Chapter 1
My knuckles were bruised like violets
Sucker punching walls, cursed you as I sleep-talked
Spineless in my tomb of silence
Tore your banners down, took the battle underground
And maybe it was ego swinging
Maybe it was her
Flashes of the battle come back to me in a blur
All that bloodshed, crimson clover
sweet dream was over
My hand was the one you reached for
All throughout the Great War
Always remember
tears on the letter
I vowed not to cry anymore
If we survived the Great War
-The Great War by Taylor Swift
Rhaenyra Targaryen was born into one of the most famous wizarding families in the wizarding world, so her life was not lacking in opulence. Her life was quite happy in every way, and as ordinary a family life as one can have in a family of unimaginable wealth.
Rhaenyra's parents were both famous as an witch and a wizard, Rhaenyra's father was Viserys Targaryen and her mother was Aemma of the Kunista family, also an old and famous pureblood wizarding family, though not as powerful as the Targaryens. Rhaenyra grew up with her parents and siblings in Bulgaria in one of the many mansions of the Targaryen family in the midst of opulence.
The Targaryens had once been the first truly powerful wizards, ruling the magical world with fire and blood through dragons. But hundreds of years passed and then dragons were no longer born, so the power of the Targaryen family waned and eventually they were no longer rulers of the wizarding world.
But there was an old prophecy, which all Targaryens had heard since childhood, that one day the dragons would return and give hope to darkness and despair with their fire. But no one, not even the Targaryens themselves, had imagined after hundreds of years that dragons would really return to the world to fight the darkness, and that dragons were just an ancient myth.
Rhaenyra lived a happy childhood at home with her parents and siblings. Rhaenyra had one older brother, Aegon, four years older, a twin sister Healena and a younger brother, Aemond, five years younger. When Rhaenyra was nine, Rhaenyra's parents took the children on holiday to visit London's famous Diagon Alley. The children were enchanted as they wandered around the wonderful shops of the street. Targaryen children had learned to speak several languages at home school and English was one of them. While playing in the hot courtyard of the luxurious hotel, they met some local children who told them about a wizarding school called Hogwarts, which they would be attending in a couple of years. To the Targaryen children, Hogwarts sounded like a great place and they begged their parents to let them go there to study. However, their parents gently refused, not only because they did not want to send their children to school so far away, but also because it was against the Targaryen family custom of having their children educated at home by the best private tutors. The children were disappointed, but in time they forgot about Hogwarts and went on with their lives as before.
While Rhaenyra and her twin sister were somewhat shy and quiet as children, their brothers were loud and social. But Rhaenyra, apart from Helaena, was a lively and happy girl in the company of those she knew well. Though she was quite easily angered which she had in common with her little brother Aemond. Healena, on the other hand, was not so lively, but withdrawn and quiet, even in the company of her own family. Healena often saw and spoke in a confused way that made them worry, and eventually, according to several visits to specialists, Healena had foretelling abilities that made her see hallucinations without being able to control them. Strangely, the usual magic spells and potions given to seers did nothing to stop the visions, but continued as before. However, Healena was more withdrawn after her diagnosis and kept to herself even in her own home, rarely agreeing to go anywhere. Viserys wasn't too worried about Helaena, since it was quite a common trait to be seer in his family line. The family became accustomed to Helaena's eccentricities and the predictions she made were often so cryptic and difficult to interpret that no-one even tried after a time. Everyone knew that divination was an unreliable branch of magic, so there was little interest in Helaena's predictions in the family.
The eldest of the siblings, Aegon, became very arrogant and ill-mannered as he grew older, starting to oppose his parents, whom he once admired so much. When Aegon turned seventeen and was thus of age, he moved away from home, accompanied by constant disagreements with his parents. Rhaenyra often thought that the home and its happiness changed forever after Aegon's move. Rhaenyra's parents were very worried about Aegon and his irresponsible lifestyle, which brought a gloomy atmosphere to their home. A year after Aegon's move, whispers of the Dark Lord's re-emergence began and the gloom returned to the magical world as if creeping quietly.
