AN:

Hello all! Things are starting to pick up now, and I totally wanted to make this longer than it wound up, but I felt like I cut it off at a good point and most of next chapter is already hashed out so hopefully it'll be up by Sunday at the latest. No promises though.

As some of you have probably noticed, I have already, in some ways, deviated from the plot. These deviations have been, thus far, few but really big parts of the original storyline. Well, I've deviated even more in this one, so bare in mind this IS an AU story. I have also made a really huge decision in regards to the end of PoA, to shift things to fit my plot as it stands. So the end of PoA will be significantly changed, so anticipate that.

Also, GoF snippets have been hitting me hardcore. Just an FYI.


Sidenote: Reviews at the bottom.


The next few days following her father's break-in of the castle were some of the most irritating for Lillian. The experience threw in to stark relief just how differently two children of nearly the same origin could be treated.

Her god brother could hardly ever be seen without the tall, red-headed shadow of Percy Weasley and when the Weasley boy wasn't present, teachers found excuses to walk along the corridors he tread. There had even been a rumor, however brief, that the boy would be denied his place on the quidditch team until the whole ordeal had been situated, despite McGonagall's almost rabid fervor in regards to her House's team.

Lillian, however, found herself with more space than she really knew what to do with; aside from Dumbledore's initial probing, he did nothing more than show up to places he hadn't previously had reason to be present at. It also didn't help that her temper had become inescapably short with the bold few that had dared to mention her father directly to her.

Her only saving grace was Peeves floating beside her, pranking all of the students who gaped for too long; and the two felines – Mrs. Norris brushing against her left leg, Al her right – not afraid to draw blood from those not recognized as friend getting too close. Her unlikely, but efficient, guardians when her friends were unable to accompany her from one destination to another because accusations be damned, no one wanted to cross paths with Slytherins in numbers.

She thought the only thing that could be worse than the outright suspicion of almost all of her peers outside of her house, was if her Father actually presented himself to her in the Great Hall, she was wrong. It got worse when she realized Remus wasn't in Defense, that the man had apparently fallen ill, and in his stead a remarkably spiteful looking Professor Snape was teaching the lesson.

A mental run through the calendar and Lillian knew the full moon had just come to pass, making it the first class of the term that Remus's affliction had caused an absence, meaning he had been on Wolfsbane since he had come to Hogwarts as a professor, and the only way he could have suddenly been incapable of teaching a class, was if he had forgotten to take the potion meant to limit the affects of the moon to the night of. Which led her to the inevitable conclusion that Severus Snape, potion master extraordinaire, had 'forgotten' to make the potion for Remus Lupin, because the werewolf in question would never once forget to take a potion that gave him control of his faculties, not when control for him usually wasn't a choice.

Lillian was furious… and her rage grew exponentially when Snape announced his lesson plan, ignoring the Gryffindor's corrections, ignoring the logical deduction of their course progress to jump to the back of their textbook, ignoring everything but his own personal disdain for Remus Lupin. Belittling the man not even present to defend himself, belittling a man Lillian greatly respected, and being nasty enough that even her housemates weren't pleased with his hate for a Defense Professor even snakes could appreciate.

Eyes narrowed, she crossed her arms and stared down her cousin's godfather, the fire in her eyes – had anyone been looking – would have surprised those who didn't know her on an intrinsic level. The fierce emotion in her normally cool gaze startling to strangers simply because they wouldn't think her capable, despite her display in temper weeks ago – a display most had disregarded as a one-off.

She respected Severus Snape, he was the most accomplished potions master in centuries, he was a fiercely intelligent man and he cared for his Slytherins like the children he would never spawn himself. However, she never had tolerated bullies, and for a man who proclaimed to hate them, he bore remarkably similar characteristics to those with whom he despised. How dare he scorn Remus Lupin – a man he knew was her godfather – not only in class, but in a class she was currently sitting.

What was worse? He knew he was in the wrong, at least in her eyes, why else would he not look at her?

Devon shifted uncomfortably beside Lillian, not knowing why the other girl was pissed, but feeling her ire as though it were a physical oppression; her friend had been quiet at the start of class, hadn't said anything even when Devon had expressed her curiosity at Snape's presence in place of Lupin, but Devon had assumed it was just her friend still adjusting to the atmosphere of the school after her father's break-in. Now, however, she suspected something different, something to do with Remus Lupin, something that went straight over her head.

Blaise was eyeing her curiously from behind, wondering at the tense set of her shoulders, and the stiff line of her spine that went far beyond simply proper posture.

