Disclaimer: We all know, that Harry Potter belongs to J.K. Rowling. And I think that I would have noticed if I was a multimillionaire and was from the opposite sex… and was about 40 years older than I am.

A/N

It is my first fanfiction ever and I am not a native speaker of the English language and as such may make mistakes. I apologise for any I might make and ask you my dear reader to make any comments regarding my story. Criticism is not frowned upon. Instead, it is expected. Do not make a mistake though. I will read all of the suggestions, but I may not include all of them in the story. The most important thing for me regarding this story is that I make the decisions since you know… it is kind of my story.

Notice: The story uses metric units.

Without further ado, enjoy!

XOOOOOOOOX

Chapter 2

A Visit From Belgium

7th July 1978 Lancashire. Black summer manor.

"Wait."

The voice that had rung through the beautifully decorated room belonged to Bellatrix's Grandfather. There he was, standing in the archway his posture straight and his eyes piercing. He had his grey hair slicked back and he wore a pair of spectacles on the far end of his nose. He was a tall man who had grey eyes that shone with power and intelligence that was only fit for his old age.

Otherwise unless she had known that he was nearing his eighties she would have thought him to be in his late fifties. Saying that he was in great health would be the understatement of the century.

She looked at him with questioning eyes that held a little bit of hope. He looked right into her eyes and his own cold ones softened a little.

"I believe I have found a better suitor for you, Bellatrix."

Bellatrix could not mask her surprise when she heard that. And neither could anybody else in the room. Bellatrix's eyes widened, Rodolphus started gaping like a fish that had not seen water for some time, Abraxus Malfoy looked interested in the person Arcturus was talking about, Corvus started turning an interesting shade of red and everybody else in the room turned to look at Arcturus with varying degrees of curiosity in their eyes. Everybody, but Rabastian, who seemed to be more interested in the contents of his nose.

Cygnus Black quickly stood up and ran closer to his father where he started to berate the older man with questions.

"Are you insane Father? We are in the middle of the wedding ceremony! You can't just barge in and declare the whole thing void like that. We worked for years just so that we could marry into the Lestrange family and avoid a goddamn blood feud. You can't undo all of our hard work and declare that Bellatrix is to marry somebody else. We just got her to agree to this and now all of the begging and pleading with her was for nothing? We have a powerful pureblood family who wants to marry her and you will just decline them? You can not do that Father!"

"I assure you, Cygnus" Said Arcturus while levelling his son with a cold stare, "that I am perfectly in my rights to do that as the head of this family. Now, unless you wish to tell me the things I already know I would suggest you shut up and let me introduce Bellatrix her new suitor. Bellatrix, come down here. This wedding is cancelled."

Bellatrix, who had already abandoned the contract in favour of hearing her Grandfather, tried to go down the few steps that led up to the altar, to speak to her Grandfather, when Rodolphus grabbed her arm and pulled her back to his side and started to inch his face closer to her's.

While Bellatrix could and would say that she was better than Rodolphus in almost every way possible, even she would have to admit that he was phisically much stronger than her.

As he held her struggling body as still as possible and tried to kiss her, she tried to pull her wand on him and curse him with some more than devastating spells that would end his children even before he could have them, she found that she couldn't get her wand. Since the man was holding her by the hand that held her wand, the wand would not come out of its holster because it was stuck between her arm and his palm.

Just as she was about to wish her freedom farewell, multiple things happened at once. Said things were, in decreasing order of importance: Rodolphus started screaming in pain, she fell from his arms as he decided that trying to gouge his eyes out was more important than she and light laughter began to ring out in the room.

Said laughter made everybody's hair stand on its end and it silenced the room, except for Rodolphus's desperate cries. The laughter seemed like the cause of it could be a lighthearted joke, not the desperate cries that sounded inside the room.

Now that Bellatrix thought about it, 'Why was the moron even screeching like a banshee on a Sunday evening?'

The reason was actually fairly simple. The man, whose intelligence could be toppled by a rather smart club of a mountain troll, was connected to a red beam of magic. Said beam of magic was ruby red and oozed with the aura of darkness. She recognized the spell having cast it about ten minutes ago while she was aggressively waiting to be called. She could feel just by looking at the beam that this was a much more powerful Crucio than what she had cast.

She was thrilled to meet the person whose Crucio was so much stronger than her own.

When she looked at the person that had cast the curse she closed her eyes, opened them again and thought, 'I am not dreaming. Am I?'

