DISCLAIMER: The ideas are mine. The characters and everything that is in the Harry Potter Universe belong to J.K.

Bellatrix met Narcissa in the common room before breakfast that morning. It was the morning of September 2nd. The day after the Start-of-Term Feast.

"What do you think?" Bellatrix asked eagerly as soon as she joined her younger sister near the fireplace.

"Are those your new robes?" Narcissa asked in whispers, her eyes travelling from her sister's head to her toes, and stopping deliberately around her stomach to examine the slimming effect of Bella's new uniforms. "It looks great, Bella! I can't tell at all!"

Bella looked to the side, examining her own silhouette reflected in the window. She looked like herself again. Her school robes were not exactly form-fitting, but they were tailored to her size and Madame Malkin's slimming spells made sure that her stomach looked as flat as it had ever been.

"I'm just happy I won't need them for long," Bellatrix said thoughtfully, her eyes still examining her own reflection in the glass. Most students wore their robes open over the rest of their uniforms, but that was out of the question for now. Although her grey jumper would probably suffice to hide the small bump in her middle, Bellatrix felt much safer hiding her secret with magic than relying on an oversized jumper and on the lack of observation skills of her teenaged classmates.

"Do you want to do it tonight?" Narcissa asked in a low voice.

Bella didn't have to ask what she meant.

"No. Not tonight. I still have to –" she started, but halted suddenly when she noticed a third-year boy standing a little too close to her and her sister, trying to listen in to their conversation.

"Keep walking, Lestrange," Narcissa snapped at him when she followed her sister's eyes to understand why she'd stopped talking.

"I was just—" Rabastan started, but Cissy had no intention of letting him finish.

"We don't care," she said firmly, taking Bella's arm and joining the queue to leave the common room through the passage on the wall.

"Did you see Andromeda this morning?" Bellatrix asked as soon as they were walking up the first narrow staircase on their way to the Great Hall.

"No. Perhaps she left earlier for breakfast?"

Bella sighed.

Prior to taking the Hogwarts Express back to school, Andromeda and Bella had had yet another argument. Bella didn't even remember what was it that they argued about, only that it had prevented her from opening up to her sister once again. Last night, when she sneaked out of the Start-of-Term feast to get to the common room earlier, she didn't tell Andromeda where she was going. A part of her expected her sister to be waiting for her in the common room this morning, eager to ask her why she had left early and wondering if everything was alright. Andromeda, however, didn't seem to have given the matter a second thought.

By the time the girls got to the Great Hall, the first thing she saw was her middle sister sitting with a group of fifth years at the nearest end of the Hufflepuff table. Other than during the most ceremonial occasions, there was no express rule that a student had to sit at his or her house table at all times, but it was highly unusual to see a Slytherin at any other table like that. Andromeda, however, didn't seem at all concerned about being with a group of Hufflepuffs, only two of which were pure of blood. Actually, she seemed deeply absorbed in their conversation. The girl who was speaking had probably said something funny, because the entire group burst out laughing, Andromeda with them. It was horrible to watch.

Cissy left to pick up her new schedule and Bella took a seat at a more scarcely populated area of their house table. She had barely taken a bite in her toast, however when somebody else awakened her from her musings.

"Quidditch tryouts! This Saturday! I have the pitch reserved for us all morning."

"What?" Bellatrix said, turning to look at the captain of the Slytherin team, sitting directly across from her.

"Tryouts, Black!" He sounded exasperated. "Half our team graduated the last term, in case you don't remember, so we need to select some new players."

"Quidditch, right…"

"I want the whole team there, or what's left of us, to show the new people how we do things. We need to find a good Keeper if we want to remain with that cup."

"Saturday. Okay."

"Great, I'll see you there. I already got a small list of people who are interested in joining the team, but if anybody comes up to you for information, just send them my way."

Before Bella could even answer, he was yelling "HIGGS!" and rushing to reach the team's Seeker at the other end of the table.

Cissy took a seat on her right.

"Did you get your schedule?" Bella asked, spreading some raspberry jam on her toast.

"Yes."

Cissy threw the piece of parchment on the table between them and Bella understood the lurid notes in her voice as soon as she laid eyes on her new third-year timetable.

"A bit crowded, isn't it?"

"I wish I hadn't chosen three elective disciplines! I don't have any free periods!"

"It's not that bad, Cissy. Look, you're starting some new subjects today!"

"I wish I was a sixth-year. I hear sixth-years get lots of free periods."

"They're not exactly free, Cissy. We need that time to study."

"But still," Cissy started, but the rest of her argument was muted when the post arrived and hundreds of owls flew into the upper windows with a whoosh and a clatter bringing letters and packages to their owners.

