Once again, a huge thank-you to FateRogue for allowing me the use of their OC, Carina Black.
As always if you have ideas, suggestions or want to see something happen then put it in a review or give me a PM. As you have seen in most of my stories I am more than happy to adapt it as we go if I find something that you've suggested helpful, useful or just plain amusing.
I still don't own Harry Potter otherwise I'd be writing all day instead of working to pay the bills.
Dylan the Rabbit. xx
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Fallen Angel.
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8. A Black Family Christmas.
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Albus Dumbledore watched from his office window as his favourite (and only) time-travelling student strolled across the East lawn from the direction of the Beaubaxtons carriage and smiled to himself at her slightly bow legged gait. Young Miss De'ath had obviously had quite the night since she hadn't been anywhere near that stiff when he had observed her leaving the Yule Ball with her French 'dance partner' at around two this morning. It was only seven now and he briefly wondered how she was still functioning before remembering Angel's description of the many rituals she had undergone in the past / future to make her stronger ... better ... more resilient ... to give her that edge that she had needed in her trials. And would need in the trials to come. The first of which had already started he thought as he glanced at his advance copy of the Daily Prophet.
Ms Skeeter had done a marvelous hatchet job on Angel De'ath, calling her deviant and Dark and all sorts of other things that were equally unpleasant and had scored many damaging unofficial 'interviews' from those present last night. Surprisingly none of them came from the students though. He guessed that he shouldn't have been all that surprised, however, since anyone who was as familiar with her as the pupils who shared these halls with her would definitely avoid getting caught saying anything negative about the scary Sixth year. And he would be the first to admit that, yes, Angel could be incredibly scary when she wanted to be.
A fact that, along with her single minded desire to upset the vast majority of the general magical public, meant she would probably be rather pleased with this rag and its vicious invective.
The paper's main editorial was a little more wishy-washy but what would be remembered by most readers was Rita's nasty little gossip column. Angel's plan to sacrifice herself, or at the very least, her reputation to distract from poor, put-upon Mari Potter was well under way, it had to be said. Albus was rather relieved that she hadn't had to resort to more violent methods in order to further those plans. He wasn't as naive about the probable need for such measures as he once had been but he still didn't like it.
He sighed and stretched is weary, old bones thinking that he ought to get down to the entrance hall and meet her. She would probably want to talk to him about how things were going and what she had planned next.
As usual, Albus Dumbledore was correct in his assumptions.
"Albus."
"Angel."
"Would you mind if we went upstairs to your office for quick chat?"
The trip was made in comfortable silence, both waiting until they were sequestered in the privacy of his office until they could broach subjects that they really should not be over-heard discussing by curious young (and not so young) ears.
"So, did you have fun at the Ball?"
"You know what? Contrary to all expectations, I really did. And what about you, did you have fun?"
"Oh yes, watching you and the lovely Mademoiselle Delacour stomping all over the expectations and sensibilities of the ruling class while cutting a rug so successfully was very entertaining indeed. I trust that you are fully recovered from your exertions?"
"I had quite the long night, but its not like it was my first one of those."
The Headmaster smiled and covered his mouth to mask his involuntary gag reflex at the disturbing (to him) image of women having sex that her imputation had just put into his head.
"Speaking of my plans, I was wondering if you wouldn't mind using your old Wizengamot contacts one last time for me and persuade them to set up a special session." Angel ran a few quick calculations of the possible scenarios and outcomes of her plans in her head before continuing. "Sometime in mid to late January maybe?"
"I see ... well it's certainly possible. May I ask why, my dear?"
"Well, I may be in a position to produce a witness whose veritaserum testimony will, in and by itself, almost definitely clear the name of a certain scraggly old dog of our mutual acquaintance."
"And you couldn't just take this to Madame Bones?"
To the Headmaster's great amusement, Angel looked shifty and even a little embarrassed.
"Err ... yes, well ... I had a few ... dealings ... with old Bonesy back in the day and we really didn't exactly get on all that well. She has quite the rigid attitude to the law and she does have the tendancy to ask some awkward questions that I would, quite honestly, rather not have to answer."
"Like?"
"Like how I managed to find this witness and also how I've kept him sequestered and, more importantly, where I'm going to be detaining him until we can get him into a courtroom. Also my tolerance for all the political maneouvring it will take to actually get this trial to to happen is really fucking low. Like non-existent."
