Acacia Rose Writes

Blurbs, Drabbles, and the Occasional One-shot

[acaciarosewrites]

Scenes from the Life of Lyra Lestrange: HP mini-series (part 1)

YEAR ONE

“Lyra Lestrange!”

The entire hall that was buzzing with energy and excitement just moments before due to the sorting ceremony had gone tense after Professor McGonagall had read off the name of the next first year to be sorted. A name that had quite the dark association attached to it. The Lestranges were, after all, quite notorious for the crimes they committed during the wizarding war under the command of Voldemort.

As with children and teenagers, murmurs started up almost immediately before they quieted down when a small figure with long dark hair moved forward amongst the first years that had yet to be sorted.

Lyra Lestrange held her head up high with a careful mask upon her face. She ignored the whispers of the students behind her and the shocked looks of the professors in front of her. Even the headmaster had gone still when her name had been called. In the next second she was sitting on the rickety three-legged stool that was clearly only standing due to magic and her vision was obscured by the brim of the sorting hat.

“Interesting, I never thought Bellatrix Black would have a child.”

Lyra stiffened, taking a deep breath in, and letting it go before responding to the hat.

“It was in the marriage contract, regardless of gender she and my father were supposed to produce an heir.”

“Another interesting tidbit. The Lestranges have always had a male heir and a male Head of House.” The sorting hat mused.

The girl mentally shrugged as she glanced down at the black diamond encased in a gold band that was fitted on the pointer finger of her right hand. Corvus oculum corvi non eruit, the Lestrange Family motto engraved on the outside of the band always filled her with a sense of pride and dread. The Lestrange heir ring had been there for over a year now – ever since she turned ten. Lyra sighed, “Are you going to sort me or root around my head for juicy family gossip to tell the headmaster about later tonight after the feast?”

“I’m quite deeply offended. Everything that I learn, I keep to myself. Not even the headmaster will know of what we talked about. But to business then… you are vastly different from either of your parents… perhaps that has to do with who you were raised by…”

“Perhaps so…” Lyra mused.

“Well, there’s plenty of ambition and you’re quite creative, I can see that clearly. Loyalty, oh yes, very loyal but only to those who’ve earned it… and yet… yet there is only one house that would benefit you… you might not see it but I have a good feeling.”

“GRYFFINDOR!”

The entire hall was silent as Lyra removed the sorting hat from her head and walked over to the Gryffindor table. There was no clapping, just looks of shock and surprise from the house of the lions. The dark-haired girl sighed quietly as she took a seat in the open space next to Hermione Granger.

This was going to be a long year…

It was literally only the second day into term. She had only been to two classes…

And she was already being led to the headmaster’s office.

Lyra was sure she had done absolutely nothing wrong. She had kept her head down and kept to her dorm when inside Gryffindor tower – she alone of the first year Gryffindor girls had a dorm to herself since it was five to a dorm and there were six female first years. She had been on time to breakfast and both of her classes. She took excellent notes if she did say so herself. She had even earned five points from Professor Flitwick for being the first to master the Lumos wand-lighting charm.

But McGonagall had been waiting for her before she had even made it to the Great Hall for lunch. All she said was that she was going to escort Lyra to see the headmaster. Lyra wanted to ask the older woman what Dumbledore wanted but she couldn’t seem to get her voice to cooperate.

It wasn’t long before McGonagall stopped and muttered something to a golden griffin statue that she was fairly sure was a few corridors away from the Gryffindor common room’s entrance. The griffin moved in response and a staircase revealed itself. Lyra raised a brow as her head of house ushered her up the stairs and through a plain wooden door. Inside were hundreds of portraits of what Lyra assumed were previous headmasters and headmistresses. Albus Dumbledore sat at his desk with two others sitting across from him. The two were both tall, a man and a woman, each with long and pale blond hair. She had never seen either of them in person before. But Lyra had seen them in pictures, mostly the society pages. Lyra was looking at her Aunt Narcissa and Uncle Lucius.

Ce n’est pas bien. This could not be good.

Lyra looked to Professor McGonagall who placed an arm on her shoulder and guided her over to the three adults.

“Miss Lestrange, these people are Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy,” Dumbledore indicated towards the blonds with a tilt of his head, “Lady Malfoy is the younger sister of your mother, Bellatrix. They were quite pressed to meet with you – especially since they were unaware of your existence until very recently.” Dumbledore explained.

Lyra glanced at the Malfoys before turning back to Dumbledore and McGonagall (who had actually remained by her side instead of moving to stand next to Dumbledore or off to the side), “D’accord. Okay. It’s nice to meet you.” Lyra said, unsure of how to respond. She saw the way the two Malfoys looked at each other at her French accent. Even Dumbledore cast a questioning look at McGonagall. It wasn’t a heavily thick accent as she had grown up speaking just as much English as she did French.

Narcissa moved forward, giving Lyra an accessing look like she was judging Lyra’s very existence and held out her hand. “We were quite shocked when our son, Draco, wrote home about a first-year girl with the last name Lestrange who happened to be the spitting image of my sister.”

“And sorted into Gryffindor at that.” Lucius Malfoy cut in looking shrewdly at Lyra. While Narcissa seemed to still be judging her niece, Lucius clearly felt that being sorted into the house of the lions was an affront to her heritage and her association to the House of Malfoy.

Lyra merely raised an unimpressed eyebrow, the corners of her mouth turning downwards slightly. At the look, all four of the adults in the room had various looks of surprise on their faces. Dumbledore recovered quicker than the others in the room and continued the explanation for the presence of the adult Malfoys.

“The Malfoys arrived this morning wishing to meet you as they were unaware that Bellatrix even had a child.” Dumbledore’s face was calm as he explained but Lyra could tell that he was scrutinizing her just as the Malfoys were. She just didn’t know why.

Until her uncle opened his mouth.

“Everyone knew that it wasn’t a love match between Bellatrix and Rodolphus. Factor in their status as Death Eaters and her devotion to the Dark Lord… well it was quite a shock to find out that a Lestrange was starting at Hogwarts.”

Oh.

Oh.

They thought she was the child of—

Ew.

“I’m not Voldemort’s child.” Lyra stated plainly.

The reactions were instantaneous; McGonagall’s grip on her shoulder tightened for a second and her lips thinned, the Malfoys’ brows both raised – Lucius’s jaw even dropped open while Narcissa’s eyes widened at her audacity. Dumbledore’s reaction was, once again, the quickest: his eyes widened before narrowing, the calculating look back on his face clearer than before.

“I’m sure no one was implying—” Dumbledore started to say before Lyra interrupted.

Lyra raised her brows before holding out her right hand. The Lestrange heir ring gleamed brightly as the sunlight streaming through the window hit the black diamond. “I would not be able to wear this if I was Voldemort’s daughter. I wouldn’t even be able to wear it if I were blood adopted by a Lestrange. It would be line theft as there are others who were born into the family who would have more of a right to inherit – only those born into the Lestrange family can wear the heir’s ring. I am Rodolphus’s biological daughter.” Lyra stated as she put her hand back down.

Before they could recover from her use of the Dark Lord’s name for the second time, Lyra continued, “When my parents found out my mother was pregnant, my father sent her to France. I was born there, in the Lestrange ancestral home on 31 May 1980. Shortly after I was born my father made plans that should anything happen to him then I would be taken care of by one of his relatives across the Channel. When he and my mother and uncle were taken to Azkaban, I was delivered to a distant cousin of his and raised in France.”

“A distant cousin? You have plenty of family here that would have taken you in.” Narcissa stated, looking quite put out at not being considered to help raise her niece – one she had no knowledge of twenty-four hours prior to this meeting.

“Quite right. We would have been happy to raise you alongside our son.” Lucius mused, no doubt thinking about how his own standing would have increased by raising the Lestrange heir.

“Well, it’s what my father decided.” Lyra stated plainly.

“Surely your mother—”

“My mother didn’t care one way or the other. As soon as I was born, she returned to Voldemort’s side. I’m told my mother considered her pregnancy an unavoidable inconvenience. My father was the one to see to my care. He felt as the heiress to the British branch of the Lestranges that I should be raised by members of the Lestrange family and since there were none left in the UK after they went to prison…” Lyra delicately shrugged her shoulders as she finished explaining.

“You were sent to France and raised there.” Dumbledore mused. Lyra merely nodded. “You could have gone to Beauxbatons but instead chose to go to school here.”

“My tante would have preferred that but again, my father’s directives were that I attend Hogwarts.”

Dumbledore hummed at her explanation as the Malfoys shared another look. Lyra didn’t like how they looked at her. Lucius looked at her as if he were trying to figure out how she would be useful to them while Narcissa looked as if she had found something she didn’t know was lost. The Lestrange heiress didn’t want to spend another minute with them.

Looking down at the dainty gold watch on her left wrist, Lyra shifted anxiously, “Can I go now? Lunch is half over and I have to grab my books for my next class as well.”

The Malfoys looked as if they might protest but McGonagall stepped in before they could say anything.

“Of course, Miss Lestrange. I’m sure that if your aunt and uncle wish to speak with you again, they can send a letter.” McGonagall stated firmly.

Both Malfoys looked put out but Narcissa agreed that perhaps that would have to do for now. Lyra didn’t really like the sound of that but she nodded and allowed Professor McGonagall to lead her out of the headmaster’s office. The two were almost to the entrance of Gryffindor Tower when McGonagall asked her how she was feeling.

Lyra stopped and turned toward her professor.

“I don’t have to actually reply to their letters, do I?”

“No Miss Lestrange. Not if you don’t want to.”

Lyra nodded, “Good. I can’t imagine wanting to.”

To McGonagall’s credit she didn’t react other than the slightest tightening around her mouth.

“Would you all stop looking at me like I’m about to curse you!” Lyra yelled in frustration. “Yes, my parents were horrible people who did horrible things but that doesn’t mean that I’m anything like them!” Lyra shook her head, not bothering to wait for a reaction, she slammed her book shut and grabbed her school bag before angrily storming out of the common room, heading off in a random direction.

Lyra had been subjecting herself to the stares and whispers of her housemates every evening after classes ended by doing her homework in the common room. She figured that once the other lions saw her around more often, they would get used to her presence and they wouldn’t look at her like she was evil incarnate or talk about her as if she were deaf and couldn’t hear what they were saying.

Unfortunately, it was all to no avail. It was already mid-December and still they whispered and spread rumors about her.

She continued her path, aimlessly wandering around the castle. She had a few hours before curfew, so she didn’t have to worry about getting in trouble with Filch.

Lyra’s mind also wandered as she thought about the few times her cousin Draco had tried to interact with her ever since her somewhat… abrupt… meeting with her maternal aunt and uncle. The Lestrange heiress found the Malfoy heir to be quite pompous and arrogant. Plus, he was clearly a blood supremist. Lyra really had tried to give her cousin a chance, but she left every interaction with him wondering if she would have turned out like him if she had been raised by the Malfoys or worse her parents.

“Miss Lestrange!”

Lyra paused as she looked behind her to see Professor McGonagall standing in an open doorway. She quickly walked back to her head of house to see what she called her for.

“Professor McGonagall?” Lyra questioned.

“Come in for a minute Miss Lestrange and have a seat.” Lyra raised a brow and did as her professor instructed. McGonagall directed her to a sitting area where a kettle and biscuits were already laid out on a coffee table. She quickly pulled another teacup out of a side cupboard and served her tea as she preferred it.

“Thank you, professor.”

“You’re welcome, Miss Lestrange.” They were silent for a moment as they sipped their tea but then McGonagall was asking her about how she was settling in.

Lyra sighed. “I’m the daughter of two of the most hated death eaters in the entire UK. Add in that I was sorted into Gryffindor – of all houses – well… I’m genuinely surprised no one has tried to hex me yet. Then again, it could be that they’re all afraid I’ll curse them. Or retaliate or something like that.”

McGonagall listened to her words and was silent for a moment. “The moment the Sorting Hat placed you into Gryffindor, I knew that your time at Hogwarts wasn’t going to be… easy. Your parents’ reputations would work against you in the house of the lions. You would have to spend the next seven years with the whispers and rumors, trying to be seen as your own person separate from the stigma of the Lestrange name. You would wonder about the motivations of those around you and if they liked you for you or if they were afraid of who you could be. It might have been easier for you if you had been sorted into Slytherin. Your parents’ reputations alone would have assured you would have been quite comfortable in Slytherin. You might even command a higher place in the hierarchy than that of your cousin.”