On the other side of the room stood a man? A woman? She didn't exactly know. The person was wearing a top hat with a dark violet ribbon around it, a white dress shirt with large amounts of frills, a dark violet vest, black dress trousers, little patent leather shoes, that seemed to have heels(?), and a long black acromantula silk cape draped on his shoulders, that was clasped with intricate cape clasps connected by a silver chain. In his hands, he held a beautiful black cane.

He was indeed a he, she realized after she heard him laugh (not to mention what he wore). His voice was pleasant to listen to. It wasn't very deep like her dad's or her Grandfather's, nor was it high enough to confuse it for a female's. It was close to a teen's voice though there was no confusion in her mind that he was not a teenager.

His face was heart-shaped and he had a small smile on his lips. His eyes were two different colours. The right one was a brilliant red and the left a dark violet that matched his outfit. His hair seemed like something from a fairy tale. It was jet black and fell softly down his back, but it seemed to wave around with nothing to make it move being present in the room. His hair was wavy and seemed soft to the touch. To her, it reminded an obscurial. Though she had never seen one in real life, a picture in a book gave her an idea of what one was like.

But not one of the mentioned things had made her blink her eyes and do a double take on the newcomer. The reason for her initial surprise was…

His short stature. He couldn't be more than five centimetres taller than her. She had been the shortest witch of her year and constantly wore high heels so that she would seem taller. Actually, with her heels, she was taller than him, even with his heels included in his height.

She wouldn't mind getting to know this person. His prowess with the Crucio curse was already making her wish to learn to cast the dark spell as well as he did. She was sure he was incredibly powerful and if this was the person she was to marry she wouldn't mind like with the Lestrange boy. Based on first impression, it at least seemed like he was as crazy as she. But she would have to see for herself when she got to know this new person.

Bellatrix stood up and hurried over to her Grandfather who unlike many others in the room wasn't gaping at the newcomer as he ended the dark spell. Rodolphus was left to shrivel on the ground and Bellatrix couldn't imagine what he must have felt. One thing was sure and it was that she never wanted to experience the same thing the Lestrange boy had just faced.

Suddenly a bolt of sickly yellow whirled past her shoulder towards the short man. She was stunned when she saw the skin-peeling curse intercepted mid-flight by a colour-changing charm that collided with the dark curse about halfway to its intended target. That was a little-known duelling technique that Bella herself used when dealing with a single opponent. The technique required years of practice and was considered the third hardest duelling technique in existence.

She turned her eyes to her aunt Walburga, who had sent the curse, who was fuming. The older witch started to send more dark curses towards her younger opponent. The man erected a blueish shield that surrounded his entire being exactly in time to block two more curses flying from his other side. The other curses had come from Rufus and Arianne Lestrange.

Then all hell broke loose.

Spells were coming from everywhere. Her uncle and grandaunt both joined in as did the Lestrange brothers and the torrent of spells unleashed smashed against the shield. She was sure the shield would fall and feared what would happen to the person surrounded by it, but to her immense surprise, the shield held and the decorated man who held it together seemed to not even be trying.

The figure in the shield was waving his wand like a baton for a moment. And then it happened.

The shield burst into millions of little shards that were sent towards the aggressors from the two families. All who had attacked the man had suddenly either dropped to the ground or raised shields, but neither helped the intended targets as the shards changed directions or passed right through shields. The people who were hit, dropped right to the ground completely knocked out.

Bellatrix wasn't sure how it had happened, but she found herself on the ground having dropped out of the way of the shards of the broken shield. The room looked like a hurricane had swept through it and the man who was the cause of it just stood there casually polishing his wand with a dark violet handkerchief. She quickly pushed herself off the ground and hurried to her Grandfather, who she gave a hug before backing up and starting to question the old man.

"Grandfather I… I thought that I was to marry Lestrange. Can you… Can you really do that now? A blood feud could start and… Grandfather are you not worried about a blood feud?"

Bellatrix shot out questions faster than her mind could catch up. She was starting to panic a little as she asked her questions when the last one got stuck in her mind. And indeed, when she looked at her grandfather he didn't seem worried about anything. That was weird, to say the least. Her Grandfather was cautious at the best of times, so the only way he would look so relaxed would be if he was completely sure about his victory against the Lestranges in every way possible. And Bellatrix knew her Grandfather. She knew her Grandfather didn't often make plans that risked his granddaughters, but this one seemed very risky even with such a powerful person backing them up. There was a possible blood feud and the marriage contracts that were regulated by Lestranges.

She wanted to know who was this man that had her Grandfather believing that everything would end well for them.

