Chapter 13: Drastic Changes.

Nadia stared into the snake like garnet eyes of Lord Voldemort, she stood immobilised, unable to turn tail and run. An icy cold feeling slicked up her spine and solidified to the point of non-moving. Nadia startled a breath as he trailed one bone like finger down her red-hot cheek.

"Ahh how beautiful. Shame I have to kill you, just like I did your friend here." The words sank into her brain like poison, making her heart hammer in fright. She watched in terror, as he waved his wand and shot a tantalising wave of green light towards her.

The light hit home, causing Nadia to become rigid still, her thoughts rushed away like a tsunami and her heart shuddered to a stop. She fell limp to the floor beside the lifeless body of Cedric Diggory.

Nadia awoke with a jolt, sweat foaming on her brow line and above her lip, breaths shot through her sharply and she clutched her heart for support. She focused intently on her breathing that after a while, had eventually returned to normal.

She stole a glance towards her bed and show her cousin frowning an evil glare towards herself, she tutted, shook her head, and fell back towards the pillow. Nadia mumbled a few obscenities and rolled her eyes.

Summer back home had been a nightmare, Nadia imagined it to be almost the same as every summer here at Cherry Tree. However, she was quickly shown wrong, her parents who she assumed loved and cared for her, barely even spoke to her, and made it their
mission to never stay in the same room with her for two long. They avoided her like the plague, as if they feared her.

Then to make matters worse her snobby, rich cousin was here to stay, who intended to make Nadia's life hell. She had long, curly marigold locks that cascaded down her back like waves, her eyes were a sparkly azure, however, they were too cold to be anything
like Draco's. Nadia would have considered Emerald to be somewhat pretty if she even smiled, but the only expression she pore was snobbiness.

So, for much of the summer she stayed locked in her room thinking about what to do about her father and missing Hermione and Ron's company a great deal. She also missed Draco, most of all his touch, thinking about him now made her heart flutter in sadness.

The room was eerily quiet and the room was mostly dark, apart from the moonlight shine, glaring through the window, causing shadows to dance along the floor. Staring around her room, and at the sleeping outline of her cousin on her bed, made Nadia declare
that she had had enough.

So, she clambered from her bed quietly changed into something comfortable and quickly packed her trunk. After, she was done she let Athena out through the window with instructions to meet her at the Burrow. She then quietly tiptoed down the stairs, grabbed
her broom from the cleaning cupboard and stepped out into the midnight air.

The jolt of coldness slammed into her chest causing her to gasp, yet, she didn't let the cold stop her now. So, she tied the trunk to the back of the broom and began to fly away towards the Burrow.

Nadia loved flying, despite the cold, the view was spectacular, rows upon rows of houses lined the streets below and Nadia wondered about the lives that lived there. It felt somewhat peaceful flying at midnight while everyone was asleep, it made Nadia
feel like she was the only living person left in the world.

Like she was humanity.

Eventually, after a few more minutes the houses began to thin out and change to acres of countryside. The felt different, cleaner and Nadia couldn't help but take a few gulps of it to clear her airways. Soon enough though the sight of the Burrow loomed
through the darkness and Nadia dived towards the ground, preparing to land.

The Burrow was dark and quiet apart form a small candle flickering in the kitchen window. Nadia began to wonder if anyone was home and thinking that maybe this trip was a waste of time, but the door suddenly flew open, causing Nadia to stumble backwards
in fright. The sight of George looming over her, made her come back to her senses and she threw her arms around his neck in excitement. He returned the favour with equal amount of excitement.

"Where is everyone?" Nadia asked when they broke away from there hug.

"They went to headquarters, I explain on the way, but mum told me to stay here because she had a feeling you would turn up soon. Fred was a little disappointed he couldn't come but mum said only one could stay." She laughed a little at his babbling and
George punched her on the arm playfully as a retort.

"Ow, anyway are we going to spend the night out here or can we go inside?" Nadia joked, causing George to laugh and then gesture of Nadia to enter. Once through the threshold, she observed her surroundings. The burrow was exactly like it had been the
first time she visited, however now it was a lot cleaner and a lot less chaotic. She watched George as he made to cups of tea and settled down on one of the dining chairs, Nadia did the same.

"So, what's headquarters?" Nadia whispered, she knew they were alone but some part of her thought that what they were talking about was secret business.

