The Lady of (New) Avalon

"What is she doing here?"

Evans looked from Aster to Narcissa and back, obviously amused by their unintentional synchronicity. "Aster is here to make me look sane and reasonable by comparison, and also because she's nosey like that. Cissa is here because Bella doesn't think I know enough about Magical British law to call any bluffs our esteemed Headmaster might make, and also because it's good practice for that whole Lady of the Wizengamot thing."

Aster glared at Evans for characterising her tagging along to the meeting Dumbledore had demanded with her after dinner on Wednesday — almost three whole days after the Samhain ritual, which he presumably thought was long enough for Persephone's influence over Evans to have waned (ha) — as just nosiness on her point. She didn't actually say anything, though, because she was pretty sure that as far as Evans knew, it was.

She was actually here because Bella had apparently claimed guardianship over her idiot roommate and there was no point extending legal protection to someone if they had no idea what that meant. There also wasn't much point if no one else knew what it meant either, so Aster had looked it up after that "family meeting".

Apparently outside of the House, Evans would just be considered Bella's ward, not a ward of the House as a whole. Sort of like making her Evans's custos. She was personally responsible for her wellbeing and/or fuck-ups, according to the Wizengamot and the Ministry. As best Aster could tell, the House of Black kind of just collectively rolled their eyes and allowed the idea that a ward belonged to whoever had claimed them, rather than the House as a whole, to exist as a polite sort of fiction, while within the House wards were considered members of the House without a parent as an immediate authority figure, like Aster. If Evans had been a little kid, Arcturus might have made Bella her caretaker, but as far as the House was concerned Evans was already an adult, so that wasn't really necessary.

But whether they thought Evans belonged specifically to Bella or not, outsiders were still obliged to treat wards as they would any other member of the House of Black, so the House had a right to send a witness to observe any conversation between Evans and political rivals (or outright enemies) of the House (like Dumbledore), especially when the topic at hand was her relationship with Magic. That was the sort of thing you definitely didn't want an ignorant muggleborn discussing with someone who could basically sentence her to death if he got the wrong (entirely accurate) idea about her. So it had seemed like a good idea for Aster to invite herself along.

See, Aster had written to confirm that that was what Bella had done, and been told in no uncertain terms that she was to look out for Evans as if she were a younger sister which, since Evans hadn't been raised to what Bella considered a reasonable standard of paranoia, meant Aster was now in a very odd position somewhere between child-minder to a girl her own age and mentor to someone who didn't know she was supposed to be following her example. At least, she didn't think Bella had told Evans that, and Aster hadn't found a good point to bring it up yet. (She'd only gotten Bella's response last night.)

If Bella had told Evans that Aster was supposed to be looking out for her, Evans definitely didn't know what that meant either, if she'd thought she needed to invite Narcissa along. Yes, Cissy was a few months older and took the whole pureblood princess thing a lot more seriously than Aster, but Aster had been trained as the heir of the House, it wasn't like she didn't know all the relevant precedents herself. (What to do if you were accused of using high magic was actually one of the things she'd been taught about as a kid, unlike how bloody wardships worked.) And Bella knew that, she'd taught her most of it herself, which suggested she'd just told Evans something like don't talk to Dumbledore alone, and Evans had assumed Cissy would be better at making a legal argument in her defence. Which might actually be true, Cissy was arguably the better speaker of the two of them, and far less likely than Aster to get distracted and meander into obscure tangents, but it was still kind of annoying that Cissy had said yes, elbowing in on Aster's responsibilities, knowingly or not.

Unless...Bella hadn't told Cissy to treat Evans like a sister, too, had she?

It maybe wouldn't be entirely surprising if she had — Cissy and Aster had been raised as siblings, after all, but that was just... It just didn't feel right, somehow. Aster's weird position as a parentally-disowned daughter of the House was actually very similar to Evans's as a ward, so it made sense for Aster to think of her as a sister. But not Cissy. That made sense, right? Cissy (and Reg) could treat Evans like a second-marriage sister, but it wasn't Cissy's job to take care of Evans. It was Aster's. And Bella tended to be on the same page as Aster most of the time, Aster was pretty sure she wouldn't have told Cissy to treat Evans like a sister or, what, as though she were the First Daughter of the House intervening on Evans's behalf? That was even more wrong than Cissy treating Evans like a sister. If anyone was the heir to Bella's position as First Daughter and all-around pain in the arse to the adults of the House, it was Aster, not Little Miss Perfect over there!

