Chapter Five: Encounters:

Rose Evans, a young woman in her twenties, returned home. There were many challenges in life. Running a business, for example, was a huge challenge. That challenge was about as hard as managing a pair of feisty five year old redhead twins, who seemed to make it their mission in life to cause as much hell as possible. While Rose wouldn't trade them for anything in the world, they could be a bit of a handful sometimes.

The door opened and a pair of redhead blurs shot out of nowhere.

"Mummy we missed you!" one of the redhead twins said, when she threw herself at Rose's leg.

"Mandy, don't do that, I need to greet her too," the other twin commented.

"Get off of it Emmy, you're not the only one allowed to be excited," Mandy commented. She shook her head.

"I hope the two of you have behaved," Rose said. She scooped up Amanda and Emily in her arms and lifted them up off of the ground. Both of them giggled, but they stopped when Rose gave them a stern expression. "Because I don't think that I can afford to put another babysitter through therapy."

"But we've been good!" Amanda protested. Her mother/aunt looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "Well this time, we've been good, there were all of the times that we weren't good, but this time we were good. I swear, we didn't do anything, this time!"

Emily sighed, being the more subdued of the two twins. "That's why you can never trick anyone…because you say way too much."

"Being a bad liar is not a bad thing," Rose said. She looked around for the babysitter. She hoped that her bad feeling was misplaced. This wouldn't be the first time the twins sent one of their babysitters into a pocket dimension. "Oh, Mary, there you are."

The sixteen year old girl showed up with a smile on her face. She had the wholesome look, like warm milk and apple pie, although she was fairly attractive. Her hair was tied into a ponytail and she was wearing a plaid sweater and a modest skirt that came down to her knees. She wore a pair of glasses that covered her brown eyes.

"My daughters didn't give you any trouble, did they, Mary?" Rose asked. The twins looked at her.

"No trouble at all, Ms. Evans," Mary said in a sunny voice. "In fact, they were absolutely swell."

The old time attitude of Mary was refreshing, although Rose could see how it might wear on a person.

"I'm glad that things went great," Rose said. She could see the bubbly smile on the teenager's face. "And if you're available next Friday, do you think that you could sit for me again?"

"It would be an honor, Ms. Evans," Mary said. She practically was bouncing with joy when she rocked herself back and forth.

There was a knock on the door where Mary gathered her things. Rose took out her purse to pay her and made her way to open the door.

Rose opened the door and she looked pleased. "Alia, it's good to see you again, and you've….wow you've grown up!"

She was caught off guard by Alia standing at the door. She was extremely beautiful. She reminded her of Lily with dark hair in a few ways, but a look at her saw that there were other differences. There was no mistaken those green eyes that she had on her.

"It's good to see you again, Aunt Rose," Alia said. She pulled Rose in a hug. "You remember Donna and Diana."

"Yes, it's a pleasure to meet you again," Rose said. She smiled when she looked at the two Amazon Princesses and there were hands to be shaken all around.

"The pleasure is all ours, Ms. Evans," Diana said.

A blonde Rose didn't recognize stepped out. The fact she and Alia seemed to be close made Rose put two and two together fairly quickly.

"This is Kara, she's my bonded," Alia said.

Rose sensed a bit of frostiness coming from Diana and she could see why. Lily mentioned to her that Diana had her heart set on being Alia's first, and she might not be the only Amazon to do so.

"I'll just be out on my way," Mary said. She stopped and she could see the tall and beautiful woman standing in the door. At her current height, Mary came up to the young woman's chest, which gave her an interesting view that made her blush. "I'm sorry…."

"I'm Alia, Rose's niece," Alia commented.

"Oh, yes, that's right, I'm such a scatterbrain," Mary said. "I mean, ah shucks, she did mention that you were arriving, but I didn't….I didn't expect to run into like this. I mean that you're so beautiful."

Kara gave a grin and even Diana and Donna looked amused. Mary was shaking her head frantically in a desperate attempt to try and reboot her brain.

