Child of Darkness, Child of Light
By: Fyre Fairie Rated R (For mature content and violence) Summary: Harry finds out he has been lied to all his life. After GOF he travels to lands forgotten until he is ready to face the friends he abandoned, the love he will encounter, and the evil he must conquer. Just now when he has finally found his family will they all survive the war?
Chapter 8: Death Eater Meetings
"W-Where a-am I, and who are you?" Jasmine's small voice quavered a little and she tried to wretch herself free of the older woman's protective hold over her.
"Shh" Emerald whispered loosening her hold and letting the girl stand. "Don't worry you're safe bambina."
Bambina was actually an Italian word that came from Latin version of the Ambrosian language usually referring to a baby girl or a little girl. It quickly became one of Emerald's favorite words in the language after she learned it. And of course after ten years of speaking it non-stop she was still getting used to English. And her accent turned out to be Latin with a mix of Italian. In Ambrosia she was only allowed to speak English while she was still learning but after about six months of it she was forbidden to utter a word of the language.
The little girl stared at her silently scrutinizing her features in her own mind. They all stayed silent as she continued watching Emerald and finally she spoke again. "You look like my grandmother." She said. "Her name was Des, but some people told me she was gone and I had no other family, but you also look like the picture I have of my mummy." Her little voice sounded so innocent as she gripped her locket with one hand tightly and twisted the hem of her dress nervously feeling all three adults looking her way.
The council must have told her both Desa and her were dead before leaving her in the orphanage. She felt anger toward them now more than ever before. They would pay dearly for doing this to her family. Relaxing her face so that her anger didn't scare Jasmine away she held out her hand to her.
"Jasmine," she spoke faintly, it sounded like a whisper that the wind passed on or a faint echo. "My little bambina, grandma and mummy aren't gone, the people you were talking about hid you from us and now I found you, we found you." She said biting her lip and glancing at the two men who were still standing and listening to both of them.
Following her gaze Jasmine peered at Sirius and Remus with her bright eyes. After scrutinizing them just as carefully as she had Emerald she let her eyes rest on the darker haired man, who's eyes seemed hopeful and full or love and awe. Sirius smiled softly at her wondering how they had created such a little miracle. She was an almost exact copy of Emma and had certain traits of theirs as well.
There was something in his warm chocolate brown eyes that reminded her of a certain image she'd seen. Staring right at him a metal picture flashed before her eyes, of a dog. A big black shaggy dog that look exactly like "Padfoot." she whispered out loud confusing herself even because although she had subconsciously deducted who he was her mind didn't really register the connection between the memory of the dog and this man.
Sirius beamed and nodded and behind Jasmine Emma looked shocked. "How did you know?" she asked her.
"I don't know." The little girl answered looking back to her. "I just know, like I know that I'm supposed to know you and Moony." Yet another name came to mind and she blurted it out without thinking. "Just like I know Des is really my great-gran and just like I know I have a grandfather somewhere and other family too." She paused and added as a second thought. "Grandpa doesn't like many people, but he has a strange mark that I dream about. It's an evil mark, made by a bad man."
Emma shook her head frantically in wonder and fright. It seemed just like her all Jasmine needed to do to access memories and things she shouldn't know was to be reminded. Sirius apparently was her reminder since she'd seen him first as Padfoot and recognized him. But this time she would be able to use her gift just as Desa taught Emerald to.
"What else do you know Bambina? Do you know who I am; do you know who Padfoot and Moony really are? Think bambina, just let the memories come and build a wall around them to keep to many from coming." She instructed the girl who frowned and tried to comply focusing her gaze on her.
Little Jasmine searched and shifted her memories in her head and looked for one that had people similar to the ones surrounding her. The woman was kind and she listened to her voice trying to find it in her head. There was something she felt she couldn't reach, almost like a dark corner that was sealed off. But there was a handle, mentally she reached out and twisted it. What came next not only surprised her but put her in tremendous pain.
Screaming, the woman was screaming in her head. Crying, she cried, she fought against her chains but there were people hurting her. People in black and white robes. They tortured her. The woman in her memory was not a woman yet but a younger girl. Maybe around fifteen or sixteen. Then another image one in a vast courtroom. She could see someone holding a baby while the woman stood behind a caged area screaming and begging to hold her 'bambina'. They called the baby Jasmine Le Fey. And then the pain came again, the pain that the woman felt. The robed people told her to beg for mercy, they called the woman 'Emerald' like her mother. But Emerald never begged he stood tall and proud gritting her teeth and clenching her fists. The pain was unbearable though, uncontrollable and Jasmine simply couldn't stand one second of it and screamed out huddled in a ball.
Seeing the young girl shut her eyes tightly and scream triggered an alarm in Emerald as she leapt off her armchair and onto the floor to gather the girl in her arms. Although she didn't scream Emerald still felt like she was experiencing the whole thing all over again but she couldn't remember what happened the first time her mind did and she started acting the scene out where her daughter left off with it.
"Nye!" she screamed at the council while going through that burning feeling that was worse than the Cruciatus. "You have no rights to keep my child from me, you have no power over this kingdom, you have no godly magic so you are not worthy of control!" Suddenly a seizure was taking over her body as more pain was transmitted to her.
She had been reciting and Jasmine had been screaming for a few minutes now of which both Remus and Sirius tried to stun them both to stop whatever was happening but they simply couldn't. Touching them was not an option either, whenever one of them did they'd get drawn into the memory but found that they simply couldn't watch them torturing Emma like that. Their Emma was hurting along with their daughter so Sirius did the only thing that came to mind, he used a water charm, remembering it from his Marauder days how he had splashed Snape in the face with it and made him trip in the hallway.
To his surprise the charm had the desired affect and both redheads seemed to come out of their trans', both stopped screaming and shaking and surprisingly enough neither felt hurt or even sore after the whole experience. The pain was only a part of their minds and as they both sat drenched from head to toe and huddled close to each other.
"I remember it now, all of it." Emma said against Sirius' chest who had come with Remus to gather the two redheads in their arms. "I remember the pregnancy, I remember being so happy to be having a child. I thought that Lawrence was her father at the time, he and I had a relationship for about two years then we broke up. Now I remember why we broke up, the council had suspected him to be Jasmine's father and forbidden us to be lovers. I believe they covered both our memories well with what they wanted us to think happened."
They were all listening to her, listening as she talked about some man named Lawrence Sirius immediately felt jealous of. Jealous because he had her first, jealous because she might have loved him and now that she remembered what happened she might go back to him. Feeling the protective arms around her squeeze her tightly to a warm body when the name of her ex- boyfriend came up she nearly chuckled.
"Don't worry Siri, I'm not going anywhere." She said to him, kissing his temple and smoothing his hair. She didn't want to confuse her daughter if she had to explain that the girl had two fathers because Emerald herself couldn't understand it yet but she had a good feeling Snape did.
"Who's Lawrence?" Remus asked hugging both Emma and Jasmine from the left side while Sirius stayed at the right.
"He's my cousin's best friend. We had a brief relationship but then it was broken off. He was a nice guy, reminded me somewhat of you two." She admitted, now that she realized it her subconscious mind must have known the Shadow Lovers that came to her every night were the two men with her now so she was automatically attracted to Lawrence who was so similar to the two of them.
"Mummy?" asked the tentative voice of her daughter. Hearing her daughter call her 'mummy' was altogether over whelming. A feeling of pride and happiness surrounded her and she smiled a true smile, she hadn't smiled like that in so long. She was even afraid her face would break with the strain of her splitting grin but she kept smiling.
"What is it bambina? Are you okay?" The little girl shook her head but buried her head in her mother's shoulder sniffling softly and lopping her arms around her waist.
"I know." The girl said confusing all three of them.
Giving her a concerned glance Emerald asked, "What do you know Jasmine?"
"I know who my fathers are." She answered quietly. //She said father's instead of father.\\ Emma thought and bit her lip. What would her daughter think of having two fathers? Would she think it wrong? No. She decided. She was too young to know if it was wrong or right.
"Tell me." Emma said wanting to make sure that Jasmine knew as much as she was telling them.
"Moony and Padfoot, I don't know what their real names are though." She spoke shyly and kept her head buried in her mother's shoulder all he while.
Placing her index finger on the little girls face she tilted her head up to look at her. Jasmine didn't know whether to be happy or to be frightened now that she found her real family. She knew certain things but not much of it made sense to her.
"Well then since you don't know then I'll have to introduce you." Emma spoke and pointed to the darker haired man on her right whom her daughter seemed more familiar with. "This man here is the one you called Padfoot earlier, his name is Sirius Black but I want you to do me a favor and not talk about him when meeting other people okay?" she asked and the girl nodded smiling at Sirius who reached out to smooth her partially mussed up hair.
"And this man over here," Emma gestured to the tawny haired. "Is Remus Lupin and the same goes about talking about him in public. You must understand bambina that in order to keep us all safe you can't talk about us. If someone asks who your father is just say that you don't know. Okay?" Jasmine nodded her understanding and smiled at all three of them.
"I won't tell." She said and once again buried her head in her mother's shoulder while the older woman rocked her back and forth and hummed the tune in her locket. It only took a few minutes for Emma to entrance them with her song and lull them into a deep peaceful sleep from which she levitated all four of them over to the bed and followed in their journey into the land of sleep.
The week had passed them by quickly after that day. After getting used to taking care of an energetic daughter and Sirius in the same house Emma had soon learned that she might as well have two children with the way her godfather was going on about teaching their daughter pranks and telling her stories about the Marauders. Of course Remus took part in those activities as well but he didn't act nearly as childish. It was heart warming and gave her a good laugh every now and then to watch their shenanigans. Most of the pranks were done on either Remus or neighboring muggles passing by the hotel. After Sirius' little incident when he surprised her he seemed not to want to risk that sort of thing again and advised Jasmine that it wouldn't be a good idea to startle her 'mummy'.
That was actually nothing compared to what they went through when Emma had taken them all shopping in the muggle world. Convinced nobody would recognize Sirius she assured him he could go as a man rather than a dog. Luckily she was right and nobody recognized him. They had gone out to a number of places, like the movie theatre, which neither of them have ever been to in their lives yet Emma still knew what it was. They went to the amusement park that opened right outside the city limits of London where Sirius had taken them on so many rides while jumping about like a giddy child with Jasmine that Remus nearly got sick.
The mall was another subject though. Emerald had gone to Gringotts alone while Remus, Sirius and Jasmine waited at an ice cream parlor in a nearby department store for her. Upon opening the vault that King Solomon gave her the key to she nearly went into cardiac arrest. There was more gold there than she'd ever seen in her life. The vault itself was the size of the Great Hall in Hogwarts and held gold and many precious gems and jewelry all the way to the ceiling.
After gathering a good deal of it and exchanging it for muggle money Emma also found out that the Goblins now make credit cards that transfer money to the muggle stores and take some of yours in return. It worked a lot like the regular muggle bank system and was much more refreshing since you didn't have to carry around a bundle of money.
