While the rest of Hogwarts seemed to be re-thinking their life decisions and dealing with the fact that they had just seen a Ravenclaw rip the heart of a Slytherin out of his chest and then proceeded to end his family line, the Emrys siblings were in the Room of Requirement, quietly oblivious to the inner turmoil of many of the students and professors.
The Room of Requirement had transformed itself into the comfortable living room in Emrys manor. Assyria sagged into one of the softest couches and rubbed at her eyes, her frustration and sleepiness seeping through her and now fully on display.
"Well that was certainly eventful. You know if you wanted to kill Thadeus Nott, I had a less bloody idea," drawled Draco, her sassy brother who still behaved like his bratty self once in awhile.
Assyria rolled her eyes. "You know I prefer bloody statements, brother." she replied to him, a small smirk flickering across her face before disappearing.
She had not done something so ruthless since they had found themselves in this time. They had not been here for even a year and she was getting a little antsy. The thing with their plan is that it was a waiting game. They were waiting for Voldemort to put his horcruxes in their exact locations so they could swoop in and collect them. Although most of them were already in place, some of them could not be taken without raising suspicion. If she was being honest, she missed being on the front lines. She had been controlling things from the shadows these past 11 months and now wished to lead her family in the open. They couldn't afford to hide their stance on the war any longer especially with how it was going to progress. Her actions had hopefully showed potential Death Eaters that were currently apart of their cohort that if they chose to bow to Voldemort, then they would meet the same fate as the now deceased Nott family.
Dumbledore was getting anxious and was trying to constantly get Neville under his influence so that they would 'follow' him. Dumbledore knew that they would not follow him and that they were very capable for people so 'young'. He however did not know anything about their skills or magic. Yes, he had seen them display small feats of wandless magic that probably were unheard of for students but might be able to be performed by elder wizards and witches after years of practice. He did not know that she was the only person in the history of the Wizarding World who could claim that they had defeated Lord Voldemort. He did not know that she was the Master of Death. Something that she knew he had coveted since his days when he was beside Grindelwald.
"Dumbledore was getting desperate. He has already tried to use compulsion potions and spells on Neville and now, I have given us time while he backs off." Assyria said. "While he obsesses over what happened, we will make our moves elsewhere."
Her siblings nodded. "That's good but, the real question is why did you kill Thadeus Nott? You could have handled that situation differently that did not involve you killing him." asked Neville.
While it looked like to the rest of the school like she had lost her temper, she had not. Their was always a plan behind her actions as she did not allow herself to be ruled by her emotions. A person who didn't have a grasp on their emotions were easily baited and influenced into forgetting their actions and plans. Lord Voldemort was a prime example. He had so many chances to end her life in their previous timeline but because he was arrogant and easily angered, he never did end up killing her.
"While Nott wasn't very powerful or bright, honestly, he reminds me of Crabbe, his family are loyal to the Dark Lord since Tom Riddles school days at Hogwarts. He would have become a nuisance to us as our years at Hogwarts continued," she said. "So I thought it better to dispose of the problem before it became a bigger problem. Loyalty like that is dangerous and if we had decided to overlook him then it would have come back to bite us in the ass later like Peter Pettigrew and that spineless coward in our timeline is the reason why my whole damn life was an endless fight against Voldemort, Dumbledore and the stupid Ministry. Besides he tried to hurt you guys and that is unforgivable to me and punishable by death."
That was one of the many problems that came with the war. Many people were underestimated and for that, lives were lost. Thadeus Nott was dead and hopefully that meant that someone was saved from death. There was now one less person who supported Tom Riddle in Hogwarts. None of her siblings really cared that she had killed Nott. They knew he was going to die but they wanted to know why he had to be killed in front of the entire school.
"I admit that I myself did not think that Nott Senior would try to avenge his son."
"I guess some Death Eaters actually do love their kids." Neville replied, a small chuckle escaping his mouth. His siblings rolled their eyes, sometimes he was inappropriately funny.
Assyria continued her explanation, "I knew that Lord Nott would have found any way to duel me after his sons death. Probably another challenge in the name of family honor or another stupid reason. I used his enormous male ego to get the duel against his son and now because I'm a small, innocent girl, the Nott family have been wiped from existence." And Voldemort had one less family that he could recruit from.
That would always be their first mistake Assyria thought. Looks could be deceiving. Like a snake hiding from it's prey so they could spring out and attack their enemies. Her siblings thought their sister was the epitome of a Slytherin for what is a Slytherin if they did not know how to be someone they are not for their own gain. This whole school had been shown that today after the 'tame, quiet' Emrys family member had just killed someone in front of their eyes. And it was legal. Lord Nott had walked to his own death and did not even know it. His ego had brought about the end of House Nott and Assyria, neither her siblings cared one bit.
