A/N: I am so sorry for the very much not-on-time update. I go more into detail for why the delay at the end. But just know that I apologize profusely and am very happy that you are still reading this. It's not as long as I had wanted/promised, but nonetheless I hope that you enjoy.

Sirius had to hand it to his mother, she was an excellent schemer. He loathed to admit that he had greatly enjoyed his reunion with the Malfoys, but it was quite true. Narcissa was lovely as ever. While they still had much to work through, he knew everything would be okay with his gentle and forgiving cousin. Draco and Harry seemed completely attached at the hip already. They were only able to separate the children once they had fallen asleep in a heap after another loud and busy game of Dragon and Castle. The shadowy, broken part of Sirius saw a mini-Sirius and mini-James in the making.

He did his best to add those thoughts to the monstrous heap of fractured-hurt-sharp-dangerous in his mind. Harry was Harry, Draco was Draco, and James was dead.

He and Lucius, far removed from their petty child-/teen-hood and with Lucius' clear worship of Narcissa, were able to bond quite spectacularly over their children. Sirius' newfound maturity made him appreciate Lucius' quiet reserve. Where he once saw cold aloofness and conceit, he could now see an admirable self-control and self-confidence. Around his family, and indeed, House Black had become his family once he bonded with one of its daughters, his mask broke and he was honestly…quite goofy? In many ways, Lucius resembled Remus: quiet and bookish, but with a silly streak that would come out now and then. The painful difference, however, was that Lucius had much more resolve—he was without a doubt a leader, not a follower. Sirius was also ashamed to admit that it was nice to speak to someone who just "got it". Lucius understood the pressures of being Heir, he understood the importance of family traditions, and the importance of following Lady Magic's ancient rules and the Old Ways. The Potters had been an Ancient and Noble House, but they had been marked blood traitors for a reason. While James had distantly known of the Old Ways, he never practiced them, and had Sirius had always felt like he had to hide that very central part of himself. Remus too, for all of his research, was never fully understanding or accepting of Sirius keeping up with magical tradition. There had been countless accusations that Sirius was really "dark" because he wouldn't give up those practices and because he still followed Lady Magic's doctrine. For Sirius, Samhain and Yule were never replaced by Halloween and Christmas as they were for James and Remus (and that lying little traitor).

It was another piece of him that seemed to heal and shatter all at once. His love for James was infinite, but James was also not perfect and that was getting harder and harder to ignore.

Narcissa had brought up something worrying: Bellatrix. His wild cousin's name was rarely spoken anymore. Arcturus felt that she was his greatest failure. Not that she herself was a failure, but that the Patriarch had failed to protect her from her parent's dangerous machinations. Sirius had been stunned to hear of her bonding to the Lestrange heir. She had always been the most independent witch he had ever known, and even as removed from the family as he had been at the time, he worried greatly about what would happen to her.

After the Malfoys left, Sirius asked his Patriarch and parents for more information about Bellatrix.

Cygnus and Druella had promised one of their daughters to the Lestrange Heir. After a rather…intense…interrogation by Arcturus, Cygnus admitted that it was the result of insidious scheme by Druella and Lady Lestrange. As the eldest, Andromeda was originally meant to marry Rodolphus, but when she broke the contract and eloped with a muggleborn, the burden fell on her two younger sisters. Narcissa and Lucius had been all but engaged at that point—deliriously in love and already planning their future together. Bellatrix loved her independence and freedom, but she loved her little sister more. Before Arcturus could do anything, she was married to the horrible man and whisked off to Lestrange Manor. All communication with House Black was cut off, and no one saw or heard from Bellatrix for over six months.

Her first time back in public was at the Malfoy's Yule Ball. By all accounts, she seemed incredibly different: a manic look in her eye, and quite unhinged behavior. She was still quite affectionate to Narcissa, but her attitude towards her birth house was very off. There was a desperation hidden under every stilted interaction with a member of House Black. Walburga noted that her niece was rather gaunt and shadowed rather than her usual bright and healthful self. Their worry went up tenfold.

With more pressure than ever, Arcturus spent days pouring over the marriage contract Cygnus had signed. It was rather severe. Bellatrix was unable to maintain any bonds to House Black, and was under the complete control of her bonded and his house. It was one of the most antiquated marriage contracts Arcturus had ever seen. The Patriarch was able to confirm what Narcissa had told Sirius: the only clause in her favor was that Rodolphus could not harm or force her to harm a child of Black blood. If he violated this term, then the contract was immediately magically and legally terminated without need for any other justification or proceeding. Bellatrix would revert to 'Bellatrix Black' be relinquished from the hold of the Lestrange Family Magic, and would be able to leave with anything that was hers originally, or gifted to her. It was the only thing Cygnus bothered to put in (or was able to put in) that was favorable to his daughter. The situation was bleak though.

