La Vie en Rose

Summary: The best thing about being seen as nothing more than pitiful, traumatized children is that no one would believe it possible for any of them to conspire with the Fae to kidnap the Girl-Who-Lived. FemHarry.

Just a warning: FemHarry, AU, Language, Clichés, Non-Cannon Character Death, More in the Future…

Just so you know (Name): FemHarry's name is Andromeda Rhoswen Potter. The name Andromeda means "Ruler/Protector of Men" and was the name of an Ethiopian princess whose mother angered the gods. To placate the gods, Andromeda was fastened to a rock to be used as a sacrifice to a sea monster, from which she was rescued by Perseus. In astronomy, Andromeda is a large northern constellation between Perseus and Pegasus as well a galaxy located two inmillion light years away. Rhoswen is a Welsh name meaning "White Rose" as well as "Fair/Blessed Rose".

I don't own anything related to Twisted Wonderland or Harry Potter!

Chapter 3. Betony for Surprise

BLAISE

By the time morning drew on and the sun rose over Hogwarts, bringing light to the dark corridors of the castle, news and rumors finally started creeping in from every corner much like an old game of telephone; growing wilder and wilder with each contact.

Blaise listened and memorized every single one of them with the proficiency of someone who grew up under his mother's interesting tutelage. After all, if there was one thing that the woman had taught him, it was that there was nothing more valuable than information — No matter how useless or ridiculous they may sound at first.

Because of this, it wasn't unusual to find Blaise with a small book in hand, writing down a list of any kind of information that reached his ears. Which was what he was doing at the moment while the rest of his team worked on preparing the bodies of the fallen to be either sent to their remaining families or be moved to another room until the D.A. had everything ready for the funerals.

"Zabini."

The olive-skinned wizard blinked at the sound of his name. He made a pause, staring down at the half-filled pages of his leather-bound book for a brief moment before he raised his head to find out who had called for him.

"Yes?" he asked slowly, blinking once more when he noticed a ghost floating a few inches from the ground in front of him.

She was beautiful in a haunting and tragic way, with waist-length hair and wearing a floor-length cloak over her expensive looking, and delicately embroidered, dress. Staring at her, the Slytherin wondered why she had decided to come to speak to him when everyone in the castle knew that it was pretty rare for anyone living other than Andromeda and Luna Lovegood to interact with this ghost in particular.

"May I help you, Lady Ravenclaw?"

Helena Ravenclaw tilted her head, staring at him with pale eyes.

She didn't say a word at first and, after two whole minutes of silence, he almost thought she won't do so and half-expected the ghost to give up on whatever personal mission that had brought her to him before leaving as though she was never there in the first place.

But then, Helena spoke up with that haughty tone of hers that made many of the ghosts in the castle to avoid her despite how much they respected her position as Rowena Ravenclaw's once favored daughter.

"I thought you would like to know that there are uninvited guests heading to this room."

At her words, the temperature of the room felt colder and colder with every passing second, and a invisible weight settled over everyone's heads as the energy in the room had begun to shift, making it almost difficult to breath. Blaise frowned, trying to think of anyone who would know about this room and why they would want to — His thoughts came to a halt.

Oh, the Slytherin thought with a sneer.

He could guess who had decided to bring his unwanted presence to Hogwarts so soon after the end of the war. And, while the reason for him to be coming to this room was still a mystery, there was no doubt in Blaise's mind that anything Kingsley Shacklebolt could possibly want meant nothing but trouble.

Especially now, the olive-skinned wizard thought with a click of his tongue, that the man was appointed as the new Interim Minister a few days ago.

"Prepare the bodies to be moved as fast as you can. We need to leave," Blaise said. They won't be staying in a closed room with a group of Ministry.

When no one moved, he narrowed his eyes and said firmly:

" Now."

Everyone obeyed immediately, trusting him to know what he was doing and knowing better than to question his orders even if he didn't bother to explain why he was telling them to do something. The dark-eyed Slytherin cast a glance around the room, watching as people ran from one side of the room while waving their wands and mumbling different spells under their breath.

