(Dramatic voice) Is it a bird? Is it a plane?

It's another Chapter!

As I requested last time: Read, Review, and Enjoy


Chapter 8

Croft Manor, Surrey, England

Croft Manor wasn't the largest manor Bella had ever seen. Nor was it the most beautiful or memorable. In fact, it had taken a moment of recall using Occlumency to ensure she had the right manor, it was that… bland. But it had no need to be memorable. The Crofts had little need to impress. They were well-enough-off and the Lord had a career that sustained his luxurious lifestyle. Not to mention the need to blend in somewhat since their Manor stood close to highly muggle-populated areas, since notice-me-not and muggle-repellant wards only helped hide so much. As such, there were no animated peacock statues as at Malfoy Manor, or animated skeletons guards out to harm unwelcome visitors as at the Ancestral Hall of the Bones family, known as the Ossuary. No, the only outstanding thing of the Crofts was the massive Library, rivalled only by famously larger ones like those at Hogwarts or Alexandria. And the Croft Library was much more varied, due to Lord Croft's tomb-raiding career leading him to countries like Cambodia, Egypt, Nepal, Peru, China, Romania, and Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, to simply name the ones Bella knew of, and his lack of a Curse-Breaking contract with Gringotts allowing him to keep everything he finds for himself.

And the guests at the moment were as varied as the subjects he was knowledgable in as a result. The original Rascals lined the table, as did a number of their friends from abroad. Her stately Aunt Cassiopeia; her go-to people for the annual vacations in France, the handsome Maurice and Appoline Delacour; the elder muscular-yet-slightly-rotund head of the Russian counterpart of the Ministry of Magic, Aleksei Romanov; the well-cultured bespectacled black-market fence known as Howard Fletcher; and a rugged-looking man in a dark purple trench-coat simply identified as Lucian, who upon questioning simply explained that he was to the Great Alliance as Fenrir Greyback was to the Death Eaters: an ear and a persuasive person inside the international Werewolf community that could persuade a number to at least remain neutral in the conflict between the Death Eaters on the one side, and the Order of the Phoenix and the Great Alliance on the other. There were others, but Bella didn't know them and neither side had any desire to identify themselves. One thing she did know, though.

By the looks of some people or what she knew of them, everyone aside from a number of the Rascals present was either very knowledgable in history and historical artefacts, or an expert in Dark Magics.

"Bella," a voice said behind her, and Bella cringed. There was a coldness in her voice that hadn't been there the last time they spoke months ago. Then again, with the words exchanged the last time around, Bella shouldn't be surprised. She'd made the mistake of calling the young woman's husband a dirty mudblood, after all. An insult not easily looked past.

She turned around in her chair, facing her sister. "Andi. A surprise to see you here."

Andromeda Black regarded her sister coolly, her face a bland mask as if she were greeting an infamously impolite stranger. "I take it you were called in for your knowledge of the Dark Arts and related curses."

"Just as I take it you were called in for your knowledge of Countercurses," Bella acknowledged. "Grandfather warned me you would also come."

"A greater mistake he couldn't have made," Andi practically snarled, reaching in her robes for her wand. Bella quickly grabbed her hand before she could. Half the crowd would take it the wrong way if she did draw it so suddenly, and hex first and ask questions later, regardless if both Barons and most of the Rascals were present.

"Andi, we need to talk," Bella said. "We have unresolved issues between us, and I'd rather air them somewhere private than have either of us blow up in present company."

Andi nodded, wrenched her arm loose, and swiftly strode out of the room. Bella followed a few seconds behind, hearing her grandfather mutter "About bloody time they did that," as the door closed.

As soon as she did and turned around, Andi grabbed her by the arm and pulled her into a side room, a small sitting room.

"Alright, we're here. Now spit out what you want to say," Andi hissed, her blank emotionless expression replaced by the sneer the Black ladies and women have been infamous for. "Or did you come here simply to try and persuade me to end my marriage and marry into the Yaxleys like grand uncle Pollux wanted me to?"

Bella bit her lip. It shouldn't be this difficult. The sisters had always been close, even when their male cousins started to drift off due to Walburga's influence. But with how angry Andi was now, regardless of how much right she had to be… Bella found the words were stuck in her throat.

Then she swallowed what was stuck. She was a Black, and if there was any lesson she had absorbed from her grandfather's teachings, it was that Blacks never backed down in the face of someone opposing what they stood for… Even if it was your family or friends doing the opposing. Judging from her choice in husband Andi had done the same thing. Now it was Bella's turn.

"I'm sorry," she whispered.

Andi blinked, her jaw becoming slack in shock. Bella couldn't blame her: in all of the sisters' and cousins' history together, only Andi had ever apologised for someone, the other members either too proud or too fearful of the consequences of doing so, considering the irrationality of members of their family like grand uncle Pollux, Aunt Walburga, or even her own parents. It would genuinely be a fi-

She keeled forward and her breath shot out of her, her gaze briefly focusing to see Andi's arm withdraw. Bella's eyes widened in surprise, briefly gasping when her lungs caught on to the fact all he air had been knocked out of her. As she gasped for breath, Andi pushed her against the wall, pinned both her wrists above her head with one hand, and used the other, her good one, to point her wand at Bella's throat.

"Who are you?" Andi growled. "And what have you done with Bellatrix Black? I swear, if you bend even a single hair out of place…"

Bella, having finally gotten her breath, realised Andi must think her an imposter for apologising to her. She had to think fast, to recall a memory only the two of them, or at most the rest of the cousins and their sister, would know. Then she figured out one that would convince her. It was painful to recall, not to mention embarrassing for both of them, but it was the only one she could come up with.

"Summer of nineteen seventy," Bella immediately began, speaking rapidly to ensure her sister didn't cast prematurely. With both her arms pinned, winded, without a wand, and a hostile one almost touching her throat, her very life was at risk. "The summer at Grimmauld Townhouse, when both Black Manor in Ireland and the ancient Black lodge were emptied to recast the Wards after Great-Grandfather Sirius Black the second had neglected to check the wards on either for years and a fluctuation cost grand uncles Lycoris and Regulus the First their lives and turned Marius into a Squib." Seeing recognition flash across Andi's eyes, Bella quickly continued.

"We were fifteen, and about to enter the Hogwarts express for our sixth year. We caught Regulus and Sirius, our younger cousins that is, playing a game of throwing balls to determine who could hit the most house elf heads in one go without missing. Aunt Walburga, all furious about the fact someone was messing with her head collection, caught us all in the same place, and in panic, the three of us ratted Sirius and Regulus out, and we were forced to watch as cousins five years our junior were put under the Cruciatus for five seconds as punishment. We were all ashamed of it, and you came back to them later to apologise to Siri and Reg, and you were the only one forgiven as a result. Cissy and I stayed behind, too ashamed to do so as well."

Bella waited with bated breath, as pain clearly flashed across her sister's face. Then, to Bella's relief, Andi let her wrists go and removed the wand from her throat, although she still had it by her side. Bella immediately dropped her wrists and rubbed them.

"We agreed never to tell anyone about that," Andi said, pain evident in her voice as she remembered that rather shameful moment. "Alright, so you are Bella, even if you picked a rather lousy memory to prove that."

Bella flinched. "Yeah, I'm sorry for that, too." Andi's eyebrows rose in surprise at the second time Bella apologised in five minutes. But Bella continued on regardless; Andi could get over her surprise later. "I was beginning to panic, and latched onto the first thing I thought of, ok?"

"You're forgiven in that instance," Andi comforted. "I did put you on the spot there."

Bella smiled. "You do have a… wicked right hook, right?"

Andi smiled back, the first time she did so at Bella this evening, or since the argument at Grimmauld, for that matter. "Right uppercut, technically speaking. But I'm glad you know of them at all. Most Purebloods don't."

"So where did you learn to do that?" Bella asked.

Andi's smile became a rather grim one. "Ted and I aren't the greatest with duelling, so we figured we'd learn some muggle self defence techniques as well, to compensate. Figure that if we're close enough to them we can still defend ourselves even if we end up wandless."

Bella's smile grew. "Good for you, Andi. I might take up some of those classes as well. Had a few too many close encounters this year to not consider it." She thought back about Riddle Manor, about how Crouch and the Lestranges almost had her, and would've had it not been for Longbottom. She frowned at that. She still had to meet him to acknowledge the Life Debt she owed him for that.

"So, what's up with you that has you apologising to me all of a sudden, and about the fact you, someone the Rascals know as a Death Eater, are attending a meeting determined to stop You-Know-Who?"

Bella sighed, pulled up one of the chairs and sat down. Andi immediately did likewise.

"It started at Hogwarts," Bella admitted. "Back when I was already betrothed off to the bastard son Rudolphus, even if I managed to delay the wedding itself, indefinitely it now seems. He and his brother were approached by a small group of Blood Supremacists called the Knights of Walpurgis."

"The predecessors of the Death Eaters," Andi acknowledged. That was before someone had come up with their symbol for the Dark Mark and more aptly named them Death Eaters.

Bella nodded. "I had a plan to be the best I could be, so I figured that since Rudy and Raba were going to join up I might as well do the same and try to one-up them. To summarise the years since, I got caught up in my dream, bought into their whole vision on Blood Purity in the process, jumped up the ranks by my successes against Muggleborns, and… Honestly, I toed the line a few too many times. I became more and more of a fanatic as the bloodlust got to me. It was during that time we had our meeting where I scolded you for dating… Ted, wasn't it?"

Andi nodded. "So what changed?"

Bella sighed. "Grandfather shook me awake. I won't describe it in detail about all that was shown, but…" Bella rubbed her face. "The Dark Lord split his soul, Andi. Multiple times, in fact. There are lines even I don't want to cross, and doing that, or serving someone willing to do would cross a number of them."

Andi had paled considerably. "No."

"Yes," Bella contradicted. "Ask Grandfather after the meeting, and specifically ask for the word Horcrux. He'll show you what I mean. We intend to show the same to Regulus this coming Christmas, to disabuse him of repeating my mistakes."

Andi nodded. "And after you learned that, you left."

"Not immediately, but yeah," Bella admitted. "I left during that raid on Riddle Manor a few weeks back. Helped a few prisoners escape too," she sighed. "When I learned what I did, I had a lot of time for thinking on my hands. About our world. The whole issue of Blood status and whatnot. They… I'm not suddenly starting to spout Dumbledore's rhetoric and say they're saints. After all I've seen and been through while…" She paused, deciding what she had done as a Death Eater was better left unsaid. She was no saint, but the means Muggles would go to to save themselves… A handful had literally thrown their children at her to save their own hides, so her view of them would always be mixed no matter what. "There's no coming back from that. But… Maybe they aren't all the louts and naffs and mongrels I made them out to be either." She paused, grinning. "They can't be if you fell hard enough for one of them to marry him. You have better taste than that."

Andi chuckled. "Great minds do think alike," Andi agreed.

"So, as I tried to say before you almost killed me, I was wrong in my beliefs and what I said, and I apologise." Bella paused.

Andi paused a bit, her eyes glazed over briefly, and Bella feared for a moment if her sister was going to refuse, and hate her like the Longbottom boy seemed to…

That fear vanished when her sister smiled. "Oh, with that kind of apology I can't stay mad forever, can I?" She laughed, before pulling her sister into a hug. Bella stiffened for a bit. The last time the sisters openly hugged like that, aside from helping one another recover from physical trauma, was before Hogwarts. But, remembering how good it felt to have an older sister, she relaxed and returned it.

"It's good to have my sister back," Bella laughed.

"It is," Andi agreed. "But you still need to apologise to Ted in person. In general he's very forgiving, but he can hold a terrible grudge if you don't."

"Hufflepuff protectiveness," Bella mock-huffed. "Oh, and here I thought Ted would take over your Slytherin tendencies."

"I like to think we each take over the better parts of the other," Andi grinned. "His hard work and devotion, my cunning and sharp wit, his caring nature, my powerful presence whenever I enter a room… Our shared tendencies in the bedroom…"

Bella cringed. "There are points where sisters don't need to inform each other of certain habits. Come on, the rest of the room's likely waiting for us by now."

Andi nodded. "Right. Time to get to work."

And with that, they both headed back to the dining hall elected for the meeting point. As expected, the room was full except for the sisters' respective chairs, which happened to be beside one another.

"Well that took a long while," Lord Bones' sister noted as the two took their seats, her eyes raking over Bella. "And you look quite rumpled. Had a good time?" She coyly asked, winking suggestively. Andi blushed furiously, not at all comfortable with the suggestive things being laid out.

Bella, though, was ready to give as good as she got, ignoring the way her grandfather was glaring at Lady Bones. "Well, Andi's preferences did come up, but we decided to shelve that for later. Suffice to say, we did agree we prefer pricks over cunts."

Andi looked scandalised, and her grandfather shifted his glare from Lady Bones to Bella herself. Lady Bones' though, simply smiled suggestively.

"Don't worry, Dear. I have plenty of strap-ons, in all the shapes and sizes you could want."

"Richard, can you please tell us why we're here before my sister tries to start another orgy?" Lord Bones whined, looking at the Lord of the Manor. "And both of you, please stop encouraging the other? My wife feels uncomfortable around my sister's commentary as it is, no need to get the latter aroused while she thinks of them."

"Quite," Lord Croft agreed, before lifting his wand and shooting sparks across the table towards a doorknob, effectively ending all side discussions.

"Right, as all of you know, we've recently attacked Riddle Manor, and greatly diminished the forces that Tom Riddle, the Dark Lord who goes by the nom de guerre Lord Voldemort, has at his easy disposal." There was a light cheer that went all around as people congratulated one another, which quickly fell silent as Lord Croft cleared his throat.

