A/N: Hello, people!
I don't own Harry Potter.
I have no beta.
ENJOY!
CHECK ME OUT ON TUMBLR. HELLY-WATERMELONSMELLINFELLON.
-BTW, my time zone is EST. My schedule as been to update between 7-11
AM every Friday and I have managed that since Ch. 1. This is a Christmas
gift. Ch. 37 is ready for Friday, Dec 28th 2018, like usual.
~.O.~
IS the MINISTRY INCOMPETENT?
Dear readers, we have a problem on our hands, and it comes in the form of
our government. This past weekend, the Quidditch World Cup Final was put
under attack by those we all never expected to see again. A group of Death
Eaters swarmed the tents in the campgrounds, setting people's possessions
aflame and blowing up anything they laid eyes on.
Caught far too close to the havoc, were a group of Hogwarts students who
had been on their way back to their tent for the night. Among the group was
Belladonna Potter, Heiress to the Black, Gaunt, and Blishwick lines, as well
as twin sister to the Girl Who Lived. A word with the young lady has shed a
light on what happened.
The Ministry insisted that things hadn't been as bad as they seemed, but Ms.
Potter's account of the event seems to tell another story entirely.
"The smoke was covering the sky and burning fabric floated in the air. Around
twenty men in bone-white masks and black robes stormed the campground,
flicking green curses every which way and blowing everything up. We were
almost caught up in an explosion and almost hit with many unknown curses.
My friend Hermione managed to Stupefy one of them and while they rushed
their fallen comrade in order to escape, another stepped out from the nearby
woods and pointed a wand at the sky, saying 'morsmordre'. He Disapparated
a moment later, followed quickly by the rest. The Aurors arrived at midnight,
ten minutes later, and were far too late to do anything. It was disappointing
considering they're supposed to be ready to protect the people in any event."
This experience contradicts many points Minister Fudge told we at the Prophet
to release after the tragedy. Ms. Potter has a golden reputation in school and
is known for being as bluntly honest as possible. I'm more inclined to believe
her over Minister Fudge, who's been exposed many times over for accepting
bribes, ignoring his duties, and falsifying government information.
This begs the question however. Is our Ministry incompetent? Can we all truly
trust anyone in a position of authority right now? All that work to prepare for
the QWCF and there were no Aurors on site? Common citizens had to defend
themselves as well as others in the process? Children nearly died and yet our
Minister wants to ignore these alarming facts?
With a heavy heart at the thought of our declining society,
Rita Skeeter,
Special Correspondent to The Daily prophet.
"It is beneficial for you that your grandfather passed on before he could finish his plans," Blaise's mum said at the table that morning while she looked over the paper. "You might have been forced in on that drama at the World Cup Final if he was still around, and that could have gotten you caught and ruined your life entirely. No Death Eater is going to make certain a child among their ranks stays safe and within the group. You would have been caught no doubt."
Theo and Blaise looked at one another. Both were obviously in agreement of course, but the framing of the words left them a bit amused. They now knew that Xenophon hadn't just dropped dead all on his own. But it was definitely good that he was gone. Theo wouldn't have been happy being forced to attack innocent people all because the Death Eaters wanted to show off in the name of some madman.
To think the people who had nearly gotten him killed recently, were the ones he had been expected to join up with when he was finally all grown up? Just further proof that Xenophon had been mad in his middle-age. His obsession with the Dark Lord had gone too far.
"Any reason for those covert looks you both are sharing?"
They snapped to attention to find the woman looking intently at them over the rims of her enchanted reading glasses. She didn't actually need glasses at all, but they afforded extra protections and had certain spells on them that allowed her to see behind her so she was never truly vulnerable while reading.
"No."
"Yes."
Theo was the one that had said 'yes' and now both Blaise and his mum were looking to him. Blaise seemed more concerned over the topic but considering his mum's history, would she really care?
"Our friend Bella got a friend of hers to handle Xenophon. She said he needed someone for a ritual and because she decided that she hated Xenophon, he would do. In exchange for helping me out before doing the deed of course. We don't know the full details but she isn't remorseful in the least and even wanted to do something similar to Dowager Longbottom to help Neville out as well."
She did not handle it the way Blaise seemed to think she would. She looked darkly amused. "A Potter put a hit on someone and allowed another to use that person in a Dark Ritual?"
"Bella's not like the Potters of the last century have been," Blaise confessed easily. "She or her twin actually. They're more Grey aligned than anything else, but Bella does have Dark leanings now and then. She also wasn't raised by them so she sees her actions from a completely different standpoint than her blood parents might."
A smirk that made both boys shiver a bit. "I like her even more now."
That was a relief! Neither really talked about school and the things that went on because it didn't feel necessary. It was Hogwarts and interesting things rarely happened. She wasn't nosy and she trusted them to take care of themselves and to know when they needed help. It was all good between them.
"I should like to meet Ms. Potter in person," the woman continued. "Perhaps give her a few tips on how to not leave a trail behind when participating in illegal plots."
Did Bella perhaps, just earn herself another friend? Probably.
Was Theo a little terrified over what that could possibly mean for the magical world as a whole? Yes, indeed.
Was he going to do anything about it though? No, he wouldn't.
Maybe it would be good for Bella to have another magical person on her side. And earning the favour of Lady Zabini was like a boon from the highest order.
