New chapter! I know the updates are getting further apart, sorry but I'm really busy… Thanks for all the reviews and favourites/following stuff...over 200 followers! Thank you so much for reading! (replies to a few of the reviews are at the bottom)

7.

"I'm dying in here child," came the voice again, "enter immediately or the threat I believe was made will be carried out."

A dark scowl spread across Bella's face as she shoved the door open and stepped into the room.

The door slammed shut behind her, throwing the room into darkness, all the curtains were closed blocking out any sunlight, leaving only a few black candles to illuminate the pale witch in the bed, who was staring at Bella with cold, black eyes.

"Aunt Walburga do you have to make every place you enter look miserable, it's as bad as your house," said Bella peering round the room before continuing…"The only comforting thought here is that you're about to die."

The old witch narrowed her eyes, examining Bella.

"Watch your tongue girl or your cousin will suffer the consequences," she snarled.

"He's your son," snapped Bella glaring at her aunt.

"No relative of mine would ever be a Gryffindor, branding him with the mark would be doing him a favor… he may of course end up dead or tortured for not doing as he's told but it would serve him right for fraternizing with mudbloods and blood traitors," spat Walburga.

"You're disgusting," muttered Bella, just loud enough for her aunt to hear but the old witch ignored it.

"You however, dear, despite your slightly rebellious ways are the perfect Slytherin child, we have much in common. If you were to take the dark mark and join the dark lord you and your powers would simply flourish…"

"I'm nothing like you and I'd rather die than do what that bastard Voldemort tells me too," Bella cut across her aunt, her eyes turning cold and black. Walburga's pale face instead of flinching like Bella had expected it to when she said 'the dark lord's' name split into a sinister smile.

"The Slytherin in you is too strong to overcome the Gryffindor habits you've picked up my dear, any Gryffindor would say they'd rather die than join the dark lord, you merely say you won't do as you're told…"

"I won't do as I'm told cause what I would be told to do is fucking ridiculous and what he believes is a load of bull," snapped Bella, her wand in her hand, itching to be used but she was holding back for Sirius' sake.

Walburga started laughing, which sounded more like a cackle, Bella wondered if the muggles who wrote stories about cackling witches had come across Walburga and used her as their inspiration because she'd fit the part perfectly.

"We're more alike than you'll ever come to believe child," she laughed.

"Can I go now?" asked Bella through gritted teeth, scared she'd loose control of her magic.

"One more thing," Walburga had stopped laughing and was examining the young witch in front of her.

"So you'll never take up the dark mark, even if it means a better life for you?"

"I highly doubt it would lead to a better life," pointed out Bella.

"You might change your mind dear, what's coming for you instead could be far worse," Walburga smiled evilly at Bella, who remained silent, her dark eyes now pitch black.

"Come a little closer dear, I want to get a proper look at you before I die," smirked the witch for a reason Bella didn't know. She warily took a step closer to her aunt lying in the hospital bead, looking not far from a skeleton.

As soon as she was close enough Walburga's thin arm shot out from under the sheets and grabbed Bella's forearm.

It was immediately like someone had lit her arm on fire and she was sure she would have screamed, had she not been used to the regular punishment of her arm being set on fire when she was smaller and less accomplished at magic.

The pain stopped as soon as it had started. Walburga released her niece's arm, a demented smile stretched across her white face. Bella said nothing but glared at the witch and took a good few steps backwards, feeling her magic start to seep out of her, but trying as hard as she could to stop it.

"Can I go?" snapped Bella, already at the door.

"Feel free, I'll think about whether you were well behaved enough to allow your cousin to remain unmarked…"

Bella didn't listen anymore and instead sprinted out the door, slamming it shut behind her before running to the reception and apparating straight to Hogsmead.

/

She appeared in the shrieking shack and immediately kicked the old bitten chair in anger, which caused it to burst into bright orange flames. She left it to burn for a moment, not caring enough to put the flames out and took a chance to look at her forearm where Walburga had grabbed her. The parts of her skin that the evil witch had touched were red and hot, as if she'd been burnt, leaving behind a blistering red handprint.

Bella shot a few healing spells at it but nothing happened, the handprint stayed where it was, completely unchanged. She cursed and yanked her sleeve down to cover the mark before flicking her wand and putting out the flames, which had started to spread across the wooden floor.

She hadn't missed the message hidden, not so subtly, under Walburga's words; both her and Sirius were in serious trouble if they didn't conform to their family's beliefs and there was no chance in hell of that happening. Bella cursed and brought her wand down in an angry slash cutting the bed in two, she didn't care, Remus never used it anyway.