Lyra raised a brow at her head of house’s assessment. Before she could comment on it, McGonagall continued. “But you were raised by a woman who, despite being a Lestrange, is not a pureblood supremacist. I’ve never met your aunt but I’m guessing she raised you not to judge people by who their ancestors were but rather by who they are as people. I see it in the way you give your full attention to those around you, be they student or professor, you let them know you’re paying attention and that you hear them. I see it in the way you make time for your cousin, shaking your head in frustration after spending five minutes with him. I also see it in the way you’re conscious of giving Neville Longbottom space. You are a considerate and compassionate young lady. I think you will do well in Gryffindor, Miss Lestrange. You just have to remember that you are as strong and as fierce as the animal that represents Gryffindor house.” McGonagall proclaimed as she took a sip from her teacup.

Lyra couldn’t help but to smile at McGonagall’s words. Her classmates may not like or trust her but that’s because they didn’t know her. The Lestrange heiress had never been more determined to change how people viewed her family name going forward. It would be a long hard road but for now, she had McGonagall’s support.

Lyra was wandering around the castle again. It was a Saturday evening and she’d already finished all her assignments about an hour ago. After dropping her things back in her dorm, Lyra had decided to stretch her legs outside of the common room. The dark-haired girl sighed as she made her way down to the second floor. Things had improved since December. People were no longer talking about her in her immediate vicinity. Lyra still got glared at and she knew people talked about her family history but they never spoke where she could hear them. Which was better. It wasn’t great but she knew that people would need more time.

Well, the Gryffindors and the Hufflepuffs would need more time. The Slytherins never antagonized her nor did they shun her. They weren’t overly friendly but they were respectful and… courteous. What they said about her in private, Lyra had no idea though she didn’t think that it was anything too bad considering that Draco was attempting to build a relationship with her. The Ravenclaws were mostly indifferent to her. There were some who hated her because of her parents and uncle but they didn’t do much more than glare and make snide comments as she passed. She’d gotten used to it, mostly. The thing was that it was nothing new. The comments, the rumors, the glares, and the whispers. It was all the same. It didn’t matter that three-fourths of the school were talking about her, they never had anything to say that she hadn’t heard before.

Lyra wandered along to an abandoned looking corridor. The grey-eyed girl had noticed that there were many corridors on the various floors of Hogwarts that looked abandoned. Exploration of the rooms in the corridors showed that they were old classrooms or common areas. Lyra wasn’t sure if the classrooms were abandoned because they moved them to their current locations or if the subjects that were taught in them were cancelled. She also wondered whether the other students knew about the common areas. The rooms weren’t dusty or in disrepair so clearly the house elves still cleaned them up. The furniture was old and outdated, some even from the previous century as far as she could tell. The lack of student visitors made her believe that when the classrooms were abandoned so were the common areas. Which was a shame because those common areas would be perfect for the students from different houses who wanted to hang out or study or do homework together.

Looking to her right, Lyra noticed a door marked Girls’ Lavatory.

Huh.

Lyra turned around as she got her bearings on where exactly she was. She wasn’t that far from one of the main halls which means this bathroom was quite convenient for ducking into if she needed to use the loo between classes.

So why hadn’t she known about it?

Walking into the bathroom, she could see it was still in good condition though there was some water on the floor near one of the stalls in the back. Shrugging, Lyra walked over to the sinks to fix her hair in the mirror. She nearly screamed; it was a close thing. In the mirror behind her was the ghost of a girl who looked no more than a few years older than her. She was even wearing Ravenclaw robes that were a couple decades out of date.

Whirling around, Lyra regarded the ghost girl with raised brows, “Oh my goodness! You gave me a fright!”

The ghost girl scowled and demanded, “Why because I’m so ugly?! Were you dared to see “Weeping, Moaning” Myrtle?! You’ve had your laugh, now leave!”

“No that’s not… I didn’t know anybody was in here and you just appeared behind me in the mirror! It’s not nice to sneak up on people like that.”

The ghost girl, Myrtle, tilted her head as she regarded Lyra. “You’re in my bathroom.”

“The sign on the outside of the door says, “Girls’ Lavatory.” That means that any girl can use this bathroom. It’s only fair that you share with others.”

“You look like the mean girl but you don’t act like the mean girl.”

“The mean girl?” Lyra questioned, sinking feeling in her gut. She knew Myrtle must be speaking about her mother.

“She was a Black. There were a couple of them in my year when I went to school…and in the years above and below…but the mean girl came after. She was mean to everyone. Including me. She would call me “Moaning Mudblood” and laugh at me.” Myrtle admitted, voice taking on a teary quality.

Lyra blinked slowly and shook her head. “Was her name Bellatrix?” Lyra gazed up at Myrtle as her eyes narrowed and she nodded. “Bellatrix is my mother. I’m Lyra Lestrange. She should have never done that to you. It was wrong of her. I know it can’t mean much but I’m sorry she was horrible to you.”

Myrtle was silent for a few moments as she regarded Lyra. “You act like my friend.”

“Your friend?”

Myrtle nodded, “My friend. They danced with me at Sir Nicholas’s death day party six years ago and they've always been nice to me. They graduated in June. Said good-bye to me too. Most don’t say good-bye or anything like that.”

Lyra nodded, “Your friend sounds wonderful. If you want, I wouldn’t mind visiting with you.”

Myrtle’s eyes widened before squinting at her suspiciously. “Why?”

“My parents were horrible people. People think I’m just like them even though I was a baby when they were arrested. I don’t have… any friends and it would be nice to talk to someone who knows I’m not mean like my mother.”

Myrtle looked thoughtful before nodding. “I’d like to be friends.”

Lyra smiled a rare, genuine smile. “Great! So, tell me about yourself, Myrtle.”

There was no moon this night and the torches that lined the staircase down to the common room had been extinguished earlier in the night. Even the fireplaces down in the common room itself had been doused. But not for long. Lyra couldn’t sleep. She didn’t know why but something about the way Harry, Ron, and Hermione had been acting earlier had caused the silver-eyed girl to take notice. She wasn’t sure what they were up to, but Lyra hoped that whatever it was they were doing wouldn’t cost them another hundred-and-fifty points. She didn’t think it was possible, but she didn’t want to find out if they could go into the negative.

It was so stupid though. Yeah, Harry and his friends had lost a hundred and fifty points, but Harry had more than earned that exact number of points when he caught the snitch at his first Quidditch match. And every match since then. Hermione was also one to earn Gryffindor tons of points but she had taken to keeping her head and hand down during class because of the looks and comments she would get from the other students. Again, so stupid. If they would just let Hermione earn the points without comment, they probably would have double what they lost. Or close to it.

She wrapped her robe tighter around herself and stole across the common room to one of the fireplaces. “Incendio.” Lyra muttered as an orange ball of flame came shooting out of her wand and lit the wood sitting in the fireplace on fire. Leaning back, Lyra stared into the flames as she mused on her unease. She was startled from her thoughts by the croak of a familiar toad.

“Trevor!” Lyra scolded as she whirled around to see the escape-artist toad that was constantly running away from Neville Longbottom. “What are you doing out here all by yourself?” Lyra questioned as she moved over to the armchair he was sitting on. Shaking her head, the Lestrange heiress couldn’t believe the number of times the Longbottom heir had gone looking for this toad over the course of the year. Lyra was about to scoop up the toad when she noticed a pair of slipper-clad feet on the floor behind the chair. Peering around the chair, wand back in hand, Lyra couldn’t help but gasp as she saw Neville Longbottom frozen on the floor, eyes moving wildly back and forth.

“Neville!” Kneeling at his side, Lyra clearly cast the general counter-curse with the correct hand movement. Neville quickly sat up with a harsh gasp. “Are you alright?”

Shaking his head, “I’m fine. Harry, Ron, and Hermione snuck out again.”

“Wait, they snuck out? They cast the body bind curse on you?” Lyra asked incredulously.

Neville shrugged, muttering, “I was trying to stop them but they said that they were doing something important.”

“They shouldn’t have done that.” Lyra stated firmly. “Come on,” Lyra said, holding out her hand to her fellow Gryffindor. Neville hesitated briefly before grasping her hand. “We’ve got to tell McGonagall.”

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Neville questioned as they made their way out of the portrait entrance.

“Maybe not, but I’ve been feeling uneasy all night. Whatever they’re doing – important or not – it’s probably dangerous.”

“Well…you’re not wrong…”

Lyra whirled around so she was facing Neville. He started at suddenly having her sole focus on him but she ignored this as she questioned him. “What do you mean by that?”

“Well… I… I heard them talking before I tried to stop them. They’re going to the forbidden corridor—”

“The one with the giant three-headed dog in it?”

Neville blinked, “How did you know about—”

“I was curious. After seeing that enormous beast, I wasn’t so curious anymore.”

Neville shook his head, “You still want to tell McGonagall?”

“We have to.” Lyra said determinedly. “It’s forbidden for a reason. They could get themselves killed. Come on.” Lyra brushed passed Neville and exited the common room through the portrait. She could hear Neville following her even with the Fat Lady demanding they return to the common room. The two first-years quickly rushed off to McGonagall’s office. Hopefully, they could get to their professor in enough time to get Harry, Ron, and Hermione.

Lyra was sitting on one of the ledges in the courtyard. It had been a curious couple of days. After waking McGonagall from her sleep and telling her about their classmates, she quickly summoned the other heads of houses and they went after the other three Gryffindors. But not before ordering Lyra and Neville to stay in McGonagall’s office. It was a long night for the two Gryffindors. Neville and Lyra were quite silent for a while. They would make a comment here and there, wondering about their classmates. Eventually McGonagall had came back to them. She informed them that their fellow lions were currently in the hospital wing but that they would be all right.

After that it was a whirlwind of events. No one really knew what happened in the forbidden corridor. So naturally the whole school knew. Or they thought they knew. What they did know was that Professor Quirrell was dead after trying to kill Harry Potter. There were rumors going around that Quirrell had been a supporter of Voldemort, out for revenge. Ron and Hermione had only been in the hospital wing for a night. Many students had tried to get the story from them when they were released but they kept quiet about everything that had gone on. Harry, on the other hand, had been in the hospital wing for three days. Whatever did happen it was clear that Harry had been injured worse than his best friends.

Just last night they had the end of term feast. In a surprising twist Gryffindor had won the house cup despite being dead last. Harry, Ron, and Hermione had each received fifty points each for stopping Quirrell. In another surprising twist both she and Neville had received twenty-five points each for standing up to their friends and alerting the professors to the danger.

Lyra didn’t know how she felt about it. While it was nice to be recognized, she would have rather received the points before the feast and not have the Slytherins have their victory stolen from them. Partially because it would have been the right thing to do and partially because she would rather not have to deal with her cousin going on about Dumbledore and Potter. Lyra had just finished telling Myrtle goodbye for the summer when she had run into Draco. He had been ranting about how Dumbledore had stolen Slytherin’s victory because of golden boy Potter. Her cousin had assured her he didn’t blame her. At least she had gotten points for telling on Potter and his friends.

Sighing, Lyra was surprised she had made it through her first year without being attacked by any of the other students. In fact, some of the Gryffindors had been a bit…warmer towards her after she had been awarded points at the end-of-year feast. Granted it had only been a night and part of the morning. The students were leaving in another hour for the summer holidays. Whether this new attitude would last or disappear next year was unknown. Considering how wishy-washy the students were towards Harry Potter…well she didn’t hold much hope for herself.

“Lestrange?”

Lyra turned in surprise to see Neville Longbottom standing there.

“Hello Neville.” Lyra responded unsure as to why Neville was seeking her out especially since he had done his novel best to avoid her at all costs throughout the year. “Anything I can do for you?” She questioned when the Longbottom heir remained silent.

“Well… err… I just wanted to say… to say thank you. For casting the counter curse. The other night when you found me. So, um, yes. Thank you, Heiress Lestrange.” Neville managed to stutter out before giving a short formal bow to Lyra.

Lyra knew that it was no small thing for Neville Longbottom to thank her – the daughter of the people who had tortured his parents into insanity – she knew she could not be so blasé in her response. The Lestrange heiress slowly stood and nodded her head. “You’re welcome, Heir Longbottom.”

Neville nodded his head once, “Right… so. I guess I’ll see you on the express. Or… um at the welcome feast.” Neville nodded his head once more before turning and walking away. He’d only gone a couple of steps when Lyra called out to him. He turned back, questioning look on his face.

“Have a good summer.”

