Bella sat in the deserted library by herself, tucked into a corner with her knees up to her chest. She didn't want to go back the dorms, she didn't want to see anyone at all. Her mind was confused, and she was still only slightly less than terrified. She bit her lip subconsciously and dragged her hair over one shoulder, then wrapped her cloak tightly around herself. She hated to admit how frightened she was, and she made a silent promise to herself never to admit it to anyone who could hear her.

Footsteps in the library made her jump, and bring her knees up to her as far as they'd go, in some kind of desperate attempt to protect herself. She waited, wide-eyed for the owner of the footsteps to creep into what little light there was. Then, emerging from the shadows, Severus Snape skulked onto the scene; his little scrawny face glaring at her.

'Snape? What are you doing here?'

'I was waiting for someone.' He told her, still keeping his ground, hovering by a bookshelf.

'Who?' Bella inquired, her guard still up defensively.

'None of your business, Black.' He retorted, though his confidence was hidden somewhere in the books behind him.

Bella sighed and chose to ignore him.

'What are you doing here?' He turned the question back on her.

Her attention snapped back to him. 'Just sitting here. Evidently.'

'Very clever.'

'That is what I'm doing, Snape. I've got no other reason for being here.' Bella told him honestly, not really caring whether or not he believed it.

'Very well,' Snape sniffed nervously. 'just keep to yourself about it.'

'I was, thank you very much,' Bella replied stiffly. 'until you showed up.'

'Well,' Snape paused to find words that wouldn't make him look stupid. 'go back to it then.'

Bella didn't even reply to him, she just did what he told her to and stared back off in the opposite direction. She could still see Snape's skinny figure from in her peripheral vision, unable to block him out like she wanted to. However, he was no threat to her, so she left him be.

'Severus?' She heard a whispered female voice from somewhere close by. She recognised it, but couldn't put a name to it.

'Lily, I'm here.' Snape replied, taking a few steps closer to the darkness at the front of the library. Bella's eyes widened. Lily? She was meeting Snape in a darkened library in the early hours of the morning? Bella knew that Lily and Snape were friends, but this was absurd. Bella wouldn't meet any of her friends at this hour unless it was something spectacularly important.

Lily Evan's perfect little glowing eyes fell on Bella. She managed a weak, if not confused, smile.

'Hi, Bellatrix,' She said almost falsely, wearing an awkward smile. 'what are you doing here?'

'Just sitting around,' Bella told her. 'couldn't sleep.' It was probably true, except she hadn't tried to sleep.

'Oh,' Lily smiled. 'hope you're okay.'

'Yeah, I'm fine.' Bella returned. Snape began to look ever more disgruntled as the conversation had elapsed. He was glaring to intensely at Bella that she thought his head might explode, when she eventually turned to look at him.

'I'll just head back to my dorm,' Bella said stiffly, answering Snape's harsh stare.

'Oh, don't leave on my account, please.' Lily stepped in, looking considerably guilty as though it was her fault. Bella smiled at her innocence. She was about to reply, when Snape eventually lost his rag with the whole thing.

'I'll just go then!' He exclaimed. 'I'll leave you girls alone! I'll just let a mudblood stay alone in a darkened library in the middle of the night with a Slytherin pureblood, shall I? Oh, wise move that is,' He turned back to Lily, his eyes practically burning. 'if she's killed you by morning, well, don't say I didn't warn you!' And with that he stormed past her and stomped out of the library.

Lily's bottom lip quivered slightly. Bella didn't really know how to handle a situation like this, she was used to strong girls who cried when they were angry, rather than when they were upset. She sat un-moving for a moment, as Lily began to cry. Bella finally decided to get up, and tentatively put her arm around her. She led her back to the table Bella had been sitting at and placed her in the opposite chair. Not really sure of what else to do, she lightly gave her a tap on the shoulder, then returned to her original seat.

'Don't let it upset you…' Bella said quietly to Lily.