Sirius prayed to Lady Magic that his cousin would be okay. He prayed with everything in him that she would somehow be able to get out of the contract (without a child of Black blood being hurt), and with her mind still intact—or at least, heal-able.

He looked over to Harry, who was currently shredding parchment with the greatest fascination, and hoped that he would be able to meet his Aunt Bellatrix. Bella had never wanted children herself, but growing up she had always been adamant that she would "tolerate" her sisters' and cousins' children—they all knew she would do way more than just "tolerate" them. She was awkward with Regulus when he was little, but still managed to completely spoil him in her own way.

It seemed Lady Magic had answered his prayers. If in a slightly unfortunate way.

Bellatrix, Rodolphus, Rabastan, and Barty Crouch Jr. had been arrested in Longbottom Manor. They had attacked the Lord and Lady Longbotton, putting them both under Cruciatus for an extended period of time. Bellatrix had been found in the nursery, Heir Neville Longbottom held tightly in her arms, and with her wand drawn but pointed at the doorway protectively rather than at the child. Upon arrest and interrogation, it became apparent that Rodolphus had ordered Bellatrix to kill Heir Longbottom.

Bellatrix was now Bellatrix Black again.

For all that Rodolphus boasted about being the perfect, consummate Pureblood heir, he had never actually been the brightest. It was clear that he did not do his research on his wife's family (or on House Longbottom), else he would have known that Neville's paternal grandmother was a Black. Callidora Black married (then) Heiress Augusta Longbottom. They had one child, Frank Longbottom, who then gave them one grandchild.

Although faint, Black blood still flowed through Neville's veins. Bellatrix had known this, and while she would have never harmed a child anyway, she especially was not going to carry out Rodolphus's orders against her young cousin.

Arcturus, with Attorneys Pryce and Cushing at his back, stormed into the DMLE upon Bellatrix's arrest. It was proven unnecessary though. Auror Moody had been one of the responding aurors, and after single-handedly taking down the three wizards, he was the first to encounter Bellatrix. He made sure she and Neville were both taken care of.

Auror Moody personally questioned Bellatrix, and made she the record very clearly showed that she was under an oppressive contract where she was quite literally unable to ignore her husband's command to go to the Manor with them, and that she never actually fired any spells. He confirmed that she was now Bellatrix Black, and offered his assistance—should she need it—in retrieving her belongings from Lestrange Manor.

Lady Callidora and Lady Augusta were summoned from their French chateau and given their young grandson. Neville hadn't needed a check-up, but they were going to head to St. Mungo's anyway to check on Lord and Lady Longbottom whose conditions were still unknown.

Arcturus was free to take Bellatrix home with him. His granddaughter was shaky, stunned, and seconds away from a breakdown. Auror Moody let them use the guest floo in the department so she wouldn't have to traverse the entire ministry.

The reunion between Bellatrix and Narcissa was gut-wrenching. The normally poised women were full on sobbing, clinging to each other with everything in them. The Malfoys had arrived only moments before Arcturus. Walburga had floo'd them directly after Arcturus hurried to the Ministry, and they were luckily able to get an international portkey from their Spanish Villa back to London.

Bellatrix had arrived, all her usual grace gone as she stumbled from the floo and fell right into Narcissa's arms. Upon realizing it was her little sister holding her, and feeling Family Magic surge around her in recognition at the long-lost member, she absolutely shattered.

Sirius could only count three times that he had ever seen his eldest cousin cry. The first, he could barely remember as he had been three and Regulus one, but his parents had retold him the story several times while growing up. Andromeda and Bellatrix were left in charge of Narcissa, Sirius, and Regulus for a few hours. Andromeda had ended up sneaking out somewhere and left eleven-year-old Bellatrix alone with the four younger children. It had been complete chaos, and at one point they all thought that they had lost Regulus. It was only Kreacher who cold calm down the frantic, crying Bellatrix. He led her to the nursery where Regulus had crawled behind the plush armchair for a nap. The second, was when he was five and she was thirteen. Her father had very harshly scolded her over the A she had gotten on her first Divination exam. She hadn't wanted to take the class to begin with, but her mother claimed that Care of Magical Creatures wasn't "ladylike"—despite the fact that several Lady Blacks had been acclaimed Magizoologists—and forced her to instead take the useless class. Cygnus had laid into Bellatrix, who had never gotten a mark below E. She stoically withstood the tirade, even as the eyes of the entire extended Black family bore holes into her. It was only after she was banished to her room in the main Family Manor that she let her tears fall. Sirius had slipped out of the room after her, wanting to try and give her some comfort. In a rare moment, Bellatrix let her vulnerability show and hugged her younger cousin tight, crying silently but freely. The third time, had been the day before he ran away. By that time, Bellatrix had been bonded to Lestrange. Sirius had been on the outs enough with his family that he hadn't known exactly how or why the bonding happened. All he had known was that his wild cousin, who had sworn she would never have a marriage bond, was bonded. That morning he had slipped out of the house and travelled to the forest near the Family Manor. He stuck to the outskirts, so the wards wouldn't recognize him and alert that family of his location. Coming to one of his favorite clearings, he could hear spellfire and devasted screaming. Bellatrix was there. She looked completely undone. He had never before seen his cousin that disheveled. Her robes were ripped and burned in places from the explosions caused by her spells. Blasts of fiendfyre shot from her wand, not even forming any concrete shapes as she was too distraught. Tears poured down her face as she screamed and sobbed angrily into the sky. Bellatrix was true madness in that moment. Sirius hadn't understood. He had been too much of a coward to try and comfort his cousin, instead he snuck away, back to the house where he started to pack his belongings. At the time, he blamed his family for Bellatrix's state. He had thought Arcturus had made her marry Rodolphus, because that's just how it was done. Bellatrix's tears just showed him how evil and cruel his family could really be—all of them. He had thought plenty about leaving before then. It hadn't even been the first time he had packed his bags and started for the door. But this time—seeing his strong cousin reduced to such misery—he didn't want to stick around and see what would happen to him too.

