Thanks again for all of the lovely reviews and your follows/favourites since the last chapter. As always they are greatly appreciated and continue to put a smile on my face.

Here is the latest chapter so please read, enjoy and please do feel free to leave a review if you have a moment as I adore hearing your thoughts. :D

The Purple Black

Nymphadora spent the rest of her Christmas break within the walls of Lestrange Manor. Though the Malfoy's did come to visit them on Christmas day after Bellatrix had a 'discussion' with her days previously as to why she would not be going anywhere near Black Manor again, no matter what her sister believed to be the tradition. It did seem that Narcissa would rather visit her sister in her own home than test if the threat to murder their father was a bluff. Dora couldn't help but be grateful at that, she didn't particularly wish to go back to her Grandfather anytime soon (if ever) and she did have to admit after seeing her Aunt so angry she was half tempted to kill the man herself if Bellatrix truly was bluffing, though she somehow doubted she was. Still, the rest of the holiday's were a quiet affair and it seemed that barely any time had passed at all when Nymphadora was sat back in the Slytherin common room completing the days' assigned potions essay. She had mainly avoided her peers as per usual, though she was hardly surprised as Rowle came to sit opposite her with Gibbon.

"Gibbon I can't help it if you're failing potions, do your own homework." Dora sighed, barely looking up from her parchment.

"I'm not failing potions." Gibbon snorted.

"Yet." Dora sighed, putting her quill and parchment down to look at the boys, "What do you want?"

"What's wrong with you today?" Gibbon asked.

"Nothing's wrong with me." Dora rolled her eyes.

"No, this is as friendly as Nymphadora gets." Rowle joked, causing the other boy to laugh.

"Oh come on, I helped you out before Christmas Nymphadora." Gibbon sighed.

"If you're looking to pull in a favour I can tell you now the answer will be no." Dora scoffed.

"We're not looking for a favour." Rowle said, "We wanted to know if you'd be interested in going to Hogsmeade with us this weekend."

Dora raised an eyebrow at the pair for a moment before she shook her head, "I don't know what sort of perverse threesome you two have in mind but I am not interested."

"You flatter yourself." Rowle sighed.

"Oh really? Are you asking to be slapped again, Thorfinn?"

"Slapped?" Gibbon asked.

"Shut up, Gibbon." Rowle hissed.

"There isn't even a Hogsmeade trip planned for this weekend." Dora said.

"Exactly." Rowle smirked, leaning closer to the girl and lowering his voice "But we fancied going anyway and thought who better than you to join us on our little adventure?"

"You mean you want me to morph to stop you guys getting into trouble when you inevitably get caught." Dora scoffed.

"No, we won't get caught." Gibbon sighed, "Come on, Rowle I told you she'd be too chicken for something as important as this."

"First of all," Dora glared at the boy, the tips of her hair tinging red, "I am not a 'chicken' and second of all, pissing off to Hogsmeade for the hell of it is hardly important, is it?"

"That's where you're wrong." Gibbon smirked. "You see I have something that I need to collect and it needs to be collected this weekend."

"Forgot your teddy bear at home, hmm?" Dora asked, smirking as Rowle let out a scoff of laughter. "You know you can just get Mummy to post it to you."

"Forget it." Gibbon glared at the girl, "You're too scared."

"I am not." Dora shrugged, "I can just think of many reasons to sneak out of the castle and running your errands is not one of them. In fact, maybe I will go for a journey into Hogsmeade just for the fun of it."

"Yeah right, the last time you got caught breaking the rules you got kicked out of your house, clearly you don't want to risk getting in trouble again or you'll be left homeless this time around." Gibbon retorted.

"Oh fuck off." Dora snapped, stuffing her parchment and quill into her bag before standing up and storming off to her dorm room, ignoring the sniggers of the boys behind her. She was not a chicken, she had never been—and she was determined to prove it.

A unrecognisable witch walked out of Honeydukes, a bag full of a mixture of sugar quills, acid pops and a couple of chocolate frogs stuffed into her handbag. Nymphadora Tonks had morphed into a woman in her mid 20's, with blonde hair and bright blue eyes she knew that she wouldn't get caught with this disguise. Though she hadn't come to Hogsmeade merely to get sweets, that was merely a small benefit to her endeavour. She was determined to prove to Gibbon, Rowle and the rest of Slytherin for that matter, that she was not one to be messed with. After an uneventful first half of her first week back, the second half had mainly involved Nymphadora finding it more and more difficult to ignore the mutterings of Rosier and her gang of friends. She knew her Aunt wouldn't approve of her risking using the Cruciatus on the girl again to merely shut her up and starting a duel in the middle of the school didn't seem like a viable answer either. Perhaps if she could just deal with the boys of Slytherin first by further proving that she could break the rules with little risk or worry they may respect her in some small way, that perhaps would be enough to get the girls to shut up. The girls in her year seemed to be sickeningly attracted to most of the boys and if they respected her they may in turn at least stop muttering about her so openly.

