“Crucio!” Bellatrix stabed her wand to the muggle family lying on the floor. Their daughter, a witch was already dead.

“Filth! Muggle scum!” Other Death Eaters surrounded her and cast their own spells. The muggles shuddered on the floor and screamed from pain and fear.

“Avada Kedava.” Bellatrix tired of the game. “How boring.” She kicked a dead corpse. “Let's find something else to do.”

Rodolphus slung his arm around his wife's waist. “Let's go home.” He looked at her meaningfully.

Bellatrix pulled away from her. He just wanted her for an heir and as much as she wanted to carry on the Ancient and Most Noble houses of Black and LeStrange after three years she still wasn't pregnant.

“Please?” Rodolphus asked. He put his wand back into his sleeve holster. “A perfect night to end a perfect day?”

“No.” Bellatrix pulled her cloak around her. “I've got to run an errand. Don't follow me.” She pointed her wand threateningly at him. “Don't.”

Rodolphus raised his hands in a gesture of surrendering. “Okay, okay. Meet me at home.”

The Death Eaters walked out of the house. Bellatrix paused to cast the Dark Mark. Once it had appeared in green smoke over the dwelling she turned and apparated away with the rest. But she had a different destination.

Bellatrix banished her mask home before walking up the path to the door of the clinic. Oh Andromeda. I have missed you. Since it was late the clinic was closed. But that didn't stop Bellatrix. She knocked hard on the wooden door.

Beyond the door Bellatrix could hear sounds of a person scuffling around in the dark. A light came on in the window and the door in front of her opened.

“Can I help you?” Andromeda's voice was exactly as Bellatrix remembered it and her sister's face and body still mirrored her own.

Bellatrix didn't answer her sister. Instead she threw her arms around her and hugged her fiercely. Andromeda is still Andromeda. She just married one of them. She's still one of us. She's still my sister. Bellatrix held on tight to her sister.

“Bella? Bella is this really you?” Andromeda sounded shocked. Her sister was a pureblood fanatic. She swore to never forgive Andromeda after she announced her marriage to Ted Tonks.

“Oh Merlin. I missed you.” Bellatrix slipped inside the clinic and shut the door. “Tonks isn't around, is he?”

“No. He's sleeping at home. I didn't wake him.” Andromeda flicked the lights on and took Bellatrix into her office and sat on the couch beside her. “Why did you come to visit me after all this time?”

“I need your help.” Bellatrix admitted. It hurt her to ask for help. She wanted to be strong and perfect.

“With what?” Andromeda raised her eyebrows as if she thought Bellatrix might ask her to kill muggles or divorce her husband.

Bellatrix thought about how to ask her question. She was blunt, very blunt. “I can't have a child. I want one. But Rodolphus and I can't.”

Andromeda hugged her sister tightly. “I know, I know.” She'd had difficulty having her daughter. Three miscarriages. And all of her healing skills had been needed to keep Nymphadora alive for the first few months. But now she was a happy five year old and Andromeda had her child.

“You know?” Bellatrix asked. She was nervous now. She just wanted Andromeda to help her so she could leave. She didn't want to bring on all the sadness ignoring her sister had brought her. She just wanted to forget about the other woman and move on with her pureblood life.

“I can't have any more children Bella. And our Mother wasn't able to have a fourth child. She wanted a boy. But all she got was three girls.” Andromeda remembered the conversations she'd overheard. It always hurt her that her parents hadn't really wanted her.

“Please. You've got to help me.” Bellatrix begged and pleaded.

“I'll try.” Andromeda took out her wand and cast a few diagnostic spells. The results were not promising.

“What is it?” Bellatrix asked when she saw the expression on her sister's face. “Andromeda?”

But Andromeda shook her head sadly. “I'm sorry Bella. But it is partly your fault.” It pained her to tell her sister that it was her fault. Even if it was partly true.

Bellatrix paled. Her skin was whiter and purer than normal. “What do you mean, my fault?” Her voice was hard and angry. A voice she almost never used.

“Part of it is our bloodlines. Too much inter breeding. But the magic you've been using damages your soul and body. You will never bear a child Bella. I'm sorry.” Andromeda let her younger sister cry in her arms.

“There's nothing magic can do?” Bella asked. Tear tracks marred her face and ruined her looks.

“Magic brought this on. There is nothing you can do.” Andromeda summoned a calming draft to her. “Drink this.”

Bellatrix took the potion without hesitation. That was unlike her. Normally she'd check it for poison first. But once she drank it a warm feeling filled her and she relaxed and the tears stopped coming.

“It's late. We both have things to do in the morning.” Andromeda gave her sister's back a last rub. “Maybe one day we'll see each other again.”