"Lady Ravenclaw," Blaise said, turning his attention back to the ghost, "you said uninvited guests?"

She tilted her head before replying, "Yes."

There was no need for the ghost to elaborate. After all, no sane Auror would allow someone with Kingsley's new political power to go anywhere without some kind of protection.

"How long do we have?" Blaise asked after a moment of tense silence.

Helena didn't say a word, opening her mouth to speak before she paused. Then, she turned towards the door, lips curled down and pale eyes narrowed with what he interpreted as frustration. Blaise followed her eyes, staring at the door before glancing back at his group, heart hammering against his chest merciless as he tried to suppress the anger that threatened to take over all his common sense and rational thinking.

He knew her answer before she even opened her mouth again to say, "They're already here."

There was a knock on the door.

Everyone froze, heads snapping towards the door. No one moved for a while and Blaise could see that half of the people in the room looked uncertain of what to do while the other half pulled out their wands, ready to fight if necessary.

There was another knock before the door opened slowly to reveal a pleasantly smiling Shacklebolt who was instantly recognizable by his hand embroidered robes and the single golden hoop earring on his left ear. Behind him, illuminated only by the lantern floating above their group, were three unknown wizards dressed in plain, faded red robes that were clearly made to not draw attention.

"Forgive me for the intrusion," Shacklebolt said. His voice and expression were meant to be reassuring but the mere sight of it was enough to make Blaise pursued his lips with disgust.

The former Slytherin was good but Blaise was his mother's son; he would've been able to see the fake that surrounded the older wizard even if he was standing as far as the edge of Hogsmead.

"But I was wondering if I could speak to Andy," the Interim Minister continued, scanning the room as though looking for Andromeda.

Blaise wasn't the only one who pursued his lips at the sound of Andromeda's nickname. Last tome he checked, the man hadn't gotten permission to call her so informally. Actually, his dear chosen leader hated it when anyone outside of the D.A. and a few selected few called her anything other than Miss Potter. Not that ninety-nine percent of the Wizarding World seemed to understand or respect this.

"She isn't here," Blaise said calmly.

Which you already knew, he thought.

"Oh," Shacklebolt's sad tone didn't match the calculation in his light-brown eyes. "Well, I do hope none of you will mind if I wait for her here?"

Someone hissed in the back of the room loud enough for only the D.A. to hear. The sound was all they needed to express the collective "We do mind. Fuck off" that they wanted to spit at the black-skinned wizard but refrained from doing so. Shacklebolt smiled amusedly and didn't even wait for an answer, stepping into the room as though he owned it and sitting down in one of the three sofas in the room. After a moment of hesitation, the Aurors followed him, shooting cautious looks towards the D.A. as though they expected the group to snap at any second.

Not that they would.

At least not without a good reason and the surety that they could get away with it.

"There is no need to wait for her," Blaise said. "I'm sure I can help you with whatever it is."

The last thing anyone in the D.A. wanted was for Andromeda to interact with anyone from the Ministry so soon after the war. Even a blind man would be able to see just how exhausted the small witch was from all the deaths that followed her for the past few years as well the amount of responsibility that piled up over her shoulders one after the other. There was no doubt that she wasn't in the right state of mind to speak with a politician; doing so would be the same thing as begging for Andromeda to be manipulated into something that could possibly bring the green-eyed witch to her limit.

But then again, a small voice coming from the darkest confines of his mind whispered, hadn't she already reached that limit? Hadn't Andromeda walked to her death without a second thought so they could all be safe? All she would need to do so again was nothing more than a simple pu —

The olive-skinned wizard cut that train of thought off.

He refused to think about any of that (Refused to acknowledge the sacrifice Andromeda willing made for them and what the easy disregard of her life could possibly mean).

"I don't think you would be able to help me, Mr. Zabini," Shacklebolt said kindly, waving a gloved hand dismissively

Blaise's eyebrows twitched in annoyance.

"Why?" the young wizard asked, lips pressed together in a semblance of a smile. "Andromeda left me in charge here so I am sure there is something I can do for you."

