Chapter 1
Chapter 1
It was silent. Nothing good ever comes from silence. Azalea glanced to her left at Theo before turning her attention to Nelda. She had met Nelda Longbottom on the first train ride. They were talking about plants and gardening when a lone boy came in and introduced himself as Theodore Nott. The three had instantly connected. In an instant they had formed a lifelong friendship that she would never regret.
What she would regret however is naïvely walking into a trap.
“Oh shit. Not again.” She muttered to herself underneath her breath. She reached for her left wrist and fiddled with the bracelet that will eventually hide her soulmate's name, which shows up after you meet them for the first time after you turn fourteen. The bracelet’s band was made out of Erumpent leather dyed in her house colors of Black and Burgundy, making it resistant to magic. There in the center was a piece of mithril which had the runes Algiz, Eihwaz, and Wunjo carved into it.
She turned to look at the people behind her to speak. “Guys stick together in the preassigned groups.” She ordered. There was a flurry of movement as the members of the D.A. moved. Group Alpha consisted of Nelda Longbottom, Theo Nott, Luna Lovegood, and herself. Group Bravo consisted of Susan Bones, Hannah Abott, Blaise Zabini and Daphne Greengrass. Group Charlie had Fred and George Weasley, Angela Spinett, and Katie Bell. Group Delta had Hermione Granger, Anthony Goldstein, Cho Chang, and Justin Finch-Fletchley. Group Echo who had Ginny Weasley, Hestia and Flora Carrow, and Adrian Pucey. They had left group foxtrot which had Terence Higgs, Zacharias Smith, and Padma and Parvati Patel at Hogwarts to keep track of the home base, after all only fool left their bases empty. They had also left Group Golf which consisted of Dean Thomas, Seamus Finnigan, Lavender Brown and Roger Davies to distract the teachers from noticing their absence and their potions budding potions mistress, Tracey Davis along with her assistants Su Li and Morag McDougal behind due to their positions being too valuable too loose in war time. Then there was group Hotel, this group consisted of Colin Creevey, Astoria Greengrass, Ernie MacMillan, and Michael Corner. Two members of this group were too young for combat but that’s fine, they needed a publicity focused group who crept track of any reporters who might be of use with the two older members there for the youngest protection. That leaves the last group. Group India consisted of Wayne Hopkins, Megan Jones, Terry Boot and Lisa Turpin. They were the ingredients gatherers. Their job was to go out into the Forbidden Forest and collect potion ingredients. They were to go out every night without fail to collect as much as they could.
She didn't discriminate against any of the Hogwarts houses. She had allowed members from all houses into the D.A., she hated how the other sides threw away good people for the stupid assumption that they must be evil due to being Slytherin of useless for being a Hufflepuff. To her it didn’t matter where you come from as long as you’ll have eachothers back. She didn’t even care if you were light or dark oriented after all light magic can be just as dangerous as dark. The only magic that wasn’t tolerated was black magic that affected the users mind or soul like the unforgivables. Due to this stance most of the members lean towards being grey witches or wizards. She had painstakingly raised each member up to a higher level of competency so that they weren’t trapped by the dark or light faction. She had created a grey faction with both dark light and grey members.
Now all she needed were spies. She had her eye on a few Slytherins who might turn but she wasn’t completely positive. She wouldn’t make any of the members do it. So that leaves some upper year men. The first option was Eòghan Yaxley, a sixth year Slytherin who seemed like an introvert. He kept to himself and was usually alone in the library. There was Mattaius Rookwood who oozed danger. He was a seventh year Slytherin who people steered clear of due to his cold, dark demeanor. And finally there was Alecsandair MacNair. He showed no emotion on his face. His mere presence was off putting and he always seemed to crop up when he is least expected. The problem was that all three of them were sons of high ranking death eaters, so she wasn’t sure who she could turn to their side.
“I have a bad feeling so keep your eyes out. Shoot to main. Don’t bother with the stunning spell, they won’t take anyone out of the fight. If you see neon colors duck, a shield charm won’t work against an Avada, Crucio, or Imperio. Summon things into their path if you can’t duck. Show no mercy for they will give you none.” She barked out. She knew some of these groups were not battle oriented. For instance group Bravo would be best used for espionage while group delta would be best for research and development. Group Charlie specialized in sabotage, the twins practically radiate chaos. Though group Echo were the heavy hitters, they didn’t care what it took to take down their opponents. Then there was group Golf, the demolitions group. Her group leaned towards assassination. It was for this reason she had decided to keep group Foxtrott at Hogwarts, they were the healers and defense after all. That didn’t mean that any of them weren’t good fighters. In fact all of them could now beat a seventh year not in their group with ease but none of them had been in a real battle like Azalea had.
