Vibrant green eyes mindlessly wandered across the snow-covered treetops and distant hills, their owner immersed in deep thoughts, as she sat on a balcony in her favorite rocking chair, wrapped in a thin blanket despite the cold, which was done in hopes that the chilly weather would be enough to help her clear her mind.
She slowly rocked back and forth as her breath came out in a visible puff in the crisp morning air. Despite it being the beginning of winter, the morning was rather sunny and bright, which usually would've been enough to lighten the young woman's mood, but it seemed like this time it wasn't the case.
The woman's normally silky ivory skin looked even paler due to the cold, with her raven hair and dark circles under her eyes adding more to the contrast. But even so, anyone who saw her at that moment would've easily claimed that she was a rather magnificent sight to behold. The dark circles made her enchanting emerald eyes look even more vibrant, as if illuminated by a light from within her very soul, the habit of biting her lips made her normally red lips look even more enticing and plump and even while hunched, in order to save some warmth, she still somehow managed to look regal and elegant, which said much about her aristocratic ancestry.
With her beauty being the first thing that catches an eye of a stranger, no one in their right mind could deny that once you took a second, much closer look, you would notice something that would make you take an involuntary step back, out of caution and fear. That something being her eyes, or rather the look in them that screamed danger. Those emerald eyes looked way older than it was expected from someone her age and belonged more on a face of some old war veteran, who even despite the peaceful times was always scanning his surroundings for any signs of danger, always ready to throw himself into the combat. Even now, as she was lost in her thoughts, unknowingly to her, her mindlessly wandering gaze was relentlessly scanning the trees and bushes in front of the Peverell Castle for any signs of movement.
A soft crack made her snap out of her thoughts and turn to it's source, only to relax upon seeing one of her loyal companions.
"Mistress is being stubborn again. How many times old Kreacher had asked his mistress to not go outside without putting on some warm clothes?" The old House Elf grumbled disapprovingly and snapped his fingers putting a warming charm around his mistress, who awarded him with a warm, if slightly sheepish smile, which did nothing to sooth the old House Elf's anger.
"I'm sorry Kreacher, I swear I wasn't planning on staying here for so long, just got lost in thoughts..." But her words fell on deaf ears.
"Mistress Diana needs to be more mindful of her own health..." Kreacher continued grumbling as he snapped his fingers once again and summoned a small table with a steaming cup of tea on it, along with some biscuits and scones, his mistress' favorite.
He "angrily" tucked her blanket under her legs to keep the warmth inside, as if he didn't just put a warming charm around her, which automatically canceled the need for the blanket in the first place, but Diana wasn't about to tell him that and just obediently accepted the show of affection.
He disappeared with another crack, after making sure that his mistress was warm and comfortable and she hunched down once again, letting out a tired sigh.
She was exhausted.
Ever since she had found her ancestral home, the Peverell Castle, and took upon the mantle of the Head of House Peverell, she was tormented by her dreams. Those weren't even nightmares, just obscure, confusing dreams filled with indistinct voices and images, which left her utterly drained in the mornings.
She let out a humorless laugh, once she remembered how happy she was, when her usual nightmares, filled with the memories of the loved ones she had lost, suddenly turned into these confusing visions, but while the nightmares had been draining her emotionally, these new dreams seemed to drain her physically as well, since she woke up bone tired afterwards every time. It felt as if someone was trying to reach her through her dreams, but couldn't get through her mental defenses, that she subconsciously powered up every time when she was assaulted in her sleep.
What worried her the most however, was the fact that these assaults were much more powerful than Tom Riddle's pathetic attempts to enter her mind back in her fifth year.
The young woman picked up the cup and took a sip of her still very much hot tea, while her thoughts drifted back to the days that had long passed, as it seemed to happen to her more and more as of late.
Diana Potter's life was never easy. Well, it has been for a shortest amount of time, back when her parents were alive and she was cherished and loved, the only time in her life when she was the happiest, pity she didn't remember it. But that was about it. Her childhood ended the night her parents were killed by a madman. She sometimes even admitted to herself in the safety of her own mind, that it wasn't only her childhood that had ended that night, but her life as well, since what happened next wasn't life, it was just survival.
The life, sorry, the survival, at her aunt's house was more than challenging. It molded her into the person she was today and, despite what that old fool Dumbledore thought, it wasn't a naive and easily guided person. How could one stay naive when they witness the cruelty and unfairness of this world from a very young age? Well, she always knew that the notorious headmaster was slightly delusional.
She wasn't naive, nor she was stupid. She had to learn to take care of herself, literally and figuratively speaking, and oh boy did she learn.
She was a smart girl and she picked up on things in no time. Treading carefully around her relatives, she quickly learned how to avoid being scolded, hit or badmouthed as much as she could, and eventually became almost invisible.
Didn't finish washing up in the morning in time because she was too small to reach the sink and Duddykins ended up peeing his pants, which resulted in her being thrown into the cupboard for a week without meals? Lesson learned. Burned the eggs at the age of four, when her aunt pushed her to the stove and ordered to make them breakfast in order to "make herself useful for once" without any instructions whatsoever, which resulted in her burning the food and receiving another severe punishment? Lesson learned. Received high marks as soon as she started going to elementary school which upset their little Duddykins and resulted in her getting slapped across the face and starved in the cupboard again? Lesson learned! The only good thing that came out of it was that the teacher at school saw her bruised face and started asking questions, which scared the Dursleys shitless and they stopped abusing her physically for some time. Needless to say, the mental abuse became ten times worse.
Abused at home, bullied at school - all of that resulted in her becoming less and less social and immersing herself into the books, the one thing that couldn't have been taken from her. She would spend as much time in the library as she could, learning more and more about the world around her. The librarian was a kind old lady that always gave her candy and let her take any books she wanted, even the books for older years. The library was where she stumbled upon the pamphlets of different universities and learned about a thing called scholarship.
And then she suddenly had a goal.
She was smart. She knew she was. After all, one should be smart to always receive only below average marks, never higher, never lower. She could use her brains to escape the hell that was the Dursleys.
