Chapter Six: Nightmares of Magic

The blood drained from Dumbledore's face so fast that he actually swayed and black spots formed in his sight. Oh, this was a complete nightmare. There was a reason the whole world, magically speaking, celebrated when the last member of the Cedicit family finally perished. They were apparently wrong. No one would claim that name deliberately, unless you were looking to be shunned. Assassins of the highest degree, spies, and inventors. The Cedicit family was well known for their accomplishments. He wondered which of the three the young woman fit most. Her son as well, though he was a bit young to have been intensely trained…hopefully.

Lucius felt himself gaping, something he'd never done before. Excitement swiftly replaced the shock, tinged with a bit of fear. He'd been told stories about the Cedicit family; he'd always admired them. Their origins were never made clear. His Lord was going to be very pleased with this new information.

He was torn out of his thoughts when Poppy began shoving at him.

"Out! Out, out, out! You have overstayed your welcome Mr. Malfoy." Lucius couldn't believe the nerve of the woman. He'd heard that when riled, she would forget all sense of decorum and status in favor of her patients. He'd never thought it was actually true. Continuing to gape, Lucius was pushed and shoved backwards several feet before he regained his senses. Darting away from the vicious nurse, he straightened his robes, cheeks dusted a faint pink when he heard snickering and bark like laughter. Spinning on his heel, he paused briefly at the doorway, turning his head slightly, he took one last look before sweeping out of the room, dignity in tatters. The bark like laughter morphed into a yelp when Poppy shot a stinging hex at Sirius.

"Ow! Poppy, what was that for?" Sirius whined, cradling his abused arm.

"That was for letting Malfoy see my patients." Poppy's voice trembled with barely constrained rage. Sirius paled as he registered just how angry he'd made the school nurse.

"Well now that we are the only ones here, let's get to it shall we?" Potter's mouth shut with a click when Ailana shot him a venomous glare.

Aliana had never really forgiven her father once she saw what he'd done to Severus in his memories she'd 'accidentally' stumbled upon. After realizing that she loved Severus, any chance of her forgiving her father almost completely flew out the window. Sirius managed to somewhat win her forgiveness in that he had profusely apologized to Severus when she had found out about it in her Fifth year. Though she was still pissed at him. Severus had become slightly tolerant of the man, in other words, no longer plotting to kill him every time he laid eyes on her godfather. If he planned to toss a Crucio at him however, she'd turn her head the other way for seven seconds. One second for each year that the Marauders had bullied Severus.

"I was under the impression that the Cedicit family had died out." Dumbledore made the statement in the hopes of Ailana taking up a conversation from it.

"It was for the most part. The male line died due to an experiment gone wrong. My son is the first male to be born since then. I was able to pick up the last name, seeing as my mother was disowned. Teddy, my son, helped cement the claim." Teddy chose that moment to let out the most adorable yawn, prompting Poppy to fuss over him.

"Mom?" Teddy's voice was rough from too little use and sleep. He blinked up at his mother blearily, his large eyes struggling to adjust to the light hitting him in the face.

"Yes, love?" She ran her fingers through his hair, the thick wavy strands snapping back into place.

"S'too bright. Turn off the lights." With that he buried his face into her stomach, crawling into her lap.

"That would require me to destroy the sun, silly goose." She poked him, trying to get him to move his face from her stomach. It was still tender and began to ache a bit as he pressed his face into it. Teddy groaned, burrowing into her stomach. She hissed in pain. Poppy and the others caught this. Ailana shook her head when Poppy went to pull Teddy away from her. She wasn't sure how he would react, but she didn't want to risk anyone getting hurt.

"Teddy sweetheart, I need you to move. I was hurt where you're pushing your face." That did the trick. Teddy flung himself away from her, panic in his eyes. "Shh, darling, I'm fine, just sore." She pulled her son into a hug as Poppy checked her midriff.

"Hmm, just some extensive bruising, it looks like your magic has fixed the other injuries that were previously there." Ailana smiled sweetly at Poppy's curious look, then bared her teeth at Potter and Dumbledore. They flinched back away from her.