Her and Sirius would have to be ready to attack and then run the hell away when the family came at them but right now all Bella wanted to do was blow something up. She considered the shrieking shack but decided against it, Remus needed the place… she thought for a second more before apparating and ending up in the middle of Hogsmead, right next to the house owned by the Black family that was being used at the moment as a death eater hideout. Bella wasn't supposed to know about it but she'd followed Narcissa here one day, a group of people Bella was sure were death eaters trailing along behind her.

Like all Black properties it was protected by the fidelius charm but being a Black herself, albeit a traitorous one she had access to pretty much all the buildings.

Not caring if there was anybody inside or not Bella stepped through the door and blew the place to smithereens.

/

Lily Evans it turned out was actually nothing like Hermione despite first impressions, though the girl was smart, his mother hadn't memorized all her textbooks like his bushy haired friend had, something Harry was rather relieved about. And while being just as nice if not nicer than Hermione, Harry noted that his mother was a more fiery character. Harry had witnessed more than one of her outbursts in the corridors when he'd been with James, something she had apologized for the moment Flitwick had stopped talking to them, justifying herself by saying that James Potter is a prat.

She was more like Ginny, he thought, though obviously without the multitude of older brothers, just one older sister that she didn't like talking about, and Harry felt satisfied that Petunia seemed to be just as horrible now as she was in his time.

He came out of charms smirking to himself, though they hated each other right now, he could see that his father and mother would fit well together if James stopped being a complete idiot when he was around her and if Lily would give him a chance. All thoughts of Bella were forgotten for a minute until Sirius grabbed him from behind as he was making his way to Herbology.

"She's still missing," he said as he let go of Harry. The usually jovial boy looking seriously worried for the first time Harry had ever truly seen. Harry looked round the corridor, hoping for a moment that Bella would just jump out from a classroom and laugh at their worried faces, but… she didn't.

"D'you think anyone could have actually got her?' said Harry. "I've only known her for like a week but she seems almost indestructible."

Sirius shook his head and looked down at the floor.

"It's happened before," he muttered and Harry was about to ask about it when he was cut of as James came running down the corridor towards them. Sirius's head immediately snapped up.

"You got anything?" he asked before James had reached them.

"I found Narcissa unconscious in an empty classroom, weird smoke everywhere, I presume that was Bella," he said, attempting to catch his breath as he spoke to them. Sirius bit his lip before his eyes suddenly lit up with an idea.

"The map!" he exclaimed, looking at James, who immediately reached into his robe and pulled out a piece of parchment, Harry realized that he was looking at the marauders map but knowing he shouldn't know that he asked…

"What map?" James looked up a Sirius.

"Should we tell him?" they both turned to look at Harry, thoughtful expressions on their faces.

"Hell, we already showed him the passageway," said Sirius.

"That was Bella," pointed out James.

"She trusts him, how many people can you say that about," counted Sirius. James appeared in deep thought for a moment before turning back to Harry.

"Good point… we came up with the idea a while ago, been trying to make it since September, we're pretty much done I think, so it should work just…" James had tapped the map whispering 'I solemnly swear that I am up to no good' and the parchment was suddenly covered in the map of Hogwarts with little dots with name tags moving around, it wasn't quite finished yet, a few places weren't labeled and they hadn't signed it but otherwise it was exactly the same as Harry's, the one he'd left in his time.

"Shit," muttered Harry, he had been stunned when Fred and George had first shown it to him, he figured he should replicate the same emotion again.

James and Sirius both smirked, feeling proud of themselves.

"Yeah, well Bella helped with a bit of the magic and speeded up the process… could have done it without her of course, but it would have taken longer," said Sirius looking intently at the map as James opened it out to it's full size.

Harry suddenly felt his stomach sink, the map showed people as they truly were, whether they were in an animagus form, invisible or had drank polyjuice potion, it always showed the person's real name…

"She's not on here…" said Sirius, biting his lip and looking up at James. "Did we make it to show dead people?"

"She won't be dead you idiot," said James snatching it from Sirius's grasp. 'Help us look for her Harry."

Harry nervously edged towards the map and peered down at it immediately searching for their position in this corridor… he found them, three black dots huddled close together, Sirius Black, James Potter and… Harry Jameson.

Harry stared at the map, for a minute not quite believing his eyes. He was relived of course but also confused, the map never lies, so why was it showing him as Harry Jameson not Harry Potter?

"Oi, are you looking!" Sirius's voice broke through his thoughts.

