A/N: Thank you for the reviews!

Chapter Nine

Helena went downstairs after she'd dressed in the green dress robes, long black gloves on her arms, hair swept upward in a somewhat elegant style. It felt like it needed more polishing, but it would have to do. She needed a drink before she was ready to face the endless relations in the ballroom. To that end, she went down the back staircase first, and into the kitchen that way. Dobby was bent over a tray of canapés when she entered.

He didn't hear Helena enter, but when he turned around they both jumped. His pointed face was covered with bruises, with his right eye almost swollen shut, cuts and bruises around it. When he walked, it was with a heavy limp. Helena needed a moment or two before she could take her hands from her mouth. In the meantime, elf and witch just stared at each other.

"Dobby…what happened?" she demanded breathlessly.

"M-master was v-very angry after his papers were left here, miss-"

Guilt flooded her. "Oh no. Father- He beat you? He beat you because I…"

Quickly, she knelt down and grabbed a napkin, then dabbed gently at the cut on his eye, which had begun bleeding again. It hadn't occurred to her Abraxus might react like that, but if he blamed Dobby—and damn her, she knew he had!—then this was her fault. But once she was on her way to the Ministry she hadn't thought about Dobby for one more second. Had considered him irrelevant. I'm no better than them, she thought bleakly. He's still just a servant to me.

"I'm so sorry, Dobby," she murmured again, shaking her head.

He reached up and took her hand, stopping the motion. His green eyes were huge. "Dobby must get on, miss."

"But-"

"Master will get angry again if Dobby doesn't, miss."

Helena swallowed, but nodded and dropped the napkin. Dobby somehow managed to tidy it away without her seeing him do it. The kitchen door swung open, and her mother's sharp reprimand cut through the self-disgust. "Helena! What in the name of Morgana are you doing on the floor? Get up, at once!"

She did so, brushing dust from the front of her robes and allowing Veronique to usher her out of the kitchen and into the ballroom. Floating silver plates hovered at the edges, each bearing several champagne flutes. Helena took one and drained it, then took another to sip more slowly. A firm grip on her elbow manouevred her away from the alcohol. "Greet your sister," her father snarled lowly in her ear.

"She is not my sister."

"She will be," Abraxus retorted. "The Blacks are an ancient family almost as pure as ours—Narcissa is a good match for your brother. You might also consider-"

"Lucius has already spoken to me about Sirius, Father," Helena said sweetly. "Would you like me to give you the same answer I gave him?"

He said nothing, only propelled her to where Narcissa and her groom-to-be were standing. She didn't bother putting a smile on her face. They could all go to hell. Narcissa, on the other hand, did plaster something resembling a smile onto her too-pale face. "Helena, how lovely to see you."

Helena offered her cheek; received a metallic kiss. "Congratulations," she said coldly once Narcissa had withdrawn. "Have the two of you set a date yet?"

"Early in February I think, didn't you say, dearest?"

Lucius, stood next to his fiancée, nodded. "I think so, yes."

"I won't keep you," Helena said coldly, moving away and finishing her champagne before reaching for another.

She really wished she'd been able to persuade Sirius to come tonight. At the very least she'd have someone to talk to. At the best she'd have someone to humiliate her family with. Despite it being December, there were so many people in the ballroom that it was very hot inside; as she'd told Padfoot, everyone who was anyone was there. The French doors at the end were open; Helena made her way toward there now. However, there was already a figure out there by the frozen fountain; Bellatrix Black, Narcissa's older—though not oldest—sister. At the sight of her, Helena did a u-turn.

"Eurgh! How dare you, you clumsy animal!"

"Dobby is terribly sorry, Miss, Dobby is all thumbs-"

Helena's head snapped around at Dobby's plaintive tone. It was obvious what had happened: with a sprained ankle he had tripped and accidentally upended a drink onto Bellatrix's skirt. Her cousin had not reacted kindly.

And was now drawing her wand. "You will pay for that, wretch!"

Helena wasn't aware of moving, but the next thing she knew, the tip of her wand was digging into Bella's ribs. "Don't you dare touch him," she snarled.

