Major M-rating on this one! A no-nonsense Fem Harry who meets someone who's all too happy to solve her problems with a bit of judicious application of murder and booze... because this is Xanxus and he has no issue with killing people just to sleep with someone who catches his interest.
It's in a shitty bar in England where he meets her. She looks so done with this world and isn't even glancing at the fruity drink cocktail specials and has a bottle of some expensive scotch beside her. She is clearly savoring it properly, as that sort of bottle isn't something you should toss back like a cheap beer.
Hair as dark as a raven's feather, eyes as green as emeralds barely hidden by poorly fitted frames, skin pale, and wearing ill-fitting clothes. However she had the bearing a fucking queen and something told him that there was a lot of power hiding behind that deceptively thin frame.
The moment she briefly turned her attention to him, his breath caught in his throat. He took in how she instinctively scanned the bar for threats before going back to her drinking.
He knew then and there he wanted to fuck her.
He stalked up to the bar and ordered his preferred brand of whiskey. She was even better up close.
For the first hour, they sat in comfortable silence. When he felt enough time had passed, he brought up the fact she was here alone and without a boyfriend.
She gave him an unamused look, and said calmly "I don't have a boyfriend, nor am I looking for one."
Her voice sent pleasing shivers down his spine. His desire to see her under him, eyes blazing with lust grew even more.
"What's a pretty little thing doing drinking alone in a bar, all alone then?" he asked.
"Trying to drink away the pain of losing someone," she replied. "And to pretend the world outside does not fucking exist, because I am so sick of the bullshit."
His smirk widened hearing that second part, because he could relate. So, so much.
He paid for the next drink, because she had already polished off the half-full bottle of scotch. The bartender was mafia, he took one look at him and wisely vacated the area.
"Problems?" he purred.
"Only a homicidal idiot that keeps trying to kill me for stupid reasons, an old man who doesn't know how to mind his own fucking business, people who think they have a say in how I live my own life and friends who claim they mean well but have yet to actually grow up and expect me to be the same," she growled. She downed her drink without a second thought, and he poured her another.
It sounded like she was being caged by people who claimed to "mean well" and "knew what was best" but were really attempting to control her like a caged bird.
His eyes roamed over her body...there was no way to tell what her figure was like, but he knew eyes like hers. He had seen them on the streets often enough. This was someone who had been through hell and come out with a spine of fucking steel. Either way he was almost guaranteed one hell of a ride if he could convince her into it.
A fat pig in a blond wig walked in with some forgettable losers. The woman tensed, before forcibly relaxing and keeping her back to them.
"Someone you know?" he asked.
"My fat pig of a cousin," she said tersely. "If he comes near, feel free to shoot him."
Oh he could definitely relate. Sounded like she liked this cousin as much as he enjoyed being around a certain blond and braying jackass of dubious parentage.
He eyed the pig, then the woman.
A dark smirk filled his features as he casually asked "What would you offer for me to...remove...certain issues for you?"
She paused in her drink and properly looked at him.
"Am I to assume a permanent removal that wouldn't be tied back to me?" she replied.
"Nothing the cops could prove," he agreed.
She eyed her 'cousin' with some distaste. On one hand, what he was offering was almost certainly illegal and not exactly something a good person would consider.
On the other hand, fuck her aunt, uncle and cousin. They had never once treated her like family and honestly if they were gone no one would be able to force her to go back to that hellhole.
She took another hit of her drink. Contemplated her options, then her alcohol addled mind decided 'fuck it'.
Her expression said volumes, and his dark grin turned absolutely wicked as it promised dark things and dark thoughts.
She had absolutely no regrets the next afternoon, where she sorely wished she hadn't drank nearly as much the night before.
Many, many hours later...
Xanxus was in a bit of a quandary. While killing the cousin and the two pieces of trash pretending to be human was easy (and so worth it for the ride he got from her the night before), realizing there was something off about his flames had thrown him off a bit.
When he returned to the hotel room, the woman still sleeping off the inevitable hangover, he stepped in the shower and discreetly checked his flames.
And felt like he had been punched in the gut. His flames were all but purring because there was a new addition to them.
Clouds were always tricky to court, but it seemed he had found one completely by accident.
Which...presented a problem, because there was no telling what her territory was and how she would react.
Xanxus gave her some water and aspirin. Hangovers sucked.
He leaned in close.
"Care to have another round?"
She raised an eyebrow.
"Are you suggesting I spend the rest of the day and possibly night with you?" she asked.
"You really want to go back?"
"Hell no," she replied without a second's hesitation. "If I go back I'd just have to hear that harpy's screeching or that fat walrus' bitching me out about staying out all night, despite the fact his fat pig of a son did the same."
Xanxus smirked, and made a point to keep her as far away from the crime scene as possible. She'd likely figure it out once it hit the news, but until then he wanted to gauge what her boundaries were.
Her expression when she saw her 'family' on the news was interesting. She turned to look at him with a serious expression. She didn't even bother to ask if he had done it, his eyes said it all.
His arms were like bands of steel around her waist.
