So I think that my original estimate of 150k words is going to be hopelessly inadequate. At the moment with all the ideas that I have swimming around in my head and with my intention to keep fleshing out many of the more minor players in this story we might actually be looking at close to double what I was aiming for.
As always if you have ideas, suggestions or want to see something happen then put it in a review or give me a PM. As you have seen in Silent World I am more than happy to adapt it as we go if I find something that you've suggested helpful, useful or just plain amusing.
I still don't own Harry Potter otherwise I'd be writing all day instead of working to pay the bills.
Dylan the Rabbit. xx
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Season of The Witch.
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6. Welcome to the Black Parade.
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Two days after the attack everyone who had been residing at Twelve Grimmuald Place had re-located en masse to Bones Manor, which now technically belonged to Susan since Amelia had become Lady Black, in order to give the newlyweds some much needed time alone. After six days of rest and relaxation for most of the people there and some furious extra curricular reading by the Freaks it had been decided that most of them were going home tomorrow. Before they did that, however, a few things needed to be put into order and sorted out.
With a little over three weeks until the school year resumed there were some family decisions that needed to be made in order for them to be ready for the new term and their study of Mister Croaker's exciting books had to be put on hold for now. One of the major issues to be resolved was the safety at Hogwarts of her newly extended group of friends and family which was why all of the Psycho Freaks were sat around Susan's large formal dining table waiting for their guests to arrive.
The girls had spent a good long time in deciding whether or not to offer places in their Hogwarts House to those coming today and Cassie had allowed total voting freedom for a truly democratic decision on the four applicants to be offered admittance to the Psycho Freak ranks. Applicant was perhaps a misleading term as none of them bar one had any idea of why they had been summoned today.
Gabrielle was a given of course, well after they had talked Aunt Andromeda into using her influence with Fleur to allow her little sister to transfer from Beaubaxtons to Hogwarts anyway. It seemed that nobody, including Fleur, had wanted to let the newly orphaned smaller veela out of their sight since the attack. Indeed Cerys had even been lifted from her own situation in a foster home and, following some extensive Confundus work from the ever helpful Tonks and another blood adoption courtesy of the Goblins, was now the latest Black sister. This had been done to ensure that the two bondmates were able to spend as much time together as possible as it soothed them both considerably.
The others that were going to be offered induction into their exclusive little club were a bit of an oddity in that they were boys, which had prompted a great deal of discussion among the girls. There was a not inconsiderable amount of nervousness about this, especially given the number of them who were gay and who it was that they were inviting in. Draco had spent much of the last two years making nasty little comments about their love lives and inclinations and athough he had apologised to each of them and clearly regretted his actions there was still quite some degree of mistrust there although not from Hermione, surprisingly, who was the one that had suffered most from him.
So there they sat, Draco Malfoy (now Black), Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle, all of whom looked decidedly uncomfortable under the careful scutiny of the ten witches of Psycho Freak House, knowing that they needed but probably did not deserve their protection. From the other side of things there was also the added pressure that Cassie had been directly responsible for the violent deaths of all three of their fathers and the destruction of their Houses last week. This was going to be awkward.
"I would like to thank-you for your kind offer cousins and ladies and I accept your terms without resevation or regret." Draco paused a little nervously. "My behaviour towards many of you has been ... ah ... less than pleasant on far too many occasions in the past and your generosity in this matter is greatly appreciated. I am, therefore, honoured to be considered both part of your family and part of your House."
Cassie nodded in approval. Draco had kicked things off with a positive note and she was grateful for that. She had known that he was likely to accept, given his and his mother's quick acceptance of the offer to bring them back into the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black but now the considerably more unpredictable part of this 'Freak meet' was about to start. At Cassie's nod Susan gave them their agreed upon speech.
"Gregory, Vincent. We will understand if you wish to to decline our offer." Susan regarded them carefully but somewhat sympathetically. "And it is just that ... an offer ... neither of you are obliged to accept it and nobody here is going to hold any grudges if you don't, especially considering that ... "
As the red head seemed to falter with a very out of character display of nerves and the more forthright and Gryffindorish Ginny finished up her sentence for her.