And so she started studying. Any free minute she got she would read and study. Study and read. Of course it was hard without any teacher supervision, she didn't have anyone she could approach with all the questions she got, she was too afraid of her relatives getting wind of her academic progress, knowing full well that they would prevent her from studying just to spite her. So she told no one. The only one who suspected how smart she really was was the librarian, who always gave her sweets and guided her towards the more interesting books.
It all continued until she turned 10. She was almost done with the school program, but wanted to solidify her knowledge and began dabbling in university level books, which she found challenging but relatively easy.
That summer something happened right before her tenth birthday, something that shook her entire world. She was tending to aunt Petunia's garden, buried deep in the bushes of hydrangeas, when suddenly, as she was about to rip out the weeds, she accidentally touched something cold and smooth and heard someone curse in a hissing voice. She was confused at first and a little scared, since every time when someone cursed near her, it always ended up with her getting smacked, usually in places where no one could see (yeah, freedom from physical abuse ended the second her walrus of an uncle realized that he could still smack her, but this time avoiding the places that couldn't be covered with clothes), but imagine her shock when it turned out that the person that cursed wasn't a human, but a snake! A small garden snake, with a foul mouth, that needed to be washed with soap, but still a bloody snake!
Her whole world turned upside down! It turned out that magic was real! That there even was a whole society of magic people hidden from the rest of the world, but Balthazar the Greatest (that was the snake's name, which she was almost ninety percent sure he came up on the spot) couldn't tell her how to find it. And the most scary, but at the same time, exciting discovery - she was a witch! Well, Balthazar wasn't really sure, but he said that she was a Speaker and since no regular person could talk to snakes to his knowledge, he just assumed that she was magical too.
It was in that moment, when everything suddenly started making sense! All those weird things that happened to her when she was scared or angry, like suddenly teleporting to the roofs of the nearby buildings, while running away from her bullies or the ability to turn completely unnoticeable, which only worked when her relatives weren't agitated or purposefully looking for her to punish her, but the most amazing thing so far - her ability to heal (which was a double edged sword really, since despite it making her bruises vanish in no time, it was also the reason why she would end up beaten even more often, since "she would heal soon anyway").
Then came another realization - her aunt and uncle knew about magic! All those times when she got beaten only for uttering the word "magic" or anything related to it really, it only meant that they knew that she was a witch and hated her for it!
She spent the next year torn between continuing with her plan to get a scholarship to escape the Dursleys and trying to find anything about the world of magic. Eventually she settled on a compromise, she still continued with her studies, but at the same time began searching the local library for any piece of information connected to magic.
Her studies were doing great, which couldn't be said about her search for anything magical, everything she found so far was some fantasy books, that she always avoided before, since she could only ever focus on her studies, with the little time she had on her hands.
That continued till her eleventh birthday, when her life changed forever...
It all started with a letter that she'd found when she was sent to fetch the mail, a letter that was addressed to her and her alone... a letter from a headmaster of some school for magical kids just like her. She was shocked upon finding it, but not shocked enough to forget to slip it under the door of her cupboard, in order to hide it from her relatives, who would definitely be against her having it, considering their hatred for everything connected to magic.
She opened it later when she was alone and read it from the top to bottom, at least twelve times. It contained her acceptance letter and a sheet of parchment with the list of things she needed to buy for her school. Needless to say, she was confused and slightly annoyed, once she read the part about the deputy headmistress expecting her to reply via owl. Where was she even supposed to get a bloody owl?!
Next few days went in a blur. She couldn't concentrate on anything! She was afraid that the school would give her spot to someone else, since they received no reply from her, she couldn't have possibly known back then that her parents had already paid for her tuition in advance.
She had a whole year to get used to the fact that she was a witch and to rethink her life with that knowledge in mind. She came to quite a few conclusions, one of which was that either one or both of her parents had to be magical. Then she assumed that since it was some kind of a hidden society, it couldn't be too big, else it wouldn't have stayed hidden for so long, which meant that there probably weren't many schools that taught magic and it was possible that either one or both of her parents went to that school. So she decided that she needed to find a way to get there, since it was her only connection to her real family.
Several sleepless nights later, a giant of a man appeared on their doorstep, almost knocking down their front door. And wasn't that a surprise, albeit a pleasant one?! He said his name was Hagrid and that the headmaster had sent him to take her shopping for her school supplies. Her relief couldn't be described with words.
And so began her journey. Hagrid became her guide to the Wizarding World, the one who answered the millions of questions she bombarded him with to the best of his abilities, the one to tell her the truth about her parents, the one to buy her the very first gift, a magnificent snowy owl that she later named Hedwig...
An extremely kind, but slightly naive half-giant became her very first friend. She made her second friend on a train, a bushy-haired know-it-all named Hermione Granger, them becoming closer due to their thirst for knowledge and anything related to magic. Then there was Neville, a shy boy who later joined them in their compartment and couldn't even talk to them without a stutter.
Back then it all seemed like a beginning of a fairy tail about a magical adventure with her as the main character. A fairy tail her arse! She couldn't believe how naive she was in her first year! But to her defense, she was really just introduced to the Wizarding World, where it suddenly turned out that she was famous for something she couldn't even remember doing! How utterly stupid! But aside from not so quiet whispers and stares during the first few weeks, everything else was literally perfect! Well, aside from Professor Snape, who seemed to hate her from the very first sight, but let's not get ahead of ourselves.
The ancient magical castle full of mysteries and secret passages, the enormous library filled with so many books, which were literally begging her and Hermione to read them, interesting subjects in which she excelled at and helpful professors (aside from DADA and Potions and History, for obvious reasons), first real friends, first rivals, first flight on a broom, a bloody broom! How could a girl with a life like hers not lose her head from a magic of it all?
To her credit, the fog that clouded her mind started dissipating rather quickly and she woke up to the reality. The ancient magical castle was huge and too difficult to navigate, with no instructions or maps given to the first years. Their first month was more like a "learn on the go" kind of situation, it took some time to get familiar with all the routes and short cuts, but exploring the castle was still fun.