Sirius Black watched silently as Ailana bared her teeth at James and Dumbledore. Sirius had yet to say something, preferring to watch Ailana's reactions to the people around her. She was a good mother from what little he had seen of her interactions with her son Teddy. The boy clearly adored his mother; saw her as his protector like any child should. Sirius felt a pang of jealousy and regret. He would have given anything for his parents to treat him like Ailana did her son. Why couldn't she have been his mother? As if knowing that he was thinking about her, Aliana glanced over at him. Some unnamed emotion flashed through her eyes, she stared at him a moment longer, then seemed to force her eyes away from him. He blinked at the surge of frustration that coursed through him

'Why am I frustrated?'

The demon returned to his seat by the side of the bed, noting that his son was staring at him intently. He gave his child a small smile, chuckling as his eyes widened at the sound. He didn't realize it, but Severus never laughed, and was therefore given extremely disturbing looks of horror in the case of James and Sirius, and dumbfounded ones in the case of everyone else.

"Did you just chuckle?" The demon cursed mentally, having forgotten that his human had never expressed his amusement through laughing in any form before. Said human bashed against the shields with renewed vigor.

"Do you have a problem with that Black?" His tone was acerbic, eyes glittering ominously in the light.

"Actually yes, yes I do." Ailana shot Sirius an irate look. He noticed and twitched. Ailana barely repressed a giggle at his smothered reaction.

"Ms. Cedicit, I'm going to have to ask you a few questions about the events that took place here three days ago."

Ah, she was wondering when Potter would get down to the interrogation. She mentally frowned, why was Potter the one going to interrogate her? She knew Dumbledore was present since the issue directly concerned Hogwarts, and as the Headmaster, it was his right to be present.

Oh, Potter must be the Head Auror if he's the one questioning me. It is strange that he doesn't have a partner…unless…Sirius!

If her father was also the Head Auror in this dimension, then there was a good chance that Sirius would also be his partner here as well.

Aliana would have been correct, however, Sirius was still on medical leave, and therefore was not going to interrogate her. Poppy had let him see Ailana based on the fact that he could help protect her or chase off any other Aurors that tried to sneak in.

The doors, still open from Lucius Malfoy's departure, allowed the occupants to hear a very distinctive clunking sound of a wooden walking stick on the floor.

'Oh no, not…'

"Sorry I'm late."

'Mad-Eye Moody. Why, why hadn't the paranoid bastard retired dammit! Grr, just my luck…typical.'

"Ah Mad-Eye, see you made it without being attacked." Aliana didn't know it, but the greeting was a running joke in the DMLE.

Moody grunted, magical eye swiveling in its socket at a dizzying speed. Both eyes locked on her, the electric blue of the magical eye disturbing in its intensity.

"So, these are our mysterious guests eh?" Teddy hid behind his mother, Moody having scared him. Ailana resisted the urge to roll her eyes at the man.

"Right, might as well get this over with." Moody grunted as he hobbled over to them. Albus conjured chairs for everyone, and a table for the two Aurors to write on. Ailana didn't know why they didn't simply use dicta-quills rather than end up with cramped hands by writing manually.

Moody never took his eyes from the woman, something about her was unsettling, aside from her eyes, there was something off about her. He had always trusted his gut, and it was currently screaming that she was extremely dangerous. His paranoia meter was off the charts while near her. He felt like she was going to pull out a wand any minute and start cursing them all. He twitched, wand slipping into his hand, he felt marginally better now.

Sirius snorted at Moody's paranoia, not that he could blame the man, his inner animagus form was warning him that the woman was an apex predator luring in the disguise of a human.

"Your full name." Ailana rolled her eyes at the gruff command.

"Ailana Aurora Cedicit and Theodore Sirius Cedicit." Her voice sounded bored, but she was taking unholy delight in the horrified look on Moody's face and the nonplussed expression Sirius was sporting.

"Right." Moody's voice was strangled, an interesting thing to hear from the old Auror.