"As for why the huge production, well this school needed a wake up call like I said before," she explained. "No one in their right mind would want to suffer the same fate as Thadeus Nott and now they know that to stand with Riddle or Dumbledore is to stand against us."
She continued her explanation, "We have been here for almost a whole year and it is now time to implement some of our plans. Our political front of this war will pick up more during the summer and hopefully, come next year, we will have more well rounded and open students attending Hogwarts."
"You know, I expected you guys to be pissed as my little display will have turned some of our plans to shit."
The other Emrys siblings laughed, Neville laughing quite boisterously. "Oh no dear sister. Our plans turned to shit as soon as we got here like usual. Besides I like it when everything is unexpected."
Draco scoffed, "You're such a Gryffindor." He said, a small smirk appearing on his face.
Assyria smiled at her siblings, a sense of happiness and relief in the air. She was happy with the way things were handled and now, she was able to lead her family out in the open. After watching that honor duel, no one would believe that she was the weak Emrys who needed her siblings for protection.
"I do not think that we will have old Tommy's attention yet. You showed minuscule amount of your power today and many will base your victory on you having better training so good job showing that you have skill in duelling without showing too much power." Draco said thinking about the duel that had occurred a few hours before.
Assyria nodded. While she did want to cause a huge uproar, she did not wish to have Voldemort's attention just yet. While she did need to duel him so she could assess his power and level of insanity, the time had not come yet. Their first duel would have to be somewhere where there would be a lot of people so that others could see that Dumbledore was not the only one who could go against Voldemort. They needed to get people to stop bending and attending to the old mans every whim. People needed to get off their own arses and try saving themselves. The way the Wizarding World had hated her and slandered her in her fifth year then started loving and begging her to save them when it was proven that she wasn't a liar had and still does irk her to this day and probably til the day she dies. Her and her siblings aren't doing this so she can become a Saviour and all that, she just wanted revenge on Tom for killing her loved ones, Dumbledore for being a manipulative old coot that never tried to save someone unless it benefited him and on the Wizarding World for being a bunch of sheep who'd jump off a cliff if one sheep jumped with the little plans that her and her siblings have.
Her siblings thought she was crazy. Who actually wanted to go up against the Dark Lord?! But they all knew that she was right. Their Tom that they had faced in the future was crazy, insane and impulsive. He let himself be ruled by his emotions and did not think his decisions through properly resulting in finding himself in stupid situations and making rash decisions like a Gryffindor. It would help them if they knew how he thought and to see where he was on the spectrum of saneness. Hopefully really low. It looked like this Tom would need to be given a slight incentive to come out of hiding as he had not been seen in the past 11 months since the failed raid on Michael Smiths family although his followers were still very much active and also being thwarted at every turn by them through Fawkes and the Order.
Draco then remembered something important and said, "We'll need to do something about Bellatrix Lestrange soon. She is one of Tom's most loyal and needs to be taken care of." A hiss was heard from two of the occupants of the room. One was thinking of the childhood he had lived without his parents because of her. Another was thinking of the father that Bellatrix had killed that fateful night in the Department of Mysteries. So many peoples lives would be better off if they just decided to kill her.
"We need to talk to Sirius." said Luna.
Draco, Neville and Assyria looked at her oddly before shrugging their shoulders and standing, all four of them walking towards the door.
If Luna said that they needed to do something then they probably did.
Approaching the Gryffindor Tower, three of the siblings slowed down, realizing that they didn't know the password but they should've known that Luna would know the password. She knew everything. Once in front of the Fat Lady, Luna spoke the password and they were let in after getting stared at by the Fat Lady critically.
The usually loud and excitable Gryffindor Tower was silent and somewhat dull that even the bright red and gold colour scheme did not instill any happiness into the Gryffindor students.
Once they were inside the common room, they were met by an empty common room that housed only six people with emotionless eyes and blank faces. Looking around for the grey eyes of her once upon a time papa, she found him sitting next to a boy with a pair of familiar hazel eyes. She gave them all a small smile.
"Sirius, we need to talk." Luna said as soon as she saw him. All four Emrys siblings were looking straight at him, their gazes not straying to the others surrounding him namely, the rest of the Marauders, his brother and one Lily Evans.
Sirius nodded his head before moving to stand. Luna pointedly stared at Regulus and he stood as well. The siblings trusting their little sister, let her walk off with the Black brothers while they stayed behind with the Marauders and Lily.
The siblings sat down on one of the empty couches, Assyria lying down in between her brothers with her head on Neville's lap and her legs draped over Draco. The Gryffindor in the room were staring at them while they talked amongst themselves, their laughter heard in the dead silent common room.