The money wasn't the problem though. Shopping was the real problem. While little Jasmine was happy to have things bought for her and they spent several hours picking out anything she basically wanted which wasn't much so Emma had to buy a few other things. Of course neither of the men pointed out that she was plainly spoiling their child because both thought Jasmine deserved it and Emerald wanted to give her everything she didn't have.
But when they had arrived to the men's department of the store and the tall redhead started coaxing both of her lovers into picking things out for themselves they plainly refused saying they didn't want to cost her anything financially which in return caused her to lightly smack them on the back of their heads.
So instead she started picking things out for them while they went off to take Jasmine to have some fun around the mall. After several hours of picking and choosing their clothes she met them near a large water fountain at the center of the shopping complex to hand over the bags she acquired and went in search of clothes for herself. That in itself took another few hours in which all three of them followed her and helped her pick things. She remembered being quite amused when they entered the ladies lingerie store and both of them blushed covering Jasmines eyes before she started fuming and ducked under them. Either way Jasmine still didn't pay attention to the items displayed in the store. Most likely she was to tired to even talk and on the way back Sirius ended up giving her a ride on his shoulders. By the time all four of them had gotten home it was well past eight o'clock in the evening and Jasmine was sleeping on her feet.
Emerald blinked hazily getting used to the morning light compared to the peaceful darkness her dreams contained. Stretching carefully as to not wake the other three occupants in the bed she got up and went to the bathroom. Seeing as they were still staying at the hotel they had had a mini vacation and since neither of them wanted to get another bed and leave each other they all stayed in the same one for that week and a few days.
After washing up and relieving herself Emma sat down on the carpeted floor and started silently stretching, then doing standard warm ups before going into yoga positions. Just because she was on vacation didn't mean she was allowed to get lazy and fat.
As usual she went out to jog a few blocks then continued to the nearest super market to buy enough breakfast for the day. She didn't bother buying anything for lunch or dinner as she had other plans for all of them.
Upon getting back the first thing she noticed were Sirius' eyes, which were glued to the door waiting for her. He was still in bed with both Remus and Jasmine curled up against him but he always woke up in the mornings when noticing she was gone and anxiously awaited her arrival after that.
"Hey." She whispered. "Sleep well?" She asked pecking him lightly on the lips.
Grinning like a Cheshire cat he nodded stretching his limbs sleepily. She smiled, amazed how a whole week and a half with proper food and plenty of laughter transformed both men into healthier individuals. They looked so much younger, it seemed like a whole decade had been taken off of them.
"Good." He yawned widely. "You?"
"I slept well and I brought breakfast so it'll only be a little while until I'm done cooking." She answered. Breakfast was actually the only meal she knew how to make without burning it or turning it some strange color. She'd had plenty of practice making it for the Dursley's when she was younger and the skill was never forgotten but dinner was something else entirely. All she did was buy the food and let Remus prepare it. Last time she cooked they ended up with pasty blue soup and burnt chicken that was originally supposed to be baked.
"Can I help?" he asked. Yes her godfather did have confidence in her breakfast making skills but sometimes she wondered if he had ever taken home economics, he cooked like a chef. Of course it did bite at her at times, the fact that she couldn't even make descent mashed potatoes but she supposed a person couldn't be perfect at everything.
"Sure." She answered in return and placed the groceries on the small table they had in the room displaying all the items. Since there were the four of them and both Sirius and her were bottomless pits Emerald usually bought a whole trunk load of food. Enough to even feed a small army unit.
On the table she laid out pancake mix, blueberries for the pancakes, eggs, milk, orange juice, sausages, bacon, bread for toast, butter, marmalade, and an assortment of doughnuts.
"Ohh!" Padfoot cried out giddily but quietly enough not to wake the other two sleeping occupants of the room. "You bought doughnuts today!"
Emma laughed to herself. Leave it to Sirius to make a big deal out of doughnuts. She really couldn't blame him though; the Dementors in Azkaban didn't really serve anything but moldy bread and water for the prisoners they guarded. And people don't exactly feed stray dogs doughnuts either so it was a happy surprise to the darker haired man whenever she got something sweet. Which she always did just to see his face light up like that.
"If you're good Siri I'll let you have some." She teased him and he automatically pouted playfully.
"You'd deny me the right to jelly filled and powdered doughnuts?" he exclaimed in fake outrage. "You evil temptress!"
Laughing she swatted his arm lightly. "I'm hardly a temptress as for the doughnuts you can't have any until you have a hearty breakfast. I still need to fatten you up some." She giggled and started making the pancakes while he worked on the fried foods like bacon, eggs, and sausages.
"Oh I don't know you are pretty tempting to me." He told her while setting out the plates and making the toast.
Eventually the smells of breakfast carried themselves over to Jasmine and Remus who both started to awaken and sit up. Like the little ball of energy she was Jasmine bounced in happily giving everyone tight hugs, because she was four and so short she only ended up squeezing their legs because she couldn't reach any higher and both her mother and Sirius were still finishing cooking.
"Good morning bambina, sleep well?" her mother asked her right before Remus stumbled in, his hair dishelved and yawned coming up to kiss her and Sirius before sitting down.
"Have a good sleep Remmy?" both Sirius and her asked and he nodded in return combing a hand through his own hair trying to bring it to some order.
"So what are we going to do today?" While in the middle of her eggs she stopped chewing and stared blankly at Remus for a few seconds debating whether or not to really go through with what she wanted to do that day.
"I think we should go to Hogwarts, there's still a war going on and we're here sitting on our behinds having fun while there are people out there dying. I need to speak to Dumbledore about a few plans I have. Then I need to talk to Desa about the council and how many will be joining our side. Then I have to talk to Snape about Marvolo and about something else he might or might not understand." She ticked each subject off on a finger and nodded each time to herself silently confirming her plans.
"We get to see great-gran and grandpa?" Jasmine asked excitedly making all three adults wince when she called Snape 'grandpa'.
"Yes bambina but do me a favor and don't tell people he's your grandpa okay sweetie?" Jasmine obeyed her mother and nodded accordingly but didn't lose the happy shine in her bright eyes.
Sirius looked especially uneasy about his own daughter calling his arch nemesis grandfather and grimaced slightly. Remus although did not look thrilled didn't seem at all disgusted either he just accepted it knowing no matter how much he wished; nothing would change in terms of the Potions Master being one of Emerald's fathers.
**************************************************************************** **********
An hour later Emma stood by the door shrinking her and Jasmine's things and dropping them in her leather pouch. She was dressed again in her battle uniform and the sleeveless robe that went over them. Remus and Sirius were both already dressed and waiting near her, their things shrunk and pocketed as well.
"Ready to go to Hogwarts?" she asked all of them. Receiving nods all around she suggested Remus take Jasmine in his arms and hold one of her hands at the same time. With her free hand she opened a shimmering gold portal and took her godfather's hand before stepping through and leading them all in. She had expected for Jasmine to be slightly scared but the child was calm and unperturbed by the situation.
//This must have been how the council brought her outside of Ambrosia.\\ She figured since her daughter was already used to the splitting of dimensions.
Using the same door to get into Dumbledore's office she had Sirius open it so she could keep hold of him and this time he led them through to the nearly empty office all except one person. Albus Dumbledore sat scribbling on a piece of parchment and stopped when the mirror flashed admitting them.
As soon as they were inside Remus set Jasmine go who ran over to her mother raising her arms asking to be picked up. They had to make it look as real as possible and Emma requested that in public Jasmine should recognize her as her only parent for the time being.
Swinging the small child up so she had her legs encircling her waist and sat on her hip Emma supported her with both arms and greeted the surprised Headmaster. "Hello Professor, how are you today?"
Blinking a few times he nodded to them in recognition before answering. "Very well Emerald, and yourself? Who's that lovely young lady you have with you?" he asked politely smiling at her daughter. Apparently Desa hadn't thought to tell Jasmine about Dumbledore and his so called 'evil ways' as she like to describe them as because the girl blushed and hid her face in her mother's red hair.
Grinning proudly Emma introduced them. "Professor this is my daughter Jasmine, my little bundle of joy." Then turning to her daughter she nudged her lightly with on of her hands to look up. "Jasmine.aren't you going to say hello to Professor Dumbledore?"
Hearing the Headmaster's name the girl immediately perked up and smiled brightly. "You're the Headmaster of Hogwarts?" she asked looking at the old man and staring right at his twinkling blue eyes with her own green ones. Receiving a nod she nearly jumped from Emerald's arms.
"Oh I've heard so much about Hogwarts! Mummy, Moony, and Padfoot told me a lot. Can I learn here like they did?" her excited babbling didn't stop until the old man chuckled.
"Why of course my dear girl with your parents' permission first. Tell me child who is your father, I may know him." Immediately the bubbly redhead's face fell and she answered in a small voice just like her mother taught her.
"I don't know who my daddy was but mummy says he was a good person."
Nodding he looked curiously toward Emma as if he'd figure out the answer just by boring his gaze into her or intimidate her to the point where she would tell like he used to when she was younger.
"Professor is my grandmother still here recovering in the hospital wing or was she well enough to leave yet." Emerald changed the subject hastily shifting Jasmine over to her other hip.
"I believe she has left already. She has trusted me enough to leave a message with me though. She asked me to inform you that she is gathering the four kingdoms' support and that she'd send word out soon." Surprised that Desdemona would trust the man with such information when she once declared that she wouldn't trust him with her favorite quill she just nodded.
She smiled feebly trying to muster up the courage to do the next thing on her agenda. Remus seemed to know what she wanted so quickly stepping in he asked for her. "Albus you wouldn't happen to know where Severus is would you? Or if he's busy or not?"
"I believe he is in his chambers around now, he doesn't have classes until an hour and a half right now. I'm sure I can have one of the house elves lead you to there." The old man didn't seem at all surprised to be asked where the hated potions master was. Yes, he did realize it was unusual to call upon a man that the three adults before him didn't like but he assumed it had something to do with what Desdemona said.
Promising that she would be back soon Emerald took Jasmine with her and followed Dobby whom Albus had summoned to lead her down to the dungeons. The house elf had been overjoyed to say the least when he was given a specific job by the old man. It seemed the years didn't change him at all, still the hyper wide-eyed creature. She had almost laughed at one point when Dobby bowed so low to Dumbledore and the rest of them that his ears hit the floor with an alarming 'smack'.
As they traveled down through the cold musty hallways of the dungeons Emma grimaced and held her daughter closer to her protectively. After spending so much time amongst the royal families and in rich environments she wasn't used to the dirty old stone walls, except when the Council held her in one of their cells for trials or when it was time for one of her lessons with Kamian. She idoly wondered why someone would actually choose to live in a place like this.
Turning another corner and coming up to a large portrait of Salazar Slytherin Dobby abruptly stopped and beamed at her. "Here we is Miss. The Professor's rooms are behind this painting. Dobby will go now but if Miss needs anything be sure to call Dobby or any house elf." With a final bow where his large pointed ears smacked the floor again the little green creature disappeared with a 'pop'.