Rhaenyra's parents were even more distracted and worried when they heard these rumors, knowing the dangers of the Dark Lord's return would mean, and finally, when word reached Bulgaria of Harry Potter's encounter with a resurgent Voldemort, their parents forbade the girls and youngest Aemond to leave their home even to see their friends in the neighbor. Rhaenyra was very vocally upset and tearful, feeling it was a great injustice that she could no longer see her friends, but her mother and father would not budge. Her parents did not explain to Rhaenyra the reasons for the sudden ban, which added to her sense of injustice. The early summer days locked up in the mansion were deadly boring for Rhaenyra, as her parents were often busy, Aemond too irritating and young to be any companion to her, Helaena too quiet, and the house elves too busy with chores to be with her.
"In the darkness, the snake raises its head and makes its first strikes. The servants of death bow to the darkness and stretch out their hands. One innocent is already gone and three more are sacrificed to the fire," Healena muttered to herself as she read a book at Rhaenyra's feet on the floor. Healena had come to comfort her sister as she wept her hard fate for about the tenth time since their parents' alignment. Again, however, the parents did not budge. Her mother had said that no matter how much she cried her crocodile tears, nothing would change. Rhaenyra had been deeply offended by the suggestion that the crying was an act (although it was, as crying usually worked on parents and house-elves) and had dramatically run to her own room, slamming doors behind her. However, Healena had soon found that Rhaenyra was in no better mood and decided to continue reading her book while keeping quiet company with Rhaenyra. Rhaenyra, used to her sister's absurd ramblings, took no notice of her sister's words, but stared grimly at the ceiling, lying on her bed in silk nightclothes. Soon her sister fell silent and remained silent for so long that Rhaenyra fell asleep, her sorrows accompanying her. Sleep didn’t last for long, however, for after only a moment Rhaenyra startled awake to hear Healena talking loudly beside her. Irritated, Rhaenyra sat up on her bed to glare at her sister, who did not seem to be talking to her, but to herself, as often happened.
"In the darkness, the snake raises its head and makes its first strikes. The servants of death bow to the darkness and stretch out their hands. One innocent is already gone and three more are sacrificed to the fire," Healena repeated the same speech as before over and over again. Rhaenyra gave an irritated sneer to her sister while rubbing her tear-swollen eyes.
"If you're going to be a nutter, you might as well do it in your own room, because I'm not in the mood right now," Rhaenyra said to Healena, who didn't care, but continued to "read" while repeating her words.
Rhaenyra stood up angrily in the now darkened room, lit only by the slowly dimming fireplace, and grabbed Healena by the arm, trying to pull her up from the bed and throw her out of the room, but failing, for Helaena made no move to leave. Although Healena and Rhaenyra were twins, they were not identical. Rhaenyra was slightly shorter, slimmer and rounder on her face. Helaena’s face was a little more elongated and pointed, and she was slightly taller. Both had the famous silvery long straight hair and violet-blue eyes that the Targaryen family was so famous for. Helaena, however, did not rise or even seem to notice Rhaenyra's attempts to lift her up, but continued to talk to herself. After a moment, Rhaenyra stopped her futile attempts to get Healena to stand up and began to panic slightly at Healena's unresponsiveness.
After a moment's thought, Rhaenyra slapped her sister lightly and then harder. At first after the hard slap Helaena fell silent, but then she grabbed Rhaenyra's hand hard and began to shout her mantra, now looking straight into Rhaenyra's eyes, eyes wide and scared. If Rhaenyra wasn't scared before, she was now, for Helaena had never acted so strangely before. She stared at her sister's blank face, glowing in the firelight, in fear.
"Laena, stop!" Rhaenyra screamed and tried to pull her hand away, but Helaena didn't stop and continued to squeeze her hand harder and harder. The mattress and furniture around Rhaenyra and Healena started to smoke and the wooden furniture was soon on fire. Rhaenyra began to panic and cried while begging Healena to let go, desperately wrenching her arm free and screaming for help from her parents. The flames around them intensified and Rhaenyra looked desperately for her wand, not remembering where she had left it. All she was wearing was a thin silk nightdress.
She heard their parents calling out to them and seconds later the door to Rhaenyra's room flew open as their parents entered, wands held out, frightened expressions twisting their faces. Both, however, immediately lowered their wands when they saw that there was no one in the room but the girls. Viserys extinguished the fire with a flick of his wrist and Aemma rushed over to the girls.
"Mum, Healena won't answer or let go and she's scaring me!" Rhaenyra shouted in alarm to her mother, her hand still clinging to Helaena's tight grip.
