Chapter Text
Narcissa appeared in front of a large house surrounded by trees, Sirius at her side. Both had their wands drawn, ready for a confrontation and fully prepared to use deadly force.
The house itself didn’t look like the kind of place one would find a Dark Lord such as Lord Voldemort but she knew he had been here as she had seen it in her sister’s head. That said, the grounds did look much more like what one would expect from a criminal organization. Various vehicles lined the drive and only one of them looked like a regular civilian vehicle. The property was surrounded by a fence with barbed metal lining the top to make scaling said fence painful and ill advised. Most of all, there were numerous outbuildings, the door of the closest lay open and she could see weapons lining its walls. There were a few muggle handguns but most of what remained were blades and ammunition for those muggle weapons.
It was a good thing these men had not attacked the school with such things, for if they had, things would not have gone nearly as well as it did.
The duo sped across the grounds toward the door, scanning for danger. It was odd that no one was out and that they had not been spotted yet; if this were a Black property someone would have noticed them the minute they stepped foot on the grounds. That said, if this had been a Black property they would not have made it onto the property alive unless they were Blacks or were expected, so it was a relief that this property was not nearly as defended as their ancestral family homes were.
Sirius jumped onto the porch and blasted the door open in one move while she ran behind him and then through the doorway into the house. The inside was just as empty as the grounds. No one was in the entryway and she did not hear the sounds one would expect from their destructive entrance.
“Where is everyone?” Sirius wondered, whispering just in case there was someone near.
“That I do not know, we can only hope there isn’t an army waiting for us.” She looked left and right before leading him across the large entry to the stairs directly ahead of them. “She should be upstairs; that’s where Bella was staying when she was here.”
He nodded and followed but continued to watch their backs. “Lead on.”
They ascended the stairs quickly. Strategically speaking, the stairs were the worst place to be. It might be high ground compared to the ground floor but there was no cover available while climbing and they would be easy pickings from people on the upper floor as well.
Narcissa hit the upper landing a step ahead of Sirius and turned to the left, checking for hostiles; Sirius turned right, checking for the same. “Left or right, Ciss?”
“Right,” she said, not turning her attention from the hall she was facing. “Switch.”
“On three,” Sirius agreed. “One, two, three.” Narcissa ducked and whirled around, going under Sirius’s arm as he turned, so that she was facing the correct hallway while he was facing behind them. “Lead on, cousin.”
She slowly walked down the hallway, her nerves on end due to their quick progress. It concerned her that they had still not found a single person waiting for them. Sirius followed a step behind her, walking sideways so that he could keep his wand trained behind them and still be prepared to face anything ahead of them. It seemed his Auror training had not completely left him despite his illegal stay in Azkaban.
“It will be the second to last door on the left,” she whispered. “He stayed across the hall.”
“How many doors?”
“The seventh.”
“Fitting. Four down.”
“I’ve sealed them.”
“Good idea, and I would have done the same if I hadn’t seen the orange glow.” A moment later they found themselves in front of the correct door, “Let me seal the last few before we try to get in.”
“What do you think I was waiting for?” she asked, one eyebrow raised and a smirk playing across her face.
Sirius shook his head to keep himself from laughing. This was a side of his cousin he had not seen in a very long time. Playful sarcasm was something of an art for Narcissa, particularly when she pulled it out in potentially deadly situations.
He reached for the door handle, standing to one side of the door while Narcissa stood on the other. “Ready?”
“I’ll go low?”
“I am taller than you.”
“You’re an idiot.”
He smirked, “One, two…” he turned the handle and pushed the door open.
The duo waited a breath before spinning into the doorway, wands at the ready.
“I won’t let you kill her,” a woman said while standing in front of the crib. “I do not care what that man said. She is a baby and she should have a chance to live. I will take her and give her to a No Maj hospital, that way no one will suspect who she is. He won’t even have to know.”
Narcissa dropped her wand, Sirius did not. “We do not want to kill her,” she said, trying to sound soothing. “I came here to save her.”
“Why should I believe you?”
“Have you ever seen me before?”
She shook her head, “No, but that does not mean you aren’t connected to him. There have been a lot of strangers around here lately.”
Narciss nodded, “Would a vow appease you?”
The woman gulped and nodded, “If the wording is right, then yes.”
