Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. He and all such characters belong to J. K. Rowling. The ideas, read cliches, don't belong to me either; they are bits and pieces of story ideas that I've read multiple places with a sprinkling of my own ideas, shaken until blended. The time put into this is all mine though.
Story Art: http : / / animalluver1985 . deviantart . com / art / Begin - Again - AU - Fem - Harry -Pot - 127853504 (remove spaces)
The portal opened in the arching doorway of a dark room filled with Death Eaters who gazed in reverent awe at a man, if one could really call him that, who sat upon a throne placed in the front of the large chamber near the open fireplace. It glittered and swirled a bright blue.
Before any in the room could regain their bearing, for even in the magical world portals were rare things, the portal shimmered oddly before it spat out two dark forms crouching low to the ground. A spattering of gasps were heard around the room as the shapes resolved into those of large cats, a white tiger and a snow leopard. A meager few Death Eaters in the crowd seized their wands, most gaped at the sight layed out before them.
The cats separated, prowling to opposite sides of the portal as it shimmered once more and a courtly woman flowed elegantly from the portal. The cats quickly closed ranks around her, brushing against her welcomingly, yet still their eyes kept an ever vigilant watch on those in the room who had drawn their wands, growling and bearing fangs in warning to those who seemed too jittery.
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Severus Snape, stood in his customary place beside the Dark Lord, watched the scene unfold with a non-expression upon his face, hand straying towards his wand, only gripping it when the woman stepped through. Animals were easy, never thinking for themselves they worked on instinct, wizards, or as the case may be, witches, weren't so easily dealt with. Briefly he noted her pale beauty. She had long dark hair that seemed to have a gentle curl to the ends, although he was unable to tell the exact shade in the small amount of light put out by the candles and fireplace especially backlit as she was by the blue light emitting from the portal,it was pulled back from her face with a piece of green cloth that seemed to match her dress. The dress itself was odd, he'd never seen anything like it before, made up of strips of cloth in varying shades of green, from a deep forest green that looked almost black in the lack of light to a light silvery green. The green of the dress drew his gaze unerringly to her vibrant green eyes. He felt a jolt in his stomach, those where Lily's eyes, those very same eyes that she'd passed on that damnable Potter brat. Who was this woman? Though looking closer, girl might be a better describer, she appeared to be the same age as some of his older students.
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They didn't know it now but this woman's name was Rissa Riddle. She was the adopted daughter of Tom Riddle, who just happened to be Lord Voldemort. Being a Dark Lord kept him busy so she'd mostly been raised by her 'mother' Bellatrix Lestrange nee Black, though she felt no love for the woman, maternal or otherwise, she was better than her biological mother at least. The woman cared for her needs, made sure she was fed, taught her new curses, passed on her love for all things torture related.
Her biological family, the Potters, were to busy fawning over their subpar Boy-Who-Lived, her brother, Anthony Potter. He was their pride and joy, stupid as a rock with barely more magical power than than a Muggle. When the old coot Dumbledore had come to them with some tripe prophecy telling of how Anthony was to be the Wizarding World's hope, their savior from these dark times they'd jumped in feet first and she'd been pushed to the shadows. She'd realized she liked the shadows though and when she was old enough she'd left them with their little prince, gone out to see the world, learn all she could of the shadows that world had to offer. That's how she'd found him, Voldemort, her father. Rissa had followed the shadows far and wide and they'd led her to him, he'd shined to her eyes with so much dark power that sung to her, songs of war and death, blood and pain. And she'd loved him for it, she'd loved him even more when he'd shown her the power she held, the power she could wield against those who'd wronged her, those who'd wronged him. She'd left her past as Chrysanthemum Potter, she'd became Rissa Riddle.
Rissa Riddle wielded her power like a blade, cutting a swath through the Light. She learned every branch of magic she could find. That was how she'd stumbled across bonds, the Triumvirate Ritual. Not many had the power to perform it, even fewer lived through it but the benefits of a perfected Triumvirate, shared pleasure, pain, and healing energy could be shared making death almost impossible without the death of all three simultaneously, far outweighed the small chance of death during the ritual, well, small chance for her. She'd never failed a ritual before, the Triumvirate Ritual wouldn't be the one to kill her. The only blockade was that the other two involved had to have the same level of power as she herself had and the only other person she'd ever met with that level of magic was her father. That was easily solved, however, when she'd told him what she planned. He'd introduced her to his Death Eater's and let her have her choice. The only two with her level of magical power and compatibility were Lucius and his son, Draco. She'd quickly set about worming her way into their hearts, never expecting to love them in return and before she knew it they'd performed the ritual - with no deaths.