"Considering that my sister here killed both of your fathers in France last week and choped their heads off."
The resulting silence was deafening.
"May I say something to Miss Black ... umm ... Miss Black?"
"Vincent there are now five Blacks in this House, six with Draco, I think for our own sanity that you're going to have to start calling us all by our first names."
The mask that he had practiced so hard for so many years slipped infinitessimally as the indicated blonde aristocrat's lip twitched at the giggles that this observation by Charlotte provoked.
"Right-o." The thick set young man gathered himself. "Miss Cassie my dad wasn't very nice to me or to my mum. He wasn't a good father and he wasn't a good man. I'm not saying that losing him was easy but in the end I think that he got exactly what he deserved. That being said my only reservation about taking up your offer would be the little Miss' feelings about us being here after he ... did what he did."
Inclining his head in the direction of Cerys and Gabby while keeping his eyes rivetted to the glossy sufface of the table, the clearly embarrassed young man waited for their response. Gabrielle Delacour glanced at her girlfriend and bondmate briefly and receiving her smile and nod of silent agreement reached across to pat the hand of the red faced boy.
"You don't need to be embarrassed Vincent, we cannot control what our relatives do and we do not hold you responsible for their actions."
The Welsh girl picked up the point and carried on.
"We took a vote yesterday on this and it was a unanimous yes. Besides Gabby had power of veto over anyone related to what happened in France so if we didn't want you in you wouldn't be here in the first place."
He seemed to accept this explanation with only a slight wipe of his eyes and heaving sigh that the others in the room politely pretended not to notice.
Greg Goyle was a much simpler proposition as his then recently widowed father had left his son in the 'care' of some distant relatives in Caerphilly over ten years previously. In all honesty he barely remembered the man and those memories that he did have were not exactly pleasant, in fact the only good thing that he had done in his miserable life was to leave before he did irreparable damage to his son. He held no ill will to Cassie for her execution of his absentee Death Eater parent and leapt enthusiastically at the chance to become a major part of the life of this real life Welsh heroine. Subtle and cunning had never really been his thing and he was more than happy to leave the probable perils that Slytherin held for him this coming year and join the Freaks.
Once they had all given their oaths of loyalty to the House and been issued with their 'How to sign' books with promises of help and tutoring the conversation became decidedly less formal and more fun.
"Can I ask a question Miss Cassie?"
Yes Greg.
Having made sure to nod in response as well as signing slowly and carefully Cassie was gratified to see him looking through his 'how to sign' book and paying a great deal of attention to her moving hands. Seemingly satisfied that she had answered in the positive he made his request.
"Do any of you ladies play quidditch and if so would we be able to form a House team for this year?"
"Yes!"
Ginny shouted and punched the air enthusiastically while Cassie thumped her head repeatedly on the table. She fucking hated quidditch. Stupid, dangerous, pointless bloody game. And Viktor 'bastard' Krum had played it which, if she hadn't before, would have instantly made her despise it. She had manged to get away with them not having a team last year due to their lack of numbers, however, now that the boys had joined and with at least two of the younger girls looking almost rabid at the idea Cassie thought that their House being involved in this ridiculous game was pretty much inevitable.
Fucking quidditch. Kill me now.
The chuckling Susan patted her arm in sympathy but was secretly quite pleased by this turn of events. She would never let on to her girlfriend but, like almost everyone else who had been raised in a wizarding household, she was actually a bit of a fan of the sport and had even played it occasionally when Cassie was otherwise engaged. The red head thought that this year at school could turn out to be more fun than ever.
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Nerves were causing Rita Skeeter to fidget, unconsciously tapping her fingers rapidly on the arms of the hard, wooden chair where she was sat in Gringotts meeting room. The elder generation of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black were arrayed before her and regarding her as if she was some kind of fascinating new creature in Newt Scamander's Magical Creature Reserve. Sirius, Amelia, Andomeda and Narcissa stared at her, weighing her up, judging her worth and all the while their lawyer (and Andromeda's husband) sat scribbling away, making messy notes on his funny yellow pad. It seemed that they had all been taking lessons in how to be 'silently creepy and scary' from their primary heiress, Cassandra.