The shifty look was back. No embarrassment this time though.
"I mean, I do have someone in mind to work that problem for me from one side but your help would still be invaluable and you did say that you wanted to help out."
"And you did say that I should sit back and enjoy my 'semi-retirement'." Albus made his visitor wait just long enough to make her start squirming slightly before putting her out of her misery. "Don't worry about it, dear, I'll deal with it. And I know it's not exactly your forte but you really should at least try to get a handle on the political side of things."
"Bollocks to that. I spent years dealing with those fucking idiots last time before I finally ran out of patience and just killed them all."
"Yes ... probably not the best approach."
"Probably not, no."
"Perhaps that lovely French girlfriend of yours could help you out in that arena when it becomes an issue. I believe that her family are quite the political dynasty over there."
"She is not my girlfriend!"
"Methinks the Lady doth protest too much."
"And Methinks you're a meddling old arsehole."
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Mari Potter came slowly awake from a sweet, dreamless sleep feeling safe, warm and secure. She stretched languorously within the confines of the soft, slightly muscled and toned arms that were looped loosely around her rubbed herself against the nakedness of her girlfriend. It felt like heaven. But then after what had happened in this bed 'post Yule Ball', heaven was pretty normal now. Or at least she hoped that it would be. She shifted carefully so as not to wake the black haired girl who shared her bed and gazed adoringly at that strong sharp face that was somehow softer and even more lovely in repose. Mari leaned into kiss her softly and grinned slightly at the musky scent that lingered so wonderfully on those luscious lips.
Carina had apologised for her part in their almost month long fight in a very new and surprising way last night, hence the heady aroma, and Mari's only regret was that she had been unable to return the favour, having passed out afterwards. Sleep had claimed her quickly and unfortunately before she had been able to reciprocate this quite literally unbelievably awesome new past-time, partly from pleasure partly from exhaustion after her long, stressful and emotionally draining day. Still, she saw no reason why she shouldn't correct that terrible oversight now, she thought smiling to herself and carefully wriggled her way down the bed to issue her own 'morning apology'.
The girl-who-lived peppered light, teasing kisses across her new lover's thighs and belly before moving slowly and inexorably towards the sweet smelling cleft that hid her target. The tip of her tongue had uncovered the small bundle of nerves that she sought so diligently and her mouth was just about to engulf Carina's sudden, if unconscious, arousal when she was very rudely interrupted by some total arsehole flinging back the bed curtains while yelling out as loudly as possible.
"Come on bitches, put each other down and get yourselves dressed, we're going to do some dog sitting for the rest of the Yule break."
"Fuck De'ath, you couldn't have waited five more fucking minutes?"
Mari's head jerked up from her position and locked onto 'Rina's own in surprise and shock.
"Wait you were awake? You sneaky little cow."
"Mari, love you're not nearly as subtle as you think you are, but ... I have to admit ... it was fun pretending."
"Yes, yes we all get it, you two lovebirds are happy in your filthy, debauched nest. But wouldn't you like to go and make someone else's Christmas day just as special? In a different way, obviously. Or at least I should bloody well hope so."
"Whose day are we making, Angel?"
"This big black dog I be-friended a few weeks back, name of Snuffles. I believe you two know him a little?"
"Sirius, you're talking about Siri ... umph?"
"Mari, shush!"
"Oh come on 'Rina, she obviously knows."
"I do Mari but the nosy little cunts you share a dorm with don't." She then stood to her full height and added some real, honest to goodness, Dark Lady gravel to her voice . "Nosy little cunts who would do very well to remember what I did to that Hungarian Horntail dragon and that I know where they sleep."
Even Mari and Carina winced as their scary senior growled out her very unsubtle threat. Then they got dressed. Quickly.
"Do you think we should invite Hermione?"
"Nah, she'll be too busy sucking face with Krum."
"Eeuww!"
"Could be worse ... could be Weasley."
"Eeeeeuuuwwww!"
"Why would you even say that Angel? That's just ... ick!"
All thoughts of breakfast banished rather effectively by her vomit inducing suggestion of their friend's possible love life, they decided to skip it and make a move.
"Right, we've got a quick stop to make and then we can go."
Mari and Carina, already in a spectacularly good mood after a night of highly sexual making up, perked up even more at this comment.
"Are we going to get your girlfriend?"