"When did Bella say that?" Cissy asked, obviously annoyed and apparently as far out of the loop as Aster herself, which was somewhat mollifying.

"Mmm, Monday afternoon? When Aster told me I shouldn't be around people — I figured Bella and Thom didn't count."

...So she'd just gone and hunted down the Dark Lord and the Blackheart to hang out for a few hours. Not weird at all.

"Did she say anything else which might be relevant to our impending conversation?"

"Not really, she barely mentioned Dumbledore in passing, honestly. She spent more time nagging me to learn French. Come on, we're going to be late." She turned to the gargoyle statue which guarded the Headmaster's staircase. "Licorice wands." It animated and hopped aside, allowing her to lead the way past it. "We spent a lot more time talking about a magical lunar mission, and how feasible something like that would be. I mean, dealing with the vacuum and freefall and such would be easy enough, but that kind of assumes there's magic in space, and as it turns out extra-terrestrial geomancy isn't a huge field of study."

Aster snorted. "Well, it is kind of in the name — geo-mancy. What's so cool about the moon, anyway?"

Evans stopped dead to turn and stare at her, appalled. (Though the staircase kept carrying them upward, of course.) "It's the moon!"

"It's just a boring, lifeless rock. If you want to bounce around in low gravity, you can enchant a field to do that here on Earth."

"But... It's the first step toward exploring other planets, Aster! Spaceflight! Space colonies! We could live on Mars!" Aster just gave her a blank stare. "How can someone who thinks the idea of exploring other planes is as fascinating as you do not think that exploring more of our own solar system, even the entire universe, isn't fascinating?"

"Maybe because there's a cold, lifeless void between Earth and anything else? Leaving Earth is like stepping through the bloody Veil, or jumping overboard in the middle of a trans-Atlantic carpet ride. Now, maybe you don't find that conceptually terrifying, but—"

"Trixie!" Cissy snapped, cutting her off. "Lily! You can debate the merits of space exploration when we're not ten seconds from trying to convince the Chief Warlock that none of us has been meddling with Anathema magic in our spare time."

...Right. Aster shut her mouth just as they reached the landing. Evans, clearly still annoyed with her lack of enthusiasm for such a bloody mad project as visiting the moon or colonising bloody Mars — which had to be more difficult than colonising the ocean, at least the ocean was nearby — knocked sharply on the Headmaster's door.

It opened immediately to reveal Dumbledore, sitting behind his desk as he generally was, wearing a very sombre (for him) gold-trimmed navy robe (speckled with tiny golden constellations, because this was still Dumbledore) and an equally sombre frown. The sense of wisdom and welcoming and understanding which generally surrounded him (and which Aster had never really been able to trust) had been replaced by a very Arcturus-like stern disapproval (altogether more familiar, and also less, because this was Dumbledore — where were the soft smiles and offers of lemon-flavoured dew-drops?). "Miss Evans," he said, a serious note of dire warning in his tone, before realising that Aster and Cissy had followed her in. "Miss Black? And Miss Black? I don't recall inviting you to this meeting."

"The House of Black has a right and an obligation to send an adult representative to observe, advise, and mediate in any interaction between any underage member of the House—" Not that Evans was underage by internal House standards, but British law considered the age of majority to be seventeen, not fifteen. Convenient, that. "—be they wards or natural children thereof, and any figure of authority outside of the House, including Headmasters, Chief Warlocks, and Supreme Mugwumps," Narcissa informed him.

"And Narcissa's here because she's nosey like that," Aster interjected, even though her birthday wasn't for a couple more weeks. (She thought she was funny.)

