Welp, if anyone is still interested, here it is after two long months and some change. Sorry about that :(

Today was the day.

Today was the day Bella would finally be able to remove the leaf from her mouth, transform, and finally see what animal represented her soul as her animagus.

Obviously, it would be a predator. A powerful, dangerous, and deadly predator-but still a beautiful one, too. And probably black in color, due to her familial origins…

Blast!

Bella screamed as she was suddenly knocked over backwards onto the packed earth ground of the clearing behind her. Dazed, she gazed up at the cloudy late morning sky.

Soon the Dark Lord stood over her, shaking his pale head in disappointment. "Bella, you were supposed to be predicting my attack based on my wand movement and defending yourself accordingly."

Bella tried to respond, tried to sit up, but found she was paralyzed, wand hand gripping her wand tightly. So she just stared up, wide-eyed, at the pale man in a black robe from the on the dried, fallen cornstalks upon which she lay.

"Your focus has improved this past month, why have you suddenly regressed?" The Dark Lord asked.

Again, Bella could not answer. She widened her dark eyes, urgently, hoping that the Dark Lord would unparalyze her.

…No. He was not finished lecturing her yet.

"In a battle nothing is more important than the fight at hand." He continued, "Whatever you're thinking about can wait. If you lose focus during a real fight, it could mean your capture or your death."

Yes, Bella already knew that. She had been told that probably a thousand times already! She would normally never lose focus during a fight because fighting was her favorite activity (though training was becoming a bit boring…) but today she had a legitimate reason.

Her animagus.

The Dark Lord was still talking about why never to get distracted…at least that was what Bella assumed he was still talking about. She had tuned out by now, distracted by the thought of finding out what her animagus would be.

She rolled her eyes in annoyance as if to say 'I know, I know, just unparalyze me already!'

Finally, the Dark Lord waved his wand.

Bella was able to move again. She instantly jumped up, brushing the dirt and dust off her black dress with her free hand.

"How do I transform into my animagus?" Bella asked immediately.

The Dark Lord's red eyes blinked. "Oh…yes, I suppose it has been a month already." He then added, "Remove the leaf from your mouth and you'll be able to transform."

Bella nodded. She waved her wand and opened her mouth. An unrecognizable, chewed and saliva-covered, mess exited through her red lips and then dropped onto the dusty ground where Bella stamped on it with the toe of her boot.

Bella then closed her dark eyes and focused on her animagus. It was hard to transform when she did not know what she was transforming into, so she just visualized herself morphing into a tiger.

Slowly, Bella felt her body begin to change…

When Bella opened her eyes, everything looked different. First, she was much, much, much shorter and so staring up at the Dark Lord and the cornstalks surrounding them. Second, everything was in sharper focus. It was as if her eyes had turned to magnifying glasses and she could see for miles.

…but she could not see what animal she had become.

"My lord, what am I?" Bella asked-or, rather, tried to ask. The only noise that came from her mouth were a few squawking sounds.

Alright. Squawking. She was some kind of bird, then.

Probably a hawk. Or a falcon. Maybe even a vulture…

The Dark Lord was chuckling as he looked down at Bella with red eyes. What was so funny? Why did he think what she had transformed into was funny?

"Squawk! Squawk!?" Bella demanded, then remembered that she could not talk.

Sighing, Bella flapped her wings. Hopefully she was not a flightless bird…it seemed natural, even instinctual, the pattern and speed she flapped her wings. Bella easily rose up into the air, grabbing her wand in her new talons.

She kept ascending and ascending until she was flying over the cornfield and the Dark Lord was just a little black dot with a white head in the clearing.

She continued to fly, away from the field, and back towards the Black Manor. She could see its black roof and dark bricks, its restored green front lawn and cobblestone pathway…

Blast!

Blast! Blast! Blast!

Bella's new sharper eyes saw the green beams of light blasting her way. She managed to dodge all four blasts and then the next four that came her way.

She dove, down through the afternoon air, towards the source of the attacks.

That Russian man-what was his name again? Oh, right. Antonin Dolohov. He was blasting killing curses at her from the front yard of her parent's home!

His scruffy, sparsely facial-haired, face came into sharper and sharper focus as Bella rocketed towards it, dodging each curse as he casted them. Finally he just dropped his wands and held up his arms to shield his face from the oncoming bird attack.

Bella swooped up and pecked the top of his head of dark hair. He shouted in pain.

After a few moments of this, Bella finally stopped. She flew off of his head and landed on the green grass of the front lawn.

There, she transformed back into her human form.

Cautiously, Dolohov lowered his arms that had been shielding his face. His forehead furrowed. "It was you?!"

Bella cackled. "That's my animagus form. Don't you like it?"

"A cuckoo bird?" Dolohov replied in his Russian accent, "Your animagus is a cuckoo bird?"

Bella blinked in surprised. "A cuckoo bird?! I thought it was a hawk!"

Dolohov shook his scruffy head. Now he was laughing. "No, no, kukushka, that was a cuckoo bird."