“Maybe one day.” Bellatrix stood up and left the clinic without a backward glance.

A week later her life was changed yet again. The night of Halloween she felt the mark on her arm burn just as she was climbing into bed. A gasp from the other side told her that Rodolphus had felt the same thing.

Bellatrix ripped the flimsy sleeve of her nightgown off. The mark on her arm was fading quickly. But it stopped a shade before disappearing. She screamed and cried. Her precious lord was gone.

The next day Bellatrix found out about the Boy-Who-Lived. And the she found out about the Longbottoms. Frank and Alice were aurors. They might know where her lord was gone. And they had a son. A pureblood boy named Neville.

Bellatrix and Rodolphus tortured the Longbottoms. Rodolphus's brother came along and so did Crouch. Both of them disgusted Bellatrix, they had no stomach for torture. But for the first time Bellatrix had trouble torturing someone.

Neville Longbottom was staring at her. His young, child's face unnerved her and the way he cried hurt her. She didn't kill his parents. She told the other three Death Eaters that she heard aurors and they left. But again she apparated somewhere different.

Godric's Hollow was a mess. Lily and James Potter's house was destroyed. Parts of it were still smoking. It hurt Bellatrix to look at it. This is the place were my lord fell. She thought to herself. Damn that woman! Bellatrix blamed Lily Potter for destroying her lord. There was no way an infant could have ruined a wizard of the Dark Lord's calibre.

But if he is that strong it would be a good idea to have him on our side. Bellatrix looked over the ruins of the house. She didn't expect to find Harry still there. But she did find something of use. Giant motorcycle tracks. Only cousin Sirius has a motorbike that big.

Bellatrix cast a spell of her own making. The tire tracks appeared in a strange other worldly light. They continued into the sky. Bellatrix summoned a broom. A Nimbus that must have belonged to James Potter came out of the house. Bellatrix mounted it and hurried after the tire tracks.

I love this spell. Bellatrix was intelligent. True, it was often mislead and twisted. But she had mastered the Unforgivable curses the fastest and she had created a few spells of her own. Tracking spells were easy. This one was made for magical air transportation. Brooms, flying, thesterals. It wasn't safe any more.

The tire tracks lead Bellatrix to a muggle neighbourhood. They put a Wizarding child with muggles? How dare they! Potter was a pureblood! His child could have been raised a decent wizard!

Bellatrix landed and cast a disillusionment charm of herself and the broom. Then she approached Number Four Privet Drive and peered in the window.

There was an ugly muggle woman changing the diaper of a fat, blond child. She was smiling and crooning over him. But there was nothing on his forehead. He wasn't Harry Potter. Bellatrix waited and watched. Potter must have been around there somewhere.

There he is! Bellatrix spotted a small, black haired child lying on the floor. He was curled into a tight ball around a blanket and silently sucking on his fingers. On his forehead was a lightning blot scar.

Bellatrix's grip tighten around her wand. How dare she leave a wizarding child on the floor! Children are to be cared for and loved! Bellatrix wants to burst into the room and rescue Harry from his place on the floor. He could be hurt or ill. Children shouldn't be silent. She knew. Narcissa's boy didn't shut up, ever.

After the ugly woman finished changing her own brat's diaper she fed him. She nursed him and then gave him solid food. Bellatrix watched but she still left Harry Potter on the floor.

Bellatrix was not a patient woman and her patience had just run out. She knocked the front door off it's hinges with a curse and strode into the house. The muggle woman was hunched over her child in a corner. She hadn't even looked to see if Potter was all right.

“Muggle!” Bellatrix roared as she scooped the wizarding baby off the floor. “Merlin help you if he's hurt. I swear I will kill you.” It wasn't as good as Bellatrix's usual threats, but she was out of character.

Petunia cowered in the corner. “I don't want him. Dumbledore made me. Please, don't hut us.” She cried.

Bellatrix sneered. This is why muggles are pitiful excuses for human beings. She raised her wand and cursed the woman. Now she was not the only one who could not have another child. She wanted to curse the son, but her own need for a child reminded her and she left him unharmed.

Then Bellatrix left. She apparated to Hogsmeade. She knew that there was no turning back. The Ministry was looking for her. The other three who'd tortured the Longbottoms with her had already been imprisoned. She was the only one left.

But now that she had a child Bellatrix resolved to stay with him. She would care for him and love him like the muggles never did. And she knew just the person to help her and her son. In her room at the Hog's Head Bellatrix activated the floo.

She took Harry in with her and called out, “Severus Snape's quarters, Hogwarts!” The green flames spun around her. I wonder with the spy will help me now. Bellatrix thought before stepping out into Severus Snape's living room.