Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The war was finally over.

Voldemort was gone.

Dead. Killed by him.

He should feel happy, but all he feels is empty.

Hollow.

As if someone had taken away all of his ability to feel.

He moved around the Hogwarts grounds careful of the rubble and cadavers strewn over the once beautiful expanse of land. But now it had been converted into a battle field, the memory of the day he had first seen the castle was still fresh on his mind, it had been his home, his first and only home; and looking at it now, torn apart by the war, broke him in ways he didn't know were possible.

The walls which were once smooth now had gained gashes, it's grounds once filled with happy children now were smeared with blood and instead of the laughter that once rang through the grounds heart wrenching sobs cut through the air as yet another person found a body of someone they knew.

His home had been destroyed, obliterated to point of it being unrecognisable; and he had been unable to do anything to prevent it, he had stood there as his only home was taken away from him.

The radiant castle which once housed children and provided education now looked dull and gloom, a husk of what it had been.

He gazed upon all the bodies of all the people who had been sacrificed to the war– Remus. Tonks. Fred. Colin. Snape. Lavender and so many others. They were all dead, their bodies cold.

He looked at the people around him, their faces filled with immense relief but it was overshadowed by the immense grief they felt due to losing their loved ones, but he could not for the life of him bring himself to feel something, he just felt hollow and empty, as if there's a space in him which will never be filled. A void that was cold and unfeeling sucking all the life out of him.

He looked upon the Weasleys and Hermione, the closest thing he had to a family, they were all gathered around Fred's body, tears streaming down their faces, as they grieved the loss of a member of their family.

He wanted nothing more than to go there, offer comfort to the family who had taken him in, but he could not find the strength in himself to do so, afraid that he would disrupt the ephemeral yet sombre and fragile yet peaceful atmosphere.

Instead he walked into the castle, straight towards the great hall. There were a lot of people there, Harry however had never felt so out of place, seeing all the people celebrating the death of Voldemort all the while mourning the loss of their loved ones, made Harry feel like an intruder, an unfeeling one at that.

His initial emptiness was now replaced by an overwhelming amount of sadness and grief; he may have felt nothing looking at the dead bodies of his friends and comrades, but looking at the damaged walls and pillars of his first home, shattered his heart.

He couldn't bear to look at the castle or it's grounds, so he did the only thing he could think of, he walked away.

Away from the castle.

Away from the misery which clung to it.

Away from everyone and everything.

He reached grimmauld place, reinstated the fidelius charm with him as the secret keeper and tried to sleep his sorrows away. Alas, his sleep was plagued with nightmares and he woke up screaming Every. Single. Time. It was annoying really and kreacher didn't even let him take dreamless sleep potion

It had been a week since the war ended, but Harry was still reeling from the shock of it. He noticed that he had accumulated many letters from his friends and vowed to answer them later.

He cast a quick wandless tempus and realized that it was only two hours until ron and Hermione arrived and looked around the sitting room to see if it needed any extra cleaning.

He had taken up stress cleaning, it kept his mind of things and grimmauld place already looked loads better than he had ever seen it, and if it helped him sleep better it was an added bonus.

He didn't throw things away like the order had done rather cleaned each family heirloom with deliberate care and redecorated the house, he put the cursed items in the attic with the thought studying them later and attempt to break or deactivate the curse.

When kreacher found out that he was actually cleaning the house and not just throwing priceless heirlooms away, the house elf had started to help him and had even retrieved many heirlooms which had been stolen by that coward Mundungus Fletcher.

Harry had also taken up painting and changing the wallpapers to make the house less dark and gloomy. In a week he had achieved considerable progress and he was proud of his work. Painting was a coping mechanism of sorts as he painted art that tried to convey happiness even as he was drowning with grief. The paintings would cause the Black ancestors to roll in their graves but Sirius would have liked it so that was all that matters

So far he had completely converted the sitting room, kitchen, dining room, three hallways, rooms of Sirius and Regulus and the room that held the family tapestry.

It was grueling to complete all the work in a week but with the help of magic and his training at Dursleys, he had been able to do it. And all the exhaustion that came with it ensured that he slept nicely and only woke up once or twice screaming bloody murder because of the nightmares.

Hermione would say it was an unhealthy coping mechanism, but who cared? If it helped him sleep, it was a practice; it made him feel alive did itatter if it hurt? Speaking of Hermione, she and Ron will be here in about half an hour so he told Kreacher to make some snacks for them.

The meeting with Hermione and Ron was eventful to say the least, when he had told Ron that he would not join either Hogwarts for his eighth year with Hermione or the auror program with Ron, the redhead had gone into a rant about how Harry thought he was better than them and had enough money that he never needed to work, he did not seem to understand that Harry might need space after the war to cope up with his trauma.

It gave him enough stress to start cleaning the house with a new found vigour, only to find that Kreacher too had been cleaning the house and the entire house would be better in a week or so.

Hence, he left the cleaning to Kreacher and tried to deactivate the curses on the objects he had stashed away in the attic during his previous clean. It kept him busy and he found out that he was a natural at curse breaking and had mage sight -and how cool was that!-Though the mage sight had only manifested after he had died in the forest so he guessed that maybe the horcrux was somehow suppressing it.

Bill had taught him some basic curse breaking so he used that and pure instict to try and disable a few curses and to his surprise it actually worked! and on the ones it didn't work- well, he just channelled his child self from when he studied really hard in primary school- and dived into the library, with a passion that arguably rivaled Hermione's, in search for some answers to try and break the curse.

This stress curse breaking was good for his body as it exhausted him both physically and magically so he slept better and had lesser nightmares.

He visited diagon alley a few times to buy some tomes on curse breaking and everytime he stepped out, the reporters would swarm him with questions so he learnt quickly to always put on a glamour before leaving the sanctuary of the house.

He had decided that he would take his NEWTs by self studying the entire curriculum and bought the required course along with books on ancient runes and arithmancy as he wanted to test for both of their OWLs and NEWTs as well.

He found the studies surprisingly easy, well not easy per se but intriguing, and within five months he was completely prepared for his NEWTs, he had talked with the head of education department about taking his NEWTs separately, and his request was immediately approved; being the savior of the wizarding world did have his perks.

He was studying about obscure magics in the black family library and had stumbled upon a rare tome about blood magics and it had fascinated him, something about how the runes drawn in blood were stronger, and how using your own blood increased the potency of the runes and wards exponentially, mesmerized him.

It had also mentioned that if you add your own blood in the potions, it would not only work better but it would also act as a customized potion of sorts, as it was highly attuned with your blood and magic.

He even learned that some custom made wands required the blood of the wixen to bind the volatile magic of the wood and core together, it also ensured that nobody, except the wixen for whom the wand was created, would be able to use it. It was frowned upon now because people considered blood magic as “dark”.

He had relayed this information to Hermione via a letter and noticed that her returning letter was cold and distant, and he made a mental note to never share such a piece of information with her ever again.

So, life was quite smooth, he had received an order of Merlin first class alongside Ron, Hermione, Neville and others; his NEWTs had started and he attended the trials of all death eaters and requested the pardon of a few who he trusted AND he discovered his talent for both runes and arithmancy.

Well, it was smooth if you ignored the facts that he woke up screaming everyday, it seemed that stress cleaning and curse breaking paired with research only got you so far; Ron and Hermione were distant and Andromeda did not allow him to visit teddy often and when she did, she always watched him like a hawk as if he would steal teddy and run away- well, he did have the urge to do so, quite a few times but that was besides the point.

He and Ron had another argument, where the redhead was angry that Harry had taken his NEWTs, Harry too had said quite a few things back, but when the redhead pointed out that Harry hadn't cried when he had seen the dead bodies of remus and tonks Or fred, harry had lost it and banished ron out of the house.

He had not cried since he was five, learning that it was only a weakness that others would exploit. Instead, he used his grief as a motivator to get him through the days, so he was very upset with that weasel for using it against him. Weasel? Did he just quote Malfoy? It was official, Harry had lost it and was mad enough to quote Draco bloody Malfoy.

Well these were minor hiccups, compared to the real big problem that he had, and it was the hallows, he had kept the invisibility cloak as it was his birthright but, the resurrection stone kept coming back to him, no matter how far he threw it and the elder wand was a whole another problem, he had broken it into four pieces and had apparated four different and very far distances to throw them, but guess what was waiting for him on his bedside table? The elder fucking wand. The hallows were annoying so, he had given up trying to dispose them.

Instead, he just put stone on a ring and kept the wand around. And as if these problems weren't enough his magic was a whole another story.

After reaching their majority every wixen's magic stopped increasing; but, harry could NEVER be normal and his magic kept increasing day by day, to the point where he surpassed both Dumbledore and Voldemort by a huge margin.

So, he stopped using his wands and relied solely on wandless magic, it was difficult to master but now he could do any and every spell wandlessly.

His OWLs and NEWTs results had arrived in the morning and he was excited to see them. So he opened the letter :

OWL results

Ancient runes : O+*

Arithmancy : O+*

*the bold letters signify that you have received the highest marks ever recorded in the subject(s). Congratulations.

NEWT results of Harry James Potter

Transfiguration : O

Potions : O

Defense against the dark arts : O+*

Charms : EE

Ancient runes : O+*

Arithmancy : O

*the bold letters signify that you have received the highest marks ever recorded in the subject(s). Congratulations.

Harry had never felt so proud of himself ever, as he looked at his results, he was sure that his parents would be proud of him too. He had even achieved an Outstanding in potions (Ha! Take that snape, you greasy bat) snape may have saved him, but that didn't excuse his asshole personality.

He excitedly penned a letter for Hermione, Neville and luna, attaching a copy of his results with it, telling that that his results arrived and he had aced his tests!

Hermione's reply was cold and distant but polite nonetheless, Neville and Luna had written him a joint letter congratulating him with lots of enthusiasm and informing him that they had started dating. (He had suspected that a while ago, and was very happy that he had been correct)

He now had gained his NEWTs and had a lot of time to kill, so he decided to brush up his piano skills, he had last played it when he was ten, it took him three months but he finally got a hold of the piano. He occasionally helped George with creating new products, and had taken up spell crafting as he was bored.

He first created basic spells, to ground coffee beans, make his bed and later, created spells for his personal use like the one to correct his vision (it had taken a lot of trial and error and the destruction of a room to work properly, but now that it did, he didn't need his glasses anymore!) He however soon moved onto creating more bloodthirsty violent spells, to use during a duel. 

Creating vicious spells was his way to ease his pent up rage, he had created some particularly gruesome spells that could kill anyone in minutes after his arguments with ron and Hermione.

Just because, expelliarmus was his signature spell, didn't mean he did not use any other, it was just that the people on whom harry used different spells didn't live long enough to snitch on him.

Harry had blood on his hands and wasn't ashamed to admit it, because it was a war and the situation was kill or get killed, harry rather liked to live so he chose the best option, kill.

When he wanted to learn how to use some weapons, kreacher had suggested him to learn how to use daggers. They were fun to learn, as they were versatile, you could stab someone with them or throw them and they were easy to carry. (He had even found Slytherin's twin daggers, they were so pretty! with their hilts covered in intricate designs and emeralds, and a sleek black and silver blade they looked AWESOME!!)

It had been a two years since, the war ended and he was nineteen now and had learnt a lot of things in the meantime, but he had lost ron and Hermione as they weren't as close as they had been and always argued, their most recent one being that Harry had not gotten together with Ginny, when he had said that it was his decision, they ignored him and told him that he had changed tremendously.

However he had gotten close to Nev and Luna, who were his official new best friends.