A cuckoo bird?! A cuckoo bird?! Of all the animals in the world, Bella's soul was represented by a cuckoo bird?!

"Are you sure?" Bella checked.

"Oh, I'm sure." Dolohov grinned with vodka-soaked teeth, "I've been killing them for the past month in case they were animagi trying to infiltrate the property and spy on the Dark Arts training program."

"Well, don't kill them anymore." Bella grumbled.

She then transformed again and flew away.

Bella was amazed by the progress of the students in the backyard of the Black Manor. She had not noticed their slow improvement over the course of the month of June, but now as a cuckoo bird, flying over them as they blasted powerful spells in perfect formation, she could see that they looked like true soldiers now.

…even Regulus, who had been so scared. Even Sirius, who had been so defiant (Bella's Cruciatus Curse after he had tried to escape must have finally worked its magic on him, making him a good little Black son).

Regulus' team was fighting Rodolphus' team. Bella could not tell who was winning, just that both their attacking and their shielding skills had improved enough that they were at a stalemate of blasting and blocking hexes and curses.

She continued flying.

She looped around and headed back to the overgrown field. But when she arrived, the Dark Lord had left, probably back to the Black Manor. Bella flapped her new wings and took off towards her home.

Squinting in the dim light of the library, Bella's dark eyes examined a page of The Encyclopedia of Nonmagical Creatures. She had never even bothered to touch the heavy, dusty book the low rung of a corner shelf because nonmagical creatures, just like everything nonmagical, were inconsequential to the pureblood witch. But now, sitting on the hardwood floor of the library, Bella had finally opened the large book that sat on her lap.

Cuckoos are brood parasites meaning that they lay their eggs in the nest of other species of birds, leaving those birds to raise their young. This is the origin of the term 'cuckold', which is used to refer to a man whose wife is unfaithful.

Bella snorted. Maybe her animagus was an accurate representation of her soul, after all…

"Today, you all have a chance to redeem yourselves for your failure at Stonehenge." The Dark Lord announced.

He stood in front of a line of uniformed students in the backyard of the Black Manor. Bella was idling near him, instead of joining the line, which caused Ingvar Karkaroff to give her a period glare from where he was standing beside his line of students.

The students glanced at each other, wondering what their supposed leader, who rarely bothered to speak to them, meant by what he had just said. Rodolphus turned to Rabastan. Alecto turned to Amycus. Regulus turned to Sirius.

Sirius tensed. He knew what ever this redemption would be probably involved hurting muggles. He had been pretending to hate muggles and love the Dark Arts this whole month but he did not know how much longer he could fake this-deception and infiltration were not part of a Gryffindor's usual repertoire.

"In the next three weeks, you will be attacking three targets." The Dark Lord continued, "A muggle clocktower, a muggle bridge, and a crowded muggle street. All three are landmarks that muggles consider important and so by defacing them we display our superiority."

Sirius almost sighed aloud in relief. Defacing landmarks? All they had to do was vandalism? Not torture and murder? Thank Merlin…

"The first attack will take place tomorrow night." The Dark Lord added, "At the muggle clocktower."

From his place beside Sirius, Regulus raised his hand. "How will we get up there, my lord?" There was an annoying amount of respect, even reverence in his voice. How could he seriously respect this evil old man?

At that the Dark Lord smiled. It was the creepiest smile Sirius had ever seen.

"You will fly." The Dark Lord stated.

It was dark and somewhat cloudy, even foggy, that night at the Palace of Westminster. The mist was gathering around the tall, pointed clocktower colloquially known as 'Big Ben', and sneaking inside through its fence-covered windows, trying to find the bell.

The uniformed security guard who was patrolling around the bell, protected by its own fence, waved his flashlight towards the fog entering through the windows. The light became diffuse and Guard squinted in the darkness to see.

How strange. Mist, fog, smog…it did not usually make its way inside the clocktower.

Guard stopped and sniffed.

Wait a minute. It was not mist. It was smoke! There was a fire!

Guard jolting, turning to hurry downstairs to raise the alarm. "Fire!" he shouted, "Fire!" as he waved his flashlight around frantically.

He was just about to leave the room that held the bell when he felt a sharp pain to the top of his head. Something had struck him.

Guard reached up towards the top of his balding head. He could feel the talons of a bird that had landed on his remaining hair, and the point of its beak pecking into his skin repeatedly. What the hell?

Guard dropped his flashlight and tried to swat the bird away with both hands. He failed and his flashlight rolled away across the stone floor, leaving him completely in the dark.

The bird kept pecking Guard's bald spot and his arms flailed wildly, trying and failing to shoo it away in complete darkness. He started to run without being able to see.

The smoke got thicker.

"Help!" Guard cried as he sprinted "Fire!" he then added "I'm being attacked by a bird!"

He was able to sprint a few steps before he collided with the stone wall and was knocked unconscious.

It was weird flying on a cloud of smoke, Regulus thought. Really, really weird.

And scary.

It was nothing at all like flying on a broomstick. At least when flying on a broomstick he was attached to something, supported by something. Flying on a cloud of smoke, it felt like he was just floating alone in the air and could fall at any moment.