"During that attack, Baron Potter's second son recovered this Locket," Lord Croft said, ending the disillusionment charm on a bust on the table in front of him, of a person's neckline and upper chest, with a locket hanging from it on a steel chain around the neck. It was mostly silver, but with a golden background on the front of the locket for a dominating green serpentine S.

"It's a powerful Talisman the Dark Lord mentioned earlier had at his disposal, that in short provided impenetrable mental defences, to the point that neither Veritaserum nor a Legillimency attack by someone of Dumbledore's power would be able to break its protections. The Dark Lord, however, has added many curses, jinxes, and hexes to it, requiring the help of most of you to break it," he said, gesturing around the room.

"Hence the Dark Aura that most of us who are more sensitive to such magics have been detecting," the half-Veela Appoline Delacour said in English, surprisingly without a French accent.

"Correct," Lord Croft said. "Something about the Locket intrigued me, though, and I felt compelled to consult with a great variety of people well-versed in history such as myself." He gestured to Lucian, the Delacours, and Howard Fletcher, whose frequent practice of fencing objects required he knew of their history to determine their value. "And after extensive experimentation, investigation, and cross-referencing, I discovered one amazing thing, and one terrible thing."

"What eez ze good bit?" Maurice, Appoline's husband, asked with the distinct accent of his home country.

"Since both facts are very astonishing I'll be very frank," Lord Croft said, before tapping the locket with his wand. "This is Salazar Slytherin's long-lost Locket."

Bella's eyes widened as many around her started chattering excitedly, unknowingly clutching the copy fraud she wore around her neck. Her family had known they never had the real one, but it was a symbol of status that they'd been able to replicate it so well from various historic writings. Nowadays it simply served as a Portkey to Black Manor, but given how proud most of her family, both the lovable, tolerable, and despicable members, was about having such a thing so alike the Founders' relic, Bella still thought fondly of it.

"The terrible thing requires a bit of explanation," Lord Croft silenced the room once again with his words, and with a wave of his wand a blackboard appeared, with chalk-drawn lines and images detailing a stick-character with a snake head likely personifying the Dark Lord or a Death Eater, with six lines going out from him. Two ended in question marks, but a few had images next to them: a book, an H, an R, and the locket. "We know through well-placed sources and grounded reasoning that You-Know-Who has made himself physically immortal. He's done so by splitting his soul into pieces and storing them in objects. Horcruxes, these despicable objects are called. We know his end goal is to create seven soul pieces, his own body and six Horcruxes, but so long as a single Horcrux remains, he cannot die." He sighed heavily, before picking up the Locket and laying it on the middle of the table.

"Gentlemen, Ladies; this is a Horcrux," he said.

Bella stared at the object in horror. Voldemort had turned it into a Horcrux? Voldemort had the stones to turn his own inheritance into such a foul abomination?! She turned her head, and saw her sister was about to become quite sick. Doing her a favour, she conjured a bucket and cast a silencing charm so people wouldn't hear her retching.

"Zen what arrre ve vaiting forrr?!" Romanov shouted, immediately raising his wand. A black-coloured curse that seemed to suck in all light around it, giving it a pure white edge, immediately sailed from the Wand. It struck dead on, but contrary to what many, unlike Bella and the founding Rascals, seemed to expect, the curse rebounded straight towards a suddenly-fearful Romanov, but Baron Potter reacted quickly and using a summoner pulled a serving plate directly into its path, saving his life. The plate shattered into a million bits of ash, which immediately evaporated.

Romanov didn't have a moment to look relieved, though. Her grandfather immediately grabbed him by his robe collar, and slammed him onto the table, making even the solid bust vibrate. Some, like Lord Croft and the Delacours grabbed their wands, and Lucian reached inside his dark purple trench coat. Others, like Baron and Lords Potter, Greengrass, Davis, and Longbottom, simply stayed their hands and watched impassively.

"Look, Aleksei, I don't know how you handle things in Moscow," her grandfather growled, a furious expression on his face. "But to be frank, I'm not in the most patient of moods. So help me, if I ever catch you using that curse in the same room as my granddaughters again, I will wipe out your entire family, down to last in-law like the Muggles did to your Squib counterparts in the February Revolution, alliances and political consequences be damned. Am. I. Understood?!"

Aleksei nodded, though he still held a glare of his own. "Trrransparently, Barrron Black."

"Good," her grandfather nodded, and pulled the man back off the table. "Now sit down and put your wand somewhere it can't curse your own arse off."

"иди к чёрту." (1) Romanov muttered as he straightened his clothes and sat down, and from his tone Bella had the idea his comment was not all that complimentary.

"As those of us that had read up on the subject in advance had known," Lord Croft said pointedly. "Horcruxes, by their very nature as soul containers, anchors, and protectors, are very difficult to destroy. The only known things that can are Fiendfyre and Basilisk venom, neither of which will be used on my grounds."

"So we take it elsewhere," Lucian suggested. "And destroy it there."

"I'm sorry," Howard Fletcher contradicted, looking at Lucian over the rim of his glasses. "I might be the only one crazy enough to think like this right now, but do you have any idea how much this is worth?" At the incredulous looks of nearly everyone else, he continued. "Granted, we need to destroy the Horcrux, but if we can separate the Horcrux Magic from the locket itself-"

"We'd get an invaluable working Slytherin heirloom," Aunt Cassie finished, leaning in in intrigue to get a closer look. "Granted, it would take weeks of research and experimenting to be sure, not to mention the method's likely going to end up using Dark magic. But given he managed to get his soul to leave his body in the first place, theoretically it should be possible to separate the Horcrux from the locket."

"Theoretically," Lucian frowned sceptically. "I say that's too great a risk. We should destroy that abomination, before he learns we have it and he hasn't simply lost it in those fields somewhere and one of the Muggles simply picked it up."

"As much as I hate to agrrree," Romanov added, giving Lucian a knowing look, "Lykan is rrright. Ve kannot allow kontinued existence of such foul zing. Verrre ve in my home kountrrry, zis vouldve been destrrroyed ages ago."

"And let such a priceless artefact be lost forever?" Appoline asked. "I think not! Even in France Slytherin is a well-recognised wizard of talent, and his artefacts will not just be destroyed out of hand due to misplaced paranoia."

"Besides," Andi asked beside her, having recovered from her retching at last and giving her own suggestions. "Can't the Goblins clean it up? They have that security measure they installed after the Grindelwald War, right? The Thief's Downfall, that washes away all enchantments and charms?"

"I like where you're going with this, but no." Howard said with disappointment. "Your idea would also destroy the enchantments most of us value it for, leaving us with nothing but an antique we know the origins of. Besides, Thief's Downfall has a flaw. If the enchantments on a thing are six months old or older still, the Fall ignores them. Otherwise it would ruin any artefacts the old families would want to store in their vaults for safekeeping. Trust me, I've checked. Still, asking the Goblins if they can undo it might be a good idea. Their magic works differently than ours."

Lucian turned to Howard in amusement, though various of the other attendees did so in concern. "And do we wanna know how you actually know that much of the Goblin bank security?"

"My family and I have a life outside the Great Alliance," Howard simply answered, leaning in to look closer at the locket. "Let's just leave it at that."

"I'm sure," Baron Potter nodded. "Let me reiterate, though, just so you remember: as long as you don't damage our alliance with the Goblins or sell to You-Know-Who and his allies, I don't care what you do."

"No worries, ol' Charlie," Howard simply said, leaning back and pulling out a lighter and cigarette. "I know the lines you drew then, and I steer clear of any and all Dark Lord business now, as promised." He lit his cigarette and drew in a breath before letting out a disgusting cloud of smoke, which made Bella cough, and cast a transparent bubblehead charm around herself, as well as a very soft banishing charm to blow the smoke back at him. The man was too stubborn to be bothered by it, though, not even raising so much as an eyebrow when it came back, much less a cough. "I know I can't outfight or outrun even one of you Rascals, so I know not to tempt you." Howard's eyes narrowed. "And I know Ol' Turie's still looking for an excuse to hex me and Flemie here anyway, for that prank in '39."

"I was forced to attend classes starkers for a week," her grandfather growled out, and she and her sister shared an amused pair of raised eyebrows. That sounded more like something Cousin Siri and his Potter friend would do. "Including teaching the Defence League and Quidditch finale against Gryffindor, and a week before NEWT's. Did you really think I would forget with all the stress and grey you two caused me?"

"Oh yeah," the Americanised Lord Potter chuckled. "In retaliation for you hexing the hell out of my brother for sleeping with one of your sisters. Fun times."

"As much as I enjoy hearing about your scandalous escapades," Lucian cut through before her grandfather could raise a retort, "How did you find out about this? From what you say, Horcruxes are a very obscure bit of dark magic, precisely because they are such foul things. How did you even know to look for it, or even figure out what it was?"

Bella turned her head to the Rascals that were clustered together, as did Andi, and Aunt Cassie and the majority of the table, for that matter. Baron Potter took one look around the table and groaned. "How many of you were at the summer meeting in late July, or had been informed of what was discussed by the heads of their families?"

Bella noted surprisingly few people raised their hands, although the Rascals, a still-grumbling Romanov, the Delacours, Howard Fletcher, and three people she didn't know, did raise them or give vocal confirmations. At the confirmation of his likely fear, Baron Potter sighed.

"Right, before we discuss anything further, I hereby declare that willingly informing anyone who is neither in the Great Alliance nor under an Unbreakable Vow to remain silent, of what we just spoke of in this meeting, to be in breach of the Alliance."

Bella took in a sharp breath through her nose, and around her many people gasped in shock. Many people in the United Kingdom, or even Europe, took the Alliance as a sacred order or something. Bella had to grant that there were numerous exaggerations along the line as to how powerful and important and brilliant they were, but the Great Alliance members were numerous, well-regarded by the general populace, many in Europe desired to become prominent members, they were well spread over Europe and had connections in every other continent (even, to Bella's shock when she found out, Antarctica), and had substantial influence. Even disregarding magical consequences of breaching an Alliance one was magically sworn into, which in turn were nothing to sneeze at, to breach it was to declare oneself a traitor to the Alliance, and with the various darker families in it would soon find the one breaching with a large price on their heads.

And since most of Grindelwald's surviving best soldiers, spies, and assassins, coined the Grim Reapers at the time, had turned to bounty hunting and outsourcing themselves as magical private military contractors, there would be no safe place for them to hide or run, if Charlus offered high enough a price. And given the Lestrange family, who were some of the Dark Lord's most magically powerful servants regardless of the skill or intelligence of the younger brothers, had taken to hiding at a Fidelius-protected property when not at their heavily-warded Manor or directly at the Dark Lord's service due to the massive number of attempts on their lives since the bounty was placed on them a year ago, Bella knew the Grim Reapers were to be righteously feared.

In short, Baron Potter had just declared that speaking of this would get them killed for sure, by someone else's hand if not his own. And it shocked Bella the worst reaction it got from the other Rascals was a mere frown from Lord Davis, a raised eyebrow from her grandfather, and sigh from Lord Longbottom.

A single hand was raised, and all turned to a concerned Lucian. "And where do I stand in that, considering my… wandless handicap."

"You're a muggle?!" Someone further along the table shouted in shock bordering on near-outrage before Bella could even formulate her thoughts on the matter.

"Lycan, actually," Lucian corrected, the smile from earlier gone, replaced by a look of silent anger at her prejudice, and Bellatrix was slightly concerned to see his eyes turn a disturbing shade of yellow as he stalked towards the offender. "And I assure you, Fitzgerald, I do not need either a full moon or a wand to tear you limb from bloody-"

"Enough, Lykan," Romanov said, putting himself between the Lycan and the now-cowering witch. "Woman isn't vorrrth spilling blood over, and zerrre isn't enough rrroom forrr you to change. Let herrr be."

Lucian growled, and Bella carefully slid her wand and the identical older copy of it the Longottom boy had given her in her own hand in case it got violent, doing the best to shield her sister with her own body. But fortunately the man's eyes returned to their original pale blue colour, and he backed off and returned to where he used to be seated. Romanov himself also nodded at Lucian, before giving the cowering witch his own glare as he returned to his seat.

"Lyal Lupin can ensure you live up to it on the magical parts," Lord Longbottom said after a moment. "You have mutual trust, and he fits quite well in your community despite his own lack of Lycanthropy."

Lucian nodded, before simply returning to stare at the Locket, carefully avoiding looking at anyone else in the room.

"The reason I consider this such a grave matter," Baron Potter continued now that tempers had cooled a bit, "Is that while he doesn't remember the encounter specifically, Tom Riddle has met my son Harry before. In fact, he's the reason my son was educated abroad in the first place, an enormously powerful potential heir more powerful than the most threatening Dark Lord of our age; we had little choice."

"It's also why Harry has that scar on his forehead," Lord Potter took over. "When he was young, barely two years old, the Dark Lord came to his original sanctuary. The woman we'd charged with taking care of him died to protect him, and her sacrifice powered a ritualistic shield she'd prepared earlier that allowed him to survive the killing curse. The Dark Lord Voldemort was driven off and obliviated by the backlash, but it left Harry with numerous things. Giving him magical proficiencies he didn't have before, and enhancing the ones he already had, becoming a Parseltongue, the man's memories…"

"And a semi-unstable Horcrux," Lucian finished with a sigh. "Figures this had to be complicated."

