Chapter ten: Ghosts?

Harry grinned roughly at his panting friend in front of him as he ducked another poorly aimed spell and countered with his own minor jinx to knock Terry off his feet and crashing into the floor. A blue light coming from his left had him throwing up a shield in a haste and firing a stunner in return catching his sister square in the chest and sending her down as well.

"You guys are way to easy." He said with a frown as he stashed his wand and looked around the destroyed settings. They had ventured to the outskirts of the great lake to get in a little talk before the classes started. But after a few moments discussion the hexes started flying from being woken up so early, leaving various slashes and burns in the surrounding grass. There was even a giant ghost like figure lying at the surface of the lake that Harry got a glimpse of before it dived back down into the depths of the lake.

"What happened?' A soft groan from behind Harry questioned, making the boy turn around and grin at Padma, the first one to go down in a ball of spells. He laughed gently as he walked over to her and helped her to her feet and brushed off her robes some. "

"What happened is I whipped you three in under two minutes." Harry said with a grin, before walking over to Cho and pulling out his wand to awaken her, while Padma undid the damage he caused to Terry. Grinning as Cho slowly opened her eyes and glared at him, the specks of purple inside the dark brown irises gleaming in the morning light. "Come on then, we haven't all day." He said with a grin and putting his wand away and starting for the castle, not waiting long before a huffing Terry fell into step with him.

"You are going to teach us aren't you?" He demanded as he nudged Harry a little. While he would admit he was rather sore about being beaten so easily the promise of learning something new was always a good thing in his book. "I mean, you can't have us wandering around defenseless could you Harry?" He said aiming for the guilt trip and earning a laugh from Harry.

"If you wanted it so bad you would have cracked down and learned it." He said pushing Terry back. "Don't come crying to me asking for teaching when you showed no effort in learning it before hand." He answered moving over to the left some so the two girls could squeeze in between the two of them.

"Well then fine be that way." Padma, said with a pout and crossing her arms. " I'll find a way to get stronger then you, and then wipe the floor with you." She said in a superior tone as they rounded another bend. "What do you have to say about that Mr. LeStrange?"

"That when that happens Gryffindor will actually win the house cup without cheating." He said with sly grin, earning a dangerous glare from Padma and howling laugh from Terry. Cho on the other hand looked thoughtful for a moment but remained silent. Later on Harry would probably push her for an answer, but for right now they had other things to worry about. Like the group of Gryffindor's and Hufflepuffs blocking the doors into the school.

Bellatrix sighed heavily as he sat down on the leather backed couch and sipped on her tea. It had been great the first several hours without Harry around and she was able to caught up on some cleaning and relaxing. Now that she sat in an empty house with nothing to do, she missed having him around to get into trouble. She had planned on flooing to her sister's house, but they were out at a party with the minister and wouldn't be getting in until late that evening.

"I could always go find me a muggle to poke at for a moment." She said with a grin to herself as she thought of the impending torment she would cause to the helpless fool that she found. But then again she would probably have to play it safe for a while, or unless until the heat she caused all those years ago died down some. A broken and insane muggle found wouldn't give the attention she needed, and certainly not with her child in school and out of her range of help. "Darn kid, slowing me down." She said with a small grin as she thought about what Harry would say to that comment. He would turn red in the face and begin a long rant about how she was the one slowing him down, and she should just get on with her old age and try to pick up the slack. Chuckling to herself she pulled out of the couch and aimed to put her cup into the sink, only to stop mid-way, drop the cup which shattered on impact with the hard marble flooring, and spin around with her wand drawn and dagger out as she heard a loud pop in the space behind her.

"You picked the wrong house my fr-" She was cut off mid-threat as a gruff laugh filled the house from the intruder. The man by her guess wore a tattered brown cloak that concealed his face. Though that couldn't conceal what she knew, the feeling that swarmed in her heart at the laugh.

"Really Bellatrix?" The man said throwing back his hood and staring at her. "I don't believe I did. This is the house of my wife after all." Roldophus Lestrange said with a wide grin as he eyed his ready to attack wife, who had gone a dead pale color. "What's the matter Bellatrix, you look like you've seen a ghost." He said taking a step forward, and causing her to take a step back. "Thought I snuffed it that night at in the raid didn't you? Yes, a lot of people did which understandable, I did take a blasting hex straight the chest." He said opening his cloak a margin to show his shirtless chest, a wide black mark formed a 'X' from shoulder to hip."

"How did you survive?" She said in a hushed tone, afraid to allow herself to believe. Her wand however out was shaking horribly right at the moment. Earning another laugh from her thought to be dead husband.

"Good question that one." He admitted touching his chin in thought. "But I have an even better one." He said pulling a roll of parchment from his cloak and throwing it down at her feet, the scroll bouncing open revealing his name and Bellatrix's with two lines under them shining Harry Lestrange as well as Cho Lestrange. "Since when do I have children?"

Hey there guys,

Sorry this took so long to update. But as in my other stories I got bashed on a site and kinda lost heart...but I've gotten over it and given you all a very short chapter to hate me for: ) I promise to make them longer soon. But until then, caught you guys later.

Leon