Pulled Out.
" Hey, Selina, look what's in the paper." Lucy Cartwright shouted across the common room. Everyone either jumped, or sighed when the overly cheerful and cherubic girl walked in the room.
Selina Potter sighed as her dorm mate came over, a grin on her pink face as she brought in the newspaper. Cartwright was always absurdly happy.
The two girls couldn't look any different - Lucy Cartwright was short, slightly plump, with blond hair that was done up in pigtails.
Selina, on the other hand, was tall, thin, athletic with a body that was almost at the pinnacle of perfection, she still had a long way to go for that. Selina had an olive complexion, something she was delighted about. She hated the rosy kind, thought it was too normal. Selina hated normal. She preferred unique, special, too anything adversely normal. Normal was boring, at least in Selina's mind.
With blue eyes and black hair, creamy skin with a beauty mark on her cheek, Selina was a beautiful girl, probably more beautiful than a fashion model, but she didn't care much about that, even though she certainly wasn't above using her looks to get herself what she wanted, like normal girls. But she wasn't like normal girls, again with the disdain for the normalcy. She didn't spend centuries on shopping sprees, she spent most of her time swimming, practicing athletics, martial arts and so on.
" What is it ?" Selina asked, even though she had a good idea. It was almost time for the afternoon edition of the Argus, a local newspaper. There had been no news from the night before, and Selina wasn't bothered by that. She knew that the investigation would take most of the day before the media was allowed to actually print and report the news.
Lucy held out the paper. The headline read, " NEW CAT BURGLAR WALKS THROUGH CHURCHILL SQUARE - WHAT HAPPENED TO THE SECURITY ?"
As headlines went, Selina had seen worse. She was delighted that they were asking questions about the burglary, but Selina had never expected something like this one. She especially liked the walking through bit, it made her sound like some sort of ghost.
Selina looked at Lucy, " A new cat burglar, so what ?" she drawled in a bored and " why the hell should I care ?" voice.
" So that means something new for this town !" Lucy cried, gaining the attention of everyone in the room. Selina rolled her eyes, but then again Lucy did have point that something new had arrived. If she'd known that Lucy Cartwright would make such a fuss she wouldn't have bothered.
A prefect came in, talk about timing, " Excuse me, I'm to take Selina Potter to the headmistress." the girl said timidly.
Selina stood up, delighted to get away from Lucy. As the two girls left, Selina towering over the smaller girl, she glanced at the prefect. Selina could've been a prefect - all the staff and students respected her, she had genius level grades, she was popular, she was a star pupil. But she was too wild, she liked partying and getting into trouble.
It would never have worked.
" So how're you doing Martha ? How's your sister ?"
Martha looked at the older girl with shock. " V..very well, thanks. My sister's doing better learning to walk again after that accident."
Selina smiled, Martha's sister was good mate. She'd been injured in a boating accident.
" Give her my regards." Selina said warmly to her.
Martha smiled shakily, Selina was something of an icon for her, for everyone if truth be told. It was rare that the older girl reached out like this. But it was welcome.
" T-t-t-thanks, S-Selina." Martha stuttered shyly, but happily that her idol was speaking to her.
Selina smiled warmly at her. Selina genuinely liked Martha, but she wished the girl wasn't so timid all the time.
When they reached the headmistress's office, they knocked and entered. Selina stopped when she saw the second person in the room.
It was her aunt Bella. Selina knew that this wasn't going to be a social call.
Bella looked at the headmistress, " May I speak to my goddaughter alone please ?"
" Of course," Mrs King replied.
As King and Martha left the room, Bella took out her wand and waved it. " We can talk freely,"
Selina was instantly suspicious, " What's happened ?"
Bella sighed, " They know."
Selina took a deep breath, " So soon ? What happened, you didn't say ?" she added, repeating her original question and hoping to find out what was wrong, and why the magical world knew about what had happened that fateful night.
Bella took a deep breath. This wasn't going to be easy, " There was a raid at the ministry last night. The dark lord was seen by everyone, including Fudge."
Selina nodded. She'd been aware that Fudge had accused her brother of being a liar and an attention seeker, and had wondered why it had taken the incompetent little fool to realise that little home truth. Selina had known Lord Voldemort had been back for a while, she'd increased her training in fact.
Bella carried on, " Voldemort revealed the truth, just like you said he would. Dumbledore wants to take you out of Roedean and place into Hogwarts, and train you."
" Did you give the cover story ?"
" I did."
Selina nodded, " Then the contingency plan can go ahead. Whatever happens I must leave this country."
It took the two women 30 minutes to leave - 10 to inform everyone she was being taken out of the school, 10 to say goodbyes to all of Selina's friends, and another 10 to actually get through the gates.
Bella Black was driving the car, a magically enhanced car like the kind the Ministry used. Some magical families owned a few, they weren't like the old banger Arthur Weasley had moronically tampered with. Selina found it hypocritical that the magical world would gladly ignore what their non magical counterparts had and yet they would use things like cars, buses, elevators.
Selina, being magically raised, knew the difference between this car and a normal car.
This car had features that would never have been considered for a normal car, like the ability to go underwater, but Selina knew her one favourite was the comfort.
When the car went fast - Knight Bus fast, that is, - the car automatically compensated for it, unlike the rollercoaster rides you got free from the Knight bus. Selina remembered when she'd caught a ride on that horrible thing, the journey was to Diagon Alley when the floo network was being maintained, and the journey had thrown her about, and gave her an irrational hatred of public transport.
Selina glanced at her aunt, with the normal people repelling charms all over the car, Bella looked like she was driving. But she wasn't, she was sitting like someone at a park bench.