Bella frowned. That would certainly be enough to upset the Dark Lord. He had certainly been thorough enough in hiding nearly everything about his past, and someone finding out about his past, much less finding out about his method of immortality, would certainly do it. But it still left holes, though. Why didn't the Dark Lord recognise him, even after the Legilimency? Why had Bella not heard of the encounter before now? After all, such a defeat would be heavily discussed outside the Dark Lord's presence even if it was well over a decade ago. Besides, why did the boy's best friend, the Longbottom boy, hate her so much despite having never encountered her before. He didn't seem to glare as much at the Death Eaters holding him up during his tortures, although she had to admit he was pretty vicious in dealing with her former brother-in-law and attacking her betrothed and Crouch. But no, his behaviour and that of his friend was too odd. She needed to know more.

Howard Fletcher, though, frowned. "But judging by how much he lacked in Dark Magic back then, not to mention you had him brought back this summer, doesn't that mean there's a way to remove the Horcrux without damaging the container?"

"That was a one-off," her grandfather dismissed with a wave of his hand. "Involving a dangerous dose of time magic and events we actually had no hand in or control over. Even if we knew all that went down back then, which we don't, I wouldn't try to repeat it even if we had every Unspeakable on the planet at our backs. No, we can't repeat that."

"A pity," someone else further down pouted, and Bella wasn't surprised to see Unspeakable robes on someone near the origin of the voice.

"In any event, since unlike what some people may believe, we're neither a dictatorship, nor an oligarchy," Baron Potter declared before another word could be put in, ignoring Lord Bones' snort at the last one. He continued on regardless. "We're a selective democracy, which lets experts on matters decide, not superstitious-"

"Idiots," Lord Greengrass coughed, which made Bella smirk.

"People who don't know enough about the subject matter to have a right to vote on it," Baron Potter steamrolled over it. "I have heard three suggestions so far: to destroy it, to try and break the curses ourselves, and to let the Goblins have a crack at it. Any others?"

"Use it to pull loose the stick up Crouch's arse?" Lady Bones offered with a smirk, causing a number of them to chuckle.

"Any serious suggestions? And not a word on Arcturus' grandson, Archibald. I know you."

"Buzzkill," Lord Davis muttered, but aside from throwing a crumbled bit of muggle paper kept himself fairly quiet.

"Alright, no new suggestions," her grandfather said when no one spoke up. "Alright, Hector, keep track of the number of votes. Raise your hand if you wish for us to destroy it."

Lucian and Romanov clearly raised their hands, but they were a clear minority. Only one out of six people voted with them, certainly not enough to overrule the others.

"Nine." Hector nodded and gestured, and people lowered their hands. "Raise your hands if you want to let the Goblins handle this."

Significantly more people raised their hands, and Bella had to strain to look around the masses in the room and count them all, spotting Howard Fletcher, a bit startled when she recognised her former classmate Lana Shafiq, and her sister raise their hands. Lord Longbottom spoke up before she could finish, though.

"Twenty six." Lord Longbottom said, and all lowered their hands again. "Alright, now raise your hands if you want us to try and undo the curses and cut loose the Horcrux ourselves."

Bella raised her hand this time, as did Aunt Cassie and the Delacours. But they were clearly in the minority, though not as strongly as those wanting to destroy the Locket. Curiously, none of the Rascals voted.

"Thirteen," Lord Longbottom said, and Bella lowered her hand. "That decides it, then. Tomorrow, the Locket will be taken to Gringotts, where Ironfeet and Griphook will try and find a way to undo the curses. Any objections, aside from the usual about losing your vote?" Lord Longbottom gave a pointed look at Romanov, who growled in annoyance.

There were none, and they were all swiftly dismissed from the room. Just before Bella could activate the Portkey and return to Black Manor, Andi grabbed her arm.

"Bella," Andi looked at Bella with a rather nervous expression. "Could you… track down Cissy for me? I want to make things up with her as well, return to the tight group of sisters we once were. But she's nowhere to be found. Not at any of the Black family properties, not at any written under her name, and not even at the Leaky Cauldron or the Three Broomsticks."

Bella nodded. "I know where she is," she reassured her sister as they left the Manor and walked through the Croft Manor grounds. In the distance, she saw a young adult girl practicing archery, but dismissed it from her mind. "She also learned the same information about the Dark Lord that I did, and she elected to leave the country, to stay reasonably safe."

"So where is she?" Andi pressed, though she seemed less nervous and frantic than earlier, now that she knew her sister was safe.

"Sleekeazy's Potions Labratories in the Colon- in the United States of America," Bella corrected herself, remembering that the United States had stopped being a colony of England a long time ago, even if she'd only recently learned it from Cissy's letter. Magical Britain really was behind the times when it came to worldly knowledge, regardless of how it viewed itself. "She's pursuing her dream of getting her Potions Mastery. I don't know the specific address, though; Lord Potter and his people act as messengers instead of having the address written down, to keep her safe."

Andi nodded. "You think they'll let me write to her too? I wanted the three of us to share Yule together, along with any eventual partners, but if she's staying in the US…"

Bella smiled, and firmly grabbed her sister by the shoulders. "Andi, I can assure you: if you write Cissy a simple letter describing how we talked, and that she has nothing to forgive herself for considering it was me doing all the verbal abusing, you'll find she'll happily come spend Yule at 'Chateau Tonks' with us."

"Tonks Cottage," Andi fondly corrected. "I'd love that."


Defence Against The Dark Arts Reserve Classroom, Hogwarts Castle, Scottish Highlands

"Come in, Harry, and close the door behind you please," Professor Clarke said, calling for Harry to come inside. Harry did as instructed, closing the door behind him. Today, this morning, was his first extra tutoring session with Professor Clarke. He'd brought all of his wands, as well as his Invisibility cloak and all of his defence books, since he didn't know whether he'd be doing primarily practical or theoretical work.

The classroom, though, was surprisingly dark. Professor Clarke stood in the centre, writing with a piece of chalk on a blackboard, only a single small bluebell fire lighting up the centre where he was writing, while all the rest of the room, including the door he entered through, was covered in shadows.

"Come here, Harry," the professor beckoned him towards the blackboard. "Don't skulk in the shadows."

"Why, sir?" Harry asked, arriving in the centre and putting down his bag.

"I brought a few specimens for my NEWT students when I was hired," Clarke explained, "Dark Creatures I'd rather not expose just about anyone to. They're rather sensitive to bright things like fire and light. And movement, for that matter."

Harry frowned. "If they're that dangerous, why do we meet here? Why not in the original defence classroom?"

"Simple," Clarke explained, finishing his work on the blackboard and finally turning to him. "There's just as high a chance of such creatures attacking you on sight as there is of Voldemort using them. After we're going over the basics of what I'm going to teach you and train you in, we'll be going over quite a few of those creatures. Besides, the Potters and Dumbledore don't agree on what you need to be taught, and he has placed monitoring wards in the primary defence classroom. And since the creatures here are my responsibility, I control most of the wards here."

Harry still was puzzled. He agreed with the man's assessment that Dumbledore was too meddlesome for his own good, and understood the benefits of why he needed to be taught here, especially since Harry and his friends still had the Room of Requirement under Fidelius. But didn't the man know everything that happened in this castle?

"He had placed wards here, yes," Professor Clarke said, and Harry looked away when he realised he spoke the last bit aloud, "But they only monitor the creatures and keep them from escaping, and check if people entering and going from here wear Dark Marks to stop them from interfering. But as long as we don't cast anything to release them, like large explosive spells, we should be fine."

Harry nodded in understanding, even if he still believed quite a bit could go wrong. Who knew if the Headmaster had placed additional monitoring wards that could detect what spells were used, after all? "All right."

"Good," Professor Clarke said. "Now, co-"

Professor Clarke was interrupted by an inhuman shriek that came from one corner of the room, and Harry turned in surprise, covering his ears as he did. His eyes widened, and he ducked as something jumped at him.

It was a gruesome, horrifying sight. It looked vaguely humanoid, with a human body and the appearance of a human head, limbs, and appendages like hands and feet. But that was where the similarities ended. The creature had a light grey appearance bordering on white, and had elongated limbs and a taller, apparently emaciated body so it was easily two, nearly three times as tall as a normal human. Its skin was flayed, almost absent, as if the muscles and bones had grown while the skin had not, and the latter had been torn apart as a result. Its nails were lengthened, and though they were thin, Harry had the idea that with the force it jumped and clawed it had incredibly strong muscles. Its head was also different: bald, eyes pale and white, although an iris was still visible, and the teeth were lengthened until they were nearly pointed fangs. Strangely enough, it also had a butterfly tattoo on its upper right arm.

It stopped short of him, held back by a collar and chain around its neck that likely led to either the wall or ceiling, and even on the floor with its long limbs outstretched, it was still three feet short of reaching Harry.

A banishing charm hit it, and it was banished back into the wall. Harry turned gratefully to a grim Professor Clarke.

"Ah, Hannah decided to introduce herself early, did she?" he sardonically remarked, as Harry turned back to the creature. It glared at them, the blue light of Professor Clarke's fire reflected in its eyes, and gave one last shriek of annoyance at them before it retreated into the shadows again. "Well, let's get this one out of the way then. Harry, meet Hannah: the recently captured Inferius specimen courtesy of the Ministry of Magic's Department of Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures."

"An Inferius?" Harry asked. He knew he'd heard the name before, from Charlus' warning about creatures Voldemort might use, as well as in a passing conversation at the Slytherin table, but had not gotten an accurate description at either time, and the conversations had moved on before Harry could ask.

"Basically an undead corpse mutated by Dark Magic," Professor Clarke explained. "Originally a cannibalism-related Necromancy curse only native to the United States, the Inferius is a dark and foul thing. Intelligent, strong enough to bash a skull in and rip an adult half-giant's head off with relative ease, faster than Flitwick on Stoppered Speed… And deceptive. My first partner was lured into the open by it when it tossed a flask she'd lost bare hours ago not three feet from his hiding place, and lost her wand hand when she tried to retrieve it. My last partner was lured into a trap by one because it learned to mimic said partner's husband. Would've lost his jaw if I hadn't summoned him out of harm's way."

Harry stared at where he'd last seen the Inferius in horrified fascination. "That thing was once human?" What on Earth could possess someone to create such a thing?

Professor Clarke nodded. "One of my godchildren, to be precise. Hannah Washington."

Harry turned his look to the professor. "Oh, Merlin. I'm-"

"Don't," Professor Clarke said, and his grim face turned to one of professional indifference. "She'd been missing for over three years before the Aurors found her in the Rocky Mountains. Besides, I never told anyone, so there was no way you could know. Anyway, after the year is done I'll take care of her."

Harry stared at Professor Clarke. Harry didn't know what he would do if someone he cared about had turned into… This. If he thought about it, he would prefer death, a permanent one, than becoming something like this. How the Professor would take care of her, he wouldn't likely want to know. Or, in which way would he do so? Would he put her out of her misery, or would he actually care for her, keep her alive as long as he could?

Not liking that train of thought, considering how little he knew about the man aside from that he and Fleamont were friends, he instead asked. "How do you deal with an Inferius?"

"You stay away from them if you can," Professor Clarke answered grimly. "Keep your distance, because they can cross two dozen meters nearly as fast as you can blink. If you can't avoid them, don't move."

"Don't move?" Harry asked in confusion. Professor Clarke nodded in confirmation.

"Their vision is like that of toads: they can only see movement in their field of vision, the rest is just a hazy blur. If you don't move, it can hear you, it can smell you, but it can't see or find you."

Harry nodded, committing these facts to memory. Somehow he suspected he might have to deal with one of these things in the near future. "And if you cannot avoid being found?"

"Only use fire," Professor Clarke immediately advised. "Mundane, magical, doesn't matter. Their nerve endings are dead, so they don't feel pain, so things like the Cruciatus or Diffindo don't work on them. And despite their seemingly lanky appearance, their skin is nearly as tough as Dragon Skin, so explosive hexes won't breach it either. They might push them back, but that would be the blast of concussive force more than anything else. It won't actually hurt them. Fire, on the other hand… Well, let's just say that while it might be tough, their skin would still burn just as easily as yours. Perhaps even easier, I never bothered to test that. It also scares them off, so even if you can't hit them, it'll send them leaping away if you're ever cornered."

Harry nodded. "Don't move, only use fire. Got it. Any other tips?"

"Yeah," Professor Clarke said. "If you see one turning, or recognise someone that's recently been turned… Kill it anyway. The things still remember a bit of their former lives, before they were turned. And the beasts, the Inferius in control knows how to turn that sentimentality against any friends and family. Even if it were faced with its own husband, wife, or children, it will not hesitate to kill them all."

Harry nodded grimly. As much as he would despise himself for doing so, as firmly as he was against killing… He'd rather slaughter them than letting them turn into this. "Does Voldemort use them?" He asked.

"Not in great numbers so far, but yeah," Professor Clarke confirmed unfortunately. "A few Death Eaters have occasionally been sighted unleashing them near homes of magical families unwilling to join him. The Aurors can take them down, as it's no hidden secret that they're vulnerable to fire, but… On average, one can kill three experienced Aurors before it's killed for good."

Harry looked down, mulling that over. If fully trained Aurors, the best of Law Enforcement Personnel the Ministry has to offer, cannot stand against an Inferius alone… What chance does he have?

Professor Clarke, though, suddenly smiled. "But enough about such gruesome matters. Let us return to what I'll be teaching you from now on, and which Charlus Potter will take over in the Yule Break." With that, he guided Harry's sight away from the shadows where the Inferius undoubtedly still lurked, and towards the Blackboard.

