Asya groggily got up. She was happy that she had the chance to have a nice day with Wanda and Pietro, and she was even happier that she was able to give them a proper goodbye without just vanishing. Not only that, but Asya had even been able to leave a way for her and Wanda to keep in touch, one that can't be traced.
But Asya knew that it was time to move on while she was sure that the Red Room was no longer looking for her, and even if they were, did they really think that she could have gotten six hundred miles as the bird flys? No, they wouldn't. But Asya was not willing to risk staying so close just in case a Red Room operative wandered through.
Asya would feel better in France or the UK, both countries that she knew well and wouldn't have to worry about Soviet spies noticing her as there would only be a few of them, and those would be in high ranking government positions.
Asya rolled out of bed and started to gather up all of her clothing and store them in her bag before jumping into a warm shower for what could be the last time in the next week or so. Asya had decided to go to Germany first and see if Nurmengard Castle was there as it was the closest magical zone that she knew about, and it was hard to miss a giant castle.
If she found nothing in Germany, she would head to France for a few reasons. By the time she got to France, she wouldn't have to worry about the Red Room finding her as she would be written off as dead after so long with no sightings. The other reasons were to see if Beauxbatons Academy of Magic was still there, then check if the Delacour Manor was there. Asya wasn't holding out much hope. Though, given all the magic she used, it should have drawn some attention from the nearest Ministry.
And then the last and most important point was to relax. Asya learned during the Horcrux hunt that you had to relax every now and then, or you will break under the pressure like Ron did when he left the camp and didn't come back till The Battle of Hogwarts, something that Asya held against him in her mind for the rest of her life.
Asya opened the minifridge and put all the food and drinks into the bag and then cast a cleaning charm that Mrs Weasley demanded to teach her for when she got married, saying she would need it, but she never did get married or needed the stupid charm.
Leaving the room, she went to the check out counter and gave them all her money. After all, she wouldn't need it in Germany as she could just summon all the lost money in any of the towns that she passed through.
Walking out of the hotel, Asya instantly bumped into Wanda and Pietro.
"You weren't going to leave without saying goodbye in the morning, were you?" Wanda said, stamping her foot.
Asya thought that looked quite cute but was sure that Wanda wouldn't want that pointed out.
"No, I was going to wait for you." Asya lied. She always hated saying goodbye to people, and she wasn't sure when she would see Wanda again, it could be over a decade before they met again in person. If there weren't any magical communities around, she would need to blend in with the muggle world, something she wasn't sure how to do with no ID or birth records.
Asya pulled Wanda into a hug and kissed her on her forehead. "Be safe", Asya whispered to Wanda.
Asya let go and turned to Pietro, who she hadn't really talked to as she was busy either teaching Wanda or answering Wanda's questions. Asya grabbed his hand and shook it.
"Keep your sister safe, and you know don't let her blow up a city," Asya said jokingly before noticing Pietro's panicked look.
"I was joking. She can't blow up a city." Asya said, rolling her eyes before mumbling "probably." under her breath.
Asya gave them a sad smile and waved before willing death's cloak to turn her invisible after they passed into an Alleyway and then took to the skies with the same flying spell Voldemort used when chasing her after they left her Aunt and Uncles house. Why they couldn't just apparate out Asya never did learn as the Ministry was always going to say she was a criminal due to death eaters taking it over after Dumbledore died.
Asya always loved to fly. Whether it was on a broom or carpet or via this flying spell, it just felt proper and peaceful. Asya closed her eyes as she felt the wind on her face after she made sure that she wouldn't crash into anything as she never lived that down. Even 70 years later, people would still bring that up the stupid tree.
The day quickly passed, and eventually, Asya floated down to the ground and made some food while looking in the linked book for her and Wanda. She was not surprised to see that Wanda had seemed to have spent hours writing in the book about everything that she had done today and her attempts of magic. Asya let out a little laugh and wondered if she was related to Hermione, but given that she didn't care for rules very much, she doubted it.