Draco, the only one – aside from Snape – who could accurately ascertain the cause of her display, could only silently plead with his godfather to knock it off. Could only hope that Lillian would be content to let the Gryffindors spew their protests in her stead. With such an audience, if Lillian should display her Gryffindor tendencies, amongst current company? It could spell disaster of the wrong sort, could see her actions remembered by the wrong spectators, remembered and brought forth when it came time for their classmates' loyalties to be judged and the names of peers to be turned in or vouched for.

Lillian had done remarkably well in keeping her temper from outwardly showing. Draco knew well enough, just how short her temper had been in recent days, knew it took remarkable self-restraint on his cousin's part to keep her magic contained within her petite body when all it wanted to do was take lashes from the accusers and naysayers who slurred her name and placed blame upon her shoulders when the only blame to be placed was against the man who sired her. Everyone was walking on eggshells for poor Potter, sympathetic towards him, concerned for the boy who lived and all the ways Sirius Black has ruined his life, all the ways Sirius Black has hurt him.

They were all idiots. Draco, more than anyone else, knew that Sirius Orion Black had hurt none more than he had hurt, and would continue to hurt, the daughter whose only fault was that she loved a man so focused on the son that wasn't his, that he refused to acknowledge that he had a daughter… let alone that that daughter was Lillian.

"You will each write an essay, to be handed in to me, on the ways you recognize werewolves. I want two rolls of parchment on the subject, and I want them by Monday morning. It is time somebody took this class in hand. Weasley, stay behind, we need to arrange your detention."

Lillian had never left a class quicker than when Snape dismissed them; it left Devon scrambling after her, supplies stuffed messily into her bag with Draco already racing ahead, things packed neatly with a quick wave of his wand, and Blaise lumbering gracefully behind Devon. Devon didn't make the mistake of thinking the older boy wasn't just as worried for Lillian, but Blaise recognized that Lillian was well in hand with Draco right beside her, and appearing ruffled wasn't an image he could endorse, not without good cause – and though Lillian Black was and would only ever be a good cause, the situation itself wasn't one that called for any undue reaction on his part.


PoA


Late Saturday afternoon found Lillian, Devon, Blaise, and Theodore in the packed and shivering stands of the quidditch pitch. Students ignoring social etiquette and pressing as close to their peers as physically possible without actually crawling beneath their skin; the storm that had raged the past two nights had only grown heavier that morning and as such, it was near impossible to see more than a few feet in front of them. The match promised to be an excruciatingly long one if the teams couldn't find a way to navigate the storm; Lillian was especially worried for Draco, considering the snitch would be near impossible to see in the storm.

While the teams below exchanged forced pleasantries, and the older students in the stands taught the younger years impervious and heating charms, Lillian found herself ruminating on the brief meeting she had, earlier that morning, with Snape in his office.

He had called her there, almost without pretense, after breakfast to discuss what had occurred the day before in the class he substituted for Remus. Draco had shot her a concerned look but he trusted his godfather not to cross the line and so saw her off unaccompanied.

"Miss Black," Snape began, voice stiff, dark eyes darting from the papers upon his desk to her and back again until he obviously steeled himself to face her fully. "About yesterday's assigned study…"

And Lillian did one thing she hadn't ever done before; she interrupted a figure demanding respect and obedience. "If you think, for one second, that I will be turning in such a farce of an assignment, then you are sorely mistaken." If the words she spoke, or the tone she spoke them with, weren't enough to tip him off to how truly pissed she was, her lack of use of his title would have been more than enough to compensate for that level of daftness.

"I'll take the Terrible, and I doubt Lucius would fault me." Because hers and Draco's grade reports were expected to be nothing short of perfect, but in spite of their public image, Lucius would not punish her once her actions were explained – and the man never acted without hearing them explain themselves – not when Lucius and Narcissa had quietly encouraged her connections to the brief life she had possessed before becoming their Ward. Otherwise, her pseudo parents would have never let her build such a strong relationship to Andromeda, whom, by all accounts, Narcissa should have never spoken to again after the elder sister had been struck from the Black legacy in disgrace.

A terribly long, terribly tense silence where Severus Snape shored his occulumency shields to maintain control over his riotous, viciously barbed emotions. How else was he to react to a girl he called – even if only to himself – niece being so incredibly disappointed in him? "I owe you an apology." The dark-haired man conceded, uncomfortable that his show of malice had lessened his standing in her eyes, he wasn't as close to her as he was his godson, but he felt responsible for her, felt a level of affection for her, sentiments similar to that which he owed Draco.

