Chosen Champions
Zabini Manor had wards preventing apparating directly in, as expected. And they approached the gate. Before they could reach it aurors jumped out from all directions circling them and Dumbledore walked up with a concerned look and Harry potter at his side. Elianna sighed, Blaise was so sure his mother wouldn't go to Dumbledore but somehow she was sure that his mother would.
They were very subservient as they allowed themselves to be magically cuffed and carried away by portkey to a station to be questioned.
They could reach easily into each other's minds and repel all unwanted poking and prodding so their answers were always concise and identical. They eventually pulled Draco's mother into his room and Blaises mother into his room but the boys were cold. They treated going to Dumbledore as a betrayal and answered with cold and short curt responses.
They both said that Lady Zabini had gone to the aurors after Blaise had been missing for 7 days and they called in Dumbledore. Everyone wanted to know where they'd gone. They said simply, "Starlight Umber Institute," and each had an invitation in their pocket to the school. They said the invitation was a portkey that activated and took them there and brought them back so they weren't sure exactly where they were.
No one had heard of any such school and the aurors were growing anxious. They threw mind healers into Eliannas cell to try proving mental incompetence but to their surprise she was very mentally healthy and stable. She had high emotional intelligence and was capable of coping incredibly well.
When Dumbledore and Harry entered Eliannas room she felt her resolve shift for the first time but tried remembering her pureblood etiquette and behavioral training. "Elianna, we were just worried about you," Dumbledore trying his hardest to probe her mind.
Elianna wanted to smirk in victory, but kept her guard up. She allowed him to find a small crack in her mental shields and planted a false memory there. Her excitement upon seeing the invitation and reading of its exclusivity and the pull of the portkey when It activated upon reading.
She felt him watch the whole memory before speaking, "I really don't know," she said in a small, broken and sad voice. "It was a nice school. Beautiful. But I've only ever been to the orphanage, the burrow for a few minutes, Hogwarts for a minute, and my new mom's house…so I wouldn't know where I was.. " She ended sadly.
Dumbledore seemed to buy her memory and nodded, "thank you for telling us, I'll inform the aurors to keep looking." And he walked out. Harry looked at his sister sadly but she didn't meet his eyes and he eventually followed Dumbledore out.
The three of them were held for 9 more days until one of the Aurors came in screaming, "I found the school!" The professors from the feywild had been hard at work with the fey sculpting the school and adding defenses and laying the foundation for it to be found.
One of the aurors had finally come across it and ran back to Dumbledore. He explained that he found a school but it was run and protected by fae and only those accepted could enter. Dumbledore and many of the aurors storm to the doors but sure enough it was guarded by powerful fey enchantments and only those who had acceptance could enter.
With no further cause to hold them, all 3 children were released. Blaises mother took Blaise and Elianna back to her home and Draco and Narcissa returned to their own. The children were quiet and attended dinner as instructed by their parents and excused themselves to their own rooms where they retreated to the feywild.
For the next two days they stayed like this, attending meals when called but otherwise ignoring everyone but themselves and staying locked away in their rooms to play in the feywild together. Their parents tried to speak to them but they stayed quiet and standoffish every time.
Blaises mother tried taking him aside without his sister and begging him to talk to her, he explained that Elianna was his sister and Draco was their best friend, and they all needed each other. He said if his mother could understand that then they'd all stop being as brutish.
His mother agreed and reached out to Narcissa to bring Draco. The children stayed together at all times and after proving that Elianna needed neither a mind healer or physical healer anymore it was agreed they'd return to Hogwarts the following Monday.
They'd missed 3 weeks of school but they weren't worried. They had more education in those 3 weeks than graduates of Hogwarts had.
The following Monday they were apparated to the gates by Narcissa and Victoria (Blaises mother) and they all walked to the main doors.
Elianna was dressed in smart dark black and green robes that matched her brother and Dracos and had her hair immaculate along with her nails and outfit. Blaise had his hair braided into intricate tribal esq styles across his scalp and Draco had a single braid down one side of his head. The three of them looked like proper pureblood heirs and a bit intimidating.