Asya spent the next hour or so talking about her day and how it felt to fly and then answered all the questions that Wanda had asked her to a limit as long as the knowledge wasn't so advanced that she wouldn't understand what she was being told. Asya then cast some wards and drifted off to sleep.
She spent the next four days doing the same routine before financially arriving in Axams, the closest town to Nurmengard Castle, which was just on the border of Austria and Germany, close enough near a ski resort town. Why Gellert Grindelwald decided to build it there, Asya never worked out. Maybe the man liked Skiing?
Asya spent a day relaxing in the Ski resort town at a cabin which she rented for the day, something that Wanda seemed sad that she missed, till Asya told her that once she had her magic down, she could go anywhere she wanted and live however she wanted something that Asya hoped would bring a smile to Wanda. After all, Asya planned on living this life to the max, or she would after she killed Dreykov, ideally after she tortured him to insanity with the Cruciatus Curse only then would she grant him death. (Seriously, she truly wasn´t sure who she hated more: Voldemort or Dreykov.)
Asya took to the sky again and flew towards where Nurmengard Castle was roughly meant to be Asya spent the entire day scouring the area of where the castle was supposed to be but came up empty, and she couldn't feel any magic to signify wards anywhere she had flown near which lead to two options.
Either the castle was under the Fidelius Charm, which was very unlikely given that all the staff would need to know about it etc. So Asya felt like that she could cross that off, or the second and most likely was that it didn't exist in this world. Asya hadn't held out much hope that Nurmengard existed in this world; Asya noticed that many of the attacks that Gellert Grindelwald did in Asya's original world didn't happen in this world which made her think that Grindelwald didn't exist in this world so why would his castle. However, she found it interesting to note that Hitler still had help from someone else, namely an Organization called HYDRA, who all girls in the Red Room were supposed to instantly report if they found traces of the Group. However, given how vague the instructions had been, Asya was unsure if HYDRA was still active or if it had just been a safety-procedure of the Red Room.
Flying back to the ski resort town, she rented the cabin for another three days, which would let her stock back up on food as well as give her some time to rest and get over the fact that a magical community was looking even less likely. Asya knew that both Austria and Germany had Ministry's of Magic, yet no one had checked after she spent the entire day using magic. Someone should have been deployed to make sure none magical hadn't noticed her magic.
Asya just hoped that maybe due to the Elder wand binding with her that she couldn't have the trace on her, and that was why they hadn't sent anyone out to see why she was using magic as they simply didn't know. Asya opened the diary and told Wanda about her travels and that the magical castle she had heard about wasn't real, unfortunately, which upset Wanda before she promised that they could both make one when they were older.
Asya hoped that she would forget that by the time they were older, a large empty magic castle wasn't something that she wanted to build, and she had no clue about construction magic, or even if there was such a thing. If Asya had to guess, then Wizards and Witches would have used house elves to build the castle or manor as she doubted they did it themselves.
Asya spent the next two days relaxing and stockpiling food in her expanded bag and only decided to stay an extra day as a circus was scheduled for the 3rd day. Asya didn't mind if it was childish, given that she was a child again, but she wanted to do the things children got to do, like go to the movies and circus, which was stuff she missed out on the first time.
Ironically enough, in both of her life's, she was forced to do ballet. In the first life, her Aunt said every girl should be able to do Ballet. Still, Asya was sure she wanted her to do it so she could live vicariously through her as her Aunt was always much nicer to her when she had her Ballet lessons twice a week. During those lessons, she would think that her Aunt did actually love her. Of course, that wasn't true, later as she did better at Ballet, the more spiteful that her Aunt became and the worse she would treat her, giving her less food or more work to do at home.
On the third day, Asya got up excited for the Circus; after all, she had never been to one as an adult. Going to one on her own without her having children was a little sad. Not to mention that the time where she finished school, she was far too busy getting her mastery in Defense against the Dark Arts before she went back to teach at Hogwarts as the defence against the dark arts teacher. After all, no one could say that she didn't know what it was like to fight the dark arts.
