Title: Heart of An Assassin
Summary: Aparicia LeFay, once Iris Potter was pushed aside and ignored by her family in favor of the supposed Boy-Who-Lived. After being abandoned by her parents, she sets out to make a name for herself, meeting along the way the son of the Dark Lord. As an infamous assassin, her name is whispered with awe and fear, drawing the attention of both the Muggle and Magical worlds.
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor its plot and characters. Also, my story is adopted from Coho Commanche, a story with the same name and only three chapters. I only own my OCs.
Warning: Rated M. May include blood, gore, violence and/or mature content.
Author's Note: So, this is one of my favorite Coho Commanche stories. Unfortunately, she isn't working on any of her Harry Potter stories and is letting me adopt this one. So, the first three chapters are mostly hers, with some of my own writing and such.
Edit on 10/10/16- I changed Iris/Aparicia's age so now she and Henry are twins, just to make my life easier. There are some edits in this chapter to show that. Tell me if I missed to change anything that can indicate their old ages.
"Talking"
'Speaking in mind'
"Parseltongue"
Articles
Prologue:
October 31, 1981
Lily giggled as her son blinked in shock with wide eyes. Henry had bright electric blue hair and toad green skin due to an unintentional prank, by his sister. His sister, born at exactly midnight, squealed angelically, clapping her pale, chubby hands together. Henry and Iris were twins and while Henry was born on the first of August at one minute after midnight and Iris was born minutes before midnight, so they had different birthdays.
"Look Lils, my little daughter's a Marauder!" James exclaimed excitedly as he watched his daughter with sparkling hazel eyes.
Lily narrowed her green eyes at her husband. "No! I'll not have my daughter getting a detention every week, nor torturing the teachers!"
James deflated, with a frown, canceling the accidental magic that had targeted the now bawling Henry. Little Iris appeared to pout, looking as if her father had taken away a favorite toy.
"Shh darling Iris," Lily scooped up her oldest, smoothing her shiny, curly red hair. "I wish we could take the children out to trick or treat and dress up." A small graced on Lily, as she thought about Henry as a proud, red lion and Iris as an adorable witch.
James gave his wife a sad smile, knowing that it was much harder on her to be in hiding than it was on him. He spent much of his early life all alone, with only his mother and father as company, due to his refusal to play with the bratty, spoiled children of other pureblood (ignoring the fact that he was the same, and still hadn't outgrown it). Lily, however, had grown up in a small, friendly town with many friends and her sister. Plus, she adored celebrating Halloween, it saddened her that her children wouldn't be able to go like she had in her childhood.
Henry drew his attention away from the two most important females in his life when he made the noise he always did when he wanted to be pick up, his pudgy hands opening and closing, arms raised. As James was bending down to pick up Henery, when Iris made a strange noise. He looked over at her, curious as to what the sound was about.
Iris had crawled over to the window and stared intensely at it, her vibrant green eyes glowing eerily in the flickering light from the fire in the fireplace. Lily looked at Iris in surprise when the child began to grow more and more agitated, with a frown on her lips. "Iris, what—" That was as far as Lily got when the front door exploded. A tall and monstrous figure stood at the entrance, a fiendish smirk on his pale face. His red eyes had an unholy gleam of malicious delight as he observed the empty entryway.
"Oh, fu—Lily, take the children and get out of here! I'll hold him off!" James grabbed his wand and thrust Henry at a panicked, frightened Lily. With tears gathering in her eyes, Lily nodded and dashed for the stairs, with Henry and Iris in her arms. The muggleborn witch forget in her panic that she could simply run out the back and into the woods beyond the ward-line. She clutched her children to her chest tightly, doing her best to ignore the cackling of Voldemort as he dueled her husband. Lily stumbled into the nursery and slammed the door, throwing every locking spell and ward she could at it.
Henry was screaming, his fat cheeks blotchy and large tears streaming down his face. Iris was strangely silent, staring solemnly at the door to the nursery over her shoulder.
