It was hot. It was ridiculously hot for someone from England.
Vernon hadn't needed more of an explanation of "she was getting a ticket somewhere far, far away from England and possibly in an area less than friendly to outsiders" before he happily paid for a first class ticket and even helped her pack for the summer.
She spent a week at the house (to power the wards Jafar had sensed there) and then was on the first plane to Saudi Arabia.
Hedwig, for safety reasons because snowy owls were not built for such hot climates, was sent to France so she couldn't be used to track her down later.
Normally she would send Hedwig to Hermione or Ron, but Jafar had owned a parrot before. He knew they liked the peace and quiet, and regardless of how well behaved Crookshanks was, it was rarely a good idea to leave cats and birds in the same house. The Weasleys were good people, but she didn't want to impose on them the burden of caring for another animal.
Fleur and Gabrielle promptly sent her a mirror so she could stay in contact with them, in case she needed help. They were already on the way of adding her to the "Sisterhood" as they called it as a full member, which meant she would finally have some actual protection from the nonsense that came up in her life.
Case in point, all the slanderous articles Rita had written the year before.
"You just had to have a tower in one of the hottest, most hostile regions on the damn planet..." she complained.
After Jafar sensed that parasite, he wanted it out of her immediately. However, as he predicted she did not want to waste a wish on removing it.
Which meant her best option was potentially tracking down Jafar's sister...she was a better mage than he had been, and a skilled necromancer when such professions was barely tolerated.
If he knew her, there was a strong chance she was either hanging around or deliberately reincarnated and still had her old skills. Either way, she was their best option.
The problem was that she would be a ridiculously hard person to track down, and centuries would have honed that particular craft.
Nasira did have a few items in his hidden workshop that Acacia could use to track her down.
Hence why Acacia was wandering around in this Merlin-forsaken heat, relying heavily on translation charms to converse with the locals, and following the limited directions that Jafar could pick up on that came from his workshop.
She was passing by a local bazaar, and was dressed appropriately for the climate without showing much skin, when she found something interesting.
It was an obviously magical parrot, who had a pissed off look on his face and upon closer inspection a nasty curse around his beak preventing him from doing more than eating or drinking.
What struck her most was that the bird resembled the one Jafar had as his familiar. As it had been trapped in the lamp when he was first turned into a genie, it had been given a rough sort of immortality...but the familiar bond had never been severed so he knew vaguely Iago was still alive.
Acacia knew instinctively this was Iago, Jafar's familiar.
She went up to the man selling it, and after a bit of bargaining managed to buy the parrot for just shy of three galleons.
The bird gave her a crabby glare, but she was at least gentle with him so he didn't try to savage her like the last idiots. The fact that her first act as his new 'owner' was to remove him from the cage put her in his tentative good books.
'Jafar...what's the best countercurse for this?'
Jafar reached out, and after a moment told her. It was an older spell, so it was likely Nasira had been the one to curse him. He wouldn't put it past her, honestly.
The parrot tested his beak a few times, before loudly saying in accented English.
"Thank the immortals! I thought that stupid curse would never be lifted..."
"Are you Iago?" she asked.
The bird paused in his grooming of his feathers to stare at her. As they were in a relatively secluded area, no one would overhear their conversation.
"You're not a fan of that stupid movie are you?" he asked suspiciously.
Acacia let out a bit of a laugh.
"Not in the least, and honestly they cleaned up far too much to make it acceptable for children and glossed over the older story," she replied.
"I hate that movie," grumbled Iago.
"If it makes you feel any better, Jamil despises it as much as you do," said Acacia.
"Who's Jamil?" asked Iago.
Acacia's grin was wide, and it took Iago a few seconds to register the presence of something behind her.
He gaped as much as a bird could, as he knew this feeling intimately.
"Jafar?!"
Acacia lightly tapped his beak.
"Names have power, and his is too recognizable," she reminded him.
"Hold up...you're Jaf...er, Jamil's master?!" said Iago.
Acacia smiled at him.
Jafar held out his fist, and Iago without a second thought flew onto it. He easily transferred the bird to his shoulder...the familiar bond clicked back into place as if nothing had happened.
"For now, behave as if she is your master. I'm still bound to the lamp," said Jafar annoyed.
"Not a problem," said Iago. Honestly compared to the utter morons he had to deal with before, Jafar was tolerable.
Iago fell in love with Jafar's new master when she went to feed him. She asked what he wanted to eat, rather than force him to eat what she bought. It was nice, and she knew all the best ways to stroke his feathers.
Unfortunately the area they were in became rather dangerous, so she had to leave the country.
Fortunately, Fleur had sent her a formal letter, which meant she could undergo the official ceremony and become part of the Sisterhood.
