A/N: OMG!  I have over 100 reviews for this! 111 to be exact at this point! This is only the second fic I've ever gotten more than 100 reviews for! In fact, come to think of it, this is only the second fic I've gotten more than 50 reviews for (okay, so there's also one where I got exactly 50, but that doesn't count). This may be the cause of a permanent sugar high!

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, or any related characters or places. This is a Harry Potter fanfiction, so any mention of them is completely deliberate, but does not give me any ownership of them.

Chapter 12

Lying down on a bed, looking up at the ceiling, Bella started to think about things, and for one of the first times recently she wasn't just thinking about Harry.

The Black family's ancestral home had changed quite a bit since the last time she had visited, some fifteen or sixteen years ago. It looked nowhere near as dark or as foreboding as it had back then, but it looked dilapidated still from years of neglect. Even if the Order of the Phoenix had managed to make it inhabitable for human beings, there were still some tell-tale signs that it had lain abandoned for 10 years or so, in the period between her Aunt's death and her cousin bringing the Order to stay.

Several of the ceiling tiles were cracked, and looked as though they had been for some time. Obviously Kreacher had not been doing his job as a House Elf properly.

Most things were covered in several layers of dust; even the ridges in the wallpaper had not escaped it, just as it had not escaped fading from the sun, until it looked like a dirty grey instead of the dark brown she remembered it as.

The carpets, too, were in a similar state. The sun had gotten to them just as much, and instead of what had been a deep, blood red there was the same grey, with perhaps a slight pinkish tinge to it. That was all that really made it possible to distinguish between the floors and the walls.

Several of the portraits on the walls, most of which depicted the members of the family that were considered worthy enough to be on the walls, the rest showing other famous dark witches and wizards, were covered in dust, several of the frames, and even a canvas or two that they were painted on were starting to rot slightly, and were, if possible, more disgruntled than when she had been a child visiting her Uncle Nerezzo and her Aunt Lyra.

There were, of course, other differences too, besides the dust and such. There was the fact many of the family heirlooms had gone - courtesy of Sirius, probably. Everything from the Black family coat of arms engraved silverware to the ancient textbooks on a magic so dark the very few, even in a family as dark as theirs, had ever read. According to a couple of stories she had heard when she had been a child; they were cursed so that whoever read them would be forced to try one of the spells that they had read about in the book, and so having the pure black magick that was needed for the spell consume their very soul. But that had, most likely, been a tale told so that they wouldn't have touched, and most probably broken, some very valuable books when they had been younger.

And then there was the portrait of her Aunt Lyra. The old bat had been alive when she had last visited, so the portrait hadn't been on the way, but now it was stuck on there with a permanent sticking charm and was hostile to whomever it spoke to. Except for, for some reason.

She knew why, of course. It was because, in her Aunt's eyes at least, she had not betrayed the family. She had joined Voldemort, and, according to the twisted sense of logic all Blacks seemed to possess, even though it varied slightly from Black to Black, had proven herself worthy of not being shouted and yelled at, or to be called a blood traitor.

Her family had always been a bit of a mystery to her. A lot of them had been deeply immersed in the Dark Arts, which could only really be expected from a family with the last name of Black. The ones that weren't, and she knew there were many of them, had been wiped off of the family tree in a moment of madness by one of the members of the family who was in possession of the tapestry at the time. That had been the thing she had never understood.

The Black family, whilst never appearing outwardly caring or loving, had all cared a lot for the people in the family. Or, at least, they did up until the point when they can be considered blood traitors. After that point the entire family treated them as inferiors, as if they weren't related by blood.

She had been brought up believing this, and, not wanting to be wiped off of the tapestry, she had complied with her family's wishes.

Thinking back, it was one of the stupidest things she had ever done, besides joining Voldemort, to go along with something she hadn't believed in, as it had, pretty much, turned her heart cold. Fortunately she was over that now, thanks to a certain raven haired, emerald eyed boy.

That same boy whom Bella was thinking about was currently annoying the hell out of one Poppy Promfrey.

"Will you get back in bed?! You've not recovered enough to be up and about!" she snapped at him, yet again, repeating an argument she'd had with him many times before, as she had had with his father too.

"But I'm fine!" Harry insisted. "I've never felt better! I swear it!"

"Maybe you do feel that way," replied Madame Promfrey, scowling. "But the last person I trusted when they said that ended up back under my care as a nurse within moments of leaving!"

"I'm not that person though!" he pursued. "Look, if I feel up to arguing about my health and whether or not I can get up then I'm fine!"

Growling, she relented. This was one of the few times one of her patients, let alone a sixteen year old boy, had won a fight with her about whether said patient was well enough to get up.

"Okay then, go, but if you collapse don't come running to me!"

Resisting the urge to tell her that he wouldn't be able to go running to her if he did collapse, and even if he could have gone running to her, he most probably wouldn't, knowing how long he would end up under her care for (which was basically in infinite about of time as far as he could tell), knowing that she would probably end up changing her mind about letting him go, and simply left.

The big grin that had been on his face only moments before vanished as he leant against a wall and head footsteps approaching, knowing that they would probably belong to either one of the Weasleys, Hermione or Dumbledore, possibly more than one of the above, none of whom he wanted to face.

"Harry, I-"

"Save it Ron," he said calmly, instantly recognising the voice. "I don't want to hear it."

"But Harry! I just want to explain!"

