The Age of Innocence is Just Beginning
By Phoebe Halliwell
Chapter five
Within the week Timmy and Alyssa were back from Hogwarts and with Callie staying with them as well it was a little more hectic than usual, Lucius and Narcissa had also come to spend the Christmas period with them and help with their great grandchild. Lucius hated being reminded that he was a great grandfather, it made him feel so old. Of course Harry delighted in reminding him daily.
Samantha was still missing and neither Harry, Severus nor Draco had heard from the vampires and they were at a lose what to do, Harry was missing his youngest daughter terribly, Piper was receiving a lot of extra attention from Harry as a result of this, he was over compensating.
The entire family had heard about Samantha running away by this point, they never mentioned it front of Harry though as he was likely to start crying. He blamed himself for the whole thing even though Draco was insistent that it wasn't his fault.
It was the front page of the Daily Prophet on the morning of the 19th December that caught Harry's eye, it had been so long since any true dark activity had been reported and this was just horrifying for Harry.
Dark Lord II or justDark Lady?
Young daughter of none other than Harry Potter himself, Samantha Potter-Malfoy, now nineteen, approached the minister of magic himself last night as he was heading home from work. Samantha, known to her family as Sammy attacked him with a number of vampires, one among them was none other than David Montgomery who has links to the Riddle's that are reported to have been related to none other than the relatives of You-know-who.
Samantha Potter denied that Draco Malfoy, long term husband of Harry Potter and other father to the other three Potter children was not in fact her biological father but one David Montgomery was and that she would be following in her family's footsteps.
The Wizarding public should have cause for concern at this statement; David Montgomery is in fact the nephew of You-know-who, making Samantha Potter his niece. So one must ask how far Samantha Potter plans to follow in her families footsteps.
So far the Daily Prophet has had no comment from Harry Potter himself or from Draco Malfoy about the true parentage of Samantha Potter and there has also been rumours that the granddaughter of Harry Potter has been left in his care after Samantha reportedly ran away from home last week.
Harry threw the paper in the bin before he allowed anyone else to read it, he then set about making a cooked breakfast for everyone. Lucius was the next one to enter the kitchen and ask for the paper, he did so like to read it with a morning cup of coffee and a large cooked breakfast, he was a little put out when he couldn't see it.
"Its in the bin, where it belongs, it only prints garbage anyway." Harry said as he put plates filled with food in the table, he then removed his wand and made a shrill bell sound throughout the house for thirty seconds, announcing that breakfast was on the table.
Wondering why on earth Harry had thrown the paper away he went to fish it out of the bin and read the contents of the front page and immediately understood. It also explained the reporters waiting for them to come out of the house. Sometimes he didn't understand how people could be so fascinated with one boy and his personal life, Harry was now just a normal everyday father of four, he kept out of trouble and so did his children.
Maybe a normal everyday father didn't stroll into a vampire lair and threaten one o the vampires and live to tell the tale, or have murdered a man by the age of eleven but the latter was in the past and the former he had only done for his daughter.
Lucius wanted to sue the paper for its continuous stories that only served to put Harry in a very bad mood for days on end but he knew that it would only draw more attention to them and he knew that all Harry wanted was a quiet and simple life. Lucius had never much liked Samantha, although he would admit this to no one, he had always had a bad feeling about her, he had known that something like this would happen but something to this extent not even he could predict.
"Harry, don't even think about considering that this crap is true, why on earth would Sammy be Voldemort's niece?"
"I checked it myself Lucius, it's true, my daughter hates me so much that she has just done the worst thing possible and recreated my worst enemy in herself. I don't even know how to begin to fix this."
"I won't lie to you, I won't say that everything is going to be alright but she is your daughter and you know her best, David has only just come into her life, she has a good family here, brothers, sisters, a daughter of her own, parents and grandparents that care for her, if she gives all of that up then she does not deserve to be apart of this family."
"It doesn't change the fact that she is still my daughter, whether Draco is her father or not. I love her and I won't allow her to through her life away like Tom did, if she goes the same way then she will be sentenced to death or worse, I can't allow that to happen."
"You do not have a choice" Lucius said as Draco came in carrying Piper and Callie, Narcissa, Timothy and Alyssa were not far behind.
"What's going on in here?" Draco asked putting Piper into her highchair, "Father, Harry?"
"Can I speak to you outside a moment Hun?" Harry asked grabbing the paper from Lucius and manoeuvring around everyone so that no one saw the headline. "Please, sit and eat, we'll be back in a minute."
Draco and Harry moved upstairs so that they wouldn't be heard, not that it mattered, they would all know soon enough. Harry handed the paper over to Draco who read it, his eyes widening in shock as he did so.
"What are we going to do?" Draco asked, "We can't just let them do this, Samantha isn't and can't be the next Dark Lord." Draco said determinedly.
"There isn't anything that we can do Draco, now its made the papers she'll be even more determined, she's a headstrong young lady and is determined to cause as much trouble as she can." Harry said as he took the paper back and had a closer look at the picture. "Wait; look at their arms … what is that?"