"Headquarters, is where Sirius lives, you know Harry's godfather?" She nodded her head in understanding, she had never meet Sirius but Harry was very fond of him, which meant Nadia could trust him. "Anyway, its headquarters for the Order of the Phoenix.
A group of people who want to overthrow Voldemort." He shuddered at the name but continued on "The order has been around for ages but know that Voldemort's back, they've been meeting more frequently, which is why we've all gone there. Easier for mum
and dad, and safer for us. Unbelievably the Burrow isn't save anymore." George's words were haunting, making Nadia's bones curl to ice, if she Burrow wasn't save then she hoped that headquarters was.

"Come on drink up, we've got to go, Mums probably worried sick." So, Nadia quickly guzzled her tea and sighed as her limbs began to warm and tingle. George then grabbed her hand and led her towards the fireplace, where he grabbed some dust, through it
over himself and Nadia and muttered "12 Grimmuald place"

Nadia and George materialised into an old-fashioned kitchen, cabinets lined the sides of the walls and were filled with non-essential items and cooking equipment. A long wooden table occupied the centre of the room where a cluster of adults sat talking,
from the looks of their faces Nadia guessed it must have been serious. This must be the order. George made a loud audible cough and all eyes turned to the two standing awkwardly in the fireplace. George just responded with a charming smile, that didn't
seem to go down well with a few of the order members.

"George! What the hell, are you two doing in here! I told you to go to the fireplace upstairs!" She glared at George with angry mother eyes, then they softened when she turned to look at Nadia "Ohh Nadia, hello dear, there all waiting for you upstairs,
why don't you go and have a chat before dinner yes?" She spoke gently, like a mother would her child and her heart melted at the thought.

George then stepped out of the fireplace, where he was given a slap to the head by Molly, before exited the kitchen with Nadia trailing swiftly behind.

Once Nadia had set foot into the bedroom she with engulfed into a hug by may sets of arms, a wave of bushy hair brushed against her cheek and Nadia knew Hermione was somewhere in the tangle of limbs.

"How come you're here? I thought you were spending the summer with your parents?" Hermione muttered while detaching herself from Nadia.

"Ohh Nadia it was a nightmare, my parents were acting funny like they feared me. Then to make matters worse, my snobby cousin was there to, Merlin's beard I hated her. I could handle it for a while but eventually it got too much, I had to go." Nadia rambled
as she watched Ginny's and Hermione's face changed to a look of sympathy. Nadia also purposely missed out her re-occurring nightmares about Voldemort and Cedric, she didn't want them to worry or to think she was weak.

"Is your cousin hot?" Ron muttered from the edge of one of the beds and Nadia slapped his arm in response, while also adding a glare. However, George and Fred had other ideas because they let out a whoop and gave Ron a high-five. Argh boys Nadia thought.

"No, she's not she's bitchy, if she was a wizard she'd definitely be slytherin." Nadia sneered in discuss, in all honesty Nadia didn't hate slytherins, she was nearly one herself. Even her boyfriend is a slytherin, however, she can't let that show.

"Just like you then huh?" Ron bantered and Hermione and Nadia shot identical glares his way.

"You're a twat." Nadia retorted and Ron's only response was a giggle.

Suddenly, the voice of Molly Weasley drifted up the stairs announcing dinner, where the group followed eagerly with rumbling stomachs.

With full stomachs, Molly announced bed time, where the girls said goodnight and went separate ways to their bedroom to get ready for bed. After a while the three girls were in their pyjamas and snuggled in their beds.

"Nadia, did you learn anything about your father over the summer?" Hermione muttered into the dark, Nadia wondered what things she had learnt but her mind came up blank. In truth, she hadn't figured out a thing, every lead she thought of always ended
up at a dead end. Then she thought, Blaise, she hadn't told them. With the nightmarish summer and the excessive research on her family she didn't have the time to write any letters, which meant, Hermione and Ginny didn't know.

"Hermione, Blaise Zabini is my Brother." Nadia stated into the dark, the revelation made it finally seem real, she had a brother. Something she had dreamed about her whole life. Hermione and Ginny let out a gasp of shock.

"Blaise is your brother!" Hermione stated with shock.

"Well they do look really alike, I can't believe I didn't see it before!" Ginny exclaimed excitedly at her new-found revelation.

"well we are twins Ginny, Hence the resemblance." Nadia responded with a chuckle, which Hermione reciprocated.

"Yeah, I can see that now!" Ginny said in defence, which only made the other two girls laugh harder. The laughing made Nadia's heart melt, she had missed this. The love, the humour, the banter. She never had that a Cherry Tree, especially not with her
cousin either. Nadia smiled herself softly as she realised she had made the right decision to come here.