"I said I don't want to hear it!" Harry almost yelled, feeling his anger rising. "I know you didn't think I was guilty whilst I was stuck in Azkaban, which may be considered one of the worst places on Earth, but I know better! You did, however, doubt me, and even went so far as to fight with Hermione, because she happened to believe in me the whole time, whilst I was stuck in one of the places that actually is worse than Azkaban: in Voldemort's dungeons!"

"Harry, please, just listen to me! I'm sorry!" the redhead said, seeming to beg him.

"You're sorry? You're sorry?! OF SOURSE YOU'RE BLOODY SORRY! EVERYONE IS FUCKING SORRY AFTER THE EVENT IF THEY MADE A MISTAKE, BUT SOMETIMES SORRY ISN'T GOOD ENOUGH RON! Sometimes it isn't good enough..."

Just one look at Harry's face told Ron everything that he needed to know. Harry probably was never going to forgive him, so he did the one thing he could do. He fled from the possible impending wrath of the Boy Who Lived.

Sighing, Harry watched Ron's retreating back, regretting his outburst, though, at the same time, he was pleased with it. He knew that if it hadn't of happened it would have just built up inside of him, until, eventually, it would have just burst out, ten times worse than it would have been otherwise. And he knew he probably never would be able to forgive him. After all, Ron should have known there was no possibility that he would have joined Voldemort. None at all.

The sky outside of the window was a cloudless blue, changing back to such a colour most associated with summer from the dark grey it had been. It looked like the ministry had managed to figure out what had happened and had corrected it. It had taken them long enough.

Staring up at such a sky was Hermione granger. For some reason she seemed to have developed what could be described as an unhealthy obsession with the weather. She couldn't understand it. All she knew was that for some reason it was calming staring out of the window staring at it, thinking about it, amongst other things.

And one of those other things was Harry. She knew they had found him, of course she did. Practically the entire order knew, along with the fact that Bellatrix Lestrange, it seemed, had switched sides in the war against Voldemort. She also knew he had woken up, though she hadn't been allowed to see him yet, as much as she wanted to.

She needed to talk to him. He probably knew about her and Ron's fights over his innocence, probably from either Tonks, Remus or one of the others. She just wanted him to know the full story.

And that was why, when she heard Harry's voice yelling, she immediately assumed that Ron had been trying to explain and apologised, and had obviously managed to get him mad. That probably meant that there would be no way she could explain things to him properly for a while, until he calmed down a bit at least. And, hopefully, by then he wouldn't have developed a hate for her like he seemed to have for several people who were in the building at the moment, and several others who weren't.

A/N: Holy mother of pizza! The actually story part of this update just fell short of 1,800 words! This about the second one of such length! Normally I struggle to make 1,000! I suppose I'm kind of making up for the fact that I only managed to write really short chapters (a couple not even managing to get past 400 words) at the beginning. So it kind of evens out.

Okay, I may get another update done tomorrow, but if I don't you lot will have to wait until next Saturday for one. It'll kinda be a celebration of the fact that 'my most important tests in my entire key stage two education' (my teachers' words, not mine) will be over. But look out for any during the week. I may actually be wide awake enough to write in my spare time.

Vegita43: Does a day count as waiting? And does this have enough detail for ya? I swear, detail is hard for me to put in. It always has been. And what do you mean escaped?

Launigsiae: Thanks!

Sword of Darkness: Yah, I know it was short, but it was a hard chapter. I was procrastinating all day with it (as oppose to this one, where I couldn't actually get on the computer to write it). Here's more.

Hi Im Crazy: I love the name! And how many time do I have to tell reviewers that this pairings isn't weird, just uncommon?! And stop with the whoa's! But thanks anyway!

Madfoot Moony: NO WAY WOULD I GIVE ONE OF MY FAVOURITE CHARACTERS THE KISS WITHOUT A FAIR TRIAL! Come to think of it... NO WAY WOULD I EVER GIVE ONE OF MY FAVOURITE CHARACTERS THE KISS! Oh, but thanks for the luck! I may need it!

Paladin3030: Thank you! I needed the nice soothing flames, though I don't think I would have if it wasn't for my dad. So you're the one who posted that challenge? Good! I know who you are! You gave me a fair few ideas for what could happen because of it! "Uncle Harry" (that sends me into hysterics, by the way) will come out of Tonk's mouth before long. Probably followed by a lot of yelling from someone else.

Headmaster Cromwell: Err, okay, I'll go there as soon as my computer decides to let me go to any geocities sites.

ngfngfngfmnfmghmnghjghjghttrhythyjgh,mhgfjgh,: You're names just keep getting stranger and stranger, you know? Not that I'm complaining, of course! Oh, and the wait is over my friend.

The Vampire Story Hunter: That explanation's to come soon.

jeangab057: Here it is! What did you think?

padfootjr23: Yes, Auntie Bellatrix! You can blame Paladin3030 for that idea! All because of a simple little challenge he decided to post on my Yahoo! Group! *blushes* Thanks! I love praise over the internet! Just not in real life!

Zaln: You sound like the sort of person who may become obsessed with this. It's actually really easy to do. Thanks though! I did!

gaul1: Thanks and thanks! I need all of the look I can get! I should be revising right now... if I think about it. But it's not my fault I find maths, English and science boring if I could be doing something more fu, like reading or writing fanfiction!

Okay, that's enough of my yammering. I'll update this now. Then it'll be time for me to read more fanfics again! (Okay, so I should be in bed, but I don't wanna be)