Remus Lupin was actively scouring the Gryffindor table, looking for Lily and James' daughter. He was still thrown by the fact that he had found out Sirius had been out of prison for several years now and had never bothered to contact him. And wouldn't speak to him now.
He frowned when he realized he couldn't find her and turned to search the other three tables. He found her at the last table he looked at but didn't know it was her. All he saw was a teen girl that was beautiful, of course. She had black hair that hung down in ringlet curls and appeared to end just below her shoulder blades. He couldn't see the color of her eyes from where he sat but, considering she looked slightly deadly even though she was shorter than everyone that surrounded her, he wouldn't be surprised if they looked equally disconcerting.
He turned to Severus Snape. "Severus, who is that girl in your house?"
The man appeared to know exactly who he was speaking of without looking but still tilted his head to follow Remus' gaze down his house's table. When his gaze ended at the girl, the dark haired man frowned. "For your own good, don't go there. That's Grace Potter-Black. She's heiress to the Potter and Black families and more well known as the Black Princess. Many think she is mentally unstable."
"Why?" Remus frowned at that. How could James and Lily's daughter be anything but pure, wonderful innocence.
"Wait for someone to piss her off. There's always someone wiling to provide entertainment for those of us smart enough to avoid her wrath." Severus seemed both entirely certain of this fact and totally uncaring of it.
"You're scared of a student?" Remus raised his eyebrow and glanced at the other teachers close enough to hear what they were talking about. They all seemed to share the slight look of fear.
Only Dumbledore seemed to grimace in distaste.
"That one, yes." The Potions Master agreed. And Remus was thrown.
"Are those her friends?"
"No." Severus said shortly.
"Okay then, who are?"
"Grace doesn't have friends. Not in the sense that you would understand. Those surrounding her are the people she trusts. Loosely put you could call them friends. But if she had to hurt one or even kill one….she would do it heartlessly if at least painlessly."
Remus looked horrified by that knowledge. "W-what?!" He spluttered.
He was loud enough to draw attention from many of the students. Including the icy green gaze of one Grace Potter-Black.
Grace heard the exclamation from the head table and turned to look to see what was happening. She was both regretful and happy to be back at Hogwarts.
She liked seeing her friends, because she did consider them such regardless of what others thought, but she missed her family and the much more fun training she was able to partake in at home.
Hogwarts had wards against the Dark Arts.
They also tended to frown on violence not that it had ever stopped Grace from meting out punishment to the idiots that deserved it.
She frowned at the sight at the head table. Their housemaster, Severus Snape, was clearly warning the newest Defense teacher against starting something with her. That was a good thing. She really hated having to embarrass teachers. Especially the new ones.
However, the man he was warning seemed frustrated by something and it wasn't hard to gather that it was both about her and who she was.
Grace picked up her water and sipped it before saying, "Daphne. Find out everything you can about him. No stone left unturned. Draco, what the hell is his name?"
"Remus Lupin." Came the soft reply as her cousin stared at her worriedly, knowing she would recognize the name.
"Oh really?" She smirked and withdrew her compact mirror. She opened it and touched the surface lightly. "Sirius Black."
Her father, through blood adoption and simple regard, took only seconds before his face appeared in the mirror. "Hello, poppet. Kill someone already?"
The third year looked quite unimpressed with his question and rolled her eyes. She turned the mirror so he would be able to see the new teacher. "Recognize him, daddy dearest?"
A snort at the endearment and then a growl in recognition had her smirking and everyone around her more than a bit concerned.
While no one wanted to deal with an angry Sirius Black, they wanted to deal with an angry Grace even less. And if something upset Sirius, it was bound to make Grace willing to murder in cold blood.
She calmly pulled the mirror back to her. "He seemed a bit frustrated when Sev warned him about me. He's our new Defense teacher."
Another growl was heard, this time a bit louder. "What do you want me to do, poppet?"
"Nothing yet. Just giving you guys some warning. Have to go, though. Draco looks about ready to explode."
She signed off the mirror without giving him a chance to say goodbye and looked at her cousin. "Calm down, dragon. It wouldn't do to explode at the feast. We will wait for later and strike when the iron is cold. When it is least expected."
Remus didn't have to wait long to see what Severus meant about people pissing off the heiress.
It was as he was walking across the grounds that he saw it.
They were clearly on their way back from Herbology when another young man, this one with red hair and freckles, approached Grace and her circle swiftly.
"Potter. Done any dark magic lately?" He snapped hatefully.
"Weasley. We go through this at least once a month. Do you really need to be laid back up in the hospital wing before you get it through your thick skull to leave Grace alone?" The Italian looking boy asked sarcastically.
"Shut the hell up, Zabini. No one was speaking to you. Or is Potter too much of a coward to fight for herself?"
It happened so fast that Remus almost couldn't keep up. A knife was in her hand and then a second later Weasley was holding onto his bleeding arm and had the dagger embedded to the hilt in his shoulder.
Grace walked forward, gracefully to match her name, and smirked at the redhead. "Like Blaise said. At least once a month you try to be much bigger than you are. Remember your place Weasel." She twisted the knife a bit then yanked it out. She held it out to the one that had spoken, Blaise Zabini, and he cast a cleaning charm on it as he took it and put it in his bag for her.
Then Blaise offered her his arm and the circle of Slytherins continued on their way to the castle without any other incident.