She took a quick gasp of air and wiped her eyes with her hands. 'But, it's just like… every time he's mad at me, he pulls the blood status card. I don't think he realises that just because he's mad at me, it doesn't count if he calls me a… a… well, you know. But it still hurts, Bellatrix.' Lily inhaled a couple more times before the tears stopped.

'Yeah…' Bella didn't really know what else to say, she could hardly comment on this issue! She called people mudbloods all the time!

'I'm sorry,' Lily began. 'I shouldn't burden you with this…'

'Lily! Don't apologise for this!' Bella exclaimed, hardly able to believe what she was hearing. 'You're not burdening me with this, I'm happy to listen. Honestly,'

'Thanks,' Lily choked. 'glad someone is. James doesn't seem to be very good at dealing with emotional things.'

'No, he really doesn't.' Bella muttered, her whole expression suddenly turning dark, just like it had that night she'd passed out. Her dark eyes seemed to become almost completely black. Lily shuddered and then regained her ability to speak.

'I'm sorry,' She started. Bella shook her head and returned back to her normal composure. 'but… do you know James, at all? Because you seem to, I don't know… react, every time I say his name.'

Bella paused, contemplating what to say next. She was going to be honest with Lily before, and she had very nearly told her, before he came back. She bit her lip. Lily Evans seemed like such a nice person, and to cripple her relationship with information such as this?

'In all honesty, I'm not sure I ought to say what my connection with James is…' Bella said with a sigh.

'Please.' Lily nodded at her, and gave her the kind of smile that suggested that on some level, she already knew.

'Okay,' Bella agreed reluctantly. 'we used to see each other, in secret – obviously. And it ended rather badly…'

'How so?'

'He started seeing you without breaking up with me.'

'What?' Lily breathed, her eyes widening to what seemed impossible. 'He'd just do that… I mean… what…' She sharply inhaled. 'Oh God.'

'I'm really sorry, Lily…'

'Don't be,' She replied quietly. 'It's James who should be sorry. I knew he was a bit mischievous, and maybe that's why I liked him… but this is just ridiculous! I don't know what to do…' She sighed and met Bella's eye contact. 'I feel like I want to kill him.'

'Guess that's something we've got in common.' Bella smirked. Lily's unusually cold expression broke and she smiled back.

Surprisingly, Bella wasn't actually tired the next morning. She'd taken an ever so slight detour to walk Lily back to her common room… well, it was a seven floor detour, actually, but still. She'd then gone back to her own dormitory and lay awake until everyone else woke up. They didn't even question where she'd been, just assumed she'd come in after they went to sleep.

She sat at the breakfast table, next to Lucy, with Abby on her other side. She wasn't hungry in the slightest, although the events she'd witnessed the night before seemed to be fading the tiniest bit. She was levitating her dry cereal piece by piece out of the bowl to give herself something to do.

'Bellatrix, don't play with your food.' She heard the cool and calm voice of Professor Dumbledore behind her. She dropped the piece of cereal back into the bowl and turned around to look at him.

'With all due respect, Professor-'

'Which means you are about to give me none of the due respect.'

'- I'm not sure what I do with my food is any concern of yours.' Bella raised an eyebrow at him, showing him that she was most certainly not intimidated by his authority.

'It will be.' He replied, a sad glaze appearing in his eyes. And with that he walked away. Bella rolled her eyes and turned back to the table.

'Crack-pot old fool, that one.' She mumbled to Lucy. She laughed and nodded back. Bella's smile didn't last long. She saw Remus Lupin enter the Great Hall with Sirius. She couldn't help but shudder, as her mind replayed last night's drama. She swallowed hard and tried not to let her face show her obvious fear.

'Bella, are you okay?' Lucy asked her quietly, trying not to alert anyone else.

'Fine,' Bella replied absently. Amidst all her fear, she'd just had a brilliant idea. She quickly scanned the room for James Potter and Peter Pettigrew – they were nowhere in sight. So they must still be in the castle somewhere. Bella grinned to herself. If she told James what she'd seen, that would be the perfect bargaining point, she could reason the map off him by threatening to tell everyone about Remus Lupin's little affliction! It was fool-proof. And she knew how scared Pettigrew was of her, so his part in all this would be pain-staking easy. She just needed the right leverage.

