Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The first time Ari noticed she was different was just after her third birthday. Or perhaps not the first time, but it was when she finally had the epiphany that brought all of the others into context.

Now, it wasn’t an ordinary sort of difference she’d noticed, like the fact that she had grey eyes when everyone else seemed to have brown or blue or green. Or the fact that she could already mostly tie her own shoes, though that played into it.

No, it was a very different sort of difference that she noticed one fateful December day.

On that Saturday, Ari had been assigned to help Carrington Wadsworth clean the kitchens. Well, it was really another assignment for Carrington to keep an eye on her while the orphanage’s Matron took an afternoon nap, especially since Ari was entirely too short and generally uncoordinated to actually help with any of the cleaning.

But Carrington had handed her a hand broom and dustpan anyways and told her to keep out of his way. Ari was used to the older kids not wanting her underfoot, so she took herself to the other end of the kitchen and started carefully sweeping under the edges of the counters where it would be harder for the big broom to reach. It took a lot of concentration, as even the small hand broom was designed for an adult hand and her chubby little baby fingers were not yet long enough to wrap all the way around.

Nevertheless, she persisted in her task, all while keeping an eye on Carrington. He wasn’t one of the cruel older kids, but he also wouldn’t hesitate to shove a smaller kid if it got him more food or one of the rare new toys or coloring sets.

A half hour of watching the older boy out of the corner of her eye showed that he had absolutely no idea how to clean anything. He mostly just ran a slightly damp rag over all of the counters and ignored any of the cleaning supplies she knew were kept under the sink. It really wasn’t that hard to actually make sure that all the surfaces were clean, especially since they’d all have to eat things prepared on them later.

Her annoyance over his subpar work and some private (rather impolite) speculation had her asking a question when she normally would have stayed silent.

“What was your job?” He turned to look at her, confusion and annoyance waring in his expression.

“What? We don’t have jobs stupid. We’re kids.” Well duh, that’s not what she meant.

“No. What was your job, befow.” Dammit, she’d need to work on her ‘r’s more. Whenever she spoke too fast they came out like ‘w’s which just sounded stupid.

“I told you I never had a job. Now shut up and keep cleaning. The sooner I’m done, the sooner I can meet up with Tim.”

Ari knew to leave it there. Antagonizing the older kids was a good way to end up with bruises, and she was still trying to beat her last streak of 6 days without incident. However, that didn’t stop her from thinking about his answer. If he’d been some rich guy before, then it would make sense that he didn’t know how to clean anything. But it was weird that he didn’t just say that. From what she Remembered, rich people often liked to flaunt it, though maybe he was just sour that he was just an orphan now?

It was until later that night when she was curled up on her bed, huddled under the thin blanket that she had another thought.

Maybe…he didn’t have Memories like she did.

With that sudden epiphany, Ari spent the rest of the night digging through her own Memories looking for any explanation.

Now Ari had had these Memories as long as she could remember. They’d always been there, just waiting to be called up just like her own memories. However, these memories seemed like the culmination of an entirely different life. Everything from another childhood with two parents and 4 siblings to high school and college studying to work as an event organizer and so on.

Not everything she Remembered made sense to her, but she figured it was because she was apparently three years old and knew she had most of the instincts of a child still. But they taught her a lot and gave her a new perspective on what was going on around her.

Over the next few weeks, she worked to subtly confirm her new suspicion. Simple questions here and there to some of the older kids or even a few of the staff that could be easily brushed off if they didn’t have the same knowledge as she did. And from what she could tell, none of them did.

So, Ari was different. And everything her current and past life told her was that she should not tell anyone else about any of this. Images of white rooms and strait jackets haunted her, even as she was pretty sure they’d all come from movies or video games. But regardless, she kept quiet.

She did not, however, ignore it. Instead, she took to browsing through the Memories as she laid down for bed, learning as much as possible. The more she interacted with them, the more they seemed to integrate with her own memories, and soon she didn’t have to focus on a Memory to do basic arithmetic or understand the big words in the books the kids had access to.

She made sure to hide this too, but since she wasn’t in school yet, and was often left to her own devices, she found plenty of time to read. It was one of her favorite things, now and Before and she consumed books at a startling rate.

The second time Ari knew she was different was when she was four and a half.

It had been a little over a year since her original epiphany and Ari had spent that time well, learning as much as she could. However, there were only so many books available to the kids in the orphanage and she’d long since exhausted that source. She couldn’t even get to the library since it was several blocks away and a lone four-year-old was bound to draw plenty of attention, especially with how small she still was.

She couldn’t even borrow (steal) any of the older kids’ schoolbooks, since they were on summer break and had already turned them in.

This was what had led to her current endeavor. Breaking into the Matron’s office.

From what she’d seen of it in glimpses, the Matron had two entire bookcases filled with mostly untouched books in her office. Privately, Ari thought that they were more to show off to the potential parents and patrons than for any actually reading. Which worked out all the better for her.

All she had to do was sneak in borrow (steal) a couple of books from the lower shelves, and either replace them with other books from the kids’ shelf or simply shuffle the books a bit so the absence wasn’t as obvious.

To this end Ari had waited for a day when the Matron had sent the rest of the kids outside for the afternoon (Ari hid in the bathroom) and had gone upstairs for one of her regular naps. This should give Ari at least 90 minutes to work with. Plenty of time for both the heist and creating an alibi just in case.

The lock was surprisingly easy. Lock picking had only been a hobby Before, but Ari had put the skill to good use, practicing on the kitchen pantry and storerooms since food and supplies weren’t always easy to hold onto, being the smallest one here.

Either way, it made getting through the door a matter of a few seconds fiddling while keeping a careful eye on the empty hallway around her.

Once she was in the door, she made sure to snap the lock shut behind her before making a beeline for the prize.

A quick perusal of the lowest two shelves (all she could see without trying to drag a chair over) showed mostly teacher’s guides and self-help books, with a few weight loss magazines shoved in between and mostly hidden. None of it was particularly riveting information, but she’d take what she could get.

She browsed the books carefully, looking for something that would be at least a little entertaining or informative in some way. Bingo! One of the books on the second shelf was a teacher’s guide for home school education. A quick flip through showed lesson plans for first- and second-year students. Good Enough.

Ari looked that the shelf and carefully shuffled the books a bit, so the gap wasn’t so obvious. Then she grabbed a thin volume from the lowest shelf to help fill in a bit of the space and shuffled those books around too. Standing back, it looked almost the same as previous. Given that these shelves were behind Ms. Stout’s seat and low enough to be blocked from sight by the desk most of the time, Ari hoped that no one would notice.

She stood up, dusted herself off, and froze at a sound from the other side of the door.

“…Yes, yes, I have them just in here, though I don’t know why you needed them so urgently.” The Matron’s voice was coming from just the other side of the door and had that pitch to it that meant she was incredibly irritated but hiding it.

Another voice responded, but too quietly for Ari to make out, especially over the noise of blood suddenly rushing in her ears. If she was caught, especially with the Matron already annoyed, she was in for a lashing for sure.

Ari frantically looked around for somewhere to hide, but the only possibility was under the desk, which even she knew wasn’t a good option. The office was also on the second floor, so the window was out too.

The lock turned as Ari panicked, and she immediately froze solid, wishing that she could turn invisible.

The lock clicked and the door pushed open, and Ari held her breath, heartbeat racing faster with every inch. Soon enough she could see the Matron, head turned over her shoulder, speaking to a man with a walrus mustache, prolonging the moment of her imminent discover, but soon enough Ms. Stout turned.

And her eyes swept over Ari like she wasn’t even there.

No Yelling.

No Screaming about kids where they ought not to be.

Not even a twitch.

Ari still didn’t move. Hardly dared to breath, as the Matron stepped not three inches in front of here to riffle through a draw on one side of the desk.

A stack of papers, and a few moments of small talk that Ari couldn’t hope to understand in her current state, and suddenly the door was closing, and the lock turning back into place with a resounding click.

It took another ten minutes for Ari to remember how to breath. How to slow her panicky heart and unstick her feet from the floor.

In a daze, she snuck back out of the room, relocked the door, and secured her prize in the little nook in the linen storage room that she’d claimed as hers. She snuck outside and found a quiet place to sit. Close enough to be seen by the minders, but out of the way, so they wouldn’t remember that she hadn’t been there the whole time.

Instead of rereading the basic children’s book she’d brought with her, Ari’s mind whirled with possible explanations to what had just happened. The only conclusion she could come to was this:

Magic

And if it was some form of magic, rather than a random act of some benevolent god, or some freak scientific phenomenon, then that meant it could be replicated.

From what she Remembered of fantasy books before and from her own reading now, magic was surprisingly similar to science, in that it followed rules and could generally be taught, given that the user had a baseline ability for it. Obviously if what she’d done was magic, then she was capable of preforming it. Now all she had to do was learn how.

The next several weeks were spent trying to replicate what she’d already done. She tried a number of things, testing the effect by hovering in places she generally shouldn’t be, like the kitchen during meal prep, or near the doorway to the staff area of the building. It was surprisingly ineffective.

It would likely have been much easier, if Ari had just known what magic system, she was suddenly a part of. Before her had known over a dozen magic systems from books, movies, and games alike, and while she could cross off several from the start, her one act was too vague to narrow it down further.

So, she persisted. Testing theories as often as possible and gaining several reprimands and punishment chores when she continued to be where she shouldn’t.

The next time she managed it was actually an accident. This late in the summer, the temperature had continued to rise, and since the Matron didn’t believe in wasting money on air conditioning in the dorms, everyone was exceedingly grumpy.

Grumpy kids, combined with the fact that the staff were in a meeting and thus everyone was stuck inside without supervision beyond Nigel who had already fallen asleep on his chair in the corner. Well, it was only a matter of time before something snapped.

It had started out with Tim announcing that they were all going to play a game. Something like tag, but all of Tim’s friends were It and if they caught you, you were liable to end up locked in a closet or swirlied. Neither was an option Ari wanted to entertain.

She’d snuck out quietly while the other kids had run off in a panic, looking for a hiding place to ride it out. Normally she’d break into the linen storage room since it had a lock, but it was also on the south wall and heated up during the day to dangerous levels.

Instead, she headed out towards the kitchen, keeping close to the wall and using her small stature to her advantage. However, luck was not with her.

Carrie, a 15-year-old with a surprising vicious streak when adults weren’t present, caught sight of her two halls from safety and immediately headed her way. Ari didn’t have the time to think, since her severally limited height did not lend itself to speed.

Instead, she tried to outmaneuver her pursuer, dodging around the next corner and another in short order, but cursing as she hit another dead end. She tucked herself next to a trashcan, hoping to stay unnoticed.

Ari focused on quieting her breathing and watched, half in astonishment as Carrie walked past her hiding spot, looking around in confusion. It was then that she realized she’d done it again.

Rather than let surprise break her concentration, Ari doubled down and focused on the slight tingling she could now sense just on the outside of her skin. Even after Carrie had finally stomped away, she worked on keeping it up, and then very slowly stood, making her way one step at a time towards the safety of the kitchen pantry.

She saw two others of Tim’s crew from a distance on the way there, but neither seemed to notice her, and she finally made it safely, enjoying the cool darkness of the pantry as she waited for it to be safe to come out again.

The next test was when the Cook opened up the pantry to start dinner prep. Ari had once again focused on that same feeling s previous, letting a small amount of fear and panic take hold and walked out of both the pantry and the kitchen with the Cook seemingly none the wiser.

More practice showed that she wasn’t entirely invisible. It was more that people’s eyes just seemed to slide off of her. If she stood in the middle of a busy room, then they would step around her. However, it didn’t seem to work if they were looking for her specifically.

Notice-Me-Not her Memory whispered, and Ari agreed that it seemed to fit.

She spent another week practicing before putting it to the real test. A trip to the library.

Four blocks, two traffic lights, and a front desk manned by sharp-eyed smiling librarians. It worked like a charm! Ari barely muffled her yell of triumph and subsequent happy tears at all of the book suddenly available to her. It was amazing.

The Notice-Me-Not charm continued to work perfectly, so long as she didn’t lose focus, though that happened less and less as the weeks went by. The only other draw back, was that a full day of use left her exhausted and starving by the time she got back to the orphanage. But even that seemed to lessen the more she practiced.

She started off with a trip every week or two, when she felt she could slip away for hours without being caught (sadly the security in the library kept her from taking books out, so all reading had to be done there). Eventually she was able to go twice a week, and once school started, just about every day.

One side effect that she found was that the longer she maintained the effects, the less the staff or kids seemed to notice her. At all. After six months she had to speak directly to someone for them to see her, and the more likely they would forget her request as soon as they moved on. Even when she wasn’t actively using her magic

It was a…mildly worrying consequence. And while it made it hard to get meals or basic supplies provided to the other kids, she’d long since perfected picking the storage room locks, and now had no difficulty getting what she needed since no one saw her anyways.

She had even stopped going to school after the first few days. It had nothing to teach her, and they didn’t notice her absence anyways.

It was a bit lonely though.

Ari was so deep in thought that she almost forgot to follow the strangely dressed couple that walked past her. As it was, she barely made it around the corner after them before they disappeared into a grimy pub, down some kind of side street.

They weren’t the first strange people she’d noticed.

Once she started getting restless of spending every day and some nights in the library, Ari had started alternating days wandering around London to try to get rid of some of her energy and see some of the sights. It was easy when nobody looked at her twice.

That is until a peculiarly dressed man happened to ask her where to find ‘one of those muggle automobiles.’ She’d been so startled to be acknowledged that she’d run off and hidden for the rest of that day.

Since then, and with a careful check of her Memory, Ari had come to some rather suspicious conclusions. A careful watch had shown an overabundance of owls at strange times of day, and occasional strange people who often disappeared down alleys without a trace.

It had taken several more weeks to track which locations had higher concentrations and now she’d finally found it.

The Leaky Cauldron.

This time she made sure to use her Notice-Me-Not charm since her newfound general ignorable-ness seemed to only work on muggles. But if she actively used her charm like before, then the wizards didn’t see her either.

As soon as she could feel the slight tingling on her skin, she made her way towards the pub, and waited for a convenient person to pass through so she could slip in.

The pub was just as grungy as her Memory suggested it would be, with a surprising number of patrons for this early in the day. She didn’t stop to look around though, even with this she felt the need for more solid proof.

A back door led to a tiny courtyard, and it was only the matter of minutes before someone else came through, revealing the path to Diagon Alley.

It was there. Everything.

Magical shops of every sort. Witches and Wizards strolling along in robes and cloaks. Creatures and cauldrons and every manner of magic everywhere she looked.

She was in the world of Harry Potter.

And it was 1984.

Chapter Text

By the time she was seven, Ari had a plan.

While Ari’s Memories had a plethora of information on the world she’d stumbled into, it wasn’t as helpful as it first seemed. In fact, it was downright confusing. There was tons of information. Too much. And not all of it was easily distinguishable between “canon” and not.

From what she could tell, Before her had read the book and seen the movies as a kid but had branched more into “fan-fiction” which was altered, or sometimes completely different from the original. But knowing what was applicable to the world she was currently in was more guess work than not.

Some things, like major plot points, events, and people seemed to be fairly consistent. Though there was no telling how much of it would be true for this version since most of the things hadn’t even happened yet.

Instead of focusing solely on that, Ari allowed herself the time to enjoy exploring Diagon Alley, and the off shoots. Getting a feel for both the layout of the shopping district and magical society in general.

Once she was more comfortable with her new surroundings, she went to the one place that was always helpful. In this life and the last. The Library.

She stumbled upon it at the far end of Vertic Alley and had spent much of her time there since. It was a wealth of knowledge on magic and magical culture, but more importantly, it let her confirm much of the information she already had.

The main problem she ran into was that there was very little she could do for now. Voldemort was “going ghost” probably off in some random forest and most of her knowledge of future events wouldn’t come into play until something like summer 1991.

So, she was mostly stuck mostly preparing herself for possibilities.

There was, however, one thing that she desperately wanted to change. Well, two, but one hinged on the other, so she set that one aside for now.

 And thus, she started to plan. It wasn’t the best of plans, given that she was still seven and thus running on the instincts of a child, even with her influx of knowledge. But it was entirely viable and low risk and high reward enough that she thought it was entirely possible to pull off. Especially once she got over the internal dilemma of changing the plot.

It had actually taken several months for her to finally come to a decision. Part of her insisted that she should stay quiet and only use her knowledge to slightly tweak events, at least until the final battle. It would be the safest way to proceed. The other part of her argued that standing back and allowing certain things to happen when she had the option of changing things would make her just as guilty as Dumbledore.

The winning argument came in the form that she had no guarantee that this world would even continue to follow the same path as the books, especially with her here.

So, changing the plot it was.

And in late July it finally started to come together.

Luckily, she’d only been waiting a couple of weeks since Hogwarts students started to show up en masse as soon as their letters came on the summer solstice. As soon as that had started, she’d taken to scoping out the Leaky Cauldron for her target.

And there they were. A harried looking read headed witch followed by an entire gaggle of red headed children.

The two oldest broke off almost immediately, likely to meet up with friends while they were there. The twins bounced around enough to appear more like quadruplets, dodging around foot traffic and staying just out of reach of the boy with spectacles, who seemed to be attempting to reign herd on them. Not that it was at all effective.

The youngest boy held onto the witch’s hand, jabbering away, and trying to see everything at once, while the only girl held the woman’s attention, and seemed to be trying to pull them all through traffic despite probably being no older than 4.

The Weasleys.

She’d seen them several times before, though not always all together. Mrs. Weasley seemed to prefer to do her shopping by herself, or with just Ginny, but once a year, after the Hogwarts letters went out, the whole gaggle made the trip to look through the shops and get what the oldest boys needed for the new year.

As soon as they’d made it into the Alley proper, Ari began to follow them. She ignored Bill and Charlie. They’d likely meet up with friends and probably hit up the quidditch shop. They were much harder to follow, given her short legs.

Instead, she followed behind the main group, watching as they made their way through Flourish and Blotts.

It was nice to watch them. While Ari had gotten used to her somewhat self-inflicted isolation, she did occasionally miss having people to talk to. The Weasleys reminded her of Before her’s own gaggle of siblings. They’d been almost as rambunctious when they were kids.

Watching the twins steal Percy’s spectacles and lead him on a merry chase around the store made her ache for something she’d never even had in this life.

Ari took a few breaths, and rubbed hard at her eyes, focusing back on her task. If she missed her opportunity today, then it would likely be months before she had another one.

She continued to follow them through the Alley. It was incredibly easy. With so much practice being unnoticeable all she had to do was keep track of them. And with their brightly colored hair, and all the noise they made, it wasn’t exactly difficult.

When they finally made it back to the Leaky Cauldron and met up with Bill and Charlie, well now it was time to act. She snuck closer, sticking close to the wall and watched as each of the children were sent through, Ron and Ginny going last with their mother.

She took one last deep breath, dropped her charm and stepped up to the fireplace. A pinch of Floo Powder she’d borrowed (stolen) weeks earlier and a clear statement of “The Burrow” and she was suddenly whisked away.

The trip was the most disorienting thing she’d ever experienced, and that was including sneaking onto several theme park rides she definitely shouldn’t have.

At the sudden stop, she stumbled forward onto her hands and knees, choking on a hacking cough from where she’d accidentally breathed in during the trip.

 It took several minutes for her to regain awareness of her surroundings, and when she finally did, she found herself sitting on the floor surrounded by the entire family as Mrs. Weasley rubbed soothingly at her back.

“There there, dear, you’re all right.” The mother wiped at her face with a damp washcloth. Ari would have been indignant, but she was too busy trying to even out her breathing. After a couple more minutes, Mrs. Weasley handed her a glass of water Bill had run to grab and sat back looking her over.

Ari was so distracted mentally cursing wizarding transportation, and swearing that she’d never take the floo again, that she’d almost didn’t realize the next question was directed at her. She was so used to being ignored and overlooked that it was startling to have so much attention on her.

“Now, where did you come from dear? Where are your parents?”

Startled as she was, she’d planned for this. Now she just needed to follow through.

“I dunno. I don’t have parents.” Even at seven years old, Ari was small enough to pass as young as five. Right now, she played into that, staring up at Mrs. Weasley with wide slightly watering eyes. If the watering was due to both the ash and coughing fit, they didn’t need to know that.

Mrs. Weasley ignored Ron’s loud question of “How can’t she have parents?” still focused on Ari.

“That’s alright dear. Can you tell me your name?”

“Ari… Arianna Grey”

“Alright Ari, come on, let’s get you into the kitchen. You look like you could use some food while we figure out where you belong.”

She shooed the other kids away by having Charlie take them outside to play, and then sat Ari down at the kitchen table with a couple of buttered rolls and jam and Bill to watch over her, while she made a quick Floo Call in the next room over.

While they waited, Ari carefully ate her snack and watched Bill watch her. He was definitely Hogwarts age, maybe a third or fourth year and seemed very settled for a teenager. He seemed perfectly content to watch her watching him. A small smirk grew on his face as they settled into an impromptu staring contest.

It went on for several minutes before Mrs. Weasley reentered the room and Ari looked over at the sudden appearance, huffing when she realized she’d lost.

“Well dear, my husband Arthur is going to make some inquires at work. He works for the Ministry, so hopefully they’ll find your guardians soon. For now, you’ll just have to stay with us until we hear back. Is that alright, dear?”

Ari just nodded with a slight smile, turning back to her snack and ignoring Bill’s slightly smug expression. Though she did stick her tongue out at him. Subtly…of course.

Once she was finished with her snack, Mrs. Weasley sent them both out to play with the other children while she set about getting supper ready.

As soon as they made it outside the rest of the children swarmed. Ari was bombarded with questions and statements and suggestions on games to play.

As much as she’d missed this kind of thing from Memories of her own siblings, it was incredibly overwhelming in person. She ended up hiding behind Bill until he calmed them all down, suggesting that they play something quieter for now. She could have hugged him.

There was more debate, and a couple of arguments, mostly between Ron and the twins, before Percy suggested

“We could show her the house. Since she’s staying here until dad gets things sorted.”

This was met with resounding agreement and each of the twins grabbed one of her hands, tugging her along and proclaiming that their room was the Best, so she had to see it first.

Ron immediately started arguing that his and Percy’s was better, and Charlie seemed to be consoling Ginny in the back of the group. Ari just let herself be tugged along. She was still mostly too overwhelmed to argue and just nodded along to whatever anyone said to her.

They made it through the twins’ room and Bill and Charlie’s (which she quietly thought was better, but maybe it was because of the Hogwarts textbooks she could see on their shelf.). Ginny’s room was only a quick stop since it was the smallest, and finally they arrived at Ron and Percy’s.

“Our room is obviously the best. See, Percy even has a pet! It’s just a rat, but even the twins don’t have one! And Percy lets me hold him sometimes.”

Ron chattered away as the group crowded into the latest room. They’d lost the twins and Charlie somewhere along the way, but Ari’s attention was entirely on the innocuous looking rat laying on the bed in front of her.

She could feel a burning hatred and disgust threaten to choke her as she stared down at the hidden Death Eater. However, she kept her control, pushing the anger down and away, looking over at Percy in awe.

“He’s yours?” She asked it softly, but as one of the first things she’d said during the whole tour everyone seemed to hear her.

Percy puffed up in pride.

“Yes, I feed him and clean his cage, and mom said I can take him to Hogwarts with me, even though rats aren’t one of the normal pets!” He seemed so proud, and Ari had to smother another wave of hatred for the rodent.

“Can I pet him?” Percy looked slightly wary, but nodded, telling her how to pet softly and to be careful.

She was exceedingly careful, using one hand to very gently run down the rat’s back, even as she shivered internally. After a couple of minutes, the rat went limp and fell asleep and Percy looked pleased that she’d listened to him.

“He likes you!” uh huh, sure. But she had to stick to the plan.

“Can I hold him?” Percy seemed much less reluctant this time and helped her to carefully pick “Scabbers” up so she could cradle him in one arm while petting him with the other.

Eventually they headed back downstairs. Bill convinced Percy to let her bring along Scabbers since she seemed so attached and since she’d also asked quietly if she could stay inside. So, while the rest of the kids went out to play some game or other in the yard, Bill and Percy kept her company in the living room.

Bill even offered to read her a book, and she almost rolled her eyes at him, but instead thanked him and sat listening to the Tales of Beedle the Bard while coddling a mass murderer.

Now the thing about magic is that at its core it’s mostly wild energy with very few solid rules. Everything from wands to runes to incantations were limitations that humans had put on magic to make it more consistent and controllable.

However, none of it is strictly necessary, which is why accidentally magic was possible. Because at its base magic responded most to intent and willpower. Strong emotions combined with wholehearted belief of a child was able to shape magic towards a specific outcome. It was why accidental magic could produce effects that there was no current spell for.

However, wandless magic was the other end of the spectrum. While at its simplest, wandless magic is the same as accidental magic, it was incredibly more difficult. Most of this came from the fact that the wielder was trying to apply years of precision learning in the form of wand movement and incantation to a system that was fundamentally beyond those things. Knowing a spell perfectly did not guarantee that you would have the belief, willpower, or instinct to channel the same effects through your own wild magic.

Which is why, despite months of effort, Ari had not been able to produce any verbal spells. Or at least, that was her current theory written down on an old notebook hidden in her nook at the Wizarding library. But what she did discover, was that as long as she wanted something enough and focused all of her attention on it, then she could generally create some form of effect. It took a lot of effort and was generally exhausting, but it meant she could do things like get a book she really wanted that was on a too high shelf, or trip someone who was being really rude to one of the shopworkers she secretly liked.

It wasn’t particularly controlled, and definitely not complex enough to conjure things or teleport herself, but it was something.

And in this case, it was letting her keep a murderer calm and asleep, so she’d take what she could get.

Bill continued to red to her, while Ari practiced focusing on calm and peaceful emotions and sending them into the rat in her lap, seeing how he reacted to the occasional loud noise from the kitchen or outside.

So far, he hadn’t even twitched, dozing away peacefully.

Even when Mr. Weasley apparated in just outside the door, he didn’t wake up, though Ari jumped slightly at the loud noise.

A conversation started up in the kitchen, and Ari listened hard, trying to make out what they were saying. Bill had stopped reading, so she knew he was eavesdropping as well.

“Welcome home, Dear. Any word?”

“Sadly no. There have been no reports of a missing child, and Beth even sent a couple of workers to canvas Diagon to see if anyone there was looking. Nothing.”

“Oh no, well someone must be missing her! She can’t be much older than Ron.”

“Yes, well, nothing much we can do tonight. Most of the offices are closed. I told Beth we’d keep her overnight, and I can bring her in tomorrow so they can try to find where she belongs.”

“Poor dear, of course we’re happy to keep her as long as she needs.”

Ari was about ready to tear up again at that pronouncement. She’d known that the Weasley’s were a caring family, but to take her in without even knowing anything about her. She box-breathed through the rush of emotions, ignoring the look Bill sent her. She had a plan, she just had to make it through, then she could figure out the next step.

Dinner was another loud affair with her sitting between Bill and Mrs. Weasley. Pettigrew was back upstairs in his cage since Mrs. Weasley had a strict no rats at the table rule that Ari wholeheartedly agreed with. She answered most questions with a nod or shake of her head, or shrugging, preferring to sit and listen rather than wade in with everyone else. And there was plenty to listen to.

Mr. Weasley had announced that he would be taking her with him to the Ministry tomorrow, and Bill offered to come with so she wouldn’t be alone, which was actually super thoughtful. Though it did start a clamor from the other kids who suddenly all decided they wanted to go to.

“Ari, would you like to bring someone with you?” Mr. Weasley asked once Mrs. Weasley had quieted them all. She almost glared at him for making the decision, and thus the resulting disappointment, her job. But it was an easy one anyways.

“Bill can come.” She stated clearly but quietly, twisting her fingers into his sleeve, and resolutely ignoring the round of complaints.

Bill just smiled down at her.

“Don’t worry, it’ll be alright. Dad will get everything sorted out.” He patted her hand encouragingly. Gods, he was such an oldest brother. She just nodded back soberly, suddenly realizing how quickly her plan was going.

Chapter Text

She spent the night in Ginny’s room, though she was perfectly willing to admit that she didn’t get much sleep. Instead, once the first hints of dawn came through the window, she made her way back downstairs and settled down in front of the bookshelf in the living room. There wasn’t a ton of books, and most of them seemed pretty well worn. She reached out to run a careful finger down the bindings, wondering if she could get away with reading one of them. Reading always helped settle her mind.

Eventually she gave in and pulled out one of the third-year schoolbooks. She could always say she was looking at the pictures if anyone asked.

She hadn’t been sticking strictly to the school related books in her studies at the library, but she had been slowly working through the different year textbooks to try and understand as much about magic as possible. They weren’t always the best reading material, but they were generally fairly simple and succinct, though maybe that was due to the fact that they were still only early level books that she’d gone through so far.

She tucked herself away into a corner to look through the Care of Magical Creatures book, keep an eye out as first Mrs. Weasley, and then Mr. Weasley made their way down. Eventually, however, she became engrossed and missed the approach of light footsteps.

“Grindylows are pretty cool, but dragons are my favorite.” Ari glanced up at where Charlie was standing over her, though he seemed to take that as permission and plopped down onto the floor too.

She knew how to socialize. She did! Had plenty of Memories of it too. It was just that…she didn’t have that much practice this time around. And it was hard to break the habits she’d built over years. But one thing she did know was, the best way to avoid talking is to encourage someone else to.

“What’s your favorite dragon?”

“I think the Chinese Fireball might be my favorite, but I used to really like the Swedish Shortsnout, and recently I learned about…”

Charlie flipped through the book she was holding, pointing out different dragons and their characteristics, then ran upstairs to grab his own book that was entirely about dragons. Ari actually really enjoyed the conversation, adding in tidbits that she’d picked up, but mostly just letting Charlie do the talking. It was relaxing. Plus, it helped that she was really interested in the subject matter as well. If she ever came back here, she’d have to find a way to talk to Charlie again.

By the time they were called for breakfast, Ari knew far more about the different dragons, their territories, and the defense mechanisms they each used. She blamed this distraction for why she didn’t notice Mr. Weasley was gone earlier.

“Oh, he just had to pop into the office dear. He’ll be back around 10 to pick you and Bill up, don’t you worry.” Ari nodded and tried to determine if she could eat the extra bacon Mrs. Weasley had pushed onto her plate.

Sadly, the answer was no, so she snuck it onto Bill’s instead. He didn’t seem to notice, or if he did, he didn’t say anything. Next, she turned to Percy.

“Can I please hold Mr. Scabbers again?” She deployed her most hopeful puppy dog eyes and watched him cave immediately.

“Yes, but you have to go to the living room. I’ll go get him.” Ari just grinned and hopped out of her chair. She put her plate in the sink before Mrs. Weasley could whisk it away and took a seat on the couch just in time for Percy to arrive. Once he’d determined that she was holding him carefully enough, he headed back to breakfast.

She spent the morning once again sitting on the couch cuddling a murderer. Though she justified it by reminding herself that this way he wasn’t near any of the other kids. The only difference was that Charlie kept her company instead, continuing their discussion, or possibly lecture, on dragons.

When Mr. Weasley finally appeared, it was to that exact scene.

“Well Ari, are you ready to go?” He held out a hand towards her and gestured over Bill who’d followed him inside.

Ari scooched off the couch, careful not to jostle the sleeping rat. It would be better if he stayed that way for now. She wandered over to them and looked up, letting her expression shift into something scared. It wasn’t hard, her anxiety had been ramping up over the entire course of the morning.

“It’s alright dear, we’re just going to talk to a few people and help get you home. Why don’t you leave Scabbers with Percy, and we can head out.”

She widened her eyes in surprise and let them water a bit, holding Pettigrew close, but still carefully. Mr. Weasley seemed to faulter a bit, while Percy actually backed up. Ari momentarily wondered how bad Ginny’s tantrums were for that immediate reaction. But it did the trick.

“Dad, maybe she can bring him with her? He seems to make her happy, and I can make sure she doesn’t lose him.” Bill offered, possibly trying to head this off at the pass.

“I suppose…” Percy looked about ready to protest, but also not willing to draw her theoretical ire.

“Don’t worry Percy, if she gets tired of holding him, I’ll put him in my pocket. He’ll probably just nap through the whole thing anyways.” Percy seemed to think it over.

“Fine, but he’s my pet.” He said this rather pointedly in her direction. Though with his brothers, she wasn’t surprised he felt the need to clarify.

“Thanks for letting me borrow him, Percy. I’ll be really careful.” Well, careful to get him caught…

“Alright.”

Ari smiled at him and almost squeaked in surprise when Mr. Weasley picked her up. She knew she was small, but was that really necessary?

She was a lot less miffed when she realized they were taking the Floo again, and instead focused on keeping the rat as calm as possible, and not breathing any ash this time.

It worked perfectly, and as Mr. Weasley set her back down, she made sure Pettigrew’s head was tucked into her elbow so he would be less likely to see or hear what was going on if he woke up.

The Ministry lobby was a bustling place, especially this close to lunch. Mr. Weasley and Bill were careful to keep her between them as they walked the length of the large hall headed directly for the security station.

Perfect.

Now for the last step of the first part of her plan. The only part that she really had any control over.

While still a few steps away from security, Ari dropped the soothing magic she’d been working and instead focused all of her concentration and belief on one thing. Turning this rat back into a man.

If Harry could accidentally blow up his aunt, then she could definitely Will this rat into revealing himself.

A sharp pain in her finger had her suddenly dropping the rodent with a gasp, but it was already too late. She watched as the rat grew in size, taking the shape of a grimy man, and felt nothing but vicious triumph, even as she molded her face into one of surprise.

Even with the crowd, she wanted no possible way for Pettigrew to disappear before he paid for his betrayal. So, she did the one thing sure to draw everyone’s attention. She pointed it him with her bleeding finger and screamed.

It was chaos.

Security rushed over. Aurors and other officials headed to or from early meetings pulled their wands. Civilians all turned to see what kind of drama was unfolding. Ari even saw the flash of a camera from where Bill had immediately pulled her behind him.

Pettigrew was yelling about his innocence to anyone nearby, though it seemed to have more of the opposite effect really. He even tried to appeal to Bill, lunging towards him desperately, but Mr. Weasley pulled his wand and looked about ready to hex him six ways to Sunday. Needless to say, the security officials almost immediately put the rat in cuffs.

The chaos and confusion continued for quite some time before someone high enough in office was able to wrangle those actually involved out and away from the crowd. Bill and Mr. Weasley once again had her squished in between them, away from the prying eyes they passed by. Luckily, they were not stuck in the same elevator as Pettigrew, or she might have actually had to throw a fit.

As it was, all three of them were led down to the DMLE offices and sat in some sort of waiting room while everyone else seemed to run around trying to figure out exactly what happened.

A surprisingly nice mediwitch stopped in just long enough to heal up her hand, but after that they were left to wait.

By this point, Ari was mostly in shock. She wasn’t actually sure any of that would work, and now it was completely out of her hands. She scrubbed a bit at the tear stains on her face with a handkerchief the mediwitch had given her, though they were mostly due to the slight panic attack triggered by the crowding and noise up in the entrance hall. For now, she focused on box breathing, try to calm her anxiety so she didn’t trigger another attack.

All she could do was hope that Pettigrew was actually questioned before the Ministry tried to cover it up. If they were forced to charge him, then they might have to reopen Sirius Black’s case. It was the best option she’d had so far.

If this didn’t work out, she’d have to find something else. But Sirius didn’t deserve to be stuck in that torture chamber masquerading as a prison.

Maybe she’d need to write to Lord Black. She was pretty sure it was currently Sirius’s grandfather, though she’d heard he was quite old at this point.

Eventually, a rather grandmotherly woman came to see them.

“Ah Beth, terribly sorry to have missed our appointment.” Mr. Weasley stated rather sheepishly.

“Well, I heard it was for a rather good reason, so I suppose I can forgive you this once. I’m here to watch over the children since they’ll be wanting to interview you soon.”

“Of course. Erm, Bill, Ari this is Beth. She’s the head of the Children’s Services department and is who we were coming to meet with.” Ari just nodded though Bill reached out to shake her hand. He’d been a bit pale since the incident, but seemed to be focusing on keeping her safe, so Ari hadn’t call him out when the mediwitch had been by.

“You can call me Ms. Beth. Do you mind if I stay here with you?” Ari just stared at her suspiciously. Not that she really thought Ms. Beth was evil or anything, but she had no plans to go to another orphanage, wizarding or not, so she definitely wasn’t Ari’s favorite person right now.

Bill waited for her reluctant nod before nodding as well. Which was good timing, since an Auror came to collect Mr. Weasley. She wondered what they would have done if she’d said no.

Once she was sat down, Ms. Beth reached into a satchel and pulled out several booklets and a strangely colored cube.

“I brought a couple of things to help pass the time while we waited.” She held them out, and Ari immediately went for the cube, ignoring the fact that it had probably been for Bill. She was in no mood to color or read picture books. Luckily, Bill just seemed amused.

It was fascinating. About the size of a rubik’s cube but instead of 3x3 colored squares it had various colored lines that ran over the different sides and met at seemingly random points. It vaguely resembled a computer chip, or at least her Memory of one. There was no doubt that it was some sort of puzzle.

Ari frowned at it, putting pressure on different points and lightly trying to twist it. Eventually she prodded it with her magic and gasped at the way one line lit up. She opened her magic a bit, reaching out to get a feel. It was something she’d learned in one of the second-year charm books, as apparently it was the best way to identify magic around you. It was how wizards could identify spells even when the incantation wasn’t spoken. It also apparently helped with transfiguration as it allowed the wielder to tell if there was any existing magic on the item and how to incorporate that into their desired spell.

In this case she could feel a series of spells each centered around one of the contact points between the colored lines. However, each of them was inactive until the previous one was completed.

She continued to puzzle over it, almost missing when Mr. Weasley came to get Bill for his statement and distracted enough to not care at the moment. She was four levels in when they came back again. Though this time she paid attention to the conversation even if she still appeared to be preoccupied.

“Is that one of those puzzle boxes?” Mr. Weasley asked slightly incredulously.

“Yes, I brought it for Bill since you said he enjoyed the last one I sent home with you, but Ari seems to have taken a shine to it.”

“She’s activating it without a wand?!”

“This version is designed to be solvable without a wand, but it takes quite a bit of control since you have to channel your magic through it.” Beth was far more blasé, though she did sound somewhat pleased.

“She picked it up without instruction Dad! And Charlie said she was reading the Care of Magical Creatures book this morning. I thought she might have just been looking at the pictures, but well…” Bill chimed in as well. And Ari finally realized how big of a deal this was. Oops, she had not meant to draw that kind of attention to herself.

She drew her magic back in and looked up at them, making sure not to let her anxiety show on her face.

“Ah, Ari, you’ll have to give your statement now, but don’t worry! It’s just a few questions.” She nodded, and slid out of her chair, holding the cube out to Bill. Since Mr. Weasley wasn’t technically her guardian, he wasn’t allowed to be present, but Ms. Beth went with her. Straight to Alastor Moody’s desk. Hell.

Look, if she’d done something awful in her last life to deserve this (which she was pretty sure she hadn’t since she remembered most of that) she was really sorry. And also, what were they thinking! Letting the somewhat crazy old Auror interview a small child?!

She was sat down in a too big chair across his desk while Ms. Beth took the other one. Instead of giving in to the panic, Ari glared, crossing her arms over her chest and trying not to stare at the weird eye.

“Tell me about this morning.” That was it. No lead in. Nothing to try to make her more comfortable. Even Ms. Beth looked annoyed. Ari decided right then that if this went on too long, she’d just start bawling, and probably no one would be suspicious at all.

“Percy’s rat turned into a man! And he bit me!”

She held up her finger, even though it had already been healed. Better to play dumb kid, even if Ms. Beth might be slightly suspicious.

“Yes, but why did you bring a rat to the Ministry of all places.”

“I…I just wanted to bring him.” She muttered quietly, cringing back in her seat and already starting to sniffle. Moody didn’t even blink. “Percy let me hold him if I was really careful and I just…just wanted to bring him and…and Bill said I could.” Que more sniffles and wide watery eyes blinking up at the Auror.

“So, you brought someone else’s pet rat. To the Ministry. Because you wanted to.” Gosh, learn to use a question mark.

“Yes.” It was practically a whisper. “I’m really sorry I got Percy’s rat turned into a man. He’s probably gonna be really mad at me.” She sniffled again, letting a few of the tears slip free.

“I think that’s enough.” Ms. Beth cut in sharply, laying a soothing hand on her shoulder and handing her handkerchief. Ari felt only a little bad at manipulating her too. “I think we’re done here.”

Moody stared at her for another long minute, but finally grunted and waved them away.

“She may need to be available for more questions later.”

“Not without a guardian present. Good day.” Ms. Beth led her briskly away and Ari slowly petered out her sniffles.

“Is he mad at me too?” She asked, just to round it all out.

“Oh no dear. He’s just not very good with children.” Ms. Beth assured her. Ari nodded again as they arrived back to the waiting room.

“What happened?” Mr. Weasley sounded incensed.

“Auror Moody is not the best with children, and I think she’s worried that Percy might be mad at her.”

“Oh, darling.” Mr. Weasley knelt down and wiped a thumb over her mostly dry cheek. “I promise Percy won’t be mad at you. None of this is your fault.” Now Ari felt really bad. It was better than everyone knowing her secrets, and possibly getting locked up in the Department of Mysteries, but it wasn’t great that she was manipulating people she actually liked. She hoped she didn’t have to do it again anytime soon.

They were stuck in the waiting room for another several hours with almost no news. It was incredibly boring. Bill tried to give her back the puzzle box, but Ari refused, not wanting to draw more attention, especially from the Aurors who occasionally stop in to update Mr. Weasley and Ms. Beth. Instead, she was stuck with one of the coloring books, so she took the time to consider how she was going to get back to Diagon Alley after all this.

Not that she wanted to worry the Weasleys, or even Ms. Beth, but it would be much easier for her to plan and keep track of news from there, even if this original plan didn’t work out. There was no way she wanted to end up in some orphanage, and while staying with the Weasleys might be nice, she didn’t want to put that burden on them. Better if she snuck out later.

But for now, they were stuck eternally in this room.

Finally something did happen to break up the monotony, though Ari wasn’t quite sure if it counted as a good thing.

A group of witches and wizards, led by a stately, if elderly, man swept into the room. The man exuded enough power and presence that it was almost impossible to notice anyone else that came with him. Regardless, he took one look around the room and headed directly for her.

Mr. Weasley and Ms. Beth both stepped up to intervene, which was very brave of them, Ari thought. She stood up herself, since she didn’t think cowering would be nearly as helpful here as it had been with Moody. Instead, she stood up straight and looked him in the eye.

“Lord Black, is there something we can help you with?” Ms. Beth asked while still firmly standing in his way. Ari blinked in surprise. So that was Arcturus Black. He was much more than she’d expected, though that was quite possibly due to the family magics that seemed to wrap around him like a cloak. It was almost suffocating in this small of a room.

Regardless, he ignored the question.

“So, you’re the girl who caught the rat?”

Ari just nodded, not breaking eye contact.

“You’ll do. I must see to it that my grandson finally has the trial that he was so willfully denied.” He said it pointedly, likely for the group of Aurors that had gathered outside the room, including one Madame Bones, current head of the DMLE. “You will hear from me soon.”

Ari wasn’t sure if that was a threat or promise, but she didn’t have the time to consider it further before Lord Black was sweeping back out of the room, entourage in tow.

The chamber almost seemed to echo with how empty it suddenly felt.

Well at least he’d told her that they were having a trial for Sirius. That was one thing off her shoulders. And if Lord Black was gunning for the Wizengamot, well, she doubted that there would be any possible verdict but innocent.

It wasn’t long after that that they were finally sent home.

Ms. Beth had given Mr. Weasley paperwork so that Ari could stay at their house again tonight, though they would be coming back again tomorrow to try this whole fiasco again. Well, she wouldn’t be coming back, but that was the plan at least.

Dinner was a nightmare. Percy was a bit sulky, but mostly in shock. The twins couldn’t let it go, even after Mrs. Weasley threatened them with extra chores, and Ron and Ginny seemed to be yelling because it was what everyone else was doing. Ari escaped as soon as possible, holing up in the corner of the living room and considering her escape plan.

It’d probably be easiest to just wait until everyone went to bed, then use her charm and Floo back to Diagon Alley. She’d have to leave a note or something, so they didn’t panic. It really shouldn’t be too difficult. Though she made sure to knock on wood after that thought. No use stirring up trouble.

From there she’d be able to monitor the trial via newspapers and find some way to warn Sirius about Harry. Plenty of time to plan for that later.

For now, she hid in the corner until Charlie joined her, and then distracted herself with dragons until bedtime.

It was after midnight when she finally snuck down. It wasn’t hard to find a quill and a bit of parchment. The letter was short, but she made sure to thank them and assure them that she was going home and was perfectly safe. She really hoped they didn’t get in trouble, but this was her best chance to leave.

She also couldn’t help including a line that she hoped she got to see them again. She probably would at Hogwarts if nothing else.

She already had her charm up, so now all she had to do was find the Floo powder and head out.

She’d forgotten that it didn’t work on people looking for her.

It had been so long since anyone was looking for her.

“Ari?” came a whisper from the base of the stairs.

Ari froze where she’d been considering the flowerpot on the mantel.

“Where are you going?” Bill asked.

She stared at him, though his expression was surprisingly blank in the light from the fire. Not ‘What are you doing?’ but ‘Where are you going?’. He obviously knew she was trying to leave.

Ari dropped the charm and cocked her head to the side.

“I’m going home.”

“Are you?” Ouch. That stung, because he was right. She didn’t have a home in this life. The closest thing was her libraries, but those had always been more of a sanctuary than a home.

She didn’t respond, but apparently her silence was telling enough.

“You could stay with us. Mum and Dad would be happy to have you, and I know Charlie already loves you.”

She shook her head, not even letting herself contemplate the option. It wouldn’t be fair to them, not when she was already lying so much. Not when she couldn’t ever tell them the truth.

“Alright, you don’t have to stay with us, but you shouldn’t be alone.” Well just take a hammer to all of her weakest points why don’t you. “Just…just stay the night. We’ll figure out something tomorrow. Mum and Dad will be worried and…and we won’t know if you’re safe. If you still want to leave then, I’ll help you, alright?”

He sounded so young suddenly. She kept forgetting that Bill was only 13 years old. He was already so much bigger than her. But the pleading and the slight break in his voice…he was really worried, and she couldn’t do that to him. Not after everything she already put him through.

“…Alright.”

“Really?! Uh…okay, thanks.” There was an awkward silence as they both stood there. “I brought down the puzzle box, if you want to give it another go. I promise I won’t tell anyone.”

And that…actually sounded perfect.

They both ended up on the couch, poking at the puzzle box with their magic and taking turns trying each of the new sections they unlocked.

Chapter Text

Ari woke to the sound of a sharp gasp and had the sudden feeling that she’d forgotten something. It was proven true as soon as Mrs. Weasley rushed into the living room clutching a scrap of paper in her hand. Though she stopped abruptly as soon as she laid eyes on the couch where Ari and Bill were still slumped where they’d both fallen asleep sometime in the early morning.

Mrs. Weasley’s mouth opened and closed like she was trying to figure out what to say. Eventually she closed it, nodded firmly, and turned around back into the kitchen. And with that Ari’s heart started to settle back into a regular rhythm. She subconsciously ran her fingers over the puzzle box to help sooth her nerves.

The rest of the morning seemed to run much like yesterday, though Mrs. Weasley, and eventually Mr. Weasley seemed to be keeping a closer eye on her. She ignored it entirely, resolutely pretending she had no knowledge of the reason behind the present scrutiny. It was exhausting having people watching her all the time.

She was slightly miffed that Mr. Weasley took the Daily Profit with him when he’d first left for the office, since she’d been hoping to see if there was any information on the trial.

At ten they once again Flooed to the Ministry, sans murderer disguised as a rat this time. Bill had insisted he come again, and Mr. Weasley hadn’t even tried to dissuade him, which Ari thought might be due to the conversation they’d had just outside during breakfast which she was sure was about her midnight escape attempt.

Either way, all three of them made the long walk through the lobby, ignoring the multitude of stares pointed in their direction. Ari hoped this wasn’t affecting Mr. Weasley’s work. It wasn’t his fault no one knew the rat wasn’t just a rat.

She may have stuck her tongue out at a pair of witches gossiping just a little too loudly. Bill didn’t hide his smirk very well.

Eventually they did make it to the Child Services Office and were once again met by Ms. Beth.

“There’s been some developments in Ari’s case. If you’ll follow me to my office, I can explain more fully.”

While she was much more serious, she didn’t seem particularly worried, though perhaps that was just how she showed stress. Ari followed along between Mr. Weasley and Bill who’d both stepped closer to her.

Once they were situated in the office, Ms. Beth began.

“I would rather not sugarcoat this as time is somewhat of the essence and I believe you deserve a full explanation.” She spoke directly to Ari, so Ari nodded, preferring that as well. “Lord Black has claimed you as a Ward of his house for your actions in helping to clear his Heir’s name. By right and magic this means that the Most Noble and Most Ancient House of Black believes they owe you a life debt and will repay it by housing and providing for you until you reach your majority.”

Ari was just about gaping, but Ms. Beth wasn’t done.

“This is generally unprecedented in modern times and was previously used by noble houses to claim children of Allies when their parents fell in a fight for their cause. It was to ensure that the children were protected regardless of possible upheaval in the family itself. Now, for Lord Black to make this claim today, he would normally have to prove that your family had some sort of agreement or at least business partnership with his. However, his solicitor was able to provide your documentation as a ward of the non-magical government, thus giving his claim priority since there is no magical guardianship in line.”

She paused for breath, letting Ari process all of that. From what she gathered, the House of Black had claimed her, and it was going to be very difficult to try to circumvent that. Ms. Beth seemed to read her mind (Wait that was possible… she’d definitely need to look into Occulmency more later.)

“If you don’t want this Ari, then we can work on finding a way around it. The laws are ancient, and it may be possible to appeal such a claim.”

Ari considered it seriously. Living with Lord Black was not ideal. It would likely be much harder to do her planning, and there was every chance they may grow suspicious. She wasn’t exactly the average seven-year-old. However, it would likely put her under the safe roof as Sirius. Which would be perfect! And really the first two issues would be applicable almost anywhere she ended up. She’d also likely have access to more resources in a Library owned by one of the notoriously Darkest families. Many possibilities.

Eventually she looked up and nodded.

“I’ll live with Lord Black.”

“Are you sure?” Mr. Weasley asked seeming surprised at her answer. “You only met the man once, and his family…has a uh…reputation.” He seemed to suddenly realize that he was talking to a child and changed what exactly he was going to say.

“I’m sure.” Bill seemed to study her face, but whatever he saw had him nodding without argument, then grinned.

“You’ll have to visit us. Don’t let him keep you locked up in whatever big old manor he has.”

Ari grinned back.

“I’d like to see him try.”

Ms. Beth cleared her throat to regain their attention.

“Once decided this decision cannot be easily changed. If you’re sure,” She waited for Ari to nod once more. “Then I’ll send for Mr. Charleston, and we can proceed.”

Mr. Charleston turned out to be a youngish solicitor who was apparently representing Lord Black, as he was still busy eviscerating the Ministry, the Wizengamot, and the Council of Nobles over the false imprisonment of his grandson. Or so Ari gathered from his short introduction. He’s also made sure to speak directly to her and offer his hand, so he wasn’t too bad in Ari’s book.

Once the paperwork was sorted. Or once Mr. Charleston pulled out the already finished paperwork and Ms. Beth deigned to sign it, he turned to her once more.

“Come along Nashira, we have much to do today.”

“I prefer to go by Ari, and I would like to say goodbye to all of the Weasleys first.”

They had a short stare down, but Ari would not bend on this.

“As we already must gather your belongings, one additional stop should not delay us overly.”

He was unfailingly polite while also subtly demanding that she not take too long. She had a feeling she was going to enjoy her new accommodations.

“Great!” She smiled at him winningly and hopped over to hold onto Bill’s hand while they made their way back through the Ministry and toward the Floos.

The whole affair at the Weasleys was far more dramatic and over the top than necessary. Charlie and the Twins seemed devastated that she was leaving, thought that the Twins response might be more that they hadn’t gotten to prank her yet. Mrs. Weasley crushed her in a hug which she had mixed feelings about though she smiled up at Bill when he ruffled her hair. Mr. Weasley pulled her aside and made her promise to write if she ever needed anything. From his tone this meant anything up to and including a rescue. Ari appreciated the sentiment.

Mr. Charleston checked his pocket watch as she finally made her way over to him, though she thought it was mostly just for show.

“We’ll stop at the orphanage first and pick up your things which should give us just enough time to get you to the manor for lunch. Were there any other stops you needed to make on the way?”

Ari considered letting him make the unnecessary trip to the orphanage, just for that tone, but decided not to antagonize him yet. There’d be plenty of time for that later.

“We don’t need to go to the orphanage. All of my belongings are in Diagon Alley.”

Mr. Charleston looked at her suspiciously.

“And why is that?”

She shrugged nonchalantly.

“They forgot about me.” She said it smoothly, like it was an everyday occurrence, which was kind of true. For her.

He scrutinized her for another minute before simply nodding and holding out his hand.

“You’ll need to hold on tightly.”

Apparating was apparently just as bad as Flooing the first-time round. Or at least that’s what she thought as she once again found herself kneeling on the ground and fighting for breath.

Mr. Charleston patted her back lightly, though he didn’t seem quite sure of how to go about helping. It worked out alright, since she eventually was able to control her breathing and stagger to her feet. Ignoring that whole debacle, Ari immediately headed for the library, ignoring Mr. Charleston’s flat look as they approached.

Though he did seem startled when she triggered her charm. She knew he could still see her, but she probably looked a little fuzzy and was a bit hard to concentrate on.

She walked the familiar path through, keeping a sharp eye out for any unwanted attention. Mr. Charleston finally decided to get with the program and cast some form of spell on himself once they reached the collection room door. Annoyingly it was much better than her charm.

Regardless she made short work of the door, having picked it so many times that it was likely faster than she could use the actual key. Wizards seemed to forget that not everything required magic.

She made her way through the stacks of specialized scrolls and artifacts which apparently boasted the “Largest collection of pre-1867 agricultural charms and tools” in Britain, though it was surprisingly unpopular. She also picked the lock on the next door they came to, revealing an old broom closet. She grabbed the flashlight off the nearest shelf and clicked it on, almost startling at the lumos that suddenly came from Mr. Charleston’s wand.

Then it was just another few steps and around the back of one of the shelves, and there was her oasis. A nest of blankets, several books she’d been reading recently and a few knickknacks she’d picked up here and there. Plus a few sets of clothes she’d acquired (stolen), from the muggle side of London.

“Is this where you’ve been living?” Mr. Charleston’s voice was surprisingly neutral, though there was the slightest hint of an under tone that Ari thought might be anger of some sort.

She just rolled her eyes at him, since the answer was obvious and stepped forward to pick through the things to see what she wanted to take. Eventually Mr. Charleston deigned to hand her a satchel with a quite extensive expanding charm on it that made it much easier for her to mostly just shove everything in. She hesitated for a moment before pulling out a loose brick and revealing her notebook. It had most of her notes and plans regarding this world and was thus incredibly dangerous to bring with her. However, it was written in code, learned from her Memories, and not particularly specific beyond that, so she thought it was better to take it with her now, than try to retrieve it later.

In the end, the only thing left out was the library books. She carried those with her, making sure to lock up behind them as they made their way back into the library proper. She then placed them in the correct location to be automatically reshelved by magic and headed straight for the exit.

It was another apparition trip, only slightly less harrowing than the first and they were standing on a paved path leading towards what could only be the Black Family Ancestral Home.

Huge was one word to describe it. Ginormous was another. Stately could possibly be used in a pinch, though imposing probably fit better.

Ari barely had any time to take in the carefully trimmed hedges and the, both decorative and functional, wrought iron and brick work before she noticed that Mr. Charleston was already well on his way to the front door, and she had to run to catch up.

A house elf dressed smartly in what she could only describe as a little butler suit emblazoned with what must be the Black coat of arms opened the door before they had even fully approached, welcoming them by name.

“Nimsy be saying that yous will be having lunch in the kitchen, sir, miss.”

“Thank you, Lotty, we’ll be there shortly.”

This small exchange gave Ari slightly more time to look around, and she came to the immediate conclusion that the Black family was rich beyond words. Not that it was particularly surprising, nor did the décor scream wealthy. No, everything, from the mirror polished marble floors to the crown moldings, to the constellation frescos simply stepped up and expected you to acknowledge their superiority, much like each of the family members did.

But what really startled her was undeniably, almost oppressively, it felt like Home. She could almost feel the Family magics sweep her up as soon as she crossed the threshold. Clearly Lord Black was serious about making her a capital W Ward of the family. She’d have to see if she could get ahold of the paperwork, or maybe find a book on the subject, since she hadn’t been aware of it before.

The trip to the kitchen was short, though Ari made sure to try to take in as much as possible, even as she memorized the route they’d taken. The halls weren’t particularly confusing, but there was a lot of them.

Lunch was served at a relatively small table in a nook to one side of the kitchen. It was probably whatever counted as a step down from even informal dining according to the nobility of the Blacks, but still came with far too many forks and several courses. She didn’t worry too much about following perfect etiquette, since Mr. Charleston didn’t seem to expect it of her.  

Eventually they finished with Ari still nibbling on a pastry of some sort. It seemed to have peach or possibly apricot filling and she was enjoying the sweetness while waiting for Mr. Charleston to tell her what came next. He folded his hands together and held eye contact to ensure she was paying attention.

“Due to the circumstances surrounding your… change in guardianship, not all of the logistics of your stay have been finalized. For now, Lotty and Nimsy have been assigned as your caretakers and will ensure you are comfortable. They have their other responsibilities as well, so you are not to monopolize their time. A nanny or a governess will likely be chosen as time allows. You’ll have the run of the house and the grounds, though understand that any locked doors are to remain that way.” He gave her a pointed look here, but she just smiled innocently. “Lord Black will be extremely busy with the current proceedings, though I expect you will meet him eventually. Be polite. If you need anything, within reason, ask Lotty and he can procure it.”

Ari was fairly sure that Mr. Charleston was not used to working with children. Luckily, she was only kind of a child, or this could be going a lot worse. As it was, she was glad to have the freedom to explore without constant supervision, and she’d like to retain that, so she’d be on her best behavior. At least visibly.

“I’d like to help choose my governess, when the time comes.”

If he thought it was a strange request, he didn’t show it, merely responding with a noncommittal “we’ll see.”

He left soon after that, and Ari wasn’t sure if she was glad or not. As it turned out, Blæc Dún Halls, the name of the manor, was not only large, it was also silent. With only Lord Black and the two elves in residence besides herself, the entire place had an empty echo-y quality. She had a feeling she’d need to learn how to silence her steps, just so she didn’t feel like she was disturbing it. Especially since the elves already seemed to walk silently.

Once Mr. Charleston had left, Nimsy took her to the room she’d be staying in and told her to call if she needed anything. She also informed her that dinner would be at 7 in the kitchen, and she was welcome to come down if she wanted a snack before then. Ari thanked her profusely and then set about looking over her new room.

It was once again Big. Nothing about it suggested it had been intended for a child, which Ari appreciated. Though she might need a stool to get onto the bed. The room had been done in blues and greys, light enough not to seem dreary, but still muted. One side held the bed, a wardrobe, and a vanity, while the other side had a small sitting area around a fireplace. She very much looked forward to basking in front of that. Cold had always been her enemy.

There wasn’t much else beyond that. A few knickknacks, and the bag Mr. Charleston had given her, placed on a chest at the foot of the bed, but otherwise the room held no further interest to her. So instead, she went exploring.

She’d always had an excellent sense of direction, and from her calculations, she was likely in the east wing of the manor, though she wasn’t sure if this was the family wing, or if she’d instead been placed in a guest area. There were plenty of other bedrooms down the hall, and a few different locked doors, but nothing that helped her distinguish. Instead, she headed back to the entrance area and into the north wing. For some reason it seemed like the most likely place for more interesting findings. And she wasn’t wrong. The doors here were much farther apart, even with the expansion charms that seemed to be in full use on the rooms themselves.

She found a formal dining room that was likely used to dinner parties, just past that was a ballroom that she estimated could hold at least a couple hundred people, with a wall of windows and glass doors that opened out onto the veranda and past that, into the gardens. She was tempted to head out there immediately, but there was more to find inside first.

A couple of lounge room and sitting rooms, obviously split into styles that leaned more feminine or masculine suggested that this had been in use when parties would split up by gender for part of the evening. She could even still smell the cigar smoke, though it was only an undertone, as all of the rooms seemed well kept and aired out.

Past all of that, and behind intricately carved double doors was exactly what she’d been looking for. The Library. Look, it was a running theme in her life, alright?

It was also the most beautiful library she’d ever seen.

Lit only by witch lights, and the massive stained-glass skylight above, she could still easily make out the sprawling rows of shelves, plus two mezzanine levels above. The bookshelves were a deep brown color that almost matched many of the worn covers of the books housed in them. It was almost enough to bring her to tears.

She didn’t allow herself to hole up in the library yet. She still had exploring to do, and several new plans to put into place which would require some delicate maneuvering if she didn’t want people to know what she was up to.

Luckily, she didn’t stop there, because her second favorite finding was a large solar just on the far side of the library. It was rich with plants and comfortable seating and would be the perfect place to settle down and read once she allowed herself the time to peruse the stacks.

She did eventually make it back to the kitchen for dinner, chatting quietly with Nimsy as she ate at a much simpler place setting than last time. The elf seemed happy to have someone to converse with, and easily answered all of her questions about the manor.

That first night was harder than she expected. It was just. So. Quiet. Even Diagon Alley had the feeling of people close by even when it settled down for the night. Here there was almost no one in the house, and nothing for miles outside it. She was used to being alone, or at least, unnoticed, but at least if she got a little too stuck in her head she could slip outside and surround herself with a crowd, even if they didn’t see her.

Plus, the short visit at the Weasleys had been a sharp contrast to the years previous. Almost too much attention and energy, but nice at the same time.

And now she was here, sitting in a too big bed, late at night, more alone than she’d ever been. Eventually she couldn’t take it any longer.

Ari hopped out of the bed, pulling one of the fluffy duvets and a pillow with her, and went to curl up between the wall and one of the plush upholstered chairs. It put her right below a window at just the right angle to look up and see the stars. And they were gorgeous out here, so far away from anything. It made her feel less alone, and she ended up counting them until she fell asleep.

Chapter Text

The next few days followed suit. She spent her time exploring, chatting with either elf, though Nimsy turned out to be more willing to spend time with her, especially since she could keep working in the kitchen as they talked. She also spent some time in the library, looking for interesting books that weren’t too far beyond her level of magical understanding.

At the same time, she was slowly piecing together the next part of her plan, though it was slow going, as she hadn’t expected this outcome at all. But with access to the Daily Prophet (Lotty let her read it when Lord Black was done with it for the morning) and an entire other wealth of knowledge, she had plenty to help her on her way. Now she just needed a few other things to fall into place.

Ari first became aware of Sirius Black’s presence in the manor when she came down for lunch on the fifth day of her stay. Nimsy warned her not to make a ruckus, and Ari almost rolled her eyes. She’d gotten pretty good at moving around silently, not liking the sound of her own footsteps echoing off the halls. Though she still wasn’t as good as a house elf, but they had magic, so…

Anyways, apparently Sirius had been transferred from St. Mungo’s and was still being kept in a healing sleep for another few days while his body recovered from the worst of the effects of Azkaban. There was an in-house healer watching over him. Perfect.

She of course promised Nimsy not to disturb them, suggesting that she’d probably spend the rest of the day in the solarium or exploring the gardens.

It only took her twenty minutes to find which room he was in.

This was probably due to the fact that it was just at the other end of the hall from hers, suggesting that she was in fact in the family wing. She actually noticed it because the door was closed, where early that day she was sure it had been open. Luckily, she was smart enough not to just barge in. Unluckily for everyone else, she had thoroughly explored this hall and knew that this room was actually part of a family suite that interconnected several rooms via a sitting room. It was likely chosen so the healer could sleep nearby in case of an emergency. 

So instead of trying to sneak in through the hall door, she simply set herself up in a corner of the sitting room under her charm and waited for the healer to exit the room in search of the loo. It only took a couple hours, and then she was able to slip inside with no one the wiser.

Being unfortunately short, Ari ended up having to scrabble her way up onto the end of the bed, just so she could get a look at the guy. It was incredibly undignified and felt slightly invasive to be on his bed while he was asleep, but there was currently no other choice, and curiosity was one of her weaknesses.

Though when she finally made her way up, she almost fell right back off again. Nothing could have prepared her for the condition Sirius was in. He was barely more than a skeleton, skin pale and waxen, stretched tight over stringy muscle and bone.

And this was after only four years in that ethics violation of a prison. And after almost a week of intense care in a magical hospital. She hardly dared to breath, in case that was enough to shatter him. It was heartbreaking.

Eventually Ari scootched closer, carefully taking his hand where it sat above the covers. It was ice cold, and she immediately moved to huddle closer, hoping to transfer as much heat as possible. There was little else she could give.

But even then, she vowed to do everything she could to see him well again. To help him regain as much of his life and his joy that she could. She may not be able to do much, but she’d gotten this far, and she wasn’t going to stop now.

She wasn’t able to stay long, since she had to scamper out as soon as she heard the healer returning. But she made plans to return that night so he wouldn’t be alone, even if he wasn’t aware of her. They could both use some company anyways.

The next morning found her outside of Lord Black’s office. According to Lotty he spent most of his days there or in his private rooms. Lotty had assured her he was there now, which made it the best time to approach him. She’d had to move up her timetables a bit once she’d seen Sirius, but everything was well enough in order now.

She knocked clearly and waited for the response before entering and closing the door behind her.

“Miss Grey, to what do I owe this visit?” His tone was perfectly neutral, and Ari couldn’t tell if he was annoyed or not.

“Mr. Charleston suggested that you would be hiring a caretaker for me, and I thought I’d do some research to save you the time.”

She tried not to gulp as he looked at her with a gaze that seemed to weigh her very soul. Eventually he gestured to the seat in front of him, and she hurried to sit.

“And what have been the…results of your search.”

“I believe a tutor would be more beneficial since the elves handle the everyday needs, and I am well old enough to look after myself. I believe I found a suitable candidate that would work well for my intended path of study. There are also some…additional benefits that I thought may interest you.”

His piercing gaze didn’t change at all through that entire explanation, but he did accept the packet of parchment she handed over. And as soon as he began to flip through it, one eyebrow raised minutely. Ari took that as the equivalent of a gasp of surprise.

Ari spoke into the silence, not wanting to give him a chance to reject it outright.

“Theodor Tonks is a well accomplished scholar that has tutored the children of many Noble families, several of which have already gone on to do very well in their schooling at Hogwarts. He has a mastery in Ancient Runes and certification in 8 different runic languages.

“His wife, Andromeda, is an acclaimed healer, with a focus in long term spell exposure and recovery. I thought that, maybe they could live here, and she could take care of Sirius, um Heir Black, while Mr. Tonks teaches me and…”

Her devolving speech was cut off by Lord Black raising his hand for silence. After several long minutes he spoke.

“You are aware that Andromeda was struck from the Family tree when she married her muggleborn husband.” The use of muggleborn was better than she hoped.

“Yes.” She nodded seriously. Lotty had been kind enough to fill in her gaps of knowledge when she asked about the giant family tree tapestry in the private parlor. Apparently, Andromeda had been disowned by Orion Black not too long after he’d taken the Lordship from Arcturus. Ari had read between the lines and figured that transfer of power had not been an amicable one.

She’d also learned that Walburga had been the one to burn Sirius off, but since Orion had been alive, if in failing health at the time, it hadn’t been a true disinheritance, thus why he was still Heir Black. The current Lord Black had retaken the title when Walburga died, two years after Sirius’s imprisonment and had mostly kept to himself since then. Draco, as the only living Black not married into another noble family, was the next in line to inherit, should both Lord Black and Sirius die. Though technically Harry might be eligible if Sirius blood adopts him at some point.

It was all very confusing, but mostly it boiled down to the fact that, yes, she was aware of Andromeda’s current family status.

“Then why would you assume I would allow her back into my house?” It was said coldly, but his eyes were calculating, so she jutted out her chin and spoke firmly.

“Lotty said that Orion was the one to disown her, and from what I’ve gathered you didn’t particularly agree with his…politics. Plus, Nimsy said that you don’t like strangers in your home.” Well, she’d implied it in passing as an explanation for why the house was so empty. “And Andromeda was raised a Black, regardless of her current status. She will be able to care for Sirius and will likely do a better job than any other healer. Family First, right?”

Arcturus once again stared though her, weighing her conviction before he finally nodded.

“I will consider your proposal, and should I agree, I will reach out to them about the possibility. They may not be as keen on returning as you seem to believe.”

That was the best outcome she could hope for, so she nodded eagerly in return.

“Theodor’s current pupil will be headed to Hogwarts this fall. I’m not sure when his contract ends, but the timing is ideal.”

Lord Black nodded once again and dismissed her from the room. She had to restrain herself from skipping down the hall. It would make an awful racket.

Ari continued to sneak into Sirius’s room at night. She felt a little guilty at the intrusion, but mostly she liked not feeling so alone. This room was slightly smaller than hers since it didn’t have a built-in sitting area and there were paintings of constellations on the ceiling that rotated like the actual sky. It was peaceful to be able to listen to someone else breathing. Especially since she seemed to worry often that it might just stop at some point.

She wasn’t sure if a healing sleep was anything like a coma, but sometimes she would whisper to him late into the night. Mostly about things she’d read, or about some of the people she used to see in Diagon. It was nice to be able to talk to someone, even if he didn’t talk back. She hadn’t been able to much before. Most people were suspicious of a child under 10 running around without an adult, if she even let them see her in the first place.

Nimsy had provided a blanket with a permanent warming charm at her request. No matter how long Ari held his hand, it never seemed to warm up, and Ari was worried how permanent that might be. She had always hated the cold, even in her last life, but it had gotten much worse through nights of shivering under a thin blanket without proper heating in the winter. So, she soaked up as much sun as she could during the day, and huddled close to Sirius at night, hoping to give him a bit of that warmth too.

The Tonks family arrived one week after her initial meeting with Lord Black. It was faster than she expected, but perhaps she’d underestimated Andromeda’s ties to her most rebellious of cousins. Ari made sure to show up in the entrance hall to welcome them, as directed. Her arrival in jeans and a t-shirt had garnered her a disapproving look from Lord Black and a comment that they would have to fix her wardrobe soon. It was probably the most threatening thing he’d ever said to her.

The Tonks arrived by portkey, just beyond the wards. Ari knew exactly when that was, because Arcturus straightened up, putting less weight on his cane. Every bit Lord Black.

It was clearly a family trait to command a room simply by entering it, because as soon a Lotty opened the front door, Ari could hardly take her eyes off of Andromeda Tonks nee Black. Even standing to the side of Lord Black, it was like being crushed between two walls of sheer Presence.

Andromeda was dressed in simple dark green robes (possibly a subtle gesture towards her profession) and still look as regal as any lady. When Ari was finally able to pull her attention away from the intimidating woman, she took in the other two Tonks behind her.

Theodor was every inch the muggle professor, all tweed and leather elbow patches, but he stood as straight backed as his wife. He had his arm around their daughter Nymphadora who was also dressed impeccably in light blue robes, though Ari had a feeling it was under duress. Regardless, she was starting to agree with Lord Black’s assessment of her own attire. Which was unfortunate.

“Lord Black.” Andromeda greeted him with what Ari assumed was the proper bow given his station. Though she did not lower her eyes from his.

“Andromeda.” He nodded back.

They stood at a stalemate, neither willing to bend first. Guess it was time for Ari to step in. Literally. She stepped a half step forward, purposefully letting her sneaker squeak slightly against the floor, internally wincing at any scuff marks Lotty would scold her for later.

Luckily it did the trick, and all eyes turned to her. Yay.

“This is Nashira Grey. She is a Ward of the House and will be your husband’s pupil.”

“It’s nice to meet you Mrs. Tonks.” Ari said with a guileless smile, watching as the tension broke slightly.

“You may call be Andy. This is My husband, Theo and our daughter Nymphadora.” Ari waved at them, not exactly sure of the proper protocol, but Andy moved on quickly anyways. “I believe I have a patient to see?”

Sirius was still in a healing sleep, and Ari wondered if Lord Black had decided to wait to bring him out of it until he could be attended by family. If so, Ari wholeheartedly agreed.

Arcturus summoned Lotty to show her the way and excused himself to his office for a meeting. Ari knew he had a Floo connection in there allowing him to meet with his solicitors without requiring him to move about the house more often than not. She wondered exactly how old he was, especially since she knew he wasn’t alive by the third book. It was pointless to speculate now, so Ari distracted herself by offering to show Theodor and Nymphadora to the rooms they’d be staying in. They technically had a family suite down a hall perpendicular to hers and Sirius’s, though Ari wouldn’t be surprised if Andy spent nights in Sirius’s suite, at least at the beginning.

The walk through the halls was an interesting procession. Theodor, walked beside her, obviously slowing his steps so she could keep up, while Nymphadora seemed to hop from one side of the hall to the other, inspecting tapestries and curio cabinets that they passed by. Eventually Mr. Tonks spoke.

“So Nashira, Andy said that you’re the reason Lord Black invited us.” There was a twinkle in his eye when she looked up, and he didn’t seem annoyed, so she decided to respond truthfully.

“I prefer to go by Ari, it’s from my middle name, but yes. Sirius needs more family around, and Nimsy said Andy was his favorite cousin. Plus, she’s far more qualified than the healer the hospital assigned.” She scowled slightly at that. “Though I do look forward to your teaching as well. Is it true you’ve mastered 8 different runic languages, Mr. Tonks?”

She looked up at him expectantly and noticed the weird looks on his and Nymphadora’s faces. It took a second before she realized that these might be the first people she’d spoken to freely who actually had some idea of what a seven-year-old normally acted like. Oh well, she didn’t want to hold back in her studies, so it’s better they figure it out from the start. She didn’t mind people thinking she was some kind of prodigy or something, so long as they didn’t figure out the truth.

“I…you can call me Ted, or Professor Ted if it makes you more comfortable, and yes, I have studied and mastered 8 of the languages currently classified under Ancient Runes. Is this something you’re interested in studying?”

“Yes, I’ve been trying to self-study, but the books are not entirely clear on how the direct interactions of individual runes can affect their meanings, or how much proportion can be tweaked to allow for symmetry within a rune block.”

“That’s actually quite a fascinating area of study, since symmetry creates a more cohesive unit, but is nearly impossible to achieve under normal circumstances…” A groan from behind cut them off, and Ari turned to see Nymphadora looking long suffering.

“Don’t get him started, we’ll be here all day.” Ted looked a bit sheepish.

“Yes, perhaps we should save that conversation for later. We can discuss you goals tomorrow and work on putting a study plan together.” Ari acquiesced despite having looked forward to that discussion. Instead, she turned to the last member of the Tonks family.

“So Nymphadora, are you going to Hogwarts?”

“Gross, just call me Tonks, and yeah, I’m a second year.” She spoke with enthusiasm like her body couldn’t contain all of her energy and puffed up proudly when she stated her year.

“That’s cool, I met Charlie Weasley, I think he’s a second year too.”

“Oh yeah, Charlies a good bloke, ‘specially for a Gryffindor. Got that whole thing with dragons. Always down by the forbidden forest and hanging out with Hagrid. Anyways, why do you whisper so much?”

Ari wasn’t actually whispering, but compared to Tonks, her voice could definitely be considered very quiet. She just shrugged, rather than try to explain that when the only person you had to talk to for years was yourself, you didn’t have to talk very loudly. Luckily, they finally arrived.

“These are your rooms, they should already be set up, but let Nimsy or Lotty know if you need anything. Sirius’s rooms are just around that corner, and I’m around the corner and at the far end of the hall.”

She left them to unpack, resisting the urge to sneak in and check on Sirius. She had a feeling Andy would be far more likely to catch her, and she didn’t want to be banned and have people keep a sharper eye out.

Instead, she went to start considering a study plan to present to Ted. Well, she was sure he’d have plenty of ideas himself, and probably a better understanding of what she needed to know in general, but she could at least have some suggestions ready to go so she got some say in what she was learning.

With ‘guests’ present, dinner was held in the informal dining room. Which was still big enough to seat 20 people. Ari almost groaned at the reappearance of the myriad of cutlery. She’d gotten used to just eating in the kitchen and not having to deal with all the pomp and circumstance.

As it was, Lord Black was not attending, so it wasn’t too stiff of an affair. Tonks (this was going to get confusing fast) seemed happy to chat away about the things she’d discovered so far in the house, and Ari mostly listened, adding in a tidbit here and there, and warning her away from some of the rooms with more cursed items. They were fairly easy to detect if you extended your magic, but some of them had concealment spells that could make them seem almost ordinary.

When there was a lull in the chatter, or in other words when dessert arrived, Ari took the opportunity to question Andy.

“Can I ask what your plans are regarding Sirius’s treatment?” Andy raised an eyebrow at her but responded.

“I plan to bring him out of the healing sleep tomorrow, it’s not particularly beneficial to him at this stage, especially when he has so much body mass to regain. He may not wake up immediately, but once he does, it will be a regiment of nutrient potions, several small meals a day, and a few spells I have that should help counteract the physical affects. As for his mental state, we’ll evaluate it as we go and bring in a mind healer if necessary.”

“Mind healer?”

“A medical legilimens who helps patients restore memories, organize their thoughts, and can even help in reducing the clarity of a memory to limit its effects.”

Ari nodded, turning back to her pudding. Nimsy had outdone herself today. Ari wondered if she was just excited to have people back in the manor.

She really hoped that Andy’s plans would work out, though it would be hard to tell until Sirius woke up. So back to the waiting game. She had another step she wanted to take, but it would be better to wait for now, and give Sirius a chance to settle in a bit first.

Chapter Text

It was two days before Sirius woke up.

She spent the first morning after breakfast discussing her teaching plan with Ted.

“Alright, so I have several previous plans I thought we could go over and decide what needs to change and anything you want to add. Generally, I prefer to teach in the morning, and occasionally the early afternoon so you have plenty of free time.” Ari nodded along, sitting forward in her own comfy chair to look over the papers on the low table. They were currently in the solarium, and Ari hoped that they would be able to have their lessons here frequently.

“Lord Black didn’t have any requests beyond making sure you are ‘properly educated and won’t make a fool of House Black’” Ted’s eyes twinkled, and Ari smiled back at the rather spot on impression. “So, we have plenty of maneuvering room.

They started by looking over the current plans, and Ari pointed out the ones she didn’t think she needed. These included reading and writing, though she did reluctantly keep the penmanship course, since quills were the worst. She also marked off the low-level math and sciences but suggested that she wouldn’t mind learning something a little more advance. History and Geography stayed, since she’d always been terrible at that in the Before, and they were different this side of the Pond.

“I think it’s probably best that we test you in few of these subjects, if only to get a baseline. Now, what would you like to add?”

So far, the curriculum was surprisingly magicless. It made some sense, given that magical cores weren’t stable enough to bond with a wand or preform consistently until they were eleven, but she was surprised that there wasn’t more taught early. Well, history and geography would apparently include a mix of both magical and mundane. But beyond that it was very similar to a muggle school.

She wondered if some subjects were just assumed to be taught by the family. Or like through osmosis of living in the magical world.

“I want to study runes and potions since they are both possible without a focus. I also need a better understanding of etiquette and politics as well as current events. And I want to learn occlumency.” She said it firmly. Occlumency might be a fairly difficult subject, but she had a feeling it was easier to learn while her brain as still malleable. Also, from what she’d read, the earlier stages did not require testing from an outside mind, so she wasn’t as worried about someone stumbling on her secrets while trying to help her.

“That’s quite the list. Andy may be of more help in occlumency as she was trained young as well. I’ll see if she has some time to spare later. It may be a bit before Sirius is able to be unsupervised. For now, let’s get a baseline in the other subjects and I’ll work on some possible schedules.”

Ari easily took the stock tests he handed her and went to work, the scratching of quills the only sound in the solarium for several hours. The tests were designed so that the questions got harder as it went, and Ted told her just to fill it out as far as she felt confident.

In the end she did quite well on the maths and science tests probably around a year 11 level, which was pretty dang good seeing as she hadn’t been using much of that knowledge in the last several years. Geography and history were generally worse, though not surprising especially since on the magically side she was fairly clueless and on the mundane she wasn’t much better. She preferred to study theory and magic itself rather than history.

She passed the reading comprehension test with flying colors and did similarly well on the English test. Ted had said they would review her writing skills once they got into essay assignments, since they took more time.

Ted seemed surprised but overall pleased with her results, once the tests had finished grading themselves.

“Alright, I think I have enough to work with. Why don’t you enjoy the rest of the day, and we can get started tomorrow after breakfast.”

