Heavily re-edited and reworked 1/20/2017-

Contains references of het pairings, femslash, slash, war, peace, and revolution.

Don't like it, don't read it.

October 31, 1957

Bellatrix Black was a very bored young witch, while the Hallows Eve festivities were usually fun this year they were being held at her Uncle Orion's home at 12 Girmmauld Place. Normally the six year old girl wouldn't mind this but there was a problem with the current situation, namely her Aunt Walburga.

Honestly even baby Andromeda couldn't stand the harpy, Bella's blistering intellect tore the woman apart in an instant, she was an insecure untalented hag who was terrified of change so she hid behind blood status to cover up her inadequacies.

That, and there was nothing to do in this house that wouldn't automatically try to kill her, six she may be but even she had to wonder how Uncle Orion intended to raise a family in a place with more booby traps then a pharaohs tomb. As the evenings shadows grew longer the grownups drank deeper and before long no one was paying attention to the young, typical for pure-blood get-togethers though and honestly it's what the precocious child was waiting on.

Bypassing the irresponsible adults and that creepy house elf Bella began exploring, the library was somewhat interesting before a shelf of tomes on weather magic started hurling lighting bolts and snow balls at her. After that little excursion she wandered into a lavatory where the tub had compulsion charms to drown herself lining its sides.

That was creepy even for her Black sense of decorum. Eventually she hit pay dirt and found an elegant and finely crafted doll house complete with several dolls and dresses, no sooner did she open the house's door then she was sucked into it.

"Oh dear..." she muttered, her lilac eyes looking upon her new surroundings with trepidation, pouting she mumbled, "Why do adults have to curse everything neat..." which was accompanied with a long suffering sigh.

Walking around the enchanted dollhouse Bellatrix tried all the doors and windows finding them to be locked, which was not unexpected. Eventually she grew fed up and pulled out her illegal wand that daddy had given her, Cygnus Black was a pragmatic man and supplied his daughter with the tools to survive in the pure-blood world after all. It always dazzled her when her dotting father would calmly state 'A lady of Black is never without wand or blade, do not ever forget this little Bella.'

Turning her wand towards the front door she shouted out, "Reducto!"

Two things happened simultaneously, first the doll house exploded, second Bellatrix found herself thrown across the room crashing into a davenport, thank Merlin it wasn't a glass cabinet. Groggily getting to her feet she grinned while giggling a bit, if nothing else that had been interesting, and blowing things up was always fun if you didn't get caught doing it.

Feeling invigorated she left the room with its tiny smoking ruin behind and meandered up into the attic, that's when the creepy crawlies really hit her.

While mummy and daddy really didn't keep anything too dark at home this entire floor felt..."Evil...feels...evil," she muttered to herself, glancing back and forth she moved through the dust caked drape shrouded mountains of unimportant refuse. After a time she saw an open oaken chest, its faded stain revealing chipped and cracked planks bound in tarnished bronze studded straps.

Standing on her tip toes she looked into the box and saw only darkness. It was odd, it was as if the chest had no bottom whatsoever, but it wasn't like one of daddy's bottomless chests he kept his books in, this was...different.

As she leaned in further no one heard her gasp as she fell into the shadowy expanse, and no one heard her scream as the lid slammed shut, as reality unraveled around Bellatrix Black she felt nerve splitting pain and then nothing. No one noticed the raven haired little girl was missing until the next day, and it is sad to say that her parents never found out what happened to their beloved daughter.

October 30, 1981

Severus Snape was, in a small amount of words, freaking the hell out. He had delivered the prophecy he'd overheard to the Dark Lord several weeks ago as was expected of him, the problem was he just found out what target had earned his Lord's ire.

Lily's son, his Lily.

Severus was no fool, the idea of Lily Potter nee Evans standing aside and letting the raging psychopath known as Tom Riddle murder her baby was a pipe dream at best. Lily was Lily and she would fight tooth and nail to protect her child even if it was that Potter gits spawn, the woman was cast from hardened steel and she would not run or back down.

