DISCLAIMER: Does it seem like I own HP?

A/N: This update is a little late but the chap is extra-long to compensate for this. Hopefully the story crosses 150 reviews with this chap. Enjoy!

To Kirinin: I know you strongly advised me against using flashbacks but in this chap, it was necessary.

Chapter 23.

Only scratching of quills could be heard in the Hall. A fifty or so students seated alone at their desks stooped low, bending their heads and scribbling feverishly on pieces of parchment. An occasional student would worriedly examine his watch or scratch his head in bewilderment at the question. Everything about the Hall and its atmosphere screamed examinations.

Remus sat at his own assigned seat, writing calmly yet fast. Unlike his neighbours, his answers did not resemble chicken scratches. Yet he wasn't as concentrated as he looked because he would often cast a troubled glance at the empty seat in front of Sirius Black (who was doodling absent-mindedly on his parchment). Upon shifting his gaze, Remus found the eyes of Professor Flitwick, the invigilator, on him but he sighed internally in relief when the tiny Professor simply smiled at him instead of the reprimand he had been expecting. Remus resumed examining his answers for the fourth time as he had finished a long time back, but did not think it healthy for his conscience to leave the hall before time.

When the bell finally rang, Remus had been itching to leave but still tarried checking his answers for a fifth time for self-reassurance. Slowly the students started leaving, some making loud exclamations of relief that at least one of the exams were over, while others mumbled anxiously about getting pass marks. Remus debated asking Professor Flitwick about the matter that was troubling him, but finally decided against it. As he left the room, pursing his lips in anxious thought, it was with surprise that he with his head still in the clouds, dimly noticed a female voice calling out to him. He spun around to see the long, swinging, blonde head of hair that belonged to Narcissa Black.

'Lupin!' Narcissa's soft voice was unusually loud as she called out to him. She was some distance away, but ran toward him stopping a few metres away. Her impassive face was fraught with apprehension.

'Yes….ummmm…..Narcissa?' Remus didn't know what to make of this. He had never spoken to Narcissa, except that time in the train when he sat in the same compartment with her, Lucius Malfoy and Bellatrix. Even then, they hadn't spoken a word to each other and all he knew about Narcissa was that she was in Slytherin and Bellatrix's sister. Apart from that, he knew next to nothing about her. There was something strange going on.

'Black.' muttered Narcissa. She was wringing her hands together and chewing her lip, occasionally glancing here and there as if to make sure that no one noticed her talking to a Gryffindor.

'Fine.' Remus raised an eyebrow. 'Miss Black, why did you want to talk to me? Not to chit-chat I think?'

There was clearly an internal argument going on in Narcissa's mind. She looked around apprehensively again, trying to spot a green-and-silver scarf among the tumultuous crowd of students who had just exited from the hall. Seeing none, she finally seemed to come to a conclusion and suddenly demanded, 'Where is Bellatrix? Why wasn't she in the exam? Has something happened to her? Is she in the Hospital Wing?'

Remus sighed softly but there was a smile which persisted around his lips, 'I thought that you were angry with Bellatrix because she was Sorted in Gryffindor and has supposedly chosen 'our side' over yours?' Bellatrix had said nothing to Remus of this topic but Remus was observant by nature and noticed the distances between the sisters.

Whereas Narcissa was demanding a second ago, now she suddenly became apprehensive and doubt clearly flickered in her face, 'I know…I was angry at her…but…she disappeared all of a sudden…I don't even know where she is…' Narcissa trailed off, unable to hide the fear in her voice.

'She's fine. She's definitely not in the Hospital Wing.' Remus smiled reassuringly at Narcissa who seemed to peak up just a little bit. She asked immediately, 'Then where is she? You should know, I mean, you're her friend right?'

A quiet, amused smile stretched over Remus's lips at the last line, 'Yes, I suppose I am. But I don't know where she is, though I'm quite sure she's alright.'

'How can you be so sure?' Narcissa demanded again. Remus couldn't help but see the resemblance to Bellatrix when she used that tone, though Narcissa and Bellatrix being twins were as different from each other as apples and pears. Both the sisters even at eleven, had an aura of class, but Bellatrix had a domineering air that Narcissa would forever lack.

