Chapter 51
*****
“How’s our littlest doing?” Arianna asked as she snuck back into the Room of Lost and Hidden Things, pulling the cloak off as she went.
These little trips to visit Regulus were getting old fast because of all the precautions she had to use to keep hidden, but she always loved seeing her youngest uncle. Not only was he snarky, but he loved visitors so he could show off his discoveries in the Chamber. So far, aside from the hidden library, he’d discovered a small armory, a magically reinforced bunker, and a few new passages out of the castle. Likely escape tunnels, if their theories proved accurate. After all, the castle was built in times that would be necessary.
And Regulus loved getting a distraction from the decreasing time he’d be pregnant. He never said anything, but she suspected he was a bit terrified to give birth. While Severus was with him as much as he could be, the truth remained that Dumbledore had deliberately hidden Regulus away and somehow convinced his own mother to lock him in his own body, frozen for years, to prevent the baby from being born. A woman that was so devoted to the Dark Lord that she gladly handed over her youngest and best shot at continuing the Black family. While Arianna would NEVER condone the woman, she suspected there may have been manipulations going on beyond simple insanity. Therefore, she couldn’t fault Regulus from being wary. He did live in the bowels of the castle currently lorded over by an equally unstable man.
She would have to make sure he was out of the castle as quickly as possible, even if it meant faking Severus’ death so he could leave. Separating them just wasn’t a good idea. Not with the bond and the history the two had. While the pregnancy had been saved, it didn’t mean it wasn’t a risk to strain the soul bond. Hence the Slytherdor hidden and visits as much as should could manage around cleaning out Helga Hufflepuff’s legacy room, spending time with her little brother and his menaces, Harry’s defense lessons, sneaking tutors into the school, dates with Charlie, and her own mischief. At least the baby was progressing well and her Emrys ring advised the kid would be pretty powerful, what with ten extra years in the womb and all the magic Regulus had been around, both in his magical coma and the months he’d spent harvesting an ancient basilisk in an even more ancient magical school.
She just loved coming back to Charlie and the two sickest owls, though. The other two had gone to Narcissa to nest in the owlry in the Den with the other owls they kept for anyone to use.
“Almost completely healed,” Charlie said with a laugh, holding out the little owl that had almost died. It hooted at her before fluttering over to her shoulder, cooing into her ear excitedly.
“I see he’s healthy enough to fly,” she said with a laugh, petting the soft feathers with a smile.
“They both are,” Charlie said with his own chuckle, catching the large fish own on his arm when she flew in from the window Hogwarts had created to the outside. “She’s been hunting since you left to visit Regulus and from the sounds of excited hooting I could hear, Pig joined her the moment she left the window.”
“Then I guess the question is, do we keep them or give them to a deserving student?”
The hissing from the larger owl was answer enough for Arianna and she smiled gently at the female, offering bribes of meat strips some of the elves who knew who she was had offered for her pets when she’d swung by the kitchens on her way back. Only after twenty minutes and a chastising hoot from a visiting Hedwig got the owl to calm enough to take some of the meat.
“Well, I guess that answers that,” Charlie said when the owl was ripping up the latest meat slice.
“We’ll need to look into a few pen pals,” Arianna joked. “I don’t send enough letters for three owls…”
“I’ll take this beautiful lady,” Charlie denied. “I’ve got brothers to talk to and they send me about a letter a week each as it is. The message boxes are great, but we’re still too used to letters delivered by owl. Also, it keeps Mum from getting suspicious when we write by owl. I’ll figure out a name when I’ve arranged to ‘buy’ her when Molly’s around so she is even more out of the loop.”
“Well, then, little one, looks like you’ll be hanging with me and Archimedes, then. So, name, then…. Hmmm. If I remember correctly, Malfoy Jr. has Loki. And didn’t Percy name his Hermes?” Charlie nodded. “Well, I’m all for gods and goddesses. But you’re too cute and small to be Zeus or Thor… How about Mercury? We’ll go Roman.”
The little owl hooted excitedly and Arianna smiled. “Welcome to the family, little Mercury. Hedwig can show you to the owlry here and I’ll take you with me when I go back to the Den. I have a feeling that’s just too far a trip for you right now. You’ll love the other owls there. My family uses them for plotting!”