“Alright, I, Narcissa Black, swear on my life and magic that I mean no harm to the child of Bellatrix Lestrange, nee Black and Tom Marvolo Riddle, known as Lord Voldemort, so mote it be.”
This caused the woman to gape. Dark wizards did not swear on their magic, let alone their lives. “Some see death as freeing someone from harm,” she bit her lip. This was perhaps true, it was a stretch, but it was something her sister would have used to get away with making a vow like that.
“I want to adopt her,” Narcissa said soothingly. “This is my sister’s child, my niece, and I want to save her. My sister is dead, and if things go the way I expect, He will be dead soon.”
“If he isn’t dead already,” Sirius added.
“Which would mean that she should go to her closest kin, as long as they are fit to raise her,” Narcissa kept her voice calm and quiet.
“He has no family,” Sirius added, “he murdered what was left of them decades ago.”
“And we are some of her closest family. I am her sister. I have raised a child, my son is sixteen and while he isn’t perfect, he is not his father, which I think is an achievement.”
“She always wanted to be a mother, and she’s a damn good one, from what I’ve seen. I’m their cousin, and head of the family. It is my job to protect them.”
The woman studied them both intently, looking for some sign that they might mean harm to the child. She took a deep breath and then stepped aside, “She is small, much too small. She needs a healer.”
Narcissa rushed forward and looked down at the baby girl laying in the crib. She was small, smaller than she expected. Bella had not thought anything was wrong with her daughter’s size, but Narcissa had noticed that she was rather small when she saw her in her sister’s memory. It was much worse in person. “She’s a Black, we’re rather hard to get rid of once we start breathing,” she sighed, “but I plan to take her straight to the healers once we leave.”
Sirius stepped up and looked down at her, “She is way smaller than Harry was.” He tilted his head, “Kind of cute though. Do you think she will look like him though? I mean, she has a nose, so it can’t be that bad right?”
“He was rather attractive before he died the first time, too thin and sallow in complexion due to the dark magic he had performed on himself. I am sure she will be just fine.”
“Does she have a name? You never said.”
“And I don’t plan on using that name, so I am not going to even say it out loud.”
“Why not? Did she name her Bella Junior or something,” he paused, his face scrunching slightly, “no, she would be more likely to name a kid after him, but I don’t think Voldemort Junior would work for a girl.”
“You are correct, she did name her after his false name. She tried to make it feminine.”
“Ah, yeah, we are not using that name.” There was a crash, from the noise level it was probably downstairs, “and that is our indication to leave.”
Narcissa turned to the woman, “Thank you for trying to protect her.”
She nodded, “It is the right thing to do.” There was another crash and she flinched, “Come one, I will take you the back way. You will be less likely to run into anyone that way. I don’t think the people still around would object to you removing the child but I can’t guarantee they will wait for an explanation.”
“You have our thanks,” Sirius said as they hit the bottom of the stairs she led them to. “Will you be safe here? You could come with us.”
The woman shook her head, “This is my home, my family. I will be fine. Now that our guests are gone, everyone will be much safer.”
Sirius nodded but couldn’t help but frown, “What if we fail and he comes back? Not that we are going to fail, there are a lot of people there to take care of him but he can be slippery.”
A somewhat feral grin spread across her face, “If he were to come back, he would die. No one tells us what to do for long. The ones that try end up dead. Now go, before someone thinks you are an enemy,” she pushed Sirius out the door, “And forget you ever came to this place.”
The Blacks could do nothing more than head toward the borders of the property, their niece needed a doctor and there wasn’t a moment to waste.
Harry was on the ground, staring up at the mad man that had haunted his every step, his every thought and knew that this was probably going to be the end. He had trained, but what was a year of good training compared to a lifetime of practice and experimentation?
He knew that Tom didn’t need to say the spell, Blasting curses were actually rather easy to do silently, but he said it anyway, probably to allow Harry to know what was coming before it hit. Not that there would be much time, there was only a few feet between where Harry lay and Tom’s new wand but it was still enough time for the dread to flood in; enough time for Harry to realize just how much trouble he was in.
The spell flew toward him and …
Harry’s eyes flew open as he sat up, gasping around the scream that wanted to burst from his mouth but didn’t quite make it past the lump in his throat.