Ari left him to it, grabbing one of the books she wanted to read out of the library and headed back towards her room. Hopefully he’d have a list of books for her to study tomorrow, though she knew that not everything can be learned from a book. Which was half the reason she wanted a tutor in the first place. And also, it was really convenient that he came with Sirius’s favorite family member.

She was pretty sure Tonks was wandering around here somewhere but wasn’t particularly in the mood to play with the rambunctious girl, so she instead snuck into the sitting room attached to Sirius’s bedroom and settled down under a notice-me-not to keep an eye out.

The next morning was mostly spent going over Ted’s suggested study plan. It was still fairly basic since Ted wanted to get an idea of how fast she picked up new information any they could adjust from there. For now, they would start directly after breakfast with two subjects in the morning, break for lunch, and then one more subject in the early afternoon. Subjects would be rotated by day with penmanship as needed and occlumency on hold until Andy had the time to weigh in. He’d also kept math in to give her a better understanding of the basics of arithmancy.

Apparently, Ted did not believe in homework, and planned to incorporate any worksheets and essays into their class time. He seemed amused at her surprise but had promised to give her a list of supplementary materials she could read in her off time if she got bored. Which was good, because with late afternoons, evenings, and weekends left free despite her protests, she’d have to find plenty of things to keep her busy. Especially without even TV or more modern muggle books currently available to her.

Sometimes she wondered how people survived with boredom.   

So, in the afternoon she took herself once again into Sirius’s parlor, tucked away into a corner with a couple books from Ted’s list and enough parchment to hold her over. She knew that Andy knew that she was there, and also that she’d snuck into Sirius’s room again last night, but the Healer didn’t say anything so neither did Ari.

She’d been very pleased last night to find warming charms on Sirius’s blankets as well as several more spells she hadn’t been able to identify. It was far more than the last healer had been doing. She hoped he woke up soon.

Ari knew immediately when Sirius woke up. She was once again studying in the sitting room after her classes (which were already going very well, she was definitely pleased with Ted as a teacher) when a wave of magic burst from the room, rattling almost anything that wasn’t held in place. She was immediately glad she hadn’t been in there, as a wave of magic that powerful would likely have thrown her across the room.

She was up and over to the doorway almost without thought, still staying just out of sight. Andy was standing on the far side of the bed, hands by her side with palms facing out, speaking in a calm voice as she explained the situation to a wild-eyed Sirius.

He seemed confused enough by Andy’s presence and his surroundings not to bolt immediately, though his hands were clenched in the bedding, and what muscle he still had seemed to strain with tension.

Andy slowly talked him down enough to convince him to take a calming draught which had him slumping against the pillows as tension left his body.

“Andy?” It was a hoarse whisper filled with more incredulous hope and fearful doubt than Ari thought possible.

“Hey Siri, don’t worry, you’re safe.”

“Is this real? I don’t want to wake up.” A hint of desperation snuck into his voice, and a couple of tears leaked from the corners of his eyes.

“Shh Siri, it’s real I promise. We’re going to get you fixed up in no time, so long as you actually follow my instructions.” She gave him a gently teasing smile and Ari decided to leave, letting them have this moment.

Ari started sleeping in her room at night again, not wanting to intrude, though she still spent time in the sitting room and pestered Andy for updates during meals. It was one of the only times they saw her, and even then, not always. She mostly only came down when Sirius was fast asleep.

From what she saw and was told, Sirius continued to sleep frequently, and was having trouble regulating his emotions and magic when awake. He hadn’t had enough of either in the last few years to require any kind of control. Andy was helping with calming draughts and stabilizing him through mood swings as he worked to acclimate to the returned sensation.

Ari heard a lot of hysterical laughter coming from his room, but it was always better than the screams when he woke up from nightmares.

It was one of those that woke her up from her light doze five days after he first woke up, though it was quickly silenced, Ari guessed by Andy since she was particularly proficient in silencing and warding spells when she wanted to be.

But it was already too late. By this point Ari was twitchy, annoyed with her inability to help, and her general trouble sleeping. So, she carefully snuck down the hall, hiding in the darkened sitting room and waiting for Andy to exit. As soon as the door was closed to the other bedroom, Ari quietly opened Sirius’s door, just enough to let herself through, then closed it just as quietly.

She quickly pulled herself up onto the end of the bed, dragging her blanket along and froze as she saw the wand tip pointed directly at her face.

Ari sat very still, not wanting to provoke an instinctive reaction. She could just make out a glimmer of Sirius’s eyes in the moonlight from the window as he stared her down. He was surprisingly calm, suggesting that he’d just taken another potion.

After another few minutes of tense silence, he seemed to process the fact that Ari was in fact a child and not here to hurt him. He slowly lowered the wand to the bed but didn’t make any move to put it away or break the silence. Guess that was her job.

“Hi, I’m Ari.” It was little more than a whisper, but still easy to hear in the dead silence of the night.

“I’m Sirius.” His voice was still gravel rough, but it was softened by how quiet he was talking as well.

“Can I stay here? I won’t be annoying, promise.” She hesitated for a second, wondering if this was a good idea. “You can be Padfoot if you want, I won’t tell.”

He seemed surprised, though it was still muffled under the effects of the potion. Eventually though he did turn into his dog form and Ari took that as permission to stay, gently petting his ears and rambling on about what Ted was teaching her and some of the mischief Tonks had gotten up to.

After that she started sneaking in again at night, not that she thought Andy hadn’t noticed, but she still didn’t comment. She also visited more during the day as Sirius stayed awake for longer periods of time. Sitting through a few of his mood swings also let them discover that Ari could apparently use the same wild magic she’d done on Pettigrew, though this time, instead of forcing the peace and calm, Ari simply offered it, letting Sirius accept it or not. It meant quieter nights since Ari was often able to calm him down before Andy arrived.

The first time Sirius joined them for a meal, Ari decided it was time for the next step in her plan. Sirius had been improving significantly, spending part of his day in the sitting room instead of just bed and doing light exercises to help him regain muscle. He was still struggling to fully control his emotions, but had his magic mostly locked down outside of nightmares.

Plus, Ari had given that stupid werewolf plenty of time to reach out on his own. It had been almost a month since Sirius was freed.

She decided the best way to do it was to send a letter that simply said.

He needs your support.

Blæc Dún Halls

Hopefully the subtle guilt tripping and curiosity would be enough to remind Remus that he was in fact a Gryffindor and should be brave enough to come visit the friend he thought he’d lost.

She also spent the time writing a letter to the Weasleys since she’d said she would but had gotten distracted. It was only a week until Hogwarts started back, and she wanted to make sure Bill and Charlie got to see the letter too.

She wasn’t sure if she should write them specifically once they left for school, but for now she’d wait on a response and decided from there.

Chapter Text

Ari clutched the letter in her hand as she stood outside the dining room, trying to build up her courage. It wasn’t like it really mattered, if they said no, she could just sneak out anyways. But they’d be expecting it then, or at least more aware of the possibility and she could get in trouble for disobeying them.

On the other hand, she could just sneak out without telling them, but then if they noticed she was gone, they might worry. Or get angry anyways. She thought about just telling Sirius, but doubted he was considered a responsible adult even before Azkaban screwed with his mind.

She waffled on for another minute, considering her options before finally giving in and entering the room where the Tonks family and Sirius were already seated.

“You’re up a bit late Ari, sleeping alright?” Ted asked as she took her seat, and she just nodded, worried what would come out of her mouth if she tried to talk. Instead, she grabbed some toast to nibble on and sipped from the perfectly prepared tea already by her plate.

All of these nerves could be traced back to a single letter she’d gotten from the Weasleys in response to the one she’d sent a few days ago. It wasn’t particularly long, mostly just containing bit of news from the Burrow and notes about how glad they were that she was settling in. Even Bill and Charlie had included small notes of their own at the bottom wishing her well, and asking about her studies, and the manor woods respectively. Not that she was going to tell Charlie about any of the creatures Nimsy said lived in the woods bordering the grounds. He’d want to come see them which would be a disaster in the making.

No, none of those things were what had her stomach in knots. That belonged to a single line in Mrs. Weasley’s scrawl, inviting her over to visit on the last weekend before the train left for Hogwarts.  

And despite her trepidation around social interaction with kids her own age…she wanted to go. Thus, the issue of getting there without annoying or worrying her current guardians.

Being a child was a pain. 0/10 don’t recommend.

Just before everyone dispersed for the day, she finally plucked up her courage enough to ask.

“I…I got a letter from the Weasleys. They want me to come visit, this weekend. CanIGoPlease.” The last of it can out in a jumble.

“I don’t see why not. I’ll need to stay with Sirius, but Ted can take you if that’s alright.” Ted nodded along to Andy’s easy decision like it was nothing.

“Oh, can I come! I want to see Charlie and meet those twins he’s always talking about!” Tonks added, looking pleadingly at her father.

“We’ll have to ask, it’s not polite to show up unannounced, but it’s alright with me so long as you finish your packing beforehand.” Ted placated his daughter.

“Is this Molly and Arthur? How many kids do they have now?” Sirius asked, and Andy turned to respond.

Through all of it, Ari just sat back, almost high on the relief she felt. It was strange to think of how much she’d dreaded asking with how easily they had acquiesced. All that worry for nothing. And now that it was gone, she was able to start feeling excited about seeing the Weasleys again.

Once all the arrangements were made for Tonks and Ted to accompany her, the rest of the week seemed to fly by. And then she was once again being ushered into the Floo, though it was very different from her first trip to the Burrow.

Mrs. Weasley met them in the living room, welcoming them as she herded them into the kitchen. Ted took up introductions and chatted away while she and Tonks were shooed outside towards where the other children were playing in the field.

Tonks immediately took off at a run towards the group of kids who had yet to notice their arrival. Ari followed much more slowly. She was still a bit nervous, despite Charlie and Bill’s section of the letter than had hoped to see her as well. Making friends wasn’t her strong suit, even in her last life.

However, she did eventually make her way over to find Tonks already showing off her metamorphmagus abilities to the delight of all the children. Ari smiled as she did her duck impression, then sent her hair through a rapid series of color changes. It really was an amazing ability, and Ari was glad Tonks could have fun showing it off, since she knew it sometimes gave her insecurities.

While she was watching from the edge of the group, Ari noticed someone sidling up to her from the corner of her eye.

“Alright there, Ari?” Bill asked, quiet enough not to draw attention.

“Yeah, you?” She was happy to the see the almost third year, especially since there wouldn’t be any chances during school, even if she was invited over again.

“I’m alright. Glad you could come by before we headed off. Also, I think you had the right idea bringing Tonks. Pretty sure Charlie was all set with another lecture, but she’ll definitely distract him.”

Ari chuckled along with him, since just watching those two for a few minutes seemed to corroborate his theory. Charlie was half glued to the Hufflepuff’s side, calling out suggestions and laughing uproariously with the rest of his siblings.

“So, you’re saying I should wait to give him this.” Ari held up one of the two books she had in her arms. They were both conjured copies of books from the Black Library, and Ted had assured her that they would last at least a week.

The one she was holding up currently happened to be the journal of some Black family member from about two centuries ago who had worked in a dragon sanctuary. It was only the first of several, but she though Charlie might enjoy it. It was also filled with excellent illustrations. Bill took it from her, flipped through a few pages and whistled softly.

“Yeah, definitely better wait on that. If he sees it now, we’ll lose him for the rest of the day.”

“Then I guess I should probably wait on yours too.” She smiled sweetly as Bill’s eyebrows rose, hiding the book behind her when he tried to get a look.

“Now that’s no fair, I’ll be wondering all day what it’s about.”

He tried for a piteous look, which she just rolled her eyes at.

“You’re not nearly as good at that as Sirius is. But I’ll let you take a look if you promise not to get too caught up.” Bill dropped the look and exaggerated crossing his heart, making her laugh as she handed the book over.

It was a book on ancient warding schemes and traps with a breakdown of how they were built and how to break them from the outside. The book itself was a fairly old publication, though that didn’t seem to matter as much in the wizarding world, and Ari had already read it herself. It was one of the tamer books in the Black library, though not everything in there was all dark based, or even evil. But madness was known to run in their family, so Ari was sure to check through the books before she even considered bringing copies to her friends.

She could already see Bill becoming engrossed and cleared her throat to bring him out of it. He looked a bit sheepish as he closed the book.

“I should probably put this away. I can take Charlie’s too if you want.” She handed it over with an explanation on copies time limit, letting him know she’d send another copy if they wanted it later. He thanked her profusely, and hugged her, before jogging back in the direction of the house.

Once he was gone, she let out another sigh of relief, glad that they had gone over well. She’d thought they would like them, but the worry was always there. Luckily it had worked out.

 She went to sit on the grass and watch what the other kids were playing now that the Tonks show was over. It looked like some complicated game using a soft children’s quaffle and three brooms that appeared to be height locked to about three feet from the ground. Because of the number of brooms, the children seemed to be rotating based on some kind of rule she hadn’t figured out yet.

Brooms kind of terrified her. A fact she was resolutely keeping from Sirius since she was sure he’d have her on one as soon as he found out. Despite the fact that he was currently banned from them, on pain of being restricted to his bed again.

Thus, she made sure not to get involved in the current game, even when Charlie came over after his turn. She did enjoy watching though, especially when Charlie started up a running commentary of what was happening, though actual rules seemed few and far between, and quite possibly made up on the fly. It worked for them though, especially as arguments seemed to be a central part of the whole thing.

All Ari could do was laugh as the twins ganged up to tackle Tonks off of one of the brooms, and Ginny stole one of theirs which caused Charlie to swear and take off running after her. Apparently, four was too young to be on a broom by herself.

Bill returned to find Ari in stitches on the ground as Ginny continued to lead Charlie on a merry chase, despite the fact that the broom wasn’t actually that fast. By now, the twins had noticed her too and were trying to corner her, while Ron and Tonks ‘scored’ several points during all the chaos.

Bill gave a sharp whistle and waited as Ginny turned their way, plucking her off the broom as it slid by and sighing deeply.

“You don’t even know how to stop yet Gin.” He ignored her pout, setting her onto his hip, and handing the broom to an out of breath Charlie who’d finally made it back over.

The game started back up again, and Ari kept watching as Bill refereed his younger siblings. Apparently, the game did have a set of rules, but they mostly flew out the window when the eldest Weasley wasn’t there to enforce them.

Eventually, another person sat down beside her, and she turned to see Percy looking at her instead of watching the game.

“I’m sorry I was mad about Scabbers.” He said it mulishly, like he was expecting an argument, or maybe a scolding.

Ari just blinked. She hadn’t really noticed that Percy was angry when she left, but maybe his anger was just quieter than she expected. With Weasleys she’d come to expect most of them to be over the top, though Percy had always been the odd duck out, hadn’t he.

“I’m sorry you lost your pet.” It was the best she could do, since she wasn’t sorry about turning him in or getting him away for the Weasley kids. But she did feel a bit bad that he’d lost something that was special to him. Something his siblings didn’t have.

They sat in silence for a while before he broke it again.

“I heard you talking to Bill. What kind of books did you bring them?” And well, books were always something she was happy to talk about.

They chatted about those books for a while, and few others she’d read in the Black library, before she turned the conversation back on him.

“What kind of books do you like? I’ll bring you something the next time I visit.” Assuming there was a next time, though she didn’t really doubt that she’d be invited back. The Weasleys were just those kinds of people.

Percy seemed happy to tell her about the books he’d been reading, which included Charlie’s old first year books since he wanted to get a head start, even though he wouldn’t be going to Hogwarts until next year.

That gave them plenty to talk about, since Ari had read them too, even if it had been a couple year, although she was careful not to tell him that. Instead, they chatted about the different classes and Percy told her stories from Bill and Charlie about what the castle was like. They didn’t even really stop when dinner was called, but she did pull Bill and Charlie in to tell their own stories firsthand, which had the rest of the kids clamoring for their favorite parts.

Eventually they had to go back. After dinner where Mr. Weasley subtly interrogated her about her living conditions, while still appearing perfectly jovial. After she finally gave Charlie his book and he picked her up and spun her around. After promising to write letters to the students and visit to younger kids. After she was left almost dizzy by the round of goodbyes and possibly half blind from the sparks one of the twins managed to shoot out of their mom’s stolen wand.

After all that she would go home. Or to a place that was becoming such, and once again sneak into Sirius’s room to regale him with everything that happened, enjoying the way his eyes lit up with laughter at the twins’ shenanigans and the way he pulled her close to cuddle saying he was glad they liked her presents.

If this was what it was like to be a kid again, then maybe that wasn’t so bad. Maybe she’d get a chance to enjoy it before she grew up again.

Chapter Text

Remus, in all his Gryffindor recklessness, decided to show up, unannounced, in the middle of a Saturday. Luckily for him, the Tonks were out for the day and Lord Black was holed up in his room with instructions to not be disturbed as always. So instead, Lotty came to get her. Well, she’d also asked him to inform her is a slightly ragged looking man came calling since she was far too aware of the impulsiveness of marauders at this point.

She left Sirius, too engrossed in his effort to catch up on current event to notice her absence, and made her way down to the entrance hall.

Ari noticed him before he noticed her, allowing her to take stock of the man who’d once been one of James and Sirius’s best friends. He looked…careworn. Like the years had piled on him with little room to breathe and even less to live. He wasn’t as grey as she Remembered him, but it had only been four years this time, so that was to be expected. Though he did still have plenty of slight silver scars and a couple red ones that reminded her the full moon had only been a week ago.

Most of all he looked anxious, like he was barely keeping from pacing the length of the hall. Ari wondered if he’d shown up because he was too worried about sending a letter and had possibly psyched himself into coming instead. She had a feeling that if there weren’t apparition wards on the house, he’d already be gone.

Well, better go get him before he ran off again or Sirius would never forgive her. She deliberately stepped more loudly onto the next stair, drawing his attention.

Remus startled, openly gaping at her, which seemed like a bit much. Maybe he hadn’t expected to see a child, but it wasn’t really that surprising, her Wardship had been mentioned in the papers along with the trial, even if not by name.

Still, she made her way down to the main level and gave him her most unimpressed look.

“I thought you were supposed to be the smart one?” It was rude, but really. Lotty didn’t seem all the impressed either, though that could be due to the state of his clothes, since Lotty was a bit of a snob.

“I uh…I’m Remus Lupin.” He stuttered out, still staring at her.

“Yes, I know, come with me…please.” Because she had manners. Most of the time.

He was bewildered enough to simply follow along without question, which seemed a mite idiotic, especially around the Black family, but possibly he was feeling secure in the fact that a seven-year-old wouldn’t lead him to anything to nefarious. Stupid, but not surprising.

She paused a little way down the hall, turning to the wolf following her.

“He doesn’t know you’re coming. So, you’re going to stand outside while I explain what going on because he still gets overwhelmed sometimes. You can come in when I call for you.”

He nodded woodenly, once again stiff with tension as they approached the door, and Ari gestured to the side before slipping in.

Sirius was still sprawled across the couch looking over a stack of newspapers, though from the look of it, Ari thought he might have gotten distracted by the gossip columns again. He immediately looked up with a grin.

“Hey Ri” because apparently her nickname wasn’t short enough for him already. “Where’d you sneak off to? If you’re setting up a prank, I can totally be your alibi.” Ari rolled her eyes but couldn’t help grinning back, it was always good to see his good days.

“We both know that you make the worst alibi, since if I ever did decide to prank people, you’d be right there too.”

“True, we should get on that though. It’s been almost a decade since I got to prank Andy, she’ll never see it coming!” While she was not overly enthused with pranking herself, she’d help him with whatever he wanted if it made him keep smiling like that. Hopefully this surprise would help.

“Maybe later, I’ve got a bit of a surprise for you.”

“Yeah? What is it?” He was sitting up fully now, eagerly leaning forward.

“Well, I know you get bored with just us around, and I thought you could use a bit more family. Or family of choice in this case.” She backtracked quickly at his grimace. She really hoped this was a good surprise, though it was hard to tell even at the dawning realization on his face.

“I…is it…is he really…”

“Sirius you need to breath. Remember, just like I taught you.” She counted fours for him until he’d gained some semblance of control. “He’s here, but I don’t want to overwhelm you, so if you need me to, I can tell him to wait, or come back later.”

“No, I…please.” He caught himself, took several measured breaths and continued. “I want to see him.”

Remus didn’t even wait for her to call him in. She’d have to scold him about eavesdropping later, but for now she watched as Remus froze halfway across the room, drinking in the sight of a man he’d thought was a traitor.

Sirius had no such restraint, practically flinging himself across the room and into the werewolf’s arms, almost taking them both to the floor. She almost intervened at Sirius’s slightly hysterically sobbed “Moony” but decided to wait and let them have their moment.

Instead, she went back to her chair and pretended to read to give them a bit of privacy. She wouldn’t leave them alone, not with Sirius still in a fragile state, but she could give them this.

Eventually they did make their way to back over to the couch, talking eagerly about what they’d missed. Neither of them dwelling too much on painful subjects, instead focusing on less fraught things, though there were fewer of those than any of them would prefer.

When one pause went too long, Ari put aside her book and leaned forward, bringing herself back into the conversation.

“Oh, Sirius, I met your…uh” He seemed to be looking for the right word.

“Ah yes, Ari is a Ward of the Black Family. Grandfather decided to kidnap her since she’s essentially the reason I’m out of that place.” Ari just rolled her eyes and sipped at the tea Nimsy had brought in earlier.

“Oh, I thought she might be…well she looks about Harry’s age now…” Remus trailed off, but Sirius didn’t appear to be paying attention anymore.

“Harry. I…he’s James’ son. My…my godson. How could I forget!” Ari jumped up and hurried over to grab his hands, trying to gently untangle them from where they’d twisted in his hair. She sent soothing magic his way trying to break through the panic.

She should have expected this with Remus visiting, but foolishly hadn’t thought of the possibility. She’d been a little worried when Sirius hadn’t mentioned Harry previously, but Andy had mentioned memory loss as part of the symptoms of long term dementor exposure. Especially in regard to happier memories. She’d said they would return in their own time, and it was generally better not to try to purposely trigger them.

Now she just had to deal with the fallout. It was sooner than she expected, but that was better in this case.

As soon as he calmed down slightly Sirius focused back in on Remus.

“Moony, where is he? Where is my godson?”

Remus seemed distraught at the display, halfway reaching out but stopping like he wasn’t sure he was allowed.

“I…I don’t know. I tried to find him after I found out what happened, but you were already in Azkaban and Dumbledore said he was safe. He wouldn’t even let me write in case it brought the remaining Death Eaters down on him!”

She was still standing there, holding Sirius’s hand, debating. It would be very dangerous for her to do what she was planning to, and there was no guarantee that they’d even believe her. But she wanted to tell them. These two people that she Remembered loving to read about, and wishing they’d had better futures. Sirius, who she already trusted so much, and had taken risks for.

She didn’t know Remus nearly as well, but it was easy to see, just from this interaction that Sirius loved him like family or possibly more. And from what she knew, if anyone could keep secrets, it was these two.

Now she just had to actually tell them.

“I know where he is.” She blurted out, interrupting Sirius mid-sentence in what sounded like a half thought through plan of how to make Dumbledore tell him where Harry was. They both looked at her in surprise. “I…I know where he is. And I’ll tell you. But there’s a lot of things that we need to figure out first, so you can’t just go running off recklessly, or you’re going to ruin everything I’ve been trying to do!”

Well, she hadn’t meant to devolve into a rant, but Sirius looked minutes aware from haring off in some misguided attempt to find Harry himself, and she really needed him not to.

“Ri? What do you mean?”

“I…I know where Harry is, and he can’t stay there, so I’ve been working on a plan to try to get him away safely. It’s, well it’s been working surprisingly well so far, ‘cause you’re here now, but I haven’t been able to do anything else yet, and the Goblins are no help, and…and…” she blew out a frustrated breath. “And I’m only fucking seven.”

Sirius and Remus were both gaping at her wide eyed, before Sirius’s morphed into a look of realization.

“You took the rat to the Ministry. I thought…I thought it was just blind luck, but it was you!”

“You sent the letter.” Remus chimed in as he made his own connections. “I thought it might have been Sirius’s cousin, but you were the one expecting me.”

“And you knew about Padfoot!” Sirius exclaimed, ignoring Remus’s incredulous ‘What?!’ “Ri, Ari! What the hell did you think you were doing?! If anyone realized what you knew, if the Ministry found out…”   

They all fell silent at that ominous statement. Ari was well aware of the Ministry’s habit of ‘taking in’ any seer that was known to be consistently correct or have more than a smidgen of power for ‘evaluations’ that they rarely made it back from. And while she wasn’t an actual seer, it was the obvious conclusion from her knowledge.

Sirius pulled her onto the couch, cuddling her close like he was afraid she would disappear.

“It’s okay Siri, I’ve been safe. I’m not nearly as reckless as you.” She joked, trying to break the tension and glad when they both chuckled, even if it was strained.

“Why don’t you start at the beginning, I think it will be easier for us to understand.” Remus suggested lightly, picking back up his mug of tea and visibly relaxing into the couch, prompting the other two to mirror him. Ari stayed in her spot in the middle.

“I can’t tell you how I know any of this but suffice to say that I know a very limited amount from a fairly unreliable viewpoint that may or may not be relevant especially with how much has already changed. And most of it doesn’t even matter yet anyways.”

She took a deep breath, gathering her bearings and trying to organize all of the information in her head. They wouldn’t need everything right this minute, since there were far too many details to cover quickly, but they would need to know enough help and to understand why she was so reluctant to rush in.

“On Halloween, after you gave Harry to Hagrid, Sirius, he took him to Dumbledore. Dumbledore in turn left him on the doorstep of Lily’s sister’s house with a letter.”

“The doorstep! In November?” Sirius looked outraged, but Remus cut in.

“Lily’s muggle sister? The one she didn’t talk to?”

“Yes, and yes. Look, there’s a lot we need to get through, and this is definitely not the only thing that will make you mad, but it’ll be easier if we can get through all of it and then you can both go take your emotions out on a couple of dueling dummies, okay?”

They both nodded and sat back once more, Sirius much more reluctantly, but Remus had always been known for his control, so Ari wasn’t surprised.

“Dumbledore placed him there, because he believes that the reason Harry survived was a kind of blood ward created by Lily sacrificing herself for him and thus that the magic would be stronger if he stayed with family. I have my suspicions about that, but we can talk about it later.

“Anyways, Harry isn’t safe where he is. Maybe from Death Eaters or sycophants, but it’s not a good place for him.” She carefully did not mention exactly why, knowing there would be nothing she could do to stop the marauders. “The sooner we can get him away, the better, but I worry what Dumbledore might do to return him to what he believes is the safest place.”

“You don’t trust Dumbledore.” Remus seemed conflicted, which Ari guessed was from the years of loyalty he’d held for the man. She hoped her explanation would be enough to convince him not to go running to the headmaster straight off.

“No. I don’t believe he’s evil or…or malicious but…he forgets to see the people from the pawns. It makes him careless with other people’s lives.”

Remus winced and Ari was forcibly reminded of Dumbledore’s ‘missions’ that had led to cracks between the werewolf and his friends. Sirius was still glowering into his tea and visibly restraining himself, which was the best possible outcome for the moment. After all, anger wasn’t exactly a happy emotion, and Ari knew there was probably years of it built up, ready to be aimed at the first available target.

“I’ve been trying to find a way to get him out of that house without Dumbledore being able to intrude. The best thing I can think of is to make it as public as possible. He’s nothing is not a politician, and if moving against you will bring the wizarding public opinion down on him, then it might give us the breathing room we need.

“I already started it. Getting you out of prison was the first step, and since I already knew where Pettigrew was hiding, I just had to get it out in the open. Worked out better than I thought. I was worried that ministry would sweep it under the rug, but Lord Black made short work of that.”

She shared a grin with Sirius, still incredibly glad that he’d been freed so quickly.

“The main problem is that you’re still recovering. That plus Harry already being considered ‘settled’ into a different home will likely make it very difficult for you to claim him, especially if Dumbledore stands against you. He has too much sway in the courts.

“I’d suggest Remus except…”

Remus just grimaced, nodding. He didn’t even seem to question her knowledge about his furry little problem.

“There’s a reason I didn’t push more to take him in back then. The Ministry may technically not be aware of my status, but it wouldn’t take long, especially with the scrutiny the Boy-Who-Lived would be under.”

“Yeah, so the next thing I tried was accessing James and Lily’s will. It should have in theory been public record once it was filed with the courts, but when I wrote to the Potter Manager he told me that the will was sealed under orders of the Wizengamot within days of their death.”

“And the Wizengamot in this case is probably code for Dumbledore.” Remus’s eyes flashed. “I’m beginning to understand your mistrust in him.” Sirius was still silent, but his grip was white knuckled.

“Yeah. Which means I’ve hit a wall. We could try to go through muggle court. Or even just get him removed from the house and then help him get ‘lost’ in the foster system and hide him here with us, but I doubt Dumbledore would be fooled, and I worry that if we don’t make this as legal as possible…He might try to get Sirius locked up again.”

Ari let that sink in, not liking the way Sirius wasn’t meeting her eyes.

“I…I don’t really know what else to do. I can help with research, and I’ve been looking into wizarding guardianship laws, but I’m seven and have no money, no one’s going to listen to me anyways.” It came out bitter, but she was incredibly frustrated with her lack for progress recently. Even with everything going swimmingly on the Sirius side of things.

“We’re listening. And while I can’t speak for myself, the Black family is not known for its lack of funds or political power. We’ll find a way to make sure Harry’s safe and here with us. I promise.”

Remus laid a comforting hand on her shoulder and Ari couldn’t help leaning into it, hoping that he was right. She’d spent so long trying to fix all of this by herself, and it felt like a huge weight off her shoulders now that she wasn’t the only one who knew.

Sirius stood up abruptly, marching out of the room. Remus swore and hopped up after him.

“I’ll make sure he doesn’t do anything rash.” He called out behind him, and suddenly she was alone. Again.

Ari didn’t mean to eavesdrop. Well, she did stand outside the door and listen without announcing herself, but she didn’t come to the dueling room with the intention of eavesdropping, so it was the thought that counts.

But now she was stood there, tray of hot chocolate provided by Nimsy heavy in her arms, as she watched Sirius destroy dummy after dummy. Luckily, they were reconstituted by the magic woven into the room, or he would have run out long ago.

Remus stood to the side, watching him calmly.

Eventually Sirius’s energy, or possibly magic, seemed to run out, and he stood hunch slightly, catching his breath.

“I want him out of there Moony.” His said as soon as he straightened, eyes blazing. “I want him out from under Dumbledore’s thumb. I want him here. Safe.”

Remus stepped forward, placing his hands on Sirius’s shoulders.

“I know. We will. He’ll be here as soon as we can get him and keep him.”

Sirius let his fall into Remus’s shoulder, and his next word were almost too quiet to hear.

“James would kill me if he knew I went after that rat instead of protecting his son.”

Remus hummed.

“Think of what he’d do if you got yourself locked up because you rushed in again, then.”

With that all the fight seemed to go out of the animagus and Remus took most of his weight as he slumped. Ari was sure Andy would be having words with him later about overextending himself.

“If we don’t have him by Christmas, then I’m going to get him anyways. I don’t care if I have to go on the run or hide out in a different country.”

“We. I just got part of my pack back. I’m not letting you out of my sight that easily.”

Ari gave them another few minutes to calm down before she entered. She might want to try taking the legal route first, but if that didn’t work out, then she just hoped Sirius might consider taking her with them.

She didn’t want to lose the first person she considered family in this life.

Chapter Text

To no one’s surprise, Remus moved in. Well, at least Ari wasn’t surprised and after a bit of explanation on who exactly he was, Andy seemed to support his presence as a way to help in Sirius’s recovery. The only person who could really veto this had been spending an increasing amount of his time in his suite and did not seem to care one way or another.

Ari had a feeling that Arcturus’s health was declining, and he was mostly just holding on until Sirius was well enough to take over the lordship. This brought mixed feelings. She didn’t really have any strong feelings towards the man in general, but without him she wouldn’t have had even the chance of a family like this. Even if he only did it so he wouldn’t feel indebted to a child.

For now, he seemed to prefer to ignore the other residents in the house, and they in turn gave him his privacy.

It was different with Remus living there, and not. Nothing really changed about her schedule or her day-to-day life, but more often than not he’d come hangout with Sirius and her in the afternoon. Or really it was her joining them after they had already spent the morning together, but they didn’t seem to mind. In fact, Remus seemed very interested in her studies and often helped her figure out a tricky translation for runes for wax poetic about one type of creature or another. Sirius sighed loudly, smiled softly, and declared them both swots.

The main difference came in planning. There wasn’t much Ari could do except continue her research into the laws surrounding guardianship and wills alike, but Sirius had no such restrictions. While he may not be the current head of house, he still had access to the vaults and the family employed solicitors both. Which he was putting to good use.

While the solicitors were doing much the same thing she was, but with more time and resources available to them, they were also working on putting together a case. Well, more like two. One to attempt to reverse the seal on Lily and James’s will and another to try to get Sirius, or possibly Andromeda as a proxy, guardianship of Harry.

They were currently keeping everything under wraps, trying to avoid letting anyone (the Ministry or Dumbledore) know since surprise would be one of their biggest weapons. It wasn’t that they didn’t have a case, or even known precedent. It was that they didn’t have the political sway to ensure the vote would go their way, even with Lord Black tearing into the Ministry as a whole earlier that summer.

Sirius had been trying to reach out to any possible contacts in the Ministry, but he’d never really been in the political circles before. The best contacts he had were Aurors he’d worked with. It did give him an in with the current head of DMLE and Bones was looking into what she could from her side, but it was a bit outside of her area of influence.

Ari had written to Ms. Beth since she had more authority in the area of magical children, especially on the muggle side. A bit of back and forth decided that she might be able to help when they staked their claim, but for now too many inquires would just raise suspicion.

For now, it meant mostly a waiting game. Which meant Sirius continued to destroy copious amounts of training dummies, despite Andy scolding him repeatedly for overextending his magic so early in his recovery. Ari could tell he was restless, but there was little they could do.

Though maybe…

***

Ari suggested it to Remus first, who seemed delighted with the idea. Remus cleared it with Andy, and suddenly everything was ready to go. Not that there was a ton of planning needed, but well, they both liked to be prepared.

Now it was just after breakfast, and Remus was in charge of making sure Sirius was dressed somewhat appropriately, so all Ari had to do was get herself dressed. Andy had taken her on a bit of a shopping trip a couple months ago, though Ari had avoided subsequent trips, given that the tailor already had her measurements, and she was happy enough to order out of a catalog. This gave her a good range of casual to formal clothes, though she hadn’t had a chance to wear those yet. She’d mostly let Andy pick out the different styles, but her only stipulation was no skirts.

They were harder to run in, generally, and Ari liked to sit in far too many weird ways while studying for them to remain decent. Instead, her clothes consisted mainly of different colors and fashions of trousers, button downs, and a myriad of vests cut into more feminine style. As well as the accompanying robes that were so intrinsic to the wizarding world. Sirius teased her a bit about her overly pureblood style, and threatened a trip to some muggle stores, but she enjoyed wearing almost the same thing every day, since it made getting dressed easier. Not that she’d oppose a few sets of jeans and t-shirts.

For today she put on a nice pair of deep grey robes accented with maroon, though nothing too fancy. Dragonhide boots, ethically sourced so Charlie didn’t murder her in her sleep, and her expanded feather-light satchel finished off the look. With another glance around to make sure she hadn’t forgotten anything, she headed down to the entrance hall. Surprisingly Remus and Sirius were already there.

“I’m surprised you were able to get him dressed that fast.” Ari remarked, making her way down the last few steps.

Sirius was wearing a set of deep red, almost maroon, dress robes and seemed highly put out by it.

“It’s his hair that normally takes the longest, and he already did that before breakfast.” Remus shared a knowing look with her, both of them well aware of how much time Sirius spent on his hair on any given day.

“Ri! Mind telling me why Remus dressed me up like a bloody Lord?” Sirius tugged at the cuffs of his robes, though he didn’t seem too uncomfortable.

“Hardly anyone would mistake you for a Lord.” She said with a teasing smirk, before relenting. “Well, you might as well know before we head out. There’s two parts to it. Remus and I thought you could finally use a day out of the manor now that you’ve been doing so much better. So, we thought a visit to Diagon might be fun.” Sirius’s face light up at the prospect. “You’re dressed up because it’s your first return to public, so establishing your welfare to the public might be helpful in our current plans. Plus, we both know you’ll love the drama and rubbing it into all of those pureblood’s faces.”

Ari’s smirk was met by Sirius’s viciously gleeful one.

“I hope Malfoy is there! He’s been expecting that brat of his to inherit the Black title since I was put in prison. I’d love to see his face.”

“Well, no time like the present then.” Remus said, herding them towards the Floo.

He was dressed down, compared to them, in something close to his usual attire, though Ari noticed the sweater and trousers were nicer than what she’d seen him in before. Plus, a simple black overrobe. She wondered if Sirius had finally convinced him to make use of some of the Black fortune. Regardless, he was obviously dressed to blend into the background, though Ari wasn’t sure that would be possible when accompanying Sirius anywhere.

They Flooed directly into the public Floos on Whimsic Alley, the upscale shopping area, for maximum effect. And it was quite the effect.

Remus had sent her through with Sirius, since she was apparently still too young to travel alone, and within moments of their arrival, people were stopping to stare. Ari would be surprised that so many people recognized him immediately if not for the fact that his picture had been splashed all over the Daily Prophet for weeks after his re/first trial. As it was, he looked significantly different from the emaciated man who’d been dragged from Azkaban, but the Black features were prominent regardless.

Sirius just beamed at the attention, immediately stepping forward to allow room for Remus to come through without drawing attention to him. Ari stuck to a small, amused smile, and kept a careful eye on Sirius for any external signs of discomfort. He’d been doing quite a bit better, especially since Remus’s arrival, and the plan to get Harry, but it was still his first time around so many people since his trial. She’d promised Andy to bring him home if he started looking strained.

On the contrary, though, he looked delighted to be out and about, already commenting rapid fire on some of the current displays. However, they were apparently headed to one place in particular, given his focused footsteps, and Ari almost rolled her eyes when she figured out where.

Quality Quidditch Supplies was organized chaos as usual. Loose snitches fluttered through the air while the latest brooms floated in their display stands. Team branded merch hung around the walls, clashing horribly.

Sirius immediately made a beeline for the Nimbus 1001 while Remus trailed after. The animagus still had not been cleared to fly, due to the occasional tremors in his hands that could make it dangerous, but Ari had in on good authority that Andy would be lifting the restriction soon. Which was good, because it meant Ari could look for a birthday present while Sirius was distracted.

As a Ward of House Black, she was apparently given a weekly stipend that was deposited directly into an account in her name in Gringotts. She hadn’t asked after the exact amount since she’d had no reason to use it, but from Andy’s comments when she’d gone to withdraw some money for today to save them the trip to the bank, it was an unnecessarily large sum. Rich people.

Well, she wouldn’t complain if it meant she could buy Sirius a present without having to beg Lord Black for the money. Not that she would anyways. She also planned to finally get her hands on some of the sweets at SugarTooths later. Most of the wizarding shops had too many anti-theft spells in place for her to even consider stealing from any of them when she’d lived here. Instead, she’d always gotten her food from the muggle side and brought it back over.

She managed to sneak a Puddlemere United banner, and a Hollyhead Harpies shirt over to the register while Sirius remained oblivious. They were the two teams he tuned into the most on the Wireless, even if he might deny the second one. Ari thought one of the current Chaser might have been a friend from school, given what Remus and Sirius let slip. Not anyone close, but it was nice to know they hadn’t lost everyone in that War.

They continued to stop in what felt like half of the shops in the Alley as well as several other adjacent streets. Even with extendable bags, Sirius had already called for Lotty twice to take back their purchases. Ari and Remus were probably supposed to be in charge of limiting Sirius, but neither could seem to find the will to deny him anything with how happy it made him. And how long he’d been without. Eventually, though, they did slow down enough to stop at Fortescue’s for some well-deserved ice cream.

Afterwards, with a bit of needling, she was able to convince them to stop by the library before heading home. There were several books she wanted to look over again, now that she had a better understanding in runes and arithmancy from Ted. She also thought he might find a couple interesting as well.

Unlike muggle libraries, books couldn’t be checked out, especially since so many were too old or delicate to be moved beyond the libraries carefully structured wards. Instead, witches and wizards were welcome to conjure magical copies (as long as nothing stated otherwise) which they could then take with them for as long as they lasted. Ari knew Remus was quite good at that spell, and planned to take full advantage, since she wasn’t sure when she’d be back next.

Not bothering to cast a notice-me-not for once, Ari entered the library and immediately headed to the section she wanted, not paying attention to Sirius and Remus since she knew they’d follow. She grabbed two books from one aisle and a third from the next one over, passing them to Remus when they proved too heavy for her to hold at once. Then she went another two aisles over and dragged a ladder into place to reach another book.

“You sure know your way around. Have you spent much time here for your studies?” Remus’s question was full of amusement as she continued to pull out books to the point where Sirius was holding them now too.

“I lived here for a while.” Ari responded absentmindedly.

“In Diagon? I thought you were muggleborn.” There was enough genuine confusion in his voice to have her pausing. She’d forgotten that Remus didn’t know much about her past. Sirius knew bits and pieces, but he wasn’t one to tell other people’s secrets, even to Remus.

It only took a second of internal debate. This wasn’t nearly as big of a deal as her ‘Seer’ knowledge, anyways.

“As far as I know, I am. I was dropped off at an orphanage when I was a baby, and lived there for the first five years, but once I started using my notice-me-not magic they kind of…forgot about me. So, once I found Diagon, I just stayed here. There’s a storage room in the back no one uses that I made a place in.” She kept her voice even and nonchalant, pretending to peruse the books in front of her so she wouldn’t have to look at them, though she did see a flicker of werewolf gold out of the corner of her eye.

“You were here all alone? Living in a broom cupboard?” Remus’s voice sounded strangled, which was not a good sign.

“It’s alright. It was honestly better than the orphanage, and I could read all the books I wanted!” She tried to redirect, hoping Sirius would take the perfect opportunity to call her a nerd or swot, but when she glanced over, they were both staring at her intensely. Remus with eyes full of a mix of anger and pity and Sirius looking unreadable.

Suddenly, Remus dumped his books to the side, causing Ari to wince and hope the librarians didn’t hear that. He stepped forward, knelt down, and pulled her into a hug that had her squeaking in surprise.

“I’m so sorry you were alone, but you won’t ever have to be again, alright?”

She just nodded, throat too choked up with tears to form words, especially when Sirius came around to hug her from behind, murmuring. “We’ve got you pup. You’re stuck with us now.”

Eventually they pulled themselves together, and Ari pretended not to notice Remus’s red eyes, even as she rubbed at her own. Once the books were collected and copied, and Sirius had finally made those swot jokes, they made their way back out into the alley, Ari placed firmly between them as they each held one of her hands.

It felt a lot like Family.

***

Ari was once again at the Weasley’s. Partially it was because they’d once again invited her, though that seemed to be an open invitation, and so could not be wholly blamed for this specific instance.

That blame laid on the fact that the Tonks were out this weekend, and that Remus and Sirius were in meetings with their team of solicitors which they felt her presence would ‘draw far too much attention’ at. They also seemed to think she need to ‘spend more time with kids her age’ and ‘relax, you’re only young once.’

Given that her age was something of a mix between seven and twenty-one with no actual way to quantify where that left her, and that this was in fact the Second Time she was ‘young’, both those points were moot. But she couldn’t just point that out, so here she was.

Not that she would just give in though. Once she’d arrived and escaped from Mrs. Weasley once again trying to feed her, she tracked down Percy and given him a book on Greetings, Guidance and Glad-Handing: an Instruction Manual for Young Heirs Just Entering Politics. She’d still been feeling bad about getting his rat arrested and was strongly considering getting him a new pet, though Remus had suggested waiting until Christmas, so the other kids weren’t as jealous. After all that, she snuck outside and found a nice tree to relax under.

You could lead a child to social interaction, but you couldn’t make her play.

She was definitely not still pouting about not being allowed in the meeting.

Instead, she was currently working on another puzzle box that Bill had said she could borrow while he was at school. This one had several moving parts and required the solver to vary the amount of magical ‘pressure’ they applied to a given area. It was great practice for writing runes since rune blocks often required the creator to vary the power used for each rune written. Plus, it helped kids learn how to channel magic through a non-wand medium which was vital to rune work.

It was enough to engross her completely, which is why she was so startled when a wave of what was clearly pond water splashed over her, soaking her to the skin. She froze up, and then immediately called on her new bits of occlumency training to tuck away her annoyance. There was only one (technically two) possible culprit, and she was not going to give them the satisfaction of a reaction.

As it was, she tilted her head back to look at the snickering identical redheads and raised one eyebrow.

“This is not your best work.” She drawled out, channeling Andy at her most ‘did you even try?’ expression.

The snickers cut off abruptly.

“Oi!”

“Like you…”

“…could do any better.”

Ari smirked. She’d actually been expecting this, having escaped unscathed the first two times. Which meant she had plenty of time to prepare. She screwed up her concentration, reached out with her magic, whispered a word, and turned both of their hair green.

Color changing was one of the most basic transfiguration spells. In fact, it was the very first on in the Year One transfiguration book at Hogwarts. It required minimal concentration, and almost no wand movement. And it had taken Ari almost a year to figure it out without a wand.

The problem being that she specifically wanted to replicate the spell itself not just ‘wish’ for something to change color. By doing it this way, she got a more consistent result, but because it was so much more structured than her normal magic, it required a lot more concentration and effort to teach her magic to take a specific form. And to use enough power to allow for it in the first place. This is why wandless magic was so much more difficult than accidental or even the NMN she’d been using for years.

“What?!” The twins were staring at each other’s hair, then trying to get a look at their own, almost falling out of the tree in the process. Eventually they scrambled down, just as she was carefully standing up to go look for some clean clothes. Or someone to cast a drying and freshening charm.

“How did…”

“…you do that?”

“You have to teach us!”

Ari couldn’t figure out if the twin speech was annoying or amusing, but it did make it a bit hard to keep track of the conversation. Luckily, she was used to the spastic way Sirius and Remus would throw ideas back and forth when deep in study. Half-finished sentences, and weird inside references that meant absolutely nothing to her. So, she was able to mostly follow along with Fred and George. She really needed to figure out which was which

“And have you use it on me? I don’t think so.”

“We wouldn’t…”

“…use it on you.” They both failed at looking innocent.

“Uh huh.” She continued to give flat stare as they tried for puppy dog eyes instead. Those were slightly more effective, but she lived with an actual dog animagus, so she was quickly becoming immune. “How about this. If you promise to never prank me directly, and find me a different set of clothes, I’ll try to teach you how I changed your hair color.”

This may not be the exact outcome she’d been expecting, but she was willing to make a bargain if it kept her from being a target in the future. If she’d been holding a book when they dumped water on her, she’d have had to murder them, which might have strained her relationship with their older siblings. Better to just avoid all of that in the future.

The twins eyed her, then turned away to whisper for a minute. She waited patiently even as she could feel the water seeping into her underwear. It was incredibly uncomfortable, but she refused to fidget. Finally, they turned back.

“Deal.”

“Excellent.” She said, shaking both their hands. “I think this could be a very beneficial partnership.”

They all shared matching grins. She looked forward to the future chaos, especially if she could convince them to prank Sirius and Remus for her. And she already knew plenty of other pranks from the Marauders that she could share with time for maximum effect.

A beautiful friendship indeed.

Chapter Text

Lord Arcturus Black died in his sleep on the morning of October 23.

Ari officially found out at breakfast when Ted sat her down to explained what happened but ever since she’d woken up, she could feel the difference in the family magic. It felt…emptier in some places, but also lighter. Even without being told, she knew Sirius had been accepted as the new head of the family. Which meant he’d have control over the finances and the Wizengamot seat as soon as he was able to claim it in the next session.

Ari already knew this would change their plans a bit. Even with Sirius still in recovery, he was well enough to fake it. As a sitting lord, with the right argument, the Wizengamot would be hard pressed to deny him access to his godson, especially if he could lead a vote to unseal the Potter will as was now his prerogative.

The atmosphere in the house was somber. Even with no real personal attachment, it was the death of a Black and thus given the respect in deserved. Andy was busy arranging the funeral, which, as that of a Lord, would bring in quite the array of people even if Arcturus had been something of a hermit for the last few decades (outside of Sirius’ trial).

Sirius and Remus were busy meeting with their solicitors, sorting out the family finances and properties, and preparing for the next Wizengamot meeting which was only two weeks away. They would need to work quickly to have their case ready.

Ari was left to be distracted by Ted, but instead left him to write to Tonks since she was off at school and the news would need to be broken gently. Ari was currently wrestling with her own feelings, though they were more along the lines of guilt that she was happy about the progress they were making towards helping Harry, which were possible because Lord Black died. It was a strange mix of emotion that that mostly left her annoyed. Which meant it was time for a distraction.

So, for now she focused on practicing her Hieroglyphics since they were more fun to draw than Elder Futhark that she was currently learning with Ted. She didn’t make any attempt at pushing magic into the figures, just drawing them precisely, labeled with their meaning.

For now, she was once again stuck waiting.

Sirius tried not to slouch in his seat. You’d think with how long the Wizengamot’s been around, they would have more comfortable chairs. Though maybe that would just make everyone fall asleep faster. As it was, Sirius was fully awake and jitter with nerves as he had been since the beginning of the session when he claimed his seat.

He wished Remus could be here, even if he wasn’t allowed in the room during the session, but he, Ari, and all of their solicitors had discouraged that, as having a werewolf present would cause more issues than not. Too many people present were aware of his condition, even if it wasn’t on record.

Instead, he was stuck listening to inane and ridiculous proposals that would only benefit those in the room. He’d had to bite his tongue through another dark creature containment bill that he knew would have Remus seething once he heard about it.  He planned to make Andy be his proxy as soon as he got what he needed today.

Luckily the session was almost over, which meant it was finally time to enact their plan. They had decided it was better to wait until the end since most of the members would be ready to leave and thus reduce the amount of arguing that may occur. It should work for something as simple as this, though he decided to implement some of the bills and changes Ari and Remus had recently been discussing regarding some of the changes that had gone in since the end of the war… well that would take a bit more planning than just relying on boredom.

As Minister Bagnold called out for any other matters of business, Sirius stood, calling on all of his pureblood upbringing.

“I have a previous decision of the Wizengamot to bring under review.” Bagnold sat back down, giving Sirius the floor. “On November 2^nd, 1981 through the vote of an emergency session of the Wizengamot the will of Lord James Potter and his wife Lily Potter nee Evans was sealed. As the closest living relative through my Wardship under Fleamont Potter I would like to submit to the Council to have it unsealed at this time.”

A murmur went up. Loud enough that Sirius wondered exactly how many people were actually at that emergency session. There had only been a few seats changed since then, so almost anyone here could have been present at the time.

Dumbledore rose to his feet, looking every inch to kind and slightly doddering old man.

“Ah, I believe that it was originally sealed to protect their son as waiting for the necessary review would have left him exposed to retaliation for the dark wizards whose master he killed.”

Sirius almost scowled at the headmaster for using Harry’s situation for sympathy points but kept his face neutral. No need to give anything away.     

“While that may have been necessary at the time, since I was currently being escorted to Azkaban without a trial.” He emphasized that last bit enough to remind everyone just what could happen if they tried to stick to previous erroneous decisions. “But as I have been rightfully freed and reinstated, I am well able to take up my duties as his godfather and closest living wizard relative.”

Sirius was pleased by the number of nods and murmurs around the room. Godparents were a far more important deal within the wizarding community, especially with the recent war. Dumbledore seemed to notice the tone of their audience as well and, when Minister Bagnold called out for any other statements, sat down without further comment.

The vote was quickly cast, and even with Lucius Malfoy’s ridiculous number of proxy seats, the motion passed. Sirius had to refrain from jumping out of his seat, waiting until the session was fully closed out to quickly exit the room. He already had a meeting with Sharpfang, the Potter Manager and needed to hurry to meet Remus and Ari on time. She had insisted on coming.

With a will listing Sirius as the primary choice for guardianship, as well as stating that the Dursley’s were not to be considered, it was simply a matter of filing the correct paperwork. This turned out to be a breeze with Ms. Beth on their side, and Ari was glad for the chance to see her again, especially if it got them through to Harry faster.

Now Ari was currently stuck at home waiting Sirius and Remus to return. They had both gone with Ms. Beth and one of their solicitors to inform the Dursleys of the change in guardianship and to introduce Harry to his godfather. Ms. Beth had warned them that it would be better to ease Harry into the change, so he probably wouldn’t come home with them this evening, but Ari didn’t place much stock in that prediction.

And she was right. As was made obvious by the immediate tightening of the wards and family magic imbued into the house that showed just how angry Sirius was when they arrived back. Andy seemed to sense the same and quickly hurried forward to meet them at the door.

In came Sirius and Remus, with a tiny little Harry tucked into the werewolf’s arms. Ari had thought she was small for her age, but there was no doubt Harry was underweight and possibly malnourished. She would have wondered why Sirius wasn’t holding him, but the man looked to be barely holding it together. Luckily Andy was there to save the day.

“Hello, Harry. I’m Aunt Andy. Would you like to come with me? I just want to check a couple of things over, and then I think there might be some cake in the kitchen if you sit still for me. How does that sound?” Harry looked mostly confused, but perked up at the mention of cake, and shyly nodded his head.

Remus, his eyes glowing werewolf gold, followed along at Andy’s prompting since the woman was smart enough not to try to take Harry away. They both quickly headed in the direction of the kitchen. Ari turned to where Ted and Lotty had appeared at the top of the stairs and gestured for them to leave. She knew that now that Harry was safely away, Sirius wasn’t going to be able to hold in his magic much longer.

Ted tried to get her to come too, but she just shook her head. This anger had been building for a long time, and she didn’t want to leave him alone with the fallout. Besides, as soon as he thought it through, Sirius was going to want answers, and she was the one who’d been keeping them from him.

Ted seemed reluctant to leave her but couldn’t make it any further into the room with the way the family magics were building. When a vase shattered on its pedestal, he finally turned, ushering Lotty with him in the direction of the servant’s staircase, probably to try to get Andy, the only other Black in residence, to try to intervene.

“A Cupboard. They had him locked in a bloody cupboard!” Sirius’s voice seethed as a crack appeared in the marble floor below him. Ari almost had to wonder if the Dursleys were still alive, but she figured Harry would be a lot more traumatized or Sirius blood covered if that was the case. Hopefully they left them to Ms. Beth since she didn’t think she’d be able to get Sirius out of Azkaban a second time. She had no doubt the woman would be happy to legally eviscerate them with everything the muggle laws would allow.

Ari realized she was rambling mentally and tried to put her full attention back on the slightly unstable Lord who could probably raze this house to the ground if someone didn’t distract him. Much as she’d rather hid back I the shadows, she was the one present, so that job fell to her. Luckily, or perhaps unluckily, Sirius seemed to remember one vital point.

“You knew.” Ari flinched back at the angry realization in his eyes. “You knew what they were doing to him, and you kept us from getting him! He was stuck in there while we ran around playing politics. What the hell were you thinking?!” Ari knew it was just the anger, just the helplessness talking, that Sirius wouldn’t actually hurt her, but with all of that vitriol and the oppressive magic making it feel like it was hard to breath, she lashed out in response.

“I was thinking that Harry would do better if his Godfather didn’t get himself thrown in prison for acting like a stupid fucking Gryffindor! Again!”

Sirius stepped back, looking like he’d been slapped, and Ari immediately wanted to take the words back. Her thoughts cleared as the as the magic receded with Sirius’s anger, replaced by a look of despair etched into his face by lines made deep in the dementors care. She choked back a sob, covering her mouth with both hands as tears streamed down her face.

“I…I’m sorry.” She choked out, barely a whisper into the all-encompassing silence, and she turned to run out of the room, ignore the call of her name behind her.

***

She wasn’t exactly sure where she ended up, but when her tears mostly stopped, all she could see was deep shadows and dusty stone walls and floor. She sat replaying what happened and wallowing in her grief for some time before the sound of a door opening startled her. The sound, because there was no discernible change in light.

She followed the light footsteps approaching her, so she wasn’t quite startled when a body slid down the wall next to her.

“Hey cub.” It was little more than a whisper, but still plenty loud in the still silence.

She cringed, curling up tighter. She didn’t want Remus to yell at her too, even if she knew she deserved it. There was a deep sigh, then an arm wrapped around her, pulling her tightly into his side.

“You know it wasn’t your fault, right?”

She sniffled, kind of embarrassed by how much snot she was wiping on her sleeve, and shook her head.

“Ari, you’re seven. No matter what kind of knowledge you have, or how smart you are, you’re still just a kid.”

“I knew what they were doing to him. I…I should have helped him sooner.”

“From what I understand, you’ve been trying to help him since you knew he needed it. Maybe you could have told us exactly what they were doing, but you’re right. Sirius and I wouldn’t have been able to stop ourselves from going after them. He’s safe now, and there’s nothing anyone can do to take him from his. It’s not your fault we couldn’t help him sooner, Ari.”

“Sirius doesn’t think so.” She said stubbornly, and maybe just a bit petulantly, but his anger at her had really hit hard. The first person she’d trusted had turned on her, and she knew his anger was justified, but it hurt.

“Sirius is an idiot. He knows as well as I do exactly who is to blame, and since he couldn’t take his anger out on them, he took it out on you. Which was wrong.” She didn’t respond. “Ari, I need you to tell me that you understand that Sirius was wrong for getting angry at you.”

He just sighed again when she still didn’t respond.

“He’s going to have to figure out his own apologies, and it’ll be up to you whether you decided to accept them, but I need to apologize too. I’m sorry I left you alone with him when he wasn’t thinking clearly. You shouldn’t have been subjected to that, and I promise I won’t let it happen again.”

She just shook her head, clutching onto the soft fabric of his sweater tighter and trying not to start crying again.

“It’s not your fault either, Moony.”

They continued to sit there in silence, Ari slowly relaxing, until she was lulled half asleep by the steady beat of his heart. Eventually, Remus picked her up carefully and made his way out of the room, though she was too tired to pay attention to where they were going. As soon as she was set down on familiar sheets, she was out like a light.

***

Ari looked up at the sound of the solar door opening. She’d been holed up in here since before breakfast, not wanting to face everyone yet. If she hadn’t already known she would never be a Gryffindor, that would have proved it to her.

As it was, it looked like her time was up. Sirius walked slowly towards her, hands open at his side, and took a seat on the edge of the lounge chair to her right. There was no way she could have missed his entrance, but he still waited for her to acknowledge him before starting.

“I’m sorry. Remus…” He paused, chuckling. “Remus made sure to set me straight last night, but he didn’t need to, I knew I was wrong as soon as you ran.”

He ran a rough hand through his hair, tousling the curls into an artful disarray, while Ari called on all of her lessons with Andy to keep a neutral face.

I shouldn’t have yelled at you like that. It wasn’t your fault. You’ve been trying to help Harry longer than any of us.” He blew out a deep breath before continuing, “I’m sorry I scared you. You should feel safe in this house, and with me, and I know I messed that up yesterday. I’ll do anything I can to help you feel comfortable again, even if you don’t want me around for a while. You shouldn’t have to hide here.”

He said it with so much conviction, and she knew he got it. But things weren’t always so easy to fix. She still felt that twinge of fear when he’d first entered the room and had checked her exits. She understood, and forgave him, but forgetting wasn’t so easy.

She said as much to Sirius, heart aching at the slump of his shoulders.

“It’s not going to be fixed in a day, but I do want to try. Maybe just don’t sneak up on me for a while, or yell. And keep you magic in.”

“I…yeah. Andy already laid into me for losing control with children around. I’ll be working on it with Remus for the next few weeks.”

Ari nodded, pulling her book back out.

“You can stay, if you want.” She said it deliberately casually but was pleased to see Sirius perk up in the corner of her eye. Baby steps. They’d figure it out together.

Chapter Text

Living with Harry was different. Not in any big or grand ways, just different. He was very quiet, though not in the same way she was. He didn’t whisper or forget that he needed to say things out loud because there were other people around now. No, he was simply silent until he had to say something, or until he couldn’t not say something.

Ari wondered how many times that got him in trouble with the Dursleys. From the way he’d flinch after blurting something out, she’d guess every time.

He was also watchful. Eyeing every interaction and routine. She would guess that he was trying to learn the rules. New place with new people meant different rules, and the sooner you learned them, the less trouble you’d get in.

There were a few hiccups. Habits he was already in that seemed to confuse the adults. Standing off to the side of the room during meals until someone invited him to come sit. Sneaking food into his pockets. Trying to help clean whatever room he was in, or the table, or even the flower beds outside. Ari had seen Lotty herding him away on more than one occasion to her amusement. That elf was very possessive of what he considered his responsibilities.

There was little they could do other than remind Harry again and again that he didn’t need to do that here. Outside of keeping his own toys reasonably tidy, of course.

He was so little.

Light weight. Bird-boned. Under fed. Starved.

Ari started to carry snacks with her. Little packets of peanut butter crackers and apple slices spelled to stay fresh and cookies. He seemed more comfortable accepting them from her than from the adults, though he was still wary.

Today, she was sat in the library, working on translating a scroll of hieroglyphics Ted had provided and keeping an eye on the bookshelf Harry kept sneaking glances around. Ari glanced at the wrapped toffee sitting on the far end of the table wondering how long it would take him to make it that far this time.

They’d been playing this game for a week, and he’d gotten bolder each time. First darting and running off quickly, then sneaking over and hiding under the table as he ate his prize. This time though, rather than sneak off again once he was done, he popped up next to her, and pulled himself onto the chair. She kept her face perfectly neutral, still appearing focused on her translation.

“What’s that.” It was loud in the silent library, and Ari had to hide a smile and then a frown when he automatically flinched back.

“They’re hieroglyphics. It’s how people who lived in Egypt a long time ago used to write.”

“I can write! I learned in school. How come you use a feather?” Ari did smile at his little lisp that snuck through and held her quill up so he could see it better.

“I just think their fancy. Do you want to show me what you can write?” Ari reached into her satchel for a pencil and a notepad. Something he’d be more familiar and comfortable with.

Harry nodded shyly, but took the pencil, kneeling on his chair so he could reach the top of the table.

As Ari watched him write, she considered what do to. She had a feeling Harry was bored. They always made sure to have someone keeping an eye on him, but Harry was shy and having a hard time engaging. Andy had the most luck so far, but she was also the busiest. Though Ari was fairly sure she’d just made a breakthrough. Now, how to work with that?

You would think she’d already know how to entertain younger kids, what with being a solid middle child in her last life and hanging out with the Weasleys so much in this one. But honestly, she was just really awkward. However, she did have a myriad of games and songs she Remembered, so maybe she could start simple, and then work with the actual adults to try to get Harry into more of a routine. It might help him settle more.

“Hey Harry,” Ari started, after congratulating him on writing his name and a few other words he knew, backwards Rs and all. “Do you want to go play a game outside?” Harry looked suspicious.

“Not Harry Hunting, I don’t like it.” He said it with an angry frown and Ari had to hide her anger away, so she didn’t accidentally scare him off.

“Not Harry Hunting, I pinky promise.” She held out a pinky, waiting patiently for Harry to slowly hook his own with it. “You won’t ever have to worry about that here. I was thinking something more like hopscotch? Or I bet I could find us a jump rope.”

Harry nodded eagerly, and hopped off his seat, headed I the direction of the garden doors. Ari quickly snagged his hand but held loosely enough that he could pull away if he wanted to. She led them over to Ted so he could come keep an eye on them.

When she called Lotty, he was able to provide chalk, but the best they could come up with for a jump rope was a long piece of thin cording. It worked well enough though.

Ari taught Harry hopscotch, and then a clapping game, and then finally, helicopter, since there was only two of them, and Ari wasn’t quite sure Harry would be able to jump over the rope fast enough if she swung it over head. At least with helicopter she could keep it relatively slow.

Harry seemed to be having fun, and Ari was honestly enjoying it too. He’d still stop every once in a while, and glance around like he was expecting someone to stop him. Ted was absorbed in his book, keeping one eye on them, but the picture of casual nonchalance.

“Well, this looks fun!” Sirius came bounding out of the house, and Ari almost scowled at him when it made Harry tense up and sidle behind her a bit. Instead, she smiled and kept herself deliberately relaxed.

“Hey Sirius! I was just teaching Harry a few muggle games. Want to join?” Since Harry hadn’t run off yet, she wanted to try to help him feel a little more comfortable around his godfather. See how different he was from the grownups he used to deal with.

With Harry’s help she started to explain hopscotch again, finishing up just as Remus made his way outside. The wolf lit up at the sight of the game, and Ari quickly beckoned him over too. Harry seemed less worried with this second arrival and was slowly relaxing into the game as the two grown men hopped back and forth across the chalk squares.

By the time they had to head in for dinner, everyone was laughing and in high spirits. Harry had even let Sirius lift him onto his shoulders, shrieking in delight. Ari exchanged a beaming smile with Remus and knew that they’d be alright.

***

This Christmas was special. It was Sirius’s first Christmas since being freed. It was Remus’s first Christmas with family since the end of the war. It was Harry and Ari’s first real Christmas that they could remember in this life.

Which meant everyone was going a bit overboard.

“Does…” Ari winced at a particularly high note. “’Does he even actually know the words?”

Remus was wincing as well, and she had to wonder how much worse it was with his enhanced hearing.

“Based on the evidence…” Another off pitch note that managed to make it all the way to them, even though they were down the hall and around the corner from the family room. “I think not.”

Sirius’s singing may have been the worst thing she’d heard since cats decided to fight right outside the orphanage, but no one had the heart to tell him to stop. Especially since Harry had recently decided to join in.

“Maybe if we actually teach him the songs?” The tune had changed to something that sounded vaguely like jingle bells. If the song had been chucked in a blender with broken glass.

“Sadly, he’s always been like this. It’s incurable.” They both shared a smile and another wince at that, then resumed wrapping the tinsel around the banister. Well, they were very slowly pretending to wrap the banister, so they didn’t get dragged into helping with the tree.

It wasn’t just Christmas they were celebrating, but Yule had already happened earlier that week, and been much more subdued. Apparently, the Potters used to celebrate both Yule and Christmas, and with such a mix of pureblood, half, and muggleborn in the house, it just made sense to do it now too. Ari secretly thought that she might prefer Yule, with its yule log fire, and blessings, and thanks. Christmas was just so hectic. Although she was very excited to give everyone her presents.

Eventually they did finish with their banister, since there was only so long they could put it off and escaped to the kitchen for hot chocolate. Ari kind of missed eating in the kitchen, though the dining room was a lot less empty now with everyone there.

“So, is this where everyone’s hiding?” Nymphadora asked, slipping into another seat at the table and accepting her own mug from Nimsy with thanks. Her hair was red and green today and perfectly matched the garish Christmas sweater she was wearing. Ari tried not to think of her own reindeer themed sweater that was still on her bed where she’d found it this morning.

“I think your dad might be hiding in the library, and your mum’s warded her office so Sirius would stop trying to hide mistletoe in there.”

Ari snorted a giggle at Tonks’s disgusted face.

Their peace only lasted another half an hour before the overly festive duo that was Sirius and Harry discovered them, and then it was back to finish decorating until dinner was called.

Not that Ari could really find it in her to complain. It was nice having people around who actually wanted to celebrate, and to make sure everyone was included.

They ended up in the family room after supper, which was really just another one of the various sitting rooms in the house, but this was the one they’d all chosen to use regularly. It was obvious in the comfortable overstuffed chairs and couches, and in the books that had taken over the shelves, and the worksheets and puzzles scattered on the side tables.

And now, the brightly decorated Christmas tree with bells and spelled icicles and little mage lights set among the branches. Harry and Sirius beamed at everyone’s compliments, and now they were all sat around, chatting quietly and enjoying being together on Christmas Eve.

Eventually, Harry began to yawn, and Ari wasn’t long after since apparently children needed more sleep. It had been one of her greatest annoyances when she wanted to stay up reading, but today she was warm and cozy, and bed sounded awesome.

“Alright Sirius, I think it might be time for presents and then off to bed for the children.”

Harry perked right up at the word present and even Ari was curious. There’d been no mention of exchanging gifts today, and she knew they had plans for after breakfast tomorrow. But Sirius quickly scurred to the tree, pulling out and floating one package to each person in the room. Once he had settled into his seat, they all looked around, like they were trying to figure out who’s in charge.

“I think we should just open them all at the same time tonight, we can do youngest first tomorrow.” Remus nodded along with Ted’s suggestion and then the room was filled with the sound of tearing paper.

Ari considered her own brightly wrapped package, noticing the softness. Maybe it was a Weasley sweater? But why would they open it tonight? She tore into the paper, pulling the ribbon to the side and gasped.

Oh

They were a set of pajamas. An oversize shirt that said ‘It’s All Ancient Aramaic to Me’ that was obviously custom made and pajama pants in blue with yellow hieroglyphs printed all over them. But more than that, this was exactly what she Remembered doing with her family before.

Every year they got pajamas on Christmas Eve and wore them through most of Christmas day. It was one of her favorite traditions she Remembered, and she had no idea how they could have known. Maybe it was a Potter thing too? But as soon as she looked over at Sirius and Remus up on their couch, they were grinning directly at her.

She gasped out a sob and threw herself into their arms, loving the way they immediately pulled her close.

“Whoa Ri, what’s wrong? Did…did you not like the pajamas? Did we do it wrong?” Ari just clutched them closer, gasping for breath around the feelings choking her throat, and shook her head quickly. It took another few minutes of box breathing and soothing words from what she was realizing were the men quickly becoming her fathers.

“How.” She choked out as soon as she had her breath back. Meaning ‘how did they know’ and ‘how had they snuck past her walls’ and ‘how was she supposed to handle this’.

“I…I think you might have told me while I was sleeping. I didn’t remember most of it, still don’t, but when we were talking about what traditions we wanted to keep, it just popped up and…and we wanted you to have something too.” She could practically feel them silently conversing over her head, but neither one loosened their hold for a second. “Did we do it right?”

“Yes.” She laughed out reaching up and drying her eyes on her sleeve. “Thank you.”

“Oh, Ari. You don’t have to thank us for this. We’ll do everything we can to make you happy.”

She laughed again at Remus’s words, so full of feelings she couldn’t seem to keep them in. After another couple of seconds, she finally let go, grinning at both of them, and then scrambled out of the room and to the closest bathroom so she could change.

It only took her a couple of minutes, but she noticed how everyone relaxed as soon as she came back in.

“You all need to change, it’s tradition!”

Sirius whooped and hurried out, likely headed to his room, since it was closest. Remus rolled his eyes but followed along. Ari hoped they wouldn’t get distracted. She was no stranger to the looks they’d started exchanging in the last month, though she wasn’t sure how far along they were, and if it was new, or being rebuilt. Ted had scooped up Harry and was subtly cajoling his wife along, since she was the most likely to insist pajamas outside of the bedroom was undignified. Tonks had already disappeared as well.

Soon enough, everyone came trickling back in and Ari finally got a look at their pajamas too.

Sirius’s were bright red with black motorcycles that zipped around, they made Ari a bit dizzy, and he was also still wearing the red jingly antler headband he’d had on all day.

Remus’s were a much more respectable blue and grey plaid.

Harry’s, when he came back in with Ted, were green pants with grinning purple and pink stripped cats, and a shirt that read “We’re All Mad Here”. Alice in Wonderland was his current favorite bedtime book, and she knew how much Sirius loved the Mad Hatter.

Ted and Andy’s, from what she could see peeking out from under her dressing robe, were a matching and stately black and white that still looked very comfortable.

Tonks were black but had endlessly exploding fireworks in bright neon colors.

They all settled back into the places from before, and the adults were persuaded to let the kids have another cup of hot chocolate before bed. Remus was really going to need to learn how to resist her puppy eyes since she was already teaching them to Harry, and Sirius was just a bad.

So, the kids enjoyed another cup, sitting on the floor near the tree and trying to guess the presents, while the adults broke out the eggnog and reminisced. Soon enough, though, they were shooed off to bed. 

As she was falling asleep, Ari considered that maybe next year she could introduce another tradition where the kids sleep in the same room on Christmas Eve. She could already sense the chaos now.

“MERRY CHRISTMAS” Ari was woken up by the cry seconds before all thirty-five pounds of five-year-old were jumping directly on her stomach. This was followed almost immediately by a bark and a much heavier furry mongrel.

She let out a groan as all of the air was driven from her body a second time and glared at the smiling werewolf standing in the doorway.

“Don’t look at me, they got to me first.”

“Then you should have known to stop them.” Ari snarked back, while shoving Padfoot’s head away before he could lick her and then proceeded to tickle attack Harry in retaliation until he was shrieking with laughter.

They did eventually stumble their way into the family room, and found the Tonks already around a new table, set with an array of breakfast food. Andy was staring into space and clutching a mug of coffee while Ted served fruit onto both his and his wife’s plate. Tonks (the youngest) looked like she was barely restraining herself from diving into the pile of presents under the tree, eating her pastries without looking away.

Ari was happy enough to sit down and drink some tea, though Harry took a bit of persuading, but soon enough they were all digging into the delicious breakfast foods, and praise was heaped upon Nimsy when she made her appearance. She blushed deeply, ears quivering with delight.

But good food could only distract for so long, and as soon as Andy had finished her second cup of coffee, Tonks was off like a shot, with Harry close behind. They immediately set to work sorting of out the presents into piles. Ari left them to it, taking her seat on the plush carpet in front of Remus and Sirius’s couch.

By the time all the presents were sorts, Ari almost groaned at the number of presents in her, Harry’s, and Tonks’s piles. She sent another look at Remus since it was his job to rein the animagus in, but he just gave her a pointed look that very clearly said ‘you try to stop him’, which, fair.

They started with the youngest, each person opening a single present and then went around again, until it was just the kids with presents left.

Ari received several different books, both magic and muggle. One of her favorites was a book on Ancient Aramaic with a note from Ted saying that they could start after she had finished with Ancient Egyptian. There was also a journal spelled for privacy and extended to hold more pages than possible. That one came from Remus with a note that they could also get it bound to her, so she would be the only one able to read it. Ari was fairly sure that he might be suggesting borderline illegal magic, but it would give her a much safer place to store her notes and Memories, and she thanked him profusely.

From Sirius came a junior broom that she didn’t have the heart to reject, though she made no plans to fly it anytime soon either. Luckily Harry seemed ecstatic about his. There was also a silver pendant marked with Algiz and likely charmed for protection, a telescope that was apparently Sirius’s when he was younger, and a beautiful painting of the night sky that rotated with the actual sky and highlighted constellations when she touched them.

They were all amazing gifts that really showed that these people knew her.

She’d even gotten that Weasley sweater, and a note that she was welcome anytime. It was a beautify dark grey and deep teal and she was really glad she sent along gifts for the various Weasleys as well. Including one screech owl for Percy that she fully expected the twins to harangue her about later.

Ari was also pretty proud of her own gifts.

Andy’s was a small hand mirror that was spelled to transcribe the words of anyone it was pointed at. Ari that she might enjoy using it at the Wizengamot, since she was always interested in seeing what other people were whispering about.

Ted’s was an early copy of a thesis by Professor Jacinta Santiago on a new theory regarding the application of Mayan runes to moon cycle-based rituals. It had been easier to get than she expected, especially once she’d mentioned that Ted would likely be willing to start up communications.

Tonks’s was a pair of docks that were spelled to keep the user from tripping. Ari wasn’t sure they would be effective, but Tonks laughed out loud when she opened them, so it was worth it.

Sirius’s was tickets to a concert of a band that she knew he had several shirts of. She made sure to only get two tickets. One, so as to not be dragged along, and two, because she thought he might like to make a date out of it.

Her gift to Remus was half in apology for that, but she didn’t think he’d mind too much. He received a basket containing: the warmest coziest cardigan she could find, a new blend of tea, a muggle book regarding mythological creatures in Asia, and a voucher for one evening free of Anyone. She’d even gotten everyone to sign and make it official.

Harry’s was both the easiest and the hardest, because she knew he’d love anything he got, but she wanted to make it special. In the end she got him a set of plushies, with a wolf, a black dog, and a stag. Sirius and Remus almost teared up at the sight and ended up pulling both of them into a group hug.

She was definitely proud.

Christmas supper was another amazing meal, and once they were stuffed, the Tonks headed to their own suit to have some family time, while Sirius and Remus brought them back to the family room.

“We, ah, we actually have one more present.” Remus said, sitting them down on the couch, while Sirius bound over to the tree and pulled out two envelopes that had been well hidden in the branches.

 Ari wondered what it could be, even as Harry was bouncing in his seat beside her. The men looked nervous, but like they were trying to hide it. Jokes on them, Ari had learned to read them like one of her books.

Irregardless, she took the offered envelope, and after a confirming glance, torn into it at the same time as Harry. The only thing inside was a key on a chain. She dumped it into her hand to get a better look.

It wasn’t like a modern muggle key, flat and machine cut. It was like a skeleton key, but new and shiny, and with a feel of magic to it, though like nothing she’d studied before. She looked up questioningly.

“There’s another piece to it,” Sirius was still nervous, flexing his hands in the way he did when he had too much energy, but couldn’t run or duel it off yet. “We have to travel for it.”

They were already dressed since Andy drew the line at eating Christmas Dinner in pajamas, and once they were outside, past the apparition wards, Sirius picked her up, and Remus took Harry. Then that awful twisting sensation.

The thing Ari noticed, even as she waited for the dizziness to fade, was the smell of salt and wet. Then the drone of waves that were nearby but out of sight. Finally, she was able to blink the double vision away, and found herself looking at a house.

Well, it was a little more than a house, but definitely not on the level of a manor. It had a feeling to it, almost intimate. Where the Blæc Dún Halls were a place to receive allies and enemies, a place to entertain and intimidate, this was a place to relax, knowing that the world would not find you here.

“It’s called Gweddill du. It was the Black summer home, though it has not been used for years.”

Ari let Sirius carry her inside, closely followed by Remus and Harry. And if it hadn’t been used in however long, you couldn’t tell. Everything was clean and furnished. The light from midday dappled across the plush carpet on the floor and Ari suddenly realized what they’d actually been doing every time they went out on ‘Christmas shopping trips.’ They’d been readying this house. They’d been putting together a home.

 “Andy’s been talking about going back to work at St. Mungo’s now that I don’t need constant supervision, and their house has a direct floo connection, plus I think they miss it, especially with Tonks at school, so Remus and I were thinking that it might be nice to live somewhere smaller than the Manor, and Ted can still come to tutor you, so that’s not a problem, but we just…” Remus set a hand on Sirius’s leg to stem the flow of words.

“We wanted a place that could be our home. Together.”

They both watched them anxiously, and Ari realized they thought she and Harry would disagree for some reason. Like she cared where they lived as long as she was with them.

“It’s perfect.” She said with feeling, stepping forward to hug them, and giggling when Harry rushed in as well. “But I still want to be able to visit my library.”

Sirius laughed loudly, almost strangling the life out of them.

“Like we’d even try to keep you away.”

From there they toured the rest of the house. Ari’s room, already set up and decorated in shades of grey blue, like the ocean she could see through her window. Harry’s done in greens with a forest painted on the wall. There was still a study, and a dining room, and even a small sunroom, because while this was passed as a cottage for the wizard nobility, there were somethings they just couldn’t do without.

The grounds, at least according to Sirius, were almost as big as the Manor’s and went all the way down to a private beach. There was a half quidditch field, which Ari secretly thought was the reason Sirius chose this house in particular. There were even stables, though they were empty for now.

She enjoyed exploring with Harry and asking questions. It wasn’t until they got to the kitchen that she had a painful realization.

“What about Nimsy and Lotty? Will they be staying there?”

Remus and Sirius exchanged looks, before Remus answered.

“We talked to them already. Lotty wants to stay at the Manor and take care of it. It’s always been his home. But Nimsy said she wanted to stay with us. Apparently, she thinks we’ll all starve without her.” Remus quirked a smile but waited for her reaction.

And that was…well it was better than she hoped. And they’d already promised she could visit the library whenever she wanted, so it wasn’t like she wouldn’t see him again.

“Okay.” It still stung a bit though. The first person she was leaving behind. Still, she shook it off. It hadn’t happened yet, and she’d make sure to talk to him too, just to see if he was really set on staying, though she didn’t doubt his conviction, at least she would know.

They left again that evening, since they wouldn’t be moving until after the holiday break, but Ari was already thinking of it as coming home.

Chapter Text

Ari hugged Remus and Lupin one last time and kissed Harry on top of his unruly hair. It only made him pout more, but he’d get to come to Hogwarts soon enough, as she’d repeatedly told him every day this week.

“You’re going to do great Ri.” Sirius beamed at her and Ari smiled back. She wasn’t quite nervous, but there was a tingle of excitement making her fingers twitch. The only sign she’d allow out right now, given Andy’s very thorough lessons and the strength of her occulmancy shields. Now she just had to hope they were enough to deter both Dumbledore and Snape. Assuming that either felt the need to try to read her thought. She planned to rely on her not-a-main-character irrelevance to hopefully keep her out of the spotlight for now.

