Disclaimer: I do not own the Harry Potter franchise nor the merry band of characters in the said franchise. I do like to think, that the OCs are my ideas turned into interesting characters though. I also do not make any money off this and I write it purely for fun and to increase my writing skill.

A/N

It is my first fanfiction ever and I am not a native speaker of the English language and as such may make mistakes. I apologise for any I might make and ask you my dear reader to make any comments regarding my story. Criticism is not frowned upon. Instead, it is expected. Do not make a mistake though. I will read all of the suggestions, but I may not include all of them in the story. The most important thing for me regarding this story is that I make the decisions since you know… it is kind of my story.

Notice: The story uses metric units.

Without further ado, enjoy!

XOOOOOOOOX

Chapter 1

The Man From Belgium

1st November 1981 Surrey.

The November morning was unusually cold. It would surely warm up when the sun rises, but for the time being, it was cold, bordering near - 5 degrees.

It would have been a regular morning, just a bit chilly, if not for the babe lying in front of nr 4 Private Drive doorstep.

The babe had a very messy mop of black hair, under which you could see, if you looked very carefully, a drying drizzle of blood. That drizzle of said liquid had come from a still quite red and swollen lightning-bolt-shaped scar. The babe was wrapped inside a baby blue blanket, on which was a moving image of a flying raven.

Now, if that last sentence seemed to be weird and not at all possible, you dear reader, are obviously not a resident of any magical community. And if you happen to be a muggle you might want to lock that door of yours, for your local ministry of magic has definitely already sent a team of so creatively named Obliviators to make sure that you, dear reader, just happen to forget you ever read this story, that will tell you what happened, and what will happen in Harry Potter's incredible life.

One might think that the babe should not be sleeping so peacefully. After all, it was very cold, and the scar on the forehead of the infant was bleeding. Though not much for a grown, proper citizen of the many British Isles, or even a growing teen, this is a babe we are talking about. The bloody scar should have made the infant scream as loud as a particularly red steam locomotive which abducts some of the many children usually from British soil and takes them to an interesting place called Hogwarts. We, dear readers, should get to that in a few chapters.

It seemed as if the boy was in such a deep sleep that even a street blowing up would not wake him.

This was unusual, to say the least. Such a deep slumber was not something that would usually consume a 15-month-old babe. It was unusually cold as previously mentioned as well.

'It is not a normal sleep the child is sleeping. Nor is it a common cold that is lingering in the air. The weird sleep the babe is experiencing is imposed by magic and the coldness indicates the touch of death upon the infant.'

Such were the thoughts of a gentleman who was watching the baby with an unwavering gaze while a cat was rubbing against his feet. The gentleman looked to be in his twenties. He wore a top hat with a dark violet ribbon around it, a black trench coat with golden trimming, which reached to the middle of his calves, and a black cane, which had a large rhodolite garnet, shaped like a cat's head, on top of the intricately carved handle. On the ring finger of his small hand, which was so delicate you could mistake it for a woman's, sat a beautiful onyx ring that had two miniature silver statues of long-haired cats clawing at a magnificent deep purple amethyst. The amethyst had a scythe engraved on the topmost facet. On his robes in the place where a left breast pocket could be, was a pin of two fighting cats.

The gentleman had like most other people two eyes. I am sure you, my dear reader thought that he had at least three. Surely I got you with that… right. What was not like most other people though was that one of his eyes was blood red and the other a dark violet. Both of the gentleman's orbs shone with an unhealthy amount of interest looking at the babe.

The man was about a meter and sixty centimetres tall and had slightly wavy hair that was as black as night and reached to his waist. The hair seemed to be lighter than the air and was floating around moving slightly even though no breeze was present. If one were to describe his magical hair, one would say it reminded them of an obscurial or other how the dementors' cloaks drag when the despicable creatures slide towards their destination.

It was noticeable how the man was wearing golden buckled patent leather dress shoes that had about five centimetre-high heels. His shoes were of small size. He wore black dress trousers and wore a belt that looked like it cost more than the houses lining the street. Under his trench coat, he had a white dress shirt with a complicated silver pattern that glimmered in the light of the lamppost. On top of that piece of garment he wore a dark violet waistcoat with the same pattern as the shirt, but this time golden. The waistcoat was made from the finest silk. He wore a dark violet bow tie that had a little black pin in the shape of a cat. A Prince Albert chain, fastened through a buttonhole of his waistcoat leading into his vest's pocket hinted at a pocket watch being carried as well.

