The Opposition~

Oz woke up and yawned before sitting up. Light streamed through the window of his room. It had been a week* since their trip to Diagon Alley. He and Alice had read through that newspaper article about the rebelling wizards, to find out the wizards' perspectives. Obviously, the northern islands were seen as the ones in the wrong, and perhaps they were. The reporter was someone at the scene, who had seen the "raw power of the summoned beasts". The author noted that the Aurors' morale had completely broken at the sight. "If only Alastor Moody was there," the article said, "Yet the great Auror had been fighting the Dark Lord!"

Oz got up from bed and stretched. While the article did give insight on the fight, nothing about the sealing stone had been mentioned. It made sense, of course, since the stone had probably been moved some years right after the Tragedy of Sablier. Alice and Oz had also visited Hogwart's library, and though it was more organized, nothing was found. The pair had then learned about the restricted section of the library, but could not yet chance visiting it.

Oz shook his head and changed clothes. Now was not the time to be thinking about such things. In the past week, Oz and Alice had managed to meet with some of the teachers at the school, and practice spells with their new wands. It had taken several tries, and many failures, but the two had been able to learn some of the more important lessons of the first years'. There was still a little over a month left to catch up to fifth year standards. And today they had their first flying lessons.

Oz walked out of the room and towards the great dining hall. When he had first seen it five days ago, he was amazed. It was then that he and Alice were introduced to the rest of the Hogwarts staff.

"Oz."

Oz stopped in his tracks and turned around slightly to let Alice catch up to him. The two walked together, while talking.

"It's just awhile longer before this school starts," Alice said. "I wonder if we'll have to act like actual representatives."

"Nope." Oz shook his head. "We're supposed to be regular old students…even though we're transfer students."

"Oh. Does that mean we'll get put into those different houses?"

"Probably along with the rest of the first-years, though the headmaster said he'd introduce us separately if we wanted it."

"Well, being 'normal students', we can't stick out too much."

"Not that it matters. We already would stick out, what with being older students mixed in with the younger ones."

The two quieted as they entered the great hall, and greeted their professors before sitting down to eat.

"Go ahead then. Just put your hand over the broom and say 'Up!'" Rolanda Hooch said. She was instructing the representatives—though she didn't think of them as representatives at all—on how to handle brooms. The three were in a clear wide opening, and she had prepared two of the school brooms for practice.

After some failures, Rolanda observed Alice grow more and more ticked off before she shouted the word and forced the broom into her hand. Oz was more patient, and had attempted different ways of saying "Up!" to get it up.

Rolanda smiled slightly. Yes, these weren't representatives at all. They had their quirks, and she had grown fond of them. They are her current students—nothing more, nothing less. Rolanda knew of the trouble the northern islands caused back when the Dark Lord had come to power, but she couldn't hold against these children. It was the fault of the government of the northern islands, after all. Who in their right minds would send children to do their work?

Rolanda sighed, and gave the next instruction. "Now mount the broom, and make sure it's secure in your hands. At my signal, kick off, just slightly, and hover. When I signal you again, you can lean forward to touch the ground, and we'll move on. Ready? Go!"

Oz and Alice did as instructed, and after a few seconds, Rolanda held up a hand. "Stop."

The two came down again, and Rolanda nodded her head in approval. "Well then, next, you can try for a higher height by tilting the broom up, but make sure you don't fall off. Lean forward for acceleration, lean to the sides to turn. Why don't you circle around the field, and you can try for a tour around campus, though I will warn you it's big."

Rolanda conjured a whistle with her wand, and hung it around Oz's neck, as she considered him to be the more responsible one of the two. "If you do fall or get injury, just blow the whistle, and I'll come as fast as I can."

The pair nodded, and took off.

Alice flew around at top speed while observing the scenery below. Oz flew right next to her, looking rather pained.

"Alice, can't we slow down? The wind is real—"

"What was that? Can't hear you over the wind!"

Oz sighed and tried again. "The wind! It's annoying! Slow down!"