It was October 31st, the cursed day of Halloween or Samhain, and he was feeling funny already anticipating that something was going to happen.

It started with Phineas Nigellus black, telling him some very disturbing things. "Harry" Phineas had started "I have come to begrudgingly like you and have come here to warn you, it is not safe for you today. The mudblood and the blood traitor have been reporting your every move and decision to Dumbledore's portrait, they think that it was impossible for you to survive another killing curse, and that you're only a horcrux, the changes in your behavior they guess is just the horcrux, I have not informed you of this before, because I thought they would accept you and forget the theories about horcruxes but, they have planned to kill you today. Stay safe and vigilant "

It had broken his heart to think that his friends were willing to kill him, on the word of a portrait, but then again they haven't been his friends for a long time, he thought bitterly.

It was true he had changed, but with all the trauma from the Dursleys, the war and killing people, could you blame him?

He retreated back to the library, to continue researching. He had stumbled upon some of Voldemort's propaganda from around 1976 and was pleasantly surprised that he didn't look snake-like and his ideas were actually nice.

Like who knew, that Voldemort wanted to protect the muggleborn children rather than kill them, resume the practice of the olde ways AND start a magical orphanage? Harry himself had proposed the idea of a magical orphanage just after the war, to take care of all the orphans.

The wizengamot had approved of his suggestion and had already started building the orphanage; like he said being the man-who-conquered did have it's benefits. 

Thinking of the orphanage had bought up his repressed memories of the Dursleys and he was on the verge of a panic attack, by the power of sheer will he reached the music room, which stored his grand piano and began playing to calm himself down, while putting the memories back under a lock and key, using his occlumency barriers (he had mastered occlumency on his own and was proud to declare that even Voldemort could not surpass his barriers)

He was so lost in playing the piano that he didn't feel someone entering the room until it was too late and he now had a wand pointed at his neck. He thought back to Phineas's warning and mentally kicked himself for not paying attention. He saw herm- no Granger and Weasley glaring at him.

"you foul horcrux, you've tricked us long enough by wearing Harry's face and now is the time this ends" Weasley accused him

Granger chimed in, " I knew something was wrong the moment you started learning new skills and got the high marks, harry would never do that" Now that was plain rude! just because he had dumbed himself down at Hogwarts didn't mean he was actually stupid, he had done that so ron wouldn't feel bad and Hermione wouldn't be jealous.

Ron spoke again, "our harry would never pardon death eater scum" Wasn't harry known for his forgiveness, and narcissa and draco had literally saved his life.

Harry opened his mouth to say something, probably something sarcastic, as his sarcasm was always high during life threatening situations, before ron cut him off with a, "AVADA KEDAVRA"

And wasn't it irony at it's finest, that his 'light' Best friend didn't even think twice before hurling the killing curse his way.

His instincts were screaming at him to defend himself, to move out of the way, to create a barrier, to create a distraction, to do anything, but he ignored them and stood with his back straight and head held up high, waiting for the curse to strike him.

He then saw a jet of green light moving towards him and strike him straight in the chest,right where his heart was, then he knew nothing but darkness.

Chapter Text

Harry woke up.

He wasn't supposed to wake up.

He was supposed to stay dead, like any normal person.

But, no. Harry had to wake up once again after taking a killing curse. It was the third time he survived a killing curse and he was happy to report that dying hurts like a fucking bitch.

But, as he ignored the pain and sat up. He realized that something was off, and looked down on his body and realized that he was a girl now.

He was a GIRL.

What the FUCK.

What the bloody hell was this supposed to mean.

Ok, so he dies as a eighteen year old man and now he woke up as a girl, who he guessed was around fourteen years old. That made so much sense!!

But, before he could comprehend the fact that he now was a girl or guess the reasons as to why he was a girl, he felt a strong force on his occlumency barriers, and quickly erected a shield charm before diving into his mindscape.

As soon as he entered his mind, he was assaulted by a rapid onslaught of memories.

He realized that his(her?) name now was Adhara Lyra Black, he remembered being born to Orion and Walburga Black, he remembered cold, sharp eyes and disdainful sneers.

He remembered being the worthless child, the third child.

There was a heir, a spare and then hi- no her, the unwanted child, the mistake, the third child.

He remembers being tended to by the elves, while her siblings got what little affection her parents were capable of.

She remembers being one year old, looking at her siblings, one, three years older than her, Sirius, the heir. The other, only a year older than her, Regulus, the spare.

He recalls being a two year old girl, one who craved attention, the one who had learnt to walk and talk earlier than normal.

He remembers being taken to a healer, who declared her a squib, and then she recalls being deemed unworthy to live at the grand manor and being left on the streets to fend for herself.

Why does he(she?) remember this, shouldn't it be impossible to recall stuff from when you were a baby or a toddler ?

She experiences life in an orphanage for three years, before running away at the age of five, she remembers living on the streets, pickpocketing and stealing to survive.

She recalls using all the advantages at her disposal to live. Harry sorted and sifted through the memories.

Memories of using wandless compulsion charms to get free food, stealing clothes and blankets. Of making animals do what he(she?) wanted them to do, of hurting people who hurt her first and of using magic to hide, blend in to avoid being detected by the police who would only return him(her?) to the orphanage again.

Then finally entering diagon alley at the age of seven, stealing a few galleons from passing wizards and witches to buy food and a few books containing important charms.

She remembers practicing the copying and the extension charm religiously, until she got them right. Then, casting an undetectable extension charm on a small purse, then copying important tomes and slipping them in the said mini purse without anyone noticing. It took seven months and numerous visits to the book stores but she was able to copy and steal books.

This girl has an eidetic memory, harry realized. He kept sorting through the memories, and saw a child learning to cast all the important charms wandlessly, memories of a child devouring any and all tomes and never forgetting a word.

He finally came across the memory of finally seeing her "father" at the age of ten, while she was loitering in diagon alley.

She remembers, stealing a few galleons from his money pouch, enough to sustain her for a week, while not rousing suspicion.

She remembers getting a hogwarts letter when she turned eleven, she remembers ripping it apart and trampling it under her shoe, vowing to get revenge on her parents and grandfather for banishing her and dooming her to a life of misery where she barely had enough to survive while her "family" lived like royalty.

She remembers buying herself a emerald coloured diary and a book on spell crafting for her twelfth birthday. She remembers directing all the anger she felt towards her family to create the curses, she dreamt of using on them one day.

The rest of the memories weren't special, just the normal : stealing and hiding and defending herself to survive. The streets of London were unforgiving especially for a little girl, and she had to fight with everything to survive.

But, just as he thought the memories had ended, he was hit in the face with more memories. These ones were more sensitive and vulnerable than the rest.

Memories about praying and begging God, who would never listen, never answer, to bring back her parents. Memories of cruel, cruel people, memories that proved why people said that the streets were no place for a girl to live, but Adhara was no little girl, had never been.

Adhara was a lady.

And Harry respected her for showing those men their places, though he still felt bad that a fourteen year old had blood on her hands,(which was hypocritical because he had burned squirrel alive when he was eleven and had slayed a basilisk at twelve) but he didn't fault her choices and rather lauded her killing those scums and riding the world of those abhorrent pests.

Harry then pulled hims- herself out of the mindscape and back into the real world. She then opened her diary to check the curses and was impressed by how bloodthirsty the curses were, so he did the best thing that anyone other person would do.

He assessed the curses and made some changes to increase the potency of a few curses, he added all the curses he himself had created and combined some spells to add more spells to the list. It was going to be his personal grimoire and he was going to use them on people (his family) and he was going to make them hurt.

She noticed that she had yet to eat anything and it was noon already, so harr- Adhara cleaned the blankets with a flick of her wrist and packed them into her mini purse.

While she put on her coat and carefully placed the diary in one of its pockets.

But before she could take another step, she cast a tempus to see the time and date and was shocked when she saw the date, it read 30th July 1977. Then a horrible, horrible realization sunk in, 1977. Orion and Walburga Black. Sirius. Regulus. Arcturus Black.

She was her godfather's sister.

Godfather who was barely 17 at the moment. Godfather who was an asshole. Look, she loved Sirius like a father, really. But that didn't mean that she was blind to or would excuse his bully-like tendencies. Her father and godfather were both mean to people who didn't suit their morals *cough* narrow minded stereotypes*cough*, and Adhara for sure knew that her actions didn't fit anyone's morals.

He then tried to remember if his godfather had a third sibling, but nothing came to her mind, he didn't even remember seeing the name Adhara Lyra Black on the tapestry, he deduced that he must be in an alternate universe as he had also time travelled twenty two years in the past, though the date did differ.

Just another Halloween really.

He was reminded of his hunger once again as his stomach growled, so he wandered into a market.

He bumped into some wealthy looking people and stole a bit of money, it wasn't as if Harry had never stolen money before, he had stolen quite a bit of money from his relatives, but it was a long time ago and doing it again was thrilling. Was it immoral? Yes. Did he give a fuck about morality ? Absolutely not.

There was a certain thrill in stealing borrowing some money from the passerbys, where he had to take a reasonable amount to not draw attention lest he got caught.

Once, she had gathered around a hundred pounds, she walked towards a bakery, she caught her reflection on one of the windows and stopped there for a moment to check her appearance; wavy black hair that reached her mid-back, pale skin, heart shaped face, high cheekbones, button nose and full lips, she looked really pretty, though malnourished.

She glanced at her outfit too and found that it was perfect to blend in, her clothes were well worn but not tattered, she looked polished but not wealthy.

She looked perfectly average(as terrifying as the thought was as it bought up a bit too many uncomfortable memories from his time with the Dursleys, it was perhaps the best course of action right now)

She then bought some food and walked down to a park to eat it and take a stroll.

Adhara, due to her eidetic memory, had all the places and routes of London memorized, she knew everything from the posh neighborhoods to the most seedy alleyways, it was quite helpful when she needed to hide or change places regularly or merely find a park to eat.

She ate and then walked around the streets to think about the situation she had found herself in and before she knew it was night already, so she chose an empty corner on a street to sleep, she made a bed with the blankets and erected a few rudimentary wards and cast some strong notice me not and shield charms.

She didn't sleep right away, rather she opened the diary and began trying to create some wards to pass some time, waiting for the midnight to wish herself a happy birthday as was the custom of both Harry and Adhara, they shared the same birth dates 31st of july. Adhara cast a tempus to see it was ten seconds to midnight and began the countdown;

Ten

Nine

Eight

Seven

Six

Five

Four

Three

Two And.....

One "Happy fourteenth birthday to me" Adhara murmured, letting out a bitter laugh at what his life had become.

One moment he was eighteen being murdered by his supposed “best friend” and then he was a fourteen year old girl who was living on the streets

Just as he was prepared to finally sleep, he realized that there were still a few memories left to be analysed and sorted.

He gave a sigh, one that was far more appropriate for someone a hundred years older than him.

These memories which he was sorting were the ones that were far more delicate than the ones he had assessed earlier that day.

These were a memories of a French, blond haired, blue eyed boy, who was her first and only friend. The one who had an easy grin on his face as he called her "petite étoile".

The one who had been ripped away from her far too early, than she would've liked. Harry saw as Adhara broke down, vowing to never let anyone get that close to her ever again, as she saw him leave London and her behind as he moved back to France with his family.

There was a memory of a frail, old man, who had given her an advice when she had fallen during a fight, he had told her "kid, get off the ground, spit out the blood, Bare your teeth, go down savage, go down fighting"

Memories of the same old man, leaving her only after month of her getting to know him. She remembered vividly as he had breathed his last breath with her by his side.