"Here you go, Mary," Rose said, figuring that she would do her duty and spare the girl from any more amusement. She handed the bills into Mary's head. She was so distracted by Alia that she didn't try and protest getting paid and much to Rose's surprise, she didn't protest the little bit extra that Rose tried to give her. "And we're still on for next Friday night."

"Yeah, I'll be there," Mary said. "It was a pleasure meeting you Alia, and…"

"Kara, Donna, and Diana," Alia commented casually, pointing the three girls out in turn. Mary was nodding up and down frantically in response.

"Yes, it's a pleasure to meet all of you, but I need to get going….school project to do, it's on um, biology," Mary said. She could feel her heart jump.

"Well, I hope to get to know you better Mary and maybe I'll see you around," Alia said. She backed off for a moment, with Donna and Kara barely keeping a straight face. Even Diana looked amused, when Mary exited stage left, trying to keep her dignity mostly intact.

Alia turned towards Rose. "So, where are my twin sisters?"

"Right in the next room, being quiet," Rose said. She frowned. "That worries me."

"It always worried me when Donna was quiet," Diana said. Donna gave her sister a look, folding her arms and she scowled at her. Diana responded by patting her on the head.

Amanda and Emily were practically peeking out from behind the corner of the kitchen and Rose cleared her throat, which caused the twins to stand up and skid into the room.

"So, she's our sister, isn't she?" Emily asked.

"I'm Alexandra, or Alia now," Alia told her.

"Good, you're here, you owe us for all of the birthdays and Christmases you missed," Amanda said, folding her arms. That caused Emily to smack her sister on the elbow.

"Don't mind her, she was really excited to see that you're finally here," Emily said. "So is it really true that you live on an enchanted island like something out of a fairy tale?"

Alia prepared herself for the twenty questions game. She could see Diana lock eyes with her and Alia now knew what Diana had to go through every time Alia had a million questions for her. This game was a fairly interested one.

The two twin sisters had a million questions, some of them absurd, and Donna and Kara looked fairly amused. They were surprised that Alia had a fair amount of patience.

Alia was going to need more than a little bit of patience for her next trip. She needed to tie up some loose ends in the world of magic and wonder and one of those loose ends had to be on a trip to the Gringotts magical bank.

It was during a time of the day where there weren't that many people around. She had the key that Rose presented her. James had given Dumbledore his key along with his Invisibility Cloak. That was something that Alia considered getting back, but considering that she knew spells to make herself invisible better than some stupid clunky cloak, that wasn't high on the priority list.

Alia had made an appointment to the back, under the Evans name. The woman crossed the desk. There were goblins mulling around the bank, doing goblin things. Alia smiled when she walked over to the front desk.

A rather bored looking goblin surveyed her over his book, a frown appearing on his face. "Yes, might I help you."

"My name is Alexandra Audrey Potter, and I'm coming to reclaim what is mine," she said, placing her hand on the desk. The goblin looked up her with a raised eyebrow. "You don't believe me."

"If you were lying, I would know it," the goblin said. "And there are security enchantments within this bank that would prevent fraud. Not that it doesn't stop idiot wand wavers from trying. They always think that they could win with their magical tricks. It would take a miracle and some outside help to lay claim to what doesn't belong to you. And even then, it would be borderline impossible."

Alia could tell straight away that the goblins were a proud race that didn't like to be defrauded.

She also noticed that the goblins didn't make a big deal out of who she was. She was known, but they obvious didn't care. Well they cared in the sense that she was a highly valued customer, but not because of some Girl-Who-Lived nonsense, which suited Alia fine.

"I've learned that one of the Potter vault keys is in the hands of Albus Dumbledore," Alia told the goblin.

"It was in the hand of Albus Dumbledore," the goblin commented. "And there's a matter of Albus Dumbledore's will….that caused a fair deal of controversy."

"What kind of controversy?" Alia asked. She figured the goblin wouldn't mention it.

"You need to be taken to an office to be de-briefed," the goblin said. He called for another goblin. "Sersi, could you take our client into the office?"

Alia was actually relieved that the goblin in question didn't yell her name across the lobby. That would have put her in a bad place to be honest. The female goblin crossed the lobby and approached Alia with a smile crossing her face.