The librarian turned out to be a very nasty old woman (madam Pince was forty-something, but her attitude towards students added another decade to her age in Diana's opinion), who watched them like a hawk every time they went to the library to study in peace, since the Gryffindor tower wasn't a very suitable place for such a "preposterous" activity.
Diana enjoyed almost all the subjects, she couldn't understand how some students wouldn't want to study magic. IT WAS MAGIC! Transfiguration with the strict but fair Professor McGonagall, where they learned to turn one things into others, Charms with the very fun Professor Flitwick, where he taught his students charms and spells for everything and anything, Herbology with the kind and gentle Professor Sprout, the study of magical plants where Diana had excelled due to all the hours she spent tending aunt Petunia's garden and lastly flying lessons, where she flew on a broom for the first time, which ended with her becoming the youngest seeker in history (thanks Malfoy!).
But all things considered, there were the subjects that made Diana's skin crawl. For example, History of Magic taught by Professor Binns, a literal ghost (a bloody ghost!) whose dull voice could lull the students into a coma and who always went on and on about the goblin wars and who was unable to answer any questions asked by his students; Defense Against the Dark Arts, taught by a stuttering mess named Professor Quirrell, who was afraid of his own shadow and completely unqualified to teach such an important subject, the fact that her scar hurt every time that fool was around her, was just a cherry on top for Diana; Astrology, which was kind of boring and messed with the students' biological clock, the only thing making her tolerate the subject being its significance while performing various rituals, that she became interested in after finding a book in the library about the subject.
And last but not least, Potions. She was really excited about the subject at first, which resulted in her reading the entire Potions textbook, so she almost easily answered all the questions thrown at her by the grown up bully of a man, to only receive a sneer and a hurtful nickname "show-off" in return. She wasn't impressed. She was fed up with the bullies in her life, but she knew better than giving him a chance to give her detention, so she just calmly looked at him with a raised eyebrow, without giving him the pleasure of insulting her further. And so it continued, him trying to get her in trouble, while she just calmly received all the insults and pissed him off with perfectly brewed potions.
Quidditch became her escape, or maybe it was all about flying, but there was something in being so high up in the air, like she was literally born to fly. She became fast friends with her teammates as well, especially with the mischievous twins, Fred and George Weasley.
All in all, the school year was progressing smoothly, that is until the Halloween. It was her first Halloween after learning about her parents, or rather about the anniversary of the day they were killed, the day that celebrated the end of her happy and carefree life full of love. People didn't understand why she was so glum that day, for the rest of the magical world Halloween signified the death of Voldemort, the end of war, the day that should be celebrated, but not for her. So she just skipped the feast and spent the time exploring the castle, which resulted in her landing in her very first life and death situation.
She killed a troll. Yeah. No big deal for the Chosen One, for The-Girl-Who-Lived, the Savior of the Wizarding Britain. But she almost died that day, only managing to kill the beast thanks to her smarts and quick thinking. She basically levitated a huge chunk of the sink that the troll broke while trying to kill her and beat it to death with it. End of story.
But when no one, not even the adults, questioned why or how the young girl ended up in such a dire situation, in the place that was supposed to be the safest in the world and just assumed that it was not a big deal since she was the Diana Potter, she realized that there was something seriously wrong with the Wizarding World. She became more and more sure of that as the year progressed, and she ended up getting pulled into more life or death situations: the three-headed dogs, the cursed brooms, the long-thought-dead Dark Lords killing unicorns in the forbidden forest, where the first years were sent to serve their detention and the same Dark Lords trying to steal the Philosopher's Stone that their lunatic of a headmaster hid in the school full of children...
It was madness, truly. Diana couldn't understand how all of that was even allowed to happen. She had read all the books about the history of Hogwarts, each and every edition, and knew that the headmasters held almost complete control over the school's wards, which were many, more than in any other place in the world. So there was no way Dumbledore didn't now about what was happening in his domain... which meant that he was aware and did nothing... Maybe that realization would've been a world shattering one if Diana grew up in the Wizarding World, where everyone worshipped the old wizard, but she didn't... So she just made a note to herself to stay as far away from the meddling old man as possible.
Despite the year being full of so many life threatening situations, there were a few events that almost made her forget about how dangerous the school was for her, those being the Quidditch games, which ended up with Gryffindor winning the Hogwarts Quidditch Cup and the last feast, at the end of which they won the House Cup as well. Another event being the birth of a little dragon named Norberta (stupid name for a dragon, but you do you Hagrid). Since she wasn't raised in the wizarding world, she wasn't as freaked out as Neville was, when they came to visit Hagrid one day and found him roasting an honest to god dragon egg in his fireplace. It was later when she read a few books about dragons, she realized in what mess they were all dragged in because of Hagrid's obsession with dragons.
But nevertheless, something tugged deep inside of her when she first laid her eyes on the dragon egg, the feeling only became stronger upon it hatching into a beautiful baby dragon, which Hagrid immediately named Norbert, thinking it to be a boy. Imagine her shock when she realized that she understood what the baby was hissing and growling about, when it set Hagrid's beard on fire! But then it looked straight into Diana's eyes, exclaimed "mama!" and ran towards her, maneuvering awkwardly with her little wings. The hatchling was scared and confused by Hagrid, but something about Diana made her believe that she was her dragon mother.
She had to explain to the poor baby that climbed on her shoulder and buried its little snout in her neck that she wasn't her mom, which was hard to do since the newly hatched dragon couldn't understand her properly, but eventually she managed to explain that her real mother asked Hagrid and her friends to take care of her baby while she was away. It was when the baby dragon finally settled on her shoulder and dozed off, she noticed how quiet it was in the hut. Hagrid, Hermione and Neville looked at her as if she had grown a second head. Hagrid immediately became ecstatic upon realizing that she could talk to dragons, which, according to Hermione's ramblings, was unheard of. And when she just shrugged and innocently admitted that she had talked to a snake once and asked if it was something rare in the magical world, all three of her companions suddenly went pale. It was then when she learned that not everyone possessed the ability to talk to snakes, which was apparently called a parseltongue, the only known wizards possessing that ability being the descendants of Salazar Slytherin and Voldemort himself, which was the reason the ability evoked fear in everyone who survived the last war.