"I hate PC games," Bella grumbled as she pointed and clicked multiple times but always ended up being far too slow for her own liking. She couldn't get the damn mouse to go all over the screen quick enough to get crap done!
Amara snorted and turned a page in her book about the decline of the worth of gold and silver.
"This crap never works for me!" she said, clicking furiously around the screen but to no avail. She died.
"Or maybe you're just bad at it," Amara suggested.
"I'm great at console games so idk what's going on." The Last of Us practically quivered beneath her superior directional abilities!
"It could be that you're just meant to play console games then. Not everyone is good at games on every platform."
But she liked FNaf! And it wasn't available on a console system yet! How else was she supposed to get the story? Watch YouTube Let's Plays?
Actually... not a bad idea. She could get the content she wanted while not having to struggle with the game herself. Bless the persons who made Let's Plays a popular thing!
"Bella, this is my mum, Moriah Zabini," Blaise said that morning in front of the train. His mother had indeed come along with the sole purpose of meeting his friend and her guardians. When Bella stepped through the barrier of Platform 9 ¾ and Sirius Black joined her with two familiar women on his arm, Blaise knew it was finally happening.
Bella had noticed them of course. Aside from her guardian, they were the darkest people on the platform. It would be hard to miss either of them really.
When he'd introduced them, Bella gave a very long whistle of appreciation that he really wished he couldn't hear because it was for his mum and while she was indeed one of the most beautiful women in the world, he didn't want to think of anyone flirting with her!
"Hi, I'm Belladonna Potter-Michaels and you're gorgeous, oh my God," his friend said, taking his mother's hand a giving it a firm shake. Her green eyes were practically sparkling with interest if that was possible.
"Kiddo, are you going to make this a habit?" Aaliyah Michaels asked, proving that Bella had indeed been on this weird kick of telling people she found attractive, that she found them attractive.
His mother merely laughed daintily. "Thank you, Ms. Potter."
"This is my guardian Aaliyah and her wife Deborah. And I'm sure you know of Sirius."
The entire exchange between their guardians was one massive flirtation where both of Bella's guardians were very boldly making eyes at his mum and he wasn't sure how he felt about it. And when she responded in kind, it started feeling a little awkward.
Still, of course they could count on Bella to break the ice in the way only Bella could. "Alright, so I can see where this is possibly going and I'm glad I won't be here for it. So just play nice, be safe, and don't give me any details ever. Love you both," she said, pulling her guardians into a quick hug and then tugging both Blaise and Theo, who had been silently watching, onto the train.
"Did that mean what I think it meant?" Theo asked in a low aside as they walked.
"Yes," both Blaise and Bella answered, knowing feel well what was about to go down and not wanting to elaborate any further.
"I'm glad you managed to make it back in time," said Hermione as the group met up on the train and found a compartment they could all share. "I was worried considering how long those types of events can last even when the actual competing is done with. I wasn't sure because of the plane travel."
Theo looked between Bella and Hermione, curious to know more about what Bella had been getting up to. Sure, they'd all met up two weeks previous at the World Cup Final, but Bella had a job that she trained for all-year 'round, and that officially started around mid-August every year and this time she was doing more and more than her former years. Meaning she would be gone a lot more too.
Bella rummaged through her handbag, a rather new addition to her wardrobe actually, and pulled out a familiar book they had all seen her secretly writing it at some point or another. She flipped it open and revealed something that looked like a necklace with with a golden disk hanging from the center. "This is the gold medal I won at my first assignment for the JGP series. It's barely real gold by the way."
She handed it over to Hermione first, who looked it over with keen eyes. Hermione handed it to Neville, who then handed it to Luna who actually tried to bite it twice. Luna gave it to Blaise who weighed it in his palm for a few seconds before finally passing it off to Theo.
"It's only partially gold," Theo confirmed, having been trained to spot these things. "I'd say it's mostly gilded silver. Maybe there is a small percentage of gold in it, but not enough to really count. Especially not to a Goblin."
Bella shrugged. "All I care about is that I was standing in the center at first place. That got me 15 points toward my position in the Final. All I have to do is medal in the next competition to gain the necessary points to guarantee me a spot in the Final. I have faith I'll be in first again. I only have one person who is true competition in my next assignment and she only got Bronze at her first assignment and her total score was about fifteen points lower than mine."
That lead to Bella staring off into space as she mentally calculated whatever it was she was thinking of.
Luna smiled fondly. "At least she's having fun."
Hearing Bella talk about figure skating made Theo realise just how wizards sounded when they talked about their favourite Quidditch teams. It was just another thing to prove that muggle-raised people, and most likely muggles themselves, weren't that different from magical people.
Theo was certain he never would have thought that before meeting Bella. In fact… before meeting Bella he'd hadn't a glimmer of hope in his future. He'd only had Blaise and his mother as a possible respite from his grandfather's clutches, and now, because of Bella, Xenophon was gone forever and Theo was essentially in charge of his own destiny.
Meaning he could study whatever he wanted, and go into whatever field of work he wanted, and he could even improve his knowledge on muggle happenings now without fearing punishment. And he'd get to learn for himself what muggles were really like without relying on the words of the close-minded or the biased to direct him.
He smiled to himself, pleased with the turn his thoughts had taken.
Any chance of furthering said train of thought was halted by their compartment door opening and revealing Draco Malfoy, who was surprisingly lacking his usual, grumpy bookends. He'd gotten shockingly taller over the course of the summer, much like Blaise had. Blaise would still tower over him though. Blaise's mum was very tall, and his father had also been a very tall person, so Blaise, according to Hermione, would also be tall thanks to 'genetics'. She hadn't been wrong thus far since he was the tallest of their group.
