Chapter Eleven

A/N: Thank you to kittyhawk09 for reviewing the last chapter.

Sirius rapped his fist against the wall that concealed the Slytherin Common Room. He had learnt its precise location from his brother when the boy had been Sorted into their ancestral House a year earlier, although his parents had lectured him on the fact for many years. He simply hadn't paid attention to them; he hadn't done for a while now.

As the stones began to peel apart, similar to the ones separated Diagon Alley from the Leaky Cauldron, Sirius hoped beyond all hope that the person stood behind it would be Andromeda, even Regulus, or just a nameless Pureblood, someone he didn't know that he could ask to fetch one of the others. But once the gap had grown wide enough, he saw that he had not been lucky in the least. There was no mistaking the figure of the young woman there. Bellatrix Black; soon to be Bellatrix Lestrange.

"Would you look at who it is?" she sneered at him, looking her cousin up and down with an expression of distaste. "The runt of the litter finally plucked up the courage to come out from his den of lions."

"There's no need to be hostile, Bella." he responded, spitting out the woman's nickname as if it were poison on his tongue. She glared slightly at his tone of voice, though it was one that she used when addressing him on the majority of occasions. "Look, I'm not here for fun. I need to tell you something, something important."

"Well, go on then. Spit it out." she instructed, her tone showing a very clear element of boredom, as did her facial expression. However, he could also hear a slight bit of interest, just enough to know that he had her attention. 'That's good enough for me.' he thought.

"I think that I've found Narcissa." he blurted out, and suddenly, Bellatrix's face fell, her scowl replaced with an expression of pure shock. Sirius was hardly surprised by this. His cousin may have been a cold, unfeeling and spiteful witch to the majority of people, but when it came to her youngest sister, she had always had a softer side.

"You'd better come inside." she told him, her voice little more than a whisper, its harsh edge softened by his revelation. Nodding his head slightly, the younger boy took a step forward, crossing the threshold into the Slytherin common room.

It was as dark and uninviting as the majority of the students themselves, precisely the way Sirius had imagined it to be, though he had not had much left to his imagination, as his family had always described the place in such great detail to them when they were younger. In truth, he had felt a great deal safer in the corridor, out in the open, as opposed to here, which was quite obviously the territory of the Pureblood supremacists. 'Not a good place for a Gryffindor blood traitor like me.' he thought, though he did so with a little less fear than he had done before.

Bellatrix took a seat in one of the dark coloured, high backed chairs that stood by one of the mahogany tables near the fire, inviting him to sit in the other with a curt nod of her head, though the gesture was for show more than anything else, as Sirius knew how desperate she was to hear what he had to say.

They stayed quiet for a moment, waiting for the members of the younger years to disperse to the library or the dormitories, having taken the hint that the eldest Black sister wished to be left alone with her cousin. After all, none of them wanted to get on the wrong side of Bellatrix, as many of them had seen or heard of the results of doing so. However, once the sound of the closing door gave way to complete silence, the boy finally found that this was the time to speak.

"Professor McGonagall decided that some of the older students in Gryffindor should mentor the younger ones, to help them get to grips with life at Hogwarts." he began, but was quickly cut across by Bellatrix's yawn.

"Yes, I'm aware of that, thank you." she told him, her voice dripping with boredom and the sarcastic edge that was typical of her usual tone when she spoke to those she thought to be inferior. "Professor Slughorn has tried to do something much the same. I refused, of course. If they cannot become used to being in Slytherin House, then they should never have been here in the first place."

"Just let me finish, would you?!" Sirius exclaimed, becoming a little annoyed that she continually asked him to speak and then stopped him from doing so. Surprisingly, the young woman heeded his warning and fell into silence. "The girl I'm mentoring, she's called Anastasia Selwyn. But there's something off about her. She doesn't seem to be who she says she is for some reason, like she's been told something about herself for so long that she's started to believe it. And the way she looks; she looks how Cissy should have done."

"What year is she?" Bellatrix asked, no longer bothering to make a show of not caring about what he had to say.

"First." he responded quickly, having expected the question. "The same year as Cissy should have been in by now."

"So, there's no room for doubt, then? It's definitely Cissy?" the young woman questioned her cousin, and Sirius frowned slightly. It was strange to see Bellatrix Black, well-renowned as a woman with a heart of stone, care so much about someone. The tentative way in which she had spoken her question reminded him just how much she cared for Narcissa.

"I think it must be." he replied, nodding his head slightly, and though he kept his expression fairly neutral, the boy felt his heart soar with excitement. He loved his youngest cousin dearly, and to think that he had finally found her, he could hardly believe his fortune.

Now, only one thing remained to do; tell the girl herself.

A/N: Please review!