Lily worried about her odd and unnatural behavior, but ignored it as she lunged for the dresser with the portkey on it. She set Iris down in the crib next to it so that she could grab the red and gold stuffed lion that was an emergency portkey. Scooping Iris again, she gripped the siblings tightly as she tried to activate the portkey, but nothing happened. Lily made a strangled sort of sound, tears falling from her eyes. She tried to apparate, but nothing happened. "Oh, God." She suddenly heard a scream and then a loud crash downstairs before the house became silent except for Henry's screams. She gave a choked sob. She was going to die. Her children were going to die.
Her eyes rested on the only window in the room, and a plan began to form in her mind and. Once more setting Iris down in the crib, along with the ineffective portkey, Lily pointed her wand at the window and cast a blasting hex, only to have it diffuse across the glass without leaving a mark. Her heart sank and tears welled in her eyes; not only were there anti-apparation and anti-portkey wards up, there were also wards on the windows to prevent escape. She was willing to bet the other doors and windows were similarly warded. She wasn't sure about the walls, but blasting them was too risky, and could injure someone.
She sat Henry down next to his sister and stroked his messy dark brown hair lovingly. His teary hazel eyes, James's eyes, were squeezed shut as he screamed at the top of his lungs. Tears blurred her vision as she turned her attention to her silent daughter, who was focused completely on the door. Iris giggled, pointing at the shuddering door, as Voldemort began launching spells at it.
"Mommy loves you so much." Her eyes locked with the glowing green of her daughter's and Lily felt a chill run down her spine. She suddenly felt as if she was being judged by her own daughter.
Lily curved over the crib protectively when the door exploded inward, not having enough time to cast a spell to protect herself or her children, shards of wood hit her, making droplets of blood flow from the wounds. The pain quickly faded into a determined numbness. Lily whirled around, her wand sparking menacingly.
"Well, well, well, the Mudblood thinks she can stop me." Voldemort teased, holding his wand carelessly. Lily grounded her teeth at the insult, but refused to back down. Her heart felt like it was in her throat as she stared at the monster in the doorway. Voldemort looked more like a snake than a human due to all of the dark, horrific rituals he had performed, but that only made him more dangerous and terrifying.
"I won't let you hurt them!" Lily shouted determinedly, baring her teeth.
Voldemort sneered at the redhead in disgust. "You honestly think that you can stop me, the Dark Lord, from killing your little brats?" His snake-like voice sent chills down Lily's spine.
"Reducto!" A jet of red light shot at Voldemort, who lazily deflected the spell, sending it into the wall, which exploded. Henry's screams grew louder and Voldemort grit his teeth, despising the sound.
Lily shot a chain of spells at Voldemort, but he simply laughed as he deflected each and every spell. Growing tired of the duel, Voldemort disarmed her, snatching her wand from the air as it soared towards him.
Lily paled, and threw out her arms as though that would prevent Voldemort from fulfilling his goal.
"No please, no please, take me! Please, take me instead, spare my babies! Spare them! Please!" Lily was hysterical at this point, pleas and sobs tearing themselves from her. Blood stuck to her pale face as tears fell down her face like rain.
Voldemort cackled cruelly in response. "Step aside and I shall let you live Mudblood."
Lily's mind blanked briefly in shock. What was this, the Dark Lord granting her mercy, a Muggleborn? "No! No! Please, take me instead!" She screamed in a fearful haze.
Voldemort was growing tired of this and rolled his eyes. "Move aside!"
"No! Please, please have mercy! Have mercy!"
Voldemort hissed in anger. "This is my last warning! Step aside Mudblood!"
Lily shook her head frantically. "No! Please, not my babies!"
Voldemort grinned darkly at her. He wasn't foolish enough to kill her; there was a large chance that the Mudblood had performed some sort of long forgotten ritual that would be activated upon her death. It was due to this that he also spared the father, that and the fact he was a Pureblood. "Very well, Crucio!"
Lily screamed and fell to the floor, thrashing and howling in agony. Oh, the pain she felt. It was as if a thousand, burning knives were pushed into her at at the same time. Through her haze of agony, she could hear Voldemort cackle, red eyes glowing in delight. He eventually grew bored and cancelled the spell. Lily curled into a ball and fell into painless darkness, despite her best efforts not to.