SUBJECTS TO TRAIN, PRACTICE, AND TEACH WHILE HERE:

-MAGICAL FIGHTING/DUELLING (YES, THERE IS A DIFFERENCE!), AS WELL AS INCORPORATING POTIONS IN FIGHTING

-IMPROVE OCCLUMENCY

-BECOME AMBIDEXTROUS (EQUALLY SKILLED/COMFORTABLE USING BOTH HANDS/SIDES)

-MASTER NONVERBAL

-EASY WANDLESS MAGIC TRICKS (DISARMING, SUMMONING, BANISHING, LEVITATION, LUMOS, AMONG OTHERS)

-KNOWLEDGE OF CREATURES DARK LORD WILL USE (WEREWOLF/LYCAN, VAMPIRE, ROGUE GOBLIN, BASILISK(?), DEMENTOR, TROLL, GIANT, HOUSE-ELF, ACROMANTULA, INFERIUS)

-NON-MAGICAL SKILLS (LOCK-PICKING, POCKET-PICKING, MARTIAL ARTS, BASIC COMBAT TACTICS (FLANKING, SETTING UP AMBUSHES, DIGGING IN), ESCAPING FROM RESTRAINTS (ROPES, CHAINS, CUFFS), BASIC SURVIVAL IN THE WILD WITH LITTLE TO NO RESOURCES)

Harry stared wide-eyed at the board. He was supposed to learn all that, with only a few hours every week of practising? Yes, it did all seem handy, but this was a bit too much. How was he supposed to master all that by the end of the year? Especially since the Christmas break was only a few weeks away, that only left him a little over half the year, and that was an unrealistically short time to master it all.

"How will I learn all this in only a year?" Harry asked him. "Not that I don't want to, but this is a lot, even without homework, quidditch, the DA, or maintaining a semblance of a social life. With all of these on top… I don't see how I can learn all that."

"That's very simple," Professor Clarke said, briefly pausing as the Inferius let out a brief shriek again, followed by a few yelps, before falling silent again. "You won't. Remember, this tutoring will last until the end of your Hogwarts years, even after I'm gone, so you have three years to learn this. Not to mention, the Creature knowledge can simply be done by reading ahead in your Care of Magical Creatures books or my Defence Against the Dark Arts books and memorising the contents, and can be finished in under a week if you put your mind to it." Professor Clarke put a check beside that one with chalk before continuing to another point. "Becoming ambidextrous can be done in classes by simply starting to practice casting with your off hand without pause, as you already occasionally do in my own class only not switching to your right when it gets difficult. I know you already practice Occlumency in your bed before you go to sleep, Fleamont told me you did anyway, thus so long as you keep up the practice that part's covered too. As for the non-magical tricks, I'm sure a few muggleborn Ravenclaws can help you out with most of those, or even the Marauders. Merlin knows how often the critters get into my office without permission."

With the things he was already practising, or could easily learn outside of these hours, Harry had to admit the workload had lessened considerably. And with the added sixth and seventh year to learn as well, the task suddenly seemed a lot more doable. Alright, Harry could work with this.

"Well, in that case, Sir… When do we start?"

Professor Clarke smiled. "First off, grab your wand… And put it in your left hand, for God's sake. And they say us old people have bad memory…"


Deputy Headmistress' Office, Hogwarts Castle, Scottish Highlands

Sadly, she shuffled into Professor McGonagall's office. Today was the day. Today, this Friday afternoon after her last class ten minutes ago, she would sign herself over to become a member of the Potter family. She would become a ward of their household. And she would thus cut the last ties with her family.

Not that she wanted to, of course. She loved her parents-

She stopped, taking a deep breath and suppressing a sob as she sat down. She didn't want another breakdown now. She'd already cried her ears off with Harry in the Room of Requirement, and later again with her friends. Marlene, Mary, and Audrey, her dorm mates (or besties, as Mary preferred), the ones she tried to get along with, and successfully did so too, mostly because she didn't want to have to share a dorm with people she didn't like. Not that she didn't enjoy their company, but they just didn't really match. She was enormously studious, while Marlene was mostly focused on working out, quidditch, and her physique. Mary was quite the socialite and the gossip everyone not just in her year, but in her whole house went to, not unlike how Alice described how most rich Pureblood women ended up becoming socialite trophy wives in expansive manors. And Audrey… was Audrey. A tomboy that more often than not hung out with Vincent, Moliere, and Joshua. There was no animosity between them, but neither went out of their way to become each other's good friend either.

After them, of course, followed her actual friends. Alice, her pseudo-older sister in Gryffindor who had been her first pureblood witch friend and, along with Sev', her guide in understanding most of the Wizarding World, or the Wizarding part of the United Kingdom at least. The one who'd saved her from some seventh year Slytherin git, and befriended and mentored her since. Sev, her first real friend who happened to be a boy, and the one who introduced her to magic, something Lily would forever be grateful for to him. He'd lost just as much as she had when Cokeworth had been burned down, and she was glad he was joining her new family too. Pandora and Roxanne, her muggleborn friends from other houses. Girls she'd bonded with in first year on the train, after Sev had run off in anger over Potter's condescending behaviour and the two had joined her because they couldn't find compartments of their own. A friendship-pact that proved the House lines weren't necessarily the ending of friendships.

And lastly, Hermione, Ginny, and Luna. The odd ones she liked to hang around with occasionally, but had trouble befriending. Not that they were annoying or bothersome like the older Potter and Black. Far from it: Hermione was just as studious as she and Remus were; often more so, even, and was a great help whenever she was stuck with homework. Almost as if she'd done the year before. Ginny was a little bit like Marlene, mostly focused on staying fit and sharp, but not obsessively so, and much easier to hang out with. Their mutual dislike for Black's stupid immature stunts didn't hurt either, and her sharp wit and peculiar spell use (she had to learn how to do that Bat-Bogey hex) were very refreshing. And Luna might as well have been a Lovegood, she fit right in with Pandora's seventh-year boyfriend Xeno. Unflappable, chirpy, always going on about dubious creatures (though since she brought Morphie with her to Charms Lily believed there was a very real chance those creatures actually existed).

But there was always a measure of distance between her and them. An invisible barrier, closely tied to their past. Try as she might, none of the three had truly opened up about their pasts. True, there were the snips here and there like their adventures with Harry or their parents' professions. But names and dates were rarely mentioned, and whenever she tried to inquire where they'd lived before moving to Potter Manor, or where their Parents used to live, they tried to change the subject. And they never talked about extended family, beyond the occasionally mentioned fact Ginny had numerous brothers, but no sisters.

Just like Lily didn't anymore. God, Tuney had been a right wench at times, but she was still her sister, and Lily loved her simply for that.

And that chapter of her life was about to end in an hour.

One hour from now, she would become a Ward of the Potter family, and thanks to Alice she knew at least vaguely what that meant. It was more complicated than in the Muggle world, where it simply meant someone looked after and was responsible for the child in question, basically becoming their guardian. And while that part remained the same in the Wizarding world, there were a lot more expectations on her part. Traditionalist as Wizards and Witches were, since she had effectively no family left, once she became their ward she was expected to become a full-fledged member of the Potter family. Taking the name, undergoing some sort of Blood adoption, magically vowing to do her utmost best see them as her new family, and doing her best to not harm its good reputation… The Ministry of Magic was very strict in that regard. To become a ward basically meant cutting ties with her old family, something she knew would be incredibly difficult when the moment would come in an hour or so. Sure, Professor McGonagall had assured her the Potters had saved what belongings of her old house that they could (not that there was much left after that blazing inferno, charred pictures, her father's old pistol, and a half-burned stuffed toy from Tuney at most) and put them in her new room at the Potter Manor, and bought the deeds of her parents' lodge in the Alps, to be given back to her when she came of age in the Muggle world. But she couldn't even remain Lily Jaina Evans. No, when she accepted, she would become Lily Jaina Potter.

It was the same way Alice would go from Alice Talitha Prince to Alice Talitha Longbottom in the Easter break. Her own parents and her directly extended family like uncles, aunts, grandparents and cousins, had been killed last year in one of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named's first public attacks against those opposing him, nearly eradicating the Prince family and those related to them except for a few exceptions like Alice, Sev and his mother, and a handful of out-of-country third or fourth cousins. Alice had survived by pure chance, happening to be sleeping at Frank's at the time of the attack. The entire process could've gone sooner, like it had taken barely a week with Lily's own ward contract, were it not from the fact the Prince family had been quite wealthy before their deaths, if not as well-known as others like the Potters, the Malfoys, and the Greengrasses, and Alice, as Heiress apparent, was set to inherit the whole of it according to her grandparents' will if her parents were dead as well. So naturally, said cousins, and even more distantly related family members all tried to dispute Alice' claim to the family fortunes, slowing down the process by nearly ten months.

It had been solved the only way it could've gone that Alice could've remained Heiress and still become a Ward: an early Betrothal Contract with an Heiress-continuation stipulation on top of the Wardship. Lily had been shocked when she'd first heard the Wizarding World still dealt with those, but had been assured the Contract was with the consent of both of them, something Lily should've realised beforehand. Frank and Alice had been in love with one another for years already, since their third years, in fact, and marriage was only the next step with how busy they'd reportedly been in the prefect bathroom since fifth year. And when Alice had compared it to prenuptial agreements if both parties consented, in addition to the stipulation of a two-year engagement added to the contract, Lily had to agree it made more sense to do it so securely. Combined with how Frank's father was both very intimidating physically, very well-connected with both the Ministry's department of Family Affairs and Gringotts in general, and Alice had been living at the Longbottoms part-time anyway, Alice's position as Heiress was secure and goblin-ironclad, even in an early marriage. Fortunately, Lily (as a middle-class Muggleborn) wouldn't have as much of a fuss when she signed the Ward Contract.

And it was "when" she signed, not "if." The odds were far better with the Potters than with most other families. They were wealthy, well-connected, caring, generous to the point of near-spoiling if James were any indication, only near because she doubted Harry would've turned out so well if he'd been spoiled rotten, and she knew they'd look after her at least. Sure, she shared the household with… She paused to count it out in her head… seven other children her age all the time, and up to eleven if Neville, Remus, Peter, and Sev' visited as often as she suspected they would. Plus, she'd have to share her new living quarters with both James Potter and Sirius Black, something she knew would be trying for anyone with how often those two behaved like six-year-olds.

But the chance to live with Harry…

Even in as dark a moment in her life as this was, Harry still brought a smile to her face. As much as she hated to admit it, Potters had incredibly good looks. Those jaws, the cute little stature, the hair… Were he not such a prick and a bully, she might've considered dating James. But Harry… He lacked all his brother's faults. He was kind, caring, attentive in how he immediately went after her after she got the terrible news, had a nice, shy smile that held none of the arrogance that his brother's held, and such captivating eyes. No wonder Amelia Bones was falling for him. Anyone would, even her-

Curse you, Mary. I owe you ten galleons.

Yes, she sighed finally as she acknowledged the fact. She had a crush on Harry. But half the school did. So what if she shared a bit in that communal dream of having him?

She sighed again. She knew she was doing everything she could not to think of what was to come. Signing that agreement to become a Ward of the Potters was hard, yes, especially for the reasons she'd just given, but not just that.

Signing that contract and agreement meant acknowledging her parents and her sister were… Were… That they were gone. And she couldn't just accept that. She couldn't…

Someone lightly tapped her on her knuckles with their wand, and she looked up to professor McGonagall staring at her in concern, she smiled sheepishly. "I haven't been paying attention, have I?"

The professor gave her a sad smile. "No, my dear. But that's perfectly understandable, given what you've gone through. I was simply asking if you're alright, and if you had any questions about what's going to happen."

Lily smiled, thankful for the distraction. "I'm as alright as can be, considering. Vented all my anger over the Death Eaters, cried out my excessive tears, gotten through most of my depressive spells," she bit that last bit out when McGonagall raised a sceptical eyebrow, "and I know what to expect when I go to the Potters. Pure chaos and utter mayhem," she said that last bit to lighten the tense atmosphere she realised was slowly forming because of her.

For her part, Professor McGonagall fortunately chuckled. "I can't deny that, my dear. I knew Charlus and Fleamont Potter back when Charlus and I were sorted in Gryffindor together, and Fleamont joined us a year later, and if you think James is a prankster, he has nothing on his father or uncle. My, one time when they were young, Charlus confounded his owl, Mousehound the first, locked his brother in their Owlery, sprayed in owl hormonal pheromones, during their owl's traditional mating season, and looked on as Fleamont was besieged by the massive owl trying to mate with him. He even took and shared pictures." The Professor turned a particular photo on her desk, showing who had to be Fleamont Potter, with glasses askew, running around a room similar yet different from the Hogwarts Owlery, running from one of the largest owls she'd ever seen.

Lily laughed, the first time she's genuinely done so since hearing the news.

Professor McGonagall smirked. "Fleamont has always been wary of owls since. Of course, he in turn retaliated by vanishing all of his brother's clothes in the middle of a date with his future wife in the Three Broomsticks, and doused one of his… Persistent Admirers with a strong Love Potion to go after him. Compared to that, the occasional colour changing charm, dangling hexes on students' ankles, and exploding potions in the labs and bathrooms that the Marauders cause are quite tame, really."

Lily didn't laugh as hard as the first time, but her smile remained despite… No, best not to focus on that, Lily figured, forcing down the pang of sadness by sheer stubborn will, and turned to her head of house. "At least I now know who James looked up to when he thought of his antics."

