I do not own anything
So far, so good. The world hasn't ended yet.
Also, I've made a facebook account solely for fanfiction. It goes by Emily Livrefille, which literally means 'book girl' in French. I felt unoriginal.
Enjoy!
It was so very strange, Liana thought, to be here today. She had only been to Diagon Alley with her father a few times, and then Yoruichi had been with them. Now she was there with him, but Yoruichi wasn't there, laughing about what she had just overheard or seen in a shop window.
Still, she didn't mention it – she didn't want to go through the pain of that – and simply went about her business as if it wasn't anything unusual, ignoring the painful absence of the cheerful lady.
They had just completed their last stop – buying a plethora of books that would make Hermione faint at Flourish and Blotts – when the chaos started.
She didn't know what happened, all she knew was that there was suddenly screaming as people pushed past her, bright jets of light flying through the air from the figures robed in dark cloaks and intricate masks that shielded their faces from view. She didn't know who they were, for the most part, at least, she thought she didn't. It wasn't until her father was ushering her past the Apothecary she saw the only black robed figure not wearing a mask.
Maniacal laughter bubbled out of the sorceress's throat as she shot sickly looking curses at passing civilians, amber eyes glinting dangerously. Hair the color of her favorite orchids and skin that looked like melted chocolate made her easily distinguishable from the crowd of panicking shoppers.
"It's Yoruichi!" she whisper/shouted, not quite sure which it was in the midst of all the noise.
Her father took her arm. "We have no time for that," he urged. "Hurry. If they see us, then they will go after us."
"But all these innocent people!" she protested, pulling away, or at least trying to. "We can't just leave them here!"
"We don't have any time-"
"I've found her!" Both turned as the woman Liana had been watching swept through the crowd with ease, an insane look in her eyes as her hair and robes flared around her. The crowd gave her a wide berth, only father and daughter staying where they were, giving them some sort of field.
"What a lucky day," she cackled. "Go for what I thought was an ordinary raid, yet, it isn't! How wonderful it is that I had the luck to find both a blood traitor of the highest degree, and the Girl-Who-Lived!"
"Lucky?" He shifted ever so slightly, coming to rest in such a position so he could protect his daughter. "I must disagree. Today has turned out to be a very unfortunate day."
"That's because today is the day you die," she smirked. "But… I think I'd like to test something first…" she drawled. "My Lord's genius has discovered how to trap Boggarts, so we may carry them around without needing to worry about them showing us our fears. Rather, we use them to show our enemies' fears. The only problem is, we haven't tested them." She clapped her hands together excitedly and pointed at a random death eater. "You there! Let one out!"
"Right," he grunted before taking out a glass sphere with something black and smoky swirling inside. He threw it into the air, towards the purple haired woman.
"Not me, you fool!" she screeched. "Them! Them!" But it was too late. The glass shattered as the boggart rose. Byakuya quickly pushed his daughter away. It wasn't likely they were close enough for it to choose them as the victims, but he didn't want for her to suffer. He'd gladly take it himself.
Yoruichi's eyes widened and she stood ramrod straight as three people emerged from the boggart. A man, a woman, and a child.
"Why didn't you help me, Yoruichi?" asked the man, gliding towards her, as if he had wings instead of feet. Her insanity melted away as she flinched at the voice she hadn't heard in over two hundred years. "I helped you, didn't I? I saved you, so many times… why didn't you save me, then? Because of you…" Gray eyes stared into gold. "… because of you, I've died." He slumped as a large gash appeared on his chest and he stared into the distance, lifeless.
"My husband," the woman choked. "You said you would save him – do whatever you could for him to live, even at the cost of your own life. You told me so, when we first met. So why? Why have you lied? My husband has died. The man I love… because of you, I am a widow – I've lost my will to live." A spear appeared in her hand as she rammed it into her heart, more crimson splattering the normally cheerful alley as her corpse fell to the ground.
Yoruichi simply stared, horrified, as Byakuya recoiled at the familiar scene.
The child turned to the felled woman, looking frightened. "Mother!" he cried. "Mother! Mother, wake up! Wake up!" He turned to Yoruichi, tears welling up in his wide, gray eyes, before asking in an eerily innocent way, "Why won't Mother wake up, Shihoin-senpai? Make her wake up! You have to! You have to!"
