A broken shell…A forbidden power…An illusion…Secrets that can either destroy…Or bring together best friends…Not everyone is perfect…We all wear a mask…Very rare do we show our true selves…To the rest of the world…Luckily, there are some that we trust…That we do not hide behind a mask…But I do notice that time changes…Nothing ever stands still forever…And there is some greatness in smallness…
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Vixen and Harry stared at their two best friends staring at her as though she had grown a second head after she had demonstrated her powers of Cryokinesis. She turned to Harry, who also looked at her at the same time, and started to laugh at the astonished looks of their friends. They had snuck out of the party that Gryffindor had thrown for Harry, making sure to hide the golden egg as well, and brought them to the Room of Requirements–which both Ron and Hermione were surprised that there was even such a room within Hogwarts.
Both Ron and Hermione immediately started to ask questions at the same time neither of them seems not to stop for air as they do so. Shaking her head, Vixen kindly asked both Hogwarts and the Room of Requirements for comfortable couches and a coffee table, the Wiccan witch nodding behind the two friends. As they turned, they were stunned silent once again as there was no furniture when they had come in not ten minutes before and then fired off in how there was now two couches and a glass table in the fairly small room.
The two siblings merely grinned, keeping silent for now, as they sat on one couch and both Ron and Hermione sat at the other. Harry then begins to pull out food and drinks from the basket they had brought with them. Immediately Ron leaned forward to grab some food while Hermione continued to ask questions and stating theories as to how her powers work.
"Okay, okay, I'll answer as much as I can," Vixen finally quieted Hermione down with a chuckle. "Of all your studies of different magic, I doubt you had ever come across Wicca or simply wandless magic."
Through a mouthful of food, Ron replied but after a glare from all three teens, he swallowed and said, "I've heard of wandless magic but only the most powerful witch or wizard can wield it."
"And even then it's only limited to them," Hermione responded, looking back to Vixen curiously and in a new light. "I've read that since the beginning of time that only less than ten wizards or witches were able to use such magic–unfortunately, that doesn't include the founders of Hogwarts."
Vixen inclined her head at the other witch, "Yes that was because before wands were being crafted to channel the magic within, many magical people started to concentrate it with sentenced spells rather than a single word."
"How'd you mean?" Ron asked, swallowing a bit of his food first.
'Do you want to place a simple truth spell on Ron?' Harry asked a bit too excitedly.
Vixen glared at him, 'No, I am not going to use the truth spell on Ron! What about the summoning spell?'
'Who?' Harry asked curiously.
Vixen blushed slightly, looking down at her hand playing with the small pillow, 'My dad.'
Harry reached down and took hold of her hand, squeezing in support. Smiling softly, Vixen thanks him before standing up and looking around to see that the candle setup had been placed behind her and Harry's couch. Thanking both the Room of Requirements and Hogwarts for giving her the things she needs to summon her father, Vixen walks around the couch and stands in front of the lit candles. Both Ron and Hermione stood, moving around so that they were a bit closer to watch what Vixen was going to do, Harry walking to her other side to give her strength in summoning her father.
"Hear these words, Hear my cry, Spirit from the other side, Come to me, I summon thee, Cross now the great divide."
Three white lights moved in individual circles–kind of like that of a tornado–until three see-through figures appeared in the middle of the candles. One female and two males. Harry was actually taken aback when he saw his parents, blinking furiously to make sure that he was seeing what it was that he was seeing at that moment. Vixen chuckles and watch as all three adults walked out of the candles to become solid forms, looking over to see that both Ron and Hermione were left speechless once again.
Harry suddenly cried out for his parents with a laugh, hugging the both of them as it's been a few years since he last spoke to them–Penelope had summoned his parents just before her death as an early birthday present for Harry and a belated/early for Sirius. Looking away from the family of three, Vixen smiled widely at her father and moved forward to hug him, inhaling the familiar coffee and sawdust scent that only belonged to her father. Her father was very big in drinking coffee–working long hours as an Auror, he needed to keep awake as often as he can!–and when he had the time or needed to cool down he liked to do carpentry.