All that commotion with her being a parselmouth aside, she remembered one of the Weasley twins telling her about their older brother who worked at The Romanian Dragon Sanctuary and asked them to write him a letter, asking him if he could take Norberta there, until it was too late and everyone learned that Hagrid was growing a dragon in his wooden hut on school grounds, which was apparently against the law. The hardest part was to convince the half-giant to let the baby dragon go, since it would've been much better for her to live with her own kind. All it took was hinting once or twice that Norberta was missing her mother and the soft man's heart broke and he finally agreed that it would be best to let her go.
Diana fondly remembered the days spent caring for the little dragon, while they all waited for Charlie's friends to arrive. Unknown to herself, she became quite fascinated with dragons and everything related to them, after all, it wasn't a coincidence that she could communicate with them, right? Her and Hagrid had read dozens of books about dragons, their different breeds and magical properties, everything they could get their hands on just to help Norberta to grow into a healthy dragon and, judging by how big she became by the time they sent her away, they did a great job. She did regret that later though, while sneaking the not so baby dragon through the sleeping castle towards the tallest tower in the middle of the night.
Thinking about it now, she remembered how hectic it all was, almost every year spent at Hogwarts was filled with adventure, laughter, adrenaline and most of all - danger.
Her first year ended with her confronting Voldemort's spirit residing in Quirrell's body, taking someone's life for the first time and almost dying. Her second year she had to deal with a mad House Elf, the Heir of Slytherin, a huge snake in the walls petrifying the muggle-born and half-blood students, which turned out to be a giant Basilisk that she had to kill in the Chamber of Secrets. Oh and she almost died... again. Her third year was by far the most difficult to live through since it affected her personally, when the supposed traitor who betrayed her parents escaped from the magical prison to kill her.
She said it was the most difficult, because despite everything that was going on in her first two years, she did her best to stay away from trouble as much as possible and concentrate on her education, because magic was awesome! But no matter how hard she tried, someone always seemed to get her in trouble, be that Hermione who became obsessed with the whole Nicholas Flammel rubbish and uncovering the mystery of the third floor corridor, Hagrid who constantly spewed out some bits and pieces about the stone that the teachers asked him to keep secret, which was almost impossible for him to achieve (I mean come on, it's Hagrid we are talking about here!) and later Dobby who made it his life's mission to kill her... or was it so save her?... she got lost in the end. But nevertheless, she always ended up in the middle of things, which she hated with her very soul, because it was distracting her from learning magic.
Talking about magic, she was doing great! With each new spell, new charm and potion recipe she was getting more and more excited! She had bullied most of her teachers into giving her some extra classes, which resulted in various clubs getting formed: Advanced Charms Club, Advanced Transfiguration Club, Herbology Club, Dueling Club... although the last one ended up being a bust thanks to that buffoon Lockhart, ugh she hated that guy. She even managed to convince Madam Pomphrey to give her and Hermione some lessons in healing magic! It was bloody awesome! The only one she didn't approach was Snape, but only because she hated that bully wholeheartedly!
With all that said and done, her third year was by far the most stressful for her, with her apparently godfather trying to kill her, her constantly getting attacked by dementors, and all that with all the added stress from using the time turner and having to run around the castle like headless chicken along with Hermione and getting buried under the mountains of additional homework.
On the plus side, they had the best DADA teacher that year, who finally helped them close the holes in their education due to them being taught by incompetent idiots for two previous years and got three new subjects, such as Care for Magical Creatures, Arithmancy and Ancient Runes. Academically speaking, that year was by far the most challenging and fruitful.
But most important thing that happened that year was her finally meeting her godfather...
The door behind her creaked open, pulling her out of the journey down the memory lane and she heard some approaching footsteps. Speak of the devil...
She turned around and saw Sirius standing there with little Teddy in his arms, who was sleepily rubbing his eyes with his little fists. So cute.
"He woke up and immediately asked for you," Sirius chuckled, handing her the toddler and conjuring himself another chair.
She opened the blanket, letting little Teddy sleepily snuggle against her chest and immediately covered them both back, even though it was quite warm due to the warming charm previously casted by Kreacher. The second Sirius settled in his chair with another blanket thrown over his legs, the morning silence was disturbed by a soft crack once again and Dobby appeared giving them both a happy smile and putting another cup of tea on the little table between them. Sirius thanked him and received a beaming smile in return, before the little Elf refilled her cup as well and disappeared once again.
"Why are you up so early, pumpkin?" she asked her godson while gently caressing his soft hair, which was the same color as hers and Sirius'.
"I could ask you the same question, Prongslet," Sirius raised his eyebrow inquisitively and took a sip of his tea. "Dreams?"
"Dreams..." she sighed, rocking back and forth, hoping to lull Teddy back to sleep. It was quite early after all.
"You had such a wistful expression on your face when I came here. What were you thinking about?"
"You," Diana answered with a smirk.
"Ha, I'm sorry luv, I know I'm a handsome devil, but I only love you as a daughter," he winked at her and she made a disgusted face.
"Not in that way, you old pervert," she huffed and continued, ignoring the insulted look on his face. "I was thinking about my third year, when I met you and Remus."
At the mention of Remus, her gaze immediately dropped down to the toddler that was fast asleep in her arms. Teddy always reminded her of herself, an orphaned child whose parents died in the wizarding war, left in the care of his relatives. That's why she swore to herself that she would do everything to become a mother to him, which her own aunt never bothered to do.
"Ah yes, your third year," Sirius exclaimed quietly so not to wake up Teddy, with a fake cheer in his voice. "It was the most carefree one out of all of them, wasn't it?"
"Yeah, if you consider being hunted by a Grimm and a horde of dementors a time spent without a care," she rolled her eyes playfully.
"Well it was certainly better than the possessed teacher, the giant snake with a deadly stare, the deadly tournament, the wanna-be Hitler in a pink skirt, the revolution, the hunt, the war..."