It felt especially frightening because the clouds of smoke were black and so almost invisible in the dark, slightly cloudy night as they rose upwards towards the clock tower.

Right now, Regulus was hovering beside Evan Rosier, Mordred Mulciber, and Alvin Avery. The boys had not expected to find fence over the windows blocking their way into the clocktower.

(Sirius had not been invited to this 'outing'. Although he had pledged his loyalty and participated in training all month, he still was not trusted to attend the attack…yet.)

Bella, in the form of a cuckoo bird, had managed to slip through a hole in the fence. Hopefully she was finding a way to let them in…(though, from the screams of a muggle inside, it sounded more like she was just having fun by herself in there).

"This is taking forever." Mordred grumbled. "Your hot cousin better hurry up and let us in."

Alvin nodded in agreement, brow furrowed in annoyance. Regulus and Evan both grimaced, both cousins of Bella.

"That's it." Mordred declared, pulling out his wand from his gray uniform pocket, "I'm just going to blast the fence open."

"Don't!" Regulus warned, "The Dark Lord told us not to fly and use spells at the same time. We're not powerful enough to do two forms of magic at once yet."

"I'm sure I'm strong enough." Mordred dismissed. He pointed his wand at the closest fence and shouted, "Reducto!"

The chainlink fence blasted away…but, just as Regulus and the Dark Lord had warned, Mordred's cloud of smoke immediately disappeared and he began to fall.

"Ahh!" he shouted and he plummeted towards the stone grounds of the palace below. "Help!"

Alvin swooped down on his cloud of black smoke to save him. Evan and Regulus watched in horror. Evan swooped down to help too but Regulus was too shocked to move.

In a few moments, Evan and Alvin returned, carrying Mordred by one arm each. Mordred's cloud of smoke had returned but it was weaker now.

"Thanks for helping, 'team leader'." Alvin snarked at Regulus. Evan and Mordred were glaring at Regulus, too.

Regulus did not blame them. He was such a coward sometimes…

"…sorry." Regulus gulped. His pale face turned pink with embarrassment. He then attempted to assert himself with, "I warned you, Mordred."

Mordred rolled his hazel eyes. "Whatever, Reg. Let's just go inside."

And so the boys flew through the window into the clocktower.

Bella's eyes had finally adjusted to the darkness inside the bell room of the clocktower when she heard the boys burst in. She was standing over the unconscious body of the muggles security guard, wishing he was awake so she could crucio him, and turned her head of long dark hair to look at them.

They stopped in front of her, squinting in the dark.

"So…uh…what do we do now?" Evan wondered aloud, flipping his golden blond hair out of his adjusting eyes.

"We trash the place, right?" Alvin suggested, "Make sure the muggles knew it was us and not some muggle burglar."

"How will they know it was us if they don't even know we exist?" Mordred reasoned.

"That's the point of this, isn't it?" Regulus considered, "To reveal ourselves to the muggles as their superiors. That's what the Dark Lord said."

Bella nodded. "Very good, Reggie."

It was still dark, but Reggie turned a little pink. Mordred, Alvin and Evan snickered.

"Little Reggie." Mordred teased in a sing-song voice as Alvin and Evan continued to laugh.

Regulus glared at them and then glared at Bella. Bella grimaced.

Regulus had only recently 'forgiven' her for making him torture a muggle last month (not that torturing a muggle ever warranted 'forgiveness'). She did not want her favorite cousin angry at her again.

Mordred then turned to Bella, "So do I get a nickname, too?" he asked raising his dirtyblond eyebrows suggestively.

Bella drew her wand and pointed it at him. "Hmmm...how about 'crucio'?" she warned.

Mordred tensed, gulping. He then quickly changed the subject, "How about we start destroying stuff now."

Bella redirected her pointing wand towards the bell "Let's start with that."

Clocktower Attacked!

Sometime in the night or early morning, a number of unknown assailants broke into the clocktower known to muggles as 'Big Ben'. Using magic, they broke the window, attacked a security guard, and destroyed its punctual bell, a marvel of muggle technology.

Luckily, though, a team of wizards from the Ministry of Magic managed to repair the damage before any muggle saw it. They also healed the muggle guard and wiped his memory so he could not reveal whatever he had witnessed to the muggle authorities or muggle public.

The vandals are still unidentified and at large, though from the unpracticed appearance of their damage are presumed to be juveniles. How they managed to use magic outside of Hogwarts without activating the Trace is not known, but the Improper Use of Magic Office is currently investigating this incident.

Stay tuned, as the Daily Prophet may have more information by the evening edition.

The Dark Lord slammed down the newspaper onto the desk he sat at. He then turned his pale head to face Bella where she was standing beside him, dressed in the nightgown she had rushed down to retrieve the Daily Prophet in when she was awoken by the sound of her father opening it downstairs.

The curtain window protected the dimly-lit guestroom from the morning sunlight.

Although he had slammed down the newspaper, the Dark Lord did not look that angry, only severely annoyed. The last time Bella had seen him truly angry was when she had disobeyed him and gone to Stonehenge, and even that was not as furious as she suspected the Dark Lord could get given the right circumstances.

