A/N: Hello people and welcome to a short, scene-based Bellatrix-POV, future Haphne work. I hope you enjoy; I have more written that I'll post when I can, three won't take long!
A big thanks to my Betas and Discord Staff - Alec, Fox, Metzger, BaptismByFire and Zevoros!
Special thanks to Discord users: Noob Salad, Spooky Seasoning, RedSunSuper, Kyn, 5Firehawk, Guiding Moonlights, Kovacs, Dr Maou-Senpai, Post Mortem, Denduck, Wumjumba, Ac, R3, Shirokama, TrustTube, Zachary, JDH, Avatar, CJ07, Echoh, Elizabeth Wilbrooke, Jacks, Kappe, Kryn_Womble, Mr. E, Pat, Plut0, Presno, Shawnjohn120 and Trop C'est Trop for supporting my writing and commissioning works!
Feel free to join my Discord for updates, giveaways (for those who actively chat), early access, information and now, commissions/free one-shot giveaways, link on my profile. Without any more rambling from me, I hope you enjoy the story!
(Sorry if you don't like the work!)
THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR THE KIND REVIEWS. We now get so many that it's impossible to respond to all of them, but each and every one of you taking the time to speak your support mean the world to me. Please, by all means, speak with me in Discord!
Perhaps, however, not all of them. Bellatrix remembered that James and Lily Potter had bore a child, a boy, if Sirius' rambling was true. The home they occupied might have been destroyed in large part, but there was no telling if all three had been killed — with how fresh it all seemed to be, Bellatrix imagined there had been a survivor. There had to be, considering the place was left standing and with no mark up above in the sky.
Had the result been the destruction, completely and utterly, of the Potter family, there'd be far less left standing.
Bellatrix used the wand she'd stolen along her way to Hallow to determine just what exactly had occurred. There was a resistance from the wand whensoever she used magic therethrough, but it bent to her will. Little and less could avoid doing so even after her time spent locked away in Azkaban.
She cast a look around the area, and seeing no sign of a Magical laying in wait, she grew nearer to the ruinous home. Naturally, as she did so, she paused in her work of investigating what had occurred so as to disguise herself. Now that she was free both physically and mentally, the last thing she desired was being sent back to a place she had no place being at in the first place; her body might have committed the crimes which they accused her of, but not once had her mind been her own.
With a different look altogether that couldn't be remotely comparable to a typical member of House Black, she pushed past the little wall the Potter's home had and made her way down the path that led to their front door. It was nary a few steps beyond that aforementioned door she spotted a body.
One that filled her with a surprising sense of sadness when she realised it belonged to James Potter. Sure, even before her mind had been subjugated she hadn't been very fond of him, but he had a child, a love, a friendship with Sirius… he'd deserved more than being cut down in the midst of his youth.
She shook her head and continued, once again using her wand to ascertain the fact she was alone, completely and utterly, in the Potter's home. As it turned out, she was, and the first floor was clear. No Lily, no Harold… or was it Harry?
Regardless, there was no Potter brat nor the witch that he'd been born to present.
And so Bellatrix sought out the stairs. If the boy's bedroom was on the second floor, given that she'd not found it down on the ground floor, it was likely there that mother and son had been during the attack. With a strange sense of dread pooling in her stomach, her feet carried her to up, through room after room until she reached that which had to be his.
The door was ajar, and Bellatrix could see a body, but a person seemed to be clutching the body, muted sobs racking through their body. She looked only long and close enough to see who the persons involved were; one, the dead, was Lily Potter. It pained Bellatrix in a manner she'd not expected to see so young a mother gone.
As for the person holding Lily's corpse and sobbing, it was none other than the boy that'd chased after her for nearly all of his time at Hogwarts. Severus Snape. Bellatrix knew it wasn't he that'd sold the Potters out, and with a shake of her head, she withdrew, heading out whence she'd come without making so much as a peep.
From there, she had to find where the last missing Potter was. She wasn't sure just exactly why she felt the way she did… maybe it was a desire to make right the many wrongs she'd done, or maybe it was maternal instincts hidden deep within her, but something made Bellatrix desire to find the baby.
And so she would.
She took to the air, tracking a path that'd see her to the last Potter. Whoever had taken him, be it a follower of her former 'Lord' or one of Dumbledore's agents, didn't matter. She would take the last Potter, raise him right, and in time, have her revenge.
Nearly thirty minutes later, Bellatrix found herself in a small little Muggle neighbourhood. One that she didn't like whatsoever. There were far too many Muggles around, and far too many of their homes built right atop one another; she wasn't remotely sure how they were able to live as close to one another as they did.
It made her wrinkle her nose in disgust at nought but the thought.
But then she spotted something. Something in the distance that most certainly shouldn't have occurred — one light after the other went out, the very essence thereof zipping through the sky until it reached a man. One that was all too familiar to her, and one that would most assuredly see her put back whence she'd come from should he spot her.
Bellatrix wasn't stupid. She knew Dumbledore would best her even if she were in her prime, and in that, she most certainly was not; Azkaban always took its toll.
So she watched and waited from the shadows, and when another appeared from the body of a cat and Hagrid rose to his full height, a babe in his arms, she knew she'd made the right call.
Time ticked by, the trio talking over the babe.
Until they left it at the door.
When they did so, with Dumbledore knocking and leaving a note before he too left, Bellatrix shot forth from the darkness. A light came on upstairs, and so she knew she had to be quicker still; she turned to smoke and all but zoomed across the street, to the door which the Potter babe had been left at.
She didn't look down at him, she didn't read the note, she didn't do anything save for grab him, and fly off into the darkness.
He was hers to care for now.