They arrived during the breakfast feast, and when the doors to the great hall flew open Elianna felt a sense of deja vu but also confidence. She strode over to the Slytherin table and was greeted by familiar faces, Blaise settled across from her and Draco settled to her right. Theo moved from his spot to sit at her left and Astoria moved with her sister to sit on opposite sides of Blaise. Even Crabe and Goyle moved to flank Draco and Elianna. Everyone watched but no one commented and Dumbledore rose to speak.
The slytherin table didn't pay much attention, most catching Elianna up with what she'd missed until Crabe and Goyle sent a mental warning to everyone, "we feel the presence of many. Maybe 100 people all walking towards the great hall now. Alignments seems dark for half and light for half."
Elianna replied in her mind, "go take a look, I wanna know who they are." They nodded and looked around to be sure no one was watching them before melting into the shadows beneath the table.
They did some surveillance and whispered back to Elianna in her mind, "two other magical schools are here for a championship at Hogwarts." Elianna sent for them to return and they began slinking back.
Meanwhile Ron was complaining to Hermionie that the "filthy snakes got to miss 3 weeks of school and probably don't have to make up any work," much to her annoyance.
Harry was watching his sister with irritation and awe. She looked so much happier and healthier after only 2 weeks with Blaises mom.
When everyone was settled again Dumbledore took some time announce the Tri Wizard Tournament and the two additional school entered. Dumstrang chosing to sit with Slytherin and Beauxbatons Academy of Magic sitting with Ravenclaw. When everything died down Elianna elbowed her brother and Draco and they nodded and followed her to the professors table.
"Excuse me professors, I know this isn't typical but as my absence wasn't either I feel it is warranted," Elianna said to the professors, getting their attention. "As school work was not provided for us for the time we missed, we took it upon ourselves to read ahead and practice the necessary lessons we would have missed and we documented our learnings." They each handed scrolls to every professor and they each looked impressed. "We wouldn't ask you to spend your valuable time grading them but we wanted to ensure you knew how important our education is to us and we wouldn't let an absence deter us from our learning." With that the three of them went back to slytherin to finish breakfast.
Their professors were impressed and once they got their schedule they walked to their first class.
By the end of the first day they were itching to run back to the feywild to study and train. Once they were back in their dorm and had warded their beds, Elianna slipped into the feywild and activated the portkey in their tattoos. Everyone flooded into the Feywild easily and Elianna looked on at her followers.
"We did it," she said, throwing her arms up and everyone cheered. They built and trained an army and integrated it into hogwarts seamlessly.
Phase one was complete. Everyone got some sleep and they spent the next approximately 130 days training while the rest of Hogwarts slept.
They had to change their plans and timelines
with the Tournament at their school but they would adapt. The next 2 weeks of Hogwarts everyone in Elianna group began living as close to their life in the feywild as possible. They spent 6 hours in the feywild every night and then rose before the sun to jog around the school together, swim laps in the lake, and jog back to shower before breakfast. They ate before most were awake while studying together and spent class time as the most attentive and obedient students their professors had ever seen.
They helped out others whenever it was needed and offered tutoring to anyone who was struggling. They had even spoken to the house elves and had their meals changed to include more fresh produce and lean proteins, healthy fats and fruit with each meal. At the end of their first 2 weeks back they'd technically been in school for almost 5 years. The schoolwork was tedious but boring to them all and they relied on the challenges their courses offered in the feywild to fuel their drive.
They decided to enjoy a Sunday evening relaxing outside instead of studying and so they used runes to create a thick cloud to give them shade and wove spells to create a thick blanket of clover and soft moss under the shade near the black lake and with feather light charms the clover felt like a soft blanket. They used potions of their own creations and seeds to cause a garden around them of fruits, herbs, and flowers. And Theo had spelled some tools to begin picking herbs, drying them in the sun, amplified by a spell, and steeping them into tea in a kettle.
The friends sat around leaning against each other and enjoying the fresh air, waiting for their tea to steep.
"What are we gonna do about the tournament? I assume you don't want any of us to enter?" Theo asked, adjusting the heat on the tea kettle.
"Actually," Elianna said plopping down next to Draco and Blaise, "I have been working on something and wanted to run it by everyone." Everyone sat up to hear their lord better.
