DISCLAIMER: Refer to Chap 1, 2, 3, 4…you get the point.

A/N: THIS IS AN IMPORTANT AUTHOR'S NOTE. There are certain questions which many reviewers are asking and I want to answer them once and for all. I've added this note at the beginning of chap 2 also.

Firstly, this story is AU. In Hp, Bellatrix is the eldest sister, but I made Andromeda the eldest instead, by two years. Narcissa and Bellatrix are twins although they do not resemble each other. Sirius is of their same age. All these changes were necessary for the story's plot.

Secondly, the name of Bellatrix's mother is supposed to be Druella Black, but I changed it to Cassiopeia instead, because I had her character and features in mind. And thirdly, the most important fact readers are forgetting is that there are two so-called consciences or even people inside Bellatrix's body, her original self and her eleven-yr old self. The older one is obviously in dominance but the eleven-yr old slips out unconsciously at times. This is in answer to all the readers who felt Bellatrix wouldn't be stupid enough to hex the people she was supposed to befriend.

After that lengthy author's note, I hope no more reviewers comment that Bellatrix becomes a bit too childish at times. You now know the reason why.

Chapter 27.

'Aaaargh!'

Contrary to popular belief, this angered yell was not let out by the resident Gryffindor dragon, Bellatrix Black. Her house and dorm mates, after living with her for a year, had become far too wary of her extraordinary temper, in addition to her unbeatable (and rather painful) cursing skills. Hence, they resorted to stepping on tip-toes around her, always alert of her backlash. No, this particular exclamation was courtesy of Lily Evans at night in the Gryffindor common room.

'How dare you…you…..stupid…idiotic…..fool!' Lily seethed. There was a sheaf of rather…drenched parchments in her hand and she looked fit to murder someone. That someone being the messy-haired, spectacled, hazel-eyed James Potter, who was currently lounging against the comfiest armchair in the common room. His best mate Sirius Black was too preoccupied laughing his lungs out. The other Gryffindors looked upon this confrontation with interest.

'Come on, Evans. I was just helping you out.' James looked like he was enjoying the attention he was garnering at the moment, especially from the senior Gryffindors.

'Helping me out!' Lily looked too outraged for words. 'By ruining my entire week of homework!'

'Yes Evans, helping you out.' James looked particularly smug. 'I mean, who in the name of Merlin does their entire week's homework in advance! Oh of course, I forgot, a certain book-worm called Lily Evans.'

Most of the Gryffindors in the common room burst out laughing at this statement. Lily flushed crimson red matching her hair, from mixed rage and embarrassment, 'You…you…urgh! Nine essays…what am I supposed to tell the professors?'

'Well, today is Saturday. So you can finish all your homework by tomorrow and then submit it. You know, do it on the last day, like all normal people?' James's taunting tone sent everyone into fits of laughter. Sirius high-fived James who responded enthusiastically, while looking cockily at Lily.

This was the last straw for Lily who turned around angrily and stormed up the stairs to the girl's dorm. She stomped her way to her bed and threw herself on her messily made four-poster bed, glaring at the ceiling and muttering angry words under her breath. She was thinking of a suitable way to wring James Potter's neck with her bare hands when she was broken out of her enraged thoughts by a rather indifferent voice:

'Irritated much?'

Lily spun her head to see the rather familiar face of Bellatrix Black, who was seated on the four-poster bed next to hers. She was sporting a rather condescending smirk on her face. Lily scowled and turned back to staring at the ceiling. She was not in the mood to bear the taunts of Gryffindor's resident Slytherin.

'As hard as it may be to believe, I can understand your anger. I've felt much worse on account of those idiots. Not to mention of course one of those buffoons happen to be one of my family.' Bellatrix pronounced the sentence with particular disdain.

Lily turned and sent a death glare at Bellatrix, 'I don't care.'

'Really?' Bellatrix raised an eyebrow. 'Even when I say that I'll help you get back at Potter and my dearest cousin?'

Lily snorted derisively. Bellatrix simply smirked at her reaction, 'You're actually refusing the help of the person who Potter and Black hate beyond all belief and the only one who has humiliated them in public?'