"Yeah, sorry," said Harry and he quickly started scanning the map for Bella. He spotted a stationary Narcissa Black in an otherwise empty classroom near the great hall but no Bella.

"Sirius is right, she'd not there," said Harry, looking away from the map. James remained looking at it intently for a few more second before reluctantly folding it up and muttering 'mischief managed'.

Harry looked at the two of them and saw, etched in their expressions that they were truly worried about Bellatrix Black, something that if he had been told a week ago he would have said that the person who told him was out of their mind but now…

"Look, lets go to Herbology, if we cant find her after that then we can go look for her in Hogsmeade," suggested Harry, not thinking where else the witch could be that wasn't on the map.

"But…" Sirius began, but James cut him off.

"Harry's right, besides what do you honestly think could have happened to her, we should be worrying more about what she'd done than how she is," pointed out James and Sirius's face darkened momentarily before he nodded and they headed off to Herbology. And despite cutting through nearly all the secret passageways, still getting there 5 minutes late, but managing to get out a detention by saying Sirius was sick, and he did look it, his face had gone pale ever since he thought Bella was missing.

Herbology went slowly, slower than a lesson ever should, even when you were pleading for it to end. Harry wasn't even bothering to stare at the door, hoping Bella would suddenly burst in as they had Herbology with the Hufflepuffs not Slytherins, just like in his time.

Remus, noticing something was wrong asked them what it was, so they told him Bella was missing. He immediately frowned before saying she'd probably just gone to the three broomsticks. Harry hoped what he said was true, and smirked as he imagined Bella's reaction when she came back and found out they had been worrying about her… if indeed nothing was wrong.

As soon as Herbology finished the boys rushed out of the classroom and were sprinting to the secret passage on the fourth floor when a loud boom suddenly shook the castle.

Harry skidded to a halt, his wand out and eyes darting around the corridor.

"What the hell?" James muttered, looking round as well for the source of the noise.

"Er… guys," Remus's voice floated towards them, Harry and James both spun round to see Remus standing next to one of the windows looking out of it with a grim expression on his face. Sirius, being the closest, joined him first and his eyes darkened as he took in the scene.

Harry moved to the window that looked out in the direction of Hogsmeade, there was a large dark plume of smoke rising up from what Harry was sure was the village, but the forest blocked the view so he couldn't see what had actually happened.

"That better not be Zonko's," growled Sirius, moving away from the window and starting to stalk to the mirror. The others quickly followed him.

"I'll bloody kill her myself if she's blown it up," Harry heard Sirius growl as he opened the passageway and they all stepped into the large tunnel.

"Wait!" Harry called out stopping. "You think Bella did that?" Harry could see Sirius stop and slowly turn to face him.

"I don't know," he said quietly, "but if something blows up, she usually has something to do with it." He turned away and started walking down the tunnel and Harry after glancing at James who had a frown on his face, followed.

/

"Bella!" shouted James as they jogged down the still snow-covered street in Hogsmeade, heading in the direction of the smoke that was slowly filling up the small village. They had already checked the three broomsticks and Rosmerta had told them she hadn't seen her, but the witch had looked worried, nervously peering out the window at the ever-increasing amount of smoke that was flooding the street.

They finally turned a corner saw what looked to be the source of the smoke. It looked like it had once been a house, now it was charred bits of wood and debris, with the occasional half destroyed wall. A dark twisting plume of smoke was still whooshing into the sky from the half of the once house that was still on fire and the bright flames threw off heat that Harry could feel from the other end of the street.

Harry was immediately thankful that the place wasn't anywhere he'd known and also, he noticed narrowing his eyes at the strange occurrence, that the houses on either side of it had remained entirely unaffected. There was a small crowd of witches and wizards gathering around the wreckage, some of them watching the flames with wide eyes, whilst others were trying to get closer to put out the flames. However their efforts seemed to be futile due to some sort of barrier surrounding the property, preventing anyone from getting near enough to put out the flames.

"We need to split up and look for Bella," said Harry dragging his eyes away from the fire and desperately hoping that no one had been in there when it blew up, especially that Bella hadn't.

The others nodded silently and took off, heading in different directions away from the burning ruins. Harry stayed where he was for a moment, still surveying the scene, before beginning to spin around and look through the crowd and the street, searching for Bella.

He couldn't see her anywhere. He was about to take off down the next street to look more when he caught a flash of something odd in his peripheral vision. Whipping round to the direction he was sure he had seen something in, Harry turned towards a house. It was opposite the one that had just blown up and looked perfectly normal, like every other cottage and house on the street. But Harry was sure he had seen something to capture his attention. His eyes scanned the house again… and again, everything looked perfectly normal… until his eyes reached the roof.

