"My Princess, would you be so kind as to honor me with your presence to Hogsmeade this weekend?" asked Colonello.
Lal used to hate Valentine's day. Now, however, she was willing to allow her general misgivings towards the romantic holiday go for a few hours.
Besides, she finally had an excuse to go on a date wearing her new wardrobe. So far she had gotten nothing but positive reviews from the other girls when they found out what Fleur had done with it.
At least her back wasn't giving her as much grief, now that she had the proper support.
She didn't bother with make-up...she still wasn't the best at it unless it was to conceal injuries. She did, however, put her new earrings in and the necklace Colonello had given her for Christmas.
She didn't bother to hide her grin at the bottlecap earrings she now wore...to help ward off wrackspurts.
Lal had a rather wide smile on her face as Colonello treated her like she was actual royalty...though considering Hogwarts was filled with children from noble lines, perhaps it wasn't too far a stretch.
She was also heartily glad that she knew of the unspoken loophole in the Hogsmeade weekends. Considering the level of 'love-love' nonsense going around the village, she didn't want anything to do with it. Sure, she would stop by the Three Broomsticks for some butterbeer or raid Honeydukes for her chocolate craving, but outside that she didn't really bother wandering the village. There were going to be too many people around for her Cloud instincts to like. Besides, it was far too...girly...for her tastes.
Which ironically enough was another reason why Colonello had fallen head over heels with her. He was so used to the "feminine" women in his life who took forever with their make-up, their clothes and god knows what else that having a girlfriend who was decisive and didn't waste time was a magic-sent gift. Sure, she was still learning how to behave like an actual girl sometimes, but she was loyal, caring and had a strong will.
His mother and the rest of the family were going to love her, even if they became exasperated by her tomboyish nature. It wasn't a stretch to say that they were more overprotective of him than they were their own daughters.
Colonello had to hide his laughter every time the adults cooed over what a 'cute couple' they were. Especially since they seemed to think Lal was a slightly short sixteen year old, rather than her actual fourteen. She was far more mature than any other girl her age.
The two of them had a rather enjoyable weekend away from the castle and it was almost disappointing that it had to end too soon. Fortunately they didn't have to use the Knight Bus, as Colonello was fully licensed to apparate and was rather good at side-along.
Which was great because Lal didn't particularly like taking the bus in the first place. And the only thing that kept her from apparating was the fact she was very out of practice with it and it would take a lot of fast talking (and far too much gold) to explain why she was practicing in the first place. It was simply easier and faster to take the bus.
All in all, she thoroughly enjoyed the holiday...and the mock battle she had with her boyfriend over the chocolate.
Lal was decidedly unimpressed for the second task. Especially since Colonello was the one taken. However it was the panicked form of Fleur that had her going up to the older girl and giving her an uncharacteristic hug.
"Relax. If Gabrielle is down there I'll be sure to get her as well as my foolish boyfriend in the event you don't make it. Whoever reaches the hostages first frees them both, deal?"
"Deal," said Fleur, shaking on it. She relaxed knowing that her sister and favorite male cousins wouldn't remain underwater a second longer than they absolutely had to.
Lal, having learned how to swim properly during military academy, promptly transfigured her outfit into a far more sensible wetsuit. It was fucking cold and it was the middle of February. If she found out who had the brilliant idea for putting four minors into the lake in this weather when there was a stiff breeze going after being submerged for over an hour, she was going to strangle them.
Without magic.
Lal shivered briefly when the shot went off, and promptly hit herself with a modified bubblehead charm she learned in the years of dealing with Iemitsu's complete incompetence.
When she couldn't get away with buying more guns or toys, she researched spells. She found that every spell had a point where it would overload and blow up in your face, and blowing things up had always been oddly cathartic to her.
(On an unrelated note those in CEDEF were thoroughly happy Lal couldn't get a period in her cursed state, or worse, menopause. God only knew what sort of hell would rain down upon some poor bastard...likely Iemitsu for causing her so much grief...if she had to deal with the hormonal imbalance caused by her gender.)
Lal swam to roughly where she remembered the colony being, before carefully diving. It wasn't that hard really...she wasn't really that bouyant in the first place and she just needed to add a bit of extra weight to make her sink.
She already had a wandless ice spell that would slowly bring them back up to the top like an elevator so that they didn't get the bends. The mermaids weren't likely to be very happy with it, but it would give them a view and plenty of air on the way back up. Besides, it would melt eventually.
