"We're just…keeping it?" Rodolphus checked, not at all sure what to make of the serious-faced child staring back at him curiously. The child his insane wife kept insisting called him Daddy. He'd never wanted children for fucks sake. And if he had, he certainly wouldn't have wanted a daughter. Daughters were difficult. Daughters brought boys. Boys they needed protected from. And that was before he began to consider that any daughter raised by his wife would be deadly and terrifying. Bella scared him enough, thank you very much, he didn't need two of her. Actually, perhaps a daughter wouldn't need protected from anything. Perhaps, the world would need protection from any daughter raised by his wife. He was too old to be hiding bodies for fucks sake. Even if he did find himself wanting to smile at her serious little face.

"Yes Roddy," Bella nodded, "Of course we are."

"Right," his eyes met his brothers, his feelings of bewilderment mirrored on his face. Apparently, he was gaining a daughter. Time to practise his transfiguration skills then; bodies were much easier to hide when they didn't look like bodies after all.

"What's your name then?" Rabastan demanded, seeming to gather himself.

"Keela." the child whispered.

"Pardon?"

"Aquila," Bellatrix interected.

"Huh," the wizard eyed her speculatively. "Have you told Him?"

Something unreadable crossed Bella's face before she masked it, a fleeting vision of her terrified nephew leaving feelings that aren't typical as a second vision of Tom deciding to use her new daughter for his own ends played alongside it. "Not yet,'' she dismissed.

"He wont like it."

Bella scowled, "I'm hardly asking him to parent her, Bast."

Rabastan hummed, reaching for the girl, "Let's be having a look at you then."

Aquila took a hesitant step forward, flinching slightly when he gripped her chin, turning her head. "Our eyes." he mused, "Black hair. Are you sure she's definitely not yours?"

"No," Bella admitted, "but I assumed I'd have some inkling, no? Cissa says she can't be less than three. And I wasn't free three years ago. None of us were."

"True," he agreed slowly. "Are you adopting then?"

"I think that's best." Bella agreed briskly. "Rod, meet us in the library in an hour."

"Of course," Rodolphus agreed in defeat knowing there was no way he was talking his wife out of this.

"Say goodby to Daddy and Uncle Bast, Aquila," Bella commanded, "We're going shopping with Auntie Cissa for robes."

"Bye," the child whispered shyly, allowing her new mother to escort her from the room in a whirl of robes.


"He's going to go spare," Rabastan muttered the moment the door closed behind his sister-in-law.

"Probably," Rodolphus agreed, his eyes darting nervously before admitting quietly, "I don't think it'll end well for Him."

"No," Rabastan mused thoughtfully, "No I don't imagine it will. Which means we need a plan."

"A plan?"

"I won't have your wife end Him only to end up back in that hellhole," he hissed.

"So what do we do?"

Rabastan shrugged. "I don't know," he murmured slowly. "Lucius was always the better strategist, especially now."

Rodolphs hummed, a flare of anger overtaking him at the thought of the years his brother-in-law had been free despite knowing that he only had himself to blame. He'd been stupid, allowing himself to be talked into his wife and Barty's madness-fueled bloodlust. He'd never liked getting his hands dirty before, avoided it unless it was a direct order if he was honest. Still, if Lucius was his best hope, he'd speak to him, even if he did want to casually hex the man from time to time. At least the urge had lessened the further from favour Lucis had fallen. He looked rather ill currently which tempered his anger. "Fine, I'll speak to him," he agreed finally, hearing his brother's sigh of relief; Bast wasn't any more fond of Lucius than he was.


"You want to go shopping?" Narcissa repeated, looking at her sister in shock.

"Yes. She'll need robes as is fitting of her new station." Bella hesitated. "I will need new robes. I find myself utterly out of touch. Mother would be furious."

Narcissa blinked, it was the closest to sane Bella had sounded in decades and if the threat of Him appearing, bringing in the worst sorts of people…creatures, she might have rejoiced. As it was, it was less than eighteen months since His return and she was both exhausted and terrified. Her only joy was Draco, and even that was tinged with fear in light of his currently failing mission. "Of course Bella," she murmured instead, eyeing the child clinging to her sister's hand. She was still innocent and while she knew that she should stop this madness for the child's sake, she couldn't, not when her sister's eyes were almost clear. So she stood, smiling down at the silent child. "Shall we go and pretend to be princesses?

Her new niece nodded slowly, a spark of interest appearing in her eyes even as Bella gave a soft scoff. "Well then, let us go."


They returned two hours later, Aquila now dressed in the most darling little black robes that made Bella want to coo at her. The others, in far more garish colours…like pink were hidden away in Narcissa's pocket so Bella didn't lose them on their way back home. "Let's find Daddy shall we?"

Aquila nodded warily, attempting a smile when her new Aunt smiled reassuringly at her, running a fond hand over her curls. "And maybe afterwards the elfs will bring biscuits," she whispered conspiratorially, drawing a wider smile from the child that made her miss the days when her son was still this small. This innocent.

