A/N: Wow, five reviews in the first twenty-four hours. I can suddenly understand the impulse that had Violet thank all her reviewers at the beginning of each chapter in The Pureblood Pretence… Thank you guys for giving my story a chance! [I'm also looking for a Beta to give me more detailed criticism. Unfortunately "Rigel Black" is not a category in the Beta filter so I haven't found a Harry Potter Beta who's also read the Rigel Black series yet. If you know someone or are interested yourself, please let me know.] Never mind, I found someone.
This story has gotten a little out of hand. I had a certain finishing point in mind but when I got there, I noticed I had more to say. So I kept writing. But now I can't seem to find a satisfactory conclusion. I finally decided to publish the chapter with the original ending and if I ever figure out what to do with the rest of it, I'll just tack it on at the end…
A/N 2: Ok. Since the second part got nearly as long as the first, I only made some small editions and additions in here and decided to publish the second half in a new chapter.
So ever since Rigel got her time turner I've been wondering about the possible consequences excessive use of it might have on her disguise… This one-shot is set in late February of Harry's third year at Hogwarts.
Latest story update when this was written: Ambiguous Artifice chapter 9
Disclaimer: I don't own any of characters or places from Harry Potter, Song of the Lioness or the Rigel Black series.
The Reckless Ruse: Busted
Rigel let a rare smile play around her lips as Pansy abandoned her usual pureblood propriety to skip down the marble stairs ahead of them and twirl around the lawn with a tinkling laugh, face lifted to the sun. Having been cooped up inside during the winter month, with more than a foot of snow on the ground, had been hard on all of them but especially on Pansy, who liked to spend so much of her time outside. The snow had finally melted over the course of last week and by now the grounds had dried again and, with the sun out, there was even a hint of warmth in the air.
For the first time since the official founding of the Defence Association they would be practicing outside. Rigel grinned at Draco and they both took off, running to catch up with Pansy as she headed for the lake. Even the snow hadn't kept the three of them from their daily morning run though the first few days, until they had ploughed a usable path along the shore, had been rough. Even then they'd had to be more careful than they were used to, so as not to slip on the packed snow. But, as Draco pointed out, it was an excellent practice for their sense of balance and thus their duelling skills. Today however, there was no snow and even the squishy mud of last week had dried up into soft ground again. Rigel felt as if she was flying as she circled the lake at an easy pace between her friends. The three of them did two laps in the time the rest of the DA did one and Rigel felt pleasantly warmed up and energized by the time Draco led the group into their stretches and footwork exercises.
They would finally take up the one-on-one duels again today. The last weeks had been spent bringing the newest members up to speed, practicing dodging and targeting and discussing tactics. There hadn't been room enough to have people fighting in pairs, with a safe distance between the different fights, in the classroom they'd been using for their meetings. Instead they had done a few free-for-alls or split into two groups facing off across the room. Rigel supposed she should be grateful because that time had given her a chance to get a handle on the free duelling instincts Leo had been sharpening during winter break and she was now less likely to physically attack her opponent than she had been in January. With the time-turner back around her neck her weeks were once again 14 days long at least and she had passed time equivalent to more than three month since Christmas, settling back solidly into her Hogwarts routine.
When the time came to find a duelling partner, the old DA hands drifted automatically into the pairings from their last duel before winter break.
"You guys sure you don't want to mix it up a bit?" Draco asked dubiously. Pansy smirked at him. Pansy and Ron had been duelling each other exclusively during all their Sunday meetings before the break.
"Well the pairings were quite well matched last time" their friend amended. "So we'll see if anything has changed. But let's switch after the first duel. The whole point in forming this club was to have a greater variety of partners." Turning to the rest of the group he called "Everyone pick a partner and spread out. Make sure you leave enough of a distance to the other pairs to avoid any interruption through stray jinxes. When you're all in position I'll count you in."
Rigel faced off against Rookwood. She was really looking forward to this. She had been doing daily drills of course, both for wandwork, footwork and the rough and tumble hand to hand fighting Leo was teaching her. But she hadn't done any one-on-one fighting in what felt like several month. Well it had been three month. For her at least. She was determined not to give in to her free-duelling instincts this time. Could she beat Rookwood relying on her spellwork alone? He was incredibly fast and could work many of the spells from his impressive repertoire nonverbally, which not only made the casting quicker but additionally led to the spells being harder to recognise and counter against. She'd been working on increasing her own casting rate though and learned several handy new spells from the duelling book Remus had given Archie for Christmas.