The portrait of Salazar stared at her curiously; seeing as she said nothing but just stood there he glared impatiently. "Password?!" he sneered at her disdainfully. Emma rolled her eyes at the portrait of her ancestor and chuckled surprising him when she started speaking in Ambrosian.
"I would like permission to enter grandfather, I have business to take care of with Severus."
Bewildered by the woman who dared call him grandfather he scowled at her and spoke back in the same language. "Who do you think you are to enter with no password and to call Salazar Slytherin your grandfather?" Letting his eyes roam over her recognition seemed to spark in his eyes and he grinned gleefully. "You are of Morgana's line. A Le Fey it seems." As if thinking it over a few more minutes he shrugged and nodded. "You may enter Princess." Swinging open he allowed her entrance and she carefully stepped through. Unlike in the Gryffindor common room the entrance here was much bigger and luckily she didn't have to step over a part of the wall of duck her head.
The room she stepped into seemed to be a sitting room with green, black and silver furniture. There was a big fluffy couch, a love seat, and three other armchairs in the room all placed carefully around the fireplace. There were a few small coffee tables about and several large shelves of books that stood against the walls. Surprisingly it was nothing like the cold exterior she entered from, the place was warm if not cheerful. Yes, warm but gloomy just like its owner probably was.
She heard faint sounds from the other sound of the door that stood next to one of the bookcases and cautiously approached it wondering if the Potions Master would blow up at her for invading his private space. She didn't really know what kind of friends Snape hosted; she had a feeling that it was a Death Eater. If she had known someone would be there she wouldn't have taken Jasmine with her. Perhaps she could still send her back to Remus and Sirius.
"Dobby!" she called out faintly and from behind a 'pop' sound echoed signaling the elf's arrival.
"Yes Miss? Dobby has come to serve miss." He chirped and for a moment she was afraid the people behind the door heard him so she explained quickly.
"Dobby I need you to take Jasmine and bring her to the Headmaster's office. Take her to either Remus Lupin or Sirius Black." Placing her protesting daughter on the ground who begged her mother to go with her and see her grandfather. Staying put she shook her head and led the girl out the portrait hole where Dobby took her hand and started leading her back the way they had come.
Bracing herself Emerald straightened up and held herself at her full height, which was a little more than usually since her boots had three-inch heels on them giving her a two and a half inch advantage on her regular height. Knocking firmly on the oak door the voices behind it grew quiet and footsteps approached her.
The door swung open from the inside and she was met by the burning eyes of Severus Snape whom easily towered over her by four or five inches looking much like an overgrown bat. Sneaking a peak behind him she noticed two other men. She had to hold back her Charmer instincts and suppress a hiss or growl. Sitting comfortably in what seemed like a study holding a glass of brandy each were Malfoy Sr. and Mcnair.
Severus seemed to remember the fact that he would be presenting her to the Dark Lord soon and bowed deeply confusing the two behind him. "Princess." He acknowledged her and kissed the back of her hand very much like the royals or nobles in Ambrosia would do.
"Severus." She replied silkily. "I didn't realize you had guests otherwise I would have come at another time. I was wondering if you've contacted my father yet?"
"Don't worry your majesty you aren't interrupting at all. As for your father I have spoken to him about you and he wishes your presence at his next summoning." Leading her into the room and keeping his eyes deliberately low like was proper he gestured toward the other two men who each stared fixedly at her with wondering expressions glued to their faces.
"May I introduce Lucius Malfoy and Edward Mcnair, both loyal servants of your father just like myself."
Her instincts over took her and she took a slight sniff of the air. A few scents barraged her nose but she remained expressionless. There was the smell of arousal and awe. They were turned on by her presence just like many others were but soon they'd learn to fear her as well.
"Gentlemen." Snape spoke to the two unmoving Death Eaters gaining their attention. "May I introduce to you her highness Princess Emerald Le Fey of Slytherin in Ambrosia. The soul heiress of our Lord Voldemort."
The Death Eaters were probably well informed of her presence by their master because as soon as the Potions Master finished introducing her both of them snapped out of their stupors and dropped to their knees before her kissing the hem of her robes at which point she roughly stepped back away from them.
"Stop squirming like pathetic bugs and get up!" she yelled causing them to scramble rather ungracefully up to their feet. Severus was clearly amused by the display and didn't move to hide his smirk.
"Forgive us your majesty. We are just seeing that you receive the respect that you deserve." Lucius spoke unsteadily and stared right at her chest where the zipper wasn't moved all the way up to her neck and exposed some of her cleavage.
"I do not find staring at my cleavage shows much respect for me so if you want to keep your eyes in their sockets I suggest you cease your ogling and act like a man rather than a groveling rodent." She sneered at him and nearly went into guffaws behind her expression. The man looked about ready to piss his pants, afraid that if he displeased his master's daughter he could be in for one hell of a cruciatus curse.
Fully amused by the whole situation Emma decided to have some fun and frowned turning to Severus who kept his eyes on the scene. "Severus I'm afraid I'll have to inform father of how little respect his followers have. They are worse than peasants. Peasants at least know their place in society." Panic seemed to cross the other two men and they dropped to their knees groveling to her.
"Of course your highness." The Potions Master replied keeping his head bowed. "Our Lord had specific instructions to treat you the way you deserve. Please do not hesitate to issue any complaints to him, anyone that displeases you shall be punished accordingly."
"Good, good." She answered and stepped over the crouching figures of the two Death Eaters and walked over to stand by him. "And when is the next meeting? I would like to know ahead of time to prepare. I have news that will please father." She spoke and glanced over to the other two men whom had gotten up and stood with their heads bowed and kept their eyes to the floor, every now and then they'd glance at her quickly before resuming their earlier positions.
"The summons should be in an hour highness, we have gathered here specifically for that purpose. Lucius here must collect his son before we leave."
She nodded. So Draco was a Death Eater just like his dear old daddy. She had always imagined before that he wasn't as evil as he seemed, that the cruelty he displayed was part of his father's wishes. Perhaps she was wrong then perhaps he really was dark all along. He could have been good if there was someone there for him to change his views before it was to late but with parents like the Malfoys it wouldn't be possible.
"Alright why don't you have him collect his son right now. I'd like to be introduced before we depart." Malfoy seemed to be relieved to be able to leave the room and quickly asked for the password to the Slytherin dorms and dragged Mcnair our to the room with him leaving only her and Snape who finally looked up at her when the portrait to his rooms slammed shut.
"You should be an actor Professor that was bloody good work." She grinned openly and patted him on the shoulder awkwardly only making him glower even more deeply at her. Frowning at his mood she stepped away slightly. "I take it you aren't happy to see me?" He shook his head twice indicating she was right.
"Right." She murmured. Now her father didn't even want to talk to her. How lucky was she? "Dobby!" she called and within seconds the short green creature popped into the room.
"Yes Miss?" he squeaked in a high-pitched voice.
"Would you inform the headmaster along with Sirius and Remus I'm going to see Marvolo and will be back shortly. Tell them to wait here at Hogwarts for me." Obeying the elf left with the smack of his ears against the floor. Rolling her eyes she was a bit tired of his ears doing that. If he continued he'll have black and blue bruises on them if not red marks.
"You are insane Potter." Snape hissed at her venomously.
"You might as well call me Snape! I know what you are to me, I have the serpents mark!" she yelled equally as angry ad pointed an accusing finger at him. The man paled visibly and sputtered before pulling himself back up from his astonished position.
"You are Potter's child and that's the end of it!" he barked and stormed into the sitting room slamming the study door on his way out leaving her alone in the room. Spying a bottle of brandy on his desk she took a quick swig from the bottle feeling the liquid burn her throat and warm her considerably.
Moving through the dungeon hallways Malfoy and Mcnair treaded along in silence for a few minutes before Lucius broke it and addressed his companion.
"Is it just me or did she look an awful lot like that mudblood Evans? Potter's mother."
"She did look like her." Mcnair replied and then added. "Evans wasn't as beautiful though I doubt they are related."
When they reached the Slytherin Common room Lucius had sound his son lounging in front of the fireplace on a large arms chair with a book propped in front of him.
Once they had gathered the boy both older men explained the situation to him, making sure he knew how to act accordingly. Mostly going by Severus' example and proceeded back to the Potion Master's quarters.
"WHAT?!!!!" Sirius' outraged scream echoed through the office as Dobby once again for the twelfth time explained what Emma had asked him to inform him of.
"Miss Le Fey asked Dobby to tell her companions which is you that the miss will be going to see Marvolo and to wait for her arrival at Hogwarts."
"NO!!" the darker haired man screamed causing Dobby to once again affirm that it was true and repeat what Emma told him to say. Finally growing tired of the scene repeating itself over and over again Remus raised his voice at his best friend.
"Sirius you heard him perfectly well so will you shut your trap and sit down! You're scaring Jasmine." He referred to the four-year-old girl who squirmed and buried her head against Remus' sitting frame while curling into a ball and lying on the coach next to him.
That got him to stop and come over next to her, gathering her in his arms protectively and shushing her whimpers. "I'm sorry cherie," using his nickname which was French and rocking her back and forth. "I didn't mean to scare you, please don't be scared." He begged the child who started to calm down little by little.
Remus sat smiling at them. No matter what mood his friend was in he would soften up like a sponge when it came to the welfare of their daughter and automatically forget what was going on around him. In truth the little girl wasn't scared at all it was his idea to ask her to act like it expecting not such a good performance but instead had realized she had an uncanny ability for acting.
Although it did take the darker haired man's mind off of Emma his was still sharply fixated on her. Knowing that she would be meeting the Dark Lord was not very comforting not even if she pretended to be his daughter. After all he did kill Lily, his only child. What would stop him from hurting their Emerald?
Draco entered through the portrait of Salazar Slytherin and into a warm sitting room adorned by tapestries and furniture of the Slytherin house. The first thing he noticed was Professor Snape sulking. He was sitting on a large green sofa by the fireplace and swirling a glass of brandy in his hand taking leisurely sips little at a time.
"Severus, where is the Princess? Did she get tired of you already and throw you out of the study?" he heard his father say and accordingly he smirked at his joke showing his appreciation for it.
"Her highness asked to be alone for a while." His head of house replied dryly. "You should go ahead and introduce Draco before we leave, the summons will come any time now."
Draco vaguely wondered what this princess looked like. Would she have blood red eyes like the Dark Lord? Ghastly pale skin and ghostly features? Or would she be the most beautiful woman he'd ever laid eyes on? Whatever it was he was about to find out because as his father lightly tapped on the door he heard the click of her boots approaching them and the door swung open making no sound on its hinges just venting air in the other direction.
Upon seeing her he decided that she was the latter. She was truly the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen. Much more enticing than a Veela and for a long moment he just stood there staring into her eyes which looked back angrily at him. Forgetting what he was supposed to do he just stuck out his hand presuming she'd shake it but instead he found himself roughly pushed to the floor from behind as his father barked at him.
"Bow to royalty you whelp!" then hastily apologized to the redheaded woman. "Forgive him your highness Draco is young and foolish he sometimes forgets what he is told."