The child stared at her longer as the two bodies faded away. He seemed to be aging, as he grew taller and baby fat thinned away. Soon, a teenager stood in front of them, looking hurt and angry.
"You couldn't save them!" he shouted. "Even after all they had done… after everything! You decided that my father wasn't worth enough for you to protect; that my mother was too useless to save! Even after you let them die, you decided the Kuchikis weren't worth anything! You abandoned us! You left us! After everything you had pledged, you left me and the Seireitei! You abandoned everything you had ever promised to us! I hate you! I hate you, Shihoin Yoruichi!"
"Shut up!" she shouted, reiatsu crackling around her. "Don't you think I know that? Of course you hate me! I hate myself! I had to leave the son of the man who saved me from a life of torture and despair! I couldn't watch him grow up! I couldn't watch when he got married, or became a widower, or even adopt a bloody sister! I left him for a hundred years only to come back to an shell of a man who wanted nothing more than to kill me! You don't have to tell me that you hate me, you stupid blood traitor!" She slashed her arm at the teenage form, allowing for a hidden blade to fly out of her sleeve and stab through the boggart as grayish black blood spurted everywhere.
"I see," the adult version of the teen said once he had regained his composure. "You believe yourself to be the cause of my parents' deaths, and that I resented you for it. The psychological strain was too much for you, so in order to counteract that, you have convinced yourself that you hate me, so that you may live in something resembling peace. That, coupled with your deep loathing for Albus Dumbledore, is why you have betrayed us. Am I wrong, Shihoin Yoruichi?"
"Shut up," she hissed, breathing heavily in order to not hyperventilate. "I don't damn need you psychoanalyzing me, blood traitor. I don't need your sympathy or whatever the hell you'd give me!" She then barked, "Retreat! We've frightened enough mudbloods for today, I think." She turned on the spot, glaring at Byakuya and nursing the precious remains of her dignity.
~oOo~
Naturally, the attack made headlines the next day, giving the public exaggerated, but surprisingly accurate, information about the fears of the Dark Lord's newest and possibly most powerful minion ironically being the family of the one she betrayed.
Of course, it sold out in minutes.
Liana watched in interest as a black butterfly drifted into the room during breakfast. Her father glanced up and held up a finger for it, like a perch. There was a tinkling, bell like sound before she heard a familiar voice, gasping as though in pain.
"The Dark Lord didn't like that the boggart went to me… Crabbe's getting cruicioed right now… he didn't like my fears either… he decided to AK me because it affected me more than crucio… Kami, how did you survive that?"
"What the ruddy hell was that?" Vernon grumbled. He knew freaks did stuff with owls, but butterflies?
"It is the way shinigami communicate, but I'm afraid it's grown out of favor since we adopted cell phones from you humans," he explained calmly. "The message, however, can only be heard directly by those who it's meant for. It's more convenient than owls, as they are much less work."
"'Shinigami'?" he snorted. "What's that? Another type of freak?"
He contemplated this for a moment. "You could put it that way. Shinigami have the potential to learn wizarding magic, and the more… fortunate of us usually do out of sheer boredom. However, shinigami were not born as wizards. Most of us have actually experienced death."
"What?" Petunia squeaked.
He looked at the Dursleys as though this was just old news. His way of getting a laugh, Liana realized, was to scare people with information while acting as though it was common knowledge, and laughing over it later, when he was alone – and said, "Shinigami means death god in Japanese. I suppose you might be able to compare us to Grim Reapers."
Petunia shrieked as her husband turned a magnificent shade of purple. Their son stopped with the spoon halfway to his mouth – probably the only time that had ever happened – and gaped.
"Y-you died?" Vernon sputtered.
He scoffed, though the look in his eyes said he was obviously amused. "How can I have died when I was never among the living?"
"WHAT THE RUDDY HELL IS GOING ON?" he bellowed.
Byakuya rose an eyebrow. "Isn't it obvious?" he asked. "I was never among the living; that is to say, I was not born with a body that would normally enable muggles to see me. What I am in now is a gigai, a faux body. You could say I was born in the afterlife."
As one, the two adult Dursleys fainted, as their son ran screaming from the room.
Seventy reviews after just thirteen chapters? You guys rock!