When Draco gave the signal to start Rigel immediately shot two quick stunning spells at her opponent. Instead of dodging his incoming impedimenta jinx, she blocked it with a shield, standing as motionless as she could in imitation of Rookwood himself. She doubted she'd be able to do this for very long but she wanted to see if her deviation from her usual restless stile would faze him. They stood like this for maybe a minute, both motionless except for the smallest of wrist movements as they flicked their wands, exchanging curses at lightning speed. Then Rigel started walking forward. The reduced distance meant less time to react before a spell reached you. The pressure built. She was trying to force him to move, make him back up. But the upperclassman remained standing exactly where he'd started off while the hexes flew between them at ever increasing speed. Rigel thought she could actually feel the air heating up between them and was just starting to wonder how long she'd be able to keep this up when she felt her stomach turn over.
Rigel glanced down in surprise. Had he gotten a jinx past her defence? The momentary distraction proved her undoing in such close quarters as his next impedimenta curse hit her full on. She thought she could actually feel bone move as she was blasted of her feet and thrown back several meters. All the air left her lungs when her back connected solidly with the ground. Completely winded she struggled to draw breath. And still she felt her insides writhing and skin bubbling in that strange way that had distracted her in the first place. She wondered what jinx it was and what exactly it did. It felt almost like the changes affected by Pollyjuice Potion.
Rigel froze, horrible comprehension dawning just as Rookwood called her name in a concerned tone. She threw up a shield to keep him back, thinking frantically. The doses of Pollyjuice, she'd been cooking up for Archie and herself, were designed to last a little less than a year so they could renew them each summer. Due to excessive use of the time-turner however, Rigel had been moving through more time than the rest of the world. And now her year was up. She had changed back into Harriett Potter right here on the Hogwarts lawn. She tried to contain her panic as she noticed several people coming closer, no doubt wondering if she was all right. Until she could change herself back into Rigel she needed a reason for any differences her friends might notice. In desperation she cast a stinging hex on her face to distort her features. Her eyes watered from the blinding pain that hit her as her face swelled up rapidly. That reminded Rigel of her eye colour. Her face was now so bloated that it would probably be difficult for anyone to even see her eyes but just to be on the safe side she used a handy little spell from Leo's disguise book to make them grey again. Then she took down the shield and sat up slowly, shaking her head from side to side as if dazed.
"Whoa, what was that?" she asked an upcoming Rookwood, accepting the hand he offered to pull her back to her feet.
He frowned at her distorted face. "Nothing I cast should have done that. Maybe we got stray hexes after all. Looks like a stinging hex or swelling charm. Here, I'll fix it."
"No!" she cried, hurriedly taking a step backwards. At his slightly hurt expression she quickly added "Thanks for the offer but it didn't feel like a stinging hex. Since I don't know what else it could be though, I think I'd better go to the hospital wing in case there are complications. Maybe two spells got mixed or something."
"I thought you hated hospital wings." Rosier had sidled up. Oh bother.
"I do. But I've spent enough time in this one by now that I've gotten used to it."
"Great. I'll walk you up."
"Oh no. Don't interrupt your training on my account. Rookwood hasn't even gotten a full first duel."
"Yeah he did." Rosier looked down at her with a wicked grin. "You're just grumpy because you lost. But you're right to feel sorry for him. After all of us watching him blast you halfway back to the castle he'll be hard put to find another partner today."
"So you should really stay here and help out your friend."
"Not happening." the older boy laughed. "I'm tapped out as it is. Why don't you help out a friend and let me escape to the castle with you?"
"There's really no need." She tried one last time but didn't continue. If Rosier was determined to do this, she wouldn't be able to sway him and trying too hard would only rouse suspicion. Right now the important thing was to get away before Draco came over and turned his empathy on her. She could always try getting rid of Rosier in the castle.
"Well come on then." She sighed. Turning abruptly and heading for the front doors.