The Slytherin witch laughed. "You're defending a house-elf? And here I thought you could sink no lower!" She sobered. "Don't be ridiculous, cousin—creatures like this are not worth protecting. Slaves, that's all."

"Do it," Helena said, "and I'll curse you so badly you'll never be able to walk straight again."

Bella scoffed, pointed her wand back at Dobby and opened her mouth. Helena got there first. "Conjunctiva!"

Bella dropped her wand with a cry of pain, clutching at her eyes. Helena gave her an almighty shove; she stumbled forward three paces and fell face-first into the frozen fountain. Turning to Dobby, Helena saw quite clearly how badly hurt he was. He also seemed completely stunned.

"You- You defended…Dobby, Miss."

"Yeah. Should've done it a long time ago. Sorry about that." She pulled off one of her long gloves and held it out to him. "There you go. Clothes."

Dobby just goggled at her.

"I'm leaving tonight, Dobby," she explained. "I'm going back to Hogwarts, and if you stay here… Well, you know what will probably happen to you. So please, take the glove."

He was crying now, water streaming from his green eyes. But he still shook his head. "Thank you, miss. But it is Master who must present Dobby with clothes. You is not Master."

Helena felt her eyes burning, but she nodded in understanding. "Can you walk? You need the rest of the night off, if not tomorrow as well."

"But Dobby must-"

"Dobby must rest," she smiled. "Now come on."

Without waiting for him to reply, she picked him up and carried him through the house—avoiding the ballroom—to the kitchen. She saw him settled into the nest of rags that qualified as bed (though it required orders to make him stay there) before going back to face the music. She didn't quite get there.

As she came out of the kitchen, her father's voice arrested her. "Helena! I have no idea what in the name of Merlin you think you are doing—but you will apologise to Bellatrix immediately! How dare you humiliate this family like that, in front of all of society and on the eve of your brother's engagement!"

"How dare you show a complete lack of compassion to a defenceless creature like Dobby!" she spat back. "If you hadn't beaten him so viciously yesterday—for no reason at all—then he wouldn't have spilled anything! It's inhuman!"

"He is not human!" thundered Abraxus. "That filth lower than mudbloods!"

A startling revelation suddenly blossomed in Helena's mind. She didn't want to be here. She didn't want to be anything connected to here, or the slime who lived here. So she wasn't going to be. "Fine," she said calmly, pulling out her wand again. "Then I'm leaving."

Abraxus didn't back down, exactly. But he didn't, as she was half-expecting, but a full body-bind curse on her, or levicorpus her up the stairs and lock her in her room. "You can't. I forbid it."

"I've been seventeen for over a year now, Father, you don't have the right to stop me."

"You leave and you'll be completely cut off," he threatened. "I'll never give you so much as a single knut for the rest of your life."

"Fine by me. Now get out of my way."

He still didn't; when his hand twitched toward his wand, youth beat age. "Petrificus Totalus!"

Father was still there, unable to move but glaring at her fifteen minutes later, when she came back down the stairs levitating her trunk in front of her. Moving into the kitchen, she manouevred herself and the trunk into the huge fireplace, then reached into the floopowder pot for a handful of the glittering stuff.

Then she waved cheerily. "Goodbye, Father. Hogwarts!"


"No, no, no, you're not listening."

"I'm listening, you're just not making sense!" Sirius argued. "The Harpies have no decent Beaters, and alright their Chasers are okay, but that's all you can say about them—and as for Burnwell-!"

"Okay, so they are in need of a competent Seeker, but I'm telling you, that is the team to watch for the future. They're improving with almost every match, and I think with the new management it won't be long before their up a league. I give them three years before they win the championship," James declared. "Maybe a few more."

"Rubbish. Moony, back me up here, would you?"

Remus narrowed his eyes in thought. "I think if they're not the Cannons, I'm not interested."