With how her past four years had gone, she wanted that done now rather than wait until she was old enough to be considered an adult.
Fleur was downright smug, mostly because by joining the Sisterhood, Acacia was one-upping the wizards and Dumbledore.
Acacia was loving it, because of all the positive attention she was getting. Iago (her new parrot) loved it because he was being spoiled rotten, and Hedwig was far more tolerable to be around than some of the bird he had been forced to put up with.
Hedwig, for the most part, ignored Iago. He was less annoying than Pigwidgeon.
Acacia had a wonderful time in France. It was clear why Hermione enjoyed her summer vacations if this was what she experienced. Best of all, Fleur and her family were more than happy to teach her how to speak French properly, as opposed to relying on translation charms.
On her fifteenth birthday, she had an absolutely wonderful time. It didn't hurt that Jamil stayed outside the lamp the entire day, and took her out on a proper date.
They went to see a movie that had a soundtrack Acacia couldn't stop humming to, and to be honest Jafar rather liked it as well, particularly one of the songs.
Though honestly, Acacia could see Jafar singing the female's part, rather than the male. It suited him better.
At this point, he had come to terms with the fact he might have feelings for her beyond what his limited scope as a genie would permit. It didn't help that genies were, as a rule, sexless.
(Freed genies, he would learn shortly later, were another story.)
If only she had been born centuries before, he knew his fate would have changed drastically.
He was also fully aware (as Fleur wasn't exactly subtle), that Acacia was falling for him. It was a small flame now, but it wouldn't take much for that flame to become a blaze in her. It really didn't help that she was in the thick of puberty, with all the hormones that came with it and had never experienced being around men before.
If he wasn't careful, things could spiral outside his control and create a witch darker than anything the world had seen before.
All too soon, school lists went out. And the second Fleur saw hers, she was appalled beyond belief.
"Who in their right might would assign that waste of paper?" she said without hesitation.
"What?" asked Acacia.
Fleur pointed to the defense book.
"This is a bigger waste of paper than even Lockhart had managed. At least his had actual spells in it. I wouldn't even consider it an acceptable textbook for five year olds," sniffed Fleur.
Acacia frowned...if the book was that bad, then why on earth were they assigning it as the defense text this year?
Fleur's father, who had a high ranking position in the French ministry, was all too happy to give her a list of proper recommendations.
A few spells, and Acacia was able to not only swap the contents of the apparently useless book for something far more appropriate, but also place a glamour so whatever idiot assigned it would only see the original contents.
Coincidentally all the recommendations were in French, so Acacia would have plenty of practice with the language by the end of the year so long as no one caught on to what she had done.
(Hermione, rather than be angry over it, asked her how to do the same to her copy.)
Before she left for England (albeit very reluctantly), she visited one last bookstore as she doubted she would have a chance to do so later. Knowing Dumbledore's need to meddle, the odds of her having a chance to freely shop without someone escorting her were next to nill.
Besides, Hogsmeade's selection of fiction and reading material was sadly lacking and most of it overpriced.
Acacia twitched when Bill brought her into the "Order of the Phoenix" special secret headquarters.
Sirius took one look at her and approved. Clearly wherever she had been had done well for her, because she had some proper color and weight to her now. He didn't even pay much mind to the new addition to her shoulder until the bird spoke.
"What a dump!" he squawked.
"What's with the bird?" asked Fred.
"This is Iago. I found him at a bazaar and felt sorry for him being all cooped up, so I bought him. Hedwig certainly doesn't mind him."
"I'm afraid only owls are allowed at Hogwarts," said Dumbledore, with his usual eye twinkle.
Acacia didn't bother to meet his eyes, as she was fully disgusted with him by this point.
"I was planning to leave him with Sirius. I can think of a dozen things off the top of my head that the old dog would be able to teach him...like swear words for instance," said Acacia with a straight face.
Sirius grinned broadly at that, while the twins cackled at the thought.
Iago internally sighed...the things he put up with.
Acacia was utterly disgusted by Grimmauld place...if it was this bad, then she understood why Sirius had left and never returned.
"So pup...what are you really planning?" asked Sirius in Buckbeak's room.
"Dumbledore has a rather bad habit of keeping things he should be telling me secret. I'm just leveling the playing field," said Acacia frostily.
Sirius honestly didn't blame her and kept his silence. If sneaking in that bird to the meetings meant his pup would actually knew what was going on, then he had no issue with that.
On a related note, when Sirius got a sample of Iago's wit he fell in love with the bird. The snark contests between them were utterly hilarious to watch. Remus merely sighed and tried to stay out of it...while enjoying the free entertainment.
On the plus side, Sirius' depression vanished thanks to that bird.