"She's not my girlfriend!"
Upon arrival at the Beaubaxtons carriage a short time later, Fleur immediately seemed to debunk this statement by bursting through the door, leaping athletically to land directly into Angel's arms and attempting to extract her tonsils with her tongue.
"Bonjour ma belle fille."
"Um ... hey."
"Not that it isn't deliciously wonderful to see you again so soon but you really should let me get some rest. Two hours of beauty sleep isn't nearly enough even for someone of my superieur genetics, mon petite tigre."
For the first time Fleur appeared to notice Mari and Carina due to their excessive giggling at Angel's new moniker.
"Oh, are we to 'ave an audience this morning ma Ange? I am not against, tu compris, it is just a little surprising that the famous girl-oo-lived would be quite so voyeuristique The Black girl is totally understandable but a Potter being into such perversion is somewhat ... 'ow you say ... disconcerting?"
"Oh my sweet flower, you have no idea of the perversion this Potter is capable of."
"Quelle interessant."
"Actually babe, despite how much fun that sounds, we're here to kidnap you for the rest of the break. There's somewhere we've got to go so we can put some plans into motion for these two and myself and our future living arrangements."
At Angel's casual use of the word 'babe' in her term of addressing the French Champion, the two Gryffindor girlfriends smirked at each other, although they stopped when Fleur turned her leering gaze onto them before pouting at her ange'.
"Can we at least re-visit zis topic later, ma tigre?"
"Bien sur, ma belle." Angel smirked evilly at the two of them as he agreed but was soon back to business. "But for now, we really should get going ... just as soon as you've let your Headmistress know your plans."
Fleur sighed dramatically but soon took off squeaking and blushing as Angel sent her off with a firm slap to her perfect derrierre.
"Beast!"
"You love it."
She really did and to prove was back within less than two minutes and in an excitable if rather domineering mood.
"Allon-sy mes amies."
"Your girlfriend's really pushy, you know that right?"
"She is not my girlfriend!"
"Yeah right, keep telling yourself that."
After that comment, Carina found herself demoted to being Fleur's baggage rather than Angel's, which pissed Mari off as well since she was still a little wary of the French champion touching her girlfriend. On the up side she did get to be apparated by her revered senior and training partner which involved some close contact so .. yay?
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Less than an hour later at Nine in the morning, after a slightly relieved taxi driver had pulled back into the London holiday traffic, four rather pretty but disheveled girls walked at a brisk pace down a quiet cul-de-sac. Had anyone been watching they would have been surprised to see them stop between numbers 11 and 13 Grimmauld Place, turn sharply and then promptly disappear into thin air.
A mere few seconds later a very sleepy Sirius Black found himself flat on his back at foot of the stairs of his old childhood home staring unfocussed at the ceiling while having the life squeezed out of him by two very excited and very emotional teens. He shook his head to clear the stars then gazed up into the teary eyed faces of his daughter and his god-daughter feeling the moisture on his own cheeks and reveling in the feeling of them in his arms for a good three minutes before gathering his wits enough to ask.
"What are you two doing here."
A voice with which he had grown horribly familiar over the last three or four weeks broke into the family reunion.
"I brought them."
"Ahem."
"Sorry babe ... we brought them."
Sirius looked over the mass of black and dark red hair beneath his chin and spied a gorgeous blonde hanging possessively onto the arm of his extremely hot but extremely scary benefactress and had what, for him, amounted to a lightbulb moment.
"Oooohhhh ... now I get why you didn't want to shag me."
"Trust me Sirius, being gay was far from the only reason I, or indeed any other woman with a modicum of common sense and self respect, wouldn't want to shag you."
"I bet not, if I had a male version of her waiting for me at home I'd probably switch teams myself. I mean, wow Angel you really scored big with that one."
"She was not ... I'm ... huh. You know what I'm too tired to punish you right now. Dobby come here."
"Could you take us to a clean, empty bedroom please Dobby, the Mademoiselle and I need to take a little nap." The tall girl paused for a moment. "Oh and give him a slap on the way, would you dear."
"Of course Mistress Deffie."
"Dobby will not slap Master ... " For one glorious second Sirius thought he had got away with it until he felt a sharp sting on the side of his head. " ... that be Winky's job."
Bugger.
"I 'ope you are not too tired to punish me, ma tigre."