[acaciarosewrites]

Stopping Him part 3 - A Twilight: New Moon drabble

Part 1 | Part 2

There were weeks that felt like days and then there were days that felt like weeks. Or even longer than that. When she had returned home from saving Edward in Italy, the days felt like weeks. Bella was in a lot of trouble. Charlie had not been so understanding about her leaving the country with no more than a note and a frantic Jacob behind. Even though she was eighteen, her father had grounded her. She had thought to point out that she was an adult and could move out and stay with Edward friends but that would have caused more tension in the relationship she had with Charlie. Afterall, she was slated to become a vampire soon hopefully right after graduation, so she kept silent and accepted his grounding. It’s not like she wouldn’t be able to see Edward at school anyway. Bella went to school and the store, did her chores and homework, and she cooked dinner. She didn’t go anywhere else or do anything else.

Not that Charlie hadn’t tried to let up by allowing her to come with him to La Push.

Not that she would have accepted.

The brown-eyed girl hadn’t been to La Push or to see Jacob since her grounding had been extended with the discovery of her motorcycle. Bella had been furious with Jake for that. She had known riding motorcycles was dangerous, but it was the only way to hear Edward’s voice. Bella would never regret that. What she did regret was that riding the bikes with Jacob had become one of her favorite pastimes and memories even after she could no longer hear Edward’s voice in her mind.

Bella didn’t regret selling her refurbished bike the very next day. She had simply put the word out at school, and she had an offer by last bell. Bike sold, Bella went on a binge of purging anything and everything that reminded her of Jacob Black. Which ultimately wasn’t that hard to do. Aside from fixing up her bike, Jake had only ever given her a dreamcatcher. It’s not like she needed it now that Bella had Edward back. She ended up giving it away to one of the kids in her neighborhood.

No, Bella had no regrets about giving away either the dreamcatcher or the bike.

The only thing Bella regretted about this whole ordeal is that she lost her friendship with Jacob. She lost... whatever could have happened with Jacob because she was in love with Edward. Whatever feelings she had for Jacob didn’t even compare to the strength of the feelings she had for Edward.

It was as simple as that.

Really it was.

[acaciarosewrites]

Glitter Everywhere - A Twilight AU Drabble

“Why the hell is there glitter everywhere?”

“Language.” A brunette with arms full of construction paper and safety scissors admonished.

The tall bronze-haired man just raised a brow as he surveyed the kitchen that he had been in just this morning. The once pristine kitchen was in disarray with scraps of paper littering the floor, colored pencils and markers scattered across the table, and other odds and ends for crafts on the counters and chairs.

“Doesn’t explain why there’s glitter everywhere.” The man mentioned as he took in the glitter spattered all around the room. There looked to be a pile of it on the corner of the table and… yep, it was on the floor with what looked like footprints running through.

“Edward. We have a seven-year-old daughter and a five-year-old daughter. I’m not sure what you expected but little girls and glitter happen to just go together.” Bella laughed as her husband looked on the room in astonishment… or maybe horror.

“It looks like a unicorn exploded in here.” Edward stated to his wife’s amusement. 

“Yes, well, we’re lucky that’s not the case. Lily would be devastated otherwise.” Bella replied sarcastically, depositing the paper and scissors into a bin on the counter.

“Not for long. I’m sure Carlie would have avenged the unjust slaying of any unicorn for her little sister.” Edward stated as he walked into the kitchen, watching his feet as he maneuvered his way over to his wife. A wife that was looking up at him in amusement.

“What?”

Bella just shook her head, “And they say I’m the creative one.”

Edward smirked as he pulled Bella towards him, “Doctor by day and creative genius by night. Is there any other more qualified than I?”

Bella rolled her eyes, “Oh, I don’t know, perhaps the writer who actually gets paid to use her creative mind.”

“Perhaps so,” Edward conceded with a shrug of his shoulders.

Bella and Edward burst out laughing at the ridiculous banter. Edward smiled and leaned down to give his wife a long lingering kiss.

“Where are the girls by the way?” Edward questioned as he gently brushed away some glitter on Bella’s cheekbone.

“Napping, thankfully. They were so tired out that they went down for a nap when I put EJ to sleep. Snow days are great every now and again, but it’s been nearly two weeks. You would think that school would still be open. Don’t get me wrong – I love spending time with the girls at home but cleaning up glitter isn’t easy.”

Edward chuckled and kissed the top of Bella’s head and surveyed the room once more.

“Yeah, I have no idea how you’re going to get this all cleaned up before they’re up and about.” Bella rolled her eyes as she shoved Edward away.

“You know the faster we clean up, the faster we can relax before the kids wake up.”

“Now when you say relax, you mean…” Edward trailed off, eyebrows raised.

Bella smacked Edward’s shoulder. “When I say relax, I mean relax.”

“Just thought I’d ask.” Edward said as he pulled Bella back towards him and kissed her once more on the lips.

“Get to work Doctor Cullen. Or there will be no stopping the girls from continuing to make more glitter projects.”

Edward shook his head, crooked smirk on his face, and rolled up his sleeves to help his wife clean up the mess. He had a great life; a good job as an up and coming surgeon, a beautiful wife who always supported him and was always there for him, three beautiful children who loved him. He loved them with everything he had, and he would not change one thing about where he ended up.

[acaciarosewrites]

Beginning: an NCIS-Criminal Minds crossover oneshot

Anthony “Tony” DiNozzo entered the apartment silently closing the door behind him and locking it. He dropped his wallet, keys, and creds on the table in the hallway and moved noiselessly toward the living room where he could safely deposit his SIG Sauer and backup gun inside the gun safe on a bookshelf near the entrance. The apartment was dark, no other lights on except the floor lamp in the hallway. Not that he needed the light. He knew this apartment like the back of his hand. Almost as good as he knew his own.

His weapons safely stored, Tony made his way toward the bedroom, gently easing the door open and took in the site of the woman laying asleep in her bed. Her blonde hair was up in a messy bun and she was wearing her normal sleep clothes. Her face was smoothed out, no lines of stress on her face from the difficulties of her job. Not that the woman wasn’t passionate about her job, it was just that lately it had been tiring her out. She didn’t think he noticed, what with all the hours and high priority cases that had come in in the last month for his team. But he did.

Of course, he did - what kind of investigator would he be if he didn’t notice that his own girlfriend was exhausted and in need of a vacation to get her back on center. Their jobs though... well, they didn’t get a chance to use much of the vacation time that they had racked up - despite their respective HR departments calling them in or sending email reminders to use the days accrued for overtime alone. The federal agent mentally snorted. HR would prefer that they took time off rather than be paid for the time they put in for overtime. Tony pushed off the door frame he was leaning against and made his way over to the en-suite bathroom and quickly took care of business, washed his hands, brushed his teeth, and stripped down to his boxers before sliding into bed and pulling the covers around both himself and the blonde woman.

He slid an arm around her waist and moved closer to her, eyes sliding shut before freezing from the tension he felt thrumming through his girlfriend’s body.

“JJ?” Tony whispered silently in question at the back of the communication liaison’s head, he waited a few beats before the woman turned around to face him.

Jennifer “JJ” Jareau had long since been awake. She got home early for once - though she had suspected Hotch had let them off early because he had seen how worn out she had been. It probably didn’t help that she had snapped at Garcia of all people. She felt bad and had immediately apologized but it still hadn’t saved her from Morgan’s accusing glare after it had happened.

JJ had left work immediately but instead of going home she had driven around for an hour. She knew she was unusually exhausted these last few weeks and she had a good theory on why that was. If it was just the exhaustion then she would have blamed the job. But no, after the fifth morning in a row of waking up in a rush to the bathroom where she was expelling the contents of her stomach left her with two options: either she had contracted a stomach bug, or she was pregnant. Seeing as how it had now been a week and she was still throwing up every morning and earlier today the smell of coffee had sent her running to the ladies’ room at work...

The blonde woman had finally made it home and did laundry, cleaned up, made a simple meal for dinner. Finally, after cleaning every square inch of her apartment, she could not ignore the small brown paper bag that was sitting on the table in the entrance hall, holding a pregnancy test that she had bought at the local pharmacy.

She had taken it, waiting the requisite five minutes for the result, and subsequently thrown it in the trash after reading the positive result. JJ had paced back and forth and around her whole apartment before heading out to the drugstore around the corner to buy another test.

That one was positive too.

The FBI agent had a million thoughts running through her head. This wasn’t something that she and Tony, her boyfriend of eight months, had really discussed. Sure, they had briefly talked about wanting kids, but they hadn’t talked about their future together.

How was Tony going to react to this?

JJ had gotten ready for bed on autopilot and had lain there for hours. It was past ten when she finally heard the key in the lock and Tony entering the apartment. She tracked his movements throughout her apartment and feigned sleep as he stood in the doorway of her bedroom before heading to the ensuite. A few minutes later, as he usually did at night, he would know that she was awake because of how stiff her body was. But she couldn’t do anything to get rid of the tension.

“JJ?”

Turning over so that she was facing her boyfriend, JJ was gazing into Tony’s worried green eyes. And she knew in that moment that despite trying to hide how tired and worn down she’d been in the past couple weeks; she had not fooled Tony nor had the increased workload stopped him from noticing her seemingly declining health.

Her brain to mouth filter failed her and she found herself blurting out her recent discovery.

“I’m pregnant!”

Tony froze as he heard JJ’s proclamation. He continued to stare at the woman who was so different than any he had dated before. If he were being completely honest with himself, he had caught himself thinking about a future with JJ, marriage and kids and maybe even a dog. He had never voiced those thoughts aloud partly because he didn’t want to jinx anything - Tony DiNozzo wasn’t someone that people stayed for, his last “serious relationship” had ended when his former fiancee left him the night before their wedding. The other part of it was the plain and simple fact that JJ was too good for him. She deserved to be with someone better than him who could treat her like a queen, but he couldn’t bring himself to be the one to leave her.

They had only been together for eight months. That wasn’t that long, but it was one of his longest relationships in years since Wendy. These past few months had been a roller coaster for them both; from his boss getting caught up in an explosion, taking over the MCRT after Gibbs left for Mexico, to JJ’s team being pulled into a quest by the “Fisher King” and SSA Elle Greenaway being attacked in her own home, Elle’s resignation, the North Mammon incident, some undercover work Director Shepard had started him on, Gibbs coming back a couple of times before taking over the MCRT again...

Tony shook his head and focused back on JJ. She was biting her lip and her big blue doe eyes were watching him with intent and worry. 

“You’re... I mean... are you sure?” Tony asked rather lamely.

JJ’s brows lifted as she nodded. “I took two tests. They were both positive. I’m going to make an appointment in the morning. But...” The blonde hesitated and looked away.

“Jay?” Tony whispered as he gently grasped her chin and turned her head to face him.

JJ sighed, “I thought I was hiding how exhausted I was from you, but you knew, didn’t you?” Tony nodded, and JJ continued, “I’ve been throwing up practically every morning for the past week.” Here, JJ caught a look of surprise that briefly flashed over Tony’s face. “You didn’t know that, but I suspect that’s only because you’ve had to go into work early for the case your team is currently working. Also... I’m late... so... Definitely a good chance that I’m pregnant.”

“Good chance huh?” Tony replied, one eyebrow quirked.

JJ huffed a laugh; still not sure what Tony was going to say. Tony shook his head before letting his mouth run away from him as he was wont to do when he was nervous. “Do you want me to go with you? I mean it’s okay if you don’t. I would like to but if you don’t want me there, I guess I could just wait ‘til you get back. I always wanted to be there for the ultrasound, thought that would be cool but-”

He was abruptly cut off by JJ’s had covering his mouth.

“Uh? Jay?” Tony questioned.

“I have to make the appointment first but, you actually want to go?” JJ asked before removing her hand.

“Yeah, yeah I would like to go.” Tony answered. JJ studied him for a moment before nodding.

“I’ll try to get an appointment for this weekend. If you wrap up your case by Friday, you are off rotation this week, right?” Tony nodded his head.

“Okay,” JJ said, quiet for a moment, “and if the test and ultrasound come back positive, then what?” JJ questioned.

“If the tests show we’re going to have a baby then I guess we’re going to have to figure out what we’re going to do about our living situation.” Tony blurted out.

“Our living situation?” JJ parroted back, slightly amused at Tony’s train of thought and slightly hopeful that he was saying what she thought he was saying.

