Review:

Xavras: Do you mean 'Darunia'? I had to go back and look at the review. I'm really confused as to why someone who hates magic with the same passion as the Dursleys is reading HP fanfiction. Anyway, thanks for reading, glad you like it.

fallendemon248: I once read a fic where Dumbledore forces a muggle raised Harry to come to Hogwarts, just before a group of random people that were born around the same time killed voldemort.

StabbingFate: two girls in this fic, Daphne and Liv.

Surtur's Penis: I enjoy writing mostly, I suppose I like people reading my work. If you mean this specific fic then it's because the idea of a good-guy Bellatrix has been touched on in other fics, there she's normally a love interest. So I figured I'd try and see what would happen if she was a mother instead. Love your name, BTW.

Chapter 28 -

Liv yawned as she sat down in her seat in charms class, sitting next to her was Hermione and sitting in the two seats in front of them were Ron and Neville. To their right were the other Gryffindors while the Slytherins usually sat on the opposite side of the class. A quick glance showed her that most of the Slytherins were sitting there, already. There was Crabbe and Goyle, those two hardly seemed like the brightest spells in an arsenal. Nott and Blaise, the two of them were the quiet type, at least from what she had seen, they didn't really stand out much in comparison to the others. There was Pansy, the girl who appeared to automatically look like she smelt something disgusting whenever she spotted anyone who wasn't wearing a green tie. Draco was a total git as far as she was concerned, clearly born and raised rich, that was obvious even before he opened his mouth to remind people of it. Mostly he reminded Ron about it, he appeared to enjoy poking fun at him for having a poor family.

Then there was Daphne.

Daphne had bright blue eyes that were often times as cold as ice, along with beautiful blonde hair which combined with her pretty face gave her a look that most girls would die for her. Pretty much everyone could tell that Daphne would be quite good-looking once she was older, though fortunately for the other girls in the school, they didn't have to worry about Daphne stealing their boyfriends as she was seemingly only interested in one boy, one who was not here at the moment.

She noticed that Neville had been staring at them for a moment before he turned to Ron.

"Where's Black?" He whispered to Ron.

"Probably off talking to snakes or something," Ron whispered back.

Professor Flitwick walked into the class, giving everyone his usual cheery greeting before he climbed up a small staircase so he could step up onto his desk. He looked around and closed the door to the classroom with a flick of his wand before effortlessly summoning the register to his hand. He paused before he could open up the register and looked around once more.

"And where is Mr Black?" He asked curiously, looking at the Slytherin students, apparently making sure he wasn't hiding in between them. Draco let out an amused snort as he stared at the Gryffindors, giving them a smirk that quite clearly said 'I know something that you all don't, isn't that just hilarious?' before he turned to Professor Flitwick, he puffed out his chest and opened his mouth to speak when he was cut off by Daphne who had raised her hand up. Liv couldn't help but stare at Daphne, comparing her to Hermione. When Hermione raised her hand, she reached as far up as possible, practically begging to be heard. Daphne's hand was barely higher than her head, her expression no different than usual. 'I will be heard,' She seemed to say, looking unfairly classy whilst performing such a simple act.

"Yes, Miss Greengrass?" Professor Flitwick asked curiously.

"Sir, I'm not quite sure why you have not been informed by the headmaster or deputy headmistress, but Hydrus is not here for the day." She said, all posh and pleasant and perfect.

"Oh, and why is that?" He asked with a small frown.

"That's because he is currently away and competing in the national under twelve-duelling tournament," Daphne told him.

"Really?" Professor Flitwick squeaked, a smile on his face whilst the rest of the class began whispering to each other.

"Yes, Professor," Daphne nodded. "His mother took him to compete, Professor Dumbledore was already informed of this."

"She's not really his mother, is she?" Neville couldn't help but speak up. Daphne's gaze turned to him, levelling him with a cool look that made the boy shiver. For as brave and angry as he could be, Neville was not a confident wizard, and the look that Daphne was sending him would intimidate most people their age.