“Don’t forget to owl us about your sorting. Or call Nimsy so she can let us know.” None of them were particularly unsure of what house she would end up in, though she was fairly sure Sirius was still in denial. Not that he’d love her any less, but she knew it was hard for him. She also knew that Remus was using it as an excuse to win a couple of galleons.

The Weasleys were a bright patch in the station, and she strode over to them, letting the rest of her group follow along at their own pace. She got hugs all around. Bill had Head Boy duties, and Charlie was meeting friends, and Percy was also meeting friends, but in a way that had Fred and George teasing him, and Molly was distracted by her to youngest, so that just left the twins to herd on board the Express with a last round of goodbyes and tearful waves, at least on the adult’s side.

As soon as she got her luggage onto the rack, or once Charlie had stopped to help get their luggage on the rack, Ari sat down and started pulling books out of her satchel, making a neat pile to the side of her while the twins clustered at the window to watch as the train passed through London. She opened her charms book to the inside cover, noting the spells that were neatly listed in her own hand and considered if she wanted to do them alphabetically or by order in the book.

“Aw Star, not this again.” Ever since the twins somehow learned her first name and that she hated it, they’d been using ever version of the word star that could think of. She mostly didn’t mind as long as they didn’t use her actual name and since she knew they would stop if she actually asked. “You’ve been studying wand movements and incantations all summer!”

“Frederick Gideon Weasley, this is the first time that we can legally use magic since getting out wands, and you think I’m just going to what, wait around until classes start?” The Hogwarts Express, once it was in motion, was considered an extension of Hogwarts, allowing under aged witches and wizards to use magic without activating the trace. She’d been waiting all summer for this and would not be denied.

“I figure I can get through charms and transfiguration at least, though it might be difficult to try the defense spells in a space this small.”

“But Starlight…”

“…Starling…”

“…Our brightest of morning stars…”

“Pretty sure that last one is actually Lucifer. And did you just call me a bird?”

“…are you just going to leave us all to our own devices?”

“So bored, and with nothing to do?” The word bored coming out of either of the twins’ mouths was a direct threat, and while Ari didn’t particularly care if they decided to run amok, so long as she got to try her spells, Percy would definitely blame her.

She sighed, grabbing the new deck of exploding snap from her bag that she’d brought for just this eventuality and tossed it to George.

“I only have two subjects to get through. Entertain yourself for a few hours, and then I promise we can go meet the other students.” She said ‘meet’ in the same tone as she would say ‘terrorize’ since little else was likely to happen.

“Thanks!” After almost four years, their twin-speak barely even registered.

She ran her fingers once again down her wand, enjoying the feeling of the way it went from round near the point to square at the handle, tiny runes etched into each of the four sides and dyed with polish to match the color of the rest of the wood, so they were almost impossible to see. After four hours of looking over wands with Ollivander, Ari had finally convinced Sirius to let her try looking in the Black Family Vault. There was a section of heirloom wands, and while he was reluctant, he’d eventually caved, letting her at least look. It only took 15 minutes to find the right one. It had only been labeled with its measurements, wood, and core, so they had no idea who it belonged to before.

It was 15 inches exactly, with a Chimera fragment and Peruvian Vipertooth heartstring core, and carved from Ebony.

It was a bit big for her, which everyone seemed to feel the need to comment on, but she enjoyed the way it balanced perfectly when gripped about a third of the way up. Besides, the length meant she needed minimal movement from her wrist or shoulder to produce the necessary spell shapes, allowing for quicker casting.

Other than that, it was a fairly plane looking wand overall, and she preferred it that way.

As for her plans, the spells themselves were fairly straightforward. They were meant to be an introduction into channeling magic through a wand and shaping it with movements and incantations. She’d already studied both of those extensively, doing everything up and until the actual casting to try to train herself early.

The main difficulty she was having was limiting the amount of magic she was using and trying to direct it through the wand rather than how she normally did for wandless magic. It was a study in control. Using a wand meant she had to focus it more directly, but the wand increased the ‘pressure’ so she didn’t have to shove quite as much magic at it as usual.

She first discovered this with an overpowered Wingardium Leviosa that sent the pebble she was using shooting up into the ceiling hard enough it stuck.

“Nice one!” was the twins’ only contribution, but she made sure to limit the amount of power she used after that. She would try the spell slowly first to monitor the magic output she used, then try it again while speeding up with each new iteration. At the very least it kept things from being flung around.

Charms was pretty straightforward, and transfiguration wasn’t too bad either. It helped that she had a portable containment field Bill had given her for her last birthday, since everyone knew she wouldn’t just wait around for ‘proper adult supervision’. She hadn’t thought she needed it for charms, but she made sure to do every transfiguration spell inside it so as to avoid accidentally making a needle too big and stabbing someone.

She also tried to cast silently a few times. It was more difficult than she expected, and she was only able to do it for the five spells she’d mastered wandlessly so far. From her understanding, repeatedly casting the same spell created a kind of muscle memory within your magic. Thus, the better you knew a spell, the easier it was to preform it without having to use the incantation or wand movements. Eventually this is also what made it easier to transfer to wandless magic, although that also required the additional application of training your magic to flow without using a wand and having enough innate power to overcome that first barrier of sending magic outside of your body.

Her wandless study skipped the using a wand to memorize the spell structure part which made learning the actual spell much more difficult. Each subsequent spell after that first color changing one was a bit faster to learn, and the last one only took her four months, but she was hoping that by memorizing them first through wand work, that she might be able to pick a few more up. Especially as they got more complex than first year spells.

Her goal was to be able to do a wandless, wordless summoning, shield, and disarming spell by the end of second year. They would be the most useful, but she couldn’t start learning them until she was confident in her wand work which would take some time.

One book she read suggested that a wixen only truly memorized a spell after 500-1000 repeats. Which may be the reason why so few people learned any wordless spells before sixth or seventh year. Most students only preformed a given spell a couple dozen times to learn it for class, unless it was actually useful in the day-to-day. However, spells often had similar structures, so eventually the buildup of magic use would allow for new spells to be learned much more quickly, especially if they maintained a simple structure.

The main problem was that it would take time. There was no real way around that. She had already created a schedule of what spells to practice daily, starting with one and adding each subsequent one as the previous hit 500 repetitions, but even with her above average core there were only so many spells she could do in a day before feeling drained. And on top of class work…

Which is why she needed to learn the class spells quickly so she could focus on the necessary ones to build her control.

Though she might have overdone it a bit.

“Ari.” It was exasperated, but mostly to hide the worry.

A hand grabbed her wrist, stopping her for trying the snail shell to a nail transformation, while another cool hand rested on her forehead. She turned to look at George which made her aware of the slightly dizzy quality everything seemed to have suddenly.

“I think…I might have overdone it.”

The scoff from her other side told her where Fred had ended up, as did the liquorish wand that was pushed into her free hand.

“You’ve gone paler than usual Star.” It was an attempt at humor, though it mostly fell flat.

“Do we need to get Bill?” George was still hovering, one hand checking her pulse now that she’d put her wand in its holster.

“Nope! I’m good. I am totally fine.” If Bill found out she’d pushed this hard on the first day, he’d ground her. And then he’d write to Sirius and Remus who would double ground her, and possibly take away the dueling exercises they’d promised to teach her next summer.

Both of the twins looked skeptical.

“I’m fine, I promise. I’ll just take a nap and eat the food Nimsy packed for lunch, and I’ll be totally back to normal.”

“And you won’t use your wand anymore today.”

She scowled at Fred but relented. She held out a pinky which they each hooked with easily. They’d loved pinky promises ever since she taught it to them, so that was how that let each other know they were serious. She had never broken one and didn’t plan to.

She laid down easily on the bench, taking the sweater George passed her to use as a pillow. She wasn’t much for mother hens, but she did enjoy knowing that they cared enough to protect her, even from herself.

By the time the afternoon rolled around her attempts to keep the twins from creating varying levels of chaos had become efforts in futility. They’d let her nap for a little over an hour and had a picnic on the floor with the basket Nimsy had packed, including the chocolate cake that was the closest thing Ari had ever tasted to her Memory of her favorite dessert.

By that point, likely aided by the influx of sugar, the boys were practically bouncing off the walls, and Ari made the executive decision to wander the train. And move them away from her luggage, just in case.

The train itself was shorter than you’d expect, but each of the compartments was bigger in the inside, so it wasn’t entirely surprising. They peeked in each of the compartments, stopping to say hello to people they knew. Mostly the elder Weasley children, and Tonks. Ari had to step in quickly chuck a dungbomb out the window when George tried to sneak it into Percy’s compartment on their way out.

George pouted, but Ari just cuffed him lightly on the back of the head. She wouldn’t normally stop them from pranking Percy, since it would be like asking them not to breath, but she had something of a friendship with their older brother and felt like he deserved to enjoy his first day back too. Besides, she wasn’t about to be blamed by association.

As it was, she had to hurry them further down the train while Percy was still too surprised to retaliate. Hopefully that wouldn’t make it back to Mrs. Weasley too soon.

Bill was in full Head Boy mode, discussing Prefect schedules with Lu Ann Meriweather who was Head Girl. Ari thought he might have a bit of a crush on the Hufflepuff, and just from the few minutes they stopped by, it was obvious she had a major crush on him. Ari would have to keep an eye on that. Though from what Charlie said, half the school had a crush on Bill.

Charlie was in a compartment with Tonks and a mix of other Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs. Every one of them cooed over the twins at Charlie’s introduction, and the boys soaked up the attention, obviously trying to establish an innocent reputation by way of being adorable. Ari stayed well out of it until Tonks dragged her in by introducing her as her cousin. And like Ari understood that she was small for her age, but if one more person mentioned how adorable and tiny she was, she was going to learn a shrinking charm just to make them all suffer too.

They also met plenty of other first years along the way. Most were some mixture of excited and nervous, and Fred and George were great at putting them at ease with joking around and telling them stories from their brothers. Well, most of them. Ari heard one mention of fighting a troll and immediately whacked Fred.

They barely made it back to their compartment in time to change before the train was pulling in to Hogsmeade. Not that you could see much in the dark.

“First years! First years, over here!”

“Wicked.” Fred and George both exclaimed upon seeing Hagrid, which was only mildly concerning.

“Do you think he’d put me on his shoulder?” Fred asked, still staring up at Hagrid in awe.

“Think of how far he could throw us!” George chimed in and Ari fought the urge to roll her eyes. Apparently, it was unbecoming of a Ward of a Noble and Ancient House, though that didn’t stop her very often.

“I’m sure you can ask him later, but unless you want to be left behind, we need to move.” They just grinned at her, and then hooked an elbow through her arm on either side, practically frog marching her along. Ari bore it with as much dignity as she could muster and still keep her feet.

They ended up in a boat with Steven, a boy they’d met earlier, and while the first view of the castle was indeed amazing, Ari spent most of her time on the lake trying to stay warm. Even with a body pressed on either side, the chill crept in. She hated the cold.

Luckily the castle itself was quite warm, like heat was emanating from the walls, and Ari had to resist the urge to hug one all the way up to the entrance hall and McGonagall’s welcome speech. She scowled when the ghosts arrived and brought another chill with them, though Fred and George were in fine form, chatting away, and she thought she heard some mention of Peeves. She did not even consider that it might be possible to dissuade their inevitable friendship, though that wouldn’t stop her from attempts to use it for her own prank avoiding agenda.

Finally, they were called in. She stood tall, striding between the tables. First impressions were important, and there was nothing quite like being categorized individually in front of all of your peers. Fred was waving at his siblings, George was eyeing the hat like he was already considering potential pranks, though whether for the hat itself, or using the hat, she could not say.

The sorting started off with Lucy Agate and proceeded from there, though she didn’t pay much attention. She already had her people and wasn’t particularly looking for more. Unless someone specifically caught her eye, then there was no use worrying about the rest.

Her name came up not long after the beginning, and she strode forward to take the stool, glad that it wasn’t very tall. The hat easily dropped over her eyes, and she waited for the expected intrusion.

Ah, you have been well trained.

She blinked into the darkness. It was softer than she expected, the feeling of a magic slipping into her mind. She was used to the solid feeling of another full being, but the Hat was made entirely of magic for a single purpose, and even her best shields were not enough to keep it from creeping through.

Worry not, your secrets are not the first I will keep, neither are you the first death-touched I’ve met.

She nearly jolted at that, mind frantic with the possibilities.

I cannot tell you more, just as I cannot tell others of you. But more importantly, where to put you.

Where? Where she’d always expected to go. Slytherin. As in her last life, and so in this one.

Yes, you would do well enough in Slytherin, but do not discount your thirst for knowledge, nor the loyalty you hold to those you consider yours.

She did enjoy learning, but for the ways she could use that knowledge. And she was fiercely protective of her people, but the Badger house only held Tonks, and Ari felt no loyalty towards any others in the house nor was she likely to. If she were to choose based on loyalty alone it would be Gryffindor, but she could help them better from the snake pit.

I see you have considered this carefully. Very well, better be

“SLYTHERIN”

Ari lifted the hat of and handed it to McGonagall then made her way to the green table, eyes steely and face a mask. Though she did acknowledge the twins’ enthusiastic thumbs ups with a blink. They knew her well enough to get the message. She sat with the only other first year already seated.

Cassius Warrington was the last of the Slytherins and of course the twins went to Gryffindor, though Ari was sure they could have made Slytherin if they wanted. But family pressures and appearances weren’t just the product of Dark purebloods, and Ari knew they would be happier there anyways.

Once the feast was started, conversation began up and down the table, though it was significantly different than the other tables in the hall. Here, each word and phrase were weighed with additional meanings. Greetings could be threats or promises, and no one was exempt from scrutiny. 

Ari waited and watched, dishing herself food and subtly clicked her Black Family ring against the edge of the plate to check it for tampering. Not that she was particularly concerned, but Andy once spent six months poisoning different foods she might eat and had convinced Sirius to join in with all those joke products he liked. She’d learned to never eat anything without checking very quickly. And how to identify several common poisons by smell and taste. Though they were never very strong, and Andy always made sure to be on hand with the antidote. She also always carried a Bezoar now too.

Conversations were struck up between the other first years, and Ari listened, filing away the information she picked up, but not attempting to engage. While she may not have any particular interest in gaining new friendships, knowing the people she would be grouped with constantly for the next seven years was a good idea.

There were five girls and seven boys this year. Since they were all new to each other, it would take time to figure out the group dynamics, and the easiest way to do that was test the waters. It was almost immediately obvious who had received training within their family and who had not, thought Ari knew that would fade quickly. You either sink or swim.

Only one other person was simply observing as she was, Cassius Warrington, two seats down and across the table. While she was not inclined to judge a person she didn’t know by their parentage, there was some caution needed until loyalties could be decided. Plus, they were eleven, nothing was quite set in stone yet.

Eventually, the girl to her right turned her attention on Ari with a predatorial gleam in her eye.

“I’m Isla Corbyn of the House of Corbyn.” She held out her hand to shake, but Ari instead placed her hand over her heart and tipped her head in the slightest of bows. It was more antiquated and formal, but still considered just as polite, so a good way to avoid having to touch people she didn’t know.

“Arianna Grey, Ward to the House of Black.” She picked her fork back up, letting it click against her family ring just enough to draw attention.

“Ah yes, my father has been concerned that the House of Black was…languishing. I’m sure he’ll be glad to know they have returned to Slytherin once more.”

“I’m sure my Aunt Andromeda would find Lord Corbyns concerns interesting. She’d a rather fine example of a Black Slytherin and I would hate to think he was discounting her. Especially after the…what was it? The Wixen Employment Reformations proposal?” It was essentially a twisted little piece of law that had been introduced as a way to increase jobs for wixen but was actually an attempt to limit the jobs muggleborns could do. Aunt Andy had spoken against it in the Wizengamot session, both eloquently and viciously enough that Lord Corbyn had definitely lost some of his credibility in the attempt.

Isla scowled at the reminder but didn’t comment further.

The rest of the dinner continued in that manner, with Ari verbally sparing with the other new students. She kept herself mostly neutral, but didn’t take insults lying down, especially when they were directed to her family. For the most part, everyone else was also playing it safe, so the meal as a whole wasn’t onerous.

The walk down to the dungeons after dinner was long and made longer by the prefects explaining tidbits and pointing out rooms along the way. She made sure to pay attention, since a map hadn’t been provided, and she refused to get lost in this school. Maybe she’d get the twins to pick up the marauder’s map early just so she could find her classes.

Once they arrived, they’d been given the password for the door, which was hidden within a blank wall. Nothing so obvious as a painting or even barrels, which she appreciated. The only tell was a tiny carved snake just where the wall met the floor. It wasn’t the only one in the castle she’d noticed, and Ari wondered if they all marked passages or secrets.

The common room was a sprawling area decorated in greens and silver and lit by chandeliers. The couches and chairs were split into groups and a section of study tables in one corner was surrounded by bookcases that she was already interested in getting her hands on. Not to mention the large, paneled windows on one side that appeared to look into a black abyss that she knew could only be the lake. For now, though, all of the first years were gathered into the center of the room, while the rest of their house was spread out.

Soon enough the entrance opened once again to admit their head of house in his billowing black robes. Ari mussed that he must have some kind of spell on them to get them to do that, but she would have to get within suicidal range to tell, so she let the thought go for now.

He began his speech, which sounded just as rehearsed as she expected, eyes scanning the crowed. Once they landed on her, his scowl deepened, though she avoided looking him directly in the eye. It was expected of course. She’d been raised by his childhood bullies, and now she had snuck into his precious snake pit. She had no doubt that he would find ways to retaliate against her, though based on the way he was talking about house unity and showing a united front, it probably wouldn’t be too public.

“You will each be having a meeting with me in the coming fortnight. Your assigned time will be given to you along with your schedule on Monday. Do not be late.”

With that he swept out of the room and left them once again to the care of the prefects. Ari wondered if individual meetings with the head of house were normal for everyone but Gryffindor, or if Snape felt that it was a particular necessity for his students. Given some of the subtle signs she’d picked up during dinner, she would not be surprised if it was the latter.

Miracle of Miracles the Slytherin dorms were sorted into groups of three and each contained their own bathroom. With the odd number, Ari was placed in the room only one other roommate which was the literal best thing she could hope for outside of somehow wrangling a private room. Unluckily she was stuck with Isla Corbyn, though she didn’t think it would be too difficult to negotiate a truce.

Also unluckily, the first-year dorms were all the way at the far end of the hall, and apparently, they would move closer and closer to the common room with each year. She wondered if it was a protect the youngest and least prepared thing, or a make it harder for them to sneak out thing. Could be both.

For now, she just focused on unpacking her clothes into her wardrobe and considering if she wanted to move her books. After a moment’s thought, she decided not to yet. She’d need to take the time to apply some of the protection and privacy wards to her side of the room before she brought out some of her favorite possessions. The trunk itself was warded, so they were safe in there.

Since the bathroom entrance was on Isla’s side of the room, she might even be able to get away with just placing a ward line at the halfway point, though that might create some distrust with her new roommate. But it was definitely something to consider. With nary a good night, they both went to bed.

Chapter Text

The next morning, they were once again escorted to the Slytherin table and were summarily warned that it was their job to find their way around from now on, as well as repeated warnings to not get caught starting trouble, and to avoid being alone in the halls. They’d been made well aware of some house’s preference to hunt down lone Slytherins, especially first years caught unawares.

She politely declined the few invitations to explore that were extended, and once she’d finished eating, stood up and walked to the far side of the hall, easily sliding into the room that the twins made between them.

It was nothing less than a declaration, but she refused to let being in different houses restrict her interactions with her friends. It would likely create issues with the other Slytherins, but since she planned to stay neutral regardless, it wouldn’t have too much of an effect on her goals. Though she could already hear the whispers throughout the hall.

“Alright there, Starlight?”

 “Star bright,”

“…first star we see tonight.”

“Whose been teaching you muggle nursery rhythms?” They grinned in unison.

“Sirius!” Of course he was helping their attempt to torture her by nickname.

“Might I suggest at least referencing the correct time of day?” She said it in condescending pureblood tone just to make them snicker.

“Oi, snakes aren’t allowed, slither back to you dungeon.” This came from a boy who looked to be about a fifth or sixth year and was built like a brick house.

Fred and George immediately went to rise to the challenge (which is exactly what made them Gryffindors) but she grabbed their sleeves under the table to keep them seated.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I’d heard Gryffindors were brave but given that you are so intimidated by a first year sitting at your table, I must have been mistaken.” She said it just loudly enough to be heard, with a pleasant smile that didn’t reach her eyes.

The boy’s face went red shockingly fast, and he surged to his feet, hand going to his wand. Fred growled to her left, George reached for his own wand, never mind that he didn’t actually know any spells yet. Ari didn’t even twitch, though she was focused on the person approaching from behind him.

“Sit down Wimple, unless you want a detention for threatening first years.” Charlie’s voice was genial but firm with a hint of threat. Ari suddenly wondered if this is how he would talk to dragons in the future. “Ari’s with us.”

Us unequivocally meant the Weasleys, and with a Head Boy and a Prefect in the family as well as a reputation for defending their friends, it was as much a declaration as her sitting at this table, if not more so. As soon as Wimple quailed under Charlie’s stare, the redheaded seeker made his way down to where his brothers and Ari were sitting.

“Good morning, Spitfire.” Ari grinned up at him. He’d called her that after the first time she’d verbally eviscerated someone in front of him and then laughed when she responded with ‘we all know I’d spit venom, not fire Weasley.’ Regardless, the name had stuck, not that she minded it. At least it was better than the twins’ current attempt. “I see you’re already causing trouble.”

“Morning Hothead. I think you’re mistaking me for your brothers again.”

“Nah, you might be sneakier about it, but we all know you’re just as chaotic.”

“Don’t go telling people my secrets Weasley.” She said mock seriously but they were both grinning at each other.

Even once Charlie left to sit with his friends, the display seemed to have relaxed the rest of the lions. Really, the interhouse rivalries were bordering on feuds at this point.

“So, what’s the plan for today?”

“Exploring!”

Since the First of September was on a Friday, they had the whole first weekend to settle in and explore the castle. With the twins, exploring was an interesting mix of finding the locations of their classes, scouting for the best places for pranks, and discovering Hogwarts secrets.

Ever since Ari started teaching the twins how to utilize wandless and wild magic, she’d realized one thing in particular. They were incredibly magically sensitive. While she could reach out with her magic and recognize if something had been spelled and maybe a feeling of what it was, the twins seemed to read it as easily as a book.

Which meant that they were stopping multiple times down every hall to checkout some new secret. So far, they discovered two hidden passageways, a plethora of slightly hidden nooks and crannies, and at least one cursed suit of armor. She’d had to pull George out of the way of its mace, because he was too caught up in trying to read the plaque attached to it.

They did manage to find all of their classrooms despite the disparity of space between them. Seriously, wixen could and frequently did create extended spaces. There was almost no reason for a castle this big to house barely 300 students. It just meant constantly climbing and descending various lengths of stairs to reach classes that could mostly all fit on the same floor.

Despite her general complaints at the lack of efficiency, Fred and George continued to drag her along every corridor, hidden passage, and staircase they could find. They even explored parts of the dungeons despite her refusing to tell them where the Slytherin common room was. They could figure it out if they wanted it badly enough.

Meanwhile, the twins were plotting. Pranks were an inevitability in their company, but she’d managed to convince them to hold off long enough to start with a bang. Or, well, she told them that since no one would know to immediately blame them for shenanigans, they should utilize that while they still could, which they took to mean that they should choose something spectacular to inform everyone that there were new pranksters in town.

Whatever, she was Slytherin now, so Percy couldn’t justify blaming her for not stopping them.

The grounds were her favorite part of the self-led tour. At this time of year, the grass was still lush and green, and the sun glittered off the black lake. The window in the common room was shallow enough that during the day it was lit with a blue green light, and Ari wondered if she could find it in the lake if she went swimming.

She wouldn’t though, it was definitely too cold. Maybe once she learned warming charms, since they’d been bumped up her list of spells to learn after riding in a rowboat at night. For now, she lazed on the grass with George while Fred wadded his way into the lake.

“If you’re trying to make friends with the giant squid, you probably should have brought some bait.” Ari called from where she was sitting against a tree, softly running her fingers through George’s hair as he rested his head on her thigh. With her other hand she practiced levitating the pebbles from the beach.

She still tended to overpower her first try and needed to focus more on control.

“What do you think this is?” Fred waved the rolls he’d snagged at lunch when they’d stopped by the Great Hall. There’d been plenty more whispers when they appeared, but they ignored them. It would quiet down eventually.

“I doubt that bread is a main component of a squid’s diet, let alone a giant magic squid.”

“Hear that George, we finally found something she might not know. Hey!” He jumped to the side and almost tripped in the water as she sent her latest pebble zipping past his shoulder.

George just blinked sleepily. He never slept well in new places for the first few nights, especially since he and Fred didn’t share a bed like they sometimes did at home.

She holstered her wand with a tap and pulled out her journal to update the number in the column of repetitions. She wasn’t particularly worried about exact numbers, but it helped her keep track of her progress and would hopefully give her an idea of how long it actually took her to master a given spell. Wingardium Leviosa was a good one to start with since it required focused intent and precision but was relatively simple as a concept.

 Once done with that she turned to another page and checked over the list that was marked down,

“Anything new for the list?”

“I heard someone talking about a potion that makes your teeth rubbery. Oh, and squid bait.” She noted down Fred’s suggestions, then looked down at George, running her fingers through his hair again.

“Alarm clock spell.” She added that too.

The list was just an amalgamation of thoughts and ideas and question to remember and research. She’d always kept one for herself, to help remind her of things she wanted to look up but would forget if she didn’t write them down. After she’d started spending more time with the twins, they’d eventually hijacked her list and started adding their own things in there. The rest of the book was filled with notes and diagrams, and even prank plans and stories that had come from the list.

She thought for a second, then added “book searching spell” and “library organizational system”. They’d stopped by briefly on their tour, but Fred and George had ganged up on her to keep her from staying there the rest of the day. She’d bargained for all afternoon tomorrow and had the Slytherin book corner for this evening, so it was okay for now.

With that, she pulled out one of the books she’d brought from home and sat, enjoying the lazy afternoon while it lasted.

She sat down at the Slytherin table for dinner. No need to antagonize her Head of House more than necessary, especially since he probably already had a misplaced grudge against her.

“Sick of sitting with the enemy already or did they finally scare you off?” This from a third year whose name she didn’t know.

“I don’t see how my acquaintances are of any concern of yours…”

“Osmund Quintrell, Heir to the House of Quintrell.”

“Well Quintrell, I would suggest you concern yourself with your own affairs, as mine do not require your attentions.”

“You’ll have plenty of concerns if you keep hanging out with them. Lion-lovers don’t do well in our house.” He sneered back at her, going for intimidating, but coming off as closer to childish pouting.

“You seem to be under the mistaken impression that I care. I’d suggest you fix that flaw in your reality.”

Now Ari was well aware of her current disadvantages, mainly: she was eleven, she was small even for her age, and she’d only just gotten use of her wand. However, Andy had taught her how to cover for those. Enough confidence and disinterest could often dissuade possible antagonists. Add to that a reminder of just who her family was or a show of power, and few would think to stand in her way.

It would hopefully be enough to give her the time to actually learn a few offensive spells. It was high on her list, but there was only so much time in the day. She made a mental note to look at starting tonight, given the sneer and half mumbled insult that seemed to be the end of that particular conversation.

As she’d been warned yesterday, along with all of the other first years, inner house conflicts were most often solved through fights or displays of power. Fights came in both verbal and physical editions and dueling was a popular way of gaining status. Though less common that the cliques.

While there was no formally established hierarchy within the house, the students of Slytherin automatically created their own. Those looking for protection or power joined a group, and those with enough power, connect, and charm led them. Most years had one or two main groups though younger students, especially those with family members, sometimes aligned outside their year. There were also the neutral people who did not align with any group either unable to persuade one, or willing to operate on their own. That was Ari’s plan. She had no interest in joining under anyone else’s power and even less in making her own.

The groups themselves vied for seating in the common room, access to different resources, and control of a rather lucrative black market that extended to the rest of the houses. Ari had plans for that, but not this year.

The first years were generally left out of the machinations as a whole, but they were expected to use this year to form their own cliques and settle into the dynamic. Jockeying had already begun within the other students, but Ari was content to sit back and wait to see what happened.

As Andy once said, voice fierce and saturated with truth Black Women Don’t Bow. Even in pretend politics, she had no plans to let anyone else dictate her life. Not that they’d be clamoring for her with her obvious ties to Gryffindor.

She endured the sneers and looks through the rest of dinner and vacated the common room in favor of setting up some rune schemes in her room that evening. Better to be safe than sorry, especially if someone decided that retaliating against her might gain them points.

Then she settled in with one of the books on defense Remus had gifted her and another on hexes and jinxes Sirius had slipped into her trunk. She would be prepared.

Chapter Text

Ari frowned down at her class schedule. It had been delivered by a sneering Snape who’d warned the entirety of the first years against skipping or being late and then eyed her in particular. She just stared passively at his nose until he moved on.

From the look of it, schedules were split into four class blocks with two in the morning and two in the afternoon. There was a break for lunch and shorter ones in between classes for passing times. Each day generally only had three blocks filled, which included some double classes, though she didn’t particularly look forward to having lunch in the middle of herbology on Wednesday.

As soon as she finished eating, she hopped up to meet the twins in the entrance hall to compare.

“So, only two classes together?” George asked as soon as he walked up. “Potions and DADA?”

“Three, we’ve got flying next Thursday.” Ari grimaced, though the twins looked excited.

All of the Weasleys loved flying, even Percy who pretended he didn’t. Ari, on the other hand, barely tolerated it when forced or bribed. Luckily it was only scheduled for every other Thursday, but it was all first term, and Ari was not looking forward to it.

“You find a buddy yet?” Ari was glad Fred didn’t phrase it as “making friends” since she had no desire, but they all knew she’d need a housemate she was on at least neutral terms with, since many of the classes required pairing up.

“Not yet, I’m still considering. Corbyn’s definitely out of the running, and she’s already been setting herself up with the other girls, so I’m not sure any of them will be options either.” Isla seemed determined to head her own clique and had already been schmoozing the other girls in their year, though she hadn’t tried Ari again yet since their exchange at the welcome feast.

“Did she try something?” Both Fred and George eyed what they could see of the Slytherin table through the doors sharply.

“No, but I’ve felt some pings on my wards. Don’t worry, I’m keeping an eye on here. How’s Jordan?”

Both boys perked up at the mention of their roommate. They’d been almost as lucky as her in room assignments, since Gryffindor only placed up to five in a single room and there were six new boys. Since it was split three and three, they’d ended up with just Lee Jordan as a roommate, even if they did still have to share a bathroom all together.

“He’s great! We talked about possible pranks for the other dorm, and he likes spiders!” George and Ari exchanged a fond smile as Fred lauded the virtues of their new roommate. She was glad they were getting along though.

“You’ll have to meet him soon. Fred’s already becoming attached.” George intoned quietly.

“That’s fine, as long as he doesn’t mind being seen with a snake.”

“Hey,” George tugged her arm, turning her to face him, and Fred stopped mid-rant. “Have they been bothering you?”

With the twins, a serious question required an honest answer. She chewed on her lip a bit before replying.

“Not much more than you’ve seen. I’ve had to dodge a couple of hexes, but most Slytherins prefer words, and you know those don’t bother me. And the Gryffindors can’t catch me.” Both of them looked like they were about ready to storm the Great Hall singlehandedly, so Ari tugged sharply on both their sleeves to draw their attention back. “Hey, I’m fine. I’m already looking into learning the shielding charm and few of the nastier jinxes in that book from Sirius. They won’t underestimate me for long.”

“Fine, but we’ll learn together.” Protego was actually a third-year charm, but she had no doubt they twins could learn it just as fast as her if they put their minds to it.

“Alright, we can find somewhere this afternoon. I’ll see you in defense anyways.” With their agreement, she hurried off toward the Charms classroom. It was going to be a long day.

Charms went fine, especially since today was mostly an overview of what they would be learning through the entire term. She’d also really enjoyed Professor Flitwick’s demonstration of making the desks cartwheel around the room along with all the other available books and supplies. Charms would likely never be one of her favorite classes, but it was useful.

She had an open hour before lunch, which was of course spent in the library, and then lunch at the Slytherin table so she could listen in on the conversations.

Isla was definitely making a move, though she seemed to be trying to court allies from all of their year mates at once. Garyson Ainsworth was also making overtures, though he seemed more selective in who he reached out to. He was also an heir, but his House was relatively new money and did not have quite the standing of other Houses present.

Really almost any wizarding family of more than four or five generation was considered a House, though only the Ancient and/or Noble Houses had the Lordships and the Wizengamot seats. So, Ainsworth was an heir to the House of Ainsworth, but not an Heir. Granted his family had made quite the fortune in trade with the South American wixen communities, so he did have some standing.

The last person making an attempt at leadership was Colleen Dolohov. An offshoot from the main branch, but still someone to watch given her family connections. Rather than doing anything specific to gain followers, she was mostly just arguing with Isla about everything and expecting the others to fall in line. Ari did not foresee her having much success.

She made a note in her journal, a separate one from the one she shared with the twins, and packed up to head to Defense.

The Defense teacher was one Professor Isabella Harris. She was from America originally but had spent time traveling throughout the world, and some of her most recent years Great Britain. She had a Mastery in Defense with a focus on Creatures and Semi-sentient Plants and had several dueling titles to her name if the rumors were true.

And she dressed almost as garishly as Dumbledore.

When Ari arrived at class with the twins, they immediately made their way to seats in the back. It was becoming her habit anyways, and with a new defense teacher it was best not to draw too much attention straight off. Just in case they were…worse than normal.

Look, Ari knew that not all Defense teachers were technically evil, but five out of the six she Remembered was not a comforting statistic. She also had all the stories from the elder Weasley brothers which generally confirmed the standard of incompetence, dangerous secrets, or just plain evil.

Even Professor Harris’s bright purple and green robes, and apparently sunny personality, did little to assuage Ari’s concerns. She’d definitely be keeping an eye on her.

“So, bets on how long she’ll last, and what’ll happen to her?”

“You already set up a betting ring?”

“Nah, Charlie’s been running it for the past three years.” Ah, that made more sense.

“Does it have to be negative?”

“Nah, there was that one, what, five years ago, that fell in love with a seventh year, and they ran off together.” Not really the reassurance she’d hoped for, but not the worst she’d heard. She was pretty sure the one three years ago had been hit by the whomping willow because he was too distracted by the book he’d been reading.

“I’ll but two sickles on emotional breakdown due to students or outside pressure.” Ari commented, passing the coin over. She’d check with Charlie later, but the Twins made a good go between for now.

“I’ve got a few knuts on major injury due to own teaching plan, and Fred put his money on ‘Accident’ by student revenge.”

“I hope Charlie included a clause about not fulfilling your own bet.”

“Don’t worry, he still remembers all of your lessons.”

A couple years back, Charlie had figured he could use her friendship with the twins as leverage to avoid their pranks. She’d been happy to negotiate terms on an individual bases and had split her rewards with the twins in exchange for them only working within the loopholes of the agreement. Charlie had learned real fast that she only followed the letter of the law and then learned how to actually word his contracts better. She’d thought it was a good life lesson, and the twins had enjoyed finding ways to trick him within the designated parameters. Now Charlie was the least pranked of their siblings and Ari still got practice in wording contracts. A win all around.

“Good morning children!” Professor Harris finally arrived. There was a generally murmured response that had Harris frowning in an exaggerated manner. “I said, good morning children!”

Ari scowled as the rest of the children dutifully recited “Good morning, Professor Harris” back. She’d always disliked those kinds of teachers.

From the class itself, Ari learned that Harris was a bubbly and fairly entertaining teacher, but as most of this was stuff she’d learned years ago from Remus, she wasn’t particularly interested in listening to the theory. Especially since there would be very little practical application for their first year.

Instead, Ari spent the time looking around the room, while keeping one ear on the lecture. It had been decorated with a series of shelfs and stands, each holding different objects. Ari could identify Nundu teeth, various run stones, a plethora of old looking weapons, and strangely enough, a set of crystal balls arranged in order of size. There were many more objects she couldn’t quite make out from this distance, but she had to wonder at the legality of a few of them.

By the time class was over, she decided it wouldn’t be the worst DADA experience she was likely to endure, though the twins seemed quite excited.

Ari’s appointment with Snape was set for Friday, immediately after her afternoon classes let out. She’d already heard a few whispers about the meetings, but most just seemed to be a few questions and setting goals for the upper year students.

She wondered why McGonagall hadn’t don’t this in the books she remembered, but maybe she was simply too busy.

Prior to the meeting, she’d also had a checkup with Madam Pomfrey, which had been a quick and painless general diagnostic. She’d almost wished there was something to get her out of flying class, but no such luck.

Exactly 30 seconds before her scheduled time she knocked on Snape’s office door. She waited for the response and then opened the door, closed it softly behind her, and made her way to the seat situated in front of Snape’s. He was already seated behind it.

“Miss Grey. It is customary for me to check in with each of my students on their arrival at Hogwarts. It is mainly to assess the health and wellbeing of my students, as well as giving you an opportunity to raise any concerns.” His tone had that slight level of derision that always seemed to pop up when he was addressing her, but he actually seemed like he was trying to maintain a neutral face, so she would make note of his attempt, even if it did not excuse his prejudice. “To begin, I have Poppy’s report on your health. There was some concern about your nutrition levels. Would you care to explain?”

“I assume you are referring to the malnutrition when I was younger?” She waited for his nod. “Then you’ll notice that it’s been rectified over the past four years. I had some difficulty procuring food as a child until I was taken in by the House of Black. The only long-term affect seems to be a slight stunting in my growth, though it’s hard to tell how much without knowing who my parents are.” She stated the facts clearly and concisely without letting any further emotional response leak through.

“And your home life?”

“Is perfectly adequate.” He scoffed lightly at that. “Professor Snape, I am well aware that there is history between you and my guardians, however, I would recommend against any misdirected anger. I am not Sirius Black, and I have done nothing to wrong you. Nor will I tolerate any mistreatment.”

“And if you are not satisfied with my treatment of you?” It had a cold bite to it, and Ari knew she’d struck a nerve.

“Then I will ask to be placed under alternate school guardianship so that your prejudice does not affect my schooling.” He seemed surprised at her answer. “Did you think I would run home crying?”

“No, I can see that you would not. I believe I can remain objective in your case, there will be no need for a transfer of authority.” Ari wasn’t sure she quite believed him, but they were stuck with each other for the next seven years so she’d take what she could get.

“Good. I do not plan to cause any trouble for you, and I’d appreciate it if you would attempt the same.”

“Very well. Were there any other concern you wished to raise?”

“Not at this time.”

“Dismissed.”

Ari left, hoping that that would help smooth over some of the potential issues between them, and possibly even prepare Snape for when Harry would arrive. There was no way she would allow him to treat Harry as she Remembered, so having him learn to curb his distaste for their parents and guardians now would be good.

Chapter Text

Ari approached the study table with complete confidence. Anything less would probably get her shooed away, which was not an option. Especially since it had taken her this long to figure out where Bill usually sat with his study group.

Though really, the library was the only option since the group consisted of half the students taking Year Seven Ancient Runes. Since it was such a small class it only made sense for an inter-house study group.

Ari took in the five figures at the table, noting the two blue ties and two red with just one yellow. She absently wondered if the lack of Slytherins was on purpose, but figured she’d find out soon enough.

Casual as you please, she slid in next to the redhead who was sure to get a lecture on the length of his hair as soon as he got home for Christmas. He had to have used some kind of hair growth potion to get it that long after they’d only been at Hogwarts for two weeks.

He looked down at her as she set down her books, pulling herself into the chair that was just a little tall, and simply raised an eyebrow. She ignored him, reaching out and pulling over the parchment he’d been working on.

“Oh Bill, is this your sister?” One of the Ravenclaws with straight brown hair asked, practically cooing.

“Nah, can’t be, she doesn’t have red hair. Besides, no Weasley’s ever been in Slytherin.” This from the Hufflepuff.

She spoke up before Bill could respond.

“Cedrella Weasley. Granted, she was a Black first and married in, but close enough. Also, you’ve put Naudr instead of Ar here.”

“Thanks Ari, did you want to look over this one too?” He pushed another parchment over, one that looked like it had been completed previously, and she started scanning it, ignoring the gob smacked looks from the other students.

“There is no way that tiny firstie is looking over your work Bill.” The other Ravenclaw exclaimed, up out of her seat, and leaning halfway across the table to snatch up the original parchment, quickly scanning it over.

Now granted, Bill might not be quite as flamboyant as the twins, but he was every bit as mischievous, it was just that his preferred pranks tended towards convincing people of increasingly ridiculous things. His charisma and easy-going attitude just enabled him. So, it came as no surprise that his friends were suspicious.

He glanced down at her with a conspiratorial look, and she just blinked slowly back at him, letting him take the lead. She may not be one to initiate a prank, but she was plenty happy to go along with one, especially if it fell directly into her skill set.

“How about this. I’ll wager a galleon each that Ari can look at any rune array assignment you have on hand and tell you what it was designed for. And,” He continued, grinning at the gleam in his companions eyes, “I wager another that she can improve it.” He sat back with a wicked smile that should have alerted them to just what exactly they were getting into, but the three who’d spoken so far were already digging in their bags and books to look for a good challenge. The other Gryffindor was the only one smart enough to stay out of it.

She leaned in close enough that only Bill could hear her.

“I hope it’s better than your assignments. I thought you finished with Younger Futhark last year?” Bill chuckled.

“Yeah, but Professor Babbling wanted to review the languages before she let us start mixing them together.” Which, fair enough, integration could be difficult, and even small mistakes could destabilize the whole thing enough to explode. Better to be safe.

Eventually the first Ravenclaw approached, holding a parchment close to her chest and shooing Bill away so he couldn’t ‘cheat’. Ari rolled her eyes but accepted the parchment when it was offered.

It was obviously an assignment from the end of last year. No magic imbued in it, but an example of integration using Elder Futhark and Egyptian hieroglyphics. It was a fairly interesting sequence, using both placement and orientation to help balance the array.

“It’s designed to help aid sleep and discourage nightmares, though the proportions are a bit off if you want to be able to fit this under a bed.” Ari heard the groaning from the other side of the table but wasn’t quite done yet. “You could add a wrs at this focal point, it would rest below the head creating a stronger connection with the recipient.”

Bill just laughed as the others grumbled and called for a retry, earning a shush from Madam Pince, but still handed over the coin. He then discretely slipped her her half of the winnings. This wasn’t the first time she’d been used to win a bet, and they had a standing agreement.

“How the hell did you find a baby that knows runes better than half our class?!”

Ari scowled at that. She was not and had not been a baby for a long time, even if she was shorter than she liked.

“I’d bet I’ve been studying runes longer than you. Besides, I studied under Theodor Tonks.” Ted might not be a renowned expert, but he had published several thesis and papers, so it was likely they’d heard of him, which from the round of murmurs they had.

“Alright there, duck, lets leave them with some dignity intact. What did you come over for? I know it wasn’t to correct my homework and win bets.” She pulled out her clay tablet in its wooden frame from between two of her books, sliding it towards him.

“Can you do that spell that keeps the clay perfect? Mine keeps drying out.” Bill just smiled and flipped the tablet over to inscribe a couple runes on the back to anchor the spell to so it would last longer. She memorized the incantation and the wand movement, though she had little hope of being able to make a spell of that level work yet. Both of them ignored the further mutters about her studying cuneiform.

“Remind me again why you haven’t already harangued Professor Babbling into letting you sit in on her class?” Bill asked teasingly.

“Because Remus and Sirius want me to ‘experience a normal childhood’ and ‘learn to interact with peers my age’ so I’m only allowed to work on my projects in my free time. Though they did say I could ask to be moved into the NEWT class in third year.”

“Well, I’m sure you’ll have plenty of time given the level of work first year classes assign.” They both knew she was hardly paying attention in those classes, though writing essays did bite into her free time a bit. But not too much given how few classes first years had. “Also, I heard about Wimple bothering you. If he does it again, let me know.”

“I can take care of myself.” She wasn’t really offended, but not willing to let Bill get away with mother hen-ing either.

“I know you can, but it’s better not to set the twins on him yet. Keep the element of surprise.”

“As if I control anything the twins do.”

“Uh huh. Alright, go on before you give my classmates any more inadequacy issues.” Bill shooed her away with a grin. The last part of their conversation had been quieter for privacy, but she could see the others at the table trying to listen in.

“Then by your leave Head Boy.” She dropped into a perfectly executed bow, tempered by a teasing grin, then hurried off to find a quieter place to work. She would miss Bill when he graduated this year, but at least she’d get this one with him.

***

“Miss Grey, you’ve been writing the entire class period. Did my lecture bore you or are you having some trouble with the exercise?”

Ari finished writing the sentence she was on, then turned her attention to McGonagall. Trust her to be the Professor that first noticed Ari wasn’t just writing notes.

“Of course not Professor, I’ve already completed the exercise.” Ari pushed the needle towards that end of the desk hoping that would distract her. McGonagall picked up the needle and looked it over, Ari suspected she was checking it for her magic signature as proof that it wasn’t just a needle she’d brought in, or someone else’s.

“Very well, then you should be able to do it again.” She set another match in front of Ari.

Ari valiantly refrained from rolling her eyes, and pulled out her wand, with a twist, tap, and whispered incantation later, another needle sat where the match had been. She looked up at the professor expectantly.

“Very good, one point to Slytherin. Now if you could explain why you were writing during my lecture as well.”

Oh, so she wasn’t going to let that go. Ari picked up the parchment and held it out to her.

“This appears to be the essay I was planning to assign at the end of class.”

After the first week of eternal boredom in all of her classes except Herbology, Ari had decided that she would just use the time to complete homework instead. Since all of the classes assigned students the same work for the week, for the classes that the twins had first, they would tell her the assignments which allowed her to bring the correct reference books to class to work on it. For the rest, she just worked on a different class’s work. Slightly riskier, but efficient.

It kept her busy while also allowing her to listen to the lectures for any notable information that wasn’t in the book. The practical exercises were easy since she’d already learned most of them, and they almost exactly followed the order in the book. This worked for everything except Herbology. She’d worked on memorizing the plants and uses and properties, but Ted had never had much use for it, and Remus and Sirius both had black thumbs, so it was the subject she most had to actually pay attention to.

“Since it is on topic, I will allow you to work on it, however, the next time you finish early, inform me and I will provide another exercise to try.”

Ari nodded seriously and made a mental note to refrain from completing the exercise so early in class next time. She would rather have the time to finish her homework, than have to do further work for McGonagall. She’d just have to be more subtle, though that would be difficult with the sharp-eyed Gryffindor Head of House.

Ari sort of wished she could just test out of the classes and continue her self-study, but she knew how important it was to Remus and Sirius that she make an attempt at having a normal childhood. They were fine with her studying anything she wanted to, so long as she made an actual effort in her classes. It wasn’t like it was hard, it was just really boring.

Over the last few weeks, she’d been learning all of the spells for her classes well enough that she could cast them without trouble as well as the extra spells she and the twins wanted to learn, and all of this on top of the offensive and defensive spells they’d been practicing. It was a lot to work on, and she considered deprioritizing the last few school spells she needed to practice, since they wouldn’t even be relevant until late in the spring term anyways.

If she got her essays done in class and devoted her afternoons to the twins’ makeshift dueling practice, then she could spend her evening on the repetition work. She could normally get about 30 repetitions done before she started to feel drained. She had already achieved a silent levitating spell and was now working on getting rid of the wand motion too. Then she could move on to the next spell at 2/3 capacity while using the rest of that time to practice wandless levitation. She figured this would be the best way to continuously add new spells while still working on the old ones.

The next one on her list was the disarm since she was already getting a lot of practice with the twins.

As soon as class was over, she headed to the unused classroom she and the twins had claimed. It had been relatively empty aside from a few desks and was in a corner of the sixth floor that was rarely traversed. Ideal for the twins, though a bit far from the dungeon for her taste. Luckily there was a staircase nearby that went almost all the way down. One day she was going to figure out how to add an elevator to this place. Or even just escalators. The staircases already moved in one direction anyways.

“McGonagall finally caught me not paying attention in class.” She announced as soon as she passed the wards. They weren’t particularly complex yet, mostly just a silencing runes and barriers that were keyed to only them. Eventually she wanted to add notice-me-nots, repulsions, and then rune the entire room. Maybe a few protection schemas as well. Merlin knows what they were going to get up to in the future.

Fred whooped triumphantly, holding out a hand to George who handed over a few knuts with a scowl. Ari didn’t know why they bothered; they already pooled their resources anyways.

“So did you finally get detention then?”

“No, because I am a model student. I want to work on Protego more today, I’ve got Expeliamus down pretty well, and the jelly-leg, confundus, and patrificus totalus are easy enough. I think I need something flashier though, something to humiliate them so they won’t try again.”

“Could always just punch ‘em.” Fred said, leaning back in the desk chair he’d claimed. “Pains a pretty good deterrent.”

“Yeah, but Remus will kill me if he hears I got in a physical fight. He only let Sirius teach me how to throw a punch as an emergency case scenario.”

“Why not stick with your strengths then? Runes have to have some application in fights, don’t they?”

It wasn’t a bad suggestion, but the main problem was that runes required time to inscribe which was not often available in a duel. And she’d rather end it quickly and decisively than extend it through creating wards. Arithmancy was great at helping her learn knew spells by breaking down the components, but also not direct applicable. She said as much.

“What about fire? It’s generally showy and most of those spells require control over stability which you have plenty of.” George suggested, looking over a book of 1001 Must Know Spells.

“Incendio has some range to it. Any way to make it a projectile instead of a continuous flow?”

“Prefix of iactare, though you might be able to circumvent that with visualization.”

Some common spell pre- or post-fixes could be replaced with correct visualization since the main spell itself focused on intent so much.

“What year is that spell?”

“Fourth due to the control issues. No one wants first years setting things on fire willy-nilly.”

“Perfect. Flashy and ‘high level’, should work out great.”

“So, who are you planning to flambe then?”

“Quintrell. If he doesn’t challenge me soon, then I’ll need to force him.” He’d been the most outspoken about her friendships with Gryffindors, and his group had been at the center of some nasty rumors going around. She needed to end it decisively before it undermined her position as a self-contained neutral power rather than a castoff.

“Is that the bloke that’s twice your size? Why not just challenge him yourself?” Fred twirled his wand trough his fingers like he wouldn’t mind challenging him right now, but Ari had already convinced them to let her handle the Slytherin side. They were welcome to do whatever they wanted to Gryffindors that were willing to make comments despite Charlie’s warning at the beginning of term.

“Because it’s considered dishonorable for an older student to challenge a first year to a duel, especially this early in the term. If I challenge him and win, then he’s just embarrassed. If he challenges me and loses then not only did he stoop so low as to fight a “defenseless” child, but he failed to follow through.”

“You snakes and your politics.”

“You lions and your recklessness.”

“Well, we better get you in top form then. Can’t have you losing to such a dishonorable cad.”

Ari smiled and got into position.

The rest of the afternoon was spent on practicing Shields and learning her new fire spell. She had the form for Protego down by now, but it required more magical stability then she currently possessed, since the shield drew not only on the power of her core, but the solidity of it. Which is why it was a third-year spell and would continue to gain strength as her core settled until she came of age.

 So far, she could cast a shield, but it wouldn’t block more than one average level jinx. She didn’t want to have to rely on it in a fight, so dodging would be a better bet along with a quick and decisive fight.

The twins were only too happy to lob hexes and jinxes they’d learned at her as practice for both shielding and dodging. Since they weren’t nearly as worried about learning the entire curriculum in the first month, they’d had plenty of time to look through Sirius’s book.

Incendio was an interesting spell to learn. It required a lot of focus to keep the caster from burning themselves and was very easy to overpower. She had to learn to limit the amount of magic she used and then how to shape the fire into a short powerful burst. It wasn’t quite a fireball, but it did look impressive and was fairly quick to cast once she got the feel of it down.

Now all she had to do was arrange the duel.

Chapter Text

Turns out that was easier than she expected.

For once, she was seated at a table in the study section of the common room working on her potions essay that she hadn’t quite been able to finish in Defense. The shelves had plenty of potion books to reference, so she’d decided to stay out here rather than return to her room or the library. She was also enjoying the view into the Black Lake as it was lit spectacularly but the mid-afternoon sun.

Unfortunately, Quintrell and his clique also had this period free and were using the common room as their own personal arena for some wizarding game that appeared to be a cross between football and cricket, but with a magical ball that whizzing about when hit or kicked. Sadly, there was currently a lack of prefects available to tell them off.

Suddenly, the ball went careening across the top of her table, sending half her notes to the floor, and barely missing her.

“Oi, Quintrell, take it outside! Some of us are trying to study.” It was the loudest she’d spoken since arriving at Hogwarts, and immediately drew the groups attention.

“What do you care? You’re probably just going to be married off as soon as you graduate anyways. You don’t need to study to lie on your back.” Quintrell sneered at her to the uproarious laughter of his gang.

Ari immediately locked down on the rage she felt and hid it behind her barriers. It wouldn’t be helpful right now.

“Some of us have higher aspirations than having our fathers buy us a place at the ministry.” Ari immediately noticed the twitch and anger at the mention of his father. “That is, of course, if Lord Quintrell would even bother with a sub-average student like you. He does have plenty of option.”

Ari smirked, driving home the sting of her reference to the rumors of a plethora of Quintrell bastards.  Osmund was the only legitimate heir, but family magics could work in strange ways, and if it had rejected him on his thirteenth birthday, then he might be insecure in his future.

“Shut up you little whore!” He shouted, going red in the face, but Ari pressed on.

“Really, it’s no wonder. If I had an heir like you, I’d be disappointed too.” Quintrell’s wand was up and pointed at her, practically spitting mad.

Ari just raised an eyebrow but shifted subtly incase she needed to dive out of the way of a spell. Luckily, the several witnesses who seemed to be suddenly paying attention was enough to deter him.

“I challenge you. I’m going to make you eat those words.” Ari answered with a shark like grin.

“Tonight at 9, don’t forget to inform the prefect.” The challenged got to choose the time, as long as it was within a week of the challenge and one of the prefects were required to oversee each duel.

Quintrell turned and stalked, the rest of his group falling in line behind him with only a few parting jeers.

“You really shouldn’t bait him.” Cassius Warrington said from his place beside her.

She’d been pairing with him for any class without Gryffindors. He was quiet and observant and seemed just as uninterested in joining a group as she was, so it made sense. Granted, he was the son of a Death Eater, but so far he did not seem to share the same prejudices or fanaticism, so she was willing to see where he fell.

“He’s the most vocal. If I can take him down a peg, then the others will lay off as well.”

“That only works if you win.”

“Better wish me luck than.” She said with a bright false smile as Warrington just rolled his eyes.

“I hope you have a spell or two, or luck isn’t going to cut it.”

“I’ve got something.” With that, she turned back to her essay. She’d need to get it done in time to stretch out and do some meditating beforehand.

Nine came quickly. And yet, not quickly enough.

Ari had spent the time leading up finishing homework, meditating, and refusing to pace. She couldn’t help the nerves she felt, but she could refuse to show them.

She knew what she was getting into. Duels had happened almost every night of the first two weeks as people settled into their positions and rehashed old feuds. Since duels over the same argument or topic could only be done once a school year. She’d attended several to get feel for what was required.

All duels were held in a large empty room a few hallways away from the common room entrance. The two duelists met at the appointed time along with a prefect and any who wished to watch. The prefect raised the built-in wards (which Ari planned to take a closer look at later), the duelists saluted each other, and the start was called.

Duels were finished when one party yielded, was knocked unconscious, or was disabled in some other way. Only spells that were reversable or cause only minor or surface damage were allowed. Granted, minor for wizards was pretty much anything less than a severed limb, which left plenty of wiggle room. It was up to the prefect to decide if a spell went outside of those parameters.

Given all of this, Ari was as prepared as she could be.

Upon reaching to room, she realized there were far more spectators than she expected, but perhaps they were simply bored on a Wednesday night, since there hadn’t been any notable challenges so far this week. Not that it mattered, though it would at least help word spread.

She stepped up to Prefect Malkin, who gave her a glance, but didn’t say anything, which Ari appreciated. She was already aware that Quintrell was twice her size and in theory knew quite a few more spells.

Quintrell entered not long after her, and Malkin gestured for them to stand at either end of the dueling lane. Quintrell was smirking, but Ari kept her face neutral and her grip on her wand steady.

“This duel is between Quintrell and Grey to settle on going animosity. Are you two ready?”

Ari saluted with her wand across her chest, and a slight bow while maintaining eye contact. Quintrell merely flicked his wand to his shoulder and nodded. It was a deliberate slight, but Ari ignored it, falling into a dueling stance. She’d learned it this summer from Remus at the same time she had him drilling her on wand movements. Little things that she could learn without magic, though they had mostly done it for fun, not expecting her to have a reason to use it anytime soon. If he could see her now, he’d lose it. First on Quintrell, then on her.

“Begin.”

Ari whipped her wand forward with precision, whispering Expelliarmus under her breath, and almost lost her composure when Quintrell’s wand wretched out of his hand mid-spell and came sailing over. She managed to reach out and catch it, though she had to take a step to the side. However, she didn’t let her surprise show. Only her disappointment.

“Really Quintrell, I thought we were here to duel?” Quintrell looked stunned like he couldn’t quite process what had just happened. She expected everyone watching was similarly surprised, but that was far too quick. She hadn’t nearly gotten what she wanted yet. “Here I was, hoping for an actual fight. Why don’t you try again.”

She tossed the wand onto the ground in front of him, making him stoop down to pick it up. She could have used the moment to send a curse at his back since the duel had yet to end, but she was trying to establish herself as the moral high ground in this duel, so she waited patiently.

Quintrell’s friends jeered at her from his end, though the rest of the audience just seemed amused. For himself, Quintrell looked like he was finally getting over the shock and headed straight into rage. As soon as he had his wand, he snapped it up, sending a jinx in her direction. She dodged the first one and pulled up a shield for the second one. At least he seemed pretty fast once he actually started trying, or this might have been boring.

Ari grinned as her shield shattered, already casting her new fire spell and watching as he scrambled out of the way. Apparently the third years had not yet learned Protego. She sent a couple more bursts, watching him dodge, and then decided it was enough. She cast another near silent disarming spell and this time directed it perfectly to catch the wand without moving.

“Do you yield?” She watched the sweaty panting boy. She should have noticed it then, but she was slightly distracted by the triumph of not only winning but winning decisively. Sirius would be disappointed if he knew how cocky she was.

“No!” Quintrell yelled, rushing at her and taking a wild swing with his fist. She immediately dropped into a crouch, glad for her reflexes honed from years of avoiding pranks. However, when she popped back up, she put a slight forward angle on her trajectory, slamming her head into his nose.

But she didn’t stop there. You don’t stop until your enemy is down, or until you are safe to run. Sirius’s words, said out of earshot of even werewolf hearing, echoed in her mind. And with that, she slid one foot back, twisted her hips and slammed her fist into his throat. She felt something crack slightly, and watched as he fell to the ground, gasping and clutching at both his throat and bleeding nose.

“The fight is finished. Win to Grey.” Ari watched Malkin bring down the shields from the corner of her eye, not willing to turn her back on a potential enemy until she was sure the fight was over.

As soon as his friends made it over, she stood up straight, dropping his wand to the ground.

“I’d say better luck next time, but I don’t think even luck could help you.” She sheathed her wand, wiped a hand across her brow and flicked the blood onto the ground. “Leave me and my friends alone.”

She didn’t wait for a response, just turned and walked out of the room.

It was a few days after the duel when Ari saw the familiar owl approach holding an ominously red letter. She was at Gryffindor today, enjoying the peace of not being hounded by Slytherins every time she came over here. She didn’t expect it to last forever, but she’d enjoy it for now.

The owl landed in front of her as expected, and Ari just sighed at the bright red envelope.

“Is that a howler?!” Fred exclaimed.

“Ari what did you do?!” was George’s response from her other side.

Honestly, she had no idea, so given that, she simply reached forward and broke the wax seal, watching it turn into a mouth.

“NASHIRA ARIANNA GREY, WHY THE BLOODY HELL AM I RECEIVING MARRIAGE PROPOSALS…”

She sent a silencing spell at the paper with an added twist of wild magic that she’d learned as a child since the basic spell was not normally enough to suppress a Howler. They all watched as the letter yelled itself out silently then tore itself to shreds. And by all, she meant the entirety of the Great Hall since the yelling had drawn everyone’s attention.

“Miss Grey, I would recommend reminding your guardian that certain language is not tolerated in this establishment.” McG for the win, or at least the perfect distraction to break everyone out of their shock.

“Of course Professor, I’ll remind him.” With that McGonagall turned back towards the head table and everyone else turned back towards their breakfast or gossiping about the latest scandal.

“What did he mean marriage proposals?” George asked with a grimace.

“It’s a pureblood custom, and as a Ward of the House of Black, I’ve been getting them since I was about eight.”

“Then why was he so angry?” This came from Lee across the table. He’d started to settle down around Ari enough to actually speak up, and she had found that he could be almost as funny as the twins sometimes, albeit with a drier humor.

“Well, he wasn’t supposed to know about them.” She sighed out, just as another owl landed in front of her.

Luckily this one was not a howler, and Ari recognized the handwriting as soon as she saw it. He had a lot of explaining to do. She ripped it open quickly.

Dear Ari,

Over the last couple of days, we have received an influx of marriage arrangement proposals and contracts. I’d like to hear about what might have led to this higher than usual rate, but in the meantime, I was unable to hide all of them from Sirius. I’m terribly sorry about the howler, he sent it off before I knew he’d found out. We will be having a discussion on what constitutes a proper response.

In the meantime, I will have Clearwater and Charleston draft proper responses as usual. Let me know if there’s anything we can do to help from our side.

Hope you’re well.

Love,

Remus

Well, that would do it. She passed off the letter to George who’d already been reading over her shoulder.

“Wait, is this about the duel?” George asked, handing the letter across her to Fred.

“I mean, probably? Pureblood families like a show of power, and that definitely qualifies.”

“But marriage proposals?” Lee chimed in, seeming baffled about the entire concept.

“Yep. The House of Black doesn’t have an Heir as of now, though some people assume that it will be me or Harry if the Family Magic doesn’t chose another. Either way, a marriage contract would create a tie between our houses forming not only a political alliance, but likely a financial one as well.”

 “Sirius and Remus wouldn’t do that though, right?” George didn’t sound quite as sure as he probably hoped.

“Nah, Sirius is more likely to duel the people offering, and Remus wouldn’t let him be tricked into signing anything anyways. We’ve been keeping it from Sirius so he didn’t have to worry…or fight everyone.”

“Good.” It was quiet but firm and made Ari feel inordinately pleased at how protective her friends were.

***

“Hey, didn’t there use to be a vase out there?” Fred asked, stumbling into the room as he looked over his shoulder. George followed, with his own furtive glance behind.

She’d been working with the notice-me-not runes on the door which were more difficult than normal, as she had to work around the magic imbued into all of Hogwarts. Right now, it worked on everyone including themselves, but if you had a point of reference then you could find the door by feeling along the wall. She was still working on it.

“Yeah, the house elves must have moved it. I always just look for the Phineas Nigelus bust. Remind me to draw a mustache on it or something.”

“Of course, you know—”

“—We’re always up for mischief—”

“—But why?” Ari glared at the twins. While they did sometimes slip into finishing each other’s sentences, more often it was a show they put on, and they only did it around her specifically when they wanted to annoy her.

“He’s Sirius’s great grandfather, and he’ll get a kick out of it.” She looked at them fully for the first time and noticed just how disheveled they appeared. As well as the faint scent of dungbombs that seemed to follow them. “What have you two been up to, then? If you turned Mrs. Norris blue again, I’m not going to be your alibi.”

“Well, we were planning on bombing the prefect bathroom, right?”

“But then Filch caught us as dragged us off to his office. He’s got like, all of these manacle and stuff in there.”

“And he also had these cabinets with labels like ‘Extremely Dangerous’”

“So, of course, we had to look in them. Fred distracted him, and I just grabbed everything I could.”

“And I figured that we might as well use the dungbombs since it’s not like we’d be getting them back.”

“So, then we made our daring escape.”

“And here we are.” They both executed flourishing bows and Ari almost had to applaud their show. Listening to their stories jump back and forth was actually fairly entertaining so long as they finished their own sentences.

“So, what’d you get then?”

George started emptying his pockets onto the desk. Out came several additional dungbombs, various charmed pranks that were obviously from Zonkos, a set of old muggle firecrackers that she was definitely banning them from setting off inside, a pack of gum that was no doubt expired, if it was actually gum, and finally an old bit of parchment.

Ari almost gasped at that last one and couldn’t help herself from picking it up.

“Not sure what that is, but it’s got enough magic in it to practically glow, so it’s got to be something.”

“I’m sure you’ll figure it out.” She said with a neutral smile to keep from giving it away, although she should have known better.

“Our dearest silver star—”

“—Our most cunning of Serpens—”

“—Do you know what this is?” They both ganged up on her, trying to loom intimidatingly in front of her chair, but all she wanted to do was laugh.

“Not that I can say.”

“That’s not a no!”

“No, but I would hate to ruin the surprise. Besides, you’re smart enough to figure it out.” Stating it as a challenge seemed to have the desired effect as both of the twins immediately turned to start studying the parchment rather than hounding her.

She left them to it, resolving not to tell Remus and Sirius that their old map had been found. They would find out eventually, but hopefully not for a few years. She didn’t need either of them getting it in their head that it might be a good way to keep an eye on her at school. They were definitely overprotective enough as it was.

Chapter Text

Ari sat at the Slytherin table, enjoying a quiet breakfast before most of the other students were up and watching the snow fall from the enchanted ceiling. The term had gone much more quickly than she’d expected, and now it was already time to head home for the holidays.

“Any plans for the holidays?” She asked Warrington who was seated beside her. They mostly preferred to work together in comfortable silence, but over the past few months they’d moved slowly from fellow students to semi-friendly acquaintances. By the end of the year, she expected it to bump up to friendly acquaintances, but wasn’t worried about moving it beyond that. They worked together well, they helped each other occasionally with homework, and they both avoided most of the other Slytherins in their year.

“No. I will be staying here.” It wasn’t unexpected, and Cassius didn’t seem surprised, only resigned. She had yet to see him receive a letter from home. But it still made something ping in the back of her head. Right in the place that had her setting up elaborate schemes to get Harry away from the Dursleys and led to her befriending most of the Weasley brood.

Nope! Not today! She was not about to adopt every kid with a sad backstory she met. If she did that, she’d have half of Slytherin in her circle, and that was not going to happen. They were barely even friendly; she was not going to do it.

Still, she could already see possible plans to increase interaction over the next term, get him to write over the summer, and possibly bring him home next year so he wasn’t left alone at the school over the holidays.

All of this despite the fact that Sirius would murder her if she brought a boy home, regardless of the fact that most of her friends were boys anyways. Not to mention who his father was. She took all of that and shoved it deep down into a little lock box where she wouldn’t have to worry about it for right now. She’d consider it after the holidays, along with a very serious talk with her subconscious on who was reasonable to get attached to.

For now, she just kept eating her toast and reflected on the last few months.

Ever since the duel, most of the Slytherins had left her alone. She still delt with various snide comments, but Quintrell had been thoroughly put in his place, and the others seemed to take that and her solid neutral statis and let her be. The marriage proposals had also mostly stopped, possibly because Sirius had responded to several with threats before Remus could stop him.

Regardless, she’d still been practicing with the twins and had added several more jinxes to her repertoire. Her current favorite was one that made the victim dance a jig for thirty minutes if not countered.

She’d also been keeping up with her wandless and could now do the levitation charm with ease and mostly had the disarming charm working as well though it was taking longer than expected. She had Alohamora down to nonverbal, since it worked better on magically locked things which could be resistant to her picks. What she really wanted was Accio, but she hadn’t been able to get it to work consistently with a wand and incantation, let alone silently. It was too high of a level, and her magic core wasn’t settled or honed enough to be able to make that sustained level of magic work.

So, for now, she was focusing on getting as many semi-useful spells nonverbal and motionless as possible, since she’d have plenty of time over the break and eventually the summer to practice wandless, what with the Trace. The twins were practicing as well, as they had been since she’d first taught them how to change colors, but they’d never been as driven, especially now that they actually had wands. They were, however, interested in the unlocking spell, since that would be easily applicable to pranks outside of Hogwarts. Especially since Bill and Charlie locked their room magically.

The twins had been spending much of their time raining havoc down upon the school. She’d already heard McG complaining about never having been this bad since Potter and Black and couldn’t help but be proud of the mischief makers.

They’d each been in numerous detentions and lost dozens of points apiece. Though, most of that had been in the last couple months, since it took a while for people to start realizing that the surge in dungbombs, color changing cats, and trick doorways had been due to the two first years.

Well, Ari had helped with the doorways, since watching someone walk into an invisible ward multiple times was hilarious, and since she could draw the runes on a paper beforehand, there was no chance of her getting caught in the act. She’d even figured out how to make it so people could only walk through backwards, or while patting their head and rubbing their belly. She considered it practice and planned to show it to Ted and to keep it far away from Sirius. He was pants at runes, but Remus was surprisingly bribable on certain topics and prank rune arrays were definitely one of them.

As usual, with the sudden increase in pranks, and especially the ones concentrated in the Gryffindor common room, Percy had come complaining to her about keeping the twins in line. He often fell into the fallacy of thinking that because she was almost as organized and focused as him, she must want to curb the twins’ tendencies too. She’d learned long ago to just let them have their fun, especially since she had first created the deal to not be targeted. However, this year, every time Percy came up with another complaint, all she did was point to her green tie. Not her House, not her problem. And while she definitely spent as much, if not more time with the twins since arriving, she still refused to be held responsible for them, so Percy was, as they say, shit out of luck.

The twins were planning to go home for the holidays as well, along with the rest of the Weasley clan, and Ari looked forward to Mrs. Weasley’s fudge, and her newest sweater as usual. Harry, Sirius, and Remus had also been summarily adopted, and Mrs. Weasley had started to coordinate their sweaters, though she wasn’t sure if it would be the same this year, since she started Hogwarts.

By now, more students had begun to trickle in. As the first day of holiday, many people had slept in, but with the train leaving at 11 there was only so late you could leave it. She’d been up early as usual and was already packed, with her trunk waiting at the correct place in the Entrance Hall. It would be loaded onto the train by the elves, so she didn’t have to lug it around. She’d consider making sure the twins were ready to go, but there was no way Percy wasn’t already on it, with Bill mediating the resulting arguments.

She’d been playing with the idea of finding a way into Gryffindor tower. It wouldn’t be particularly hard, given that Gryffindors were significantly less worried about security than Slytherins or even Hufflepuffs. She could definitely just hang around under her notice-me-not, which was just as easy to use as it had always been, and listen for the password. Or she could probably convince the Fat Lady to let her through, based on her friendships with the various Weasleys.

If she established herself early enough, then she could probably establish a precedent which would be helpful if Harry ended up in there. And with the influence of Sirius and Remus growing up, she thought it was a fair possibility. She’d rather have access to the tower in the case of Potter Luck shenanigans. Another project for next term. She was sure the twins would be happy to help, though she’d have to haggle them down from telling them where the Slytherin common room was.

Soon enough, she caught sight of a gaggle of redheads and assorted friends and said her goodbyes to Cassius. Merlin, she was already thinking of him by his first name. As soon as she made her way over, she was ensconced in the middle of the group. By the time a rather chaotic breakfast was over, she took over herding the twins and Lee from Percy, which, when she did it, didn’t actually require much herding. Mostly just keeping an eye out so they didn’t fall behind or stopping George from tripping over stuff when he was distracted. Though mostly Fred was in charge of that.

Bill fussed, making sure she had her scarf and hat on until she reminded him that she was perfectly capable of dressing herself, and in a better manner than him, all while side eyeing the dragonhide pants he’d chosen for today. A couple of his friends nearby had heard her comment and started heckling him, which left her free to grab the twins and Lee and make her escape.

It really was quite cold outside, which is why she hadn’t ventured out much in the last month. Snow littered the grounds, and the Black Lake was partial frozen along the edges. They followed the path down to where the carriages were waiting, and as soon as they came into sight, Ari froze.

In front of each of the carriages was a single skeletal black horse with wings.

Thestrals.

They were awe-some, in a startling and somewhat macabre way, and she should not be able to see them.

She tried frantically to remember if she’d ever seen death, in this life or the last. There’d a been a couple funerals she went to for great aunts, but she didn’t really think that counted. The most she’d seen in this life was a bird get hit by a car.

“Star, what’s wrong?”

She barely heard the voice, as if from far off. She felt vaguely that she should respond but couldn’t quite pull her attention away from the black creatures.

“Ari? Hey, Arianna. Nashira!” She twitched minutely at the name but had fallen into something of a staring contest with the closest Thestral, almost drowning in its liquid black eyes. She took a step towards it.

“Whoa there, spitfire.” A voice called out, and suddenly there was a body in front of her, blocking her view. She blinked, feeling like she was coming out of a trance. “You back with us?”

She nodded slowly, still gathering her bearings.

“Can you tell me what happened?” Charlie still had his hands on her shoulders, but didn’t crouch down like usual, so he was still blocking her line of sight to the carriages. It meant she had to crane her neck to see his face, even though he wasn’t nearly as tall as Bill.

“I saw the Thestrals.” And apparently at least one DADA or Care of Magical Creatures teacher had done their job, or maybe it was just because it was Charlie, but his face cleared with understanding.

“Ah, was this your first time?”

“I don’t know why I can see them. I haven’t seen anyone die.” She was stuck on that fact, trying to piece together how she could see a magical creature that even book-Harry couldn’t see until fifth year, despite possibly seeing his mother and Quirrell die. Charlie looked almost as surprised about the news, but just soothed his thumbs over her shoulders helping ground her.

“Die?!” Came the squawk from behind her, reminding her that Fred and George and Lee were still nearby. Charlie glared at them over her head, before looking her in the eye once more.

“That’s alright, you might not be ready to remember yet. We still have some time, do you want me to get you to a carriage, or do you want to meet one?”

Trust Charlie to offer to introduce her to the death horse immediately after she freaked when seeing them. But he was absolutely right, and she told him so. He made sure to stay close, hugging her into his side as he guided her to the front of one of the coaches. It was obvious he couldn’t see them but knew where they would be.

She shrugged out from under his arm, approaching the last couple of steps and held out her hand perfectly flat. The thestral took a moment to smell it, before nuzzling in and letting her pet it’s nose. Its skin was surprisingly soft, almost lake a very thin velvet stretched over the lean muscles below. She could hear the others asking questions as she scratched along its neck and shoulder, but left Charlie to answer them.

She thought she’d eventually see them one day. After the war maybe, since she still hadn’t found a way around it. But to see them now was a mystery. Still, she didn’t want to dwell on it, and after a couple minutes more, she said goodbye and turned back to the group.

Charlie looked satisfied, though the twins and Lee looked bit pale from whatever explanation Charlie had given. Still, solemnity was an antithesis to the twins’ personality, and soon enough they were all bundled into the carriage. With the addition of Tonks and a new conversation topic, the strange atmosphere was soon left behind.   

They train ride was generally uneventful besides visits from the friends Fred and George had made so far. Most of them were just the other Gryffindor first years, but there were a few Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws scattered throughout. Ari wasn’t surprised in the least. They’d always seemed to draw people to them with their funny personality and charms. It didn’t hurt that they were still in the adorable phase either. Sirius had made sure they could wield puppy dog eyes with lethal force.

When she finally stepped off the train, it was to be almost bowled over by a blur of crazy dark hair and glasses that was definitely taller than she remembered.

“Harry! I missed you. Did you get taller?” She clung to the boy wrapped around her like a koala and shuffled a bit to the side so that the twins and everyone else could get off too.

“I missed you too! Remus says I’ve grown a whole centimeter and a half. Nimsy had to let out all of my pants again!”

“I’m sure she did. You’re gonna have to stop soon though, because you aren’t allowed to be taller than me.” Harry laughed delightedly as she steered them towards where she could just make out Remus and Sirius closer to the back wall.

“Everyone’s going to be taller than you Ri.”

That was probably true, but she refused to acknowledge it.

As soon as she got close enough, Sirius swept in to pick her up and spin her around. Over the years he’d regain most of the muscle he’d lost and could easily bear her weight. She secretly thought he could probably pick Remus up too but didn’t want to think too deeply about the possible context for that. As it was, she was carefully set back on her feet, only to have her braid mussed beyond recognition.

She was then pulled into a much more dignified, but no less loving (or tight) hug by Remus. She buried her face in his sweater, enjoying the smell of hot chocolate and books.

Chapter Text

Ari snuggled up on the worn couch reading one of the books that been gifted her, Cuniform and its uses in nontraditional three-dimensional shapes, legs thrown over Bill’s lap as he read his own copy, also from Remus, and wearing her latest green and grey sweater.

She’d been a little concerned the first time she’d seen Mrs. Weasley, since, after hugging her, the first thing she said was:

“I’ve been so worried about you in that House dear, I was sure you were going to end up in Ravenclaw, you’re just so smart.”

She’d known that the Weasley matriarch would probably have some difficultly with her ending up in the ‘evil’ house, but she’d been hoping that she’d take it in stride like her children.

She’d gone on quite a bit about how lucky it was that Ari could just sit at the Gryffindor table with her sons and that she really needed to be very careful with some of the kids in her house, especially given their families. And Ari knew she was just being protective, but it didn’t help that several of the common Slytherin stereotypes came into play, many of which she identified with, and the whole time, she just nodded along silently, not wanting to start an argument.

Luckily, Mr. Weasley could often be quite a bit more observant than expected, and eventually pulled his wife aside for a chat. She’d come back looking more confused than anything, but still congratulated Ari on her midterm grades, and seemed to move on from there.

And then on Christmas morning, Ari had opened up her expected Weasley sweater, and found a soft cozy green and grey that almost exactly matched her Slytherin tie. She’d known immediately that this was Mrs. Weasley apologizing and accepting her and had almost broken down into tears over the article of clothing. She’d worn it every day since then.

Now she was relaxing at the Weasley’s house a few days after Christmas and enjoying peace and relative quiet. It would have been perfect if Bill wasn’t chewing on his lip.

It was one of his few tells and was the equivalent of pacing around frantically on most anyone else. But Bill had always been quieter in his emotions, or at least the negative ones, used to hiding them from his sibling so as not to upset them, or his parents since they were so busy. But after over four years, she could spot them as easily as on anyone else.

“So are you going to tell me what’s wrong.” Ari asked, tapping her heel on his thigh.

Bill startled slightly and glanced over at her, likely weighing his ability to distract or dissuade her from her line of questioning. Eventually he sighed and cast a privacy spell around them, even though the closest person currently was Mrs. Weasley in the kitchen. Granted, a majority of his siblings were terrible eavesdroppers, so it was a fair precaution.

“I’ve been applying to positions for after Hogwarts.” Bill said it like he was confessing a deep dark secret, and Ari barely refrained from rolling her eyes.

“Yes, that is the standard practice. With your annoyingly perfect grades I don’t expect you’re worried about acceptances, are you?” Maybe that was what had him nervous, but Bill had always been confident in his own self-worth, so she didn’t think it was that.

“No, I’ve actually…well I’ve heard back from a few already.” She paused, waiting for him to continue, then nudged him again with her heel when he didn’t.

“Yes, and?”

“I…Gringotts accepted me for an apprenticeship with a curse breaking team.” It was said all in a rush, and she had to untwist it in her mind for a minute to figure out exactly what he said.

“Congrats! You’ve always enjoyed those puzzles and you’re not too bad at runes either. You’ll do great.” Bill rolled his eyes, finally relaxing a bit. They both knew he was top of his class in runes.

“It’s a really great position, and to get accepted out of Hogwarts without an additional apprenticeship or mastery is really rare. It’s just…”  He trailed off again, running his fingers through his hair, which was shorter again since Mrs. Weasley got ahold of him.

“So where are you going?” He looked up in surprise. “Gringotts curse breaking teams are both renowned and very rarely local. Where would you be headed?”

“Egypt.” He said it like a prayer. All awed reverence and hope and all Ari could do was shift around and hug him.

“You’re going to do great, and we’ll miss you, but your family wants you to be happy too, and I think you’ll have a great time in Egypt.”

He laughed, light with giddy relief, and hugged her close.

“Also, you have to let me visit. You know Hieroglyphs are my favorite.”

“Absolutely, just as soon as you can convince Sirius that you wouldn’t end up under some Ancient Curse as soon as you step anywhere near a pyramid.”

Ari scowled. Everyone knew Harry and the twins were the ones who got into mischief, she was just always there to pull them out of it. Harry attracted trouble; she was more of a wrong-place-wrong-time person. Luckily, over the years, she had learned how to not get caught…mostly.

