A/N: Guess who got delayed writing this as they had to spend a week doing jury duty in a city 3 hours away? moi. though i did get the chance to go on a shopping spree and visit friends who go to university in the city, i didn't get too much writing done as I couldn't bring my laptop
Also, when the gang gets back from Ilvermorny, it will very soon be the birthdays of Dorea, then Harry and Amelia!
Lastly, RIP Robbie Coltrane, actor of Rubeus Hagrid
After the intruder had fled her property, Pansy had come out of her hiding place in the wall and made herself known to the Auror's now in her house. Literally just a few minutes after that, her father had rushed home, looking windswept as he protectively embraced her and demanded to know if she was okay.
Which led to now. The Auror's were asking her questions now, in the sitting room of her house. She was being interviewed by Kingsley Shacklebolt, who was the Deputy Head of the Auror Department. Rufus Scrimgeour, who was the actual Head Auror, was outside seeing to the broken protective enchantments around her house, and trying to assess how they were broken in the first place.
"This individual was speaking to you?" Kingsley had asked her, very surprised, after she detailed that she and the intruder spoke. The other Auror's dotted about the room turned to look at her, and she could feel her father, Cassius Parkinson, shift next to her.
"Yes," she replied, before quickly continuing, "but not really… directly. See, after I concealed myself in the hiding place in the wall, I saw the individual walk into my room. He appeared to just look around the room, and I think he was trying to see who lived here and who I was. I then felt a weird pull, and I was then viewing him from a different angle. He started speaking to me, and I spoke back, but he said he could not see where I was."
"This… this sounds like he was trying to locate you by employing Legilimens tactics, trying to invade your mind forcefully and see where you were, even though he couldn't find your hiding place." Shacklebolt assessed.
"It felt like that." she said. "The connection between our two minds was only broken when his concentration broke, and that was when the Aurors turned up."
Her dad, sitting next to her, sighed and rubbed his temples. She knew he wasn't angry at her, he was likely just stressed from the severity of how close she came to possibly getting hurt or kidnapped.
A few more questions were asked about what they spoke about, and Pansy told them truthfully, including the boy's name - Ares Lestrange. That made the Aurors shocked.
"Lestrange?" Scrimgeour gasped. They had brought him inside after this revelation, and the colour seemed to drain from his face. "How can that be?"
Pansy just sat there, clueless and feeling a bit small.
"The Death Eater's Rodolphus and Bellatrix do not have children together, and neither does Rodolphus's brother Rabastan." Kingsley added.
"Could there be other relatives?" Emmeline Vance voiced. Pansy recognised her from the day Hogsmeade was attacked; she was the one to find Pansy and the others after Millicent's uncle had killed Scarlett and Patricia. Her and her colleague Hestia Jones had driven the man off, and comforted them as they led them away from the scene.
"We'd have to ask Gringotts; they hold records on the family trees of pure-bloods. Though that might be hard to do right now, considering people in the Wizengamot keep pushing for legislation that works against them, which strains the working relationship between us and them." Scrimgeour said gruffly in response to that. Pansy then gulped when the Head Auror turned to her. "You're certain he said Lestrange, lass?"
She nodded nervously. "I heard him say it clearly. He didn't look like he was lying."
The man nodded and made a gruff sound. Kingsley spoke to her again. "Miss Parkinson, we thank you for your cooperation, and commend you on your initiative to hide when you realised the individual was an intruder. If you do not mind, we will now have our forensic wizards take samples of footprints and fingerprints from your bedroom, so that it would better help us identify and hunt down this Ares Lestrange."
She smiled to be polite, though she was glad that the questioning was over for now. "Thank you, Mr Shacklebolt, and Mr Scrimgeour."
"Have the protective enchantments around our house been restored, Rufus?" Her father spoke from next to her.
"They have, although we will need more time to prevent random Apparitions. We cannot guarantee that this lad won't return - who knows, next time he might bring some friends of his, and for that reason there will need to be tighter security measures than simple protective enchantments." Scrimgeour responded.
The Auror's left, and Pansy noticed her father did now look more relaxed, but the matter was still causing him to be shaken. She wondered if he would go back to work now that the panic was mostly over, but she was surprised when he simply went into the kitchen and poured some whisky into a glass and downed it. She felt like she needed a drink too - of the nonalcoholic kind, however, and went to make herself a cup of tea. It had been a manic few hours, after all.
"You're a brave girl, darling," her dad said all of a sudden.
She turned to him. "It was more panic and adrenaline rather than bravery, dad."
