A HP fan fiction, so obviously there's a lot of stuff in here that I didn't come up with. J.K. Rowling is the rightful owner and creator of this magical world along with (most of) its places, characters, objects and creatures in this story. I have been twitching and changing some stuff though and I've added some characters and a couple of other things. For example, Dumbledore does not have the exact same family as in the original story. Stuff like that.
Also, there are some other magical beings mentioned in this story that most of you will be familiar with, so I just wanted to say in advance that basically all I've used of the existing legends/myths concerning this creatures is the names and some basic features.

This isn't my first time writing a story (not that I'm a fully experienced author or anything, I just try to put some stories on paper sometimes), but it is the first time I'm writing in English and a fan fiction (I'm telling you, playing with other people's characters is so much trickier than I thought), so I hope you'll like it.
I'm going to loosely follow the events as depicted in book one to seven (plus some details from the movies), but focusing more on the adult characters (professors, order members etc.), in particular Severus Snape, Dumbledore, the Order and the OC of course.

P.S. This story has been up before, but I had some trouble with uploading and revising my documents so eventually I had removed all chapters with the intention to upload everything properly. Except… my hard drive crashed shortly after. I thought I'd lost all my chapters, but the other day I suddenly remembered I had made backups of several files on my friend's laptop. Thank God this story was on there too!

Okay, enough talking! Hope you'll enjoy!

Chapter One

Severus Snape buttoned up his pitch-black frockcoat and left his quarters in the dusty dungeons of Hogwarts. Headmaster Dumbledore was waiting for him in the middle of the Entrance Hall, along with Minerva McGonagall and the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Quirinus Quirrell. Severus rolled his dark eyes; he'd forgotten all about that stuttering git who'd stolen his job. Not deliberately of course, but Severus did not feel the need to be reasonable with this man. And what was it with that idiotic turban?!

'Ah, Severus! There you are!' Dumbledore said in his usual cheerful voice.

Severus greeted him with a nod. 'Headmaster. Professor McGonagall.' He clenched his jaw. 'Professor Quirrell.'

'A v-very p-p-pleasant evening to you, Professor Snape.' Quirrell stuttered, cringing just the slightest when Severus stood before him. 'L-looking f-forward to the m-m-meeting, are we?'

'Can't wait.' Severus answered without looking at Quirrell. Even though the Midnight Meeting was quite an impressive event and it was an honor to be invited, the idea of having to put up with his new colleague for an entire night was something he could gladly do without.

'Shall we proceed?' Dumbledore inquired and held his arm out for Professor McGonagall, who took it whilst smiling excitedly. Yes, the Midnight Meeting had all those lucky enough to have received an invitation dying with anticipation. Of course, McGonagall hadn't gotten one herself, nor had Severus or Quirrell, but Dumbledore had, as usual. And because he had been such a loyal visitor for all those years, he was allowed to bring not one, but two guests.

'Damn him for that.' Severus thought. If it hadn't been for all that loyalty, they wouldn't have had to drag the Turban around with them all night. First, Dumbledore had gotten his own invite, along with the choice to bring someone; McGonagall. Then, two days later when Severus had returned to Hogwarts after spending the summer at his own home, an eagle owl had delivered a letter to the headmaster. Severus was at Dumbledore's office at the time, receiving all the news on the upcoming school year. Not very good news. Not only had he missed out on the position of D.A.D.A. teacher again, but the son of James Potter would be starting his first year as a student at Hogwarts. The gigantic grey-brown owl had given him the only bit of pleasant information that day. Apparently, Dumbledore's cousin was coming back from years living in Sweden or Finland or whatever it was, and would be attending the Midnight Meeting. She had predicted that her uncle would have gotten his own acceptance to the event, but as she did not have many acquaintances in Britain that hadn't gotten in by themselves, she figured he would know someone who wanted to go as her guest. Although it felt somewhat demeaning and uncomfortable to be attending as some girl's party, one just did not say no to the Midnight Meeting.
The Midnight Meeting was not just any other gathering of wizards and other magical beings, but a symbol of magical unity. Polite conversations held here, as innocent and empty as they might seem to outsiders, were in fact tools to renew or restore alliances, peace treaties and friendships between various races and groups. It was one of the rare occasions when vampires, werewolves, veela, sirens, wizards, healers, giants and even some centaurs could all be found in the same room, or hall really.
Oh, if only that suck-up at the Ministry hadn't send Dumbledore that complementary ticket! After all, they should know better over there by now not to try and bribe Albus Dumbledore.