She had made her careful request, given her well thought through arguments and now it was just a question of sitting here patiently to await their decision.
It was a bit of a surprise that the young woman herself wasn't here today actually since it was rather obvious to anyone who bothered to look that the Black Witch was the one who really ran the House of Black. Rita found herself to be somewhat disappointed in spite of the fact that the emerald eyed teenager was pants wettingly scary when she pinned you with that cold, hard gaze of hers. She assumed that the girl knew about this meeting and had given Lord Black the authority to make a deal without her. Still she would rather speak to the organ grinder than the monkeys. That thought almost made her chuckle to herself but she managed to keep her composure as the darkly handsome ex Azkaban inmate gave the family's response.
"Miss Skeeter." Sirius Black paused and sent a questioning look at the others who rather impatiently indicated for him to continue. "The House of Black does not normally engage in this kind of thing, publicity that is. Traditionally the family has taken care of it's ... business quietly, however, we have agreed that having a talented and independant person to give our side of things in the public arena may be of some use."
Translation; The Blacks were intersted in retaining her services.
She heaved a huge sigh of relief. Her gamble had paid off and now, barring any overly unreasonable exclusions in the detail of their agreement, she would be enjoying the benefits that came with being under the protection of one of the oldest and most powerful Houses in the country. Not that she was worried about that. It may not always seem like it given the kind of articles that she had sometimes written in the past, but Rita had a very keen eye for detail and they would have to work very hard to get something like that past her. This confidence in her negotiation skills evaporated the second that the wolfishly smiling Cassandra Evans-Black strolled nonchalantly into the meeting on the arm of Ragnok, the Director of Gringotts Bank, himself. They looked awfully chummy and she knew that one did not gain the dubious honour of being respected by the goblins by being weak.
Rita was right to be concerned as it happened since between them the girl and her goblin confidante took her to the cleaners on the terms of the contract. In return for an intial interview and an admittedly rather sizeable financial retainer she would have to be pretty much at the beck and call of the Blacks, which wasn't too bad but they would also have final say over anything that she wrote for publication involving their family or that of any of their allies. The penalties for breaking the contract also made for fairly grim reading. The darkest and deadliest of the wizarding Houses would basically own her, body and soul for the rest of her working life unless she fancied a change of careers.
On the positive side, the interview that she was being offered with Cassandra Evans-Black, auror Tonks and, most tellingly Fleur Delacour, would make her reputation as a serious journalist around the World and, if properly managed, the syndication rights would set her up financially for the rest of her life. Combined with the opportunity for her to be in at the start of, what she was sure was going to be, the Great British Witches revolution that the 'girl-who-lived' and her merry band of psychos were going to lead it was more than enough for her to sign on the dotted line.
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Lord Sirius Orion Black and his Lady Amelia watched the two witches sat in front of the ornate desk in the Head's private study at Grimmuald Place swinging their legs and looking all sweet and innocent. They clearly had no idea why he had called them in here and just as clearly had been up to something that they didn't want him to find out about, hence the good little girls act. He decided that it was probably better that he didn't know anyway and just got straight on to the business of the day.
"So I know that we've joked around about it before but I think it's time we talked seriously about a betrothal contract for you two."
"I thought you were Sirius."
Cassie snorted in amusement at Susan's use of her dad's favourite pun against him and shared a high with the red head while the man himself tried not to shake his head and smile at the grinning, giggling little cows.
"Yes thank-you Susan." His totally insincere scowl of disapproval prompted nothing more conciliatory than crossed eyes and a poked out tongue from his heiress' girlfriend. "Well I'm afraid that since that stupid bloody Tournament finished I've been getting almost daily requests for various alliances to be formalised by marriage." He pointed at Cassie with a nasty grin. "To you."
No fucking way.
"Language dear."
Sorry mum.
