“The Many Faces Go To War: Chapter 2”
By = Fayanora

Chapter Two: The Return of Magic

Notes: This is the second chapter of the sequel to “The Many Faces of Har---er, Adira Potter.” If you haven't read that series yet, this one isn't going to make much sense.

Also, a reminder for anyone who forgot: the person formerly known as Harry still exists, she's just transgender in this one, her new name is Adira.

Text in 'Italics and British quotes' is Parseltongue.

Things taken directly from canon will be scarce now, as the plot is massively diverging now.

I have different styles for the internal speech of the various Potters, but I don't like risking the usual note messing with the formatting, so if you need a refresher, it's back in chapter one of this fic.

J. K. Rowling owns this sandbox, I'm only playing in it.

*FAYANORA*

Severus Snape swept up to the gargoyle at the headmaster's office and gave the password, 'Jelly babies.' Then he climbed up the turning staircase and knocked on the door. It opened, and Severus stepped inside, immediately freezing up in surprise, briefly; there was someone unexpected in the office with Dumbledore. There were two women there. One he knew, it was Minerva McGonagall. The other he didn't know.

The woman he didn't know was short, only about 5' 5'', with skin so dark brown that it probably qualified as truly black. She was so dark that only the light reflecting off the oils in her skin gave her face and bare arms any topography at all; without it, she would have looked almost as though someone had cut a hole in the world; the whites of her irises and her unnaturally yellow eyes would have looked like they were floating in midair. As it was, she looked like she was carved from ebony with glass eyes put in place, except that there was life in those eyes. Her black hair was styled in little knob-like knots Severus thought were called Bantu knots, and her hair actually looked slightly lighter than her skin tone. That may have been a trick of the light, though.

“Ah Severus, so glad you could join us.”

Severus looked at the two women. “I did not know you were entertaining guests, headmaster. I can come back later when it is more convenient.”

“No, that's quite alright. This is Mahala Kalisha Kadu, perhaps you've heard of her?”

Severus blinked. “The expert in wandless magic you mentioned?”

“That is I,” the woman said. “Though mostly because the art of wandless magic is lost on most of the wizarding world. You must be Severus Snape, the potioneer.”

Her voice had a kind of edge to it that Severus liked; it reminded him a little of his own manner of speaking, though the accent was different of course.

“Yes, I am.”

“I have read your published work,” she said with that same crisp edge to her voice. “You should write more. You're wasting your time being a teacher.”

“Tell me something I don't know,” he answered.

“Ms. Kadu is here because she is interested in training the Potters,” Minerva said.

Severus frowned. Then he mentally chided himself for letting the expression slip through. The Kadu woman caught it, too, which annoyed him even more.

“You have something to say about them? Then I wish to hear it. I wish to know all I can about them before I decide whether and how to train them.”

He looked to Dumbledore, who nodded, then gave Minerva a quelling look. So Severus answered.

“How much do you know about the Potters so far?”

“I know all their names. Including Hypatia. Dumbledore was filling me in.”

“Alastair Potter and Zoey Potter are bullies,” he said.

He paused, but nobody was interrupting him. Dumbledore and McGonagall both looked away from him.

“I do not think they mean to be bullies, given the things I have seen in their head, but they have a lot of power that has gotten to their heads. I believe Alastair's reasons for the bullying is he thinks of himself as the group's defender. Zoey, on the other hand, is a prankster whose pranks sometimes go too far, though she may be picking up on Alastair's emotions. Even the one known as Chandra – normally a very calm and gentle soul – has been infected by their poor temper and on occasion has some of their same impulsiveness that he unleashes on others. Their main targets thus far have been young Mr. Malfoy and his cronies Crabbe and Goyle, for no other reason than the boys verbally goad them, or occasionally attempt to hex them. Their behavior towards young Mr. Malfoy is especially ironic, since the one known as Hypatia is friends with him. He has no idea who she really is, of course.”

“Who else have they attacked?”

“I have heard of some other incidents. They caused a reporter named Rita Skeeter to be stuck to the ceiling of a pub, after she insulted one of their friends. I have also heard of an incident wherein Zoey Potter covered Ronald Weasley with transfigured toy spiders. He is quite afraid of spiders. Her apology involved giving him a trick sweet that covered him with feathers. I do not know why they are still friends.”

“Can you tell me about any specific incidents of bullying against the Malfoy boy?”

“Yes, I can. The most recent one was, I believe, the time the one known as Chandra Rahasyamay used wandless magic to make Mr. Crabbe and Mr. Goyle be magnetically attracted to Mr. Malfoy. From what I heard, it looked painful. But before that was dealt with, he then caused them to float in the air, and he did not know how to undo either of these things. The headmaster had to undo it. And their punishment for this was to read books about wandless magic.” Severus glared at Dumbledore as he said this. Dumbledore looked away uncomfortably. Minerva was fidgeting with her hat in her lap and looked even more uncomfortable than the headmaster.