"You guys alright?" Neville asked the remaining Marauders and Lily. They all nodded at him and he sent them a little smile before going back to talking to Draco. The Ravenclaw continued to stare at them.
She knew that the event that had conspired a few hours ago had shaken the base of their existence and had made them think about everything in their lives differently now. Her eyes met hazel, they stared at each other for a few seconds before she sent him a small fleeting grin. A huge grin lit up on his face and he would deny later but Potter blushed a little. Seeing his blush, Draco started to tease his Gryffindor friend and soon the tenseness in the air was replaced with ease and laughter.
Assyria had moved from her spot in between her brothers to beside Lily which happened to put her next to Potter. She could feel his stare on the back of her head as she spoke quietly to Lily about the events that had transpired. Sparing him a small glance over her shoulder, she saw him watching her intently while answering whatever question Moony had asked him, his gaze never once wavering. She fought the urge to blush under his intense stare before sharply turning back towards a smirking Lily. Wishing to avoid the topic of Potter, she began to ask Lily about her thoughts on the honor duel.
"How are you with everything that happened Lily?" Assyria asked her red headed friend. She knew that some people could handle death and blood while others couldn't. She wasn't inclined to assume that Lily was someone who couldn't handle it but her Papa and Dad (Sirius and Remus. No they weren't together in her old timeline but she did think of them as her parents hence as to why she refers to her Sirius as her Papa and Remus as her Dad.) had always described her as a compassionate, loving person.
A somber expression appeared on her face. "I am okay," she said, her hand reaching out to grasps the Ravenclaws who just let her. "Is it bad that I don't feel an ounce of sympathy for Nott and his fathers death?"
Assyria have her a gentle smile before reaching for her hand and giving it a gentle squeeze as some form of comfort. "No it's not, Lily. This is a war and you can't mourn every death that you witness or maybe even dish out." she said, neither of them noticing the now silent common room and the listening audience that consisted of all the Marauders with Sirius having returned from his talk with Luna. the one Slytherin and her own siblings.
"I agree that no one has the power to decide who deserves to die and who doesn't beside Death himself but, you have to understand that once the war picks up, you will have to make a choice. Kill or be killed. You have to learn to live and accept the decisions you made while on the battlefield." She said, her mind returning to a time where she herself had to learn this. There was time to mourn and time to fight and sometimes, you did not have time to mourn all of the dead. She herself did not have time to mourn the death of her second father before she walked to her death that Dumbledore had so eloquently led her to.
"No one expects you to feel for him. He has bullied you since you have started at Hogwarts together. Yes, there will be people who mourn him and I myself briefly thought of a mother waiting for her husband and son to return home, only to realize that they never will but then I thought of what my life would be like if Nott had truly succeeded in taking my little sister from me so I continued." She certainly did not care for Nott and his death but even she had brief moments where her emotions decided to make themselves known.
Assyria sent Lily a blinding smile that seemed out of place to the redhead considering what they were speaking about. "As the war wears on, you will learn to keep going. It is fact that where there is war, there is death. Friends and loved ones will be lost but we all must eventually learn that Death is apart of Life. We all will someday die, some of us much earlier than others."
She looked at the clearly very emotional Lily Evans in front of her. Assyria opened her arms hesitantly, offering her a hug and Lily didn't hesitant before she flung herself into her arms, her silent sobs heard in the silent common room. Assyria knew that it would take awhile for Lily and everyone here to understand and soon be able to control her emotions. They had not lived and grown up during a war unlike her and her siblings but she knew that Lily was determined to fight with them. Everything was still so new however so she understood. Neither of the Marauders or Slytherin in the room knew what to do but Luna just bounded over and joined the hug.
"You have a big heart Lily, don't give someone who tormented you a small part of it." Lily pulled out of the hug long enough to smile at the two girls who were slowly feeling more like sisters to her than Tuney ever had since she had started at Hogwarts and found out about magic.
Luna smoothed down her hair and began to hum a little lullaby that her sister would sing to her after she would wake from nightmares about her time at Malfoy Manor. Lily smiled and slowly drifted off before feeling a small kiss to her brow and someone saying the words, "Sleep now, little sister." Soon she knew no more.
Hello Readers, so as many of you know, this story was inspired by Amara22 own story on AO3 so please check it out and also because of that, I am trying to branch off from her story and give less similarities between the two stories so hopefully, I have achieved that in this chapter. So many things are coming up in this story that even I'm losing track of them. Anyways, this is the reaction that the Emrys siblings had to the death of Thadeus Nott and other things. What do you think Luna talked to Sirius and Regulus about? Find out next chapter x