A dream.
A memory. Despite knowing that it was just a memory and that the spell never connected, he still reached down to pat at his legs. They were still there, still whole. He could still wiggle his toes. He could still bend his knees. If he were to try to get off the bed he would still be able to stand, to walk. Harry knew all this, hell, he had walked himself to the infirmary the day before, limping only slightly from a twisted ankle and a cut on his thigh.
This knowledge didn’t negate the fact that for a moment there he thought that he might not have both legs if he did live. He had spent a moment that felt like an eternity, thinking that he might not be breathing soon.
Narcissa was going to insist on regular therapy after this.
Harry thought himself fairly well adjusted considering his past. He had started to relax and wasn’t afraid to talk to someone when something was bothering him, at least he wasn’t now. Before moving he might have avoided such topics but being in a new place with less chances of someone like Skeeter to dog his every step, he talked to Remus, to Sirius,to Narcissa. This incident was going to be a setback, that much was obvious, and Narcissa would probably get her way.
It would probably help, even if he didn’t want to admit it to himself.
“Are you alright Harry?”
He startled slightly, not realizing there was anyone else awake in the room considering the early hour. It looked like the sun was only just starting to rise considering just how little light was seeping into one of the windows closer to the door.
“Sorry,” Elana smiled, “I didn’t mean to startle you.”
“No,” he shook his head, “It’s alright. I’ll probably be jumpy for a while.”
“That would not surprise me,” she agreed, “but you didn’t answer my question, are you doing alright?”
Harry shrugged, “I suppose so. I wasn’t that hurt, a few cuts, a sprained ankle, minor magical exhaustion, and all of that, except perhaps the exhaustion, was fixed relatively quickly last night. The exhaustion should be cleared up in a day or two.”
“That’s good to hear.” She sighed, “I wish I had been there to help.”
Elana hadn’t been at the school and Harry was more than a bit surprised that she was back already. All Hallows Eve was a rather big deal for the Elves. It wasn’t big in the same way that most humans thought it was big, their beliefs were actually closer to the day of the dead. The Veil really was thinner on that particular night and it was a time to honor those who came before and elves communed with their lost family during the hours of least resistance, or at least that was what he and Hermione had gathered from her brief explanation and a little research.
“It couldn’t be helped, you had your family to see. Everyone goes home then, right?”
“While that might be true, I really did consider staying. Not because I thought anything would go wrong but because I know what the 31st means to you and Remus. You lost so much that night and I imagine it is painful for you to think about.”
“It is,” he agreed, “but I think we’re more able to handle it now that we have each other. We had planned to spend the afternoon at the fair and then have a quiet evening in. Sirius, Hermione and Neville were invited. Sirius wasn’t planning one coming, but Hermione and Neville were. Not that it actually happened. I spent the night here and took a potion to get some sleep early.” He looked around the room and noticed the other full beds. “Did they say how many we lost?”
Elana sighed, “No students were lost last I heard. Most of the students here are suffering from either Crusiatus exposure or are recovering from an injury that could be cured instantly. The three worst injured students were moved to the main hospital in Boston and were critical but stable. One of the Defence Professors and one of the Librarians was lost during the fighting and evacuations. Beyond that, it looks like it was mostly injuries we could handle here. Most of the casualties were among the attackers, including Fenrir Greyback, Bellatrix Lestrange and Voldemort. Ilvermorny was extremely lucky.”
It was honestly shocking. Harry hadn’t thought that the attackers would be pulling their punches, and to an extent, a few of them weren’t. But it looked like the vast majority of the attackers weren’t aiming to kill, at least not where students were concerned. It was strange, but he was almost thankful that Lestrange liked to torture before she killed her prey and that Tom had a specific target in mind.
“Do you know what happened to Sirius?” He asked after a while, “I didn’t see him last night.”
“He got back rather late. He and Narcissa went to check up on something outside of Ilvermorny grounds. Both are completely fine, even if Sirius is irritated that he wasn’t here to kill ‘the Dark Tosser’ himself,” she rolled her eyes as she used Sirius’s favorite nickname for Tom. “He did admit that being killed by his own snake was an epic prank and he was planning on making a crown for whichever of your snakes it was that convinced the snake to do it.”
“Sounds like him,” Harry snorted.