It's one of the many reasons Severus loved her, and why she would never love him in return. The young man ran his fingers through his greasy hair and shuddered out a sigh, he knew that nothing could save his childhood friend now. The fact that he was the direct reason for her soon to be murder made him retch his breakfast on the floor, regaining his composure he spat out the bile and quickly rinsed his mouth out in the sink before he began muttering.

"Lily's in danger now... I can get to Dumbledore...make a deal with him to save her yes but..." but...he never trusted the old man. Hell, if he were to be honest with himself Dumbledore was one of the reasons Snape perused the Dark Arts so fervently to begin with.

Eventually Snape sat up ramrod straight, Dumbledore...yes...yes that might work, quickly pulling out a quill and parchment he hastily scrawled out a letter, sealing it he took a deep breath in preparation.

This was it or nothing, letting out the held breath he called out, "Fawkes."

Much to his relief Dumbledore's phoenix familiar appeared before him, falling to his knees he looked into the regal birds eyes. He could sense regret, disgust, and sadness from the mystical creatures gaze, and he deserved every bit of it,

"Fawkes, I need...I need you to get this letter to Lily please! She needs to know she's in danger, her secret keeper was compromised and the Dark Lord is coming for her tomorrow. You and I both know how much your master loves to play his games! I'll still go to him for help but if he holds off for one of his 'Greater Good' fiascoes she'll die, Harry will die, please...please Fawkes ignore all I've done to save her!"

The phoenix for his part actually looked confused, then let out a pleased chirp, suddenly the ancient bird began singing soothing Severus' frayed nerves, eventually as he calmed down Fawkes winked at him and grabbed the letter with his beak and disappeared in a flash of fire. Feeling real hope for the first time in ages Severus Snape, now rogue Death Eater smiled as he made preparations to meet with his manipulative former headmaster.

October 31, 1981

The Potters safe house at Godric's Hollow was demolished, this was exceedingly obvious to Sirius Black, stumbling numbly through the shattered front door he found himself looking at the aftermath of a massive battle. There was discarded guns, spent shell casings, and curse scorches all scattered across the once warm and welcoming sitting room, frantically glancing back and forth Sirius gaze fell upon the body of his brother in all but blood.

Sobbing he rushed forward and cradled James' bloodied corpse in his trembling arms. His brother's limp hand was still wrapped around a muggle explosive detonator, his dying grin frozen on his face.

Obviously he had thought he'd taken that bastard Voldemort out with him. Looking along the room's perimeter he saw evidence of several mine explosions, leave it to Prongs to go out with a literal bang. Placing his best mates still cooling corpse on the ground he made his way up the stairs to Harry's nursery.

Nearly tripping he glanced down and saw a severed hand burnt off at the wrist, recognizing the dark runes carved into the palm his lips peeled back into a predators snarl, "Looks like the Potters messed you up after all you black hearted son of a bitch."

Now having a bit of real hope he ran up the rest of the stairs to hear a man's sobbing occasionally interrupted with "I'm Sorry's." Stepping through the massive hole in the wall Sirius froze as he saw the one thing he had never expected to encounter, Severus Snape, Death Eater potion master to the Dark Lord Voldemort clutching the dead body of Lily Potter.

"I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry! I didn't know! I tried warning you why didn't you run?! I warned you! I warned Dumbledore! Damn you Voldemort, burn in hell you evil bastard...Oh Lily..."

Sirius was...in an awkward place at the moment, really, his first impulse when it came to Snape was to hex him, on principle really. But the mans sobbing and tears as he cradled his dead childhood friend were not faked, this was true remorse, so Sirius Black did something he was never good at, he tried to use tact.

"Snape...what happened here?"

Stopping and looking up at the intruder upon his sorrow the greasy git didn't even react to who he was speaking to, "I warned her, I told her the Dark Lord was coming, I told Dumbledore, he promised to protect her, he made me swear an oath of fealty in order to save her but she's DEAD!"

He screamed the last bit which caused the baby in the crib to begin crying, stepping around Snape who went back to sobbing incoherently into Lily's shoulder Sirius looked down into the crib.

