Twelve years ago...

"Janelle!"

A pale red head stuck her head out the back door of the orphanage. As soon as she saw who it was, she ran outside and threw her arms around the man outside. "What are you doing... and who is that?" she asked, eyeing the small black haired girl clinging to the man in terror.

"Alexia. Daughter of Sirius Black and Jessi Varen."

She nodded. "I can tell."

The man took a deep breath. "You need to keep her here."

The woman blinked. "Say what?"

"Black is in Azkaban, and Varen snapped. She has no one. Dumbledore believes that she will be safe here. You're a witch, you can explain everything when she's old enough. Including... including the truth about her parents. Dumbledore's orders."

"Must you sneak around like this still? Voldemort is gone, you aren't a spy anymore, why the secrecy?"

"Because if the other Death Eaters found me, a traitor, I'd be killed, even if Voldemort is gone... for now. I have to go. Here."

He handed the girl to Janelle. "They ordered me to put a partial memory charm on the girl and her mother, but I just put up a block... That way, if Dumbledore is ever in need of something from those memories, they aren't lost forever. Even I don't know half of what has been done to them.... I must leave, now."

"Ok. Be careful, brother."

"I will."

Then he was gone, leaving Alexia and Janelle in the cold outside the orphanage



~*~Salem Institute of the Art of Wizardry: Salem, Massachusetts, United States of America~*~



Alexia shot upward in bed, trembling uncontrollably. She took a panicked look around the sun drenched room; the other girls were already at breakfast. She jumped up, crying,

"Accio robes!" as she ran out of the room.

She pulled her school robes over the clothes she had fallen asleep in the night before as she ran. She pulled open the heavy oak doors and ran right into Headmistress Lodell.

"What exactly is going..." she began, frowning.

Alexia cut her right off. "Professor... Death Eaters... Rob... coming..."

The Headmistress looked at her with disdain. "If this is another one of your tricks, Varen..."

"It isn't! I swear it!!"

"I don't know what to do with you, Varen... Just go. Go eat."

Alexia spun on her heel and stormed into the Main Audience Hall. She sat alone at a table and began to eat. They only sat at House tables during assemblies. Many looks were shot her way, and none of them were pleasant. Branded a Mudblood/ Orphan/ Snob by her schoolmates, she was often the butt of jokes. At first she retreated into herself after her only friend had left the year before, which had even the teachers raising eyebrows. Used to her outgoing and jokester personality, the others took advantage of it. One day, though, her infamous temper snapped. A snobby rich girl, Loretta DeVine, a Scorpion, had made a remark about allowing reprobate petifiles into a prestigious school.... and Alexia snapped. She slammed the girl against the wall.... for such a petite, thin girl, she was stronger than she looked.

"Take that back, or else," she growled, violet eyes snapping.

Loretta lifted her chin and whispered, "Take your best shot, Mudblood."

With hardly any effort on Alexia's part, she left Loretta on the floor, with her manicured fingers broken and her "magically enhanced" nose a bloody mess.

That screwed her over with both teachers and students.

Then there were the nightmares. Vague images... a woman, a man, a group in hooded cloaks she knew now were Death Eaters.... her nightmares woke her up screaming, but thoughts of her Death Eater ex-boyfriend Rob Carrington usually kept her from sleeping at all.


As she shoved a muffin down her throat, she looked up and choked. The entrance doors had flown open. She stood so fast her chair toppled backwards.

"Rob!" she screamed over the cries of surprise and fright. She snatched her wand up and ran toward the hooded figure standing in the doorway.

"Why, hello, Alexia. Fancy meeting you here."

His cold voice made her heart contract, but she advanced on him slowly. The teachers stood holding the students back, too frightened to stop Alexia. Rob turned quickly and froze them all. They could see and hear everything, but they couldn't move.

"Just you and me, Varen."

"What do you want, Carrington?" she snarled, concentrating completely on Rob's raised wand.

"I was always better than you at dueling."

She deftly blocked a shot that definitely would have hit her the last time they had met.