“Indeed, but you should get some more sleep. You had a long, trying day and rest is really the best thing for any kind of exhaustion.” Despite himself, Harry found himself yawning as she started to straighten the blankets around him. “I will be here to chase off the nightmares. Oh, and fantastic job finding your second elemental bird. I thought for sure it would have been your water form next but I really shouldn’t be surprised. Fire is always the most explosive and surprising element.” The last she said mostly to herself, or so he thought because she said it quietly and barely registered the words as he drifted back to sleep.
When next he woke, the infirmary was much more lively. It seemed that every person who had required a stay in a hospital bed had a guest or three; in fact there was only one person who only had one visitor and Harry wondered how the nurses and school doctor were handling so many extras in their domain; he was sure Madam Pomphrey would have been about ready to explode if this many people had invaded the Hospital wing at Hogwarts (she also would have been extremely irritated to find Harry once again staying in her domain but that was beside the point).
“Harry!” Hermione tried to contain her excitement at seeing him awake but failed. She rushed to his side and all but dove onto the bed to hug him. “You really do have to stop worrying me.”
“I think that will be much easier now, I don’t think Tom can come back from the dead again and without him, I don’t really have any mortal enemies. School rivals maybe, enemies not so much.”
She rolled her eyes, “Oh, you,” and then buried her face in his shoulder. “I’m glad you’re alright. I thought for sure he was going to take you away from me and I wouldn't be able to do anything to stop him.”
“Honestly,” he said so quietly that only she could hear, “so did I.”
“It is times like this that I question being friends with them,” Trevor said, trying to sound serious but clearly not meaning it.
“I know, right?” Zarya agreed. “The sappy, affectionate crap is really hard to swallow most of the time.”
“I don’t mind it,” Neville interjected, clearly smiling.
“Well, you wouldn’t,” Trevor rolled his eyes. “You’re almost as bad and you only started officially dating yesterday. Whatever happened to the British stiff upper lip thing? Aren’t you all supposed to be stoic?”
“Right? I mean Daphne is literally the only one who acts like a proper Brit,” Zarya agreed.
“Even most of the adults fail,” Trevor said in disgust. “Remus is just too soft to pull off a stiff upper lip, and Sirius doesn’t have a serious bone in his body, pun definitely intended.”
“I would say it’s just the women that pull it off, but Hermione and Luna aren’t terribly good at hiding their emotions either.”
Harry rolled his eyes, “Wait until they meet Colin. Isn’t he supposed to transfer in the next week or so? And why did I not realize that this was going to happen when Luna mentioned Colin? Didn’t she say he was going to miss something?”
“I’m kicking myself for that too. Note to self, pay attention to Luna more,” Hermione sighed, “We really do fail at the classic British stoicism. Do you think they give remedial courses? Sirius would fail them but I think the rest of us have a chance.”
“Hey! What’s with the attacks?” Sirius said in mock outrage, proving their point in the process. “I will have you know I am technically a British Lord, I can be whatever I want. If I’m not a proper Lord, stoic and boring, then I can be eccentric, which is really better in the long run if you think about it.”
“Oh dear,” Hermione said, just a little bit of false fear leaking into her voice. “He’s right! What happens when he’s right?”
“I have no idea,” Remus shrugged, “I’m not sure it’s ever happened before. Should we start preparing for the End?”
“Ha, ha, ha. You’re all hilarious. I am going to ignore you all and tell Harry about the awesome news I have because he is the only one not making fun of me.”
Daphne, who had yet to say a word just glared at him. True to form, it was the most stoic glare in the history of glares but it still made Sirius pause, “I suppose I can also tell, Miss Greengrass because she has alway refrained from besmirching the honor of house Black.”
“What’s going on, Padfoot?” Harry asked, trying to keep the laughter out of his voice (he was failing).
Sirius pulled a picture from his pocket and handed it to Harry. Hermione and Neville, the two closest to him, leaned in to study it with him. It showed Narcissa holding a tiny baby.
“Is that…?” Neville looked at Sirius, “She said she had…”
“If you are wondering if that is my niece, you are correct. And when you see Cissy, don’t let her convince you that that sweet, tiny baby is just my cousin. She is my niece because I said so. I can’t be cousins with my cousin’s kid.”
“Well, technically…” Hermione began but he cut her off.