"Potter," the pointy-faced blond in the doorway acknowledge, startling the girl from whatever daydreams she was immersed in. "My father wished to extend his apologies over not introducing himself and my mother to you at the World Cup Final." He proceeded to hand over a box that Theo just knew held some kind jewelry that Bella would no doubt not care for. It would never be wore he was certain.
Bella accepted the gift with a dubious look and once she saw the string of black pearls therein, she wrinkled her nose. "Thanks." She did in no way sound grateful. "I should probably write him a letter of gratitude, right?" All of them, including Draco, knew she didn't fancy jewelry beyond the Slytherin Locket which she only wore now and then. So it was understandable at least why she was so unimpressed.
Also, black pearls were just gaudy and annoying.
"Please. I don't want him chewing my ear off even more over it."
The blond sent them all a nod of acknowledgement, made an abrupt about face, and left as quickly as he came.
"There's an ulterior motive to this," stated Bella, still staring down at the ugly necklace of pearls.
"He's a Slytherin," said Blaise. "Of course there is."
Nothing nefarious was prevalent in the apology though, so they decided to leave it alone for the time being. But if Lucius Malfoy suddenly became a problem later on, they'd know what to do.
The Great Hall was as it always was, though it was a lot longer than usual, and Bella was not the only person to notice it either. McGonagall did not mention it in her reminder speech though, and merely commenced with the Sorting.
It was some time during dinner that the Great Hall doors opened to reveal a man who looked like he'd been mauled by a bear. From a distance, Bella couldn't tell specific details, but the biggest things of note were the obviously fake eye and leg he had. The eye was an electric shade of blue and swiveled in every direction, which was off putting. The leg was wooden and covered in some places by what looked to be pure silver, and it made a clunking noise as the man practically hobbled down the center aisle.
McGonagall stood then and gestured to the man drawing nearer. "May I introduce you to your new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, former Auror Alastor Moody."
Bella's head whipped around to scan the Head Table for Remus, who was indeed sitting beside Sirius and looking perfectly contented as well. Not dead. Not irreparably injured. WTF?
"Professor Lupin has kindly decided to relocate to the position of History of Magic. Professor Binns has moved on to a better place this past summer at the behest of the Board of Governors."
There was a moment of pure silence from the students before they all erupted in cheers of relief and excitement. Applause for Remus and for the fact that their time would no longer be wasted in such a usually useless class. It was a general consensus that Remus was a damn good teacher and the students liked him very much compared to some other teachers.
Though… Bella was given pause. That meant he only officially taught for a year and was replaced, meaning Voldy's ridiculous curse was still active. Meaning this Moody dude wouldn't be staying for too long either.
"I feel this is a good time to tell you about why you needed dress robes," McGonagall continued after the moment of celebration. "The TriWizard Tournament has been reinstated and Hogwarts is hosting Beauxbatons Academy of Magic and Durmstrang Institute this time around. The Yule Ball is a long-standing tradition of the TriWizard Tournament and will take place on 24 December, in which all of you fourth year and up are required to remain at the school for. Third years may attend the ball if asked by an older student, but only then. The dignitaries from both schools with be coming on 30 October and I expect each and every one of you to be on your best behaviour."
Murmurings began as students looked to one another for ideas.
"In years past the tournament accepted entrants of all ages, however this year we have decided impose a rule that no one under the age of sixteen may put forth their name for consideration," McGonagall added. "It is a dangerous competition and while we have worked tirelessly to ensure no deaths occur this time, we would prefer that only students with a decent amount of magical training be involved. We will not be changing our minds on this stance.
"Furthermore, all Quidditch endeavours will be cancelled this year and nothing can change that fact."
She promptly sat down, leaving the students to groan and gossip about the new information dropped on them. All the Quidditch fanatics looked heartbroken.
Bella merely grinned. Having Tom as a insider on these things was proving to be very useful.
"More for me to study!" Hermione hissed, pulling out a notebook so she could take some notes. This was becoming a habit for her.
"At least you'll get to see how things are handled so you can determine if something must be changed later on," Bella suggested with a shrug, which had the older brunette nodding absent-mindedly.
"The tournament hasn't been held in centuries," Theo confided, leaning across the table so they might hear him better over the din. "It was determined to be too dangerous so I don't know why they're reinstating it but I'm excited to see what'll happen. It'll break up the usual dullness of the term."
Bella scoffed. "They regularly allow fourteen year olds to sign into International League Quidditch Teams where they can die or become irreparably damaged, without a second thought, but think the death toll and danger levels in this is a problem?"
"As we have repeatedly noted, wizards haven't a lick of common sense among them," Blaise shrugged.
"Too true. We must fix that issue. Some people are going to die premature deaths because of it."
"Lucius, what is this?" Narcissa demanded, holding up a letter that he did not recognise.
"I do not know, my dear," he said cautiously because he could feel that something unfortunate was about to happen and he was wary. Anytime his lovely wife was angry, bad things happened. Usually to him.
"Why are you receiving post from Belladonna Potter of all people?"
Oh no! He didn't think she'd respond. She'd been reliably informed that she barely acknowledge the proper traditions of a Pureblood. He'd assumed that she'd accept the gift as it was and leave it at that!
