I do not own Harry Potter. All rights go to J. K. Rowling as well as Warner brothers (For the movie rights).

Daughter of Darkness

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Izzy groaned as her eyes fluttered open. Everything hurt, and her body felt sluggish as she turned her head to the side. Harry was on the bed next to her, Ron was across. Izzy turned over but didn't see Hermione, she did however see that her shoulder was wrapped tightly in bandages, and there was a faint odor coming from them. Izzy groaned again, and this time she heard footsteps.

Hermione came from the bathroom to see her best friend trying to sit up. Madame Pomfrey had stepped out for a moment and told her to shout if anything happened. Shouting was unnecessary as Madame Pomfrey came in a moment later and walked over to her patient.

"How are you feeling, Miss Verona?" Madame Pomfrey asked gently. Hermione watched as the hospital matron ran a few diagnostic charms over Izzy's rather gruesome wound.

"Sore…tired…what happened?" Izzy whispered.

"What do you remember?" Madame Pomfrey asked softly. Izzy screwed up her face in concentration, trying to bring up the fuzzy memories.

"Ummm…I remember…going to the shrieking shack. We found out Sirius Black was innocent and that Peter Pettigrew was still alive. We were heading back to Hogwarts with him to turn him over when Professor Lupin…transformed," Izzy whispered. Her eyes flicked to the wound on her shoulder in fear. Madame Pomfrey seemed to have read her mind and took Izzy's hand gently.

"Fear not, Miss Verona. A werewolf's curse is not transferred through scratches, though there are unconfirmed rumors that the scratches of a werewolf can increase ones appetite for meat. Only the bite has the power to infect," Madame Pomfrey reassured. Izzy breathed a sigh of relief, as did Hermione. "There will be scars, however. Wounds inflicted by creatures such as werewolves are unable to be healed properly, the same goes for dark curses and some hexes," Madame Pomfrey lectured. Izzy nodded, just grateful that she hadn't been afflicted by such a terrible curse.

She liked professor Lupin, but being a werewolf was a curse, plain and simple.

"It's alright. I'm no stranger to scars," Izzy said lightly, as if she hadn't almost been killed by a werewolf. Madame Pomfrey did not look so amused at the comment but didn't say anything. Harry and Ron both groaned from their beds as Izzy sat up on her own. Hermione held her hand as Madame Pomfrey helped the two boys and explained their injuries. She was just about done when Dumbledore walked in.

"If it is alright, I would like to talk to these four students about the events of tonight, Madame Pomfrey," Dumbledore said. The matron hesitated for a moment before nodding.

"Of course, Headmaster," she said before sweeping out of the room and into her office.

Harry and Hermione were on their feet and in front of Dumbledore, explaining everything they had seen. Izzy chimed in where she could, but mostly stayed quiet. Dumbledore looked grave as he told them that he himself had no power to change Fudge's mind. It set Izzy on edge when he began speaking about time; that knowing twinkle in his eye, but she didn't understand why it made her feel uncomfortable. She stood up and joined Hermione and Harry as Dumbledore began closing the door.

"What the bloody hell was that all about?" Ron asked from his place on the bed. Hermione looked at him sympathetically before she reached into her hoodie and pulled out a necklace.

"Sorry Ron, but seeing as you can't walk…" She threw the chain of the necklace around Harry and Izzy's heads before holding a golden pendant with an hourglass held in it. She began turning it three times like Dumbledore had said before the oddest feeling surrounded them. Izzy watched everything around the hospital room turn backwards until the sunlight flooded the room.

"I'm gonna pull a Ron. What the bloody hell was that!" Izzy whispered.

"Where were we at 7:30?" Hermione asked.

"I don't know, going down to Hagrid's I think," Harry said. Hermione grabbed Harry's and Izzy's hand (the one connected to her good arm, thankfully) and pulled them along, explaining as they went.

"Come on, we can't be seen," Hermione said. Thankfully, Izzy realized she was taking them through the courtyard and stopped them.

"If we can't be seen, why are we running towards the courtyard. The executioners there," Izzy pointed out. Hermione's eyes widened. Harry just shook his head.

"It's fine. I can see us down the bridge. Any second, some woman will come and start shouting at the man. I heard her when we were halfway across," Harry explained.

"I heard her too. Colorful language she had," Izzy chuckled.