“That was only the most recent example?”

“Yes. There was also the time Alastair Potter put the three boys in a full body bind, Disillusioned them, and left them on the side of the road. The way they were discovered... Hagrid, our gamekeeper, stumbled upon them. Literally. They could have been killed. He is half giant. Shall I go on?”

“Please do.”

“Good. Let me see... there was a time when Zoey Potter did something to Mr. Malfoy's hair, and took an embarrassing picture of him. Something else I believe she did, but I could never prove, is that once, Mr. Malfoy was found out past curfew; he had apparently been stuck to the ceiling of a hidden alcove. He woke up with no idea where he was, and he got in trouble trying to find his way back.”

“Is that all?”

“That is all the specific incidents I am aware of, yes. The rest is just trading verbal barbs with the Malfoy boy.”

“I see. And what punishment did they get for these offenses?”

Severus snorted with derisive laughter. “Punishment? For the glorious famed Potters? Of course not. Not nearly enough, anyway. Dumbledore took over their punishment for the incident where they stuck the three boys together, but Minerva McGonagall was there as well, it should have been her jurisdiction. I find myself puzzled by her under-reaction, to be honest.”

“He was new, Severus! Like a child!”

“Not at the time of that incident he wasn't! And Alastair was with him for that one. And yet you didn't punish them because Chandra was new? He wasn't so new, I found out later. According to Hypatia, he had existed since their first year here, he merely was hidden for years. And anyway, would you not still punish a toddler for doing something wrong?”

She had nothing to say to this.

“It is a concerning pattern of behavior,” he said. “Very concerning. Part of the reason I started taking Iliana under my wing was that she seems to be one of the most ethical of them, and one of the more level headed of them. Ironic, given she looks like Lily, who was a hothead. The point is, I was hoping to mold her into being a good influence on the others. But after the Skeeter incident, I may have been taking things too slowly, been too subtle.”

“You're absolutely right,” Mahala Kadu said. “Too many people have let them get away with too much, and it seems to be eroding their character. Targeting someone their age who verbally bullies them I could almost understand, but then they moved on to bullying adults, and that is indeed cause for concern. Whether they mean to be bullying or not, they need to be taught to stop it, to let their reason overrule their emotions.

“With that in mind, I am going to train them, but I'm not giving them any more weapons until I can be sure they're not going to use those weapons for ill.”

“I should probably tell you also,” Severus said, “that they know occlumency now. So I cannot look into their minds for you anymore and be sure of what I see.”

She glared at him. “You've been looking into their minds without their consent? Isn't that illegal?”

“Not exactly.”

“Oh. Right. Because this is wizarding Britain, the backwater third-world nation of the wizarding world.”

“If I might interject,” Dumbledore said. “I believe Hypatia to be honest about their internal goings-on, at least with people she trusts. And she seems to trust me.”

“I hope you're right. This may be a lot more difficult if you're wrong.”

There was a lull in the conversation. Then Severus finally decided to fill it.

“This has been diverting, headmaster, and as pleasant as it has been to meet you, Ms. Kadu, I came here to speak privately with the headmaster about an important matter.”

“Is this about your Voldemort?”

“It might be.”

“I've heard he's not doing too well. Something about little bits of Philosopher's Stone turning all the metals in his body into gold. Tell me, has he been experiencing paralysis, seizures, low blood pressure, fainting spells, confusion, or memory loss, on top of his other symptoms?”

He looked to Dumbledore. He nodded.

“Yes, you are correct Ms. Kadu. How did you know?”

“Well... potassium and sodium are also metals, so it was a logical deduction.”

“Should Minerva really be here for this, Dumbledore?”

“She knows that much. But yes, I believe the rest should be discussed without her.”

McGonagall nodded and stood up, her hat still in her hands as she left the room. Dumbledore waited another 30 seconds, then nodded.

“Continue, Severus.”

“Thank you, headmaster. Yes, the dark lord is doing very poorly. I have had to start using Bellatrix and Crouch Junior to help me keep him alive while I go out for more potions supplies. I have been brewing nonstop for months. And as Ms. Kadu pointed out, he's missing potassium and sodium, so I have needed to give him large doses of those as well. I used some saline solution in an IV, though I had to add potassium and double the salinity to keep up with the effects. Bellatrix and Barty were not pleased at that 'Muggle rubbish,' but it is far faster than the potions at getting such things into the body.

“The dark lord is no longer fit of mind enough to make decisions about his own medical care. I have been fighting with Bella and Barty for weeks about whether or not to kill him so he can be revived again. Bellatrix seems to think that doing so will harm the dark lord's soul. I must admit, the concern was alarming. I believe Bellatrix knows that the dark lord has at least one horcrux.”

Dumbledore's eyes went briefly wide. “And where did you learn of this, Severus? I do not believe I ever revealed that to you.”