"You weren't careful!" He snapped, "You must have triggered some kind of magical defense that alerted the Ministry to your break in."

"It wasn't me." Bella tried, "It had to have been one of the boys. Probably the Mulciber boy."

"I put you in charge of them, Bella." The Dark Lord reminded sharply, "That means you're responsible for whatever mistakes they made."

Bella grimaced. "Sorry, my lord…"

"Now there's an investigation!" The Dark Lord exclaimed. His chair screeched against the hardwood floors and he stood up abruptly. "This could be traced back to us."

Bella backed away from him, nervously. "…but isn't that the point of this? I thought you wanted the muggles and the Ministry to fear you."

"I can't reveal myself until my army is skilled enough to take on the Ministry of Magic." The Dark Lord explained, "And as you can see by the Prophet's description of last night's vandalism as 'juvenile', it is not."

"Maybe they called it 'juvenile' because nobody died." Bella reasoned, "Let me kill some muggles next time and we'll see how the Daily Prophet describes the attack, then."

"If you kill even one muggle, it won't be the Improper Use of Magic Office investigating anymore, it will be the Auror Office." The Dark Lord refused. He sat back down in the chair that had been pushed away from the desk.

"So?" Bella shrugged, "I'm not afraid aurors. Some of the Gryffindors I used to bully are aurors now. Not the most frightening bunch. Or the most powerful."

"You may or may not be able to handle combat with aurors," The Dark Lord replied, "But the students currently training, your cousins and your husband included, certainly are not. Are you willing to risk their lives?"

"For your cause, I am." Bella declared, "For you I would risk anything. Including my own life."

The Dark Lord rolled his red eyes at this. "If you want to support my cause, you'll allow my army to train and grow more powerful without being derailed by an auror investigation."

Bella sighed. "You're right. No killing…yet."

The makeshift dormitory on the third floor of the Black Manor was lit only by the open window, its curtains drawn back to overlook the backyard. Down below uniformed students were practicing flight on clouds of black smoke.

Regulus, who stood at the open window watched, squinted his dark eyes. Tears were forming in them due to the smoke but he kept watching.

"Would you close that window already?" Sirius snapped, then coughed. "The smoke's making it hard to breathe in here."

He was lying on the top bunk of the corner bunkbed, eyes closed because of the smoke.

Regulus turned his dark-haired head to look at his older brother. "But I'm trying to watch."

"You can watch outside." Sirius replied, "Or with the window closed."

Regulus turned back towards the window. He reached up and pulled the glass part down to close the window. He then looked over at Sirius again.

"So Professor Karkaroff's still not letting you go tonight?" Regulus asked.

"He's not." Sirius confirmed, "He still doesn't trust me."

"Honestly, I can understand why…" Regulus muttered, down to his shoes rather than up to Sirius in the bunkbed. He then followed-up with "But you have behaved all month."

Sirius hmmed, "I'm just doing what I have to do."

"For the pureblood cause?" Regulus asked, "Or to avoid the Cruciatus Curse?"

"Both." Sirius lied. The true answer was neither.

"So, what Bella did to you…" Regulus began, "When she used the Cruciatus Curse on you and made you change your mind about participating in this Dark Arts Training…was she just doing what she had to do?"

To that question, Sirius did not lie.

"No." he declared, opening his gray eyes and sitting up in bed to look down at his little brother, "Bellatrix hurts people because she enjoys it. There's a difference between doing what you have to do, hurting people because you have to, and hurting people because you like to."

Regulus grimaced. "I just don't understand why anyone would enjoy hurting someone else?"

"Ask Bellatrix." Sirius snorted, "Don't ask me."

"You and your Gryffindor friends like to hurt Severus Snape for fun." Regulus reminded.

"We never used an Unforgiveable Curse on him." Sirius countered.

But still, Regulus did have a point. As weird as Snape was, he probably did not deserve being bullied…unless he continued to stalk Lily Evans.

Sirius decided then he would stop messing with Snape if he returned to Hogwarts. But 'if' was a big if at this point.

There was rush hour traffic that evening on London Bridge, recently rebuilt in 1973. Cars, trucks and busses were at a standstill on the flat stone structure over the misty River Thames, honking their horns in frustration.

It was dark, as the sun had all-but completely set, and fog rose from the blue-green river below, lapping between the arches holding the bridge up. Visibility was limited.

Suddenly there was smoke. It rose from the bridge, which had no towers or poles to impede its journey up towards the darkened, cloudy sky above.

Driver gripped the steeringwheel of his car, groaning in annoyance. Smoke? No wonder there was traffic. Some vehicle up ahead must have caught fire.

More smoke.

Driver blinked in surprise, foot still pressing the break as his car had been unable to move for the past twenty or so minutes. Where was all this smoke coming from?

The black smoke was now covering the entire bridge as if it was smog. It blocked Driver's front window, and the front windows of all the other vehicles on the flat bridge, and so nobody was able to see.