Bellatrix would have liked nothing better than to get up and leave, but she needed her new timetable, and for that, she would have to wait. The distribution of sixth-year schedules was more complicated than usual because professor Slughorn needed first to confirm that everybody had achieved the necessary O.W.L. grades to continue with their N.E.W.T.s. Since the potion master was still at the main table, unpacking a large box of crystallised pineapples, it was safe to say it would be a while.

Bellatrix's eyes travelled over the Great Hall watching the other students as they went about their morning. Two seats away from her, a seventh-year girl moved a plate of sausages to the side to make room for the large barn owl that brought her copy of the Daily Prophet. At the other end of the table, the Quidditch captain - who seemed to be demonstrating one of their new strategies for the year with a jug of orange juice and some cutlery - was still badgering poor Higgs. A tiny first-year student desperately tried to wipe away some chocolate from his white shirt. He'd clumsily spilt the liquid over himself, startled as he was by the arrival of the post a few minutes earlier.

Bella's eyes landed, however, on Rodolphus Lestrange, who was sitting next to his younger brother, not far from where Bella herself was. A beautiful boreal owl had just landed in front of Rabastan, and Rodolphus was busy untying the package from the bird's legs. The younger boy padded the animal gently, offering her some small pieces of toast while his brother opened up the package. He seemed very disheartened.

"I knew it," Rodolphus said, reaching inside the box and taking out what looked like a standard Slytherin tie. "I told you you didn't have to worry about forgetting your tie, Rab."

"Did Father send it to me?"

"Well… no... The elf did." Rodolphus answered. When his brother's smile faded a little bit, he poked the smaller boys on the ribs. "But he probably ordered her to send it to you!"

"Right…" Rabastan said, picking up the tie.

"Here, let me help you with this."

Bellatrix watched as Rodolphus lifted the collar of his brother's shirt and carefully worked on a knot for his uniform's tie. She knew she shouldn't be staring. The last thing she wanted was to draw Lestrange's attention to her – that had been the whole point of leaving the feast early last night. Yet, she didn't seem able to avert her eyes from the scene. There was something about it, she didn't quite know what it was. Then it hit her. She had never seen Rodolphus acting so tenderly to anybody before.

She watched as he adjusted the knot on Rabastan's tie and fixed his collar again. Then, with a smile, he ran his fingers through his brother's hair and reached for a silver spoon so Rabastan could check his own reflection on it.

"Looking great, kid."

"Rod, my hair!" Rabastan said urgently, using his hands to try and put his hair back in order again.

Rodolphus laughed. It was not the same laugh Bellatrix remembered from that horrible night last Easter. It was something else.

"What else did she send?" Rabastan asked, but before Rodolphus could respond, Professor Slughorn was behind him, checking his timetable for the year.

"Herbology, fine. Well done for your Outstanding O.W.L. in that subject, by the way, Lestrange, I wish you had done as well in my class," Slughorn started, unaware that there was a small piece of pineapple stuck in his large moustache. "I see you chose not to go ahead with the Potions N.E.W.T. Very well. Charms, fine…"

Bellatrix went back to focusing on her breakfast before the professor had finished. She wasn't quite sure what to make out of the scene she had just witnessed. A few minutes later, Professor Slughorn walked up to her, and she was promptly cleared to continue with her chosen subjects.

"Seven N.E.W.T. classes, eh, Bellatrix? It's going to be a challenging year!"

Bellatrix smiled weakly, picking up her timetable.

Only for a few more days, she thought. After that, everything is going to make sense again.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

"What now?"

"Now we wait, I guess."

They waited. Bellatrix was sitting with her back against the wall next to the large bathtub and Cissy was a few feet away, looking around the room with curiosity. She had never been in the prefect's bathroom before. It seemed to her like it would be worth becoming a prefect just to be able to use that bathroom. It was not just because there was an impossibly long line for the girl's showers at the common room sometimes, especially prior to the Halloween feast and other such events. This place was incredible. Everything was made of marble and the bathtub looked more like a swimming pool. The shelves held large, fluffy towels and expensive bars of French soap, and there were dozens of flasks of perfume by the sink.

The place was spotless. Very few people were authorized to use this bathroom. Only the prefects, Quidditch captains, head boy and head girl had a high enough status to even know about this place, which meant it was more private. That was why Bellatrix had chosen it. She thought it was better to use that bathroom than the one in the Slytherin dungeons, because it was far less likely that anyone would walk in, especially so late after curfew. They needed privacy.