Voldemort kicked Lily aside, looming menacingly over the crib. Henry had put himself into the corner of the crib, cringing away from the red-eyed monster sneering at him. Voldemort tore his eyes away from the boy in disgust. This was the supposed Savior, the Chosen One? The boy was average and nothing about his magic spoke of power. He was plain with untidy hair and brown hazel eyes and light skin. His magic was small, normal and disgustingly light.
He felt something tug on his robe, and froze. He stared down at the small, pale hand belonging to the Chosen One's older sister. She was on her knees and her chubby hands were fisted in his robes. He gaped in disbelief as the the child smiled toothily at him, him, the Dark Lord!
Iris tugged harder, reaching out with her other hand to grab at his wand with a small, determined frown on her face. Her hand curled around it briefly, before Voldemort tore it out of her grip. The child pouted, lower lip trembling slightly. She let go of the strange man's robes and held up her arms, demanding to be picked up and sniffled when he stumbled back away from her.
"Up! More pwetty wights!" The girl's light, high-pitched voice demanded.
Voldemort stared at the Potter girl in shock. Not even his own son asked him to perform more magic or to be picked up and cuddled. He sneered in disgusted horror at the thought of actually cuddling. He pointed his wand at the brat menacingly, eyes narrowed. He would kill her first. The little brat!
"Avada Kedavra!" He watched in gleeful anticipation as the Killing Curse flew towards the girl, whose eyes matched the curse. She was oddly smiling and clapping her hands at the "pwetty wights!" The sound of something rushing through the air as it approached the giggling little girl. Voldemort's glee soon turned to horror as the curse simply rebounded after striking the girl on the forehead. The curse blasted back towards him at a much faster speed and much larger in size. He had no time to duck out of the way before it struck him in the chest, causing his body to disintegrate as he silently screamed in agony. Never had he felt such pain, not even splitting his soul hurt as badly as the rebounded Killing Curse did.
With a shriek of rage, the wraith fled from Godric's Hollow. Voldemort never noticed the piece of his soul that broke off, nor did he see it choose Iris Potter as its host.
An explosion from the backlash of magic tore apart the room, Iris's magic once more protecting her from harm. Her brother on the other hand, wasn't so lucky. A stray piece of wood tainted by dark magic slashed across his right cheek. A second piece soon followed, making an X on his right cheek. Henry screamed in pain and fear, wailing as the two cuts began to bleed freely and heavily.
The Horcrux hovered, reaching out to both children. It recoiled as the boy's light aura burned it. The girl on the other hand soothed it, her gray, silvery aura much more tolerable than the disgusting light of her brother. It drifted towards her, tendrils of the darkest magic slipping in through the curse scar in the shape of a lightning bolt. Iris sniffled, then screamed in agony as the Horcrux brutally forced itself into her, latching onto her magical core, only to find itself unable to crush her soul. Her magic, with the last of its energy, trapped the Horcrux in a bubble of sorts, only preventing it from crushing her soul. While the Horcrux was in a bubble, it was still able to connect to Iris's soul and magic, seeing as both were too weak at the moment to completely fight it off.
The Horcrux burrowed as deeply as could, being prudent not to damage the child's magical core. The child's magic would only make it stronger once it managed to take over. What the Horcrux was unaware of, was that Iris's magic was twining with the Horcrux in a last ditch effort to prevent it from killing her; the gray aura slowly, but surely turned into the darkest of blacks with only mere hints of the original gray. It wouldn't take long for the Horcrux to realize that to kill Iris, meant that it would die as well, and that was completely unacceptable.
Sirius Black appeared with a loud crack on the sidewalk by the front lawn of the small, cozy house in Godric's Hollow where James and Lily had hidden. He paled as he caught sight of the house and saw the exploded door, then dashed for the house, all the while pleading that the inhabitants were still alive to every immortal deity he knew the name of. Heart in his throat, Sirius leaped over the wreckage in the entryway, looking frantically for a body, or bodies. He cried out when he saw a bloodied and battered James slouched against Lily's broken china cabinet. James was pale with blood still dripping down his cheeks and in his hair. Sirius rushed over, frantically checking for a pulse, and sobbed in relief when he found a weak pulse in James's neck. He healed what he could (healing was never his specialty, but he knew a decent amount of spells), then placed his body in a stasis charm so that even with his life-threatening injuries, he would survive long enough to be treated.