"Location and date of birth." James asked her the question this time, knowing that Moody was still in shock at hearing the name of a family once joyfully thought extinct.

"Portland, Oregon on July 31, 1971. My son was born in Sitka, Alaska on October 31, 1987." The locations clearly startled the men. Two very far away locations, and both in America. Though, that wasn't too much of a surprise considering they both had American accents.

"How did you end up here in Hogwarts?" James decided that the suspense was killing him, and never really learning the virtue of patience, skipped right to the juicy details. Moody huffed, while Albus smiled.

The demon, wanting to please his mate, reached over and grabbed one of his mate's tiny feet, starting to massage the appendage. Ailana jumped, head snapping over and down to stare at him in bewilderment. Teddy grinned, plots on getting the two together whirling through his young mind.

"Oi! Get your slimy paws off of her Snivellus!" This time it was Teddy's turn to jump. Ailana was used to the yelling matches between Sirius and Severus. The others in the room looked shocked at the behavior Severus was displaying. Poppy ran to get her camera, discreetly snapping several pictures of the people present, especially of Ailana and Severus. She planned to give all of the photos to her patients, she had the feeling that they would love them.

Sirius was red faced in fury. He trembled, barely restraining himself from attacking Snivellus then and there.

'That slimy git better get his hands off of my precious princess! No! She is not my precious princess dammit! I'm not turning into the crazy Azkaban escaped convict…'

The demon smirked as his mate moaned when he located a particularly sensitive spot on her ankle. Oh yes, his little mate was very much enjoying the massage. His human side seemed to have frozen in stunned disbelief. The demon was actually showing affection and physical care openly. Oh, Severus knew that the demon had shown Ailana plenty of affection while she was unconscious, but they were alone, and no one aware but he and the demon of what was going on. Now the demon was displaying his affection for all to see.

Albus looked between his Potions Master and Ms. Cedicit. His calculating gaze settled on the boy, Teddy. His eyes widened, and he looked between Severus and Teddy more closely. Oh, there were some similarities, but were there enough to connect the two? He vowed to find out.

James Potter had turned green at the sight of Snape touching someone, let alone giving someone a foot massage. He swore he'd have nightmares about this. He glanced over at Moody, gaping when he saw the bored and disinterested look on the heavily scared face.

"I was performing a ritual." The men stared at her blankly, except for the demon, he didn't care what his mate had been doing, only that she was here with him now. It took several seconds for her sudden words to actually sink in.

"Ritual?" Albus recovered the fastest, latching onto her explanation like a lifeline. Ailana nodded.

"Yes, I can't remember what it was for or supposed to do. I was knocked out by the magical backlash when the ritual fluctuated and my son ran in to save me, disturbing the runic sequence in the process. I believe that when he did so, the ritual somehow drug us from where we were to Hogwarts due to such a high concentration of magic being at the castle. I don't know why it simply didn't drop us off at one of the many magical schools in America, or at another area containing a high concentration of magic." Ailana fell silent after that, content to simply observe the others and enjoy the foot massage. Her eyes fell to half-mast, a lazy smile stretching her lips. She looked rather goofy.

"You can't remember anything to do with the ritual? Nothing at all?" Albus was not pouting, no, that would be entirely undignified. Ailana sleepily looked at him, shaking her head. He was not pouting dammit!

Sirius looked at Ailana with amusement, she looked like some great cat lazing in the sun. He almost expected her to start purring. The scratching of quills, rustling fabric, and soft breathing were the only sounds to fill the Hospital Wing.

Poppy had silenced her camera and was partially hidden so that her victims wouldn't see her. She knew Moody was aware of what she was doing, and had suspicions that Ms. Cedicit was also aware when her eyes flicked over to Poppy's hiding spot every now and then. Since neither had said anything about it, she continued to take pictures of them when she saw something that she felt was camera worthy.

"I think the room's contents were most likely destroyed by the magical backlash as well." Ailana frowned. "I actually can't remember where the room was, let alone where I lived. Huh, that's strange." She muttered the last, Turning her head to look at her son. "Do you remember anything Teddy?"

