Prologue: News for the Heart

Moonlight stole his way in through the dark velvet curtains in her dark room as she tossed and turned around on her bed in a vague effort of getting some sleep. Nothing she did could make the fear go away. Every night she had the same dream of being cornered in alley she didn't know. Every night she would wake up panting and sweating and then she would cry herself to sleep because her life had become miserable in the blink of an eye.

Her family turned their backs on her for defending her cousin. For trying to prove his innocence, even his own mother had turned his back on him, that wasn't really a surprise for Bellatrix. It was the fact that Sirius would be completely deserted if it weren't for her, because his best friend had turned his back on Sirius. James Potter was an ungrateful, lying bastard who had turned out to be a traitor.

And where was Sirius? Rotting in Azkaban prison 'cause nobody ever bothered to listen to him. He was innocent Bellatrix knew it. Sirius was not the type of person capable of committing murder, rape nor kidnapping, yet he was imprisoned for it. Six girls... six girls had been murdered and the blamed it all on Sirius. All because one of them cried hysterically and pointed her finger at Sirius nights before she too was murdered. Whoever had truly done the crimes was very good at covering it up... but not that good.

Bellatrix had taken a DNA from one of the victims without the knowledge of the Ministry and taken it to a muggle detective. She had told him about the crimes, which he already knew of, and he had agreed to secrecy.

The reason he knew about the crimes was that all six girls were muggle. Oddly enough, they all had the same physical appearances, blonde with bright blue eyes, tall and slender. Educated girls from rich muggle families who were all at the wrong place at the wrong time.

Bellatrix got up from her bed and made her way downstairs into the basement. She sat at her desk taking one white flower in her hand and staring off into space. "Where did you come from?" she whispered. The basement had been hers and Sirius' office when they had tried to solve the case by themselves... 'cause even the Ministry had turned their backs on him instead of helping him prove his innocence.

The betrayal of their fellow aurors hadn't really surprised Bella, they were all jealous of Sirius. He was only twenty-three years old and had already achieved what aurors twice his age had never. Imprisoning Death Eaters, thieves, and dark wizards who had nothing to do with Death Eaters but still resorted to dark magic; that was his job and his pride.

The white rose she had on her hand was one of the only pieces of evidence they had. But why a white rose? They never got to figure it out but Bella was going to figure it out if it was the last thing she did. She loved Sirius more than she could possibly say and she was not about to let him go down.

She searched through her messy desk for the pictures of the victims. They had all been brutally assaulted, beaten up and then strangled... but there were no fingerprints of any kind. The victim that had escaped Bella still could not find a reason how she could've escaped. When they found her, she was in an alley badly beaten up, with a broken rib and a broken leg. How did she escape? And suddenly it hit her... she probably didn't escape; the murderer let her go... Of course! Either way the evidence could've never been enough to send Sirius to jail!

"God I feel so stupid," Bella whispered to herself. "Why didn't I see it before? Of course, she didn't just escape because some brilliance suddenly struck her... for god sakes, she's blonde! (A/N: no offense!) He let her go on purpose!"

Shit. How was she going to prove that? She had nobody she could actually tell all this to. Sirius was in jail, the detective had sworn secrecy, and if she told the Ministry about the DNA, they would probably send her to Azkaban too.

"What the bloody hell am I going to do?"

Bella hit her head with the table repeatedly. "You know, Black, that isn't going to help," said a voice from the doorway, causing her to jump three feet in the air. "Scared?"

"What the bloody hell d'you think you're doing?" she shrieked. "How did you get in here?"

"Locking the back door is not a crime, Black," said the person, walking closer to where Bella was sitting.

"What d'you want, Remus?" said Bellatrix, glaring at him.

"What's with the attitude?" said Remus smiling. "I found this," he said, shoving a plastic bag in her hand.

Remus was not really fond of trying to prove Sirius' innocence but he dropped by Bella's house once in a while with evidence he got from god-knows-where.

"What is it?" she asked eyeing the bag curiously.

"Open it and don't touch them, put some gloves on." Bellatrix put on some latex gloves and opened the bag slowly revealing pictures of Sirius beating up one of the girls. "Shit!"

"That was my reaction at first," said Remus. "That's not Sirius."

Bellatrix looked up at him and then back at the pictures. It had to be Sirius, it looked exactly like him. "How do you know?"

"Because Sirius has a scar in his left arm that goes from his elbow up to his wrist," said Lupin. "The guy in the picture doesn't."

"How can you tell?" asked Bella moving the picture closer to her face.

"The scar can be seen from a distance... it's thanks to me he has that scar."