'I just know.' said Remus confidently. His amber eyes sparkled, 'Do you really believe that Bellatrix would let anything, more less anyone, harm her in any way?'

Narcissa couldn't help but smile, 'Never. But I just got a little scared…..I mean….she's my twin sis.' Narcissa quietly admitted. 'Even if she is in Gryffindor.'

'Glad to see you still remember that, Narcissa.'

'Not Narcissa, Lupin.' Narcissa's blond hair whipped rapidly as she turned to walk down the corridor. But Remus could not detect any hostility in her voice, 'It's Black.' She gracefully walked down the hallway until she was out of his sight.

Remus ran a hand down his sandy hair, 'Now to find Bellatrix.'

Bellatrix lay on her back, stretched out on the leather couch. She drew her hand out and flipped the page of a heavy black tome floating in the air in front of her. Eyes scanning the page, she jotted down an important point (using a Dicta-Quill) and creased the page before flipping it again. After a moment or two, she exhaled loudly and with a wave of her hand, the book slammed shut and flopped down on the nearby table. Rubbing her eyes, Bellatrix lay prostate on the couch, her mind buzzing with recently-absorbed information.

Being an animagus is definitely hard work, I never imagined I had to do so much research on the theory. I've never put so much work into anything before. Well, at least I've mastered non-verbal spells. I need a break.

Emerging from the Room of Requirement, Bellatrix languidly made her way through the seventh-floor corridor. She descended from the moving staircases and after reaching the bottom landing, made her way to the dungeons. Just outside the Potions classroom, she bumped into a disheveled Remus who looked like he had just run a hundred-mile race. Grasping at a stitch in his side, he managed to gasp out, 'Where….the…hell….were…you? I…..was…looking...for…you…..everywhere.'

'Sleeping.' Bellatrix continued descending down the stairs but stopped when she saw that Remus was not walking beside her. She turned backwards to see a befuddled Remus gaping widely at her. Bellatrix huffed impatiently, 'Close your mouth, you look like an idiot.'

Remus closed his mouth with considerable effort. 'Sleeping? Sleeping? Are you kidding me? You skipped your Potions exam to take a nap?'

Bellatrix gave Remus a 'well-duh' look. Remus looked as if a horde of rampaging Hippogryffs had just dropped through the ceiling. He looked shocked enough for it anyway. He cleared his throat and tried his best not to make his voice sound incredulous, though he wasn't very successful. 'So how was your nap? Are you going to go to sleep again or will you keep yourself awake for practicals? And speaking of practicals, why did you bother to turn up anyway?'

Bellatrix smiled broadly at Remus who looked at her dubiously, 'Oh Lupin, I would not miss Potions practicals for the world.' Ignoring Remus's doubtful stare, Bellatrix calmly strode into the classroom and seated herself, waiting for the exam to start.

Professor Slughorn waddled into the classroom, his silk waistcoat stretched to bursting point over his large belly, the buttons straining under the pressure. He beamed at all the nervous students, rubbing his hands in excitement, 'Now, I'm sure you all will do wonderfully in the exam. Now just relax and have fun!' Remus gulped audibly as he saw Bellatrix's evil grin.

Oh, I'll certainly have fun alright.

The bell struck the gong and the practicals began. Slughorn had assigned them all to brew Hiccupping solutions, the ingredients to which were already placed on their desks. Bellatrix surveyed the array of ingredients with pleased eyes, they had a lot of potential. Quickly lighting a fire under her cauldron, she set water to simmer and once again examined the ingredients.

After such grueling and intense training sessions throughout the week, I'm dying for some amusement. Now with what do I start….

Bellatrix picked up a vial of salamander blood. Her eyes roamed over the desk, trying to spot a suitable ingredient to with the blood. All of a sudden, she spotted a heap of brown porcupine quills and slimy newt eyes. Gathering up an amount of the quills, she dropped them into the simmering cauldron and topped it with the newt eyes. She then poured the entire bottle of salamander blood into the cauldron. The mixture frothed and foamed and turned into an acid-green hue. Bellatrix smirked in satisfaction.

