AN: Please review!
The Mudblood's Daughter and The Hallows Horcruxes
Narca-Jane sat looking through sheet's of notes in thought, her eyes narrowed in concentration, her eyebrows furrowed, and her tongue sticking out. Adalyn sat a little away from her, also deep in her reading. Narca-Jane's hair was pinned up, into a bun, keeping it from getting in her way, and she wore a pair of dirty old jeans, with grass stains on the knees, and tears up the side. Her jumper was three sizes to big, and every now and again she would give an involuntary shiver.
"Have you found anything? Where the Horcrux could possibly be?" Adalyn finally asked, looking at her, and Narca-Jane looked at her briefly, before nodding. Adalyn's eyes widened, and she quickly crawled over to Narca-Jane, plopping down beside her with an ungracious thud, looking over the sheets. "Well, what is it? Where is the Music Box?" she asked eagerly, and Narca-Jane shook her head.
"Actually... I think I know where the Snake Headed stick is," Narca-Jane said, and Adalyn clapped her hands in happiness. This got Riley's attention from where she was speaking to Stella, and the two came over to them, expecting looks on their faces. "Okay, so I cross-referenced some of the main places of attack, and figured out what they all had in common," Narca-Jane pulled out a map of England, and a ruler and pen.
"The first attack was in Northampton on August Seventh, closely followed by another in Oxford on August Twentieth. Three weeks after that, there was an attack in Cambridge, and the one in Reading on the Ninth September. Then, the biggest attack in London, on the thirtieth of November. No one else connected it, because they were so far apart, but I realised that there was a pattern in the sequence of attack, and this was what I got," Narca-Jane explained, before turning the map so they could all look at it.
The thick black lines marred the page, creating a star shape across it, connecting the five points. "A perfect pentagram, almost. With Aylesbury right in the middle. So when I found that out, I did some research into Aylesbury. Turns out, that there is nothing really notable about it, butthere is about Aylesbury Vale, more specifically Coombe Hill. Coombe comes from the Brythonic origin hollow, and according to the Wizard map, it is supposedly hollow, the Monument built to keep it safe from Muggles."
"It's been forbidden for Wizards to enter it, yet about seven months ago, the entrance was opened, and then closed on the same night. No one knows what went on down there, but apparently the sound of screaming was heard from the hill, like tortured souls calling out for help," Adalyn butted in, her eyes widening. "It was in the Prophet." she said, when she got confused looks from Riley and Stella.
Narca-Jane nodded, and quickly rushed over to the bag that contained all their stuff, pulling out a large book. Across the cover it had Places The Greats Forgotten and it was written by a man named Paltrigo Perfuctionarie. The book was rather dusty, with a leather binding. "This book says something about Coombe Hill, butvery little, about a couple of sentences. There are rumours to it containing a family of Acromatula's, a horde of Quintapeds, and even a Hellhound or two. Unfortunately, there has never been any proof of these rumours, so whether or not they are true is yet to be asserted."
"Yeah, and the other thing is, if these monsters truly lived in Coombe Hill, then how did Cissady and her army of idiots get past them to hide the Horcrux in the Hill? Sure I can understand the Hellhounds, but a family of Acromantula's? A horde of Quintapeds? Those things are incredibly dangerous. That place should be kept from Muggles. Instead they made it into a Memorial? It's bizarre!" Stella said seriously, her eyes wide in disbelief.
"Apparently, Albus Dumbledore was the one who placed the charm on the Monument to keep it sealed, and therefore no one deemed it as dangerous as it supposedly was," Adalyn read from the book, before looking at them, blinking. "So... I guess that means we're going to have a hell of a problem getting in there then."
"That's if there's anything to get into to begin with," Narca-Jane said, frowning. She looked around, looking down-heartened. "Where is Teddy and Raine?" she sighed, pushing her bangs out of her eyes. Adalyn looked around the tent, and then Stella jumped in surprise.
"Oh, they went down to the river to do the washing," Stella said, a smile on her face, and Narca-Jane frowned, before nodding. The four girls sat in silent for a few moments, before Stella spoke again. "Very well, what is the plan? How are we getting to Coombe Hill?"
Narca-Jane thought for a moment, before looking down at her map. "There is a train, from Gloucester to Aylesbury. If we can catch that, we are safe to get there. It's not that far to walk to the Station, but we'll have to get some sort of disguises. If we go out like this, we are bound to be recognised, and we will go late at night, around eleven. We can't trust anyone not in our family. From Alyesbury, we can get to Coombe Hill."
"I'll get on the internet, try and find tickets," Adalyn rushed, skipping over to her laptop, and booting it up. The laptop whirred to life, surviving on it's last dregs of battery power. Stella looked at Narca-Jane and Riley, fear on her face.
