Harry, Xena, and an Innocent Ex-Con
A/N: Hey there! Well, this is the third part and I'm super pumped to get this show on the road! This part is where things get good :D This will be a VERY dramatic year, complete with love triangles, jealousy, danger, and heartbreak. Anyways, I don't own Harry Potter and enjoy! And I'm sorry I took about 10 millions years to post this :P
Chapter 1: Perfect Imperfections
If the world was perfect, she would've woken up in a soft bed, to a chorus of chirping birds and the scent of a delicious breakfast drifting into her ever-so-posh room.
But, sadly, a perfect world could not exist. At least, not for her.
Xena Sharma awoke on a lumpy, worn mattress and the only sound she heard was her uncle screaming at her from another room, all the way across the house to her drab, gray one.
"XENA, GET YOUR LAZY ASS UP AND MAKE ME SOME DAMN BREAKFAST!"
"ALRIGHT!" Xena hollered back, rolling her eyes. "Jerk," she muttered under her breath, getting up.
After getting ready for what was sure to be another horrible day, Xena made her way to their fancy kitchen. The whole house screamed "I'm rich and you're not!" besides her room, naturally. Her room croaked, "help me…"
Xena opened the cabinet and grabbed a box of pancake mix. Twenty minutes later, the batter was ready.
Not quite, Xena thought, smirking. There's one thing missing.
Her smirk grew as she prepared for what she was about to do. Three seconds later, her saliva had been added to the mix. She then grabbed a granola bar and some cereal for herself. Her "special concoction" was for her uncle, Sanjay Sharma, to enjoy and no one else.
Sliding her hand across the stove's magic sensor, the blue flames flickered to life. You see, in that house, everything was a symbol of how much better magical folk are better than muggles. Everything required magic or, at the very least, had a magic sensor. A muggle wouldn't be able to live there, not for a second. Even the threshold was enchanted to block muggles- not that they would even be there. That would bring the upmost shame.
Grabbing a pan, Xena poured some batter on it. While she cooked, she ate her own breakfast. Twenty minutes and a second helping later, Xena had a stack of fluffy, slightly burned pancakes in one hand and a bottle of syrup in the other.
She made her way to the dining room, trying not to drop anything. There, Sanjay was seated, tapping his fork irritably on the cherry wood table. When he spied his niece, he rose and snatched the plate and syrup from her.
"About time," he grunted, setting the food on the table. Turning back around, he swung with foot upwards, kicking Xena in the stomach. She glared at him and started to walk out of the room.
"Wait," Sanjay called, stopping the girl in her tracks. Slowly, Xena turned around, waiting for what the beast she called an uncle was going to say. "I want to see how these are, before you leave. If they're good… you're safe- for now. If they aren't… well, I don't think I need to explain."
Xena gulped. What if it tasted funny from her special addition?
Oh well, Xena reasoned. It's not like the pain will be unfamiliar.
She watched, hardly daring to blink, as her uncle poured the syrup and cut up a piece excruciatingly sluggishly, giving time for the panic to build in Xena's chest. Painfully slowly, Sanjay lifted the silver fork to his mouth where it gleamed menacingly before he placed it in and took the pancake from it.
One, two, three… Xena counted in her head, waiting for uncle to realize something was off.
"These are great!" Sanjay said through his full mouth. "There's this unique flavor and it makes it so much better. It's almost… minty! You're okay… for now."
Xena's jaw dropped.
Her spit… tasted good? Minty? She had to bite her tongue to keep from laughing! Oh, this was rich! Xena rushed from the room before he could change his mind and before she burst into uncontrollable laughter.
Sanjay sat in his study, staring at a sheet of paper, brow furrowed. These results were astounding- but they simply could not be right. How could his werewolf niece, whom he had genetically enhanced (not that she knew), have a higher percentage of magic in her blood than him? She was a blood-traitor for Slytherin's sake!
He was brilliant… but not this brilliant. No one, not even him, could make a potion to enhance someone's magical ability by that much. Merlin himself couldn't have done it. Or even that muggle-loving fool, Dumbledore.
Taking a look at the bubbling cauldron full of his impossible potion, he examined the violent lilac mixture.
Dragon's blood, pickled newts, moonstone, he counted off in his head. And the most remarkable, but also the most dangerous and highly illegal, cured basilisk venom.
