Chapter five

Disclaimer: Not mine, only Nina ~.~

Hope you enjoy!


The large kitchen was crowded with people, some of them seated around the large table or wherever there was an empty chair, others were standing wherever they could.

They all looked grim and serious, but there was an underlying energy and readiness in their stances.

Their topic of choice was the latest mediatic uproar in Britain's Magical community, Barty Crouch Junior's trial and what kind of punishment he should be dealt. Their attention went back to the old man standing at the head of the table speaking in hushed tones with the owner of the ancient house.

"It seems Mr. Barty Crouch Junior's fate is an interest to everyone, not only Lucius Malfoy. But our worries lie in the narrative his pushing. He believes not killing Harry throughout his stay at Hogwarts is enough proof that his actions aren't his own and seemed eager to turn attention to our host Mr. Black, most likely to push us back a year to a Britain riddled with dementors looking for one man."

"He doesn't have the power to do that, Albus, does he? We were lucky there wasn't a tragedy to all this, we can't send children to school like that one more time" Mrs. Weasley's voice hushed a barely started argument.

"No, my dear, I wouldn't let it happen either. He doesn't have the power but he has connections, enough that one day after trial, The prophet decided to quote him letter by letter."

"That matters little right now, I'm safely hidden. We have more to worry about."

Silence took over for a second and it seemed this time the impatient tone came from the dark haired man in black, standing near the fire.

"It seems to escape your understanding Mr. Black that the motives of this narrative could have a correlation to our immediate worries"

"Severus" the headmaster's tone brought back the silence.

"What does this mean Albus?"

The old man rested his back on the chair tiredly and let a sigh escape him. "I'm afraid it means, someone else has Voldemort's immediate attention"

Confusion spread and names were suggested. Some of them said Harry as the logical choice, others asked if it was Crouch Jr..

Others opted to ask why, and Snape's abrupt turn seemed to lock both men in a silent conversation. The old man looked back to the group of people and pushed his halfmoon glasses back, perhaps in hesitation.

"You've all heard the events of that night form Minerva. A slightly different version was given to the Ministry in hopes to protect this person from unwanted attention."

Gasps were heard softly going around, some of them nodded as If this was something expected.

"Barty Crouch was apprehended thanks to Harry's swift actions, he came to look for me and with Severus's help he was interrogated"

"In Mr Crouch's own words, he helped his Master achieve a new body by placing Harry's name in the Goblet and turning the prized cup into a Portkey, a sure way to get him from Hogwarts to the site of the ritual without raising attention to the matter."

The attentive silence, belied the eagerness in knowing more.

"What the Ministry ignores is that Barty Crouch Jr was apprehended before Harry came back from the maze"

Confusion spread like wildfire and no one seemed to know what that meant.

"So which one is the lie?" Kingsley Shackelbolt asked confused.

"They're both true my friend"

"Mr. Potter was stunned and tied in one of the fourth floor classrooms. He was also given directions to go immediately to the headmaster upon awakening to rely the message that Alastor Moody was not in fact, Alastor Moody" Snape's drawl was met by a death glare from the host.

Shackelbolt's deep voice came back with surprise this time. "So he never went into the maze, it was someone else"

"That can't be possible the trials can't be taken by someone else, there's a magical contract" this seemed to be the general doubt in the group.

"And yet here we are" said Dumbledore

"Headmaster, what does that mean for the ritual?" Lupin's calm voice brought up.

"I'm afraid I'm as clueless as you are, our new friend was clever enough to remain hidden throughout the ritual, and fast enough to go back to the castle before the death eaters came. Severus has also confirmed, there is no talk about this misterious person. As far as death eaters know, Harry's blood was the one used in the ritual"

"I'm sorry, Albus but I can't see why it matters. I'm very glad Harry didn't have to go through what could have been a deadly ordeal. And as for you know who, he still came back, Harry's blood or not. Death eaters will still be after him"

"True, it also raises the question, why would this misterious person take a Portkey to the ritual site if they knew this was the plan. Wouldn't it be better to simply ignore the Portkey. What was their motive?" The rest of the group seemed to agree with Kingsley's logic

"I believe this is beyond what we know at this moment, I can't speak for the genuinety of this misterious person, nor their actions, they could have left Barty's plan to take its course, or they could have taken another. Either way, we know as of now, Harry Potter's protection stands as strong as ever, Barty Crouch Jr. was indirectly vouched for by Lucius Malfoy and consequently saved from the dementor's kiss. Whether this is Voldemort's plan or a brother in arms compassion I cannot say. But, ... while Voldemort searches who's blood he used, we prepare for his downfall."