Bellatrix had told Cissy about her plans the same day she told her about the pregnancy. Cissy said she wanted to be there for her when she took the potion and Bellatrix agreed. She was happy she didn't have to do this alone and her sister never questioned her decision to have an abortion. Even before she had found Dorea's diary, Bellatrix had never even considered a scenario in which she carried the pregnancy to term. Having a child out of wedlock, before she was even finished with school... It was unthinkable.

The potion had taken several hours to brew. She expected it to taste bad, but it didn't taste like anything. Almost like water, she supposed, except that it was thicker. There was no mention in the diary about how long it took for it to work, so the girls waited. They didn't talk much. Neither of them knew what to say.

Bellatrix was scared. Dorea had described the effects of the potion vividly, and the side effects were unpleasant. There would be blood. It was going to hurt. Bella had told herself again and again that she could take the pain, that the important thing was to resolve this situation, but deep down, she was terrified.

The waiting was almost worse than any pain she could imagine.

After about twenty minutes or so, Bellatrix started feeling a sharp pain in her lower back. She tried to be quiet at first. She knew it was going to hurt, after all, and she didn't wish to alarm her sister. But the pain started to grow at an alarming pace. It spread from her back to her abdomen and she felt the hard ball in her stomach contract and seize. This was different from what had happened during her History of Magic O.W.L. Back then, the pain would come and go in waves. This time, it wouldn't fade away. It got worst and worst until finally, she let out a moan.

"Bella," Cissy seemed alert again, "what are you feeling?"

"It's nothing," she said, wrapping an arm around her lower body, "It hurts a bit, that's all."

"Where does it hurt?" Cissy asked.

"It's okay, Cissy, it's supposed to hurt," Bella said, closing her eyes and exhaling heavily. She decided to untie her braid, but her fingers didn't seem to cooperate, stumbling upon each other and failing to loosen the ribbon.

"What is it, Bella?" Cissy asked when she realized her sister was struggling.

"My head hurts. I want to loosen my hair, but I can't,…"

"Here, let me," Cissy, said, getting ahold of her sister's braid and untying it delicately. She knew sometimes when she wore a ponytail for too long she had headaches and simply loosening her hair was enough to make it go away. "Is it better?"

"Huhum," Bella agreed, her arms crossed in front of her stomach.

Cissy sat next to her sister, her back against the wall and she pulled Bella closer, guiding the older girl as she lay down on her side, with her head on Cissy's lap. Bella curled around herself, unable to hide her discomfort any longer, and she got through the next fifteen minutes of pain by squeezing her eyes shut and wrapping both arms around her belly. Cissy ran her fingers through her sister's hair quietly. It was awful to watch Bella in that situation, much worse than she could have anticipated, but she wanted to be mature for her sister, and acting mature meant not letting Bella know how difficult all of that was to her. It was a million times more difficult to Bella, and she knew it.

"I think I am going to be sick," Bellatrix said, making an effort to stand and walk to the nearest stall. Almost as soon as she got there, she gaged violently into the toilet bowl.

Cissy rushed to hold her hair. It took Bella a moment to catch her breath again.

"I need to check," she said after a few moments, and Cissy took a step back, understanding her meaning. She needed to check for blood.

"Bella?" Cissy asked, from the other side of the stall's door.

"No," Bella replied, opening the door to the stall. "Nothing."

"It's okay, it could take a while," Cissy said, but she didn't seem too certain about it.

Bella walked to the sink to wash her face and rinse her mouth. She looked herself in the mirror. She was a mess.

"I am going to take some more," she said. "Can you bring me some more potion, Cissy?"

"Are you sure?"

"Yes," she answered, "I am sure. Please bring me the potion."

Cissy filled a small vial with the potion, despite her best knowledge, and took it to her sister. Bella swallowed it all at once. Then she held the sink with both hands for support again.

"It's going, to work", she said, looking up at her reflection, almost as if she was trying to convince the girl in the mirror of her words, "It's going to work."

"It is, Bella," Cissy agreed, wanting to believe the words herself, "Come, let's sit down for a while."

"Here, this is okay," Bella said, sitting on the steps that lead to the bathtub. "I'm alright."

"How's the pain?" Cissy asked.

"It's alright," Bella said, drawing circles around her abdomen with her right hand. Cissy couldn't see it through her sweater, but her entire abdomen felt uncomfortably hard.

Another twenty minutes went by. Cissy watched as her sister rubbed her midsection, less and less convinced that they were doing the right thing.

"I am going to check again," Bella said, standing up, not without some difficulty, and heading to the stall again. Once again Narcissa stood on the other side of the door. This time it took Bella a little longer to open the door.

"So?"

"Nothing. It's not working, Cissy, why is it not working for me?"

