A/N: Not my sandbox, just my sand castle. I don't own anything from Harry Potter. Additionally, no one has permission to bind and sell my works, fandom or otherwise. Shame on you for exploiting other people's works!

Hello everyone! Welcome back to another fic :) Please enjoy this standalone one-shot that takes place in BeaWrites' "all we need is love (and a ghost)" fic that she wrote (and we fully brainstormed off screen, so please look forward to longer pieces either here or on AO3. Bea, we really need to stop meeting like this XD ) for Round 4 of the QLFC. As how we've written it, Lily falls in love with Sirius instead of James, and, well, you'll just have to read on to find out what happened :3

Bea's fic does NOT need to be read in order to understand this. I will be doing my best to explain this universe in this fic, and to explain why Bella seems super OOC.

This one is for Round 1 of The Houses Competition, where I'm in Gryffindor House and writing for Potions. This competition, we have to write a drabble (500-1000 words) as well as a standard (1000-3000 words). This fic is the Standard of the two. Prompts are listed below.

Thank you kindly to ace and Dora for the beta!

Word Count: 1556

Disclaimers/Warnings: Depictions of bullying and a broken wrist

Summary: Six-year-old twins Harry and Hermione are playing in the park when they encounter their first bully. Hermione doesn't take kindly to people bullying her little brother; DifferentFamily!AU, NoVoldemort!AU, OOCBellatrix

Prompts:

The Houses Competition Y11 R1

Standard

(Restriction) Only takes place in one location

(Action) Pushing someone on a swing

"Thank her lucky stars (and lucky they are)"

With a keen eye, Bellatrix kept watch over her cousin's children, and the future of the Black family as they played on the Muggle playground across the street from Number 12 Grimmauld Place. Her cousin and his wife needed some child-free time, and the two six-year-old twins created enough chaos that Bellatrix had felt pity for the couple. It wasn't hard for her to agree to take the two out to play, but it did make her ruminate on how she got into this mess.

Admittedly, it was because of these two bundles of joy that Bellatrix rejoined her family. It was because of them that she was around children at all. Because of them, she never would have been at a Muggle park voluntarily, just on principle alone. She would have delighted in hexing her cousin and Muggleborn wife instead of taking their children out of the house for a time.

But these two…they were her little dress up dolls. They looked at her with unconditional love and admiration that she knew she had never earned, but they had given regardless.

Bellatrix blamed the Muggle in them. Sirius just said that's what a loving family is like.

And it saved her life and her future. The arrival of her niece and nephew came at a critical moment of her participation in some unscrupulous activities with old classmates of hers. She had never liked Muggles, thought them dirty and lazy and beneath her, and Muggleborns even more so, since they descended from them.

But then the patriarch of their family, Arcturus Black III, had demanded she sit down with her sisters and with Cousin Sirius' wife and have a nice long chat. It hadn't been a productive chat, but it had been an eye-opening one. One thing led to another, and suddenly she was Auntie Bella and one of the few people that her niece and nephew–for lack of a better term for them–would stop screaming for when they were only two. It had been a long four years since then, but Bella was grateful for her family.

Her old classmates had just been arrested, for trying an insurrection against the Ministry of Magic to throw out all of the Muggleborn and leave only the Purebloods and Halfbloods in charge.

Bella scoffed as her eyes scanned the playground, looking for the two children in her charge.

"Harry Arcturus! Hermione Carina! Show yourselves!" she called out. There was a pitter-patter of feet, and then two messy-haired children popped their identical heads around a slide from the far side of the play equipment.

"Here we are, Auntie Bella!" Hermione called out with a giggle.

"Thank you!" Upon receiving their agreed-upon dismissive phrase, the two children dashed back off, shrieks of delight coming from them as they finally went down the large red slide. Bellatrix moved to the other side of the play structure to keep a better eye on them. If she was to fall into reverie again, she wanted to make sure to idly watch them play. The two took off for the swing set, and Bellatrix followed.

"Come push us, Auntie Bella!" Harry called out, grinning widely. Bella smiled as she made a mental note to take them out more often. There were only five short years until they were off to Hogwarts, and she wouldn't be able to spoil them rotten before returning them to their parents. Which reminded her, she needed to buy them all new wardrobes for the fall season. Due to Samhain coming soon, Muggle fashions were getting their gothic collections back again, and Bellatrix lived in that aesthetic. And the Muggle clothes were so much cheaper than Wizarding fashion, too! A little wand waving, and she had an entire wardrobe of Muggle styles with Wizarding quality-of-life charms.