Perfect for a gigantic explosion….

'Excuse me, Professor Slughorn!' Bellatrix turned to see Remus, seated fifth from behind, raising his hand. 'My cauldron appears to have a leak. Can I please shift to Mariana Crowe's seat and use the cauldron there?'

'Well, usually such things aren't allowed during exams but…' Slughorn fiddled with the lowermost button of his waistcoat which threatened to pop any second. 'Very well, but you should have checked the cauldron before, Mr. Levin.' Apparently, Slughorn did not consider Remus's family rich or influential enough to remember his name.

'Sorry Professor.' Remus sat in the seat directly horizontal to Bellatrix. In the pretense of lighting a fire under the cauldron, Bellatrix saw Remus's mouth move almost imperceptibly, 'What the hell do you think you're doing? Have you looked at the bottom of your cauldron?'

Bellatrix peeked at the bottom of the cauldron to see the metal corroding and a sliver of acid-green visible just in the viewpoint of someone sitting behind. 'That's not important. What's important is: what colour does green and purple together make?'

Remus opened and closed his mouth. Bellatrix assumed a supremely nonchalant air and commented indifferently, 'That's the second time today that you've impersonated a fish.'

I never realised it was so amusing to shock and confuse someone out of his mind.

Remus shook his head in an effort to clear it, 'I'm not impersonating a fish!' Then he suddenly remembered that he was sitting in the middle of an exam. 'And don't talk so loudly!'

'Lupin, do you really think Slughorn would notice if we stood up just now and started declaiming in Gobbledygook? Anyway…' Acting as casually as if she were sitting in her house, Bellatrix picked up a vial filled with a deep violet-coloured liquid and surveyed it critically. Ignoring Remus's growing incredulous stare, Bellatrix poured a generous amount of the liquid into the cauldron, whose contents started swirling rapidly and within a few seconds, a strong effervescence was taking place.

'That was Venomous Tentacula juice! Have you gone out of your mind? The whole damn thing could have exploded!' Remus's voice forcibly confined to a whisper, climbed a pitch with every word, until the expletive at the end climbed a whole new level previously unknown to human voices.

'Oh c'mon Lupin, you know that all the famous potioneers invented their masterpieces through experimentation.' Bellatrix continued stirring her potion, knowing that her nonchalant tone was irritating Remus more than a smirk ever would. And Remus hardly ever got irritated. Bellatrix's loud voice contrasted severely with Remus's undertone. 'Besides you never know, I might just create history and invent a cure for spattergroit.'

'Will you keep your voice down?' Remus's head rapidly spun around to see if anyone had heard Bellatrix's loud tones. Her voice however, was camouflaged by the hissing of potions contained in the numerous cauldrons in the room. 'Besides, they invented the famous potions by careful, intelligent experimenting, not just dumping all the ingredients in one place!'

'Whatever Lupin, just shut up.' And with that intelligent, witty response, Bellatrix resumed stirring the cauldron whose contents were getting more and more unstable by the minute. 'I believe that…..' Bellatrix was cut off by Remus poking her all of a sudden.

Bellatrix turned a fiercely scowling face towards Remus, not tolerating of any kind of disturbance. 'Um Bellatrix…' Remus stared horrified at her cauldron which was quivering slightly. 'I think there's something wrong….'

The cauldron began shaking in its place, its contents frothing and over-flowing the brim. The loud bubbling sound changed to tiny exploding noises, and the cauldron shook vigorously with every pop. The power behind the explosions seemed to be building up, and silence prevailed for a few moments, creating anti-climax. Remus leant over to peer inside the cauldron, his curiosity making him forget that an examination was taking place.

All of a sudden, the cauldron exploded with a loud bang, its acid-green contents spattering Remus's face and the ceiling alike. The entire cauldron blew apart and disintegrated into dust, while the potion leaped up and flew in a fifteen-metre radius around the cauldron. The class stood shocked and Professor Slughorn, incapable of speech, simply wiped the bald pate of his head splashed with potion in a bewildered fashion. Remus lifted his head, quietly took out his white handkerchief, wiped his face and shook his hair vigorously, green flecks of potion flying in all directions. All in all, he handled the situation in an admirable manner, though Bellatrix swore she had heard him mutter, 'That is the last time I will ever try to help Bellatrix Black.'