As the two insanely beautiful witches stepped over the small pile of bodies and headed up the stairs either side of an insane and ecstatic House elf, they head a soft, awed 'Dear Merlin, she's French too. Result for Mistress Deffie' from the man who had clearly not yet learned his lesson. Angel considered turning around to discipline him but Fleur was doing that cute, quiet giggling thing again that made all of her interesting bits jiggle around so nicely and she got all distracted. Which was fortunate for Mister Black.
Eventually he seemed to come to that realisation himself and decided to use the two girls still hugging him as human shields just in case Angel's temper won out over her lust and fatigue. He extricated himself from their clutches, pulled them to their feet and steered them towards Winky's domain for some much needed coffee and breakfast delicacies. They didn't get far before the inquisition started, however.
"So how do you know Angel, dad?"
He looked into the curious, stormy grey eyes of his wild, little daughter and suddenly found himself wishing for the likely painful presence of the scary Miss De'ath again. This wasn't really the conversation he wanted to have on Christmas day of all days but it appeared that he wasn't going to be given a choice. Especially when Mari turned her own soulful green peepers on him and used the Lily Potter patented 'curious kitten pout number four' on him.
.
By the time Angel and Fleur came down from their 'nap' it was almost Three in the afternoon and their host and his two younger, better rested visitors had caught each other up on all of their news. Carina and Mari had left out one thing in particular, however. It wasn't that they were ashamed of their relationship just that they weren't overly sure about how Sirius would react. Sure he had appeared to be okay with Angel and Fleur but this was his daughter and god-daughter they were talking about now and they were somewhat nervous about telling him that they were ... together. They had silently agreed that there was no point in ruining what looked to be gearing up to be a quite brilliant Christmas day at Grimmauld Place.
Dobby and Winky had been running around like lunatics (which they surely were) conjuring a tree, masses of decorations and an absolute mountain of wonderful smelling, seasonal food, grinning all the while and laughing in their strange, elf manner. It all added to the party atmosphere around the formerly grim old house and ensured that the girls were even less likely to bring up their new 'coupled' status. The embarrassment of Angel of all people walking in on them, not only naked but doing stuff had thankfully faded but was certainly not going to be forgotten any time soon. An embarrassment that was quickly re-discovered and then re-doubled when that very same person walked into the drawing room looking much more awake and refreshed.
"So I take it the talk went well?" The two younger girls and their soon to be parental authority figure all nodded happily. "And you're okay wth your two future wards sharing a bed? Along with quite a few other things if what I saw this morning was anything to by, anyway."
"What?"
"Thanks Angel." Mari muttered out sarcastically.
"Um ... yeah ... so, dad." Carina stepped boldly in front of her girlfriend protectively. "Me and Mari ... well ... we care very much about each other, you know that right?" Sirius tilted his head and narrowed his eyes in his 'thougtful' expression and nodded. "And, I guess what I'm saying is that those feelings have ... er ... developed ... moved on ... become ... more."
His thoughtful expression had now become a great deal more confused. A fact which seemed to push the usually gentle and patient Mari Potter right over the edge as she re-appeared around 'Rina's shoulder and all but shouted at him..
"Oh for fucks sake, we're dating you idiot ... you know, girlfriends."
"What like them?"
"She's not my girlfriend."
The former Dark Lady's reaction was very predictable at this point.
"Of course I'm not sweetheart."
Fleur patted Angel's hand consolingly (and incredibly patronisingly) while hiding her smile behind her Dobby provided cup of coffee.
"Thanks babe."
Somehow nobody in the room laughed at first at this interchange and Sirius realised that this big, bad Dark witch, in spite of her power and prowess in some areas, was just as clueless as him when it came to matters of the heart. He still wasn't prepared to out-right laugh at her, mind you as she really did scare the piss out of him. Then Dobby elf chipped in with his two cents worth and the strained moment of hiding their bubbling laughter was broken.
"Mistress Deffie is so funny, Dobby is such a lucky elf!"
And now the laughter came. And indeed continued for most of the remainder of the day. A day which was, without a doubt, the best Christmas that any of them had ever had. Fathers, lovers, mates, girlfriends and even elves, they were a dis-functional, convoluted, complicated family and family, as it always had and always would, made Christmas. Not decorations of which there were plenty, nor food of which there was plenty, nor presents of which there were some ... but family. And theirs was solid.
.
