107"You did what?" Alya screeched "He did what?" she screamed again turning to Blaise.
"You got it the first time, I'm not repeating all that" Draco drawled sitting cross legged on the foot of her bed while she was standing on her knees looking torn between bashing her head against a wall, smothering herself with a pillow or cursing him to oblivion. He personally liked the first two options better, her curses fucking hurt.
"You will die a slow and painful death, Draco Malfoy" she warned him
"I was afraid so. In the meantime why don't you try to win the bet and show your father where to stick it?" he suggested
"Oh, I will. That he has the gall to doubt me after having seen what I'm capable of is nothing but an insult" she said fuming "I'll make him beg on his knees to call him daddy"
Blaise pressed a fist against his mouth to stifle his laughter. His little kitten was a real spitfire.
"Yeah, yeah" Draco waved her off "Now start planning. I'll not have my perfect skin marred by that ugly tattoo" he proclaimed
"How cute" Blaise teased him
"If I liked tattoos I would go for something of more taste" he sniffed
"Sure. But then you'd be afraid of needles"
"What needles?"
"Muggle tattoos are done with needles, don't you know? Magical ones too. They use special inks that are sensitive to magic though and it's only after the tattoo it's done that they charm it to be brighter, everlasting and if you want to move or sparkle or whatever"
"How do you know?" the blond asked suspiciously. Surely wizards had less brutish ways to mark their skin?
"I had one done of course"
"You do?" the cousins asked together
"Yeah. I got my first for my fifteenth birthday and I'm planning another for my seventeenth" he answered casually
"What is it?" "Does it hurt?" "Where is it?" the two asked
Blaise arched an eyebrow amused "The family crest, depends on your pain tolerance and one of you will never see" The last part made Alya blush brightly and Draco scowl, much to his enjoyment.
"Enough of that" Draco said "Get your head out of the gutter and think about world domination!"
"Oi!" she complained "My head was not in the gutter"
"Of course not. As if you weren't mentally undressing Blaise trying to guess where his tattoo is" he said drily
She huffed and accioed a note pad and pen, ready to write a list of what she wanted to accomplish in that year and how to do it. Draco tried to read peering from the top, but she swatted his head away, still offended by his assumptions. That they were true or less it was another matter altogether.
The next morning all was quiet at breakfast. Lucius was still glaring daggers at her but either he was tired of losing their verbal sparring or someone, i.e. Narcissa, had warned him into silence.
Alya was unaffected though, she was full of ideas and excited to start implementing them after the previous night. Biting into a moist croissant, how she loved house elves, they had made the treats especially for her since she acquired a preference for them during her stay in Italy; she looked around the table, mentally debating her schedule for the day.
Finally reaching a decision she spoke "Rodophus, Rabastan; If you can join me in the infirmary after breakfast I'd like to take a look at you. The more you wait the longer your recovery time will be, not to mention difficult. We already have a decade of prison to deal with."
"Do we have to?" Rabastan whined like a child.
"Yes" she deadpanned "Or you prefer keeping company to Bella?" strangely enough she had not seen hair or hide of the woman since the second day of her stay. Was she so deadly afraid of her? She sure hoped so.
"I'll come" the man was quick to agree
"Good. Also, Fenrir, could I have some samples of your blood?"
"Depends. What do you plan to do with it?" he asked frowning. He was all for helping the little lady, but blood was blood. Too many things could be done with a person's blood, many of them not pleasant or legal.
"Oh, I just want to run some tests. I want to improve the wolfsbane or make a completely new potion that works better. I need to see how your blood reacts to it and other substances first and maybe try to isolate the werewolf gene." She rattled excited "Maybe I could even find a cure for lycanthropy for those that truly resent their condition!"
The man chuckled "Hold your hippogryffs little lady. One step at a time. And yes, you can have my blood. I can even ask some of the pack to submit theirs if you need more test subjects"
"That would be wonderful. Thank you so much!"
Voldemort looked on intrigued. It seemed that the girl was jumping head first into the bet and with high goals too. He had to admit he wouldn't be too upset if she managed to win, her ideals were good and should she really manage to invent such potions it would be greatly beneficial for their world. The magical world of Britain needed such creative minds and innovations.
Maybe if she won the bet and showed herself good enough, he would even offer her to work together. After all just because she was deluded into thinking she was his daughter, it didn't mean he couldn't overlook it and join their minds to reach the final objective.
"Seeing as she plans to hole herself in the lab all day, what are your plans Blaise?"
"I need to run some errands, Dray. Maybe if I finish early enough we can play some quidditch"
"Sure. What exactly do you need to do, though?"