Severus snorted. “Give me some credit, headmaster. I may be a master potioneer, but my true passion has always been the dark arts. I learned from the dark lord for several years before defecting, and I have had years to study on my own time. He did not tell me of horcruxes himself, but he taught me enough that I soon found out about them myself. I'm sure Bellatrix knows in a similar way, though obviously she was in Azkaban for many years.”

“I see. So you said you were having a hard time convincing Bellatrix to kill him again, in order to revive him again?”

“Yes. As I said, she thinks it might harm his soul.”

This time the Kadu woman answered. “Not an unreasonable assumption. In fact, she may be right. Given what I've heard of his appearance, I'd say he has at least four horcruxes. One is bad enough, but you get up to four and your soul becomes unstable enough to break apart far more easily, and pieces go flying every which way. And if I'm right, he doesn't have much soul left to spare. I'm honestly surprised he's not a vegetable, to be honest.”

“What do you mean by 'he doesn't have much soul left to spare'?” Severus asked.

“Well I've studied horcruxes. Vile things, for so many reasons. But when the instructions say 'split your soul,' they mean it literally. Each horcrux splits the body's part of the soul in half. First horcrux, if that gets destroyed, kills half the soul, and the soul pieces aren't connected in any way after that, so getting one horcrux is like losing half your soul even when it's intact. Make a second one, and you're down to one quarter of a soul. Make a third, you've only got twelve and a half percent of your soul. Four would reduce your body down to 6.25% of a soul. At that point, you'd have to have been someone really bloody clever to even be able to form words. So I'm thinking he has two, maybe three horcruxes at most.”

“I believe him to have made six intentional horcruxes,” Dumbledore said. “I believe he was fascinated enough by the number 7 to want a seven part soul.”

“SIX!” Severus had actually shouted that, clutching his heart. “SIX horcruxes?”

Ms. Kadu had gone several shades paler, her eyes huge. Then she seemed to calm down, and frowned at Dumbledore.

“That's impossible. Six horcruxes would have him down to 1.56 percent of a soul. Even if he'd been three times smarter than the smartest human in recorded history when his soul was 100%, at 1.56% of a soul he'd have the IQ of a cactus! He might be able to track movement with his eyes, but he'd be a drooling moron otherwise. After all, dementors suck out souls in their entirety, and the only thing those poor bastards can do is breathe on their own.”

“His physical appearance matches someone with at least four horcruxes, you said that yourself. How else would you explain that?”

“Well yes, the dark magic involved in making horcruxes warps the body, and every time you split your soul that way it warps it further. Snape, do you think his appearance matches someone with that many horcruxes?”

“How should I know? To my knowledge, nobody in history has ever had more than two of the cursed things.”

“Can't you extrapolate based on known physical descriptions of the damage two horcruxes does?”

Severus sat silently, thinking. After several minutes, he nodded.

“I suppose... yes. I cannot be sure of course, but the projected damage does seem to fit with more than four horcruxes.”

“But how? How can he have six horcruxes and--- wait, you said 'intentional' horcruxes! What do you mean by that?”

Dumbledore sighed. “I believe the Potters to be an accidental horcrux. I believe a piece of his soul broke off when the curse failed, and attached itself to the only other living body in the area at the time.”

Severus stood up from his chair, so angry he was actually growling. “And WHEN were you going to tell me this? You realize this means the Potters will have to die for him to die for good?”

The old man suddenly looked every single one of his 100+ years, and sad enough for three lifetimes.

“Yes, I am aware of that. I have been trying to find an alternative solution, but... I don't know if there is one.”

“It might be possible,” Mahala said. “But very difficult, if so. Differentiating one soul from another in the same body? I don't know how that would work.”

“Especially as there are likely another seven souls in there along with the one we need to remove,” Severus said, sitting back down again.

“Seven--- oh, because of the patronuses. I heard about that. It was in your country's only newspaper. I also heard about the mega-patronus they defended themselves with.”

Dumbledore nodded. “Yes, it does sound very daunting. Do you have any insights that might help us find a way to destroy the unintentional horcrux without destroying its container?”

Mahala snorted at this. “I doubt even Herpo the Foul himself would have a clue how to do that. Horcruxes may or may not be the only application of soul magic, but even if they aren't, they still got the study banned. Even if someone somewhere knew how to do it, the secret would be so well hidden that I doubt we'd find the answer in our lifetimes, even if we lived to be 200.

“But enough of that for now,” she continued. “I want to backtrack a little. I still want to know how Voldemort can have six horcruxes – or seven, I suppose – and still be able to walk and talk. His shade should have been rendered so simple that it would have just been sitting there in the rubble, completely unable to think, barely existing at all.”

“Ms. Kadu,” Severus asked, a faraway look on his face. “Might it be possible to take a split part of soul and further break it up? A part of the soul not in the body, I mean. If it were, he could still have 50% of his soul in his body, the horcruxes made of percentages of the other half he initially broke off?”

