Natasha

Backstory

Set in an alternate Harry Potter universe where James and Lily live.

Bellatrix Lestrange was Natasha’s mother, she was born into the House of Black. Her mother taught her dark magic and dark spells, she learned curses and how to inflict pain with each poison-dipped word that fell from her tongue. However Bellatrix was sent to Azkaban after the first wizarding war and Natasha was left alone.

Bellatrix’s cousin, Sirius Black, and Remus Lupin adopted her and she was rewarded a happy childhood around people who taught her good and noble morals. Sirius and Remus treated her like their own daughter and never once judged her for her mother’s actions. They visited the Potters every weekend and she learned about beautiful creatures, how to pull harmless, funny pranks, and, for the first time, she learned about love. After years of wondering why she was so different to her mother, her new family had opened her eyes to a whole new world; a world of kindness, a world full of life. This was a world in which she could be happy.

When the Hogwarts letter arrived, everyone was so proud, and when Natasha was sorted into Slytherin they were all still smiling. Natasha was afraid, she knew Slytherin was her true house, but feared her dads reactions, especially Sirius’, but their love for her was limitless and unconditional.

Natasha and Harry had been family friends for years and they were the same age, so she spent a lot of time around him and the other gryffindors. One gryffindor in particular captured her attention. Hermione Granger. She was beautiful and unbelievably smart, perfect in Natasha’s eyes. Harry teased her throughout their first three years until Natasha finally built up enough courage to ask her out in the fourth year. She was thankful to Harry for doing so, as ever since the two had been inseparable.

Natasha was anxious to tell her dads, she knew they’d be accepting, but still couldn’t quite manage to fight off her nerves. They celebrated and told her how much they loved her. Unconditionally.

With sudden word that Bellatrix had escaped Azkaban in a mass breakout with other death eaters and word of Voldemort’s return, the Black-Lupin family was petrified. When Harry had a vision of Sirius being tortured at the ministry, Natasha was the first to join him in his mission to save him. But when they arrived and were confronted by death eaters they all realised their fatal mistake. Bella came to the front and embraced her daughter, but Natasha felt sick. The others looked fearful, but not for her, for themselves. It was then that she realised, they expected her to betray them. They’d never forgiven her for who she was born. She could never be a Black or a Lupin, she was born a Lestrange. She would forever be Natasha Lestrange. Bellatrix gave her to a death eater to take away and before she knew what was happening, she was no longer in the ministry but in Malfoy Manor.

When Bellatrix returned she bragged of her kill, she’d killed Sirius. Before Natasha allowed the sadness to plague her heart, she bathed in the flames of her anger and crucio’ed Bellatrix. As soon as she had, she regretted it, nothing Bellatrix felt now would make up for the pain her mother would inflict on her later, nothing would make up for the loss of Sirius. With a quick flick of her wand and two irretrievable words, Bella lay dead on the ground in front of her.

Natasha found Lupin and explained everything, confessing to her crimes, but Remus didn’t speak, instead he hugged her. She was the only one, besides James, who could possibly feel his pain. But Remus warned her not to return to hogwarts, it was too dangerous, she was believed to be a traitor. A Lestrange. She could never escape that name, so instead she vowed to use it.

The dark mark burned on her wrist. She looked at how Draco wore his with such pain. They’d never gotten along but she could sense the conflict within him.

With Dumbledore dead and Snape headmaster, she knew the golden trio would find no place at hogwarts. She tracked them down and convinced them she hadn’t betrayed them, but that she could help them. Voldemort trusted her, she was a Lestrange after all. She honoured her vow to help hunt down and destroy the horcruxes.

Natasha tracked down several horcruxes, including the cup in her mother’s vault and the real locket, and they began to destroy them, one by one. Voldemort grew weaker, as did Harry, and they made the horrifying realisation that Harry was a horcrux too. They fought valiantly in the Battle of Hogwarts, but it wasn’t enough. Harry sacrificed himself and all hope seemed lost.

Draco was beckoned to the death eaters side, but Natasha stopped him and announced proudly that she wasn’t a Lestrange, she had never been a Lestrange, she was a Black and a Lupin. She was a product of the two people who had loved her more than anyone and she was proud to be their daughter, proud for everything they stood for and fought for. Harry got up and Draco gave him his wand as Neville defeated nagini and Harry defeated Voldemort. And thus, the second wizarding war was won.

Everyone underestimated Natasha. They reduced her to her last name, a name which meant nothing to her. A name which she would have willingly forgotten, but she knew she should never forget, as it was that very name that allowed her to become everything but it.