He didn't dare move James's body for fear of making his injuries worse. Checking one last time that James had a pulse and was in fact breathing, he dashed up the stairs. Sirius clumsily slammed into the wall, shoving himself off of it and towards the nursery. Wand at the ready, he leaped into the room, spells on the tip of his tongue. The room looked more like a war zone than a nursery at the moment. The door was gone, in its place were large, fatal sharp prices of wood; toys and objects were scattered across the floor; the floor was blood-stained and muddy and the one thing still fine in the room was the cradle.
"Lily!" Sirius screamed as he ran forward, stumbling on the debris, and dropped to his knees, noting that she was trembling from being under a Cruciatus Curse. He watched over the pale redhead and couldn't find any life-threatening wounds, so he used Enervate. Lily jolted as she was torn from unconsciousness and glanced around in confusion, frowning at a worried Sirius before her brain suddenly engaged.
"My babies!" She tried to stand, but her muscles were too sore and she couldn't get up, so Sirius had to help her. He let go of Lily when she was able to stand on her own, and joined her in checking on the children. Both of them sagged in relief when they saw both children alive.
Henry was crying silently, his throat too sore from all of his screaming. Iris was sniffling, reaching for him. Lily grabbed Henry, hugging him tightly to her chest before checking him and healing the nasty gashes on his cheek, but due to the dark magic that had tainted the wood, the gashes scared. "James is he…" Lily trailed off with a look horror, fearing the worst.
"He's alive. Dumbledore should be here any moment." Sirius answered.
"Paddy!" At Iris's squeal he felt his body sag with relief that she wasn't hurt too badly, then stiffen when he spotted the blood on her. Sirius scooped her hurriedly attempted to heal Iris's odd looking cut. He frowned as the cut scabbed, but refused to heal over. Sirius rearranged her, resting her against his shoulder and rubbing soothing circles on her small back. He looked at Henry, who was still crying in his mother's arms.
Albus Dumbledore burst into the room, wand drawn and face thunderous. He had a long, silver beard with dark blue eyes, void of their signature sparkle. He wore dark blue star theme robes, quite tame to his usual gaudy, colorful choice.
"Dumbledore! Thank the gods you're here. Did you heal James?" Sirius said, relieved as he turned to look at the ancient wizard.
Dumbledore didn't look at him though; he stared at the floor by Sirius's feet with his once dark eyes lightening and eyes twinkling merrily. Gone was the thunderous, solemn features, and in its place was a gentle smile that had no business being there. "I sent him to St. Mungo's to be healed."
Lily made a sound of great happiness and relief and buried her face in her son's hair, sobbing heavily. Dumbledore began to investigate the room, waving his wand and murmuring spells as looked around.
He widely smiled suddenly. "It would appear young Henry has vanquished Tom."
Sirius gaped at him, eyes practically popping from his skull. Lily gasped, and clutched her son tighter.
"Lily, may I see young Henry?" Dumbledore asked, as he stood in front of Lily.
"How do you know it was Henry, and not Iris?" Personally, Sirius thought it was his little Iris who had vanquished the Dark Tosser and not her younger brother. Iris always had this… specialness to her, which her brother did not. While Henry bawled his eyes out, Iris was quiet and tearful.
Dumbledore ignored him for the moment, striding forward to take Henry from Lily, who looked at him blankly. She tightened her arms around Henry, refusing to hand him to Dumbledore, who frowned.
"My dear girl, I need to make sure that his magic is alright, will you allow me to do that?" Lily gave Dumbledore a suspicious look before agreeing reluctantly and slowly handing the child to the wise wizard.
Dumbledore used spell after spell on Henry, his brow deepening by each spell.
"Well, is there something wrong with him?" Lily demanded, hovering next to Dumbledore.
Sirius narrowed his eyes. "Lily, you should comfort your daughter." Lily looked at him briefly, and rolled her eyes as if he wouldn't understand before ignoring him again. "Lily! Your daughter needs you, your son's fine!" His shout grabbed her attention, and Lily reluctantly took her daughter, before turning her attention back to Henry. "What the fu—uh…What in Merlin's name is wrong with you!" Sirius glared at Lily, snatching back his goddaughter from the woman.