How she blamed herself, for losing the only people who had cared for her.

After, finally separating and sorting the memories and pushing the most sad ones under a rock, Harry was ready for taking up the new identity.

The transition from Harry to Adhara was not difficult, as Harry had been wearing different masks for all his life, so all he had to do was to strip himself of all the masks and embrace Adhara Lyra Black as his only identity.

They were similar in many ways and yet so different, where Harry was soft and meek(not meek but overly forgiving and kind), Adhara was sharp and cold. Where Harry hesitated to strike, Adhara made sure to crush her opponents so that they never harmed her again. But, if there was something they agreed on was, it was survival.

They used different methods to survive, but they shared a common goal. Where Harry acted meek and submissive to avoid punishment, Adhara eliminated threats meticulously, her strikes precise and calculated.

Adhara, after solving her personality crisis was ready for some sleep. He checked the wards for one last time before entering Morpheus's realm.

He suddenly found herself back at King's Cross station, and wondered if he died again. However, his musings were interrupted when she spotted a man dressed in a black suit standing before him.

As if sensing her gaze on him, he gave her a deep bow and spoke in a deep, smooth voice " Greetings, master or mistress as it would fit the current situation better"

Adhara was confused as to who was this person, before he came to another horrible realisation, "D- death? "

The man chuckled, the sound chilling her to the bone, "indeed, mistress. I knew you were smart enough to figure it out"

Adhara, however was beyond confused, and questioned, " Why did I have to become your mistress? I don't want to become anyone's master or mistress or anything can't I just give up the position? "

Death replied, amusement lacing his words, "you became my mistress because you possessed all three hallows together and they seemed to like you and you also had peverell blood running in your veins so it was all very convenient" He finished with a shrug, before adding "and, no. you can't just give up the title up"

Adhara made a wounded noise before inquiring, "but, I don't have the hallows here, so why can't I give up this title or something"

Death, the absolute bastard, found this funny for some reason and laughed, " You can have the hallows anytime you want, you just have to think about them and they'll come to you. And, again you can't give up this title." He winked as he added, "and can't ne a bastard because I technically I don't have parents as death is the beginning and the end but death doesn't have a beginning nor does it have an end"

Adhara gave a resigned sigh, why was she surrounded by idiots, and continueed asking the deity, "why, pray tell me, is this amusing to you"

Death, chuckled again, "oh, it is funny, little mistress" She wasn't little, thank you very much. Just a bit vertically challenged and 5"4 was a perfectly acceptable height.

"you see, there are many wizards would do anything to own this position, but you, my dear mistress are trying to find an excuse to give up this position. The irony is just a bit too amusing"

Adhara let out a frustrated huff, "so, what do i have to do now? And why did you rather send me into this body than my original one? " 

Death just smiled, "you don't have to do anything, little mistress. You can live the way you want. Cause as much chaos as possible, wreck havoc, or live a simple life. It's your choice really. And about this body, if I had sent you back into your own you would've been killed again by Ron Weasley so i chose this body. The original soul had departed from it due to a heart attack and since you shared the same birthday I thought it would be fitting "

Adhara just accepted his fate and sighed, "will we be talking again?" He questioned hopefully, before continuing "and what should I call you? You can call me Adhara, you know, it will better than calling me your mistress"

Death answered, "yes, we will be talking again but it would be on samhain as it's the day death magic is the strongest. You may call me Mors and I think I will stick to mistress, thank you"

Before Adhara could insist him to use his name, Mors spoke again, " And before I forget, my dear mistress. Due to you becoming the master or well- miatress of death, you can now wield death magic, and are a necromancer. Also, you will still be able to speak parseltongue and as an apology for randomly dumping you in a body, I bought your twin daggers"

He completed handing her the twin daggers. Adhara thanked Mors for the gift and Mors bade him farewell.

When Adhara woke up in the morning she found her daggers placed near her head and was glad that her talk with Mors was not just a fever dream.

She was happy today, as it was her birthday. She quickly cleaned and packed the blankets, before wearing her coat and strapping one dagger on her thigh and the other on her forearm.

Adhara -the original- had saved quite a lot of money for her gifts. So he took the money out and walked towards the clothing store.

She bought a new dress for herself an emerald green in color. It was a pretty thing, full sleeves, sweetheart neckline and a snatched waist, it reached till her knees and made her look incredible.

She also bought a couple of sweatshirts, one crop top, one pair of pants, one skirt and a long trench coat. For footwear she bought herself a pair of heels and running shoes. It was a lot but it was her birthday and she needed the clothes.

She was on her way to the cashier when she spotted the sports bras, so she bought some sports bras and running shorts to wear when she went running or when she exercised.

She got her items checked and billed, and realized that she was fifty pounds short, so she cast a wandless compulsion on the cashier to give her a hundred pound discount- it was her birthday! so she was allowed atleast this much.

The items were what the original Adhara had wanted and the least harry could do was honour her memory by doing what she had wanted to do.

Walking into a secluded corner she stuffed all the articles into her mini purse, before deciding to take a look around different stores.

She spotted a make up store and bought a bright red lipstick for fun, it actually suited her face and contrasted beautifully against her pale skin.

She then bought a cupcake to celebrate her birthday and just enjoyed the rest of her day strolling around.

Life went on in a similar fashion for the next few days, she would wake up, steal some money, eat food, try to create more curses and slept.

Though she did experiment with blood runes and found a way to lock his diary with it, so that no one else would be able to open it. And if she caused fire and accidentally committed arson then it was nobody's business but his own, thank you very much.

Life was smooth, well atleast as smooth as it could be on the streets, though she did get into a couple of fights but, she won them so it wasn't that big of an issue.

Life was good, until it wasn't, and now dodging hexes while running, she couldn't help but let out an exhilarated laugh that bubbled up in her chest.

Chapter Text

Arcturus Black was bored.

He and rest of the board of governors, checked the list of all the children enrolled in hogwarts every five years and today was the day they would be checking the list. 

This year they had decided to split up the list, so he had ended up with all the students with their names starting from A and B. He sullenly looked at list but suddenly he froze when he looked at the name : 

Adhara Lyra Black (letter was left unanswered) 

Orion's youngest, the child who he had allowed to be banished on the streets twelve years ago. A child, who they thought was a squib but it seemed that they were wrong, as she had enough magic to be enrolled at Hogwarts. 

He quickly masked his shock as to not garner attention from his fellow governors. He was going to have words with Orion and Warburga, leaving a two year old girl on the streets, on the word of an incompetent healer, what we're they thinking! 

He conveniently forgot to consider that he had allowed them to do so. 

After the task was completed he bade farewell to his fellow Lords and Ladies, before walking gracefully through the floo. Entering Black manor, he ordered the nearest elf to summon Orion and Warburga. 

Orion was confused when he received summons from his father, but nonetheless informed Warburga, and donned on some nice robes before walking through the floo with Warburga following him. 

He didn't know why his father had called this impromptu meeting, he thought maybe it was related to Sirius, who had yet to let go of his rebellious streak. 

His train of thoughts where interrupted when his father stepped into the room. He gave him a bow, "Father" And received a cool nod in turn. 

There was a tense silence before Arcturus broke it, "so what do you have to say for yourselves? " Orion furrowed his brows, confused, " I do not understand, father"

Arcturus spoke, his voice firm, " Do not feign astonishment, Orion. I'm asking about your youngest"

His father's words did nothing but perplexed him further, "Regulus, what about hi-- " Before he realized about whom his father was inquiring, " You mean Adhara? "

His father merely raised an eyebrow, and before he could further question the reasons as to why his father was asking about his daughter, who had been sent away almost twelve years ago. Walburga who had silent the entire time cut in with a sneer, "What about that worthless squib?" 

Arcturus spoke sharply, "that worthless squib is your daughter, your own flesh and blood" He glared at Walburga before continuing, "and she is not a squib, she was accepted into Hogwarts. So, Let me rephrase my first question, why in Merlin's name did you send her away when she was two and did not wait longer for her to show accidental magic"

They didn't have an answer to that and just looked at him blankly. Arcturus hissed, " You're telling me that you didn't even have a strong reason to banish her and now a daughter of the house of Black is living on the streets like a commoner"

He didn't give them time to explain and instead called upon a house elf, "Mipsy" There was a pop and an elf appeared, "Yes master?"

Arcturus ordered, " Go summon my wife and both my grandsons. Tell them their presence is obligatory" And walked out of the room, leaving Orion and Warburga alone in the room. 

Seeing his father leave, Orion turned to Walburga, "why did you convince me to send our daughter away? How will we relay this information to my mother and our sons?"

Walburga, unfazed replied, "the healer told us that she was a squib, and there was no way we were going to associate with a squib. And i don't think it'll faze your mother and our sons much anyway"

Before they could continue their dispute, Arcturus and Melania black stepped back into the room and Regulus arrived through the floo. Then, the floo flared back to life revealing..... 

Sirius was in his room at the Potter's when he received the summons from his grandfather via the house elf Mipsy. He was tempted to just ignore it and continue his day, but he had a feeling that it was important ashe had never been summoned by his grandfather. 

So, he discarded his muggle attire in the favor of robes and then he informed the Potter's about the message and his decision to obey it. They were a bit reluctant to let him go, but relented when he assured them that he would return even at the smallest inconvenience. 

He threw a pinch of floo powder before clearly enunciating "Black manor" And stepping in gracefully, he was greeted by the sight of his grandparents, parents and brothers sitting together in a room. 

He moved forward and gave a slight bow "Grandfather, grandmother, father, mother, Regulus" He received nods and looks of approval at the formal greeting. 

After all the required members had arrived into the room, Arcturus stood and placed a parchment on the table along with a vial of something that looked suspiciously like blood. 

He then spoke addressing Sirius and Regulus, his voice low yet demanding attention, " I hope you remember that you both had a younger sister who was banished from the family because your parents believed that she was a squib" 

He let the news sink in before continuing, "it has recently come to light that she was indeed not a squib and had enough magic to be recognized by Hogwarts. So, I have decided that we must correct this grave mistake and bring her back in. I will perform a tracking spell which requires seven drops of blood, one of the person we must find and the remaining six from family members "

He held the vial which contained blood aloft and explained, "this is Adhara's blood which was collected during after her birth, and I require a drop of blood from each of you for this spell, hence why I have summoned you"

He drew some runes and first placed a drop of adhara's blood and then pierced his finger with a ritual blade and allowed a drop of his own blood fall onto the runes before passing it around. After, everyone had completed their part he started chanting in latin and words appeared on the parchment. 

Sirius and Regulus were five and three respectively when their sister was sent away, so they had a vague recollection of her. They felt bad for their sister and hoped that she was okay wherever she was. 

The words on the parchment became clear and they were shocked when they realized that it was Street on muggle London. 

Arcturus broke out his stupor and ordered, "Orion, Walburga you will accompany me to retrieve your daughter. Melania you can stay here with Sirius and Regulus, I'm sure they will provide good company for you"

Before they could move, Sirius blurted out, a steely glint in his eyes, " Wait. I will come with you guys too. I'm seventeen and legally an adult and want to help rescue my sister. "

Arcturus gave a nod and his eyes glinted with approval, " Very well, you may accompany us too"

Adhara's POV :

Life for Adhara was not easy, it was the last day of her period and it was not good. The cramps, though excruciatingly painful were easy to bear as Adhara was used to pain. Her last day were usually the worst where she was perpetually angry and only survived them out of pure spite. 

The thing that annoyed her the most however was the mood swings, one moment she was angry enough to punch two boys square in their jaws for catcalling her, the next she was sad because the clouds looked so soft. 