To be honest some of their most vicious fighters might surprise you. Their best besides herself was Luna who seems to have taken a liking to fire. Then there was Nelda who looked as if she couldn’t hurt a fly but had the massive strength of her animagus form and the inclination to use bone breaking or the disemboweling curse. Theo was quickest at the draw though. He had a tendency to use the Pulmo Ferramentum to turn his opponent’s lungs into iron which kills them from asphyxiation after twenty minutes of pure agony. She had taught a lot of the members darker magic to fight with seeing as how the lighter magic was not meant to fight with.
As one the groups moved forward with Alpha leading the pack. They entered the prophecy hall only to gasp. There were hundreds of floor to ceiling length shelves packed full of prophecies.
“Groups Charlie and Delta take the left and Bravo and Echo take the right. Alpha, we got the center. If you find it, send out a patronus. Keep quiet, we don’t want to be found.” She ordered.
It took about twenty minutes of searching when Nelda found it.”Guys over here!” She exclaimed in excitement.
Azalea glided to where her friend was pointing. As she grabbed it she cast a patronus which took the form of a Honey badger while Nelda sent out her bear patronus in the opposite direction. The message was to meet in the center to regroup. And to stick to the shadows of the shelf’s to remain unseen.
With that group Alpha took off with silent strides and animal-like grace. Their animagus forms shining through. Alpha and Bravo had started the training to be animagus’ at the end of last year when Azalea revealed that Voldemort was back. Azalea got the idea when she was thinking of Sirius and what he and her dad did for Remus. Pettegrew doesn’t count, that rotten coward. It had sparked the back up plan of sneaking around as animals. After all, who is going to look for an animal when their target is human.Susan’s form is a raven they nicknamed Annan, Daphne’s form is that of a Jaguar nicknamed Agrona, Blaise’s form was that of a panther named Camulus, Hannah is a Eurasian Black bear names Andarta Luna’s form is an Eurasian eagle owl who they nicknamed Nemain, Nelda is a massive brown bear they dubbed Andraste, Theo is a cougar named Rudianos and finally Azalea’s form was a honey badger they named Badb. All of them were named after European pagan war deities. They thought it fitting after all they were child soldiers. Now that the war seems to be starting though she will start the other teams on it too. They should be able to complete the training by the end of next year hopefully.
It was about five minutes of everyone regrouping that everything went to shit. All of the sudden black mists were surrounding the young adults. Taking them by surprise. The mists soon landed behind all but one of the D.A members revealing that they were death eaters. It was too late to attack; the adults had all but Azalea held hostage. Nelda was being held by her worst nightmare with two other people she considered as monsters on either side of the demented woman with the one on the right holding Luna in a surprisingly gentle hold. The woman who was holding her let out a high pitched cackle that sounded like nails on a chalkboard. She vowed to herself that before the night was over she would at least kill Bellatrix. The blood feud that the Longbottoms invoked demanded it.
Azalea stood alone in the middle taking in her surroundings. All her comrades had wands held to their throats but she can see most of them palming their wands. All they needed was a large enough distraction to strike. All of them were calm and ready, already in a combat mindset. Then Lucius Malfoy started to walk toward her. He stopped about five paces away looking as haughty as his son.
“Did you really think that you, an insignificant child, could win against us? Against me?” His voice dripped with arrogance.
“Well you great bloody ponce I know I can fight against you. Otherwise you would have come closer. I don’t bite you know?” She said with a smirk. She could hear chuckles and snorts coming from the rest of the enemies.
“You insolent girl, how dar-“ he hissed at her before being cut off by Azalea.
“Are you here for a reason? I really don’t have time for you, being the chosen one is time consuming you know?” She said nonchalantly while looking at her nails. She blew on them and buffed them against her shirt before looking back up into his eyes. Her Occlumency got a lot better when she found a book in the restricted section; she just didn’t trust Snape enough for him to know. She felt a brush against her shield before repelling it.
“Just hand me the prophecy you twit and none of your little friends will get hurt.” He growled out in anger at the perceived insult.
“Don’t give it to them, Azalea! I’d rather die than give up info to the enemy. Whatever is in that orb is better left destroyed than used against us!” Nelda yelled out from Bellatrix’s grasp.
“Shut up you filthy blood traitor. You want to die? I can give you that!” Bellatrix screeched. But before she could do anything Nelda whipped her head back and head butted the bitch. When she took a step back with her head reeling Nelda struck. She heaved herself out of the grasp and turned towards the women using the momentum of the turn to fuel her punch. It landed with a resounding crack, breaking Bellatrix’s nose and driving it up into her brain. The witch crumpled to the floor, she was dead before she landed. Silence reigned for about two minutes. None of the Death Eaters thought that any of the children would be capable of killing yet one of the most unassuming ones killed their most fanatic members. She was one of their lords best fighters yet she was felled by a girl who was still underage.