He trailed off with a sad look in his eyes and rubbed his face.
"Well, when you put it like that..." Diana sighed and looked in the distance as well.
So many lives ruined and lost, so many injured and scarred for life, the whole nation in shambles... and for what? Power? Tom Riddle wished to rule the Wizarding Britain, but how are you going to rule if there's no one left to rule over?
"Have you read the Daily Prophet yesterday?" Her godfather asked absentmindedly.
"Yeah..."
"You know the people are asking for you, right? Now that you've finally returned back to England."
"They want me to become either the next minister, or the head auror, or even preside over the Wizengamot. They want to put me somewhere where everyone could see, so I would continue saving their sorry asses in the days to come, just like Dumbledore did. That's not going to happen," Diana calmly stated, absentmindedly yet softly patting Teddy's back.
"Dumbledore had nothing on you, trust me. And they all know it," Sirius huffed, snapping out of his melancholic state. "You're already much more powerful than he was in his prime and you're only nineteen! You've proven your mastery in transfiguration, charms, potions, battle magic, rituals and even healing magic and became a certified Master in all those fields by the age of eighteen, passing the exams in the respective guilds back to back in just a week! You are also the Head of two Ancient and Most Noble Houses and an Heir to another one! Of course the people of Magical Britain want to put you in a position of power! I'm surprised they didn't offer you the position of the headmaster of Hogwarts as well!"
"They did actually," she spoke tiredly. "I received an owl from McGonagall a few days ago."
Silence fell around them as Sirius considered her words and shook his head. It was a few minutes and a plate full of scones later that he spoke again.
"So what's the plan?"
"I don't know yet. But it's certainly not becoming the next messiah of the wizarding world. I already saved them once, only because the lives of my loved ones were at stake and I'm not doing it again. I'm done saving people that do nothing and just wait for a child to come and save them instead. I'm done fighting against their stupidity, prejudice and bigotry, done screaming at them to move forward and get themselves out of stagnation. I'm done saving people who are perfectly okay with the way things are. I'm just done..."
Those weren't the only reasons why Dian was done with the Wizarding World. Every time she closed her eyes she would see the same picture: bodies upon bodies of children lying on the floor of the Great Hall, maimed and slaughtered by the Death Eaters. Children weren't the only casualties of that final battle, but their loss was what shattered Diana's heart the most, because if only more adult wizards had joined the battle back then, the price of the victory wouldn't have been so terribly high. Children of fourteen to seventeen years of age and some even younger, who sneaked back into the castle, refusing to leave their friends to fight alone, only to perish forever... But no one came, aside from the Order of the Phoenix and the teachers, not even the adult wizards from the Hogsmeade, excluding Aberforth, they just watched in fear how the school full of kids was being destroyed. She will never forgive the Wizarding Britain for that.
"Maybe we should just move? Go travel the world?" Sirius asked.
"Did you forget that we've spent the last year and a half running around the world, hunting for the remaining Death Eaters and just came back two weeks ago? We've visited almost all magical communities around the world and there wasn't even one where I wasn't recognized. I don't want to spend the rest of my life hiding. I want to find a place where we can live freely, where poor Teddy can grow up without all the attention around his famous mother."
"What about the muggle world?" Her godfather asked tentatively.
"I thought about it too, but no..." Diana sighed in annoyance and rubbed the bridge of her nose. "I don't want to live without magic and besides, this place is full of lives that depend on me now, starting with the House Elves and ending with all the magical creatures that reside in the Peverell Sanctuary."
"I still can't believe that this place even exists," Sirius shook his head in astonishment, which she completely shared since she was in the similar state of awe and disbelief ever since she found the island over a week ago.
"Yeah. And under a Fidelius too, which is good. But I still don't like the idea of spending the rest of our lives in isolation. But it seems like we don't have that much of a choice."
The silence reigned over the two of them once again. They had had this discussion a couple of times already, but it felt like they were just marking time at this point.
"You know what's curious?" Diana asked, without taking her eyes off the lone unicorn, that could be seen through the trees in the distance. A whole herd of them lived in the forest surrounding the castle.
"Prey tell, dear niece of mine," Sirius' stormy grey eyes twinkled with curiosity.
"I didn't have much time to think about it before, with all the moving around that we've been doing, but I think that these dreams of mine didn't just start when I took the mantle of Lady Peverell, but long before that. I'm pretty sure I started having them right after I died and came back to life, they just weren't this overwhelming and my mind wasn't in the right place back then, that's why I never took notice of them."
"Interesting," Sirius hummed thoughtfully. "You said they felt as if someone was trying to reach you, thus the strain on your occlumency shields, but have you considered giving in? Taking down your defenses to learn who's been trying to contact you this whole time?"
"I don't know about that, Padfoot. I don't want to fall into a trap, but if it goes on like this, I might become so fed up and do it anyway. We'll see."
Some part of her was scared to find out that the being knocking on her mental defenses might be a new foe, even worse than Tom and his Death Eaters.
Thinking of Voldemort, Diana once again felt herself getting overwhelmed with sorrow, grief, pain and sadness. She didn't allow herself to think while they were on the hunt, burying her feelings deeper than was deemed healthy, because she knew that once she let herself really feel all that suppressed grief and sorrow, she would just shatter like a cheap vase and only Merlin knew how long it would take her to collect all the pieces.
Sometimes she thought that what she kept buried deep within her chest was more than any human being could handle, that some day her heart would just give up and she would die just from grief alone. She tried to escape, she really did, when she went hunting for the Death Eaters, catching and sometimes mercilessly killing them, according to their crimes. She became the judge and the executioner, but she didn't mind since anger, rage and hatred were more preferrable in her opinion, than grief, trauma and pain.
The only thing that could ground her and help her deal with that heavy burden on her shoulders was Teddy. Her sweet son, her light and joy. He became the reason why she and Sirius started smiling and laughing more often, his unconditional love for them seemed to melt away some of the armor that they've put on during and after the war. It seemed impossible to be sad when you were around that little bundle of joy.
