The Battle Mage
The Morrigan stepped gracefully out of the Floo, having shielded Hadrian's eyes from the ash and heat by casting a modified bubblehead charm around his head – she had read that it was developed by an innovative Unspeakable witch who was on maternity leave for the purpose of protecting young children from the worst of Floo travel. Noelle scanned the lobby, pinning a few scurrying Ministry workers with her cold gaze.
The floors and walls were paneled with a rich, dark wood, lacquered so diligently that it reflected her purple eyes back at her. Gilded fireplaces lined both sides of the hall, with wizards and witches hopping in and out of them with a shouted location and a flash of green flames. The ceiling was a bright royal blue, carved with golden runes that she scanned, reading their intentions for governance, privacy from outsiders, safety, order, and secrecy from non-magical peoples. She stalked through bustling crowds that parted for her and whispered excitedly in her wake.
"Pretty," Harry said, pointing at the runes on the ceiling. She hadn't noticed him wake up, but he was rather quiet for a toddler.
She smiled softly and whispered, "Yes, it is, kitten."
There was a fountain within the center of the Atrium covered in gold. Within the center was a wizard pointing his wand high – as though he were signaling others or casting a large ward – with a witch at his side. Beneath them, on a lower tier of the fountain – because that wasn't on the nose – was a goblin, centaur, and a house elf. All were gazing at the wizard with adoration and awe plain on their faces. Water cascaded from their wands, the centaur's arrow, the goblin's pointy hat, and the house elf's comically large ears.
Beneath it was a plaque that read: FOUNTAIN OF MAGICAL BRETHREN.
"It's like they're saying, 'Look at me. I'm pretentious, and a bigot.'" she snarked to herself.
People began to take notice of her walking through their midst, and more importantly, who she had tied to her chest. Even with her reputation, the excitement of the sheep and their numbers emboldened them as they crowded closer. Hadrian shivered at the sight of so many people staring at him but relaxed with a small sigh as his Noelle ran her fingers through his curls. She murmured reassurances even as she glared at the crowd and snarled, "Back off!"
"B-but that's the Boy-Who-Lived! We've a right to meet the boy who vanquished You-Know-Who," an indignant elderly man said, and the crowd murmured their assent, beginning to shuffle closer.
"And I'm the woman who will happily curse each and every one of you and has the training to do so if you continue to harass my nephew. You have no rights to him. In fact, if half of you cowardly little sheep had gotten off your asses and done something about the Death Eaters, he wouldn't be an orphan. You have wands, same as they did. This could have been prevented before I even got my Hogwarts letter."
"But they used the Unforgivables," an overweight woman in dark blue robes said weakly.
"You think if six people tossed a Stupify – a fifth year spell – at a Death Eater, he could dodge them all? You're all cowards – sheep waiting for their next Light Lord to shepherd them. So weak willed you can't even speak a man's name," she snarled at them, "Voldemort. Voldemort. Voldemort. Voldemort."
There were gasps and shrieks and many in the crowd shuffled fearfully or backed away, voicing cries of, "Don't speak it!"
She stared them down coldly, spitting, "Cowards." Some flinched and she lifted her chin, marching towards the elevator with the expectation that anyone in her way had better move or else. They all moved. No one entered the elevator with her, and she braced herself against the side when she hit the button for Level 2.
"Why go 'way?" a small voice asked, so quietly that if Hadrian hadn't been pressing his face into her throat, she doubted she would have heard.
"I didn't like the way they scared you," she told him softly, combing gentle fingers through his raven curls once again, "So I scared them too."
"Why?" Hadrian asked again, puzzled, but louder in his curiosity.
"Because I love you, kitten. You're a sweet boy and it's my job and your Uncle Padfoot's to take care of you now that your mum and dad can't. Not because we must, but because we want to. Your Uncle is away right now, but I'm going to kick his arse and drag him back here to marry me," she play-growled and was rewarded with a tiny giggle against her collar bone.
