Number 12 Grimmauld Place looked the same, at least from the outside. Wedged neatly in between the two Muggle Houses of Number 13 an 14, it cast a distinctly normalappearance to a casual passerby, which they conveniently forgot when the house disappeared from view, courtesy of the Black wards.

The knocker at the entrance was infused with a deadly rotting curse and would fire if it detects someone of non-Black blood trying to gain entry to the ancestral home of the Ancient and Noble House of Black. Harry didn't know the specifics of any other protections, apprehensive as he was at the prospect of finding something he wasn't prepared for, only that the steps to the door and the door handle also carried curses of their own, ready to pelt any intruder to a painful death. Sirius had been very forthcoming with the details of his old childhood home.

For the third time, he chided himself for not waiting for Bella. His independent streak just wouldn't have it. Not to mention, he also didn't want her to notice any difference in the disposition of his Aunt or risk her knowing exactly what happened after he left.

Since he was family, the door opened without any ceremony and as he stood within the lobby, he looked around for the portrait of the infamous Walburga Black. But she was nowhere to be found. The overall decor the House hadn't really changed though, it was the same dreary and gloomy and oh so familiar that he felt himself relaxing.

Excitement at seeing his dead old Dogfather again coursing through his veins, he walked towards the kitchen. If he was honest with himself, he was also eager to see Bella again, but didn't want to admit so to himself. He knew he was being childish and even stupid but he didn't care. A single meeting wasn't going to convince him that she was truly the opposite of the Bellatrix of his world.

The kitchen was disappointingly empty and Harry felt himself deflate a little. Deciding to make a cup of coffee for himself, he waited.

Just as he was washing a cup, a crack to his side made him glance to the resident elf of the House of Blacks.

"Master Potter, welcome to House of Black. Will you be needing coffee?" Kreacher asked.

Harry glared at the elf, speechless at the unexpected politeness and simply nodded. Kreacher seemed to flinch at the silent hostility but took the cup Harry was holding and promptly set about his task.

Sitting at his usual chair in the kitchen, he sagged a little, still reeling with a mixture of fury and disbelief at seeing the elf again. Ever since he had the displeasure of knowing it was his non-interference that had played a part in Sirius' demise, he held a hatred for the elf that refused to be snuffed.

He didn't have too much time to ponder on that subject as Bella came into the kitchen then, her heels clanking with a steady rhythm on the hardwood floor and her face lit up in surprise and delight.

"Harry! You're here!"

The excited voice of his godmother did wonders to his disposition, his smile taking on a warmth that he'd had few occasions to display before.

"I'm glad to be here," he said, embracing her. Her excitement seemed to bleed into him because he found himself asking, "So what have you been up to since yesterday?"

"The last leg of the World Cup will be held on English soil. We'll be busy until it's done with," she said with a yawn.

Harry looked at her seriously. "Is the Minister running you ragged for the security?"

Bella shrugged. "The Minister is very particular about the arrangements, yes. We can't have the tiniest lapse with more than three-hundred thousand attendees."

Harry was shocked. "So many?" Where he had come from, barely five thousand people had attended the finals.

Bella's exasperation was visible. "Probably more. Some ICW countries are yet to confirm their attendance. It's not unexpected with what's happened with Austria, now that the semi-finals have also been moved to English soil."

Harry was almost afraid to ask. "What happened with Austria?"

Bella looked at him, surprised. "You don't know? It was all over the papers! The stadium was compromised."

"Compromised?" he forced himself to look calm, but knowing that the recent affairs of the wizarding world were unknown to him was grating.

"Dark wizards placed curses all over the place. The curse-breakers say it'll be months before it'll be safe for occupancy," she explained.

"And that leaves us to host the semi-finals."

Harry was thoughtful for a moment as he sipped his coffee, pondering the implications. So engrossed was he that he failed to notice Bella's inquisitive stare.

"Since when did you start drinking coffee?" she asked.

Harry smiled. "Since February." That sounded true enough since it was the month prior when Peter Pettigrew escaped from Azkaban.

Bella huffed. "You are developing one too many grown up habits."

Harry gave her a flat look. "And why is that a bad thing?"

"It's not," she admitted reluctantly, "But it does feel sudden. You're growing up fast."

Harry stared off into his steaming cup for a moment. "I have to."

"Is this because of the rat's escape?" she eyed him worriedly, "You don't have to worry about these things, Harry. It's the job of the Ministry and your family to keep you safe. Hell, it's my job to catch Pettigrew before he stirs up trouble," she added.

"I do worry," he didn't budge, "I may not have the experience but I'm not lacking in skill or determination in doing what needs to be done to protect us."