“And when will you be heading back?” Charlie asked with a chuckle at her dramatics.
Arianna gave a sigh. She really didn’t want to go back, enjoying her time in Hogwarts, with her brother and her new suitor far too much to want to give it up to go back to war…. But it was time. The room was as clear as she could get it and her Sirius-imposed isolation was over now that the goblins had made known their control of the Prophet. She had definitely not giggled like a maniac when the first addition of the publication had come out after the hostile takeover, the headline simply that the Prophet would be issuing retractions in a special addition once all incidents were investigated appropriately. The rest of the paper had featured various listings of current affairs as deemed important by goblins. It had been dry and business focused and nothing like the usual gossip rag it had devolved into but she had no doubt that’s because Ragnok had gleefully fired almost the whole staff due to incompetence. The entire thing had been written by goblins…
She was looking forward to the special edition. It had been two weeks and nothing yet. So she had a feeling it would be more of a book than a newspaper. But it was progress and she would never argue that.
And she and Charlie had made their own progress.
The almost empty room around her was testament to that.
All the furniture was repaired and sent to various locations. Some even remained in the castle, squirreled away in newly discovered study nooks or in the Chamber to make Regulus’ life a bit easier. Severus had taken one look at a particularly grand armchair and instantly claimed it. For the most part, it was similar chairs, tables, and sofas. Once or twice there were interesting pieces and she’d sent more than one piece to the Den to be used elsewhere. The long bar had perhaps been both a surprise and not, but it was on its way to a storefront she had in mind for a pair of menaces she knew. And then there were the pieces that shouldn’t be in a castle, let alone her castle. Like the broken Vanishing Cabinet tucked away behind a pile of trunks. Ron had been confused when the pair of adults had started cursing as soon as they saw it, but Hermione explained how it was a way through the wards before Arianna could calm down. A quick bit of very controlled fiendfyre had the wood smoke before Charlie was coherent.
The salvageable and appropriate books were all packed in trunks, ready for Hogwarts to move them to the receiving area of Madam Pince’s office with a note penned by a dicta quill explaining that they were an anonymous donation for the famous Hogwarts library with the condition that all the books must be included in library, regardless of content, with a specific list of ones to include in restricted section due to danger of spells/potions. A number were lost textbooks for all the current subjects, as well as a few from classes no longer offered, as it wouldn’t hurt for the school to have some extras in case a student wasn’t able to afford one or one was misplaced. Apparently, it had already happened with alarming frequency. That many of the books should have been in there already but had been removed over the years by Dumbledore was not included in the note, but the mild cleanser on the parchment should get Pince to question it. Arianna also may have included a short post script suggesting Pince ask for Hermione’s help cataloguing the tombs, since she obviously loved books just as much as the stern librarian. Who knows? Maybe they would bond over horror stories of dogeared pages and coffee stains...
All the brooms had been repaired as well, thanks to Charlie’s and Ron’s spectacularly expansive knowledge of their favorite sport and the charms and spells needed for proper broom upkeep, and many were set to be sent back to Hogwarts in a few more months, to replace and expand the school’s collection of them. Any that had hexes or jinxes on them would be going to the goblins first, since Arianna had removed what she could but some of them were obvious family magic and beyond anyone else’s capabilities.
Narcissa’s progress reports on the animals were promising and Arianna had asked one of her elves to ferry some supplies from the Room to the Lady Malfoy to help further. It would appear they’d been in time for almost all the creatures. So far, only one snake, a pair of gerbils, and a lone toad had succumb to the harsh neglect since they’d rescued the forgotten pets. The rest were responding well to treatment and Narcissa often gushed about the tiny white Jaarvi that had come over. Apparently, the little ferret like creature had the mouth of a Scottish sailor and little patience for stupid, so it absolutely loved Narcissa. Arianna suspected the little one would be going home with the Malfoy matriarch when she finally went back to the Manor. She could almost picture the lessons the little one would get on proper swearing and just who it should grace with its talents in a public setting. The other creatures would be either getting new homes with responsible children, or stick around the Den, with Arianna and her family. Regulus had offered to take on all the snakes and Arianna was not shocked in the least. Nor that he was adamant, even after finding out that some of them were poisonous. They’d already been settled in a large group of enclosures in the suite of rooms she’d set aside for the man and his family
Even Harry had expressed interest in taking one of the snakes. Again, Arianna was not shocked.