Cissy glared at her. "As the eldest representative of the House of Black currently resident in the Castle, I am here to fulfill that duty of my House for both Asphodel and Asteria, who has her own business to discuss with you as the Chief Warlock."

Wait, what?! Yes, she had told Cissy that she was planning on beating Dumbledore over the head with de Mort's bloody manifesto until he agreed to negotiate a truce with them — which was, she was pretty sure, the most effective way to stop the bloodshed — but she hadn't even finished reading the stupid thing, yet! (It wasn't that long, but she kept getting side-tracked looking up political philosophy topics, not to mention trying to figure out whether House law superceded British law on issues surrounding the recognition of wards and their rights.) Cissy raised an eyebrow at her as though to say, are you telling me you can't make up some excuse for your presence here?

Which, yes, she probably could, if only to extend a formal invitation to debate the topic of political philosophy at a later date — i.e. after she finished preparing her arguments — but she certainly hadn't been planning on doing something like that today, especially since he might very well decide that there was no point in waiting, and Aster wasn't at all prepared to have that conversation today!

"Asphodel's business of course takes precedence, given that it was her presence the Chief Warlock requested here today," she deflected smoothly. "I would simply take a few moments of His Excellency's time once that business is concluded, should he be amenable to speaking with me."

Hopefully they'd get sufficiently wrapped up in that whole Lily Evans being Asphodel fucking de Mort thing that he would completely forget about it. She suspected he already thought she was just making shite up to justify being a nosey twat, beard twitching with a suppressed smile at her performance. Evans, meanwhile, was looking at her as though she couldn't quite believe Aster had just said something so ridiculous (or possibly that she'd said it so formally).

Dumbledore's eyes narrowed as he clearly decided that he'd play along with Cissy's overly-formal presentation of this discussion (which he had probably intended to be simply an opportunity to express his disapproval of Evans's forays into High Magic and unsubtly warn her of the dangers of associating with de Mort and the Dark in general). "Surely Miss Evans would prefer to have this conversation in privacy."

"No, they can stay, Professor. I don't mind. And it's way more trouble than it's worth to try to convince them their presence isn't necessary," Evans said, sounding all exasperated, as though she hadn't invited them to come along. Well, invited Cissy and informed Aster about the meeting in such a way as to ensure that she would volunteer to attend. Manipulative bitch. (On this particular occasion, she meant that in the most flattering, admiring way.) "You know how the House of Black can be about Family. Apparently Bellatrix taking an interest in me means I can't be left to muddle through a simple conversation with you on my own. Which, yes, I know your political interests are opposed, but—" She turned to Aster, on her right. "Honestly, I'm a prefect, it's not like I've never spoken to the Headmaster in private before."

Obviously she was meant to object to that. "Yeah, well, you were his — what were your words? Oh, yes, his good little poster girl for muggleborn success, before. Now, you're not even muggleborn."

Evans gave her the flattest of looks. "You've met my mum and dad, Aster." Was it not clear from Aster and Cissy referring to her as Asphodel that she was meant to use full names in formal situations? Or was she trying to underline how very muggle-raised and ignorant she was about these things? "They're about as muggle as it gets."

"I've met your foster parents. I've also met the man you, in case you've forgotten, decided to acknowledge as your father three days ago. A man whom, again, in case you've forgotten, the Chief Warlock considers to be a personal enemy and a danger to the stability and people of Britain, and whose political positions you've openly supported since you were twelve. When you were just an ignorant little muggleborn, questioning your Headmaster's politics rather than just going along blindly with the dictates of his authority was almost admirable, if a bit annoying. Thom de Mort's daughter doing the same is a threat."

"That's ridiculous," Evans said firmly, turning back to Dumbledore. "See what I mean, sir? They're completely paranoid. I mean, obviously you and I are exactly the same people as we were before Samhain."

That wasn't actually true, Aster was pretty sure Evans had actually, formally dedicated herself to Persephone during the ritual. She hadn't said anything, of course, but her magic had changed slightly. It felt deeper now, and she was obviously channelling more magic than she had before the ritual, which Aster figured was probably a gift from Kore. Her control was still very good — unusually so, maybe, for just getting a noticeable power-bump like that — but Aster could see it in the way ambient magic swirled around her.