Watching as little Teddy slept peacefully in her embrace, Diana's lips curled into a gentle smile, as she dragged her fingers through his soft curls.
She couldn't be thankful enough for him being in her life, especially since the Battle of Hogwarts took the lives of many of her friends and the brutal attack on the Diagon Alley afterwards took even more. It was by miracle alone that she was babysitting a two months old baby Teddy at the Grimmauld Place along with Sirius, when some of the remaining Death Eaters decided to avenge their master and attack everyone who was connected to the Order of the Phoenix or Diana Potter.
It had been almost a month after the Battle of Hogwarts and the people of Wizarding Britain have finally started recovering and in order to help people heal, the Ministry of Magic decided to put a monument to all the lives lost during the last Wizarding War, right in the heart of the Diagon Alley. The event had gathered a lot of people, who came to say their last goodbyes to their perished loved ones. But what was supposed to be a heartfelt event turned into a massacre... Just when everyone thought that the war was finally over, when they let their guard down, thinking that they had won...
Diana felt tightness in her chest and throat from the hurricane of emotions that reared its ugly head yet again, her unseeing gaze widening as she remembered the lifeless forms of her friends. Hermione and Ron, Susan and Hannah, Astoria and Theo, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, Andromeda and Xenophilius, Mrs. Longbottom and many, many more...
She and Sirius had gotten there as fast as they could and she had personally killed twelve Death Eaters in her rage, but what was the point when the damage was already done. It was too late...
She never regretted something like she regretted not going to that stupid memorial in her entire life. If she had only just been there from the very beginning, maybe she wouldn't have been forced to collect the butchered bodies of her friends, of people that became her family.
She spent the next year and a half hunting the remaining Death Eaters like they were nothing more than a prey, trailing them from town to town, from continent to continent. Some people called her the Executioner and claimed her to be the next rising Dark Lady for her cruelty, some praised her for cleansing the world from the dark filth and called her the Savior, but she couldn't care less. She didn't do it to protect the living, she did it to avenge the dead.
She snapped out of her thoughts once again, disturbed by the sound of a creaking chair that Sirius has been occupying.
"So, what's on the agenda today?" Her godfather asked her desperately, the haunted look in his eyes telling her everything she needed to know. He went down the rabbit hole once again, just as well as she did. It happened to them a lot and they both seemed to be okay with ignoring the issue altogether, so she just shook herself and thought about his question.
Yeah right, they've been exploring the Peverell Castle and its grounds ever since they've gotten here and were nowhere near done yet.
The castle was huge, gigantic even, a true marvel of architecture, blending seamlessly with the surrounding nature, with dozens of high towers, inner courtyards and gardens, winding corridors, open bridges and staircases, grand halls and secret chambers. The colossal castle commanded the landscape with an air of majesty and mystery. Massive wooden doors, reinforced with iron and emblazoned with the silhouettes of fierce dragons, high ceilings supported by towering columns, each intricately sculpted into the likeness of dragons in flight, grand chambers and personal quarters commanding a sense of elegance and reverence and exuding an air of royal splendor. Despite its size, there was an abundance of open spaces, large panoramic, stained glass windows, greenery and vines adorning the walls, providing a sense of freedom and tranquility.
The curious thing was that most of the castle was bare of any furniture, which was understandable, since there weren't many Peverells throughout the centuries and the castle itself was several times bigger than the Hogwarts, which was saying a lot. Diana had a hard time understanding what her ancestors would even need such a gigantic castle for.
They've been here for almost a week and only ever managed to finish inspecting the sanctuary and some of the ground floors, which were seven in total, until they got stuck in the library. In their defense, the library was located in a tower, had six floors, with only three of them being occupied and the biggest collection of books they've ever seen, bigger than the Hogwarts and Black libraries combined. It contained so much knowledge lost to the present times, knowledge of ancient magics and spells, no wonder they couldn't keep themselves away.
They wouldn't have been able to explore the whole place even if they wanted to, so they mostly asked the House Elves to show them the most interesting or important places in the castle and one of those places was the third underground floor. None of the House Elves knew what was down there, since only those carrying the Peverell blood could enter, but they told her that it was enchanted by Ignotus Peverell himself back in the days, so there must be something of importance there and that was exactly where Diana intended to go to explore today.
They sat on that balcony for another hour or so, taking in the serenity of the winter forest that seemed to hug the castle from all sides, until Teddy finally woke up. Then they all got breakfast together and after leaving the toddler in the care of Minnie, one of the Peverell House Elves, who was ecstatic to take care of a child after so many years spent alone in the abandoned castle, her and Sirius headed straight towards the dungeons, until the allure of the library clouded their minds once again and they got stuck there for another week.
While walking through the halls of a gigantic castle, Diana couldn't help but marvel at the beautiful architecture, which mainly followed the theme of dragons of various shapes and forms. The majestic creatures were everywhere, grotesque dragon like statues on the numerous roofs, bridges, gardens and towers outside, the walls covered in murals and mosaics of different breeds of dragons, dragon heads sticking out of the walls, holding the lighting orbs in their mouths instead of torches, the agile bodies of eastern dragons framing the numerous archways and doors, towering marble pillars with dragons carved into the stone and many other instances.
Even the library was a piece of art: huge tempered glass windows, a lot of greenery, little dragons - dancing, flying, fighting - intricately carved into the grand staircase, wooden bookshelves and marble pillars, meanwhile the ceiling of a tower was just one huge painting of a great battle between the dragons of different sizes, each carrying a warrior on their back and some bizarre looking sea creatures. A truly magnificent scene.
The godfather and goddaughter duo also took notice of the banners adorning the walls throughout the whole castle, which looked like a huge eastern golden dragon biting its own tail against a black background. Even her Ladyship ring was shaped like a little dragon holding an amethyst in its mouth.
Diana suspected that it wasn't just an obsession with the majestic creatures on her ancestors' part, she felt like it was directly tied to her ability to talk to dragons, her animagus form, which was a dragon as well and that weird bond she shared with Norbert in her first year and the Norwegian Horntail she encountered during the Tri-Wizard Tournament in her forth. It was all connected, but she didn't know how. Yet.