“Yeah, yeah, but first we have to get you there. So, what’s the problem?”

“The offers not even official until I get my NEWTs back anyways, I don’t know why I’m worried about this.”

“We all know you’re going to do more than fine on your NEWTs Mr. Seven Os” She’d never let him live that down since he’d gotten his OWLs back, especially when he was razzing her for her own studying habits. “And you do know why you’re worried. I won’t push if you don’t want me to, but it’s just me Bill.”

He sighed running his fingers agitatedly through his short hair, and Ari wondered if it was an unconscious answer.

“Mum likes having the family together. Sometimes I think she’d prefer if we all lived here until we were married.” He tugged at his hair, sharply, and Ari reached out, pulling his hands away and tapping her fingers along his palms instead to distract him.

“You’re right, she probably would. But that wouldn’t make you happy.” All of the Weasley children loved their mother so much, and she loved them back just as fiercely in that protective possessive way of hers. “But at some point, you have to realize that to find your own happiness you’re going to have to disappoint your parents a little bit.”

Bill looked a little bit like he wanted to argue but couldn’t find the words, so she continued.

“It’s just part of growing up. You’re not them, and while they might have expectations for you, it is not your job to fill them. And anyways, they love you. Leaving home isn’t going to stop that.”

She fell silent, letting him think things over. It was a hard lesson to learn. The mother she Remembered had been a bit similar to Mrs. Weasley, always wanting the best for her kids, but having a somewhat narrow view of what counted. It took time and effort, and a lot of frank discussions, but slowly she’d come to realize that her children could be happy and successful outside of what she considered success.

And she’d never stopped loving them, even when she didn’t understand.

Ari was sure that Mrs. Weasley would come around too. For all that she might argue and complain, she loved her kids.

“When did you become so wise?” Bill asked, only slightly joking.

“One of us has to know what we’re doing.” She replied, faux haughty.

“Got it all figured out, do you?”

“Runes mastery by the time I’m 18 and visiting Egypt sometime in the next few years. What more could I need?”

He laughed out loud, ruffling her hair despite her protests.

“Sounds like a plan to me. Now, what did you think of their use of oblong cylinder, motion-based schemes.”

“I think you need to read faster because they move on to clarify that a torus is significantly better for motion schemas so long as the creator can balance the internal and external forces.”

“Spoilers!”

Ari let him draw her away from their previous discussion. He still had time before he had to decide how to break the news to his parents. She was just glad that he seemed less stressed about it now.

He’d get there eventually, and she really was excited to visit him in Egypt, though she might have to find some way to leave the twins and Harry behind. No need to tempt fate.

***

Ari had a plan. Well, she had had a plan, but it wasn’t working, so now she was working on planning a new plan. However, there was one issue in both the previous plan and the plan she was planning, and his name was Cassius Warrington.

She’d come back from holiday with the plan to become friends with Cassius. Partially because she thought he could use a friend and because it would be nice to actually have a friend in the same house. The other part was that Sirius and Remus had found out that all of her friends were Fred and George and technically Lee who was really more their friend than hers. Which did not show a solid effort at attempting to be a normal kid, and therefore technically went against her side of the deal that allowed her study her own projects outside of class.

Specifically choosing Warrington was also just a tiny bit of payback since she knew exactly how Sirius would react when he found out who she befriended, and it would be his own dang fault.

So, Operation Friendship began. And if either of the twins had seen that written in her journal, they would laugh themselves sick.

She’d started off with the normal things. Sitting with him in the common room more, rather than retreating to her room or the library, bringing him a book on illusions and their practical and theatrical applications since he liked charms class the best, and sharing the fudge she’d brought back from Mrs. Weasley. All of which definitely should have worked!

But instead, Cassius had been giving her weird looks and barely responding to her questions. Which, fair, he wasn’t the most verbose, though she knew he could talk quite a lot if you got him ranting on something like quidditch statistics or the proper why to note spell phonetics since she just tended to write down whatever vaguely looked right. Incantations were only semi-important to her, okay? And he always seemed to storm off after those rants, so she couldn’t even try to engage him then.

And it’s not like she wasn’t good at the mutual silence thing. Sure, most of her friends and family didn’t know the meaning of the word quiet, but she’d had plenty of practice sitting with Andy while they both worked on their own projects. Ted didn’t count, he muttered when he read. But this didn’t feel the same. It wasn’t an acknowledgement of another’s presence while not saying anything, it felt more like Cassius was well practiced at ignoring everything around him, unless it required his direct attention.

So now here she was. Seated at the Gryffindor table. Planning the next plan for making a friend. Because she was apparently just that bad at it.

She let her head drop to the table with a thunk.

“Trouble?” Fred asked, and she already knew he was teasing her.

“Piss off.”

“So unladylike.” He actually tsked at her, and she was very tempted to hex him. She’d learned some good ones recently too. “Does this have anything to do with Warrington over there? You’ve been staring at him for a while.” Rather than respond, she just glared at him with the one eye visible above her arms.

George was off with Lee trying to finish an essay, or some kind of project, she was light on the details, but it left her with just Fred. The thing about the twins was that they were like cats. They’d poke and prod at each other to stay entertained, then occasionally gang up on those around them. Which was when pranks and prank wars happened. However, whenever one was without the other, they tended to latch on to the nearest person to fulfill their quota of mutual heckling.

They didn’t exactly have an off button with their copious amount of energy, so if Ari wanted quiet time, she just directed them towards some other target. But leaving a twin alone was a sure way to end up with something on fire, or a very pouty and sulking redhead.

“So, what’d he do?” Oh, that was almost hopeful sounding. She needed to stop that line of thought quickly, or Cassius was going to get pranked, which would absolutely not help her goals.

“Nothing!” He looked at her skeptically. “Really, he’s done nothing. That’s kind of the problem. I’ve been trying to make friends with him, but I don’t think he’s interested.”

“He sits with you in every class.” She nodded miserably. “Doesn’t that already make him your friend?”

“No, it’s…well it’s kind of a traditionalist thing, but people who are friends call each other by their first names and he hasn’t offered. We’re somewhere in the friendly acquaintance/study partner level.”

“Have you tried just asking him?”

“No, it does not work like that!”

“I mean, it kind of does. I asked Angelina if she wanted to be friends in like September and just last week, she distracted Professor Sinistra for us so we could charm the telescopes.”

“I think that might be a Gryffindor thing.” Fred just shrugged at that.

“Did you give him a book?”

“Yes! And he even seemed to like it alright! Why didn’t that work?”

“Not everyone’s a swot like you, Star.”

“It worked on your brothers.” She grumbled, ignoring his eye roll and marking down notes on other possible overtures of friendship.

She’d just have to try something else.

It all came to a head about a week into February. Ari slid into the seat next to Cassius at one of the Slytherin study tables and pulled a couple of wrapped handkerchiefs out of her bag and slid one over to him. It had a few snickerdoodles inside, which she knew were his favorites. He liked to munch on them when they had to do a lot of reading.

She was about four lines into the essay they’d been assigned in Defense, when she finally realized that he was staring at her.

“Why are you acting weird.” That was surprisingly blunt, for both Cassius and Slytherins in general. Most of them preferred to talk around a subject for any length of time before guiding it to the actual point like they just happened upon it.

“I am not being weird.” Because she absolutely wasn’t.

“You are, even your twin shadows have picked up on it. I keep feeling eyes on me everywhere these days. I’m pretty sure that curly haired kid was following me on Tuesday.”

Oh, this actually seemed to be bothering him. Ari knew that the twins wouldn’t have left well enough alone after her conversation with Fred, but it seems they roped Lee into it as well.

“I…yeah, they are probably being weird, but I’m definitely not.”

“They why do you keep bringing me food? And books?” Wow, she really did only have one way of endearing people to her didn’t she.

She could have easily just blackmailed Sydney Tangier into being her friend. Ari had caught her cheating on a charms test, and it would not be hard to convince her to at least pretend friendship. Or Telford Vane was easily swayed. She could have just manipulated him into being her friend. But as soon as she wanted someone to actually like her, she reverted to books and food. How the heck had she ended up in Slytherin!

Well, if Cassius could be blunt, then so could she.

“I’ve been trying to be friends.” She said it with a hint of challenge which just went to show that she’d been raised by Gryffindors who all got defensive when uncomfortable.

“I thought we were already friends?” Now the poor kid just looked confused.

“Really?!” Alright she should not be so excited.

“Yeah, so you can stop…all of that.”

“Actually, that’s just how I do friendships, so you’re going to have to get used to it…but I can tone it down.”

“As long as you can get the Gryffindors to back off, I’ll take it.”

“Deal.”

She thought about it for a second, then added.

“Also, I’m going to use this to annoy my guardians.” Because friends don’t use friends in schemes without warning…most of the time.

“As long as you keep me from getting hexed.”

“Nah, Sirius would just get the twins to prank you, or Bill to threaten you. You’ll be fine.”

“…” Cassius seemed to have no words for that, so he just turned back to his own essay.

“Oh, you can call me Ari if you want. If you call me by my first name your required to let me practice my jinxes on you.”

“…You can call me Cassius.”

Ari grinned, this was definitely a great start to a friendship.

Chapter Text

Ari aimed her most innocent smile up at the portrait.

“Really dear, I’m not sure I can just let you in. It is really quite unprecedented.”

“I know, but I really need to talk to Percy. I’ve been trying to research my History of Magic essay, but the textbook just covers the wizarding views of the goblin wars, and I want to include some more resources, and he said he would help me. Plus, I think he mention that Goreclaw II was the one who initiated the second war due to…”

“Alright, alright. I can see this is an emergency, go on with you.”

Ari just smiled sweetly and hurried through the portrait. She’d been here a few times this term with the twins, but she wanted to test her ability to get in by herself. Obviously boring the Fat Lady into submission was the way to go.

She got a few glares from some of the lions scattered around the common room, but most were used to her presence at this point. She spent enough time around all of the Weasleys to be a common sight and not even her arriving alone caused much surprise.

“Corrupting the portraits already?” Charlie called out from where he was seated with what looked like most of the Gryffindor quidditch team. Ari grinned and made her way over to them.

“I wouldn’t dare, though I do appreciate your confidence in my ability.”

“Merlin, you really are such a Slytherin, I would have thought you’d turned Gryffindor by now.” Tanner Clarkson, a chaser, said from where he was stretched out across the other half of Charlie’s couch.

“Oh no, she’s been surrounded by Gryffindors for years. If that didn’t work, nothing will.”

“We both know that the twins are half snake anyways, though I think it’s probably good they didn’t join me. Professor Snape would have murdered them by now.”

“I think we can all be glad of that. So, what brought you up here besides tricking poor unwary portraits? I don’t think the twins are here.”

Ari knew exactly where the twins were right now, which was the Lair (she still hated that name) with Lee, either planning their next prank, or arguing with the Marauder’s Map. She knew they were getting close, but they still hadn’t quite figured it out yet.

“I’m actually looking for Percy.” She had thought it was probably a good idea not to lie the first few times getting in on her own. Besides she always had any number of excuses to see her favorite family of redheads.

“He’ll be up in his room. Something about ‘the common room not being conducive to research’.” She looked around. It was nowhere near as quiet and contained as the Slytherin common room, but it honestly wasn’t that bad right now. Most of the conversations fell into background noise, and there was less throwing things than she’d seen on other days.

“He’d hate the Ravenclaw tower then.” They were a mess of scattered books and papers, spontaneous debates that reached ear splitting volumes, and random projects left half-attended.

“Wait, you’ve been in the Ravenclaw tower?” Bernice Snowden, a beater with biceps bigger than any Ari had seen before, and quite distracting to boot, spoke up, clearly surprised.

“Well, yeah.” Ari said in confusion. “Their door is guarded by riddles that you don’t actually have to know the answer to, just argue your point. Besides, they’re more open to Slytherins in general. And they have a library.” Charlie seemed to be muffling his laughter off to the side.

“Ari can get into anywhere with a library. I’m pretty sure she can sniff them out like a blood hound. Bill and I once spent an afternoon searching for her and the twins, only to find them holed up in the little public library in the town nearby.”

Ari didn’t dispute it, since he wasn’t technically wrong, but she did sniff pointedly… which probably didn’t help her point.

“What about the Hufflepuff dorm?” Bernice piped up again.

“I know where it is, but they are much more protective of their den than any other House. Trying to get in without being escorted is a sure trip to the hospital wing.” The entire group winced. “Anyways, I should go find Percy.”

“I’ll have Bill check on you if you’re not down for dinner.”

“You know he’d just get distracted too, right?”

Charlie paused for a second considering.

“Then I’ll get the twins and tell them to use any means necessary.” This time Ari winced. The twins were well aware of the best ways to drag her out of a study binge and there was no guarantee her notes would survive.

“Noted.”

With that she took the stairs up to the boy’s dorms. It still baffled her that only the girl’s side was warded. In the Slytherin dorms, both sides were warded, but only minimally as it was assumed that snakes were cunning enough to find elsewhere to get up to nonsense anyways. However, rooms themselves were keyed to the people who lived in them and the prefects, allowing for more security for personal items as any visitors had to be invited in by one of the occupants.

Additionally, Professor Snape had some kind of ward or charm that tracked who spent too much time not in their room. Anyone that met a certain threshold was given ‘The Talk’ by Madam Pomphrey with Snape present during one of their term reviews.

It was far more effective than simply warding only one side of the dorms, especially when same-sex couplings were fairly common and accepted throughout wixen society.

Regardless, it let her make her way up to the third-year dorms. She knocked on the door on the left, waiting through the rather long pause before a muffled ‘come in’ came through the door.

She pushed open the door, noting the absence of anyone other than Percy and proceeded to pull over a chair to the desk he was hunched over.

“So, the Goblin Wars of 1312.” Percy’s head popped up with frightening speed as soon as those words processed through his research haze, and he turned his glare on her even as she continued to smile innocently.

“You do not want to talk about the Goblin Wars.” It was probably supposed to sound like a threat, but from a thirteen-year-old Percy, it just came out kind of nasally.

“No, but you should have seen your face.” She was having way too much fun with this.

“You’ve been spending too much time with the twins.” Percy stated, already turning back to his book.

“Some would say they’ve been spending too much time with me, but that’s not the point. I don’t want to talk about the Goblin Wars, but I do want your opinion and resources on the effect of the invention of the Gemino spell on counterfeiting in the 1600s.”

“That is not on the syllabus.”

“No, but it could arguably have been one of the main causes to the 1656 conflict that led to the Finance Treaties. So, it’s kind of on topic.”

In reality, almost no one put any effort into History of Magic. Binns was a subpar professor at best, and a simple repetition of decades out of date information at worst. Most people took the class as an opportunity to nap or as a study hall of sorts. No one took it after OWLs since self-study was the only way to pass anyways.

The main problem was that essays were still assigned, and they were graded by a set of upper-class students who mostly just expected rote responses based on the single textbook assigned. Their grading and advice left much to be desired.

Not that Ari particularly cared about this class either. She normally used the time to cover other work since she already had a good basic understanding of the history of the magical societies thanks to Ted who’d always liked the subject. However, she had already finished the rest of her work for the week, Cassius had banished her from his presence for being twitchy, and she’d already mostly exhausted her magical core for today leaving her little energy for sparing with the twins. Plus, she found it generally amusing to write her essays in such a way that they came off as outlandish and only vaguely on topic while still being perfectly referenced. She’d gotten threatening notes back several times for actually making the student teachers read the essay to grade it properly, and once an entire response essay building off of hers that she suspected came from a Ravenclaw.

Percy was the perfect resource for historical evidence, since he actually seemed to enjoy the subject and had read a good chunk of the books available in the library. Sadly, his essays were always perfectly on topic since he worried about bringing down his grade. She’d take the Acceptables so long as they didn’t mark her down further.

She spent a couple hours with Percy discussing the different causes of the 1656 treaties and eventually devolved into an argument whether books authored by goblins would be more or less propaganda based than wizarding history books.

Eventually, Percy too banished her so he could actually get some work done, and she made sure to stop and say goodbye to Charlie too.

Then she made her way over to the Lair (Nope. She couldn’t even call it that in her head.)

“Guys, we need a new name for this place. The Lair just sounds awful. We’re not even underground!”

“Well, you’re the one who vetoed the Lions’ Den!” All three of them were gathered around one desk, one which she could just glimpse a corner of the map, though it was still blank.

“Because that’s the name of your common room. It would be way too confusing.”

“It needs to be something cool like the Night Base, or something.” Fred chimed in.

This started another round of suggestions. Lee wanted something with either spiders or raiders in the name, while Ari just suggested Headquarters. Eventually, they decided just to write all the names down, and they were only allowed to veto one each, and then they drew out of a hat, since no one was willing to budge for a vote.

In the end, the room was dubbed Tricksters’ Retreat, or just Retreat for short so they could reference it without making everyone more suspicious than they already were.

With that done, Ari wandered over to the desk they’d been gathered around. It hadn’t taken long for them to discover the incredibly snarky personalities contained within. They’d taken to writing responses back, which, redheads writing to trapped personalities with ink that disappeared pinged hard on her evil alert, even though she knew exactly what the map was.

Luckily, the echoes of the marauders were much more similar to a simplified version of the portrait rune scheme, rather than a trapped piece of soul. The twins had been able to convince the map to reveal the rune array for her to look over which had helped calm her worried immensely.

Plus, the most evil thing the map had convinced the twins and Lee of was that they needed to swear to reveal its secrets. This had led to two days straight of them listing every curse and combination they could think of, going so far as to look up middle English insults and even other languages. The only thing that had convinced them to stop was that they ran out of options, and the marauders were reduced to writing synonyms for laughing so much that they couldn’t even give advice.

Despite all of this, Ari felt that they were getting close. There’d been a myriad of hints tossed in, especially once they’d proven how stubborn they could be.

“So, at this point we’re pretty sure that we need to promise that we’re up to no good, but even that’s not working entirely.” George reiterated, reading through their notes.

“Yeah, so maybe it’s more like an oath, or maybe we have to swear on our magic?” Everyone grimaced at that. It wasn’t something done lightly, and definitely not for a piece of parchment.

“Maybe not on our magic, but we could still swear.” Lee chimed in. He was a more recent addition to the room and the map project but came with a level of enthusiasm equal to the twins.

“Alright, here.” George leaned over the paper and wrote out I swear that I’m up to no good.

Seconds later text appeared near the top.

Moony isn’t sure he quite believes them

Prongs agrees and suggests that perhaps they aren’t serious enough.

Wormtail wonders if that’s how they swear a solemn oath these days

Padfoot wants to know if you’re a wizard or not.

Ari snickered at that last one. She’d definitely heard him use it on Remus before when the werewolf took the time to actually do something by hand or forgot that magic was possible. She suspected it was from his years living more on the muggle side.

“Alright, so we need to seriously swear…”

“No, it says solemnly!”

“Of course we’re wizards, what are they talking about.”

Ari listened in amusement as they figured out the last few details and finally remembered that they had wands.

“I solemnly swear that I’m up to no good.”

And there it was. It all its glory The Marauder’s Map.

It was more detailed than she expected with layers of parchment folded and magicked to give a precise view of Hogwarts and its surrounding grounds. They carefully flipped through each section, taking in details and secrets, some they’d known and others that were completely new to them.

Ari’s favorite discovery was that tapping certain sections would bring up notes along the edge of the map. Some of them were instructions on how to get through different secret tunnels. Others were bits of trivia about different enchantments and artifacts in the castle. And Ari’s personal favorite, gossip. She was definitely going to tease Sirius about getting caught snogging Mary in the third-floor corridor after hours, only to trip into a suit of armor and walk up half the school.

Eventually Ari had to make her way back to the dorms. Luckily, the dungeons were one of the only places not fully covered. It made sense, since there were about seven levels of twisting and turning corridors that had nooks and crannies than should be possible. A good chunk of it was off limits to students too. Thus, she didn’t quite have to worry about the twins pranking the Slytherins quite yet.

She had no doubt they’d figure it out eventually, but not from her.

Chapter Text

Ari sat in the back of Defense class like always, doodling runes in the edges of her notebook. She’d already finished her Astronomy charts and hadn’t thought to bring the reference books for Herbology, so she was stuck spending the last few minutes of class idly.

Honestly, Defense wasn’t as bad as it could be. And definitely not as bad as it would be in the years to come. Professor Harris was fairly competent and knowledgeable, if a bit patronizing to the younger students. She had a habit of cooing when they got spells right the first time.

She also seemed to prefer hands on demonstrations. Right now, Isla was at the front, being walked through the latest spell, which made a high pitch whistle, either to notify help of your location or deafen an opponent with heightened hearing. Ari had no use for it, given that she would never be able to use it around Remus without injuring him, but she had memorized and practiced it before the winter holidays, so this demonstration was wasted on her.

She wasn’t a big fan of the demonstration anyways, since Ari never volunteered for something she wasn’t already fully aware of, and Harris had a habit of being rather hands on in her teaching. Being touched by a stranger repeatedly for a spell she already knew was not in her top ten favorite things. Luckily, Professor Harris had learned early in the year to stick to actual volunteers and not choose randomly. There were a lot of Slytherins with her same preferences and they didn’t take kindly to being forced.

The twins were similarly distracted, though there’s was more a lack of interest in the topic rather than boredom over already knowing it. Ari would probably spend a bit of time tonight walking them through the spell if they asked, since they’d probably have plenty of uses for a sudden and loud noise.

They were plenty smart enough to learn anything they put their minds to, but they struggled with anything that didn’t immediately catch their interest. Percy seemed to think they should just focus more, and that it was quite possibly her job to make them, but Ari was of the opinion that they would only learn what they wanted anyways. Besides, they managed Acceptables most of the time anyways and the occasional EE or O when the topic struck their fancy.

She was happy to help if they asked but didn’t feel the need to butt in otherwise. It always sent Percy into a right fit, which was a bit amusing, even if she felt kind of mean for enjoying it.

When class finally let out, she made her way back to the library, Cassius following behind. If she could get her Herbology essay done today, then she’d have the weekend free to test out a few of the rune sequences Bill had given her from his class. She wasn’t allowed to activate integrations of three or more languages without direct supervision, but Bill had found some Aramaic and Elder Futhark arrays that were apparently the very earliest structures for vanishing cabinets. In theory, she could use the schemas to send a singularly spelled object between two set locations.

It wasn’t exactly practical, but it would be a great exercise and help her understand the actual build of a vanishing cabinet, which were either entirely lost knowledge, or closely guarded by any family who knew the secrets.

If she could figure it out, then she might be able to create linked boxes or even smaller containers to allow for the passage of note. In other words: Email!

It would probably take her years to find a way to actually implement it, but she had plenty of time and resources while in school. It wasn’t the only project she was working on, but even with magic filing systems, finding the book or knowledge she wanted could be difficult, so she was slowly collecting and compiling what she needed for each of her projects and building from there.

Cassius was amicable enough to working on their essay, even though it was only assigned today. Mostly she expected it was because she had a knack for finding good resource books, and if he decided to do it later, he’d have to find his own references.

However, he only let them stay for two hours before dragging her down to dinner and then back to the common room. He’d been making an attempt to teach her chess, but Ari was awful at it. It wasn’t the strategy part so much as the capture. She preferred to just take out as many pieces as possible then corner the king. But that only worked if the other person didn’t know what they were doing. It also didn’t help that the pieces kept offering unsolicited advice.

“Nope, I’m done.” She stated vehemently when Cassius tried to cajole her into another game. His badly hidden smirk did not help. “Look, if you still want to play something, I have a strategy-based game we can use, but I refuse to play another game of chess.”

He was intrigued enough to agree, which Ari took as a win, and she left to grab the game from her room. She decided on Catan rather than Monopoly. The latter would probably be a bit too muggle and could take weeks to finish if they had to keep pausing the game. She didn’t particularly want to leave it out in the open too long in case one of the traditionalist students took offense, even if the game had been custom made to appear more wizard-y.

She entered her room cautiously (Constant Vigilance) and immediately noticed the mess that stretched all the way across Isla’s said of the room, right up to Ari’s ward line. The girl in question was frantically digging through her trunk, pulling out reems of clothes and tossing them aside. Ari stepped into the room, and hurried to her own side, dodging a scarf that flew into the wall before settling to the floor.

It didn’t take long for Isla to notice her presence.

“You! Where is it!” She seemed agitated, the corners of her eyes drawn tight, and a scowl marring her normally pretty face.

“Where is what?” Ari asked evenly, trying not to escalate the situation. She was pretty sure her wards would hold against anything the fellow first year could throw at them, but no need to tempt fate.

“My broach! I left it sitting on the dresser after class. I know you took it!” Isla continued to seethe, wand clenched tightly in one hand.

The broach in question was an antique silver piece that Isla had received for Christmas from her grandmother. Apparently, it was a family heirloom and had several old enchantments on it, though Ari wasn’t sure exactly what they did.

“I didn’t take your broach, Corbyn. This is the first time I’ve been in here since this morning.”

“You’re the only one with access, it had to be you!”

Ari sighed in exasperation, she wasn’t surprised Isla was blaming her, they hadn’t really gotten along since the beginning of the year, though they did keep it to snide remarks and mostly outside of the dorm so as to keep the peace.

She also wasn’t surprised the broach had gone missing. There’d been an increasing number of rumors regarding personal items being lost or stolen, especially from impossible places, like warded jewelry boxes or trunks. It was obvious there was a thief, though no one could quite figure out a possible suspect. Some people even thought it was a whole group who were either working together or taking advantage of the chaos.

“Look, maybe you dropped it in the castle somewhere. Why don’t you get a prefect to try and summon it?”

Isla fumed for another few minutes, spouting both accusations and threats equally, but did eventually leave to find a prefect, if only to blame Ari further probably. Not that it mattered, she had plenty of witnesses in the library and common room both that she hadn’t been back into the dorm room before after Isla left the broach.

Shrugging, she grabbed her game and headed back to the table where Cassius sat.

The game itself was based off of the muggle one even though it didn’t actually exist yet and might not at all in this world. It was designed from her memory with a few tweaks. However, her set was specifically a recreation made with wooden tiles for the board that were enchanted to move like paintings were. It also had the added bonus of sticking in place for the entire game, so bumping the board wasn’t a problem. The decks self-randomized, and the cards delt each round based on the actual roll, keeping the ‘banker’ and anyone else from cheating. It was a necessary addition in their house, as Sirius was a terrible thief and had been teaching Harry his bad habits. Remus and Ari were pretty good at catching them, but they’d been known to gain allies in mischief if they played with the Weasleys around.

Overall, the slight changes and customized game pieces made it appear enough like a wizarding game not to be immediately ridiculed. It didn’t take long for them to be approached by other curious students. After the third time explaining the rules, Ari just started passing around the instruction booklet, which had multiple scribbled out and added sections as her family had to get very specific over the years.

There were also several inquiries about where to purchase one, and she had to explain that they weren’t for sale anywhere. Luckily, she did have the patent for it, since Mr. Charleston had seen the game and made sure that it wouldn’t be copied should anyone else decide to produce it. Ari was torn on whether or not she should have it made so other people could play, since she didn’t want to steal someone else’s idea. She currently decided to give it a few years since she was pretty sure the original came out in the 90s, so if there was no word, then she’d worry about it then.

For now, she enjoyed wrecking Cassius entirely, ending up with both the longest road and largest army, as well as three of the seaports. He’d grumbled a bit but agreed to a rematch sometime in the future. Several other people made vague comments insinuating interest in possibly joining that rematch, which was their way of asking without demanding outright. She’d have to consider if it would be worth it to set up a boardgame night. It might get her a few more contacts and could use the favors it would grant her to let them have access to her games.

It was definitely a thought for the future.   

***

Ari felt a nudge against her arm and looked down at the deep black muzzle that was sniffing at her hand. She patted it softly and reached into the bucket at her feet for another chunk of meat.

The first time she’d come out here looking for the Thestrals, she stopped at Hagrid’s to ask for directions. He’d not only pointed the way to the clearing just inside the boundary of the forbidden forest, but also provided her with a bucket of meat scraps from the kitchen. She’d taken it with a polit thank you and very clearly did not ask what he was thinking sending a first year into the woods alone with the smell of raw meat that probably screamed “Here I Am” to any predators present.

Luckily, she’d found her way easily, and had not been attacked by creatures unknown. She could feel the magic at the edges of the Thestrals’ paddock and figured that this area was probably protected and relatively safe. Besides the carnivorous death horses of course. Though they were actually quite polite.

Ari stroked the nose nearest her as the winged horse chewed its treat. She wondered if they had names. Since the first time seeing them, she’d gone back to the Black library to try to find everything she could on them. There wasn’t much beyond the basics. They were dark creatures who ate meat and were capable of carrying loads several times their weight for long distances. There were some myths attributing them as Death’s steeds, but nothing solid on that theory. Granted, Death as a figure was kind of a myth too, so it made sense. However, none of it explained why she could see them without remembering seeing anyone die.

She’d been able to visit several times, often just to confirm that she wasn’t crazy. Each time the thestrals had come up to her and allowed her to pet them and stroke their wings. That was another thing she’d learned. Most thestrals were a fairly aggressive species who did not appreciate close contact with any living beings. However, Hogwarts had the only domestic herd ever recorded.

They’d been originally domesticated in the 1200s by a Synthia Piper who’d been the Care of Magical Creatures teacher and the Head of Slytherin at the time. Ever since then the herd was cared for by the grounds keeper and used to pull the carriages. It was large enough to be self-sustaining, though occasionally rescued thestrals would be added if they were unable to return to the wild for any reason. This helped keep the gene pool diverse, though with how long-lived they were, it wasn’t as big of a deal.

While she’d been nervous during her first visit, Ari now found these trips quite relaxing. She vaguely wondered if Luna would join her sometime in the future. She’d known the girl for quite a while due to her close proximity to the Weasleys and found her sweet if a bit absent minded. She didn’t think she’d mind spending a quiet morning together feeding the thestrals and contemplating life and death.

Ari was broken out of her revery by a voice in the forest.

“This way, hurry up.”

She instinctively pulled up her notice-me-not charm wondering who would be out here so early on a Saturday. She’d never run into anyone before, and most student didn’t even know about the thestrals let alone where they were kept. It could be someone getting up to mischief in the forbidden forest who just happened to come this way, but that felt wrong.

It didn’t take long for the people to enter the paddock. Nor were they attempting to be subtle at all.

The first person to appear was none other than Professor Harris, though now she was dressed in a dragonhide pants and jacket that looked nothing like her normal wear. Behind her were two men and another woman who were dressed similarly if not as expensively. Everything about them seemed to scream smugglers. Including the crates and ropes they immediately started taking out and resizing.

“Alright, we need to be quick about this before the oaf comes back down after breakfast. I want two to a crate with stasis charms locked in before we load them. Make sure to start with the males, and if one takes off, I want it downed immediately. No permanent damage or I’m taking it out of your cut.”

Harris was definitely in charge and worked easily with the others in a way that suggested familiarity.

Ari considered her options. There was no way she could possibly take on four well practiced smugglers without immediately being stunned, injured or killed. Nor was she dumb enough to try. Right now, she had the advantage of being essentially invisible to them. The advantage of a notice-me-not over disillusion is that with disillusion made you near invisible, it could still be detected by someone trained to notice. A notice-me-not on the other hand drew people’s eyes away from your position so long as they weren’t looking for you. That gave her a bit of leeway in the form of having a certain amount of space around her to work within that wouldn’t be actively monitored. However, if they became aware of her presence she’d be spotted immediately.

The first thing she needed to do was get help. However, if she left for help, there was no guarantee they would still be here in the time it took to get to the castle, convince someone of the problem, and mount a rescue. And while it was idiotic, she was attached to these animals now and was not inclined to let them be stolen.

By their own admission, Hagrid was at the castle for breakfast. Which meant that was the closest any help was liable to be. She had one possibility of contact. There was a rune sequence she’d found in a book that mimicked or possible predated the charm used in the ministry to send paper airplanes to recipients. She hadn’t had a chance to try it out yet, but she was reasonably sure she remembered the format well enough to get it to work. Now the question was who to send it to.

Hagrid would rush down quickly, but he didn’t even have a wand and was liable to forget to raise the alarm before coming. She didn’t trust Albus enough to even consider him, even without knowing whether he’d be at breakfast today, or even in the castle. He had a habit of being gone when needed. McGonagall might work, or Snape. Really, anyone at the table who might actually bring help and move fairly quickly. So long as they believed her.

She stopped stalling and wrote the note quickly, inscribing the runes on the back and folding the plane as soon as the ink dried. She willed a little if her notice-me-not into it, just enough to make it into the trees without notice, but not so much that it wouldn’t be seen by the recipients. She sent it off with a prayer and quickly turned back to the events.

Now she just needed to stall long enough for help to arrive.

Chapter Text

The smugglers had corralled the thestrals close together and used fine sparkling nets to keep them from taking off. Ari thought there might be calming properties as well, since none of them were stampeding or even rearing. Now they were working to remove one at a time, coating them with calming spells and levitating them into crates that were no doubt bigger on the inside. It was a fairly slow process, and with a herd of over 50 it would take some time.

Ari decided to start with the crates. It would be too difficult to remove the netting without drawing attention, but once the crates had two thestrals inside, they were closed and stacked to one side.

Once she was close enough, she carefully examined the nearest crate, taking in the runes carved into the side. Most of them were anchors for the undetectable expansion charms or stasis spells. The latter only took affect once the crate was closed. She could try cancelling the stasis charm, though that would probably just make them panic while trapped in a box. She could also just try taking off the lids and freeing the thestrals.

The crates themselves were outside the paddock and near the forest proper. If she could get them out without notice, then she should be able to direct them into the forest where they would be hidden. The hard part would be moving them.

The easiest way would be to apply a notice-me-not to them as well. Though it might not work since the smugglers were specifically looking for thestrals. But they weren’t looking or expecting them from this direction. It would have to be worth the risk.

She kept her wand in hand and an ear on what the group was doing. Quietly she opened the crate, undoing the simple sticking charm they were using. Like, really? That was barely a first-year charm. As she lifted the lid, she peeked in to where the two thestrals stood. They were eyeing her in question, not yet worried, even though the stasis charms were inactive and the calming charms from earlier were likely faded by now.

“Shh, I need you to come out, but quietly please.” She wasn’t sure how much they understood, but they’d responded to her in the past, so hopefully they would do so now. She quickly cast the notice-me-nots and then stepped back to allow the animals out. Luckily, they were able to make their own way out, since she wasn’t sure she’d be able to levitate something of their weight for very long.

As soon as they were out, she checked on the smugglers to see if they noticed. They just continued with their actions, so Ari quickly led the death horses into the woods, trying to guide them around obstacles that would create noise. Once they were far enough away, she stopped, lowered the charm and asked them to please stay away for now. She would have preferred to leave the charm on, but she would need to conserve her magic levels if she had to do this for the entire herd. When she got back, she quietly replaced the lid and moved to the next crate.

It continued on like this, with Ari growing more tired and anxious as the time went on. Especially since she had to start moving crates that were stacked on top of others. She was able to levitate them, but it was nerve wracking the entire time as she had to time it perfectly so as not to draw attention.

By now she was concerned that no one had shown up yet. It had been almost twenty minutes since she’d sent her note, more than enough time to get here from the castle. She desperately hoped it had worked, and that she hadn’t messed up the runes.

The smugglers had gotten through about half the herd and Ari had only been able to free about a dozen. She was quickly feeling the strain on her core as she repeated her charms over and over again. Luckily a notice-me-not was her forte, but thestrals were magical beings, and trying to maintain even a simple charm on them took more energy than it would on a normal object or person.

She was starting to feel desperate, especially when she noticed Harris frowning slightly in her general direction. She wasn’t sure what caught her attention, but if help didn’t come soon, then she’d be in trouble. Still, she moved on to the next crate.

She made it through another three crates, while the others packed six, when it happened. She was in the middle of levitating a crate when Harris’s head snapped to the side and looked directly at her. Ari squeaked, dropping the crate as her focus vanished and immediately froze as the rest looked over as well.

“Well, well, well, looks like we have a little thief in our cargo.” Harris’s voice was nothing like when she taught class. No simpering or cooing or sickly-sweet praise. Just ice-cold venom with a razor-sharp edge.

If Ari was hoping for a proper villain monolog, she was out of luck. It was only thanks to her practice with the twins all year that she was able to get a protego up when the stunner came flying her way. She immediately dove behind the pile of crates, not trusting her shield to last and sent back an expelliamus on instinct. Sadly, these were not fellow students who were too sure of themselves, and Harris easily blocked the spell.

Ari immediately ducked out of the way of the spells that came flying at her from the other three, until Harris yelled at them about not damaging the merchandise. Ari took the advantage to send off a series of tripping jinxes before making a run for the trees. They wouldn’t do much, but they were a similar red to a stunner and blocking or dodging them would give her enough time to hopefully get back to cover.

She slalomed as she ran, which helped her avoid two more curses before she made it into the trees. There was no way she was going to stay and fight now that they knew she was there. Either they’d follow her long enough to get them caught, or she’d hopefully be able to intercept a rescue party on their way down. Worst case she’d try to make it up to the castle and actually get a rescue party together if her note had somehow failed. The thestrals would just have to survive on their own until then. She wasn’t a Gryffindor, and Slytherins were known for surviving.

A spell suddenly hit the tree to her direct left, taking a chunk out of it. She yelped and dodged to the side. Chasing her it was then. She dodged another spell and returned a cutting curse. It was actually designed for cutting ingredients for potions, but enough power for give it range. Crude but effective from the pained cry she heard behind her.

She kept dodging and running in the general direction of the grounds and castle. She’d be in trouble once she made it to open ground, but she’d worry about that then. For now, she sent back jinxes and hexes whenever she could without slowing down. She stuck to the same three to limit over thinking: cutting, tripping, and disarming. None would do much to them, but it would buy her time which was all she needed. Her magic strained at the additional use and her breathing began to grow ragged the further she ran.

She might train regularly for dueling and stretch her magical endurance to its limit, but she was not particularly athletic, especially when it came to running.

She could almost see the edge of the trees, when she dodged another sickly orange spell that melted a hole in a tree and jabbed her wand to send a tripping jinx, only to have another spell immediately hit her wand arm.

She cried out, losing her grip on her wand and tumbling to her knees as an excruciating pain bled through her forearm. Nothing immediately looked different about it, but she was having a hard time focusing through the pain.

She tried to stay upright on her knees, even as figures approached her from behind. A booted foot shoved at her shoulder, causing her to topple over and sob at the spike of pain. She clutched her arm close, trying to think but not coming up with any possibilities.

“Thought you were clever, didn’t you? Well now you’ll just be a tragic foot note.” Harris raised her wand, and Ari desperately reached up with her uninjured hand, whispering ‘Expelliamus’, just as Harris started to cast.

Ari wasn’t sure who was more surprised that the wand actually went flying.

Harris got over her shock first, face twisting into a scowl as she reached for the knife at her waist.

And then he was there.

Descending like an avenging angel, or possible a devil. Her Head of House in all of his swishing robe glory hit Harris with a stunner so strong that she went flying backwards out of Ari’s field of view. She craned her neck trying to see what was going on, but most of what she could make out was just spells flying through the air above her and cries of surprise and pain.

Soon enough Snape was standing over her, blocking her from stray spell fire and returning better than he got. Just from the noise alone, Ari was fairly sure that at least one other was out of commission besides Harris. And then more spell fire came from the direction of the castle, and the opposition stopped entirely.

It was then that Snape crouched down beside her and started what she expected were diagnostic spells.

“I need you to tell me where you are injured Miss Grey.”

“Arm. Burns.” Ari was able to choke out around the continuing waves of pain. The burning feeling had not abated and was in fact slowly creeping further up her arm.

Snape scowled, though she wasn’t sure it this was a ‘you’re an idiot and I suffer every time I have to see you in my class’ scowl, or a ‘my retribution will be swift and unavoidable, so you’d better count your days’ scowl. She’d been cataloging them throughout the year, but she didn’t think she’d seen all of them quite yet.

“I need to get you to the hospital wing. I will conjure a stretcher under you, but likely the movement will be painful. Brace yourself.” Ari nodded, clenching her teeth as she was minutely jostled by the action. Somewhere deep in her mind, beyond the pain, she did appreciate his straight-forward explanation. But mostly she was just trying not to sob openly. She’d given up on not crying already, but she did have some dignity, dang it!

“’I need to get her to the hospital wing immediately. I trust you can take care of this Minerva?” Snape asked to someone outside of her view.

“Of course.” A voice that must be McGonagall said.

With that they were moving quickly through the last of the woods and across the grounds. The trip felt like it took forever, even though Snape’s strides were far longer and faster than anything she could muster on any given day.

Once they were in the castle proper, they began to run into students. It was just after the busiest time breakfast time on a Saturday, if her idle thoughts were correct, and the number of students in the entrance hall proved it.

“Move. Out of my way. Clear a path or I will have you in detention until summer.” Snape’s commands were even sharper than usual, and Ari closed her eyes so as not to have to look at the curious looks from the student surrounding them. She did hear twin calls of “Ari” just as Snape made it to the stairs but couldn’t muster up the energy or focus to try to respond.

From there, it wasn’t long before they made it to the hospital wing, and she was transferred to a bed with as little jostling as possible. Madam Pomfrey hurried over as soon as they arrived.

“What happened.”

“It appears to be a bone melting curse, though not well formed. It’s mostly only affecting her right forearm, though it is slowly spreading towards the joint. We need to nullify the curse and then work to fix the damage.”

Well, that is exactly what Ari wanted to hear. Her bones were melting, yay.

She laid back with her eyes closed and tried to focus on anything else, sinking slightly into her occlumency barriers to try to block out some of the pain. It works partially, though it left her feeling disconnected and therefore slow to respond to their instructions and questions. Luckily, they mostly didn’t need her input and were already working at negating the curse that was still affecting her.

Because it was ill formed it wasn’t acting quite as quickly as it normally would be, but it was also more difficult to remove, since the normal counter curse was a direct reversal of the original.

 She cried out again as the pain suddenly spiked, yanking her out of her occluding, then it almost immediately stopped, and she collapsed back from her half sitting up position. The pain was still there, but it was no longer spreading.

“Good, Ari can you tell me how that feels?”

“Better. It’s not burning near my elbow anymore.” She had to almost bite out each word, round the pain still in her arm, but at least it was better. She slipped back into occluding to try to block out part of it once more.

“She’ll need a pain potion, she’s blocking her pain, but it won’t help much once you administer the skelegro.” Ari blinked, wondering how Snape would know that, but slowly remembered that he was one of the people she had learned to block for. Thoughts were like molasses in winter, sticking and hard to get in the first place. “Stop that, we need an accurate assessment of your pain levels to calculate the dosage.”

Ari blinked again and slowly let herself float closer to the pain again, though not entirely. It did have the advantage of clearing her thoughts a little as well.

“Less than dying, more than a broken bone.” She stated somewhat glibly, enjoying the way Snapes scowl twisted more towards ‘I find that amusing but refuse to acknowledge that fact.’

“I have the pain potion and a dreamless sleep as well. It won’t last as long with the skelegro, but it should give her a few hours of rest.”

Ari scowled at the potions being brought over. She didn’t particularly want to sleep, though not being in pain would probably be nice. However, there were things she needed to know first, and the potion would leave her too loopy to think.

“Sirius and Remus?” She asked quietly, still working around her perpetually clenching jaw.

“Your guardians will be contacted. I expect they will be here by the time you wake up.” Snape drawled.

“Thestrals?”

“Are being taken care of and likely coddled by the Games keeper.”

“Harris?”

“Currently unconscious and will likely be remaining that way until she is in auror custody. Now will you consent to take your potions?” Ari nodded, swallowing them down quickly as they were held to her lips. Each was almost worse than the last, which she thought he might have done deliberately, rather than putting the vaguely minty tasting dreamless sleep last. She had one last thought before she let the potions take over.

“Weasleys.” Snape paused from where he’d been turning away.

“I will ensure your…cohort of redheads is aware of your condition.”

“Thanks.” He scowled again, though she was too fuzzy to make this one out. With that she succumbed to sleep.

Chapter Text

Ari woke an indeterminable amount of time later, still in pain, though it was lessened under the effect of the pain potion. She carefully turned her head, attempting not to jostle her arm, and noticed Remus sitting in the chair next to her, reading a book. He set it aside as soon as he noticed she was awake.

“Hey cub, how are you feeling.” He reached out and gently smoothed her hair away from her face. She leaned into the gesture slightly.

“Better.” It came out as a croak, and he hurried to grab the glass of water on the side table, allowing her to drink through the straw.

This close she could easily see the tightness around his eyes and felt a little bad that she was the cause of it.

“That’s good. Madam Pomfrey said to let her know if the potions start wear off.” Ari nodded obediently.

“Status?”

“According to Madam Pomfrey the curse you were hit with was either an extremely ill formed Bone Melting curse, or a variation. It didn’t act as quickly, but it took some time for them to be able to neutralize the effects.” He paused, seeming to check how serious she was about knowing, which was very. With a sigh, he continued. “It appears to have fused you forearm bones together. They’re working to reverse the damage, and apparently you will be on a potion regiment for probably the rest of the school year. Besides that, you are also suffering from magical exhaustion. Now will you tell me what you were thinking, dueling four smugglers in the forbidden forest?” Remus’s voice had gone soft in that way that told her just exactly how much trouble she was in. She grabbed for the first distraction she could think of.

“Where’s Sirius?”

“He’s gone to get lunch since Harry was getting restless. They’ll be back soon. Don’t think you can distract me. You will be explaining your actions.” Ari winced.

“I just don’t want to have to tell it a bunch of times.” She implored and Remus finally seemed to relent.

“Fine, we can wait until they’re back. I’ll also call Mr. Charleston in since the aurors will want to speak with you when they find out you’re awake.” She nodded and settled back, letting herself try to relax as they waited. Remus continued to stroke her hair gently, which is what he always did when she was sick, and she’d come to love the gesture.

They both looked up at the ward doors opened to admit a bounding Harry, followed by Sirius carrying a tray. They both hurried over when they realized she was awake.

“Ari!” Harry pounced forward, only to be stopped by Remus and reminded to be gentle.

Ari held out her uninjured arm, letting him take her hand instead since any form of a hug sounded very painful right now.

“Hey Har-bear.” His eyes glittered with tears, and she made soft soothing noises. “I’m okay, I promise.”

“Padfoot said that some bad people hurt you because you were trying to stop them.” Ari sent a flat look at Sirius and squeezed Harry’s hand tighter.

“Why don’t you sit down, and I’ll tell you what happened, just as soon as Mr. Charleston arrives.”

Harry eventually settled after a bit more coaxing. They’d apparently stopped by the great hall and brought a selection of food. Ari stuck to crackers, not quite sure how the potions would react to real food. Meanwhile, Sirius joked about being mobbed by redheads until the floo activated and Mr. Charleston came through and headed in their direction.

With everyone present, Ari retold how she was visiting the thestrals when the smugglers showed up, and how she’d sent for help and tried to save some of them in the meantime. She made sure to emphasis that she did her best to not draw attention, and that she fled as soon as she was discovered. It didn’t seem to do much to assuage their concern, but she was confident she chose the best course of action.

“Don’t think this lets you off the hook.” Remus started as soon as she was done. “You chose to stay where you were in danger when you could have easily snuck off without them knowing.”

“I weighed the risks and minimized the danger as much as I could. Tell me if you would have done the same when you were in school.” Ari didn’t even pretend to be cowed. She firm in her decision and even Remus seemed to realize that she hadn’t run in recklessly, though he still didn’t like it.

“What I want to know is why you called Snivellus for help.” Sirius seemed baffled by the very thought.

“He’s my Head of House. And I knew he would believe me. You shouldn’t call him names.” She frowned at him in disappointment and watched as Sirius folded under the pressure of both her and Remus’s disapproval.

It wasn’t long after that that the aurors came for her statement. Under the watchful eye of Madam Pomfrey and Mr. Charleston as well as Remus and Sirius, they were quick and professional, though they weren’t able to disclose much information about the case.

In the late afternoon before dinner, Sirius took Harry out to tour he grounds and work off some energy. Neither one was very good at sitting still for long periods, but they didn’t want to go home yet either. Ari was still confined to her bed, required to take potions throughout the day, and unable to use her magic. This left her with very little to do, but Remus tried to distract her by reading out loud and discussing some of her classes.

Luckily the monotony was broken by the ward doors once again opening, only this time to allow a herd of redheads mixed in with a couple of darker colors. Madam Pomfrey immediately intercepted them, and only let them by once she’d threatened them thoroughly.

She smiled at them eagerly, still tired and aching, but happy to have more company as she had been getting restless.

“Hey Spitfire, can’t believe you fought off a whole hoard of smugglers and didn’t even invite me.” Charlie joked with a soft smile, but his eyes were serious as he checked her over. The twins had immediately claimed her good side along with Lee and a subdued Cassius who looked to be trying to hide in the crowd, while Percy and Bill hovered at her feet, and Charlie took the seat next to Remus.

“I’ll make sure to add it to your schedule next time.” She snarked back, glad to see the genuine humor in his face as he realized she was doing well enough to joke.

They’d brought her gifts too, which surprised her for some reason. Dark chocolate from the twins, fresh flowers that Charlie and Percy had gone out to pick, and a stack of books from Bill since he knew she’d be going stir crazy. Cassius had brought up her satchel which had been found in the paddock and he and Lee had apparently coordinated to get an entire tray of ginger snaps from the elves, despite them normally only making them around Christmas.

They stayed to chat for about an hour, and Ari was convinced to retell the story once again. She didn’t go into too much detail, but the twins seemed in awe of the fact that she’d actually fought four smugglers, even if only while trying to escape. Apparently, there were plenty of rumors about what happened, though none of them accurate of course.

She would have liked them to be able to stay longer, but as soon as she started yawning, Madam Pomfrey was herding them out the door. They did promise to come back the next day though, since between them they had enough free hours to have someone there almost all day.

The warmth she felt at having such good friends carried her through the next round of potions and into sleep once more.

She finally made it out of the hospital wing after four days. Her family, the Weasleys, and Lee and Cassius all visited frequently and helped keep her entertained, but it was still a pain to be confined to bed. She still had to wear a sling for the next week, but Madam Pomfrey was pleased with the healing’s progress. She was also allowed to use her magic again, though with her wand-arm out of commission, there wasn’t much she could do without garnering attention.

She was fairly ambidextrous with her wandless, since it didn’t require the same precise motions, but she was unwilling to make that advantage common knowledge. Instead, she worked on wielding with her left hand, keeping to simple spells that she already knew wandless or motionless so that any mistakes in the motion wouldn’t actually affect the spell itself. It was also good practice for her exams since they were only a week away.

She’d already been assured by her teachers that she would be excused due to her injury, but she just frowned at them until they allowed her the option of still sitting them so long as Madam Pomfrey agreed, and she didn’t strain herself.

Homework was easily done with a dicta quill, and she was slowly gaining more control in her offhand casting. The twins and Cassius were happy enough to help her practice.

As for the rest of the school, they seemed under the impression that she was now some kind of hero or something, though she disabused people of that notion very quickly. There was no way she wanted people to look at her with awe based on some random rumor they’d heard. In fact, she found the most boring and efficient way to relay the events whenever someone asked, watching as their faces fell when they realized it had not been some epic battle or adventure. It didn’t work for everyone, but the story did die down fairly quickly.

Snape refused to allow Albus to award her points, which Ari was a bit surprised as well since she hadn’t had any contact with the headmaster this year do in no small part to her own subtle avoidance. However, Snape also did not assign any detentions, despite his opinion on her ‘foolishly endangering herself through reckless Gryffindor tendencies’ since she had had implicit permission to visit the thestrals from Hagrid and had in fact called for help first.

Though he did lecture her thoroughly on not placing animals above her own safety during their end of year review. Ari just nodded along and promised nothing. She wasn’t an idiot, but she also had her own opinions on what constituted ‘necessary risk’.

She was able to sit for her exams, and complete the practical portion, even with her arm still in a sling which seemed to impress her teachers unduly. Not every spell was a precise as she’d prefer, but well enough for having only practiced with that hand for a little over a week.

The end of year also brought the awarding of the House Cup. It of course went to Slytherin, in no small part due to Snape’s free application of points. Knowing the expected outcome made her significantly less invested in the competition.

And then it was back home for the summer. The train ride was uneventful besides the twins pulling off a last few pranks that left several of the students with multicolored robes. Ari spent the time exercising her newly freed arm and discussing plans with Cassius to allow them to write to each other without his family finding out.

She hadn’t quite gotten the simplified vanishing box working correctly yet, but she planned to devote a large portion of her summer to it since she couldn’t practice with a wand. She still had her wandless and runes to keep her busy and Sirius had already planned to teach her some auror dueling techniques that she could practice even without her magic.

In the meantime, they would try to keep owls to a minimum and Ari would sign Nashira Black to help draw off suspicion if the letters were interrupted. Most people didn’t know her first name, and there were enough branches of the Black family that it would likely be assumed she was a distant cousin and therefor safe for Cassius to have befriended rather than the semi-infamous Ward of the current Lord Black.

For now, once the train arrived, they said goodbye in the compartment and made sure to exit separately. The twins accompanied her since they’d been hard pressed to leave her alone ever since the incident. Something about only getting into trouble when she wandered off, which was a blatant lie. But she mostly didn’t mind the company and knew she’d miss them over the summer, even if they did visit fairly frequently. It was nice to have them in the same building during school.

But for now, final goodbyes were said, and she let Harry drag her towards the floos. Summer was short enough, and she had things to do.

Chapter Text

Ari sat in the study, multitasking. She’d gotten her first letter from Bill since he’d settled in Egypt. As expected, he’d been accepted to the apprenticeship with Gringotts once he’d graduated. The Master he was working under had been impressed with the portable warding ring that he’d created in his last couple of years in the school. It was designed to contain, direct, and redistribute the magic of cursed items while still allowing manipulation and access from the outside. It made testing cursed object much safer and came in the handy form of a small metal hoop. It didn’t work for everything yet, but Master Baros was interested in seeing how Bill would continue to improve the design.

Ari already had one of the prototypes and was very pleased with its use. She had helped Bill contact the correct solicitors to get it patented and with a bit more work, he could possibly sell the manufacturing rights, as it was a very useful invention for curse breakers, and possibly some of the magical enforcement offices as well. Ari was incredibly proud.

The rest of the Weasleys and Mrs. Weasley in particular had been surprised by the news when Bill told them directly after school ended, and only a week before he was to leave, but after a few arguments and a rather tearful discussion, they’d come around. Mrs. Weasley was now very happily telling anyone who’d listen that Bill had gained such a prestigious apprenticeship under one of the most renown curse-breakers in Europe and Africa.

The letter had been full of descriptions of the dig sites and Egypt in general. But the part she was most excited for were the rubbings Bill had provided from a few of the tombs. They were only ones from areas already open to the public, as the others were confidential, but it let her practice translating actual hieroglyphics.

It was much more difficult than translating text from her books had been, both with the minor inconsistencies and the wear from years of exposure or general neglect. She was currently hunched over a desk in the study, trying to figure out a glyph that had been 80% chipped of. She had three separate books out and was wandlessly floating them in the air to practice her unfocused control while comparing the images in the book with the tiny piece left over on the rubbing. She also had her translation to her right as she was hoping that context would help, but it was still leaving several possibilities, which all appeared to be birds.

She flipped one of the pages absentmindedly as she traced the marking with a finger, wondering if she should get Bill to send her the translated pieces as well to see what conclusions actually researchers reached. Though that felt like cheating.

Suddenly the door swung open.

“Ari, you’ve been in here all…” Remus stopped mid-sentence, and Ari dropped the books as her control suddenly slipped. “I…you…was that wandless magic?” He asked in an incredulous and strangled voice.

Now, Ari hadn’t exactly been keeping her personal study a secret. But, well, she’d first started this when she’d still lived in the library, and it had had taken almost a year to get any results at all, so it made no sense to tell someone else, nor was it something they would realize on their own. Then she’d started teaching the twins and they’d agreed that it would be better if their family didn’t know since it would make their pranks harder to track and therefore assign blame, plus Mrs. Weasley would throw a fit if she knew the twins could unlock doors magically during the summer.

Then it just made sense not to tell Sirius or Remus either. And she hadn’t wanted anyone at school to know, not even Lee or Cassius since it was such a ‘big deal’ to be able to perform wandless magic, and it would be a better advantage if people didn’t know about it in the first place. That had been proven by her disarming Harris because she wasn’t expecting it. Ari thought Snape attributed it to accidental magic, since she was still generally young enough for small outbursts.

But she still wasn’t explicitly trying to hide it from her family in the house she felt safest in. It was just habit.

Which all lead to Remus being absolutely dumbfounded at her levitating multiple books during the summer when she didn’t have access to her wand. Nor was her wand even in the room currently. She blinked rapidly and considered the best course of action. Then she gestured for Remus to come closer, and once he complied, wandlessly closed the door and locked it.

“Ari! That’s…how are you doing that?” Remus was still gob smacked and seemed to be furiously searching for a possible explanation, even looking around like he expected her wand to suddenly make an appearance.

“I will explain, but you need to sit down.” She spoke firmly in the hopes that he would listen, which he did. Though still with the air of confusion.

She probably didn’t need the whole dramatics of locking the door in their own house, but she was worried enough about having to explain this to one person without others coming in in the middle of it.

“You were doing wandless magic.” Remus finally pulled himself together.

“Yes.”

“How…How were you doing magic. How long have you been…” Alright, still not entirely together.

“I’ve been teaching myself since before we met. So about six years now?” She did the mental math and figured that six was about correct.

“Ari, I don’t think you understand. Wandless magic is incredibly difficult, even for a full-grown wizard. What you’re doing, it’s incredible. Impossible.”

“No, it’s not.” Honestly, she knew that most people didn’t do wandless magic regularly, but it wasn’t completely unknown, just not particularly common.

“Yes, it is.” Remus seemed stuck on this fact. “Most wixen never do wandless magic in their life, and even the ones who do often can only preform a few spells. You just did three separate spells without effort and you’re only twelve. That is not common.”

“Okay, I think we’re operating on different assumptions. I promise I’ll answer your questions, but I think we need to develop a baseline first. Will you answer a few things for me, and then actually listen when I try to explain?” Remus seemed slightly hesitant, and Ari was worried that he would get stuck trying to realign something he saw as foundational in magic, but eventually he nodded.

“Alright, first, pick a common spell you use frequently.” He just looked at her in confusion until she gestured for him to continue.

“I guess, accio, the summoning spell.”

“And you can do this non-verbally?” He nodded “How long did it take you to do it non-verbally and with minimal motion?"

“I…four years? I learned it in fourth year and could do it silently and easily by the end of seventh. So closer to three.”

“And how many times would you guess you used that spell in that timeframe?”

“I don’t know, hundreds probably. It’s very common in the upper years.”

“Exactly. Now can you tell me if you ever tried wandless magic before.”

“Yeah, most students do at some point in sixth year when we first start to focus on non-verbal spells. Flitwick gives a lecture on the different focuses that are used and covers wandless as well. I think everyone tried at that point. But no one succeeded.”

“Did you ever try again? Or make an effort towards concentrated practice?”

“I…no, but I knew a couple of Ravenclaws who did kind of. They kept trying spells, but I don’t think they had any luck either.”

“And I’m guessing that you didn’t try again because you knew it was too difficult for most people.”

“Well, yes. Only those with an incredibly large magical core can even do the basics, let alone regularly use it. The only person I know capable of that is Dumbledore, and he’s considered to be the strongest wizard in Europe.”

“Yeah, well the first thing you need to know, is that their wrong.” She held up a hand to stall him. “I’m going to try to explain my findings, but I need you to listen and not interrupt. There’s a lot we need to get through, just to cover the basics, and I doubt Harry and Sirius will leave us alone that long.”

“Why don’t you want them to know?” It was accusatory, just curious.

“I…I’ve been working on this for a long time, and I don’t think I’m ready to share it yet.” She waited for him to nod his understanding, then continued.

“The first thing you need to know is that I’ve been looking into this since I was six. I’ve been working on a thesis with my findings, which you can read later, but not all of it is complete or well researched yet. And honestly, some of my first attempts at writing were not great. I also don’t have many sources for some of my conclusions, and a lot of it is based on personal experience.

“So anyways, I started actually researching at six, but I’ve been doing semi controlled ‘accidental’ or wild magic since I was about three. This is magic that is not formed using a specific spell and relies on the intense moment of intent and will that is often generated by magical children. They want something with their entire being, and magic gives it to them. As they grow older, their core stabilizes and then is shaped into using a wand which limits the burst of raw power and generally stops wixen from ever using it intentionally.

“Focused magic is generally the next step. It used a focus, most often a wand, to concentrate and direct magic while an incantation and motion forms it into a given spell. Other common focused magic includes runes in which case the focus is often a quill, and the shaping is done by the runes themselves. Since the castor and their focus is in direct contact with the runes as they are created, the focus does not require additional magical components to direct the magic in a way that it remains concentrated beyond their immediate proximity.”

Remus had grabbed a nearby quill and extra sheet of parchment and had started taking notes. Ari could see that he desperately wanted to interrupt with questions but let her continue for now.

“Now wandless magic is not the same as wild magic or focused magic. It is the attempt to shape our magic into the same form as a focused spell without the use of a focus and sometimes without the added control of an incantation as well. Because of this it does require a certain level of innate power to be able to reach the level of concentration needed to maintain form outside of the body, however, that level is far lower than I believe most people think and becomes less necessary with further practice.

“No, the main problem is the ability to shape and direct the magic, which is more a function of practice and belief than anything else, two things which are severely lacking in most people’s attempts. Think of it like the questions I asked earlier.

“You practiced the summoning spell hundreds of times before you were able to first case non-verbally and then without needing the precise wand motions. Some studies I’ve read suggest that it takes roughly 500-1000 repetitions to gain that level of mastery. For the average person, that is years of everyday use. Once you’ve reached that level, then it still takes further concentrated practice to be able to perform it wandlessly, and only after you’ve learned and practiced how to direct your magic without a focus. In other words, it’s very possible, but the limitations are so outside of most people’s regular magic use that they can’t just stumble upon it.

“I haven’t been able to find any specific studies done on wandless magic outside of general interviews done with practitioners where they provided very little solid evidence for how they are able to accomplish it beyond stumbling into it one day. My guess is that people with large cores can essentially bypass the training needed to direct magic since they can just shove a bunch at it at once and since everyone masters certain spells eventually, they are able to one day just force their magic through on accident which they eventually learn to use more intentionally.

“My best evidence for this, outside of my own experience, is that Uagadou and Mahoutokoro both provide wandless classes in the final year, though I haven’t been able to access curriculums, and they seem to be fairly quiet about this. I only found a single mention in a book published almost 60 years ago from a Uagadou graduate who emigrated to Britain.”

She paused there, letting Remus finish his notes. Once he was done, he sat back in his chair in what Ari could only describe as stunned silence.

“Ari…this is groundbreaking. If your findings can be confirmed, then it changes the way that most people see magic. It’s a fundamental change in the theory of magic.”

“I know, which is why I haven’t shared it yet. The data I’ve compiled is not enough, nor do I have access to the resource I would need to prove my theories adequately. But the main issue is that I’m not sure people should know yet. There could be possible dangers to preforming wandless magic that I haven’t found yet and…at this point it’s an advantage. The more people that know, the less useful it becomes.”

“But it could revolutionize the way we approach teaching magic.”

“Not really. The way I’ve been attempting this isn’t sustainable for most people. It might be more possible for wixen who are about to or already have graduated, but the amount of effort required to perform even the simplest spell is not cost effective for most people.”

“I…I’m trying to understand, but I’m not sure you realize how incredible this is Ari.”

“It is, but it’s also difficult. Almost as difficult as you originally thought, just not impossible. I started attempting to learn when I was six. It took me almost a year to learn how to do a single spell, which was made more difficult by having to learn to shape the magic without first learning through the use of a wand but was also easier in that I didn’t have to retrain myself on how to direct magic without a focus. And that spell was just a simple color changer. Ever since then I’ve been trying to learn new spells one at a time. The fastest I learned one was six months, just before I left for Hogwarts.

“Once I could start using my wand to train and memorize the shaping of a spell, I was able to bring that time down to a month for the first-year spells. But that was with nightly practice where I stretched my core to its limits. When I learned expelliarmus it took me almost three.

“It’s a useful tool and will likely be helpful to those who decide to pursue it, but I’d rather keep it quiet for now. I don’t mind telling Sirius, or even Harry, but until I can formalize my theories better, I don’t want to rush to the public. Besides, it makes a great secret weapon, and if I’m still right, then we’ll need it in the coming years.”

Remus blanched slightly at her subtle reference to the possible war looming on the horizon but turned thoughtful.

“I can understand why you want to keep it a secret for now. I don’t know if I agree, but I won’t try to change your mind. Besides, you’re still in school, there’s no need to draw the attention these finding would bring until your older anyways.” He gave her a somewhat wan smile and Ari was just relieved at how well he seemed to be taking this. It really was quite the shift in perspective for someone who grew up in the wizarding world. “But I definitely want to see that thesis of yours. Just…Ari this is amazing. I’m so proud of you.”

He pulled her into a hug which she fell into easily. She didn’t realize how much she needed to hear that about this project that had taken up so much of her life. It had started off as curiosity and a possible way to help keep her alive, and now it was a shift in the theory of magic.

For now, she just clung to Remus and accepted his praise. Soon enough she’d be able to discuss her theories with him more fully and take the time to truly think them out and argue any holes in her logic. Until then, she just relaxed in the relief of being seen and accepted.

Chapter Text

Ari felt a bit bad for Charlie, but not bad enough to stop the twins from pranking him. He had left a loophole in his latest contract in regard to not applying pranks to his personal items that will not visibly affect him. He’d only covered the visible part because he’d been one of the victims of the twins last Hogwarts prank in changing people’s clothes to multicolored tie-dye. Ari had been able to direct his wording subtly so that this avenue was open and expected that she could keep variations of the loophole in place for the next couple of versions as well. So long as they were subtle about their use.

She did so enjoy arguing with Charlie when he thought they’d broken their agreement, since a broken contract required her and the twins to publicly grovel and got Charlie a year free of pranks. So far that clause had never come into effect.

Now, Ari was currently standing guard by sitting on the steps to read, ostensibly because the living room was currently too loud with the game of exploding snap going on. Normally she wouldn’t involve herself in the actual act of a prank, but she had plausible deniability through not participating directly and while the twins had learned how to wandlessly unlock a door, they had not gotten around to learning how to re-lock it. Thus, she was bribed into helping with the promise of two questionless favors in the next school year. She had the coupons and everything.

The idea for the prank originally came through an accidental mis-brew of a giddy potion which was the base for giggle water. They’d brewed it in potions a couple of months before the end of the school year, and Fred and George had ended up creating a solid substance rather than the expected draught. Being the incorrigible and reckless pranksters they were, they kept the result and experimented with it and other variations they were able to create following the same steps.

This had resulted in a powder that, when activated with water, caused a tickling sensation and generally left the victim laughing uncontrollably until it wore off in roughly 15-20 minutes.

So, the plan was currently to apply the powder to Charlie’s clothes, which also avoided the unknowingly ingest potions clause, and have the twins invite him to play quidditch tomorrow. They’d already tested the use of the potion while on a broom, with the twins flying around low to the ground to ensure that the effect would not be strong enough to make them fall off. It also tended to build once the water, or in this case sweat, activated it, which should give Charlie enough time to land if he felt uncomfortable.

Ari was a bit miffed that she probably wouldn’t be here to see the results but coming two days in a row would likely be suspicious, even with her constant effort to be seen as the responsible one who had no time or patience for pranks thank you very much.

She’d just have to enjoy the twins retelling and Charlie’s next attempt at contract negotiations.

The twins tumbled out of the door just before the time limit they set, and Ari quickly relocked it, handing over the game from their room that had been their excuse for coming upstairs. They headed down first, while Ari settled in for another 20 or so minutes of reading before making her own way down.

The house was still at its typical level of chaos when she reentered the fray, only it was perhaps worse due to the current number of people present. Only Bill was missing from the Weasleys, and the addition of Ari’s family plus the Tonks was plenty enough to fill the house.

The living room had currently been taken over by the ‘kids’ with the inclusion of Charlie and Tonks who were both of age but generally didn’t act it, and Percy who refused to be referred to as a kid. An Exploding Snap tournament took up the space in front of the fireplace, while a quieter but no less vicious game of Uno proceeded on the couches.

The Adults were currently enjoying a break from the kids, and a few glasses of wine, in the kitchen.

Ari went to sit next to Percy where he was currently winning the game of Uno, though from her glance at the other’s cards on the way around, it wouldn’t be for long. She sat down, leaned lightly into his side and tapped the skip card that had just become useful since Charlie changed the color to blue. Percy didn’t even question it, which was overly trusting of him.

“Cheater!” Tonks cried as Charlie went directly for his next blue card, rather than the draw two he had, which let Percy play his second to last card before either of them realized. And with a wild as his last card, he won the next round.

Ari just grinned innocently.

“Would I do that to you?”

“Yes! And you’re playing next round so you can’t help other cheat!”

“Mmm, how about we play something more interesting then. I brought monopoly.” Ari grinned at the several yells of no, even from the other group in the room.

The last time they played monopoly it had taken three days and ended in a tie when Mrs. Weasley cut off Andromeda and Ari after the 14^th hour of playing after bankrupting everyone else. There may have been irresponsible use of invigoration draughts.

In the end, Ari and Andromeda agreed that it had been good practice for long term negotiations and monitoring assets and finances. Everyone else agreed that those two were terrifying and never allowed to play monopoly again.

Ari had bought a copy of Risk and planned to have Remus help her create a magical version of it before school. Then she’d be able to introduce it during the Christmas holiday. She fully expected multiple casualties.

For now, though, they agreed on Sorry, which satiated Tonks’s need for vengeance and the minimal level of bloodshed allowed in the house.

Eventually, after being thoroughly trounced due to Charlie and Tonks ganging up, and despite her and Percy’s alliance, she declined another game and wandered off towards the kitchen. Both to grab a snack and listen in on the adults.

She skirted around the edge of the table full of parents who were all various levels of inebriated and made her way to a plate of cookies left on the counter. Ari munched on one while tuning into the conversation that appeared to be about reminiscing about their own Hogwarts days.

Andromeda, Ted, Molly, and Arthur had all been there around the same time, and Sirius and Remus had only been a few years off, while still having most of the same professors. Except of course the Defense teacher, which seemed to be the conversation topic of the night.

“And do you remember Tiffing? I’m pretty sure he spent more time in the hospital wing than in class. How many times did he accidentally hex himself while trying to demonstrate?” Molly said through her laughter.

“Oh Merlin, yes. We all used to just put shields up at the beginning of class and duck every time he waved his wand.” Ted added, also struggling to speak around his giggles.

“But he wasn’t nearly as bad as Shroud. She kept challenging students to duels. Even the firsties.” Andromeda cut in, swirling her glass with a smirk that showed genuine humor.

“Oh, I remember her!” Sirius perked up and swayed a bit. “Only time I even appreciated that curse mummy dearest taught me. What ever happened to her?”

“Some students ended up shoving her in the broken vanishing cabinet, though no one ever claimed credit. I heard that she popped up in Germany quite insane, though it was never confirmed.” Andy’s smile suggested she knew exactly who had freed them of that teacher, but everyone was smart enough not to ask.

Ari listened to another few stories and wondering if this year’s teacher would be better or worse than Harris. At least she’d been a decent teacher, even if she’d been stealing from literally everyone.

After a bit, Ari grabbed the rest of the plate and headed back to the living. The mention of the vanishing cupboard had also triggered her Memory and given her plenty to think about. She’d have to check out the Room of Requirement when she got back, having an example might help her in her e-box project.

Ari’s head suddenly shot up as she realized something.

“Diagon Alley!”

“W…what?” Her shout caused Sirius to snort awake from where he’d been napping against Remus as the werewolf read a book. For his part, Remus had almost flung said book at her exclamation. Harry on the other hand was not phased.

“I can do magic in Diagon Freaking Alley.”

“Yeah…?” Sirius responded, looking at her like she’d gone crazy, which was actually quite possible.

Ari had been researching the trace ever since she’d run out of useful spells to train with wandlessly. She’d been working on other ones since, but they were much slower to learn without being able to use her wand to train first. So, while taking a break from her runes study, wandless history research, and semi-grueling physical defense training with Sirius, she’d been looking into the Trace and possible ways around it.

What it came down to was that a spell was placed on each eleven-year-old’s wand to alert the Ministry if magic was produced from said wand. Most people seemed to think that the trace was deactivated during the school year, which didn’t make much sense since you still couldn’t use magic if you had an emergency trip home in the middle of the semester, or during the holidays, but people still at the school could.

And from her research, it was suggested that the Trace was ineffective in places of high magical concentration since its ability to distinguish magic from the wand, and magic around it was significantly diminished. Therefore, the Trace became inactive in places of a certain level of inbuilt magic. So far, she hadn’t been able to find much support this claim over others of a time-based trigger.

However! She’d suddenly remembered that underaged wizards could preform magic in Diagon and its adjacent alleys. That combined with the whispers she’d heard from upper year Slytherins about practicing over the summer suggested that magic could be performed without triggering the trace or removing it from the given wand.

And while the knowledge about Diagon was not particularly helpful in regards to letting her practice, it did lead her to consider other concentrations of magical energy that could shield her magic use. There was one specific one that came to mind.

The Black Ritual Room.

It was a room buried below the Manor that not only had been seeped in magic from past generation, but also had layers of wards to keep outside magic from interfering and inner magic from escaping. It was perfect.

“I need to go to the Manor!”

“Isn’t it a little late for a book run?” Remus asked, just as confused as Sirius.

“No, but also, I need to go see if I can potentially break the law.” Remus and Sirius shared a look that was also an entire conversation before Sirius sighed and pulled himself to his feet.

“You get two hours, then it’s back here for bed.” He stated, stretching out and headed for the floo. Ari grinned and bounced after him.

“Don’t get caught!” Remus called after them, earning two offended looks.

As it turns out, the Ritual room worked perfectly. Ari was entirely giddy at finding a work around, up until Sirius decided that that meant they could start actual dueling practices rather than the mock scenarios they’d been going through.

She’d never been so sore in her life.

But at least it meant she’d be prepared for next year.

Chapter Text

Ari much preferred the trip up to the castle in the carriages as opposed to the boats. At least the carriages were spelled with warming charms, even if they didn’t provide the same spectacular view. Regardless, it was nice to relax for the ride rather than worry about the sorting or anything else.

The train ride had also been entirely uneventful. Cassius had joined her, the twins, and Lee in their compartment. He’d looked a bit worn and possibly thinner than he had been the last year but put off her questions. Instead, they had discussed classes for the year, and the pranks that the twins were already planning.

The feast was roughly the same as last year as well. She clapped for the first years and listened to Dumbledore’s announcements. The new Defense teacher was announced, a Professor Hayden Palmer. He was exceedingly average. Maybe slightly below average height, balding, and wearing the most boring robes imaginable. He was the exact opposite of Harris. Not that that would stop Ari from watching him closely.

Hopefully he’d at least be able to do his job.

The real excitement started after the feast. After Slytherin had gone back to their snake pit and Snape had delivered his usual lecture and threats. And after the firsties had been shown to their dorms. Not that they really needed to be out of the way, but it was past nine by this point, so it was off to bed with them.

As for the rest of Slytherin, the show was just starting. Ari had missed it last year as well, but she’d heard plenty, and pieced together even more. And so far, her information seemed to be accurate. All of the other students, years two through seven, had filled the common room, sitting with their groups, or hovering near the edges of the room. Ari stayed with Cassius at the study tables, since they were firmly neutral territory as opposed to some of the seating areas.

Once the prefects had returned, it began. The shuffling of hierarchy and power.

One group of fifth years approached another, with the obvious intent to stake a claim as the top group in that year. It started with an exchange of insults and pointed remarks. One student brought up another’s grades from last year, while another insulted someone’s family. It was like a dance, around a minefield.

And they weren’t the only ones. All over the room people engaged. Some exchanges ended in embarrassment or humiliation for one side, and others in duel challenges. The prefects kept a list of duels and assigned times for the first week back. It was done this way to allow for the shuffle of power with enough supervision to one, keep things from getting out of hand, and two, show everyone else where the power was shifting.

Since duels over specific reasons could only be fought once in a year, it was also the time for people to try to reclaim some of their honor or dignity from previous lost duels.

Of course, that wouldn’t all happen on the first night. The whole first week would proceed similarly as people watched the ebb and flow and decided when to make their move. Ari and Cassius were some of those people. As decidedly neutral, they had no reason to challenge the two groups that had coalesced among their peers last year. However, Ari did keep notes in her book about some of the shifts in power as it would likely affect her plans for the year.

Which is why she was a bit startled when someone approached their table, though she hid it well.

“Grey, I’m surprised they let you back in, you bring down the whole house’s reputation with you blood traitor friends.”

“Hello Quintrell, I see you didn’t learn anything last year, though I guess it isn’t a surprise with how you grades came out.” She tutted softly. Ari was well aware that he’d had to meet with Snape about his abysmal grades, though none of that was common knowledge. “Your parents must be so disappointed.”

“At least I have parents. You’re just the orphan charity case.” He sneered back, showing that she’d obviously struck a nerve. Granted his did as well, her birth parents were one of the things she carefully did not think about, but she was much better at hiding her anger.

“And yet you feel the need to prove yourself better than me. At least Lord Black chose me, Lord Quintrell is stuck with you. Unless, of course, he finds a better option. Was that you sibling in with the first years? Or half sibling.” Quintrell’s face turned even redder, and Ari could see his posse shift around in the background.

“You shut your filthy mouth, Mudblood!” Really, why was he even in Slytherin. Ari just sighed, looking bored, if they thought that insult would affect her, they were sorely mistaken.

“Really Quintrell, that was weak, even for you. Why don’t you try again.” She deliberately referenced her returning his wand during their last duel, knowing how humiliating it had been for him.

“I challenge you!” Quintrell practically shouted, and Ari rolled her eyes, then made eye contact with a prefect to note it down. They headed over.

“Your time will be Wednesday at 7:30. Do not be late or it will be considered a forfeit, we don’t have time to waste at this time of year.” Ari nodded, while Quintrell still fumed.

“I hope you can make it worth my time this year, I’d hate to be disappointed. Again.” The prefect shot her a warning look, but blocked Quintrell’s attempt to lunge forward. Once a duel was set, aggressions were to cease until time and not to be rehashed until the next year at earliest.  

“You know he was studying all last year and probably this summer as well.” Cassius commented evenly.

“Yes, though from what I’ve heard, his spells are still mostly brute force. Besides, he’s not the only one.”

“Just make sure you win.”

“Always.” She sent him a sharp smile, then went back to recording the other exchanges.

Despite her confidence in her abilities, she didn’t slack off on training. She spent time in the Retreat with the twins and Lee throwing everything they knew at her, and Cassius doing the same in the evenings in an empty hallway deep in the dungeons. She’d also learned plenty of spells from Sirius this summer and spent the time to teach them to her friends as well.

Cassius was as neutral as they come, but there was no guarantee that he wouldn’t be challenged at some point this year. He was also scary good at flipendo after only a couple of tries. Ari had never been so glad that the cushioning charm was a first-year spell.

As for the spells she’d already learned last year, she had most of them down non-verbal and motionless, and several wandlessly as well, not that she’d be using that. But an almost entirely silent duel from a second year would definitely hit high on the intimidation scale, which is what she was aiming for. She didn’t really care about Quintrell, but she’d need the respect of at least some of the House if she wanted her plans to succeed.

Her shield was also still a bit brittle. She could cast it non-verbal, but since her core was still settling, it still only really blocked one spell before shattering. Hopefully after she turned 13 in December it would settle a bit. Until then, she just got really good at dodging. It was one of Sirius’s favorite exercises before they’d been able to let her practice with magic and the twins seemed eager to take up the banner.

So, when the day of the duel actually arrived, she was entirely prepared, though she made sure not to let it go to her head. No need to lose because she got arrogant. Especially not to Quintrell.

They once again met in the side room just a few halls from the common room entrance. There were quite a few people present, though that was likely for the duels as a whole, since their timeslot was smack in the middle. They got 30 minutes to fight, and if it went over that then the prefects monitoring the duels would decide the winner. This was only for the start of the year, due to the sheer volume of duels that needed to be completed.

Quintrell was there with his usual gang, while Ari was pleasantly surprised to have Cassius in her corner. Well, not surprised, but it was certainly an improvement on last year.

The rules were gone over, the wards were raised, and the duel started.

Ari immediately dodges three hexes that come her way. Apparently, Quintrell got fast over the last year. But the hexes are still badly aimed, and still mostly from the actual school curriculum. Ari’s spent the last year training with two insane geniuses who like to learn the strangest mix of hexes and jinxes, the son of a Dark family who has a surprising number of subtly dangerous curses, and an ex-auror who not only had the spell repertoire of a semi-sadistic prankster, but the reflexes of a war veteran. Quintrell would have to do better than a little speed.