“Well, we both have nice apartments, very nice apartments, though yours wasn’t the site of a bloody triple murder five years ago. But both of our apartments lack a second bedroom and well, you know, even if it did, I doubt that we’d be able to merge and blend our apartments with the sheer amount of stuff we own.” Tony got quiet at the end, hoping JJ would continue for him, that she would get it. He didn’t think he could ask her and face rejection from the mother of his child.

Though she wasn’t a profiler in title, the blonde federal agent did know a few things from having worked with the BAU for the last couple of years. She knew Tony played the part of immature frat boy but that he really was an all-in wife and kids type of guy. It certainly didn’t help that that witch Wendy had broken Tony’s heart which caused the NCIS agent to put up more walls and hide behind the frat boy persona. JJ smiled softly and cupped Tony’s cheek, “Are you saying we should find our own place? That we should move in together, raise our baby together?”

Tony studied the expressions on JJ’s face and found himself fighting back a wide small. This woman got him like no other that he’d known - let alone dated. “Yeah, yeah that’s what I’m saying.” Tony paused before continuing, “Jennifer Jareau, I’m in love with you. I know we haven’t talked in depth about marriage and kids, but I want all of that, all of that with you. Regardless of what the tests say or what happens at the appointment, I want us to move in together and start a life and family together.” Tony declared taking in a deep breath. “You know I’ve been down this road before, and it didn’t work out. Took me quite a while to see the reason for that. This time it’s different. It’s different because it’s you. You challenge me to be a better person, just being around you makes me want to do better. Will you marry me?” He just laid it all out in the open for JJ and now he was waiting to see how she was going to react. Tony was resolutely not thinking about the last time he had made himself vulnerable with a woman and how well that turned out for him.

But JJ was smiling so it couldn’t be that bad...

JJ felt the stretch of her lips as she heard all that Tony had to say.

He wanted to move in together - and not only that but he wanted for the two of them to get married! Most importantly he wanted kids! With her!

JJ leaned forward and kissed her boyfriend soundly. They broke apart minutes later to catch their breath.

“So, does this mean yes?” Tony questioned, his eyes alight with joy.

“Tony, I would loved to move in with you. More importantly, I would love to marry you and have a family with you. You are nothing like the guys I’ve dated before and I couldn’t be happier about that. I’ve never felt this way about anyone I’ve been with. You treat me like I’m the most important person in the world, like I’m precious but you don’t treat me like I’m a glass doll or someone who needs protecting - though I know you’ll be fighting right by my side against any obstacle. You make me laugh, you’re always willing to listen and offer advice or back off when I need space. I love you Tony DiNozzo.”

Tony pulled JJ close and kissed her passionately, both losing themselves in the touch of the other.

“You make me happy. I don’t know if I said that earlier, but you do. So happy.” Tony admitted, pulling her in for another kiss.

JJ laughed as Tony trailed kisses down her neck, “Is it bad to say that despite how you ended up at Quantico, I’m glad that we met?”

Tony let out a loud laugh, tucking his head into JJ’s neck and pressing a kiss there, “I guess that’s one good thing that came out of Fornell arresting me.

[acaciarosewrites]

Realization: Harry Potter Hogwarts Mystery AU one-shot

This takes place in fourth year so it’s before Afternoon by the Lake and A Midnight Prank

-

“We’re celebrating with Butterbeer tonight!” The current captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team shouted. It was soon followed by a roaring of agreement by all those who surrounded the players.

“You would think that they won the Quidditch cup and the house cup by the way they’re celebrating.” Rowan said near to Emma’s ear.

“Go easy on them Ro, they just won against Slytherin and it puts them in the lead. There is no way that Slytherin is going to make enough points even if they beat Ravenclaw in the game next week, what with the amount of points we currently have because of our last match with Hufflepuff.” Emma smiled as she caught sight of Charlie in the center of the chaos, it was his capturing the snitch that ended the game that had gone on for nearly four hours.

It was quite epic, not to mention one of the longest Quidditch matches that she had ever attended – that included the few professional matches that she had been to.

“Huh.”

Emma looked over to Rowan who was giving her a measuring look. “What?”

“How is it you know all that, yet you’ve never been particularly interested in the houses Quidditch standings before?”

Emma gave Rowan another questioning look, before shrugging her shoulders, “Charlie was telling me about it the other day.” Emma looked back towards where she last saw Charlie only to notice that he was now making his way towards them.

“Hey!” Charlie greeted them, smiling brightly. His hair was windblown, and his face was glistening with sweat and he seemed tired but overall, he was exuding excitement and happiness.

“Hey! Congratulations! You were amazing!” Emma gushed, giving him a quick hug.

“Thanks, Em!” Charlie smiled crookedly, returning the hug. “I’m gonna go get cleaned up but I wanted to invite you – the both of you,” he nodded towards the other fourth year Ravenclaw, “to the party we’re having in the Gryffindor common room. If you want that is.”

“Yeah sure! I’d—we’d love to go.” Emma answered.

“Great! I’ll see you in a little while.” Charlie replied.

Emma watched him walk away, towards the locker rooms before turning back to Rowan.

Rowan who was watching her with raised brows, high on her forehead. She was giving Emma the look that she usually gave her when she didn’t quite know how to tell her something.

“Umm… you do want to go to the party, don’t you? Bill will be there obviously, he’s one of the chasers on the team…”

Rowan shook her head. “I’m just wondering when you’ll realize…” Rowan trailed off.

“Realize what?”

“That you like Charlie.”

“What?” Emma huffed a laugh. “Of course, I like Charlie, everybody does. Well, except for the Slytherins who just lost their chance at winning the Quidditch cup this year.”

“That’s not what I meant Emma. Of course, everybody likes Charlie, but you don’t just… like him.” Rowan tilted her head forward, brows going up once, twice in quick succession.

It took her a minute before what Rowan was saying sunk in.

Emma’s eyebrows rose high on her forehead at the implications.

“No,” Emma vigorously shook her head. “We’re just really good friends. Nothing more.”

Rowan sighed heavily, “I thought you would have figured it out on your own… or at the very least Penny would be the one to talk with you…”

“Wait! Penny-what? How many people… I mean—”

“Aside from me and Penny? Just Tulip, Badeea and Andre.”

“Tulip and Badeea? That’s okay then… they’re our dorm-mates and Andre wouldn’t say anything. I’m pretty sure he would try to help me out…”

“…and Bill…” Rowan added with a grimace and shrug of her shoulders.

“Bill too?” Emma hid her face behind her hands. How embarrassing was that? Emma looked up to Bill and wanted to be just like him, on a career path to becoming a great curse breaker. And how was he going to see her now as someone who had a crush on his little brother? Was she really that bad at keeping her feelings a secret? How could that many people think that? How could she not realize that that many people thought that she had feelings for Charlie?

Emma peaked out from behind her fingers to see Rowan giving her a sympathetic look. “What about our other friends?” at her question, Rowan shook her head.

“No. It’s just the four people I mentioned. It’s not that obvious to other people. Otherwise Merula would probably have teased you about this ages ago.” Rowan tried her best to be upbeat and positive. Instead it caused Emma to groan and shake her head. That’s all she would need – for Merula to tell Charlie—

“What about… what about Charlie? Does he know?” Emma managed to ask haltingly.

“That’s quite tricky to answer…”

“Rowan!” Emma exclaimed before lowering her voice when she noticed other excited Gryffindors looking her way. “Rowan please. Do you know if Charlie knows?”

“Honestly? I don’t think he does. Charlie is so focused on Quidditch and studying everything he can about dragons… I really don’t think he does. In fact, well…”

“What?” Emma questioned urging her best friend to tell her what was going on.

“Oh Emma, I don’t want to upset you or anything. But I overheard Bill and Charlie talking. Apparently, Linda, from our year in Hufflepuff, asked Charlie out but he turned her down because he just wasn’t interested in dating anyone because there was still too much to study about dragons.”

Emma stood still and silent as she took in that information. Charlie probably didn’t know about her feelings… and if he did… well Charlie was too nice to say anything about it. Charlie was too interested in Dragons to care about dating. Which meant ultimately that the he wouldn’t be interested in dating her.

Even if Charlie was going to date someone that didn’t mean he would want to date Emma.

“Emma? Are you okay?” Rowan questioned.

Emma shook her head, “I’m fine. I’m okay.” Emma nodded, running a hand through her hair. Rowan gave her a skeptical look. “I am. It’s better to know about this now. It’ll help me… it’ll help me try to move past my… crush on him.” Emma said decidedly.

Rowan watched Emma carefully, “You know we don’t have to go to the party in the Gryffindor common room.” Rowan offered.

Emma thought about it but ultimately, she shook her head. “No. I want to go. If nothing else, Charlie is one of my best friends and I want to support him and his win.” Emma nodded decisively, hands on her hips.

Rowan smiled, proud of her best friend, “That’s the right attitude to take, Emma!”

Emma smiled back not as bright as her normal smile and retorted, “We should head on up there, you know Gryffindor parties.”

“The lion house’s unofficial name given by the rest of the students is the “party house” and they definitely live up to that every time they have anything to celebrate.” Rowan and Emma both laughed, making their way off the Quidditch pitch and heading back to the castle.

Emma would go to the party and have a good time with her friends, and she would move on from her crush on Charlie. It might take some time, but she was sure that she could do it.

She’d accomplished some pretty impossible feats before.

[acacia-rose-masen]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

She crumpled, falling at his feet, sobbing and moaning on the floor.

“My only son… my only son…”

“You should be proud!” said Bellatrix ruthlessly. “If I had sons, I would be glad to give them up to the service of the Dark Lord!”

(Narcissa Malfoy and Bellatrix Lestrange with Severus Snape in Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, chapter two: Spinner’s End).

What if Bellatrix Lestrange did have sons? Would she really be so willing to offer them up to her Dark Lord?

[acaciarosewrites]

Stopping Him part 2 - A Twilight: New Moon drabble

Part 1

Bella remained quiet while she was tucked into Edward’s side. She could feel him pressing light kisses into her hair while the arm that wasn’t wrapped around her traced lines and figures into her palm.

She had traveled all the way from Forks to Volterra – the hometown of vampire royalty – just to stop Edward from killing himself.

From the moment she had thrown herself into Edward’s arms and everything that happened afterward had been a blur of lights and shadows. Distorted, threatening voices and screams she would never forget.

She had seen and interacted with the most feared vampires in the vampire world, seen humans just like her being led to slaughter but the only thing that she was fixated on was the most… mundane, normal thing that had happened since she had arrived in Italy.

Edward had kissed her.

Edward had thought he had died and that they had ended up together in the afterlife. And he had kissed her… and she allowed him to kiss her.

What’s worse is that she had kissed him back.

Bella had kissed him even though she was starting…something… with Jacob.

She and Jacob may not have been official but there had been an understanding between the two of them. Jacob had patched her up and held her together when she had been torn down the middle by Edward leaving her. Above all else, Jacob made her happy. Happy like she didn’t have a care in the world. The last time she had felt like this was when she had spent time with Edward in the meadow.

But she didn’t know if she could leave Edward in the lurch by telling him she was sort of with someone else. He had literally traveled all this way to basically commit suicide – and not because he misguidedly thought that it was his fault that she died, either. Edward had told her, that the reason he did all of this was because he couldn’t live in a world where she no longer existed. He loved her – he still loved her – as in he had never stopped loving her. What would it do to him if she told him that after everything, they couldn’t be together?

Bella’s gaze wandered over to Alice who was talking quietly on her little silver cell phone… probably telling the rest of the Cullens that we stopped Edward from… angering the Volturi… and giving them flight information.

Bella bit her lip as she turned so that her face was pressed into Edward’s chest. If this had been Jacob, she would be overheated but it was Edward, so she was nice and cool in this stuffy and humid little airport. This also served a dual purpose of having her face hidden – Edward may not have been able to read her thoughts, but he was actually pretty good at reading her expressions and guessing her thoughts.

Bella had never explicitly told Alice what she and Jake were, she just told her they were family friends and she was also pretty sure that Charlie never told Alice anything about her and Jake during Alice’s morning inquisition. Which could mean that Alice didn’t know. And that was a strange thought because Alice always knew things except… Alice didn’t know that Jake had saved her from drowning because she couldn’t see Jake…

The light snap of the phone closing had Bella looking over toward Alice.

“Carlisle said he and the rest of the family would meet us at the airport in Port Angeles. They’ve just arrived at the house in Forks. They’re unpacking and cleaning everything up.” Alice said aloud for Bella’s benefit. She was staring at Edward though probably having more of a conversation in their heads. Bella was proved correct when Edward gave the barest of head nods toward Alice.

