this is a long chapter, let me know if its to much and ill make sure to shorten them!
Second Book
End of June, 1993
Forth Year
It was safe to say, Ara and Adrian's plan had worked. The pair had been giddily happy ever since they'd gotten back to the Slytherin common room, even more so after hearing that Harry had actually bested the Basilisk.
Adrian had looked nearly bewildered upon hearing the news.
"I don't like him, but I've got to admit, that Potter's got a lot of nerve!"
To top off the great news, Hermione had definitely heard Ara that night in the infirmary, and thankfully kept everything to herself.
Whenever Ara glanced over to the younger girl, she'd notice Hermione already staring, a look on her face that made it seem like she was desperately trying to solve some kind of puzzle.
The blonde would just chuckle and look away.
It had been a good year. For the most part.
Ara's father had been fired from his job as a Governor for Hogwarts, but he was Lucius Malfoy. With the connections he had, he could probably be the next Minister of Magic if he wanted, so Ara wasn't worried. Also, the Malfoy's inheritance didn't leave much reason to worry, even if Lucius didn't want the work.
But other than that, everything really seemed to have fallen into place, even Professor Lockhart got sacked!
Thank Merlin.
The twins had, after a lot of convincing, agreed to stop asking Ara about why she needed The Marauders Map. Although Fred couldn't help but tease her a bit.
"Aren't you glad we nicked it all the way back in First Year?"
Ara smiled to herself, and then, sensing that she wasn't alone anymore, looked to her right. She was on the Hogwarts Express, and she had been alone in the trains corridor while looking out of a window.
"Hello, Harry," Ara grinned and turned her head towards the window again.
She watched the landscape whizz by her, the train ride home was always so peaceful.
"Hello," Harry mumbled back, he was standing next her. Neither of them said anything else for a while after that.
"We'll be getting to the station soon," Ara mused, Harry nodded, obviously preoccupied by his own thoughts, "-Earth to Harry?"
The boy snapped his head over to Ara, who looked him up and down, clearly amused.
"Take good care of Dobby, will you?"
The boy gasped, Ara chuckled and turned back to watch the moving landscape.
"Wha-what? I mean, how-"
"He was quite kind to me in my childhood," Ara mused, not bothering to look at the boy next to her, "-I believe my mother might even have a photograph or two of me with him,"
"B-but, you- you're-"
All that stuttering.
"My father would be livid if he found out, but mum has always quite good at hiding things from him," Ara shrugged, seemingly speaking to herself more than Harry.
"What's that saying, I believe muggles use it? Like mother, like daughter?"
"Yes,"
Ara smiled softly and nodded, seemingly true.
Noticing the train beginning to slow down, Ara felt joyful. She'd really missed her mother.
"Also, when you see Dobby again, tell him he'll be missed, and that Madam Ara says thank you, he's probably guessed by now, but it worked,"
Harry looked perplexed, guilty even.
"Ara, you know I'm not his master, right?" Harry said, nearly shyly.
Ara laughed her loud laugh, and nodded.
"I know,"
"Then-"
"He's a very loyal creature, and he's got a habit of appearing in unexpected places, he'll find you,"
Harry looked down, seemingly in deep thought, Ara watched him out of the corner of her eye, wondering if he'd understand what she meant. Suddenly, he glanced up at her, looking confused to say the least.
"What do you mean, 'it worked'?"
Ara smiled, so Hermione hadn't told anyone, not even her best friend.
"He'll know what I'm talking about,"
The train came to a stop, and Ara quickly scanned the station, searching for her mother, she smiled widely upon finding her.
"Have a good summer Harry, tell the twins I'll miss them, yeah?"
The boy nodded at her, and with a snap of her fingers, Ara's luggage was next to her.
She made her way outside quickly, practically leaving Harry in her dust. Ara made sure to find Draco before making her way towards their mother.
"Look how you've grown!" Narcissa fawned over her children, giving them both a kiss on the cheek.