"When's for treat time?" he asked quietly.
"I'll give it to you after supper, kit," she reassured with a light brush of her thumb over his thin cheek. He flinched, but then leaned into the touch.
"Level 2. Department of Magical Law Enforcement," a light recorded voice said as Noelle pulled the accordion door open.
"Kitten, I need you to be really quiet, just like last time, okay?" she whispered, cupping the back of his head, and meeting his emerald eyes.
"M'kay," he nodded, peering at everyone he could see curiously.
Noelle nodded a greeting to Auror Moody and Auror Bones as they passed. Whispers and awed gazes followed her as she passed, but they remained respectful, and many barely glanced at the boy strapped to her chest.
She entered the large record room full of files for previous trials, arrests, and convictions. It was a large room lined with boxes, haphazardly stack on rows of shelves labeled with letters. Noelle walked to the files marked B and looked for Black. She became excited when she found a file for Sirius Black but groaned when she realized that it was for Sirius Black I, not her fiancé, Sirius Black III.
She found Blacks going back hundreds of years – it was to be expected, they were a House known for their love of the Dark Arts and were so notoriously unpredictable that they had a term for their crazies – The Black Madness. Noelle had asked Arcturus about it once and he shrugged and said that it was often triggered within Blacks due to overexposure to Dark Magic upon their person – like Bellatrix after prolonged Cruciatus curses under Voldemort.
But no matter how hard she searched, even going so far as to check within the letters A and C, and even under S for Sirius, but she couldn't find his file. She tried to summon it, and she felt abrupt flutter in her magic that she knew as an anti-summoning charm.
Someone didn't want Sirius' file to be summoned, and they hadn't placed it within the correct slot. That was good because it meant that she was probably correct about his innocence, but bad because she had no idea who was using him as a scapegoat, or why they wanted him out of the way. She smirked, just because a summoning charm didn't work, didn't mean others were spelled not to work as well.
"Point me: File of Sirius Arcturus Black III," she said, laying her right-hand wand flat in the palm of her right hand. It spun gently and the tip snapped sideways, toward the back of the file room. It led her down the shelves, to the last, dusty row.
She pulled out her left-hand wand and rolled her eyes as she muttered, "Of course it's in the creepiest section, because that's my life now. Lumos."
She flicked the burst of light so that it hovered above her head and cast a thin, skin-tight shield charm that covered both Hadrian and her, leaving her left wand free while her right continued to point. She followed it to the end of the row, where even the torches sputtered in the heavy darkness. Hadrian shivered and huddled close, so she cast a light warming charm on him.
She wandered through darkened shelves and past the waning light of the fire, until her spelled light was the only thing allowing her to see. Her breath clouded in front of her, but the cold wasn't a result of her magic this time. There were what sounded like whispers at the edge of her hearing, but when she strained to hear what they were saying, never taking her eyes off her surroundings, she was left with a thin ringing in her ears and a slight headache.
It was the detection ward that gave it away. Back among shelves that hadn't been touched for what seemed like centuries, Noelle checked for wards and all but hissed when she found a complex yet subtle security ward with a couple of nasty surprises for anyone who tripped it. She bypassed it with contemptuous ease and cast revelio – a thin manilla folder shimmered into view.
Noelle picked it up – but her eyes widened, and she cast the strongest shield charm she could muster, turning to protect Hadrian with her own body. The very air groaned as a hidden force of magic slammed into her powerful shield, shattering it and slicing claw marks of pure magic across her back. She screamed and Harry cried with her as her blood splattered over the dusty walls and files.
Using an old and extremely draining technique, she lunged into a heavy shadow to avoid another blow. Wind howled in her ears and shadows gripped at their curls as she shoved out of the shadows and landed heavily on her side in the Black's living room. Her vision flickered and faded as alarmed voices called her name, but she blacked out clutching her nephew tightly to her chest and bleeding out on the late Walburga Black's favorite rug.