Driver turned on his windshield-wipers, but that did not help. He opened his driverside window and poked his bearded head out…only to get an eye, nose and mouthful of smoke.

Coughing, Driver quickly pulled his head back into his car and rolled up the window. "What the hell?" He pressed the button to turn on the radio. Maybe the BBC would explain the situation.

Static.

For some reason, the radio was not working. It was only buzzing wordlessly.

The smoke continued to grow thicker and darker. Driver was completely blind in his small car, and he assumed so were the passengers in all of the other vehicles. They could not move and they could not see.

Smash!

Driver and his car shook when something smacked into his car. At first, he thought it was another car crashing into him, but it had come from the side, more like a gust of wind than a metal contraption.

Smash!

Driver and his car shook again.

Smash!

And again.

Smash!

And again.

The fourth smash was so violent that Driver accidently released his foot from the break. His car rolled forward into the car ahead of him with a metallic crash that Driver could only hear but not see.

Horns were honking furiously now. Driver could also hear shouts and screams. He stared into the blackness surrounding his closed windows but still could see nothing but dark smoke.

It was scarier this way. He had no idea what was out there. No idea what was happening…

Smash!

One final time something struck Driver's car. And this time not only did the car shake, it toppled over, and over, and over…

Driver felt his car rolling and then falling.

He only realized what had happened when his car had splashed into the river beneath the bridge. And by the time he shook himself out of the initial shock, his car was already filling with salty, dirty riverwater.

Amycus and Alecto Carrow were cackling as they watched the tiny car topple over the side of the bridge and fall into the River Thames below. They stood on the sidewalk on the edge of the bridge, hands on the railing as they leaned over to see the car slowly sinking into the water.

A cloud of smoke, attached to a wizard, zoomed by and then landed next to them.

"What are you doing?!" Rodolphus Lestrange exclaimed, "We're not supposed to kill any muggles yet! You're going to get us investigated by aurors!"

"Bring it on!" Amycus declared.

"Killing aurors would be even more fun than killing muggles." Alecto added, grinning.

Rodolphus shook his brown-haired head, grumbling "Merlin, you two are as crazy as Bella…"

He took off on a cloud of black smoke, leaving the Carrow Siblings to watch the muggle drown. He considered saving the muggle, but that would make him look like a muggle-lover which would hurt his and his family's reputation (and incur the wrath of his wife).

Instead, Rodolphus decided to find his little brother Rabastan and make sure he was not doing anything too stupid.

After flying around the smoke-covered bridge for a while, Rod located Bas and Igor Karkaroff attacking red doubledecker bus. The muggle passengers screamed inside as Bas and Igor pushed the bus back and forth from where they floated on clouds of smoke on either side of it.

Rod rolled his green eyes.

The whole plan to attack muggle landmarks was idiotic in Rod's opinion. How did the Dark Lord plan to achieve Pureblood Superiority in the Wizarding World by attacking muggles? Obviously he had another plan he was not telling his new followers…

…but had he told Bella? Rod wondered. Maybe. The two were always together, it had to be more than training and 'just sex', as Bella had called it.

For all Rod knew, the so-called 'Dark Lord' just wanted to rule the muggle world and was only using wizards to get what he wanted by promising them Pureblood Supremacy. After all he was half muggle. Why would he even want Pureblood Supremacy, anyway?

Rod had to figure out what was really going on and what the Dark Lord was truly planning before the Dark Lord used his family and fellow purebloods for his own gain and then left them with the blame.

Strange Winds

An odd storm occurred above London Bridge last evening, according to muggle reports. A smoky fog covered the bridge, placing it in complete darkness. Strong winds rocked a red two-story van and knocked a car off the bridge into the river below, drowning a muggle male. Several muggles were also hospitalized due to smoke inhalation.

Experts at the Ministry of Magic and the Daily Prophet agree this storm may have been magical in origin, though no further investigation is being conducted at this time.

The Dark Lord slammed down the newspaper onto the desk he sat at. "'May have been magical in origin'?! 'No further investigation'?!"

Bella furrowed her pale forehead. First, the Dark Lord was angry about an investigation, now he was angry that there was not one?

"But I thought you didn't want an investigation?" she reminded.

"I don't want an investigation that leads to me." The Dark Lord explained from his wooden chair, "But I do want the Ministry and the public to know that these someone is behind these attacks-and that they are attacks, not 'strange winds'. The purpose of this is to spread fear."

"How will they fear you if they don't know who you are, my lord?" Bella wondered.

"People fear the dark as much as they fear the boogeyman." The Dark Lord replied.

Bella blinked. "The what?" The pureblood witch had never heard the muggle term 'boogeyman' before.

The Dark Lord rolled his red eyes. "A monster." He clarified, "And in fact, people fear the dark more than they fear monsters because they fear the unknown."

"And that's why people fear death." Bella guessed.

The Dark Lord tensed uncomfortably. Bella pretended not to notice, hoping she had not somehow offended him. Again.

There was light in the darkness of the night, but it did not come from stars. Multiple billboards lit Piccadilly Circus in London. Coca Cola glowed red and white, other colors and logos surrounding its familiar brand.