"This way," she commented. She was a fairly attractive creature, which meant she was ugly by the standards of the goblins.

The young goblin princess lead Alia down the hallway into one of the offices. The door was latched behind them.

"So, Dumbledore is dead," Alia said. "The rumors are true."

"It was a long verification process for us to ensure that he was dead before we would even consider opening the will," Sersi confirmed. "We goblins tend to be through and the way Dumbledore died, it seemed sudden and convenient. It was when his popularity was at an all time low and there was more pressure on him to bring the Girl-Who-Lived home than ever before."

Alia's nose wrinkled in response at that statement. The goblin princess looked Sersi directly in the eye.

"Not a fan, are you?" Sersi asked. "Wand wavers have their way with hyphenated titles. The Ministry is having their problems. Without Dumbledore, they are running around without a purpose….not to mention the pureblood population has been cut down, and those that remain still won't concede their power."

"Stubborn to the very end," Alia said.

"There are rumors, whispers, that the Ministry is going to lose all of their power and there is going to be a representative of the former government hired as a liason to all magical beings from the office government," the goblin princess stated.

"And what's the perspective of the magical creatures regarding that?" Alia asked.

"Mixed, some of us are adopting a wait and see attitude, others are for it, and others aren't necessarily for it, but they agree that it's not going to be much worse than the card we had to deal with," the goblin princess said to the Amazon princess. "The Ministry has fallen faster than the Roman Magical Empire, but it was bound to happen sooner or later."

The goblin princess shook her head.

"My apologies," she commented. "I didn't mean to go off on a political tangent. You are here for a reason and you need to be informed about Dumbledore's will."

"Yes," Alia said. "I had come here to withdrawal all of my gold for Gringotts. Although, I'm wondering what kind of effect that's going to have now."

Sersi placed her hand on her chin and looked extremely thoughtful regarding that point. "For the goblin nation and other like magical creatures, it is absolutely negligible, for the wand wavers, it's pretty catastrophic. Well for the ones that threw all of their eggs in one basket and didn't know enough to make investments outside of their bubble."

Alia read that as it would.

"And Dumbledore left you as his sole heir as well," Sersi said. "That's why we investigated his death so thoroughly, before we even considered enacting his will. There was a chance that Dumbledore could have faked his death in an attempt to bring you home."

"Well, it was his death that brought me home," Alia admitted.

"Yes, that's what we were afraid of, because to the Ministry, you could be a status symbol to save their broken world," Sersi replied. "Although they expected someone much younger than you showing up."

Alia wasn't taking any chances through, despite that fact.

"What would I be accepting with Dumbledore's will?" Alia asked.

"You would be getting a moderate amount of gold," Sersi informed him. "You would also be receiving some debts the Dumbledore family had and a heap of problems that go along with it."

"And Dumbledore doesn't have any living relatives, does he?" Alia asked.

"A brother, Aberforth," Sersi confirmed. "A brother who disowned himself from the Dumbledore family based off of an incident that happened many years ago, so Dumbledore didn't make him a beneficiary of his will."

"And I suppose that claiming Dumbledore's inheritance might shine a light on the fact that I'm back," Alia said.

"Yes, it will," Sersi confirmed. "If you don't show up within the end of the thirty days, the will reverts to the Ministry."

"And what day are we on today?" Alia asked.

"Day twenty nine," Sersi informed her. Alia responded with a whistle and nodded.

"That's what I thought," Alia commented. "So, the Ministry gets the will and all of the problems that it has…"

"Yes, they do," Sersi said. "Dumbledore borrowed a lot of money to fund two wars from some unsavory people overseas. He got a few donations, your grandparents on your father's side being big backers. But most of his followers were not well to do, so Dumbledore had to get help elsewhere. He must have justified that it was done for the greater good, although Dumbledore has never publically said those words. Whether or not he privately thought them, that's another matter entirely."

"So, the Ministry can deal with Dumbledore's will," Alia said. "and the Potter vault….."

"Yes, you can transfer it, to one of the other Gringotts banks, or one of our mundane counterparts in the United States, Canada, France, Switzerland, or keep it in the UK," Sersi said. That caused Harry to raise an eyebrow in surprise. "The goblin nation do not live on the Galleon alone, we have our hands in standard banks as well."