"Let's just say I've taught myself a few things," she said, shooting a spell at him.

He easily blocked it. "Yes, I'd say so."

"I hate to repeat myself, but for idiots like you it just can't be helped: What do you want?"

He smiled; a scary thing to see. "Let's just say my Lord has taken a great interest in you... or should I say, your parents?"

"What are you talking about?" she asked, feigning confusion.

"Aw, poor baby. Never told your ancestry? Ah, but my Lord knows so much! If you'd only devote yourself to him, there is so much you could learn!"

"Maybe. Then again, probably not. I believe we've had this exact conversation before, at our last meeting?"

"There are... other methods of persuasion. Crucio!"

She moved her wand to counter it; a fraction of a second too slow. She fell to her knees, overcome by the pain.

He holstered his wand and approached her, grabbing a handful of her long black hair.

"What do you say now, Lexi, my love?"

"Go to hell!"

He stepped back as if slapped, then said, "After you."

He raised his wand and started to yell, "Avara..."

"Expelleramus!"

Rob's wand flew out of his hand and into another Death Eater's.

Rob spun to face the older woman.

" What did you do that for, Gabby?"

The woman's voice came out in a hiss.

"You know the Masster wantss her... NEEDSS her alive, Robby."

He nodded and stepped to the woman's side. He blew Lexi a mocking kiss.

"Until we meet again, Lexi... I assure you, it will not be long."

Then, they were gone, and the others were unfrozen. Two of the teachers hurried to Alexia's side. She was gasping in pain from the curse, and hatred filled her eyes and her voice.

"If it's the last thing I do, I will see that monster and his MASTER," she spat, "destroyed."

The Headmistress grabbed her arm and started ushering her up to her room, calling to her husband,

" Jonathan, talk to Dumbledore and alert him that we'll be there in a few moments."

He nodded.

"Professor, what's going on?"

"Alexia. You can not stay here. They want you. You are one of the strongest witches I know. If we lost you to the Darkness.... almost all would be lost. They MUST NOT TAKE YOU!"

She pulled Alexia into her room and opened her trunk. "Put ALL your things in here."

She obeyed silently, head spinning.

When she was finished, Lodell shrunk the trunk and put it in Alexia's pocket. She put on her cloak, coaxed Alexia into hers, and took her hand. With a wave of her wand they were gone, Alexia clutching her owl's cage tightly.


Suddenly she was standing in a warm, firelit office. She blinked; it was dark outside the window. She realized suddenly that her Headmistress had left her side and was shaking the hand of a very old man.

"Why, Terese, are you two all right?"

"Quite fine, under the circumstances, Albus. And you?"

"Also getting on quiet well... the new student you sent us is fitting right in, as I'm sure Alexia will, too," he looked at her, blue eyes twinkling. Lexi suddenly felt as if she had known him all her life.

"Hello, Alexia. How are you?"

"Fine considering the circumstances, Professor Dumbledore, sir."

He nodded approvingly. "You pay attention to small details, even when upset and hurried. I'm glad to see it. Now, the students should all be in the Great Hall for dinner, will you come down to be introduced?"

"Could I be Sorted first, sir?"

"Ah, yes, thank you for reminding me! Here you go."


Lexi put the Hat on.

~Ah, another Black, I see. I was wondering when I'd see your kind again.~

~What are you blithering about? My sir-name is Varen.~ she said warily, knowing that only a few truly knew who she was.

~Or so they told you to tell everyone, ~ the Hat retorted smartly. ~Your mother's maiden name was Varen... until she married, of course. You know that. Now, where shall I put you?~

~If you knew my parents, doesn't that mean they went here?~

~Yes.~

~Can you put me where they were?~

~Ah, yes, you do fit the description admirably...very well, your house is...~ "GRYFFINDOR!"

Lexi took the Hat off, head spinning.

"Quite right," said Dumbledore, grinning widely. McGonagall was smiling as well.

"Ah, yes, it's time for dinner. Come along."