Then, suddenly, the trunk lid popped open and Luna stuck her head in. "You called, my lord?" "Luna, do you mind me casting the imperius curse on you?" Luna beamed. "Nope!"
Slytherin grunted. "Problem solved."
Alex checked she had everything one last time, snuck out of her room, crept down the stairs, tiptoed past her Grandmother's portrait, quietly opened the front door, slipped out into the night, down the street, across the road, and into the small park where she'd first met Harry Potter over a year and a half ago. And sure enough…
"Potter." She nodded to him before turning to his companion. "Heiress Greengrass, I am Heiress Alexandra Black, of the Most Ancient and Noble House of Black, I believe we have met before."
Greengrass smiled. "Yes, I remember. And since you already know who I am, and we're all working together, I suggest we drop the formalities for tonight."
Alex hesitated. "Okay. I mean, you're the leader, after all."
Greengrass smirked. "Leader, mm? I like the sound of that." She turned to Potter. "What do you think, Harry? Does 'Leader' sound like a good title for me?"
Potter gave her an amused look. "If you like."
Alex looked back and forth between the two in front of her. Was she missing something here?
Potter then pulled out a trunk from his pocket and expanded it.
Alex eyed it with envy. She could see it had multiple compartments and must have cost a small fortune. She was the heiress of one of the wealthiest families in the country and she didn't have a trunk like that.
"All in," Potter said in a cheerful voice.
Greengrass climbed in without missing a beat and she hesitantly followed a moment later.
Halfway down the stairs, Alex did a double take. It was just like Slytherin's sitting room trunk from the Winter Festival. No, it was Slytherin's sitting room trunk. Huh. Figures it wasn't Potter's. She carefully lowered herself into the chair opposite Greengrass, mindful of the graceful way the blond carried herself.
On the table in-between them sat a small tree cutting in a pot. The trunk lid closed.
"So, Potter is our mule?" Greengrass shrugged. "I can't confirm or deny that."
She frowned. "Why not?" She suddenly felt a terrible squeezing sensation that instantly loosened again. "That's why."
Alex gaped. "That was apparition, wasn't it? Potter can't apparate! He's only a year older than me!"
They squeezed again and again she was glad she'd had dinner a while ago.
"You are correct, Black. Harry is only a year older than you. That's why suspecting he can apparate makes no sense."
They squeezed again.
"But he's doing it now!"
Greengrass smiled. "I've no idea why you'd think that."
Alex sat and stared at the future Lady Slytherin as they obviously chain apparated across the country.
After a few minutes Alex found her voice again. "You and Potter seem quite close." "We are. Although that isn't public knowledge and my lord is trusting you not to tell anyone."
Alex quickly nodded. "And Lord Slytherin doesn't… mind? You and Potter being close, I mean."
Greengrass smirked. "My lord often treats Harry as his own flesh and blood."
Alex scrunched up her face. "Wouldn't that mean that Potter is like your son?"
Greengrass's eyes widened and she let out a snort that turned into a choke when something went down the wrong way. "Huack Kuh kuh… Oh, wow, that is wrong on so many levels."
"It is?"
Greengrass mind."
waved
dismissively.
"Never
It was then that the trunk lid opened. "Alright, girls. We're here." Alex climbed out into a graveyard and in the corner stood a tree that looked older than her own house.
"Easily twice as old," Potter said when she voiced this thought. "And this is my good friend, Angelystor."
They greeted each other, and Alex couldn't help think that this ghost was far nicer than the last one she'd met. Greengrass seemed to think so too, and the two immediately hit it off, happily chatting together while Alex went about setting up the ritual.
Eventually, it was time to add the item they would be rebinding the spirit to. Potter descended into the trunk and reappeared with the tree cutting in the pot. He placed it in the centre of the ritual space and stepped back. "Okay, Alex," he said, drawing himself back to be level with her. "We're all counting on you now."
Alex swallowed and turned back to the ghost, now waiting patiently, if somewhat nervously, in the middle of the bloody deathly hallow. She closed her eyes. She could do this. She had to do this. This wasn't like what she'd done before. This time, people were relying on her. She would show them—show Lord Slytherin—show the world—what she was capable of.
Alexandra Black focused all of herself to the task at hand, raised her hands and, with steady and sure movements, slowly began the ritual.
The next morning, the Auror section of the Department of Magical Law enforcement was just getting down to the day's business. Chief Auror Lord Sirius Black jerked back an inch in response to a thick document landing on his desk.
"Updates to the search lists, Chief."
Sirius thanked the man and started perusing the parchments. There always seemed to be more and more going on these days. He flipped to the new additions section and stared.
"Blue Mask and Black Mask?" he muttered. "Wanted for questioning by the spirit division of the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures in relation to the disappearance of one Edgar Hawthorn, a ghost — twenty years dead."
The disappearance had been reported by a wizard of questionable moral character whose apparent distaste for the ministry was only just overcome by his fear of the two witches who'd twice broken into his lighthouse — although he'd refused to give the memory of the first break in.
He looked at the moving photograph, lifted from the wizard's memories. There was something hauntingly familiar about the two women's figures that Sirius couldn't quite put his finger on, but it made his palms itch and the last time that happened he'd almost ended up dead.
Disappearing ghosts? He idly chewed his quill. …Dead monster trees… He groaned. It looked like they had at least one rogue necromancer on their hands… and they weren't working alone.
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