She wondered if Dumbledore could tell.

If he could, he didn't say anything either. He cleared his throat, trying to arrange his face into an expression implying that he didn't agree one-thousand per cent with Aster's reading of the situation, as though to say, of course the Blacks are just being paranoid, my dear, I could never consider you to be a threat, what sort of terrible person would completely turn on a sixteen-year-old girl simply because she realised she was adopted. If there were even the slightest chance Evans could be turned away from de Mort's politics — or at the very least, convinced not to join him — he had to take it. And of course he wouldn't want to admit he found her talents and accomplishments less admirable now that he knew she was only muggle-raised. That was tantamount to admitting he was just as racist as Narcissa over there, albeit in a much more pro-muggleborn way.

(Manipulative fucking bitch.)

"Be that as it may, Miss Evans, it is not the revelation of your parentage which I've called you here to discuss, but the degree to which you've involved yourself in the Traditionalists' holiday observations over the past several years."

Evans bit her lower lip, looking very convincingly embarrassed about her actions leading up to the Samhain ritual. "Ah. That."

"Yes, that," the old man repeated gravely.

"I certainly hope you're not about to suggest that Traditionalist students oughtn't be allowed to build relationships and share our cultural heritage with our muggle-raised peers, Your Excellency." Aster very narrowly avoided sniggering at Narcissa's haughty impression of her mother.

"Certainly not, Miss Black. Though I do not believe my disapproval of such practices is unknown, I would hardly wish to forbid any activity which fosters greater understanding between the most deeply divided factions of our society. It would, however, behoove Traditionalist students to exercise caution in introducing muggle-raised students to the more dangerous, more volatile magics practised by families such as your own."

"It's hardly Cissy's fault, or that of any of the organisers, really, that Samhain didn't go entirely according to plan," Evans said firmly, brow furrowing in the tiniest of accusing frowns. "I don't hold any of them responsible for the ill effects I suffered when the ritual was delayed. I may have been out of line to say so at the time and in that particular company, but I stand by my claim that you shouldn't have tried to cancel the ceremony, sir. And they didn't introduce me to ritual magic, anyway—" She wasn't going to say what Aster thought she was going to say, was she? "—I was making rituals for myself long before I knew that formal wizardry existed."

Bugger.

Dumbledore blinked at her for a moment, as though he couldn't quite believe she'd just said that. Cissy, when Aster leaned around Evans to check, was giving her almost exactly the same look. "Pardon me, my dear, but did you just say..."

"...that I discovered magic long before I met Professor McGonagall, or even Sev?" Evans asked, her tone and expression almost belligerently innocent, if such a thing was possible. "Yes. If you don't want muggleborn children playing around and discovering forbidden magics for themselves, it might behoove you to introduce our families to Magical Britain and its laws when we start having accidental magic episodes, rather than simply obliviating everyone involved — and hoping we won't realise that if you wish for something, really hard, it might just...happen."

"Miss Evans," the wizard said, his face furrowing into a grave frown, "do you realise... You do know, now, that High Magic is forbidden, and why."

"I know that it is forbidden. I assume it's because you, and people like you, think it's bloody terrifying, the idea of a completely ignorant four-year-old having the same potential to cause harm and havoc as a fully-trained battlemage simply by asking her imaginary friends for favours."

Aster snorted. She couldn't help it. The little pout Evans wore while referring to Persephone and Hecate as her imaginary friends was just too funny. "Well, that and ritualists are even harder to control than the average mage. Makes you a bigger threat to the Statute of Secrecy, and civility in general."

"It's still bloody stupid to outlaw something that a little child can come up with entirely on her own."

"And it is disturbing in the extreme that you would claim such a thing, Miss Evans, particularly because extended contact with this sort of magic can cause irreparable damage to a witch's mind." Wait, what? Dumbledore actually sounded legitimately concerned, but Aster had no idea what he was talking about. "You were not entirely wrong, a moment ago, to liken the practice of high ritual to a child speaking to imaginary friends. It reinforces a childish, superstitious way of thinking about the world, projecting humanity and agency where none truly exists, and as such warps practitioners' perception of the world around them."