Parselmouths tended to be drawn to the creatures, after all.
The wands were slated to be sent to Gregorovitch and Wolfe so they could be assessed and possibly donated to the two to resell, but Arianna didn’t want to just hand them all over if a deal could be made or the wands were from families that had a tradition like the Potters. Some families buried wands with their owners. Some destroyed them. The Potters stored them. And she was sure others did as well.
The rest was typical detritus from a thousand years of students and professors trying to hide things they weren’t supposed to have. Anything explicit was packed away quickly, the photos burned. Arianna would not admit to her plans to douse the rest in Muggle bleach, magical scourging charms, and then send it off to the more questionable investments her holdings included to be sold. Charlie didn’t need to know that and it would take a dragon rampage for her to have that conversation with the teenagers. She fully planned on making Remus have that Conversation with Harry. And soon, if the looks he and the twins shared were any indication. She was his sister, not his parent and there was not a force in the world that would get her to have the sex talk with her little brother. Nope. Never happening. And Sirius couldn’t be trusted to be honest… Or overshare…
Anything not any of those things was organized, repaired, and slated to either be stored for whenever a student needed it, such as the literal thousands of perfectly usable quills, or stored in one of the hundreds of trunks, shrunk and quickly stashed in the expanded bag she’d brought. She’d finally had to cast a Featherweight on it as well, so she could lift the cursed thing, and it waited for her by the door, innocent looking for all the myriad items it held.
But there were two items she kept on her. One was a goblin made box containing a diadem she had suspicions about. It extruded black magic so heavily she’d had to contain it before it could infect her. Hogwarts herself had shuddered when the taint was contained, before thanking her profusely. Arianna worried it contained another Horcrux, putting Voldemort up to three known. With his obsession with magical theory and pureblood traditions, she had no doubt he’d stopped at a magically important number and three just didn’t seem to ring true. So they would need to keep an eye out for more…. The diadem looked old, too, so if there was a way to save it, she’d do her best. Even without knowing its origin, anything that ancient was probably significant, even if it was simply muggle.
And then there was the present she had for the goblins. That particular trunk was shrunk and kept on a chain on her neck, next to the ward necklace. She would ensure it got to its intended destination if it killed her.
So, with all of that in mind, she thought about Charlie’s question and looked around the startlingly empty space. The Room of Lost and Hidden Things was still as large as it had been when they’d started, stretched far into the distance with doors leading off it periodically. It was massive and she hoped Hogwarts was right that with the removal of so much stuff, her extremely stretched magic would adjust to the lack of need and the room would shrink down again to the only the needed space for the excess school supplies. Hogwarts had made sure to explain just why she was so eager to get the room taken care of and Arianna couldn’t fault her. If most of her magic was taken up maintaining such a large space, she’d have some quirky staircases and missing outbuildings too. She’d have to warn Harry to keep an eye out once she left.
“As much as I have loved this little break, and it was sorely needed, I’ll need to be heading back soon,” she finally admitted. “Artair is going to kill me for leaving their protection for so long anyway. The only way I could convince him to let me was explaining the wards around here and how they obeyed me, not Dumbledore. I may have overplayed their strength to begin with, but a month of slowly undoing the hurtful spells when we’re taking a break and the ritual Harry and I did as Founders’ Heads to reapply some of them has them back to actual protective strength. There’s also Wizengamot meeting next week to follow up on the protections against false imprisonment I proposed last time, along with anything new that was brought up in the meantime. I also want to try again to talk about the Creature Laws. We sort of touched on them, but honestly, it was in the middle of one of my rants and I think it was glossed over in favor of shock that I ranted at them…”
Charlie laughed at that, but nodded, coming up to stand behind her as she stared into the depths of Hogwarts. He wrapped arms around her waist and rested his chin on her head, ignoring her huff of annoyance that he was so tall. It was an old rant at this point.
