Season of Change - Chapter 12

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Season of Change

by:
Elsbeth

There were only a few things in Harry Potter's life that never changed, he was the son of Lily and James Potter and that he was born a male. What happens when he discovers the truth.

Aislin

Disclaimer: I own nothing, all of it belong to J.K Rowling, I am just playing in her sandbox for a while.

Authors Note: AU: Its not my first fanfic but its my first Harry Potter, so I hope you enjoy it. The story starts at the end of the 5th Book.

Chapter 12

Charlotte Abbott tossed her pen in frustration as she watched the bushy haired girl leave the kitchen. "Well that was singularly unhelpful."

Andromeda nodded although not terribly surprised that Hermione had refused to talk about her best friend's past.

"I'm hesitant to go forward without my Head of House's permission, especially on this topic; however do we actually have enough to go forward from our initial tests?"

Flipping a few pages, Charlotte made a small grimace. "If we were talking about taking action in the non-magical world, there is more than enough already to start an investigation. In fact, by law, I would have already filled out a number of reports to my superiors. But as you know, this situation is a tad more complicated."

"I'll speak with Alya and see what she wishes to do, if anything. If she says no then that will be the end of it. Still, although the end results might not be to her liking, at least the transformation appears to have brought about some beneficial changes to her body."

"Unfortunately, even with the potions she is now taking there is little of anything we can do about her height." Charlotte gave a small smile, remembering how the young girl almost seemed more upset about her height loss than changing genders

"She still jokes about it although from what I was told by my daughter, Harry wasn't particularly tall either."

"Not too much of a surprise considering." Charlotte closed the notepad in disgust.

Signs of malnutrition had been apparent. Signs of physical abuse had been more difficult to discover, either her magic or the magic of the transformation removing them. However, they both had noticed more than physical signs.

Sitting quietly for a few moments, Healer Abbott suddenly sounded much younger. "Do you know, Andi, I vividly remember the night when my mum received notice that papa had been killed in the Falkland's? Do you remember how much of a mess I was afterwards?"

Andromeda simply nodded.

"That poor girl's father died right in front of her, murdered by a family member no less. Add the gender change to the mix and her horrible upbringing. I'm simply amazed that the child is still sane."

"It's been difficult for her but Alya has family to support her now plus like you my dear, she has very good friends."

"And from the way Miss Granger acted it seems loyal ones as well. My Hannah and Susan were actually upset that Harry didn't take them with him to the Ministry." Curling both hands into a fist, she looked down. "I'm not. Children shouldn't be involved in hunting down Death Eaters. If anything happened to Hannah-"

"Alya's father wasn't much older-" Andromeda started to point out, reaching over to hold her best friends hand.

"And look how many of his friends he buried." Charlotte sighed unhappily.

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Narcissa Malfoy slowly followed her sister down the abandoned alleyways of Spinners End. Passing row upon row of dilapidated brick houses she suddenly stopped as her sister looked around confused.

"Why are we at this muggle dunghill again?"

Narcissa gripped her wand with one hand while moving a surprised Draco behind her. "We have plans to speak with Severus today, don't you remember?"

"No." Bellatrix frowned. "Who is the child that's with you?"

A somewhat confused and scared young man stepped back. "Mother?"

"Be quiet, Draco." Narcissa hissed. With a more pleasing voice, she explained to her sister. "He is your nephew, Bella, don't you remember."

Suddenly angry, Bellatrix leered at the young man. "Of course, do you think I'm stupid? I'm sure the Dark Lord has great plans for him." Spinning around on her heels, she growled. "Come, we're wasting time."

"Lovely. Mother, why are we here again?" Draco grumbled but not before quickly following his insane aunt. He was under no illusion that even on a good day; she wouldn't hesitate to inflict some sort of torture on him.

"Trying to keep you alive, now stop talking. Remember, do exactly what I say."

Something felt off, he just didn't know what. Moving closer to his mother, he whispered. "Does the Dark Lord know what we're doing?"

"What part of 'stop talking' don't you understand, Draco?" Narcissa grabbed her child by the shoulder and pushed him around a corner.

Draco opened his mouth to say something else but closed it. Hogwarts was so much easier. Not for the first time did he feel as if the adults were playing some sort of game in which he didn't know the rules.

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For Severus Snape, the day was not going to get any better, in fact it was going to go downhill rather quickly. The summer had given him respite from the day-to-day interaction with the dunderheads known as students.