She spluttered. “I have no idea. I doubt it. The soul piece has to have an organic body, capable of ma--- wait a moment...”

They waited as she thought. Finally, she said, “I wonder...”

“Don't keep us in suspense,” Snape quipped.

“It's just... well... I mean the most obvious way would be to use the Philosopher's Stone, but... do either of you know how Voldemort made that horrible homunculus body he stayed in until his resurrection?”

The two men looked at each other, then back at her, since it had sounded like a rhetorical question.

“Right,” she continued. “I do. No offense, Mr. Snape, but I've been studying the dark arts for nearly sixty years--”

“You don't look a day over 40,” Dumbledore said.

“Flattering, but don't interrupt me again. Anyway, I've been studying the dark arts for almost sixty years, and I do know how he made that horrible homunculus. The first step is to find a newborn human infant. The second step is to remove its soul with dark magic, which mutates its body in the process unless you have access to a dementor. Then the shade has an empty vessel to reside in, but the dark magic renders its lifespan very short. Such a body couldn't last more than a year and a half before it died, and it would never grow in that time.

“So my thought is, what if Voldemort split his soul, then turned such a homunculus into a horcrux, solely so it could split itself up into more horcruxes?”

“I doubt that Voldemort would do that,” Dumbledore said. “He would not trust his alternate that much. The two would plot against each other. It wouldn't cooperate with its original.”

“I disagree, headmaster,” Severus said. “The dark lord is nothing if not pragmatic. If nothing else, he could possibly find some way to control the homunculus, suppressing the free will of the parasitic other half of his soul. He could have studied the effects on its mind as it was further split up.”

“Yes, and if he had to be in close proximity to the thing to get it to behave, the dark magic from its horcrux rituals would wash over him and affect his appearance. The only problem would be he'd have to split his own soul at least twice as well, to get seven out of the deal. Though I suppose he could have repeated the homunculus experiment.

“So he starts out with half of his soul after his first horcrux,” she continued, “and the other half is forced to split itself in half, meaning he then has two horcruxes with 25% soul. If he didn't care about their intelligence at all, he could then easily have both of them split themselves for four horcruxes at 12.5% soul apiece. Then he could make a fifth horcrux from his own soul shard if he liked the results of the second split enough, and have that one split itself to make the sixth one.”

“You are forgetting something important, Ms. Kadu. You are forgetting that Voldemort had not made his sixth horcrux yet when he tried to kill the baby then known as Harry.”

“Yes, but he'd be at 25% soul after the fifth one if I'm right, destabilizing his soul enough to split it by accident, so that fact isn't really relevant.”

As the room went into a thoughtful silence, Severus was massaging his head. He did this for several minutes before standing up.

“We could go on debating this for years, I suspect. But I need to hurry up and get back to the dark lord's side before Bella and Barty get too annoyed with my tardiness. It was a pleasure meeting you, Ms. Kadu. Farewell to both of you for now.”

Without waiting for a dismissal, he swept out of the room.

~

As frustrating as the previous months without magic had been, the last few weeks were easier. With Luna around to distract Iliana, the others retreated into the subconscious to give them privacy, even though it was just cuddles and hand holding. They were still trapped in Al's body, after all, which was the worst part of it for Adira and Iliana. But despite some occasional angst about this, Luna was mostly a positive distraction.

Cedric ended up getting a full trial in front of the Wizengamot for using magic in a Muggle area, but since there weren't actually any Muggle witnesses, with Dumbledore's help Cedric got released with a warning not to do it again. There was a lot of celebration about that when the news reached Grimmauld Place.

Book lists came a couple weeks before school started, and so Sirius and Remus and Mrs. Weasley took Luna, Iliana, Hermione, and the Weasley kids to Diagon Alley to get their school stuff. Iliana was worried what would happen if getting their school things would jinx them so their magic wouldn't return. Luna tried her best to ease their minds about that.

Along with the book lists came some other news. Hermione got a Prefect badge, she was excited about it. Ron was confused why Adira or one of them didn't get a badge, too, but Al pointed out he was one of the few boys in the collective; giving Al a Prefect badge would have been at least as bad an idea as giving one to a young Sirius would have been, and Zoey was a prankster. Tier hardly came out anymore, and giving Chandra a Prefect badge would be right up there with giving one to Luna. So they weren't terribly surprised or disappointed to not get it.

Besides which, they got a consolation prize, as Iliana was made Quidditch captain. She freaked out about this somewhat, because she hadn't practiced all summer long. Also, they were all still worried that their magic would never return.

Hypatia and Iliana had gotten as far on their projects as they could without magic. Iliana still hadn't been able to speak with Professor Snape, so they just had to keep waiting, as they'd done all summer long.

Then came the 16th of August, and the waiting was over.

“AAAAAAAAAA!!!!” came the shrill scream from the Potter bedroom. Sirius, Remus, and Mrs. Weasley came running into the room as the scream suddenly stopped.