Her Grandfather smiled a small smile, an expression that was rarely seen on his face. "No, Bella, I am not worried about a blood feud with this young man on our side." As she looked away from her head of House and towards the man that had just defeated six people during one fight, she found him tucking his wand into his vest's inner pocket. When he had done so he looked up and met her eyes.

Bella couldn't think of a proper pureblood greeting and blurted out the first thing that came to her mind. "How did you do that?" Right, when that sentence had left her mouth, her eyes widened comically and she clammed up. She started to mentally scold herself for making such a mistake. That was not a way to introduce yourself to your future husband. That could end very badly for her if she didn't reprimand herself. To her surprise and for everybody else's, who was conscious, the young man started to chuckle.

"Your Grandfather has told me many things about you," a slightly accented voice told her. "Let me introduce myself. I am Morten, Morten Lemort, the head of the Most Ancient and Noble House of Lemort and the earl of magical Hainaut." he kindly informed her.

"You!" "Screamed Corvus Lestrange, at the newly named Lord Lemort. "What have ya done with my heir ya insolent little midget! I'll have yer head by the end of this! And ya won't ever take my son's wife."

"I must correct you Mr…?" retorted Morten with a mocking tone, to the Lestrange Lord. As he said that, the corners of his mouth rose even more upward.

"How can ya not know who ya are talking to, ya brat? How can ya not know the mighty family of Lestrange! How can ya not know who I am, ya short French frog!"

"Well Mr Lestrange," said Lemort while his eyes turned from cheery to cold, but the smile remained and seemed to even grow, "it just so happens that Miss Black will no longer be your son's engaged since Lord Black has found that I am a better match for his granddaughter than your, sorry excuse for a son. I would also like to inform you that I am a proud citizen of the Magical Kingdom of Belgium, not some French frog as you so unkindly put it."

While the Lestrange lord was left gaping at the place the young man had just occupied while Morten moved closer to Arcturus and herself, her Grandfather decided that was a good time to introduce his granddaughter to her future husband.

"This is my granddaughter, Bellatrix, your future wife and the best dueler in the country. I knew there was a reason I liked you, lad," laughed Arcturus. "Speaking to old Lestrange like that is not something everybody will do. Come you two, we have many things to talk about."

"While I very much enjoy speaking to you Lord Black, please do remember to refer to me by one of my titles while in public" Morten said to her Grandfather, the smile disappearing from his lips.

The head of the House of Black seemed to pale for a moment, which greatly surprised Bellatrix. He was a powerful man and wasn't frightened easily, even by powerful magic like the Belgian's, which made Bellatrix question who the man, she was now engaged to really was.

"Of course, Earl Lemort," Responded Arcturus to the younger man.

Morten gave Bella a little smile, which she returned, though the expression on the man's face seemed somehow a little off, and they started to follow her grandfather to the fireplace.

While they were walking she thought: 'How can a man be so short?' not realising she had said it out loud.

XOOOOOOOOX

7th July 1978 nr 12 Grimmauld Place

Stepping out of the fireplace Bellatrix had to marvel at her ancestral home. It was as dark and as fear-inducing as the reputation of the name she was carrying. The living room was spacious, but the dark green walls made the room seem tiny and inescapable. The room had no windows and the only source of light was a silver chandelier. The room held two couches facing each other and a completely black armchair.

"Please, take a seat," said Arcturus after dusting himself. The man himself sat down on the grandiose armchair as the two people accompanying him took their seats.

The Belgian man was sitting on the sofa facing Bella's cane on top of his knees and his eyes locked to her Grandfather. She herself sat legs crossed at ankles, and her eyes carefully looking at the shorter male.

"Mister Black, it is a pleasure to see you again. I think it was in January when we last saw each other. On the meeting of the International Confederation of Wizards I believe," said Lemort after a little pause which he used to look at the empty table between himself and Bella.

"Indeed. You are correct Mr. Lemort. It was then that I met you, the youngest wizard in the council," recognized the older man. "Kreacher!" The old house elf popped into existence right beside Arcturus's chair."

"Bring us some refreshments. And the wine from forty-seven," Barked her grandfather to the servant as the thing popped out of existence.

"Truly a wonderful year it was," said her Grandfather as his eyes adopted the look of somebody who is remembering better days.

"Indeed…" sounded Morten's silky voice from the other couch. " a wonderful year. But this isn't what we are here to talk about."

Arcturus was shaken from his musings as his house elf popped back with three silver goblets and a dusty wine bottle. "Right you are," he said as his eyes went serious. Something that told Bella that important information was about to be exchanged. But what was serious enough to worry her Head of the House?

