The sleeping figure on the bed groaned softly, curling tighter into a ball under the sheets.
"Alya?"
"Mmm"
"Wake up love, I have your potions" Blaise whispered, caressing the hair away from her face.
Nodding weakly, she let Blaise help her to a sitting position leaning back against his chest, before drowning the disgusting potions. She was glad that she had the foresight to brew a magic replenishing potion, a pain reliever and a pepper up. She definitely needed them after the ritual. She had left them on the nightstand before the ritual with instruction for Blaise to administer them to her, since she had forgotten to warn him beforehand and had no time to do it before starting.
"Thank you" she whispered after drinking a glass of water, leaning back against him.
"You're welcome, cara" he said kissing her forehead "How do you feel?"
"Exhausted, sore and I want to go back to sleep" she pouted
He chuckled at her adorable face, kissing her pout away and making her mewl in protest when he leaned back. "Unfortunately, I'm afraid that the outside world is waiting for us. And I'm sure you want to check on his Darkness"
She sighed "You're right. I need to see if the ritual worked correctly and if there was any damage caused by the complication"
"Complication?" he asked frowning
"Yeah, the reason I'm reduced to this. I'll explain later, now I need a warm shower and fresh clothes to feel somewhat alive"
"Can you stand on your own? Or I should call an elf to help you?" he asked concerned
Alya smiled "Thank you, but I believe I'll be fine"
"Alright. I'm going to shower and change too. I'll wait for you in your sitting room when I'm done" he said, going to his bedroom. Truthfully it had remained mostly unused still, he only went there to shower the night before and to change clothes, the rest of the time he just had kept his things in Alya's room where he had slept the past days.
Walking hand in hand, Alya and Blaise joined everyone in the dining room. They all looked relieved to see her up and healthy, the only one missing was Voldemort.
Either he was not awake yet or he was feeling as bad as she was moments earlier, maybe even worse. She knew that she probably should go and give him his potions, but she thought that he deserved a little more pain for what he put her through.
"How are you feeling , dear?" Narcissa asked, wanting to go hug her niece but wary of how it would be received, after all no two night ago she had screamed about how much they had hurt her with their actions.
"I'm feeling better." She answered, before doing a double take and staring at Rabastan "What's wrong with you? Are you hurt?"
"My shoulder is injured, My Lady. I hit it pretty hard after the wave of magic at the end of the ritual" he said
"Oh, I'm so sorry" she gasped, walking quickly to him "Here, let me heal it for you"
"Thank you, My lady. But I can wait if need more time to recuperate"
"Nonsense. I don't need to recuperate for this little things" she waved him off, before casting a diagnostic charm and deeming his shoulder dislocated, she fixed it right back with a loud crack that made everyone wince in sympathy "Sorry, but it's better when the patient isn't warned beforehand"
"It's fine" he gasped "It's already starting to feel better"
"Good. Milly!" she called for her house elf "Fetch me a pain reliever, please"
Rabastan drowned it sneering at the foul taste, before thanking her again.
It was just in that moment that the Dark Lord joined them. He was walking stiffly and leaning against the walls, but the difference with what he looked before was striking.
The once snake like man with grey skin and no nose was gone. In his place was a still incredibly tall man, with a slim built, pale skin and signs of tiredness showing on his face, but he was human.
Soft wavy black hair covered his head, falling slightly into his deep cobalt eyes, his nose and cheeks were aristocratic, his lips thin. He sported a slight five o'clock shadow, probably unused to having to shave again, after such a long time she was sure he completely forgot about facial hair.
Looking from Alya to the man they could see the resemblance as clear as day. Alya was definitely her father's daughter, with a few Black features coming through.
"My Lord" Lucius greeted him, quickly rising to his feet.
She raised an eyebrow. Had her Uncle always been such a bootlicker to the man? It was a little pathetic, especially with how proudly he usually acted.
"Lower your voice, Lucius" the man hissed, nearly slipping into parseltongue "My head is killing me" he groaned holding his forehead and sinking into the first armchair he found.