Her summer days went exactly as she liked. Predicable, chill and monotonous. She had breakfast with her mother, she did chores, ran errands and fixed lunch, while her mother was at work in the morning. And went to swim or for long walks around town in the afternoon.

They liked they're routine, but in those days when boredom won, they usually ended up having dinner somewhere after a long afternoon of window shopping.

She treated these few calm weeks like the diamonds they were. Her years in Hogwarts were hectic if not catastrophic, and it seemed like, whether by choice or fate, perhaps both, it was becoming a pattern.

Burrowing her toes into the sand beneath her feet. She looked left and right for any stragglers and when she made sure there were none. She got out of her mid thigh dress to reveal her one piece swimsuit, stuffed the thing inside her backpack and hid it in the hollow crook of rocks, her spot.

Taking another look around, she decided it was empty enough. Putting her forarms in front of her, she made a wave like motion that ended at her middle fingers, where small marks started to appear in a muted golden color, up and up until it reached the middle of her forarms.

There was a reason for her discretion, and a very good one, even the orange tones of the sunset served to mask the coloring of the marks in her body. Any onlookers she might have overlooked, would see some glowy squiggles along her spine and they wouldn't be able to discern much.

She loved to swim, but her swimming wasn't conventional. Even if she could hide her runes somehow, people would still freakout about the kid that got in an hour ago and never got out.

She jumped in, gave it some seconds and opened her eyes again.

The glow of life was one of the things she loved about this the most. It instantly went from dark and creepy, to colorful and alive. Oh how many times she wished she could do the same outside of water.

She swam deeper and deeper until she couldn't see the rocks anymore. Pushing herself a little bit faster the marks on her spine tingled in warning and she went back to her slow swimming.

That was one of the ugly setbacks of her runes, she still remembered the pain of the first time she overdid it in excitement. It was her third year and first try at swimming with her runes activated. She was so excited she forgot she wasn't supposed to be down there for more than half an hour, her saving grace was her cautiousness, so when the tingles started she realized something must have went wrong, and went back to her room. It was only later that she found out she couldn't even perform a simple Alohomora without getting the mother of all headaches. That prompted a heavy session of research.

But then she could live with it, the alternative was far worse. Having your magic, essence, or life force, however you want to call it, explode out of you wasn't pretty. We could safely affirm it made a witch unable to be a witch and after everything, what else could she be. There was a reason to all this. There must be.

Nine year old witches don't wake up one night sweaty and feeling sick to have a freak out session, explosive magic destroying half their room and strange dreams of another life bombarding them ever since. That's not how whichcraft works apparently.

Of course her nine year old self didn't know this, her religious mother didn't either, and her father who's mother was a witch decided having a witch kid was a big no no, and left without an explation. Her mother ended up taking her to a doctor who diagnosed her with epilepsy, and from then to her eleven birthday, they were treated as such.

She reckoned it would have been even longer if it was Professor Mcgonagall who came to her home with her letter, instead of Professor Dumbledore. The old man gave the impression of reading minds sometimes.

He never said anything to any other professors about it, or denied her entry to the school even if her mother refused blatantly. He even gave her some sound advice about managing it.

She kept swimming straight until she saw the net separation made for sharks , and then went back slowly the way she came from. Sometimes stopping to watch cute little fish go about their life. She started ascending slowly when she saw she was reaching the rocky part and climbed out of the water.

She dried herself as much as possible and dressed. Looking at her clock she realized she was an hour late and swore aloud and freaked out all the way to the bus stop.


Author's Note : A bit more of Nina's upbringing, I don't intend to make her super powerful or all knowledgeable on all things Harry Potter, that being said, bare with me, you'll have to follow the storyline to see what I mean.