“Don’t worry. We’ll be home soon.” Edward murmured before leaning down and kissing Bella on the lips.

The brown-eyed girl had the brief thought that she should tell Edward before he and his entire family moved back to town before she lost herself in the kiss.

Do you have to?

The thought came out of the dark recesses of her mind.

Did she have to?

Nobody else really knew. It’s not like she had told her friends at school. Charlie knew she and Jake had gotten close, but she had insisted to Charlie just last weekend that the two were only friends, like family. It’s not like the Cullens would be hanging out with the Quileute wolves.

So… did she have to tell Edward anything?

[acaciarosewrites]

For Their Family: Harry Potter AU one-shot

January 1982

James Potter stood silently staring out his bedroom window as his wife, Lily, slept fitfully in their bed. She was worried, they both were. There was a war going on in the wizarding world. One that was going long before they graduated from Hogwarts. The Ministry and the Order were doing their best against Voldemort and his Death Eaters. Most days it seemed that their best wasn’t good enough. Lily and James had been removed from the fighting for quite some time now.

Ever since Albus Dumbledore had come to tell him and his wife that their newborn son was a possible candidate for a prophecy concerning Voldemort. He had urged his past students to go into hiding without even telling them what the prophecy was all about exactly. The two of them had been alarmed and Lily, exhausted from giving birth the night before, had agreed immediately but James had put his foot down wanting to know exactly what the prophecy said, to get a better idea on how to protect his son – if this was even about his son.

With great reluctance their former headmaster told them the prophecy that he had been informed of by Sybil Trelawney – who, for her safety, was now the new Divination professor at Hogwarts – in its entirety. After hearing the whole thing, word for word, James had agreed that they should take heavy precautions, but he didn’t understand why they should have to go into hiding.

That was when Dumbledore explained that part of the prophecy had been overheard by one of Voldemort’s death eaters – the identifying part of the prophecy at that. He really ought to have mentioned that first when he was trying to convince them to go into hiding.

But go into hiding they did.

They had had the Potter house-elves pack up and store everything that was of sentimental or monetarily valuable and abandoned everything else in their two-story cottage home in Godric’s Hollow. The three Potters had moved around the various homes or safe houses that had been set up for occasions such as this by previous family members.

Harry had only been hours old when they were told of the prophecy; it was now eighteen months to the day since they had gotten that news. James and Lily had celebrated their son’s first birthday six months ago with as much enthusiasm as they could. The parents did the same at Christmastime just a few weeks ago but their hearts were so weighed down with worry… well it was good thing Harry was still so young – he probably wouldn’t remember his parents’ behavior in the long run. It was hard on the parents without their friends to help celebrate their son and the holidays with them. The small family was currently staying in Potter Manor, one of the more heavily warded places that the family owned. They’d been here for the past twelve weeks – the longest they had stayed at any of the Potter properties.

They should have left by now, but they were running out of options, of places to hide. As much as they needed the help, the Potters had decided it would be too risky to involve anyone outside of the two of them. This especially hurt James as he considered Sirius, Remus, and Peter to be more than just his friends from school. They were his brothers. He deemed it the height of dishonor not to entrust his fellow Marauders with everything that was going on with the plans around protecting Harry… but it was Harry, his son – his heir.

And while he would never believe that his friends would betray his family there could be slip ups that could get around to other people… people that weren’t necessarily on their side. The last time they had been in contact with Dumbledore – nearly eight months ago – he had revealed to them about several incidences that had occurred where operations were unsuccessful and how Voldemort and his Death Eaters were three steps ahead of them. If there was a mole – and it was more than possible that there indeed was – Lily and James didn’t want any information about their whereabouts to get back to them.

James turned to look at Lily once more. She had finally settled down, though he noticed that even in sleep his wife’s brow was furrowed with tension. Her hands were resting protectively over her baby bump.

The messy-haired man walked away from the window and around the bed so that he was on Lily’s side. James reached out and gently stroked the side of Lily’s face with the back of his knuckles.

To say it was a shock finding out Lily was pregnant once more was an understatement. The two former Gryffindors didn’t even know how to feel about having a second child when they were already in hiding to protect their first child from an obviously psychotic madman.

But they were having a second child – and he or she was due in about three months’ time, towards the end of March.

“What are we going to do, James?”

James snapped his eyes up from Lily’s belly to see her staring, worriedly, up at him.

“I didn’t mean to wake you, Angel Face. You should get back to sleep, you need the rest, Love.” James responded instead of answering his wife’s question.

Lily couldn’t help the involuntary smile at hearing the pet names James had called her since they had started dating in their seventh year – there were others, many others, but those two were special to her – and shook her head at the obvious avoidance of her question.

“James. I’m… I’m terrified. Voldemort launched an all-out attack on Longbottom Manor just a few weeks ago. Frank and Alice barely got away with Neville. We can’t keep moving around the same safe-houses… we… we need to find a more permanent solution.”

James sighed, “I know. I know we do… it’s… I’m…” James trailed off and looked away from Lily.

Lily reached up and wrapped one of her hands around the one of James’ that was still resting against her cheek. She gave it a light squeeze before shifting so that she could sit up in bed. It was a bit of a struggle and her husband immediately helped her sit up. Once she was situated, the redhead cupped her husband’s face between her hands and gently tilted his head so that he was staring her directly in the eyes.

“You ever just stop and think that we’re just too young?” James asked out of nowhere.

Lily lifted a brow, “How do you mean?”

“We’re twenty-one years old. We graduated three years ago and since then we’ve gotten married, jumped right into fighting Voldemort and Death Eaters while trying to start careers before starting a family and immediately going into hiding. And it’s not like we had an easy time of it in school either. Voldemort was hanging over us like a dark cloud since our third year. It got really bad in fifth year… and then sixth year happened…” James trailed off and sighed, looking down at the space between them.

Lily could easily see what James meant. He was right they were young. Yet, they had already experienced so much. Death and war, betrayals and loss…

The redhead moved forward so she could lock eyes with her husband once more.

“It wasn’t all bad. Hogwarts wasn’t all that bad. Getting married, having Harry, and – even though there is a war going on – having this new baby… that’s not bad. I’d say it’s pretty damn special.” Lily said causing James to look directly in her sparkling green eyes. James chuckled as he rested one hand on Lily’s baby bump and leaned forward, so his forehead was resting against Lily’s forehead.

“Having our son and this new baby, getting married and doing all of this with you is pretty damn special. You’re right – as you so often tell me.” Lily managed another small smile before James’ lips were on hers, giving her a slow sweet kiss. James pulled away and continued in a low whisper, “You say you’re terrified, and I want nothing more than to reassure you that we’re going to be fine, but I can’t do that. I’m… I’m terrified too. I’m terrified I won’t be able to protect you or our children when the time comes and I keep trying to come up with plans, ideas, anything… I’ve got a couple ideas but…” James shook head as he revealed to his wife that he might not be able to protect his family.

“Oh James,” Lily murmured before enveloping her husband in a warm hug. “you don’t have to come up with everything on your own. I can help… now listen here, Potter,” Lily warned when James made a sound as if to interrupt her, “You just said that doing this together was worth all the difficult times we had to endure. So, we are going to figure out how to protect our family together.” James couldn’t help the smile he felt forming on his face for Lily had stated the last bit using the same tone that she did back in Hogwarts as Head Girl when she caught out younger students violating the rules.

“I love you; you know that?” James told his wife more than asked.

“I know.” Lily answered smugly before kissing James. “I love you too.” She said simply before kissing him once again.

When they broke apart, they remained silent for a few minutes before James revealed to Lily something he had been thinking of for a while now.

“We could leave.” James said.

Lily quirked a brow, “Leave?”

“England – the United Kingdom… we could leave. You, me, Harry… the baby… we could start over. Somewhere else… like the States or Australia. Somewhere far away from Voldemort and this war.” James explained.

Lily’s brows scrunched together as she thought about her husband’s idea. “We’d have to leave soon.” Lily thought aloud.

“We would.” James answered.

“Would we? We would need money and documents…”

“We have all the important documents for both the wizarding and muggle worlds in that portfolio briefcase we’ve been carrying between safe-houses since this all started. As for money we’ve got plenty of money on hand in this house. We might need to exchange galleons for pounds… but we have do have some muggle money stashed here too.” James answered.

“If we started over… what would happen to all the Potter properties?” Lily questioned.

“I’ve been moving a lot of the valuables and other family heirlooms either here or into the family vaults at Gringotts… as for the properties themselves… They are all warded, we’ve both added extra protections each time we stayed at one of them… and even if Voldemort or his minions enter… well we won’t be there.” James shrugged.

Lily considered everything her husband said for a moment before shaking her head, smile in place, “… and you said you only had ideas.”

“So, it was more than idea than I thought.”

“Where would you want to go? You said the States or Australia?”

“Either one, they’re both big enough countries that we can get lost in… especially if we don’t interact with the wizarding communities.”

“You’d live the Muggle life? Even get a job in the Muggle world?” Lily questioned surprised.

“If you or I got a job in the Wizarding world, in either countries, they would probably want references and it could get back to the ministry and the ministry…” James explained.

“The ministry has its share of spies working for Voldemort.” Lily finished.

“Exactly.”

“You realized that if we tried to get jobs in the Muggle world… well, we’re not really qualified for much of anything.”

“True… except…” James trailed off.

“What?” Lily questioned.

“Well, Lily Love, you’ve never actually cared to know about my family’s finances… you were very determined to contribute to our family by working and… well… suffice it to say, we never actually needed to work. Wherever we move to we could live out our lives as full time parents or we could get the schooling and training we needed to get Muggle jobs.”

Lily sat silently contemplating what her husband had said. Finally, she raised her head, eyebrows raised and asked, “Do I even want to know how much money your family has?”

“Enough that our great-grandchildren’s grandchildren will be comfortable.”

“Do you even know what you would do if you got a job in the Muggle world?” Lily questioned as she decided to focus on the second of her husband’s suggestions.

“Not really… no…” James admitted with a smile, “but I’m sure I’d find something eventually.”

Lily shook her head at James’s confidence. “Okay.”

“Okay?” James probed; head tilted to side.

“Okay, as in let’s pick a country, pack up our son and get out of here.” Lily determined.

James laughed as he ducked down to kiss his wife on the lips.

---

Less than a week later, James and Lily had crossed the pond with their son and settled in the bustling city of New York. It wasn’t their first choice, but after discussing it they decided getting lost in huge city would be beneficial for their family.

[acaciarosewrites]

A Midnight Prank: Harry Potter Hogwarts Mystery AU one-shot

“If I die, I’m haunting you first.” Emma told Tonks as they made their way through the east tower corridor towards the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom.

“You’re not going to die!” Tonks said as she led the way, hiking up the knapsack that she had hanging on her shoulder.

Emma threw Tonks a skeptical look. “It’s Rakepick. Sneaking into her class to set up a huge prank that will make her look like… well like a fool? She already broke my first wand for trying to take her on. She’ll kill me. If she kills me, I’m haunting you.”

“You have a point—”

“Thank-you.”

“Except, after she kills you, Rakepick will kill me for also sneaking into her classroom and pranking her to look like a fool.”

Emma shook her head, “Why did I agree to do this again?”

“Because you’re a good friend and you like helping others.”

“You sound very confident about that.” Emma muttered as she knelt to unlock the door, muggle fashion. “You haven’t even told me what you’re going to do to her.” Emma said as she heard the lock click and she pushed the door open.

“How do you know how to do that again?” Tonks said, appreciatively.

“Jacob. He taught me. He learned it from one of his Muggleborn friends.”

“I need to learn that.”

“I’ll teach you. If you tell me what all this is for.” Emma tried to reason with the metamorphmagus.

“That’s for me to know and you to find out.” Tonks smirked as she walked forward, Emma threw her an unimpressed look as she stood in the entrance of the classroom to keep watch.

Behind her, Tonks was pulling objects out of her bag. The pink-haired teen was soon running around the classroom setting up all her prank items.

It was maybe half an hour later before Tonks came back over to Emma, nodding her head in satisfaction.

“Are you done then?” Emma asked sarcastically.

“Why yes, yes, I am.” Tonks said, not concerning herself with Emma’s tone. “Now let’s get out of here.” The two quickly exited the DADA classroom, making sure to close and lock the door.

They were half-way down the corridor when they noticed a pair of glowing eyes up ahead of them.

“Mrs. Norris!” Emma gasped.

“What do we do?” Tonks said turning to Emma.