So suffice to say she was suffering from some serious menstrual rage and was ready to throw hands. She had decided to go on a run and had just returned and was too tired to change her shorts and sports bra, so she had opted to just put on a sweatshirt over it and wore a trench coat to keep out the cold. 

She was ready to go rest somewhere, when she heard some telltale, loud cracks of apparition. She grew alert and stuffed her purse in one of the pockets and turned around. 

She saw Arcturus Black, her grandfather, the one who had gave permission for her to be sent away; Orion and Walburga Black, her so - called parents, the ones who had not thought twice before sending their own two year daughter on the unforgiving streets of London; and lastly, Sirius Black, her oldest brother, the runaway heir. 

Before they could begin speaking she bolted, she heard a surprised shout before footsteps ran behind her, flinging harmless curses at her, she threw some wandless curses and jinxes over her shoulder catching them by surprise. 

She heard some muffled curses and exclamations of "she casted those spells without a wand", "Merlin! Was that wandless magic?" And "and you thought she was a squib".

Their curses grew more powerful and now dodging hexes while running she couldn't stop that exhilarated laughter that bubbled up in her chest, she twirled out of the way of a stunner before taking a turn. 

But, during that turn a cutting curse caught her in the shoulder and started bleeding, she paid no mind and responded with more powerful curses, she was tempted to use a few spells which she had created but they were far too vicious to use right now.

Since, they had yet to use some actually harmful curses, she decided that she would return favor but, one potentially harmful curse out of their mouth and she would let her restraints snap and be after their blood. 

However, running and occasionally throwing some jinxes over her shoulder she realized that the cut on her shoulder was still bleeding and the blood loss was making her dizzy, she made a quick decision. 

Since, her "family" was here and was yet to try and kill her she deduced that they must want her alive so she cast some quick wards in parseltounge on the pocket that contained her precious diary and used the blood from the cut, wincing when her skin came in contact with the cut, to draw some runes on it so no one will be able to open her pocket and drew some more runes on her clothes too so that no one will be able to strip her off them. 

It was hard to draw the runes while running and dodging the curses, she managed to do it. They were a bit shaky but were otherwise perfect, so she activated them. 

With that she finally gave into the dizziness that was plaguing her mind and fell unconscious. In her last moments of consciousness she felt fingers searching for her pulse and being lifted off the ground. 

General POV :

Whatever they were expecting Adhara Black was the complete opposite of that. She had hurled wandless curses at them as if it was a childs play all the while never losing her path. 

When she had crumpled into the ground like that, they were scared as they looked at the cut on her shoulder bleeding profusely. Sirius, had taken shaky steps and had felt immense relief when he had found her pulse. 

Orion had briskly walked over to her body and lifted her in his arms, gave a nod to Walburga and Arcturus before apparating away. 

They too had quickly followed suit after cleaning the blood which had pooled on the ground as to not garner suspicion of the muggles. 

Adhara had been placed in the guest room and their private healer had been immediately summoned. 

After he was done healing the rather large gash on her shoulder alongside a few other minor cuts and bruises, he had given them some potions she was required to consume before taking his leave. 

They had tried to change her clothes to no avail, it seemed that her clothes were impossible to pry away from her body, they had even tried to check her pockets for something but, they had been unsuccessful in even trying to touch them. It seemed that Adhara had warded the clothes against being removed. 

Adhara POV :

Adhara woke up to a lot of pain, her entire body was sore. She then mentally cursed herself for starting the chase, when she could've just apparated away or called upon the invisibility cloak. 

But, now was not the time to cry over past mistakes, so she opened her eyes and took in the room, she was laid on a plush bed, her clothes were still the same and her daggers were firmly strapped to their respective positions. 

She looked around the room and saw her grandfather, grandmother, father, mother and both her brothers looking at her with varying expressions. 

Her attention however was drawn to a small creature wearing a toga with the black family crest proudly on display, looking up at her with pale blue eyes. She recognized the elf, as the elf had tended to her alongside the other elves when she was a baby. 

She whispered, "Mipsy?". The elf in question looked at her with wide eyes her tone filled with reverence, " Mistress remembers Mipsy?"

She replied in a pleasant tone, "yes, Mipsy. I would never forget the one who raised me for two years after all" At which she sent a pointed look to the other members in the room who looked at her with disbelief. 

She just gave them an elegant shrug as if to convey 'what?. Walburga snapped, "you insolent brat! You greet an elf before us and look like nothing's wrong?"

She gave them a mocking smile, "Ah yes, where are my manners, Grandfather, grandmother, father, mother, Sirius Orion and Regulus Arcturus. How are you all doing on this fine day?" She asked, her words dripping with disdain

She continued with the sweetest smile she could muster "I am Adhara Lyra Black, in case you may have forgotten after such a long time. May I ask what made you aware of my existence after twelve years?" Her face held a pleasant expression even if her words and tone were mocking and condescending. 

All of them bar Walburga collectively winced at it, she just pinned them down with her gaze, she rather enjoyed watching them squirm as they struggled to meet her gaze. 

It was laughable, really, watching the members of the Nobel and Most Ancient of house of Black squirm under the scrutiny of a fourteen year old girl. 

Arcturus spoke up, " We know that you are upset with us." She snorted at that, upset was an understatement. He ignored her snort and added "we had our reasons and now we would like to welcome you back into the family"

She looked at him blankly, " And tell me, Lord Black, what reasons you had to abandon a two year old girl on the streets of London, and 'welcome me into the family' what makes you think that I would like to live with you?"

It was Orion who spoke up now, "a healer had informed us that you were a squib and hence why we had to leave you" He sufficiently ignored her comment about being 'welcomed' into the family. 

Walburga however could not shut up and screeched, "and why did you not answer your Hogwarts letter? That way we wouldn't have to chase you around on the streets"

She sneered at the tactless woman, "I shred my Hogwarts letter and trampled it under my foot, exactly what I would do to you if you keep screeching like a hooligan"

Before Walburga could reply Melania cut in smoothly, " And why child, did you not accept your place at Hogwarts?"

She looked at her grandmother and answered, "I would rather not be taught by mindless, incompetent fools when I can perform magic perfectly well without any guidance"

This time it was Arcturus who eyed her sceptically, " Just because you can perform basic wandless jinxes doesn't mean you know everything, you still have a lot to learn "

Adhara looked him in the eye, raised her palm and murmured, "Fiendfyre" The flames took form of a basilisk and flew around, she carefully controlled it and gradually let it die by retracting her magic.

 It was one of those spells that had taken a lot of practice to master as they would get out of control at even the slightest loss of focus and will. 

She raised an eyebrow, "can any of you even control fiendfyre with a wand?"

The adults were gaping and staring at her in shock while Sirius looked as if his entire life was proven a lie and Regulus looked at her with awe and respect. 

Orion cleared his throat, " Well, you are qualified but it would be better if you attended Hogwarts anyways, just to keep up an image"

She pondered over the suggestion, it was a rather tempting offer, as the studies wouldn't be difficult and she could go back to her first home and could cause some chaos. 

Making a decision, she spoke, " Alright, I agree to attend Hogwarts. But, I will stay in the manor until school starts and I want unrestricted access to the entire manor and the library"

They seemed pleased by her decision and granted her unrestricted access. 

Sirius however seemed to have different ideas and suggested, "what if we all stayed at the manor with you? We could try to get to know each other"

Sirius Black, suggesting to spend time with his family? Colour her surprised. All the other occupants in the room looked at Sirius in shock as he was willing to stay with them. 

Regulus pounced on the offer and agreed, " That is a great idea. Can we do that father, please?"

Orion after recovering from the shock that Sirius had given them, immediately gave in, "yes, it would be an excellent idea. I will ask kreacher to retrieve everything necessary from grimmauld place and Potter manor"

She looked at them weirdly, they were acting very out of character. But, she just shrugged and decided to roll with it, "if you are quite done with your family discussion, I would like to freshen up. Mipsy, will you please show me the bathroom?"

All of them, bar Regulus, gave her another round of disbelieving looks, as if it impossible for them to fathom the mere idea of being kind to a house elf. 

She ignored them again and followed Mipsy, when she returned clad in a comfy sweatshirt and pants along with fuzzy socks, the horrorstruck looks she received from her family, were worth whatever headache they would no doubt cause her. 

Walburga as always unable to shut her mouth, sneered, " Why are you wearing muggle clothes " She sighed and spoke slowly as if speaking to a child, "you see, mother, I was living on the streets and could hardly afford high quality robes, could I? So, excuse me if I don't own fancy robes" 

She was about to walk away when she was interrupted by Orion,"I will take you shopping for clothes and school supplies tomorrow, your grandfather has talked with the school governors and they have agreed to let you join the other fourth years. Your brothers will be accompanying us so if you have any queries they will help you"

She nodded with a small smile and retreated back to her room. She arranged her clothes in the closet and one dagger under her clothes. She then retrieved her diary and strapped the other dagger on her forearm and made a beeline towards the library, eager to add more spells to her collection. 

On her way, however she was intercepted by Sirius who slung an arm around her shoulders, not realizing when she tensed and spoke, " So sister, do tell me about yourself........... 

Chapter Text

" So sister, do tell me about yourself..........." 

Adhara twirled out of sirius's grip and spoke, " Ask a question and I may answer it" She winked and then continued, her voice cold and her face devoid of any emotion" Oh, and brother dearest, touch me without my permission again and you will never see the light of the day again "

 And it was not a threat. 

Her lips were drawn back into a snarl nor were her teeth bared, instead her lips curled up in a slow smile, it wasn't a pleasant one either, it was a sharp, vicious little thing that seemed to declare that her words were not a threat, rather it was a promise of what would come to pass should he disregard her boundaries. 

Adhara didn't wait long enough to analyze sirius's reaction, instead she took brisk steps towards the library, she was already tired and wanted to do nothing with the people in this house. 

Reaching the library, she was stunned. It was a breathtaking sight, there were so many books and it could help her to learn more about blood runes and wards, maybe she could even learn the Black family magics! 

She picked up some books on blood magic and called upon an elf to bring her some scones and hot chocolate. She thanked the elf and the poor thing looked so shocked that she was afraid that the elf might faint. 

She had finished her work in the library and was now a lot more knowledgeable in the blood magics than she was before. She had retired back to her room when she had received the order that she was to have dinner with family. 

She almost decided not to go, just to spite them, but she had to. She freshened up and wore her emerald green dress for dinner. She checked herself for any mistakes, she would not let anyone point out any imperfections in her. 

She entered the dining room with a straight back, her head held high and a meticulously crafted expression of haughty boredom on her face. She inclined her head slightly in greeting to all the family members and took the empty seat between Arcturus and Orion (her grandfather and father, she corrected herself) 

The dinner was going alright until Orion spoke, " Adhara would you be kind enough to pass the salt? " She swallowed down the urge to say no and flip him off, instead she offered him a charming smile as she passed him the salt

He thanked her with a, "thank you, petite étoile" The words made her freeze, the memories of a blond haired boy calling her the same endearment plagued her mind.

The memories caused other memories of the people both harry and Adhara had lost to flash before her eyes. She was on the verge of a panic attack. She wanted to stab Orion for bringing up that endearment and cause this reaction. 