McGonagall nodded. "I know you don't like James very much, but I can think of few people better suited to take you in. They may enjoy pranks a bit too much for your taste, but overall Charlus is a very responsible man, and I've rarely met a stronger, more charitable and kind person than him. And Fleamont is not that different from his brother, despite his claims. Not to mention Dorea Potter is a very good friend from my own time at Hogwarts, and despite not having had the chance yet to get to know her personally due to how she mostly resides in New York, I have similar faith in Euphemia Potter, Fleamont's husband. You and young mister Snape will be in good hands."

Lily nodded. She trusted the professor. Then she tilted her head. "Speaking of, where is Severus?"

"Considering Professor Slughorn is his head of house," the Professor immediately answered, "and de facto magical guardian upon the death of the young man's own family members, Severus is waiting in his office for Fleamont and the ministry official with the Ward Contract. It's the same reason I'm handling your situation, Miss Evans, considering the situation is the same with you and me."

Lily nodded. That made sense, she supposed. "Alright. Though I don't understand why people from the Ministry have to be there. I thought simply handing the proper department in the Ministry the signed contract was enough."

Professor McGonagall sighed, sounding as annoyed as Lily felt confused by the matter. "I happen to agree with you, Miss Evans, and in normal cases it would be. But Charlus Potter, while generally benevolent, is a very powerful man and dangerous to cross, with quite a low opinion of the Ministry. Minister Bagnold hopes that, by giving him special attention by sending people from the Department of Family Affairs and the Department of Magical Records, they can partially better their image. At the same time, they hope to learn more about why Charlus has chosen to take you in, and gain a bit of insight in how he thinks or what he values."

Lily frowned. "Alright, I understand that. But with how private the Potters are rumoured to be, wouldn't they do that image improving better by simply letting him be, to let this matter be settled simply between you and Lord Potter?"

The professor let another sigh escape her lips. "They would. But the upper echelons of the Ministry have rarely been accused of being either competent or intelligent. Besides, the Ministry loves nothing more than to meddle in things it has no right to meddle in. They think that simply because it exists in the United Kingdom, they have a right to know of and control it. Honestly, with how much it tries to run everything you'd almost forget the Ministry exists simply to ensure the Statute of Secrecy is not breached, rather than to govern and rule over all of us magical folk, like the Wizengamot's the British Parliament and the Minister is the Queen of England. Megalomaniacs, the lot of them."

Lily nodded, as she listened to her professor's tirade. There was obviously a lot of pent-up frustration on her professor's part towards the Ministry. It wilted Lily's resolve a little. She knew from Alice the Ministry wasn't as picture perfect as it made itself out to be, but hearing it laid out like that truly drove home how bad it really was. She knew people were quite judgemental about who one's ancestors were and where one came from, and aside from the Ministry and becoming an employee in a shop there were very little job prospects for her in the magical world. There was always becoming a Cursebreaker for Gringotts, since the Goblins handled the employment of their Cursebreakers themselves, but the Goblins upheld very high standards. Standards Lily wasn't sure she could meet, even with her grades. She would have to achieve like eight or nine perfect NEWTs due to how wide and varied the curses could be and the various things that had to be taken into account in breaking them.

"The Ministry isn't all bad," her professor continued, and she realised the older woman must have misinterpreted her growing frown. "There are a lot of good people working in the Ministry. I can name two dozen off the top of my head that would could be trusted with our lives. It is merely-"

"The people in charge that are despicable," Lily finished. "The ones that make all the calls of what happens, nominally or otherwise."

McGonagall nodded in agreement. "Yes. People like Abraxas and Lucius Malfoy, or Ignatius Selwyn. People that-"

The door opened, and Lily turned her head around to see who entered. The Potters she recognised immediately. Lord Charlus' choice of attire, despite how comfortable he seemed in them, didn't give the immediate impression he was a wizard: he wore sturdy camouflage cargo pants, a plain white shirt with a thick buttoned up dark vest over it, though the man had at least two weapons clearly visible on him judging by the bulges underneath his armpits, a long dark brown coat with a high but folded collar, fingerless gloves, and boots. Physically he gave off the impression of being a very formidable man. He was also clearly the father of Harry and James: he had the same black messy hair, though his was liberally streaked with grey, glasses, and shared James' hazel eyes.

Lady Dorea Potter looked just as good as her husband, having welcoming grey eyes and her brown hair, that was just as streaked with grey as her husband, tied off in a bun on the back of her head, had kind and beautiful features Lily couldn't help but admire. She wore a long brown cloak with elegant green and silver robes underneath Lily wouldn't exactly call comfortable with how form-fitting and tight they seemed, but she looked quite stately in them, and despite not outwardly sharing her husband's physical strength, gave off her own aura of formidability that would make anyone pause. The robes also hugged her figure quite closely in the right places, showing off the… assets she possessed that would make men pause. Assets Lily couldn't help but be a bit jealous of. Still, both of them had welcoming smiles Lily immediately couldn't help but shyly return.

Following them were two Ministry employees, and their appearance wasn't as impressive as those of the Potters: simple dark blue Ministry robes with the ministry logo sewn on the shoulders. Name tags on the left side of their chest revealed their names to be Clayton Flack, a man from the Department of Family Affairs and Drucilla Osbert, a woman from the Department of Magical Records. Professor McGonagall stood up and rearranged and transfigured a group of chairs and desks so they stood in the centre of a clearing with a large round conference table instead. Lily and the Professor got up and sat down next to each other. Lady Potter sat down a third of the way around, with her husband sitting next to her, while the two ministry officials sat down the other third, Lord and Lady Potter and Professor McGonagall sitting between Lily and the ministry personnel.

"Hello, Lily," Lady Potter greeted her kindly. "Is it alright if I call you that?" Lily looked at her, a bit nervous. It was suddenly all becoming a bit too real for her liking, now at she was here. Soon, in the next few minutes in fact, she would be forced to sign the papers, and her life would be in the hands of the people behind her, and-

Realising suddenly Lady Potter was still waiting for an answer, she nodded.

"Wonderful," Lady Potter said joyfully, but not so enthusiastically that it was inappropriate, considering they were becoming here guardians so shortly after her parents' own death. "I'm Dorea Ursula Potter, Lady of the Most Ancient and Most Noble House of Potter, and one of the eight founding families of the Great International Coalition to Better the Wizarding World, otherwise known as the Great Alliance. But you can call me Dorea, Lily. Or Lady Potter, if you insist on manners."

Lily looked at her in a slightly confused manner. That was one mouthful of words Lily wasn't going to repeat any time soon. And she truly understood only half of what was said. She knew the Ancient and Noble thing determined how far back the family could trace their ancestry, and that the Great Alliance was a group of families working together the Potters were a part of, but what that all exactly meant… She hadn't the foggiest idea.

Seeing her state of confusion, Lord Potter rolled his eyes. "Dorea, dear, now look what you've done. With all those words you confused the poor dear." He nodded at his wife while looking at Lily. "I'm so sorry, Lily. But my wife was born a Black, and Blacks have a tendency to insist on dramatics and propriety whenever they can."

"Well, someone has to," Lady Potter huffed, "After all, with the lack of manners you and your brother showed while we attended Hogwarts I almost didn't believe you actually knew what the word meant." Lily couldn't help but smile at the banter. Despite her wariness and nervousness she was beginning to like them already.

"Of course I know what it means, my dearest," Lord Potter countered smoothly. "I only bring it out for people I think are worth the effort to do so."

"Oh, really?" Lady Potter asked in an amused tone. "So when you suddenly vanished your clothes for me, mere instants after an innuendo about how you looked better without them, that was what you thought was propriety?"

Lord Potter sighed. "I'm never living that down, am I?"

"I can assure you, you will not," Professor McGonagall said with a glint in her eyes, ignoring Lady Potter and Lily's mirthful eyes, the attempts by Flack to stifle his chuckles, and the rather bored look the Osbert woman wore. "After all, I still have the pictures She-Who-We-Won't-Discuss took when you ran out of the Three Broomsticks, Rosmerta right on your heels."

Lily noted something curious pass through as Professor McGonagall said She-Who-We-Won't-Discuss: her and Dorea's eyes briefly filled with pain, and Charlus' eyes hardened instantly. Osbert, for some reason, actually looked pleased for some reason.

But the look in Lord Potter's eyes was gone instantly, and with a slightly exaggerated cheer, he leaned forward. "Well, we best not have that, eh? I mean, after all, if those photos got another to be circulated, imagine what would happen for you? I still have plenty of evidence from the… Ventures you and Poppy undertook, after all."

"As much as we enjoy the byplay here," Osbert cut in sternly as Professor McGonagall took on a scandalised expression, "Can we please proceed with why we were scheduled to be here? Not all of us have all day to dally, after all."

"Quite," Charlus agreed, turning so he could see them all. "It would be rude to waste the Ministry's time, after all, considering they never waste ours. Oh, wait."

While Osbert looked exaggeratedly incensed, Flack spoke up before she could get a word in. "Right. Let us not waste any of yours any more than we need to." He reached into his pockets and withdrew a folder. Lily's eyes widened in surprise when she saw her name written on it. The man withdrew several papers from it, and Lily paled a bit when she saw it was her file on underage magic violations. She already had two strikes on it, both to settle disputes with Petunia, and she didn't know how the Potters would react. They might be lenient, considering they had brought up one of the worst pranksters Hogwarts had ever seen. Or they might crack down hard, because she was new to the family and they needed to set her firm ground rules, rules James would follow at home but be free to break at Hogwarts. She just didn't know. And it scared her.

Osbert took it out of Flack's hand, to the man's surprise, and read aloud. "Lily Jaina Evans. Born thirtieth of January, nineteen sixty. Daughter to Jason Evans and Jaina Lexine Turner, sister to Petunia Nicole Evans. All since deceased." Lily winced, something she noted no one but Osbert seemed to miss. "First offence in Magic use in front of a muggle on the twelfth of August, nineteen seventy-three: the Aquamenti charm, taught in sixth year at Hogwarts, on her sister Petunia Evans, resulting in a near-drowning experience. Received a warning."

"It was an accident!" Lily cried out, panicking when the Potters looked at her in surprise and McGonagall in mild disapproval. Either something had gone wrong at the ministry, or this woman wasn't reading everything out loud, but what the woman was reading wasn't everything. She had to correct this, and quick. "She was trying to burn my books! She got angry with me, tried to toss them into a campfire, I panicked and tried to put it out, but accidentally overpowered the charm and hit my sister. I didn't mean to harm her, and even helped her breathe again."

"Then how do you know your charms so well, Miss?" Osbert frowned at her quite sternly. Fortunately, McGonagall came to her rescue.

"I can vouch for that. Miss Evans is a Charms Prodigy, and in order to keep things challenging for her the staff decided to assign her advanced class material from higher years."

"But to read a sixth-year book in the summer before her third year?" Osbert asked sceptically. Lily decided she definitely didn't like the woman at all, given the way she behaved and seemed to think about Lily. "Or, her second offence: Magic Use in front of multiple Muggles, on the nineteenth of August, nineteen seventy-five. Vanishing all of your sister's clothes during a wedding party both of you attended in Bristol. A dozen Obliviators had to be called in, and you were fined a hundred galleons for that offence, you mudblood wen-"

"Hand me that," Lord Potter interrupted sternly, holding out his hand for it. Osbert started to smirk, and turned it around and handed it over. Lily looked down, trying to fight back tears as the events became to much as they heaped on top of another: the loss of her family, her home, and now her potential guardians being scared off by her magic misuse records. This was it. He wouldn't accept her now, with how-

A sudden whoosh broke through her thoughts, and Lily looked up to see him turn her records of magic misuse flame up and be turned to ash before her eyes. Surprised, she turned between Lord Potter, who fixed Osbert with a glare, and a nearly apoplectic Osbert and a flummoxed Flack.

"What did you do?!" she demanded rising up from her seat. "Those were-"

"Come come, Miss Osbert," Lady Potter chided mockingly. "Surely you weren't stupid enough to bring the only existing set of ministry records of Miss Evans' offences? That would be beyond careless of you, Miss Osbert."

The Osbert woman visibly bristled with fury, stood up, and reached for her wand. "I swear, you whore, when I'm through with you-"

She didn't go any further before the wand she'd been reaching for flew out of her cloak and into Lady Potter's waiting hand, the same mocking smile still on her face. To Lily's surprise and confusion, Dorea put the wand back down right in the middle between the two women, and Osbert snatched it right back.

"Really, Drucilla?" Lady Potter asked in a condescending tone, and for a moment Lily was back in first year, when that scary seventh year Slytherin Bellatrix had tried to corner her in the corridors. "You have to think about your next move very carefully. Are you really going to be so stupid as to try and curse not only a Black, but the wife of a Baron, who frequently spars with her husband in her spare time, by the way? The wife of one of the founders of the Great Alliance, who has many friends who would all be willing and able to make you disappear from the world forever at a mere few whispered words, in such a way it would never be traced back to our family?" Osbert lost her angry look during this entire recounting, and had paled and started shaking slightly. Lady Potter lost her condescending smile, turning it into a frosty glare as she summoned her own wand in hand faster than Lily could blink, pointing it at the opposing woman's neck. "By all means, give it your best. I can guarantee you, you wouldn't survive the experience."

Osbert seemed to have more brains than Lily took her for, for she immediately returned her wand to where she'd previously put it and sat back down. "Clever girl," Lady Potter mocked as she put away her own wand, satisfied at having the woman put in her place, and although she hadn't said or moved much since her attempt to defend herself, she couldn't help but silently cheer Dorea Potter on. As nervous as Lily was, she wasn't that upset with the woman getting put back in her place.