"Since when are you the one in charge?" Seamus Finnigan's heavy accented voice mumbled from behind him.

"Shhhh," Terry Boot chided the Irish Gryffindor. "Not now, mate."

Ignoring the ever-annoying Ravenclaw-Gryffindor duo who never missed a single opportunity to question the authority that Andromeda did give him during the first week of the unofficial beginning of the war, Blaise focused on Shacklebolt. He didn't even blink, staring at the older wizard rubbing his stubbly chin in thought.

Then, the former Auror shook his head and said not so casually, "No…"

The moment he made that pause, Blaise knew that he won't like what he was going to hear next.

"…It would be better if I spoke with Andy about moving the bodies so we can prepare for the memorial instead of –"

A memorial?

Moving the bodies?

The Slytherin teen stopped listening. He blinked, ears ringing as his brain processed Shacklebolt's words, picking every single hidden meaning he could possibly find and that anger from before turned into barely contained rage.

Blaise inhaled and exhaled a lungful of air almost exaggeratedly.

I knew we should've left the room, he thought.

The new Interim Minister of Magic was still new to the position and lacked the necessary support to keep his job when things calmed down, so the older wizard probably concocted a plan that would not only endear him to the herd of sheep-like public but also get more than a dozen old sharks in the Wizengamot to ally themselves to him as a result.

"Psst."

If that plan involved making a spectacle out of the deaths of children then that's what they would do. And if they wanted to steal the bodies of those children, bury them in a ministry approved location and throw a party while calling it a memorial then that was exactly what they would do.

"Blaise!"

" Not now, Seamus," Terry hissed.

The worst part about the whole thing was the fact that Shacklebolt probably didn't even care about this memorial. The man was a Slytherin through and through was probably using this whole farce to trap Andromeda somehow.

The dark-eyed wizard closed his eyes, mind going a miles away as he tried of think of a way to get Shacklebolt out of the castle while hoping nothing else would go wrong.

"Psst. Blaise!"

"Seamus!"

"It's important!"

Tilting his head slightly, Blaise sent a glare at the duo behind him. However, the moment he saw the expression on Seamus' freckled face, Blaise knew he had jinxed himself.

"What now?" Blaise asked dryly, keeping an eye on Shacklebolt who was still talking.

Seamus paled at the look he got from the older teen. Gulping nervously, he ran his bloodstained hand through his hair and sputtered, "I – I –"

"I think," Helena took pity on the Gryffindor. Blaise had honestly forgotten she was there, "that what he wants to ask is: Where's Miss Chang?"

Fast enough to break his neck, Blaise started scanning the room, taking note of the youngest members of the D.A. before moving to the oldest. Sure enough, when his headcount ended, he noticed that while the Ravenclaw's friends were huddled together in a corner with identical looks of concern on their faces, the girl herself was nowhere to be seen.

He didn't even know why Chang's disappearing act surprised him. Blaise should've expected something like that from the older teen. There was a reason why she usually stuck around with him and the others members of the D.A. who mostly focused on sabotage and information gathering: She was well known to allowing her emotions overcoming her common sense and rarely, if ever, thought about the consequences of her actions before

"When did she leave?" Blaise asked, hissing through gritted teeth.

Seamus flinched, "I don't know! I just noticed that she wasn't with Megan and her other friends."

"Around the time Shacklebolt sat down," Tracey Davis said from their spot next to Astoria Greengrass.

The purple-haired Slytherin didn't look away from Shacklebolt as they spoke, watching with narrowed eyes as the older wizard explained something to a small group of the D.A. The small group didn't look too happy to be that close to the new Interim Minister but they had noticed that something wasn't right and decided to distract the man somehow.

Astoria turned towards Blaise with worried blue-eyes, playing with a stray strand of blonde hair that had escaped from her braid. "I think that was three minutes ago…?"

Three minutes — That was more than enough to reach the Headquarters through some of the still accessible secret passages in the castle.

The dark-eyed wizard pressed the palms of his hands against his eyes with a frustrated growl.

It looked like Shacklebolt would be getting that talk he wanted after all.

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– Cissnei.