Author note: First chapter of fourth year! Hope you enjoy - well as much as you can (sorry :))

I'm not sure how frequent the next few updates will be as I'm finally going back to school in a week for the first time in 5 MONTHS (yay?). Anyway it'll probably take a little while to settle back into things but I'll see how it goes.

Also I thought I'd share my Pinterest boards for Ebony and Neville. I use them to keep me inspired and add to them when I have writer's block so feel free to check them out.

Ebony: /6dIpVse

Neville: /7KbsbfQ

Have a lovely day/night and keep smiling you amazing humans xx

Bellatrix was slouched in an armchair when Ebony climbed out of the fireplace. Her mother made no effort to acknowledge her arrival.

Her father gave her a less than gentle shove as he followed out from the fireplace.

"Maxwell, take the trunk up to Ebony's room," he barked. The house-elf gave a low bow and disappeared with her trunk.

Ebony swallowed and shifted from one foot to another. She was hoping to just hide up in her room but it didn't look like that was happening anytime soon. She watched as Rodolphus pulled the parchment out from his waistcoat pocket and shoved it under his wife's nose.

Her mother snatched it from him, offering him a scowl in the process. She unrolled it and snorted at its contents. "Clearly she gets her brains from you."

Rodolphus' expression remained unchanged as he took the parchment back and turned towards Ebony, who was still stood awkwardly in the middle of the room.

"You really think that this is good enough?" Her father slammed the paper down onto the coffee table making Ebony jump.

"I tried, I really did try." Ebony didn't like the way her voice was wobbling, the last thing she needed was to burst into tears.

"Not well enough though clearly," her mother said, rising from the armchair. She stood in front of Ebony, giving her a cold stare. Ebony didn't know where to look.

"They were really hard," she said, trying not to sound whiny. "I'm no Hermione," she added under her breath but clearly loud enough for her father to hear.

"Who?"

"The top in our year." Ebony could tell where this conversation was going to go and she instantly regretted that words leaving her mouth.

"I don't know anyone by that name," Rodolphus said, frowning, "last name?"

Oh shit. She should not have mentioned her. Ebony swallowed. "Granger," she mumbled.

"Funny, I don't recognise that name, can't be a pureblood," her father said with a sneer, " Unless you're trying to tell me that you're dumber than a mudblood?"

When she didn't respond, Bellatrix sent her stumbling sideways with a backhanded slap across the face, her wedding ring slicing Ebony's chin.

Ebony clung onto the edge of a chair to stop herself falling to the floor. Blood dribbled off her face.

"Do you know how much of an embarrassment you are for me, for us?" her mother said, approaching Ebony again. "For everyone to know that you associate with bloodtraitors and mudbloods and Merlin knows what other filth they have in that school."

Rodolphus was leaning against the mantelpiece, smoking his pipe. He merely looked bored.

"And, to top it off, you're fucking useless and thicker than a brick wall."

Ebony bit her lip, trying to ignore the stinging of her chin and her mother's words.

"Well," Bellatrix drew her wand out from her robes. "You did get a fair warning of the consequences of being a dumb piece of shit didn't you?"

Ebony's bottom lip trembled and she shook her head. "Mother, please..."

"Aww," she said with a false sweetness to her voice. "Is little Ebbie scared"

Hearing the nickname that usually came from Neville made her chest burn with anger. She screwed her face into a scowl.

Her mother merely laughed. "Don't make that face," she spat, "it makes you look like your father."

"I heard that."

Bellatrix ignored him and prodded Ebony in the chest with her wand. "I like it when you beg." Ebony watched the all too familiar wildness fill her mother's eyes, the wicked smile spread on her lips. "Do it again."

Ebony clenched her jaw. She knew what was coming and that there was no way to stop it. "No." She still had her pride, she wouldn't give them what they wanted.

Bellatrix stuck out her bottom lip, "Shame, it's always more fun that way," she shrugged, "never mind,"

She raised her wand and Ebony couldn't help but flinch.