"No, you don't," She challenged, "You owe an apology to Remus. I don't what happened when you attended school with my father and his friends, I know they weren't saints, but I also know of all of them, Remus was the least guilty. I also know that you are an adult, you are no longer a student squabbling with your fellow teenagers, you are an accomplished Potions Master, belittling a colleaguenot a classmate – for reasons that ceased to actually matter fifteen years ago."

Turning on her heel, done with this conversation, unable to address such immature idiocy any longer, she made her departure with one final shot, "Your refusal to let go of the past will see you even more bitter than you already are. You aren't living, Uncle—" The so rarely used title sent a chill down his spine, made his brain stall and forced him to hear her with a clarity his hatred tended to rob him of, "—You are merely existing, and by doing so, it isn't just yourself that you are making miserable."

Afterwards she had rejoined her friends as they worked to complete the assignment on werewolves, they didn't do more than spare her a second glance when it became evident to them that she wasn't working on the assignment – nor had she already completed it. They didn't ask questions, and their discretion reminded her of just why she favored the group.

"Why haven't they canceled the game?" Devon yelled over the roar of the storm.

"Wizard gaming rules were developed by sadists," Lillian responded, marveling in the narrow eyed look Devon leveled at her, not knowing just whether or not Lillian was joking. She wasn't, but Devon's muggleborn confusion really amused her.

"At what point does this game get canceled?" Devon asked after making the wise choice to ignore the supposed sadistic nature of gaming wizards.

"Only if a life is threatened, and by if, I mean only when someone has literally escaped death by their fingertips will the game be called on account of conditions." Lillian explained, and Devon found herself envious of the way her friend didn't even seem to need to raise her voice to be heard, as if thunder itself wouldn't dare interrupt her.

"They've started!" Theodore called out, and Devon found herself appeased that she wasn't the only one the storm wouldn't quiet for, though she cast a speculative look to the tall boy on Lillian's other side, with a meaningless meanness she concluded that he wouldn't dare have to raise his voice. Not that Blaise was the type of fellow that needed to speak to be heard.

The match drug on for an indeterminate amount of time, for it was impossible to keep track when the sky only grew darker, the storm fiercer, and the game harder to see. Lillian found herself listing to the side, pressing against Blaise's arm periodically as the wind buffeted the others into her. The stoic boy took it with grace, offering a hand to steady her whenever the wind blew particularly hard for it seemed he was incapable of being moved, even by such violent winds.

A brief timeout as lightning lit the sky, Slytherin in the lead by thirty, no sign of the snitch, and the players already haggard and worn down from such miserable conditions. So hard was it to fly against the currents of the wind, the Slytherin players hadn't even been able to result to their usual strategy of less than savory tactics.

Lillian would have been more concerned over Draco's wellbeing if she wasn't fully aware that Flint, the bastard that he was, had his players practicing out in the storms that had been raging all week, enough to where the pay off was that their team had a better grasp of how to handle the wind and account for last second trajectory changes. The only thing that worried her now, was that he would catch the flu or be struck by lightning.

What came next she could have never predicted.

The game continued, lightning flashing faster, making it easier to see the dark, roiling clouds, making – for the first time – noticeable the shadowed figures cloaked in clouds that grew closer with every passing second. Every spectator seemed to freeze, those on the pitch jerking to incredibly uncoordinated halts as they gaped upwards at the encroaching soul stealers.

At least a hundred Dementors, and they were prepared for a feast as they suddenly flooded the pitch, and Potter was falling – the first to have spotted them, the first to have felt their touch – people were gasping and screaming and frightful. Lillian's attention, however, was focused solely on Draco… Draco, whom was fiercely close to an encroaching Dementor, and nobody was doing anything, too focused on the Boy Who Lived and his sudden free-fall, and she would not tolerate her cousin being hurt by those dreadful creatures, she wouldn't. So she did the only thing that she could do, she protected the boy no one else would care to protect.

Arm extended, wand white-knuckled, she had barely finished bellowing out the incantation when white light spewed forth from her wand like an erupted volcano, startling warm to the unsuspecting bystanders in her path as the non-corporal form blinded those who looked directly upon its' source, beating back Dementors before it could even touch them, the soft warmth of it enveloping the quidditch players close enough to her focal point – to Draco – and stealing what was left of their breath.