Bellatrix alternated between pushing Harry and Hermione on the swings, watching warmly as they went higher and higher, the two giggling madly.

"Okay, okay, that's enough!" Hermione demanded.

"Alright, I'll be back here if you need me," Bella replied before backing off and leaning against the chain link fence.

It had all started at school. Sirius had fallen in love with the one witch he couldn't have, because his best friend wanted her. Lily, on the other hand, had other things in mind, and one thing led to another, and a birthday happened, and nine months later, two screaming babies made their way into the world. It was these two children, actually, that had caused Great-Uncle Arcturus to bring Sirius back into the family. As it had been told to her, the family had been in severe decline, and Great-Uncle Arcturus had despaired for the family. Apparently, in his generation, there had been over thirty of them, including spouses. And now?

Now it was Bella and her sisters, both of them with only one child each, not for lack of trying. Regulus, despite finally being married, still had no children, and Sirius had two on his first try.

There were nine of them, excluding the children, and Bellatrix had realized that her fear of the Muggles wiping them out should have been directed inward. What was the wizarding world doing to increase birth rates? What was it doing to encourage the next generation to be born?

Screaming–and not the happy kind–suddenly grabbed Bellatrix's attention. Hermione stood in front of Harry, between him and a much larger child, who looked to be about three years older than the twins. The larger boy was grinning toothily at the two, and Hermione merely glared back as Harry held his wrist close to him.

"Say you're sorry!" Hermione demanded.

"Sorry you didn't get off the swing fast enough!" the bully retorted laughingly. If anything, Hermione's scowl deepened. Bellatrix straightened to intervene, but Hermione was too fast. Lightning quick, her fist jabbed out and struck him in the stomach. The bully doubled over, and Hermione pushed him, sprawling out on the ground. Bellatrix noticed the slight flash of light that indicated Hermione had used some accidental magic in the fight. The bully didn't get up right away, but when he staggered to his feet moments later, he stared at them confusedly.

"Now get out of here, and stop bullying kids smaller than you!" Hermione demanded. The bully took off out of the playground, and Bellatrix chose that moment to approach the kids. She pulled Harry into a hug before resting a hand on Hermione's unruly curls. Harry sought comfort in her just as Hermione leaned over for her own hug. Bella embraced them both.

"Good job, Little Star," Bellatrix praised as she ran the event over in her mind. She could find no fault in Hermione doing what she needed to do to protect her little brother.

"You're…you're not going to yell at me for pushing him?" Hermione asked, trembling slightly. "He had pushed Harry off the swing, demanding his turn, but there were three other swings beside us, Auntie Bella! Why did he have to hurt Harry for his swing?" Bella held Hermione tighter before pressing a kiss against her head, and then Harry's.

"Of course you're not in trouble. You reacted in self-defense and were protecting your brother."

"Even if I used…magic?" Hermione whispered the last word, and, at that moment, Bella could have kicked her cousin.

"Don't worry, no one noticed. I did, but I was looking for it," Bella replied. "Looked like a Confundus Charm, right?" At Hermione's silent nod, Bella grinned. "We should train you up in a few more hexes. Nymphadora should be learning some good ones soon. After all, she just started her second year at Hogwarts. That's when the classwork starts getting exciting." The twins grinned widely at her. "Now, let's get this wrist healed up, and then back to playing. Who wants to see how high I can get on the swing?"

The two started clamoring for her attention, and Bellatrix smiled yet again as she performed a wandless Episkey on her nephew's wrist. He would still need a low-dose Skele-grow when they got back to the house, but this would do for now. She sat on the swing and couldn't help but thank her lucky stars for her family dragging her out of that dark pit she had been in years ago. She wouldn't have had the freedom to choose, before. She would have been just like her old classmates, who ended up going to Azkaban for their archaic beliefs.

Small hands at her back brought Bella out of her thoughts once more, and she laughed, lifting her feet so the two six-year-olds could push her on the swing.

"No, no, no! I'm supposed to push you, remember?" she stated teasingly as, under the combined might of the two children, her swing started to move. "Okay, okay, no more pushing! Both of you, grab your own swings. Let's see how high we can go before we have to head back!"

"And then can we get ice cream?" Harry asked, shooting her a quick look full of puppy dog eyes. Bellatrix grinned wickedly as her niece and nephew joined her in swinging on the metal swing set.

"Of course, we can get ice cream before we return home!" The two children cheering was music to her ears, and she couldn't wait for many more adventures like this in the future.