Harry figured that fact out.

"We employ mostly Squibs and Muggleborns to run that end of the operations," Sersi said. "Those mundane banks are a more lucrative venture and we can afford a higher interest rate. The last goblin rebellion and treaty really crippled the magical end of the operation, to be perfectly honest."

Sersi brought out a stack of documents and placed them in front of Alia. "If you didn't show up before your eleventh birthday, the Ministry could claim this gold."

Even if the Potter gold was a drop in the hat to the Evans family fortune, Alia could not allow that to happen.

"I want everything transferred to one of your American branches," Alia informed her. "Do you have anything in Kansas?"

"Yes, we have a Mundane Gringotts Branch in a little town known as Smallville," Sersi informed her. "Would that work?"

Alia flashed a smile at the young goblin princess. "That would be perfect, actually."

The Goblin Princess beamed at her in response. "Oh, and do you think that you could leave a knut in my vault?"

Sersi understood perfectly what Alia was trying to accomplish right away. A knut was a big insult for the pureblood people and it could be framed that Lily was the one that left the insult, before investing all of the Potter family gold into the Evans family.

Alia was glad that this was done. The Ministry could have Dumbledore and all of the foreign collection agencies that were going to end up shaking them down.

"I also want one final thing from you," Alia said. "And I'm willing to pay as much money as necessary to get this done."

"What do you wish?" Sersi asked.

"I want Alexandra Audrey Potter to be declared dead to the world," Alia informed her.

"Yes, she can be, once the transfer is done, and I'm sure that you want a new identity created as well, in the mundane world at least," Sersi said.

"Alia Evans would work out nicely," Alia informed her.

"Very well," Sersi agreed. Gringotts was going to make a fair amount of fees and she was going to get a nice little commission bonus off of this. That made her extremely happy. "So, if you're just to sign here, you can be on your way."

Sersi presented Alia with the proper documentation and she sighed it. All she had to do was sit back now and wait for the magic to happen.

"And I really don't know why you did what you did."

Kara met Alia outside of Gringotts and the two of them went into London to see the sights. They were unfortunately heading off to shop, to get some clothes. They borrowed some clothes from Rose so they didn't look too conspicuous being out like this.

Given that they were two fairly tall girls and they could pass for older teens, despite being thirteen and fourteen respectfully. The two of them walked side by side, hand in hand.

Alia could see that the two of them were getting some cross looks from the other people there. There was an old biddy type of woman that looked towards them like she was mortally and completely offended.

"You would think that they never saw two women holding hands with each other," Alia said with a sigh. "So, what don't you know what I did?"

"Get your cold, I mean compared to your holdings on Themyscira, along with the Evans family fortune, that is really a drop in the bucket," Kara said. "In fact, one could say that amount of money is more than enough."

"It is," Alia agreed. "But I don't want certain parties to get their hands on it and use it to continue to oppress magical creatures."

"It's really awful some of the things they do," Kara commented. She clenched Alia's arm tight in response and Alia smiled when she pulled Kara close to her.

"Yes it is," Alia agreed in response. Her eyes twinkled with delight when her Kara was close to her. "But, I think that I might have helped get the ball rolling to them for something better."

"You think that, do you?" Kara asked. She could see a bright and shining light through Alia's eyes and it was hard not to be inspired by that.

Alia thought that she did, at least that was her assumption. You knew what people said about assumptions.

Kara and Alia moved into the clothes store. Alia shook her head, when she went into a gaggle of women who were all too excited to be shopping. Kara looked like she had swallowed something completely sour.

"Oooh, I have to have this!" one of the girls squealed in a pitch that made Kara glad that the watch toned down her super hearing.

'Can you believe them?' Kara asked.

Alia shrugged her shoulders in response. 'Everyone has their passions. We should respect that, I guess.'

They got a look at their clothes and made their way into the changing room. Kara looked at Alia when she tried on some underwear. It was lacy and it fit around the ample curves that she was already developing.

