Lucius coughed awkwardly, desperately uncomfortable with the situation.
"Maybe we should relocate somewhere more suited and have Bellatrix seen to?" he suggested, doing his best to keep his voice steady.
"Sounds like a wonderful idea, Uncle!" Alya answered jovially before anyone else could utter a word "How about we all go to the north sitting room? Oh, have the elves bring some tea and biscuits too. I find myself a bit peckish" she said already leading the way, casually walking through the pool of blood formed on the floor.
Blaise followed her, keeping a keen eye on all the present even though he maintained a façade of casualty. At the first sign of danger he was ready to take action.
Slowly the assembled men made to catch up to her, some carefully avoiding the bloody footprints she left in her wake, others like Greyback, looking forward to see what the little firecracker would do next.
When they arrived Alya was already comfortable seated on one of the loveseats. Her hair falling over her right shoulder in a waterfall of ebony curls. Not crazy curls like Bellatrix, rather the elegant loose ones. The contrast with the black hair made her pendant look even more eerie.
Blaise was standing behind her, acting as her personal guard, even though she had pouted at him to sit with her. He didn't relent though, her safety was his priority at the moment. He would snuggle with her at a more suited time.
"Well? What are you waiting for? Sit down, for Merlin's sake!" she waved them to the seats.
She looked as Fenrir took a whole couch to himself, sitting sprawled without a care in the world, instead he seemed amused by her. Lucius and Draco took a nearby settee for them, actually she had seen her cousin trying to sit with her but his father took him by the arm and made him stay with him. Maybe he was afraid that she would start exchanging spells with her father and didn't want his son in the middle. Seemed reasonable. Besides, as good as Draco was, she wanted to cuddle with Blaise!
The Lestrange brothers took the armchairs placed on her left side, quite close to her. She was surprised to see the older brother here and not by his wife's side. How curious. Dolohov, she assumed, had been put in charge of Bellatrix. Poor sod.
Voldemort sat last, taking the armchair directly in front of her.
Refreshments appeared and Alya took one of the pretty little cups. Bringing the warm tea to her lips she studied the present.
"Rodolphus, right?" she asked tilting her head towards the man who nodded "I would say that I'm sorry for blasting off your wife's arm but alas, I'm really not. I would have expected you to be with her though"
The man cleared his throat but his voice remained raspy and low, a lingering effect from Azkaban. 'Has anyone even bothered to give them some healing at least?' she thought looking at the two.
"No need to apologize, my lady"
Oh, what a dear. Already recognizing her as his Lady even though Voldy hadn't spoken yet. She would have to reward him at some point. When it wasn't blatantly obvious that she was doing it for that reason, at least.
"Bellatrix and I are in an arranged marriage. Honestly, we can't stand each other's sight, let alone company"
"I don't blame you. The craziness must be a turn off in itself, but having her acting as your Lord personal groupie must be quite irritating." She mused "You should ask for annulment. Her being sterile is already a breach to your contract clauses"
"I would, but there is no Lord Black to break the contract and I am unable to take my title as a fugitive"
Alya giggled "How silly, Uncle Rod. Can I call you that? Yes? Wonderful." She said. She knew she was acting a little crazy but it wasn't her fault. Blood always made her giddy, especially when she was the one that caused the bloodshed.
"You can't appeal to Lord Black because there's no Lord. Buut" she said drawing out the word "You can appeal to Lady Black. And being the generous Head of the Family that I am, I free you of that harpy. Aren't you happy to have such a thoughtful niece?"
"I.."
"Though if you're not married to Bella, you're not my Uncle anymore" she pouted
"You.. can still call me Uncle if it pleases you" he said uncertainly "My lady"
"Really?!" she cheered clapping her hands.
"I can't decide if you're just a silly child or if you're insane" the gruff voice of the werewolf stated "Which being a Black, is entirely possible"
"Oh?" she giggled "No, I assure that I am sane. Most of the time. No, I'm just a little giddy."
"Mh? Little Lady likes the sight of blood then?" he smirked
"Yes, yes she does" She replied with a shark smile that made him even more amused.
"I like you, little lady" he announced
"I like you too." She said "But you could do with a bath, you stink"
The werewolf laughed uproariously at that. No one ever dared speak to him with such bluntness, they usually suffered whatever he did in silence, afraid to anger him. She had guts.
"You are a fearless little thing, aren't' you?"
"Little I may be, but my bite is worse than my bark" she smiled innocently. He laughed again at the dog reference.
Blaise was trying very hard to keep a composed face and not smile at his silly girlfriend. Only her could win over the most feared werewolf in existence and get to call Uncle a man infamous for his tortures.
"Now, are we going to talk about the elephant in the room or shall we keep praising my beauty and smarts?" she asked taking a sip from her cup. Looking at her acting so dainty and composed now, you would never think she was blasting off body parts mere moments earlier.
"You know" she continued when no one spoke "An 'I'm sorry, I recognize you as my daughter' would suffice" she said, the 'for now' was whispered into her cup.
He saw Draco flinch violently and initially thought it was because of her bluntness, fearing a curse would be flying any moment. Instead she saw a big snake, Nagini, she assumed slithering towards her master.
'Massster… I'm hungry. Feed me.' The snake whined 'ohhh, food. Shall I eat this girl?"
Faster than lightning Dion had unwound himself from around Blaise's waist, he did not wish to burden his Mistress with his weight after all, and shot forward landing in front of his Mistress feet, hissing angrily
'You will stay away from my Mistress if you don't want to die!' he threatened.
Everyone jumped at the suddenness of the snake movements, actually weary of the five feet long electric blue snake. Snakes this brightly colored tended to be the most dangerous after all. Lucius actually let a squeak escape him. Alya had always been amused by how such a prideful slytherin could be so deadly afraid of his house mascot.
'Thank you, Dion' she hissed smiling at her familiar 'You're such a protective familiar'
'You speak' Voldemort said, speaking for the first time that evening
'Of course I speak' she scoffed 'What kind of Slytherin heir would I be, otherwise? Or were you waiting for this as confirmation of my claims?'
'You know nothing!" he hissed angrily
"Right, the temper and sudden madness" she mumbled to herself, even though everyone heard in the silence of the room. She carefully laid her cup back on the table and produced her wand from her holster.
Faster than eyes could track she had Voldemort petrified "Relax, Daddy dear. I'm not going to harm you. Just checking for something" she smiled
The death eaters had all risen to their feet, wands at the ready to hex the witch. But again, in the blink of an eye they found themselves all disarmed and bound in tight steel ropes, Blaise glaring angrily at them, wands out and daring them to harm his beloved.
For his part, Greyback was enjoying the show still comfortable on the couch, while Draco was looking wide eyed at everyone.
Alya started chanting different revealing charms, trying to diagnose the reason of her Father's insanity. After a long interminable ten minutes, she made an angry and frustrated noise.
"What the hell were you thinking?" she complained.
Thank you to everyone who added my story or their favorite or alerts lists and left a review! New chapters will be coming soon.
