A/N: Woohoo! Over 150 reviews! Woohoo! I love you guys! And this chapter may finally have some action! And the little annoying Italian kid may well be back!

Oh, and on the advice of a reviewer, I'm gonna put the translations next to each of the phrases. You'll notice 'em cos they'll be surrounded by [ and ] and in italics.

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any related items.

Chapter 16

"Oh no," Sirius groaned, as he spotted the kid who had somehow found him again. "Not you again!"

"È qualche cosa di errato?" the kid asked him, a strange expression on his face. [Is something wrong?]

"Huh? Me no speaky!" Sirius almost yelled. Why the hell had this kid come back to bug him? Why the hell had this kid followed him?!

He had been wandering around the Italian countryside ever since he had managed to get that letter off to Harry - and since then he had pretty much been plagued with the little demon.

Suddenly the kid dissolved into a fit of giggles at his word and Sirius instantly knew he was in trouble. That laugh had sounded hyper. The kid looked no older than ten and didn't understand a word of English. A hyper ten year old that couldn't understand he said could be a problem.

"Che cosa è la radice quadrata di cinquecento e novanta sette? Assomigli dei capelli esso siete su fuoco. Guardisi dai coniglietti. Che cosa siete nomi? Il mio nome è bene..., io lo ha dimenticato. Ma opinione di let's è paralume per ora. Perchè che voi assomigli alla a demented la bambola di Barbie? E come mai la vostra faccia è andare rosso?" the kid said rapidly. [What is the Square root of five hundred and ninety seven? You hair looks like it's on fire. Beware the bunnies. What's you name? My name is... well, I forgot it. But let's say it is lampshade for now. Why do you look like a demented Barbie doll? And how come your face's going red?]

"SHUT THE HELL UP, YOU GOD FORSAKEN BRAT!" Sirius yelled at the kid. Ever since he had woken up in Italy after falling through the veil he had been irritable, and this kid was doping nothing to stop that. He had been getting angrier and angrier all the way through the kid's little hyper… rambling, and he had finally snapped. Some people lived to be annoying.

The kid stared at him, his mouth wide open in shock. He blinked a couple of times before dissolving into another fit of giggles. Hyper giggles. Incredibly hyper giggles.

"What did I do to deserve being plagued with this?" Sirius groaned, praying he would get away from their quickly. The kid giggles some more and ran off into some nearby bushes.

"Do you want that list in alphabetical or chronological order?" asked a sneering voice from behind him, causing Sirius to whirl around, and, upon seeing who is was, fix a scowl upon his face.

"Snivellus," he snarled at the man he had, in a way, tortured during their school years. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"I'm here, mutt," Snape sneered with venom in response. "You get you back to headquarters. And I'm only here because of Dumbledore. If I had my way I'd leave you here, but Albus seems to think you're a benefit to the Order. I can't understand why though."

"Shut it Snape, and just get me out of here!"

Snape through a portkey at Sirius, granted a little harder than was needed, which he promptly caught. It activated and, feeling a tug around his navel, he felt himself being pulled to his family's ancestral home and the current home of the Order of the Phoenix. Snape disapparated away moments later, muttering a few choice phrases about introducing certain mutts to the receiving end of the Avada Kedavra.

Chuckling slightly, the Italian kid came out from the bush he had hid in during the encounter between Sirius and Snape, his face slowly morphing from that of a hyper ten year old to something entirely different and much older.

He no longer had the same short, dark brown hair when his face stopped changing as he had done when he had been annoying Sirius, but longer, and black, with blood red streaks in it. His eyes had changed. Previously they had been olive in colour. Now they were the colour of fire, with specks of other colours too and had lost the innocence of youth they had held before. His skin was paler, almost a ghostly white, whilst his lips had turned a deep red. He was taller too, over a foot taller than he had been before, with muscles to match the growth spurt he just seemed to have had.

"Verremo a contatto di ancora, Sirius Black, noi verremo a contatto di ancora..." [We shall meet again, Sirius Black, we shall meet again…]

Bellatrix Lestrange - no, Black. She would have to get used to be being called that again. She couldn't go on being called Lestrange anymore. It would be pointless. Lestrange was the name of her Death Eater husband. She was no longer a Death Eaters, so there was no way she would be called that.

Anyway, Bellatrix Black was sitting in the kitchen of Grimmauld Place, once again surprised at how neglected the place was. She couldn't stop being amazed by how bad the place had gotten in the ten years or so between her aunt's death and when Sirius had finally gotten around to trying to fix it up to a certain degree. But only to a certain degree.

Sure, it had been made safer, and you were able to live in it again, unlike what she had heard from her annoying little niece, who had adopted the most annoying habit of calling her 'Auntie Bella', and, by the sounds of things, was on the verge of calling Harry 'Uncle Harry'. Talk about annoying.

Sometimes she couldn't believe the number of annoying people she was related too. There was Tonks (she had yet to learn the first name of the girl), Lucius Malfoy, Draco Malfoy, Narcissa, a lot of people she had only met once, a whole load of Death Eaters, the Weasleys (well, the majority of them) and several other people to name but a few. Some people were truly annoying. it must have been hereditary.