"Crucio."

A scream tore through her throat as Ebony crumpled to the floor. Her body convulsed and tears streamed involuntarily from her eyes.

And then the pain stopped as quickly as it came.

She looked up with blurry vision at her mother's silhouette above her.

"Had enough yet?" Ebony couldn't force any words from her throat. "Guess not."

Bellatrix raised her wand once again and Ebony's body jolted. Every inch of her was on fire. All her bones were breaking at once. A million knives ripped through her flesh.

Ebony wasn't sure how long it had gone on for but she had somehow ended up slumped against the wall. She could vaguely hear her mother laughing somewhere out in the hall.

Her father crouched in front of her and just shook his head.

"When will you just do what is asked of you?"

She just blinked back at him, breathing heavily. Her vision was slipping in and out of focus. Her throat was dry and scratchy.

Even if she could speak, she had nothing to say.

Rodolphus sighed and rose to his feet.

"You brought this upon yourself," he said, striding out of the room.

Ebony watched him leave as a single tear trailed down her cheek.

...

Having eventually dragged herself upstairs, Ebony lay curled up on her bed, her body still on fire.

The only good thing to come out of the argument was that it had seemingly put her parents in a rather good mood so there was no screaming match to be heard downstairs. It appeared that the only person that Bellatrix and Rodolphus hated more than each other, was their daughter.

She watched as the sunset behind the trees out her window and desperately wished she could be anywhere else. It was barely ten o clock on her first day home and Ebony already wanted to go back to Hogwarts. Not even that, she just wanted a friend. She wanted to talk to Ginny.

She wanted Neville.

Ebony was soon snapped out of her daze by tapping on the window. She blinked and realised that there was an owl on her windowsill. Frowning, she heaved herself out of bed, pausing for a moment as her body protested the movement. With a glance back at her door she opened the window and let the small brown owl in. It fluttered around before landing on her bed and sticking its leg out.

Who could've written to her? Ginny and Neville both knew that she wasn't allowed letters and Draco hadn't written to her in ages. She untied the letter from the owl's leg, which then gave a squawk and flew back out the window.

"Don't hang around or anything," she muttered, followed by a couple of coughs.

The parchment was battered and dirty and honestly looked like it had been dug out of a bin. She unrolled it.

Ebony,

I was hoping to see you again before the end of the year but then, as I'm sure you heard, some shit happened which I can't really get into right now because it's long and complicated. Maybe I'll explain it to you one day. What's important is that I got away and I'm sure that no one will be able to find me.

Thanks for the food parcels throughout the year - well I presume it was you anyway.

I know that after the freedom of Hogwarts going home can be rough, especially if your parents are complete psychos. Everything that comes out of their mouths is utter rubbish, try to ignore it. I know that's hard but once their words get under your skin, they stay there.

If you need anything- anything at all - let me know. I'm always up for a good old family reunion

I'm here kiddo, us black sheep have got to stick together.

S

P.s I hope this letter doesn't get you in bother.

P.p.s Give old Bella a hex from me.

Ebony couldn't help but smile as she folded the letter. It was nice to have someone understand ( even if that someone was an escaped convict ) what she was going through without having to explain it.

She dug around in her trunk, wincing as her muscles burned, and pulled out the box Draco had got for her birthday and set it on top of her drawers. This letter was definitely something she needed to hide.

She opened it up and stuck the letter in and shut the lid. The clasp didn't close and Ebony remembered that she needed to make a password for it.

She thought for a moment, trying to decide on something that would be difficult to guess. Then she remembered one of the muggle sweets that Dean had mentioned, "Jammy Dodgers.". She watched as the clasp wove itself closed. Ebony smiled. She had no idea what a Jammy Dodger was but it sounded rather tasty and her parents would never figure it out.

As Ebony crawled beneath the covers on her bed, exhausted from the effort of standing, she felt the usual three pulses against her chest.