Diana and Sirius followed Remmie, the oldest of the Peverell House Elves, down the flight of stairs, until they reached the first underground floor which housed dozens of holding cells and the spacious guard rooms. Then they descended even deeper and Remmie explained that the second underground floor mostly housed the storage rooms, full of various ingredients and foodstuff that the Elves had been harvesting all these years, be that magical plants, different minerals and parts of magical creatures used in potions and alchemy; the rooms full of various precious items and furniture collected by her ancestors throughout the centuries; a treasury and a potions lab.
It was decided to leave those for later inspection, the mystery of the sealed third underground floor being much more exciting for the godfather and goddaughter duo, both of them being quite an adventurous pair and adrenaline junkies.
Remmie led them through the dark endless hallways, until they finally stopped in front of a large stone door, which had a huge dragon head with amethyst eyes protruding right out of the middle and no handle in sight.
"I heard from my father, who heard from his father, that the last Lord Peverell used to put his hand with the ring in the mouth of a dragon and only then the door would open," the old House Elf suggested helpfully, with a respectful bow.
"Well, it's official, your ancestors were much more quirkier than mine," Sirius snickered and wiggled his eyebrows.
Diana rolled her eyes and without any further delay, fearlessly put her hand in the dragon's mouth.
Nothing happened at first, she just stood there like a monument dedicated to human stupidity, with her hand wrapped around a round door handle buried deep in the dragon's mouth, until something sharp pricked her palm.
She hissed out of surprise and quickly withdrew her hand, but her noise of distress was overshadowed by the sound of the grinding stones and the door slowly flung open.
Sirius grabbed her hand and inspected it closely with concern, only to find a tiny little wound right in the middle of her palm. The ward on the door must've required the Peverell blood to open.
"Definitely quirkier than the Blacks," he then concluded with a grin. "Let's go and see what this whole mystery is about, shall we?"
"I shouldn't have showed you the Indiana Jones movies..." Diana sighed at her godfather's lack of caution in such a bizarre situation, yet somewhere deep down she knew that she was being a hypocrite. She was enjoying this little adventure just as much as he was.
She nodded to herself and took the lead, walking through the door and descending the stairs that were found right behind it, while more and more lighting orbs lit up on the walls, reacting to their presence and illuminating the pitch black staircase.
It wasn't long before they finally reached the bottom of the stairs and appeared in an enormous cave, the ceiling of which disappeared somewhere high above, held by huge marble columns with powerful and grotesque bodies of different species of dragons carved into them. Something about those columns reminded her of the chamber of secrets, but with dragons instead of snakes.
The cave lit up the second their feet touched the floor, illuminating it's contents for the newcomers to see. Right across the spacious room, they saw three pedestals with three long objects upon them and right behind them was a huge wall, covered with a colorful and detailed mural...
As they walked closer, the details of the scene depicted on the wall became more clear, until they both stopped in their tracks, drinking in the image in front of them with amazement and awe.
It looked like a piece of a history of an ancient civilization. The first image where the "narration" started, was of a schematic map of a piece of land adorned with what seemed like fourteen mountains... or volcanoes even, judging by the "smoke" coming out of the top of each mountain. The next image depicted a group of people entering the cave near one of the volcanoes and finding some stones... no, by the clearly accentuated scales on them, they were eggs... dragon eggs! And the story continued, showing the people hatching dragons, then using some sort of sorcery, if Diana understood correctly, to tame them and then riding them into a battle against another nation. The most fascinating part, was when after taming the dragons (or was it before?), the people performed some weird ritual, by the looks of it, and the next image showed them changing their appearance, as their hair turned silvery white and their eyes - different shades of purple. It was clear that whatever sorcery they used, or obtained rather, changed them genetically.
Diana and Sirius watched in complete awe, as the silver-haired dragonriders began conquering nation after nation, expanding their empire to enormous extents. One of the last murals was a schematic image of what appeared to be a family tree, but judging by the different banners, one of which was the one they were both familiar with, as it was hung all around the castle, it was something different. It showed three banners on the very top, one of which was of the familiar golden dragon against a black background, with more banners of different shapes and colors painted below them, but all with a clear image of a dragon, forming a recognizable power pyramid. There were some words written under each banner, but neither Diana nor Sirius knew that language.
The second to last image depicted a huge, prosperous, ancient city, built at the base of an enormous volcano, full of luxurious palaces, mansions, terraces and intricate bridges, with dragons flying freely in the air and ships of different sizes anchored in the bay. It was a perfect picture of a flourishing civilization, pointedly showing how the small group of travelers turned the uninhabitable land into the center of the world.
Such a glorious progress that the relatively small group of people was able to achieve commanded respect, however Diana froze the second her eyes took in the last mural. Unlike all other paintings, which were extremely colorful, detailed and even slightly carved into the stone wall, which made them look more realistic, the last one was a chaotic mixture of obscure shapes and colors, which mainly consisted of orange, red and black, making it look like someone's ominous dream. It looked almost abstract, but the second Diana took a few steps back, all the obscure images connected into one complete picture, which could be described with one single word: apocalypse...
"Merlin's beard..." Sirius swore in amazement mixed with unease, the magic lights illuminating the room reflecting in his stormy grey eyes, making them look almost opalescent.
"This... I don't remember ever hearing or reading about this," Diana frowned, glaring at the picture of the previously flourishing city getting destroyed by the eruption of a volcano. "If such a massive catastrophe ever happened to a magical civilization, shouldn't there be some proof left in the magical world, aside from it being preserved in the way of some obscure cave art in the castle of one of the most mysterious and old magical families in the world?"
"I have no bloody idea... Maybe it's the chronicles of Atlantis?" Her godfather theorized thoughtfully. "Atlantis was real, even if there's not much evidence of its existence, but it was supposedly a very advanced magical civilization, but it was rumored to sink into the ocean, not to get destroyed by a volcanic eruption..."
The gruesome sight in front of them somehow reminded Diana of the infamous painting "The Last Day of Pompeii", hundreds of people and dragons alike perishing under the rivers of scorching lava...