The man came closer to the babe and took another long look at the boy as the jet-black cat, which had before been rubbing against the man's legs, licked the babe's cheek. "Harry Potter. How unfortunate, that you are left to the whims of the world like this." The man raised his head, took a look around the muggle neighbourhood and frowned. "But do not worry my little kitten. Soon enough you will be out of this… unsavoury… place." declared the man in a Belgian accent.

XOOOOOOOOX

7th July 1978 Lancashire. Black summer manor.

Bellatrix Black, soon-to-be Bellatrix Lestrange was waiting to be wed to Rodolphus Lestrange. She was still relatively calm, but the more she thought about tying the knot with him the angrier she got. They had never got along well so it was quite a surprise when her father Cygnus Black told her that she was going to be marrying Rodolphus. In her Hogwarts years, she had hexed him on multiple occasions, since he had been a pompous prat (which he still was), who had had the audacity of calling her nothing other than a bed warmer and a stupid bint who only had her good looks to remedy those flaws. If not for the fact that he had graduated from Hogwarts, she would have thought that he might have lost his brain while was still in his mother's womb.

Well, actually saying that she was waiting was a bit of a wrong way to say it.

Saying that she was seething while she was slowly starting to dismantle the room she was waiting in to be called to the altar was a little bit more accurate.

While shooting a decaying curse towards an intricate chair she thought about how betrayed she felt when her Grandfather Arcturus Black had told her that unless he happens to find a better suitor for her she would have to marry the idiotic brain-dead dunce. He had told her that unless the Blacks marry into Lestranges or the other way around the relations between the two families could drop to outright dangerous levels. The worst that could happen would be a blood feud and even she wasn't crazy enough to want that to come to fruition. A blood feud could end with a whole family being wiped from the face of the Earth.

If one would start between Blacks and Lestranges, Blacks would win, but they would certainly suffer losses big enough that another family could finish them off with not too much effort. It would be a catastrophe. So she agreed to marry into that accursed family and suffer herself so that her sisters didn't have to.

If it only were like it was in the stupid muggle world where marriages meant nothing! Marry whomever, get a child like it is nothing, get rid of the said child before its birth, divorce whenever you want, and do whatever you'd like with your life. In the magical world, marriages were different, unless you were a mudblood or married to one. In the magical world, marriage meant an alliance between two families. It meant that a possible blood feud could be avoided. It meant that your family line was going to continue. It meant that you would gain an ally in the war that is politics. It meant that the male offspring was going to have more power than his parents. If it only were as simple as having offspring and not marrying. But it was not. If a couple has offspring out of wedlock they could be sentenced to years in Azkaban and the child would be killed. Magical marriage was especially important. It ensured that both of the people who signed never betrayed each other or their families.

Not marrying the person you were arranged to was not simple. It was possible if you had an alternative option, but if not… Not marrying at all isn't a possibility if you wanted children.

Bellatrix's wand left an impressive scorch mark on the wall in front of her. She got even more furious as she remembered what her Grandfather had told her.

She had begged her Grandfather five times to push the wedding date back and four times he had done so, but when she had begged him last time he had said that he no longer could delay the day since Corvus Lestrange, the head of the Lestrange family, had told him that the next time the date is postponed he would make sure nobody would ever marry anyone with a Black surname. That would have not been a real issue had Corvus's brother not been the head of the magically binding contracts department in the ministry of magic. Said department also considers, approves and breaks magical wedding contracts.

And to think that such a trivial position gave the Lestranges the power to threaten the head of house Black, Arcturus Black, one of the most feared lords on the British Isles and most definitely the richest lord in the continent of Europe. It was almost mind-boggling how the Lestranges had found such a weakness in the frightening man, but it had worked. Arcturus Black was a scary man who had many ambitions and wanted the best for his family. And his one weakness was his granddaughters.

Bellatrix was aware that her Grandfather knew all of his granddaughters wanted to marry and have children and as such knew that he couldn't let the Lestranges tarnish their reputation like this. But unless he gave in and let Rodolphus marry Bellatrix none of his granddaughters would live a happy life. For that reason, he had been looking for a suitor that Bellatrix would like at least more than Rodolphus and would be from a family that could help them if a blood feud starts. It was a hard task since Bellatrix had unique standards. Like really unique standards. She wanted her husband to be pureblood, better at dueling than her and at least as crazy as her. Unfortunately, Rodolphus was the one that matched her standards the most. But Bellatrix could not stand the guy and had really hoped her Grandfather would find a better suitor than the Lestrange brother. It seemed though as if he had failed.

Bellatrix shot a bolt of a recently crafted spell: Crucio. It had been invented two years ago in Belgium if the rumours were true. The ministry had already illegalized the spell and she thanked the heavens that the Black family had their wand traces removed as soon as the family members got their wands. The spell was very dark and if cast on a person would inflict unimaginable pain on the said person. Oh, how she wished she could cast it on Rodolphus. Unfortunately, the rush that usually accompanied using dark magic would not come with the Cruciatus curse unless it hit a person so she didn't feel anything while casting it. The spell did blow another chair to bits though.