"Is father not here?" Draco asked, Narcissa smiled a strange smile that Ara could not read.
"Unfortunately, but he'll be at the manor, don't worry,"
Ara gave her mother a small smile and nodded, not particularly caring, but Draco clearly did, so she refrained from saying anything snarky.
"You know, the most peculiar thing happened about a week ago," Narcissa mused as she ushered her children away from the station, "-While your father was doing an inventory of the library, he'd found that he was one book down,"
Draco made a face that screamed 'who cares' while Ara tried to hold back her smirk.
"You two wouldn't happen to know anything about that?" Narcissa asked, carefully eyeing her daughter.
Ara chuckled under her breath and shrugged, while Draco gave his mum a confused glance.
"How could we? We've been in school all year, lockdown," He shook his head, "-Dad doesn't think it has anything to do with Ari, right?"
Bless his soul.
"Of course not! I'm just asking!" Narcissa waved her son off.
"He probably miscounted, when I get home I'll help him redo it," Ara assured her mother sweetly, the older woman glanced at her daughter, and then nodded.
Narcissa couldn't help but remember a very similar predicament happening once when she was a child, and still a Black, Andromeda had said scarily akin to that.
"-Seems like the Weasley's have had a stoke of luck, for once,"
Ara's father bringing up the Weasley's made her tense up. Trying to seem nonchalant while eating her lunch, she glanced up at the man who'd been reading a copy of the Daily Prophet.
"How so?"
"Won that lottery that the ministry holds, I'm sure they were over the moon, about 700 galleons," Lucius chortled, Ara shot him an angry, practically disgusted, glare.
"Dear, if you're not hungry anymore, go check on your brother, will you?" Narcissa asked quickly. She'd seen the look on her daughters face, thankfully before Lucius had.
Narcissa knew that separating her husband and Ara was the best course of action to prevent any arguments, which had been avoided an unnatural amount this summer.
"Yes, mother," Ara said kindly, glancing at her father before standing up and leaving.
He's a bitter old man.
Ara burst into her brothers bedroom and fell onto his bed absentmindedly. She didn't bother even looking at Draco, who sat at his desk quietly. Her thoughts were plagued by the Weasley's.
"Yes, Ari?" Draco sighed, tapping a quill against his forehead.
Ara said nothing in return, and stared up at the ceiling of Draco's room for what felt like ages, the hooting of her brothers owl snapped her back to reality.
"Drake, can I borrow your owl?"
"What?" Draco turned in the chair to look at his sister, "-Why?"
"I've been meaning to write Nereza,"
Lie. Not that Draco could tell. The boy gave her a curious look and then shrugged.
"Sure, go ahead," He turned back around, and continued doing whatever it was he'd been doing at his desk, "-Why can't mum and dad just buy you your own owl?"
Ara sat up and gave her brother an amused glare.
"Hmh, I wonder?" She mused sarcastically, pretending to be in thought. Draco's lips formed into a tight line and he immediately regretted his question.
"Ara-" He turned to face his sister.
"Maybe it has something to do with my meddlesome little brother, who just so happened to get me in a world of trouble in First Year, for which the punishment is still pending?"
Draco sighed and shook his head. Ara had her arms crossed and gave the soon to be Third Year a questioning look.
"I didn't mean for it to happen-" He mumbled, Ara let out a loud laugh and shook her head.
"All is forgiven, besides, Ulysses is practically mine now anyway," Ara hummed teasingly, referring to Draco's owl, she then grabbed the birds cage and walking out of the room smugly.
"Ari! I never said that!"
Draco's big sister ignored his protests as she quickly walked into her own room and shut the door, she fell into the chair by her desk and began writing a letter immediately.
Dear Freddie and George,
I am sorry for not being able to send separate letters, but I told Draco I was only using his owl to send something to Nereza (my roommate, incase you two fail to remember), and two letters would've been suspicious.
Now, onto the reason I am writing you, CONGRATULATIONS!
I heard about your family winning that lottery, its wonderful news! Do tell me if you've done anything exciting with the money when school starts!