This meeting however, was something unexpected but the more he thought about it, the more he understood Narcissa's dilemma. Obviously, she was aware that the fiasco in the Ministry and the arrest of quite a few inner circle members was laid directly at her husband's feet. Only the Dark Lord's need for the gold from the Malfoy's coffers and the manor as a place of refuge kept the family alive, so far.

Draco on the other hand, was going to be used to punish Lucius Malfoy for his failure. The child would be welcomed into their ranks and given an important task. Narcissa couldn't refuse such an honor, even knowing that it would most likely prove fatal for the young man.

"I'm surprised that the Dark Lord allowed the both of you to leave the mansion." Snape raised an eyebrow questionably. He then frowned when Narcissa refused to answer.

Warily eyeing Bellatrix who stood off to the side of the room running her hands over a wall of books, he leaned forward to whisper. "He does know you are here, doesn't he?'

At that very moment, the world slowed down around Severus Snape. Instead of answering, Narcissa Malfoy drew her wand, pointing it at the back of her sister's head. In the front of the house, the door exploded. The force hitting his godson, spinning him around before two bright red stunners sent the young man to the floor.

While reaching for his own wand, he watched in shock as Narcissa Malfoy stunned her own sister while Bellatrix stood transfixed as a younger version of herself stepped into the house.

That moment of distraction allowed the same girl to quickly cast two deep red stunners, one into his chest while the second hit the already falling Bellatrix Lestrange in the face.

Narcissa looked around the room, amazed that she had actually been able to stun her sister. She was under no illusion that if Bellatrix had been in her right mind, it wouldn't have been that easy.

"I thought Snape was my responsibility?" Tonks complained as she stepped over the remains of the potions professor's front door.

"Sorry." Alya gave a small giggle as she waved the others into the drawing room from the back of the home. "Everyone -?"

Before she could continue, something told Alya to move. Dropping to her knees, she heard the familiar invocation 'Avada Kedavra'. As the green light passed overhead, she turned her wand on her attacker only to find him brandished against the far wall, hitting with a sickening crunch.

"Thank you, Aunt Cissy." She said with a smile before stepping up to the fallen man. "Pettigrew."

"Merlin's beard, what is he doing here?" Alistair entered the drawing room, along with his mother, from the rear of the home.

"So do you think the Professor's been hiding him all this time?" Talitha ask as she stunned Draco a couple of more times, just in case.

"I always knew that Siri was innocent. What do we do with him?" Capella gave a hard look at Narcissa who stood there impassively.

"Did you know?" Alya turning her head to look at her pink haired cousin. "Nymphadora did you know he was here?"

"No of course not." Tonks started to say something about the use of her first name, but thought better of it as Alya's eyes glowed in anger.

"Do you think the old man knew?"

Tonks almost stumbled back startled. "Fuck." How could Dumbledore not know and how much more was he keeping secret. "So what are you going to do?"

Biting her lip, Alya felt liking kicking the prone man a few times. "If I had my druthers, I'd dump a bottle of Veritaserum down both of their throats and afterwards roll their bodies into the Themes."

Talitha snickered as Tonks shouted. "You can't do that?"

"Not a terrible plan." Narcissa commented.

Tonks gave her aunt an unhappy look before turning back to Alya. "Well?"

After a quick Homenum Revelio to make sure the rest of the house was empty, the raven-haired girl walked across the room before reaching into her robes to pull out a small potion bottle. "How are your interrogation skills?"

"What do you mean? Hey what's that?"

"Draught of Living Death." Pouring it down Bellatrix's throat, she called out. "Kreacher."

With a pop the old House-elf appeared. "Yes, Mistress."

"Change of plans." Showing the house-elf the label, she said. "Can you please grab another one of these from my office? Also, will you please ask Andromeda to come here?"

"As you wish, Milady." With a pop, he vanished.

"How's Draco?" Alya asked Narcissa while happily retrieving Bellatrix's wand.

"As well as to be expected." She frowned a moment at Talitha, before continuing. "What 'are' your plans?"

Before she could answer, Kreacher appeared along with Andromeda. "Is everything OK?" She stepped forward, running her wand over her niece.

Smiling at her concern, Alya thanked Kreacher for the second bottle of Draught of Living Death. "We seem to have captured someone unexpected."

"Pettigrew." Andromeda said with distaste.