Asya was annoyed at how slow the day was moving. The Circus wasn't till two o clock, and the entire morning seemed to be three times as long to go by before midday arrived. Walking around the Tents, Asya saw a few signs that said that the main attraction was something called a Nightcrawler. Asya wondered if they had different animals in this new world as she had heard that they would have Elephants, Tigers, Zebras and sometimes Monkeys. If this world had its own animals, it made sense that they would be featured.
Fortunately enough for Asya, the rest of the Circus was open at 12, so she started to look around. There were a few food stales and some rides for the kids to go on, like a small Ferris wheel along with games. Asya tried a few of the games, like throwing a hoop that she did badly at as well as throwing bean bags at cans to knock them down that Asya did a bit better at and she managed to win a small plushie.
As Asya was looking around, she saw a fortune-telling tent that she quickly tried to make a beeline from. Asya had more than enough with divination.
"Don't you want your future telling?" A voice called out to her as she tried to leave.
Asya looked at the person who called her and saw that she fit the stereotypical image of a fortune-teller.
"No thanks, I don't believe in fortune-telling," Asya said as she turned to leave again.
"Are you sure about that Mistress of Death?" The women said again, making Asya freeze.
Asya knew that no one of this world should even know that title unless the Tale of the Three Brothers also existed. Asya turned back to the woman with a much colder look on her face. The women didn't say anything and just gestured, welcoming to the tent before walking in.
Asya wasn't sure what to do with this woman. She could actually have magic, but Asya really hated divination in her old life. It brought nothing but pain and misery for her. In the end, Asya decided that she could always ignore what she learned if she didn't like it.
Asya slowly entered the tent after ensuring that there were no runes she was walking over or any magic imbued into anything she touched.
"My my so cautious." The woman said, amused as she sat down in a chair on one side of the table, leaving a chair free on the side closest to Asya.
"You have magic?" Asya asked, taking another look around in caution.
"Yes, I was taught by my mother though we didn't have a coven, so it was just us. My name is Margali Szardos," she said, introducing herself.
Asya slowly sat down. "My name is Asya."
"Well, I will see what I can see for you," Margali said as she grabbed a Crystal Ball where some pink mist was floating in.
Asya watched cautiously as Margali seemed to look into the Ball.
"Hmm, tricky, but I can see a few things.
I see someone called the Ancient one teaching you." Asya frowned and wondered who this ancient one was. Was it just an older person that was teaching magic, or was it more of a title? At least Margali didn't say she was going to die.
"I see vengeance in your future, but I can't see against whom or for what," Margali said, looking closer into the ball. Asya felt a smile on her face at the idea that she would get her revenge on Dreykov. Asya liked this future telling far more than the prophecy she was stuck within her first life.
"I can see that you will be reunited with those you hold dearest to you eventually." Asya rolled her eyes. She was aware that in death, everyone eventually is reunited, something that she learned from using the Resurrection stone. Asya ignored this as it would be another 130ish years before she died from natural causes, unless she was killed before that.
"I see a powerful being called the Mad Titan stalking you. He will covet the Stone you carry for dark purposes." Margali said, giving her Crystal Ball one final look.
Asya couldn't help but think in a snarky voice. 'Great, another wannabe Dark Lord type person. Why is it always me? Can't it be someone else? What did I do? And why is he after the Resurrection stone? Other than being able to talk to the dead, it doesn't exactly have much use. The Elder Wand and Death's Cloak are far more powerful items.'
"That is all I can see from your Future, I´m afraid," Margali said in disappointment.
"Well, it's not the worst fortune I have ever heard," Asya said, getting up out of the chair.
"It's not the worst I have ever heard of either that would belong to the scarlet witch," Margali said idly.
"Scarlet Witch?" Asya asked, confused.
"Ah, it's just a silly myth", Margali replied, brushing it off.
"But if someone called 'The Mad Titan' is looking for something that you are carrying, it must be important even if you don't have the stone yet," Margali warned Asya.