"Good riddance," she said, once the ramifications of what he had done sink in. "Though really, you could have burned them alive in the house and I would have been just as happy."
His grin was dark and vicious.
It was at this point that he finally learns her name. Gracidea, or "Grace" as her friends called her.
While they were lounging on the private Varia-owned plane, Grace asked where they were going as she was just glad to leave England...albeit illegally.
"We're heading to Italy, specifically Florence."
Grace took this in stride.
"I have a second cousin who lives in Italy. Wonder if I can meet up with her sometime," said Grace.
Xanxus hummed, not really caring. He would almost regret this later, though not too much considering the sheer entertainment he got from it.
Squalo knew something was up with his boss/Sky. Ever since that mission to England, he had been acting...off.
Following him wasn't easy...whatever it was Xanxus was hiding made him extra paranoid. However Squalo was a nosy son of a bitch, so he didn't care.
He very quickly has to duck, because Xanxus is pissed and isn't afraid to use him as target practice during the ten seconds it took for him to realize the Rain who was in the decently sized apartment was his.
He didn't know what to expect, but finding out Xanxus apparently had found a new girl and hadn't wanted to share was a bit surprising.
She wasn't mafia, but she was hot as hell and had the eyes of a survivor. And then he felt it...fucking Cloud flames, inactive but only really needing one good push to change that.
As they drove back to Varia HQ, Squalo brought up the chick.
"Picked her up in England, killed her 'family' in exchange for fucking with her, and somehow her flames attached to mine," said Xanxus.
"...That hit in Surrey was you?" said Squalo.
Xanxus didn't dignify that with a response, so he took that as a 'yes'.
Mammon had been going spare over that because apparently some important female on the magical side had gone missing and the people who were killed were the family she was staying with. Even though it had been a few months, the magicals were still having kittens because the girl hadn't gone to their special school in Scotland.
He didn't need to be a genius to put two and two together.
"You going to tell Mammon the girl is here and your Cloud?" he asked.
"Fuck no...that would ruin all the entertainment," said Xanxus with a scoff. Squalo snorted at that.
Since he knew where the Cloud girl was, Squalo made a point to drop in unexpectedly to see what her reaction would be. He felt somewhat pleased that not a second after he dropped in via her window, her first reaction was to throw a plate somewhat inexpertly at him. The fact the shrapnel managed to hit his semi-long hair despite him ducking was rather pleasing.
That she immediately followed it with some boiling hot water that she had been heating up for some tea more so. Smart woman, even if she only clipped him with it.
"Voi, do you greet all your guests like this?" he snarked.
She narrowed her eyes at him.
"You're a professional assassin. If you couldn't dodge it, then you're either under an illusion or a shitty killer. You don't have room to bitch," she shot back.
Squalo's smirk was full of teeth. He really liked this one. He noticed the sharp knife barely hidden behind her back.
"Voi, who taught you to hold a knife?" he said.
"Your mother," she replied.
The utter confusion when he stalked up to her and immediately corrected her grip so she had a better grasp on it was rather amusing.
"Voi, hold it like that, otherwise anyone can knock it out of your grasp."
"What?"
Squalo grinned.
He left bearing some cookies and a thermos of hot tea. For a Cloud, she was actually rather tolerable. He could see why his Sky was so fascinated with her and it wasn't because of a fledgling bond.
When Xanxus drops in unannounced, he is greeted with "Your Sephiroth clone is weird."
It takes him exactly two minutes to translate that to "Squalo dropped by recently".
"Sephiroth clone?"
"He never gave me a proper name, so I've been calling him Sephiroth," she admitted. "You have no idea how tempted I've been to call you Vincent."
Xanxus later has to track down a copy of the game she had been obsessed with and is actually pleased with the comparison...even if now he can't stop calling Squalo Sephiroth for a full month because of it.
Squalo is not pleased.
Lussuria is next, because they got hurt on a mission and don't need the added stress of dealing with the medical division. Squalo had given them the location of a new safe house, and didn't tell them it belonged to the boss' new girl.
She only barely nails the teal haired man with sunglasses with a frying pan before registering the injury.
In short order Lussuria is being swallowed by multiple blankets while she fusses over them, not even asking what happened or why he was there.
He doesn't even argue over the foul concoctions she bullies him into drinking, registering them as healing potions.
Xanxus is not amused, because he is the one to pick up his Sun once he's well enough to actually leave.
It does not help that Ottabio is starting to get really suspicious because he can sense the inactive cloud flames on the Wrath and suspects Xanxus is trying to replace him.
Back in England...
Dumbledore was not having a good day. First the Dursleys were brutally murdered, and not with magical means with no leads on the culprit. The only blessing was that Grace's body hadn't been found and that the goblins had confirmed that her account had been used but were being incredibly stubborn about the location.
The only information they were willing to share was that the key in question was still very much active and in use by the registered holder.
He still had the brief and highly informative letter sent by Grace stating she was withdrawing from Hogwarts...as well as a very detailed explanation of how he could go "screw himself" in various graphic and painful ways.