"How?" asked Bella curiously looking back up at Lupin.

"He was trying to hold me back away from a muggle in our sixth year on a full moon," said Lupin, sitting down on a chair across from Bella. "I sank my claws into his skin... that day I almost bit a person, believe me, I would never forget how he got it."

"You four were all crazy back then," said Bella. "And still are," she added under her breath.

"I heard that," said Lupin.

"Where did you find these pictures?" asked Bella ignoring his last reply.

"Rachel Lawson's apartment. They were at the back of her closet in a drawer... whoever took this pictures must have really been enjoying themselves."

"I thought they had revised the whole apartment," said Bella, she was still eyeing the picture. "Wait a second!" she said suddenly, Remus looked at her.

"This girl in the picture is not Rachel Lawson! This is Brenda Summers from Ireland!" Remus put on a glove and snatched the picture from Bella's hand. "What the..."

"That is the worst murderer I've seen my whole life and somehow he's still on the loose... How the hell did he confuse them? Oh, god!" said Bella frustrated. "How the hell are we going to prove Sirius' innocence at this rate?"

"What about that DNA of yours?" said Remus innocently. Bella's jaw dropped as she stared at Remus.

"How the hell did you know about that?" she asked curiously.

"You need to cover up your tracks more carefully, Bella, I saw you going into that detective's office with the blood covered shirt... How d'you know that's not one of the girls blood anyway?" asked Remus raising an eyebrow.

"It's a man's shirt... it looked like one of the girls ripped it with her fingernails," said Bella. "I just hope we can find out who the bloody hell sent Sirius to jail."

"We will, Bella, don't worry about that," said Remus reassuringly, she smiled slightly.

"What time is it?" she asked Remus.

"Ten past seven," he said checking his watch. "Why?"

"I have to go get the DNA results at eight," she said standing up. "Would you come with me?"

"Sure," he replied. "I have nothing else to do."

"What are you doing here so early, anyway?" Bellatrix asked making her way back up stairs, Remus following.

"I knew you wouldn't be asleep," he stated simply, Bellatrix gave him a look. "Come on! I'm sure I'm not the only one who has been losing sleep over all of this! As much as I tried to ignore the fact that Sirius is in Azkaban I can help but feel guilty that I really haven't been a good friend."

Bella and Remus walked slowly into the Ministry of Magic toward the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, none of them really wanting to know the contents of the envelope Bella was carrying.

"Black, a word!" yelled a voice. Bellatrix looked back noticing Alastor Moody waiting for her in his office. Bella sighed. "Wait for me in my office," she told Remus before making her way slowly into the Department's Head office.

"Yes, Moody?" she said, entering the office.

"I need you to volunteer to inspect Azkaban tomorrow morning," he said eyeing her from his chair.

"That doesn't give me much of a choice, does it?" she said sarcastically. Moody glared at her.

"You would be a very successful Auror if it weren't for that cursed Black personality that runs in your family," he growled. "Your cousin had it too."

"Everyone is successful in their own way, Alastor," said Bellatrix coolly. "Mine is succeeding in proving what I believe in."

"You still think he's innocent don't you?"

Bellatrix hand was on the doorknob, she hesitated for a moment before opening the door and saying, "I don't think... I know." She said slamming the door behind her.

"What did Moody want?" asked Remus as she stepped into the office.

"He wants me to volunteer to inspect Azkaban," Bellatrix said hotly. "Honestly! He turns more bitter everyday... he still thinks Sirius is guilty."

"That's not true, Bella," said Remus, Bellatrix looked up at him before slumping down on her chair. "He told me yesterday that he knew Sirius was innocent but he couldn't do anything about it."

"Bullocks!"

"It's true," said Remus quickly. "If he does the entire Department would complain because everyone is now rooting for James to take Sirius' place 'cause he already brainwashed them all! If he does something the would probably take him off his position as supervisor."

Bellatrix considered this for an option and then sighed. "That's true. James is a whole different person from the James we knew back at Hogwarts, but we can't change him."

"No we can't." said Remus. This was followed by an awkward silence, which Remus broke. "Are you going to open the envelope or are we going to continue avoiding it?"

Bellatrix eyes the envelope that was resting on her desk. She took it slowly and opened it praying at the same time that the blood wasn't Sirius'.

She took out the results and gasped putting a hand over her mouth.

"What?" asked Remus quickly, seeing her reaction.

"It was a Black..."

Disclaimer: I have desires to move to Great Britain since the guys are so hot and they all have that oh-so-sexy accent but I haven't got the money... d'you think I own HP?

A/N: So, what d'you think? I've had this in mind for a long time hope you liked it.