Teddy shook his head, putting on a regretful face. "No, all I remember is panicking because something went wrong with the ritual and trying to get to you. Sorry." He gave the adults an apologetic look.

"If you have a Pensieve, I can give you my memories of the event." Ailana offered when she saw the skeptical looks on everyone's faces.

"You can have mine as well." Teddy piped up, looking excited at the prospect of being able to be of assistance.

Dumbledore looked thoughtful, carefully observing the last of the Cedicit family sitting on the hospital bed. He eventually nodded, conjuring two vials for them to place their memories in. He walked closer, stopping next to the bed.

Ailana smiled, pulling out her wand, causing Moody and Potter to curse. Putting the tip against her head, she concentrated on the fabricated memories and pulled away the wand. She guided the long strand into the open vial that Dumbledore was holding near her. Capping it, Dumbledore opened the second one. Turning to her son, Ailana waited until Teddy indicated that he was ready before taking a copy his memories.

"I have included a few memories of my life as well. I can only remember bit and pieces, but I've included most of what I can remember of the ritual. My son only gave what he remembers of the ritual." The men, including Severus, looked intrigued as she informed them that there were more than memories of the ritual.

"Well, I think that the memories will provide us with more information, let's get to it." Moody stuffed away the notes and quill before standing and making his way to the Headmaster's office. Albus too began to walk that way before pausing.

"Ms. Cedicit, I will open one of the guest quarters for you and your son here at Hogwarts until you get your affairs in order." With that said, he swept out, his garish robes of purple and green finally out of sight.

James Potter was more hesitant to leave, but trudged along after the Headmaster. Sirius was torn, he didn't want to leave Snivellus alone with Ailana, but he also dearly wished to view the memories. The demon was equally torn, he really didn't want to leave his mate, but also wished to learn more about her. He sat there, working on his mate's other foot now, trying to make up his mind. He eventually decided that he could always view the memories later, or ask what they contained.

Sirius reached a similar conclusion, his unwillingness to leave Ailana alone with Snivellus outweighing his curiosity. He settled down into a chair, making silly faces at Teddy. The boy giggled, delighted with the man. Sirius grinned at Snivellus's dark scowl.

'Payback's a bitch, eh Snivellus?'

The three men quickly made their way through the halls of Hogwarts, anxious to see what the memories contained. In no time at all, they stood outside of the Headmaster's office, staring at the stone gargoyle guarding the entrance. Dumbledore stepped forward to give the password he had just reset that morning.

"Lemon drops." Moody grunted at the password, sharing a look with Potter behind Dumbledore's back.

Walking up the twisting staircase, the two Aurors waited for Dumbledore to retrieve his Pensieve. Watching as the cabinet opened to reveal the large stone basin, Dumbledore uncapped both vials and poured them in. Flashes of images appeared and disappeared in the rippling surface of the Pensive. Turning to look at his younger friends, Dumbledore gestured for them to come closer.

"So, shall we see what Ms. Cedicit and young Mr. Cedicit have opted to share with us?" Not saying anything, Moody touched the rippling surface, getting sucked into the memory. Potter soon followed suit. Dumbledore made sure that his office was secure before joining the other two men. With a whirl of color, he suddenly found himself in the memories of the last two Cedicit family members.

*Memories Begin*

A young woman sat talking to a small female child, who could be no other than Ailana.

"You have to mean it Ailana." Ailana nodded, turning to the practice dummy.

"Avada Kedavra!" A flash of green light exploded out of her wand, impacting the dummy hard enough to blow it up.

"See! I knew you could do it." Ailana turned with a grin on her face. Her mother was smiling back at her in excitement.

"Rituals are tricky things Ailana, never underestimate their power." Ailana's mother was drawing a large ritual circle with chalk, showing her daughter a simple ritual as her first. Of course she couldn't actually perform the ritual as she didn't have any magic of her own, but her daughter could.

Ailana nodded, eagerly adding her magic to the runic scheme to activate it. The runes glowed purple, showing that the ritual was proceeding correctly.