Severus went on sulking over his misfortune as the four of them disapparated after the Headmaster had lifted the blocking spell. After the familiar popping sound, they found themselves in a wide field. The highest pine trees Severus had ever seen in his life enclosed the field and he guessed that the forest line was the threshold that prevented Muggles from entering. For them, there wouldn't be any field at all. Nor would there be the huge, cathedral-like building with its three towers reaching high into the starry night sky. Guards stood in front of it, letting their burning torches cast ghastly shadows on the stone walls.
Dumbledore led the way to the massive double doors that weren't that much different from the one Hogwarts had. Behind them, Severus heard another soft 'pop', followed by laughter and rambling in a strange language.
Suddenly two guards – without torches, stood before them. They seemed to have appeared out of thin air and made all but Dumbledore stop abruptly in their tracks. Quirrell let out a nervous high laugh and McGonagall's hand shot to her throat in shock.
'A very good night to you, sirs!' Dumbledore said calmly and bowed.
The men bowed in return and the shorter one spoke. 'Welcome, Professor. I am sorry, but I will need to see the invitation of at least one of your guests.'

'Ah, yes. You see, my niece has passed her second invitation on to me as she had no means for it. I do not have it on me, I'm afraid, but…'

'Your niece?' He sounded almost apologetic. 'We have no other reservation under the name 'Dumbledore', I could check again...'

'No, no, don't worry. No need to get anxious: she does not go by the name 'Dumbledore', it's 'Meren'.'

The guard tilted his head. The confusion on his round face made Severus feel the urge to stun him, and not just because he was holding them up; he was starting to resemble Quirrell.
'We do have a 'Meren', but – ' both guards looked at each other questioningly.

'Yes, yes, that's her.' Dumbledore said chirpily and smiled. 'May we go in?'
The man narrowed his eyes for a brief instant, but then he stepped aside and bowed his head.

'Are they always this lenient?' McGonagall whispered to the Headmaster. 'I thought this was supposed to be the most impossible event to get into.'

'Hmm, yes. I must have made an impression last time.'

The moment Severus passed the wooden doors, he realized how quiet it had been outside. In the corridor, a loud humming of sounds became audible, but it was not until he set foot in the hall that he could truly hear the hundreds of voices that were actively chatting away and the woman that was singing. Different types of drums, harps, violins and many other instruments accompanied her haunting sound.
The hall was completely dipped in grey light and decorations, which may seem a dull color for such a special occasion, but it was one of the very few neutral shades. The beauty of it, was that everything and everyone seemed to be brighter and more colourful than they normally would have.
'Just a reminder: make sure you don't have anything on you that could insult anyone.' Dumbledore noted lightly. 'We don't want to leave here tonight having set off a war. How that would spoil the wonderful memories one can collect here.'

Even though all races were keen on showing of their qualities and pride tonight, everyone was also careful not to step on anyone's toes or to be too bold. Some more than others of course, but still, all crests, weapons and other objects decorated with symbols that could possibly offend anybody were left safely at home. There was more history between everyone here than one could guess, and it would be very unfortunate to be wearing a pin or necklace that could put you on the bad side of an entire race. In the case of peacocks for example, you could either anger the sirens or the Veela. Two races that were actually closely related, but couldn't stand one another. Both had more than once accused the other of being vain and on account of the silvery hair of the Veela, they were mockingly called silver peacocks. Whilst the sirens had golden locks and were therefore nicknamed golden peacocks by the Veela. Time had faded the hostility a little, but it was safest to stay away from anything to do with peacocks in their presence.