“I especially can’t be cousins with my cousin’s kid when my other cousin officially adopts her.”
Harry shook his head, “I’m sorry, please backtrack because I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Bellatrix Lestrange claimed she had a kid while Narcissa and I had her contained.” Neville answered instead. “I wasn’t sure if I believed it and I don’t think Miss Narcissa did either because she used Legilimency on her.”
Harry’s face went blank before a look of disgust fell over his face. “Wait, are you saying that Lestrange and Riddle … had a kid?”
Neville nodded, face a little green, “Yeah, that’s what she said.” He looked at Sirius, “Are you keeping the name?”
“Seeing as Cissa won’t tell me what it was, no. She will not be keeping whatever name Bella chose. What was it?”
“I am not telling you that. If I never hear it again I will be happy.”
“Spoil sport,” Sirius grumbled.
“What is Narcissa naming her?” Hermione asked.
“Adhara. Adhara Eileen Black.”
Hermione smiled, “That’s lovely. Do you know what constellation the star Adhara belongs to?” she asked with a twinkle in her eye.
Sirius shook his head, “Honestly, I wasn’t even sure it was a star name. I probably should have known that, Cissa liked that tradition a lot more than anyone else. What constellation?”
“Adhara is a bright star in the constellation Canis Major.”
“Canis Major? You mean like…”
Hermione nodded, “Just like Sirius.”
May 2nd, 1998
Harry dove toward the ground allowing himself to feel the wind flowing around and through his feathers.
Life had been good recently, really good. Not that it had been bad since he left Hogwarts, but somehow it just kept getting better.
Tom had died more than a year and a half ago and soon his schooling would come to an end. He knew that Hermione planned to continue her education, she would be studying runic magic in conjunction with elemental magics, while he would be joining one of the American pro Quidditch teams. That said, he was already well on his way to a Mastery in Defense Against the Dark Arts and would continue that when not flying for his new team. He was currently letting the teams battle between themselves to see what they came up with contract wise, mostly because nearly all the teams had been incredibly annoying in their attempts to gain his favor. Hermione thought he should just tell them that he had already signed a deal with one of the teams not fighting over him, which was true, but at the same time he didn’t particularly care if he was wasting their time because they continued to waste his.
Harry continued to dive, getting closer and closer to the lake. Flying like this was one of his favorite things. He might prefer a broom, simply because he liked the feeling he got knowing that a human could nearly outfly a bird but having wings really was exhilarating.
The water got closer and he allowed himself to shift. He felt the shift begin, felt his body and wingspan shrinking. Just before he hit the water had completely become his water bird. His friends had argued about which type of ‘water’ bird he would be. More often than not, someone would suggest either a penguin or a duck. The duck was always more appealing simply because it could fly but he never thought that was the kind of bird he would be. When the school got in on the action, penguin continued to be the leading guess simply because it was the bird most associated with swimming. This was true in a sense, they did swim a great deal but they also didn’t fly. Swans were added to the list as were pelicans.
Loons and boobies were also added to the list. At first he thought it was simply because their names were rather humorous but then he was informed they actually did swim so they were valid guesses. Luna, the ever helpful soul that she was, chose to be entirely unhelpful by guessing animals that weren’t birds. Her favorite was the otter but conceded that a manta ray was much more likely. The scary thing was, if you looked at it from a certain angle ray fish did look like they had wings.
Oddly enough, no one actually guessed what type of bird he would become in terms of water. This might have been because Hermione refused to make a guess out loud, mostly to torture him, but it might also have been because they were having too much fun fanning the flames of the loon, the boobie and the penguin that they simply forgot about other breeds of birds. Surprisingly, no one suggested flamingos; they were often standing in water. The same could be said for Herons but they weren’t pink so not nearly as funny. Most importantly, no one guessed puffins.
His now black and white feathers sliced through the water, propelling him forward before he pushed himself back up out of the water and into the air. His target, the dock.
“You’re getting really good at that,” Elana said with a smile. She had been working with him on making his transitions soother between one breed of bird and another.
“Now we just need to figure out what kind of bird your earth element bird is.” Hermione grinned at him as he shifted from his puffin back to his natural form.
Harry kissed her cheek and then dropped down beside her on the dock. “That might take a while. You know I’m not the best at using earth magic.”