This one time she'd decided to follow the rules and it had to be now?
"You either tell me now or I open it and find out what is going on, Lucius, and you would not like the ideas floating around my head at the moment," she threatened, her sharp eyes narrowing dangerously.
His heart was pounding in his ears.
Often did they punish Draco for forgetting to follow tradition, but rarely did Narcissa find out how often Lucius broke tradition as well.
"I... many have noticed her attending the Quidditch World Cup Final back in Augusta, and avoided introducing the both of us to her," he said quietly, as if it was common information.
His wife's delicate jawline tightened and he just knew the situation had gone downhill very quickly.
"You caught sight of the Heiress of my maiden House, and decided not to to greet her? When we are trying to keep Cousin Sirius happy so he does not annul our marriage and embarrass us?" Narcissa asked slowly, taking her time to enunciate each word and making him feel all the more foolish the longer it took.
"Yes, dear."
"And you decided that it was best to ignore her because you were more concerned about some ridiculous game you and your friends wanted to play on the matchgoers?"
More hesitantly this time, he said, "Yes, dear."
"Is this going to be a letter about you angering her?"
"I should think not," he admitted. "I sent her a string of pearls in apology. Draco personally delivered them to her."
Narcissa tore open the letter without hesitation, her storm grey eyes flicking back and forth on the stationery. They lifted to look up him with burning distaste. "You are lucky she seems to be a decent girl, Lucius. Very lucky."
And then she was turning, and her heels clicked and clacked all the way down the marble-floored corridors of their home, making him wince with each sound as she went.
Just because the girl had taken it fine, didn't mean his wife did. And he was going to suffer for it.
Bella had limited time to talk to Tom that evening since she was busy finishing her Potions Essay that had been assigned last term for summer work. She'd forgotten so she was rushing through it, but was breaking now and then to write something to Tom who was the paragon of patience.
She hated essays.
So we're all ready for the dear old visitors to come along. They have been
prepping the school something fierce. There's more classroom space, the
Great Hall is bigger than normal, and we suddenly have a landing strip of
all thing outside. I'm concerned about what would possibly need so much
space in order to land there but it isn't small.
It would probably fit an entire house actually.
Houses didn't fly. Well... muggle ones sure as hell didn't. Who knew what magical homes could get up to if the proper magic was cast on them?
It's a magical castle and there are no doubt measures involved it the secrets of its
creation that allow it to be changed should it ever come to that. You do know that
Hogwarts randomly rearranges itself every ten years, yes?
WHAT?!
Yes. Save for the Great Hall, Entrance Hall, bathrooms, and House dorms, the rest
of the castle changes. When I was in school, the Transfiguration classroom for the
First Years was on the seventh floor. I imagine that has changed by now.
If reading didn't end up sucking so much Bella would totally be down to finishing HAH. But it was just so annoying!
Voldy's soul piece could go screw itself.
Yeah, it's on the ground floor now. That is a cool bit of trivia and I should
probably get around to reading Hogwarts: A History at some point in the
future. And you know, since Remus is now the History of Magic professor,
I might actually be learning about magical history now! How fun!
What happened to him teaching DADA? He's still alive and sane of mind, and he
hasn't been arrested. Why isn't he still teaching the class?
We got this new dude called Alastor Moody. According to Theo, he was an
Auror years ago. He helped the Ministry fill a lot of the cells of Azkaban by
capturing baddies. He captured a lot of Death Eaters especially. I was then
informed that he had nothing to do with their illegal imprisonment. That's
the Ministry's job and they held each prisoner for a couple of days and then
shipped them off without a trial, which sucks.
Remus is now teaching HoM and I think it might actually become a good
class now! The class average will definitely be going up too!
Of course it probably meant less of doing homework in the middle of the class period but this could still be a good thing. Probably.
Bella had faith in Remus because he'd proven himself already to be a great teacher. She just wasn't all that into classwork, homework, or any kind of written work even if she was good at it.
Thankfully, she had that Dicta-Quill still and it was nice enough to write what she told it to. Unlike the rude arse pen she was using to write to Tom at present, that wouldn't stop missing its own ink.
And there she went again, assigning inanimate objects their own personalities and mental cognizance. Anthropomorphism for the win!
Interesting.
I have read about the Azkaban situation. I don't know what they think they'll do to
fix it all though. Dementors were good at keeping the inmates in line even if they
cannot be truly controlled by anyone. And they can't be killed either.
There are magical creatures out the arse that could keep the people in line!
Y'all are some superstitious blighters, just get some big black dogs trained
up and everyone will shy away from the 'Grims'.
She'd heard all about it from Sirius. His Animagus form was enough to terrify a grown arse adult into shitting themselves if he so much as barked at them. How was she supposed to take wizards seriously when they panicked over any black dog they saw?
The hilarious part though was that Grims were actually supposed to be as big as grown horses and with red eyes. Sirius' Animagus form did in no way match that description but it had still be successfully used to terrify criminals and Death Eaters back when he was an Auror. Paying attention in school would have benefited all of them.
Reading and learning didn't seem to be a thing any magical people did ever judging by the enormous lack of common sense.
I for one, do not subscribe to the same fears as the rest of these fools. But you do
have a point.
I know.
You wear that humility so nicely, dear Bella.
:)
It's like a hat. Some days I exchange it for something else entirely. It all
depends on my mood.