Blushing madly he tried to get up but the moment he got on his hands and knees his father placed one of his booted feet on his back and applied pressure, pushing him back down on his stomach. "Where do you think you are going boy? You will show the proper respect to her majesty and Kiss the tip of her boots."
Draco had never been more humiliated in his life; he just wished he could die on the spot right there. But he couldn't, he'd be in for much worse if he didn't obey his father. So moving to kiss her black leather knee high boots he was surprised when she moved her foot at the last second and his lips came in contact with the dirty stone floor.
"I do not think that will be necessary Malfoy, I don't want his drool on my boots. You are lucky I'm in a forgiving mood today otherwise I'd have my wicked way with your son." Emerald spoke with enjoyment as Draco squirmed under his father's foot. "You may let him up."
And Lucius did so waiting for his son to get off the ground and brush himself off before grabbing him by the back of the neck and holding him still. "You may have your way with him if you please majesty. After all we are here to serve the Dark Lord as well as his offspring, and Draco is such a beautiful boy, I think you'd enjoy playing with him."
Watching the way her former arch nemesis shook in fright she took pity on the poor boy. It seemed Lucius was worse to his own son than the Dursley's had ever been to her. It was strange how the blonde worshipped his father when the man would offer his own son as a sacrifice or chew toy. Laughing mockingly she shook her head at him.
"A boy? What would I want with a boy when I am plainly older than you Lucius?" she lied about her age but considering that she would have to say that she spent most of her life in Ambrosia if not all she'd have to be pretty old. The man looked very surprised when she mentioned how old she was and looked her over doubtfully; of course she only looked twenty years old.
Bowing deeply and letting go of his son Lucius kept his eyes down and spoke to her. "Of course how foolish of me highness, I'm sure the Dark Lord shall provide you with whomever or whatever you wish," hastily adding. "Including one of us." He gestured to Mcnair, himself, and Severus whom was not looking too peachy at the suggestion.
Emma saw right through the whole suggestion. Malfoy Sr. was clearly insinuating that he would be more than willing to submit to her in any way shape or form. Beauty was obviously a blessing in this situation because she decided to give him a scare.
Beckoning him closer and mesmerizing him with her eyes, using her charming ability they were now face to face, the man tilted his head slowly. But she was quicker and grabbed him by an arm swiveling him around so fast she was sure he got dizzy. He was now in front of her with his back pressed against her front breathing heavily already scared. Doing a partial transformation into her cat form she transformed her vocal chords, teeth, and eyes. He couldn't see it happen though the rest of the room could. Draco and Mcnair went paler than the moon while Snape looked on uncaringly.
Growling a lioness' roar in the man's ear she held him steady as he shook violently. She used her fangs to graze the pale skin on the nape of his neck trying not to pay attention to what she was doing because if she did it would surely make her gag. Using her normal voice she whispered to him making him shudder and get goose bumps.
"So, so beautiful Lucius. Such creamy white skin. It would look good against blood." With her last word she punctured his skin and spit the blood on her lips out onto the floor. He was trashing about now barely holding still and it took quite a deal of strength to keep him inn one place. Watching the crimson blood flow down his ivory skin she laughed falsely but believably.
"Be careful what you ask for Lucius." Letting him go she stepped over his huddled form on the floor and walked over to Severus where she sat down and looked him straight in his obsidian eyes. Her saliva would have mixed with his blood at a certain point in his neck by now and sent shocks through his vertebrae, almost like a poison except she only let enough seep through to shake him for ten minutes or so.
"You're so observant Severus." She remarked. "Tell me what did you just see? What did you think of that? Am I still the fool hardy Gryffindor you used to give detentions to and tried to get expelled." She whispered all this so only he would hear. "Tell me did you see a part of you in there? Hmm.father." Hissing at him she stood and perched herself on his desk near the window where the sun was still up and shining down on Hogwarts grounds. Neither Mcnair of the two Malfoy's witnessed their conversation as they were still tending to Lucius whom continued to tremble and bleed.
Indeed Snape had seen evil in her. Evil pushing at her and waiting to come out. Tempting her with its sweet sinfulness and taunting her with the knowledge that evil was wrong but it was a delicious piece of fruit. The piece of fruit that Eve had sunk her teeth into and gotten her and Adam banned from the Garden of Eden. He had seen himself, seen Voldemort, and seen what the Slytherin name was all about. But after all that he had also seen the remorse that showed on her face after committing such an act even on a Death Eater.
Now what he saw was the sadness in her. The sadness he had added to once to many times and it was slowly building, ready to break the damn.
Getting up with a sigh he approached her figure. Coming up behind her and staring out the window as well. "I saw you." He finally said. "I saw Lily, I saw James, I saw myself, I saw Voldemort, I saw Slytherin and Gryffindor mixed and jumbled into one unique and essentially perfect package. That package Emerald is you."
"Then why do you hate me so much? I mean I'm not asking to hold hands and hug, no. I just want to be treated civilly instead of you having to bark Potter each time you address me." He was opening and closing his mouth the words he wanted to say weren't coming and instead Emma continued to talk.
"You know I don't even mind to much if you hated me but the reason I came down here in the first place was so my daughter could meet you. She was so excited when we were coming to Hogwarts, absolutely skipping with joy that she'd get to meet her grandfather. When I heard voices in your study I sent her back up with Dobby, good thing I did too I don't want her to be in the presence of Death Eaters."
"Daughter!? What daughter? You didn't tell me I had a granddaughter?" his eyes were bulging so much they would have popped out of their sockets if she didn't ask him to calm down before the others heard.
"It's not like you would care anyways. Like mother like daughter right? So I figured you'd hate her as well, I was going to ask you to at least pretend to look overjoyed when you met her but even that would most likely be too much for your gloomy Death Eater attitude. I don't even know what to tell people if the serpent's mark ever gets exposed, it's between her shoulder blades and it can easily be spotted with some of the shirts she might wear one day." Emma waited expecting to hear him at least defend his own honor or mock her and drive her heart into the dirt along with her daughter's fondness of him, but he said nothing just watched her.
By then Lucius had already recovered from his dramatic experience and Mcnair approached her and Severus. Annoying as his presence was, Emerald was forced to listen to him, it seemed the man wasn't as stupid as he looked to be.
"I did not realize you had a daughter highness, I heard you mention something about the Serpents Mark," he looked toward Severus then and back to her, staring her right in the eyes. "May I ask who the father is?"
Sending him a withering look Emma was going to give him a bit of a lesson for eavesdropping and most likely scare him out of his robes for meeting her eyes. She did not mind people meeting her in the eyes but when she had the opportunity to torture a Death Eater she would take it. She was stopped when her father stepped in.
"I am, Mcnair. Do you have a problem with that?" The serpents' mark on Jasmine would arise suspicion if seen and accounted for then Voldemort would prove Emerald an imposter, so naturally Severus had to claim the child as his daughter.
"No Severus but I reckon the Dark Lord will savor that bit of information." The other man grinned maliciously.
Hopping off the desk Emma shook her head warning Mcnair not to mess with her. "Let me ask you a simple question Mcnair." She said and like the brain dead Death Eater he was the man just looked confused. "Do you value your life, do you want to risk crossing Lord Voldemort and I?"
Standing tall and pretending to be unafraid Mcnair stared her down with his murky eyes. Eyes that were cold unlike Sirius' chocolate one's which seemed to fill her with warm every time they met hers. No, she decided Mcnair's eyes looked like a pile of dung on the side of the road.
She would have done something drastic again if it weren't for a strangled cry that came from all three of the older men in the room. Each seemed to grab onto their forearms and grimace with pain. It was evident that their master was calling and it was time for Emerald Le Fey to meet Prince Marvolo once again.
"Portkey." Severus gasped and pointed to a small box on his desk, which Mcnair went to pick up, and flipped open the lid displaying an aluminum bottle cap inside of it. Gesturing for all of them to touch it he set if back on the desk so he could as well.
Emma scowled bitterly at the portkey, another one the Death Eaters made to bring her to Voldemort except this time it was of her own validation. It had been a long time since she'd used one. In Ambrosia she had learned to make them but never used one still haunted by the incident during the third task in the Triwizard Tournament.
Pushing back all resistance she placed a single finger on the bottle cap just like the rest of them and within seconds she felt a jerking sensation at her navel and the world went into swirls before her eyes as she traveled through one space and into another.
With a jolt Emma landed perfectly on her feet and shook herself off letting her sight adjust and the dizziness in her head go dissipate. But as soon as it left her a sharp pain echoed and sent shocks through her head originating from her hidden scar nearly bringing her to her knees. Getting her bearings she focused on the other times when she'd been tortured and felt the pain slowly diminish to a slight throb when her mind realized it had gone through worse things before.
Severus and the other three Death Eaters had stepped away from her as soon as they arrived and took their place amongst the crowd of the Dark Lord's other followers whom were already present. Once she looked around Emerald noticed that since fourth year Voldemort had gathered an entire army of men that he used to his disposal and whom served loyally.
They were all crowded into a large circle where she stood slightly next to the rim away from the center. Feeling the throbbing in her scar increase and a hushed silence to overcome the once murmuring and whispering Death Eaters Emma looked toward the center of the circle where everyone else's attention was focused on.
"Ah you must be Emerald, my how you look like your mother. May I introduce myself as Lord Voldemort to the wizarding world and Prince Marvolo to Ambrosia." The almost skeletal and pale figure in front of her hissed, his red eyes flashing and surveying her like a piece of meat. His snake Nagini coiled by his feet and slithered out to circle around her letting it's forked tongue sniff the air.
At the moment Emma was largely tempted to step on Nagini's head and let the retractable blade in her boot heel go right through the snake's skull killing it on impalement. But instead she settled for a different approached.
"Eyi, I know who you are Marvolo, or should I say father."
AUTHOR'S NOTE
Dum, Dum, Dummm! (dramatic music) Hi everyone! I hope you enjoyed this chapter, sorry I updated late this week has been hectic with little old me getting sick and missing a few days of school. I still have homework to catch up on! Sorry to leave you hanging there but I just had to do it, chapter 8 was becoming way to long anyways. Some of you have been begging me to get to the kinky sex scene well I promise I will get to it in either the next chapter or the one after.
In the mean time I drew a picture for this story of Emerald, Sirius, and Remus. I didn't know where to post it so I made a group at yahoo for this fic. If you want to check it out just go to the yahoo group and join temporarily or permanently I don't mind which. The picture is under 'files' on the choice bar. People say I'm a pretty good artist but I only spent about twenty minutes on the pic so you be the judge.
The group is at :: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Breakme/ :: by the way you have to have a yahoo id to be in the group I think, don't worry the process of getting an id is quick and painless.
Thanks to everyone who reviewed my story and I appreciate the people who put me on their favorites list I truly feel special now. (
P.S. Just in case I haven't told anyone yet this story used to be called Hate Me, Break Me etc. but since I was too late to change the rating I just changed a few things about this story to make it a bit more appropriate.