"Now ninety nine percent of these 'offers' I can simply ignore but there are a few from the Ancient and Noble Houses that I can't just decline out of hand without a very good reason. Obviously those offering males can be discounted due to your romantic inclinations but there have been some interesting developments." There were no smiles now from the marauder as he found this situation anything but funny. "The Houses of Parkinson, Greengrass, Patil and Bulstrode are all proposing female matches for you."
"Ooh Millicent Bulstrode, she's a fox! You lucky girl."
Why don't you go and get fu ...
Amelia shot across the small room and her hands instantly closed over Cassie's to prevent an argument erupting between the girls. It was amazing to her just how little the two of them did actually argue considering the amount of time that they had been 'together'. Of course that usually meant that when they did have a quarrel it would probably be epic in it's scale, something which she was anxious to avoid today. Sirius looked between the three females in the room, stony faced for once at their antics as, once Amy was settled back in her chair next to him, he continued.
"Finished?" They nodded contritely and he carried on. "Good. Look this is seri ... important girls. Unless you two formalise your relationship with a betrothal agreement then these damned requests are just going to keep coming and there's only so many times I can say no before they take the matter to the Wizangamot and things get legal. And nasty."
"So what do we do? I mean I'm not averse to the idea of getting betrothed, it was always going to be on the cards for me anyway as last of the line, but I'd hoped for a litle more time before it was necessary."
Susan's statement put what felt like a shard of ice through Cassie's heart as she listened to it. Was she not as sure as Cassie was that they were meant to be together? Did her girlfriend not want her? The red head seemed to instantly realise her mistake.
"Oh sweetheart no, that's not what I meant. I just thought that we'd have more time to be girlfriends before all this betrothal stuff. It all just seems so horribly forced for you."
Cassie nodded slowly and thoughtfully for a few moments and then stroked Suzie's face gently.
Do you love me?
"With all of my heart." Susan's response was immediate.
Do you believe that I love you?
"With all of my heart." The second response was barely a whisper.
Then what else could possibly matter? Let's do this because we're in this for the long haul together, because we're as much soul mates as Gabby and Cerys are, because we're in love. I will never regret a single moment of the the time we have from now until the end of all things. I want to be with you always and if that means having an early betrothal then so be it. I will not lose you.
"Oh Merlin and Morgana, we're getting betrothed!"
The two elder Blacks were holding hands beneath the desk and desperately trying not to cry as the girls launched themselves at each other sobbing and laughing and kissing in roughly equal measure. Sirius waited again until he had the undivided attention of the two weepy but excited young witches.
"With your stepmum still being Suzie's guardian it actually makes things a lot more simple than they might have otherwise been." He pulled a stiff parchment document and a blood quill towards himself and his wife. "We sign here." Both of them did so with a flourish. "And you place one of these on each others's left ring finger."
A dark cherrywood box was unlatched, opened and pushed across the desk. The matched pair of Black ancestral betrothal rings that it held were exquisitely beautiful and the mere sight of them shut Cassie and Susan up much more effectively than Sirius had ever managed. The reverent and almost ritualistic way in which they gave one another their promise of fidelity along with their meaningful new jewellry would have been incredibly sweet had they not ruined the moment seconds later by leaping up and running for the door. As the two teenagers dashed out of the study and headed for the stairs there was a shout of two adult voices joined as one screaming out.
"Silencing charms!"
Cassie and Susan were too distracted to hear anything but each other by this time and even if they hadn't been they wouldn't have applied the muffliato charms. It was much more fun subjecting the other members of the household to the loud excesses of their noisy and enthusiastic love making. After all it just went to prove how much they loved each other and who could possibly be annoyed with that? As it turned out everyone within hearing distance could.
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Walburga Black was in her element. Cassie actually thought that she would have made a fairly decent teacher if you ignored the fact that she only seemed capable of giving instruction on the darkest and most dangerous forms of magic that she could find. So maybe not a Hogwarts professor then, although she couldn't be any worse than Quirrel or Lockhart and since she was already dead even Cassie would have found it difficult to kill her. Not impossible, mind you, just difficult.