Both James and Sirius rolled their eyes in disgust and carried on debating the merits of the Holyhead Harpies as they moved up the stairs to Gryffindor Tower. It was only the second of January, and technically the school holidays weren't finished yet, but there was a full moon tomorrow. And while Remus managed his condition at home during the summer, it no longer felt right to any of them. And with the rest of the house not returning for another week, the Marauders had the run of the whole tower. The whole castle.

So it was with a sinking heart that James stepped through the portrait hole and saw someone else already in the common room. She was draped on the sofa in front of the fire, head buried in a book with her feet hanging over the arm.

"I know those legs," Sirius said from behind him.

She looked up. Seeing her face, James grinned. "Helena! Didn't think you'd be back yet."

She closed the book and stood. "I left."

"Well, yeah. Have you been here since this morning?"

She shook her head. "Since the twenty-eighth. I left."

Sirius took another look at her, his eyes racing over her face. "You- You left?"

"Yes."

"Ha ha! Yes! Yes!" Startling everybody, he surged forward and hugged her tightly, picking her up and twirling her around a couple of times before putting her down again and kissing her. "Thank fuck for that!"

Blushing furiously, Helena scratched the back of her neck. "That's not what my father said." She sat down on the sofa. "I just- I couldn't handle it anymore. So yeah, I cursed Bellatrix and then put a body-bind on Father and Heaven forbid defended Dobby and finally ran away from home—all in one evening."

James put an arm around her shoulder. "We're proud of you."

"Good, because I blame Padfoot. It's entirely your fault, you know."

Sirius just grinned and looked incredibly pleased with himself. Only Peter seemed to be thinking clearly. "But…what will you do now? I mean, without your family's money and you don't have a house or any way of supporting yourself-"

"Way to break the mood, Pete."

"I didn't mean-"

"Well I don't have to leave the castle until June now, after NEWTs—as soon as the first month's salary comes in from St Mungo's I can afford rent somewhere and I'll be fine."

Peter still didn't look convinced. "But you don't think you might be being…a bit proud?"

Helena's expression closed. "No," she said flatly. "I think it's the most sensible thing I've ever done."

Sirius nodded firmly. "It is."

She gave him a warming smile. "Besides, by that time I'll have done my NEWTs—how hard can living independently be?"

Peter didn't look convinced, but neither did he argue the point anymore. James was looking around the common room. "Anyone else come back early, Helena?"

She smiled. "No, Lily isn't here, James. We've been writing though, I think she should be back within the next couple of days. Why are you lot back here so soon anyway?"

"Got bored," was the simple reply.

She rolled her eyes. "Why doesn't that surprise me?"

James' disappointment did not last all that long—although Lily didn't make a reappearance until the end of the Christmas holidays, that wasn't all that far away. And she actually smiled at him when she came into Gryffindor Tower. Admittedly, she headed straight for Helena and her other friends to talk to them first, but progress was progress.

He decided to throw caution to the wind and approach her the next day. Possibly too soon, but as long as he didn't flirt too much…

Luck was with him; they went down to breakfast at the same time, and he caught up to her in the corridor. "Hi, Lily."

She smiled. "Morning, Pot- James."

First names! They were definitely on a first name basis! Doing a mental dance, James returned her smile. "Good Christmas?"

"It was alright. My sister has a new boyfriend she wanted to introduce. Not sure why, really, since Petunia likes to pretend I don't exist… I think my parents talked her into it. Yours?"

"Okay. Bit quiet. Can't believe Helena's news."

"I know! I'm so proud of her."

James grinned. "You and me both."

"So how did you do in your NEWT mocks?"

"Not bad. Should be enough to get me a place in the Auror Office for training—as long as my actual NEWTs match. Still three years after that till I get to call myself an auror though."

"Count yourself lucky," Lily replied. "It's five years as a healer."

"Bet you do it in four."

She said nothing, but he detected a slight flush around her cheeks that he didn't think had anything to do with anger. They sat down at breakfast together, and James poured tea for both of them. Lily sipped with a grateful sigh. "I don't know what I'd do without Tetly."

"It's funny, isn't it? How with all the differences between the wizarding world and the muggle world, tea is the one common factor," James commented.