How different these tears were from the others. Bellatrix's tears were a combination of relief and happiness that it was all over and she was safe once again, but also tears of sadness and anger about what she had been through. She caught his teary eyes staring at her and reached a hand out to him. This was his unflappable cousin who didn't even question his presence. He grasped her hand. Had it always been this skeletal? This frail? And she tugged him to her and Narcissa. He enveloped both of their slighter forms into his and held on as tight as he dare. These women helped raise him. These women, his precious cousins who loved and protected him unconditionally, were so so broken in this moment. Narcissa was shattering under the guilt she felt, and Bellatrix under the weight of all of the trauma. He swore he would do whatever it took to make it better—even if he had no idea what "better" meant. All three of them were offering useless apologies to each other. Stumbling over their words as they each tried to be heard by the other two. No one really knew what they were apologizing for… "I'm sorry I couldn't save you?" "I'm sorry you had to save me?" "I'm sorry we're all so broken?" "I'm sorry that I don't know how to make it better?" There were too many layers, too many things they knew they would never address.

Sirius' eyes strayed to a small motion by the doorway. His son peeked up at him with confused eyes that were quickly filling with tears because adults were crying so that must mean he should cry too. He motioned to his son, scooped him up as he scrambled over and threw himself at Sirius. Bellatrix wiped her eyes with a handkerchief offered by Orion, sniffled once, twice, and then peered over at Harry.

"This is ickle Harry then?" her usually deep and husky voice was even worse from the crying. At Sirius' nod, she held her hand out to the child, palm up in invitation.

"Hello darling, I'm your Aunt Bellatrix." She cooed.

"Auntie sad?" Harry asked, grasping her index and middle fingers with his tiny, pudgy hand.

"Not anymore, love. Auntie is very happy now." She gave him her sweetest, softest smile, a rare thing to behold.

A/N: I am taking absolute fanfic authorship liberty and making it so that Callidora Black bonded to Augusta Longbottom. I believe in canon, she is married to Harfang Longbottom and had two children. It's unclear though how exactly the two are related to Augusta, Frank (and Alice), and Neville. I'm choosing to make the relationship a lot closer to our known Longbottoms, because I said so. I'm imagining that Callidora was originally meant to bond with Harfang, Augusta's younger brother, but Callidora and Augusta had already developed feelings for each other. They were allowed to bond because same-sex bondings are really NBD in this universe and eventually had Frank Longbottom. As of right now, I'm not going to go in-depth on how exactly they were able to have him, but let's just take a mild cop-out now and say it was a potion and ritual.

Also, I am trying to keep this, as best as I can, from Sirius' POV. We only really know what he knows, or find out things as he finds them out. When I started this story (way too long ago for the amount I have written) it was meant to be a deeply introspective look into Sirius. It still has that root, or at least I hope it does.

I think that's it for now?

Thank you for reading/favoriting/bookmarking/following/commenting etc. I am terrible at replying to comments, but please know that I do read them all and appreciate them so so so much. They keep me motivated!

Apologies again for the very late update. As you can probably gather by now, I am very much a liar and do not update when I say I will.

The past few months have been incredibly emotionally and mentally difficult. It didn't feel right to post anything right after the murder of George Floyd and so many others. I lost the will to write…

We're seeing many spikes in cases in the US (where I live). Please stay safe: wear masks and social distance as much as possible.

I hope you are all doing well and staying happy and healthy. And if not, I hope that reading this chapter may give you even the smallest measure of reprieve from whatever you are going through.