And now here she was damaging the beautiful room while waiting to be called to walk slowly to the altar, where she would be wed to Rodolphus.

Then the inevitable happened. Her mother Druella Black called her from the doorway to the room. When Bellatrix turned to her she was looking at the room worriedly. She turned her concerned grey eyes onto Bellatrix's own violet ones. "It is time to come, Bella," she said in a pitying tone that made Bellatrix even angrier.

It was just not fair how her mother hadgot to marry the person she had wanted and how everyone else in the family could do the same, but not she herself. She had never wanted to marry Rodolphus. She hadn't for a moment thought that she might marry the oaf of a man. She had not even started to look for suitors when the marriage had been arranged. Today she would need to sign the marriage contract and be a useless housewife for a man who didn't even have as much intelligence as seaweed.

She quickly tucked her wand back into the wand holster that was beneath her wedding dress's long sleeve, took the bouquet that had miraculously survived her tantrum, and made her way to her mother. All the while looking at her mother with murderous eyes. She knew she shouldn't. After all, it had not been her mother that had helped with arranging the marriage. That honour had belonged to her father who she knew dabbled with the white-masked people who had been terrorizing the wizarding Britain for eight years now. Why the fact that he had some connections with those people even mattered was that her Grandfather had told her that he believed this was some kind of political play behind his back. And this marriage was the result of that play.

He had told her that the Lestranges are most likely part of this group of white-masked people and they want the backing from Blacks.

While she could see the point of this war she did not want the magical families to go extinct. And while she could see and even liked the brutality she didn't understand why they were killing off the most ancient families. Even if they supported the mudbloods and muggles didn't the white-masked people see that they were killing people with pure blood? If most of the pureblood families were killed off, inbreeding would start at a level that could end The Wizarding Britain. And if that happened they could actually start to depend on mudbloods and halfbreeds running their ancient society. She just didn't see why the white-masked morons were doing it.

She went past her mother and next to her father who, if looks could kill, would have been dead the moment his daughter caught a glimpse of him standing tall and proud in the archway. Once she was by his side they started to slowly move towards the altar by which she could see the groom. He had short black hair and little black eyes. He had a bulky body and wore a black dress robe.

She already hated him.

When they finally reached the altar her father handed her over to Rodolphus and took a seat beside his wife. Bellatrix sent a look towards the gathered people. There were people from both of the houses that were going to be united through her marriage. She could see her parents, her sisters Andromeda and Narcissa, her uncle Orion Black, her aunt Walburga Black and her sons Sirius and Regulus. She could see her grandmother Melania Black, her great aunt Cassiopeia Black and her other great aunt Dorea Potter née Black and his husband Fleamont Potter. Their son James Potter was also there. From the Lestranges there were Rabastian, Rodolphus's brother (as much of a git as Rodolphus himself), their father Rufus Lestrange and their mother Arianne Lestrange née Pucey. The head of the family Corvus Lestrange was also there.

Strangely her Grandfather was not there. It was weird. He had always attended important gatherings like this one. She missed him. He used to tell her stories about everything, about how he fought in the war against Grindelwald on the continent, how he would let her marry the man of her dreams… She wanted him to be here when her freedom was taken from her.

She turned her gaze away from the crowd and onto her soon-to-be husband who was smiling. His smile was ugly. It was a horrid excuse for the said expression. She did not want to kiss him at all. But she knew she would have to.

It was hopeless to think otherwise. Kissing was the only way to seal a magical marriage contract. First, the contract of marriage needed to be signed by the couple who were getting married and to seal the contract a kiss was needed. They slowly repeated the words of promises to the lord of the house of Malfoy who was given the honour of pairing them during their wedding.

After the words were said, Abraxus Malfoy gave Rodolphus a Thunderbird feather and the contract.

He signed it and gave it to her. Bellatrix hesitated, and just as she was about to write, an authoritative voice rang from the archway.

"Wait."

XOOOOOOOOX

As you can see, I have taken the liberty of changing a couple of things in this story. For example, I have made Bellatrix and her sisters a bit younger, and I have made the cruciatus curse a lot newer spell. It is still an unforgivable curse, so don't worry about it.

In this story, many of the characters are going to be a bit OOC. I hope it won't bother you much. Ah, who am I kidding? If it is bothering you you probably won't read this story.

I am also in need of a Beta Reader, so if anybody is interested in that you can message me.

But with that, I bid you Adieu.