"You just wait," Osbert growled. "That Mudblood will graduate soon enough, and when that happens-"

"Then what, Death Eater filth?" Lord Potter questioned this time around, his glare having never left his expression. "Will you try to hex her? To kill her like you kill so many others you believe beneath you? Like the blood supremacist you are?"

Osbert smirked, ignoring Lily's gasp at the accusation, and lifted her sleeves to show she wore no Mark. "I'm not a Death Eater, as you can see. And yes, I may believe myself better than the Mudbloods. But as long as I don't do anything about my beliefs like the Death Eaters do, is that really a crime? My outlook on life and my stance on blood are a personal matter. In fact, last time I read the Wizarding Rights Charter, a Charter you recently asked to be amended to more strongly support this, in fact, it's against the very constitution to prosecute me for my beliefs. So, I ask you: what have I done wrong?"

Aside from being a total bitch? Lily wondered privately, but wisely kept her mouth shut. Instead of retorting to this, though, Lord Potter spoke on.

"We thank you for pointing this out, Madam Osbert," He said. "But our decision is unchanged: we wish to take her in as a ward, despite knowing of her tendency to use magic in spite of being underage. She is intelligent, kind, knowledgeable, mischievous, caring… There's little more we could ask for. Now, aside from simply acknowledging on behalf of the ministry that we are accepting a Ward contract for her, there's little other reason for your presence here. In fact, considering that your colleague can handle this acknowledgement by himself and that this is a matter of Family Affairs, something Mister Flack is well within the capacity to handle on his own, there's no reason for your presence here. So please, do us a favour, and Sod Off."

Lily smiled as Osbert started to fume more and more as Lord Potter talked, and looked as apoplectic as earlier when he finally and rudely dismissed her. Still, even she could see Lord Potter was edging for a fight, and Lady Potter's hand was hidden in her cloak's sleeve, and it was very clear Osbert wasn't going to get any support from either the professor or her colleague. With a final huff, she stood up, turned around and walked out the room. As soon as the door closed, Flack let out a sigh of relief.

"Thank Merlin she's gone," he sighed. "A ghastly woman, but she's vindictive, and friends with both her department head Dolores Umbridge and Wizengamot member Abraxas Malfoy, so no one's willing to do anything about her."

"More that her house is a Vassal to House Malfoy, but we see your point," Lady Potter agreed. "I never liked her back in class either. Still, now that that bitch is gone we can go ahead with the proceedings, yes?"

"Quite," Mister Flack agreed cheerfully, and pulled out another set of papers. Lily let out a sigh of relief when she saw it was just the Ward Contract.

"Now, I know you've done this a few times before in my office this summer, when you took in the Beckett Siblings and Miss Bay and Swann. But for the sake of protocols that I need to follow, I'll ask a few questions anyway. You all know what you are getting into?"

Both Lord and Lady Potter nodded, and Lily gave a shy one as well. The moment of the signing… She shook her head and started to listen in again. "-her in means that we become responsible for her in the ministry's eyes until the age of seventeen, and in the muggle world's eyes until the age of eighteen. We look after her family's assets until her muggle age of majority, in this case meaning a lodge in the Alps and a combined rough amount of £1,900,000 (worth roughly ʛ380,000) from bank accounts from both parents, her sister, and inheritance from her grandparents she and her sister were supposed to receive for their eighteenth birthdays."

Lily nodded. Professor McGonagall had already informed her of this, though the exact amount she was supposed to receive was a surprise. She'd guessed with their passing that her grandparents had left her with some money, but she'd expected a bit less. Still, nothing new so far. Then, it was her turn.

"And I agree upon signing the contract and accepting that I take the name, undergo a Blood Adoption, magically vow to do my utmost best see the Potters as my new family, and do my best to not harm the family reputation…" She trailed off, seeing Lord Potter bury his face in his hands, Lady Potter blushing a bit with embarrassment, Professor McGonagall roll her eyes, and Mister Flack doing his best, and failing, to suppress his chuckles.

"Miss Evans," Flack explained when he finally calmed down. "Most traditional Pureblood families do insist on that sort of thing in case they take in an orphan with no family left to speak of. The Potters, on the other hand, are most definitely not traditional when it comes to children, wards, and heirs, a small fact whoever taught you of these Ward Contracts obviously wasn't aware of. Baron Potter, if you will explain what you expect from Miss Evans, I would appreciate it."

Lor- no, evidently Baron Potter, recovered enough from his embarrassment at the antiquated expectations and that Lily thought they would demand that, withdrew his hands and folded them in front of him. "Basically it's the same as with Muggle Wards with us: we're responsible for you, you listen if we ask, explain, or tell you something, any large purchases are discussed with us, you try to get good grades, and you act responsibly. Beyond that, you can do as you wish. Of course, we'd like for you to see us as your new family eventually, and we'd appreciate it if you do not sully our reputation any more than my brother does on a daily basis anyway. But we won't enforce either with the contract. As for taking our name and all that blood adoption stuff you seemed so hesitant about… If you want to do any of that later we'll gladly do it. But we won't force you to do it now."

Lily's eyes widened. They'd do that? Letting her keep her name and relative independence? They'd… This was even better than she'd hoped for. "Oh."

"That's an underwhelmed reaction," Baron Potter muttered, before speaking up. "So, knowing that things are a bit different than expected, do you still want to sign the contract?"

Lily nodded without hesitation. Even with the restrictions from before she'd still wanted to become a ward of the Potters. But with this newfound freedom that allowed her to maintain what little independence she had, to keep her name? There was little to persuade that she shouldn't, and even then Lily knew she was too stubborn for her own good. No way she wouldn't sign.

"Very well." Mister Flack agreed, before sliding the papers across his part of the table towards them. The Potters each took a brief glance through it, before nodding in agreement with the stated terms and signing it with a black quill. The contract was then shoved towards her. She looked it over, reading carefully. It was unexpectedly short and simple, and she found there wasn't anything in it they hadn't already discussed: while written in much grander words, it simply said she'd become a ward of the Potters, that they would become her guardians, and that they would look after her assets until she became of age in the muggle world, when she would be free to decide whether to go her own way or to become a permanent member of the family if she wished to do so, in the way she'd feared she had to do at the start, with Blood Adoption and such. At the bottom, there were already three signatures: the ones of Mister Flack as a Ministry Witness, Baron Potter, and Lady Potter. There was one spot for her signature, as the one becoming a Ward, and one for Professor McGonagall, as she needed to sign off for being Lily's magical guardian. The black quill was also handed to her, which she noted had a Gringotts symbol on it, for some reason.

She grabbed it and held it over the parchment. And hesitated. If she signed it, regardless if she could stay an Evans or not, it meant accepting her parents were truly gone.

Was she ready for that? Intellectually, she knew they were not coming back. Sev had already explained there was no way to survive Fiendfyre if they'd been caught in the centre of it. But in her heart? She may have grieved, and been depressed over it quite often the last few days. But to accept it?

Was she ready?

Her hand quivered a bit from her nerves, and she looked up at the Potters, who were watching her expectantly. Baron Potter, who had stood up for her and defended her when that Osbert woman had verbally attacked and tried to incriminate her, even to the point of burning and erasing her Magic Misuse record. Sure, given enough time the Ministry might recreate it from the logged notifications and copies of sent letters, but the man, who was for all accounts a stranger, had stood up to the Ministry to defend her. Or Lady Potter, who had verbally beaten down the woman and reminded her of her place in relation to the Potters. The one who had immediately tried to be kind to her upon arrival.

Yes, she could accept it. A part of her would forever grieve their deaths, but her parents would most certainly approve of them taking her in. And if she had to suffer a pair of Marauders for every holiday from now until she left Hogwarts, so be it. She could live with that.

She smiled, though the tears of grief still fell from her eyes, still sad a having to be confronted with it so strongly. But she signed.

Lily Jaina Evans.

The back of her hand stung briefly, and she noted the ink looked remarkably similar to blood. But the sensation passed, and when she saw Professor McGonagall lean forward for it, she passed both the contract and the quill along. A quick scratch by McGonagall later, and it was signed.

"Excellent," Mister Flack said cheerfully, as he rolled the parchment up and gathered it in a pocket of his robes. "A quick stop by Gringotts to return the quill, and I'll have it logged with the Ministry by supper," he smiled, and held out his hand to Lily. "And allow me to be the first to congratulate you on your acceptance into the Potter family, Lily."

"Thank you, Mister Flack," she said, shaking his hand. "And my condolences for your colleague. She seems a terror to work with."

Flack laughed, "If you think she's bothersome, you should meet her boss. Now that woman's a real toady. And all the pink…" The man shuddered. "If you ever consider working for the Ministry, I recommend trying to apply for any department other than Records until Umbridge has been promoted, transferred elsewhere, or dismissed. It'd be much better for your mental health."

Lily nodded, filing that away for later. Mister Flack turned to Baron Potter. "Charlus, always a pleasure."

"Clayton," Baron Potter nodded in agreement. Flack nodded, did a courtesy to Lady Potter, and departed through the door. As soon as he did, though, Baron Potter scowled.

"Meddlesome numbskulls," he muttered, drawing a slight frown from Lily, and knowing smiles from Lady Potter and Professor McGonagall.

"He means well," her Head of House chided. "He's simply doing as he's told."

"If people started thinking for themselves instead of simply doing as others tell them to, the world would be a much better place," Charlus retorted, before his expression softened. "But enough cynicism from me today." He stood up. "Lily, would you like to spend the weekend with us at Potter Manor, so the three of us have a chance to get to know one another better? I've already discussed it with both Professor McGonagall and Headmaster Dumbledore, and both have given their permission."

Lily nodded. She'd like the chance to have that, and her largest concerns about it, permission from the Headmaster and maybe have to speak with James too often over those days, seemed to be addressed. "I'd love to,"

Baron and Lady Potter smiled. "Good. I hoped so, hence why I scheduled the signing to be on a Friday afternoon, so we could have the evening and two whole days ahead of ourselves. Granted, most of Saturday will be spent shopping in Diagon Alley and Muggle Glasgow, but…"

"Why?" Lily asked, frowning even more. Why did they need to go to Glasgow?

"You own very little more than what you have here at Hogwarts, remember?" Lady Potter reminded her gently. "Nearly everything else was destroyed when-"

"Right," Lily finished for her, her frown being replaced by a look of sadness. With all the emotional torment of the loss of her family and the imminent anticipation of living with the Potter family, she'd almost forgotten she had little more than the clothes on her back. Due to the fact the weather was almost always clouded and chilly this time of year, with only thirty days of cold snow and bright hot summer days combined (a phenomenon that had been happening for the last three years) she left most of her clothes for both extremes at home, trusting Mary's transfiguration skills whenever the days got too warm or too cold. Something that was now coming back to bite her. She still had her own keepsakes here at Hogwarts (an Elvis Presley bobble head, a family photo album her mother had given her two Christmases ago, and a muggle painting of a dragon from Tolkien's books), but most of her stuff had still been at home.

"Not to worry," Lady Potter assured her. "The basics for your room have already been installed: large bed with drapes, vanity and ottoman, wardrobe, nightstands, standard lighting. It's merely that the room needs a… personal touch. Things that really make it yours, like colours or designs for bedsheets and drapes, the walls, or the odd trinket here and there that you really like."

Lily nodded, a bit relieved at that. McGonagall looked at her and gave a reassuring smile.

"Not to worry, dear. I've known Dorea since I myself was a first year Hogwarts student. You'll find fewer places where you'll feel more welcome."

"It's also so you can test things out," Baron Potter added. When Lily gave him a bemused look he elaborated. "We don't know much of your tastes, habits, and wants. How firm do you want your mattress to be? What kind of breakfast do you want in the morning? How would you like to see your room arranged? Did you have any hobbies or sports over the summers with your parents you'd like to pick up again? Aside from the dozens of things you do at Hogwarts James has written home about plenty of times, we don't know anything about you, and given we're your guardians now we'd like to change that."

Lily nodded, hiding her blush at the fact James Potter actually went as far as telling his parents everything about her that he discovered about her.

"Sure," she said finally. "Just one question: why Glasgow?"

Baron Potter actually blushed and looked away, while Lady Potter gave a fond smirk. "We were both raised as Purebloods; highly isolated from any muggle town or village unless it had many magical elements, otherwise under a strict curfew lest we risk exposing magic to Muggles. So naturally, the first thing Charlus and I did when we got our Apparation Licenses was celebrate by going on a drinking binge in Glasgow," she winked knowingly at Lily. "He's been in love with the place since."

She tilted her head at that answer. It made sense, she supposed. While London was the capital of the U.K. and had a wider selection of choices, Glasgow wasn't without its own stores for clothing and other necessities. And she wasn't picky where they did their shopping, as long as it happened.

"Right," Lady Potter stated. "Shall we get moving, then? The weekend's not getting any longer."

McGongall nodded, and opened the door to her office. "Feel free to use my Floo. I can imagine you don't want to run into anymore Ministry employees, and I don't think Osbert would let that insult go very easily."

Baron Potter nodded. "No need for any more confrontations, as much as I might enjoy it. Thanks, Minerva."

Lady Potter also got up and stepped forward, and the two women exchanged a hug. "We should try to meet up more often. It's been too long since the three of us got together."

"Agreed," Professor McGonagall said. "Until the next time."

With that, the Potters headed for the door, and Lily scrambled to do so too. "See you on Monday, Professor!" She called out after her, before catching up with the Potters just as they opened the door. Politely, Baron Potter held open the door for them and gestured for Lily to get in first. They immediately stepped to the Floo.

