She thought her life was over – but fate gave her another chance, in a world of magic. Now, running around Hogwarts with James Potter and his friends, she's about to make choices that will change the future in ways she never thought possible…

Marauder's Phase

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Bellatrix

No One's P.O.V:

Early the next morning, Sirius awoke to find himself floating seven feet off the ground, and looked around to see Emma standing there, wand pointed at him and a finger to her lips, the universal sign for 'shh'.

It took all of Sirius' control not to say anything when she just let him fall – he landed on a few strategically placed pillows, and jumped to his feet.

That was when he noticed that Emma was wearing new Gryffindor robes (black, with the Gryffindor crest on the left side of the front), a new school skirt, jumper, shirt and scarf, which was tied twice around her neck since it was such a cold November morning.

"I'm going for a walk," She whispered. "Wanna come with me?"

"Why are you going for a walk this early?" Sirius wanted to know.

"You'll see." Emma smiled mysteriously. "Let's just say, I want to make myself scarce for awhile…"

Sirius looked at her. "What did you do?"

She smirked. "You'll find out later on. Now, are you coming with me or not?"

Sirius shrugged. "Sure, why not?" And he took off his nightshirt.

Emma's eyes nearly bugged out of her head, and Sirius seriously enjoyed the look on her face when she saw what was underneath the shirt.

"Oh God…" She muttered, and turned toward the wall. "I am no longer a virgin…"

"What was that?" Sirius asked cheerfully, as he pulled on a pair of his Hogwart's trousers.

"Nothing." Emma muttered, only turning around when Sirius was fully dressed, and placed a hand on her shoulder. Her heart was still pounding – how did she get to be friends with someone like this!?

Oh, yeah – she saved his best friend from the werewolf that was their other best friend.

***

Ten minutes later, Sirius and I were walking side-by-side through the Hogwarts grounds, leaving footprints in the snow wherever we walked, and discussing spells I would be likely to learn from Dumbledore.

"He'll probably start off finding out what you know," Sirius said.

"Lucky Remus and I made that list," I added, liking how the fountain out in the courtyard had completely frozen over.

"You mean Remus made the list." Sirius teased.

"You haven't seen my handwriting, Siri – it's seriously bad." I replied, as we came to the edge of the Forbidden Forest.

Sirius checked his watch. "Not even five-thirty," He grinned at me. "Wanna go for a run?"

"What, now?" I asked, glancing behind us at the castle.

"Yeah, I mean who's gonna be up at this hour?" Sirius said, before he transformed into the huge black dog.

I eyed him critically. "Well, at least one of us blends in." I told him, before transforming into the white wolf, which wasn't as big as Sirius' Animagus form, but still big enough to keep up with him as we ran through the forest, leaving heavy, clawed paw-prints in the snow. I loved running through the flurry of snow, just enjoying the feeling of being free and of being a wolf.

I'm not sure how long we spent like that, just enjoying ourselves as animals, but we both stopped and pricked up our ears when a loud scream echoed from the castle.

Coming toward the edge of the forest, we both transformed back into humans, and Sirius said: "What did you do?"

I grinned, as we approached the castle courtyard. "I got the idea from The Bible, and also from our very own Peter, not to mention a movie I saw so aptly named Rats – every time somebody says the word that insults muggle-borns…"

We were interrupted by a scream, and we both turned to see Serilda Roans come flying out of the castle in her nightgown, followed by a horde of angry rats, pouring out of the castle in their tens of thousands.

"I HAAAATE RAAAATS!!!!!!!!" Serilda screamed, before coming to a dead stop when she saw me and Sirius standing there in the snow, matching looks of amusement on our faces. "You!" She cried, pointing a finger at me. "You're the one who did this to me, you…" She was cut off as the horde of rats stampeded over her, heading toward the Forbidden Forest.

Sirius turned to me. "Think we should add that one to your list, Em?" He was grinning.

I grinned back. "I love magic…"

***

I met up with the Marauders in the Great Hall at lunch, after having my first meeting with Albus Dumbledore.

"So, how'd it go?" James called to me, when I was still about ten feet away from him.

"Good," I said, when I'd reached them. "Professor Dumbledore reckons I should be able to catch up in about a month, give or take a few weeks, depending on how easily I pick it up."

"And the ones that you already know?" Sirius asked, smirking.

"I don't know what you're talking about." I said sweetly, just as a sixth year Slytherin boy chose that moment to say the word 'mudblood', and was soon chased out of the Great Hall by a mass of angry cats.