Take care,
Ara
P.S. I know you two predicted it, and keep the cheekiness to a minimum, but I've been named one of the prefects for Slytherin.
P.P.S. Don't bother writing back, Draco is a nosy boy, he'll read the letters and I'll get into a world of trouble.
Anxiously, Ara sealed the envelope and attached it to Ulysses, letting the bird fly out through her window.
"Draco, I noticed Ulysses was gone?"
Ara's breath hitched upon hearing her father ask the question.
She discreetly looked over to her brother. Who didn't skip a beat before answering.
"Yes, I sent a letter to Pansy Parkinson," Draco met his sisters gaze and gave her a small, barely there, smile.
Draco loved Ara very much. And although he was a bit of a menace towards her, he would never want anything bad to happen to her. Telling their father about her letters, even though they were for Nereza, might result in something bad.
Draco telling Lucius many things, would result in something bad for Ara. One of those things being her very strange relationship with the Weasley twins.
When Draco had started school at Hogwarts, it'd made him uncomfortable, watching his big sister interact so warmly with the people their father undoubtedly hated. The look in her eyes when she spoke to Fred Weasley, specifically, made him very uncomfortable.
But, the thought of what their father might do to Ara if he found out about that look in her eye, made him the most uncomfortable.
That's why, he chose to turn a blind eye towards the friendship. And he the older he got, the more he made sure anyone who had an issue with it also turned a blind eye, literally.
He'd been forced to hex more than a few people blind for gossiping about Ara.
After a very long time, Draco had managed to convince himself that Ara was just being nice to the Weasley twins.
To Fred.
It made sense, after all, Ara was nice to everyone, she was friends with everyone, and that was something father secretly liked.
It was a typical Slytherin trait, making friends with all kinds of people, you'd never know when someone might come in handy.
Draco wasn't quite sure that this was why Ara was the way she was, but when their father wrote him throughout the year, demanding to know how Ara was behaving, that's what he'd say.
That she was being nice, making connections, withholding the Malfoy reputation, and surely a shoo-in for headgirl.
He'd say she was making friends.
And he'd never clarify what kind of friends.
"-Cornelius Fudge has made the muggles aware of your dear Sirius' escape, Narcissa," Lucius said menacingly in the middle of dinner.
Ara's head snapped over to her mother. She'd been behaving strangely the whole summer, and it was unlike her to allow Lucius to speak badly about any of the Blacks.
Narcissa's body went stiff, she hummed out a response while taking a bite of her food.
The tension in the room could be cut with a butter knife, Draco, being very uncomfortable, avoided everyone's gaze. Ara, on the other hand, eyed her father.
"-As if they have any chance of finding him, really, Fudge has always been delusional,"
Ara felt herself gripping her eating utensils so tightly that her fingers turned white. It wasn't what he was saying, it was the pretentious tone he was using.
"-He always was a bad egg, that Sirius, some man to call family,"
Ara watched her father carefully, he was acting strange. The look he gave Narcissa forced a cold chill down Ara's spine.
"He is your children's family,"
"Precisely, now, if Fudge could just catch the disgrace already, it'd make sure Drac-they, wouldn't have to deal with the humiliation of such family,"
Ara clenched her jaw.
If he doesn't stop talking.
"The only useful thing that man ever did was sell out the Potter's, got two of the three-"
Dinner came to an abrupt halt when Ara stabbed her fork into the table.
Draco and Narcissa stared at the protruding utensil, wide-eyed.
"How... primitive of you, Ara," Lucius hissed.
As a girl, Ara had been beyond scared of her father.
But, the older she got, the more she realized there was very little she had to be frightened of. It truly was ironic how beautifully the tables had turned. Now, realistically, if there was anyone in Malfoy Manor to be scared of, it was Ara. Which Lucius had noticed, and hated.
He couldn't thrash her around anymore, couldn't intimidate her, couldn't yell her into submission.