But all she could do was glare at him balefully and hiss, "never call me that again" She then excused herself, " If you don't mind I would like to retire for the night, life on the streets hardly prepared me to stomach such rich foods"

Externally she looked poise and composed, internally however she was barely able to contain herself. So, she immediately went to the ball room to play the piano and try to regain her composure. She began playing the piano and sang her feelings out : 

Do you ever get a little bit tired of life

Like you're not really happy but you don't wanna die

Like you're hanging by a thread but you gotta survive

'Cause you gotta survive

Like your body's in the room but you're not really there

Like you have empathy inside but you don't really care

Like you're fresh outta love but it's been in the air

Am I past repair? 

A little bit tired of tryin' to care when I don't

A little bit tired of quick repairs to cope

A little bit tired of sinkin'

There's water in my boat

I'm barely breathin'

Tryna stay afloat

So I got these quick repairs to cope

Guess I'm just broken and broke. 

Whilst singing and playing the piano, she found temporary relief. She strengthened her occlumency shields and finally calmed down. She then retreated back into her room to rest as she had to visit the diagon alley tomorrow with her father and brothers. 

Waking up she found a set of robes kept at the side table, she sighed and went to take a bath. After dressing up, she put on her red lipstick, which stood out against her pale skin. She went to the kitchens for a quiet breakfast, she could not survive another meal with her family this early. 

After her finishing her meal and thanking the elves she went into the parlor to wait for the others, when they arrived they all wordlessly stepped through the floo. 

Adhara stumbled out of the floo with all the grace of a drunkard and right into someone's arms. She quickly straightened and was about to thank the person who had caught her. But, looking up she froze because it was James Potter, her father, maybe ex-father, but she was not ready for this, but it seemed that fate hated her. 

She forced a smile, "thank you for helping me" He gave her a charming smile, " No worries, it was my pleasure to help a pretty girl out" The universe had gone mad, because her father was flirting with her! Her father who was supposed to start dating her mother this year. She just offered him another strained smile and waited for her actual father to step through. 

James looked like he was about to ask her something but was cut-off by Orion Black stepped through gracefully, and she had never felt happier at the sight of him, she quickly moved to his side and to her relief James had already left.

Just as James left Sirius and Regulus arrived, their timing was immaculate, because if James and Sirius had met, she shuddered to think about what would have happened. 

They arrived at gringotts, the white marble building standing tall and proud. Her father went to a teller and instead of following him, she approached another teller and bowed with her fist placed near her heart and requested, " Master goblin, I'm here to ask for an inheritance test"

The goblin looked surprised before bowing back, "may I have your name?" Adhara replied, "blood speaks louder than words and mine speaks the loudest" He looked at her with something akin to approval and passed an enchanted parchment and a ritual blade. She made a small cut and let her blood fall on the parchment and cleaned the blade of any blood that had stained it. At the goblins quizzical expression and raised eyebrow she just gave him a smile

The words appeared appeared on the parchment :

Adhara Lyra Black

Age : 14

Birth date : 31st July 1963

Parents : Orion and Walburga Black

Siblings : Sirius Orion Black and Regulus Arcturus Black

Titles : 

Daughter of house black

Master of death

Heiress of house Peverell

Heiress of house ravenclaw(due to eidetic memory)

She looked at the test and smirked, " Master goblin, I would like to have the heiress rings and visit the Peverell vault" The goblin still in awe at her results nodded dazedly.

She burned the inheritance test as to not let anyone else see it. 

She wore the heiress rings, the Peverell one was a platinum ring with black diamonds and blood red rubies.

The ravenclaw ring was silver with diamonds and sapphires. She put them on and felt a rush if warmth go up her arm. 

She entered the Peverell vault which was filled up to the brim with coins and priceless heirlooms. 

She picked up a protective amulet and a decent amount of galleons and sickles which she put in an enchanted pouch which was lying around the vault. 

She quickly rushed out to join her father and was relieved to see that he was yet to return. She hoped that he wouldn't ask unnecessary questions. It seemed that after yesterday's dinner he was watching his words when he spoke to her. 

They exited gringotts and visited several shops to buy her school supplies and a trunk. Orion was silent the entire time except for adding a few comments here and there. Sirius was waxing poetic about Gryffindor supremacy and Regulus was contracting his statements and telling her why Slytherin was the best house. 

Adhara tuned them out, she had a suspicion that she would go to Slytherin Or ravenclaw. But, she refrained from informing them and allowed them to bicker.

Her godfather was acting very different, maybe her existence had changed him or the alternate universe just had a different Sirius.

She was inclined to believe the former as everyone else almost had the same personality as she had imagined them to have. 

She didn't speak the entire trip unless she was specifically addressed. 

They entered twilfit and tattlings to buy her clothes. She was fitted into many robes and Orion encouraged her to buy a few dresses for galas and balls. When she shot him a confused look he just gave her an elegant shrug and told her that it was necessary. 

They bought a lot of jewellery pieces for her along with a wand holster. She didn't need a wand holster but he bought it anyway. 

Then, she was taken to buy a wand and no matter how much she protested that she didn't need a wand, all three of them were awfully persistent that wand was an absolute necessity, she didn't agree but was dragged into ollivanders against her will. 

Entering ollivanders once again made her nostalgic, the shop was as always drenched in all the magic radiating from different wands. 

They were greeted with a soft, creepy, "hello" Which had all of them flinch slightly. They turned to stare at Mr ollivander who looked exactly as he had almost twenty decades into the future. 

He looked at them, his eyes seeming to stare into their very soul, he finally spoke his words soft, just above a whisper, "Orion black, I hope your wand is serving you well? "

Orion acknowledged with a nod, "yes, it is" Ollivander nodded and then his knowing pale eyes locked into Adhara, "and who are you, young lady? A bit late to buy a wand don't you think?"

Adhara answered firmly, " Adhara Black, and I'm joining Hogwarts this year" Mr ollivander just hummed and went to fetch a wand for her to try. 

Meanwhile adhara stared around his shop in fascination the shop and allowed herself to be enveloped by the shop's wards and magic. She thought about the time she had first entered the shop to buy her wand and--

But, she was broken out of musings when Orio-- father called her name to grab her attention and nudge her slightly to try the wand which Mr ollivander had presented her, "birch with unicorn hair core, 10 and a half inches, flexible" 

The wand felt cold and dead in her hands and was quickly snatched out of her hands by Mr ollivander. 

She went through a lot of wands and her annoyance was growing exponentially with every passing second, so she decided to intervene and declared, "Holly and phoenix feather, eleven inches"

Ollivander looked at her with surprise but complied and moved to fetch the wand, Orion, Sirius and Regulus shot her weird looks but she ignored them with practiced ease. 

Ollivander returned with her faithful wand and she felt a pang of grief looking at it as it didn't work as well as it had done after the war. She was scared that it wouldn't accept her, but she reassured herself that she could always call upon the elder wand if it came to that. 

Ollivander returned with a familiar wand and when she held it she felt a surge of warmth course through her right hand it was very mild compared to how she had felt when she had first held the wand, but she would take this over nothing, and then produced some sparks. 

She knew no wand would truly work well for her --well except for the elder wand, maybe -- but she wanted her holly wand with her and the warmth she had felt was enough for her to take the wand. 

Ollivander didn't warn her about the brother wands this time and she was grateful, though he did look at her; she had the feeling that ollivander knew that the wand wasn't her perfect match but he didn't comment and she pretended to not feel his eyes bore into her back when they paid and were walking out of the door. 

During the entire shopping trip Orion had paid for everything, she had money on her which she had withdrawn from the peverell vault, but if Orion was willing to pay who was she to refuse his hospitality. 

They checked all the supplies they had bought and roamed around a bit to see if anything caught their fancy. Orion broke away from them to check out some shops. 

An easy banter flowed between the black brothers; it was as if they hadn't refused to look at each other before they had found Adhara. 

They rambled on about Hogwarts to her and it soon turned into a heated and passionate debate about the best house, she as usual tuned them out for the most part adding some occasional quips. 

They had wandered around for quite some time buying small trinkets when Orion returned with three top of the line broomsticks, one for each one of them. 

They were all shocked looking at him, holding three very expensive broomsticks, they were confused by his behavior, most of the time he was indifferent about them but now he took them on a shopping trip and bought broomsticks for them. 

It seemed that Adhara returning had changed everyone. Nevertheless, they all gave him a polite thank you, even Sirius, which shocked her to end, she had never thought that her godfather was ever capable of polite behavior, but it seemed that this universe was quite fond of surprising her. 

Checking their stuff once more, they ate at a high end restaurant and while returning back to the manor Adhara casually remarked, " You know father,you mustn't attack your money pouch to your hip, it is quite easy to steal from". 

Orion merely raised an eyebrow, " And you know this how?"

Adhara smirked, " Oh, I know this father because I have picked up galleons from this pouch quite some times" She ignored Orion's sputtering and Sirius and Regulus's shocked laughters and sauntered through the floo

Adhara, thoroughly drained from today's events escaped into her plopped down on her bed for a nap, ignoring everyone that she crossed paths with on the way there. 

She woke up just in time for dinner, and groaned when she realized that she would have to eat the meal with her family. She quickly freshened up put on a new robe, fixed her hair and walked down into the dining hall. Just like yesterday they were all seated and looked like they were waiting for her. 

Ske took the only available seat, between her brothers. The meal was proceeding surprisingly smoothly, but she didn't participate much. There was a wall between her and the Blacks to show that she had not forgiven them, no matter how many robes or trinkets they bought her. 

The dessert was brought in and then Arcturus Black, dropped a bombshell. He cleared his throat and declared, his emotionless mask securely in place, "the Black family is hosting a gala tomorrow and many pureblood families will be in attendance, do try to behave" With that he went back to eat his dessert as if he had just commented on the weather. 

The room fell silent and Adhara asked, her voice soft but with a dangerous edge, "and why are we hosting a gala? "

Arcturu-- her grandfather completely unbothered replied, "to celebrate your return, of course"

Adhara looked at him, her annoyance betrayed by the faint twitch of her eyebrow, "and what gave you the impression that I want a gala to celebrate my return, I will not be attending it"

A sudden tension rose in the room before Arcturus chided her, "don't be foolish, you will have to attend the gala, maybe we will even create a betrothal contract for you. 

Adhara stilled, her whole being shook with barely restrained fury, and quick as lightning a dagger was thrown across the table and struck the table right beside Arcturus's hand. 

The table collectively flinched and all eyes we're drawn towards her, she hissed almost slipping into parseltounge, "try setting up something like that and I will raze your entire bloodline to the ground" She warned, "if you think you can throw me away and kidnap me back after twelve years and pretend nothing is wrong and try and use me to build any political ties, you are deeply mistaken, and next time I won't be so lenient and my aim will strike true"

She abruptly stood up, summoned her dagger back and strapped it back on her forearm and went back into her room. 

She reached her room and closed the door, she slid down on the floor and dragged a hand over her face, she thought she could handle this but her family was making it very hard for her to control her murderous thoughts. 

So she did what was the only logical thing sje could think of and went to the dueling room, she blasted some dummies and brushed up her hand to hand combat, imagining it was Arcturus's face she was punching. 

After an hour or so, completely exhausted, covered in sweat and not so frustrated, she sat down on the floor and let out a laugh, oh! How she loved fighting, she felt at home on the battle grounds and dueling always helped her use her over abundant magic. 

She picked herself up and turned to return to her room when she came face to face with both her brothers, who were looking at her with thinly veiled curiosity and awe. She sighed, it was going to be a long chat with them....... 

Chapter Text

She looked at her brothers; Sirius grinning down widely at her and Regulus looking at her without his usual mask of indifference in place and his emotions open for her to decipher. 

She sighed again, "so what do you idiots want?"