"That does not matter. You worked quickly to hide from danger and yet still faced it down anyway when he invaded your mind to speak to you. You are brave, never forget that. You also tried to save your friends from that… vile Bulstrode individual." Cassius Parkinson said earnestly, almost venomously spitting out the last part. His face then turned to a softer look. "Sit. There is something I must tell you."
Pansy wondered what he was about to say, and sat opposite him. Her father started speaking soon after. "This incident that happened today… It finally made me realise something. The reason this Lestrange boy came here in the first place is exactly as he told you; he was here for any Parkinson he could find, to use as leverage in order to make sure that our family would swear obedience to You-Know-Who. If he had managed to sneak in here without you realising, he would have likely kidnapped you to send a message to me and your mother - support our cause, we hold your daughter hostage, one toe out of line and we harm her. That's how they roll - the Death Eaters, by fear. When you Floo called me and said he was here… I have never been so scared, truly. I was mad to wait out this long - to think I actually considered being sympathetic towards them… No. I realised then that I could not side with people like that. They would harm you to make an example of our family if they had the chance, and take pleasure in doing it. My job as your father has always been to ensure your safety is my utmost priority, and the fact that you could have been killed on that day in Hogsmeade, and harmed today, by their ilk… I cannot bear it. It is now that.. That I want nothing more than to see them brought down. Bugger my upbringing."
Pansy couldn't help but smile, and even felt tears in her eyes. She got up, went around the table and hugged her father, and he did the same. She had never been in a more protective embrace where she truly felt safe.
She spoke at last. "Truthfully, I… I changed allegiance too. That day in Hogsmeade. I also made another choice: I took it upon myself to also break off my friendships with.. Millicent, and Sophie Roper. And I forged new ones with people who for five years had been my 'enemies'."
Cassius Parkinson hugged her again. "See? That takes bravery to acknowledge."
They heard the front door of the manor house open again - but they didn't need to panic, as sprinting into the kitchen barely five seconds later came Dahlia Parkinson. "Cassius? Pansy! I came as soon as I could, the Ministry contacted me about a teenage Death Eater on our property? What happened?"
Pansy explained it all. Dahlia Parkinson looked windswept, and when Pansy detailed what this Ares Lestrange had done and said to her, she looked even more frantic, but when she said that the Auror's had already been by, she evidently sagged in relief.
"I think we need to make our stance clear, darling," said Cassius, who looked to his wife expectantly, "These people are not our friends."
Though Pansy knew her mother had been brought up by quite conservative pure-bloods, she had only just realised that she never knew her true allegiance until now. Sure, there was being a pure-blood, but then there were Death Eater purebloods, and she never quite knew what side of the scale her own mother was on. Her mother spoke. "They never were. And the fact they sent that boy here to steal our daughter.. Use her as a good-behaviour check.. And that day when they attacked kids at Hogsmeade, and at that Ministry battle… they're terrorists, Cassius. And to hear what their ilk are doing across Europe.."
It was silent for a few moments.
"The next time I'm at work, I'm going to start making friends with those I couldn't be seen interacting with when I was more neutral. Use my voice to make a difference." her father said.
"Who will you ally with?" Her mother took the words right out of Pansy's mouth.
"A number of people. But first," her father paused, then said, "Sirius Black."
This time tomorrow, they will be in America, on the grounds of Ilvermorny Academy of Magic. Though it was a daunting prospect, it was one that Amelia was looking forward to very much.
When her godfather came home from work at quarter past four, she noticed a spring in his step, and he too looked excited.
She spent most of that evening double-checking that she had packed everything she needed for the trip - with help from Dorea. Regulus had popped his head around the door at one point - "Sirius is busy doing work in his study, but he asked me to give you girls and Harry this. It's some more information about the trip, plus an itinerary."
Once he left, they poured over every word on the bits of paper. It turned out, they would be joined by a few folks from the Department of International Magical Cooperation - they would be travelling with them, and they would be staying in the same accommodation wing as them. Neither of them recognised the names.
"It's a shame it's such a short trip time-wise, but I still hope we are able to accomplish something while we're there." Dorea said after skimming through the bits of paper she had.
Amelia concurred. "Yeah, on one hand I do wish it was longer, but I think time is sacred when we're trying to make a deal with the USA and Canada to be our allies against You-Know-Who. It's entirely possible that the Death Eater's could reach out to them while we're there, so I see why it's important to get around the negotiating table quickly. Plus, I think I'd miss Theo too much if we were away any longer than the three and a half days."