"Technically speaking that timeline is a very old spell and uses a very old definition of age: the amount of time a soul has existed since its creation, and technically…my soul is almost 30 years old as is all of yours…" She trailed off and Astoria shot up, excited.
"Are you saying we can enter?!" Astoria shouted.
"You'd be okay with that?" Draco asked from beside Elianna and the kettle had begun to screech.
Elianna snapped her fingers, pulling the kettle from the heat and held up a hand to signal that she was overwhelmed. They all sat still and silent until she slowed closed her palm, lowered her hand, and opened her eyes. She still got overstimulated sometimes but her friends understood.
"Yes," Elianna said after taking a deep breath. "I'm actually hoping one of us is chosen to be a champion. Even better if we win but show a lot of sportsmanship for the world to see." Everyone nodded, understanding her stance.
"I could easily stomp any of the Beauxbatons," Astoria announced proudly.
"But could you take out Krum?" Blaise asked with a laugh, "I could take him out, with his headmaster…blindfolded."
"I think any of you could easily win it all, so lets make it interesting," Elianna said with a smirk. Everyone leaned closer to listen. "My shadows tell me the cup has already been enchanted. My brothers name will be called as a Hogwarts champion along with whoever the cup chooses. And Krum has been chosen already as well. It seems people are cheating, and you know how I feel about cheaters," she ended menacingly.
"If you're going to cheat, don't get caught?" Draco asked with an eyebrow raised. Elianna kissed his cheek with a giggle.
"Exactly!" She exclaimed. "But they did. So I did some more digging…years ago the cup used to choose teams to compete but the competition got too deadly. So they downgraded to solo entries…but if someone were to, I dunno, accidentally drop in a potion that reset the cup back to its original spell work, then it would choose students in groups of 5."
"So we'd compete with Potter?" Draco asked, no venom in his voice.
"Actually, if a student has received schooling from more than one magical school they'd enter under the school that they'd received the most schooling under, and I do believe that would be ours," she ended slowly.
"So, we'd enter under our own school? Against the other 3?" Blaise asked
Elianna smiled an evil grin, "absolutely."
Everyone excitedly began debating who would be chosen from them to compete when Crabe whispered in Eliannas mind, "Potter, Weasley, and Granger are headed to the black lake now. They're looking for you." Elianna whispered a thanks in her mind and asked him and Goyle to keep an eye out for anyone else approaching and to keep up with all the professors.
"It appears," Elianna said over everyone, quieting the group, "Potter and the other two are headed this way. Everyone will be cordial, polite, and don't do anything I wouldn't want getting around the school. Remember, lions do not concern themselves with the opinions of sheep," she finished with a snap of her fingers to bring down the wards around them.
Harry was furious, his sister had been back in classes for 2 weeks and hadn't spoken to him. Everywhere he looked she was galvanizing around with Draco or Blaise or Theo and Harry was sick of it. He was marching down to confront her with Hermionie behind him trying to talk sense into him while Ron boasted about teaching the snakes a thing or two. When they approached the group was sipping tea and laughing, all talking over books. Astoria saw then first and offered, "tea?" While waving over a tray of tea and a platter of fruit.
Ron took the fruit platter and began eating mangos from it when Astoria invited them to sit down but Harry stomped over to Elianna. "I need to talk to you," he said with a pained expression.
Elianna was jotting something down from a book and held up a finger as she finished her sentence, then closed her book softly and looked up at him, "Hey, sorry I was taking some notes on the alternate ingredients you can use in place of shrew beetles, been thinking about switching the stabilizer I use in my draught of the living dead." She said smiling.
"It won't work," Draco said over his shoulder, "anything finer would soak up too much water and anything more coarse wouldn't strain out cleanly."
Harry opened his mouth but Hermionie beat him to speak, "why would you change stabilizers? The potions text book clearly states that you must use shrew bettles."
Elianna tossed her the book she was reading, "Potion making text book from 1302 gives alternatives for everything in case of scarcity and I was trying to cut hours off the brewing time. If the stabilizer didn't need to be brewed for an additional 4 hours it would speed up the whole process."
Hermionie held the book like it was the most precious thing she'd ever seen, "where did you get this?" She asked slowly.
