A/N: Thank you to everyone who reviewed, and I hope you all enjoy this chapter (no filler!)~
Dear Lily,
Are you feeling well? You haven't written at all since we left Hogwarts. Anyway, as you know, we need to go shopping for our school items sometime soon, and I was wondering if you would like to accompany me to Diagon Alley next week. You can ask Snape if he would like to come as well— unfortunately, Sirius is coming too, but we won't have to walk around with him if he has someone else to distract him— and I'd love to introduce you to my little cousin, Regulus. He's a first year now, and I'm delighted to say he won't disgrace the family name as Sirius already has. If you don't mind, he'd rather come along with us than Sirius (those two quarrel more than Andromeda and Bella!). Anyway, I hope your summer has been spectacular, and I look forward to hearing from you.
-Narcissa
xXxXxXxXx
"Are you sure you don't want me going with you?"
"Sev, for the last time, I'll be fine," said Lily exasperatedly.
They were finally in Diagon Alley; it was just two days before the Hogwarts Express departed and the school year would begin, much to their excitement. Once Lily had responded that she and Severus would definitely be coming, Narcissa had sent her another reply, telling Lily to meet her and her cousin in Knockturn Alley. Severus was going to meet up with Sirius and James in Quality Quidditch Supplies— apparently James was under the impression that he was going to make Gryffindor's team this year— but he was extremely hesitant to let his friend wander off into Knockturn Alley by herself. He didn't trust the shops down there, nor did he trust the people who browsed through there. His mother had taken him there one time, when he was a young boy, and he had but one terrible memory of a witch poisoning him when Eileen took her eyes off of him for just two seconds. After he returned home from a short stint in St. Mungo's, he was determined never to go near that place again. Unfortunately for Lily, he didn't want her going down there either. He could only imagine the horrible things that would happen to a second year girl wandering around by herself…
"Okay?"
Biting his lower lip, Severus mumbled his goodbye and watched fretfully as his innocent young friend ran off into the hoards of Dark witches and wizards that were striding away from Knockturn Alley. He desperately wanted to run after her and ensure that she arrived there safely, but he didn't want to irritate her with his overprotective instincts either. Besides he was supposed to have met up with his friends twenty minutes ago.
Running along the unusually quiet streets of Diagon Alley, he soon reached the entrance to Quality Quidditch Supplies. He wasn't much of a Quidditch player himself, but he certainly enjoyed a good match as much as the next wizard. Leaving his trunk and Hairy's cage next to the entrance, he made his way for the door.
He didn't even see what hit him. The second he opened the door, something blurry flew at him, and collided directly with his face. It hit him so hard that he soon found himself lying on his back ten or so strides from the entrance with something warm and sticky streaming down his face. If he hadn't blacked out for a moment, he would have seen who the laughing boy was. Another boy with a deeper laugh came out the door, shouting "Oi James see if you can catch this!"
Still on the ground, unnoticed by either of the laughing boys, Severus moaned in pain. Did the idiot who struck him not even realize he had done so?
Apparently the gooey mess on his face was blood…from his badly broken nose. He couldn't even bear to open his eyes and survey the damage.
To add to his confusion, a third voice came from the direction of the shop; however, this was not a young boy, but an older woman. And she was furious.
"JAMES POTTER! Accio!"
Somewhere behind him and high up in the air, Severus heard a boy yelp in terror, then fall to the ground with a resounding crash.
"DO YOU REALIZE WHAT YOU HAVE DONE?" the old witch shrieked, pointing at Severus. "You nearly killed that poor boy!"
"Severus?"
Severus immediately recognized the appalled voice as Sirius'. He assumed that James was lying on the ground somewhere behind him, too scared or too damaged physically to get up and face the old bat head on. He heard Sirius' running footsteps grow closer; even he hadn't noticed what James had done until now.
"Oh dear…are you alright luv?" the woman asked in a much gentler tone, cradling Severus' body into a sitting position. He opened his eyes and saw that she was indeed very elderly: her hair was white and frayed, though her striking hazel eyes hadn't lost their intensity in her old age. While her skin was more wrinkled than a house elf's she still had a girlish look about her. Odd.