"I must stress the importance of stealth this time around. There are going to be a lot of visitors in the castle this year and you will not be able to avoid everyone, I'm certain. Therefore, you must be careful where you travel to and from so you don't ruin anything," said Batman as he handed over the Time Turner for the second year in a row.
Bella grinned in what she hoped was a reassuring manner. "Don't worry, I have an Invisibility Cloak."
She rarely had reason to use it because Bella wasn't one for exploring the castle at all hours of the night, but now she had a reason.
And B-Man looked relieved at the very least. "Good," he said. "Try to keep everything on schedule. And speaking of schedules, this is from your guardian."
He handed over a colour-coded piece of paper which dated her training times and competition days. Her second JGP assignment plus the Final were listed for the first term, and Bella smirked, already envisioning herself coming back with more gold medals.
"I got everything calculated, sir. Don't worry about me."
"I wasn't," was his bland reply. "Now out. And send Granger in as you go."
The two teens high-fived as they passed one another in the corridor. Bella headed off toward Sirius' office so she could Floo home. Year 2 of Bella's Super Secret Crazy Schedule was a go!
She seriously deserved an award just for the dedication she was putting in. And it should totally be made of discounted chocolate from Honeydukes.
Albus considered the present times. Nothing was as it should be and he was stressed. More so than he'd been in the past few years alone.
The Order of the Phoenix was nowhere near as powerful as it once was. A lot of the original members had died of natural causes or been murdered by Voldemort's supporters. Those left weren't as keen to get back to the plan to destroy Voldemort as they had used to be thanks to the losses they had suffered over the years.
With Prue proving herself to be utterly useless to the cause, Albus had been putting more and more time and attention into getting the Longbottom boy trained up. Augusta was so desperate for her grandson to show the same skills and promise as his father that she was completely on board with his planning without a care for Neville's feelings on the matter. It was a good thing she had control over him.
It was sad, but things like this were necessary for the greater good. If a child needed to suffer some things in order to see a great force of evil defeated, then so be it. There was more at stake than a single boy's happiness. The world would thank him for his effort one day, of this he was certain. They'd come to understand his vision one way or another.
But just because everything seemed like a lost cause on Prunella's end, didn't mean Albus would give up on her. He still had a few tricks up his sleeve to hopefully force her into realising that her input was necessary if they wanted to end Voldemort's tyranny. One did not reach Albus' great age without acquiring some skill in planning.
There would be a few incidents in the near future where Prue could be forced into action. He was already thinking up several things at once, which would show whether or not she was worth any further effort. If she managed to prove herself, then he would keep her in the wings just in case. If not, he would wash his hands of the Potters entirely.
"Albus, are you even listening?" Minerva demanded, looking surly.
He tried to wave off her displeasure with a smile, but that only seemed to make things worse.
"We were discussing any further concerns we might have for the upcoming term, Albus. Pay attention. If it becomes obvious that old age has caught up with you, the Board will see you removed post haste." And she was not incorrect with that assessment. He was nearing his expiration date and Lucius Malfoy would love to see him sacked.
Minerva then snapped around to eye the other Heads of House. "Belladonna Potter has agreed to perform something of her choice for the introduction of the schools. Filius has been working on it with her for the last month. Is she ready, Filius?"
The half-Goblin practically tittered on the spot, his long beard wiggling with the movement. "Oh, indeed! I've never seen something so marvellous and I now understand why she's put so much effort into this career path of hers. She must work indescribably hard to get the results she's shown me and I am so very impressed. We'll be charming the floor into ice, and there will be a charmed orchestra to play the beautiful sheet music she acquired for me! It'll be amazing!" he practically gushed.
The other Heads of House shared looks of interest, but said nothing on the matter, and Minerva sighed. "She is indeed ready for the day then? No problems have arisen?"
"None whatsoever! She is ready!" Filius assured them all, nodding insistently.
Belladonna Potter. Sister to the Girl-Who-Lived. Also not interested in defeating the greatest evil to ever exist even if she was more talented than her twin. She was so busy clinging to the muggle world as if she actually had a choice in the matter.
The Potter family ended up being rather useless to him in the end. After all that effort he'd put into gaining James' loyalty and by extension his wife and children, he'd nothing to show for it decades later.
Perhaps he should have focused on Severus from the start instead? He'd proven to be more useful these days. He would have been worth it had Albus managed to earn the young Slytherin's loyalty back then and actually taken his side when James did him wrong instead of brushing him off because he thought James would be more useful thanks to his Potter heritage. Severus would have become one of Albus' soldiers out of gratitude and not because he wanted the prestige that came with being on Albus Dumbledore's side - the winning side - of the war. Not like James had.
Such a shame that he'd wasted such a golden opportunity when it had presented itself. At least he had Severus in his pocket now. Severus was ready and willing to put his life on the line to see Voldemort destroyed and that dedication was what Albus needed the most.
"On a related note we do need something special to do for the Hallowe'en Feast though. And not another dramatic reading from one of the ghosts, please?" Filius asked plainly, and Minerva sighed.
"I'll think of something. It can't be that difficult to do new things every Hallowe'en Feast. We've been repeating the same segments for centuries. Something has to change."
First official day of classes. Hermione was all over the place. Her new schedule was even more detailed than the one last year because she'd finally found out how to properly manage her time. Bella's plan had been the best one in the end because it actually gave her enough time to do everything she needed to do while still remaining on top of a good sleeping and meal pattern!