As the Shrieking Shack eventually came into view Nymphadora couldn't help but think of the stupidity of her plan. Why did she feel the insistent need to rebel, to break to rules and go against near anything her mother ever tried to teach her? It wasn't like she needed to live within her mother's rules anymore and Nymphadora couldn't help but think if her Aunt found out about this she would only find it amusing. Perhaps she would even join her.

Dora shook her head in amusement at the thought, it was Bellatrix that had taught her to break the rules and rebel if she truly thought about it. She took a deep breath as she reached the door to the shack, shaking away the small voice in the back of her mind that told her that she shouldn't be going into such a building on her own. She quickly dismissed the thought, though she drew her wand as a precaution, making her way into the rickety old building. Dora jumped the moment she entered, seeing a cracked mirror in front of her and mistaking her reflection for being some other occupant of the old house. With a sigh she dropped her morph, she didn't need to hide her identity in an abandoned building and seeing as her hair flashed white at her sudden fright anyway she hardly saw the point. She took in her surroundings, wondering what she could take from the place to prove to the boys that she had been here as she made her way upstairs. It was then that she heard the sound of movement, causing her to freeze at the top of the stairs.

"Pull yourself together," Dora whispered to herself, "probably a rat or something."

She took a moment to gather herself before looking around the top floor of the building, eventually deciding to enter what looked like an old bedroom. Dora wrinkled her nose slightly at the filth of the room, kicking away an old bottle of Merlin knows what from the middle of the floor.

"Come on . . . What can I get . . ." Dora mused to herself.

"What are you looking for?" a man's voice sounded from behind her, causing her to unwillingly let out a yelp of fright before turning to point her wand at the man before her. He was a scruffy looking man, with an old robe that had clearly been patched up more than once, the odd faint line of a scar on his face that looked almost like claw marks and dishevelled sandy brown hair. "Sorry, I didn't mean to frighten you . . . But what are you doing here?"

"I—" Dora went to answer the man for a moment before she thought better of it, narrowing her eyes and standing slightly straighter as she kept her wand trained on the stranger "What are you doing here?" Nymphadora forced herself to sound confident, though she had to admit her tone was slightly lacking in confidence due to the undeniable sense of fear of being confronted by such a man in a supposedly abandoned house.

". . . I thought I saw someone in here, I thought I'd check it out." He said.

"Really?" Dora asked, unconvinced of the man's story.

"School kids tend to break in here from time to time." The man smiled kindly at the girl.

"Like you're breaking in here? I didn't hear the door open after I came in here." Dora said.

"You're smart," the man let out a small laugh, "what's your name?"

"None of your business." Dora said defensively.

"Right . . . Well I'm Remus," the man outreached his hand to the girl, awkwardly waiting to shake her hand as she refused to drop her wand, he eventually sighed and lowered his own hand. "did you come in here on a dare?"

"No." Dora snapped.

"Right . . . Well, you were looking for something . . . perhaps to prove that you came in here?" Remus said, waiting for a reply for the girl that did not come "There's a stack of old papers in the corner, take one of them."

". . . I didn't come here on a dare." Dora said defensively, though none the less she went and retrieved a paper.

"Of course not." Remus said, "Though you should perhaps get back to school—"

"I'm not a student." Dora lied instantly.

"Right, sorry, well then you best get home." Remus said, "It's going to be dark soon and it's a full moon tonight, that brings out all the crazies."

"Right . . ." Dora looked the man over again, holding the paper tightly in her hands. She was undeniably relieved when Remus sighed, moving far out of the way of the door so that as she walked past him she had a wide birth. She only just remembered to morph back into her disguise as she left the shack, near enough running back to Honeydukes to make her way back to the school. As she hurried up the passageway and back towards the statue of the one-eyed witch Dora returned to her usual appearance, trying not to think of the strange man she had encountered on her journey as she stuffed the paper into her bag, slipping out from behind the statue.

"I'm telling you if the map has that on it we should try it—" a small ginger first year paused as his twin brother hit him on the arm, drawing his attention to the sixth year Slytherin girl now staring at them. If Nymphadora hadn't still been focused on how fast her heart was racing from her near run back to the school she would have laughed at the one boy quickly hiding the large piece of parchment behind his back.