"She's as good as," Daphne said, leaving no room for arguments, and Neville wisely did not. Seemingly satisfied by his silence, she turned back to Professor Flitwick. "He should be back in classes by tomorrow," She told him.

"Oh, well good luck to him," Professor Flitwick smiled. "National under twelve along with the British under twelve? Certainly an ambitious young man," He added approvingly.

"He is a Slytherin, Sir," Daphne pointed out with a small smile.

"Indeed, now, back to class," Professor Flitwick said.

"And now, for the first match of the tournament, allow me to introduce the current British 'Under Twelve' duelling champion, accompanied by his mother Bellatrix Black, is Mr Hydrus Black!"

A decent amount of cheering came from the crowd as Hydrus walked out, followed by Bellatrix. He took a moment to look around, the stadium was filled with people from various countries, and the location of the tournament differed every year. This year it was held in England, luckily enough for Hydrus, though the previous year it had been in Japan and the year before it had been held in America.

The stadium seemed simple enough, a wooden structure with plenty of seating, there was a small tower for the judges to sit. In that tower, there were a trio of male judges, not a single one of them looking under sixty. Sitting in a tower on the opposite side of the stage was a glass box with one table inside with one person, the announcer, though for one reason or the other, there were three chairs.

In front of Harry was a dark purple duelling stage that for some reason or the other was decorated with pretty, sparkly stars along the side. The cheers Hydrus got were pretty decent as far as he was concerned, many people didn't like him or his mother for one reason or the other, but they at least knew that he was competent enough as a dueller and likely the country's best chance of winning.

Bellatrix wore classy purple robes and had her hair let down into a beautiful bunch of curls, while Hydrus was dressed in the same outfit he wore in the British tournament: black trousers, duelling gloves and a T-shirt with the Black family crest on his chest, along with it he had light grey robes and boots and had styled his shoulder length hair into a bun, allowing a few strands of hair to fall down over his forehead.

"Alright," Bellatrix said as she and Hydrus walked up to the platform, "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, Mother," Hydrus nodded. "And yourself?" He asked as they climbed up the platform.

"I'm...having doubts..." She admitted.

"Doubts?" Hydrus repeated confusedly.

"I just...I don't know if this is a good idea," She sighed deeply as they got to the top of the platform.

"Mother, it's too late to back out now, you know this," Hydrus replied, looking at her like she had just burst into song.

"I know but..." She paused and stared deeply at him, taking a moment to seemingly gather the courage to ask the question that was on her mind. "...Are you sure we shouldn't change your hair into a ponytail? I mean, the bun looks great and I really wanted you to have it in a bun but now I've been thinking about it and last time you had a ponytail when you won. What if the ponytail was lucky? Did we fuck up by not having the lucky ponytail?" She said worriedly.

"Mum, I'm pretty sure the ponytail wasn't the key to my victory," Hydrus explained, though he did sound a bit uncertain.

"How sure?"

"Like...eighty-nine point seventy-seven percent," Hydrus shrugged. "Wait, what if the lucky thing was the hair band we used to tie my hair? I lost that band, this is a new one." He gestured to the hair band in his hair.

"Shit!" Bellatrix's eyes went wide before she closed them and took a very deep breath. "You know what, forget it, we're Blacks, we don't need lucky items."

"Agreed," Hydrus nodded just as the announcer spoke up again.

"With that being said, don't lose this hair band." She quickly added.

"Agreed," Hydrus repeated.

"And introducing his opponent, all the way from Spain and accompanied by her father, Josh Garcia, is Rio Garcia!" From the opposite end of the stadium, a confident dark-skinned girl with curly hair walked out, accompanied by a bald man with a moustache who was likely supposed to be her father.

"Hmm," Bellatrix hummed thoughtfully. "So we'll start with conquering Spain then," She whispered to Hydrus who simply grinned in response as his opponent arrived on the opposite end of the stage.

