Beta'd by the adorable InsaneScriptist.
To those reviewers persisting in asking about pairings: Tsuna is currently five to Dorea's fourteen and Reborn is cursed into a two-year-old body and probably somewhere in his mid-to-late thirties. How are either of those appropriate love interests for a teenage girl?
Of formalwear and forebodings
Dorea had found out about the Yule Ball while scrying for details of the first task, so she already had many, many plans in motion by the time her friends found out the week following the whole dragon fiasco. Dee, Trey and Hermione were not exactly amused when Dorea told them she'd known about this for nearly a month already and had actually ordered them new dress robes for the event, but they let it go because, well, free dress robes.
Hermione had been less impressed that Dee or Trey, but Dorea had bribed her with the promise of Family jewellery and a book on Magical Law, which distracted the Muggleborn ward of House Black very nicely. Zee, Theo, Rence and Draco were all a bit baffled by Dorea's insistence on buying them new dress robes, but none of them really cared and helped her gang up on the Weasley twins so they'd realise it wasn't charity or anything stupid like that but Dorea's somewhat irrational urge to get everyone to match. Luna was happy to be dressed up as she hadn't really expected to be invited anyway, Padma was bemused but going along with Dorea anyway and her Hufflepuff and Gryffindor friends agreed to let Dorea foot the bill for new outfits out of simple curiosity. Neville was the only one to object, but agreed to match the scheme once Dorea explained what she was up to.
She wound up buying dress robes for Ginny as well, since Neville had asked the youngest Weasley to accompany him to the ball. Ginny had joined the lower study group near the end of her first year and since then become a truly terrifying duellist. She was not well-rounded enough to make it into the upper study group and a lot of her time was taken up by Quidditch –she was the new Gryffindor seeker and pretty good at it too– but she was learning about Soulfire with her elder brothers' assistance and seemed to have a knack for it. In fact, Ginny could draw out more of it that her twin brothers, which resulted in a few destructive accidents before she got the flames under control.
The Yule Ball was made interesting by George asking Hermione to go with him and discovering she'd already agreed to go with someone else, which made him alarmingly temperamental for several hours before he got over himself and asked Luna, who agreed cheerfully since she was otherwise lacking a partner and wouldn't have been able to attend unless invited. Draco had actually gone down on his knees and begged Dee to save him from Pansy, which she had agreed to after a long pause just to make him squirm.
Dorea herself was going with Zee, who had asked her to go with him as friends so as to save him from the romantic machinations of the other girls. Theo asked Trey, who agreed blushingly, and Rence eventually asked Deborah, with the caveat that they were going just as friends so they both had someone to dance with. Rence knew Deborah had a 'thing' going with the recently-graduated Audric and didn't want to die yet, thank-you very much. Audric had achieved his swordsmanship Mastery before graduating in the summer and was off doing something for his family, probably something that was dubiously legal and taking place abroad.
Fred was going with Katie Bell of Gryffindor, Padma was going with Terry Boot, Sally-Anne was going with a fifth-year Hufflepuff, Lavender with Seamus Finnegan, Fay with Dean Thomas and Pavarti with Roger the Gryffindor, as opposed to Roger the Ravenclaw, Trey's brother and Hogwarts' champion, who had somehow got Dorea's Cousin Stephanie to agree to go with him. Dorea didn't know if they were friends or if this was a sign of something more, but it was still an interesting development and Trey was cheering him on for a number of reasons, mainly because Stephanie was both very pretty and very clever.
The 'buying new robes for everyone' thing was yet another thing Dorea was doing purely on instinct, but it was no less important for that. She was making sure everyone had robes that looked stunning, were easy to move –or even fight– in and were treated with an alchemical solution that made them flameproof: Soulfire-proof, specifically. The colour of the robes was selected to match the primary Flame affinity of each of her friends, though of course she was making sure the colours were shown tastefully since they were not universally flattering. Hair and skin colours had to be taken into account, after all. She was also ordering the robes a bit large, so that they could be magically fitted and later taken out again, to allow for growth. Alchemically treating fabrics like silk was a chore and a half and she wanted her efforts to still be wearable a few years down the line.