Ari sent back an Expelliamus to test him and found that he’d also learned to dodge. Thank Merlin for small miracles. Which meant she could actually make an effort without ending it too soon. She wanted to be able to show off some of her skills, though not too many. Just enough to give people an idea.

She sent off a couple of incendios like last time as well and a flipendo which he shielded against, though his shield seemed even weaker than hers.

She dodged a tripping hex by turning slightly, and chained together an incarcerous, a flipendo, a tripping jinx, and then an expelliarmus, flowing from one spell to the other as the motion of the spell ended and started the next. It was a common dueling technique, but not among second years, since even pureblood families didn’t teach much of dueling until the kid reached thirteen and their magic stabilized enough to perform more smoothly. The combination of her occlumency levels of calm and knowing the spells well enough to do two of them wandlessly let her complete the spell chain where others could not.

Quintrell shielded the incarcerous, dodged the flipendo, and jumped right into the tripping hex, from there it was easy to disarm him and then for good measure she stunned him too. No need to repeat last year’s physical tussle.

“Duel to Grey.” Prefect Travers announced, bringing down the wards and reviving Quintrell.

Ari wandered over to Cassius who was currently receiving his winnings from Antonia Aloise who ran all the bets. Ari raised an eyebrow at the multiple galleons he’d gotten back.

“There were good odds. Apparently, most of them didn’t see your duel last year.” She just rolled her eyes and turned to head back to the common room with him.

“So, how’d it go?” She asked once they were out of ear shot.

“You impressed plenty of people. Not a very long duel, but efficient and almost entirely silent. You’ve got the third and fourth years intimidated, and the fifth seem impressed. The first years are half in love with you.”

“Good.” She’d need it too.

Last year had been to settle in and figure out what she wanted to do with her time at school. She’d spent the better part of it learning as much as she could, including the best way to establish herself in Slytherin. She was under no illusions about what most of the house thought of her, and she needed the best way to keep them out of her business, and eventually Harry’s when he arrived.

That was what this year was for, building a reputation and placing herself in the best position to help her friends and family. And there was one thing that had caught her attention.

The thing about Slytherin is that, while there was plenty of power plays and conflict within the house itself, to the rest of the school they were a united front. Slytherins did not fight in public, nor did they overtly work to undermine or harm each other. It made sense with the animosity of some of the other students towards their house.

Ari had been fairly protected by her friendship with the Weasleys but several of the first and second years had been cornered or injured last year. It was why Slytherins always traveled in packs. Harder to mess with overall.

All of this meant that just gaining standing in Slytherin wouldn’t really help her with the rest of the school. Slytherin kept their secrets close and even if she was the most well respect second year to ever grace these halls, it would do diddly squat amongst the other students.

However, there was one specific thing that connect all of the houses to Slytherin.

The Black Market.

Not that that was what it was called, though she would have laughed herself sick if it had been true. But it was a market of dubiously legal or permitted within the school. Slytherins just called it the Exchange, while most other students didn’t realize quite how big and organized it was.

Almost anything could be obtained, given the right connections and enough money. Everything from copies of old essays and tests to original essays made out in the students very own handwriting. Memory and concentration potions for fifth and seventh years. Hard to get potion ingredients. Blank hall passes.

Alcohol.

That was one of the biggest exports, especially to Gryffindor, not that they fully realized where it came from. They had a deal with a Ravenclaw to act as the middleman with Gryffindor to keep them from throwing a fit over accepting anything from ‘the evil house’.

But the most important one, and the one that interested Ari most were the secrets.

Secrets and rumors were the life blood of a place like Hogwarts. There was always some scandal going on and the embarrassments of youth made great blackmail material. Everyone wanted to know something. Information on their rival. The password to the prefect bathroom. Who was dating who.

And more than a few had something to hide.

Currently the information exchange was ruled by one Catherine Dupont who had inherited it last year from a seventh year who’d graduated before Ari had arrived. It was a well-oiled machine that knew every rumor in the mill and started more that it’s fair share. A network of students who passed along information in exchange for favors, money, or other secrets. And Ari planned to take it over.

Not this year of course. There was no way that any of the upperclassmen would trust a second year with such a pillar of their influence. But she’d need to start now to be able to get anywhere, and she had no plans to wait until she was a sixth year herself to take over.

She’d spent the last year watching. Carefully observing the older students and their habits, especially the ones that brought them in contact with Dupont or one of her lieutenants who were also both seventh years. She made careful notes of who brought information frequently, and how Dupont operated and incentivized people to work with her. Knowing the network would make it easier build her own or hijack pieces, though that would be a last resort. She’d prefer a peaceful transfer of power.

With that in mind, she waited until Catherine was alone for once, during the second week of school and sat herself comfortably in the chair across from her. It only took a moment for Dupont to look up, though she didn’t say anything, simply raised an eyebrow.

Ari smiled and tossed a thick sheaf of parchment onto the low table between them. The other eyebrow rose to join the first.

“And what is this?”

“My resume.”

“For what? I do not believe I put out an ad for nosy second years.” Dupont intoned, though her face gave away nothing.

“And that’s your problem. You’re severely underutilizing the lower years currently. I thought you might like some help with that.” Ari baited. Sting her pride enough to get her to sit up and pay attention, but not enough to actually annoy her.

“The younger years are rarely as interested in the Exchange, nor do they care as much about the current…atmosphere of the school. It’s not cost effective to try to interest them beyond the occasional tip or trick.”

“They may not be as much of a market, but they are a resource. Upper years rarely pay attention to a first year in the vicinity. As for incentives, they’re already a primed market for the Hogsmeade exchange. Since they can’t go until third year, it’s a simple transaction of favors. That or you can use those tips and tricks that are so helpful for earlier years navigating the castle and classes both.”

Dupont seemed to consider this, though her expression was still perfectly smooth. It was incredibly impressive, and Ari kind of wished she could do that too. She finally reached forward and started flipping through the information Ari had worked on gathering these first two week.

“So, what are you proposing.”

“You already have your network and a system set up. I’m not interested in honing in on your territory, but I want to set up my own network within the youngest three years. Most of it will stay within the years, as we are both aware that gossip and rumor is generally most applicable within a year group. For relevant information I’d like to work with you and your lieutenants to keep it circulating so long as you in turn provide relevant information back and some of the tips and tricks you no doubt hoard.”

Ari watched her very closely for any clue as to what she was thinking. If she declined, Ari could still go ahead with her plan, but it would make it much harder for the rest of this year since she’d have to compete rather than work together.

“And what’s to stop me from simply doing this myself? If it’s so useful, I could simply cut out the middleman and expand my own network.” Ari snorted in amusement.

“You could but given the fact that this is your NEWTs year, I doubt you’d have the time or inclination to try. Besides, we both know that you have no use for the petty drama for eleven-year-olds, nor do you have the same level of rapport with the younger years that I would.”

“And what would you be getting out of this?”

“I want to take over.” It was Dupont’s turn to snort in amusement, though it was more of a slightly harder exhale through the nose. “Not yet of course, but you haven’t set up an heir yet, and with you graduating, it makes sense to have someone who knows how to run things when you leave.”

“If you think they’ll listen to a third year, then you’re crazier than I thought.”

“And I think that’s my problem to solve. Yours is simply passing on what you know so it doesn’t fall apart to infighting next year. Think of this year as a trial run. I’d bet you I can get at least up to the fifth years to work with me by the end of the year, and with that much of a majority next year, the rest will fall in line.” Ari said it with a conviction she did not fully feel but was perfectly willing to fake until it was true.

“Fine. You can try your little experiment, so long as you keep it to the younger years for now. If I’m satisfied my Christmas, I’ll help you wrangle the upper years. I would so hate to leave a mess behind.” She smiled sharply, only her mouth moving to make the expression. “You’ll meet with me every Thursday afternoon during your free period. We’ll need to discuss your findings. Run along now.” Ari took the dismissal and skedaddled. It was actually more than she was expecting to meet regularly. She’d thought she’d be working mostly with the lieutenants, but if Dupont was taking a personal interest, then she’d possible actually take this idea seriously.

She pondered on it while making her way back to Cassius in the study area.

“So?”

“We’re in. I’ll need to speak with Marissa later too.” She was Ari’s first year contact and quickly showing promise as a perfect lieutenant for the newest students to Hogwarts. She was surprisingly bubbly for a Slytherin and tended to put people off their guard. Cassius was focusing on the second years, since he had a fairly good report with both cliches. Ari had been working on the third years, which wasn’t particularly hard, given that she had access to a great deal of Arithmancy and Runes knowledge and most Slytherins were in one or both, given the efficacy of the other electives. She also had Charlies notes from Care of Magical Creatures, which went far beyond the normal requirements.

With those resources in hand, it had only taken a bit of effort and some subtle hints to work her way into a few of their study groups without too many questions. Slytherins were almost all control freaks in one way or another and classes seemed to be top of the list, so any way to keep the higher than the average was a guaranteed way to endear yourself to them.

They’d already scouted the best Slytherins to work with, now they’d have to start creating contacts in the other houses. Ari did have the advantage of a direct link to Gryffindor, and the twins were the best at ferreting out secrets and information, so that was easy. The rest would come with time and effort.

She almost groaned into her homework. She was going to be so busy this year and it was her own fault.

Chapter Text

Ari walked into the Retreat, thoroughly preoccupied by her own machinations. It was the first time she’d been here this week, which was due mostly to the subtle interactions she’d had to devise for the third years. Because they were older than her, working with them took a delicate touch, though not as much as the fourth years were going to need once she was more established. Hopefully she’d openly have Dupont’s support by then, so it wouldn’t require quite as much subtle manipulation.

Who was she kidding, every interaction with a Slytherin required subtle manipulation and being aware of the other persons own efforts as well.

However, she was not distracted enough to miss the chaos of paper and prank products spread across the table the twins were at. She was well versed in the signs of imminent doom. Luckily, they were only at a level six, so she didn’t need to immediately vacate the area.

Lee on the other hand was not nearly as well versed and looked like he might be headed directly into panic over the twins’ behavior.

“Ari, thank Merlin. You need to keep them from getting expelled.”

While Ari made it perfectly clear that she had no control over the twins’ pranks or actions, keeping them from getting expelled actually was one of her self-imposed responsibilities, if only because school would be very boring without them. So, she mentally set aside her own schemes and turned her full attention to Lee.

“What did they do this time, and how imminent is the fallout?” She needed to know what she had to work with.

“Nothing yet, but apparently the map told them that the Marauders broke the school record for most detentions in a year, and now they want to beat it!” Lee seemed overly concerned about this. Granted, he’d only had a little over a year to become used to the twins’ level of shenanigans, and therefore couldn’t be expected to be quite so blasé about all of this. Ari on the other hand, had had years of exposure and wasn’t immediately concerned.

“You’re going to let a piece of parchment goad you into losing all your free time?” She asked them, and both turned to her with a feverish light in their eyes.

“Breaking this record is not merely an idle pastime—”

“—nor a childish endeavor. —”

“—It would cement us in Hogwarts history! It would ensure a legacy—”

“—nay, a monument to our success as the—”

“—Greatest pranksters to ever grace these halls!”

Oh hell, they’d been talking to the portraits again.

“So that’s a yes then.”

“Plus, it called us chicken.” George added, turning back to their scheming.

“Yeah, Lee, that’s out of our hands, I’d just stay out of it unless you want to end up in detention too.” She said turning back to the anxious Gryffindor and fully ignoring the slightly maniacal laughter coming from the twins.

“But won’t they get expelled if they get too many detentions?”

Ari considered it, then dug in her expanded bag for the book she was looking for. It was more of a pamphlet really but was thick with pages and several additional inserts. She flipped through it quickly to the section on punishments and detention and handed it over, letting Lee read at his own pace.

It was a pretty straightforward section about what could and could not be punished, what punishments could entail and what was required for expulsion. She’d especially paid attention to that since that was the most important and generally smallest section. She also kept the booklet updated with the yearly rules tacked on and Filch’s ever growing list of banned items.

Eventually he made it through and looked up, somewhat less worried than before.

“So why do you have the Hogwarts rulebook and charter in your bag?”

“Because I hang out with those two. I need to know what can actually get me in trouble by association, and when it’s best to just leave them to something. They’ve both read it too, that’s why they aren’t worried about getting expelled. We have contingencies in place for if someone tries to anyways. Besides, it’s easier to bend the rules if you know exactly what they are.”

Lee nodded in understanding, and quietly asked where to get a copy, which she easily informed him. The more people looking out for the twins, the less likely they’d actually stumble into dangerous territory. Though they were pretty good about reigning themselves in.

“Anyways, I came up here to drag you down to lunch. It’s been three days since I’ve seen you at any meal besides breakfast.” Since the twins had discovered the kitchen on the map, they’d often skipped meals to work on their own schemes or homework. However, she wanted to sit at Gryffindor today, and it worked better if they were there.

That was one of the perks of having friends in Gryffindor. Meals were one of the best times to hear gossip or other information, which is why she made it a point to go to every meal, even if she generally had something better to do. People didn’t pay any attention to someone reading, which gave her great opportunities to eavesdrop. And from the Slytherin table she had easy access to the Ravenclaws as well.

Being able to sit at the Gryffindor table gave her access to Hufflepuffs, though she had to work harder to listen in when surrounded by the twins and their friends who were generally quite chatty. Still, it worked out fine, and no one seemed to question why she sat in different spots along the table either.

Plus, sometimes she just missed the carefree attitude of the Lions, as opposed to the generally uptight snakes.

Either way, it was a win-win for her, and she refused to give it up because the twins were busy planning. So, with a bit more cajoling and threats to organize their table when they were in class, she got them up and out of the room and down into the Great Hall.  

They ended up sitting with Angelina and Alicia who were already there, and Ari let the conversation wash over her as she ate and also listen for any interesting comments from the Hufflepuff table as well. She was almost startled when a girl just a few meters down at the other table burst into tears.

“What do you think is wrong with her?” Angelina asked as the obvious nice one in the group. Ari glanced over to see who was actually crying.

“Oh, that’s Millie Burgess, her father’s been in the hospital since before the start of term, she probably got bad news.” She said, turning back towards her food, before noticing the others were looking at her strangely. “What?”

“Why do you know that? And how do you even know who she is? She’s got to be a sixth year or something.” Lee asked in confusion. Ari rolled her eyes but didn’t mind the chance to show off a bit. She may have access to Gryffindor, but they still weren’t much of a market yet.

“She’s actually a fifth year, and I know all of the students by sight, easier to keep track of them that way.” And knowing information was useless if you didn’t even know who it was about.

“Really?” This from the twins, though the others looked just as surprised.

“Yeah, there’s not that many students anyways.”

“Wait, hold on, we’ve got to test this.” Angelina cut in again. “Who’s she?” She pointed over to a brunette girl at the Ravenclaw table, who was on the edge of a fairly large group.

“Audrey Borgin, third year Ravenclaw, recently added to the quidditch team as a beater, has a crush on Cedric Diggory.”

“Everyone in our year has a crush on Diggory.” Alicia scoffed, though Ari raised an eyebrow. She most certainly did not, though she was well aware of the charm the second-year boy seemed to give off without thought. She had a list of all of the people who’d asked him to Hogsmeade or wanted to.

“What about him?” Fred pointed to a Slytherin who was seated at the far end of the table by himself. Ari wouldn’t give away Slytherin secrets for free, but common knowledge was fair game.

“Cameron Davis. Seventh year. Most of his family was caught in a huge smuggling bust just after school started. With the loss in status and the dangers of associating with him, he is not having a good time.” Ari kept her tone neutral but couldn’t help feeling a little smug. He’d been one of the most outspoken on her friendships last year, and now he’d be too busy worrying about his own problems after school to mess with her.

“What about her.”

“Professor Sybill Trelawney. I would not recommend Divination as an elective next year. Unless you really like the smell of incense and predicting your own death.” That set off a round of laughter and they spent the remainder of lunch picking out people and seeing what Ari knew about them, or at least, what she was willing to share for free.  

***

Defense was…exceedingly boring. Like, History of Magic boring, with only the bonus of Professor Palmer actually answering the occasional question, though they were exceedingly rare. Instead, he mostly paced at the front of the room, reading from the textbook, and attempting to throw in the occasional anecdote that generally fell flat. At least Harris had been engaging.

Even the practical parts were boring. Palmer just told them the spell, pointed out the page in the textbook and retreated to his desk to read while they worked. Ari would guess he’d been a Ravenclaw, but that defense was not his area of interest. She wondered how he even ended up in this job if he seemed so uninterested.

Plus, she didn’t even have the twin to help entertain her and Cassius flipped between actually paying attention, so he didn’t have to do the reading later, or taking a nap since they had Astronomy the night before. They were stuck with the Ravenclaws who spent their own time reading their books or discussing their own projects while the Slytherins generally appeared to take dutiful notes and subtly passed notes in the meantime.

Luckily, she did have a lesson packet that Remus had written out for her just in case. He’d been making noise about what he might like to do once Harry was in school next year, since it would leave him and Sirius home all day long.

While Remus had gotten over using the Black family money for himself (only after Sirius had threatened to gift half of it to him so he’d stop worrying about taking his money.) he still wasn’t very good at being idle. For now, he spent the school term tutoring Harry in magical and muggle topics to get him ready for Hogwarts, but next year he’d be adrift.

Recently he’d been kicking around the idea of starting a tutoring non-for-profit, or possibly a day school for werewolves and other sentient creatures who were capable of wielding magic, but generally not allowed in Hogwarts. There were other schools around for wixen who didn’t have the power level or diversity of ability required to receive a Hogwarts letter, but most of those schools still didn’t accept possibly ‘dangerous’ creatures.

From the letters she’d gotten, Sirius was already onboard and was working to coerce Remus into letting him fund the start up, and Ted had liked the idea well enough to be considering going in on it with him. Ari was ecstatic at the idea, though there was little she could do to help from her end. However, Remus had been working on the Defense lesson plans based on the ministry schooling requirements and had been willing to send her copies so long as she sent him feedback.

This worked out perfectly for her since she’d been using the first three years’ worth that he’d already completed as bargaining chips in her own scheme and was able to pass back a variety of feedback. It was a win-win for everybody, and Ari was delighted at the outcome.

It did, however, mean that she was still stuck in a boring and useless defense class that held exactly zero of her attention.

So, of course, she was entertaining herself. Sitting in the back meant that Palmer seemed to forget she even existed, in the off chance he even acknowledged the class at all, and let her do anything she wanted, short of blowing things up. And it just so happened that she was deep into a project currently that was still in mostly the theoretical phase, and therefore safe to do in class. (Though not Transfiguration. Professor McGonagall was still as sharp eyed as ever and liked assigning extra homework if Ari appeared too far ahead in class.)

Her letterboxes.

Or possibly e-boxes? iBoxes? Some clever name that essentially meant email but in miniature vanishing cabinet form.

She’d already located the broken vanishing cabinet in the Room of Requirement after about three days of searching, and boy was it broken. She was almost afraid to stick anything in it after that one hat had come back torn to shreds. That it had come back at all was surprising, but definitely not in a good way.

Luckily, she just needed the base configuration not the actual usage, and while it was definitely corrupted, what was still understandable is exceedingly complex. She’d been spending a spare break once a week mapping the arithmetic signatures that she was able to parse and trying to compare them to the similar rune arrays she’d been able to discover deep in the bowels of the library. Or that Bill had given her to. None of them were quite the same, but she was starting to be able to pick out pieces that were important to her goal.

Ari didn’t need anything as complex as a vanishing cupboard. There was no way she planned to send through living things, or anything much bigger than a letter or possibly very small trinket. This made it exponentially easier, and also allowed her to fill in some pieces with her own understandings of possible rune arrays, rather than having to figure out every single bit. Which was good.

The act of sending things instantly from one location to another was incredibly delicate and required an exactness that bordered on dangerous if even slightly wrong. As it was, vanishing cabinets were based on runes, but used both transfiguration and charms concepts within those rune schemes themselves.

Really, any spell could be recreated with runes. It just took longer and was often not nearly as efficient. Spells were really a shortcut that traded the addition of more power or magic for immediate results. Runes were generally less magic to produce and could maintain an effect for a longer period of time but required a significantly more in depth understanding and the time to apply them as well as precise application.

Which is why it was such a profitable field, especially since runes couldn’t just be copied by magic, they had to be applied individually and imbued with power in the process. It was also an exceedingly hard field and had driven more than one person insane with the complexity. Let alone the amount of people who blown themselves up with a misplaced rune.

It was also why Ari loved it.

So now she was attempting to replicate a centuries old design to be able to send letters instantly to her friends and family.

Which was all well and good, but first she needed a solid base before she even attempted a first trial. She’d also been sending bits of her design to Bill to check over. Not enough to tip him off to what she was working on, since that would have Remus down on her head in the amount of time it took an owl to fly, but just enough to check over her work.

It really was a bit foolish of her, since she’d only been allowed to start integrating three languages without supervision over this summer, and the vanishing cabinet alone had six but from her initial schemas, it would only probably take four to create enough stability to send not living things through. So, she wasn’t particularly worried, even if everyone else would be.

Besides, she planned to approach Professor Babbling later this year anyways to introduce herself before she started Ancient Runes next year, and this project would be the perfect example of why she should get to sit in on the upper year classes rather than be stuck with the third-year curriculum. And she’d probably need Professor Vectors help actually mapping the arithmancy signature of her project if she got it working, since she was fairly good at arithmancy, but not enough to be able to submit the signature for patenting, so that was two professors. Perfectly adequate adult supervision once she actually got to the trial stages. Or the long-term trial stages. Whatever.

So, for now she spent her Defense class puzzling through the section of the schema she was fairly sure was the trigger once the door closed and would be what kept her from accidentally opening a black hole by trying to transfer the entire room instead of just the contents of the box.

Much more exciting than listening to an oral recitation of the theory behind the moon’s application to dark rituals. The moon phases applied to all night rituals, duh.

In fact, she was a little worried that the author had mixed up dark, as in night, with dark, as in morally reprehensible and generally regarded as evil. Which would be a significant difference. Luckily class ended before she got carried away on that train of thought.

She finished a notation, then flipped her journal closed and slid it into her bag. Having all of her notes in journals made it harder to compare between pages, but much easier to keep everything in one place. She was fairly liable to lose any loose-leaf paper, so she’d learned early on to keep everything together.

Note to self, learn the gemino spell. Temporary copies of some of her pages while she was researching would be very helpful. She pulled out another journal and made a note on her list of things to learn. She wasn’t sure the difficulty, but she knew Ted had been able to copy entire books, so a few individual pages shouldn’t be that hard.

As for her journals, she had several. One for each topic or project she was working on, as well as every class, and a few general ones in between. They all appeared initially identical, but she could tell them apart by different patterns on the end band, and the spacing of the ridging on the spine. To any casual observer it would look like she had one or two books.

The twins knew differently, and Cassius had started to suspect, but even they didn’t know exactly how many she had. Well, Ari technically didn’t either since she hadn’t counted them in a while, but probably about twelve right now. They were also all spelled for privacy so even if someone did steal one, they wouldn’t be able to make out anything but scribbles. The only exception was the one she shared with the twins which they could access, and she could cancel the spell for a time if she wanted to show Cassius or someone else her notes.

These carefully kept book also meant she had perfectly chronologically ordered notes from her classes last year which also made for great trading material to the first years.

Speaking of first years…

“Grey! You were totally right about the packets, but Charles is still going on about Honeydukes and…”

Ari and Cassius were immediately assaulted upon turning the corner into one of the convenient niches that were scattered throughout the dungeons. They’d claimed it for their own, and even gotten a couple of seats and a table added, but it was nowhere near as used at the Retreat. Mostly it was just for meeting up outside of the common room for information exchanges that shouldn’t be easily overheard.

Marissa was also one of the most enthusiastic and bubbly Slytherins Ari had ever met. It wasn’t far off from the twins’ own personalities, so she was used to it, but Cassius was still adjusting, even with the exposure he’d gotten last year from trailing after her with Fred and George around. However, her enthusiasm was very helpful in managing the first-year network and along with her own desire to stay neutral made her a good ally. Neutral students were better trusted with information because they were less likely to manipulate it in favor of their cliché. Not that they couldn’t be paid to, but generally easier to work with than an individual member of one of the hierarchy groups.

“Mhmm.” Ari nodded along with the tirade, accepting the stack of parchment held out to her and taking a seat at the table. She was perfectly capable of half listening to a rant and working at the same time.

She pulled out another one of her journals and started going through the information that was written down, noting some of it under specific people’s pages, and other bits in a more general areas where she was following specific events or based on their importance.

There wasn’t much of significance, as first year’s rumors and squabbles weren’t of much importance to any other year, but it would help build her profiles on the newest students, which would be useful in the coming years. She was definitely thinking long-term on this project and wasn’t about to pass up on valuable information because it wouldn’t be important for a few years.

The more important part currently was that there was more from Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff than there’d been last time. Which meant Marissa’s attempts to branch out were working well.

As she finished with each page, she passed it over to Cassius who also took a look and memorized whatever he thought was important. Technically, she had versions of all of her journals in her memory palace too, but having a physical copy was easier to access or show to other people than having to copy it down from memory. Cassius preferred not to have to keep a paper trail though, and she was fine with his methods, so long as he kept his own information straight.

Once Marissa ran out of steam, Cassius added his own report, Ari marking down what she needed to and using a dicta quill to catch the rest. All of the important bits would be copied down separately to be passed on to Dupont, but Ari preferred to have them all aware of the general going ons so that they all had chances to make any connections.

Once he was done, she made her own report, which focused on the third years, but branched into whatever else she’d heard from the upperclassmen as well. From her conversations with Dupont, she wanted to pass over the fourth-year contacts after Christmas and the fifth years after Easter, so long as Ari could keep up. This would only leave the sixth years for Ari to win over, which could be done at the beginning of next year.

It was a solid plan, and surprisingly helpful from Dupont, though she had required a letter of recommendation from Sirius to his solicitors. Which honestly wasn’t a hardship. She was great at organizing and getting information which would make her an asset to any research team, and if she wanted to apply that in a way that would eventually benefit the Black Family, Ari wasn’t going to say no, but she would use it to get what she wanted. And Dupont would get an in with the highest rated firm in wizarding Brittan. Win-win.

It wasn’t a long meeting, especially after the information was passed out. They mostly just discussed strategy, which for now was working on growing their network, and other possible incentives that would be easier to retain long-term. She’d been working with the sixth year whose clique ran the Hogsmeade exchange, but they were surprisingly difficult to work around since they didn’t want to deal with a middleman and didn’t seem to take her seriously.

It would probably take some time, but she expected to either wear them down by Christmas or find some form of blackmail. She wasn’t picky.

For now, they returned to the common room and homework. She’d been spending far too much time down here lately, but the twins had been in detention so often that she’d only really seen them during meals, and even then, they were planning their next move.

Officially, they had to beat 293 detentions in a single school year. Last she’d heard, they were at 67 at a little more than two months in, which was actually quite impressive, even if it did irritate her that they were never around anymore. They’d also received no less than five howlers which was definitely a record for Mrs. Weasley.

She did hang out with Lee a bit, and he was fun, but it wasn’t the same.

The only bright side was that the twins actually were thinking this through. They not only planned how to get detentions, but how to avoid getting them from either McGonagall or Snape, though they couldn’t avoid the former entirely as their Head of House. Ari also didn’t expect them to Avoid Snape for long either, since he was one of their easiest avenues for detention. Not that they hadn’t already gotten some from him, but that was for the normal levels of chaos they perpetuated in his class.

Ari did not want to see what would happen if they really tried.

Or, well, she kind of did, but from a safe distance.

As it was, for now she was stuck spending her time in the Slytherin common room since sitting alone in an empty classroom was boring. Though she did use it when she really needed to spread out with their research or less public projects.

Hopefully they’d reach their goal before the end of the year so she wouldn’t have to spend the entire time without them.

Maybe if she mentioned their goal subtly to McGonagall…

She was more likely to try to stop them in some way, but if Ari made it seem like they’d settle down once they reached their goal rather than trying to cut them off…

It might work, but it was definitely a last resort.

Chapter Text

Thirteenth birthdays were important in the wizarding world. In fact, they were the most import birthday before the seventeenth birthday which marked not only adulthood, but a final settling of a wixen’s power into its last general phase. While cores could grow after this point they generally didn’t and at that point they were also the most stable they were likely to be, allowing for more complex and delicate spell work.

It was even more important that the eleventh, though without the same anticipation that going to Hogwarts brought.

Ari had researched into the significant birthdays in her general research on core settling and its effects on long range and extended effect spells. Apparently, given that prime numbers were magically significant in the way that they created stability within magic spells and rituals, meant that those same numbers when applied to birthdays of young wixen had a similar effect on their core.

This had led wixen society to place significance on these days, such as being old enough to have a wand, or being considered an adult. It also came with other perks as well. For thirteen-year-old these included the ability to bond with another magical focus without impacting their original one. Meaning they could have a secondary wand or other specific focus, like a tuned seer’s ball, or she was pretty sure that Professor Vector had enchanted string she used to focus magic into arithmetic webs without requiring a stabilized rune circle.

Ari wasn’t sure if she wanted another wand perse, or if she might want another possible focus, but it was a possibility that became available at about two in the afternoon on December 12. Which is apparently when she was officially born. She hadn’t known the exact time before, but on the day in question, she could almost feel the slight surge then settling through her magic that was described in the books she’d read.

The second thing that became an actual possibility rather than just a theoretical exercise, was her ability to take a lineage test at Gringotts. A lineage test was similar to an inheritance test, but instead of listing what vaults or lordships she was eligible to inherit, it would list her family tree, based on magically comparing her blood to the archive of known blood samples that Gringotts kept. Which was huge, as any contract signed in blood and kept in the bank was considered a sample.

This meant that she’d be able to find any ancestor that she shared blood with for almost the entire history of the bank. And also, that she might find out who her parents were. Though if she came from a purely muggle line, then she wouldn’t find anything.

It was something she’d been considering for years. Given her circumstances, she’d never really felt the need to be parented, but not having any idea who they were had always driven her a bit crazy. It was also the reason she hadn’t accepted Sirius and Remus’s offer to blood adopt her.

They had normally adopted her, as much as a werewolf is allowed to, but without a blood adoption, she wasn’t considered part of the house of Black officially and couldn’t take the name. Not that she cared. She knew that Sirius and Remus loved her and saw her as their child, even if she was generally resistant to parenting as mentioned previously.

They’d had several long discussions on the topic, and while she wouldn’t mind being officially a Black, she’d decided to hold off on the adoption as it would mess with the lineage test and she really did want to know if her parent were wixen, and if she could maybe figure out why they left her in an orphanage at the time.

And now it was finally time. Or, well, close. First, she had to get home for the Christmas holiday, and then they had an appointment set for the 23, but she’d know soon enough. For now, she was busy wrangling Cassius off the train, due to his continuing reluctance despite the fact that they were already in London.

“I still don’t see why I have to spend the holidays with your family.” He complained, though it was mostly habit at this point.

“Because I already did all the work to convince Sirius to let you stay and I’m not letting you mope around the empty castle all break. Besides, you won’t let all my hard work go to waste, would you?”

And that was the real kicker. Getting Cassius to her house for the holidays required a careful web of lies to keep his father and his father’s allies from suspecting. Officially, Cassius was spending the holidays with Julian Arrington’s family who were in no way affiliated with the Warringtons but were considered a dark leaning grey family that would make good if small time allies. So, Cassius was spending the holiday with them to further possible relations.

In reality, Ari had had to blackmail Arrington to pretend his family was taking Cassius in as well as make it convincing enough for Snape not to suspect. Or, at least, not to call them out. She’d also had to trickle a few rumors of the possible alliance into the gossip mill through Dupont, which had required a heft favor, so that the actual allied families of Warrington would corroborate the story, despite every single Slytherin being aware of Cassius and Ari’s friendship.

All in all, it was a pain to set up. But she didn’t care, because Cassius was actually coming with.

“Ari!” Whatever pointless argument Cassius was gearing up for was cut off by a messy haired blur that attempted to take her out in the middle of the platform.

“Harry!” She wrapped her arms around her little brother, tempted to try to pick him up and swing him around, despite the fact that she could in no way do that. He was almost as tall as her regardless of the fact that she was two and a half years older, and she had no hope of winning that race. Instead, she just enjoyed being taller for now and hugged him back as tightly as she could.

“So, where’s your friend.” He asked when they finally split, and Ari stepped to the side revealing Cassius who was attempting to smile slightly. It looked very awkward and was incredibly endearing.

Harry looked him up and down and turned back to Ari, raising a single eyebrow in a move that she knew he picked up from her.

“Sirius is going to kill you.” Ari shrugged.

“Probably only Cassius, but it’ll be fine.” She looped her arm around his shoulder to head towards the place where their parental units normally stood and then reached back to catch Cassius’s sleeve and pull him along despite his sputtering.

“I…what? Why is your f… uh, your guardian? Going to kill me?”

Ari didn’t respond beyond another reassurance that ‘you’ll be fine’ and by then they were in front of the exact people they’d been talking about. Remus noticed them first with an immediate smile, took in the whole group, and then gave her the flattest look possible. She just smiled innocently in response which did nothing to reassure him. Then Sirius was turning.

“Oh, good you found her! And this must be…” Sirius trailed off as he finally caught sight of Cassius, then took a moment to look between her and her friend looking like her was trying to figure out exactly how he wanted to react while exasperation and a sharply intent look warred on his face. Eventually, his gaze settled on Cassius. “I take it you’re ‘Cass’.”

“Um, yes…sir.” Cassius gulped almost audibly.

“Hi Sirius, nice to see you Sirius. Yes, the train ride was rather boring, though surprisingly tiring. Oh yes, of course we should head home.” Ari monologed one-sidedly and Sirius continued to glare at a surprisingly cowed Cassius.

He turned to her with a ‘you know what you did’ look.

“So Ari, when were you going to tell me that your friend ‘Cass’ was a boy.”

“Now.” She said with the most ‘duh’ tone possible. “You really shouldn’t fall into gender stereotyping names. It’s really not a good look for you.” She added blithely.

“And you really shouldn’t be attempting to manipulate us when you want something. You know you could have just asked.” And there was the disappointed voice which actually was totally unfair. She wilted slightly at the guilt, but not fully.

“He would have been stuck in the castle almost entirely by himself. And you would have said no.” She muttered a bit petulantly.

“You don’t know that, and if your reasonings are as good as you think, then you should have been able to convince us without trying to mislead us.” Ah hell, Remus must have been making him read parenting books again.

“He can’t go home.” She tried, since that was actually super important to this whole thing.

“I know. So, we’re going to go home, and Cass is going to come with us and then we’ll discuss exactly what your punishment is going to be.”

Ari perked up, but subtly so as not to set off his dad instincts. Sirius had gone from disappointed to resigned, which meant he was totally going to let her get away with this. She could totally take a few days without library access, or no dessert for a week, or whatever. Plus, she was pretty sure she’d be able to get out of it within a few days once she made it clear that they were only friends and that Cassius totally a good kid.

Which she’d have to convince him of before he found out Cassius’s last name…

As it turned out, Remus was actually her biggest supporter during that little argument. As soon as they’d gotten home, Sirius had marched her to the office while Remus excused them and left Harry to entertain Cassius and show him around.

Then proceeded several long minutes of Sirius arguing that she was too young to be hosting boys and obviously leaning heavy into the ‘more than friends’ angle with a dash of existential crises over their little girl all grown up.

Ari in turn argued that they’d let the twins stay over before and that they were very much friends, and honestly, if they were going to decide an age limit for being able to have boys over, now was definitely better than later since she didn’t even care about boys and was still very much in the they-have-cooties stage thank you very much.

Then she brought up the fact that Cassius’s home life wasn’t great and that he deserved to have a good Christmas too and heavily implied that Sirius should understand exactly what she meant. At which point, Remus took her side and it ended with no runes for a week for lying by omission, several letters sent to the Weasleys to verify her ‘just friends’ claim, and Sirius still in the middle of a crisis. She was happy to leave him to that, especially after the letters, and went back to find the boys.

They were the first place she looked, namely the den as named by Harry. It was really just the living room, but everyone seemed to find the pun amusing, so it stuck.

Harry, to anyone who didn’t know him, namely Cassius, appeared perfectly friendly and chatted away about holiday plans while munching on cookies from a tray. In reality he was closely studying Cassius and gaging whether or not to like him.

Cassius, to anyone who didn’t know him, namely everyone but Ari, appeared to be politely engaging and sipping at a mug of hot chocolate, while relaxing in an armchair. In reality, he was entirely tense and seemed minutes away from bolting for the nearest exit. He only relaxed minutely when Ari entered, though Harry did catch it with his sharp observational skills that she credited to hours chasing snitches.

“You’re staying, I don’t get to work on runes for a week, and you’ll probably want to avoid being alone with Sirius as he has no concept of the phrase ‘just friends.’”

Cassius took this all in and nodded stiffly. Ari eyed Harry questioningly, but just got a grin in response. So, verdict was still out on that one.

“So…Monopoly?”

Cassius groaned dramatically, but Harry eagerly agreed. He was always willing to play after she’d been at school, which worked out perfectly, because it was a great way to start off the break and let loose a bit.

They ended up roping Sirius and Remus in as well, and the game lasted late into the night. Ari lost to Remus with his terrifyingly lucky rolls, while Sirius and Harry ganged up on Cassius and seemed not to care that Ari and Remus were edging them off the bored so long as they thoroughly crushed the Slytherin boy.

Which they did.

Luckily, Cassius took it well and he was used to losing this game, and Harry and Sirius seemed to finally get over their reservations, though she did find a dog sleeping outside her room in the morning and took great joy in ‘accidentally’ tripping over him for being overprotective. It was the little things in life.

For now, though, they were able to settle into a truce. And if Ari organized a game of Catan that night, which Cassius was much better at, well no one complained.

Chapter Text

The 23^rd came sooner than she expected, but not sooner than she hoped, or at least that’s the best way she could think to describe the conflicting anxieties that were making themselves known. To help counteract them and the unnerving feeling that all of this was beyond her control, she spent the morning working through every spell she knew wandlessly and then dressing impeccably in one of her best business level dress robes. It wasn’t really necessary as Sharpaxe, the Black Family Account Manager wouldn’t care, and he was likely to be the only person of import they saw today since they were flooing into the private side of Gringotts.

Harry and Cassius were staying home with Nimsy to watch over them so both Sirius and Remus could come with her. They’d insisted and she hadn’t refused, secretly glad about their staunch support even if she was well aware that they wouldn’t care about the outcome one way or another beyond how it affected her directly.

Still, she had to keep herself from pacing as she stood in front of the floo. It wouldn’t do to arrive to early as it would annoy the goblins, but she’d been watching the clock tick down for almost a half an hour now and she was ready dang it!

“Hey, Ri. It’s gonna be fine.” Harry tried, coming over to hug her, and she immediately relaxed slightly, but couldn’t stop the spinning of her mind.

“I know, but it’s so complicated. What if there’s nothing? Is not knowing that there’s nothing better than knowing or know there nothing better because I don’t have to wonder anymore. But that still doesn’t tell me anything about why they left me. And then if there is something, then I’ll know and maybe not knowing is better because what if it’s bad?”

“Deep breath there, Cub. We can cancel if you really want to, but I need you to calm down and think about it first.” Remus had entered sometime during her rant and helped ground her with a hand on her shoulder.

She did as she was told and took a deep breath, though she didn’t need to think about it. She’d wanted to since she’d learned about lineage tests when she was eight. Now was the time and she refused to back out because of nerves.

“I want to go. I want to know.” She said it as firmly as possible and looked at Remus and Sirius who both nodded.

“Then we should head out.”

It was an easy trip by floo. Still not the most comfortable form of travel, but better than side-along, and if you bent your knees slightly and stepped forward as you landed, then you looked much more graceful coming out. Sirius of course stumbled through, but half the time she thought that was on purpose.

If nothing else, snorting at his flail brought up her mood and distracted her for a few seconds. Then they were being led to Sharpaxe’s office and she didn’t have any time to think anymore.

The ritual itself was fairly straightforward. It required quite a bit of blood, and rather cool looking quill, but no magic on her side, or even concentration, which was good, because her mind was still buzzing even as the quill was set on a large piece of parchment.

Nashira Arianna Grey

The first name was of course no surprise. And they all leaned forward as it moved on to the next.

Cassandra Day

Ari…had no idea who that was, though the noises of recognition from Remus and Sirius meant that at least they’d be able to tell her something about her apparent mother. Thought the lack of a maiden name marker meant that apparently her parents hadn’t been married, or at least she hadn’t changed her name. This all flitted through her mind as they watched the quill move on to her father.

Sirius Orion Black

Ari was floored.

Frozen in disbelief.

Unable to form coherent thoughts as she stared at the name, completely missing the quill continuing on that side of the form but leaving the other one entirely blank.

What?

WHAT?!

She wasn’t the only one who was surprised based the noise of a toppling chair and Sirius suddenly appearing directly beside her, leaned over the parchment like he couldn’t quite believe it.

When she finally regained control of her own body, she looked back at Remus who was looking between the two of them with surprise, but then with recognition.

Well, if he’d like to share his findings with the rest of the class, that would be great.

Ari recognized suddenly that she was occluding slightly, pushing back her immediate emotional reaction to be able to approach the situation logically. Which maybe wasn’t super healthy, but possibly necessary. Especially when a chocked sounding ‘How?!’ came from behind her. They really needed to move this to somewhere where she could see both of them at the same time before she gave herself whiplash.

“Well when a man and a woman like each other very much…” She said dryly, trying to lighten the mood and not having literally any other way to react since she was suppressing all of that like a champ.

It did not work, though Sirius did turn an alarming shade of white-grey and Remus jumped up to help him to the couch in the sitting area on the other side of the room.

“I shall leave you to discuss your family matters. Ring the bell when you require an escort or if you have further business to discuss.” Ari had mostly forgotten about Sharpaxe but decided he had the right idea in a speedy retreat. Sadly, she was stuck with this, since it was her name on that sheet of parchment.

“I think we could use some tea and possibly calming draughts if you could have some sent in.” Once again, she let this minor detail distract her to give her just a few more minutes before having to face all that.

“Of course.”

Now she had no other excuses not to join her father on the couch. Which was probably good, or she would have put it off all day, and possibly into next year.

“So…I guess we don’t need that blood adoption?” She tried tentatively, sitting down next to Sirius on the opposite side from where Remus seemed to be physically holding him together. This actually got a laugh, though it was more choked and hysterical that anything.

Luckily a tray appeared in front of them, and Remus immediately shoved a calming draught at Sirius while Ari took the time to make tea and organize her thoughts just a bit.

Really, it didn’t make much of a difference than before. Obviously, Sirius hadn’t known he was her father, so it wasn’t his fault, and he’d already kind of raised her anyways as soon as he was out of prison and not in recovery. So really, it wasn’t either of their fault.

By process of elimination, this left one Cassandra Day as the sole owner of possible guilt, and since she wasn’t here to answer questions, the best they could do for now was guess what happened.

Unfortunately, that left Ari with no one who deserved her annoyance at the present situation available, which meant she needed to bury all that since taking it out on Remus or Sirius would just be mean. Especially since she wasn’t the only one who’d had a bit of a nasty shock today.

So instead of doing any one of the many petty things that she kind of wanted to, including, but not limited to stomping her foot like a toddler and wondering loudly what the heck was wrong with the world, she reached out and took Sirius hand while the potion took effect. He honestly probably needed the comfort more than her right now anyways.

Though she did put a dose of calming draught in her own tea, since it couldn’t hurt. The almost immediate effect also let her lower her mental walls enough to actually process the situation better rather than essentially dissociate from everything.

“Hey Pads, how are you doin?” She asked it quietly, squeezing his hand a bit. He’d calmed down enough to be focusing on taking deep breaths, which Remus was helping with by still holding him tightly and taking exaggerated breathes to prompt him.

“I don’t know.” It was a bit hollow sounding. “I have a daughter. You’re my daughter. How did I not know this! Shouldn’t you be the one freaking out over this?”

“Eh, I have a father, and he’s kind of already raised me for half my life, so I don’t see much of a difference. You can have first go; I’ll pencil in my breakdown for later.” He chuckled at that, squeezing her hand tighter too.

“I just don’t…why didn’t she tell me? And you name. I should have figured it out sooner. But Merlin’s hairy calves this is insane!”

“I actually thought you two were related the first time I met Ari.” Remus finally spoke up and Ari and Sirius both wiped around to look at him. “See, that’s why. You looked and acted so much alike. Then I heard the whole story, and I just thought it was a crazy coincidence.”

Ari processed that. She did have black wavy hair and grey eyes, but she’d never really considered if she looked like the other Blacks before. It just wasn’t even on her radar. She set it aside for a moment to come back to later. Likely she’d have a nice long sit in front of her mirror later and try to see exactly what Remus saw.

“Well, I guess this is probably the best-case scenario, huh. I was only abandoned by one parent,” Her father…father… flinched hard at that, but she just plowed on. “And the other one didn’t know about me but parented me anyways. Honestly, I don’t think this could have turned out better.”

Which was honestly true. She’d have to sit down and decide how she actually felt about this later, but really this could have been much worse. And it did sound like Remus and Sirius knew who Cassandra Day was, so at least she’d get a few answers on that front and generally have a few less questions about her entire existence.

“Hey, you know we love you right? None of that changed that I have loved you as a daughter almost since I first met you. I’m sorry that I didn’t before, and I understand if you need time to…come to terms, but I’ll love you no matter what.” Sirius said, and instead of calling him out on his unnecessary apology, she just threw herself into a hug, letting her fathers bracket her and squeeze her tight.

This was what was important right now.

As for the rest of it, she’d deal with that later.

…

The only problem with now thinking about things, was that it left room for other thoughts to creep in. And with her emotions fully taken up but that weird wide rollercoaster of a reveal, that meant her more logical Slytherin side was spinning away, picking at the new information, and Ari could almost feel the ding as one thought in particular clicked.

“Oh Circe, I’m a Black.”

They relaxed their hold when she suddenly sat up, but mostly seemed confused at the revelation.

“Uh, yes.”

“No, you don’t…I’m a Black.” That apparently didn’t help, as they just continued to look confused while she flailed slightly. “Based on that paper, I’m a half-blood Black…”

“Oh, yeah, Cassandra was a muggleborn. But I mean Tonks is in the same boat yeah? Oh, that makes you cousins!” Sirius rambled on, clearly having moved mostly past the shock, though still not fully on point.

“Yes, but no. I am a half-blood who is technically the illegitimate daughter to Lord Black.” Sirius frowned at the use of his title, which he generally avoided at all times. “If the family magic accepts me then I am technically Heir to the entire Black Family.”

Remus seemed to understand the gravity of the situation, though Sirius was still confused.

“Every single pureblood family is going to love or hate this.” She was already buzzing through possibilities for her house mates. It had a very real possibility of opening up several opportunities for her, but so many people would hate what she represented as the end of the purity of House Black.

“We’re going to get so many marriage contracts.” Remus said looking pained. And that definitely got Sirius’s attention.

“That or Narcissa is going to try to kill me. Wasn’t Draco supposed to inherit?”

They all sat idly discussing those possibilities, which for some reason were easier than the earlier whirlwind of emotion.

There was no way Sirius wasn’t going to claim her. He’d already wanted to before, and now that she was officially his, he’d probably shout it from the roof tops if Remus or Ari would let him. But it would definitely change her world a bit. Before she’d been able to drift along as just a Ward of House Black, which gave her a little boost simply due to the long history of the family, but being the Heir? That was a completely different kettle of fish and would require some careful maneuvering.

The easiest first step was to claim her ring.

Luckily this didn’t require any blood. Or anything beyond simply putting the ring on. They would know immediately if it accepted her or not.

All it took was calling Sharpaxe back and asking him to have the ring brought from the vault.

It really was a simple thing. A plain silver ring with the Black Family Crest on the front. Smaller and less detailed than the Lordship ring that Sirius wore only when necessary. And then she put it on and…

Oh.

IT was the same feeling she got every time she visited one of the family properties, but stronger. More concentrated. She’d always just thought it was the wards, but now it was obvious as the Family Magic wrapped itself around her core protective and possessive both.

As the feeling swelled, it was almost like an immediate understanding. Like a whisper between her magic and the centuries of combined magic that made up old Family Magic. Toujours Pur. Always Pure. But more than that, Always Pure in Magic, in Intent.

The Black family had always been Slytherin because they were always sure of what they wanted and would stop at nothing to get it. Even Sirius had been sure that he wanted to be different, and in doing so, still embodied the spirit of the family magic.

It was an interesting revelation and took no more than a couple seconds. Even as the burst of magic faded, she could still feel the awareness of Family Magics alongside her own core and an even fainter awareness of the others who were connected to that same magic.

Sharpaxe nodded and made a notation on the paper in front of him.

“The ring has several capabilities that you should be aware of. If you tap it against the edge of a plate or cup it will heat up slightly if there is a harmful substance present, be it poison or potion. The ring also has several minor protections. Not enough to stop a direct spell but will weaken or redirect attacks as much as possible. The ring is also able to be tracked by the Lordship ring if you enable it by tapping it twice against a surface and thinking of Lord Black.”

“I guess I’ll need to actually start wearing my ring.” Sirius grumbled, but still seemed interested in the safety features. Ari wondered if these were common or if other Heirship rings had different effects. She was unlikely to be able to find out as Family rings were closely guarded by the families. Most also had nasty curses if handled by someone not of the blood.

With that, their business was concluded. Sharpaxe promised to complete the necessary paperwork to have Ari added as Heir into all the technical side of things. Which also included a name change since any Lord or Heir of a family was required to have the name of said Family.

The trip home was rather anticlimactic or felt that way to Ari. Especially since it felt like her entire world had shifted, and yet, everything was still mostly the same. Especially Gweddill du.

Harry and Cassius were waiting for them in the Den, and both looked up expectantly.

“Well, I know I’m a bit late with the birth announcement, but congrats! It’s a girl!” Sirius said, gesturing grandly in her direction while Ari rolled her eyes.

Cassius just seemed politely confused, but Harry was used to Sirius speak and understanding dawned rapidly.

“I knew it!”

Chapter Text

The rest of Ari’s break was split between handling the fallout of her parentage and just enjoying the holidays while ignoring the fallout of her parentage.

First and foremost, she and Sirius had had a seri…an honest discussion about their feelings around the reveal, after they’d had a bit of time to digest them.

Ari had realized that she had a tiny bit of resentment, simmering just under the surface, about not knowing who she was and having been abandoned, despite knowing that it was in no way Sirius’s fault.

Sirius, on the other hand, had been feeling guilty about having unknowingly abandoned her, despite never knowing about her in the first place.

It took a bit of discussion, and just general reassurance that they’re feelings were valid if misplaced, and mostly they moved on from that part.

What was more interesting, and generally more helpful, were the discussions they had about Cassandra Day. She was a muggleborn Hufflepuff who’d been in the same year as the rest of the Marauders. Apparently, she and Sirius had dated for a bit after they were both out of school, but with the war looming they’d eventually mutually broken it off to focus on the more important things.

She’d never officially been a part of the Order of the Phoenix, but she’d helped smuggle muggleborn families out of the country since she’d had family in France. She’d apparently disappeared sometime in early 1979, which tracked with Ari’s records from the orphanage that Mr. Charleston had been able to dig up when she was first brought into the Black Family care.

From there it was speculated that either Cassandra dropped her off to try to keep her safe, or Ari was dropped off after somehow escaping whatever happened to her mother.

Neither Sirius nor Remus had had any idea of why she hadn’t told Sirius about Ari. Though Sirius did admit that their relationship had been pretty casual, so she might not have though he would be willing to help with a child. Though he immediately assured Ari that would have take care of her, no matter what! She just patted his hand, well aware of what lengths Sirius would go to, to protect Harry and her.

“She did name you after the family tradition though. Nashira is a star within the Capricornus constellation and Grey is close enough to Black that there’s no way she didn’t do that on purpose.”

There wasn’t much of a chance that they’d find out exactly what happened, though Remus and Sirius had offered to reach out to her family in France since there was no one left in Britain. She’d considered but declined for now. She’d already gotten more answers than she’d ever really expected, and she didn’t really feel the need to reach out to her mother’s family when she already had her own family right here.

They also discussed the dynamics of their family. Ari had no problem referring to Sirius as her father or even Remus either, since they both were. But she wasn’t about to start calling him dad…that would be weird. Instead, they stuck with what they already did, just with updating all of her forms to include Sirius as her father rather than guardian.

Harry had also taken it rather well, though he insisted that he knew they were related long before hand. Ari wasn’t sure if she believed him, but at this point let him have the win. Cassius handled the unexpected increase in family meetings well, spending time reading in his guest room, though Ari made sure that they didn’t exclude him for too long after she’d worked so hard to get him here.

For the public, they’d decided to simply get it out there as soon as possible so that people would have time over the holidays to get used to the information before she had to go back to school. The whole family did an interview with a reputable (which wasn’t always saying much) reporter from the Daily Profit. As per their instructions, the article was not put on the front page, and it had to be approved by their solicitors first.

However, this did not stop them from putting it on the second page and very large typeface. Nor did it stop other papers from doing their own spin on it. Ari’s favorite headline was Blacks Bewilder Britain with Brand-new Bastard, though as a whole their family mostly ignored the resulting articles. Gringotts mail wards kept them from receiving anything from random people and helpfully forwarded dangerous or threatening mail to their solicitors’ office, so there wasn’t much for them to do.

They had sat the Tonks down first to give them warning as well as the Weasleys too, so it wasn’t a surprise for them. Tonks had taken to calling her cousin loudly and at all times, which wasn’t the worst possible outcome. Apparently, she was happy not to be the only half-blood in the family.

Outside of all of that, they focused on enjoying the holidays. Ari got to introduce Risk since she and Remus finished it. And just like she expected…

It was a weeklong blood bath.

***

The first time she noticed the whispers was in the train station, though she was quickly distracted by the twins dragging her off to find Lee so they could tell him all about their break. And the train ride itself was fairly quiet. Only a few more people than normal stopping by their cart, though that could mostly be chalked up to the twins making friends with almost everyone they met. Slytherins were generally more subtle than that, though she did notice them glancing in as they walked past.

It wasn’t enough to bother her, especially since she’d been expecting it.

There were whispers and stares at the welcome back feast as well, but similarly they were contained enough not to cause any issue. Though at the Slytherin table she did notice that the seating arrangement had rearranged somewhat. Several people sat closer to her than they had previously, no doubt looking for gossip.

Ari kept an eye on all of it as she and Cassius sat at their usual spot in the common room. She’d rather just head back to her dorm for the night, but it was important to make an appearance and let those brave enough approach.

“You have some gall keeping the juiciest secret from me and then releasing it to the Prophet.”

“I did send you a warning.” Ari responded as Dupont perched herself on the seat opposite. She still looked perfectly composed, but Ari had been learning to read her tiny tells over the last half year. Her eyes sparked with amusement and a little bit of annoyance. So, she wasn’t truly mad, but perhaps annoyed she hadn’t figured it out before.

Granted, most people were of the assumption that she and her family had known this whole time but had kept it a secret until she could officially claim the heirship. Some thought it was to avoid possible targeting, while other seemed to think that the rest of the Black relatives would have tried some sort of revolt. Now that she was Heir, anything short of death or some other long lost child of Sirius’s wouldn’t oust her from her position.

“Two hours of warning hardly counts.” Ari just shrugged, leafing through the papers Marissa had slipped her after dinner. With most everyone gone for the holidays there hadn’t been much going on, but apparently two Hufflepuff fifth years had gotten into quite the row. It might be interesting enough to look into. She noted down the info and passed it off the Dupont since the fifth years were her purview until Easter. She’d be taking over the fourth years now that they were back and had already made contact with Mikal Lannister.

She’d found with Marissa and Cassius that it was nice to have one contact for a year, rather than handling everything herself with a couple of other helpers like Dupont. There was definitely some overlap between the years, but that was sorted easily within her organization system. Though she didn’t plan to work as closely with Lannister as Marissa. Just reports and rewards.

“You can ask questions if you like, though I won’t promise to answer them.” She said casually while still flipping through her book. Best way to head rumors off at the pass was to give Dupont enough interesting information for it to be worth it to her to not make something up.

“Are you really a half-blooded bastard?” Dupont asked with no remorse. If Ari hadn’t been expecting something exactly like this, then she might have been caught off guard by the viciously blunt question.

“By the definition of all those words, yes. I am exactly a half-blooded bastard.” Honestly that was almost as good as half-blood prince, she mused. Maybe she should start writing that in her own books.

“Your mother was killed in the war.”

“By all accounts.”

“And Lord Black hid you to save you from being killed as well.”

“No, none of us knew I was a Black until this holiday.” They decided to stick to the truth as much as possible, since it was fairly easy to verify, though most people seemed to prefer their own versions.

“There is no way.” Dupont’s ice mask actually cracked slightly with her incredulity. “There have been rumors for years that you’re his Bastard or perhaps from the previous Lord Black.”

“You’re welcome to think what you want, but either way, we were unaware of our connection until Gringotts confirmed it.” Honestly Ari wanted to shudder a bit at possibly being Arcturus’s child. That would make her Sirius’s aunt which would just be horribly weird.

“Surely you were taken in as a ward of the family due to your parentage.” Dupont continued, likely trying to catch her out in a lie.

“That is a matter of public record. I simply had the misfortune of bringing a rat to the Ministry who happened to actually be a hidden murderer. Lord Arcturus Black seemed to think that deserved compensation, as it got my father out of prison.”

“Fine, keep your secrets, but I expect more warning the next time you decide to shock the entirety of wizarding Britain.”

“Perhaps.” Dupont took her leave, and the rest of the Slytherins close enough to eavesdrop returned to their actual tasks now that the drama was over. Not that it had been overly exciting, but that was about the best Ari could hope for. The less they played it up, the sooner everyone would get over it.

***

February was a singularly cold month. Even beyond December and January, February was both bitterly cold and still not near enough the start of spring to even hint at possible relief. Which is likely why the holiday of Valentines was seen as such a momentous occasion.

Ari understood the hype over Halloween and Christmas, and even the general appreciation for Easter since it was actually time off, but Valentine’s Day made no real sense to her. Especially not with how excited the upper years were for their Hogsmeade trip and the clamoring to ask people out. Why in the world would you want a first date to be on the literal busiest day possible, where there are so many set expectations?

She Remembered disliking Valentines in her last life as well, though that was also due to the over commercialization that the muggle world has. Still, there was an influx in decorations and heart shaped food, even in the wizarding world. Ari just frowned and bore it. She had her own preparations to make.

Valentines this year landed on a Saturday, which was seen as very lucky for those able to go to Hogsmeade and general well enough for everyone else. Which meant that by Friday Ari had everything ready. While not planning to participate in the actual event of Valentines, she did not expect to be so lucky as to avoid it entirely.

With the reveal of her parentage had come the expected increase in interest regarding her marriage prospects. Most of these were simple inquires by post that hinted at possible alliances or deals. They were read and rejected in a similarly polite and subtle response by Clearwater and Charleston. Those unfortunate enough to approach Sirius directly were threatened with duels, only two of which had actually happened since Remus hadn’t been there for one and had actually agreed to the second. Ari did not ask and did not want to know.   

So, her preparations revolved around handling the likely influx of gifts and card for the children of families who wanted to get in her good graces. Especially since Sirius had made it clear that he would not be forcing her into an arranged marriage. Thus, the only avenue was to try to woo her.

She was not looking forward to the attempts.

As such, she already had a mail ward placed on her to help redirect harmful mail to her solicitor’s office. Everything else would be placed in magically null bags to be opened in her containment circle. All food would be tossed, and any gifts would be considered from there.

It was terribly rude and insulting to return a gift and keeping them did not automatically indicate any preference on her part, so she thought she’d probably just sell them.

She also planned to keep a list of potential suitors to be given to Remus, and possible Dupont if she offered enough. They all planned to keep it away from Sirius, given the likely hood of him threatening any of the seventh years at the very least. She loved him dearly, but politics and negotiations were not his strong suite, and Ari did actually want to stay on the good, or at least neutral side of the traditionalist families.

And yet, despite all this preparation, Ari was still startled by the arrival of an unknown owl bearing a letter and a single long-stemmed rose. In her defense, it was only the 13^th and therefore should have been too early. She just wanted to eat her breakfast in peace before tomorrow!

Apparently, she’d been staring too long in the hopes that the owl would just disappear like a figment of her imagination, so George leaned forward to untie the note.

She grabbed his wrist to stop him.

“I’d suggest not touching my mail.”

“Come on Ari, it’s just a Valentines. Though I don’t think they quite know what day it is.” Ari just rolled her eyes and put on the dragonhide gloves she’d dug out of her bag, before untying the letter and the rose from the impatient bird.

“Yes, which is the perfect opportunity to attempt to hex me.”

“Why would people be trying to hex you through a Valentines?” Lee asked, which just went to show that he hadn’t been hanging around the twins long enough yet. She knew for a fact that they’d pranked several valentines in their life, most of them not addressed from them anyways. Ari was pretty sure this was why Percy had avoided having a girlfriend since that first attempt in second year. She still wasn’t sure how they pulled that off from the Burrow.

“Mmm, Slytherin powerplays and revenge generally, though I wouldn’t put it past a Gryffindor either. I’ll be a little offended if no one tries anything.” And she would, especially since she’d gotten a few last year, too. Though, those had all been minor and not worth her time to attempt revenge.

“You snakes are all crazy.”

“Yep.”

For now, she slipped the rose and the letter both into the nullifying acromatula silk bag. It was probably fine if it got past her wards, but better safe than sorry. She’d look it over later.

Chapter Text

As it turns out, there were no hexes, jinxes, or spells of any kind on the gift, beyond a basic stasis spell to keep the rose from wilting. Which was not as reassuring as it should have been.

The note itself was simple flowery prose that said very little of substance. Like something that would be found in one of those torrid romance novels that Ari knew some people swooned over. It was only signed with ‘A Secret Admirer’.

The person got exactly one point for thinking to beat out the crowd and send it the day before Valentines. And promptly lost several dozen by thinking this was something she’d be interested in. They obviously didn’t know her very well if they thought this would somehow sway her in their favor. Especially since it was anonymous, which suggested they were either shy, unlikely given the bold timing, or knew that she would dismiss them outright if she knew who it was.

Instead of continuing to worry or wonder about it, she simply put it back in the bag to be dealt with later.

Valentine’s Day itself was just as bad as she expected. Cassius and Marissa had had to help her with the literal swarm of owls that had shown up, though it wasn’t quite as bad as Cedric Diggory’s or Stephanie Yarrow who were both considered to be the most sought-after students in the school. Ari would have pitied them, but she was too busy trying to keep feathers out of her breakfast.

The rest of the day was spent fending off the people actually brave enough to approach her.

For most, she just smiled tightly, thanked them and moved on quickly. The only thing that kept her from outright telling all of them to go away was that publicly rejecting a gift was a fairly serious offense, at least among the traditionalist crowd. Still, she didn’t want to encourage them, especially the ones who were just going through the motions.

The only exception was the few seventh years, who she smiled at sharply and loudly mentioned how interested her father would be in their regard. Most had heard of Sirius’s dueling habits and backed down quickly.

By dinner time, she was entirely fed up with the whole thing, and sat at the Gryffindor table to get away from the commotion. Luckily, the twins were there already when she made it down from hiding in the library.

“Where have you two been all day?” She asked, only semi rhetorically.

“Detention!” They chorused, eating food at a pace few could match. She wondered if they missed lunch.

“What was it this time?”

They just smirked as gestured to some of the students and staff who were sporting pink and white hearts and sparkles circling their heads.

“I mean, that seems a bit tame. Who actually gave you detention for that?” Really it was one of the least obtrusive of their pranks.

“Oh, they used to leave trails of glitter too.”

“Filch about had an aneurysm when he realized that the courtyard had drifts almost an inch deep! We got an entire week for that.” Ah, that’d do it.

“What are you up to now?”

“169!” They said in unison once again, and Ari just grinned.

“Nice.”

Even with all the time spent in detention, and the howlers their mother had continued to send, plus the dressing down they’d gotten over Christmas, they were still keeping up surprisingly well with their classes.

 Not that they’d ever cared overly much about their grades, but they managed Acceptables more often than not and easily got Exceeds Expectations or Outstanding on the topics that actually interested them. It was just rare that those topics were actually taught in class.

They were also very good at repurposing spells and potions for their own ends. Most often pranks. They were geniuses in finding interesting ways to apply their knowledge that was completely outside of the common practice.

Sometimes she felt a bit bad for Mrs. Weasley since she really just wanted what was best for her children, but her idea of what was best was limited mostly to working for the ministry, and she seemed to have a hard time understanding that there were more options. Hopefully Charlie running off to Romania and Bill already in Egypt would help, though Ari didn’t think it would do much in regard to the twins’ aspirations, but she would help where she could too.

She had no doubt that they would do great things one day.

***

Ari sighed at the note stick to her door with a simple sticking charm. It was the fifth one at this point from her ‘Secret Admirer’ and they’d all been almost exactly the same. A note that attempted to flatter her and a small gift along with it.

She was still just as cautious as before, even though there hadn’t been any spells on any of the gifts so far. But she still opened each note in the containment circle and forwarded the gifts on to her solicitors to be tested as well. Like heck was she going to eat or wear anything they sent when they wouldn’t even tell her their name.

Today’s note was once more lauding her beauty. Something about the clear grey of her eyes shining like silver and comparing her hair to a raven. And apparently the gift was on theme, as it was a raven shaped broach that they asked her to wear as a sign if she returned their feelings.

Ari wondered if this would actually work on another twelve-year-old, or if this person was just too sure of themselves to realize how idiotic they sounded.

Really, even if she was inclined to receiving overtures from some random person, these letters still wouldn’t work. Not only were they full of fluff that was general at best and incorrect at worst, but they told her exactly nothing about the person sending them except that they might have a predilection for trashy romance.

Besides that, she’d figured out that they were probably Slytherin, hence leaving notes on her door, and they knew nothing about her beyond what they could observe without ever talking to her. Their notes had only gotten more flowery the more she ignored their suggestions on how to ‘give them a sign she was interested.’ They hadn’t asked for a meet up yet, but she thought it wouldn’t be long coming. Not that she’d ever do that, though she might try to send someone else to spy for her.

For now, she just tucked the latest gift away in her magically null bag and pulled out her current attempt at her letterbox.

Based on the schemas she’d been able to parse from the vanishing cabinet, and the somewhat similar blueprints for summoning and sending circles, she’d been able to piece together a possible rune array for her project.

Well, technically she was on her 16^th rune array, but that was neither here nor there.

Her latest attempt was mostly inscribed onto two small boxes with hinged lids that she had tucked away deep in her trunk where no one would stumble on them by accident. Now she pulled them out along with the second containment ring that Bill had sent her for just this purpose. Not that he knew this is why she wanted it, but regardless.

Because the boxes were inherently linked, and the magic was contained within them, they still worked within the confines of the protective barriers, which were designed to contain external magic and keep it away from the user. This made them perfect for testing her boxes without threatening the whole school. Or at least her room.

The latest boxes had arrays that were fairly similar to the last set, though, this time she’d reversed the inscribing order for two of the focal points and added a fifth anchor to the inside center of the lid to try to ground the four sets on the edges.

The last boxes had come very close to sending the paper she’d placed inside but had destabilized and one of them had imploded. She was pretty sure she was close to a solution, but at this point it was mostly trial and error since she’d exhausted her resources of existing and proven schemas.

Now she placed the boxes each inside on of the containment rings and removed the stasis spell that kept them dormant. With a flick of her wand, she opened one of the boxes and levitated a paper inside, keeping a close eye on the magic surrounding it. Then she closed the box again, feeling as it triggered the sequence that should send the paper to the connected box.

It shuddered slightly as she watched, but didn’t implode, suggesting that the stabilization sequence had in fact worked. Once it stopped, she carefully flicked the lid open again, almost yelling out loud in excitement when she saw a complete absence of the parchment that has been inside.

Quickly she turned towards the other box, flicking it open as well, and finding that the parchment had transferred! Ari jumped up, dancing around the room with abandon.

She’d done it! After over a year of research and testing, she’d finally gotten it to work! She’d been worried that she was on the wrong track, or possibly just didn’t have enough of a base to be able to work out something that would actually work! But she’d done it!

Not that this was in any way done. No, on closer examination, it was easy to see that the parchment was actually quite brittle and damaged from its trip, and the magic around the boxes had still destabilized enough that it would likely be dangerous to continue using it. But she was closer than she was before! Now all she had to do was keep refining it. Then she’d need to test the consistency, possible distance, long term stability, and how it reacted to different substances being passed through.

She didn’t want to do anything living, but could potions retain their properties? Could magical items be sent without interacting with the boxes magic?

So many questions, but she had plenty of time to work on it.

Once she got a more final design, she’d need to take it to Professor Babbling and possibly Professor Vector for review, it was likely to be a breakthrough in rediscovering the creating of instant transportation, since it hadn’t been used regularly since the 1300s and was never widespread. It had been a closely guarded secret, even when it was more popular.

Not that she planned to spread it around now. It would be much more useful as a secret weapon. A way to communicate without owls that could be tracked. She could already think of several possible applications just based on the events she knew, and the less people knew about it, the more useful it would be.

For this as for many things, ‘After the war’ seemed to be a common internal mantra for herself.

***

Ari tapped her ring lightly against the cup in front of her as had become habit since she’d first received it over Christmas break. However, this was the first time it had actually heated up, which startled her enough to make her freeze momentarily. However, she mentally shook herself free and picked up the teacup, pretending to take a sip while actually subtly sniffing the contents.

It didn’t have the telltale signs of any of the poisons she’d read about, though she didn’t have any real practical experience with them, and the spices in her tea made it hard to make out anything else. So instead of raising an alarm, she simple spent the rest of the meal pretending to drink it while eating her food.

She kept an eye out for anyone’s reaction at the table but was hampered by having to be careful not to draw their attention either. No one appeared to be acting any differently than normal, nor watching her too closely, so she was stuck without any clues except the possibly poisoned tea.

As soon as she safely could, she leaned over the table towards Cassius.

“We have herbology this afternoon, right?” She asked, using the opportunity to set a barrier over the teacup and slip it into her bag so it wouldn’t spill.

“Yeah?” Cassius said, giving her a suspicious look, but didn’t comment further when she sent him a pointed look back. She’d tell him later, and he was smart enough to know when not to push in front of other people.

For now, she simply went about her day, sitting through double transfiguration, herbology, and DADA, mindful of the teacup every time she had to take out or return anything to her bag. She also had to renew the barrier spell at one point, but other than that, it stayed sitting there and in the back of her mind. A subtle threat.

As soon as classes were completed for the day, she hurried back to her dorm, pulling Cassius with her when he would have normally headed to his own room to change out his books or grab extra parchment for homework.

As soon as the door was closed, she activated the privacy runes she had inscribed above the door. She didn’t use them often, as they would keep Corbyn out, and she’d rather her roommate didn’t know just how extensive her wards were.

Cassius waited in the middle of the room, not touching anything, which was smart of him. She had plenty of protections on her stuff, and Isla had at least a few as well.

“So, what was that at breakfast?” He asked as soon as she was done, not beating around the bush.

“My tea might have been poisoned. I noticed before I drank it, but I’m not sure who might have done it.”

“What?!” Ari was glad her privacy wards included sound proofing, or that probably would have brought a prefect down on them.

“Yeah, and I need your help.” Cassius visibly pulled himself back under control, though he was still agitated, and began pacing around the room.

“What do you need?”

“I need to talk to Professor Snape to try to identify whatever is in there, but I’m worried that whoever it is might be watching. I’d rather they think I’m oblivious, just in case it’s something slow acting.”

“Alright.” He was still angry, though not at her. Ari suspected it was something similar to the helplessness she was feeling with having narrowly escaped whatever this attempt had been. They were both flying blind right now, which was the worst feeling for any Slytherin.

They eventually decided to head out together like they were going to the library. After a few halls, Cassius would turn back like he forgot something and waylay any possible followers. Ari would slip on her notice-me-not and make her way to Snape’s office. It wouldn’t work on anyone looking for her, but hopefully it would help keep anyone else from noticing.

It wasn’t a fool proof plan, but it worked out well enough and got Ari all the way to the door, where she knocked and waited for permission to enter. It wasn’t long in coming, though as soon as she entered, she saw Professor Snape stiffen, his posture going tense.

She sighed internally and went to take the seat across from his desk. Ever since Christmas break, he’d been stiff around her. As with the rest of the Slytherins, he didn’t openly antagonize her in public, but he had been ignoring her even more intensely than before. There was only one possible reason.

“I thought we resolved this already.” She said, disappointment thick in her voice and watching as his eyes narrowed in annoyance.

“Was there something you needed Miss Black.” Yep, there it was.

“Yes, but I think we need to reiterate this first.” She paused, but he didn’t interrupt other than raising an eyebrow, so she continued on. “Once again, while I am aware that you have history with my father, the revelation of my parentage does not change who I am as a person, nor my behavior, as you will have noticed over the past almost four months. I will not be subjected to your misplaced animosity.” Snape sneered but didn’t refute her statement. It was interesting sometimes to note just how immature his reactions to anything related to his old arch nemeses made him.

“Can you remain objective?” Because that was the crux of the matter.

“I assure you Miss Black; I am perfectly capable of treating my Slytherins equally despite your allusions to the opposite.” He continued to sneer at her, but it had lost its edge and Ari hoped that this little chat was enough to remind him that she wasn’t Sirius, and she wouldn’t accept being mistreated simply because they were related.

“Good.” She pulled out the teacup and placed it on the desk between them. Snap simply raised an eyebrow and waited for her to elaborate. “This is my tea from this morning. I have reason to believe that it contains a harmful substance.”

“And how, pray tell, did it end up there?”

“I don’t know, but I thought you would like to be made aware…and I hoped you might be able to tell me what it is.”

Snape eyed her seriously, likely looking for any hint of a lie, but since Ari was perfectly serious, she simply kept her mask lowered and let him read the sincerity on her.

“Very well.”

He picked up the cup and sniffed it, similarly to what she had done this morning. He also swirled the contents and ran a couple of spells over it.

“This is not the normal breakfast tea.”

“No, it’s chai. The house elves make a pot for me in the mornings since I prefer it. I’m the only one who drinks it.”

“Stay here.”

 He picked up the cup again and stalked into an adjacent room, leaving the door open so she could see into the person potion lab. Instead of watching him, Ari pulled out her herbology homework and used the clear space on the edge of the desk in front of her to work on the required essay. Anything to distract herself.

It was almost two hours later that Snape emerged from his lab and carefully set the teacup back on the desk between them. Ari had managed to complete her herbology essay and most of her defense one as well, but quickly packed up her supplies as soon as he walked through the door.

“That contains a rather strong dose of Amortentia. It was corrupted by the cinnamon presented in the tea. Enough to make it difficult to identify, but not enough to negate the original properties.” His summary was said in the clipped tones he often used for lecturing but held an undertone of anger that Ari attributed to the fact that someone tried to use an illegal potion on one of his students. He may not like her much, but if nothing else, Snape was fanatical about potion safety and keeping his Slytherins safe.

Ari was a bit taken aback at the revelation. Enough that she couldn’t decide if she was relieved that it wasn’t poison or horrified that someone had tried to force her to fall in love with them.

“Is there any way to tell who did it?” She asked slightly distracted as she tried to work through her reactions.

“Not without feeding it to someone.” Which was of course a no go for both of them. “I will have to bring this to the headmaster. If someone in the school is trying to use this on students, then we will need to start an inquiry. Do you know how to check your food and drink?”

Ari nodded. She knew the basic detection spells, but her ring was faster and more thorough. Not that she’d be telling him that.

“Good. If you are at all suspicious of food, bring me a sample. If it’s from a dish on the table, simply tap it with your wand and say ‘remove’. It will be sent back to the kitchen, and I will tell the house elves to set it aside so that it won’t accidentally be consumed by someone else. Do you understand?”

Ari nodded again. She’d need to inform Sirius and Remus. There was no way around it. But she definitely wasn’t looking forward to the fall out. The twins should know too, just in case, and probably Cassius as well. If she suddenly started exhibiting signs of being under the influence of a love potion, then they’d be the first to notice.

Amortentia was dangerous, not only because it was so strong, but because it actually made people believe they were in love, without directly influencing any of their other emotions or reactions. It could make it more difficult to detect, since people under the influence acted normally other than in regard to their new infatuation. Ari had never been in love, so she didn’t know exactly how she’d react, but she doubted she’d do anything as obvious as declare it in the Great Hall like Ron did in the books.

Snape dismissed her and she immediately went to start setting up her safety nets. All she could do now was try to stay vigilant and figure out who might be after her.

Chapter Text

Weeks passed without any other incident. Ari kept checking anything she intended to eat and avoided anything that people had already touched just in case. However, there was nothing to be found, either in her food or in any one else’s.

Not that Ari let down her guard. Someone who was willing to use Amortentia was unlikely to simply give up after one failed attempt. It was actually more concerning that they were patient enough to wait so long after their first attempt.

That didn’t stop the notes from coming, though they seemed more pointed now. She thought, and Snape agreed, that the sender was likely the same person that tried to love potion her. Not proof as of yet, but it seemed like too much of a coincidence to not consider. She’d been giving the notes and tokens to Snape instead of sending them on to her solicitor in the hope that the person would trip up and leave some magical residue or something identifiable.

On her end, she, Cassius, and Marissa had been subtly probing their information networks for any hint of who might be interested or desperate enough to make the attempt. Dupont had passed down the fifth years after Easter which gave Ari access to most of the student body gossip and rumor mill. That combined with the list of suitors and marriage contract proposals gave them a base to start with, though nothing conclusive had been found yet.

The twins were using their myriad of pranks and detentions to try to keep an ear out, since they often had access to parts of the school that other students weren’t allowed. Nothing had shown up on their end either.

With so little evidence and no new incidents, the investigation had ground to a halt. Which was likely just as well, with exams quickly approaching.

Ari wasn’t concerned, and the twins generally didn’t care, but the rest of their friends and family started to slip into that usual state of whirlwind studying. Percy as usual started barricading himself in his room for long study sessions, despite the fact that he was only a fourth year and didn’t have to worry about OWLs until next year. The twins and some of his roommates made sure that he made it to meals though there wasn’t much else they could do besides that.

Charlie, who normally helped wrangle his younger sibling, which is probably why he was so good with dragons and other magical creatures, was distracted by studying for his NEWTs now that Quidditch was over with another win for Gryffindor. The normally laidback boy was surprisingly intense in his focus, only taking breaks to help Hagrid in his rounds like he had for the past three years.

Ari sent him a package of his favorite candies and invigoration drafts and then resolved to keep out of his way. He was still waiting to hear back from the dragon reserve in Romania and the few other places he applied, and the stress was obviously affecting him. Ari knew it would work out but didn’t need him snapping at her in the meantime.

For her part, Ari continued on as she had been. She worked on her letter boxes that were becoming increasingly stable. Enough that she thought she might be able to send one home with Cassius for the summer for long distance and long-term testing. Probably still with a containment ring, just in case, but parchment had been transferring back and forth quite consistently, though she was still working on testing things with other properties. For now, they would work as a way to communicate without alerting Cassius’s father.

She’d also taken the designs, though not the actual boxes, to Professor Babbling, figuring that it would make a good enough introduction before next year. She still wanted to see if she could sit in with the upper year classes rather than the third-year ones.

Babbling had taken a thorough look at her designs and practically threatened her into taking her class next year, though Ari assured her that she already planned to. It had only taken the afternoon they spent discussing Ari’s designs and a few other examples of her rune arrays for Babbling to agree to working with the other professors to find a way to let her attend an upper year class, on the condition she took a few tests to prove her proficiency. Ari was ecstatic, and easily agreed. She’d been considering taking the Runes OWL this summer if Remus and Sirius would let her. Not that she was particularly worried about it, but it could be helpful in proving her skill level.

And that was another thing. All Slytherins had several meetings a year with their head of house to ascertain their current standing, and to get advice on what to work on for their goals. Additionally, the end of year meeting for third years included a discussion on possible carriers and the best electives for them.

Snape conducted these meetings prior to testing week as there was little time after and most of it was devoted to the seventh years who were applying for and receiving job opportunities. Which is how Ari found herself once again in Snapes office only four days prior to the start of finals.

“Your grades are top of the class as usual. Have you considered what career path you would like to pursue?” Snap asked in his usual neutral tone. He’d still been chill towards her, but not openly antagonistic, so she was fine with it.

“Yes, I plan to pursue a runes mastery with a focus in warding and experimental Crafting.”

“Yes, I received a note from Professor Babbling in regard to your possible class schedule. She seemed…quite taken with you.” Ari just smiled at the probing question. Her runes proficiency wasn’t exactly a secret but keeping things close to the chest had become a firm habit that was fairly hard to break. “What other electives due you wish to take?”

“Arithmancy and Care of Magical Creatures.” Ari stated clearly. She wasn’t worried about Arithmancy, since she had also studied it in conjunction with Runes, but she wasn’t nearly as advanced in it, so it would be good to have the regular practice and a chance to learn more. She also wanted to take Care, as she did rather enjoy magical creatures, and there weren’t really any other worthwhile electives.