The trio waited a few seconds, but no woman came angrily around the corner to berate the executioner.

"Where is she?" Izzy asked. She peaked down the hallway and saw nobody there. Harry shrugged before Izzy thought 'screw it' and changed her features. Completely random and without care as to what she looked like. She grew about two inches, the max height she could do currently, and shrank her nose slightly. She brought her eyes closer together and made her hair a natural brown that flowed around her shoulders. Her breasts grew slightly and for the hell of it, she gave herself freckles across her nose and under her eyes. The downside of all the morphs was that they pulled painfully at her wounded shoulder. Harry and Hermione stared at her in fascination before she winked and charged out, her arms stiff and her footsteps heavy.

"You're a monster!" she shouted as she neared the executioner. "A fucking monster worse than anything you execute! I hope one day one of those 'monsters' bites your dick off and buries it up your arse!" Out of the corner of her eye, Izzy saw Hermione and Harry run past the executioner their past selves had seen before she stomped on the man's foot. She quickly ran around the corner where she saw Harry and Hermione ducking around a corner.

Quickly, she joined them. When the three were in the clear, and Izzy got to watch Malfoy get punched in the nose all over again, did Izzy fully shift back to her neutral form.

"That was me!" Izzy said excitedly. "I heard me yelling at the executioner!"

"You're bleeding again!" Hermione hissed. Izzy looked at the wound to see it bleeding slightly through the bandages.

"It's fine, Hermione. It's just a little bit of blood. Besides, if it'll make you feel better, I promise I'll be careful; no more morphing," Izzy said. The promise seemed to mollify Hermione slightly as the girl nodded.

"This is not normal," Harry said as he watched Malfoy run up the hill and back across the bridge, spewing his usual hate and bigotry. Hermione pulled the necklace out from behind her jacket.

"This is a time turner. It's how I've been getting to my classes. Professor McGonagall gave it to me in the first term," she explained.

"That's why you didn't want me going to Minerva," Izzy said. Hermione nodded guiltily.

"Yes…I was worried she would think I wouldn't be able to handle it…Obviously I couldn't but I wanted to prove to her I could," Hermione said. Izzy hugged her best friend.

"You would've told me…I would've helped you instead of making you feel like you were a failure," she whispered.

"It was pride…I had to prove to myself that I could do it…but it cost me more than I would've gained," Hermione answered with a shrug. Izzy flicked her in between the eyes and shook her head.

"I would never think you weak, or foolish, or anything else you might think of yourself. You're my best friend. You can come to me with anything," Izzy said, her eyes and hair turning a soft pink with silver highlights.

"Come on, we're heading down to Hagrid's," Harry said. Izzy and Hermione nodded as they followed Harry once more down the stone steps.

The three bolted down to the large pumpkin patch and hid behind one of Hagrid's giant plants until the minister, Executioner, and Headmaster were coming down the hill.

"There's Pettigrew," Harry said darkly as he made to stand up.

"No Harry," Hermione said, pulling him down. "If you go up there, you might end up causing a time anomaly. Bad things happen to people who mess with time. You can't be seen. We can't be seen."

"Not to mention, the dark revenge plots are my thing, Harry. Besides, I'm the opposite of Malfoy. A lion with a snake's heart and all that. Leave the plotting to me…we'll nail Pettigrew to the wall for what he did, but not now. Just be patient," Izzy urged. The Minister and the executioner were getting closer and closer.

"We aren't leaving," Hermione whispered, a frown marring her features. "Why aren't we leaving?"

"Maybe I can transform and get their…our attention?" Izzy asked.

"No need," Hermione grunted as she threw something, causing the pot to shatter in Hagrid's hut. She threw something else a moment later that nearly caused Izzy to bust out laughing. Hermione had hit Harry in the head with a rock. As it was, Izzy couldn't restrain the snort that came from her nose. Harry rolled his eyes and punched her in the good shoulder. Izzy looked indignant.

"Oi, don't punch the cripple here," she whispered.

"Then don't be a cripple," Harry replied sarcastically.

"Knock it off, we're coming out the back door," Hermione interrupted. The three dashed into the forest, ducking low under the wilting branches. Izzy watched curiously as their past selves anxiously hid from the Minister and executioner. Hermione couldn't help the curiosity she felt and peaked around the branches.