'I gotta go,' She quickly told Lucy, who had no choice to but accept it, because Bella didn't wait around for a reply.

As she left the Great Hall, she scanned the corridor for James. As she'd expected – nothing. She then remembered that room she'd seen them in before, the night previously. She headed up to the first floor, and found the classroom completely empty. She kicked the door in frustration. Now what? But in her moment of thought, she heard his voice. James. She slid into the door of the classroom and peered around it, just in time to see James and Peter Pettigrew walking down the main corridor.

'We need to get the rest of the ingredients, and then we can start it, okay?' James told him methodically.

'Okay…' Pettigrew mumbled. 'Where from?'

'Slughorn's cupboard – obviously.'

'I was afraid you'd say that.'

'Shut-up, Wormtail.'

He shut-up. Bella smirked to herself at the control James had over him. She quietly left the classroom and followed them to the dungeons, they were literally walking right into her home territory! This was too good. She knew that there was a small chamber just next to the store cupboard, and it had an inside lock. There had been a few nights last year when she was with Roddy that it had been useful… Bella shook her head and eliminated those thoughts. She didn't want them anyway, let alone right then.

As James and Pettigrew entered the store cupboard, Bella took her place by the door, lying in wait for them. She held her wand in a tight grip in her hand, ready to use it. They took a few minutes, but evidently knew what they were looking for, as they re-immerged in a short time. Bella non-verbally disarmed them. She pointed her wand straight at James' head, then flicked it towards the room next door, as she pocketed their wands. James obeyed her and Pettigrew followed him. Bella shut the door behind her, then locked it.

'I saw something last night, Potter,' Bella started in somewhat of a snarl.

'No shit.' James answered coolly. She rolled her eyes. Pettigrew on the other hand was quivering at his side, shaking almost violently, and occasionally emitting a whimpering noise.

'Shut-up, Wormtail.' Bella emulated what James had said earlier. Pettigrew didn't seem to question it, as evidently he was used to hearing it. James, however, gave Bella quizzical look.

'What did you just say?'

'I was hoping you could tell me.' She recalled what she'd seen written on the map the night before. '"Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs." Fancy elaborating?' James glared at her and said noting. 'Okay then. I'm going to guess that Prongs is you… you make a fine stag, by the way – although it is a bit of an ego-trip, isn't it? That's one step down from calling yourself a stallion.'

James' glare intensified. Bella smirked, glad she was having the desired effect. 'And my cousin… he'd be Padfoot, wouldn't he? A dog, is it? And you-' She turned her wand rapidly to Pettigrew, he let out a small shriek. 'Shut-up, Wormtail!' She grinned and laughed to herself slightly manically. She served a chilled grin to James. 'A rat, a mouse? Something small and un-important like that.'

'And,' Bella continued. 'saving the best until last – Moony. That's got to be Lupin, right? That calm, cool, helpful guy that always seems to care about everyone else… is a werewolf.'

'That's enough, Bella,' James finally spoke, his voice gruff and aggressive. 'just leave it now.'

'I haven't even reached the point of this chat, yet!' She giggled, flicking her wand towards a shelf above Pettigrew's head. It tilted sideways and a small book slipped off the edge and dropped almost comically onto his head. He whimpered again and looked at James to do something. James didn't break his glare with Bella.

'I want that map.' She said simply.

'No.' James replied identically.

'Or, I'll tell everyone I can about Remus Lupin's little secret.' Bella gave him the ultimatum.

'Go ahead,' James shrugged, although Bella suspected he was bluffing. 'Professor Dumbledore knows anyway, so do all the staff. He'll stop you dead in your tracks if you try.'

'I don't think you quite realise the power of gossip in this school, James,' Bella chuckled. 'I only have to tell one person for everyone to find out.'

James seemed to have forgotten that factor, as his un-nerved expression dropped for a second. 'Well you're not having that map. Take whatever you want, just not that map.'