Malfoy Manor, located in the deep heart of Wiltshire, was un-plottable by magic and a tightly controlled secret known only to close family and a very select few friends. It was pretty much impossible for anyone to find it short of a quite staggering betrayal and even if they did somehow manage that, the substantial and extremely nasty wards made it virtually impregnable.
Unless your name was Angel De'ath (who had been there before of course) apparently, in which case you could just apparate to the gates, simply by-pass the wards and wander in completely un-noticed and unchallenged.
Deciding that she should probably be at least slightly circumspect she took her tattered looking black cloak from her back pocket, slipped it on and, with a mere thought, activated it. The hallow hid her so completely that she could have had all kinds of fun, pranking and / or killing the occupants of the grand house but instead only placed herself comfortably in a convenient corner and watched them for an hour or so. This observation revealed what she had always suspected about the Malfoys, unfortunately; That they were a family, just as complicated as any other ... and just as loving ... in their own way.
Of course, they weren't exactly her kind of people, being ignorant, arrogant, money grubbing, blood purist morons but they still looked out for each other, loved each other just like hers did. And again, they weren't going to win any awards for philanthropy but that wasn't what she needed them for. Angel required something else entirely and as the rest of the household prepared to retire she moved to Lucius' study so that she could get it. Something that she was going to have to use her familiar old Dark Lady 'Defiler' persona to get.
Which was always fun.
Lucius Malfoy had been sat at his desk for about ten minutes with a moderate measure of brandy in the crystal glass in front of him before he realised that he was not alone. By then it was too late. The black cloaked figure had him bound and silenced before he could even reach for his wand. Which he realised wouldn't have helped much anyway as his uninvited visitor had nether reached for theirs nor uttered a single word of the almost painfully powerful spells she had just hit him with. Lucius was becoming increasingly nervous as a young woman's low contralto voice came from the figure. Or was it from behind him now? Okay, so he was looking at nervous in the rear view mirror now and heading at a fairly brisk pace for the land of panic.
"Good evening Mister Malfoy."
He was suddenly able to speak again. Unfortunately this was not exactly a positive thing for him at the moment as the connection between his brain and his mouth failed to produce one of his legendary 'suave, calm in the face of extreme danger' responses.
"Wait, what ... who are you ... what do you want ... how did you get into my house?"
"Oh of course, how rude of me. Angel De'ath at your service."
The witch proved her apparent youth at this point by emerging from the shadows, conjuring a nice, comfy, wing backed chair, sitting decorously on it and crossing her fabulous looking, black leather clad legs. As she lowered her hood, he recognised Britain's only living dragon slayer and Tri-Wizard Tournament Champion. The fact that she was a barely seventeen year old Hogwarts student didn't give nearly as much comfort to him as it should have since he was currently staring into those awful black pits that were her eyes. And drowning in them.
"As for your other questions; I want you to use that famed influence of yours with the Minister of Magic and among your 'friends' in the Wizangamot ... and ... there is literally nowhere I can't get into if I really want to."
Once again, Lucius' mouth engaged before his brain caught up.
"Well you've picked the wrong house this time bit ... urk!"
"I stopped you there Lucy ... you don't mind if I call you Lucy do you? ... no? ... super ... well, I stopped you there Lucy because you appeared to be about to put your foot in your mouth in a quite spectacularly fatal manner right there and it would be a real shame if I had to torture you to death before you had the chance to prove your usefulness to me."
The blonde man stilled at this. Not so much at the words, he had been threatened many times, but more at the casual demeanour of this intruder. As if she didn't have a care in the world. As if he were so far beneath her that she didn't even contemplate caring about any consequences that he might be able to bring to her door
"You see, I'm not what you might call a nice person."
The scary girl smiled self deprecatingly.
"Nor am I a particularly reasonable or forgiving one and I certainly don't believe in either fair play or second chances. The Dark idiot who gave you that interesting brand on your arm there might have put up with your shit, Lucy but I can assure you that all you will get for dis-obeying me is a very slow, very painful very embarrassing death."
All pretences of amusement were gone now and smoky, dark shadows appeared to leak from her and fill the room.
"Are we clear on point one, Lucy?"
Lucius nodded slowly and carefully. Well, as much as his bindings would allow him to, anyway.
"Now for point two ... and you should listen to this one very carefully, Lucy."
She paused to check that he was doing as he was told.