'Now Miss Black, did you do that intentionally or was that an accident?' Professor Slughorn overcame his temporary speechlessness. He resorted to pulling the buttons on his waistcoat to regain calm. The button yielded and finally popped.

'P…P..Professor, I don't think…. it's over yet.' Lily Evans nervously pointed to her own cauldron, which was trembling. Bellatrix raised an eyebrow. Evans was well known for being the 'shining star' in Potions as Slughorn liked to call her. That was when Bellatrix realised that every cauldron in the classroom was imitating her own, and shaking as if they were about to blow up any second. A few drops of Bellatrix's potion had fallen into everyone's cauldron and now, all of them were slated for detonation.

Incoming…..

BANG!

Without going into too many details, its suffice to say that the explosion(s) resembled the eruption of a long-dormant volcano. The stone walls shook threateningly and dust poured down from the roof. Everyone was covered from head-to-toe in acid-green goo including Professor Slughorn who happened to be standing a bit too close to Lily Evans's cauldron. Remus, splashed a second time, glared at an untouched, un-gooey Bellatrix who had the foresight to cast a Shielding Charm over herself. Slughorn cleared his throat significantly and looked at Bellatrix, 'Clean up. Now.'

Lily spit out green filth from her mouth and sent a death glare towards Bellatrix. 'Professor Slughorn, just because of a certain idiot, we all won't get a T in Potions, will we?'

'Of course not, Lily m'dear,' Slughorn managed to smile genially at Lily through a mouthful of green goo. 'But someone in this classroom will certainly get a T. And I know who it is.'

The dungeon door abruptly banged open and all the teachers, led by Professor Dumbledore, entered the classroom, wands in hand. Professor McGonagall looked particularly strained, 'Professor Slughorn, we heard an gigantic explosion from the dungeon and we thought Death Eaters…..' Professor McGonagall stopped, the scene of the dungeon looking like a riverside marsh meeting her eye. And in the middle of it, looking virtually undisturbed and like she was enjoying herself, stood her least favourite student. Professor McGonagall couldn't help but groan, 'Not again.'

'Well Horace, since everything looks fine….relatively, I suggest you escort the students to the Great Hall.' Professor Dumbledore's glance was somewhere else though. 'The Potions practical can be re-scheduled some other time.'

'There is no need for it, Albus.' Slughorn looked weary to the last degree. 'I will mark the students on theory only. After all this chaos, what I really need is a rest.' The last part was added in an undertone.

'Very well.' Dumbledore waved his wand and the dungeon, and its people were instantly cleaned. 'Please proceed to the Great Hall.' After directing a calculating look towards Bellatrix, he swept out of the dungeon. McGonagall looked at Bellatrix icily, 'I want you to meet me in my office after this. No excuses.' Without saying another word, she imitated Dumbledore and exited the dungeon.

A string of killer glares and death threats directed at Bellatrix later, the students finally filed out of the dungeon, each united cursing a particular Gryffindor internally inside their head. Remus was not excluded from this. He too glared at Bellatrix, but without any real hostility, and walked out of the door.

Bellatrix yawned again. It had been a long day. She was about to leave when she spotted a shaggy mane of raven-black hair whipping around the corner. An idea flashed through her mind, 'Hey Black!'

Sirius turned, regarding Bellatrix coldly. He had clearly not forgotten the prank she had played that hospitalized him for two weeks. There was a dark aggressiveness in his tone, 'What do you want Bellatrix? Here to play another prank?'

'Actually, I played it to teach you what a real prank should be like, unlike your pathetic Christmas present prank. You know, to help you. After all, you are a wannabe-prankster.' Bellatrix commented in a perfect apathetic tone.

Sirius bristled. He spoke through clenched teeth, 'No thanks. And what makes you think that I am a so-called wannabe prankster?'