"Our deal has now commenced. I have saved your granddaughter's married life and your money from falling into the hands of the Lestranges. I will also help with the blood feud that is quite inevitable. In compensation for my troubles you have allowed me your daughter's hand in marriage thus making my heir third in the line of succession of the House of Black," stated Bellatrix's betrothed with a smile.

Bella's mind was racing. She understood why her Grandfather seemed so serious. He had made a deal, that basically promised his whole family fortune to a man that seemed a lot more dangerous than any of the Lestranges. She had also noticed that the Black patriarch had let it slip that her fiance was the representative of the Magical Kingdom of Belgium on the council of the International Confederation of Wizards. This meant that his family either had incredible wealth, enough to buy a seat for him on the council or that the family was supported by many and held a monopoly over something in Belgium.

The monopoly part had seemed weird to her until she learned that theMost Noble and Ancient Houses do hold a monopoly over different products. Obviously not a complete monopoly, but almost nobody buys such things from a different family. Greengrasses were a perfect example of this. They held a monopoly over potion ingredients produced in Brittain. And since it was very hard to legally get potion ingredients from abroad, (courtesy of one Pulucrissus Greengrass, minister for magic from 1770 to1783) almost all of the population of Magical Brittain bought potion ingredients from stores that were supplied by Greengrass's Wondrously Fine Constituents.

There were many other families like the Greengraseses. Potters for example held a complete monopoly over the production of skele-gro, pepperup and Sleekeazy's Hair Potion. Her own family held a monopoly over the importing and deporting of magical artefacts. It had made the House of Black one of the richest families in Europe.

It just so happened, holding a monopoly was a requirement to even be considered to hold the seat on the council of the International Confederation of Wizards. Her Grandfather was at the moment the representative of Great Brittain and she knew that he had fought hard to get that position. So she knew that Morten Lemort was a wizard that was in a position of power.

"Indeed. It is true, but for some reason, I don't think that is all you want from the House of Black, " said Arcturus suspiciously while the old house elf poured red wine to all who were sitting.

"Ah you are right in your assumption that I want something, but it is not your House I want that something from," replied the younger man with his smile growing wider. "I want an Unbreakable Vow."

Bellatrix gasped out loud as did the Black Patriarch. Unbreakable vows were dangerous business. Whoever broke the vow would instantly be consumed in the cold embrace of death.

"I want you to swear to fully support my cause even if only from the shadows. That is the only other thing I want from you," said the young male while observing Arcturus through his glass of wine.

"Your cause?" asked Bellatrix, speaking for the first time after coming through the fireplace.

"Yes my cause," confirmed her fiance as he sent a smile towards her. "It has come to my attention, that inbreeding has widely spread amongst the purebloods in the last century. You can even look at ourselves."

Bella raised an eyebrow towards him.

"We are relatives too, my dear. We are either fourth or fifth cousins I can't remember exactly, but my mother was from the Danish branch of Blacks and it proves my point. Inbreeding will be a big problem if we want to keep our blood pure. And it just so happens, that I have found a little-known fact that can save us from it," Morten declared.

Her eyes widened. It was commonly believed, that there was no escape from inbreeding and she was very interested in what he had to say. She wanted to see if this idea had merit or if it was just another terrible scheme made to get attention.

"Well, colour me intrigued," said Arcturus as he stopped his goblet before it reached his lips.

"Have you never asked where did magic originate from?" asked Lemort as the corners of his mouth rose another centimetre. And before either she or her Grandfather could answer the posed question he started speaking again. "Well… I did and could only find one answer… muggles."

She was really getting annoyed at how much her eyes wanted to widen today because her eyes had widened again and her mouth had dropped open. It was unheard of that muggles could have any magic.

"Are you proposing, that muggles can possess magic?" questioned Arcturus his voice dangerously low.

"Oh heavens no!" was what sounded from Morten's mouth as he laughed almost maniacally. "Nonononono that is not what I mean at all Lord Black. No muggles could never possess magic," then his voice dropped to almost a whisper, "but mudbloods do."

Bellatrix couldn't believe what he was saying. He was implying that they were descended from mudbloods! He was implying that they were not of pure blood!

"How dare you question our blood purity!?" she suddenly screeched towards the man his magical power quickly forgotten about, but the glowing red and violet eye that glared into her soul made her stop pulling her wand on the shor male. Arcturus also shot her daughter a look that clearly commanded her to sit back down. So she did, although while sending the younger man an angry glare.