By: Fyre Fairie Rated R (For mature content and violence) Summary: Harry finds out he has been lied to all his life. After GOF he travels to lands forgotten until he is ready to face the friends he abandoned, the love he will encounter, and the evil he must conquer. Just now when he has finally found his family will they all survive the war?
Chapter 8: Death Eater Meetings
"W-Where a-am I, and who are you?" Jasmine's small voice quavered a little and she tried to wretch herself free of the older woman's protective hold over her.
"Shh" Emerald whispered loosening her hold and letting the girl stand. "Don't worry you're safe bambina."
Bambina was actually an Italian word that came from Latin version of the Ambrosian language usually referring to a baby girl or a little girl. It quickly became one of Emerald's favorite words in the language after she learned it. And of course after ten years of speaking it non-stop she was still getting used to English. And her accent turned out to be Latin with a mix of Italian. In Ambrosia she was only allowed to speak English while she was still learning but after about six months of it she was forbidden to utter a word of the language.
The little girl stared at her silently scrutinizing her features in her own mind. They all stayed silent as she continued watching Emerald and finally she spoke again. "You look like my grandmother." She said. "Her name was Des, but some people told me she was gone and I had no other family, but you also look like the picture I have of my mummy." Her little voice sounded so innocent as she gripped her locket with one hand tightly and twisted the hem of her dress nervously feeling all three adults looking her way.
The council must have told her both Desa and her were dead before leaving her in the orphanage. She felt anger toward them now more than ever before. They would pay dearly for doing this to her family. Relaxing her face so that her anger didn't scare Jasmine away she held out her hand to her.
"Jasmine," she spoke faintly, it sounded like a whisper that the wind passed on or a faint echo. "My little bambina, grandma and mummy aren't gone, the people you were talking about hid you from us and now I found you, we found you." She said biting her lip and glancing at the two men who were still standing and listening to both of them.
Following her gaze Jasmine peered at Sirius and Remus with her bright eyes. After scrutinizing them just as carefully as she had Emerald she let her eyes rest on the darker haired man, who's eyes seemed hopeful and full or love and awe. Sirius smiled softly at her wondering how they had created such a little miracle. She was an almost exact copy of Emma and had certain traits of theirs as well.
There was something in his warm chocolate brown eyes that reminded her of a certain image she'd seen. Staring right at him a metal picture flashed before her eyes, of a dog. A big black shaggy dog that look exactly like "Padfoot." she whispered out loud confusing herself even because although she had subconsciously deducted who he was her mind didn't really register the connection between the memory of the dog and this man.
Sirius beamed and nodded and behind Jasmine Emma looked shocked. "How did you know?" she asked her.
"I don't know." The little girl answered looking back to her. "I just know, like I know that I'm supposed to know you and Moony." Yet another name came to mind and she blurted it out without thinking. "Just like I know Des is really my great-gran and just like I know I have a grandfather somewhere and other family too." She paused and added as a second thought. "Grandpa doesn't like many people, but he has a strange mark that I dream about. It's an evil mark, made by a bad man."
Emma shook her head frantically in wonder and fright. It seemed just like her all Jasmine needed to do to access memories and things she shouldn't know was to be reminded. Sirius apparently was her reminder since she'd seen him first as Padfoot and recognized him. But this time she would be able to use her gift just as Desa taught Emerald to.
"What else do you know Bambina? Do you know who I am; do you know who Padfoot and Moony really are? Think bambina, just let the memories come and build a wall around them to keep to many from coming." She instructed the girl who frowned and tried to comply focusing her gaze on her.
Little Jasmine searched and shifted her memories in her head and looked for one that had people similar to the ones surrounding her. The woman was kind and she listened to her voice trying to find it in her head. There was something she felt she couldn't reach, almost like a dark corner that was sealed off. But there was a handle, mentally she reached out and twisted it. What came next not only surprised her but put her in tremendous pain.
Screaming, the woman was screaming in her head. Crying, she cried, she fought against her chains but there were people hurting her. People in black and white robes. They tortured her. The woman in her memory was not a woman yet but a younger girl. Maybe around fifteen or sixteen. Then another image one in a vast courtroom. She could see someone holding a baby while the woman stood behind a caged area screaming and begging to hold her 'bambina'. They called the baby Jasmine Le Fey. And then the pain came again, the pain that the woman felt. The robed people told her to beg for mercy, they called the woman 'Emerald' like her mother. But Emerald never begged he stood tall and proud gritting her teeth and clenching her fists. The pain was unbearable though, uncontrollable and Jasmine simply couldn't stand one second of it and screamed out huddled in a ball.
Seeing the young girl shut her eyes tightly and scream triggered an alarm in Emerald as she leapt off her armchair and onto the floor to gather the girl in her arms. Although she didn't scream Emerald still felt like she was experiencing the whole thing all over again but she couldn't remember what happened the first time her mind did and she started acting the scene out where her daughter left off with it.
"Nye!" she screamed at the council while going through that burning feeling that was worse than the Cruciatus. "You have no rights to keep my child from me, you have no power over this kingdom, you have no godly magic so you are not worthy of control!" Suddenly a seizure was taking over her body as more pain was transmitted to her.
She had been reciting and Jasmine had been screaming for a few minutes now of which both Remus and Sirius tried to stun them both to stop whatever was happening but they simply couldn't. Touching them was not an option either, whenever one of them did they'd get drawn into the memory but found that they simply couldn't watch them torturing Emma like that. Their Emma was hurting along with their daughter so Sirius did the only thing that came to mind, he used a water charm, remembering it from his Marauder days how he had splashed Snape in the face with it and made him trip in the hallway.
To his surprise the charm had the desired affect and both redheads seemed to come out of their trans', both stopped screaming and shaking and surprisingly enough neither felt hurt or even sore after the whole experience. The pain was only a part of their minds and as they both sat drenched from head to toe and huddled close to each other.
"I remember it now, all of it." Emma said against Sirius' chest who had come with Remus to gather the two redheads in their arms. "I remember the pregnancy, I remember being so happy to be having a child. I thought that Lawrence was her father at the time, he and I had a relationship for about two years then we broke up. Now I remember why we broke up, the council had suspected him to be Jasmine's father and forbidden us to be lovers. I believe they covered both our memories well with what they wanted us to think happened."
They were all listening to her, listening as she talked about some man named Lawrence Sirius immediately felt jealous of. Jealous because he had her first, jealous because she might have loved him and now that she remembered what happened she might go back to him. Feeling the protective arms around her squeeze her tightly to a warm body when the name of her ex- boyfriend came up she nearly chuckled.
"Don't worry Siri, I'm not going anywhere." She said to him, kissing his temple and smoothing his hair. She didn't want to confuse her daughter if she had to explain that the girl had two fathers because Emerald herself couldn't understand it yet but she had a good feeling Snape did.
"Who's Lawrence?" Remus asked hugging both Emma and Jasmine from the left side while Sirius stayed at the right.
"He's my cousin's best friend. We had a brief relationship but then it was broken off. He was a nice guy, reminded me somewhat of you two." She admitted, now that she realized it her subconscious mind must have known the Shadow Lovers that came to her every night were the two men with her now so she was automatically attracted to Lawrence who was so similar to the two of them.
"Mummy?" asked the tentative voice of her daughter. Hearing her daughter call her 'mummy' was altogether over whelming. A feeling of pride and happiness surrounded her and she smiled a true smile, she hadn't smiled like that in so long. She was even afraid her face would break with the strain of her splitting grin but she kept smiling.
"What is it bambina? Are you okay?" The little girl shook her head but buried her head in her mother's shoulder sniffling softly and lopping her arms around her waist.
"I know." The girl said confusing all three of them.
Giving her a concerned glance Emerald asked, "What do you know Jasmine?"
"I know who my fathers are." She answered quietly. //She said father's instead of father.\\ Emma thought and bit her lip. What would her daughter think of having two fathers? Would she think it wrong? No. She decided. She was too young to know if it was wrong or right.
"Tell me." Emma said wanting to make sure that Jasmine knew as much as she was telling them.
"Moony and Padfoot, I don't know what their real names are though." She spoke shyly and kept her head buried in her mother's shoulder all he while.
Placing her index finger on the little girls face she tilted her head up to look at her. Jasmine didn't know whether to be happy or to be frightened now that she found her real family. She knew certain things but not much of it made sense to her.
"Well then since you don't know then I'll have to introduce you." Emma spoke and pointed to the darker haired man on her right whom her daughter seemed more familiar with. "This man here is the one you called Padfoot earlier, his name is Sirius Black but I want you to do me a favor and not talk about him when meeting other people okay?" she asked and the girl nodded smiling at Sirius who reached out to smooth her partially mussed up hair.
"And this man over here," Emma gestured to the tawny haired. "Is Remus Lupin and the same goes about talking about him in public. You must understand bambina that in order to keep us all safe you can't talk about us. If someone asks who your father is just say that you don't know. Okay?" Jasmine nodded her understanding and smiled at all three of them.
"I won't tell." She said and once again buried her head in her mother's shoulder while the older woman rocked her back and forth and hummed the tune in her locket. It only took a few minutes for Emma to entrance them with her song and lull them into a deep peaceful sleep from which she levitated all four of them over to the bed and followed in their journey into the land of sleep.
The week had passed them by quickly after that day. After getting used to taking care of an energetic daughter and Sirius in the same house Emma had soon learned that she might as well have two children with the way her godfather was going on about teaching their daughter pranks and telling her stories about the Marauders. Of course Remus took part in those activities as well but he didn't act nearly as childish. It was heart warming and gave her a good laugh every now and then to watch their shenanigans. Most of the pranks were done on either Remus or neighboring muggles passing by the hotel. After Sirius' little incident when he surprised her he seemed not to want to risk that sort of thing again and advised Jasmine that it wouldn't be a good idea to startle her 'mummy'.
That was actually nothing compared to what they went through when Emma had taken them all shopping in the muggle world. Convinced nobody would recognize Sirius she assured him he could go as a man rather than a dog. Luckily she was right and nobody recognized him. They had gone out to a number of places, like the movie theatre, which neither of them have ever been to in their lives yet Emma still knew what it was. They went to the amusement park that opened right outside the city limits of London where Sirius had taken them on so many rides while jumping about like a giddy child with Jasmine that Remus nearly got sick.
The mall was another subject though. Emerald had gone to Gringotts alone while Remus, Sirius and Jasmine waited at an ice cream parlor in a nearby department store for her. Upon opening the vault that King Solomon gave her the key to she nearly went into cardiac arrest. There was more gold there than she'd ever seen in her life. The vault itself was the size of the Great Hall in Hogwarts and held gold and many precious gems and jewelry all the way to the ceiling.
After gathering a good deal of it and exchanging it for muggle money Emma also found out that the Goblins now make credit cards that transfer money to the muggle stores and take some of yours in return. It worked a lot like the regular muggle bank system and was much more refreshing since you didn't have to carry around a bundle of money.