It wasn't much, but he was sure this is what he'd spotted.

Where the other houses on the street had a nice even coat of snow this one had a large chunk missing, right above the front of the house. Harry would have thought something had caused it to dislodge a while ago and that it was merely unfortunate that there was a tiny eye sore on this otherwise picturesque cottage. But he also noticed a slight shimmer in the air above the part of the roof with the missing snow.

Harry smirked, he knew that charm. He remembered Hermione trying to teach him it when he was training for the tournament last year. He had been unable to manage it then and she had only just succeeded in making herself almost invisible. And now he was staring up at someone who had used that very charm and was sitting on the edge of the roof presumably watching the destruction opposite, and Harry was pretty sure he knew who it was.

Whilst all the other gazes on the street were fixed on the fire Harry moved over to the cottage, walking up the path until he was standing almost directly under where the disillusioned person was sitting.

"Are you going to come down?" he called up, watching the slightly shimmering air. Nothing happened for a second then the air seemed to slowly solidify until it revealed a person twirling a wand between their fingers looking down at him, an amused expression on their face.

"Aren't you bloody observant," smirked Bella and she pushed her self off the roof. Harry could have sworn his heart almost stopped for a second there as he watched the girl plummet; sure she was about to slam hard into the paved path below. But she landed gracefully on her feet as if she had only jumped from the garden wall in front of her instead of the roof.

"Shit!" exclaimed Harry as she landed in front of him, "how did you not just die?" he demanded jumping back.

Bella smirked at him, "magic," she replied casually, looking around.

"Where're the others," she asked, "I saw you all come down the street."

"They went off to try find you," Harry paused and looked at the witch in front of him, concerned that she probably just blew up a house and was acting like nothing had happened, though Harry noticed as he looked at her, her eyes were darker than he remembered…hardened. "Why're you here?"

Bella narrowed her eyes, "I think you can guess that," she said before turning and starting to walk down the path to the street. Harry's eyes narrowed too, had something happened to her? His eyes quickly checked her for injuries but when he found nothing obvious he went after her.

"Hey! Wait!" called Harry, and he grabbed her arm to stop her moving further away. Bella immediately let out a hiss and jerked her arm away, not before Harry caught a glimpse of some sort of mark under her sleeve.

Harry stopped, his heart was thudding wildly… she couldn't have.

"What's on your arm Bella," he said coldly, praying he was wrong.

"None of your business," she snapped, pulling her sleeve further down to cover the mark, before turning away again.

"Bella," he called out after her… "please?" he asked, his voice softer than it had been before.

The witch stopped and turned slowly round to face Harry, realization spreading over her face, and along with it a smirk.

"You think I've got the dark mark?" Harry shook his head.

"No… I just…" he trailed off. Bella rolled her eyes and yanked up her sleeve, Harry let out a sigh of relief as he saw not the dark mark, but then his eyes narrowed at the blistering red burn. At first he thought it had something to do with the house on fire but then he noticed it was in the shape of a handprint.

"What the…?" he looked up at Bella, concern flickering in his eyes.

"It's nothing," she said pointedly looking at the scars on his hand, that were still slightly inflamed even after missing Umbridge's torture for weeks now. He quickly covered his hand and looked up at Bella shocked, he thought no one had noticed them.

She laughed at him, "everyone's got secrets…" she paused. "Yours might just be a bit more interesting than most people's."

Harry just stared at her; he had underestimated her… a lot. He was sure those scars weren't the only things she'd noticed about him, his arm nervously flinched to the scar there left by Wormtail last year. But she had never let on how much she knew, only the fact that she did.

Just then Harry spotted Sirius running down the street out the corner of his eye. The marauder was scanning it, presumably for Bella.

After getting over the shock of Bella seemingly knowing everything Harry dragged his eyes away from her amused gaze and called out to him.

Once Sirius caught sight of them he approached cautiously, his eyes narrowed at Bella scanning her -just like Harry had done- for injuries… "What happened?"

"I blew up a house," she deadpanned and Harry shook his head, so she had actually done it.

"You knew what that house was?" he asked. Bella's eyes narrowed.

"Don't fucking tell me they didn't deserve it," she snapped.

"They're gonna know it was you," murmured Sirius.

Bella ignored his comment and instead, pulled two fingers up to her mouth and whistled, catching the attention of two people on the other side of the street, James and Remus. As soon as they caught sight of her they quickly hurried over.