"Henry needs me more right now." Her quiet response had Sirius reaching critical point.
"She was hurt too!" Sirius argued venomously. What was going on with Lily? She was acting odd… and yet the darker, crazier side of Sirius's mind, that belonged to the Blacks, thought that Lily was always like this, but Sirius often ignored it. He was far more observant than people gave him credit for. He could tell that James—and at times Lily—seemed almost distasteful of Iris. It was subtle but there; they gave Henry instantly what he wanted but for Iris, they took longer and it was almost unconscious or instinctive the way they behaved.
Lily glanced at the lightning shaped cut, but didn't seem to react too much to seeing it. "Not as badly as Henry."
Sirius exploded."So what! He's healed, your daughter's cut is refusing to heal, unlike her brother's!"
Lily looked slightly worried. Finally.
"Sirius my boy, Mrs. Potter is in shock."
Sirius only slightly calmed down at Dumbledore's rational words.
"That had better be the only reason." Sirius grumbled as he held his goddaughter protectively, worried that she wasn't making any distressed noises at the moment. She was squirming in his arms though, reaching down towards something on the floor. He looked down at the floor and saw Voldemort's wand lying there innocently. He gingerly nudged it with his foot, and when there was no reaction grew more confident. Sirius decided to be smart for once (and Lily thought he wouldn't understand! Ha! He was acting more like a parent to his goddaughter than her actual mother) and levitated the wand up to eye level. Dumbledore was talking quietly to Lily in a privacy bubble, much to Sirius's ire.
Sirius looked at Dumbledore and debated what to do next. He should give the wand to the Leader of the Light, or better yet, wait until later to destroy it where the potential backlash couldn't hurt anyone. Yet, something was holding him back.
"Pwetty." Iris reached out towards the wand, grasping it eager to play with the white stick.
"No Prongslette, it's not a toy." He levitated the wand further away from her. Iris's lips trembled and Sirius panicked. "Here, you can look." He brought the wand closer and Iris squealed, moving faster than Sirius thought a three-year-old could, and grabbed it. The wand's tip glowed green slightly, and Iris giggled.
Dumbledore looked up at the sound and paled dramatically when he saw the red briefly flash through the young girl's eyes. Lily followed his horrified stare.
"Iris!" Lily rushed over, Henry once again in her clutches. "Baby, let go of the wand." Lily felt like the world's worst mother when it sank in that she had ignored her daughter in favor of her son. Iris's venomous glare sent that home far better than Sirius yelling at her. "Oh baby, I'm so sorry." Crying, she reached for her daughter with one arm, gingerly cradling her against her chest. Iris continued to glare at her mother, while she shook her head disapprovingly.
Sirius had snatched the wand before Albus could see it very well. Dumbledore assumed that it was Sirius's wand that the girl had grabbed.
"Dumbledore, could you check Iris for me please?" Sirius asked, while Lily watched as Sirius stowed Voldemort's wand into his robes pocket, but remained silent. Dumbledore missed this, too busy staring at Iris with a worried frown.
"Yes, if you could hand her over?" Lily did so, staring intently at the Headmaster.
Dumbledore sucked in a harsh breath. "It would appear that your daughter is little more than a Squib magically. She can go to Hogwarts, but her magic is weak… She is also Dark."
Lily gaped at Dumbledore. "No, no, no, you're lying!"
It was too much. First Voldemort tried to kill her son, now her daughter was barely a witch, and if that wasn't enough, she was also Dark. Lily burst into a fresh batch of tears.
Sirius glared at the Headmaster and snatched his goddaughter from his arms. He turned his back on the others in the room. "I could care damn less if she was a Squib, or Dark. I come from a Dark family, but I'm not evil." Sirius had never really given such issues much consideration, but now he was being forced to. Truth was, while you couldn't choose your magic (light or dark) or family, you could choose whether to be evil or good, kind or cruel. It wasn't his fault he was born with magic dark-inclined, nor was it Iris'. "You'll always be my perfect little goddaughter." He whispered to Iris so only they could hear and pressed pressed a loving kiss to her head and nuzzled her neck.
Sirius vowed then and there that he would always be there for his goddaughter, that he would always take her side and support her. He knew how it felt to be an outcast, and wouldn't let her suffer alone.