A surge of energy washed over Aliana as the ritual began to take effect.

"Now you can perform other rituals without too much worry about destroying yourself. The magic from this ritual will serve as a buffer and hopefully allow you to shut down the ritual or give you enough time to protect yourself."

A full moon was high in the sky.

A wolf howled, no, not a wolf…something worse.

She was running, fleeing, her legs burning with the effort of escaping.

There were crashing sounds behind her, something tearing its way through the forest. There was another howl up ahead…she was being hunted by more than one.

She skidded to a stop, wand in hand and sparking menacingly.

Werewolves. There were two, one behind her and one in front of her. She maneuvered her body so both were in her sight at the same time. She wouldn't go down without a fight.

The larger one lunged at her. She twisted out of the way, barely avoiding the snapping teeth. The smaller one charged at her, she shot off a dark cutting curse. Blood sprayed and the Werewolf howled.

Ailana dodged again as the first Werewolf turned around. The wounded one snapped at her heels. She danced back, shooting an overpowered Bombarda at the smaller one, aiming for its chest.

The Werewolf swerved out of the way, the spell clipping its front leg instead. The limb exploded in a shower of gore. It went down as it lost its balance. Jumping away from the larger Werewolf, she finished off the smaller one with a Killing Curse.

Enraged, the bigger Werewolf managed to land a hit on Ailana. Four long gouges appeared on her back. She screamed, arching away from the deadly claws.

Twisting, she shot a rotting curse at the Werewolf. She missed and it hit a tree instead. The tree immediately began to rot. An idea suddenly popped into her head.

Shooting spell after spell at the Werewolf, she slowly weakened it, yet managed to mostly keep it at bay. The Werewolf was much faster than the other one was, making most of her spells shoot off into the forest. The tree continued to rapidly rot, creaking as it died. She didn't want to cast Killing Curses only to miss and hit something else.

Maneuvering the Werewolf with several blasting curses, she waited for the tree to fall.

The ground began to shift as the tree fell. The Werewolf, dazed from the last dark curse that hit it, was unable to move quickly enough.

Though rotten and dead, the tree was still massive, certainly large and heavy enough to crush the Werewolf.

With a sickening crunch, the tree pinned the Werewolf to the ground. It whimpered, whining in pain.

Ailana smiled in satisfaction, ignoring the blood running down her back and the burning pain from her wounds. Stepping forwards, she raised her wand and ended the second Werewolf with a heart-stopping curse. It died with one last whimper of pain. Ailana set fire to the tree and both bodies, making sure that the forest didn't catch fire.

Satisfied that her test was over, she port keyed out of the forest.

She was staring at the results in disbelief, pregnant, she was pregnant.

Ailana screamed as the contractions gripped her. She pushed one last time and was rewarded with her son's shrill cries.

Theodore, his name was Theodore.

She was watching her son practice his first spell. Smiling as his face scrunched up in concentration.

With a shout of delight, the feather levitated off of the table.

Her son was turning ten, she wanted it to be a birthday he would never forget.

A large ritual circle had been painstakingly drawn on the stone floor, countless runes drawn in chalk.

Ailana added the last of the runes, sitting back on her haunches. The runes and room were blurry, too much to make out any significant details. A small door was on one of the walls. There were no windows.

The next part was blurred to the extent that all that was visible were vague shapes of color.

The memory briefly came back into focus to show a young boy running towards the circle shouting something.

There was a brilliant flash of light and sound, before the memory cut off abruptly.

Teddy watched his mother finish drawing the last rune, too far away to make out what they looked like. His memories of the event were clearer.

They were in a round stone room, containment and protection runes lining the walls. His mother had said that they needed to be updated soon as they were getting old.

There was a snapping sound, one that told him something had gone wrong. He panicked, rushing over to his mother to try and save her, forgetting about his own safety.

His feet smeared several of the runes, he barely noticed as the magic exploded outward right when he reached his mother.

Everything went white, then black.