Living for more than a year in this time-frame, Bellatrix had become much sharper in reading the emotions and body-language of others. She sensed the slight pause in Lily's mind as she turned towards Bellatrix, 'What do you want?'

'What makes you think I want something in return?' asked Bellatrix in as innocent a tone as she could muster.

Well, it was not innocent enough. Lily snorted again. 'You call me a…a Mudblood, and I supposed to believe that you would help me for nothing in return?' Lily asked sarcastically. 'You think I'm that much of an idiot?'

You said it yourself. Being a Mudblood is reason enough.

Bellatrix let out a fabricated sigh. 'Its been more than a year since I called you that…name, and you're still stuck on that? I thought it wasn't in your nature to hold grudges against someone, or am I wrong?'

Lily's silence showed that Bellatrix had struck a chord with her words. Bellatrix leaned forward, smirking, 'I don't need anything else in return. Potter's humiliated face will be reward enough.'

Lily remained quiet. There wasn't even an inkling of a doubt in Bellatrix's mind who smirked confidently at Lily, foundations of a plan forming in her head.

Lily looked straight at Bellatrix with unwavering eyes, 'According to your logic, I shouldn't hold a grudge against you for something you said a year ago. In the same way, doesn't that imply that I shouldn't hold a grudge against Potter as well?'

The smirk disappeared from Bellatrix's face. Lily continued simply, 'For me, you, Potter and Black are the same. The reason I hate them so much is because I don't approve of their pranks, troubling and humiliating others just for the fun of it. Then why on earth should I be petty and foolish enough to fall to their level?'

Lily stood up. She walked towards the door of the dormitory. Before she exited the room, she looked back at Bellatrix still sitting on the bed, 'Revenge is a silly emotion. So don't try to provoke me to it the next time.' With that, Lily walked out of the room.

Bellatrix sat still for a minute. Then, a wave of unquenchable anger and fury washed over her entire body. Her vision went red and her hands formed themselves into clenched fists. With tightly gritted teeth, she stood up and walked over to her bed, with forcefully measured steps. With a sudden force that would have shocked and astounded any observer, she slashed through the air with her hand, smashing the inkpot on her bedside table to the floor.

The scarlet hue slowly blotted on the floor, its inky tint slowly spreading on the wooden surface, tainting it blood-red. The crimson ink slowly stained a piece of white parchment lying innocuously on the floorboards, turning the edges into a discoloured red. Bellatrix cast a glance downwards and bent down, scooping up the parchment in her hand. She looked at the last part of the parchment and was unable to restrain herself from crushing the parchment in her hand.

Bellatrix,

I want to meet you. One month from now. You know how to contact me.

Bellatrix snatched her wand out of her robes and jabbed the crushed ball of parchment severely. It started smoking at the edges and in the blink of an eye, it was reduced to a pile of sweltering ashes in Bellatrix's hand. She flung the ashes on the floor and walked out of the room in a flash, rage coursing through her veins. She stalked out of the common room and out into the hallway, terrifying many first-yrs in the process, and even managing to reduce one to tears. But Bellatrix's anger did not cease.

Bellatrix had never felt rage in this time-frame as she felt now. Her entire vision was coloured red, her fingers, curled into fists, were shaking imperceptibly and her jaw was clenched so tight that she felt she could bite her tongue off at any moment. She walked on, not knowing in which direction she was going, her head was pounding and her mind and logic had ceased working a long time ago.

All of a sudden, Bellatrix came to a crashing halt. The landscape seemed unknown, yet faintly familiar, like it was out of a distant dream. She looked around herself. She had never stepped here in this time-frame, yet she could recall being here once upon a time, in her previous life, years and decades ago.

The Quidditch pitch.

She was hardly in the mental state to observe her surroundings, still so pumped up with anger that she couldn't register anything except her rage. Yet, there was a blot on the landscape, which looked like a wooden trunk, lying open on the pitch. Approaching it, she saw the red Quaffle and the golden Snitch resting calmly in their positions in the Quidditch props trunk. But what really caught her eye were two threatening Bludgers, glowing purplish in the dim light, straining against their restraints. Two Beater's bats were conveniently locked beside them.

