Bellanne didn't sleep that night; in fact, she stayed up most of the night boiling over in anger at Severus and disappointment in her daughter's lie.  What made her think that she couldn't tell her own mother what house she'd been sorted into?  Lucky for Cordelia, Tonks had showed up, though somewhat intoxicated, and stopped her from going to Hogwarts.  Tonks had talked her into waiting for Remus, and she listened to Bellanne rant on about Severus and Cordelia for a good three hours.  Bellanne was still angry the next morning when Tonks woke up to her aunts cooking.  As Tonks sat down at the kitchen table, still in her pajamas, Molly Weasley walked in.

"Hey Molly," Tonks said in relief that she wouldn't be the only one enduring Bellanne's rant.

"Good morning dear." Molly said, "You should be dressed by now, you have to be at the ministry this morning."

"I'm going in a bit late, I was out late, and then I came here." Tonks said.

"Good morning, Bellanne." Molly said.  Bellanne turned around to reveal a still agitated look on her face, "What's wrong?"

"Severus Snape and Cordelia Lupin are on my shit list." Bellanne grumbled as she brought the pan of eggs to the table and put some on Tonks and her own plate.

"Oh dear, what's happened now?" Molly asked.

"Severus comes in here accusing me of holding out information from the order, and then tells me that my daughter has been sorted into his house." Bellanne said, "Cordelia told me to my face that she was in Gryffindor, she told Remus to his face that she was in Gryffindor.  She was wearing Gryffindor robes."

"Oh dear."

"Bold face lie." Bellanne snapped, "Did she think I'd be disappointed in her?  Did she think I wouldn't find out eventually?  What was she thinking?"

"Calm down, sweetie." Molly said, "I'm sure there's a reasonable explanation for what she's done."

"That's what I've been telling her." Tonks said as she took a bite of her eggs, "But she'll keep ranting on.  Personally, I hope that Remus gets back soon so he can hear this."

"Bellanne, you can't go do anything rash." Molly reminded her, "You haven't exactly been honest with her either."

"I've always been honest with her."

"Really now?" Tonks smirked, "If I recall correctly, she doesn't know her father is a Lycan."  Bellanne sighed, knowing her niece was right.

"That's a touchy topic at current because we know we can't keep it from her much longer." Bellanne said, "She's been learning more about them in school and from the sound of things, she's afraid of them."

"But she's never been afraid of her father." Molly said, "She'll see that her own father is a werewolf and then she won't be afraid."

"Remus is afraid of the exact opposite."

"That she'll be afraid of him?" Tonks questioned.

"And hate him."

"That's a quite a bit on your plate." Molly said, "No one ever said parenting was easy.  Look at our problems with Percy; he still isn't talking to us.  Thinking we're some sort of renegades."

"We are renegades." Bellanne laughed.  Tonks stood up at this point and took her plate to the sink.

"I have to get ready for work." Tonks smiled, "Remember the Order meeting is tonight.  I'll see everyone then."

            Ron and Harry stood out side of the Great Hall after breakfast, leaning their backs against the cold wall.  They waited for Draco Malfoy to finish eating then head to his own classes.  Sure enough a short while later, Draco came out of the hall, luckily and unusually without Crabbe and Goyle. 

"Malfoy." Harry called to him.  Draco turned his head in disgust.

"What do you want, Potter?" Draco spat at him, "Come to beg me for help now?"

"You wish, Malfoy." Ron spat.

"I know what you're planning to do to Cordelia." Harry said, "I'm warning you now, Malfoy, don't."

"Well someone has got to pay for my father's incarceration." Malfoy said not revealing that he knew his father had escaped, "And since I can't touch you, I may as well go for someone else who had a hand in it."

"Cordelia had nothing to do with it; she wasn't even living around here." Ron said, "So lay off her."

"She may not have been, Weasley," Malfoy spat, "But, that wretched creature of a father of hers was.  Cordelia is just a bystander, its Lupin that I'm after."

"Lupin?" Ron and Harry questioned.

"I lost my father, so Lupin will lose his daughter."