The both of them would be doing 48 hours a day sans holidays and Sundays. It all just worked so much better this way! Bella being able to acclimate to such a schedule easily was impressive because it had taken Hermione a few days last term, but now she was up on it just like Bella was.
Hermione had officially turned fifteen in May of 2014. She would turn sixteen on 12 January 2015. She'd turn seventeen on 3 September 2015. It was all mapped out perfectly to the specific time. So long as she maintained the schedule she had set for herself, things would go on without issue.
She was pleased because this gave her additional time to attend class, study, eat, sleep, and do leisurely things on the side!
This school year was looking to be very interesting!
And knowing that she would get to use magic outside of school even faster than everyone else made her thrilled! It would make it easier for her to protect herself and her friends should anything like the QWCF ever happen again!
Hermione flicked through her stack of notebooks. One of each subject so far with each name written in black marker. She was ready to tackle anything this term!
On top of refining her current programs for the JGP, Bella also had to work on the program she was doing to introduce the visiting school to Hogwarts. She's decided to pay homage to the Queen Yuna Kim by performing her Short Program from the World Championships in 2007. She'd only been sixteen at the time and it was a beautiful piece of work that Bella was certain she'd perfected by now by making it a bit more difficult.
It was nearly three minutes of absolute perfection and Bella had spent a long time memorising Yuna's performances if only to feel just a bit closer to the woman. El Tango de Roxanne's instrumental was a beautiful piece and if there was one thing that could be said about Yuna Kim, it was that she always skated to the best music! She simply knew how to translate the story to the ice and no matter what, always pulled it off.
Hell, when she'd performed as Worlds back in 2007, she'd done it with a back injury, so Bella had some big skates to fill!
"Sirius has this thing called a Pensieve and he's going to record the memory of the performance and then let me bring the Pensieve to you so you can see how it went," she told Aaliyah and Deborah. "We're not sure if it's safe to bring a muggle camera over there. Sure, we can use electrical stuff but who knows what being around so much magic might do to it and I don't want to break it because it wasn't cheap and I don't feel like buying a new one so soon when I don't have to."
Even if she could easily replace it, that didn't mean she should be careless with her possessions. That was how one became the worst kind of greedy.
"What's a Pensieve do?" Deborah asked after a moment of silence.
"You take a memory and put it in this weird, golden bowl thing that's filled with some odd liquid. You then dip your head inside and can view the memory from all angles because it's like you're personally in the memory despite being unable to interact with anyone. I think everything else is in colour and you are in black and white to show the difference too."
"...Wow. Wizards have some interesting shite."
"Yeah."
Now if only they could invent magical television. Runes could probably do it if anyone tried hard enough.
In fact… Bella had another side project she was going to look into now because that sounded pretty awesome!
Being in class with Mad-Eye Moody was an experience. The madman had started them off immediately with practice surrounding the Dark Arts to an almost obsessive degree.
The former year, Remus had spent a lot of time familiarising them with various creatures and how to magically defend against them. While unlikely they'd ever actually be confronted with such creatures, it was best to at least know these things personally because anything could happen. Fate could be a bitch and make Murphy's Law a legit thing. So of course knowing life-saving information was useful.
Mad-Eye Moody clunked his way into the DADA classroom, his fake eye swiveling all over the room. The Slytherins were currently in class with the Gryffindors. Oddly enough, the man didn't seem to be anti-Slytherin despite his glowing records of putting Death Eaters away. It was a known fact that most DEs were former Slytherins after all and there was no hiding from that fact.
"Professor Lupin sat me down for a nice cuppa and explained what you've managed to learned since your year started here," Moody said and clunked on by the rows of desks, his staff making annoying thumping noises as it went. "And get rid of the books, they aren't necessary for this class. Not with my plans for you."
Hermione's offended look had Bella stifling a snort. Of course she would be offended when books would not be beneficial in classwork. That was why she was third best in DADA.
"You've gotten a taste of handling Dark Creatures and the like, but you've not really focused on spellwork, and that's what I'm going to teach you." He turned to face the room then. "CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" he roared, making them all startle. There was no good reason for him to have done that.
"This is supposed to be the year of counter-curses, but I say that's a load of rubbish! I've gotten special permission to educate you on the worst of the worst!"
Bella did not miss how pale Theo suddenly got, or how Blaise moved to pat his back in comfort. Neither of them said anything of course.
"I'm going to teach you how to spot the bad things coming your way. No Dark Wizard's just going to take a second to tell you what spell they're going to use. You need to be prepared! You need to know what you're up against! You need to put that love note to Mr. Malfoy away while I'm talking, Ms. Brown!"
The whole class whirled around to see Lavender Brown, red-faced and folding a piece of parchment as quickly as she could so she could stash it in her handbag. Draco's face was also red though it looked to be more out of disgust than Lavender's mortification.
And suddenly Bella knew what the funky eye was for. No wonder he was considered one of the best Aurors to come from Britain.
"So… what shall we start with first?" Moody asked rhetorically, already pulling out his wand. "Which of you know of the most heavily punished spells in the British Magical Community?"
Hands shot up instantly and Bella was not shocked to see Hermione's hand already up high in the air.
Moody chose Ron Weasley instead, much to Hermione's obvious dismay.
"Arthur Weasley's boy, eh?" Moody grumbled. "What do you know?