"I suppose. Why, are you suggesting we use it to build bridges?"

He smiled, but shook his head. "Maybe not."

They ate quietly together for a while before being joined by Helena and the rest of the Marauders. Helena shot a quick grin at James, who tried not to grin back while Lily was watching. Luckily, Sirius broke the brunette's attention by pulling a cylindrical package from his robes and holding it out to her.

She took it with a raised eyebrow. "What's this?"

"Your birthday present."

"Two weeks after my birthday?"

"I told you it would take me a while to find. Open it."

It was wrapped in leather, bound with a silver clasp shaped like a darting fish. Helena opened it and unrolled the bundle. It was a map, that much was immediately obvious. James shared a quizzical look with Lily—it wasn't exactly impressive after all—but Helena's eyes were still flying over the parchment, and Padfoot was grinning very smugly, his eyes on her face.

James leaned forward, getting a better look. It looked like a plan of a city; heptagonal, walls within walls. On the edges of the map were moving waves. It was an island. Helena touched the centre of the map, on it a structure of some kind. The image on the parchment shimmered, and then suddenly zoomed in where she'd touched it. The map now showed the interior of the building.

"The palace…" Helena whispered.

"Palace? Palace of what?"

"And then the market, here," she said, drawing her fingers together from the edges of the map and then scrolling across. "Sirius, this is…is…"

"I know," he grinned.

She squeezed his hand, but then went back to marvelling at the map. James shook his head. "I still don't get it. What's the map of?"

"Atlantis."

"You what?"

"It's a map of Atlantis. Genuine, original, and very rare," Sirius told him, somehow grinning even more broadly.

"It's more than that," Helena said excitedly. "God, Padfoot, don't tell me where you nicked this from, it must have been Gringotts!"

"Not exactly."

"Whatever—you don't know, do you? This isn't just a map of Atlantis, this is a blueprint. You could recreate the entire city from this! I mean, look—living quarters, library, the potteries for God's sake! Sirius, this is- It's amazing," she said, beaming at him.

He shrugged in a way that would have been casual except for the red colour appearing on his cheeks.

"You're not going to though, are you?" Lily asked.

"What, recreate Atlantis? No, I don't think so. Fell for a reason didn't it?"

"That, and you'd definitely need your dad's money to finance it, Hellfire."

"That too." She sighed. "Ah well. It's a project for my retirement isn't it? Thank you, Sirius."

"Hey, I just thought it was a pretty map," he replied—though he didn't meet her eyes and the colour hadn't faded from his face, James noted.

Later, when they were headed to Potions, he pulled his best mate aside. "Tell me you didn't do anything too illegal to get that."

Sirius paused. "Define 'too illegal'."

James sighed. "Where'd you get it?"

"Ministry. Ran into Helena there actually while she was researching potential parents."

James raised an eyebrow. "Potential parents?"

"Well, look at it logically—there's a good chance that she's right. Has she ever struck you as a Malfoy?"

"Well what else can she be?"

"That was what she was trying to find out. We worked for a fair few hours at it, but we didn't find much of use. No witches who could be her mother in 1960."

"Hang on, you worked during the holidays? Are you sick, mate, or just in love?"

"Ha ha," Sirius said sarcastically. "Moving on—you making any headway with Evans yet?"

"Not sure. Girls are hard."

Sirius made a sympathetic noise in agreement. He stumbled slightly on the staircase, proving that even if your feet had been climbing the same steps every day for seven years, they could still falter. Reflex made him grab with railing, and James saw a flash of discomfort cross his face.

"Your shoulder?"

"Yeah. Still hasn't stopped aching. I know he can't help it."

The full moon had been five days ago now, but they'd had yet another close call, wandered too close to Hogsmeade and the drunks leaving the Hog's Head at closing time. Moony had caught the scent of human, and instinct had taken over. Between them, James and Sirius had managed to wrestle him away from the village and back into the forest. It had resulted in Padfoot being thrown into a tree, taking the full force of the impact on his right shoulder. It still obviously hurt to move it too quickly. James was relieved that they didn't have another Quidditch match until mid-February. Couldn't use a beater who couldn't beat.