“What do you mean what do we do? We run!” Emma whisper yelled, pulling Tonks by the sleeve towards a side corridor that they could hopefully lose the hissing cat in.

They quickly ran down the corridor and slipped into an alcove behind a suit of armor. They held their breath as they heard animal paws against stone and human footsteps jogging along.

“They can’t have gotten far, Mrs. Norris. We’ll catch those nasty rule-breakers. See about giving the shackles proper use, yet.” They heard Filch’s rasping voice say.

Tonks and Emma kept completely still as they waited for them to pass. Several minutes after they were sure Filch and Mrs. Norris were gone the two slowly exited from the alcove.

“That was close.” Tonks whispered.

“Yeah,” Emma agreed, “I’m actually surprised you haven’t tripped over your feet yet. No offense, but you are pretty clumsy.” Emma shrugged.

“Well, when it comes to an important mission such as this, I can be quite graceful.” Tonks boasted as she casually leaned back. Unfortunately, she leaned farther back than she meant to and knocked into the suit of armor which wobbled back and forth dangerously before falling to the ground with a loud crash.

The prefect and the prankster watched it go down with wide eyes before they started running. The noise would be bringing Filch back fast. Emma and Tonks quickly went in the opposite direction heading towards Ravenclaw House. They made it in record time.

“Quick! Give the password and let’s get inside!” Tonks urged the Ravenclaw.

“We don’t get in by password.” Emma responded.

“What do you mean you don’t get in by password? How do you—”

“It’s a riddle. The knocker gives you a riddle and you answer it.” Emma answered, indicating the bronze, eagle-shaped door knocker.

Tonks stared. “You’re having me on, aren’t you?”

“I’m not.”

“But what if you get the answer wrong?”

“You can always try again or wait for someone to come along and hope they can solve it.”

“We don’t exactly have that luxury, Emma!” Tonks exclaimed; eyebrows high on her forehead.

Emma rolled her eyes, “Keep it down. May we have the riddle, please?”

“I can be deep, I can be powerful, I can be complex, blind, difficult, and profound at the same time. What am I?” Came the soft, musical voice of the bronze eagle.

Emma tilted her head as she considered her answer, “I believe the answer is love.” Emma nodded her head.

“A wise response.” The knocker replied before the door swung open.

The teens quickly entered the Ravenclaw Common Room, door closing behind them.

“What if that was an emergency?” Tonks exclaimed.

“Flitwick and Dumbledore would be able to get through if it were truly an emergency. I suppose any teacher would. But Flitwick usually loves solving these riddles too. They help you learn.” Emma shrugged walking further into the room. Tonks followed her with a considering look on her face.

“You do realize any other student could get into your Common Room if they were so inclined.”

“Oh, they’ve tried.” Emma responded. “But most witches and wizards don’t have the patience to reason out logical answers – even if they are a bit obvious.”

“And how was your answer obvious?” Tonks questioned.

“Honestly, the part of the riddle that mentioned it was complex and difficult reminded me of my relationship with Jacob. I love my brother, but I just wish that he would come home and explain himself, explain why he was working with all these dodgy characters. It would be nice to be told the truth for once instead of having to search for the answers myself.”

Tonks nodded as she looked around the common room. “I think you guys might have more books here than the actual library.”

“It grows every year.” Emma noticed the questioning look on Tonks’s face and continued, “At the end of the year, the seventh years donate a couple of textbooks or reference books of their choice to the bookshelves. It certainly helps when looking for additional sources.”

“What if they give copies of books already donated?”

“Some of the books here do have copies, some don’t. If a graduating Ravenclaw gives a copy of a book it’s placed in the archives. Basically, there is an entire floor beneath this one, above our dorms, that has a section for copies. It’s become a challenge for those donating to give a book that hasn’t been donated before so there are a lot of unique books.”

“Something tells me there’s something special about the books in the archives…” Tonks mused.

“All the books are special.” Emma declared, “But… the books in the archives are ones that aren’t even in the Hogwarts Library.”

“Wow,” Tonks murmured, before throwing a teasing look Emma’s way, “who knew a secret library could be so cool.”

Emma once again rolled her eyes before indicating the couch near the window, “You can sleep there. We have some extra throw blankets in the dresser next to it. They’re washed every day by the house elves.”

Tonks wandered over to said dresser and pulled out a couple of blankets. “Why do you have blankets in your common room?”

“Suffice it to say, more than a few of us haven’t made it to bed after binge-studying for exams – the fifth and seventh years especially.”

Tonks laughed, “Thanks Emma.” The metamorphmagus smiled.

“You’re welcome Tonks.” Emma smiled walking over to the spiral staircase.

“Oh, and Emma?” Tonks called, “You wanted to know why I was pranking Rakepick?”

At that, Emma whirled around, “You’re actually going to tell me?”

Tonks nodded, “I might have taken something Jae said as a dare.”

“You might have?” Emma could already feel the disbelief forming on her face.

“Jae said that if anybody was brave enough to prank Rakepick it would be a Gryffindor. Okay, so maybe I took it as a challenge.” Tonks admitted.

“Alright… and the reason for the multiple pranks?”

“Well… Rakepick is one of the best Defense professors we’ve ever had. She might be able to detect that somebody had been in her classroom and set up a few traps. There are layers to this Emma. If she sets off one prank in one area, they won’t all go off. It’s pretty genius, if I say so myself.”

“If Rakepick kills me, I’m haunting you.” Emma declared as she walked down the stairs to her dorm, Tonks’s laughter following her as she went.

[acaciarosewrites]

Stopping Him - A Twilight: New Moon drabble

Not related to my previous Twilight drabble.

When Bella had realized that Edward was a vampire, she was blown away by it all – everything that she thought she knew was completely wrong or twisted into different, more horrifying details to scare the masses. Who would honestly be scared by vampires if they were lucky to glimpse them in direct sunlight? When she had seen Edward for the first time, on that hike, it was breathtaking. She had moved forward with no conscious thought just to be nearer to his beauty.

When Bella had known that Edward was a vampire, she realized that eventually he would have to leave. He had said so himself, vampires don’t age – the younger they started out, the longer they could stay. But they didn’t usually stay in one place for longer than five or six years. Bella knew that they had already been in Forks for five years. On some level Bella had known they would be leaving soon.

And they did leave.

Without her.

She thought they would take her with them – that Edward would take her with him.

But he had left her behind and she… she had not handled that well. Not at all.

If it wasn’t for her dad and Jacob and the rest of the wolf pack, she didn’t know what she would have done.

And now she was on a plane with Alice on her way to Italy, more specifically the home town of the vampire rulers, to stop Edward from doing something monumentally stupid.

Bella couldn’t believe she was doing this, but she had to stop Edward from killing himself. Especially over her. For some insane reason he thought that her supposed death was his fault. Edward always told her that she should stop and think, not to be too reckless, not to do anything dangerous and yet here he was doing all the things he told her not to do. Which, again, stupid. He had his whole family to think about. He could truly find his mate. The one that was supposed to be with him for all of eternity. It still hurt to think about, that it wouldn’t be the two of them together ‘til the end of time but she would get over it. She would move on.

She had already started to.

And wasn’t that the craziest thing.

She had started to move on with the help of Jacob Black and the rest of those crazy wolves.

Who would have thought that such a thing could happen? Not her, that was for sure. But she had started moving passed the pain and heartache that Edward had left in his abrupt departure and she was happy.

Bell and Jacob weren’t together, not yet, but it was headed that way.

She was happy.

The only reason that Bella was on this plane was to stop Edward from doing this completely idiotic act. She knew that when her dad found out, he would be furious with her, but she had to do it. Jacob was already upset with her for leaving with Alice, but he would have to get over it and understand that she was only doing this to help somebody. Werewolves might think that vampires were soulless monsters, but she had gotten to know these vampires – they were just as human as the werewolves.

She would stop Edward and then she would go home.

Back to her dad, her life… back to Jacob.

She would stop Edward and go back home to Jacob.

She would stop him and go home.

She would.

[acaciarosewrites]

Untitled (and Unfinished) HP Black Family AU

So I was looking through my files and I found this that I had written forever ago. Posting it here because I have no plans to continue it at this time.. maybe someday I’ll come back to it, who knows?

Electra Black sighed as she glanced around the darkly decorated sitting room. She was utterly and completely bored. There was nothing to do – aside from lessons with her grandmother, Walburga Black, that had thankfully been cancelled.

The dark-haired ten-year-old girl supposed she was bored because she knew something big was happening. After all, her grandmother did not cancel these family heir lessons for any little thing that could not wait or be solved on its own. No, whatever the reason it was cancelled, it was down to something big happening.

It had to be, what with the number of Black family members that had shown up at Grimmauld Place in the past hour. Electra had been the one to escort them from the Floo room just off the entrance hall on the first floor all the way to the “War Room” that was across from the kitchen on the basement level.

By every Black, she meant every Black.

Her great-grandfather Arcturus had shown up first along with her other great-grandfather Pollux and great aunt Cassiopeia. Minutes after the eldest Blacks had spoken to Walburga the four had sequestered themselves in the barely used War Room with orders to escort any member of the family that arrived straight to that room. And she had done so. Each time trying to glean any information and generally trying to understand the situation that was happening in the few seconds the door was open - and subsequently slammed closed.

Only members of the family that had been born into the family were allowed at the meeting. Her great-grandfather Arcturus had made sure to emphasize that distinction. Cousin Narcissa’s husband had learned that the hard way after being turned away by Arcturus himself. she had told Malfoy only those that were born a Black were being let into the room. The self-entitled prick had pouted worse than she ever had in her life (primarily being raised by her grandmother had taught Electra that if she wanted to pout, Walburga would give her something to pout about).

Lucius left not long after that. Thank Salazar. She was bored, but she was not that bored that she would have accepted his company.

Electra mused that the most intriguing thing, if no the most perplexing, thing to happen today was not even the meeting itself. It was that Andromeda Tonks nee Black had shown up and was welcomed into the War Room with not even a peep out of her grandmother. The world was truly coming to an end. There was no love lost between Walburga and her father’s favorite cousin. Then again, Cedrella Weasley was also down there and World War III hadn’t started - yet.

Electra had barely gotten the idea to wait near the door of the War Room to glean any information she could when the meeting adjourned and the family left before she was crossing the hall when noise from the Floo room caught her attention.

Surely there were no other members of her family left to come to the meeting! The only living members, aside from herself, were her father and cousin Bellatrix and they were both imprisoned within Azkaban.

Walking over to the room in question, Electra poked her head through the half open door. Standing in the center of the room was a familiar and haggard man that stood roughly six feet with sandy brown hair and amber flecked green eyes - eyes that had always seemed warm despite their contrasting colors.

“Papa?” Electra exclaimed, rushing forward into the open arms of her father’s husband.

“Hello El.” Remus smiled as he wrapped his arms around the ten-year-old he had seen only a handful of times over the years.

“Papa, what are you doing here?” Electra questioned as she pulled back slightly from the hug to peer up at him. “Not that I’m not happy to see you! Electra was quick to reassure him.

Remus chuckled and shook his head, “I know. Not often we are able to see each other.” They both shared commiserating looks.

Electra had only been just over a year old when Sirius was arrested and imprisoned in Azkaban for his alleged crimes. Remus was her father’s husband and her stepfather, but he didn’t have any claim over her because there was no blood relation despite Sirius’ wishes and directives. She would have gone to her godparents, but James and Lily Potter were murdered by the Dark Lord. As it was there was a custody... dispute... that immediately sprang up after her father’s imprisonment. Her grandmother, backed by the Black elders, had petitioned for her custody as had Electra’s biological mother, Priscilla Rowle.

In the end, Electra had been removed from Remus’ care and given to the Blacks to raise. The girl wasn’t an idiot. She knew the only reason that they wanted her was because she was the rightful heir to the Black Family. While Walburga Black may have burned Sirius’ name off the family tapestry and disowned him, Arcturus Black was still the head of the family and he had not disowned his grandson. Seeing as how his only son Orion had predeceased him and Regulus had died before having children, Sirius was the only male Black that qualified as an heir. Though his incarceration had complicated matters, Arcturus figured Electra would be a better heir to the family than Draco Malfoy would.

Of course, though her mother had not gained custody of her, she was given visitation. When Electra was seven years old she had overheard an argument between her mother and grandmother. It was a horrible fight that had scared her, but she learned some interesting and important things that night.

Nobody talked about her father. She knew his name, knew he was in Azkaban. But that was all she had known up to that point. Electra had found out that he had a husband, that she had a stepfather - one who had taken care of her and loved her as if she were his own.

