Disclaimer: I'm not J.K. Rowling, so I don't own Harry Potter.
~*~*~Chapter Twenty-Six: Shove in the Right Direction~*~*~
"Alright, try again." Larisa said. Bellatrix pointed her wand at the floor.
"Expecto Patronum!" A thin, silvery mist burst from Bellatrix's wand tip, slid across the floor, and vanished.
"Well, that's a little better..." Larisa said, and Bellatrix furrowed her eyebrows. "Try one more time...Think of something happy, that's important." Larisa said encouragingly. Bellatrix closed her eyes, and stood quite still for a few minutes before opening her eyes.
"Expecto Patronum!" She cried, and instantly, a bright, silvery dove burst out of her wand tip and flew around the room.
"You did it!" Larisa cried, hugging Bellatrix.
"I did it..." Bellatrix said breathlessly as the dove flapped around the room before vanishing. "Now how do you make them talk?"
"No idea...Still, you did it!"
"Yay...I think you should go to bed, now...I'll try to figure out how to make Patronuses talk...Goodnight." Bellatrix said.
"'Night." Larisa replied before turning and walking out of the room, towards the staircase.
&%$&%$&%$
Sophia leaned against a tree in the Forbidden Forest, crawling back into her mind. She had gotten a sudden dreading feeling in her stomach that Larisa was starting to find things out.
"Sophia?" Borislav's voice rang out. "Something wrong?"
"I think Larisa's finding things out, which worries me...What if she find out about the-"
"The brat won't find out about it, Sophie."
"But what if-"
"She won't find out about it, she doesn't even know it exists!" Borislav said impatiently.
"Well, alright." Sophia said, when suddenly, a bright white dove flew right past them towards the Headmaster's Tower. "A patronus!"
"Yes...I wonder if it's Larisa's?"
"I don't think so...She's not the type of person to have a dove for a patronus..." Sophia said in a distant voice. "That really disturbs me, that dove..."
"Why?" Borislav asked.
"You know full well that my patronus is a hawk, it changed from a raven when Bellatrix got out of Azkaban-" Sophia stopped talking, frozen. "What if-"
"Bellatrix can't do a patronus, so don't even worry about it."
&%$&%$&%$
The next day, Larisa shot awake at the sound of the doorbell. She heard footsteps coming down from the third floor, past her room, and down the stairs to the first floor, then the door opening. Very quietly, she slid out of bed and pulled her dressing gown on, then opened the door and slipped out. She thought she heard Bellatrix having a whispered conversation with someone, but Larisa was unable to catch what they were saying. Silently, she tiptoed down the hallway until she got near the stairs. She stopped, and managed to catch snippets of what Bellatrix was saying to the other person.
"Yes, I know Karina doesn't approve, but what does she expect?" Bellatrix whispered.
"She's under the impression that she'll find out on her own, I suspect." The other person whispered.
"Yes, but with what information?"
"Well, she's told her a lot now, so Karina probably thinks she'll put it together on her own!"
"That's absurd, to be honest...Gentle nudges won't work, sometimes she needs a good shove in the right direction." Bellatrix whispered. "I don't like how Karina is hiding these things from her."
"I don't either, but she thinks that she'll work it out."
"What a load of waffle. She's a tough kid, she can take information thrown straight at her, and don't say she's only fifteen, she's almost sixteen." Bellatrix snapped, raising her voice a little.
"I wasn't going to say that, Bella. I agree, she's a tough kid, but I agree somewhat with Karina, we don't want to overwhelm her."
"But Dromeda, she deserves to kn-"
"Listen to me, Bella! You may know what's best for Larisa, but you're not her mother or her legal guardian, even though Dumbledore left her in your care!" The other person said, her voice rising to a shout. "Now, I agree, she deserves to know, but like I said before, we don't want to overwhelm her! She didn't take her father's escape too well, now, didn't she?"
"That's because he wants to kill her!"
"Bella, I'm not going to fight you right now. We don't want to wake-"
"Me up?" Larisa asked, walking to the top of the stairs. The little color in Bellatrix's face drained, and the other woman looked a little shocked. The other woman looked a lot like Bellatrix, only she had brown hair and wider eyes.
"Did we wake you up?" Bellatrix asked nervously. Larisa shook her head.
"How much did you hear?" The other woman asked, and Bellatrix hit her on the arm.
"Not much. Just enough to tell me that Karina is hiding something from me, which I already know." Larisa said, starting down the stairs. The two women seemed to relax a little after that. Larisa walked up to them, and the brown haired woman looked her over a little before introducing herself.
"I'm Andromeda, Bellatrix's sister. I think you may know my daughter?"
"Dora?" Larisa asked, shaking Andromeda's hand. Andromeda nodded.
"Does you eye hurt?" Andromeda asked, indicating Larisa's red eye.
"This?" Larisa asked, setting her finger on the slash that went over her right eye. "Oh, no, not anymore. It stopped hurting about a minute after the slash was made." Andromeda cringed a little, but didn't say anything else on the matter.
"Right...We should go over the plan in the kitchen..." Bellatrix said, shepherding Andromeda and Larisa towards the kitchen.
"Plan?" Larisa asked as she opened the door to the kitchen and walked inside. Fiona, who was already in the kitchen, made to start the stove, but Bellatrix wove her hand, and Fiona froze.
"I've got breakfast this morning, Fiona. Would you mind going and hunting down the remaining spiders and killing them?" Bellatrix said, and the house elf nodded and Disaparated.