"So, Mission Dodge the DA accomplished. Are you really tapped out or were you just afraid of actually working up a sweat?" Rigel eyed Rosier sideways, trying to grin at him but wincing as the movement strained the already taunt skin of her swollen face. She rolled her shoulders, trying to release her aching back muscles that protested their recent collision with the ground.
Rosier shrugged. "Close enough. We can't all be lord level wizards after all. That's not the way to the hospital wing." He added, catching her arm as she was about to turn into a bathroom.
"I know." She said, glairing pointedly at his hand on her arm until he released her. Rigel opened the bathroom door and ushered the older boy in with a mocking bow before elaborating. "I want to get a good look in the mirror first so I fully understand the symptoms and after Madam Pomfrey tells me what the problem is and how to fix it, I can recognize it if I see it again."
She stepped up to a mirror over one of the sinks, noting with satisfaction that her features were indeed distorted beyond recognition. Her face looked even more painful than it felt. She turned her head this way and that, examining it thoroughly, carefully touching the swollen flesh with her fingers. Unless she was mistaken, the swelling was already receding, her magic working to undo the damage. Finally Rosier let out the sigh she'd been waiting for. He'd lasted longer than she'd been expecting, the stubborn git.
"Feel free to leave if I'm boring you."
He raised an eyebrow at her. "Are you trying to get rid of me?"
"I will be if you keep distracting me."
"I'm not distracting you. I'm just standing here."
"You're staring at me. Just like you keep doing when I try to work in the common room. I can't concentrate like that. It's irritating."
He gave a satisfied smirk. She'd always thought he kept watching her out of boredom or maybe to annoy Draco but perhaps he'd been trying to get a rise out of her all along. "Oh? Why did you never say anything?" Rosier asked in an innocent tone that didn't fool her at all.
"I'm saying something now." Rigel snapped. She had to get away from him to start fixing her appearance. She always kept some of Archie's hair in her potions kit but she wasn't even sure if there was a dose of the long lasting Pollyjuice left. If she had to brew up a new batch she'd need to time-turn back a month to have it ready by today. But either way she'd need her book bag, which contained not only her potions kit but also the map and invisibility cloak. Now that she was sure her features wouldn't be recognized, walking through the common room wouldn't be a problem. With Draco and Blaise still at the DA meeting chances were their room was empty. Going there would also have the nice side effect of losing Rosier since he wouldn't be able to follow her down the third-year corridor. It was perfect.
"You don't happen to have a quill and parchment on you? Do you?" she asked, trying to sound idle and distracted. "I'd better take notes on this."
Rosier raised an incredulous eyebrow. "Seriously? Only you would try to make a study of your own medical predicament."
"Well it's the best way to learn really. I should write down exactly how it felt and what the visible symptoms are. The condition seems to be stable, no immediate danger and it's not as bad as it looks. So I should try and salvage the situation by at least getting a lesson out of it. Don't you think? So, quill? Parchment?"
"No Rigel, I didn't take writing supplies to our duelling practice." He sounded definitely amused now, a wry smile playing around his lips. Good. Make him think everything was normal and Rigel was just being her usual weird self.
"Well then. I guess I'll have to get my own." she sighed, turning around and walking out of the bathroom, headed for the dungeons.
Rosier fell into step beside her but didn't speak again until they'd reached the common room. On the way toward the third-year corridor, however, he stopped her again with a hand on her arm.
"Come this way." He made to walk down the sixth-year corridor instead.
Rigel stopped dead, straining against his pull. "What? I can't go down there. I'm not allowed."
"Sure you are. I'm inviting you. You can come in as long as I take you."
"And why would you want to do that?"
"You were the one who wanted to come down here to take notes. You asked for writing things. I got them in our room and it'll be quiet there, too, with Edmund still outside."
"I said I'd get my own things and since my roommates are out as well, our dorm will be just as quiet."
"But somehow I doubt you'd invite me down your corridor." the older boy pointed out.
"So?"
"So I said I'd accompany you to the hospital wing and that's what I'll do. If you want to make detours that's fine by me but I'm not letting you out of my sight until I know you're ok. What if you collapse in your empty dorm? There'll be no one around to help you."