"A gift from Draco, from his mother's personal library. You can borrow it if you like. I've copied down the passages I needed."
She looked between Elianna and Draco, wanting desperately to borrow it but terrified to ask but Draco smiled, "it's okay Granger, jut get it back to her when you're finished? It's part of a beautiful set signed by the potion master that wrote them."
Hermionie squealed a bit and opened the front cover with shaking hands, "this is signed?"
Elianna nodded, "one of my favorites in my collection. But you can borrow any of them anytime." She ended with a smile and turned to her group. "Does anyone have a copy of their herbology textbook?" But before anyone could answer, Hermionie had pulled one out of her own bag.
"I do!" She yelled holding it out. "I've finished my herbology assignment, you can borrow it! Give it back anytime!"
Elianna took it smiling, "thank you Granger."
Looking over, Harry realized Ron was eating fruit with a few Ravenclaws and Hermione was now discussing potion theory with Draco and he felt anger course through him. He reached for Elianna arm, planning to drag her away. But before his hand could touch her he felt pain shoot up his arm and dig into his bone making him scream. When his eyes refocused he saw Ron and Hermione sitting down looking confused and everyone else with their wand pointed at Harry with Elianna pushed behind Blaise.
"I want to speak to my sister," Harry yelled, clutching his right arm to his chest but Blaise stepped forward.
Blaise had grown into a wall of muscle and intimidation, stepping forward with his wand out sent a shiver down Harry spine. "You tried to forcibly grab MY sister, and I assure you we will not let that happen. After everything she's gone through in her life, that you saw firsthand, I'd think you of all people would understand."
Harry felt ashamed but said, "She's my sister too Blaise. I just wanna talk to her please."
Blaise scoffed, "family is more than blood Potter. If you wanna talk to her, have a seat and we will too, and you can talk. But after what you just pulled, I'll not allow my little sister to be alone with you for a second."
"So you speak for her now? She just takes your orders?" Harry argued and immediately the sea of students parted and Elianna stood with her wand out.
"Enough! I don't follow anyone's orders but It's called respect, Potter. He is the head of the Zabini household and if he says not to speak to someone who has disrespected me, it would be spitting in my brother's face not to obey. I don't expect you to follow our customs, but you'll respect them. And do NOT disrespect my brother again. Do not forget your place in my life Potter. I can always go to Gringotts and denounce the Potter name and if I did, my brother would declare war between the houses of Zanini and Potter. You're my brother because an egg split. He's my brother because he's been there in ways you'll never understand. Now enough of this. It shows a distinct lack of decorum. Sit down and join us or leave. Now!"
Her voice crackle with an energy akin to lightning and Harry knew he should sit down and talk to his sister. But he was jealous and upset and felt betrayed and replaced and inadequate, and challenged, and in the end he reacted by pulling his wand and shooting a cruciatus curse at the person he blamed for it all. Blaise.
Elianna was furious. Everyone reacted the second Harry pulled his wand, but everyone expected him to hit Elianna…not Blaise.
Everyone threw up shields to protect her and when the cruciatus hit Blaise she saw red. She wanted to kill Harry Potter. She wanted to rip the hearts of his two best friends out right in front of him.
But when she heard the gasps around her she instead sent a simple order through her mind, "follow my lead, Blaise dear, you'll have to stay under for a minute. Don't hold it in...let us see it hurt," Blaise had practiced being under its effects as did everyone else and usually endured it quietly and still but this time he began writhing in pain and screaming.
It hurt Eliannas soul but she dropped to her knees in front of him and yelled, "my brother! Someone help us! Please! Harry Potter used an unforgivable on my brother!" In her mind she ordered her group to get help and they all scattered to get help.
Cedric Diggory had been nearby studying and starring at Elianna from across the lake and ran over when she began to scream, he fell to his knees in front of her and began casting healing charms on Balise. "Do you know what spell it was?" He asked Elianna urgently.
"The crutiatus," she whispered between sobs, "is he okay?"
Cedric looked at Harry with wide eyes and he was just staring blankly at his wand. "Okay," Cedric said softly. "I'll cast a charm to make sure he's okay," he grabbed Eliannas hand and pulled her back to cast it and Blaise's body glowed with a golden light.