Alice slowed with Oz, and they stopped in midair. They looked down on the grounds of the large Hogwart's castle, with its beautiful lake and "Forbidden Forest".

"Flying is fun," Alice said, "You're up in the sky and everything is underneath you."

"Yeah, that's nice and all," Oz replied. He was smiling, but his eyes twitched. "We just have to forget we're really high up in the air and can fall at any time."

Alice laughed voraciously. "What are you talking about, Oz!"

"Al—"

"Like this, we've got the high ground!"

Lord Voldemort looked down at the red-cloaked people, who had somehow discovered his location* and approached him. The Death Eaters around him all had their wands pointed toward them, but they had not yet shot any spells because of Bellatrix's sudden cry of "Stop!" While it was obvious that Bella would not be listened to over Voldemort, but the Dark Lord had stopped his followers in curiosity.

Nagini slithered up her master's chair and rested on his shoulders. She hissed, 'Master, they have a strange power!'

Voldemort narrowed his eyes. "Speak, Bellatrix." The woman was in his inner circle, so he could not simply kill her off. Besides that, Bella was fiercely loyal, and would have been the first one to incinerate the intruders—unless she had a reason not to. Voldemort decided that his mercy at her interruption would be her "welcome back present" from Azkaban.

Bellatrix immediately dropped on her knees and bowed. "My lord, these people are the ones who broke me out of Azkaban."

Voldemort looked at the silent figures again, but with more interest. "I see. Did you meet with them at a later time to tell them of this location?"

Bellatrix fiercely shook her head. "No, my lord! I would never! I don't know how they found this place."

Voldemort addressed the strangers this time. "Who are you, then?"

The three cloaked figures stayed silent, and one of the naïve younger Death Eaters spoke up. "What are you waiting for! The master ordered y—"

Another Death Eater quickly eliminated the one who spoke. Through it all, Voldemort did not once blink at the scene, but only continued staring at the strangers, and waiting. Finally, one of them took their hood off.

It was a girl, with pink hair and pink eyes—pink eyes that gave off the same crazy aura as Bella's.

She looked up at Voldemort and grinned widely. "Tom Riddle, wasn't it?"

Killing curses immediately flew at the trio without stop—even Bellatrix held no mercy for her saviors. In the meantime, "Tom Riddle" was scowling angrily. How could these people, of whom he did not know about, know such details about him?

Shouts of fury and fear brought him out of his thoughts, and his eyes widened slightly as he witnessed the great Avada Kedavra have no affect on these intruders. The girl, who he had established as the leader, laughed insanely. Voldemort abruptly stood up, and the curses all stopped.

He proceeded slowly toward the group of offenders, with Nagini by his side, and again asked. "Who are you?"

The girl continued grinning madly. "I'm Lotti. And I'm not into guys like you, so save your breath." She looked pointedly at Voldemort's (not) nose. "You seem to need it."

Lotti's subordinates behind her shifted awkwardly, while Voldemort's minions cried out in outrage. Bellatrix gave a particularly loud screech.

Voldemort silenced them all with a "Quiet!", and glared at Lotti. "I don't care for your name! A better question would be: What are you? Why aren't you dead? And why are you here?"

"I'm a Baskerville," Lotti replied as if that sentence answered everything. "I'm here…to seek assistance."

"What kind of assistance?" Lord Voldemort was not considering it. He was only curious of these people who could survive the killing curse. Were they possibly immortal?

"Manpower. We're searching for something." Lotti was no longer smiling, but had a determined look on her face.

"What, exactly, is this item you are searching for?" If it was the same item he was working to obtain…

Lotti narrowed her eyes. "A…black stone. It's not necessary for you to know, anyway!"

Voldemort stared down at the insolent girl, and decided to be patient. "And what would I get in return?"

Lotti seemed to consider it for a while before taking a deep breath a holding out a hand. A large lion with a demon's wings appeared by her side and circled around her lovingly. The Death Eater looked on apprehensively, with raised wands, but awaited their master's orders.