"Are you listening?"
Rapt attention and the barest of nods from the clearly very spooked man.
"Carefully?"
Another nod. A careful one.
"Excellent."
Angel clapped her hands softly together and her voice lowered and roughened even further.
"You will do exactly what I tell you to do exactly when I tell you to do it. You will not whine or moan or back-talk me in any way. You will not attempt to wriggle out of your task by giving what you believe to be well reasoned or rational arguments. You may trust that I have thought of every possibility before I have given you your instructions. Oh, and if you should fail in your task or fail to remember this conversation then I will refer you back to point one ... slow ... painful ... death."
Lucius marveled as, all at once, the black shadows writhing from the stupendously frightening Dark Lady who had him cowering in his own private study in his own house, receded and her voice returned to a completely normal timbre and tone.
"So that's the stick Lucy, now here's the carrot."
"First, I will likely never ask you to commit any acts of violence mostly because, frankly, I enjoy that part too much. I'm not going to say that it will never happen just that it is extremely unlikely since your value to me is in your ability to charm and bribe your way through the murky political shit that I simply can't be bothered with. Second, if you do what you're told, keep your nose clean and most importantly if you are loyal to me and only me then I will remove that very ugly tattoo and I will make you Minister of Magic."
"So ... questions ... comments?"
"None ... My lady."
What else could he say?
"And do you wish to enter my service?"
"I have a choice?"
"Lucy, Lucy, Lucy." "We always have choices. They may not be the choices that we like or would wish for but that, my friend, is just life I'm afraid."
"I understand."
"I wonder if actually do? Oh, well. Your answer then?"
"I offer my service to you, Lady De'ath, in full knowledge and acceptance of the risks, responsibilities and rewards that follow."
"Why Lucy, that almost sounded as if you've done it before."
"I have, My lady, as you seem to know only too well."
"And you have no qualms about deserting your former employer?"
"No, My Lady."
Angel stared at him hard for nearly a minute before leaning back in her chair.
"Good boy."
Lucius was not exactly proud of the shaky relieved sigh that left him then at being freed from those very painful dark ropes that had been holding him captive. Not that he could have done anything about it.
"Right then, now that the parameters of your servitude to me have been set ... let's talk about where our mutual friend Tom Riddle is right now, shall we?"
"Errr ... question, Lady De'ath?" At her raised eyebrow and miniscule nod, he continued. "Who on Merlin's green Earth is Tom Riddle?"
"Oh Lucy. I admit to being somewhat disappointed that you didn't do your research before allowing that mad-man to brand you like that." Angel indicated his left arm again wile shaking her her slowly and with a parody of sadness. "Tom Marvolo Riddle, if you hadn't already guessed it, is the birth name of your Dark Lord Voldemort."
"But ... that's a muggle name."
"And?"
"You surely don't mean ... "
"Why don't you get yourself comfortable and I'll tell you a little bedtime story. You'd better get yourself another one of those brandies because it's a doozy ... actually ... bring the bottle and another glass. I'm thirsty and you'll probably need it."
Having poured herself a quick snifter and Lucius a slightly more generous measure of the fiery amber liquid, Angel De'ath began the tale.
"Once upon a time there was a young witch from a noble but impoverished family called Merope Gaunt ..."
By the time her tale was finished, Lucius Malfoy was looking as if he had been hit with several, powerful confundus charms.
"Well now, Lucy. This has been a surprisingly pleasant evening. Business taken care of early and favourably, story time and a rather nice brandy to boot. I'll have to pop by again soon for another chat. Just ... do try to ensure that you do what I asked in the meantime otherwise it may not end quite so happily ... well, for you at least ... I'm sure that I'll have an absolute whale of a time."
And with that, without a doubt the scariest person that Lucius had ever had the dis-pleasure of meeting (and that included his wife's psychopathic sister) stood and simply disappeared without any sound whatsoever. Straight through his very impressive, very expensive wards. Something even Voldemort in his prime hadn't managed to do. He shuddered at the kind of power that it would take to do that and thanked his instincts that had fairly screamed at him to take the 'deal' that she was offering.
"You might as well come in Narcissa."
He was well aware that his wife quite routinely hid somewhere in the walls to listen in on his more important 'business meetings' and was not at all surprised that she had done so on this occasion. It would have been rather useful for him had getting her to voice her real opinions not been such a major pain in the arse.