With the decline in the number of wixen of a magical level to be able to attend Hogwarts, came a lessening of the number of electives available. As of now, there were really only five (Ancient Runes, Arithmancy, Muggle Studies, Care of Magical Creatures, and Divination). However, there were still far more OWLs and especially NEWTs that were available through the ministry.

This was due to the fact that self-studying and tutors were a common practice, as well other smaller magical institutions specifying in certain subjects. NEWTs were often used as the equivalent of certifications in a subject. It was normal for apprentices, mastery students, and even just certain professionals to take additional NEWTs as they furthered their education.

For now, she’d stick to the subjects currently available to her. However, she had plans to pursue several additional NEWTs when she had the time. While she might want to focus on a Runes Mastery, knowing more about Magical Politics, Natural Magics, and Alchemy would no doubt be both interesting and beneficial.

Snape only nodded at her choices. As she’d heard, he was a strong proponent in avoiding Divination, and seemed not to put much stock in Muggle Studies either, so he likely approved of her decision.

From there, it was a quick meeting, with just another reminder to keep an eye on her food, that she acknowledged before leaving.

Like she’d do anything else.

***

Turns out, it wasn’t her food she needed to be worried about.

Their tests were finally done, and Ari was sure they’d all passed, especially since McGonagall had been using her recent detentions to make the twins study for the classes they general ignored, like History of Magic and Astronomy.

They’d only just finished yesterday, since, as the younger classes, they’re tests were easier to grade and therefore scheduled after the NEWTs, OWLs, and other upper-level classes. They also generally had less classes which contributed as well. All of which meant that they were only four days from the end of the term and the train ride home.

The twins were using the time to try to get the last three detentions they needed, though were running into the issue of most of their teachers being either sequestered away grading tests, or more laidback due to the relief of almost being done for the year as well. Ari had heard they were going after Filch specifically again and had already roped Lee into their scheme, so she was thus steering well clear.

Cassius had taken one look at the stack of books she’d brought back this morning and promptly ran away with his broom to fly around on the pitch with the other students celebrating their freedom.

Ari was currently working on a few final tweaks to her letterboxes before she sent one home with Cassius at the end of the week. It was about as stable as she could make it without a deeper reconfiguration which she already had ideas for and would pursue them over the summer.

As it was, she realized halfway through the afternoon that she was missing a book she needed to reference for the Ancient Mesopotamian grounding additions. Luckily, she was about ready for a break anyways so she could assure Cassius that she had not been sitting in the same place all day. He was surprisingly insistent on not letting her spend too much time wrapped up in books. Ari had a feeling the twins had gotten to him, or possibly her family over Christmas.

Later, Ari would scold herself for her distraction. She’d been too wrapped up in her thoughts to pay any attention to the signs that must have been present. She was for to excited by the book on linking magic that could both help with her current project, and possibly let her work on linking two journals. She hadn’t heard of them existing, which might make the magic necessary of a darker sort, since it didn’t seem overly complicated and…

‘Stupify’

She didn’t have time to drop her book and preform any wandless magic, let alone get her wand out before a flash of red filled her vision.

Ari woke up with a jolt, to the sense of an Enervate running through her. She slammed her eyes back closed at the sharp pain and increase in headache brought on by the bright mage light in front of her, though that only helped a little. Next, she tried squinting, which didn’t help much either, but she was able to make out an otherwise dark stone room that could only be in the dungeon.

Once she’d gotten her eyes mostly open, still wincing at the sharp searing light that made her vision swim. Of maybe that was just the headache. She tried to rub her eyes, only to find that she was bound to the wooden chair she was sitting in with magically conjured ropes. Something about that should be making her panic, but all she could do was blink down at her tied arms in confusion.

There was…she remembered something about book and…and linking magic, but there was something else. Her head ached fiercely as she tried to remember.

Red light.

Oh, someone stunned her. She must have…have hit her head when she fell. Which made sense with her swimming vision and inability to focus, though it was receding a little the longer she was awake.

A shadow suddenly moved in the corner of her eye, and she jerked her head up, trying to see it, but only really succeeding in making herself nauseous. She her vision cleared again she was finally able to make out a male figure back lit by the mage light. She couldn’t make out his face, but it looked like he was wearing student robes and was significantly taller than her, as he loomed over her.

Oh, and apparently, he was talking…

“…really messed up my plan you know…”

“Sorr’, di’n’t know I was spose ta do yor job for ya.” Huh, that…wasn’t right. If that’s how she sounded, then there was definitely something wrong.

Even the man seemed to think so as he stepped closer. She could now make out his face, and it definitely pinged something in recognition…something C. Chris. Christian. No.

She could hardly focus enough to listen to what he was saying, without trying to dig out a memory that didn’t seem to want to come.

“Why do you sound like a drunk American?”

“You gave me a…a cushion…conshun. Stone and head bad. Don’t ya know a cun…cushioning charm?” She slurred derisively. Or at least as much as she could in the circumstances.

“Hmm, I don’t know any healing spells. You’ll simply have to survive until I can take you to Madam Pomfrey later. As I was saying, you are very irritating little girl. What twelve-year-old doesn’t trip all over themselves at a secret admirer?”

“Anyone who isn despet…des-per-ate.” Ari sounded out, feeling overly triumphant at just managing to say one sentence mostly right.

“Shut up. It’s your fault that I had to go this far. If you’d just fallen in love like the stupid chit you are, then I could already be rebuilding my family’s network. I still don’t know how you avoided the love potion. That thing was ridiculously expensive even just for the initial dose, now I have to…”

Ari zone out a bit as he continued his rant, entirely uninterested in listening to a subpar villain monolog and already having a hard time focusing. She had finally figured out who he was. Cameron Davis, from an off shoot of the Davis that worked mostly in smuggling. Most of the family had been arrested during first term and Cameron had been spending his last year at Hogwarts trying and failing to rectify his fall from grace.

She hadn’t paid much attention to him beyond the basics since he was still firmly under Dupont’s area of influence, but the arrests and subsequent trials had been all over the papers since they were so close to the main branch, which was a prominent pureblood family.

“…And when we get married, I’ll be able to use the Black family reputation and fortune to rebuild our operations and get my father out of jail. Then he’ll have to listen to me.”

Ari couldn’t help it. She burst into loud laughter and regretted it almost immediately when another sharp stab of pain went through her head. She also decided it probably wasn’t the right move when she saw the flash of anger across his face. Still, she apparently had no filter right now, since she couldn’t stop herself from saying the next thing out of her mouth.

“Siris would kill ya firs.”

Instead of getting angry like she expected, he grinned instead.

“I’m sure you’ll be able to find a way to persuade him, given the…right motivation.” He held up a potion bottle which glowed pink in the mage light. Even fuzzy and unfocused, she could easily identify it as Amortentia with the studying she’d done on the potion since he first tried to slip it to her.

Well, there was the panic.

She struggled against the ropes, trying to see if she could wriggle her way out of them but finding no give. A frantic glance around showed her wand on an old dusty table behind him, well out of her reach, and a tentative prod at her magic sent another stabbing pain through her head. This unfocused she was more likely to hurt herself then be able to escape if she tried wandless.

Through all of this Davis loomed over her, simply smiling indulgently.

“So will you take this willingly, or will I need to spell it into you.”

She glared at him, though she worried that it came off more dazed than anything.

“Hard way it is then.” Davis didn’t seem overly broken up about this turn of events, even as she struggled harder.

She did not want to know what she would do under the influence of that abhorrent potion. She’d never been in love in her life, but just from what she was willing to do for people she considered hers, and the likely complete lack of barriers the potion would create…well, she’d rather risk injuring herself than find out.

As a last resort, she flared her magic in a half formed Bombarda, hoping to blast him away, or break the potion. Davis’s quick Protego meant she only succeeded in jarring herself and straining her magic with such reckless attempt.

While she was still reeling, Davis managed to spell the potion into her. It was generally a spell used to get potions into unconscious patients and essentially transferred the liquid directly into her stomach. She gagged at the feeling, but a rough hand over her mouth prevented any chance of trying to throw it back up.

She struggled against the hand, hating the feeling of it against her skin. It was such a tight grip, sure to leave a bruise.

A strong grip. A firm grip.

She blinked in confusion, trying to clear her mind. Why was he holding her mouth? She thought he was worried about her throwing up, but she wouldn’t do that, it would make him mad, and she didn’t want him to be mad at her.

She blinked again, absent mindedly cursing the sluggishness of her thoughts. He’d already been mad at her before though, so she’d need to do something to make up for it.

After all, she did love him.

Chapter Text

Eventually he took his hand away, staring intently into her eyes. She simply stared back, wondering what he was doing, but content to wait.

“Do you love me?” He asked it seriously, though her eyebrows scrunched up in confusion.

“Of cours I do, Cameron.” But she hadn’t told him that before, had she? Everything was so muddled. She knew she loved him entirely, but she’d never told him, and he thought he had to ask. She’d need to do better in showing him. Love wasn’t in words to be tossed about, but in how you showed them every single day.  

“Hmm, yes I suppose if we’re to be married than first names are probably better.”

She grimaced, both in the reference to her least favorite of her names, and at the reminder, even as Cameron muttered the spells to release her from the ropes and the chair. She rubbed her wrists lightly, wondering the best way to tell him.

“Sirus won’ let me get mar’d.”

“Well then, you’ll just have to convince him. I’m sure he won’t want to keep us apart when he realizes how much you love me.” He said with a smirk as he turned back to the table.

Ari nodded blurrily, trying to come up with a plan through the fuzziness that was her thoughts. If Cameron really wanted to get married, then she’d need to find a way to convince Sirius and Remus not to kill him. Maybe if she introduced them first then used a full body bind before the reveal…maybe they’d listen long enough for her to explain. It didn’t seem likely, but it was the best she could come up with right now. Hopefully she’d think clearer when Madam Pomfrey fixed her head.

“’K, just need to take you h’me w’th me. I can splain everythin.”

“Oh no, I think it’s better you come home with me for the summer. Give them a chance to think it over. I just need you to write your father a letter to let him know you’re…safe.” He stepped over quickly, faster than her eyes could track, and grabbed her arm, pulling her up and out of the chair and over to the table. It was only a couple of steps, but his hand was the only thing to keep her from falling over multiple times. As soon as it was in reach, she grabbed hold of the table to try to keep herself upright.

“Just tell them that you’ve fallen in love and with be staying with me for the summer. We can send them a wedding invitation later.” She nodded along and picked up the quill to write something hopefully convincing, though after the first few words she would have settled for something legible.

The words were swimming on the page even as she tried to steady her hand.

Suddenly the door banged open, though it took a second for her to process the noise and jump, turning towards the sound. Even blurry, she could recognize that group of fiery redheads lit from behind. Even without being able to think straight, she instinctively took a half step to the side still keeping a hold on the table so she wouldn’t faceplant. This placed her mostly in front of Cameron. Not that it helped much with how much taller than her he was.

“Wait!” Luckily the Weasleys stilled, and without them moving, she was able to make out that the Twins, Percy and Charlie were all present.

She knew immediately that they would take this the wrong way and hurt Cameron. She needed to distract them.

“’m so glad yor here. Cam-rn was jus helpin me.” She stumbled a few steps closer, until the twins caught her arms to help stabilize her. She smiled at them and patted at Fred’s arm in thanks as they guided her slightly to the side and back towards the door.

Luckily, her ploy had worked, and all their attention was on her, rather than Cameron. Or so she thought, until Percy frowned and suddenly whipped his wand up and behind her.

Stupify

Protego

Ari flung out her hand, pulling up a shield just in time to stop Percy’s spell from connecting. Shudders wracked her body as her magic rebled against the sudden use and her head pound harder, but it did give Cameron time to raise his own wand, but instead of defending, he started to send a barrage of curses and hexes back.

“St’p! STOP! Don hurt him.” At this point she didn’t even know who she was talking about. Percy and Charlie on one side and Cameron on the other, firing spells faster than she could track. “Please!”

She stumbled a step forward, desperately pulling free of the twins and trying to get between them, unsure of what she would even do in her state.

Ari only made it a step before a weight hit her from behind. The last thing she saw was the floor rushing up towards her.

***!

The hospital wing was becoming a familiar setting, to the point where she was able to identify it before even opening her eyes. Which was concerning. Harry was supposed to be the one who practically lived in this place with his Potter luck, not that she was planning to let anything happen to him that she could prevent.

Regardless, she knew immediately upon waking that she was once again under the care of Madam Pomfrey, and in almost the same instant started to devise ways to get out of it. It was a pleasant surprise that her mind seemed to be operating at its normal speed and with none of the aching that had plagued her before.

With that thought came the fuzzy but entirely too real memory of being in love with Cameron Davis which had her bolting up right in her bed.

She’d never been in love before. Not in this life or the last. At most she’d had a bit of a crush on someone until they went and changed their haircut, or said something stupid, or just turned out to be different than she thought they were. But being in love, or really being obsessed with one person who she’d never even talked to before was blow to her world perspective.

In some ways it was what she’d expected. She already knew that she’d do anything for the people she loved. She was perfectly willing to admit that her morals got more than a little grey when it came to protecting her family and the friends she’d claimed as hers. But with Cameron it had been to the point where reason didn’t even factor in. She’d needed to make him happy, to do anything he wanted.

It was terrifying.

If she actually fell in love with someone, would that be how she acted? Amortentia was supposed to simply simulate romantic love to an extreme degree, but did that mean there was some truth to her own thoughts and action? People in love often did seem to lose some of their sense. She’d seen it plenty with Bill’s girlfriends over the years, and even Percy had a few flights of fancy.

If that was how she felt when she was in love, then she hoped it never happened again.

She spent the early hours of the morning lost in thought, even when Madam Pomfrey checked on her and had breakfast brought up. It didn’t help that the matron informed her that Davis was also in the hospital wing, though restrained and waiting for aurors to come pick him up.

It wasn’t until Fred and George arrived that she was shaken back to the present. Especially since only George hugged her, and Fred seemed to be doing him best to blend in with the curtains.

Eventually George got fed up with it and dragged Fred over glaring at him until he turned towards Ari, though he couldn’t hold eye contact for more than a second.

“I’m sorry I tackled you and made your concussion worse.” It was mumbled and barely audible, but Ari could tell just how bad he felt. She realized that he must have jumped her from behind when she was trying to get in the middle of the duel.

“Fred,” she started, picking up his hand to draw his attention back to her rather than the floor. “If you didn’t knock me unconscious, I probably would have jumped in front of some incredibly dark hex and been far worse off than a concussion that Madam Pomfrey already fixed. Thank you.” She squeezed his hand for emphasis and smiled up at him when he looked at her in surprise. Then his expression turned mischievous.

“Probably would have deserved it for letting a prick like Davis get the jump on you. We left you alone for one afternoon and you got kidnapped. How’d that happen?” Ari groaned, collapsing back on her pillows as George took up pestering her too. With both of them at it, it didn’t take long for the whole story to come, though she appreciated this way of telling it, rather than the fretting attention she would have received from Percy or Remus or the seething rage from Sirius and Charlie, though she had no doubt they’d hear of it too. She almost whimpered at the thought of the situational awareness training that Sirius was sure to force on her this summer in the form of unrelenting pranks.

Eventually she did get to hear the other side of what happened. When Cassius couldn’t find her in the common room he’d gone to the twins. Her Slytherin friend had gone to check the library while the twins had grabbed the map from their dorm room. As soon as they’d realized she was in some long-forgotten corner of the dungeon, they’d grabbed their brothers and hurried down.

They’d also told her what happened after she’d passed out again.

“See, Fred tackled you which distracted the git—"

“—and Percy got him with a full-body bind—”

“—and then when we got you here and Snape and Dumbledor and McGonagall showed up—”

“—and Percy finally explained that he thought you’d been enchanted—”

“—which is why he tried to stun the bastard—”

“—then Snape was going on about Amortentia—”

“—and Madam Pomfrey had just freed the stupid blighter and Charlie—”

“—well, he was proper angry by this point—”

“—he clocked Davis hard enough to give him a concussion almost as bad as yours. —”

“—Snape didn’t even give him detention!” 

Ari just grinned at their enthusiastic twin-speak, piecing together the story and laughing out loud when she found out Charlie had punched Davis. In fact, that one little thing somehow made her feel so much better about everything.

Though the arrival of the aurors did bring down her mood a bit. Madam Pomfrey lead them straight to a curtained bed at the far end of the room, as separated from Ari as possible in the space, which she did appreciate, as well as the fact that Davis would be gone soon.

“Where is she?! Where is my daughter?” Ah, looks like Sirius had arrived. “Don’t give me that bullshit, Dumbledore. She’s been hurt twice in as many years under your care. I want to see my daughter and I want to know what you’re going to do about that bastard.”

The aurors had exited the curtains with a restrained Davis on one end of the room. From the other, Sirius’s voice grew steadily closer. Ari felt like she was watching a trainwreck in progress, and yet felt no need to even attempt to stop it.

Just as the Aurors drew parallel with the end of her bed, Davis attempting to glare in her direction, but blocked by the aurors Madam Pomfrey and the twins, Sirius shoved through the hospital wing doors, attention focused over his shoulder on Dumbledore.

Ari watched Sirius’s head rotate in almost slow motion. He noticed her and the twins first, with a relieved look, before glancing towards the aurors and their prisoner. Ari mentally counted down the three seconds it took for the realization to hit.

In two long strides, Sirius was across the room and swinging, spewing profanities the entire time that had Madam Pomfrey gasping in outrage and immediately putting up a silencing ward around Ari’s bed. Though the twins only looked disappointed at the censoring.

It took several seconds and two good swings for the Aurors to pull them apart. Ari suspected they may have been moving slow on purpose.

As soon as they got them separated, one of the aurors rushed to remove Davis from the while the other kept Sirius in place until he was out of sight. At which point, Madam Pomfrey laid into everyone involved, while Dumbledore stood twinkling quietly to the side. It was entirely silent still, lending an air of surrealness.

Eventually, Dumbledore stepped in, likely to placate the group at which point Sirius waved them all off, ignored whatever Dumbledore was still saying and moved directly to Ari’s bedside, pulling her into a hug.

“Hey, kiddo.”

“Hey, Pads.”

They sat there silently for a long time, just finding comfort in each other’s presence.

She was released before lunch, likely due to the twins and Sirius antics once they got back to a more energetic mood, which she appreciated for its use in both distracting her and getting her out of the Hospital Wing. It meant she didn’t have to spend her last day before the train stuck inside. Instead, the twins got a picnic lunch from the kitchens, rounded up Cassius and Lee and settled in for an afternoon by the lake.

Ari soaked in the warm sun and let it burn away the horror and disgust she still felt, instead focusing on the present and the summer ahead.

***

Ari smirked slightly at the pile of limbs that was the sleeping twins on the bench across from her and Cassius. They’d just barely managed to beat the record at 294 detentions each with one last late-night punishment given by Filch. And now they were too tired to even celebrate their victory, though Ari had seen them scribbling messy jabs on the Marauder’s Map when they’d first stumbled onto the train.

Hopefully they’d gotten it out of their system. Ari had no doubt that they’d still have plenty of pranks to play in the future, but she’d missed having them around this year.

Lee had already run off to hang out with some of the other Gryffindors, since She and Cassius were more interested in reading for the trip. Which was exactly what they were doing right now. Well, Ari was a bit distracted, but she had every right to be.

Even with school done for the year, she had several busy months ahead of her.

First was testing out her IMBoxes. Instant Mail Box, pronounced like Inbox because she thought she was clever. Cassius already had his tucked away in his luggage until he could hide it in his room. It wasn’t the most innocuous of items, given that it was covered in a variety of runes from three different languages, and would definitely draw attention if his mother or father were to find it. Ari had already promised to look into ways to either hide the runes in the woodwork or add a glamor to keep them invisible.

They’d be testing the IMBoxes over the course of the summer for both longevity and stability over distance. While their family homes weren’t extraordinarily far apart, it would still be a good starting place. She planned to send one to Bill and Charlie at the beginning of next school year if they seemed stable enough to test further distances.

Charlie had of course gotten the apprenticeship with the Romanian Dragon Sanctuary and Ari knew he’d be moving through the ranks quickly. She was going to miss him terribly, but at least she’d had some practice missing Bill over the last year, and she’d already threatened him into writing her regularly too.

Tonks had also graduated and was headed straight into Auror training over the summer. She’d already gotten a flat with a couple of other trainees which had her mother despairing over so suddenly having an empty nest. Not that she wasn’t entirely busy with holding the Black Wizengamot seat and still working at St. Mungo’s.

Beyond that, the next thing that would no doubt take up a majority of her summer was Ari’s presentation to society. Given that the majority of children from traditional Noble and Ancient families attended boarding school for much of the year, summer was reserved for mingling in high society with a series of tea parties, balls, soirees, and various other group activities that where all made for schmoozing and making business and political moves.

Since Ari turned thirteen this school year, she would be making her debut along with the other children from her year and thus was required to attend even more of these then she would have to in the future. Andy had already offered to be her chaperone. Sirius had also offered out of some fatherly sense of obligation, but Ari was perfectly aware that he avoided as many of these things as possible, which was almost all of them since Andy was the public face of the family. She wasn’t cruel enough to make him go.

Not that Sirius or Remus would make her go either. Really, she wasn’t overly enthused with being trotted around like a show pony, but she’d argued that since she was seen as the ‘proper’ family member, ‘returning to traditional roots’ even though she was a half-blood, it would be best for her to maintain those contacts, both for information’s sake and as a possible way to sway some of the more neutral families in the coming years. Andy did a great job now, but as the heir, and supposedly an impressionable youth, Ari would have an easier in with the families she’d run into at these parties.

Andy had already been ordering her wardrobe and Ari cringed to think of the dresses she’d likely have to wear, let alone the jewelry. But presentation was half the battle, and she’d wear any mask if it helped keep her family safe.

Regardless, the entire song and dance was likely to take up a majority of her time over the summer.

On top of that she had an OWL to study for.

Ari had been making sure to check in with Professor Babbling since their original meeting, either to update her on the progress of her project or simply to discuss some of the latest rune findings as published in Ancient Runes Today. Ari thoroughly enjoyed their discussions and always came away with new advice or information. Professor Babbling had also reached out to Sirius and Remus and convinced them to let Ari take the Ancient Runes OWL this summer at the ministry since it would help facilitate her inclusion into the older classes. With the suggestion coming from a teacher, they’d agreed and now Ari was signed up to take the OWL on June 27^th, the official Ministry summer testing date.

She wasn’t overly concerned about her OWL, given the amount of time she’d been studying the subject, but it would be her first major test outside of practical application and what Remus and Ted could come up with. Which meant plenty of studying.

And finally, Harry would be starting school next year.

Professor Palmer had run off to help some Arabian prince regain his fortune which left the position open for Quirrell.

Which meant they’d finally reach the main part of canon. Or at least what used to be canon. Ari had already changed that plenty. Honestly, if she hadn’t this would be much easier, but she would never regret the changes she had made, so all they could do now was plan.

Without any other major changes, she could only hope that the coming events would be somewhat the same as she remembered, but until they knew for sure, they would prepare as best they could.

It was going to be a busy summer.

Chapter Text

Ari stared at herself in the mirror with a calculating gaze. She turned to the right and left, and even craned her neck to be able to see her back, even with the tri-mirror. Even after several minutes of scrutiny, she could not find a single objectionable thing.

“Aunt Andy, I’m not sure how you do it, but these are absolutely perfect.”

“Of course dear, would I bring you anything less?” And honesty, no. She never had before, and Ari wasn’t sure why she’d been so worried this time.

Today was the first of the summer events she would need to attend. As such it was one of the biggest events of the season in which the current batch of thirteen-year-olds would make their first appearance in high society.

This year’s, as with most year’s, was being held at the Greengrass Estate as they preferred to open the season and were neutral enough to not cause objection.

With that in mind, Andy had arrived early this evening to help Ari get ready and run through last minute instructions and advice. She’d also need the extra time to get Sirius ready, since he’d decided last minute to attend as this was her first Ball and a rather big deal for Traditionalist purebloods. Ari had reminded him that she didn’t really care, and it was more of a cover than anything, but he’d insisted, and she’d let it go. Maybe he was just hoping to duel a few more pushy heirs.

Regardless, they’d need all the time they could get, which is why Ari was fully dressed in formal wear at barely five in the evening, when the ball didn’t even start until eight.

She’d been rather worried that Andy would make her wear some taffeta monstrosity like the prom dresses she Remembered, or even some overly traditional robes like the ones she’d seen in some of the catalogs that drifted around the common room, but she should have known better.

Instead, she was dressed in something that roughly resembled her everyday wear, only ten times fancier.

The shirt was basically the same, button up with a sharp collar and bishop sleeves to add a bit of flare. It was a rich white fabric of an incredibly fine weave that felt like water over her skin. Over that went a black as night vest with a pattern of tiny stars picked out along the edges in silver thread and tiny clear gemstones. There were also tiny hints of silver within the fabric itself that glimmered slightly when the light hit just right.

The pants were nothing particularly of note, other than also being made of the same fine fabric and continuing the star motif, though more subtly.

The final piece was her over robe, worn open in the fashion of today. It was also black, with silver embroidery along the cuffs and hems, almost plain to look at from the outside. However, every minute movement revealed a swirling galaxy of stars, just a tiny and fine as those on her vest and pants but covering the entire lining of her robe. They even moved in slow but mesmerizing patterns allowing hints of color reminiscent of nebulas.

It was the most gorgeous thing she’d ever worn.

“We cannot change you too much. The best masks are the ones that fit comfortably close to the skin.” Andy had said when Ari commented on the lack of dress.

For jewelry, she had only her heir ring and a small pendant necklace made of fire opal. It was one of the family heirlooms pulled from the vault and when tapped three times would expand her hearing and let her eavesdrop on other conversations. She fully planned to claim it as her own for the foreseeable future.

She also had on an anklet hidden under her pants with a charm to warn her of anyone approaching her from behind. It wouldn’t help as much in a setting with this many people, but she wasn’t willing to be caught unaware again.

Her hair was actually the most time-consuming part and included a series of charms and potions to make it both very soft and glossy. Then more charms to twist the waves into intricate braids twined with silver chains and more tiny jewels.

By the end, Ari was afraid to touch it, lest she somehow muss it despite the myriad of spells holding everything into place. It was days like these that she was glad she kept her hair long, not that it would be difficult to change given the hair growth potions available.

Once ready, she joined Andy at the table already set with tea and small snacks that wouldn’t be in danger of messing up her outfit.

“Alright, I’ve got to go wrangle my cousin here in a minute, but first let us review the plan for tonight.”

Ari sat up straighter, dutifully listing off the goals they’d discussed previously.

“Tonight is about introductions. I’m to meet as many people as possible but focus on those in the neutral and neutral-dark since they’ll have the most prejudices. Mostly I just need to act as perfectly as possible and make a good first impression.”

“Excellent, and don’t worry, you’ll do great. Put as many faces to names as you can, it’ll make tea tomorrow more efficient.”

Ari already had a general idea of most of the main players in wixen politics by name but would finally have a chance to meet them in person. Tea was code for a gossip session that was really a breakdown of any new information learned during the party. Apparently, Andy used do the same with her mother and sisters before she was married.

Ari planned to call it ‘Snitch and Bitch’ in her head.

Andy left to force Sirius into his dress robes and trap him into an impromptu lecture on pureblood and traditionalist manners. He’d been raised on them, so he was definitely aware, but tended to ‘forget’ any that were inconvenient.

Ari almost hoped there would be a duel tonight, just for entertainment’s sake.

In the meantime, Ari went over her notes. Both the ones provided by Andy on the elder generations and the ones she’d taken on those still in school. A lot of it was pretty general, but she’d be able to add to it as necessary. Blackmail material is always useful.

Time passed before she knew it, which was good because it meant she didn’t spend time fretting, but it did leave her hurrying down the hall, so she could meet Andy and Sirius in the front parlor. Only, when she arrived, everyone else was there as well.

“Ari you look amazing!” Remus said, pulling her into a hug that was careful not to muss her clothes or hair. When she finally stepped back, she thought she saw the slight shine of tears in his eyes in that ‘My little girl is all grown up’ way, which was both endearing and a little embarrassing.

Harry also hugged her, and made her promise to bring back something, which she agreed to easily.

Sirius was dressed to the nines in the latest wizard fashions and proceeded to ignore that entirely to pull her into a tight hug, ignoring the loud sigh from Andy.

“I know you and your aunt have been scheming, but don’t forget to have fun, okay? If you need a distraction, just let me know, and if any boys try to talk to you use that jinx I showed you, okay?”

Ari rolled her eyes. There was zero chance of her using that jinx tonight, on boys or otherwise. While it might be hilarious to watch someone become wrapped in their own robes like a mummy, it would absolutely not be conducive to her current goals…and she hadn’t learned it wandless yet either.

So instead of answering him, she just squeezed him tightly once more and stepped back to fix her outfit. Luckily her hair was still perfectly in place, though she had a feeling even a hurricane wouldn’t budge it.

With a few more heartfelt well wishes and a couple of warnings to Sirius, they were off. Andy had opted for apparition rather than floo travel since Ari could easily side-along. It also gave them a great view of Greengrass Manor as they made their way across the grounds and up the stairs along with the other participants.

They arrived exactly 22 minutes after the official start time of the ball since it would allow the earlier arrivals to already be in the ballroom and would give them a chance to greet the hosts before it got too crowded. Andy had this down to an art, and Ari wasn’t about to argue with years of experience.

Lord and Lady Greengrass were the epitome of gracious hosts, welcoming their group and even congratulating Ari on her first ball. From the information Andy had given her, they were a very influential family currently. Only noble for a few generations, but with a strong hold on importing and exporting within wizarding Britain. They’d stayed neutral in the last war and mostly out of it by virtue of their assets, though Andy had said that they also ran a good chunk of the smuggling and both sides had used them to obtain…necessary items.

Ari also knew they had a daughter set to come to Hogwarts this year with a likely placement in Slytherin or Ravenclaw. She’d have to keep an eye out for her. If she had access to her family connections, she might be able to improve the quality of potion ingredients available through the Market.

For now, she just smiled and bowed with her wand hand placed flat on her chest as the two groups parted. As much as she’d disliked physical contact with people she didn’t know before, since the events of this spring she was thoroughly against it. And as long as it didn’t affect her goals, she saw no reason to try to change that. She’d have to get over it for dancing, but the less contact the better.

While not in full swing, the Ball was definitely already started. Groups of people stood throughout the ballroom conversing even as a magical string quartet set up in the corner. No doubt that area would clear for dancing once they got started. Across the room was a long table filled with hors d'oeuvres and other food and drinks. It was near there that most of the Hogwarts aged students seemed to be gathered.

“Alright, the dancing will begin in another half an hour. Don’t forget to dance a few sets, but no more than two with the same person. Check in with me if you have any concerns.” Andy said quietly enough that only Sirius and Ari could hear her while keeping a pleasant neutral look on her face. Ari suppressed the urge to roll her eyes.

“Of course.” She turned to Sirius as he put a hand on her shoulder, squeezing slightly.

“Give them hell, Ri.” She grinned to match his and nodded, before slipping off into the crowd. Time to face the wolves.

She’d almost made it to the main group of her peers before something caught her eye and had her changing directions slightly.

She nodded to various classmates as she passed by, neither slowing n or speeding up, but walking with enough purpose to deter anyone that would stop her. Eventually she made it to the refreshment table and picked up a small crystal plate, no doubt worth more than necessary for the purpose of holding snacks, then slowly made her way down the table, pausing occasionally to add a piece to her growing collection.

“Fancy seeing you here.” She said at normal volume, but not making eye contact with the person she’d stopped by. She focused on inspecting the various chocolate dipped fruit in front of her so any observer would think their proximity was nothing more than happenstance.

“I think your father’s appearance is far more surprising.” Cassius said back, focusing on the skewer he was using to dip an apple slice into the fondue pot.

“Mm, he insisted on attending my first ball. And your father?” Cassius subtly tilted his head in the direction of the man who was also the reason for their current subterfuge. A glance in the reflection of the mirror polish bowls showed Lord Warrington speaking with another man that she didn’t know by sight. His first son, Heir, and Cassius’s older brother Quentin stood with him. She lightly raised an eyebrow and added a strawberry to her plate.

“Lord Bulstrode.” Ah, minor noble family these days, but part of the sacred twenty-eight. He had a daughter coming to Hogwarts this year. Andy said their family was having financial difficulties after the fines and bribes they were forced to pay at the end of the last war as well as some bad investments, though it wasn’t particularly well known yet

“Trouble?” Cassius just nodded, finally eating his apple slice, and sliding down towards the tiny cakes that floated on platters artfully placed at differing heights.

So, Lord Warrington was likely trying to form a marriage contract with the Bulstrode family. While they couldn’t force a marriage until both were of age, that contract would be binding to Cassius as well so long as he remained a member of his House.

Growing up, Ari had never had to worry about marriage contracts beyond declining the ones that came her way, since neither Sirius nor Remus held any stock in the tradition. However, the last two years in Slytherin had given her the chance to observe and talk with many students who already had marriage contracts.

What it boiled down to was that with the privileges of a House came responsibilities. One of those was often to help support the family through political and financial alliances with other families through marriage. Quite often, marriage contracts were tentative agreements and had clauses that let the participants back out of them or negated the contract if they didn’t get along. However, not all contracts were made equal, and Ari had no doubt that any drawn up by Lord Warrington would not take Cassius’s wishes into account at all.

Not that there was much she could do about it for now.

“Alright, we’ll talk more later. If you need to get a message to me tonight, pass it through Callan.” Tyrannus Callan was her formerly fifth year contact. His family was neutral-dark and well connected enough despite not being noble that Lord Warrington wouldn’t bat an eye at Cassius talking with him.

With that she placed a last piece of fruit on her plate and stepped around Cassius to pick up a fluted glass of some kind of bubbly non-alcoholic drink. There were glasses of champagne available of course, but the glassware was charmed so those underage couldn’t even touch them. All the glasses were also charmed so that once selected they would hover near the person’s plate so as not to occupy both hands. Ari loved magic.

From there she made her way over to the people closer to her own age.

It was actually…quite boring once the intrigue of being at her first ball wore off. Most of the chatter was inane. People kept to safe topics, especially the adults she was introduced to, either by fellow students with their parents, or Andy drawing her in to point out someone specific. She kept diligent mental notes, and she knew that establishing a rapport was important, but all of it was so tame, even compared to her conversation with Cassius earlier, or the gossip she heard at school. She sighed internally at the work she’d need to do if she ever wanted her network to expand beyond Hogwarts. Not that that was a current issue. But it never hurt to prepare.

The only bright spots were, one, the bits of information her normal network managed to slip her. All bits about current or just graduated students. Even Dupont stopped by to tell her about a scandal in which one of the former seventh years was caught cheating on his fiancé. They’d exchanged sharp smiles and promises to keep in touch, even after the summer parties were over.

The second boon was the dancing. She’d enjoyed the lessons Andy had given her for the last couple summers and found that she liked it just as much in reality. It was interesting to work with new partners. Like dueling, it required attention and being in tune to their movements, but without the threat of being hexed. Mostly.

Callan claimed her first dance, but there were a surprising number of young men who either wanted the chance to impress her or to be seen with the Black Heir for some other purpose. Luckily Andy had had the forethought to add a charm to her outfit that would trigger a mild stinging hex if a hand were to wander any lower than her upper back. Not necessary as much as she worried, but still helpful once or twice. Sirius also managed to get a dance with her, after spending the first few glaring at her partners, though she did take the opportunity to scold him, since some of them were just there to pass along information.

In the end, they didn’t make it back home until after 1am and Ari was happy to just drop into bed after leaving a sizeable pile of tiny cakes and desserts with Nimsy for Harry in the morning.

Chapter Text

“We can’t just tell him! He’s not even eleven yet!”

“So, you just want to send him to school with no idea of the danger he’s in? You think that will make him safer?!”

“And knowing that the person who killed his parents and who he’s destined to kill might be possessing one of his professors will be great for his mental health! You know he still feels guilty about James and Lily sometimes.”

Ari listened to the well-worn argument with half an ear in case she needed to butt in before it spiraled. Remus and Sirius had been arguing about it for almost a year now, ever since they realized just how soon Harry was headed to Hogwarts.

She turned another page of the well-worn book in front of her and bit her lip. It was a bad habit she’d picked up from Bill and ruthlessly suppressed around anyone who wasn’t family.

The book was one of her journals, but not one of the myriads of everyday journals she had that seemed to multiply in her bag. No, this was The Journal. The one she’d gotten on her first Christmas that was now attuned to her blood and magic so only she or Remus and Sirius together, could open it, and them only as a failsafe.

Inside was every bit of knowledge she could Remember about this world from her last. Every piece of trivia, from the list of students in Harry’s year to the passwords Dumbledore favored, and of course, the Horcruxes.

Over the years they’d added what new information they could find. Pages had been inserted when sections ran out of space. Notes upon notes filled the margins. The back fourth was home to half designed plans of action and maps of places to search.

It was chaos, and it was the best chance they had against Voldemort.

Not that she used that name. It was best to stay out of bad habits.

Here in this room, warded to the hilt and back, deep beneath Blæc Dún Halls, she called him Tom. Anywhere else in public, she still used You-Know-Who. Not out of any sense of fear, though she had a perfectly healthy amount for the man she would likely one day meet face to face and possibly in the next year, but because standing out would draw attention and drawing attention could mean all their plans crashing down around them.

It was a delicate balance, but one the three of them had been working on for years.

The main issue was that the more they changed, the less they knew. Conversely, the less they changed, the more danger and future destruction there was likely to be. And all of this countermanded by her blatant changes before they’d ever even met.

The compromise was to make as subtle changes as possible to keep either side from knowing how much they knew, while also actively trying to thwart the majority of the schemes.

The first step to this was, of course, gathering and destroying the existing horcruxes, save Harry. Given that even Dumbledore was not currently aware of them, and Tom was ghosting everyone from somewhere in Albania, this was one of the safest avenues of change and might even mean they could solve this before fourth year’s fiasco of a comeback.

Not that she was going to ever say that out loud, given the gods of irony and the Potter Luck.

Now, discounting both the Snake who didn’t exist, and Harry, who was currently spending time with the Weasleys, they currently had access to one horcrux and the general locations of three more.

The Locket was currently stored in a curse box (made for nullifying and containing powerful magical items and only slightly illegal to own personally) which had been placed in the ritual room for further containment. They were still looking for a way to dispose of it, given that neither Remus nor Sirius were confident in their ability to handle fiendfyre and basilisk venom was surprisingly difficult to obtain, even with the wealth of the Black family. There was also the question of if they should destroy them one at a time or if that would alert Tom.

Which was also the reason they hadn’t gotten the Diadem from Hogwarts. Remus was concerned about the possible interaction of the soul pieces in proximity to each other and they didn’t have another place to safely store such a highly dangerous item. For now, it was safest in the place they knew it in theory wouldn’t be found until Harry’s sixth year.

The Cup was currently beyond their reach. While Sirius had been fully on board for committing Grand Theft Dragon à la the Golden Trio, both Remus and Ari hoped to find a legal route first. However, given that the Goblins only held to the letter of Wizarding laws insomuch as they had to in order to not start another war, they did not acknowledge lifelong prison sentences as binding which meant that even as Lord Black, Sirius couldn’t access Bellatrix’s vault. Not that he’d likely be able to even if she was dead since she’d fully married into the Lestrange Family. They were still looking into ways to work with the Goblins without possibly alerting others to their knowledge. On the bright side, Ari was learning quite a bit of the goblin’s written language in her research of their laws.

The Diary was also out of reach, hidden within the Malfoy’s Manor. A place none of them would have the time or freedom to search without alerting Lucius. However, this was one of the ones she was least worried about, since in theory, Lucius himself would throw the diary away in just over a year. And since she knew what it was, she could in theory steal it from Ginny immediately with no further consequences. The only other option was Ari trying to sneak around at the Malfoy’s ball at the end of the season, which Remus and Sirius had both vehemently vetoed.

Finally, the ring. Which they knew was in the old Gaunt family home. And which was really bloody difficult to find when there was no public information on them. They’d been searching for almost three years when they had the time to try to find the stupid shack. All she could remember is that it was probably in a town with ‘Little’ in the name, and that the Gaunts lived there and possibly the Riddles. However, they didn’t have access to town census records from that time period, at least not without going to the historical societies or libraries within the towns themselves. On the wizarding side of things, Ari had found Tom’s award, as well as his sorting and testing records in the school archive, but nothing about his place of residence, which would probably have been the orphanage anyways. So, short of talking to Dumbledore, they were stuck checking every town that fit their criteria.

Not to mention the fact that when they found it, they’d have to proceed with extreme caution. Ari wasn’t sure if there were further charms on the ring besides whatever curse deep fried Dumbledore’s arm, but the man had put on an unknown ring despite being intelligent, and Ari wasn’t convinced it was just his desire to claim the Deathly Hallows.

So, for now they were mostly in a holding pattern where the horcruxes were concerned. Until they had a way to actively destroy them, they couldn’t gather all of them anyways.

They also had yet o find any method to remove the horcrux from Harry’s scar without killing him. Despite access to the entirety of the Black Library and all of it’s ancient and largely illegal books and scrolls, information on horcruxes was few and far between. They’d only found three books that even mentioned them and only one of those was by name.

Remus was the one who concentrated on that aspect, but as it was, they were likely going to need to bring in other people to help if they didn’t find a solution by fourth year.

Which just left them with them with two active issues. What to tell Harry, hence the ongoing argument, and what to do about Quirrellmort.

“Just because we ran around like hooligans, doesn’t mean we should encourage our son to risk his life!”

“I’m trying to stop him from acting recklessly! You’re trying to hobble him!”

“I’m trying to PROTECT HIM!”

Alright, that was enough of that. Ari grabbed the cow bell that was placed conveniently in the middle of the table and rang it loudly. Remus and Sirius both winced and cut off whatever they were going to say next.

With how stubborn the three of them could be, they’d found it prudent to put some…measures in place to help curb arguments. If anyone rang the bell, they all had to stop and take a 20-minute break away from each other. It wasn’t always a perfect solution, but it gave them all time to calm down and try a different approach.

This time, Ari stayed in the room while the other two left, rereading over the section on “Year One” once again and trying to find a solution for their other problem. She wasn’t sure where she fell on the Harry debate and honest would prefer if Remus and Sirius just figured it out. She wanted Harry to be safe, and she knew the dangers of keeping information from him, especially long term. However, a large part of the point for the changes they were trying to make was not making Harry responsible for facing down Tom every year. And he was only ten.

So, for now she focused on Quirrellmort. The most difficult thing about her notes was figuring out what was true and what wasn’t. Only it wasn’t that cut and dry.

Somethings were true or false in that they were facts that the three of them could look up and confirm. Others were probably true based on past observations of information but couldn’t be independently confirmed.

The troubling ones where the things that might be true. Things that fit with what they knew, but couldn’t be verified at all, or wouldn’t be confirmed until they happened. These were dangerous because it was too easy to see them as true. Whether through the quirk of storytelling or genius bits of fanfic, these pieces slotted in a little too well with everything else they knew but relying on them could cause serious problems. Even innocuous things like whether the Weasleys and the Malfoys had a blood feud somewhere in their history, or if Snape was really Draco’s god father.

So, for safety, they used her knowledge as guidelines and made sure to actually research and figure out what they could outside of it.

In which case, their theory was that Professor Quirrell, who was confirmed to be on sabbatical and traveling in the forests of Albania and had been approved for the DADA position just this week, was possibly possessed by the main fragment of Tom’s soul. They had yet to find any information on the current location of the Philosopher’s Stone, but the trio had already planned to take Harry shopping two days before his birthday and for Sirius to keep a watch from the Leaky Cauldron on the morning of the 31^st to see if Quirrell showed up. Then they’d see if there was news of a break-in.

That should be enough to confirm their assumptions of Tom’s presence and current goal.

The problem was how to handle that information.

Sirius returned first, a hint of sweat streaked across his brow, suggesting he’d made use of the dueling room. His go to for working out negative emotions. Remus followed not long after, bearing a tray of tea for all of them. They both seemed calmer than before, but not completely relaxed.

“Alright, I vote we table the current discussion about Harry. It’s obvious we’re not making any progress and we have other things that need to be decided.” Ari started. Remus nodded and Sirius grumbled a bit but also acquiesced. “Good. Now, what are we going to do about Quirrell?”

“We already have plans to ascertain if he’s being possessed.” Sirius stated, still distracted by his own thoughts.

“Yes, but what are we going to do about him? If he is possessed, do we have a way to keep him out of the school? Should we?” Ari stated, fully expecting the outrage on Sirius’s face.

“You want to let Tom into a school full of children?” The name was said with as much derision as Sirius could muster. He took way too much delight in learning the Dark Lord’s actual name.

“Based on my memories there’s a very good chance this entire thing is a scheme by Dumbledore to try to capture him. While I don’t think he’ll succeed, there’s relatively little danger to most of the student population.”

“Yeah, the only one in danger will be Harry!”

“But we know the danger and can help protect Harry without alerting either Dumbledore or Tom.” She winced at the way the animagus’s eyes blazed. “Fine, do you have a way to keep him out of the school, because I can’t find one! He’s been an exemplary Muggle Studies professor for several years. His records are clean outside of a few nominal detentions from his third year, and given that he’s probably already possessed, I doubt he’d be open to bribery!”

“We could always tell Dumbledore.” Remus stated, placidly taking a sip of his tea even while the other two glared at him.

“We’ve already decided…”

“I’m not telling that…” Both Ari and Sirius spoke simultaneously and abruptly cut off.

“I’m well aware of both of your objections to involving the man, and while I agree that it is best to keep him in the dark about Ari’s…knowledge, that doesn’t mean we can’t make him aware of the situation without approaching him directly.”

“That’s assuming that he’ll even do anything. If it is a trap, then he’ll probably ignore any warning.” Of course Ari didn’t have any ingrained prejudices against the headmaster, why would you say that?

“We don’t know that for sure and won’t unless we try.”

“Remus, I know that we’ll probably eventually have to tell Dumbledore something, whether it’s because he figures out what we’re doing himself, or because there’s no other viable choice, but doing something specifically designed to gain his attention is a reckless first move.”

They fell silent again, considering the options they had. The problem was that so long as Dumbledore wanted Quirrell in the school there was little they could do about removing him. Ideally, they’d stop him before ever arriving at the school, but she and Remus had vehemently vetoed Sirius suggestion to just jump him in an alley. Too risky to try catching Tom by surprise, especially given that he might be able to just abandon Quirrell and find another host to try again with. One they couldn’t anticipate.

Eventually, she started flipping idly through the book, not expecting much to help, since she’d been over it already today. Suddenly one word caught her attention.

“Goblins!” Sirius and Remus’s attention snapped to her. “We want to stop him from getting to Hogwarts, right? But we can’t let Tom escape. Goblins are known for their wards, not just to keep things out, but also to keep them in. They don’t want thieves escaping before they can…well most of their laws are vague, but from the way they talk around the issue, I’m guessing it’s not very pleasant.”

“And Quirrell’s already going to break in!” Sirius exclaimed, catching onto her thought process. “If we warn the goblins…”

“They’ll have the best chance of capturing him.”

“And we can use our help as leverage to access the cup.” Remus chimed in, grinning just as much as the other two.

They continued on that train of thought, creating plans and contingencies and deciding how exactly to approach the goblins.

They also made plans in case this one failed. Remus wore them down on contacting Dumbledore, though with provisions on how to keep it as anonymous as possible.

And now, finally, they’d circled back around. How to keep Harry safe. Ari decided to breach it delicately.

“Remus, you know that we can’t keep Harry in the dark. There’s too much danger in charging in with minimal information and he’ll find out eventually. And Sirius, we can’t tell him everything, because it really is too much to expect of one eleven-year-old. However,” She emphasized, cutting off any argument until she was done. “I once heard the phrase, ‘if they’re old enough to ask, then their old enough to know.’ The main difference in this world is that Harry has us. We need to show him that he can trust us to keep him informed and come to us with questions and that we trust him enough to answer honestly.”

They all sat in contemplative silence, thinking it over.

“We need to let him know that there might be danger at the school. We’ve already taught him to be aware of his surroundings, but he’ll need to be more alert, especially if Quirrell still ends up in the school. However, I don’t think we should tell him it’s Quirrell, or even that it’s one of the teachers.” Remus reasoned.

“I agree. Tom’s a Legilimens and Harry’s Occlumency shields aren’t strong enough to hold against him. And Harry’s not always subtle. He could give himself away in class. Besides, if we just warn against the teachers in general, he’ll either spend all year with no adults he trusts, or immediately think it’s Snape.” Ari added.

“Are we sure it isn’t Snape?” Sirius butted in only semi-jokingly, before giving in to their glares. “Fine. We should tell him to come to one of us if he is worried. It might be a good idea to tell him about Ari’s ‘Sight’ to reassure him that we’re handling it, even if we don’t know everything.”

Remus and Ari nodded. It would be dangerous, but they might be able to have Harry swear an oath to help keep the secret from being tricked from him. It wouldn’t help against a strong Legilimens, but it would stop most truth serums.

“Good, we’ll talk to him tonight. In the meantime, we should figure out exactly what we will say.”

Ari settled in for the rest of the meeting, glad to have a plan of action. There were still too many variables, but at least they had a direction to work towards.

That was something when they were playing against Dumbledore and Tom both and betting with their lives.

Let the games begin.

Chapter Text

Ari sat in the Ministry waiting room struggling to resist wringing her hands.

It really wasn’t anything to be getting worked up over. In fact, she’d been looking forward to this almost since before she’d started at Hogwarts. But it was so much more real.

The other people, mostly 15 and 16-year-olds, seemed just as anxious, and significantly worse at hiding it. Most of them were home-schooled, though there were a few Hogwarts students who were looking to retake the exam for a better score.

Today was the Ancient Runes Ordinary Wizarding Level.

She tried not to let the stares bother her, it was hardly the first time she’d been stared at before, but with the test looming ahead, everything seemed to grate just that much more. Remus seemed oblivious where he sat beside her, reading over a set of papers.

Honestly, she was just glad that she was getting a chance to take the test at all. Remus and Sirius had been concerned that she was rushing herself and might regret missing out on taking the class with her own year mates. However, Professor Babbling had put her foot down and persuaded them that it would be a waste to keep her in the younger years when she was already so advanced.

Besides, the newt level classes had much more freedom in the projects they worked on, and Ari already had several other ideas she wanted to get started on now that the IMBoxes were at least functional.

The door to the room opened again, admitting three more teenagers, and an adult she happened to recognize.

“Ted!” She hurried over and stepped eagerly into a hug when he held his arm out. “Remus said you were coming. Are these your students?” She pulled back to turn and include them in the conversation.

“Yes, these are Jacob Shining, Courtney Brown, and Camilla Hammond. Everyone, this Arianna Black. She used to be one of my students.

Ari promptly bowed with her hand over her heart, and then winced internally at the overly formal greeting. She’d perhaps gotten too used to them in Slytherin.

“A pleasure to meet you.”

“Are you the girl who sent those Hieroglyph rubbings? I didn’t realize you were so young! The professor talks about you all the time.” Courtney exclaimed.

“Ah, yes, I have a friend currently working in the Egyptian dig sites. I hope they ended up being useful. And you’ll have to let me know if I need to defend myself, I know plenty of stories about Ted.”

Ted coughed to cover a laugh and quickly turned to Remus who had joined them.

“Ah Remus, these three will be some of our NEWT students this year. Kids, Remus is the other founder for the Lumina Academy.” The students all clamored to introduce themselves while Remus shook their hands, just as excited.

With Harry going off to school this year, Remus decided to try to tutor students that weren’t fortunate enough to attend Hogwarts, especially those with creature heritage. Once Ted heard about the idea, he was full onboard and the plan quickly developed, especially with Sirius bankrolling it.

Last she’d heard, there were already two other teachers involved and at least a dozen students of all age ranges. Remus was even hoping to possibly add adult classes for certifications useful in common magical jobs, such as potion ingredient preparation.

The school was set to open in September, and everyone was thrilled.

Soon enough, the test proctor came in to usher all of the students into the testing room proper. Ari said one last goodbye and hurried on her way, feeling much less nervous than she had before.

***

“Ari! Look!” Ari did not look, focusing on her duel with Sirius. She should have known he’d bribe Harry to try to distract her.

She quickly shot an Incendio at her father’s feet and dove into a roll to avoid a wandless lurid purple charm that she didn’t know yet. Better to dodge anything she wasn’t positive she could block.

A twist brought her back to her feet and poised to send off a cutting hex, pulling up a shield just in time to block the stunner Sirius shot her way.

“Arrrriiii!” Harry continued to call from where he stood, safely on the far side of the dueling wards that would keep any stray spell fire from hitting him. He was supposed to be working on his own first year spells with Remus, as a way to get used to his new wand, but apparently that didn’t stop him from heckling her.

“Har-bear, if I look at you, Padfoot is going to hex me into next week. Then who’s going to ride the train with you?” She dodged another spell, wandlessly icing over the floor under Sirius with her off hand to try and make him slip.

“Ron and Neville, duh.”

Ari puffed out a breath and blocked the first two spells in Sirius’s spell chain, but caught a full body bind in the shoulder. Luckily, that man was just as fast with a cushioning charm, so she didn’t slam into the ground face first. A couple seconds later she was free and accepting Sirius’s hand up.

“You’re doing better, but you need to work on your spell chains. You let me run you all over the room.” Ari groaned but nodded. She’d probably never be a master duelist, but she needed to be good enough to stay alive. Luckily, she was much better in a non-head on confrontation, but that wouldn’t save her if she got caught out in the open. Thus, the dueling practice.

“Yeah yeah, and don’t think I didn’t notice your use of wandless. You’ve been practicing.” She wheedled, a bit miffed that once Remus and Sirius had tried in earnest, they’d both taken to picking up spells much faster than her. Which, they also had decades more of spell experience, but that was beside the point.

Harry, on the other hand, had fully given up on wandless practice now that he had a wand. She hoped that he’d be more open to it once he got used to his focus and realized the benefits, but for now it was mostly just a long and boring process to him, and much less cool than learning his first year curriculum.

“Alright Harry, what’s up?” She made her way over to the other side of the room, sitting in the chair Remus conjured for her.

“Look!” Harry screwed up his face in concentration. With an exaggerated swish and flick, and a murmured ‘Wingardium Leviosa’ he carefully floated the feather up into the air, making it dance around near the ceiling.

“Good job! You picked that up quick, didn’t you.” Ari really was very impressed. While Harry definitely had a larger magical core than she had at his age, he didn’t have the benefit of another lifetime of experience and borrowed maturity. Yet even after only a couple days he was already picking up spells quickly.

With time, he was going to be a very impressive wizard. And Ari would make sure he had the time.

“What’s next on the list, then?” Ari asked, shaking off her revery.

“Would you teach me Incendio? Pleeaase?” Damn, that kid’s puppy eyes were lethal. Luckily, Remus was immune.

“No, absolutely not. No fire spells until your third year. We’re working on the tripping jinx next.” Ari winced, hoping she wouldn’t be used for target practice. Luckily, they could only use magic down here in the ritual room, so she didn’t have to expect it all the time. At least from Harry. Until school.

She sat back to do her own repetitions of some of the third-year charm spells she’d need for class. She was hoping to have most of them down wordless before school started, so she could focus on the more important spells. She was still trying to get the shield and summoning spell wandless. They were easier now with the way her magic settled when she turned thirteen, but still not as strong as she wanted. She still couldn’t summon anything she couldn’t see without using her wand and even then, only from one room over.

For Harry, they were trying to teach him the spells he’d need for class, but also ones that would be helpful if he ran into trouble. He’d taken their warning surprisingly well, easily trusting them to tell him what he needed to know. Ari just hoped they could keep that trust and also keep him safe.

They’d plan for what they could and figure the rest out as they went. For now, that meant tripping jinxes, dodging practice, and situational awareness, which Sirius was happy to train with his abundance of pranks.

“Come on Ari, let’s go again!” Speak of the devil. She groaned but pulled herself out of the chair and trouped over to the other side of the room, falling into a dueling stance instinctively.

She’d get him this time.

***

Sirius swore, slamming the letter he’d been reading down onto the table.

Both Remus and Ari looked up from their breakfast, though Harry was off at the Longbottom’s, having had a sleepover last night.

“The goblins caught Quirrell.” Sirius stated, though given his reaction and the vitriol with which he said that, it couldn’t be the only news. “Dumbledore got him off the charges.”

Ari scrambled for the letter, but Remus’s longer reach let him pick it up first, so she maneuvered to read over his shoulder instead. She skipped through the long-winded opening remarks present in any communications with goblins and quickly skimmed through the rest. Once she finished, she immediately read through again slower, picking apart the actual phrasing and what was being implied rather than stated.

Apparently, the goblins had captured Quirrell attempting to break into vault 713. However, he showed no signs of possession, and apparently was claiming Imperius as a defense. Given the strict laws against any form of theft, and the general glee most goblins had given any power over wizards, this likely would not have worked except that Dumbledore had seen fit to step in.

Ari didn’t know what pull the headmaster had with the goblins that let him interfere, but it must have been immense. Regardless, it meant that Quirrell was going free and would likely still be teaching this year.

“He has to know something is up, right? There’s no way he could be completely oblivious after Quirrell broke into his secure vault.” Ari fumed, returning to her seat and buttering a scone with a bit too much force.

“It’s possible he believed Quirrell’s defense. The man’s been a teacher at Hogwarts for several years now and the Imperius curse is generally considered impossible to detect, especially after it’s been broken.” Remus suggested, reading through the letter again.

“If Dumbledore’s protecting him, there’s little enough we can do now, unless we want to reconsider the direct approach.” The direct approach being code for Sirius jumping him in an alley which both Remus and Ari were against…for now.

“I’m interested in the fact that he didn’t show any signs of possession. I know that none of my notes detail when exactly he decides to hitch a ride, but I’d always thought it would be back in Albania.” Remus hummed in thought.

“It is interesting, though it doesn’t change anything currently. We’ll still have to expect him in the school. I think it’s time to warn Dumbledore.” Both Sirius and Ari groaned dramatically. “Anonymously. If he isn’t already aware, then this will help him protect the students better, and if he is, then he’ll know that someone else is watching. It may pressure him into taking further precautions.”

“Or into trying to find the source.” Sirius muttered.

“If we’re warning Dumbledore, I think we should send the same thing to Snape. You might not like him, but we already know he’ll be keeping an eye on Quirrell and he’s far more…active in handling the threat.” Ari added, talking over Sirius’s protests. “Besides, he’s sworn to protect Harry, and while I doubt he’ll ever go against Dumbledore, he can be useful in this case.”

“You’re worried about Dumbledore finding out about us, and you think that Snivillus won’t? You already know how obsessive that prick can be.”

“I think it’s a fair compromise.” Remus stated, sending Sirius a quelling look. “I’ll get something written up and we can get it sent off later. Did you see what Ironclaw had to say near the end?”

The letters would be written and then cleared of any magical residue, before being sent through the Floo from a public fireplace in Diagon. It was the only way to keep them truly anonymous, though there were always possible dangers.

“Yes, it seems Gringotts is still offering us a debt since we saved them the embarrassment of a thief slipping through under their noses. Ironclaw is ecstatic, since it’ll elevate his own position as well. We’ll still need to tread carefully, but this might be a way to get access to Bella’s vault.”

“I found an old law that prohibits the storage of sentient living beings in the vaults. It’s not a perfect fit, but it might be enough to persuade them to take a look. We don’t actually need the cup itself, just to have the horcrux destroyed. If the Goblin Nation wants to handle it themselves then more’s the better.”

Without having an actual way to destroy the horcruxes, Ari was fine letting the goblins handle the one they’d been storing. Just so long as she got proof of its destruction.

Sirius and Remus seemed to agree.

“I’ll write him back today. We’ll still need to step carefully, but after our last bit of advice panned out, I think it likely that they’ll listen to us on this one too.”

With that they settled back to continue breakfast. Even with the bad news of the morning, they had several plans moving along.

Now Ari just had to figure out how she was going to sit through a year of classes with a possessed teacher, and not just hex him in the back.

Chapter Text

Ari finished out the last few steps of the dance and stepped back to bow to her partner, currently one Heir Winfield. She was getting better at paying attention to the rest of the ballroom while still conversing with her dance partner and not tripping over her steps. Andy had been very helpful in teaching her tips and tricks over the summer, and she was almost sad that it was over.

Well, not really. These social events might be more fun now that she was allowed in on the gossip and had started building her own network, but they were still entirely exhausting.

Instead of waiting around for another partner, she quickly made her way over to the refreshment table, snagging a drink and turning to take a casual stroll around the edges of the ballroom.

It really was a rather glaringly opulent room, but little else could be expected of a family like the Malfoys. Ari had worked quite hard to contain her laughter when they’d first arrived, and Andi had muttered ‘Nouveau riche” under her breath. Especially since the Malfoys had had their wealth for at least four centuries. But it was still nothing compared to the Black Family.

Ari couldn’t help but wonder if Narcissa shared her sister’s opinions, though based on the decorations, even if she did, it didn’t have much effect.

Irregardless of their questionable taste in décor, they did have the necessary social clout and money to secure the end of season ball, which was generally considered to be even more prestigious than the opening one, though only marginally. It was still an honor and another way of buffing their already incredibly large egos.

Ari might have heard a few too many of Sirius’s rants, which is one of the reasons Andy and Remus had convinced him to stay home tonight, despite his worry about her entering the ‘snake’s nest’ alone. As if Andy wasn’t keeping a close eye on her.

Though Ari would prefer it if she was watching a little less closely. After all, she had plans to accomplish.

Namely, attempting to locate a horcrux that should currently be stored somewhere inside this overly decorated monolith.

Not that Remus or Sirius knew what she was planning tonight. They would have thrown a fit and then grounded her until the Hogwarts Express left. Which would not have been conducive to her plan, so she chose to not include them.

Besides, it wasn’t like she was planning to remove the horcrux tonight, just locate it for easier removal later. Most likely next summer during another one of these events long before Lucius could try to gift it to an unsuspecting eleven-year-old.

So, it wasn’t even that dangerous.

Now all she had to do was find a way to leave the more public areas of the manor currently being utilized for the ball. She’d bet that the diary was being kept in either the library for camouflage purposes, or wherever they kept the artifacts dark enough to be denied entry by Gringotts. Horcruxes were subtle enough to pass Gringotts wards as shown by Bellatrix’s hiding place, but many older and darker families kept artifacts that not even the goblins would house. These were more often than not kept in a warded area of the manor to avoid interference with existing wards.

If nothing else, Ari should have no problem finding the library.

Any other cache would be harder, since it was likely to be hidden, but if she had time, she could try to look for magically blank areas that would signal the stronger protection wards.

She wished she could bring the twins along since they were far better at sensing magic than she was, but she also didn’t want them anywhere near the possible danger. Or the temptation of unsupervised time in Malfoy Manor.

As it was, though, she was having a hard time slipping away even by herself. Andy kept a close eye on her, and every time she approached a darker corner of the room, she was waylaid by someone or another. It was getting to be ridiculous.

“Heir Black.” She almost groaned aloud at the latest interruption, but managed to shape her face into something more pleasant as she turned around. The couple standing before her almost threatened her hard-won composure.

“Lord and Lady Malfoy. Well met.” Ari dipped into a bow with her hand held over her heart while still maintaining eye contact. Not that she thought they’d do anything in a crowded ballroom, but better to build the habit.

“And you as well.” Lady Malfoy took control of the conversation, as her husband looked as though he wished to be anywhere else. Not that most people would be able to tell, but it was a common tactic among Slytherins and a subtle insult. “I’d hoped for a chance to get to know you better tonight, but my dear sister’s been quite protective.”

Protective was an understatement. Not only had they shown up nearly an hour after the ball had officially started but Andy had spent the absolute minimum amount of time to still be considered ‘polite’ greeting their hosts, and most of that exchanging subtle barbs, before quickly shuffling Ari into the gathered crowd. It was almost shocking, but Ari knew well enough how poorly Andy got on with her sisters after she ran off to marry Ted. It was little wonder she was trying to keep Narcissa away from Ari.

Still, it wouldn’t do for Ari to estrange her cousin without first seeing what the Lady Malfoy could want enough to purposefully seek her out.

“Yes, she always keeps a careful eye on me, and my father made her promise to watch even closer since he couldn’t join us tonight. He does so worry about me, but I think he’s been enjoying the chance for more duels.” Ari met Lord Malfoy’s eye, letting her smile sharpen. The threat was clear: threaten me and you’ll deal with Sirius. Not that it was probably necessary, but it never hurt to remind traditionalists that she knew how to play their games. Lucius’s chin tipped up slightly allowing him to look down his nose at her but continued to let his wife lead the conversation.

“I assure you, Malfoy Manor is one of the best warded manors in the country, and besides, we are family, even if newly discovered.” Ari could easily read the Family First hidden in her speech and sharp eyes. And with the Black Family, it was more than just a tenant, it was akin to a law. Sirius had informed her that even in the last war he’d avoided fighting any of his cousins directly, despite their differing sides. Apparently Narcissa thought that reminder would put Ari at ease, though why she thought it necessary… “I’ve heard you have an uncommon love of book for someone outside the Eagle house. Perhaps I can show you the library and we can talk more on the way.”

That suggestion started up a furious internal debate. On one hand, she’d been trying to sneak out anyways. On the other, being alone with Narcissa Malfoy in her own house where she’d probably have no trouble hiding a body.

…

But on the first hand, Library!

Maybe being raised by Gryffindors was finally rubbing off on her.

“That would be lovely.” Ari nodded to Lord Malfoy as he excused himself and returned to the party, it wouldn’t do for both hosts to disappear, then follow her cousin through a nearby door that had been cleverly disguised.

They paced through the halls for several minutes in silence. She would let Narcissa break the silence first since she was the one to invite her.

Ari made sure to idly memorize the route as she took in the décor and artifacts that were on display. She noted a surprising lack of people in the paintings arranged on the walls. Wizarding artwork tended to put an emphasis on human subjects, but perhaps they had a portrait hall somewhere for their ancestral paintings.

“How has school been for you darling? Lucius says you’ve been doing quite well in your classes, and I hear you earned an O on your Runes OWL. Quite an accomplishment at your age.” Narcissa’s tone was perfectly neutral, but Ari caught a sharp gleam in her eye that showed she cared far more about the answer than she was showing. The question was why.

“I had the chance to study with an amazing tutor before attending Hogwarts. Perhaps you’ve heard of him? Theodore Tonks is well known for his extensive mastery of Runic languages.” Ari watched her cousin carefully for the woman’s reaction to mention of her estranged sister’s husband. However, she was disappointed when Narcissa only pursed her lips slightly.

“I have heard mention of him. And how are you finding your House? From what I can remember, Slytherin can be quite challenging. Have you had any trouble settling in?”

“Not at all. I find my housemates very…engaging.”

They continued to chatter on about school and while Ari had hoped to figure out what Narcissa was fishing for, the questions remained too vague to give much evidence. Mostly they just established how well Ari was doing in her classes and whether she had a rapport with her fellow students. She kept her answers similarly vague.

Finally, they came to a set of gilded carved doors that thrummed with the magic embedded in them. Narcissa simply opened them with a wave of her wand, but Ari got the impression that if she’d tried it, she would have been blasted into next week, or possibly reduced to the finest dust.

What was in the room beyond them certainly justified the precautionary measures taken. Ari could immediately spot several books only available in the Restricted section of Hogwarts, though due to the value and age of the volumes, not any inherent dark magic. Those books would likely be kept further back, out of the public eye.

“My son Draco will be starting this year, and like all Malfoys and Blacks he will be joining you in Salazar’s house.” Ah, there was the reason, though her exclusion of the current Lord Black lost her several brownie points.

“I’m sure you’ll be very proud.” Ari fell silent, refusing to offer what her cousin so clearly wanted. Better to make her ask, as it would put Ari in a more advantageous positions for bargaining.

“I believe he would…benefit from a guiding presence.”

“Perhaps, but I’m sure we can agree that Malfoys are stubborn. There’s little point in guiding one who will not follow.”

“He is also a Black, and he will listen to Family.” Ari almost smirked at the admission. As the Heir it was part of her responsibilities to help protect members of the family, but it also meant Narcissa was placing him under her authority of the Black Family, not as an alliance with the Malfoy Family.

“Family First. However, you are aware of who my family and my Lord is. I will not teach your son the same sins as his father.” Alright, that was a bit melodramatic, but honestly this whole conversation was.

Narcissa studied her for a moment.

“I would expect nothing less.” She said finally, accepting with a nod.

“Excellent, now for the matter of payment.”

“Family is not enough?” Ari could tell she was annoyed but continued regardless. Favors exchanged was expected, even within the Family.

“As you said earlier, I am so very busy with classes, especially starting a NEWT one this year. And besides, I’m not asking much. Simply, your husband’s supporting vote on a bill of my choice in the future, and an open ear on the school board for any…concerns that may arise. Oh, and at least 20 minutes in this library. It’d be terribly unfair for you to bring me all the way here and not get a chance to look around.”

Narcissa eyed her, likely calculating whether or not she could argue her down. Not because the demands were too much, in fact, they were actually quite tame, Ari wasn’t going to push her luck with Narcissa Malfoy, but because a Slytherin never took less from a deal than they could get away with. Luckily for Ari, Narcissa eventually nodded.

“I will speak with my husband, and you shall have an answer by the 1^st. Enjoy your time, a house elf will show you the way back in 20 minutes.” And with that Lady Malfoy turned and glided out of the room.

Ari could not believe her luck. If they agreed, which seemed likely, not only would she have direct influence over Draco at school, but she had Lucius’s support for any single bill of her choice. Which included not only the Malfoy vote, but several other votes he held in proxy. It was enough to sway a majority, especially if any other Traditionalist party members followed him as they often did.

Ari suppressed her glee, quickly refocusing on the task at hand.

There was no time for a thorough search of the library. Probably not even enough for a skim. But she’d do the best she could.

Flexing her occlumency shields allowed her to block out most other input and focus only on her ability to sense magic. It was nowhere near as strong as the twins, but she’d improved over the years with their help.

Even with her eyes closed, she could navigate through the stacks, just from the magic coming off each book and the preservation spells on the shelves themselves. She moved quickly away from the front of the library after confirming that all the books there were benign.

Further back were some slightly darker books, but still nothing illegal.

And then she came upon a barrier. Opening her eyes, it appeared to be the back wall of the library, but she sensed it as a magical barrier. Likely an illusion placed over wards.

A few prods proved that it was not something she could either slip through or tear down without setting off several alerts. With a sigh, she turned back towards the front. It was a long shot anyways.

By the time the elf showed up, she was innocently looking over one of the runic research theorems in the front area. Actually, she had gotten slightly distracted by it, causing her to jump when the being appeared.

“If Miss bes following Topper please.” He was surprisingly well dressed compared to Ari’s Memories of Dobby. She shrugged off the thought, following him back towards the party.

While she hadn’t accomplished what she’d hoped tonight, she had brokered an advantageous deal. Plus, her cousin hadn’t murdered her and hidden her body behind some garish decoration. Worth it!

She held onto that thought, especially when she reentered the ballroom and Andy descended upon her as soon as she returned and refused to leave her side until they made it home and the lectures began.

Worth. It.

Chapter Text

Ari stood with the rest of her family on Platform 9 ¾ only slightly still sulky about having been grounded for the last four days of summer break. Just because Aunt Andy snitched on her to her fathers. It wasn’t like she actually got maimed or anything at Malfoy Manor.

Harry on the other hand was a right ball of energy. His eyes kept flickering between Remus, who was reminding him to stay out of trouble (yeah right) and listen to Ari, the bright red train engine, and the chaos of students and families all saying their goodbyes.

It wasn’t his first time on the platform, but it was the first time he’d get to board the train too, and he’d been jittery with excitement and nerves for the past week.

Ari couldn’t help finding it adorable.

He might only be two years younger, but Ari would always see him as her baby brother and couldn’t help feeling torn over how quickly he was growing up. It was just yesterday that she was luring him out of hiding places with snacks.

Well…it was just yesterday, when he’d gotten overwhelmed with packing, but you know what she meant.

Sirius seemed to be feeling the same way, since he interrupted Remus’s lecture to pick Harry up into another tight hug, only letting him go with a hair ruffle after several seconds. Remus scowled at the interruption.

The werewolf had been increasingly anxious the closer they got to today and had taken to reminding all of them about what to do in an emergency and things to watch out for. Harry had had it particularly bad in the form of pop quiz style questions about what he would do in certain scenarios. If Ari and Sirius had noticed how closely some of those scenarios resembled the possible happenings this year, well they chose not to point it out.

Luckily, the Weasleys chose that moment to stumble through the barrier, distracting Remus from his lecture. Why they chose to come through the muggle side, Ari would never know.

She hugged Fred and George, ruffled Ron and Ginny’s hair, despite their protests, and stopped to greet Percy and Mrs. Weasley more properly, though she got a hug from the motherly woman as well.

A glance around showed Harry and Ron talking at a mile a minute about what the train ride would be like and who the other first years would be. Neither of them noticed Fred slipping something into their trunks and George was comforting Ginny while also using her whining as a distraction for the adults.

Perfect, now she just needed Cassius…

She looked to the left just as a presence stepped out of the crowd into the chaotic bubble their group made.

“You have excellent timing.” she stated, nudging Cassius with her shoulder and eyeing the new carrier he had with him. “Did you get a cat?”

Cassius blushed slightly.

“And if I did?” She grinned at the defensive tone masquerading as condescension.

“Then I’d demand to know their name and hope that you understand I will require frequent opportunities to cuddle them.” She said in her own haughty voice. She held her expression for only a moment before breaking into a grin that matched Cassius’s and leaning down to peek inside the carrier.

“Her name’s Tisiphone.” The light filtering through the wicker carrier showed a dark grey long-haired cat with yellow eyes. The size of her paws and general awkwardness of her proportions suggested that she was still growing.

“A Fury, fitting.” She commented as Tisiphone made low angry noises from inside.

“Father disapproved.” Ah, so another way to get back at his father for the marriage contract talk this summer. She’d have to hound Cassius for the latest news later. Regardless, she’d known he’d been thinking about getting a pet since the end of last year, and even now she could see how pleased he was despite hiding it. She was glad he’d been able to find away around his father.

They bother were distracted from the subject by the show that was the twins exclaiming about sending Ginny a toilet seat.

She stepped forward before the twins could make their retreat from their mother’s ire. Better to do this now, then have to hunt everyone down later.

“I have something for you all.” She pulled a set of pendants out of her bag, carefully untangling them and checking each before handing them to the right person. “They’re a bit of a good luck charm. Nothing overly strong, but enough to help out here and there. You’ll have to wear them all the time, or the runes will lose their charge.” That wasn’t strictly true, but only Percy might have any idea and he was too interested in the tiny runes inscribed on his to object.

By the time she was finished, every one of the Hogwarts aged students had their necklace on. Sirius and Remus shared a knowing look with her.

Besides good luck, which was actually an aspect of them, each pendant also had some basic protections against harmful magic and a minor tracking spell woven in. It would work like a point me, but with the physical anchor it had a wider range and wouldn’t be as easily obstructed by other enchantments. She hoped they wouldn’t need them, but she wasn’t going to take any chances with this year.

“And for you Ginny.” She hadn’t wanted to leave the other girl out. She crouched down to help the younger girl put the necklace on and continued in a much quieter voice. “If you need to be…unseen…for a bit, double tap the pendant. It’ll last about 20 minutes and takes 2 days to recharge. Might help with your…late night extracurriculars.”

Ginny looked surprised but nodded quickly. All the pendants had a notice-me-not embedded in them as well, but she’d wait to tell the other kids until they were safely away from Molly Weasley’s ears. She also knew better than to tell Percy that she’d given his siblings a way to sneak around.

She had one for Neville, Hermione, and Marissa as well, but they’d need to be keyed to their magical signature and Ari would have to actually meet Hermione first.

She wouldn’t worry about that for now. Until Harry actually befriended her, assuming he still did, Hermione wasn’t in much danger anyways.

What was her concern was getting everyone onto the train before it left, which Percy also seemed to realize. After a last round of goodbyes, they herded everyone onboard before splitting up.

Ari ended up in a compartment with Cassius and the twins’ trunks while the twins themselves had gone off to find friends or cause chaos…probably both.

With the IMBox and the myriad of events this summer, Ari had seen Cassius more often than not and they’d made sure to keep up to date even under Warrington Sr.’s watchful eyes. So there wasn’t much they needed to catch up on, and they spent the time sitting and reading in silence instead.

But Ari did take a moment to check him over while he was distracted with the Quidditch Weekly issue he was reading. Even after seeing him in person regularly this summer, Ari could still pick out differences from the last time they rode this train. A paleness that could only be attributed to a lack of sun so much. A thinness to his cheeks and a crease between his brows that looked deeper than before.

Ari frowned at the picture they provided. Given a chance, she’d have brought him home this summer too, but there was no way Warrington Sr. would have allowed it. She couldn’t even talk to Cassius about it, since he clammed up every time she even hinted in that direction.

So for now she’d let it go, but she hoped to have a solution, or at least a plan of action ready by the end of the year.

About an hour into the train ride Marissa came bouncing in.

“Oi, where are the Terror Twins?”

“Off terrorizing someone. I think they were planning to convince their brother that he had to fight a troll.” Ari commented, looking up from her book.

Marissa cackled as she settled into the seat across from Ari. The second year had never quite perfected the Slytherin Scowl, due to her surprisingly sunny personality, but her evil cackle was spot on.

“Right, well I’m sure Gryffindor will be happy to add another red head to the set. Here’s the notes.” She handed off a bound journal to Ari before turning to heckle Cassius, who hadn’t looked up from his magazine yet. “Hey Cassie, I’d ask how you’ve been but I’m sure you’re still agonizing over your loss. If you’d just listened to me about the Egyptian keeper, you wouldn’t be having this problem.”

Cassius’s head popped up at the nickname with a scowl that only deepened as she went on. Ari left them to their bickering, which centered around the 421st Quidditch World Cup held in Prague over the summer. She’d heard plenty about it at home since Sirius had taken Harry for his birthday. She wasn’t the biggest quidditch fan in the first place and despaired over the fact that she wouldn’t be able to escape it this year, what with Cassius and the twins both planning to join their house teams.

Instead, she focused on the notes Marissa brought her.

Marissa got along surprisingly well with her year mates for someone considered neutral in the Slytherin cliques, and had kept up written correspondence throughout the summer along with regular ‘playdates’ to help keep track of the gossip among those too young to attend the formal summer gatherings. She’d also gotten as much information as possible on the incoming first years, including expected sortings.

While anything particularly interesting had been owled to Ari immediately, everything else was in this book. Though Ari would probably need to make Marissa an IMBox for next summer.

Ari worked on filing the information away into her own notebooks and matched it to her own remembered knowledge. She also made a note to place a bet on Hufflepuff for the first sorting this year. It was easy money, but it also helped solidify her reputation as having good information if she was willing to bet her own money on it, and of course if she won.

Over the next several hours various people stopped in to chat. A few were people actually wanting to catch up, including Lee who’d lost the twins somewhere and was trying to find them again, but most where there to either pass along or get information. All of her yearly contacts stopped by, several passing off notebooks of their own news and getting packets or pouches in return. They all had standing deals for what payments they accepted which made it easy for her to accommodate them. Though much of the information in these journals would be basic, since anything interesting would have already been passed on.

The twins stumbled back in at some point with Lee, who had apparently found them, in tow and immediately restarted the quidditch debate once they saw Cassius’s magazine. It was only compounded when Harry and Ron stopped by, and Harry got pulled in as a first hand witness.

Ari used the time to memorize and copy the information as well as make notes on who might be most interested in what. Now that Dupont was gone, she’d have even more work to do than last year. She couldn’t wait.

Eventually the sun set, and younger brothers were shooed out to go find their own trunks and robes.

The carriage ride passed in a blur as Ari sat, half distracted by thought of Harry down on the lake, and the other half by the greatest dangers to him. Dangers currently sat at the head table as they entered the great hall.

The man who’d very likely try to kill her brother this year.

And the man who’d try to steer Harry into his path.

She’d be watching them both.

***

“GRYFFINDOR!” The hat shouted after barely a minute on Harry’s head. Ari clapped loudly and shot him a grin as McGonagall pulled the hat off his head.

It was inevitable really. Even with the influence of life with the Dursleys in his younger years, Harry had spent the majority of his life surrounded by people who loved him and took care of him. He didn’t need to develop the traits that would protect him. Instead, he’d flourished into a daring, reckless, and courageous kid and Ari couldn’t be prouder. Even if she did despair every time she tried to teach him a bit of subtlety.

The sorting continued as Harry took his seat amongst the other first years, settling next to Neville and immediately starting introductions with the kids he didn’t know, despite the continued sorting and Percy’s disapproving gaze.

Yeah, he’d be just fine.

