October 1977

Tattoos. The tattoos are beginning to show up around the school. They're horrible tattoos of a snake coming out the mouth of a skull. They're called the Dark Mark and the followers of Voldemort wear them. It's rumored that several of the Slytherins have them, though they hide them so they are rarely caught. Dumbledore caught Evan Rosier and Rabastan Lestrange wearing them, and they have both been expelled.

I have only seen the tattoo once. I went to the girl's room, and when I walked in Bellatrix was showing hers to a fifth year Slytherin girl I didn't know. Bellatrix noticed me staring at it as the other girl laughed delightedly. She glared at me.

"Is that it?" I whispered, "Is that what everyone has been talking about?"

"Yes it is!" She replied sharply, "Do you have something to say about it?"

I hesitated, unsure of how to react. Here was a girl my age, supporting the death of my parents, supporting the death of hundreds of innocent people, supporting hundreds more deaths to come. I wanted to scream, not from fear, but from the inability to comprehend what was happening. I wanted to scream, but I couldn't. I turned to get Dumbledore.

"Where are you going Evans? Don't you like it?" She paused before adding in mock sympathy, "Oh wait, I forgot. He got your parents, didn't he?"

I turned around to face her. "How can you? How can you support such hate?" I felt tears come to my eyes as a whispered the words. I blinked them back. Oh, goh no, I thought, don't cry again, Lily, not here, not now.

"Oh, but it's not hate," she said as she began to walk closer to me. "It's love: love and dedication to the pure magic world." She stopped a few inches in front of me. I met her eyes with mine; not wanting to show that what she was saying was affecting me in any way. She lowered her voice, "But being a mudblood, you wouldn't know anything about that, would you?"

"How dare you," I whispered.

Bellatrix seemed pleased with herself. "Oh, and in case you're thinking of telling anyone, the Dark Lord would be more than please to rid the world of your sister."

"You wouldn't," I said.

"Oh, wouldn't I love to," she replied, smiling.

The fifth year was laughing behind her.

I turned and left, unable to take anymore. As I headed for the Gryffindor common room, I ran into Sirius. I must have had a troubled look on my face. "What's wrong?" he asked.

I told him what had happened. I thought he should know since Bellatrix was his cousin. He closed his eyes. "I'm not surprised," he said. "I knew it would happen sooner or later."

I looked at him, confused.

"Oh," he said uncertainly, "I though James would have told you by now."

"Told me what?"

"Why I ran away from home last summer."

"He hasn't."

Sirius sighed. It was the kind of sigh that tell you the person is about to talk about something they don't want to.

"My family, they're pureblood fanatics, the whole lot of them. Not a drop of Muggle blood anywhere; at least, not in my immediate family. I have some cousins who have Muggle blood in them, but they aren't really considered family anymore. As soon as anyone shows a sign of not thinking the Magic race is superior, they're disowned. I was disowned last summer."

"Wow," I said, "I'm so sorry. Are they all Voldemort supporters?"

"No. Most of them are just ancient pureblood enthusiasts. It's mainly just my generation that supports Voldemort; Bellatrix, Narcissa, my brother."

"I knew about your cousins taking pride in being pureblooded, I didn't realize it was your whole family, nor that any of them would take it so far."

"Lily, that's what most of Voldemort's supporters are: pureblood enthusiasts who have taken it way too far."

We reached the portrait and walked into the common room. James, Peter, Anna, Remus, and Alice were sitting at a table together. It looked as if they had started doing homework, but were now just goofing around.

"Tell you what, Lily," Sirius said, "James and I will make a surprise appearance at the next Black family reunion and kill her for you."

I laughed. James turned to look at us, "Who are we killing? Oh, hello Lily."

"Bellatrix," Sirius said.

"Hello, James," I said.

"I'd be more than happy to help!" James said, smiling.

I laughed again as we sat down at the table with them. "You two are both imbeciles. You do realize that, don't you?"

"Of course we are!" Sirius said, "The world wouldn't be the perfect place it is if we weren't!"

Alice let out a fake snort of disbelief. "It would be even more perfect if Bellatrix weren't on it!"