Sirius let out a gasp, "why, sister dearest, you wound us. I will let you know that reggie and I, both achieve top marks"

She rolled her eyes," Well, clearly your behavior doesn't match your claims "

Before Sirius could make another dramatic proclamation Regulus cut in smoothly, " What Sirius meant is we wanted to have a chat with you, just us siblings "

Adhara could already feel the incoming headache, she was already exhausted by the dinner and the duel and did not want to have any 'sibling chat' Or whatever, she let a small smirk tug at her lips and declared, "alas, I'm already quite drained from dinner so, I would like to have a night's rest, and maybe we could have your 'sibling bonding session' in the morning. 

Before they could argue she had already walked past them and was walking straight towards her room. 

Adhara woke up got off the bed and cast a quick tempus, it was only six but she knew she would not be able to go back to sleep so she allowed herself to stretch around for a bit. 

She wanted to go for a run, but she was stuck in this bloody manor, suddenly an idea struck her and a small devious smile curled up on her lips, the manor was spread across a wide plot of land and she could run a few laps around it. 

She wore her sports bra and shorts, purely because she couldn't wait to see her family's scandalized reaction to her clothing. 

She slipped quietly through the manor and started running, it always gave her a sense of freedom, sure flying was the best but running was the second best thing and it helped her maintain her strength. 

She was running for about an hour now when she saw someone in her peripheral vision look at her and almost trip over their own feet. 

She looked closely and realized that it was tom riddle, Lord Voldemort, the calm, unshakable dark Lord who never lost his cool composure and, and he had tripped over his own feet and lost his composure just by looking at her. 

Maybe the poor guy had gotten distracted by her shoulders, or Merlin forbid her ankles! Snickering to herself she focused on finishing her lap. 

She was feeling free and light while running when her serene emotions were spoiled by a loud screech, " ADHARA LYRA BLACK, YOU DISGRACEFUL BRAT, COME HERE AT ONCE"

Wincing at the assault on her eardrums she stopped running and walked over to where Walburga was screeching, red faced and practically shaking with rage, Walburga Black painted a very amusing picture. 

Adhara wanted to cackle with glee at woman's expression, happy that her plan to scandalize her family had worked, but she schooled her features into a pleasant mask and asked politely, " Yes, mother" Her voice sweet as honey even as sarcasm dripped from every syllable "what seems to have upset you?"

Before her mother could scream again, rest of the family arrived, probably to see what all the commotion was about. Melania Black- her grandmother looked scandalized as if she couldn't fathom what she was seeing. 

Arcturus on the other hand looked very confused about all of it and as if he had just figured something out and clenched his jaw. 

Orion, looked torn between amusement, frustration, exasperation and shock. 

Sirius was barely containing his giggles and Regulus took one look at her and released a tired sigh, as if he was carrying the burden of the universe itself, and pinched the bridge of his nose. 

Adhara just raised an eyebrow her expression composed, Walburga resumed her screaming as if she had never been interrupted, " YOU IMPERTINENT BRAT, WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING, PRANCING AROUND PRACTICALLY NAKED SULLYING OUR NAME--"

Adhara was not naked, thank you very much. She was wearing her workout attire and it was very practical and comfortable, she'd rather die than change her outfit. 

Any other time she would have gotten angry and flipped walburga off. But, at this moment walburga was looking very amusing, her face contorted in a sneer, her entire face painted crimson as she yelled at her, though Adhara could respect the woman's lungs as her voice grew shriller and more high pitched with every passing second.

Right now Adhara was resisting her urge to laugh at Walburga's expression. She had hoped to scandalize her family with this outfit and cause chaos and her plan was working! 

But, before walburga could go on and on, she lifted her hand and flicked her wrist. And all to sudden, walburga lost her ability to speak and Adhara's hand now possessed a glowing purple orb. 

The rest of her family who had tuned out walburga's rant now zeroed their attention on her and the orb in her hand. 

Adhara grinned, her eyes gleaming with satisfaction, " What happened mother, Cat got your tongue?" She mocked " Oh, it seems that i have somehow came in possession of this crystal that contains your voice " She finished in a faux innocent voice. 

Walburga glared at her and the rest of her family looked at her as if she had grown a second head, oh yeah, right they hadn't expected such a effortless display of wandless magic nor did they expect such a stunt from her, but she lived to surprise! 

Walburga was still glowering at her, but she continued unfazed, playing with the crystal in her hand, " Perhaps, you may never receive your voice again, it would be such a shame if I just happened to lose it......" She trailed off

Walburga, clutching her throat and unable to screech just glared balefully but this time her expression had an undercurrent of fear laced into it. Adhara however wasn't done yet and flashed a sharp smile, "but, since I'm in a good mood today I will return your voice, but beware mother repeat this and you will never, ever be able to utter a word again" With this she willed her magic to return the voice. 

Before walburga could say something she cut her off, her tone sharp, "and mother, do not for a minute think that you are entitled to dictate my life. I will do as I please, you lost your rights to demand anything from me the moment you left a toddler on the streets"

Walburga knowing that she couldn't do anything just let out a huff and stormed out, arcturus and Melania followed suit but much more gracefully. 

Orion and her brothers remained all looking at her with unbidden curiosity and awe. She let out a long suffering sigh, knowing that this time she wouldn't be able to steer away from the conversation. 

She just gave them a look that conveyed 'get on with it', Sirius ever the opportunist grinned, "how did you steal her voice? It was so cool! Can you teach me how to do it? "

She smirked, " Ah, trade secrets brother, I'm afraid I will not be able to share it, at least not now"

This time Orion questioned, "yesterday the money pouch incident, you told me you stole from it" He narrowed his eyes "then how come I never realized it?" Before she could answer Regulus pitched in a question of his own, "and why did you even need to steal?"

Adhara glared at them, "you never realized because you're an observant idiot, and because I only steal small amount of galleons so that no one notices" She huffed, "and brother, I stole because MY parents did not give me a trust vault to sustain my life, I was left on the streets, of course I would do anything that took to survive"

Regulus looked as sheepish as a pureblood could and inquired again, "how did you know about your wand?" This had all three of them look expectantly at her. 

She answered cheekily, "secrets, brother dearest, are a girl's best friend, are they not?"

She looked as all three of them grit their teeth in frustration as they couldn't get a clear answer out of her, internally she was cackling but externally she looked poised, keeping her emotions under occlumency shields. She wanted to see how much she could needle them before they all lost it. 

Orion cleared his throat again and inquired, "you seemed to recognize all of us, how did you remember everyone and how had you even learned about magic?"

Adhara contemplated giving another non answer but decided against it and drawled, " That would be because, I possess eidetic memory "

The three of them gasped and she barely refrained herself from rolling her eyes, so dramatic. 

They were being dramatic because eidetic memory was a ravenclaw family gift and the only ravenclaw who had married into the black family was generations ago, so this was a huge thing. 

Orion spoke again, "so, it means that you remember it all? Your two years living with us, and us leaving you on the streets? "

Adhara answered, "yes, I remember it all" She didn't elaborate she didn't need to. 

Regulus asked a question this time, " How did you learn wandless magic?"

She sighed, of course he would ask that, " I learned wandless magic very early on, because I used it to survive and since I didn't possess a wand, wandless magic was all I had"

Sirius blurted out, "why didn't you buy a wand then?" Wincing at how stupid he sounded he clarified, " I mean, you told us that you stole galleons, so why not use them?"

Adhara let out a long suffering sigh and sneered, " And get caught for underage magic? I think not"

Orion spoke again, "and what exactly did you to Walburga?"

She answered, "exactly what I had told you, I stole her voice"

Sirius and Regulus chimed in at the same time, "can you teach me?" They asked again

Adhara smiled, "maybe". Before they could launch another set of questions at her, she slowly started to edge away from them and concurred, " So that's enough interrogation for today, now I'd like to return to my room"

Before she could turn Regulus implored, " Oh, and please attend the gala tonight, there will be lot of purebloods in attendance and you will be able to form a lot of connections, I will even introduce you to my friends, please attend " His tone practically begging. 

She just hummed in response and continued walking before Sirius hollered, "wait, I didn't ask you about how you learned to duel! Wait up I need answers"

And if she increased her pace after hearing him, it was merely a coincidence, nothing more. 

She had decided to take an afternoon nap to rest herself, when she woke up screaming and to the rest of her family members standing at the foot of her bed, looking at her with varying degrees of concern. 

This was the worst nightmare she had ever experienced, it was the worst memories of Adhara Black and Harry Potter mixed in a together, the results were not pretty, hence the screaming. 

It had been quite a while since she had a nightmare this bad and therefore she was caught off guard by it. She tried to calm herself down and took deep breaths. 

In........... Out

In........... Out

In........... Out

In........... Out

After feeling sufficiently calmed down, she looked at her family and raised a quizzical eyebrow at them. They shot each other disbelieving looks before Orion cleared his throat, "we were worried about you, your screams were audible even in the parlor so we came in to check on you. Are you alright?" He quaked. 

Adhara groaned, "my silencing ward nay have came down. But don't worry, I'm alright it was just a nightmare, nothing too big"

Sensing that she was not going to elaborate the adults just nodded and left, though Orion shot her a worrying look over his shoulders and Arcturus reminded her about the gala she had to attend. 

She looked at her brothers expectantly as they had hung back, there was an awkward pause before Sirius shouted, "don't worry? Don't worry! You tell us to not worry after we heard you scream bloody murder and then tell us that it was just a nightmare, what the bloody hell does that mean?" His voice getting shriller with every word. 

She winced at his tone and replied, "it was just a nightmare, I don't want to talk about it. And don't ever raise your voice at me again" She warned. 

Sirius, realizing his mistake apologized, "I'm sorry, it was not my intention to scream at you, I was just worried. But, if you want to talk about it.. " He trailed off awkwardly. 

Regulus, took a far more subtler and better approach than his brother to express his concern, and just handed her a glass of water, "now that you're awake why don't you try and het ready for the gala, it may even take your mind off things and you could meet influential people. It starts in about three hours" He suggested. 

Sirius, oblivious to his brother's manipulation chimed in, "yes, it would be brilliant if you attend it too, I hate it too, but my best friend James is invited too, his family is light but they are purebloods had rich so they are included too. You remember James right? I told you about him on the trip to diagon alley" He rambled on before stopping and casting a hopeful glance at her. 

She could just flip them off, but after learning that the Potter's were invited too, it made her think that other light pureblooded families might be attendance. And since she wanted to attend Hogwarts she decided to play nice and attend the ball and she could cause so much chaos there. 

She acquiesced, "alright I will attend it, but the moment I get too bored I'm returning back to my room" Her brothers nodded eagerly and she shooed them away. 

She entered the bathroom and stripped off her clothes, she caught her reflection in the mirror and looked at herself. She had yet to look properly and now that she that she had she noted the differences in Harry's and Adhara's bodies, apart from the obvious, of course. 

Adhara had a creamy, pale skin compared to Harry's tanned one. She was also shorter than than harry, standing at just 5"4, which made her huff. She also had scars, many of them, she doubted any other fourteen year old girl had that many scars, but they were still lesser than Harry's whose entire body had been littered with scars. 

She traced a few scars, she had gotten all of them during fights and wasn't ashamed of any of them. There were stab wounds etched on her back and stomach, were quite some blades had grazed her skin. 

The only scar, which she hated was the one she had gotten from an exorcism, the matron had exorcised a five year old Adhara, which was the reason she had runaway from there. 

She noticed that her hands had very few scars and then she focused on her face, it was unmarred and when she lifted her fringe and almost screamed, because there was a fucking lightning bolt scar etched on her forehead, it was small and pale but it was present and she vowed to kick death's arse when she met him. 