"Dad told me about the Imperius Curse some time ago and how it gives the caster total control over the victim. They could be forced to do anything essentially."
The fake eye of Moody's wasn't even looking at Weasley. It was twisted into the back of Moody's head, but the real eye was focused perfectly on the Gryffindor. "Yeah, you're father would know all about it. It's a favourite of the Dark Wizards, that curse. Perhaps this will help you understand why."
Moody clunked over to the teacher's desk, which was filled with oddly shaped jars. From one he produced a spider he spelled to grow to the size of his hand so everyone could see it no matter where they sat in the room. "Imperio!"
Bella watched as the man forced the spider to perform all kinds of stunts. Many of the students laughed, most of them from Gryffindor. But the majority of the Slytherins weren't laughing, and neither were Prue or Ronald.
It didn't pass Moody's notice as he forced the spider to jump across the desks and plant itself in Parvati Patil's hair. The Indian girl went deathly still as her laughter ceased, and Brown was screaming bloody murder beside her.
"Not so funny now, is it?" Moody growled. "What else could I have it do? Jump out the window? Drown itself? Try to kill one of you to the best of its ability?"
And silence reigned in the room as the full weight of just what the curse was capable of, hit them. "Absolute control over another being so long as they have a weaker Will than you. You-Know-Who's followers had a habit of claiming they were only acting under his control. It gave the Ministry loads of trouble in determining who was telling the truth, because they remember everything they've done when being controlled, it just feels different to them."
The spider was released from the curse and left on Moody's desk where they all could see it cowering on itself.
"Another curse!" Moody demanded, waving his hand frantically.
Less hands shot up this time, but Theo's was definitely among them, and both of Moody's eyes landed on him instantly. "Ah, yes! The Nott boy. Your family would know all about the Unforgivable Curses, wouldn't they?"
Theo nodded. "There's the pain curse, sir. The Cruciatus Curse. Causes unexplainable amounts of burning and spasming throughout the body from the inside. Prolonged exposure reduces the nerves to goo and can render the victim permanently vegetative."
Moody didn't even reply, he merely pointed his wand at the enlarged spider and said, "Crucio!"
The creature's body seemed to curl in on itself, shaking madly as if trying to escaping something. It made no noise, but Bella could tell that if it could, it'd be screaming, probably shrilly.
After what felt like an eternity of watching the poor thing suffer, Moody stopped the curse. "That was also a favourite of the Death Eaters. Especially on muggles. This was used on people at the World Cup Final if you'll recall. Not pleasant.
"Anyone have the final curse?"
Prue raised her hand and said, "The Killing Curse."
"Avada Kedavra!"
A bright and familiar green light exploded out of the tip of Moody's wand, knocking the spider over and causing it to cease all movement. "No counter for this curse. No escape. Only one person has ever been known to survive it and she's in this room."
Moody's real eye was trained on Prue, who stared him down defiantly, but Bella was given pause when she realised that his fake eye was facing her direction. As in he was staring at the both of them.
Did he know the truth about the Girl-Who-Lived? Prue's gaze trailed over to Bella's, who shrugged in equal amounts of confusion.
"CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" the ex-Auror bellowed once again, making the whole class jump in their seats.
"I doubt any of you would be skilled enough to accomplish any of these curses at present. You could all come at me and I'd easily take you down, but if I'm not teaching you how to do them then why teach them at all?"
Bella's hand shot up and he nodded to her. "It's so we'll know what to expect and possibly how to avoid them if we can."
"Exactly! There are ways around the control of the Imperius. There are ways to prepare you for the pain of the Cruciatus. And there are ways to summon or transfigure solid items to take the brunt of a Killing Curse for you! And you'll be learning them with me. CONSTANT VIGILANCE!"
This was going to be a running gag, wasn't it? The whole class still jumped though, so maybe Moody was a real life, successful jumpscare. FNaF could take some notes.
"Take out your quills because there are notes to be taken!"
The class was very interesting to say the least.
Bella was a bit shaken up over it too. "We nearly got hit by a lot of Killing Curses at the World Cup Final," she noted as they walked to lunch. "We were much closer to dying that even I believed, holy shite."
When they met up with Neville and Luna at lunch, it was to find Neville quiet and withdrawn.
"What's wrong, Nev?" Bella asked. "Do I need to hurt someone? Because I will do something drastic without hesitation."
"He didn't like his DADA class," was Luna's answer. She was busy pouring him some tea. "Things did not go well for him seeing the Cruciatus in person."
"It's the curse that rendered my parents into what they are today," was his ever so quiet remark. "It's also what's left me stuck with my Gran as the Head of my family."
That was not good.
"Moody's different too," Neville added, his sour expression clearing a bit by his obvious confusion. "He's been training me forever which is enough time to understand how he works. And he's a bit different from what I've gotten used to."
Bella looked to Luna for answers, and the blonde merely shrugged. "Not everything is set in stone. Much remains up in the air."
Which meant she didn't know either.
But this was interesting because Moody seemed to know something about the real GWL and now he was acting odd according to Neville?
She'd need to keep an eye on him, but since he would know doubt have one on her, it'd be difficult.
The Killing Curse really does resemble my eyes, holy shite. Aren't I just so unique!
Basic white girl with a basic hair colour, but at least my eyes are unique!
Why do you know this?
And who needed to die as a result?
Chill, dude. Professor Moody decided that we needed to learn about the Unforgivables
and his genius plan was to show us them first so we can get an idea of what to defend
against. I saw a big arse spider bite the dust better than Queen and realised how close
I was to death at the WCF.