The sight before them was Adira, covered in a heavy sheen of sweat, passed out on the floor and pale as death. Remus ran forward and checked her pulse.

“Still alive. Strong pulse. Heart seems to be beating a bit too fast for someone who's passed out.”

“She changed,” Sirius noted. “That means they got their magic back, right?”

“I would presume so,” Remus said as he checked her with diagnostic charms.

“Should she go to St. Mungo's?” Mrs. Weasley asked anxiously.

“I don't know yet. Wait...”

“Yes?” came the question from both Mrs. Weasley and Sirius.

“She's not passed out after all. She's conscious. Just not responsive.”

“That sounds familiar,” Sirius said. “Like the night their names came out of the goblet.”

“That might be it, Padfoot. If so, I think what happened is they got their powers back all in one go, and it overwhelmed them. Empathic power as potent as theirs returning suddenly after months of being gone? I think that would do it. It would explain the scream, as well.”

Luna stepped forward. The adults hadn't noticed her coming in, but she was nodding as though she'd heard enough to know what had happened. She knelt down by Adira's prone form and took her by the hand.

“Adira? Iliana? Are you in there?”

Adira whimpered, jerking her hand out of Luna's and covering her eyes with it to block out the lights from the candles Mrs. Weasley had lit. Seeing this, Sirius put out all but one of the candles; the one he left on was behind her, so the light wasn't shining in her face.

Adira was curled up in the fetal position now, freeing her hands by pulling a blanket off the bed and over her head. She was shaking uncontrollably, and started muttering something that was further muffled by the blanket.

By now, the other kids had joined the audience, and one of the twins took out an Extendable Ear while his mother's back was turned and maneuvered it over to listen in on what Adira was muttering.

“Green bolt, alien presence, its claws dug in,” she was saying, over and over again. Fred tapped Sirius on the shoulder and handed him the listening end of the Extendable Ear. Sirius listened to it with a frown on his face.

“I really think we should take her to St. Mungo's,” said Remus. “From what Dumbledore and Sirius told me, when Chandra was experiencing this sort of thing, he got better a few minutes afterward. It's been over ten minutes, and she's showing no sign of improvement.”

Sirius hadn't been paying attention to Remus; he was still listening to Adira's muttering. He looked up now and told the room, “She was muttering 'Green bolt, alien presence, its claws dug in.' But now she's just saying a bunch of things that don't make any sense.”

Fred took the Extendable Ear back and listened. George rolled out another one so Sirius could continue to listen, too. It sounded like disconnected sentences, each different in tone enough to indicate that they were clearly not meant to be connected.

“The yellow-eyed one will show the way, her skin as black--- What I've made is a weaponized potion, I call it the--- I'm sorry! I wasn't thinking! He just made me so angry! The amphibian wanes in influence, but her wrath will--- The only good Death Eater is a d-d-d-daaaaauuuhhh...”

Adira went limp and stopped shaking as she trailed off. Remus checked her vitals again, but she'd just passed out.

“I'm not sure,” Sirius said, “but I think she was giving partial prophecies. One was something about a yellow-eyed person with black skin 'will show the way.' And the other was something about the amphibian's influence waning, but then that part said something about 'her wrath will.'”

“Will what?”

“No idea. It cut off there and became something else, something about 'the only good Death Eater is a' something starting with D. But that part sounded like someone just talking, not like a prophecy.”

Sirius used his wand to summon parchment, quill, and ink so he could start writing down what he'd heard.

Remus and Mrs. Weasley were still dithering on the question of St. Mungo's a couple minutes later when Adira woke up, uncovering her head and looking around herself. She looked up at Luna blearily. Nobody but Luna had noticed her waking up until she spoke.

“What happened? Where am I? Why is everything blurry?”

Luna smiled at her. “Hello, Adira. We're not sure what happened, but Mr. Lupin thinks your magic came back, and the empathic noise overwhelmed you. You're in your bedroom. Everything is blurry because you don't have your glasses on.”

Remus handed Luna Adira's glasses, and Luna put them on Adira's face for her.

“Better?”

“Yes,” she said, looking up at Remus this time.

“Adira, your eyes!”

“What's wrong?” Mrs. Weasley asked.

“They're hazel.”

Adira cocked her head. Then she said, “That's nice. What's the relevance?”

“Well, normally they're green,” Sirius said in concern.

She turned to look at him. “I see. Well that is unusual. Any chance they're colored contact lenses?”

Now everyone was looking uncomfortable.

“Adira,” Hermione said cautiously, “what do you remember?”

Adira frowned in thought. Then the frown deepened. “Is my name really Adira? I thought it was... um...”

She looked down at her hands and jerked in surprise. “Why am I white?”

Remus and Sirius looked at one another, a silent question in their eyes.

Adira reached up to push her glasses further up her nose, and suddenly the metal lenses turned to gold.

“What the?”

Sirius looked like he was close to panicking. “Adira, whatever you do, don't touch anything else!”