One who had loved her enough to try and appeal to Priscilla Rowle to allow him to send letters and gifts to his daughter.

Electra had debated about what to do with this information for days. On the one hand, there was no way that she would get to see her stepfather. After the long and hard-fought custody battles that had taken place after her father was arrested and the fact that she was isolated from the outside world - excluding members of her family - and there was the fact that no one even talked about her father and the few things she had managed to overhear... well she knew that no one would allow her to see her father’s husband.

On the other hand, no one knew she knew about her stepfather. No one had to know if she was writing to him. And no one had to know if she was meeting him when the opportunity presented itself.

So, in the end Electra had contacted Remus Lupin-Black. Sending him a letter (one that had taken twenty different forms before she decided to just explain how she had come to know about him and how much she would like to meet him and know more about him and her father. She had gotten a reply and soon the two were owling each other, always careful to ensure that their letters to and from Electra were sent in the dead of night. Electra made sure that the letters her Papa (as she had dubbed him) were locked away in a box that only she could open that was given to her by great-aunt Cassiopeia.

The very first time she met Remus after beginning to owl him was when she was eight years old. Her grandmother was called away by Black Family business and the raven-haired girl had assured she would be alright on her own. After all, they had a house elf that could watch over her. With portkey (probably illegally made) that would take her back home in a second in hand, she had Kreacher apparate her into Malfoy Manor. It didn’t take much for her to convince Kreacher to allow her to visit her cousin Draco and spend time over there. Once he was gone she took the Floo over to the Leaky Cauldron before exiting out in the hustle and bustle of Muggle London. Her Papa had met her a few buildings over. It was all Remus could do but to simply lead her to the city park a few blocks away where they would end up talking for hours.

They got to know one another well after that. She learned more about her father and stepfather about her deceased godparents and the little bit he knew about her god-brother – the famous Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived – that was sent to live with muggle relatives for his safety.

She had also learned that her dad was innocent of the crimes he was imprisoned for.

Remus had told her on that first face-to-face meeting that Sirius had not been the secret keeper for the Potters as everyone believed. They had hatched a plan to have people believe that he was the secret keeper as a misdirect to keep Peter Pettigrew out of the line of fire. And who would believe that Peter was their secret keeper when Sirius Black was James’ best friend and the best man at his and Lily’s wedding? Nobody. They had thought they were so clever. When everything had happened that Halloween night, Sirius had gotten a bad feeling and left Electra with Remus and told his husband that he was going to check on Peter. From there Remus could only guess how everything went down.

Peter had betrayed them. He had betrayed James and Lily to Voldemort and Sirius had gone after him.

Things got confusing after that. Sirius had been arrested after killing Peter and a street full of muggles.

Remus had finally been granted a visit to see his husband in Azkaban. He had only been granted his request because he had gone to Dumbledore and told him he needed to do so to move on, to heal from the betrayal.

It was there in Azkaban, that Sirius had told him what had happened. How Peter had betrayed them all by joining Voldemort, how he had tricked him and caused the explosion that killed the muggles and had cut his own finger off before transforming into his secret Animagus form (a rat, how telling).

Sirius had informed Remus that Peter was still out there. He had also implored his husband not to go to anyone with this. They would not waste any time in throwing a werewolf into Azkaban for causing a stir.

It was a lot for the young girl to take in, but she trusted Remus. She didn’t know how but she knew the older man was telling her the truth – she had always had the knack for knowing when someone was telling her the truth or straight up lying to her face.

Remus had then told her he’d been spending his years trying to hunt down any leads on Pettigrew and where he had gone to ground after the fall of Voldemort and his Death Eaters.

Electra had shaken her head as she focused on Remus. While she had taken every opportunity to see her Papa over the years, he had never been to Grimmauld Place. It was too risky. And now that every member of the family who was born into the family and was of age were currently in the War Room it was not a good idea for him to be casually entering the ancestral home.

“Papa? What? You shouldn’t be here! If they found out... you know that they are all here? Something’s happened but I don’t know what and—”

Remus silenced her by holding up a letter. “It’s fine El. I was formally invited.” Electra immediately recognized Grandfather Arcturus’ scrawling script, beautiful and masculine, with her Papa’s name on the front.

“What’s going on?” Electra practically demanded.

“Your dad escaped Azkaban.”

“What!” the raven headed girl practically shrieked.

“Your dad escaped Azkaban.”

“How? Why? Have you seen him? Do they know?”

Remus chuckled lightly, “Marauder secret. He found out where the rat was. Yes. And if you mean your last question to be about your family, yes. If you mean the last question about the Aurors, that’s a yes as well.”

Electra took in the information and nodded.

“Did he get the rat?”

“We were at an advantage. The dementors didn’t realize your dad was gone for two days. He made excellent time. The rat didn’t know we were coming. We have him caged. The only question is what happens now.” Remus pulled a folded newspaper from his traveling robe. It was the morning edition of the Daily Prophet. “SIRIUS BLACK ON THE RUN! YOU-KNOW-WHO’S NUMBER ONE ESCAPES THE INESCAPABLE!” could clearly be read across the top of the paper with a moving picture of her father chained around the arms and legs while holding up a placard with his Azkaban ID number, clearly screaming at the person who had taken the photo.

Electra looked away from the paper, a questioning look on her face.

“I’m here to see how your family is going to handle this.”

“You intend to tell them of his innocence?’ Electra was surprised. Most of the people in that room wouldn’t lift a finger to help her father and those who were kinder, who still spoke to her father after everything had turned their backs and washed their hands of him when Remus had tried to explain his husband’s innocence.

“I plan to remind them that Sirius never had a trial, was never officially convicted, that he’s still the heir to the Black Family, and that he’s basically been kidnapped and held hostage by our government for the past nine years. How they respond is up to them.” Electra couldn’t help but to nod in agreement. That was probably all for the best. “Where is this War Room?”

“Down the stairs, first door on the left.” She said as she led him out of the Floo Room and over to the staircase that led to the basement level of the house.

“I’m going to have to wait out here, aren’t I?”

“You could,” Remus smirked at her, “Or you could go across the street and hang out in the small court yard for a bit.” He threw back over his shoulder as he descended the steps to the basement.

Electra was frozen as she watched her Papa knock on the War Room door before being permitted to enter. She didn’t even stick around to watch the door close behind him. The ten-year-old was racing down the hall and out the front door. She barely paused to look both ways before crossing the street.

Electra’s silver-grey eyes scanned the courtyard carefully before she caught sight of the reflective canine eyes peering through the bushes. Eyes that were focused directly at her.

She held her breath as a large Grim-like dog emerged slowly, as if he was trying not to frighten her.

[acaciarosewrites]

Afternoon by the Lake: Harry Potter Hogwarts Mystery AU one-shot

“I swear, Filch keeps trying to get me into trouble.”

Emma looked up as Tonks plonked down on the ground beside her. She raised a brow as the Hufflepuff’s hair was noticeably (or rather not noticeably) a muddy brown color.

“Perhaps if you hadn’t of pranked the man for the fourth time in one week and kept your head down, he might have left you alone.” Penny Haywood replied from where she was lounging on her back, eyes closed, face tilted up towards the sun.

It was an unusually bright and warm day in the last week of February. They had just finished lessons for the day and the group of them had decided to enjoy the nice weather while they could. Rowan was resting in the shade of the tree, a huge book resting in her lap, while Andre sat next to her reviewing some new designs he had been thinking about. Ben and Barnaby were both in similar positions on either side of Penny. Charlie was lying on his front, to her left, flipping through a biography on Newt Scamander. Tulip was on the other side of him scratching away on a random piece of parchment, asking Jae about some shipment or another that she probably didn’t want to know about. Liz was closest to the Black Lake trying to get the attention of the giant squid while Badeea sketched out her attempts. Diego was a little way away, flirting with some girls in the year above them.

It was a good day, Emma mused as Tonks huffed about Filch not knowing how to take a joke. It was OWLs year and they would no doubt be busy with the upcoming assignments and lessons, but they were just enjoying this reprieve from work that they had been granted. As a Ravenclaw, she should probably be more concerned about her work but for once Emma wasn’t concerned about school, or Merula, or even the cursed vaults. A part of her was upset at not using the time to investigate any possible leads on finding her brother but another part of her was just glad to have this time with her friends. Personally, she thought that she was spending more and more time on the vaults and Jacob with Madame Rakepick than just having fun and being there for her friends. They were always there for her when she needed them, but she just wished she could return the favor.

Emma watched as Tonks crawled passed her and Charlie over to Tulip so that they could continue the argument that the two had been having since third year about who was the better prankster.  She had a feeling the two would be getting into a prank war if the rest of the group didn’t put a stop to it.

Emma turned away from the two pranksters and looked out at the Black Lake to continue her musing. More often than not, Emma was dragging them into trouble and dangerous situations and they all willingly followed her even though more than a few of them had ended up in the hospital wing.

Before she could go down the rabbit hole these thoughts were bringing out in her, she was startled by someone grabbing her hand.

Emma looked down at the larger hand firmly wrapped around her tan one before looking into the knowing face of Charlie Weasley. The book he was reading had been turned over and his sole attention seemed to be on her.

“Whatever you’re thinking, it’s not true.” He murmured lightly.

“Oh really? And how would you know what I’m thinking?” Emma asked, eyebrow raised in slight challenge.

“I don’t know what exactly you’re thinking. But whatever it is, it’s not very good.”

Emma tilted her head to the side as she regarded Charlie, his cerulean blue eyes were locked on hers and she knew she wouldn’t be able to lie to him.

“Do you think I spend to much time on the cursed vaults? Trying to find out what happened to my brother? Do you think I’ve been… taking advantage of you all?” Emma asked plainly.

Charlie moved so that he was now sitting upright, his book abandoned.

He was still holding her hand.

“Emma. You are a good friend, a great friend. You’ve always done your best to help everyone. To help anyone who’s ever needed help – even if you didn’t know them. Even people who have been nothing but mean to you.” Charlie nodded his head across the lake where a group of Slytherins were lounging, Merula Snyde and Ismelda Murke among them. “It’s not like you’re forcing us, we all choose to help you. Every single one of us. We all want to help with the cursed vaults, we all want you to find out what happened to your brother. Whoever has been attacking you, threatening you, is going to wish they had left you and your brother alone. I’ve no doubt that you will find out whose been behind everything. It’s only a matter of time. Until then, we will continue to help you. Whether you like it or not.”

Emma had grown slack-jawed at Charlie’s words. Before she could even begin to open her mouth, another voice stopped her from speaking.

“Charlie’s right you know, Emma.” Penny spoke up from her spot a few feet away, smiling as Emma turned to look at her. “You think, after all these years we would follow you on your adventures if we thought you were intentionally trying to hurt us?”

“Not likely.” Tonks chimed in.

“Emma Stark. Seriously, you are the least selfish person I know. You may want to find the cursed vaults, but it’s never been about proving you could find them for the glory of it all.” Tulip stated, giving Emma a look that said unlike me.

“Tulip’s right Emma! You started looking into the vaults to find out what happened to your brother! That’s very brave of you. But you’ve also never put finding out about the vaults or Jacob above our well-being.” Ben smiled over at her.

The rest of her friends were immediately echoing what all their other friends were saying.

“You guys…” Emma muttered ducking her head, a little embarrassed, but ultimately having that good feeling glowing inside her.

“If it weren’t for you, we probably wouldn’t be friends.”

Emma snapped her head up to look over at Barnaby who had just spoken.

“How do you figure?” Emma questioned with a raised brow and tilt of her head.

“Some of us might have been friends – we all would have been friends with Penny, but we wouldn’t have been friends with each other. The reason we are is because of you. You got to know all of us at different times and brought us together.” Barnaby declared with a nod of his head.

“Huh,” Tulip murmured, “That was very profound, Barnaby Lee.”

“That it was.” Penny smiled over at Barnaby.

Barnaby blushed, “Well it’s the truth.”

A slight pressure on her hand had her looking over at Charlie. Charlie was smiling his crooked smile, the one she loved the most, knowing look in his eyes as if to say I told you so.

“Thank-you. All of you, thank-you. I couldn’t have done any of the things I’ve done without you helping me.”

There were rounds of “you’re welcomes” and “of course,” and “always happy to help” that came from all around Emma.

Emma turned back to Charlie, “Thank-you.” She whispered.

“Anytime, Emma, anytime.”