Elianna knew what it meant but she looked up at Cedric with confused hopefully eyes. "He's okay," Cedric said, "passed out from the pain but he's okay. Pomfrey can give him something for the residual pain, but he's okay."
Elianna hugged him tightly and squealed, "thank you!" As Pomfrey, Dumbledore, and Snape were running up.
Blaise was sentenced to 3 days in the hospital wing much to Eliannas dismay, but after she called his mother and she arrived and threatened to go after Harry for using an unforgivable they shortened it to only one night. Elianna was upset but had calmed down and was laying next to Blaise on a magically enlarged hospital bed.
Harry was going to be seeing a mind healer after classes every day for a few weeks as Dumbledore declared he had PTSD from facing Voldemort. No one was happy with the outcome but Elianna didn't want him to go to Azkaban so she made everyone accept the punishment with grace. Dumbledore seemed greatful when she spoke out in favor of the lightened sentence. Saying her brother had been through a lot so young and needed to be handled differently.
That night in the Greathall Dumbledore called for attention to read the names from the Cup and Elianna and her friends were bursting with excitement.
The champions for Beauxbatons were: Fleur, Camille, Celine, Genevieve, Madeline and Evangeline. The stunned French girls approached and bowed before walking off.
The champions from Dumstrang were Victor, Antony, Steffan, Dragomir, Tatiana, and Ivan. All of them looked between each other before cheering and stomping off with the others.
The champions from Hogwarts were: Cedric Diggory, Harry Potter, Roger Davies, Lee Jordan and Fred and George Weasley.
With only one chosen student of age, the hogwarts champions all looked confused but Dumbledore pulled them away.
When the cup continued spitting fire it was Snape that walked up and caught the last parchment.
The Champions from the Umber Institute were Elianna Potter Zabinni, Blaise Zabinni, Draco Malfoy, Theodore Knott, Astoria Greengrass, and Cassius Warrington
They strode confidently over and walked into the room with the other champions.
While everyone ran around chaotically the Umber Institute Champions pulled out books and transfigured stones into desks to study. It took 4 hours for the headmaster and judges to figure out what happened and in that time most of Beauxbatons had joined the Umber students and were studying together quietly except for Blaise and Theo who were wrestling Victor and Dragomir in a transfigured wrestling ring.
The decisions were final and nothing anything did could change it, all students chosen had to compete of forfeit their magic. It was a decision everyone except Harry had signed up for but Dumbledore had thrown his name in and Elianna hadn't found a way to counteract it. This year's Triwizard Tournament would be between 4 teams from 4 outstanding magical schools. The first event was postponed to account for the additional champions and everyone was sent back to their dorms.
The next few weeks went by much the same as the first few. The Umber academy student excelled in ever class and were loved by their professors, even tutoring most of the hogwarts students when they could. They were the first to rise and the last to sleep, the first to every class and the last to leave yet they never looked tired or drained and they always had a cheerful demeanor. The slytherin students still made snarky jokey but they lost their malice. They promoted inter house unity and at meals the tables became less about house and more about friends. Elianna and her closes friends still always sat together but the others branched off, sitting with other groups in other houses as well.
The professors adored the umber academy students and began treating them more like teachers aids than students. They had begun a dueling club and a gardening club. Their gardening club was run by Daphne and was responsible for the colorful salads at mealtimes and bright platters of fruit. The dueling club was run by Elianna and so far was mostly slytherin and ravenclaw students, of course most being Umber members but many who were not. Elianna treated it like a challenge for her followers and would daily attach a different challenge to the duels for them.
One day the challenge was they could only use original spells, and original counter spells. No unforgivables in the outterworld and no dark spells or curses. Not in front of outsiders. That eliminated shadow, blood, necromancy, and most other specialties they all had which made it more fun for them all. And more fair for the others.
Elianna was standing on a transfigured floating platform that was gliding near the ceiling so she could watch the groups dueling beneath her. She was connected to the minds of all her followers to make sure everyone was following the rules.
Draco and Blaise were shooting an original combined spell that caused snake like vines to sprout from both wands and entwine together to creating a thick force field in front of them and Elianna was impressed, when the doors were thrown open and Harry walked in with a group of Gryfendore students behind him.
