A/N: I'm BACK! And not even a whole month between updates, look at that.
Anyway, back to the story:
CHAPTER 14: I'm feeling so Bohemian like you... (Bohemian Like You by the Dandy Warhols)
By the time she graduated Hogwarts, Adria Malus had already been considered for several advantageous marriages. Not one to simply sit back and do as she was told, she gave her father her wand and stated that she'd rather be a Muggle.
Byron never made an idle threat; he said he'd break her wand, and he did, right in front of her. Then he allowed her to convert some of the inheritance her mother left her into pounds and let her loose in Muggle London.
Adria had always enjoyed school, and having once been smuggled out of the house to see a film with her brothers, she knew Muggles about her age went to college. So she applied.
After sending a letter to Professor Dumbledore for some "Muggle" school transcripts, she was accepted into the teaching program. In London's crowds, she reasoned, there would be a much smaller chance of another witch or wizard stumbling upon her.
How wrong she was.
It only took a few months for Lila to suss her out- though getting roaring drunk on Halloween and spouting 'Weird Sisters' lyrics probably helped a lot with jumping to the correct conclusion. After that evening, Lila took Adria- very hungover- to her aunt Cassy's and said simply that her 'new friend' required 'Muggle lessons'.
Lila was a Squib, and the great embarassment of the proud house of Greengrass. When her parents' worst fear- that they'd produced a child with no magical ability whatsoever- were realised, they shipped her off to the only other family disappointment; Casaurina, who'd run off and married a Muggle bookseller.
Aunt Cassy was a widow now, but had learned much from her time in the Muggle world. It was from Cassy and Lila that Adria learned all manner of things; to cook, to clean, to tell the difference between good telly and utter crap. Up until her marriage, Adria had spent almost every weekend with Lila, laid out on Cassy's couch, watching films and eating. A LOT.
Now that she was 'free', Adria told her father she was going out, told the Order she was staying home, and took the tube to Basildon.
"Darling!" Lila grinned when she opened the door. "Why didn't you tell me you were coming? Cassy would have apparated to meet you!"
"And I would have spent ten minutes puking in your flower beds." Adria replied wryly. "And they look so nice this year."
"Come in, honey, have some tea."
Since Lila was a Squib and could not perform wand magic, she made up for it by mastering all manner of 'New Age' Muggle magic. She was, Adria thought affectionately, a complete hippie.
Once tea was on the table- horrible chamomile stuff with honey that came with a moonstone crystal and a wink from her best friend- Lila sat across from her and sighed.
"So. Is it true? We've been hearing all kinds of things on the wireless."
"About... You-Know-Who?"
"No, about the sales of Celestina Warbeck's new autobiography. Of course about You-Know-Who, Adria!"
"Sorry, there's just been a lot going on. Yes, I think it's true. If the increased number of late-night visitors to our house is anything to go by."
"And then there was Nicholas," Lila looked at Adria's black dress. "I'm sorry. But is what you wrote me really what happened? You think he was trying to become a- well, one of them?"
"I saw the tattoo. It wasn't fully finished, like he'd died going through the process, but it was a Dark Mark. My father's influence, no doubt."
"Are you going to be okay? Living with him? Because you know we'd take you in a heartbeat."
"I know darling. But actually-" Adria cast a protective bubble charm around the table to muffle her words. "I've joined up with some people. People who are going to fight and stop Voldemort."
"You're joking." Lila searched her best friend's face. "You're not joking. Oh, my god are you insane? You could be killed!"
"So far I haven't actually done anything. Others are on missions within Voldemort's ranks. Thieves, Death Eaters, Giants..." She made sure Lila was listening before saying, "Werewolves."
"No."
"Yep." Adria let down the protective bubble, unable to keep it strong any longer.
"You've been seeing him?"
"Not much, but...we've been talking. And my Uncle can be counted on to ensure conversation goes to as awkward a subject as possible."
"My hero."
"Shut up." Adria kept nothing from Lila, so she knew all about Regulus and Adria's mother, Sirius' innocence, and her relationship with Remus.
"I just want you to remember where you spent two sleep-deprived, junk-food-eating weeks after he tossed you aside."
"It was not two weeks."
"Fine, ten days. But still."
" I wasn't looking at things from an objective point of view."
Lila raised a pale eyebrow. "And what's the objective point of view?"
"That he wanted to protect me."
" By throwing you at the mercy of your father? I'd rather risk the werewolf."
There was a subdued silence where they both drank their tea, before Lila glanced up with a grin.
"Remember my birthday?"
"Is that 'never mentioning this hangover again'?" Adria asked faux-severely.
"Oh come on; that led you to sleeping in wolf-boy's bed, so really you should be thanking me."
"I slept in his bed, alone, because I couldn't get into my own quarters after all the whiskey we drank! Remus slept on the sofa."
"What a gentleman."
More silence. "Is there anything I can do to help you?" Lila asked. Her usually soft green eyes had taken on a determined glint.
"Help me?"
"You, and your little group of vigilantes."
Adria smiled. "I don't know. I'll think about it. But Lila, nobody can know I've told you this. And you have to promise, if you get any word from me, you have to be prepared to leave at a moment's notice. They could come after you."
"They?"
"The Dark Lord, his contacts inside the Ministry... My father."
"We've done it before, and we'll do it again."
The girls looked up to see Cassy leaning in the doorway. She smiled, one side of her face moving sluggishly under a faded series of scars. "Lila and I are blood traitors, darling; we'll know when to jump ship. I promise to get word to you any way I can."
Adria flew from her chair to hug her surrogate auntie; the woman who taught her so much, who had so much love and patience despite the healed curse-burns given out by her disappointed father.
"You'll be careful, Adria." It wasn't a question, but almost a threat. "Your wand work leaves much to be desired. Honestly I think you'd have less trouble joining the Muggle army."
"At least then they'd train you," Lila piped up.
"They aren't sending me head-first into battle," Adria defended. "Most of my role will be gathering information, sticking close to my family, and eavesdropping."
Her best friend smiled. "In your house though, that'd be tantamount to outright sabotage."
"True. But I can take the punishments. And I just... I need to do this, Lila. I need to help. I can't just sit in my parlour in my black robes and wait for mourning to lift."
Lila smiled again. This time her eyes held the ineffectual pain of someone who knew that arguing was useless.
"I know."