Her statement was met with loaded silence, she knew what Dumbledore would demand of her and by all the Gods in all the world she was not going to bend to his whim again. She had suffered too long under his rule, had sacrificed too much, had allowed him too much control over her Godson's life to ever permit the bastard to ever put her in that position again, to let him re-make her into his perfect little marionette. It was time she severed the strings once and for all, Dumbledore was going down.
"From now on Harry will be staying with me, it was entirely his choice and I intend to honour that choice." She stated calmly as she surveyed the room with eyes so cold they seemed to chill your very soul if you gazed into them for too long.
"Now my dear, you don't understand. Harry must..." Dumbledore began in that condescending tone she knew so well from her Hogwarts days but she cut over him.
"No, Albus. It is you who does not understand. I am and have always been Harry's rightful guardian, the fact that he was prevented from being put with me and given to those monstrous muggles is tantamount to kidnapping so I would suggest that unless the next words out of your mouth were 'stay where he is' that you should shut up and let the people who actually care about him discuss his well being." She spoke in tones so acerbic that it sent chills down most of the rooms spines and made the old Headmaster flinch away from her almost unnoticeably. The plump red-headed woman who had been so vocal before Arielle's appearance seemed to bristle at her however, hackles rising like an angry cat.
"How dare you! Professor Dumbledore cares a great deal for Harry and I for one think we should listen to him and put Harry back with his family or at the very least he should come here, with us. I mean where have you been all his life?" The red haired woman snapped angrily.
"How dare I? How dare you! How dare you insinuate that I wasn't there for Harry, I was kept away per your precious Professor's orders so he could keep my Godson under his control! If I had been permitted, if I hadn't been lied to and continually kept from him I would have been by his side in a heartbeat! So don't try and tell me that that manipulative old fool cares about Harry, the only thing he cares about it his glorious 'greater good'." Arielle practically snarled. Her violet eyes were filled with fury as she spat the words at the woman who recoiled at the venom lacing every syllable. In fact the whole room seemed to recoil as magic crackled in the air, over her skin and burned in her eyes; it took Sirius laying a restraining hand on her should to calm the woman down once more, the sheer immensity of the oppressive weight of her power now relieved from them the room breathed easy once more.
"What do you mean you were kept from Potter?" A dark skinned man with a deep rumbling voice Arielle vaguely recognised as Auror Shacklebolt asked as he leaned over the table to look directly at her. She knew him from the files she had retained on Ministry employee's, she had also been given more up-to-date information by one of her friends who had a vested interest in keeping her informed of the dealings in their Government.
"I mean that Dumbledore kept me away. He knew Harry would grow up to be immensely powerful and he knew if he was raised by someone who actually loved and cared for him he would be impossible to control, that if Harry were to grow up confident and happy he would never follow his plans. So he ensured that the only person remaining who could take Harry was out of the picture, namely myself. He needed me out of the way so he could place him with those beasts." She replied. Though she appeared calm now it was easy to see the raging storm swirling just beneath the surface, ready to break free at any moment.
"But Dumbledore wouldn't do that, he..." The bubble-gum pink haired Auror she recognised as Sirius' cousins child, Nymphadora, piped up but was stopped short by Arielle's bitter laugh.
"All of us, we're nothing but pawns to him, pieces in his ever evolving game with Tom Riddle. Don't you see? Dumbledore is a master manipulator and a skilled liar, he's played everyone perfectly to get the exact result he wants. He played me worst of all, I was his Queen, the one he sent round the board to capture the other pieces while he sacrificed so many others so he didn't loose his most powerful player. That is, till a new player was added to the board in the form of Harry. Now, here was a little boy he could mould, make into the perfect weapon in his war, someone he could control entirely. It was then I became a risk, I could take Harry away from him, keep him out from under his control and he couldn't have that so his Queen had to go. He'd already allowed Sirius to be carted off to Azkaban without trial and convinced Remus that as he was a Werewolf it would do him no good to be involved in Harry's life. So you see, I will not now nor will I ever be consulting Albus bloody Dumbledore on the care and well being of my Godson when all he cares about is that his sacrificial lamb makes it to the alter on time!" She sneered as she glared around the room at the assembled Order members who were looking either at her or at Dumbledore in varying degrees of disbelief and mounting horror but it was Sirius's reaction that scared her the most. He had gone stock still, his grey eyes hardening to shining steel as he rounded on the old man who now sat, unable to meet anyone's eyes as the truth of her words cut him to the core.