"Dumbledore says you have to allow any students to join your dueling club," he announced upon entering.
Elianna used nonverbal wandless magic to force a shield around everyone so the distraction wasnt harmful and announce in her cheerful voice, "we have new members to the Hogwarts Dueling Club, please greet our new members!" Everyone clapped and bowed to Harry and the others before Elianna waved them off and let the shield drop so they could continue. In a snap she was standing in front of Harry.
"Hello Potter, of course anyone can join. We put up flyers in the common rooms and everything to announce it!" She said with a clap of her hands. "We have 1 on 1 physical dueling in the back in all red rings, and 1 on 1 magical dueling in the blue rings. Groups of less than 5 are in green and groups of 5 or more are purple. We follow standard dueling rules, I mediate, and we have head boys and girls from every house in case anything gets messy you will be swiftly punished. Keep all physical altercations in the red rings and respect any and all tap outs. If someone shoots green sparks or calls out pink hippogryph you must stop immediately. Welcome and good luck!" She ended with a clap and went back to watching the duels.
She sent a mental warning to her followers to be wary of the new members and make sure to keep it respectful and cordial but make sure under no circumstances do they lose against them.
Ron surprisingly entered a boxing fight against a Ravenclaw boy and was doing quite well. A few others entered duels and were quickly beaten, but they got back in line for rematches which was impressive as well. Harry was stalking around like a lion and when he finally saw Blaise and Draco he called Fred and George Weasley to be his second and third and entered a duel against Blaise, Draco and Theo.
The duel was going well but what impressed Elianna were the twins. They fought in perfect unison and used a surprising mix of dark and light curses. They managed to throw Theo and Draco off a few times but Blaise was raised around dark curses and began unweaving them as they left the twins lips. He shot off a spell at Harry that caused his own magic to envelop him in a magical shield, the more spells he shot off the stronger it got. While he was distracted with Harry, Fred shot off a spell to confuse him and George shot off a spell that blasted him out of the ring and it was the twins against Theo and Draco. Theo and Draco were more skilled easily but the twins were faster and more in sync which made their attacks more brutal and harder to counter. Draco finally shot off a spell that caused Fred to see his twin backwards which threw him off just enough to let Theo blast them both out of the circle.
In the end it was close. Close enough to intrigue Elianna and irritate Draco and Theo. But Blaise undid his spell on Harry and him, Draco, and Theo bowed to their opponents and thanked them for the challenge. Harry was seething but stomped away. Before the twins could follow Elianna had landed behind them and stopped them.
"Hey, that was a good fight. Never seen anyone get that close to them before, I'd love to duel you both some time." She said with actual excitement in her voice.
"Would that be fair?" Fred asked.
"You're right," Elianna said with a smile, "you guys can bring a third if you'd like." She ended with a smirk and they both took a step towards her. She could feel Blaise and Draco about to pounce but she mentally held them back.
"We meant fair for you," the twins said in unison.
Elianna smirked and bowed deeply. "A challenge?" They asked again in unison.
She smirked her response and they called out for Lee Jordan to join them and turned back to her. "We play with one more," Fred started. "And so do you," George finished.
Eliannas smile widened and she mentally called Blaise next to her. Draco was a bit offended by her choice but he understood. Before they could all bow Fred whispered, "let's take the training wheels off?" "Yeah, all these restrictions are getting dull." George smirked.
Eliannas smirk got dangerous and she nodded to Blaise and with a cheeky grin Elianna put her wand away, commiting to all wandless magic and Blaise mimicked her movements. The twins shot a quick glance at Lee and the three of them did as well. With a quiet bow the duel was on.
All 5 of them remained completely silent through the whole duel, only using non verbal magic and communication, leaving everyone watching in awe. They only moved to dance out of the way as magic flew by them. It looked more like a scary dance than any fight anyone had ever seen. Lee was out first, moving just a second too slow as a purple spell flew across the way, no one sure by who. Lee was blasted out of the ring and it was the Zabini siblings vs the Weasley twins.