"Oi…nasty ol' mess you've got right there…" she pointed her wand at Severus' face and muttered an indistinct spell. At once, the blood disappeared, and his nose appeared to be fully mended. Just to make sure he was healed, Severus reached up to his face: he was perfectly unscathed and even the throbbing had disappeared.
"Thank you," he mumbled, clearly embarrassed to have been beaten up like this.
"My pleasure, dear. I worked in St. Mungo's for years and it's nice being able to help others every once in a while…ESPECIALLY WHEN THEY'RE STRUCK BY IMMATURE, BLUDGER-BRAINED BOYS LIKE YOU!" she roared at James, who was just starting to get to his feet. His entire body was very sore at this point— riding on a broomstick was great…until someone took away his fun by the use of a Summoning Charm, thus leaving him to reunite with the enemy known as gravity.
"Hey Severus," he waved sheepishly at his friend. "I'm really sorry mate…I wasn't thinking—"
"—you're damn right you weren't!" the old lady yelled at him, slapping him across the cheek as painfully as she could manage once he had come close enough to her. James stumbled backwards upon impact: who knew a one hundred and six year old lady's slap could sting so badly?
"What happened?" Severus asked dazedly, still feeling a little light-headed from his collision with James.
"I…was trying out my aunt's newest broom," James said, eyeing the crazed witch warily. "It was pretty difficult to control…fast though!"
"You're never going to lay your hands on another broom as long as I'm around to see to that!" the woman added shrilly, making James flinch as though another slap was coming.
"But Gran! I'm going to be on the Quidditch team this year…don't you want your beloved grandson to uphold the family reputation?"
"Don't you dare try that on me, James. I swear, if I ever catch you on a broom again—"
"Hey what's that?" James interrupted suddenly.
Sirius and Severus looked to where James was pointing, though they saw nothing out of the ordinary.
"Run!" James hissed. Severus didn't want to be rude, but this lady's shrieks were really hurting his ears. Shrugging to each other, the trio sprinted away from James' screaming grandmother and ran all the way to the end of the street, darting inside Flourish and Blotts for safety.
"Sorry about that," James panted once they were hidden behind several rows of bookshelves. "She's a mad old bat…tends to rant a while longer than she should…there's no way to shut her up really, we just have to stand there and bear it or get away when we can…I really am sorry, though," he added with a surprisingly authentic apologetic look on his face.
"I'm fine, it doesn't matter," Severus sighed, not expecting anything better of James Potter than nearly killing one of his friends with a broomstick. "Have you got your money with you? We ought to get our things now while we can."
"'Course we do. We've been waiting for you for hours."
Severus scowled, though he decided not to place the blame on Lily for his tardiness. His friends already loathed her enough as it was…
"So you aunt owns that place?" Severus asked as they began scouring the shelves for their second year Transfiguration books.
"Yes— my uncle was the Seeker for Ireland for several years— they decided to start a Quidditch shop after he fractured every bone in his body and was forced into retirement."
Severus winced. Now that sounded a lot more painful than a mere broken nose.
"Now where are the Defense books at…?" James trailed off as he rounded the corner and froze. Severus and Sirius followed him, and they, too, stopped abruptly to gawk at the strange sight in front of them.
A girl, perhaps their age, was floating upside down…in midair. Her legs were crisscrossed in a yogic position, and her lengthy, silvery-blonde hair was nearly touching the ground. Her face was hidden by a book, which she was reading upside down— well, actually it was the right side up from the boys' perspectives.
"What…what the bloody hell is she doing?" James spluttered. None of them could say a word; the sight was simply too bizarre for words.
Severus looked at the book: Read Your Way to Levitation. Was that even remotely possible?
"Excuse us," James spat rather rudely once he recovered his ability to speak. He moved closer to the strange girl to get to his Defense Against the Dark Arts book, but she was obstructing his path. "Move it would you?"
The book was slowly pulled away from the girl's face, revealing her shocking sapphire eyes. Her facial features were otherwise very plain, but her eyes were truly something to behold.
She smiled mysteriously at James then said in a rather dreamy voice: "Why command one to move when what you seek can move for you?"