"Okay, well, thank you, I think," Asya said, handing over the money and left the tent. Asya wasn't sure if it really was that important. She had the Ressurection stone for over 148 years, and other than talking to the dead, it didn't seem to show any special powers. Although Asya would admit to herself that she never really explored the stone, after all, Asya thought that the dead deserved to be left to their peace and that she didn't have the right to summon them to the world of the living.
Asya left the circus and went back to her cabin. No longer in the mood to play games, though she would still go to the big performance in an hour. Asya sat on the bed and summoned the Ressurection Stone. To her surprise, the stone had changed. It no longer looked like an unrefined crystal like it did when she checked it when she got her memories back at 11 years old.
It now looked like a black opal that had a glowing core, which immediately put Asya on edge. When did the stone change into whatever the hell this was? Asya still couldn't feel anything special about the stone even though she could see from the look alone that there was something special about it.
Asya sat looking at the stone, trying to decide if she should use the stone to talk to the dead. After all, she no longer looked like Melody Potter, so Lily and James Potter wouldn't recognise her. In the end, Asya let the stone fade back into her or where ever it goes. Asya never really did know, but thought they were bonded with her soul in some way. It would explain why when she threw them away or snapped the Elder wand, it always returned to her when she thought about wanting them.
Thankfully she was able to 'destroy' them in public, making everyone think they were gone for good, so she didn't have every dark wizard in the world coming after her for the stupid hallows. Asya decided she would explore the stone more when there weren't any innocent people around her that could get injured.
Asya left the cabin and headed back to the circus, not wanting to miss the main event. Even with everything that was on her mind, after all she was excited to see this new animal, the Nightcrawler. On the way there, Asya bought some popcorn and soda and walked into the large tent in the centre of the circus and took a seat towards the back so people would be less likely to notice that she had no parents with her. She hardly could use the confundus charm on everyone here after all.
The show started off with things like juggling and gymnastics performances before they started to bring in animals like Lions and Elephants. Something that Asya loved to watch was how they managed to stand on stools and walk on two legs. Asya had no clue how the trainers managed that, but it was amazing to watch. They had also got one Lion to balance on a ball as it moved around.
Eventually, the main attraction began, the Nightcrawler was something that Asya was excited to see. She looked around for an animal that she had never seen before, but nothing stood out till a cloud of blue smoke exploded in the centre of the stage like area. Asya clapped like everyone else, wanting to see what animal it was.
Only for her excitement to fade as the smoke disappeared. She saw a blue-skinned man with a strange devil looking tail and pointy Fantasy-elf looking ears. Instantly Asya felt pity. She spent her whole childhood being called a freak, and then all of her school life, people looked at her like she was a strange attraction, and she hated every moment of it. Asya didn't want to think the worse of the circus, but she couldn't help but be wary that they were taking advantage of this person. Especially when she saw a few people in the audience sneer at Nightcrawler.
She watched the rest of the show, and the nightcrawler did seem to be happy where he was and delivered an impressive show of Air-acrobatics and several interesting tricks like juggling with both his hands and tail. Still, she would make sure that he was actually happy here before she left, or she would help him maybe by taking him with her or enchant some jewellery with a glamour so he could leave and live a normal-ish life.
After the show finished, Asya willed death's cloak to hide her before following the Nightcrawler, who thankfully didn't just teleport away. Which seemed to be far more practical than apparition as it was at least quiet and didn't seem to make you want to puke your guts out. Asya watched as he walked into a tent and waited for a few moments before sneaking into the tent in the hopes of talking to him and was a little surprised to see that Margali was also in the tent.
Asya let the cloak fade away and watched as they both jumped in surprise before Margali smiled at her. "Back so soon, Asya?"
"I was watching the main circus act before I saw Nightcrawler, and I wanted to make sure he wasn't being taken advantage of," Asya said and noticed that Nightcrawler seemed quite shy, which was odd given that he was a performer for a living.
"I found and adopted Kurt when he was just a little baby, and honestly, there are not many places in the world that would accept him and treat him well like he is currently," Margali replied sadly.