"Is that really what my hair looks like from the back?" she asked no one. The branch she was holding cracked, and the three held their breath as the past Hermione looked in their direction. Apparently, she decided it wasn't worth investigating as the four took off up the hill and out of sight. As the Minister, Headmaster, and Executioner all entered the hut, the time travelers crept back into the pumpkin patch.

"Come on, Buckbeak," Harry urged as he untied the chain holding the hippogriff to the post. "Come on," he said again as Buckbeak refused to budge.

"Buckbeak!" Izzy whispered.

"Come on, Buckbeak," Hermione said. It got the creatures attention, and Izzy could understand why. She had a string of dead ferrets around her neck, and he was hungry. He stood right as the door opened. Everyone paused until it closed again, and Hermione was waggling the ferret again. They were almost out of the pumpkin patch when the door opened once more to reveal the Headmaster pointing out the strawberry patch to the Minister. It was the perfect distraction, not that Izzy noticed in that moment.

Izzy, Hermione, and Harry all scrambled with Buckbeak down the hill, just in the nick of time as the Minister turned around to witness the execution, only to be missing the creature they were supposed to be executing.

Privately, Izzy thought Dumbledore sounded entirely too smug to not have known this would happen. Izzy was suddenly reminded of why they were even rescuing Buckbeak to begin with. Dumbledore had told them two innocent lives could be saved tonight.

How in the world could he have known?

The three took Buckbeak deep into the forbidden forest. Despite the fact that Izzy knew the sun was still up, if only mostly set by now, it was hauntingly dark in the forest. Things creaked and cracked all around them, and Izzy heard other creatures nearby that seemed far too curious.

When they had finally walked around the forest and come out on the other side, the three plus Buckbeak had full view of the Whomping Willow before Lupin and Snape ran in after their past selves.

"Sooo…What do we do now?" Izzy asked.

"We wait," Harry said as he sat down. Izzy shrugged and sat on his left, Hermione on his right.

The three sat on the edge of the forest for several minutes in comfortable silence. The Scotland nights, especially around Hogwarts, were always beautiful. If you looked carefully enough, you could see the long arm of the milky way galaxy, filled with hundreds of thousands of twinkling stars. A few comets even passed by, and Izzy made a silent wish as her friends did the same. None of them spoke, but they all shared the moment with a smile between them. Finally, it was Harry who broke the silence.

"I have to tell you something," He said. Izzy and Hermione gave him their full attention. "Earlier, down by the lake with Sirius, I saw someone." He paused to consider his thoughts for a moment. "That someone made the dementors go away."

"The one that conjured the Patronus?" Hermione interjected. Izzy raised an eyebrow; this was the first she'd heard of it. "I overheard Professor Snape telling Dumbledore. Only a really powerful wizard could've conjured it," she said softly. Harry seemed to brighten up at those words.

"I think it was my dad," he said. Izzy didn't know what to feel, but she straightened up and put a gentle hand on his shoulder.

"Harry…you have had the privilege of knowing what's happened to your parents. And I think…deep down…you know that's impossible," she said. Harry sighed before pulling her in for a side hug.

"I know but…I know what I saw. It was a stag. Professor Lupin said that was my father's Patronus," Harry explained. Izzy nodded.

"Well…I guess we'll find out later tonight then," Izzy smiled, her hair turning a nice orange with purple undertones.

"I guess we will," Harry replied. Izzy admired the determination in his voice, how he never seemed to be discouraged. Hermione waved her hand.

"Here we come," she said. All three stood and hid in the darkness of the forest as they watched the events of earlier play out.

"You see Sirius?" Harry asked as he pointed to the two figures standing apart from the main group. "He's asking me to come and live with him, if I wanted."

"That's great," Hermione said.

"When we free him, I'll never have to go back and live with the Dursleys. It'll just be me and him," Harry whispered. Izzy smiled at his optimism. She remembered those hopeful days well when she had wished for someone, anyone, who could love her and take her away from the orphanage forever. Izzy thought back. Minerva had done that in many ways, but there were other things Minerva just couldn't.

Izzy loved Minerva with everything she had, but Izzy wasn't so blind as to recognize where Minerva fell just short of everything she had ever wanted in a parent. For one thing, Minerva wasn't a parent, and that was just fine, Izzy loved her regardless, but Minerva was a guardian, and there were differences between a guardian and a parent.