It could be the firmness of his tone or the hardness of his expression that seemed to take the wind out of Bella. "You're worried that Voldemort is going to come back."

Harry had no hope of Pettigrew getting caught before whatever trouble he was trying to stir was already in motion. But he didn't want to alarm Bella.

He clasped her hand in his. "He is going to try. Don't tell me you didn't predict this from my first two years at Hogwarts."

It was true. His two years at Hogwarts had been exactly the same, except for the unwanted interventions of his twin.

Bella shook her head. "That doesn't make it your responsibility."

Harry looked at her in disbelief.

"What?" she denied, "It's not! It's the Ministry's, mine, your parents, and even John's, but not yours! The only things you should be concerned about are getting good grades, pulling pranks and chasing skirts."

In the following years, Harry will reminisce and wonder what it was about Bella's statement that caused him to burst into a full-blown belly laughter.

Bella joined in his amusement and soon they were laughing at its absurdity of it all. It was a minute or two before Harry could regain control of himself.

"I don't chase skirts. They chase me."

"Well, you surely don't lack confidence now," she grinned. "Experience on the other hand..." she trailed off, bemused.

Harry simply raised an eyebrow. "What makes you think I lack experience?"

It was time for Bella to look shocked as she regarded him as if he'd grown another head. "So this is why you are so different!"

Harry snorted, a little self-conscious. "I didn't expect it to be such a shock to you."

Bella sighed, her eyes still wide. "I'll admit, I didn't know what to expect as I've never heard you mention any girl at Hogwarts. I didn't even know you fancied someone."

Harry hid his smile with his cup.

"So that's what you've been up to this year, huh." she mused out loud, waving her hands at him, "Breaking hearts amongst other things."

Amongst other things, definitely, he thought.

Harry shrugged, breaking eye contact. "I don't think I'm too early to be thinking seriously about the future." He was suddenly glad to be on this topic and added, "I've been training to become a better fighter. I was hoping you could help me improve in areas that I'm lacking. I'm sure one lesson or practice a week will help me immensely, at least for the summer."

Never in his life had he asked for something as real and important as he'd done now. He didn't know how, nor did he know if he was even supposed to. Bitterly, he realized it was probably because he'd never even hadanyone in his life he could ask a favour like this. Remus didn't count as he had already been a teacher at Hogwarts, and not really family.

Bella stilled and looked at him uncertainly. He almost backtracked but then remembered how his other self had been pants at practical spell work as a whole, and DADA was his least favourite subject.

"If you can spare some time, that is. I know you're very busy, but I don't know who else to ask..." he trailed off.

She shook her head as if reprimanding herself and instead squeezed his arm assuredly. "I'll be happy to! Do you fancy a run now? It'll be good to have an idea of your level before I can help you," she looked excited.

Harry stood up, placing his empty cup on the dining table. Bella took them to the duelling chamber located downstairs.

As he removed his wand from his pocket, he regarded Bella who had shed off her formal Ministry robes and was now clad in an all-black, loose sleeveless dress that ended just above her knees, its fit true to her buxom hourglass figure. If he was honest, he could almost feel a part of his brain disengaging from the fight at present and getting lost in admiring the view.

No wonder did the other Harry have such a huge crush on her. Bellatrix Black was drop-dead gorgeous. As he admired her stance, he took a deep breath to force his Occlumency to calm and focus himself, setting her cold beauty aside for the time being for more important pursuits.

"Ready?" she asked.

Harry nodded and unceremoniously started their dance with a chain of non-verbal stunner and back to back concussion jinxes. He assumed they were going to be sticking to mildly injurious spells at best.

Bella parried them off quite easily and her own attack came back with almost double the intensity, prompting him to start moving. Being light on his feet was as much of a boon as having an impenetrable shield after all, sometimes even more so.

Dodging and shielding and bringing his own spells to match her speed, he hastened to put some obstacles in her path like he'd seen Dumbledore do with Voldemort in their battle in the Ministry Atrium. From his wand came a pair of snarling wolves and a python who immediately poised to attack the older witch. Harry didn't wait to see her reaction because he set about creating a fissure on the ground separating them, the dust and the debris from the destruction of the floor creating a nice source material for him to create some creative yet instrumental diversion.

Even as the air around him seemed to hum from such explosive discharge of magic, he struggled to catch a breath as unfamiliar spells came rocketing at him from three different directions, putting him on the defensive. He also noted from behind a thin shield that his wolves had been turned quite impressively against him.