The battle grew more fierce after Lee was ejected, both pairs fighting in complete unison. Fred fought with a power that matched Elianna while George fought with precision that matched Blaise. After 7 minutes Blaise and Elianna decided to end the fight and cast a modified version fiend fire, causing two large fiery serpents to form and morph into one before striking at the twins and coiling around them, leading them to both tap out, and end the match. When the match was won everyone in the room erupted into applause and a blushing Elianna tried to run away but was caught by her brother and they both bowed.
"Impressive," Fred remarked, climbing back into the ring. "Immensely," George added.
"You were both impressive as well, we've not had a match that close in so long!" Elianna exclaimed.
"You two fight great together, I'd love to have you duel us again soon," Blaise ended seriously.
The twins shared a glance and said in unison, "wicked."
Elianna ended dueling club early and everyone left to wash up before dinner, most of the Umber Society choosing to wash off in the feywild as Elianna had called a meeting.
When everyone was washed up and ready Elianna sat with Draco, Blaise, and Theo waiting for everyone to quiet down before speaking, "I want to collect the twins."
"They're from a light family, it won't be easy," Astoria said solemly.
"I disagree," Blaise added, "during the duel they used many dark curses. I'd be surprised if they were as light as their family."
Elianna was going to speak again when Greg materialized to her side from the shadows, "my apologies my lord, Vincent was following the twins when we lost them somewhere near the forbidden forest. We retreated to the slytherin dorm where we found this on your bed," he handed a note to Elianna.
The note was written in two distinct handwritings and smeared all over, obviously written by the twins at the same time.
Nightshade,
We don't appreciate being followed. Meet us where the fey dance under the moonlight after the mermaids sing. We'll be waiting alone with a few friends. We expect you won't show up alone either.
Below the note was a drawing of the constellation Gemini, the twins stars Castor and Pollux were the only stars drawn with gold.
"It seems that the twins are more like us than they are like them," Elianna said handing the note to Draco and sharing it mentally with everyone.
"Nightshade?" Draco asked.
"It's smart not to use Elli's name and it's kinda fitting really, such a pretty flower for being so deadly." Blaise said reading the note over and scanning it for curses.
"Either way I want them, and the Ravenclaw seer, and the hufflepuff champion," Everyone groaned.
"Cedric is so light if we even approached him he'd have us all arrested," Draco said with an eye roll.
"If you don't have the finess for it darling, just say that," Elianna said with a smirk. Draco scoffed and crossed his arms.
"We can approach Loony Lovegood but she's close to Potter. We risk anything we say leaking to Dumbledore. We'll have to be smart," Pansy said while taking notes.
"I'd like to make a case for Longbottom," Daphne said softly and everyone laughed but Elianna.
"That wasn't a joke," elianna said sternly, silencing the room. "Make your case."
Daphne looked intimidated but took a deep breath and continued, "I've been looking into the potion you wanted created but from all the research I've done no one has ever had success using Ashwinder egg unless they go in first. However, in 1134 a wizard had a tiny bit of success using Kriptinlyme, a moss like plant that can grow from ashes in place of the crushed eggshells in a love potion. His problem was that the moss is very temperamental and he could never get enough to grow to be useful. But I've been looking into other herbology projects and Longbottom wrote a paper about theoretically using the ash from a newly hatched Phoenix to grow the moss, which imbues it with enough power to grow more heartily. The paper was thorough and incredibly well thought out. I managed to get ahold of all of his papers for herbology the last few years and they're brilliant. But all theory. He hasn't had the resources to do anything he's thought up or I'm sure he'd be published already," she finished by handing Elianna a file of all of his work. She looked it over and agreed that he was incredibly advanced with Herbology.
"How is he in other subjects?" Elianna asked the room.
"He was abysmal with potions until this year, with our help he's good. Not amazing but good. I think he was just scared of Snape and he makes dumb mistakes when he's scared." Draco said.
"He's good with magical creatures, but he gets too nervous around large ones. He's decent, " Astoria said with a shrug.
"He's shit with runes, he remembers what they mean and all but he lacks the finess to have a knack for it," Theo added.
"I'm not good at much either besides herbology, but I've been able to develop the recipes for 13 new potions and I've helped Draco a ton. I can still hold my own in a battle and I'm not powerful like everyone else. He can still be useful." Daphne ended softly.