"If I grow too much more, it's going to be a bit snug," Alia said. Her breasts looked about ready to spill out of her top when she shifted.

"Turn around, so I can see you from the other side," Kara said. Alia looked over at her. "I swear, I'm not trying to check out your ass."

"I'm disappointed there," Alia said. She turned around and she bent over. "I don't know how people wear underwear at all. It's hard to really move in it."

"Well, if you had your way, you would walk around completely naked," Kara said. Alia turned around and stripped herself naked to try on some more undergarments. "And I would have nothing wrong about that."

"Unfortunately there are a lot of people who seem to have a real problem with the naked body," Alia said. She closed her eyes. "But in some cases, I suppose that it's a good idea people are wearing clothes."

Kara cringed when she frowned at the thought of it. "Point well taken."

"I don't have any body image issues, but I'm sure some people would be upset if I didn't wear clothes," Alia said. She took a calm breath and a smile. "And I'm sure that there will be some people that might like it too much."

That caused Kara to go into a burst of giggles.

One agonizing hour later, they were able to find some clothes that looked halfway decent. Money wasn't really a problem with the vast amount of resources Alia had at her disposal. That being said, paying that much for a pair of jeans was just a bit too much.

The two of them stepped back with each other, with their purchases.

"So, how about lunch?" Alia asked her.

"Do you know of any good places to eat around here?" Kara asked her.

"Rose recommended a couple of places that we could try out," Alia informed her. Kara nodded by her side. "We just got to be bold enough to take the plunge."

Kara thought that she was willing enough to try some new and daring things. She could not wait for her first official date with her girlfriend now that she survived her shopping ordeal.

"So, is Diana still upset?" Kara asked. Alia looked at her. "I know, I hate bringing that up about as much as the next person but….."

"I think she's more disappointed than anything," Alia offered her in response. "I'm going to have to have a long talk with her, and smooth things over. But today's not about her, today is our day."

With a firm statement like that, there was pretty much no way that Kara could honestly say no. She took Alia's hand and the two girls were to enjoy lunch and a movie. It was an entirely brave new world for both of them and they were glad that they didn't embarrass themselves that much.

Amelia Bones heard a long time ago that working at the Ministry of Magic was a life shortener. There was a study done that indicated that those who didn't hold a job at the Ministry might live a bit longer, than those who did work at the Ministry.

She didn't know how true that was, but she knew that she was going to be busy for the next few days, never mind the next few weeks or months.

Amelia got the news. A tip had been sent to the Ministry about a body that was found in a creek of a young girl, who was of magical heritage.

It didn't take them long to conclude that the young girl in question was Alexandra Audrey Potter. That was another shot across the brow to the Ministry. There had been a lot of deaths in the magical world as of the past number of months. There were many more than Amelia would have liked to count or indeed, many more than she would have liked to remember.

This might have been the final death knell for their world. At least if you heard some of the crusty old purebloods that remain bemoan about it.

Amelia made her way to a chamber on the other side of her office. There were a few people in the Ministry who had been working from the shadows and preparing them for this inevitable transition period. It might have been hundreds of years in the making, but the moment that Voldemort took power, the ball got rolling down the hill.

There had been dark lords in Great Britain in the past. Every country in the world hat their own dark lords, but none had reached a prolific level of insanity that Lord Voldemort reached. Amelia's lips curled into an obvious frown that was completely obvious. She shook her head when she brushed her fingers over a window.

On the other side of the window, Rose Evans appeared.

"So, it's happened, hasn't it?" Amelia asked. "Alexandra has been declared dead. I never thought that this day would actually happen."

"Well, the fact it's happened, we prepared for this moment, although she didn't waste any time, did she?" Rose asked.

"No, she didn't…the Ministry is running around without a purpose," Amelia answered. "Thankfully, I'm not liable for Dumbledore's will personally. There are others in the Ministry that aren't so lucky."

"That will really was a poison apple, looks nice, but it is rotten on the inside," Rose continued. "I don't know what Dumbledore was thinking when he left someone with those responsibilities. It would have wiped out the Potter family vault."

"I think he either gone senile or thought that he was teaching Alexandra a lesson about building herself up from nothing," Amelia thought. "I'm certain Dumbledore might have had his reasons."