Two more spells chains later, he shielded and dodged some nasty bone breakers while still looking to use some animation charms on his newly minted golems to attack the fierce witch at her back, but before he could, they dissolved into dust as a swarm of wild birds came to surround him completely. Dispersing them off took a moment and before he could respond, he felt the ground beneath him start to shake and he instinctually applied a levitation charm to his shoes and waved his wand in an arc, bringing a current of electricity from thin air on his victim. He could barely dodge the spells still raining down at him from within the dust clouds and taking some respite within a bubble-head, he set about transfiguring the smoke around him to something more useful.

His legs shaking from exertion and his breath coming in gasps, he struggled to put his unfit body to use as more and more spells came to trap him in the obstacles of his own making, the rough ground now serving to make him more and more unsteady on his feet as he struggled to switch to attacking while stuck behind hastily constructed shields and his agonizing calves.

Even his clothes seemed to hinder him, their size not as fit as it was needed in a fight for his life or others'. Matching her spell for spell for a while, he admitted to himself that it was only a matter of time before he lost to the older witch, he set about to go out with a bang.

"No so easily..." he murmured to himself. He wanted to do better.

Conjuring some life-sized versions of dragons, he willed them to attack and spray fire upon the witch as he crouched low and started casting an area-wide levitation charm on the debris surrounding him and noted with satisfaction that his spell took effect in bringing the mass in and around ten feet in diameter all within his might.

The debris around him all stood tall in mid air as he focused all his magical intent on sending them hurtling at rapid velocity towards his opponent, intent on pelting her to defeat.

In this effort, he failed to take account of an incoming spell chain that launched him backwards onto his arse, his wand clattering to his side and his eyes fluttering in exhaustion.

His mind registered a loud clacking of heels on the floor as he struggled to get up. The last thing he heard before he lost consciousness were the words, "Stupid, stupid boy!" and a grim satisfaction at having evoked such emotions from one of the fiercest witches in the world.

-_- .

Harry opened his eyes to see warm sunlight streaming through the gap in the blinds. Rubbing his eyes with one hand while removing the duvet with another, he sat up and immediately groaned in discomfort. Glancing at the time, he groaned. His need to push himself had cost him a night and half a day as it was already mid-afternoon.

It seems he hadn't counted the physical aspects of fighting among the many requirements in becoming a better wizard. While he did good against the training dummies in the Room, against a real, competent opponent, he had suffered, both magically and physically.

So this was yet another aspect he had to work on.

Sighing, he reached for water on the nightstand. Gulping it down greedily, he turned to get up when the door opened and an anxious Bella bustled in.

"Harry!" before he could take stock of how much trouble he was in, she was pulling him into a hug. "You stupid boy! You scared me!"

She pulled back and he felt a wave of guilt for having scared her so much. The fearsome witch looked so vulnerable that he feared he'd somehow done irreparable damage to their budding relationship.

"I'm sorry," he muttered, "I didn't know my own limits...and I kept thinking I could do better and -"

"Do better?!" she exclaimed. "You're probably the only thirteen-almost fourteen year old who can fight better than most wizards thrice your age and experience I know."

Harry ducked his head, not knowing how to take the unexpected praise. "I'm sorry," he shook his head.

Bella stared at him worriedly. "Your level is beyond anything I could've ever imagined. Were you holding back on me in December? Our duels used to last barely a minute at best then. And now, you'll give the European Champion a run for her life." she paused. "Merlin! You could bethe European Champion!"

Massively uncomfortable under the praise, Harry said nothing and simply stared down at his hands.

Bella seemed to sense his reluctance.

"You can talk to me, Harry," she said softly, "Whatever it is, I promise I'll help or-"

"You'll find someone who can," Harry finished for her, smiling.

Bella regarded him seriously. "As a matter of fact, I have someone who could help, if you're up for talking to her."

Harry met her eyes then, confused.

Bella said with reluctance, "Lily is here. James was too, but he had to leave for some work after seeing that you're alright, only resting due to exhaustion. Lily stayed."

Harry felt such a rollercoaster of emotions then that his throat seized up.

His mother was here. The mother whose voice he'd heard in his best dreams and the worst nightmares, pleading and begging to spare his life and take hers instead. His mother whose life had been cut short in protecting a son from a madman. His mother who he'd wished day after day and night after night to see once again, away from the pain of her body absorbing the deadly green curse as she shielded his with her own.

Lily Potter was alive and well and waiting for him. Harry Potter knew what to do.

"Where is sh-how-when did she arrive?" he struggled to voice his tumultuous thoughts.

"She's been here for six hours. I visited her after I made Andy see you for any lasting injuries or magical damage," Bella supplied.

Harry stood up.