"Family business" he replied shortly. Draco didn't need to know what it entailed.
"Draco, you should start studying for your NEWTs. You don't want that mudblood to come first once again, do you?" Lucius said snidely
"Of course , Father" he answered gritting his teeth
Alya rolled her eyes at Lucius, way to humiliate your son "Don't worry Dray I can pass you my notes… er, part of my notes. Plus we all know that the examiners are a bunch of light geezers that kiss Dumbledore's arse. They aren't going to mark you fairly" she said trying to lift his spirits and judging by the tiny smile she succeeded.
"Alright" she said after throwing her strongest diagnostic charms at the brothers "You both are awfully malnourished, with weak bones and your organs are threatening failure. I will supply you with three different potions to deal with these matters. You are to take them with every meal and also start eating little snacks all through the day. Nutrition potions are all good but you need actual intake of food to boost your energy and help along your body recovery."
"Alright" "That's not too bad"
"I'm not done" she said quickly putting a stop at their enthusiasm. 'How cute they thought they got away from a decade in Azkaban with so little' she thought
"What else?"
"Well.. You Rodolphus have a bad case of pneumonia, I'm honestly surprised you haven't hacked up a lung yet. I will put you on a strict potion regimen to deal with it. Rabastan shows signs of multiple head concussions " she said noticing his grimace "there is some swelling in the brain and it needs to be treated immediately lest something irreparable happens. You also have several hairline fractures in your body and some badly healed brakes. The worst ones I will have to vanish the bone and regrow it. Breaking it again would be too dangerous as we risk minuscule bone shards piercing the muscle or some artery"
"How wonderful" he deadpanned, not looking forward to that at all.
"Yeah, yeah. You will also take some anti-depression potions, they are not miraculous but help a little against the long exposure to dementors. You will need to see a mind healer to deal with the full damage though and I'm not sure you'll be comfortable enough to talk to me about it. Once you are physically healed I will give you some names and you can choose the one you prefer, they will not care that you are death eaters or escaped convicts"
"That's good. I'm not looking forward to seeing some mind healer but I'm sane enough to recognize we need it"
"Perfect. I will draw up a diet regimen so the elves can prepare your meals accordingly and supply the snacks. They will also deliver your potions timely and take your vitals for me every once in a while. I want to keep you under observation for the first days so if something unexpected comes up we can deal with it quickly. It is a slim possibility but sometimes the scans miss something hiding behind other maladies and it pops up once the rest is healed"
She summoned the first potions they had to take and once they swallowed it all she send them off to rest.
Silent and keeping in the shadow he stalked his targets. He watched with steely eyes as the older of the two led the younger through the town to a small house that looked vandalized. Disillusioned with old spell that not even the old man could hope to sense or see through he followed them in.
Seeing the boy failing to even manage a civil conversation with the fat man that had hidden himself in a poor transfiguration of an armchair, he rolled his eyes and decided to take a look around. You never know what you can find in someone else's house after all. The walls were full of pictures of the man with young people who became someone important in life or were related to someone famous. So he was a collector of sorts, he would have to keep it in mind. He stopped, seeing the old man wandering around, probably waiting for the boy to charm the fat man so he could get him to do whatever he had in mind in exchange for another piece for his collection. How predictable.
Moving back to the living room he saw, just as he predicted, the old man convincing the other to go back to Hogwarts to teach. Potions, he heard. Well, at least he was a competent potion master.
Inwardly cheering he saw that the man was trying to hide his left hand, which looked blackened and decaying. Oh, how sweet. It seemed that whatever curse he activated was probably going to kill him soon, within the year at most judging from the heavy smell of death that lingered around him. His beloved would be happy to hear the news.
Deciding that he had seen enough he walked out of the house and went back home. He had a full day of work and should have been home a couple of hours ago, but one of his targets seemed to like playing hide and seek delaying him for a good while and when he had stumbled on the pair after that, he thought that he couldn't pass the chance to investigate.
Silently apparating away he briefly wondered what would there be for dinner. Thanks to being added to the wards he reappeared right into his, Alya's, bedroom and walked to the bathroom to wash off the dirt and grime of the day. A hot shower would also work wonders on his aching muscles.
Lost in his thoughts he didn't notice Alya laying on the bed, who was woken by the sound of his boots connecting with the marble floor of the room. She had been in the lab all day and had decided to take a little nap before dinner while waiting for him. The sight of her boyfriend dressed in black from head to toe in protective battle leathers and covered in blood startled her, but after a moment she could see that none of the blood was his and relaxed, deciding to wait for him in the dining room she left. If he wasn't ready to tell her his secret, she was willing to act as if nothing happened and wait for him to reveal it.
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