The cured basilisk venom was a recent discovery of his. While in Knockturn Alley as his miserable excuse for a niece, Xena, was off at Hogwarts, most likely slacking and causing trouble; he had found a small shop hidden away the most remote corner of the dodgy place. And in this shop a dwarf of a man with a small pinched face showed him something he thought was impossible- basilisk venom with all its stunning magical properties that was non-lethal.
Sighing deeply, Sanjay tossed his results in the bin.
But what he didn't know, was that his results were true- but a price was to be paid for Xena's higher magic potency.
Claws ripped through flesh and howls sliced through the air. Vaguely, the very faint, conscious part of Xena wondered what was making her so aggressive. Never once had a full moon been quite this bad. But, like always, that tiny conscious part of her had no control and was dragged under her inner, and currently outer, wolf in a mere few seconds.
For hours, it stayed the same: razor sharp teeth tearing through her flesh and drawing blood, watching vivid scarlet drops get lost in and stain coarse dark brown, almost black fur, big brown eyes clouded with irrational fury but also tinted with great sorrow, feral snarls escaping parted lips…
But when dawn broke and the suffocating darkness was lifted by small rays of light shining through a tiny window, in which the weather was magically reflected, things changed dramatically. The large, terrifying wolf turned into a small, hurt thirteen year old girl. Bleeding from multiple lacerations and purple bruises blooming all over her deep honey colored skin, the girl appeared almost pitiful. Her face was hidden behind a curtain of hair, the same color as the wolf's fur, but her hair was much softer, silkier, and shinier, although it was sticky with blood at the moment. With the water, fake sunlight showering her petite, curled up frame… the scene was the perfect illustration of bittersweet.
Soon enough, her eyes groggily fluttered open to reveal dark brown iris, gleaming with pain. Groaning softly, she sat up and pushed her bangs out of her eyes and tried to comb through her tangled locks with her fingers. And then, with a slight hiss of pain, she clambered to her feet clumsily, almost falling over in the effort. Xena shuffled up some steps and unlocked the multiple locks securing the door and her uncle's safety. Unlocking the locks required opposable thumbs, making it impossible while in her wolf form. It was another one of Sanjay's "genius" plans, though she thought it to be one of pure common sense. Anyone could figure that out, regardless of magical ability.
Sighing, she walked up to her room, pausing only to knock on her uncle's door in a single, swift motion to let him know she was out of the basement and to take something to eat.
Sanjay was out Merlin-knows-where, and Xena was left alone in the big empty house, aimlessly wandering the many hallways. She passed by her uncle's lab, which was off-limits to her. The door was open a crack, just enough to allow her to see a bin with paper's peeking over the top. Squinting a bit, she saw something that both caused her blood run cold and her curiosity to grow: her name was penned in messy scrawl on the parchment.
Taking a deep breath, Xena's eyes darted around. There was no one around… she could just sneak in, take a peek at what was on the paper, return to it original place, flee, and nobody would ever have to know. The hard part was convincing herself it was just that simple. But eventually she did and before she could stop herself, she was crouched by the bin, eyes feverishly scanning the papers she had fished out, not understanding have the letters her brain jumbled. Slowing down and working through her dyslexia as best she could, she began making sense of what she was reading.
…Subject (Xena Sharma) has shown remarkably high magical potency levels, increased aptitude, but her full moons are worsening. The cured basilisk venom may or may not have been the cause of these results; that is still undetermined. Further expiration… At this, Xena's furrowed her brow and focused more strongly on the word to realize what it really was and reread the sentence. Further experimentation will have to decide its role in these events.
Xena's eyes widened at the information. It explained everything… Her uncle making her perform simple spells, spells coming easier (unlike the reading and writing), the more horrible than usual full moons, the liquids he injected in her that felt somehow different… It all fit together.
And if she thought she was shocked then, imagine her reaction when she heard the door fly open and her uncle's furious screeching.
"WHAT THE BLOODY HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?"
Heh, I'm a horrible person. I've been gone away for such a long time and when I do post, I leave you with a cliffy :P Well, you're just gonna have to deal with it. I'll try to update soon so look out for that :) And thanks to everyone who reviewed Harry, Xena, and the Icky, Slimy Tunnel and/or Xena, Harry, and the Sorcerer's Stone :D Oh and, if anyone didn't get it: 1) the price of the magical ability is worse full moons, 2) I mentioned she was dyslexic in the first one if anyone remembers, and 3) she was able to do magic outside of school was because her uncle was there :P Duh! ~cough, cough~ anyways REVIEW! PLEASE!