"And what about her mother?" Ron said, "Did you ever think about that?"

"My dear Aunt Bellanne," Malfoy laughed, "It'll serve her right for betraying my mother's family like she did."  Harry grabbed Malfoy by his robe collar and slammed him against the wall.  It was this point that Harry realized he had a good half foot on Draco.

"I'm warning you, Malfoy, you do anything to hurt Cordelia, Lupin or Bellanne, and you'll have to answer to me." Harry growled, "I'm not afraid of Snape and I'll risk losing house points for something like this."

"It's a good thing you're willing to do that." Said a cool low voice from behind him.  The three boys looked up to see Professor Snape standing above them.  Harry looked back at Draco, whom now had a smirk on his face.  Harry let go of Draco's collar and stepped back a bit, "25 points from Gryffindor."  Harry gave Draco a look of warning before he and Ron walked away from the scene.

"I don't think we got through to him." Ron sighed.

            Bellanne stood in front of the large mirror in her bathroom with a silver goblet in her hand.  Today she would find out if the potion she had been brewing for the last month would work.  She looked at her face one last time before she drank the contents.  The grey, lumpy contents didn't look suitable for consumption by any living being.  But, Bellanne hesitantly brought the goblet up to her lips and swallowed the contents in one awful gulp. She dropped the goblet into the sink and grabbed the side of the sink and braced herself.  She looked up into the mirror and waited for her hair to turn blond, but much to her shock, it did not.  Instead, her eyes turned a dark green color and several wrinkles appeared on her face and dark deep bags formed under her eyes.  Her hair had grown several inches in length and streaks of grey highlighted her black hair.  Bellanne looked down at her hands to see how frail they had begun to look.  Shocked and horrified, Bellanne had looked into the eyes of her own sister, Bellatrix.

"No." Bellanne muttered in shock, "It wasn't supposed to be you."  Bellanne stared into the face of the evil that haunted her soul, "I'll KILL YOU!" she screamed as she punched the mirror.  Blood dropped into the sink as the glass from the mirror cut her fist.  She grabbed her own face in shame and ran from the bathroom.  She ran into her bedroom and came face to face with another mirror that showed her the face of evil.  She screamed again as she grabbed the mirror and threw it behind her.  The mirror landed upright behind her and half the mirror broke from the frame.  She turned around to still stare into the eyes of Bellatrix Lestrange.  Again, she screamed more psychotically than the last.

"I'll kill you, I swear it." Bellanne screamed as she ran back towards the mirror.  She grabbed what was left of the mirror, cutting her feet on the glass that was scattered on the floor.  She threw the mirror over the railing of the landing sending the remains crashing into the living room.  Bellanne turned to run again but stopped when she saw yet another large mirror at the end of the hallway.  Again, Bellanne screamed.

"It's all your fault, all of it!" Bellanne screamed at the mirror as she hurried towards it.  More blood continued to follow her in her path as she psychotically grabbed the mirror and headed to throw it over the ledge.  This mirror, however, due to its massive size, caused Bellanne to lose her footing on the landing.  She slipped over the railing as the mirror shattered on the ground.  Bellanne fell from the railing onto the couch beneath her and consequently bounced up and off, landing on the old wooden coffee table to her side, breaking it instantly, and knocking her unconscious.

"You what?" Hermione shrieked at Harry and Ron while they sat in their common room.

"Would you keep your voice down?" Harry said, "We don't need everyone in our house to know what's going on?"

"You confronted Malfoy." Hermione said.

"Someone had to." Ron said, "Maybe now that he knows we're on to him, he'll back off."

"Fat chance." Harry said, "He's probably going to egg us on with it even more now."

"When did he say he was going to do this?"  Hermione questioned

"Before the holiday break." Ron said.

"So we have like two weeks to stop this." Hermione said.

"I don't think there is anything we can do." Ron said, "I mean if, we stop him at dinner, there is still the chance that he'll tell her in their common room."

"Look, as far as I can gather from talking with Cordelia, she's terrified of werewolves." Hermione said.