When Severus looked around him he noticed all of them. On his left, a group of large, broad men with wild facial hair that looked nothing like beards or moustaches; werewolves. A couple of dark-haired vampires stood with them, seeming quite unnerved by the close contact, but their faces were unnaturally polite. Beside their pale skin and strange looking eyes, you could tell them apart from living wizards by the way they still dressed like it was the year they died in. The silver coloured heads that stuck out here and there, were Veela. And the giants and centaurs were not hard to pick out from the crowd either.
A jolt went through Severus' body when his eyes landed on a pale face that was neither vampire nor Veela. No, it was much worse than those two combined: Lucius Malfoy. Severus turned to Dumbledore, Quirrell and McGonagall in the hope that Lucius wouldn't approach him if he saw that he was in the middle of a conversation. 'Yes, that sounds exactly like Lucius Malfoy.' He thought to himself sarcastically. Severus looked at Quirrell who looked more tense than ever, and let out an annoyed sigh. Dumbledore arched an eyebrow at this, but then looked past Severus.
'Well, well! So working at Hogwarts does pay, I see.' A smooth voice came from behind him and Severus turned slowly. The cold eyes of Lucius Malfoy were staring back at him. There was an amused smirk on his thin lips. Next to him was the Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, who did not seem as uneasy in Malfoy's company as everyone in their right mind should've been. Nonetheless, he almost ran over to Dumbledore's side.

'Can we speak, Severus?' Malfoy asked in that tone of his that was always eerily friendly.

'Naturally.'

Malfoy shot out an arm and grabbed the collar of a house elf carrying a tray with goblets. The elf's knees shook visibly as he pushed the tray over his head so that Malfoy could take two goblets filled with red wine of of it.

'Here, have some wine. You of all people disserve it.' He said, offering one of the goblets to Severus, who took it and arched his eyebrows. 'Don't you ever get tired playing Dumbledore's puppet, Severus?'

'I'm hardly that, Lucius.' Severus answered, not bothering to conceal his irritation. He had talked to former Death Eaters about this subject a hundred times. 'Do you have any idea how much energy it costs me to keep up the charades every day?

'Well, then why don't you drop it?' One corner of Malfoy's mouth curled up in a devilish grin.

'You mean I should follow your brilliant example of falling into complete usefulness? Very tempting Lucius, but unlike others, I am already at the perfect place should the Dark lord rise again. Pardon me, but I doubt our friends at Azkaban will be able to do much good in that case.'

Malfoy's grin disappeared and made way for a face that looked as if it could snarl like a panther at any second.

'Yes, well, I'm not here to debate your choice Severus.' He was clearly working very hard at subsiding his anger. 'I merely wanted to warn you against one of Dumbledore's ridiculous whims.' He shook his head slightly, the way people do when to try to re-focus. 'Apparently Hogwarts is gaining a substitute teacher.'

Severus had indeed heard such a thing from Dumbledore himself. It had been in the middle of two other conversations and thus he had not given it much thought. It did not bother him actually, although there had never been such a thing as a substitute at Hogwarts and Severus didn't see the reason why they would need one now. But he had never had much to do with the other teachers except on special occasions as the welcoming feast, so obviously a substitute couldn't be in his way that much.

'So I've heard.'

'Well, have you also heard what kind of teacher this is concerning?'

Severus frowned, puzzled.

Malfoy's eyes twinkled. 'Ah, so Dumbledore does not tell you everything, does he?'

Instead of answering to this, Severus downed his wine. The red liquid burned his throat a little, but a couple more of these and Malfoy's malicious voice would be much easier to drown out.

'It is said at the Ministry that Dumbledore is planning to hire his own cousin for the job.'

Even though Severus did not know this, he wasn't all that surprised; it was just the sort of thing that could be expected from the old wizard.

'And? It's not like you to look down upon those who achieve things in an unofficial manner.'