Chapter Text

“Ari, remind me why we’re doing this again?” Fred asked, keeping most of his attention on the magical map in his hands as they hurried through the darkened corridor.

“You can’t tell me you’re not curious after Dumbledore made that announcement in front of the whole school.” She diverted, keeping a sharp eye out, even knowing how thorough the map was.

“Well, yeah, but why are you here?” George asked, leading from the front.

“Maybe I’m curious too.”

“Curious enough to sneak out on the first night of school?”

“Like you didn’t want bragging rights. This place will probably be swarmed with Gryffindors tomorrow.” Honestly, announcing a forbidden corridor and underlining it with the possibility of ‘a painful death’ was like catnip to the Lion house. It also reminded Ari that Dumbledore once was a Gryffindor for all his surprisingly cunning manipulations over the years. It really was quite heavy handed.

Ari had planned this excursion long before Dumbledore’s announcement, though it did help in convincing the twins to come along. Not that she needed their presence, but it would be much easier to avoid getting caught with the map, and they’d have complained incessantly if they found out she’d gone snooping without them.

Not that she needed to even enter the room for her plans, but she doubted the boys would be satisfied by just looking at the plain wooden door they’d just arrived at.

They all paused, the twins using their magical sight to look for traps or alarms while Ari did the same but also checked for the more subtle mark of runic enchantments and wards.

Nothing.

Or well almost nothing. There was the faintest trace of an incredibly subtle motion ward on the inside of the door. Likely triggered by anyone passing through the doorway, though given its low magical signature it couldn’t do more than alert someone to a person entering the room.

Luckily it was an easy one to circumvent since it mostly relied on subtlety rather than any magical sophistication. Rather than dismantle it, she simply sketched another rune on the lintel that would act as a paper-thin barrier around the entire doorjamb, thus blocking it from detecting any motion at all.

By the time she finished, the twins were also done with their inspection, just answering her questioning look with a silent shake of their heads. No other spells or protections then.

Disappointing really. Even for a trap that was theoretically aimed at both a Dark Lord and an eleven-year-old, there were plenty of nuanced runic wards or charms that could be used to secure the door against everyone else, or at least appear to put up some form of resistance.

Though perhaps the real defenses were on the trapdoor and this was left open to placate the rest of the school’s curiosity. Most people who saw a three headed dog wouldn’t be inclined to explore further after all.

She shrugged mentally, putting aside her own disappointment with Dumbledore’s methods to focus on the task at hand. Namely, getting the twins through this with all their limbs intact.

“Doors locked.” Fred said, already pulling out his lock picks. They left no magical signature that could be traced and were therefore preferable for non-magical locks. It took only a few seconds for the lock to click open leaving Fred grinning and George pushing forward to open the door.

They all paused at the sight of the enormous dog taking up a majority of the room they were peering into from the threshold. Even knowing what to expect, Ari couldn’t help the shiver of fear that growl sent up her spine. The twins on either side of her seemed just as frozen.

“So, um, are we good here then?” She asked, slightly breathless in the face of teeth the size of her hand bared only feet away.

“Yep!” One of them squeaked, though she couldn’t make out which one.

“’Kay.” She reached forward, wandlessly yanking on the door just as Fluffy crouched, ready to spring forward.

As soon as it slammed shut, vicious barks erupted from the far side, followed by a weight slamming into the door that had all of them jumping backwards.

Ari cast a quick silencing spell while Fred cast a shield just to make sure the door held. Even then it took several seconds for her to breathe again, one hand clutching at her chest.

The twins, on the other hand, seemed to be recovering much faster.

“Wicked!” They said in unison, practically vibrating with excitement and lingering adrenaline.

“Can you imagine…”

“…how everyone in Gryffindor…”

“…is going to react…”

“…when they hear…”

“…about this!”

“Percy…”

“…is going…”

“…to lose it!”

“Hey!” Ari snapped, trying to break into their weird mindmeld thing. They weren’t even finishing full phrases like normal.

“Yes?” They asked together and Ari fought the urge to literally shake them out of it.

“Could you save the celebration until we make sure no one else heard that thing and is coming to catch us out past curfew on the first night!” She might be channeling her lingering anxiety into the first available problem, but at least she wasn’t hyperventilating or something.

The twins quickly caught on, pulling out the map and scouring it for anyone nearby.

Ari took the time to take a deep breath and turn back to the door. She still had something she needed to do, and now was better than later.

First, she took down the silencing charm and shield. The second part required her to tweak the existing ward on the door, adding herself as one of the recipients of the alert. Unless someone looked very closely, they wouldn’t be able to see any difference in the existing magic, which would keep anyone from realizing her interference. And finally, she cast a spell that Andy had taught her to remove her and the Twin’s magical signatures from the area. Not entirely legal, but very useful in avoiding detection.

They left quickly, splitting at the stairs after Ari looked over the map to make sure her route was clear and spelled them all to be un-noticeable. Though it wouldn’t help much if the twins kept up their excited muttering and planning.

Now she just had to figure out how to keep Harry away from that death trap.

***

Ari sat down to breakfast and idly buttered a piece of toast as she waited for Marissa and Cassius to settle down as well, even as she wandlessly pulled up a privacy screen. She’d been working on that this summer, since, while no one would be able to overhear them, drawing attention to the fact that they didn’t want to be overheard wouldn’t be good either.

“Anything new since last night?” Ari asked, idly tapping at each of their plates with her ring. It was a habit she’d formed at the end of last year and continued through the summer despite Remus’s unspoken concerns over her newfound paranoia. Ari figured paranoia was better than being love-potioned again, or poisoned.

“Copley convinced Whipwood to help train her before her duel, though odds are still in favor of Rozier.” Ari nodded, making a mental note to add it later and reach out to the sixth year in charge of bets since they’d be the most interested. Though Rozier might also be willing to pay for any information on Copley’s new techniques.

The first night challenges had gone as expected overall. Ari had come out of it with two duels scheduled, both upper year students who wanted to try to take over her network without actually doing the work to undermine it first, but neither was overly concerning, given what she knew of their previous duels. Cassius and Marissa had each been issued one. Cassius for the same reason as her, trying to destabilize their group, while Marissa’s had been a boy from her own year who’d blamed her for some rumor started over the summer. Ari was entirely sure that Marissa had started it, but she’d been smart enough to not leave any definitive proof, so Ari had no objections. Besides, dueling someone her own age would be good practice.

“I heard there was drama in the Raven tower over something last night.” She prompted, glancing over to the table where a few of the sixth years looked a bit more frazzled than normal.

“Elizabeth O’Donnell published a paper over the summer to Calculation Quarterly, but Clarence Towers says that it’s based on a project they both worked on last year and that she stole his research, while she claims that she’d been working on it before their project even started.” Cassius reported, quickly eating his own breakfast and half focused on a quidditch magazine.

He didn’t enjoy gossip the way Marissa did, or find the same security in information as Ari, but he still knew and appreciated the benefits of it and was incredibly efficient in gathering information and wrangling some of the upper years.

“Good. Well, with that lovely start to the year, I have something specific I want us to focus on.” Both Marissa and Cassius perked up, though not so obviously as to draw attention. “Quirinus Quintus Quirrell, born September 26, 1967, Ravenclaw, previously the Muggle Studies teacher before a sabbatical in Albania for the past two years, after which he accepted the DADA position.” Ari paused to let them absorb the information, each of them very carefully not paying attention to the person in question.

“I want us to watch him this year. Get the others to as well. Nothing direct yet, but I want to know his habits.”

“Why?” Cassius asked. Ari hesitated slightly before answering.

“Gryffindor has a bet every year on why the DADA teacher leaves. If we have enough information, we can rig it.”

“The other Slytherins might buy that, but we both know you could rig it without setting a watch on him.” Cassius held her eye challengingly but didn’t ask again. Ari knew he’d let it lie if she asked.

“Ooo, do you think he’s evil?” Marissa piped up, practically vibrating in her chair. “I heard about Herris before I got here, but Professor Palmer last year was so boring. Do you think Quirrell is going to try to steal the thestrals or blow up the school of something.”

Ari blinked in surprise, half at the guess, and half at Marissa’s enthusiasm over the possibility.

“Let’s just say I have little trust in our DADA professors and would rather not be caught by surprise.” Cassius nodded in acceptance, likely attributing her possible paranoia to both the thestral incident and her temporary kidnapping last spring. “Spread the word, but make sure everyone knows to keep it under wraps. I don’t want any rumors starting that might alert him.”

They nodded agreement and Ari finally took down the privacy ward, just as Professor Snape approached with their schedules.

“Mr. Warrington, Miss Holt, do not forget your checkups, the times are listed in your schedule. Miss Black,” Snape held her schedule just out of reach, ensuring he had her full attention. “Professor Babbling has worked with the rest of your professors to allow for your change in schedule. This is a privilege. I will expect you to maintain your performance in all of your classes, or you will be placed with your peers once again.” Ari just nodded seriously, accepting the schedule and looking over it eagerly.

It was easy to see that her schedule had been rearranged around the twice weekly Ancient Runes sixth year class, which she’d been given permission to attend after receiving an O on her OWL. The main difference was that she would be attending Charms with Gryffindor and Hufflepuff rather than Slytherin and she’d be released early from double Transfiguration on Thursdays. Perfect, McGonagall almost always used the second part of a double period to practice the spell she taught in the first half. Since Ari had already worked through much of this year’s course load over the summer, she’d have no trouble keeping up.

Her contemplation of her schedule was interrupted by an exclamation from further down the table in an unmistakable tone of voice.

“No flying until next week? First, they confiscate my broom because of some stupid rule and now I have to wait until next week for entirely unnecessary flying lessons. My father will hear about this!” Ari winced internally, almost wishing that one of the prefects would handle it but knowing that this was exactly what she’d signed herself up for.

She sighed quietly, before rising to her feet, Cassius standing to follow her. Not that she needed the help to handle Draco, but she did appreciate his support anyways.

Draco was sitting at one end of the Slytherin table, close to the head table and appeared to be holding court in the middle of his year mates. Or most of them. Daphne Greengrass, Theodore Nott, and Blaise Zabini held themselves slightly separate. She made a mental note to evaluate them for who would make the best contact in the first years. While Daphne was quite driven and already had connections, Theo was good at blending into the background which might allow him to overhear information most wouldn’t be privy to. He also shared a room with Draco which could come in handy.

She’d give it another couple weeks to see how the hierarchy shook out before approaching any of them. For now, she had a more pressing issue.

“Good morning, cousin.” Ari started, cutting off Draco’s continued rant, which had moved on to the state of the food. “As I’m sure your mother managed to instill you with some form of manners, I can think of no excuse for why you are disrupting breakfast on the very first day.”

Draco looked up at her with poorly hidden superiority, though at least he was making an attempt at hiding it.

“And you are?”

“Do you have so many cousins that you could not guess?”

“As if I’d consider a half-blood bastard like you family.” He sneered, though the way he said it screamed of a mindlessly repeated phrase and Ari would bet Galleons he’d heard it from Lucius. Though how the man failed to teach his son any form of subtlety was honestly astounding. At least the gasps from the people eavesdropping were amusing.

“And yet your mother placed you in my care while you’re here, though she must have forgotten to inform you of that. I’ll have to write her and get that rectified immediately.” Ari smiled in a way that could be mistaken as polite as Draco paled slightly. “In the meantime, I’d suggest you remember your manners and take some time getting to know your new house. I’m sure we’ll be talking soon.”

She left without waiting for a response, already headed out the door and towards Herbology, her first class of the day.

She’d have that letter sent off to Narcissa before dinner and hopefully her cousin would be able to remind Draco why he should be listening to Ari, especially as a first year. No doubt Lucius had been the one to teach his son his stubborn brand of superiority. Even if he had agreed to the deal, likely at his wife’s insistence, he wouldn’t want Ari to have too much influence over his Heir.

But unfortunately for him, Ari had a whole nine months in the year to wear Draco down, and a personal investment in seeing him learn better habits than his father.

***

“Good morning students. I presume you are all here for NEWT level Ancient Runes. If not, then you took a wrong turn somewhere, and this is your chance to escape.” Professor Babbling stood at the front desk of the Ancient Runes classroom and paused to see if anyone took her up on her suggestion. “Alright, since you all are here by choice, let’s get started.”

Ari was incredibly excited for her first official Ancient Runes class. While she hadn’t had Professor Babbling as a teacher before, the few times they’d spoken had been nothing short of enlightening. By all accounts, the professor was a firm but fair teacher and always happy to explore new possibilities given the safety of her students. There was no doubt there’d be plenty of hands-on learning in this class. Even the classroom set up spoke to that.

The room was round, set into the base of the Astronomy tower. In the front, just left of the door, sat a desk surrounded by bookshelves, while every other surface of the walls was lined with chalkboards. The student desks were grouped into small bunches of three or four with runic protective circles etched into the floor between them. They were similar to Bill’s portable ones, but higher powered and stationary, used for practicing runes without endangering onlookers if one went wrong.

“Now, since this is a NEWT level course, you all have already shown proficiency in Elder and Younger Futhark and the beginnings of integration. Given that this class is combined between the sixth and seventh years, we will not be following the normal class structure of lectures. Instead, you will be given a series of projects and essays with due dates throughout the year and class time will be used to practice in a safe environment. As such, much of your studying will be done outside of class.” Babbling flicked her wand and sent a stack of papers out into the room, one settling in front of each of the students. “Your first assignment is to choose two new languages that you will be studying over the course of the year. After the review assignments due in two weeks, all of your projects must use at least one of your new languages. This kind of self-study will be imperative if you decide to pursue a Masters. I strongly suggest you form study groups and share knowledge amongst yourselves.”

Ari gleefully looked over the syllabus in front of her, noting the assignment and project due dates as well as the list of languages they could choose from. She already had a strong understanding of Elder and Younger Futhark, Egyptian Hieroglyphics, and Cuneiform. While she could no doubt use those last two as her languages, she’d rather take the opportunity to learn at least one more. She had already learned some of the very basics of Aramaic for her IMBoxes as a couple of symbols were used in the vanishing cabinet she’d had as an example, but it would be good to get an actual understanding. And she’d been considering looking into Qin script, but the sheer amount of memorization required was enough to dissuade her up until now.

There was one other thought that had been niggling at her over the summer and she hoped to have a chance to look into it now that her IMBox project was mostly complete, if still in need of refining.

On the whole, processes in the Magical world were slow. Communication relied on the flight speed of owls. Knowledge was stored in books that had to be printed on a literal printing press. Even with instant travel, academic information tended to spread more by word of mouth or quarterly publications. It was maddening. Especially for someone who grew up with the internet at her fingertips the first time around. Not that she remembered it perfectly, but Ari knew enough to lament the lack of Google every time she had to sort through the books she found using the normal library searching spells.

Someone really ought to do something about that.

Not that the internet was very far along on the muggle side of things either, but she knew it would pick up soon enough. Now the question was, could she create a magical system that worked similarly to the internet without relying on the mechanical processes computers used?

It was worth a try.

Now, this was definitely not something she’d be able to complete with any kind of haste. Unlike her IMBoxes, she didn’t have a similar concept to work off of, which meant she’d be developing the entire thing from scratch. Likely it would take years for even a basic design. Luckily, she had plenty of time. If it worked out, she might even be able to use it as her mastery project. Five years seemed like a reasonable starting goal.

With that in mind, she underlined Aramaic and Old Arabic. Similar enough that Professor Babbling might try to persuade her to learn a different language, but if pressed she could simply use her hieroglyphics and cuneiform on assignment which she likely would anyways. She needed to start working on integrating four languages together and Elder and Younger Futhark hardly counted. Besides, she needed Aramaic for its versatility when combined with other languages and Arabic for its number system. If she wanted to recreate the internet, numbers would no doubt be a very important addition, beyond what she’d learn in Arithmancy.

“Alright, we’ll be focusing on review for these first two weeks, so today you’ll be working with the group you’re sitting with to complete this assignment. I’ll be walking around, so just reach out if you have any questions about the syllabus or work.” Another parchment landed on each group of desks before Professor Babbling turned to wander around the room.

Yay, group work. Her favorite. Ari looked at the other two people seated next to her. One was a seventh year Ravenclaw who was probably only a few inches taller than her and had several books, quills, and stacks of parchment placed on his desk in exacting fashion. Clarence Towers, known for being anal retentive and difficult to work with. Also, having a bad day.

The other was a Hufflepuff whose hair was cut short and sported subtly but precisely applied makeup. Zink Charleston. Unofficial head of Hogwarts Queer Club and most likely to be sought out for gender and sexual identity crisises.

Well, might as well get this show on the road.

“Hi, I’m Ari.” She smiled at them winningly and took the opportunity to grab the assignment while they were distracted.

Zink offered their name along with a matching smile while Clarence just muttered his, glaring suspiciously.

A quick glance over the assignment showed a straightforward task of creating a schema to lessen the weight of a rock using only Elder or Younger Futhark. It was a good thought exercise, since it left room for scaling the schema and had several possible approaches.

She passed the assignment over, already scribbling down thoughts and questions.

Clarence headed straight to the closest chalkboard as soon as he read it, drawing out runes with precise movements. Zink wandered over as well, thinking out loud and drawing snapped replies from the Ravenclaw.

Ari left them to it, watching Clarence and Zink’s solution come together. However, that wasn’t the most important part of this assignment. No doubt Babbling would be looking to see what they came up with, and their understanding of the language they used, but just seeing the way the Professor watched all the groups as she moved around the room. This was first and foremost a test of thought process and ability to work in a group.

According to the syllabus, at least three of the assignments due this year were group projects where the groups would be assigned by the professor. No doubt this was the first test to help determine who to pair. Which meant Ari needed to participate enough to not be seen as a loner despite her preference to work alone. Otherwise, she’d no doubt end up in a group designed to “draw her out of her shell” or something.

In that line of thinking, Ari made sure to hover near Zink, responding to some of their thoughts and suggestions. At the same time, she subtly poked at Clarence’s ideas until he snapped at her, causing Ari to flinch back and hide a bit behind the Hufflepuff who proceeded to glare at the third partner of their group. A glance out of the corner of her eye showed Babbling looking their way. Perfect, that should keep her from getting paired with him in the future. Clarence was incredibly smart, but she didn’t need him trying to manage her through a project when she had enough other work to keep up with.

The second part was, of course, thought process. They had two-thirds of a schema up by the time Babbling wandered over, though it was far more complex than Ari would have used. She preferred to prioritize efficiency over the technical perfection Clarence seemed focused on.

“How is it coming along?” The professor asked as she stood with them.

“It’s going quite well. All I need to do is balance the fourth sector and it should be scalable up to six times the weight of the caster.” Which honestly was a good idea, even if Clarence’s execution was too complicated in her opinion.

“Ah, I see. And you two?” Babbling looked to Zink and Ari and Ari took the chance to speak up.

“What kind of rock is it?” Clarence looked at her like she was an idiot, but Babbling’s eyes sparkled, though luckily not in the same way Dumbledore’s did.

“Why do you ask?”

“Well, different kinds of rocks have magical properties, so if they aren’t accounted for, they could mess up the intended outcome.” Babbling smiled, nodding along.

“Let us say for the sake of the assignment that it is granite.”

“Alright, and how big is it?”

“This big.” Babbling flicked her wand towards the nearest runic circle, and a fist sized chunk of granite appeared in the middle. Perfect. That meant they’d be applying their schemas before the end of class. It also meant Clarence’s was far too big to fit on the small rock.

“Great, thanks.” Ari nodded at their professor and turned back to the board, putting Zink between her and the annoyed Ravenclaw. She started sketching out a set of three runes that would work for lightening a small granite rock, discussing with the Hufflepuff the best size ratio. Zink added a fourth rune to draw power from the rock itself since it was conjured and therefore contained innate magic from the original caster.

By the end of the class, they had their rock at a similar weight density to air and were prodding it around like a balloon. Well, Clarence was mostly still sulking over his own designs, but overall, not a bad first class.

Chapter Text

Ari pushed through the door to Snape’s office without knocking and sat down in the chair across from his desk, patiently waiting for him to lower the essays he was grading. He took several minutes longer, though Ari was sure it was only for show. An attempt to control the situation after she barged in.

However, Ari had plenty of time to wait. And it was his open office hours, so Snape had no ready excuses to avoid her. Plus, Cassius was currently guarding the hall to keep out any interruptions.

Eventually he gave in, setting down his papers with a glare.

“It is polite to knock. Were you not lecturing Mr. Malfoy on manners just the other day?”

“Funny, I didn’t think you cared much for politeness given the reports I’ve heard about an altercation with my brother in your first-year potions class.”

“Ah, and of course the brave little Gryffindor went running to complain about losing points.”

“No, actually, it was your godson who was cheerfully recounting it in the common room. He painted quite the picture, but I thought you might like the chance to explain your side of the story.” Ari met him glare for glare, unbending against the stark animosity Snape exuded.

“He is as arrogant as his father, and I will not be made to coddle him for his undeserved fame like some of his professors.”

Ari sighed and tsked quietly, settling back further into her chair.

“We’ve had this conversation twice now Snape. I didn’t realize your memory was quite so bad, or I would have thought to schedule a yearly reminder to save us both the time.”

“I will not…” Snape started to snap, frigid rage creeping through his tone and stiffening his already rigid posture.

“No! You will listen.” She snapped out. “James Potter is dead!

“He has been dead for nearly 10 years. Harry doesn’t even remember knowing his father and yet you use him as an excuse to ridicule and bully an eleven-year-old! And if you still have a problem with Sirius, man up and go challenge him to a duel. At least he can fight back!” Ari paused for breath, having let her emotions control her more than she meant to.

“I will not be condescended to by a child in my own office.” Snape sneered, halfway to rising from his chair.

“And yet you let your actions be dictated by the mere memory of a child.” Ari mirrored him, bracing her hands on his desk, weight balanced on her toes. “The only control James Potter has over you is what you allow by clinging to his memory.”

“You do not know of what you speak. What Potter and his merry band of misfits did!”

Ari was almost astonished that Snape managed to say that with a straight face, let alone the amount of loathing he placed into the phrase. It was enough to break her out of her own protective rage. Enough that she leaned back from where they’d been almost nose to nose.

“Yeah, yeah, we’re all traumatized. Grow up, Severus.” Ari settled back into her chair in a more relaxed posture, watching Snape straighten at the sudden de-escalation. “Just because your feelings are valid, doesn’t mean your actions are. I’m not going to let you hurt my brother just because you have a bone to pick with a dead man. Handle you issues or I will handle them for you, and we both know how much you’d enjoy that.”

Snape settled into his chair as well, still seething, but no longer looking ready to hex her at any moment. It was not an idle threat and he was well aware of that. Ari was a Black and the Black family had more than enough clout and money to get their way, especially against an ex-terrorist teacher. Manipulative? Yes, but she was willing to do a lot worse to protect her brother.

“You cannot possibly expect me to give you brother special treatment.”

“Of course not. I don’t expect you to change your entire personality. I’m sure that would be difficult, even for a double agent of your skill. Simply refrain from singling Harry out and remain objective.”

“Fine.” Snape acquiesced, sounding like he was gritting his teeth to refrain from saying more. “Get out.”

Ari smiled politely, sketching a shallow bow in a mockery of the formal Traditional acknowledgment, before turning towards the door.

“Oh, and Miss Black.” Snape started, causing her to pause. “Detention with me, every Saturday this month.”

Ari grinned, still facing the door.

“Excellent, we can discuss proper coping methods.” She was out the door before he had a chance to reply.

While she had no real interest in pranking, Ari knew perfectly well how to make her mere existence a problem and had no qualms in using it on Snape after how he treated her brother.

***

“Won’t you join me, cousin?” Ari asked, though there was no doubt it was not a request. She was currently seated in one of the corners of the common room. While she still preferred the study tables for when she had to spend time in the public area, with her status among Slytherin House, she was entitled to one of the sitting areas of her choice. This one was tucked away in the corner with a clear view of the rest of the long room, making it a perfect choice.

It was also warded so that while noise still filtered in, nothing made it out and anyone trying to lip read would find themselves growing dizzier the longer they looked. An extremely effective spell that Remus had taught her.

“How are you finding Hogwarts?” Draco sat down sullenly on the other settee, though he was too well trained to ever slouch in public.

“It’s fine.” He’d been subdued around her since he’d received a letter from his mother last week, but she knew for a fact that when she wasn’t around, he was as brattish as ever. So, having given him time to settle in and learn a bit about his new House, she was about to start rectifying that.

“I thought it was time we clarified our understanding of each other a bit. Would you care to tell me what your mother and father told you about me?”

Draco grimaced slightly and shook his head. Not the most subtle response, but they’d work on that later.

“That’s fair, since I’m sure what your father had to say was not particularly complimentary. However, your mother asked me to mentor you since she knew you would be coming to Slytherin. Tell me what you learned of our House in the last week and a half.” This time it was not a request and Ari used the tone Andy had taught her for when she wanted to be obeyed without question. Draco straightened up a bit.

“Slytherin is the best of the four houses. We’re ambitious and cunning and produce the highest quality of witches and wizards!” Ari tsked lightly at the rhetoric.

“That is what we show other people. The image we present to the public. What I want to know is what you have seen. What you have observed of how these people actually are.”

Draco looked confused, glancing at her questioningly like he was expecting her to give him the answer. There was no doubt he’d been spoiled growing up, but that wouldn’t work here.

“We have the most noble families…” It was clear he’d picked the first thing he could think of, though to be fair, he was only eleven. Still, Ari couldn’t stop the disappointed sigh.

“Our house is known for its ambition. For molding witches and wizards that can achieve their goals and rise high within our society. However, this is only possible because of our other traits. Cunning, craftiness, plotting. For every move we show the public we have made a dozen beneath their notice. If our enemies always knew exactly what we wanted, we would never be able to gain the advantages we have.

“You have all the wealth, confidence, and pedigree of your station, but you have none of the subtlety of your parents. That is the first thing we will be working on.”

Draco’s face was pinched into a scowl, but he at least looked a little thoughtful. Time for an object lesson.

“Look out at the common room and tell me what you see.”

The fact that he actually looked and considered for a couple minutes before answering was a marked improvement, though his answer left much to be desired.

“Students studying and talking in groups. And my friends over by the fire playing Exploding Snap.” He’d been put out when she’d first summoned him, and that distraction still showed.

“Do you know why you sat by that fire?”

“Because it was open.” Draco snapped, likely getting fed up with the open-ended questions.

“Yes, but there were many empty sections. Do you know why you sat by that fire?”

“No.” At least he was willing to admit it.

“That fire is designated for first years. It’s central to the room so that prefects can keep an eye on you all and make sure you don’t get into trouble. It’s also near the back wall which keeps you out of the way of other groups. Now what can you tell about that group.” Ari nodded at the group in the middle of the common room.

“They’re all seventh years.” He paused for a second. “Other people avoid them.”

“Good. They’re the current reigning clique in Slytherin, though only by age and number. People avoid them because approaching their section without reason or permission is considered a challenge. Can you tell who is in charge?”

“The dirty blonde in the middle.” For all that he was oblivious, when he did pay attention, Draco had good instincts.

“Salina Pucey. First cousin to the main line and betrothed to the Spare of the Rowle Family. She has enough pull to keep the majority of the seventh years answering to her, but not enough to bring the rest of the House in line.” Ari watched her cousin’s eyes spark with interest.

“How do you know that?”

“I watch and observe. Knowing who you’re working with or against is important. If you don’t know the rules, spoken and unspoken, then you don’t know the best way to break them.”

“Tell me.” Ari simply raised an eyebrow at the demand. “…please.”

“Your mother asked me to help you prosper in Slytherin. Given our agreement, I am willing to mentor you. However, I have rules and expectations you will be required to abide by. If you cannot do that, then you are on your own.”

“Why did Mother ask you?” That was a good question and one she rewarded with a smirk and a nod.

“We are family as much as your father may disdain that fact, and as a Black, Family comes First. Secondly, I have built a reputation for myself in Slytherin that puts me in a unique position to guide you.”

“What reputation?”

“Ah ah,” Ari waggled her finger teasingly at him. “You’ll have to discover that for yourself. Now, rules. While you are under my guidance, you will behave in a manner befitting a member of the House of Black. Your behavior reflects on me, and if you cannot act accordingly, I will wash my hands of you. That means you think before you speak. No whining, don’t insult someone unless you can do it gracefully, and for the love of Merlin leave your father out of your petty squabbles. Trust that I will know if you fail to follow these rules.” Draco scowled but nodded.

“Good. We will meet twice a week. Tuesday at four and Sunday at ten. Do not be late. Your first assignment is to observe the power dynamics in Slytherin. See who gravitates to who and what groups people defer to. At the very least I want a list of the four most powerful people, and I don’t just mean magic.”

Ari would place herself as the fifth most powerful, though she doubted Draco would realize that, and the people he did pick out would show a lot about the way he thought.

With that, she dismissed him back to his friends.

After a couple seconds, Cassius dropped into the seat next to her, letting the notice-me-not fade away.

“A galleon that he only gets one right, and for the wrong reasons.” Ari shook her head. What was with these people and bets?

“I’ll raise you two that he gets two correct and is half right about why.” Cassius nodded, pulling out his charms book.

“You sure you want to spend this much time on him? There’s no doubt he’s spoiled and that isn’t likely to change any time soon.”

“Yeah, well, he’s family.” And also, a much bigger player in a future she was still trying to rewrite. Investing a bit of time now would hopefully make it easier later.

***

Ari paused at the door, checking her pockets for the items she deemed necessary for detention with Snape. Namely, her dragonhide gloves and shrunken potion tool set. No doubt he’d have some unsavory task set up for her, and she wasn’t about to suffer unduly by being unprepared. She also brushed her fingers against the stack of papers and books that sat shrunken in her pocket. They were her main reason for coming, so she’d hate to accidentally forget them.

With one last mental check, she knocked on the potion classroom door, entering as soon as permission was given.

“Miss Black, you will be spending your time separating out newts into the basic parts until I feel you have learned your lesson.” He paused there, as though expecting her to argue, but she just blinked slowly, keeping her face perfectly neutral. “You may begin.”

Ari headed over to the desk that was set up with the supplies. A large bowl of freshly dead newts sat to one side while several other empty containers sat in a row. She checked the provided knife before scoffing softly and pulling out her own as well as the gloves she’d brought. Normally they’d impede her ability to grip the slimy little animals, but hers were high end enough to be enchanted with several spells that would allow for good grip as well as the delicate maneuvering required in plucking newt eyes.

She quickly got to work. It was not her favorite past time, but they’d learned this procedure late last year and as always, she’d worked to excel in her classes.

Slowly time ticked by as she efficiently worked through the pile of newts. Occasionally she would feel Snape’s eyes on her as though waiting for something. No doubt he expected some kind of rant or argument based on her previous threat. However, Ari could in fact be patient. Especially when it meant lulling her target into complacency. Not that Snape ever wasn’t suspicious and on guard, but after an hour he’d fully settled into the grading he was working on.

It was another two before he called her to a halt, dismissing her without even looking up.

Instead of leaving, however, Ari made her way to the chair in front of his desk and took a seat, finally catching his attention.

“I have a proposal.” While she had strongly considered making Snape thoroughly regret her time spent in detention, it also probably wasn’t the best approach to actually encourage the man to change. And while she wasn’t currently an adult, she could suck it up and be the mature one if it might help win the war in the long run. And honestly, she wanted Snape on their side, if only because as a triple agent he’d have access to more information than she could dream of. So, the mature approach it was.

“And what makes you think I will entertain any suggestion of yours.”

“I can admit that our last…conversation, was not the best way to broach the subject. However, while I cannot allow your behavior to a member of my family stand, I believe we can come to a mutually beneficial arrangement.” Snape scoffed. “Unless, of course, you’d prefer I employ the Weasley approach to the situation, which is guaranteed to end in our mutually assured destruction, but only after several very public and very embarrassing pranks.”

“…What do you propose.” Snape was still sneering, but no doubt he believed she could accomplish what she threatened.

“Dupont informed me of your deal in regard to being kept informed of the current state of affairs in Slytherin. I would like to implement the same exchange, but with altered terms. I will keep you informed of all relevant information on Slytherin students and provide additional information, within reason, on request.”

“And what do you expect of me? I hardly think you will need help procuring an apprenticeship.”

“No, what I want is actually very simple.” She pulled out the stack of papers and books and unshrunk them to show the brightly colored and printed covers. “I have three terms. First, you read everything in this stack with the intent to actually understand it. Second, you reign in your level of harassment for first, second, and third year. And third, you leave those under my protection entirely alone, outside of the normal purview of a teacher, of course.”

Snape considered her for a moment, before looking down at the stack, scowl still firmly in place. However, she could also see his curiosity. The terms were honestly quite simple, but they would require actual effort on his part, rather than a use of resources and connections.

“These are muggle publications.”

“Yes. The wizarding world is surprisingly lacking in any form of mental health care outside of Mind Healers, and since I believe you would be opposed to anyone digging through your head, I felt muggle psychology and counseling books would be the best alternative.”

“And why, pray tell, do you want me to read a muggle child psychology book?”

“Since you insist on teaching children, I believe you would be best served by understanding the impact you have on their development. Especially since you start working with them at such a young age.”

“You realize that this will not have any impact on my teaching style.” He said with all the air of someone who believed he had regained the high ground.

“Once again, I am not expecting a miracle, Professor.”

“And who do you consider under your protection.” It was obvious that he was considering it.

“The usual. Harry, the Weasleys, Warrington, and Holt. I’ll even give you a pass on the twins in class, as they will likely take a lack of response as encouragement. I have the terms written up here.”

She pulled out the parchment she’d prepared earlier, detailing the specifics of the arrangement. It mainly covered what she’d said before, but also included penalties for failure to comply (she would present him with a new book or pamphlet for every student third year and under that he made cry) as well as what kinds of information she was expected to provide.

It wasn’t a perfect solution in any way. Like she’d told him, Ari wasn’t expecting a miracle. Just because Snape had to read the books, didn’t mean he would utilize any of the information. Change required a desire to change, and she couldn’t force him to want that. However, at least she could make him aware of the information and lessen his impact on the younger students for now. It was the best she was going to get.

Besides, now she could rub it in his face every time he broke one of the terms, and if anything could make him willing to change it was the desire to not let a Black have any hold over him.

She had a dozen more books and pamphlets waiting and expected to need at least half of them before the end of next week.

Chapter Text

“Perhaps your mother should get you a remembrall. It might help you remember your manners.” Ari smiled at him, perfectly polite, and still managed to convey that they would be discussing this later. Draco swallowed hard but looked defiant.

Their meetings had been going better than Ari expected but each one started as a power struggle. Draco was convinced of his superiority. Nothing had ever challenged that world view and likely nothing would until Tom showed up unless Ari managed to do something about it in the meantime. Right now, she’d just settle for some subtlety and a modicum of awareness of those around him.

“Don’t you have flying today?” She asked like she didn’t have all the years main course schedules memorized. “You’d best hurry then, wouldn’t want to miss out on the best brooms.” Draco’s glare turned to a look of mild panic and with a quick glance, he, Crabbe, and Goyle were headed out at a speed just short of a run.

“Ari!” The amount of indignant betrayal fit into one word could only come from the youngest of the Weasley boys. “Come on Harry, we can’t let Malfoy get the best brooms!” Harry rolled his eyes as Ron proceeded to shove a last few bites in his mouth and turned to glare at Ari where she wasn’t even trying to hide her amusement.

“Relax Ronald. They’re the school brooms, none of them are good.” Ari plopped down on the bench next to Neville and passed over the remembrall. “I’d suggest putting that away somewhere safe. You wouldn’t want to lose it.”

“With my luck, I’d forget where I lost it.” Neville mumbled causing Ari to chuckle quietly. Growing up with Harry and Ron as playmates had helped bring him out of his shell, but he was still painfully shy.

“What do you mean they’re all bad?” Ron had mostly finished chewing and seemed to still be ready to run after Draco.

“Well, bad isn’t really the term I’d use, they’re just old. The school brooms haven’t been updated in decades.”

“Isn’t that unsafe? I’ve read that the safety charms on brooms only last for a few years given the magical nature of the wood.” Ari blinked at the sudden presence of a familiar bushy-haired bookworm in the conversation.

“The safety spells do require regular renewal, but brooms can be used as long as the handle isn’t damaged.” Harry piped in, no doubt excited to talk about one of his favorite topics. Ari cut in before it could become a proper rant.

“And the school brooms are well taken care of, they’re just slow. It won’t matter anyways since all you’ll be doing today is take offs and hovering. You’ll be perfectly fine.” This last bit was directed more towards Neville and Hermione since Ron and Harry had plenty of experience on brooms.

They settled back in to eating lunch.

“So, why’d you come over, anyways, Ari?” Harry piped up, working his way through a bowl of soup.

“I can’t just want to see my little brother?” Ari blinked with over-played innocence.

“You could, but I doubt that’s the only reason.” Harry shot back.

“You caught me. I saw Draco headed this way and thought I’d intervene. It’s…a bit of a project I’m working on.” Ari answered back.

Really, she’d come over because she’d Remembered this scene. Ari wasn’t sure whether is would be better or not for Harry to join the Gryffindor Team as a first year. All of her older sister instincts said that letting her eleven-year-old brother play the deadliest version of stick ball was a bad idea, but logic said that it was better to keep canon as close as possible. So she went the middle route. Besides, she wasn’t going to let Draco fall into bad habits when she was literally in the same room. Consistency was key.

“Oh, so you’re the reason Snape hasn’t been so bad recently!” Ari blinked at Harry’s supposition. He wasn’t wrong, but she wasn’t sure how he’d connected it to her project with Draco.

“And what drew you to that conclusion?” She’d rather her deal with Snape stay under wraps as he was unlikely to appreciate students being aware that he was essentially threatened into compliance. He was already drowning her homework in as much red ink as possible, but she’d allow it so long as her overall score didn’t drop under an Acceptable.

“He was really mean in the first class, but he’s mostly just ignored me since then. And when he made Neville cry yesterday, he almost looked like he regretted it.” Harry listed, looking pleased with himself.

“And what makes you think I have anything to do with that?” She was sure Snape had regretted making Neville cry, as it was the third infraction that week and she’d decided to mail the latest booklet to him at the high table, which incited a conversation with Professor Sprout when she’d noticed it.

“Because he looked the same way Sirius does when you catch him smoking!”

Ari scowled at the reminder. It was only an occasional habit, but it got worse when he was stressed. Regardless, Ari hated it, and had gone on several rants, especially when she’d seen him smoking near Harry once. Mostly he’d just gotten sneakier, especially since everything with Tom had become more immediate.

“Hmm, that is an interesting parallel that I’m sure Professor Snape would hate.” Ari said, neither confirming nor denying her involvement. “Well, if any of your teachers are behaving inappropriately you can come to me,” She made eye contact with the entire group to include them. “However, I do expect you to behave in class and treat all of your teachers as they deserve, given their position in this school.”

Harry, Neville and Ron nodded meekly, while Hermione looked smug.

“I need to get to class. I’ll see you later Harry, good luck with your flying lesson!” With that, she ambled off, mentally noting what she still needed to prepare for this afternoon.

***

Ari sat waiting in the alcove she and Cassius had discovered in first year. It was just around the corner from the Slytherin common room and was hidden behind a false wall behind a tapestry. The room was long and narrow, possibly an old hallway that had been bricked off at one end, or a storage room, though when they’d found it, it was completely empty. Now, it held a long table and mismatch chairs she’d stolen from the room of Requirement.

It was the perfect place to hold her meetings.

Slowly, the others trickled in. Her Canaries, both for advanced warning and because they sang such pretty songs of what was going on around the castle. One for each year, as follows:

Catalina Argent: Seventh year and thoroughly disenfranchised with Selina Pucey’s rule. It had taken some careful maneuvering over the summer social events to bring her on side, but Ari’s connections through her family name were enough incentive to encourage Catalina to follow a thirteen-year-old.

Tyrannus Callan: Sixth year prefect and entrepreneur with an interest in cosmetic potions. Ari was providing research and start up funds for his business. As far as investments went, she was confident in future return, as his products were already popular with the students. Those connections also made him privy to much of the relationship gossip in the castle.

Adrianne Burke: Current chaser for the Slytherin team and occasional smuggler for the Exchange due to family connections. She brought in darker items on request, giving her plenty of knowledge on illicit activities in the school. Ari bribed her with borrowing books from the Black Family Library.

Kirigan Stoddard: Fourth year student caught between actively warring cliques and playing both. He also had a twin sister in Hufflepuff whom he visited with regularly. Coincidentally, in the only common room Ari couldn’t get into at will. He had requested access to the lesson plans Remus provided, and occasional hands on lessons in dueling given his year mates tendencies to fire off hexes in the halls.

Cassius handled the third years, and Marissa the second.

As each person trickled in, they passed Ari any notes of recent gossip for their year, both in and out of Slytherin.

She’d held a few of these meeting last year, but not frequently, nor did she plan to have them often this year. None of these people were hers in any way that mattered outside of Cassius and Marissa. They completed a task for an agreed upon payment.

More often than not, urgent information was sent directly to her while anything else was left at her dorm room. However, she did want to start the year with a meeting to check in and to introduce their latest member.

Once everyone else was settled, Marissa entered last with a quietly nervous looking Theodore Nott trailing behind her.

“Everyone, this is Theodore Nott. He’ll be our contact with the first years. Keep an eye out for him.” Ari kept the introduction short, not wanting to embarrass him with attention. Instead, Marissa sat with him down at the far end of the table, whispering explanations, rather than taking her normal seat to Ari’s left as one of her lieutenants. “Argent, report.”

Ari sat through the reports by year of the most pressing information, knowing it would all be in the notes stacked to her left. Once the reports finished with Theodore mentioning that Blaise Zabini seemed especially close with his mother the Contessa, and drama was already starting in the girls dorm over Millicent Bulstrode’s snoring and Daphne Greengrass’s ability to take over the bathroom each morning.

“Alright, Marcus Flint wants any information available on Gryffindor’s possible seekers.” It was not Harry as of yet, and Ari couldn’t say she wasn’t relieved. “Argent, Harmony Campbell in Ravenclaw managed to piss off Hartford Avery. I want it spread around that she’s been keeping her top spot in charms by cheating off her older sister’s work. If you get Flitwick to investigate, you can have this month’s prefect bathroom password.” Argent smirked, agreeing easily. “Also, I want anything you hear about our latest Defense teacher. Betting has already started and I want to be the first to know of any developments that might affect his teaching position. Nott, stay behind, everyone else is free to leave.”

Ari started sorting though the stacks of notes as she waited for everyone else to make their way out of the room. She made it through sixth and seventh before Marissa slid into the chair next to her, having brought Theo closer as well.

“Hello Heir Nott. I don’t believe we’ve been introduced before.” Ari finally looked up at him, noting his impressively neutral expression. “I’m Heir Arianna Black. Did Marissa explain why you’re here today?” He nodded. “Good. I prefer to do negotiations in person, so I thought we’d take this time to figure out what you want in exchange for keeping me up to date on the other first years. Do you know what you want?”

“What are you offering.” Ari grinned at his response. It was always a good bartering strategy to see what the other person was willing to start at.

“Hmmm, I can arrange tutoring and resources to help you in your classes. Or perhaps you’d prefer some pocket money to spend.” It was always a game of give and take. Everybody wanted something, it was just about figuring out what it was and if it was worth what you wanted in exchange.

Ari could tell that Theo wasn’t interested in either of those options, but he seemed nervous over asking for what he did want.

“You can ask Theodore.” Ari prompted. “The worst I can say is no.”

Theo nodded, biting his lip.

“I want you to teach me how to fight.” Ari contemplated the request. It was not what she’d been expecting, but she wasn’t immediately opposed. However, it would be a drain on her time, even if she got Cassius to sub in as well.

“May I ask who you wish to fight?” Theo curled in on himself slightly, not answering. “Alright, let me be frank with you, I do not know if I am willing to teach you to fight if I do not know how you will use that knowledge. Do you know why I chose you Theodore?” He shook his head, looking a little like he regretted asking, though Ari hoped this explanation would fix that. “I have a brother in your year, and you’ll find that he and all of his friends are happy to keep me up to date on all the latest gossip. I chose you because I needed someone who can do more than that. I’ve watched you this last week and I’ve seen how you observe your classmates. I need someone who can keep an eye on my brother and inform me if there is anything that might present a danger to him. Either from himself or others. Which, incidentally, means that I am not willing to teach you to fight if there is any chance that it will be used to hurt my brother. Do you understand?”

“I...want to be able to protect myself.” Theo said after a moment of silence, barely loud enough for her to hear. Ari looked at him, noting for the first time just how skinny he was. Not entirely underfed, but with little muscle. The school robes covered almost everything, but she noted a faded scar on the underside of his chin.

“That I can help you with. And we can work on other ways to make sure you’re safe as well.” Ari flipped open one of her notebooks, revealing an already packed planner. “We’ll start with Thursdays at 4pm. Meet me here. If there’s anything specific you want to learn, bring it, but I’ll have a teaching plan ready as well. Cassius?”

“I can do 4, but we might have to switch it up once quidditch actually starts.”

“Good. If you need anything before then, let one of us know. Otherwise, I’ll see you Thursday.” Theo nodded again, hurrying out of the room.

“So you’re adopting another one?” Marissa asked, tilting her chair back so it stood on two legs.

“I have no idea what you mean.”

“Sure, like you didn’t scoop me up when you heard about Copley picking on me. And I totally heard about you harassing Cassius until he agreed to be your friend. Theo has no idea what he’s in for.” Marissa smirked until Ari nudged her chair enough to almost unbalance her.

“I hardly think cookies count as harassment, and I’m not adopting Theodore. I’m just teaching him how to fight.”

“Sure.” Marissa called as Ari finished packing up her things and headed for the door. She was absolutely not running away. “Tell me that next year.”

Ari just waved her off, heading to the Retreat to study with the twins.

Chapter Text

It was surprisingly warm for the last day of October, and Ari had finally found time to do something she’d been missing. Visit the thestrals. After first year, both the Weasleys and her fathers insisted that she bring someone else with her if she wanted to wander in the Forbidden Forrest. It was the compromise they’d reached when she’d refused to stop visiting entirely. However, between the twin’s constantly being in detention, Percy focusing on his studies in an effort to be chosen as prefect, and Charlie juggling quidditch captain, prefect, and NEWTs, she hadn’t had many opportunities last year.

This year was already shaping up to be similarly difficult, though, since no one had specifically said she still needed an escort this year, she’d chosen to disregard that rule.

No, the difficulty was in her own schedule. Even just two months into the school year, she was incredibly busy. Between coordinating with her people, liaising with possible interested parties, classes, homework, research projects, dueling practice with the twins and Cassius, dueling training with Theo, planning with Sirius and Remus long distance, harassing Snape, detention due to harassing Snape, keeping Harry out of trouble, and trying to teach Draco to be just a little bit less of a prat, she was booked.

It was honestly a miracle she was getting any sleep at night.

And on top of all of that, the plot was about to ramp up. Harry was already looking into Nicholas Flamel according to Theo who’d over heard him and Ron talking, but wasn’t making any headway. Ari would leave them to it unless Harry came to her specifically.

However, today was the 31 ^st of October. Halloween. The day of the troll attack.

Through discussions with Remus and Sirius, it had been decided that she would intervene. The troll being in the school, Snape intercepting Quirrell and getting bitten were all fine, but there was no real reason for Harry, Ron, and Hermione to face a troll.

So instead, she planned to stop by the bathroom just before the feast to collect Hermione. Hopefully no other students would be out wandering as well.

For now though, she enjoyed the peace of the thestrals’ paddock before the chaos begins.

She still wasn’t sure how she could see them, but since the ir attempted kidnapping, they seemed to approach her more readily. Though maybe they were just used to her presence.

A little nose nudged at her hand, prompting her to grab another slice of meat. There were currently two foals with the herd, and they were the most interested in her attention and treats, constantly begging and then skipping away to devour the meat she handed them. She should really ask Hagrid if they had names.

Once the scraps were gone and the sun was just starting to set, Ari sighed and made her way back to the castle, pausing at Hagrid’s cabin to drop off the empty bucket. The castle itself was full of students making their way to the Great Hall, but Ari cut across the flow of traffic and headed up to the first floor girls bathroom, sliding in quietly.

The sink area was empty, but she could hear quiet sniffles coming from the one closed stall.

Ari was well aware that she was not the ideal person for this. She rarely knew what to do when someone cried, and she was of the opinion that tears were best used for manipulation tactics and otherwise were generally useless. This had prompted several conversations with Remus and the use of phrases that she had no doubt came from child psychology books he seemed to add to his reading list every year. She didn’t think crying was a bad thing, or meant someone was weak or whatever, she just...didn’t know what to do about it.

And yet, here she was.

Unfortunately, there was no way but through, so Ari approached the stall, knocking softly.

“Are you alright in there?” The sniffling stopped immediately.

“I’m fine.” Hermione’s voice was tight with tears and in no way believable.

“You want to come out and try that again? Might make it more convincing.”

“I’m alright.” Ari sighed, settling in to coax the girl out.

“Mhmm, I’m sure. Well, if you’d rather talk through the door, we can do that. I’m Ari by the way.”

“You’re Harry’s sister?”

“The one and only. From that question, can it be assumed you know Harry personally? Perhaps in the same year or house?” There was another sniffle, before the latch clicked and the door swung open to reveal a red eyed Hermione. “Hello Hermione. Do you want to tell me why you’re crying rather than heading down to the Halloween feast?”

Hermione rubbed her eyes and sullenly shook her head.

“Alright, I’ll just guess then. Hmm, from what I hear, your top of your class, so it’s probably not homework.” Ari pretended to contemplate, hoping that complementing her school work would help, but the girl still looked miserable. “You’re a bit young for boy trouble…”

Hermione twitched, shrinking in on herself.

“Ah, so not boy trouble, but trouble with a boy.” Ari nodded as Hermione shrugged and ducked her head. “Well, there are several ways to handle that.”

“How?” Hermione finally looked her in the eye.

“Well my friends, the Twins, would recommend you prank him. They might even be will to prank him for you.” Hermione scrunched up her nose.

“Isn’t that against the rules?”

“Sure, but only if you’re caught. Rules are created by imperfect people for imperfect reasons, sometimes you have to work outside them to achieve your goal.” Hermione still looked wary. “But pranks aren’t the best solution anyways, they only work if the victim knows why they’re getting pranked, or if it distracts them too much to continue their behavior. It’s a good revenge, but it doesn’t change much.”

Hermione nodded along, looking like she was considering taking notes.

“On the other hand, my father would say that you should ignore him and focus on being the best you can be. It’s a nice sentiment, but it doesn’t stop them from being mean, and honestly, sometimes ignoring them makes it worse.

“My suggestion is one of two. The first one is retaliating immediately. Nip the behavior in the bud and show them you aren’t willing to take bullying lying down. Very Gryffindor, no?”

“How do you do that?”

“Well, you could punch them, but I prefer to verbally eviscerate them. The key is to humiliate them. You can’t change their mind, but you can make them regret it.” Ari liked Ron just fine, he was like another little brother, but he had a tendency towards jealousy and if he can’t take it, he better not be dishing it. Hermione still looked skeptical. “The other option, of course, is to make them like you.”

“I tried that at my last school. They don’t like me because I’m better in class than them.” Hermione had an adorable little wrinkle in her forehead, and Ari was so tempted to reach out and boop her on the nose.

“I think it’s more likely that they resent you because they think that you think you’re better than them.”

“That’s dumb. I don’t think I’m better than them.”

“I don’t know...do you perhaps insist on answering questions in class when someone else gets it wrong, or even before they have a chance to try?” Hermione paused looking a little guilty. “Or do you correct your classmates when they didn’t ask for help? How about lecturing other students on their studying habits?” By now, Hermione’s face was quite red.

“Look Hermione, you’re very smart. You know it, your teachers know it, even the other students know it. You don’t need to constantly try to prove it. Let other people have a chance to show what they’re learning. If you really want to help, offer it to people, but accept it if they say no. If nothing else, just leave them alone.”

“And that will make people like me?”

“More importantly, it will make people not dislike you. If you want them to like you, you just find people with common interests. Or if you have someone specific in mind, just figure out what they want, and find a way to be the one to give it to them. Easiest way to get someone to like you.” Hermione squinted at her suspiciously.

“That sounds...very Slytherin.”

“What can I say, the Sorting Hat barely hesitated. Now come on, the Feast probably just started. If we hurry, we can make it in before anyone notices.”

Hermione nodded her agreement, rubbed her eyes one more time, and picked up her school bag. Together they made their way out the door, and down the corridor.

It was a bit later than Ari meant to leave it, but she was pretty sure Quirrell hadn’t shown up in the Great Hall until dessert, so they should be fine.

A deep scraping noises sounded ahead of them, and Ari’s heart immediately dropped.

Apparently Quirrell had just let the troll wander around the school for a bit before seeing fit to warn the rest of the staff. Of course he did.

Ari grabbed Hermione just as the troll turned the corner ahead of them. The girl screamed before Ari could get a hand over her mouth, immediately drawing attention the ir way. Giving up on subtlety, Ari scrambled backwards, pulling Hermione into a run.

It would take at least four corridors and two flights of stairs to make it around the troll to the Entrance Hall. None of the dorms were close enough to reach, and the classroom doors wouldn’t hold up to a troll without significant reinforcement that she did not have time to do.

Ari didn’t glance back, but the Troll’s steps sent shivers through the stone floor and told her it was gaining on them. They were running out of time and they hadn’t even made it back to the bathroom yet.

Glancing around frantically, Ari spotted a sitting area, hardly more than a nook in the wall, but with a small enough opening the troll wouldn’t fit. She immediately threw herself towards it, dragging Hermione along.

Just in time, as the troll’s club sailed through the air behind them, crashing into the ceiling and wall, just as they dove for cover.

“Merlin’s hairy ankles, I’m going to kill that man.” She muttered, pulling Hermione further in and casting a shield with her free hand. Stone and plaster continued to rain down outside as the troll swung repeatedly. It wasn’t exactly coordinated, and the lower arched ceiling in this section of hall kept getting in the way of it’s swings.

After a few indirect hits, her shield shattered. Ari cursed again, casting a new one. They still weren’t as strong as she wanted, but she couldn’t get close enough to inscribe a ward without being in the path of the destruction.

They were safe enough in here for the moment, since the troll couldn’t get to them without taking out most of the wall. Not that it wasn’t trying. Ari looked around to see if there was anything that could be used as a distraction, but there was nothing but a couple of old chairs. Her shield broke again, letting in a wave of dust and rock chips before she set it up again.

“Hermione.” She crouched down by where the girl was huddled on the floor, shaking. “We should be alright in here, but we’ll need to wait it out. I have something I need you to put on.” She pulled the runed necklace she’d been holding on to out of her bag and passed it over to the girl. “It will help protect you a bit. If we get a chance, I need you to double tap the pendant and make a run for it. It’ll make you unnoticeable for about 20 minutes. Do you understand.”

Hermione nodded stiffly, letting Ari help her put the necklace on and then clutching it in her hand.

The shield broke again.

It wasn’t lasting as long as before, but Ari threw another one up, wincing at the drain on her magic levels. She just hoped that the troll would get distracted enough for them to slip by. They waited another ten minutes before the troll seemed to realize it wasn’t accomplishing anything. Which would have been great, if it hadn’t tried to reach inside their alcove.

Ari ducked down, pushing Hermione further in the corner and keeping a shield directly over them as the nobbly fingers stretched closer. She could try an incendio, but with all of the shields her magic was running low, and they weren’t likely to have much of an impact of troll skin anyways. Anything else she tried would rebound against them, or possibly knock the troll out and block their exit. And that was if she wasn’t also unconscious from magical exhaustion.

Where were the teachers? She could really use an intervention right now.

“Hey! Over here you stupid troll.”

Ari groaned at the sound of a voice from down the hall. That was not what she meant.

The troll shifted, looking towards the sound with his arm still reaching into their sanctuary.

“Yeah! Over here!”

“Pick on someone your own size!”

She was going to do it. She was going to commit fratricide. Ari groaned again, wishing she could just bury her face in her hands but unfortunately, she had a brother and his friend to keep from committing suicide by troll.

The trolls arm retreated and Ari wasted no time in standing up and yanking Hermione to her feet.

“Look at me. Hermione, look at me. I need to go out there and keep my brother from dying. You are going to activate your necklace, stick to the left side of the corridor and meet up with the boys. I need you to take them back to the Entrance Hall and find a teacher. Do you understand?”

“But what if…”

“No, you are going to find that Gryffindor courage and do as I say, or I will steal your copy of Hogwarts: A History.” The girl suddenly looked indignant, and Ari nodded, patting her shoulder and heading to the opening just as the troll finished standing up. She turned back to whisper. “Remember, left side of the corridor and don’t stop until you find a teacher.” Hermione nodded and activated the charm, turning slightly fuzzy at the edges.

Once the troll was a few steps away, Ari hurried out into the corridor behind it, choosing a spot towards the right hand side to give Hermione as much room as possible.

“Harry you are 100% grounded until you are 40!” She yelled, drawing the trolls attention. It paused, swing to look back and forth between them. “And don’t think I don’t see you Ron! Your mother is going to be livid!” From what she could see out of the corner of her eye, both Harry and Ron winced.

She gave it another few seconds for Hermione to make it past the troll before shooting off an over powered stinging hex. It would do absolutely nothing, but whatever pain made it through the trolls hide was enough to pull it’s full attention towards her. She started backing away, stepping carefully to keep from tripping on shards of rock since she wasn’t willing to take her eyes off it to look.

She didn’t need to fight the thing, just distract it long enough for the kids to get away and then find somewhere else to hide until the teachers finally arrived.

Nothing in her current repertoire was enough to take down a troll in one shot, and was more likely to leave her to o weak to run. She did consider Ron’s method, but the ceilings were to o low to give the club any room to fall.

As she backed away, the troll swung again, scraping through several of the ceiling’s arch supports before landing heavily only a few feet away from her. She backed up faster, but the damage to the ceiling caught her attention. It was already looking rough, especially where it had tried to break it’s way through a wall. Which gave her an idea. It was a stupid Gryffindor kind of idea, but it might just work.

Down the hall, Hermione was currently trying to drag the boys away with little success. When this was over, she was absolutely going to sell them to Snape for potion parts. But there was no time for that now, with the troll almost in position. Instead she backed up a little more and waited for the troll to raise it’s club.

It once again tore through several supports, spreading the cracks that already spiderwebbed across the hall. She pointed her wand at the ceiling and cast the strongest Bombarda she could before sending a shield down the hall with her left hand. After that, she barely had time to crouch down and cover her head as the hallway collapsed in on itself.

***

Either through luck or possibly her pendant, nothing heavy hit her in the head. There were plenty of stone shard that flew her way, and she was pretty sure she was bleeding, but she wasn’t unconscious and nothing felt broken, so she was counting this as a win.

Unfortunately, the hall was filled with several tons of stone and dead or unconscious troll, which left her no way to check on the kids. They were further than her from the blast and shielded, so she figured they were probably fine. Which was good, because the adrenaline leaving her body made sitting down seem like a great idea.

She wandered further down the hall, idly brushing dust and rock chips off her robes and until she found a clear spot to sit and lean against the wall. Overall, not how she’d planned for this to go, but probably could have been worse.

She was just thinking that she should probably let someone know where she was, when a call came down the hall.

“Ari!” She blinked, looking up in confusion as Cassius ran towards her, swiftly trailed by a furious Professor Snape and prefect Callan. Snape did appear to be limping slightly, though it didn’t seem to slow him down at all.

“Hey, Cassius, I’m alright.” Ari tried to reassure her friend as he slid in next to her, quickly looking her over.

“I’ll be the judge of that Miss Black.” Snape intoned, as he immediately started casting diagnostic charms. “Only bruises and minor lacerations, though your magic reserves are lower than recommended. It appears you have more luck then intelligence. Mr. Callan, kindly inform the others we will meet them in the Hospital Wing.”

Ari rolled her eyes, but let Cassius help her to her feet.

“Are Harry, Ron, and Hermione okay?” Ari asked as they started moving.

“They are in better shape than you, though from their story, they have even less brains than the troll, after a wall was dropped on it.”

“Hmm” She knew better than to argue with Snape when he was in a snit, instead she turned to Cassius. “What are you doing out here? Shouldn’t everyone be locked down?”

“The rest of our house and Hufflepuff are still in the Great Hall, but since you hadn’t come to dinner, and have a bad habit of finding trouble, I went to find Callan. We found Professor McGonagall and she let me come since I had the best way of finding you.” Cassius held up his pendant. Holding it and thinking about someone else with one would make it act like a strong point me with a better range and accuracy, though it only worked for the person the necklace was keyed to.

“I do not find trouble, trouble just tends to find me.” Ari groused.

“While we are on the subject, Miss Black, care to tell me why you were wandering the school during the Halloween feast?”

“I went to the privy before dinner and found Hermione crying in the stall. I figured it was my duty as a good samaritan to help her out. We were just heading to the feast when we ran into the troll, and we ended up stuck in an alcove off the hall until the boys showed up. Why was there a troll loose in the school?”

Snape looked suspicious at the mere thought of her helping out of the goodness of her heart, which just showed he had good instincts, but he didn’t call her out.

“That has yet to be determined, though I’m sure there will be a full inquiry.” Ari nodded, continuing to trudge up the stairs in silence. There were far too many stairs in this school.

Snape seemed to agree, as he limped along.

“You should probably get that looked at, sir. Dog bites can be nasty.”Ari said. Never hurt to remind him that she knew everything that went on in this school. It also would lay the ground work for anything else she might know if the future that she shouldn’t theoretically be able to know.

“And I believe you’ll find that it is none of your business.”Snape eyed her sharply, but left it at that. Likely not wanting to comment further in front of the others.

They made it to the Hospital Wing quickly enough after that, and Ari had to brace herself as she became the focus of two boy-shaped torpedoes. She returned their hug fiercely, patting them down to make sure they were in one piece.

“Hey Har-bear, Ron. Are you alright?”

“Yeah, we’re fine.”

“I can’t believe you dropped an entire hallway on a troll!” Ari rolled her eyes, figuring that meant Ron was also fine.

“Good, because you two are in so much trouble!” She grabbed their chins, making them look up at her, even though Ron was almost as tall, despite only being eleven. “What did Remus and Sirius tell you to do if you found yourself in a dangerous situation.”

“Find a trusted adult.” Both boys mumbled in sync.

“And what what are you supposed to do if one of us tells you to run?”

“Run to a safe place and hide.”

“Even…”

“Even if you’re in danger.” The boys finished, looking even more down.

“But Hermione didn’t know about the troll! We had to help her.” Harry argued, looking stubborn.

“Then you should have told an adult. They were already searching the castle, and they would have been able to find her and get her to safety much more quickly.”

“We couldn’t just leave you alone with the troll! It would have squished you!” Ron jumped in.

“And what would you have done about it? You don’t know any spells that would work against a troll.” They still looked stubborn, so Ari sighed, placing a hand on either of their shoulders and gripping lightly. “Look, I know you were trying to help, but you actually put us and yourself in more danger. Hermione and I were safe enough in that alcove and would have been fine until a teacher arrived, but because you showed up, I had to try to distract the troll so it wouldn’t come after you. And because you didn’t leave when Hermione told you to, I had to shield you rather than focusing on protecting myself.” Both boys looked miserable at this point.

“It’s not that I don’t think your brave or capable. It’s that that I will always prioritize your safety over my own, and that means the most helpful thing you can do is run when I tell you to. Come here.”

She pulled them into another hug.

“As touching as this is, I believe Madam Pomfrey is ready for you.” Snape cut in.

Ari allowed the matron to cast several more diagnostic charms, and even sat patiently through the healing of the few shallow cuts she’d received.

After that was another half an hour of sorting out exactly what happened, in which Ari stuck to the actual story. While she could dissemble with the best of them, there was no need in this case, and Harry and Ron losing a few points for reckless behavior was minor compared to what could have happened.

Finally they were released to their common rooms where Ari had to practically fight her way through a crowd who all wanted to know what had happened, despite Callan already having returned.

When she finally escaped, she managed to pen a letter to Remus and Sirius and get it sent off in the IMBox before falling into her bed.

If this was how the rest of the year was going to play out, she was going to need to find more time to sleep.

Chapter Text

The Slytherin vs Gryffindor game passed without incident. Without Harry on the team, Gryffindor was fielding fourth year Alex Trilby who was...less than ideal. Which lead to an easy Slytherin win. The most difficult part for Ari was having both the Twins and Cassius to cheer for. As a compromise, she’d worn her Slytherin scarf with a read and gold flower pinned to it.

Honestly, with the game over, there was little plot to worry about until December, which let her focus on her projects, including an attempt to find a way to store data within various types of magically suitable crystal. It was a slow process, as the crystal’s various attributes had to be balanced with the Old Arabic and Aramaic she was working with, but she was confident she’d have something by the time winter break rolled around.

She and Harry were already planning to spend it in the castle, since the Weasley parents would be visiting Charlie and she wouldn’t be able to sneak Cassius out this year. Instead, Sirius and Remus had promised to take them out for a day trip on Boxing Day.

Which would give her plenty of time to research. Like she was doing right now. The library had just received a copy of the latest Ancient Runes Today which contained an article on a research paper out of Madrid over the use of runes in storing memories long term, and she had shown up early to be the first one to read it. Which is why she was sitting at a table in a mostly empty library on a Sunday when Marissa came sprinting into the room.

“Sorry. Ms. Pince.” The girl called out to the irritated witch at the desk, doing nothing to help the situation. “Ari. Your brother. He’s in. The Hospital. Wing.” Marissa gasped out between breaths.

Ari didn’t wait for her to recover, just took off out the door, ignoring the angry words of the librarian that followed her. Her mind raced faster than her legs as she ran for the Hospital Wing. Luckily it was only a level down and a couple of corridors over from the Library, which Ari took at speed, flinging herself down the spiral staircase with little regard for anyone who might be in her way.

The last bit of the run passed in a blur that found her beside Harry’s bed, breathing hard and scanning him for injury.

The first thing she noted was that he was unconscious, the second was the large bruise on his forehead that already glistened with ointment. Madam Pomfrey wandered over before she could look any further.

“He’ll be alright dear, just took a nasty fall down the stairs. I’ve fixed up his arm and the Bruise Balm will do the rest.”

Ari nodded, but ran her own diagnostic charm as soon the matron wandered away again. It wasn’t a very in depth charm, since she did not have the time to learn healing magic along with all of her other pursuits, but it was a common charm in housholds for checking over children who got injured while playing. It confirmed Madam Pomfrey’s diagnosis, which left nothing for Ari to do but wait until Harry woke up. She wouldn’t leave him unattended in the public hospital wing when he couldn’t defend himself.

It was half an hour into her vigil that Cassius joined her.

“What happened?”

“The details are vague, since there wasn’t an actual eye witness, but from what we’ve found, it wasn’t an accident. He was headed for breakfast alone and fell down the flight on the west side between the third and fourth floors. Argent couldn’t find evidence of a tripping jinx, and no one saw him trip but more importantly, the warding on the stairs was broken. It was luck that Professor Flitwick happened by and managed to catch Harry, or he would have gone over one of the railings. We’re still looking into possible culprits.”

Ari occluded and worked on controlling her breathing through the rage that engulfed her. She had thought that Harry not being on the quidditch team would keep Quirrell from attempting to kill him, but instead, it had simply lead him to attacking in a way she could not predict. That was the issue with changing the plot, they lost their advantage, and she’d made the mistake of forgetting that.

But she wouldn’t anymore.

“I already know.” Cassius merely raised an eyebrow at her, already used to her knowing too much, even if they never discussed it openly. “I want Quirrell watched, even minute he is in public. And I want him to know it.”

If anyone else had seen the way her eyes darkened, they would wisely have retreated for their own safety, but all Cassius felt was agreement.

“Get the rest of our Canaries in on it. Don’t approach or antagonize him, just watch. Maybe get a rumor or two going to get the rest of the student eyes on him as well. I don’t want him to be able to go anywhere in the castle without someone commenting on it. And send the twins my way.”

She may have failed Harry this time, but she wouldn’t again. Once Cassius left to spread the word, Ari pulled out her notebook to start a list.

She couldn’t do anything directly to Quirrell, nor would she risk another student in the same way. But with eyes always on him, he’d have a much harder time getting anything done. The twins would be the ones to help keep him distracted.

She made a note to look into psychological warfare tactics. They’d start easy. Things like moving his desk five inches to the left. Stealing his quills only to have them reappear when he least expected. Light repelling charms on his office and room doors to make him feel like he forgot something every time he entered a room. Charming homework assignments to all look the same one minute and normal the next. Nothing he could prove, but enough little things to drive him up the wall.

For her part, she needed to find a way to protect Harry better. She couldn’t be with him all the time, but her pendant obviously wasn’t enough for the kind of danger he was in. She’d need to find a way to keep him safe, otherwise what was the point. If she couldn’t even protect her brother at school, then what was the point of anything she’d done over the last seven years.

Failure was not an option. She’d see Voldemort dead before she’d let him hurt her brother again. And since that wasn’t currently an option, she’d just have to make it impossible.

***

Harry woke up a few hours later and was released after Madam Pomfrey confirmed that there were no lingering issues beyond the fading bruises. Ari left him with his friends and a few words of caution and headed out to enact her own plans.

The plans she’d set Cassius to start fell into place easily. Everyone of her Canaries kept up watch. With one in each year, that covered over half of his classes. That plus the rumors they started had every student at least eyeing him speculatively.

The first came just a couple days after the incident and suggested that Quirrell had actually been in Albania treasure hunting, and had taken to hiding his finding around the school to keep them safe. Rumors of what the treasure was varied from illegally smuggled dragon eggs, to cursed artifacts, to the lost diadem of Ravenclaw. Beyond those watching him speculatively, some of the braver students started following him around, trying to find his stash.

After a couple weeks, when no treasure was forthcoming and the enthusiasm started to wane, they started a rumor that he wasn’t just afraid of vampires, he’d actually been bitten and was slowly turning into one. This rumor had less effect, but students still watched him warily and gossip helped keep track of his movements. Plus the owls swarming Dumbledore over a possible vampire teacher amused her.

On the other side of things, the twins had preformed far above her expectation in increasingly driving the professor spare. Moved furniture, fake invitations to meet with other professors that disappeared before he arrived, quills that constantly dried out, clocks that ran fast or slow. A hundred little things that he couldn’t prove, but that subtly made his life difficult. She’d had to caution the twins not to go overboard or get caught, since it would ruin the effect, but they seemed content with his harried actions and increased paranoia.

Ari rarely got to enjoy the show, as she was busy with her own work. She’d realized that something as simple as the ward she’d created for the pendant would never be able to stand up to Harry’s level of chaos and Potter Luck. And if she wasn’t going to be able to keep him away from it, she’d make sure he was as protected as she was capable of.

Which meant she had to figure out a way to create a ward that could stand up to a Dark Lord known for his ability to tear down the wards on Ancestral Homes while also being small and mobile enough to move with Harry and not draw undue attention. Which was quite possibly Master level work, but she was motivated and had access to some of the most extensive archives at her finger tips, both through the Hogwarts’ and the Black Family libraries.

The first thing she’d done was scrap her original Runes project. With the biweekly check ins, she wouldn’t have time to juggle her original project and this new one. Not with how imminent the danger was. Professor Babbling had been surprised that she wanted to change so late in the year, but as project were made to span the entirety of sixth and seventh year, she’d allowed it. She’d seemed under the impression that Ari had hit a dead end on the data storing project and decided to change her idea entirely rather than work around it. Ari didn’t disabuse her of the notion as it got her the permission she needed to work in class, giving her as much time as possible to dedicate to research.

She took over another abandoned classroom. There were far too many in the school, and she managed to find one out of the way on the third floor which left her easy access to the forbidden corridor if necessary.

She layered it with the same wards she’d used on the Retreat and add the new ones she came across in her research. Both as practice and to ensure her work would go undisturbed. While the restricted section had safeguards against students breaking in, the Black Library had no such restrictions and she’d managed to convince Nimsy to bring her some of the less than legal titles. They’d been invaluable in understanding the intricacies of the wards placed on buildings and how they differed from mere shielding spells, or personal wards.

She’d also reached out to Bill through the IMBox to get his opinion on various information she came across. As a curse breaker he had personally worked with far more wards than she’d ever encountered. Both breaking and creating, and his portable rune circles were one the basis of one of her possible approaches, though they were stationary after activated. She’d had to be careful to word her inquires so he wouldn’t get suspicious of her project and reach out to Remus or Sirius, but so far there’d been no issues.

The main problem was finding the time. She worked whenever she could get away with it, but had become increasingly irritable at the classes that cut into her research time. So many of them were useless for the future she’d planned, and worse they would be no help in the war that might still happen.

Luckily, winter holiday had arrived just in time. The newly empty days left her with plenty of time to really dig in. She was sure she was close to a break through on balancing the warding schema to allow for the movement inherent in the chains of the bracelets and necklace she’d been working with most recently.

A knock interrupted her focus.

Ari cursed. No one should even be able to find this end of the corridor, let alone the door.

“Open up Ari! We know you’re in there.” She twitched at the Cassius voice, but decided it was best to ignore it. He wouldn’t be able to get in, and she needed to finish this set before she lost her train of thought. She’d see him at lunch...or dinner. Whatever was next. She rubbed at her dry eyes and focused back on the papers in front of her.

“Star, open the door,”

“Or we’ll break it down.” Apparently the Twins were with him.

She scoffed at their claim. There wasn’t a student in the castle that could get through that door, not even one’s with the Twins’ ingenuity.

There was a few minutes of blessed silence where she was sure they were trying, but nothing managed to rattle the door, much less break it down.

“If you don’t come out, I’ll get Snape.”

That did make her pause, but it would still take Snape long enough to break through the wards that she would be able to clear everything out and make it out the back door that was the entire reason she had chosen this room specifically. It lead to a staircase that came out on the fourth floor.

“And we’ll tell your dads!”

Ari winced. While Snape would leave it at giving her detention for wasting his time, Sirius and Remus would want to know what she’d been working on.

She got up and opened the door just far enough to look out, ensuring they wouldn’t be able to see anything past her.

“What. I’m busy.” Cassius and the twins glared at her from the warded corridor, all three of them clutching their pendants in one hand, and their wands in the other.

“Oh, we know.”

“Too busy to eat.”

“Too busy to sleep.”

“Too busy see your friends.”

“Too busy to go to class.” She winced. It had only been History of Magic and one Astronomy class she’d skipped, but it had seemed pointless to go when she’d been close to a break through.

“Too busy to celebrate your birthday.” Alright, she totally did celebrate her birthday, she just...left a bit early. It was fine, Harry probably hadn’t even noticed.

“I’m fine. I’ll come to dinner in a bit.”

“It’s 8am.” Cassius deadpanned.

“Lunch then. I’ll see you later.” She went to close the door, but was hit by a Tarantallegra and in the time it took her fuzzy brain to realize and remember the counter curse, the boys had the door open and were already inside.

“Unfortunately, we’re not asking anymore.” Cassius focused on her, as she sighed and closed the door in case anyone else decided to wander in. “We’re worried about you Ari. You’ve been distracted since Harry got hurt which was concerning, but since the holiday started, you’ve disappeared. Marissa says you haven’t been in your room in three days.”

“I’m fine. I’m just in the middle of a project. I’ll finish up before Christmas and you won’t need to worry anymore.”

“Christmas is tomorrow.” Ari looked at him in surprise. There was no way she’d been working for a week without classes, right? “Ari, are you losing time?”

Cassius’s voice was full of concern. He’d grown up in a house with plenty of Dark artifacts and knew the dangers just as well as she did.

“No, I’ve just been distracted.” Luckily, George broke in before Cassius could continue.

“Is this what you’ve been working on? Ari, these are blood runes!” He called out from the table she’d just been sat at.

“Yeah, they work best for personal wards, especially those that are meant to be long lasting or versatile.”

“You’ve been doing rune work in a warded room that no one can find!? Do you know how dangerous that is!” Cassius exclaimed, grabbing some of the papers from further down that table and revealing one of the grimoires. “Ari! What the hell are you doing with a book on ritualistic sacrifices.”

Ari winced. Cassius only used muggle swears when he was really pissed, ever since the twins had tried to teach him sometime in second year.

“It’s not what you think. I’m researching a ritual that was done previously. I’m not planning one.”

“And that’s safer?! Messing with ritual magic is a surefire way to end up with the magic burned out of you if you don’t know what you’re doing.”

“I’m fine. I’ve been careful.”

“You call this careful?” Fred gestured at a precarious pile of empty vials that had previously contained invigoration draft. “You haven’t been sleeping or eating and you’re currently hyped up on potions. You’re going to put yourself in the Hospital Wing, if not St. Mungos.”

“I’m fine…”

“No you’re not.” Cassius grabbed her shoulders. “I know you’ve been worried about Harry, but pushing yourself until you collapse isn’t going to help. Let us help.”

“You can’t.”

“Course we can. We’ve been keeping an eye on him, and he doesn’t go anywhere alone.” Fred chimed in, trying to catch her eye.

“And we’re keeping Quirrell chasing his tail. We’re still not sure why he would want to hurt Harry, but we won’t let him near him.” George added, leaning in on the other side of Cassius who was still holding her shoulders.

“Isn’t this what you’ve been working for? Your Canaries, your work with Malfoy, even Theo. Wasn’t it to help protect your brother?” She’d mentioned it one late night when they’d stayed up working out what connections to make in Slytherin to burrow their way into the Exchange. “You’ve been ignoring it this last month, but it’s still there, and it’s better than dying alone in a hidden room.”

Ari choked out a hysterical laugh that choked off as emotions tightened her throat.

“It’s not enough. Nothing I do is ENOUGH.” She shouted, pulling away from his hands as his grip slackened in shock. “If it was just Quirrell, I’d happily strangle the life out of him with my bare hands. But all it would do was make everything worse. Everything I do makes it worse!”

She grabbed at her hair, turning partially away as tears dripped down her face.

“Star…” One of them called out softly.

“Just let us help. Please.” George’s arms wrapped around her from behind, and Ari couldn’t help collapsing in his hold, devolving into sobs as he lowered them to the floor. He shushed her, rocking lightly.

She wasn’t sure how long it was before her tears petered out, but once they did, Fred was ready with a handkerchief and Cassius handed her a glass of water. They sat in silence as she pulled herself together.

Finally George tentatively spoke up.

“Ari, does this have something to do with your Sight?”

Chapter Text

“It’s not...I don’t…” Ari puffed out an exasperated breath at herself. “I can’t tell you, it not safe. Not for us and not for you if anyone ever found out you knew.”

“It’s alright Ari. We know occulmency, so no one will find out anything we know.” George murmured softly behind her.

“What?” She didn’t think the Weasley’s taught their kids occlumency. It was normally only done by traditionalist families who wanted to protect their Family secrets and Heirs from outside influence.

“Sirius taught us.” Fred answered. “He said that one day you might have secrets that you needed help keeping. We figured it was something to do with your Sight and that you’d bring it up when you were ready.”

“I know occlumency too. My...mom taught me when I was young, and I’ve kept up with it.” Cassius added.

Ari tried to move to be able to see them all, but George’s grip tightened, keeping her in place. She huffed in resignation and relaxed again.

“It’s still dangerous. I can’t tell you everything and honestly I’d rather you didn’t know any of it. The people who would be interested in it are the kind of people who wouldn’t care about shredding your shields and your mind to get what they want.” Fred frowned at her.

“We want to help Ari. We know it’s dangerous, but you’re stupid if you think you can keep us out of it just because we don’t know what’s going on. We’re not just going to leave you alone.” The other two nodded their agreement and Ari realized that they were right. They’d already followed her into trouble more than once and ignorance would just leave them more vulnerable.

“Fine, but you’ll need to make a Vow. You can’t talk about this to anyone else, and it can’t be discussed outside of warded rooms. If anyone overhears, we’d be lucky if we only ended up dead.”

The boys all looked serious which was what told her they actually understood the severity of the situation. She talked them through a Vow that she, Sirius, and Remus had drafted previously in the anticipation that eventually they would need to bring more people in on the secret. It would bind them from being able to share the information with anyone who didn’t already know and would provide some additional protections if someone tried to pull it from their mind. It wasn’t foolproof by any means, but it was the best option they had.

With the Vows done, they worked together to conjure up a rug and cushions to be able to comfortably sit on the floor.

“Alright, the first thing you need to know, is that I’m not a Seer.” The twins scoffed in unison, but Ari continued before they could cut in. “I’m not. I don’t See vision off the future, I Remember them. I’m pretty sure I was born with all the knowledge I have, but I didn’t really realize until I was three or four I think. It took me a while longer to make any sense of it.”

“That explains why you were such a strange kid. Mum and Dad didn’t know what to make of you.” George joked, trying to bring some levity to the tension in the room.

“Yeah, growing up with a bunch of memories that weren’t from this life does make for a weird personality. What’s your excuse?” She teased back, glad they didn’t seem to treat her any differently, though apparently they’d kind of known for a while.