Nodding, Alya walked by his side and poured the contents of the second bottle down the former Gryffindor's throat. "Do you think you can stay with Aunt Cissy tonight? I'm going to need your daughter's interrogation skills."

"Yes, that shouldn't be a problem. My little sister and I have a lot of catching up to do."

Few missed Narcissa cringing at the tone in her sister's voice.

"What are you thinking?" Nymphadora still sounded concerned.

"You think Pettigrew knows why the Dark Lord moved his plans forward?"

"More than likely, Aunt Capella. If it's important to him, then it's important to us as well. Also, I would 'really' prefer to keep Bellatrix under until we determine what exactly happened to her if anything."

"Probably a good idea."

"So you have her wand then?" Andromeda asked while looking over Draco.

"I do." Passing it to Kreacher, Alya said. "Please hand this to Uncle Ted, then return. We will need to move these two to the safe house afterwards."

"Why do you need her wand?" Narcissa asked while levitating her son off the floor and onto one of the couches.

"Ted was able to see your original marriage contract, however, for some reason the goblins do not have Bella's." Andromeda answered as she also ran her wand over her older sister's unconscious body.

"That's a little unusual, Alya." Alistair said.

"Right, so we are thinking it's in Bellatrix's vault. From what the goblins told us, she uses her wand to access it. Normally, we still wouldn't be able to get into it however because of the improprieties of the Lestrange not filing the contract correctly-"

"And if there was already precedence involved with other contracts, then the goblins might be more willing to allow the other vault to be searched. Also, if the contract ends up being invalid, she would become the Black family's responsibility once more."

"Along with most of the gold inside that vault." Tonks laughed. The Lestrange family wasn't poor by any stretch of the imagination but she also knew that the dowry the Lestrange was unusually large.

"Oh does that mean that there are issues with Aunt Narcissa's contract to the Malfoy's as well?" Talitha had to ask.

"Is that right, Milady?" Narcissa asked surprised. This was the first she had heard about it.

"Let's say your father missed a few important items. I will have Aunt Andi fill you in, but we'll talk more tomorrow. You will need to make some decisions then."

Narcissa nodded in understanding.

"Either way, the goblins are looking at making a tidy profit." Capella then asked. "Do you still want me to memory charm Snape?"

The plans were to memory charm the potions professor into thinking that Narcissa just never showed up.

"Yes but please be sure to add something about Pettigrew stepping out and never returning."

Tonks looked relieved at that statement but then asked. "What about him?"

"Hand him over to your boss afterwards. Although it won't help him now, my father's memory doesn't need to be tarnished with the label of a mass murderer."

On that note, everyone moved around the room repairing any damage and setting Snape in one of the reading chairs.

"I know you didn't ask, but if you need my help with the two of them." Capella looked down at her new niece warmly.

"Thank you, auntie." Alya turned to the two Sinclair children. "Thank you both for today."

"It was my pleasure, Milady." Alistair gave a half bow.

"I'll see you on the train, if not sooner, Milady." Talitha curtsied.

As soon as everyone vanished, Alistair grabbed his sister's hand. "Ready to Apparate home?"

Nodding, Talitha looked about the room one more time. "Ravenclaw-right." She smirked as the two disappeared with a loud pop.

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Authors Notes: A special thanks to djkauf for a little elvish editing. If you like the story please leave a Kudos, if you have the time I would love to hear from you. My Muse mugged me with this one, pretty much forced me to write it at pen-point :) Thanks to all for reading! - Elsbeth

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Comments

Oh my!

It seems that someone taking shortcuts regarding contracts is going to cause some shake ups. Strange about Bella's not being where it should be. I'm sure we're going to learn why. :)
hugs
Grover

the dark lord

and his people doing things illegally, what a surprise. well what goes around comes around.
great chapter, thanks

I wouldn't want to be.....

In the same room as the Dark Lord when he finds out what has transpired! Alya's really shaking things up now! Curious to see what happens when Bella wakes up. I hope they can free her from the Dark Lord's grip as well. Still loving this one Elsbeth! Loving Hugs Talia

Don't get me wrong, I love this story

But I want to request some story love for Sacrificial Boy *Big Puppy Eyes*

That said, Alya's quest to undermine the financial and people support of Voldermort is really picking up steam :)

Another great chapter!

I'm really looking forward to seeing the aftermath of this, Elsbeth. Please, please keep up the good work! :D

Peace be with you and Blessed be