Harry looked...different...his features were more feminine which was just damn weird, noticing a bleeding cut on his godsons forehead he leaned into the crib when he felt his hand crinkle on a piece of paper, pulling up an envelope he squinted to read it in the dim light.

"Sev and Padfoot, grab our child and head to safety, then read this letter, Lils and Prongs"

Snape stopped mumbling as he glanced up with tear stained eyes, gently laying Lily's body to the ground he stood and looked at the envelope seeing that it was written by Lily's hand. He looked very pensive for a moment before nodding, Sirius scooped up Harry and then grabbed Lily's wand, the two men then went back down the stairs and he repeated the process with James.

As the pair crossed the outer boundary of the hous's wards the entire building exploded in a fireball, wincing at the display of heat and sound the baby cradled in his arms began crying as both men covered their eyes from the sudden glare.

Glancing at Severus Sirius couldn't help but quipping, "That was all Lils."

Smirking slightly Snape nodded, "She always wanted to go out in a blaze of glory, here hold onto my arm I have a safe house prepared, lets...lets find out what her last wishes were."

The brief levity now gone Sirius nodded and endured the lovely bit of transportation known as apparation, Merlin did he hate it, as they appeared in a rather cheap hotel room Snape snapped into motion. Taking Harry from his arms he placed him in a prepared cradle and cast a few heating charms on a bottle, giving it to the child he turned around and locked gazes with Sirius who eventually just sighed.

"You and I are never going to be friends, but it's obvious a mutual friend trusted us both, shall we find out exactly what she had to say?" Nodding Snape sat on one of the two beds in the room and motioned for Sirius to follow, plopping down in a rather undignified manner he cracked the seal on the envelope and pulled the letter out. Both men began reading the neat writing left by the now deceased Lady Potter,

Dear Severus and Sirius,

Well if you're reading this then everything went to hell and we're dead, bollocks. That being cleared up we need to say a few things before we lay out our plans, this first bit is for you Sev so I'm sorry that Padfoot gets to see some of our dirty linen, you're a big boy you can deal with it.

I forgive you, what you called me and the way you treated me during our final school days still hurts me, but I know how your home life was and I don't blame you. You were a dear friend and even James tried to force me to reconcile with you when he realized how much I missed your friendship, my only regret is it took the threat of my imminent death for me to admit it.

Thanks to your warning I was able to put my plan into effect, it is insane and rather hair brained but it should work, being a half blood I'm sure you've noticed how idiotic the pure-bloods are when it comes to basic logic so we should be safe. You may have abandoned me when we were teens but you came back to help me when it mattered most, and for that I thank you and express my love.

Sirius, honestly you've got to be the worst possible role model available but James insists that since you're house trained you'll be an acceptable guardian, don't prove him wrong. If you're reading this then Peter obviously betrayed us, don't be a damn fool and chase after him, go hit up Amelia and have her make Moody put you under truth serum ASAP before Dumbledore uses you as a scapegoat.

Yeah you read that right, I'm fairly certain that this entire situation was cooked up by our former Headmaster in a cock and bull attempt to get rid of Voldemort and if Harry survived the attack like I think he will that bastard will likely try to turn him into a pawn.

That being said, I...did something no mother should ever even consider doing and performed a bit of amateur alchemy and master potioneering on my son, my experiments and trial runs proved it worked but well... Anyway what it comes down to is I prepared a sacrificial rune in Harry's room, if I'm killed defending him an ancient protection will envelope him guarding him from his mother's killer.

It's some pretty intense blood magic (and completely illegal, so it should appeal to you Sev!) but long story made short as long as my blood relations live the protections should hold so just make sure no one murders that bitch sister of mine and we're good. Now on to the second and more questionable layer of my protections, everyone is going to be looking for Harry James Potter, that's a given.

If my theory holds true and Voldemort is ended with this there's a good chance the bastard will come back, again, (Lets be honest here we shot him apart with a bloody Thompson and he pulled himself back together in minutes) so I needed an extra shield over my child. Harry is now a girl, the potion and spell I cast on him involved a lot of understanding in the muggle field of genetics so I'm not even going to pretend you two will grasp the finesse involved and simply move on to the facts.