She tried to ignore the scar and quickly got dressed. She put on lipstick and tried to put on eyeliner. The eyeliner bit took five to six tries but she got it right in the end. 

She was wearing a floor length icy blue dress, with mermaid silhouette and long, flowy sleeves which were fitted at the wrist, the neckline emphasized her face and collarbones, there was also a slit which reached her mid thigh. 

The good things about the dress were the sleeves and the slit as she could easily access her daggers which she had strapped on to her forearm and thigh. 

She twisted her hair into some sort of elegant knot and wore a dainty gold chain and a diamond bracelet which Orion had got for her. 

She looked at her reflection, her heart shaped face; long dark eyelashes that framed her grey eyes which contained flecks of her original eye colour, she was sure that they flashed killing curse green whenever she was angry or used a lot of magic; her full lips were painted with red lipstick that contrasted with her pale skin and midnight black hair. 

She was a pretty sight and was shocked that a little make up could accentuate her beauty like this, she slipped into a pair of gold heels and walked towards the parlor. 

She was stopped by Orion who looked at her with something flashing in his eyes and put a diamond hair accessory in her bun which resembled the stars. She thanked him and allowed him to lead her into the ballroom. 

Their entire family stood there and greeted all the guests, after everyone was welcomed she was dragged along to meet some people and she was quite tired of smiling politely and making small talk when all she wanted to do was punch them in their face. 

She finally slipped away from her family and caught some whispers which was gossip about her being a squib and cast out, she narrowed her eyes and caught sight of a group of boys trying to calm an irate snake down. 

She smirked at all the potential chaos she was likely to cause and padded over to the group. When she approached them, they looked at her sceptically when she offered to help but she just raised her arm towards the snake and hissed. 

It caused all the boys to flinch and then look at her with reverence and awe when they realized that the snake was talking back to her. Out of the corner of her eye she saw people whisper aggressively and her smirk deepened. 

When she realized that her family was walking towards her she hissed a farewell to the snake and handed her back to the owner and weaved padta the crowd. 

Looking for a hiding spot she spotted an interesting figure, with pale skin, handsome features and red eyes. Recognizing the man as one of the vampires that had helped in the war she darted towards the corner the vampire was lounging in. 

She skidded to a halt and greeted with a nod, " Coven master, count Luthaire" Seeing the vampire's eyes widen in surprise at the full title, she smirked and continued, "I'm going to rest here, beside you and if anyone tries to disturb me shoo them away. Oh, and if you try to bite or harm me, I will chop your undead body into many pieces" With that warning she conjured a couch for herself and curled up into a ball, trusting the vampire to watch out. 

She closed her eyes, unable to take a nap she decided to make some mental notes about what she knew about her family. 

Before that she thought about the vampire beside her, she was sure that he was bustling with questions as she was a stranger to him, who had greeted him with his full title which was not known to many.

But harry knew the vampire from his life. He had been the one to teach harry about etiquettes and the proper titles of important vampires.

Though, she still didn't understand as to why the vampire had decided to attend the gala, she thought that maybe it had something to do with the house of Black. Their house had far too many connections.

Adhara didn't know what to make of her family. She knew them and at the same time she didn't. 

Walburga was perhaps the easiest to decipher, she was exactly like how Sirius had described her to be. She was a narrow minded, prejudiced bigot. She screeched at them at any minor inconvenience, always wanted control and had quite a temper. She had driven out Sirius in this universe too due to her abuse. 

Arcturus too was easy to read. He was their grandfather and head of the house. He exuded authority and control, though sometimes he lacked tact, like how he thought adhara would be very happy to meet her family who had abandoned her and how he had casually organized a ball to welcome her without even consulting her. 

Melania, was a bit complicated, as she had yet to converse with adhara. They had hardly spoken and had only exchanged a few greetings. But from the way she interacted with others she could see that her grandparents were a relatively happy couple. 

Orion was a wildcard, because the man was acting weird. She had thought of him as a cold, distant figure who didn't care, but he had called her an endearment and had listened to her when she had demanded the man to never repeat it. 

He had tried to strike conversations with her and even her and her brothers new brooms, she had not expected a broom, as she thought that Orion would have found it uncouth for her to own a broom, but he had bought it and had even endured walburga's rant because of it. 

She had tentatively started to think of Orion as a good person, she had not forgiven him, but if he continued to act nice and apologize then maybe she would accept it but, it was a long way to go. 

Sirius, her oldest brother and heir of the house. She both understood and was baffled by his behavior, the only thing she knew about her ex-godfather during Hogwarts was that he and his friends were popular, charming, immature and bullies.

Though, she knew that they only singled out snape, but it was still bullying. He was intelligent but also loved pranks. He had a sharp tongue but wore his heart on his sleeve and displayed his emotions clearly. 

 He had a sharp tongue but wore his heart on his sleeve and displayed his emotions clearly. 

But, there were still moments were he would get into the entire pureblood persona and become calculating. He maybe a Gryffindor but there were still Slytherin traits in him, no matter how hard he denied it. 

Sirius of this universe too had run away from grimmauld place and had sought shelter at Potter manor, but he had agreed to live at black manor for her, his sister. So, she supposed that Sirius wasn't too bad, he still cared about family, and no matter how little he still felt some attachment for his family. 

Regulus, her second brother and the spare of her house. He was usually calm and collected but sometimes his facade cracked a bit, just enough for her to sense his curiosity and intrest. He was a Slytherin and cared about the family. 

He was always eager to learn and achieved high marks, he was a bit withdrawn. He was no doubt the favorite child of walburga. He was prejudiced and looked down upon muggleborns, but it was mainly due to what his mother told him. He was nice to kreacher and was tolerant of other elves, but still looked down upon other creatures so there was that. 

Oddly enough she then thought of tom riddle, of Voldemort; She hadn't seen him in today's gala nor had she felt his magic, in case he had been under a glamour; she had expected him here since all the purebloods had been invited. 

This got her thinking that she hadn't heard anyone mention either of his names nor had she heard her parents or grandparents talk about some dark Lord. She had even skimmed through some copies of daily prophet and had not found anything about a dark Lord. 

She then thought that maybe, since this was an alternate universe Voldemort didn't exist? But, she had seen him in the morning or was that just a truck her mind had played on her, it had to be real because she could recognize tom riddle anywhere---

She was suddenly broke out of her thoughts when she felt a very subtle shift in the air. 

She snapped her eyes open, she went from relaxed to alert in a fraction of seconds. And tried to find the reason of the disruption. 

She got a curious look from the vampire, but she ignored him in the favor of trying to locate the source of the disturbance. 

She scanned her surroundings but she found nothing, there were just people dancing, gossiping and meeting each other. 

It could have been a mistake, since even the vampire for all his supernatural powers and senses had not noticed it, but she was sure that something was amiss, because her instincts were never wrong. 

She has honed her skills and instincts during the war and there was no way she had imagined the change. 

She felt another shift in the air, this one was subtle too but a bit more noticeable, this time the vampire had sensed it and together they looked around to see if someone else had sensed it too, but everyone was obviously enjoying themselves. 

Her eyes locked with the vampire's red ones and before either of them could say anything, the doors suddenly swung open. 

The temperature of the room dropped and all hell broke loose. 

Chapter Text

The temperature of the entire ballroom dropped, a layer of frost formed on various surfaces and a sense of dread settled over the room. 

Adhara felt as though she would never be able to be happy again.

She looked at the open doors and surely enough, the dementors were gliding in through it. 

It was pure chaos after that. 

All the people were screaming and running towards the floo stations, which she noticed weren't working. 

She looked around to see if anyone would step forward and act upon the situation, but as she expected the adults were scrambling around shouting and trying to get as far away from the dementors as possible. 

She distantly noticed her vampire companion blending into the shadows. 

Despite the pandemonium, her mind was racing as she was trying to think, that who could have possibly orchestrated such an attack. 

It could not be Voldemort as there were only purebloods present at the manor and many of them believed in his ideals. There were some neutral purebloods like Potters, the Bones, the Smiths and other such families. 

She cast another desperate look around the ballroom to see if some adult had finally taken responsibility or if the aurors had arrived. 

She got her answers in the form of shrieks that the untouchable Lords were emitting. 

It wasn't as if she couldn't help but, she wanted to see if Harry's experience with incompetent adults was applicable in every timeline or not. She was disappointed by the results, to say the least. 

But as she saw the dementors closing in, she did what she had always done as Harry Potter, she took charge and tried to save people. 

She got into action and assessed the situation one last time before getting to work. 

Adhara ran towards the front of the crowd and stood before the dementors and the people. 

Like always she could hear her mother's screams but it was accompanied by the memories of a frail old man who adhara had come to see as her mentor dying.

But, before she could cast her patronus, however she faltered, it was just for a moment as she thought back to her chat with death, where the entity had told her that she could wield death magic. 

She wanted to see if she could command the dementors or maybe banish or control them, but seeing the thirty or forty of the soul sucking creatures closing in she made a decision. 

 She ignored the cold, chill that seeped through her bones and raised her hand, her eyes flashed avada kedavra green as she yelled, " EXPECTO PATRONUM"

To her surprise five patroni leapt forward from her hand and charged towards the dementors, her prongs was accompanied by padfoot, moony and her two animagus forms a cat and a fox, whiskers and lightning.

She watched as her patroni herded the dementors away from the people and slowly towards the exit. 

As her patroni worked her mind buzzed again with the same question, who was behind this attack. 

She fueled them with her magic to make sure that they didn't disappear, while herding away the dementors. 

She then called upon Mipsy and told the elf to provide everyone with chocolate to help them with the lingering effects of the dementors. 

With that she exited the ballroom through a secret passage and ran to where the ward stone was kept, she had found it whilst exploring the manor, it was quite well hidden and she had only been able to locate it due to her sensitivity to magic and wardstone was quite literally radiating immense amount of magic. 

She put a hand on the stone and tried to feel the wards of the manor and noticed that a few of them were dampened, it was done by someone who wasn't family because the wards were just tampered with and not broken completely. 

She then started to look at the runes and noticed a few parselrunes, it was clear that the black family had hired a parselmouth to erect a few wards. This could work in her favor so she looked at a few other runes and decided to strengthen them. 

She cast a weak diffindo on her palm and let her blood fall onto the ward stone and started whispering enchantments in parseltounge, the sibilant hiss of the serpent language rolling of her tongue with ease. 

She gazed in fascination as the runes glowed and she felt the wards thrum, indicating that her efforts to strengthen the wards had worked and the wards now stood stronger than ever had, due to her activating both the blood and the parsel wards. 

She walked towards the Hall with determination as her mind was still trying to figure out what could have been the purpose of the attack or who had assisted in it. 

The attack wasn't a spontaneous, spur of the moment thing, rather it was a meticulous, carefully planned ambush. 

The wards were tampered with just enough to let the dementors in but not breached enough to notify the head of the house. 

No one would've actually noticed any changes in the wards were it not for her sensitivity to wards and magic. 

But, the thing that above all bugged her was that some had attacked the most noble and most ancient house of Black; the supposedly untouchable house had been attacked,and it wasn't something to be taken lightly. 

Her family was put in danger, sure she detested them for abandoning her but that didn't mean that someone else could endanger her family. 

She was here and while she would avenge the wrongdoings against her she wouldn't let someone else try to kill her family. 

She reentered the ball room with a purpose, and noticed everyone sitting on a huge round table, most probably provided by the house elves. 