Bella rolled her eyes indulgently, picking the child up, the feeling less foreign than it had been the night before. "Auntie Cissa is going to ruin you." she lamented, an amused gleam in her eyes instead of the madness. She let out a sigh when Aquila wrapped tentative arms around her neck, a strange feeling of warmth radiating through her, utterly unable to remember the last time someone's touch had been that gentle. Unbidden, a lost memory of Draco doing something similar as a far smaller child appeared in her mind. Back when he didn't flinch away from her, when he looked at her with trust, not fear. It cut through the usual fog of devotion she felt for her Lord, the man who was punishing her sister as if he had a right to. A small frown creased her face as she wondered when she had begun allowing that. Almost against her will, the hand not cradling Aquila, shot out towards Narcissa, gripping her wrist tightly.

Her sister masked her fear quickly, but she'd seen it, it shocked her enough that she let go as if she'd been burned, raising her head to meet the eyes that matched her own. "He won't hurt Draco again."

She turned, stalking in the direction of the library, missing the way Narcissa paled, having to reach for the wall to steady herself in her shock.


"Are we sure about this?" Rodolphus checked as his wife walked in, the child perched on her hip looking startling like Bella even without the ritual.

"Of course we are," Bella barked.

He merely nodded, noting the missing mad gleam that was normally present, the lack of giddiness and the robes. Dear Merlin, the robes that made her look more like the Bellatrix Black she had been instead of the mad Madam Lestrange she'd become. Perhaps there was something in this idea of a child after all. "I assume your sister is joining us?"

"Yes." Bella agreed, looking at the door with a frown. "Shortly I presume."

"May I?" Rabastan checked, gesturing towards the child."

"Why?"

"I thought we'd check who she is," he shrugged.

"What difference does it make?"

"It doesn't." he agreed, "But if she's a mudblood…"

"She won't be within the next ten minutes," Bella hissed. "And if she's a mudblood she's uncommonly powerful. How else could she get through the wards?"

Rabastan blinked at her, "But mudbloods…"

"Are occasionally powerful." Bella scoffed, "Not often. The Meadowes witch was though, we planned to recruit her, remember? The Potter bitch ended up being more powerful than we expected in the end, too."

He sat down heavily, "You're…advocating for mudbloods now?" he checked.

"Don't be absurd!" she hissed. "Or not entirely. I wanted to remove them from their filthy muggle families, remember? Adopt them into our world. Keep the magic. They can't be beasts and capable of stealing our magic. That never made sense."

Rabastan frowned, a long-lost memory resurfacing. "I remember," he mumbled. "Back at Hogwarts. When did that change? I remember…I remember agreeing."

Lucius walked in with Narcissa clutching his arm, catching the end of the conversation. "When we were Marked," he sighed, the exhaustion clear on his face.

"When we were Marked," Bella repeated quietly, her eyes on Aquilla; the child stared very seriously back at her. "Very well. Test her."

Rabastan nodded once, taking the child, and settling her on his lap. "I'm going to cut your hand."

"Why?" she whispered.

"To see who you are." She frowned clearly not understanding. "Give me your hand."

Slowly, her tiny hand moved to rest on his, watching, Narcissa cast a silent, wandless numbing charm seconds before he broke the skin on her palm, turning it to drop her blood into the waiting vial.

He healed her almost without thought, handing her over to his startled brother who held her like she was a bomb, both of them staring at each other with fear-laced curiosity. Lucius bit back the first laugh he had felt bubbling since he had been sent to Azkaban following the debacle at the Ministry as he watched his brother-in-law try to work out what to do with his soon-to-be daughter. He was beginning to suspect this was going to be wonderfully entertaining for them all, well…all of them bar Rodolphus.

As Rodolphus and Aquila engaged in their staring contest, Rabastan poured the potion onto the waiting parchment, his eyebrows climbing high on his face as the names appeared.

"Well?" Bella demanded impatiently, moving restlessly from foot to foot.

"She is either the best or the worst thing that has ever happened to us. It doesn't make sense but…" he held up the parchment, enjoying Narcissa's sharp inhale.

"Well then," Bella dismissed briskly, a slightly feral smile overtaking her face, "Now we know."

"You intend to go through with this?" Lucius demanded.

His sister-in-law shrugged, a wicked smirk replacing the smile, "We already know she's powerful. I can make her unstoppable. And she'll be an effective bargaining chip if we need her."

"In what way?"

"Something has clearly happened, and they're going to want to know she's alive at least."

"And we can exploit that," Narcissa murmured.

"Exactly," Bella agreed.

"Well then," Rabastan smirked, "Let's get on with it then."


Twenty minutes later, the newly official Aquila Bellatrix Lestrange, blinked dazedly at her new parents, making her mother grin. "Oh you are going to be terrifying my darling," she cooed. "Lets go and get biscuits with Auntie Cissa while Daddy works out a plan with Uncle Bast and Uncle Lucius. Mummy will rewrite it when they're done."

In a move that startled all of them, Aquila beamed at her, reaching for her willingly as she tugged her from the room.