Oooh. That argument.

Narcissa smirked at him, while Evans tried to pick her jaw up off the ground. (Had she never actually talked to an atheist before?) "So very convenient for you, isn't it, Your Excellency, that one cannot be expected to prove a negative. I would, however, point out that dismissing our every attempt to demonstrate the existence of independent magical consciousness as the product of our desire to make such a demonstration being expressed through magic rather smacks of sticking one's fingers in one's ears and shouting nonsense in order to avoid hearing unpleasant truths. Which is, perhaps, more childish."

Dumbledore shook his head slowly, looking from one of them to the next with an expression of genuine sorrow, as though he truly wished to save them from their wrong-headed understanding of the world, but simply couldn't think how to get through to them. "I am well aware, Miss Black, that neither of us is going to convince the other that theirs is the objective truth about the nature of magic and the universe today. But we are not here to discuss abstract philosophy."

"If we're here to discuss me being possessed by Persephone, I kind of think we are. Unless you think I was faking that — I swear, I had no idea who Ariana was before Thom told me."

"Yes, but whether the figment you refer to as Persephone is an independent entity, or the product of the collective expectations of the assembled wizards projected upon the ambient magic, is not the issue at hand."

"She's not an independent entity, really, she's a particular metaphor that Magic uses to interact with humans — which, yes, is based on human stories and myths, not the other way around, but—"

"Just let it go, Asphodel," Aster advised her. "His understanding of magic is as logically consistent as the truth. There's no way to convince him he's wrong, and you're not winning any points by convincing His Excellency that you're even more of a lost cause than he thought. You were saying, sir, about the purpose of this meeting?"

"Yes, yes," Dumbledore muttered, nodding, though he still looked rather troubled. "As I was saying, Miss Evans, we are not here to discuss philosophy, but because I felt it necessary to entreat you, with all possible sincerity, to return to the path of the Light rather than to forage deeper into the shadows as you seem so intent upon doing. Your affinity for ritual magic, regardless of how natural you may think it, only serves to mislead you. I do know how...seductive, the ideals of the Dark and the practise of dark magics may seem, but pursuit of power all too often leads to the fostering of selfishness and evil in the hearts of men."

Evans glared at him. "The phrase you're looking for is absolute power corrupts absolutely. And if we're quoting aphorisms, the road to Hell is paved with good intentions, sir. And, just because I think you're wrong about how a society should function, doesn't mean that I hold any sort of desire for personal power or influence, let alone that I intend to pursue such ends."

"Also, does that mean you fancy de Mort?" All three of them turned to look at Aster — which was exactly what she'd intended, distracting Dumbledore from Evans's repeated refusal to fall in line. "I can't be the only one who was thinking that, when he said the Dark is seductive."

"No, Miss Black," he said coldly, steepling his fingers and glaring at her over his half-moon spectacles. An unsubtle legilimency probe attempted to worm its way into her mind. She let him catch the thought that Dumbledore is a terrible fucking liar before pushing him out, all the while carefully maintaining her most innnocent expression. Dumbledore, like de Mort, wouldn't admit that he was reading your mind when he really shouldn't be, even to respond to blatantly insulting thoughts — the only thing he could reasonably do was ignore it. "What I mean is that, while the immediate appeal of certain Dark principles may be readily obvious, when one considers the realities of extending those principles to their logical extremes one realises that they are problematic to maintaining a complex society. It may seem simple, for example, to allow Houses to govern themselves however they choose, working out their grievances independently, but that is precisely the reason blood feuds have historically been so common among the more prominent Houses of Britain.

"Similarly, allowing free access to knowledge regardless of the potential dangers it may be used to create seems fair and harmless — they are only books, after all! Why should anyone be judged simply for knowing a thing, if they never act on it? But people are human. Given access to such resources, some person would no doubt use them to achieve wealth and power at the expense of the innocent, subsuming lives and magic to enhance his own or coercing them into serving him. Others, in the pursuit of greater knowledge and understanding, would certainly delve into the extremes of bio-alchemic possibility, producing unnatural horrors, or even destroy the world entirely in their attempts to communicate with realms and planes beyond our own."