"So I imagine you heard all that?"
"I did."
Merlin, it was like getting blood from a stone.
"Your thoughts?"
Surprisingly, this time she gave them.
"I think we're in real trouble this time, Lucius."
His wife's insight on this Angel De'ath and her relationship to the Houses of both Potter and Black, due to information that had been helpfully provided by Draco, certainly didn't make him rest any easier. Although it did make his decision about entering her service seem even more prudent.
Like it or not, the Malfoy family would now be working for a Dark Lady who made Vol ... Tom Riddle ... look like a week old kitten in comparison.
.
The next morning was boxing day, traditionally a day of recovery for those who had over indulged at the Yule-tide feast ... or for those who had been up half the night bullying and terrifying their distant relatives into submission. From the doorway Sirius gazed at the three tired looking young women in his kitchen drinking coffee in an attempt to kick-start their day and smiled indulgently before entering. It was always fun listening to their banter. Especially when they were all still a bit sleepy and slow.
"Did you have a good meeting Angel?"
"It actually went better than I expected, thank-you Mari."
"And I suppose you're still not going to tell us who it was with, are you?"
Sirius shook his head slightly at his headstrong daughter's blunt question as well as the older girl's smirk and clear 'nope' that was her only reply. His only concern for the close friendship that had formed between the three of them was that Mari and Carina might be dragged into whatever nefarious plans the clearly Dark witch had for their world but this had been quickly assuaged by the extra-ordinary lengths she went to in order not to involve them. Indeed, she was so cute and protective of them that the old dog was actually starting to like her. Which was pretty surprising given their rocky start.
Also, with Angel De'ath looking out for them they were probably the two best protected witches in the wizarding world right now.
Then the heart attack in a flimsy negligee that was Angel's French mopsy wafted into the kitchen in cloud of fresh vanilla scent and all other extraneous thoughts were unceremoniously banished from his mind. Simply looking as she did, Fleur Delacour most assuredly did not need her allure to cause palpitations in a man who hadn't been physical with a woman for over a decade. Thankfully for him her allure was basically non existent now since she had found her mate. However much that mate was annoying her by being so stubborn in her denial of their connection.
"Bon matin, ma tigre."
There was a round of teen giggling at Angel's distracted 'morning dear' as the blonde settled herself into her lover's lap and stole her toast, munching daintily at it before reaching for the un-opened paper laid out on the table.
"Oh look sweetheart, we made the front page again."
It was true. The magical world, it seemed, had become obsessed with the two champions and their 'forbidden' romance. This time it was Witch Weekly's turn to put them under the microscope of public opinion as they hadn't seen fit to change their publication date just for the Tri-Wizard Tournament. Angel grunted sleepily and tried to re-claim her breakfast from the distracting toast thief on her lap.
"Shall I read it out loud, ma Ange?"
After another non-committal grunt, Sirius jumped in with a lightning fast response.
"Oh no dear please, allow me."
He snatched the paper and laid it out flat on the table for all to see while grinning at both Angel's annoyed frown and Mari and Carina's snorting and giggling at his careful jab at her and the whole 'not my girlfriend' attitude that none of them believed for a second.
"Oh dearest daddy, sweetheart, please do."
The expected grumbling growl from Angel at their teasing was briefly giggled at and then ignored in favour of hearing the newest press opinions.
To be honest, Witch Weekly was actually a bit of a guilty pleasure for Sirius and had been for most of his life. It wasn't just because of the many pictures of comely young witches either. He had discovered early on that reading about what interested girls and being able to engage them in conversation about those subjects that his male peers were clueless about increased his chances with the opposite sex exponentially. Also it was a surprisingly good read being more balanced in its editorials than the traditionalist and Ministry biased Daily Prophet and less ... insane ... than The Quibbler. A point that was more than proven by their coverage of the Hogwarts Yule Ball.
Amongst all of the fabulous photographs of the most talked about 'couple' in the magical world, the accompanying prose sections appeared to be giving, what amounted to, cautious acceptance in stark contrast to Rita Skeeter's vitriolic invective in the Prophet yesterday. I mean, they weren't exactly waving any rainbow flags or anything, but neither was there any judgement or condemnation of them either. There was a subtle undercurrent of them being impressed by Angel's bravery as well as her dress choice and poise on the dance floor and amused at her antics in thumbing her nose at the male dominated wizarding establishment. Witch Weekly, it seemed, tacitly approved of her choices. And with such a photogenic and gossip worthy couple to write about ad-nauseam who could really blame them.