"Have you no shame?" Ara asked angrily, standing up from her seat, Lucius gave her an unamused look.
"Whatever do you mean?"
"A boy was left an orphan, have you no shame? What if it was you, and mother? What if you had died and left Draco alone?"
He'd be better off.
She knew Lucius couldn't care less about her, but Draco? Sure to strike a chord.
Lucius did not say anything.
"-You needn't like the Potter's, or even respect them, but recognize that a boy was left fatherless,"
"You've always been to empathic, it needed to happen," Lucius shrugged, Ara laughed bitterly.
"For what? It needed to happen for what?"
Ara did not finish her dinner that night, finding that she'd lost her appetite rather quickly. She decided to barricade herself in her room and wait for sleep, and hopefully calm, to overcome her
Unfortunately, a knock at the door interrupted both those things.
"Yes?"
Narcissa opened the door wordlessly, and afterwards, closed it gently.
"I guess the summer wouldn't be complete without at least one argument," She joked and walked over to her daughter, who was sitting in her bed.
Every summer since Ara's First Year at Hogwarts had entailed at least one major fight between her and her father, almost like tradition.
Ara gave her mum a sad smile.
"-This one really was very tame compared to the others, although, getting that fork out of the table proved to be a challenge," Narcissa mused, sitting down on Ara's bed and beginning to run her fingers through the girl's hair.
Ara sighed and laid down, placing her head on her mother's lap, the two stayed like that for a while.
"You know, under different circumstances, I think you would've quite liked Sirius,"
Ara sat up and gave her mother a concerned look.
"-He was very much, your type of person,"
"Wow, my type of person. A murderer. Thank you mother, that means so-"
Ara shut up when Narcissa stood up and brushed her clothes off, she regretted the sarcastic tone she'd used with her mum.
"Sirius is a good man Ara, remember that, will you?" And with that, Narcissa was gone.
Is? What does she mean, is?
Ara stared at her door from which her mother left, confused, for what felt like ages. That is, until it the door slammed open again, and Draco walked in, looking rather bored.
"Zabini's cousin wrote you back,"
"What?" Ara asked, thrown off guard.
Draco chucked a plain envelope, labeled 'To Ara, From Nereza' in pretty handwriting, that did not belong to her roommate, onto Ara's bed. Ara stared at the envelope, shocked to say the least.
"Just tell me if you need Ulysses again," Draco was gone, Ara pushed her mother's strange behavior to the back of her mind while she ripped open the envelope.
Dear Ara,
Lucky you. We were on vacation (that's what we used a major portion of the lottery money to do, tell you all about when school starts) with our brother, Bill (oldest, headboy, Gringotts, remember?) he's quite the wizard, and showed us a neat trick.
You see, you're the only one able to see this letter for what it truly is, to everyone else, even those who bother to open it, it seems like a plain letter from roommate to roommate, but you get to see it for what it really is.
A message from your favorite wizards!
Incase you want to use the spell, we'll write the incantation on the back.
Yours truly,
Freddie and Georgie
P.S. Percy is headboy, which means you'll have to take orders from him! SUCKER.
P.P.S. Please write back if you can, Fred misses you, but doesn't want to seem sappy -George
Ara smiled so widely, it hurt.
not me posting chapters just because i want to rant,,,, embarrassing
anywayyyy, ive sort of figure out how i want to organize the story and i want to tell you folks, so here it is:
-one continuous story (no sequel)
-there will be more then one part though (bc theres a few post-war chapters in the making) currently aiming for 2/3
-THIS IS A LOT, but around 60 chapters (give or take) all together?
-lowkey, ive never really used before this fic, so im not sure how to make it *pretty* buttt im planning on making it look a bit nicer on wattpad (DONT KILL ME, IK SM PPL HATE IT)
-by a bit nicer, i mean moodboards, lyrics, ext. between parts, and as soon as i figure out how to do that here it'll be added as well!
anyway thats it for rn, i'll keep you all updated! like always, tysm for reading, that alone makes my day! leave a review if youd like!