" So how did they find out ?" she asked. Selina had been curious about how they'd found out that little tidbit, she'd honestly hoped for Voldemort to reveal it at the final battle. That would've given the light side idiots heart attacks all round.
Bella sighed, " There was a raid on the Ministry. The Dark lord was after a prophecy the order was protecting, rather badly, if you ask me."
Selina nodded, she knew only too well that the Order of the Phoenix was ill equipped to actually fight a war with school children, never mind guard something like a prophecy.
Bella carried on, " Dumbledore and the Order got to the Ministry, well you can imagine. There was a skirmish, later the Dark lord himself arrived."
Selina's head shot to her aunt in shock, " Voldemort arrived at the ministry he wasn't there before ? I know you said so earlier, but I wasn't expecting that. What was he there for ? Why did he arrive so late ?"
Bella shrugged, " Who knows ? Personally, I think he was there to reveal himself at last, the tell the Order they'd made a mistake that'd cost them dearly, to eradicate hope in the magical world. Its working as well, people who've been cheering Dan are now scared stiff, especially since they know nothing about you now they know you are the one to defeat Voldemort."
Selina gasped, " He was gloating," she whispered, " It's the only logical answer, he must know how I feel about the Potters, and the Order, he knows too much. He must know that I'm not the forgiving sort, he probably thinks that after that then he could move in unopposed, and the magical world being sheep and people where their brains are like compost heaps, decomposed, would lift a finger to stop it."
In a whisper, Selina pieced the puzzle together, " He wasn't there to fight, he was there to tell Dumbledore he's wasted time and energy on training Daniel, that the Potters have wasted years on the wrong child. Voldemort must believe that no matter what Dumbledore does, I wont be much of a threat to him."
Bella listened to her goddaughter as she analysed the puzzle. She had to admit it made sense.
" What do you plan to do ?"
Selina's response was automatic.
" I need to get out of the country. Dumbledore's gonna to lean hard on me. If I leave then he'll concentrate his efforts in finding me, but Dumbledore wont train me. I watched some of the training sessions he had with my brother, whilst they made Dan more advanced than the average student, Dan wouldn't have been a worthwhile opponent for Voldemort, or anyone else with enough brain cells to fight back, people like Moody, or you. I myself had mastered spells in moments that took Dan months, months to wrap his head around. You know that."
Bella nodded.
Selina smirked as she asked her next question, " How did they take it ?"
With an identical smirk on her beautiful face, Bella told her, " Dan was furious, throwing a temper tantrum, screaming over and over again that he was the boy who lived, and you were just a pathetic little girl who wouldn't be able to stand up against him. James and Lily, on the other hand, they were adult enough to understand the truth, especially since Dumbledore himself confirmed it." Bella finished with an even bigger smirk, and also a little bit of pity, she'd liked the Potters until that night.
" Wait, Dumbledore confirmed it ? How ?" Selina asked quickly; if the old fart could deduce and recognise the logical truth then what else could he do ?
" Dumbledore's been worried about Dan for a while now, he told us at the meeting last night. Dan doesn't have any connection to the Dark lord whatsoever, something he's supposed to have." Bellatrix explained.
" Well he's going to be disappointed," Selina said darkly, " I removed that little piece of him years ago. Remember ?"
" He is going to be disappointed," Bella commented dryly, " As I was saying, Dumbledore has been worried. No matter what Dumbledore teaches Dan, he just wont take it on board. Moody, Shacklebolt and Tonks, three of the Order's aurors, they want nothing to do with Dan, especially since Lily has treated him like a toddler, " You can't hurt my little hero," " Bella sneered the last part, doing a cruel but accurate imitation of Lily Potter.
Sel laughed, " I remember her doing that. It was pathetic. What else ?"
" Now they know the truth, and I'm talking the whole wizarding world here, Dumbledore wants you to go to Hogwarts, for training and protection."
Selina, who'd been visiting Grimmauld Place during the summer, knew that Dumbledore's idea of protection was vastly dissimilar from hers. There was a saying, the best place to hide something, is in plain sight.
Indeed, if you wanted to hide a ship, you'd hide it in a harbour, if you wanted to hide a tree, you put it in a forest. Dumbledore believed that people locked in a dark, gloomy house for a month or so, lacking sunlight, was the healthy means to maintaining safety.
Selina, on the other hand, knew the advantages of disguise. Selina was talented there, no surprise, she was a born actress, and knew the applications of stage makeup. That and her knowledge of disguising spells would make her disappear in a crowd. If she wanted she could vanish completely without a trace.
Unlike the Order, Selina wasn't afraid of the outside world, and neither was Bella.
" Protection ?" Selina sneered, " Locked inside a house, not allowed to go outside ? That's asking for trouble. What about Danny boys friends ?"
Bella smirked, giving Selina her answer.
Selina may've renounced the magical world, may've hated the magical world, its culture, its outlooks on life, its unbelievable conceit and overwhelming bigotry. But that didn't mean she hated the awesome beauty of Hogwarts. The castle was massive, a work of art. She knew that if a normal person looked at the school, they'd see an unsafe ruin on top of a hill.
When they passed into the school, Selina felt cold. She'd heard her parents, and their idiot friends talk about the school as if it was their second home. From their descriptions, the school was a warm place.
But Selina felt cold, the school must realise that she didn't want to be there, that she felt nothing but contempt for the place.
Bella glanced at Selina, knew that she was curious, but she didn't want to get too comfortable about Hogwarts.
Selina almost laughed when she heard the password leading up to the Headmaster's office, cockroach cluster. Who ate those things, and lived ?
As soon as they reached the top, Bella looked at Selina, " Remember, play you part." Selina whispered.
Bella nodded.
Bella knocked on the door.
" Come in,"