She sighed happily.

"Miss you already," she mumbled, clutching the necklace in her hand.

And she squeezed it back.

...

"EBONY!"

She looked up from the charms essay that she was finishing. She'd managed to make it three weeks without another major incident, what the hell had she done now?

"GET DOWN HERE!"

Ebony sighed and discarded her work. Whatever it was, it probably wasn't good.

As she walked down the stairs she found both her parents stood in the hall wearing travelling cloaks. Whatever she was expecting, it wasn't this.

Ebony slowed as she reached the bottom and leant against the bannister, picking at the almost healed scab on her chin - probably the reason it wasn't healed yet - looking slightly confused.

"Your mother and I are going out," Rodolphus said, fixing the cuff of his shirt, "you can organise your own dinner."

Ebony was taken aback. Her parents never really went anywhere, only to annual family events and parties which she was dragged along to. "Where are you going?" She asked cautiously.

"None of your fucking business," Bellatrix replied, already halfway out the door. Rodolphus followed suit, briefly glancing back at his daughter.

"We'll be back late," he called over his shoulder, "don't burn the house down."

And with that, the door slammed behind them and Ebony heard two distinct cracks.

The house fell peacefully silent.

...

Ebony couldn't remember the last time that she had had the house to herself but she was damn well going to enjoy it.

She had meatballs and spaghetti for dinner which she ate in peace while reading a book. It was nice to not have to deal with the usual tension that came with meal times.

After she ate, Ebony decided to have a snoop around. It was surprising how much of the house that she hadn't been in considering that she'd lived in it for fourteen years but most of her time was spent hiding in her room. She was usually in enough trouble that she didn't feel the need to add to it by being anywhere she wasn't supposed to be.

She got bored with the ground floor rather quickly, it was just a selection of sitting rooms, the dining room and two bathrooms, so she headed upstairs. Ebony couldn't quite get her head around how less foreboding the house seemed when it was just her and a couple of house-elves. It was almost nice.

She walked past her room and stuck her head in the guest room next to it. It was fairly empty, just a bed and a nightstand either side of it.

Something caught her eye, however. The double bed looked as though it had been recently slept in. Ebony frowned. No one had come to stay for a while.

Then it dawned on her that perhaps her parents were getting on even worse than she thought.

Her parents room, or whoever actually slept in it, was boringly tidy and Ebony didn't want to risk poking around in it.

The next room she looked into was her father's study. Ebony had only been in it a couple of times and none of them had ended well. The last time she'd been in it was when she'd first got home in her first year.

She wandered over to the giant bookshelf which went all along the wall and all the way up to the high ceiling. Ebony ran her fingers over the spines, some of the titles she saw were probably not even appropriate enough to be in the restricted section at Hogwarts.

The desk at the other end of the room was covered in piles of paper and books. Ebony didn't actually know what her father did all day but it seemed to involve a lot of paper.

She looked at the couple of photo frames that sat on the desk. There was one of her father and his younger brother, Rabastan. Another was of her father and a group of his friends at Hogwarts. It was the third one that caught her eye. It was tucked behind the other two but she could still see it.

It was her father holding a baby, a smile on his usually stern face.

Ebony frowned and reached for it, knocking a pile of papers off her father's desk as she did so. Muttering at herself, she bent down to scoop them up. They were mainly boring official things except for one. It was an unsealed envelope with a letter neatly folded inside it. The address was to her Uncle Rabastan, clearly, her father hadn't got around to sending it yet. Ebony carefully slid it out. It read:

Rab,

I find it ridiculous that I am even saying this once.

You claim it is none of my business what you do with your life. I see that this is true and in any other circumstance, I would gladly leave you to sleep around with anyone that you wish and would rather not know.

But, whether anyone involved likes it or not, Bella is my wife and I would prefer it if you would refrain from interfering with my marriage, it fragile enough as it is.

I will not ask again brother.

