Her years at Hogwarts passed, and Bella, surrounded by those in her house, began to forget the feelings that she had had on that first day. She had tried to be friendly to Joshua for the first year, but her parents had heard and shouted at her so much over her first summer home that she stayed away from him the next year. She had explained, but felt a pang inside her when she saw his face. She had tried to talk to Penelope too, but she was much less keen to be friends than Joshua had been, so when Bella gave up after that first summer, she didn't seem to notice.
As the years passed she felt herself becoming more like those of her house, but this came at a cost. She began to lose herself in the persona that she presented to the world until that tough persona was all that remained. She had locked her true self inside, so that no one could see it and make fun of her. So all of her morals were locked inside of herself too. The torments and taunts she had heard in her first year died away and instead people began to respect her. She suspected that this was out of fear, as she had become more ruthless the more she locked her true self away. She didn't care about those around her, and didn't really have friends.
She began to date Rodolphus Lestrange, who was two years older than her, and the younger brother of Rabastan, the prefect who had spoken to them on her first night. She didn't care for him either, but her parents approved of the match, so that was all that mattered. She knew that she shouldn't care about her parents opinions as much as she did, but when she was at home they were so powerful that she simply had to submit to their wishes.
Her sisters were at Hogwarts now, and both had been sorted into Slytherin. Her cousins, Sirius and Regulus, were growing up too, and the whole family could tell that Sirius was different to the rest of them. She occasionally wondered what made him so different, but thinking about it made her tough persona begin to crack, as the feelings that she had repressed since her first day began to rise up again. Whenever this happened, she pushed them down deeper still.
She graduated from Hogwarts. She had heard about a person called Lord Voldemort, and she knew that her parents supported his beliefs. He thought that wizards and witches should reign supreme over muggles and Mudbloods, and so that was the view that Bella outwardly expressed. Inwardly, she wasn't sure but she knew that she could never say this out loud. Her parents would, at best, cast her out, and at worst, they might kill her. So, to cover up how she truly felt, she pursued Lord Voldemort and gradually joined him. Her parents had cast her sister, Andromeda, out because she had married a muggle-born, and Sirius had been kicked out at sixteen because he was a Gryffindor and so obviously rebelled against his parents and their beliefs. This just reinforced that she couldn't say anything about her beliefs to her parents. Andromeda and Sirius might have understood and helped her to get out of the family too, but she was now engaged to Rodolphus and was in too far with The Dark Lord. She knew that it would shame the family further if she expressed her true beliefs, and He would almost certainly kill her, so she pushed them down even more.
Bellatrix Black had become Bellatrix Lestrange, as she was married to Rodolphus now, and they were both in the Dark Lord's inner circle of trusted Death Eaters. He excited her in a way that no one else did, and the longer she was around him, the less she had to consciously supress her feelings. Then the war started, and there was no time for sentimentalism – her morals were so deep inside of her, that they could not raise a consciousness within her. The more she killed and tortured people, the more she decided that she liked it, and so the cycle continued. By the end of the war, she had lost count of the number of people that she had hurt, and her morals were long forgotten, as was that small voice that questioned whether she was fighting on the right side.
It was the afternoon of the thirty first of October, 1981. The Dark Lord had been told the prophecy by Severus Snape, and tonight was the night that he planned to act on what he knew. He knew where the Potter's were, thanks to the traitor Peter Pettigrew. Bella was sat with the Dark Lord as he outlined his plan. He had known for a while where the Potter's were, but he had waited until tonight to act. She wasn't sure why, but knew that he must have a good reason. He planned to go to Godric's Hollow alone – the Potter's had no idea that the Fidelius Charm had broken, that the Dark Lord was coming for them, so they would not be prepared for a fight. They thought they were safe, that their friend would never betray them, but they were wrong. Bella almost wanted to laugh at their stupidity. They had put their lives in the hands of someone else. Admittedly Wormtail had been one of Potter's closest friends at school, so the Potter's would have felt that they would be safe, but it was a mistake to trust anyone with something like this. Bella didn't entirely understand the Fidelius Charm, simply that the secret was put inside a person, but she wondered why one of the Potter's couldn't have kept the secret inside themselves. Surely that would have made absolutely certain that their secret would be kept safe? But she figured that they must have had a reason to choose someone other than themselves. Bella realised that her mind had wondered – it didn't often do that, so she guessed she must be tired. The Dark Lord would set off for Godric's Hollow when it was dark, and then she would be able to sleep.
