Chapter Three
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"No legacy is so rich as honesty."
-William Shakespeare
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She stared at the wall in her family's manor. She hadn't returned in months, in fact the last time she had been home was months before the war; the place was covered in a thick layer of dust. Two house elves watched their mistress from the doorway, she had forbidden them from coming in this particular room. She had told McGonagall that she needed a quick break for a week.
She had received a letter from George asking her to stop by the shop and something had prompted her to stop by her hidden home. She missed the two house elves that pretty much raised her after her brother had died following her parents.
"Mistress Aaerie, shall we clean up-"
"Piper, Limmy maybe next time…why don't you guys go rest-" She knew that was a pointless request but they disapparated knowing she needed space.
Her fingers grazed over the family tree, she had studied it millions of time. It wasn't just any family tree; it had been enchanted with Slytherin blood. It was an ancient spell that would continue until there was no one who bled Salazar's father's blood.
There were no complete wizarding records about the Slytherin family or any ancient family. Whatever people considered pureblood now was simply created by someone at the same time muggles began persecuting witches and wizards back then and when the Ministry became something real and the Statue of Secrecy was created.
Most people thought the Gaunts were direct relatives to the Slytherin bloodline, which was true. However they were not the heir of Salazar Slytherin. Her eyes wandered over Salazar's sister's name and followed it down to Tom Marvolo Riddle.
She saw all the deaths on the Slytherin family tree, one heir here, and one heir there. Never more than one who lived long enough to continue the family name, always a male, she saw the many female names under Salazar's line, dying having seen the world for such a short period of time or living long without any offspring. The rumour was it was a blood curse, by none other than Salazar Slytherin himself, he wanted to ensure his legacy continued and the only way to do that was to ensure a male heir. Her father had told her brother and her that it was back sometime in the 1400s that their ancestor Judas Salazar Slytherin II changed the family name to Sin, ironically like his name Judas betrayed his ancestors by doing this. Up until then Salazar's descendants had been fairly private and very well off, they did not have to work or be involved with the magical community and it was easy for their family to fall of the grid. The Slytherins thought they were too good for anyone, that included magical folk.
The House of Slytherin, as far as the wizarding world was concerned was no more, the House of Gaunt was all that was left. However Aaerie knew, she was the last in the Slytherin bloodline, she had outlived her brother. And thus must have effected the blood curse. Her manor had a library full of ancient texts that her brother had taught her to decipher, one book in particular was a very detailed book on soul splitting, or Horcruxes. That was how Dumbledore had gotten such precise information on Voldermort's soul attaching itself to Harry's, there was no books in the entire wizarding world that could explain Horocruxes to that extent. In the wrong hands, the books in her home could wipe out nations. The texts were an ancient text that could only be deciphered by those that could speak in Parseltongue, even she had difficulty understanding the magic, however she didn't have to worry but…in a world with so many mysteries she didn't want to risk the chance.
She turned away from the wall, whispering in Parseltongue, "Hide," she failed to notice before the writings faded was a familiar name etched into the wall beside her name branching out into-
"Mistress, Piper and Limmy know mistress said to rest, however Piper and Limmy must insist that you have something to eat-"
"Alright, let's go eat." She smiled at the two and were prepared to argue.
"I missed you," She sighed into George's chest, he engulfed her tightly. She looked up and stared at the hole where his ear should have been. It was the only thing that stopped her from screaming whenever she saw George. She always looked there.
"I missed you too George," She smiled at him softly and sighed when she realized she could still smell the faint scent of some kind of liquor. She started weening herself off the sleeping draught over a week ago, something wasn't sitting well with her when she thought about taking it.
"How's school?"
"Dreadful,"
"You could always come back," She smiled at the young man, all she wanted was to stay in Fred's room forever. But whenever she had nightmares, George would come rushing into Fred's bedroom and for a split moment every time she thought it was him, until she knew it wasn't, and that pain, the rush of memories was the worst feeling of all.
She knew it wasn't healthy, George was finally looking a little healthier and she figured it had something to do with his mother. They needed each other, but they needed the separation, they needed it to heal.
George stared at the quiet girl, he was glad to see her putting back on a healthy amount of weight, although her face still seemed sunken in, "Mom packed some leftover chicken-"
"No. No chicken, I'm not hungry, no meat, hasn't been sitting well with me," She shook her head trying to push away the wave of nausea at the thought of meat. George raised his eyebrows at her pale face but didn't question her any more.
It had been 4 months since he died, the new batch of students had come to Hogwarts, innocent eyes curiously looking at their surroundings, unaware of the devastation just months prior. Some old students had made the decision to return to the school as well.
"Whoa, slow down, you're starting to look like Ron," Ginny giggled sitting beside Aaerie, she was fascinated at how fast the black haired girl was gulping down Treacle Tarts and chicken legs.
