Disclaimer: I am not JKR nor do own any of her works, I am just someone whom loves to take a wand and stir in her magical world a bit. I do this merely for my own pleasure and that of the readers, not for money.

Author's Notes: Sorry it took a while before I was able to add a new chapter to the story. I know some people don't like the cliffhanger endings I have on my stories, but it's just the way I choose to break the story up as I don't like making chapters that are too long. Furthermore I apologize if there are any grammar issues, as mentioned before I currently don't have a beta and next to that English isn't my first language, so I ask you to bare with me and enjoy the story nonetheless.

PADDING INTO BLACK FOOTSTEPS
chapter five: truth be told

"And I… hate you… Bella… but.. you are… my wife…"

Instantly she lashed out and struck his cheek with her hand, her nails once again moving across her skin, drawing blood in the process. Harry flinched and nearly scowled but ended up smirking instead as the dark witch slowly rose back to her feet and pulled the dark gray blanket from the bed around her body. Her eyes were still shooting fire for what he had said after all of this, in her opinion these foolish games and lies had to end as they simply weren't funny.

"Quit those lies Potter… you know it's not true… say that lie again and I'll curse you beyond recognition… not even your ickle friends will notice it is you when they find you."

Her words were harsh and Harry had no doubt she meant them utterly, though so had he when he said his. While she wasn't liking it perhaps, neither was he fully liking the idea either but he had figured it was the best way of doing things. No, he had to stick to his plan so after taking a deep breath he decided to speak up again, hoping that she wouldn't curse him too quickly.

"And what if I can prove it?"

Bellatrix rose a suspicious eyebrow at him as she narrowed her eyes, though it didn't make her glare any less deadly. Seeing that she didn't respond except for the fact that her anger was noticeably rising, Harry decided to move on.

"Dobby!"

The name had barely been spoken or a plop was heard in the room, announcing the arrival of the house elf to those inside. The small creature was happy to see Harry but that soon changed as he spotted Bellatrix in the room as well. The sight of the woman made his eyes widen even more, if that was even possible. Quickly the elf ducked behind Harry, peeking over his shoulder to the witch.

"What does Master Harry do with… her? Dobby need to get Master out of here?"

"No, Dobby… I want you to get something for me, make your way over to Gringotts and get one of their identification potions for me… and… have them put their seal on it."

Both the house elf as well as Bellatrix seemed to be confused at his request, though the latter was definitely hiding it much better. Nonetheless Dobby disappeared again to get what he was told to get, meanwhile it remained awkwardly silent in the room. The situation was causing them both to seemingly forget what had happened moments ago, as well as that neither of them had gotten dressed yet.

Only a few minutes later Dobby returned with a pop, carrying a package which he handed over to Harry while keeping a nervous eye on the witch in the room. Seeing the uneasiness within the creature he dismissed the house elf, whom eagerly left the room once he was allowed to. With Dobby gone Harry leaned over and held out the package to Bellatrix.

"What do you want me to do with that, Potter?"

"Use it of course… it will prove that what I said was true. And in case you don't trust it, feel free to check the seal on it."

He had expected her to not trust the package, accuse it of being a forgery or some prank made by those annoying Weasley twins, but by having it sealed she couldn't. Snatching the package from the boy she carefully examined it, first by simply looking at all sides of it before moving onto magic. Once she had done pretty much everything she knew in order to reveal any tampering with it, she had to admit that it was real, much to her dismay. Reluctantly she began to unwrap it, the annoyance still clearly visible in her eyes as she glanced at Harry a few times.

Inside the package Bellatrix found three pieces of parchment, of which one contained the instructions to the potion written in a very scratchy handwriting, as well two vials containing a clear liquid, a quill and a needle. Sighing to herself she walked over to the table and put things down on there while Harry continued to watch from the bed. After she had read the instructions he rose to his feet as well and cautiously walked closer, still not sure if she would curse him or not.

Muttering slightly she used the needle to puncture her finger enough so she could allow three drops of her blood to drip into one of the vials, as soon as the blood hit the liquid inside it began to shift colors till it settled as a deep dark blue after the third drop of blood was added. Picking up the quill the witch glared at Harry again.

"If this turns out to be some kind of sick joke… you'll wish the Dark Lord had killed you when you were still an ickle baby Potter."

Her words were harsh and were raising the hairs in the back of his neck, the boy knew she was serious with her threats but even though the nerves began to act up more he knew that he was speaking the truth earlier.