"Laena, honey, let go of your sister. Laena, can you hear what I'm saying?" Aemma tried to call for Healena to stop, but to no avail, as Healena continued to shout her words, her voice now tinged with panic. Rhaenyra watched as their parents exchanged serious glances and Viserys nodded almost imperceptibly. Aemma pointed her wand towards Helaena.
Healena stopped screaming and went unconscious on the floor, finally letting go of Rhaenyra's hand. Room became very quiet again with only the fireplace crackling softly in the background.
****
After the incident, Helaena was taken to a nursing home for the magical incidents in Sofia and did not return even after two weeks. Every day Rhaenyra asked her parents when Helaena would return home, but they had no answer other than when she was getting better and not to worry.
Rhaenyra was not allowed to go with her parents when they went to see Helaena and Rhaenyra had to stay at home with Aemond and the house-elves. The mansion had become even more depressing and lonely since Helaena's departure, and Rhaenyra had never felt so alone before. It was raining heavily outside, so it was dark in the house, although the house-elf Jolly had lit several candles around the house. The corridors of the mansion hummed in their silence and even all the paintings seemed to have fallen asleep, with a few of the paintings emitting a quiet snore.
However, Rhaenyra's brother Aemond didn't seem to mind the depressing atmosphere in the house and seemed to have decided to be louder and more annoying than usual, which got on Rhaenyra's nerves. However, she didn't fancy moaning alone in her own room, so she stayed in the drawing room after dinner with Aemond and Jolly.
Rhaenyra sat by the fireplace on a plush red velvet sofa, staring at the dragon eggs passed down through her family's heritage, with nothing else to do. Aemond was playing an exploding snap with Jolly, in which Jolly always lost (Rhaenyra would bet with purpose) and their voices could be heard in the background while Rhaenyra was in her own thoughts. She had always had a habit of coming in from time to time to sing and whisper in Valyrian to the eggs when she was bored. The children of the whole family knew the Valyrian language, the ancient language of their family, and spoke it among themselves at home. Their mother had learned the language when she married Viserys and now spoke it fluently too. The family's house-elves were also fluent in Valyrian. The language was practically extinct and not spoken by many except the Targaryen family, but the family still had a tradition of teaching the language to their children as a memento and tribute to their family's past.
"Rhaenyra, can you play with us, pleaseeeeee..?" Aemond asked for the thousandth time during the evening. Rhaenyra scowled in irritation and didn't even turn to look at her brother.
"For the millionth time, Aemond, I don't want to play!"
"But I'm bored, pleaseeeee!" Aemond grumbled.
"I don't care about your boredom, so shut up now or I'll make you shut up!" Rhaenyra snarled back. Aemond clearly didn't flinch at the shout, but Jolly clicked her mouth in disapproval.
"Miss Rhaenyra is good and speaks to her brother in a nicer way," Jolly scolded.
"I would, if Mond wasn't such a pain in the ass all the time," Rhaenyra replied, scowling at her brother.
"Don't call me Mond and you're a pain in the ass!" Aemond shouted excitedly at his nickname, as Rhaenyra had expected. Aemond was ten years old and often a thorn in Rhaenyra's flesh. Rhaenyra was not amused by his brother's childish games and often spared for the requests to join in while Aemond played with his own friends, but this was different. Now they were not allowed to see their friends and that meant arguments between Rhaenyra and Aemond almost daily.
Rhaenyra smiled superiorly at her brother.
"How are you going to stop it...Mond," Rhaenyra grinned. Aemond predictably became furious at this and started shouting and telling Jolly to tell Rhaenyra to stop. But Rhaenyra had already gotten into the swing of bullying his brother and was annoyed by his constant nagging, so she continued despite Jolly's scolding.
"Immediately whining when you don’t get what you want, you are such a terrible wimp Mond."
Aemond's face contorted in anger and a few angry tears began to fall down his cheeks. Aemond slammed the game on the floor in front of him in anger, and then he fell behind, crying dramatically as he did so. Rhaenyra rolled her eyes at Aemond's performance, but Jolly seemed to believe it, as she went to comfort Aemond, who was crying at Rhaenyra's words.
"Miss Rhaenyra is older and can hopefully be expected to behave more maturely in the future. You are already fifteen, my dear Miss, so you cannot continue to behave in this childish manner. Your parents expect better from you," Jolly scolded Rhaenyra again in her wheezy voice. Rhaenyra shrugged her shoulders at the scolding and grinned wickedly in the direction of her brother, who was now crying even louder.