"Then the problem we have here is minor compared to what Lupin and Bellanne are going to have to deal with." Ron said as he shook his head.

            Bellanne woke from her unconsciousness to find herself lying in a field of green.  She looked over her hands and feet to see that she had no wounds and no traces of blood.  She slowly stood up and looked around her.  Wondering how she got here or where she was, she looked at the wild flowers that were in bloom around her.

"It's the end of November?" Bellanne said out loud, "Where in magic am I?"

"I remember once telling you that when you got angry at your sisters to find a safe place in your mind to relax." Said a voice from behind her.  Bellanne whipped around to see her cousin standing behind her.

"SIRIUS!" She beamed as she ran towards him.

"Hey Bellanne." Sirius said as he gave his cousin a hug.

"Where are we?"

"Are you crazy?"

"Why do people keep asking me that?"

"I know what you're doing, and I'm telling you now, don't do it.  You'll only end up dead." Sirius told her.

"What are you talking about?" Bellanne asked.

"Your plans with your sisters?" Sirius told her as he cocked an eye brow.

"I'm doing this, and as much as I love you, I'm still going to do it." Bellanne said, "I learned too much about that house to just let Tonks in on it.  Andromeda would never forgive me and I'd never forgive myself.  So I'm doing it the way I am, and the fact that no one knows, except for the dead, makes it all a bit safer.

"Safer, does it?" Sirius said, "You've been placing yourself in danger since the moment you set foot in Malfoy's Mansion."

"You think I don't know that?" Bellanne snapped at him.

"It seems to me that you've been doing some rather foolish things since you moved into my house." Sirius said, "Going to see Lupin at the end of his cycle, going to your sister's home, going with her to Azkaban."

"Ok, I know going to see Lupin at the end of his cycle was a bad idea, and believe me he let me have it when he recovered." Bellanne smiled, "But if I'm going about my plan the way I want to, I have do some stupid things."

"Did you think about maybe letting Lupin in on the plan, so he can help you?" Sirius said, "He did move back into the house to keep an eye on you."

"Remus?" Bellanne questioned, "What if I die, who's going to take care of Cordelia? I will not let Remus in on it because someone needs to be there for her."

"That's another thing, my niece." Sirius said, "She needs to know about Lupin from your own mouth and no one else's."

"You think I don't know that?" Bellanne laughed, "The problem is that Remus said she's afraid of Werewolves, and he's scared she'll be afraid of him."

"I can't promise you that she won't be, but she'll get over it." Sirius said, "And do it soon so my godson doesn't get expelled from Hogwarts."

"What are you talking about?" Bellanne asked in concern

"There are people in the school who know about Moony and want him to hurt."

"Draco."  She answered knowingly

"Yes, and he will use this to his advantage."

"And Harry knows of this."

"And is going to some pretty far extremes to make sure it doesn't happen."

"Bless his heart." Bellanne half smiled.

"But in all honesty, this is the least of your worries." Sirius said, "Whatever you plan is for Malfoy Mansion, I would alter, now that Lucius is free."

"Narcissa seemed shocked when we were at Azkaban that no one informed her of his escape." Bellanne said, "He's probably already rejoined the other Death Eaters."

"Probably," Sirius replied, "so you know it won't be long before he goes for Narcissa and what ever he keeps in that house."

"I've actually been having fun with Narcissa." Bellanne smirked, "A part of me wants to believe that she's changed."

"Bellanne Lupin, you know better than that." Sirius laughed.

"It's just that I've been alone for so long." Bellanne said, "Alone trying to survive, alone raising Cordelia; I've been alone for too long…"

"But Lupin is living with you now." Sirius cut in, "You're not alone, so don't hand me that."

"But how long will he be with me?" Bellanne said, "Once this is over he'll be gone again and I'll be alone.  He's so fucking worried about my safety that he won't even hear reason to what I need." Bellanne snapped.

"And what's that."

"Him," She sighed, "Raising that girl on my own has not been easy.  I've had to sell a lot of our stuff just so she could eat, I've worked as a waitress all over England to support us and when I went to bed every night, all I ever wanted was for Remus to be waiting there for me."