The young witch finally tore her eyes from the mural, almost forcing herself to look somewhere else and her gaze immediately landed on the three pedestals that went unnoticed, overshadowed by the magnificent "cave art". Her frown deepened as she slowly walked closer to the pedestals, weirded out by the objects lying on top of them, which resembled coffins...
Diana froze, her feet getting stuck to the stone floor as she was finally able to closely observe the object on the nearest pedestal. It was indeed a wooden, intricately carved coffin, its transparent lid providing an excellent view of the person lying within. A tall, well-built man in his late twenties, with long silver-white hair could be seen under the see-through lid, adorned in black leather armor with golden accents, his hands gripping the handle of a long sword, with a weird looking dark colored blade, that lay on his chest. His eyes were closed, but Diana suspected that they were the color of a very dark amethyst, a striking resemblance to the dragonriders on the paintings...
She heard Sirius gasp as he finally tore himself away from the painting as well and joined her near the coffins.
"What in Merlin's name..." He exclaimed, unable to finish the sentence.
Diana ignored him as she finally noticed something else that attracted her attention, that being a round object, lying right above the dead man's head.
"Morgana's saggy tits, is that a dragon egg?!" Her godfather exclaimed yet again, making her cringe by his choice of words.
Written on the top of the lid, right above where the dragon egg was located, were the words:
Cadmus Peverell, Son of House Peverell.
The Rider of Melus.
The Death's Priest.
The young witch quickly approached the second coffin, where lay another man, who looked in his mid thirties, silver hair, well-muscled body, the black leather armor, the huge broadsword with the blade made of the same unknown, dark colored metal, another egg lying above his head and, surely, there was a name:
Antioch Peverell, Son of House Peverell.
The Rider of Eirax.
The Death's Sword.
"Impossible..."
"I knew that there were some rumors, but..."
Godfather and goddaughter spoke at the same time and shared a look. Each knew what the other was thinking. If the bearers of the Deathly Hallows were indeed Diana's ancestors, then...
With silent agreement, they both approached the last coffin. Unlike the two of his brothers, Diana's too many times great grand-sire looked really old, so old in fact, that if it wasn't for the proof in the previous coffins, she would've thought that his hair was white due to the old age, rather than due to some weird, genetic quirk. His old age wasn't the only thing that distinguished him from his older brothers: instead of one long sword, both his hands were gripping two long daggers, made of the same dark metal and the dragon egg was located at his feet, rather than above his head. And there on the lid were written the words:
Ignotus Peverell, Head of House Peverell.
The Rider of Vethrax.
The Death's Shadow.
United in Darkness, Forged by Fire, Empowered by Magic.
"United in darkness, forged by fire, empowered by magic... Bloody hell, that is one powerful family motto... much better than "Toujours Pur"..." Sirius mumbled in amazement.
"You're the Head of the House now, Padfoot. You can change it to something better..." Diana told him absentmindedly, as she put her hand on the top of Ignotus' coffin, her gaze drawn to the lifeless figure of her ancestor, her family... her blood... as distant as it was.
It was all so confusing, but Diana felt her heart pounding in her chest with longing, with pride, with excitement. Being an orphan, an unwanted and unloved child, stripped of the connection to her real family, fed with lies until she was eleven, she always longed to learn more about her family, begging people around her for scraps of information that she cherished deeply... Of course she had Sirius and Teddy now and loved them both to death, but this was different. This was her legacy... however weird and confusing it was.
"Ah, Prongslet? You need to see this..." Sirius called her, his voice a mix of confusion and awe.
As Diana turned around, she saw her godfather standing beside the very first coffin that belonged to Cadmus, but instead of the coffin itself, he was staring at the stone pedestal that it was lying on. As she walked closer, she saw him pointing his wand at the side of the pedestal, with its tip glowing from the Lumos charm, and upon turning to observe the pedestal, she immediately saw what had gotten her godfather's attention.
Apparently, the big wall wasn't the only thing in the cave bearing the illustrations of her... family history? She didn't know for sure yet. There, carved on the side of the stone pedestal, was the original, true story of three brothers...
The last living descendant of House Peverell felt her heart start beating faster from awe, as she silently watched her three ancestors depicted flying on the backs of three huge dragons: Melus, Eirax and Vethrax, if she wasn't mistaken. The mighty beasts were magnificent, the unknown artist did an amazing job to convey their deadly beauty, as the dragons were painted with vibrant colors: one blood-red with black accents on its horns, wings and tail, one the color of old gold, with pearl grey accents and one almost pitch black, with only its eyes, horns and the membranes on its wings being dark purple.
As they walked from one pedestal to the next one, they witnessed the story progress, as the three brothers were depicted kneeling in front of a tall, imposing figure of a man, then the mysterious man pointing his hand at what looked like a mini version of the picture of the apocalypse they saw earlier, which left the three brothers horrified and scared. Then the godfather and goddaughter duo watched as the brothers, adorned in their armor, took what looked like books and some other valuables, including their swords and stood solemnly in front of their dragon companions. The farewell scene was so detailed, that Diana felt her eyes filling up with tears, as the brothers stood sadly with their hands resting on their dragons' heads as if saying their last goodbye. They observed as the two brothers almost dragged their third brother away, while he was crying and screaming, reaching his hands towards the black dragon, that had its mouth open in a silent roar, until they passed through a tall archway that was covered in runes and vanished. The last image depicted the brothers appearing in the dark forest, greeted by a tall cloaked figure, which had a wand, a stone and a cloak in its outstretched hands...
"The Deathly Hallows..." Diana whispered, as she absently rubbed their symbol on her wrist, which appeared there the second she came back to life after Voldemort had killed her in the Forbidden Forest.
"Well this... this changes everything. I knew that there should be an answer to you being able to perform all those impossible feats and now we have our answer right in front of us..." Sirius spoke calmly and looked at his goddaughter with a solemn expression, making her tense as it was one of the rare times she saw her usually goofy godfather being this serious. "You... You are an alien, Diana..."