Bellatris bent forwards and unlatched a Beater's bat from the trunk. Gripping it in her right hand, she leant down and without giving it a second thought, released a Bludger from its restraint. The Bludger immediately zoomed out, circling the pitch. Then, it detected the presence of the lone human on the ground and rushed into the attack.

With immense force and at buckling speed, the Bludger pounded towards Bellatrix, getting closer and closer with each second. It was an inch away from Bellatrix and it was decided that the Bludger would crash into its target, knocking out teeth and bone. It was a dead bulls-eye.

With blinding speed and unparalleled reflexes sharpened by dueling, Bellatrix swerved away at the last second. Her right hand flew back, and with boggling strength, Bellatrix executed a back-hand smash and the Bludger crashed back into the goal posts.

But it wouldn't give up. The Bludger unlodged itself from the goal hoop and veered back to Bellatrix, this time taking a different approach. It tried to slam into her once, but changed direction within inches of her and went about to ram into her once, twice, three times, each time from a different direction.

With unfailing accuracy, Bellatrix batted away the Bludger each and every time, with greater and greater force. Her heart was pacing wildly, adrenaline coursed through her veins and her instincts were on high-time alert. For the first time, since she had stepped into this time-frame, she felt truly alive. She let herself sink into her anger, letting her dueling instincts do the job.

That….filthy…..little…..pathetic…..mudblood! Does she know who she's speaking to? She's lower than dirt on my shoe! Instead of having the due respect for her superior, she speaks back to me! She dares to look into my eyes! This kind of filth should be dealt with the moment they enter our world…tortured and humiliated until they are taught their rightful place. I degrade myself to speak with her and she dare refuse me! If it had not been the order of my master….I would have Crucioed her until she begged for her pitiful life…lower than that of an ant's…the wretched little…

By now, Bellatrix had pounded the Bludger so hard that it began to look quite battered. It was far from the satisfaction she felt while using the Unforgivables, but it was better than nothing. Bellatrix was actually starting to feel that some of her anger was slowly escaping, but as was wont when things start to get better, something interrupted her. Or more specifically, someone's voice:

'Hey, you there! What do you think you are doing with that Bludger?'

Bellatrix spun around to see a lean fifteen-yr old teenager, wrapped in a cloak embossed by the Gryffindor crest, staring at her. He had messy, russet-coloured hair, with gold tints glinting in the sunlight. His azure-blue eyes cross-examined her as she stood there calmly, unaffected by the Bludger hell-bent on hitting her, only pausing occasionally to bat it away further and further.

'Are you deaf? What on earth are you doing with that Bludger?' the Gryffindor teen called out impatiently.

Bellatrix felt a twisted smirk cross her face. This wasn't like her other, superior, condescending smirks. No, this smirk exuded pure, distilled evil. The I'm-going-to-torture-you-and-enjoy-it-more-than-anything-in-the-world kind of evil. Although the boy was her senior, she could see a slight expression of apprehension cross his face. It was actually impressive of the boy, since anyone would have turned tail and ran for their life at the sick smirk that now adorned Bellatrix's face.

Bellatrix advanced slowly, like a predator in pursuit of her prey. The boy, again impressively, stood his ground. Or maybe he was just foolish, although it would have taken the thickest person on earth to not get the danger signal Bellatrix was emitting in waves. Her eyes gleamed, a very familiar glint to the ones who had ever come face-to-face with Bellatrix Lestrange when she was in the heat of the battle. It was an insane glint, an almost blood-thirsty one.

Bellatrix raised her bat slowly. Somewhere, her mind was warning her against her actions, but her logic and reason weren't working at this point, because the insanity of Bellatrix Lestrange had now taken hold, and it wasn't going to relinquish control so easily. Propelled by her battle adrenaline and magic, Bellatrix smashed the Bludger at the speed of light towards the boy.