Shaking out of his stupor Rabastan reached out and enveloped the girl, wrapping his arms around her waist and trapping her arms. To keep what happened to his sister in law from happening to him he rested his chin on her shoulder.
“Should I thank you little witch? You did just kill the most annoying person I had ever had the displeasure of meeting. I think that deserves a reward don’t you?” He whispered darkly in her ear.
“I don’t want anything you could give me you nutter!” She snarled out while struggling weakly in his grasp.
“Come now little witch you’ll hurt my feelings.” He said while rubbing his cheek against hers. His jade eyes glinted with manic amusement. His long black hair falling over her shoulder caused his scent of Egyptian musk with hints of sandalwood, bergamot, and coriander to surround her. He had his 6’3 frame pressed up against hers hard enough that she could feel his wiry muscles. He had a jogger's physique with surprisingly strong arms.
“Why would I need something from someone who tortured my parents into insanity? I definitely don’t want anything a monster who goes around torturing babies has to offer!” She ground out through clenched teeth.
“Well damn. Little Longbottom you certainly grew up well.” He said against her cheek. He had turned his face towards her to be able to look at her better.
“Yea, no thanks to you.” She grumbled irately under her breath.
She tried to tilt her head away but realized too late that it would expose her throat to him. Causing his eyes to darken as he leaned in and pressed his face into her neck and breathed in her scent of lavender, Hydrangeas and oleander. He sighed into her neck, he knew he should control himself better but for some reason he found her tantalizing. ‘I bet she tastes as good as she smells’ he thought hungrily. He started to lightly trail one hand up and down her side while keeping the other locked around her, keeping her soft frame pressed against his.
Then they heard a loud crash as Azalea threw down the Prophecy, shattering it and causing all of the death eaters to be shocked at her audacity. “Oops.” She said with an unrepentant smirk as she whipped around and hit a death eater who was holding Theo with a Cruro Madidus curse, boiling his blood from the inside. As soon as the curse hit the rest of the D.A. wrenched themselves free and scattered in their groups into the shadows. The battle had started.
Luna was the third one to take down a death eater, casting a Crematora and burning them to death instantly, all with a serene look on her face. The D.A struck from the shadows and continued to kill or main any who they caught unawares. Soon only Lucius,Rodolphus, Rabastan, Antonin, MacNair, Mulciber, Rookwood, and Theo’s dad Thorros were left.
They were too aware of their surroundings to be taken by surprises, unlike the rest they didn’t let arrogance cloud their judgment. Then the Order arrived. Sirius landed with a bang sending out bone breaking curses in all directions. Moody also landed with blasting curses flying out of his wand at a fast rate. The rest of the Order used stunning spells making them ineffectual as they usually were.
Things continued to go south as Voldemort and Dumbledore arrived making it more fan fair than the bloody battle it started out as. Everyone stopped fighting to watch the two leaders except for Azalea and Nelda who started to usher the D.A. Members out unnoticed except for two death eaters. One pair of light blue eyes locked onto Azalea while a pair of Jade burned into the back of Nelda’s head.
They made it back to Hogwarts unnoticed and snuck back into the room requirements to let group foxtrot heal them up from the nicks and singes they got from spells passing too close to them.
After they were all healed they went to their dorms. Both Azalea and Nelda changed into their night clothes and took off their bracelets.
Azalea felt herself pale drastically. There was a name on her wrist. A name she wanted no parts off at all. The name Lucius Malfoy was written in a sharp slanted cursive. She felt light headed and lost until she heard a faint scream. She ripped out of her sound dampening bed curtain and into Nelda’s.
Nelda was on her knees with her face as pale as a ghost. There were tears streaming out of her wide hazel green eyes as she stared blankly at her left wrist. As soon as Nelda started to tremble Azalea encompassed her in a tight warm hug as if to keep her grounded. Azalea had seen the name on her wrist. She knew Nelda would need her. After all, how could Nelda cope with having Rabastan Lestrange as her soulmate without a devout friend by her side.
Azalea lightly grasped Nelda’s wrist and brought her own next to it. It seemed to bring Nelda back into reality at the sign that she wasn’t alone.
“We’ll get through this together Nel!” Azalea whispered weakly. “You, me, Theo, Luna, Susan, Hannah and Blaise. We’ve been friends since the beginning and it won’t change now.” She continued. She had shifted the other girl into laying down in the bed and held her. They fell asleep like that not even twenty minutes later with tears streaming down their faces.