"We're Floo'ing at the same time, Lily," Dorea explained as she grabbed Lily by the shoulder. "We decided after… an incident last summer that the defences of our home are too vulnerable, and one of our measures is that unless someone on the other side opens up the grate, no one but myself, Charlus, Fleamont, Euphemia, and Arcturus can have unrestricted access to the Manor through the Floo."

"Arcturus?" Lily asked. The name sounded familiar, she knew Sirius had said the name before, but she couldn't recall-

"My dear brother," Lady Potter answered immediately. "Baron Arcturus Cygnus Black the Third, Paterfamilias of the Most Ancient and Most Noble House of Black. A good friend of Charlus."

Lily nodded in understanding, resisting rolling her eyes at the slightly pompous nature by which Lady Potter identified her brother, and turned back to the grate to see Charlus step inside. He held a pinch in front of him, and with an exaggerated gesture threw it in the logs. "Foyer, Potter Manor!" He called clearly, before disappearing in a gush of green flames. Lady Potter shook her head.

"Drama queen," she muttered, before stepping forward, Lily right in step with her. She took her own pinch of powder, and called out as well. "Foyer, Potter Manor!"

The green flames engulfed them, and Lily felt herself being whisked away to Potter Manor. Fortunately, her first real time using the Floo went rather well, and she didn't even stumble as she stepped out of the next fireplace.

Her eyes widened as she took in her surroundings. She knew the Potter family was wealthy, but she never knew it was this wealthy. She emerged in a large, round, white marble foyer that could've been confused for one of a muggle billionaire's home. Four white statues of various warrior cultures (she recognised a Samurai, an ancient Roman Centurion, and a Knight in armour, but couldn't identify the fourth) from the past stood sentinel next to her, one guarding each staircase, and two flanking what she presumed to be the main entrance to her left. To her surprise, the walls weren't decorated with magical portraits of ancestors, as she heard both Sirius and Marlene describe their own homes, but rather with paintings of various landscapes, and quite a few from recent history: a still painting from a muggle town under assault in one of the world wars, an animated painting of a castle under siege during the Dark Ages, a painting of an old and remote Japanese mountain village, and a painting of a ship with black sails and a black flag boarding another during the Golden Age of Piracy in the Bahamas.

The interior was also vast, and while the Potters busied themselves by cleaning off the ash magically and stowing their coats, Lily wished she had a dozen eyes so she could look everywhere. The house had a large living room, as she could see from the few open doors she saw, and a large ballroom with three chandeliers and a sitting room. Curiously, she saw both a larger and a smaller dining room right next to one another, and a small chunk missing from one of two fireplaces in the Foyer. The stairs mirrored on either side of the wall, curving up with low and wide steps until it hit a small straight balcony, which continued on the other side back along the wall before becoming stairs again to the next floor. She could count this being repeated three times before it seemed to hit the top floor.

"It's large, we know," Baron Potter said, as he stepped up to her and waved his wand over her, cleaning her of the ash. "But it's been in the family for as long as the Potter family has existed, a small house on a hill back when we first started calling ourselves Potters. It had been greatly renovated until it was similar to this, back when our family used to be larger. But alas, our great desire for privacy and consequential lacking of a great variety of guests, Pureblood Inbreeding, and the various Wizarding wars over the centuries have dwindled us down to just six members and a number of wards."

"We have smaller properties for when we desire a more family-suited setting: Fleamont's villa in the United States, a cottage in Godric's Hollow, where Fleamont will move into with Euphemia and Severus by the way, a small townhouse in Glasgow, and a few vacation homes in France, the Bahamas, and the Australian coast, to name a few. But Potter Manor's still our pride and joy, and we spend most of our time here."

Lily nodded, and kept looking around. "It's huge."

Baron Potter nodded. "Eight floors, if we include the attic, cellar and attached shelter underneath." He suddenly grew grim. "Speaking of which, the fourth and third floors are off-limits unless in an emergency, and even then be extremely careful what you touch, and come find us immediately in the large offices left of the western stairs on either floor. Nowhere else."

Lily stepped back, surprised by the sudden switch from warm, welcoming, and easy-going to firm, grim, and no-nonsense. "Oh… Of course, Baron Potter," she answered quickly. "But may I ask why?"

Lady Potter nodded, and answered in her husband's stead. "While we are a predominantly neutral family with firm leanings to the lighter factions, we've gotten our hands on quite the number of dark or cursed artefacts over the years. Things too valuable or useful to destroy but too risky just leaving it lying around, and too dark and dangerous for even us to have the Goblins store them in one of our vaults at Gringotts. Most of them are stored in heavily warded rooms on the top floor." At Lily's rapidly widening eyes and slight trembling in shock and fear at that fact Dorea quickly explained. "All the rooms they're stored in are heavily warded. And frankly, you shouldn't even be able to get in any of them. But on the off chance your curiosity got the better of you and you manage to unlock one and get in, we felt you were better off knowing the danger you might walk into."

Lily nodded, making a firm note never to stray even near that floor. "And the one below?"

"As you know, Harry was kidnapped two weeks ago. That kind of thing, in combination with… some of the Dark Lord's darker habits, was enough for us to make an unofficial declaration of war. We've decided to make Potter Manor our headquarters, and anything related to the war effort is to be conducted there."

Lily nodded. She could understand the need for secrecy with that. "Alright, stay clear of the rooms on the upper floors. Got it," she paused, then gestured to the damaged fireplace. "What's up with that?"

Baron Potter followed her arm, and his brows lifted at seeing the damage. "Ah. One moment." He waved his wand, and from the front door a handful of pieces of gravel flew in, which he caught in his free hand. He put them in the hole, and they roughly filled it up, before the Baron started waving his hand more delicately and mumbled softly. Lily watched with wide, amazed eyes as the gravel started morphing until it was all a part of the fireplace again, and matched the surrounding stone and paint perfectly. There wasn't even an outline from where the hole had been, the repair was that perfect.

"Sorry you spotted that," Baron Potter apologised. "Five months after the event, and I'm still finding things to fix in here."

"What happened?" Lily asked with concern. From what he'd mentioned earlier about going against You-Know-Who, she knew the Potters weren't as well-liked as Alice had him portrayed to be. But for someone to cause that much damage in the Foyer itself?

"Shortly after we recalled Harry and his friends, they were ambushed by Death Eaters," Baron Potter explained. "And they were forced to activate their emergency Portkeys. But Death Eaters already had a hold of them, and when they activated and Portkeyed them away, the Death Eaters followed. They were all fine, no worries," he assured when Lily's eyes widened in dismay, "Dorea, my brother, and I took care of the Death Eaters, and you saw Harry and his friends alive and well yourself this school year. But their wellbeing came at the cost of the Foyer. And as you can see, repairs are still being done."

Lily let out a sigh of relief. He sure hadn't alluded to that story. Being captured by You-Know-Who's inner circle and escaping with only a scar on his forehead, sure. But not that he'd nearly been captured again. "Ok. Anything else I should know?"

"Yes," Lady Potter answered. "A basic layout: the Attic, which can be accessed from the central stairwell so no need to drift to the other rooms, holds the Owlery and a roof that can be converted to open and show the stars for any Astronomy-related tasks, or a romantic date of stargazing. Fourth floor holds the rooms warded with artefacts and objects not to be touched. Third floor houses the war-rooms, the Warding room, which is the room holding the stone powering all the wards protecting the Manor and grounds, and guest quarters in case our allies stay over or have need of them. Second floor is dedicated to the Library, the portraits room with a copy of the family tapestry, a small Potions Lab and an attached healing room in case you get injured, a Duelling Room, and a couple of offices, mine and Charlus' included. First floor is from now on dedicated to routinely occupied sleeping quarters, the west wing holds the rooms for the boys, the east has the Master Bedroom and the rooms for the girls, each with an attached bathroom. And lastly, Ground floor holds the kitchen, two dining rooms, living room, a sitting room, and the ball room, as well as a terrace to look out over the property, matched above it by balconies on each floor of the same kind. Cellar is mostly dedicated to storage, although Fleamont often brewed Potions there in his youth. Something about the thick walls of the cellar ensuring there's no atmospheric interference, or some such thing."

Lily nodded, trying to memorise as much as she could. But with how fast Lady Potter was talking, it was hard to remember it all. Finally, when Lady Potter stopped talking, she sheepishly asked: "Can you write that down for me?"

Now it was Baron Potter's turn to laugh and Lady Potter's turn to blush. "Right, sorry," she mumbled, and summoned a piece of parchment from the hall, as well as a quill, and started writing as it seemed to summon ink from somewhere inside it as she needed no ink bottle to dip the quill in. After a moment she handed it back to Lily, who gratefully accepted it and looked it over, before pocketing it to look at later.

"As we said, your room's on the first floor, the right wing, second to last door on the right," Lady Potter explained. "A name plate's on it as well to ensure you'll find it, and the others won't step in thinking it's their room in confusion. They haven't been around since everything's redecorated and moved around, you see."

"Something I helped them with," a new voice broke in. Lily turned around, and saw a second woman standing there. She was roughly the same age as the Potters, and had bright red hair not unlike her own, and bright blue eyes. She wore elegant robes, like Lady Potter, but hers were of a different cut and predominantly red in colour, with here and there a bit of black lining. They were also rather loose below her waist, and the skirt split in half halfway down her thigh, revealing quite a bit of stocking-covered leg as she strode forward.

"Lily Evans," Baron Potter introduced, "meet our family friend Seraphina Bones of House Bones." Lily chuckled at Dorea's muttering at how many proper titles he was leaving out. "Excellent broom flyer, great duelist and martial artist, the Great Alliance' best Ward Master, and overall a dirty-minded minx I didn't want you to meet quite so soon."

Lily frowned at Baron Potter in confusion, but Seraphina retorted before she could ask why he thought so. "Come now, Charlus. I distinctly recall you naming me a whole host of other complimentary things. Didn't you, Dorea?"

"Clearly," Lady Potter answered in the same teasing tone as Lily watched Baron Potter blush and tried to turn away.

"I was drunk," he defended himself. "And you were polyjuiced as my wife, damn it. Almost had a heart attack when you started shifting back mid-sex."

"Well, we all know that didn't last very long when I did join in," Dorea said in a sultry voice. Lily blushed, and looked away and covered her ears with her hands. She now knew exactly why Baron Potter hadn't wanted her introduced to the woman quite this soon. And she quite agreed with that assessment. "Besides, you have to compliment her acting skills if you didn't notice the entire time."

"I was traumatised for life," Baron Potter said dramatically. "You two chained me to the wall with magic-restraining cuffs. I was mortified when you brought in everyone else."

"Well, I think it was the best orgy I ever had, since all of the Rascals and their partners joined in that honeymoon night. Even Arcturus and-"

"Underage girl in the room here!" Lily called loudly. "Please, wait until I'm elsewhere for your discussions of…" Lily trailed off, not sure what to call it. She didn't notice at all the three had stopped talking on their own as pain flashed across their own eyes at who Seraphina was about to mention, and they were, in fact, happy for the distraction Lily provided.

"Such a prude," Seraphina pouted. "Remind Charlus I need to be there when you're given the talk. I'd make it much more entertaining. Mind, I'd even give life examples of what and how-"

"I've had a talk, thank you very much," Lily said loudly, blushing from the roots of her hair to her neck. Really, did this woman have no sense of decency or decorum?

"Not a magical one," Seraphina countered with a wide smile. "And there's a lot more entertainment on the magical side as well, with all the… Excitement certain spells can bring. Trust me, I speak from experience."

"Enough, Seraphina," Baron Potter said, as Lily started to stammer and gape in addition to her blush, the woman's teasing becoming too much for her mind to process. "Stop traumatising her. She's only fifteen, and I doubt you came here just to wind her up."

"Quite," Seraphina, agreed and just like that the teasing tone was gone, replaced by a look of seriousness Lily hadn't expected the woman could handle. Lily took a few deep breaths to compose herself, before nodding.

"I came here because I'm done with that project you asked me to look into. The Blood Wards project."

Clearly it was a project they were all deeply invested in, for Baron Potter immediately brightened up. "You found texts on them?"

"Technically Richard did, years ago on his trip to South America, but the end result's the same," Seraphina answered, giving Lily a curious glance. "It's as we presumed: the ones desiring to be protected by them need only donate blood, which is added to an anchor, either the person's Magical core or a Ward-stone, and a Ward Master can use it to create several wards."

Lily nodded along, having read a treatise on creating Wards already for an Arithmancy project she wanted to do for class next term. "They're fuelled by the presence of the one being protected and their blood, right?"

Seraphina turned to her in pleasant surprise. "My my, intelligent and beautiful in one package. No wonder Jamie falls so hard for you." Lily blushed as the teasing tone returned, but it was gone the moment the sentence ended. "Yes, though it often requires more than just a bit. And the ward's nature is quite simple yet intricate, too: the amount of blood donated stands proportional to how long the Wards need to be charged to return to full strength, the strength of the wards, how long the protected one can be absent before they need to return to charge the Wards, and the strength of the response should someone try to harm the protected one inside the wards.

There's a drawback, though. The wards only work if the one being protected is an underage wizard or witch, not an adult. As soon as they reach their age of majority, the wards will become useless. A younger relative of yours might be protected by them later, but for yourself they become as useful as muggle dice."

Baron Potter nodded. "We suspected as much. Still, that will suffice." He turned to Lily. "Young one, would you like to consent to donating blood to the Ward-stone, so we can add a Blood-Ward to the Manor? It'll provide more protections for you and any of your future children should they visit."

Lily knew she would likely agree, having heard the benefits. There were just too many benefits from being protected by Blood Wards. "Are there any drawbacks?"