He leaned down and kissed her softly on the side of her head, sighing with content. "You've done good, sweetheart," he tells her softly. "Just keep your wits about you."
"Promise, daddy," Vixen whispered back.
They turned when she heard a shy Hermione greeting Harry's parents, grinning t the astonished looks on her best friend's faces. It was Hermione, as it should be, who was questioning how they were there as there were no spells to bring back a person who has died, let alone three people. It was this that Vixen knew was going to be long and difficult to explain as it's been drilled into all the wand users minds that there is only one type of magic in the world when that truly is not the case!
"That, Mione, is the beauty of Wiccan magic. Granted, it has its limits as well! For the Wicca Rede is, An it harm none, do what ye will." Vixen tells her with a laugh, "And just like in the Wizarding World, not every mortal can use magic but they do have a bit of it inside. There are also different types of magic out there that use wandless magic besides Wicca, the wand users just don't want to expose them or get help from them again is because they know they are far more powerful than them. So, they became ignorant, turning a blind eye on them–and their backs, too–and drove them all out of their world."
Hermione nods her head, "Yes, I can see how they would fear the non-wand users. I mean, you can call a person with either a simple sentence or with your powers in a blink of an eye and we wouldn't be able to react to it as quickly as they like."
"As much as we would love to stay a bit longer," Phillip starts, holding his daughter tighter and kissing her head. "It's time for us to return back to the spirit world."
Bidding their goodbyes, they returned inside the circle of candles and muttered, 'Blessed be,' before disappearing in a circle of white lights. As the teens returned back to the couches, the candles disappeared as though it were never there, Vixen thanking both Hogwarts and the Room for helping her once again. It was the one thing that she had learned from both Penelope and her grandmother that you must thank every single thing for they all have magic within and if had helped her in some way, thanks should be at the tip of the tongue.
Once they were comfortable and had their fill of food, Hermione right away asked a question that she was very curious about, "How is it possible that you can do both wand and wandless magic when your whole family are wand users?"
"My grandma's side of the family comes from a long and powerful line of Wiccan witches but when she married Sirius' uncle, they only had two male witches–or wizards. My uncle had three sons and my dad had two," Vixen explains to her. "I am the first female witch in two generations, as well as to receive physical powers–which you both have seen is the power of Cryokinesis. Thus, I am part of both worlds."
"Why are you telling us now?" Ron accused angrily.
"Because of Voldemort," Harry answers him.
The two explained about Vixen's cousins and Phoebe's premonition a month prior. Hermione was very skeptical about Phoebe's power as she had never liked Professor Trelawney or her class of Divination. But she did figure that she would give it the benefit of the doubt as she is not familiar–for once–with magic outside of wand users and after witnessing Vixen's own power, she can only believe in it for the time being.
"I'm assuming you already have a plan?" Hermione accused.
"We've figured out how he was still alive and we have to find five items and destroy them before we can kill Voldemort." Vixen sighs, looking to Harry, who nods encouragingly, "Voldemort had split his soul into seven objects, its how he'd survived when trying to kill Harry."
Ron frowned, asking confused, "But you said we need to find five objects?"
"We've destroyed one–the diary," Harry tells him.
"The other object is Harry himself," Vixen said quietly.
Hermione and Ron's eyes widen at the revelation, Hermione whispering, "The scar."
"Yes," Vixen tells her. "I'm still trying to find a way to kill the soul of Voldemort without really killing Harry in the process."
"So, by destroying these objects, you'll be able to kill He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named?" Ron questioned, still not liking to say Voldemort's name or hear it.
"Yes, because only then will Voldemort die with no way to return," Vixen tells him.
"Do you have any idea on how to find these other items?" Hermione questioned in concern.
Vixen frowns, "No. But I'm going to try and do a spell so that we may find the locations of them." she scoffed softly, "Of course, with them being evil, I'll probably be finding demons than the actual items if it's so full of evil."
"Demons?" Ron questioned hoarsely.
"Yes, in the Wiccan world there is always the fight for good, as demons from Hell tend to cause a lot of damage on the mortal world. That is why some witches and male witches–sorry, wizards–are born with powers so that they can fight the evil in the world."