"I don't know, Bella," she said, helping her sister sit down on the floor again, slumping against the wall.

"I am going to take some more," Bellatrix said, reaching for the potion and filling up one last large vial with the dark liquid.

"Bella, don't. You took more than the diary said to already."

"Dorea was only a few weeks along when she took the potion," she argued, "maybe I have to have more for it to work!"

"I am not sure—"

"I have to," Bella said desperately. "It has to work, Cissy. This can't be happening to me, I am not ready, I don't want it!"

"I know Bella, I know, but more potion,-" Before she could finish, however, Bella was swallowing the entire vial.

"Now we wait. Now, this is going to work," she said, letting go of the vial on the floor and slumping back against the wall.

It wasn't even two minutes before she was moaning in pain again. She didn't even have time to reach the stall before the potion came burning through her oesophagus and she retched violently on the floor.

"It's not going to work. It's not going to work if I can't keep it down, Cissy," Bella said panicking in between waves of nausea.

"It's okay Bella, it's going to be okay," Cissy said, pulling her sister away from the place where she had gotten sick on the floor. She didn't know how to do a vanishing charm yet.

"NO, IT'S NOT GOING TO BE OKAY," Bella yelled angrily, pushing Cissy away, "HE DID THIS TO ME. I DIDN'T WANT IT! I DON'T WANT IT. I CAN'T—"

"Bella!"

"NO! I AM NOT GOING TO DO THIS, CISSY, I CAN'T, I CAN'T!" she said, and she hit herself in the stomach several times with her hands closed in a fist while Cissy tried to stop her.

Then Bella got sick again.

"Bella, please look at me," Cissy said, holding her sister's hands in hers. "You are only hurting yourself, please stop doing that."

Bella didn't say anything. She seemed weaker and weaker now, and she allowed Cissy to guide her to another corner of the bathroom and slumping down on the floor. She was sweating and shivering and she didn't even protest when Cissy placed a hand on her forehead.

"Oh, Bella, you're burning up. Did the diary say anything about a fever?"

"Give me some more potion, Cissy," Bella asked, weakly, trying to reach the cauldron, but unable to do it without help.

"No."

"Cissy, please."

"Bella, stop." It took everything she had to speak with authority like that. "You can't have any more, okay? Don't you see what it's doing to you? You are not well."

"But I need it… I need to get rid of it—"

"Bella, listen to me," Cissy said firmly, "we will figure this out, okay? We don't know if the potion didn't work, we have to wait."

"But if—" Bella insisted. She was crying now.

"If it didn't work, we'll find another way. Together. I promise."

Bella didn't say anything. She didn't have the strength to do or say anything anymore.

"Come on, let's get you out of this jumper."

"No," Bella said, holding the bottom part of the sweater.

"Bella, please, you are burning up."

"No."

"Bella, it's okay," Cissy said, desperately, trying to make her sister's fingers let go of her top. She knew why her sister was so hesitant. She could barely notice Bella's bump through her jumper, but her sister had told her before that she felt huge. She was embarrassed. "There's nobody else here. Only me. We need to cool you, okay?"

Bella finally let go and Cissy pulled the jumper above her sister's head, helping her get her arms out. Bella immediately used her arms to cover her middle, and Cissy didn't stop her. She simply picked up a wet towel and placed on her sister's forehead, hoping her temperature would go down. She could see the roundness on Bella's belly through her sister's shirt, but it wasn't as big as she thought it would be. She could only see it because the shirt was so form-fitting, but she knew how self-conscious Bella was about it. She probably would feel the same way if she were in her place.

"How do you feel?"

Bella just nodded, even though it wasn't really that type of question. Then she leaned forward and toppled to the side, laying on her sister's lap once again, her stomach a little more pronounced now that she was laying on her side like that. Cissy held her hand, while she twisted and turned, her entire body seizing, resisting the potion she'd taken.

"Shh," Cissy said, holding her sister's hand and stroking her hair with her free hand. "It's is going to be okay, Bella, it will be okay," she said, hoping more than believing that those words were true.

They remained like that for a while. In time, the strength of the pain diminished and Bella stopped twisting and twirling around. But when she checked for blood, the result was the same. Nothing, not one drop.

"Why is it not working for me, Cissy?" she said, crawling on her sister's lap, again, "What am I going to do?"

I don't know, Cissy thought to herself, but she didn't say anything out loud. She simply went on stroking her sister's hair, hoping the gesture was more reassuring than she felt.

Cissy helped her sister walk back to their common room at around four-thirty in the morning. The pain had all but ceased by then, and they had to get back before the rest of the school woke up for their first classes of the day.