“Who's Adira?” Adira asked. “I'm Megan. Megan Chandra Potter. Wait, no... that doesn't sound right.”

“I'm going to go tell the headmaster what's happening,” Remus said, rushing from the room.

“Aha!” Adira said. “I'm Alastair Lily Potter. Yes, that's who I am.”

Suddenly, her eyes turned blue, then green, then one blue and one green, one blue and one hazel, then she passed out again.

“What's going on?” Hermione asked. She was wringing her hands.

The other kids looked scared and confused as well. Well, everyone in the room was looking like that. Even Luna's normally calm demeanor was faltering.

Adira shifted then to Zoey's form, then to Al's, Chandra's, Iliana's, and Hypatia's form before switching one last time to Adira's form. She sat bolt upright, her body rigid, her eyes a bright amber.

“Rebooting,” said a voice that was only familiar to Sirius; it was Hypatia's voice. Luna knew of Hypatia, of course, but hadn't met her yet, and neither had Remus.

She sat that way for a whole minute, everyone talking in a panic about what was going on. After the minute was over, she said “Memories intact and uncorrupted,” then her eyes went back to green, and her rigid posture relaxed.

“Well that was a trip,” Adira said. “I don't remember much about it, but enough to know it was weird. Anyway, it's me, Adira Lily Potter. Hy-- er...”

[Don't you dare tell all these people about me! The brainiac and the brash idiot you call your close friends, maybe. But I don't really trust the twins.]

“What was that all about, mate?” Ron asked nervously.

“Um... It seems that getting our powers back threw the whole system into chaos, blending personalities and memories in weird ways. But er, Mother repaired the damage. We're fine now.”

It wasn't quite true; Al and Zoey weren't responsive, but that was because they had apparently had some kind of traumatic experience during the memory overlap. Even Chandra was quiet and thoughtful in a different way than normal for him. But she didn't want to worry anyone.

Since it was morning now, Adira stood up. “I won't be able to sleep now. I'm hungry. That experience took a lot out of me.”

“Oh yes, of course dear. I'll go whip you up something,” Mrs. Weasley said, bustling down to the kitchen.

Adira followed her down, as did everyone else. Adira gave Hermione and Ron significant looks; she was going to tell them about Hypatia so they wouldn't worry.

Luna slipped her hand into Adira's hand and asked her how Iliana was.

“A little freaked out, but glad to be a girl again. Still, I was here first, so she's letting me have the body for a while. Don't worry, I'll let you two spend some time together later.”

“Okay, Adira,” she said, smiling.

Just then, the doorbell rang, and Sirius's mum started her screaming. As Sirius ran off to answer the door, Adira's eyes changed to amber and she whipped her wand out, casting spells at the portrait to Hermione's dismay, but Adira knew how the Trace worked and knew she could use magic in this house without it being a problem. Anyway, it was Hypatia who was in control at the moment.

The first thing she cast was a spell over her own ears to make herself temporarily deaf. Then after five minutes of diagnostic spells and another five of spells to crack part of the picture's security, she cast a gag into the portrait's horrible mouth, and tied it up so it couldn't move.

“Thanks, Addy,” Sirius said when he and Tonks came down the hall to find that Mrs. Black was bound and gagged. Sirius paused to glare backwards toward the door.

“Uh huh,” came their reply, as they were still deeply involved in figuring out how to get rid of the portrait.

Sirius and Tonks went on ahead into the kitchen, leaving her there to her work. A moment later, Professor Snape walked past her.

She paused her work. “Professor Snape?”

He paused to look at her.

“Your eyes are amber,” he noted emotionlessly.

She looked around a moment before answering. “It's me, Hypatia. Thanks for letting me know about the eyes.” Her eyes turned green again. “I just wanted to tell you that Iliana wants to talk with you later, once we're done with this portrait. Sir.”

“I see. I hope it will be short. I am rather busy, as I'm sure you know.”

“Has No-Nose died yet? Sir.”

Snape stiffened. “Take care what you say and where you say it,” he replied in a hissed whisper.

“I don't think anyone is going to figure out anything from that, sir. Besides which, one of the spells I cast before starting this project was a privacy bubble. You're currently at the farthest range of being able to hear anything inside it. And before you ask, yes I know how to keep away those Extendable Ears of the twins, that's been included. Just remember Iliana wants to ask you something before you go. Should take five minutes at the most.”

With that, she went back to her work without waiting for a response. Snape sniffed at her and swept toward the kitchen.

A half an hour later, the people in the kitchen heard a heavy thump from the entrance hall. A moment later Adira finally walked in carrying the horrible portrait of Sirius's mum and showed it to them before giving it to Sirius for him to stow in the attic. With that done, she sat down and started to eat.

“So where's Professor Snape at?” Adira asked between bites.

Hermione answered her. “He and Tonks went into the drawing room. We've seen some other people filtering through, as well.”