Bellatrix's eyes glinted. 'In case you're forgetting, when you were six, you sneaked into your mother's potions lab and I followed to rat you out. In the quarrel that followed, we blew up the entire lab and Aunt Walburga almost ate us both alive. Do you remember? In a way, we both played our first prank together.'

Wait a second, why isn't he saying anything?

There was a weird silence that prevailed, as Sirius turned away and did not open his mouth. All of a sudden, Bellatrix's memory flew back to the time when she was spying in the Astronomy Tower. The way Delphine talked, the way she so carefully manipulated her voice, her eyes, showing herself so vulnerable while she was actually such a deadly Death Eater. There was a similar situation now, and Bellatrix realised that she had an opening for the first time, an opportunity to take her mission that one step closer to success. In order to do so, there was a need of something…a need for…..

Manipulation. That's the one thing I've been lacking all the time. I've somewhat manipulated Remus, emotionally blackmailing him, but that true master manipulation exercised by the Dark Lord, and in some ways, Delphine, has never really been mine. I've let my anger and irritation get the best of me and made enemies of those whom I was supposed to befriend. I've been unbelievably rash, but now, I think I have to finally master myself…..and others…

The silence was unbroken. Sirius remained quiet, not speaking a single word, but Bellatrix had made up her mind. She remembered the way Delphine had so cunningly persuaded Professor Watson, and the emotional blackmail that she had put him through. Bellatrix took a deep breath. She walked forwards and placed herself in front of Sirius.

But how had Delphine managed to express such genuine pain? I don't get it…..

Bellatrix concentrated on every tiny, unheeded moment in her past life when she might have experienced that minute drop of regret at what she had chosen to be. Such moments were far and in-between and she had never really allowed them to grow or flourish. She was stone-hearted, cold; and regret didn't really exist within her, humanity had for long deserted her, yet she tried to search, to feel something she had never felt, had never bothered to feel. And then, like a dam broken, those moments came to her mind unheralded and she never knew that they even existed within her:

"'Yes Father, did you want to talk to me?' A fifteen-year old Bellatrix stood in her father's study. It was the summer after fifth year. Her parents had received a letter from Hogwarts that she was given detention for the whole year for torturing two eleven-yr old Muggleborn girls. They were so traumatised that their muggle parents had withdrawn them from school, vowing never to set foot in the wizarding world again. Cassiopeia Black, Bellatrix's mother, had congratulated her and said that she was proud of her. Bellatrix too was proud of herself.

'I wanted to speak to you about the Muggleborn girls whom you had tortured.' Darius spoke clearly, his always-impassive voice strangely grim in nature. He placed a hand on the mahogany desk beside him.

'Oh, you mean those two Gryffindor Mudbloods? I had ordered them to get me a glass of pumpkin juice, they dared to refuse. I punished them and they learnt never to refuse me again.' Bellatrix said in a dismissive tone. 'Dirty pieces of filth, the vile lot of them. Don't worry Father, I will keep up the good work.'

'Bellatrix, I wanted to tell you that I was disappointed in you, that I am disappointed in you.'

'Father, I don't understand…..' To say that Bellatrix was shocked was the least. Darius Black had always been an indifferent father, not in the least bothered what happened to his children. Whatever Bellatrix was expecting her father to say, it wasn't this at least.

'Bellatrix, I have always believed that you were the strongest, the most powerful and domineering of my daughters, even more than Andromeda. That you have an unbreakable will power that crumbles before nothing.'

'Father, I…...'

'I thought that your will power was strong enough to refuse all that had been served to you on a plate, strong enough to make your own path and choose to follow it. I thought you were intelligent enough to understand the difference between noble ideals and overpowering mania. I thought you knew that blood-purity is the most important thing in the world but I also thought that you knew that even blood-purity isn't worth occupying every second of your life trying to wipe Muggleborns off the face of the earth. Apparently, I thought wrong.'"

"Bellatrix walked up the porch to the front door, wrapping her cloak around herself, as the chilly gusts of wind penetrated into her body. She was unsure about herself, unsure about what she was about to do. Maybe it would prove to be futile, but she wanted to try.