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Lucius slammed the door to his bedroom closed. It was the only room where he had peace anymore seeing how the ‘Dark Lord had deemed his study fit for his taking. His wife wasn’t even allowed to come into the room, not that she wanted to, after all they had a marriage of convenience not love. He loosened his tie and undid the two top buttons around his neck while walking over to the sitting room attached to the bedroom to pour himself a tumbler of whiskey. He walked over to the soft black leather couch and gingerly lowered himself into it. He took off his bracelet and cuff links and threw them onto the table before going to push his hair back. His hand paused right before his hair. There on his wrist was a marking. He had thought he would never meet his bonded after he turned twenty and no mark showed up. There on his wrist was a name written in a sharp slanted cursive, the name Azalea Dorea Potter. It was both a blessing and a curse. If the dark lord found out then he was dead but he finally had a soulmate. His soulmate and he wouldn’t let her fight it. He would make her his no matter what it took, after all no one else matters. His wife was his in name only and his son was all Narcissa. She wouldn’t allow him near Draco as a child in fear that she would lose any power she had over him but it backfired. He had no need for either of them now. He needed a plan though. He would not approach her without one or he might end up dead, after all he has tried to kill her before but that’s inconsequential. He finished his whiskey before standing up to change into his night clothes. It was late and he thought better with a good night of rest.
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Rabastan had just made it back to Lestrange manor with his brother Rodolphus. They were out at a pub celebrating Bella’s death. Rodolphus had been forced to marry her after Andromeda had found her soulmate and eloped. Their father wanted an alliance with the Blacks and Roddy had paid the price. She had dragged both brothers down the path of insanity. Only she was completely unstable while the two Lestrange men were just slightly unhinged.
They were finally free though. Thanks to a little slip of a girl who stood at only 5’5. Rabastan thought back on her fondly. She had glistening honey colored hair that went to her waist in gentle waves with soft upturned hazel green eyes and a heart shaped face. She looked so soft. God she felt soft. It felt as if he could break her in an instant, yet in one hit she had killed his wretched sister in law. The fire in her eyes was addictive. He wanted more, needed more. He had felt how soft her skin was when he had his face pressed up against hers and her neck. He could still smell her scent mingling with his own scent on his clothes. It sent a rush of possessive hunger down his spine.
He went to the green parlor with his brother trailing behind him and poured two glasses of single malt scotch and handed one to Rodolphus. He rolled up his sleeves and noticed something underneath the bracelet on his left wrist.
“Roddy.. “ he trailed off. When his brother didn’t acknowledge him he called louder. “Rodolphus are you too old that you can’t hear me call you name?” He snarled at his brother.
“I’m only 38 Rabastan. Not too old that I can’t whoop your ass little brother. Now what do you want.” His older brother's voice came out in a low rumble.
“I think I have a name under my soulmate band.” He told the older man.
“What let me see! This is great news! Let me see. Come on now off with it.” Rodolphus demanded.
“Okay, okay I’ll take it off.” He told him while undoing the clasp only to stop dead in his tracts as the name revealed itself to him. There on his wrist was the name Nelda Aveline Longbottom.
It took a minute before his jade eyes blazed with victory. He would have his little witch. He would have her in his manor, his greenhouse, and in his bed. He would make sure of it.
Next to him his brother shifted then clasped his shoulder. “Good luck with that one boy. Make sure she doesn’t kill you like she did Bella you’ll have a lot of groveling to do after all you took part in her parents torture with Bella and I along with Barty. Plus we did hit her a couple times with the crucio too.” He told the younger man.
“Don’t call me boy, I'm only seven years younger than you. Besides, she is my soulmate. I don’t care what I have to do to have her. She is mine. Mine. No one else will have her. She will learn to love me.” He growled out possessively, a savage look in his jade orbs. Then cocked his head in thought before zeroing his eyes on his brother's wrist. “Check your wrist brother. There were a lot of people at the ministry that we just met and weren't you holding onto the wispy blonde.” He said lowly.
“Fine but I doubt there is anything there.” He sighed out before reaching for his bracelet. As soon as he unbuckled it he froze, the bracelet sliding out of his unresponsive fingers. He couldn’t believe it. There on his wrist in loopy elegant cursive was the name Luna Pandora Lovegood. Damn. He remembered Xenophillius Lovegood from school. The blonde he held at the Ministry could pass as his twin but with a more fae like build.
“Her father is going to kill me. She looked like she had just turned fourteen. Shit I’m a dead man.” Rodolphus groaned out. He had a faint smile on his face as he spoke. He won’t be alone anymore though. They won’t separate soulmates for long. That fact alone made tension slip out of his shoulders. If he ended up in Azkaban they could only hold him for up to six months if the soulmate is on the outside.
He had a feeling that his little soulmate was going to be as hard to catch as the wind that seemed to continuously play around with her hair. He reached out and ran his fingers through his sleek black hair. A dark look flashed across his seafoam green eyes as a savage smile spread on his lips. He was the best tracker in his lords service for a good reason. He always loved a good chase.