James and Sirius roared with laughter, and since most of the Gryffindor students knew by now that it had been me who set the curse, I was congratulated left and right as we sat down at the Gryffindor table.

"They deserve it." I said decisively, taking a quick drink of pumpkin juice, and then setting it down. "Wait'll you see what happens if they say it so a muggle-born's face…" I caught Lily Evan's eye from up the table, and smiled uncertainly at her. She smiled back at me.

I liked how she was wearing her scarf, it made it look like a bow. I would have to ask her how she'd done that.

***

"Later guys!" I waved to the Marauders, as they headed off to Charms class, and I headed back upstairs to the Gryffindor common room, intent on figuring out a way around my money problems.

I walked down a second floor corridor, and turned the corner right…to see none other than Bellatrix Lestrange waiting for me, wand out and ready.

My own wand was out in a second, and my breathing came out in sharp, ragged sounds – my heart was pounding. "What do you want Bellatrix?" I called to her, unsure I wanted to know the answer.

Her twisted smile grew. "You've been causing trouble for us Slytherins, little Emmy," She said mockingly, and I clenched the first that wasn't holding the wand. "So they elected me to teach you why you shouldn't mess with Slytherins – I thought for sure my little cousin would've taught you that, although him being the arrogant idiot that he is…"

"SHUT UP!!"I shouted, surprising even myself. "DON'T YOU DARE SAY ANYTHING BAD ABOUT SIRIUS!!" I was angry at Bellatrix, an unknown feeling was welling up inside of me. How dare she insult Sirius, how dare she…

Bellatrix smirked. "Standing up for him? I didn't think he was quite your type, but I guess birds of a feather…you all love those filthy muggle-borns so much"

"Furnunculus!"

The spell narrowly avoided hitting Bellatrix, who let out a high-pitched cackle-like laugh, and shouted: "Densaugeo!"

I Matrixed my way out of it, not wanting to be hit with the tooth-growing spell, and then straightened up. "Expallia…"

"Crucio!" Bellatrix's face was alright with something I could only define as madness, and I ducked, landing on the floor with a thud, unable to believe that she'd just tried to use an Unforgivable curse on me, but I guess I should have expected it, knowing that she'd become a Death Eater later on in life. I was breathing hard, filled with dread and just trying to decide my next move, when I heard Bellatrix start to say the incantation again.

Quick as a flash, I was on my feet and shouting: "EXPALLIAMUS!!"

Bellatrix's wand flew out of her hands…and hit Professor McGonagall in the face, as she was coming around the other corner.

There was a moment of complete silence, as my wand was still raised, and then the Professor began shouting.

"THERE IS STRICTLY TO BE NO MAGIC IN THE CORRIDORS!!" She yelled, her face contorted with rage. "FIFTY POINTS WILL BE TAKEN FROM EACH OF YOUR HOUSES, AND I…"

"She attacked me first Professor!" Bellatrix said suddenly, pointing at me. "She tried to use Furnunculus on me – I was just defending myself!"

Professor McGonagall looked at me, waiting for confirmation. My lips felt very dry all of a sudden, as I lowered my wand. "Umm, that's true, I did, b-but only because she insulted Sirius, and then she tried to…"

"I was just protecting myself!" Bellatrix cut me off.

"That's enough, both of you!" Professor McGonagall said firmly. "Miss. Lestrange, I shall inform your head of house about what had happened here." She turned to me. "And as for you Miss. Pax, well, let me just say that I am very disappointed in you. You have been at Hogwarts for less then a week now, and already you have managed to cause a great deal of trouble. Here at Hogwarts, we deal with this type of rule breaking very severely."

I was so upset I was shaking. This was just like when Harry got in trouble for defending himself from the Cruciatus curse that Draco Malfoy had been about to use on him. If anyone should be severely punished, then it was Bellatrix, who was smirking at me, sure that I wouldn't say anything about it.

"Do you have anything to say for yourself, Miss. Pax?" Professor McGonagall asked me, looking at me very sternly.

This was it! This was my big chance! I took a deep breath, and said: "Just one thing, Professor."

"Yes?" She said, waiting.

"I don't deny that I made the first move in the fight," I admitted. "And I don't deny that I should be punished, for not controlling my temper. But she," I said, pointing a shaking finger at Bellatrix, whose smile was frozen on her face now. "Should be punished too, perhaps even more so."

"And why is that, Miss. Pax?" Professor McGonagall wanted to know.

"For trying to use the Cruciatus curse on me – twice." I said quietly.