Asya looked at Kurt to see if that was the case.
"Everyone here treats each other like family. The worse I ever have to put up with is the audience and some drunk people that say some mean things but not the people at the circus." Kurt said with honest-looking eyes.
"Well, if your happy here, then that is all that matters," Asya said, uncomfortable being near Margali again as it reminded her of the future she predicted and given that the Ressurection stone changed when she was born in this world and had changed again in the last year and a bit.
Asya bid them goodbye and quickly left the tent, not wanting to be around Margali any longer just in case she fell into a trance and foretold the rise of Voldemort in this new world. Knowing her luck, the chances of that happening were probably over 90%. Seriously, why couldn´t anyone else deal with the noseless idiot Terrorist? (Far away, a Wraith like man with a Red Skull and no Nose suddenly felt offended for some reason.)
Asya went back to the cabin and gathered all of her belongings, and willed the cloak to hide her again. Before Asya started to fly to France, she had a stone to inspect and test. Asya flew low and fast until she was in a forested area on the side of the mountain and softly landed. She quickly set up all her standard wards before starting a small purple fire at which she sat down.
She willed the stone to appear again and took a closer look. It had changed a lot from the Ressurection stone that Asya had known in her first life. Not only was it a bit larger and glowing, but it also had a strange feel to it when Asya brushed her magic against it. Asya took a deep breath and started to push her magic into the stone, which began to glow brighter. Asya looked around but didn't see any souls from the dead or zombies rising from the ground.
Asya rolled the stone over three times while thinking of her parents, and still nothing. Asya tried again while thinking about a girl she killed in the Red Room, and still nothing happened. She idly wondered if she had managed to break a legendary magical item by accident while clutching the stone in her fist. Asya started to shake it before a bolt of ink-black magic shot from her fist that was covered in a black aura.
The bolt of magical energy hit a tree 400 feet away and exploded. The scary thing was it made no sound. It was entirely silent as the magic explosion covered a rough area of 300 feet. Asya let out a sigh as the black magic mist dissipated. Tapping herself, she was happy to see that it hadn't caused any damage till she noticed the tree in the centre start withering away and crumble into dust. Asya looked at the area in horror as she watched everything: the trees, grass, all of them turned to dust and were blown away by the wind, leaving a perfect 300-foot sphere devoid of anything. Even the ground seemed barren of life. Quickly checking herself, Asya sighed in relief as she saw that the energy seemed to have no effect on her.
Asya took a shaky breath before looking back at the so-called Ressurection stone as she was sure this thing was no longer the same useless stone she had carried for 148 years. It now made sense why a mad titan would be looking for this stone. Asya willed the stone away, terrified at the damage it could do if she really used all its power and not just an accidental bolt of magic from it.
She knew she couldn't throw it away for a start as the thing always came back to her. And what if it didn't, and muggles found it? No, it was safest with her hidden away. Asya looked around and decided that she needed to move, and she needed to do it an hour ago. Asya grabbed her bag and took flight. Wanting to get as far away as possible, Asya took comfort in the fact she at least tested it far away from people.
Asya decided she would fly straight to France and get a hotel to rest in once she got there. The distance quickly disappeared under her as she flew as fast as possible, wanting a nice soft bed to relax into. By the time that the sun was rising, Asya could finally see a french town and Asya was sure that she would arrive at the town in an hour at the max. It didn´t take long until she found a hotel, and she quickly used the imperious curse to get a room, deciding to pay for it tomorrow. After her sleep, Asya laid down on the bed and passed out.
The next day Asya let out a groan as she woke up. Looking out the window, she could see that it was still light out. Asya stumbled to the window, opened it up and summoned all the lost money which she placed on the bedside table before taking a warm shower. Asya felt much better being in France, a country she knew and spent over thirty years in her first life in. Asya was also slowly coming to the realisation that this world she was reborn into was not the same world at all.