She couldn't help sneering when she saw the electric doorbell outside the door. She chose to knock on the wooden door, and a few minutes later, it swung open to reveal an elder-version of Bellatrix with comparatively softer features. The door was on its way of swinging back shut when Bellatrix placed a hand, obstructing it from closing, 'Andromeda, I don't intend to stay long anyway. I just want to show you something.'

Andromeda glared fiercely at the face of her younger sister, hatred boiling in her eyes, 'I swear Bellatrix, if you were not my sister in blood, you would be dead the moment I opened the door. You tried to kill Ted. What more do you want to say or show? Are you here to murder me this time?'

'Oh, so now you're going to pick a Mudblood over me, Andy?' Bellatrix's eyes flashed.

Andromeda visibly tightened her grip on her wand. She hissed, 'Don't you dare speak that word in front of me, Bellatrix Lestrange. Now before I do anything which you might regret, just get lost.'

'With pleasure, Andromeda Tonks.' Bellatrix spat. 'Before I leave, I want to show you what I came here for.' Bellatrix pulled back the left sleeve of her robe to reveal a dark green tattoo of a skull with a snake coiling out of the mouth branded on her left forearm.

Andromeda recoiled in revulsion, 'You disgust me, Bellatrix. You have fallen to depths that I can't even imagine. I feel ashamed to think that you were once my sister.'

Bellatrix clenched her fists. Her knuckles grew white, 'I was actually here to offer you a chance to come back to the right path. I foolishly thought that maybe you had realised your mistake…' Bellatrix was cut off by Andromeda's derisive, scornful laughter.

Andromeda laughed mockingly, her voice overflowing with incredulous contempt. 'Come back to the right path? Are you kidding me? Oh and by the way, speaking of choosing Ted over you, I think the choice is pretty obvious, don't you think?' Andromeda banged the door shut, leaving Bellatrix out in the cold, silent night."

" 'Cissy- Narcissa- listen to me-'

Bellatrix seized Narcissa's arm as they ran towards Spinner's End, but Narcissa wrenched it away.

'Go back, Bella!'

"You must listen to me!"

"I've listened already. I've made my decision. Leave me alone!"

Narcissa, her blonde hair streaming back, managed to climb on the top of the river bank. She was immediately imitated by Bellatrix who couldn't help but ask disparagingly, looking on the sight of dilapidated buildings whose walls were covered with moss and faded, cracked windows, 'He lives here? In this Muggle dunghill? We must be the first of our kind ever to set foot-'

Narcissa wasn't interested in listening to Bellatrix's scornful comments as she scrambled into a gap in the rusty railings and started crossing the road. 'Cissy, wait!'

Bellatrix pursued her sister down an alley between two houses past broken streetlamps and managed to seize her arm again as they were turning around a corner. She forced Narcissa to swivel around and speak face-to-face. 'Cissy, you must not do this, you can't trust him!'

'The Dark Lord trusts him doesn't he?'

'The Dark Lord is….I believe…..mistaken.' Bellatrix panted, her eyes scanning the place to make sure no one was listening. 'In any case, we were told not to speak of the plan to anyone. This is a betrayal of the Dark Lord's-' Bellatrix couldn't, wouldn't let her sister do something so traitorous in nature.

Yet Narcissa was adamant. 'Let go Bella!' her wolf-like snarl was punctuated by her drawing a wand from underneath her black robes.

Bellatrix couldn't take it seriously, the sight of her small-by-two-seconds twin sister pointing a wand at her. She threw back her head and laughed, 'Cissy, your own sister? You wouldn't-'

'There is nothing I wouldn't do anymore!' Narcissa slashed her wand, a bright light shone through the dark alleyway. Bellatrix could see a spark of madness in Narcissa's eyes, something that could often be glimpsed in her own eyes. Her hand burned like it had just been scalded by boiling water. She withdrew her hand, but not before feeling pain, not in her hand alone.

'Narcissa!'"