The next day was rather un-eventful, however, it wasn't boring. She chatted with Hermione and Ginny, maybe even gossiping about boys at some point. With Ron, she spent a few hours playing wizards chest, which much to Ron's annoyance and surprise she kept
beating him at. Then when afternoon was drifting into dusk Nadia helped George and Fred play pranks on a few members of the order.

The drastic change from long boring days, to days like this, caused Nadia to feel happy and relieved. She laughed more today than she ever had at Cherry Tree, the people here were starting to become more like family then her adopted one. This may seem
rather sad to some people but to Nadia it was quite the opposite. These people were like her, they understood her, even knew her more then she probably knew herself. She couldn't say the same about her adopted family.

That evening, a few hours before dinner, Nadia, Hermione, and Ron, sat in the bedroom waiting earnestly for Harry. They were informed earlier by Sirius that a few members of the order had left to retrieve him from the Dursleys. His face looked worried
and when Nadia asked why she was talked Harry had performed magic, when he wasn't supposed to.

"Why is everyone so worried about Harry performing magic outside school? It's not a big deal, is it?" Nadia asked from her position on the bed. Hermione glanced up from her book in surprise and Ron started at her from across the room with the same expression
of surprise.

"Nadia, it's against the Wizarding law for underage wizards to perform magic outside of school." Hermione stated matter of fact and Nadia mouthed an 'Ohh' in understanding.

"How did you not know that?" Ron laughed at her and Nadia sneered at him.

"don't laugh at me, baby cakes." She joked, and laughed when his face turned a bright shade of red. Due to Ron's baby face like features, Nadia had resorted to calling him baby cakes, much to the displeasure of Ron.

"Guys stop it you like an old married couple." Hermione groaned from behind her book. Hermione was the only one who knew about Draco, which made it easier for Nadia, she at least had someone to confide in if she needed it. She contemplated telling Ron,
however, she never got the chance because the door swung open and standing at the threshold was Harry.

Hermione jumped up from the bed and engulfed him into a hug.

"Oh, Harry. Are you all, right? We overheard them talking about the Dementor attack." Hermione babbled while, Nadia climbed up from the bed and stood beside Hermione, Ron came and stood beside her.

"You must tell us everything!" Nadia exclaimed and she watched as Harry chuckled slightly at her words, everyone knew she liked to hear about drama.

"Girls let the man breath!" Ron muttered from beside her and she watched has Ron pulled Harry into a bro hug. He quickly hugged Nadia in greeting also.

"And this hearing at the Ministry. It's just outrageous. I've looked it up. They simply can't expel you." Hermione babbled up, clearly not listening to Ron's piece of advice. However, the word expel grabbed Nadia's attention, they never said anything
about expulsion!

"Woah hold on, you got expelled!" Nadia gasped in shock, Harry can't leave Hogwarts's and besides Dumbledore wouldn't let him, right?

"Wait I swear we told you?" Ron uttered confusingly, Nadia just shock her had no.

"Well anyway its totally unfair!" Hermione exclaimed with wide eyes, Nadia knew she felt very strongly about the situation, she tended to exclaim things a lot when she found the topic important.

"There's a lot of that going around at the moment." Harry muttered as he continued to stride around the bedroom, he seemed to have a faraway look in his eyes that Nadia couldn't identify. "So, what is this place?" His face changed to a look of curiosity
that Nadia wondered if the expression there before was ever actually there.

"It's headquarters of the order of the Phoenix." Nadia recited and watched as Harry's face contorted in confusion. He obviously wasn't told much.

"It's a secret society. Dumbledore formed it back when they fought You-Know-Who." Hermione stated as if she was reading facts straight out of book. Surprisingly, Harry reacted differently to how she imagined, in fact he seemed very pissed off.

"Couldn't have put any of this in a letter, I suppose? I've gone all summer without a scrap of news." Harry snapped, causing Hermione and Ron to look guilty. His words however made Nadia feel angry also, it wasn't their fault.

"You weren't the only one Harry, don't you think they would've if they could?" She snapped and thankfully Harry's seemed to look guilty about what he said previously.

"We wanted to write, mate. Really, we did. Only Dumbledore made us swear not to say anything" Hermione muttered dejectedly, causing Nadia to reach out and squeeze her hand in comfort, she squeezed back in thanks.