"I'm starting the lessons again," said Bella as soon as they had reached them. Harry noticed Sirius's eyes widen at her statement and wondered what the hell she meant. "Sirius, James, Harry you've got no choice in the matter," she cast an apologetic glance at the green eyed wizard who had been standing there, confused ever since Sirius had come over. "Remus, you're not as much of an issue, but you're welcome to come if you want… and fuck no James!" she snapped as the wizard opened his mouth to say something.

"You didn't even know what I was going to say!" he demanded.

"There is no way in hell I am having anything to do with the rat," she put it bluntly, causing James to open his mouth again then snap it shut quickly, scowling. Harry chuckled quietly, guessing what James had wanted to ask, earning himself an approving look from Bella and a scowl from his future father. Remus looked at Harry, perplexed for a moment before daring to speak.

"Why?" he asked Bella.

She looked up at them all and Harry caught a flash of some sort of emotion in her eyes before they turned back to normal.

"I may have just blown up a death eater hideout," she shrugged. "You've probably been seen with me here by now, we're kinda, maybe targets," she finished, looking unfazed by the fact she had just told them all that their lives were probably in danger because of her.

But as she turned down the path and onto the street, Harry caught that flash of something else jump across her eyes and had a sinking feeling that there was more to it than she was letting on… though what Harry had no idea.

"What are the lessons," Harry asked Sirius, whilst nervously watching the witch in front of him, who was rubbing her arm absent mindedly… did the burn have anything to do with anything?

Sirius smirked. "Wait and see," he said glancing back at James who was hesitating, looking back at the burning house.

"Are you gonna put it out?" he called ahead to Bella.

The witch turned and shrugged, "They'll work out how to eventually," she smirked before continuing to walk away.

"Was there anyone in there?" Harry asked her quickly before he chickened out, not sure he wanted the answer but needing it anyway.

Bella spun to face Harry, whilst walking backwards, "I dunno… they'd be death eaters if there were," she shrugged before turning back round and continuing down the snowy street.

Harry frowned, not sure how he felt about that… could he walk into a building and blow it sky high knowing there could be people in it, even if they were death eaters…? Probably not, maybe if he was trying to escape… but he couldn't just walk in and kill them all… but obviously Bella could.

"How high's your pain tolerance Harry?" asked Sirius, smirking again, following after his cousin.

"Pretty hi…" Harry stopped and narrowed his eyes, "why…?" Sirius just laughed.

"Bella's lessons aren't exactly as health and safety friendly as your regular ones," he chuckled. "But if you can manage, they're bloody useful."

"I'm sure I'll be fine," said Harry, wondering what these lessons of Bella's entailed exactly, causing Sirius to smirk even more.

"We'll see," he said, shaking his head as James jogged up to join them.

"I'm never gonna get worried about the wicked witch again," James murmured to Harry and Sirius, Remus was up ahead talking to Bella, "she's fucking mental."

The witch in question immediately whipped her head round and beamed at James.

"Ahh… was little Jamie worried about me," she pouted sticking her bottom lip out and giving him puppy eyes… "how sweet!"

James scowled at the witch, "bugger off," he snapped, giving her the finger. She turned around smirking to herself, before continuing whatever conversation she was having with Remus.

"Okay, something's wrong with her," stated Sirius to Harry and James.

"How can you tell?" asked James whilst Harry furrowed his eyebrows, looking at the witch in front of him. Sirius was right, something was wrong with her, something more than her blowing up the house had happened this morning, but he had no clue what… maybe it had something to do with her sister talking to her this morning. Didn't James say he had found Narcissa unconscious in an empty classroom?

"She'd never of let you tell her to 'bugger off' without some sort of pay back," said Sirius. Bella whipped her head round again, smiling.

"Maybe it just hasn't happened yet?" she suggested, winking at Harry, who smirked back. James groaned before turning on Sirius.

"You just had to say that didn't you?"

Replies:

Alice: thanks for all the reviews! and don't worry, should anything bad happen to Bella Harry will save her! (somehow…)

Guest (person asking about dark mark): I don't know if you have to be a willing participant to get one but i'm just going to pretend you don't for the stories sake... and though you aren't forced to do whatever Voldemort tells you once you've got it (Snape doesn't), he'll still think you're part of the death eaters and if you don't do as you're told he'd probably kill/torture you etc. and it makes you a target for the 'light' side, having the dark mark... so that's why Bella's worried about Sirius getting one. Hope that's useful