The Nightmare of Harry Potter

Time at Hogwarts passed relatively quickly now that the duel was over. Harry had taken to spending the weekends with Bellatrix at Pounds House. That was what brought him to this night.

This night was awful. Nightmares were a thing he hadn't had to worry about since he came here. But tonight..tonight he found himself in the grips of one.

Harry was in the witness stand in a courtroom. In the jury sat a double row of familiar, angry faces. It was his friends and family from his own timeline.

"Harry Potter, you stand accused of abandoning the memory of those who died so that you could live." Intoned the solemn voice of Albus Dumbledore, "You have betrayed everyone in this courtroom by falling in love with Narcissa Malfoy and Bellatrix Lestrange."

"Harry, how could you touch the woman who killed me?" Ginny spat, her wounds still bleeding, "She murdered your wife and you held her like you used to hold me.."

"Malfoy? Seriously mate, you're shagging Narcissa Malfoy?" Ron shouted at him, the holes in his body courtesy of Lucius' hexes still visible.

"She killed me Harry, she killed me and now you're fucking her?" Sirius cried, "I never thought I'd say this, but you are a worse Marauder than Wormtail.."

"The only good thing I can say is that at least you killed the man who took my hand from me.." Luna Lovegood said quietly, "But why must you look at his wife that way?"

"It's not his fault that we're so beautiful.." Narcissa Malfoy said, looking just as she had at the Quidditch World Cup.

"Ickle Potty-poo couldn't help but fall in love with us...we're more woman than any of you bints." The Bellatrix from his timeline said, coming over and sitting in his lap like it was a throne.

In his bed, Harry tossed, muttering to himself, "I'm sorry..I didn't...I...". Beside him, Bellatrix put her arms around him, "Harry? Harry, it's alright..I've got you.." She soothed. Slowly Harry's eyes opened, still mostly asleep, he looked at Bellatrix and then screamed, scooting back and falling off of the bed, "Stay away!"

Bellatrix got off the bed and went to him. He was crying, she went to pull him close, but he jerked away, still muttering "I'm so sorry.." in his sleep. Ignoring his flinching, she pulled him back into her arms. "Dobby!" She said, stroking Harry's cheek, trying to calm him.

"Mistress Bella is calling?" The house elf said appearing before her. "Go to the basement and get the potion of dreamless sleep I brewed this afternoon.."

The house elf vanished before her eyes. Bellatrix looked at Harry, her heart broke as she saw the pain flit across his features. Dobby reappeared holding the vial. Bellatrix took it and poured the liquid into his mouth. In a few moments Harry's twitching stilled and he fell back against her asleep.

"Help me get him back on the bed.." She said to Dobby. Dobby snapped his fingers and Harry slowly levitated back towards the bed. Bellatrix moved forward and positioned the covers so that she could get him under them before crawling back in and holding him.

Scene Break

Harry awoke with a groan. His head felt thick, as if he'd had stuck it inside a bucket of golden syrup. His stirring caused the witch beside him to groan slightly. "Harry, are you alright?" She asked him.

"I'm fine..except my head feels weird and my mouth tastes like I cleaned a trolls loincloth with my tongue.." He said, moving to sit up. She looked at him, "You were having a nightmare...I tried to calm you and you jerked away as if I was the worst thing you could have seen.."

"A nightmare...I remember now. I saw all the people that died in my...first dealings with Riddle..I saw my best friends..I saw my wife.." He said sadly looking at his hands. Bellatrix put her hand on his, "I'm sorry Harry.."

"It's not your fault..with the exception of Sirius the people in my dream that you specifically killed haven't been born yet..Riddle will pay for his crimes." He looked to her, "You are not the witch responsible for what happened to my friends and family. That witch was broken by Riddle and turned into a monster. She wanted freedom and traded her soul for it, and got enslaved to him.."

"It sounds like you pity her. If someone killed you..I don't think there'd be enough of them to fill half a goblet." She said looking down at their hands and then back to him. "It scares me sometimes..knowing that you have so much power over me. No one has ever meant this much to me."

Harry put his arm around her, "I know what you mean. When I came here, I had no intention of remarrying. But then you came into my life."