Bella took a deep breath as if preparing herself for something tough. "Harry, I know that you've not forgiven your parents, and I understand, I do," she began. "But just this once, please meet Lily and - just show her that you're alright. You don't need to spend any time with her or your dad, just a hello and a greeting will be more than enough."

Harry stared at her with impatience. Once again, he hadn't considered how this world's Harry had kept his family at a distance for almost four and a half years now, since before he'd first gotten his Hogwarts letter. While he'd felt compassion for him when he'd read his journals, now, he felt only impatience. A hurry to leave it all behind was stirring him up in the most irritating yet eager manner.

"Will you see her?" Bella hadn't taken his silence well and had grown even more uncomfortable.

"I will," he said firmly.

Bella nodded, satisfied. "She's in the yellow drawing room."

As he set out to walk out of the door, he turned to Bella. "I've been training on my own in Hogwarts since last year. I'm not someone who can sit back and rely on others to protect him," he uttered softly, the words flowing out of him on their own, as if controlled by an emotion he couldn't name. "I want to be the one my family can depend on," he met her eyes, "when the time comes."

Without waiting for her reaction, he swept from the room.

-_- .

Lily Potter stared into the glowing hearth as her mind whirred with scenarios in which Harry accepted her and James and came back home with them. They'll sit down to talk as a family, she and James will ask for his forgiveness and no matter how much time it took to earn it, they'll stay firm. Then Harry will spend the summer with them at the Manor, the Potter siblings will be united again and her family will finally be complete.

Of course, all of this could only happen should Harry deign to give her the time of the day to talk and apologize and offer him anything to make him believe that she and James loved him and would like him to be a part of their family again.

No sooner had she thought of the possibility of welcoming him back into the family that her chest flared in pain at the anticipation of the familiar hurtful words from her estranged son. In the four years they'd been trying, Harry had left no doubt that he detested their efforts to come into his life or to welcome him into their own, and that he had become so used to the distance that he neither wanted nor needed their interfering presence.

She took a deep breath to calm her fluttering nerves threatening to wreak havoc on her equanimity.

No matter what they'd tried, words of contrition and apology, gestures of reassurance and love had all been in vain.

Years of misery and separation had been inflicted on her family due to a single bad decision and blindly trusting the wrong person. It had torn her family apart and they were still handsomely paying for it.

Steady footsteps from the stairs broke into her reverie and she stood up, refusing to think that it could just be Bella coming to relay the disappointing news to her that her son had refused to see her.

But it wasn't Bella who entered the parlour. Her emerald eyes locked with Harry's.

It been months since she'd seen him and now, he was here.

"Harry..." she spoke, desperately trying to keep the tears at bay.

Her heart waited for the familiar rejection to come and blow all of her hopes apart but they never did. Instead, something miraculous happened.

Harry was looking at her with wonder in his eyes, as if seeing her for the first time. His eyes looked moist, she observed through her own damp ones. As he came closer, her hopes grew to epic proportions and before she could ascertain the meaning of anything, he had reached her.

"Mum?" he asked softly and uncertainly.

She said nothing and simply opened her arms.

As she embraced her son for the first time in almost eleven years, she wept. Only this time, her tears were from sheer joy coursing through her veins, giving her hope a certainty that her family will be complete again.

Something had definitely changed and before she could even think about mulling it over, Harry was pulling back and wiping her tears.

"Oh, mum. How are you?"

She simply nodded, too emotional to form a response. A weak laughter bubbled up from inside her and she kissed his forehead and his cheeks and simply lay her head on his chest, absently noting how tall he'd grown. Almost as tall her James.

Harry didn't speak again and simply stood with his arms around her, the silence too joyful and comfortable to break. Suddenly, a sense of urgency gripped her heart. It was in this moment that she needed to explain herself, wanted him to understand her and forgive her, for she couldn't imagine a reconciliation without earning his forgiveness.

"I'm so sorry, Harry. I'm sorry for everything, for giving you away so foolishly and for never explaining to you and for trusting a senile old man with no family and no children over my own better judgement. I'm sorry for subjecting us to so many years of misery, for making you so unhappy and making you live away from your own family. Please, can you forgive me, son?"

Harry squeezed her tighter and whispered, "All is forgiven, mum."

A sob wrecked through her as she tried to gain some control of her emotions. She had so many things to say and yet at this moment when all was beginning to be alright, her power of speech had betrayed her.

When Harry pulled back to lay a kiss on her forehead, she smiled through her tears.

"Let's just start over again, yeah?" he proposed gently.

She nodded. "I'd like that. Your father would too."

-_- .