"Yes, perhaps," Narcissa countered, a smirk in her tone at the prospect of reiterating a very familiar argument. "But attempting to force Houses into compliance with principles they do not support, when the mandate of the Wizengamot and the Ministry arises from its members, is fundamentally hypocritical. Blood feuds are most often the product of Houses attempting to settle grievances between them with violence, but what makes the Ministry any different from another House attempting to impose its will on us with threats of violent coercion? If the House of Black were to continue to practise our traditions freely—" Not that they had ever really stopped. "—would the Department of Law Enforcement not declare us to be enemies of the people — meaning, of course, those who actually hold positions of power, not all of the citizenry of Britain, or even a majority thereof — and attempt to physically prevent our doing so? What would differentiate such an action from that of the Houses of MacRath and Gentry declaring a blood feud against us in the Sixteenth Century? The insistence of the Ministry that their own use of violence is legitimate certainly doesn't."

Dumbledore looked like he would very much like to set Cissy's hair on fire for pointing out the hypocrisy inherent in exercising Ministry authority, but he refrained. "As I am sure you are well aware, Miss Black, your House was one of those which explicitly consented to the adoption of the Statute of Secrecy and the subsequent formation of the Ministry. It is not simply the Ministry who declares their monopoly on violence to be legitimate — it is the Wizengamot as a whole, of which the House of Black is a member. You are, in effect, yourselves legitimising its laws and the enforcement thereof."

"If we were to refuse to obey them, we would be explicitly withdrawing that consent. And, in handing their power to enforce their decisions over to the Ministry, the Wizengamot as a whole de-legitimised itself. Neither they nor the Department of Law Enforcement could stop prominent members of our House from openly supporting a Dark Lord, for example — which, given that the authority of the Wizengamot originally rested on its ability to muster a military response to such threats, argues they have no right to do so. Attempting to argue that the current system is more peaceful, civilised, or effective than House or Clan -centred government is nearly as absurd as banning the dissemination of knowledge about subsumption in an effort to prevent its use. The ability of a talented legilimens to learn to subsume a soul is no more dependent on academic study than the ability of a gifted four-year-old to discover High Ritual independently."

"Also, about the interdimensional rifts, Miskatonic only accidentally breaks the world about once a century," Aster added. That was...well, not common knowledge, at least here, but they had published accounts about all three of their near-world-ending incidents. They hadn't tried to hide them. Not that she didn't think that Dumbledore kind of had a point about maybe everyone and their mum not needing to know how to poke a hole in the universe, but still, acting like if they did they'd definitely destroy the world was silly. "And they have managed to fix them every time, so no harm done, really. And the Traditional solution to out of control metaphages is to let them self-destruct by eating too many people. It's less costly in terms of lives than trying to kill them, and usually doesn't take that long." Either that or the gods would arrange for their downfall, because if anyone were to get too powerful and immortal and entrenched society would stagnate, and that would be boring — but Dumbledore was an atheist, so that probably wasn't a convincing argument.

Evans shot her a look that Aster wasn't really able to interpret, but before she could say anything, Dumbledore interrupted, glaring at the lot of them. Aster fancied there was some degree of disappointment in the expression when it turned toward her. "I will have to invite you, Miss Black, to discuss political philosophy at some later date." Oh, good. That was exactly what she had been going to suggest. Convenient. "Whether it is preferable for a society to follow Light principles or Dark, or some degree of both, is not the point at hand!"

"Isn't it?" Evans asked, apparently sincerely. "If you're worried about me being seduced by the Dark — I'm with Aster, by the way, terrible choice of words, given that you're referring to my biological father—" Dumbledore went amusingly pink. "—exactly what they believe is kind of important."