Draco himself, found his stricken face relaxing, his eyes almost fully closed, basking in the feeling of utter safety that had suddenly encompassed him, he knew the cause, he knew it was Lillian who was protecting him, and he hadn't ever felt so protected before, he marveled at his cousin's power as he lazily watched Dementor's race away, taking cover in the fiercely dark clouds within the still raging storm, taking their ice cold grip with them.

And hidden in the top row of the stands, empty save for a mangy black grim, an animal with a savaged man buried inside it experienced a few sparingly precious moments of sanity. Sanity that was stolen once more, on the trailing wisps of incomprehensible white light.


AN:

THANKS TO ALL WHO READ, FAVORITED, FOLLOWED, ETC. YOU ALWAYS HAVE AND WILL ALWAYS REMAIN TO BE AWESOME.

Review Responses:

Thankful, Dare Queen, Jafcbutterfly, and FurionKnight, THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR REVIEWING. It means the world to me, it continues to keep me inspired to publish.

Rockchic733: YES! Reading binges give me life, so to know that you've binged on this really makes me proud! It is hard to find good OCs and I am so appreciative that Lillian is up to task. :) They haven't been discontinued! I just haven't gotten around to writing the rest of the Extras - I'm awful, I know. But I'll get to them eventually! I tried to get them longer, but it just wasn't really working for me, not when so much of the first novels are reworking the series so that my deviations later on in the series make sense (and later books should have longer chapters simply because there will be more of my own materials). Nope, I just really remember one time where JK Rowling said in an interview how she didn't understand how people could turn Draco into such a good kid, because he was inherently not nice; and I never see things in black and white and I thought it was kinda two-dimensional to limit the characters like that. This story will ultimately be a romance between Blaise and Lillian, so I'm really happy you like how they're being portrayed. Thank you so much, again, your support means a lot!

LovelySakura777: You are very welcome! Right! I honestly think a lot of how I've decided to portray him in this story is that I've been reading a lot of light bashing fics lately. :/ Lillian is definitely NOT to be underestimated, most, luckily, are smart enough to realize this by now. haha. There will definitely be an introduction to characters prominent to Harry's life earning a place in Lillian's life as well. Lupin's not stupid, none of the marauders really were (except maybe peter). She does need someone in her corner, and her relationship with Remus is really going to become prominent as the story goes on, especially when Sirius becomes involved again. Lillian has no time for people playing games or trying to make a fool out of her. Hope this chapter didn't disappoint, it really serves to set up the next few interactions.

artandmusicdubs: thank you so much! I'm so happy you thought so much of it! It's totally okay! Take your time reviewing, honestly, I'd rather later than never. :) Woot woot! Lillian is getting her acknowledgment, if even only privately. She's a Slytherin, and she's a Black, above all, she knows how to survive. Right! Not gonna lie, her interaction with Remus was totally spur of the moment for me and it near completely wrecked me. Remus and Lillian's relationship can only ever move forward, it will probably become one of the most important to her, and I can't wait for you to witness just how Sirius revival to society affects the relationship between Papa Wolf and Cub. ;) Yes! That IS what it means, she had slept beside Moony as a mere babe. You were correct! :)

Iblamegreenberg: I am so sorry I made you cry but so happy it moved you so greatly! Hope this one doesn't disappoint!

Jazmine Cruz: Thank you soooo much! I will admit I've been reading a lot of light bashing fics during PoA's progression, so that may or may not have influenced how Dumbledore behaves even if I didn't start out with that intention. Gosh, you're compliments really, truly, mean the world to me. :D YES! I am unimaginably happy Blaise and Lillian are OTP for you, and I have soooo much planned! I can't wait for GoF for that very reason! The Zabini name and power will most DEFINITELY come into play when it comes time that every breath Lillian takes is one breath closer to Voldemort getting his hands on her. Believe you me. I have PLANS. And in those plans, Blaise will interact with Sirius, if not frequently, then with heavy enough exchanges to make infrequent meetings more than enough. ;) Can't promise they run away to Italy though, can't NOT promise that either though. ;)

psycobabydoll: thank you! I'm trying not to make Dumbledore evil, but still making him a manipulative old coot.

randomgeekygirl: I am so happy to have updated! I really do scold myself when I put it off for far too long. I don't want to make Dumbledore evil, just blinded to anything not his own agenda, or the tools he handpicked to support his cause. You'll see very little of Sirius' affect here, but it may grow more predominant closer to the end of the book. Her integration should be interesting for everyone involved, though it may not play as big a part in the story as one may expect.


See you next time!

Have a kick ass week!

x