“We’re just that talented.” The twins responded in unison. Ari just rolled her eyes and continued.

“The problem is that what I know doesn’t change. It’s static and it didn’t include me. Which means that anything I change has the possibility of negating everything I know about the future.”

“So you’ve been trying to keep events the same so you know what’s going to happen?” Cassius asked, since that was definitely the Slytherin approach to the problem.

“Yes and no. There were a few things I wasn’t willing to leave alone. I probably should have, but I didn’t have nearly as much impulse control when I was seven.”

“You took the rat to the Ministry on purpose! Bill thought you had, but our parents totally didn’t believe him. He’s been worried too, by the way.”

“Apparently you sent him one too many letters on barely legal warding runes.”

“He thinks your planning to break into some vault or something.”

Ari bounced back and forth between them, shaking her head as she realized she hadn’t been quite as subtle as she thought. Though the fact that Bill’s guess was so off was reassuring.

“Yes I took Pettigrew to the Ministry. No I’m not breaking into anything.” She continued despite their disappointment. “Revealing Pettigrew was the easiest way to get Sirius out of jail which was the easiest way to get Harry away from his delightful relatives. It wasn’t exactly a foolproof plan, but once again, I was seven.

“The problem is, Harry was supposed to stay with his relatives until he found out he was a wizard when he turned eleven. And Sirius was supposed to be in Azkaban until Harry turned thirteen at which point he broke out. You can see the issue.”

“If you’ve already changed so much, how can you be sure about anything you know?” Cassius asked

“We can’t. Sirius, Remus, and I keep track of everything that is supposed to happen and try to anticipate what might actually happen. It’s not perfect though. Harry was supposed to make the quidditch team this year…” Both the Twins exclaimed, but she continued over them. “And Quirrell would have hexed his broom. I thought he’d be safe since he wasn’t on the team, but instead he almost died by being tripped down the stairs. It’s why I need to find a find a way to protect him, since apparently everything else I do just makes it worse.” Ari’s hands twitched with the desire to return to her research, but the Twin on either side of her reach out and gripped one, grounding her. Cassius leaned forward to catch her eyes.

“Why does Quirrell want to kill Harry?”

Ari took a deep breath and gripped the Twins’ hands tighter.

“Quirrell is currently possessed by a shade of the Dark Lord.”

“You-Know-Who is Alive?”

“And he’s in the school?” The Twins exclaimed, talking a mile a minute as they devolved into disbelief fueled hysteria.

Cassius, on the other hand, just nodded like he expected it. When she sent a questioning look in his direction, he answered, cutting off the Twins.

“Most of his followers don’t believe he’s actually dead. They don’t know when he’ll come back, and some hope he won’t, but they’re all pretty sure he’s out there.”

“They’re right. He’s been living as a wraith since 1981. Quirrell had the misfortune of stumbling across him in Albania which had him hitching a ride back here. They’re currently trying to access the Philosopher’s stone, which Dumbledore is hiding in the castle.”

“So why not just kill Quirrell.” This surprisingly came from Fred, though he had always been the more ruthless twin.

“It’s not that simple. Killing Quirrell wouldn’t kill the Dark Lord.” Ari paused, grimacing at the title. She hated referring to Tom as anything he’d prefer, but she needed them to understand who she was talking about and she hated the whole You-Know-Who thing. “Look, I’m going to call him Tom. I’ll explain why later, but just...bear with me.” They all nodded, and the Twins looked delighted at the new naming potential.

“So, killing Quirrell wouldn’t kill Tom due to several reasons that I can’t explain right now. We also don’t have a way to trap him, since objects and wards that can contain souls are both very Dark and very rare.” The Mirror of Erised was actually one of them, which did give a point to Dumbledore’s planning, but leaving it in a school of children immediately threw him back into the negatives. It also wasn’t effective without long term exposure. “We’re trying to keep things similar to the original events so that we can anticipate his actions in the future when we can kill him. But that means that we have to just let Tom run around the school for most of the rest of the year.

“We’re watching him as best we can.” Ari nodded at Cassius. “And Dumbledore is definitely aware of the situation, but he’s more interested in engineering a confrontation between Harry and Tom than mitigating the problem.”

“Why does he want Harry to face an evil wizard like six times his age? Sure he survived last time, but most of Britain thinks that was a fluke.” George asked as they all worked through the information she’d given them. It was a lot to take in, but they were all doing admirably well.

“There’s a prophecy about Harry defeating Tom. Remus and I think that because the first time didn’t stick, Dumbledore wants to try another confrontations to see if it works this time. The problem is that there are things he’s not yet aware of that make it a bloody stupid idea.”

“So what are we going to do?” Fred asked, already looking eager. Ari scowled, looking back at her work.

“I already told you. I’m working on a way to protect Harry.”

“No, you’re working on a way to blow up yourself and half the school.” Cassius leaned to block her view. “This is neither sustainable nor practically. You’re not going to be able to create a ward that can protect him against anything...Tom...can manage in the next few years, let alone months. What can we do to make sure that Harry is safe while Quirrell is in the school?”

“We can’t kick him out, and we can’t watch him all the time. The teachers are useless so long as Dumbledore wants him in the school.”

“Do you know if Quirrell tries to kill Harry again?”

“Not...that I know of.” Ari considered what she knew. She wished she had the Journal, but she’d studied this year enough before it started to remember most details. “Not until the end of the year when Harry tries to stop him from stealing the Philosopher’s Stone. But that doesn’t mean he won’t.”

“Do you know why he didn’t in you Memories?”

“It might have been because Snape was paying more attention. He’s suspicious of Quirrell and is part of the reason it takes so long for Quirrell to get to the stone.”

“Well we’ve got that part covered.” The Twins grinned at each other.

“Quirrell can’t take a leak without someone commenting on it.”

“And we’ve got the firsties traveling in groups so he won’t catch Harry alone.”

“What about the end of the year?” Cassius asks.

“Harry and his friends find out about the Stone and think Snape is going to steal it. It’s hidden behind a bunch of trials that are made so that the first years can get through, but only Harry makes it to the end and finds out it was Quirrell. He...accidentally kills him, which makes Tom flee. It takes another four years for him to regain a body.

“We’ve been planning to intervene before Harry actually goes after the stone, but let him work everything else out to keep Dumbledore from becoming too suspicious.” Neither Ari nor her fathers wanted Harry to face Tom, even if it would be another change. There was no point in keeping the future the same if they couldn’t protect their family when it mattered.

“Well that we can handle, but if the end goal is keeping the stone out of Tom’s hands and making sure he can’t keep using Quirrell, then we’ll need to find some other way to stop him.” Cassius reasoned.

“Wait, are we actually talking about killing a professor? I know he’s possessed and everything, but I kind of think we’re a bit young to end up in Azkaban for premeditated murder.” George said, wide eyed at the implications, but Cassius shook his head.

“We really only need to separate Quirrell and Tom, though possession is hard on the body. I’m surprised he’s survived this long.”

“He’ll be drinking unicorn blood by spring if he hasn’t started already.” Ari answered the unasked question. “There’s a good chance he’ll be useless by the end of the school year, so Tom might vacate anyways. Though I’m not opposed to finding a way to speed up the process.”

“Alright, that’s one goal. What are we going to do about the stone?” Fred had stolen one of her pieces of parchment and was taking notes on the back. From what she could see, they were vague, but she’d need to make sure it was burned before leaving the room.

“We could steal it.” George said, already looking gleeful at the prospect.

“It could work. If we manage to do it without alerting Dumbledore, it would leave everything in place but still prevent Tom from getting the stone when he does try for it. We’d just have to, you know, trick the ‘second coming of Merlin.’” Cassius made actual finger quotes as he spoke, causing the rest of them to snicker.

“I’m not convinced he even has the actual stone, but I’m also not will to bet on it. I know the trials that the kids go through, though not what other safeguards are in place. Depending on how it’s set up, we might have a chance. Plus, if we get that far, we could leave our own surprise at the end.” Ari considered the possibility. There was every chance Dumbledore put actual protections on the stone that would bar them entry, but it was something they could work on rather than just waiting around. Sirius and Remus were going to hate it.

“Alright, we should divvy up who’s working on what since we’re going to need to prepare. Cassius, you can look into ways to weaken a possession since you have the most experience with Dark magics. I’ll have Nimsy bring by some books for you. Fred, George, you’re on bypassing the trials. I’ll get you a list of what they are and after the break we can see if the trapdoor under Fluffy has any other monitoring or warding spells. You have better magic sense than I do. I’ll keep looking into warding and see what we have in the Family Vault that might trip up a power hungry ego maniac.”

“Absolutely not. You’re going to eat something and then go straight to bed. You aren’t going to even think about any of this until after Boxing Day, and then you will have one of us with you to ensure you aren’t going overboard.” Cassius dictated, leaving no room for argument. Not that that stopped Ari from trying.

“I told you I’m fine. I might have gotten a bit carried away, but I’ll be more careful. You guys don’t need to babysit me!”

“You’re not fine Ari, you’re scrambling for a sense of control. This obsessive research binge is just going to make it worse. You’re trusting us to help save your brother. Trust us to save you too, even if it’s from yourself.” Cassius had hold of her shoulders again, holding her gaze steadily. She slowly deflated under his intense look. She knew that she hadn’t been taking care of herself, but it all seemed so much less important than fixing the problems her changes had made.

“...alright.” she murmured, letting him slowly pull her in for a hug. She barely reached his collarbone. “Thanks.”

“Any time.”

“Group hug!” Suddenly they were squished from both sides as the Twins threw themselves into the hug.

Ari chuckled and let herself relax into it, even as Cassius grumbled halfheartedly. They might be a pain in the ass, but it was nice to have friends who cared.

Chapter Text

Ari did head back to her room after Cassius and Twins dragged her to the kitchen for food. From the way she inhaled the early lunch the elves provided, it had been longer than she thought since she last ate.

She had genuinely planned to go straight to bed, but the sight of the unwrapped presents she’d left out had her scrambling to get them ready and shipped off with school owls so that they’d arrive in time. She’d managed to dodge Cassius in the common room, but the Twins had apparently been watching the Map and caught her in the owlery and marched her directly back to the common room to face Cassius’s scolding.

She managed to sleep for ten hours straight, only to wake up, eat dinner, and spend a couple hours reading by the fire before sleeping the rest of the night through. Cassius even vetted her reading material to make sure she didn’t try to sneak any work in. She appreciated the thought, even as she scowled at him.

Christmas was spent relaxing. In the morning she opened presents with Cassius and enjoyed a late brunch in their pajamas. Christmas dinner was in the middle of the day and shared with everyone still left in the castle. Between the Weasleys, Cassius, Harry, and her, they took up almost half the table that was placed.

After dinner, they all headed to the Gryffindor common room to hang out and play games. Risk was vetoed, but they had both Monopoly and Catan going at once. It was chaos at it’s best, especially when Ron landed on the Gringotts space owned by Percy with a hotel and almost flipped the board. Unfortunately for him, that was a more common reaction than not, and the boards were charmed to hold everything in place, even if flipped upside down and shaken.

Needless to say, Percy won Monopoly and Ari won Catan with an empire built on brick and three different sea ports. Which is why they were banned from the Exploding Snap tournament, but that just gave them time to discuss the three volume set of The War in Ink: A Brief History of Wizard Goblin Treaties Through the Years that she’d gifted him, much to the dismay of everyone in hearing range.

The celebration lasted late into the night with supper being cheese toasties over the fire and too much of Mrs. Weasley’s fudge.

Boxing day was the real adventure. Sirius and Remus had gotten permission to take Ari, Cassius, Harry, and the Weasleys out for a day, which is why they were all waiting in the entrance hall bright and early.

“Good morning kiddos!” Sirius appeared with far too much enthusiasm despite spend what was no doubt a late night with the Tonks. He was wearing a bright red Santa hat and immediately plopped a pair of reindeer antlers on Harry and a holly crown on her head when he got close enough before pulling them both into a hug. “You all ready to go?”

“We’re ready. Where’s Remus?” Ari asked when she made it out of the strangling hug and righted her new head-wear.

“Here, Sirius just ran ahead. Let’s get going.” Remus herded them all towards the front door as Sirius marched ahead, merrily singing a christmas song despite obviously not knowing the words.

The group of them trouped out of Hogwarts and headed towards Hogsmead. They planned to spend the morning shopping there, before flooing to London to visit the cinema to watch The Addams Family. Ari was trilled to be seeing it in theaters.

When they finally reached Hogsmead, they immediately beelined directly for Honeydukes. Ari had visited earlier in the year with Cassius, but there was no doubt that Honeydukes had earned it’s reputation of Finest and she already needed to restock the stash of dark chocolate and raspberry bars she kept in her trunk. Harry and Ron who hadn’t yet had the chance to visit were ecstatic.

With sugar highs well on their way, the group split. Ari could already see Remus regretting not bringing another adult, but Percy at least stepped up to run herd on the Twins and keep them from over doing it at Zonkos. Ari was surprised when Sirius didn’t join them, but as Cassius slipped off with an excuse to join Remus and the youngest boys, she realized she’d been set up. Which was just confirmed as Sirius started casually leading her towards the Shrieking Shack.

“The boys tattled, didn’t they.”

“I wouldn’t call it tattling when they were concerned about your health.” Sirius said, surprisingly serious for once, not that she’d say that out loud. “...Snitched maybe.” Or maybe not too serious.

They reached the shack before Sirius continued, but only after he set up wards.

“They were right to tell me though. It’s not uncommon for you to get caught up in a new project, but it isn’t like you to disappear for days or to ignore the responsibilities you’ve given yourself.”

“They’ve already lectured me on that, and I’m not allowed to research without one of them present, so it won’t happen again.”

“Good, you’ll probably need the help.” Ari frowned at him, but Sirius just sighed, rubbing his eyes. “There’s a reason I’m talking to you instead of Remus. He’s better at this kind of thing, but well…” He paused again, gathering his thoughts. “There’s a...curse in the Black Family. It’s been there as long as we have written records, which is a long time.”

Ari nodded along. She’d seen the records in the Family Vault and even had the chance to look through a few of the less cursed ones. They went back to almost the 800s and were one of the reasons the Black Family was considered the oldest wixen family in Britain. But there was only one possible curse he could be talking about.

“The Black Family Madness.”

“Yeah. It’s not actually a curse of madness. Not at it’s core. It’s just that, given how dramatic our family tends to be, visible cases are often...extreme and violent. In reality, it’s actually a curse of obsession. My Mother was obsessed with the Purity of the family. Specifically the blood line. She married my father and forced him to take over the Lordship, then used that power to ensure the line remain pure by her standards. Bellatrix was...well she is obsessed with Tom. Everything he said or believed she believed. She would do anything for him.” Ari processed that as he paused again.

“You think I have the Madness.” Sirius winced.

“Yes. It runs more strongly in the women in the family. Most of them show signs eventually. But it’s not always an entirely bad thing. Andy was obsessed with learning the best healing practices to do what she could to help in the war. My Aunt Cassiopeia was obsessed with breeding the perfect magical house plants. The problem is that leaning into the Madness warps your perspective. It leads to a mindset where the ends always justify the means which can be dangerous for you and everyone around you.”

“What do I do?” Ari shivered as she realized just how far she could go with an obsession for protecting those she loved. How far she was already willing to go. She hadn’t even hesitated when she’d told the boys that she’d be willing to kill one of their professors if it would solve the current issues. And sure, Quirrell was complicit, but maybe she should be worried about how willing she was.

Sirius pulled her into a hug.

“You need to find an anchor. Andy got through her training by relying on Ted to be her guide of what was too far. Cassiopeia had several house elves that were perfectly willing to cut off her access to the greenhouse and stop her from creating anything too dangerous. You need someone that’s willing to tell you no and enforce it. And I think you already have a few.” Sirius smiled down at her. “You’ve made some good friends there, ‘Ri.”

“Yeah, they’re pretty great, even when they snitch on me to my dad.” Ari replied, scrunching up her nose in mock irritation.

“Good, then keep letting them help. I heard you let them in on some of the secret, that will help them keep up with you, you just need to make sure to listen when they are concerned.”

“I don’t know if they’ll stop me as much as you think they should. All of our morals are a little...skewed.”

“I think they’ll make sure you don’t hurt yourself or anyone innocent, and that’s good enough for me.” Ari huffed, realizing she’d warned the wrong parent. Sirius was more than a bit morally grey himself when it came to protecting his family. Ari wouldn’t be surprised if he had a bit of the Madness himself.

“Alright, enough of the serious talk.” Sirius said with an eye waggle as he swung them both around. “It’s Christmas, we should be celebrating.”

“Can’t miss the show. You’re going to love Gomez.” Ari continued to tease him with fake spoilers as they made their way back to the group. She had pretty great friends, but her family was something else.

***

Ari was currently eating breakfast in the Great Hall. They were still down to one table as it had been all break, but it didn’t matter much since this early in the morning the only other person there was a fifth year Ravenclaw who seemed content to ignore her.

It was peaceful...if she ignore the incessant desire to return to her research. The longer she spent away from it the more she realized how reckless she had been, though that didn’t stop it from feeling justified. But with a clearer head, and Sirius’s advice, she was willing to try to follow the boy’s rules when it came to her project. Which meant she wasn’t allowed to return to her hideaway without one of them. The problem was that she’d thoroughly messed up her sleeping schedule and was wide awake at barely six in the morning where there was no chance of any of the boys would be awake before nine.

Which is what surprised her most when Harry wandered in.

A closer look showed that he was nervous and a bit distracted. He was also still dressed in his pajamas. Ari thought she had an inkling of what might be bothering him, but she waited patiently as he approached her.

“Good morning Har-bear.” She greeted quietly.

“Morning ‘Ri. I, um...I could use your help with something.” Harry glanced sideways at the Ravenclaw like he was worried about being overheard.

“Hmm, why don’t we walk and talk.” She followed him out of the room and towards the staircases. “What’s up, Harry?” He seemed hesitant to answer, fidgeting with the bottom of his shirt. “I can’t help if you don’t tell me what’s wrong.”

“I was...wandering around the other night…” Translation: he was sneaking into the restricted section. “And found a room with in a mirror in it. It was pretty cool, it showed me playing quidditch and you and Remus and Sirius were in the stands, and my parents were there…”

Ari’s expression softened as she heard Harry’s greatest desire and she wrapped an arm around him as best she could while walking up stairs. While he still missed his parents, this time he had family who could be there for him.

“So I went back last night, and I took Ron with me. He saw something similar, but he was Quidditch Captain, and Head Boy, and things. Which is also pretty cool, but he didn’t want to leave. I made him come back to the dorm with me, but this morning he was gone again and I found him at the mirror and he seems really dazed. He wouldn’t listen to me.”

Ari squeezed his shoulders even as she cursed out Dumbledore mentally.

“I’m glad you came to me, you did the right thing. Let’s go sort out Ron, and then we will be having a serious conversation about the dangers of cursed objects.” Harry wilted a bit.

“It didn’t seem dangerous, it just showed me something interesting.”

“It’s not what you saw that’s the problem, it’s the fact that you wanted to go back and spend more time looking at it. Objects with compulsions built in are very rarely benign. Plus, you have at least basic occlumancy shields, even if you’ve been neglecting the meditation exercises Sirius gave you.” Harry winced looking guilty as Ari side eyed him. “Ron doesn’t have that, so the mirror affected him more strongly.”

By this time they’d reached the fifth floor where the library was kept and Harry quickly guided her to a room a few corridors over. Inside was a large gilt mirror and very still Ron staring into it.

“Ron?” The boy in question just hummed in response without turning.

Ari sidled around the room, careful not to look in the mirror. She could feel the compulsion coming off of it, but locking down her shields dampened the effect enough to ignore. She managed to maneuver herself in front of the mirror, blocking Ron’s view.

“Ari? What are you doing? Get out of the way!” He tried to lean around her, but she kept moving to stay in his way.

As soon as he stood up, she grabbed his shoulders and walked him backwards, tilting her head to keep blocking his view. Ron was only a bit shorter than her, and had some muscle from playing quidditch with his brothers in the summer, but he’d also been sitting the same position for hours and that caused a lack of coordination she took advantage of. Harry ran ahead to get the door open, and closed it behind them once they were all out in the hall.

“What’s the big idea? I was just looking.”

“You’ve been looking for hours Ron, and as I’m fairly certain you would like to keep your soul in your body, it’s time to stop.”

“What?” Both Ron and Harry asked in unison.

“The inscription around the mirror. It said, ‘I show not your reflection but your hearts desire.’ It’s the mirror of Erised and it’s an incredibly dark object. People waste away in front of it, unable to leave, and their soul is eventually trapped in the mirror.” She kept hold of Ron as she explained, since he still seemed focused on going back inside.

“What’s it doing in the school?” Harry asked, visibly concerned.

“I don’t know, but I’m going to get a teacher to handle it. You should probably take Ron back to the Gryffindor Tower. The mirror shouldn’t have any lingering effects other than the compulsion, but it’s important that he doesn’t go looking for it again. Try to keep him distract for at least a few days if you can.”

Harry nodded seriously and pulled Ron away. Hopefully her explanation would be enough of a wake up call to keep Ron from trying to find it later. Once they were gone, she pulled out a spare bit of parchment and wrote a note before folding it into a paper airplane and sending it on it’s way.

Less than 30 minutes later, Snape arrived in the hall, fully dressed and looming despite the early hour.

“I trust you have a good reason for disturbing my this early during the holiday.” He drawled. Their relationship was still strained from the beginning of the year, but the professor was slowly improving in his treatment of the younger years, which meant she was sending him less and less new reading material each month. Her essays were still a blood bath of red ink, but it was a sacrifice she was willing to make if it meant less first years left potions class in tears.

Still, she would have preferred McGonagall, but unfortunately Snape was better versed in handling cursed objects.

“The Mirror of Erised is in this room. A couple of students found it and let me know. I thought you might want to be informed.”Ari told him and was gratified at the way his eyes widened at the news.

“And can it be assumed that these students are some of your cohort?”

“Perhaps.” She wasn’t about to rat out Harry and Ron without reasonable cause. Snape seemed to understand, since he didn’t press.

“Compulsions can linger and cause increased levels of distraction and obsession. I will provide you with a purification potion. Ensure they take it.” Ari nodded, glad for the help as she had been worried about how quickly Ron had been drawn in. “I will also ensure that no other student stumbles upon it until it can be removed. You did...well to bring it to my attention.”

Ari hid a smirk at the pained look Snape wore after complimenting her. She’d have to find other ways to make it happen in the future. Though something must have shown on her face as he immediately scowled.

“Away with you. Pray that you do not have reason to see me before classes renew.” Ari was pretty sure he would be the one praying to avoid her, but she simply nodded and left to see if Cassius was awake yet.

No doubt the mirror would be in place soon which meant they had plans to make.

Chapter Text

“Good Morning Draco.” Ari greeted her cousin as he sat down in the chair across from her. He scowled at her, still irritated that she’d canceled several of their sessions before the break. She’d hoped that her Christmas gift, a leather journal with a dragon carved into the cover, would have eased his anger, but apparently not. It was a shame, since it was a very cool journal. Being friends with Charlie quickly taught her all the best places to source dragon themed presents.

Regardless, now that her friends had sorted her out and put her research time on a schedule, she was back to meeting twice weekly with her cousin.

It was a good thing too. She’d noted marked improvements since the beginning of the year, especially in regards to the number of times per day he referenced his father, and his ability to come up with insults. He’d also gotten better at observing people.

“How was your holiday? I enjoyed the quills you family sent me.”

“It was fine.” Ari resisted the urge to roll her eyes.

“Alright, if you’re not feeling up to social niceties, we’ll get right to the lesson. Today we’ll be discussing incentives. Do you know what an incentive is?” Draco thought for a minute, his nose crinkling slightly in concentration.

“Father talks about incentivizing people at the ministry when he wants them to do something.”

“Good. And incentive is a way to motive someone to do something. A way to encourage specific actions or behavior.”

“People already do what I want them to.”

“Do they? You parents do everything you tell them to?” Ari raised an eyebrow, even as Draco nodded imperiously.

“Mostly, yeah.” No wonder the kid was spoiled.

“Hmm, do I do what you tell me to?” The kid scowled again, shaking his head. “Exactly. Most people need a reason for what they do, especially if it’s different from what they would normally do.”

Draco thought that over as Ari gave him a minute to process.

“Let’s try an example. Do you see Miss Davies over there? She has a new quill. How would you convince her to give it to you.” She deliberately picked someone Draco’s age who wasn’t part of his group of friends.

“I’d probably buy it from her.”

“Money is a good motivator. It’s quite often that you’ll find people willing to do things they normally wouldn’t if you offer enough money. Sometimes this is considered a bribe. Depends on the context.” Draco nodded along. No doubt he was aware of bribes given the amount of money Lucius used on them every year.

“What about this. I have a book here, how would you convince me to give it to you?”

“I would offer to pay you for it.” Ari shrugged and shook her head.

“I already have plenty of money, I don’t need more, especially when I find the knowledge in the book more useful than the gold you might offer me.” Draco looked stumped for a minute. “What might I be more interested in than gold?”

“You...like knowledge…so I could offer you a different book as a trade. The Malfoy Library has several books on warding that aren’t available elsewhere.” She was impressed that he’d noticed what she was reading recently, especially since the book she used as an example was only a rune one she’d received for Christmas.

“Good. Things are more valuable if you are the only one that can provide them. However, it’s important to weight the worth of what you want vs what you are willing to trade. In a good trade, both parties feel that they got the better end of the deal. You can also offer to trade things that aren’t quite as physical. Favors are a common form of payment especially for less legal transactions as they are harder to track, but be careful who you owe favors to, you never know what they might ask in return.

“Alright, one more. How would I convince you to give me your Heir ring?” Draco looked taken aback at the thought.

“There’s no way I’d give you me ring!” Ari grinned as Draco clutched the hand with his ring close to him.

“I know. There’s not enough money or favors or jewels in the world to convince you to give me your ring. However, it’s important to remember that incentives are not always trades. It’s about finding what will motivate you.

“You might not give me your Heir ring if I asked nicely, but you might if you believed it was the only way to save your family.” Draco looked shocked at the revelation. “You might be willing to give it away to save your own life. You might even be willing to give it away if staying the Malfoy Heir would ruin everything you worked for, if it would make it so you could never achieve your dreams.”

“How would you convince me of that?” Draco asked, still reeling from her hypothetical threats to his family.

“Mmm, probably several years worth of subtle misinformation aimed at turning you against your parents through the use of rumors, fake letters, and maybe even gaslighting.”

“...what?”

“Yeah, it’s would be a lot of work, but teens are pretty malleable during puberty, and if it was worth the effort and time, it would probably be possible.”

Draco looked horrified at the thought, and possibly at her nonchalant answer with out needing to think about it.

“Look, the important thing to remember is that everything has a price, the question is are you willing and able to pay it. It’s good to know both for achieving what you want, but also to remember what someone might be willing to do to get what they want, and to realize why someone is doing something. Making the cost too high is the best way to demotivate someone. It works in both directions. So, what did you learn?” Draco snapped out of his stupor.

“You’re crazy.”

“Sure, it’s a common trait in my side of the family. But what did you learn about incentives.” Ari teased him a bit, relaxing back into her chair.

“There are many ways to motivate people to do what you want including money, favors, threats, or...manipulation.”

“Yes. It’s also important to remember that each person is different. The better you know the person, the better you will be at choosing the correct incentive. It’s also important to realize what you are willing to do for what you want.

“Alright, that’s it for today. On thursday we’ll be talking about public perceptions and how you can manipulate them to help you.” Ari grinned and watched Draco wander back to his friends, clearly still thinking about the possibility that someone might be able to convince him to do something he considers so unthinkable right now. Hopefully it would make him more aware of when people were trying to manipulate him in the future.

“You’re a bit scary Ari.” Cassius said as he sat down next to her. He seemed to enjoy watching her sessions with Draco, if only to see how well the young Malfoy did. “Could you actually turn him against his parents?”

“Maybe. It would take more effort than it was worth, but he’s at school for nine months of the year. A few rumors over time, mail lost or changed to encourage distance, another family willing to take him in and support him. It’s pretty much what happened to Sirius, but his family actually just sucked.”

“Merlin. Maybe you shouldn’t be reading all those psychology books you give Snape. I think it’s making you scarier.”

“Eh, I have neither the time nor the motivation to manipulate one person like that. Besides, there’s every chance it would actually backfire.”

“Sure, that’s the issue. Anyways, Fred and George are meeting us in the Retreat to go over what they found so far.”

“Cool, let’s go.”

***

“Alright, so where are we at?” They’d gathered around the table in the Retreat, currently warded to keep Lee from wandering in since he was the only other one who regularly had access, though, given that he was currently attending a gobstone tournament, they weren’t too worried.

What did worry Ari were the various bubbling cauldrons on the far side of the room. None of them looked too violent, but the soot marks on both Twins’ faces suggested that wasn’t a given. At least they seemed to be taking safety precautions with the goggles around their neck.

“Not good.” Fred said, shuffling through random looking papers. They’re style of note taking was significantly different than hers, but they seemed to be able to keep most of it straight. Though, what she could make out from here included two-thirds of a potion recipe, half a star chart centered around Saturn, and a surprisingly good caricature of Snape. “We’ve got the ‘Snare and the keys covered,”

“And we’re pretty sure we can handle the logic puzzle, based on the ones you lent us.” George picked up.

“Cassius is the best we’ve got for chess,”

“The troll might be trouble, but we can find a work around.”

“But it’s unlikely we’d be able to make it through without leaving traces of our presence behind.”

“Which would make the whole thing useless.” Ari concluded. “If Dumbledore knows we’ve been there, he’ll just take back the stone and possibly change the whole thing.”

“We’ll keep looking.” The Twins said in unison, scribbling something else down.

“I’ve got better news on how to deal with Quirrell.” Cassius pulled out an old looking book that Ari itched to get her hands on. “As a wraith, Tom is considered a subset of Ghost. Ghost based possession hasn’t been much of an issue since the 1500s when they discovered a way to exorcise the problematic ghosts, but it was heavily researched at the time. Unfortunately, exorcisms require a very specifically timed ritual and the remains of the ghost.”

“Bit hard with Tommy boy blowing himself up.” Fred snarked.

“Exactly. But this book also has ways to ward off spirits and things that are supposed to help keep you from getting possessed. The best one for our problem is the Salvia flower. People used to plant it around their houses to keep spirits away, or wear it as a perfume.”

“I think sending Quirrell a bouquet might be a bit obvious.” Ari said, trying to read the page upside down.

“Luckily, salvia is also available as an oil. We can apply it to surfaces he touches regularly and it should slowly destabilize the possession. It will be counteracted by the unicorn blood somewhat, but given that that’s just a stop gap, it should help ensure that Quirrell isn’t a viable option by the end of the year.”

“Excellent! His desk, and maybe the door handles are probably the best bet. We’ll have to start light if we don’t want him to notice. He’ll be out of his office from ten to eleven on Saturday for the Teachers meeting, we can do it then.” Cassius nodded, sliding the tome over the Ari which she accepted gleefully.

“The wards are coming along. It would probably be better to add them into clothing like battle robes, but trying to ward every piece of clothing Harry has would be a nightmare, especially since he’s still growing. Currently, the bracelets can activate a shield charm, but it still keeps the wearer from casting from inside. The problem is that wards are too rigid to allow movement. In the meantime, though, I do have an upgrade on the pendants.” She grabbed them out of her bag and passed them around.

“Still has the basic protections and notice-me-not built in, but now it create a protego shield that should hold up against at least a couple of mid level spells before it needs to recharge. It’s intent based, so it should trigger automatically if a malicious spell is aimed at you, or you can tap and hold to turn it on.” She would pass out the others’ as soon as she saw them.

“I’m also looking into adding a portkey as an emergency exit, but given the possible complications to casting that spell wrong, I’m probably going to have to wait until Remus can help this summer.” They all put on the new pendants and tried out the shields. “Alright, if that’s everything, I’ve got things to do.”

“Nope, it’s break time Star!” Ari groaned at Fred’s announcement. After her bout of Black Madness Lite, the Twins and Cassius had discussed and come up with their own plan to ‘keep her from going crazy and taking over the world’ or ‘at least not die prematurely since taking over the world is pointless if you die at thirteen.’ Which meant she wasn’t allowed to research warding topics without supervision and she had to take mandatory breaks whenever one of them said to. She was pretty sure they were abusing it to get her to hang out and avoid school work, but unfortunately Cassius agreed, so it couldn’t be entirely unreasonable.

“What are we doing this time?”

“Snowball fight!” Even if Ari wasn’t already well aware of how menacing the Twins could be, the grin on their face now would have convinced her. Cassius started edging for the door, but she caught his arm before he could make it. If she had to suffer through, so did he.

As it turns out, the snow ball fight was pretty fun. They ended up roping in a good number of people from various years and houses which lead to several quickly built forts. She had fun learning a charm from a sixth year Ravenclaw for creating snowballs, then changing the color to splatter opposing teams with various lurid shades.

She turned to Cassius, just about ready to call it quits for the day, only to see the Twins charming snowballs to bounce off the back of Quirrell’s turban. Needless to say, once she managed to drag them inside, and away from the Dark Lord possessed DADA teacher, she took a page out of Mrs. Weasley’s book for a round of scolding. They even managed to look a bit contrite, once they finished laughing.

Eventually Cassius bribed her with hot chocolate, and the Twins made their escape.

No doubt Sirius and Remus would be receiving an interesting letter recounting the prank soon.

Chapter Text

Ari closed another book with a sigh and rubbed at her eyes. She’d need to take a break soon or Cassius would come scold her. Which was why she was hiding in her room. The problem was, they were running out of time. It was already the end of Easter break and they still didn’t have a way past all of the trials.

They’d taken a few exploratory trips to check out the trap door. Ari had found a spell that repeats a given sound until it’s canceled and George turned out to be very good at humming. It was enough to have Fluffy fast asleep in minutes and gave them plenty of time to look over the situation. Unfortunately, there were several monitoring wards on the trap door itself, which Ari couldn’t circumvent like the one on the main door. At least not without significant research.

She’d been working on a solution, but hadn’t found one yet, which left them without a way to even get to the trials, let alone pass them without leaving evidence behind. If they weren’t able to find a solution in time, they’d be forced to consider actually confronting Quirrell to ensure he didn’t get a hold of the stone, even if it may be a fake. As it was, that possibility was looking likelier and likelier.

A knock sounded at her door.

Ari quickly gathered her books and shoved them into a draw of her desk. She wasn’t technically working on her defensive wards, but all of the books were on detection and monitoring wards, so there was a chance Cassius would consider it against their rules. Better not to risk it

The knock sounded again.

“I’m coming Cassius, give me a minute.” She opened the door to find not Cassius, but Theo on the other side. “How did you get over here.”

Unlike Gryffindor Tower, both the girls and the boys side were warded against the opposite gender. Not to dissuade fraternizing, but because it regulated who was supposed to be allowed in that area. Similarly, the rooms were individually warded to the people who lived there. However, the generalized wards were easy enough to get around if you knew the correct spells. But they weren’t given out for free, and no one taught them to first years to keep them from causing chaos before they settled into the house.

So either Theo had found an older student to bribe into teaching him, which would be impressive given how quiet the kid was. Or he had found a way around them himself. Which, given how much time he spent reading, was a strong possibility.

Theo just raised an eyebrow at her question, smart enough not to reveal his sources.

“Alright, keep you secrets. What did you need?” She moved to the side, letting him in the room and closing the door behind him. If it was just a normal report, he’d use the mail slot she’d rigged up on her half of the room, allowing her Canaries to drop off written reports and information. If he was knocking on her door, it was either something urgent, or something about Harry.

“Draco just came in rambling about seeing a dragon in the Gamekeeper’s hut. He said your brother and his friends were there too.” Ah, so it was that time. Ari hadn’t realized it happened right at the end of Easter holidays. Everyone had just gotten back today, though significantly more people stayed than over Winter break.

“Is he planning to report it?” Ari asked, even though she thought she knew the answer. Theo shook his head. “Alright, how would you like to meet a dragon Theo?”

The boy look surprised and then immediately intrigued. As soon as he agreed, Ari lead him to the boys side of the dorms, straight to one of the first year rooms. A couple of loud knocks later the door was answered by one Gregory Goyle. Ari leaned around him until she could see her young cousin, still looking red in the face and worked up.

“With me, Draco.”

“What? Why? It’s late.” Draco complained, but stood up.

“Apparently not so late that you didn’t go wandering yourself. We have some business to handle, and I thought you might like to come along.” Ari turned to leave, and as she expected, Draco hurried after her.

“Where are we going? Why is Nott here?” Her cousin continued to ask questions as they made their way through the common room and out the entrance. Despite being after curfew, no one tried to stop them.

“Shh, you’d think you never snuck around before.” Ari admonished him quietly. She paused for a moment to put a notice-me-not on each of them before continuing on a path that would take them out a side entrance on the side of the castle facing Hagrid’s house. “This will keep people from noticing us, but if you draw too much attention it will no longer be effective.”

“This is stronger than a normal notice-me-not.” Theo murmured, eyeing his own arm as well as the edges of Ari and Draco where the disruption was most noticeable. He really was a very smart kid.

“Yes, it’s my specialty.”

They quickly made it out onto the grounds and down the path. Once they arrived at Hagrid’s house, Ari disabled the spell and knocked loudly.

“Jus’ a moment.” There was the sound of rattling and something heavy being moved before the door creaked open a crack that was completely blocked by Hagrid’s body. He looked confused for a minute before looking down and spotting them. “Oh, Ari. Wha’ are ya doin’ out here this late?”

Hagrid was nice, but he was a terrible liar, and worse at hiding things. Even now he looked entirely suspicious with the way he fidgeted as he held the door mostly closed.

“Good evening Hagrid, I felt it was the perfect time to take an educational excursion. After all, it isn’t everyday you get to see a dragon in person.” Ari smiled sweetly and stepped forward. Hagrid automatically backed up, giving her just enough room to slip past him.

The room was surprisingly empty of dragon, but the shaking chest just to the side of the table was a dead give away. There were also still four mugs on the table, which told Ari she’d been quick enough to catch the trio. Likely they were hiding under the cloak.

“Wha’? Dragon? I don’t kno’ wha’ ya mean.” Hagrid tried, but Ari just blinked up at him.

“I also thought I’d check on my brother.” Ari heard a surprised sound from around the corner near the rear exit, and a quick, if not as quiet as they probably thought it was, argument before the Golden Trio came back into the room.

“Hi Ari.” Harry said, waving sheepishly.

“Hello Harry.” She didn’t bother to scold him, since she doubted it would stop him from sneaking out after curfew, and honestly she was just as culpable right now. “Anyways, Draco was rather rude in eavesdropping,” She turned back towards Hagrid, stepping on Draco’s foot to interrupt his immediate protests. “but you can understand his excitement. He’d named after the dragon constellation you know. And Theo is fascinated by magical creatures, so we thought we’d see if you’d introduce us.” Theo nodded along readily despite having no specific interest beyond his love of any knowledge he could gain. Ari knew she’d chosen correctly when she’d picked Theo for her Canaries.

“Oh, well, I don’ see why not.” Hagrid said, seeming much more at ease with that explanation. “Come ‘ere Norbert.” He opened the chest and scooped up the dragon to set him on the table.

The dragon was pretty cute, even if the inside of the trunk was already scorched from its short time enclosed. Draco, despite his earlier wariness, immediately moved closer, as did Theo, though he stopped at a safer distance.

She listened with half an ear as Hagrid listed the information he knew in regards to Norwegian Ridgebacks to the two interested boys. Harry subtly sidled closer until he could whisper without the others hearing.

“What are you doing here Ari? And why did you bring Draco?” Ari rolled her eyes at the irritation in her brother’s tone.

“Someone had to keep him from reporting Hagrid to one of the teachers. Besides, it’s a learning experience.” Harry just huffed and rolled his eyes back.

After another few minutes, they all settled back into their chairs as Hagrid poured them more tea.

“So, Hagrid, will you be speaking with Professor Grubbly-Plank to find Norbert a proper placement? Or do you have contact with one of the preserves?”

“Nah, I plan ta raise him myself.” Hagrid said proudly, chuckling the dragon under the chin, despite the fact that it immediately coughed fire into his beard again. He idly patted it out.

“Really? You said Norwegian Ridgebacks get up to 35 feet in length. You’d have to keep him in the Forbidden Forrest which seems dangerous for the other native fauna. They’re not exactly equipped to handle a dragon.” Hagrid looked a bit hesitant at her argument. “And I’ve heard that while dragons are fairly solitary, they do create bonds within their own species. It seems cruel to keep him separated out here all alone.”

“Well, erm, I’m sure he’d be alright if I socialize him as he grows up.” Hagrid replied, but still seemed less sure than previously. Ari gasped as if she’d just had a horrible thought.

“What if the ministry found out about him? The Forrest is big, but there are so many students around and a flying dragon is easy to spot. I’ve heard that hand raised dragons are sometimes put down if they can’t be integrated into a sanctuary since they don’t know how to safety interact with other dragons.” Hagrid looked horrified.

“They wouldna do that to Norbert would they? He’s jus’ a baby.” Ari nodded seriously.

“How about this? You know Charlie, right? Charlie Weasley. He works up in Romania, and I’m sure he could arrange for Norbert to be safely transferred without having to involve the ministry at all. That way Norbert can grow up with other dragons and he won’t be in any danger!”

“I dunno.” Hagrid said, reaching out to pet Norbert again. Ari was just about to speak again when Hermione cut in.

“I think it’s a great idea Hagrid. Think of all the space he’d have to fly and the other dragons he could meet.” Hermione looked slightly desperate as Norbert belched more flames onto the table.

“But what if the other dragons bully him…” Hagrid was running out of arguments, so Ari decided to double down.

“Charlie will keep him safe, and besides, I’m sure he’s strong just like his dad.” Hagrid teared up a bit. “I know you want what’s best for him, Hagrid. He’ll be much happier and safer at a reserve.”

“Alright…”

“Excellent, I’ll right Charlie tonight. The sooner we get Norbert on his way, the sooner he’ll be safe.”

She gave it another few minute before starting to make their excuses and herd the kids out the door. She immediately covered them all in notice-me-nots and started leading them towards the castle.

“So Harry, what did we learn tonight.”

“I learned that you probably have a sixth sense for knowing when I’m getting into trouble.” Harry snarked.

“You already knew that. What did we learn practically.” Hermione raised her arm and waved it around sarcastically if that was possible.

“I learned to check if we’re being followed by snitches.” Ari chuckled at the girl’s venomous reply and glare at her cousin.

“That is a good one. You should definitely aim not to get caught participating in illegal activities. Now, if you do get caught, what do you do?”

“Don’t leave any witnesses?” Harry piped up, also glaring at Draco. Draco only glared back.

“Unfortunately not possible in your case. But the next best thing is to not leave any evidence.” Ari lectured. “You three should have been long gone by the time I made it back down from the castle, and if you had to hide instead, you need to remember to get rid of any trace that you were there. The mugs on the table gave you away. If you hadn’t gotten caught at the scene, it’s Draco’s word against yours, which makes it much harder for them to convict you.”

All of the kids nodded, contemplating her advice. Once they reached the side entrance, Ari sent the trio off with a warning not to get caught and not to draw any attention to Hagrid’s latest pet. Then it was just her and the two little Slytherins left. They started making their way down into the dungeon.

“So, what did you learn Draco?” He just looked at her in irritation. “I told you this was an educational excursion. That means a pop quiz. How about this? Think back to our lessons, what was my goal at Hagrid’s tonight?”

Draco thought about it for a minute.

“You...wanted to convince him to give away Norbert.”

“And how did I do that?”

“You convinced him that it was better for Norbert than keeping him. He didn’t want to at first, but by the end, he agreed with you. You manipulated him.” Draco looked surprised as he realized exactly what she’d done tonight.

“Technically everything I said was true, I simply presented it in a way that lead to the outcome I wanted. Now, why did I use that method over the others we’ve discussed?”

“A trade wouldn’t have worked. Even I know how attached the oaf is with his pets.” She shot him a look for the insult, but didn’t interrupt. “You could have threatened to tell a teacher or the Ministry. He would have agreed to your plan faster.”

“There is a saying. You catch more flies with honey than vinegar. It means that the nicer approach is often more effective, especially in the long run. Threats and blackmail are both effective, but they tend to burn bridges. If you are able to convince someone to your side, it strengthens the relationship instead. Besides, Hagrid is a family friend. While I would rather he didn’t endanger my brother or the rest of the student population by trying to raise a dragon on school grounds, I’m not willing to upset my family by threatening him when I can simply tell the truth and reach the same conclusion.” Draco wrinkled his nose.

“You’re friends with the oaf?”

“Yes, and as it grants me access to the Forbidden Forrest whenever I want, you won’t find me jeopardizing it any time soon.”

By then, they’d reached the common room, and Ari waved Draco back towards his dorm. As soon as the boy was gone, she turned slightly towards Theo, glancing at her silent shadow out of the corner of amused eyes.

“And what did you learn Theo?” He rolled his eyes, but stood up straighter.

“You didn’t just go down for Hagrid, you also used it to distract Draco from whatever he was scheming, too.”

“Correct. Not only is he distracted now, but he’s attached to the dragon if the way he was calling it Norbert is any indicator. It will dissuade him from using it in any of his schemes, even if he does remember his original plan later. Plus what that boy really wants is attention, and giving him it in a constructive way will hopefully keep him from acting out quite so much.”

Theo nodded along, looking for all the world like he wanted to be taking notes.

“Now, you can’t attend my lessons with Draco. He sees them as something special for himself, which is part of what I use to get him to pay attention. However, if you’d like to sit in on them like Cassius does, then you’d be able to ask questions afterwards. It’s up to you of course.

“Yes!” Theo exclaimed, before clamming up. “I-I mean yes. I would like that. Thank you Heir Black.”

“None of that now. We’re friends, so you can call me Ari. I’ll see you for dueling lessons if we don’t cross paths before then.”

With that she made her way back towards her room. She had a letter to send and a pick up to arrange. With any luck, she’d be able to keep the kids out of detention and therefore out of the Forbidden Forrest.

Honestly, Hagrid was nice enough, but letting two unaccompanied eleven year olds wander around the woods at night seemed ill advised at the least and disastrous at the worst. Especially since Harry would have run into Tom while entirely alone.

At this point, enough had changed that their main goal was just to ensure that Tom ended the school year without either the stone, or a viable host. That should keep it on track enough. Although, with Wormtail in prison, there was no one to find Tom and help resurrect him, changing both third and fourth year. Though, hopefully by then they will have found all of the horcruxes, which might make all of this moot anyways.

If she was even a little religious, she’d have taken up praying by now. As it was, all she could do was hope.

Chapter Text

“We figured it out!” Both Ari and Cassius froze in the doorway as the Twins spoke in unison from where they were both hunched over a table scattered with papers and books. Ari would have seriously considered backing away slowly if what they’d said hadn’t registered.

“You did? How?” It was the beginning of May and they had maybe a month at most before they were officially out of time. It was cutting it far too close for her sanity.

“We were looking at the logic puzzle.”

“And we remembered that you said”

“Snape used it because wizards”

“Are bad at thinking logically”

“Which made us think”

“That we should think”

“Outside the box.”

“Or in this case, the room.”

“Alright, sure, why not? But what does that mean?” Ari asked, trying to piece together anything from their chaotic pile of notes and books and scrolls. Cassius had just picked up a book on home renovation.

“Right, so the thing about having all these trials and all the rooms they’re in, means that the whole thing needs space.” George started, pulling over a rolling chalkboard with even more papers attached.

“Since there’s a trapdoor, that space would need to be bellow the third corridor.” Fred added, pulling a hand drawn map out one of the stacks.

“We checked, and the space directly under it is completely cut off. No doors or windows.”

“But, it’s not enough space for the area their using. Unless they’re using magically expanded spaces.” Ari and Cassius nodded along. Magically expanded rooms were a staple in the Wixen community.

“Now, undetectable expansions for things like pockets and bags are an advanced transfiguration spell that essentially makes the space into a pocket dimension.” He pulls out a book on extra dimensional spaces and what looked like a muggle book on theoretically physics.

“Rooms, on the other hand, use a series of runes engraved along the walls and floors to...stretch...the space but keep everything stable.”

“It’s accomplished by combining specific pre-designed arrays to account for the magical variances of the building and land itself.”

“So how does this solve our problem?” Ari asked, when they seemed like they were getting off topic.

Fred and George looked at each other and reshuffled some of the papers, pulling out a sheaf with runes and arithmetic calculations. It was incomplete, and Ari could already pick out a few places where they had misunderstood the base sequence, but it was at least OWL level work which was impressive for only having one year of class.

“You want to...add a doorway.” The twins nodded manically.

“The thing with using pre-built construction runes is that they are inherently created to allow for the addition of other basic features.”

“And because the monitoring spells are on the existing doors…”

“New ones won’t register.”

By now Ari and Cassius were grinning back at the twins just as manically.

“So we make a door straight into the last room and remove it on our way out.” Cassius summarized, taking a closer look at the papers.

“Yeah, though we’ll need to figure out the correct array. Shouldn’t be too hard, since we can try to base it off the trapdoor. Then it’s just figuring out where to place it. Luckily, Hogwart’s layout is a bit…”

“Open to interpretation. It should give us some leeway on placement.”

“When did you guys become experts on extra dimensional magics?” Ari finally asked the question that had been bothering her. Fred and George shrugged in unison.

“Earlier this year. We were trying to find a way to expand our trunks.”

“We wanted a place to keep our pranks where Mum wouldn’t find ‘em.”

“Couldn’t quite get it working yet, though.” Ari nodded in understanding.

“Well, if this works out, I’ll help if you want.” Ari offered. No doubt they’d all have a good understanding of extra dimensional spaces by the end of it. “Let’s get to work then.”

***

It took two weeks to reverse engineer the runes on the trapdoor in a way that they could recreate it. They spent most of their free time in the Retreat working on it, though the Twins had to head out regularly since anytime they disappeared for extended periods, people got suspicious.

Ari and Fred focused on the runes, since they had the best handle on them. Cassius also took runes, but he and George worked on determining what wall would work best for placement and how to ensure they had the time to get what they needed to done with out interference. The good news was that the second floor corridor was significantly less monitored than the third, but a teacher or prefect stumbling upon them at the wrong time would cause issues.

Cassius was also in charge of procuring the last piece of their solution for Quirrell’s possession. He and Ari had thought it up while trying to solve the trials, but with a little luck it would still work and should ensure Tom doesn’t make it out of the mirror room with a physical host.

Finally, everything was ready.

They chose 3am on Saturday for the heist. Teacher patrols ended at 2am since mischief tended to happen late at night, rather than early in the morning. Even the most studious of students or insane quidditch captain wasn’t up until five, especially on a weekend. Even the teachers tended to sleep in a bit when given the chance. Which meant they had two hours uninterrupted.

Ari and Cassius made their way quickly up to the second floor from the dungeons, hidden under a notice-me-not. The halls were dead quiet except for their muffled footsteps and breathing which was annoyingly audible in the silence. Once on the second floor, they met up with the Twins and headed for the section of wall George indicated.

Immediately George and Cassius broke off to start putting up protections. Various repelling spells and magical tripwires to let them know if anyone was coming. Ari cast a notice-me-not on their immediate vicinity and then turned to work with Fred.

They used chalk as their medium for writing the runes. It wasn’t the most precise of materials, but it could be easily vanished without any trace and this chalk was specifically designed to work as a channel for runic and ritual work.

After almost twenty minutes of work that left Ari sweating from the tension and pressure of not making any mistakes, the array was done. It was a mixture of Elder and Younger Futhark and interestingly enough, hieroglyphics with a single hexafoil at the center to anchor it. It created a square just big enough for them to fit through, starting about a foot above the floor.

Once the last mark was complete, Fred stepped back to allow Ari to channel her magic through. Fred was better at sensing magic, but Ari had more raw power, which was necessary when trying to convince magic as old as Hogwarts to change. Even with how variable the school already was.

With one last push, the stone transformed to wood and created a mirror image of the trapdoor in Fluffy’s room. Ari took a deep breath, both in relief and because the magic had taken more out of her than she’d expected.

“Alright, let’s go.” Cassius joined her and Fred, leaving George to keep watch.

The trapdoor creaked slightly as it swung open to reveal a pillar lined room. Directly in front of them, about ten feet away, was the back of a familiar mirror. Ari almost cheered, but kept a hold of herself. Fred leaned in first, looking around the room.

“No trigger spells or monitoring wards I can sense. Looks like it’s just the mirror.”

Ari let him enter first and followed after, leaving Cassius to climb through last. Circling the mirror gave her a better view of the large room. It was completely empty besides the mirror, a line of columns on each side, and a door at the far end.

“There’s a trigger spell on the door, same as the third floor. You remember how to handle it Cassius?”

“Yeah, I’ve got it.”

“Alright, shout if you need help.”

Cassius job was the easiest to execute, but required a fair bit of luck. The far door lead to the logic puzzle which required the person to drink a potion to be able to pass through magical flames and enter the room. However, the flames didn’t appear until you were in the room. So they had theorized that just opening the door without crossing the threshold should not trigger the trap.

The second part was the purification potion Cassius and George had found mention of. One of it’s ingredients was the salvia and the intended purpose of the potion was to clear out any dark magic or spell residue. Given the ingredients and description, they figured it would work to further destabilize Quirrell and Tom’s connection. George also determined that it shouldn’t have any negative or diluting effects when mixed with the potion they though Snape had used. It was one out of a book Ari had seen on his desk earlier this year. Now all they had to do was add it to the potion he would willingly drink to get to the mirror.

The only problem was that they didn’t know which bottle it was and couldn’t access the riddle without entering the room. After a few hours of debate, Cassius had suggested simply adding it to all of them. Since it didn’t matter if it nullified the poisons or mixed with the nettle wine, there was no reason not to.

After that was solved, Cassius took charge of ordering the potion since it wasn’t strictly legal to obtain without a Healer’s approval, and then they were ready. Now all he had to do was levitate doses of the potion into each bottle without triggering the trap, which is what he was doing now.

Ari waited long enough to ensure the flames didn’t start when he opened the door before turning to her own task.

Since her occlumancy shields were the strongest, she was in charge of retrieving the stone from the mirror. They’d argued about it for days, but the truth was she had the best chance of getting the stone out without falling into the trap.

She stood facing the mirror, but not yet looking into it. Checking her defenses and focusing on wanting the stone but not wanting to use it.

“It’s a raccoon trap.” Ari mused, more separated from her emotions than normal.

“What?” Fred asked from where he was standing to the side, out of view of the mirror, but close enough to reach her quickly if she got into trouble. He would also be the second to try if she couldn’t get the stone out.

“A raccoon trap. Muggle hunters used to use them catch raccoons. The would find a hole in a log and drive nails in around the edges so they pointed inwards, but left a gap. At the bottom they would leave something shiny. A coin or a bit of metal. When a raccoon saw it, it would reach inside and grab the bait. Only, with their paw closed they couldn’t pull it out past the nails. The raccoon would struggle and struggle until the hunter came, but it wouldn’t let go of the prize.”

She didn’t wait for his reply as she finally looked into the mirror head on.

There’d been a pull to look ever since they’d entered the room, even with her mental shields at full strength, but as soon as she actually looked into the mirror, it increased ten-fold. It was just compounded by what she saw.

Herself, older and clearly out of Hogwarts. She looked...sophisticated, with clearly custom clothes, but most of it came from the way she held herself. Relaxed and comfortable in a way that only came when you were fully settled into yourself and entirely confident in who you were. She was sitting in a well furnished room at Blæc Dún Halls reading a newspaper that, when she opened it, clearly stated a celebration in honor of the anniversary of the end of the war and Tom’s death.

Suddenly, Fred and George ran into the room, chased by Sirius in his Grim form. They only paused long enough to ruffle her hair before escaping. Harry and Remus followed after them and sat down with her, passing out the mugs of hot chocolate they’d brought with them. Cassius, Marissa, and Theo flooed in and the rest of the Weasleys and the Tonks filled in the back of the frame.

Everyone she loved, safe and happy and relaxed after the war.

Even with her occlumency blocking much of her emotional response, it was...addicting. Overwhelming in it’s ability to draw her in and swallow her up in a pretty lie. Even if it was one she hoped would one day be true.

And it was completely unhelpful.

“The stone. I need the stone. For any of this to happen, he can’t get ahold of it.”

Mirror her smiled knowingly and set her newspaper aside. Then, she plucked the stone off a side table despite it not having been there before. She stood and approached the mirror until she was directly opposite Ari and then reached down to slip it in her robe pocket.

At the same time, a weight settled in Ari’s own pocket, and she reached in, pulling the stone out, despite being unable to look away.

Suddenly a hand grabbed her by the arm and yanked her to the side, breaking the connection. Ari blinked, trying to clear the dazed feeling she was left with.

“You alright?” Fred asked, from where he was still holding onto her. That paired with his look of concern made it obvious he was worried she was going to try to go back to the mirror.

“Yeah. I’m alright.” She held up the stone as a distraction, taking a closer look at the chunk of red rock.

It was either the real stone or a very good fake as the innocuous thing gave off more magical energy than most of the artifacts in any of her Family properties. Even with it’s uncut look, it seemed to catch and refract the light.

Fred quickly produced a box from the bag they’d brought. It was medium in size and was one of the boxes they’d had made to store horcruxes so as to keep their malevolent energy contained. It would work just as well to hide the stone from anyone who might try to track it. She placed it inside and Fred immediately closed it, returning the whole thing to the bag.

Behind them, the door to the other room closed, and Cassius made his way over.

“All good?” He asked as he stored several potion bottles away in his own bag.

“All good. You?”

“Yeah. Nothing exploded either.” The problem with mixing unknown potions was that sometimes the reactions were adverse. Luckily, the purification potion ingredients were mostly nonreactive, but there was always a chance something would go wrong. Luckily enough for them, it worked out this time.

“Let’s go then.”

They all climbed back out of the door and Ari leaned back in to preform the cleansing spell Andy had taught her. It wouldn’t do to leave their energy signature all over the crime scene.

Once the door was closed, Fred got to work dismantling it. Reversing the magic was easier since the door wanted to be a wall again, and then it was just a matter of vanishing all of the chalk. The twins were masters at the vanishing spell, since it saved them quite often when their experiments went awry.

Cassius, Ari, and George set to work taking down all the other protections once a quick glance at the map ensured no one was close enough to stumble upon them. One last cleansing spell and they were done.

High on their success, they quickly made their way to the Retreat.

Once they were all finished with the celebratory slaps on the back for a heist well executed and settled into the chairs around the table, they pulled out the stone so Cassius and George could take a look. The wards on the room would be enough to shield them so long as no one was actively looking and it would be back in the box before anyone knew it was even gone.

“Merlin, it’s got more magic than half of Hogwarts.” George breathed out, turning it this way and that. “You sure we can’t experiment a bit?”

“Absolutely not. If you manage to destabilize it, I’m pretty sure it would be the equivalent of the magical nuclear bomb.” Ari warned, though she wasn’t too worried. While the appeal of the gold might be a draw, none of them really cared about immortality at thirteen years old.

“So...what are we going to do with it.” Cassius asked, having lost interest in the artifact after a few minutes.

They all looked at each other, stumped. They’d been so focused on getting the stone they hadn’t thought of what to do with it after.

“We can’t keep it, right?” He continued. “If Tom and Dumbledore come looking for it, I don’t really like our odds.”

Ari considered as the rest of them turned to her. Unfortunately, being the one who knew part of the future meant she was often the one who ended up making decisions like this.

“I’m pretty sure we could hide it if we needed to, but so long as Tom doesn’t get it, I don’t think we need to keep it? From what I Remember, Dumbledore says he destroys it to keep it away from Tom, but that’s just a patently stupid idea, since the Flamels would know how to make another.” Which sparked an idea. “Why don’t we send it back? Tom will be, ideally, out of a body by the end of the year, so there’s no way for him to go after the Flamels. We ship it to them once we’re sure Tom’s gone and they will likely inform Dumbledore so he doesn’t go looking for it either.”

“We can send them a warning too, so they know what could have happened. That way they don’t give it to Dumbles again.” Fred added, marking down a note, though Ari had no idea if it was pertinent to what they were discussing.

“Great! I guess I’ll...just keep it in my trunk for now?” The boys shrugged, having no better option. “Alright, it’s 4:25. Let’s get back to our rooms before anyone notices us missing. We’ll meet up later to clean everything up.”

They scattered quickly enough, hoping to get some sleep in.

Ari carefully tucked the box away in the bottom of her truck. It wasn’t the most secure place in the world, but between the wards on her room and the trunk itself, it was the best place at hand.

Now all they could do was wait.

Chapter Text

Ari laid back on the blanket and enjoyed the early summer sun. It was especially nice after having spent so much time inside recently. With the completion of the heist, they’d had significant free time open up, just in time to start studying for final exams.

Now that those were over, Ari, Cassius, and Marissa were spending some well deserved time outside relaxing. They’d set themselves up on a blanket near the lake and had even managed to wheedle some snacks out of the kitchen. It was nice after the stress of the last semester.

The only thing they had left was keeping an eye on everything and waiting for it to unfold. The Twins were checking the map regularly to ensure the Gold Trio hadn’t tried to storm the third floor, and Ari and Cassius checked with their pendants to at least make sure they were pointed in the right direction at night. Ari was pretty sure she could point to Gryffindor Tower blindfolded and dizzy at this point.

But nothing had transpired yet.

“Looks like your brother and his friends are off in a tizzy. Want me to find out why?” Marissa commented from where she was sitting against a tree at the far edge of the blanket. Ari would be concerned she’d created a monster with how invested Marissa was into gossip now, if it wasn’t so very helpful. Ari planned to make Marissa her heir to the rumor mill when she graduated. But she had bigger concerns right now.

Sitting up gave her a view across the castle’s lawn to a group of three students moving quickly from the direction of Hagrid’s hut. They were gesturing with enough emphasis to make out from here and headed straight into the castle. Ari considered going after them, but decided against it. She shared a look with Cassius.

“Nah, Harry will let me know if he needs something.” Which she hoped was true, but either way, she’d send a note to the Twins to watch the common room tonight. She might even sneak up as well if her roommate wouldn’t notice.

***

By the time dinner finished without Harry seeking her out, Ari was just a bit disappointed. And also equally mad. Logically she knew Harry was only eleven and that he was probably caught up in the mystery that had been presented to him, but she couldn’t help but be annoyed that he hadn’t even though to ask her for help. Or even mention it to her.

Which was probably a little hypocritical of her, since Sirius and Remus had definitely not been entirely aware of their heist plans, but at least she knew what she was doing. She was fully aware of the risk she was taking and didn’t run off willy-nilly to try to confront a teacher.

So yeah, she was a bit irritated, and it wasn’t helped by the fact that Ilsa stayed up rearranging stuff on her side of the room in preparation of packing for the end of the year. Which meant that Ari was stuck until she finally went to sleep.

As soon as her roommate laid down, Ari sent a silent somnus her way and quickly left for Gryffindor Tower. Even spelled, she had to dodge Mrs. Norris and some kind of prank Peeves was setting up which delayed her further. The Fat Lady started at the knock on her frame, but didn’t notice Ari hidden off to the side, and the door swung open almost immediately to reveal Fred.

“Took you long enough.” He said, squinting at her. She quickly stepped inside and ended the spell.

“Roommate trouble. Did thy come down yet?”

“Nope, but Ron and Harry just started moving around, so it should be soon. We already talked to Neville since he was down here, apparently planning to try to stop them. We told him we’d handle it and sent him off to bed. Good lad, that one.”

Ari nodded along to the report, making her way into the empty common room. It was only midnight, but everyone was exhausted after exams, so it was entirely surprising to see the place barren. With a glance around, she chose a couch with a decent view of both the girls and boys stairs and settled in to wait. A second thought had her respelling herself and both the Twins when they took up a place on the far side of the room.

It only took another few minutes before a set of footsteps came down the stairs from the girls dorm. Hermione Granger paused and looked around before settling into pacing. She was a bit fuzzy at the edge, which told Ari she’d used the pendant Ari had given her. It was only a few more minutes before the boys came down their own stairs. The three met up in the middle of the room, only a few feet away from where Ari was sitting.

“Come on. We need to hurry. Snape might have already gotten to the stone!” Harry urged the other two, turning to head to the door.

Ari decided not to wait any longer and canceled all of the notice-me-nots in the room and in the time it took for the trio to notice her next to them and startle, she threw up several privacy spells as well. No need to alert the entire tower.

“Ari? What are you doing here!” Harry exclaimed. Ari gave him an unimpressed look, though she was pleased with how quickly he and Ron had drawn their wands. Hermione was much slower on the uptake and was still blinking in surprise.

“I could ask you the same thing.” She said, leaning back and looking for all the world like she was just relaxing in the Gryffindor common room.

“I...we…” Herry looked at Ron who shrugged, but Hermione finally seemed to have caught up.

“This is our common room. We’re supposed to be here.” The unlike you was barely even subtext but Ari refrained from rolling her eyes.

“I’m reasonably sure you should actually be in bed at this time, but sure, I’ll go first.” She leaned forward, piercing them with a look that she’d been practicing based on McGonagall’s ability to freeze students where they stood. “A little birdy told me you three were planning to sneak off to the third floor tonight. And since I couldn’t think of a reason for my brother and his friends to recklessly endanger their lives, I thought I’d verify the rumors myself. Imagine my surprise.”

Hermione blushed at being called out but all three still looked stubborn.

“How’d you know we meant to sneak out tonight.” Ron asked belligerently.

“Oh, Ari knows everything.”George said, causing the kids to startle and whip around in the other direction.

“And you kiddies aren’t as subtle as you think.” Fred added.

Both moved over to sit next to her on the couch while Ari maneuvered three chairs closer with a couple of spells.

“Why don’t you sit down. I think we have a bit to talk about.”

“Ari, we can’t! We might already be too late and if we don’t go now…” Harry trailed off, bitting at his lip like he’d said too much.

“If it’s already too late, then it doesn’t matter.” Harry glared and didn’t back down, so Ari sighed. “Look, either you can sit down and talk this out with us, in which case I promise I will do everything I can to help, or I can go wake up Percy right now and you can deal with him.”

Hermione looked horrified at the idea, but Harry and Ron just grumbled, settling down in their chairs with their arms crossed.

“Now, who wants to start.”

“Why do we need to tell you if you already know everything.” Ron grumbled.

“Alright, then I’ll tell you. Stop me if I’m wrong.” This probably wasn’t the best way to handle this, but she was becoming more annoyed by the minute when she remembered just how much Harry had been sneaking around this year all while she tried to keep him safe. “Should we start with Hagrid’s inability to keep a secret, or the ‘duel’ that Draco goaded you into sneaking out for? Fluffy’s sweet, isn’t she?”

“You think that thing is cute!?” Ron exclaimed, but Ari ignored him.

“Then, of course, there was your trip to the restricted section, Harry, though really you would have had better luck with the Family library. It’s less...sanitized. We’re all aware of the dragon, and I assume Hagrid once again informed you of the unicorn issue. And now here we are with you lot planning to sneak out to defend the Philosopher’s stone.

“However, the only thing I don’t know is why you didn’t ask me for help.” Ari finished in a biting tone that relayed her anger.

“Because you’re busy!” Harry had been getting more and more worked up through her list of events and finally broke. “You’re busy all the time and I didn’t want to make it worse.”

“Harry…” Ari started, surprised at his vehemency, but he cut her off.

“I was going to ask you about Flamel over Christmas break, but you disappeared, and the Twins and Cassius couldn’t even find you, and then you skipped half your birthday. And when you finally reappeared for Christmas, you looked so tired, and I didn’t want to add something else to your plate. Especially something that was just a dumb mystery.”

“Harry…” Ari started, much softer than before. Trust her brother to make her feel guilty in just a few sentences. “You’re right, I’m sorry. You can always come to me. I’ll never be too busy for you.”

“I know, you’ve just been so stressed all year.” Ari winced. She didn’t think she’d been that obvious.

“Still, I’d rather you tell me before you go sneaking out after a corrupt teacher.”

“We tried to tell McGonagall!” Harry argued.

“Professor McGonagall.” Hermione corrected him in a hiss.

“We tried to tell her that Snape was going to steal the stone, but she didn’t listen to us.”

“You think Snape is going to steal the Philosopher’s stone?” Ari asked raising an eyebrow.

“He tried to get past Fluffy on Halloween and I heard him threatening Quirrell!”

“Professor Quirrell, Harry. And Professor Snape has been very suspicious all year. He practically threatened us earlier today.” Hermione added

“Hmm, alright, I know for a fact Snape isn’t trying to steal the stone, but I assume you’re going to need proof?” The three nodded seriously. “Then let’s take a trip. Harry, you have your cloak, right? Good.”

“Gred and I will see you tomorrow, Ari.” George said, as both of them headed for the stairs. They already knew where she was headed since they’d planned out different contingencies.

“See you at breakfast.” She turned back to the Trio. “Stay under the cloak and be quiet or I can’t promise you won’t spend the rest of the year in detention.”

They nodded seriously and threw on the cloak once they reached the door. Ari added a notice-me-not after casting one on herself, just in case.

The trip to the dungeon was long, especially with how carefully the Trio had to move to stay hidden, but Ari wasn’t in a rush. The longer she could stall, the more time Quirrell had to work himself deeper into the raccoon trap.

There was some confused whispering when they passed the third floor landing, but the kids stayed with her which was all she needed. Eventually, they came to the door to Snape’s personal quarters. Ari knocked loudly and waited.

“There had better be an excellent reason for waking me at this hour, Miss Black.” Snape hissed as he opened the door.

“I heard word that there is a theft planned tonight. Something about a stone?” Ari said and Snape immediately straightened, looking far more awake.

“What do you know?”

“Very little, since someone decided to interrupt my source when they were looking into it.” She sent him an annoyed look for harassing Harry. “But apparently Hagrid’s latest drinking partner was interested in caring for cerberus, and Dumbledore is out on business tonight.”

Snape cursed under his breath.

“You will return to your dorm and remain there. I will handle this.” Snape had already answered the door dressed, so he merely grabbed his overrobes and exited his rooms, closing the door firmly behind him.

“Are you sure that’s a good idea, Sir?” Ari asked. She didn’t really want Snape to face Tom alone either, especially since he would be forced to decide between keeping his cover and helping his old master or revealing himself as a traitor. The man paused at her tone.

“What do you know, Miss Black.”

“There’s been rumor of a figure in the Forbidden Forrest and Hagrid mentioned that there have been unicorns found dead. Perhaps it would be best to allow the Headmaster to handle the thief. Or even McGonagall, since she was warned earlier today.” It was a little bit petty, but she didn’t appreciate teachers ignoring her little brother when he went looking for help.

Snape seemed to consider her words before nodding. Possibly, he was remembering the note he’d received before school started that Tom would make an appearance.

“Very well. I will ensure this is handled correctly. Now return to you room.” Ari nodded and Snape swept off down the hall.

As soon as he was gone, Harry yanked the cloak off of them.

“Ari, that doesn’t actually prove anything! He could still be going after the stone, or he could have already gotten it!” He exclaimed.

“Do you really think he would still be in the school if he had the stone, Harry?” The kid still looked stubborn. “Look, just give it until tomorrow morning. The teachers are aware and if you’d like, we can send an owl to Dumbledore on our way back up to the tower so that he knows too. It’s enough, I promise.”

None of the Trio looked enthused, though Hermione seemed appeased by alerting Dumbledore. Ari would have to consider the best ways to disabuse her of her hero worship in the coming years, but there was little she could do now.

They followed the plan as laid out, and Ari ensure they returned to the tower and their rooms before heading back to her own. That should give Snape and McGonagall enough time to at least secure the third floor corridor, so even if the Trio snuck out again, they wouldn’t be able to make it through.

And with that, she headed off to bed.

Chapter Text

Quirrell wasn’t at breakfast the next morning, and neither was Dumbledore. Snape, however, was, if looking a bit grouchier than usual and McGonagall looked a bit grey around the edges. It was the rumors, though that told her their plan had worked.

Stoddard had stopped her this morning before she’d even exited the common room and had said he’d heard from Hufflepuff that Dumbledore had been seen hurrying from the Hospital Wing and that it was currently closed to students. Apparently the student had overheard him talking to McGonagall about something that involved a body.

It was halfway through breakfast that Burke slid in next to her with reports of rumors that Quirrell’s office was being searched and no one had heard from him, though there wasn’t any mention of him running away.

By lunch there were hundreds of rumors about what happened to Quirrell. Only a few of them were started by Ari’s people, but they made sure to spread any they heard around. Everyone wanted to know what had happened, especially since many had money on the line. Ari could already see it putting pressure on the teachers as they tried to keep students in line.

At dinner Dumbledore made an announcement.

“I’m sure you are all wondering at the absence of Professor Quirrell. I have the misfortune of informing you that while preforming personal research he came across a dark artifact and passed away. Let us have a moment of silence in remembrance.”

Ari raised her eyebrows at Cassius who looked just as interested if slightly conflicted. Yes Quirrell was apparently dead, though it was unclear if it was actually from the mirror or the strain of playing puppet to a Dark Lord, or even their use of the purification potion. Either way it left Tom body-less in a way that would hopefully keep him from coming back ahead of schedule. She probably should feel bad that she’d kind of helped kill a teacher, but he would have died anyways, and at least this time her brother didn’t have to do it.

As for the stone, she had mailed it using one of the school owls with a note written with a dicta-quill and all magical traces removed as soon as she’d seen Harry and his friends leaving Hagrid’s. By now it should be at the Flamels’ and Dumbledore should be receiving a, no doubt angry, reply. As it was, unless the Flamels decided to send a howler during breakfast, she was unlikely to find out their response.

Given all of that, the last few days of school were quiet. It was almost anticlimactic, but Ari preferred it that way. The most unfortunate outcome was actually the end of school feast.

Since the Trio hadn’t been caught smuggling a dragon, they hadn’t lost 150 points which meant that Gryffindor won the house cup without the need for last minute points. Slytherin had managed to keep the Quidditch cup since Harry wasn’t on the team, but Ari had no doubt that would change next year. Her brother was born to fly and she doubted she’d be able to keep him out of the game when he could bring him own broom.

Despite the general grumbling of most of Slytherin at the red and gold decorations, Ari sent her brother a wink and a grin, happy to see him and his friends so excited.

***

Ari glanced up at Cassius again before turning her attention back to her own book. He hadn’t turned a page in the last hour and she was becoming concerned. Or more concerned that is. She’d already been concerned when she’d seen how withdrawn he’d been this morning, but it only seemed to get worse as the train ride went on.

Marissa had escaped the tense atmosphere a couple hours into the ride, off to sit with the other Slytherins in her year, and the Twins were already with Lee since he had a trip planned with his family this summer, so they wouldn’t see him as much. Which just left Ari and Cassius sitting in uncomfortable silence.

Ari flipped the page of her book. She might also only be pretending to read, but she was at least good at faking it. Another glance at Cassius found him staring out the window as a change of pace. She sighed, fed up with waiting for him to tell her what was wrong. She threw up a quick privacy spell.

“So, what are we going to do about your father?” Cassius startled, turning towards her.

“What do you mean, ‘what are we going to do’? Do about what?” Cassius asked, though the way his eyes shifted told her he knew exactly what she was talking about.

“About the marriage contract. We can’t just let him do that to you.”

“What?!” Or maybe he didn’t know what she was getting at. They stared at each other incredulously before both talking at once.

“The contract to Bulstrode…”

“Have you been reading my…” They paused, exchanging another incredulous look, though Cassius was starting to look angry.

“Ari, how did you know my father is planning to write a marriage contract?” Ari winced. This time she was the one avoiding his eyes.

“I...may have seen one of your letters.”

“You mean you stole one of my letters to read it.” He was definitely angry now. She winced again, ducking her head further.

“I just wanted to help! You were acting weird after Christmas, and I figured if I could find out why, I could help fix it!”

“You can’t just…!” Cassius paused mid shout and took a deep breath. “Ari, it’s my business. You can’t just stick your nose in where ever you want!”

“Well what am I supposed to do! I get that I shouldn’t have read your letter, so I didn’t do anything, but it’s been five months! When were you going to tell me about it!”

“Never!” Cassius shouted back, having stood up, and Ari did as well, though it put her at a distinct disadvantage.

“What? Why not?”

“Because there’s nothing we can do about it.” He slumped as though all of his strings had been cut and Ari quickly grabbed his hand in case he fell over.

“What? Of course we can. It’s not signed yet. There are plenty of things we can do to keep him from agreeing.”

“Even if we stop this one, he’ll just set up another. Apparently getting married off to ensure some deal or family alliance is all I’m good for as the Spare.” He slumped onto the bench and Ari followed after him, squeezing his hand gently.

She thought about it for a minute. There were things they could do to sabotage the agreement, but it would be more difficult to stop the next one, especially if Lord Warrington made a move while they were in school.

“You could always run away and stay with us.” She offered hesitantly. Running away and getting disowned by the family was the only surefire way to get out of a marriage contract as a minor, but it was rough on the people who did it. Being disowned physically hurt when the Family magic left you and for most traditionalists, it meant having to find a way to support themselves. The more ruthless Families also had a habit of hunting down what they considered blood traitors in an effort to keep family lines clear, and Ari didn’t doubt that Lord Warrington was one of them.

“You know I can’t. He’d just come after me again, or after your family, and you know how the rest of the Families are about poaching heirs.”

“And you know that Sirius and Remus wouldn’t care.”

“But I do. I won’t put your family in danger like that. Not for something like this. Even…” He took a deep breath. “Even if I did decided to run from the contract, I would wait until seventh year anyways. It would be safer.” Which would mean Cassius spending the next four years courting Millicent Bulstrode all while knowing he would be leaving it all behind as soon as he graduated.

Ari wouldn’t allow it if there were any other option.

“Cassius, would it be better if your father was no longer around.” Her voice was soft and deadly serious and Cassius seemed to pick up on it right away if the intense way he met her steady gaze was any indicator.

“Ari, you can’t be serious.”

“I am.” She squeezed his hand to drive her point home. “You are my best friend and if you life would improve with the absence of your father, I would make it happen.”

“Ari.” Cassius hissed, gripping her hand back just as tight. “You can’t mean that. Quirrell was one thing, but you talking about…”

“I can and I do. Cassius, there are more people in this world that I love than I ever expected, but that’s it for me. There are the people who are mine and the people who are not and if someone threatens what is mine, I will do anything to make sure they are safe.” She paused, letting that sink in. “But he is your family, so I will follow your lead on this. Do you want him gone?”

It would take some doing to find a way that wouldn’t come back on her or her family, but she was resourceful and perfectly willing to work outside the box. Sirius would probably even be willing to help her. His morals had always skewed a bit loose when it came to protecting people he cared about.

After several minutes of staring off in the distance, one hand tapping restlessly at his thigh, Cassius shook his head.

“It wouldn’t work. Quentin would just take over, and he does anything Father thinks is a good idea. And after him, my aunt would get custody. She’s a Rowel and I don’t think I’d be any better off with her.”

“Alright, what do you want to do then? We could try to find a way to take you off the market permanently. A public scandal or rumors that would make you...unsuitable… as a potential husband.” Cassius sent her a dry look.

“As much as I’d love for everyone to think I have some kind of communicable disease or something, he’d still find someone desperate enough.”

“What if we created a scandal for your House instead. It would discourage people who might be interested and your father and brother would be too busy dealing with it to work on negotiations.” Cassius looked like he was actually considering this option rather than dismissing it out of hand. “It wouldn’t be a perfect solution, but it would give us time to plan and if it fell through, you could still plan to run at graduation.”

“What kind of scandal would we be able to create in time. It would have to be big enough to circulate through the gossip mill and keep my father busy at least all summer.” Ari grinned.

“That’s probably the easiest part. The Ministry has recently passed ordinances allowing for them to search ancestral manors for dark and banned items. There will be plenty of raids this summer, and if I work quickly, I think I can have your home moved up to the top of the list. Worst case, your family is slapped with fines. Best case, we might be able to get you Father in a holding cell for a few months. Either way, no one will be willing to publicly ally with you until it dies down.”

Cassius smiled for the first time since they boarded the train. It was small and a little bit bitter, but he looked more alive than she’d seen him in a while.

“Well if it’s that easy to drag my family name through the dirt, who am I to stop it.”

“Great! I’ll get everything set up, just make sure that you father doesn’t manage to hide everything if he hears about it before hand. You’re a minor, so they won’t be able to charge you with anything, but if you feel like planting something in your brother’s room, I wouldn’t object.”

“Oh, I have just the thing.” Cassius smile grew and he considered the plan and it’s possibilities. “Thanks, Ari.”

She returned his smile.

“I’m just protecting my interests. Can you imagine having Millicent Bulstrode as a best friend in-law?”

“Try imagining her as a wife, and her parents are your in-laws.” They both shuddered and burst into laughter.

It wasn’t long before they settled back down and Ari ended up goading Cassius into a game of chess to take his mind off of it. She of course lost terribly, but it made him laugh again, so it was worth it.

Now she just had to make sure he made it through the summer in one piece.