"Just so I know... does anyone actually know how to get past Acromantula's and Quintapeds here?" she asked nervously, and Narca-Jane and Riley looked at each other, before shaking their heads, staring at each other with frowns. "Right... well... okay... How far is Coombe hill from Aylesbury?"
"Er... you have to go through the town of Wendover, past Dunsmore to The Chilterns, overlooking Aylesbury Vale," Narca-Jane said, running her finger over the map. Adalyn suddenly called her attention, and the group looked over at her.
"Okay, there's a train on the twenty-third, at 22:13, from Gloucester, to Swindon, then get the train to London Paddington, where we have to get the Underground to London Marlyebone, which we will have to get another train to Princes Risborough to Aylesbury. We'll arrive at 07:28, and the journey will take 9 hours and 15 minutes. It'll cost us as a collective, £708.75," Adalyn informed them.
"God, it would be cheaper just to apparate!" Riley moaned, and Adalyn snorted at her.
"Yeah, and risk detection from the Blood Hunters? You know they have lock down on all apparation," Adalyn informed them, just as the canvas flaps to the tent opened, and Teddy walked in, Raine following him, dripping wet and shivering like mad. Adalyn gasped, and rushed to her friends side, pulling her over to the furnace and wrapping her in a blanket. "What the bloody hell happened, Fluffy?"
"We were doing the washing, and Periwinkle leaned forward a bit to much, and crashed through the ice on the river. I had to use Accio to get her back," Teddy explained, placing the basket of reasonably clean washing on the table. Narca-Jane pulled out her wand, and cast a quick drying spell on Raine, before looking at he husband with a quirked eyebrow that was so obviously inherited from her mother.
"You couldn't cast a simple drying spell on her though? What are you, an idiot?" she sneered, her Slytherin nature forcing itself out, and Teddy grit his teeth sharply. Narca-Jane covered her mouth, and looked ta him apologetically. "I'm sorry," she squeaked, and Teddy just shrugged, saying 'Whatever' coldly. Narca-Jane exhaled heavily, walking over to him, and placing a hand on his cheek. His skin was warm, abnormally so, as it always got before the full moon.
"I'm sorry, Teddy," she whispered, and Teddy looked at her, before smirking suavily, and cirling an arm around her waist, dipping her. She giggled, and he planted a kiss on her lips, before setting her up right.
"So, I'm an idiot am I?" he asked, wrapping an arm around her shoulder, and Narca-Jane said 'No!' laughing gently. "Well I must be if I fell in love with you, honestly, what was I thinking?" he joked, and she punched him in the side, both of them chuckling, until Stella cut in, her eyes blazing.
"Fluffy, Paws! This really is not the time for you two to play around! We have one day, before we have to survive through Hellhounds, Quintapeds and Merlin knows what else! We should be making plans! Not having a laugh as if we were back in school and this was just one of those stupid pranks we used to play on people!" Stella snapped, her tone fed up and annoyed, her hands on her hips. Teddy and Narca-Jane separated, looking guiltily at her, and Stella gave them a look of contempt, before huffing and storming to her bunk, lying down with her back to them.
"What's got her wand in a twist?" Riley asked, coming up beside them, confusion written on her face, and Narca-Jane looked at her in disbelief.
"Plushpaws, it's the fifth Christmas since Uncle Blaise and Aunt Isla died, you know she's going to be having a hard time at the time of it. We just have to deal with it, okay, let her be," Narca-Jane whispered, her eyes sad. Riley looked at her, then at Stella, before shrugging and going over to Raine and Adalyn. Narca-Jane looked at Stella's back, and swallowed heavily. "Let her be."
Sirius looked at Dominique as she blatanly tried to flirt with him. The fifteen year old girl fluttered her eyelashes, and flipped her hair over her shoulders. Sirius swallowed, feeling slightly trapped in the corner. Sure, he liked the attention, but she was young enough to be his little sister, and she was his best friends girlfriends little sister as well. "Er, look..." he stammered, and Dominique pressed herself against him, going 'yes?' a sultry look on her face.
Sirius gulped, trying to push himself into the wall. Dominique grinned, when she was suddenly pulled away by an amused Cleo. "God, cuz, you know if Damien sees you all over him, he's going to flip," the thirteen year old said, and Dominique scowled, before sticking her tongue out at Cassie and walking into the kitchen, but not before winking at Sirius. Cleo laughed, shaking her head. "Don't mind her, she's a Slytherin. Flirts with anything on two legs," Cleo said, and Sirius looked at her.
"I know you from somewhere, right?" he asked, and Cleo blinked.