Dorea chuckled. "Yeah, I get that too. It's also a blessing that we'll be back in time for the opening of Fred and George's shop. Wouldn't want to miss that."
That was also something that Amelia was looking forward to. They had already planned to go along to Diagon Alley and be there when the doors officially opened for business - on Monday, a few days after they got back from Ilvermorny, which would hopefully give them plenty of time to get over the time difference. She had a sneaky feeling that Sirius and Remus would be going to check it out too, although Sirius did say that day was going to be busy for him.
Dorea eventually meandered back to her own room - on the premise that she was going to read about the history of Ilvermorny, something which she said would 'keep a conversation going' if a talking situation with their hosts got awkward. Amelia didn't really have much left to do; her bag was packed, she hadn't forgotten to pack anything else, so she was ready to leave tomorrow morning.
She did contemplate reading about Ilvermorny herself, but just as she was about to do that, she saw Theo in her doorway. "Darling," she chirped happily once she saw him.
His gaze softened, and he opened his arms, "Come here, love."
He didn't need to say anything more than that. She walked over and got enveloped by him immediately. "It'll only be 3 and a half days." she said to him.
"I know." She could hear his heartbeat. "But I'll miss you terribly, nonetheless."
"As will I," she said, then pulled back slightly to look up at him. She had noticed he had grown slightly; he wasn't far off being the same height as Blaise - six foot one inch. "But this trip is important. We need the security of knowing that the USA and Canada won't join You-Know-Who."
He smiled. "I'm aware. I just hope you don't take on too much responsibility. Leave most of the bargaining to the trained adults, baby."
"Oh, I will," she replied, "but I want to play a role somehow. I don't see why Minister Bones would invite me, Harry and Dorea to go if she just wanted us to explore another school. I think she knows we can be useful, but wants us to figure that out ourselves."
Theo hummed. "You're probably right. There will likely be a banquet of some sort held while you're there, and she'll want you, Dorea and Harry buttering up some people there."
Amelia remembered: on the itinerary, it did say that on the evening of day 2 of their visit, there was a dinner to be held by the hosts for the guests, with entertainment and dancing. That would surely require mixing and mingling with others. She pulled a face. "Not sure how good at that I'll be, but I'll try my best."
Theo grinned. "You buttered me up quite well, Amelia. More than that - you softened me. I'm sure you'll be fine."
Amelia smirked. "I suppose I did."
They gave each other a rather quick kiss and a cuddle before Theo wandered down the stairs - to sneak a bit of brownie that his mother had made, for him and the boys, in his words. Amelia chuckled and rolled her eyes playfully at his antics.
Amelia went to bed that night not really expecting to get much sleep, as she was quite excited, but she surprisingly fell asleep within an hour of getting into bed. She was as ready as she could be for the trip, and she supposed that was all she could be.
When Dorea woke up at 9:30 the next morning, it was as if she had swallowed a bat. The excitement of the trip was settling in, and though there were some nerves amongst the excited flutters, she was optimistic nonetheless.
As she got dressed, she did have a wonder to herself - would there be people the same age as her, Harry and Amelia there? She knew that Ilvermorny would be on summer break, so there would be no students there unless the school permitted people to stay over the summer, but it would be nice if there were. Having a pen pal would be something cool to have.
She was positive she had packed everything, but she opened her bag nonetheless to have one last check just in case she had subconsciously taken something out and forgot to put it back in. Formal outfits - check, fancy clothes - check, sleepwear - check, casual clothes - check, toiletries - check, sanitary products - check…
Dorea was positive that she had everything now. She zipped the bag back up, and as she did so she could hear someone moving about out in the corridor. A few moments later, she heard a light knock at her door. "Come in!" She lightly called out.
The door opened, and it was her dad. Sirius looked at her and burst into a grin, "Today is the day, sweetheart!" He said in a sing-song voice.
She grinned back. "I'm ready to leave whenever Harry and Amelia are."
"I'll wake them up in twenty minutes or so. We don't really have a time to aim at, as we are to Floo to the Ministry for 11am, as we'll be meeting the folks from the International Magical Cooperation department, then there's a short briefing to be had. That won't take long. We have to take into account the time difference between us and them, so we'll be Apparating to the USA at lunchtime, as that means we'll get there instantly at 7am their time." Her dad explained.
She nodded, taking all of that in. When Sirius left, she picked her travelling bag up and slung it over one shoulder, and started heading downstairs. She left the bag by the front door and went to gladly get some breakfast.