"I'm not going to collapse. I feel fine." Rigel said exasperated.
"How can you know that? You don't really know what happened. You were so worried about complications you preferred going to the hospital wing instead of letting Edmund fix you when two years ago you walked around with a broken wrist for weeks rather than go there." Rosier's voice was steadily rising. He seemed to be getting exasperated himself and they'd started to attract curious glances. While Rigel had thought it safe enough to walk through the common room with her swollen face, drawing attention by causing a scene there hadn't been on her agenda.
"Alright, alright I'm coming. Merlin's beard, keep it down." She allowed Rosier to pull her down the corridor but kept on muttering, "Honestly Aldon, I'm beginning to understand Rookwood's frequent use of sleeping charms on you." In fact, that was probably exactly what she'd have to do to him once they'd reached his dorm. She didn't actually know how to do a sleeping charm but a stunning spell should work just as well. It's not like it would harm him and Rookwood could revive him once he got back.
The sixth year opened the first door on the left and pushed her into the room. It was somewhat smaller than her own dorm, containing only two beds on opposite sides of the room. Rigel could immediately guess which side was Rookwood's as there was a poster depicting mammal taxonomy, drawn like a family tree, on the wall as well as several anatomical charts. One was a picture of a dragon showing all its bones and muscles and how they moved during flight as the dragon flapped lazily across the canvas. There were also a lot of books lying around and on a shelf on the wall what looked like all the items Selwyn had ever challenged him with in their animal game. Rigel saw feathers, bones, teeth – including one big fang, and even the vial of snake venom she had delivered to the upperclassman in her first year. In comparison, Rosier's side of the room looked nearly drab, meticulously clean and showing no obvious hints of his interests.
Reminded of her reason for being there, Rigel looked around to see the older boy had shut the door and was leaning against it, his arms crossed, studying her. He sneered at her when she raised an eyebrow.
"Come now Rigel, don't bother with your confused 'What's going on?' look with me. You know exactly why you're here."
"Excuse me?"
"You obviously don't want to go to the hospital wing. That was just an excuse to get away from everyone. You've been trying to shake me ever since we got back to the castle. What I can't figure out is why. If you already know what's wrong, why didn't you just fix it?"
Rigel didn't have time for this. She had to get back to the dormitory so she could time-turn under her invisibility cloak before the rest of the DA returned. She moved toward him, reaching for her wand. She'd blast him out of the way if necessary. But Rosier must have been expecting this – he'd probably been knocked out in close quarters by Rookwood too many times. He shouted "accio wand" before Rigel could get a grip on it and caught her wand deftly from the air when it zoomed toward him. He tossed both their wands onto his bed with a grimace of distaste, all the while staring unblinkingly at her. Rigel swerved, heading for the bed instead, intent on retrieving her wand. But Rosier was faster. Before she had taken two steps he'd caught her, gripping her upper arms tightly and spinning her around to face him. She reacted instinctively, shrugging out of his hold in a fluid motion born of many hours of self-defence training. He came right back at her, shoving her up against the door with his hands on her chest. Her newly soft and curvy chest. They both froze, Rosier's eyes going wide as he stared at her in abject horror.
Rigel pushed him off her in a last show of defiance before sliding down to sit on the floor dejectedly. All the fight had gone out of her and she wasn't sure how much longer she'd be able to hold the tears at bay. After all this time, all the lying and scheming and sneaking around, this was how it ended. She hoped she'd still be able to get out of Hogwarts, to let Rigel disappear but now that it was out that Rigel was a girl, would someone make the connection to Harriett Potter? Was she to lose everything?