It would have been nice if there was someone other than herself wearing orange though, and the level of care required to find a shade of red that wouldn't clash horribly with Ginny's hair was almost more effort that it was worth. Her own dress at least was a deliberately muted and darkened shade of burnt orange, so as not to clash with Blaise's blue robes.
The Yule Ball was a smashing success, but Dorea found it rather tame compared to the various balls she had attended in the past and her own various birthday parties. What did please her however was how thrilled all her friends were by their outfits. Lots of pictures were taken, Hermione looked stunning dancing with Krum in a Black tiara studded with amethysts and Zee was amusing enough company to make up for the small orchestra leaving the stage half-way through the evening. The Weird Sisters did not interest Dorea in the slightest, so she and several friends escaped the party to hole up in one of the larger music rooms for some more dancing and a bit of singing.
The Charmed Muggle radio Dorea had brought with her on her first year at Hogwarts had started a bit of a craze for Muggle music among her friends. Her cousins had taken advantage of this and bought large numbers of vinyl records and a very good quality player to Hogwarts in her second year, so rather than listen to a Wizarding rip-off band in the Great Hall, Dorea and her friends danced and sang along to Sting, Dire Straits, Bonnie Tyler, various more recent Britpop bands like Oasis and Boyzone as well as numerous American hits of the past few years in a wide variety of styles. She especially enjoyed playing along to Meatloaf and Aerosmith.
Dorea, while a very capable pianist and perfectly able to improvise along to the radio, was however not a very good singer which was part of why she'd learned to play an instrument in the first place. Trey on the other hand had a wonderfully lush voice, Dee had a pleasantly ethereal soprano and Zee, Theo, Neville and Rence all had very nice voices in a variety of registers. Hermione was tone-deaf, which irritated her but Victor kept her from brooding too much by dancing with her to all the tunes which had a beat that allowed it. As the evening ticked on most of the Beauxbatons students and their dance partners also crashed the party alongside a good number of other Slytherins, but Dorea didn't care. They were all having fun.
Unfortunately despite all their fun on Christmas someone spoiled the experience for them: just three days later the Daily Prophet ran an article on how students at Hogwarts were being 'corrupted' by Muggle Music. Rather ironically they included the names of the bands and quite a few details on the artists being railed against, catching the interest of those students who had not been let in on the Hogwarts underground music scene. As a result the Weasley twins somehow assisted in the procurement of two more gramophones and numerous new records, which were hidden in the House common rooms and widely enjoyed, but Dorea was still irritated that someone had told tales on their little get-together. She didn't think it had been any of the students either: everyone who'd come along had really enjoyed themselves, which meant the spy was probably some stuffy adult who had somehow avoided notice.
As the matter had mostly blown over by mid-January, Dorea set it aside and focused more on her studies and the niggling feeling in the back of her mind that she needed to be taking more than just her Runes OWL come the summer.
Dorea didn't actually pay much attention to the rumours surrounding the approaching second task, as she was mulling over her OWL issues and trying to work out what was preventing her from actually physically manifesting her Soulfire. She knew she had it, she just couldn't coax it out like her friends were managing to. The book Abraxas had left her seemed to be insinuating that she didn't want it enough, which was frustrating but didn't actually help her. So Dorea set actually learning to use Soulfire aside for a little while in favour of returning to The Invisible Book of Invisibility and a book on Ritual Magic she'd found in her inheritance from Uncle Cygnus. The Rituals book was old, battered and had no title, but it was a goldmine of explicit and very useful information on crafting your own rituals from scratch, something that had long since gone out of fashion in favour of more generic, reliable and widely known rituals.