The money wasn't the problem though. Shopping was the real problem. While little Jasmine was happy to have things bought for her and they spent several hours picking out anything she basically wanted which wasn't much so Emma had to buy a few other things. Of course neither of the men pointed out that she was plainly spoiling their child because both thought Jasmine deserved it and Emerald wanted to give her everything she didn't have.
But when they had arrived to the men's department of the store and the tall redhead started coaxing both of her lovers into picking things out for themselves they plainly refused saying they didn't want to cost her anything financially which in return caused her to lightly smack them on the back of their heads.
So instead she started picking things out for them while they went off to take Jasmine to have some fun around the mall. After several hours of picking and choosing their clothes she met them near a large water fountain at the center of the shopping complex to hand over the bags she acquired and went in search of clothes for herself. That in itself took another few hours in which all three of them followed her and helped her pick things. She remembered being quite amused when they entered the ladies lingerie store and both of them blushed covering Jasmines eyes before she started fuming and ducked under them. Either way Jasmine still didn't pay attention to the items displayed in the store. Most likely she was to tired to even talk and on the way back Sirius ended up giving her a ride on his shoulders. By the time all four of them had gotten home it was well past eight o'clock in the evening and Jasmine was sleeping on her feet.
Emerald blinked hazily getting used to the morning light compared to the peaceful darkness her dreams contained. Stretching carefully as to not wake the other three occupants in the bed she got up and went to the bathroom. Seeing as they were still staying at the hotel they had had a mini vacation and since neither of them wanted to get another bed and leave each other they all stayed in the same one for that week and a few days.
After washing up and relieving herself Emma sat down on the carpeted floor and started silently stretching, then doing standard warm ups before going into yoga positions. Just because she was on vacation didn't mean she was allowed to get lazy and fat.
As usual she went out to jog a few blocks then continued to the nearest super market to buy enough breakfast for the day. She didn't bother buying anything for lunch or dinner as she had other plans for all of them.
Upon getting back the first thing she noticed were Sirius' eyes, which were glued to the door waiting for her. He was still in bed with both Remus and Jasmine curled up against him but he always woke up in the mornings when noticing she was gone and anxiously awaited her arrival after that.
"Hey." She whispered. "Sleep well?" She asked pecking him lightly on the lips.
Grinning like a Cheshire cat he nodded stretching his limbs sleepily. She smiled, amazed how a whole week and a half with proper food and plenty of laughter transformed both men into healthier individuals. They looked so much younger, it seemed like a whole decade had been taken off of them.
"Good." He yawned widely. "You?"
"I slept well and I brought breakfast so it'll only be a little while until I'm done cooking." She answered. Breakfast was actually the only meal she knew how to make without burning it or turning it some strange color. She'd had plenty of practice making it for the Dursley's when she was younger and the skill was never forgotten but dinner was something else entirely. All she did was buy the food and let Remus prepare it. Last time she cooked they ended up with pasty blue soup and burnt chicken that was originally supposed to be baked.
"Can I help?" he asked. Yes her godfather did have confidence in her breakfast making skills but sometimes she wondered if he had ever taken home economics, he cooked like a chef. Of course it did bite at her at times, the fact that she couldn't even make descent mashed potatoes but she supposed a person couldn't be perfect at everything.
"Sure." She answered in return and placed the groceries on the small table they had in the room displaying all the items. Since there were the four of them and both Sirius and her were bottomless pits Emerald usually bought a whole trunk load of food. Enough to even feed a small army unit.
On the table she laid out pancake mix, blueberries for the pancakes, eggs, milk, orange juice, sausages, bacon, bread for toast, butter, marmalade, and an assortment of doughnuts.
"Ohh!" Padfoot cried out giddily but quietly enough not to wake the other two sleeping occupants of the room. "You bought doughnuts today!"
Emma laughed to herself. Leave it to Sirius to make a big deal out of doughnuts. She really couldn't blame him though; the Dementors in Azkaban didn't really serve anything but moldy bread and water for the prisoners they guarded. And people don't exactly feed stray dogs doughnuts either so it was a happy surprise to the darker haired man whenever she got something sweet. Which she always did just to see his face light up like that.
"If you're good Siri I'll let you have some." She teased him and he automatically pouted playfully.
"You'd deny me the right to jelly filled and powdered doughnuts?" he exclaimed in fake outrage. "You evil temptress!"
Laughing she swatted his arm lightly. "I'm hardly a temptress as for the doughnuts you can't have any until you have a hearty breakfast. I still need to fatten you up some." She giggled and started making the pancakes while he worked on the fried foods like bacon, eggs, and sausages.
"Oh I don't know you are pretty tempting to me." He told her while setting out the plates and making the toast.
Eventually the smells of breakfast carried themselves over to Jasmine and Remus who both started to awaken and sit up. Like the little ball of energy she was Jasmine bounced in happily giving everyone tight hugs, because she was four and so short she only ended up squeezing their legs because she couldn't reach any higher and both her mother and Sirius were still finishing cooking.
"Good morning bambina, sleep well?" her mother asked her right before Remus stumbled in, his hair dishelved and yawned coming up to kiss her and Sirius before sitting down.
"Have a good sleep Remmy?" both Sirius and her asked and he nodded in return combing a hand through his own hair trying to bring it to some order.
"So what are we going to do today?" While in the middle of her eggs she stopped chewing and stared blankly at Remus for a few seconds debating whether or not to really go through with what she wanted to do that day.
"I think we should go to Hogwarts, there's still a war going on and we're here sitting on our behinds having fun while there are people out there dying. I need to speak to Dumbledore about a few plans I have. Then I need to talk to Desa about the council and how many will be joining our side. Then I have to talk to Snape about Marvolo and about something else he might or might not understand." She ticked each subject off on a finger and nodded each time to herself silently confirming her plans.
"We get to see great-gran and grandpa?" Jasmine asked excitedly making all three adults wince when she called Snape 'grandpa'.
"Yes bambina but do me a favor and don't tell people he's your grandpa okay sweetie?" Jasmine obeyed her mother and nodded accordingly but didn't lose the happy shine in her bright eyes.
Sirius looked especially uneasy about his own daughter calling his arch nemesis grandfather and grimaced slightly. Remus although did not look thrilled didn't seem at all disgusted either he just accepted it knowing no matter how much he wished; nothing would change in terms of the Potions Master being one of Emerald's fathers.
**************************************************************************** **********
An hour later Emma stood by the door shrinking her and Jasmine's things and dropping them in her leather pouch. She was dressed again in her battle uniform and the sleeveless robe that went over them. Remus and Sirius were both already dressed and waiting near her, their things shrunk and pocketed as well.
"Ready to go to Hogwarts?" she asked all of them. Receiving nods all around she suggested Remus take Jasmine in his arms and hold one of her hands at the same time. With her free hand she opened a shimmering gold portal and took her godfather's hand before stepping through and leading them all in. She had expected for Jasmine to be slightly scared but the child was calm and unperturbed by the situation.
//This must have been how the council brought her outside of Ambrosia.\\ She figured since her daughter was already used to the splitting of dimensions.
Using the same door to get into Dumbledore's office she had Sirius open it so she could keep hold of him and this time he led them through to the nearly empty office all except one person. Albus Dumbledore sat scribbling on a piece of parchment and stopped when the mirror flashed admitting them.
As soon as they were inside Remus set Jasmine go who ran over to her mother raising her arms asking to be picked up. They had to make it look as real as possible and Emma requested that in public Jasmine should recognize her as her only parent for the time being.
Swinging the small child up so she had her legs encircling her waist and sat on her hip Emma supported her with both arms and greeted the surprised Headmaster. "Hello Professor, how are you today?"
Blinking a few times he nodded to them in recognition before answering. "Very well Emerald, and yourself? Who's that lovely young lady you have with you?" he asked politely smiling at her daughter. Apparently Desa hadn't thought to tell Jasmine about Dumbledore and his so called 'evil ways' as she like to describe them as because the girl blushed and hid her face in her mother's red hair.
Grinning proudly Emma introduced them. "Professor this is my daughter Jasmine, my little bundle of joy." Then turning to her daughter she nudged her lightly with on of her hands to look up. "Jasmine.aren't you going to say hello to Professor Dumbledore?"
Hearing the Headmaster's name the girl immediately perked up and smiled brightly. "You're the Headmaster of Hogwarts?" she asked looking at the old man and staring right at his twinkling blue eyes with her own green ones. Receiving a nod she nearly jumped from Emerald's arms.
"Oh I've heard so much about Hogwarts! Mummy, Moony, and Padfoot told me a lot. Can I learn here like they did?" her excited babbling didn't stop until the old man chuckled.
"Why of course my dear girl with your parents' permission first. Tell me child who is your father, I may know him." Immediately the bubbly redhead's face fell and she answered in a small voice just like her mother taught her.
"I don't know who my daddy was but mummy says he was a good person."
Nodding he looked curiously toward Emma as if he'd figure out the answer just by boring his gaze into her or intimidate her to the point where she would tell like he used to when she was younger.
"Professor is my grandmother still here recovering in the hospital wing or was she well enough to leave yet." Emerald changed the subject hastily shifting Jasmine over to her other hip.
"I believe she has left already. She has trusted me enough to leave a message with me though. She asked me to inform you that she is gathering the four kingdoms' support and that she'd send word out soon." Surprised that Desdemona would trust the man with such information when she once declared that she wouldn't trust him with her favorite quill she just nodded.
She smiled feebly trying to muster up the courage to do the next thing on her agenda. Remus seemed to know what she wanted so quickly stepping in he asked for her. "Albus you wouldn't happen to know where Severus is would you? Or if he's busy or not?"
"I believe he is in his chambers around now, he doesn't have classes until an hour and a half right now. I'm sure I can have one of the house elves lead you to there." The old man didn't seem at all surprised to be asked where the hated potions master was. Yes, he did realize it was unusual to call upon a man that the three adults before him didn't like but he assumed it had something to do with what Desdemona said.
Promising that she would be back soon Emerald took Jasmine with her and followed Dobby whom Albus had summoned to lead her down to the dungeons. The house elf had been overjoyed to say the least when he was given a specific job by the old man. It seemed the years didn't change him at all, still the hyper wide-eyed creature. She had almost laughed at one point when Dobby bowed so low to Dumbledore and the rest of them that his ears hit the floor with an alarming 'smack'.
As they traveled down through the cold musty hallways of the dungeons Emma grimaced and held her daughter closer to her protectively. After spending so much time amongst the royal families and in rich environments she wasn't used to the dirty old stone walls, except when the Council held her in one of their cells for trials or when it was time for one of her lessons with Kamian. She idoly wondered why someone would actually choose to live in a place like this.
Turning another corner and coming up to a large portrait of Salazar Slytherin Dobby abruptly stopped and beamed at her. "Here we is Miss. The Professor's rooms are behind this painting. Dobby will go now but if Miss needs anything be sure to call Dobby or any house elf." With a final bow where his large pointed ears smacked the floor again the little green creature disappeared with a 'pop'.