She couldn't give up on that dream just yet though. After all, the Delacour manor was in France as well as Beauxbatons Academy of Magic to check before she would have to deal with that problem. Asya opened the dairy and caught up with Wanda and told her about the circus but left out the part where she killed every living thing in a 300-foot area as well as telling Wanda that she was now in France and that she would buy some clothes and hopefully be able to send them to her via magic.
Asya closed the book and grabbed some fresh clothes. She honestly wasn't sure if she would be able to magically send clothes all the way to Wanda. She knew she could use a spell similar to the Portkey spell to send none living things from one place to another, but Asya never sent anything from one country to another. Deep down, Asya hoped this would get the attention of the magical world.
Asya checked how much money she was able to get and was happy to see that she had over three hundred euros, more than enough to pay for the hotel room and buy a map to work out where she actually was in France. Asya was able to guess that she wouldn't be anywhere near the two places that she wanted to be as they were both in the South of France near Spain.
Going to the front desk, Asya paid for the night and left before starting to look around the city. She was able to learn that she was in a town called Besançon, and it would take her over a week to travel from where she was currently to where the Delacour manor was.
Asya decided, in the end, she would risk making an illegal portkey and use that to get there. They were only illegal to make due to how hard they are to make correctly, which wasn't a problem for Asya and even if caught, she would only have to pay a fine and given her age, she could play it off as accidental magic, and that was only if the wizarding world existed here.
Asya walked out of the town, making sure no one saw her, which would raise questions as to where she was going. Once Asya was alone, she turned a shoe into a Portkey for the fields outside the Delacour manor and grabbed the shoe.
The world turned into a dizzy spinning blur as the Portkey dragged her to the destination, and before Asya knew it, she was slammed down onto the ground knocking the wind out of her.
"I hate magical travel", Asya grumbled to herself. Asya stood up and brushed herself off as she looked around.
'Well, at least it was the right place.' Asya thought to herself as she glared at the shoe, trying to blame it for the rough landing. Asya started walking in the direction of Delacour manor, her heart beating in her chest and her palms feeling clammy. This would be the deciding factor for if there was a magical world as the Delacour family had been in France since the 14th century.
Every second felt like a lifetime for Asya as she slowly walked over the hill only to have her dream broken and the feeling of wanting to be sick. Asya looked at where the Delacour manor was meant to be, and it was just an empty field. Asya crumpled to the ground while whispering denials to herself.
Asya lept to her feet while berating herself. Of course, in this world, Asya wouldn't be on the Ward book, so the manor would be hidden from her. Asya started casting curse-breaking spells to detect wards as she worked through the list of spells, each one of them coming back negative crushing Asya's hopes, and she fell back down on the ground and broke down crying.
Asya didn't know what to do without the magical world. She spent her entire 1st life over 130 years in the magical world. Asya didn't spend any time in the muggle world and felt out of place in the muggle world where she had to hide her magic.
She took a deep breath. She had survived and escaped from the Red Room. She wasn't going to give up here. How would she explain that to her sisters if she died so pathetically, Asya thought to herself, and she stood back up. Asya needed a new plan.
Asya had thought about going to Beauxbatons but giving it some proper thought now. She didn't actually know where it was. Just a rough area as when she visited as a guest professor, she travelled by Portkey as it was quick and easy. Not only that, but Asya also knew that Beauxbatons was in the other direction to the UK, and if she was going to check for a magical school, then Hogwarts was the best option. Not only could she check Hogwarts, she knew of many other magical sites in the UK, like the two family manors and the black family house. There had to be SOMETHING.
So no, Asya decided that she would portkey to a small wood just short outside of Paris as other than the Delacour manor she didn't know anywhere else in France that she would be able to portkey to. She would then rest up and buy stuff like clothing and food. Asya also wanted to check the museums and see if there was anything drastically different in the world's history compared to her original world.
Asya conjured some rope and turned it into a portkey again, and glared at the rope, knowing it was going to be another crap journey. Couldn't anyone make a nice form of magical travel? Asya thought as she felt something hook her behind her noose as she vanished in a blur.
As Asya thought, she was thrown onto the ground as she arrived at her destination.