"Well" Alya drawled, snuggled under Blaise's arm "It seems that the ritual worked, at least the part when it makes you look human again"
Voldemort hissed again, irritated that that girl would not have the decency to whisper instead of talking loudly.
Taking out her wand, Alya softly chanted a spell before nodding to herself.
"Well, I can safely say that it worked as it should. You're now whole and healed"
"Does that mean he's not insane anymore?" Blaise asked, twirling a lock of her hair around his finger
"Well, no more insane that he was at the beginning, before making horcruxes" she said shrugging
"If you're done speaking like I'm not in the room" the man sneered
"Oh? What is this? Could it be that you don't like to be ignored?" she asked sneering "Well, though. Now you know how I felt for a year, daddy dearest"
"Don't call me that!" He snapped "I'm not insane anymore, but I still don't believe that you're my daughter"
Alya raised her hands in the air, frustrated and incredulous at this man stubbornness "What the hell do you need to believe it?!"
"I will only believe it if Regulus himself were to say it, which won't happen" he stated.
Everyone looked, disbelieving and weary, between the two powerful Slytherins.
"Is that so?" Alya asked coldly
"Yess"
"Suit yourself you stubborn old man" she snapped "Just remember that if it wasn't for me you would be two horcruxes down now, and soon nothing more than dust"
Seeing the confusion on his face, she explained "First the diary, which somehow made its way to Hogwarts and used the Weasley girl to open the Chamber and wreak havoc. Potter killed it with a fang from the basilisk." she said "Poor creature had to die because two idiotic men decided to play war" she sniffed
"And the second, it was a pretty big part of your soul, so I would guess the second or third you made. It was unexpected, Dumbledore must have killed it in the last two days because when I did my scan the only part missing was from the diary"
"The ring" Voldemort whispered before smirking viciously "That'll teach him to poke his big crooked nose where it doesn't belong. He's probably dead already"
"I wouldn't bet on it. His pet death eater probably found a way to stop whatever curse you put on the ring" she informed him "Thanks to this little complication, the ritual nearly failed"
"How so?" Dolohov asked curiously
"The sacrifices were enough only to recover one piece of soul from the afterlife. I would have needed a second unicorn to offer in place of the second horcrux killed. As it was, I had to pump nearly all of my magic into the ritual to make up for the missing sacrifice and it still wasn't enough" she said quietly toying with her necklace "It saved my life"
"Who?" asked Draco
"The necklace. The Bloody Rose started heating up at one point, when I felt like the ritual would suck out all my magic, Death was angry to find that the sacrifice wasn't enough and wanted retribution. It was going to take my life" she admitted
Blaise tightened his arms around her, making sure that she was still alive and whole next to him, the realization and fear that he could have lost her hitting him hard
"What happened then?" prodded Fenrir
"The Bloody Rose.. it.. it started bleeding" she said, still amazed herself about such a feat "The blood seemed to flow right into the air to be siphoned into the runes. There was so much blood.."
"All the women killed by the curse of the Rose" Blaise said awed
"Probably" she nodded "Death seemed elated by the new offer of blood and quieted. The necklace saved my life" she said looking at Blaise with misty eyes
He cupped her cheek and kissed her deeply "I'm so glad that the Bloody Rose seems to like you, cara." He laughed lowly "Ti amo" 'I love you'
"Ti amo anch'io" 'I love you too' she smiled back to him.
Draco fidgeted awkwardly at the display, only the sheer fear of what she would do to him kept him from coughing loudly. Narcissa was cooing at the adorable couple, already dreaming children with blue eyes and tanned skin running around; Lucius was more skeptical, he didn't think that some Italian wizard was good enough for the girl. The Lestrange brothers and Fenrir limited themselves to smirking, a little envious maybe that someone so much younger than them was the only one getting some.
Voldemort, well, he was still a mass of confused feelings of which he didn't know how to make head or tail. He would need plenty of hours of meditation and time to start recognizing what he felt and why.
Thank you to everyone who added the story to their alert or favorites lists and left a review. What did you think of these new chapters?
Just as head up, I've finished writing the story just now. It will be 100 chapters, so get ready xD