"Y'know what's good?" Helena asked, slightly dreamily when Lily sat down at breakfast.

"What?"

"Morning sex."

"Helena, did I really have to know that?" Lily demanded, scowling as she poured some coffee.

"Yes, you really did. Mainly because you really need some."

"Helena."

"Actually, any sex would be good in your case, Lily."

"Helena?"

She looked to where Lily was pointed. Soaring toward them with the rest of the morning owls was the enormous form of Seraph, the family eagle owl. "Oh fuck, here we go."

She held out a forearm; Seraph landed on it as gently as she could, then nibbled Helena's ear affectionately. No longer hungry, Helena pushed the rest of her bacon sandwich toward the owl and took the envelope. It was addressed in emerald green ink, and sealed with the family crest.

Expecting a long, angry and commanding letter demanding she issue a heartfelt apology and move back into the manor immediately, Helena opened the envelope. What she found was not written in her father's hand. At the top of the letter head parchment was the crest of Dragonbeard-Griswald & Sons. Frowning now Helena read further. The more she read, the more astonished she became.

"What the-?"

"What's wrong?" Lily asked.

"It- It's a contract of emancipation," Helena said. "From the family solicitors. My father's making me financially independent—'The benefactor will confer upon the beneficiary an annual pension of twenty thousand galleons for the remaining years of his life, the contract to be terminated by a payment of- of-'"

Her voice failed; seeing Helena unable to speak, Lily took the letter from her and read on. "'The contract to be terminated by a payment of five million galleons on the death of the benefactor'! Bloody hell, Helena! And it's signed as well!"

She unfolded the rest of the contract to the bottom; Helena looked, and sure enough, the signature of Abraxus Malfoy was there, fluid and flourished. Just underneath that was a dotted line waiting for her signature. "I don't understand."

"Do my ears deceive me?" a faux-shocked male voice asked. "Was that Helena Malfoy admitting she doesn't understand everything?"

Helena was too shocked to even respond to James' teasing, she was too busy staring at the parchment in her hands. "What's up with you?" Sirius asked, sitting across from the two girls.

Wordlessly, Helena pushed the contract at him. She watched his face as he read; his jaw dropped a little further with each line. "Merlin's beard. What- What did you do to get this, Hellfire?"

She shook her head silently.

"Bloody hell! I mean, I knew the Malfoys were rich but I didn't know they were this rich if five million galleons is a drop in the ocean!" James exclaimed, having read it over Sirius' shoulder.

"It's not," she said through numb lips. "That's like…a quarter of everything. Why would he- Lucius is going to kill him!"

"It has to mean you're not a Malfoy," Sirius said seriously. "This is a pay-off, there's nothing else it can be."

"But then who am I? If my parents—or the memory of them, or whatever—can make my father part with this much money, then who the fuck are they?"

"Politician?" James suggested. "Maybe your mother's Minister for Magic."

"Father owns the ministry," she said. "There'd be no reason for him to scared of the minister."

"Powerful then," Lily suggested. The four of them leaned in, heads together. "Maybe you're related to Dumbledore. Or someone like- Well, like Flamel or-"

"Who?" the three of them asked.

"The maker of the Philospher's Stone. He's more than five hundred years old. Anyway, someone like him."

Helena and James scoffed, but Sirius looked serious, glancing up at the teacher's table. "It's a possibility."

"Oh please, Padfoot, I am not Dumbledore's long-lost niece or something."

"But Lily's idea is a good one," he persisted. "Someone powerful makes perfect sense. Malfoy's paid you off because he's afraid of what you or Mummy and Daddy will do."

Helena wrinkled her nose and shook her head, feeling an aversion to the idea she didn't understand. It did make sense, but she didn't want it to be true, and she didn't know why. But then what else could make Father want to pacify her? All she wanted was to be free of the family, money hadn't come into her head for one moment. But clearly it had his.

"I don't understand," she said again. "Why?"


A/N: Review please!