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The remaining days of the break continued in similar fashion. The teasing of his two soon to be wards and their relationship kept Sirius entertained well enough that he didn't have to resort to doing the same to Angel and Fleur. Thankfully. The power couple of the Tri-Wizard Tournament had proved themselves worthy of that word when he had watched them training with the younger girls and he was still damaged enough from his time in Azkaban that he had absolutely no desire to be on the receiving end of their wrath.
Only the deceptively sweet, little Mari Potter seemed to be able to get away with any kind of prolonged teasing of their situation. Angel's extreme fondness for his god-daughter preventing any retribution while Fleur just looked incredibly proud every time the word girlfriend was mentioned and was more likely to thank the younger girl than to seek any kind of revenge.
It was on the morning of the day that the girls were due to return to school that things got really interesting at Grimmauld Place. It started off innocuously enough with Fleur gently chastising his scariest house-guest for leaving their bed in the middle of the night again with all of the fully justified pouting that this entailed but got considerably more interesting when a certain werewolf walked into the kitchen with Mari and Carina.
"Remus!"
Sirius leapt at his old friend for a big (manly) hug and nearly sent all four of them to the floor in his enthusiasm.
"What the bloody hell are you doing here man ... and... how did you get here, anyway?"
"Honestly Pads, I don't have the slightest clue. One minute this pretty bird's chatting me up in a bar in Germany and the next thing I know I'm getting woken up by these two and I've got this sodding great lump on my head."
He was just gesturing to the two grinning teens when a cool, collected voice came from the other side of the room and an all too familiar face come into view from behind the leggy blonde seated at the table.
"I'm not sorry, you were being stubborn."
"Mate that's her, that's her!"
"You should count yourself lucky Moony, she got her insane elf to cold cock me with a bastard frying pan ... constantly ... for like, two days."
The two men hugged each other dramatically in consolation over their shared terrible experiences with 'that mean lady'. It was allowed to continue for longer than anyone expected before Angel De'ath finally rose and snapped out at the idiots.
"Alright, alright, enough of this mushy shit. Sirius, Remus, pull up your fucking panties and come downstairs, I've got a present for your both."
On reaching the basement Sirius and Remus came to a sudden halt shocked into a an immobile silence.
It didn't last for long, however.
"Hello Peter, it's been a while hasn't it?"
"Not long enough."
The chubby, rat faced man in the sturdy looking cage that fairly glowed with magical properties went pale and open mouthed but managed to stammer out.
"Padfoot, Moony ... I never ... you must understand ... I ... I had to do it."
Apparently this was the wrong thing to say to them as they launched themselves at the swiftly retreating man intent on murder.
"TRAITOR!"
"Enough! We need him alive."
The figure of a young woman now wrapped in a black hooded cloak emerged from the shadows and with the merest gesture from her hand stopped the two marauders dead in their tracks.
"Don't be stupid now Sirius. I know that you want to kill him and I get it, trust me I get it. But Carina and Mari need you free and for that to happen we need to have the rat as a witness. A live one. So think before you act and for once in your idiot life think of someone other than yourself."
This girl had just saved Peter's life by playing on that fool Sirius' tendancy to do anything to impress a pretty girl. A tendancy that Peter was currently very grateful that his old friend still possessed at this particular moment.
"Thank-you Miss, I ... I don't know who you are but thank-you, really."
"Oh, you know me Peter, but if you knew me better you really wouldn't be thanking me."
The tall girl dropped her hood and stared at him hard with black, soul-less, shark-like eyes that held no mercy ... only the promise of pain to come. He was actually quite relieved when she turned to Sirius and Remus and said;
"Look morons, I said we needed him alive, I didn't say we need him whole. Just try not to do anything that can't be easily fixed and for Morgana's sake don't forget to obliviate him afterwards, alright."
Taking their menacing growls and barely there nods as agreement, the cloak disappeared into her pocket and the terrifying witch who now appeared to be nothing more than a rather pleasant, chirpy school girl, released the two morons with another miniscule gesture and started up the stairs, waving at them all.
"Okay boys, you all have fun, I'm going to take the girls back to Hogwarts."
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