"Now you both go to bed," Jolly said in frustration to Rhaenyra and Aemond after trying to comfort Aemond for a moment to no avail. It hadn't been helped by Rhaenyra's suggestion that Aemond seemed to be faking the criyng.
Aemond finally left with Jolly in a sour mood, after Jolly threatened to tell his parents tomorrow how they had behaved. Rhaenyra just shrugged again and decided to leave the drawing room too, and was already at the door when she heard a strange whisper.
Rhaenyra turned at the door to look at the room, but it was empty, for Aemond and Jolly had gone out ahead of Rhaenyra. The candles still burned dimly, lighting the room, and the fireplace was now only a mere ember. The paintings in the room were asleep, since they had done little more than glower badly when awakened by Aemond's cries, but had already fallen back asleep.
Rhaenyra had the strangest feeling in her stomach and soon the whispering sounds were heard again. Rhaenyra spun around for a moment, looking around, but there was no one in the room. The drawing room was a large room with huge windows. Although it was reasonably dark, it was not so dark that anyone could be hiding in its shadows. Rhaenyra, however, forged every corner of the room and even lifted the heavy cushions of the sofa to see if there was anything hiding there. Nothing suspicious was found.
Rhaenyra frowned in confusion and decided that there were no sounds and she had probably just mistaken the sound of the rain for something else. After a moment, however, Rhaenyra located where the quiet sounds were coming from and was pretty sure that, like Healena, she had gone mad. There were whisper-like noises coming from the fireplace, or more precisely from the dragon's eggs, but Rhaenyra couldn't make them out, if they were even speech at all.
When Rhaenyra's gaze fell on the three eggs, she could no longer take her eyes off them
and felt very strange. She realized that she was under the influence of a spell, but she could not pull herself away from the spell. The voices were louder now, but Rhaenyra didn't know what they were. She began to feel dizzy, but her feet began to pull her closer to the fire anyway, without Rhaenyra deciding to do so herself.
Standing in front of the fireplace now, Rhaenyra crouched down and stretched her arms towards the fire, completely mesmerized. She took one of the eggs from the middle of the fire with her hands and now the sound was very loud and hurt her ears, humming frighteningly, but she had no grip on her own will and only distantly wondered if someone had put a imperius curse on her.
Rhaenyra had not heard her parents come home and call her until her father plucked an egg from her hand and groaned in pain as it burned him. As soon as the egg was out of her hand the sounds stopped and it was as if Rhaenyra had woken up from a dream.
"Rhaenyra, is everything okay? Why did you do that? You know eggs burn!" Aemma shouted at Rhaenyra, turning her hands to see and treat the burns.
Rhaenyra opened her mouth for a moment in confusion, unable to say why she had taken the egg from the fire, and then saw her mother's stunned expression as she looked at her hands and turned her own gaze to her hands. There were no marks on Rhaenyra's hands, and at first she didn't understand what was so strange about it, but then she gasped in surprise at the sight of her father's bad burns on his hands. All three stared at the hands again and finally Aemma began to heal her husband's hands, her own hands shaking lightly.
"Why did you take the egg?" Viserys sternly demanded of Rhaenyra.
"I..." Rhaenyra started, but then frowned, unable to explain what had happened. "I don't know."
Her parents exchanged worried glances, the same as a few weeks ago after Helaena's freak-out. Rhaenyra swallowed loudly, thinking that she might see her sister very soon after all, for apparently she too had gone mad.
****
In the end, her parents simply sent Rhaenyra to bed, saying they would discuss what had happened in the morning. She couldn't sleep, though, so she only laid numb in her bed in a dark room, not understanding what had just happened to her. Was this how Helaena had felt, Rhaenyra wondered, and began to miss her sister even more.
Rhaenyra didn't feel crazy, but she couldn't even explain to herself why she had taken the egg from the fire or what the noises had been. Rhaenyra raised her hands to her face, looking for burns in the dim light of the moon, but there were still none. The matter puzzled Rhaenyra, for she had held the egg in her hand much longer than her father and her father's hands were badly burned. It must have been some sort of accidental magic to protect her from being burned, but Rhaenyra couldn't remember ever doing such magic before, even with a wand, let alone without one.
Rhaenyra's quiet thoughts were interrupted when voices began to emanate from outside her room. She glanced at the clock on the wall and it showed 2:30 in the morning. She frowned in confusion. Her parents never made this much noise, let alone at night, so Aemond must have had a nightmare or something and was now his loud self.