"This is a chain—his name is Leon," Lottie said, petting Leon. She then looked Voldemort straight in the eyes. "In exchange for yours, I'll lend you our manpower."

Nagini hissed and backed away, to Voldemort's surprise. 'Master,' she said, 'It is dangerous!'

Voldemort knew that Nagini's warnings were always accurate; however, who the "chain" was dangerous to would depend on his next reaction. "Severus," the Dark Lord called.

Said man stepped out from the other Death Eaters and kneeled in front of his master.

"Severus," the Dark Lord continued, "Assist these three with their…request."

"Yes, my lord." With that, Voldemort dismissed the meeting, and Severus Snape led three Baskervilles and one chain out of the room.

Lotti opened the door on the room and plopped down on the couch with Lily after recalling her chain. Doug was sitting on the other couch, silent as usual. Their escort was staring at Lily skeptically. Lotti had expected it—with her hood down, Lily looked like a little kid. However, Lily wasn't being her usual kid-like self. Lotti had expected that, too. Fang had died protecting Lily, after all. His death had hit her the hardest.

"Sevy—it was Sevy, right?" Lotti directed this to the black-haired minion of "Voldemort's" (ridiculous name, really).

The man scowled at her in response, but Lotti cut him off before he could speak. "We'd like some food."

Severus gave her another cold glare before calling on one of those house elves. A few seconds later, food was laid out on the table in the middle of the room, and Severus was still glaring by the doorway.

Lily and Doug discreetly checked for poison before eating, and Lotti took a bite a roll of bread before addressing Severus. "If there's nothing else, you can leave."

The man pointed to the three doors on the other side of the room. "Those are your bedrooms. Also, you are not to leave these rooms until you're given permission." Without another word, he turned to open the door. Immediately, Lily faced Lotti.

"Lotti, about Xerxes Break—"

The door shut, and Lotti smiled sadly at Lily before running a hand through her hair. She could feel the murderous aura coming from Doug. "I know," she said, "We'll definitely get our revenge on him, no matter what. And soon our master will come back to us too!"

Lily tilted her head in question. "Vincent is working on that right now, right?"

Lotti nodded and sighed. "Really, I'd like for us to search for our master ourselves, but Vincent has a better idea about where to search. In any case…" Lottie bit into the bread again. "We just have to find and destroy the sealing stones—and there are only two left. It really didn't matter who we teamed up with, but 'The Dark Lord' was a better option than getting involved in this magical world's government. We'll avenge Fang soon."

Lily nodded and rubbed at her eyes, dozing off. Lotti gave her a smile and picked her up to tuck her in. "Goodnight, Doug."

Doug nodded and stood up. Lotti opened one of the doors to the bedrooms and set Lily under the covers before heading to her own room. She really needed to catch up on some sleep.

Severus Snape stalked down the halls of Voldemort's hideout with many thoughts running through his mind. Right after spending a few seconds with those "Baskervilles", he had immediately disliked them, just as he had immediately disliked those northern islanders residing in the fool Sirius' place (specifically Break).

He also decided they were an insane group. To be able to find this hideout, know who it belonged to, and then intrude in it was stupid enough. But that leader-girl also basically made fun of The Dark Lord in his own territory, with dozens of Death Eaters around. Being able to survive the killing curses was amazing, granted, and both that and those "chains" could become Voldemort's weapons if used correctly. It didn't make those three any less crazy, though. They even had a little girl with them!

Severus grit his teeth as he recalled the name that little girl spoke. "Xerxes Break"… If the Break that was staying at the Order's headquarters was the same Break acquainted with the Baskervilles that joined Voldemort…

Severus hurried away from the grounds and apparated off to 12 Grimmauld Place.

I apologize for not updating last week without a notice beforehand. I'm a procrastinator…

*I'll probably do a few other week-long time skips.

*Yeah, don't know where Voldemort's hideout of Book 5 is…

Thank you for reading, and your reviews, and for adding this to your story alerts and favorites. And for your patience.