"Training ladies and gentlemen is what makes us better than those who would conspire to do us harm. It is where we learn new skills and hone our existing ones to a razor sharp edge. And it is where we do NOT!" Her shrill, cutting tone rose to send a shiver through the gathered teens. "Chatter amongst ourselves when I am trying to make you into useful and productive members of our Noble and Most Ancient House."
Okay so with her ability to reduce the most hardened of teenaged tearaways (Luna) to a gibbering wreck she was probably more like a U.S. Marines drill instructor than a school teacher but the point still stood.
"Wands away my pretties you won't be needing them since today we are going to be learning what to do if your wand is broken, lost or stolen." The portrait of the dark matriarch paused as she selected a suitable target. "Draco Black what do you do if someone disarms you?"
"Run and hide?"
"No young man, Blacks don't run." She gave him a withering look. "Cerys Black. What would you do?"
"Stab him in the balls granny."
"Now there's a Black for you." The old woman chuckled darkly at the low, fierce answer from the little twelve year old Welsh, muggle born girl. "In essence yes that is absolutely correct. Our family has always been considered slightly eccentric ... " She ignored the amused sniggers of the pure bloods in the audience at this. " ... in that we have always carried another weapon in addition to our wands. We duel up close and personal and if magic isn't working for one reason or another then, as Cerys so delicately put it, then yes we do 'stab them in the balls'."
Cassie nudged the little black haired girl with her elbow and the two Welsh witches grinned at each other.
"Behind you there is a selection of hand to hand weapons for you to peruse and practice with. Cassandra and Nymphadora will be coming among you and helping out with the use of your chosen stabbing, slashing or thumping device."
Littering the large table that ran along the extended back wall of the cellar turned basement training room was an incredible variety of muggle melee weapons from simple knuckle dusters to giant war axes. All of them were old and all of them were dangerous. Cassie leaned against the wall and smirked at the looks of fascination that were evident on all of her Housemates' faces as they surveyed these martial monstrosities. She and Kreacher had spent some considerable time gathering them from the Black vaults and their selection had been done so as to cause maximum fear and wonder. They had judged it perfectly if the looks were anything to go by.
"Remember that these weapons need to be easily concealed so unless you have a really good grasp of shrinking charms or a bottomless bag handy then you'll need to pick something small enough to hide."
Boys, being boys and all, Draco, Vince and Greg went straight for the swords and axes while the girls chose their favourites from among the vast array of different knives, taking heed, not only of Walburga's warnings, but also their own smaller stature. Seeing her little monsters all armed to the teeth with kukris, tantos, daggers and stilettos set Cassie to huffing out her quiet laughter again as she imagined the face of the first boy to try and force his suit when they pulled one of those things on him.
Surprisingly both Hermione and Luna opted for longer weapons, a spear for the blonde and a cavalry sabre for the brunette, for no other reason than that they 'looked pretty' causing Cassie to smirk and Tonks to rage in frustration at them. The auror calmed down a bit when Hermione demonstrated her scary proficiency in casting shrinking and enlargement charms wandlessly. Luna and Draco were allowed to keep the long blades only if they leaned the charm with the same ability as the super talented and super intelligent, bushy haired witch. Vince and Greg knew their limitations as far as this type of magic was concerned and switched to a pair of smaller Scottish dirks before they embarrassed themselves.
For the next two hours or so the basement was full of squeaks, shouts and grunts as the Freaks attacked the training dummies with their new toys showing a lot in the way of enthusiasm and not much in the way of talent or expertise. Fleur stood off to one side watching as Tonks and Cassie moved around the room correcting stances and giving advice or instruction as necessary and near the end of the time everyone had at least managed to strike their targets to good effect once or twice. They may not be very good yet but they seemed to be having fun with the violence. She was just noticing how the portrait of Walburga Black nodded with pride at the effort that her family was putting into their lessons when she felt something odd come over her.
There was the familiar feeling of someone's gaze trained upon her, making her spine tingle and Fleurdamorte looked across the bodies in the training room to find Cassie and the bushy haired Granger girl standing closely together and staring at her. Not for the first time either. In fact wherever she went, either here or at Bones Manor, since Cassie's visit back to the Department of Mysteries the other day, there always seemed to be a pair of eyes on her. Suspicious little eyes. Watching her. Studying her. Waiting for her to slip up in some way. Which meant that they knew, or at least suspected, that there was something not quite right in the world of Fleur Delacour.