Rhaenyra got out of bed to sit on the edge of the bed and wondered if her mother and father would come and talk to her about the earlier, if she would let them know she was awake too. After waiting a moment, Rhaenyra decided to peek into the hallway.
There was nothing to be seen and the corridor was completely dark, and now only muffled speech could be heard from downstairs.
“Close your door, girl! Quickly!” one of the paintings, her ancestors from the dark ages, commanded. She frowned confused but obeyed. Rhaenyra was closing the door to her room when she suddenly heard an agonized cry from downstairs. The hairs on the back of Rhaenyra's neck stood up as she recognised the screamer. Mum. She had never heard her mother scream like that. So just hearing the scream made her shiver with fear. Mum's scream turned into a miserable cry and something that sounded like begging, followed by a spine-chilling, evil laugh.
Rhaenyra ran out of the room despite the painting's loud commands not to go downstairs and was already on the staircase when a strange humming and heat spread around Rhaenyra, smoke trailing behind.She stopped in her tracks, frightened and confused. Before she could even decide whether to go downstairs or what she should do, she saw the fire flying and spreading in a strange shape, like a huge firery eagle, and at high speed up the staircase from downstairs, so Rhaenyra turned around and ran back into the corridor.
However, the fire now also exploded upstairs from the floor and behind her, trapping her between the fires. Rhaenyra stopped in horror. Then her heart stopped as she saw the fire engulfing the room at the end of the corridor.
"Aemond!" Rhaenyra screamed in despair as she saw the fire moving in the form of a flying beast, smashing walls and floors. Rhaenyra took off running towards Aemond's room, but didn't even make it to the door when the floor gave way under Rhaenyra's feet and Rhaenyra fell screaming into a sea of blazing fire.
****
Something tugged and gently pinched Rhaenyra's arm as she came to her senses again, and she thought at first that an owl had brought her some mail. Rhaenyra began to cough badly and felt as if she was suffocating and that her lungs were full of tar and smoke. As she sat up to cough more easily, she found her whole body aching and sore, moaning in pain between coughs.
The coughing stopped abruptly when Rhaenyra opened her eyes properly to see a small creature lying at her feet amidst the ash and smoke. Rhaenyra screamed and tried to stand up, unable to do so because of the pain. Hers and the creature's eyes met and a strange feeling spread through her.
"Dragon," Rhaenyra muttered in amazement in Valyria. And the little creature snorted, as if to reply in the affirmative. The astonishment grew even greater when Rhaenyra saw two more tiny dragons at her feet. The dragons and Rhaenyra stared at each other for a long moment, clearly unsure how to react to each other.
After a moment, Rhaenyra looked around and saw herself lying with the dragons in the midst of utter destruction. Panic came rushing into Rhaenyra's body as she remembered the monstrous fire before she had fallen and passed out.
With great effort, Rhaenyra managed to stand up while calling out to her parents and Aemond. No one responded from the smoke and rubble.
"Mum!" Rhaenyra cried out one last time, her voice breaking. Panic had turned to despair as Rhaenyra realized she was all alone in the ruins with only the dragons for company. Tears streamed from her eyes and she tried to think of the reasons why her parents had left her alone in the burning house, even though she knew they hadn't. She felt as if her brain, every time she tried to understand what had happened, refused to cooperate and went blank, denying the whole situation.
Rhaenyra started to walk, but after a moment had to turn around when three dragons started screaming after her. Unable to understand the situation or where the dragons had come from, she simply held out her hand to them and said quietly in Valyria. "Alright, you can come with me. We need to find my parents and my brother."
The dragons took it in turns to jump on Rhaenyra's arm and climbed with surprising agility along her arms to her shoulders. It was a strange sensation, with the dragons against her bare skin, which made Rhaenyra realize that she was naked among the ashen ruins. Tears streamed from Rhaenyra's eyes and despair and panic welled uncomfortably inside her. However, her brain continued to refuse to comprehend what had happened, so Rhaenyra decided to explore the smoking ruins further, just in case someone else was unconscious there. She kept calling out for her parents and Aemond as long as she could make a sound, which wasn't long because of the thick smoke.
That's how the members of Order of the Phoenix eventually found her. Wandering among the ruins of the Targaryen mansion with three dragons on her shoulders.