"What do you have there?" Dora asked.

"What were you doing behind that statue?" the second boy asked.

". . . I dropped my inkpot." Dora shrugged.

"So where is it?" the first boy asked.

"What's your name, Filch?" Dora snapped, "Now get out of my way before I make you get out of my way."

"Ouch, threatening eleven-year-olds."

"She's a Slytherin, Fred, what do you expect."

"Come on, George, we have better things to be getting on with."

Nymphadora rolled her eyes as the twins walked on past her, making her own way back to the Slytherin dungeons with the intentions of finding Rowle and Gibbons purely to throw the dusty old paper in their faces.

The rest of Dora's school years went quickly, her little trip to the Shrieking Shack did shut the boys up and merely left her with the ability to continue on relatively unbothered by her peers. She didn't care though, Hogwarts had never been her favourite place and she had to admit that she was slightly excited to be able to spend as much time with her Aunt as she wanted and no longer have to deal with her peers. She had been out of school for barely a few weeks though she already knew she much preferred the life of a graduate Hogwarts student. She had half expected Bellatrix or Rodolphus to tell her to get a job once she arrived home, though this had yet to happen. She had been given access to the Lestrange vault (something Rodolphus didn't seem so enthusiastic about) and the longer Dora lived with her Aunt and Uncle, the more she came to the realisation that the women in her family didn't really seem to work for a living. Narcissa seemed to merely be a fulltime housewife and mother to her cousin and Bellatrix . . . well, Bellatrix spent her days obsessing over the return of The Dark Lord whilst simultaneously training Dora. She had been quite blunt with her recently, telling her how she would be a perfect servant for her master and that she needed to ensure she was 'brought up to standard', Dora had to admit it did seem quite appealing and was more than enjoying her time with her Aunt. Though today was quite a mundane day in Dora's opinion as they had just arrived at Malfoy Manor to meet with Narcissa, Dora was already daydreaming about the latest training her Aunt had put her through as the timid elf poured tea.

"So do you have any plans now that you've left school, Dora?" Narcissa asked as the elf levitated her cup of tea over to her, the witch managing to take it without even acknowledging the house elf dressed in a pillowcase.

"Umm, I've not thought about it." Dora said, declining her own cup of tea; she had horrible memories of spilling the last cup her Aunt had previously offered her all over her pristine white carpet.

"Dora's perfectly happy at home with me, we have big plans." Bellatrix couldn't help but smirk as she tried to hide it behind her own teacup whilst her sister gave her a knowing and disapproving look, "How's Draco?"

"Fine," Narcissa sighed "he's very excited to be leaving for school this year, I'm taking him shopping for supplies soon."

"It's a shame Dora has left school, it would have been nice if she could have been there for Draco in his first year." Bella mused.

"Yes, well I'm sure he'll be okay though I am worried about him." Narcissa sighed, "He's never been away from me for so long."

"I can always go talk to him." Dora offered, "I can give him some advice and it might be nice for him to talk to someone who's been there."

"We all went to Hogwarts, Dora." Narcissa laughed slightly as she put down her tea.

"A long time ago." Bella shrugged. "I think she has a point."

"It was not that long ago." Narcissa said to her sister, holding her head high as Bellatrix couldn't help but smirk at her defensive reaction "I am not that old . . . Though perhaps you have a point, Dora. If you don't mind?"

"It would be my pleasure." Dora smiled innocently as she stood.

"Good. Dobby, show Dora to Draco."

"Yes, Mistress." The elf bowed, immediately running to the door and leading the way for Nymphadora. The boy was not hard to find, though Dora suspected that House Elves always knew where to find their masters, Draco Malfoy was in his bedroom as the elf knocked on his door.

After a few moments the boy answered the door, looking to the elf with distaste as he told him to leave before looking to his cousin and letting her into his room. Dora had a strange relationship with her cousin, one of almost friendship as they had met a few times when they were younger and Dora had always managed to amuse him with her morphing talents. Though as she got older she suspected he was becoming more distant from her, though she couldn't quite decide if that was merely due to the boy growing up or him beginning to realise that Nymphadora wasn't exactly the perfect sort of pureblood specimen that he was used to socialising with. Nevertheless, the boy let her into her room, letting her make herself comfortable on the seating of the window ledge.

"I take it Aunt Bella is with my mother?" Draco asked.

"Yeah . . . It gets a bit boring when they have their little tea parties sometimes, I must admit." Dora grinned as the boy let out a huff of agreement, "I thought I'd come see you, seeing as you're flying the nest to go off to school soon."