"Are there schools for Wiccan witches?" Hermione asked both excitedly and curiously.
"Not that I know of," Vixen tells her honestly. "That could be due to the fact that it was my Aunt Penny who had taught me the craft and how to channel my powers, as she was a very powerful witch. Who knows, maybe there is a secret school for Wiccan's."
The other three then looked to Harry, who suddenly yawned tiredly, stretching out his limbs, making them laugh. "I say let's get to bed and we'll figure everything out in the morning."
Agreeing, the four walked away, the items within the room disappearing before they were even out of the room. Despite how tired she was, Vixen had tried to put a spell together in order to find these magical items without having to encounter demons in the process. It wasn't until it was four in the morning that the Wiccan witch remembered about scrying and wondered if that could work–only to remember that she didn't have a clue as to what the items were and didn't have anything to use to scry for them.
At breakfast, Vixen placed a silencing spell around them and was telling the group of her fail attempts of the spells and the scrying–explaining to the other two what scrying was–when Harry suddenly brought up an idea. An idea that had the other three frowning but more or so the two girls, as not only it couldn't work but also fail miserably.
"What about using some of my blood? Since I have a piece of Voldemort in me, it could work, right?"
"I don't think it'll work that way," Vixen tells him honestly, a permanent frown on her face as she remembered how the scrying works. "You'll just keep finding yourself with your blood, that's all. No, it's the soul we need and since there's no way to extract your soul from your own body–or without even harming you–there's no way to get Voldemort's out either!"
"These items could potentially be anywhere in the world, could it?" Ron suddenly asked, a frown on his own face, "How, then, would we be able to go and destroy them?"
"My Whitelighter can take us if that's the case." Vixen tells him, "But I doubt that the items would be around the world."
"Where do you think they could be?" Hermione asked curiously.
"Somewhere personal to him," she said honestly. "If I wanted to keep something safe and out of reach from my enemies, I would stash them where no one else knew about the area and that was personal for me."
"So, basically anywhere across the UK!" Ron said irritated, "Just great!"
"It's the reason why Vixen's working so hard so that she can find them, Ron!" Hermione tells him with an angry frown.
Vixen shakes her head, "Even so, the UK is a large island and with so many small cities and towns, it's going to be even harder to pinpoint them."
"Then, there's classes and the tournament to deal with," Harry tells her, shoving a hand through his unruly black hair. Harry wasn't such a slacker when it comes to his classes, rather he did exceed in them enough to pass them, but it didn't mean that he actually enjoyed them like Hermione. "We only have seven months until Phoebe's premonition comes true and that doesn't give us a lot of time to really do what needs to be done. Especially since we need to figure out how to destroy these damn items."
Hermione frowns, tapping her fingers on the table, "What about a tooth from the Basilisk? Harry was able to destroy Voldemort's diary with the tooth in second year."
Harry nods, "We can take a tooth with us but we still need to have a back-up in case the tooth doesn't work on the other items."
"Which is where I come in with the spells and whatnot," Vixen tells the group in general. "I'll keep at finding ways to find the other items and I'll see if my aunt can help as well. Maybe there's a spell in her Book of Shadows that I don't have."
"Or spells that you can combine?" Harry suggested.
Vixen nods, "That's a good idea." She looked up when the owls suddenly arrived, Hedwig and Notus making their way towards them, "I guess we should end the discussion for today."
With their agreement, the Wiccan witch undid the silencing spell and smiled when Notus chirped at her, already eyeing her bacon as he dropped three letters from his beak. With a laugh, Vixen quickly pushed her plate towards her owl and picked up the letters instead, wondering who it all that was writing to her. The first letter was from Charlie, which Vixen will read later when she was alone, the next was from her brother, Perseus which was odd on itself, and the third letter took her by complete surprise from who it was and had her mind racing with so many questions.
Instead, she opened her brother's letter first to see if he knew anything about the unexpected letter from a person she's only heard of but never met.