"Gross." She muttered, slipping the letter back into the pile.

She'd had very few interactions with her uncle. Her father and his brother seemed close but they still only saw each other at formal events. Ebony had no real opinion of him - he was just like everyone else in her family.

Deciding that she had had quite enough snooping around, Ebony decided to take the chance, due to the lack of parents stopping her, to send Neville his birthday present which she hadn't managed to slip into his trunk before they left.

She scribbled a letter and tied the small box up with string. Then she stuck her head out the window and whistled as loudly as she could.

Sure enough, Malum came swooping into her room, looking angry as usual. Ebony was sure she had never seen another bird with such pure hatred in its eyes.

"Can you deliver this for me?" she said, holding the package and letter out to him. The owl seemed to hesitate before reluctantly offering up his leg. Ebony quickly attached the delivery to it, receiving several pecks on the hand in the process.

"And be quick," she muttered to the owl as it swooped off. "If I get in trouble because of that ruddy bird..."

Ebony flopped onto her bed. She knew that soon enough her parents would be home and the house would once again feel gloomy and be filled with tension you could slice with a knife.

But for the next few hours, she could just breathe, she could just exist and there was no threat, no crashes, no shouting.

And that was enough.

...

"Neville, your great uncle is coming tomorrow and I swear to Merlin if I find any more plants hidden in this house you can sleep in the greenhouse!"

"You won't find anymore gran, I promise," Neville called over the bannister whilst making a mental note to clear out the devils snare from under the bathroom sink.

He padded back across the landing into his room where he was met with the glare of a familiar large black owl sat on his desk. There was a sudden pang in his chest. What if Ebony was in trouble?

"Errr...can I help you?" he said, edging his way towards it. The owl gave an angry hoot and stuck its leg out, attached to which was a small parcel and a letter. Neville untied it as quickly as he could.

Once it was free of the string on its leg, the owl hooted again, gave him a peck on the hand for good measure and swooped out of the open window.

Neville watched it, stunned. That was the last thing he had expected to find in his room.

Pulling out his chair, he sat down and eagerly opened the letter.

Dear Neville,

First of all, I hope Malum didn't attack you too much - he has a habit of doing that.

My parents disappeared to fuck knows where this evening which meant I have the house to myself so I took the opportunity to send you your birthday present. It's nothing compared to what you gave me but I hope that you like it.

I hope you're having a good summer, it'll hopefully have been better than mine anyway! They didn't take my report too well but I'm still breathing and I have all my limbs so I guess it could've been worse.

Happy birthday when it comes and I'd say don't open your present early but I mean I'm not there so do what you like.

I miss you but it's only five weeks till we go back!

Ebony :)

P.s Don't write back please, my parents would kill me if they found out.

Neville sighed happily as he finished reading. He hadn't quite realised how much he missed her. The line 'they didn't take my report too well,' concerned him but there wasn't much he could do. And as much as his best friend liked to keep things to herself, Neville hoped that if there was something seriously wrong she would've said.

He stood on his bed and pinned the letter up on his corkboard. Gran probably wouldn't even notice.

He sat back at his desk and looked at the package. It wasn't quite his birthday yet but Neville wasn't sure how long he could leave the box, it was far too tempting. He unwrapped it and opened it up. At the top sat a card that read: Magnifying Glass Encyclopaedia: one look and nature's information is there!. Neville frowned and pulled out the contents.

It looked like a normal small magnifying glass. Neville held it up to the pot plant on his desk and suddenly a large smile stretched across his face. The glass circle was suddenly filled with labels, identifying the plant's species, age and uses. "Brilliant!" He breathed, moving it over to the pot next to it. He could play around with it all day.

He was interrupted when Trevor hopped up onto the desk and croaked loudly.

"What?" Trevor croaked again. "You hungry?" Trevor croaked twice. Neville dug around in his bottom desk drawer and pulled out a box of crickets. He opened the lid and shoved them towards his toad. "Knock yourself out buddy."