“So, when do you think it’ll shrink down?” he asked.
“When you stop trying to smoothly get your hand down my pants,” she deadpanned, causing him to freeze, said hand just brushing the edges of her pants. “But if you mean the Room, then as soon as we leave the room with the trunks.”
Charlie laughed sheepishly, pulling his hands back to just hold her. She smiled and wrapped her arms around his, holding him to her.
“I’m going to miss having you basically to myself,” he muttered.
“Me too, Charlie,” she whispered. “But I can’t in good conscious leave things be. My brother is in danger and I can’t let that stand.”
“I can’t either,” Charlie said. “I just wish it wasn’t so hard. If we didn’t have to worry about medical potions and spells, I’d say just throw a country wide ward up that will cleanse everyone contained within then let them sort it all out, but as far as I know, a ward like that doesn’t discriminate…”
“And it takes far more magicals than we have in the Fidelius currently,” Arianna pointed out, channeling the information Merlin was passing to her through his ring. “And the cooperation of more than a few magical beings, some of which fled Britain generations ago in response to those damn Creature Laws…”
“Well, you’re already working on that,” Charlie pointed out.
“Yeah, but it’s going to be slow going and only a small portion of the problems Magical Britain has at the moment. Without taking on the monarchy, which in and of itself would be a disaster since it’s been so long, I can only propose changes and then work to gain support.”
“I don’t think that’s going to be a problem,” Charlie said, pressing a kiss to her neck and tightening his arms around her waist gently.
“Not everyone is you, dear dragon handler,” she said with a smirk. “Speaking of, I haven’t let Adaya out since Gringotts. Shall we take advantage of this giant space before Hogwarts readjusts?”
“Sounds interesting,” Charlie agreed, stepping away to give her room.
She turned, smiling at him, before she reached for the depth of magic she barely remembered touching last time. She hadn’t done this consciously yet, only really talked to her Animagus when in deep meditation. Yet when she poked the ball of magic deep in her core, she felt the change take over easily. Felt as her muscles lengthened, her bones snapped to their new positions and grew, her wings burst through her back, her nose lengthen and her teeth sharpen. Within moments, she crashed to her forepaws when she could no longer stand on two legs. Her tail whipped into existence and she took a conscious effort to avoid hitting any of the newly arranged school supplies. But in avoiding the well packed trunks, she accidently hit Charlie. He grunted as the tail hit solidly into his stomach, almost launching him across the room. It would have if he’d not grabbed hold instead.
Adaya couldn’t resist and lifted her tail to her face, chuckling at the wizard currently dangling from it and staring at her in fear and awe. She knew she sounded quite fearsome. After all, the wrong breath, a good sneeze, and he’d be crystalized with her crimson fire, but she’d never hurt her mate. Also, a dragon chuckling is hard to tell from a dragon growling. As evidenced by Charlie’s white face, his freckles standing out more prominently.
“Relax, young mate,” she grumbled at him, lowering him after a moment so he could put his feet on the stones.
“I’m not yet fluent in Dragon, love,” he grumbled back, rallying his Gryffindor courage with his years of experience with large beasts. “Tharos was annoyed I wasn’t picking up on it so we focused on other things.”
Adaya studied him a moment before sighing and focusing on her vocal cords. Tharos had described the process he used once upon a time, but she’d never attempted it and now she was eager to see if it would work. Eventually, she felt the muscles in her neck shifting to do what she wanted and she rumbled in pleasure.
“Old man will teach my mate,” she grumbled, pulling Charlie closer to her snout so she could take in the intoxicating scent that was purely his. A scent that she loved and couldn’t get enough of, regardless of the form she was in.
“Arianna?” Charlie questioned. She could smell his shock and she rumbled again, laughing at her little mate.
“Adaya, little one,” she corrected, poking his stomach even as he kept tight hold of her tail still. “Adaya is dragon form. Arianna is human.”
“Ah,” he said with a short nod, accepting the correction almost numbly. “Any chance Adaya could put me down now?”
Adaya laughed again, but complied, lowering her tail until his feet touched the ancient stones below them.
“You are a good mate,” she rumbled, nosing him as soon as he had his balance. “Very protective and intelligent.”