"So that's what this all boils down to?" Sirius said, "Are you doing this so that Lupin will worry about you and stay?"

"No."

"If you should come across Bellatrix, are you going to have the same reaction I saw today when you drank the Polyjuice Potion?"

"I'll kill her for taking you from me, from Harry." Bellanne said, "It's not fair."

"No one said life was going to be fair." Sirius said, "I mean Peter is still alive and well.  You call that fair."

"Maybe I should focus on him." Bellanne said.

"Don't you dare?" Sirius scorned her.

"I wouldn't," she smiled, "That would be like entering a dragons cave."



            Lupin and Arthur walked into 12 Grimmauld to see the place in shambles.  They walked around the living room looking at the glass still shattered on the floor and broken pieces of the living room table still laying on the floor.  A few moments later Tonks and Kingsley Shacklebolt walked in behind them.  Fear rose into the eyes of Tonks as she looked around the room.

"What happened here?" Arthur said as he walked further into the room.

"Bellanne!" Lupin yelled in panic as he moved further in.

"We're in the kitchen." Came a voice from in the kitchen.  Lupin ran into the kitchen to see Molly Weasley caring for a still bleeding Bellanne whom was sitting on the countertop.  Arthur, Tonks and Kinsley followed close behind.

"What happened?" Lupin said as rushed to her side.  Bellanne, whom was still crying, sniffed a couple of times, "It wasn't…"

"NO!" Bellanne said cutting him off instantly, "it wasn't you."  Lupin breathed a sigh of relief.

"I'm sure she'd been worse." Molly cut in, "These aren't that bad, the only reason there is so much blood is because they were deep.  She'll be just fine." Molly smiled at her.

"Who did this?" Lupin asked her.  Bellanne was silent for a moment.

"me." She quietly answered.  Just then Severus walked into the kitchen with a smug look on his face.

"Looks like someone had a nasty experience with a Polyjuice Potion." Severus hissed.

"What?" said Lupin looking from Snape back to Bellanne, "Were you?"  Bellanne silently nodded her head, "But why, or who should I ask?" 

"No," Bellanne said, as Molly covered up the last of her wounds, "It didn't work, and we'll leave it at that." Bellanne hopped off the countertop, "I don't care what Sirius says, this is my deal." Bellanne mumbled as she walked out of the kitchen.  Everyone was quiet as they watched her leave.

"What was she saying about Sirius?" Tonks asked. Severus walked over to the cabinet under the sink. 

"I don't know, she didn't say much." Molly started, "I arrived here to find her laying on her side on the broken coffee table, bleeding from her arms and feet.  She was just laying there, awake, mumbling "Like entering the dragons cave."  When I helped her up, she told me that Sirius is starting to worry more, but she can't change what she's started."  Severus pulled out the cauldron from under the sink.

"Is that how it's supposed to look?" Kingsley asked.

"No potion is supposed to look this bad." Severus hissed, "And you let this woman brew the Wolfsbane potion for you?  No wonder you almost killed her."  Lupin glared at Severus for a minute before walking out of the kitchen and into the living room.

            Bellanne was standing in the living room staring at the damage she had caused.  A few tears rolled down her cheek as she raised her wand.  A ribbon of blue and silver colors expelled from the end of her wand and wrapped itself around the room.  Shards of glass and wood seemed to rise from the ground and find a way back to their proper spot.  Within a few minutes the damage had been repaired and you never would have guessed what happened earlier in the day.  Remus walked up behind Bellanne and wrapped his arms around her waist and rested his head atop hers.

"Are you ok?" He asked her.  Bellanne turned around in his arms and rested her head against his chest.

"I wish you could have seen him." Bellanne said, "He looked healthy and young."

"Sirius?"

"He looked wonderful." Bellanne sniffled.

"Look, go get some rest." Remus instructed her, "I'll bring you something to eat after the meeting and we can talk then."  Bellanne smiled at him before she sweetly kissed him.

"We have to tell Cordelia." Bellanne told him, "Soon."  With that she left his embrace and walked up the stairs to her bedroom.