*Memories End*

The three men were ejected from the memories, greatly troubled. There were no signs of tampering or falsification, so they had to assume that they were legitimate.

"It troubles me greatly that she was taught the Killing Curse so young, and that she used it on living creatures." Moody snorted at Dumbledore's statement.

"You and I both know that using the Killing Curse is perfectly legal in the States in cases of self-defense or on animals." Dumbledore's shoulders slumped in defeat, not being able to counter that fact.

Potter frowned. "Did you notice how she focused most on the battle scene more than any other?" The other two men gave Potter disbelieving looks. How could they have not noticed?

"Yes. I am not sure why she did so, but there has to be a reason. To be honest, I'm impressed with her taking down two adult Werewolves singlehandedly. Granted, she did use Dark magic, but who wouldn't in her situation?" Moody seemed to be conveniently forgetting that he was one of the few in the DMLE willing to resort to Dark magic.

Potter snorted, rolling his eyes at Moody's statement.

"Yes well, that's beside the point Mad-Eye. We should go write up formal reports on the interrogation and hand them over to Bones. She has been constantly pestering me for information. The Ministry is on her case about the situation, driving her up the walls." Moody gave a short laugh, remembering all too clearly Amelia's disgruntled appearance last time he saw her.

Dumbledore sat at his desk, watching the Aurors walk out of his office.

"Trouble in paradise Albus?" Phineas Nigellus asked as he peered down at Dumbledore. He smirked as Dumbledore shot him a dark look. The other past Headmasters and Headmistresses muttered, shifting in their frames.

"What do you know Phineas?" The portrait's smirk grew larger.

"Well, I know many things, you'll have to be more clear Albus." Dumbledore grit his teeth in frustration.

"What do you know that I don't?" Albus actually growled the words.

"Well, I overheard a conversation between Bellatrix and Narcissa from my portrait in Malfoy Manor. It appears that the Dark Lord is in a snit of epic proportions." Albus blanched, very few explanations as to why Voldemort would be so angry when he hadn't sent his Death Eaters out on raids lately. None of them were good news for the Light.

Voldemort sat stock still in shock. He couldn't breathe, his world spun. Fury rose up in him next.

'How dare they! I would know if I had a child!'

His fury caused his magic to lash out and attack the messenger that foolishly informed him of the rumor.

Said messenger was writhing on the marble floor, screaming at the top of his voice. Voldemort killed the man when he became little more than a blubbering and drooling sack of blood. He stormed out of the room, barely registering his familiar Nagini slipping from him to eat the body. The rest of his followers had fled at the first sign of him losing his temper.

He marched down the halls, the portraits and priceless artifacts rattling as he passed by. He lost track of where he was storming in his anger. He found himself in a wing he had previously avoided like the plague.

He stopped at the entrance, looking down the long hallway in contemplation. He decided that he would prove that the rumor was false one and for all.

Stalking down the hall, he came to a stop at a large ornate wooden door. He grasped the handles, pausing only briefly before pushing open the doors. He glanced around the dark chamber, flicking his wand to light the room.

Stepping into the room, he slowly walked to the far wall. His wand light reached the large tapestry first. He looked at the name Salazar Slytherin briefly, before following his bloodline down to his mother, then to himself.

He blinked, shaking his head. There, branching down from his name, was another, and another branch from that one. He had a child. Hands shaking, he focused on the words.

Ailana Aurora Cedicit.

Theodore Sirius Cedicit.

A daughter, he had a daughter. His knees went weak, he stumbled to a chair, sitting down heavily. He shot back up when he realized that he also had a grandson. Looking at the tapestry again, he saw that his daughter's mother was missing. He frowned. She must have been a Squib then. Looking at his daughter's name, he saw Severus Tobias Snape-Prince connected to hers. His fury roared back to life.

'He dared to touch my daughter!'

Voldemort stormed out of the room, plotting how to torture his best Potions Master.

Back in the Hospital Wing, the demon felt a sudden, inexplicable chill run down his spine.

Ailana on the other hand, was planning how best to get revenge for her violated privacy.

Beta by Eternal Blood Love.