"And now, before we begin, I have a small announcement," The announcer announced. "With me today in the announcer's box are two very special guests, and I'd like you all to welcome me in giving them a warm welcome. Ladies and gentlemen, please give a heartfelt cheer for the British Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge and our Chief Warlock, Albus Dumbledore!"

Hydrus and Bellatrix's eyes narrowed with scary synchronisation as they stared at the announcer's box, sitting on the left side of the announcer was Minister Fudge who was looking as pleased as punch, waving and soaking up the cheers from th crowd. Meanwhile, Albus Dumbledore himself was sitting on the other side, looking like the perfect picture of an elderly grandfather as he sat there in his purple robes with star designs.

'Wait, purple with star designs?' Hydrus thought just before he and Bellatrix looked down at the purple stage with star designs.

"Mother..." Hydrus muttered.

"Fucker!" Bellatrix groaned.

"I think it's quite amazing, to be honest," Hermione said as she and Liv sat in the library together. The pair of them had decided to come to the library and complete their homework, Hermione had tried to convince Ron and Neville to come along but Ron had refused and managed to convince Neville to stay with him and play chess.

Liv oftentimes found it hard to understand the two, Neville would be as Gryffindor as one could possibly be if he was face to face with Hydrus Black, but outside of that, he felt more like a kitten than a lion. He was struggling with his practical work and often times wondered if he was a squib yet he was still allowing himself to be pulled into a chess game instead of devoting his all to get better at magic. Liv wasn't really sure why the boy struggled so hard in class, she had many times noticed that he was performing the correct wand movements and incantations when doing a spell, yet for one reason or the other, it all went cock-up.

Then there was Ron, Ron was born in the world of magic, to him it was as simple as tap water, nothing to really make a fuss about unless you counted really amazing-looking magic like Professor McGonagall's animal transformations. Ron was confident that he would join the Gryffindor quidditch team, and soon eventually go on to join his favourite quidditch team, 'The Chudley Cannons', a team that was obviously not the best in the world, no matter what Ron insisted on. Liv didn't really know how good Ron was at quidditch, but from what she had seen in their flying lessons, he was decent yet not anything to write home about.

"I mean, could you imagine competing in an international duelling tournament?" Hermione continued whilst writing down notes for transfiguration.

"How good do you think you'd be?" Liv asked curiously whilst absently finishing up her charms homework.

"Well," Hermione bit her lower lip thoughtfully. "I suppose I know a decent amount of spells for someone our age, but I've got no duelling experience at all. It can't be as simple as just throwing spells at each other, right?"

"I'd imagine there would be a lot of dodging involved," Liv replied.

"Exactly, I'm not the most athletic girl in the world," Hermione admitted, somewhat embarrassed as everyone in school knew that her idea of a good time was sitting down with a book in front of her. "Still, I wish we could go and see it. It'd be such a wonderful learning opportunity to see real duels in action."

"Do you think Black will win?" Liv asked, having finally finished her charms homework.

"Hmm, maybe," Hermione hummed. "He certainly seems to know what he's doing in class,"

"He's a fighter as well," Liv said whilst packing away her stuff. "He held his own against all the Gryffindor boys in a fistfight." And wasn't that just surprising? Liv knew that if Draco Malfoy had been in the same situation then he probably wouldn't have faired anywhere near as well, she would have thought he was all talk if not for the fact that he was pretty decent when it came to magic. But he was obviously no Hydrus Black, the other Gryffindors didn't see it, but she did. Hydrus Black was not normal.

"I still can't believe how many points they lost," Hermione grumbled, having worked hard for those points. "Still, I think Black has a decent chance of winning."

"He will win," A voice said confidently, Liv looked to her right and saw Daphne Greengrass reaching into a shelf and pulling out a book, she stared at it for a second before she put it back, she turned and looked at Liv. "Are you done with that?" She asked, gesturing to the charms book on the table.

"Sure, have it," Liv said absently as she stared at Daphne. "You seem pretty sure that Black will win," She noted.