“Guess who just got a date to Hogsmeade with the most popular girl in sixth year?”

Everyone turned around to look at Diego as he sauntered over to an open spot and collapsed to the ground. He looked around as everyone simply stared at the Hufflepuff.

“I missed something, didn’t I?” Diego questioned.

At that Emma burst out laughing and just like that, one after the other, the rest of them had joined in.

“Seriously, what did I miss?” Diego questioned.

Emma smiled at her newest friend, “It’s nothing, Diego. We’re just enjoying our freedom before OWLs work starts piling up.”

“If you say so…” Diego hmphed, shaking his head before launching into describing his interaction (read flirting) with the sixth-year girl.

Emma turned back to Charlie, squeezing his hand. Charlie grinned and she smiled as she turned back to staring at the Black Lake. Moments like this were few and far between. If the past four years had taught her anything it was that she had to appreciate the little moments while she could, if she didn’t, they would slip away and be gone forever.

[acaciarosewrites]

Loving Edward - A Twilight: New Moon Drabble

Loving Edward was one of the easiest things she had ever done in her life.

He was kind and generous, funny and amusing, loyal and passionate. He loved the classics and had a good taste in music. They had endless talks and debates about everything and nothing. They could talk all night – if only sleep wasn’t a necessary component for her to function.

He was protective of her, he wanted her safe, always.

His mere presence was all-encompassing, always there, too much and never enough.

It didn’t take her long to fall in love with him (it hadn’t even been a full week after she started getting to know him) after he finally stopped actively avoiding her.

Loving Edward was one of the easiest things she had ever done in her life.

It was also one of the hardest things she had ever done.

Edward didn’t think that he deserved her personally, she believed that she didn’t deserve him.  He was brooding and quick to overthink their relationship.

They argued about that. A lot.

In the beginning he said he was letting the chips fall where they may.

It was going well – and then James and Victoria and happened.

Phoenix happened.

It was there in the way he would go quiet around her, the look in his eyes when he was watching her, and he didn’t think she saw.

He was looking for something. Something that she didn’t want to think about. Thinking about it would make her face it she didn’t want to face it, put a name to it – if she did, she would have realized it much sooner.

He was looking for a way to cut himself out of her life.

He was overprotective of her, he wanted her safe. Always, even from him.

She wanted to be with him forever. Willing to give up anything and everything to do so. Something that he was horrified at – by the aghast look in his eyes every time that she brought it up, the resolute set of his jaw when he told her no, told her that he would love her no matter how much older she looked compared to him – as if she could possibly want that last option.

Loving Edward was simultaneously the easiest and the hardest thing she had ever done in her life.

He wanted her safe. Even from him. Even from his family.

And that one incident on her eighteenth birthday was exactly what he was looking for.

He was always looking for something.

And that September night, he got it.

A way to cut himself (and his family) out of her life.

He ruined everything they had, everything they were, everything they could be… all because he thought she would be better off without him.

[acaciarosewrites]

Start All Over: Once Upon a Time one-shot

Start All Over

April 2001

Emma felt cold.

Frozen both physically and symbolically. 

She couldn’t believe what she was witnessing. It must be a dream or a hallucination! It had to be. There’s no way that Neal would do this. But he is. The man she loves has feelings for... the man she thought loved her - nods to the guy on the motorcycle. Agreeing with him, planning it out with him.

Emma had arrived at their meeting place earlier than expected. She couldn’t help herself, she is was excited. She and Neal are were going to start a life together. No more crime - they were going to start an honest living. In Tallahassee. Emma shakes her head as Neal started talking but she can’t stand to listen anymore, she can’t stay.

She does.

She hears everything.

Hears motorcycle guy tell Neal that the watch Emma was wearing will be enough to put her away, just for a little while. Just enough to get her back on track. She, Emma Swan, is important... special. She must do her part in... in breaking the curse.

What the Hell?

There is no such thing as curses in the magical sense. There is no such thing as magic. Point blank and period. Motorcycle guy is starting to sound just like Ingrid, the crazy woman who wanted them to become a family, for Emma to become her daughter... for Ingrid to be Emma’s mother. The crazy woman who had tried to kill her. And God she hadn’t thought of Ingrid in a while - the pain still lingers inside her that the woman she thought of as a mother figure role model was crazy and that all her hopes and dreams at fourteen were crushed within a matter of minutes.

Just like all her hopes and dreams of a crime-free life with Neal.

She starts paying more attention as she overhears Neal agree and that... that he wants no part in anything concerning... concerning the Enchanted Forest. Even if that means leaving Emma.

What the Hell!

Neal was... she can’t believe...

Neal is just as crazy as motorcycle guy and Ingrid. Maybe it was good he didn’t want anything to do with her. Even though she loves him... she doesn’t want anything to do with him.

Emma slowly and stealthily walks away. She doesn’t rush - rushing would only raise the chances of getting caught and she doesn’t want that. She doesn’t need that.

Emma doesn’t even breathe any easier as she gets further and further away.

She is five blocks away when her phone buzzes in her coat pocket. She mentally curses as she answers Neal’s call.

“Hey.”

“Emma? You okay?” Neal asks. She has to give it to him. Neal can act - it actually sounds as if he cares about her and is concerned for her well-being.

“I’m fine. Took the long way around. I’ll be there in twenty. You sell the stuff alright?” She questions.

“Yeah, yeah. I’ll see you in a half-hour.”

“See you soon,” Emma tells him, “love you.” she barely waits for a response before she hangs up the phone and turns it off. She dismantles it quickly, throwing the battery in the trash and the separate pieces behind a dumpster and into a sewage grate. She hesitates when getting rid of the watch around her wrist. There’s a chance she can fence it herself and use the money to start all over but there is also a chance she’d get caught with stolen merchandise and she doesn’t want to risk it.

She can’t risk it.

Emma doesn’t know why but somehow, she just knows that she will regret getting caught... being sent to jail... In the next minute, she’s ripping the watch off her wrist and throwing it to the ground. Emma stomps on it once, twice, three times before taking off.

The blonde runaway also knew she couldn’t risk going back for the yellow bug that had become sort of like a home for her and her former partner-in-crime.

Shaking her head, Emma decided that she needed to get out of town. Now.

She has no idea where she’s going... well... she sure as hell isn’t going to Tallahassee.

Maybe she’d head to California. Or New York. She doesn’t care where life ends up taking her now, all she knows is she’s getting out and she wasn’t looking back. Emma thankfully had all her meager possessions with her already. Including the couple hundred dollars cash that she and Neal had left. It wasn’t a lot, but it would be enough to get her a bus ticket out with some money left over.

Emma makes it to the bus station in record time though she was careful to make sure she wasn’t followed. The runaway finds out that a bus to New York is leaving within twenty minutes and that a boarding ticket won’t put too much of a dent in what is left of the money. Emma hurries over to buy a one-way ticket and from there heads to the bus that will get her out of this place and take her far away from the man who sold her out to some stranger all because of some delusion in his head about magic.

There is no such thing as magic.

If there was she wouldn’t have ended up in all those horrible foster homes. She wouldn’t have had a crappy childhood. Maybe she would have been adopted by one of the families that had taken her in. Maybe a long-lost relative would have stepped up and claimed her.

But none of that had ever happened. Emma was the little lost orphan girl with no family and no friends. She thought she would have finally had that - a family - with Neal, but it wasn’t meant to be.

Emma snorts at that. Meant to be? That was really sappy - even for her.

Getting on the bus is easier than she thought it would be. Though it all comes down to self-preservation. The fact that Emma’s looking out for herself... She grew up looking out for herself - if she didn’t, who would? Running away from Neal, motorcycle guy, and delusions about magic is easy to do because she’s only looking out for her own skin.

It’s second nature really.

How sad is that?

Emma chooses not to ponder on it too much. Instead, she reclines back in her seat at the back of the bus and waits for the rest of her fellow travelers to board and get their luggage settled. Ten minutes later the bus is leaving the station and Emma is on her way to start her life over. Definitely not for the first time, probably not for the last time but she secretly wishes, as she did when she was just a little kid, that this time would be permanent.

[acaciarosewrites]

Untitled Once Upon A Time Drabble

Emma’s thoughts after the first curse is broken at the end of season 1/beginning of season 2. The only difference is when Emma was three months old she was put into the foster home of Henry and Katherine (“Kate”) Swan. When she was three and the couple found out they were going to have their own baby they didn’t give Emma up - they kept her.

Emma Swan silently watched her newly found parents as they greeted Granny, Ruby, Leroy, and six other men as if they were old friends they hadn’t seen in years. Her biological parents. She couldn’t believe that she had finally found them. And that they looked no more than a year older than her. She absolutely had never imagined this scenario when she had thought of finding her birth parents one day.

It wasn’t something any normal sane person would believe... but she really had no choice. She broke the curse. She, Emma Swan, had broken a magical curse on a town that had stayed stagnant for twenty-eight years. the exact amount of time she had been in this land without magic - almost to the very hour.

If Henry’s storybook was to be believed.

And it was, how could it not?

After kissing Henry on the forehead in the hospital, there was that flash of gold light and Mother Superior herself had basically confirmed that she had broken the curse with true love’s kiss... and called Regina... called Regina “your majesty” and then there was that purple smoke that swept through Storybrooke. As Emma, with Henry at her side, made their way towards Granny’s had seen people joyously reuniting with others. There could be no doubt, as impossible as it seemed, her biological parents were none other than Snow White and Prince Charming... of the Enchanted Forest. The blonde woman who had been through more than most in her twenty-eight years wanted so badly to snort at that fact.

The fact of the matter was, she had parents. Henry and Kate Swan. They had originally been her foster parents when she was barely months old. They had adopted her, essentially giving her a surname and a home. A few years later when Emma was three, they found out Kate was pregnant, and then she’d been given a younger sister, Ava. Emma slightly winced as she thought about the cut-off conversations and an increasing amount of calls and text messages Ava had been bombarding her with when she had slipped up and mentioned Henry, her son, by name.

Shaking her head at the direction her thoughts had gone in, she refocused on her mom and dad once more. Henry and Kate had taken care of her and loved her. Even after all the heartache that she had put them through after inadvertently finding out she was adopted when she was fifteen. Causing trouble, running away, showing up on their doorstep after her stint in prison and the birth of her son. Right up until the day they died, they had always put her and her sister - and even baby Henry - first.

According to Henry’s storybook, the reason Snow White and Prince Charming sent their baby (her!) through the wardrobe was for her best chance. They were putting her first... Maybe Emma could understand that. She had given up Henry, in a closed adoption, despite having him longer than Mary Margaret and David had her. But then her parents had died and she was eighteen with a two-month-old baby and a fifteen-year-old girl to look after, there were funerals to arrange and bills to pay and a record that would be following her around for the rest of her life. Emma couldn’t do it all alone and she wanted to give baby Henry his best chance for a stable life in a loving home, just like she had with the Swans.

Emma sighed, shaking her head before she caught sight of her son’s beaming smile. She had actually been very surprised when he had shown up on her doorstep. Even more surprised when she had found out that the woman who had adopted him had kept his first name Henry. Though after finding out that Regina’s beloved father was also named Henry probably went more toward her son keeping the name Emma had given him at birth. The blonde shook her head not wanting to think more about Regina raising her son than she had to. No doubt she would have to deal with Regina soon. She was, after all, the Evil Queen who cursed everyone here and messed with their lives and families. Just as Mother Superior had suggested earlier when she told Regina to hide, people would be out for revenge once they got done with their reunions.

“Henry, wait here.” Emma ordered walking towards the group, not really sure what she was going to say.

“What do we do now?” She heard Ruby question.

“Now? Now I find my daughter.”

That stopped her cold and burned her up at the same time. Emma had only ever been Henry and Kate’s daughter. Logically Emma knew she had biological parents, she just never thought of herself as their daughter but for the first fifteen years of her life, she didn’t know she was adopted and then every year since until she met Henry she had been the newborn that was abandoned on the side of the road in freezing temperatures.

“So it's true.” Emma couldn’t help but to say, face disbelieving as David and Mary Margaret turned to face her. Looking at them both, Emma could see the similarities between her and them. And God if she had just listened to Henry months ago, this wouldn’t be throwing her for a loop like it was right now.

Then they were crying and hugging her, thank god Henry showed up when he did but then they actually wanted to talk to her. They wanted to know her whole life story and... and she just couldn’t do that. Emma needed time and space to figure things out. She was never more thankful for that angry mob storming over to Regina’s house, gladly using that as an excuse to get out of talking to her parents.