Elianna pondered over everything,"you are more than just herbology. That's your specialty but you also brew amazing potions, and you fight like a lioness. Anyone we bring has to have the capability to become one of us. I'm not sure about him yet. Approach him. Encourage him. Plant the seed. And everyone will help him, tutor him, make him the best you can. In a few months we will reevaluate. Anyone else?"
"Can I play Devil's Advocate for a second?" Draco asks, swinging his legs down.
"You are always my advocate my dear," Elianna said, kissing his cheek.
"The best way to be a step ahead of your enemy is to always be in the room with him…we should start moving in on the light members. And I think Potter could be a good move. He's powerful, and he distrusts Dumbledore already, and," Draco said before Elianna cut him off.
"No," Elianna said sternly. Everyone was still for a moment. Elianna rarely said no. "I want to infiltrate the light starting next year but I don't wanna to recruit them. I wanna use them to get what we need. Anyone else?"
Draco sat back, feeling a bit embarrassed but Blaise took Elianna's hand and gave it a squeeze. "Chi non va non vede, chi non vede non sa e chi non sa se lo prende sempre in culo," he said softly and she blushed a bit and took a deep breath.
"Draco you may approach Potter," Elianna said with a pained expression. "Reveal nothing and plant the seed. And if he wants to talk to me, set it up. We'll discuss it further when we discuss Longbottom. Anyone else?"
When no one spoke, Elianna clapped, "great. So I want to reach out to Hufflepuff. I want our Ravenclaws to reach out among your own and specially for my seer. Draco, you know what to do but everyone else stays away from the lions. We remain cordial and helpful and kind but we stay to the other 3 houses. Anything else we need to discuss before dinner?"
"Petition to come home during breaks between classes more often," one of the boys called out from the back and everyone laughed.
"We need to be seen on campus always making a difference, so for now most breaks will be spent tutoring or studying. But there will be a few like this where we sneak away," she ended with a smile.
With nothing else to discuss they all went back to their dorm to clean up and get ready for dinner.
Later that night Elianna, Draco, Blaise, Theo, Astoria, and Marcus Flint all entered the forbidden forest to find the twins with a few more following from the shadows.
Elianna found the mushroom rings easily and her group gathered around. Upon stepping into the largest mushroom ring the ground opened up to a small clearing that had been enchanted with a disillusion charm. Vincent whispered in Eliannas mind, "the twins have just entered the forest with 5 others. They shall arrive in 9 minutes."
Elianna smiled and waved her hands. "Alright, let's make it comfortable and private. We have 7 minutes." She said and everyone got to work weaving magic into the land to mold it.
They spelled out a thick and soft lush field of grass with a mix of dark wildflowers that bloom under moonlight. They used charms to make the grass feel like a lush feather bed when sat upon and a line of trees to surround it and block the view in case the charms failed. A few more spells for privacy and protection and it was mostly done. When the twins arrived it had transformed from a clearing into a magical oasis in the forest.
The cloudy sky seemed to part just to let the full moonlight into the oasis and magical flowers were in bloom all over. Elianna was laying with Blaise and Draco in one of the huge oversized hammocks strung between the trees and the others layed on the grass studying. Nearby herbs were growing themselves, drying themselves, and being steeped into tea. Fruit bushes and trees lines the oasis and trays of cut fruit flown around to everyone. There was also a small stream cutting through with glowing fish swimming through. It was like being in another world.
The twins were the first into the clearing, followed by Lee Jordan, Angelina Johnson, Alicia Spinnet, Oliver Wood, and Katie Bell. All were dressed in dark cloaks with hoods pulled up over their faces and wands drawn, but when they realized their company was so relaxed they lowered their hoods and wands.
Elianna pulled an apple from a nearby apple tree and didn't seem to notice them but Fred cleared his throat, "see you had no trouble finding the place."
Elianna giggled, "no and I hope you don't mind, we did some redecorating." She snapped her fingers and in an instant her and her friends were seated at a comfortable couch across from another, a tray of tea floating over, and small flames danced around them creating a warm environment.
She motioned for the twins and their friends to join them and they tentatively did. For a while everyone sat quietly, waiting to see who would begin. Elianna decided that since she was approached she'd let them speak first