It was cold outside. Dark too. It was like it had been when she and Harry had been travelling to Grimmauld Place. And from what she had heard from some of the members of the Order it was an unexplained phenomenon. What ever was causing this strange weather all over the country must have been really powerful.

Hermione Granger was confused. Now that's a phrase you won't hear often. Usually Hermione Granger and confused were never came into the same sentence, unless it was to confirm the opposite, which would, most likely, prove this entire point completely invalid, but let's not go into that now. The point was she was confused, which is a very rare thing indeed. Almost apocalyptically rare, but don't go running to hills just yet, as it didn't happen quite as infrequently as that.

She was confused for a good reason too. A very good reason, in fact. She was confused because of certain people, such as Harry and Ron.

Over the summer the unbreakable trio had been broken through the times and circumstances they had been through, the inseparable three had been separated through petty fights and Harry's imprisonment in Azkaban, even though he had been innocent, the Gryffindor Golden Ones were quite as golden as they had been at the start of the summer, which had only begun only a matter of weeks earlier.

She wasn't even too certain of how it had happened, even though she had pretty much been there for the majority of it. She knew that when Harry had been sent to Azkaban she and Ron had been united on his innocence, but after Voldemort had kidnapped him from Azkaban Ron's faith in Harry has wavered whilst she had still believed in the truth, causing the two of them to bicker and fight even more than usual. Then Harry had come back. She hadn't forgiven Ron, but he had forgiven her. After all, there was nothing to forgive. She could still remember the conversation they had had perfectly.

Flashback

"Harry?" she asked timidly, entering the room Harry was now staying in. He wasn't staying in the same room as Ron. They couldn't. Harry would, pretty much, bite Ron's head off every time.

"What?!" Harry scowled, but his expression softened when he saw her.

"I just wanted to talk," she said carefully, not exactly sure of what to say.

"What about? Oh- if you're worried about me and Ron's fight, there's no way I'm going to forgive him."

"You will eventually. You two are too close to-"

"No Hermione, me and Ron were close. After he stopped thinking I wasn't a Death Eaters the friendship we had stopped."

Hermione thought for a moment, before remembering how stubborn Harry could be when he wanted.

"That's not what I wanted to talk about anyway."

"What then? If you're thinking that you and me aren't friends anymore then…"

"You don't hate me?" she asked, perking up slightly.

"No, why would I hate you? You actually believe me, as opposed to the lying son of a-"

"Harry!"

"What?!"

End Flashback

The relationship between her, Harry and Ron was a lot more confusing than it had been before, but the one between Harry and Bellatrix was even more so, though Professor Lupin seemed to know the most about it, strangely enough.

Both Harry and Bellatrix had spent a short amount of time in Azkaban together, which was nowhere near the full amount of time they had been sentenced to by the ministry, along with the amount of time it had taken them to travel from Voldemort's fortress to the Order Headquarters. Over that time the two of them had gotten close, and still were, especially after they had discovered that Sirius was still alive.

Speaking of Sirius, she knew he would be arriving soon. Or he should be.

"Ah, dammit!"

The portkey Sirius had been using had arrived at Grimmauld Place, and had dropped him off unceremoniously on the kitchen table.

"Oh, hi Bellatrix," he said calmly, before doing a double take. "Bellatrix?! What the hell are you doing here?!"

A/N: I couldn't resist! Oh, and sorry about the longer wait. My mum's been restricting my time on the computer. She never used to. Hopefully the next chapters should be out sooner. I'm planning on actually writing them then typing them up now, instead of just typing spontaneously. That should work, and hopefully the chapters will be better as I edit things as I typer them up.

For those of you that are reading the AU version I will be slower updating that, at least until I finish this. This fic is currently my main priority, but once it's finished I will probably devote much more time and energy on it. But I will be updating it, with long-ish chapters too.

Shadow Dancer: Thanks!

Madfoot Moony: Yeah, I was kinda in a hurry when I wrote that, and I just really wanted to get it up. And whilst it's true Wormtail owed his life to Harry, I just couldn't really see him repaying his debt.

Amscray: Thanks!And in answer to your question, you'll just have to wait and see.

Vegita43: Next chapter, I swear you'll find out!

jgfjn: The chapters are shrinking in size? You sure? I know I'm not very consistant with my chapter sizes but I'm sure I'd notice if they were shrinking.

Launigsiae: Is okay!

Hi Im Crazy: Me too. I knew the moment I first wrote him he would definitely be coming back! And would be relatively important too.

The Vampire Story Hunter: Why not?

gaul1: Yeah, it was to an extent. Is this one better?

SnakeDynasty: It isn't? That's weird. It's sends them to me (no need to tell me I'm sad for having myself on my own author alert list). Maybe something's up. And bribery only works with some bands. Like Nightwish, and other ones that I'm obsessed with.

Ryua Malfoy: Yep! But just because he's dead doesn't mean he'll be gone.

Harry-Potter-Rule: Oh, sorry, my mistake. I'll fix it when I can get on the computer for long enough.

jeangab057: I don't know. But if it was I would be able to update more often.

padfootjr23: I know the feeling.