The third book she was currently reading was another of the volumes inherited from Abraxas, this one a collection of eyewitness accounts of users of 'the Flames of the Will' through recorded history. Most of the more recent users were connected to the Italian Underworld, specifically the Mafia, and there were accounts in the back of the book which had actually been written by Abraxas himself. The Chronicle contained a lot of information that other people would likely kill to keep secret, so whoever the late Lord Malfoy had inherited from had either trusted Abraxas implicitly or had died before being able to destroy it. Dorea actually felt the former was more likely; looking back she suspected Abraxas had been a Soulfire user himself and had seen in her the potential to do likewise. Nothing else explained his last birthday present to her.
When the day before the second task arrived Dorea was summoned up to the Headmaster's office, where she learned what the task involved.
"So, Headmaster," Dorea said with deliberate clam, "you will be Enchanting a Ward of my House and placing her at the bottom of the Black Lake, in the middle of winter, for a champion to retrieve." As a Ward of House Black and specifically Dorea's Ward, they had to ask her before using Hermione. That they wouldn't have had to ask her parents was part of the reason Dorea felt that the Ward system really needed to make a comeback; Muggleborns had fewer rights than Wizard-borns, though under-age orphans had even less.
"That's right, my dear," Dumbledore said jovially.
"I request that you not refer to me so familiarly, Headmaster," Dorea said quietly but clearly, "as we are not sufficiently well-acquainted to justify it. Will Hermione Black-Granger at any point be in danger of illness, injury or death?"
"Of course not!" Ludo Bagman said earnestly.
Dorea pinned the man with a hard stare and raised a sceptical eyebrow. "Will you so swear to me on your magic, Ludo Bagman?"
"Er–" put on the spot, the Head of the Department of Magical Games and Sports looked rather more nervous that his initial assurances warranted.
"Because if not, I cannot justify such carelessness concerning the wellbeing of a Ward of House Black," Dorea went on with deceptive mildness.
"Perhaps a compromise would be possible, Miss Black?" Dumbledore suggested. "After all, an oath is rather a drastic measure when she might fall prey to minor injury where Mr Bagman cannot prevent it, such as at the hands of the champion tasked with her rescue."
"I consider an oath to be a minimal safety feature, Headmaster," Dorea said coolly, "as it provides incentive to the one swearing it. Hermione is of House Black and we take such things very seriously."
Headmaster Karkaroff looked caught between outrage and approval at her very explicit doubt in the capabilities of the planners to keep her Ward safe and had not yet spoken up beyond informing her that he wanted Hermione to be the hostage Victor would be retrieving. Dorea suspected that he hadn't known the Muggleborn girl was a Ward of House Black and that he'd deliberately selected somebody semi-expendable whose wellbeing wasn't his responsibility. Otherwise he might have chosen somebody else despite Victor rather obvious attachment to Hermione following the Yule Ball.
"Would it perhaps assuage your concerns if the Enchantments were placed by someone in particular?" Dumbledore ventured eventually, following a long pause in which he had gazed at her disappointedly and Dorea had refused to entertain even an inkling of shame. "I could perform them if you preferred?"
"I would prefer them to be cast by Professor Moody," Dorea said calmly, well aware of the insult she was offering the headmaster of her school, "as I know that he has the wellbeing of his students as a primary concern. Following the events of my first two years here I find I do not trust you as much as I would like, Headmaster Dumbledore."
Dumbledore seemed to age before her eyes at this pronouncement. "Very well, Miss Black, if that is your preference I will ask Alastor to do so. Will you be requesting that he swear an oath?"
"Naturally; I also expect to be present at the time that my Ward is enspelled so I can accept his oath in person," Dorea said pleasantly. "Will that be all Headmasters, Mr Bagman?" When none of the three responded she rose to her feet. "Then I shall take my leave. Good evening, gentlemen."