Aquarius,
I hope everything is going well with school and Harry with the tournament? The reason I'm writing is because I had a run-in with someone that I had never met but he knew of me, you, and Pyxis. He claims his name is Victor Bennett, the sister's father, and asked us for help to reconcile with them. Pyxis isn't sure of helping them as we're not to be in contact with the sisters due to you erasing their memories of us, besides we all know that he left the sisters without so much as a contact throughout the years.
Pyxis and I spoke, however, and figured that we would leave the decision up to you as both you and Harry have a destiny with the sisters. Victor seemed to understand that we don't want to help him, not because of his abandonment of the sister's but for something else that I wasn't saying to him. He then asked that if he could write an email to whoever needs to make the decision in helping, but I told him to write a letter instead which I included the letter with mine so you can read it. He said that he'll be here in Moose Jaw until the end of the week, so call us if you want to talk it over, both me and Pyxis will be waiting for your answer.
Love you
Confused by the letter from her brother, she put that aside and took up that of Victor Bennett, quickly opening to read its contents. Her eyebrows rose to her hairline then lowering as she frowned as she continued to read through. Her friends watched her as they looked over their own letters, curious to know what it was that had Vixen fixated on the letters she had received.
To whom it may concern,
I know that Penelope Halliwell has spoken the worst of me, and quite possibly my daughter's as well, but I was hoping that you would be able to help me in reconcile with them and possibly meet my grandchildren. I know that I have screwed up in the past but I wish to remedy that and hope to be in my daughter's and grandchildren's lives. I know that I don't really have a right to ask this help from you but I feel that you may be my only hope.
Please, I do hope to return back to San Francisco soon. I am actually looking for a job right now to be permanently back in the city and be closer to them. Even if you don't want to help me fully in reconcile with them, at least help me put a foot in the door again, I can handle it from there in trying to reconcile with them again. Please, will you help an old fool to right his wrongs with the only children that he has left?
Victor Bennett
"What the fu–" Vixen started only to be interrupted by a familiar voice.
"Miss Black," cringing, Vixen looked back and up to see a stern looking Severus Snape, who was raising an eyebrow. "Refrain from using such language, unless you wish to have detention with me for a week."
Vixen flushed, "Sorry, professor."
The Potion's Professor hummed before rolling his eyes, "The bell has rung. I suggest you get to class."
Vixen thanked him as he walked away without really waiting for a reply from them, all four friends watching–the other three more suspicious than anything. The Wiccan witch, however, jumped with a squeak when someone fell next to her, almost bringing up her hands to freeze them if not for Harry's quick reflexes thanks to his Seeker position in Quidditch. Vixen saw that it was an awkward second year from the Slytherin House, who was flushing with embarrassment as she righted herself.
"This is for you, Vixen," she stuttered, thrusting a folded parchment towards her.
Taking the parchment with a smile, Vixen tilted her head, "Thank you…?"
The girl flushed even more, "L-lyra Bo-Bole."
Vixen smiled softly, "Thank you, Lyra. Better get to class, don't want to be late."
With a shake of her head, the twelve year old rushed out of the Great Hall, keeping her head down and her bag close to her body. With a chuckle, she told her friends that they should go as she takes the letters and quickly puts them in her bag. Walking behind them, she opens the note and smiles before putting it away in her bag.
"Who's the note from?" Ron asked curiously–and very nosy.
Vixen smiled as they started up the stairs to get to their Charm's class, "Ron, you shouldn't worry about what I'm doing. Rather, you should only worry about why you're worried about what I'm doing."
Both Harry and Hermione laughed while Ron turned red, glaring at the Wiccan witch who started walking ahead of them, thinking back to the note and the letter from Victor Bennett. If she was honest with herself, she would have to think of this very hard and then, possibly, email her bothers her decision.
If you wish to continue with Occlumency, then meet me in the Potion's room at 9:30 tonight. We can discuss further on returning to a routine without your friends knowing.
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A/N: I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Sorry that it took me a while to update, I've been struggling with this chapter, actually, but I'm happy with how it came out. Please let me know what you guy's think. Thanks for the read!