"Bella, when we were kids you always pushed your chores off on Kreacher...What the-"
"Arachnophobia." Larisa whispered in Andromeda's ear.
"Ah." Andromeda said, taking that as a valid excuse. She and Larisa sat down across from each other, while Bellatrix flit about the kitchen, starting the stove up.
"So, what plan?" Larisa asked.
"Tell her, Andromeda." Bellatrix said as she set a skillet on the stove.
"I was just about to. Anyway, today I'm taking you to Diagon Alley. Dumbledore told me, because Bella told him something about your current wand. He wouldn't specify what she said, but he said you need to get your old wand and your current wand looked at by Ollivander. He also told me to bring this little guy with me." Andromeda explained, stretching her left arm out. Larisa wondered what the heck was going on, until she saw a little grass snake come slithering out of her sleeve and onto the table.
"Slinky!" Larisa cried, and the grass snake lifted it's head to look at her.
"Good to ssssee you again, Larisssa." He said. Larisa propped her chin in her hands and set her elbows on the table.
"Why did Dumbledore send you?"
"He sssaysss it isss time we sssaw each other again, and that I told you sssome thingsss." Slinky said, tilting his head a little. "I sssaw your mother in the Forbbiden Foressst."
"And?" Larisa asked, draining of the little color that was usually in her face.
"She lied about her motive to kill you when you were younger." Larisa went rigid and grabbed onto the table.
"How do you know the story of what happened the day Lord Voldemort returned?"
"There wasss a sssnake in the graveyard. They whissspered it along until it reached me. Sssophia lied, it wasssn't becaussse she thought you were a Sssquib. There isss a hidden motive, but she will alwaysss fail. I mussst admit, I know the reassson why you cannot be killed by the Killing Curssse. I thought it was becaussse of your sssoul, but it wasssn't. I wasss missstaken."
"What is the reason?!" Larisa asked, frantic to find out the truth.
"The reassson liesss within the Minissstry of Magic. You are a sssmart girl, you will find out for yourssself. I jussst need to give you a shove in the right direction."
&%$&%$&%$
Larisa walked next to Andromeda as they entered the large building that was Gringotts. They walked quickly up to the counters, and the goblin they walked up to looked up at them.
"Yes?" He asked.
"I need to go to my vault." Larisa said, setting her hand on the counter. The goblin looked at a large book.
"Name?"
"Larisa H. Rei. I have the key right here." Larisa said, pulling her vault key out of her pocket. The goblin ran his finger down the book.
"Ah, yes, vault 912...Griphook!" The goblin called, and another goblin came over to them. "These two need to go to vault 912, the Rei family vault." Griphook nodded, then motioned for Larisa and Andromeda to follow.
"Shouldn't you be at school?" Griphook asked.
"Well, yes, but I needed to leave for a while due to mental health reasons." Larisa lied easily. They walked through a door into a dark passageway, and Griphook clapped his hands. A cart then came zipping into view, and Larisa, Andromeda, and Griphook climbed in before they set off down the long passageway. Larisa covered her eyes. "I despise these things..."
"Don't we all?" Andromeda asked as the cart came to a screeching halt outside of Larisa's vault. Larisa stumbled out of the cart, then handed the key to Griphook, who in turn put it in the lock on the vault. The doors slid open, and Larisa walked in.
There were huge piles of gold, silver, and bronze, but Larisa ignored them. She walked right over to the shelf where her old wand was, then stood on her tiptoes and grabbed the box. She pulled the lid off, and picked the wand up out of the box. She twirled it between her fingers for a minute, then set it back in the box.
&%$&%$&%$
One insane cart ride later, Larisa and Andromeda were walking into Ollivander's. He came walking out of the back, and looked surprised to see Larisa, and also a little shocked at her appearance.
"Larisa Rei?" He asked, and Larisa nodded. "What happened to you?"
"Got attacked." Larisa said. "Anyway, I'm here for some important reasons that will require your help."
"Certainly. Please, sit down. What is it you require?" He asked, pointing at a chair. Larisa sat down, and Andromeda handed her the box that held her old wand. Larisa carefully took the lid off, then lifted the wand out of the box.
"Could you please identify this?" She asked, handing it to him. He took it, gave it a slight twirl in his fingers, then gave it a slight bend.
"Vine, ten inches, and a...Thestral hair core?" He said, quickly redoing the examination. "Yes, vine, ten inches, thestral hair core..."
"I always thought it was a veela hair core!" Larisa exclaimed, taking the wand back and replacing it in the box. "My mum always told me that it was a veela hair core...Anyway, could you also identify this?" Larisa handed Ollivander her current wand, and he did the same examination.
"Elder, fifteen inches, unicorn hair core." He said softly, handing it back to Larisa.
"I was under the impression it was eleven inches...Again, my mum always told me that..."
"Larisa, I can tell you something about that wand." Ollivander said suddenly. "Would you like to know?"
"Yes, please." Larisa said, and Ollivander took a deep breath.
"Have you heard of a wand called the Elder Wand?"
In May, 1980, the last will be born.
Different than the rest, but many traits the same as the one before.
Skilled she will be, like the one before.
She will survive the attack when she is five,
but at a horrible price ten years later,
yet bringing her special abilities, not at all like the one before.
NO MORE UPDATES FOR A WEEK.
...
...
...
JUST KIDDING! (Read&Review)