“I didn’t say you needed to complete the transformation, I just want to know what you will be.”
“And why do you care?”
She gave him that look that said he was being stupid, “Because I want to know if I’m right or not. I was right about the Puffin, not that I told anyone that but I was wrong about the Phoenix. I didn’t think it was possible to become a magical creature animagus.”
“What are your leading guesses?” Elana asked.
“I’m torn,” Hermione admitted. “Part of me wants to say something like a roadrunner or a kiwi, but they are flightless birds and I don’t think Harry is capable of being flightless, even as a human. So I’m leaning toward a burrowing owl or a woodpecker of some kind.”
The elf tilted her head this way and that in consideration. “None of them are inherently bad guesses, though I do think flightless birds are highly unlikely.” Then she chuckled, “Wouldn’t it be funny if he happened to be an ostrich?”
Hermione and Elana fell into fits of giggles at the image causing Harry to roll his eyes. “Funny it might be, but ostriches are vicious so I would be careful if I were you. I might just attack you with my ostrich strength when I turn into one.”
“It’s adorable that you even managed to say that out loud,” Hermione said before leaning over to give him a quick kiss. “But you know as well as I do that you are completely incapable of hurting people who aren’t attacking you.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Harry hunched his shoulders, “Laugh it up, a Defense Master that can’t fight.”
“You know how to fight, quidditch star,” his girlfriend bopped him on the nose, “you are actually quite good at it. The important thing is that you know when to fight and when to look for another solution. No one would respect you if you were a wands first, questions never, kind of guy.”
“Plus,” Elana added, “You don’t have your mastery yet. Remus says you have a few more months of work before he will even consider preparing you for the testing process.”
“Don’t you two have better things to talk about than my schooling? I know you’re both my teachers but I would think you would find more time to talk about your relationship. Don’t you have a wedding to plan? What about all those strange elf traditions that Remus is freaking out about?”
“We talk about you so Remus will stop freaking out about my family's ancient traditions.”
“Why don’t you talk about Sirius? He’s still a mess half the time. I’m sure Remus would get a kick out of mocking the bad choices he continues to make.”
“Sirius stresses Remus out.”
Harry sighed, yeah that checked. Honestly Sirius stressed them all out. He was better than he was but his time in Azkaban still affected him a great deal. Sometimes he still made the most destructive choices just to prove that he was free to do so. He did make a point to always show up for Harry and Adhara, but beyond that he tended to be a bit of a mess.
“What about the pack?”
“We do spend a lot of time talking about the pack,” Elana admitted. They had added three children to the pack and one of those children had brought his parents along with him. Remus was not the lone adult in the pack anymore (he did not consider Trevor to be an adult just yet despite the fact that he was almost nineteen and was the beta). There was talk of aligning Remus’s little pack with one of the other nearby packs. It would probably end up being the Canadian pack simply because they knew Mark well and Nova’s pack was native and they tended to only truly align with other native packs and tribes. “He was approached by another family the other day. Two wolves and the rest of their family. Four of the six are no maj, including the father werewolf, two kids are magical, the wolf child and their youngest kid. He isn’t sure he wants a big pack but at the same time he can’t seem to say no to anyone. That said, if it was someone like Greyback I'm sure he would turn them away.”
She sighed and pushed herself to her feet, “Alright, breaks over. I know you two are only a few weeks away from school being officially over and you have basically mastered your elements but that doesn’t mean you can just slack off in this class. There is alway room for improvement.”
Harry stood too and pulled Hermione to her feet a moment later. The trio made their way back toward the castle and Harry took a moment to himself. A part of him never thought he could have a life like this. He was always just moving from one fight to the next but then a crazy woman with an agenda changed his life. She pushed him out, something that had devastated him, but then he found his salvation. One adult stood up for him and because of that, he got to choose what his life would be.
A fireball flew at him and without thinking he intercepted it with a wave of water from the lake. The water evaporated with the heat of the flame causing steam to block his view for a moment, when it cleared Hermione stuck her tongue out before dashing off toward the woods.
‘Yes,’ he thought, ‘life was good.’ He transformed into his peregrine falcon form and gave chase.
Who would have thought that a guilty verdict would lead to a better life filled with the best elements of life and magic?