Rosier's face softened as he saw her break down right in front of him. He crouched awkwardly next to her, extended a hand but stopped short of actually touching. The pushy git, who did not seem to know the meaning of personal space, was afraid of touching her. A humourless laugh escaped her at the irony of it all. Now that it didn't matter anymore, when he'd already discovered her secret, he was suddenly afraid to intrude. She looked up at him, sniffing. His face was a mask of confusion. She could almost see the wheels turning as he considered everything he knew about her in light of this new information, working it all out. A single tear broke through her control to trek its lonely path down her cheek. And then the dam broke. The floodgates opened and she was suddenly in his lap, crying into his shoulder while he rocked her gently, patting her hair and murmuring comforting nothings to her as she valiantly but vainly fought for control. Later she would wonder why he'd take her into his arms so readily after just finding out that her lies extended further that he could possibly have imagined. Perhaps it was just his pureblood upbringing that left him unable to watch a witch despair without trying to intervene. No matter how much those thoughts would puzzle her later, she had no room for them at the time as she clung to him as though getting ready to apperate with him. Her face hurt, the swollen flesh being distorted further by the sobs wracking her body. She disentangled herself from Aldon's arms and crawled over to the bed, picking up her wand she used a healing spell on her face to counteract the effects of the stinging hex and relieve at least some of the pain. A distant part of her mind, that was even now calculating the repercussions, noted that it might be better for him to see her reals features now. He'd see she wasn't Rigel and she'd be able to say she had been standing in for him only today. That way Rigel would still be known as a boy.
She hardly noticed Aldon cast a locking and muffling spell at the door before he came up behind her to where she'd stayed next to the bed, head and arms buried against the mattress. He began stroking her head soothingly, gently massaging her shoulders while she cried herself into exhaustion.
When she finally drew back and tried to wipe her raw eyes on a sleeve, he offered her his handkerchiefs. She gave a watery laugh, remembering what Archie had said about the benefit of monograms when giving out handkerchiefs to distraught girls.
Aldon raised an eyebrow in silent question but Harry just shook her head with a slight smile before taking his handkerchief to wipe her face, for good measure blowing her nose as well. She cast cleaning and drying charms on it before handing it back.
Rigel scooted around until she faced the older boy, still kneeling on the floor, one cheek resting on his matrass as he gazed at her with his eyes of molten gold. She copied him and they stayed like that for what felt like a long time, just staring at each other. Aldon's gaze was searching and his eyes scanned her face as if he wanted to commit every little detail to memory but Harry felt too drained to bring herself to care. He knew so much already, she was sure he'd figured it all out – or would soon enough. After the New Year's Eve gala everyone knew which half-blood girl looked a lot like Rigel Black after all. Her suspicion was confirmed when he narrowed his eyes and raised his wand at her face. She stayed where she was not even trying to raise her own wand in defence. But he just muttered "finite incantatem" and gave a satisfied little nod as her eyes changed back to their natural green.
After what felt like an eternity Harry finally ventured a "Now what?"
Aldon's eyes flicked up to meet hers. "Well, as soon as you feel up to talking, I do have a few questions." A slight smirk curled his lips as he gave what had to be the understatement of the century. He radiated more curiosity than a fire emitted heat. Discovering her secret had probably raised more questions in him than it answered. "But we've been here for a while now, so I guess the others will be done soon, if they aren't already. You don't seem quite ready to face more questions yet – or to face other people for that matter. You could stay here for a while but I suppose you should change your appearance back now, before anyone notices. Do you have everything you need for that or do you need help?"
She marvelled at his ability to be so calm about this. The whole incident should have shocked him more than it did her. After all, she'd always known her secret coming out to be a possibility. She'd handled the situation with cool proficiency when Flint had confronted her during her first week at Hogwarts. Aldon on the other hand could not have been prepared to discover that a boy he'd known for two and a half years was actually a girl. Still, he managed to take a step back and prioritize what necessary action had to be taken. Why couldn't she? Perhaps it was that being exposed as a girl made her feel more vulnerable than just to be unmasked as an imposter; though why that should be the case she didn't know. There was no logical explanation for it. She certainly didn't consider girls to be weaker than boys. Hadn't she shown she could keep up with the best of them? She had flown her broom to help Draco practice Quidditch – and even climbed a tree – with a broken wrist her first year. She'd gotten through Flint's ridiculously dangerous Quidditch try-out parkour in second year and fought against an undead basilisk a few months later. She was a better fighter than Aldon and he was three years older than her. There was no reason to feel inferior. She simply had to pull herself together.
Rigel took a deep breath. "I should have all I need in my school bag. I just need to get that from my room. That's what I get for not taking it with me." She sighed and raised her wand to once again disguise her face with a stinging hex. "This is gonna hurt."