"Starving."
"Yeah, I can see that," Ginny found it funny that Aaerie's whole vegetarian diet ended as of last week, and since then she hadn't stopped eating.
Ginny gave her a tight squeeze and left her to join the Gryffindors at the field. Aaerie and just a few other students were finishing off their lunch in the Great Hall. She could feel eyes bore into her side and turned to see Malfoy turn his head away, 'What's his problem?'
Malfoy turned away quickly, he had found himself dazing off staring at Ariadne. He didn't know why, but she was fascinating. He had asked his mother about the Sin family, but neither his mother nor father knew much about the family other then the names of her father and mother. Her mother was a known pureblood whose family migrated from somewhere else. Aaerie's father's background was fairly unknown but as far as they knew it was a pureblood family but oddly they weren't on the Sacred Twenty Eight. His mother had told him it wasn't unheard of that there were other pureblood families.
"Pretty, isn't she?"
Draco turned and saw Blaise smirking at him, "Don't know what you're talking about."
"Sure."
"Are you sure she went to school with us?"
"Yeah mate, she was dropped off on the Hogwarts Express by her older brother and shared the boat with us during first year." Draco suddenly remembered, the quiet and sad looking little girl. He was so absorbed with himself during the transport, trying to figure out ways to meet Potter that he didn't care about his surroundings, but he did remember her.
He turned to look back at her, 'Who are you Ariadne Sin
Her hands shook staring at her waist in the mirror. There was no denying it anymore. She had spent the last month eating up a storm, at first it looked like a little weight gain. She couldn't fit into her pants anymore, she would charm her skirts to be a little bigger and wear sweaters, but there it was. It was small but the bulge on her stomach was hard and centered. It definitely was not an emerging ab.
She had been so stressed since Fred died, she was never regular to begin with and hadn't suspected anything, 'Is it even possible…' She needed to find out, she stared at the potion simmering beside her.
"Now or never…" She grabbed a small pocket knife and sliced her palm slightly, wincing at the sudden rush of pain. Shaking it off, she placed her hand over the potion and watched several droplets of blood hit the potion.
It began smoking, blue and white flames shooting up towards the ceiling of the bathroom. It was an old potion, but very effective. She didn't want to go see Madam Pomfrey for a much easier and less theatrical test, as it would risk the school asking too many questions and judging her for her personal decisions.
The blue and white flames finally simmered down and began dancing around her torso. Her heart pounded against her chest, she didn't know what to expect, she didn't know what she wanted.
The blue and white flame were pushing on one another. Her eyes pursed together, she wasn't sure if she had done the spell right, she thought the flames would die out, or they would merge. The flames got brighter until finally they wrapped themselves together, not merging, simply entwined together. She reached out and carefully raised the delicate fires to her face.
"Merlin…"
She was staring hard at the book in front of her. Her lips weren't just red anymore, she had bitten so hard that there was a faint taste of copper and a streak of blood.
"There you are! Why are you reading-" Ginny propped herself across the table and grabbed one of the books, "Potent Potions for the Magically Inclined." Aaerie took the book from Ginny's hands and put it back on the pile without looking up.
"No reason, just a potions assignment,"
"Yeah okay…anyways I haven't seen you by the lake in awhile." Aaerie finally looked at the younger girl, she realized it had been a week since she had left the Hogwarts building.
"Just been busy I guess…" She waved at the books beside her.
"Maybe I can help? Professors haven't given my year anything…anyways tell me what you're looking for!"
"It's okay Ginny, thanks anyways," Aaerie tried dismissing the girl but Ginny began flipping through some of the books, "Ginny! I'm seriously fine okay!" Aaerie blanched when she saw Ginny about to read the part she had stuck a piece of parchment in. Not yet, not until she was sure.
Ginny frowned and put the book down, "Sorry…"
Aaerie felt a wave of regret seeing the sad expression on the witch's face, "You know what, reckon I could use a break…wanna go take a walk?" Ginny's face broke into a smile. They smiled and stood up.
She gave a concerned glance towards the books, waving her wand and watched them all return to their respective spots on the shelf before walking away with Ginny.
The small parchment that she had transcribed the text directly from one books slipped away.
When performed correctly, the spell Fetasum Miamajora can indicate a living or deceased fetus within the witch.
Upon incanting the spell, the witch will feel a subtle burning sensation in her lower abdomen, followed by white and/or blue smoke or flames. Smoke typically indicates an early pregnancy and will work itself into fire towards 16 weeks gestation.
In the event of the witch not being pregnant, the smoke will remain orange and disappear upon contact with the abdominal area.
In the event of a female fetus, the smoke and/or flame will remain or become white. In the event of a male it will be blue.
In the event of multiple fetus' there will be several flames or orbs of smoke. A skilled witch or wizard will be able to distinguish how many-
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A/N Please let me know how you like it!