While laying awake in his cot under the stairs or the bed in his Gryffindor dorm, Harry had wished and envisioned a world where he could have his parents back, but the reality exceeded all of them.

He'd heard from various sources the brilliance of Lily Potter but now he could swear they'd never really done her justice.

His mum was bright, vivacious, brilliant, and enflamed a joy in his chest that bore no equal. The moment they sat down to talk, it was like the floodgates had opened and they continued for hours, only glancing at the time in shock when it was nearing dinnertime. It seemed Bella had given them both privacy and Lily leave to stay as long as she wanted.

"-but Dorea didn't as she is shy, and Rose is a splitting image of your father. I swear I have to whack them both twice a day to have any semblance of normalcy in the house," Lily was saying.

Harry listened much more than he talked, wanting nothing more than to hear more about his family. "Do they ever ask about me?"

Lily nodded, still smiling. He could swear she hadn't stopped since they'd sat down to talk hours ago. "Rose misses you but doesn't like to talk about it. She takes being the big sister to Dorea quite seriously, and apparently, that means she can't display any weakness," she shook her head in exasperation. "I've told her that being slightly more open with your feelings among the siblings is a good thing but she doesn't listen."

Harry snorted. "That sounds exactly like-"

"Your father, yes," she supplied, "Since our fifth year at Hogwarts, he became adept at managing things. It was because Charlus, your grandfather, who was the Lord Potter at the time, made him begin taking on Heir duties and it matured him."

"And Dorea?"

Lily hummed. "Dorea is a quiet girl. She's always been shy and I suspect it's because of being the youngest in the family. She talks about you often, in her letters from the school. She rooted for you in the duelling tournament last year, watched every match."

Harry grimaced, remembering how his younger counterpart had completely botched the quarterfinal match. He'd been thoroughly thrashed by Theodore Nott of his own House. Morbidly, Harry had even wondered whether he'd somehow cheated to reach the quarterfinals, because his skill with a wand was absolutely laughable, being the eleventh ranked student out of the thirty-eight in his year.

"I'll do better this time," he promised both to himself and his mother. "In fact, I've already been trying to improve my practicals and-"

"You should've watched him yesteday, Lily! When he started throwing spells at me, I thought he was an imposter! He was performing NEWT level spells like it was nothing!" Bella injected, strutting into the parlour like the mistress of the home. Harry laughed.

Lily looked appreciatively at him. "That is very impressive. It's good that you're exploring your potential. Simply passing classes is never enough."

Bella snorted. "Spoken like a true overachiever."

"Grades are never the focus of studying," Lily said, sitting up straighter, "It's for the improvement of one's mind and magic."

Bella sat on the sofa opposite to them. "Will you be staying for dinner?"

"I can't," Lily said regretfully, "I've told John that I'll back before dinner."

Harry made a sudden decision. "Stay, mum."

Lily looked pleased at his insistence. "Believe me, I want to, but I've left my mirror at home and I haven't informed-"

"Oh, that can be easily arranged," Harry muttered, grasping his wand. "Expecto Patronum," he murmured just as a massive, majestic stag took shape, bowing to him. He quickly relayed a message, "Dad, I'm keeping mum for dinner at Grimmauld, she'll be back in two hours."

The stag galloped across the living room and burst through the windows out into the garden. Harry grinned in satisfaction while Bella and Lily stared at him, shocked speechless.

"What was that?!"

"Just like your dad..."

Bella and Lily exclaimed at the same time, looking at each other. Bella shook her head at her, as if answering an unasked question. She then faced her son.

"That was beautiful, Harry!" Lily gushed, overcome with both the display of magic and that his Patronus took the form of his father's animagus.

"Since when have you been able to cast a corporeal Patronus?" Bella asked, still looking stunned.

"I learned it last year, after the incident on the train in September, I couldn't rest until I had a way to ward off against Dementors," Harry explained, happy that for this at least he had a ready made answer that sounded plausible. "Sirius helped a lot initially."

Lily looked accusingly at Bella. "You told me he wasn't hurt!"

"I wasn't!" Harry assured her, "I simply fainted. After that, I didn't want to feel so helpless around Dementors so I asked Sirius to teach me the charm."

Lily still looked concerned but nodded, caressing his cheek. Bella looked between the two of them, sighed and stood up.

"Shall we get to dinner?"

Harry placed his mother's arm in the crook of his own. "Lead the way, Bella."

Suddenly, there was a thumping noise from the top of the stairs.

"COUSIN I'M HOME!"

Bella exchanged an amused look with Harry and he called out, "Sirius! Come on down! We're having dinner!"

-_- .