"Dumbledore said that? But why would he keep me in the dark? Maybe I could help. I'm the one who saw Voldemort return...the one who fought him, who saw Cedric Diggory get killed." Harry shouted back in anger, causing Nadia's anger to intensify also, how
dare he bring up Cedric like that.

"You weren't the only one Harry! Don't make this all about you!" Nadia shouted back, she knew she would regret the words later, but the anger clouded any thoughts about regret. However, before Harry could retort the twins apparated beside Harry, slapping
him on the shoulders.

"Harry! Thought we heard your dulcet tones. Don't bottle it up, though, mate. Let it out but stop letting it out on Nadia, she's had a hard time just like you have mate. If you're all done shouting...Do you wanna hear something a little more interesting?"

They all crowded around each other up the top of the staircase and watched as Fred lowered the rubber ear and hovered it in front of the closed kitchen door. They all leaned in to get a better hearing of the voices travelling through the rubber ear. Muffled
voices of different members emitted through the ear, some she couldn't make out.

"Perhaps Potter will grow up to be a felon, just like his godfather." The sharp cold voice of professor Snape drifted out of the ear and Nadia glanced at Hermione in shock. Suddenly Ginny entered their ensemble on the stairs and Nadia offered her a nod
in greeting.

"Now, you stay out of this, Snivellus." She heard Sirius retort and Nadia laughed along quietly with the others.

"Snape's with the order?" Harry exclaimed in shock as he looked at the others for confirmation.

"Git" Ron stated and they all continued to listen.

Suddenly, a ginger tabby came into at the bottom of the stairs ready to pounce at the hanging ear, crookshanks. Nadia glanced at Hermione and mouthed 'really?' she just shrugged her shoulders in response. Crookshanks pounced open mouthed and proceeded
to attack the ear, sounds of meowing and hisses echoed up through the ear.

"Crookshanks no!" Hermione whispered sharply, however the cat didn't respond, he either couldn't hear or was choosing to ignore her. The cat gave a last tug and the ear disconnected from the string and bolted, with the ear hanging from its mouth.

"Bad Crookshanks!" Hermione shouted from above, however the cat was long gone.

Soon enough the meeting had finished and once again Molly's voice drifted up through the stairs to announce that dinner was ready.

"Wanna scare mum and apperate with us Nadia?" Fred muttered to her left with a laugh.

"Yeah, Nadia, come on!" George responded with enthusiasm from her right. The eager smiles on her faces were egging her on and she couldn't help but say yes.

"Fine." She laughed, she felt the twins link their arms through hers, then with a pop and a tug through her naval they appeared besides Molly with a fit of giggles. However, she didn't look very happy.

"Just because you're allowed to use magic now...does not mean you have to whip your wands out for everything. And to involve Nadia in your sill pranks I thought better of you two, now down to the kitchen!" She shouted and she quickly followed Fred and
George down to the kitchen to avoid an angry Molly.

Dinner went quickly, Nadia was far too tired to listen to the conversations happening around her so she silently at her dinner in peace. Once everyone was finished she trudged up the stairs with Hermione and Ginny in toe.

She felt guilty that Harry was being targeted in such a horrible way in the papers, claiming that he was lying about Voldemort's return. Everyone was calling him a liar, but why not her? She was with him too, she watched Voldemort come back, she watched
Voldemort kill Cedric. He doesn't deserve to be targeted alone, she does too. She was as much involved as he was, which means she should get the blame too.

Nadia was also certain that she wanted to fight, she hated Voldemort with every ounce of her being. He killed Cedric, he deserves to die. However, what side she would be on was a different matter. Her brother Blaise is guaranteed to be a death eater now
that Voldemort knows who she is. Which means Blaise doesn't have a choice anymore. It's either him or her, and Nadia couldn't let him become one, she couldn't let him ruin his future like that.

Then there's Draco, he would most likely become one too, which means fight with him or against him? She couldn't betray Draco like that. Then again, the thought of becoming a death eater scares her to the bone, working for the man that murdered on of
her best friends. However, even if she wanted to, she knew Draco or Blaise wouldn't let her, they would claim it's too dangerous. Make her stay on the side-lines instead of fighting for something she believed was right.

She wanted to fight, whatever side she was on, she was going to fight. She was going to fight for herself, for Draco, Blaise, Hermione, Ginny, Ron, Harry, the twins, Molly, Arthur, everyone she cared about she was going to fight for. And she won't let
anyone stop her.