The portrait of Salazar stared at her curiously; seeing as she said nothing but just stood there he glared impatiently. "Password?!" he sneered at her disdainfully. Emma rolled her eyes at the portrait of her ancestor and chuckled surprising him when she started speaking in Ambrosian.
"I would like permission to enter grandfather, I have business to take care of with Severus."
Bewildered by the woman who dared call him grandfather he scowled at her and spoke back in the same language. "Who do you think you are to enter with no password and to call Salazar Slytherin your grandfather?" Letting his eyes roam over her recognition seemed to spark in his eyes and he grinned gleefully. "You are of Morgana's line. A Le Fey it seems." As if thinking it over a few more minutes he shrugged and nodded. "You may enter Princess." Swinging open he allowed her entrance and she carefully stepped through. Unlike in the Gryffindor common room the entrance here was much bigger and luckily she didn't have to step over a part of the wall of duck her head.
The room she stepped into seemed to be a sitting room with green, black and silver furniture. There was a big fluffy couch, a love seat, and three other armchairs in the room all placed carefully around the fireplace. There were a few small coffee tables about and several large shelves of books that stood against the walls. Surprisingly it was nothing like the cold exterior she entered from, the place was warm if not cheerful. Yes, warm but gloomy just like its owner probably was.
She heard faint sounds from the other sound of the door that stood next to one of the bookcases and cautiously approached it wondering if the Potions Master would blow up at her for invading his private space. She didn't really know what kind of friends Snape hosted; she had a feeling that it was a Death Eater. If she had known someone would be there she wouldn't have taken Jasmine with her. Perhaps she could still send her back to Remus and Sirius.
"Dobby!" she called out faintly and from behind a 'pop' sound echoed signaling the elf's arrival.
"Yes Miss? Dobby has come to serve miss." He chirped and for a moment she was afraid the people behind the door heard him so she explained quickly.
"Dobby I need you to take Jasmine and bring her to the Headmaster's office. Take her to either Remus Lupin or Sirius Black." Placing her protesting daughter on the ground who begged her mother to go with her and see her grandfather. Staying put she shook her head and led the girl out the portrait hole where Dobby took her hand and started leading her back the way they had come.
Bracing herself Emerald straightened up and held herself at her full height, which was a little more than usually since her boots had three-inch heels on them giving her a two and a half inch advantage on her regular height. Knocking firmly on the oak door the voices behind it grew quiet and footsteps approached her.
The door swung open from the inside and she was met by the burning eyes of Severus Snape whom easily towered over her by four or five inches looking much like an overgrown bat. Sneaking a peak behind him she noticed two other men. She had to hold back her Charmer instincts and suppress a hiss or growl. Sitting comfortably in what seemed like a study holding a glass of brandy each were Malfoy Sr. and Mcnair.
Severus seemed to remember the fact that he would be presenting her to the Dark Lord soon and bowed deeply confusing the two behind him. "Princess." He acknowledged her and kissed the back of her hand very much like the royals or nobles in Ambrosia would do.
"Severus." She replied silkily. "I didn't realize you had guests otherwise I would have come at another time. I was wondering if you've contacted my father yet?"
"Don't worry your majesty you aren't interrupting at all. As for your father I have spoken to him about you and he wishes your presence at his next summoning." Leading her into the room and keeping his eyes deliberately low like was proper he gestured toward the other two men who each stared fixedly at her with wondering expressions glued to their faces.
"May I introduce Lucius Malfoy and Edward Mcnair, both loyal servants of your father just like myself."
Her instincts over took her and she took a slight sniff of the air. A few scents barraged her nose but she remained expressionless. There was the smell of arousal and awe. They were turned on by her presence just like many others were but soon they'd learn to fear her as well.
"Gentlemen." Snape spoke to the two unmoving Death Eaters gaining their attention. "May I introduce to you her highness Princess Emerald Le Fey of Slytherin in Ambrosia. The soul heiress of our Lord Voldemort."
The Death Eaters were probably well informed of her presence by their master because as soon as the Potions Master finished introducing her both of them snapped out of their stupors and dropped to their knees before her kissing the hem of her robes at which point she roughly stepped back away from them.
"Stop squirming like pathetic bugs and get up!" she yelled causing them to scramble rather ungracefully up to their feet. Severus was clearly amused by the display and didn't move to hide his smirk.
"Forgive us your majesty. We are just seeing that you receive the respect that you deserve." Lucius spoke unsteadily and stared right at her chest where the zipper wasn't moved all the way up to her neck and exposed some of her cleavage.
"I do not find staring at my cleavage shows much respect for me so if you want to keep your eyes in their sockets I suggest you cease your ogling and act like a man rather than a groveling rodent." She sneered at him and nearly went into guffaws behind her expression. The man looked about ready to piss his pants, afraid that if he displeased his master's daughter he could be in for one hell of a cruciatus curse.
Fully amused by the whole situation Emma decided to have some fun and frowned turning to Severus who kept his eyes on the scene. "Severus I'm afraid I'll have to inform father of how little respect his followers have. They are worse than peasants. Peasants at least know their place in society." Panic seemed to cross the other two men and they dropped to their knees groveling to her.
"Of course your highness." The Potions Master replied keeping his head bowed. "Our Lord had specific instructions to treat you the way you deserve. Please do not hesitate to issue any complaints to him, anyone that displeases you shall be punished accordingly."
"Good, good." She answered and stepped over the crouching figures of the two Death Eaters and walked over to stand by him. "And when is the next meeting? I would like to know ahead of time to prepare. I have news that will please father." She spoke and glanced over to the other two men whom had gotten up and stood with their heads bowed and kept their eyes to the floor, every now and then they'd glance at her quickly before resuming their earlier positions.
"The summons should be in an hour highness, we have gathered here specifically for that purpose. Lucius here must collect his son before we leave."
She nodded. So Draco was a Death Eater just like his dear old daddy. She had always imagined before that he wasn't as evil as he seemed, that the cruelty he displayed was part of his father's wishes. Perhaps she was wrong then perhaps he really was dark all along. He could have been good if there was someone there for him to change his views before it was to late but with parents like the Malfoys it wouldn't be possible.
"Alright why don't you have him collect his son right now. I'd like to be introduced before we depart." Malfoy seemed to be relieved to be able to leave the room and quickly asked for the password to the Slytherin dorms and dragged Mcnair our to the room with him leaving only her and Snape who finally looked up at her when the portrait to his rooms slammed shut.
"You should be an actor Professor that was bloody good work." She grinned openly and patted him on the shoulder awkwardly only making him glower even more deeply at her. Frowning at his mood she stepped away slightly. "I take it you aren't happy to see me?" He shook his head twice indicating she was right.
"Right." She murmured. Now her father didn't even want to talk to her. How lucky was she? "Dobby!" she called and within seconds the short green creature popped into the room.
"Yes Miss?" he squeaked in a high-pitched voice.
"Would you inform the headmaster along with Sirius and Remus I'm going to see Marvolo and will be back shortly. Tell them to wait here at Hogwarts for me." Obeying the elf left with the smack of his ears against the floor. Rolling her eyes she was a bit tired of his ears doing that. If he continued he'll have black and blue bruises on them if not red marks.
"You are insane Potter." Snape hissed at her venomously.
"You might as well call me Snape! I know what you are to me, I have the serpents mark!" she yelled equally as angry ad pointed an accusing finger at him. The man paled visibly and sputtered before pulling himself back up from his astonished position.
"You are Potter's child and that's the end of it!" he barked and stormed into the sitting room slamming the study door on his way out leaving her alone in the room. Spying a bottle of brandy on his desk she took a quick swig from the bottle feeling the liquid burn her throat and warm her considerably.
Moving through the dungeon hallways Malfoy and Mcnair treaded along in silence for a few minutes before Lucius broke it and addressed his companion.
"Is it just me or did she look an awful lot like that mudblood Evans? Potter's mother."
"She did look like her." Mcnair replied and then added. "Evans wasn't as beautiful though I doubt they are related."
When they reached the Slytherin Common room Lucius had sound his son lounging in front of the fireplace on a large arms chair with a book propped in front of him.
Once they had gathered the boy both older men explained the situation to him, making sure he knew how to act accordingly. Mostly going by Severus' example and proceeded back to the Potion Master's quarters.
"WHAT?!!!!" Sirius' outraged scream echoed through the office as Dobby once again for the twelfth time explained what Emma had asked him to inform him of.
"Miss Le Fey asked Dobby to tell her companions which is you that the miss will be going to see Marvolo and to wait for her arrival at Hogwarts."
"NO!!" the darker haired man screamed causing Dobby to once again affirm that it was true and repeat what Emma told him to say. Finally growing tired of the scene repeating itself over and over again Remus raised his voice at his best friend.
"Sirius you heard him perfectly well so will you shut your trap and sit down! You're scaring Jasmine." He referred to the four-year-old girl who squirmed and buried her head against Remus' sitting frame while curling into a ball and lying on the coach next to him.
That got him to stop and come over next to her, gathering her in his arms protectively and shushing her whimpers. "I'm sorry cherie," using his nickname which was French and rocking her back and forth. "I didn't mean to scare you, please don't be scared." He begged the child who started to calm down little by little.
Remus sat smiling at them. No matter what mood his friend was in he would soften up like a sponge when it came to the welfare of their daughter and automatically forget what was going on around him. In truth the little girl wasn't scared at all it was his idea to ask her to act like it expecting not such a good performance but instead had realized she had an uncanny ability for acting.
Although it did take the darker haired man's mind off of Emma his was still sharply fixated on her. Knowing that she would be meeting the Dark Lord was not very comforting not even if she pretended to be his daughter. After all he did kill Lily, his only child. What would stop him from hurting their Emerald?
Draco entered through the portrait of Salazar Slytherin and into a warm sitting room adorned by tapestries and furniture of the Slytherin house. The first thing he noticed was Professor Snape sulking. He was sitting on a large green sofa by the fireplace and swirling a glass of brandy in his hand taking leisurely sips little at a time.
"Severus, where is the Princess? Did she get tired of you already and throw you out of the study?" he heard his father say and accordingly he smirked at his joke showing his appreciation for it.
"Her highness asked to be alone for a while." His head of house replied dryly. "You should go ahead and introduce Draco before we leave, the summons will come any time now."
Draco vaguely wondered what this princess looked like. Would she have blood red eyes like the Dark Lord? Ghastly pale skin and ghostly features? Or would she be the most beautiful woman he'd ever laid eyes on? Whatever it was he was about to find out because as his father lightly tapped on the door he heard the click of her boots approaching them and the door swung open making no sound on its hinges just venting air in the other direction.
Upon seeing her he decided that she was the latter. She was truly the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen. Much more enticing than a Veela and for a long moment he just stood there staring into her eyes which looked back angrily at him. Forgetting what he was supposed to do he just stuck out his hand presuming she'd shake it but instead he found himself roughly pushed to the floor from behind as his father barked at him.
"Bow to royalty you whelp!" then hastily apologized to the redheaded woman. "Forgive him your highness Draco is young and foolish he sometimes forgets what he is told."