James looked ready to respond, but he couldn't figure out what the hell she had meant. He fumed over this for a few seconds— much to his friends' amusement— then tried asking again.
"I said move. Are you incapable of hearing?"
The girl closed her eyes and smiled. "I can hear you perfectly."
Trying to ignore his friend's muffled laughter behind him, James walked even closer to the girl. "If you can hear me, then why haven't you moved yet?"
"I like it here."
"That's swell. Could you go find another place to er...levitate?"
"But I like it right here," she said simply, smiling at James' impatience.
"Can you please just get out of my way?" James barked at her, not in the mood for freakish little witches like her to annoy him like this.
"Why?"
"I need to get my Defense book!"
"Oh," the girl's eyes opened once more and she flipped over in the air, landing softly on the ground with her delicate feet. "Why didn't you say so?"
James was, once again, ready to argue, but then he realized that he hadn't really stated what he wanted anyway. Growling furiously to himself, he snatched the stack of three Defense books from the freak without thanking her and stomped away in the opposite direction.
"Goodbye James Potter," she waved to him, the dreamy smile never leaving her face even though it was quite clear to everyone around that James was fed up with her.
"How does she know my name?" James demanded grouchily once they were outside of the book shop. "I've never seen her in my life…and I can't honestly say I'd enjoy a reunion."
Sirius snickered. "She probably memorizes the names of all her potential friends— from what I've heard, she and her brother haven't got any. Unsurprising, really."
"What's her name?" Severus inquired curiously. She had indeed been one of the most peculiar people he had ever run into— though her subtle mockery of James had been rather entertaining.
"Muse Lovegood."
xXxXxXxXx
"Are you certain you don't want to come along?" Narcissa begged Lucius, who was following Bellatrix to Borgin and Burkes, where they would be Flooing home. Narcissa would be alone with Regulus until Lily showed up, which she didn't mind much, but it would be so much more fun if Lucius stayed with her…
"No, I really must be going," Lucius said hurriedly, glancing over his shoulder as though he was worried that someone would spot him. Narcissa continued to plead for him to stay, but after a few more wasted minutes, her attempts were rendered useless, and she was left to wander around Knockturn Alley—without parental supervision— until Lily showed up. Bellatrix was supposed to be accompanying them, because they were too young to go by themselves. But Bella had other things on her mind at the moment, and told Narcissa that she was old enough to handle it by herself, which Narcissa took as a compliment and didn't complain.
"Narcissa!"
She turned around at the sound of her name to see Lily running towards her with an excited smile on her face. She was so cheerful and carefree that she looked sorely out of place in this place of gloom and despair.
"Lily, it's so good to see you again," Narcissa hugged her overexuberant friend.
"I haven't seen you in weeks! How have you been?"
"I've been fine…oh, Lily, I would like you to meet my cousin, Regulus Black," Narcissa turned around and pulled a young boy forward to greet Lily.
Lily's jaw dropped. If Narcissa hadn't told her what the boy's name was, she would have immediately mistaken him for Sirius. Even though there was a one year age gap between them, Regulus could have easily passed as Sirius' twin.
"Nice to meet you," Lily shook his hand, trying to be formal, but this only made his pale cheeks turn a shade of pink.
Well that's definitely unexpected, Lily thought. Sirius Black was one of the loudest, most obnoxious people in their year, and his younger brother was…quiet. Socially awkward, too. In fact, he almost reminded her of Severus, whose personality was completely opposite to Sirius'. Maybe there were more differences between the brothers than she knew…
"You're in Slytherin?" he asked doubtfully, glancing over Lily's appearance as though she was the last person he'd ever expect to see in Slytherin.
"Of course she is," Narcissa cooed to him as though he were a little baby. While it was clear that the two were very close friends, Regulus secretly loathed the belittling treatment; though he didn't dare tell Narcissa this.
"Shall we get started then?" Narcissa asked after a long period of uncomfortable silence.
Lily and Regulus nodded and they set off at once. Lily's first impression of the boy was that he was a lot more mature than his brother, but she still couldn't shake off the strange way in which he was watching her the whole time…
xXxXxXxXx
Lord Voldemort had been enjoying his summer.