Bellatrix looked straight at Sirius's face and concentrated on all those memories. It seemed to work. Sirius recoiled slightly on seeing her face. 'We never really got along, even as kids Bellatrix. No happy memories. That so-called first prank you're talking about,' Sirius made an incredulous noise, 'that happened only because we were fighting. It's not like we planned it together or anything.'

Bellatrix took a deep breath and began in an indifferent tone, 'I'm not trying to pretend that we had happy memories and all of that is ruined. You're right, we never got along. Even though we're cousins, we've always hated the sight of each other. But…'

Bellatrix let the sentence hang. Sirius became antagonistic, bent on contradicting her, 'But what? Are you saying that all the times you've insulted me in the past, all the times you've gone on and on about pureblood superiority, all the times you've talked against muggleborns, you were faking it? Pretending? Pretending for all the eleven years of your life?'

Bellatrix looked directly at Sirius again, 'No. All the eleven years that you have seen of me, I was being genuine. All the insulting, the pureblood mania, that is the real Bellatrix Black. I am not trying to deny it.'

Sirius remained silent, but his silence was a contradictory one. Bellatrix began in an impassive voice, 'Do you think that you've seen all that there is to me? That I can only be insulting and arrogant, nothing else?' Bellatrix knew her questions were troubling Sirius and more so because of her emotionless voice. She decided to up it by a notch. 'There are countless times when you've called me 'pure evil'. I'm asking you now, Sirius. Do you really believe it? Do you?' Bellatrix knew that her usage of his first name had shocked him more than all her words. Sirius had never seen her like this, not cold, nonchalant or sarcastic but actually, truly genuine, like a normal eleven-yr old girl. Her voice was void of emotion, but her eyes were like wells of feelings. And Bellatrix was well aware of that and somewhat surprised at herself because it was strange that her eyes expressed anything else except sadistic mania.

'What do you want Bellatrix? What do you really, actually want?' Sirius chose not to answer Bellatrix's question. His voice was a mirror of confusion. Bellatrix understood that she had been confusing Sirius the entire year, first acting like the cold, hostile Bellatrix whom he had always known and then, this strange new Bellatrix who actually showed her emotions. Then add to it the whole maturity, not acting like an eleven-yr old thing.

'I believe that you're not as big-headed and foolish as you would have everyone believe and I want you to believe that, maybe, I have another side to me as well.' Bellatrix spoke clearly, yet Sirius remained silent. Interiorly, Bellatrix couldn't help but be a little apprehensive on whether it was going to work or not. She had never, ever tried to manipulate herself so much and project such genuineness. With Remus, she had tried to act nice but this whole new being-expressive-and-not-cold was at another level altogether.

I have just gained a whole new level of respect towards Delphine.

'So…' Sirius finally opened his mouth. Bellatrix appeased her apprehension. 'So? What are you expecting? Are you expecting me to forget everything that has happened these eleven years? Everything? Just because you apologized one time today?'

'You know Black, I don't really regret anything I've ever said or done to you. Including the last prank. And as for the record, I don't remember apologizing to you.'

Curse my gigantic ego to ashes. Maybe that last answer just blew up my chances, but it was for the better. If Black does befriend me, I want him to do so knowing the real me as I have to convert him to the Dark side, but I have no choice but to put in doses of sweetness here and there. Damn.

Sirius's eyes narrowed. He was about to turn and leave when Bellatrix called out to him, 'Answering your previous question, no I don't expect you to forget everything in an instant. But I do expect you to become friends with the one you actually want to befriend, and not hold back just because he's my only friend here.'

Sirius paused for a moment. He then resumed walking out of the classroom. That tiniest of pauses proved everything. Bellatrix smirked in satisfaction. Her thought then turned to the faintest of memories that she had held caged within her but which had unleashed their power today.

Regret. A worthless emotion. One that takes hold when people close to the heart disappoint. But it has no place in my life. I am ready to estrange those people, my family, again and again, a million times, for the Dark Lord. But now because of Him, I have to end that estrangement, bring them close to me again. I need to do it, I will do it, for Him.

A/N: Next chap will be the last chap of the first year of Hogwarts. Thanks to the readers who have been with me for this entire year. R & R!