“Good,” she said before switching to a whisper. “Anyway, I have something to tell you two later, about what happened earlier. I'll tell you once Iliana gets to ask Snape something.”

Her friends nodded, and Adira went back to eating.

“So you got rid of Sirius's mum, I noticed,” Fred said. Now that they had their powers back, Adira could tell Fred and George apart again by their empathic signature.

Adira rolled her eyes. “I should hope so, since I brought her in here to show you all.”

“We were just wondering how you did it,” George said.

“Well, we've had two months of no magic and plenty of boredom and frustration within which to figure out things like that. Some arithmancy, some research of spells, and boom, there we are.”

“Those diagnostic spells, though... pretty advanced stuff. When did you practice those spells?”

“Didn't. That was the first time we'd done most of those spells. That's part of why it took so long, we weren't always doing it right.”

Fred mouthed the words 'so long?' with an incredulous look. George, his eyes wide, said, “'So long?' We've had dozens of adult witches and wizards come through here during the summer, and not one of them made any progress in shutting her up, and in less than an hour you not only shut her up, you got her off the wall!”

“Yeah, and you had her shut up in like, 20 minutes or less,” Fred said.

“Like I said, we've had months to work out what to do. But of course, we didn't know everything. We could've gotten her off the wall faster if we'd known there were blood runes on the back of her canvas. It's a bit difficult to deactivate blood runes to begin with, much less ones that are on the back of a painting and protected by loads of Dark spells. But yeah, I guess now you mention it, being able to crack that in half an hour was pretty incredible.”

“What's a blood rune?” Ron asked.

“Don't you dare tell him,” Mrs. Weasley said. “I don't even know how you know what they are, Adira. Children shouldn't know about those things.”

“Our attitude is that when you've got an insane dark wizard coming after your blood, it's a good thing to know as much magic as possible, even Dark magic. Don't worry, Mrs. Weasley, we're not going to go around killing people or enslaving people or anything like that, but it's a 'know your enemy' kind of situation. Dumbledore does the same thing, more or less. Also, I'm 15. Just two years away from being an adult in the wizarding world.”

“Still a child.”

“Teenagers are neither children nor adults,” Adira replied. “Teenagers are teenagers. Adolescents.”

At that moment, Adira paused and looked thoughtful. “Sorry, Mrs. Weasley, still feeling a little weird and mixed up, after what happened this morning.”

“Apology accepted, dear. But I still don't want you telling any of your friends about any Dark Arts.”

Hypatia grabbed Adira's body and sighed. “Blood runes are one of those things that shouldn't really be considered Dark, they're just regular runes done in the individual's blood instead of ink, done to strengthen the rune with the magic of the mage's blood. But of course the Ministry is like 'Ew, blood, how icky! Everything icky is Dark!'”

Mrs. Weasley glared at Adira, who was now back in control of her body. She stared down at her plate, embarrassed and frustrated that she couldn't explain. Not right now, anyway.

When breakfast was over, Adira convinced Mrs. Weasley to join her in one of the other rooms to talk. After casting some privacy charms, she told Mrs. Weasley about Hypatia, and about how Dumbledore and Snape knew her interest in Dark Arts and were helping her, and why.

“I see. So this Hypatia gets to get away with learning illegal Dark Magic because Dumbledore doesn't want to punish the rest of you for being unable to control her?”

“Well, there's more to it than that. Um... there's some Dark Magic that Moldywart um, kind of used on us, that we need to undo. Nothing life threatening, and nothing we haven't already worked out how to live with, but we could save a lot of energy and vigilance by working out how to get rid of it.”

“I don't suppose you can tell me what it is?”

“No. Sorry. Dumbledore didn't even want to tell us, and he didn't, not really. We figured it out ourselves, and he confirmed it. It's something that's not widely known about, it could be bad if Moldywart knew we knew. Anyway, we've got supervision from Professor Snape. And we're only learning it to fight Moldywart.”

“I wish you wouldn't call him that, dear.”

“He wants us dead. As far as we can tell, taunting him with that name isn't going to make things any worse for us. It's not like we're calling him on the telephone to call him names.”

“I still don't like it. Any of it. I don't understand how Albus can be letting you do Dark Magic.”

“Not all rituals are Dark. In fact, we used a small Light ritual to help deal with the blood rune. And some rituals are neutral, neither Light nor Dark.”

“But you're still learning Dark Magic.”

“Know thy enemy,” she repeated. “Even Dumbledore has been studying Dark Magic for the last few years, maybe longer, to try to fight him.”

“Yes, dear, but that's Dumbledore, an adult. He knows what he's doing.”

“Hypatia knows her limits. She's cautious. And Snape is helping.”

“But you're so young.”

Her eyes turned amber and Hypatia glared at Mrs. Weasley. “'Young and innocent,' you mean?”

“Well, yes. Um... Hypatia?”

“Yes.”

“Ah, okay.”