Ever since he murdered the Malfoys, his Death Eaters had increased their productivity by tenfold. They had successfully managed to place two highly-ranked Aurors under the Imperius Curse in July, spawning a vast river of information regarding the plots against them and enabling them to consistently outsmart the Ministry. Even more exciting: there had been more murders lately than Voldemort could count on two hands; the fact that all of the twelve or so murders had been Mudbloods pleased the Dark Lord immensely.
The only thing that continued to bother him was his lack of control at Hogwarts. Not only did Dumbledore currently have his precious locket, but he had learned— from a certain young female follower— that there were Mudbloods there. Not just in the disgraced houses of Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and (especially) Gryffindor; but there were Mudbloods in Slytherin. Lord Voldemort not happy about this.
His beloved house, created by his pureblooded ancestor, Salazar Slytherin and highest above all of the others, had Mudbloods in it. He did not know how many there were, seeing as the girl had only informed him of one. A soon to be-second year female. How she had managed to sneak her way into Slytherin, Voldemort did not know, but he would not stand for such blatant disregard of his ancestor's pureblood ideologies.
However, there were few ways of getting into Hogwarts without detection. Deep inside his soulless soul, Voldemort felt a pinch of fear at the prospect of running into Dumbledore. He knew there was no possibility of the old fool knowing what the locket contained, but he still wouldn't allow him the chance to find out. Luckily for him, he had set a determined boy on the task of retrieving it. If Lucius succeeded, he would be richly rewarded. If he failed…the consequences would be severe.
With merry thoughts of either ridding the world of yet another Malfoy or getting his locket back, Voldemort began plotting a way for him or his Death Eaters to infiltrate Hogwarts. Obviously, he wished to operate as secretly as possible, lest the old man find out and ruin his plan to utterly destroy the damned Mudbloods that dared to enter the House of Slytherin.
It was during an early morning gathering with his Death Eaters that Voldemort discovered a reasonably clever way of penetrating Hogwarts undetected.
"Patrick," his sharp, bone-chilling voice rang out, causing all but one of his followers to sigh with relief that he wasn't going to speak to them.
A small man shakily got to his feet and removed his hood, revealing what little hair he had left on his badly-scarred head.
"My—my Lord?" he asked in a tiny voice, sounding much too cowardly to be considered a follower of the greatest Dark wizard of all time.
"You have a son, do you not?" Voldemort demanded fiercely. "Answer me!"
"Ye—yes my Lord…"
"Are you fond of the boy?" Voldemort asked quietly, not looking up at his followers, but fingering with his wand instead. It was a habit he had picked up when he was thinking hard about something; his Death Eaters automatically knew not to bother him when he did this.
"I am not…his mother deserves to be damned to Hell," Patrick spat with a surprisingly display of anger before returning to his permanently-frightened appearance.
Voldemort smiled grimly. "There are far worse things than Hell, my friend."
The Death Eaters did not believe this could be possible, but maintained their silence and nodded approvingly of their leader.
"Bring me the boy," Voldemort said softly. Had there been any other sound in the background, his voice would have been inaudible, though the Death Eaters heard it loud and clear.
"My—my Lord?"
"Is it too difficult for you, Patrick?" Voldemort jeered cruelly. "To retrieve a boy from that ghost of a woman you left a decade ago?"
"No! No, my Lord— I didn't understand…of course, of course…"
Nobody dared to ask what Voldemort's motives were. He knew they wouldn't, and he wasn't about to tell them anyway. He'd learned the painful lesson of not trusting anyone with your deepest secrets by now, and he would not make the same mistake again.
The school year began in two days. What a year it was going to be.
A/N: If James seemed a little rude in this chapter, it's because he's still an immature prat (I actually imagine canon-James as worse than this). Muse is probably the last OC I'll make for this story (besides minor people and DADA professors), and she's pretty important later on. And, finally: I decided to make Regulus one year older than he really is for the purpose of the story (like I made Bellatrix and Narcissa much younger than they really are...it just helps with the plot).
Any comments are appreciated, as always :)