When Cissy helped Bella get on her bed in the sixth-year girl's dormitory, she sat on the corner of Bella's bed for a minute. She wanted to tell her sister everything was going to be okay, but she didn't dare say anything out loud so as not to wake any of the other girls. Instead, she simply gave her sister's hand a little squeeze and kissed her forehead. She remembered all the times Bella had kissed her forehead to put her to sleep when they were both younger, and the memory brought a smile to her lips. Bella squeezed her hand back.

Good night, sis, her eyes said. Everything is going to be okay.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

Bellatrix was alone in her dormitory.

Thoroughly exhausted after all that had happened in the prefects' bathroom the previous night, she ended up sleeping through the morning and missing her first lessons. By the time she woke up, it was way past lunchtime and it made no sense for her to rush and get dressed simply to go to the library since she had a free period anyway. Instead, the girl decided to stay where she was and enjoy the privacy of her dormitory for a few more hours, before any of the other girls came back.

Bellatrix was not sure why the potion had failed. After all the trouble she went through to get the correct ingredients, it didn't seem fair. She went over the instructions again and again in her mind to try and remember if she had skipped any steps or made any mistakes, but it was not possible. In the end, the potion was as clear as it was supposed to be. She had not committed any mistakes.

Why then hadn't the potion worked for her?

That was not the most important question, however. The most important question was: what was she going to do next?

Bellatrix had no idea. She didn't think it would matter, trying the potion one more time, and she was sure her sister would object to such a plan. Be that as it may, she didn't know any other way to resolve her situation. It had been so difficult to find out about that potion in the first place, and it was not as if she had anybody to ask.

If she did nothing, however…

Bellatrix wasn't thinking about any of that though. She was on her bed, half sitting, half lying down, with a hand placed over her belly, under her shirt. It was the first time she gave in to the urge to touch her stomach like that, and although the feeling of her bump scared her, she had to check something. She had to make sure.

A few minutes later, a small flutter of movement travelled through her abdomen.

Bellatrix removed her hand quickly.

It was not the first time she felt that. She felt it a few days earlier, for the first time, when she was on the train on her way to school, but it had been so quick, so slight, that she dismissed it as some unimportant bodily abnormality. It hadn't happened again. Until today, a few minutes after she woke up.

Bellatrix took a deep breath trying to stay calm and slid her fingers under her shirt again. This time she felt it immediately, those gentle flutters under her skin, almost in response to the movement of her hands.

Bellatrix started crying. The girl turned to her side, curling around her middle, unable to stop sobbing. She had not wanted to admit it to herself, but there was a small part of her that had hoped against all probability that the potion actually had worked. That that nightmare would finally be over. Now, however, the realization that all of that had been nothing but wishful thinking came crashing down on her like a ton of bricks.

Bellatrix was feeling movement… She hadn't been sure of it before, but now she was. It—It was moving. Inside her. The potion had not worked. It was—alive and well. And moving.

Bella cried. She cried because she realized for the first time the extent of what she had been trying to do just the night before. She cried because in spite of her guilt, in spite of the flutters of movement she felt on her stomach, she still wished it had worked. She cried because all of that was terrifying and overwhelming and she did not know what to do. She cried because she couldn't stop herself.

The girl would remain like that for a long time that evening, lying sideways on her bed, grabbing her sheets between her fingers and sobbing desperately against her pillow, aware, truly aware, perhaps for the first time since that whole mess had started, that inside her there was a child.

Author's Note: This story has been Beta-Read by davros fan and TheOnlyCeeCeeJ.Any remaining mistakes are my responsibility.

Thanks to BladefireA,teresakharrailang, SeasidealGirl, and NoaKjetos who started following this story recently.

And once again, my thanks to M. for the awesome review. I don't want to answer too many of your questions because I don't want to spoil the next few chapters, but I will say. I don't think you'll find out about the gender soon... It's not because it's not important, but because it's literally the last thing on Bella's mind. Which is understandable, wouldn't you say? I wish I could make videos too... I did start making aesthetic posts recently, and if you would like to check it out there's one for this story at my thumblr: thisismytruthtellmeyours-fanfic dot tumblr dot com

Additionally, I would recommend my other story "Never let me go", that also features the Black sisters, if you would like something to read in between chapters. That is the story that got me interested in writing about Bella, Andy and Cissy, and is the reason Whom Gods Destroy in many ways.

I meant to post this chapter a few days ago but there wasn't time, I am sorry about the delay - my Star Trek fics were also delayed. Please expect chapter 9 two weeks from now.

Please review! I would love to get some more feedback on the direction of this story.

Live Long and Prosper.