"I am not so concerned, at the moment, that you may be swayed by their political arguments as by the charisma of such figures as Thom de Mort and Bellatrix Black, unwarily drawn into the organisation they represent, to be ensnared by their Dark Lord—"

"Er, point of order? De Mort is the Dark Lord," Aster reminded him. Yes, she knew that de Mort had gone to some trouble to keep those identities separate, but she wasn't actually on his side. It wasn't like she'd never told Jamie or Charlie that before, Dumbledore should know, even if he couldn't prove it.

"No, Miss Black, you are mistaken. Thom de Mort might portray himself as Lord Voldemort to their allies, but the true architect of the Knights of Walpurgis is a man by the name of Tom Riddle."

"...Yes, he and Thom de Mort are the same person."

"I understand that there is some confusion about that," Dumbledore said, completely oblivious to the fact that the only person confused here was himself. "But this is, I assure you, intentional. Riddle and de Mort, in order to make it more difficult to attack the true power at the head of their organisation, have been encouraging it for years. But I have met Tom Riddle — I knew him when he was but a boy — and Thom de Mort is not he."

"...Yes, he has been intentionally misleading people, but—"

"Let it go, Asteria," Evans interrupted. "You're not winning any points by convincing the Headmaster you're delusional. Besides, it doesn't matter whether there's one Thom or two, he's still a charismatic bastard either way. No one's debating that."

"Yes, so you see the cause for my concern, Miss Evans."

"Er...not really, no? I mean, sure, they're fun and easy to talk to, but talking to Bella about the feasibility of putting a witch on the moon isn't really likely to sway me to their side more than reading their bloody manifesto."

"Putting a witch...on the moon?" Dumbledore repeated, as though this was far more worthy of discussion than the fact that there was a bloody manifesto. Had he already known about it too? Damn it! Why didn't anyone ever tell Aster anything?!

Evans nodded earnestly. "Do you know if there's magic in space? Because it'll be a lot simpler if there is. If not, we're going to need a lot of quartz."

The old wizard blinked at her. "Do you know, I have no idea. But like so many other questions which have arisen today, this one is entirely tangential to our purpose here. Perhaps I shall just come straight out and say it, shall I?"

"Please, do," Cissy invited him, probably almost as annoyed by the conversational rambling as Dumbledore, because Evans was almost as incapable of sticking to a topic as Aster. ...Though she might have been intentionally trying to portray herself as a harmless, flighty little girl. If so, it appeared to be working — Dumbledore could be deceived by the apparent innocence of children shockingly easily for a man who had spent about eight decades surrounded by teenagers. Even if Evans was a cheating mind mage, that still seemed awfully naïve of him.

The old wizard's grim seriousness returned as he shook off his space-magic confusion. "Mister Potter informs me, Miss Evans, that you have been practising necromancy. Outside of Sunday's ritual. He claims that you are, in fact, a necromancer."

He... He what?!

Evans gave no hint that she found the accusation alarming. In fact, she gave a sort of disgusted scoff, saying, "So what, if I won't date him, he'll accuse me of studying restricted magics? Does he even know what necromancy is? I mean, if either of us is a necromancer, you'd expect it to be him, you know, with the whole Potter-Peverell thing, but I'm pretty sure he'd never even been to the Revel before last weekend."

But...

"So you deny that you've been engaging in ritual magics outside of the holiday celebrations here at school? If I were to ask Minerva to search your room, she would find nothing to suggest otherwise?"

He'd promised he wouldn't say anything! He'd promised!

"Well she certainly wouldn't find anything that suggests I've been raising the dead. But what would you expect a ritualist to have on hand? Candles? Chalk and charcoal? Maybe a fancy letter-opener, and some potions ingredients that've strayed from their kit? Not exactly damning. I will admit that the fact that I have a diary you won't be able to open without destroying it could be construed as suspicious, but such precautions seem reasonable to me, given that I do spend a considerable amount of time in the muggle world over the course of the year, and if it were to fall into the wrong hands it would almost certainly be damaging to the Statute of Secrecy."

It didn't really matter that Evans would (apparently) be able to talk her way out of the accusation, Jamie had promised Aster that he wouldn't report her at all!

