. Her body was a mess. But this is the last exam, she thought to herself. After this one, everything would get better.

She read the next question several times without absorbing anything more than the first few words. There were two hours left on the exam, and she was worried she would bleed through her clothes. If only she could go to the loo and check… But it was not permitted to leave the Great Hall in the middle of an exam, barring very few exceptions, and she didn't feel she could explain her situation to Professor Slughorn, anyway.

Forty-five minutes before the test was over, it started to get worse. This is so inconvenient, she thought, painfully aware of the uncomfortable wetness between her thighs. Just a little bit longer, she thought to herself.

The girl finished the last few questions as well as she was able, working between the waves of pain. She shifted uncomfortably in her chair trying to find a better position, but it was futile. She knew she wasn't doing a great job in the last portion of her exam, but it was pointless to worry about it now. Only ten minutes to go.

Another wave of pain hit her, and Bella started to get scared. Her cramps had never been this bad before. Bellatrix leaned her forehead against the top of the desk for a moment and wrapped her abdomen with her left arm as discreetly as she could, as if that gesture could make the pain vanish away somehow. What would happen when the exam was over? She wondered. Would anyone see anything when she stood up to leave?

Five minutes to go. Then Four. Then three. The sound of quills furiously scratching parchment all around her got a little louder, but she was not paying attention. In the final minute of the exam, another bad wave of pain hit her, and she lowered her head, laying her forehead on the top of her desk, clenching her body as much as she could without attracting anyone's attention.

When the time was finally up, Professor Slughorn summoned the parchments and more than a hundred rolls zoomed into the air and landed into the Potion Master's outstretched arms. Almost immediately, there was the sound of desks scratching the floor as a number of students stood up and collected their belongings to leave. At the same time, a soft rumble began to grow as more and more students walked up to their friends and started comparing notes on the exam they had just taken.

Bellatrix moved more slowly at first. She took a couple of deep breaths before standing up and placing her satchel in such a way that it covered the back of her skirt. She took a quick glance to her desk chair to make sure everything was okay and walked out of the Great Hall as fast as she could, avoiding everyone who might have wanted to talk to her on the way.

The young witch made her way to the girl's bathroom on the second floor, the one nobody ever used anymore. She used a secret passageway behind the tapestry that hung by the entrance to the dungeons, and it took her less than a minute to get there and lock herself in one of the stalls. The wetness she felt earlier was indeed blood, she realized, but there wasn't much at all. Not enough to go through her skirt, in any case. Bella didn't understand. The pain was so bad, and it was the first day, she thought there would be more…

She lost the strength in her legs as another wave of sharp cramps hit her, and she sat down, wrapping both arms around her middle as if squeezing her abdomen could make the pain go away. Why would the pain be so bad this time?

Then it occurred to her… A possibility that frightened her to her very core. Something she hadn't really thought about, something she dismissed, on her first week back to school after that horrifying night at Lestrange Manor. If she was… No, it was not possible. Was it?

Bellatrix felt like crying. She wished she was not alone, but who could she talk to? Cissy was far too young to understand this, and Andromeda and she were not on speaking terms. There was no way she was ever going to discuss anything like this with Professor Slughorn, the head of her house, and she sure was not about to go down to the infirmary. There was not anybody else.

Bella pulled up her knees hugged them, pulling them close to her body and waited for it all to be over.

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Later that night, Bellatrix was sitting on the floor of the prefect's bathroom on the fifth floor, stirring a sparkling potion in a small cauldron. Her hair was wet. She had just showered. It was just after two in the morning, and she was all alone.

She picked up the small book that laid open next to the cauldron and mouthed the words as she read the fifth line of instructions for the third time. She had never prepared this potion before. She had never even known there was such a thing as this potion before… She lowered the fire, according to the instructions in the small book, and waited. The potion needed to cook for eleven minutes before she proceeded to the final step.

The painful cramps in her abdomen had ceased. The bleeding had stopped. It wasn't her time of the month after all. Which meant she was late. Several weeks late… And Bella thought she had an idea of why that could be.

She thought about it a couple of weeks after she was back at Hogwarts. After that dreadful night at Lestrange Manor. Once the trauma and the shock diminished, she worried about it, as perhaps any girl who had been through what she had would worry, but she quickly dismissed those thoughts. After all, she did not feel any different. Surely she would feel different If there was a seed growing inside her, right?

A different girl might have worried when she started feeling sick in the morning, about a month and a half after the Easter holiday, but Bellatrix had never known that that was something that might happen. She had only the vaguest notion of how things worked, and in her mind, it was much more natural to attribute those symptoms to the upcoming exams.

Bella was not naïve, but she did not know much about those things. Her sisters were both younger than she was, and she never had any close girlfriends to talk to. She never listened to the conversations of older girls. Her mother would never have talked about such things. She remembered, as if it were yesterday, how scared she was when she realized she had started bleeding. No one had prevented her that that might happen someday. And it was not her mother she went to for help. It was her aunt, Walburga.

Aunt Walburga, Bella thought fondly, wishing more than anything she could have her aunt with her right now. She remembered how tender her aunt had been with her, how protected she felt in her embrace. Aunt Walburga explained to Bella what was happening to her. She explained the basic facts about reproduction. She told Bella she could ask any questions she wanted, but Bella had been so shy at the time… Besides, it all seemed so… scary. She thought she would not have to worry about any of that until she was married.

She was worried about it now. Bella had spent the first part of her evening at the library, searching for books that might help her understand what was happening to her, and indeed, there was a small stack of those books next to her as she waited for the potion to be ready.

The books described her symptoms with precision. Morning sickness, they called it. It was supposed to be one of the first signs. That and the fact that she was late. The thought of it made Bella feel like fainting. If it was true, it could destroy her entire future. But perhaps there was hope. The pain, the bleeding. The books talked about that as well… Perhaps the whole problem was over before it even started.

Eleven minutes. The potion was ready, a beautiful purple colour. Only one more step now.

Bellatrix breathed deeply, cut out a lock of her hair and dropped it into the small cauldron. She watched as the purple liquid engulfed the hair and lay still for a few moments until it finally released a puff of purple smoke in the air.

Bellatrix felt her heart sinking as she took her hand to cover her mouth and closed her eyes.

She was pregnant.


Author's note: This story has been Beta-Read by davros fan and by TheOnlyCeeCeeJ. I would like to thank you both for your patience and attention to detail. Any remaining mistakes are entirely my responsibility.

I realize this chapter is a bit shorter than the first one. What do you think the ideal chapter length for this story would be? Please, do review and let me know what did you think. The third chapter will be up in a week.

Live Long and Prosper