The streets and sidewalks were crowded with pedestrians and vehicles, people out for a 'night on the town'. Among them were Girlfriend and her Boyfriend.

Girlfriend was pretty sure Boyfriend was going to propose to her tonight. It was their third anniversary and they had come to Piccadilly Circus because it was where they had gone on their first date after their friends had set them up. Girlfriend had been giving Boyfriend hints for a while now, casually leaving jewelry catalogues around their shared flat (her parents thought she lived with a female friend).

Holding hands, Girlfriend and Boyfriend stopped on the sidewalk, causing the other pedestrians to navigate around them like river water around a stone, in order to kiss where they had had their first kiss under the red glow of the Coca Cola sign.

It was during this public display of affection, right when Boyfriend broke the kiss, kneeled, and reached into his jacket pocket, that something crashed into the billboard above.

Crash!

The glass shattered, falling like solid raindrops onto the couple. They screamed in shock and alarm, trying to cover their heads and necks with their arms.

Other people were screaming, too. Some pedestrians and cars stopped to stare at the broken sign, others began to run or drive away from it. Horns were honking at cars and at people who had jumped into the street to avoid falling glass.

Crash!

Another glowing billboard had been hit. More glass fell. More screams, running, and carhorns honking.

"Come on!" Boyfriend grabbed Girlfriend's hand and started to run, pulling her along.

…but then he stopped. Several people who had also been running bumped into them, cursing, then circumventing around the couple.

"Why are we stopping?!" Girlfriend cried, glancing in all directions at the chaos surrounding them, and then at her boyfriend again.

"The ring!" Boyfriend exclaimed, "I dropped it!"

"Forget it!" Girlfriend dismissed.

"No way, that was three months' salary!" Boyfriend refused, releasing Girlfriend's hand and taking off the way they had come.

Girlfriend watched him go, stunned for a moment, before chasing after him, against the flow of the pedestrians running in the opposite direction, away from the broken Coca Cola sign that had now caught fire and was spewing flames in addition to broken glass.

Girlfriend caught up to Boyfriend who was down on his knees again, this time frantically searching the dirty concrete sidewalk for the ring he had dropped in the confusion. Some fleeing person stamped on his hand. Another tripped over his kneeling body, landing face first on the hard pavement.

"Let's just go!" Girlfriend urged, trying to pull her boyfriend off of the ground. But he would not budge.

…Creak…

A large piece of metal let out a long, drawn out sigh. A sound that could mean one thing.

The Coca Cola billboard, still burning and expelling broken glass, fell forward, off of the building wall it was mounted on and landed with a crash onto the sidewalk below.

…and an unfortunate couple, almost engaged, on their third anniversary.

"You did that on purpose." Rodolphus accused.

Bella snickered. "No, I would never deliberately disobey the Dark Lord and kill muggles when he told us not to…But, if the sign fell accidentally after I destroyed it, well, I guess that's not really my fault, now is it, Roddy?"

She twirled the wand that had sent the spell at the billboard in her hand with feigned innocence.

Rod groaned, shaking his head.

They stood on the roof of a muggle building overlooking the crowded muggle street that was now in chaos as its signs (which somehow glowed without magic) burst into flames and falling glass. The muggles looked like ants fleeing a magnifying glass' heat from up here.

Standing behind the Lestrange couple were the other students (except Sirius Black). Bella turned around to face them.

"What are you all waiting for?" she asked, still snickering, "Don't be scared. Go have some fun."

The uniformed students remained where they stood on the flat rooftop of the office building. They glanced at each other, then at Bella, and then finally at Rodolphus, nervously.

Bella furrowed her pale forehead in confusion at their inaction.

"You just killed two muggles." Rod reminded, "The Dark Lord said not to do that yet. You might get away with it, but they won't. And they don't want to be blamed for your actions."

"I don't get any special privileges." Bella dismissed, "And I was the one blamed for their actions during the attack on the clocktower." She pointed at Mordred Mulciber, specifically, even though he had not been the only one there.

Mordred glared at her with hazel eyes. He folded his arms.

Regulus stepped forward. "Your husband is right, Bella. We heard The Dark Lord yelling at you the other day while we were eating breakfast. We don't want to anger him…"

Bella snorted at that. "He wasn't even that angry."

The students eyed her skeptically.

It seems the Dark Lord had been correct in his statement that people feared the dark. The other students had spent almost no time with their leader and so feared the unknown that was the Dark Lord. The sound of him raising his voice in another room was enough to frighten them.

Bella sighed. "How about this for motivation? I'll give a kiss to the first person here to capture a muggle." She pressed her wand to her lips suggestively.

Rod's green eyes widened in surprise then narrowed in anger. "No, you certainly will not!" But he (and everyone else) knew he had no power to prevent his wife from doing whatever she wanted.

The other males were much more supportive. They smiled and nodded eagerly. (Except for Regulus who tensed and gulped in discomfort.)