With the Triumvirate on the Dark side the Light had little chance of winning. That's when the Light showed their true colors, they became downright vicious. Instead of stunning spells, reductor curses were being used, instead of being turned over to the Ministry, they were held for questioning - which amounted to truth potions and being made to tell everything they knew - from every small childhood humiliation to every wrong they may have done. The Triumvirate found out the hard way that the effects of truth potions could be shared, weakened, and beaten between them when Lucius was captured. He'd been held for days before they could find his location. The scar, from a mishandled whip, couldn't be healed after that amount of healing time as well as the healing energy sent his way by Rissa and Draco.
The Mudbloods especially were meticulously ferocious. One Hermione Granger was a true sadist, a genius sadist, creating new spells left and right. One particular cutting spell had almost taken Draco's head, would have if he hadn't moved, even then, only the healing energy kept him from bleeding to death. The damage done to his voice box was permanent, voice forever rough and raspy.
They'd all gotten their vengeance, the war had been won and there'd been relative peace. The Triumvirate though had been made for war, slowly going crazy. Rissa's father had seen that and loving his daughter in his own twisted way, he'd found a way to send them to a different world, a world where they could fight, where they could begin again.
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The trio stalked through the Death Eaters who parted like the Red Sea, giving them a clear view of Voldemort sitting tall and proud, ever watchful, wand in his hand tapping gently against the arm of his throne.
When Rissa was at the foot of the gently raised dais the throne sat upon she dropped smoothly to her knees, bowing her head as she spoken quietly, reverently, "My Lord.", raising her head just enough to meet his eyes through her lashes she stated just as reverently, "Father."
The Dark Lord reached a hand forward, lips pursing, pushed her head up with fingertips under her jaw. "You, you seem to know who I am," a laugh escaped as his lips curved into a smirk, "and yet, I have no earthly idea who you are. Enlighten me," he finished voice dropping quite dangerously.
"We come from a world that should, according to my father, be very similar to this one."
"Why come then, if it's so similar?"
"He said you'd need us, and we ... we need war."
"Lord Voldemort, need a child and two animals?" A shiver went through the Death Eaters. They knew this tone, it was usually proceeded by the torture of the incompetent fool who contributed to it's use.
"My father managed to win the war many years before what he originally thought he would. Many Light fighters met their end because of us."
"And your ... pets? What do they manage to contribute?" He eyed the cats sitting on either side of her disdainfully.
Her chin went up haughtily, "They are part of my triumvirate. Lucius Malfoy" A gesture of her chin and like heat rising from a road on a hot day, the white tiger shimmered to be replaced by an aristocratic blonde with a sneer upon his lips and curving scar below his right eye, "and ..." another gesture, this time to her left, the snow leopard shimmered to be replaced by, "Draco Malfoy".
She thought she may have seen a glimmer of approval in her not-father's red eyes, his eyes were harder to read than her father's green.
There was a murmur of noise behind her, choking and wheezing, and a harshly drawn breath beside the Dark Lord. As she turned her eyes in that direction she was a tad startled to see a double of her lover. A closer look showed that they weren't identical. Her Lucius was harsher, more scarred, and much better at hiding his feelings. The Lucius before her was the typical 'before war' pureblood - arrogant, snobbish, but worst of all ... soft, both physically and mentally. Her gaze drifted back to Voldemort as she dismissed not-Lucius.
"Leave us!" was shouted at the bewildered Death Eaters, who snapped out of their stupor and hurried to comply. "Come." was directed at the Triumvirate as he swept passed their kneeling forms and out of the room.
The last sight the leaving Death Eaters had of the Triumvirate was of them getting nimbly to their feet and slipping elegantly behind their Master as he rounded the corner.
TBC ... hopefully
Any ideas on where to go from here are welcome ... much needed even. Let to my own devieces this will go nowhere at a snail's pace. Read the Author Note for details.