She curled into his embrace, "Rabastan has been quiet which is very strange for him...I've been traveling into London while you're teaching. Under glamour, so no one knows it's me.. I've been keeping an eye on the entrance to Gringotts. I think it might be safe for us to take the Lestrange vault and move it to the Peverell one."

"If we do that, there's no way Riddle won't start hunting us." Harry said to her. Bellatrix nodded, "I am aware, but for now at least he has no way of finding us. The only ones keyed into the wards besides the two of us are Cissy and Walburga and I have some information that could guarantee that she won't wish to give us up to Riddle."

"What information?" Harry asked.

Bellatrix sat up a bit more, "Riddle arranged for the murder of her ex-lover James Carver. James was a healer who specialized in helping muggles who had been cursed. He was also the father of my cousin Sirius."

That thought stopped Harry for a moment, That would explain why Sirius was so different than most of his family.. He shook his head, "So, was it an arranged murder?"

"It was. Riddle sent Rodolphus, Rabastan, and I to kill him." She took in a deep breath, "My job was to grab any valuable potions or ingredients. Rabastan was to set the place on fire. Rodolphus was supposed to execute him. But as I'm sure you can guess, Rodolphus wanted to 'play' with him. I found the man, covered in cuts from curses Rodolphus used. He was dying, there was nothing I could have done to save him if I had even wished to at the time..so I killed him."

Bellatrix looked into Harry's eyes, "I had never felt guilt over my path before that day. Looking into his eyes I saw something I didn't expect...just before the killing curse struck him, I saw gratitude."

"Before Rabastan set the place on fire..I found letters. Dozens of them, written by him to an unnamed witch. The letters begged her to come back to him, so they could make a life together for their son. He was planning on taking them to America." She sighed softly, "When Walburga first came here, she sent two letters. One to my mother which I promptly destroyed, and the other one...was to James Carver."

"Does she know?"

"No. I haven't told her. It would be rather an awkward conversation to have you know, 'Auntie, did you know that I was a party to the murder of the only man you've ever loved?'.." Bellatrix groaned, "Besides, I don't believe she deserves closure. She would have saddled me with Rabastan, Cissy with that prat Malfoy..."

She looked at Harry for a moment, "So there you have it..I'm a murderer, but you already knew that..."

He pressed a kiss to her forehead, "You gave him comfort in his last moments Bella, there's no way I could hate you for it.."

"You seemed to hate me last night, when your eyes opened you stared at me like you hated me and screamed for me to get away.."

Harry sighed and looked down at the bed, "That wasn't you. It wasn't Bella, the woman I love, that I was telling to stay away. It was that other witch, the one who murdered Ginny.."

Scene Break

Walburga paced in her room, neither letter had been responded to. Druella I can understand, the girl is a Rosier by birth, they are always careful to find the best position...but James should have written back to me by now...unless I really did drive him away.

That thought sapped the strength from her body. Nearly collapsing into her chair, she tried to gather her thoughts. James Carver, was one of the most forgiving men she had ever met. There was no way that he would ignore her, write back telling her to sod off perhaps, but he wouldn't ignore her.

Those thoughts vanished as she saw a stately gray owl at her window. Rushing forward with an eagerness that should have embarrassed her, she flung the window open.

She was in fact, so eager, that she didn't notice the Ministry seal on the birds harness. She took the scroll and, with trembling fingers she unrolled the parchment. Then she felt her blood freeze.

Dear Madam Black,

We are sorry to inform you that your message could not be sent for the following reason:

James Carver was murdered a year ago in a suspected terrorist act.

Our Sympathies,

The Magical Post system

James can't be dead...no..sweet Circe no..he was supposed to run away to America and stay out of all of this..The tears began to fall. James was dead. A suspected terrorist act..that's the Ministry's code phrase for an attack by the Dark Lord..but why would he send someone to kill James?

James Carver had been the best man she'd ever met. She had fallen for him from the moment they had first met.

She was supposed to be this great unapproachable Lady. Why was it so easy for James Carver to make her blush? The Hufflepuff had been partnered with her in Herbology and unlike every other wizard in the school, he hadn't been intimidated by her beauty enough to do all the work for her.

But she knew he found her beautiful, it was etched on every passing glance. From their fifth year on they worked together in whatever classes they shared.