It was Rabastan and Bart who came with the Daily Prophet on the morning of the first of November.
YOU-KNOW-WHO DISAPPEARS!
Last night, James and Lily Potter were murdered by He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named in their home in Godric's Hollow. Incredibly, it seems as though their baby son was also attacked, but survived without serious injury. You-Know-Who, on the other hand, has disappeared seemingly without a trace, and it is therefore assumed that he is gone.
The Daily Prophet article continued with all the information that was available, but all the Death Eaters could focus on was that their Lord was gone. He had been defeated by a baby. They knew that the Dark Lord had targeted Harry Potter because of a prophecy, but it seemed as though the Wizarding World at large did not.
Bella, Rodolphus, Rabastan and Bart were devastated when the Dark Lord fell. They figured that the Aurors must have knowledge of the Dark Lord's whereabouts, and they decided that, since the prophecy could also have referred to the Longbottom family, they were the most likely people to know. The four of them tracked the Aurors down and set off for their house. It was the third of November when they arrived at the house, which had pitiful security – it seemed as though the Aurors had let their guard down. They unlocked the front door and entered the house. They found Alice and Frank Longbottom, along with their baby, in the living room. It was the baby whom the prophecy could also have referred to, being born at the end of July. To begin with, the four Death Eaters simply asked where the Dark Lord was. They figured that their presence in the house would be enough to make the Aurors talk. But they were wrong. They continued to question the Longbottoms, but both of them continued to deny that they knew the whereabouts of the Dark Lord. The four Death Eaters were convinced that they were lying. They were sure that the Aurors would know where He had gone, so they persisted, beginning to use torture, namely the Cruciatus Curse, to try and get the information out of them. Still they continued to say that they did not know.
"Tell us and the pain stops!" Bella shouted at Alice.
"We don't know where he is! We don't know … please …" Alice sobbed back.
Bella thought she could see truth in Alice's face, but the others were clearly unconvinced by what Alice and Frank had said. So they continued the torture of the two Aurors. Bella, spurred on by her husband, cast the final Curse on Alice, which drove her into insanity. Rabastan cast the Curse on Frank, which caused his insanity. The four Death Eaters looked down at Alice and Frank Longbottom, who were mere shadows of the people that they had been. They did not know themselves or anyone around them. Bella looked down at the baby who was sat in a high chair. It had been his dinner time when the four Death Eaters came to call. The four of them looked at each other, and Bella could see what they were thinking. They were thinking that they should kill the baby, after all the prophecy could have been referring to him, so didn't it make sense to eliminate him now, whilst he was unprotected. Bella did not agree. She did not think that it would be necessary to kill the child, and anyway, something about the boy intrigued her. Here he was, sat in the same room as his parents who now had no idea who he was. Of course the boy was still an infant, not even two years old, so he would be unable to understand what he had just seen, but … Bart was raising his wand when the front door burst open, and they were all hit with stunning spells. As she lay on the floor, wondering how the Aurors had found out about their being at the Longbottom's house, Bella realised that they had all been taken by surprise. How had that happened? How had they been so focussed on the baby that they hadn't realised Aurors were closing in on them. And now they had been caught. Alice and Frank were evidence to what they had done. If only they had left immediately, they would still be free. Free to pursue any new leads on the whereabouts of the Dark Lord. But they had been captured. Caught by almost a dozen Aurors – there was no chance of escape.