That and she was doing to do it outside the village. Really, they shouldn't have anything to complain about.
She reached the hostages first. As before, she saw Cho and Hermione tied to the pillars. This time however, she saw Colonello and Gabrielle there as well.
Thirty minutes passed, and she felt the pulse from Fleur indicating she had to return back to the shore. So she took her knife and began cutting Colonello and Gabrielle free.
Apparently her glare was sufficient enough to scare off the mermaids, because they backed off when she stared the 'head guard' down.
She managed to reach outside the village, before making a few complicated motions with her wand. A small disk of ice promptly formed under them, held up by four small pillars. A second motion created a tube that swiftly grew until it reached the surface and she did her best to make sure it extended a few feet above the water level.
Now for the tricky part.
She pushed the water that was still in the tube into the bubble of air beneath her, constantly forcing it to flow out of the hole she made in the tube below.
It was a real exercise of her magic, even if she had already set it to 'self-sustaining' mode by the time they were halfway up the tube.
Thanks to the air pocket she also made, the other two were awake and watching the scenery around them with fascination.
Colonello used sign language, as he didn't want to strain Lal's magic too much by talking. Lal had been more than happy to share the book she had on the subject from her academy days.
'You do realize you could probably get a Charms Mastery for this thing, right?' he signed.
'The less time I spend in this ridiculous school, the happier I'll be,' she signed back.
Once they were on the surface, Lal promptly made the disk thick enough that it could float even with their weight, and used the same spell that was on the Hogwarts boats to push it to the shore.
By that point she was actually exhausted for once and ready for a nap. Or Luna-cuddles, whichever came first.
If and when she found the one responsible for putting Gabrielle underwater for only an hour without even asking her consent, she would have their balls.
(A few days later one Ludo Bagman became completely and utterly terrified at the thought of being in the vicinity of Lilac Potter. She showed that despite what people thought about her, the Black heritage in her ran true... he also wished he had never heard of the strange delicacy known as "rocky mountain oysters"...as did the healers he had contacted to find out what happened to his poor testicles.)
When Lal spotted Crouch, the first thing she did was stun the man. The second thing she did was trip the infamous Mad-Eye Moody and give him a concussion so that he couldn't fight back the second she had a chance.
Seeing the metal container on the floor, she opened it up and gave an experimental sniff...before hissing and promptly handing it to Madam Pomphrey.
"This is polyjuice!" she said in shock, before promptly using the full body bind on Moody and Crouch both. The second she saw the Defense teacher change into someone else, she immediately called the Aurors.
In short order, a seething Amelia Bones was arresting both men...apparently the father had been placing his son under the Imperious curse for years.
However Lal had ideas about what to do with Barty Crouch junior. From what Winky told her, it was possible he was another victim of the piss-poor judicial system in place directly after Voldemort disappeared.
"Madam Bones, a moment if you will. How do we know Crouch didn't immediately throw his son into Azkaban to avoid the embarrassment of having a marked Death Eater in the family? I mean the man was obviously willing to use dark magic to keep the 'shame' of his only living heir out of sight until recently and even went so far as to banish his own elf to hide the fact."
"You're suggesting he might be innocent."
"I'm suggesting he might be 'salvageable'," corrected Lal. "After all, he is a member of the house of Black through his mother. And it would shut the headmaster up about his redemption nonsense if we at least pretended to humor his so called ideals."
Madam Bones gave her an odd look.
"What do you have in mind?"
"Have the worst Death Eaters in Azkaban quietly executed and cite the dementors," said Lal immediately. "They've been there long enough that no one is really going to notice a long overdue culling and this incident gives you an excuse to do a proper census and discreetly place your own men in to deal with the high security cases. And I for one would sleep easier at night knowing those bastards won't have a chance of coming back to cause even more damage if another Dark Lord decided to try and recruit them the same way Grindelwald did."
Amelia Bones was above all a practical woman...and Black was right, no one would look twice at the deaths of many high-profile death eaters. In fact it would likely be a sense of relief and closure for both their victims and some of the men in her department.
Lal felt a dark twinge of satisfaction when she overheard the news from Susan that there were a number of 'old death eaters' no longer among the living.
A few weeks later...
Lal was in the Ministry, being taken to a discreet room where they held the highest security prisoners.