Amelia was smacked with that one. That was what a lot of Dumbledore's strongest supporters said to justify some of the more insane things that he did. Amelia couldn't believe that she had used those words in particular.

"I can't believe that came out of my mouth," Amelia said.

"You heard it so much from the cult of Albus, it was beginning to be second nature," Rose replied. "You have your connections in both worlds, therefore you're the perfect person to be the go between from both sides."

"Yes, the Bones family has investment partners in the outside world and we're a respected family," Amelia said.

The Bones family being a respected family was not a buzzword like when the Malfoys used that term. The Malfoys bought their respect, and blackmailed their respect.

Lucius was dead and his son was reduced into a squib. Narcissa and her daughter were out and about in the world, doing various things from the shadows. She did manage to convince Lucius to sign over control of the Malfoy family holdings to her before he perished. And thus the Malfoy family fortune in part funded the destruction of families like the Malfoys.

"The head of our society is no doubt really pleased with this development," Amelia commented.

Rose smiled. "Please isn't a word to describe it. She has had it out for the Ministry for a very long time. To see them lose all of their credibility…"

Amelia corked her eyebrow in surprise. She wasn't going to say anything, but the terms credibility and Ministry seldom went together.

"Well, they didn't have much to begin with, but she blames them and their puppets in the Board of Governors for ruining Hogwarts," Rose commented. "She had a dream that there would be a magical school that children could learn magic without fear of being discriminated or anything like that."

"And is the dream alive once more?" Amelia asked.

"I think that I can help her relieve that dream," Rose said. "Even if it is a thousand years too late for this, I think that I can help her ensure that the dream is still alive."

Amelia could tell that Rose had some big plans, but that was just the youngest Evans sister was. She had a lot to prove to make sure she wasn't Lily's mini-me.

Alia knew that it was inevitable that she would be summoned before the society. From what her mother and later Rose told her, there were numerous high end office buildings all throughout Great Britain where the Society did their business.

She was currently entering one. Kara stood behind her. Diana and Donna were going to tag behind her.

There was a woman at the front desk. She was a fairly attractive middle aged woman, even though she had a fairly stern look on her face.

"I'm Alia Evans," Alia told the woman at the desk.

"Yes, our founder wished to meet you but….." the woman at the desk commented and she paused, frowning. "The three of you are going to have to wait outside."

"I'm afraid that's not going to do with me," Alia said. She wrapped her arm around Kara. "This is the Alpha of my pack and these are two of my sisters. They are with me, we're a package deal. Either we're all allowed in, or you're going to have to explain to your founder that I won't be meeting with you today."

The woman at the front desk looked over her shoulder and didn't seem to be too pleased by being put in the spot. She sent a message off.

"Have a seat while I get this sorted out," she commented. She didn't like to argue with people like this.

Diana, Donna, Kara, and Alia sat down.

"Must be something crucial if she wanted to meet with you and only you," Diana said.

"That's not how it works, it's obvious that she has more to gain for meeting me, then I do from meeting her," Alia said. "At least right now."

"She said that it was fine," the woman at the desk told them. She seemed relieved.

"As if it wouldn't be," Alia agreed. She got up with Diana, Kara, and Donna. All of them were curious to varying degrees.

She looked at a beautiful dark haired woman who sat behind the desk. She was wearing an elegant overcoat that covered her body and she had her hair back. It was obvious that she was a beautiful woman.

"Alia, it's good to finally meet you, Athena has spoken highly of you," the woman said with a smile. "And Kara, Donna, and Diana, the honor is all mine, and I apologize for the trouble that you had at the front desk."

"Rowena Ravenclaw, I presume," Alia said.

Rowena nodded in response. "In the flesh, and the rumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated for at least a thousand years."

Lily was the most gifted witch since the time of the founders and the scary thing that she didn't achieve her full potential before she was indisposed. Alia was special, but in a different way.

"Come up to my office, I've got tea ready," Rowena said. "We're going to need it for the discussion we're going to have. I've been interested in the plight of your mother for some time."

To Be Continued.