After taking Not-Moody's oath the next morning that Hermione would be spelled against any harm that could feasibly come to her while underwater in the care of the Merfolk and seeing the other girl Enchanted, Dorea went back to her dorm for a book before making her way out to the stands above the lake. In true 'Idiot Wizard' fashion there wouldn't actually be anything to see during this task, so wrapping up warm and having something to read was the only sensible option. Dorea took a German novel she'd been given for Christmas, since she didn't want her extracurricular reading to come to her teachers' attention. Seeing her with a book prompted a large number of her fellow snakes to go back to their dorms and do likewise, the OWL and NEWT students in particular. Seeing so many Slytherins carrying books sent a solid percentage of badgers and ravens in search of reading material as well, which was all the better.
Dorea barely noticed the beginning of the task, so engrossed was she in her reading, and when it ended a little over an hour later she only glanced up for long enough to see how the champions had scored before setting her book aside and leaving the stands. It was cold, windy and unpleasant sitting around outside in Scotland in mid-February and she wasn't going to do it for a moment longer than was strictly necessary.
It was Easter when Dorea finally wrote to her father, explaining about her ever more insistent instincts and how she wanted to take more than just her Runes OWL come June. Specifically, Dorea intended to take Muggle Studies, Charms and Transfiguration in addition to Ancient Studies and Music. Art was assessed based on the works she had produced, and her Art Professor had already told her that she had a sufficient portfolio to gain an O, should she chose to submit it. Music was performance based and Dorea was confident in her skills, so that at least would be easy. Transfiguration would give her the most difficulties, but she was certain she would pass and that an E was not beyond her skills, though she was unlikely to gain an O. However the urgency she felt was such that Dorea was unwilling to wait the extra year required for a perfect score; an E would be sufficient.
Arithmancy, Herbology and Defence would have to wait, but Dorea was not overly concerned by that. Self-study would get her ahead in the first, the second was more of a recreational activity than anything else and the last was not really a proper subject at all, covering a mishmash of offensive spells, legalities and creatures considered 'dark' rather than being a class on Battle Magic as it was supposed to be. The discreet combat classes held in the Slytherin Duelling Halls and occasionally the Hogwarts Armoury were closer to the original class the founders had instated than the current Defence course.
Dorea explained her intentions to her friends in the study hall on the sixth floor she'd appropriated and Charmed against intruders. Parselmagic was highly effective in guarding locations, as well as in medicine, fertility magic and truly unpleasant curses. Each of her friends had a charm that let them in to the East Wing in conjunction with their own specific Soulfire affinity, which was as effective a precaution against theft as Dorea could manage. Despite her extra studies, some spells were still beyond her.
Neville, Susan, Hannah and Ernie had been the most difficult to crate charms for, as unlike the rest of her friends their Soulfire was attuned to Earth rather than Sky. Most Soulfire –if people had it at all– was Ethereal, in that it held the qualities of the air. It blended slightly towards fire at one end and heavily towards water at the other, but air was what all seven types had in common. Earth-natured Soulfire was much rarer, with a subdued fire leaning at one end of the spectrum and a moderate water one at the other. It was also denser, harsher and harder to call into motion. Dorea was heavily orientated towards pure Air, placing her in the middle of the Sky spectrum with an affinity for Harmony. This meant she could theoretically sublimate her own Soulfire to match any of the other types, but making her charms resonate with the heavier Earth flames took a great deal of effort as it was. That she couldn't hold onto her flames for more than a few seconds at a time was beyond frustrating.
Dorea suspected that being Earth-natured also had effects on a person's magic: those of her friends with Earth-type Soulfire were not very good at all at the simpler Charms requiring little power and fine control, but were coming into their own as the magic they were being taught required greater power and slightly less finesse. There was also a general trend towards being skilled in Herbology, leading Dorea to wonder if Helga Hufflepuff had been an Earth-orientated Soulfire adept.