As she was eating her toast with chocolate spread, she heard some footsteps making their way to the kitchen. Low and behold, the door opened and revealed Harry and Amelia. Dorea looked at them knowingly. "Not long now!"
"I really can't wait to see what Ilvermorny looks like, the anticipation that we're only a few hours from being there is unreal." Amelia said.
Harry concurred. "I'm excited to explore the school too, but I'm more worried about embarrassing myself in front of our hosts. Wouldn't want to say something stupid, or Sirius might impose more etiquette lessons on me." Harry said as he boiled the kettle and got some toast in the toaster.
Dorea laughed. "I'm sure you'll be fine on the etiquette front."
"Yeah, you'll be fine. Though I can't promise I won't give in to the temptation to make you trip up when we meet the Americans and the Canadians," Amelia added, grinning.
It wasn't long before more people came along. Blaise had come through, quickly followed by Regulus, Barnaby and Theo, who particularly looked like he'd rather be back sleeping. Ophelia had the day off today, so she was about as well.
After breakfast, there was still time to chill out, so whilst Sirius went to make sure that he had indeed packed all the relevant paperwork he needed to take, they had a cup of tea in the living room as time ticked towards 11am. Though they would only be gone 3 days, it was still significant.
At 10:50, they started getting ready to go. After putting their cups in the dishwasher, Dorea, Harry and Amelia meandered towards the front door of the house to get their bags. Dorea leaned down to pick her bag up, and when she went back into the living room she noticed that her dad was strangely handing Theo and Amelia what looked to be two separate shards of glass. Perhaps they were mirrors.
"Apparently your dad and my dad made these two-way mirrors when they were in school," Amelia explained when Sirius wandered over to Harry, "he's given one to me and one to Theo, so we can talk to each other whilst we're away. I just say his name into it, and it will let him know that I want to talk to him."
Dorea thought the mechanism was a stroke of genius. A teacher wouldn't find anything suspicious about a mirror if they caught a student carrying one, and you could easily talk to a friend if one of you were in detention, for example. "Wicked. He did approach me and ask if I wanted one for me and Fred whilst we're away, but I prefer the ol' send-a-letter-via-Floo method."
Amelia chuckled. At 10:55, Sirius gestured them towards the fireplace, as they were clearly getting ready to go. Then the goodbyes started. Dorea got hugged by Barnaby, Theo and Blaise individually, and got a hug and a high-five from her uncle Regulus. "I'm sure you'll all be filled with stories when you come back," then he said in a quieter voice, "if anything bad happens, let us know."
"Hopefully you lot don't burn the house down whilst we're away." she joked, and nodded her understanding about the second part.
Lastly was Ophelia. Dorea loved getting hugs from the woman, as they were so warm and welcoming, and today was no different. Theo's mum was all smiles. "Oh, Dorea, darling, we'll miss you lots and lots."
She grinned. "We'll miss you all too. Make sure Theo doesn't get too depressed whilst Amelia's gone."
Ophelia barked with laughter. "I'm sure Blaise and Barnaby will be distracting him. But hey, enjoy yourselves. We can't wait to hear all about it."
At 11am on the dot, their journey began. Sirius instructed them to Floo to the Ministry of Magic Atrium before he headed through first.
Dorea was last to go, and as she crouched to fit both herself and her bag in the fireplace, she waved one last time at Ophelia, Regulus, Blaise, Theo, Barnaby, as well as Ditsy and Dippey. Then she spoke the name of her destination and let the Floo take her there.
Harry came through the Floo after Sirius, and though the Ministry of Magic atrium was bustling, it wasn't particularly busy.
"Are we just going straight to the International Magical Cooperation department?" He asked his godfather.
Sirius nodded. "The briefing shouldn't take long. Once we actually get to America, I imagine we will be getting a quick tour of the school before we're left to our devices for a few hours, in order to unpack and settle in. We're meeting some of the staff for lunch - just the Headmaster and the Deputy, and then tomorrow is the first full day of negotiations."
Amelia came through next, and was quickly followed by Dorea. Together they walked towards the check in desk, where they had to submit their wands for inspection. That was done quickly enough, though the wizard manning the desk could have sounded a bit more cheerful.
They headed towards the lifts, where there was a bit of a queue forming. It didn't take long to get inside one, though, and as they entered, so did a few other witches, wizards, and memos.
One of them recognised his godfather. "Ah, Mr Black, how are you today?"
"I'm good, Roger, how are you keeping?" Sirius answered.