Blushing madly he tried to get up but the moment he got on his hands and knees his father placed one of his booted feet on his back and applied pressure, pushing him back down on his stomach. "Where do you think you are going boy? You will show the proper respect to her majesty and Kiss the tip of her boots."
Draco had never been more humiliated in his life; he just wished he could die on the spot right there. But he couldn't, he'd be in for much worse if he didn't obey his father. So moving to kiss her black leather knee high boots he was surprised when she moved her foot at the last second and his lips came in contact with the dirty stone floor.
"I do not think that will be necessary Malfoy, I don't want his drool on my boots. You are lucky I'm in a forgiving mood today otherwise I'd have my wicked way with your son." Emerald spoke with enjoyment as Draco squirmed under his father's foot. "You may let him up."
And Lucius did so waiting for his son to get off the ground and brush himself off before grabbing him by the back of the neck and holding him still. "You may have your way with him if you please majesty. After all we are here to serve the Dark Lord as well as his offspring, and Draco is such a beautiful boy, I think you'd enjoy playing with him."
Watching the way her former arch nemesis shook in fright she took pity on the poor boy. It seemed Lucius was worse to his own son than the Dursley's had ever been to her. It was strange how the blonde worshipped his father when the man would offer his own son as a sacrifice or chew toy. Laughing mockingly she shook her head at him.
"A boy? What would I want with a boy when I am plainly older than you Lucius?" she lied about her age but considering that she would have to say that she spent most of her life in Ambrosia if not all she'd have to be pretty old. The man looked very surprised when she mentioned how old she was and looked her over doubtfully; of course she only looked twenty years old.
Bowing deeply and letting go of his son Lucius kept his eyes down and spoke to her. "Of course how foolish of me highness, I'm sure the Dark Lord shall provide you with whomever or whatever you wish," hastily adding. "Including one of us." He gestured to Mcnair, himself, and Severus whom was not looking too peachy at the suggestion.
Emma saw right through the whole suggestion. Malfoy Sr. was clearly insinuating that he would be more than willing to submit to her in any way shape or form. Beauty was obviously a blessing in this situation because she decided to give him a scare.
Beckoning him closer and mesmerizing him with her eyes, using her charming ability they were now face to face, the man tilted his head slowly. But she was quicker and grabbed him by an arm swiveling him around so fast she was sure he got dizzy. He was now in front of her with his back pressed against her front breathing heavily already scared. Doing a partial transformation into her cat form she transformed her vocal chords, teeth, and eyes. He couldn't see it happen though the rest of the room could. Draco and Mcnair went paler than the moon while Snape looked on uncaringly.
Growling a lioness' roar in the man's ear she held him steady as he shook violently. She used her fangs to graze the pale skin on the nape of his neck trying not to pay attention to what she was doing because if she did it would surely make her gag. Using her normal voice she whispered to him making him shudder and get goose bumps.
"So, so beautiful Lucius. Such creamy white skin. It would look good against blood." With her last word she punctured his skin and spit the blood on her lips out onto the floor. He was trashing about now barely holding still and it took quite a deal of strength to keep him inn one place. Watching the crimson blood flow down his ivory skin she laughed falsely but believably.
"Be careful what you ask for Lucius." Letting him go she stepped over his huddled form on the floor and walked over to Severus where she sat down and looked him straight in his obsidian eyes. Her saliva would have mixed with his blood at a certain point in his neck by now and sent shocks through his vertebrae, almost like a poison except she only let enough seep through to shake him for ten minutes or so.
"You're so observant Severus." She remarked. "Tell me what did you just see? What did you think of that? Am I still the fool hardy Gryffindor you used to give detentions to and tried to get expelled." She whispered all this so only he would hear. "Tell me did you see a part of you in there? Hmm.father." Hissing at him she stood and perched herself on his desk near the window where the sun was still up and shining down on Hogwarts grounds. Neither Mcnair of the two Malfoy's witnessed their conversation as they were still tending to Lucius whom continued to tremble and bleed.
Indeed Snape had seen evil in her. Evil pushing at her and waiting to come out. Tempting her with its sweet sinfulness and taunting her with the knowledge that evil was wrong but it was a delicious piece of fruit. The piece of fruit that Eve had sunk her teeth into and gotten her and Adam banned from the Garden of Eden. He had seen himself, seen Voldemort, and seen what the Slytherin name was all about. But after all that he had also seen the remorse that showed on her face after committing such an act even on a Death Eater.
Now what he saw was the sadness in her. The sadness he had added to once to many times and it was slowly building, ready to break the damn.
Getting up with a sigh he approached her figure. Coming up behind her and staring out the window as well. "I saw you." He finally said. "I saw Lily, I saw James, I saw myself, I saw Voldemort, I saw Slytherin and Gryffindor mixed and jumbled into one unique and essentially perfect package. That package Emerald is you."
"Then why do you hate me so much? I mean I'm not asking to hold hands and hug, no. I just want to be treated civilly instead of you having to bark Potter each time you address me." He was opening and closing his mouth the words he wanted to say weren't coming and instead Emma continued to talk.
"You know I don't even mind to much if you hated me but the reason I came down here in the first place was so my daughter could meet you. She was so excited when we were coming to Hogwarts, absolutely skipping with joy that she'd get to meet her grandfather. When I heard voices in your study I sent her back up with Dobby, good thing I did too I don't want her to be in the presence of Death Eaters."
"Daughter!? What daughter? You didn't tell me I had a granddaughter?" his eyes were bulging so much they would have popped out of their sockets if she didn't ask him to calm down before the others heard.
"It's not like you would care anyways. Like mother like daughter right? So I figured you'd hate her as well, I was going to ask you to at least pretend to look overjoyed when you met her but even that would most likely be too much for your gloomy Death Eater attitude. I don't even know what to tell people if the serpent's mark ever gets exposed, it's between her shoulder blades and it can easily be spotted with some of the shirts she might wear one day." Emma waited expecting to hear him at least defend his own honor or mock her and drive her heart into the dirt along with her daughter's fondness of him, but he said nothing just watched her.
By then Lucius had already recovered from his dramatic experience and Mcnair approached her and Severus. Annoying as his presence was, Emerald was forced to listen to him, it seemed the man wasn't as stupid as he looked to be.
"I did not realize you had a daughter highness, I heard you mention something about the Serpents Mark," he looked toward Severus then and back to her, staring her right in the eyes. "May I ask who the father is?"
Sending him a withering look Emma was going to give him a bit of a lesson for eavesdropping and most likely scare him out of his robes for meeting her eyes. She did not mind people meeting her in the eyes but when she had the opportunity to torture a Death Eater she would take it. She was stopped when her father stepped in.
"I am, Mcnair. Do you have a problem with that?" The serpents' mark on Jasmine would arise suspicion if seen and accounted for then Voldemort would prove Emerald an imposter, so naturally Severus had to claim the child as his daughter.
"No Severus but I reckon the Dark Lord will savor that bit of information." The other man grinned maliciously.
Hopping off the desk Emma shook her head warning Mcnair not to mess with her. "Let me ask you a simple question Mcnair." She said and like the brain dead Death Eater he was the man just looked confused. "Do you value your life, do you want to risk crossing Lord Voldemort and I?"
Standing tall and pretending to be unafraid Mcnair stared her down with his murky eyes. Eyes that were cold unlike Sirius' chocolate one's which seemed to fill her with warm every time they met hers. No, she decided Mcnair's eyes looked like a pile of dung on the side of the road.
She would have done something drastic again if it weren't for a strangled cry that came from all three of the older men in the room. Each seemed to grab onto their forearms and grimace with pain. It was evident that their master was calling and it was time for Emerald Le Fey to meet Prince Marvolo once again.
"Portkey." Severus gasped and pointed to a small box on his desk, which Mcnair went to pick up, and flipped open the lid displaying an aluminum bottle cap inside of it. Gesturing for all of them to touch it he set if back on the desk so he could as well.
Emma scowled bitterly at the portkey, another one the Death Eaters made to bring her to Voldemort except this time it was of her own validation. It had been a long time since she'd used one. In Ambrosia she had learned to make them but never used one still haunted by the incident during the third task in the Triwizard Tournament.
Pushing back all resistance she placed a single finger on the bottle cap just like the rest of them and within seconds she felt a jerking sensation at her navel and the world went into swirls before her eyes as she traveled through one space and into another.
With a jolt Emma landed perfectly on her feet and shook herself off letting her sight adjust and the dizziness in her head go dissipate. But as soon as it left her a sharp pain echoed and sent shocks through her head originating from her hidden scar nearly bringing her to her knees. Getting her bearings she focused on the other times when she'd been tortured and felt the pain slowly diminish to a slight throb when her mind realized it had gone through worse things before.
Severus and the other three Death Eaters had stepped away from her as soon as they arrived and took their place amongst the crowd of the Dark Lord's other followers whom were already present. Once she looked around Emerald noticed that since fourth year Voldemort had gathered an entire army of men that he used to his disposal and whom served loyally.
They were all crowded into a large circle where she stood slightly next to the rim away from the center. Feeling the throbbing in her scar increase and a hushed silence to overcome the once murmuring and whispering Death Eaters Emma looked toward the center of the circle where everyone else's attention was focused on.
"Ah you must be Emerald, my how you look like your mother. May I introduce myself as Lord Voldemort to the wizarding world and Prince Marvolo to Ambrosia." The almost skeletal and pale figure in front of her hissed, his red eyes flashing and surveying her like a piece of meat. His snake Nagini coiled by his feet and slithered out to circle around her letting it's forked tongue sniff the air.
At the moment Emma was largely tempted to step on Nagini's head and let the retractable blade in her boot heel go right through the snake's skull killing it on impalement. But instead she settled for a different approached.
"Eyi, I know who you are Marvolo, or should I say father."
AUTHOR'S NOTE
Dum, Dum, Dummm! (dramatic music) Hi everyone! I hope you enjoyed this chapter, sorry I updated late this week has been hectic with little old me getting sick and missing a few days of school. I still have homework to catch up on! Sorry to leave you hanging there but I just had to do it, chapter 8 was becoming way to long anyways. Some of you have been begging me to get to the kinky sex scene well I promise I will get to it in either the next chapter or the one after.
In the mean time I drew a picture for this story of Emerald, Sirius, and Remus. I didn't know where to post it so I made a group at yahoo for this fic. If you want to check it out just go to the yahoo group and join temporarily or permanently I don't mind which. The picture is under 'files' on the choice bar. People say I'm a pretty good artist but I only spent about twenty minutes on the pic so you be the judge.
The group is at :: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Breakme/ :: by the way you have to have a yahoo id to be in the group I think, don't worry the process of getting an id is quick and painless.
Thanks to everyone who reviewed my story and I appreciate the people who put me on their favorites list I truly feel special now. (
P.S. Just in case I haven't told anyone yet this story used to be called Hate Me, Break Me etc. but since I was too late to change the rating I just changed a few things about this story to make it a bit more appropriate.