Draco took the paper and studied the picture where Harry had indicated, "It's a red dragon, they all have it … you don't think…"
"I don't know what t think any more Draco, she is becoming Voldemort it everyway, she has her followers and she is already terrifying the wizarding world and this damn article isn't helping any."
"Harry, calm down, we'll find her and talk to her, we have raised her to understand the consequences of her actions, she is still that little girl that we raised, she still has a conscience."
"Sometimes I wonder, I can't see the little girl that I gave birth to in her any more Draco, I love her unconditionally but how can she do this, how could she recreate the one person who ruined my life before I was even old enough to understand."
"That's why we have to talk to her, before any prophecies are made that cannot be reversed. If I can help it Harry I won't let anything happen to her, I know she isn't my daughter but it feels as if she is."
It wasn't long until everyone had seen the front page of the paper, Harry hadn't even tried to hide it, he didn't see the point, they were family, they deserved to know although it seemed as if they wouldn't be having a full family Christmas after all. Harry however was determined; he wanted them to all be together.
They planned to put up the decorations today and despite the newspaper report they decided to go ahead, it was no use grieving over what could be was no way to go about life, especially over the Christmas period.
The reporters waiting outside of their house didn't go away but no one went outside so they didn't get their story. Piper spent the entire day amusing herself with the tinsel, she loved it, while everyone else put the tree and other decorations up.
When they were done it look magnificent, Harry had even set a log fire to burn in the grate, it took them all day to finish the house but it was well worth all of the effort they put into it. By the end of the evening Harry made them all hot chocolate and they sat around the fire talking, talking about anything but Samantha and her new found darkness.
It wasn't until the following day that endless fire calls came in asking for statements from the immediate family, statements that no one was willing to give. It was that afternoon that Severus Snape arrived via the floo network to give them some grave news.
"Harry I am so sorry but what has been done cannot be reversed now, Samantha has made a name for herself as the Dark Lady, she has no Lord and claims to find men weak and feeble creatures that assume that they are better than everyone. She has refused all knowledge of her daughter claiming that she is in the hands of good and nothing can bring her back from that, translated means she knows that you won't give Piper up.
"She is recruiting magical creatures and wizards that truly worshiped Voldemort to be on her side, she is proving to be as evil as he himself was. Samantha has built up her reputation as such an evil witch over the past week or so, much faster than Voldemort managed. She has access to his private journals and shares a lot of his knowledge of other worlds. There is also two other important pieces of information that I must tell you, so which do you want first Harry, the bad news or the catastrophe?"
Harry looked at him in a pained expression, "Give it to me in whichever way you think is best, I am in no mood for games currently Severus."
"The bad news is that she has taken over Hogwarts, the students have fled in fear, as have the teachers, the castle is now hers, there isn't much that we can do about that, she has settled there and set up wards to keep out all those who have good intentions, as she can pass freely in and out of Hogwarts grounds it means that she has no good intentions."
"And what is the catastrophe?" Harry asked, he did not know what to think of his youngest daughter any more, he was, even now questioning whether or not he still loved her as a child, she was no longer the innocent little girl that he had raised, she was something else entirely.
"The catastrophe is that in the early hours of this morning Sybil Trelawney, who you should recall quite well made a prediction, the sort of prediction that ear marked you as our chosen one to defeat Voldemort, she has once again ear marked another to be the chosen one to defeat your daughter."
"Defeat as in kill her?" Harry asked somewhat shocked, he could not believe that Samantha had achieved exactly what Voldemort had done in just over a week or so. It had take him years and now here she was, a nineteen year old girl, as evil as her great Uncle.
"I am sorry Harry but yes, she must be stopped before it is all blown out of proportion as it was with you when you were a child." Severus told him, Harry was looking unhappier by the minute.
"Who was it that was chosen Severus, I must go to them and talk to them, not to discourage this but to help them, I completely agree that it cannot go on, I won't allow it."
"The one who was chosen was the child of Neville Longbottom and his wife Luna, Mr Longbottom was overlooked once for the title of chosen one but his eldest daughter Holly has not been so fortunate."
"How old is she?" Harry asked, he dreaded the answer.
"She is thirteen years old, her younger brother David is eleven, both children fled Hogwarts two days ago and arrived at home safely they do not know of the prophecy yet and neither does the wizarding public but I estimate two or three days before it reaches the Daily Prophet, only one day if we're unlucky."
"Then I must go to them immediately, Neville was a friend as was Luna, I won't allow this to tear their lives apart, it isn't fair." Harry said standing up and going to find Draco to tell him what had been said and ask him to watch Piper while he paid a visit to old friends.
What do you think? Don't forget to leave me a review, it makes my day. The next chapter probably won't be up for a little while as my A-level exams start on Monday and writing these chapters is just a good reason not to revise. Bear with me and I promise to get the next chapter up soon. Phoebe xxx