Sirius was with her, as he was officially Lord Black and this was a 'family' matter.
"Any idea what this is about?" asked Sirius.
"Long story short, I'm planning of robbing the Dark Lord of another follower and giving us ammunition in the event Dumbledore takes offense to me having a zero tolerance policy during combat situations."
"Uh-huh. What did you do?"
"Expose a branch member of the family and suggest that the 'judge' at the time had been quick to toss him into Azkaban in order to avoid the 'embarassment' of having a death eater closely related to him. The fact the fool had the boy under the Imperious for several decades, when the war-time footing regarding unforgiveables was removed made things worse for said judge. As did the fact he cast out his elf to hide the truth."
Sirius often wondered how the hell his little pup managed to avoid Slytherin.
Barty Crouch junior looked a mess. Azkaban and forced imprisonment via imperious and a loyal elf did that to you.
However he was decidedly more sane than Bellatrix, and only followed Voldemort because he genuinely didn't have anywhere else to go thanks to the mark.
Lal wanted to see if he was beyond redemption, or if she could piss off both the Dark Lord and Dumbledore at the same time by using the blood connection between them.
"Are you aware of who I am?" asked Sirius. His ring indicating he was the head of the Black family was visible, leaving no room for error.
"Sirius Black, head of the ancient and noble house of Black," said Barty.
"Do you know why I am here?"
"I was told because you requested that my execution be a private affair, mostly so the Minister doesn't have a chance to cover it up," said Barty.
Sirius looked at Lal.
"It's your show pup."
Lal stepped out from behind Sirius.
"Just so we're clear, I'm only giving you this chance because we are technically family and it will keep that idiot Dumbledore from trying to claim I'm a 'dark witch' because I intend to brutally kill any death eater that faces me in battle. Having a 'redeemed' Death Eater on our side under oaths will make it hard for him to claim I don't follow his 'ideals' because of what he did with Snape."
Barty stared at her, then at Sirius.
"Don't look at me. She's the one behind why you're still alive and not suffering from the Kiss."
Lal's smirk was anything but nice.
"What do you want from me?" he asked.
"Are you aware that as of two years ago, magic declared me the heir of Slytherin over the fool calling himself Voldemort?"
Barty gaped at her, and he wasn't the only one. Sirius was looking at his pup in absolute shock.
"What proof do you have?!" he said.
Lal hissed, and the basilisk she had taken from the Chamber poked out from under her collar. She had it unveil it's killing gaze on a rat she had brought with her, convincing both men that what she had was the real thing.
"This is Slytherin's basilisk, or Nidhogg. It swore it's allegiance to me over Voldemort when magic declared me the true heir of Slytherin. Not that Voldemort had any claim on the title of Lord Slytherin considering what he did to his own father and later to his uncle."
Seeing she had Barty's full attention, Lal promptly swore an oath that everything she was about to tell him was the truth as she was aware of it.
Barty's allegiance to the Dark Lord had been out of necessity because of his capture and imprisonment. Finding out he had been following a kinslayer and someone willing to pervert his magic to such a degree made put that loyalty on the edge of a knife. It would only take a small push to see it shattered forever.
Which was when Lal dropped her ultimatum.
"I want you to swear to serve the House of Black, and only the House of Black. If we put you under the proper oaths, there's a chance you might walk out of here relatively free...even if it takes a while for use to figure out how to remove those damn marks. After all, as far as the pure bloods would be concerned you would be making up for the error of following a true blood traitor by serving the main line."
Barty didn't think too hard about the offer. If he did this then he might be able to redeem his honor...and spit upon the very name his father had been so desperate to protect. With any luck he might even be able to legally end the Crouch line, which would really make his day.
"What do you need?"
"Madam Bones is looking through the records to see if Crouch was overly hasty in sending you to Azkaban. If you agree to a veritaserum testimony about your crimes and agree to the oaths, then it's possible we might be able to convince the Wizangamot to change your sentence. Otherwise...well, I'm sure you've heard of the fact that several of the more dangerous Death Eaters finally gave up the ghost."
Barty's estimation of Lilac Potter...no, this girl was a Black through and through...went up at that. Clearly she was behind the recent spate of deaths in Azkaban, though no one could prove that the former death eaters had died of anything short of natural causes.
Sirius was once again wondering how the hell his pup managed to avoid Slytherin her first year.