Finally she dipped the quill into the now blue liquid before moving the tip of it on one of the empty pieces of parchment. As soon as it hit the paper writing began to appear on it, it looked exactly like her own handwriting yet she wasn't moving the quill at all. Instead she was looking at what started to appear.

"[i]Bellatrix Druella Black

Born December 21st, 1951

Magical Status:

Widow of Roldolphus Arcturus Lestrange[/i]"

"See? You little shit!"

Bellatrix instantly snapped as the words appeared, turning towards the young boy standing beside her. She had her talon-shaped wand already pointed at his bare body ready to unleash a curse with a mere uttering of the incantation. The movement made Harry step back quickly, hell who wouldn't, but instead of raising his own wand he pointed over to the parchment again.

"What? Quit those jokes, Potter, it says I'm a widow… so that proves you are lying, Potter."

"Yes, it does say that Bellatrix… but it's not all it says…"

As her frustrations grew bigger she glanced over to the parchment, not expecting to see anything new but to her surprise and shock there was. Her wand slowly lowered as she read it over and over, unable to believe her eyes.

"[i]Bellatrix Druella Black

Born December 21st, 1951

Magical Status:

Widow of Roldolphus Arcturus Lestrange

Wife of Harry James Potter[/i]"

"No, it can't be… no, it can't…'

The dark witch uttered those words several times, over and over in that almost childlike voice of hers, tossing her wand onto the table she grabbed the second vial and once again followed the instructions, only to get the very same result out of it… she was indeed legally married to Harry Potter.

As she jumped up from her chair it fell back on the ground, though at the same time she was already pushing the boy back down on the bed with a hiss. She ended up straddling him once again, but this time for a whole different reason.

"What did you do Potter? Tell me…. NOW! How the fuck….how?"

It took Harry a few to get over being startled, pounced on and getting the wind knocked out of his body all at once. On top of that he was pretty much being threatened as well, because she was shaking him in a violent manner as she demanded answers.

"Alright, alright… I'll explain… just stop shaking, will you?"

While she stopped shaking him with a grumble, she kept holding him pinned down. It did give the boy a quite nice view but it was still Bellatrix on top of him and well they both had other things in mind than a repeat of earlier.

"First of all, the reason that this is possible is for something that happened about a year ago in Diagon Alley… I didn't know back then that it was you, but you were being…. bothered… by some of your fellow Death Eaters…"

Instantly her expression changed instantly as she heard it, once again shock and surprise took over yet there was also a hint of pain in there as she remembered it all too well.

It had been only shortly after her escape from Azkaban and they had been there to get wands from Ollivander, seeing they couldn't go all at once they'd gone in groups. She had been the last one to go, yet some of the others decided she could wait for their entertainment. After all over a decade without female companionship tends to affect certain men. Bellatrix had tried to fight them off but them having wands ended up being an advantage, till out of nowhere some of them had been disarmed. Without thinking she'd ran…

She had never known whom had saved her, nor had she thought about it either as she simply had wanted to forget the whole ordeal and quickly move on. Of course she had made sure to put the men involved into place but other than that it had ended up locked away somewhere in the back of her mind.

"From there I just needed the opportunity… I know I couldn't do it with… Him… around and next to that there was Rodolphus, as well as the Order watching me for almost every moment of the day. Fortunately I know how to avoid them and when I learned about you seeking retribution at the Ministry, I was able to execute my plan…"

"You mean…"

"Yes, my reason to interfere was not to save the others, but to lure out you and your late husband… I made sure he would see me each time, so he'd follow me. I knew you would be after me as well and pretty much the first to respond to whom ever saw me… it took me a while to get rid of the others, before I could make my next step.

Using you to hide my spell, I fired my Avada Kedavra , so once you moved out of the way it was impossible for Rodolphus to defend himself. Once he was out of the picture, it was merely left to getting us out of sight and claiming the life debt."

Bellatrix narrowed her eyes several times as Harry spoke, trying to find out if he were lying or not, but she couldn't pick up on any of lies within his words.

"So you had it all planned out, Potter?"

"All but one part, it still required consuming the marriage… fortunately, well, it turned out easier than I thought… good though!"

The latter instantly was followed by the sound of a hard slap, as well as an red hue which began to appear on his cheek more and more. While she said it mostly about the comment he made, in reality she wanted to slap herself just as hard. The witch realized she had played exactly into the boys hands throughout it all and while she maybe should be happy about knowing whom saved her, she definitely wasn't showing any of it. Instead it was all anger and frustration that was there.

"Quite a move Potter, almost Slytherin worthy… but quit fucking with me.. and tell me why!"