"No, my dear. I did not insult the purity of our blood," the young male said his voice sounding through the whole room though it was only a whisper. "No, because in my research about the origins of magic, I came across the fact that two mudbloods marrying each other and having a child would create a magical, that would be classified as a halfblood. It would be incorrect to classify it like that. After all, it is a quarterblood."

Bellatrix was dumbfounded. She had never heard of a quarterblood, but she had an idea where this would be going. She would wait and see if his theory went like she expected it to go.

"Now two quarterbloods marrying and having a child would create a halfblood, and two halfbloods doing the same would create a pureblood," confirmed Lord Lemort Bella's theory with his silky voice.

"I understand that, but tell me then, how can a halfblood marrying a mudblood conceive a child that is also a halfblood?" Asked the Black family patriarch.

"Ah but of course. I presume you both have at least common knowledge that is required for arithmancy?" After receiving one solemn and one offended nod, the man with a cane continued.

"In each marriage, you could look at the blood statuses as positive and negative numbers. In a marriage between the same blood status, for example, a mudblood and another mudblood I would mark both with a minus and together they would create a plus, which is a quarterblood. Now you could view pureblood as the true pluses and the mudbloods as true minuses, but I believe it is easier to think that marrying somebody from a lower blood status lowers the offspring's blood status by one while marrying somebody from the same blood status would rise the offspring's blood status by one. The two exceptions are purebloods who are as pure as can get and mudbloods who are only muggle's descendants. That means that half-and-a mudblood's offspring would actually be a quarterblood, but…"

"But since the quarterbloods are called halfbloods the government they are classified as such," finished Bella for the Belgian.

"Exactly," quipped the younger man.

"Very well. It is understandable, but I have not gathered what is that cause of yours," voiced Lord Black his thoughts.

"Ah, but it is fairly simple," said Lemort smiling a little smile. "Every pureblood family started from some mudbloods marrying each other and so on. That means, that new pureblood families can be created by just applying a couple of simple laws. Namely, that all halfbloods are to marry another halfblood and so on. Ofcoarce first it is needed to see who is a quarterblood and then it can be done." Lemort's smile widened to a maniacal grin, that threatened to split his face into two.

"And how do you plan to apply those laws?"Asked a Bellatrix getting thrilled about the idea of another crazy person, who might just be a dark lord in the making with an ideal plan, that didn't require the death of most purebloods in a country.

The crazed man looked at her in the eyes and for the first time, Bella could really appreciate the beauty of the shining dual-coloured eyes that looked into her sole. Morten calmed himself and rested his head on top of his clasped hands. Eyes still glowing in the dimly lit room his silky voice said, "Oh I can not do it without being the one to make the laws now can I?"

He then stood. "Well Lord Black I hope you choose well. If you so happen to choose to accept my last offer our deal will be sealed and I will help you with your little blood feud. If you choose to not accept it… I will not take your daughter's hand in marriage.

As he was heading to the fireplace Lord Black spoke stopping the walking man, "There is the issue of Alpred Lestrange, brother of Corvus Lestrange. The man who controls the contracts. What should we do about him?"

He turned around and looked at the two, who were still sitting.

"Oh… do not worry Lord Black, Miss Black…

accidents happen."

XOOOOOOOOX

Now firstlyA/N

I am very sorry for the long wait, but it just so happened, that when the first chapter went out I was out on a bit of a limb and the entrance exams were nearing at a frightening speed. I had already thought about what would happen in the second chapter, but I was forced to stop writing to study for the exams.

When I had the time I would write for a bit, but most of the precious recourse was spent on sleep. Every time I got back into writing I released that I was not happy with my dialogue writing skill, but in the end, I just decided to just do it long enough that it started to feel natural to me.

I would like to hear your feedback on the chapter very much but on the dialogue mostly. I think it might seem clunky at times and some responses may seem not quite on the spot. But I assure you that in my head it made enough sense to leave it in here.

I might not upload a chapter for a while, since our final exams are coming already in the next month and I need to catch up since I was sick for a while and I fell back on my studies. But rest assured in the next month there will be a chapter, and if not for some strange reasons, I don't yet know, I will let you know.

But without further ado, I bid you Adieu

5stardragon20101

Thank you for your kind review!

Issei Lucifer

No, it will not be a Harry and Bella couple. This will be a parent figure Bella and a quite interesting Harry scenario. And thank you for reminding me to change the text on the first chapter!

Guest who commented on the first chapter, who I will hopefully never have the displeasure to recive comments from again

Well… frick you too!