Fourth Years are too young to be seeing those! Learning is one thing but actually viewing them
and how they affect living creatures?
Most weren't even mature enough to truly understand them anyway.
This Moody fellow was mad.
Do you honestly think that, oh ye who sent a great snake to attack students before you
were even sixteen?
Attack, not kill. And I didn't use any of the Unforgivables until I was sixteen because I'd deemed
myself ready.
Myrtle's death had been an accident as he had said before.
The Basilisk had been heartbroken and refused to come out of the Chamber after that. And Tom wasn't stupid enough to use one of those curses inside the castle! Not with Dumbledore breathing down his bloody neck all the time! He wasn't some thoughtless Gryffindor!
You're sure a cocky twat sometimes IstG.
I never said I wasn't.
So you got jokes! *APPLAUSE*
I hate you.
Suuuuuure. :)
If anyone had ever chosen to talk to him like that back in school or the orphanage, horrible things happened to them. Yet when Bella did it he was amused. That had to prove that he and Voldemort were different people. Voldemort would have never formed a bond with anyone ever because he would have viewed it as a weakness. And yet Tom didn't particularly feel weak or susceptible to danger when communicating with Bella.
Perhaps it was because she was just the right kind of friend he needed?
"If I never hear the words 'constant vigilance' in the same order again, it'll be too soon," Theodore groaned as he lay down on his bed.
Blaise, who was busy writing his his journal, gave a nod to show that he was listening.
"Moody is as mad as people make him out to be."
"At least he doesn't target the Slytherins, so that's good," said Blaise quietly. "Though he doesn't seem to like Malfoy all that much, for whatever reason."
Theo snorted, reminded of their class and how Moody's creepy arse eye followed Malfoy's every move without hesitation. It probably had something to do with the fact that out of all the students with Death Eater parents, Draco was the most like his father. Theo strove to be nothing like the father he never knew, or Xenophon. Blaise wasn't the child of a Death Eater. Daphne was as far removed from her family as she could get. Tracey was only a Halfblood and her Pureblood parent wasn't a Death Eater. Pansy was too clingy to be like a Death Eater. Millicent wasn't very present in person. Crabbe and Goyle were just there to lumber around after Malfoy.
So despite him being more tolerable than his father, Draco was very much like him and that probably concerned the Death Eater catcher. Enough to practically stalk him at any opportunity.
"Neville doesn't seem to trust him though," Blaise murmured, closing his journal. "And when he said that, Bella seemed to just completely turn on him too. Wonder what that's about. Prunella doesn't seem too fond of him either."
Yeah. It was like they knew something. Though when it came to Bella it was really difficult to understand her way of thinking. It was just so strange most of the time! Her reasoning never really made any sense to them until it was too late.
"Maybe Bella will tell us what's going on later."
"Hello, Highmaster Karkaroff," Tom greeted with a calm and innocent smile. He was endlessly amused when the man in question seemed to stiffen and become less coordinated.
Tom had done nothing terrible or even relatively concerning ever since coming to Durmstrang, but he was very much interested in using psychological torture on Voldemort's former minion. Watching him squirm was the best entertainment Tom could get while stuck in a foreign country and surrounded by people he didn't like.
He'd deliberately been acting as if he was up to something, just to unnerve Karkaroff and keep him on the edge. Bella would applaud him if she knew the extent he'd taken this little game of his!
"Hello, Mr. Night," Karkaroff said with a nod that ended up being more of a fidget than anything else.
"How are you today?" Tom asked, trailing a finger over the bookcase in the man's office in order to inspect the gathered layers of dust that proved such vast amounts of knowledge and information were going to waste.
About ready to explode if the mad twitching continued to get any worse, from what Tom could see. And that would simply not do. His fun wasn't over yet.
"I'm doing well, Mr. Night."
"That's good. We all need to remember to take care of ourselves, don't we sir?" His tone was perfectly polite and his smile could fell angels. Nothing about Tom could possibly give anything away to someone unaware of his supposed relation to Voldemort. Tom especially liked to pull this in front of the other professors, just to give the man more hardship.
He was not a nice person and would never pretend to be. He was getting far too much enjoyment out of this!
"Indeed, Mr. Night," was all Karkaroff could manage to say in return.
"I wanted to ask if I could borrow some of your books here? I'm ever so interested in furthering my knowledge and you have some tomes I've never even laid eyes upon before."
It wasn't really a request and was more of a demand. Karkaroff knew that very well. Had anyone else been in the room with them though, it would have simply looked like a star pupil was inquiring after additional subjects to study.
Tom loved manipulating those around him. It was so easy!
Karkaroff's eyes became even more wide than before. "Help yourself. Any time you wish."
"Thank you, sir." For being so easy to control, he added to himself.
He would call this a success! He got the books he wanted and nearly made an ex-Death Eater soil himself. What a great start to the day!
"I'll keep good notes on everything for you so you won't miss out," Hermione promised. "I'll even use colour-coded pens so your attention doesn't wander when you're reviewing."
Neville presented Bella with a four-leaf clover. "For good luck," the blond had said.
From Blaise she got a hug and from Theo she got a supportive pat on the back.
Luna simply gave her a mysterious smile and said, "Do your best."
"I'll try," Bella promised with a grin.
~.O.~
A/N: Another is done!
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