Another thing was that their relationship had always been somewhat complicated by the combined roles of Guardian and teacher Vs. ward and student.

Those hopeful days were behind her now, or so she told herself. But the truth was, everyone needs their mom or dad in some capacity, and Minerva just…wasn't a mother. If anything, the closest she was, was a grandmother, and only just barely. It didn't stop Izzy from simultaneously hating and wanting to know her parents. A hand in hers pulled her out of her train of thought as she watched the disaster that was a few hours earlier.

Izzy saw the exact moment Lupin had struck her and wondered how she hadn't noticed the first time. Her wounds burned as she thought of them before she pushed the pain out of her mind.

"Come on," Harry said before running along the forest edge. Izzy and Hermione raced after him and were able to see what had happened when he had run after Sirius.

"You're crazy, mate," Izzy whispered as the past Harry threw a rock at an angry werewolf's head.

"Not my brightest moment," he admitted. The werewolf began stalking towards the frozen past Harry until Hermione howled right in Izzy's ear. Harry stopped her.

"What are you doing?!" he hissed.

"Saving your life," she replied as she howled again. This time, the werewolf came running.

"Run!" Izzy said before anyone could say anything else. The three tore off into the forest with a werewolf after them, jumping over roots and rocks, dodging around low tree branches. Harry, Hermione, and Izzy rounded one particularly large tree in the hopes that it would confuse the creature.

Izzy's heart was pounding through her chest and she could feel the claw marks in her shoulder pumping in time with the rhythm. A howl in the distance, and the three slowly backed around the tree so that the werewolf wouldn't see them or possibly smell them.

A crack sounded behind the three and they slowly turned their heads to see the wolf stalking them. It seemed to happen in slow motion. One minute, Harry was shoving Izzy and Hermione behind him, and the next, Izzy had ducked under the arm. She shifted her features as fast as she could to hopefully confuse the creature and give Harry and Hermione time to either fight back or run off. She could feel herself morphing, but this felt different. Her jaw expanded and her canines pushed out. Her eyes glowed a sickly yellow as her ears pointed.

She was about to roar when Buckbeak smacked the wolf in the face with his talons again and again until it ran off.

Izzy unconsciously shifted back as she turned around. The sudden shifts had given her a wicked headache as she pressed a hand to her head.

"What was that?" Hermione asked with wide eyes.

"I…I hoped it would distract it enough for you to get away or fight back…so I shifted my features to look like a werewolf," Izzy said.

"That was incredible!" Harry cheered.

"Incredibly risky too. Can you imagine if I'd gotten stuck like that?" Izzy laughed. She stopped laughing when the wind shifted directions and brought a chill with it. Harry felt it too and looked up.

Over a hundred dementors were flying north.

"Sirius!" Harry shouted. The three took off running once more in the direction of the dementors until they wound up at a frozen lake.

"This is horrible," Hermione said as they watched Harry and Sirius get their souls sucked out by dementors.

"Don't worry. My dad will come, he'll conjure the Patronus," Harry said. Izzy shook her head and took his hand.

"Harry, I know. I know what it's like to want something so badly you think it could be real; but it isn't. Your father isn't coming back, and I know that's harsh but it's the truth. Now think about it, after everything we've done tonight, influencing the events that took place earlier, can you honestly tell me that deep down…you know it isn't your father," Izzy said, her eyes shining bright silver in the low light of the forest.

"It was me," he whispered. Izzy nodded. Harry squared his shoulders and walked out onto the little strip of dirt and pointed his wand at the horde of dementors.

"Expecto Patronum!" he incanted, a white light shooting out of his wand and forming a beautiful stag. It walked across the lake and emitted pulses of light that drove every single one of those foul creatures away before it turned around and bowed low in front of Harry.

"You did it," Hermione said as the past Harry collapsed onto the beach.

"I did it," Harry said, voice full of self-pride. Izzy smiled before remembering.

"Come on, we have to go and get Buckbeak then wait for them to take Sirius to the tower. Then we can rescue him and finally go to sleep," Izzy said with a tired laugh. Her friends joined her as they headed back to where they had left the hippogriff.

The flew through the air, taking off from the forest so as to gain height and not be seen. Izzy had been concerned that Buckbeak might not be able to handle four people on his back, and when she brought it up, she never thought she'd seen a creature so offended.

The three flew towards the tower and rescued Sirius with Hermione's 'Bombarda' before flying down the courtyard.