"You. You could have stopped them taking me away? You could have saved me from twelve years in that hell hole?" He whispered in a voice so quiet, so deadly, that even Albus shook in fear but the old man did not answer.
"Go ahead Albus, tell him! Tell him how you sat back and let him be thrown to the Dementor's when all it would have taken was one word from you as Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot to secure him a trial! Tell him!" Arielle's voice shook with fourteen years worth of rage and hatred, she truly despised the man these people seemed to adore. Could they not see him for what he truly was? Were they so blind to his manipulations and machinations that they simply allowed him to do as he pleased with peoples lives?
Her words seemed to hit home to several people in the room; Snape and those who currently or had previously worked for the ministry in particular. They knew the truth of what she was saying, the Auror's because they had to know the varying laws and who could enact them and Snape because Albus had in fact stepped in on his behalf and saved him from the fate he would have otherwise shared with Black. It was an uncomfortable truth for him to accept but a truth none the less which begged the question: was she indeed telling the truth in all of her accusations?
"My dear, I..." Albus stammered out, presumably trying to defend himself but he was cut off by a feral growl emanating from Remus' throat and thundering through the room. His normally green eyes were now the yellow of the wolf within as he snarled at his former Headmaster. It took every ounce of control he had not to lunge at the old man and tear him limb from limb for destroying his best friend like that, for allowing him to suffer all those years for nothing and for repeatedly denying him access to his cub! It was frightening to see the wolf normally kept caged within the normally mild-mannered man so close to the surface, the Order began then to understand why were-wolves were so feared. Remus had to turn away and grip the edge of the fireplace with till his knuckles went white to avoid lunging for the blue-eyed puppeteer's throat.
"She is not nor has she ever been your anything Dumbledore! And she's quite correct, hell will freeze over before I allow you anywhere near Harry again. You're damned lucky I'm not throwing you and your whole bloody Order out on your arses right now so keep you mouth shut if you know what's good for you because quite frankly it is becoming increasingly difficult to try and find a reason not to curse you seven ways to Sunday." Sirius spat as he defended his Godson and the woman he loved, he could knew Remus was dangerously close to losing control and he honestly didn't blame him. The anger rolling off of them was so palpable you could practically taste it, it radiated out in waves each more potent than the last and no one could even find words to argue with Sirius or chastise Remus for they knew in their hearts they both had every right to be angry.
Sirius wrapped his arm around Arielle's waist and pulled her to him, yanking her against his chest so he could burrow his face in her neck and inhale the scent of her skin in an attempt to calm himself. He was furious, no he was beyond furious, there were not words in the English language to describe the level of anger he currently felt towards the old bastard. He believed Ari completely and utterly, she had never once lied to him or anyone she truly cared about. She had bent the truth, twisted it to her own ends at times but never had she lied and never about anything as important as this; he wanted desperately to understand what she meant by her being Dumbledore's 'Queen', his most powerful player on the board, but he was afraid to know the answer. He was terrified in fact of what he might learn, of the secrets that still remained untold between them, of what she had endured in the years since they had last seen one another. But despite all that there was a joy in his heart, a weight lifted from his soul, that he had been carrying since the day Remus had told him she was 'dead'. Having the woman he so desperately loved back in his arms was worth any amount of torment, between this and Harry being safe and happy at last he was the happiest he had been since before James and Lily's death.
There was silence in Grimmauld Place's kitchen then, the assembled Order members silently digesting what they had learned of their venerable leader and the strange woman who had appeared in their midst. Albus Dumbledore silently cursed himself, all his carefully laid plans now brought to nothing by one woman. Perhaps he shouldn't be surprised, after all he had made her, had taken the sheer unfathomable amount of raw power and skill and fashioned her into the perfect weapon, his assassin; he had been the one to encourage her to hone her skills, to use her powers for him and the greater good, and now he reaped what he had sown.