So time passed by. Sirius, under the full Imperius Curse, took over the management of the other prisoners save for the Lestrange brothers. Bella still visited them from time to time for fun. She had cursed their eyes so they couldn't see, and their tongues so their couldn't speak. Every time she entered their cell they woke, and every time she left they fell into a charmed deep slumber within moments.

Their entire existence was narrowed down to feeling the pain only her Cruciatus Curse could bring, hearing her laughter, and having cursed nightmares of the same. Every so often Bella would bring her little Harry in to see them for his lessons, where she would further demonstrate various dark curses both with and without her wand. Some spells simply needed to be used on victims to be learnt properly, and with the amount of power her little dark prince put into his curses there was no way she was going to suggest he use them on her.

Apart from the pain and damage, Bellatrix didn't want the negative emotions he summoned to properly cast the spells to be associated with her in any way. Besides, her beloved seemed to take great pleasure in harming Rodolphus in particular. Rabastan he cursed happily enough, but her ex-husband suffered so beautifully under his magic that it made her shiver.

The turning point had been while attempting to teach Harry the Cruciatus Curse. She had lent him her secondary wand as usual; she didn't want him to get his own yet as the bonding hindered magical development when it occurred too young, but both she and Narcissa thought it best to get him used to a wand and the movements and incantations. Harry had been able to cast it after less than an hour of practice, but he couldn't maintain it properly for it to last more than just enough to knock someone over.

They had put it off for later when further practice yielded no improvement, to Harry's annoyance and to Bella's confusion. True it was a powerful curse, especially for one so young! But he had cast more powerful spells, more complex spells with greater ease than this. It was designed to be simple and easily learned, and it wasn't as though he were squeamish, after all she had shown him...

It had been Narcissa who realised what the problem was when she sat in on the next lesson to try and help him through his block. She had wandlessly erected some privacy wards before the lesson as usual so that their playthings didn't have the benefit of hearing anything but their own screams and Bella's laughter, a feat that filled her with pride and a growing sense of power.

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"Harry, my darling, do you know who this is? This is Rodolphus Lestrange. On Bella's seventeenth birthday, she was given to him by our mother to be his wife, even though he was bad. He tried to do bad things to her for many years but she managed to stop him each time. But because he was her husband she couldn't do anything about it until he got caught."

Harry's eyes widened and he turned to Bella. "He was your husband?"

Bella considered before answering. "Legally, yes. Technically, no. We were legally married and bound by contract, but I did not allow him to consummate the marriage." At Harry's confused expression, which was so adorable it earned him several kisses, she elaborated.

"When a couple is married they consummate the marriage, they make it official, by bonding in body, blood and magic by having sex. Usually, preferably, the woman is a virgin, having never had sex before. When they have sex for the first time blood is shed between them and mixed. It can work without the woman being a virgin but it is infinitely more powerful, and socially acceptable, if she is.

"At our wedding, Rodolphus was cursed by an angry past lover but he pulled me into its path and used me as a shield. Don't worry, I am fine." Bella had already asked him to feel her tummy and see if he could sense or 'fix' anything wrong, but he had not noticed anything beyond her warm, soft skin. Her magic simply didn't, couldn't, flow there anymore so he sensed nothing wrong. She held some small hope that he would be able to do something when he was older and more skilled, but she ruthlessly crushed and caged it lest it cause her more pain.

She took a small breath and continued.

"So I decided to never allow him to touch me that way, no matter how he tried."

She gave a wolfish grin, flashing a look at Cissy before turning it to her little Harry. "I'm still a virgin, Harry." Technically.

Narcissa spluttered but Harry turned to her with eyes brimming with questions before she could say anything about that statement.

"Er, no, Harry, I'm no longer a virgin. My husband was Lucius Malfoy, and he was not bad to me until recently so we did consummate our marriage. But his recent actions have negated our marriage contract and destroyed anything good between us."

He considered this for a little while before nodding as if in acceptance. But then his question caught her off guard.

"Was it good?"

Narcissa spluttered once more while Bellatrix tried in vain to contain her laughter.

"What?"

Not at all put off and more confused than anything else by their reactions, Harry pressed on with his innocent question, green eyes shining with curiosity.

"Was secks good?" He'd heard a little about it in the pensieve but wasn't too sure, apparently it was meant to feel good or something.

Bella actually fell over laughing, cackling madly at the sheer hilarity of the expression on her sister's face.

Dying inside, Narcissa pulled herself together before she fainted into blessed unconsciousness. She'd get Bella back for her laughter...

Suddenly she smiled and pulled little Harry to stand before her where she sat, thankful that she had been unable to fall over. She stared deep into his eyes, cupped his cheek and stroked his hair with her soft, pale fingers while she waited for Bella's laughter to die down. When it was quiet enough she leaned forward and whispered, just loud enough for her sister to hear.

"It was not nearly as good as it could have been, or as it will be with you." Before kissing his cheek near the corner of his lips, pulling him into her embrace and stroking her nails down his back, all the while smirking at a suddenly furious Bella.

Harry pulled back after a while and he kissed her cheek with an innocently happy smile on his face. "Ok! Do we do that now or after the lesson?"

Both sisters froze before exchanging a glance, then looking away giggling.

Bella spoke up into the silence to answer his rather interesting question. "My sweet, it's something that usually happens... years later. Normally when you are at least- well. Older. The legal age varies between the different ministries, if you bother with that ridiculous mass of stupidity, but more important is your... physical and emotional development. You are still very young my love, but perhaps we can... practice... before then...

"Not for years yet though, my love. And besides, I'm first, remember? Although we have gotten off the topic of this lesson."

Harry nodded and turned back to Rodolphus, missing Narcissa's small glare at her sister at the mention of her being first, who was breathing short breaths and cringing in anticipation, the magical silence getting to him almost as much as Bella's laughter.

He took a moment to think about the fact that this was the man who had tried to do bad things to Bella, the man who had been her husband, the man who had tried to touch her...

Something rose and grew within him, and he took it and threw it into his curse. "Crucio!"

Rodolphus screamed himself hoarse.

Harry looked at him with the makings of his very own twisted smile as Bella's spare wand channeled pleasure at his victim's pain through his arm up and into every part of him.

Narcissa looked on with pleased surprise, pride, and some small concern. Her little Harry was growing up so fast, maybe too fast.

Bella looked on with want. Her little dragon had just breathed his first flames and his power was beautiful.

Somewhere undefinable, two figures clung to each other sobbing, and looked away.

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Thought it end should here! Poor James and Lily. Rest of the chapter up tomorrow.