"Mister Potter seemed very convinced that the younger Miss Black believes you to be a necromancer," Dumbledore said, gesturing toward Aster with the slightest of nods. "I hardly think she should come to such a conclusion without evidence."

Aster couldn't form words at the moment, but that was fine, Evans had it under control. "I'm pretty sure she came to that conclusion because of the effects of your delaying of Sunday's ritual, professor. We've spoken about it, and— If you don't stop trying to legilimise me, I swear I'll report you."

"Asteria, are you feeling quite well?" Narcissa asked, in the awkward silence that followed, as Evans held her ground and Dumbledore refused to acknowledge that he was doing anything as skeevy as trying to read the mind of an 'underage' muggle-raised student (which was relevant because, even though she did know enough occlumency to defend herself, she couldn't be expected to, and the Light was supposed to give a shite about protecting 'children' who couldn't be expected to defend themselves).

"No. I– I need to go!" Her voice sounded strange, even to her, high and strangled.

Evans broke off her furious glaring contest with the Headmaster. "Aster? What's wrong?"

"It's— He promised! He promised me he wouldn't— If he told someone, and they actually believed him, if they tried to kill you, Bella would kill him. And– And he promised he wouldn't, but—"

"And you believed him? Dark Powers, you really are an idiot, aren't you," Narcissa said, smirking broadly at Aster's pain. "You should know better than that. The Light has no loyalty, no honour, not even a half-decent sense of self-preservation. He—"

"Shut up! Shut up, Narcissa, you fucking cunt, I-I need to– to—"

"He doesn't love you, Trixie. He doesn't even respect you."

Evans whipped around and made a valiant attempt to smack Narcissa across the face for her. Aster could have warned her that wouldn't work. She might let people hit her if she actually deserved it — that comment about Evans asking Snape to mind-rape her mum, for instance, had been a bit out of line. But Cissy never did.

She blocked the slap, giving Evans a cool, Society smile. "You really don't want to start that fight, Evans."

"You would be surprised how little that matters, Narcissa Zaniah." Cissy startled slightly at Evans using her second name to emphasise her disapproval rather than slipping back to icy, formal distance. "I'm not letting you kick Aster when she's already on the ground bleeding."

"She's– She's right, though. You think so, too, you—" Fuck, she was going to start crying. Fucking damn it! She bit the inside of her cheek until she tasted blood, trying to force herself to focus on literally anything other than Jamie's complete and utter betrayal — she had just told him how important it was to keep your promises, hadn't she?! And he just went and—

"I do, yes. That doesn't mean I'm going to let her hurt you when I'm sitting right here. What part of I take care of what's mine did you not understand?"

She couldn't do it. She couldn't sit there — she wasn't sitting, actually, she was on her feet, when had that happened? — with Evans staring at her like she could see into her fucking soul, acting like the Lady she most definitely wasn't, even though Aster had betrayed her, trying to explain what she was to Jamie, she knew that Aster had told Jamie she was a necromancer, Dumbledore had said as much, and she hadn't even blinked— She couldn't just sit there with Evans holding out her hand, offering to be everything Aster needed her to be— No, more, just, going ahead and doing it, standing up to Narcissa for her and being worthy of the respect and loyalty Jamie had just ground beneath his heel and fucking pissed on. That was even worse, in its own way, than Narcissa's I told you so's.

Because she wanted to say yes, to let Evans be her Lady, because even if she couldn't actually do a single bloody thing to protect her, she at least knew that she should. And she would, even if it meant picking a fight with Narcissa, in front of bloody Dumbledore, getting her arse kicked and damaging her own reputation, quite possibly irreparably. She would do it, because you'd be surprised how little that matters, and protecting the people you'd sworn to protect — fulfilling the vows you made to them — was what a Lord who was worthy of one's loyalty did. Aster didn't trust Evans, she didn't know if the manipulative bitch was just doing it because she knew that was what Aster would be thinking (she had told her as much, but even if that was the only reason she was doing it, it still showed she paid a hell of a lot more attention to Aster than James), but she still wanted to—

She fled.