Alecto Carrow rolled her eyes. "That's not very motivating…"

"Maybe not to you, but you'll have to practice on someone other than your own brother sometime." Bella smirked, though she had no real intention of letting the younger girl 'practice' with her, anyway.

Everyone chuckled at Bella's insinuation… except, of course, the Carrow siblings. They turned pink and glowered at Bella instead.

She just laughed. "Those muggles won't capture themselves. The rest of you boys better get on that if you want a kiss."

"Wait, no-" Rod tried.

But most of the uniformed students had already burst into the dark night air, flying on clouds of black smoke. They shot like rockets towards the Piccadilly Circus billboards, now glowing from fire rather than…whatever it was muggles used to make them glow normally, and the screaming and fleeing crowd below.

Only Bella, Rod, and Regulus remained on the roof. (Alecto had flown after her brother who seemed a bit too interested in Bella's offer.)

Regulus shook his head of dark hair. "I don't think I can do it…The muggles at Stonehenge, they deserved to punished, they were invading a sacred Wizard site. But these muggles…" he pointed at the ones squealing and scattering like rats on the street, "…they were just minding their own business. They were already in their place."

"No they weren't." Bella countered, "Muggle's place is serving Pureblood Wizards and Witches like us. They should be our slaves, not living freely as if they deserve autonomy."

"So that's what the Dark Lord's planning?!" Rod interjected, "I knew he didn't just want Pureblood Supremacy. He wants to rule over muggles, too!"

Bella shrugged. "Who are we to demand or question the Dark Lord's plans?"

"His followers." Rod reasoned, "We have a right to know what we're doing and why. It's already dangerous to go to war with the Ministry of Magic, and the bloodtraitors, but it's insane to go to war with the muggles. We may have magic, but they have millions-billions-more people than we do. We'll all get killed. We're following a madman to our deaths!"

"Calm down, Rod." Bella dismissed, rolling her dark eyes.

But Rod did not calm down. And now Regulus looked scared, as well. His dark eyes widened in fear along with Rod's green ones.

"Is this true?" Regulus wondered, panic in his cracking pubescent voice, "Does the Dark Lord really want to go to war with the muggles? Are we all going to die?"

Bella groaned. She glared at Rod before smiling sweetly at Regulus.

"Don't worry, Reggie, it'll be fine." She assured, "Everything will be fine. The Dark Lord knows what he's doing."

"But do you know, Bella?" Rod asked. "If he's telling you the details of his plans you should tell us. Or at least tell me. I am your husband, after all."

"He hasn't told me anything that you all don't already know." Bella replied, and that was mostly true (which kind of offended Bella, she was the Dark Lord's student so she deserved more information, did she not?).

Behind her, the sounds of crashing muggle billboards, cars, and other miscellaneous objects rang out in harmony with the screams of muggles. The rest of the students were having fun while Bella was stuck on the roof trying to reassure her overly-nervous husband and overly-naive cousin. She was missing out!

"We all need to participate in the attack like the Dark Lord ordered." Bella declared, "You can disobey him at your own peril, if you want. I know I won't."

And with that she took off from the rooftop on her own cloud of dark smoke, deciding that a tiny cuckoo bird was not the right method of flight for this occasion.

Four prisoners were stunned lying on the same rooftop in front of Bella. The uniformed students stood before her, too, right behind their captured muggles.

They were shielded by an invisibility charm from the muggle flying contraption that circled above, chopping at the smoke-filled air with the blades holding it up. The contraption shone a spotlight on the chaotic scene of Piccadilly Circus below.

"I got one." Mordred declared, proudly, standing over a paralyzed muggle woman who was suspiciously missing her shirt for a relatively chilly evening.

"You mean we got one." Alvin corrected from where he stood next to his best friend.

"I'm not sharing the kiss." Mordred grumbled.

"You're not getting the kiss," Bella refused, walking past Mordred, Alvin and their captured muggle, onto the next student.

"Mine got away." Evan Rosier shrugged, flipping his golden hair out of his eyes. Bella suspected that his hair obstructing this view had something to do with his muggle escaping-if he had even managed to catch one in the first place with that blond mop in his face.

Bella continued past her maternal cousin, onto the next students. The Carrow siblings had also shared the capture of one muggle, an elderly man who still clutched a cane in his tightened, paralyzed hand. An easy target.

"You're not kissing me or my brother." Alecto warned, wand pointed at Bella.

"Really?" Bella chuckled, "Both afraid you might like me better than each other?" She chuckled as she walked away from the glaring Carrows and their stunned captive.

Igor Karkaroff was next. The first student to capture a muggle all on his own, and a relatively fit and young muggle man, at that.

"Good job," Bella complimented, "Your father and the Dark Lord will be proud."

Igor smiled, his mouth surrounded by the scraggly attempt at a goatee. He was just starting to pucker his lips when…

"Too bad I don't like foreigners." Bella said.

Igor slumped his shoulders as Bella continued past him, towards the next student.

Rabastan Lestrange had failed to capture a muggle, even with his older brother's help. "Can I get a kiss, anyway? We're family." he attempted.

Rod immediately punched him in the gut of his gray uniform. "Shut up, Bas. Don't talk to my wife like that."