"Sure. I'm Cleo. You know, Cassie's twin sister," Cleo told him, and Sirius looked her over. She had red-streaked curly brown hair, freckled pink slightly round cheeks, pale skin, and gold eyes, and she wore a black, strapless dress, with black sandles. She'd be attractive, if she wasn't seven years younger than him. Cleo grinned, and shook his hand. "Well it was nice to see you again. If you excuse me, I must go and find my sister, she's disappeared with James again. See you around, Orion."
Sirius faltered, as he heard the name Orion, before nodding, smiling at her. "You too, Cleopatra," he said, and Cleo winced, before smiling and walking away, going up the stairs to find Cassie and James. Jay appeared beside Sirius, a goofy grin on his face.
"Heya Padfoot, who was that?" Jay asked, and Sirius looked at him, raising his eyebrows. He said 'Cleo' and Jay went 'oh', before walking over to Lilyanna and kissing her gently, tickling Artie's chest lovingly. Sirius grinned, and looked around the room for Remus, only to see him snuggled up with Victoire in the big seat, Victoire's head nestled under his chin, Remus's arms wrapped around her, and Victoire in his lap, legs over the arm of the chair.
They looked comfortable, both snoozing peacefully on the chair under the watchful eye of Bill from the kitchen, Fleur giggling and shaking her head. Charissa, from where she was with Charlie, grave looks on both their faces as they hissed silent whispers to one another, saw him looking in their direction and scowled at him, before grabbing Charlie's arm and pulling him into the Scullery.
Molly bustled towards him, holding a basket full of clothes. The smell of lavender and roses filled his nose, as she thrust it in his arms, her face red and expression harried. "Oh be a dear and sort this out for me, please, Orion," she asked, before shuffling back to the kitchen. Sirius sighed, and looked around the room. There was no where to sort it out, so he turned to go up the stairs. He counted them as he stepped up them, one, two, three...
"Nanny ask you to sort out the washing then?" Cleo's voice giggled, and Sirius looked up to see her smiling down at him. He smiled back, nodding. "Here, I can do it, if you want. It's our clothes anyway, it'd be wrong to make you do it," she offered, walking down the steps toward him and holding out her hands for the basket. Sirius grinned, shaking his head.
"It's okay, I can do it. It's not the first time since I came here that I had to sort out washing," Sirius told her, and Cleo blushed bright red, her face flustered. She quickly stammered that she didn't mean he couldn't do it, she was just offering, when he chuckled deeply. "I wasn't suggesting that you were insulting me, kiddo," he said, and Cleo turned an even deeper red, dropping her hands to her side and looking at the floor. "Look, you can help me if you want. It's just that downstairs is completely crowded and there is no where to sort this out."
"Oh, I know where you can sort that out. You should go to Essie and Lizzie's old room. It's the biggest apart from the Nanny's room, and we're not allowed in there," Cleo suggested. "Oh, and sure, of course I'll help you out. I mean, Merlin forbid you come across any underwear and I can't hide it, right?" she laughed, and Sirius nodded, laughing quietly. "Great, follow me."
A half hour later, she was looking at him with amazed eyes. "No way you did that! Can't you get arrested for that?" she gasped, and Sirius grinned, nodding. "That reminds me of some of the pranks the Honours used to pull. They were amazing. I am pretty sure they managed to convince everyone that the school had a lion infestation, and the lion wanted to eat children. Safe to say very few went wandering at night," Cleo said, folding a t-shirt. "See if me or my sisters and brother got up to anything like that, it would be all over the Prophet in seconds."
"Ah, the life of a Hallows. All glamor and parties?" Sirius smirked, and Cleo snorted, her thirteen year old face clearly bemused at the suggestion.
"More like life-time imprisonment and constant behaviour checks," she said, placing a pair of jeans onto Esmeralda's pile of clothes. "You never get a moments peace. Eeryone expects you to be something you're not. Although, I suppose you know all about that, being a Black, right?"
"Yeah- wait, how do you know about that?" he asked, and Cleo sniffed, turning her head to the side, her chin in the air.
"We Hallows witches never reveal our secrets," she said, snootily, and Sirius snorted. She looked at him, grinning. "Nah, you have the Black bone structure and features, it makes you easily distinguishable as a Black. That and I heard Nanny shout SIRIUS BLACK on night when we were all supposed to be in bed."
"Well, you lot really are sneaky little buggers aren't you," he complimented, and she murmed 'you don't know the half of it' under her breath. He looked at her, scrutinising, before ruffling up her curls. "You're alright, kid. You're alright."
"Well thanks, Snuffles," she said, and Sirius looked confused. She just laughed, and threw a sock at his head.