Well if they were going to be doing it anyway then she may as well give them something to watch and think about. She sorted through the various weapons on the long table before picking up and testing the blade of what appeared to be a very fine looking eighteenth century rapier. Fleur Delacour had taken fencing lessons from an early age and had been extremely talented at it so Fleurdamorte decided to access her knowledge of the muggle martial art to try and show off a bit in front of the Freaks. And possibly make them think twice if they were tempted to attack her at some point in the future.
She moved into the space in the centre of the training room, took up a classic starting position and began to cycle through the familiar forms in front of the widening eyes of the Freaks. En garde, advance, lunge, thrust, parry, attack au fer, touche. A light sheen of sweat began to coat her exposed arms as she went faster and faster through the routine movements. So involved in her practice was she that Fleur didn't notice the presence of another person in her immediate area until the blade of her rapier came to an abrupt stop as it struck the flat of Cassie's large dagger that suddenly appeared before her.
Looking into the cold, emerald green eyes of the 'girl-who-lived' Fleurdamorte stepped back in confusion and a little apprehension. She had seen this girl fight and there was no way that she wanted to take her on before she was a great deal stronger and preferably had an army to back her up. She suddenly felt very exposed here in the underground lair of the Psycho Freaks surrrounded by Cassie's family, friends and allies with only Tonks for support.
The black haired witch raised one of her perfectly sculpted eyebrows and cocked her head in silent question as the dagger in her hand morphed and lengthened into a slim, whippy, Chinese style sword. She tapped the newly elongated blade lightly against Fleur's rapier and tilted her head again.
"She's asking if you want to spar with her." A slightly nervous Tonks informed her.
"Oh." There was a small pause as the relieved Dark Lady finally smiled back at the Black heiress. "I would be honoured Mademoiselle."
Having only seen Cassie use massive weapons like the scythe and hammer before Fleurdamorte was expecting her to come at her with her customary wild power and was fairly confident that her poise and precision would at least allow her to hold her own against the younger witch. It was a surprise, therefore, when the girl exhibited a level of grace and skill with the lighter blade that had her totally outclassed and defending like mad. Merlin's balls was there nothing that this damned girl couldn't do? Fleur swore in frustration as the thin blade of her enemy slapped, flat side first, on the increasingly tender flesh of her bum yet again. She was beginning to wish that she had worn a lot thicker trousers than the light muggle jeans that Tonks had provided her with.
It was a painful lesson in humility for the veela as Cassie danced around her tip tapping the now profusely sweating blonde every now and then on the rump or shoulder before finally seeming to tire of the game and disarming Fleur with an delicately exquisite riposte. Her ignominious defeat appeared to be the signal for the end of today's training and as the younger witches and wizards trooped off up the stairs for some well deserved refreshment Fleur was buoyed by several comments of 'good show' and 'well done'. Even the now slightly distant Gabrielle praised her by saying that nobody had ever lasted that long against Cassie before and treating her to a brief hug of congratulation.
The adoring and adorable Dora Tonks was obviously full of pride and praise for her lovely veela girlfriend but Fleurdamorte was not nearly as impressed by what she saw only as her failure to win. Her performance was very sub-par and she would have to get busy on improving her strength and stamina in every field. Just in case.
If she couldn't get the 'girl-who-lived' on her side then she was going to need to do some serious recruiting and she had an idea of just where to start. With the one woman who was the finest natural duellist and dirty fighter that she had ever seen and possibly the only one who could match Cassandra Evans-Black in a stand up battle. The girl's own aunt. Bellatrix. Of course she would need to be removed from Azkaban and given a great deal of rehabilitation but these were details that could be worked out once Cassie and her army of misfit mischief makers were safely busy back at Hogwarts. At last she had a project that was worthy of her drive and intellect and Fleurdamorte was looking forward to it already.
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