"Just that you're willingly giving blood," Seraphina answered, "And that if you lose hold of it between getting it out of your body and applying it to the Ward-stone, it can get pretty bad for you. But aside from that, Blood-Wards have no drawbacks on their own."

Lily nodded. "Then, if possible, I'd like to… How do I put this?" She paused, flustered. Barely a ward of the family for an hour and she was already almost demanding a form of protection. Boy, this was going well…

"You'd like to power a Blood Ward?" Seraphina asked knowingly. "That's part of the reason I was asked to look into them: the wards at Potter Manor are strong, I frequently check them myself, but there are few wards stronger than those powered by Blood." Seraphina turned to the Potters. "Shall we?" She asked, gesturing to a door to the right, below the left stairwell. Lily nodded, and followed the three adults up the stairs. After several flights, they came to the top floor. Lily immediately saw why they called most of the rooms war rooms: the wall of one room was entirely dedicated to a map of the United Kingdom, with various names in different colours written down around various areas, like 'Croft Manor' in blue not too far from Cokeworth, 'Lestrange Mansion' in blaring red and underlined somewhere in Southern Ireland, and 'Hogwarts' and 'Hogsmeade' in green at their respective locations in the Scottish Highlands. Nearby were also other, smaller maps of larger towns, as well as what she presumed were blueprints of some buildings. That was all she could see before someone inside closed the door. Another room was dedicated entirely to storing high-quality brooms and what she thought were flying carpets, and yet another was stocked from floor to ceiling along the walls and on various tables with muggle weapons, ranging from daggers and swords to shields and spears, from mere handguns to (surprisingly) many bazookas and what she realised were vehicles of war shrunken down to the size of small handbags, like tanks and war planes and zeppelins, comically hanging by their wings and barrels and wheels from small hooks on the wall.

And then they arrived at the first portrait of a person she'd seen in here, and they halted. Lily paused and squinted. The relatively young woman, barely a Hogwarts graduate, was depicted wearing a strange set of robes, which were a mix between the healer's robes similar to Madam Pomfrey, filled with pouches of healing potions and herbs, and a tougher version of the Auror robes Professor Clarke had shown them in her second year, with complete body padding and coverage, and a helmet locked to the side of her belt. She bore a surprising similarity to Baron Potter and Harry, with the same messy hair and toned body, and Harry's green eyes, though she had both laughter lines around her eyes, and a small smirk. The background behind her, though, wasn't as pretty: a small muggle church was burning, and the ground behind her was littered with corpses underneath a scorched, stormy sky.

"Hello, Sarah," Baron Potter said, suddenly sounding melancholy.

"Wotcher, Charlie," the woman said, her voice sounding quite melodic, though holding the same melancholy tone. "Out there saving the world again, big brother?"

"Like usual," Lady Potter said fondly, a sad smile on her face. "Allow me to introduce you to a Lily Jaina Evans, our new Ward."

The portrait turned her head to her, and Lily actually felt herself being scrutinised by some sort of magic. It passed quickly, though, and the smirk turned into a full-blown smile. "Ah, little Jamie's everlasting crush. I've heard a lot about you. He talks of you very day of summer, you know?"

"He does?" Lily asked, blushing with embarrassment. She knew he was head over heels in love with her, but to the extent she heard now? Oh, God…

"I'm more of his sounding board for romantic ideas, really." The woman in the portrait now identified as Sarah admitted with a sheepish smile. "I'm sorry if some of my… more public ideas embarrassed you. Things like that stunt with roses appearing in your path everywhere worked when I tried them, back in the day."

"That was in your seventh year, nineteen thirty-nine to nineteen forty, before the Grindelwald War really affected the UK," Seraphina said with a fond smile. "This is nineteen seventy-five. Entirely different times."

"I know, Phenie," she pouted, before smirking at Lily. "Still, nice to see the Redhead-blessing continues on," she goaded, before opening upward and inward.

"Fleamont and I broke it!" Baron Potter called after her, but the portrait had already disappeared. "Bitch," he muttered, before stepping in, and Lily and the others followed close behind.

Lily could immediately see this was the Warding Room. Instead of the predominantly pristine white surface on the walls off-set by brown, grey, and white decals, the room was entirely black. And not just the dull black of Hogwarts robes, but so pitch-black that it seemed to suck in all light. Well, it was originally black. But the walls were offset by sets of bright red runes, which illuminated the room. Dominating the centre of the room, sunken slightly into the floor and protected from nearly all sides by a railing aside from a gantry that was moving to it on its own, was a large roughly oval-shaped dark-red-and-black stone with a rough surface approximately twice her height, covered in glowing runes in a brighter shade of red that pulse every three seconds.

"The central Wardstone," Baron Potter explained to her. "Every Ward that protects the property is anchored to it and draws power from it. Muggle-Repellant, Selective Disillusionment against Muggles, Unplottable, General Shielding, Anti-Apparation, Anti-Portkey, the latter two only possible with permission from myself or my wife, Selective Floo, Anti-Dark-Mark, Anti-Obscurial… Name a ward, and we likely have it and it's controlled from here. There are dozens of smaller stones connected to it spread at the borders of our estate to give the magic solid borders, but this one controls it all."

Lily nodded. Both the stone and the room certainly looked impressive, and both pulsed so heavily with magic she could feel it from her spot in the doorway. "Alright, what do I have to do?"

"You just make a cut in your hand, and let the blood drip on the stone until I tell you to stop," Seraphina answered, before turning to Lady Potter. "I'll do the rest. Dorea, retrieve a Blood-Replenishing Potion or two, and fast-acting ones. Lily'll need to donate approximately three pints if she wants the best protection possible."

Lady Potter nodded, and quickly retreated to the second floor's Potions lab, returning in short order with two vials of said potion. Lily nodded, and stepped forward. "I'm ready."

Seraphina nodded. Instead of the ritual knife Lily expected, though, or a cutting spell from Seraphina's wand, the woman grabbed Lily's lower arm and raked it over the surface of the stone. Lily winced, as she felt the rough surface of the stone make multiple gashes across her arm. But, remembering what Seraphina had said, she kept her arm at least close to it, letting her arm bleed out over the surface. She had to admit she was a bit frightened to see her blood flowing quite rapidly out of the cuts on her palm and arm, about five or six cuts in total. But there was also a certain pull to it. Something that prevented her from actually pulling away, aside from the need to power the Blood protections. It was… It was kind of a nice feeling, actually. It warmed her, invigorated her, to be so close to the stone, and she actually leaned closer, to-

"Enough," Seraphina said sternly, and Lily was shaken from her daze and pulled away. Lady Dorea immediately waved her wand and incanted Episkey multiple times to heal the numerous cuts, before giving Lily the Potions. Lily drank it all reluctantly, knowing from experience with numerous violent Slytherins that the Potion tasted horrible. But as soon as she stepped back from the stone she felt the dizziness and numbness from the loss of blood she hadn't noticed before, and knew she'd better drink it. After a moment of hesitation, she downed it in one gulp. Still, she felt too dizzy to stand on her own and leaned against the doorpost.

"Should've warned you," Lady Potter apologised. "The magic the Stone gives off has an addictive allure, more so if you're bleeding from an open wound. Nothing harmful in and of itself, but it tends to dull one's senses, and with the rate you were losing blood it's very dangerous."

Lily nodded in acceptance, and looked to see Seraphina chanting in a language she didn't recognise, with Baron Potter standing nearby, simply casting at the stone to give it power. The time between the pulses of the stone and the chamber decreased with each word Seraphina chanted, until it was like a crowd of press photographers. Then, there was one final, extremely bright pulse, before it all ended, and the entire chamber briefly dimmed, before returning to the previous one-every-three-seconds pulse.

"There." Seraphina said proudly. "One Aztec Blood Ward. Congratulations, Lily. You're now subject to a Blood Ward. As long as you live at Potter Manor every two weeks over the summer holidays, you'll be protected as well as can be."

Lily nodded, trying to stand upright on her own again, only to overbalance and fall to the other side. Lady Potter caught her, though, and held her upright long enough that Lily could balance herself and stand on her own.

"Thank you," Lily breathed.

"Not a problem, dearest," Seraphina reassured in a seductive voice, making Lily blush and look away again. Bloody hell, did that woman try to rile her up just for the hell of it?

"Come dear," Lady Potter said. "The blood loss left you a bit peaky. Let's get you some rest. We'll go shopping for clothes, your other stuff, and the Yule ball tomorrow."

"Yule ball?" Lily asked, surprised. What-

"What, did Dorea forget to tell you?" Seraphina teased. "It's a Potter tradition to host a large dinner ball for the Rascals, the other original members, and the heads of the important alliance families every summer solstice, in remembrance of the date Charlus and Arcturus arranged they got their Baronies, and Yule, to celebrate the foundation of the Great Alliance. And as a Ward of house Potter, your attendance is required at both."

Oh, God. A ball. And I don't even know how to dance. Or any real etiquette rules. Or who will be invited. Or-

"Maybe I should come along for shopping tomorrow, so you have a properly revealing dress for said ball, eh?" Seraphina grinned. Lily's eyes widened in mortification. Oh god. If that minx went along with-

Fortunately, Lady Potter had mercy on her. "No, Seraphina. This weekend is meant so Charlus and I can get properly acquainted with Lily. That will NOT be spoiled by your over sexualised comments. Am I clear?"

"Awww, but-"

"No."


Charlus stared after them, as the ladies retreated down to the parlour. He sighed. Oh, how he wished to be so innocent as Lily was in the face of Seraphina. But alas. With a Bones Bachelor party, the Grindelwald war, and the loss of his sister during it, one couldn't help but be a realist.

"You know you have to tell them eventually, right?" A voice said behind him. He didn't turn around, knowing who was addressing him.

"I know." Charlus sighed again. He knew he had to. He'd only told James and Sirius the bare basics, and Harry and the others nothing at all. He wanted to spare them from that. The pain knowing they could've had another aunt, but had been robbed of the chance to ever meet her.

"But now more than ever," Sarah pressed. "When he was put away he got a thirty year sentence in the High-Security wing of Nurmengard, as I recall. A sentence that ended last summer."

"He'll be free to rally the Grim Reapers," Charlus realised, fear gripping his heart. He'd beaten the man before, numerous times even. But it had cost him or others something each time. And with what he had to lose now…

"They must know the truth," Sarah insisted. "Even at the cost of their innocence. I, more than anyone else, know what that man is capable of. If nothing else, it'll be easier to get them to be more violent in their methods. To get them past simple disarming hexes and stunners," Sarah sighed. "A shame that lesson cost me my life. It didn't stop him."

"It shouldn't have had to," Charlus retorted, tears in his eyes. He didn't want himself, or any of the others, to lose anyone else to that man again. He didn't want to comfort another Potter as they succumbed to their wounds in his arms. "You shouldn't have had to use anything more against your husband."

"They're not ready," Charlus said, panicking slightly. Their innocence needed to be protected from the horrors of war, even though Harry was quite mature and aware of them already. "If I tell them they'll hate me. They need to know more of history, or they'll die. Like you." He let out a lout breath, calming himself with the help of Occlumency. "They're not ready."

"No one's ever ready," his sister's portrait retorted. "We never get to choose our own time, either to reveal sensitive information or to embrace one's own death. Death is what gives life meaning, Charlie. To know one's days are numbered, their time short. It drives one to do things they would normally be afraid to do." He finally turned around, and found her wearing a sad smile. "Like how my death finally made you Rascals work together like I knew you could."

He gave his own sad smile in turn, shaking his head. "Since when did you get so wise?"

His sister snorted, and his sad smile grew into a genuine one. "We always knew us Potter siblings had an odd dynamic: you, the strong and brave one incapable of making hard decisions until well after my death. Fleamont, the mad tinkerer with Potions with a sense of humour that perfectly fit Phenie. And me, the youngest wise chick that in spite of all her wisdom maintained a sense of innocence and naïveté in her medical tent until her death."

"Then why did I never hear such wisdom coming from you before, sis?" He asked pointedly, one eyebrow raised.

"Because you never bothered to listen," she chastised, though he could see there was genuine mirth in her eyes. By Merlin, he missed her reassuring presence. "Then again, few men did."

He sighed. She had a point. With the year difference between them being three years, he'd ignored her far more than he should've.

"I'm sorry, Sarah," he whispered, finally letting the tears flow.

"Me too, big brother," she quietly whispered back. "Me too."


(1) = 'go to hell' in Russian, rough translation courtesy of Google translate

Up Next: finishing the Potions tutoring with Snape, the Christmas Ball, Harry meets the parents, Neville has a tense confrontation with Bellatrix, and another memory for the collection

Two requests I'd like the input for readers on:

One, Marauders names for the Ministry Six. I'm stuck, even after the story began nearly a year ago and I thought of the idea, and I'd like your input and ideas. A reminder of their forms and notable characteristics:

Harry: Thestral, eyes as green as in human form, lightning-bolt scar remains
Hermione: Phoenix, mostly fire-orange
Ron: Dog, Jack Russel Terrier, mostly white fur except for russet fur around the head and a black snout
Ginny: Horse, red-maned
Neville: Wolf, after Riddle Manor assault three claw scars across the right side of the face in both forms
Luna: Hare, white fur and dirty patches around the head to mimic hair

And two: Actors portraying physical appearances of characters. I'm putting things open to votes. The Ministry Six remain the same, as do McGonagall, Dumbledore, and Tom Riddle/Voldemort (both twisted bald version, even if it could use a touch-up on details like red eyes and such and young charismatic version), but all others are up for suggestion and vote.

Adios

Lucian Valerious