Malfoy's eyes narrowed in dismay and he pointed his index finger at Severus' chest. 'Now you listen, professor: my son will be attending Hogwarts this year and it's bad enough that that old fool over there is still in charge,' He waved an arm in the direction of Dumbledore, who was now chatting with a long-haired, male vampire. 'But I will NOT have him within the grasps of a sneaky siren!'

For a moment, Severus was taken aback, but he quickly redeemed himself. He wasn't particularly thrilled at the prospect of a siren added to the Hogwarts staff, but that wasn't Malfoy's concern. Sirens were known to inhabit countless possible sinful characteristics and when angered there was no reasoning with them, but honestly, who was Malfoy to talk? 'I'll keep an eye on her and your son, if that would help you.'

Just as Severus was making his offer, everyone suddenly fell silent. Except for the singer, who was humming softly. The drummers started to beat a rhythm that was both unsettling as compelling. When the woman morphed her humming into singing, a harp went along with the drums and the hall seemed to have gotten a little brighter.
Then, they were suddenly there. Women with long golden hair and painfully perfect faces. They were just walking, but their bodies moved along with the music so perfectly that it looked like dancing. No, not even that, for Severus had never seen anyone dance in such harmony and elegance. The two in front smiled at everything male in the hall and shot arrogant glances at their wives. Behind them were three others. Two of them almost identical to the others, but one stood out from the group. At first, Severus thought it was because of her attire, which existed of a black, long-sleeved dress and no jewelry, while her companions wore blood red dresses that left their long, slender arms bare and their wrists were covered with golden bracelets. After more careful examination however, he was surprised to find out that she was different from the other sirens in many ways. Strange how he hadn't noticed that right away.

It was as if the band was playing a lullaby, because Severus felt unbelievably calm and had to suppress the urge to yawn. Then the sirens split up and the spell seemed to be broken. Still, the arrival of the mythical women had lifted his spirits, which was utterly irritating. The siren in black spoke a few words to the one next to her and looked around. A smile then spread across her face and she made her way through the crowd. Dumledore met her halfway and she embraced him.

'Would you like some more wine, sir?' A squeaky voice came from very far away. Severus took a deep breath and blinked several times. Looking down, he found the house elf, holding up even more goblets than before. He took two of them and turned to his side, ripping his gaze away from the sirens. He held out one of the goblets, but Lucius Malfoy was nowhere to be seen. Apart from the fact that Severus now stood with two drinks in his hands, which earned him some strange looks from a grey-haired witch, that discovery had just made his night.

Unwillingly, Severus sought for one of the golden-haired women while sipping from one of the goblets. He found none, but the half-blood. She was shaking McGonagall's hand and listening intently to something the elderly witch was telling her. Quirrell was miraculously not twitching at all, but simply gaped at the Headmaster's cousin. Dumbledore lay a hand on her shoulder and spoke. The woman nodded to him and said something to McGonagall and Quirrell. She then followed her uncle and came Severus' way.

Automatically, Severus took a step backwards. How he hated feeling this weak and out of control. To prove himself, he decided to stare this woman right in the eyes; surely she would be a lot easier to resist than a real siren. Not a smart move.

As she approached him, Severus could see that she did not have that glow that made every siren's face fair and their features flawless, but her eyes were so beautiful that one hardly noticed anything else. They were framed by long, black lashes and their irises were a grayish shade of blue. The chestnut coloured hair of this half-siren was considerably duller and wilder than the shiny curls that graced the heads of her pureblood sisters. It was slightly wavy and reached just over her shoulder blades. She had a harsh look about her, which was most unusual for her type and her smile, though kind, lacked the allure and charm of that of a true siren.

Severus tried to search for flaws, but every time he found one, his gaze was drawn back to those hypnotic eyes, and he caved.

'Severus,' Dumbledore spoke, and then, noticing the two goblets, 'Thirsty, are we? I would like you to meet my lovely niece, Lavolla Meren.'