She stalked towards the table with determined strides and took in their faces, they looked pale and shaken. As was expected but, after eating the chocolates they did look a bit better than she thought they would. 

She reached the table and clasped her hands above her head to grab the attention of everyone seated. Once, they gave her their complete attention she announced, " The wards of house Black were tampered A, hence why the dementors were able to enter our manor."

One Lord, sitting near her grandfather who she recognized as Parkinson, sneered, "and what would you know about wards and dementors, you are just a little girl--"

She cut him off before he could spew some other nonsense about her being weak, she had commanded armies during the war and she would be damned if she let some snobby, entitled pureblooded idiotic Lord, walk over her. 

She sneered right back "oh, yeah? and how many of you know how to cast a patronus?"

A few raised their hands, mostly they were the 'light' Lords. She bared her teeth at the Lord who had called her a 'little girl', "and yet, none of their patroni joined mine. My magic was the only thing that was protecting you from the dementors"

Before anyone could interrupt, she continued, " And because of that, each and everyone of you owes me a life debt and if your entire family is present then your house owes me a debt as well"

As harry Potter before the war she wouldn't have cared about the life debts but, she had gone through a war and had lived on the unforgiving streets for years and knew better than to not use the advantages at her disposal. 

At the mention of the life debts that they owed her the Hall had gone deathly quiet, it seemed that they didn't like the idea of owing someone the greatest debts but, be as it may, they hadn't even lifted a finger to defend themselves and the others so it was only fair that she gained something in return. 

She had also deliberately worded her announcement that way, so that it emphasized that the debts were owed to exclusively to her and not to the house of Black, her wording also implied that her own family owed her debts as well. 

After the few blissful moments of silence the Hall had burst into chatters and indignant murmurs. She created a loud bang with a mere flick of her fingers and just like that the attention of the entire Hall was back on her. 

She smirked before masking it and continued unbothered as if she just hadn't drop a bombshell on them, " As I was saying, the wards were tampered with and it was the work of someone inside the manor" She leaned forward slightly "someone who is not family as the breach on the wards was quite simple and was quite small"

She took a pause, her eyes scanning and scrutinizing every face as if trying to find the culprit, "the breach was small enough that the head of the house wouldn't immediately notice but it also dampened the some of the wards and allowed the dementors to enter the manor"

The faces of everybody turned contemplative save for some children who looked befuddled at what was going on around them. 

She gave them some time to let it sink in. 

She could practically see the gears in their head turning trying to find a reason as to why someone would tamper with the wards. 

She let herself be amused by their reactions before she took pity on them and revealed, "the reason as to why this has occurred, is because someone has attempted to harm the Black family and arguably the rest of you too"

Her revelation was met with protests as of they couldn't wrap their heads around the fact that someone was out to get them. 

Resisting the urge to pinch the bridge of her nose she elucidated, "I have come to this conclusion because, the attack was impeccable, their planning and execution was meticulous. They had specifically chosen the day of the ball to attack all of the attendees, their each action was deliberate."

She noticed that some people were actually believing her and trying to follow through with her deductions but most of them were too arrogant to even consider her words as she was 'a fourteen year old girl who apparently didn't know anything'

She ignored those people with practiced expertise and started explaining slowly, "only a few layers of wards were dampened, the floo network was cut off and none of us noticed anything amiss. The attacker knew what they were doing, it is not some coincidence but rather a --"

She came to an abrupt pause as she felt a disturbance in the wards, she let out a rather colourful string of curses; paying no mind to the scandalized gasps she looked at Arcturus who gave her a short nod signalling that he too had felt the disturbance. 

Her eyes hardened and she informed everyone, " There is a disturbance in the manor wards. Someone is trying to break them"

She quickly shifted into her commander persona, before the Hall could break into chaos again, she looked at everyone and ordered, "everyone, wands at the ready and let's move towards where the penetrators are. And anyone below fifteen Or who doesn't want to fight stay behind" 

Her words were laced with power and authority, the kind that had everyone unconsciously stand straighter and follow her orders. 

With those words, she turned on her heel and swiftly made her way towards the root of all the disruption. 

As soon as she passed the gates of the ballroom she began running, sure it was a bit difficult at first with the floor length dress and the heels but she quickly got the hang of it and increased her speed. 

She didn't look behind to see if they were following her or not, or if they had decided that would not be ordered by a fourteen year old girl and just sat back down. 

Right now her main focus was the attack. 

It was all too well planned. 

Too organized. 

The dementors were merely a distraction. 

It was done so that the wards were only breached slightly as to remain unnoticed, and once everyone was thoroughly distracted by the dementors they would break the wards and finish the remaining people off. 

They had cleverly shut down all the floo places present in the ballroom to ensure zero exits. 

As she ran down the ridiculous amount of stairs her mind was racing. 

Who could be behind such an attack. 

Voldemort couldn't be the one since they were purebloods and she was yet to hear his name as a dark Lord. 

Realization hit her on the head like a bag of bricks. 

She halted her run for a moment as realization washed over her. 

She resumed her run again as another theory formed in her head regarding the attack. 

Tom riddle could potentially be behind this attack. 

This was an alternate universe so there was a possibility that maybe the purebloods treated him like scum and he decided to take revenge. 

Maybe he was still a dark Lord but one who focused on the extermination of purebloods rather than muggleborns. 

He was charming and charismatic enough to amass any kinds of follwers. 

He was also cunning and smart enough to orchestrate such an attack. 

The meticulously planned steps and the use of dementors pointed towards riddle but she was still sceptical. 

Though, she had seen him during her morning run, hadn't she? 

So that could explain the breach of wards. 

But, you the wards should have sensed him and not allowed him entry unless he was invited by the family. 

Her thoughts were moving with record speed as she tried to reason her Tom riddle theory. But, her mind provided just as many contradictions. 

She distantly noticed that she had arrived near the boundary of the wards and skidded to a stop, waiting for others to catch up. 

It wasn't as if she couldn't fight alone, but she still wasn't sure about how much of her power should she expose. 

She had already shown her family her ability to produce fiendfyre wandlessly and she had just conjured five patroni also without a wand. 

But, it was different than showing them her wandless dueling skills, she would be duelling without a wand, but if she defeated all of them without a wand it would garner suspicion so she had ordered anyone who wanted to fight to come down. 

She was soon joined the people who were willing to fight. 

All the Lords and heads of the houses were present except for a few elderly or ancient ones. 

She also noticed a few ladies and young woman in the crowd along with almost all the boys and men. 

They were a group of thirty people. 

She quickly noticed Arcturus, Orion, Sirius and Regulus and gave them pleased nods and a quick, small smile. 

With everyone ready, they made their way to the point in the wards where a group of approximately fifty intruders were trying to break in. 

They were all decked in pure white robes though it contained gold borders, some thicker than others. She assumed that it signified their rank. 

There was one individual who stood out among the white clothed crowd with his gold coloured robes which shimmered ever so slightly, she concurred that he must be their leader. 

Their faces were obscured by a hood so it was difficult to make out their features so their identities were a mystery. 

It made sense as to why fifty men and teh leader were present today; she guessed that as it was their first raid they wanted everyone to be present. 

She also noted that the leader was not Tom riddle since she couldn't sense his magic. 

That revelation bought her a bit relief, because if it had been Tom riddle then the dimension was not just alternate it would be polar opposite. 

The realization that some things were the same made her nerves a but calm, since she had an advantage over everyone one of them as she knew about them and a bit about the future. 

With that train of thoughts settled she concentrated on the matter at hand. 

Sending another quick look to the assembled wizards and witches, she noted with satisfaction that each and every one of them had palmed their wands; at least they were a little competent. 

With that they all stepped out of the wards and sent hexes at the would be intruders. 

The penetrators looked taken aback at the sudden attack. 

Maybe they had expected the dementors to suck some souls out and were surprised that everyone had survived. 

But, how they didn't notice their rather large group approaching was beyond her. 

They were very unaware of the surroundings if they missed their arrival. 

But, it worked to their advantage and as they got a heasstart of sorts against the attackers. 

As the intruders regained their footing, a vicious duel broke out. 

Adhara looked like she belonged in the battlefield. 

She danced. 

She threw powerful spells with mere flicks of her fingers. 

Each spell hitting it's target with dangerous accuracy. 

She weaved through the battlefield gracefully. 

Her movements elegant as she deflected deadly spells with ease. 

Suddenly her eyes caught the unmistakable green of the killing curse. 

Her eyes narrowed and her spells grew more dangerous as she realized that the attackers were aiming to kill. 

Spells tumbled out of her mouth, some in sibilant hisses, some merely thought in her mind and others in perfect latin.

The jets of light flew from her fingers as she uttered the spells; light, dark and grey. The legality of the spells didn't matter all that she cared about now was returning fire with fire. 

Her spells struck true and took down their victims. 

She moved through the duellers with fluid grace; assisting her allies and casting healing charms on them along with shields. 

In the span of fifteen minutes only a few of the intruders remained, others either killed or incapacitated, they were left alive so they could be interrogated later. 

Just as it was all about to end, cracks of apparition were heard and the aurors arrived, late as always. 

The aurors insisted that they all step back so they could take care of the remaining intruders. 

They all reluctantly trudged back towards the manor and sure enough a team of healers were waiting for them along with all the people who had chosen to stay behind. 

As everyone was looked over and treated for their injuries, Adhara's mind couldn't help but wander back to the duels. 

The attackers were skilled, the only reason they had won was because Adhara had taken down many of them and the rest had received personal training. 

What bothered her however was the fact that the leader of the group or whatever it was, wasn't present. 

She was sure or she would've caught sight their gold robes. 

Why had the leader not engaged in the fight? The question was plaguing her mind. 

Was the person scared? Or did they not care about their followers? Why attack the house if they were going to just watch? 

As much as she would have liked the answers, she would have to wait. 

After everyone was healed and checked over, the healers retreated. 

The guests to began to say their goodbyes as they too prepared to leave. 

A lot of people stopped by to compliment her about her skills and thank her; she paid them no mind and just gave them a charming, polite smile and thanked them for their compliments. 

Before anyone could take their leave the head auror entered the room looking thoroughly ruffled and informed them that the attackers had fled and not even the dead bodies remained. 

The auror fled before anyone could object, the coward was probably afraid of them releasing their wrath and had most likely ran away to protect himself. 

She also briefly wondered if anyone would get a warning for underage magic before reasoning that it was possible that the ministry had not noticed the magical activity due to many adults present and even if they did, all the children were of prominent families and there was no way they would be punished. 

She shook off that thought and contemplated what that pathetic excuse of an auror had announced. 

Before she could hunt the auror down and rip of his head, the sound of fluttering wings caught her attention. 

Looking above she saw a bald eagle flying towards their table and dropping off a white and gold envelope before flying off again. 

Everyone stared transfixed at the envelope which was enclosed with the seal of--

Chapter Text

Hello lovely people, I know it's been very long since I've posted and have left you guys on a cliffhanger; and I apologize with my whole heart. 

The thing is, my mental health is really bad and I've been having frequent meltdowns and can barely do anything. I also have a lot of tests and have barely any time to do things I love. Don't worry though I will try to update pretty soon and try to become consistent if not I will start a new story to try and see if it gives me necessary motivation. 

Before the new chapters however I will edit and add a few filler chapters because the story is too fast paced for my taste but the plot will remain the same. 

Keep hanging there and I will never abandon you!<33

Also, I'm begging you with tears in my eyes that you do not pester me for a new chapter, a polite request is fine but please know that I'm a human too and do not take well to being ordered to do something I'm doing of my own free will and I do not owe anyone anything