"All good. I see you have your godson and goddaughter here with you.. Oh, and who I can only assume is your own daughter!" The man said, first looking at Harry and Amelia, but then noticing Dorea.
They smiled to be polite, as did Sirius. "Yes, indeed. Harry, Amelia, Dorea - this is Roger Karasu."
Harry made the connection. "Is your daughter Tulip? Ravenclaw, fourth year - well, I suppose she's now fifth year?"
Roger looked proud. "Yes, indeed. She has told me about you three; all positive things."
He wanted to talk more, but the elevator stopped at another level, and more people and memos filed in. This process was repeated a few more times before Sirius edged closer, silently signalling that the next level up was the one they were getting out on.
The door opened, and they stepped out. The initial foyer of the Department of International Magical Cooperation wasn't initially as grand as the atrium downstairs, but when they started following Sirius towards, where Harry assumed, would be a main office of some sort, every person that they passed looked different to the last. Harry was mesmerised. They walked past some sort of delegation that looked like they had just arrived: the delegates were wearing Japanese kimono, all varying in colour, but they still all coordinated perfectly. It seemed that a lot of countries had sections of the department dedicated to them; to their left and down a short but open corridor was where the Belgium offices were, yet when they looked to their right, there was another open corridor which led to the Rwandan offices. When they walked past the Peru corridor, Harry noticed that that section looked particularly buzzing with people - some up on stepladders attaching some sort of decorations and bunting to the wall, others moving tables and scurrying off with messages. "Wonder what they're getting ready for," he mused to nobody in particular.
"Maybe it's a holiday or something," Amelia pondered out loud.
"All I know is that they're meeting with another South American country and holding talks with some of the Wizengamot," Sirius said as they kept walking.
They eventually spoke again when Sirius sighed in relief. "Ah, here we are. The United States corridor."
They turned right to go down that way. After about another minute of walking, they came to a stop outside an office. "This is the room we're meeting in for the briefing. We're just under ten minutes early, but that's more than okay."
They nodded, and when they stepped inside there were already a few people inside. A few introductions were made - Harry, Amelia and Dorea were introduced to the delegates they would be travelling with. Harry was surprised that the Head of the International Relations Department, Gareth Jones, would be travelling with them, but he quashed any nerves and put his etiquette lessons to good use, as they conversed with each other.
He was soon introduced to the others. There were three other diplomats, who each had their aides. Amelia and Dorea were chatting to one - a tall, Spanish-looking lad. "Hunter Martinez," the boy introduced himself, extending a hand, "I've heard stories about you."
"Nice to meet you," he said politely, "you're American yourself?"
The boy nodded and adjusted his shirt collar. "I'm here on a scholarship. Graduated from Ilvermorny itself just last month."
"How are you finding it here? Must've been quite daunting, working in a whole new country." Dorea asked.
"It was." Hunter chuckled, "I only got a few hours sleep the night before, I was so nervous. Then I arrived at the Ministry 40 minutes early on my first day, as I anticipated getting lost, but I didn't, so I left myself too much time."
Hunter looked like he was going to say more, when the last few people showed up. Harry was surprised when he turned around and realised that Minister Bones was here - then again, this was a very important diplomatic mission, so she was probably wanting to send them off with good wishes.
The briefing was indeed brief - only 15 minutes or so of talking, and it was mostly just explaining the ethics of their trip and what was expected of them. The floor was opened for questions, and there were a few. One was quite interesting to Harry: one of the diplomats had asked what was the procedure if the three and a half day trip duration was up, but they were still negotiating an issue when time ran out. It was decided that the best course of action would be that the issue they were negotiating would be concluded swiftly in the event that they were close to a deal, but if they had just started debating the issue when the time was up, negotiations would continue another time instead.
Minister Bones had clasped her hands together and went around them all to wish them good luck. She smiled at Harry, Amelia and Dorea. "I'm sure you three will realise your potential, and combine your skills to make unities and negotiations of your own."
They thanked her, and when she moved to talk to Sirius, they shared a look - what did she mean? Was there something planned? Some sort of test? Who knows.
With that, they got ready to be transported. Gareth Jones had the Portkey that, when activated, would take them directly to Ilvermorny. We're almost there! He thought, very excited to see the school.
At 12pm on the dot, they all placed their hands on the Portkey - a wheel alloy, and, with confirmation that everyone was indeed holding on to it, it was activated within ten seconds. Within the blink of an eye, they would be in the USA.
He could not wait to get started, and to see what awaited them.