The Bludger moved as if in slow motion. The teen watched the Bludger, eyes wide, blinking rapidly, before diving aside at the last moment. The Bludger slammed into the ground, so powerfully that the ripples from the magic that had been cast on the Bludger could be felt. Eyes still wide, the boy stared at the Bludger in disbelief and turned back to Bellatrix, 'WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?'

'Hitting the Bludger.' answered Bellatrix calmly, as if commenting on the weather. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see the battered and worse-for-wear Bludger swerving back towards her. Without blinking an eye, she whipped the bat upwards and sent the Bludger surging back towards the boy, even harder than before, if that was possible. She felt as if she was channeling her very magic through the Bludger.

The Gryffindor teen made it, but barely. The Bludger skimmed his sleeve, but the magic propelling it made him wince in pain. But he didn't get a moment of breathing space, as the Bludger coursed towards him again and again missed him by a bare few centimeters. It was like a complicated dance, with the Bludger being directed towards him again and again, and him dodging it by lesser and lesser space every time. Finally, the teen's reflexes wore out and the Bludger found its target.

WHAM.

Bellatrix smirked at the winded figure of the teen lying on the pitch. It was least to say…exhilarating to smash that Bludger through the air with greater and magic and force every time, releasing her ire and wrath, and the Gryffindor's attempts to save himself were amusing. She finally felt release from her anger at the sight of the teen clasping his chest, a dribble of blood running down his mouth and gasping painfully, her smirk widening at his plight. Without a backward look, Bellatrix stalked out of the Quidditch pitch and into the castle.

An hour later, Bellatrix found herself standing outside the Gryffindor common room. Stepping through the portrait hole, Bellatrix made her way to the armchair near the fire, where a familiar sandy-haired werewolf was stooped over a number of faded parchments. Absorbed in his work, he hardly noticed the figure of Bellatrix casting a shadow over him.

'Lupin.' Bellatrix gave a bored greeting.

Remus smiled up at Bellatrix. But his smile transformed into a grim expression, 'I would not go up to the girl's dormitories if I were you.'

Bellatrix raised an eyebrow. Remus hastened to explain, 'After Lily came down from the dorm, James transfigured her clothes into…purple and yellow striped muggle articles of clothing called a poncho, I think, and balloon pants. Suffice to say, Lily wasn't very pleased.'

I thought he was a pureblood…..oh well, who gives a damn.

'Did she burst the eardrums of everyone in the common room?'

'Almost burst mine.' Remus winced, as if remembering the torture.

'Perfect.' Bellatrix was in a completely opposite mood from an hour ago. Her mood had been rising considerably since the encounter with the boy on the Quidditch pitch. And now, this.

So my wish of completely humiliating Evans was fulfilled…courtesy of Potter

'You're going up?' Remus asked in a surprised tone. 'Oh of course, I forgot, you actually enjoy messing with people's minds when they're in a terrible mood.'

'Do you doubt it?' Bellatrix walked up the stairs to the dormitory for the second time that day. She paused at the door of the girls' dorm to find the expected: a terrible mess. There was, of course, the aforementioned smashed inkpot of scarlet ink on the floor near Bellatrix's bed; but besides that, the usually neat and tidy bed of Lily Evans' bed was in complete disarray. Her trunk was on the floor, its lid flung open, her clothes were jumbled up on the crunched-up bedspread, books and parchments formed an abysmal clutter in the general vicinity. And the girl herself was sprawled over the bed, hand covering her face. On hearing the sound of Bellatrix's footsteps, Lily's eyes darted towards the visitor's face. However, she averted her eyes and stared up at the ceiling.

'Revenge may be a silly emotion, but it provides the most satisfaction.' Bellatrix turned to leave. 'Potter's taking part in the Quidditch tryouts. Tomorrow, 5 o'clock, Quidditch pitch.

A/N: If you're thinking, what the hell was that with the Bludger, I'll let you know that Bellatrix is insane in the true sense of the word, and she just let her insanity take over. I enjoyed writing the Bellatrix Lestrange scene more than any other chap, and I hope you enjoyed it too. As for the consequences of her actions, especially against that poor guy, you'll just have to wait to find out.