Perhaps it was simply because of the seeming hatred she held for the youngest Weasley male, but Remus was more than a bit surprised to see her less than a week later without the company of any of her Slytherin circle and, instead, sitting at Ravenclaw table with several others. He saw Hufflpuffs: Susan Bones, Hannah Abbott, and Cedric Diggory; Ravenclaws: Luna Lovegood, Padma Patil, Terry Boot; and Gryffindors: Hermione Granger, Ginny Weasley, Fred Weasley, George Weasley and Neville Longbottom. Most surprising were the three Weasleys. Clearly her hatred did not extend to the entire family.
She was sitting in between the twins and was laughing at something one of them had said or done. She looked quite happy.
A glance at the Slytherin table showed that her normal circle of friends looked unworried by this and were talking amongst themselves.
This struck Remus as even more odd considering there was never a time so far where she hadn't had at least one of that circle with her and even when she had one, if she was away, the rest looked quite concerned and could be seen watching her.
A glance at Severus showed the man looked equally unperturbed by this. Remus did not understand what was so different about Grace Potter-Black that not only were people flat out afraid, but teachers went out of their way to ignore things that wouldn't for anyone else.
"Severus, your student stabbed Ronald Weasley a few days ago."
The dark haired man stared at him for a moment before saying carefully, "Of course she did." As if that simply closed the matter. What was going on?
Minerva spoke up from next to him. "Remus…Grace isn't like you expected. Like any of us expected. And she never will be. It will be safer for you if you discard any preconceived notions you had of her. In fact, ignoring her entirely would be a splendid plan.
Remus looked at her oddly and then returned to staring at Grace Potter-Black.
Grace, outwardly, was laughing at Fred explaining about a prank they had managed to pull on Peeves.
Inwardly, she was trying not to scowl. She could feel Lupin's eyes on her again and she was already annoyed given that he had attempted to keep her after class every single time so far.
She frowned finally and leaned into Fred who immediately wrapped an arm around her shoulders and continued on with his story.
Luna, sat across from her, looked at her with sympathy. She knew the constant staring was getting on the darker haired girls nerves. Quite possibly the only reason Lupin hadn't found himself in pain so far was out of loyalty for James and Lily Potter. Though Grace didn't truly see them as her parents any longer, she still acknowledged it and felt loyalty towards them.
Luna glanced over at Susan Bones. Susan had kept the last name Bones when her aunt had married Sirius. Still, though, she regarded Grace as a sister and, when provoked, could be just as deadly as she was. They all could be fairly deadly in their own right, especially if Grace was threatened, but Grace was the definition of silent and deadly. One moment she could be favoring you with one of her beautiful and hard won smiles and the next she would have a dagger buried in you to the hilt.
It wasn't that she was insane, exactly. It was simply that Grace, when still living with Lily's sister and brother-in-law had been badly mistreated. To the point that she now teetered precariously on the edge of sanity and insanity.
The Blacks had taught her to be deadly, but it was her nearly broken mind that allowed her to do it so clinically and efficiently.
The guys of the two groups, which really were one large group, were insanely protective of the girls of the group. However, Grace was the one they all orbited around.
Grace was the one that had caused Sirius to take in Luna last year after discovering that, while her father didn't abuse her, he did neglect her and was a bit off the deep end himself. And not in a good way like Grace was.
So while the man still had official custody of Luna and visited her at the Black residence when he remembered to do so, Luna had slowly adopted Amelia and Sirius as her own parents.
Hannah had followed along with Susan when Susan came into the Black family because that had happened when Grace was eight. Hannah had become good friends with Grace but still she somehow managed to be the farthest removed.
It was much more reminiscent of her being the last one to have joined the group.
Cedric was an odd addition. He had ran into Grace in her first week of second year and had instantly felt protective over the smaller girl.
Shockingly to everyone that knew her, Grace hadn't hurt Cedric for knocking her down or talking to her. That had come as a big surprise to everyone.
In fact, she seemed just as protective of him as she did for Blaise. And that was saying something.
The three Weasleys were an enigma. Ginny had joined after Grace had rescued her in the Chamber of Secrets. Ginny was extremely loyal and had quickly learned that anyone on the side of Grace Potter-Black was immediately given status high enough to surpass whatever their family status may have been.
Fred and George had pranked Grace and when they were subjected to a two week long constant prank session as the victims courtesy of Grace and Sirius, they had bowed down in the middle of dinner one night and declared themselves unworthy and Grace the master.
Grace had simply giggled and nodded. Which had honestly scared people more than her violence.
Hermione had become involved after the Troll Incident of their first year and had only become closer since then when she realized Grace presented a challenge for her for the top of year spot.
Neville had always been involved as the Potters, Blacks and Longbottoms were part of the Great Alliance and did, in fact, head the alliance together. So that was a given thing although no one knew why Grace seemed so protective over him.
Padma Patil and Terry Boot were the real surprises. No one knew how they had joined the group, not even the group themselves.
All they knew was that one day last year, Grace had gotten up, walked over to the two and brought them back within the folds of the group and they had stayed ever since.
Now, though, Susan seemed to nod with Luna in unspoken agreement. Grace was getting more and more irritated by the day and Remus Lupin was unknowingly screwing himself over.
And it would be a very funny show.
AN: This fic is likely to have several companion pieces written for it. I did, in fact, alright write one. I'm debating on what I should title it when I post it.