Everyone will be looking for Harry James Potter, a boy, no one will be looking for the pure-blood daughter of Sirus Black, one Lillith Jamie Black (James insists that you'd name your kid after us in such a fashion, I agree with him you're rather predictable Padfoot). So that's the burden we place on you two, raise our daughter, keep her away from the puppet masters and make her a force to be reckoned with.

Amelia Bones is in on my little scheme and has agreed to it since she already made the questionable decision to marry you Padfoot, so hit Gringotts first thing, sign the absolute shite tonne of paperwork I have set aside for the legal name changes, adoptions, and various other things the powers that be shouldn't know about and go underground for a few years. I love you two idiots, try not to kill each other before Lillith hits her age of majority,

Love,

Lils, and Prongs.

The two men sat in silence for a time before exchanging glances, sighing Sirius stood and approached the crib with the now fitfully sleeping baby.

Looking back at Snape he eventually said, "Lets get some sleep, we'll hit Gringotts first thing in the morning and sign everything over, you take care of Lillith while I corner Amy and clear my name. After that we'll...we'll figure something out..."

Nodding slowly in agreement Severus then asked a rather pertinent question, "Do you have any idea how to change a nappie?"

Brows knitting together Sirius uttered a succinct, "Fuck," well, they were already off to a good start.

October 31, 1986

Lillith Black was a very bored young witch, her daddy had to cancel their plans for the evening to come to her nasty dead grandma's home because as daddy put it "The crazy old bint had to buy it when I finally had a clear schedule." So she was stuck here while her mummy and daddy took care of the 'tagging and bagging', whatever that meant, so she began wandering about the creepy old place.

She'd already had to punch the insane house elf in the face twice, the second time she'd cast a body binding hex on him so hopefully that wasn't an issue anymore, thank Merlin. Most of the doors were locked since as mummy put it, "This place is a hop, skip and a jump away from an insane asylum," she'd have to tell Neville, Susan and Daphne about it later since she wasn't wrong.

While they were all pure-bloods like her none of them had stuffed house elf heads above their mantles, grandma Walburga must have been an even bigger nutter than daddy let on. Eventually she found her way to a set of stairs leading up to an attic, unlike Potter Manor where her parents and Uncle Sev raised her this place's attic was terrifying; everything was cast in dusty shadows and she felt unclean just being here. Noticing that the only bit of furniture not caked in filth was an old wooden chest Lilly walked up to it and tried to lift its lid, despite her efforts she couldn't make it budge.

Truly annoyed she punched the brass lock as her temper got the best of her as was its wont, gasping at the pain she caused herself she noticed her knuckles were seeping blood, daddy would yell at her for that later she was sure.

Unbeknownst to her the flecks of blood she left on the lock were absorbed into the tarnished brass, after a time there was a series of clicks as the lock snapped off and the trunk flew open, Lilly looked up just in time to have a small body hurled at her.

Flying across the room now holding onto a still form Lilly began screaming incoherently, this was not normal, not at all, still screaming eventually her voice failed her. She could hear feet stomping up flights of stairs but she ignored that as the small girl so rudely thrown at her snapped her lilac eyes open.

"Hi, who are you and what are you doing here?"

Calming down Lilly cocked her head to the side then replied, "Err...I'm Lillith Black. Grandma Walburga died so daddy has to take care of her stuff."

As Sirius and Amelia entered the room the new arrival sat up and glanced at the near identical raven haired girl in confusion, "I'm Bellatrix Black, Auntie Walburga died? How she was so young?"

Hearing a coughing gasp behind her Lilly turned around to see her dad rasp out, "What in the holy hell?!" Before passing out falling into the arms of an equally befuddled Amelia Black.

Turning back to Bellatrix Lilly grinned sheepishly, "Err...do you like quiditch?"

I always liked this story, I'm going to rework all the chapters before updating, enjoy.