Bas clutched his stomach and dropped to his knees. He almost landed on the muggle Rod had captured, a young woman, dark haired like the one Rod had practiced the Cruciatus Curse on a month ago.

Bella eyed the muggle woman at her feet, tapping her with her boot. "Pretty." She commented, "Good job, Rod." She looked up at her husband, "I suppose you get the kiss then…wait."

Rod furrowed his brow. "What?"

Bella looked at him, then scanned the rooftop. "Where's Reggie?"

The other students started to glance around the darkness. It was past midnight and Regulus had not returned from the attack.

Had he fled in fear? Bella wondered. Was he still a coward? Or had he gotten hurt somehow during the attack? Or worse…

The voices on the rooftop hushed in worry. The only sound now was the whir of the muggle flying contraption above, and the muggle police and firetruck sirens below.

Suddenly, though, the spotlight that had been lighting Piccadilly Circus after the billboards and the fires had gone out, moved. It pointed towards something else.

The sky.

Against the dark backdrop of night and black smoke letters appeared in the red-orange color of fire.

ALL HAIL THE DARK LORD

The muggles staring up from the street gasped. So did the wizards and witches on the rooftop.

A few minutes after the message had been written by magic fire in the sky, Regulus Black landed on the roof, the cloud of smoke he had been flying on phasing out behind him as he walked towards his fellow students. They stared at him in shock.

Even Bella's eyes were wide in surprise. Regulus turned to her first.

"Now the Daily Prophet will know someone's behind the attacks without knowing who." Regulus explained, "And the Dark Lord won't yell at you anymore..."

His smile was half nervous, half proud. He was probably wondering whether Bella would chastise him or praise him.

She did neither. Bella scooped Regulus into a crushing hug and gave him the kiss she had promised (on the cheek, of course, since he was her baby cousin, after all).

The other boys glared jealously, especially Rod, who had been sure the kiss was for him. He kicked the paralyzed muggle woman he had captured in frustration.

Regulus tensed and turned bright red. Bella almost laughed when she released him from her grasp.

"Reggie, this is just we needed!" she exclaimed, "The Dark Lord will be very pleased when he sees the Prophet tomorrow!"

Regulus did not immediately react to Bella's words. He was still tense and red from her hug, like an upright version of the paralyzed muggles lying on the rooftop.

"We better go before the reports-and the aurors-get here." Rod said with urgency.

Bella turned to him and nodded. "Let's go!" she called to the students.

Rod was the first to apparate away, being old enough to do so, taking his muggle prisoner with him. His brother Rabastan followed, sans prisoner since he did not have one.

The rest of the students, too young to disapparate, blasted off of the rooftop on clouds of smoke and flew away. Alecto and Amycus carried their prisoner, Mordred and Alvin carried their prisoner, Igor carried his prisoner with help from Evan.

They left Bella and Regulus on the roof overlooking Piccadilly Circus alone.

"Come on, Reggie." Bella urged, "Why are you just standing there?"

"I don't want you to call me 'Reggie' anymore." Regulus declared, though his voice wavered with nervousness as well as puberty, "I'm almost fifteen. I'm not a little kid anymore, so you don't need to treat me like one."

Bella blinked, taken aback. First, she laughed the request off. "But Reggie, you'll always be my little cousin!"

Regulus shook his head, dark hair shaking with it. "This is an army and we're about to go to war. Maybe with the Ministry, maybe with all the muggles, too. If I'm going to participate, I have to be a grownup."

Bella sighed, a little sad. Her baby was growing up. "Alright…" she accepted, "But if you want to be treated like a man, you'll have to start acting like one. No more refusing to capture and torture muggles, no more running away. And you may have to kill people, and not just filthy muggles and mudbloods. You may have to kill bloodtraitors, as well."

Regulus took a nervous breath, grimacing. He was a silent for a moment, as if reconsidering his request. But then he stated. "I understand." And this time his voice did not waver.

"Good." Bella smiled, "Now let's go home."

She grabbed Regulus by the hand and disapparated them both away from the rooftop of the muggle office building.

WHO IS THE DARK LORD?

The muggle commercial district of Piccadilly Circus was attacked last night. At least two muggles have died, more are critically injured and several have gone missing. Though muggle authorities suspect that the Soviet Union, the IRA, or the National Front might have been behind the attack, the Ministry of Magic and the Daily Prophet know that those responsible for this attack were using magic.

But who are they?

All that is known at the time is that the attackers follow someone known as the 'Dark Lord'. Who this 'Dark Lord' might be and what the motivation for this attack was is also unknown.

The Department of Magical Law Enforcement suspects that this group is also responsible for the attacks on the muggle clocktower and the muggle bridge earlier this week. As such, they have assigned aurors to investigate this string of attacks.

Though no such attack has occurred directed at the Wizarding community, Ministry officials urge everyone to be cautious when going about their daily lives.

No one knows when the 'Dark Lord' and his followers might strike again.

The Dark Lord set down the newspaper on the desk he sat at in satisfaction.

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