“Anyway, the Dursleys stole our innocence. We don't know what it is, we don't remember having it. Even Zoey isn't really innocent. We're going to do what it takes to survive. Don't worry about me, Mrs. Weasley. I'm cautious, and I'm a moral person. Probably more so than Al and Zoey, even. Wait, no 'probably' about it. Zoey thinks she's cute and funny even when she's being mean, and Al goes too far in the name of defending us. I know why they do it. Having lived with the Dursleys, they don't have a clear idea where the boundaries are. But this morning's incident may change that. The two of them saw some things in our combined memories that upset them, and might change their ways.”

“Oh,” Mrs. Weasley said. She didn't seem to know quite what else to say.

“We also had a vision of a conversation among several adults, including one person we didn't recognize. It was eye-opening.”

Mrs. Weasley sighed. “Well I don't like it, but I guess if Dumbledore trusts you enough to let you do it at all... I guess I'll try to trust you, too. Just... promise me you won't teach any Dark Arts to your friends?”

“I won't. Hermione wouldn't want to know any, and I don't trust Ron near as much as Adira does, especially not with this kind of thing. He also doesn't like Dark Magic. And I trust Ron a lot more than I trust the twins.

“Anyway, Mrs. Weasley, Iliana needs to find Professor Snape before he leaves.”

Mrs. Weasley let her go with a concerned look on her face, and Hypatia let Iliana take control of the body, which turned their eyes hazel. Hypatia didn't know where this new thing of their eyes changing color came from, but as long as she remembered to suppress it when she needed to, she thought it was a useful new thing to start happening. It cut down on the guessing and the confusion in people's faces.

Iliana soon found Professor Snape coming out of the drawing room. She also caught the twins looking disappointed, Extendable Ears being put away.

“Professor Snape?”

He looked down his hooked nose at her in annoyance.

“What do you want, Miss Potter?”

“It's Iliana. Um, I had a potion I've been working on designing over the summer, and I'd like to know if I can brew it somewhere. Like a potions lab? Also, I wanted you to look over the recipe first to make sure I didn't mess up anything.”

Snape took her arm and pulled her gently into the drawing room, which was now empty. He closed the door and put up privacy wards.

“I am rather busy, Miss Potter. I finally managed to get Bellatrix LeStrange and Crouch Junior to agree to euthanize the Dark Lord and start over again. I'm supposedly out getting ingredients for the potion to make a new... homunculus body for him.”

“You're bringing him back again?”

“Yes. It buys us time. Only a month or two before he'll be strong enough to make another new body, I'm afraid, but he's been getting more of his old Death Eaters active again, so there's really no way to leave him as a wraith and cover the whole thing up again. So a new body he will have to have. And without your blood, he will have to kill you with objects, conjured or otherwise; he will not be able to use the Killing Curse against you without it rebounding again.”

“Oh. Well that's good.”

“Not as much as you might think. There are potions that can mimic the effects of the Cruciatus Curse. He wants to use some of them on you. He figures if you are tortured to insanity, you will no longer be a threat.”

“Oh.”

Snape nodded once.

“Anyway, Miss Potter, since you are already taking up my time, I suppose I might as well take a look at this recipe of yours.”

“Right. It's in my room.”

He took down the privacy spells and she went up to get the recipe and return. He jerked the parchment out of her hand and read it thoroughly. His eyebrows went up slightly as he did.

Handing it back to her, he said, “Excellent work, Miss Potter. Only one suggestion: reduce the amount of syrup of Arnica by exactly half. The amount you have written here would be lethal for most people.”

“Oh, right. Thanks,” she said, writing that down.

“You are welcome. As to brewing it... wait until you are in school again, then ask me again. I believe the potions lab in this house is still in dire need of cleaning out.”

“This house has a potions lab?”

He sneered at her. “Of course it does, silly girl. All the houses of wealthy pureblood families have at least one potions lab. Sometimes more than one, depending on the size of the house. Anyway, it is not just a matter of available space, but also one of supervision. As remarkable and talented as two of your number may be, there are at least two others I do not trust. Also, you are still a minor.”

“Right. We'll wait until we can have your supervision,” she said.

“See that you do,” he said, and swept off in dramatic fashion as usual.

I swear he took lessons on how to move dramatically from a vampire, Alastair thought-spoke to her.

“Oh hush, you,” she whispered. “You're part of the reason we couldn't brew this potion here!”

One reason out of four or five reasons, he rebutted. She ignored him.

Endnote: Sorry this is so long coming. Between having two fanfic series to work on, being too poor to go out to a cafe to write so I can concentrate better, depression related issues, and writing an original fiction series that I'm absolutely loving and hope to get published when it's finished (a series tentatively called the Ravenstone series), writing in these fanfics is a bit slow. But since this fic and my Autistic Potter fic inspired my Ravenstone stuff, and the three keep cross-pollinating each other, I'm still attempting to keep writing them.