"I'll be forever grateful for this, to the three of you," Sirius said, pulling them into a hug. Izzy wished he hadn't because he hadn't showered in weeks…probably months.

"I want to go with you," Harry said. Izzy saw the moment Sirius realized he would have to disappoint her friend.

"One day perhaps, but until I can be proven innocent, my life will be far too chaotic." HE turned to Izzy and she remembered that he had wanted to speak with her. "So, which of my cousin's kids are you? Or, Merlin forbid, are you Regulus' somehow?"

Wait…

What?

That had been the last thing Izzy ever expected to hear come out of some falsely convicted man's lips, and this whole situation was nutty enough as it was.

"Come again?" Izzy asked dumbly, her hair going bright yellow in dumbfounded shock.

"I had thought at first that Andi would've had another kid, but the fact that you're a metamorph disproves that since having two metamorph siblings is incredibly, impossibly, rare to begin with," Sirius explained. "So…which cousin birthed you?" he asked again.

"None?" Izzy said. "I'm an orphan…raised in an orphanage in London," she explained.

"Right," Sirius said sarcastically. "You seem smart so I'm going to just pretend that you didn't just say that you're a muggleborn metamorph. You can't be Narcissa's kid, you're not arrogant enough to be half Lucius.' And I'm ninety percent sure dear ol' Bella's kid died years back…but who's kid could you be?" he asked.

"Stop it!" Izzy shouted angrily, her hair a fire red. "I'm nobody's fucking kid! I was dropped on the steps of an orphanage and raised there for ten years before I ran away! I'm nobody's!"

Sirius looked at her curiously before his eyes flicked down to the golden chain around her neck.

"Pull out your necklace," he said softly.

"What?" Izzy asked.

"Pull out your necklace, quickly. We're running out of time," Sirius said. Izzy reluctantly did as she was told and held out the delicate gold necklace with the odd crest on the front.

"As I thought. A Black family crest and heirloom; a tradition amongst the Black women in my family. I don't know exactly how you got it, but I can prove you're a Black through and through. Meet me at Gringotts bank in Diagon Alley two weeks from now at noon. We'll see what's really going on," He said as he mounted Buckbeak. Izzy had thought this situation couldn't get any more confusing or chaotic. Che had been wrong. "Trust me. We'll get you a heritage test and see who you belong to. I'll eat my tail if you aren't who I think you are!" he shouted.

"You're a wanted criminal!" Harry shouted. Sirius grinned.

"Not to the Goblins I'm not. I'm Lord Black who was never officially convicted of any crime. Therefore, the goblins don't recognize the warrant for my arrest. How do you think I was able to buy that firebolt for you?" he asked. Izzy, Hermione, and Harry all gaped as the man laughed like he was mad before he took off on the hippogriff, flying into the night with his laughter echoing behind him.

The three took off as the chiming bell told them they had to hurry. They made it just in time as their past…future…whatever-selves disappeared, going to the past.

"How did you get there? You were-but how?" Ron stuttered. Hermione laughed and looked to Harry.

"Honestly Harry, what's he talking about?" she asked with a laugh.

"Don't be ridiculous, Ron. How can anyone be in two places at once?" Harry asked. Izzy chuckled before she sat down on the bed nearest her.

"Well, as fun as this has been, I'm getting some shut eye," she declared. Hermione and Harry agreed, and before long, there were three sleeping teenagers in the hospital wing.

Izzy wasn't one of them, her mind was too busy, unfortunately. She sat on the bed and thought things over.

She had a family out there somewhere and it was apparently the infamous Noble house of Black. How was that possible?

Maybe it was coincidence and she had somehow wound up with a necklace that just so happened to bare the insignia of the pureblood house. It had to be coincidence. Of course it was.

She would walk into Gringotts in two weeks and prove to Sirius that they weren't related by any means and she could go on living her life trying to ignore the gaping hole that had sat in her chest since before she could remember.

As the sun began to rise, Izzy fell into an uneasy sleep.

Red=angry

Gray=nervous/anxious/irritated

Orange=happy/excited

Blue=sad/overwhelmed

Purple=worried/concerned/frustrated

Green=jealous/suspicious

Brown=content/relaxed

Yellow=afraid/shocked

Pink=amusement

Silver=determination

Light blue=embarrassment