"I'd bet my trust vault on it," Daphne said, completely serious as she took the book and stared at the cover for a second before nodding with satisfaction. "Thank you, Cooper," She said before turning to Hermione. "Granger," She nodded before walking off.

"Well, she's certainly confident," Hermione commented.

"I wouldn't worry," Hydrus grinned as he leaned his head to the side to avoid a jinx that flew past him, he stared at his latest and final opponent. A rough-looking Bulgarian boy called Walter, the two of them were both tired down by their previous duels. Thankfully, Hydrus had better stamina than his opponent and wasn't as tired as him, as evidenced by Waleter's shoulders gradually lowering as the fight went on. Walter tried to hide it, he really did, but Hydrus could tell he was tired and like a shark, he smelt blood. "To lose to a Black is not a shame, in my country, it's just something that people should expect."

"Quiet!" Walter snapped, shouting what Hydrus assumed was a Bulgarian swear word before he sent a red curse at Hydrus. Hydrus stepped to the side and jabbed his wand forward in a twisting motion, sending a purple spell with a red spiral at Walter whose eyes widened as he quickly jumped to the side, and put up a shield in time to block Hydrus's second spell. Walter ducked a third spell before returning fire, Hydrus leaned to the side before sending a tripping jinx that clipped Walter's legs, causing him to fall on his back. Walter quickly tried to get up but was sent back to the ground when he was hit in the head with a slap jinx that did as the name implied and made him feel like he had just been slapped. Hard.

"Expelliarmus!" Hydrus cast and Walter's wand went flying out of his hand and off of the platform.

"YES!" Bellatrix cheered loudly and rushed up the stage before the crowd erupted into cheers and screams.

"And the winner, representing Great Britain, is Hydrus Black!" The announcer's voice screamed over the cheering crowd.

"You won!" Bellatrix squealed as she pulled Hydrus into a hug. "Oh, my precious, beautiful boy!" She screamed happily as she hugged him tightly. "You won!"

"I'm your son, of course, I won," Hydrus snorted as he hugged her back, smiling widely. "Guess I didn't need the lucky ponytail after all, eh?"

"Yeah, you didn't," Bellatrix smiled brightly as she took a step back. "We're keeping the hair band though."

"Oh yeah, obviously," Hydrus quickly agreed.

"What's going on?" Liv wondered as she entered the great hall with Hermione for breakfast, she saw the Slytherin table vibrating with joy, she noticed Hydrus Black was sitting on the table surrounded by the first-year Slytherins and many upper years, all clearly wanting to talk with the boy who was clearly enjoying the attention if the smile on his face was any indication. The other tables would occasionally look over at him, at the Gryffindor table she noticed that Neville's face seemed to be fixed into a scowl while Ron was staring at the newspaper in front of him with disbelief.

"I think you can guess what happened," Hermione said as they walked over to the table. Liv didn't take long to work it out, Hydrus had been in the tournament yesterday and now he was here being treated like a hero, he had obviously won. As she sat down she looked over at the newspaper in front of Ron, the front page was a moving picture of Hydrus being handed a large trophy by a portly man in a striped suit with a bowler's hat while a beautiful woman stood behind Hydrus, a woman that she was going to assume was his mother.

"So, he won, eh?" Liv spoke up as Hermione held up her own newspaper.

"Yes," Hermione said as she turned the page and began reading. "The Daily Prophet says here that his final opponent was a boy from a school named Durmstrang, his name was 'Wilter' and Black beat him in five minutes. Black won the tournament and got a five hundred galleon reward along with the trophy, presented to him by the Minister of Magic himself. According to this, he valiantly represented the country and his family, showing great skill and..."

"I get it," Liv said, cutting her off as she took her own newspaper and began reading. "No wonder he looks proud,"

"He must have cheated," Neville insisted with Ron quickly agreeing with a nod.

"Please," Hermione scoffed. "I know you two don't like him but you can't deny how good he is with a wand."

"Agreed," Liv spoke up. "You two need to stay away from him, he's Slytherin's star now. If nothing else, you should at least remember that he can tear the two of you into pieces."