'And hence my second factor of persuasion,' Bella took a step forward as if to indicate this second proposition, her wand still raised towards James' head. She shifted her gaze to Pettigrew for a moment. 'you may want to cover your ears, this might get a bit personal.' She giggled to herself at her little joke, before drawing her attention back to James again. 'I have seen you naked, Potter. So if you're not bothered about having me spread rumours about your friends, what about yourself? Especially with your new girlfriend…' Bella pouted. 'Be a shame for her to hear it from gossip that you asked another girl to marry you, and slept with her…'

'But you're putting yourself out there with that too, aren't you?' James asked, confused. 'You'd be spreading gossip about yourself in the process…' He thought he'd found a loop-hole in her plan, but he hadn't.

She laughed coldly. 'I don't think so. James, you forget that people already think I'm a slag. And I really don't care. What have I got to lose? Absolutely nothing. I'm Captain of my Quidditch team, so they can't kick me off. People are already scared of me, is that really going to change if they found out I slept with you? I don't think so. I mean, let's be honest, I could just call you target practice…'

James made a shuffle forwards, as if he was going to make a swing for her. His fist flew into the air, but Bella ducked, her quick reflexes taking over. She grabbed his arm in mid-air and snapped it behind James' back in a flash.

'Try anything like that again, Potter, and I won't just pull your arm,' She licked his ear simply because she could. 'I'll break it.' James didn't even struggle, or even react when she licked him. She giggled, and pushed him back against the wall, forcing herself against him.

'You'll give me that map, else I'll take it by force.' She whispered, her face literally directly in front of his. She could still see Pettigrew in her peripheral vision, flicked her wrist to aim her wand at him. 'Don't move an inch.' She told him, although not moving her eyes from James. Pettigrew froze and screwed his eyes up to stop himself running the risk of looking at her in the wrong way.

'You're out of control, Bellatrix.' James told her hotly.

'Give me that map, and I'll re-gain my control,' She bit her lip for a second. 'if you want me to.' She was enjoying playing with James like this, she didn't even realise she would do. But she wasn't doing any harm, it's not as if he was going to return her actions, so she might as well intimidate him on a whole new level. James took a split second to think, before he realised that he only way he might be able to beat her, was at her own game. He kissed her. He expected that to give him a moment of time, at least. But it did no such thing. Bella almost knew he would do it, and she used that time he'd created during the kiss, to move her wand and hold it pointed under his chin. She left his lips.

'You've seen what I can do without a wand, care to see what I can do with one?' She smirked at him.

James raised an eyebrow. 'Oh, I think we both know what you can do… with a wand.'

Bella shrugged at his attempt at banter. She lowered her wand to an area far more delicate. 'Yeah. And I think you can find out more, if you like.' The colour had instantly drained from James' face as he realised what she was threatening.

'The slightest little spell and it's lights-out downstairs.' Bella warned him. James nodded meekly. 'So – the map? Where is it?'

'Inside pocket of my robes.' James said in a surprisingly high voice. Bella gave him an amused look, before gently pushing her hand into his robes and into the pocket. Her hand found the map and dragged it out.

'Thank-you.' She smiled, then kissed him on the cheek, if only to make the whole event that little bit more memorable for him. She stepped back wards and began backing towards the door, her wand still aimed at them. Pettigrew opened one eye and peered at her nervously. She ignored him.

'You two will wait exactly where you are,' Bella instructed them. 'then I'll throw your wands back into the room.' She unlocked the door behind her back and opened it. She left the room, still watching them, quickly slid their wands into the room and sprinted down the corridor, right into the Slytherin common room, it was in such close proximity, it was perfect. She grinned to herself. Now she had the map. It showed the passageways to Hogsmeade. It showed her a way to meet Tom Riddle any time she wanted to. Her grin widened. He'd be so pleased with her when she told him at the weekend. She jogged up to her dorm to hide the map somewhere safe, feeling like she'd got the ultimate step-up on James Potter. And it felt good.