“Mate?” Charlie squeaked.
She hummed in agreement, pushing farther into him when his fingers trailed over her scales. That felt good! Then he started scratching and she crouched close, curling around him and churring happily. The stones shook with her pleasure and Charlie just laughed as she acted like an overgrown cat.
Eventually, he started climbing all over her, checking scales and horns and delicately examining her wings. She allowed it as this was the first time she’d spent any large amount of time in her scales and it felt far too good for her to protest. Even Hogwarts seemed amused at the amount of purring she was doing, though.
The stones around and beneath hummed back to her and Charlie quickly found all the tools he needed to measure her, brush her scales, and wipe down the thin membranes that made up her wings. He even braved her ire to brush her teeth, chuckling when she tried to lick him for it afterwards. But he was surprisingly nimble and dodged away, making her wonder just how many times he’d tried similar with other dragons and hadn’t succeeded. Then she growled a bit at the thought of other dragons trying to eat her mate. Charlie seemed to sense it, though, as he then spent a nice hour just rubbing her face and neck, telling her all about the progress they’d made on the sanctuary. Apparently, they were almost done and all the creatures were taking to their islands eagerly. The unicorns had already established a grazing area and allowed a pair of handlers to touch them. The Hydra had stopped trying to bite their pair of handlers. And a dozen different stories. They also talked of the dozens of applications for new handlers, as word was getting around despite their greatest efforts. It seemed it wasn’t possible to move hundreds of magical animals to a newly established sanctuary in the Mediterranean in secret.
But she didn’t mind. Her treasures would be safe now, and cared for.
Finally, after her iridescent scales positively gleamed and Charlie was just absently rubbing the delicate scales around her nose, the door opened and had her stiffening in surprise. Until her little clutchmate’s twins stepped through.
The older one squeaked in surprise and Adaya rumbled in amusement when she confirmed they weren’t in danger.
“Charlie?” the other called, wary. Good little mates. Wary of the great beast.
“Relax,” he called down softly from where he lounged on her back. She had curled around herself to allow him the perch while still having access to her nose and it was strangely comfortable. “She’s herself. Well, as much as any magical is when in Animagus form.”
She growled a little at that and blew a bit of smoke in his face in retaliation.
The twins laughed while he sputtered in protest.
“You’re heading out soon, then?” Fred asked.
“Yes,” she rumbled in agreement. Fred seemed surprised for a moment at the English words from her dragon mouth, but then just shrugged and nodded.
“You’ll still visit, though, right?” George asked almost desperately.
“It’s just, Harry,”
“Hasn’t been as relaxed this year,”
“As he’s been since you started staying,”
“And cleaning out the Room,” they ended in unison.
Adaya growled at the renewed concern for her clutchmate, but knew she had other problems to burn first. Harry had survived at school on his own for years and as much as the old meddler annoyed her, he needed the boy alive. But she could promise one thing and not break it.
“I will visit as often as I can,” she said, then nudged Charlie pointedly.
“Oh, fine,” he grumbled, slipping over her side to fall gracefully to the ground. Then he backed away, tools provided by the room clutched in his hands.
She gave him one last nudge with her massive head, then allowed herself to shift back. It was an odd process, but she felt it went smoother this time. Hopefully, it would get easier as she did it more. And she’d still have to get Newt to examine Adaya to make sure nothing was wrong and she was healthy enough to keep shifting. The split in her mental connection to her Animagus was mildly concerning, but since they agreed on everything, Arianna wasn’t in a rush to correct it. However, she was in a rush to catch herself when she was back on two legs.
“Woah,” she muttered, glad Charlie had quick reflexes. “Head rush.”
And exhaustion, if she was honest. She could feel the links to her elves suddenly taunt and had a feeling being Adaya provided a better bond to the little ones. Looking at those books was now a priority. She couldn’t be exhausted after transforming every time and she couldn’t risk her elves. Not if she ever wanted to use her dragon in battle. She’d be stuck until the threat was gone.
“You sure you want to go back now? Why not rest up and let me call for Artair?” Charlie offered. “At least let me escort you back.”