"Neville I've told you before that toad can't understand you."

He twisted round in his chair to see Augusta stood in the doorway.

"I reckon he can," Neville replied. His grandmother sighed.

"Other children talk to people," she said, raising her eyebrows at her grandson, "surely you have friends you could talk to rather than your pet?"

"I have friends," he muttered, rather offended by what his grandmother was trying to insinuate, "it's just that the friend I want to talk to can't talk to me."

"You better not be talking about her." Augusta turned her nose up as she spoke.

"Her name's Ebony you know," he said, "you can say it."

"I've told you before," she said, using the tone of voice she reserved for lectures, "I don't want you hanging around with that girl, she's nothing but trouble."

"You've never met her!" Neville cried, "you don't know anything about her!"

"I know enough," she said stiffly. Augusta straightened herself up. "I meant you could write to that Dean Thomas or the Irish boy."

"Seamus."

"They seem far more reasonable friends." Neville scowled slightly but his grandmother merely tutted at him. "Keep making that face and you stay like that. Anyway, dinner will be ready in twenty minutes."

He watched her walk away and buried his face in his arms.

It wasn't fair. She had no right to tell him who he should and shouldn't talk to. Neville thought that if his grandmother actually had a conversation with Ebony she would really like her.

He knew her name scared some people but ten minutes or so in her company and any reasonable person should see that she was sweet and kind.

Why was it so hard for everyone to see what he did?

...

"What have you got there Nev?"

Neville's great uncle Algie had taken the two of them fishing for the afternoon and Neville had taken the opportunity to properly test out his present from Ebony. Currently, he was investigating muggle species of water-based plants.

He held up the magnifying glass to his great uncle. "It's enchanted so that you can see information about the different plants you look at through it."

"Impressive," Algie said, attaching some bait to his fish hook. "Where did you get that?"

"Early birthday present."

"From your Gran?"

"No, from my friend," Neville said.

Algie raised his eyebrows expectantly at his great-nephew. "Does this friend have a name?"

"She's called Ebony." He replied.

"Oooo, she." Neville blushed profusely. "You've mentioned a lot of your friends but never her."

"Gran doesn't like her." Algie chuckled.

"What's this poor girl done to upset your grandmother?"

"BecauseherlastnameisLestrangesograndoesntthinkitsright," Neville mumbled, looking at his lap.

"Didn't quite catch that lad."

"Her last name is Lestrange," he sighed, "she's sort of their daughter."

"Ah," his great uncle's face fell a little.

"But she's not like them at all," Neville insisted, "she's funny and kind and smart, even though she doesn't think she is. She's got a really nice smile. And pretty eyes.." he trailed off, realising that he had very much gone off-topic. He cleared his throat. "Gran has never even spoken to her and she won't give her a chance."

"Look," Algie said, setting down his fishing rod, "Your Gran loves you very much, she just has a hard time showing it." He chuckled a little. "My sister has never been one to show affection, not even when we were children."

Neville gave him an uncertain smile.

"What I'm trying to say," he continued, "Losing your parents like that, it destroyed her, far more than she lets on. And I think that the thought of losing you too terrifies her."

"Ebony isn't going to do anything, she isn't a danger to me!"

"She may not be but you of all people know her parents are capable of terrible things," he said, an unusual seriousness on his face, "your friendship brings you far closer to them than any of us would like."

Neville opened his mouth to protest but his uncle cut him off.

"But," Algie said, a cheeky grin spreading across his face, "at the same time, it sounds like this girl means a great deal to you."

Ebony's face flashed in his mind, Her laugh, her smile, her eyes. Every time she hugged him. Every glance. Every time she told him she was proud of him.

"She does." He said finally.

"Then," The cheeky grin returned to his uncle's face. " you should stand your ground and never let her go."

Neville arched his eyebrow.

"That was some very conflicting advice."

Algie merely ruffled Neville's hair and picked up his fishing rod.