Hermione couldn't understand why Dorea would want to take her OWLs before she was really ready for them, but agreed to help her study nonetheless. Dee, Trey and Zee were all supportive, Theo wanted to know if she was thinking of skipping fifth year altogether and Luna just agreed that Dorea could easily get enough OWLs this year to not have to return to Hogwarts come the following Autumn. This raised a bit of an outcry, but it died down quickly when Sally-Anne shared that following her OWLs her parents would be marrying her off to Gabriel Truman, who had graduated from Hufflepuff at the end of their second year. Sally-Anne would not be sitting her NEWTs unless her husband paid for a private tutor –which he probably would considering he was a badger– and even then her studies would come second to the children she was expected to provide.
Padma then explained to an outraged Hermione that it was rather normal for girls of lower-ranking Magical families to drop out after their OWLs, as in many cases they had only been admitted to Hogwarts in order to find a decent husband and integrate into the upper classes a bit. Lily Moon in Ravenclaw was another such, as was Megan Jones, and there were many more such girls in the years below them. Dee then stepped in to explain firmly that the parents of these girls wanted the best for them, but the Wizarding World did not offer many jobs for women beyond being governess, nursery maid, seamstress, shop assistant, secretary or researcher, none of which were really 'respectable' for the noble yet only moderately wealthy. Large, established and affluent families could afford to let the womenfolk of the main branch do as they pleased –the Blacks being an excellent example– but otherwise personal freedom was only available to the working class and the comfortably middle-class lacking in upwardly-mobile aspirations.
Dorea then gently explained to Hermione that the reason the Weasleys had been allowed into Hogwarts was that they were the latest generation of the very noble and upper-crust Prewett family. Their mother Molly Weasley née Prewett was the only one of her siblings to have children –or indeed live long enough to marry– so her children had inherited the 'right' to attend Hogwarts despite their father being a fourth son. Unless they made it big by themselves and could afford to pay the fees, none of the children of the current generation of Weasleys would make it into Hogwarts. Ginny was expected to marry well, but was unlikely to find herself in a marriage contract due to her parents' rather disturbingly lax attitude towards traditions. Not that a contract was a good thing, Dorea hastened to add, but ignorance of tradition would put off a lot of people where Ginny was concerned as it was seen as not respecting the social niceties and ignorance was never attractive, for all that she and her twin brothers had picked up quite a bit over the past year or two.
Hermione then asked what she had to look forward to after Hogwarts, at which point Dorea had to come clean on the whole 'Ward of House Black' thing and what that actually meant. In this case, it meant that Hermione could do whatever Dorea sponsored her into doing, since Dorea was the heir of an Ancient and Noble House and people would be tripping over themselves to do her favours. Hermione would only be limited by her own ambitions and Dora's goodwill. Not even Dorea's own father could limit Hermione's choices, because it was Dorea, not Lord Black, who was her sponsor.
The Muggleborn girl looked utterly gobsmacked.
"Taking in Muggleborns as Wards of Houses is a very old tradition," Dorea went on a little nervously, "and rather popular a until few centuries back as it kept the power concentrated in the Ancient Families and brought in new blood without diluting the traditions. However when a lot of families started losing money back at the end of the nineteenth century sponsorship started to dwindle, and the Grindelwald War pretty much put an end to it. I'm hoping that by sponsoring Hermione other families will take up the practice again, as it ensured that Muggleborns were properly educated and supported within our culture and got the positions their education made them suited for."
Hermione's eyes shone with unshed tears as she lunged at Dorea, hugging the taller girl around the neck. "Thank-you, Dorea," she hiccupped, "thank-you. I'm going to go into Law. That way I can sort through all the old, forgotten legislation floating around and make the system more comprehensible so things actually work."
Dorea patted her friend on the back. "That sounds like a wonderful idea," she said sincerely. "Would you like me to find you more books on Law?"
Hermione pulled back, wiping her face with a handkerchief. "Yes please," she sniffed. "I am going to ensure the legal system is clear enough that people can't wriggle out of their responsibilities!"
Dorea honestly couldn't wait to see what kind of chaos Hermione threw up in her wake. It was bound to be massively entertaining.