“No,” she denied, pushing him away and testing her balance. It returned as quickly as it had left her. At least she seemed to adjust quickly. “You have brothers to say good-bye to and I do not need Artair and the other over protective guards stalking me to walk to the edge of Hogwarts and apparate home. Seriously, Charlie, I’ll be fine!”
“And what about Harry?” Fred demanded.
“I said good-bye to him on the way back from visiting and saying it to Regulus,” Arianna explained. “I just had to make sure everything was actually completed and the bag was ready to go,” she said, making her way to the said bag, sitting innocently by the door in a messy pile of leather. It would be almost impossible to tell it held a thousand years’ worth of items lost in a magical castle as she swung the strap easily over her shoulder.
“And we said our farewells already,” Hogwarts felt the need to add. “I will look after the young Heir, Lady. And Wit and Wile, our menaces.”
Arianna chuckled at that but Fred and George just looked awed that the castle they lived in had taken up her nickname for them.
“See, all handled,” she said, smugly grinning at Charlie. He just crossed his arms and shook his head in exasperation.
“Fine, then, get going, milady. I have brothers to terrorize one more time,” he said.
She laughed at the slightly worried glances Fred and George shared, before she danced over to her suitor and pressed a kiss to his cheek.
“Remember, dear,” she said as she made her way to the door. “They need all their body parts. Harry’s rather attached and I’m sure he’d like kids at some point. So no lasting damage.”
“Arianna!?” the pair protested, quickly backing away from their older brother’s manic smile and towards the door she currently stood in front of.
She laughed before darting out and slamming the door closed behind her, casting a disillusionment charm just as quickly. The silencing and scent removal spells followed quickly in an almost unconscious routine at this point.
She was still chuckling when she hid the family cloak in a little recess no one but they knew about, where she’d told Harry she’d leave it.
Then she made her way out of the castle she loved, patting bricks as she went and smiling gently at the gentle humming of the magic around her. Hogwarts certainly had her own personality and was very happy as she continued to wake. It was a slow process and she was getting anxious that she was unable to fully care for those in her halls, but she was thrilled to have her Lord and Lady in residence. She was a bit sad that Arianna had to leave for a while, she was still happy Arianna was alive and connected to her. Enough that Arianna could feel it in the air. Even the staircases moved to help her out, much to the confusion of some of the students still wandering around. Dancing around the little first years as they rode the staircase exactly where they’d meant to go was both habit and a fun exercise in stealth. She could see the confusion in their faces but she was just happy their theory was right. Now that Hogwarts could reduce the amount of magic she’d put into the massively expanded room, she would have magic to put to other areas that had suffered. Like the extended delay in the stairs. But really, how was anyone to know that the stairs moved to where the user needed them, but because of the lack of magic, they were in fact several hours or days behind?
Yet, no longer. And she was impressed with the castle catching up so quickly. She was sure to give a few extra pats to stones on her way out, just to let the castle know without dropping her charms. She looked forward to whatever else Harry and his friends discovered in the school over the next few weeks as Hogwarts adjusted.
She made her way to the edge of the wards, adding them to her list to finish fixing eventually. At least she and Harry’d managed to take away some of the harmful curses woven in. She couldn’t risk changing too much, since Dumbledore could still sense them, even if they’d no longer respond to him, but she would be back to fully update them soon. Maybe at Yule, while Dumbledore would no doubt be trying something with his precious Order again. The fact that he’d been mostly quiet was a bit disconcerting, but she would deal with it, whatever he was up to.
So wrapped up in her thoughts, she didn’t notice the figures cloaked in black that stood just on the other side of the wards where she was exiting until the spells started flying. Then, all she could think was counter spells and trying to get back through the line.
She dodged a spell, felt another hit the bag, ducked under a third, and spun into a curse that hit her protective dragonhide armor without hurting her. She allowed a knife to drop into her hand from its hidden sheath and managed to hit one of the men while spinning to avoid another spell. But they were determined and she was exhausted. Her movements were slowing quickly and it was a miracle she managed to get the bag full of wands and moneys and weapons back through the line. The last thing the Dark Lord needed was more of an edge in this war. Then again, as black took her from a well-placed stunner, he might just have managed it if she couldn’t escape.