"You make it sound as if I'm leaving the family." Draco scoffed.

"Nah, you can't do that—it's already been done, it won't be original if you do it too." Dora winked at the boy as he went to sit on his bed to face her. "You nervous?"

"No," Draco said quickly, "why would I be?"

Dora shrugged "Most people are. You start worrying over if you'll be put in the house you want, if you'll make friends, if you'll even like it—"

"I'll be in Slytherin, I know I will." Draco said indignantly.

"Of course you will. Even if the hat tries to put you somewhere else you can usually reason with it and get what you want." Dora shrugged, "Though I'm sure you won't have to do that . . . You know you've got very interesting classmates in your year, Draco."

"Harry Potter?" Draco asked, sighing as Dora nodded "Father's already had this discussion with me if that's why you're really here."

"What discussion?" Dora raised an eyebrow, intrigued.

"About Potter . . ." Draco hesitated for a moment, looking to the door as if expecting someone to be listening in, only continuing when he was somehow satisfied that they were truly alone, "Father thinks he might be some true dark wizard, perhaps even more powerful than the Dark Lord. He thinks I should try and befriend him." Draco winced as Dora made a noise that insinuated she did not agree with the suggestion, "Think about it, who else could kill such a powerful wizard when they are only a baby but another at least equally powerful dark wizard."

"First off, there isn't a dark wizard more powerful than The Dark Lord, secondly he isn't dead and if you don't want to be put through a world of pain I suggest you don't let Aunt Bella hear you say such things."

"She's been telling you her stories, hasn't she?" Draco asked.

"More than that, kid." Dora couldn't help but smirk as a look of utter intrigue crossed the boy's face, "Look, I wouldn't expect to find the next Dark Lord in an eleven-year-old orphan."

"How do you explain him, then? If he isn't powerful then how does a baby defeat the Dark Lord." Draco raised an eyebrow at the girl.

"He's not defeated, he'll be back." Dora sighed as Draco rolled his eyes at her, "I would explain it as a very lucky little baby and very bizarre circumstances that no-one really knows. Do you think if we had a rock-solid answer as to how he did it the whole of the wizarding world would still be wondering?"

"I'm not saying it's 'rock-solid'," Draco scoffed, "I'm saying it's my father's theory and I think it's quite a good one."

"Well, of course, you would." Dora rolled her eyes, "Look, maybe it's a good idea to keep an eye on him—I suppose trying to befriend him wouldn't hurt. But either way let me know what he's like, you've gotten me curious."

"Like you weren't already." Draco smirked.

"Hey, I am simply taking an interest in my little cousin's life." Dora shrugged, "Now come on, tell me how you really feel about school and I might feel generous and give away a few secret passage locations I may or may not know about—but don't tell your parents for Merlin's sake."

Draco grinned at the girl, relaxing slightly as he began to talk about his hopes and fears for his next seven years of life. It wasn't until an hour later that Bellatrix came to retrieve her so that they could leave and once they had said their goodbyes Bellatrix did not speak a word to the girl until they had arrived in their specially warded training room back at Lestrange Manor.

"So?" Bellatrix raised an eyebrow at the girl. "What did the boy say about Potter?"

"He's going to keep an eye on him; let me know what he thinks." Dora smirked, she had to admit it had been far easier to talk to the boy about such things than she had originally thought when her Aunt had given her the task. "You should hear some of the things Uncle Lucius is saying about Potter though."

"Like what?" Bellatrix asked curiously.

"Mainly that he thinks that a one-year-old can be an all-powerful dark wizard." Dora couldn't help but laugh along with her Aunt at that comment, though she decided she wouldn't mention the other things Lucius had said to his son. Nymphadora had seen examples of how Bellatrix Lestrange was still fiercely loyal to her lord and personally she didn't want to be the cause of her Aunt trying to kill Lucius Malfoy in a fit of rage. "He said he's going to write to me."

"He best remember." Bellatrix sighed.

"Oh he will—I may have promised to tell him some hidden secrets of Hogwarts that his parents may not be too happy about if they found out."

Bellatrix laughed, speaking sarcastically as she walked across from her niece to take up a duelling stance "Now that is naughty, Dora."

"I learn from the best." Nymphadora smirked, drawing her wand just in time to deflect the first curse from her Aunt as they fell into their routine of training for the day.

So, I hope you enjoyed, please do leave a review and let me know what you think! I tend to reply to all of my reviews so yeah, let me know. :D

The Purple Black