Courting was harder. She was a member of the uppermost tier of pure-blood society, whereas he was the son of a pure-blood and a half-blood, making him of considerably lower status. But that didn't stop them from spending every Hogsmeade weekend together.

It had been difficult wanting to be with him while she knew that he worked as a bus conductor after his family cast him out for choosing a life as a healer instead of a politician, but it hadn't stopped her from spending their study period together.

It definitely didn't stop their first kiss before she left the Castle for Yule her seventh year.

It didn't stop him from asking her to run away with him.

But it had stopped her from saying yes.

And now he was dead.

And she had been serving the wizard responsible for his death.

Walburga didn't bother trying to quiet her tears. A lifetime of regret poured forth now. She cried. She cried for the death of the only man to ever love her. She cried for the mistakes she made. And she cried for the life she could have had if she'd only been brave enough to take it. That last regret, her own cowardice in the face of losing her connection to the Black name, that had been what caused her to cast Andromeda Black from the family when she took up with Theodore Tonks.

Scene Break

Andromeda Tonks watched as her husband went over his paperwork. Becoming a law wizard was a difficult task, especially as he planned on working for both magical and non-magical clients.

He worked long nights studying his license. Long nights where he would often fall asleep in the living room instead of in his bed with his wife.

She knew that he was working for the betterment of their family. But it didn't make his side of the bed any warmer when she woke up and found it still made.

She looked down at the letter Narcissa had sent her. I need to send her a reply. I'll write it out today and take it to the owl post in Diagon Alley... She set the letter down and drew out a quill to begin writing a response.

Dear Cissy,

Yes. Father told me all about your new beau. He also told me that the two of you will be getting married soon. Congratulations, I would love to come. You'll have to send Ted and I an invite. We'll help to bulk up the grooms side of the aisle for you.

As for the part of our family that isn't father, I can't really offer any advice for them. The best I can tell you is to make your own connections, not related to being a Black, or indeed a Peverell, but in being Narcissa, the smartest witch I know.

Tell your soon to be husband that the two of you have a standing invitation to our house for dinner one weekend.

I fully expect a floo call at some point very soon, I want to see my sister and to hear the whole story in your own words.

With Love,

Andi

Inspecting her work and declaring it good she rose from her seat. "Ted, I'm going into the Alley, do you want to come with me?" she asked, hoping that her husband would put away his work and accompany her.

"I'm sorry Andi, but I'm not done with this yet.." Ted said not looking up from his paper, "I should be done in a few hours though. Then I need to get it sent off..then I need to start looking over the case study I was sent.."

"Never mind Ted, I'll go alone." As usual... Andromeda rolled up the parchment with more force than was strictly necessary and vanished with a crack from the house.

Scene Break

Sunday morning found Narcissa eating breakfast in the Great Hall beside Sirius. Ordinarily they would both be content to keep to their sides of the Hall, but at least eating together meant that they could keep an eye out for each other.

"So, where the husband today?" Sirius asked between mouthfuls of egg and potato.

Narcissa rolled her eyes at her cousins table manners, "He's back at our home. He told me that he would be coming back this afternoon. He's spending some time with Bellatrix strengthening the ward structure for our house."

"You're really okay with all this? Him being with the both of you?" Sirius didn't understand how any of this made sense to his cousin, "Blacks tend to be very possessive...you've seen how my father is. He barely let mother outside of the house."

"I don't like it, Siri...but it is what it is. They had a relationship before I factored into things..." She shrugged, "Harry has made it clear that he wants both of our relationships to be real."

Sirius nodded, though he didn't quite understand it. "How's my mother taking her new role as the personal secretary of the wizard who embarrassed her?"

"So far she's been very quiet. It's clear she hates her position, but she's been busy arranging for Harry to meet with other families. They will want favors of course, betrothal contracts for our future children, or promises of votes in the Wizengamot..things like that." She sighed softly, "Harry has already told her that he will reject out of hand any betrothal contracts. Says he doesn't want our children to feel like running away is the only hope of having a life of their own."

That surprised him, but as Sirius chewed thoughtfully on his piece of toast, he realized that it didn't surprise him as much as he thought it would. Professor Fawkes might be a prat for treating us like firsties at our detention, but at least he's treating my cousins well...so far...I'll keep an eye on him for now.